In this chapter, we have more opportunities to see Kaiba in action. I tried to blend his manga personality with his Abridged one, but I'm under the impression that the latter tends to prevail since it's more entertaining. It's a delicate alchemy, I suppose. Tell me what you think !
Chapter 2 : Give or Take 3.000 Years
All of my senses were burning. I was trapped in a thousand-shade vortex, many of them I did not even know existed. I saw colors that only appeared under a dying sun at the other side of the galaxy, and others that would not be invented before millions of years. And I did not only see them : I could hear them, taste them. All of my senses seemed to be melting. I shouted and immediately, my nose hit a wall that was my scream turned physical.
I closed my eyes. The noise lowered. It was a good first step. Next one: finding a way to breath. There was no oxygen inside the Anomaly. Only a metaphysical fire that burnt my nostrils and my throat.
For a slip second, I wondered if I should have listened to the others. If I should have waited a little longer before crossing into the Altar of Eternity.
But then, I remembered I was Seto Kaiba.
This was not a curse. This was not some Egyptian voodoo. This was not even magic. This was the pinnacle of science. The ultimate success of mankind. The proof that, in some distant future, my race would break the final laws of reality and subdue time itself to their will. Dying in there would be the greatest honor any man could conceive. But I would not die here. However the Altar of Eternity truly worked, I would master it and use the combined wisdom of humanity to accomplish my goal. I would defy death itself and get my revenge. Prepare yourself, Pharaoh : I might be fading away at this second, but it doesn't matter. I'm still coming for you.
The Altar heard my will and responded to it. I was so much more than anything we previously thought. The Altar ran through all of Eternity like an endless river. It shaped a consciousness of its own, an echo of the thoughts and wishes of all humanity throughout history. I could not wait to study it and dissect all of its secrets. But this would have to wait until another time. A time, for example, where I would not stand on the verge of death.
I opened my eyes again. A dark silhouette in a scaphandre approached me. I could not figure anything else about this person: the light around it shined so bright that I could barely glimpse at it. The other person - at least, I suspected it was a person - simply said :
"The Altar understands what you think, but it won't suffice. To command the Altar, you have to materialize your thoughts into orders.
- And who the heck are you supposed to be ?!
¡¿ ǝq oʇ pǝsoddns noʎ ǝɹɐ ʞɔǝɥ ǝɥʇ oɥʍ puɐ
ɐup ʍɥo ʇɥǝ ɥǝɔʞ ɐɹǝ ʎon snddosǝp ʇo qǝ ¿¡
!⸮ ɘd oT bɘꙅoqqUꙅ UoY ɘᴙA kↄɘH ɘHT oHw bᴎA
- I am the last one."
Not really what I would call an answer, but I did not even like small chats in the real world, so in the middle of a vortex through time and space, I had other priorities than figuring their pedigree.
My vision began to blur. I tried to summon all of my remaining strength :
"I want to rejoin the Pha… Pha…
dɥɐ… dɥɐ…
ꟼHA… ꟼHA…"
Finishing my sentence now seemed insurmountable. My last words kept bouncing against the vortex, dissolving into its infinity. I refused to die here. I would not meet my end before reclaiming my title as the true king of Duel Monsters. With the last bits of air in my lungs, I shouted :
"I want to defy the… the… the Ki...King of…
...ɟo ƃuıʞ...ıʞ ǝɥʇ ...ǝɥʇ ...ǝɥʇ ʎɟǝp oʇ ʇuɐʍ ı
ı ʍɐuʇ ʇo pǝɟʎ ʇɥǝ… ʇɥǝ… ʇɥǝ ʞı...ʞıuƃ oɟ…
I WANT TO DEFY THE KING !"
I saw something opening before me. Calmly, the silhouette in a scaphandre walked to the exit I just created. I did not have the energy to stop him or even to get ahead of him. The vortex seemed to slowly propulse me in the right direction. It would have to suffice. Without realizing it, I lost consciousness.
I woke up under the moonshine. For a second, I was afraid that none of this ever happened, that it was all a dream. But, as I realized slowly, I must once again have triumphed. Wherever I was now lying, it certainly did not look like some ancient Inca ruins. Ha ! I did it ! By the pure strength of my will, I bent time and space to my command ! This was beyond amazing ! I was beyond amazing !
I looked around me. I figured I would be transported to ancient Egypt. At worst, to some kind of fake hell created by whatever dark magic was used to return him to his time. I was ready for that.
What I was not ready for, was to find myself lost in the ruins of some kind of futuristic science lab. I seemed to recognize some kind of huge generator that clearly experienced a whole lot of safety fails. I just crossed an unknown time vortex without any equipment, so I should not be in any position to judge other people's security protocols, but… Oh, who was I kidding. Of course I was going to judge. Especially before a failure of such magnitude. I bet the explosion must have ravaged half the city. Losers.
I thoughtfully dusted my purple coat. It appeared more and more obvious that I did not arrive where… when I was supposed to. I found it dubious that the magical ghost of an ancient egyptian pharaoh would be found in a post-apocalyptic timeline.
I was calculating how I could force the Altar of Eternity to open again, when my expert hearing noticed a suspicious noise. I turned around just fast enough to avoid a knife flying by. It might have worked against a lesser man, but such a pathetic assault was useless against me. Come on ! A knife ! If you wanted to kill me, you should at least take it seriously. At the orphanage, I was beating down bullies with knives everyday just to kill time. Ok, and maybe to kill some stupid faces.
Three men emerged from the shadows of the ruins, wearing raggedy shirts and strange yellow lines on their faces. Ok, that was enough. The future was dumb. First thing I would have to do when I would reintegrate my timeline : make mandatory lessons to teach style in school for at least a millenia. Oh, also, how to survive in a nuclear apocalypse.
One of the raggedy men pulled out not one, but two knives. Wow. Color me impressed. I supposed it was their leader. Only their leader could display such an impressive range of weaponry.
"Hey, rich boy ! Are you lost ? Maybe you want our help ? We love to help, you know ! You will find our prices very reasonable…"
This Wheelerbrain was proud of himself. A sadistic grin was now cowering his whole face. That was it. That was the point where I could not take it anymore. Nobody could tell that I did not try to be patient with them. But this, right now. This was too much.
I took a step forward and I slapped him. I slapped his stupid yellow-lined face so hard he fell down. But before his raggedy body touched the ground, I took one of his knives away from him.
"Ok, dimwit. Two things."
His grunts were reacting, but a little too late. I grasped their leader by the collar of his stinking shirt, disarmed him of his last "weapon" and put the tip of his own blade against his neck. The two other idiots instantly froze.
"First : a knife, come on ! If you want to compensate for your little thingy, don't choose the smallest weapon known to man. Second: what is your name ?
- Tra… Tradmond...
- Aaaand Steve it is. No way I would waste storage in my brain memorizing this. Ok Steve. When are we exactly ?
- Er… Do you mean where ?"
I slapped him again. Partly because I didn't like being questioned by a dweeb, but mostly because he was ugly.
"If I wanted to say where, I would have said where. Now, do you want to answer my question or do you want me to slap your face so hard, your mother will want to abandon you for a second time ?"
He spoke immediately. It seemed that the Altar led me to the end of the century. Great. I was slightly shaking him to calm my nerfs, when I noticed something interesting in his back pocket.
"You have a deck ? Don't tell me a loser like you is a Duelist ?
- Of course I am ! I'm one of the strongest zombies players in Satellite !
- Pff. I'm not even surprised that the level dropped so much after I was gone. Now, show me the way to the nearest KaibaCorp's facility !
- Na. I don't think so. We were just planning to mug you, but you made it personal, pal !"
For a second, I felt half a surprise in front of his renewed assurance. Was there a hint of courage in this deadbeat? But then, I understood.
Two dozens of grunts arrived unto us, sprinting for their lives - or, more likely, for the life of their leader. It seemed that I committed a slight miscalculation. Stevie was not just a low-end muggler. He ran a full-gang.
With the new confidence that twenty-five armed minions usually procured, he said to me :
"Now, let me go and you might have a chance to leave this place poor, but alive.
- Counteroffer : I use your body as a shield to leave this place alive and, if you don't cross me too much, I dump you in a garbage can while only hurting your dignity.
- We completely surround you, dude.
- But I have their leader on the tip of my blade. It seems this situation could take a while, and I don't want to deal with your body odor any longer.
- What do you propose ?
- Duel me. If you win, you can do whatever you want with me. If I win, I walk freely and you promise to take a shower. Seriously dweeb, showers are not optional.
- You're a crazy bastard, you know that ? But you're fun, I won't deny it. Alright. Duel !"
I let him go and took the Duel Disk inside of my coat. It was a new prototype, more compact and more esthetic, with dark and blue shades. One of the grunts threw an old one to its leader. It looked almost exactly like the models we were using in my time. Did the finalization of my prototype fail to hit the streets decades earlier ? Or were they just too poor to buy anything other than the oldest models ?
A holographic playmat appeared in front of my Disk while it was digitizing my Deck. A little exercise would be nice, after crossing the boundaries of space and time. Plus, I was curious to see how Duel Monsters had evolved, in all those years. At the shame time, we shouted :
"DUEL!"