10. Back to the Future

When Atem left, Seto immediately rose to follow … only … nausea and vertigo returned with a vengeance. He sat, praying that these effects were entirely extremely realistic virtual reality and nothing more permanent.

He waited scant moments for the worst of the symptoms to pass before struggling to his feet again. He had to follow. He didn't consider the fact that this Atem was virtual and therefore didn't matter. He had to get to him; he couldn't allow him to face Bakura alone. He didn't realize what that … thing … was. Still, he could barely move properly, and stumbled on his way to the door, catching himself on the jamb.

Mahad appeared by his side, grasping his bicep firmly. "You must get your rest," he insisted. "Your Prince commands it."

"Ordinarily I'd obey, but the Prince is in danger," he said. "We must assist him."

"I'll see to it, but you can't help him. Not in your condition."

Seto smiled thinly. "And how are you going to stop me?" He yanked his arm away from Mahad easily only to find that Karim had materialized in the room.

"Set, please. Don't make this difficult for us." Karim moved around behind Seto and grasped his other arm. He began to drag Seto back toward the couch.

Seto leaned forward, resisting. As powerful as Karim was, he wasn't going to make it easy for him.

"If you resist, we can't help the Prince as quickly," reasoned Mahad. "If you sit down and allow Karim to watch you, I'll go immediately and call in the Guardians. Just tell me what needs to be done."

Seto didn't like this. Take himself completely out of the action and allow others to do all the work?

But this was Atem's plan … even if it wasn't the genuine Atem, it was a reasonable facsimile, drawn upon his memories of him …

… Drawn upon his memories … The whole world. Just as Atem had said.

Of course.

There was one more possibility. The possibility that Atem had described.

He had to gamble on it.

He sat down, scowling. He hated doing things Atem's way.

But …

He wanted to win.

He needed to win.

"I need you to get the Guardians and go … toward the throne room. The Prince and Bakura will be somewhere between the throne room and this room," he said quickly. "You must meet them and help the Prince. Do exactly as he says."

"All right," said Mahad, taking off at a run. He was probably happier helping Atem directly anyway, Seto thought.

"Let's go, Karim," he said.

"But Set, the Prince said—"

"He wanted to keep me from following him, am I correct?"

"I believe that was the intent."

"We're not going there." Seto paused. "In fact, we should start with my room."

"Your room?"

"Yes. I'm going to look at everything. All you have to do is stand by."

"Stand by? Aren't you going to tell me what you're doing?"

Seto smiled grimly. "I'm looking for something, but I can't tell you what I'm looking for."

"All right," Karim said, but he looked at Seto as though he was convinced that he'd lost his mind.

No matter. As quickly as they could manage it, they went to Seto's room, Karim apparently having decided that humoring Seto in this was a fairly benign alternative. Seto began examining each object in the room in minute detail. It wasn't as though he already gone through it, and Bakura hadn't intruded to do the same thing, but nevertheless. It was worth being thorough. This was the most likely place.

Next he went to the training room to pick up his sword, just in case they met opposition.

"Do you really think there's extreme danger?" Karim asked.

"I'm not certain, but if we run into forces opposing the Prince, I want to be prepared."

Karim looked alarmed. "You really think he might be in physical danger?"

"It's possible. Be prepared for anything."

They stepped out into the wide hallway.

"When I saw that your quarters were empty, I knew that you'd go here first."

"When I saw that your quarters were empty, I knew that you'd go here first," said Akhenaden.

"Master, I don't have time to talk right now. I'm sure you understand. The Prince has command—"

"The Prince? Why don't you call him by his name, Set?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"His name. Prince … who? Surely you haven't forgotten his name."

"No. Have you? Why don't you remind me?" Seto's hand tightened around the hilt of his sword.

"Set? What's going on?" asked Karim.

"You—You've already made a deal with him, haven't you?" accused Seto, ignoring Karim.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Master Akhenaden?" asked Karim, nervously.

"You're in our way. This is a private conversation," said Akhenaden. He activated his eye and somehow pinned Karim to the wall.

"You know what Bakura is," said Seto. "Did you take a look inside him with that eye of yours?"

"I … That's not the point." Akhenaden took a step closer. "Set, I'm your master and teacher. You're going to listen to me."

"No, I'm going to obey the Prince."

"I'm your father, Set. I love you. Come here."

"Too late to shock me with that. I know what you are, and you're no father of mine. I know what you did—will do. Whatever. I know what you're capable of, and it's not love." He took a step backward. "If you don't want me to run you through, keep your distance."

"Set, I do love you, and you're not yet capable of facing me, believe me." He picked up a sword. "I don't want to use magic against you."

The corner of Seto's mouth curled grimly. "Then prepare to lose."

Akhenaden came close, their swords clashing. "I don't want to fight you. I'm just going to extract the information I want!"

As their battle began, Seto was dimly aware of a commotion at the far end of the hall. He couldn't allow himself to be distracted by it, but he had the impression of a large white snake-like monster and a spread of shining wings.

Even though the old man was reluctant to injure him severely, he was cagey and experienced. Further, Seto was severely hampered by his condition. Further, he found, somewhat to his surprise, that he was reluctant to fully commit to harming his master.

Then the fight took a turn as Seto caught a flash from that strange eye of Akhenaden's. At that moment, Karim was released, dropping unceremoniously to the floor.

Seto stumbled backward. The bastard is going to use that eye on me and read my mind! It's … I won't be able to hide it!

He could already feel it, the invasive mind entering his. At first his mind went entirely blank with shock.

Karim hurried to catch Seto, but he fell to the floor, the hilt of his sword smacking the stone soundly, its beautifully carved hilt cracking. Distracted, Seto looked down. A papyrus scrap had been stuffed into the hilt.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Look at me!" shouted Akhenaden.

But all of Seto's attention had shifted to the papyrus. He unfolded it carefully. Oh, yes. Atem had given it to him the day they'd met. On it was written a good luck spell to protect the life of the sword's bearer. It had been very important to Set, very secret, held close and sacred to him, that his prince cared about his safety in battle. And … it was sealed with the name of the spell's caster.

Atem …

Seto had been staring at a scrap of papyrus bearing the name of his future Pharaoh—Atem—and then …

He was sitting on that same uncomfortable concrete floor, his head splitting and spinning, a dark cloud gradually fading …

He took a moment to look down at himself. My clothing … my clothing! he thought with great relief.

So that game was possible to win …!

And … how …? Not VR? He sighed. He didn't like the alternative.

Seto was happy to realize that his hands were free now. He was still wearing his Duel Disk, which accounted for some discomfort in his back, shoulders, and arms, but at least he didn't have to search for it. Swiftly, he checked his deck, sighing with relief when he found that all of the irreplaceable cards were present. Replacing it in the card holder, he checked the mechanism. Not so good. The disk had been damaged and would have to be replaced.

Having accomplished these essential checks, Seto pressed his hands to his temples as everything began to gradually sink in: It was a game, but not VR. Everything he remembered told him that it was a shadow game. Magic … a thought which made his head throb more, but there was no getting around it. He had remembered.

He had remembered.

Why had he remembered all that? All this had been prepared for …

Voices in the distance brought his attention back to his surroundings, which included his opponent, who seemed to be unconscious.

He stood with a little difficulty. He was quite stiff. How long had he been there?

He cleared his throat, smoothed his clothing as well as he could, and composed his expression. He needed to secure that Bakura person, then find his security people—and Mokuba. For the first time, a small smile teased the corners of his lips.

A door burst open revealing Yugi—no, he realized, the spirit of Atem—wadjet eye glowing on his forehead, followed by Anzu and—Mokuba!

"Mokuba!" he called, his voice raspy. "I was just coming to look for you."

Mokuba came running and threw himself at his brother, who, for once, knelt to catch him. He was embarrassed by the effusive joy that Mokuba was pouring out, but … well, he supposed he could tolerate it under the circumstances.

The spirit of the pharaoh watched the Kaiba brothers reunite with great relief. In fact, the surge of relief was such that he was a little surprised. Had he really been that worried? After all, he had great faith in Kaiba's abilities …

Once Kaiba had extricated himself from Mokuba's affectionate grasp, he moved to his opponent. Bakura seemed unconscious. Seto knelt and pulled the sennen ring from around his neck.

Kaiba held it gingerly, as though he could barely stand to touch it. "Yugi," he said.

"Kaiba?"

"Take this thing. I believe it belongs—or should belong, anyway—to you. I do wish you'd take better care of these things."

Yugi accepted the ring, feeling a strange electric thrill as it contacted his fingers, as though something passed from Kaiba through the medium of the ring to him. His eyes shifted to Kaiba's blue ones involuntarily. What was that? he wondered.

But Kaiba was looking back, apparently having sensed nothing. "Oh, Mokuba?"

"Nii-sama?"

"Call our security captain and have him take Bakura here into custody. I don't want him interfering in our tournament any further. Yugi can deal with him as he likes when it's over."

"Yugi?" asked Mokuba.

"He's Yugi's friend."

"Kaiba," Yugi said firmly.

"Yugi?"

"That was a shadow game you were playing. Don't tell me there wasn't anything unusual about it from your perspective. What happened?"

Kaiba looked at him thoughtfully. Yugi could swear that the mind behind the intense gaze was calculating swiftly.

"Meh heh … Yugi, it's a very long story. One I'm positive you'll find fascinating. But I see no reason to just blurt it out like it's nothing. It's your fault that I had to go through all this, so it's only fair that you have to earn the right to hear about what happened. So, Yugi, you can hear all about it when you win my tournament—that is, if you win my tournament. And I promise you this, I'm not going to make it easy for you."

With that, Kaiba leaned over and, before the spirit could react, grabbed him firmly by one shoulder, wrapped another hand around his cheek and kissed him full on the lips. The kiss wasn't completely erotic, but it was personal and emphatic.

Yugi took a reeling step backward, shocked. Coming to himself, he demanded, "What was that for?!"

"Wouldn't you like to know? I'll consider telling you if you beat me." He turned, his trench swirling behind him dramatically, then swept off, laughing, a wide-eyed Mokuba running to catch up with his lengthy stride.

Yugi stood staring after him in wonder, a hand rising to his tingling lips.

What happened in that shadow game to change him like that?

And just what exactly was this change?

He had to know.

"He … he kissed you! Th-that pervert!" Yugi blinked, realizing that Anzu had appeared by his side. Apparently she had finally found her voice after Kaiba's actions had left her speechless with outrage for a few moments. "Are you going to do something about this?"

"Oh, yes, Anzu," he said quietly. "I'm going to win this tournament and demand an explanation."

~ Fin ~

Author's notes:

Well, I guess this is it! I had planned to wait longer, but I'm done and so I guess I'll post now. I hope you all liked it! Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, followed and favorited! All the support is really motivating, believe me.

Reviews: No problem with the nitpicking ... the chapters have been fixed and reposted. (No, actually, I meant to repeat "around"! ;) around and around and around ...) I shouldn't grumble since I'm too lazy to have anyone check it over other than me ... haha! Plus, these late-night postings aren't helping any! Feel free to point out any errors, whether outrageous, annoying, or just plain nitpicky. By review or PM is fine.

I'm thrilled that you like my titles because you wouldn't believe the amount of thought that I put into them. Frankly, I'm not crazy about the title of this story. Puzzle, Cipher, Key wasn't the original title, but I liked the first one even less and I really never came up with one that I thought fit like a glove. When it comes to perfect titles, Satisfaction was the one that screamed out to me, You must name me "Satisfaction"! Not only because Jack and Yusei were in Team Satisfaction, but because it turned out to be a theme and thread that ran through the whole story and culminated in the climax nicely. As for chapters: I leave them unnamed until they're finished and I'm giving them their final reads and polishes before posting. Then I think about what the point, theme, or action of the chapter is and with luck think of something semi-clever to encapsulate as a title (I love it when I can use two meanings of a word or use word play). The recent story I did for 5D's was fun because they were all baseball terms and phrases that I tried to mess with that way. Probably TMI, but anyway ...

And ... yeah. I really didn't expect this story to be quite this short, but there you have it. Sometimes things don't work out quite the way you expect them to. I hope that you enjoyed the ending, though. I've got to admit, I'm a little sad to end this one, but following this one beyond the shadow game just isn't in the cards.

Moving on ...

a spread of shining wings: Did you notice we never got to see what Atem's ka was like (anime or manga)? Do you think it was a magician like Mahad's/Mana's? I kind of pictured it as one of the more impressive fairy-types (not the wimpy/fragile ones). Just a stab at what it might be like ...

Meh heh: The laugh that they always give Kaiba in the manga.

A virtual cookie to anyone who gets that little business between Seto/Atem I put in towards the end.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention the last two chapters (posting late ... sigh): I've attached a little half-baked poll to my profile page in case anyone wants to give me some input into what you want me to work on next - that is, after my sequel to Satisfaction, which I'm pretty much committed to. I also have some intentionally vague descriptions of ideas on my profile which you're welcome to PM me about, even if all you have to say is "How do you expect me to get any idea of what you have in mind from that?!"

It might be a while until I get out my next story since this one was so short and I still have some fleshing-out to do on Where There's Fire (that is, unless I end up writing a one-off or two in the interim) so that's where things are right now. (I tell you, just dealing with the streaming is painfully time consuming and repetitive ... damn, will they ever release 5D's DVDs?!)

Sorry for the verbose notes, all. I leave my characters in your tender care for now.

Until next time, DD