SailorStar9: With Chapter 90 uploaded, I present Chapter 91 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 91: The Darkness of the Kaiba Family
With Noah defeated, both Kaiba brothers were freed from their petrification.
"Yuugi won." Jonouchi cheered.
"Yuugi?" Kaiba echoed.
"That's right." Anzu nodded. "Yuugi took over your deck and fought Noah in a duel."'
But I at least surpassed Seto in the end, right? Noah wondered, falling to his knees. No, Seto chose defeat in order to save Mokuba. And then I lost to Yuugi who took over Seto's will. The bonds of friendship, was it? "But I've always been alone. Is that why I lost? If that's so... it was because I didn't have any friends? I won't accept that." he snapped. "Don't look at me like that." he ordered, seeing the piteous look Yami Yuugi was giving him. "If this is how it is, I'll just take over your personality and become you." he rushed up to his former opponent. "What's with these images..." he was immediately bombarded by flashes of the Millennium Items and the Pharaoh's memory plaque. "Who is this man with that serious expression?" he gaped when Pharaoh Atem's image entered his mind.
"Just what is this?" similarly, Yami Yuugi saw everyone in virtual capsules.
"What the hell are you?" Noah demanded.
"You bastard." Jonouchi ran up. "Now you've really pissed me off."
"Now let us all out of here immediately." Yami Yuugi instructed.
"Your real bodies aren't even here." Noah laughed. "Everything you see here is virtual. There's not one real thing here."
"Now I get it." Otogi realized. "That's why all the pain we get here feels real."
"Correct." Noah confirmed. "All of your bodies are being held in Virtual Simulator Capsules. I just transferred your minds to the Virtual Simulator."
"I'm disappointed in you, Noah." Gozaburo growled, appearing in the sky in a billowing dark cloud.
"Impossible." Kaiba gaped. "That voice..."
"Father." even Noah recognized the voice. "Father, why are you... you should have passes away."
"Dead?" Gozaburo echoed. "It's true that my body has been destroyed. But my mind has lived on and escaped death. I used the same system I tested on Noah and became the ultimate being after being transferred into the computer in a sense of reviving as a virtual being."
"I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore." Ami moaned.
"No matter what form you take, you're still the disgusting man." Kaiba snorted at his foster father.
"I've been waiting to see you so badly, Father." Noah beamed. "I've been alone here for so long."
"I no longer have any use for you." Gozaburo sneered at his eldest son.
"Enough with the chit-chat." Kaiba snapped. "Why don't you enlighten us, Gozaburo? On the foolish plan you've got cooked up."
"You're just as patronizing as ever, Seto." Gozaburo remarked. "I will tell you everything. It all started out with an honest desire to save my son, Noah, who was on his deathbed after a fatal accident. Noah was born to inherit my very mind, to be the runner of Kaiba Corporation and control the entire world. As you can imagine, it was quite problematic when went and died on me. But in the end, virtual is virtual. It's nowhere near the same as living like a normal person. Shortly after, I realized something about the Virtual World and the Real World. For someone like myself who lived in physical reality, the gap between the two of us was vast."
"What are you saying, Father?" Noah asked. "I was trying to make you happy."
"And then, Seto." Gozaburo continued. "You appeared before me."
"And you wanted me to compete against Noah in order to test him." Kaiba accused. "And if Noah surpassed me, it would be proof that Virtual Reality surpassed reality. You adopted me, expecting me to play the role of a dog with no bite."
"How wrong you are, Seto." Gozaburo corrected. "You were meant to be Noah's container. After realizing that humanity far surpassed Virtual Reality, I sought to bring Noah back to life in a body of his own. And Seto, you were the one I selected for that task. Dog without a bite, was it? But it was I who lowered his head in the end. I couldn't forgive you for snatching Kaiba Corporation from right under my nose. So before killing myself, I transferred all my memories into the computer. It was at that moment that I decided you would no longer be a container for Noah. I plan to steal your disgraceful body from you as my container and revive once again as the runner for Kaiba Corporation."
"So, you're saying I was just being used?" Noah breathed.
"The situation has changed." Gozaburo stated. "Thanks to Seto, that is. If you have to hate someone, hate Seto. But I no longer have any need for your body, either. Because, regardless of whether I have a body or not, I can easily hack into Kaiba Corporation's computer network. I would be free to control the entire world within a matter of seconds."
"What a joke." Kaiba scoffed. "You don't even have a body anymore. What could you possibly do?"
"Take a look at this." Gozaburo bragged, showing the group a floating satellite in space. "An advanced group of artillery Kaiba Corporation built in our secret base after signing a certain contract: satellite missiles. Originally, this mobile floating fortress was built as the launching site for this kind of weaponry. It has weapons aimed at every major city in the world."
"Father, are you saying that you were able to hack into the system that controls it?" Noah gasped.
"Why are you so surprised?" Gozaburo scoffed. "Was it not you, Noah, who gave me this idea in the first place? Understand now? I plan to remain as a virtual existence. By hacking computer networks around the entire world, I can gain control over the entire world with almost no effort. As we speak, I have taken control of this world's program. All exits connecting the Real World and the Virtual World have been shut off. None of you people will be leaving this Virtual World ever again. Seto, Noah, you two had better put aside your differences and get along well together. You will live immortal, never feeling pain or hunger again. You can almost view this place as a heavenly paradise. Kaiba Corporation belongs to me. I won't give it to anyone."
"Wait, Gozaburo!" Kaiba barked, as Gozaburo vanished.
In a cave elsewhere...
"There's an exit in this place?" Yami Yuugi asked, Noah leading them to a hidden command control in the heart of the cave.
"Father was right." Noah confirmed. "All the exits have been closed. I was planning to get a body and return to the Real World. I was then going to run Kaiba Corporation in Seto's place. No, I was just doing what Father wanted. But, Father said he no longer needs me."
"If there's no exits, we'll be..." Jonouchi gasped.
"Is there really no other way to return to the Real World?" Anzu was worried.
"Quite a shame, isn't it?" Noah chuckled.
"You can get off fooling that deadbeat over there, but you can't fool me." Kaiba retorted.
"Father has locked the program." Noah reminded. "We can't create another exit from here. Why don't you all give up on leaving and stay here in this world with me as Father suggested? It's more fun than it looks."
"Noah." Mokuba shook the laughing Noah. "I can't believe you're still saying that. You were abandoned by Gozaburo."
"That's right." Noah suddenly recalled something. "There may still be one more chance to get back to the Real World. If that one exit I made myself is still active, I hid it inside the program of a game. I'm almost positive Father wouldn't know about it. Follow me."
In front of a stone fortress...
"It's inside here." Noah announced. "Behind this gate lies Virtual Domino City."
"What was that just now?" Jonouchi shook the cobwebs from his mind, Ami had used the Safiastra to pull everyone from their trip down memory lane. "That Noah bastard is gone."
"Mokuba's gone too." Anzu looked around.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-nes is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Reviews are much appreciated.