Disclaimer: I own the plot and 624 Yu-Gi-Oh cards… not the characters though…

Not Again

Chapter 1: Arrival…of Bad News

It was October twenty-fifth, around eleven-thirty in the morning. Téa stepped off of the plane, wearing a yellow shirt that had the word, "SPIRIT" printed on the front. Along with red shorts, and sneakers. She looked around the airport for any sign of her friends or parents. She heard Joey, she saw Yugi's crazy hairdo. The last thing she noticed was a large banner that said, "Welcome Home Téa" across the front.

Téa rushed to the banner, holding it up was Tristan and Duke. All her friends stood around it, Mai and Joey were holding hands. Serenity was standing next to Tristan. Her parents stood next to each other, Yugi was with his grandpa, and Rebecca was standing next to a boy around her age. He had raven hair, it was Mokubah! If Mokubah was here, Téa scanned nearby and saw him.

Seto was standing awkwardly to the side. He was leaning up against a wall watching over his brother. When they saw Téa they all screamed simultaneously, "Téa!".

"How was New York?", Serenity asked.

"I bet it was nothing like what I told you.", Joey commented.

"Did you buy any souvenirs?", Mokubah inquired.

"Does this mean you're a professional dancer now?", Rebecca wondered.

"I like your purse!", Mai announced.

"We missed you so much!", her parents cried.

"Did they play Duel Monsters over there?", Yugi asked.

"How was the plane ride?", Tristan asked.

"Was it fun?", Duke wondered.

"Did you meet any duelists?" Yugi's grandpa inquired.

Waiting patiently aside, Seto approached the group. He easily stood above all of them, he cleared his throat. Making everyone look at him.

"How are you?"

Seto thought it'd be easier if they asked how she was then progressed to New York.

Téa replied, relieved, "I feel better now that I'm home, thank you for asking."

"Before you all start interrogating me about New York! I would like to get home and unpack, besides I did bring souvenirs for all of you!"

After Téa got home, she quickly unpacked. She was done by twelve-thirty. Téa changed into one of her favorite outfits. It consisted of an aquamarine colored shirt that was sleeveless, blue shorts and white socks that went up to her mid-thigh. To finish it off, she had her blue sandals.

She grabbed all the presents, Téa gave her parents their gifts first. Which they were ecstatic about, she gave them a beautiful glass blown vase. Her parents told her that her friends had plans for her today.

So she didn't have to stay at home. She quickly headed over to the Game Shop, where she rendezvoused with Mai, Serenity, Rebecca, Joey, Tristan, Duke, and Yugi. They said they were going to go to the carnival that was on the boardwalk, to spend the day there.

The girls went into Mai's car, and the boys went into Duke's car. Téa thought something seemed fishy about the whole plan, but went along with it anyway. She had fun, when they came out of the fun house. Which was more weird than fun. Téa looked up and saw Mokubah running up to her, he was grinning at her.

A second later Seto came running into the scene looking for Mokubah.

Téa smiled, always with the protectiveness. Not that she could blame him, his brother had been held hostage countless times. He was wearing his Battle City attire. The white trench coat, not that she would ever admit it but she thought he looked the best in it. He had his black long sleeved shirt, and long black pants. The only thing he was missing was the duel disk.

He probably had it in his car or something. All of her duelist friends left their duel disks in their cars. Seto looked so worried, he had lost his little raven haired brother in the crowds. Usually his height would be and advantage that he could look over everyone. Since everyone knew who he was they all crowded and asked for autographs. He quickly signed his name on random scraps of paper. Then he dashed away in the direction Mokubah took off in.

He scanned the crowds frantically, he couldn't have just lost his brother! That would be the worst birthday gift ever! Being nineteen today, he figured it would just be Mokubah and him. Hanging out and getting some ice cream or something, but Mokubah told Seto to go to the boardwalk carnival. Why, Seto was never told. He just figured he wanted to ride the rides with Seto.

The weird part was, Mokubah didn't seem excited to hang out with his brother. More like someone else. Seto sighed, he sat down on a bench nearby, watching the people walk past.

Téa looked at the concerned Kaiba, then at Mokubah.

"Mokubah? What are you doing here?"

"I came to hang out with you!"

"Then why is Seto over there?"

"He's my ride."

"Why does he look, sad? I've seen him mad, or disgusted, never sad…"

"Oh."

The younger Kaiba looked over in the direction of his brother. He was now shaking his head with his hands on his head.

"What happened?"

"Well, we decided to mix two parties in one."

"We?"

"Yes, me, Joey, Yugi, Mai, Serenity, Tristan, Duke, everyone!"

"What parties?"

"You're welcome home party, duh!"

"The other one?"

"It doesn't really concern you, but I convinced Joey to let us do it."

"Do what?"

"Today's Seto's nineteenth birthday."

"What?"

"Yeah! Well, Joey said we should throw a party for your return. Then I remembered you were returning on Seto's birthday. So I asked if we could share the party with Seto's birthday. Joey didn't like the idea, but I reminded him that it was Seto who paid for your schooling at Julliard."

"Oh! I didn't get him anything! Besides, what are you supposed to give a guy who has everything?"

"He doesn't have everything."

"Yeah he does material wise."

"What about immaterial wise? He has no friends, just enemies…that's why I wanted to mix the party. I thought it'd be nice if Seto interacted more with people his age."

"That's nice, but why did you ditch him?"

"I saw you! I had to catch up! You'd think that with his long legs he'd keep up."

"But he's Seto Kaiba, he's too famous. Everyone will want an autograph."

"Oh yeah…"

Seto thought about what had happened earlier that week. He was walking down the stairs when he heard people arguing in the living room. When he walked inside he was surprised to see, Mokubah talking with Wheeler, Taylor, Duke, and Yugi.

Flashback (a few days ago)

"Mokubah?"

"There's the birthday boy himself!" Joey announced with sarcasm.

"What are you doing here Wheeler? Get out of my house!"

"Seto, chill. I invited them."

"Well, I'm uninviting them. How did you know my birthday was soon?"

"Mokubah told us. So nineteen, eh? And somehow you're still single? How?" Joey asked.

Seto glared at Mokubah, "Yes, so what?"

"How do you keep the ladies off of you?" Tristan asked.

The guys corned Seto into one of his own armchairs.

"It's easy…"

"Yeah right. You need a girlfriend. You always work too much. You need to take a break." Mokubah added.

"I'm sure you could get any girl you wanted." Yugi admitted.

"Wh-?" Seto started, he was so confused.

"Why don't you get a girlfriend?"

"I-"

"I doubt he could even ask a girl out, it would not compute." Joey said in a robotic voice.

Seto gave Joey a kick in the gut.

"Oof!" Joey fell on the ground.

"I could ask a girl out."

"Prove it."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"No seriously why do I need a girlfriend?"

"Isn't there at least one girl you see better than any other Seto?"

"No. They all want my money, they think I'm 'hot'. They just want some of this."

"What about Téa?"

"Are you joking? One, I don't like her. Two, she doesn't like me. Three, we argue too much."

"Exactly opposites attract."

"NO."

"You know, Téa sent me an e-mail." Yugi said.

Everyone looked at him waiting for him to finish.

Yugi continued when everyone looked at him, "She was saying how she couldn't wait to see everyone."

"Well, we can't wait to see her!" Joey said.

"No, she said that she was excited to hang out with us guys again. But she really wanted to thank this other guy, she said not to laugh but, I couldn't help it."

"Help what?" everyone asked simultaneously.

"From what she was telling me, it sounded like she was talking about Kaiba. She was going on and on about how great he was. I don't know."

"Mai told me Téa liked some guy, when I asked who she said she couldn't tell me." Joey added.

"Same thing with Serenity!" Tristan agreed.

Seto stiffened his back at the thought of Téa liking him. She always was ready to defy him, why would she take interest in him? Was ANYWHERE safe from girls that liked him? Probably not.

Duke noticed Seto stiffen and decided to make him more uncomfortable.

"So, Téa has the hots for Kaiba. Why don't you ask her out then?"

"No."

"What? Why not?" everyone screamed.

"Like I said before, we argue too much. Plus I don't like her, why she likes me is beyond reason."

"Well, I could think of something." Tristan said.

"What?" Seto asked with sarcasm.

"You paid for her Julliard dream. I mean that's really nice of you, for anyone to do. Give enough money to pay for schooling in New York, not to mention the air fares."

"I'm rich. I can do that."

"She was struggling, and then you came in and saved her from restarting over again." Joey said, trying to persuade.

"She didn't even want to accept it. She said, 'I can't take this.' Then I just handed it over to her in an envelope. She took it."

"Well maybe she was just surprised you were giving her money. It honestly doesn't seem like you."

"I thought I told her, to tell you I'm not that big of a jerk!"

"She did." Joey said.

"Yeah, she was in like a weird dreamy state. It was so…unnatural." Duke added.

Tristan and Yugi nodded in agreement.

"Listen bro, I think you should ask her out. Please, just this once! You never have to ask anyone out again! Unless you want to…" Mokubah begged.

Seto sighed, he thought it over and over. He finally gave in after much persistence. He was outnumbered, even though he could easily take them all down.

End flashback (present)

Téa's friends came up to her, and Mokubah called Seto over. Seto's head shot up at the sound of his little brother's voice.

"Hey Téa, I think it's time to slow down a bit. Lets go on the Ferris Wheel!" Joey suggested. The others nodded. Seto approached, relief washed over his face.

"That sounds great Joey! Hey Seto, lets go on the Ferris Wheel!" Mokubah chimed in.

Seto just eyed the group warily and nodded. It just seemed suspicious.

When the large party reached the Ferris Wheel the sun was about to set.

"I call sitting with Mai!" Joey announced.

"Dibs on Serenity!" Tristan said.

"Yugi, want to sit with me?" Rebecca asked.

"Sure…" Yugi said blushing.

"Hey, Mokubah want sit with me?" Duke asked, before Seto could.

"Alright."

Now Seto was positive, they were trying to get him to ask Téa out.

"I guess that leaves us together." Téa stated.

Everyone got inside the ride, everyone was laughing and stuff but Seto and Téa just sat there awkwardly. Téa was gripping the handle bar, so tight that her knuckles were white. Seto found this weird and asked her what was wrong with her.

"You might want to ease your grip on that poor bar."

Téa just blinked at him, "What?"

"Why are you holding on so tightly to that bar?" Seto just crossed his arms, height wasn't a big deal to him since he was tall.

"Oh, well I, uh, just have a fear of heights. And there was an incident this other time I went on a Ferris wheel."

Seto just raised an eyebrow, then he pulled her hand off of the bar.

"Just relax, I know this ride is safe."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I helped design it."

"Oh."

Just then their car stopped at the very top. They had a view of the sunset.

"It's beautiful…" Téa said in amazement.

"It sure is…" Seto agreed.

The brunettes stared out at the sunset, until it disappeared behind the horizon. Then they saw the whole boardwalk light up with lights from the rides.

Seto was watching the roller coaster. He always liked roller coasters, which was why he had constructed Kaibaland. A place full of fun designs. Téa glanced over at her companion, the lights made half of his face glow, and it darkened the other half.

She was startled out of her daydream when he spoke to her.

"See something you like?"

"Wha-? No!" She quickly turned away, blushing furiously. Seto just snickered, then watched all the people walking around below.

After a few minutes the ride started moving again, slowly their carriage descended to the ground. Téa hopped off excitedly, and Seto slowly got off and headed towards the roller coaster. He wasn't going to spend his birthday with Yugi's gang of losers.

After walking a few feet he realized someone was walking with him, he turned.

It was Téa, she stopped in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, her eyes filled with concern.

"It doesn't matter. Go and hang out with your friends, besides Mokubah would rather have fun with you guys than with me." He turned away at the last part, he didn't want to think about it.

"I just don't know how to have fun…" he admitted.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

"Why? Why would you, your friends will just come and follow you."

She shrugged, "I don't know. I heard it's your birthday," Seto looked at her.

"I feel bad, it's like as if my arrival has made Mokubah neglect your celebration…I mean they really should celebrate you. Without you, I wouldn't have gotten to go to New York. I wanted to thank you for doing that."

Seto was looking down at her, his eyes showed no emotion. Well Téa decided to change that, she pulled on his collar again and kissed him. For at least a few seconds, because Seto kept squirming.

When they stopped, Seto started walking away.

"Hey!" Téa yelled.

"What?" he called over his shoulder.

"Where are you going?"

"Away."

"Where?" she asked while jogging beside him, his fast walking speed was equivalent to her jogging speed. She didn't want to see him run.

"I don't want to spend my birthday with people who don't like me." with that he turned the corner towards the roller coaster.

Téa just stood there shocked, people liked him. Of course Joey, Tristan, Duke, and even Yugi at times really just wanted to push him off of a cliff. Even if Seto was mean most of the time, he had his moments and made up for it.

Before Téa even realized it she was running after Kaiba. She found him making his way towards the roller coasters, he seemed to be looking up and watching them and smiling? Téa thought, "Smiling? He's smiling? When have I seen him smile…Mokubah…and winning…"

She caught up to him, and got into step with him. She heard him sigh.

"What do you want?" he asked, without looking at her.

"Huh? Well I wanted to hang out with you."

"No one 'hangs out' with me."

"Lets change that."

He turned, "Why do you continue to do what you're doing?"

"Do what? I merely want to spend time with the neglected birthday boy."

He gave her a look of annoyance.

"Oooh! Lets ride that!" Téa pointed excitedly towards the roller coaster with a bunch of twists. She grabbed Seto by the arm and dragged him towards the ride.

They didn't have to wait in line long, everybody made a clearing when they saw Kaiba. He quickly made his way to the front, before anyone asked for any more autographs. He was stopped short by the ride operator, who wouldn't let him pass without signing his shirt. Seto signed it and quickly sat in a seat, he pulled the latch over himself. Téa flashed him a smile, in her seat next to him.

When the rest of the people waiting to ride started sitting, a bunch of girls squealed.

"SETO KAIBA! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

Since the ride had five seats next to each other in a row, lucky Seto sat in the middle seat, with Téa on his left. Seto scowled as two giggling girls sat in the two available seats next to him. Another girl pouted at her friends then sat in the last available seat.

Téa felt bad for Seto, to make the girls back off a bit she grabbed his hand. The girls all leaned in at her action, then glared at Téa.

"You're quite the ladies' man." Téa whispered.

"Thanks." Seto thanked her sincerely.

She nodded.

The ride took off, it was five minutes filled with loops and twists and turns, ups and downs and sideways. When they got off Téa was dizzy, she almost fell. Seto laughed at her, she gave him a glare.

"That's what you get for choosing the fastest, and the most twisted roller coaster."

"Oh ha ha. You sir are hilarious."

Seto shrugged and walked away leaving the dizzy Téa to chase after him again. They rode the rest of the roller coasters before her friends finally found them. They stopped to eat some food, and Joey had decided to buy a burger when he saw them.

Seto was just sitting there eating and Téa was looking at him, with interest? What's so interesting about Moneybags eating?

"Hey Téa!" Joey called.

The two brunettes looked up. Seto stood and threw away his trash, Téa stood and headed over to her friends.

"Oh hey!"

"What were you doing? We've been looking all over for you?"

"And Kaiba?"

"Yeah, sure…where were you?"

"We were riding the roller coasters. You wouldn't believe me if I told you but Kaiba could be a comedian! He was so funny!"

Joey gave her a look mixed with disbelief and horror, "You're still talking about the same icy, mean, jerk, that thinks he is above everyone else, right?"

Téa didn't say anything, she just looked up past Joey's head.

"Yes." Seto's voice said behind Joey.

Seto glared at Joey and scowled. When he turned and walked away towards his car, Téa punched Joey in the arm.

"Can't you give him a break at least on his birthday?" and she ran after Seto.

He was a few feet away from his car, when he heard someone call his name.

"Seto! Kaiba! Seto Kaiba!" Téa called.

Seto stood there with his arms crossed, she caught up to him. The streetlight dimly lit each of their faces.

"Yes can I help you?" he asked in the same monotone voice, he used two years ago. When she had hurt him in the Burger World.

"Why are you leaving?"

"I'm unwanted."

Before Téa could respond there was a bright flash somewhere nearby in the parking lot.

"Who's there?" Seto yelled.

"Do not be alarmed Kaiba."

The brunettes recognized that voice, it was Dartz.

"Dartz." Seto growled. Téa hid behind Seto. Seto was still angered at the King of Atlantis. Who wouldn't be if you had your soul stolen?

"Don't worry, I have not come to harm you. Or your companion."

"What do you want?"

"I have come with an urgent message."

"Let me guess, the world is in danger, again. Thanks to your carelessness to destroy that stupid stone."

Dartz stood there dumbfounded, "Well, not exactly."

"Hah! How did I know this was going to happen?"

"History can repeat itself Mister Kaiba. Atlantis needs the Legendary swordsmen once more!"

"That once will become two then three, by then it will be a routine."

"No, do not turn your back on us in our time of need. We need your help, I have already approached the others. They complied, we cannot wish to defeat this new force without Master Critias. He also plays a crucial role."

"Even if I decided to help you, how would we get to Atlantis?"

"Take my hand. You too." Dartz said to Téa.

Téa was startled, "What? Why do I have to go?"

"You're assistance also has role to play in our fight against our new enemy."

"What role? She doesn't duel, or not much. She doesn't even have one of the Legendary Swordsmen!" Seto interrupted.

"No, but she does have magic."

"Magic?" Téa asked with curiosity.

"I will explain when we arrive at my palace. You see Yugi and Joseph did not enter Atlantis alone. They brought a companion."

"What?" Both brunettes said in unison.

"They brought a companion. We need more help than just the Legendary Swordsmen. We need Ladies."

"Ladies?" Seto snorted.

"What 'Ladies'?" Téa asked.

"They aid the Swordsmen. They stay by their sides and make them strong. Joseph he brought along Miss Valentine. Yugi he brought along an inquisitive girl, Miss Hawkins I believe. You, you Kaiba. You must bring Téa."

"Why?" they asked in unison, again.

"Do not make this difficult. We have wasted too much time already. I cannot promise you that when I teleport you to Atlantis, you will arrive directly at my palace. You may have to journey a bit. The others had to do so as well. Now take this."

He handed Seto a stone the color of his eyes, it glowed when it touched Seto.

"This shall teleport you to Atlantis. You both must be touching it in order to teleport you both. Flip it three times then touch it. I must go now. Good luck."

There was a bright flash, and where Dartz once stood, there was nothing.

The brunettes gave each other a look, then Seto obeyed the instructions.

He flipped the stone three times and both of them touched it. There was a brilliant blue flash and the two were somewhere else.