Chapter Three

Kaiba groaned as he propped himself onto his aching hands and knees. He had hit the wall and landed behind a desk in the explosion. He swept his bangs out of his eyes, wiping sweat from his forehead.

He grasped the edge of the desk for support as he stood and, as he did, felt something very peculiar. Something was missing from him. He wasn't sure what it was but it seemed like there was a hole in his soul, as though some large weight had been suddenly removed. As he stood and looked over the desk Kaiba found out what it was.

He stood in shadow behind the desk so as not to be seen as he watched the man he knew as Dr. Karachi was carried out on a stretcher by two paramedics. He was messed up pretty badly, but that was not what caught Kaiba's attention. Standing in the doorway was a young man in a black coat and lavender shirt, just like Kaiba. He had short brown hair, also like Kaiba's. When the young man turned to look at the aftermath of the explosion, Kaiba's suspicions were confirmed: It was himself.

Standing only a few yards away was Kaiba's exact double, yet he knew they were not alike in any way. The man he saw in the doorway was the yin to his yang, the light to his shadow, or, most accurately, the good to his evil.

Kaiba watched his other self walk away after the stretcher, and grinned malevolently. Glancing at his feet, he saw a shard of the black stone. Picking up the warm and jagged meteor rock, Kaiba let out a derisive laugh of triumph.

He was free at last to do whatever he wished, and now not even his lighter side was going to hold him back.

- - - - -

The telephone rang in the house behind the Kame Game Shop, waking Joey Wheeler from his snooze on the living room couch. Yugi Mutou went to answer the phone, which had interrupted the teaching game of Duel Monsters he was playing with his friend Tristan Taylor. Joey yawned and rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hand as he sat up, realizing a few seconds later that it was filled with whipped cream.

"What the…?!" he said angrily, wiping his face clean with his other hand. "Awright, who did it?" He glared at Tristan.

"Don't look at me," Tristan said innocently, though his face was spread in a wide grin.

Joey heard light snickering from behind him and whipped around, peering behind the sofa. Téa Gardner lay on the floor in a fit of silent giggles, a can of whipping cream in her hand.

"I hope you like vanilla," she said between giggles.

"Not funny, Téa," said Joey heatedly as he removed the last of the cream from his face. "You're lucky you're a girl, or I'd…"

"Or you'd what?" said Téa, sitting up. "Beat the crap out of me? Ha! Not even if I was a guy."

Joey turned back around and plopped onto the sofa cushion with a sour look on his face, while Téa stood and sprayed herself a handful of whipped cream. While she licked at her hand, Yugi walked back into the room.

"Who was on the phone, Yugi?" Tristan asked.

"Mokuba," Yugi replied. "He said there was an accident and Kaiba's in the hospital."

"What!" everyone said at once.

"Mokuba wants us over there right away," Yugi continued. "He sounded really worried."

A while later, the group arrived at the emergency room to find Mokuba, Seto's little brother, sitting in the lobby. When he saw the others come in, he stood to greet them.

"Thanks for coming, you guys," he said. "I just didn't know who else to call. Seto says he's okay, but I'm still worried about him."

"It's all right, Mokuba," Yugi said comfortingly as they all sat down. "Why don't you tell us what happened?"

Mokuba told them of the package Seto had received from his friend, Seto's experiments with Dr. Karachi, and how the experiments had backfired dramatically, resulting in a terrible explosion.

"Seto doesn't seem to be hurt at all," Mokuba said as he finished. "But Karachi didn't get off looking so well. He's in a room right now, and Seto's having an examination."

"Well, if you ask me," Joey said, his arms crossed, "it all sounds a little suspicious."

The others stared at him with blank looks on their faces.

"What's so suspicious?" Tristan asked disbelievingly.

"I think I wanna have a talk with this so called 'scientist'," said Joey as though Tristan hadn't spoken. "Where'd you say his room was again?"

Mokuba sighed.

"Down the hall and to the right," he said, pointing to his left. "It's room 305A."

"Awright!" Joey said loudly, standing up. "I'll be right back."

And he marched off down the hallway, leaving the others behind with exasperated expressions on their faces.

- - - - -

Kaiba quietly slipped into the empty room 305A. Karachi was lying in a hospital bed; most of the glass and rubble had been removed by now and replaced with a couple of tubes that protruded from his arm. Kaiba could see by the dazed look on the man's face that he was awake, but deeply affected by some sort of antiseptic.

"Ooh," Kaiba breathed softly as he examined Karachi's leg, which was held in a sling over the bed. "That must hurt." He looked at Karachi's face. "I've come to ask you a few questions, Karachi, regarding the explosion."

Karachi could not talk well at the moment, but he nodded once to show he would answer as best as he could.

"First," said Kaiba, taking a step closer, "do you know what happened when that stone turned black?"

Karachi shook his head slowly, indicating he had no idea of what happened during the explosion.

"Ah. I thought not," Kaiba said, a bit disappointed. "Unfortunately, neither do I. When I came to, I looked toward the doorway and received a slight shock. Do you know what I saw?"

Again, Karachi shook his head.

"I saw myself, Karachi. I saw another me."

Karachi's eyes widened in surprise.

"Aha, then you do have an idea of what happened?"

There was a pause as Karachi tried to work his mouth.

"M-meteor rock…" he managed to mumble, "…m-must have… affected you….Split you… i-into two p-persons…"

"Yes," Kaiba said, straightening. "My thought's exactly."

He glanced around the room for a moment and spotted an empty syringe on top of a pair of gloves on the table next to the bed.

"Well," he said, turning back to face Karachi, "I think you've had a very stressful night. So, why don't you close your eyes and get some rest?"

Karachi nodded and did so, while Kaiba slipped on one of the rubber gloves and grasped the syringe with it. He stuck the needle into one of the tubes and gently pressed on the valve.

"Good night, Karachi," he said, a smirk playing across his lips as the air bubbles he'd made slid through the tube. "And I'll see you in hell."

- - - - -

Joey turned around the corner of the hallway and, spotting room 305A, quickened his pace. But before he had reached the room, someone walked out of it, gently closing the door behind him.

"Kaiba?" Joey said, stopping a few feet from the door.

Kaiba looked around at the sound of his name.

"Wheeler," he said when he saw Joey. "What are you doing here?"

Before Joey could answer, Kaiba held up a hand to stop him and said, "Never mind. Knowing you, you've probably already forgotten."

"For your information, Kaiba," Joey said, heating up again, "I'm here to see Karachi."

"Really," Kaiba said, and he leaned in closer to Joey's face. "Well, I'd hate to disappoint you, Wheeler," he added softly, "but Karachi is not available right now. You see, he's sleeping."

He smirked and walked around Joey, elbowing him hard in the arm. Joey stared after him, rubbing his arm, but not in an angry way. Something about Kaiba didn't seem right. He was nastier than usual.

An alarm sounded behind him and he turned to see a group of doctors scurrying into room 305A, shouting incoherently. Joey made out a few sentences.

"Patient is in critical condition!"

"We're at Code Blue! Code Blue! Hurry!"

Joey peeked through the doorway and watched as a doctor pulled out a machine that is meant to jumpstart the heart when it fails. A constant, high-pitched beep rang out in the background. There were a few moments in which the doctor had yelled "Clear!" and pressed the pads to Karachi's chest, but to no avail. Then, a few minutes later, the machine was put away and the doctors stopped moving around.

As Joey began walking away from the room, he faintly heard a nurse declare the time of death.