SailorStar9: With Chapter 83 uploaded, I present Chapter 84 of this fic. For everyone who put this fic on your favorited and followed lists and/or story alerts, thank you, but remember everyone, a lot of authors (myself included) sustain on readers' reviews.
Disclaimer: I own nothing expect the Safiastra and Ami's dueling deck.
Chapter 84: A Deepening Mystery - Noah's True Identity
"Mokuba?" Kaiba frowned, hearing Mokuba's voice. "So you're 'inviting' me, are you?" he noted, seeing a road tunnel appear in front of him.
"Seto, I've just made the treasure you cherish the most mine." Noah bragged.
"Don't you dare touch Mokuba, Noah." Kaiba demanded.
"Kaiba, we're going too." Yuugi called out.
"This has nothing to do with you guys." Kaiba retorted. "This is our problem as siblings. We don't need your help."
"Dumbass." Jonouchi fumed as Kaiba dashed into the tunnel. "Yuugi, you've got no reason to worry about that jerk."
"We can't just desert him." Yuugi remarked.
"It'll be tough for me to find someone competent enough to play chess with me." Ami shrugged and the two cousin ran after Kaiba.
"Is that what she's actually worried about?" Marik shook his head. "Shouldn't we go after them?"
"Wait up." Otogi ran after the Egyptian with Jonouchi, Shizuka and Honda in tow.
"There's a time limit, huh?" Marik frowned when the tunnel vanished.
With Yuugi and Ami...
"That light..." Yuugi spotted the exit ahead. "Let's take a look."
"Where are we?" Ami wondered, the cousins stepping out of the exit and finding themselves in front of a metal gate that guarded a mansion. "Yuugi, hear that?" she sharpened her hearing.
"You're right." Yuugi agreed. "It's someone's voice."
"Is that..." Ami recognized the sound. "It's a baby crying. Let's go inside."
With Jonouchi and the others...
"This fog's really pouring in." Jonouchi noted, as the fog settled over the road.
"Keep your guard up." Otogi cautioned. "It feels like something bad's going to happen."
"There's something in the water." Marik's heckles were risen.
With Kaiba...
"Noah, you little..." Kaiba found himself face-to-face with his adversary. "Mokuba." he noticed Mokuba hiding behind Noah. "Noah, I have no interest in you whatsoever, nor do I regret that now. If you think holding Mokuba hostage gives you the advantage here, or that your sleazy plan would help you surpass me, you're utterly absurd. Mokuba, we're going." he pulled Mokuba off.
"I won't." Mokuba freed himself from Kaiba and hid behind Noah. "I'm staying with Noah-nii-sama. I've stayed alongside Noah-nii-sama my whole life."
"Noah, what the hell did you do to Mokuba?" Kaiba snapped. "Hypnosis? What pleasure do you get out of screwing with my little brother?"
"Hypnosis?" Noah scoffed. "You can't take someone's heart with such pathetic techniques. Mokuba has finally realized your true character. We heard everything Daimon said. We know you betrayed Mokuba. You used him. In actuality, you had a secret plan to steal Mokuba's stocks and overwrite his name."
"He's wrong." Kaiba protested. "Are you really going to believe Daimon's nonsense?"
"Was it really all nonsense?" Noah snorted.
"Mokuba, are you going to believe their lies over what I'm telling you?" Kaiba tried to appeal to Mokuba.
"The poor thing." Noah soothed Mokuba. "You're scaring Mokuba. Come this way."
"So, you're controlling Mokuba's heart with your fabricated stories?" Kaiba snapped. "Do you want to beat me this badly, Noah?"
"You think it's so I can beat you?" Noah mocked, sitting Mokuba back on the sofa. "I always heard you were an overtly conceited man. But you're so conceited that it's laughable. My victory over you was decided long ago before it began. Seto, you were meant to be nothing but my stalking horse."
With Yuugi and Ami...
"Ami, over there." Yuugi found something.
"This is a baby's rattle, isn't it?" Ami picked up the infant toy from the abandoned bed. "But where is the baby?"
"Do you think we traveled back in time to when Kaiba was a baby?" Yuugi wondered.
"Can't be it." Ami shook her head. "Kaiba only adopted by the Kaiba family when he was ten."
"This is..." Yuugi picked up a dusty photo frame from the side table and swept the collected dust away.
With Jonouchi and the others...
"Everyone, back into the truck, now!" Marik ordered when a sprout of water shot up into the air from the ocean.
"What the hell, you jerks?" Jonouchi snapped when the Big Five appeared. "You're all a bunch of losers, so what are you showing yourselves for?"
"We're here to take your young bodies, of course." Konosuke grinned.
"We already had our matches with you." Otogi retorted.
"We lost our duels with you." Konosuke agreed. "However... we no longer have any intentions of playing those petty games of yours. We'll be taking your bodies by force."
"Like we'll let you." Marik snarled.
Jonouchi sent out 'Swordsman of Landstar', 'Baby Dragon' and 'Alligator's Sword' while Marik sent out 'Drillago' and 'Bowganian'.
"Weakling." Konosuke took out 'Alligator's Sword', only to be attacked by 'Drillago', both Monsters taking each other out.
Daimon easily removed 'Bowganian', while Otaki took out 'Swordsman of Landstar'. Ouka smacked 'Baby Dragon' away, destroying it.
Jonouchi finally got the truck moving and the group sped off, with four of the Big Five chasing after them.
With Kaiba...
"What do you mean by that?" Kaiba snapped.
"I still haven't told you the truth yet, have I?" Noah mused. He changed the black background into the image of him meeting with Kaiba Gozaburo.
"Yuugi." Kaiba blinked when the cousins entered the room as well.
"You have to look at this, Kaiba." Yuugi handed the photo frame to Kaiba.
"This is..." Kaiba instantly recognized his adoptive father. "Gozaburo from his younger days?"
"And Noah's beside him." Yuugi pointed out.
"Dad?" Kaiba echoed, hearing the image Noah called the image Gozaburo 'father'.
"The truth is that Kaiba Gozaburo had only one real son, me, Kaiba Noah." Noah revealed. "In order to increase my love for learning, my father produced a rival for me. You resembled me greatly, Seto. That's the reason father took you from the orphanage. From the very beginning, you were to be my personnel thoroughbred stalking horse for my starting run. But a mere stalking horse like you exiled my father and you seized Kaiba Corporation. You get it now, don't you? You were invited here so I could prove myself superior to my late father. And I am the heir to Kaiba Corporation."
"Impossible." Kaiba snapped. "There's no way that's true. Even if what you said was true, there's no way you're Gozaburo's son."
"And how do you plan to disprove it?" Noah scoffed.
A screen popped up from the wall, revealing the Big Five chasing after Jonouchi's group.
"Those guys just never learn." Noah sighed. "Seto, this conversation of ours will have to wait until later." he then disappeared into the darkness.
With Jonouchi and the others...
With Ouka forcing them off the road and Otaki blocking their way, Daimon's eye lasers shot the truck and forcing the truck to crush.
"You four, alright?" Jonouchi climbed out of the driver's seat.
"We're fine." Otogi shook the cobwebs from his head.
"Shizuka." Jonouchi pulled his sister up.
"Now then, which one of your bodies shall I take?" Daimon chuckled. "I shall be taking the young lady's body."
"Wait, I'll be taking that little girl." Otaki protested.
"Didn't you want that other girl?" Daimon pointed to Anzu.
"Every young girl with lumpy boobies belong to me." Otaki insisted.
"You think I'll sit by and agree to that?" Daimon snapped.
"What are you fools doing?" Ota demanded as he and Ouka retrieved Otogi, Marik, Honda and Anzu. "This isn't the time to be fighting amongst ourselves. We're running out of time. Any one of them is fine. Just pick a body and let's get moving. Noah-sama..." he stammered when Noah appeared in the sky.
"You fools." Noah snarled. "If you don't do as I tell you, I'll punish you all together."
"Please wait a moment, Noah-sama." Ouka pleaded.
"I don't want your excuses." Noah glared and sent the Big Five away with a dirt whirlwind.
"Thank god everyone is safe." Yuugi called out, he, Ami and Kaiba rejoining the group.
"Kaiba," Ami turned to her best rival in chess. "Is there a reason why you think Noah isn't his son like he said before?"
"If the virtual projection was taken from the 'world of the past' and it took place right before I was adopted by the Kaiba family, it would have occurred six years ago from this day. In this photograph, Gozaburo is much younger than he is there." he handed the photo frame to his equal at chess.
"But Noah hasn't changed at all." Ami realized.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-nes is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Reviews are much appreciated.