And So We Meet Again
A Sanctuary/Yu-Gi-Oh Story
Chapter 1: A Decade Gone By!
~Tokyo Sanctuary, West Wing Tower, Tokyo, Japan~
Yugi Muoto stood on the Tokyo's Sanctuary's west wing tower over looking the outskirts of Tokyo, the wind blowing his tri-colored spiky hair, deep in reflection. A lot had changed for Yugi since he became the true "King of Games" that fateful day after sending Atemu on his way to the afterlife. After he became true Duel Monsters Champion, a battle game played with various "monster", "trap", and "magic" cards, he graduated from Domino High with Honors and soared through an accelerated Medical School program at Tokyo University to become a psychologist, however despite his high grades and class standing Yugi was having trouble landing and keeping a job after graduating. He was quite headstrong and many of his theories were controversial. But, than again considering Yugi had spent the greater part of his freshman, sophomore, and junior years of high school being the host of a 3,000 year old Egyptian Pharaoh (Atemu) thanks to the Millenium Puzzle, along with the adventures and challenges they faced during those times, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Also, Yugi took after his grandfather in terms of being open to more "fringe" theories and explanations.
Yugi's struggles ended when he was recruited by Takeshi Nakomori, head of the Sanctuary Network's Tokyo branch and offered an internship. Upon accepting the internship, Yugi found a group of people in which he felt he belonged again. After graduating high school, Yugi and his circle of friends had gone their separate ways: Anzu to the US for dance school, Jounochi to be with his sister and Honda, well Yugi'd rather not think about what happened to Honda.
Anyways, let's just say since high school, Yugi hadn't really found a group of people he could call friends until he took the internship Nakomori had offered him. Having Chewbacca for a butler took some getting used to, but overall Yugi enjoyed his job as the Tokyo Sanctuary's psychologist very much. Taking this job had also allowed him to learn that his late grandfather Sugoroku Muoto had worked as a consultant for his workplace on numerous occasions. Yugi had also learned the monsters in the other world that Dartz had opened a portal to many years ago did not all return to their world nor was that world the only one in which they existed. Many of them lived in this world right along side the Earth's inhabitants and some of these monsters or abnormals as Yugi would now call them, could use the Duel Monsters cards Pegasus created as a portal between worlds. This was the case when Yugi's long time rival, Seto Kaiba had torn his grandfather's Blue Eyes White Dragon card in half. As a result, the dragon was freed and released into this world. This was one of those times Sugoroku had worked for the Sanctuary Network to help deal with the freed Blue Eyes, for both it's and the people's safety. Now, Yugi helped do the same thing with many other abnormals.
~KaibaCorp Building, Domino City, Japan~
KaibaCorp CEO Seto Kaiba was busy typing away on his laptop. He was CEO of Japan's largest gaming company and one of the most powerful people in all of Japan. Yet, he still felt the need to be fixing notes from his latest business meetings. He always found these meetings boring and dull despite their necessity. This particular one was no exception and he usually ended up being more productive on his own anyways. He was correcting current stock price numbers, when he saw the silent alarm for the basement flash out of the corner of his eye. 'That's odd. How would anyone get past the other alarms just to set this one off? And more importantly, why would a thief care about what was in that safe? I only have my Duel Monsters card collection in there,' Seto thought to himself as he switched to video surveillance. His eyes widened at what he saw: His trump cards, three Blue Eyes White Dragons, appeared to be 'floating' themselves out of the room and into the elevator! Was his mind playing tricks on him? Perhaps he really should take Mokuba's advice about not staying late at work so often. At any rate, the only way to find out was to go check it out himself and see if his three Blue Eyes cards were still in his collection.
Seto grabbed his gun and started to head out of his office, but not before noticing more strange surveillance footage. Seto watched as his Blues Eyes cards put themselves into a small bag and than a near by ventilation pipe covering started undoing itself. After the pipe was uncovered, a masked man appeared out of nowhere and proceeded to squeeze themselves into the pipe. 'Did someone put something in my drink?' Seto wondered as he made his way out of his office and towards the basement.
The first thing Seto checked out was the vent pipe. To his dismay, the scene was looking more and more like he hadn't hallucinated the whole thing. He bent down to find one of his Blue Eyes cards lying on the floor. 'Who ever did this must have been in a hurry," the young CEO concluded as he continued on toward the vault which held his card collection. Again, the blue-eyed, brown-haired CEO found a scene that did not please him. Not only was his card collection in tact, minus the two stolen Blue Eyes, but the thief left very little evidence of a crime or how they managed to escape! "Damnit, you bastard!" Seto screamed out loud as he slammed the vault door closed. He narrowed his eyes in frustration and anger. "Nobody steals from Seto Kaiba and gets away with it! I WILL find you, who ever you are and you WILL PAY!!!" Seto yelled, mostly to the air, when his cell phone rang. He took his phone out of his pocket and checked the caller ID. It was Mokuba, his younger brother.
"Where are you?" Headquarters again? I keep telling you," Mokuba started to say before Seto cut him off mid-sentence.
"Yes, I'm at headquarters and I'm not in the mood for a lecture from you," Seto shot back, still upset over his stolen Blue Eyes.
"Geez, sorry, what happened?" the younger Kaiba asked.
"Some bastard managed to steal tow of my Blue Eyes cards and escape! I have no idea how or why or even where to start!" the older Kaiba spat, clearly stressed over this.
"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can," Mokuba told his brother, before hanging up.
Seto made his way back up to his office. He grabbed his white sleeveless trench coat, put it on and headed towards the front doors of the building. It was considerably passed normal business hours and since he rarely used the front doors anyways, he figured no one, including the thief would expect him to do so now. He wanted to take a look around the exterior of the building for any clues as to whom the thief might be or work for or how they might have gotten away.
Meanwhile, a block or two away from KaibaCorp Headquarters, a black Toyota Prius dropped two mysterious looking people, a man and a woman, off at the side of the road.
"Thank you. Meet us back here in about an hour, the woman told the driver with a British accent. She had on a black fedora hat with a long black trench coat and black heels, while the man wore blue jeans with a blue button up shirt and a blue jean jacket. After the car drove off, the woman proceeded to give instructions to her male colleague. "He'll more than likely want to check the perimeter of the building for clues. We can intercept him when he comes around the corner. We tell him we saw a suspicious looking man leaving the building and that we might have information on whom the man works for," Helen told him.
"There he is," The male answered pointing in Seto's direction.
"Let's move out," the woman ordered and the pair headed towards Seto. Once they got close enough, the woman made the pair's presence known.
"You are the owner of this company, Seto Kaiba, are you not?" the woman asked the young CEO.
"Yes I am. How can I help you?" the young man answered.
"Actually, I believe it is us who would be of great assistance to you. We've been tracking a man we saw suspiciously leaving your company a few minutes ago. We have another member of our team chasing him down at this moment. You wouldn't happen to be missing any of these, would you?" the woman inquired as she showed Seto the same Blue Eyes card he ripped up in front of Yugi Muoto, his long time rival.
"Who are you and how did you get this?" Seto demanded.
"My name is Helen Magnus and this is my colleague, Dr. Will Zimmerman. I run a network of private research facilities around the world. One of these facilities happens to be in Tokyo. My colleagues and I have been tracking an organization that has been stealing and collecting cards like the one I just showed you. We've been attempting to put a stop to these incidents before they get out of hand," Helen explained.
"And what interest would a private research company have in an organization stealing Duel Monsters cards?" Seto asked, still unsure of the answer himself. He had listened to the woman's story with interest. She appeared to be quite frank and to the point, a quality he liked in potential business partners. She also made it clear that she could very well have valuable information on where his Blue Eyes cards might be. 'Damnit! Not now,' he thought to himself. He felt a particularly strong migraine coming on. He attempted to ignore it, trying to listen to Helen's response intently.
"To answer your question more accurately requires a change in scenery, more specifically the facility in Tokyo I was talking about earlier. However, I can tell you this: this organization will return for more than just cards if you are who I suspect you are," Helen explained again, noticing Seto was trying to hide his pain.
Will observed Seto closely throughout Helen's explanations. He noticed his muscles tense even more after asking what he and his boss would want with a card stealing thief. The young man was already tense from having been robbed, but his forehead muscles had tightened even more when he posed his question. 'All this stress must be giving him a bad headache,' Will concluded. Although Magnus had told him that Seto could very well be another abnormal, he didn't think the young man's current pain had anything to do with his potential abnormality.
Seto closed his eyes, trying to dull the pain now building in his head. He'd dealt with migraines before, but this was the sharpest one he had to date. He put one hand on his head and the other on the nearest wall to steady himself. Despite his best efforts, a cry of pain escaped through Seto's clenched teeth. He felt his consciousness start to slip as Mokuba's cries of "Nii-sama" and Helen's repeated questioning "Are you alright?" began to fade. Seto struggled to stay alert as his pounding migraine continued to worsen. When he couldn't take it anymore, he let out a final cry of pain before passing out in Mokuba's arms.
"What's wrong with him?" Mokuba asked Helen with worried eyes, still holding his brother in his arms.
"You must be Mokuba, Seto's younger brother, right?" Helen inquired.
"Yes, but what's wrong with him? He's had headaches before, even migraines, but never has passed out from one. I keep telling him not to stay late at work so often, but he never listens, always having to make sure everything is done right," Mokuba explained to them.
"Your brother will be alright. He is only unconscious now. However, we do need to get him to our facility in Tokyo as soon as possible," Helen told Mokuba. "I had hoped this wouldn't start until after he had gotten to our facility in Tokyo. He would at least been given some sort of explanation as to what's happening to him," Helen finished, looking Mokuba straight in the eyes.
Mokuba flinched as Helen's blue eyes met his own. For a second, it looked as if those eyes might be Seto's! It wasn't until Will gently put his hand on his shoulder, that he was brought out of his current daze. When Mokuba first saw them, he wasn't sure if they could be trusted. However, after observing Helen's interactions with his brother and now seeing the concern in her eyes, he knew they intended to help as best they could.
"Wait, are you saying this has something to do with his potential abnormality?" Will asked.
"Yes, I'm sure of it Will. I'll call our driver back and tell them to meet us here immediately," Helen informed Mokuba and Will as she sent a text message to their driver saying just that. Apparently the driver hasn't gone far in the first place and pulled up shortly after Helen sent the text. Helen took the front side passenger seat, Will the seat behind the driver, while Mokuba gently placed his brother in the car and took the seat next to him, putting his arms around Seto to help stabilize him better during the ride.
Mokuba looked down at the floor, worried about his brother's safety. While he knew both Helen and Will wanted to help Seto, he wasn't sure how much help they could give. "He's going to be alright, isn't he?"
"He should be, once he understands the changes he is currently going through. Your father's ability has been passed on to him and is activating," Helen responded.
"Our father's ability?" Mokuba asked, his brows furrowed in confusion.
"It would probably be best if we explained it all once, to the both of you," Will interjected.
"Okay," Mokuba replied. Mokuba looked over at his older brother. Seto usually looked quite peaceful when he slept, however with his head turning side to side and the grunts of pain that escaped his lips, Seto was clearly anything but peaceful.
"Ï agree with Will, Mokuba. Once we get to my facility in Tokyo and your brother is settled in and awake, we'll explain everything," Helen said, trying to reassure Mokuba.
"Looks like he's starting to calm down at least," Will commented, noticing that Seto's breathing was becoming less erratic and more relaxed.
Seto was slowly starting to regain consciousness. He was aware of someone else holding him and that he was cold and sweaty. He also found his migraine to be gone. However, in terms of how he had gotten this way, he remembered nothing. "What . . . What the hell!?" Seto stuttered as he blinked his eyes open.
"Nii-sama, you're awake!" Mokuba cried, happy to see his brother conscious.
"Would someone explain what the hell happened?" Seto demanded pulling himself out of Mokuba's arms. He was clearly annoyed that he did not have very much control over his current situation.
"NII-SAMA!! Calm down! You passed out while talking with these guys. You're lucky I found you in time to prevent you from hitting the pavement!" Mokuba scrolled his brother, not caring how annoyed Seto would be for getting a lecture again from his younger brother.
"Passed out!?" Seto questioned, shock in his eyes. He rarely, if ever passed out in front of anyone!
"Yes, I believe you out from a severe migraine," Helen added.
Helen's statement triggered something in Seto's memory. He was beginning to remember the events leading up to where he was now. Mokuba and Helen were right; he must have passed out from that really bad migraine he was having. Seto also began sensing something was different about him. He hadn't picked up on it until now, but something had certainly changed. Seto couldn't place what was different, although he knew somehow it had something to do the massive migraine he had just gotten through. Somehow, that migraine or whatever had caused it, had done something to him, changed him!
That particular realization sent shivers down his spine. Wait, was he scared? Was that fear the great Seto Kaiba felt? It had been a long time since he felt genuinely scared or terrified. He'd finally been able to lay to rest the horrible things his step-father had done to him. Hell, he even wasn't obsessed with beating Yugi in Duel Monsters anymore.
Much to his discomfort, Seto couldn't quite place exactly what it was that he was so afraid of. Was it that he didn't know what these changes were and how they'd effect him or was it that he knew for a fact, his safety and well-being were in the hands of these two strangers and their colleagues? Was it that he his life was about to take unseen turns on to unknown roads with uncertain destinations? Perhaps he feared all of the above or some combination? There were still too many questions Seto needed answered; too much he still didn't know or understand. "What's happening to me?" he asked Helen.
Helen asked the driver to pull over on to the side of the road and switched seats with Will. She thought it would be easier to explain things if she were sitting next to the brothers and since Seto was awake and had asked her to do some explaining, she thought she might as well start now. After the car was started up and heading towards the Tokyo Sanctuary, Helen spoke, "You're going through some changes."
"Specifics please," Seto requested.
"Your father's ability is being activated. And know that by father, I mean your real father, not that piece of trash step-father of yours," Helen answered Seto, looking him directly in the eyes.
For a moment, Seto flinched, as Mokuba had when Helen made eye contact with him. He, like his younger brother, noticed Helen's eyes held an eerie similarity to his own. "What happened to being frank and to the point?" Seto spat back without thinking before realizing exactly what Helen was saying. "Wait, you knew our real father?"
Helen looked down for a moment, knowing what she was about to reveal would more than likely not go over very well with either of the brothers. "You father and I have worked as colleagues for quite some time now."
Seto looked at Helen in disbelief. He had been alert enough to catch her use of present tense, instead of past, as she should have used, since their real father was dead. "You used present tense, instead of past tense, why? Our real father died in a car crash when I was six."
"I thought you might not take the news too well. Your real father is alive and well. He'll explain why in more detail when we reach the Tokyo Sanctuary. He did not die in the car crash as you were lead to believe. He didn't want to give you both up, but felt that for everyone's safety he had no choice," Helen stated.
Seto shook his head. He did not like what he was hearing at all. This woman had to be lying! Their real father would never give them up! "You're LYING!" Seto yelled.
"Believe me, I wish I were. I'm sorry you had to find out this way. ," Helen shot back with regret in her eyes. She wished the brothers wouldn't have to find out this way. Maybe she should have let Takeshi tell them himself? Than again, how would Seto have reacted after seeing a man he thought had died when he was six if she hadn't said anything at all?
Seto just stared at Helen dumb founded. He didn't know what to think right now, considering this almost never happened to him. In most situations, he was able to come up with something to say and quickly. What made it even harder was, even though he didn't like what Helen was telling him, he could tell she was sincere when she said it. The rational part of his brain told him this meant Helen was telling the truth: as far as she knew his real father was alive and well. But, if that was in fact true, than, why had their father gone through such trouble to fake in own death? Again, not much made any sense at all. There were too many variables to sort through before coming up with a rational explanation; an explanation which Seto was certain existed. "I'll believe you when I see it," Seto finally managed to say after regaining the composure his step father had engrained in him.