Chapter 1

Seto Kaiba had been having a bad day. First he had to go to school. A complete waste of time in his eyes as he was easily smarter than the teachers and had already learned what they were teaching when he was a kid. Then there was the Mutt, Joey Wheeler, his rival Yugi Motou and the rest of the gang. Mostly (though he would never admit it) they weren't that bad, but he could just not resist the urge to insult the Mutt after he tripped over his own feet. There was something just so tempting and amusing about getting the dog riled up. This had resulted in them having an argument and screaming at each other (Joey screamed and Kaiba smirked). The Mutts friends had got him to walk away from the argument with the temptation of food and Kaiba just couldn't stop himself from making a comment about a dog turning away from his master.

Flashback

"Joey stop it, lets all try to be friends, Kaiba doesn't mean it." Yugi pleaded holding his best friend back with the help of his dark counterpart Yami.

"Yeah the basterd ain't worth it Joe." Tristan stated, glaring at Kaiba. Kaiba smirked and glared back.

"But he called me a dog an' insulted me again. The basterd needs teachin' a lesson." Joey growled at Kaiba then pouted at his friends for not seeing it his way.

"Teach me a lesson, what are you going to teach. How to be a dog in twenty steps." Kaiba smoothly replied. Mentally congratulating himself for such (in his opinion) witty remark.

Joey growled again, making him seem even more dog like. Yugi looked to Yami in desperation.

"Come on Joey, lets go eat. Were missing lunch and the others will be waiting." Yami said, trying to persuade the blonds to drop the argument. Feeling Joey relax in his grip and stop trying to pounce on Kaiba, Yugi decided to jump on the chance.

"I'll give you some of my sandwiches. Grandpa made too many this morning and I'm not that hungry."

"You can have my juice box too, I've got two today." Tristan said, catching on to what Yugi and Yami were trying to do. Gently pushing on his friend's chest to lead him to the door. The mention of food, especially free food, caused Joey to remember that he was indeed incredibly hungry.

"Mm'kay…but I'm not a dog, Kaiba" he added as an after thought, turning fully to the door and following his friends' one step behind. Kaiba had been watching the proceedings and didn't appreciate the fact he was being ignored. Kaiba Seto always got the last word.

"A dog turning away from its master, maybe I should get you a leash. Untrained strays are nothing but worthless Mutts." Now, Kaiba had called the young 16 year old a lot of things in the time he knew him, but he had never called him worthless. Even in Kaiba's mind the blonde may be many things (mostly stupid) but he was not worthless. He had wanted the blonde's attention though and had spoken without thinking.

Joey froze. His friends turned when they heard the insult, seeing how the blonde would react. Both they and Kaiba were surprised when Joey just stood there.

Kaiba could not see Joey's expression because the blonde's back was turned to him. So his curiosity moved him forward to investigate. Yugi and the other two could quite clearly see the blank stare that was etched on the youth's features and it scared them.

Joey was known for his loud personality. Normally he should be screaming a Kaiba by now, or trying to wrestle him on the floor. Instead he was standing stock still, looking like he could be carved out of granite.

"Joey?" Yugi gingerly asked. Kaiba was closer to the blonde than his friends, so reaching out a hand in curiousity he turned Joeys face towards him.

"Hay, Mutt?" That did it.

Joey spun and then Kaiba was on the floor, his face already forming a nasty bruise where the fist had hit him. Seto was in shock, so much so that even his genius mind needed a moment to comprehend what had happened to him.

No one said anything; Kaiba's mind slowly came to the conclusion that Joey had hit him. Actually HIT HIM. The blonde had never done that before, no matter how many times Kaiba insulted him. Their arguments had always ended up in Joey's humiliation or a teacher stopping it to continue with the class. Rarely did they end up wrestling on the floor, rolling around and using their weights to topple the other. Joey was not known for being a violent person and he had actually hit him, punched him right in the face. It wasn't gentle either. The impact had lifted him up of the ground and thrown him into the air. Before landing on floor staring up at his attacker.

The silence continued. Joey looked down a Seto. Seto starred up at Joey. (Talk about role reversal) Joey turned, walked past his still gaping friends, their eyes following his retreat into the hall and out of site.

End flashback

After that Seto had to spend the rest of the day at school with his head resting in one hand to hide the purple mark. At work, this was impossible and people had inquired as to what happened. Seto had shut them up with a glare. He had to cancel the meetings he had scheduled that day, spending the whole time holed up in his office staring at the computer screen. Since there was only so much he could do and so much scowling the screen could take, Seto had decided to go home early. It was only seven when he opened the door to his mansion.

He would have to explain what happened to his little brother, Mokuba, once he saw the bruise. The kid would be half dead with worry and then surprised when he found out it was his friend Joey who inflicted the mark. Mokuba would then ask Seto what he did, blaming him for the whole incident. He would make it out so it appeared to be entirely the Mutt's fault, and Mokuba would just look at him with unbelieving eyes.

Seto opened the door and braced himself for the happy cannon-bolt of black hair to attack his chest. When nothing happened, he blinked in confusion and looked around the extravagant hallway. When nothing still happened after five minutes the eerie silence final got to Seto and he went to search for his little brother. He reassured himself Mokuba was just playing a prank and hiding behind some door.

First he looked in the lounge, then the games room, the other lounge, dining room, upstairs he looked through all the bedrooms (all six of them), his office and then downstairs again he looked in the library before arriving at the final room, the kitchen to find it as empty as the others. By now Seto was officially worried. His mind thinking through every horrible scenario. 'What happened to him? He's got to be safe. Relax Seto he's probably at a friend's house, or Yugi's or someone else's. He can't have been hit by a car, or got in an accident or you would have been called.' Seto tried to reassure himself, managing to worry himself more in the process. 'He can't have been kidnapped…can he? Oh God' Seto, hitting the nail on the head, panicked. 'I need to find him, I need to check. I need to call Rowland and ask him…'

Seto turned round in time to run into Rowland. The broad shouldered bodyguard held Kaiba by the shoulders as he tried to calm the young men. He had known Seto long enough to see that although the 17 year old was calmed and composed on the face of it he was actually in an extreme state of panic. Rowland mentally sighed, what he had to say would not help Kaiba's emotional state.

"Rowland, Rowland where's Mokuba? He's at a friends' house right, right?" Seto gasped, standing in front of the bodyguard, praying that he said yes. Rowland felt a pang of sympathy as he saw Kaiba begging him to say Mokuba was safe at a friend's house. He knew Seto and his little brother were close, one of them just couldn't believe life without the other. Hardening his heart to the sight, he calmly gave his, and the truthful, answer.

"No sir, I'm afraid to say we haven't heard anything from Master Mokuba since he left school. I have checked all his friends' houses and he is not with them." Rowland gulped, Seto had paled. His fair skin going even whiter. Taking his arm he slowly guided Seto to sit in the kitchen chair. Taking another gulp to push down the knot of emotions that were growing there, he delivered the last piece of horrible news. "Just a few minutes ago we received an anonymous call from someone stating that they had Mokuba, and we should comply with them if we want him back." Seto stared at him and stared at him and just to be sure, stared at him some more. The words his bodyguard and friend had said slowly sinking in.

'Mokuba's been kidnapped. Mokuba's gone. Mokuba's been kidnapped. They want stuff, what stuff? They're going to hurt him; they're going to HURT HIM. Mokuba's been kidnapped!

'Mokuba's gone!'

Seto blacked out.