Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

The Butterfly Effect

Chapter C

"You always were a little too smart for your own good, weren't you?"

I wish I could tell you how the hell I'd made it to the elevator. I wish I could tell you how the fuck I turned so fast, I smacked myself against the window of said elevator as I found myself looking into piercing blue that refused to look away before vanishing as quickly as they'd come, leaving me to run outside, from the tower to the blimp.

But I can't. I can't recall at all.

The only thing I remember after those flashes is someone grabbing me from behind and pleading for me to stop. The only thing I recall is trying, and trying my hardest to stop, to think about anything else than me wanting oh so desperately to be wrong but knowing, just knowing that there was no other way this would fit together while the implications of it being right drowned me.

And that the next thing I remember seeing as my vision cleared was black as I finally found the strength to pull away from the hold, but not without nearly falling to the ground and my… captor did.

I didn't — I didn't like any of this. I didn't like where this was headed or the implications.

"… You okay? You ready to talk now?"

But, most of all, I hated the fact that I was getting proof right in front of my eyes, and I hadn't even needed to speak to Kaiba properly.

"… I — No. Not yet."

"Megumi-"

"No! I — I can't-"

Already one of them hated me. I didn't — No. No!

"Stop it!"

…

"It's over. Battle City's over. And you promised. I'm not letting you go back on it."

…

"You trusted me while you were out. Trust me now. Not my brother, me."

…

I covered my mouth and looked away as he got up and didn't bother sweeping himself off before nearing me. I jerked away as he reached for my arm, only for him to grab it firmly after a moment of hesitation. And I barely heard him yelling to the crew left aboard the blimp as we climbed in and he guided me to my quarters, only to hesitate when he looked at the mess inside.

Didn't blame him. Couldn't blame him. A room housing someone who'd… No. No, stop that. You can't.

I was sat down in another room at a table before tea was put before me, menthol quickly wafting up my nose as Mokuba sat opposite of me, looking unsure, but trying his best to be ready for whatever I dropped on him.

"So… Tell me everything."

"… I — You won't like it…"

"If it has anything to do with my brother, trust me, I already don't."

… What?

I looked up. To him as he sighed, "The text on Ra was Egyptian, Megumi, and Yami couldn't read it. My brother could. What you've figured out… I think I've already started to piece together."

…

The Sky Sage: It's strange to see people stumbling all over this story when I explicitly said that I would be following the manga plotline and all of its implications. It's almost funny in some ways that they expect duels around five chapters and cool one-liners when it's not the point of this story at all. So, for the curious:

Takahashi was more concentrated on making the story as action-packed as possible. By the end of this story, he had to make it as flashy as possible as his characters flattened more and more to the upset of some of his fans, one of those being myself.

So I went into this trying to round out the characters. I went into this taking the potential of the characters themselves and seeing if I can drive the same story while giving a chance for these characters to develop. The entire cast, as far as I'm concerned, is as close as it would be to the original characterization all while growing through the story because I don't feel like they were given a chance to develop properly. All the characters, by the end of the series, hadn't really gone through much development as far as I was concerned, so that's why the characters are the main focus. I know they have potential. I want to give them a chance to shine. And, by the end of it, they all will.

And if that's not why you're here, well I'm sorry to say that you're going to be disappointed. I'm sorry to say that this story isn't for you. This is not an attempt at recapturing the moments that made the series great without context. This is an attempt at building those moments from scratch all while making sense of what made this series great for me.

So if you're wondering why I'm taking this long going through the motions of the story, this is why. I'm trying my best to do all these characters justice. I'm trying to make them feel human and real. And that's the hardest part to work with as an author. Because, if you're a good author, your readers won't notice your hand at all.