Chapter Four

Yugi glared at Seto as their duel continued. It was a very involved and intense match, just what he would expect from Seto Kaiba. Several times when he thought he had the upper hand, Seto managed to get in a good move that turned things in his favor again.

"Well, Yugi, you're not doing so well. Maybe you should concede defeat while I'm ahead."

Yugi frowned. In spite of everything, this Seto didn't quite have all of his usual fire. He wasn't as into the psychological aspects of the game as he usually was. Yugi attributed this to him being a fake Seto dreamed up by Mokuba. As an idolizing younger brother, Mokuba naturally didn't see Seto as being as sharp and cold as he could sometimes appear.

The sudden roar of a Blue Eyes White Dragon brought both of them to attention. The beast was flying into the room, this time with Mokuba and what looked like Noa riding on its back.

Yugi stared. "Noa?" he said in disbelief. "No . . . he must be an illusion too!"

"Hi, Big Brother!" Mokuba called down to Seto. "Haven't you almost got this wrapped up yet?"

"Almost," Seto replied.

"Well, you'd better hurry," Mokuba said. "Everybody else has brought a fake Seto and they're trying to say he's the real one. But we know better, don't we?"

Yugi's jaw dropped. "There's another Seto Kaiba in here?!" The real one's been found!

"Yeah. I just talked to him," Mokuba said.

"And you think he's the fake?" Yugi was stunned.

"Of course he is." The Blue Eyes landed and Mokuba jumped down. "The real Seto always has time for me. He doesn't let other things get in the way."

Yugi's stomach twisted. This was going to be harder than he had thought. Mokuba had also ended up under a spell in Noa's world that had twisted his perception of the truth. That time, it had happened against his will. This time, at least part of him apparently wanted to believe in his dream world and the fake Seto. He didn't want to go back to reality.

"Your brother does have a company to run," he said slowly.

"And we have a duel to finish," Seto interrupted.

"Yeah! Finish it so we can go riding together, Big Brother!" Mokuba exclaimed. "All three of us on the Blue Eyes, just like it's supposed to be."

"If that's what you wish." Seto drew another card.

Yugi looked to Mokuba in desperation. "Mokuba, you have to stop this!" he pleaded. "Maybe you think you'll be happy living in this fake reality now, but eventually you'll start realizing that you've rejected your real brother for a dream. And even if the real Seto isn't exactly the way you wish he was, the real thing is better than any fantasy. At the end of the day, a fantasy fades away. But your real brother will always be there for you!"

"Shut up!" Mokuba cried. He turned, blinking away tears. "I'm sorry, Yugi. But this is my real brother. I don't want to hear any more about him being a fake!"

"Well, you're just going to have to."

Everyone jumped. The cars had finally found their way back into the dueling arena. The real Seto leaped out of David's car, his coat swirling behind him.

The fake Seto rocked back. "What is this?!"

"I'm your worst nightmare," the real Seto replied. "You've stolen my life and my little brother. I want them back."

The ground started to shake and rumble underneath them.

"No!" Mokuba cried. "You're the fake! You can say anything you want, but I won't believe you're real!"

"Oh boy." Joey gripped the seat in front of him. "Everything's shaking! Is he gonna bring the place down on our heads?!"

Several stalactites fell from the ceiling and stabbed into the floor.

"He's sure bringing something down!" Tristan yelped.

Marik ran out of the car now. "Mokuba, stop!" he exclaimed. "Your emotions are causing this! I of all people know the tragedies that can result from letting your feelings get away from you. Don't let that happen to you! You know you don't want to hurt us."

Mokuba stared at Marik and then looked to the stalactites. "I did that?"

"Yes," Marik said firmly.

"Mokuba . . ." The real Seto took several steps forward. "I know I haven't been there for you as much as I should have been. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but sometimes it is. Sometimes even when I'm there, I'm not really 'with' you. You've had to put up with so much because of my obsession with beating Yugi . . . no, the Pharaoh. Now that he's gone, that should have stopped. Instead, I haven't been able to figure out how to deal with him being gone. If it hadn't been for that, none of this would even be happening. It's my fault you got hold of those Unown letter tiles or whatever they are."

Mokuba's eyes flickered. "Seto . . . ?"

The fake Seto frowned. "That Kaiba has always been trouble for you. You've even been the target of his enemies more than once. You're better off without him."

"No. . . ." Mokuba squeezed his eyes shut.

"Why don't you finish the job you started?" the fake Seto continued. "Drop something down on him to finish him off."

"Mokuba, don't!" the real Seto cried.

"Okay, something's gone haywire," Joey declared. "Mokuba would never dream up his brother saying something like that to him."

"Then it's either the Unown or their psychic power acting on its own," Jessie gulped.

James nodded. "In Greenfield, it eventually got to a point where the Unown couldn't even control all the psychic energy anymore. They'd released too much!"

Marik looked to Team Rocket with a start. "What did you do?!"

"Well, we mostly stood around and called out for help," Meowth said.

"Oh, shush!" Jessie hissed.

"You know, nobody could even beat the psychic energy," Meowth remembered. "It was the Pokemon the Unown had dreamed up who finally had to stop it. I guess the closest parallel we've got here would be the fake Kaiba and this Noa guy. But they don't have any psychic powers. And even if they did, they wouldn't be inclined to break up this fake world they want Mokuba to stay in."

Yugi pondered on that. "Unless . . ." He looked to Mokuba. "Maybe they only want him to stay in it because they think that's what he wants. If they knew he really didn't . . ."

"But he does!" Tristan interrupted. "That's the whole problem!"

"Something got through to him," Téa said. "He didn't want to go through with the fake Kaiba's suggestion to get rid of the real Kaiba, even if he still thinks the fake one is the real one!"

Mokuba had been silent, still struggling with that very problem. His eyes flickered again. "Seto . . . Seto would never say something like that," he said at last. "He'd never tell me to do something like that." He looked at the fake Seto. "You're not the real one. You can't be!"

The fake Seto drew back, not even trying to defend his words.

Marik relaxed. "The spell couldn't hold you, my friend," he said with pride. "You're going to be alright."

Mokuba looked to the real Seto, tears streaming down his face. "Seto . . . can you ever forgive me?" he choked out.

Seto drew him close. "There's nothing to forgive."

Mokuba clutched him, sobbing. "I never wanted to turn against you. I never wanted any of this to happen! All I was trying to do was to get you back. Instead, I made everything worse!"

"I'm back now," Seto said. "And you can fix what went wrong. Everything's going to be alright."

Mokuba blinked. "I can fix it?"

"You should be able to," Marik said. "As long as the Unowns' powers aren't out of control." In his heart, he prayed Team Rocket was wrong. In his mind, he feared they were right.

Mokuba pulled back from Seto and took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm going to try." He closed his eyes, desperately concentrating with all his might to make the dream world go away. But every stalactite, each square inch of the strange room, and every fictitious person and creature remained.

"Nothing's happening," Duke said.

"This is bad, right?" David worried.

"Very bad." James quaked. "We're all doomed!"

xxxx

The mood at the Ishtar home had been tense. Ishizu had the news on and they were documenting the bizarre crystal formations in the city. Aerial shots were being taken of the Kaiba Manor every few minutes, with the disturbing realization that the crystal was spreading farther out from it. The substance was capturing anything and everything in its path. Terrified that they would be next, people streamed out of their houses and into their cars, frantic to outrun the mysterious menace.

"We must take some course of action ourselves," Ishizu said in concern. "It will be here in a matter of moments."

"The only thing we can do is run," Yami Bakura replied.

"I wonder if there's any chance your Infinity Ring could do something, Yami," Bakura suggested.

Yami Bakura grunted. "Unlikely, but since we know so little of its powers, I suppose if we're cornered it's worth a try."

Bakura looked out the window in horror as the sound of tinkling crystal grew closer and closer. "In fact, it's coming now!" he gasped. "It's going to envelope the house in a matter of moments! How did it get here so fast?!"

Yami Bakura snarled. "That hardly matters!" He grabbed Bakura's wrist and pulled him towards the side door.

Ishizu ran after them. "If it's spreading this quickly, what does that mean for everyone trapped in the Kaiba mansion?" she worried.

By the time they burst outside, the crystal was creeping over the top of the house and across the lawn. "It's moving too fast!" Bakura cried. "We won't be able to outrun it!"

Ishizu dove for the car, praying she could start it before the crystal stretched that far.

Yami Bakura shoved Bakura towards the car and got in front of him, the Infinity Ring starting to glow as he tried to tap into its powers. "Leave us be!" he ordered the crystal.

"Yami!" Bakura cried in alarm.

There was a giant flash of light. Bakura had to look away, his heart racing. Maybe Yami Bakura would end up encased in crystal, in spite of his best efforts. Then it wouldn't take long and Bakura and Ishizu would follow suit.

When the light faded, however, Bakura slowly opened one cautious eye. There was no crystal surrounding him in a choking embrace. He was still free and capable of looking around. Yami Bakura and Ishizu were free as well. They had been spared . . . but the crystal was on their every side. They were trapped in a small slot canyon while the crystal traveled merrily on its way all around them to cover houses, grass, the street, and whatever else was in its path.

Yami Bakura cursed in Egyptian. "This isn't much better than being encased in crystal. It's stranded us anyway; we won't last long in here."

"They will find a way to break the spell," Ishizu insisted. "They must."

Bakura prayed she was right.

Yami Bakura hated their new situation. Knowing there was nothing he could do, he sat down and glowered at the crystal wall like a caged animal. The growl in his throat completed the picture.

Bakura was always intimidated when he behaved like that. There had been more than one time in the past when Bakura had tried to talk to Yami Bakura and had been snarled at or slapped away. But that had largely been when Zorc had been present as well. The only times when he had acted anything nice at all had been at points when Bakura assumed the Thief King had been in control. Now that Yami Bakura was just the Thief King, the only human part of the fused being, his bark was quite generally worse than his bite where Bakura was concerned. So the British boy went up to his Egyptian ancestor.

"Yami . . ." He shifted, now not sure of what to say. "Years ago, were you trapped in the Unowns' world?"

Yami Bakura turned and glowered at him. "Since you are so determined for an answer, yes, I was. And since I was seeing my fantasies come to life, I wasn't eager to return to the real world when I was called."

Bakura hesitated again, biting his lip. "Maybe you would have been happier staying in the illusion," he said quietly. He didn't ask what the thief had seen. He was sure he knew-for his village to not have been massacred and for his family to be safe.

"What good would that have done?" Yami Bakura retorted. "Yes, it was nicer there, but no one was real. I wanted my real family back, not just my memories of them. I had to come back to reality." He turned to look at the boy. "If it had been you, would you have wanted to stay?"

"I . . . honestly don't know," Bakura had to admit. "If there was no one in the real world who cared, maybe I would have." He tried to smile. "But there is at least one who cares, so I would want to come back."

Yami Bakura just grunted.

xxxx

The mood in the Kaiba Manor was grim. Mokuba could not seem to undo the damage the Unown had caused. Hoping the Unown could, the group was following Mokuba's lead in navigating through what had become of the mansion to locate the Unown.

"They should be right through here," Mokuba announced, pushing a door open.

And indeed they were. The door opened into Seto's home office. The Unown were still swirling and circling and chanting in a sphere-like formation while high above them stood an open portal.

"That song's never going to make the Top 40," Duke said sarcastically.

Mokuba ran forward until he was almost directly underneath the Pokemon. "Cut it out!" he pleaded. "I don't want this dream world anymore. I want things real again! Please . . . please. . . ."

The Unown looked down at him and chattered in their tongue. But the more they tried to spin and undo the damage, the more something else seemed to spin them out of control.

"They just can't make it," Meowth said in sorrowful resignation. "They really must've overloaded their power so's now it's got control!"

"So what can we do?!" Téa wailed.

Stalagmites shot out of the floor and walls while stalactites came down from the ceiling. Téa shrieked. Joey yelped.

"It looks like we're all gonna be skewered sooner or later!" Joey cried.

Team Rocket clutched each other in terror.

"I never wanted to go through this again!" James exclaimed.

"How did we get into this mess?!" Meowth yowled.

"Because we said we'd help!" Jessie snapped. "We should have just followed my better judgment and stayed away!"

"I have an idea!" Yugi suddenly announced. "Maybe Mokuba himself is the only one who can break the spell, but maybe he doesn't have to do it alone. Let's all join hands and concentrate to give our energy and support to Mokuba!"

Seto looked like he found the whole idea preposterous, but for once he didn't say so. He took Mokuba's and then Yugi's hands without protest. Everyone else followed suit.

Mokuba was stunned. "But . . . I've been trying and trying to make them stop. I can't!"

"There must be a way," Yugi said.

"You know, maybe this does make a certain kind of sense," James said. "If this is Mokuba's dream world, he should be able to do whatever he wants, including stopping these Unown! He can will himself to be that strong."

"That's right!" Yugi said.

"In that case, he should be able to do it all on his own," Jessie objected.

"Only he doesn't have to," Seto said. "He never will." He looked to Mokuba. "You'll always have my support, Mokuba."

Mokuba looked to Seto in surprise, then slowly started to beam. "Big Brother . . ."

"Now, Mokuba, concentrate!" Yugi encouraged. "We're all with you. You can make the Unown stop this and return everything to normal! You have to believe that!"

Mokuba bit his lip. "I . . . I can do this. I can. . . ." He looked from the group of his family, friends, and strangers to where the fake Seto and Noa were standing and watching him.

"You can," Seto agreed.

"But you don't have to," the fake Seto chimed in. "You can stay here, where nothing will go wrong again."

"We'll always look after you," Noa agreed.

Mokuba looked away again. "I could stay, but I don't want to. I know you're not the real Seto. And you're not the real Noa. I'm always going to miss Noa, but he's gone. Being with you was all in my mind. But I'm glad being with Seto is real." He looked back. "Things aren't perfect, it's true. But Yugi's right: I want my real brother, not a fake!"

The fake Seto and Noa stepped back. "Then . . . goodbye, Mokuba," Noa said.

"Goodbye," Mokuba said softly.

"Just keep me close . . . in your dreams." Noa shimmered, turning back to a blue light before vanishing altogether.

"I was glad to be your brother, even if just for a while," the fake Seto said. Then he was gone as well.

Mokuba blinked back tears. "I want things real again," he repeated. "Stop all of the dream world, and the weird rooms, and the crystal. Please . . . just go back to normal!"

For a moment nothing happened. But then at last, a blue light shot out from Mokuba and from everyone granting him their support. The crystal shimmered, shattered, and began to disappear into light, leaving the room just as it had found it. The Unown chattered and squealed, flying through their portal. It closed after them and the letter tiles clattered harmlessly to the floor.

Everyone began to relax. "It's over," Yugi realized.

"I . . . did it?" Mokuba opened his eyes. "I really did it!" He looked up at Seto, beaming. "Everything's back to normal again!"

Seto smiled. "And all because of you, Mokuba. I'm proud of you."

Mokuba hugged him close. "Thanks, Big Brother."

"We're all proud," Marik said. "That decision took a great deal of courage."

"Not to mention having enough strength and willpower to make it work," Yugi smiled.

"So it's really over?" James said hopefully.

"Everything looks back to normal," Jessie said.

"We'd just better not get stuck in here like we did in that tower in Greenfield," Meowth said. "We couldn't sneak out until after dark!"

Marik looked to Team Rocket. "Thank you for helping," he said sincerely. "Your knowledge was useful and you also helped by adding your support to Mokuba."

"Well, if we really did some good," Meowth said slowly. "I just hope the boss won't find out."

"He won't hear anything from any of us," Marik said.

"So, Kaiba, what're you gonna do with all the alphabet letters?" Joey asked, pointing to the tiles scattered across the floor.

Seto scowled. "I don't want to bother shipping them back to Egypt. I'll probably lock them in a vault and never take them out."

"That sounds like a good compromise to me," Yugi smiled.

The tiles abruptly vanished into specks of blue light.

". . . Well, that takes care of that," Tristan blinked.

"Just as well," Seto grunted. "They were a nuisance and nothing more."

Marik's phone rang just then and he took it out. "Hello, Sister," he greeted.

"Marik! Is everything alright?" Ishizu asked.

"It is now," Marik smiled. "Mokuba broke the Unowns' spell."

"Thank goodness. The crystal was starting to spread all over the city," Ishizu said.

Marik stiffened. "Did it reach you?"

"Yes, but the Spirit of the Ring managed to keep the crystal from encasing us," Ishizu said. "He and Ryou Bakura are with me."

"I'm glad he could help," Marik said in relief.

Overhearing the conversation, Mokuba looked shaken. "I really could have caused the whole city to turn into crystal?" he whispered.

"Through no fault of your own," James said, looking over at him.

"All you wanted was to get your brother back," Jessie agreed. "You weren't expecting the Unown to take control of your thoughts and cause so much trouble. So don't beat yourself up over it, kid."

"Yeah!" Meowth said. "Everything's okay now and that's the most important thing, right?"

"I guess so," Mokuba said.

"It'll take some time to get over it," Seto said. "I just hope you won't be like me and struggle with it and deny you're still upset even though you clearly are."

Mokuba looked up at Seto in surprise, not having expected him to even acknowledge such things about himself. "Seto . . . are you still upset about Atem leaving?" he had to ask.

". . . Yes, I am," Seto confessed. "And I'll probably continue to be upset for a while. But there's nothing that can be done about it. What's done is done and I have to move on. And not do any more ridiculous things like arrange a search of the Pharaoh's tomb."

"Well . . ." Mokuba said slowly, "maybe we can help each other get over what we're upset about?"

Seto started to smile. "I think we can."

Mokuba beamed.

Yugi stepped back to give them some space. "You know, maybe what happened today will actually turn out to be a good thing for them," he said. "It might help them be more open with each other."

"And maybe Mokuba won't wish that they're back at the orphanage any more," Téa hoped.

". . . Coming to think about it, where are our cars?!" David suddenly exclaimed to Duke.

". . . We'd better find out," Duke exclaimed back.

They ran down the stairs, half-afraid they would find a car wedged in a doorway or standing in the middle of the living room. Instead, to their relief, both cars were visible out the window on the driveway.

"Well, at least we won't have to worry about how to get our cars out the doors," David said.

"No kidding," Duke agreed. "So, now you've been involved several times on an adventure with the whole gang. Are you anxious to have another?"

"Honestly? No," David said. "But I'll still come along if you do, Dukey-Boy."

Duke rolled his eyes at the good-natured tease. "Then I guess we'll just wait and see what happens the next time something goes wrong."

"Which could be tomorrow," Tristan quipped from the stairs.

"Or next Tuesday," Joey added.

"Or next month," Duke retorted.

"It would be great if it wouldn't be any time at all," Téa sighed, leaning on the balcony railing.

"I can't deny that," Yugi admitted.

"But I'm sure something else will go wrong at some time," Solomon grunted. "The important thing is for all of you to face it together as family and friends."

Yugi took note of the emphasis and determined he might talk with Solomon about that later. For now, he looked thoughtful as he smiled and said, "That does sound pretty good, Grampa. When we do that, we always come through."

"Always," Marik agreed, smiling up at Rishid.

Rishid smiled back.