Terminal Projections
by Cryptographic DeLurk
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AN:
This is an AU, not only in the sense of altering the result of the Isis-Seto duel, but also in restructuring the Noa arc at my own whims. Expect a lot of manga canon, headcanon, and angst angst angst. It's… not a very pleasant story.
Chapter One
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She was different than Malik. Isis had not spent her entire life in the darkness. Which left just enough room for it to seep in, unnoticed.
"Mama! Mama!" she called, in Arabic, although she would be scolded later for not speaking in Coptic. She ran behind, climbing the stairs as fast as she could, and caught her mother at the trucks. She hadn't understood at the time, all the thought and precision and politics that kept the Ishtar Sect afloat – She would learn that later, very hastily, when Malik left and Isis made the bid for its leadership. All she knew was the way her mother laughed and caught her and had the servants pack her into the back of the trucks along with crates of ore and bundles of faintly smelling wool.
She waved to Rishid, beckoning.
"If you'd ask, mother would take you too!" she called. But Rishid smiled faintly and shook his head. Sometimes Rishid would not speak, and Isis would pout, annoyed.
Sometimes she thought Rishid was deaf and dumb, just like her father said.
Her mother explained later, as Isis basked in the sun, having already examined the stalls and having already heard the foreign wonders captured on the radios and televisions scattered throughout the marketplace.
"Your brother holds a good chance of becoming the leader of the Tombkeepers," her mother explained. "If he is to inherit the position, he must not leave the underground."
Isis pulled apart the skin of a mandarin orange. Her eyes were squinted shut. The sun was blinding, but it felt good.
"Rishid will not take over leadership," she said with finality. "Father does not like him."
"Ah, Isis, do not say that," her mother scolded.
It was probably Isis's first bit of foresight, far before she had taken the Necklace, and it proved to be entirely correct.
…
Isis did not know how the rest happened. She remembered her mother bending to the beat of a whip. She remembered her mother's death, and the ugly lump of a child she had left behind. Isis remembered the first time her father slapped her, and how large, red welts blossomed on her cheek. There was a softness to him that had been taken with the loss of her mother.
And they were correct, when they said that she took after him. Isis was always their father's daughter. Rishid was always their mother's son. And Malik was an unhappy mix of both.
Somehow all the light had left her, and it did not help to recall the afternoons in the market that had been lost.
She had been stumbling through the halls. It could have been in the middle of the day, or the middle of the night. But the blackness of the hall left it too daunting to traverse.
Rishid had caught her, falling into the wall. She had been groping her way along it, like a mole.
"Rishid," she said. "I cannot see where I'm going."
"I know, sister," he'd said.
He'd tried to wipe a tear off her cheek, but she pushed him away. She felt displeased that he was still insisting on their sibling relation, far after her father had made it clear that he was merely another servant.
(She hadn't called him brother again. Not until her father's death.)
It was not Rishid that would save her. It was the Necklace.
As soon as she put it on, she saw each and every footstep laid out for her. A shining beacon of light that caressed her feet, and urged her forward to life's one destination.
And it was such a relief to have light, to have motion – that she'd believed her own smile wholeheartedly, when she saw it dangling in the future, right in front of her.
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The pounding in Seto's head would not stop. He could not see properly. Images swam before him, interrupting his vision of the Duel Field. He wondered what it was about this woman's and her brother's and Yuugi's gold trinkets that seemed to prompt this response from him. His hallucinations had subsided since his early childhood, and the fact that they had made a re-emergence in his psyche following Death-T and his subsequent catatonia was somehow disheartening.
Perhaps they had simply drugged him. Although, no- Yuugi, at least, would not. Yuugi was more honourable than that.
His rationalisations did nothing to calm him though. His thoughts raced, questioning the 'why's and the 'how's and the 'why me's. His body shook violently.
The tabula spread out in front of him, and a woman lay limp in his arms, and, try as he might, he could not hide his terror.
"Obelisk!" he cried, willing the God to destroy the images. He closed his eyes, keen to hide from them, but they assaulted him even as Obelisk roared in anger. His torment could not erase what was right in front of him, and Seto imagined dashing the dead woman against the tablet and smashing her bones or, otherwise, holding her closer than he'd ever had the opportunity and letting his tears catch on her cheek. Seto, for just a second, found himself unable to determine reality.
When the dust settled, and the ring of the hallucinations had left from Seto's eyes and ears, he had no life points remaining. Isis was explaining how it had happened, how she had cleverly used some trap card or other to ensure Obelisk's destruction. But Seto was not listening.
There were gasps and cackles and other noises from outside the duelling ring as well. Isono was calling out the victor, keen to complete his job, even as his employer hunched over onto his knee, completely ruined. Seto could not pay attention to any of it.
Isis crossed the field to him.
"As I told you, your God has fallen," she said lightly. "It seems I was right to trust you with Obelisk. And, now, you will return him to me."
She held out her hand. And, for a second, Seto though she wished to help him to his feet. He snorted derisively, before he realised she only intended to take his God card. He would not hand it over subserviently.
Isis was not bothered by this, though. She reached over, and fingered the card left sitting on his Duel Disk. She did not hesitate, before ripping it from its slot. She waved it up, next to her head.
"I thank you, Seto Kaiba." She spoke his name in the Western fashion.
She might have bowed, but Seto wasn't sure.
If his company's stock traders were still working diligently in their offices, if his manufacturers were still producing Duel Disks in the factories, if his mansion was sitting warm and calm on his estate, and if his brother was standing safely, only a dozen or so metres away, shouting encouragement, Seto would not have known. In that moment, as Isis ripped Obelisk away from him, Seto had lost his entire world. He was plunged into the brightest freefall he'd ever experience. Seto immediately looked to the cards in his hand, and found there a Blue Eyes White Dragon he had somehow missed.
He swiftly reordered the cards in his hand, arranging the Blue Eyes on top, and pressed it to his chest. And he pretended, the best that he could, that the ache in his heart and the keen sense of loss were only the product of losing Obelisk.
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The walk of shame still haunted him, curled up later in his private room at the head of the blimp.
The set of stairs he faced, walking down from the duelling field, was short, but it seemed a miracle he didn't trip and fall to his doom. Yuugi was waiting for him at the bottom, standing back at a safe distance, even as Mokuba rushed forward to meet him.
Seto pushed his brother aside. He wouldn't be coddled.
Yuugi stood, arms pulled close to him. He looked regal and majestic, and much taller than his diminutive form should have. His lip curled downward. He almost looked… disappointed.
"Kaiba…" he said softly.
Seto brushed past him.
On Yuugi's other side was Jounouchi, and Seto prepared himself for the inevitability of the taunts.
Nyeh, heh~ Who's the loser mutt now?
But nothing could prepare him for the actuality that he faced.
Jounouchi inhaled deeply to speak, but then his chest deflated. He looked down at his feet, and then back up to Seto.
Fuck. He was more disgusting and disgraced than he thought, if the only emotion he could pull from the mutt was pity.
The rest of them were lined up to, but Seto couldn't take it anymore. The girl, Mazaki, opened her mouth to speak, but Seto brushed past. His stride widened. And then he was running. He felt their laughter following him, even though the only sound that made it to his ears was silence.
He ran all the way to his room, and locked the door. And he was still running, although he lay immobile under his sheets.
He could hear them pass by, on the edge of his consciousness.
A longing call.
Nii-sama. Nii-sama!
A voice that was hesitant only at the beginning. It blossomed into a strong tremor, and a firm knock.
Kaiba-kun? Are you in there?!
A loud and persistent pounding fist, finally punctuated with a vicious kick at the door panel.
Oi, Kaiba! Open up!
Seto ignored all of them. He was spiralling.
Defeated in the quarter-finals of his own tournament. A laughing stock.
This loss – a loss against a delusional foreign girl!
Magic, she'd said! Like just any fool would believe that!
And now, the rest of his worth was in her hands. If she lost only to Yuugi, his current place in the ranks would still be secure. But if she took her victory against him and lost to Malik or, heaven forbid, Jounouchi-?!
A single loss was opening the door to a thousand more.
How could he explain this? Least of all to himself?
How could Seto explain stepping off the duelling platform, with the Blue Eyes held close to him, and breathing? How could he explain running from them, like a child? How could he explain how his eyes hadn't panned over the side of the blimp, and drawn him in? He hadn't even considered flinging himself down to the Earth.
What a Disgrace!
Seto laughed bitterly into his pillow.
What could he do now?
If Seto was going down, he was taking the rest with him. Isis and her psychopathic brother. Yuugi and all his insufferable friends. Bakura with his ring. It would serve them right, for upstaging him like this.
He could sabotage the blimp. Make it crash.
No, but Mokuba.
He had to make it to the Duel Tower, at least. He'd bury himself in the ruins of Alcatraz, along with the rest of the filth. He'd start the detonation process early, and pretend to oversee the tournament as the clock ran out. And he'd send Mokuba back to the blimp, and give Isono the instruction to leave.
It would be the end.
He laughed, and drifted in and out of consciousness. He felt light-headed at the prospect of his revenge. He felt light-headed at the joy and finality to his failure.
He'd made it – all the way to the end of the line.
He stayed there, curled up through it all. So lost in delusion was he, that he did not even notice when the blimp shook, and changed course, and ran into the water. He did not hear the commotion, beyond the raging voices in his own head. And he did not realise the ship had been breached until they knocked down his door.
He sat up abruptly, ready to shout at Mokuba, or whoever had broken through the metal. But it was only a robotic drone.
A drone that aimed a laser gun at him. It forced him to rise and exit the room.
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It was relatively quiet in the medical bay. That's what Isis told herself, as the water flew up over the windows, and they were plunged off-course towards the underwater fortress.
Shizuka had dropped Mai's hand, and run to the window to watch. She trembled and shivered, as fishes swam past, fighting tireless and futile against the unnatural currents caused by the plunge of the blimp.
Isis didn't need to look. She shuffled her cards in her palm.
In her own way, she felt the impulse to chastise Seto Kaiba's foolishness. Of course he should have known better than to trust the waters surrounding Alcatraz. The Kaiba family had been responsible for the construction of many hidden naval bases, and there could be no better place to locate them than in an unbroken chain.
But, then, not everybody could have such unclouded sight as her, Isis allowed, as she pressed a pair of fingers to her necklace.
There was no other way to knock Malik into his senses. Despite herself, she felt badly about leaving Rishid without supervision. Even though she already knew.
She already knew what she had to do.
"Miss Isis!" Shizuka cried. "What's going on? My brother-!"
Isis shuffled her cards one last time, and rose stiffly. She was not surprised, when she flipped the top card to reveal Obelisk, the Tormentor.
Shizuka was pacing through the med bay, torn between the door, and the bedside seat. She stomped over cords and past a line of IVs, and her hair swung against the medical charts posted to the wall.
"Mai-san…" Shizuka whimpered longingly, before turning back to the door once more.
Isis walked up to her. She swayed her hips deeply, as she waltzed up to Shizuka.
"Miss Kawai," she addressed, pulling right in front of Shizuka. "May I entrust you with a favour?"
This was merely a formality. Shizuka would prove to be trustworthy in spite of herself, just like Seto before her.
"Miss Isis," Shizuka pleaded, wide-eyed, before a seriousness took ahold of her. "Miss Kawai is my mother's name."
Isis smiled. "Shizuka-chan… Please take this."
She reached down for Shizuka's hand. She held it tightly, just feeling the familiar touch of skin, before she clasped her deck into Shizuka's hand. Obelisk was curled on top, facing upwards.
Shizuka's face held incomprehension.
"You must be very scared," Isis allowed.
The lights in the med bay flickered, as if on cue.
Shizuka shivered, but Isis's hand held her up, at a safe distance.
"But I can promise you," Isis said, "that you and your brother will make it out of this okay."
Well, at least in an immediate sense.
Isis tried not to let her eyes pan over to Mai's unconscious figure, lest the absence of her name from this statement become obvious.
Shizuka eyes focused and unfocused, torn between her doubts and her faith. She might be conflicted, but Isis knew her performance in her duel with Seto, had been enough to impart upon the others the omnipotence of her words.
"You must hold onto these cards, and give them to the Pharaoh upon his return," Isis bade.
Shizuka looked down at Obelisk. "B-But aren't these your cards, Miss Isis?"
The corner of Isis's eye crinkled. The corner of her mouth turned upwards.
"You must keep them safe," she said. She pulled back, and smiled more fully when Shizuka's fingers gripped around her deck. "You may not understand now, Shizuka. But there is a great danger approaching, and a great evil in my brother's body, that will lurk these halls in our absence."
She advanced, and Shizuka flushed as Isis put a hand over her shoulder, and led her back to Mai's side.
"But you will remain safe, if you stay here," Isis said. "If you lay at her side, the drones will overlook your presence… You will stay here and look after Miss Kujaku. And, even if you are hungry, or restless, or afraid, you will not leave the med bay. And you will be reunited in time with your brother."
Shizuka shivered. "I don't understand," she said. "What's happening to the blimp?"
"You don't understand," Isis agreed, "but you will."
Shizuka held herself firmly, cards clasped between her hands.
Isis pulled back the covers. Mai's skin looked wan and pale, and it spilled out of her loosed corset, piqued by the wires where the electrocardiogram attached to her chest.
"How long?" Shizuka finally said. "How long until I have answers?"
You waited over six years for answers once – didn't you, Shizuka?
Shizuka was stronger than the others, Isis knew.
"Only a day or two," Isis placated. "You'll be here, only a day and a half… Sleeping for most of it would probably be best."
"And what do I do when I need to use the bathroom?"
Isis glanced pointedly down, to where a bedpan lay underneath Mai's mattress.
Shizuka sighed, but it was a sigh that held less tension than any gesture Isis had ever made. It was soft and pink and light.
Shizuka turned and sat down on the mattress next to Mai. She swivelled her feet up, blue Velcro shoes still on, and laid down. She turned on her side and pressed her chest into Mai's arm.
Isis nodded and pulled the covers up over her.
"This feels creepy," Shizuka whimpered. "She's not warm. She doesn't move at all. I can barely feel her breathing. And I'm holding her… It's creepy."
"I know," Isis agreed. She indulged in a little sentimentality, and pressed the covers under Shizuka's shoulder, tucking her in.
There was a rattle, a pounding at the door.
Isis turned, leaving the covers half undone.
Future Isis was already waiting, standing facing the door. Isis hurried to meet herself. The Necklace lighted her steps, and her feet kept exactly within the boundaries.
She arrived at her spot just in time. The entrance to the med bay burst open, and Isis stood rooted in just the right spot the entire time, like she'd been waiting.
She had.
There were two drones, and one stood down, but the other misfired its laser, off-target. Something behind Isis fell and crashed to the ground.
To Shizuka's credit, she stayed quiet. She didn't flinch, didn't say a word.
Isis didn't bother to look back.
"I believe you were searching for me, Mr Kaiba," she said, as the camera lenses on the drones focused in on her form. "Are we ready to depart?"
In the hall, she ran into Seto Kaiba captured by a drone's clawing arm, restrained and threatened, with the point of a laser aimed at his head. He was being marched down the hall and out of the aircraft along with Isis, who merely walked of her own volition.
She nodded to him politely.
His eyes were wide and crazed, though. And he only growled and sneered when he noticed her attention.
"Mokuba! Mokuba!" he shouted through the hall. He stumbled, when the drones pushed him forward and twisted his arm. "WHERE'S MOKUBA?!"
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Mokuba had already been led off the blimp, and was waiting in the central room of the unknown base. He'd directed the pilots the best he could, but their controls had been hacked by a remote system, and the blimp's landing sequence had started without their input. And Seto was the computers expert, not Mokuba.
I'm really sorry about this. I'm really sorry, he'd wanted to say, but he had bitten his tongue and Isono had put a protective hand on his shoulder. And Mokuba knew he had his own burdens as a Kaiba, and that meant not showing weakness by apologising for his failures.
He wished Isono was still with him now, but the blimp had been invaded by drones, and the voice on the PA commanded them to disembark – not all of them – just Mokuba and Yuugi and his friends.
Now, in the absence of both his brother and Isono, Mokuba was huddled behind Yuugi. Yuugi had always been nice to him, ever since he'd saved Mokuba from the Sensation of Death. And even before then, if Mokuba really thought about it.
Yuugi let Mokuba hold onto the back of his jacket, and didn't make fun of Mokuba or call him a child for it. And it was nice. And Jounouchi was standing behind them, covering Mokuba's other side. And Jounouchi was tall and tough and voicing every whiny concern that came into his head. So it had the double-positive effect of making Mokuba feel protected, and also comparatively superior and tough for his ability to conceal his worries.
"Aw, man. I hope Shizuka's okay," Jounouchi fretted.
"You think you're worried about whether Shizuka-chan's okay?" Honda said. "I'm worried about whether or not Shizuka-chan's okay."
"Excuse me," Otogi cut in. "I believe I-"
"I'm her brother, you dipshits!" Jounouchi raged. "I'm the one that gets to be most worried!"
"I can't believe," Anzu seethed. "That you guys are fighting about girls, when we were just led out of the blimp at gunpoint."
Nobody said anything for a moment.
"Eh~" Otogi shrugged. "I think we were just trying to lighten the mood."
The fact that they had all been through worse went unsaid.
"I wasn't tryin' to lighten the mood," Jounouchi frowned. He swung his hands behind his head. "I just don't know what's going on back at the blimp." His eyes seemed very large and watery for a minute. "First Mai and then- If anything happens to Shizuka because she came to cheer me on…"
Mokuba's lips pursed. He didn't think his worry was showing on his face, but Anzu took the opportunity to prove otherwise. She bent down and rested her hands on her knees so she could look Mokuba in the eyes.
"Are you worried about your brother, too?" she asked.
Mokuba felt his face scrunch. He tried to look away, but Yuugi's had turned his head over his shoulder, and was also looking down questioningly at Mokuba.
"Yeah, how you holdin' up, kid?" Jounouchi asked from his other side.
Mokuba pulled away from Yuugi ever-so-slightly. He glanced at the unresponsive drones holding sentry at the door, bit his lip, and deflected.
"I'm sure Nii-sama is okay," he lied. "He was just feeling a bit tired after… after last night is all. Anyhow, he wouldn't let a bunch of robots get to him. I'm sure he already has a plan to get us out of this."
Jounouchi snorted. He'd never liked reminders that Mokuba was not exactly prone to childish indulgence, the way other kids his age were. "Wouldn't count on it," he grumbled.
"Well, I wouldn't expect you to know, idiot," Mokuba snapped.
Jounouchi bristled. He took out his frustration by reaching forward and roughly messing up Mokuba's hair.
"No! Jounouchi! Stop!" Mokuba protested, as long black strands flew into his face.
"Yeah, that'll teach ya, you brat!" Jounouchi snorted humourlessly.
Yuugi smiled slyly. "Jounouchi, weren't you the one, along with my partner, who went to check on Kaiba last night?"
"Ergh~" Jounouchi's face pulled into a tight scowl.
Anzu sighed. "What I'm trying to say is, shouldn't we be focussing on how we got into this situation, and how we're going to get out of it?" She toed her sandals against the metal plated floor. Testing it.
Mokuba frowned. The construction of the base seemed familiar: the grey hexagonal panelling, the advanced weaponry, the broad tempered glass windows, and the discreet branding in the bottom left-hand corner of the fixtures. Mokuba didn't want to say, but he'd been in enough of Kaiba Corp's military headquarters to have strong suspicions about the design.
But Seto had decommissioned all of them. Or he was supposed to have had.
"Hmm," Yuugi said ponderously. "Do you have any ideas, Mokuba?" He smiled guilelessly.
"Hn." Mokuba clicked his tongue. His own transparency was rapidly losing its charm.
"What I'm saying," Jounouchi persisted, "is how do we know Kaiba wasn't behind all of this?"
Mokuba waited for somebody to jump to his brother's defence. For a second, it looked like Anzu was about to.
"Mokuba," she said tentatively, "you're… sure this isn't the location your brother had for the tournament finals?"
Mokuba bristled. "Absolutely not!" he said. "The plan was to continue on to Alcatraz!"
"Yea-? And how do you know he didn't change plans on you?" Jounouchi questioned. "Especially after last night."
"Nii-sama wouldn't-" Mokuba started, "-not like this. Nii-sama, wouldn't do it with robots and guns. He'd never put me in danger like that! Wouldn't ever hurt me like that!"
"Oh, yea-?" Jounouchi asked. He leaned down, to look Mokuba intimidatingly in the eye. "Wanna try again without the lies, brat?"
Otogi was prodding Honda's shoulder.
"Hey, back off, Joey," Honda said. "He's just a kid."
Jounouchi stood and held his hands up in defence. "Hey, I'm just saying," he said. "Kaiba's crossed that line once already."
Mokuba puffed his cheeks. He was angry, but he couldn't make himself pull further away from the comforting presence of Yuugi's jacket.
Alright, let's get this show on the road, shall we?
The window panels at the front of the base slammed shut, blocking out the sun. The overhead lights flashed, and went out. There was a snap, like the clicking joints of someone's fingers.
Mokuba clutched Yuugi's jacket more tightly.
"What's going on?!" Anzu said, into the dark.
"W-What's going on?" Honda echoed her. Except, where Anzu had managed her question with firmness and fearlessness, Honda's voice trembled dissonant in the darkness.
The lights flashed again, and an eerie turquoise projection swam against the wall. Five figures emerged.
Mokuba blinked.
"Y-you guys!" Jounouchi yelped, pointing wildly. "Er- What're their names again?" he said, puzzled. "The 'Oo-' family?" he tried. "Kaiba's old goons."
"That's the Big Five to you, Joey Wheeler-san." The artificial light gleamed off Ooka's glasses.
Mokuba's eyes narrowed. He hoped Yuugi would speak up, but when he didn't Mokuba resigned himself. He stepped out of Yuugi's shadow, and cleared his throat.
"Ooshita – legend in business strategizing," Mokuba began, gesturing to the far left.
"Ootaki – our once chief number cruncher.
"Ooka – former head of the Kaiba Corp legal department.
"Oota – former chief of research and networking."
Mokuba's eyes raked over each one, in turn. But he paused on the last of the group. It was the only one he knew personally. The only one he'd felt the betrayal of.
"And Daimon Kogorou, Seto's chief advisor." Mokuba could not meet his eyes, but he gathered his voice and looked back towards the start of the group. "Kaiba Corp's former Board of Directors, collectively known as the Big Five."
The Directors smiled menacingly.
"Eh~" Jounouchi shot in. "That's kinda hard to remember. I feel like 'Oo-' family was better… Yanno, like 'O face'?"
When nobody reacted, Jounouchi felt the need to clarify.
"Yanno, orgasm fac- Yeek!" he screeched, as Anzu stomped on his foot.
"Can you be serious for five seconds?!" she demanded.
Most of the Big Five did not seem amused, but Ootaki laughed.
"Young Jounouchi's disrespect will hardly matter, once we take your bodies for our own~!"
This pronouncement seemed to fall flat.
"Excuse me- What?" Otogi coughed.
"You will never take our bodies!" Yuugi announced suddenly. He whipped his jacket up so it flared behind him, and Mokuba flinched.
"No, but- What?" Otogi tried again.
"Ah, ha ha," a voice laughed.
The monitors in the base flashed. A face appeared, staring down at them from all angles.
"Hey!" Jounouchi protested. "So much for this not being Kaiba's fault!" The light from the monitor fell unevenly across Jounouchi's face, and Mokuba could see his face wince and pull into an absurd caricature. "Or… Kaiba-with-a-really-bad-dye-job's fault," he scoffed.
It was true. Mokuba turned back to the monitors. The face was the same long, pinched face of his brother. Complete with premature wrinkles, ghastly pale lips, and a weight that betrayed an age far beyond teenage adolescence.
The only difference was the deep turquoise bangs that framed his face.
"Oh?" the not-Seto on the screen smiled charmingly. "Mokuba did such a good job introducing the rest of our players, you'd think he'd know who I was?" Not-Seto's eyes panned over to where Mokuba stood, hand still wrapped in Yuugi's jacket. "Well?" he prodded.
Mokuba faltered.
He had no idea who this doppelganger was.
"I-It doesn't matter!" Mokuba announced. He laughed derisively. "Feh~ What can you guys do?! The Big Five? Yuugi and Nii-sama already defeated you in Legendary Heroes!" He let go of Yuugi's jacket, and waved an arm down confidently. "I'm sure Nii-sama will have you sent away in no time! I'm sure he's about to save us! Right now!" He crossed his arms and grinned smugly up at the screen.
Not-Seto laughed. "I wouldn't count on it," he said.
The monitors went out, as the entrance door opened, and slammed shut again. Two figures had been shoved into the room.
"M-kuba!" came a hoarse cough from one of the figures, but it was nearly drowned out.
"Shizuka!" Jounouchi cried. He and Honda rushed over, to where the figures were deposited. Jounouchi successfully helped one of them to their feet, into the phosphorescent light provided by the projections. The other person waved Honda away angrily.
Jounouchi deflated. "Oh, it's that Egyptian chick…" he said, clutching her hand. "Ishtar-neesan… And the regular, brown-haired Kaiba," he added, unimpressed.
Seto snarled. He was struggling to stand but, when Honda went to catch him, he pushed Honda away and fell back to his knees.
Isis paused. She gathered herself primly, and pulled her hand away.
She did not smile, but she nodded slightly to Jounouchi.
"Your sister will be fine. You'd do better not to worry about her."
"Oh- Uh-?" Jounouchi floundered.
He was interrupted, when Seto made it to his feet. His eyes found Mokuba, and he calmed immediately.
And then he caught sight of the pale projection of the Big Five on the wall.
"Oh, it's you," he snarled carelessly. "I suppose I should have known I'd be running into you guys sooner or later."
Mokuba wanted to break away, and run for his brother. But Yuugi grabbed his shoulder, and held him back.
"Why is that, Kaiba?" Yuugi asked.
Seto's eyes panned sideways. They did not meet anyone – not even Mokuba.
"When I couldn't locate their data files, after our misstep with the Legendary Heroes beta, I figured they'd transferred themselves to a remote system." Seto laughed. His face pulled into a grin. "If it was me, I would want revenge."
Anzu's voice came through the dimmed room.
"What would they want revenge for?" she said. "They were the ones who were in the wrong. They can't have been surprised you fired them."
Seto scoffed. "Well, it's quite difficult to fire a bunch of corpses."
This sank in for a moment.
"Oh, god-" Anzu shivered.
Mokuba shivered too, although he pretended not to. He hoped Yuugi, who was still holding onto his shoulder, had not noticed.
The Big Five were not amused.
Daimon was the one to speak. He cleared his throat.
"I assume it was difficult," he accused, "to cover-up the deaths of your entire Board of Directors."
"Hardly," Seto scoffed. "My Board of Directors decided to test out an unstable prototype." He shrugged. "They understood the risks. It's a shame the electric short-circuited while they were in their VR pods~"
"You murdered us," Daimon said.
"I don't know what you expected me to do." Seto shrugged. "You were all comatose. I couldn't locate your psyches in the Kaiba Corp database. I figured for a bunch of losers, death was more than fitting… Not to mention you tried to kill me first." He grinned.
"Yes." Daimon smiled. "We also tried to kill a loser."
For the first time since the conversation began, Seto frowned.
"If it's between the two of us, I know who the bigger loser is!" Seto retorted wildly. "What are you going to do? Use our bodies to return to the physical plane?" he mocked. "Not likely! I've already defeated you once- I doubt the five of you could defeat a kitten!"
"Yeah!" Jounouchi and the others cheered.
"Oh, but it's not just them," the voice cut in. "You'll have to go through me too, Seto."
Seto's eyes widened. They panned the room.
They hit on Mokuba again, and Seto's shoulder tightened. For a minute he looked like he was going to run forward. But his eyes only lingered briefly, before turning away, and returning to scan the rest of the room.
"Ha, ha, ha!" Not-Seto reappeared on the monitors.
"You!" Seto bellowed, accusingly.
"Me," not-Seto, responded. He tilted his head, and smiled.
"Kaiba, who is that?" Yuugi prompted.
"It looks exactly like you," Jounouchi pointed out obviously.
Mokuba rolled his eyes. Nobody else paid Jounouchi any attention.
Seto shook his head. He clenched his fists, and refused to answer.
"A ghost," Isis offered.
Everyone turned to her. Mokuba had forgotten she was in the room.
"I'm sure we can clear the rest up at a later time," not-Seto shrugged. "But for now-"
There were a pair of screams – masculine. Mokuba couldn't tell who they belonged to. They seemed to be coming from further away, as time wore on.
Anzu's came next. It was much more recognisable.
"Honda!" Jounouchi cried. "Anzu!"
"For now, you're in my world," not-Seto concluded. All the monitors went out, except for one. He grinned viciously into it, before he and the Big Five faded away.
"Niisama!" Mokuba cried. He broke away from Yuugi, and ran to his brother.
"Mokuba!" Seto responded.
For a second he actually looked like the cool older brother Mokuba remembered. He reached out an arm to catch Mokuba.
But then the world fell out from under Mokuba, before he could reach Seto.
"Mokuba!" Mokuba heard Seto scream.
"Neh-eh-eh," not-Seto's voice tisked. "This is my world, remember? If you want something…"
You'll have to fight for it!
.
.
Seto woke up lying face up in the jungle. Moisture was seeping into his back. His hands were caked with mud, and he groped the ground, and then then up his clothes. It took him a second to realise he must be getting his white coat all dirty.
He blinked his eyes open.
The world was blood red.
He squeezed his eyes closed again, counted to three, and tried again.
Yes, colours were rendering correctly this time.
He sat up. He was surrounded by plants with large, waxy, green leaves.
He resisted the impulse to curl up on the ground.
All he wanted to do was lie down and forget. But he had to find Mokuba now. Seto'd long since been resigned to the fact that there was no safe place for a man like him.
But how did Mokuba keep getting dragged into these dangerous situations? Mokuba had never done anything to deserve this.
He just inhaled and exhaled for a moment. Then he stood.
He pressed his nails into his palm.
Pain, he registered. An advanced simulation.
He pulled his hand up to his face. He could smell the heady, earthy mud on his hand too. Humans were not highly attuned to olfactory input, the way they were to visual input, and it was often ignored in simulations.
A very advanced simulation.
Seto grumbled.
He saw something move out of the corner of his eye and turned up.
A Pterodactyl swung low, into a glimpse of blue sky between the two trees.
The Tithonian Age Simulation.
Faaantastic…
Seto stood. His boots were sinking into the mud. He cinched the buckles on his arms and legs, and darted behind a tree.
The tree was solid, just as the ground and leaves had been. The dinosaurs were usually only rendered visually, instead of in solid vision, but no doubt they could be solid, if somebody on a higher plane wished them to be. Seto could handle a lot of pain, and it would take a lot of pain to kill him via a simulation, but that didn't mean he was going to go out of his way to get mauled by a Pterodactyl.
"Having fun, Seto?"
Seto spun around.
He hadn't been there a moment ago. At least not within a measurement of approximately two tenths of a second.
How fast was this computer?
"You!" Seto lunged. He pulled automatically into a Tae Kwon Do stance, and leapt up to deal a high kick to the assailant.
The man stepped out of range or, rather, phased out of range. Seto pursued, but he stumbled on the uneven ground. It seemed like he wouldn't be able to get close enough, with the teleportation effect the man was using.
"Tae Kwon Do?" the man said. "Really? You should at least choose Judo or Aikido. Choosing a Korean martial art when you're Japanese is unseemly."
"Shut it!" Seto coloured. His legs always had been unproportionately long, and best suited for martial arts with a focus on kicking.
That reminded him.
"And stop using my body," Seto said. "The colour swap on my hair looks ridiculous," he snarled.
"Mmm, I could use my natural hair colour." The man's hair switched automatically to deep brown. "But, then, how would anyone tell us apart."
It was like looking in a mirror.
"Stop. Stop!" Seto cringed. He squeezed his eyes shut.
The man laughed. It was a laugh that sounded too familiar for Seto's liking.
When Seto opened his eyes, the man's hair was green again.
"Don't be like that, Seto," the man said. "Aren't you happy to see me? I'm all grown up now."
"No," Seto said curtly, "I am all grown up now, and you're using my grown-up anatomy as a model for your own render." Seto frowned. "You never grew up… You're dead," he added for good measure.
The man laughed again.
"Not as dead as you'd like, though," he sneered.
"No," Seto grumbled.
If I'd had my way, you wouldn't be dead at all. You'd be alive and as far away from me as possible.
The man was laughing again, loud and crazed. It seemed like it was taking forever, and Seto finally lunged forward to attack – thinking maybe he could catch the man off guard this time.
He could not. The man phased away, and reappeared at a safe distance away.
"Neh-eh-eh," the man said, waggling a finger smugly. He shook his head. "I don't see why you feel the need for this, Seto. This is not a martial arts tournament. You needn't stoop to hand-to-hand combat."
"Hn," Seto growled. He was stooped down, holding himself up at the knees. He stood up tall. "I'm not about to give in without a fight," he snarled.
"I wouldn't expect you to," the man shrugged. "In fact, I'm willing to do this on what is going to look remarkably like your terms."
Seto eyed him warily. "My terms?"
"Magic & Wizards," the man smiled. "It's what you built this world for, isn't it?"
Silence seemed to stretch out between them.
Seto ground his feet into the mud. He looked up at the Pterodactyl in the sky.
"Fine," he grit out. He may have lost to Yuugi and that woman, but he didn't have another game of choice. "If you want to duel, let's duel!"
Seto wrung his hand out straight. He searched his coat for his cards.
The man laughed. "Patience~" he said smugly. "I went through so much trouble to get you here~ You might as well look around first."
Seto searched his pockets more fervently. He turned them out frantically. He couldn't find his identification, or check book, or system access cards, or taser, or – most importantly – his deck. Of course it made sense that the tools he was allowed access to in this world would be limited, but-
"Ha!" he cheered, when he turned out his last pocket. His three Blue Eyes White Dragon cards revealed themselves.
But, as soon as he'd gotten ahold of them they faded away.
"Dragon Capture Jar!"
Seto watched. He moved his hands to grasp, as the three cards disintegrated into orbs of light, and shot into the jar that had appeared in front of the man across from him. The snarling visage on the face of the jar laughed at him.
"No! Blue Eyes!" he called, lunging forward.
First Obelisk. And now this!
"No," the man said simply. "I don't think we'll be bothering with your Blue Eyes in my version of Magic & Wizards." The purple trap card that he held, outstretched in his hand, faded, and the Dragon Capture Jar along with it. "In fact, there are all sorts of interesting new rules. I'm sure you'll have fun figuring them out."
"Fun?!" Seto snarled.
"Fun," the man agreed simply. "But we'll see to that later. Why don't you run off and go find Mokuba?" He suggested. "He's not far from you at the moment. I won't make it difficult for you to find him this time."
"You little worm," Seto growled. "You are atrociously not clever."
"Suit yourself," the man shrugged. "No matter what you do, I have you right where I want you."
That was the last thing the man said, before he phased out. Seto watched him go, disgusted.
He stood in the jungle for a second. He turned his head up into the sky. He couldn't see the Pterodactyl anymore.
Noa was right about one thing. He was trapped. He had absolutely no control of his environment, here. He was not able to decide how close or far any destination was. He had no control over where he went and what he saw. And he could not call on his faithful servant, the Blue Eyes, so long as it did not suit Noa. Another loss seemed close at hand.
He could just lie down here, in the jungle and the mud. It hardly seemed worth it to move.
But, no, there was still a force calling him. A force more powerful than faith or destiny. More powerful, even, than victory and defeat.
Mokuba, he croaked. And he set out.