Remembering 9/11
"Mr. Kaiba, we're so excited to have you here" the chairman said as he greeted Seto, his hands clapped together. "We were almost afraid you wouldn't be able to make it."
"Our plane was late, but I'm here" Seto said, sounding a mixture of bored and tired. Flying one way from Japan to America wasn't exactly the funniest thing to do in 24 hours. Mokuba yawned, rubbing his eyes. He held onto his brother's sleeve, half asleep. He hadn't exactly gotten much sleep on the flight there; he was hoping to get some good sleep during the board meeting. "Oh? And who's this little guy?" the chairman asked, looking down onto Mokuba, whom still was half asleep and didn't hear himself being brought into the conversation.
"This is my brother, Mokuba" Seto said, he nudged Mokuba a little, quickly taking back his arm. "Huh? Wha?" Mokuba said, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "Oh, what a charming young lad. Anyways, Mr. Kaiba, I'd like to show you to our meeting room. Our other officials have been waiting for you in there. Mokuba can come as well." Seto nodded, "Come along, Mokuba."
"Com…ing…" Mokuba said in a quiet voice, almost a whisper. Mokuba was REALLY tired. The kind of tired where you feel like you could collapse at any moment. Seto didn't experience this because of all the late nights working, but it hit Mokuba the hardest when he was tired.
Seto noticed this, but he couldn't focus his attention on Mokuba right now. At least not when anyone else was watching. He didn't like showing his affection for his brother in front of people, most of all when it involved business.
Mokuba trudged his way into the elevator behind his older brother, plopping down onto the floor right when he got into it. "Mokuba… get up…" Seto said, in a somewhat of a whisper as he nudged him once more. Mokuba moaned, but stood up. The chairman looked at Mokuba with curiosity. "He's really tired from the trip, but as you were saying…"
"Oh yes. So we are all anxiously awaiting you, Mr. Kaiba. We think you might like what we have to show you."
"Well, it better be impressing" Seto said, putting on his stern face, "I didn't waste 24 hours getting here just to have you waste more of my life."
"I assure you Mr. Kaiba, it will be worth it." the chairman said, getting a bit nervous. The elevator got to the 62nd floor, and the doors opened. "Have you ever been 62 feet in the air, Mokuba?" the chairman asked, looking down at Mokuba. "Huh? Oh… no…"
"Really now? Well, I'll tell you that both the World Trade Centers, or as we call them, Twin Towers, go more than 80 feet in the air! Isn't that amazing?" Mokuba nodded, trying to stay awake while he was explaining this to him. "Please, right this way" he said, opening the door. Suddenly the building shook. Mokuba became a little more awake and aware of this. "What just happened?" Mokuba asked. Phones began ringing off the hook through the building. The chairman ran into the room and up to the man who was on the phone. "What's going on?"
"It's an emergency. They're saying that a plane has just crashed into the other twin tower. It was a terrorist attack. The police are telling us to get out."
"A terrorist attack?" Seto grabbed Mokuba's hand, "We're leaving." The chairman didn't say a word, only grabbed his brief case and followed along. The halls were filled with people. Both scared and confused. No one really understood the whole situation that was happening, Seto admitted to himself that he didn't know ether, but all he knew was that he needed to get out of there as soon as possible.
There was an ocean of people waiting in front of the elevator. Some people were crowding to get down the stairs. You could almost feel the panic from all the people. A man ran into the crowd. "The police are telling us to stay put and that we'll be safer in here than out!" a man yelled out, his cell phone in his hand. Some people took note of this and started back to their offices and phones.
The elevator finally opened, and Seto lead Mokuba in. His hand was tight around Mokuba's. "Wait! Mr. Kaiba! They told us to stay put, let's head back to the board room."
"Head back, are you kidding me? One of the most largest world trade centers in the world has just been involved in a terrorist attack, and your gonna stay? No way."
"Wait. Please Mr. Kaiba, reconsider."
"Reconsider, my ass. I'm getting out of here." And with that, the elevator door closed. The elevator was filled with people. Mokuba stood next to his brother. The elevator was filled with the noise of people talking on their cell phones with family, a woman was crying as well. Seto stood completely still, his hand on Mokuba's shoulder. Mokuba could hear his heart beating louder and louder. The elevator shook and stopped. Seto heard people from the outside beginning to scream; it wasn't long before everyone inside the elevator was doing the same.
"There was another terrorist plane! It hit the Pentagon too! We're all going to die!" some stupid guy in the elevator said. Soon there was a lot of panic. The people began banging on the door of the elevator, trying to get it to open. Seto pressed the open button, the elevator doors opened quickly. Everyone ran out with fright, adding to the stampede of people in the hallways. Seto quickly joined the crowd, but felt himself lose his brother's hand. "Mokuba!" Seto called, looking back. He couldn't find his brother over all these people, and the crowd pushed him forward and toward the exit.
"MOKUBA!" Seto yelled, trying to stop himself from being pushed out the exit. "I'll be right back, Nii-sama" he heard Mokuba call, "I'm going back. Some people are trapped." Seto's eyes widened, he scanned the room in panic as fast as he could. "Mokuba, NO! As your brother, I am ORDERING you to get out of this building this instant!" He was pushed out of the building and onto the sidewalk. He looked around at the people who scurried out of the twin tower. But none of them were Mokuba. Seto quickly got up and started running towards the entrance of the twin tower once more. A firefighter quickly grabbed him.
"You don't wanna go back in there, sir. That building is going down pretty soon. You better get out of here and fast." Seto shook his head. "No! My little brother's in there! Mokuba's in there… I NEED TO GO BACK!" Seto yelled, his heart beginning to race at the thought of loosing his brother. He struggled to break free of the firefighter's grip. "Sir, I'm sorry. But he's not gonna make it."
"No…" Seto said, in a soft, yet fearful way. The firefighter let him go, "I'm sorry sir, but there's nothing you can do."
"Yes there is!" Seto said, as he dashed away from the firefighter and back into the building. "No! Wait! You'll be killed!" Seto heard the firefighter say. He didn't hear him, all he thought about was getting Mokuba out of here. He ran over to the elevator and pressed the button to go up. He had no idea how he was suppose to find his brother, there were about 80 floors in this building, and Seto soon figured out that the elevator was working.
"Mokuba" Seto said, clenching his fist. All he could think about was seeing his innocent little brother's body lying mangled on the floor, lifeless and dead.
Seto speeded off down the hallway and up the stairs. The smoke was beginning to get thicker and thicker as he was going up, and he could feel his lungs beginning to burn. He didn't care anymore, he just wanted his brother back. He was going to keep his promise, even if it meant dying in the process.
Seto held onto the railing. It was so hot, he was drenched in sweat. He panted, his lungs were beginning to deteriorate and he was beginning to lose consciousness. Seto couldn't stop his eyes from closing, until he herd a familiar voice.
"Come on! Right this way! We're almost there, just don't breathe the smoke." Seto's eyes shot open as he saw Mokuba running down the stairs with a few other frightened people. "Mokuba!" Seto called, standing to his feet. Mokuba looked up, his handkerchief was tied around a small child that he was holding hands with, his arm covering his mouth.
"Nii-sama?" he said in a muffled voice, "What are you doing here? I thought you got out of the building!"
"I did, but did you really think I'd leave you? Look Mokuba, I know your trying to do something good for the good of mankind, but you completely disobeyed me and-" there was a huge crashed and more smoke flew down the stairway. The building was shaking and everyone knew that the tower was coming down.
Mokuba flew forward and onto the hard concrete of the stairway. The crowd of people running down and past him. "Mokuba!" Seto called once again, this time with more worry than joy. He ran to his side and held him up. "Mokuba…?"
"Yeah?" Mokuba said with a moan, rubbing his head. "Thank goodness. Don't scare me like that!"
"Nii-sama…" Mokuba said in a raspy voice, "Are we going to die?" Seto looked at him in anguish. "No…" he replied, holding Mokuba up in his arms as he stood on his own 2 feet. "Not today we're not." Seto then took off. The rumble of the tower crashing to the ground was not right above them, but the floor was moving, and his lungs were burning. He shut his eyes, trying to keep the smoke from burning them.
Then at the last second, he saw light and saw that he was back in New York City. He fell to his knees, his brother still in his arms. "Nii-sama?" His eyes had been opened as well to the exposure of sunlight.
"I'm ok, Mokuba. Are you?" he asked, coughing violently, then placing Mokuba down on his feet. "Nii-sama" Mokuba said in worry to the sound of Seto's cough. "It's nothing, just a lot of smoke. Mokuba, I TOLD you NOT to go back, and you disobeyed me! You could've died!"
"You went after me! You could've died too!"
"Better me than you. I promised Mom I'd keep you alive and I'm plan to keep that promise." Mokuba took a step back, he looked hurt.
"THE TOWER IS COMING DOWN!" the firefighter yelled as he turned to run away. People began to run for their lives as the tower began to collapse. Seto turned around, his eyes widened in surprise and fear. Then he did all he could think of doing; grabbing Mokuba and run. Seto set off down the sidewalk, his hand tightly gripped around his brothers' once more. He ran down that sidewalk like there was no tomorrow. A big cloud of dust chasing after both of them. "It's too close" Seto twisted around and fell to his knees, bringing Mokuba locked tightly under his body as the cloud of smoke and dust emboweled the both of them.
Mokuba opened his eyes. At the moment, there was silence. Complete silence. Everything was white. Not the pure bright, bright white. The dark, shadow kind of white. "Am I dead?" Mokuba said out loud. Seto shook off the dust on his head, opening his eyes and looking over into Mokuba's face. It was all covered in dust except for Mokuba's eyes that gazed into his own. "Are you alright, Mokuba?" Seto said, brushing off the white dust upon his brother's face. There was a huge gash on his forhead, blood flowed down the side of his face. "Mokuba! Your bleeding!" he said, holding Mokuba's face and examining the cut more closely. "I'm fine, Nii-sama" Mokuba said attempting to stand up. Mokuba winced, and fell back down. "What's wrong?" Seto asked, looking down at Mokuba's leg.
"I dunno, it hurts a lot…" Mokuba said, rubbing his leg. Seto put his hand on Mokuba's leg, feeling the bones. "Ow! That hurts…" Mokuba winced, moving away from Seto. "Your leg's is broken. We need to find and ambulance for you."
"Nii-sama, I'm fine…" Mokuba said. He looked over at Seto's knees. There were scarred and bleeding horribly. "Nii-sama! Your hurt!" Mokuba exclaimed, pointing down at Seto's knees. Blood began to trickle and soak his pants. Seto looked down, not even noticed that his knees were bleeding, he was more worried about his brother. "Mokuba, it's nothing. You're the one who needs medical attention."
"But Nii-sama, it looks really bad. They're bleeding a lot. We need to get you some…" Mokuba fell unconscious. "Mokuba!" Seto looked at him, then at the gash on his forehead. It was bleeding a lot more than it should. The head was one of the bodies most vital and fragile parts, one of the parts that needed blood the most.
He looked around quickly, he watched as a ambulance drove by. Dust flying everywhere as it drove through the road. Seto quickly picked up Mokuba and headed after it.
"Are there any survivors?" The paramedic asked a firefighter. The firefighter solemnly shook his head. "We can't even find bodies."
"Hey! My brother needs help!" Seto called out, running over to the paramedic. "Please… help… my brother" Seto said, panting in between his words. He held out his brother to the paramedic. He nodded and took Mokuba from his arms. "What about you? Your knees look horrible!" the firefighter said. "I made a promise." Seto said. He felt lightheaded. Now that his brother was to safety, his body completely shut down on him and he fell unconscious.
I re-wrote "Remembering 9/11" because my last one stunk basically and the 9/11 victims all deserve the best fanfic made. This fic is devoted to all of the victims of 9/11. Whom lost their lives at the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon, and to all who were on the planes. May they be in our hearts forever.
