Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.

Secret Saviour

Chapter one

The small park in the centre of Domino lay there, peaceful and quiet. The snow had just stopped falling. The trees and bushes where covered under a thick white blanket and the lake had been frozen and was covered with snow as well as everything else. The lamps that stood to both sides of the way where shading a dime light onto the snow coved walkway, bringing a slight glitter to the snow. There where hardly any prints in the fresh snow, a few animals that had walked by already, but not many. There where no clouds in the night sky right now and the full moon and the stars were shining down on the landscape. It was a beautiful but the cold night and the time kept most people inside.

Not so the cold hearted CEO Seto Kaiba, who walked home through the park after finishing work. He was wearing a nice warm coat over his business suit. Some might say 'figures frost is his element after all his heart is frozen solid.' But that wasn't the reason he enjoyed the walk through the winter night. It was just the end of November and his little brother had phoned him earlier that day. His new girlfriend, that went to the same college as Mokuba did, had invited him to spent Christmas with her family and Mokuba wanted to know if it would be all right with Seto. He had said "Sure, no worries. I'll be busy with work anyway, I'm happy you got something else to do." But it had been a lie. He had nothing to do and no one to spend the time with now. But he hadn't want to hold his brother back. He was growing up and should be allowed to spent Christmas with whoever he wanted to and not feel guilty for leaving his poor lonely brother behind.

Seto knew he would probably be lonely for the rest of his life. He wasn't good in socialising. He couldn't talk to anyone, unless it was in business setting. He had never been able to talk about private things to anyone but Mokuba and even with him it had been tricky at times. Seto still couldn't believe that his brother had always forgiven him his cranky behaviour and mean words, that he had sometimes even used on him. But Mokuba always had forgiven him so easily and quickly. Seto knew he was lucky to have a little brother like him and he loved him and just knew he had to do something in return and letting him spend Christmas with his girlfriend had been the best he could do. Not that he needed permission, Mokuba was 20 by now and he himself was 24, but since he had asked, he could make sure to let him think it was okay to be some place else and not worry about his big brother.

Seto thought about what he might do over Christmas. He didn't have much work to keep him occupied. After all he wanted to give his employees some time of to spend with their families. But there was always another matter that needed his attention. One that he was working on for years. A search for someone he needed to find. Seto shuddered as he thought about what had happened that faithful day about half a year after graduation. Seto had heard about part of it from Mokuba and the rest from private detectives, that where now working for him.

It still made Setos heart ache to think about what had happened. Especially since no one knew exactly what hat happened, no one but Joey. And he was missing ever since!

It had taken a week for anyone to notice what had happened back then. Yugi had been the one to notice that Joey hadn't been around at all. The others had been too caught up in their lives. Tristan had been dating Duke and Tea had already been in America, attending a dancing school. And even so Yugi had been dating Yami, he still noticed that Joey wasn't there. He used to just show up at least twice a week during the day and once a week in the evening, asking if he could spend the night since he had been in a fight and didn't want to go home and let his father see him all beaten up. And he was beaten up on such nights usually, nothing visible, not too much but he was walking funny. Holding his side in pain and limped or other things that showed his pain. A night's rest would usually help. But that week, he hadn't been there. Yugi had waited three more days but phoned every one of them. Just Joey hadn't picked up once. The day after he had walked towards Joey's place, he hadn't been there before, but Joey had told him where it was once, only that he shouldn't come over since the area was rough. Which is why Yami had insisted on coming with Yugi. Once they had arrived, no one was opening the door and Yugi had noticed a strong and sickening smell like rotten flesh. He had phoned the police and told them about his concern for his friend. They had come to the apartment Joey had shared with his dad and broken the door open. What they had found inside had been more than shocking. Seto was happy that he hadn't been there. All he knew was that Yugi had puked as soon as he had seen what was inside and Yami had a hard time calming him, the crying Yugi, down afterwards.

From the police reports Seto knew a little bit about what must have happened. The half decomposed body that had made Yugi so sick and that had been beyond recognition but had hair of the same colour as Joey's, which must have been part of the reason why Yugi had been so shocked. But it hadn't been Joey, it had been his father lying on the floor with a long sharp knife jammed through his opened mouth into his skull. The finger prints and reports of neighbours had given some clue about what had happened there. Joey hadn't been in just any fight when he ran to Yugi, he had been abused by his father. No one knew to what degree but there had been screaming and shouting every day and about once a week it would be louder than usually and crying and begging from Joey for ending it one way or another. No one had said anything out of fear for the older Wheeler. There had been two types of blood on the knife. One must have been Joey's, a test proved it to be of a son of the dead Mr. Wheeler and there was the same blood and a bit of skin under the men's nails. He had fought with Joey shortly before his death. And the finger prints had proven that it wasn't Joey, who held the knife, but his father himself and that Joey must have shoved the knife that had been in his fathers hand into his mouth, trying to push him away.

The police had started to look for Joey, not to charge him as it was looked at as self defence. But there was the inheritance. Or rather the depth that his father had left for Joey. But the police had never found him and started to wonder if it had been the way they thought or maybe his father had killed Joey and had his body hidden before the guild had taken over and forced him to suicide. He didn't seem like the type to kill himself out of guilt and so the police continued the search for Joey among the living, rather than a body that might have been dumped some place.

The police wasn't the only ones looking. Seto had started the search too and unlike the police who by now didn't really look any more, he was still on the missing persons list but no one of the police would probably recognise him in the streets. There where too many missing people out there and to them Joey was just one of many. But not to Seto. He had 20 private detectives looking for him and he phoned them all at least once a week. But they never had much news. Sometimes there was a lead, a small hope but it would just lead them to a death end. But Seto refused to give up. Even so, not one person apart from the detectives knew that he was looking. Not even Mokuba knew that. But he was. And the reason for that was simple. Seto had been in love with Joey ever since he had seen him for the first time.

Seto had never told Joey, since he just didn't know how. And he had started fights to get his attention. Even Seto had known that it would only keep Joey from ever falling in love with him but he didn't believe he would ever have a chance in the first place. After all Seto was intelligent and very good with science numbers as well as statistics. And considering the statistics about how many teenage boys are gay and how many people all together are superficial enough to date a socially incompetent but very powerfull rich guy for the power and money, he calculated his chances of under 1 percent. Considering the fact that Joey seemed to be more likely to not be one of the superficial people, he reduced it of under 0.1 percent that Joey would ever consider dating him. But after what had happened to Joey now, he just had to do something to find and help him even so he had no idea of what to do if he did find him. Seto knew that Joey hated him and for a good reason, considering all the fights they had been in and he wasn't likely to just take money from someone he hated and there wasn't much else Seto could do.

Seto knew that Yami and Yugi also hadn't forgotten about their friend and none of the others had either. They would talk about it sometimes and all of them would go for walks through the rougher areas in the hope of just stumbling over him, unlikely as it was in a big city like Domino. But they went on with their life's and so did Seto. Wondering what had happened to the young beautiful blond. How his life had been in high school and why he had never said anything. And hating themselves for never noticing and helping him out of the hell he had for a home. Seto was beating himself up as well. He had fought with Joey all this time, calling him worthless not knowing what his father had done to him and how much hearing things like that in school might have damaged his already unstable emotional well-being, if it could be called "well-being" at all.

Seto started to remember all the times he had fought with him and how cute he had thought Joey to be when he got all feisty about the dog comments. Seto might feel guilty for them now, but he still couldn't help but love the reaction he had gotten for them at the time. But that wasn't all he loved about Joey. He loved his smile, even if he never was the one who got it. He loved the way his eyes would shine and the happy expression he would get for even the smallest things like some free food. But then again who knew how much he had gotten from his abusive father. He also loved how protective and caring he was about his friends and little sister Serenity. This part of who he was, must have been the reason he had never done anything to get away from his abusive father. He loved him, no matter what. He was his father and Joey had loved him. And still it looked like he had killed him in the end. It was self defence so he hadn't want to do it, which only made it worse. He had not only been abused by a father he had still loved, he had also killed him in self defence most likely by accident even. It must hurt Joey to live with that. And since he was all alone now, he didn't even have help to get over it. Seto wondered what his golden haired puppy might be doing right now, somewhere under the same sky with the moon and the stars shining down on him.

Seto looked up at the sky, standing at the gate of the park, as his phoned rang. He sighed, he was pleased to be interrupted. He always had to think of his puppy if there wasn't anything to keep his mind off it. And no matter what he was thinking about, he would usually end up thinking about him anyway. Every thought would eventually lead him to Joey.

Now Seto looked at his phone, Ed was standing on the display. Seto wondered. Ed was one of the private detectives that worked for him and were looking for Joey but even if there had been a lead they hadn't believed it to be strong enough to phone him during the day time, let alone at past 11 at night, Seto was always the one to phone to stay in the loop as well as driving them on. He picked up, hoping for some god news about Joey. For the first time in years there seemed to be something going on.

"What is it?" Seto asked without wasting time with a polite greeting.

"Mr. Kaiba, I think I´ve found Mr. Wheeler." the voice on the other end said.

"What do you mean you think? Have you found him or not and if yes, where?"

"I found someone that lives under a false name and has no papers. I could trace his history back till about two months after Mr. Joseph Wheelers disappearance and he looks like the man you're looking for. The hair has changed and he has aged of course, but I think it's him."

"Where is he right now? I'm coming to see for myself."

Please review!