Chapter 4

AmePiper: Hello, hello lovely. I believe I have already thanked you for the quotes, but I'll do it again just in case; thank you for the quotes! Gosh, I feel as though Steven isn't as loveable as he was in For Your Protection. Do you think I'm starting to lose my awesome own character abilities? Well, let's hope not. I'll reply to your PM as soon as things start looking up for me. Thanks again dearest.

Journey maker: Thanks for the review! Enjoy the chapter!

Ladyguadalupe: I'm glad you're reading the story and liking it! I was wondering where you were… and you're right, I do apologize too much. I suppose I don't have the highest of self-esteem when it comes to my writing, but you guys always manage to boost it with every review, that I thank you for. It's good to know your favorite character is no longer the bad guy. Thanks for the review.

Chapter 4

"Time is the only comforter for the loss of a mother."-Jane Welsh Carlyle

Seto gasped and coughed, somehow able to do one action after the other, as he kept afloat with his feet. His body was completely drained of energy, he knew he would need to get out of the water soon or he might drown. First he would let his body take in all the oxygen it needed before trying to find land. It was still pouring down with rain.

Seto looked up at the bridge, mainly at the opening his car had made after it had spun out of control. Everything happened so fast; Seto wasn't even sure how it started. He didn't have time to think and remember it though he needed to get Mokuba and Steven out of the water and to safety.

Seto kicked his way to the side of the river and climbed onto the pavement that had been made under the bridge. He placed Mokuba and Steven side by side on the ground before collapsing next to them. He had to protect them… but he had no energy… his eyes were feeling heavy… the rain was beginning to lighten up… all was quiet.

When Mokuba finally regained consciousness, he heard the soft sounds of an occasional splash of water. It was no longer raining, and by the looks of how bright it was, it was sometime in the afternoon. Mokuba sat up and immediately felt pain on his side from sleeping on the cement for who knows how many hours. At first, he wasn't quite sure what had happened or why he was under a bridge.

Then he remembered; the rain, the black car, the loss of control, and the sinking. And Steven. Steven was in his arms. Did he save him? He couldn't remember, Mokuba was almost positive he had Steven locked in his arms. Maybe that was when he lost consciousness. Did that mean he saved him? Or was he…? Mokuba jerked into an upright position and turned to his right. He found Seto lying on his chest with his eyes closed, as if he were sleeping. He looked to his left. Steven was nowhere in site.

Mokuba jumped to his feet and ran over to Seto. He immediately bent down and started shaking Seto violently. "Seto! Seto! Get up! Hurry!" A groan was heard from Seto's mouth, but it was obvious he didn't want to make any sort of attempt to wake up. His eyes were shut and his body lay limp. Mokuba only shook him harder. "You need to wake up! Steven's missing!" It took a little more shaking and yelling before Seto finally opened his eyes.

"What…? What is it?" Seto asked in an annoyed voice, pushing Mokuba off him.

"Where's Steven?" Seto looked around. He didn't see Steven either; he got to his feet as well.

"Oh god… no…" Seto and Mokuba split up, looking all around for Steven. Seto ran all over, his eyes looking at every area. All he could think was how he screwed up, how he lost his only son. How all Steven ever wanted was to meet his mother and he had completely and utterly failed him. Seto felt his heart sank, until he heard Mokuba call for him.

"Seto! I found him!" Seto ran towards his brother's voice and found Mokuba standing with Steven in his arms. Steven had a rock in his hand. "He was standing by the river throwing rocks." Seto pulled Steven into his arms and hugged him tightly.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Seto commanded. Steven shrugged.

"I'm sorry Otousan, I got bored. I didn't know it would upset you." Seto hugged him a second time before standing up.

"You don't need to worry about it, Steven. Now that we're all awake and safe."

"Safe? Yeah, if you haven't noticed Bro, we're kind of hiding out under a bridge and our car is probably some fish's new home." Seto rolled his eyes.

"We'll be fine. I'll just go out into the city and rent a new one." Mokuba crossed his arms.

"I told you we should've pulled over and waited. If you had only listened to me-"

"Oh please, if that guy had been a better driver, he wouldn't have accidentally swerved into us."

"I don't think that was an accident, Otousan." Seto and Mokuba stared at Steven.

"What are you talking about? Of course it was an accident."

"No… No I don't think so. It seemed intentional." Seto and Mokuba were now staring at each other.

"Emergency family meeting over there!" Seto announced, pointing a couple feet away from where they were currently standing. Steven started to follow them, but Seto stopped and turned around. "Family that doesn't include Steven…"

"No fair!" Steven whined, as he sat down and pouted. Seto and Mokuba quickly sneaked away and turned to each other.

"What do you think happened? You think that wasn't an accident?"

"I don't know! Do you remember what happened? I can't remember anything, I think I got a concussion of some sort from the collision," Seto felt his head.

"Well, I can't be sure either. I wasn't watching the whole time. What makes you think it wasn't an accident?"

"Because I'm Seto Kaiba? Because people have wanted to kill me ever since I took over Kaiba Corp?" Seto did prove a valid point.

"I guess that's true," Mokuba thought for a moment, "But why now? I mean, no one has made any attempts to kill you or kidnap me for years. I was led to believe that they had all finally given up on killing you or taking your company."

"What if they were after Steven?" Ever since Steven had been born, Seto had kept his existence a secret. He didn't want anyone to find out about Steven because he was worried that would only bring danger to Steven's life. For many years, no one even knew Steven was born.

But at some point word had gotten out and the press was all over Seto. Apparently Seto having a child was front page worthy news for magazines. Although some of the titles did amuse Mokuba, especially ones that touched on the fact that Seto were seemingly asexual. But never the less, Steven had never tried to been kidnapped even after news had gotten out.

"I don't know Seto, I feel like they would've done that when he was baby, considering he'd be more vulnerable then. That is if they really did want to kidnap him or hurt him in anyway." Mokuba turned and looked over at Steven. He was lying back on the pavement again, staring up at the bridge above him. "I just don't get why anyone would ever want to hurt him." Seto still had a stern face. It was serious business when it came to Steven, Seto always got protective.

"Same reason they tried to hurt you. To get to me."

"So what do you intend we do, Seto Kaiba? Pack our bags and go back?"

"No… just keep an eye out for trouble."

"That's nothing out of the ordinary." Seto rolled his eyes. Both he and Mokuba returned to Steven. "Okay, so… we've decided that car crash, whatever its real intention was, is nothing to worry about."

"If you say so." Seto looked up and around.

"We better go and catch a bus or something," Seto started his way up the side of the river and back to the road when he noticed Steven still standing still, looking at his feet. "What's wrong Steven? You still want to meet her, don't you?"

"Well yeah… but…" Steven looked down in shame, "I don't know, I guess I'm a little scared."

"Don't worry Steven, there's nothing to worry about," Mokuba cut in, putting his arm around Steven's shoulder, "You have both Seto and I to look after you. If there's any danger coming your way, they'll have to get through both Seto's body and mine to get to you. Now that's what I call protection." Steven giggled and followed Mokuba and Seto up to the road on which they had traveled the day before.

"So how far away do you think is the next city?"

"I'm not sure…" Seto looked down both ways of the road that was in front of him. "I don't even know how we're going to get there. It doesn't appear as though there's a bus stop near by…" Mokuba held out his thumbs to the oncoming traffic. Seto quickly pulled him back. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Hitch hiking. Duh. How else are we going to get into the next city?"

"Hitch hiking is way too dangerous! There is no way we're doing that." Mokuba spotted another oncoming car and quickly flailed his thumb in the air. The red car sped to a stop. Seto shook his head, "Great job Mokuba. Now I have to tell him we don't need a ride…" Seto walked over to the car and tapped on the car window. The car door opened and a somewhat short woman, with long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, stepped out with a grin on her face. Mokuba froze up.

"What do you know? It's the Kaiba Brothers!"

"Rebecca? What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Shouldn't you be in America or something? Wow, nice care by the way."

"I was… but then I came back. I go to university now." Rebecca's eyes fell on Mokuba and she smiled. Mokuba felt a chill go down his back as Rebecca took a step closer. "You know, I built this car myself… it has all kinds of special gadgets and things. If you want I could show you…" Rebecca said, fluttering his eyelashes. Mokuba was guessing this was some sort of way of trying to impress him.

"Well, we really should be going." Rebecca took another step closer, as Mokuba took another step back. "Yep, it'll be a long-"

"And what might your hansom self being doing out here?"

"We're on a mission!" Steven cut in with a child like glee. Rebecca's attention was finally taken away from Mokuba and was now focused on Steven.

"Oh! Isn't he the cutest little thing?" Rebecca picked Steven up and squeezed him in her arms. "What an adorable little boy! What might your name be?"

"My name's Steven." Mokuba took Steven from her arms.

"And now we have to go, nice seeing you, bye!" Mokuba turned to run, but Seto grabbed him from the back of his shirt and pulled him back.

"Look, Rebecca. We got into a bit of a car wreck and we need to get to Tokyo. Do you think you could give us a lift to the next city?"

"Of course," Rebecca turned back to Mokuba, "For you, I'd take you all around the world…"

"That's really okay! Cause we just need to get to Tokyo!" Mokuba stated, running behind Seto in fear. "Seto, what do you think you're getting us into? I thought you said hitch hiking was dangerous."

"And who would've thought we'd pull over an old friend. Come on Steven, get in the car."

"The adventure continues!" Mokuba sighed.

"Oh Mokuba… you can sit up front with me…" Rebecca gave him a seductive wink and Mokuba gulped. It was going to be a long ride from there to Kyoto. Rebecca happily opened the door for Mokuba and he respectfully got in. The car started and soon enough they were back on the road and back on their journey.

"So what kind of adventure are you three going on exactly?"

"We're going to go find my mom!"

"Steven! Be quiet."

"Your mom, huh?"

"That's really all we're obligated to tell you at this time." Rebecca laughed.

"Alright, alright. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine," Rebecca said, "It's a good thing you got out of Domino City when you could. Some weird things have been happening." Mokuba eyed her.

"What do you mean 'weird things'?"

"That's really all I'm obligated to tell you at this time." Rebecca grinned. Mokuba rolled his eyes. "Look, it's nothing you need to concern yourself with. Just sit back, relax, and in the next couple hours we'll be in Kyoto." Mokuba, although suspicious as to what Rebecca might do while he's asleep, discovered he really needed sleep. He turned back and found Seto had already fallen asleep while Steven was working his way to it. Mokuba turned back to Rebecca. "You don't need to be so paranoid Mokuba, I won't hurt you." Mokuba didn't want to, but he couldn't resist the sleep that soon overcame his body as he drifted off to sleep.

A/N: Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. It was a somewhat late update, but I had a simply terrible week and I just haven't been able to focus. Not to mention writer's block hit me just as I was reaching my peak of inspiration. But I think it's beginning to pass, so hopefully you can look forward to a much more quickly update. Well, nothing more to say. See you next chapter.