MythCreatorWriter: I will most likely make it up to you, don't worry. I wish I could move forward with my other story though, everyone really wants to see how I kill off Gozaburo and I really want to show them! Wait, I shouldn't be talking about my other story in a time like this… wow, I'm really ADDing bad today. You have that CD now? I feel like the Foo Fighters owe me money since I advertised their song and got you to buy their CD. Yeah, the looking the mirror part was my favorite part of his speech, which was what I was hoping would make up for the generic-just-like-the-series back story he told. That sounds like an awesome icon too! Thanks for the review!

Sonny131: Thanks!:D I was hoping someone would like that. ;)

Rena Redhead: Mokuba's age always comes into question for me when I'm writing these revealing scenes because I think I make him sound way too mature. I think the fact, though, that Mokuba kept interrupting Seto sort of brought him back to his 11-year-old self. But I can't be too sure, can someone be mature and then not mature? I'm not sure. I'm sick and tired right now, so everything seems a bit blurry. Like I keep saying, you keep making my story sound more awesome than it is, and I gotta tell you thank you for that! I get the feeling I could make an actual story just out of your own reviews because you write them so in-depth and descriptively. Hahaha, it's almost better than my own story! Thanks for the reviews, enjoy! (ONLY ONE MORE WEEK AND 3 DAYS AND I WILL BE DONE, I HOPE. I DREAM. SCHOOL SUCKS.)

Chapter 25: Tales of Betrayal

-M-

I felt detached and afraid. It seemed like we were falling, and my body seemed to float away as we fell forward. I couldn't be too sure; I still had my eyes closed. I didn't want to see whatever was happening to me. The only solace I had was the grip of Seto's hand holding mine. That was the only thing that let me know we were going to be okay. I held on as hard as I could.

But then the opposite began to happen, my body grew heavy and came back together again, but now I could feel Seto's hand slipping out of mine. I opened my eyes out of fear and looked towards him, our hold had already broken. He looked afraid.

"Nii-sama!"

"Mokuba!" And BAM! In a flash, we had hit the ground. But it didn't feel like we had hit the ground, it felt like we had simply jumped back into another world, the one we had been in before. I broke out of my stone-like pose and lunged forward when I finally got out of my trance, landing in my brother's arms. Seto swung his arms forward and held me tight as I let my body sink in against his chest. It had a truly calming effect over me.

I buried my face in his shoulder and sighed with relief.

"I was so scared," I said with an honest simplicity.

"You don't have to be anymore," My brother whispered back. That was when, for the first time in many years, I truly felt safe and connected with my brother again. Our bond might've gone through some rough patches, but all in all, it had been restored and never really lost to begin with. It just needed some repairs.

It was the happiest moment I had experienced since we had been trapped here, just being with my brother, in his arms.

"Our bodies are restored… that must mean that Yugi won the duel!"

Unfortunately it was a moment that had died in an instance and vanished. These brotherly moments of ours had the tendency to happen very little and last even less. Seto let go of me and got up, switching his attention to Yugi's friends. I shrugged; Seto could never astray from what had to be done for too long anyways.

"What? What duel?" Tea turned towards him and smiled.

"Your duel, Yugi took over after you and Mokuba were turned to stone. Then he combined your deck with his deck and managed to beat Noah using it!" Seto looked down at his duel disk and found that his cards were missing from their slot.

"He dueled, using my cards?" I could hear the frustration in his voice, but I was taking a different approach towards this. I was just happy to be alive and no longer in that 'No Man's Land' place anymore! I made a mental note to thank Yugi later when Seto wasn't around; he deserved it after what he did, and after defeating that cheater Noah.

Yugi wasn't too far off, either. We watched as the giant rock he was standing on descended down and carefully fit back into the earth. I leaned to the side and saw that Noah was still around too, standing opposite from Yugi. His eyes were darkened with the pain of defeat, a similar look that Seto had had only moments ago back in that other place we had been sent to. But I could feel no mercy towards him.

Noah fell to his hands and knees. His head was hanging low.

"How could this have happened?" Noah said aloud.

Yugi began walking across the field over to where he was. I looked up at Seto. His eyes were straight forward, watching Yugi's every move, probably waiting to see what Yugi would do next.

"Listen to me, Noah. You've been all alone in this virtual world for six years and it's distorted your sense of reality…" I leaned in closer to where my brother was.

"Okay, here's our chance," I whispered to my brother, "If we strike now, we can catch him before he tries to runaway. How about you hold him down and I punch?" Seto smirked and gave a small chuckled, but that was all.

"That's a tempting idea, but I'd rather use my 'wait and see' tactic. Something tells me we're about to find out some valuable information now that he's been defeated." I crossed my arms in annoyance.

"Seriously? Nii-sama, it's the perfect plan! I can knock him out, and then we can both beat him up! Come on; let's strike now while Yugi's distracting him…!" I glanced at my brother to see if he was with me, but Seto shook his head.

"Cool it, Mokuba. Let's just wait for one second. Yugi has a way of divulging information from people. Let's see what comes of it." I gave another frustrated sigh. I would've given anything to just go and beat Noah to the ground now, but I decided to follow Seto's orders and chill out for the time being.

"…It's not fair! I deserve to be the president of Kaiba Corp. and I would be if Seto hadn't robbed me of my life!" Noah yelled, "And I want it back!" Noah got up from his knees and ran forward. I stepped forward, ready to defend Yugi, but Seto grabbed my vest and held me back. Noah placed his hands on Yugi's chest, "I'll escape to the real world using your body!"

"Yugi!" Noah pushed his hands forward and there was another white light that blinded us. My eyes widened. Noah was going to hurt Yugi! I had to help him. I tried running towards him again, but this time Seto wrapped his whole arm around me to keep me still.

"He's hurting him!" I yelled, staring at my brother like he was the cruelest man alive for letting this injustice occur right in front of him. I understood that Yugi was his nemesis, but that didn't mean he should just stand around and let the guy die!

"Stand your ground," Seto said in a very stern and serious voice. I stopped struggling and stood there, watching in horror.

The light only lasted for under a minute before it exploded and disappeared throwing Noah a couple feet backwards, Yugi standing upright and just fine. Noah was staring at Yugi with utter surprise and anger. What had just happened? I didn't understand. Had Yugi fought back?

"Who are you? Or rather, what are you?" Noah demanded, eyeing Yugi with suspicion. The rest of Yugi's friends ran towards him, asking him if he was okay. Joey did the usual routine, raising his fist in the air and threatening Noah with what would happen if he tried that again. I rolled my eyes, but looked up at my brother again.

"Now can we beat him up?" Seto said nothing. He wasn't even looking my way and was only focused on Noah. I shrugged and directed my attention back to what was going on.

"You have failed Noah, now you must set us all free," Yugi commanded.

"Yeah! And I want my real body back!" Tristan complained with a monkey-like tone.

"So you want your bodies back?" Noah began laughing again, that ever so creepy but just as annoying laugh that he seemed to have trademarked for moments like these, "Your real bodies are exactly where they have been since you got here."

"What does that mean?" Duke questioned.

"Don't you people get it? There are no 'real bodies' in this world. Everything here is virtual including you people too." It was clear that my brother and I had come to the same conclusion almost simultaneously. It made sense. We never really experienced any of the things that happened, it was all part of Seto's original virtual software designed to simulate and force you to experience everything as if it were real. "Your real bodies are strapped down and wired to my virtual simulator. Everything that happened here was all in your head."

"That's why it seemed so real here… our minds are being tricked into feeling things that aren't really there," Tea stated with astonishment. Seto stepped forward.

"That makes sense. When the floor opened up, we didn't really fall into a virtual vortex. We were knocked unconscious and hooked up to your cyber simulation pods." Then the weirdest thing started to happen. And when I say weirdest, I really mean the weirdest… the sky started turning PURPLE. Dark, swirling clouds began to form overhead and covered the sky. I couldn't believe my eyes. Tiny lightning bolts could be seen sparking from the purple clouds.

"You have failed me for the last time, Noah!" It seemed only Seto, Noah, and I were shaken by this echoing voice from the sky. Seto twisted around and looked up, gritting his teeth.

"That's impossible… it can't be!" I felt a familiar shiver shoot down my spine. Noah's eyes widened and sweat rolled down the side of his face.

"Oh no… Father!" We all heard Noah call. The clouds shifted and suddenly an image of Gozaburo's face enlarged could be seen peeking down from the clouds. I felt I was the only person brave enough to say the man's name.

"Gozaburo," I said with grim fear.

"Father, wait! I can fix this! Just give me some time, I can defeat them!" Gozaburo scowled at Noah.

"More time? You've HAD more than enough time for that, Noah. And you still couldn't prove your worth. I think I should be the one to take over now." Again, I leaned towards Seto.

"Um Nii-sama… did I miss something? I thought Gozaburo was dead-"

"Dead?!" I jumped with surprised; I thought I had spoken quietly enough so that Gozaburo wouldn't have been able to hear me, apparently not. "My body is dead, but my mind is still alive. I digitized my own mind and memories after Seto disgraced me by taking over my company…" Wait, what? That wasn't how I had remembered it at all, in fact, I was sure things had gone differently.

"Nii-sama, I thought-" Seto raised his hand and signaled me to be silent, his eyes remaining on target.

"So, you have been the one behind this the whole time?" Seto asked. Noah stepped forward, smiling up at his father.

"Yes he has, right Father? And he's going to give Kaiba Corp. to me!" Gozaburo didn't look convinced as he stared at Noah.

"I wouldn't count on it, kid. You had your chance and you failed miserably!" Gozaburo yelled; Noah's smile was wiped completely off his face. My arms fell to my sides and I looked in his direction. My mouth gaped a bit; seeing his face like that made me see Noah in a more human and less demonic light.

"Noah…" I said quietly to myself, Seto continued doing what he did best, trying to establish that he was the elite and true winner of the group.

"Don't forget that you lost your chance also. And you failed even more miserably than Noah did when you lost Kaiba Corp. to someone more fit for the job!" Now Gozaburo was staring Seto down, smirking to himself like his efforts proved already to be useless.

"Ah Seto, you fool. You haven't changed one bit, have you? You're still just as proud as you were before. Don't you realize I was the one who taught you everything you know today? No matter, it's about time you learned the truth about why I adopted you in the first place," Gozaburo said, "When you beat me in chess; I decided maybe adopting you wouldn't be half bad. I got the idea that I could use you and your skills to motivate my real son that was quite a slacker. But then Noah was involved in the accident that would later take his life. I attempted to preserve his mind in cyberspace, but soon realized that Noah would always be the same spoiled brat that he was before, unworthy of inheriting my company.

"That was when I turned all my attention to you, Seto. I thought you would make a better heir to my fortune, so I pushed you to your limits."

"You gave up on your own son and you trapped me all by myself in cyberspace!" Noah yelled. My eyes wandered his way again; I could feel another frown tugging at my face. As much as I hated to admit it, I was actually… feeling bad for Noah, at least because of the way Gozaburo had treated him.

"Not at first. Initially I thought I could still use Seto, for even if Noah was able to learn how to run a major corporation, he still lacked one thing—a body. That's where Seto came in." I could hear a loud gasp coming from all of Yugi's friends. And I would've gasped too, if I didn't already know that Gozaburo was evil enough to do such a thing in the first place. Seto wasn't surprised that much either, he seemed more disgusted by it.

"So you were just going to use my body to transfer Noah's mind? You sick bastard!" Seto yelled back at Gozaburo.

"No need to yell, Seto. That wasn't the plan for too long. It was then that I discovered there would be no need to transfer Noah's mind, since your mind was perfectly fine the way it was. So I focused all my concentration on training you to be able to inherit my company; that is until you stole it from me! After that, I did what I could using the same technology I used to download Noah's mind on my own before I died, retreating to cyberspace to plot my revenge. I decided I would use this place for my final plan—to take over Seto's body for myself!"

"Father… you only used me to trap them here, didn't you?" Noah said with regret.

"That's the only thing you were able to do right!" Gozaburo barked back.

"You're nothing but a monster," Seto said.

"Oh, am I the monster, Seto? I was the most powerful human being in the world until you came along and stole everything from me! Don't you realize I treated you better than my own son?" As the bickering continued, it seemed everyone else witnessing this didn't exist in their minds. This entire thing was between only three people; the evil father that treated his children like pawns, the son that sided with a man that was never on his side to begin with, and the second son that was trying his best to keep what he had gained. But that was what it all came down to, wasn't it? Kaiba Corporation.

Just as each person had their own dark past, each one had something gain from possession of the company. The old man wanted it for power, the son wanted it to prove himself, and the second son wanted it because he had earned it. Where was I in this equation? I was nowhere to be seen, I was the mere younger brother with the 2% and the sole desire to bring Gozaburo down for all it was worth.

"Thanks for nothing. I don't care what it takes, I'll make sure you never regain your power if it's the last thing I do," Seto spat with disrespect.

"That might not be possible, Seto. I have something planned that even you will be unable to control even with all your intelligence." An image showed up beside Gozaburo's face in the sky, it revealed a satellite of some sort. "This is one of the original Kaiba Corp. satellites, and part of my newest plan. These satellites can beam signals to every computer system on earth and connect them back to the underwater base that holds my supercomputer. No one on earth will be able to escape! I'll have access to every home on the planet!"

"That's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard!" Noah stated.

"Oh is it, my son? Well it's funny that you say that considering I got the idea from you. So I'm no longer interested in taking over Seto's body to regain control of Kaiba Corporation, I want something more this time. And once this plan works, I'll be the most powerful being on the planet! Everyone will on earth will become virtual and I will reign as their supreme leader!" Gozaburo's image began to flicker in the sky and soon disappeared. I stood there, motionless. No one said anything. I decided that I should be the one to first speak up about what had just been said.

"Well, this sucks."

A/N: My cat is eating paper right now. My cat is seriously the weirdest thing alive. But anyways, on a related note! I know, I said that this would be the return of the Seto POV but it's not. The chapter never quite made it to where I was going to do the switch, but that's alright. I figure I'm going to stop apologizing for it because sometimes there are some scenes that need to go a certain way and that's that. Just like how I have been trying to write Severance for the past week or so when I really wanted to write Consequences. Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut and do what's right to you. It's what writing is all about. I hope you liked the chapter! I know the chapter ended on a weird note, but I felt like adding something cool like that at the end. Thanks for reading! Get ready to RUMBLE!