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“Don’t forget to register and pick up your Duel Disc, because exactly one week from today my Battle City Tournament begins!”
You craned your neck upwards to watch Seto Kaiba fly over your head in a KC helicopter, his flashy white trench coat billowing around his legs from the wind swirling around him. You took a sip of your latte and dug your phone from your pocket, glancing over your chat log with your teammates and confirming the announcement they were all watching on the television. The intel Iris had gotten you on the tournament had been good, she’d got Seto’s arrival on his chopper almost down to the minute. Now, all you’d need to do was enter said dueling tournament and make it to the top eight. Doll had been spending most of her time this past week hacking into the Kaiba Corporation database to gather information on the plans for Battle City. From what she’d dug up, you knew the semifinals would take place on a blimp which would be heading straight to Alcatraz, the former site of one of Gozaburo Kaiba’s many weapons testing facilities.So long as Blade was able to get the rare card you had sent him to retrieve, you’d have no trouble getting into the tournament. According to Iris, Domino City housed a game shop with quite the shady owner, a ‘Ghoul’ who would do anything for a good card. Doll was writing up a lovely looking dueling background for you, with a fake name and some small tournament wins that wouldn’t draw attention. Combined with a rare card next to your photo, you’d be in in no time. You hopped off the bench you’d been sitting on and tossed your empty latte cup into the garbage, walking past a young man you recognized as Insector Haga on your way back to your team’s townhouse. It sat in the heart of Domino City, only a few blocks from the natural history museum Seto had announced his tournament above. Its ugly brick exterior hadn’t been washed in years, and at this point it could probably do with a good sandblasting. You could see Doll’s silhouette in the lit bay window as you headed up the front steps. “Blade got the card,” Doll said the moment you entered the front door, “I’m putting it in your profile now.”“Good.” You nodded, slipping off your boots and setting them on the mess of a shoe rack before stepping into the home. So far, everything was going according to plan. Though your group of glorified bodyguards to the Kaiba brothers had only been formed for a few months at best, you seemed to be all working together very well. Blade was doing everything possible to make the four of you enough money to live comfortably, Doll was gathering information and coordinating each of your missions, and you were protecting Seto Kaiba to the best of your ability. He hadn’t died yet, so you were going to consider it a victory. You sat down on the couch next to Doll and turned your attention to the television, the newscasters discussing the Battle City announcement and how to enter. Doll shifted her weight next to you and leaned back against the pillows behind her, your falsified duelist profile on her laptop screen. Her snow-colored hair fell in perfect curls around her pale skin, and she touched her black stiletto nail, which matched her black dress and eyeliner, to her black lips. Doll was a woman straight out of a black-and-white movie; she only had two shades to her, and aside from the hair she’d been like that for as long as you’d known her. Her white hair was the result of one of the lab experiments, which had drained the pigment from her hair and skin, leaving her beautiful red curls white as snow, and he already pale ginger complexion even paler. James came in from the kitchen with a warm mug of tea and watched you change the channel to a cooking network before taking a seat in the armchair next to the couch. You barely acknowledged him, merely nodding to his presence, your eyes locked on the television. Of the four of you, James was the eldest at thirty-three, and kept to himself unless he was needed for a mission, which usually involving keeping one of the mercenaries from Tokyo from dying after something went wrong.Under normal circumstances, it would probably be pretty weird for four people of all different ages to be living under the same roof when none of you were related, but all things considered your life was in a pretty weird place for an nineteen-year-old. Two years ago, you would have never imagined yourself in this position, a member of a secret, unofficial bodyguard squad for Seto and Mokuba Kaiba. Further back, six years ago, you would have never imagined yourself and your only friends to be highly trained Weapons and Anomalies split amongst various mercenary groups. Then again, what child pictured herself a glorified science experiment in a high-security military lab at the order of Gozaburo Kaiba?Originally there had only been one lab, located in a small, nameless town in Siberia. Gozaburo chose Russia for their lax human trafficking laws and policy on staying out of his way; they didn’t ask questions and only expected a little hush money in return. The Russian lab trained soldiers of all sorts, bred for war and trained in assassinations. Doing so well, it was only natural Gozaburo would get confident and create more labs to train and grow additional Weapons.The second lab was built behind high electric fences and skilled gunmen in Omachi, close enough to Domino that he could keep an eye on it but just far enough that he didn’t have to get his hands dirty. That was where you were sent. It was a much smaller lab, only about half the size of the Russian lab, made specifically for studying and creating Anomalies. Including yourself, there had been fourteen of you. For the most part, the Japanese lab was focused on creating the most powerful killing machines that could be sold to the highest bidder in war times. Two years after the creation of the Japanese lab, a third lab was erected in Binghamton, close enough to Wall Street that Gozaburo could easily manipulate anyone he needed to. As such, the New York lab mainly specialized in training weapons in political espionage. “Look this over, tell me how you like it,” Doll snapped you out of your musings and plopped her laptop on your thighs. You glanced over the very professional, new identity you would be taking in one week. Two small tournament wins in Japan and one second-place overseas in America, inconspicuous enough that no one would care to look into them. Especially not with the very alluring ritual monster Ruin, Queen of Oblivion. She’d look good in your deck next to her ritual summoning spell, good enough that anyone who’d try to question your tournament entry would overlook it for the chance at the card. And for good reason; it was an expensive find, and Blade was pretty furious with the amount of dirty work he was made to do in exchange for it. Then you glanced to your photo, and the false name below it. “Lee, really?”“It’s a common name.”“It’s going to get me kicked out,” you frowned, “entering the tournament under a false name is grounds for disqualification.”“You’re worried about the rules now?” Doll rolled her big eyes.“It would take long enough to trace the tournament wins. I’d be in the semi-finals by that time... but a false name is easy to pick out.”“So what do you want to use? Your real name?”“Hell no.” You sighed and passed the laptop back to her, “Just use my code name.”“How is that any better?”“You can’t enter under a false name, but the rules say nothing about a nickname,” you shrugged her off, “I can argue the loophole if it comes down to it.”Plus if anyone targeting the Kaibas saw you in the tournament, they’d know you by your code name. “Fine.” Doll returned her gaze to the laptop screen and changed your name. You brought your hand up on the armrest and leaned over, pressing your cheek into your palm and looking back to the cooking show on the television. The best day of your life had been the day Gozaburo Kaiba threw himself from the top of his empire. It had been the best day of many of the Weapons’ lives, actually, the first day many of you had seen sun in years, tasted freedom. On that day, an immediate switch from weaponry and military to gaming had taken place in the company, which meant there was no use for the labs anymore. It also meant complete chaos, releasing over a hundred weapons specialists, assassins, spies, and scientifically created mutants after years of being locked away. Firstly, it had meant a bloodbath for most of the scientists and guards that looked over the labs. Then, with seemingly nowhere else to go, many of the Weapons and Anomalies formed mercenary groups within their respective countries, that for a long time fought within themselves for power. Eventually, once the fighting settled down, the world ended up with three large mercenary groups specializing in all the ugliness humans like to pretend they’re too good to pay for. Murder, lobbying, illegal weapon sales, if you can name it, it has a price in the little underworld Gozaburo inadvertently created.There were three main crime syndicates that were created from the dismantling of the labs: New York, Warsaw, and Tokyo, each named after the capital city their leader lived in and operated from. The most powerful of these three groups was New York, also called the “Modern Day Mafia,” lead by one of the two Anomalies created in Binghamton, Ice Queen. She was a cold, irreverent woman who controlled all the various branches spread across the United States, with over a hundred operatives from the three labs, and specialists from outside; rogue government agents, political officials, and other normal humans who wanted to stir up trouble and make a little money for it. Warsaw was run by an Anomaly referred to as Rat Tail, and was the second of the three mercenary groups, which controlled the majority of Eastern Europe and a large chunk of India. Rat Tail had moved the group’s headquarters from Russia to Poland after assassinating the previous group leader and fleeing Russian persecution.Finally there was Iris, who controlled Tokyo and the branches spread throughout China and South Korea. She was about a few years older than you, young, naive, with doe-eyes and big dreams. Easy to manipulate. You liked to think yourself good friends with her, keeping close to her to ensure if anyone was doing the manipulating, it was you. She was technically your boss, if only because your group of was set up in Japan with her permission and under her jurisdiction. It was your idea to create the group to protect the Kaiba brothers after the events in Duelist Kingdom when they had been kidnapped by Pegasus. You’d recruited Doll-- your cellmate from the lab and perhaps one of your only real friends-- from Tokyo. She knew you felt indebted to Seto Kaiba for saving you from a life of human experimentation, and was happy to help the cause. She brought with her Blade, a Weapon and her partner from Tokyo. You still didn’t know him very well, but he brought in good money, which was just fine with you. He was good with a sword and efficient. You’d also brought in a man named James, a scientist and your doctor from the lab, whom you’d saved the day of the takeover when he had almost been executed by the furious Weapons and Anomalies who’d escaped their cells. Had it not been for you threatening to end anyone who so much as touched James, he would likely be dead right now. Naturally, he was quick to accept your offer. You spent your days trying to live a somewhat normal life and your nights keeping an eye on the Kaiba brothers from the shadows. Your only wish in life was keeping Seto and Mokuba Kaiba safe from harm, whether they knew about it or not. There were not many instances of you having to really guard them-- most everyone in the mercenary groups knew you were protecting the Kaibas, so they refused to fulfill hits on them-- but when you had to you did so quietly. Under Gozaburo Kaiba's orders, you had been experimented on to no end. Sometimes you felt like more of a monster than a human, despite your perfectly normal outer appearance. Admittedly, you probably had a less monstrous ability than some of the other Anomalies; time manipulation was not very visually jarring. It allowed you to be silent, efficient, and invisible. You were created by Gozaburo to be both an ideal assassin and a war machine, pumped full of so many chemicals and cells that you weren’t quite sure how much of you was really you anymore.Your code name was Ghost.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
‘I’ve given you a reason to live, a strong body. I’ve consented to your childish demands. You should be down on your knees thanking me.’
The table was cold, icy cold. Carefully cleaned, sterilized metal beneath your bare back, prickling at your spine. Your ankles and wrists strapped down so tightly with thick leather straps that you couldn’t feel the blood in your hands or feet. Your head sandwiched between two rubber stoppers to keep you from thrashing and breaking your own neck.
‘The only reason you are alive right now is because of my generosity.’
Three men over you, silhouettes against the nauseatingly bright light above their heads, each dressed in pure white lab coats. A small metal table with wheels on your left, decorated with clamps and knives and syringes of mystery medications, viruses, cells. A two way mirror to your right, men in suits and military uniforms behind it; men who observed your progress, who asked when you would be done, who wanted to use you.
‘You will act amicably. You will act properly. You will obey me, or you will suffer the consequences.’
A needle is in your arm, plunging milky white fluid into you. One of the scientists says something to another, but it doesn’t make any sense, it doesn’t sound like an actual language. It is technical jargon. The third man knows you like to know what is happening to you, it makes you feel like you have control over the situation, like you are in on it all. He tells you they are cells, they are different from the usual cells that are normally put in you every morning, they are not meant to assist your rapid healing. They are an experiment. But he does not tell you what the experiment is. That is normal.
There is a second needle in you, it is stuck in you like an IV drip, but the bag hanging above you is not clear like IV fluid, it is red. Red. Red like blood. It shimmers in the bright light of the lab. It drips into the tube, into your arm.
Drip.
Drip.
You feel hot. Hot like fire. Fire in your arm, where the fluid enters your bloodstream. It burns. You want to rip the needle out, but your wrists are bound. You jerk your arm and your wrist chafes against the leather strap holding you down.
Fire.
You feel the fluid moving through your body, up your arm, across your chest, into your heart. Your heart. Then it is pumping everywhere, everywhere, through your entire body. Crawling down your stomach, down your legs, down your toes. Up your neck, in your head, in your brain. Fire, everywhere.
You’re sweating. Crying. The sweat and tears feel wonderful, cooling down your body. Your body. It burns. You want to scream, god do you want to scream. But you fight the screams, fight them. You’re not allowed to scream. The louder you are, the more likely he will get angry, screaming is not acting properly. Screaming is not acting amicably. Screaming is not strong. You absolutely must not scream, not while he is here.
Two of the scientists are gone, behind the two-way mirror where the computers and the cameras and the machines are. Monitoring you, monitoring the fire in your veins, monitoring how quickly your body heals the damage it is doing. The third man is still in the room, taking notes. Shining a light in your dilated pupils. Asking how you feel. You are terrified that if you open your mouth to tell him, you will scream. You shake your head. You clench your jaw.
It feels like fire. You do not know how to say it without speaking. You say nothing.
He adjusts one of the readers on your chest that has begun sliding off on your layer of sweat. Latex gloves on your bare skin. Bile rises in your throat, but you shove it back down and force out another round of tears instead. If you open your mouth to throw up you will scream. You cannot scream.
The men behind the two-way mirror are talking, you can hear them. They ask about your pain tolerance, they ask how much this test hurts. They ask why, if it hurts so much, you are not screaming. Are you just that strong? You would be the perfect assassin if you can be so silent when you are in searing pain.
Searing.
It is an apt word, it reminds you of how much fire is pumping through you. You look up to the bag, it is only halfway empty. How long have you been here? Your breathing is heavy, you have to work hard to push the air out of your nostrils, it makes you even hotter. It would be easier if you were panting through your mouth. Easier. Easier.
What if you scream?
No, no, no. That is not an option. You will not scream. You will not make a sound. You will breathe through your nose until this trial is over. He is here. He is watching this test. If he is not happy with your performance, he will punish you in the only way that will make you respond. No, that child doesn’t deserve that. He is sweet, innocent, with messy hair and doll eyes. He will not suffer for your mistake.
‘You will not disobey me.’
You could count on one hand how many times you’d disobeyed Gozaburo Kaiba in the four years you spent at the Lab. This was not one of those times.
The third man tells you the test is almost over, you are doing well. The men in military uniforms are leaving, they have seen enough, they are satisfied with your performance. Gozaburo is leaving as well, he has said nothing but he does not deem dissatisfied. In a moment you will be able to scream, you will be able to throw up, you will be able to show weakness.
The moment you are allowed to, the moment everyone is gone from the room behind the mirror, a defeated scream rips through you. It relieves so much pressure, it relieves the pounding in your head and the sweat all over your skin. The sound distracts you from the fire in your veins. The scream distracts you from what is happening to you, happening regularly, will keep happening.
‘So long as you are here, you will do what I say. And you will be here for a very long time.’
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Two days before the start of the Battle City tournament, you took a long walk to the game shop Iris had mentioned on the other side of Domino. You wore a pair of black jeans and a low-cut purple shirt that made your eyes pop, just in case you needed some extra sex appeal to help you get in. You also had a knife slipped into your knee-high black boots just in case it was too much sex appeal. As you entered the shop, you noticed the place was almost completely empty other than a stack of Duel Disks on a shelf behind the counter and a computer monitor on top of said counter. A scruffy looking man with beady eyes grinned at you the moment the door closed behind you, gesturing for you to come closer. His hair was tied back beneath a bandana, and his cheeks and chin were covered in patchy stubble.“I’m here to register for the Battle City tournament.” You announced, making your way up to the counter and placing your hands on the edge.“Of course,” he nodded, pulling up a screen, “Your name?”“Ghost.” He raised an eyebrow to you, but obligingly typed your codename into the database.You really hoped that profile Doll had made was enough to get you into this tournament, because you didn’t want to stay in this shop for a moment longer than you had to. “Oh my,” he said, “That’s an interesting card you’ve got there.”“It is.” You said simply, eyes flashing to the back of the monitor to avoid his hungry gaze. He started typing something else into the computer, though you could not see what the monitor had up on it. You tapped your finger on the countertop slowly, evenly, to keep yourself from getting annoyed, and wondered if he was tampering with anything in the KC system. “Congratulations. You qualify.” He said slowly, reaching to the shelf behind him and pulling down one of the remaining boxes, before handing it to you. The disgusting grin was still all over his face, eyes dark, and you could practically smell his desire to get his hands on your Queen. Of course, you would not be letting that happen.“Great,” you muttered icily, wanting to get home as quickly as possible and take a shower as hot as it could go to burn the feeling off of your body. “Do be careful walking home now Miss,” he hissed as you opened the door to leave his sad little shop, “Never know who might be out there trying to take advantage of a defenseless girl.”“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be fine,” you rolled your eyes and resisted the urge to give him the finger before closing the door behind you.
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As Battle City Commissioner, one of Mokuba’s (mostly self-assigned) duties was to go through the profiles of all the duelists entered in the tournament and make sure they weren’t breaking any rules. He also had to check the rare card they had entered with and run it through the database, making sure they didn’t have any rarer cards they were holding out on.For the most part, the computer did all the work for him, checking the duelists’ backgrounds, tournament histories, cross-referencing them with all the information Kaiba Corp. had on file. But he still liked knowing who was going to be dueling, what kinds of decks they might have, and any problems they might start. When he came across a profile simply under the name “Ghost” he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Surely, no one would be dumb enough to enter Battle City using a fake name so obvious when it was clearly written in the rules. Although, now that he thought about it, there wasn’t exactly a rule against entering under a nickname. People like Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki did so, it was just that their nicknames were a little less conspicuous than something like Ghost. As he was about to let the little technicality slide and move on to the next profile, he stopped to look over to the duelist’s photo, and blinked a few times in disbelief. There was something just too familiar about the shape of your face, the height of your cheekbones, the way your hair fell against the sides of your face just so. The way your intense eyes stared back at him, just like when he was just a little kid. Mokuba swallowed hard, trying to shake the feeling that he knew that woman, the one calling herself Ghost. Even though you were paler than you had been, even though you had that same, jaded look in your eyes that his brother did now. The look of someone that had grown up way too fast. What had happened to you in the six years he hadn’t seen you?He debated showing his brother the photo of their old childhood friend, ask him if he was going crazy or if it really was you. But, he knew exactly how much his brother despised even thinking about you, much less talking about you. Even though Mokuba never held it against you that you had just disappeared on them he knew his brother always did. Mokuba knew it wasn’t your fault, you couldn’t control having to move, but Seto didn’t see it that way.He tried to shake the thoughts from his head, whispering a “Good luck” to your picture before he moved on to the next duelist to continue working.
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The day the tournament began, you knew you’d have to get up early and get six locator cards by the end of the day if you had any hope of making it to the semifinals. As much as you disliked the idea of going after obvious weaklings, you made the decision to have your first duel with someone below your skill level. You couldn’t take the risk of losing your first duel and only locator card, ‘Duelist’s Pride’ be damned. Doll had spent the week leading up to the tournament researching duelists and their rarest cards, and she’d found one young man in particular with a star rating that barely qualified him for Battle City and a card that would synergize with your ritual deck very well. Blade was already searching the city for him.The moment you awoke, an hour before the official start of the tournament, you started getting ready. You did your makeup and packed some of it into one of your larger handbags, along with a change of clothes and your toothbrush. You debated what to wear as you searched your closet before settling on something simple and inconspicuous, slipping on a grey fitted button-up shirt and a pair of skinny jeans, and topping off with a black leather jacket and a pair of knee-high black boots. You slipped your phone into your jacket pocket and strapped the Duel Disk onto your wrist, noting how heavy and cumbersome it was. You placed your deck into the disk to hold for now and slung your purse over your shoulder before exiting your bedroom and locking it behind you, then bounding down the stairs. When you stepped outside, you knew it was too warm for a leather jacket, but figured you’d need it on the blimp. You shoved the sleeves of the jacket up as high as they would go and kept it unzipped, checking the time to see that the tournament would officially start in half an hour. You decided to grab a coffee from the little cafe near the townhouse while you waited. As the barista was handing you your latte, you got the coordinates of your first opponent’s location from Blade, near the middle of the city. If you hurried, you could make it there just as the tournament started, and ensure you would be the young man’s first duel. You darted out of the cafe, walking swiftly through the city blocks and noticing how traffic had come to a complete standstill at the order of Seto Kaiba, musing over the fact that he could shut down an entire city so easily. You checked the GPS on your phone, following the path and weaving around the other pedestrians on the sidewalk, until you made it to Domino Park.You spotted your target standing by the edge of the pond in the middle of the park, a boy who couldn’t be older than sixteen, with olive skin and silky brown hair. He looked foreign, he had probably traveled to Battle City from overseas. Too bad he wouldn’t be enjoying the tournament for very long. You glanced around the park and noticed there wasn’t anyone else around with a Duel Disk on their arm, so you were in a good spot to challenge him without any competition. Seto Kaiba’s deep, booming voice rang throughout the city, announcing the official start of his Battle City tournament. You shot Doll a text telling her to keep you updated on the other duelists you were watching, including Seto and Mutou Yuugi. After going through your deck one last time and taking a deep breath, you walked up to the boy at the pond’s edge and fixed a plastic smile onto your face. “Care to be my first opponent?” You asked coolly. The boy spun around to face you, eyes lit up in excitement at his first challenge. He had a young face, with round cheeks and sparkling brown eyes, features still painted with childish innocence and naivety.“Sure!” He replied excitedly, sliding his deck out of the deck box strapped to his belt and beginning to shuffle his cards. You did the same, keeping your eyes focused on the cards rather than the lamb, before exchanging decks to cut. You slipped your deck back into your Duel Disk and he did the same, taking his place about fifteen feet away from you. The two of you activated your Disks, holographic projectors shooting out on either side of you and landing safely on the ground. They let out a whirring, computerized sounds, and lit up in a watercolor of rainbows. “You can go first,” you offered, trying to sound friendly though you knew your deck did better if you went second anyway. “Thanks!” He chirped, drawing his card and scouring over his hand to formulate a strategy. Really, knocking him out of the tournament this early was doing him a favor. He was way too sweet to hold his own against the more experienced, trash-talking duelists that had taken over the city. He set a monster and a face-down card then turned the duel over to you, a smile plastered on his face. You admittedly felt pretty bad for the kid, since your opening hand was about as good as you could hope for. You summoned a Senju of the Thousand Hands and searched your deck for your Ruin Queen, finding her near the bottom, and added her to your hand. You then activated an End of the World, using the Tri-Horned Dragon in your hand as fodder to summon your Queen on the first turn. You used your Senju to attach his set monster, which turned out to be a Sangan, allowing him to search his deck for a monster. He ended up choosing a Sengenjin. You moved to attack his life points with your Queen, which he took without retaliation, letting out a groan and bracing his arms in front of his face to shield from the wind that suddenly hit him. You set a trap card and ended your turn, wondering what his face down card could be, as it didn’t negate your summon, your spell, or your attack.The boy drew his card and grinned, his poker-face could use some work. He activated a continuous spell, Wave Motion Cannon, and summoned a Battle Ox. It looked like he was running a Beast-Warrior deck. He used his Battle Ox to attack your Senju, and you took the three-hundred points of damage gracefully, feeling a breeze blow through your hair as your monster was destroyed. He set another card and ended his turn. “You’re pretty good,” he said as you drew your card, a Pot of Greed, which you quickly activated. “Thanks,” you replied simply, drawing your two cards. You summoned a DD Warrior Lady, then used her to attack his Battle Ox. Though you would take two-hundred points of damage, it wouldn’t matter if you wiped him out with Ruin. Due to her special ability, your Warrior Lady destroyed his Battle Ox as she disappeared from the field as well, leaving him wide open for an attack.The moment you ordered Ruin to attack, the boy activated a Nightmare Wheel with a victorious glint in his eye. You felt a little bad that the glint wouldn’t last for very long, about as long as his brief time in Battle City. You revealed your face down card, Solemn Judgement, and paid half your remaining life points to negate the activation of his trap. Immediately, the excitement disappeared from his face as he realized he was finished. Your Queen ended his day in the tournament, a record victory for you. You set your deck back into its slot and retrieved the holographic projectors from the sides of the battlefield, taking the naive boy’s locator card and Magical Mallet. “You’re really good! That was awesome. I hope you make it to the finals and win for me.” He said, still with a smile on his face.“I’ll certainly try my best.” You fixed your own smile to your lips and nodded. The two of you went your separate ways, and the second you were out of the park you received a text from Doll, congratulating you on your first win. Now you only needed four more to secure you place on the blimp. You swapped the Snatch Steal in your deck out for the Magical Mallet, tossing the prior into your purse and crossing the street to the Domino Commons. You passed by a few duels happening while you scoured the masses of people for a second challenge. You noticed a crowd gathered around an obnoxiously loud blonde-haired teenager dueling an equally loud kid masquerading as a psychic. You slipped into the crowd and realized you recognized the blonde, Jonouchi Katsuya. After the number of fights he’d had with Seto, your team had him on watch, less as a potential threat and more as entertainment. You were not surprised why his skills were constantly discounted when he pulled a Roulette Spider and won the duel through, essentially, pure luck. You also nearly rolled your eyes out of your head when he had to pep talk the boy he’d defeated, who was having a mental breakdown after his loss. The sappy reunion with the faux-psychic’s brothers was enough for you to gag, so you walked away from the duelists and continued your search for someone to battle.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The first time you’d met Seto and Mokuba Kaiba was during a company dinner, hosted at the Kaiba mansion, with all of the top executives of Kaiba Corporation. Your father was a member of the board of directors, so you had been to quite a few of these parties before. As always, the Kaiba mansion was decorated extraordinarily, sparkling lights strung around the bannisters and above the banquet tables, cascading soft yellow light to the partygoers down below. Pure white tablecloths and cherry mahogany chairs danced along the perimeter of the spacious ballroom that spilled out beneath the imperial staircase.
Although the decorations were clean and elegant as always, your priority at every one of the Kaiba Corporation parties was to find and devour as much cake as possible. Gozaburo Kaiba’s head baker was a French woman named Amelie who always kept her grey hair in a braid and only wore the color white, and she made the most amazing cakes. For the Christmas party the year prior, she had made a spectacular tiered chocolate cake with little sugar pearls and pretty silver piping, and it had been the most delicious thing you’d ever eaten. So, it had been your mission to get a slice of her desserts at each company party ever since.
You remember quite clearly how your quest for sugary confection had been interrupted by the Kaiba brothers, and though you really wanted to shove past them, or better yet invite them to join you, you had to be the perfect lady to please your father. He and Gozaburo had stopped in the middle of the ballroom to shake hands and exchange pleasantries, leaving you, the children, to simple stare at each other. Seto was shorter than you by only a few inches, thanks to you hitting puberty early, and was dressed in a pressed white suit and a blue undershirt that matched his eyes. Hidden behind him was an even smaller boy, who couldn’t have been older than five or six, with a wild mane of hair and big grey eyes that were filled with fear and uncertainty.
It was your first time seeing your father’s boss with any children other than Noah, whom you had been friends with before the accident. These boys were much different from Noah, both completely lacking in the carefree air that had surrounded your late friend. The younger looked almost terrified to be at this party, clutching to his brother’s arm like he might die if he let go, while the elder had this determined fire burning in his eyes despite his bored expression.
“These are the boys I adopted a few months ago, Seto and Mokuba,” Gozaburo said to your father.
“Ah, I’m happy to hear they’re settling in,” your father’s voice replied overhead, but you kept your eyes locked on the brothers.
You remember your father and Gozaburo began talking business, which you blocked out completely, offering a smile to the younger Kaiba and reaching your hand out. He stared at it with his wide eyes, then looked up at the elder-- Seto-- who merely nodded. Mokuba took your gloved hand in his own and you two shook, before you offered it to Seto. You remember Seto staring at your purple satin ballgown, covered in shiny silver beading and sequins, as he seemed to debate whether to take your hand or not. Before he could decide, your father nudged you away and Gozaburo told the two that they had other business. You went your separate ways, and you returned to your quest of finding and eating some delicious cake.
You remember not being disappointed.
The second time you met Seto Kaiba was much more eventful, and turned into many, many meetings afterward. Before his accident, you and Noah Kaiba had studied together frequently, taking private business, science, and music lessons in the Kaiba mansion. You lived very close and were only two years older than Noah, plus you were much smarter than him and pushed him to study harder, which was the only reason Gozaburo had ever invited you over. He did not care that the two of you got along well, you even shared the same favorite color and played classical music together.
Since Seto was now poised to become the heir to Kaiba Corporation, he understandably had a lot of catching up to do in terms of studying. When your father suggested you join the boy in his classes to help push him like you had Noah, Gozaburo begrudgingly agreed. A week later, you had arrived at the Kaiba mansion at eight AM sharp, dressed in a pretty blue sundress and pure white tights. Seto was already in the library, in the middle of a lesson, when you sat down beside him and opened up a notebook. It was review for you, but you took notes anyway, since it was an excuse to use the new gel pens your mother had bought you. You remember them being pastel colors with tiny specs of glitter in them. You remember Seto scoffing at them.
Seto looked exhausted, he had bags under his eyes and his fingers were shaking like he hadn’t eaten all day. You remember offering him the apple your mother had packed you for a snack, and him taking it and scarfing it down like it was his last meal. You remember the welts on his knuckles like they’d been slapped with a ruler. You remember the glare he had shot you when you looked at him with sympathy.
Daimon had returned shortly after the elder Kaiba brother finished your apple, and you remember shoving it into your bag so neither of you would get in trouble. You moved onto a lesson you had not had yet, so you had to actually listen to the lecture and read the books and color-code your notes so they were easy to read. You remember Seto being faster than you when it came to the material. He was much smarter than Noah, and rather than you being the one to push him, Seto ended up being the one to challenge you. He was younger than you, but he might have been smarter than you, or perhaps he just worked harder than you. He wanted this life more than you-- no, he needed this life more than you.
For the first month or so, outside of your lessons you and Seto did not speak much to each other. You spent some time at the Kaiba mansion outside of your lectures simply because you liked it there, and Gozaburo did not care so long as you did not distract Seto from his studies. You spent a lot of time with Mokuba, he was sweet and kind and ignored by just about everyone else. The only person who seemed to care about him was Seto, and he was much too busy with studying to play.
The two of you took music lessons together on Wednesdays, you had been playing violin for years, and after Noah’s accident, your teacher was just happy to have someone to teach piano to again. Mokuba seemed like he enjoyed piano, he was a fast learner and liked playing duets with you. He had a hard time reaching the octaves at first since his fingers were so short, but eventually learned to adapt. When he played, his unkempt hair would bounce up and down and side to side. You remember Mokuba’s favorite thing to play was the first movement of Mozart’s Sonata No. 16. He said it was something their mother would hum to Seto, and Seto would hum to him when they were the orphanage.
You remember asking Mokuba once what their mother was like, when the two of you were coloring with some brand-new pencils your father had brought back as a gift from overseas. You remember Mokuba breaking down, his tears soaking through the pages of the coloring book. You remember rubbing his back and shushing him, wondering what you had done to make him so upset, as he rubbed at his eyes and apologized over and over and over again. You remember telling him he did not need to apologize for crying, but he continued anyway. Eventually he told you that he did not remember his mother, she had died before he even knew her. You did not ask about the details surrounding her death, for fear of causing him to start crying again. You remember ripping out the wet pages of the coloring book and starting on a new page like it had never even happened.
Mokuba had had a small collection of Duel Monsters trading cards that he enjoyed showing you every chance he got. He did not have enough to play with in a duel, he especially did not have enough for two people, but he still liked making up stories for them and telling you which ones were his favorites. He had gotten them from various places, a few from the orphanage, a few from his late father, a few from his big brother’s equally small collection.
One afternoon, after you had finished studying some of the intricacies of the stock exchange with Seto, Mokuba had dragged you to his bedroom on the opposite side of the house to play. He had pulled out his cards, which he kept hidden in a shoebox so none of the servants would throw them away, and laid them all out in front of you.
“Which one is your favorite?” He had asked, pointing to the cards, some of which were worn at the corners or slightly bent at the edges.
You remember wanting to tell Mokuba you did not have any interest in the game at all, so you did not have a favorite. But he had this adorable sparkle in his eye that made you want to make him happy.
“This one,” you remember pointing to the Wingweaver because she had big, pretty wings and a long, gold dress that looked like one you’d seen in a window display.
“You’re such a girl,” Mokuba had told you with a laugh, before picking up the card which was in much better condition than some of the others and thrusting it toward you.
“What’s this for?”
“It’s your birthday present!” He had said excitedly.
You had taken the card carefully and thrown your arms around the young boy in a tight hug, grinning from ear to ear. You did not remember ever telling Mokuba when your birthday was, but you liked his present much better than the pretty gold locket your mother had given you or the butterfly hairclip your father had given you. His present was filled with love and sentiment, and you decided to keep that card loved for as long as you lived.
Seto had not acknowledged your birthday until a week later, he had been too busy studying to notice the date. Not to mention, since the two of you hardly talked about anything other than your private lectures, he had never asked when your birthday was and you had never told him. You didn’t tell him much of anything unless he asked, which he hardly did.
“It was your birthday last week,” he murmured absently when Daimon left the room as the two of you worked on physics.
“Yep,” you had replied, trying to hide your excitement, “How’d you find out?”
“Mokuba got upset with me when he found out I didn’t know.”
You remember chuckling at how warm a heart the youngest Kaiba had. The two of you quickly stopped talking when Daimon re-entered the room to check on your progress, though he quickly left again to tend to the needs of Gozaburo.
“So?” You had prodded.
“So what?”
“Aren’t you going to wish me a happy birthday?”
“It’s not your birthday anymore.”
You remember rolling your eyes, “Then wish me a belated birthday.”
You remember him closing the physics book and opening an English book, which meant he had, again, finished the material before you did. You hated that he was smarter than you, but at least you had a glowing personality to make up for it. He, on the other hand, had been becoming colder and colder over the past few months. The welts on his knuckles and bruises on his wrists were probably a big factor, but you did not say anything about them.
“Happy belated birthday,” he had said before opening his notebook to a clean page and beginning to copy line after line of English phrases.
“Thank you,” you had smiled, getting to work on the last physics problem so you could catch up with him.
You had not been able to catch up to him that day, or the days following. Saying Seto Kaiba was a genius would have been an understatement, not only was he incredibly smart for his age, but he was more driven than anyone you knew, older or younger. It felt like no matter what you did, you’d be following after him for the rest of your life.
That was true, even to this day.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was the second day of the tournament, and Isis Ishtar had won the two duels she had fought thus far in Battle City thanks in part to her necklace. She had not had to use it to cheat in her battles, no that hadn’t been quite necessary, but the item showed her who she was meant to duel in order to face her destiny. The necklace hadn’t steered her wrong; it had sent her to duelists who were skilled, but easily defeated by her deck. She was sitting on a bench beneath a clock in the heart of the city, a can of juice in her hand while she flipped through her deck absently and went over the previous duel. There was nothing she could have done better, no mistakes, and as long as she kept it up, she would see Marik soon. She would bring him back home, and no one would get in her way. Isis finished her drink and set her deck back into her pocket gingerly before closing her eyes in concentration. Beseeching the necklace to show her whom she was meant to duel next, she relaxed her muscles and cleared her mind, allowing her vision to be flooded. Pure, white light flashed against the back of her eyelids, before clearing to reveal a young woman with intense eyes and a determined frown, standing against a wall in an alley close by. The vision disappeared, the necklace’s soft hum halting and leaving Isis staring at the town before her once again. She gathered herself for a moment, stood up from the bench, and threw her empty juice can into the garbage next to her. Brushing her skirt down and returning the cloth face mask to its original position over her mouth, she turned toward the alleyway where her next opponent awaited her.
-----
It was nearly two, all things considered you were making decent time. Your second opponent in the Battle City qualifiers had played perhaps the slowest deck you’d ever seen, intending to cause you to deck out while he stood behind a wall of high-defense monsters. Once you weaved your way around his strategy, it wasn’t difficult to claim victory, but it had taken much longer than any duel had the right to. Really, you’d rather speed up the process of collecting locator cards. You had three in your possession now, and you wondered if you could convince your next opponent to double their wager. Of course, you’d need Doll to do a background check on their deck first to be sure you would win, if you were set back time-wise any more you ran the risk of qualifying too late. You were busying yourself reading through your team’s message group, Blade and Doll debating back and forth between potential challenges that would be an easy win for you. Truthfully, you were confident enough in your dueling abilities to go up against the next person who challenged you, but the time limit and stakes were enough to caution you against such actions. “This seems a lonely place to take a break.” An even voice hummed beside you. You flickered your eyes from your cell phone screen and tilted your head to the side, where a hooded figure stood at the mouth of the alleyway. Backlit by the soft glow of the sun, you could only make out the shape of a female body in a long dress, face mostly covered by some sort of cloth. The Disk on her arm meant she was a fellow duelist in the tournament. “That’s the point,” you replied casually, casting a glance to the rooftop of the building opposite you, where Blade was perched and leaned over to take a photo of the woman who had appeared before you. Your phone buzzed in your hand to signal its arrival into the group chat for Doll to run a check on her. “So then, you’d be opposed to me joining you?”
She has a mask on, I can’t find her in the database.
“Knock yourself out,” you said calmly, pushing yourself off the wall you had been propped up against, “You have a name?” “Isis.”No last name, and either way you didn’t think Blade was close enough to hear her and relay the information to Doll. Your phone was still in your hand, but it would be rude (and a tad suspicious) to send a message. Looks like you were going to have to make a judgement call. “Well, Isis,” you began coolly, slipping your phone into your pocket and turning your body fully to face her. “By the looks of things, you’re a duelist yourself. Do you have any locator cards on you?” She took a few steps into the alleyway, enough into the shadows cast by the tall buildings so you could see her better. She had caramel skin and dark hair peeking out from behind her hood, which was decorated by an ornamental gold piece bearing an eye shape and a small emerald. Other than her blue eyes and the bridge of her nose, her face was covered by a silky white cloth. Her dress was the same color, down to her ankles, and dripping in gold jewelry that decorated her waist and collar. You caught sight of a gold choker around her neck, which seemed more polished and well-cared for than the rest of her jewelry.She reached into her robe and pulled out what looked like a locator card, before she spread them out in her hand to reveal she in fact possessed three. You hummed lowly as an idea popped into your head, the invisible pressure of time still weighing on you as Isis stopped to stand in front of you, the ideal distance for a duel. “What a coincidence,” you said, pulling out your own little stack of locator cards from your pocket, “I’ve got three as well.” Isis said nothing to you, removing her deck from her person and beginning to shuffle. Technically, neither of you had issued a challenge, but it was obvious you’d be dueling. You watched her quietly as you pulled out your own deck from your bag and did the same. When she walked toward you to exchange and cut decks, you began again. “Care to make this duel a little more interesting?”She eyed you as the two of you swapped decks, cut them, and returned them to one another. “Interesting?” She finally hummed. “We wager all our locator cards,” you replied, “Whoever wins goes to the finals. Whoever loses is out for good.” You didn’t expect her to agree to your proposition, she didn’t seem the prideful type to you, but it was worth a shot. It was a risk for sure, the possibility that you would lose your place in the finals, but if it really came to that you were not above rewinding. Morals were of no value to you when the Kaiba boys were in unknown danger, and wagering all your locator cards was the fastest way to ensure you would be there to protect them. Isis, meanwhile, was contemplating your proposal. She was a rational, collected woman, but she was also somewhat arrogant. If the Millenium Necklace had pointed her to you, it stood to reason that she was meant to defeat you to claim her destiny. She was meant to agree to your terms; it wasn’t really gambling if it was fate, was it? Regardless, she refused to lose a duel to a no-name duelist when her brother was on the line. “Fine, I accept.” Isis said calmly as she set her deck into her Disk.Well, you were not expecting that.
-----
Being a Kaiba had a ton of perks; namely the immense amount of money, the huge mansion, and Seto’s ability to throw a massive dueling tournament on a whim. But what Mokuba was really chasing with the Kaiba name was respect. He didn’t want to be pushed around by anyone, looked down on by anyone, ever again. As much as he adored Seto and appreciated how his brother stood up for him, he wanted to one day be in a position where he didn’t need it anymore. Where he could stand up for himself. Which is why it was really annoying that he kept getting kidnapped. He had to give his kidnappers props at least, the whole tied up with a rope and dangling from a helicopter was new. But he was understandably upset about his current position, especially since he was being flown over the city for everyone to see. His brother knowing about his kidnapping was one thing, Yuugi and his friends knowing about it was bearable, but the entirety of Domino City? If anyone looked up and took a video of this incident, he’d never live it down. When the helicopter began flying over a familiar, tall figure in a flashy white coat, Mokuba instantly recognized his brother, next to Yuugi. They were standing across from two cloaked figures, dressed in deep purple, the same as his kidnappers and the asshole flying the helicopter he was dangling from. Mokuba wanted desperately to call out to his brother, to tell him he was alright and that he could take care of himself. But he was also scared and upset, and the helicopter was moving so fast that the only thing he could manage to shout before he was too far out of earshot was his brother’s name. He felt so uncool. From Battle City Commissioner to a lowly kidnapping victim, used as a bargaining chip just to get at his big brother. Again. This had to quit happening, how was he supposed to gain any respect at this rate? He was almost thirteen, by the time Seto was this age he knew two different forms of self-defense. Mokuba sighed into the dry air racing past his cheeks, ruffling his mess of hair. “Maybe I should take Karate lessons or something.”
-----
The duel was going well, not as well as you had hoped, but well enough that you had a decent shot at wrapping up soon and heading straight to wherever the blimp was located. Isis was down to her last twelve-hundred lifepoints, while you sat at thirty-five hundred. You watched Isis make her move, activating Swords of Revealing Light to buy herself three turn of free play. You hated that card, it seemed like just about everyone had it in their deck, and it only served to make the duels go by even slower. You were on a time constraint here, you needed as much time to prepare for the unknown as possible. You had figured out some of Isis’ strategy, for the first few turns she had been allowing you to easily send her monsters to the graveyard while she discarded cards due to her own spell and monster effects. Though you weren’t sure what purpose that served, for now you were cautiously guessing she had some sort of graveyard deck. You might have been thinking more clearly had your phone not been buzzing incessantly in your back pocket for the last two minutes.Isis summoned an Agido and used it to destroy your Bio-Mage, though you took no damage thanks to it being in defense-mode. You looked through your hand calmly, thinking over how you could stall over the next few turns, or better yet how to get rid of her annoying Swords altogether. Your De-Spell had already been sent to the grave, so you wouldn’t be able to draw it again. You chose to set your Spirit of the Harp and a Call of the Haunted, just in case. Isis summoned a second monster to her field, a Kelbek, and attacked your face-down monster. Thankfully, its defensive points were might higher, and she took damage instead. She furrowed her brows from beneath her hood and set her own face-down card, before ending her turn. Your phone buzzed again in your pocket as you drew your next card, and you huffed to yourself. Blade had left the rooftop of the building over you as soon as your duel with Isis began, but he still must have known you were in the middle of it. It hadn’t been that long. Just what was so damn important that he needed to interrupt your concentration?You shook your head and pushed the thought aside, looking over the card you had drawn, your ritual spell to bring out your Ruin. Said Queen was already in your hand, alongside a Black Pendant, Solemn Judgement, and Magical Mallet. If you drew another monster next turn, and your Lady of the Harp stayed on the field, you could summon her with ease. You decided to set your Black Pendant on the field, just so you didn’t have to pass your turn, and handed the duel back to your opponent. Again, your phone began to vibrate. God, you were going to kill Blade once this duel ended; you’d probably want to kill Doll too if you didn’t adore her so much from your days in the Lab. You turned your focus back to the duel as Isis summoned forth a Mudora, who gained four-hundred attack points thanks to the fairies in her graveyard. She then equipped him with a Cestus of Dagla, a card you knew well as it also sat in your Fairy deck. With more than enough points to take out your defense monster, your field was quickly cleared, and you were wide-open for an attack. She sent her Kelbek at your lifepoints, and you took fifteen-hundred points of damage as a result. An attack from her Agido came next, bringing you down to a mere five-hundred points as she ended her turn. “Shit,” you muttered, glancing down at the trap on your field; you didn’t have a monster strong enough in your graveyard to take down her Mudora, you would have to bank on drawing one of your level eight monsters in order to summon your Ruin if you had any hope of taking him out. You breathed heavily and drew your card, and for once you might have believed in luck. You activated your ritual card, End of the World, and sent the Tri-Horned Dragon you’d just drawn to the grave as fodder for your Ruin. You wasted no time equipping her with the Black Pendant you had set on the field, and ended your turn. The Swords of Revealing Light that had littered the field around you disappeared with a shimmer of light, and you would be free to attack next turn. Isis drew her card, before revealing the trap she had laid on her field, one you hadn’t seen before. You cocked your head and watched her intently as she spoke, a sudden confidence in her voice. “I pay one-thousand of my lifepoints to activate Exchange of Spirit,” she announced, “We must both swap our decks with our graveyards, then we shuffle our decks.”You stared at her, bewildered, before slowly doing as the card ordered. She had a total of eighteen cards in her graveyard, some of which you weren’t aware of because she had used a few card effects to discard some of her cards. You, on the other hand, only had a grand total of six cards in your grave: your ritual card, Tri-Horned Dragon, Lady of the Harp, Bio-Mage, De-Spell, and one of your two Senju. Which meant you had to win this duel in five turns, or you would deck out. When the two of you finished shuffling and swapping your decks and graves, you watched as Mudora’s attack points soared from twenty-four hundred all the way to thirty-two hundred thanks to four additional fairies in Isis' graveyard, now high enough to take out your Ruin with ease. You thought through all of the cards that were now in your grave, your mind racing to think up how to win. And then it hit you, and all the worry left your body as Isis ordered her Mudora to destroy your Queen of Oblivion. She gained enough life points to almost negate Black Pendant’s life draining effect, leaving both you and her tied at a mere one-hundred lifepoints. Isis’ confidence in winning must have blinded her from your field, which still held a trap card, and as she ordered her Kelbek to attack you directly, you nearly broke a grin. “I activate Call of the Haunted,” you announced, and you searched through your new graveyard to bring out the one card who had stood by your side since childhood, by far your favorite card. You summoned your Wingweaver to the field, and Isis’ eyes widened. You could see her desire to call off her attack, but it was too late for her. Her Kelbek reached out its claws to slice into your life points, only to be stopped dead in its tracks by a set of giant, feathered wings. “Thank you, Mokuba,” you muttered beneath your breath as your Wingweaver counterattacked, wiping out the remainder of your opponent’s lifepoints and securing your spot in the finals. Isis stood shocked for a long while, even after the field had cleared of all the holograms and you had walked toward her to claim your locator cards. Her eyes were wide, filled with what you recognized as fear and regret, and you weren’t quite sure what to say or do other than hold out your hand expectantly. You wanted to get to that blimp as quickly as possible.“This is impossible,” Isis finally muttered, eyes flickering to your hand as she slowly made to reach for her locator cards, “My necklace pointed me to you, it was my destiny to defeat you.”“Destiny?” You scoffed, the last time you’d heard anyone speak of destiny was when Gozaburo used it to keep you in line at the Lab. You hated that word.“I can see you are not a believer,” Isis replied, crestfallen, though she didn’t press the issue any further. She handed you her locator cards with shaky hands, and you took them without hesitation, putting them with the other three and reaching into your back pocket for your phone as it began to vibrate again. “Destiny is something people in power use to keep the rest of us in line,” you said sourly, “If you want to get anywhere in life you have to make your own destiny.”Isis stared at you, brow slowly furrowing as if she was considering your words while she watched you bring your phone to your ear. Instantly there was a flurry of voices from the three-way call, all talking over one another so quickly that it almost caused you an immediate headache. But in the cacophony, you managed to make out one line that nearly sent you into a blind rage, and you couldn’t keep yourself from shouting.“What the hell do you mean kidnapped?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The sound of heavy footfalls coming toward you was unnerving, and every step made you feel increasingly more hopeless of your situation. You couldn’t stop thinking that you absolutely did not deserve to be in this situation, thrown into a laboratory swarming with guards and scientists. All you had wanted to do was make friends, what was so wrong with that?
An emotionless voice cut through the air and you paused your crying for a moment to listen, but you couldn’t understand what was being said. It sounded like a completely different language, one that you’d heard somewhere before, you were sure of it. German, maybe? A lot of the Kaiba Corporation executives spoke German, so it sounded somewhat familiar. You’d never learned it, though.
“Who are you?”
This time the voice was in clear English, which you actually spoke thanks to the studies you’d had with Noah and Seto in the Kaiba mansion. You picked your head up off your knees and blinked up through the tears in your eyes to see the figure of a tall, lanky girl. She towered over you, bright green eyes completely void of pity as she searching your wet face for an answer, her red hair long and stringy as it fell around her face and over her shoulders. She had on the same white cotton scrubs you had been given when you arrived, wrinkled and dirtied with various color stains, one of which you were almost positive was blood.
The door to your newfound surroundings closed behind the girl and locked with a nauseating click. Once the sound of heavy leather soles disappeared down the unseen hallway, you were left staring up at the girl with only a dull hum resonating from the dim yellow light above your heads. You barely managed to mumble out your name before another wave of tiny, hopeless sobs wracked your body and you returned your forehead to your knees.
“You need to put on your uniform before the guards come back,” the young girl muttered over your heavy breaths. You felt the bed, which your back was pushed against, squeak loudly as she climbed the rickety ladder to the top bunk. The white uniform she spoke of was behind you on the lower bunk, folded exactly the way it had been given to you when you were brought in. You had been told to put it on as soon as you got into your cell, but you couldn’t will yourself to do any more than sit on the concrete floor and cry as you resigned yourself to your fate.
“Hey, seriously put your uniform on, if the guards come by for your tests and you’re not in it, it’s not going to be pretty.”
“What tests?” You asked worriedly between hiccups for air.
“It’s your first day, so probably just bloodwork and a physical evaluation,” she said flatly.
When you made no indication to move from your spot, despite the hard floor pushing into your tailbone so hard it was painful, you heard the bed creak again. You felt a finger poking at the top of your head, the young girl had turned to prod you as you began to exhaust yourself from crying.
“Hey, put on your uniform. Do you want to get beat on your first day too?”
“Why do I need a uniform for a physical?”
“Look, I don’t make the rules. I just don’t feel like watching the guards make a mess out of you, so put on the scrubs and quit acting like a baby.”
You whimpered in reply and tried to even your breathing, collecting yourself until you were steady enough to stand up and change clothes. The girl was watching you intently, even while you stripped yourself and put on the scrubs, which was really unnerving. No one but your parents had ever seen you naked before, and that was when you were really young, but you were too tired and scared of the guards coming back to wait until she had turned away.
“Uh,” you managed after clearing your raspy throat, “So what’s your name?”
The ginger-haired girl tilted her head at your question, but her face still stayed void of any real emotion. You really hoped she didn’t always act like this, or that at least the other people in this place were had more feeling, because as it stood she seemed kind of… inhuman.
“Call me Doll.”
Two weeks after you’d first arrived at the Lab, you’d started realizing why Doll and most of the other subjects were so devoid of emotion. The environment was oppressive and tiresome, you could barely keep up the energy to feel anything other than exhaustion, terror, and pain. And really, why would you want to feel scared and hurt all the time? It was so much better to completely ignore those feelings, push them to the deepest recesses of your mind, and instead feel nothing.
The only time you felt even a lick of happiness was when all the day’s tests and lessons were over. When you didn’t have to sit on a cold metal table and get foreign liquids injected into your body, when you didn’t have to absorb information about how to shoot a gun or how to wield a sword or how to sneak up on someone without being heard. You could curl up in a ball in the corner of your bed, long after Doll had gone to sleep despite the dim light on the ceiling being always on. In your tiny hands you held the only treasure you had from your former life, which you had snuck into the Lab. You hadn’t really meant to sneak it in, considering you hadn’t even known you were going to be trapped here until you already were, you had just had it in your pocket when Gozaburo’s men took you here and they hadn’t felt it when they searched you.
By all rights it was contraband, if any of the guards saw you with it they would take it away, probably tear it up in front of your eyes. So you kept it a secret from absolutely everyone so there was no chance it would be found. It was that night, though, that things didn’t go exactly as planned, because you heard a tired voice from the bunk above you cut through your thoughts.
“What’s that?”
You held a gasp in your throat and darted your head to look up at Doll, mild curiosity painted on her features. She was leaning over the railing of her bed to peer over at you, her orange-red hair spilling down like a waterfall from her upside-down head. You wondered if she was going to tell the guard about it, you knew that prisoners who gave information on each other got special treatment. You’d only known the girl for two weeks, so you didn’t trust her enough to rule it out.
“Are you gonna rat me out?”
“Huh?” Doll huffed and hopped down from her bunk, crossing her arms over her chest and regarding you with a scowl.
“Are you going to tell them?” You repeated anxiously, shoving the little item against your chest to conceal it from her.
“No, of course I’m not. Why would I ever help them?”
You eyed her suspiciously and didn’t move from your spot. Eventually she freed her arms and reached up to her bunk with a long, irritated sigh and a muttered curse. You’d learned very quickly that Doll swore quite a lot, which was something you weren’t used to. You were taught growing up that swearing wasn’t lady-like, and it would be an embarrassment to your father if anyone heard you. Almost everyone you knew your age were taught the same, you’d never heard Seto or Noah curse even once, and Mokuba was much too young.
“I know we just met but I’m pretty insulted you think I’d snitch on you. I’m not a bitch.”
This was the most emotion you’d seen the girl show in two weeks, and it was because you’d insulted her. You had seen her after coming back from tests that must have left her in excruciating pain, you had seen her shoved and smacked by guards on more than one occasion, but she never showed more than a small wince. Yet now looking at her with her nose scrunched and lips pursed, you were reminded that she was just as human as you were. That before she came to the lab, she had a family, another life, another name.
She pulled her arm from her bed and produced a small black notebook with a lock on it, the key already inside. It looked like a cheap diary that could be bought for a little girl in any toy store, but upon closer inspection you could see little specks and lines of pink peeking through the black, as if she had painted over it.
“Now you know I’m hiding something too,” Doll said, “So if I snitch on you, you can snitch on me back.”
She took the liberty of sitting next to you on your bed and peered over your knees to try and see what you were hiding, and after thinking it over, you decided it was safe enough. Honestly, you were surprised she would go so far to get you to trust her. You pulled your hands away from your chest and laid the card you’d been hiding out in your palms so it was visible.
“It’s a Duel Monsters card,” you said sadly, “My friend gave it to me as a birthday present a few months ago.”
“What’s it called?” She asked, squinting to look over the Japanese text on the card that she couldn’t decipher. You had learned very quickly that Doll only knew a few Japanese phrases that she’d picked up from some of the others at the Lab, but she couldn’t read any.
“Wingweaver,” you translated, “She’s a fairy.”
“Pretty,” she mumbled in a clear lie. “So it’s from a game?”
“Yeah, a card came. Mokuba and Seto played it.”
“Seto? Wait… you don’t mean Seto Kaiba do you? The kid the guards talk about sometimes?”
You nodded.
“You knew the Kaiba family?”
“Why do you think I’m here?” You bemoaned.
“Holy shit, you pissed off the Kaiba family?”
“Just Gozaburo. At least I think… I mean I hope Seto doesn’t hate me.”
“What did you do?”
You frowned and cast your gaze downward, biting at your bottom lip to steady it from quivering. You hadn’t thought about the incident that brought you here in a while, out of pure necessity. Every time you did you nearly started crying from regret. Doll hummed in confusion from behind you, but after you made no moves to turn around or speak again, she must have gotten bored. Or, at the very least, gotten the idea that you didn’t want to speak. You felt her weight shift off your bed, and the metal frame creaked as she climbed back up to her bunk.
Someday, maybe, you’d tell her how terribly you’d screwed up.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“How exactly did you manage to let him get kidnapped?” You snapped into your phone. You ignored the way Isis was watching you, confusion glinting in her eyes. “When I was trying to send Doll information on your opponent--”“I didn’t ask when,” you interrupted Blade on the other end of the line, “I asked how. Your only jobs for the day were to collect information and keep an eye on the Kaiba brothers.”Isis furrowed her brow and you bit down on your tongue. In your rage, you had completely forgotten to keep anything about Seto and Mokuba on the down-low. You hoped you could find an easy way to keep the woman quiet, you’d need all your energy to go rescue Mokuba from certain doom and rewinding wasn’t an option. “Send me his location in five minutes or I’m not going to be happy,” you said quickly, “I’ll take care of it.” You hung up and shoved your phone into your pocket before turning your attention to Isis. She looked quite worried, which you supposed was normal considering you had just mentioned a child kidnapping. “What’s happened?” She asked. “It’s not your concern. What do I need to do to make you forget what you just heard?” “I don’t think that’s possible,” she said carefully, “I have sort of a… vested interest in the Kaiba brothers. The elder, at the very least.” “What kind of an interest?” You didn’t like the way the woman spoke, and the more you thought about it, the more suspicious she was. Dressed head to toe in white despite the heat of the summer day, the way she talked about ‘destiny’ as if she were some sort of oracle. Your gut told you something was, at the very least, off about her. “He owes me something, I suppose you could say.” She replied, “But on the topic of his younger brother--” “This is really none of your business,” you repeated defiantly, “I’ll take care of--”“I may know who kidnapped him.”You narrowed your eyes at her and bit lightly on the inside of your cheek. You definitely didn’t like this woman, from her haughty know-it-all attitude to the vagueness of her words, and now you were positive she had entered the Battle City tournament for reasons other than simply to test her skill. “Why would you have that information?” She gave you a hard stare, as if she had no intention of responding. It made you increasingly more weary of her as you felt your phone buzz in your pocket. You pulled it out, glancing between the screen and her face as you debated what exactly to do with her.
He’s being held in a warehouse on the Domino Pier. The Ghouls have him.
The Domino Pier was on the opposite end of town, and you were so not in the mood to book it there on foot. As for Isis, you were running out of options for keeping her quiet about the whole situation, especially if she was insisting upon sticking her nose into it. “Did you discover his location?”“I did.”“Allow me to take you there,” she insisted, “Most of the roads in the city are blocked off but I have special permissions to get around.” “Why exactly do you have special permission?”She made the face again that implied she wasn’t going to answer you. “I’m not going anywhere with you until you tell me who you are and what your ‘interest’ in the Kaiba brother is.” She frowned-- or you assumed it was a frown considering you couldn’t see her mouth-- at your words as she pulled out her own phone. She typed a short message onto the keypad though you couldn’t see what was said, before directing her attention back to you. “My limousine will be arriving here shortly. I’ll take you wherever you need to go, and on the way I will explain what’s going on. On one condition.” You crossed your arms over your chest. On the one hand if you did allow Isis to take you to the pier you could get there somewhat quickly, and you’d be able to keep her in your sights to make sure she kept quiet about the situation. Additionally, she might have some information about who was planning to attack the Kaiba brothers during the tournament. On the other hand, if she was indeed one of the people involved in the plot, she could be leading you directly into a trap. In that case, it was probably better to stick close to her if you needed to get rid of her. “What’s the condition?” “Allow me to accompany you to the semifinals.” You hummed, briefly wondering if she knew the semifinals were going to be held on a blimp thousands of feet off the ground. You also wondered if she was aware that the finalists weren’t supposed to be accompanied by any of their friends-- she must have been aware, it was clearly written in the rules. “I’ll decide whether or not you can accompany me after I hear your explanation.” You replied decisively. She took a moment to reach up to her neck, placing gentle fingertips on the golden necklace she wore. You eyed her quizzically as she closed her eyes and sighed at something, before she just as quickly flickered them back open. A brief flash of frustration graced her features, as if something unknown to you had happened. But as quickly as you saw the emotion it was gone, and in an instant she had resumed her passive stare.“I suppose I don’t have much of a choice.”
-----
A duel with two third-rate Ghouls was not what Seto Kaiba had been looking forward to today, especially considering Mokuba was in unknown danger. On top of it all, Yugi wouldn’t cease with the obnoxious teamwork speech, something Seto was absolutely not in the mood to hear. Anger was boiling in his veins at the thought of anything happening to his brother, an anger that threatened to send him into a frenzied rage when any of the three other men in present company so much as uttered a word to suggest he was incapable of winning this ridiculous charade of a duel by himself.Seto wanted to murder everyone on the field, perhaps most of all his so-called ‘partner’, who was the biggest source of his current acrimony. If he hadn’t hosted this tournament mainly to duel him and reclaim the title of the world’s number-one duelist, perhaps he would have seriously considered it. “The combination of those two Ghouls is perfect,” the ear-grating voice of one Mutou Yugi rang, in a tone that sounded as if he was scolding a stubborn child. “We can’t defeat them unless we work together!”On second thought, perhaps he would leave Yugi on Alcatraz once he’d ripped the title from him.
-----
The second the two of you were in the limousine, Isis had removed her face mask and hood, and had taken to staring at you intently with her wide blue eyes. Had you not already seen her moving around like a normal human being, you might have mistaken her for a China doll with the emotionless expression and almost hollow look to her.You really did not like this woman, or rather, you didn’t like the way she carried herself. The whole ‘all-knowing oracle’ vibe was much less now that she’s removed her facial coverings, but it was like she was trying her hardest to seem mysterious, and it was getting on your nerves. You stared back at her as a sort of way to stand your ground. Now that you looked at her a little more, you felt like you’d seen her face somewhere. She reached into a little pocket hidden inside of the ruffles of her dress and produced a tiny metal tin for business cards, pulling one out for you and handing it over with a sort of half-bow. You took the card, an ivory that matched her dress with small, neat black lettering typed onto it.
Isis Ishtar
Secretary General
Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities
Searching your memory, you were almost positive you’d seen her sun-kissed caramel skin and straight black hair on television. When you read over the ‘Council of Antiquities’ words again, a little lightbulb went off in your brain. You’d seen the public broadcast of the young woman discussing an Egyptian exhibit at the Domino Museum a few weeks back. The only reason Doll had shown it to you was because she ‘personally invited’ Seto Kaiba to the grand opening.So, Isis had had a so-called “vested interest” in Seto for quite a while now, it seemed. You flipped the card back and forth between your fingers absently for a moment, watching her smooth the wrinkles in her dress and waiting for her to give you the explanation you were promised. She had less than five minutes, about the length of the limousine ride to the Domino Pier, and impatience was beginning to get the better of you. “Let’s cut to the chase. Why did you enter this tournament?”She didn’t say anything, so you narrowed your eyebrow in her direction and continued.“You personally invited Seto Kaiba to an Egyptian exhibit and weeks later he announces a city-wide tournament which you show up to and claim he ‘owes you something’,” you said coolly, “I’m not daft Miss Ishtar, I can put two and two together.” She furrowed her brow at you but kept her lips tightly pursed together.“What does Seto Kaiba owe you?”She made no indication that she would answer you.“Miss Ishtar I am not a patient woman, I’m getting tired of the silent treatment. It’s in your best interest to answer me,” you reminded her.She opened her mouth in protest before just as quickly snapping it shut, drawing in a long, deep breath to compose herself. She nodded slowly, her face twisting into a resigned glare as she folded her hands together on her lap. “I suppose you’re correct,” she struggled to say, “Fine. I lent Obelisk the Tormentor to Kaiba in exchange for starting the Battle City Tournament.”The name Obelisk was one you’d heard before. You knew of the existence of the God cards, there had been rumors floating around that the beasts would surface during the Battle City tournament. However, the fact that Seto was already in possession of one was news to you. “You ‘lent’ him a God card?” “That’s correct.”“You honestly think he’ll give it back to you? Have you met the man?” “Yes,” she replied, eyebrow raised slightly at the way you framed your question though she didn’t comment on it, “I foresaw Obelisk returning to me during the semifinals.” “Foresaw? Like with your…” you gestured to the choker around her neck, “What did you call it?”“The Millennium Necklace, yes.”“Uh-huh. Didn’t that thing also predict you winning a duel against me?” Isis frowned dejectedly but didn’t respond. “Right, good to know your omniscient future powers aren’t at all reliable.” Isis opened her mouth to retaliate but you cut her off before you had to hear any sort of lecture about destiny or some other nonsense. “Moving on,” you began sternly, “You mean to say starting the Battle City Tournament was your idea?”She nodded. “Why?”She let in a deep breath before speaking, her voice flat with resentment, presumably aimed at you for forcing her to answer your questions. “I wanted the tournament to be held in order to draw out my brother.”“Why would a Duel Monsters tournament draw out your brother?” “There are… a couple reasons,” she replied vaguely. When you narrowed your eyes at her, she huffed angrily and resigned herself once again to her fate, “My brother is the leader of a crime group known as the Ghouls.”“The ones who go around collecting rare trading cards right?”“Correct.” The Ghouls. Those were the slimeballs currently holding Mokuba hostage, according to Blade. Isis’ words were the final piece of the puzzle.“When you said you might know who kidnapped Mokuba, it’s because you believe it’s your brother, isn’t that right?”Isis looked a little surprised at your accusation, but the emotion quickly flickered from her eyes and she nodded. “Does Marik have some sort of grudge against the Kaiba brothers?”Isis shook her head, “No. I believe he’s just using Mokuba to force Kaiba into a duel. I doubt he truly has any ill will against either of them.”“Just for a duel?” You hummed.“Yes, to get his hands on Obelisk the Tormentor. My brother wishes to own all three of the Egyptian God Cards.”You nodded, “And the other reason your brother is here?”“That one is a bit more complicated to explain.” “Give me the footnotes version, we’re almost to the Domino Pier.” Isis squeezed her hands together a little more as she swallowed loudly, discomfort clear on her features. At this point, you couldn’t care less how uncomfortable the woman in front of you was feeling, you needed all the information you could get. After a tense moment Isis gave a long sigh, before leaping into a long-winded tale of Egyptian tomb-keepers and an ancient pharaoh residing the body of the current King of Games, Mutou Yugi. You instantly regretted asking the question, the whole story was convoluted and, frankly, unbelievable. The only worthwhile information you’d gotten out of it was that this Marik character seemed to only hold a grudge against Yugi. He was still on your list of suspects, but you doubted he was the one behind the plot to kill Seto and Mokuba during the finals. Once her story was finished you had a pretty good idea of who she was, you decided she didn’t pose much of a threat to either of the Kaiba brothers so long as you kept her in your sight. The easiest way to do that was to allow her to tag along with you to the semifinals, though you thought it in your best interest to keep that a secret for now. “And why did you enter the tournament?” Isis asked suddenly, pulling you from your thoughts, “It sounds like you’re playing for more than the title as well.”“I’m not obligated to answer your questions Miss Ishtar,” you snapped, “I’ve already secured my spot in the finals.”Isis pursed her lips and furrowed her brow in frustration, you imagined the woman wasn’t used to being told what to do. She struck you as the kind of person who enjoyed being in charge, enjoyed being always right. You were having a little more fun than you should have been pushing her buttons. She spent the rest of the ride staring at you in uncomfortable silence, fiddling with the dull gold jewelry on her arms and wrists. You had since leaned back comfortably in your seat, arms crossed triumphantly over your chest though you kept your face as passive as humanly possible. After another moment or two, the limousine rolled to a halt at the edge of the harbor, rows of buildings laid out neatly in front of the passenger side window. You undid your seatbelt and slid across the leather seats of the limo, opening the door for yourself and stepping out onto the asphalt, the salty, fishy air immediately filling your nostrils. “Wait here,” you said curtly to the woman in the back of the limousine, who frowned as if she was about to say something but ultimately kept her mouth clamped shut. You knew she wouldn’t leave the Pier anyway, she needed you to get to the semifinals. You shut the car door behind you and pulled out your phone, glancing over the text you’d received from Blade during your chat with Isis. Warehouse 32.You scanned the numbers painted on the large garage doors in the front of each of the long buildings, before spotting the number, 30 with 31 behind it. You set your phone to silent and began walking briskly to through the buildings, darting your eyes through each alleyway in search of either Mokuba or his potential captors. The pier was eerily quiet, other than the sounds of the harbor and the gulls overhead. Perhaps it was simply because much of the city had been shut down for the tournament, but you had expected there to be more people working in the area. You didn’t see any real signs of life anywhere near any of the long buildings, none of the doors were open and there were no vehicles in the area other than the limousine you’d left behind. If this Marik character was using the pier as his base in Domino for the Ghouls, he had a lot more power than you initially thought. Isis had said she had no reason to believe he had any intention to kill either of the Kaiba brothers, but at the very least, he was a big threat right now, and you would revel in torturing him if anything at all happened to Seto or Mokuba.The sound of a loud metal pang echoed around you, maybe two buildings down from where you were. You darted your head toward the sound and quickened your pace as you made your way towards it. After a brief moment, the clamor of two men shouting filled the air. “Hey kid, stop right there!” “Don’t make us hurt you you little brat!”That didn’t sound good at all. A lump caught in your throat as you broke out into a run, getting closer and closer to the sound of shouting. As you neared the alleyway that seemed to be the source of the commotion, you spied a tin trash can knocked onto its side, a foul odor wafting from the contents that had spilled out all over the asphalt. “I’ll shoot you if you don’t stop running, punk!” The second you heard those words you rounded the corner, the sight of two dark figures a good ways down the alley filled your vision before you squeezed your eyes shut. You had to protect Mokuba, no matter the cost. You wouldn’t let anyone hurt him.
Stop.
As you slowly opened your eyelids, your surroundings had completely frozen in place, just as they always did when you commanded the world around you to cease moving. There was no sound to be heard, no shouting, no gulls, no boats in the harbor water a few hundred meters away. Everyone and everything was completely, deathly still. You let out a long breath and took a few steps into the long alleyway, inching closer to the figures before you.
Two men in dark purple cloaks stood frozen in place, as if they were merely decorations in the lifeless world you were occupying. One man was preparing to chase after Mokuba while the other pointed a gun straight ahead. His finger was already applying pressure onto the trigger, enough so that when time began as normal again, he would surely fire. You stepped behind the man with the gun and peered over his shoulder, squeezing one eye shut so you could gaze through the gun’s sight. Left alone, the bullet was either going to miss Mokuba entirely, or hit him in the shoulder.
You had a few options in this situation, one of which involved simply taking the gun from the taller cloaked man, which would avoid any casualties. You prefered not leaving any trace that you had been at the scene, and a disappearing gun would cause more questions than you wanted anyone asking. Plus, you didn’t care much for either of these men considering they were trying to kill little Mokuba. You told yourself that that meant there was no reason to feel remorse.
You grabbed the man’s arm and rotated it to his left, the act as easy as if you were posing a mannequin, so the barrel of the gun pointed instead to the back of his partner in crime’s head. It would cause enough chaos that Mokuba could escape safely, and no one would know you had been at the scene. Even if the man tried to figure out how his arm had ended up so quickly twisted, he would most likely blame himself for the death of his partner.
You took in a long breath, lungs filling with the stale air of an empty world, a sensation you had grown used to after all these years. As a girl you had wondered if the air felt different for some actual, physical reason, or if it was merely a psychological side-effect of being the only living soul occupying a silent space. After a while though, you’d stopped asking yourself such pointless questions and just allowed them to occupy a tiny spot in the back of your brain.
You stepped away from the two men and ducked behind the corner of the closest building, close enough that you would be able to react if anything else happened to endanger the younger Kaiba. A pit in your stomach formed as you stared at the scene you had painted, one that would in mere moments be bathed in bloodshed. You didn’t want the scene to play out. You didn’t want any more blood on your hands.
But you would do anything to save Mokuba. Anything. There was no reason to feel remorse, no one would miss a couple of child kidnappers. The world was better off without them. You repeated those words to yourself over and over and over again as you squeezed your eyes shut, forcing yourself to look away.
Go.
-----
A gunshot resounded throughout the warehouses, sound ricocheting between the long, empty walls of the buildings and big garage doors. Mokuba heard a loud, pained yelp from a man behind him, quickly followed by a second voice shouting a jumble of almost incoherent words. He wanted desperately to turn around and see what happened, but with the adrenalin pumping through him his legs just kept running, entirely too terrified to stop their movements. He continued sprinting straight ahead, feeling cold sweat cover his forehead.“But I wasn’t even pointing to-- how did he-- how did I--”Mokuba continued faster than he had been before, if that was even possible, and although his brain had an idea of what had happened, his thoughts were racing so quickly that there wasn’t any time to really process it all. He could hardly hear himself think over the pounding of his heart and the labored breaths struggling to exit his throat; all he knew was that he was uninjured and he needed to get to Seto as fast as possible. “Master please! I don’t know how I-- I’m so sorry!”A second scream echoed through the alley as Mokuba bolted around a corner heading toward the Pier’s exit. Tears stung at his eyes, threatening to spill over, blurring his vision so it was hard to see where he was going. But he was stronger than his fear, he had gotten out of scarier situations before, and he needed to bring back help to get Anzu out of the warehouse. He pushed away his terror, his confusion, his sadness, and wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his shirt. He could see the edge of the Pier, and once he reached the city he would be safe. He had time to feel remorse later.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“What are you wearing?” Seto asked, one eyebrow raised and arms crossed over his chest as he looked your costume up and down.
“I’m a vampire!” You replied excitedly, before holding a finger up to him for dramatic pause. You clutched your shiny black cape in one hand and brought it up over your face, trying desperately not to laugh at yourself. “I vant to suck your blooood!”
Seto didn’t find your impression at all amusing, but Mokuba let out a fit of giggles.
“Are you guys coming to the Halloween party tonight?” You asked.
Seto and Mokuba looked between each other, confused.
“You know… the company party? Soichiro is hosting it this year. He always hires the same catering company and the food is all Halloween themed and….”
The two boys didn’t say anything, Mokuba looking down at the floor with a frown.
“Don’t tell me no one invited you to the Halloween party. That’s crap!”
“What does that mean?” Mokuba asked.
“Oops,” you covered your mouth with your hand and bowed a little in apology when Seto shot you a glare.
After a tense moment, you huffed and grabbed both Seto and Mokuba’s hands so they were on either side of you, and began dragging them along down the first floor hallway toward Gozaburo’s home office. Mokuba followed you along obediently, though Seto spent the walk trying to squirm his hand out of your grip and slow you down. Kogoro Daimon was about to enter the office when he spied you stomping down the hallway with the two boys in tow, and he eyed you curiously.
“Good morning Miss,” Daimon addressed you formally, bowing slightly as you stopped in front of him, “Lovely costume.”
“Thanks!” You exclaimed delightedly, letting go of the Kaiba boys to clap your hands together, “I’m a vampire!”
“I can see that,” Daimon nodded down at you, “Do you have business with Mister Kaiba?”
“Actually yes,” you nodded decisively.
“You know my dear, Mister Kaiba is a very busy man. I’m not sure if he has time to--”
“It’s very important.”
Seto leaned forward to hiss your name into your ear as a warning, as if to say you were playing with fire. But as a spirited thirteen-year-old with no concept of consequences, you brushed him off with a wave of your hand.
Daimon pursed his lips together in thought for a moment, before nodding and opening one of the large double doors to allow you inside. You thanked him and bounded inside, with Seto and Mokuba following you timidly. You placed your hands behind your back politely and stared up at one Gozaburo Kaiba, sitting at his massive wooden desk and scouring over a stack of papers for work. He didn't even look up at you as he continued working, barely acknowledging you with a sigh.
“I'm busy kid, what is it?”
“You’re attending tonight’s Halloween party aren’t you Mister Kaiba Sir?”
“Of course I am, it’s my company’s party.” Gozaburo replied dismissively, still not looking up from his stack of papers.
“Are Seto and Mokuba attending?”
“You're wasting my time with this drivel?”
You frowned up at the large man, as Daimon came to your side quickly and placed a large hand on your shoulder. He shot you a confused frown.
“Miss I thought you said this was an important matter?”
“Oh, it is. Very important. It is imperative they attend tonight's party, I would be so disappointed to not see them there!”
Gozaburo set his pen down and snapped his gaze to meet yours, the look he gave you almost enough to make you collapse.
“Miss,” Daimon said carefully, “The children don't even have costumes to wear--"
“Oh I have plenty of costumes!” You said quickly, “Seto is smaller than me anyway so I'm sure I have something that will fit. And I have all my costumes from when I was small so Mokuba can--”
“Seto won't have time to attend,” Gozaburo said quickly, “He has his lessons tonight.”
“Oh… but it's Halloween!”
Gozaburo clenched his jaw, “The business world doesn't stop for Halloween, kid.”
“But sir! Our youth is fleeting!” You asserted, lifting one of your hands in the air as if you were reciting lines from a play, “We have to seize it while we can and make the most of it!”
Gozaburo stared at you as if he couldn’t believe you were wasting his time with your nonsensical speeches, before folding his hands on his desk and groaning. “You’ve been reading Dickens again, haven’t you?”
“Sterne, actually.”
He shot you a glare as if the question had been rhetorical.
Seto tugged on your sleeve and again whispered your name into your ear, “This is a waste of time, let's just go.”
“But--"
“I don't want to go to a stupid party anyway. Come on.”
You turned back to look at Seto, a frown painted on his face. Next to him, Mokuba was staring at a particularly interesting spot on the floor. You sighed dramatically before returning your attention to Gozaburo, who looked so terribly annoyed you wouldn't have been surprised if he was about to kick you out of his home.
“Sorry for wasting your time Mister Kaiba Sir,” you muttered as politely as you could manage, before bowing to both him and Daimon.
“See that it doesn't happen again.” Came his reply, and whether it was directed at you or Daimon you weren't positive.
You and the Kaiba brothers exited the office in silence, Mokuba had since latched onto your arm for comfort. Seto, on the other hand, looked more annoyed than anything. As the heavy doors closed behind you, he walked in front of you and tilted his head up to glare at you.
“What the heck are you thinking?” He demanded.
“That I want you to go to a party, I thought that was obvious.” You rolled your eyes.
“Why would you waste his time with that?” Seto demanded, “I could have told you he would say no.”
“Well you never know unless you try, right?”
Seto crossed his arms over his chest.
“Besides, it's not like anything bad happened. I mean he's kinda annoyed but he'll get over it. My daddy gets annoyed at me all the time but he gets over it really fast!”
“Gozaburo doesn't really get over stuff fast…” Mokuba chimed in softly.
You shrugged him off, “I'm sure it'll be fine.”
Seto let out a groan, “You're so obnoxious. You don't think about the consequences!”
“What consequences? It's not like he's gonna do anything to me.”
“Not to you, but probably to--" the elder Kaiba brother cut himself off quickly before averting his eyes from yours. You and Mokuba looked between each other for a moment, but before either of you could say anything he had already turned away from you.
“Come on, we have class soon.”
Seto practically stormed off down the hallway, and Mokuba released your hand so you could follow him. You jogged to catch up to the brunette, spying the way his brow was knitted in annoyance.
“Hey what were you gonna say back there?” You asked.
“Nothing.”
“Seto--"
“I don't want to talk about it. Stop pestering me.”
“But--"
“Why are you so obnoxious?” He sighed loudly, “Just drop it.”
“Fine.” You pouted, “I won't make you cry on Halloween.”
“Cry?”
“Yeah you seem upset and I don't want you to cry or anything.” You waved your hand dismissively.
“I'm not going to cry.” He insisted.
“Uh-huh, sure sure.”
“I'm not!”
You tried to bite back a grin but couldn't manage it, and when Seto saw it it only served to make him roll his eyes in exasperation.
“I hate you.”
“You can't hate me, I'm like your only friend.”
“I can still hate you.” He replied as the two of you made it to the library on the other side of the mansion, and took your seats at one of the long tables.
“A-hah! So we are friends!” You declared.
“What? I didn't--"
Before he could finish his protest your mathematics instructor entered the room, a permanent frown etched onto her old face, glasses perched on the very end of her nose. She looked like a librarian who had just bit into a particularly sour lemon. She was, by far, your least favorite instructor.
As much as you tried to pay attention through a more than grueling statistics lecture, followed by a particularly dull Japanese history lecture, you couldn’t stop thinking that your little stunt in Gozaburo’s office had been a mistake. Both your instructors seemed frustrated that you weren’t completely focused on your assignments, and though Seto said nothing, he kept looking at you like he was annoyed.
Throughout your next three lectures you slowly slipped into a worse and worse mood, and though you were able to focus more on the work in front of you it was only serving to irritate you more. By the time your classes were over for the day, you were pretty sure you were radiating frustration, because once your final instructor exited the library Seto immediately demanded your attention by slamming a physics textbook closed.
“What’s with you?” He huffed as you packed your notebooks into your bag.
“Nothing.”
“Earlier you were so obnoxiously excited and now look miserable.”
“It’s nothing.” You repeated with a huff.
“Girls are so volatile,” he groaned.
He waved you toward the glass door in the library which lead to the balcony, and you clutched your bag in your hand as you followed him outside. For a late October afternoon, it was surprisingly warm. A soft breeze rustled the branches of the maple trees overhead and created a cascade of warm fall colors, leaves blowing around you before landing gently on the balcony floor.
“Tell me what’s wrong already.” He said sternly.
You took a sudden interest in your shiny black shoes. Seto didn’t press the issue further, but he crossed his arms over his chest like he wasn’t going to let you leave the mansion without answering him.
“Are you gonna get in trouble because of me?”
“Because of the thing in my father’s office?”
You nodded.
“Most likely.”
You winced at his answer, maybe moreso at how confident he sounded when he gave it.
“I should have thought about it before I did it,” you mumbled.
“Yes, you should have.”
“I’m sorry….”
Seto sighed loudly beside you,
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” He finally muttered.
Silence fell over the two of you, each watching the leaves as they glided down from the tree branches. It wasn’t very often that the two of you had time alone together, and usually when you did it was between lectures and was spent studying. You very much enjoyed the rare moments you spent alone with him, not just because you considered the short brunette to be your best friend, but because it was the only time you ever saw him lower his guard.
You turned your head to look at him, “Can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to! I don’t want you to get mad or anything I just--”
“I already said what.” He huffed.
“Um…” For a moment you looked anywhere but at his face, watching a leaf flutter to the ground before working up the courage to look back at him. “Well I… One time I saw,” you pointed to one of his wrists nervously, “Some bruises on there.”
He didn’t say anything.
“And I wanted to know… well earlier when you were saying your dad wasn’t going to do anything to me but you cut yourself off… um.”
Compared to Seto, you were no genius. But compared to most other children your age, you liked to think yourself quite intelligent. In this case, you thought you were at least smart enough to put two and two together.
“He’s not going to… you know… hurt you is he?”
Seto didn’t respond, nor did he look at you once you’d asked your question. It was the fact that he wouldn’t answer that made it obvious what was probably going to happen after the Halloween party tonight. While you were tucked away in your bed sleeping soundly, your best friend was probably going to be on the receiving end of… what exactly you weren’t quite sure, and perhaps that was the scariest thought of all.
He didn’t ask you to leave, but it was obvious it was time for you to go home.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
As soon as you were back in the comfort of the limousine you informed Isis that you would allow her to tag along with you to the Battle City semifinals. She let out a sigh that sounded more relieved than happy, and relayed the directions that you had given her to the driver. Afterwards, the two of you sat in the limo in complete silence. Isis had taken to staring out the window with her fingers lightly touching the golden eye-shaped necklace she wore. You closed your eyes and hummed to yourself, leaning your head back against the leather seat.With only the low whirring sound of the car engine to fill the air, you were left in quiet solitude with nothing but your thoughts. Painted on the back of your eyelids stood the still image of the two cloaked men, one frozen mid-sprint and the other pointing a gun at his partner. Although the image didn’t shift at all, the sound of a gunshot rang through your head, and you felt your fingers twitch in reflex. On queue, a terrified blood curdling scream filled your ears, but it was somewhat dull and muted, as if you were hearing is play underwater. You swallowed hard and attempted to will the thought out of your mind, but despite your best efforts the muffled, horrified screams continued to loop.
“You were created to kill.”
You could feel your heartbeat picking up, rather, you could hear it pounding faster and faster in your ears. The pulse in your neck was throbbing uncomfortably, and it would have been all you could focus on had the screams not become a garbled mess. You weren’t positive whose they were anymore; at some point they had stopped being entirely the two cloaked mens’ and had melded with the others you’d been forced to hear over the years.
“Your destiny was to become a killing machine. Nothing more. There’s no point fighting it.”
From the depths of your thoughts, behind the terrified screams of other prisoners in the lab, of victims you couldn’t even remember the faces of anymore, Gozaburo Kaiba’s voice drawled along clearly and methodically. You could remember everything he had ever said to you, no matter how much you desperately wanted to forget. There were so many sounds you wanted to forget, and yet somehow you always ended up back in this place, trapped inside of your own brain with nothing but noise.
“You’re no longer human. You’re a monster.”
A bump, perhaps a pothole, shook the entire back of the limousine violently enough to jolt you out of your thoughts. Your eyes snapped open and you shot your head up, a gasp trapped in your throat. Isis was still staring blankly out the window, seemingly unaffected by the car’s shaking or your reaction. You managed to swallow the breath in your throat and noticed that your hand was gripping at your thigh so tightly that your knuckles had turned a ghostly white. You pried your fingers from your jeans and brought your hand close to your face, placing a fingertip at your mouth to bite at one of your nails. Your stomach was churning.
-----
For most people, saving the life of an innocent high school student who was about to be crushed by a shipping crate would have likely been a satisfying end to an afternoon. For Seto Kaiba, it was a colossal waste of time. He wanted nothing more than to get as far away from Yugi and his band of dweebs as possible, if only for the next hour since they would all be boarding his blimp soon anyway. After the amount of bullshit he’d had to deal with this afternoon, an hour of peace was all he wanted right now. Under normal circumstances, he would have likely already dragged his little brother away from the terrible influences in present company, namely Katsuya Jounouchi. Especially Katsuya Jounouchi.Unfortunately for him, Mokuba was occupied with leaning over the edge of the dock talking frantically with the rest of the Geek Patrol. Well, the members who weren’t, presumably, drowning in the ocean after being dragged down by a fifty-ton anchor. Vaguely, Seto wondered if the company could be sued if either of the two boys died whilst competing in his tournament. Upon entering, all duelists had to sign a waiver stating the company wasn’t responsible for any injuries, but he wasn’t positive if dying fell under that clause. He’d need to consult his legal team.He was getting a migraine.
-----
“There must be some sort of mistake,” Isis said as the limousine came to a halt. “This isn’t the location of the finals. This is just a cafe.” You opened your eyes and lifted your head up, cracking your neck in the process. “Nope, no mistake.” “This is the location the locator cards revealed?” She asked suspiciously. “Nope,” you brushed off her concern as you opened the door and scooted out of the limousine, “I’m just hungry.” “You’re… hungry?” She asked, dumbfounded. “Yeah, I’m a human being, I get hungry.” You turned back toward her and peered into the limousine from the open door, “Are you coming in or are you going to sit in the car until I come back?” “I… think I’d prefer to stay here. Will you be long?” “As long as I want to be.”“We should really hurry to the finals before--”“We won’t be late.” You assured her before shutting the door behind you and crossing the street toward the small cafe. That woman was going to drive you absolutely nuts by the end of this tournament, you were sure of it. Saying you were hungry had been a lie. When you gave her the directions to the cafe you had been hungry, sure, but now as you entered the restaurant the smell of fresh bread and fried chicken hit you with a wave of nausea. Your stomach lurched, and rather than head to the counter to order anything you made a beeline toward the restrooms. The sound of screams echoed in your head again, and you found a sudden build up of saliva in your mouth. Though your tried to swallow it, your throat went dry and you about gagged on it. You pushed open the door to the women's room and just as quickly about slammed it behind you and bolted the lock shut. You promptly dropped to your knees in front of the toilet and emptied chunks of you stomach’s contents out into the water with a disgusting wet splash. You could feel cold sweat on the back of your neck, and your fingertips trembled against your skin as you tried to wipe away the wetness. You coughed desperately into the toilet bowl, choking on a breath that refused to come out of your airways. Your head was pounding, your ears were ringing, and the only thing you could hear were more underwater screams. After coughing a few more times you finally managed to take in a desperate gasp of air. The smell of toilet water permeated your nose and prompted another heave, though this time only stomach acid poured from your mouth and nose, burning your throat and nostrils as you coughed into the now dull brown waters of the toilet. You felt as if all the energy had been sucked out of you, as you shivered on the ground leaned over the toilet, cold sweat sticking to your back and neck. You couldn’t be sure what exactly your body was reacting to, perhaps you had exerted too much energy when you paused time to help Mokuba escape from the Ghouls. But you hadn’t had nearly this violent of a reaction to using your power in years, normally you just felt tired and shaky afterwards. Now, you were exhausted. Maybe, you thought, you were feeling sick because you had… well, you had.... Of course the responsibility wasn’t entirely on you. You hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger, and you had convinced yourself that he had deserved it. It was a quick death. He barely had time to scream. You had saved Mokuba’s life. You had killed a man. After being sure you weren’t going to vomit anymore, you shakily lifted yourself from the ground, using one of your hands to dab away the water that had formed in the corners of your eyes. You tore a piece of toilet paper from the roll near the toilet and began blowing your nose into it in an attempt to remove the acid. You wiped your mouth with it and tossed it into the toilet, glancing into it absently to see chunks of what you assumed was your breakfast floating to the top. You coughed again as you pressed the button on the top of the toilet to flush it, making your way to the sink which had a water-stained mirror in front of it. You turned on the water as hot as it could go, thrusting your hands under it and scrubbing at your skin furiously, as if to remove some sort of invisible stains. You raised your head up at the mirror, taking a long look at your face. Dark circles had formed under your eyes beneath your makeup, your lips flattened into a sort of impassive frown. Your skin had taken on a paler than usual tone, making you look as exhausted and sickly as you felt. After your hands had been rubbed raw, you turned off the water and dried them with some paper towels before tossing them in the recycling bin near the door. You stood in the middle of the bathroom for a moment, staring between the door and your tired reflection in the mirror, before ultimately moving to one of the empty corners of the room and pressing your back into the wall. You sunk down to the ground and buried your forehead into your knees, then wrapped your arms around your legs and closed your eyes with a heavy sigh. You decided you would stay in the bathroom until you no longer looked like death itself.
-----
Mokuba had decided not to tell his brother about the whole almost getting shot thing until they were sitting comfortably in the back of a Kaiba Corp helicopter on their way to the stadium. Well it wasn’t like he was positive he had almost gotten shot, but he was pretty sure there was a chance he had almost gotten shot. He tried his hardest to relay that information to his brother in the most cohesive way he could, but he sort of ended up explaining what had happen in a complete mess of words. It probably wouldn’t have mattered either way how he tried to tell the story, because as soon as the words had left his mouth, Seto immediately began drilling him for information. Mokuba could practically feel the anger radiating from him as he pulled a laptop from his briefcase and began furiously typing at the keyboard. Although Mokuba knew it was the right thing to do, telling his brother and all, he was sort of regretting it with how bad of a mood he was now in. Well, it wasn’t like he was in a good mood to being with, especially after sitting through the duel between Yugi and Jounouchi. Man that had been terrifying. Seto probably hadn’t thought so, Mokuba was pretty sure his brother thought that whole fiasco was a waste of time or something. Seto couldn’t possibly have been scared watching that duel, he looked so calm during the whole thing, even when he was saving Anzu from the Ghouls. Mokuba wondered, as he watched him barking orders to someone on the phone about rounding up every last Ghoul in the city so he could personally tear the limb from limb for hurting his little brother, if Seto ever felt fear. He wished he could be as brave and fearless as his brother someday.
-----
Both you and Isis arrived at Kaiba Corp. stadium just after nightfall, after Blade had sent you a text that Mutou Yugi and his group of friends had already entered the blimp at the far end of the stadium. No one else was in sight, other that two tall men in suits standing at the foot of the ramp to the blimp, eyes hidden behind sunglasses despite the fact that it was dark out. You and Isis walked to them, and you pulled your six locator cards from your bag and extended them toward the two men. One of the men, the taller of the two with an interesting shade of blue hair nodded to you. “You’re the eighth duelist,” he confirmed. Both men introduced themselves to you as Isono and Fuguta.“It’s a good thing you arrived just now, otherwise we would have taken off without you.” Isono said.“Without me?” “Yes ma’am, Mister Kaiba ordered us to leave immediately.” “That… sounds impulsive,” you hummed, “Good to hear he hasn’t changed.” The two men raised an eyebrow at your comment but didn’t respond. “Anyway ma’am, follow us on board, we’ll show you to the rest of the duelists.”“Sorry miss,” Fuguta said to Isis, holding his hands up, “But only duelists are allowed on the blimp.”“She’s with me,” you said. “Still, we’re not allowed to let anyone other that duelists on.”“You let Mutou Yugi and Katsuya Jounouchi’s friends onto the ship with no trouble, so I was simply under the assumption that I could also bring a guest.” You refuted coolly. “H-How did you?” A suddenly very flustered Isono choked out. “Are you going to let us on or not?” You challenged.Isono and Fuguta looked between each other as if they weren’t entire sure how to react to you, but after a moment they simultaneously cleared their throats and gestured for you to follow them. You and Isis followed them up the ramp to the blimp, and two of them lead you through a series of bright, white hallways. You walked past a long corridor with numbered silver doors on either side, and after turning a few corners you glanced to your side to realize that at some point Isis had disappeared.You wondered where she had run off too briefly, but decided you prefered not having her floating around you. You continued silently following after the two men in suits until you reached a group of people in the middle of a wide hallway, all talking amongst themselves. “Seto-sama, the eighth duelist has arrived.” The brunette in a long, billowing white coat turned his attention from the other duelists in the area and looked over at Isono, then to you. He narrowed his eyes to you immediately in thought. Next to him, Mokuba had also turned to look over at you, but rather than the same intense expression his brother wore, his eyes almost immediately lit up. His mouth slowly opened so wide in shock you were almost afraid it was going to unhinge. He muttered your name just loud enough for you to hear, and at the sound of it the elder Kaiba’s eyes widened in recognition.“I can’t believe it,” Mokuba said, “You’re actually here.” It was the first time you’d seen the youngest Kaiba brother in six years, and it took just about all your willpower to not start crying like a child as he ran across the hall to hug you. His face planted firmly into your stomach and he wrapped his arms around your waist, so tight that it almost made it hard to breath. Seto had directed his gaze down to his little brother, arms crossed firmly over his chest. The rest of the duelists and and their friends had since stopped talking amongst themselves and were staring at you and Mokuba in awe. “I thought it was you in the database but… but you’re really here.” He spoke into your stomach so you could hardly hear him. “Yeah,” you replied softly, trying your hardest to keep your words steady as you placed your hands on his back in a sort of half-hug. “Good to see you, kiddo.”“Who is that, Kaiba?” Asked a girl with a short bob of brown hair. “Yeah, are you guys friends?” Another of Mutou Yugi’s friends with dark raven hair chimed in. Seto said nothing in reply as Mokuba tore himself away from you, his eyes bright with childish excitement, and his wide smile was enough to warm your heart. The two of you walked across the hallway toward his elder brother, who still had his arms crossed and jaw clenched in a way that made a knot form in your stomach. The look he gave you was one that could kill, anger seething off his body while he refused to speak a word to you. You weren’t sure what you had been expecting to see from your former best friend after so long; you knew Gozaburo had told him lie upon lie about where you had gone so you didn’t exactly expect Seto to welcome you with open arms the same way Mokuba had. Still, you hadn’t been prepared for this much hatred to be directed your way. You drew in a deep breath as you walked closer toward him, Mokuba darting his big eyes between the two of you with more concern than made you feel comfortable. “Hey, Seto--”“How did you get into this tournament?” He demanded. “Uh…” You cleared your throat, “I applied?”“You’re not a duelist. I curated the list of qualified duelists myself, you were nowhere on it.”“Well… I had no trouble getting in so--”“You don’t belong here.”You sighed, “Take it up with your staff, then, that’s not my problem.”Seto looked down at his brother, “Mokuba, earlier you said you saw her in the database?”Mokuba looked like a deer in the headlights, nodding slowly in reply.At his answer, the elder Kaiba narrowed his eyes in suspicion, “Under what name?”“Um… Ghost.” He mumbled, casting his eyes down to the ground.Seto’s eyes snapped back to you, “I should have you disqualified.”Well now you were just annoyed.“On what grounds?”“Entering under a false name. Hacking your way into my database. Not to mention the probable other illegal ways you wormed your way into my tournament.” “It’s not a false name it’s a nickname, which isn’t against the rules, believe me I checked. And I didn’t do anything illegal!” “I highly doubt that.”Okay so Seto was totally in the right to be suspicious of your entry into Battle City. Not only had Blade obtained your rarest card you were using to duel in the tournament through… less than savory methods, but Doll had hacked a doctored file for you into the Kaiba Corporation database. So yeah, okay, multiple illegal things had absolutely been done to get you into the tournament. But technically you hadn’t been the one to do either of those things, so it wasn’t a complete lie to say you hadn’t done anything illegal, right?“Come on Kaiba, if you’re too scared to duel the girl you should jus’ say so,” came the taunting of a blonde boy who had been watching the argument with the rest of his group. “Jounouchi,” Seto focused his gaze on the boy, “You’re honestly stupid enough to think I’m afraid of this disappointment?” Harsh.“Disappointment? I made it all the way here, didn’t I?” You snapped.“Save it.” Before he could utter another threat, the blonde boy spoke up again, “So what if she enta’d unda a nickname? Lotsa’ people did that! If she’s a good duelist I wanna shot at duelin’ her!” “Come to think of it,” Seto hummed, “How did a dog like you make it into this tournament?” “Quit callin’ me a dog! I came in second in Duelist Kingdom for cryin’ out loud!”Seto looked between you and Jounouchi with a glare, “Looks like a few people didn’t do their jobs properly in registration.”Considering you were already off the ground, you highly doubted Seto would land the blimp just to kick you out of his tournament. So long as you were here to be in control of whatever situation occurred in the plot to kill the Kaiba brothers, it didn’t really matter if you were dueling in the semifinals or not. Still, there was a fire burning in the pit of your stomach in response to the venom Seto was spitting your way. Whether Duelist’s Pride was real or not you weren’t positive, but now that you had him mouthing off about your dueling skills, you kind of wanted to show him up. Or, at the very least, duel someone else so he could see you weren’t some dumb kid. “The two of you are lucky I’m feeling generous tonight,” Seto suddenly spat harshly, “Though, it’s not like either of you will make it past the next round of duels anyway with whatever pathetic decks you’ve brought.” “Alright Rich Boy, I’m gunna--”“Jounouchi stop!” The brunette girl in tall platform sandals said in exasperation. “Yeah dude come on. Kaiba’s not worth it.” Said one of his other friends, with perhaps the most gaudy, pointed imitation of a pompadour you’d ever seen. Katsuya Jounouchi growled in frustration, but rather than continuing to yell at the tall young man, he settled for muttering something under his breath. Next to him, Mutou Yugi let out a sigh of relief, as did the rest of the members of the group.“Finally, the mutt’s been muzzled,” a very smug Seto scoffed as he turned from you all, gesturing for Mokuba to follow him. The younger Kaiba shot you a relieved grin, and waved to you as the two of them set off down the hallway. Seto’s long trench coat billowed behind him and Mokuba had to about jog to keep up with his brother’s long strides, until they turned a corner and were out of sight. Isono cleared his throat as the Kaiba boys left, and turned his attention to the rest of you.“Well… Let us show the rest of you to your rooms, then.” Fuguta gestured for you and the three other duelists that had qualified later in the night to follow him. You passed Isis as the five of you turned a corner toward the second half of numbered rooms, and upon seeing you she pushed herself from the wall she was leaning against to follow behind you. She suddenly looked oddly uncomfortable next to the three other duelists you were walking with; the boy with the long white hair and a striped shirt, a caramel-skinned young man with a plethora of golden body jewelry and entirely too much eyeliner, and the mysterious, tall man in a long black cloak far in front of the rest of you. “So sorry,” came the sudden, soft voice of the white-haired boy behind you, “But I don’t believe I caught your name.” “Me?” You asked, turning your head slightly to look at him, “Just call me Ghost.” “Ghost? That’s a bit… occult-ish don’t you think?” “It’s not intended to be.” You said coldly. “Oh. Well, ah, I’m Bakura. Ryou Bakura. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” “Sure, you too kid.” Fuguta turned to the five of you and began distributing numbered key cards, which each matched up with a door along the hallway. Unsurprisingly, you were given room number eight, presumably since you were the last duelist to arrive on the blimp. You swiped the keycard and entered the room with Isis trailing behind you. Inside was a queen-size bed pushed against one wall, and a set of comfortable looking chairs around a coffee table next to a window that looked to the sky outside. On the other side of the room was a bar and a miniature fridge, plus an open door which lead to a small bathroom. Isis immediately made herself comfortable in the room, taking a seat in one of the chairs by the window and reserving herself to silence, which you were more than thankful for. You dropped your bag and duel disk on the foot of the bed and fell back on the mattress, focusing your gaze on the cool metal ceiling above your head as you replayed your conversation with the Kaiba boys in your head. All you could picture was the venomous look in Seto’s eyes, piercing through you. The last time you had seen him, all those years ago, those eyes of his still held a glimmer of happiness. This time, the only thing you had seen was your own reflection staring back at you, hollow, as if you were nothing more than a piece of trash. A dull ache had begun to weigh down on your chest, and you suddenly wished Isis wasn’t sitting like a statue on the other side of the room, because you wanted nothing more in that moment than to cry your eyes out like a child.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
You had been fighting against the tight metal cuffs bolting you to the table to the point that your skin was rubbed raw and the bones in your wrists ached. You had lost almost all the blood circulation in your hands, and your fingers had gone numb. The room you were being held in was cloaked in pitch darkness, the only source of light to speak of was a soft red light on the ceiling, blinking on and off in a steady rhythm. It was probably a smoke detector, although now that you thought about it a holding cell seemed an odd place for one of those.
You could hear the bustling of people walking through the corridor on the other side of the door, shoes hitting the linoleum tiles and the wheels of beds and trolleys spinning down the hall. There was the idle chatter of doctors and scientists as they walked, talking about one thing or another on the outside world. How their wives and children were doing, what they saw on the television last night. Average everyday conversation. It only served to further your frustration of your current situation, chained to a metal table in blackness, waiting for someone to enter the room and explain to you what exactly you were doing here.
You’d been at the lab for little over a week, and most of that time had been spent in the small cell that was meant to pass for a room that you shared with Doll. The few times you’d been outside of there were for a series of physical examinations, blood work, and other tests you weren’t sure the purpose of. You’d gotten your plasma drawn, which had been a little more painful than you thought it would be, and one doctor had forced you to take swallow a mystery liquid that had about set your throat on fire and caused a three-day long cough that made your ribcage ache.
Other than two or three different examination rooms and the inside of your cell, you hadn’t seen any other rooms in the lab until now. Though, ‘see’ wasn’t exactly the right word to use considering it was so dark you couldn’t actually see anything. You’d at least seen the way to the room; you hadn’t been blindfolded or anything when a six-foot tall guard pushed you down the hallway and opened the door to this room, before unceremoniously shoving you inside and bolting your handcuffs to the table. He’d left as quickly as he came, ignoring your demands to know where you were or why it was so dark, slamming the door closed and shrouding you in blackness.
This had been a terrible week.
The seconds ticked away slowly, and you occupied yourself by staring up and the blinking red dot on the ceiling, counting the number of times it flickered as you waited. You counted up to two-hundred twelve before being interrupted by the door to the room opening slowly. Light flooded the room as the fluorescent bulb overhead flicked on, and you squeezed your eyes shut with a groan.
You squinted through the light for about ten seconds before your eyes adjusted, leaving you staring up at Gozaburo Kaiba pulling the chair across from you away from the table. He sat down and folded his hands together on the metal surface, glaring down at you. What the hell was he doing here?
“What do you want?” You asked.
Silence.
“Why am I here?” You again demanded, “You had your men take me to this lab but no one told me why I’m here.”
Gozaburo simply stared down at you.
“Do my parents even know where I am?”
A beat.
“On paper,” He finally spoke coolly, “You’ve been sent to a very nice boarding school overseas.”
“You honestly think they’d believe--”
“Why would your father have any reason to distrust his employer of twenty years? I have only your best interests in mind.”
You stared up at him incredulously.
“Seto was slacking with his studies, spending too much time with you. I saw it fit to remove you so he can focus.”
“Re...remove me? You put me in here because Seto likes me?” You asked, stupefied.
He continued to glare at you.
“You’re serious? Your son has a little crush on me so you throw me in prison? That’s… that’s fucking ridiculous!”
“Watch the language, kid.”
“I did exactly what you asked me to, I turned him down!”
“You should have been harsher with him,” Gozaburo replied stoically.
“Harsher?” You scoffed, “Like you?”
He ignored your jab and continued, “You weren’t forceful enough with him. You were too kind and continued to serve as a distraction. So here you are.”
“You’re saying this is my fault?” You reflexively pulled at the chains around your wrists but they didn’t budge.
“Who else’s would it be? You and Seto are equally to blame here,” he waved you off with his hand as if the explanation wasn’t worth his time.
“Go fuck yourself!”
“Language,” he reminded you again, harsher.
“This isn’t my or Seto’s fault.” You spat, “You’re just a power-crazy asshole who needs to control people.”
“I said watch the language you miserable brat!” He slammed a hand down on the metal table, making you recoil backwards and the chains around your wrists clatter violently. You kept your mouth pursed in a thin line and glowered up at him, determined not to let him see any fear. You hated him. You fucking hated him. And you were not going to bend to his stupid demands.
“Let me be very clear about this you ingrate: you don’t want to make me angry.”
“I don’t give a shit how you feel.”
The back of his hand flew into your field of vision so quickly you didn’t have time to process it, and with your wrists chained to the table you weren’t able to defend yourself. His knuckled connected with your cheekbone and sent pain rippling across your face. The sheer force of it snapped your neck to the side, leaving you staring at the wall across the room, the spot where his hand met your skin burning.
Fuck. This. Man.
“You’re going to learn there are consequences to your actions,” he said, and with a snap of his fingers the door to the hallway opened. A man dressed in the guards’ uniform entered with a somewhat large portable television. He set it down on the table in front of you and you furrowed your brow down at the blank screen.
“Are you going to bore me to death with public broadcasting or something?” You muttered sardonically.
Gozaburo pressed a button on the little remote control in his hands, and the television screen came to life, revealing a black and white scene of a bedroom. It looked like it had been taking from a security camera, judging by the angle and the lack of color. The bedroom looked familiar to you, after a moment you recognized it as one of the guest bedrooms of the Kaiba mansion.
You stared at the screen for a while, waiting for something to happen, the occasional black spot popping up the only indication that time was passing. After watching in confused silence for about forty seconds the figure of a child appeared in the camera’s view, dressed in a long-sleeve shirt beneath a sweater vest. From the well-trimmed crop of straight hair you recognized the boy as Seto, backing away from something outside of the camera’s field of vision.
In an instant he tumbled to the ground as an arm came into the frame, shoving him to the ground as he tripped over his own feet, arms instinctively reaching out to break his fall. He ended up on his elbows, pushing himself up to look at whomever has pushed him, and you stared open-mouthed at the television.
“Why…?” You mumbled, aghast, in a sort of reflex as the large form of a man walked into frame and towered over your friend’s form. You didn’t need to see the color of the tacky playboy bathrobe to know it was Gozaburo Kaiba in the room with Seto. He had the same menacing air about him that he did standing in the same room as you, one lacking mercy and compassion.
You felt a wave of nausea wash over you as Gozaburo’s foot connected with your best friend’s stomach. You sat there in shock for a beat, then two, before you instinctively pulled at the metal cuffs around your wrist in an effort to free yourself. The cuffs rattled and chafed at your skin as you yanked at them, hot tears burning at the corners of your eyes.
“You monster. Why are you doing this?”
Gozaburo said nothing in reply, and as desperately as you wanted to look up at him, you couldn’t tear your eyes away from the monochromatic screen. Desperate for the scene to end, you watch helplessly as the mess of hair on Seto’s head was used as a handle to pull him off the ground. Then, as if he were nothing more than a ragdoll, his body flew to the other side of the television to the hardwood floor.
In the handful of horror movies you’d seen, you always thought the scariest parts were the quiet, suspenseful ones. The ones where you were watching the character on the screen in tense silence, waiting for the sound of a scream. That’s sort of how you felt now staring at the black and white silent film playing before you. You were waiting for a sound, any sound, to draw your focus away from your trembling fingertips or the knot in your stomach.
But no sound came from the television, even where you knew there should have been noise. Being forced to imaging the pained vocalizations whenever Seto opened his mouth and there was silence was infinitely more unnerving than actually having to hear it. All you could do was guess what he sounded like, how much pain he was really in, and you had no idea if what you were imagining was better or worse than how he truly sounded. What was worse, you felt disgusted with yourself for imagining it.
“I thought I should give you some incentive to be a good test subject in this lab.” Gozaburo’s voice cut through your thoughts icily.
It took your mind a long time to process what was being said to you in conjunction to the scene on the screen. You blinked a few times before raising your head to look up at him.
“In...centive?”
“Yes. You don’t seem to care as much for your own well-being as you do for little Seto and Mokuba, so I thought I’d adjust my approach.”
You furrowed your brow in confusion until he continued.
“It’s basic conditioning. If you’re a good girl you’ll be rewarded, and if you cause trouble for the doctors here… well I’ll be putting in some extra hours punishing your little friends.”
You swallowed hard, looking back at the television screen for just long enough to watch Seto struggle to climb up the side of the bed, clutching at his stomach with one hand, before falling motionlessly onto the comforter.
“You’re threatening me with Seto?” You asked angrily.
An oppressive laugh left his mouth at your question, eyes boring into you like you were just an ant or a worm compared to him. “No. What happens to Seto is entirely up to him. You don’t get to save him.”
“Then why are you showing me this?”
Gozaburo reached into his suit and pulled out a small piece of paper, flipping it over and sliding it to sit next to the miniature television on the table. You stared down incredulously at the familiar wild mane of black hair and warm grey eyes.
“Because what happens to little Mokuba is on your shoulders now.” You could hear the venom in his voice, as if he were a snake watching his prey squirm hopelessly before him. He was reveling in the power he held over you.
You heard him scoot the chair he was in away form the table and stand up, but you couldn’t will yourself to look up and away from the picture of Mokuba. You felt your bottom lip quivering despite your best efforts to keep composed. Gozaburo’s hand came into your view as he snatched the picture up from the table, and a cold pit formed in your stomach as if solidifying the fact that your friend was being held hostage.
“I expect you to be on your best behavior from now on, kid. I have many friends who will be observing you during your tests, and the better you perform, the more money you’ll make me.”
You felt like you were about to throw up.
“Just remember, if you disappoint me--” He placed both hands on the small picture and ripped it in half, right down the middle of Mokuba’s face. A threatening grin was painted on his face, and all you could do was look at the two photo halves as you fought back a wave of terrified tears. Gozaburo left you alone in the room shortly thereafter, where you sat in silence for what felt like hours, left staring at the black and white television screen in front of you. The entire time, Seto’s body didn’t move from its spot on the bed, and you couldn’t do anything more that watch.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Hours later you arrived in the large meeting room in the middle of the blimp, where everyone else had already begun gathering. On either end of the room buffet tables were lined with various snacks, meals, and desserts, which multiple members of your present company had already started filling their plates with. You decided to take a pastry from one of the tables and munch on it absently as you glanced around the room. Seto and Mokuba had just entered though they made no moves toward either of the buffet tables. Presumably, they had already eaten in their rooms. Mokuba called your name and bounded over to you, his loud voice drawing the attention of everyone else in the room. They seemed just as intrigued by your presence as they had been last night. Mokuba began chatting with you idly about how you had slept the night prior and how you were doing while his brother made it a point not to look at or speak to you. After a few moments of you and Mokuba chatting about nothing in particular, the elder called his brother back to his side impatiently, and he scampered off with a wave and a promise to catch up later. With the younger once again standing by his brother, the curious group of Mutou Yuugi’s friends gravitated toward you, and you gave them a polite bow of your head.“We didn’t really get to introduce ourselves last night, I’m Yuugi, it’s nice to meet you!”“You as well,” you nodded. The rest of the group introduced themselves one by one; Otogi Ryuuji, Hiroto Honda, Kawai Shizuka, and Mazaki Anzu. The three other finalists you already recognized, Katsuya Jounouchi, Kujaku Mai, and Ryou Bakura, seemed even more eager to exchange pleasantries with you. You were a bit caught off guard when Katsuya said your real name, and you blinked at him a few times in surprise. “Mokuba said it earlia’.” “Ah, right.” You hummed. Considering you were already aboard the blimp, you supposed it didn’t matter too much if those flying with you knew your birth name. Though, it had been a while since anyone called you by it, your teammates and the others from Labs all called you Ghost. You didn’t directly interact with many others, at least not in cases where you had to introduce yourself. It was actually a little nice to have a human name again. “So why’s ya duelin’ name Ghost anywho?” Katsuya asked. “Oh, it’s just a nickname I got when I was a kid.” Seto shot you a curious look that you caught out of your peripheral vision, but he made no comment. “Well if it ain’t a nickname havin’ ta do with ya deck I’m curious what kinda’ monstas ya duel with,” he said, “hopefully I’ll be da one ta duel ya.”“I’m sure it would be an interesting duel, to say the least,” you replied noncommittally and offered him a polite smile. He flashed you a cheesy grin, “Just because you’re a girl don’t think I’m gonna go easy on ya’ though!”You were trying to figure out why exactly he seemed to shorten some of his words despite his apparent lack of an accent as the girl with a short brown bob smacked him on the shoulder with the back of her hand and began reprimanding him for his sexist remark. Mutou Yuugi and one of the rest of his posse laughed lightheartedly behind them. Considering his group of friends seemed to have idle chatter covered, you decided not to respond to the blonde, instead looking over at the bingo machine that had begun erecting from the floor. The laughter beside you also died down at the sight of the massive contraption. True to typical Seto Kaiba fashion, the machine was in the shape of a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. One head pointed upward into a circular glass dome housing eight numbered balls. The other heads pointed downward, presumably to spit out the two chosen balls. The machine was almost double the size of Isono, who was standing in front of it with his arms outstretched on either side. You whistled, “I see you spared no expense.” Seto glared at you like he wanted to strangle you, though this time rather than making you feel upset you grew more curious. Curious about what lies, exactly, Gozaburo Kaiba had told about your reason for leaving the brothers behind all those years ago. Curious if those lies were the only reason he thought so poorly of you at the moment. You’d really need to find a way to get him alone today and try to talk to him. His head snapped back at attention as Isono began explaining the concept of the bingo machine and how it worked. The eight balls would be launched in the air and bounced around the glass dome, and whichever two were picked would determine which duelists were pit against each other. As the machine started up you idly wondered which of the other seven you’d most want to duel. Katsuya was already at the bottom of the list, not only were you uninterested in dueling his luck-based deck, but he talked entirely too much for you to handle right now. Yuugi was an incredibly skilled duelist, and now that you were already on the blimp headed to Alcatraz it didn’t really matter whether you won or lost. Though now that you thought about it, if you were the one to knock him out of the tournament Seto would probably be so put-out he’d likely never speak to you again. Kujaku Mai had a powerful deck that you wouldn’t mind going up against, and though you’d only been briefly introduced to her she seemed decent enough.As for the three duelists you’d never heard of, you had no idea what to expect from them. The white-haired male who’d introduced himself last night and this morning as Ryou, the tall man dressed in a black cloak, and the young man covered in gold body jewelry were each eccentric in their own right. You supposed it would be fine to duel any of them, it would be your first duel in the tournament where you would have no idea what to expect. But as you thought it over more and more, you realized you wanted to duel Seto most of all. To prove to him that you deserved to be standing on this blimp as his equal, that you weren’t the piece of garbage he apparently thought you were. To force him to look at you, rather than looking down at you. To try to have an actual conversation with him. “Our first duel will be as follows: Mutou Yuugi versus Ryou Bakura!”Excellent, you thought, now you had a one in five chance of dueling your best friend. You had seriously considered going back to your room to wait for the next duel, you thought you could better spend your time training rather than watching the two high school boys battle it out. But Mokuba had grabbed your hand and tugged you along with him to one of the elevators that he and Seto were headed towards. All the other duelists and their friends instead decided to ride in the elevator on the opposite side of the blimp, which left you and the two Kaiba brothers alone. “So,” Mokuba chirped as soon as you were in the elevator, “You went to a boarding school in Germany right? How was it?”You hadn’t thought much on if Mokuba would ask about your disappearance from their lives. Initially, you figured that they would have uncovered the secret tests Gozaburo had been performing on children after Seto had taken over. But from Seto’s reaction to seeing you and Mokuba’s naive question that didn’t seem to be the case. “Honestly, it was pretty awful,” you said, deciding to keep the information about the lab to yourself but unwilling to lie to your friend. “I would have much rathered stay in Japan.”“Why did you leave then?” He asked. From your peripheral vision you noticed Seto had taken an annoyed interest in your conversation. “It wasn’t my choice, Gozaburo sent me off.” “Really?”You nodded.Mokuba looked aghast, “Even though you didn’t want to go?” “Men in power have a way of getting what they want.”“I didn’t take you as someone to give up so easily,” Seto scoffed demeaningly, arms crossed over his chest. “Easily?” You blinked up at him as the elevator doors opened to the skyline, a blast of cool air blowing your hair into your face. “You have no idea what I--”“I’m done with this conversation.” He interrupted as he strode out, leaving you and Mokuba in the elevator for a moment before he tugged on your hand. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, “I thought if I could get the three of us alone again he might be a little nicer to you.”You shrugged. “He’s just angry, really. I’m sure he’ll get over it and things will be back to how they were.” Mokuba insisted.“Mokuba I appreciate the effort, but… it’s been five years since I last saw you two. Things can’t get back to the way they were so easily, if they’ll even go back at all.”Mokuba took that as his cue to end the conversation as he let go of your hand, joining his brother’s side on the lower platform of the blimp. On the opposite side, Namu, Kujaku, Katsuya, and the rest of Yuugi’s group of friends were standing and talking amidst themselves. You decided you’d rather stand in an uncomfortable silence by your childhood friends than be forced to pick sides in a duel you didn’t particularly care about. You stood about five feet away from the brothers and leaned your lower back against the safety railing around the perimeter of the platform that kept people from blowing off. During the duel between Ryou and Mutou, the brothers all but ignored your presence, other than the occasional glances Mokuba sent your way. Seto seemed to be making it a point to not look in your direction, arms still crossed with his neck tilted up to watch the duel. You stood still and silent as you watched with a mild interest, if for no other reason than because it was serving as a distraction from your thoughts. Admittedly, you became more invested in the duel as it went on. It was exciting, at the very least, and although it was a bit too dramatic for your liking your interest was piqued when Osiris was summoned to the field. You knew Seto was holding a God card, as was Yuugi, but you hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing either of them until now. You were in awe of how the bright crimson dragon wrapped itself around the blimp you all stood upon, and though you knew better it almost seemed like the card was real. Not just a hologram.There was some story unfolding before you that you had a difficult time following, something about there being two souls inhabiting Ryou, something else about his evil persona having left the body vulnerable. At least, if the threats of the tall, hooded duelist known at Marik were to be believed. “Stop the duel!” Mazaki Anzu and some of the rest of Yuugi’s group began shouting from the other side of the blimp. Katsuya even had the audacity to scale the side of the upper platform to begin shouting at Isono.On the upper platform, Ryou was on his knees begging to see a doctor. You squinted to try to get a better look at his face, his forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat and he looked so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open. He was clutching his left arm and shaking. It seemed now the boy was in such a weak state that an attack from Osiris would do serious damage. Seto had programmed the duel disks and holograms to simulate the feeling of real attacks, and with Ryou looking like he was about to collapse, you had to admit even you were worried for his health. As you turned to look over at Seto and ask what might happen to him after a blast from Osiris, he was already glaring up at Yuugi. “I’ll make this an easy choice for you,” he said firmly, “finish your friend and end this duel. Now.”The lack of sympathy in his voice startled you. Wasn’t he at all worried about what might happen to a boy in that much pain? Did he think the white-haired boy was faking his injury? You might have thought so too, with how easily he was standing one minute and about to pass out the next. But you had seen that look on his face too many times before in the lab, he was in real physical pain. You were about to tell Seto that he wasn’t faking his injury and needed to see a doctor, when a blast of light surrounded his form and in an instant he was again standing on his feet.“What the fuck is going on?” You muttered to yourself, looking over Ryou’s face to confirm that he once again looked perfectly healthy.Thankfully, by the time you were getting fed-up with trying to follow the strangeness of the duel, Yuugi finished off his opponent with an attack from Osiris, and you pushed yourself off the railing with every intention to get the hell downstairs. You were getting a headache, and needed to take some medicine before the next duel, if you even decided to watch. True to your nickname, you were in the elevator before Mokuba had even noticed your disappearance.
-----
“When did she leave?” Mokuba asked as he and Seto entered the elevator alone.“Who?” “Don’t play dumb, you know who I’m talking about,” Mokuba frowned, “Why are you being so mean to her?” “I’m not treating her any differently than I would any other stranger.” He replied icily. “Oh please, you know that’s a lie. And what do you mean stranger? She’s our friend.” “That girl is no friend of mine.”Mokuba let out a groan, trying to figure out what exactly he could say to his stubborn brother to get him to change his mind. Ever since you had disappeared from their lives when they were kids, he had turned a portion of his ire onto you. After hearing that their stepfather had been the one to send you away, though, he expected Seto to be a little less angry with you. “Why do you think Gozaburo sent her to Germany?”“I’m sure it was a lie,” he hummed in reply, “I highly doubt he cared enough about her to send her to a boarding school.” “She didn’t look like she was lying… and it seems like a weird thing to lie about.” “Go look her up if you’re so interested, then.” The elder said as he stepped out of the elevator, “If she’s telling the truth, which I doubt she is, the files surely exist in the backup of the old database.”Mokuba knew the suggestion was one his brother threw out to end the conversation, but it was tempting nonetheless. He was a bit busy watching the duels at the moment, but once the finals were over maybe he would do just that. If you were telling the truth, and their stepfather had really sent you away, maybe finding your file was the first step to repairing your relationship with his brother.
-----
“Alright I need you to explain something to me.” You demanded as you entered your room and began rummaging in your bag for some painkillers. Isis looked startled by your sudden intrusion on your thoughts, and cocked her head to the side.“Has the first duel ended? Was Yuugi victorious?”“Yeah as to be expected, but that sort of leads into my question.” You popped two pills into your mouth and grabbed a bottle of water from the miniature fridge on the other side of the room, chugging a third of it. “Which would be?”“That necklace you’re wearing,” you began, “You called it the Millenium Necklace right?” She nodded and you took a seat in the armchair across from her. “You say it gives you powers to see the future. What do the other items do?” “Why are you suddenly interested in the Millenium Items?” She didn’t seem defensive in her question, if anything she was genuinely curious. “I already knew Yuugi had one, I’ve seen him wearing it before, although I don’t know what it does. But his opponent also had one around his neck, he called it the Millenium Ring. And your brother Marik showed up with some golden looking rod as well, I assume that’s also one of the items.”“My brother?” “Yeah, the tall guy in the black robe. Tattoos all over his face.”“Ah,” she smoothed out the wrinkles of her dress absently, “So that’s the game they’re playing.”“What game?” “The man in the robe… he’s not Marik. His name is Rishiid, he’s my adoptive brother.”You blinked and waited for her to elaborate, though she spent quite some time staring at the backs of her hands on her lap. “You asked me what the other items do. The Millenium Puzzle and Ring are both similar in that they each contain a portion of an ancient Egyptian spirit. The puzzle holds the soul of a great nameless pharaoh, and the ring is host to a powerful evil spirit who wishes to do our world harm.”“And these spirits can use their wearers’ bodies as a host?”She nodded. She was much easier to deal with when she didn't avoid your questions like she had in the limousine.“Well that explains what was going on in that last duel,” you sighed. “And what about the rod?”“Whomever holds the rod gains the power to take over the minds of others to use as their slaves,” she replied, “It is how my brother is able to control the Ghouls in this city.”“Why does your other brother have this rod now?” “It’s likely a fake. Marik should be holding the real rod.”You hummed, “So I assume the boy in the gold body jewelry is Marik, then? And he’s going by Namu just to gain the trust of everyone onboard?” She looked surprised by your assumption.“He’s the only other non-Japanese on the blimp,” you shrugged, “figured it was either that or he was hiding somewhere.”Isis nodded, “Do you have any other questions for me?”
Attention. With the completion of the first duel, there will be a half-hour intermission. Afterwards, all remaining finalists are to report to the main concourse for the selection of the next duel.
“No, you can go back to staring out the window now.” You replied, taking your deck from the duel disk on your arm and standing up. You stretched your shoulders and made for the door, deciding to go for a walk through the halls while you sorted through your cards. After passing a few numbered metal doors you heard banging at the end of one of the hallways to your left, and tilted your head to better hear the commotion.“Hey, are you crazy? He’s preparing for a duel! Stop that!” Came Mokuba’s flustered and panicked voice.You picked up the pace and headed toward the sound of Katsuya shouting into, presumably, the metal door of Seto’s room.“I’m talkin’ ta you rich boy, get out here now--!”The shouting died down as you made it to the end of the hallway, peering around the corner to see the group of Yuugi’s friends minus Mazaki Anzu standing outside of Seto’s door. Mokuba glanced down the hall to see you poke your head out from the corner but he didn’t say anything, instead quickly returning his attention to the commotion. “Bakura’s hurt,” Yuugi pleaded, “We have to land, now! He needs a doctor right away.”The group followed Seto into his room and disappeared behind the sliding metal door. You tapped your foot against the wall behind you for a few beats, shuffling through your cards in thought. There was no way Seto would land the blimp, not after how unconcerned he had been for Ryou’s health a few minutes prior. Knowing him he likely had doctors on board anyway.You pushed yourself off the wall and continued walking in an effort to clear your head.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
You entered the Kaiba mansion on a frigid December morning, slipping your pure white gloves off your hands and placing them in your coat pocket. Behind you, one of the butlers had his arms full of neatly wrapped presents, sparkling gold and silver in the bright light of the foyer. A second butler bowed politely at your entrance and offered to take your baby blue winter coat. You gave it to him and took a left out of the foyer, into one of the many large sitting rooms on the bottom floor.
The mansion was decorated in bright Christmas colors. Garland and twinkling lights were wrapped around the stair railings, large decorative ornaments hung from the ceiling, and Amaryllis and Poinsettia flowers were held in large pots spread around the rooms. Everywhere you looked there were wreaths and bows strung up on the walls, and candy canes hung on the fireplaces.
The sitting room you entered was even brighter than usual thanks to the golden lights tied around the tall green Christmas tree. It stood in the center of the room, skirt beneath it already filled with various color presents. It was significantly less packed than it had been last year, you assumed because of Noah’s death there were simply less gifts to give. Thankfully with the number of presents you’d brought along, that wouldn’t be a problem anymore.
The butler that had been following behind you set to work putting your gifts beneath the tree, and after a moment a second butler followed his lead with yet more boxes in his arms. The tree was quickly filled with bright, glittering offerings of the season. A few were from your parents, two for Gozaburo and one each for Seto and Mokuba. The rest were from you, although your father had bought them you picked them out by yourself; eleven for Mokuba and thirteen for Seto.
“Oh my,” you heard a feminine voice lilting from the room behind you, and you turned to see Naho, one of the many maids serving the mansion.
“Good morning Naho,” you curtsied politely.
“Good morning to you as well, young miss. I see you’ve brought along quite the bounty.”
“As I do every year! Though this time I had two friends to shop for.”
“Those are all for young masters Seto and Mokuba then?” She smiled warmly down at you, “If you don’t mind me asking, what did you bring for them?”
“Lots of clothes for one, they’re both in desperate need of new wardrobes. I got Mokuba all sorts of card games to entertain himself with, some new colored pencils… oh! And the newest handheld system and a few games.”
“My what thoughtful gifts,” Naho smiled, “And what about the elder?”
“Let’s see… lots of lovely stationery, I know he says my collection is silly but I’ve noticed him eying my gel pens. Some fancy chocolates my father imported from France, a set of playing cards, and a blue dice set since he likes games so much.”
“Ah, I see…” She hummed thoughtfully, her gaze suddenly growing sad.
“What’s wrong? Do you think they won’t like them?”
“Oh no, it’s not that! They’re all lovely gifts, it’s just… oh dear I’m not sure it’s my place to say.”
“What?” You pressed.
“Well, young master Seto is… quite busy with his studies. He’s not allowed any games.”
“Really?” You asked wide-eyed, “Not even playing cards or dice?”
She shook her head.
“But I went through all the trouble of bringing them here… I can’t believe he’s not allowed any games, he’s so young.”
“I’m sorry young miss. I’m afraid they’ll likely be confiscated from him.”
You walked to the tall tree and retrieved the two small boxes that were supposed to be for your best friend, looking over the silver wrapping paper that you had put on all by yourself. You sighed, tucked them away in your bag, and thanked Naho for the warning before excusing yourself to the library. You would need to think up some other gift for Seto, clothes and stationary weren’t very exciting gifts on their own.
He was already sitting at one of the large tables when you arrived, a stack of books in front of him. One was already open, along with one of his many notebooks, and he was copying a math problem as you set your bag on the table and pulled a chair up to sit beside him.
“Good morning.” You hummed as you began pulling out your things.
“Morning,” he replied, briefly glancing up from his textbook to meet your gaze, “You sound upset.”
“A little,” you admitted, “Just a problem I need to solve though.”
“A homework problem?”
“No, a life problem.”
He hummed like he was only half-listening. You took your textbooks from one of the bookshelves to your right and set them on the table, opening your notebook and picking up a pencil and beginning on the same page Seto was already on. The two of you worked by yourselves for a while, until your mathematics tutor entered the room and dove into a lecture on derivatives. At times when the problems became somewhat mindless, you thought on what sort of gift you could get Seto to replace the very expensive dice set you had picked out. Other than games, you honestly weren’t sure what he enjoyed. Evidently he was not allowed to have free-time, you wondered if he even had hobbies.
Had you ever seen him have fun? What had he been doing while he had fun? You hummed in thought as you tried to remember any instance of him amused by anything, though you came up mostly empty. At times when the two of you were hanging out you thought he was at the very least enjoying himself, but you rarely played games together other than chess, and usually you were just sitting around talking.
Sitting around talking wasn’t really a Christmas present, was it?
“A-ha!” You declared, snapping your fingers. Your mathematics tutor was already out of the room, so Seto was the only one to hear your excitement over your epiphany.
“Why are you shouting?” He sighed, a mix of annoyance and curiosity in his tone.
“I’ve come up with a solution to my problem.”
“Uh-huh....” He had already gone back to his work.
“I got you this really cool dice set for Christmas but Naho told me you’re not allowed to have toys or games or anything. So I had an idea!”
You held up your hand and extended your pinky outward toward him, a grin plastered on your face. He raised an eyebrow to it before glancing back down to his textbook to finish the problem you had interrupted his concentration on and scribbling down an answer. When he looked back up and your pinky was still out he sighed and set his pencil down atop his notebook.
“What is it?”
“It’s a pinky promise, it’s where you--.”
“Yeah, I know what a pinky promise is. Are you going to explain what this promise is before I make it?”
“Oh yeah,” you had gotten so excited over your genius idea that you forgot to tell him what it was. “So your step-dad can take away your toys and games and stuff but I figure he can’t take me away, right?”
Seto looked more confused by your roundabout explanation and tapped a finger on his notebook, prompting you to elaborate.
“Well your life would be super boring if you had no toys, games, or friends. So I promise to be your best friend forever.”
He blinked.
“I’ll always stay by your side. Even after we grow up and have boring adult jobs.”
He stared at your pinky for a while, thinking over your mouthful of words, before he brought up his own hand and contemplated intertwining fingers with you. His sapphire eyes eventually locked with yours as he searched your expression, a hint of suspicion in them that you didn’t quite understand.
“You know,” he said, “This is a pretty big promise to make.”
“How?”
“Forever is a long time.”
Your grin only widened, “I like you a lot, so forever is fine.”
Looking back on it, had you noticed the shade of rose that briefly flashed over his cheeks, perhaps you would have been better prepared for the month to come. Maybe things would have turned out differently.
“You really promise?”
“I really promise,” you nodded and inched your pinky closer to him, “And I never break a promise.”
He sighed, more of relief than anything, and finally took your pinky with his. His hand was warmer than you expected, the back of his knuckle rough and raised with a small callous. He seemed reluctant to let go, even after the two of you clearly heard the footsteps coming down the hall toward the library. It wasn’t until the door handle clicked that he jerked his hand away from yours and the two of you continued your studies.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The second duel of the day had been… strange to say the least. It likely would have been even more strange had Isis not already revealed the true identity of her brothers. You had contemplated telling some of the finalists about the fact that the tall cloaked man they thought was Marik was, in fact, not. But eventually you figured the truth would come out sooner than later, and you didn’t really want to draw attention to yourself. Instead you resigned yourself to keeping a watchful eye on Isis’ siblings, just to be sure neither of them had any intention of harming the Kaibas. As you had expected, it didn’t take long for Rishiid to be unable to keep up his facade. During their duel, Katsuya Jounouchi had accused him of his fake persona, insisting that he had felt a ‘different presence’ in his mind when he had been controlled. Since Isis had explained to you the abilities of the Millenium Rod, you had a vague timeline of the events the blonde was describing earlier in the tournament. Something something mind control, something something being forced to fight his best friend in a duel. It wasn’t long afterward that Rishiid began growing desperate for a way to prove he was Marik, and in a last ditch effort to convince those present on the blimp, he called forth Ra. The most powerful of the God Cards, only those worthy could control his awesome power, etcetera. Seto seemed to be most excited for this part of the duel, in fact he seemed excited for only this part of the duel. You didn’t want to spoil the big plot twist, as Isis had already done for you, so you contented yourself with watching the masquerade play out. You had been expecting the card to do nothing, Isis had already predicted the card Rishiid had was a fake, so there was no reason the duel disk should have allowed it to be played. From there the duel took a more violent turn, when the fake God Card caused a volatile lightning storm, one which shattered the replica Millenium Rod Rishiid held and knocked both players unconscious. You didn’t particularly like either of them, but you didn’t much dislike them either, so even you were genuinely worried for their well-being. In fact, it seemed the only person who wasn’t worried was Seto, who insisted that the duel continue for five minutes, until either one of them stood up or they were both disqualified. First of all, why was there already a contingency for two simultaneously unconscious players written in his Battle City rules? Second, why didn’t he seem even the least bit concerned for either of the duelists, even if only because it would throw off the brackets for the final round? You hated to admit it to yourself, and you hated even more to see it, but Seto seemed like he’d picked up a few personality traits living under Gozaburo’s roof. You sincerely hoped this was all some facade he was putting on to seem cold and intimidating, but from the look in his eyes you weren’t sure that was the case. You were getting a little anxious, and you were positive it was written all over your face. You needed to do something to get rid of the nerves, so you took in a deep breath and tried your best to mask the emotion on your face before clearing your throat. You allowed a mock-impressed whistle to escape your pursed lips, loud enough that it got the attention of the Kaiba brothers beside you. From their faces, they both seemed oblivious to the lingering worry you held for the duelists, and the uncertainty Seto had instilled in you. “That must be some fake for your duel disk to read it.” Seto shot you a look, “What is that supposed to mean?” “Knowing you, you have plenty of anti-cheating measures in these things,” you held up the duel disk around your own wrist, “And your software is state-of-the-art. So whoever made that card must have known what they were doing.” Perhaps it was because you were complimenting him in a way, but for once he wasn’t glaring at you.“If that man is working with the Ghouls, that would probably be why.” He hummed vaguely. Mokuba nodded, “It’s not the first fake card that the duel disks have accepted.”“Oh?” The younger Kaiba looked up at you, “In Yuugi’s first duel one of those creeps used phony copies of Exodia. Our system didn’t detect it until a few minutes in.”“Strange….” You muttered to yourself. “What is?” “If this group is powerful enough to forge almost perfect replicas of cards… I just wonder why they’re using all their resources on a card game.” Ah, there was the glare you were waiting for.The conversation, and the duel, had ended with Katsuya getting to his feet before time was up, therefore winning a spot in the semi-finals. Rishiid remained unconscious even after the duel platform dropped, causing some sort of chaotic meltdown in the real Marik. Whether he had a bad case of split-personality disorder or he, too, had one of those evil spirits living inside of him you weren’t positive. One thing was for sure, though, the murderous intent he was now radiating was palpable, and it seemed directed at quite literally ever person on the blimp, yourself included.Wonderful, another lunatic you needed to keep from killing the Kaiba boys. Going into the selection of the third duel, you were all but praying to be the one facing Seto. You barely cared about trying to talk to him at that point, you just didn’t want him to be the one to duel the unhinged madman that was the Ishtar boy. You had the utmost confidence in your best friend's deck and dueling skills, absolutely, but with the malice swirling around Marik and his ravings about a shadow duel, you wanted him as far away from Seto as possible. By that same token, you wanted him as far away from you as possible. You had enough to worry about already without adding him to the mix. Trying to keep yourself out of a weird God-Card-induced comatose was pretty necessary in order for you to act as a bodyguard for Seto and Mokuba. You had absolutely no interest in taking part in some dark game, regardless of how much of it you did or didn’t believe in. You dueling the lunatic would be preferable to Seto doing it, sure, but you’d rather Kujaku Mai be the one to take that position. Speaking of, the blonde haired woman seemed to have had some falling out with Yuugi’s group, or at the very least with Katsuya Jounouchi. It had only been half an hour, what could have possibly happened to put her in such a foul mood?Regardless, when the bingo machine selected her and Marik to be the third duel of the evening, you were visibly overjoyed. A joy that was cut short as your gaze met sapphire eyes, a sadistic smirk painted on your childhood friend’s face that was so intense you felt yourself involuntarily shiver. There was very little that could freeze you in place like that-- you were a trained assassin and a former human test subject after all-- but that look he gave you… it reminded you of Gozaburo.You were starting to wonder if you really knew your childhood friend at all anymore. It had been close to six years, sure, and you knew people changed over that long of a time. You had changed in more ways than you could count, both by necessity and through your own free will, but at your core you thought you were at least the same person you’d always been. You’d gotten more jaded, as everyone eventually does, and you were certainly more mature and less confident than you had been as a child. But Seto seemed to have grown so cold he was almost unrecognizable from the boy you had loved. Still love? You didn’t quite know anymore. You had to hold onto the hope that it was, at least somewhat, an act he put on. Playing up the arrogant, apathetic, heartless billionaire prodigy who only seemed interested in his company and a popular card game. Somewhere deep down, he had to still be Seto. Not Seto Kaiba the CEO, but the Seto who adored his little brother and secretly read Tolkien in his spare time and occasionally complimented your sundresses.With every instance of your eyes meeting thereafter, there was a disdain for you in his eyes, and that sadistic spark you had caught before still hadn’t gone away. He was making no attempt to hide the fact that he intended to obliterate you in your duel, and that hope you were clutching was getting harder and harder to hold onto. You began to fear you were too naive for your own good.
-----
When Isis was told what had happened to her brother and what he had done to Kujaku, she was horrified, but unsurprised by his behavior. After her unlikely roommate had told her about Rishiid’s unconscious state, she had expected the darkness in her younger brother’s heart to overtake him. Still, he had spiraled out of control faster than she thought, and she was forced to admit that she had no hope of saving him herself. She would have to put her trust in the great pharaoh, and pray he would have the strength to banish the dark side of him. “You should take this,” Isis said. Yuugi looked down at the object in his hand, “The Millenium Necklace? But why?”“It will no longer show me visions of the past or future,” she admitted, “I believe it desires a new owner.” Yuugi nodded as if he wasn’t positive what he could do with the gold artifact. Isis assured him he would need it, if not for the trials to come in Battle City, then the trials the nameless pharaoh would face in the future. With that, she made her exit from Yuugi and his group of friends and returned to the room she was sharing with you. She found you sitting in the armchair across from her usual spot, duel disk discarded on the bed and deck laid out in front of you. “You took off your mask,” you observed as she sat down and glanced over your cards. “Yes, well… I decided there was no reason to keep my identity a secret any longer.” You seemed like you had stopped listening. “You’re dueling Kaiba then?” Isis asked. She wasn’t entirely sure why she felt the need to speak to you, especially with how disinterested in her you were. Perhaps she was just tired of silence, or maybe talking was helping keep her nerves at bay. “Yeah.” “You never took a card from my deck when you won our duel.”You hummed passively. “Exchange of Spirit would be quite helpful to you in your duel,” Isis continued, “Kaiba uses a deck that--”“I know, it’s a deck that sends my best cards to the graveyard,” you interrupted, “And aims to overwhelm me with his most powerful monsters. Trust me I’ve studied him.”“When I foresaw myself dueling Kaiba in the quarterfinals, my necklace revealed that card to be integral in my victory.” Isis had already reached for her deck and began searching through it to find the card the spoke of, the one she had prepared just for the duel with Kaiba her necklace had predicted. “I… I know my necklace has been wrong, but the visions I saw were still true.” “Tell me something,” you began as you tore your gaze from your cards and instead focused on her, “Why do you think I won our duel?”Isis was puzzled by your question, not because she didn’t understand it but because it was one she hadn’t quite figured out the answer to herself. She blinked slowly at you a few times before returning her attention to finding Exchange of Spirit, in the hopes that shuffling through her cards would give her time to think. She could feel your gaze focused on her the entire time. “Perhaps… perhaps I was never meant to win our duel,” Isis admitted, “Perhaps destiny was on your side, and the necklace pointed me to you so you could face Kaiba.”“But you said your necklace showed you vision of you dueling Seto.” She pulled out the card she’d been searching for and set it on the table, before returning her deck to her duel disk. “Then it’s possible your will was strong enough to overcome fate.” “Overcome fate, huh?” When Isis looked back up at you, you had leaned your head back and were staring up at the ceiling. One of your fingers tapped lightly at the armrest in a melody Isis did not recognize. As if feeling her curiosity, you spoke the words ‘Mozart, Sonata 16’ so softly it was barely audible over the low hum of the blimp’s engine.“If there’s one person in the world who hates destiny more than I do, it’s Seto,” you finally said. “I’m… not sure I follow.” “Your necklace showed you a vision of Seto using Crush Card and Virus Cannon on your deck, and you secured victory by turning his own graveyard against him.” Isis nodded, though you were not looking. “It would be unrealistic of me to think he won’t use those cards on me if he draws them, sure,” you said, “And I have ways to get my best monsters out even if they’re in the grave. But… if you think my will is powerful enough to overcome fate, you shouldn’t underestimate him.” “You don’t believe you’ll need this card?” Isis asked. “I don’t know. Maybe I will maybe I won’t. And maybe I’m just trying to justify my own selfishness here, but, I want to fight Seto on my own. With the deck I built.”You were still speaking to the ceiling, so you didn’t see Isis wordlessly pick up the card she’d offered and place it back into her deck. She watched you for a long time, trying to figure out what sort of person you must be, to be so determined to fight Kaiba on your own terms. So determined that you had shoved fate out of the way so you could be the one to duel him. “You call him Seto,” Isis said without really thinking.“Huh?” “The elder Kaiba, you use his first name. I’ve never known anyone familiar enough with him to do that. Other than his brother, of course.” You hummed, again, like you were only half-listening. “How do you know him?” “He’s my… we’re childhood friends.”“You two must be close,” Isis said, though she too had begun to grow disinterested in the conversation. Her thoughts began to wander to her own childhood, and the window seemed a better way to occupy her focus. Out of her peripheral vision she noticed you had gone back to looking over your cards.“Yeah,” you muttered, quietly enough that the young woman had to strain her ears to hear you, “Maybe we were.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
January eighth, precisely four oh nine.
There were not many dates you had committed to memory, and especially not very many times, but this one in particular was burned into your mind. The large grandfather clock in Gozaburo Kaiba’s office was one that you had thought to be very pretty as a child, as it was a masterfully crafted marvel of cherry oak and gold filigree. You had watched the second hand tick away on the face of the clock, the metronome beneath it in perfect sync, while you waited politely for Gozaburo to be finished with whatever he was working on. Your hands were folded in front of you, back straight and shoulders back. In your blush pink long-sleeve dress and ribbed white tights, hair braided into a bun with a small flower pin to hold it together, you were the picture of elegance.
It was precisely four oh nine when Gozaburo swiveled his chair and turned his attention to you.
“You’ve been getting along quite well with my step-sons, haven’t you?”
“Yes sir, very much so.”
Gozaburo Kaiba had once expressed to you he did not like when you used more than exactly seven words to respond to him, unless it was a response which absolutely necessitated it. Therefore, you kept reminding yourself to use as few words as possible when he asked you a question. Yes sir, no sir, sorry sir.
“Tell me something, kid, what do you think you offer in this household?”
“I… offer, sir?”
“In other words, what purpose do you serve? Why am I still allowing you to spend time in my home?”
Gozaburo Kaiba appreciated it when you thought over your words before you said them. He also had a terribly short patience. You had always had trouble finding a balance between the two.
“Because I’m an excellent study partner for Seto, and I entertain Mokuba so he doesn’t bother you… sir?”
“An excellent study partner, you say?” The way he said excellent implied you had use the wrong word. “Why do you believe you’re an excellent study partner?”
You furrowed your brow in thought, but apparently your six seconds of pause was too long for him to wait, because he cleared his throat in frustration.
“Seto is already leagues ahead of you in your studies,” he began, “You’re smart, kid, but you’re no genius.”
“Sir--”
“Don’t interrupt.”
You bit down on your tongue and nodded. There was a short silence that descended over the two of you, and you spent it thinking on how you hated it when he called you a kid. You were thirteen years old, dammit, you deserved more respect.
“Do you have any idea why I called you in here today?”
You shook your head.
“I know everything that goes on in this city kid, don’t think I’m oblivious to what’s happening in my own home.”
He may not have been oblivious, but you sure as hell were. You cocked your head to the side in confusion as you tried to come up with the words to express it, but it seemed your expression was enough for him to realize.
“Seto has begun focusing more of his attention on you. Attention he would better put to use studying.” He growled, “Seems he’s taken to you. And don’t think I haven’t noticed you’ve taken to him as well. You kids aren’t very good at hiding your emotions.”
You could feel a heat creep over your face that you were positive was turning your cheeks pink.
“I’m not a tyrant, kid. So long as you’re not distracting him from his work I have no problem with you continuing your studies with him. But you’re going to need to make some boundaries with him clear.
“Make certain you’re keeping any talk outside of studying to a minimum. If your tutors make even a single complaint about you distracting him I’ll have you thrown out of here, clear?”
You nodded.
“Seto is a very forward boy,” his gaze darkened, “If he makes any of his ridiculous feelings known to you, I expect you to turn him down immediately. Is that understood?”
You didn’t like how he called your best friend’s feelings ridiculous, but you decided not to comment on it for fear Gozaburo would start yelling. You glanced down at the floor momentarily, before looking up, “Sir I… I’m not comfortable lying to him.”
“Get comfortable.”
Gozaburo Kaiba was a businessman, he appreciated when people showed him their value. You thought, maybe, all you had to do was convince him you were valuable to the Kaiba family. You swallowed hard, before collecting yourself and starting again, “Sir I may not be on the same level your son is, but I still think I’m quite intelligent for my age. My family is very wealthy thanks to the company, and I like to think I’m growing into a model lady. Perhaps when we’re a bit older it would be beneficial for both our families if Seto and I were...” you paused. You didn’t want to say engaged, it seemed a strong word for a thirteen year old to use. Did arranged marriages even happen in this day and age? What was an appropriate age for betrothal? It wasn’t really a topic you read up on much, your parents never brought it up to you. Still, you’d already come this far in your proposal, what else were you supposed to say?
“...I think I’d make an excellent fiance.” You decided upon.
He didn’t even blink. “I’ve already got someone arranged for him when he comes of age, and trust me kid, she’s from a better family than yours.”
You stared at him for a moment, unsure how to respond. The tick tick of the grandfather clock continued on, unphase by the silence in the room. It was now four thirteen, and you couldn’t decide if time felt like it was passing more quickly or slowly than it really was. The poached egg and cinnamon toast you’d had for breakfast was doing a somersault in your stomach.
“Your father is a model employee.” Gozaburo said suddenly, his eyes looking over some papers on his desk as if he decided you were no longer worth his full attention. “It would be a shame to see him go, but he is disposable.”
“W-what?”
“His whole life revolves around his family and Kaiba Corporation, doesn’t it? I wonder what job loss would do to that kind of man.”
You suddenly felt very cold, and you squeezed your hands together behind your back in an effort to keep yourself focused. First he threatens you, then daddy? You could feel your fingertips trembling at his words as you tried to form the words to response, but when you opened your mouth all that came out was a terrified breath.
“Let me make myself perfectly clear: if you continue distracting my step-son, or if you try to pursue any sort of silly little relationship with him, I will make absolutely certain you never see him again.”
You couldn’t even manage to nod your head before Kogoro Daimon escorted you out of the office.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
When it came time for the final duel, you ended up meeting your best friend in the hallway as you were walking out of your room. He barely glanced your way, instead making it a point to focus his attention straight ahead, even after Yuugi’s group of friends joined you two in walking to the elevators. You occupied your thought with an entertaining idea relating to your duel with Seto; more importantly, relating to the reward you’d be getting from the duel.The whole Egyptian God Card thing was cool and all, but you didn’t have much of a use for it if you were being honest. Your purpose on this blimp was to protect the Kaiba brothers, not split your focus worrying about collecting powerful cards and winning a tournament you didn’t care much about. There was something else though… another reason you wanted to win this duel. Although during the duel Seto would be forced to talk with you, you couldn’t exactly tell him everything you wanted to with a whole group of people watching. It would be a lot easier to talk to him in private. You wondered if Seto was as easy to manipulate as you thought he might be. Well, you supposed it was worth a shot. “So what card of mine do you have your eye on?” You asked as innocently as you could.“I don’t need any of the cards in your pitiful deck,” he snapped haughtily. Excellent, you could play the man like a fiddle. “Oh, what a surprise.” You hummed, “I don’t want any of your cards either. So what do you say we change the wager of this duel?” He raised an eyebrow but his scowl still remained. “If I win you have to sit in a room with me alone for two minutes. You don’t get to talk, you just get to listen.” “You’d give up the chance at my Egyptian God card just to talk at me for two minutes?” He scoffed, “Why on earth would you be that stupid?” “Because I have something important I need to say to you, and you won’t listen to me unless you have to.”There was a moment of silence over the group as he thought over your words, and up until you got to one of the elevators. Seto pressed the elevator button and after listening to him tap his finger on the metal plate around the button four times, he turned to face you. A sadistic spark entered his eyes in that instant, and though you had no idea what he was planning just his gaze was enough to make your heart lurch in your chest. You felt you’d need to get used to that look, but you couldn’t help the fact that it reminded you so much of his step-father. “Fine. I’ll play along with your silly little wager, since I know you’ll never be able to beat me in a duel. And when I win you’ll agree to never speak a word to me again.”You tried to keep your face as blank as possible, you really did, but it was difficult not to react when your best friend told you he wanted nothing to do with you. And when he saw the fear in your eyes, the satisfied look that came over his face was almost enough to cause your willpower to topple over like a precarious tower of bricks. Yet, now that he confirmed his wishes for you to be out of his life for good, you realized that even if you didn’t go through with the bet he would cut you out. Your only option, your only hope to repair your relationship with him, was winning the duel. “Deal.”
-----
Thanks to Kaiba Corporation’s satellites scanning every single duel disk in Japan, Mokuba would able to watch the duel between you as his brother in real-time from the large screen monitor in front of him. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to hear what the two of you were saying, but he could watch you from the cameras that were hooked up on the top platform of the blimp. He really wished they had installed microphones on the dueling platform, but according to his brother, the wind would be too loud to hear anything else. Mokuba didn’t need to do a whole lot with the scan of the Egyptian God Card, at least for the moment, he was mostly waiting for the image to clarify itself on the screen. Until your duel started, he also didn’t have much to do there. So he decided to preoccupy himself with searching through Kaiba Corp.’s old database files that were backed up in the mainframe. His brother said any files that existed on where and why you were sent off to boarding school should exist there. Now he just needed to do some digging. He didn’t get very far into his search, by the time he found even one file that would potentially contain background information on you, two windows popped up on the screen. The first was the duel screen, the second a video feed from two different angles of you and his brother cutting each other’s decks. Mokuba cracked his knuckles and minimised the explorer window of files, making himself comfortable in the computer chair. He hoped you’d put up enough of a fight that it would entertain his brother, maybe if he had fun dueling you the two of you could get back on track to becoming friends again. Inwardly, he wished both of you luck, but he knew there was no way you could beat his brother’s God card. As he was about to push the thought out of his head, he paused. If his brother did use Obelisk against you, wouldn't you get hurt? Bakura, Mai, and Rishiid were all unconscious, and Jounouchi had passed out from that freak lightning storm. Wouldn't you be in danger if you took a hit from that god card? Mokuba desperately hoped it wouldn't come to that. You would probably lose to his Blue Eyes before he even got to summon Obelisk. Still... he couldn't fight the nervous pit in his stomach that something might happen to you. He wanted to hope his brother, deep down, still liked you enough not to intentionally put you in danger. That he still cared about you as a friend. That even if he was mad at you right now, he still cared about you somewhere in the heart Mokuba knew he had. "Please let me be worrying over nothing," he sighed into the empty room. --Isono threw his hands up in the air and announced the final duel of the Battle City semi-finals, you versus Seto Kaiba, and despite the stakes you allowed a smile to crawl onto your face. You certainly hadn’t been expecting to be the one to go up against Seto for a spot in the top-four, but now that you were here there was a surge of excitement in your body. “What are you grinning about?” He scoffed. “I’ve wanted to duel you since we were kids.” You replied. You thought you saw him roll his eyes as he pulled a card from his hand and set it on his duel disk. “You won’t be smiling for long, I’ll show you the difference in our strength. I summon the mighty Battle Ox!”You mock-whistled, “Oh dear, a cow in armor. I’m quivering.” You thought it best not to look at the glare he shot you as you looked over your hand. You could easily get rid of his Battle Ox with a card combination you were currently holding, though you doubted it would stay on the field for long. It was your best course of action though, you had managed to draw both your Wingweaver and Tri-Horn Dragon, which were significantly weighing down your starting hand. You summoned one of your Senju of the Thousand Hands to the field, allowing you to search your deck for your prized card, your Ruin, Queen of Oblivion. You added her to your hand, re-shuffled your deck, and equipped your Senju with Black Pendant. You sent it at his Battle Ox, taking him down with a burst of white light and smoke, and his life points dropped by two-hundred. You set your Solemn Judgement onto the field, “Your move.” He drew his card and raised an eyebrow, as if it were a particularly interesting one. After a moment of thought he set two cards face-down, before summoning forth one of his other iconic monsters, his Vorse Raider. With nineteen-hundred attack points, he was an even match for your Senju. He ended his turn there, and you hummed. One of his face down cards was probably a way to negate your attack, or perhaps buff his Vorse Raider so it was able to overpower your Senju.You drew your Spirit of the Harp and set it in face-down defense mode, its high defensive stats should protect your life points. You were going to have to find out what plan he had cooked up eventually, so you figured now was as good a time as any. You sent your Senju to attack his Vorse Raider, a move which seemed to bore him. He flipped over his trap, a Ring of Destruction, which began to encircle your Senju’s neck. You glanced down at the Solemn Judgement on your field and decided it best to save for later. If you negated his Ring of Destruction you would keep your monster, but take two-thousand points of damage for it.“Knowing you, I’m sure you have a Ring of Defense prepared for yourself.”“I see you’ve done your homework.” He hummed and flipped over just the card you had predicted. “Good, you’ll need all the help you can get.” The detonation of the Ring of Destruction send a wave of pain through your chest, causing you to lose fourteen hundred life points. You couldn’t help but grit your teeth, taking a deep breath through your nose to avoid crying out. By the time the smoke cleared from your field, you had managed to straighten your back and fight the grimace on your face.“You’ll take some damage yourself thanks to Black Pendant’s special effect.” you spoke after you regained your composure. “I’m aware,” he replied with a frown, though the five-hundred points of damage didn’t seem to phase him. You ended your turn there. As it stood, Seto was winning with thirty-three-hundred life points to your twenty-six-hundred. He drew his Pot of Greed and immediately activated it to draw two cards, before sending Vorse Raider to attack your face-down monster, though with only nineteen-hundred attack it was too weak to cut her down. He took one-hundred damage and growled. “I hope you don’t think stalling will save you.”“We’ve got forty cards in our decks,” you shrugged, “It’d be a shame if we didn’t use some of them.”“It doesn’t matter which of your useless cards you use, the outcome of this duel will be the same.” “Rude,” you frowned, “My cards aren’t useless.” He brushed you off with a wave of his hand, “Useless people build useless decks.”“Why are you calling me useless?” You demanded as you drew your Magician of Faith and set it in your hand, deciding on a strategy. “I’d thought you were smart enough to know the definition of useless.”“Oh fuck you, I’ll have you know I’m an extremely useful person,” you said defensively.The ‘fuck you’ seemed to set him off, “What use could anyone possibly have for a worthless, reprehensible good-for-nothing who can’t even keep a simple child’s promise?”You blinked at him, hand freezing over the Magician of Faith in your hand. You were seething up until you caught the last few words of his sentence, but once he had finished you were forced to push the anger away to process what he said. Those words explained why, at least to a certain extent, he hated you so much. That stupid ‘Christmas gift’ of a promise you’d made mere weeks before Gozaburo shipped you off to the lab. He probably saw your disappearance as you abandoning him.“I… I’m sorry.”You placed your Magician of Faith on your duel disk gingerly and looked back to him. He seemed confounded by your sudden submissiveness, azure eyes locked with yours and brows narrowed as if he were trying to decide if your apology was genuine or not. It was, of course, but knowing him you were pretty sure he wouldn’t believe it.“You’re sorry?” He scoffed. “I’m sorry,” you repeated, “Maybe you were right, maybe it was too big a promise for a kid to make.”To your right, Yuugi and his group seemed to be trying to figure out what promise you were talking about. You were content keeping your conversation with Seto as vague as possible, they had no business knowing the ins and outs of your childhood. What concerned you more was the way Marik was grinning between the two of you like a madman, a smile that said he was delighting in the anger Seto was hurling your way. “Look Seto, I know it doesn’t change anything but… just know I didn’t want to leave.” “Oh please,” he began sourly, “I bet you were jumping at the opportunity to be sent abroad.” “You can’t seriously think--”“And I’m sure once you got there you wanted nothing more than to stay.”“What? You can’t even begin to imagine the abuse I endured while--”“Abuse? Getting teased by some grade-schoolers at a cushy private school hardly qualifies as abuse.” “You-- you honestly think I got sent off to a bording school?” You asked. You weren’t exactly sure how to react to him for a moment, and after a second you noticed one of his eyebrows was barely raised, “You seriously believed what your good-for-nothing stepfather told you?” He narrowed his eyes at you, for once with nothing to say, and rather than being upset you felt a wave of astonishment crash over you. You were so dumbfounded by his naivety that you couldn’t fight the fit of hysterical laughter that erupted from your mouth, and you had to clutch the cards in your hand to keep them from blowing away in the wind. “I thought… I thought you were just lying for Mokuba’s sake.” You snorted in laughter. God you must have been going insane. From your conversation earlier, you knew Seto had been in the dark about the labs themselves. But you were shocked that the genius, the prodigy that was your best friend, hadn’t bothered to do any research. “I never thought you’d be stupid enough to take that sack of shit at his word.”It was his turn yet he was making no move to do anything, simply staring at you as you laughed. Somewhere in the back of your mind a voice was insisting you should be taking the conversation a little more seriously, but you couldn’t help it. The only reaction you could muster was one of astonishment.“No wonder you hate me so much, you have no idea where he…” you trailed off through breathless giggles, not wanting to say anything more considering Yuugi and his group of friends were still watching the duel. You needed to be careful what information you gave away about yourself. He seemed to decide it was time to take his turn, and he did so without addressing your last statement. Whether that was because he was simply done with the conversation or he, too, had no interest in sharing his past while others were watching you couldn’t be sure. He set a face-down card along with a low-level monster before sending the duel back to you. Oh boy, this was going to be a long one.
-----
Isis had briefly entertained the idea of coming to the duel platform on the blimp, as she was somewhat interested in seeing how your duel against Kaiba would play out. In the end, however, she decided she just couldn’t handle seeing her brother in his current state. Not while the images of Rishiid lying unconscious on the bed were still burned into her mind. Speaking of her adoptive brother, Isis was beginning to get worried about the security on this blimp. If the evil inside of Marik was as strong as she anticipated, she worried he may try to harm the comatosed man. She didn’t think she could quite handle anymore members of her family dying, though she wasn’t sure what she could do about it. Perhaps she could ask you for help, although you probably didn’t have any interest in doing so, and it wasn’t as if you owed her anything. On the contrary, if anything she still owed you for agreeing to bring her to the finals. Isis eventually resolved to keep an eye on Rishiid herself. It was about the only thing she could do, now that the Millenium Necklace was no longer in her possession and she was no longer receiving visions. Now she was just an ordinary woman, one with a fancy job title and a dysfunctional family, and even with the power she'd been accumulating over the past few years she still felt so overwhelmingly powerless.
-----
Seto was growing increasingly more and more annoyed with your deck, you could see it on his face. When you’d negated his Crush Card Virus with your Solemn Judgement, he’d given an almost impressed scoff and choked it up to luck. When you used your Magic Jammer to stop his Flute of Summoning Dragons, he’d once again insisted stalling would get you nowhere. Now that you had used your Swords of Revealing Light to stop the Blue Eyes White Dragon on his field, you could practically feel the impatience radiating off of him. Had you been in his shoes, you would probably be pretty pissed right now as well. Just earlier in the day you remembered complaining about decks which used stall tactics, especially the swords that were currently illuminating the field. But it was about the only way you had any chance of winning against his deck of powerful monsters, especially with how your draws were going at the moment. Your End of the World had to be practically at the bottom of your deck, and without bringing Ruin out there was no way you could face his most powerful monster.On the last turn of your swords, Seto was blessed with quite possibly the best draw he could have hoped for. He set two cards in his Spell/Trap zone and activated his Card of Demise, followed swiftly by a Silent Doom which he used to revive his Lord of D., before equipping him with a second Flute of Summoning Dragons. Two more Blue Eyes were summoned to the field, staring you down like you were a rat in a maze. From there he ended his turn, as the shimmering swords faded from the field, leaving you completely unprotected. Make that his three most powerful monsters.You sincerely hoped luck was just as kind to you as it had been to all the other duelists on this platform. Glancing over your hand, you had almost everything you needed for the perfect game-winning combo, if you could just draw your ritual card. “Hurry it up and make your move,” Seto demanded impatiently. “I’m just pausing for dramatic effect,” you assured, simultaneously hoping Lady Luck wouldn’t make you look like a fool.Oh, luck was good to you alright. Very good. If you played this turn right, this game was yours! You discarded the Tri-Horn Dragon in your hand to activate your ritual card, causing the sky to be blanketed in blue and white runic inscriptions. A bright pillar of light crashed down to the field in front of you, and from it fell a white-haired woman in a black and red gown, her staff pointed directly at the three dragons you faced. “Seto, meet the Queen of Oblivion. Queen of Oblivion, Seto.”He scoffed, “She’s hardly fitting of the title with only twenty-three-hundred attack points.” “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” you chided, before you placed two of the last three cards in your hand onto the field, both Cestus’ of Dagla. Her attack rose by one-thousand points, now higher than each of his Blue Eyes. Without hesitation you sent her to attack his first dragon, though his face-down cards worried you, this was your only chance of victory. When he activated neither of them and allowed his dragon to be destroyed, you gained the three-hundred lifepoints he lost thanks to your Cestus’ effect. Now you were ahead on life points. “You’ve managed to take down one of my dragons,” Seto said dryly, “But I assure you, next turn you’re finished.” “Next turn? There won’t be a next turn, silly. When my Ruin destroys a monster in battle she can attack again!” His eyes widened for just a second, long enough for you to feel a satisfied smile creep onto your face. You had a card he didn’t know the full effects of! Served him right for underestimating you. You sent your Queen to attack his second Blue Eyes, fully ready to repeat the process until his life points hit zero. Your victory was short-lived, however, as Seto flipped one of his face-down cards to reveal an Interdimensional Matter Transporter, sending his dragon off the field and canceling your attack. “Your Queen’s effect isn’t very scary when I can remove my monsters from play.”The bastard was taunting you. You glanced at the Honest in your hand, even if he did manage to get out his Ultimate Dragon next turn, which you assumed was his master plan, you’d still be able to win this duel. “Are you finished yet?” Seto drawled, “End your turn so I can finally crush you.” “What’s up with you trying to crush me?” You demanded, “I didn’t do anything!” “You’re still trying to claim you’re innocent? What a joke.”Was he still trying to assert any of this was your fault? It wasn’t like you could have helped being sent to the lab, what did he expect you to do? He was starting to get on your last nerve. It was getting way too difficult trying to be civil when he insisted on ignoring all of your attempts at explanation. “Wow you really didn’t do any research on Gozaburo did you?” You taunted. He was going to listen to you one way or another, so help you. “What, after you took over you just wanted to wash your hands clean?” “Shut it. You don’t know anything--”“No, you don’t know anything!” You spat, and Seto seemed taken aback by your instant change in demeanor. Now you were pissed. Why was it that he seemed to be insisting on keeping himself in the dark? What, had his ego grown so big he couldn’t even admit when he was wrong? When he needed to do more research?He about slammed the button on his duel disk to reveal his Enemy Control spell, and gave up one-thousand of his remaining life points to sacrifice your Ruin, along with the two Blue Eyes on his side. The move left him with a mere two-hundred life points. You watched a swirling ray of light crash down on the three monsters, your prized card dissolving into nothingness. You knew what was coming next, and you had nothing in your hand to stop it. There was an anger bubbling in your chest, and with the realization that you were going to lose this duel sinking in there was nothing holding it back. “I’m tired of you living in your own ignorant little world. Ignoring your past won’t make it go away!”A wind swirled around Seto, making his ostentatious white coat billow wildly around his long legs. It seemed almost unnatural, the way the environment seemed to react to his will, as a brilliant blue beast began rising up behind him. The hologram of the God towered over you, and you instinctively took a step back as you craned your neck up. The maniacal laughter of Marik on the platform below was seriously starting to piss you off. You were so focused on Obelisk, you didn’t even notice Mokuba had rushed up the elevator and sprinted to join Yuugi and the others. The wind had been too loud to hear him cry out his brother’s name. You did, however, hear the shouting of Yuugi’s group of friends, though it was such a jumbled mess you didn’t process or understand any of it. At one point you thought you heard Hiroto Honda shouting Mokuba’s name, but you were too busy darting your eyes between Seto and his God card. “I haven’t ignored any part of my past!” Seto shouted defiantly over the tempest, “I’ve conquered it, crushed it-- just like I’m going to crush you.” A wicked, sadistic grin spread across his face as he stared you down oppressively with his sapphire eyes. “And what better way to crush you than with the fist of a God?”
-----
The second Mokuba came into his vision, Seto Kaiba shouted into the gale for Obelisk to hold his attack. However, it was much too late, the God wouldn’t hear his order. The massive blue fist sailed overhead and rocketed toward his little brother, the bright yellow of his jacket almost completely eclipsed by the size of his monster’s hand. It was you who shouted Mokuba’s name first, your voice filled with urgency as you grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him toward you. Seto was unable to process any other movement you made, and in an instant your side of the field was covered in a thick layer of smoke. He looked to Isono, who was staring back at him with mouth wide and eyebrows furrowed in worry. “Call it!” He ordered urgently. “R-right! The winner of this duel is Mister Seto Kaiba!”Before half the words had left his mouth Seto was already racing toward the other side of the platform, and though the holograms had shut off and Obelisk had vanished, the cloud of grey smoke still remained. Yuugi and Jounouchi were both climbing up the side of the raised dueling platform, and the rest of his band of dweebs were shouting your and Mokuba’s names in a panic. Isono quickly ran to his side as well, flailing his arms in an attempt to clear the smoke that was already thinning out. Your body came into view after a moment, your back facing away from him as you sat on your knees. Your arms were wrapped around his brother, one hand forcing his head into your chest to protect him from the fist that had been sent hurtling toward you. Your fingertips were trembling, and your shoulders were falling in a feverish pattern. Through the silence that had fallen over the group staring down at the two of you, he could hear your breathing had become ragged and disorganized. Seto opened his mouth to speak, but before he could form any words your voice cut sharply through the silence. You moved your hands to his brother’s shoulders and pushed him backward so he was forced to look at you. “What the hell were you thinking?” You near yelled at Mokuba. He blinked up at you twice as he processed your question. “You’ve already seen three people injured because of these God cards today. Two of them are unconscious!” Your voice had raised an octave in your hysteria. “You could have gotten seriously hurt!” “I--” “If I hadn’t pulled you out of the way in time you could be in a comatose right now!”“But--”“How do you think Seto would feel if you got hurt because of this duel?”Mokuba swallowed hard and looked up at Seto, his eyes had become wide in response to your lecture. Seto looked equally startled by your words. Your breathing had gotten even more fragmented, and you were gripping his brothers shoulders hard enough that your knuckles had turned white. He realized one of your ankles was trembling more than the other, and was twisted in an uncomfortable looking position.“Apologize to him.” There was a long pause before Mokuba averted his eyes from both you and his brother, instead focusing on the dueling platform beneath his feet. After a moment he nodded and focused on the worried sapphire eyes staring back at him.“I’m sorry.” He murmured, grey eyes still holding a hint of fear as the adrenaline began to wear off.You let out an out-of-breath sigh and let your head drop onto his shoulder, “I don’t know what I would have done if you got hurt.”“I’m sorry,” he said again, “I just didn’t want anything to happen to you.”“It’s… it’s alright. I’m just glad you’re okay.”You released your grip on his brother and placed one hand on the ground to steady yourself, moving your twisted ankle from underneath you and hissing an ‘ow, ow’ as you did so. Your breathing hadn’t gotten any better, and now that you were turned a little Seto realized your brows were furrowed in pain. Even with your hand supporting you, your body was still trembling, and though you made an effort to stand you didn’t seem to have the strength to do more than keep yourself from falling over. “Are you alright?” The mutt’s sister asked you with obvious concern in her voice.“Yeah,” you breathed, “Yeah fine I just need a minute.” “I’m surprised you’re still conscious after a direct attack from an Egyptian God,” Yuugi said. “Yeah even tha lightnin’ from a fake still knocked me right out,” the dog beside him added.“I’ve felt worse,” you muttered as you began picking your scattered cards up from the floor, and it was the line that concerned Seto the most though everyone else seemed to take it lightly or ignore it altogether.“Ya need help gettin’ ta ya room?”“No,” you groaned as you gripped the railing around the upper platform and pulled yourself into a shaky standing position. The second your eyes met Seto’s you just as quickly looked down at the ground, and a heartbroken look crossed your face.“Are ya sure? My buddies n’ I can--”“Please. Just. Stop talking.”The Geek Squad looked between each other in unease for a moment, before taking it as their cue to hop off the dueling platform and make for the elevator. They lowered their voices as they began talking amidst one another, throwing worried and upset glances toward Seto and his brother. “Come on Mokuba, we’re leaving.” Seto said firmly as he turned toward the opposite elevator. “But--”“Now.” His brother stared up at him in apprehension as they walked, though he was still too shaken from moments ago to form a coherent sentence. Seto didn’t miss the way you kept your gaze planted firmly on the ground until the elevator doors were shut. Nor did he miss the way you drew what would have been your next card from the top of your deck, before slamming your fist against the metal rail you were supporting yourself on.
-----
You were getting really sick and tired of this Millenium Item and God card and ancient Egypt business. Artifacts that gave teenagers weird abilities like mind control and banishing people to the shadows were one thing. Weird tales about thousand-year-old spirits trapped inside of people’s bodies were another. But a few trading cards that were apparently so powerful they were unaffected by your time manipulation abilities? Yeah that was something you really did not want to deal with. The second Mokuba had come into your field of vision, shouting at his brother not to attack you, you had ordered everything around you to stop moving. For the most part it had worked, Mokuba, Seto, and every other living soul on the blimp completely froze in place. But titan that was Obelisk hadn’t paused for even a second. Thank goodness you had been able to yank Mokuba out of the way in time, though in your haste you had twisted your ankle in a more than painful way. What was more, the pain Obelisk had sent rippling through your body was more any hologram had any right to. Even with the sensations the duel disks created cranked up to max, there was no logical reason for your back to still be searing as you stood alone in the elevator. That giant’s fist had hurt ten times more than any other attack directed at you that game. On top of your momentary exhaustion from using your ability to try to save Mokuba, every fiber of your body was exhausted beyond belief. To say that you were pissed would be an understatement, as you exited the elevator and marched toward your assigned room you were seething. “Ishtar,” you demanded as the sliding metal door opened.Isis snapped her head to look at you, eyes widening momentarily in surprise. “Tell me something did your magical fortune telling necklace predict Mokuba running onto the fiend in the middle of my duel--?”“What?” “--Because if you saw any glimpse of him potentially getting hurt and didn’t tell me I swear--”“No,” she said quickly, “I saw nothing of the sort. Tell me is he alright?” “Yeah he’s fine,” you huffed, “Your future powers are crap though.” She glanced down at her hands, “I… must admit that I haven’t been given a vision of the future since our duel.”As you stared at her you realized the choker you had been talking about was completely absent from her neck. When she returned her gaze up to you, her brow furrowed in concern, though for a few minutes she simply stared at you. You decided to ignore her in favor of finding something to eat to stop your trembling hands. “You lost to Kaiba, didn’t you?”Your hand froze on the handle of the mini fridge momentarily as you thought of how to respond, though you eventually decided you didn’t owe her one. You pulled the door open and stared into it in silence, eyes scanning the various snacks and drinks packed inside. One of the juices on the top shelf looked to be high in sugars, and there was a small container of pudding that caught your eye beside it. Not exactly the healthiest meal, but at the moment you really couldn’t give a shit.“Even from this window I saw Obelisk. You’re still shaking from the attack of an Egyptian God.”“It was the expected outcome wasn’t it?” You hummed cynically, “He’s been dueling way longer than I have, and he had the power of a God on his side.”“I apologize for your loss,” Isis said. You nodded, more to yourself than anything, and hoped that was all she would say on the matter. You were having a hard enough time facing your loss without her hollow sympathies added on. No, it was more that you were having a hard time facing the wager you had lost, and with it any hope you had of repairing your relationship with Seto. As you pulled a spoon from the silverware container atop the fridge and pulled open your pudding cup, you sighed to yourself. There was a dull throbbing in your chest, unrelated from the fact that your body still ached from Obelisk. Seto no longer wanting to speak to you didn’t change your job much, considering most of what you did for him and his brother was from the shadows. You could still keep him alive just fine without communication, you’d been doing a decent job for the past two years. Well, other than the Duelist Kingdom incident, but that was a failure you really didn’t want to dwell on at the moment. You popped open the juice can and chugged it in its entirety, not realizing how thirsty you had been. Once it was empty, you swiftly took another from the fridge and set it down next to you, leaning your head against the wall and focusing on one of the corners of the room. You may have been able to do your job just fine without talking to him, but that didn’t mean you wanted to. In fact you really had desperately wanted to repair your friendship, or at the very least explain to him what had happened to you, why you had been forced to leave. You wanted to properly apologize for breaking that childhood promise. You wanted…You wanted to thank him for saving you from that nightmare. A lump caught in your throat and your eyes began to burn faintly. You dug your spoon into your pudding cup more forcefully than you had meant to and heard the plastic bottom crinkle in retaliation. Isis’ head turned just slightly to the sound enough that she was no longer facing the opposite direction. She watched you bite at your lip to keep it from trembling, and for a moment you thought she might offer you more of her unwarranted pity. Why couldn’t you get an ounce of privacy on this damn blimp? Frustrated, you stabbed your spoon into the pudding cup again, though this time the bottom offered less resistance than you’d expected. You felt the head of the spoon pierce through the cup, and a slick splat hit the metal floor. A look of fear briefly crossed her features, as she looked between your eyes and the broken pudding cup before standing from the armchair and muttering something about checking on her brother. She swiftly exited the room, the ruffled white skirt around her ankles flaring up in her haste. You glanced down to see that part of the glob had landed on your boot, and with a groan you set down your destroyed pudding cup and reached for a towel. As you bent down and made to clean yourself up, you realized you were having a hard time focusing your vision. You blinked a few times, but it only made things blurrier. You did your best to clean the toe of your boot, which mostly ended in you smearing pudding all over the place, before you tossed the towel away. You clawed at the laces on your boots and began tearing them off, slamming your elbow into the metal wall behind you in your haste. “Ow, fuck fuck!” You yelled into the empty room, pulling your elbow into your chest and gripping it with your other hand. “God dammit stupid fucking wall.” You felt a tear roll down your cheek and you brought your hand up to swat it away, but it was quickly followed by a second. You began swearing to yourself as you started making to pull your boots off again, this time in a slower but equally fumbled manner. Every time you tried to swallow your saliva just got stuck in your throat, and you couldn’t manage to catch your breath. You licked at your lips only to be greeting by the taste of snot, and you reached up to wipe at it. You managed to coat the hem of your sleeve in two separate smears of snot before you were satisfied it was off your face, though it wasn’t like it really mattered much. You couldn’t sniffle, your sinuses were already clogged with fresh snot, and only being able to breath in hiccuped attempts through your mouth quickly put a strain on your chest. You leaned your back against the metal wall and let your legs dropped to the floor, one of your boots still half-laced on your foot. On the other side of the room your ringtone began playing out of one of the side pockets in your backpack, but you couldn’t find the energy or the desire to lift yourself off the floor. You coughed into your palm a few times, trying to dislodge the buildup of saliva from your throat and make breathing a little easier. You tilted your neck to the side and noticed you could see your distorted reflection in the side of the polished refrigerator. Your face was red and blotchy, the bottoms of your eyes had puffed up in irritation, and your cupid’s bow was shiny with fresh snot. The image of yourself trembling on the ground only made you furious, and you quickly turned your face away to bury it in your palms. The last time you had cried this hard you had still been in the lab, and it wasn’t a feeling you’d wanted to relive.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
At about one in the morning, you still couldn’t sleep at all. You had tried to lay down and rest your eyes at least a little bit, but all you could see behind your eyelids were the flashing memories of your duel with Seto. The fist of Obelisk racing toward you. Mokuba rushing to stand in the way. You had just barely been able to grab him, what would you have done if he had gotten hurt? If you weren’t able to save him? You had to keep telling yourself that everything was alright since you had gotten to him in time, you had pulled him back in time. But there was still a nagging voice in your head, insisting that you had almost let him get hurt. What if next time you couldn’t save him?You threw your fist against the metal wall next to your bed and huffed before rolling your body over and sitting up, letting your feet touch the bare floor. Clouds covered the small windows along the wall next to you, the cool night air blowing by as the blimp trudged on toward Alcatraz. You were surprised to find Isis was not in her usual seat by the window, though you were thankful she wasn’t around to pester you. Now that you thought about it, she hadn’t come back since leaving the room earlier in the evening. You pushed yourself off the bed and sighed, moving to the door and slipping on your boots before heading out of the hallway and toward the elevator. You needed some fresh air and some music to distract yourself from your thoughts. You slipped some earbuds in and entered the elevator, willing yourself to forget about all the shit that had happened today, just wanting to focus on your plans for tomorrow. Iris had given your group intel that there was a plan to attack the Kaiba boys on the way to the finals, but no one knew who was organizing the attack or why it was happening.
‘If I hadn’t pulled you out of the way in time you could be in a comatose right now!’
The fact that you couldn’t plan for everything was the most frustrating part. When it came to protecting the boys, you wanted to have as much intel as possible, to lower the chance of anything happening to them to zero before you started preparing. But you were in the dark about this one. You’d packed a plethora of knives, lots of protein bars, multiple shots of adrenaline, and a whole lot of pent-up anger, but you were still terrified it wouldn’t be enough.
Do you really think you’re strong enough to protect them on your own? You?
You walked out onto the roof of the blimp and over to the railing at the edge of the platform. You gripped your fingers around the icy cold rail and leaned against it, directing your gaze to the clouds and stars just overhead. It was even colder now than it had been earlier in the evening, but significantly less windy since you weren’t standing up on the dueling platform.
You can’t even be responsible for yourself, how do you expect to be responsible for them too?
At some point, the voices in your head had sort of melded together, to the point that you couldn’t tell whose they were anymore. At a time, they might have been Gozaburo’s, but at some point you had started to believe some of them and they echoed in your skull in your own cadence. Sometimes they rippled so much they began to sound like guards in the lab, other times dropping an octave so it all sounded dangerously close to Seto’s harsh berating. But you had to try to push them away and assure yourself they were wrong. You were very good at your job. Regardless of how ill-prepared you potentially were, it did not matter, you would keep Seto and Mokuba from any danger. You absolutely would. No one would harm a hair on their heads if you had any control over the situation, and you would ensure you had complete control.
If anything happens to them, it will be your fault.
“You’re not allowed to be up here when there isn’t a duel going on.”You paused the music playing in your ear and held your breath when the familiar voice cut through the cold air. You turned your head just enough to see Seto’s tall frame exit the elevator and saunter over to you, long legs carrying him quickly to the railing you were leaning on. You tapped at the metal railing for a moment and nodded before pushing yourself off and making to turn toward the other elevator.“Wait.”You bit down on your tongue to keep from speaking, wondering what he was doing up here this late, talking to you of all people. He had made it more than clear that he wanted nothing to do with you ever again. You turned back to face him once more.“You may speak to me.” He said sharply. “Why?” It was about all you could manage in your confusion. After all the things he had said to you earlier, about crushing you, crushing his past, destroying you and removing you from his life, why was he speaking to you?“I don’t like owing people anything,” he said icily as he crossed his arms and looked down at you, studying your expression, “You protected Mokuba, so I’m merely returning the favor.”You could only attempt to blink your stupor back. “You said you had something you wanted to tell me,” he sighed, “So spit it out and quit wasting my time.” You returned to your earlier position leaning on the railing, looked away from his gaze, and back down to the city below you. The towering buildings all looked so small and insignificant from where you were. Street lights twinkled like tiny stars and cars still zoomed down the highway despite the fact that it was approaching two in the morning. Why had you been crying earlier? There were a multitude of reasons: cursing your own weakness, the physical pain and exhaustion from your duel, the fear of isolation and loneliness, but most importantly….“I wanted to thank you,” you said softly.He stared at you for a long time, tapping a long index finger on the railing as he thought about what to say in response. The only sound other than the wind blowing through your hair was the rhythmic tap tap tap.“What could you possibly have to thank me for?”You breathed out a chuckle. “Saving my life.”He sighed again, though this time he didn’t sound as annoyed as he had before. You wondered if he was feeling at all sympathetic for trying to put you in the hospital when you had only wanted to thank him. But, probably not. Seto seemed like he’d gotten a lot more jaded over the past six years. You both had. “I don’t recall ever saving your life.” He said, stepping closer to lean against the railing himself and stare out to the night sky. You took him getting comfortable to mean he expected you to tell the story. You had not expected that from him, the busiest man in all of Japan, who up until now had apparently hated your guts. “You’d probably call me crazy,” you muttered.“I’ve seen a lot of crazy today.” He merely shrugged you off. “Good point. Where to start?” You sighed, “Let’s see… your father was a disgusting human being.”“Tell me something I don’t know,” he replied sardonically. “Alright, your father was a disgusting human being who spent a lot of money on human experimentation.” Seto said nothing, but you glanced over at him to watch him raise an eyebrow to your comment, as if it was something he was not aware of. You had expected as much, from the way Mokuba had asked about you being sent to Germany earlier in the day and how oblivious to your past Seto had been during the duel. “Do you remember the day you told me you had a crush on me, and I said sorry?” You asked, though you already knew the answer so you did not wait for a response, “Well, before you said that, Gozaburo already knew you liked me. He called me into his office one morning and told me that if you said anything like that, I was to tell you I wasn’t interested. He said a relationship would only distract you from your studies.”You waved your hand in the air and shrugged, “It was either that or he fire my dad and I’d never get to see you or Mokuba again. So that’s why I lied to you.”“Lied?” Of all the words for him to latch onto, that had not been the one you anticipated.“Yeah, lied. Of course I liked you back,” you waved your hand again, dismissively. “Anyway, when the whole ordeal made you even more distracted, Gozaburo decided the best course of action was to send me away. So he told you that I went to boarding school. I assume he probably told you I did it to get away from you or something?”Seto merely nodded. “Well obviously I didn’t go to boarding school. He sent me to a lab in Omachi where the scientists were studying turning people into super-humans, weapons that could be used for war.”He continued his silence and allowed you to tell your story at your own pace, which was relatively fast. You felt like you were rushing through it, so you rummaged through your brain to think through if there was anything you were missing. But each time you thought back to your days at the lab you felt an anger boiling in your chest.“He reduced me to a human lab rat, they did experiments on me every day--” You stopped yourself before you got too off-track and returned your gaze to the city below you, swallowing the lump that had formed in your throat in an attempt to ground yourself. Your hand gripped at the railing for a moment before you refocused and returned to the story. “Anyway, the day you took over the company and shut down the labs, you saved me from being a glorified science experiment for the rest of my life. Or worse, having to take orders, having to manipulate and kill people for him.” You breathed out a shaky breath into the night before softening your voice, “So, thank you.”Seto said nothing for a very long time, a silence hanging in the frigid air as he absorbed all the information you’d just thrown at him. Honestly, you wouldn’t have been surprised if he didn’t believe you, since you’d just admitted to being the victim of human experimentation, something that only happened in science fiction movies. You wondered, if he didn’t believe you, did that matter? Would you care enough that he believed your story that you’d prove it to him? And do what, have him look up the file you know was kept in the KC database that had the history of all the tests performed on you? Fuck around with time a little to show him the things you could do? You turned your hand over in front of your face and took a sudden interest in your cuticles while you waited for his response. “That’s why you came all the way to the quarterfinals? To thank me for that?” He finally muttered. You did not want to admit just yet that the real reason was to keep him and the younger Kaiba brother from being killed on their way to Alcatraz, so you decided to keep with the cover story and nodded. You pulled your hand away from your face and turned to look up at him. “I’m surprised you believe me.” “I’m not sure I do yet,” he said coolly. “But if you are telling the truth, there will be files I can look into.” You only nodded, unsurprised by his assessment. He had always been smarter than you, after all, of course he’d know about the files before you even told him about them. The only reason you knew they existed was because James had showed them to you after you got out of the lab. You had wanted to know the purpose of every single test performed on you in your four years of captivity. Seto pushed himself off of the railing and turned away from you quickly, headed back toward the elevator he had come up on. You assumed he was going back to whatever he had been working on, and probably to look into all the information you’d just revealed to him. You pushed away from the railing as well and turned your body to watch him call the elevator and step inside. “Seto.” He pressed the button to hold the doors open and frowned at you impatiently. “The videos that are in those files,” you began, breathing in sharply and closing your eyes as the memories flashed before you quickly, briefly. You on the cold metal table. A needle in your arm. Screaming. You shook your head and willed the images out of your mind, before opening your eyes again to stare at the elder Kaiba. He looked like he was about ready to close the doors and ignore you if you took much longer. “Don’t let Mokuba see them,” you managed, “I don’t… he shouldn’t have to see something so dark. Seto, they’re not….” You could not find the words you wanted to use to convey how horrific those videos were. Maybe it was just because when you saw them, you were sent back to those moments, all the pain. But hearing yourself scream like that was terrifying, and you did not want the younger Kaiba to see anything like that. Especially not when it was you. You knew you could not stop Seto from watching them if he really wanted to, but at least if Mokuba never knew what really happened in that lab….You watched a pitied look flash over Seto’s features for the briefest of moments, before his eyes darkened and he furrowed his brow. He barely nodded to you before lifting his finger off the button that was holding the elevator doors open, and disappeared behind them. You stayed on the roof of the blimp for a few more minutes to collect yourself, before you got into the same elevator he had and headed down to your own room. On your way you passed by Marik, who had this insane glint in his eye and seemed to be headed up to where you’d just come from. He locked eyes with you, and the smirk on his lips grew into a dangerous, toothy grin. You returned the look with a glare, and picked up your pace to get as far away from his insanity as possible. You were thankful that you would not be involved with whatever crazy stunt he was probably going to pull. You’d had enough of him for one day.You passed by the computer room Seto was working in and leaned your ear to the door to listen in on whatever was going on. The door was thin enough that if you concentrated, you could hear the faintest sound of his fingers typing away, and you sighed. Satisfied that he, too, would not be getting involved in anything other than work for the night, you finally went to your own room to get some sleep. Tomorrow would be a big day, and you weren’t quite sure what to expect, other than fulfilling your role in the mission and saving the lives of the Kaiba brothers. You could accomplish at least that.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
In the middle of putting chapstick on your lips in the early morning, the blimp you were temporarily residing on suddenly jolted and threw you off balance, causing you to crash into a nearby wall. You made an annoyed groan, accompanied a confused huff originating from Isis. You pushed yourself off the wall with your free hand and capped your chapstick, quickly making your way to the other side of the small room on unsteady feet to get to your change of clothes. Isis had stood up from the chair next to the window and was looking around bewildered, trying to keep herself steady by pressing her hands against the metal wall to her right. It was the first time you’d seen her look so unsure of anything, and she reached up with one hand to touch her neck only to remember her golden necklace was no longer there. Outside you could hear footsteps rushing toward the front of the blimp, probably going to demand what was going on from the Kaiba boys. “It’s too early for this shit,” you muttered beneath your breath.You pulled your black jeans on and put on a pair of socks before a second rocking of the blimp hit, though this time you were more prepared for it and didn’t almost fall over. You tugged on your black boots before you tore through your bag to find each of the knives you had packed, slipping your KA-BAR into the waist of your jeans, a boot knife into each of your boots, and tucking your smallest folding knife into your bra. Isis had taken to watching you stow away each of the knives intently, but she said nothing about the act.You pulled on the long sleeve t-shirt you had packed and slung your bag over your shoulder. As you exited your room the metal door automatically closed behind you with a click, and you calmly made your way to the cockpit. As you were about halfway through the hallway the blimp lurched forward, dropping altitude rapidly. You leaned against the wall and muttered a few curses as it hit the water, causing you to drop to one knee to keep from completely falling over. By the time the blimp balanced itself out, you could hear voices drifting from the cockpit. You picked yourself back up and continued toward the open glass room, but stopped just outside of the doorway when you saw a young boy on the screen addressing everyone in the room.“Noah…?” you breathed to yourself. He looked exactly like Noah Kaiba, but that was impossible. Gozaburo told you Noah had died just before he adopted Seto. But that was clearly Noah on the screen, looking like he hadn’t aged a day since when you last saw him. “Answer me!” Seto’s demanding voice ripped through your thoughts, “Who are you?”“My name is Noah. And I’ve greatly surpassed you, Seto.”No, this was absolutely impossible. You had been at Noah’s wake, you remember because you had been told explicitly not to cry. But, then again, Gozaburo had sent you to a secret military facility while telling everyone you’d been sent to boarding school, so if anyone could have somehow pulled off keeping Noah alive, it would have been him.“You brat… quit fucking around.” Seto seethed. You watched his fingers curl into fists at his side, a motion which made little Mokuba look a little uncomfortable.“Well then, I’m inviting all of you to come to me.”The screen clicked off and Noah’s face disappeared from sight. You stepped inside of the room with everyone else and let out a shaky breath, attempting to make sense of why your dead childhood friend was just on screen in front of you, the same as he’d looked over six years ago. As you tried to sort out your thoughts, you were distracted by the television screen blinking on again, showing the view of a giant metal fortress erecting itself out of the sea just beneath the blimp. “It’s huge,” Jounouchi said. Everyone else seemed equally shocked. As the group of teenagers talked rapidly amongst themselves, you stepped closer to the wall behind you and pressed your back against it, making it a point to keep out of the conversation. Jounouchi had taken to yelling at Seto, demanding to know what was going on and how he was going to fix it. Seto responded by ignoring him completely, brow knit furiously at the screen where Noah’s face had once resided. Mokuba had glanced back long enough to notice you had entered the room, but as he opened his mouth to speak, the blimp made a sharp lurch downward, and began to descend inside of the metal prison, sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness it held. “Do something!” Mokuba whipped his head back around and shouted at Fuguta.“I can’t, we’ve lost all control!” He replied in a panic, causing the other passengers to talk even more frantically amongst themselves. You glanced to Seto to try and figure out if he had some sort of plan, but his face was flush with anger at the fact that he could not control the situation. You tapped the side of your boot on the wall to ensure your boot knife had not moved in all the shaking, and bit at the inside of your cheek to think about your next move. Never would you have imagined Noah Kaiba, of all people, would be the one to target Seto and Mokuba. The blimp finally landed in pure blackness, large metal arms raised to keep it from flying away, before giant spotlights turned on and flooded the room with nauseatingly bright light. After a moment, Noah’s face returned to the screen and ordered Seto and all the other duelists to disembark the blimp. You swallowed hard and stared at his face, but he was so focused on Seto he didn’t notice you at all. Then again, he hadn’t seen you in six years, so it wouldn’t have surprised you if he didn’t recognize you. “What if I say no?” Seto challenged his order, and your eyes flickered between the two boys as you moved your hand to your back to rest on the hilt of the KA-BAR tucked away in your waistband. “You’re already in my clutches,” Noah replied coolly, and you again confirmed from the sound of his voice that he was, undoubtedly, the same Noah Kaiba from your childhood. “You don’t have a choice.”A row of turret guns appeared on either side of the blimp, affixed to the wall and presumably loaded. Their presence was enough to make everyone sans you and Seto jump back a little in fear. Admittedly, you were surprised by Seto’s calm act, considering the position he was in. He scoffed, then turned and began to exit the cockpit, ordering everyone else, including Mokuba, to stay inside. You turned your body a little to face him, ready to follow him if he was really planning to go alone. The turrets began shooting out what you thought may have been rubber bullets at the floor beneath the blimp, this time causing everyone, even Seto, to brace themselves and panic a little. You instinctively moved yourself closer to the Kaiba boys to shield them if necessary, but the bullets eventually stopped and Noah’s voice rang through the blimp again. “I believe I said ‘including all the other duelists’, didn’t I?” You frowned at his words and your mind began to race, trying to figure out what his motives were and who else was on this metal fortress with him. There was no way he was acting alone, not on this big of a scale. You recognized Noah Kaiba could be brilliant, but you had always been smarter than him, and even you could not pull off a stunt like this backed by all Tokyo, Warsaw, and New York’s resources put together. At least, not so quietly.The nine of you made to disembark the ship together, leaving Fuguta and Isono, along with Marik, Isis, and the three incapacitated passengers behind. You glanced backward to see Isis watching you through the window, and you cast her a sort of mock salute. You and Mokuba followed behind Seto closely, you keeping your hand close enough to your knife that you could reach it easily without drawing suspicion. Mokuba’s eyes kept darting between the back of his brother and your face, and he had clasped his hands together to keep them from shaking. Poor kid looked terrified.“What are you going to do to us?” Yugi demanded as you all walked through the small metal hallway.“Actually there are some people who have been waiting a long time to see you. They’ll explain your situation.” Came young Noah’s voice from a crackling loudspeaker.You entered a dark metal room, walls and floor decorated in a circuit board pattern, and immediately the members of Yugi’s possy demanded answers. Your eyes flashed around, quickly absorbing everything you could about your surroundings. Suddenly, a bright white light flooded the room, and you had to put your hand in front of your eyes to shield them. The silhouettes of five men stood out before you, lit against the light. After a moment, your eyes adjusted to the light and you could make out the suits they were wearing and the devilish grins on each of their faces. “No way,” Seto said with a surprised look, “You people are The Big Five!” Well now this was a complete blast from the past. Other than Daimon, who often shadowed Gozaburo on his trips to the lab, the last time you’d seen rest of the top five Kaiba Corporation executives was as the final company Christmas party you’d attended with your father, about a month before Gozaburo sent you away. You’d never liked any of them, but they worked closely with your father so you had to put on a smile every time they were around. You said nothing as Yugi and Mokuba explained to Ryuuji who they were, and told a story of how they’d made an impromptu trip to Cyberspace to rescue the elder Kaiba. As the Big Five spun the tale of how they’d ended up back in front of you all, you watched Seto’s body tense in anger, even further when he found out Noah had been the one to bring them before him. You pulled your phone out from your back pocket and texted an order for Doll to look into the Big Five, and what had happened to Noah after the accident, but received a message that your service was suddenly being denied. Of course they’d be blocking cell signals. “We’re inviting you into our duel world,” Oshita declared, and another bright flash of light appeared in the room, temporarily blinding you and the rest of the group. In an instant, the nine of you found yourselves inside of a new world, something out of a dinosaur movie. You picked yourself up off the ground you had fallen onto before helping Mokuba up next to you, looking around the jungle that had appeared before you. “It’s a virtual world,” Seto clarified to the rest of you, already on his feet. As everyone else debated which parts of this world were really real or not, from the smell to the air on your faces, the rendering of a giant dinosaur came into view over the trees. Immediately, everyone other than Seto ran back to put distance between themselves and the tyrannosaurus rex. You positioned yourself in front of Mokuba, eyes locked on Seto’s back, trying to figure out if he was cocky or just stupid. “Nii-sama!” Mokuba cried as the dinosaur raised its mighty claw and poised itself to cut down his brother. “Mokuba stay back,” you ordered, putting your arm in front of him to stop him from walking forward. You sighed in relief when the claw merely passed through Seto, as did everyone else behind you.“They think they can scare me when they can’t even recreate the sensation of touch? This is just a cheap copy of my Solid Vision.” Seto said haughtily. The moment he finished speaking, Anzu made a loud, confused cry, and you all turned your attention to a copy of him dressed in a blue trench coat, with the same icy stare at his real counterpart. Above your heads, flowing throughout the air of the virtual world, came the voices of the Big Five explaining the rules of a Deck Master. You all watched the Seto Kaiba copy summon a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, then order an attack on the Total-Defense Shogun in front of him, which was redirected and resulted in the defeat of the copy. You tried to absorb the information thrown at you, about Deck Masters and the new dueling rules, while at the same time trying to figure out how to keep the Kaiba boys from getting hurt in this new world. Suddenly, the scenery around you began to waver and pixilate, the sounds of the jungle fading away until you were all back in the bright white room, standing in front of the Big Five.“Well then? Will you duel us?” Oka asked patronizingly, “It’s the only way to escape this world.”“That doesn’t leave us any choice!” Mokuba cried, balling his hands into fists.“Alright! I’ll accept!” Katsuya Jounouchi yelled from behind you, and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes at his decision before you had all the facts. He was going to get you all killed. Very quickly following his idiotic words, everyone else in Yugi’s group agreed they had no choice and would duel.“Wait a second, what happens if we lose?” Anzu asked.Finally, someone was asking a smart question. You crossed your arms over your chest and stared down the Big Five. Now that you’d heard their motives for wanting to duel the group of teens, you could understand. But you still couldn’t figure out how Noah fit into all of this, or why he wanted so badly to target Seto, especially since the two had never met. “If you lose, our minds in the cyber world will take over your physical bodies,” Ota said.“We’ll switch places with you and you’ll wander this cyberspace for all eternity!” Oshita clarified excitedly. The five of their bodies grew and distorted, towering over you as the cackled at your shocked faces. “This is ridiculous,” you huffed and turned your attention to Seto, “Can they actually do that?”“Hypothetically if they could shock our brains into--”“I’ll do it,” Katsuya interrupted, “I’ll be your first opponent!” “Idiot.” Seto muttered, barely loud enough for you to hear.Just as the words left his mouth, a bright light appeared underneath the spunky blonde boy, then disappeared to leave a gaping hole in the floor. He plummeted into the darkness, leaving his younger sister behind. “Your friend’s speech earlier means you’ve all consented.” Oshita grinned. “I knew his big mouth would get us into trouble,” you sighed, looking behind you just as a hole opened beneath Anzu’s platform sandals. She, too, fell into the endless darkness below her. Next fell Shizuka, quickly joined by Honda and Ryuuji as the hole expanded. The various members of Yugi’s group dropped like flies, and just as you turned to look back at the Kaiba boys, a hole opened beneath Seto’s feet. “Nii-sama!” Mokuba shouted, racing toward his brother. “Mokuba stop!” You ran after him, reaching for his collar as the hole expanded large enough for the three of you, dropping you and leaving Yugi alone with The Big Five. Mokuba clutched onto his elder brother, then looked up at you as you fell just above them. He let out a panicked whimper, and you tried to give him a reassuring look, but truthfully you were about as worried as he was. “Nii-sama, I’m scared!”“How dare you do this to us,” Seto spat, keeping a hand on his brother’s back.You watched the distorted walls around you begin to separate, and looked down at your hand to see them begin to falter and the colors split apart. You couldn’t feel anything, but somehow you though you should have. Below you, the same was happening to Seto and Mokuba, red and blue outlines of their bodies splitting off into different directions as you fell through the endless nothingness, completely at the whim of The Big Five. This was not at all what you had expected when you’d gotten intel of a plot to kill the Kaibas, you were thinking more of an assassination or a bomb on Alcatraz. Not your childhood friend and the top Kaiba Corp business executives dropping you all into a virtual world. You reached to your back to feel if your knife was still there. But as your fingers reached your back, you were surprised that you felt nothing. The sensation of touch was completely gone. You blinked around you, around the distorted sea of colors and non-shapes, unable to feel the air that had been whipping at your body. Unable to hear the panicked whimpers of Mokuba below you. Unable to even make out the bodies of the Kaibas. Then everything went black.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
When Seto Kaiba finally opened his eyes he was lying on his back, wefts of dewy grass crushed between his clenched fingers. The blue sky that greeted him was painted with wisps of white clouds, moving slowly across their canvas in the breeze he could just barely feel. He tilted his head back at the sound of movement behind him, to find you already sitting up and gently tilting his brother’s head side-to-side. It seemed Mokuba had not yet awoken. “What are you doing?”“Making sure he didn’t hit his head.” You kept your gaze focused on his brother, lightly combing your fingers through his hair and feeling around for something. One you were seemingly satisfied, you set him back down in the grass and stood, offering your hand to Seto. He stared at it for a moment, before waving it away with his own and pushing himself off the ground. “Well?” He pressed. “His vitals are fine, no bumps anywhere. He’s just not conscious yet.” You looked over him, brow furrowed, before your eyes met his. “What about you?” “I’m fine, to my knowledge.”You didn’t seem convinced by his response. “We should probably check each other’s heads and backs just in case.” Seto thought you were being a bit paranoid, but considering the circumstances it wasn’t that bad of an idea. Other than the vague threats and insistence on stealing your bodies, none of you were exactly sure what this construct of a virtual world had in store. It was logical to check for damage after what felt to him like a decent fall from the sky.He nodded at your proposal, though you were already walking toward him. Your hands flew up to clutch at the collar of his coat, and you pulled it off his shoulders. You’d gotten it past his elbows before he registered what exactly you were doing, and he brought his arms up to grab your wrists. Other than your uncharacteristically alarmed state of mind, there were two thoughts currently racing through his head. The first was that he had absolutely no desire to strip in front of you, though not out of a sense of modesty or something so trivial. Rather, he didn’t want you asking any unnecessary questions about the state of his back, if that’s really where you intended on checking him for injury. The second was a counterargument. He’d gone through bits and pieces of your file last night, and had a decent understanding of the scope of your abilities. To stop time around you and do whatever you wanted without anyone knowing what had happened. If you were truly this worried about possible injury to him, he was curious if you would check him without his knowledge using your ability. Just going off your personality and desire to make him happy, he doubted it. But then again, he didn’t really know you very well anymore did he?There was, he figured, less than a ten percent chance that you tried to discuss his back. He would at least give you the credit that you were mature enough to keep your mouth shut. Probably. Thinking back, when he had still been a child you had figured out the torment Gozaburo inflicted on him behind the scenes. He doubted you’d be surprised by what you saw.Ultimately he decided it was better to allow you to get this hysteria out of your system, especially before Mokuba woke up and it became a whole ordeal. “What are you doing?” He asked.“Checking to make sure you’re not injured.” “I understand that, why are you stripping me?” “It’s hard to tell if you’re hurt through your clothes.” Now he was just getting annoyed. “Why are you stripping me?” At that you paused, blinking up at him a few times before you flushed a shade of scarlet he’d never seen on you before. Through the tight grip on your wrists, he realized how quickly your pulse was racing. “Sorry,” you finally sighed, “Force of habit.” “Stripping men?” Seto hummed saucily. He released his hands from your wrist and pulled his coat off himself before draping it over your shoulder.“What--? No!” At that you looked mortified. “Panicking over your well-being-- what exactly do you think I do for work?”It had been a joke, one that caused more of a reaction from you than he expected, but a joke nonetheless. Still, your question offered him an excellent segway into getting some information out of you without directly asking for it. He reached for the hem of his shirt, untucking it from his pants reluctantly before pulling it over his head and repeating the same motion he had with his coat. You didn’t seem to mind being used as a coat rack.“I read over the ‘curriculum’ they had at the laboratory, if you can even call it that. Seduction was something taught to most of the,” he paused while he searched for a word that would not offend you, “...patients.”It seemed you hadn’t caught on to his pressing for information. Perhaps it was manipulative, but Seto had never really been a virtuous character had he?“I was required to attend a few of the classes, we all were,” you began, though your focus was already on his chest as you scanned him for injury. The blush had already drained from your cheeks and you were, it seemed, back to normal. “But they had other focuses for me. Seduction was more for long-term missions, and soldiers with abilities better suited for things like espionage and infiltration. I was made for more… get in get out sort of missions.” He noticed the uncomfortable way you said ‘get in get out’, like you were using the term as a replacement for other words that had come to mind. He also noticed the way you referred to those in the lab as soldiers, and made a mental note to use that from now on. “Doll had to learn more about that kind of stuff I did. Seduction, networking, diplomacy,” you continued without being pressed. “I had a more combat and stealth focused-- what did you call it? Curriculum?”“Doll?” “She was my cellmate. Still is. Er, well, I suppose she’s a housemate now since we’re not in a cell anymore.” At the mention of your house he had the urge to ask you where you were living now, if you were in Domino or not. And, if so, why hadn’t you tried to make contact with him before Battle City? But, he didn’t want to appear too interested in you, and thought it was best to pick up bits of information you freely shared before he decided what exactly you meant to him, if anything at all. Instead he did not offer a response, partially because he didn’t have anything in particular to say and partially because you had begun circling around his body to look at his back. He hadn’t been expecting your reaction to the scars, or rather, your lack of reaction. He had already predicted you’d be smart enough not to say anything, but he anticipated you would acknowledge them in some way. Instead your eyes wandered his back like you didn’t see them at all, or you saw them and weren’t in the least bit surprised. Seto was curious about your expressionless face, but not curious enough that he would willingly bring the conversation up, so he instead turned his head away from you. He glanced over at Mokuba, still lying in the grass, chest rising and falling in an even pattern. He was about to ask if you were satisfied with your examination when he felt a fingertip brush at the back of his neck. He immediately tensed from the feeling, and snapped his head back to look at you. “Sorry, did that hurt?” You asked, finger still raised innocently in the air at the spot where his neck had just been. “Warn me before you touch me,” he snapped. You nodded, though you seemed like you weren’t completely listening. Instead you spun around and lifted your hair from your neck. “Do I have one too?”“One what?” He huffed. “A sort of… weird shaped indent?” He was still, frankly, annoyed that you had touched him without his permission and acted like you’d done nothing wrong. But you were acting strange in general, and if you had actually found something on him he wanted to know what it was. He swallowed the insults he was going to throw your way and sighed, before turning his body around fully to look over your neck. There was a large indent, or rather a raised area surrounded by indentation, across the entire back of your neck. It was in a shape that seemed somewhat familiar to him although at the moment he couldn’t recall where he’d seen it. Two lines running parallel to each other, ending in a sort of oval on either side. As he stared at it, the size made him think of a pattern that might form from the gap between a chair and a head rest.You were still standing perfectly still the entire time, waiting patiently for him to say something about your neck, or perhaps allowing him to take his time analysing it. After a moment, a thought crossed his mind, and a voice somewhere in the back of his mind chided him for being childish. Payback. He ran the tip of his index finger along the back of your neck just as you had done to him, and almost immediately you jerked away from him. “Haa-- Seto!” You yelped. “Startling, isn’t it?” He couldn’t fight the smirk that had crept onto his face, “Although you had more of a reaction than I anticipated.” “I have a sensitive nape,” you frowned defensively at him. He decided that was important information he should save for later. Since you seemed satisfied with the current state of his body, he plucked his shirt from you and pulled it on, doing the same with his coat, and adjusting himself so he was once again in pristine condition. Momentarily he wondered if he should offer to check you for injury, but after watching you walk back to Mokuba to try shaking him awake again he decided against it. About three minutes later, his little brother finally woke and stood up from the ground with your assistance. As you’d already confirmed, he seemed perfectly fine. Now that that was all sorted, Seto could focus on the pressing matters at hand: who the hell was Noah, what did he want with them, and how could he find an exit as quickly as possibly to get on with his tournament?
-----
You ended up wandering through a dense forest with the Kaiba brothers. There had been a well-walked trail you’d followed for a while, but after getting nowhere Seto had demanded you all take the path less traveled. There wasn’t much of note, the woods were surprisingly well lit for how populated it was, though you figured that was because the world was virtual. The sounds of the forest were prevalent all around you, from the leaves rustling in the breeze to the white noise of summer cicadas. Birds chittered in the treetops and small wildlife occasionally crossed your path. The three of you walked side by side when the path was wide enough to accomodate, and you walked in front of the boys when it wasn’t. Seto neither commented on nor argued with your leading the way, even though you’d expected him to. “What’s that?” Mokuba asked, finger pointed a little ways to the right where the wooded path lead. Criss-crossed between the tree trunks on either side was a thicket of vines, covered in clusters of small sky blue flowers cascading downward. “Wisteria flowers,” you replied before Seto had a chance to. He raised an eyebrow to you, and you shrugged. “They were Professor Yasuko’s favorites, remember? She told us that story about the--”“The fox who gave birth beneath the vines on her house, yes I recall.”The two of you exchanged a look, one that filled you with a strange warmth and made a breath catch in your throat, if only for a moment. Now that he wasn’t constantly glaring at you or focusing sadistic stares your way, you once again felt the fluttering in your chest you’d experienced as a child. His deep azure eyes fixated on you, the way his eyebrows were always just slightly knit, the way his--“So, what are these vines doing here?” Mokuba’s voice broke through your thoughts. “Impeding our progress, it would seem.” Seto muttered, turning his head to focus his gaze on the wisteria. You exhaled the breath you hadn’t realized you were holding in and followed his lead, observing the thickness of the vine trunks. “So what, we have to turn back?” Mokuba asked. Seto took a few steps forward and reached out a hand to grasp one of the vines, tugging at it a few times to test its strength. “So it would seem.” “Maybe not,” you hummed. Mokuba had also followed his brother’s lead and was grasping at a few of the vines, using all of his might to try pulling at them. After a few grunts of frustration and tugging as hard as possible, he sighed and let go of them “I don’t think these are gonna budge.” “I might be able to cut them.” You reached behind you into your waistband, prying the handle of your knife out with mild effort. You gripped it firmly with one hand and used the other to remove its sheath, though as you did so Mokuba near jumped in the air. “Woah! Why do you have that?”You glanced down at the KA-BAR in your hand, “I’m not sure, I wasn’t expecting it to follow me into the virtual world actu--”“Wait! You had that on you in real life?” You nodded. Seto cleared his throat, “You brought a combat knife onto my blimp?”“No, no don’t be silly. I brought four.”Neither of the boys said anything, Mokuba because he seemed completely baffled by the situation and Seto because… well because he looked like he was calculating something. You wanted to ask, but figured you’d find out what it was later anyway. You stepped in between them and asked Mokuba to stand back a little, before raising your knife up and swiftly bringing it down on one of the vines. It cut about halfway through the stock, and after a second swing came apart with ease. One down, about thirty to go. Seto and Mokuba watched you chop at vines for a solid ten minutes, before they seemed to get bored and wandered off to another part of the forest. They stayed within sight, so you didn’t worry too much about them. It took a while, but you eventually managed to cut through the final wisteria vine blocking the path between the trees. You called behind you for the boys as you sheathed your knife and slipped it back into your waistband. It was a moment before the two wandered over to you, and you all peered through the trees. It was Mokuba who lead the way this time, pushing between both you and his brother to begin walking quickly down the path, excited to find an exit. The two of you followed after him. “You’re sweating,” Seto muttered, low enough that Mokuba wouldn’t be able to hear him. “You wanna try cutting down thirty-three vines next time?” “You counted?”You snorted a laugh, “Wasn’t much else to do.”He ignored the comment and returned his attention to his brother, picking up his pace a bit to catch up to him, and you followed suit. It only took him a few strides to reach is brother’s side with how ridiculously long his legs had gotten, and you had to jog a bit to reach Mokuba’s heels. When had he gotten so much taller than you, again?“Hey what’s that?” Mokuba called, pointing up ahead and taking off in a run, “It looks like a way out! Come on guys!”“Mokuba, slow down!” Seto called after him. “It’s probably an emergency exit to the real world,” Mokuba said excitedly, pausing in front of what looked to be a fancily carved wooden door when Seto shouted for him to stop. The two of you reached the younger’s side and took a moment to examine the door, before Seto reached for the door handle. You placed a hand at your back to grip at your knife again, just in case anything unsavory popped out of the door. Your other hand was hovering in front of Mokuba’s chest in an effort to keep him from running off again. From the door poured a brilliant bright light, one that you had to squint against. “Wait a second…” Mokuba muttered, “Isn’t that…?” “What?” You asked. He looked up at you with a frown, “It’s the orphanage we grew up in. Who knew it still existed?” “It’s obviously a trick,” Seto about spat, “Just some cheap virtual illusion like everything else in here.”You removed your hand from the knife at your back and sighed, scanning the area inside of the doorway. Behind a tall metal fence stood what looked like a school building, with white walls and red roofing. It looked to be in decent shape, although the playground outside of it seemed like it hadn’t been updated or repaired in years, the metal of the swing set a dull, rusted copper.“What I want to know,” the elder spoke again, “Is how exactly Noah found out we used to live here.” The three of you took a few cautious steps into the doorway, examining your surroundings carefully. Mokuba began muttering about how he’d never wanted to see this place again, and Seto assured him, once again, that the building was just an illusion. His words didn’t seem to have the intended effect, and when Mokuba turned his face to glance up at you the hurt in his eyes made your chest ache. You placed a hand on his shoulder and offered it a squeeze.“It still brings back bad memories.” He muttered defeatedly. “Why did you two--?” You began to ask, before cutting yourself off as you realized it was a completely inappropriate question to ask. Seto shot you a glare, and you shook your head, “Sorry.”The three of you began walking forward through the metal gate in front of the orphanage, which had opened up as if inviting you all inside. You kept your hand on Mokuba’s shoulder, partially in an attempt to lift his spirits and partially to keep him close to you. “Welcome, boys.” Came a low voice from behind you. The three of you froze in place, simultaneously turning your heads to find the source of the noise. You stared between the young forms of Seto and Mokuba, both looking even smaller than they had when you’d first met them. The two stood at the gate next to two men in suits, each with only one small bag to their name. You opened your mouth to say something, but for the life of you couldn’t form any coherent sentence to properly express how sorry you were. You felt like you shouldn’t have been seeing this, that you were probably intruding on their lives even more than you already had. “Seto… what’s going on?” Mokuba asked cautiously. “Somehow,” the elder huffed, “Noah must have tapped into out memories so he could replay events from our past.” “That’s right! I hope you’ll all enjoy the trip down memory lane.” A familiar laugh echoed around the three of you, who each darted your heads around in an attempt to find the source. You hadn’t noticed, but your grip had tightened on Mokuba’s shoulder in worry, and at one point Seto’s eyes met yours with a frustration you could only imagine. You should have been focused on the Kaiba brothers and the pain they must have been going through at the sight of their memories playing out. But you were all too distracted by what Seto had said. Noah was tapping into their memories, putting them on display. He could show them to anyone in this virtual world. Your stomach began to knot at the realization that, if he could parade around Seto and Mokuba’s painful memories, he could do the same to yours.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Watching the plethora of Seto and Mokuba’s memories flow by slowly was making you more than a little uncomfortable. You felt like you were intruding on something you shouldn’t have been, and with the way both brothers were making it a point not to look at you, you were sure they felt much the same way. You took to chewing at the inside of your cheek and staring at a fixed point on the ground, a patch of grass that seemed to have been dug at by either a small child or an animal. Your phone buzzed in your back pocket, and you furrowed your brow in confusion. You were in a virtual world, you shouldn’t have been getting cell service here. You reached behind you to dig the phone from your pocket, unlocking it to find the source of the vibration. You noticed a single unread message in your text log, in fact, it was the only message.
Are you not enjoying the show?
You frowned at the words, glancing back at the Kaiba brothers to see them staring into one of the windows of the orphanage. Neither of them seemed to have noticed you, considering how intently they were watching something you could not see and talking to one another at a level you’d only be able to decipher if you strained your ears. Seto had a frown on his face, and Mokuba a look of melancholy you were not used to seeing.
Who is this?
I’m sure you can take a guess.
Considering you were inside of a world apparently controlled by your childhood friend, and your cell signal had been blocked earlier to anyone outside, there was only one option. To your knowledge, Seto and Doll were about the only two people in the world capable of hacking into a digital construct of this scale. You highly doubted Doll would have been able to hack in so quickly, if she even knew you’d disappeared yet. And Seto, well, he was standing right in front of you.
Noah?
Bingo! I’m so glad you remember me.
Of course I remember you.
After you hit send your screen immediately went black, before just as quickly turning itself back on as if someone had pressed a refresh button. You noticed the chat window had changed a bit, the place where a sender’s name would normally go now had the symbol of a heart, also appearing next to each of Noah’s messages. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes.
♡: You always were so sweet.
You frowned down at the message and tapped your thumb at the side of your cell phone. Just what the hell was Noah’s game here? Why was he messaging you, rather than talking aloud like he had been earlier? He was up to something, and you didn’t like it.
What do you want?
♡: Straight to the point, hm? Oh all right, I want to make a deal with you.
You glanced up to confirm the boys were still unaware of your texting. You wanted to get as much information out of Noah as possible, but if Seto knew what you were up to he would probably go off on you.
What kind of deal?
♡: Do me a favor and don't tell them who I am, won’t you? I'd really like to make my own introductions, and you telling them you grew up with me would just spoil the fun.
You scoffed under your breath. This is your idea of fun?
♡: It's sort if like watching a movie, don't you think?
At someone else's expense, I suppose.
♡: Just be glad it isn't at your expense. Keep my little secret, and I promise it'll stay that way. I'm sure you don't want those two seeing all those painful memories of the lab.
As you tried to think up a reply, you darted your eyes up to the sound of a terrifyingly familiar voice, and sucked in a sharp breath. The tall, tackily dressed figure of Gozaburo Kaiba entered the frame of the brothers’ memories, and instinctively you took a step away from the pillar you were leaned on to take on a more defensive stance. Seto seemed to notice this, and turned his head to look over at you.
“It’s just a hologram,” he repeated, perhaps for the fourth time in the last ten minutes. When he realized his words had little effect on you he cast a glance to Mokuba, who seemed to have forgotten you were even there, focus completely occupied by Gozaburo as he walked down the outdoor hallway toward the three of you. Seto then left his brother’s side and quickly closed the distance between the two of you, his hands gripping your shoulders before you’d even realized he’d moved them.
“Look at me,” he said quietly, before repeating the words in a more commanding tone and prompting your eyes to lock with his. “That is not Gozaburo Kaiba, do you understand?”
You blinked and opened your mouth to respond, but found you couldn’t get any words to come out. With that a frustrated growl left his throat, and his brow furrowed even further.
“I’ve got enough to deal with in this virtual mess of a world without having to worry about you too.” He seethed, though when he searched your face and discovered his words only made your shoulders tremble, he sighed and closed his eyes. He allowed himself a few even breaths before he opened them again, the sapphire hue holding your attention.
“Listen to me,” he began, this time his voice considerable softer, “Everything we’re seeing is just memories replaying, none of it is real. You know that.” He waited for you to respond, and you somehow managed a nod before he spoke again. “Gozaburo Kaiba is dead. I watched him leap out a window myself.”
You nodded again.
“Say it,” he demanded, giving your shoulders a light shake, “Now.”
“Gozaburo Kaiba is dead.” You repeated, finding the words trivially easy to speak aloud. You blinked up at him, a long breath leaving your mouth. “Sorry, Seto.”
He merely shook his head to wave you off, releasing your shoulders and turning away from you to return to his brother’s side. You collected yourself and looked back at the copy of Gozaburo as it disappeared into the room Mokuba was staring into. You glanced back down at the phone when it buzzed, alerting you of a new message.
♡: Sorry, I didn’t think that would make you so upset.
You bit at the your lip and frowned. You hadn’t expected it to make you so upset, either. You knew Gozaburo was dead, knew you no longer had anything to worry about when it came to him, knew he no longer held any ounce of power over you. Yet seeing him, standing there, walking toward you… for a moment it sent you back to that place you’d been as a kid. You felt that same primal fear you always had when he passed by your cell, or viewed you from the observation windows, or stood over you strapped to a table and ordered doctors to inject you with god knew what. Another message appeared on your screen.
♡: You know, I didn’t expect you to be here.
What, with Seto and Mokuba?
♡: Yes. I figured you would want nothing to do with them after everything that happened to you, all that pain Seto caused you.
You raised an eyebrow. I think you mean the pain your father caused me.
♡: Of course. I know my father… what he did to you was terrible. But considering it was Seto’s fault I didn’t think you’d be following him around.
Noah what the hell are you talking about?
♡: Well if he hadn’t gotten that crush on you or slacked off on his studies, you would have never gotten punished for his mistakes, right? I mean, if he hadn’t come into the picture in the first place, your life would have been perfect.
You had to take a moment to stop the furious trembling in your fingers before you even began to formulate a response. You could swear you were seeing red. This was fucking ridiculous, of course none of that was Seto’s fault. By the time you had even started to calm down, another message popped up.
♡: And even after everything he’s put you through, he still treats you like the dirt under his shoe.
You couldn’t deal with this right now, you had more important things to worry about than whatever propaganda Noah was trying to push on you. You clicked off the screen and shoved it in your pocket, taking in a long breath to calm yourself down. You noticed Mokuba and Seto had begun arguing, and looked up to see the younger pointing angrily at the window that they’d been looking into. “I liked things better the way they were before! Back then, at least you smiled once in a while! Now you’re never happy!”“Mokuba--” Mokuba ripped open the door beside the window, and where once it had lead to a sort of classroom, now staring inside you noticed there was only blackness. Mokuba began to take a step inside, so quickly he didn’t even process the fact that there was no floor beneath his feet. You yourself took a step forward, frantically clearing your mind as the young boy looked down to realize his mistake.
Stop.
As his hand left the edge of the door, he had no way to support himself, and you watched his body tumble forward.
I said stop!
A scream ripped through his throat as his body disappeared, and Seto dove forward to catch him. He fell to the ground, one arm reaching over the ledge that lead to only blackness, the other planted firmly on the ground beside him. It took you nearly half a second to snap yourself out of a third attempt at your ability, and you took off toward the boys.“Nii-sama don’t let go, please!”
No, no, no. This cannot be happening.
You scrambled forward next to Seto, leaning over the ledge to try to grasp at Mokuba’s hand. Seto’s long arms made it difficult to reach, so you had to scoot as far forward as possible and support your weight with only your left hand. After stretching your arm more than you thought possible, you managed to grip at Mokuba’s wrist, and assisted the elder in pulling up his brother. Once he was safely above ground, you placed a hand on your chest to steady your breathing, before being suddenly yanked by your shoulders. You found yourself staring at the elder, face inches from yours, blue eyes filled with a burning fury. “Why didn’t you stop him?” Seto demanded loudly.You blinked a few times before you were able to form a response, “I… I couldn’t.”“What the hell do you mean? You should have--”“I said I couldn’t.”He glared at you for long enough that he realized your breathing was elevated, more than it should have been from just helping him pull Mokuba up. For a moment, you thought he might even be able to hear your heartbeat from how loudly it was throbbing against your ears. His eyes widened slightly in understanding, only for a moment, before quickly reforming his features into a scowl. He released your shoulders somewhat forcefully and stood up, spinning on his heels so his coat nearly smacked you in the face. “I know you can hear me Noah!” He shouted, “You won’t get away with this you little brat!” You ignored his shouting and turned your attention to Mokuba, “Are you okay?”“Yeah, thanks to you two.” He nodded, offering you a smile as he began to calm down. You nodded back, helping him to his feet and occupying yourself with observing your newfound surroundings. The environment had changed itself in the short time it had taken you to pull Mokuba from the cliffside, a violent ocean crashing its waves against the rocks below, stretching for as far as the eye could see. Behind you, what had once been a classroom door was now an expanse of grey, desolate wastes. In either direction, there seemed to be no end in sight, and you sighed at the fact that the three of you seemed to be, once again, relegated to wandering in nothingness at Noah’s whim. As you tapped your foot against the rocks, you heard Mokuba’s voice beside you. “I thought we had the latest virtual technology, but,” he began, “This place feels way more real than your Solid Vision, or any virtual world I’ve ever been in. If… if you hadn’t grabbed my arm… who knows what would have happened to me.” There was a long pause, and you felt your phone buzz again in your pocket. You frowned at the sensation, before plucking it out to see what it said, if for no other reason than to satisfy your own curiosity.
♡: You know he’s just using you, right?
You started down at the screen for a moment, feeling a knot form in your chest as you read over the words again. An ellipsis appeared beneath the message to indicate Noah was typing, or he was trying to simulate the feeling that he was. You found yourself more than a little compelled to watch the three dots bounce up and down, waiting to see what he would say next, despite the rational portion of your brain telling you to just get rid of the phone already.
♡: Now that he’s realized your abilities don’t work in my world, he’s just going to throw you away. Just like everyone else he doesn’t think is ‘useful’. You saw that look in his eyes, didn’t you?
“Mokuba,” came Seto's voice behind you.“Yeah, what is it?” “I want you to know… whatever else we see today, it's all just memories. I'm not proud of everything in our past, but everything I did I did for us. To give you a better life.”You sighed to yourself, feeling somewhat guilty for even entertaining what Noah had typed out. You clicked off the screen and returned the phone to your pocket, shaking your head a few times. Even if it was true, what did it matter if Seto was just using you? Wasn't that sort of the point of your job? You were a glorified bodyguard. You were here for a mission, to protect the Kaiba brothers. And you were going to do that no matter what. After allowing the two a moment, you took your KA-BAR from your waistband and kept it at your side. Even if you couldn't use your abilities here, you were still a soldier, trained extensively in hand-to-hand and close-quarters combat. You could keep the brothers safe even without your powers. You would make sure of it. “So, which way now?” You asked. Mokuba came to stand at your side and scanned the expanse ahead of you, “flip a coin?” You glanced over at Seto, who was eyeing the combat knife in your hand wordlessly. After a moment he merely shrugged, and began walking in an arbitrary direction. You and Mokuba followed closely after, and you had to resist the urge to pull out your phone again as it buzzed. You needed, at the very least, five minutes before dealing with Noah again.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After what seemed like hours of wandering through a vast, grey nothingness, the scenery eventually changed to a landscape of pastel green. The stone at Seto’s feet changed to grass, rocks to bushes and small clumps of flowers, cliffs in the distance to tall trees. He had gotten quickly fed up with the color grey, yet somehow the forest landscape the three of you now found yourselves in was even worse. “Oh lovely, more trees,” you hummed sardonically, echoing his silent sentiments. “Do you think any of these virtual berries are edible?” Mokuba asked hopefully.“You hungry?”He looked up at you and nodded, “Starving.” You looked over to Seto, but he merely shook his head. He had more important things to focus on than hunger pangs. You slipped your cell phone into your pocket, and as you did so Seto realized you’d been taking it out fairly often as they’d walked in mostly silence. What on earth could you possibly be using it for in this virtual prison? He watched you pull your bag off your shoulders and unzip one of the many pockets, digging around for a moment before pulling out a protein bar and offering it to his brother. “Dunno if it’ll actually do anything, but it’s worth a shot,” you said.“Thanks!” He grinned before tearing the aluminum wrapping from the bar and biting into it. After a few chews, he frowned at it, before pulling the wrapping back up to examine the flavor. It seemed to disappoint him, but he politely took another bite and said nothing about the taste. When Seto looked back at you, you were spinning your combat knife between two of your fingers and staring straight ahead. “You came to my tournament prepared,” Seto observed. “Yeah well, that’s sort of my job.” Mokuba looked up at you as well, “What is your job anyway?”You continued spinning the knife in your hand, though Seto noted it fumbled slightly at the question. Your face assumed a thoughtful frown, and for a moment both brothers thought you might not give an answer. You eventually gave a casual shrug.“Think of me as your bodyguard.” Mokuba cocked his head in confusion, “We… you’re not hired by Kaiba Corp. right?” Seto thought the question ridiculous enough that he couldn’t hold back a scoff, “She absolutely is not.”“So why are you our bodyguard?”“Because I want to be,” you replied simply. When Mokuba continued to stare at you, you stopped spinning your knife and looked down at him with a sigh, “I’m a good fighter, and I don’t want you two getting hurt. Bodyguard seems like a pretty good way to accomplish that.” “We have bodyguards, you know.” Seto pointed out. “Yeah, your bodyguards are shit.” You replied, though you immediately apologized to Mokuba for the language before continuing. “Most of them are, anyway. Isono’s doing alright.” His brother seemed to garner more questions than answers from your words, but though he had a contemplative look on his face and kept looking between the two of you, he didn’t ask anything else. Seto wasn’t positive if he was trying to hold himself back from asking anything, or if he was just trying to think of what exactly to ask, but before he was able to you pointed to something ahead of them. Mokuba looked to where you were pointing, before slipping the remaining half of the protein bar you’d given him into his pocket. “That doesn’t seem suspicious at all.” You muttered. “Maybe we should try to take a break in there,” Mokuba suggested cautiously. Seto glanced over at you, and you flipped your knife in your hands before nodding. The three of you had been walking for ages, and even he liked the idea of taking a break, if for no one else than for his brother’s sake. He lead the way toward the cabin, you and Mokuba close behind him, your footfalls on the grass becoming the only sound as you got further from the forest.
This could be another one of Noah’s ridiculous traps.
As he reached for the door, he looked back to you briefly to see you partially unsheathe your knife, and though he loathed to admit it he felt significantly safer with you behind him. Another blinding light flooded through the door when he pulled it open, before the scenery inside changed to an alarmingly familiar sight. “This is--” He began. “Our house.” Mokuba finished.The small forms of he and his brother as children began walking past him, the younger clutching at the back of his blue sweater vest and pensively looking around the mansion with terrified eyes. Seto watched you return your knife to its fully sheathed state and take a few steps to stand next to him, your own eyes wide as you watched the scene unfold. “Is this...” you began, “Was this your first day in the mansion?” He nodded, and felt a frown creeping onto his face. He hated the fact that you were here to see their childhood, the fact that you were intruding on their memories even if it hadn’t been your intention. Why did you have to get dumped with him and his brother in this world? He was sure there were plenty of other places Noah could have dropped you. Still, it was better you than anyone else. Had it been any members of the Geek Squad, Seto probably would have strangled them by now. At least you already knew about parts of their past, and since you were all now in the mansion there probably weren’t very many things Noah could show you that you didn’t already know, or hadn’t already figured out. And, if nothing else, at least he felt better having you around to keep Mokuba out of danger. Hopefully, you wouldn’t continue to be as useless as you had been on that cliff.The three of you followed the smaller versions of he and his brother down the hallway as the scene shifted to one of the libraries. The younger version of Seto sitting at a table, books piled around him and in the middle of a chemistry lecture. It was the first, and only time, he’d ever made the mistake of dozing off during class. He noticed you cringe a bit as a long metal pointer was slammed onto the table to wake his younger self, causing a sharp slap to echo through the room. After watching the head butler threaten to send him and his brother back to the orphanage if he continued to slack off, the scene shifted once again before the three of you. The long, lonely dining room table, piled high with food and seating only Gozaburo, himself, and Mokuba. Both he and his brother watched you curiously as you scoffed, before walking toward the table to get a closer look at his stepfather. “This tacky thing was yellow?” You muttered aloud, sounding both simultaneously disgusted and intrigued. Seto found the question odd, not just because it seemed a strange thing to focus on while watching their memories, but because of the way you phrased it. The ‘thing’ you were referring to was obviously the playboy-style bathrobe Gozaburo was wearing. But he was almost positive you never would have seen him wearing it, considering he only did so at night, and you were never in the mansion past four unless it was for a party. So why would you know he owned it, and even if you had seen him wearing it, why wouldn’t you have known it was yellow?He was about to ask you about it, but you had already focused your attention on the conversation at the table. Gozaburo had asked his younger self what he intended to do with Kaiba Corporation when he became CEO, and in his naivety he had responded truthfully, about his passion for games and dreams to make Kaiba Land a reality. The response from his stepfather had been swift, Gozaburo demanded all their games be confiscated and his younger self master the ‘ways of a king’ as he called it. The rest of the evening played out slowly, haunted by an uncomfortable silence that had fallen over the three of you. Seto found he spent more time looking at your reactions than at the memories themselves. You were standing only a few steps in front of him, so absorbed in what you saw that you didn’t notice he was watching you. Your reactions were so honest and expressive, and he found himself intrigued by the faces you were making. The way you scrunched your nose in anger each time that butler you hated spoke, or how you smiled the entire time you watched his younger self sort through the cards Mokuba had given him after all his games had been taken. What he really noticed is the way you stared down at your pinky as the head butler left his old bedroom with the box of games, a regretful frown taking over your lips.Mokuba was also watching the scenes intently, not at all focused on you, and Seto inwardly cursed the fact that he was the only one barely interested in these memories. He had seen them all before, in fact he’d lived them. It wasn’t like he needed a history lesson. He really wanted nothing more than to get this whole thing over with so he could find Noah and demand an explanation. As if his mind had been read, in that moment the scene around the three of you collapsed, shattering into bits of data and leaving you standing in a black room, only lit by two white spotlights. One was shining directly on you, Mokuba, and him. The other cast a bright light on that annoying little brat, who had a childish grin on his face. He was clapping his hands softly, as if he’d just finished watching a play. “What beautiful brotherly love, you two,” he said, his high voice teetering between taunting and praising, “Seems like you’ve also had a painful childhood, haven’t you Seto?”“You,” Seto frowned, “Why are you showing us all this?”“I want to show you two how you drove Gozaburo Kaiba to his death,” Noah replied in a sing-song voice, “So that you can be properly punished for it.” At that, Seto noticed your head snap up to look at Noah, eyes wide in confusion. You began looking around the rest of the blackness as well, but said nothing as you did so, looking more and more worried as the seconds ticked by.“Who the hell are you, Noah?” Seto demanded. Noah’s eyes glanced past him to meet yours, and the oppressive grin that spread across his face caused you to grip at your knife harder than you already had been. You had that same look on your face he’d noticed earlier when that hologram of Gozaburo had first appeared. For now, Seto chose to ignore it and returned his attention fully to Noah. “You’ll find out soon enough, enjoy waiting for that moment.” He laughed, the obnoxious sound bouncing around the blackness that held you all as his body began to dissolve into nothingness. Seto took a moment to search his surroundings, but finding the boy was completely gone and there way no way to force him to return, he merely let out a frustrated groan. When he turned to look to you, your face had already gone back to normal, a frown on your face and that same confusion glinting in your eyes. You’d taken to crossing your arms over your chest, and you no longer had the hilt of your combat knife in a death grip.Seto continued to stare at you, and when you noticed, you uncrossed your arms and turned your body to him. You made no indication you were going to speak. Instead you eventually furrowed your brow in an attempt to prompt him to speak, and Seto let out a sigh. There was something you weren’t telling him, but he had no evidence other than a few faces you’d made. Even then, he had no idea what those faces could have been in response to, exactly. Given time, however, he was certain he could manipulate you into telling him.The darkness began to disappear, the scenery of a forest returned, and each of you simultaneously groaned.
-----
“Have you found her yet?”Doll huffed into the mug of tea at her lips, tapping one of her stiletto nails against her desk three times before setting the drink back down and swiveling her chair around. “Blade it’s only been five minutes since you last asked.” She said with a huff, her European accent muddling with the English words in her frustration.“So, is that a no?”She pointed to one of her six computer monitors, showing a map of the ocean off the coast of Domino City, and a small red ‘X’ marking the location your cell signal had abruptly cut out. A second window was open on the same screen, one which had both a scanner and a loading bar that Blade could make absolutely no sense of and Doll was not at all in the mood to explain.“That is a no,” she confirmed with a shake of her head, her white curls bouncing side to side as she did so. “Well why aren’t you looking right now?”She raised an eyebrow and once again pointed to the monitor, “What do you think that is?” “Yeah but, can’t you… I don’t know… do something more active?” He asked, making a motion with his fingers like he was typing.Doll blinked in confusion a few times as she tried to decipher his game of charades, and once she understood she abruptly stood from her chair and looked like she was about to smack him. Blade took a step back and brought his hands up as if to calm her down, though it only served to frustrate her more. She placed a forceful hand on his shoulder and turned him around like a spinning top, shoving him toward her bedroom door.“Hurensohn! How many times do I have to tell you that this stuff isn’t like it is in the movies? Now quit bothering me! Geh mir aus den Augen!”With that, she pushed him out and slammed the door behind him, leaving him to stare at the opposite wall for a few moments in stunned silence. He glanced down the hallway to see James, peeking his head out from his own room and offering a shrug before ducking back inside. He sighed, rubbing at his forehead before returning downstairs to continue pacing about the living room.
-----
You'd felt like you'd been underwater. When Noah appeared before the three of you, your vision had started to blur and the conversation between him and Seto had sounded far away and muffled. You hadn’t been able to understand any of their words. It felt like you were drowning, but you could breathe just fine, and there hadn't been any water around you.It was strange. Then again, so was this world. But Seto hadn't said anything about the sensation, and afterward had spent a long while staring at you as if he expected you to comment on the conversation you could not hear. Texting Noah had proved fruitless, when you asked about the sensation he had suggested you were having some sort of reaction to the virtual software. You highly doubted it, though. Up until that point, and right after, you’d felt perfectly fine, and the timing was way too convenient to be overlooked. No, you were positive Noah was hiding something from you.“This forest never ends,” Mokuba groaned.“Remember when I was complaining about the cliff side? I take it back. Anything to get out of these damn trees.” You agreed.Walking a few steps behind you, you could hear Seto grumbling something under his breath. As you were about to ask what he had said, you noticed a rippling in the path up ahead. After a moment, another door appeared through the trees, looking the same as the first of its kind. A deep, glossy wood with ornate gold detailing around the perimeter and a shiny silver handle.“Ask and we shall receive, I suppose,” you hummed, and as you did so your phone vibrated in your pocket. You chose to ignore it. Both you and Mokuba turned your heads to look at Seto, who reached for the door handle without hesitation, and pulled it open for the three of you to step inside. The trees of the forest disappeared, instead turning to a room you hadn’t seen before. The grey and blue speckled stone floor caused your and Kaiba’s boots to echo off the walls, all of which were white save the one all the way in the back which was made entirely of windows.“The Kaiba Corporation president’s office,” Seto said aloud in recognition. The three of you took a moment to scan your surroundings, before noticing the high back, black leather chair behind the desk at the end of the room. It was faced toward the windows, but you could just barely make out the top of someone’s head against the bright light of the outside world. “What do you want?” Came Gozaburo’s voice, causing you to jump a bit in surprise. Both the Kaiba brothers did the same, before you each glanced to one another. Was he… speaking to you? In an instant, the form of a young Seto Kaiba appeared in front of you, and you sighed a little in relief. You then looked over the boy, and realized he was significantly taller than you remembered him being as a child. This must have happened long after you were already in the lab. “It’s about the virtual system I developed,” the young man replied.“I remember this,” the current Seto spoke next to you, “This was two years before I took over the company.” You realized, as he said those words, that there was more emotion in his voice than there had been while he watched any of the other memories. “There’s nothing to talk about,” Gozaburo dismissed, “I’m busy. Get out of my sight.” “No,” the young Seto said defiantly, “I created that system to be used for playing games, but you’re using it for war!”“Did you not hear me? I said get out of my sight.” You noticed your best friend was making a fist with his hand, and when you looked up at him, his brow was furrowed and his jaw was clenched in anger. “My virtual system is not a tool for war!” He continued, “It’s for the Kaiba Land that I--”You watched the form of the young Kaiba flinch as a large stack of papers came flying at him. He blocked most of them with his arm, but as they made contact the sound echoed sharply throughout the office. You quickly averted your eyes from you boy to instead look up to your side, only to see Seto had looked away from the sight as well. His blue eyes were hidden behind the eyelids he had squeezed shut, and the scowl on his face made your chest feel heavy. “Get out right now!” Gozaburo roared, “What a bunch of nonsense. Making ridiculous games is not what I am training you to do. The Kaiba name is one that will rule the world, do you understand? My goal is to rule as a defense contractor, and with your virtual system I will redraw the world map as I see fit.”You were starting to feel ill. “You’re wrong, father!” The hologram of a young Seto argued, but as he did two large men in suits gripped his arms and lifted him in the air, forcefully dragging his from the office as he yelled for Gozaburo to listen to him. You couldn’t stomach watching the rest of the scene, instead staring at your best friend as the shouting of his younger self became nothing but background noise. He had taken to biting at his lower lip and glaring straight ahead, you weren’t quite sure if he hadn’t noticed you staring or simply ignored it, and he did so until the scene dissolved.Mokuba began looking around frantically as the three of you returned to a green world, bushes placing themselves in the ground and trees emerging from thin air with the sound of digital noise. As much as you wanted to lament the fact that you were back in a fucking forest, you had more important things on your mind. Namely, trying to figure out if there was anything at all you could say to comfort your friend. “Seto--” you began. “He wanted to use my own technology for war. Exchanging people’s lives for his own financial gain,” he interrupted, and as he said this the two of you locked eyes. Though his words were vague you knew he was talking, at least in part, about you. “I refused to let someone that corrupt use my system. That day I made the decision to forsake him as my father, and that I would take over Kaiba Corporation to stop him.”“Nii-sama...” Mokuba muttered as he joined your side. The two of you watched him as he closed his eyes to collect himself momentarily, before speaking again. “This Noah kid is laughing at me expense, intruding on my memories to get a reaction out of me. It’s unforgivable.” He snapped his head upward to look at the blue sky above, clenching his fist in front of him, “Listen up Noah! You’re probably doing all this so you can take over Kaiba Corporation, but I won’t allow it! I’ll completely crush you, and make you regret ever bringing me here!”
...Oh.
As you watched him shout into the nothingness above, his sapphire eyes burning with an unmatched passion and a fury, you felt something swell in your chest. A bubbling in your stomach. His bangs swayed in the the light breeze that flowed through the trees, revealing the way his eyebrows had furrowed in defiance and conviction.
Right.
After a moment, he brought his hand back to his side and removed his gaze from the sky, eyes traveling first to his brother and then to you. He raised an eyebrow as you stared at him, finding yourself unable to look away from the infallible blue that seemed to trap you in their gaze. He quickly seemed to get impatient, and broke eye contact to face forward again. “Come on then,” he ordered, “Let’s keep walking.”
I’m in love with him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Noah Kaiba frowned at one of the many screens in front of him and leaned his cheek against his fist in thought. His other hand sat upon the armrest of his chair, index finger tapping rhythmically in an effort to ground himself. Things, so far, were not going exactly as planned. He wasn’t terribly bothered by the complete and utter failure shown by the Big Five thus far, to be honest he had been expecting it, at least to a degree. They had been stupid enough to get their minds stuck in a virtual prison by falling into their own trap, at the hands of someone as worthless as Seto Kaiba. It was honestly pathetic. Still, he’d expected at least a little more from them, Otaki especially. The fool lost to a girl who barely knew how the game worked.Aside from the five utter failures he’d allowed to be part of his master plan out of the goodness of his heart, there was another thorn in his scheme that was starting to become a nuisance. And he was looking right at her. Now going under the name of ‘Ghost’, at least to everyone aside from him and your current travel companions, you were more difficult to deal with than he’d first anticipated. Noah knew you were going to be coming to his world the second you qualified as a finalist in Seto’s silly little tournament. At first he figured it would make all his plans that much easier. Doing some digging into your background, however… complicated things, to say the least. It seemed you idolized Seto, through some misguided idea that the fool had saved your life from the laboratories his father put you in. Noah thought he could convince you that all of it was Seto’s fault, but so far you hadn’t seemed susceptible to his manipulations. Whether that was because of your training in the labs, or because you were just that enamored with the boy, he wasn’t positive. For a while it seemed his texts were getting to you, at least a little, especially after that little fall Mokuba had taken over the cliffside. Unfortunately, after the last few memories, Noah noticed you pulling out your phone less frequently to check his messages, and spending more of your time staring at Seto. It was infuriating. His number one priority was showing Seto painful memories of the past to teach him a lesson, put on a spectacle that told the story of how he had cruelly driven his father to suicide. Prove that not only was he unfit to be controlling Kaiba Corporation, but that had it not been for his intrusion into the family, Noah would be the one in control of the company he rightfully deserved. Had Seto not shoved his way into all of your lives, everything would be perfect. His father would have continued training him as planned, you would still be his best friend, and those two parasitic brothers would still be begging in an orphanage where they belonged. What Noah couldn’t comprehend was why couldn’t you see that? Why couldn’t you understand that Seto was the reason his father had changed, become so cold and distant? You would have never gotten sent to the lab if you had just stayed friends with him, rather than with that cheap imitation of a Kaiba. You were too blinded by love to see it all, clearly. But Noah had ways to fix that, to open your eyes and convince you that you should be at his side, not Seto’s. He just needed to… adjust his approach a little. “I think it’s time we start driving a wedge,” Noah hummed aloud, a grin creeping onto his face, “Let’s get serious about this, shall we?”--“If I see another tree I think I’m going to go crazy,” Mokuba groaned. “Maybe if we walk for long enough Noah will treat us to a nice field of flowers,” you suggested sarcastically, although part of you hoped he was listening and would change the forest to something different. You didn’t even care what it was, you’d take anything at this point.“Do you think if we shout at him he’ll do it?” Mokuba asked, though he was joking there was a spark of hope in his voice. “Worth a shot.”Seto pinched at the bridge of his nose in irritation as his younger brother began shouting into the wind, first that he take them somewhere that wasn’t a forest before he quickly devolved into simply demanding the three of you be let out of the virtual world altogether. The elder Kaiba shot you a glare, which you took to mean he did not appreciate you encouraging said shouting, but you brushed it off. The kid needed to get out his frustrations, he-- all of you-- were wound up tighter than a ball of rubber bands. Once his shouting died down, Mokuba looked around the forest with a glare, then let out a long sigh of defeat. Seto waved you two of you to continue, and wordlessly you all began traveling down the dirt path once again. The sound of birds chirping looped in the background, a breeze blowing through your hair and the smell of moss wafting up from the grassy rocks you stepped over. How long had you all been walking? Your concept of time was all sorts of messed up, it felt like you’d been trudging along for hours but you were neither hungry or tired, other than the general soreness and exhaustion of walking. The color of the sky had remained a brilliant blue, and the time on your phone had been frozen at 10:42 since you had made a mental note of it, back when you’d been walking through the grey expanse of nothingness. The blare of a car horn startled you out of your thoughts, and surprised Mokuba enough that he jumped, elbow colliding with your stomach. You stumbled backwards briefly, your back coming into contact with Seto’s chest lightly enough that his hum above you seemed more in reaction to the sound than to you. “You guys heard that right?” Mokuba asked after steadying himself. You and Seto both gave a short ‘mhm’ in confirmation. The three of you started walking again, curious to find the source of the sound, as the dirt path at your feet began to shift into a paved road. The blue sky was replaced with a grey, clouded one, and the trees began to shift into the sides of buildings. Seemed that you’d been put into an alleyway. Up ahead, perhaps another sixty feet, the alley broke into a wide street, the signs of which were in Japanese. On the other side of the street was a high stone wall with wrought iron fencing lining its top, tall enough that one couldn’t peer over it. You paused in front of it, Mokuba taking to examining the surface of the stone curiously and you biting at your bottom lip. The street was familiar, looking to your left you recognized the entrance to a park on the outskirts of Domino City. Past it, a four-way intersection that housed a long since closed boutique on one of its corners. Combined with the wrought iron fencing, a Victorian style not seen much in Japan, and you were fairly certain you knew where Noah had brought you. “This way,” Seto said calmly, taking a sharp turn to the right and continuing on the sidewalk without waiting for either you or Mokuba though you both quickly chased after him. He stopped at a large gate, the same style at the iron spikes on the stone wall. It was a gate you’d seen before, many many times before, and you felt your chest begin to ache. You didn’t even need to look past it to confirm your suspicions, but your attention was nonetheless drawn there when Mokuba pointed at the gate. “Where the heck are we?” He asked, finger extending just barely between the bars of the Victorian style fencing so he pointed at the house inside. It was big, not nearly as large as the mansion you’d spent so much time in as a child, but big enough that it was obvious someone wealthy lived inside. What once had been a pure white exterior and creme colored accents, kept in pristine condition by a hired staff of all-Japanese workers, was now showing signs of age and wear. Dirt on the face of the home, faint water stains from the rain gutter, spots of lightly chipping paint on the windowsills. The sorts of things that only accumulate over a few years, but that looked spectacularly out of place on a home so grand. One that had been in immaculate condition before. If one didn’t notice the wear on the home, the garden would tell the story. Grass that hadn’t been cut in months, overgrown hedges and wilted rose bushes, vines that had begun to peak out over the top of the wall seperating a calm city from the sinister sights within.This was the one place you’d never wanted to return. The lab had bad memories, of course, but it had been destroyed. The building itself no longer stood, the only thing you could go back to there was a pile of rubble and debris behind a high fence which no longer produced electricity. This place, however, still stood. Like a snapshot in time, one that you hadn’t had the heart to tear down nor the stomach to re-enter. And now Noah had brought you back. “What is this place?” Mokuba asked. You tried to open your mouth to speak, but found the words caught in your throat and your lips tightly sealed. “Wherever it is, it’s a dump.” Seto hummed in annoyance. Your phone buzzed in your back pocket. You couldn’t will yourself to move to look at it, nor did you have any desire too. Noah had promised he wouldn’t show off your painful childhood memories, you had a deal. Don’t tell the boys about him and your memories of the lab were safe. As you thought over the words again, you scoffed to yourself, half in dumbfoundedness and half in anger. He had said your lab memories would be kept a secret, he never said anything about the memories before you left, or those after you got out. Like father like son, you supposed, he knew his way around a binding contract, a way to get what he wanted through loopholes and half-truths. On cue, the familiar voice of your childhood friend echoed throughout the still air surrounding the three of you, cutting through your thoughts like a well-sharpened blade. “I think it’s time you experience someone else’s pain, Seto. You’ve caused quite a lot of it in your lifetime.”“Ridiculous,” he said with a shake of his head, “What, is your plan to show me images of the sad fools who have gotten in the way of my company’s progress? Do you think that will make me feel bad?”His tone was harsh and dismissive, arms crossed over his chest and nose turned up at the very idea that someone else’s pain could affect him. It was probably true, at the very least if the person wasn’t someone he knew personally. If it was someone who ‘got in the way’ as he called it, Seto seemed wholly unsympathetic to them or their plights, if the way he treated the other duelists on the blimp was any indication. “So harsh,” Noah’s voice chided in a sing-song, “I wonder if you’ll keep that tone once who figure out whose house this is. I’ll give you a hint, she’s standing right next to you.”You nearly laughed at the fact that Seto looked to his other side, assuming there would be a projection or hologram of another woman to give him answers, before he realized Noah was talking about you. His brow creased into a frown, eyes narrowing on your face as he searched your eyes. You weren’t sure how you looked at the moment, but you were trying to hold together your best poker face. Whether it was working or not was anyone’s guess, considering Seto had one of his own. The sound of a car door slamming caused him to snap his head in the other direction, where your and Mokuba’s gazes followed. A young woman stood on the sidewalk at the side of a taxi cab, staring up at the high stone walls. She was dressed in an ill-fitted pair of jeans, denim faded from years of wear and covered in stains that hadn’t come out in the wash, with the right pant leg torn at the knee. The tee-shirt she wore was clearly too big for her, as she had tied it up in the back with a rubber band so the baggy fabric didn’t completely cloak her thin frame. And you were not lying when you said thin; thin in the sense that the girl looked like she hadn’t eaten in months. Her hair looked a disaster, ripe with split ends and chunks of uneven length, framing her tired face which squinted against the dim light of the clouded sky as if she hadn’t seen sunlight in years. “Is that…?” Mokuba began to ask, though the final word died on his lips. “Me.” You confirmed. Although you said that, looking at yourself in the grey, empty Domino City streets, you couldn’t manage to associate yourself with her. That person, the girl you had been, seemed so far away from what you were now. Yet you were her, or rather you had been her, and loathed though you were to admit or remember, this day was still clear in your head.Your younger self watched the taxi cab speed away, and tried to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear before realizing it had been slashed too short to reach. With a sigh, she let it fall back against her cheek, and turned her attention to the home you had grown up in. Walking up with a spring in her step, surprising considering the four years she’d been trapped inside of that wretched facility but expected now that she were finally home after it all, she put a hand on the metal gate before pausing. She scanned the overgrown grass and untrimmed bushes, a frown crossing her lips, before she pushed at the heavy gate. With a small amount of effort it gave way, and the girl you had once been began down the path home. The iron gate remained open behind her, and you and the Kaiba brothers exchanged looks. They each looked hesitant, normal for the younger but uncharacteristic for the elder. It was as if they were asking permission to intrude on your memories, much as you had initially when Noah began playing theirs. With a shrug, you gestured for them to go inside. It wasn’t like you were going to get anywhere standing around, Noah wouldn’t allow that. And, looking up, your former self had paused at the front door, almost frozen in place, as if to say the memory wouldn’t continue playing unless you all followed. But you’d be damned if you were going in first. Seto quickly recovered from his hesitancy and started off down the cobblestone path to your home, and both you and Mokuba followed, the younger reaching his hand up to clasp yours. It was warm, warmer than you remembered it being what felt like an hour before. He said nothing, but kept his eyes locked on you until all three of you were on the front steps. “You look like…” Seto hummed absently as he squinted at the projection of the girl, you assumed he was merely making an observation to distract himself rather than insult you, but you weren’t positive. “A walking disaster?” You raised an eyebrow, “Got the pants at a consignment shop and James gave me the shirt. Pretty sure I stole the shoes from someone’s locker.”Pretty sure wasn’t quite accurate, you were positive you’d stolen them. Eihara Nobusuke, 36, employed as a guard at the lab for a total of four years in Omachi. Hired by Gozaburo Kaiba himself, she was the walking definition of cruelty. Even if you were on your best behavior, she would find a reason to slam you into a wall or trip you to the ground escorting you to and from your cell. When the lab erupted into chaos following Seto’s takeover, she had been one of the first casualties. You hadn’t known about her death at the time that you stole her shoes. You just took them from the equipment room because they happened to be your size. “What happened to your hair?” Mokuba asked softly. “What didn’t happen to it?” You responded noncommittally.The girl you’d been commenting on seemed to unfreeze, and ran a hand along the face of the front door. She looked at the mailbox, attached to the face of the house with a pair of silver screws, and pulled out the stack of letters with a confused expression. She flipped through a few of them before shaking her head and setting them in one hand, pushing open your front door with the other. “I’m home!” She called into the foyer, dimly lit only by the clouded light entering the windows. Silence. “Mom? Dad?” She tried again, setting the stack of mail on the small table near the door. The three of you followed after her slowly, the boys looking around the inside of the house as you walked. It was relatively clean, aside from the pile of dishes in the kitchen sink and the recycling that had piled up and spilled over in the room adjacent. Seto ran a finger along one of the shelves and examined the layer of dust that came away on his finger. He looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t. Your former self opened up the door that lead to the garage, and the sound of a light switch clicked but didn’t seem to do anything. She tried it a few more times, before sighing, and descending the stairs in the dark. From the doorway you three watched her fiddle with an old dresser drawer before it gave, and she produced from it a flashlight. Shaking it a few times, she flipped it on and began scanning the garage. The lightbulb on the ceiling was intact, probably just needed to be changed, and aside from the cobwebs in the corners of the room and the dust on the floor, it looked like a normal garage. Two cars, one black BMW and one white Nissan, sat side by side, facing away from the double garage doors. “That’s weird, both their cars are here,” the girl you’d once been muttered aloud, “Did they go for a walk?”She quickly exited the garage, brushing past the three of you without paying you any mind and shutting the door behind her. She then began examining the kitchen, sniffing the sink before a look of regret crossed her face and she coughed in the opposite direction. You remembered, at this point, the confusion had still been eclipsing worry. The house was dirty, but not filthy, and the few days of mail in the box was strange but not worrying. It looked like a family who had left for vacation in a hurry, forgetting to do the dishes before they left.She continued through the kitchen and back to the foyer, about to head upstairs before something caught the corner of her eye in the living room. She paused on the first step, slowly descended, and decided to searched the rest of the first floor before going up. The three of you continued to follow, though before entering the living room Mokuba gave a tight squeeze to your hand, and you glanced down at him. “Are you okay?” He asked. You managed a nod.“Oh my… no way.” Came the voice from the living room, and you noticed Seto had already entered. You and Mokuba followed, finding him standing next to the girl you’d once been, eyes fixed on a small shrine set up on the far wall. Contrary to the rest of the living room, which was somewhat dusty and needed a good vacuuming, the shrine was in impeccable shape. It was an ornate wooden box, gold detailing on the corners and tiny paper lanterns glowing with electric, golden light. Inside, a picture of your late mother, her hands clasped together and a bright smile on her face, taken when she was five years younger and you had not yet been taken away.Seto turned to you as you reached his side, questions burning in his sapphire eyes and arms crossed over his chest, one hand gripping the inside of his arm so tightly you could see in shaking. He looked like he wanted to ask, and you wondered why he didn’t. You’d never known him to be this considerate of anyone’s feelings, yours included, even when he was a kid.“My mom killed herself fourteen months after Gozaburo sent me away,” you said calmly, keeping your voice steady and focusing only on the facts as you spoke lest your memory run wild and do something to the simulation you were standing in. “Some pier workers found her body floating in the water two days later. Your step-father refused my dad time to grieve, as it happened in the middle of some big company project, and he fell apart. Probably why the house ended up in this state.” You gestured to the room around you.“If Noah believes I’m to blame for that, he’s insane.”Your former self had taken to lighting an incense stick from the pile beside the shrine. She placed her hands together and said a silent prayer for her-- your-- mother, paused for a moment, and finally turned to head up the stairs. The three of you followed after her.“Oh, believe me, I blame Gozaburo for everything that happened to my family. Not you.” You replied.Seto hummed in response as he reached the top of the stairs. Mokuba was still clutching your hand, his grip tightening as he watched the girl scan the hallway, pushing open the first door on her left. You remembered this sequence clearly, and let out a long sigh as she went from door to door. Bathroom, empty. Guest room, empty. Guest bathroom, empty.You hadn’t noticed your heart was pounding until you could hear it in your ears, and your jaw tightening when she opened the door to her room. Your room. Empty, but still exactly as it had been the day you had been taken away. Seto had followed closely after her, but you and Mokuba remained at the top of the stairs. He tried to take a few steps forward, but you had a firm grip on his hand, and since you refused to move he could not follow his brother. Refused to move… couldn’t move? They began to blur. Office, empty. Study, empty.Laundry room, empty.The final door at the end of the hall, your parents’ bedroom, closed and locked. “Dad?” The girl called, knocking on the door. Silence. She attempted to turn the handle, then attempted to brace herself against the door, but it wouldn’t budge. She groaned loudly, walking down the hall briskly to one of the bathrooms, your bathroom, to dig around in the shelves. Bobby pins, she was looking for, and she would find the old box of girls hair accessories with plenty inside. Seto continued to stand by your parents’ bedroom door, and you and Mokuba remained at the stairs.“What are you doing?” Seto demanded from down the hall. “We were all required to learn how to pick locks,” you replied, “with common things like bobby pins and paper clips.”There was a pause, a confused look crossing his features briefly at your statement before he shook his head. “No, I mean you. Why are you two standing there?”“I…” you paused, looking down at the wood floor beneath your feet, “I’m not going in there. I’ve seen… enough.”“What’s in there?” He pressed.You opened your mouth, but all that came out was a half-breath from your throat. You weren’t able to form the thought of what you’d last seen in this house, much less the words to describe it. Yet when you squeezed your eyes shut, the image burned itself to the back of your eyelids. Your parents bedroom was the largest room in the house, larger than the kitchen, even. When they had built the place, your mother insisted to builders it be inspired by Western architecture. Victorian, mainly, but there were a few elements she had seen in homes she had visited in Europe. Exposed beams on the ceiling was something she wanted in her bedroom, especially with the high Victorian style roof.“Aha!” Your former self cried, before dashing out of the bathroom with a handful of bobby pins. She dropped them on the floor at Seto’s feet and took one in her hand, bending it into a tension wrench, before taking a second to turn into a makeshift lock pick. She then set to work on the door, squinting into the darkness as she made use of the tools. It couldn’t have taken more than a minute, you wondered if that was really how quickly you worked or if you were remembering yourself faster than you truly were. “Seto,” you said, “Maybe… don’t look in there.”He scoffed dismissively, “Noah won’t let us out of here until I do. Besides, whatever you’re so afraid of me seeing can’t possibly be--”His voice died the second your former self pushed open the door. From your spot on the steps, you and Mokuba could not see inside, and you were perfectly content with that. Mokuba tugged at your hand again to try to drag you along, but you only tightened your grip to keep him firmly in place.“Nii-sama, what is it?” He demanded with a grunt, trying again to pull you along before he saw the glare on your face. He shrunk back from your stare, a mix of confusion and annoyance on his face as he did so. Seto was silent, you saw him staring into the room, mouth still half-open from the sentence he had been in the middle of. Beside him, the girl you’d once been stood in shock, her pose almost the same as his as her wide eyes fixated on one spot in the middle of the room, suspended from the ground. Your phone buzzed. Whether you wanted to look at it or not, you couldn’t move.Mokuba’s arm went slack and he stopped tugging when the girl fell to her knees, a scream caught in her throat but unable to come out, hands trembling at her side. Seto somehow managed to look at you, and you stared back at him. His eyes were such a vibrant, brilliant shade of blue. The prettiest blue you’d ever seen. The color you never wanted to look away from. You didn’t know long you stared. You didn’t remember, exactly how long this moment lasted when it happened to you, how long you’d sat on your knees and just stared. The details were a little fuzzy, time hadn’t felt quite right. It had felt long, but it couldn’t have possibly been that long. You didn’t really remember. She began sobbing on the ground.Seto looked down at her, then into the room again, before he walked inside. You didn’t know why, why on earth, he would ever want to go inside of there, but he did. You continued to stare at the spot his eyes had been until he returned, which he did after only forty-three seconds. You counted. He had a piece of paper in his hand, one which he had seemingly crumpled in either anger or frustration. The scene began to dissolve around you, the sound of your younger self’s sobs dying down into nothingness. You stared at Seto while the damask walls around you rippled and shifted to make way for golden, open air, bits of sand catching in the warm wind that blew across your face. The wood at your feet, you saw out of your peripheral vision, made way for a blanket of sand, while the roof over your head became clouded sky. You watched his pupils shrink as it got brighter, revealing more of the sapphire shine beneath. He smoothed the paper a bit, before folding it twice and tucking it away into his jacket pocket. Mokuba realized your grip had loosened and he slipped his fingers from yours. Your house disappeared, and the three of you found yourselves in a desert.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
You’d gone from forest to sand, which you supposed was a welcome change of scenery, but you really wished Noah would come up with something more creative. Everywhere the three of you walked so far had been dull landscapes painted in only one or two colors, and it was starting to depress you. That was probably the point, considering the myriad of painful memories he was forcing Seto, Mokuba, and now you, to relive. The monotony of walking for hours on end in onenote surroundings of dreary hues was probably just to annoy your best friend. And considering his face had been stuck in a glare for the last ten minutes at least, it seemed like it was working. The three of you had a silent agreement not to talk about what you’d seen in your old, empty house. You had no desire to talk about it, and considering Seto had actually seen your parents’ bedroom first hand, rather what the room was holding, he seemed content not to bring it up either. Mokuba was understandably curious about the whole thing. He had run up to Seto at one point during the walk and asked what was in the room, though his big brother was unwilling to answer, and instead insisted if you wanted him to know you would tell him yourself. Just to get him to stop asking, and partially because you felt like you needed to get it off your chest, you had cleared your throat, and uttered the words. “My father killed himself two days before I came home.”After that, he too joined in the silence. It stretched on for what felt like hours, but your concept of time seemed even more messed up after leaving that house. You’d been forced to watch a few more of the brothers’ childhood memories, ones mainly revolving around Seto’s studies or his interactions with Gozaburo. One of them was one you were pleasantly familiar with, the first time you had met the two boys at a company party in the Kaiba mansion. It was a memory you thought over often during your time at the lab. It was after that memory that each of you seemed to be in a bit of a better mood, your silence out of choice rather than necessity. Eventually the three of you stopped atop one of the many sand dunes you had been walking on, spotting a large cluster of silver buildings in the distance. You had no idea what they were, but considering the way Seto was frowning in recognition, you wondered if you should have.“What is that?” You asked after a moment of silence. “Alcatraz.” “Nii-sama had it destroyed after he took over,” Mokuba said, a proud grin on his face, “Since Kaiba Corp. doesn’t make weapons anymore.” You nodded in satisfaction as a gust of wind blew through the landscape, causing the back of Seto’s trench coat to blow behind him dramatically. He folded his arms over his chest and hummed in thought, before beginning to speak aloud to no one in particular. “This Noah kid seems to be obsessed with me,” he mused, a smirk on his face, “I suppose I should feel honored.”You snickered into your palm, as did Mokuba. “Still, he’s wasting my time with these games.” He pointed his face to the sky and raised his voice, “Noah, I’ve got a tournament to run, so get to the point and show yourself already!”The landscape became silent after the echoes of Seto’s words died down beneath the wind, though the three of you stared up at the sky for a moment longer, as if you could will Noah to face you. When Seto seemingly had enough of standing around, he began walking in the direction of the buildings and waved for you and Mokuba to follow him. Your phone vibrated in your pocket, and you sighed. You’d ignored the last six vibrations, and though you really wanted to with this one as well, you were a bit afraid if you did so Noah would begin ignoring you if you needed to talk to him. You pulled out the phone and scanned the messages you’d missed.
♡: You know whenever you get bored of wandering, just say the word. I’ll make you a door so you can watch another one of my little movies.
♡: Since you seem to hate the forest so much I thought a change in scenery was in order. This way, Seto can see how much pain he's caused you. I know you want him to, even if you won't admit it.
♡: Oh, are you ignoring me now?
♡: Did I do something to make you upset? Well, I mean, other than bringing you here. I know it’s not under the most ideal circumstances, but I was hoping you’d be happy to see me.
Did he do something wrong? Was he serious? Dropping both you and your friends into your old home to relive the day you’d come home only to discover both your parents dead didn’t jump out at him as doing something wrong? Regardless of if it wasn't part of the deal the two of you had made, the fact that he had the nerve to bring that memory to light made your blood boil. And for what? To make Seto feel guilty? He hadn’t had any part in your parents’ deaths, that had been all Gozaburo.
♡: I’ll apologize if you want me to.
Yes, you did want him to. And then you wanted him to erase the memory from both the brothers’ minds. And then you wanted him to let you all go. You sighed to yourself and interrupted your thoughts before you got too heated. After scrolling through the messages for a moment with a mix of annoyance and anger, finally, the newest message appeared.
♡: You know, I’ve been lonely in here for a very long time. I’m sure you know what that feels like. I was excited to finally have a friend to talk to again.
You frowned down at the message, biting at the inside of your cheek as you read, then reread it a second time. You couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not. He was probably just trying to mess with your head, he clearly didn’t care about you. But at the same time… you hadn’t seen Noah in six years, just days before he was in the accident that ended his life. Or, so you were told. If he had actually been in this virtual world for six years, he was right, you could absolutely understand the loneliness of being trapped in isolation. Maybe, you thought, that was why he was doing this. Maybe he’d gone mad from being inside this virtual prison for so long.Still, regardless of his reasons or what might have happened to him, what he was doing was wrong. Trapping innocent people in this crazy virtual world and threatening to hold them inside of it forever, showing all these memories to Seto and Mokuba just to torture them, there was no way to justify it. And yet as you told yourself that over and over again the urge to respond to his message continued to grow.“What on earth are you looking at?” A low baritone spoke above you. You glanced up from your phone to see Seto eyeing you curiously. “Uh… cell phone,” you replied, waving it in the air a bit.“Yes I know what it is. Why do you keep pulling it out?” Shit. You really did not want to tell him Noah had been texting you, for more reasons than you could count. First off, if Seto knew you’d been in contact with their kidnapper, he would probably kill you. Second, even if he didn’t kill you, you’d be expected to explain how you knew Noah, and doing so would give your former friend every reason in the world to put on display all your memories from the lab. And at this point, after dealing with them going through one of your memories, not even the most painful, you would do anything to keep them to yourself. “Checking to see if I can get a hold of anyone outside,” you replied as casually as you could.Seto didn’t seem to notice the lie, instead scoffing at you, “We’re trapped in a virtual world. What makes you think you’ll be able to contact anyone?” You shrugged, “I don’t think I will, but it makes me feel better to at least try.”He frowned at your words. “Do you want me to stop trying, and risk missing an opportunity to tell my people we’re stuck in here?” At that he sighed, conceding to your point, and dropped the subject entirely. He returned his gaze straight ahead, staring at the dull silver buildings you were all making your way toward. You looked back at your phone in relief, although your chest felt heavy from the lie you’d had to tell. Eventually it was going to come back to bite you, you just knew it, but if it meant keeping those memories of the lab away from the brothers, so be it. You couldn’t bare to relive them again, especially not with Seto or Mokuba around to see them as well.
How long have you been in here?
You hit send hesitantly, your brain still deciding if you wanted to continue talking to your former friend but your fingers making the decision for you. It might give you some insight into why he seemed so callous to your and the Kaiba brothers’ emotions. Almost instantaneously, a reply appeared on your screen.
♡: Six years.
You’d figured as much. It justified nothing, and you were still pissed. You needed to keep in contact with him, if only to continue getting information, but he might cut it all off if you chewed him out for the memory he’d shown. After a moment of thought, you couldn’t come up with anything to say in response, so you simply sent him the message of I’m sorry.
♡: You don’t need to apologize. Anyway, I’m glad you’re talking to me again.
I can’t message you too often, or Seto will get suspicious. I’m supposed to be keeping your secret, remember?
♡: Of course. And I appreciate it.
I have more questions for you, if that’s alright. I’ll send them later.
With that, you clicked off the screen and slipped your phone back into your pocket. It buzzed immediately, probably in reply to your final message, but you ignored it. Seto glanced over to you, one eyebrow raised as if to inquire on if you’d had any success. You shook your head, and he once again went back to looking in front of him. Your phone buzzed again. You ignored it.
-----
You kept staring at him.He thought, at first, your staring had something to do with the house you’d been in. You had stared at him barely blinkling throughout the last few moments of it, which he had welcomed as it gave him something to look at other than the body. He’d originally dismissed it as you being shaken from the memory, but thinking back, he was positive you’d been staring at him for longer than that. Then, he realized you’d been doing it since seeing the memory of him in Gozaburo’s office, since he’d talked about his virtual software and how his stepfather stole it for the purposes of war. There was this spark of emotion in your eyes Seto couldn’t quite decipher, one that hadn’t been there before, or at least that he hadn’t noticed. And, now, it wouldn’t go away.It was like you wanted to say something, but you wouldn’t. Presumably, you wanted to tell him something about that software. Why else would you be staring at him like that? He doubted you had something to tell him about his technology that he didn’t already know, so maybe you wanted to ask him a question. What could you possibly know about it that he didn’t?Unless….He said your name and your head snapped upward obediently, eyes meeting his in an instant. You stopped fiddling with your combat knife and let your hands fall to your sides. “What’s up?” You asked.“Have you ever experienced this technology before?” You looked confused by his question. “This virtual technology,” Seto clarified, “The technology Gozaburo stole from me.” “Are you… asking if I’ve ever been in a virtual world before this?” “Or something similar, yes.”You shook your head, “No, can’t say I have. I don’t have a lot of time for games, with work and all.”“I don’t just mean for games,” he pressed. He was trying to be vague, considering Mokuba was walking with the two of you. To his knowledge, you hadn’t told his brother about your time in the lab yet, and he didn’t want to expose that secret. At least, not right now, not considering where you all were. Seto needed you to be in peak condition with how dangerous this place was, he couldn’t risk you having some sort of post-traumatic meltdown while you were at Noah’s whims. Not after you’d had to relive discovering your parents’ suicides. After you squinted at him in thought for a few, long moments, you shook your head again, “Sorry, I really haven’t ever been in a virtual world before. If I had, I’d tell you.” “And you’ve never dealt with any technology similar to this?” “I’m telling you no.” You huffed, frustration now apparent in your tone. Seto sighed down at you, before finally nodding and returning his gaze to the buildings of Alcatraz. He believed you, clearly you had no idea what he was talking about. He’d thought, maybe, Gozaburo had used his technology in the labs for testing or training purposes, but that didn’t seem to be the case. If it was, you weren’t aware of it. So then what could you possibly have to tell him about his virtual software? Or, was he mistaken, did you have something else to tell him? But you’d gotten that look in your eye right after he spoke about his technology, so what else could possibly be making you look at him so emotionally? Damn it all, you were going to drive him crazy before Noah had the chance to.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The three of you had made it to Alcatraz, weaving your way through the many factory buildings in seeming aimlessness. Seto didn’t seem to have a destination in mind, though that was how it had been for most of this journey, so you and Mokuba followed behind him. Mokuba had taken to telling you a story about school, which you were only half listening to, most of your attention focused on scanning your surroundings. With all these buildings clustered together, it was the perfect place for an ambush. “So then she--”“Mokuba,” Seto interrupted, “Be quiet for a second.” He paused, and the three of you stopped walking, the sound of your footsteps stopped echoing between the buildings and alleyways between them. Your ears pricked at a dull sound, quickly moving closer and closer from behind you, and you snapped your head around to search for the source. You saw something moving at one of the rooftops, and as it came into view fully, realized it was a man jumping from building to building. “Isn’t that one of Yuugi’s friends?” You asked. “Hiroto Honda,” Seto confirmed.The brunette sporting a vaguely pompadour-style hairdoo finally stopped on one of the buildings in front of you, standing to his full height and looking down at the three of you. You noticed he was carrying a wooden sword, and wondered if he’d run into trouble on the way here. Had he and the others been attacked by something in this virtual hellscape? “Honda-san!” Mokuba waved, running up a few steps to stand beside his brother, “Where are Yuugi and the others?”Hiroto narrowed his eyes at Mokuba, before focusing his gaze on Seto, a scowl setting on his lips. His grip tightened on the sword, and in a split second your instincts kicked in. You felt the hairs on your arms prick up, the muscles in your shoulders tense, and you took a stance that would allow you to move more freely. Without warning, the teen leapt from the rooftop, wooden katana in both hands and raised above his head. As he flew through the air, he made to bring it down in front of him. Seto took three quick steps back, enough to dodge out of the way of the weapon that would have hit him right in the head. Mokuba let out a yelp and rolled to the side, and you sprinted forward, pushing past Seto’s shoulder to stand in front of him. “Honda, what’s gotten into you?” Seto demanded. “Kaiba, I finally found you! I’ve been waiting a long time for this!” Hiroto responded, a crazed grin on his face.“What are you talking about?” He snapped.Hiroto raised the wooden sword in front of his chest, arms outstretched so the tip pointed toward you. You raised your arms just below your face and assumed an upright boxing stance, and the teen frowned at you. “Get out of my way.” He ordered.“Not gonna happen.”He clicked his tongue, “Fine, then I’ll make you!”He raised the sword over his right shoulder and flew toward you, and you dodged to your right as he swung downward. He quickly followed with a leftward slash, which you backstepped with ease. Hiroto raised the sword once more in an attempt to hit you over the head with full force, and you ducked backwards to take two steps away. Something flew past your face and smacked against the sword with a thunk, and a Duel Monsters card fluttered to the ground. The act distracted Hiroto just enough to give you an opening, and in one swift motion you sprinted toward him, reaching into your bra to produce your butterfly knife. You flipped it around in your right hand to reveal the blade as the teen realized what you were doing, hastily swinging his sword forward toward you. Because of his desperation, the swing had less power behind it than his others, and as it came toward your face you brought up your left hand to block it. It smacked against your forearm, enough to sting you but not enough to stagger, and you used its own momentum to push it away from your face. He stumbled backwards, allowing you to grip at the front of his shirt and pull yourself against his body. You positioned your left knee between his legs and brought your right hand upward, shoving your knife against his neck. His body stiffened at the feeling, and as he swallowed his adam’s apple bobbed against the tip of your blade.“On your knees,” you ordered. He smirked in refusal, and you gripped the fabric of his shirt tighter and shoved your face closer to his. You repeated your demand, louder and more forcefully. “You would risk the health of your friend?” He taunted. “Friend?” You chuckled, “I barely know you. My priority is protecting Seto and Mokuba, not some nobody kid. Now, last chance. On. Your. Knees.”Hiroto blinked once, twice, before finally sinking to the ground. You kept your knife against his throat as you removed yourself from his body, using your other hand to take the wooden katana from his right hand. Seto and Mokuba came to stand next to you, looking over the boy on his knees before you.“So, you can fight,” Seto observed. As you were about to respond, the shouting of familiar voices quickly closed in on you. “Honda! You’re alright!” Katsuya Jounouchi called out. “Wait, what’s going on?” Yuugi yelled in confusion. “Your friend here just tried to attack us,” Seto responded flatly. “Tried being the operative word.” You hummed. “What?” Kawai Shizuka asked, the alarm apparent in her voice. “Wait a second-- I get it!” Otogi Ryuuji exclaimed, “That’s not Honda!”The group began chattering amidst themselves, only to be interrupted by the teen you had pressed against your blade. “That’s right. I’m Soichiro Ota, one of the Big Five. And this body is mine now!”You and Seto exchanged a look, and you watched him kneel next to you to pick up the Duel Monsters card he had tossed at Ota’s wooden sword. He slipped it back into his deck before brushing himself off and leveling a glare at the body-snatcher. “What do you want me to do with him?” You asked, directing your question at Seto. “We can’t very well let him wander around as he pleases.”You looked up to Yuugi’s group of friends, “You five, go look for some rope or cables to tie this guy up.” They blinked at you a few times, before Katsuya spoke up, “Wait a second we can’t just--”“He’s not your friend, he’s one of the Big Five. Go get me some rope so I can get this knife off his throat. Now.”They looked between each other before eventually they all nodded and split up to search the nearby warehouses. Mokuba gingerly took the wooden sword from your left hand and began examining it, before handing it to his brother. “Hey,” he perked up, “Do you think you could teach me how to fight?”You glanced down at him, “If it’s alright with Seto, sure.” Mokuba looked up pleadingly to his brother and clasped his hands together, prompting the elder to sigh. He begrudgingly agreed to defensive training only, before returning his focus to Ota. He crossed his arms over his chest as he looked down on the brunette, furrowing his brow. Ota did the same, the fury radiating off his body palpable, anger seething from every pore. After a few moments, Anzu shouted that she had found some rope, and returned to you with a long coil of it on her shoulder. The rest of Yuugi’s group swiftly followed, gathered around their former friend and looking to you for guidance. “You two,” you pointed to Katsuya and Otogi with your free hand, “Hold his arms down.”They did as you ordered. “Tie the rope around his waist, make sure he can’t move his hands. There should be enough to leave a leash so we can pull him along with us.”“Why do you know so much about thi--” Katsuya began to ask. “Don’t ask stupid questions.” You snapped, removing your knife from Ota’s throat now that the boys had him held. You flipped it in your hand to cover the blade and slipped it into your bra, shooting Katsuya a look when you noticed him staring at you. You turned your attention to Seto, who had paced away from you to lean against a nearby building with Mokuba. You jogged over to the brothers and adjusted your backpack straps. “Do you think we can use him as a hostage?” You asked.“Doubtful. He may be one of Noah’s subordinates, but I doubt he cares much for his life.”You hummed in thought, “Maybe, but we might be able to--”You were interrupted by the startled shouting of the group of people behind you, followed by a cry of pain from Katsuya. You turned around to see him clutching his nose and his sister, Yuugi, and Mazaki Anzu surrounding him asking if he was alright. Otogi Ryuuji was turned away from them, shouting Hiroto’s name and rubbing his shoulder. “I gave you losers one job!” You exclaimed, eyes following the form of Hiroto as he sprinted away from the group, through an alleyway, before ducking inside of a door and slamming it behind him. You reached into your waistband to pull out your KA-BAR, removing it from its sheath to hand to Mokuba. He took it wordlessly, and you adjusted your grip on the hilt of your knife as you began to head off after the escapee, ordering your childhood friends to stay where they were. You ran down the alleyway, adrenaline pumping through your veins so fiercely that you didn’t even feel your phone vibrate in your back pocket. You pushed open the door Ota had gone through, finding the interior brighter than you’d at first imagined. You realized there was a garage door down the building a little ways to your right that was open most of the way, allowing dim grey light from the outside to coat the room. If you squinted, you could make out your surroundings clearly, spotting a row of well-polished military motorcycles. “Ota! Don’t make me come looking for you!” You shouted, crossing the large garage to examine one of the motorcycles. It had a key dangling from one of its side mirrors, and a cursory glance showed the other bikes each also had a key. If Ota saw these, he would surely try to make an escape. You had to stop him--Before you could finish the thought the sound of an engine roared to life, and you were cast in a bright beam of white light. You had to shield your eyes with one hand, raising your other to point your knife at him. As you attempted to speak, the engine’s volume rose sharply, and the motorbike began accelerating at a rapid pace toward you. “Fuck!” You cried as you sprinted to the side, diving across the garage to scramble out of the way. Your head slammed against the metal wheel guard of one of the stationary motorcycles, and in order to keep from hurting yourself with your knife you had to break your fall with your elbow, smashing it into the concrete floor. The motorcycle raced past you, leaving you in relative darkness once again. As you began to pick yourself up off the ground you heard the shouting of Yuugi’s group of friends outside, followed by a sharp cry of pain you couldn’t place. If Ota was fleeing, one of the teens might have gotten hurt by the bike. Hopefully they weren’t too injured to chase after him. “Mokuba!”
Oh no.
-----
Seto Kaiba turned to the sound of his name, neck snapping so quickly it nearly gave him whiplash. He had half a mind to ignore you, as you’d been partially responsible for Mokuba’s abduction, but he’d responded out of instinct. He saw you standing in the garage doorway, one hand on your head, the other lifted in the air, a silver object glinting in the low light.“Do you know how to drive one of these things?” It took him one eighth of a second to register the meaning of your words, at which point he dashed toward you, snatching the keys from your hand. He slammed the keys into the ignition of the closest motorcycle, the engine coming to life in an instant, and swung a long leg over the seat to mount the bike. You followed after in a sprint, grabbing his shoulder and using the momentum to jump onto the bike behind him. He had not invited you to ride with him, but he didn’t exactly have the luxury of arguing. He didn’t give you the time to brace yourself, accelerating the vehicle as quickly as it would allow. If you fell off, you fell off. You were intelligent enough to grip the back of his coat to keep from tumbling to the ground, quickly adjusting yourself on the seat and wrapping your arms around his waist. He felt your chest press against his back, though his brain hardly registered it over the fury pumping through his system. The two of you flew past the Geek Squad, and began down the road Ota had driven at a rapid speed. At one point he glanced down to notice the speedometer at 132 kph, but he never bothered to note if that was a maximum. He drove through two tunnels, separated by a short stretch of highway bridge over either a lake or ocean. After the second tunnel, you began shouting something into his ear, but the wind was too loud to understand what you were saying. Then he noticed a break in the bridge, likely what you were getting hysterical about, and accelerated his speed even further. Your grip on his waist tightened as he made the jump over the gap, and he felt your face press into his back between his shoulder blades. Once the wheels of the bike were safely on the road again, your muscles relaxed significantly, and he felt you sit back a bit. He slowed down his speed, scanning the road ahead for any more surprises. As if to grant his request, the body of a tall cloaked figure seemed to materialize out of nowhere, and Seto had to make a sharp turn to keep from slamming into it. He heard you yelp as the bike slid sideways, and both you and he dove off the seat to avoid crashing into the wall. The vehicle slammed into the cement barrier, igniting in a split second before the ear-splitting sound of an explosion rang out through the ocean air. The two of you landed on the ground, Seto hypothesized he probably could have landed on his feet, or knees at the very least, had you not been on the bike as well. Instead, however, you had still been half-clutching his waist when you leapt off the seat, and you’d taken him to the ground with you. “Ugh, warn me next time,” you groaned, pushing yourself off the ground as he did. You rubbed at your side for a moment, before standing fully and looking to the flaming motorbike on the ground. In the brief time Seto spent watching you, he realized your head was bleeding, just at your scalp line above your temple. But that hadn’t been the same side you’d just landed on. When had your head started bleeding? “Long time no see, Mister Kaiba.” Came the words through what sounded like a voice-changer, “Ah, and you’ve brought the little miss with you.” You and Seto turned to the figure in the long black trench coat, wearing a face mask, glasses, and a black hat to mask himself. His face and body were entirely obscured. Out of the corner of his eye, Seto noticed you pull out your phone, and frowned in annoyance. This was, quite possibly, one of the worst time to check for a signal. “Who the hell are you?” Seto demanded. “Oh, you’ve forgotten me already?” Seto was getting sick of the games, “What did you do with Mokuba?”“Mokuba?” The masked man asked in a sing-song tone, “Oh… come to think of it someone just came by on a motorcycle carrying a piece of garbage.”Before he was completely finished speaking Seto noticed you had already started walking by him.“And just where do you think you’re going little miss?” Seto realized, at the way he had said ‘little miss’ to you again, that this had to be Kogoro Diamon. “Past you, obviously.” You replied defiantly.“I don’t think so,” he replied, reaching out to grab your wrist. You took a step to the side to avoid his hand. “You’re going to stay right here.”“No, I’m not. And you’re not going to stop me.” You said, a conviction and decisiveness in your voice that surprised Seto. Were you insane? In this virtual world, your power was limited. Soldier or not if Noah or his men wanted to stop you they could do so easily.“Oh I wi--” the masked man paused, body still turned to you, unmoving as he stared you down in silence. Seto watched you cross your arms over your chest and glanced over to him, your eyes filled with confidence. “Fine then,” he finally spoke again, “I have more important thing to worry about than your little field trip.” Seto blinked. Was he serious? He was just going to let you walk past? How the hell had you managed to pull that off? He shot a glare to you, which you ignored, tossing him a wave as you made to turn your body and head past the cloaked man. “Win this quickly and catch up.” You said. “Naturally.” You dashed off down the highway road, your figure quickly disappearing as it was engulfed in the thick fog that had begun to hang over the landscape. Your footsteps echoes for a few seconds longer before they, too, disappeared beneath the sounds of the ocean. Seto returned his attention to the mysterious monster in front of him, who recovered quickly from his unexpected run-in with you. “You’ll have to defeat me to get to Mokuba.”Seto scoffed, “Don’t make me laugh, you’re no match for my skill. Let’s get this over with.”
-----
Noah had you figured out, you’d given him some trouble at times, but you were just like a jigsaw puzzle he’d needed to do a little more work on. Now, he’d solved you with ease, and all the pieces were in place for him to recruit you to his side of the board. Ota kidnapping Mokuba hadn’t been part of the plan initially, but it had actually given Noah the perfect opportunity to speak to you sooner than he had planned. Now that you were sprinting down the tunnel toward him all alone, everything had fallen into place.See, turning you against both of the fake Kaiba brothers was impossible, they were too big a part of your life. There was almost nothing Noah could say or do that would convince you to forsake them. But, as he’d discovered from sifting through all your painful memories of the lab, the only thing you loved as much as Seto was his younger brother. You adored Mokuba, you would do anything to protect him. In fact, you’d given up all your freedom, tossed away morality, put yourself through hell at his father’s orders just to keep Mokuba safe. If Noah had Mokuba, then with just a tiny bit of convincing, he would have you. Once he figured that out it was easy. Mokuba was already in his clutches, and with Daimon currently dueling Seto, the two of you had been successfully separated. And it would stay that way, he was sure of it. With both you and Mokuba on his side, Seto’s resolve would crumble once he realized he had lost everything, lost the two people he cared about. That fool’s body was as good as his, and when Noah was back in the real world, you and Mokuba would continue to stay by him as he took control of Kaiba Corporation like he always should have. Everything was going according to plan.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
You were breathing heavily by the time you reached a fork in the tunnel, scanning the area cautiously. The tunnel was dimly lit in a yellow-orange glow from the rows of small lights on the ceiling, casting large, thick shadows against the sides of the walls. Each of the two tunnels you stood in front of looked identical, and you had no way of knowing which path to take.“Noah!” You called aloud, your shout bouncing off the walls of the tunnels and traveling down them endlessly, “You obviously want to see me. Tell me where to go.” The sound of a piano abruptly filled the still air, playing a light and melodic string of notes that, after a moment, you recognized as Consolation, in E-Flat Major. You realized it was coming from your back pocket, and you pulled out your phone to see a heart flash across your screen. You swiped the screen open, pulling your cell to your ear. “Nice touch?” Your childhood friend’s sing-song voice came through the line. “Franz Liszt,” you replied, unable to keep your annoyance from your voice, “Always your favorite.”
“Take the right tunnel. After a few minutes you should see a maintenance door on your left, go through it.”
You nodded to yourself and took off down the right tunnel, keeping your eyes on the left wall and scanning for the door. You eventually saw it come into your field of view, and began to slow your pace as you approached it. It was a dull grey, worn, with a chipped yellow warning sign to deter visitors. If he even had visitors. You used your free hand to turn the knob cautiously, pushing it open just enough that you could peer inside. When you could see only blackness you frowned and stepped inside, tightening the grip on the hilt of one of your boot knives.“So suspicious,” came a familiar, teasing voice, “You know I wouldn’t hurt you, you don’t need to be so cautious.”“You might not, but one of your men came at me with a wooden katana,” you countered as you turned your head to the sound. The maintenance door closed behind you, leaving you in blackness for less than a second before a golden light began to fill the room. “Yes, I saw. I assure you he’ll be punished severely for it.”You didn’t quite believe those words, but you didn’t comment. Instead, you watched in silence as the small form of Noah came into view, dressed in the last outfit you’d seen him wearing before his death. His teal hair shone and reflected flecks of the gold light in the room, a shade he’d sported for as long as you could remember although you were still convinced it wasn’t natural. He smiled warmly at you, and you managed a pensive smile back. “It’s so good to see you again,” he said. “Yeah,” you nodded, “Although it’s a bit weird. I mean you haven’t… you’re still so young.”“If you want, I can make myself look older,” Noah suggested. “I uh--”“I can do anything you want me to in this world,” he hummed, and you watched as his body began to change rapidly before your eyes. His legs grew longer, along with the rest of his body, until he was close to a foot taller than you. His shoulders broadened, a small amount of additional muscle filling out his arms and legs. His hair and face stayed mostly the same, although his jaw shifted slightly to look more mature and masculine. It made you a little uncomfortable to realize that he seemed to base his older form off of Seto, and considering how similar their hairstyles were if they stood next to each other you might mistake them for siblings. “How’s that?” He asked. It was unnerving to hear his voice, completely unchanged and still somewhat childlike, coming from the form of a near adult. When he noticed you trying to formulate a response and shift uncomfortably, he frowned. “What, do you want me to put on a silly trench coat as well?”“No, please don’t.” You insisted, “I think I’d prefer you looking like… well like you.” He sighed dramatically, “I thought you’d like this form considering how much you stare at that loser. Clearly you must like what you see.” You felt a heat on your cheeks and you quickly frowned to cover your surprise at his words. Still, Noah’s body began to shift back to normal at your request, and in a moment he was back to his twelve-year-old self. “As fun as this reunion is,” you said after a moment, “I need you to take me to Mokuba.” “Oh, you’re done talking to me already?” He mock-pouted. “Noah please, I have to make sure he’s safe.” “I already told you he’s perfectly fine. I’ve been taking care of him.” That didn’t make you feel much better, “I’d really like to see him for myself.”He sighed, crossing his arms over his chest, but after a moment begrudgingly agreed. He turned away and waved for you to follow him, leading you down a dimly lit hallway. The red carpet was soft and squishy under your boots, and compared to all the running you’d been doing on asphalt you were practically in heaven. “We’re just in the middle of watching Seto’s duel,” Noah said, and you could hear the grin on his face, “He’s having quite a bit of trouble.”The two of you entered a large, well-furnished room, holding the large hologram of a screen, and on it the duel between Kogoro Daimon and Seto was playing out. Facing it was a deep green couch, and in front of that, a long coffee table surrounded by chairs. As you peered over the back of the couch you noticed a familiar mop of hair. “Mokuba!” You cried. Mokuba turned his head back to look at you, before excitedly shouting your name. He bolted from the couch and launched himself into you, smacking his face into your chest and squeezing you in a hug. You wrapped your arms around him and grinned into his hair, relieved beyond belief that he was safe and sound. “I’m so glad you’re alright.” You said. “I’m glad you are too. When I didn’t see you with Nii-sama I was afraid something had happened.” He admitted.
“Satellite Cannon, attack!”
You and Mokuba turned your heads up to look at the screen in time to watch a brilliant flash of light crash down on the playing field, causing the ocean below the bridge to churn violently, and Seto became engulfed in the blast. Noah waved you both over to the couch, and the two of you nodded cautiously to each other before joining him. Diamon began explaining the effects of his satellite cannon, and looking over his field your chest began to tighten. With his deck master as Psycho Shocker, Seto couldn’t use any trap cards. And with Imperial Order out, he couldn’t use magic cards either. With only monster cards at his disposal, and that cannon up in space, how was he supposed to win? You shook your head. No, Seto would absolutely win this duel, you were sure of it. He had to. Mokuba needed him.
“I watched you drive Gozaburo to his death, Seto. And, even more shamefully, you used Mokuba to do it!”
You blinked a few times, stupefied. What a ridiculous claim to make, even ignoring the fact that Gozaburo drove himself to suicide, and deserved every bit of it, Seto would never use Mokuba for anything. He adored his brother. “My brother… used me?” Mokuba asked aloud, sounding as doubtful as you felt. “You didn’t know?” Noah asked in a surprised tone, “Well, listen up then.” Diamon began telling the story of how Seto had recruited the Big Five into working with him, to buy up Kaiba Corporation stocks and turn against Gozaburo. They would buy the company right out from under him, and Seto promised the Big Five would be equal partners in the new Kaiba Corporation.
“It was difficult to corner the market. Someone on our side was leaking information to Gozaburo, and you said it was Mokuba.”
“That’s ridiculous,” you muttered dismissively, but as you looked over to Mokuba you noticed he had become crestfallen. “Mokuba, what’s wrong?”“I… I remember that.” You shook your head in disbelief, “What do you mean?” “It was the worst day of my life,” he said softly, gripping at his jeans, “Nii-sama thought I was the one who betrayed him. He… he wouldn’t believe me when I told him I didn’t do it… he pushed me to the ground and had me thrown out.”You couldn’t believe it. You stared down at him and shook your head again, there was no way… Seto would never do something like that to his brother. As if to prove you wrong, a memory flashed through your head, a memory that wasn’t your own. You watched the scene Mokuba described unfold before you, Seto pushing his brother against a wall, yelling at him, and tossing him to the ground like a ragdoll. The entire time, Mokuba was on the verge of tears, eyes wide with terror, and he was tossed out of the room like garbage. You watched Mokuba’s tiny hand bang on the door for what felt like hours, before he collapsed on the ground, shaking and sobbing and begging for his brother. When it ended, you looked over to Noah, who had his eyes fixated on the younger Kaiba, leaning on his hand so you couldn’t see his expression.
“Losing his will to Live, Gozaburo died shortly after that day.”
“What’s your point, Daimon?” Seto demanded.
“You planned everything from the beginning. You were the one who leaked that information to Gozaburo. You wanted to stage a takeover of Kaiba Corporation, but you knew you couldn’t win a fair fight. So in order to make Gozaburo lower his guard, you decided to use your own brother! You turned Mokuba into a traitor, because you knew no matter how you hurt him, he would always come back to you.”
No, this was… this couldn’t be right.
“I believed in my bond with Mokuba, I knew together we could defeat Gozaburo,” Seto replied, his eyes filled with conviction but his voice wavered.
Seto would never hurt his brother on purpose.
“No matter how hurt he was, you continued to use him.”
“No,” Mokuba whispered beside you, “My brother didn’t use me.”You watched as Mokuba took a few deep breaths, composing himself after the painful memories flooded back to him. He sat back on the couch, clutching his trembling hands together as he continued to watch his brother duel. You weren’t sure what to do, what to think. You tried to focus on the duel as well, but found that although you desperately wanted Seto to win, it wasn’t for your usual reasons. It wasn’t because you just wanted his victory. No when he won, and found the two of you, you were going to demand answers.
-----
“All right! My brother won!” Mokuba leapt off the couch and pumped his fist in the air, grinning wildly. He was ecstatic, he knew his brother would win! Now he would be coming to get him soon, and together they would get out of this virtual prison.“Mokuba, you don’t… hate Seto? Even after he betrayed you?” Noah asked. “As long as I can help Nii-sama, I don’t care what hardships I face. He and I are a team.” Mokuba said decisively. He then turned to you, surprised to find that you were staring at the screen with a frown, biting at your thumbnail. Weren’t you happy to see him win that duel? It had been an awesome victory! The screen in front of you all disappeared, and the room darkened significantly. Mokuba grabbed your hand and tugged at it gently. You seemed to snap out of your thoughts and looked up at him, your frown turning into a soft smile as you reached up to ruffle his hair. He was about speak up and say the two of you should get out of here and find his brother, when Noah spoke again. “Mokuba, you really love your brother don’t you?” He blinked, then nodded. “Even though you love him so much, do you really think he feels the same way?”“Noah, stop it.” You demanded. “No, really. In fact, I wonder how he feels about both of you. Does he actually care about anyone but himself? Or is he just keeping you two around so he can use you?” Mokuba opened his mouth to protest, but you spoke before him. “That's enough! I don't want to hear any more of this propaganda bullshit. You sound just like your father.” “I'll take that as a compliment,” he replied haughtily. “If you think that's a compliment, then I really misjudged you.” You seethed. Mokuba looked between the two of you anxiously, squeezing your hand. You were scary when you were mad, you had that same look in your eyes his brother got when he was about to fire someone. Although, Mokuba had his suspicious that you would do more than ‘fire’ Noah. And what was all this about Noah's father? Why did you know him? And, if you knew Noah's father, did that mean you knew Noah? Why didn't you tell him and his brother if that was the case?You stood from the couch and tightened your grip on Mokuba's hand, tugging him toward the direction you had entered from. “Come on Mokuba, we're getting out of here.”“Where are we going?” Mokuba asked. Where could they go? If Noah controlled this whole place, could the two of you even leave? “To find your brother and get the hell out of here. I'm done being in someone's prison.” Mokuba nodded. You ignored Noah's calling of your name, keeping your face forward, and Mokuba did the same. He felt safe with you, much safer than he did with Noah at the very least. “Hey,” Mokuba began cautiously. “What's up kiddo?” “How do you know Noah?”You paused, your feet planting firmly on the ground so abruptly that Mokuba walked right into your back. When he took a step backwards and looked up at your face he noticed a spark of fear in your eyes. Your mouth pursed into a line, and your brow furrowed tightly.“I… it's sort of a long story.”“Tell me,” he insisted.You squeezed his hand even tighter, “I can't.” “Why not?” “Because if I do Noah will…” you breathed out heavily and seemed to realize you had stopped walking. You began again tugging Mokuba along, “Noah will show you some things that I really don’t want you to see.” Mokuba frowned, “Memories, you mean?” You nodded. He sighed. You had already seen all sorts of his and his brother's memories, it was a little selfish for you to hide things from them just to keep yours to yourself. The memory Noah had already shown them, of you returning to your house, was admittedly pretty bad. How much worse could they be? It seemed a lot more important for them to know more about Noah so they could try to get out of here. And if you had information that could help….Mokuba was the one to stop walking this time, digging his heels into the ground. You turned a bit to face him and cocked your head. “Mokuba what's are--?”“I'm not walking anymore until you tell me who Noah is.” You blinked a few times in surprise, before frowning. You tried tugging him along gently but he wouldn’t budge. You didn’t seem willing to force him to follow you, your grip loosening as you looked over his face. Finally you sighed, shook your head, and pinched the bridge of your nose the same way his brother did when he was annoyed.“We grew up together,” you said finally, “He was my best friend before you and Seto moved into the mansion.” “Why did you stop being friends?” Mokuba asked curiously. “He… he died.”“Oh.” Mokuba muttered, becoming distracted by the figure he noticed walking toward them. The silhouette was unmistakably familiar, tall and slender with a long, billowing coat and a Duel Disc on its left wrist.“Mokuba you should know, Noah is Go--”“Nii-sama!” Mokuba shouted before you could finish. You turned your head around as his brother came into view, and a sigh of relief left your lips although they stayed in the shape of a frown. “Seto, perfect timing. We were just coming to find you.” You said.He responded by leveling a glare at you. You and Mokuba looked between each other curiously, but it was you who brushed it off first. “Anyway,” you began somewhat hesitantly, “We need to get out of here. Noah is--”He interrupted you by speaking your name, his tone demanding and forceful. You cocked your head and swallowed hard enough that Mokuba could hear it.“I need to speak with Mokuba.” He said. “Okay?” You raised an eyebrow.“In private.” You looked down at Mokuba, then back to his brother, “I don't think splitting up is a good idea with Noah--”“I'll keep you in sight,” he said impatiently, “Just go ahead. If I see Noah I'll call for you.”You gave a moment of thought, before nodding and reluctantly let go of Mokuba's hand. You shot him a glance that said ‘call me and I'll come running’ and it made him feel safer, especially now that his brother was here for him. To say Mokuba was elated to see him would be an understatement. You passed his brother and pulled your boot knife from your pocket, before starting down into the blackness alone. Mokuba watched you dart your head around your surroundings as you walked for a moment, before returning his attention to his brother.“Nii-sama I'm--” He couldn't react quickly enough to the hand that flew into his vision, and he cried out it pain when it connected with his cheek. It wasn't until he was already on the ground that he realized it was his brother who had struck him.
-----
There was a distinctly childlike yelp, one that you recognized easily. It was Mokuba, no doubt about it, and it sounded like he was in pain. You spun around as quickly as possible and began sprinting in the direction you'd left the brothers, before crashing face first into a door that magically materialized before you.“Mokuba!” You shouted, both hands on the door knob and tugging at it with all your strength. You tried pushing, pulling, bracing it with your shoulder but it wouldn't budge. You began pounding at it with your fist, screaming Mokuba and Seto's names as loudly as you could, over and over and over, until you ran out of breath and your throat began to burn. “Noah open this door!” You shouted into the blackness. After a moment of pause, the only sound your shallow breaths, you spun around to try a different direction. You stopped before you could even take a step, however, discovering you were completely surrounded by obsidian walls. Their polished surfaces gleamed despite the apparent lack of light, and if you squinted hard enough you could see your own reflection. You whirled back around in desperation and began slamming your fist into the door again, shouting obscenities half to yourself and half to Noah, whom you knew had to be listening. Your throat was on fire, lungs burning, and tears pricking at the corners of your eyes. After a few deep, hopeless breaths, you sunk to your knees and continued pounding, your blows getting weaker and weaker until the palm of your hand slapped against the face of the door. You pressed your forehead against the cool cherry wood and coughed against your raw throat. “Noah please,” you whispered, “Please stop this.”No response. “Noah I'm begging you,” you pleaded, “Let me see them.” Still nothing. “Please at least… don’t hurt them.”There was a vibration in your back pocket. desperately, you fumbled for your phone, fingers trembling in a mix of fury and terror. You brought the phone to your face to read the message.
♡: Apologize.
Apologize for what? You frowned down at the message, with Noah's ego as big as it seemed to have grown, and his maturity the same as it had been six years ago, there were a number of things he might want you to say sorry for. “For what?” You asked aloud.
♡: Insulting me in front of Mokuba.
You knit your eyebrows together. Did he mean what you'd said about him being like his father? Youd meant every word of it, but damn it… you'd say anything at this point to get those boys back. “I'm sorry, Noah,” you said softly. When a moment passed and you received no indication he had heard you, you repeated your apology louder. Still nothing. “Noah please what else do you want me to do? I apologized.” Silence. No new messages. You were starting to feel hopeless. “Damn it Noah! Let me out of here right now!” You demanded, pounding on the door a few times. Neither the banging nor your screams seemed to have any effect on the black room you were trapped in. You gave the door a final punch, feeling your knuckles begin to ache, before you finally stood from the door and began pacing, feeling around the edges of the walls and searching for anything, a hole, a crack, something! But there was nothing but perfectly smooth blackness, the surface of the walls like black glass, reflecting your hopeless face back at you.You were trapped, completely at the whim of Noah, and you were powerless to do anything to fix your situation. The last time you had felt like this… it had been when you were in the lab, locked in a cell, under the thumb of his father. Before Seto had saved you, you had been nothing, just a tool for war, a slave to war and greed and ego. You swore you'd never go back to that life again. “Noah please I'll do anything… just let me out.” You whimpered, fingernails scratching at the wall in front of you in a last effort to find some sort of exit. After a moment, a bright flash of light entered your vision, blinding against the pure darkness of the room. You blinked a few times, trying to adjust your eyes, but all you could see was painful, oppressive white.“Anything?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Noah,” you breathed in surprise as the dazzling light dimmed, your throat still raw from your screaming. You quickly brushed past your shock and steeled your resolve, furrowing your brow and positioning your body to better defend yourself. “Don’t look so hostile, I'm here to let you out.” You had your suspicions, and you were fucking pissed. No way in hell were you going to look ‘less hostile’ for him. He had gotten on your last nerve. “You said you'd do anything to get out, right?” He hummed, the delighted grin that spread across his face betraying the calmness in his voice. “...What do you want?” You asked cautiously. Yes, in your desperation you had said anything, but that might have to change.“Oh, nothing too difficult,” he said, “You're just going to be on my side now.” “I… I'm sorry what? Your side?” You asked, incredulous. “Yes,” Noah clapped his hands together in childlike glee, “Just like it should have been from the beginning.”You blinked a few times, processing his words, before a dumbfounded giggle left your lips. As Noah stared at you, your giggling quickly turned into laughter, your already raw throat beginning to ache as the sound left it. “You can't be fucking serious,” you snorted, “You honestly I'd betray Seto and Mokuba? Are you an idiot?”“Oh you wouldn't be betraying both of them,” he replied coolly, “Mokuba is already on my side.” “I mean serio--” You stopped, your laughter dying in your throat as his words played again in your head, “What?”“You heard me. Mokuba has already realized how poorly Seto has treated him.” “What a load of shit, you think I'm going to fall for that?”“Mokuba darling,” Noah called, as another flash of light appeared beside him in the tiny room. From that light, the familiar form of your friend appeared, his wild mane of hair falling around his face as he floated to the ground. “Mokuba… what?” You took a cautious step forward, reaching out a hand to him, expecting it to go through his body like a hologram. Instead, your palm lightly connected with his shoulder, though he made no reaction. You knelt down to the ground and placed your other hand on him. Gripping at his arms tightly and shaking him gently to get his attention. His eyes were clouded over, their light completely faded, as if he wasn't entirely there. You brushed a strand of hair from his face and said his name again, and this time he looked up at you. Your name left his lips, and although there was a recognition, there was no emotion in his voice.“Noah what the hell did you to to him?” You demanded, snapping your head to look at the boy. His grin had gotten even wider, face akin to that of a Cheshire cat. “I just showed him what a terrible brother Seto had been. He never truly loved Mokuba, you know. Once he saw that, he was happy to become my brother instead.” Nothing about Mokuba looked happy, and you had to take a deep breath to keep from hurting him since you were still holding his arm. You let your grip fall, before pushing Mokuba lightly to stand behind you and putting yourself between him and Noah. “Whatever you did to him undo it.” You demanded.Noah began to chuckle, lightly at first, but it quickly turned into a fit of sadistic, howling laughter. He threw his head back and set his hands on his hips, eyes squeezed shut as if you'd just told the world's funniest joke. “You honestly think you're in a position to be making demands?” You reached into your bra and took hold of your butterfly knife, skillfully whipping it around to reveal the blade. “Stop it already,” he sighed, “You're powerless in my world. You can't fight me, and you can't fight the fact that you're going to be on my side.” “I will never betray Seto, do you understand?” You said firmly. “Of course you will,” he shrugged, “You'll do anything I want, because I have Mokuba.” You took a glance behind you to confirm Mokuba was still there. He hadn't moved, lifeless eyes still fixed on you. Your chest ached to realize he looked just like one of the soldiers at the lab right after an experiment, the emotionless face and broken eyes. You didn't care how much power Noah had in this world, you'd never let him get away with this.“I'll say this as many times as I have to. I will never betray Seto.” Noah's laughter began to fill the room again, to the point that it began making your head spin. You needed to get out of here, more importantly you needed to get Mokuba out of here. And you couldn't do that with Noah around. You ran through your options in your head, but everything kept coming to a dead end. As long as Noah controlled this world, you couldn't do anything. He could make Mokuba disappear at any moment if he wanted to. As long as Noah…. In a final, desperate attempt to free yourself and your friend from the clutches of this lunatic little boy, you lunged forward. Knife gripped firmly in both hands, aimed straight for his chest. If you could just catch him off guard while he was laughing, you could end all this. All this suffering, this virtual nonsense. Your knife connected with his chest, slicing cleanly through the fabric of his shirt, then his skin, before passing through his form entirely. His body rippled as you went through him, stumbling on your feet as you looked around frantically. Noah was at your back now, body reforming, his laughter still piercing through the air. “How did--?” Before you could finish the question you flew backwards, your knife falling from your hand. Your back slammed into the obsidian wall, a dull pain traveling through your spine. The back of your skull began to ache, a ringing somewhere in the back of your ears. You blinked twice before your brain recovered, realizing what had happened. You quickly made to get back on your feet, but discovered your limbs wouldn't cooperate. Your entire body, in fact, wouldn't listen to your commands.You raised your head to look upward, finding it to be the only thing you could move. Noah began walking toward you, his laughter dying into childish giggles, as he stretched one of his arms toward you. You tried to jerk your head away, but pressed against the wall there was nothing you could do to escape. “People get so desperate when they're trapped, just like wild animals.” Noah hummed, as if making an observation for a documentary.His hand came to rest atop your head, fingers weaving through your hair delicately, the motion making you feel nauseous. When you tried to turn your head the other way, his hand formed a fist, gripping your hair tightly. He forced you to look directly at him, bright blue eyes flashing with a red, laser-like glow, and the only way you could manage it was to level as deadly a glare as you knew how. I'd didn't seem to phase him. “Don't worry, you're going to be part of my family now.” Noah said, a warm smile on his face that betrayed his sadistic nature.“You're not going to get what you want,” you insisted defiantly, “I will never be part of your fake family.”“I see now why my father decided to send you to the lab,” he said with a chuckle, bringing his face closer so his forehead pressed against yours. His glowing red gaze was piercing, as if peering into your mind, boring into your memories. “It's a lot of fun to break you.”
-----
Seto could hear shouting behind him in the familiar voices of Yuugi and his little girlfriend, sound echoing and bouncing around the circular stone walls lit only by dull golden light, but he paid them no mind. He couldn't slow down now, not when his brother was in danger. Not when you had disappeared from his side.He continued sprinting down the tunnel, his heart pounding in his chest, until up ahead he spotted a fork in the road. He slowed his pace, scanning the newfound obstacle in his path, before stopped entirely and taking the opportunity to catch his breath. Mokuba could be down either one of these tunnels, and if he chose the wrong one, he could waste valuable time and risk him getting hurt. But how was he supposed to know which path Noah had taken him down? He was about to convince himself to just pick a direction based on instinct when he spotted something gleaming in the shallow golden light in the left tunnel. He squinted to be able to make out a thin metal form, before walking to investigate. Upon closer inspection he realized it was your combat knife, the one you carried in your waistband. Either you had had it knocked away from you, or you'd dropped it on purpose to create a trail, but either way it meant you'd gone down this path. “Left it is,” he muttered, taking a moment to properly grip the knife in his dominant hand before sprinting down the tunnel once again. He didn’t have to run for long; after less than than a minute Seto could see a familiar figure up ahead, his wild head of hair and short stature unmistakable. He stopped in front of Mokuba with a sigh of relief, but as he spoke his name, the image shifted and rippled. The face of his younger brother became the irritating brat who had taken him away in the first place, and his body floated into the air before a flash of light erupted from his body. Seto didn’t even have time to react to either phenomenon, aside from furrowing his brow in anger and balling the fist that wasn’t holding your knife.He felt like his body was floating in nothingness for a moment, his surroundings completely black and stagnant, with no taste or smell in the air to speak of. He tried to move his limbs, only to find he had no control over his body. Even when a red carpeted floor came into view below him, he was frozen in place, and before he could even think his body slammed to the ground. He wasted no time getting to his feet, though a dull pain persisted in his rib cage, and as he looked up to check his surroundings he spotted Noah, one hand on his hip triumphantly. Behind him, Seto instantly realized, stood his brother. “Mokuba!” He cried, before narrowing his eyes at the teal haired brat in front of him, “How dare you hold my brother hostage, Noah. By taking him you’ve only proved you’re inferior to me.” “Wrong, Seto. It was your former employee who took Mokuba, I’m the one who saved him,” Noah said with a grin, “In fact you should be on your knees thanking me.”Seto Kaiba ignored the comment and reached around the brat to take his brother’s hand, wanting to get far away from this virtual prison as quickly as possible. With his emotions this fried, if he stayed here any longer, he might do something he’d regret later. As he began to entertain the thought of it, Mokuba pulled his hand away. “What’s wrong, Mokuba? Come on.”“No!”“What, why?” He demanded. Mokuba sprinted away from him as fast as he could, before ducking behind Noah again to hide, much in the same way he had when Seto found them. He blinked a few times in shock. What the hell was going on?“I’m not going with you. I’m staying with Noah nii-sama forever!”The question of why died on Seto’s lips when he realized what was happening, “Noah you bastard, what the hell did you do to Mokuba? Hypnotism?”Noah giggled, “Hypnotism can’t change someone’s heart, no, Mokuba simply realized what a terrible big brother you were. We heard everything from Diamon, you used your own brother to take over the company, and then changed the name on his shares to your own.”“That’s a lie!” Seto insisted, before looking to his brother, “Mokuba, you’d believe them over me?”The look of fear that appeared in the younger’s eyes was one that Seto had only seen directed at him once before, and it was one he had vowed would never grace his featured again. He looked legitimately terrified, and it set a heavy feeling in his chest. Noah had to have done something to Mokuba, but whatever he did was powerful, for him to look that scared. “Oh you poor thing,” Noah whispered as he turned to the young boy and lead him to the couch, “Let’s go.”“Why?” Seto demanded, “Why would you take my brother from me? Do you just want to defeat me that badly?”“Defeat you?” Noah chuckled, before taking a seat on the couch beside his brother, “I knew you were conceited, but it seems I underestimated the size of your ego. This isn’t a fight, because it’s already been decided that I’ll win. I can’t lose to a fake rival.”“Fake rival?” Seto pressed. “What does that mean?”“Ah,” Noah hummed, “Suppose I’ll have to show you the truth then.” Seto was about to ask what this ‘truth’ was before a low hum played behind him. He turned to look, and no more than half a second passed before his brain processed the scene before him. Noah, dressed exactly the same way he was right now, standing before Gozaburo Kaiba’s desk. This was getting ridiculous, first the little brat shows images of his childhood memories, now he was manipulating them so he could be a part of them? The door to the office opened, revealing Yuugi and his girlfriend, who looked just as surprised at their arrival as he felt. Yuugi jogged over to him and held up a small picture frame, which Seto took with a frown. Inside of the frame, a picture of Noah standing beside his stepfather, who was sat in an ornate gold chair and wearing a grey business suit.Both he and Yuugi looked back to the scene, as something was slid across the heavy wood desk, and the figure of Noah picked it up with a confused frown.“Who is this?”“Seto. He looks like you, and he’s smart like you. But I’m certain you’re no match for him.”“No match?”Your name left Gozaburo’s lips making Seto tense, “...She’s smart, but even she’s nothing compared to this boy. He’ll push you even farther than she does. So, he’ll be your rival in your studies to become king. Prove you’re superior in every way, and that you deserve to be Kaiba Corporation’s heir.”Seto glared at the image of his stepfather. This had to be a lie, all of it. Otherwise, Noah would have known who you were, and you him, the instant you all landed in this virtual dump. Yet neither of you acted like you knew each other. You would have told him who Noah was, it wasn’t something you would keep from him, not information this important. “Understood, father. It’ll be simple.”“Father?” Anzu cried. “What?” Yuugi echoed. “Noah what the hell is going on here?” Seto demanded. “It’s like you heard. I’m Noah Kaiba, Gozaburo Kaiba’s one, true son.” He grinned, “To motivate me to study harder, he created a rival for me. You were smart, and you looked like me, those are the only reasons he adopted you. Your only purpose was to motivate me, but even though you’re just a fake, you ousted my father and took over the company.”Seto was an irritating mix of pissed, stunned, and thoroughly confused. If Noah really was Gozaburo’s son, why had he never seen him around? Why were you the one he studied with day in and day out, and not Noah? And, speaking of you, if this was all true, why hadn’t you said anything? “I invited you here to prove to my late father that I’m superior to you in every way,” Noah said, smile spreading even wider across his face, “And I will inherit Kaiba Corporation.”“More lies!” Seto finally insisted. None of this added up, and none of it would add up until you explained why you had been Noah’s so-called study partner before all of this. If you even knew what he was talking about, that was. Noah could just be making all of this up, and using your name to get to him. Without you here to defend yourself, this little brat could say anything he wanted. Where the hell were you, anyway?As Noah was about to continue his explanation, the screen behind him lit up to reveal the moving image of a truck, the same one Yuugi and crew had rode in on, being chased by a group of flying monsters. Seto recognized the monster in front to be Psycho Shocker, and hazarded a guess that it was the Big Five running-- or, rather, flying-- them down. “Troublemakers,” Noah hummed, “Suppose I need to go take care of this. Seto, we’ll talk later.” “Wait!” Seto demanded, but his cry fell on deaf ears as both Noah, Mokuba, and the room they were in faded before him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
George Orwell
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You had been just about to turn thirteen when Noah was in a car accident.
You and Seto would study together a few times a week inside of one of the mansion’s libraries.
You, Seto, and Noah would study together a few times a week inside of a large laboratory, where Noah now lived. The inside was clean, heavily air conditioned, and filled with servers and electronics of all sorts. There were constantly programmers and scientists milling about the building, working on some project or another, either researching for Kaiba Corporation or for Noah himself.
You had been excited when Gozaburo adopted Seto and Mokuba, even knowing their true purpose for coming to the mansion. It was something each of you knew, at least to a degree, but never really talked about. Seto was supposed to push Noah to study harder, to make him better, so that he was the best person for the job beyond a shadow of a doubt when it came time to take over the company. In return, he and Mokuba got to live happily inside of the mansion, with the comfort and knowledge that they would be well taken care of and never have to worry about a thing ever again.
It was a role that naturally bred jealousy, though. Despite Seto’s intelligence and determination there was no way he would be able to take over the company, no matter how hard he worked. Noah was Gozaburo’s biological son, after all, there was no real reason for Seto to take over Kaiba Corp. It was easy to tell he felt slighted by the situation, but it was just something he would have to get over. He didn’t, though. Instead, he made it his mission to prove to Gozaburo he was more fit to control the company than Noah was. If anyone stood in his way, he pushed them aside regardless of who they were or how much they were trying to help.
It wasn’t too shortly after Christmas that the two of you had been sitting together on one of the mansion’s balconies, watching snow coat the ground. You had asked him what his plans were for the new year, and he had tried to avoid the question by offering something vague about a new program he was working on in his spare time. It had just made you more excited to prod him, though, asking question after question trying to get information out of him.
He never told you what, exactly, the program was. He did tell you that it would be amazing, though. That it would be enough to prove to his step father that he should be the one to take over Kaiba Corp. You eventually managed to coax enough information to find out that the program would make it impossible for Noah to take over the company, but he wouldn’t tell you anything more concrete.
You tried to convince him that it was a terrible idea. Noah had always been, and was always going to be, the heir and eventual president of Kaiba Corp. Seto didn’t seem convinced, and even further, warned you that if you got in his way he wouldn’t hesitate to take you down. It was the first time you’d been legitimately terrified of him.
You wanted to tell Noah, but… Seto was still your friend. If you told anyone, he would get in trouble, and you didn’t want that to happen. Especially because you weren’t sure what might happen to him, or to Mokuba.
You didn’t have a chance to tell anyone, though. Presumably, Seto had decided to take matters into his own hands. Once week later, you were sent to the lab.
-----
“I’d like to pay attention to this duel,” Noah hummed absently, waving you over with one hand. You were obediently at his side before he could count to three in his head, eyes having lost that defiant spark they had tried so hard to keep. You stood with your arms behind your back and hands folded together, awaiting any order he would give. The perfect bodyguard. He waved you down to his level, and you bent down so your face was level with his.“Do me a favor and take care of Seto, won’t you? We wouldn’t want him getting lonely,” he said, placing a hand at your cheek, cupping your face softly. You gave a firm nod, but otherwise stayed perfectly still for him. You were so much more manageable without all those pesky feelings in the way. Although now that he thought about it, Seto might catch on a little too quickly if you came to him in this state. Perhaps giving you back your emotions would make things a little more interesting. “Make him believe you’re still friends,” Noah ordered, “And bring him to me. I want a front row seat when he realizes I’ve taken everything precious away from him.” “Understood, Noah.”
-----
Kaiba had stopped at the door to the large house, one which was suspiciously out of place considering your surroundings. In one hand, he still held the combat knife that had been used to lead him down the correct tunnel. Just like Noah had said, he was holding on to it to defend himself, or perhaps to attack. Not like you’d let him get the chance to do either.
“Once he’s inside, follow after him. Act like you’ve just wandered in.”
You nodded to the voice, keeping still behind the tree trunk you were hidden behind until Kaiba finally worked up the nerve to push the door open. He disappeared inside of the house, and you tapped on the tree trunk for a beat of thirty seconds before you began making your way to the door. You took a deep breath, closing your eyes to get into character. The character who knew nothing of all the horrible things Seto Kaiba had done, who had idolized him until Noah talked some sense into you. “Hello?” You called out as you entered the house, trying to sound as lost as Kaiba probably felt right now. You shut the door behind you and glanced around the entryway, pausing when you heard footsteps on the top floor. After some shuffling, a very annoyed Kaiba appeared at the top of the stairs, though you noticed a relief in his sapphire eyes when he saw you. So far, it seemed he didn’t suspected anything.“There you are,” he said flatly, “Where have you been?”You shrugged noncommittally, “This whole virtual world is a mystery to me. I was looking for Mokuba, then ended up wandering around this area. Next thing I know you’re here.”He hummed in reply, his body relaxing somewhat as he descended the stairs and joined your side. “You didn’t find Mokuba, then?”Of course I found him, he’s with Noah. Where he belongs.“No, unfortunately.” You sighed, avoiding his gaze to make it seem you were torn up about Mokuba’s absence from his side. “Well thankfully one of us was making progress on that front,” Kaiba said callously, and you were glad you weren’t looking at him because you might just glare a little too suspiciously. “Noah has him.”“What do you mean ‘has him’?” You pressed, feigning ignorance. “I mean he did something to my brother’s memories.” He was getting angry. Good. Considering what he’d put you and Mokuba through he deserved everything that was coming to him.“Speaking of memories,” he cleared his throat, before reaching into his jacket and holding up a small picture in the hand that wasn’t currently gripping your combat knife. You took a quick glance, confirming that it was a photo of Noah and his father, a picture your friend had provided as proof that he was the only one deserving of the Kaiba name. You frowned down at it. If you recalled correctly, you had been fearful of Noah revealing your memories of the lab to Kaiba and Mokuba if you told them who he was. Of course, you knew now he would never do such a thing to you. He had only been holding those memories over your head because you had been stubborn about the whole things. Still, if you were going to convince Kaiba you were still on his side, you needed to continue acting like it was all one big secret.“Where did you find this?” You asked.“Noah provided it, conveniently enough,” he replied, “Know anything about it?”You audibly swallowed for dramatic effect, “I’ve… never seen this photo before.” “Don’t play dumb,” he demanded, and you looked up at him so see blue eyes blazing with anger, “It’s obvious you know something about that little brat you’re not telling me. So spit it out, now.” How on earth had you ever dealt with him before? He had such a short fuse, such a fiery temper. No matter how much you’d idolized him, it didn’t excuse your idiocy for sticking by his side for this long. Noah was right: you had been blind. Thankfully, he had fixed all of that for you. Let’s see… now you just needed to act like he was asking a difficult question, one that you were afraid to answer. Where you feared he would leave you behind because you had lied to him. “I…” you paused to searched your surroundings quickly, pretending to stall for time. It seemed to only make him more impatient. “I heard Gozaburo say your name to Noah. Say the two of you studied together. That you were friends. Is that true?” “It… it’s true.” you muttered.You pointed to the wall on your right, the same spot Noah had told you to point when he rehearsed this with you. Kaiba raised an eyebrow, but turned his head to follow your gesture. The wall began to ripple, white wallpaper distorting before it faded and the entire wall ultimately vanished, revealing the mansion courtyard. The grass was a vibrant green, perfectly trimmed red rose and blue hydrangea bushes filling a flowerbed to the brim on one end. The other had rows of hedges and trees, pruned and shaped into the form of various abstract shapes and pleasant forms. The sky was a soft blue, wisps of white clouds traveling slowly across it in the soft breeze that blew across the scene.Your name left Noah’s lips, and out of the corner of your eye you saw Seto shift his weight. As he called your name again, his form began to come into view of the scene, teal hair shining brilliantly in the sunlight, dressed in a pair of blue twill shorts and a white, perfectly pressed button-up shirt.“I give up!” Noah yelled across the courtyard, “You’re too good at hiding! Come out already!” There was a rustling in the hydrangea bushes as the form of a young girl crawled out from behind the leaves and flowers. Wearing a yellow sundress with a white embroidered hem and plain white heels, emerged a twelve-year-old version of yourself. You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear as you stood upon the fresh grass, then placed your hands on your hips triumphantly.“I knew you wouldn’t find me there.”“Hey! Hiding in the bushes is cheating,” Noah protested. “What? I don’t remember that being a rule.” “It totally is!”“You’re just jealous because I’m better at hiding than you,” you taunted in a sing-song voice.“I am not.” “Are too.”“Am not!” “Oh you so are too.” You laughed.“You’re being ridiculous, I’m totally not jealous of your dumb hiding skills!”You had begun laughing too hard to continue the childish argument, and after a moment Noah joined in as well. You bent down as you laughed to examine your clothes, and as you did so Noah abruptly stopped and pointed at your head, taking a step back so he wasn’t as close to you.“There’s a spider in your hair!” He cried. “Yeah right, I’m not falling for that one again.” You rolled your eyes, brushing at a bit of dirt off the hem of your sundress. “I’m not kidding this time,” he assured, staring at the top of your head with wide blue eyes.You pursed your lips and cocked your head at him, as if trying to decide if you believed him or not, “Well, get it off me then, if it really exists.”“No way, I’m not touching that thing!” “What, why not? It’s just a spider,” you teased, reaching up gingerly to feel around your hair. Your fingertips eventually found something distinctly bug-like, and you shivered a little bit though you pretended you were completely unafraid. You brought up your other hand to try scooping it up without squishing it, taking it from your head and holding it in front of you to look down on. From the angle you and Kaiba were watching from, you couldn’t see what the spider looked like, nor could you really remember it that well. “See, I told you I wasn’t lying.” Noah said defensively. “Yeah yeah. Wanna touch it?”“Gross!”“Oh come on it’s just a spider,” you teased, “What you’re not afraid of it are you?” “Huh? Of course I’m not afraid of it. It’s just a spider,” he insisted, although he took a half step back as you moved your hands ever so slightly closer to him. “Scaredy-cat,” you sang, sticking out your tongue.“Fine, I’ll show you!” Noah cried, before taking in a deep breath and beginning to extend a shaky hand outward to yours. You grinned in victory and began to tilt your hand toward his, but as you did so the spider abruptly began crawling in the opposite direction.“Woah!” You yelped in surprise as the spider glided down your forearm at a rapid pace. You began shaking your arm up and down instinctually, and Noah jumped backwards with a scream. The spider flew through the air, landing somewhere on the ground between the two of you, and Noah took five steps backwards before he felt safe enough to stop jumping around in a panic. You started laughing, and he shook his head at you before giggling himself. The scene began to fade, disappearing behind the wooden wall and white wallpaper than had been there before. You turned back to face Kaiba, and he was already glaring at you. Before he could demand you explain yourself further, you were already clearing your throat to speak.“Noah Kaiba.” You said, “Gozaburo Kaiba’s biological son. He and I were best friends for years, we played and studied together almost every day.” “What happened to him then?” Kaiba pressed, “Why wasn’t he there when Mokuba and I were adopted?” “Car accident.” You replied, “Less than a week before you arrived at the mansion.”Kaiba hummed in annoyance, “And why didn’t you tell me any of this when we got here?”“I… Noah told me if I said anything,” you paused, glancing down at the floor and letting out a shaky breath. There was a fear pricking at your core, one that felt the same as what you’d been feeling wandering around this world with Kaiba and Mokuba. But why? You knew Noah wouldn’t show those memories, he already told you he had just been trying to get you on his side. So why was this fear there?“What?” Kaiba demanded. “He said he would show my memories of the lab.” You admitted.There was a long pause, one that you were positive would end in Kaiba trying to leave the house. When he did so, however, that was when you would reveal your true intentions. The second he no longer trusted you, you would pull your knife and demand he come with you to see Noah. When you returned your gaze to his face, his blue eyes locked with yours, something sparkling within them. Worry? Regret? You couldn’t really tell, though you had to be making a mistake. Someone as callous as him would never show those emotions to you. He was probably putting on some sort of act, a poor attempt to keep you from leaving his side. “I understand,” he finally said. “I-- what?” You blinked, incredulous. “I understand your reasons,” he repeated, quickly frowning down at you, “Not that I agree with them, but I don’t… blame you for them.”Wait a second, was he serious? That wasn’t quite the response you’d been expecting. You thought… why was he forgiving you? You’d selfishly kept information from him that could have answered all his questions the moment he got into this world. He could have even used it against Noah, or at the very least used it to his advantage. You didn’t understand. What was this heat in your chest?“Calm down, he’s just trying to get inside of your head,” Noah’s soothing voice of reason echoed in your mind, “You know how manipulative he can be.”You nodded to yourself, to Noah, though Kaiba seemed to take that as a response to his comment. He began reaching a hand toward your head awkwardly, and you furrowed your brow. You wanted to move, but if you were still playing the part of his friend, you needed to see what he would do. Otherwise it might seem suspicious. That was, until his hand rested upon the top of your head and his fingers ruffled your hair, as if he were trying to… comfort you? Why was he touching you? The warmth in your chest grew, a feeling which served to worry you. What were you feeling? You knew what kind of person Kaiba was, Noah had told you all about it. All the terrible things he’d done, especially to Mokuba. A person that heartless would never comfort you like this, not unless it was all an act. He just wanted to manipulate you. You pushed his hand away with a glare, although you quickly realized you shouldn’t have. A confused expression crossed his face. He was going to see right through you if you weren’t careful. “We need to find Mokuba,” you blurted quickly, “We don’t have time to be standing around here.” Without waiting to see what sort of expression he would make next you spun on your heels and opened the front door to the house, only stopping when you didn’t hear his footsteps. You paused, glancing behind you to see him scowling at his hand, and you couldn’t help the impatience you felt. What, was he trying to pretend you had hurt him, now? Just how far would he go to keep you on his side? “Kaiba,” you said, and his head snapped up, eyes meeting yours, “Are you coming?” There was a short pause, before he returned his hand to his side. He only offered you a curt nod as he followed after you, not bothering to shut the door behind him as the two of you left the house and began up the stairs.
-----
You had called him Kaiba.You never called him Kaiba, had never called him Kaiba, even when you were angry with him. Even then, typically, you would just say his given name louder and with a bit more emphasis on the ‘o’. On top of it, you were acting weird. Not that you hadn’t been acting weird periodically throughout the past two days, because you absolutely had, but combined with the face that you’d used his last name and the way you’d reacted when he touched you.... Something was definitely up.He hadn’t yet said anything, instead following a few steps behind you, slowly putting more and more distance between you two as he thought. You hadn’t seemed to notice. It was something a trained soldier should have noticed, he thought, though he wasn’t positive how much of you was in control at the moment with the way you were currently behaving. It was entirely possible you were just that upset with him, though what exactly he had done to warrant those feelings he had no idea. It was more likely something had happened to you while the two of you had been separated, either Noah had shown you a memory that stirred something in you, or he had said something to that same effect. If that was the case, Seto couldn’t be positive you were still on his side. He thought back to his younger brother, that acute fear in his eyes after Noah had gotten his filthy hands on him. You didn’t have that same expression, but then he figured someone like you had no logical reason to be afraid of him, considering your background. Although, now that he thought about it, you had a similarly violent reaction to him touching you. There were parallels between your and Mokuba’s behavior that Seto just couldn’t ignore, and the more he considered the possibility that Noah had gotten into your head as well, the more he began to realize the potential danger he was in. Every one of his instincts was screaming at him to run away from you, in the opposite direction, as far as he could possibly get. He had put about a four meter distance between you, enough that he could get a head start and not risk you turning around and stabbing him with any number of the knives you were currently in possession of. His legs were longer than yours, although with your training you were probably a faster runner. In a best case scenario, you would be evenly matched in speed. It would come down to stamina; Seto thought back to the various sports he’d been forced to play whilst attending Domino High School. Whether it was soccer, tennis, baseball, he had always observed himself to feel perfectly fine even when his classmates were winded or panting. He was no marathon runner when it came to track, but he could easily run the farthest before his lungs began to burn. As for you, he racked his brain for what he had read of your file. He explicitly remembered the term ‘stamina control leaves much to be desired’, if only because he was positive that it had been written by Gozaburo himself, judging by the disappointment in the words. Whether that was only in response to your ability, a side or after effect to you stopping time, he wasn’t positive. But there was a possibility it was a general comment, and that he would be able to run farther than you because of it. The question became, then, even if he did decide to sprint away from you, where would he go? The obvious answer was away from you, but after that what would he do? Noah controlled this world, and if you were under his thumb, you were likely leading Seto right to him. But even if he ran from you, it was entirely possible Noah would simply force him into a dead end so you could grab him. In which case, he would be in the exact same predicament. Still, if there was a chance he could get away from you and find his brother, it was better than the alternative of just following you blindly and submissively into the unknown.He glanced around him, the silence between the two of you welcome for his freedom of thought and only serving to solidify his hypothesis that Noah had gotten to you. You’d been quiet for a majority of the journey through the forest and in the desert dunes, but you’d still offered occasional banter, asked the odd question, muttered something to yourself while you thought. Now you were completely silent, deathly so, almost more like a walking corpse rather than a human girl. No, it felt more like you were just a soldier taking orders. Once they made it out of this virtual world and you came to your senses, he was positive you’d be royally pissed at what you had become. His surroundings were fairly sparse, rows of marble pillars in a sort of ancient Roman style, built into a ground of cracked earth and sand. Up ahead, where you were leading him, there was a large archway, one which he felt he shouldn’t allow you to bring him. Something was distinctly off about it, though he had no facts to back that feeling up. To his right, a building which appeared to have seen better days, rubble in the entryway, but not enough that it would block his path if he chose to run to it. It looked large, large enough that it may have places to lose you, especially if there were any windows or other doorways to exit from. It was his best bet of getting away from you. By this time he had extended the distance to five meters. Any more and you would notice for sure, if you hadn’t already. He needed to make a decision soon, whether he continued following you blindly or took the risk and made a break for it.The decision was made for him when you stopped in your tracks, throwing a glance over your shoulder to see how far behind you he was. Your face was completely impassive, eyes locked on the ground beneath him. The fact that you wouldn’t look him in the eye all but confirmed you were no longer in complete control of yourself. “Kaiba--”That was enough. Without a second thought he broke into a run, making for the building to his right. Almost immediately you shouted his family name again, an edge of panic in your voice, and your rapid footfalls joined the sound of his own. He didn’t look back, knowing he would lose precious distance between the two of you if he risked throwing any amount of vision over his shoulder. He didn’t know how close you were; close enough that he heard you running, but considering he didn’t have a knife at his back yet he was going to count himself lucky. The moment he entered the building he cursed himself. Other than the light of the entryway and a few holes in the room, the place was dark. There were no windows to speak of, and unless there was a door tucked away behind a corner, he appeared to have no way out aside from where he’d just entered. The same entry you’d be inside of within the next few seconds. Shit. His eyes darted around the large room quickly, finding multiple pillars of the same shape and make of those outside, albeit smaller, holding up the cracked and beaten roof. A wooden table topped with a tattered and moth-eaten tablecloth, silverware, broken plates and empty candelabras scattered on its surface. He ducked beneath it as quickly as he could, training his eyes on the doorway as he peered around one of the wooden legs of the table. Your form appeared just when he was satisfied he was hiding as well as he could, the sounds of your heavy leather boot heels on stone tile dying as you paused to look around. He could hear your breathing, coming out ragged but steady. Your eyes landed on the table he was hidden behind, and as you took a step toward it he inwardly cursed himself for choosing the most obvious spot to hide. As you walked, he took a moment to memorize the pace of your steps, before he synched them with his own, backing away from the table toward the pillar beside it. You were staring at the other end of the table so you didn’t appear to notice him in the relative darkness of the building. “A nat twenty for stealth!” He could imagine your childish voice joking in the back of his head, and he quickly shook it away. This was no time to be thinking of the past you, this was the time to focus on the current you. The you who was trying to kill him.“Kaiba!” You called, obviously trying to keep the annoyed edge from your voice but failing miserably, “Come out already, what the hell are you doing?” He slipped behind a second pillar, watching you as you looked beneath the tablecloth, then cautiously behind you, before stopping a few steps from the middle of the open flooring of the building. Kaiba remembered, then, that he still had your combat knife in his hand. You hadn’t taken it from him, and he had almost forgotten he’d been clutching in considering he’d been so distracted by his own thoughts. “It’s because she’s calling you Kaiba isn’t it?” A grating childish voice echoed throughout the building, sound bouncing off the stone walls surrounding him. He fought the urge to growl in response, instead settling on narrowing his eyes at you form as you momentarily looked up to the ceiling, before returning to searching for him. “Well I guess you found us out,” the voice sarcastically lamented, “Not like it matters much, you don’t have anywhere to run. Your former best friend will be bringing you to me in no time. Isn’t that right my dear?”“Yes, Noah.” You replied lifelessly, in the same monotone a soldier would use to confirm the orders from their superior. The thought was enough to make Seto sneer as he ducked behind a third pillar when your back was turned momentarily. He needed to think of something quickly before you found him, and as a quick glance confirmed, that would be relatively soon considering he was almost out of pillars around him. He couldn’t just sprint out the front door, even if you didn’t catch up to him, he had nowhere to run that wouldn’t simply be straight to Noah. And, with you on that little brat’s side, it was going to be near impossible for him to get anywhere close Mokuba.
“Isn’t it amazing how easily I can take away everything you hold dear? First your brother, then your precious ‘Ghost’, and soon your body and your company will all be mine. Just like they should have been from the beginning.”
He needed a way to convince you he wasn’t your enemy, that you had been brainwashed by Noah, just like his brother had been. But how could he possibly do that? Mokuba had refused to listen to anything he had to say, and Noah had even gone as far as to plant false memories in his head to poison his mind. It was likely he’d done the same to you, and if that was the case, no amount of rationalizing or pleading would have any effect on you.
“Memories are such fickle things, aren’t they?” The voice echoed again, ear-gratingly obnoxious in the way it mocked him, confirming his suspicions as if reading his thoughts. “All you have to do is change a few things, and people lose all sense of who they are. Even with how madly in love with you she was, once I told her about all those terrible things you’d done, she wanted nothing else but to come to my side.”
Seto backed behind the final pillar in the vicinity, and it wasn’t more than a few seconds later that you had exhausted the rest of the empty building and began making your way toward him. Your butterfly knife was in your dominant hand, your brow furrowed in clear annoyance. He had less than ten seconds to come up with a plan to get out of this situation, but as he racked his brain he continued to come up empty. There was nothing he could possibly say to snap you out of your trance, and he couldn’t come up with an action that would startle you long enough for him to run past you. Five seconds. There had to be something he could do to distract you-- no you were too smart for that. Three seconds. His only chance was to try convincing you Noah had brainwashed you, there simply wasn’t anything else he could do. He had backed himself into a corner. One second. Wait a minute, did Noah just say you were in love with him?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Isis Ishtar had begun to sincerely wish she hadn’t yet given the Millenium Necklace to the Pharaoh's vessel. Perhaps she would have been able to get it to show her visions again, had it still been in her possession. She had watched the remaining, currently conscious duelists disembark the blimp and head for a large metal door hours ago. She had considered going herself, but upon seeing her younger brother had not accompanied you, thought it best to stay aboard and keep an eye on Rishiid. Not knowing what on earth was happening was starting to seriously irritate her. First, she was worried for the Pharaoh and his vessel. Whatever was going on here was completely out of any of your hands, and that worried her immensely. She was equally worried for Marik, or rather, worried that she had not senses his presence on this blimp in over two hours. Wherever he had disappeared to, she was convinced he was causing chaos, and in a high-tech fortress such as this, that could only bring disaster. She was, interestingly enough, worried for your safety more than most others. She wasn’t entirely sure why, either. Isis barely knew you, or anything about you, you hadn’t even given her your real name. Each conversation the two of you had ended up being uncomfortable, awkward, disingenuous, or some sour mix of the three. Yet she had awoken last night to hear you sobbing in your sleep, and had pretended to be dormant when you had gotten up at two in the morning to sort through your Duel Monsters cards over and over again, muttering to yourself that there must have been something you could have done. Despite your outward lack of emotion, or at least your usually successful attempts to make it seem you felt nothing, Isis had quickly come to realize that wasn’t quite the case at all. You felt everything. Yet, for some reason, you insisted upon hiding it away from everyone. The only emotion you ever allowed yourself to show being frustration, and anger. As if you were trying to convince those around you that you were much stronger than you really were. In that way, she had thought offhandedly, you were very much like Kaiba. Perhaps that was because the two of you were friends-- had been friends, she recalled you correcting her. Or correcting yourself. Isis barely knew you, and she was relatively convinced she didn’t like you very much, but she still hoped you were alright.
-----
Kaiba stepped out from his spot behind the pillar and tossed your combat knife to the side before raising both hands to his head, a scowl etched on his face. It seemed he’d given up, though his blue eyes still had a sort of fire burning in them, so you tightened your grip on your knife and prepared yourself in case he did anything crazy. He took a few steps toward you, brow furrowing as he neared. His fingers twitched above his head just enough that you caught them out of your peripheral vision, and in a second you were convinced he was going to try something. You raised your knife up past your chest just as he jumped toward you, and you reflexively took one step back with your right foot to balance yourself. Your knife stopped just at the flesh of his neck, pressing lightly onto it with enough pressure that you were positive he could feel it but not enough that it would cut. That didn’t seem to stop him though, his body didn’t move any further but his face about collided into yours, and his lips were against yours in an instant. What… the fuck? You stared into his still open azure eyes, searching them for the explanation they wouldn’t give away. His lips were oppressive, commanding every ounce of your attention, the sensation leaving you confused and dumbfounded. What the hell was going on? Why was Kaiba kissing you? Why… why were you calling him Kaiba?You pressed your free hand against his chest and shoved yourself away from him, taking two steps backwards to create some distance. Your knife was still raised in the other, though your grip had loosened significantly from the shock of his sudden assault on your mouth. You were loathe to admit that the action had made your head spin, and left you unable to properly process what was happening around you. Your mind was all fuzzy, a muddled stream of memories swirling about in absolute chaos. His hand darted to yours, smacking your knife from your grip while you were distracted. It toppled to the ground with a dull, metallic clang. The sound snapped you out of your thoughts somewhat, and instinctually you moved forward to grab it. Seto… Kaiba was faster, however, using his free hands to grip your arms, long fingers coiling around them with ease. His grip was strong, admittedly, but not strong enough that he could overpower you. You rotated your hands so that you were gripping his wrists. You just needed to turn your arms outward, and you would be able to twist hard enough that he would be forced to let go. If you were lucky, it might even snap his ulna, making him even easier to subdue. Then he would have no way to fight back as you dragged him back to Noah. “Kaiba--”“Seto.” He interrupted firmly. “H...huh?” “You’re one of the only people on the planet allowed to call me Seto.” He elaborated. You stared into his sapphire eyes, searching for a sign that he was just fucking with you. He was probably just acting this way to trick you. He wanted you to let your guard down so he could knock you out and get to Mokuba and Noah. “You don’t honestly think I’ll fall for--” “You’re supposed to be my bodyguard, aren’t you?” He insisted.
“Don’t listen to him.”
“That’s only because you tricked me into thinking--” “I freed you from the lab. That is a fact.”You needed to move your arms and force him to let go, but you couldn’t will yourself to do so. Your brain was swimming, and despite the fact that you knew better than to listen to your enemy, something was burning in your chest each time he spoke. It was like you wanted to believe him, even though you knew he was lying to you. “You’re the one who sent me there,” you argued, the words having a difficult time leaving your throat. He briefly paused, some sort of unknown emotion flashing so quickly through his sapphire irises you weren't entire sure what it was. He recovered quickly, however, clearing his throat before he spoke. “I don’t know what kind of ridiculous lies Noah has been feeding you, but you should know better.”“They’re not lies!” “Why aren’t you fighting back, then?” He pressed.“Because--”“Because you consider me a friend?” “You’re not--” “Because you’re in love with me?” “No, I--”He took a step toward you and you reflexively took a step back. You couldn’t understand why your arms wouldn’t move like they needed to, nor why your head felt like it was splitting open. Your thoughts were in such a jumble that you couldn’t separate fact from fiction. You felt like you were floating in some sort of haze. The only clear thought in your head was one focused on his lips, the threat of him coming any closer to your face. “Don’t you dare.” You hissed. You had enough willpower to push his body back, still gripping his arms and putting pressure on his wrists. The threat of you twisting them was enough to keep him from stepping further toward you, though he continued to stare at you with a look of annoyance and discomfort. The later, likely, from the painful sensation caused by your fingers digging into his wrist bones. “So what, then? What are you going to do now?” He demanded. “Continue standing here and wasting my time?” “No, I’m… going to take you back to Noah.” You said, realizing only after the words had left your mouth how hesitant you sounded. Why? Why were you acting like this? “And what does Noah plan to do with me?”“That’s none of my concern.” You insisted. “Isn’t it? He could seriously injure me, you know. You would be perfectly fine with that?”“It’s not my job to question what he’ll do with you.” You realized your body had begun to regain control of itself, enough that you could now do as you’d wanted to earlier. You began twisting Kaiba’s wrists enough that he begrudgingly released his grip on your own, his hands tensing against the pressure you had put on him. “Gozaburo would certainly be proud of the obedient dog you’ve become.”You glared up at him, body once again stopping in its tracks, this time out of anger. He was referring to what had been done to you in the lab, obviously. The lab he had sent you to. “It’s your fault I was sent there in the first place.” You sneered.“Yes, I read your file.”“You what?” You demanded. “My stepfather sent you to the lab because you were a distraction to my studies, therefore you blame me for your being sent there. Is that right?” “Distraction?” You blinked, “What are you talking about? I was sent there because--”“Because I was in love with you,” he interrupted coolly.You opened your mouth to refute, but found yourself unable to form any words of protest. Kaiba… why were you calling him Kaiba, again? Seto took your silence as an opportunity to continue, azure eyes piercing through yours in a way that made you feel he was looking into your brain-- or maybe your heart. “I don’t know what lies Noah has fed you, or what memories you have that never happened, but what I am telling you are facts. You and I studied together in the Kaiba mansion. On Christmas Eve I told you I had a crush on you, and you rejected me. By the end of the week, I had been informed you moved to Germany to study abroad, when in reality my father had you sent to a facility in Omachi to ensure you would no longer distract me.”“You… said earlier you were in love with me.”Why was that the only thing you could ask? Why couldn’t you argue anything else from his obviously fake timeline?He rolled his eyes, “I was a child, I didn’t know what love was.”Your chest was burning and your mind was blurring, a mist-like haze surrounding your every thought as you tried desperately to search through and separate memories that had begun to conflict with one another. They started blending together awkwardly, before just as quickly separating themselves, trying to make sense of some sort of imaginary timeline you had been convinced existed. Why was Noah in memories he couldn’t have been a part of, and more importantly why had Seto been erased from half of them? What were these lies about him that you’d been convinced existed?You took another step back and tore yourself away from him, releasing your grip on his wrists and staring at them in an attempt to avoid his gaze. You watch him begin rubbing at his left wrist, massaging it gently to alleviate the pain you’d put on it. You opened your mouth to speak, but couldn’t find anything to say to him, your head still swimming in confusion. You had the mental capacity to crouch downward to pick up your butterfly knife, and Seto made no move to stop you. You flipped it closed and return it to the inside of your bra, feeling a heat creep onto your face as the reality of what had just happened set in. When you finally willed yourself to look up at his face, he looked like he expected you to say something, though you weren’t exactly sure how to react to his actions much less what words to offer.“Your... lips are chapped,” you mumbled, digging into your pocket for a tube of chapstick and thrusting it at him. He looked bewildered by your action, blinking a few times as he processed it, before finally taking it from your hand. He made no motion to apply it, simply turning it over in his fingers a few times. “Are you back to normal now?” He demanded after a moment. “I… uh,” you nodded, “I think so.”“Good. Now why exactly were you trying to kill me?” “I wasn’t trying to kill you, I was… trying to kidnap you so Noah could kill you. Thought I’m not sure that’s much better,” you sighed. “I should strangle that kid for fucking around with my memories.”Seto handed back your tube of chapstick after not having used it, and you returned it to your pocket without argument. You were somewhat embarrassed by your reaction, but resolved to push the feeling away as soon as Seto bent down to retrieve your combat knife from the stone floor. He extended it toward you, albeit you noticed he did so somewhat hesitantly. “Maybe you should hold onto that,” you said, “Extra protection and all.” “Why would I need it? You’re my bodyguard, aren’t you?” Had your heart not been swelling at those words, you might have insisted he keep the knife. Instead, you took it with a nod and flexed your fingers around the hilt a few times to get a proper, comfortable grip. In that time, Seto had already walked past you toward the old building’s exit, gesturing for you to follow. You jogged after him, keeping to his side as he lead you back to sunny, sandy plains and large marble pillars. “Seto?” He made a grunt of acknowledgement. “I get that you needed a way to convince me to, uh, not kill you and all. But… why did you kiss me?” “Because you’re in love with me.” You blinked. Seto was looking straight ahead, refusing-- or maybe simply having no need-- to make eye contact. His tone was matter-of-fact, completely without emotion, enough to make you feel a little unsettled. “Or so Noah says.” You thought you should offer a reply, at least to confirm you had heard him. You managed an ‘oh’ at the very least, though whether it was at all audible you weren’t sure. If he could hear it, he would probably be able to tell you were somewhat mortified. Okay, incredibly mortified. With his lack of emotion, you had no idea if he had taken Noah at his word. Did he believe you were in love with him?“On to more important topics,” he demanded, interrupting your train of thought. “In your mind-controlled state you told me you hadn’t seen Mokuba. Was that a lie?” You nodded, before realizing he could not see it since he still refused to look at you. He was walking with determination toward the stone archway you had been leading him toward under Noah’s orders. “Yeah… so that really wasn’t you back there?”He finally looked your way, if only to raise an eyebrow to your question. “Mokuba and I saw your duel against Diamon,” you elaborated, “When we got up to leave, you showed up. Told me to go on ahead, that you needed to talk to him about something--”“So you left him alone?” He accused.“Don’t you pin this on me,” you snapped, “How was I supposed to know it wasn’t the real you?”“Even if you believed it was my why would I ever ask you to leave his side when Noah is in control of this world?” “It was right after we Diamon explained that shit you pulled right before you took over the company,” your voice was beginning to raise in a shout as you felt heat burning in your chest, “I thought you needed to apologize to him in private or something.” “Apologize? You honestly believe those ridiculous lies Noah and the Big Five are spewing?” He scoffed.“Lies? Seto I saw what you did to him!”“What the hell are you accusing me of?” The two of you had since stopped walking, Seto having turned to fully face you so he could properly be part of the shouting match that had erupted. “I don’t give a shit how brilliant you thought your plan to take over the company was, you could have done it without hurting Mokuba!” “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You have no idea what Gozaburo was capable of!” “Of course I know you colossal ass, I lived what he was capable of!”He paused at your words momentarily, as if taken aback by them. When he spoke again, his voice was still raised but not quite as loud as it had been a moment ago, instead taking on a more defensive tone. “Then you should know I had to get us out from his thumb as soon as possible.” “You didn’t have to go as far as to hurt Mokuba, he was just a kid.” You insisted. “You don’t think I tried to come up with a better way?” “All you had to do was not hurt him. He wasn’t old enough to protect himself--”“I was the only one protecting him, you have no room to talk!”“How dare you? You’ve got no clue what I sacrificed for Mokuba--”“Sacrificed for him?” He scoffed enough that it threatened to become an incredulous chuckle, “You were locked away as a science experiment what could you possibly have done for--?” You hadn’t meant to slap him. Or, maybe you had, but your brain just hadn’t processed that you were going to. But your palm most definitely connected with his face, and it was most definitely harder than you’d intended it to be yet just as hard as he deserved. Hard enough that his face snapped to the side on impact, not all the way, but enough that when his hard blue eyes widened in shock he was staring past you rather than at you. You could have forgiven him for being such an asshole, he didn’t know what you’d been through to keep Mokuba safe in the lab. You could have forgiven him had he not called you a science experiment. You could have forgiven him had he not meant it. You weren’t interested in listening to him say anything else. Even if he did decide to tell you anything worthwhile, he could do so from a reasonable distance behind you. You walked briskly past him, purposely avoiding eye contact as he had done to you minutes prior, and started off toward the stone archway the two of you had been aiming for before the argument.
-----
Noah Kaiba was not a forgiving person. You had betrayed him for the last time, and he wouldn’t stand for your insubordination any longer. He was intent on trapping you inside of this virtual world forever, leaving you behind to rot long after he had stolen Seto’s body and left. He would occasionally check on the program, on you, after he had taken over Kaiba Corporation. No matter how much you begged him to be set free he would never let you go. That was still the case, of course. But now that you and dear Seto were doing such a wonderful job bickering amongst yourselves, he thought it would be the perfect time to exacerbate the situation. And what better way than to use your memories against you? It would make Seto feel guilty, it would make you terrified, and it would break both of you down just before he insisted upon a final duel against his fake rival. You would gravely regret ever going against him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was an uncomfortable walk through a vast and empty Kaiba Land, considering neither you nor Seto would make eye contact much less break the silence that held itself oppressively over your heads. He was too prideful to apologize, perhaps he thought he had nothing to apologize for. Maybe he was even waiting for you to apologize, considering the slap you’d delivered his cheek a while before. You weren’t going to, of course, he one-hundred percent deserved it. Though, maybe violence hadn’t been the best answer…. No, you shook your head. He had absolutely deserved it. It wasn’t until the two of you made it to a chess board, set up somewhat arbitrarily in front of a large metal security door leading to the Kaiba Land security building, that either of you said anything. Even then, it was only Seto announcing a ‘checkmate’ when he moved one of the knights on the board. Upon doing so, the panel above the chessboard blinked quickly with the same words, before a series of melodic beeps prompted the security door to open itself. As the door slowly rose you looked over the board quietly, if for no other reason than because it gave you something to look at that wasn’t Seto. What exactly was going on with this chess game? The move your friend had made wasn’t checkmate, first of all. The black king had already been in check, and was now still in the same state as before just with another knight near him. Was the move just an arbitrary one to make for security purpose? And, if this was really a recreation of the actual Kaiba Land, why would he decide to keep the security entrance locked in such an eccentric way? You shook your head, more to yourself than anyone else as you followed him inside the building, its interior completely empty. The sets of escalators leading to and from the second and third floors overhead were powered off, stairs unmoving so that the place was even quieter. The only sound that could be heard was the hollow echoes of your footsteps, rubber soles against concrete flooring that dully reverberated off the metal walls.It wasn’t until the two of you reached a floating door that either of you stopped, staring at it with both impatience and reluctance. It was one of Noah’s doors, obviously, cherry oak with a gold handle and filigree decorations. You’d only seen it appear in the virtual world when he planned to take you on a trip down memory lane, and considering a quick glance around the rest of the building showed no sign of any exits, you and Seto were probably going to have to do exactly that if you wanted to get out of here.“Guess I’ll open it,” you sighed, adjusting the grip on your combat knife and reaching for the door handle with your other hand, glancing back to make sure Seto was following. He did so silently, eyes still fixed past you rather than on you.The two of you entered to a completely white void, bright light surrounding you but slowly dimming. When it wasn’t quite so blinding, you were able to make out a long corridor, the same concrete floors from your previous surroundings beneath your feet, and stark white walls on either side of you. Just as the wheels in your head began to spin from recognition, you snapped your gaze back to watch the door shut behind your friend with a click.“Let go of me!” There was a loud thud, one that sounded like a body falling against the floor, accompanied by a childish yelp of surprise and pain that seemed to come from the same little girl who had been demanding to be freed seconds prior.“When my daddy finds out about this--” she began spitefully, but her words were cut off as she was yanked forward, around the corner so you and Seto could both see her. She was being dragged by her elbow, feet kicking on the floor as she tried to fight against the uniformed woman pulling her down the hallway. Her bright pink sundress was being kicked up violently at the hem, and her head kept darting around her surroundings, eyes wide in panic.“Your daddy ain’t gonna find shit. ‘Far as anyone’s concerned you’re at a cushy boarding school in Europe right ‘bout now.” The guardswoman dismissed, her words thick with a Kagoshima dialect.No, no no, this could not be happening. That lying little prick! You had kept his stupid little secret from Seto just like he asked, only revealing it when you were under his control. Fuck! You should have known better than to trust him at his word.
“Hey, seriously put your uniform on, if the guards come by for your tests and you’re not in it, it’s not going to be pretty.”
It was a jarring transition between scenes, as you and Seto had not moved from your spot even after your child self and the guard had disappeared down another hallway. You blinked, and suddenly you were staring at a completely different room, rather, a cell. “What tests?” You-- she-- the young girl you had once been managed to ask between hiccups for air. Her face was covered in tears and snot as she looked up, focusing her terrified gaze at the person who had just entered, a younger version of Doll. She still had red hair at this point, unwashed and oily, shining in the fluorescent light overhead.
“It’s your first day, so probably just blood work and a physical evaluation.”
You blinked again, and the scene had changed once more, as if your memories were playing out in front of your eyes like an animated slideshow. The fact that nothing reacted to your or Seto’s presence only made you feel more disconnected from your past. It didn’t stop the pit that continued to form in your stomach, however, the urge to vomit only growing more and more as your eyes locked on to the young girl you’d once been between each of the scenes. Now inside of a medium-sized square room with white painted walls and a the same concrete floor that spread throughout the rest of the lab, you glanced around the examination room with a sigh. It was only used for physical evaluations, so as far as equipment went it was pretty bare bones. In the corner beside you stood a scale, and beside it a machine hooked up to a blood pressure cuff. On the examination table, your child self sat quietly, a set of shackles around her wrists, staring straight ahead. You, Seto, and the girl were accompanied by two doctors, one examining something on the desk in the corner, the other with a flashlight to her left eye muttering something to himself, dressed in white lab coats and tinted safety goggles. “You’re a very healthy subject, Number Seventeen,” one doctor said as he set the light into his breast pocket and turned to the other, rattling off a series of numbers that indicated the state of your vitals. “Seventeen?” Seto muttered. Though you suspected it was to himself, it was the only thing he had said in what felt like hours. “We were no longer human once we set foot in the Lab.”If the comment made him uncomfortable he didn’t show it, instead keeping his eyes locked on anything that wasn’t you. You realized shortly afterwards that he had probably been asking about the number itself, not the connotations behind it. You were less than two minutes into watching your past and already your brain was starting to numb. He went silent again as the two of you watched the girl-- Number Seventeen-- as she was escorted back to her cell. The security door to the examination room clicked shut behind the doctors as they too left, and you and Seto were left alone. A welcome respite. There was an empty desk chair on the other side of the room, so you decided to take the opportunity to sit down. Seto didn’t seem to notice you did so to hide the tremors in your legs. After a few long moments of silence, you were surprised that the scene hadn’t changed before the two of you. You figured Noah would have delighted at the chance to show off more of your memories, the little shit. “Maybe if we sit here long enough he’ll let us go.” You muttered sarcastically. “Are you an idiot? Obviously he won’t let us out of this simulation until he’s shown us whatever he wants us to see.” Seto scoffed, “Besides, we need to leave this ridiculous show as soon as possible and find Mokuba.” “I was joking,” you sighed, focusing your gaze on the palms of your hands, “Mostly.”“We don’t have time for jokes,” Seto dismissed, “Let’s get going, are you ready or not?”You lifted your gaze to find him staring above your head, deliberately not making eye contact. You turned around to see what it was, but frowned at the fact that it was just an eye chart. Seemed like he was still upset about the whole slapping him thing. “Sure, whatever.” You replied reluctantly, standing from the chair and feeling your ankles tremble involuntarily. You cursed yourself inwardly for your lack of self control. “Let’s get this over with.”
-----
“I found them,” Doll announced as she entered the living room, an empty mug in her left hand and curls of snow white hair being absently twirled around the fingers of her right.“Finally,” Blade exclaimed, though he quickly recoiled when she shot him an impatient look. “No, I just meant we’ve been waiting a while-- or rather it feels like we’ve--”“Stop,” she held up a hand, “before you dig yourself a deeper grave.” James set down the book in his hands and turned his head to the side to observe the two young adults stare at each other for a moment, musing over the fact that the scene was a bit strange considering their… well, their abilities. One of them trained extensively in swordplay, in that he had no equal, and even when staring down the barrel of a gun would easily win a fight so long as he had a blade in his hand. The other, a sixty-four inch tall, forty-three kilogram young German girl whose only combat training consisted of how to shoot a pistol without hurting herself. Yet, it was Doll whom Blade had always seemed genuinely terrified of. Doll removed her hand from her hair and gestured for the two men to follow, which they did silently and without hesitation. She lead them to her bedroom, where her many computer monitors each had something or another lit upon them. Command prompts with lines of code, a cell phone database, what looked to be a very confidential file from the Kaiba Corporation internal network. “There,” she pointed at a map on the screen furthest to the left, mainly the ocean, with the shore of an island extending off to the right. In the middle of the sea, a bright red light flashed quickly over and over again. “Ghost is in the middle of the ocean?” Blade huffed. “Ja, sort of. ECM is blocking her cell signal. Or, rather, it was blocking the signal. I managed to track her through it, and look what I found.” Doll reached over the back of the computer chair to open an image on yet another of her monitors, pointing to it with the middle finger of her right hand. “The hell is that thing?” Blade asked. “It appears to be a sort of sea… eh, festung?” “Fortress.” James offered. “Danke. Managed to get these pictures via satellit--”“How did you do that, exactly?” Blade asked. “I hacked the satellit, obviously. Anyway, when I zoomed into the image I found this, look.” She flicked the scroll wheel on her mouse until it revealed a familiar logo etched into the side of the large metal stronghold, nearly covered by the frothy waves of the sea. “Kaiba Corporation,” James sighed. “Ja, so I did a little research and found something interesting,” she pointed to the document on the monitor to her right, one with a light grey KC watermark beneath its text. “Have either of you heard of Noah Kaiba?” “Nah,” Blade shook his head. “I have,” James replied, “Gozaburo’s biological son. He died, what, six or seven years ago? After that Mister Kaiba forbade anyone from speaking about him. At first we thought it was just out of respect, especially for his wife’s health, but… it was certainly strange. Like the kid was just erased.” “Ghost mentioned him a few times,” Doll sighed, “They were friends before his car accident, apparently that’s how she became friends with Seto.” “What does this kid have to do with the fortress, exactly?” Blade asked impatiently. “It has his... eh--” she began gesturing to her head. “The thing you think with.” “Brain?” James offered again. “Ja, his brain is inside there.” “Hold on say that again for me?” Blade asked incredulously, “Gozaburo’s kid’s brain is inside that metal monster?” “Ja, he’s a supercomputer now.” James and Blade exchanged a confused look, before returning to staring at the back of Doll’s head. “I’m still working on getting inside of his code, but I think I’ll be able to reach Ghost. In the meantime, Blade, you should probably head over to the fortress and see what you can do.”“Doll, that thing is in the middle of the ocean.” Blade said. “Iris said you could take one of her boats.” “Last time Iris lent me a boat the engine almost exploded.” “That’s because you nearly blew it up, dummkopf. Now get moving, we don’t have all day.” With a long, irritated groan, and a pinching of the bridge of his nose, Blade begrudgingly exited his partner’s bedroom and headed for the stairs, muttering something about his loathing of boats. James watched him from the half-open doorway until his silhouette disappeared past the second step, before he, too, left the room to allow Doll to return to work. He sincerely hoped you were alright, none of them had any idea what Noah Kaiba could be capable of, especially considering he was supposed to be dead. Still, from what he remembered of Gozaburo’s son, he was a fairly good child, with no sort of combat training. What could he possibly do to you that you couldn’t handle?
-----
Seto Kaiba had been following you down a seemingly endless hallway for what felt like fifteen or so minutes. You were leading the way merely because each time the two of you stopped at the scene of one of your memories, you were the first to turn away. Understandable so, he admitted, if this was where he had spent the better part of four years the last thing he would desire was re-living the memories.For his part, he obviously wanted to get this presentation over with and get out of this laboratory as soon as humanly possible. He would only ever admit it to himself, but watching your childhood self be injected with alien substances through a one-way mirror was enough to make even him uncomfortable. Especially because on the few occasions he had glanced over at you to read your reaction, your face remained stiff and purposefully emotionless, eyes glassy as if you were staring hollowly through your memories rather than at them.He thought he should probably say something to you, however what exactly that was he frankly had no idea. You hadn’t spoken a word since your conversation in the examination room less than three minutes after entering this lab. This would all be much easier for him if you would just speak up already.The two of you slowed your pace simultaneously at the sound of muffled arguing somewhere up ahead, and began scanning the doors and windows to your left and right for its source. It only took a few seconds for you to pause about six feet away from a door and cock your head, listening to the sound. You waved him over reluctantly, and as the two of you neared he realized the familiarity of the two voices, words getting clear enough to make out even through the thick door with how loud it was. As he strained his ears to hear the conversation, you began examining something on the floor to your right, some piece of paper that had been discarded.
“I said watch the language you miserable brat!”
You froze at the sound of a loud thud, head snapping at attention back to the security door so quickly it looked painful. Although, considering your background… this background, rather, he highly doubted a little whiplash could phase you. You made no movements toward the door, so with a sigh of frustration he took the task upon himself, brushing past you and setting his eyes on a numeric keypad next to the door, the small screen above it indicating the door was unlocked.
“Let me be very clear about this you ingrate: you don’t want to make me angry.”
“Seto, wait--” you protested, but his hand was already on the keypad, pressing the bright green button marked ‘open’.
“I don’t give a shit how you feel.”
The metal security door opened just in time for him to watch his stepfather’s hand connect with your child self’s face.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“You’re going to learn there are consequences to your actions.”
You and Seto had been moved to the side of the door, or perhaps the door had simply moved away from you and the room had gotten longer. It was a bit difficult to tell considering your eyes had been fixed on the smoke detector overhead for the last seven seconds, other than plain white walls it was the only thing to look at in this room that wasn’t the scene in front of you. The only reason you realized your positions had shifted was the sound of a guard shuffling into the room, and a television being set on the table.
“Are you going to bore me to death with public broadcasting or something?”
“I wouldn’t… look if I were you.” You said quietly as you noticed Seto taking a step toward the younger version of yourself.Pointedly ignoring you, he took three more steps so he vanished from your peripheral vision. The smoke detector stopped flashing for a moment, and you thought perhaps it was fed up with your staring, but just as you blinked you saw the red once again. It blinked once, twice, thrice--“What the hell is going on here?” Seto demanded just at the fourth blink of the infrared dot of the smoke alarm, low baritone interrupting your staring contest and prompting you to shift your gaze to his face. Brows furrowed, lips pulled back over his teeth so he looked like he had about snarled the words out.You already knew what was on that screen, the black and white memory of a small Seto Kaiba being tossed to the floor like a ragdoll, kicked in the stomach, and pulled by his perfectly cut bob of hair still etched into your brain. That scene had played through your mind countless times during your years at the lab, and after subsequent reruns your stomach never got less queasy and your fingertips never stopped shaking. Even now, you had to ball your hands into fists just to keep the digits from trembling. “What is this?” He snapped again, eyes still fixed on the television screen. You weren’t sure if he even knew you were looking at him. You searched for the words to offer him, but to your dismay couldn’t figure out what exactly to say, or even what answer he could possibly be looking for.“I thought I should give you some incentive to be a good test subject in this lab.” Gozaburo answered for you, words aimed at your childhood self. Seto huffed your name in exasperation, voice raised above his step father’s. He was still staring at the television screen, eyes refusing to meet yours, but he quite clearly wanted you to say something. Wanted you, rather than Gozaburo, to explain this scene.“What?” You sighed. You weren’t sure what exactly to tell him, as far as you were concerned this nonsense was fairly self-explanatory.
“It’s basic conditioning. If you’re a good girl you’ll be rewarded, and if you cause trouble for the doctors here… well I’ll be putting in some extra hours punishing your little friends.”
“Did this all really happen?” He demanded. You nodded, before realizing he was not looking at you and therefore could not see your affirmation. “Yeah.”“You--” he jabbed a finger against the television screen so forcefully it bent at his upper knuckle and looked somewhat painful. “--Saw all of this?”“I did.”“You’re threatening me with Seto?” The child version of you, Number Seventeen, asked angrily. “What right did you have?” He seethed.You blinked, incredulous, before gesturing to the chains holding your child self to the table. “I didn't exactly have a choice.”
“No. What happens to Seto is entirely up to him. You don’t get to save him.”
“You could have--” he began, but you cleared your throat impatiently to interrupt him. “If you're going to be mad at someone make it him.” You pointed to Gozaburo, eager to make anyone but yourself the object of your friend's fury. The instant his gaze followed your finger, however, the two of you froze. You hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation playing out between your argument, and only now did you register the point that had been reached. Gozaburo Kaiba had pulled out the small picture of Mokuba, holding it in front of him for a beat before sliding it across the metal table toward Number Seventeen. Any words Seto might have had to direct at you died in his throat as his sapphire eyes followed the photo. You had never seen them so wide.
“What happens to little Mokuba is on your shoulders now.”
If Seto had been pissed before, you had no idea how to describe him now. Shoulders shaking in fury, eyes darting between the picture of his little brother and the hologram of his step father, you half expected him to lunge at the man right there and then. You wondered if his hands would go right through Gozaburo, or if they would hit something solid.
“I expect you to be on your best behavior from now on, kid. I have many friends who will be observing you during your tests, and the better you perform, the more money you’ll make me.”
You removed your gaze from the scene and turned your attention to the far corner of the room in an attempt to fight the wave of nausea that had hit you. You couldn't stand to look at the image of your trembling and terrified younger self, nor the furious Seto above her.
“Just remember, if you disappoint me--”
You were loathed to admit that the sound of paper ripping made you flinch. Even staring at the corner you could perfectly picture Gozaburo shredding Mokuba's photo right down the middle, an image you could likewise never get out of your head. Reliving this scene was starting to make you dizzy.A moment later you heard the security door close behind you, and a tense silence fell over the room. You saw the image of your younger self vanish out of your peripheral vision, but did not have the will not the courage to look over fully. You thought you should perhaps say something, but feared if you opened your mouth you wouldn't be able to form any sounds. “Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Seto demanded, albeit less forcefully than was typical of him. His voice sliced through the silence like a knife, and startled you out of your thoughts enough to make you look toward him, though still not at him. You could tell he was staring at the table, at two torn halves of a photo.“You called me a science experiment,” you shrugged at last, finding your voice sounded clearer than you feared it would. In fact, you would dare to venture you sounded almost completely normal. He was quiet for a moment, and in the silence you managed to pick up your gaze and turn fully to him. He was deep in thought, brow furrowing over your words and lips sealing themselves into a tight line as he thought. You wondered if he was planning to apologize for the comment, although you didn’t exactly expect him to. The moment had passed, and even if he was feeling remorseful for his words it wasn’t exactly his style to say sorry. Even if he said nothing else, at this point you were far too pissed at Noah to muster any extra anger for Seto anyway.“I should have chosen my words more carefully,” he gave a resigned sigh, more of an apology than you’d been anticipating, “Still, you should have said something about what you did for my brother.”“I was going to but, I… got a little mad.” “You slapped me.” He muttered. “Okay, maybe a lot mad.” You corrected lightly.“I suppose we were both a bit agitated,” he conceded, finally looking you in the eye for the first time in what had felt like hours. Azure meeting your gaze, it was like a weight had been lifted from your shoulders. You considered apologizing for slapping him, but before you could think much on it he cleared his throat, eyes refocusing on the torn photo of his brother. “I owe you more thanks than I can give.”“Oh,” it took you a moment to realize he meant he was offering his thanks for protecting Mokuba, “Don't worry about it. It's not like I did it for you.” You'd meant for the words to sound comforting, but they ended up more callous than you would have liked. Thankfully, Seto didn't seem to mind, or if he did he made no indication that you had upset him. He continued to stare at you, an unreadable emotion you couldn't place sparkling in his eyes.“Have you told anyone about this?” He asked suddenly. “About you, or Mokuba?” His silence made you assume he meant both.“Doll knows Gozaburo used Mokuba to keep me in line,” you said with a half shrug. “I never told her anything else, but if she guessed anything further it’s a mystery to me.” He nodded, although whether he was satisfied by your answer you had no idea. He returned to looking at the television screen, and you noticed his teeth chewing at the inside of his cheek. “Did you see any more of these?” He asked, voice lowered enough that it made you wonder if he meant to ask the question aloud. “Do you want me to answer that?” After a moment of thought he shook his head, removing his gaze from the television and brushing past you to the metal security door. You took a moment to stretch out your fingertips before following his lead, door closing behind you as you both found yourselves back in the laboratory hallway. You allowed him to lead the way this time, mostly because he had started walking so quickly you would have had to jog to pass him. Briefly, you thought on how that last memory would impact your relationship with the CEO. Now that he knew what you had seen of his personal life, would that change how he spoke to you? You sincerely hoped not, if Seto became any more closed off from you it would be impossible to have a conversation. You had been so deep in thought you didn't even notice he had abruptly stopped walking until you smacked face first into his back. To his credit, he hardly reacted, feet planted firmly on the ground. With a groan you rubbed the bridge of your nose and peered around him to see what had made him stop. When you saw nothing but an empty hallway, you cocked your head up to look at him, his eyes locked straight ahead and lips pursed in agitation. “Are you alright?” He asked calmly.“Uh, yeah. I didn't run into you that hard.”“That isn't what I mean.” He frowned. You raised an eyebrow before he lifted his left hand and gestured around him, around the walls of the eerily silent hallway. You realized he was asking about the memories, rather the fact that you were practically taking him on a grand tour of your past. One that you didn't want anyone to see, especially not the person you were supposed to be protecting. Beyond that, however, you were surprised that he was asking about your feelings. You had been under the impression that he could care less about how you felt in this virtual nightmare. Then again… it was entirely possible he was asking just to keep an eye on your mental stability. A bodyguard who was falling apart was no use to him, after all.Still, you hoped that wasn't the case. “I'm fine,” you replied. “There's no reason to lie to me.” He said coolly. Except for the fact that Noah was probably listening to your every word, and if you let it slip that any of this was getting to you, he would only make things worse.“I'm not lying,” you insisted, “Watching a few bad memories is nothing compared to… well, you know.” You gestured lazily to your surroundings. Seto looked like he might have offered further conversation, but spotted something down the hallway. He abruptly began walking again, not bothering to wait for you to follow although you were sure he knew you would. The two of you quickly legged it down the hall toward a bright, open doorway, one which blinded you much like the other doors Noah had installed in the virtual world. You squinted through the light in an attempt to see, but all your pupils could make out was white nothingness, which quickly engulfed the two of you. Thankfully, through it all you could still see Seto.When the light dimmed and you realized you were standing in the middle of a large stretch of empty land, you pinched at the bridge of your nose and sighed. “Oh lovely.”
-----
You and Seto stood along the rightmost edge of a field, a few feet from an electrified security fence that surrounded the area and hummed quietly in the background. You were currently occupying yourself with picking at the skin around your nails, making it a point to look as disinterested as possible, whilst Seto quietly observed a small group of laboratory security guards lead two foreign individuals to stand in the middle of the open plot of land. An olive skinned young woman, hair tied back into a neat bun and donning in camouflage military gear, and a man who was clearly some sort of criminal. He was dressed in a typical prison uniform, grey in color, with a pair of muddy white shoes. His hands were bound in front of him with manacles, a chain connecting them to the shackles around his ankles.“Jabir al Khawa,” The guard standing beside the bound man began, reading over a piece of paper which he held with one hand, “You were convicted on three counts of sexual assault, one count of arson, one count of statutory rape, and one count of aggravated murder, and sentenced to death. Today is the date of your execution.”The olive-skinned woman began translating the words in Arabic for the prisoner at her side.“What the hell is all this?” Seto demanded. This laboratory nonsense was beginning to get on his last nerve, not least of all because as time went on you were clearly growing more and more detached. You were obviously trying your best to make it seem none of this was affecting you, even a blind man would be able to see through your act, and he was far from blind. Then again, perhaps that was only the case because he had witnessed you doing this before, back when the two of you were children and you would put on an act to make it seem nothing was getting to you. Even as an adult your tactics hadn’t changed, and you still had the same tell. Your voice dropped an octave, and your eyes refused to look directly at whatever was making you upset. In fact, you only seemed to gain some semblance of human emotion when you were looking at him.“Gozaburo arranged for criminals in foreign countries who had been sentenced to death to be brought to the lab to test our abilities,” you replied listlessly.“Test your abilities?” He pressed. “Presumably, his logic was that if they were going to die anyway, it may as well be in front of an audience,” you continued, pointing to the second floor lab window which acted as an observation deck. Behind the bulletproof glass, Seto could clearly see Gozaburo Kaiba, standing beside three gentlemen in suits, obviously businessmen, and two men wearing military uniforms decorated with medals and insignias. “He use these executions to show us off to his investors.”“You are being offered a stay of execution,” the guard continued, interrupting your conversation, “You will be granted freedom, and all charges laid against you dropped, should you choose to participate in this test.” Upon hearing the translation, the prisoner nodded vigorously. “Your test is to kill this young woman,” the guard continued as the back door to the lab opened.Seto turned his attention across the courtyard to as the silhouettes of three people emerged from the opening doorway. Two men walked on either side of a teenage girl, one he clearly recognized as you, appearing to be a few years older than when he had last seen you at the mansion. Fifteen, perhaps.What on earth was this nonsense about killing you?“This is ridiculous.” Seto insisted, “You--”“It happened.” You interrupted with a sigh, “Either you believe it or you don’t, but it happened.” He was silent after your interruption, if only because he expected you to explode if he continued to speak. He hadn't been trying to imply he didn't believe what was happening, on the contrary, he had no doubt his step father had been capable and willing to pull off a stunt like this. Rather, he was going to attempt some words of encouragement, although with you as on edge as you were he doubted they would do much good now. He watched as the woman pulled a pistol from her belt, opening it to show the criminal its ammo capacity and explaining something to him in Arabic, before setting the ammo cartridge on the ground in front of him and and handing him the empty weapon. He took it with a nod as the guard next to them began unlocking his shackles. Once done, they, along with the guards who had escorted a younger you to the field, disappeared back into the laboratory.The convict waited until each of the four guards had closed the door behind them before bending down and retrieving the ammunition from the ground, sliding it into his gun with an echoing click. He then quickly aimed it at your head, taking a moment to watch your movements, but seemed surprised to find you were completely still and staring up at the viewing area where Gozaburo stood. There was a faint ringing in his ears, barely audible, in response to the shot. It was overpowered quickly by the flapping of startled bird wings and calls on the fence behind him. He was more concerned with the scene in front of him, however, one which had changed rapidly. Quite literally in the blink of an eye. The young version of you had been standing in the middle of the grass field, completely defenseless, facing down the armed criminal. In the next instant-- in a split second-- you were stood in front of him, pistol taken from his hand and held in your own, pointed directly at his head. He was already falling backwards, body collapsing on the grass, brown eyes wide as they stared lifelessly at the empty sky.“Huh, so that’s what it looks like from the outside,” you hummed lowly. It was the sort of comment he thought you would make to draw attention away from the fact that your fingernails were digging into the inside of your elbow. “And from the inside?” He asked for the sole purpose of keeping your focus away from the body on the ground. “It's sort of stale and… suffocating.” You admitted, “A little hard to describe. I can show you when we get out of here, if you want.”He hummed noncommittally.“How many?” He asked after a moment of thought. You glanced up at him curiously. “Your body count,” he elaborated, “How many have you--?”“Don’t ask me that.” You interrupted sourly. “Why not? Are you going to reply with something absurdly cliche like ‘so many I’ve lost count’?”“I remember every single one.” You assured, quickly turning your focus away from him and instead choosing to look at the crows behind you both, which had since calmed their squalking and were staring at the body on the ground hollowly. Your silence allowed him time to brood over your words, and after some consideration he began to feel somewhat contrite for asking the question. He quickly decided he didn’t like the feeling, and pushed it away in favor of watching the scene once more. Gozaburo was already leading his entourage of investors away from the viewing platform, disappearing from his sight before long. On ground level, the younger you was absently running a hand through her hair with her free hand as she stared at the body below her. Before she could do much else, she promptly had the gun taken from her by an armed security guard. She made no moves to harm him, or anyone else, and willingly held out her arms to be shackled and escorted back inside.“Why did you never try to escape?” Seto asked. Around you both, the scenery began to blur and change from the open field to another empty laboratory corridor. Seto bit back a groan; just how many more of these damn memories was Noah planning to subject him to before deciding to end this charade?“Mokuba.” He was somewhat surprised you even responded at all.“You could have used your ability to get to the mansion before--.”“My ability is limited,” you interrupted, turning your head to look around the hallway slowly, “Even years later I still can't maintain it for more than a few minutes.”“I see.” “It was something that always disappointed Gozaburo,” you sighed quietly.He was admittedly unsure how to respond, and therefore decided to remain silent.The two of you wordlessly agreed to begin walking down the corridor, and although your shoulders were straight and your gaze focused dead ahead, it was becoming clear to Seto that you could not keep up this act for much longer. A few more of these memories and he anticipated you would finally snap, and he was unsure what exactly you would do then, or even what you would be able to do. There wasn’t very much you were capable of in this world, robbed of your abilities and at the whims of Noah, especially when Mokuba was being held hostage.
“Do you want to hear a story?”
Seto glanced to his right to see your cell had appeared in the wall, and both a teenage you and your cellmate-- Doll, he remembered you calling her-- were sat on the lower bunk of your shared beds. Your younger self was curled into a tight ball, head against her knees and shoulders rising and falling rapidly with sobs. Doll was running a hand up and down her back, frowning. Seto noticed that her hair had gone from a ginger orange to lifeless white, so stringy and tangled that it almost looked like she had a head of spiderwebs. Next to him, you had also stopped walking to peer through the open doorway.
“Have you ever heard about the Rainbow Fish?”
The younger you muttered something incoherent, which Seto assumed was a reply to the white-haired girl’s question.
“My bruder used to read it to me when we were small. It will be good practice for my Japanese if I try to translate it for you, ja?”
She nodded, lifting her face from her knees and quickly wiping tears from her eyes. Seto noticed that the hair around her face had been haphazardly cut and torn, a small patch toward the front appearing to have been ripped out entirely. He recalled your hair looking similarly disheveled during the memory of your return home. “You taught her Japanese?” He asked absently.“Yeah, and she taught me German. We had a lot of time to kill.”“The two of you seem close.” You shrugged, “Maybe out of necessity, considering the circumstances. But she and I helped each other through a lot,” you gestured to the scene in front of you, pausing for almost a solid two minutes to listen to Doll’s attempt at retelling the Rainbow Fish in Japanese. “She’s been my best friend ever since.” Seto wondered why there was a sudden pang of jealousy in his chest.
“...And happy as a splash he swam off to join his friends.”
“Happy as a what?” The young you asked, tears now subsided. “As a splash,” the snow-haired girl repeated, this time in English, “You know, spritzen? That is splash, right?”
“Yeah, but what kind of saying is that supposed to be?”
“It means to be very excited,” Doll said defensively, “I don’t know who made the saying, maybe it is just a fish thing, ja?”The scene began to fade as the hallway filled with the muffled giggles of the two young women, doorway disappearing back into the hallway wall as if it had never been there to begin with. The two of you stared at the empty wall for a beat, waiting to see if anything more would appear, but all that remained was silence and stillness. As you started walking away from him, mood already seeming to have brightened from listening to the German girl’s childish story, he begrudgingly hoped the envy he had begun to feel would vanish as well.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The two of you entered yet another smooth metal security door with a healthy mix of annoyance and disinterest, part of you expecting something terrible to happen the moment you did, but all you found was a mostly empty room with a long computer desk, some dim monitors, and a few rolling chairs. With a groan, you stepped aside and allowed him to enter first, trailing behind as you felt a migraine beginning to prick at your left temple. You were getting seriously fed up with Noah giving you both the run around; you’d become so desensitized with this entire place that the only feelings you could muster were boredom and reluctance. If Seto was feeling much else, he was doing a good job of hiding it. Most any conversation the two of you could manage now had little to do with the memories, unless Seto was asking a direct question to something he saw, you were probably making some unrelated small talk. At one point he’d even put up with you running through a few terrible jokes you read off of gum wrappers pulled from your backpack because you were just that damn bored. He didn’t laugh, but he didn’t stop you. It was getting late enough into your memories of the lab that you weren’t sure what else Noah could possibly have to show off, other than the day you broke out. Even then, your role in that afternoon had been pretty tame compared to the others. You’d lead Doll to the computer lab and stood guard outside the door until you heard shouting, at which point you told her you’d be back straight away and ran down the hall to find a group of angry test subjects banging on a locked door. When it was finally forced open, James had been the one hunkered down inside, along with a small handful of other doctors and scientists. You’d gotten between James and your fellow Anomalies, with a little bit of the threatening rhetoric you’d been so well trained in, and watched them drag off the others to somewhere you, frankly, didn’t care to think about. James gathered up all the documents you asked of him, Doll got whatever information she needed off the computers, and the three of you left the laboratory without a second glance. A boring memory to show off, you figured. “Why didn’t you come find me once you returned to Domino?” Seto’s words sliced through your absent thoughts, and you turned your attention to him with a cock to your head. It had been a question you weren’t expecting, not just at the present, but at all. You assumed Seto hadn’t been interested in your reasons from keeping away for the last two years, and even if he was, it still surprised you that he was asking. Then again, you supposed he had always been the blunt type.“Do you want the short answer, or the long answer?” You sighed.Seto observed the medical documentation in his hand for a moment as he thought, leaving you to quietly look around the examination room. A row of screens tracking vitals, performance, and other statistics lit up the dim space and made the occasional beeping or ticking noise to indicate a change, perhaps in temperature or blood pressure or something similar, you weren’t entirely sure. You didn’t even know if these screens were accurate to the area you two were inside now, as a teenager you’d never actually seen the inside of this place, only grayscale photographs and screenshots on Doll’s computer monitors. It was likely Noah’s technology filling in the gaps and empty spaces in your memories, creating a room that made logical sense. In front of you, beginning above the desk holding the screens and covering the length of the entire wall, a two-way mirror spanned your view and peered into a standard testing room. It was decorated with a metal table and chair, a scattering of fifty books, and a jigsaw puzzle.“The long answer would be preferable,” he spoke, “With the way things are going I imagine you’ll have plenty of time to tell it.” He was probably right, if the last three memories were any indication, various monotonous points of your time spent in the lab. One of them was almost an entire lecture set inside of the makeshift ‘classroom’ you and the other Anomolies had been subjected to, on subjects dealing with things like corporate espionage, effective blackmail tactics, subterfuge, and the like. Why Noah hadn’t shown any of the more exciting classes you had no idea; you’d had plenty of interesting theatrical lessons. Perhaps his goal now was to bore both you and Seto to death.“Breaking from that topic briefly, what is this whole set-up?” He asked, gesturing to the mirror.“It was a fairly standard test I performed every… month maybe? To test the limits of my abilities.” “What was the test?” He asked, setting the medical documents in his hands down. “Organizing the books in alphabetical order or completing a jigsaw puzzle. It was to see how long I could stay in limbo while I was concentrating on something else.”He hummed, tone indicating neither interest nor boredom.“James used to let me take the puzzles back to my cell to finish them,” you continued absently, filling the otherwise quiet room with chatter to offset the mundanity, “Got pretty good at ‘em.” “James?” “Doctor at the lab,” you clarified, “Lives with us now.”Seto ever so slightly quirked an eyebrow, eyes shifting to your face to give you a somewhat judgemental look. You could understand why, it was a look you’d received from a handful of other Anomalies when you stood between them and the doctor on the day you’d all broken out of your cells. A test subject saving saving one of her captors was one thing-- even if he had always been nice to you-- but the two of you living under the same roof was probably completely insane looking on from the outside. “He’s a decent guy,” you sighed, “Poor life decisions aside.” He muttered something about Stockholm Syndrome under his breath but you paid it no mind, setting your eyes back on the test chamber in front of you and counting the seconds in your head, wondering if anything was actually going to happen. As if on cue, the sound of a door opening perked both your ears. Your former self was escorted into the testing room, followed by a female guard who silently unshackled your wrists and locked you inside. Simultaneously, a pair of men in lab coats entered the room you stood inside of, walking past you and Seto without acknowledging you and sitting down at the desk in front of the many computer screens. They began muttering to one another, but it all sounded like an absolute jumble of nonsense, so you resigned it to background noise.Until Gozaburo Kaiba strolled into the testing room.“You’re going to last a minimum of three minutes.” His words sliced through the air like a knife, and your younger self looked up from the table in front of her. Number Seventeen blinked, incredulous. “W...what? Three minutes? Gozabu--”“Sir,” he demanded icily.“Gozaburo sir,” she near hissed, “I only just barely cleared the two minute mark last month, there’s no way--”“I don’t care what your mark was last month,” he flicked a wrist dismissively, “You’ll hit three today.”“That’s fuc--,” she quickly stopped herself, “Impossible.” There was a moment of pause in which you watch Seto lean ever-so-slightly closer to the glass, azure eyes narrowed and fixated on the other side of the mirror. Whether it was voluntary or not you weren’t exactly sure. “Mokuba’s getting to that age isn’t he?” He said passively, causing your younger self to freeze, her eyes widening. “Age?” Her voice cracked. “How old were you when I sent you off here?” Gozaburo mused, “He’s nearly old enough--” “No wait!”Seto muttered something, his voice so low you couldn’t quite make it out, sounding more like a growl than any actual words. You contemplated asking him, but decided against it, instead taking a step closer to him to to better hear if he decided to mumble something else. You noticed his left hand was gripping the side of the desk, knuckles fading from their usual caramel to a stark white.“Three minutes, kid.” Gozaburo repeated, “Understood?” “I-- got it. Understood.” You and Seto watched silently as Gozaburo Kaiba gave your younger self an uncomfortable pat on the shoulder, then saw himself out of the small testing room, metal door clicking behind him and echoing sharply. You could feel a lump in your throat but despite your best efforts, couldn’t for the life of you swallow it down. More than a little too quickly for your liking, your friend abruptly stood up straight, crossing his arms over his chest and furrowing his brow in typical Seto-fashion. Azure eyes darted from the two-way mirror to rest on your face, gaze blazing with anger that, although you knew wasn’t directed at you, still served to make you somewhat uncomfortable.“Is this supposed to make me feel guilty?” He demanded loudly. Though he was looking at you, you were pretty sure he was yelling at Noah. Unfortunately, the creator of your current world didn’t respond, leaving the echoes of Seto’s question hanging in the air for a beat, only accompanied by the low mutterings of the scientists in the room. “Why would you feel guilty?” You asked. Perhaps it wasn’t the right call, but you were genuinely curious. “I did everything for Mokuba.” It wasn't exactly an answer, and you weren’t positive you followed his logic, his self-justification. He had no reason to feel guilty, and he was right. He did everything he could for his brother. Gozaburo Kaiba entered the room and ordered something, probably the start of the test, but you had completely blocked him out. “I know,” you felt obligated to assure him, if only because of how angry he looked.There was a loud thud in the other room, followed by a timer beep, interrupting your conversation. You both glanced through the two way mirror to find the form of your younger self slumped against the side of the metal table. The timer on the computer monitor to your left read three minutes one second. A moment later, the people in the room faded to nothingness, and the metal security door slid open behind you. Seto exited without a word, and you followed behind him, unsure if there was anything you could do to help his mood.
-----
Seto slammed the side of his fist against the cool metal wall to his right, a dull numbness pulsing through his nerves at the collision. You had been so quiet the past few minutes, it had taken him too long to realize you weren’t next to him anymore. Now, he couldn’t even place when exactly you had disappeared from his side. He should have been more attentive, considering the circumstances, rather than blindly trusting in the fact that you would remain with him until they found his brother.He began walking forward, scanning the metal hallway that looked characteristically like the underground employee’s tunnel to the Kaiba Land subway station. He thought on calling out your name, but decided it would do him little good; if Noah had separated the two of you, it was likely you were already in a different section of this virtual world, shouting for you wouldn’t change that. The automated metal door dead ahead of him opened as he stepped nearer. As Seto guessed, it lead to a large, dark, subway tunnel. He could hear the sound of a train approaching, and glancing to the right, noticed the bright headlights of the Blue-Eyes tram getting closer and closer. He took a moment to look around the platform, willing you to appear next to him so the two of you could find his brother, but he had no such luck. You were gone, and he highly doubted you would be back any time soon if Noah had a say in it. At the very least, he hoped you wouldn’t end up falling for his ridiculous mind-controlling schemes again. The train stopped in front of him and, on cue, the doors slid open, waiting for him to board. As much as he didn’t like knowingly walking into a trap, there wasn’t very much he could do to the contrary. The little aqua-haired brat had his brother, and now probably you, and without finding him there was no way to get either back. Not to mention, it wasn’t like he had much of a choice, loathed as he was to admit it. Even if he didn’t go along with the flashy train ride, Noah would surely find another way to arrange the meeting. He stepped onto the train and found a bench to sit on, begrudgingly resigning himself to the whims of a spoiled, petulant child.
-----
You felt your phone vibrate in your pocket and nearly thought to chuck it against the wall, having no desire to talk to the little shit that locked you, once again, inside of a metal cell. But you really had no other choice, stuck inside this room, if you had any hope of getting out of here and back to Seto you needed to look at the damn thing. You flicked your phone open and jammed it against your ear, not even taking the time to think about what you would say, so the moment the line clicked on you felt your hand shaking with anger.“Noah you piece of--” “Ghost? Oh darling is it really you?” You froze, mouth still half-open as you processed the soft, excited female voice on the other end of the phone. What was this, another one of Noah’s sick jokes? “I’ve been trying to get into this system for the last… scheisse it’s been a while… anyway what on earth is going on there? Where are you?”“In real life, or in this stupid fucking simulation?” You asked. “Oh you sound mad-- in the simulation, I already know where your body is.” Doll began muttering something incomprehensible under her breath, “It looks like you’re trapped somewhere in there, ja? Can you describe your surroundings?” Relief flooded over you at her question; aside from Seto himself, Doll was easily the most knowledgeable person you know when it came to computers. If anyone could get you and the boys out of this place, it was her.“Yeah, sure,” you sighed, scanning your immediate area. There was a thick concrete wall on three sides of you, with the fourth made up entirely of metal bars, spacing so tight that you could barely get your wrist through. The floor, too, was cement, slightly textured with porous air bubbles and tiny cracks. Otherwise, the tiny cell was completely plain and ordinary, with no furniture or windows to speak of. You explained as much to her, and listened to the sound of typing and humming on the other end of the line. “How did you even call me?” You asked after a moment.“Oh, just by picking through the code until I was able to worm my way in.” She replied nonchalantly. “Worm your way in? Noah isn’t stopping you?” “Nein, not anymore. He was before, but uh-- well not now.” “Why not?” “I think he might be distracted?” She offered, “There is a lot going on in the code elsewhere. Lots of changes being made.”“What kind of changes?” “Environmental ones, mostly. It’s almost like-- like a section of this virtual world is going through the… oh what’s the word? With the ice melting and all the large furry elephants and--”“The ice age?” “Ja, the ice age!” You heard her snap her fingers just as, near simultaneously, a metallic click sounded through the small cell. You glanced to your left and watched a section of the thin metal bars swing away from the others, almost as if they had become a door. You took a few cautious steps toward them, pushing them gently to create a large enough opening for you to squeeze through. There was a long, stretching hallway to your right that you began jogging down, noticing no markings or chips on the wall that might indicate where you were or if you were even making progress. “Impressive,” you said into the phone receiver, “Now, where is Seto? I need to find him, we got separated. Can you pull up his location?”“Ja, give me just a moment. There’s a lot to sift through here-- just keep going that way and I’ll find him.” You did as she said, keeping the swift pace down the seemingly never ending hallway, concentrating on keeping your breathing even. Stamina was never a strength you possessed, and thanks to the adrenaline in your blood already dissipating, you felt even more sluggish than usual. Still, you weren’t going to let the feeling stop you, Seto had once again disappeared from your sight and you were going to find him before he got hurt if it killed you. “Found him-- he’s in the middle of all those environmental changes. It looks like he and Noah are dueling.” “Who’s winning?” You demanded. She groaned, “You know I don’t understand this stupid game-- ah here, let me just….”The screen of your phone lit up beside your cheek, and you pulled it from your face to see the call in progress screen replace itself with the image of Seto and Noah opposite each other in the middle of a duel. Behind Seto, the gaggle of Yuugi and crew were watching intently and occasionally chattering to themselves, though you couldn’t make out what they were saying. More importantly, it looked like Noah was about to be taken down.Seto had two incredibly powerful monsters-- Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, and Different Dimension Dragon-- on the field, along with Dragon’s Rage. When they attacked Noah’s defense-position monsters, the difference in their power would come directly out of your former friend’s life points. All he needed to do was attack! Seto was going to win, and then you could all leave this accursed place and return to the real world. Your chest swelled with excitement and pride, a grin you were unable to fight quickly weaving its way onto your face, and you felt your pace slowing slightly. The first attack went through, Different Dimension Dragon destroyed Noah’s Giant Rex with no problem.
“Don’t do it.”
Your entire world about shattered when Mokuba appeared in front of Noah, and everything went silent. The sound of typing on Doll’s end of the phone stopped, your footsteps ceased pounding as you halted in your tracks, and for a moment you felt suspended, both in disbelief and anger. It wasn’t until the crackling shouts of Mokuba’s name came from Seto himself, that you realized you hadn’t made any progress reaching them. You were still in the same long hallway, how long you’d been running you weren’t sure, and how much further there was to run was anyone’s guess.
“Mokuba’s chosen his side, chosen me as his brother. Looking back, perhaps you should have treated him better, Seto. Now, you have a decision to make; forfeit this duel and step down as president of Kaiba Corp., or continue with your attack and risk harming Mokuba.”
“Doll, how’s progress going on your end?” You asked. “Isn’t that Seto’s brother? What is he--?”“Focus,” you snapped, more harshly than your friend deserved, “Get me out of this fucking hallway.” “I… right, okay. Sorry,” the sound of typing resumed on her end. “Just stay where you are, I might be able to….” She trailed off, muttering something to herself quietly as she worked, leaving you to stand still, staring at the phone screen and hoping desperately that Seto would be able to get through to his younger brother like he had with you. You assured yourself that he would be able to.
“So, what’s it going to be? Mokuba, or your precious company? Time to decide.”
Anger began to swell inside of your chest as Seto cut his turn short, refusing to send an attack toward his brother, and effectively giving Noah more time to mount a comeback. Your friend was running out of life points fast, and it was only a matter of time before they were gone completely. Without the ability to attack Noah, there was no way Seto could win this duel. You shook your head. You couldn’t think like that. Once Seto was able to convince Mokuba of what had happened, he could easily win. He was the best duelist you knew, after all, if anyone could turn all of this around, it was him. All he needed was an opening. “Ghost!”“What?” You asked. “Were you listening to me?” “No, what’s going on?” “Look behind you.” She sighed.You did as she said. In front of you, a large set of metal double doors had appeared in the hallway, along with a large red EXIT sign just above them. It blinked slowly a few times as you looked over the scene; there was no keypad or security measures keeping you out, and as you took a step closer, the doors slid open without protest.“You should be able to go through there and get to a subway station, it will take you to everyone else. Then you-- oh shiesse.”“What’s wrong?” Rather than answer you, she’d taken to muttering to herself, the way she did when she was deep in thought or in the middle of a particularly troublesome piece of code. “Doll what’s going on?” You asked as you stepped through the metal double doors. You gave your eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, but wherever you’d just walked into was much too dark to see anything, so you turned the flashlight on your cellphone on to scan the place. As Doll had said, it looked to be a subway station, completely deserted aside from a lone train car parked motionless on the tracks. It was shaped like a Blue Eyes White Dragon, something you found simultaneously comforting and completely absurd. You walked toward the train, and just as the metal doors before had, these opened to you easily. The inside of the train was just as dark as the station, it didn’t seem like it was on or would be moving anytime soon, but you guessed that was what Doll was working on. You took to scanning the car with your flashlight a few times before finding a bench to sit on and taking a moment to refocus on the duel. As you moved the screen back up to your face, however. You realized it was no longer playing. “Ghost we have a problem.” The lights inside of the train car clicked on as she finished the line, and the door you’d walked through closed with a few light chimes. After a second, you felt the train lurch slightly, before it began moving forward steadily, picking up speed quite quickly. “Doesn’t look like it, you got the thing moving,” you replied. “I didn’t do that,” she insisted. “What?”“The code is changing too fast for me to keep up with, I can’t--”The line went dead midway through her sentence, a dull click cutting her off and ending the conversation. You attempted to dial Doll’s number, twice to be sure, only to be greeted with the same service error as before. If she hadn’t been the one to start up the train car and shut off your view of the duel, that meant Noah had regained control over the virtual world, at least the portion you were currently occupying. And he knew you were coming. The ride wasn't as slow as you anticipated it would be, though without the ability to see what was happening in Seto's duel, it certainly felt slow. You couldn't quite estimate how much time it took, perhaps five or so minutes, before the sound of metallic squealing cut through the air and the lights flickered. The cool, monotone sound of the train announcer rang throughout the small car, 'Now arriving at--' before it was buried under digitized static and the doors slid open. You quickly hopped out of your seat and bounded out through the doors, hearing them slide closed behind you and the train begin to speed away. You were dropped off on the edge of a mountainside, with no clear path down to the hundred or so yards of grassy plain that separated you from the site of the duel between Seto and Noah. The only real way down the sheer cliffside was to slide, thankfully there seemed to be plenty of dust and dirt to soften your ride down. So long as you were careful you probably wouldn’t get hurt, aside from maybe scraping up your hands. You couldn’t hear what was being shouted between the duelists, it was a bit too far and the wind carried their words in the opposite direction, but you could see Seto’s Blue Eyes out on the field, and you saw him reaching forward to flip a card over, you couldn’t tell if it was a spell or trap. Noah, in turn, gestured to the giant ark above him. It was now or never. You scanned the cliffside below to find the safest looking spot to begin your descent, and once you found the least deadly path, leaned your weight on your right foot, extended your left, and began sliding. You used your right hand to keep balanced, and kicked up a thick cloud of sand as you moved. About halfway down the mountainside your foot hit a large rock barely sticking up from the otherwise smooth cliffside, jamming your ankle forward and causing you to lose your balance. You twisted your side so you fell on your back leg, absorbing the majority of the fall with your thigh, and used your hand to claw into the dirt and keep yourself from continuing to slide. You groaned in pain, moving to the side of the rock and looking the rest of the way down. The sand cloud you’d stirred up began blowing down toward you, peppering you in bits of dust and debris. You brought your hand to your face to examine it, not noticing any blood although the skin on your palm had been scraped up a bit and caked in dirt. You wiped it on your jeans and pushed yourself up in your previous stance, steadying yourself by digging your heels into the ground until you were ready to begin sliding again. You looked up to the duel once again, pausing as you watched Noah bring forward a gigantic, winged creature, looking the mix between a hollow silver machine and a seraphim. You could hear Noah should the name ‘Shinato’ as the monster sprang forth. You weren’t familiar with the card, nor its effects, but from the look of how huge it was, you had a bad feeling. You began moving forward down the mountain once again, and watched in horror as the winged creature raised its arms into the air, pointing to Seto’s Blue Eyes, and launching an attack. By the time the smoke on the field cleared, you had just reached the bottom of the mountain, tumbling forward into a patch of tall grass and landing on your knees. Seto’s dragon had disappeared from the field, along with his deck master and remaining cards. You didn’t understand what had happened. You stood back up brushed your palms together, now that you were closer to the battlefield you could hear what was being said, at least when people were shouting. And behind Seto, Yuugi’s group of friends were certainly shouting. Shouting about how he had lost the duel.But if he lost the duel, then that meant….You broke out into a run, clearing the distance toward the site of the duel, wind whipping through your hair and legs protesting the activity when they hadn’t been able to rest from your sliding down a cliffside. Further away, you saw Noah’s small body begin floating in the air, blurring into the form of the large monster until he had disappeared entirely. “I’ve decided I’m not escaping in your body, when there are so many others to choose from,” Noah sang delightedly. “Shinato and I think you’d be better suited as a more permanent fixture of my world.”Somewhere in the back of your mind you registered Yuugi and his friends crying out in response to the bolt of lightning that shot down from the sky, blinding you momentarily, but not before you saw its target: Mokuba in a full sprint toward his brother who knelt down on one knee, arms outstretched to catch him in a hug. It only took a few more seconds for you to reach your destination, you continued running forward despite being unable to see, and because of the vision spots in your eyes you only realized you’d made it when you kicked the edge of a rock, hard. You tripped over it, and fell forward onto a smooth shin-height stone, slamming your elbows into the ground and barely avoiding a collision with your face. As you blinked the purples and blues from your eyes, you scrambled onto your knees to survey the scene and find the Kaiba brothers. You saw their forms standing in front of you only a few feet away, arms still outstretched, frozen in place. Frozen in stone. You heard more shouting from Yuugi’s friends, but the sound blurred in an incomprehensible jumble, sounding like nothing more than faint background noise to the oppressive silence that hit you. You could hear, or perhaps feel, your ears ringing. You opened your mouth to say their names but no sound came out. You tried to reach forward to touch them but your hands wouldn’t move. You stood still, staring at their forms, smooth and still as statues. You could only look away from them when you realized Noah was still held within the form of the metallic seraphim, emotionless face moving to look around at the damage he had done. The shock in your chest quickly boiled into anger, a blazing fury that made you want to pull out one of your knives and hurl it at the monster. If only it would actually hurt him.“Now let’s see, who do I want to take the place of? Perhaps the King of Games himself? Or I could take over Kaiba Corp. and Dark Clown Games all in one go….” Noah’s voice hummed through the veil of Shinato, his eyes scanning Yuugi’s group of friends, before his gaze landed on you. “What do you think?”You kept your eyes firm on his, biting your tongue to keep it from moving. You wanted to kill him. “Oh come on,” he sighed, “There has to be someone other than Seto you’re attracted to! Take your pick, I can become any one of them.”He couldn’t possibly be serious, there was just no way. He had just turned your best friends into motionless statues and he wanted you to pick his next victim? Did he expect you to just up and follow him out of the virtual world or something? Without the Kaiba brothers?“Go fuck yourself.” You hissed, the words leaving your mouth before you could stop them. Shinato’s emotionless face remained unmoving as Noah spoke through it, “Looks like you’re still in shock, huh? Don’t worry you’ll get used to it-- losing your best friend. It took me a long time, too. But now you and I can be together again, without those two eyesores in the way. They’ll be trapped here forever while you and I go back to--” “I’m not going anywhere with you.” “--the way things were before! We’ll be best friend again, and we can take over Kaiba Corp. together.” He continued on as if you hadn’t even spoken in the first place, the figure of Shinato extending a metallic hand toward you, “What do you say?” “Noah, that’s enough!” The two of you turned your heads to look to Yuugi, who had stepped to the front of the group, hard violet eyes focused on Shinato.“Excuse me?” He hummed. “Turning the Kaiba brothers into statues, tormenting their best friend? You think this proves you’re the best?” Yuugi gestured to Seto and Mokuba’s motionless forms. “I think it proves to your father that you’re a coward, one who can only win through cheating.” “Cheating?” Noah’s voice echoed indignantly. “Kidnapping Mokuba and forcing him to stand in the middle of your duel is hardly fair,” Yuugi insisted, “It’s a tactic you would have once scolded the Big Five for. Kaiba could have easily defeated you, but he chose the safety of Mokuba over victory, and that makes him a more mature person than you will ever be. As far as I’m concerned, you didn’t win this duel. But, I have a proposition for you.” Yuugi knelt down to the ground and began picking up the scattered remains of Seto’s deck, gingerly combining them into a neat stack. You offered him a stray card that had made its way toward your right knee, glancing at it briefly to confirm it was one of his three Blue Eyes White Dragons. You felt your heart sink as Yuugi took the card from your hand. “Kaiba still has four-hundred lifepoints left, so allow me to take his place so we can finish this duel fairly.” Your eyes widened at the command. “That has to be dumbest challenge I’ve ever heard.” Noah announced delightedly. “Does that mean you accept?” Yuugi demanded, already beginning to shuffle Seto’s remaining cards in with his own. “Or are you going to run away, and prove once and for all you’re nothing but a cheating coward?” “I’d be an idiot not to accept!”The silence that hung between Yuugi’s group of friends only lasted a moment, quickly interrupted by protests from Jounouchi, followed by Ryuuji, begging him not to go through with the insane plan. He would only have four hundred life points, they insisted, it wasn’t near enough for him to win with. You were inclined to agree-- Noah still had Shinato on the field, and Yuugi would be hard pressed to draw enough resources to even get back into the game, much less win it. Still, it was the only way Seto and Mokuba could go back to normal, short of you coming up with a brilliant plan of your own. Maybe if you begged enough, Noah would let them go? Probably not, but it would be worth a shot if Yuugi lost the duel. Perhaps you could challenge Noah yourself? You could probably beat him, your best friends were already encased in stone so it wasn’t like he could use them against you anymore. That was assuming he accepted, anyway. “I will rescue Kaiba and Mokuba,” Yuugi said assuredly, taking his steps up toward the floating form of Shinato and sliding his newly formed deck into place. You weren’t sure how much you believed the statement, but this guy was supposed to be the King of Games, after all. The only person, aside from Pegasus J. Crawford, who’d ever beaten Seto in a duel. If anyone could defeat Noah, especially in this position, it was him. You only hoped he was good enough to pull it off. You adjusted yourself so you were sitting more comfortably on your butt, somewhat fearful that if you tried to stand back up your legs would give out again, positioning yourself between the Kaiba brothers and the duel. You only wished you had been faster to reach them. Maybe you could have pushed them out of the way of the blast, or at least pushed one of them. If Doll had been a little faster to hack her way out of that hallway-- no you couldn’t play the blame game on this one. If anyone, this entire situation was entirely Noah’s fault. He was the one who locked all of you in here, who used Mokuba as a human shield, who froze your friends in place.As the sound of the duel began to play in the background, you found yourself looking not to it, but instead to the forms of Seto and Mokuba, still right in front of you and completely unmoving. From your spot on the ground, you could only look to the duel if you looked in the empty space between their arms, a hollow reminder that, if Yuugi couldn’t win this duel, that space would remain that way forever. All of this, because Noah decided to trap you inside of this virtual prison. You wanted to scream at him because of what he’d done to your best friends, but it wouldn’t change anything, you had to keep insisting as much to yourself. The angrier Noah got, the less of a chance you had of freeing Seto and Mokuba. You wondered if you even had a chance at all. If Yuugi couldn’t beat him, perhaps the best option would be to keep your cool and wait until Noah stormed out of the virtual world in someone else’s body. Then Doll might be able to get into the code again and free the rest of you. The thought was about the only thing keeping you calm, and even the calm was an overstatement. You couldn’t stop your fingertips tapping on the ground beneath you in a chaotic rhythm, and they only reason you hadn’t stood up and started pacing like a maniac was your complete exhaustion. You were pretty sure if you tried to stand, your legs would fight you on it. That was until Noah really, truly snapped, and send another bolt of lightning to the ground, and when the flash disappeared, the flashily dressed boy with raven hair had been turned to solid stone. It caused another uproar within Yuugi’s group of friends, and a self-satisfied Noah announced he would do the same to everyone else for each turn Yuugi had not beaten him. Then, his eyes flashed to you, and a grin spread across his face. “Be sure to think about whose body you’d like me to occupy. I think it would be fun to leave Yuugi here surrounded by statues of his former friends, don’t you?” You bit down on your tongue again to stop from saying anything. “If you really want, I guess I could free Seto and take over him. Imagine the face he’ll make, seeing his brother in stone, just before I--”You didn’t realize you were on your feet with a knife in your right hand until you were moving toward him. The gravity of your situation only hit you in the same instant that the lightning did. Your feet froze first, stone creeping up your legs so quickly you couldn’t react. You had less than a second to process what had happened to you before your entire world was encased in stone.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
He hated boats. The last time Blade had been on a boat alone it had ended in tragedy-- for the boat, not for him. Well, it had almost ended in tragedy for him too, had the owner of said boat been less lenient. The less time he had to spend in the damn ocean, the better. Unfortunately, the Kaiba Corporation fortress sunk in the middle of the ocean was… well it was in the middle of the ocean. This entire mission sucked. First, he had to go out of his way to steal a heavily guarded Egyptian artifact just to then trade it for a stupid rare trading card. Then, he had to follow you around the city gathering intel on duelists so you could work your way into the finals. Following that, he got his ear chewed off for not watching Mokuba-- something his own brother should have been doing anyway. To top that off, he had to dispose of a Ghoul’s body in the middle of a heavily occupied part of the harbor just to be absolutely certain his death couldn’t get tied to you. And now you and the Kaibas had been kidnapped in the middle of the Pacific ocean, and he was being sent to do… something? What was he supposed to do to help you? He knew next to nothing about computers, had no map of the military base, wouldn’t be able to contact Doll once he was inside, and to his knowledge if he tried to just rip you out of your virtual, AR, whatever pod, it wouldn’t even do anything. Could even kill you. And he wasn’t even getting paid for any of this, since none of you actually worked for Kaiba. He was basically working for a charity, but one of those shitty charities that couldn’t pay their employees and constantly stuck him in bad situations. How long did it take to get to this stupid fortress again? Blade glanced down at the map on his phone screen and groaned. He really hated boats.
-----
The first sound you heard when reality snapped back into place was Mokuba shouting for his brother. You finished the step you had been in the middle of, the world suddenly bright and once again filled with life. Your gaze flitted from the rocks Yuugi and Noah were floating on, slowly sinking back to earth, down to the Kaiba brothers. Seto pulled his brother into his arms and you slipped the knife in your hand back to your waistband, a smile forcing its way onto your lips as relief washed around you.“I’m so glad you two are alright.” You said. Mokuba looked up at you from his brother’s chest, before reaching up his hand to grab at the front of your jacket, tugging you down toward him. You obliged, lowering yourself to your knees and quickly wrapping your arms around both of them, letting out a breath you didn’t realize you had held in.“Looks like everything is back to normal,” Anzu declared cheerily a few feet away as the rest of Yuugi’s group were freed from their stone prisons. “Which means Yuugi must have won the duel!” Otogi replied. “Duel?” Seto demanded. He released his grasp on Mokuba and you pulled your arms in as well. You stood quickly and brushed the dirt from your knees, taking a mental stock of each of your knives.“Your duel,” Anzu clarified, “Yuugi finished it when you and Mokuba got turned to stone. He mixed your cards together.” Seto raised the duel disk on his arm and confirmed it was void of cards, and a scowl quickly passed over his features. His gaze snapped to you instantly, and he stood to full height, towering over you. “What are you looking at me for?” You raised an eyebrow. “You allowed Yuugi to take my cards.” You shrugged, “He wanted to finish the duel, why would I stop him?” “You’re supposed to be my bodyguard.” He growled. “Yeah, I guard your body not your cards. Your virtual cards, might I remind you? Your actual deck is still safe and sound in the real world.” He continued to glare at you, although he said nothing else for a moment. When he opened his mouth to speak again, however, he was interrupted by the yelling on the former duel field. You broke eye contact to see what was happening. “I won’t be trapped here any longer!” Noah shouted, taking a few quick steps toward the King of Games, arms outstretched upwards towards his shoulders. “I’m leaving this place, and I’m doing so in your body!” You and the rest of the recently freed group watched on as Noah grabbed at Yuugi’s jacket, and a bright flash of light erupted between the two of them. Neither of them moved as the light engulfed their bodies, temporarily blinding you and forcing you to shield your eyes. When it faded, Noah stumbled backwards, blue eyes wide in confusion and breathing significantly heavier. “You… what the hell was that-- what are you?” Noah demanded. Yuugi said something in response, but it was drowned out by his friends rushing to his side and shouting, asking if he was alright and what had happened. You took the time to turn toward Seto as Mokuba rushed past you to join the larger group. “You alright?” You asked, pushing past the earlier lecture on the safety of his deck.He grunted, presumably in affirmation, as he dusted the shoulders of his trench coat. “And you?” “Oh, yeah fine.” You nodded. “I mean, I’m pissed, but fine.” He gave you a look that you took as agreement, before turning to look toward the group, mainly toward his brother.“So, how do we go about convincing Noah to let us out of here?” You asked. “Considering he just tried to hijack Yuugi’s body I doubt it’ll be as easy as holding him to his word.” Seto scoffed, “His word never meant anything. We’re running out of options, certainly.”You sighed. You were starting to feel as though Doll was your only hope of escape, but without keeping Noah distracted long enough for her to get back into the code, you weren’t sure if she could do much. Even if she could, you didn’t know if she had the ability to get you back to the real world. You didn’t know enough about programming to judge what was and wasn’t possible.“Could you explain something to me, programming wise? It might be a stupid question, but it could help us escape.” He raised an eyebrow to you, thrusting his chin forward slightly to insist you continue.“Doll’s amazing with computers, she was able to get into the code earlier while you and Noah were dueling. Do you think if she could get in again, she might be able to--?”Your question was interrupted by the tremble of thunder, and the sounds of arguing from Yuugi’s group of friends quickly died as well. The sky began to grow dark, rainclouds forming overhead and blocking out the sunlight. You each instinctively turned your heads upward to see what was going on, and the clouds began swirling into a strange pattern. One that looked suspiciously like….No way. It couldn’t be.
-----
You had, more than likely reflexively, grabbed his hand practically the second the voice of Gozaburo Kaiba rang through the virtual world. Seto was fairly certain you had done so either out of necessity, or you had no idea it had even happened. Not that you weren’t a brave enough person to take his hand on a whim, you were, but this wasn’t exactly the time for an impulsive romantic gesture. And, even if you were bold enough to do so, he doubted it was your present intention considering your fingertips were shaking. “F-father?” Noah shouted in disbelief, “What are you doing here? I thought you were dead!”As did Seto. The fact that his step father was here made no sense; he himself had watched the man throw himself off the top floor of Kaiba Corporation’s headquarters. The floating face of Gozaburo in the storm clouds must have been some sort of a trick-- but then, he had thought the same thing of many other things in this accursed world that had turned out to be true. “It’s true that my body is dead,” Gozaburo admitted, “but my mind is alive and well. Prior to my death, I digitized my memories and transferred them into the computer I tested on you, Noah. I’ve been reborn as a virtual being.”Seto scoffed, “Seems the old fool doesn’t know when to give up.”“Apparently,” you half-muttered. He said nothing about the fact that your grip tightened around his hand, nor the fact that your eyes had grown so wide staring up at the ghost of his step father he was convinced they might just bulge right out of your head. “Father I missed you!” Noah exclaimed, “I’ve been so alone this whole time, I--”“I’m done with you.” A brief, uncomfortable silence fell over the group as Noah stared at his father in confusion. Seto quickly decided he didn’t care much for said silence, nor did he have time to muster any pity or sympathy for the little brat. “Enough of this, explain yourself Gozaburo! What do you intend to do with us?”A condescending chuckle, “Demanding as ever aren’t you, Seto? Very well, I’ll give you this explanation you so desire. My original plan was to revive Noah, my biological son, after his accident. His purpose was to carry on my legacy, and have Kaiba Corporation rule the world with an iron fist. His death was an obnoxious setback in my plans.”“A… a setback in your plans?” Anzu gasped. “How cruel,” Shizuka muttered. “But in the end, virtual is virtual. Noah isn’t the same as a living human without a body. Since he lived inside of a virtual system, it created a gap in our sense of values. He no longer possessed a grasp on the thoughts and feelings of those in the real world.”“What are you talking about, father?” Noah cried, “What do you mean sense of values? I was only trying to make you happy!” Somehow that comment only served to infuriate Seto further, and if the way you shifted your weight to your other foot was any indication, it had a similar effect on you. “That’s when you arrived, Seto,” Gozaburo continued, dismissing his biological son’s concerns as if they had never even been spoken. “So, what?” He began, a hypothesis forming in his head. He sincerely doubted Gozaburo would give up on his son so quickly, after the years spent training him. Especially considering you had been kept around the Kaiba mansion, serving as Noah’s study partner for years before Seto was in the picture. “You adopted me to test his knowledge and abilities against mine, and if he won it would prove the virtual world had surpassed reality? I was merely adopted to be a fake rival?” “Wrong.” He narrowed his eyes, “You were going to be Noah’s vessel.”“His vessel?” You demanded before Seto had the chance, your voice raised an octave in either shock or anger. Perhaps both. Seto noticed the way Gozaburo’s eyes passed over you as if you weren’t even there. He was acknowledging your presence even less than Noah’s.“Virtual reality has its limits. Seto, I only chose you for your body so I could resurrect my real son.”“You… I didn’t think it was possible to think even less of you.” You breathed shakily. Your hand had begun shaking further, and this time it was clear to Seto that it was with rage. “No decent person would ever think of that!” Anzu agreed.Again, Gozaburo easily ignored the comments on his character and kept his attention focused on Seto. “In the end, it’s ironic that I’m the one who lost to you. I couldn’t forgive you for taking Kaiba Corporation from me, that’s why I transferred my memories into the computer before my death. I no longer care about using you as a vessel for Noah, instead I was to be the one taking your body so I could reclaim my company. You were going to be my vessel!” Seto hadn’t thought it possible for you to get angrier until you reached into the back of your waistband and pulled out your combat knife, your teeth clenched. It was a good thing his pain tolerance was unnaturally high, otherwise you might have crushed his hand with how tightly you were gripping him.“You were… just using me?” Noah asked.“Direct your anger towards Seto, not me.” Gozaburo dismissed, “Either way plans have changed. I no longer need your body, Seto. I don’t need a body at all to hack into Kaiba Corporation and rule the world.”“That’s absurd,” Seto insisted, “You can’t do anything without a body.” “Wrong,” his stepfather scoffed, as he willed an image of a satellite into existence.“What is that?” Yuugi asked. “Kaiba Corporation secretly developed this missile satellite for war.” “A missile?” Jounouchi yelled. “This underwater fortress was originally built as a launching site, with these missiles on board and ready to launch at the world’s major cities.” “You’re going to hack the launching system?” Noah cried. “You seem surprised, Noah. Why? You’re the one who gave me this idea. It was your calculations that inspired me; we can destroy the world in thirty days. With this much power at my fingertips, I don’t need a body anymore, I can rule the world from inside of here!”“What a fool.” Seto sighed, having to bite at the inside of his cheek to keep himself from interrupting further. If the let the old man continue rambling, perhaps he would let a clue on how to stop him slip. “I rewrote the program and removed the door linking the virtual and real worlds. You kids can no longer leave this world.” “Seems your solution to anyone getting in your way is to trap them in an isolated hell.” You seethed. “Hell?” Gozaburo replied scornfully, “You mistake me Number Seventeen. None of you will ever die. You don’t need food or sleep. This world is more like heaven. And I’d suggest you get used to it, because Kaiba Corporation is now mine.”“Wait!” Seto demanded as his step father’s face began to ripple and fade, the sky getting visibly brighter as the storm clouds began fading. The man’s maniacal laughter drowned out his protests, however, along with the protests of the rest of Yuugi’s crew. Since you were holding onto him with your nondominant hand it left your other, still firmly gripping your unsheathed combat knife, to comfortably raise to your eye level. In one swift, elegant motion, you sent the knife flying to the sky. It was a deceptive throw, clearly with more power behind it than it seemed, blade spinning over hilt and hilt over blade as it sliced through the air. It passes easily through the quickly fading black-purple cloud, cutting cleanly through Gozaburo Kaiba’s left eye, before losing altitude and falling to the ground somewhere in the distance. He would admit to himself it was an impressive throw, but it was an admiration he wouldn’t vocalize aloud. The two of you stared at the spot your knife landed for some time quietly, as the rest of the group surrounding you began panicking and talking to themselves about what they’d just heard. Seto didn’t have the patience to join in on their speculations quite yet, still processing the information he’d taken in and replaying it multiple times to search for something he might have missed. You seemed to take the time to calm yourself down, and although a part of him wanted to ask if you if you were alright, he decided it would likely do more harm than good for your current mental state.“Did you really think that would work?” He decided upon instead, gesturing to the knife. “No, but it sure made me feel a hell of a lot better,” you replied. “I’ve been wanting to do that for years.”“I’ve never had someone proclaim murderous intent for my step father so boldly.” You chuckled, “Do you not agree?” “The man threw himself out of a window right in front of me and I did nothing to stop him, what do you think?” Seto lowered his voice, as to not draw attention to your conversation. Though, Yuugi’s group of friends, Mokuba, and Noah were all fairly preoccupied bickering between themselves so he doubted they would have heard either of you even if you were shouting to one another. His comment drew another chuckle from you, and he realized during your suitably dark talk your hand had stopped trembling, though you hadn’t yet released him. He was seriously beginning to question if you had noticed your actions yet or not. Noah, however, had positively noticed. In the midst of Mokuba shaking him to snap him out of a fit of obnoxious laughter his eyes had snapped to you, then the hand you were gripping. If his quickly narrowed eyebrows and almost instantly silenced laughter were anything to go by, the sight was enough to seriously piss him off. Seto decided not to pull away just yet.
-----
Fuck.Fuck. When the fuck did you start holding his hand? You couldn’t remember-- you hadn’t even known you were holding it until he adjusted his grip, fingers flexing slightly before returning to their original position. Wrapped around your hand. Holding your hand. Why was he holding your hand? Why hadn’t he pulled away yet? Okay okay. Maybe he hadn’t noticed you noticed yet. You could totally play it cool-- pretend to sneeze or something and just so happen to reflexively pull away to cover your mouth. Or maybe that would be too suspicious. Had anyone else noticed yet? Everyone in Yuugi’s group seemed too preoccupied with following Noah down the corridor to have paid attention to you or Seto, and Mokuba hadn’t looked in your direction yet either. You were sure he would have said something by now if he had. Damn it why was he still holding your hand? Was it supposed to mean something? “Something doesn’t feel right about this,” you heard Yuugi say to your right, and you glanced over to find he had lagged behind the group a bit to walk at your and Seto’s pace. “Noah could be leading us into another trap.” Shit, had he noticed?“Tell me something I don’t know.” Seto replied curtly. “If you’re suspicious as well, why are you following him?” Yuugi raised an eyebrow, eyes flickering between Seto and you as if asking you both. “I was taught to keep my enemies close.” Seto hummed. “It’s not like we have many options, anyway,” you added, “Gozaburo and Noah are the only ones who have any control over this world. Running off on our own won’t help us get out of here.” Yuugi nodded, “Agreed. I just hope Noah has realized his situation. We all need to work together now more than ever.” Seto scoffed, but otherwise didn’t add to the conversation further, leaving Yuugi to focus his gaze forward once again. You returned your own attention to more pressing matters; how the fuck were you going to let go of Seto’s hand without drawing attention? If it took you much longer, he might realize you had already noticed you’d grabbed onto him and had yet to let go. Fuck you couldn’t think straight in this situation. “You prefer Ghost, right?” You straightened your back as your attention was snapped back to Yuugi. You didn't exactly prefer Ghost, but you didn't care enough to correct him.“May I ask you something?” “Don’t see why not,” you shrugged. “We-- I like to believe that there is good in everyone.” He paused for a moment, narrowing his eyes at the back of Noah’s head. “Even, and especially, those that may do bad things.”“Is there a question in here somewhere?” You asked. “You grew up with Noah, didn’t you?” You nodded. “What was he like? As a person?” “Are you trying to ask me if there’s good in him to make yourself feel better about the situation?”Silence. “Look, Yuugi… when we were kids, I was just as spoiled as Noah-- the two of us had everything we could have ever wanted. Difference is I got to grow out of it, and he didn’t.” You sighed, moving your neck from side to side a few times to crack it. “Noah hasn’t grown in the past six years, he’s lived alone, creating his own sense of morality. I’m not entirely sure he fully understands ‘good’ and ‘bad’, he only knows what he wants.”“I… I see.”Yuugi didn’t ask you anything further, quickly withdrawing into his own thoughts and growing silent. It wasn’t too much longer after that Noah stopped in front of a door and turned back to face all of you, his wide eyes lighting up before they fell on you. You watched them flicker between you and Seto, then very pointedly to your hands, and you realized instantly why he hadn’t pulled away from you. “Here it is,” Noah announced quickly, letting his gaze fall on anyone but you. “This is the exit?” Anzu asked. “My father shouldn’t know about this,” Noah nodded, “If you all just go through here you’ll end up in the real world.”“This isn’t suspicious at all,” you said quietly. Seto offered the smallest of scoffs in response. “Well what are we waitin’ for, then?” Jounouchi asked excitedly, “Let’s get outta here!”One by one Yuugi’s group began filing through the door, quickly followed by Mokuba, who looked just as excited. With the younger Kaiba passing through the door, you and Seto didn’t have much of a choice but to follow, so the two of you shuffled in as well. As you passed by Noah, he leveled a glare at you.“I’m not mature enough to understand good and bad, huh?” He hissed. “Well your sense of morality might not work, but at least your ears do.” You replied sarcastically, meeting his glare just as icily. Before he could retort you and Seto passed through the door frame and into a bright, white light. At least clutching his hand made you feel a bit better about your chances ending up together wherever Noah was sending you. Instead, however, the world around you dissolved completely, leaving you in an empty void. Your hand was free, no longer gripping your best friend's, and with a groan you reached up to rub at your temples.“You really should be giving me more respect.” The voice echoed around you softly, the only sound in the otherwise empty white space. You couldn’t decide if it was too bright or simply too white, but you had to squint slightly to really focus on anything. Not that there was really anything to focus on aside from the voice, one you recognized instantly as Noah’s. You’d been hoping to get as far away from him as digitally feasible, but you should have anticipated the possibility of him keeping you somewhere to continue talking your ear off. “You know I’m getting real sick of listening to your voice, Noah. It’s like sandpaper.” “Would you prefer something deeper?” He goaded, his voice dropping an octave so quickly it near sounded like he’d gone through an instant puberty. “I’d prefer if you shut up and left me alone already.”He had separated you from Seto again, once more trapping you in an isolated space, probably one of his own creation. You were getting seriously pissed off the more times he took it upon himself to do this, it seemed like every time you finally found Seto again Noah went out of his way to separate you, even when you’d been literally holding hands. You really missed the blimp. “I can’t do that, we need to talk.” Noah huffed, his image finally appearing before you, arms crossed over his chest and eyes narrowed the second he came into view. “Like hell we do. You had your chance to talk to me like a normal human being. You spent that time kidnapping Mokuba, brainwashing me, and trapping Seto and I in a labyrinth of my memories.”“That was all--”“A terrible way to treat your only friend, and the reason you lost her.” You sneered. “I don’t take orders from Gozaburo and I don’t take orders from his spoiled son, no matter how long you keep me locked up in this place. So quit wasting both our time and let me get back to the real world so I can--”“Keep me here alone forever!” Noah interrupted with a shout, eyes suddenly wide and arms dropping to his side as he took a step toward you. “If I let you all go and you stop my father, I’ll have no one again. I’ll be stuck here all by myself and you all get to live on like nothing ever happened. It isn’t fair.” “No, it isn’t.” You agreed, “But the harsh reality is life isn’t fair, Noah. Bad things happen to people who don’t deserve it. That doesn’t justify continuing a cycle of abuse just so you can feel better about the bad things that happened to you.” “What am I supposed to do then? Just let all of you go so you can keep me here forever with no one to talk to?” “Yes.” He opened his mouth to speak but stopped short at your response, blinking a few times in bewilderment. “But… why?” “Because it’s the right thing to do. You don’t want to be trapped here, and neither do we. And without Seto back in the real world your father will run the world into the ground and probably start a nuclear war.”“But it doesn’t help me!” He insisted. “Noah I don’t know if we can help you. You’ve been dead for years, your real body is long decomposed, and you can’t just take over one of ours because, trust me, we’ll find out and drag you back here.”There was a fury blazing in his eyes, “Why should I have to help you then? You won’t even try to help me!” “If you wanted me to try to help you you shouldn’t have locked us all in here and did what you did! If you just came to me and asked for help you know I would have. But your obsession with beating Seto, taking over the company, and separating us--”“So you won’t help me because you’re in love with Seto? Is that is?” “I won’t help you because of everything you’ve done, Noah! It has nothing to do with how much I love Seto, it has to do with how much of a monster you’ve turned into.”He blinked, “You think I’m a monster?” You took a beat to formulate your response, remembering that, despite your anger, Noah was still your only real way out of this virtual hellscape. “I think you internalized all the wrong things Gozaburo taught you and, after years of isolation, you’ve forgotten what it means to be human.” “And what exactly does it mean? Being human?” You thought for a moment, but before you could come up with a good way to explain it, he seemed to have decided he no longer wanted an answer, instead holding up his hands. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care about your ideals, since you obviously don’t care about me. But do you honestly expect me to help you if you’re just going to leave me here alone?” “I don’t expect you to do anything, Noah. Whether or not you help us is entirely up to you, but I’d at least hope you’ll take a moment to think about the situation rationally.” “I have thought about it rationally.” He insisted, “If you all stay here, I won’t be alone--” “That isn’t rational,” you interrupted, “That’s emotional. You’re too afraid to let us leave here because you don’t want to be alone, and I don’t blame you for that. But what you need to consider is that Seto is about the only person who can stop Gozaburo from becoming a military dictator.”He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, staring somewhat blankly at you as he considered your words. You weren’t entirely certain his attention was focused on you anymore; maybe he was spending brainpower programming another section of the virtual world. You could feel the tension headache creeping back into your temples, keenly aware that you were running on limited time if Seto needed to get back to the real world in time both to stop Gozaburo from taking over his systems and run his tournament’s finals.“I don’t want you to leave,” Noah finally said, his voice smaller than it had been.“Noah, we--” “No, I don’t care about them. I don’t want you to leave.” You let out a long breath through your nose, desperately trying to hold onto any threads of sanity you still had left, “Noah I can’t stay here with you.” “Why not?”Fighting the urge to tell him flat out that you didn’t want to spend any more time near him right now, much less for the rest of your life, you simply said, “Because I have a job to do outside of here.” “Being a bodyguard?”You nodded. “Why do you go so far for him? He doesn’t even love you back!” Your chest tightened momentarily at that, but you pushed past it, “It doesn’t matter if he loves me or not. I’d still be doing this if he hated my guts.” “I don’t understand,” Noah shook his head, “He treats you horribly! He’s always insulting you. Why do you put up with it?”“Because I owe him my life, Noah.”“You’ve already saved his life, and Mokuba’s! You could just quit and--” “I can’t just quit.” You insisted, “I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if either of them got hurt and I could have stopped it.” “Why?” He demanded. You could see tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. You didn’t know he could cry in here. “Because that’s what it means to be human.”“Throwing your life away for someone just because they got you out of a prison when they didn’t even know you were there?” “Loving someone so much that you’d throw your life away for them, regardless of how or why they freed you.”You heard a breath catch in his throat in the silence, and one of the tears spill over his cheek left cheek. You couldn’t fight the pang of sorrow you felt prick at your heart, although you knew you would have felt much sorrier for him had he not spent the entirety of your time in the virtual world dismantling everything your childhood friendship had once been. “You won’t ever love me, will you?” He asked softly. You paused, looking over his form in the white emptiness. He looked like a scared little kid, now more than ever, his fingertips trembling and teeth biting at his bottom lip as tears trickled slowly down his cheeks. His shoulders had slouched, and his bright eyes were staring up at you, a pleading in them that you knew, even if you wanted to, you couldn’t bring yourself to respond to. Not the way he wanted. “No, Noah. I won't.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Something wasn’t right. Seto Kaiba watch Yuugi fall to his knees on the pavement below, staring down the fearsome God card Osiris, his amethyst eyes squeezed shut as he struggled with the gravity of the situation he faced. Next to him, you stood fixated on the duel, more interested in this one than any of the others you’d watched on the blimp. The blimp which you hadn’t gotten on yet. More to the point, you shouldn’t even be here right now-- how did you get here? Seto had watched this duel with Mokuba, not you. “What are you doing here?” Seto demanded. “Huh? What do you mean?” You blinked, cocking your head at his question before looking back to Yuugi. “I’m watching the duel.” “Where are we right now?” He pressed. “Battle City, where else?” “Yet you’re standing here with me right now.” “Yeah of course I am, we came to watch the duel together.” “When did we agree to do that?” You raised an eyebrow in confusion. “When was the first time you talked to me since we were children?”“Seto what’s with all the questions?” “When did you first speak to me?” He repeated the question impatiently. “Do you remember?”“Of course I remember, it was on the blimp.”He frowned and waited for you to understand what was going on.“Wait a second.” You looked back up at him, “We haven’t gotten to the blimp yet… I… I don’t remember this duel at all.” Almost instantaneously the scene around the two of you fizzled out, leaving you both staring at a virtual replica of Domino City. You both knew where you were, just in front of a subway station entrance that was only a few blocks from Kaiba Corporation headquarters. You turned to glance around, as did he, confirming that there were no others around you, virtual or otherwise. Yuugi and his friends were gone, along with Mokuba and Noah. “Seems Noah trapped us in our memories-- my memories, rather.” Seto huffed.You didn’t say anything for a moment, gaze fixated on something far away, but before he could turn to see what you were looking as, your eyes snapped to him. There was something off about you. Like you had just thought of, or remembered something.“Well I guess we should try to find our way out of here,” you sighed, “Clearly Noah isn’t going to be of any help so maybe we can find some secret back door ourselves.”“I have a better plan.” He replied, turning his body to stare up at Kaiba Corporation, the tall building towering high over all those around it and easy to see even a few blocks away. “Oh yeah?” “Let’s pay my stepfather a visit instead.”He would have been lying to himself if he said that the way your face practically lit up didn’t improve his mood. He had been expecting the opposite reaction, actually, considering the way you’d become a terrified mess the first time seeing Gozaburo in their memories and a seething ball of rage after looking up at him in the storm clouds for a second time. “You look excited.” He commented, keeping his voice level and without emotion to make it seem he wasn’t curious about your reaction.“Well, I am sort of looking forward to getting my revenge on that bastard.”“What do you have planned?” You grinned, “I’d love to finally give him a piece of mind. But after that? I think I’m pretty content watching you beat his ass at whatever game you've got prepared.”He would have been lying to himself if he said that comment didn’t make him genuinely pleased.“You think he’s in your office?” You asked as the two of you began moving toward the Kaiba Corporation headquarters. “He’s much too theatrical to not be. Why else would he send us only a few blocks away?” You shrugged, “I figured Noah sent us here.”“Perhaps he did, though I would wager with Yuugi’s group of compatriots missing and the fact that Mokuba is once again gone, he probably has his attention focused elsewhere.” He replied carefully, keeping his voice as even as possible when he mentioned his brother’s timely disappearance. Seto was not thrilled about his reunion with Mokuba being cut short once again, but he would have plenty of time to deal with that once an exit from the virtual world was found. He could tell you were doing much the same, keeping your thoughts preoccupied although you continued looking back to the spot Mokuba usually took beside you. “Wonder why he sent both of us here together, then,” you hummed aloud. “Perhaps it was because you were holding onto my hand when we were transported.” “I-- ah, yeah… about that--” you cleared your throat, “I didn’t really mean to, you know, rather I didn’t notice that I had--”“Oh stop it. Falling over yourself isn’t like you,” he rolled his eyes. Although it was somewhat humorous the shade of pink your cheeks had suddenly taken on he needed you to focus by the time you arrived in front of his step-father. “I had no problem with you doing it so there’s no reason for you to get so flustered.” You blinked up at him, “You had… no problem with me holding your hand?” That was not at all what he had meant to say. He needed to correct himself, and instead tell you he had, at the time, not had a problem with you grabbing his hand, considering the circumstances. Obviously. Has Gozaburo’s face not appeared in the sky and had you not looked so angry he would never have allowed the situation. If you tried to grab his hand any other time he would have surely reacted differently. Differently how?He blinked back at you but found he couldn’t quite figure out how to formulate a response. “No.” He said flatly. Your eyes widened, “Oh.” This was going to come back to bite him, he just knew it. Thankfully you left the conversation at that, returning your gaze straight ahead and fiddling with the sleeve of your jacket. You did not immediately try to hold his hand again, though he didn’t expect you would try, he wasn’t exactly thrilled to be confronted with the consequences of his statement so quickly. It was at the very least a small comfort to him that you would hold off on trying something like that again. Maybe you were too embarrassed to ever try it again. Maybe it would be when the two of you had returned to the real world. He needed to think about something else.
-----
“Yo, Doll. I can see the fortress, it’s out of the water. How am I supposed to get into it?”
Doll tapped a stiletto nail on her desk once, twice, scanning over the floorplans she had managed to find buried in the files on the old Kaiba Corporation network. She was a little surprised no one had kicked her out of the system yet, but figured with Seto Kaiba currently trapped in VR, no one at the company was smart enough to know what to do about her. Especially considering she had a new IP address every fifteen seconds.“This thing looks like a giant fighter jet,” Blade said absently. Doll could hear the ocean waves in the background, but not the boat engine. She hoped he hadn’t broken it again.“Do you see the landing strip from where you are?” “Uh,” Blade paused, presumably looking about the massive metal construct, “I think so, but it’s way on top, and I don’t see any way to climb up from the ocean. And before you ask, no. This thing is made of smooth metal and covered in moss, I can’t just climb the whole thing.”“Are you on the side facing us?”
“Like, facing Japan?”
“Ja.” “Yeah, I am.” “Try going around to the other side, it looks like there is a…” It was a sewer-- that was a word she knew easily. But she also knew Blade would not, at all, enjoy her sending him into a sewer. She pursed her lips for a moment, pausing to pretend she was rifling through her internal dictionary for a translation, “What’s the word? Ah, a maintenance tunnel you may be able to enter through about ten feet above sea level.”“Is it a maintenance tunnel or a sewer?” He asked suspiciously. How did he know? “I hate this mission.” Doll took the opportunity to take a sip of her tea, but as she set her mug down on the desk noticed something on her leftmost monitor. A notification appeared, informing her of a change in the old Kaiba Corporation files. She set her cell phone down by her keyboard and hit the speakerphone button, moving the window to her main monitor to get a better look at it. She began tracing the file changes, and it didn’t take long to find their origin-- a program had begun executing, and although she wasn’t able to tell which terminal it was running through, she could certainly hazard a guess. She opened the root folder and found multiple applications, each with a numerically generated string for a name, other than the last, which merely read ‘timer’. Curious, she double clicked it, and in an instant it brought up a window with a twenty-nine minute timer, the seconds already ticking down. “Blade, before you go in there-- I found something.”“What?” He shouted over the engine.“I don’t know.” Doll clicked on another of the applications, but she was met with a password request. She inserted one of her many USB drives into her computer and allowed it to do its thing, running through a combination of passwords. She moved the window off to the side and opened another, but was frustrated to find it demanded from her yet another password. Opening a third file yielded more of the same. “Verdammt…” She hissed, “Seriously what is this thing running?” She clicked a fourth program and, to her surprise, it demanded no password from her, instead running through an automated authentication procedure, before the screen flashed a few times and revealed a picture-- no video-- of a satellite. She watched it for a moment as it began slowly rotating, confused by its purpose. To her right, the timer still ticked away, and she furrowed her brow at it, before she realized something. The file itself had simply been named ‘timer’ but with the application open, its window had a different name. A more descriptive name. Satellite launch timer. “Blade!" She snapped. “What? You figure it out?” “You need to get out of there, now!”A beat.
“Okay-- where should I go?”
“Head to Alcatraz, I need to get back into contact with Ghost.” “Doll what exactly is going on?” Doll shoved her tea mug to the side and scooted her chair forward, beginning to frantically organize the windows on her screen to get to work. If her hunch was correct, and it rarely was not, then she had a very limited amount of time to find you before you, along with the Kaiba brothers, were nothing more than ash at the bottom of the sea. “Noah Kaiba just launched a rakete.”
-----
You had sincerely been planning on allowing Seto to handle the talking when it came to Gozaburo Kaiba. You had planned on really keeping your emotions in check, staying calm and collected and not allowing the man to see any weakness. You wanted to show him that he no longer had power over you, no longer had an effect on your mental state, on your life.But you couldn’t keep it all in when you came face to face with him. The moment you saw him sitting in the leather office chair-- in Seto’s chair-- you felt your blood boiling over, your heart pounding in your chest. But it wasn’t fear you felt, not anymore. Those holograms of him had terrified you, both when you saw his form walking toward you in Seto’s memories of the orphanage and when you saw his face appear in the clouds after you were freed from Noah’s stone prison. But now that the real Gozaburo was sitting before you, that fear had dissolved. This wasn’t a memory, it was no longer the Gozaburo of your past who had locked you away, forced scientists to prod at your body and alter your genetic chemistry. This was the Gozaburo who tore your family apart, the Gozaburo who destroyed Seto’s childhood, the Gozaburo who had planned to use your best friend’s body as a vessel for his son.“You look like you have something to say,” Seto hummed, gaze wandering to meet yours, gesturing toward his stepfather.He was leaning his chin on his right hand while his left tapped impatiently on the wooden surface of the desk in front of him. He was looking at Seto, making it a point to pretend you you weren’t worth his time. “Why?” You asked, not really thinking about the question as it spilled out of your throat. Gozaburo’s eyes shifted away from Seto’s face to stare at you, but the way he did so, it was like you weren’t even there. His eyes bored holes through you, face completely emotionless, as if he were looking to the wall behind your head rather than your face. Without answering you, without even acknowledging you, his eyes flickered back to his step son.“Why?” You took a step toward him. It wasn’t a question anymore, it was a demand. You could feel your shoulders tremble with anger as you spoke the single word. He was going to tell you why he did it; all of it.“Seto--”“Answer her.” Seto seethed beside you.He blinked, his brow furrowing momentarily as a frown etched itself onto his face. He returned his gaze to you, and this time it almost seemed like he was actually looking at you, not through you. “Why what, brat?” “Why… why are you such a piece of shit?” You spat, feeling your fists ball and tense as you did so. You wanted answers from him, even for questions he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer. You wanted to show him how much you hated him, to make him feel the same way you had as a child-- but you weren’t even sure that a man like Gozaburo Kaiba even felt anything. Had he ever felt anything? Anything other than rage and bitterness and greed? “Why me? Why-- how could you feel so much contempt for a little girl that you would send her to a genetic testing laboratory? And not just me, you did it to countless children-- Doll, Blade, Iris, almost all of us were just kids when you took us from our homes. What kind of a monster would do something like that and just-- just be okay with it?”He said nothing to you, continuing to stare at you. “And why Seto? What kind of a heartless piece of trash could even consider using an innocent boy as a ‘vessel’? You would have been perfectly fine, what, ripping his consciousness away just so Noah could take over your stupid company?”Beside you, Seto had turned his head fully to look at you, but out of your peripherals you couldn’t be sure what sort of a face he was making. Not with the edges of your vision blurring from the adrenaline. “Did you even love Noah? Even a little bit? Because it seems like you gave up on him pretty easily when you realized Seto was smarter than him. Are results just that important to you, so important that you’d destroy countless lives just to achieve them? How can you-- what sort of a monster are you, exactly, that morality means absolutely nothing to you? Have you always been a psychopath?” “You’re wasting my time with this nonsen--”“No, shut the fuck up! We’re going to stand here until you answer me. Tell me why you did all of this, why you have no regard for human life. Why my family?” He blinked, his impatience painfully apparent.“Your family?” “Why did you tear them-- us, apart?” “There are many people to blame for your family’s collapse,” He finally huffed, his low voice ripe with restlessness and cruelty, “Not least of which is your bloodline’s apparent and obvious weakness, along with your own failure--”“How dare you--”“Not to mention my step son over here.” Beside you, Seto shifted his weight and crossed his arms over his chest. You glanced over to him to see he was staring directly at Gozaburo, sapphire eyes narrowed and face arranged in a scowl. “You’re the only person to blame for what happened to me, and to my parents,” you insisted. Gozaburo scoffed at your reply, “Please, I had already digitized my mind by the time Seto fired your father.”“I--” You paused, your retort dying in your throat. “...Fired?”
“Mister Kaiba, thank you so much for taking the time to see me.”
Your father’s voice echoed throughout the room, clear as crystal, and you felt your breath catch in your throat. Your eyes darted around the office, but no image of him appeared, only his words playing as if through invisible speakers. Gozaburo looked you over impassively before he found interest in the chess board in front of him.
“There is something I urgently need to speak with you about, now that you have taken over the company.”
“You have ten seconds to spit out whatever drivel you’re about to spew, before we discuss what I really called you here for.”
That voice was distinctly Seto’s, harsh and unrelenting.
“Of course sir, you see it’s about my daughter, surely you remember her--”
You hadn’t heard your father’s voice in so long. Why did he sound so tired?
“I have no time to waste listening to stories of your family. Your daughter is of no concern to me.”
“But sir, I’m incredibly worried about her. Years ago your father sent her--”
“He tried to tell you?” You whispered, your eyes falling to land once again on Seto. You felt hot tears pricking at the backs of your eyes. He refused to look at you. “Yes, speaking of my father, I am of the opinion he was far too lenient with how he kept you on the board despite your inability to do even the simplest of jobs.”
“I’m so sorry Mister Kaiba, I know my performance has been lackluster as of late, but I assure you--”
“Lackluster is an understatement. You’re a waste of a paycheck as far as I’m concerned, and with the changes Kaiba Corporation will be going through, I’ve no longer any use for layabouts such as yourself.”
“Sir please--”
“This conversation is over. Have your things packed by the end of the hour. Isono will escort you out of the building.”
There was a pause.
“Mister Kaiba, even if you fire me, you must do something about my daughter! She’s all I have--”
The sound of a fist slamming against wood reverberated dully in your ears.
“I’ve already made it clear I want nothing to do with your daughter! She could be rotting in a prison for all I care. Isono! See this buffoon out.”
“Rotting in a prison, huh?” You murmured, your cheeks quickly growing moist from the tears spilling over your lower lids. Mere seconds ago your body had been a bomb about to explode, tense with anger and anticipation. It had even felt good, felt great, to be finally talking to Gozaburo, confronting him with all the hurt you’d kept inside of your chest for so long. Now your body was tightening with grief. “I assure you, at the time--” Seto began, but his defense was cut short by Gozaburo loudly clearing his throat. “Now that this little charade of yours is over, Number Seventeen, my step son and I have actual business to attend to." The last thing you’d ever heard your father say to you was the night before you were sent to the lab. He had left for work early in the morning, and had not been there to see you off, but the previous night he had kissed you on the crown of your head on your way to bed. He’d told you he loved you. Those were the words that always stuck with you, the final ones that had come from his lips and entered your ears. Now, the final words that reverberated in your skull were pleas for help. A final, desperate cry.
She’s all I have--
Seto and Gozaburo were talking now, yelling even, but you couldn’t understand any of it. Couldn’t hear it. You could only hear the hollow reiteration of your dad’s lamentations, forlorn and begging.
She’s all I have.
You stared silently at the window behind Gozaburo’s head until he stood from his chair. He walked between you and Seto, out of the office. You saw Seto make to follow after him in your peripheral vision, but he paused and turned to you. He said something, but you didn’t hear it. He reached for your face, fingertips outstretched, and you didn’t have the strength to stop him. He brushed them against your cheek and wiped the tears away, his own eyes brimming with worry that was so plain to see it felt almost unnatural. Had he ever looked this worried before? He then reached for your arm, for your wrist, gripping it lightly, and tugging you along next to him. The feeling of his skin on yours snapped you back into reality, at least somewhat, enough for you to hear him when he spoke to you again. “Are you alright?” He asked. You answered, but it didn’t even sound like your voice. It didn’t feel like it was you speaking. It was as if you were watching your body as it was dragged beside Seto, beside your childhood friend, beside the man whom you loved more than anyone, anything else. Beside the cold-hearted CEO who ignored your father, still grieving from the loss of his wife, trying desperately to find his daughter-- find you-- and fired him mere days before you returned home. “No, I’m not.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
You weren’t supposed to have found out like this. You weren’t supposed to have found out at all, actually, but especially not like this. Seto had never had any intention of telling you about your father, not after he walked through your memories and discovered the man had killed himself. It wasn’t knowledge he had been privy to until seeing the man’s death through your eyes, if he was being honest it wasn’t information he cared about. At the time he had removed your father from the company, he had wanted all traces of you, family included, as far away from him as possible. It wasn’t a rational mindset, nor a very healthy one, but he had still been a teenager, and had still believed you betrayed him. In hindsight, what he did was cruel-- there was no other way to describe it, and even he knew that. Both to you and to your father, whom he knew had still been recovering from the suicide of his late wife. Had Seto just listened to what the man had to say about you, perhaps he could have prevented, at the very least, one of the tragedies of your life. He could have gotten into contact with you sooner, even hired you and your team before the events at Duelist Kingdom.Rationally speaking there was no point in thinking about it, what was done was done, and no amount of dwelling about the past would change the fact that your father was dead. It certainly wouldn’t change how you felt right now. Seto glanced down to you, craning his neck slightly in an attempt to see your face, but you were stuck staring at the floor as the two of you walked, and your hair was covering your features. He felt he should say something to you, but sincerely doubted anything he could say would help you. He had an idea of what you must have been thinking-- surely you were thinking of your father-- but to what extent he had no clue. He wondered if you blamed him. If you did, why were you still allowing him to touch your wrist? The letter from Noah was heavy in his jacket pocket. He hadn’t looked at it since picking it up from the table in your late parents’ bedroom, while you had been frozen in place and holding Mokuba back. He remembered what it said, however, as it wasn’t a particularly long letter. Eventually she’ll find out her daddy’s blood is on your hands, and when she does, you’ll be the one to destroy her.It had been a very long time since Seto remembered feeling grief. When his parents, his biological parents, had died he had certainly felt that heartache. Although he tried to think back, he really had no memory of what that felt like, it had been so long ago. But, surely, it must have been something like the current tightness in his chest. He cleared his throat in an effort to push the feeling down as far as it would go. He was about to duel his father, a task which he was sure would be simple, but it would still require him to have a clear head. As he did so, however, he felt you wriggle your hand to free your wrist from his grasp. He looked back down to you to find you running said hand through your hair, pushing the bangs out of your face and sighing. You were no longer crying, and your face looked relatively clean. At some point you must have used your other hand to wipe the tears and mucus away. Your gaze was surprisingly steady. You looked up to meet his eyes, quickly furrowing your brow. “You okay?” He should have been the one asking you that very question, not the other way around, especially considering not a few minutes ago when he had asked you told him quite clearly you were not, in fact, alright. “Fine.” He was not fine, but you didn’t need to know that. He was sure to keep his voice low in order to prevent Gozaburo from hearing him. After disembarking the elevator to the bottom floor, he had made it a point to put a great distance between himself and his step father. He was still leading the two of you down a long hallway, one that reflected the current blueprint of the top floor of the Kaiba Corporation headquarters. From the looks of things, he was taking you both to the duel ring Seto had constructed years before when he had been prototyping his hologram technology for licensing to Pegasus. He was wasting both your time walking to said arena rather than using duel disks, or even transporting you all there as Seto was positive he could. Probably stalling in an attempt to hack his way through KC files.“You look,” you hummed in thought for a moment. Your voice was somewhat scratchy and emotionally drained, clearly, but that was the only indication you gave that anything was wrong. “You look upset.”“And, for some reason, you no longer do.” He said flatly, wanting very much to keep the subject away from his feelings at the present.“I got really good at repressing things,” you said somewhat sourly, “For now, I recognize you need me to, well, not be crying. Sorry, by the way.” “You have no reason to apologize.” The look you gave him in reply made it clear that you didn’t believe him, and he thought to make a comment on the fact that you were being overly critical in your self reflection. Although, you were correct in that you were more useful, both to him and to yourself, not focusing on your grief, that did not mean the truth sat well with him. He had the urge to express how he sincerely wished the two of you were in a position where you did not need to force yourself to repress your emotions. But he didn’t think it would serve a purpose, at least not right now.He had very little to offer you, and wished you had allowed him to hold your wrist a while longer.
-----
You took your place on the railing that overlooked the Duel Arena, leaning your weight against your elbows as the platforms holding Seto and Gozaburo lowered and the duel began. You could have sat on any of the benches surrounding the place, it was practically a stadium, but you felt safer the closer you were to your best friend. You glanced down at your palms, eyes tracing the web of lines stretching over the smooth skin, and took a deep breath to ground yourself.You didn’t think it possible for you to become so desensitized that after only a minute or two of crying, you could push past the grief over your father’s death. You weren’t positive if it was because rationality was winning out over your emotions, forcing you to focus your attention on the task at hand rather than your shattered past. It was what you’d told Seto, you were more useful when you ignored your feelings, but you didn’t know how much of that was actually true. In all actuality, you were pretty sure you just didn’t have the energy to muster any more self-pity. You were out of tears. Your emotions were completely shot, having had to relive Seto’s, Mokuba’s, and your childhood traumas. It felt like it had been an eternity since your chest wasn’t tight and heavy. Your current, deadened state now felt completely normal.Just as Gozaburo drew his first card you pulled your phone from your pocket as a familiar ringtone droned through the tense air, glancing over the caller ID curiously. The sound didn’t seem to shake either of the men from their concentration, but you didn’t want to risk a second ring, so you quickly flicked it open.“By playing Painful Choice, I get to draw five cards from my--”“You don’t need to explain the card to me.” Seto interrupted impatiently as you brought your phone up to your ear.“Ghost!” “Doll?” You asked quietly, keeping your voice low as to not alert either of the duelists. “What the hell is going on? You guys aren’t out yet?” “We’re working on it,” you sighed, raising your gaze back to the field as holograms of Gozaburo’s cards materialized over the field. You blinked a few times, however, convinced your eyes were playing tricks on you when you saw the five cards he had chosen. The five pieces of Exodia. “Ghost? Seriously this is important!”“Ah-- yeah.” The old man had a serious obsession with the past and it was seriously pissing you off. “What’s got you so panicked?”“You thought I would challenge you without doing the research? I’ve studied your deck, and your humiliating defeat.” Gozaburo chided haughtily.She cursed. “We’ve got a problem here.”“How big of a problem?”“Well… there’s a rakete headed for the fortress.”“A rakete? As in a missile?”
“Yes, you know the kind that kills you in a fiery explosion.”
“I know what a missile is,” you sassed, “How long do we have before--?”
“Less than twenty minutes.”
Well fuck. You glanced up to the duel, biting down on the inside of your cheek to keep from saying anything to alert Seto or his stepfather. If Gozaburo discovered he had a time limit on the destruction of his fortress there was no telling what he might do, and without the parameters of a fair duel things could get ugly fast. If he went nuts, you weren’t sure you’d be able to do much to stop him, not in the virtual world and without your abilities. Seto summoned his Vorse Raider to the feld and quickly sent it after Gozaburo’s face-down monster, easily slicing it to shreds. You frowned as both you and your friend realized it was the final piece of Exodia, the right hand, that wasn’t already in the graveyard. Just what on earth was the man planning?“Can you do anything to stop it?” You asked quietly. “Nein, no way.” She replied stonily, “I’ve already been locked out of the system, there’s entirely too many countermeasures programmed into these military-- shiesse wrong again-- I can eventually hack my way through but it would take me well over an hour to do so. I’m afraid you’re on your own.” “Fuck, okay,” you cursed, tapping a finger on the guardrail to occupy yourself, “How about the virtual world? Think you can open us up a way out of here?” “By paying two thousand lifepoints, and with all the pieces of Exodia in the graveyard, I can summon Exodia Necros!”Exodia what?Towering over the entirety of the Duel Arena, nearly as high as the domed ceiling itself, a blackened version of Exodia materialized. The hologram clenched its fists, making the chains on its wrists rattle, and a dark aura began to radiate from its body. One that sent a chill through the air and, as you looked over to Seto, sent a chill through him as well.
“I can try, but something’s blocking my way into your section of the code. Truthfully it’s a miracle I was even able to call you again.”
That something was probably either Gozaburo or Noah-- considering the conversation earlier it could even be both working together.“I'll try to find you two an exit but I need you to get out of where you are first,” she continued, “There’s a back door out of the code in the… it looks like an arcade. It’s about two blocks from you.” “We can’t really leave right now, Doll.” You sighed.
“Why not?”
“Exodia Necross is invincible, and gains one thousand attack points each time he does battle!”“Seto’s just started a duel, one with Gozaburo. If he forfeits now--”“A duel?” Doll huffed loudly, “What is with you people and duels? Do you understand the situation? If you don’t get out of there now there won’t be bodies for you to return to!” “I know but--”
“I get it, I get it. I’ll just have to figure out a way to make an exit near you. It will be near impossible with all this interference but I’ll try.”
“Thank you. Hopefully this duel shouldn’t take too long.” Hopefully being the operative word. You were keeping one ear to Doll and the other on the duel, and were growing more and more worried by the state of things as Gozaburo announced Exodia Necross’ special abilities. One for each piece of Exodia in the graveyard, in fact. The man hadn’t been lying, from the outside the titan really did seem invincible. It couldn’t be destroyed by magic, trap, monster effects, or battle. Still, if anyone could find its weakness, it was a genius like Seto.
“It better not, in ten minutes you’ll all be blown to pieces.”
With that, the line clicked off, and you were stuck listening to the white noise of a silent phone connection. At the beginning of your conversation, one that had only felt like two or three minutes, apparently a solid ten minutes had passed in the real world. Which meant Seto needed to win this thing in only a few more turns. You groaned and shoved your phone back into your pocket and placed a finger at your temple, rubbing in light circles as you re-focused your attention on the duel.Before you had the opportunity to reimmerse yourself, however, another familiar voice intruded on your thoughts. Unfortunately for you, this particular voice was one you really, really did not want to hear. “Denizens of the Virtual World, can you hear me?” Noah’s voice rang through the air. “Seto, father, you should know that I've made it to the real world by borrowing Mokuba’s body.” You and Seto instantly locked eyes, and it felt as though a switch had been flipped inside of you. You were certain you must have been radiating malice, and from the look he gave you, the feeling was mutual.
“Time is short so I’ll make this announcement quick. There’s a missile about to be launched that will be heading for this fortress, if you don’t make it out of the Virtual World quickly, your bodies will be destroyed.”
“Well, cat’s out of the bag,” you sighed, before turning your attention to Gozaburo. You kept your gaze trained on his eyes, daring him to make a move against either of you. Though, you didn’t think there was much you could do in retaliation if-- when-- he tried something. You pushed yourself off the rail and began inching closer toward Seto’s side of the ring. You pushed through a set of double doors that lead to the control room for the duel platform, a small room surrounded on all sides by stone aside from the rectangular hole which allowed duelists to get on an off the moving platforms.“Is Mokuba alright?” Seto demanded, shouting into the air.
“Yes, I promise he’s safe.”
“Noah!” Gozaburo shouted in return, “What have you done? You brat-- you changed the missile’s trajectory?”
“I did. And now I’m the only one in control of this Virtual World, father. I’ve locked you out of the network-- you can’t use it anymore to gain control.”
You made it to the edge of the control room floor, calculating the distance between you and the pod Seto was standing inside of. The jump was about 200 centimeters, along with a two meter drop, one you could make with a bit of a running start. As you took a few steps back to prepare yourself, Noah’s voice chimed up once again, your name echoing in his voice. You glanced up instinctually.
“You were right. About me, and about how I needed to do the right thing and stop my father. I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it.”
“You would betray your own father?” Gozaburo cried. “I suppose I’ll give you some credit, you’re a slightly better person than I thought,” Seto scoffed.
“The two of you need to get out of there, now!”
You ran the few steps toward the gap before jumping into the air, reaching out your hand to catch the edge of the dueling platform and landing with ease just behind your friend. Your shoulder knocked into him, and he quickly turned to you and narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing--?”“Ridiculous! Fine then, Seto, I’ll take your body and use it to return to the real world!” Gozaburo’s form quickly began to ripple with static, trembling and stretching as his shoulders and upper body hunched. His voice began to morph, pitching downward and digitizing as if playing through a vocoder. You pushed past Seto and stood in front of him, removing your combat knife from your waistband and raising it to your chest. You had no idea if your knife would do anything, if standing between the two of them could stop the enraged man in the slightest, but you had to try. Gozaburo quickly warped into a smoke-like monster, his physical form quickly gone from human to crimson-hued dust devil. His arms outstretched like claws, reaching for Seto, reaching for you, as he flew from his dueling platform.“Don’t get ahead of yourself Gozaburo! A duelist can’t resign in the middle of a match!” Seto announced. Not exactly much of an argument, considering what was at stake.You were shocked when the monster actually stopped.“Noah, how much time is left?” Seto asked.
“Eight minutes forty seconds.”
“Plenty.” He returned his attention to Gozaburo, and you felt his hand on your shoulder, pulling you backwards so he could take his place in front of you. “Gozaburo, we finish this duel. I’ll hand over my body should I lose. This is a game of death, only the winner leaves the virtual world.”“Seto we don’t have time--” You protested. “Once you and I return to the real world, we’ll have all the time we need.” He replied, his azure eyes glancing to you with an unmatched ferocity and confidence. “Let me handle this duel, and then you can take over as my bodyguard.”It wasn’t like you had much of a choice. With a sigh you returned your combat knife to your back and nodded. “Fine, but I’m staying up here-- just in case he tries that shit again.” You looked to Gozaburo as his form returned to normal, eyes narrowed at the two of you. “Remember what you said, Seto. I’ll be the one winning this duel, and taking your body. Now then, it’s my turn!”
-----
“Seto is in the middle of a duel with my father.” Noah said, his voice flowing naturally from Mokuba’s lips.“Huh? Seto is dueling when there’s a missile about to hit us? Is he an idiot?” Jounouchi cried. “Yuugi,” Noah continued, “Seto won’t leave until the duel is finished. I’ll create a new exit near Kaiba Corporation, please get him-- get them both out of there.” “Why, Noah?” Anzu asked, “Why are you helping Kaiba now? You hated him.” Because he knew you wouldn’t leave without him. And he couldn’t just leave you to die, not after everything he had put you through. Everything he had put all of you through. True, Noah did still hate Seto, in fact he probably hated him even more now than ever, seeing how happy he made you. But Mokuba’s body was screaming for him to save his brother, and Noah’s heart was screaming to save you. He knew now what the right thing was, it wasn’t keeping you locked away with him and it wasn’t escaping into the real world without you. There was no point in living in a world that didn’t have you, his best friend. His only friend. Noah couldn’t bring himself to reply. “Um… I’m sorry I didn’t trust you, Noah,” Jounouchi grumbled.He simply shrugged off the remark.
Missile launch in three minutes fifty seconds.
“We’re out of time, you all need to get onto the blimp and get ready to leave!” Noah ordered. “Got it,” Jounouchi agreed, waving the rest of his friend to follow him. Before he made it out of the room, however, he turned back and began shouting over his shoulder. “You’re the only one who can save them, Noah! We’re counting on you.”Is this what you meant when you talked about how it felt to be human? To have everyone’s faith placed in your hands? Willing to risk yourself, everything you were, just to save the person you loved? A dull ache began to form in his chest as his fingers flew across the keys, remapping the virtual world to create a path you could escape through. You, and Seto. Together. Noah wished he had been as brave as Seto when he was a child. Brave enough to tell you he had loved you. He wondered, now, what you would have said to him. He wished he could have heard your response.
Missile launch in one minute.
-----
Seto’s life points dropped to one hundred as he banished each of the five pieces of Exodia from Gozaburo’s graveyard. Exodia Necross quickly lost its black luster, along with the menacing aura it had once exuded, and its attack points quickly plummeted down to a mere eighteen hundred. You leaned your body to the side so you could see around your best friend’s back and get a good look at his face, which was painted with a victorious smirk as he summoned his signature monster, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.“Checkmate, Gozaburo.” He breathed, and with a snap of his fingers, he ordered his dragon to attack, sending a burst of lightning towards the weakened Exodia. It was poetic justice. Gozaburo’s life points hit zero, and you watched his face contort, cycling through a range of emotions rapidly. “I lost? To you? Impossible, I used all of the duel data at my disposal to create the perfect strategy!” Seto scoffed, “Please, you can’t use data to evaluate me.”“How dare you!” Gozaburo cried, his voice once again distorting as his form began to shift. “Seto we need to go!” You yelped, turning to look up at the control room entryway, still towering two meters above. That wasn’t even including the impossible jump to reach it. Maybe you could shove him off of the platform so Gozaburo took you instead? “Have you gone mad, Gozaburo?” Seto shouted in retaliation, and you turned your head to watch the crimson visage of Gozaburo begin to fly toward the two of you. As you were about to reach for your best friend’s coat and fling him off of the platform, you felt a lurch, and heard the whirring of machinery. Gozaburo’s hand sunk into the air just in front of the duel pod as it gained altitude quickly, suddenly higher than the control room, and much easier to jump into. When you looked inside the opening, you spied Mutou Yuugi at the control panel, waving the two of you down.Seto lept from the pod first, landing inside of the room with ease, and the two stepped back to allow you enough room for a landing. You managed to jump from the platform just as you felt Gozaburo’s hand crush the thing, causing metal shards and debris to fly into the air. You landed at the very edge of the room, catching yourself on the doorway with your right hand and pulling yourself to safety. Without any words exchanged, the three of you took off in a sprint, flying down the hallway as Gozaburo broke through the stone architecture of the duel arena, the sound of exploding rock pricking dully at your ears. You just barely made it through a metal security door leading to the roof when the crimson monster shattered through the top of the Kaiba Corporation building, sending glass cascading down around you. Barely escaping shards of deadly sharp shrapnel, you each stopped just short of the edge of the rooftop, the city below stretching out before and below you. Falling from that height would surely kill you. Looking back up, Gozaburo’s hellish form towered over you, unrelenting in his pursuit of one of your bodies. You looked back down to the sidewalk. Death in the virtual world was certainly preferable to Gozaburo Kaiba getting his hands on your body. “Jump!” Noah’s sharp voice echoed through the air.There was a hesitation from Seto, just briefly, as you watched him bite on his bottom lip. “Kaiba-kun, let’s go!” Yuugi nodded. You sincerely hoped now wouldn’t be the time Noah had yet another change of heart and let the three of you leap to your untimely death. Turning on your heels, you each did as the voice of your former friend ordered, launching yourselves off of the edge of the building and falling through the air. Cool wind whipped past your face, Domino City’s ground getting closer and closer. Just as you were convinced the three of you were, in fact, going to die, the ground below began to shimmer and ripple, distorting so it looked less like a street and more like a pool of water. It began to shift its hue to aqua, with fuzzy pixels of yellow and red dancing at the edges, and as you fell through it, your body suddenly felt weightless. The air around you disappeared, and your nerves suddenly felt numb. You could no longer feel the ache in your muscles, the migraine pricking at the back of your eyes. You were simply floating, floating in darkness, swimming in nothingness, silence hanging heavy in your mind, until the finals words you heard in the virtual world echoed in Noah’s small, bittersweet voice.
“It was nice to see you again. I’ll miss you.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The three of you stared down at the virtual reality pod containing Mokuba’s motionless body, the seconds ticking by quickly, the soft red alarm lights fading in and out in the hallway outside. You weren’t exactly sure how long it took for a missile to fly from space to the ocean, but you doubted you had much time to navigate the corridors of the floating fortress, make it outside, and board the blimp. Barely enough time, if you were lucky, and if the unknown way out of here was straightforward. If Mokuba took much longer, it would be impossible for the four of you to escape before military warheads blew you to bits. “You two need to leave,” you said. A beat. “What?” Came Seto’s seething voice.“We’re not going to just leave you—” Yuugi began.“I am not going to leave my brother behind.” “I’ll wait here for Mokuba to get out of the virtual world and bring him to the blimp,” you insisted, “But you two need to get a move on.”“But splitting up—” Yuugi tried again.“I’m faster than you,” You cut him off, before turning back to the elder Kaiba, “You need to trust me.” “Trust you?” He huffed. “Damn it Seto we don’t have time for this,” you snapped. If they stayed any longer, there would be no escaping the blast radius. “It takes a lot of energy to stop time for just me, much less two people. I can’t do it for more than that. Are you going to make me choose between you and Mokuba?”He opened his mouth to protest, but quickly closed his lips, hard azure eyes glaring at you and searching your face. “Yuugi, get out of here.”“R-Right... Kaiba-kun, we need to leave,” Yuugi agreed. If he was confused by the exchange he didn’t show it, or he was too pumped full of adrenaline that he hadn’t yet comprehended what you said.Seto said nothing else, turning on his heels and following Yuugi out of the pod room, sprinting through the metal doorway and down the hall. You were almost amazed that he actually listened to you, but your yelling hadn’t given him much of an option, and he must have realized it was the most rational choice. The echo of steps faded beneath the dull blaring of an alarm, and an announcement over the loudspeaker that missile impact was imminent. If Mokuba wasn’t awake by then—No, you needed to focus. Keep your heart rate down, take deep, even breaths, and remain as calm as possible. You couldn’t afford to expend excess energy before you dragged Mokuba through the fortress in a heavy world absent of time. Breathe in, breathe out. The sounds of hissing cut through the alarm, and you whirled around to watch the hibernation pod Mokuba was inside slowly open, revealing the somewhat misty-eyed young boy. “...Noah?” He muttered.His black hair was even more wild than usual, sticking up in the back from resting in the container for too long, and he blinked a few times before his eyes widened in understanding. They flew to you, and he launched himself out of the pod and placed himself at your side instinctually, the panic from the situation quickly setting in.
Stop.
And it did.
You grasped his hand and tugged him along beside you, starting with a jog before the two of you broke into a full sprint. You dashed out of the room and took a sharp left, bolting down the metal hallway, the sound of your footfalls cutting themselves short in the stale world, bouncing briefly off the walls before the lack of time passing carried them further.
“What happened to the alarm?” He asked.
The corridor around you was bathed in a barely visible red glow, flashing warning lights stopped mid-flicker and allowing barely enough light to see in front of you. It was convenient, the less you had to visually process the easier it was to stop it all. Even with that, you could already feel the energy draining from your body, the tingling numbness pricking at your toes and cramping your fingers. Stopping the world was one thing. Stopping it for two people, everything Mokuba was trying to make sense of, on top of running, was another beast entirely.
“How is this happening?” Mokuba pressed further, his voice full of awe and confusion. “Are you doing this?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“How?”
“It’s kind of… a long story,” you managed between labored breaths.
“Are you okay?” You could hear the fear in his tone, loud and clear, but you couldn’t look down to see what sort of expression he was making. Your field of vision was starting to blur at the edges, and if you stopped looking straight ahead it would put too much strain on your body.
“Fine,” you huffed.
“Are you sure?”
“Mokuba no offense but--” you began, but quickly cut yourself off when you felt bile rising in your throat. You cleared your throat in an attempt to push it down, swallowing until your mouth was dry and you were convinced you weren’t going to throw up. “I can’t really talk now.”
“Okay,” he said reluctantly, his own breathing becoming labored from the sprinting.
The air was heavy.
The hallway widened to one double the size, metal security doors held open for evacuation, and because of the larger space it made keeping everything frozen even harder. It was getting so very hard to breathe. You were going to throw up.
“Up there!” Mokuba shouted, and you could see out of the corner of your spotted vision his finger jabbing forward, pointing to the frozen blimp ahead. It was just barely off the ground, stairs still extended outward. Yuugi was being pulled onto the first step, arm outstretched and hand clasped firmly in Honda’s. Jounouchi was practically dangling off the bottom step, holding onto the side rail and shoving the shorter boy upward to safety.
Seto, too, had already made it aboard, a foot each on the first and second step and left hand wrapped around the metal rail next to him. He was facing toward you and Mokuba, toward the metal fortress and the exit the two of you were racing out of, eyes narrowed and frozen between the two of you.
“They aren’t moving either?” Mokuba asked, more to himself and likely reflexively. You felt his grip on your hand tighten, making you keenly aware of the slick sweat coating your skin. The two of you ran closer and closer to the blimp, and as you did you could feel your heart pulsing in your ears, body growing hotter and heavier with each step. Each breath of stale, unmoving air grew harder and harder to draw in. Your mouth became dry from the uncomfortable amount of swallowing you forced yourself to do, scared that if you didn’t, the building bile in your throat would finally give.
You stumbled, feeling your right ankle give to the weight of your body, pleading for you to stop running. You and Mokuba were drawing closer to the blimp, only about thirty meters from the stairs. Your vision was blackening, the spots of blue and purple melding together so you could barely make out the vehicle anymore. With a stagger you kept on your feet, but you feared you wouldn’t be able to do so for much longer.
The two of you managed to close the gap just in time for your ability to waver, the sound of the blimp’s roaring engine nearly deafening you as it cut through the silence of the still world for a fraction of a second, before cutting off once again. Through darkened vision you could see the blimp’s steps close enough that, with a bit of a nudge, Mokuba would be able to climb up the stairs in time.
“Ready, kiddo?” You asked breathlessly.
“Yeah, I--”You couldn’t catch the rest of his sentence as you slipped your hand from his grasp and returned the world to movement, the blimp’s engine once again too loud to hear his soft voice over. With your free hand, you gave him a push toward the metal stairs and waiting arms of his brother. The movement felt alien to your body, knocking your sense of balance completely out of center, and your ankle gave once again. Over the engine you heard the voices of Yuugi, Anzu, and the rest of his gang shouting Mokuba’s name, while Seto began loudly ordering to grab his hand. You knew what was happening, or you could at least guess, that he made it safely onto the stairs with all of the helping hands that could pull him up.You made to take another step into the blackness and your body flew forward with the momentum, but your feet stayed where they were. You felt the ground disappear beneath you, and a sense of momentary weightlessness flooded over you as you began tumbling forward. For a moment, the sound of blood rushing and your pulse racing drowned out the sound of the blimp, overwhelming your senses. Somewhere behind the white noise, almost an afterthought, you could hear the teenagers on the stair shouting at you, most calling you ‘Ghost’ and crying out that you could make it. Mokuba was screaming the loudest, surely-- or maybe you were imagining it. Then everything went silent, and you slipped into nothingness.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Nii-sama, is she going to be okay?” Seto Kaiba glanced down at your practically lifeless form, arm slung over his shoulders and ankles bent so your feet dangled just above the floor. You were lighter than he’d expected you to be. Snapping out of his stupor, he unceremoniously shoved you toward Katsuya Jounouchi and ordered him to take you, before storming quickly toward the cockpit where Isono was in a full-blown panic. A cacophony broke out as he announced that the blimp wasn’t going to make it far enough from the explosion in time, and with a huff Seto shoved past him to the control panel. Without a second thought, he slammed the side of his fist into the glass that separated him from a large, red button, for use in emergencies just like these. It was a good thing he planned ahead for every possible occasion. The blimp lurched forward as the force of the explosive air shoved into it, causing a ripple of surprised screams and yelps from the geeks behind him. He heard the distinct sound of a body crashing into metal, and glanced back reflexively to find Jounouchi had stumbled off-balance, slamming your shoulder and head into the wall and sandwiching you between it and him. Before he could open his mouth to apologize, your eyes snapped open and you practically shoved him away from you. “Ow, fuck dude!” You hissed, just as another wave of hot air hit the blimp and caused it to jolt once again, the sound of panic drowning you out. Though everyone else in the cockpit was able to keep balance this time, you slumped against the wall and sunk to your knees, eyes still open and scanning the room with a glint of confusion masked over your face. Seto quickly returned his attention to the control panel in front of him, taking over steering the aircraft safely away from the explosion that had threatened to consume you all. He wasn’t going to let that happen; he had a tournament to win, his company to return to, and he had no plans of allowing the past to get in the way any further. He could swear he almost heard Gozaburo’s voice echoing outside, screaming for his revenge, but that was quite obviously not possible. The old man-- what was left of his mind, anyway-- had just been blasted into nothingness. It was over. Now then, there were more important things to attend to. “Well that was a complete waste of my valuable time,” he announced to no one in particular, He took a moment to scan the outside world until he was satisfied that they were out of any immediate danger. He noticed a small motorboat in the ocean below, but otherwise things seemed back to normal. The plume of smoke emanating from the metal fortress behind the blimp was getting further and further away, waves beginning to settle from the impact of the missile. “Hey, sorry ‘bout that, are you al-- hey where’d she go?” Seto turned back to find Jounouchi and the rest of the geeks looking around the cockpit and hallway leading out, muttering to themselves as they did so. “She was just right here wasn’t she? Honda asked. “I hope she didn’t fall outta da blimp or nothin’.” The mutt frowned. “How do you figure she would have managed that genius?” Ryuuji shook his head.“I dunno I just--”“She probably went back to her room,” Anzu assured, “She looked pretty tired.” “Should we go check on her?” Yuugi asked. “The last thing she needs is you idiots waking her up,” Seto said icily, the words leaving his mouth before he even realized he’d spoken. The group looked up to him, bewildered, and beside him he could feel the wide eyes of his younger brother as well. “Nii-sama maybe they’re right, we should make sure she’s okay.” Mokuba muttered, a worried furrow beginning to form on his brow. Seto frowned down at his brother, observing his features for a long moment before sighing. “Fine, I’ll go make sure she isn't dead if it will make you feel better. You stay here and watch over things while I’m gone, I don’t want the tournament delayed any further, understood?”“Can do!” Mokuba nodded, worry quickly disappearing as a large grin spread over his face. “The rest of you,” he snapped his attention back to Yuugi’s group, “the second we land, my Battle City finals officially begin. I suggest you quit crowding around here and prepare your decks,” his eyes flashed pointedly to Jounouchi, “You’ll need it.” “Watch ya’ mouth rich boy! My deck’s already flawless--”“Calm down man--”“I ain’t gotta prepare nothin’ to kick your ass! Why I don’t even need every card in my deck to take ya’ down--” Seto shoved passed the barking mutt, along with the rest of the geeks, and began down the corridor toward your room. The sound of shouting quickly died down as he turned the corner, and he allowed himself to roll his eyes at the stupidity he had to constantly endure whenever Katsuya Jounouchi was around.
-----
You’d never felt so ill in your life. Your head was spinning, your body was shivering, and there was so much excess stomach acid floating in the toilet you were hovering over it was almost surreal. Your throat had been rubbed raw, your eyes were burning, and you were pretty sure your blood sugar was low enough that you might pass out again. And yet, you couldn’t be more happy. Seto was safe, probably already having retired to his room to prepare for the Battle City finals. Mokuba was safe, likely run off to his own room to rest or prepare or whatever it was he needed to do before it was time to cheer his elder brother on. Yuugi and the rest of his gang were safe, although you hadn’t really had much to do with that sans ordering the King of Games himself to accompany Seto back to the blimp. Everyone was alive, and well, and ready to get back to the tournament that had been interrupted by Noah and Gozaburo’s failed plans to make it back into the real world. Gozaburo was dead, now both in body and in mind, and he would not be returning to torment you or the Kaiba brothers. You could rest peacefully knowing you were rid of him and his hideous plans and personality forever. You couldn’t say you were happy to see Noah go, even after everything he had put you through. You were happy he could not terrorize Seto or Mokuba any longer, that was for sure. Still… it was certainly bittersweet knowing he, too, was lost forever along with those servers holding him inside of a virtual world. As pissed as you still were at him, there was still a small part of you that ached, if only because you wished things had turned out differently. He was just a child, and by locking him away in solitude and isolation, Gozaburo Kaiba had all but sealed his fate of loneliness, anger, and desperation. Perhaps with nothing tying his brain to this, or any world, Noah was better off. Whether there was an afterlife or not you’d never thought too much on, but you were, at least, somewhat at peace with the thought that he was free from his virtual prison. Anything was better than being locked up at the hands of his stepfather. So where did that leave you? You had done what you came here to do. You had protected and saved the Kaiba brothers, even if you weren’t sure you’d done as much as you could have. You’d at the very least had a hand in defeating the evil that had targeted them, though you would leave a majority of that blame and glory to Noah. Now, all that was left to do was accompany the group of duelists and their friends and family to Alcatraz, watch Seto win his tournament, and then….And then?Go back to work, you supposed. Doll would continue gathering information, as she always did. Blade would continue earning money for the group. James would continue healing your wounds and researching drugs to fight the side effects of what the three of you had been put through in the laboratories. And you, of course, would continue protecting the boys from the shadows. Keeping them safe from impending doom and unknown dangers. This was just another of those jobs, after all. It would end the same as those jobs. The problem, you realized, was that you didn’t want it to end just like all the rest. You wanted more.Seto knew who you were now, what had happened to you in the labs, and that you had been acting as a bodyguard for him. You’d been able to thank him for saving your life, and you’d even been able to salvage and repair your friendship with him. He’d seen some of your most terrifying and painful memories, and you his. He’d kissed you. Well, the circumstances surrounding that particular incident had been quite forced, admittedly. He hadn’t been given much of a choice, after what Noah had done to you. Despite that, despite all of it, the moment had been replaying in your mind for hours. Or, what had felt like hours in that virtual world. You’d felt his lips on yours, a sensation you’d been dreaming of since you were thirteen. But you didn’t know if that meant anything, if any of it meant anything. Seto could very well just decide to pretend none of this had ever happened, that nothing he’d seen of your past, that none of your conversations in that world were worth remembering. Despite that, he was alive, and he was healthy, and his brother and company were safe. And so, you were happy. You had to keep telling yourself you were happy.
-----
“Where is she?” Isis darted her head around, tearing her gaze from the blue sky and rolling clouds outside to face the CEO who had entered the room. He stood in the open doorway, one hand on the metal door frame and the other placed firmly on his hip. Annoyance was clear on his face, for what reason she could only guess. Considering the state of you when you’d entered your shared room, Isis had been unable to ask for any details of where you’d gone or what had happened. She’d had to help you to the bathroom, you’d tried crawling to the door yourself but after nearly passing out and hitting your head against the metal wall, you’d only had the energy to cling to her arms as she dragged you to the toilet. You had insisted she leave you alone, something she only did once you had agreed to shout for her if you needed anything. After a few moments you’d knocked on the door and asked her to bring you a can of juice, which she had, and shortly thereafter she’d heard you vomiting and coughing into the toilet even through the thick metal walls. You’d been quiet for a while, now, and although she had been tempted to ask if you were alright and what had happened… well she hadn’t really worked up the courage yet to do so. “Where is she?” Kaiba demanded again.Isis pointed to the bathroom door, though it took her some thought on if she should or not. From the conversation she’d had with you the night before, she knew the two of you had been childhood friends. Perhaps you would accept more help from him. Kaiba took a few steps inside of the bedroom and looked to the closed metal door to his left, cocking his head to the side slightly. His cerulean eyes were focused intently on the doorknob, brow furrowing more and more the longer he stood there staring. Suddenly, he snapped his head back to Isis, blinking twice before clearing his throat. “Leave.” “Excuse me?” “I said leave. Get out of here.” “Kaiba, I’m not just going to--”“Go check on your brother, or that Kujaku woman.” He said coldly, “You would be of more use anywhere else.”She was dumbfounded. Not because of his attitude, no she was quite used to that. Kaiba had, at least for the short time she had known him, consistently acted like a complete cock. What she was more interested in was how intense he was being, especially in response to someone other than his younger brother. Clearly, either you’d done something to seriously anger or seriously concern him. With a resentful sigh, Isis straightened her shoulders and excused herself from the bedroom, resolving to ask the Pharaoh, or his vessel, what exactly had happened while she’d been waiting inside of the blimp.
-----
The dull sound of knuckles rapping at the metal door snapped you out of your thoughts. You blinked, realizing your eyes felt quite dry from a long beat of staring down at toilet water, now clean after having been flushed twice. You sighed softly, bringing a finger to rub your temple in an attempt to delay the migraine you felt prodding at your head. You had absolutely no desire to speak to Isis at the moment. “It’s me.” You felt your back straighten slightly, instinctually, at the sound of Seto’s deep voice commanding your attention. You might have straightened even more had the room not been spinning around you. “Are you… alright?” His baritone came out slowly, as if unsure if he should be asking you the question. It was strange, unsettling even, to hear him sound so hesitant. You opened your mouth to reply, quickly clearing your throat when you realized your vocal cords had begun to tighten. You’d tried to say ‘yeah’ but your response ended up as more of a rasped, jumbled noise rather than any defined word. You inwardly cursed yourself; the last thing you wanted Seto to see out of his own personal shadow bodyguard was any sort of weakness. You’d shown altogether enough of it in that accursed virtual world, you didn’t need him seeing any more in the real world as well. The long, uncomfortable pause that followed only served to make your stomach sink further. Eventually you figured he had left.You sat in silence for about five minutes before you finally stood from the toilet, wobbling a bit as you walked to the sink and began running cold water. You splashed your face a few times, sighing into how comfortably cool it felt against your burning skin. You rummaged through the toiletries that had been provided in a small wicker basket on the bathroom island until you found a travel sized bottle of minty mouthwash. You swished and gargled three times before you were satisfied you’d gotten rid of the taste of stomach acid from your mouth, although you could still feel it burning slightly at the back of your throat. You glanced up at yourself in the mirror, noting how washed out your skin seemed to be. You weren’t sure you’d ever looked so pale in your life. Not even after the most grueling stress tests in the lab. You needed to eat something. You unlocked the door and pushed it open, flicking off the light as you exited the bathroom. You were about to head to the fridge to find something easy on your stomach when you spotted him, sitting at the foot of your bed, absently flipping through your deck which he had retrieved from your duel disk. He glanced up when he noticed you were staring at him, and after a moment set your cards on the bed and made his way to your side, placing a hand around your arm. “You look like you’re about to pass out.” He said frustratedly. You managed a scoff, mostly one of defeat. You had not come to this tournament to show Seto all of your weaknesses, to make him believe you had no business acting as his bodyguard. But, it seemed you couldn’t fight it any more. You were supposed to be his protector, but here he was leading you to sit on the bed and holding you up so you didn’t fall over. “I’ll be alright,” you assured, “I just need something to eat.” Once he was satisfied you could keep yourself up on the bed, his long legs carried him to the refrigerator, where he pulled out a few snacks and set them next to you. You picked one at random, a small cup of fruit, and peeled the plastic lid off. “So, how did I make it onto the blimp?” You inquired. “I caught your arm as you were falling forward, Jounouchi assisted in pulling you to safety.” Seto replied, voice measured and even, though there was a sour undertone at the mention of Katsuya.“Suppose I’ll have to thank him when I have the energy to,” you sighed, “And thank you too, of course.” A silence descended as you picked at the fruit in the cup, forcing yourself to eat a few grapes and two slices of melon. Seto had, in the meantime, reached back over your body to retrieve your deck and once again began flipping through your cards.You didn’t stop him, you had no plans to duel again in the future. Plus, you were sure he already had all your cards on file in his database. Occasionally, he would pause at one of your cards and make a barely audible hum, though you had no idea if it was in approval or not. Likely not.“You nearly died in order to save my brother.” He finally said. “That’s what a bodyguard does.” “This is the second time,” he said, ignoring your comment, “That you’ve nearly died saving him.”You thought on reiterating your previous statement, but figured he would simply skip over it again, so you instead offered a shrug and placed a strawberry slice in your mouth. He seemed tense as he paused shuffling through your cards to stare at your Wingweaver, clearly old but still in playable condition.“Do you not need to prepare for your duels this afternoon?” You asked. “Some things are more important,” he muttered, though he quickly straightened his shoulders and frowned at you as if it was something he had not meant to say. “Besides, I’ve been preparing for these duels for months.”“I see.” He went silent again, though this time settled on staring at you rather than at your deck. You could feel his eyes focused on you but couldn’t muster the energy to lift your head and stare back-- or perhaps you couldn’t muster the courage. You instead took the time to finish off the fruit cup and place the lid back onto it, before looking across the room to the small metal trash bin. You tossed the empty plastic with a bit more effort than you thought you had in you, and watched it sail silently through the air before making a satisfying thunk into the can. “Nice, still got it,” you praised yourself, before realizing Seto was still sitting next to you. You finally managed to look up at him, only to find him staring at the trash bin. “You should quit.” He said suddenly. “Quit?” “Being a bodyguard. Our bodyguard.”You frowned, “Seto I know I haven’t exactly inspired a ton of confidence in my condition, but I promise the amount of energy I used today is a total outlier. I--”“Stop.” He interrupted, holding up a hand to silence you. You nearly continued speaking over him but decided better of it, instead quickly finding interest in your cuticles. “I’m not criticizing you, you know.” “What?”“I’m not criticizing you,” he repeated, “You’re excellent at your job. This isn’t a question of your abilities, you’ve already proven yourself quite capable.”You felt your face growing warm, but it was probably just a fever. “Then what are you telling me to quit for?”“Because the job is incredibly dangerous.” “You’re worried about me?” You raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t say that,” he replied a little too quickly. “Okay… well-- look. I’m not going to just quit, this job is about all I know how to do.” “You could work for the company, I could offer you your father’s old position, provided you prove yourself competent and remember your studies from when we were children.” The mention of your father made a pit form in your stomach. “I remember it all but I don’t think I’m really suited for an office job.” “You seemed quite interested in the job when we were young.” You shrugged, “I mean I liked learning about it all, but to be honest the only reason I wanted the position was to work for you and get married.” “Married?” You cleared your throat, “Anyway… I’m not going to quit being your or Mokuba’s bodyguard-- you’ve got entirely too many enemies for me to feel comfortable with that.” “I’m the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation, of course I have enemies. That doesn’t mean they’re out to have me killed.” “You’d be surprised.” “Would I? Other than the obvious example of Noah, why haven’t these people tried to have me killed?” You gestured to yourself, “Despite being self-employed I have a lot more connections than you might think. Everyone in the underground networks-- at least the ones that matter-- know if they put a hit out on you I’ll gut them. I disappear from the scene, and you don’t have that same guarantee anymore.”“I’m certain my lawfully employed bodyguards could handle that.” He rolled his eyes. “Dunno about that.”“Are you questioning my ability to choose my own protection?”You frowned, “I’m telling you Mokuba nearly got shot yesterday and had I not been around he would be in the hospital or dead.” Seto opened his mouth to say something but quickly shut it, azure eyes growing momentarily wide before narrowing on your face. “When the Ghouls took him?”You nodded. “My team tracked him down and I made sure he could escape safely.” “And how exactly did you do that?” “With my ability… I can’t really tell you much more than that.”“Why not?” He demanded. “Because legally that would make you an accessory.” A dull silence quickly filled the air. You glanced down at the rest of the snacks on the bed beside you, reflexively wrinkling your nose at them before standing with a slight wobble. Seto reached out a hand to stop you but you inched away from him and briskly shuffled to the fridge on the other side of the room, digging through the top shelf to find a canned coffee to alleviate your growing migraine. You popped the top open and shut the fridge before returning to the bed where your backpack was leaned against the bed frame. You unzipped the front pocket and reached for an orange prescription bottle, filled with large white pills.“If you insist on working as my bodyguard, at least let me employ you.” Seto finally said boldly.You blinked. “I’ll pay you more than you’d know what to do with, you would be able to move out of whatever dump you’re currently staying in.” He continued. “I’m a little insulted by that assumption.” You replied indignantly. He raised an eyebrow but otherwise said nothing, daring you to argue with him. “Why do you want me to work at Kaiba Corp. so bad anyway?” You quickly changed the subject, slipping a pill into your mouth and washing it down with a few large gulps of blissful caffeine.“I don’t like the idea of you working in the shadows.”“But that’s why I’m so good at my job,” you frowned, “Plus I need my team in order to--”“I’ll employ your team members as well.” He interrupted. You pursed your lips, “You’re not going to take no for an answer, are you?” “I never do.” You placed the bottle of pills back into your bag and sat back on the bed beside him, the two of you locking stubborn eyes, both trying to figure the other out. Why on earth was Seto so insistent about you working for him? Was it some sort of concern for liability? No, he’d have more to worry about if he employed you, in fact, so it couldn’t be that. “If I agree to this,” you began with a sigh, “If. There are going to be questions you ask me that I can’t answer, and you have to be okay with that.” He frowned. “You know it has to be that way, Seto. I’m not going to put you or your company in legal danger. If you’re going to hire me there’s no other way around it.” You didn’t really expect him to agree to the condition so readily, but after a moment of thought, he nodded. With that, you nodded back, “I can give everyone a call when we’re back on the ground.”“I’ll have contracts drafted up once we return from Battle City. I’ll need the legal names of your teammates.”“Uh, sure,” you nodded, “Although I don’t know Blade’s name. I can ask.” “You don’t know your house mate’s real name?”You shrugged, “It never really came up. Oh, I think it’s on our lease though.” He groaned audibly before standing from the bed, finger and thumb quickly going to the bridge of his nose to squeeze it as it seemed the entire situation was finally getting to him. You attempted to stand as well but found it harder to do than the last time as your medication had begun to kick in. You wobbled slightly, and Seto noticed almost instantly. His hands flew to your shoulders, pushing you with enough force that you fell backwards onto the plush mattress. “You shouldn’t be moving right now,” he lectured. “But the tournament is--” “You need to rest.” He ordered. “Ugh I hate this,” you sighed, “Bodies are stupid. I just want to watch you kick Yuugi’s ass.” The faintest of smirks passed over his lips as he raised an eyebrow to your protests, but he said nothing else. It must have been obvious to him how quickly sleep was taking over your body by the fact that you could barely keep your eyes open. Even though you wanted to, you couldn’t prove him wrong by getting up and following him off the blimp, considering you could hardly move your legs. The sound of the metal door sliding open, then quickly shut, was all you heard before everything went black.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Yo, Ghost.” You groaned and rolled to your stomach so you could bury your face deeper into the plush white pillow. You must have been dreaming, the voice overhead sounded like Blade, and last you checked he was still back at your shared house in Domino. “Ghost,” he said again, “Get up already. You wanna watch your boyfriend duel or what?”“He’s not my boyfriend,” you retaliated into the pillow. “Uh-huh, sure. That’s why he told me to come get your ass up.” Now you knew this was a dream. “You missed the four-way duel, and the duel between Jounouchi and uh… the creepy dude, Marik? That one was really freaky. Man Kaiba’s holograms are sure something, they made the sky all dark and they looked like they seriously hurt when they attacked something. Jounouchi ended up passing out so he lost by default which seems a little rigged if you ask me but you know. Oh, and--”“Blade what the hell are you even doing here?” You interrupted, the sound of his rising voice beginning to make your head pulse beneath your migraine. “Doll sent me. Wanted to make sure you’re alright.” “She could have called,” you rolled your eyes as you sat up, rotating your head a few times to crack your neck. “There’s no service out here, I’ve been trying to get a hold of her for hours. And, anyway, she sent me before you guys even left that metal fortress.” “Metal fortress? Oh, yeah.” “I actually made it there when the missile was about to launch, so Doll told me to meet up with you on Alcatraz.”You reached passed him to pull your bag off the small bedside table, reaching into it to remove your migraine medication, shaking two large white pills free and shoving them into your mouth. Blade passed you the open bottle of water in his hand, already half empty, and you grabbed it and took a swig.“So what the hell happened to you anyway?” Blade asked, “I haven’t seen your abilities put you to sleep before.” You cleared your throat, “Every try stopping time for two people for two minutes?” “Can’t say I have, but it sounds exhausting. You have to do that for Kaiba?” “Mokuba.”“Well seems like it all worked out, at least. So, you wanna go watch the duel?” He hummed and took the water bottle from you, obviously more exciting to watch a game of duel monsters than talk with you about your jobs. He was very much Doll’s opposite in that regard.You nodded and stretched your arm muscles briefly before pushing yourself off the bed, noticing your boots and jacket were still on. Blade quickly seemed to notice as well, snickering to himself before taking a sip of his water. The two of you exited your temporary quarters and began heading down the hallway to the blimp’s exit. “Oh, hey what’s your real name?” You asked. “Huh? Wait, you don’t know my name?” “Do you know mine?” “I… uh, no, I guess not. It’s Kida, Yasuoka Kida.” He paused, “Why do you care about my name all of a sudden?” “Seto needs to know to draft up our employment contracts.” “Contracts? Woah woah wait a sec--” Blade began, his voice just short of a shout, “You telling me we’re gonna work for Kaiba Corp.?”“Seems like it,” you replied, “Seto’s insisting the whole team work for him, for one reason or another.” He whistled, “Damn you must have put on some impressive showing. So how exactly is this gonna work? What we do isn’t exactly… well, very legal.” You shrugged, “Same way it always has except he doesn’t ask questions and we get paid, I suppose.” “So I don’t have to pick up odd jobs to keep paying our bills anymore?” He grinned.“Hopefully not, although you’ll still be our go-to for supplies. Your job won’t change, it’ll just be easier.” “Sounds good to me, so long as Doll’s alright with it. I’ll shoot her a text once we can get some damn service.” You nodded as you followed Blade out of the blimp, passing the cockpit on your way, where you heard the familiar voices of Mokuba and Hiroto Honda repeating variations of ‘come in’, and ‘can you hear us?’. Seemed like they were also trying to get service all the way out here. You wondered how exactly the Kaiba boys had expected to broadcast the tournament finals without any reception in the first place. Perhaps what happened with the fortress in the sea and the satellite missile launch had screwed something up. Exiting the blimp, you glanced around to see a motor boat on the island’s shore a few paces back, presumably how your teammate made it to Alcatraz in the first place. It looked to still be in good shape, and gesturing to it, Blade confirmed it was still working. He led you to a large, metal tower, then onto a metal platform built into an elevator shaft. Overhead you heard the noise of battle, along with the chants of a crowd-- Seto and Yuugi must have already started their duel. As the elevator ascended, the two of you took out your cell phones to see if the altitude would help find a signal, but it seemed a lost cause. There was no way to connect out here, especially not with the blimp’s radio broken. You wondered how exactly everyone was going to get off the island. Perhaps Seto was planning to send for boats to ferry everyone home, assuming he could even get in contact with someone. You’d allow him to figure that one out.A loud whistle sounded next to you as you and Blade made it to the top floor, and the two of you glanced around the place. The top of the tower was built as a simple metal platform, but Seto had set up projectors all around the perimeter, surrounding the arena in holograms of thousands of chanting fans sat in rows meant to look like the Colosseum. The projection was incredibly detailed, down to every crack in the Roman stonework, every missing chunk of earth. You wondered how many scans it must have taken to get the images this clear. The spectators in the crowd were chanting for your friend, recorded voices ringing out in unison, and moving around like you would expect real people to as they watched a tournament. “Damn, this is insane,” Blade hummed, “These holograms look so real. Kaiba Corp sure is something.” “Isn’t it amazing?” You nodded.“What, the holograms or your boyfriend?”You sent an elbow to his side, “Shove it.”“Ow, geeze,” he groaned, giving his stomach an over exaggerated rub.You and your teammate took your place along the lower perimeter of the arena, standing toward the middle of the field line, although you felt yourself gravitate slightly toward Seto’s side. Craning your neck up so you could get a good look at the duel, you took in the current state of the field. Yuugi had a face down card, along with Queen’s Knight set in defense, while Seto had his X-Head Cannon, the continuous spell Magic Sanctuary, and his own face down card. “Ten-thousand yen says Yuugi wins.” Blade said. You glanced over to him, eyebrow arched in curiosity, “Are you picking Yuugi because you know I won’t bet against Seto?” “No, I’m picking Yuugi because I’ll get ten-thousand yen out of it.” While waiting for Yuugi to take his turn, Seto’s eyes briefly wandered down to look to you, azure irises glittering as the sunlight hit him. He gave you the slightest of approving nods, although you doubted he could hear your conversation so it was probably in regard to you making it out of bed and up to the stadium. His bangs fell chaotically over his forehead, framing the caramel skin of his face perfectly, and the slightest smirk that tugged on the corner of his mouth made your heart jolt. Just as quickly as he looked toward you, he swiveled his head back so he was facing forward, giving his opponent his fullest attention.“Alright Blade, you’re on.”
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“Eva, you need to eat.”Doll glanced up from her monitor to find James, a plate in hand that held a sandwich and chips, peering down at her through rectangular framed glasses. His eyebrows were narrowed, forehead creased with worry. “Once I get a hold of--”“No, you need to take your medicine and eat.” He insisted, placing the plate down on the desk in front of her. She blinked a few times, eyes wandering to the unappetizing looking egg salad sandwich, the salty potato chips, and the four different color pills. She made a sour face, crossing her arms over her chest.“I’m not hungry, and I need to work.”James gave a long sigh, pushing the plate closer to her. “You know what happens to your body when you don’t take your medication. You can eat while you work.”Doll was about to protest further when a notification popped up onto her monitor, alerting her of a change in channel from the Domino Broadcasting Station, originating from Kaiba Corporation. She gave a curious cock of her head and clicked on it, waiting a moment as the stream buffered and preparing herself for another lecture from the doctor to her left. When the live video feed played, however, even he went silent. Obelisk and Osiris, cards the two recognized from Doll’s research into the tournament’s inception and key players, stood opposite one another. Wielded by Seto Kaiba and Yuugi Mutou and surrounded by a holographic recreation of the Roman Colosseum, the Gods towered over the battlefield they had shaped. Below the dueling platform, and only for a moment before the camera cut to a different angle, the young girl caught a glimpse of the real spectators of the duel. The familiar forms of her partners and only friends. “James they’re alive!” She shouted, a grin spreading fast across her face. “Oh thank the Gods,” he breathed, leaning over the desk to peer closer at the video. “Why haven’t you been able to call them, then?”“Perhaps they’re too far out for cell towers to reach,” she shrugged, absently taking a chip from the plate and placing it into her mouth. James chose not to draw attention to the action, or her regained appetite, though he allowed himself a smirk. “Should we watch this on the television downstairs, then?” Doll stood from her chair and picked the plate up from her desk, whirling around so her white curls bounced on her shoulders. She plucked one of the pills from the plate and wrinkled her nose at it before placing it on her tongue and forcing a swallow. “I’ll admit I’m a bit curious how Mister Kaiba does in this duel,” James nodded, following the young German girl out of her room and down the stairs to the living room. “I’m so happy to finally have a break,” she sighed, “My brain feels like jelly and my fingers are cramping. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m quite excided to watch this stupid duel.”
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Towering over the coliseum, the holographic form of Obelisk the Tormentor roared to life, the stone texture on his skin looking even more lifelike than you had remembered when you had faced him last night. Opposite, Yuugi had already summoned his own God card, Osiris’ mouth opening and letting out a huge breath of steam that pooled around the duel platform and cascaded to the floor you and Blade were standing on.“Those things are massive,” Blade hummed in awe, “I thought Ra was big.” “When Yuugi summoned Osiris last night, it coiled its tail all around the blimp,” you nodded, “Seto’s holograms are amazingly lifelike.” “Kaiba has all the monsters programmed to inflict pain when they attack right? Wonder what it feels like to get blasted by one of those.” “Hurts like a bitch.” You affirmed. “You got attacked by one?”You nodded, “In my duel against Seto, I was directly attacked by Obelisk. Twisted my ankle and knocked the wind clean out of me. My body was on fire for a solid hour.” “I would have expected your boyfriend to go a little easy on you, you’re no pro duelist or anything.” “Rude. I’ll have you know I was a turn away from winning,” you huffed indignantly, “Besides even if he was my boyfriend, which I will remind you again he isn’t, Seto would never go easy on someone in a duel.” “Riiight,” he replied, and you were fairly certain it was aimed at the boyfriend comment.Your ears perked at the sound of tiny footsteps rushing toward you, and you glanced over your shoulder to watch Mokuba’s form phase through the coliseum hologram. As you did, you also noticed Marik, rather the top half of him, standing partially inside of the hologram and observing the duel as well. He noticed your stare and locked eyes with you, a grin quickly creeping across his face. The corners of his eyes wrinkled as his hollow, purple eyes squinted. You could feel his drive to kill from where you stood and the hairs on the back of your neck began to tickle as they stood upright.“Wow! Yuugi and my brother both have their God cards out!” Mokuba joined your side with wide eyes, and you easily focused your attention on him instead. “Domino City is gonna love this!”“Domino?” Blade’s interest perked at that. “I got our broadcasting equipment working again. A rescue helicopter is on its way and those cameras up there are showing off this duel to the whole city!” He pointed up to the top of the coliseum, where hologram projectors were lined up around the perimeter, and you noticed a camera hooked up on the top. The three of you snapped your attention back to the duel as Yuugi’s Osiris opened its seconds mouth and blasted an orb of blazing purple electricity toward seto, passing through his body before it hit Obelisk. It dropped the God’s attack points to two-thousand, meaning with the two cards in Yuugi’s hand, they were equally matched. Seto placed two cards face-down and ended his turn, and immediately Obelisk’s attack points returned to normal. As Yuugi’s draw phase passed, Osiris’s points rose to three-thousand. Blade pulled his cell phone from his navy blue jacket pocket and flicked the screen on, frowning when he looked it over. “Still no cell service.”“Sorry,” Mokuba hummed, “We’re too far from cell towers, you won’t have service until somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Do you need to contact someone? You can use our radio.” “Nah, it’s not too important right now. I’ll give her a call later.” He shook his head and returned the mobile phone to his pocket, “So which of these God cards is more powerful?” “They each have their special abilities that makes them good in certain situations,” you replied as Yuugi activated the Pot of Greed he had set on the field the turn prior, the dragon’s attack rose sharply, and Seto had to activate his Command Silencer to keep his own monster alive. With the battle phase ended, Yuugi set two cards onto the field, dropping Osiris’ attack to three-thousand. “That was nuts.” Blade whistled. “And it was only one turn,” Mokuba agreed with a nod of his head, his wild hair tousled by the winds at the high altitude. The next turn was even more thrilling, starting with Yuugi activating a combo to strengthen his hand, using Card Destruction to discard the three cards in his hand and draw three new ones, followed by using Disgraceful Charity which allowed both he and Seto to return their discarded cards to their hand. With that, Osiris’ attack spiked upward to five-thousand. Seto was prepared for the combo, however, and in retaliation he summoned two monsters, using a spell card to protect them from Osiris’ second mouth attack. Then, he activated Obelisk’s special ability, which would allow him to wipe Yuugi out. “Woah, Kaiba’s really got this in the bag, huh?” Blade exclaimed in awe. “I’m not so sure, not yet,” you hummed, “Yuugi still had six cards, I’d be surprised if he doesn’t have some way to weasel himself out of this." As if responding to you, the younger duelist activated the Kuriboh in his hand, sending it to the graveyard to avoid taking damage from the fist of Obelisk. “You dare avoid the hand of God with that puny monster?” Seto growled, a frown quickly crossing his face as his sharp eyes narrowed. “Shit, my heart is pounding,” Blade grinned, “I’m so glad I made the trip out here just to see this duel up close.” You shifted your gaze to Marik as the next turn began, the sound of traps and spells being played in response to one another blurred into background noise. As each duelist attempted to one-up the other, raising their own God’s attack points and lowering their opponents, you noted his full attention seemed to have returned to the duel rather than you or Mokuba, a welcome relief. It wasn’t much longer when the Gods finally clashed, without any spell or traps holding them back from unleashing their full might upon one another. A blindingly radiant azure light exploded from them. Their holograms shifted and crackled, absorbed within an orb of brilliance that forced you to squint and partially shield your eyes with your hand. Yuugi and Seto’s forms disappeared, along with the dueling platform. “These holograms are something else,” Blade breathed. “I’m not so sure this is because of the holograms,” you grumbled, blinking through the radiance. “What do you mean? Is this a glitch?” You shook your head, “No, not a glitch. But these God cards have weird powers of their own. Like, almost otherworldly powers.” “C’mon, Ghost.” Blade gave a roll of his eyes as the light began to fade, and with it the Gods had dissolved into nothingness, leaving Yuugi and Seto standing opposite each other. They were both on one knee, crouched on the platform catching their breath. You wondered how much the attack hurt. You hoped Seto was alright. After a moment, the two got to their feet, each wobbling slightly before coming to their full height. “Yuugi, you saw the same vision I did?” Seto huffed, just barely loud enough for you to hear. “Vision?” Mokuba quirked his head up toward you. You could only offer a shrug.“Well, I don’t know that kind of a trick the Gods played when they clashed, but I do know this--” Seto continued, an icy glare directed to his opponent. “I don’t care about illusions from the past, my only priority is defeating you and clearing a path to my future. And I don’t need a God anymore to do so!” The words echoed throughout the air, rippling through you in a way that made you feel somewhat uneasy. What did he mean by clearing a path to his future? He set a card on his side of the field and ended his turn, the duel continuing on as normal, but the atmosphere felt as if it had shifted now that the Gods had been destroyed. The younger Kaiba seemed to have felt it as well, and he reached up to grasp at the hem of your jacket, tugging it slightly. You glanced down at him, but found his gaze still fixed on the duel, a transfixed twinkle in his eyes and a slight frown on his lips. You thought on asking what was wrong, it was obvious something was bothering him, but figured he would tell you if he wanted to. You returned your attention to Seto, and wondered why your throat felt so dry.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“My past is nothing but hatred and anger, it was nothing like your silly fantasies,” Seto hissed in Yuugi’s direction, voice even but laced with venom. “The past is merely a stepping stone to the future, and so are you. Once I defeat you, I’ll have nothing holding me back, and I can focus only on the future.” You fixed your gaze on Mokuba when you realized he had let go of the hem of your jacket, cocking your head to see what he was doing. His head was directed downward, wild back hair falling around his face and partially obscuring the open locket he held in his hands. Inside, a picture of a young Seto stared back at you, only a few years younger than when you had first met him. “Doesn’t it make you sad?” The younger boy asked, lifting his head slightly so he could clearly speak to you but keeping his eyes locked on the necklace. “The way he talks about the past?”“He used to smile when we were kids, but now he wants to forget all of that,” he nodded, “He talks about the past like it was all terrible… like he’s forgotten the fun we used to have together.”You frowned at his words, sadness panging at your heart. Seto’s anger toward his past made perfect sense, after the emotional and physical abuse Gozaburo Kaiba had put him through it was only natural. You also understood the younger’s sadness well, Seto made you uncomfortable with how much he insisted upon trampling the past. You knew he likely only meant he wanted to forget the bad things that had happened to him, but your childhood friendship was also part of his past.“Does he want to forget us, too?” Mokuba sighed, quietly enough that you barely heard him. “No, of course not,” you replied, “He would never want to forget about you.”“What about you?” He looked up, closing the locket. “Even if he wanted to forget about me, he’ll have a hard time of it. You two are stuck with me, like it or not.” You replied matter-of-factly, keeping your tone even though his question stung a little. Seto had insisted a few hours prior on employing you and your team, so obviously he intended on keeping you around. But now a small part of you wondered if his intentions were to relegate you to a mere employee.Your words didn’t offer very much comfort to either of you, but your conversation quickly came to an end as Yuugi summoned Black Paladin, a fusion card which gained five-hundred attack points for every dragon on the field. The monster was still no match for Seto’s Ultimate Dragon, and in an attempt to fend off an attack from the powerful monster, he activated the spell Incantation Book of Black Magic. Seto was faster to react, however, using Absorb Spell to add the attack points to his own fusion beast. That seemed to be exactly what he wanted, however, and in retaliation Yuugi activated De-Fusion, splitting your best friend’s signature monster into three Blue-Eyes. Finally, he activated Diffusing Wave, and the three of you stared in awe as Black Paladin raised his sword and ripped through each of Seto’s monsters with ease, shattering their holograms and ending the duel in one fell swoop. Seto’s azure eyes widened, unblinking as he stared at his opponent. His hands trembled with rage, and he opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out. He didn’t know how to react-- his strategy had been perfect. You wondered if it would have even been possible to predict the exact three cards Yuugi put into his deck that perfectly countered Seto’s strategy. Three cards that were combined expressly to break his most powerful monster and allow him no options for a comeback. You stared wordlessly at the fading hologram of Black Paladin, and felt your fingertips twitch in thought. Could your best friend possibly have picked three better cards to go up against that thing? Perhaps if he had revived Obelisk, rather than going through the trouble of bringing forth his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, his plans wouldn’t have been so easily read. Maybe it really was Seto’s pride that led to his loss.“The winner of the second semi-final duel is Yuugi Mutou,” Isono announced, his voice clear and unwavering, “He will advance to the final round and face Marik Ishtar.”The holograms projecting the Coliseum died down, leaving you to stare at an empty sky as you mulled over the thought. Even if you still believed Seto to be the better duelist, which despite the final moments of this particular duel you absolutely did, it didn’t matter much now. The outcome had already been decided, and it had been in Yuugi’s favor.Yuugi’s friends, led by the surprisingly healthy looking Katsuya Jounouchi bounded to him, offering congratulations and grinning wildly. You noticed a similar grin on Blade’s face, although once he noticed you looking it quickly faded, turning to a frown when he looked around you toward Mokuba. The younger Kaiba had fallen to his knees beside you, tears welling in the corners of his eyes as he stared at his brother. “He’s really out of the tournament,” he mumbled, “It can’t be true….” You offered a hand to Mokuba to help him stand, although he didn’t immediately take it, eyes instead focused on the lowered dueling platform as Yuugi made his was toward his brother. “Although I won today, you were a powerful opponent.” He nodded. “Are you taunting me, Yuugi?” Seto demanded icily.“Kaiba, I’m saying I respect you as a duelist.” He insisted, “However, the reason you lost wasn’t due to your skill-- it was the hatred you carry in your heart.”“The ‘hatred in my heart’?” The elder Kaiba scoffed. “A duelist’s battle isn’t just on the field, the enemy is also inside of us. Overcoming your inner anger and greed will open the path to becoming a true duelist.” He glanced down at his duel disk, and the cards which he hadn’t yet removed from it. “I would have lost that duel quite a few turns ago had I not had Red-Eyes Black Dragon in my hand. It was a card given to me by a friend, and through his power I gained victory.”“Your friend’s power?” He hissed, “A victory only has meaning when you’ve won with your own hands. I don’t need the help of ‘friends’, I don’t need the help of anyone to achieve victory.”You felt Mokuba flinch at his words, and your own heart did a somersault. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the pitying look Blade flashed you, but had no interest in offering him a response. Seto was just upset over his loss, you didn’t need to read too much into what he was saying. Still, it hurt a bit.The elder Kaiba tossed his God card to Yuugi, then turned to glance over his shoulder, “Both of you, let’s go.” Mokuba pulled himself up to his feet with your assistance, then darted forward to catch up to his brother. After a moment to give the two some space, you and Blade followed after them, although your pace was quickly interrupted by the piercive voice of Katsuya Jounouchi.“Yo Kaiba, duel me next! Let’s see who takes third place in the tournament.” He called after Seto as the four of you passed Yuugi’s group. The demand was barely enough to make his pause, eliciting a scoff but otherwise leaving him unphased. It was clear that he was not at all in the mood to entertain the younger blonde’s whims.“Hey, wait up!” The teen huffed, sprinting past you and spreading his arms out on either side, blocking your group’s way to the elevator. “Is this a joke?” Seto deadpanned. “You don’t need friends, huh? I used to be like that, before I met Yuugi. But I came all this way to Battle City, and I’m ‘gonna prove I’m a true duelist. I’m not ‘gonna just roll over after one duel, unlike you.” He taunted. “Get out of my way now, and I’ll consider this the harmless ramblings of an idiot.” He replied evenly. He didn’t even sound angry, all the fire from his previous duel completely faded. “Seriously Jounouchi, quit insulting my brother,” Mokuba chimed in, crossing his arms over his chest.“Fine then, what about you Mokuba? How do you feel about all this?” “How… do I feel?” He paused. “How’s the way we feel ‘bout friendship any different from how ya’ feel about Kaiba?” He insisted. The question was enough to make Mokuba go silent, blinking a few times in thought before he averted his gaze to the ground. “Way to kick a kid while he’s down,” Blade muttered under his breath, loud enough that you were certain only you could hear it. You offered a nod in reply and considered interrupting the conversation, but figured it would only serve to make Seto more annoyed than he already was. If he was so insistent on fighting his own battles, he didn’t need you butting into this one. “Y’know Kaiba I thought you had a backbone, but once you lose one ya’ turn tail and run, huh?”“Enough,” Seto hissed, “I’m not going to stand here and be mocked. I’ll accept your challenge, on principle I refuse to back down from a duel.”“That’s the spirit,” Jounouchi grinned. “Let’s go then!”
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You, Blade, Seto, and a very dejected looking Mokuba made your way toward the blimp after the battle to decide Battle City’s third place duelist. You doubted anyone, either involved in the duel or spectating, had expected a different outcome from the obvious; of course Seto had won over Jounouchi. It hadn’t been a particularly difficult duel for your best friend, although you had to give the blonde-haired boy props, he had lasted longer than you’d expected and even taken down his opponent’s signature monster.Your short walk was interrupted by Isis, standing to the side of the path carved from rubble, her long ivory skirt and headdress swaying wildly in the breeze. She cleared her throat, demanding the attention of each of you. “Who is that?” Blade leaned over to you and asked in a hushed tone. “She looks kinda like the woman you dueled in Battle City.”“Isis Ishtar,” you replied quietly, “Marik’s sister. She drove me to the pier to save Mokuba so I let her tag along with me to the finals.” “Kaiba, even though Yuugi is in the possession of two God cards, what do you think his chances of victory are?” Isis asked carefully.“They’re miniscule,” Seto confirmed flatly, “Ra is more powerful than either of the other two Gods. However, that no longer concerns me. I don’t care who wins the finals.”“Yuugi needs your help to win,” Isis insisted, narrowing her gaze. “What nonsense is that? Another one of your visions?” He scoffed, before calling both your and Mokuba’s names and gesturing for you to continue past her. “Pereto Kelto.” She said softly, the words causing Seto to stop in his tracks. “Pereto-- what now?” Blade raised an eyebrow toward you. You merely shrugged in reply. “Pereto Kelto,” Isis repeated, nodding to Blade at his attempt to pronounce the term, “It is an ancient Egyptian prayer to the dead, one that was carved upon the stone tablet featuring the ancestry of Kaiba and Yuugi. ‘Corpses rest, vessels turn to sand and dust, even gold and swords are sheathed in time. Time is the soul’s battlefield. I shout the song of battle, the song of a friend. Lead me to the distant location where our souls will meet.’”“Aren’t poems supposed to rhyme?” Blade muttered to you. “It’s a translation of a three-thousand year old poem, not a sonnet,” you waved him off with your hand. “The poem was carved into the stone by the priest who created it,” Isis continued, ignoring your side conversation and returning her gaze to Seto, “It was a monument he dedicated to his friend, to the Pharaoh.”“I’m not interested in three-thousand year old relics, Isis,” Seto scoffed, “Enough of your history lessons.” “The God cards influenced you to start battle city,” she spoke over him unphased, “And by battling the Pharaoh's soul, brought and end to your pre-destined fight. Be honest with yourself, Kaiba-- your duel tower was built as a place for souls to come together, a sanctuary of battle.”“A sanctuary?” He snapped, a sudden anger blazing in his eyes, “That tower is no sanctuary, it was built as a monument to my victory over Gozaburo! I was supposed to stand at the top as Duel King, to prove that I had conquered everything--” he paused, looking up to the tower and blinked a few times in thought, before his eyes rested on his brother. “Now, I suppose it means nothing. Mokuba, start the detonation timer in the basement.”“D-detonation timer?” Blade coughed, head snapping to you as yours snapped to Seto. “What’s with the Kaiba family and explosives?” “Seto you can’t be serious,” you echoed. The man had every right to be upset over his loss, considering the time, money, and energy he had put into the tournament. He had said a few things to make you and Mokuba upset, but they were things that could be overlooked or talked about later. But demanding the entirety of Alcatraz be sunk while people were still on it? Not only was it completely uncalled for but it was quite literally murder. There was no possible way he was in his right mind.Mokuba blinked a few times, eyes wide in shock. For a moment he didn’t respond, but once the surprise wore off he shook his head, turning his gaze from his brother and directing it to the ground. “What’s wrong?” The elder Kaiba demanded.“Nii-sama, there’s no reason to drag Yuugi and his friends down with your anger and hate.” Mokuba insisted, voice wavering as tears welled in the corners of his eyes, “I used to hate them too-- but they fought for me in Duelist Kingdom, and Anzu saved me from the Ghouls… they treat me like a friend.“I think Yuugi and Jounouchi are right. They think dueling is fun, and you used to think the same thing. I miss when you loved games, and I miss when you used to smile!”Seto stood there dumbfounded, staring down at his brother and unsure what exactly to say. Your chest bubbled with anticipation, hoping desperately that Mokuba’s words would be able to get through to him and snap him out of his post-defeat downward spiral. “Promise me that when that tower sinks,” the younger pointed behind him to the duel tower, “That all your anger and hatred will sink with it. I want you to be how you used to be.”A long silence fell over the group, in which time Isis’ gaze had wandered to meet yours, bright sapphire eyes sparkling and brow creased with obvious worry. You weren’t exactly sure what to offer her, if anything. You had no idea how Seto would react to his brother’s pleas, but you knew he was the only person who could get through to him. You sincerely doubted he would listen to you at this point, with how upset he was over his defeat, so Mokuba was about your only hope of convincing him not to blow the entire island sky high while people were still on the damn thing.
-----
The night before the finals, Seto Kaiba had stayed up researching everything possible about the Winged Dragon of Ra, analysing its special abilities and comparing it to the other two God cards. He had run through countless strategies, decks, and card combinations to find a way to defeat it. He had calculated not only his own chances of victory, but the chances of both Jounouchi and Yuugi’s decks given every possible card they had registered in the tournament database.“Against Ra, Yuugi only has a three-percent chance of victory.” He said, words splitting the still air that had descended over the few people gathered around him. From the corners of his vision he noticed each of your heads snapping to look up at him, but he kept his eyes focused on the duel tower, a spot he had continued to stare at since his brother had pointed to it moments earlier.“Ra is more powerful than the other two God Cards. Although, I have a card-- the only card that is capable of sealing away its special ability.” He scoffed to himself, “Well, even with this card his chances of victory are only a mere twenty-percent.” His head felt clearer now, having something to focus on other than his own duels. Admittedly, Mokuba had snapped some sense into him as well. With that, he turned from you and began walking once more, though this time it wasn’t in the direction of the blimp. If you were all so insistent on watching Yuugi crumble beneath the pressure of facing down the most powerful of the Egyptian Gods, then by all means he would offer you a front row seat. His own reputation as a duelist may have taken a blow by virtue of finishing his own tournament in third place, but the reputation of his company was still at stake. If he interrupted the final match it would be a serious blow to the stocks.“Seto?” You called after him. You hadn’t spoken much to him since his defeat against Yuugi, there had been little time for conversation considering he was immediately thrust into a second duel. The few times you had said anything to him, however, the worry in your voice was plain as day. It had begun to get on his nerves, how obviously you didn’t know what to say to him, how cautiously you were acting around him. No, not only directly to his face, he hadn’t even heard you reply to your teammate’s quips when they were at all related to him. “Where are you going?”“To the duel arena.” He replied flatly.During the elevator ride, Seto pulled the card he had been keeping for his own final duel with Marik from the safety of his side deck. He noticed you looking up at him with slightly more confidence now, your gaze holding his without that look of uncertainty it had before. He hadn’t realized until now how aware of his mental state you always were, how much you adjusted yourself and your actions based on what he was feeling. He had noticed it in the Virtual World, but it had only stayed in the back of his mind as a simple observation-- it never truly struck him how much you attempted to accommodate him. Upon reaching the top of the tower, the five of you exited the elevator in time to watch the dueling platform rise. Buth Yuugi and Marik had already taken their places on either end of the battlefield, and Isono stood between them in the referee section, back straight and arms raised in preparation to announce the start of the duel. “Yuugi,” Seto demanded the younger duelist’s attention over the wind. As he turned to look, Seto tossed the card in his direction, “Take this.” Yuugi caught the card easily, turning it over to look at it, eyes widening slightly. Seto scoffed at the reaction, crossing his arms over his chest and taking his spot on the sidelines. You, Mokuba, Isis, and your teammate he still had yet to ask the name of, followed after him and did much the same. Yuugi insisted that friendship could win a duel, that the reason he had lost was because of a ‘hatred’ in his heart or something equally ridiculous. Fine then, Seto had now given him the tools he needed to achieve victory, if he still lost this battle after all that, it would serve as proof that victory could only truly be achieved on one’s own. There was no such thing as miracles, the power of friendship meant nothing, and Yuugi’s defeat would prove that.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
With the end of the duel between Yuugi and Marik came the end of the Battle City tournament. Seto seemed in a sour mood, though significantly less upset than he had after his own duel. You had watched the entire thing in a mix of awe and confusion, very much disliking the heavy air the shadow duel created. It was thick, oppressive, and hard to breathe. You were relieved when it was all over, both for the fact that Yuugi had won and that it seemed to have ‘fixed’ whatever Marik’s whole deal had been. Though, the youngest Ishtar stripping off his shirt and showing everyone his back tattoo had been a bit much. Mokuba had ushered everyone back toward the blimp to pack their things, insisting they do so quickly and flashing a look to his brother that read ‘please don’t blow up the island while we’re all still on it’. Now that he wasn’t in such a terrible mood, Seto seemed content to walk more slowly back to the blimp, keeping pace with you and Blade and leaving some room between yourselves and Yuugi’s group. The three of you ended up in the second elevator ride down the tower, a ride which was completely silent. Once you reached the bottom, your partner was the first to depart, waving his cell phone in the air and stepping away from you and your best friend, giving you a mischievous wink..“I’m gonna go see about getting a hold of Doll,” he cooed. With what Mokuba said earlier, you knew Blade had no way of getting in touch with Doll at the moment. You rolled your eyes and shooed him off, instinctively slowing your pace as he got farther away. Oddly, Seto’s pace slowed as well, matching your footsteps despite the height difference, until after a moment you heard his footfalls go silent. You turned your head to find he had stopped walking, and had instead taken to staring up at the clouds overhead. “Everything okay?” You hummed. “What is your view of the past?” He asked, ignoring your question entirely. You were a bit surprised he was the one bringing this up. “Is this about what Yuugi said to you during the duel?”You noticed the way he slightly wrinkled his nose in disgust and took it as a silent yes. With a sigh, you followed his gaze to the sky above, trying to figure out which cloud he was looking at. Perhaps it was the one that looked a little like a dragon if you squinted hard enough.“I think our pasts were fairly shit,” you said with very little flair, “And although I don’t like to speculate on other people’s, I can’t imagine the pharaoh's was much worse than ours. Not like he even remembers it.”Seto scoffed, “Please don’t tell me you also buy into all that occult nonsense.”“I would never have bought into someone having the ability to stop time through military-grade genetic experimentation had it not happened to me, so to be honest there’s a lot I can believe.”“Science and magic are two very different things.” He chided.“True,” you shrugged, “But the people around Yuugi believe it enough. Those Millenium items seem to either have real powers, or the people wielding them are really really good at convincing people they do. Top that off with the fact that the God cards seem completely unaffected by my abilities and you can count me as a cautious believer that, at the very least, something is going on with this ancient Egyptian nonsense.”A long silence stretched where Seto continued to stare up at the clouds, his eyes narrowed in thought and, more than likely, a disappointment that you weren’t fully on his side when it came to the whole Egyptian artifact debacle. He opened his mouth to say something but shut it just as quickly, before letting a long breath pass through his nose. “You haven’t answered my question.” He said finally. “Your question about the past?” He hummed in affirmation.“I already told you our pasts sucked. What, do you want me to tell you I think it’s a little unhealthy you have an obsession with ‘crushing it’?” His eyes flickered to your face, “Do you?”You nodded.“Why?” “I agree with Mokuba on this one.” You replied with a sigh, “I think not liking your past is one thing, and not wanting to think much about it is another. But doing everything in your power to make it so you can erase all traces of your past is extreme.”“Do you not wish for the same?” You shook your head, “The past happened, Seto. I can’t do anything to change it. I may not like everything about the person I turned into because of it, but all I can do is accept it and move forward.”He turned his head to look down at you, “I fully understand I cannot change the past, I’m not a child. However, that’s no reason for one to continue living in the shadow of it.”“Living in the shadow of the past and pretending it never happened are different. Both are equally unhealthy.”“What exactly is so unhealthy about my views of the past?” He challenged.“You wanting to crush everything about your past made you fire my dad, for one.” You said, and just as quickly as you did you clamped down on the side of your cheek with your teeth. You watched his eyes go from narrowed in annoyance to wide with shock. After a few blinks, however, he quickly assumed an even frown, looking at you with a lack of emotion so intense it made your heart sink. The words had flown out of your mouth without any thought, and now that your focus was back on your father, you felt a pang of hurt ripple through your chest. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said that.” You said quietly, “I just hadn’t heard his voice in so long, and--” “You blame me for your father’s death.”“What?” You blinked and looked up at him, chest tightening at his words. You shook your head slowly, “No-- no of course I don’t.”“Why not?” He inquired flatly, his voice low, “Your father killed himself after I fired him, it would be logical for you to come to the conclusion that his death is my fault.”“Maybe I’m a little upset about you firing him sure, but like I said in the virtual world, I fully blame Gozaburo for his death.” You insisted.He continued staring at you, although he seemed like he was staring at your mouth as you talked, and refused to look you in the eye. He crossed his arms over his chest and you noticed his posture shift, shoulders squaring and fingers gripping slightly at the shirt sleeves clinging to his arms. From the way he’d spoken, his even tone that sounded less like a question and more like a lecture, you wondered if he was trying to convince you that your dad’s death had been his doing. “Seto, you don’t blame yourself, do you?” You asked softly.“Like everyone else, I have some things to pack before we depart,” he said abruptly, making it very apparent he no longer wanted to talk about your father and all but confirming your suspicion. “Oh-- right,” you muttered, clearing your throat uncomfortably and biting at your bottom lip as you watched your friend turn from you and begin walking toward the blimp. You followed behind him, lagging a few steps behind to give him a bit of space. You wanted to say something about the prior topic, assure him he didn’t need to feel guilty about your dad, but couldn’t find the words to do so. If he was this adamant about not talking about it anymore, you were worried trying to press him more on the issue may cause a rift to form in your current relationship. Seto didn’t say anything about you following him to the blimp and through its metal hallways until you were a few doors away from his own. He stopped just short of his room, blue eyes focusing on your forehead rather than your own eyes, a perfect frown set on his face. He didn’t ask, but you were certain he was wondering why you were tailing so close behind him. “Marik may insist he’s ‘reformed’ but I’m still a bit nervous to leave you alone.” You clarified. “My door has a lock on it, you know.” He muttered. “I know, but… I’m still a little worried he might--”“Fine, whatever. Just come in,” he placed a hand on your shoulder and practically dragged you into his room as he swiped his keycard. You were about to protest, tell him you were fine standing outside if he wanted to be alone, but the door slid closed behind you before you had the chance. He quickly crossed the room to his bed and pulled a leather bag from beneath it, placing it onto the already made bed. He turned toward the bathroom, his eyes glancing over you briefly, and one of his eyebrows raised slightly. “You can sit, you know.” You nodded and shuffled to one of the chairs in the middle of the room, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear habitually as you watched him open the bathroom door and pull a few toiletries off the vanity. He crossed the room once again and placed them carefully in one of the pouches of the leather bag before setting it on the table in front of you and taking his own seat in the opposite chair. He didn’t look at you once he’d sat, gaze focused on his deck as he pulled it gingerly from his duel disk. You felt yourself smile slightly at the care he took with his cards, neatly placing them into an expensive looking deck box he took from his bag. Your chest lightened at the feeling of your heart fluttering in your rib cage as you watched his fingers softly travel over the top card before closing the top of the box and setting it onto the table. “Seto?”He glanced up at you. “Can I ask you a question? It’s about something you told me when we were in the virtual world.”There was a sour look on his face, but he continued to look at you. “It was back when Noah had done that memory altering shit and made me attack you--”“I recall.”“You told me you were in love with me,” you said, then quickly added, “When we were kids.”“Is there actually a question in this?”“How… how long did it take for you to stop?” You asked softly. You felt your chest swell with anxiety when the words left your lips. “To stop…?” He murmured, raising an eyebrow. “To stop loving me.” He blink slowly, twice, before his eyebrows knit together in thought, perhaps confusion. “Why is this suddenly of interest to you?” You cleared your throat, “I uh, well I’m not sure if this makes much sense but when I was in the lab-- and after, too. After I got out I mean.” You thought about your point again and realized you weren’t exactly getting to where you needed to. “So I’ve been in love with you this whole time-- I mean you already knew that. Noah told you, and then you kissed me so… anyway, what I’m trying to say is I never stopped loving you so--” you paused again, swallowing hard as you watched him blink at you again, clearly attempting to follow your convoluted trail of thought. “When I wasn’t around you it hurt like hell,” you continued, “And I don’t know if it was the same for you but I… I don’t want to have been the reason for you to hurt, too. If you did. So--”“I didn’t.” He cut you off frankly, reaching his left hand to his face to pinch at the bridge of his nose and letting out a long breath through his nose. “You didn’t… hurt?”“Stop.” “I don’t understand,” you mumbled cautiously. You couldn’t tell if he was correcting you or telling you to shut up. He gave a frustrated groan, before abruptly standing from his chair and crossing the room to the miniature refrigerator in the corner. You watched him pull the stainless steel door open and retrieve a can of coffee from it, listening to the sound of aluminium snap as he opened it. He very pointedly kept his back to you, face turned so you couldn’t see his expressions. “I never stopped.”You stared silently at the back of his head, his smooth brunette hair, your brain suddenly hazy and filled with a jumble of thoughts, all so mixed together you couldn’t separate them at all. You wanted desperately to come up with a response, but couldn’t come up with something that made any sense. After a long pause, he reached down to the fridge again to pull out a second can of coffee, turning back to face you and giving it an underhand toss. His aim was leagues off, and you watched it sail over your head toward the king size bed behind the chair you were sitting in. With a roll of your eyes and a dramatic snap of your fingers, you willed the world to stop momentarily. In the stillness you stood from the chair and walked toward his bed, grabbing the canned caffeinated beverage out of the air. You took a seat on the edge of his mattress, crossing one leg over the other, and once you were sitting comfortably you allowed the scene before you to continue playing out. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”The briefest flash of surprise passed over his face, azure eyes snapping from when you’d been on the chair to where you were now on his bed, and he frowned. You took that to mean he absolutely did not do it on purpose. With a snicker, you shook the canned coffee in your hand and popped it open, taking a sip and sighing into the sweet feeling of caffeine entering your system.Your gaze remained on him as he continued standing near the stainless steel fridge, his own coffee opened although he had made no move to drink any of it. He was staring down at you with an intensity that made you slightly uneasy, and once again you found yourself unsure of what to say to him. You didn’t know if he was expecting a response for his… confession? If you could even call it that. “You can sit, you know,” you teased instead of directly addressing it, echoing his earlier words. You shifted your weight slightly, desperate for him to not be looking down on you so acutely.You did not realize the implications of your words until he began walking toward you, past the chair he’d been sitting in a minute ago. He stood over you for a few seconds, eyes narrowed as he stared into your own, as if debating his next move. Before you could say anything, he took a step to the side and sat next to you, the mattress dipping slightly under his weight.“Happy?” He asked flatly. He was sitting close enough that if you moved even a few centimeters your arms would brush. You weren’t sure if that made you happy or nervous-- probably both-- so you nodded. You didn’t have the desire nor the mental ability to will yourself to look away from his glinting, sapphire eyes, which were still fixed on you. Out of your peripheral vision you saw him bring his coffee can to his lips and take a sip, but he didn’t break eye contact. You mirrored his actions. You were close enough that you could hear him swallow, then hear him draw a long breath through his nose. He smelled faintly of a particularly musky cologne, though you didn’t know enough about colognes to be able to pick out a brand. Knowing him it was probably expensive. You wondered why you hadn’t noticed the smell before.“I’m sorry,” you said finally. He raised an eyebrow, but otherwise his face didn’t change. “That you were hurt because you loved me,” you elaborated. “Or… love me.”With that he gave a long sigh, the smell of coffee lingering on his breath, and he reached up to pinch at the bridge of his nose again. He shut his eyes and shook his head a few times, muttering something so quietly you couldn’t quite make it out even with how close you were to him. You had your suspicions he was calling you an idiot. After a moment, he snapped his eyes open and looked back to you. “Your romantic skills are abysmal.”You blinked.“Stop apologizing for things you had no control over,” he continued, his voice quickly taking on a lecturing hint, “The past is in the past, so start focusing on the future already.”“Our future?” You asked before you had fully processed your own words, and quickly drew in a sharp breath to shut yourself up. You could feel heat blooming on your cheeks, and desperately hoped it was just in your head and not on your skin.“Before I answer that, there is something you need to consider.” Seto said coolly. His tone was suddenly all-business, and his gaze was hard and void of emotion. “What?”“Should you and I pursue any sort of relationship, what effect would it have on your position as my bodyguard?”Your breath caught in your throat, and you were certain you could feel the heat from your cheeks spread rapidly over your entire face, “I wouldn’t let it affect my work.”“That isn’t what I mean.” You raised an eyebrow, begetting him to elaborate. “You told me your job is best done from the shadows. If you and I were to be seen by the public in any sort of romantic setting, would that make your job more challenging?” You considered it, shifting your gaze away from his to look at your can of coffee, and let out a long hum of thought. A majority of your influence over the underground criminal syndicated Gozaburo’s labs had inadvertently created came from the fact that your ability to stop and alter time was well known. There was a certain respect Seto had achieved for himself just by virtue of taking over Kaiba Corporation and, by making it a gaming company, freeing everyone in said labs. Though, it only went so far, especially in the world of crime, and especially when high sums of money and power were involved. You becoming romantically involved with Seto had no effect on that respect, nor did it change your abilities. However, if it became public knowledge that he was dating his bodyguard it could change perceptions of him and his company, and had the potential to draw the attention of criminals outside of the syndicates. It also set the two of you up for potential blackmail, should anyone get their hands on information about the labs and threaten to let it out in the open. It was exceedingly difficult to tie you to anything when your powers were kept on the down-low, ‘time manipulation’ wasn’t exactly prosecutable nor believable. Even if evidence of Gozaburo’s dealings came out, you wondered if anyone would believe any of it, or if it would be treated as conspiracy theory. If it did come out, and was believed, then you being with Seto could tie him to not only the things you’d done in the past to protect him, but in the future. Especially if he insisted on having you and your team under contract.“The fact that you haven’t spoken in three minutes confirms it would.” Seto said lowly. You snapped your eyes back up to meet his gaze. Had it really been that long? “Sorry. I was trying to come up with the extent of the trouble you could get into.” “That isn’t what I asked you to consider,” he groaned. “I asked if it would make your job more difficult.” You frowned, “Like… literally just my job of being your bodyguard?” “Yes.” “But--” “Trust me when I tell you I have considered every possibility of how your past and abilities could become a liability to both the company and my personal image. I already went through all of that before I decided to hire you and your team.”Of course he did.You sighed, “Okay, well in terms of just my job then… no, us being--” you cleared your throat, “--Involved would have no effect on my ability to protect you.” “In that case, I see no problem with you and I pursuing a relationship so long as you agree to some conditions.” He sounded like he was drafting a contract for a business deal, not asking you to date him. But he was definitely asking you to date him. Or maybe he was telling you to date him. Wasn’t he the one who told you your romantic skills were abysmal a few minutes ago? You were tempted to tell him his were equally shit, but you couldn’t will yourself to actually say anything because you could barely hear yourself think over your swelling heartbeat. “You will have the ability to remain my bodyguard, but I will no longer have you under contract, nor will it become public knowledge. Should anyone attempt to blackmail either of us, the less ties you have to my company the better. I will still employ your team, and they will work under you, but I want no paper trail of that arrangement, understood?” You nodded. “You will be required to attend parties, business events, and various conventions as my date. Should you need to sneak off to attend to your actual work, come up with a decent excuse for it and be certain whatever it is you do cannot be tied back to you in any way.” “That’s a given,” you hummed.“Lastly,” he began, his voice dropping an octave as his face inched slightly closer to yours, azure eyes suddenly darkening. “Should you ever disappear from my side again, understand that rather than attempt to forget about you, I will chase after you no matter where you go.”Your heart began fluttering so violently you were convinced it would exhaust itself and stop dead at any moment. He was centimeters away from you, so close your nose brushed up against his when you shifted ever so slightly. You could feel his breath tickling your lips, and the scent of his cologne was making your head hazy. Your lungs refused to expand, filling you with the sensation that you were drowning. Drowning in him. How were you supposed to respond?“Is that a threat?” You settled on asking, the hint of playfulness barely masking how breathy your voice sounded to your own ears. “It is a guarantee.”Amazing that you were the one with the ability to make the entire world pause, yet he could freeze you dead in your tracks just by uttering a few words. You were completely powerless against him, everything he did made your stomach do somersaults. The sound of his low baritone sent shocks through your core, the things he said to you made it impossible to respond without sounding like a fool. The man had every possible resource at his disposal, all the money he could ever want and all the power he could ever need. Yet he was still willing to date you-- no, he still wanted to date you.“Do you agree to those terms then?” He hummed, voice still incredibly even.You wanted to come up with some sort of a witty response, especially considering how much time he had put into something as ridiculous as drafting a verbal contract for you. It made logical sense, he had a company to protect and a public image to consider. It wasn’t romantic in the slightest, yet it was making your head fuzzy and stopping you from matching his intensity. In the end, all you could do was nod. That was enough for him, you barely caught a glimpse of the smirk that graced his lips before the view disappeared and his mouth was against yours. The kiss was softer than your first, not influenced by his desperation to break Noah’s influence on your mind. It was a little awkward at first, his nose had connected directly with your own and you had to tilt your neck to adjust yourself, but once you did it meant he could deepen the kiss. His lips weren’t as chapped as they had been in the virtual world, maybe he’d put on chapstick recently. You could taste the lingering coffee on his lips, could still smell the rich cologne on his skin. “Everyone should be packed by now,” Seto hummed, lips brushing against yours as he spoke, the vibration of his words buzzing through your core. “We should go.” You pursed your lips together in a pout, “You’re going to kiss me, then turn around and go home just like that?”“I’ll have plenty of time to kiss you in the future,” he replied dismissively, pulling away from you and taking a final sip of his canned coffee before tossing it into the trash can across the room. “I do need to see to the end of Alcatraz, however.”He glanced over to catch the grin that had spread across your face.“You started pouting just so you could hear me say I’d kiss you again, didn’t you?” He frowned. “Maybe.”He sighed and shook his head, using one hand to reach up and pinch at the bridge of his nose while the other snatched your left wrist. He tugged you off his bed and toward the sliding door, and the two of you exited the bedroom. You took a detour to your bedroom so you could quickly pack your own bag, and once that was finished you both departed the blimp. Yuugi’s group, the Ishtar siblings, and Mokuba, Isono, and Fuguta were already standing around on the island’s shore. Once the younger Kaiba spotted his brother, he rushed over to his side, and the two began quietly speaking to one another in a clearly private conversation. You started to walk closer to the edge of the shore, not wanting to interrupt them as they spoke.“Soooooo, how’d it go?” Blade demanded cheekily, appearing behind you as if he’d materialized from the air itself. “How’d what go?” You gave a roll of your eyes. “I saw you go into Kaiba’s room with him,” he grinned, “Although you weren’t in there for too long, so he must not have gotten far with you. Unless he’s a quick--”“I sat in his room while he packed to make sure no one broke in,” you replied stiffly, “Don’t get any weird ideas.” “Doll’s gonna love all of this when we get home,” he continued, completely ignoring your protests.“It’s amazing how much of a child you act when you’re only a year younger than me,” you sighed, giving a shake of your head. Blade led you over to the boat, giving it a cursory look over and checking its fuel before grabbing your backpack from you and tossing it under one of the seats. “The two of you should get on that boat and get off this island,” Seto said sharply, voice cutting through your conversation. He handed you a folded piece of paper.“We were planning on it,” you hummed and took the paper from him. “But I thought we were waiting for the blimp to be repaired.” “Change of plans,” he replied briskly, “The medical helicopter is faster than your boat, but unless the two of you want to be stuck in a cramped space with Yuugi’s friends and the Ishtars, I’d suggest you leave now.” You shrugged, turning to Blade. “Are you ready to go?” “Yeah, whenever you are.” He vaulted himself over the edge of the small boat and got comfortable in the driver’s seat, giving a crack of his neck before he produced the keys from his jacket.You gave your teammate a half-salute before returning your attention to the Kaiba brothers, “How are you two getting out of here?” Mokuba shot you a grin, “Private jet.”“I should have expected as much.” “Island about to explode?” Blade asked over his shoulder, pausing with the keys hovering over the ignition and waiting for the Kaiba brothers’ reply before the roar of the engine deafened you all. “We’re heading to the destruction controls right now,” Mokuba chuckled, quickly launching himself into you for a hug before you were able to get into the boat yourself. “I’ll see you soon, okay?” “Of course, kiddo,” you gave his mess of hair a ruffle. You offered Seto a smile, which he barely smirked at in reply, before the two left your side once more. With that, you got in yourself, propping your feet on the side of the boat and leaning against the headrest of the surprisingly comfortable seat. Blade started the boat, and after a moment of maneuvering off the sandy shore, the two of you were speeding away from Alcatraz and back toward Domino city. After allowing yourself a moment to stare up at the sky, you remembered the piece of paper in your hand and unfolded it curiously, gripping the edges tightly to ensure it didn’t blow away. Upon reading the few lines of instructions printed in neat handwriting, along with the address underneath, a smirk found its way onto your lips. You pulled your cell phone from your pocket with a chuckle, dialing a phone number from memory and listening to the ringtone that signalled you were now close enough to a cell tower for reception. It rang a few times before a delighted voice answered. “Doll, James, pack your things. Blade and I are on our way home and we’ve got a flight to catch.” “Ghost-- wait a flight? Where are we going?” You paused at the sound of an explosion in the distance, turning to see Alcatraz’s tower alight with flame and a plume of smoke. Your eyes followed the bright white jet in the shape of a Blue-Eyes White dragon that flew out of said smoke, quickly passing overhead. Your smirk turned to a grin as you watched the ridiculous contraption fly off into the distance of the clear blue sky, leaving behind a smooth white vapor trail. “We’re going to America.”