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'So.'

Mai jumped and even Seto winced slightly at the sound of his own voice which sounded strangely loud in the quiet of the lift. It had been more than half an hour since either of them had last said anything and even Kaiba was beginning to feel the pressure of the silence now that he had no techno fiddling to do.

He coughed slightly. 'So,' he began again, 'I've not seen your name on any tournament listings for a while. What have you been up to?'

Mai looked at him, surprised. Was the mighty Seto Kaiba actually making small talk? She marvelled with a smile. She considered teasing him about it but figured he'd just lapse back into a sulky silence and the silence was driving her insane. Instead she gave him his answer: 'I've decided to take a break from Duel Monsters for a while.'

Seto was surprised. Mai Valentine was one of the best duellists he knew, regularly breezing her way to the finals in competitions with an aggressive style that wasn't dissimilar to his own.

'How come?' he asked casually.

Mai shrugged 'It got boring,' she said coolly.

Seto glanced at her and she gave him an innocent smile in return. He had a fleeting suspicion that she was holding something back.

'So what, you've decided to demote yourself to being a member of Yugi's little cheerleading squad instead?' He smirked.

He expected Mai to bristle at this and was taken aback by her reaction which was to laugh, genuinely and warmly.

'God!' she said grinning, 'can you really imagine me doing that?' she laughed again.

Seto allowed himself the smallest of smiles.

'Go Yugi!' Mai cried suddenly in a mock dramatic voice, 'believe in the heart of the cards Yugi!' she began to laugh so hard that tears started forming at the corner of her eyes.

'Trust in your friendships Yugi!' Seto suddenly joined in smiling broadly now.

'Right!' Mai said pointing at Kaiba delighted to see his frosty exterior begin to melt. She got to her feet, slightly awkwardly with her bad arm but then theatrically clenched her good hand and held it over her heart. 'Trust in your friendships Yugi, and you'll always find a way to beat those baddies!'

Kaiba laughed aloud 'Okay okay! I get the picture. You're not one of his cheerleaders.'

Mai sat down again still grinning madly. Seto noticed that she had chosen to sit a little closer this time.

'Don't get me wrong,' she said more earnestly, 'they're a nice bunch of kids - a great bunch of kids in fact, and I owe Yugi a lot but' she smiled again 'if you ever catch me shouting encouragement about friendship or the heart of the cards - shoot me!'

Seto laughed again and Mai gave him a warm smile.

'You have a nice laugh Seto Kaiba,' she said.

Caught off guard by this unexpected comment Seto scowled as he felt himself blush slightly under her gaze.

Mai laughed. 'And you also have the cutest look when you're embarrassed!' she teased.

'Give me a break Mai,' Seto growled.

She laughed again and Seto had to think quickly about how he could claim the upper hand in this conversation. He had let his guard down and he was angry at himself for having done so.

'So what's the real story about the duelling?' he asked deciding that attack was the best form of defence in this situation.

Mai's smile wavered slightly. 'What do you mean? I told you, I got bored,' she said again calmly meeting his enquiring stare with a level look of her own.

Seto didn't wasn't buying it. Mai was a good bluff but he was used to people trying to pull the wool over his eyes and he recognised the tell tale signs. This line of conversation had certainly worked well to distract her from her teasing as he had intended, but now he also found himself being genuinely interested in solving this little mystery.

He shrugged to hide his intrigue. 'That's a shame,' he said, 'you always seemed like you were an okay duellist but I guess you just couldn't hack it with the big boys, huh?' It was a statement designed to get a reaction and he wasn't disappointed.

'An 'okay' duellist?' she said, mimicking his words, her own voice rising sharply in pitch and volume. 'Give it a rest Kaiba you know I was one of the best. If you'd ever dared to take me on I reckon I could have taught you a thing or two. An okay duellist indeed - ha!' she turned away from him angrily. 'At least I haven't had my arse whipped repeatedly by a sixteen year old with weird hair and a split personality,' she muttered to herself loudly enough for Seto to hear.

Seto scowled at the reference to Yugi but refused to allow himself to become distracted.

'You seem pretty passionate about something you got 'bored' of,' he commented calmly.

Mai looked at him, realising that he had been goading her. 'Yeah, well, so there was a bit more to it than that,' she admitted.

There was a long pause.

'And?'

''And' what? It's a long story,' Mai shrugged again and then added sarcastically, 'and I would hate to bore you.'

Seto looked at his watch; they had been stuck here now for over two hours. He looked over at the camera, its steady red right telling him that there had been no major progress in helping them to get out. He looked back at Mai.

'See this as a rare and wonderful opportunity, you have my full attention.' He turned himself around slightly so that he was facing Mai full on.

Startled by the intensity of his gaze and caught off guard by his expression which seemed to show no signs of his usual malice or scorn, Mai felt her face flush. The story she was being asked to tell was one that she'd not really shared with anyone before now - at least not fully, and she was pretty sure that, under normal circumstances, Seto Kaiba would probably be at the bottom of this list of people who she would choose to tell. She opened her mouth to apologise, to say that she didn't really want to talk about it. She took a small breath in and then hesitated. She glanced briefly at the unblinking camera light and then back at Seto and then, for no reason she could really understand herself she began to talk.

'Well, the last time you saw me duel was at the Battle City finals right?' she began. Seto gave a small nod. 'And I was in a duel with that Marik kid and his Winged Dragon of Ra and I got knocked unconscious.'

Seto nodded again. 'Yugi and his friends kept saying you were sent to the 'Shadow Realm'' he said scornfully.

Mai smiled faintly. 'Yeah well I have about as much time for Yugi's mystical nonsense as you do, but I will say one thing. It did really feel like I was 'sent' somewhere and it was a pretty nasty experience I can tell you. The guys told me I'd been out of it for six days but if felt... a lot longer,' she gave an involuntary shudder. 'Anyway, when I came to I felt fine. I had a laugh with the gang and thought that the whole thing was something I could put behind me and forget about. I took my leave of the group with the idea of coming over to America and working the casinos and bars and making money from duelling.'

'So what happened?'

'Nothing at first, everything went exactly to plan. I travelled to Vegas and got a job in one of the top casinos there working the tables. In the evenings I would hit the bars around town and play duels, I eventually got a name for myself as a great duellist,' she emphasised the word and gave Seto a pointed look, 'and people started seeking me out. The casino bosses saw it all as a new way to take the punters for more money and so they set me up with my own duelling arena and a stage name and everything. It was going great and I was raking in the cash but I was becoming aware that something wasn't quite right. I was still enjoying myself and putting my all into every match but sometimes, I don't know, I would win before I was ready, like three turns ahead of when I was expecting to win. My bosses were telling me to slow it down, you know, to add the tension and make more of a show of it, and I tried but the same thing kept happening - it varied slightly as to the number of moves it took but the games were always quick and always over pretty decisively. I began to get a bit lazy then. Like, there was this one time that I went out clubbing with a load of people from the casino. I stayed out all night drinking and I turned up to work with a blinding hangover. I could barely see the cards I was holding and I was up against this pretty good opponent, regional champion or something and I thought - this is it, my winning streak is over. And then I won and I couldn't even tell you how,' she smiled faintly at the memory.

'After a while the punters started to shy away, my ease at winning, against any opponent, made them assume that either I or the casino was cheating and that's when my bosses told me to start throwing a few games. Not many, they said, just enough for the punters to feel they stood a chance at the prize money.'

'I see,' Seto said nodding; he'd never throw a game for anyone or anything.

Mai smiled at him and shook her head. 'No I don't think you do,' she said knowing what he was thinking, 'you see, I'm used to casinos, I've worked in them all of my adult life and I understand how the game is played. It's basic con artist stuff and I didn't have a problem with the ethics of it but that's when I realised that I had been right about that niggling feeling. There was something wrong. I stood up on that stage facing the person I was fully intending to lose to. I played well enough to avoid suspicion, but I knew that he had the cards to beat me and that I wasn't playing the strategy I needed to win. And then... I won.'

'My bosses were furious, as you can imagine, they had chosen my opponent specifically so that the money would wind up back in their own bank account without too much difficulty and now they had to set the whole thing up again which they did, a week later. This time I even took the precaution of taking out some of my better cards
I played so badly that I felt sure someone would call it as a scam but then I won again. My bosses were getting pretty heavy by now. I explained the problem but they wouldn't believe me. I knew the heat was rising so I packed my stuff and got out of town. I went to Chicago for a bit and then did a bit of travelling through California. All the time I was duelling in bars and taking on anyone who cared to accept my challenge. To be honest there are a whole bunch of months that blur together in my mind. I know I was drunk for a lot of the time and playing the game so badly I should have been shot. But I never lost a single game. Ever. Then, one day I made the decision to stop duelling all together. The strain of it was driving me mad, literally. I had a feeling it was all connected to this Shadow Realm business and every time I played a duel it was reminding me of that time.'

She looked at Seto and gave him a shrug. 'So there you have it. I haven't played any duels for just over six months I haven't even been near an arena as a spectator until today.'

There was a long silence and Mai studied Seto's expressionless face, trying to figure out what he thought of the whole thing. She was beginning to feel a bit silly - having actually told the story out loud she suddenly became aware of how ridiculous it sounded, even if she knew the painful truth.

'I told you it was a long story,' she eventually said apologetically.

Seto was deep in thought, staring sightlessly at the floor. His hand twitched and almost involuntarily moved towards the back pocket of his trousers. Seeing the move Mai sighed heavily and Seto's thoughts were broken.

'What?'

Mai shook her head, a look of tired resignation on her face. 'You want to duel me don't you?' she said her voice tense with irritation.

'What? No, I -'

Mai cut him off with a raised eyebrow and a nod towards where his hand was resting on the clear bulge of his duelling deck, already half way out of his pocket. Seto blushed slightly.

'That's just typical,' Mai said sadly, getting to her feet and leaning against the wall. 'I pour my heart out and tell the story of why I can't duel any more, why the whole thing is terrible and traumatic and the first thing you want to do is duel because, let me guess. This whole thing about not being able to lose is a load of nonsense and I just haven't me the right challenger yet and, well I never, you might just be the one to break my winning streak.'

Seto winced under the force of her heavy sarcasm. He felt awkward and guilty, two emotions he wasn't used to. 'Mai, I -.' he began again but one more she cut him off.

'Save it rich boy,' she said curtly, 'lucky for you you've been saved by the bell - or the little red light at any rate.' She dipped her head to indicate the security camera whose little light was now blinking on and off rapidly.