"... Hey... Wake up..."
Light... There was light all around him. Why? He was in his office, wasn't he? It was night, wasn't it? So why was there so much daylight? It was... Confusing. If it weren't for the fact that his head was pounding into his ears, he'd swear it was some sort of dream...
"Wake up... Hey, wake up..."
A voice... No, that couldn't be right. He was alone at the office and that wasn't a voice he'd ever heard before. Was the voice mail on? He must have fallen asleep at his desk and fallen onto the floor... Jeez, did the floor ever feel soft. Almost like a mattress... He knew his office had great carpet but he never noticed how soft it was befo-
"Hey, I told you to wake up! You can't sleep forever!"
"Nhhn..." Grumbled the teenager as he opened his eyes entirely, only now registering that no, he really wasn't in his office anymore. What in the...?! He jumped to his feet then, looking around already. This had to be a dream; this didn't look like his office at all, no it looked like some far off land. Some medieval bed chamber with decorations, sort of like what a royal or a noble would have slept in back then. There was a woman in strange armour in front of him, grinning at him when he yelled, "What the hell is going on? What kind of dream-"
"It's no dream, Seto. You accepted the challenge and now, you're here in Espia. Come on, everyone is waiting!"
Challenge? What challenge? "What in the world are you talking about, woman? Where is this and why am I not in my office?" He was losing his patience and the fact that this woman wore that same goddamn smile didn't help one bit.
"Seto," That caused the young Kaiba's temper to flare even more, "I'm surprised you don't remember. You accepted the challenge yourself, it should be your last memory. Is your mind really so poor that you can't remember a simple thing like that?"
"I still don't..." It was then that Kaiba had the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something, actually taking a moment to toy with the idea. At least, until it finally hit him and he started to remember everything that had happened, or at least what seemed to be the important parts; He was in his office before. He had just been sitting there checking his email when...
The blank screen lit up with life as it came out of sleep mode, the usual login screen popping up before him. Familiar keys typed up the hidden characters of his password and the computer continued loading up, faster than any normal computer should. But then, it was something he had built himself; of course it would be superior to anything the stores could sell him. It made him wonder just that Mokuba had seen in all of those useless contraptions that were sold on the market when anything he made was ten times - nay, one hundred times superior in every thinkable aspect. But that was a thought process for another day. Right now, work had to be done.
The virtual world system 3.0 would have to be released soon now that all of the bull shit with Ancient Egypt, Pharaohs and Magic was done and over with. Revenge against Yuugi Motou and the title 'King of Games' could wait. Even further construction of Kaiba Land in North America could wait. He needed something to enjoy himself with... A new virtual world that hadn't been tampered with, for once. Wait a minute...
There was an odd email in his inbox.
Gently the teenager clicked away at the mouse, almost as if revering just the delicate piece of technology he was holding in the palm of his hand while he watched the small arrow follow his command, expanding his inbox's window to the entirety of the screen. Most of it was junk, some advertisements for odd websites and materials and others leading to lewd celebrity web pages (he'd have to hack into those later to infect them with a virus seeing as his name popped up quite a few times). There was also a message about a board meeting from one of his new executives in there and there was an email from Mokuba asking about plans for that evening. And yet, he ignored them all in favour of this one email. It was odd, to say the least. The sender was unfamiliar, upon seeing it he was almost tempted to label it as garbage, and yet...
Kaiba never clicked that junk button. Instead, he decided he was curious enough to open at see what it had to say. If it was viral, his scanners would have picked it up by now anyway.
The subject, appropriately so, was labelled 'Destiny.' When he first began reading it, it just seemed like an odd fan fiction based around the card game Pegasus J. Crawford had created, the game which Kaiba considered himself an expert and the rightful champion. His eyes fluttered about the pale white with contrasting black text as he absorbed the story, the words even now ringing clear as Sunday church bells (despite being text and him only reading it as opposed to hearing it);
"The monsters of the Realm, for eons, have lived peacefully amongst each other, despite slight disagreements within each tribe. The ruler over all, King Exodia, continued to use a gentle fist over the land, in general keeping the peace and reaching mutual consensus among all of the monster tribes, from the humble plants to the mightiest warriors. For many millennia, this worked to maintain peace and prosperity among the tribes, a leader for each being chosen to be put on political council in order to represent the others.
Alas, this was not to last.
The Dragons never picked a true leader for their tribe, merely having the three elders, the siblings Blue Eyes White Dragon, choosing who would attend each gathering and discussing their own tribe matters amongst themselves. Although no one outright objected to this set up, the spell casters and King Exodia himself knew better. They knew that the dragon leaders planned an uprising, a coup de tat against the King and against the rest of the Duel Monsters world. The spell casters, not wishing to lose their power and influence over the Realm they inhabited, pleaded with their ruler to limit the power of the dragons; either they picked one leader or left their power in the hands of another tribe. It was a plan that would only end in violence, gore and sorrow, King Exodia knew this well. So, rather than appeasing either the Dragon Tribe or the Spell Caster Tribe's demands, he came to another decision.
A sentry of the Warrior Tribe, the Black Luster Soldier, was chosen to inhabit the human world. King Exodia knew her-"
"I thought the Black Luster Soldier was a male monster," Kaiba frowned thoughtfully as he stopped reading there, shaking his head and sighing heavily at himself. Of course it was; this was just some crazy fan fiction some idiot sent to him. He'd have to change his email address if some buffoon like this could get their hands on it so easily. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to stop reading for long. Once again Seto Kaiba glued his eyes onto the screen and continued to read.
"King Exodia knew her well; despite the Warrior Tribe's allegiance with both the Dragons and the Spell Casters, the Black Luster Soldier was not only a good judge of one's heart but a just mind, knowing that this madness behind their peace could not continue lest they wish to prevent loss in the Realm. The sentry, for many a year, dutifully inhabited the human world, eyes kept in particular on one human being; one man, the only man known to mediate between the three Blue Eyes White Dragons and gain control over them, successfully harmonizing them with the powers of the other tribes in his battles. The man who made three become one, the man who had promoted unity in the Dragon Tribe more than any other. One Seto Kaiba."
Kaiba stopped reading again and blinked at the brightly-lit screen in disbelief, eyes looking over the exact words a couple of more times. No, it wasn't a cruel joke; that was his name. He'd have to get his best lawyer on suing this person into the poor house! The use of his name would not be tolerated in such... Garbage! The white triangle was almost at the 'delete' button of the email, but he couldn't bring himself to click it. No matter how much he willed himself to, his finger simply wouldn't press down against the mouse's key to complete the action of deleting this email. The obsession, the craving to read this through to the end was almost consuming him in its entirety, almost as bad as when he felt the bitter sting of defeat the first time against Yuugi Motou. No, worse. Unconsciously, before the teenager could even stop himself, his eyes were dead-locked onto the screen to continue reading the story before him.
"Though this person was not the most pure or kind, the Black Luster Soldier easily saw the qualities of leadership and power in this man. A man truly fit to lead the tribe of Dragons, at long last, had arrived. With this man in mind the warrior continued her observation of him, growing ever more convinced that he would be the one to become a true Dragon. At long last, when he had accomplished the task of guiding the Pharaoh Atemu of the human world to his final resting place, the first attempt at contact was made.
The story continues the moment the man responds to his call. Are you up to the challenge, Seto Kaiba?"
He stared at the last line, looking further down the screen to see if there was any more. There wasn't. So that was where it ended, huh? Typical, an incomplete work... And this person dared to challenge him? Who the hell did they think they were? It was probably that idiot Jonouchi playing a prank on him, wanting a bad reaction out of him. And yet it was too well-written to be Jonouchi... He probably had Yuugi helping him. Or, more than likely, it was Pegasus trying to mess with his head again. Sigh. Well, there was only one thing he could do, in this case. Kaiba's fingers flew across the keyboard once he had clicked the reply button, the simple sentence appearing near-instantly as his mouse moved to the reply button, "I accept your challenge."
Click. The moment he had clicked that icon, that accursed icon, everything became white. The light from the computer screen became near-blinding and engulfed the room, Kaiba having raised his arms to shield his eyes. This had to be some sort of computer virus, how else could it have made one of his machines act up like this? He scowled to himself at the thought, thinking that he needed to work on a better virus protection program for his computer once it was done shining. But - slowly and surely - he found was no longer sitting down; wind caressed his every feature and caused his trench coat to blow noisily behind him as he plunged forward, white quickly fading into an assortment of blues, greys and blacks with nothing but a white pinpoint at the end of the tunnel. Head towards the light... This had to be some sort of bizarre dream.
A dream that seemed far too real to only be as such, when he broke through the light again everything became black...
Before he had woken up in this place.
"What kind of twisted joke is this? I want to know who came up with this stupid excuse for a prank! It was Pegasus, wasn't it? Pegasus, this isn't funny!" Kaiba growled, feeling his entire body bristle while he looked around. There weren't any cameras, hell there wasn't even a single piece of filming equipment in sight; all there seemed to be in this room were a bed, some decorations and a woman wearing strange armour. Wait... That armour was the same kind the Black Luster Soldier duel monsters card wore. This was a sick joke; it had to be a sick joke that Pegasus was-
"Seto Kaiba, it isn't a joke. You responded to the electronic message I sent you in the human world, accepting the task set before you. You've been sleeping for three days since then, I suppose it was a side-effect from the dimensional travel. Now, will you come with me to meet with the dragon elders or would you rather take some more time to adjust?" Asked the woman, helmet shifted from beneath her arms to be held in both of her hands. What in the hell...?
"How much is that crack pot paying you to do this? Let me out of this simulation right now or I swear-"
The woman sighed at him, shaking her head and clapping a hand to it. Her smile faded into a rather irritated frown when she said, "I knew you had a history of magic denial but I didn't think it was this bad. Will you don the ceremonial robes and come out to greet the elders, please? I promise you that I will explain exactly what is going on once you do."
He was going to kill that man once he got out of this simulation, this was the second time he had been trapped within it! Snarling, the teenager finally turned to the woman and then saw that, behind her on an ornate chair, were some white and pale blue robes, along with some armour that he assumed was for him. Fine... He'd play along for now, but only until he got some answers. Logical answers that had nothing to do with fairies and magical dimensional vortexes and fan fictions gone horribly, horribly wrong to be exact, "Fine, but leave. Even if this is a dream, I'm not stripping for a woman who obviously belongs in the nut house."
The woman sighed at him again, giving him a flat stare and nodding silently before her armour clanked, signalling that she was leaving the room. The door's final slam allowed Kaiba to go about changing his clothes until he had, somehow, worked through the large mass of cloth that could barely be called clothing. A glance in the mirror told him, upon sight, that he looked completely ridiculous. He had to admit that he liked the dragon-esque armour, coloured white with blue tints that reminded him so much of his favourite Duel Monster and gleaming with the sunlight that poured into the room from the grand windows that over-looked this place. Huh... He actually hadn't taken a look out the window yet. All he had time for since waking up was bitching at the insane woman in fancy armour and wondering where he was. Well, there was no better time than now to take a look at the crazy world he had been sucked into.
A swift, flowing movement and the young Kaiba was at the window, eyes taking in the splendour of the area below him. And, upon seeing this, it made him all the more convinced that this was either a stupid prank from Pegasus or him somehow testing a new virtual world simulation with him forgetting about stepping into the virtual holder. But it didn't matter which way the cards went as he took in the sight, for even he had to admit...
It was a truly magnificent sight. Everywhere there were duel monsters, this place (wherever he was) was on a hill side so he had a perfect view of the ivory-marble structures, both residential and community alike. It was almost bizarre, how modern and yet how ancient this culture was... But of course, only his imagination could come up with something so-
"Are you done in there, Seto? You're being awfully quiet."
Immediately the teenager tensed and growled in response; he had had enough of this woman acting like she was familiar with him in any way, "Yes I'm done. And stop calling me Seto, you are not that familiar with me."
"I'm sorry, would you rather I call you Kaiba like so many of your peers? Or would 'his royal majesty the Dragon Lord' suffice?" Fantastic, now she was mocking him. Kaiba stormed towards the door and swung it open, glaring at the woman directly in her rich brown eyes. Eyes that blinked at him and looked him over before she nodded in approval, "I'm glad the robes and armour fit so well on you, considering that we had them custom made with our tailors and smiths the moment you arrived. Now come; everyone is waiting."
Pegasus is going to die for this. Inwardly the murderous thoughts of Seto Kaiba brewed as he straightened, nodding and numbly following the strange woman until they were at a set of heavy, marble doors. As soon as they had arrived, said doors opened slowly, Kaiba blinking at the sight of three Blue Eyes White Dragons on the left side of the hall (along with an assortment of other creatures he assumed to also be dragons, he'd name them but that would be a waste of effort for a prank), familiar spell casters such as the Dark Magician, Silent Magician and the Magician of Black Chaos littering the other side of the hall. In the very center at the other end, however, was the most mind-boggling sight he had taken in all day; there, sitting in a massive throne, was Exodia the Forbidden One in its complete form. Even for Pegasus this was elaborate, hell even for his simulations it was completely ridiculous. In fact, in the teenager's shock he only just barely heard the words coming from the Black Luster Soldier's mouth.
"Dragons, Spell Casters, my great lord Exodia! Today, I present to you the fruits of the labours I have taken in the human world! Today, before you, is the candidate I believe can peacefully rule over the Dragon Tribe and bring unity to not only the dragons but to the entire Realm! Today, I bring before you... Seto Kaiba!"
Hey, Rizu here. If you've seen this up on here before, that's because I removed it and re-wrote the fic to get rid of the inconsistencies that it had before, as well as to fix the sentence structures I had problems with. And, as for where this is in the Yu-Gi-Oh time line... It's after the first group ends, just after all the stuff in Egypt is done and Atemu has gone to rest in peace if you couldn't catch that while reading the fic. And, lastly, I'm going with the anime versions of what has happened, meaning that Pegasus is STILL ALIVE (since he appeared in the Orichalcos Doom arc) and Kaiba went to Egypt and got sucked into Pharaoh Atemu's memory with everyone else. I know, chapter's on a cliff hanger, if this goes well then Chapter 2 (the re-write) shall be up too. Until then, stay frosty!