A/N: This was influenced by Silent Hill. It's not a direct crossover, exactly, but the idea was undeniably in the back of my mind when I created Terra Caligarum, so I have to say it. You know, as part of my disclaimer. See, I don't own the rights to Silent Hill or Yu-Gi-Oh, and I'm not making any money from these writings.
Three pairs of blue eyes stared down the raven-haired boy on the dueling platform. Silver teeth glimmered so realistically, it was easy to forget they were holograms. Mokuba's eyes slid down the length of the snarling, white dragons and landed on his side of the field. His lone monster hunkered in defense position. It was no match for the trio towering over it, snarling after the last few scraps of life points. His eyes continued to the cards in his hands. His brand new card peeped at him from between Monster Reborn and Lesser Fiend. Mokuba had been dying to test out that new card. Seto's deck had been programmed into his private dueling computer. On a last-minute whim, Mokuba had decided to see how the card measured up against his brother's deck, just for fun. Less than ten turns later, and with only one monster to sacrifice, it seemed his ambition would get him knocked out of the duel before he had a chance to play it. What would Seto do in a position like this? Perhaps he had a chance if he could find a way to send the monster to his graveyard… Mokuba held his breath and reached for his deck.
Success!
"I'll activate Graceful Charity," he said. Of course the computer didn't care if he announced his moves or not, but it was gaming etiquette when dueling a real opponent. After all that the younger Kaiba had witnessed, he'd decided that it might be fun to do more than officiate or cheer from the sidelines. "So I'll draw three cards and discard two."
Mokuba kept his dueling a secret. After each match, he erased the records from the computer. Maybe one day, when he was ready, he'd challenge his brother for real. He had no fantasies about beating the older Kaiba, but Mokuba was sure that if he practiced hard enough he'd be able to put up one hell of a fight. Then perhaps his brother would look at him with pride. Mokuba knew his brother loved him regardless, but he had never been a prodigy like Seto. He'd never been tough, driven, and determined like Seto. It would be nice to be more than average at something.
"Next, I'll use Monster Reborn to retrieve a card from my graveyard." This was it. He couldn't wait to see what the card looked like. Sometimes Mokuba enjoyed sneaking in just to look at the holograms. "I choose Goddess Tesseract."
The card turned up about three days ago in a pawn shop downtown. Mokuba had never heard of it before. A woman with spiky black hair and silver tribal tattoos crawling over every inch of her dark-gray skin smirked at him from the glossy cardboard. Violet-red eyes tugged at his soul. When he picked it up, it tingled in his finger tips. Was this what Seto felt for his dragons? Yugi for his magician? The young boy could not resist. All three days he'd thought of that card, nestled safely in his deck, begging him to put her on the field.
Now, as he placed her on the field, she came to life. Black, feathery wings arched regally out of her back and her leathery tail lashed. She started with zero attack and defense points, but her power didn't come from her face value. "That means we flip a coin for each monster on the field," Mokuba said. "The ones that get tails are sent to their graveyard."
The effect wound up taking down Mokuba's defense monster along with one of the dragons, but that was okay, because of the card's second effect.
"Next," the boy said, "she gets five hundred attack points for each monster in my graveyard, and five hundred defense points for each monster in my opponent's graveyard." Granted, his 'opponent' didn't have very many monsters in the graveyard at all, but Mokuba had seven. Just enough to blow one of the dragons off the field. "Goddess Tesseract, attack Blue Eyes White Dragon!"
Now for the really cool part. What would the hologram attack look like? The goddess spread her wings and arms out to either side and floated into the air. Her legs, feet, and tail pointed straight down at the floor. Her eyes glowed like two bright rubies. Lines of light raced along the edges of the tribal markings until they all glowed. Then there was a flash and the room plunged into darkness. Mokuba's scream faded into some unseen distance.