There was nothing quite like trekking through a typhoon on foot. The ungodly amount of water falling from the sky, the wind blasting through the terrain at incredible speeds, and the treacherous flying debris. In the back of Tea's mind, she knew leaving the taxi cab was a terrible idea, but she couldn't shake her determination to reach Kaiba. Nothing else mattered but getting to him, even if she lost her life trying.

Through the haze of the black clouds and sheets of pouring rain, she could see the Kaiba Corp building, standing tall amongst the skyline; the perfect example of the Kaiba family's pride. Tea just hoped that that pride wasn't Kaiba's downfall. She silently prayed for his safety, but felt a nagging feeling gnawing at her gut… that sensation that something just wasn't right.

Damn it all! She cursed to herself. If only she would've given him a piece of her mind back at Central Park when he first told her he was going back to Domino to create his new virtual world project. She could've persuaded him otherwise and then maybe she wouldn't be in this mess! Her subconscious voiced to her a different story… Kaiba was going to do what Kaiba wanted to and nobody was going to convince him otherwise.

She only hoped that she wasn't too late.

Fear struck her when she noticed the world around her growing dark as if someone zapped away all of the remaining light. It was as if someone flicked a switch and all of the city lights turned off at the same time.

What the hell? Tea thought as she noticed bulb after bulb of light fade away into oblivion. Paralyzing fear struck her like someone was taking a long, sharp fingernail, and gradually dragging it down her spinal cord. The realization that encompassed her mind was devastating and she understood the consequences immediately.

The power had gone out.

And if Kaiba didn't wait for her then that meant—

Violently shaking her head, she began to sprint faster toward the newly darkened Domino. Please, let him be okay, she begged, please!

The darkness of the storm was developing into a thicker mass of terror, and Tea could barely see where she was heading. Before long she ran right into a fallen tree, scraping her shin on its rigid bark. She screamed as the rain stung her newly formed wound. Digging into her pocket, she pulled out her cell phone and lit up the built-in flashlight.

Shit, she cursed the moment the light illuminated her damaged shin. She winced, grinding her teeth together at the sight of her wound. Her skin had peeled back and collected near her ankle. Thankfully it wasn't too deep, but the sight of blood and dirty tree bark was beginning to make her nauseous. Biting her bottom lip, Tea ripped off the excess skin, squealing at the pain. Next, she tried pulling out the bits of bark that were wedged inside the wound. Each touch stung, and she cried out in pain. Tea growled internally, she didn't have time for this, she needed to get to Kaiba, not play doctor.

Even with the risk of infection, Tea stood up and began running, disregarding her injury. After her first few stomps, she wailed, noticing the pain that shot up her left leg with every step she took. Damn… she wouldn't be able to run like this… Taking a deep breath, she began limping at a fast pace, ignoring the mixture of blood and rainwater running down her leg. The intense blasts of wind did not help her cause either, slowing her down to a crawling pace. At this rate, she'd never get there….

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed an abandoned bicycle. Perfect, she thought, as she raced toward it, her only problem would be fighting the wind, but at least she'd get to Kaiba Corp. faster. Picking up the bike and hopping on, she rode downhill toward the center of the city, but more importantly, toward Kaiba.


The backup generator had only been running for approximately thirty minutes, and it was already losing a substantial amount of juice. At this rate, the technicians had roughly two hours to get the virtual world back online and Seto out of that damn chair before the power went out for good.

Mokuba slammed his fist against the glass dividing the control room from Seto. His hand felt numb from the numerous times he'd taken out his frustration on the glass wall. From the other side, a few doctors and nurses were working hard to maintain his brother's vital signs. Thankfully, Seto wasn't dead yet. The doctors believed the electrical current suddenly failing had somehow knocked him unconscious. That had been over a half hour ago. The sight of Seto comatose was bringing back an eerily familiar memory of Tea he wished to forget.

Dammit, Seto… I knew this was a bad idea…

"Mr. Mokuba, sir!" The front entrance guard materialized on a small monitor located on the control panel. Mokuba hurried over to it and pressed a button to confirm the video chat.

"What is it?"

The guard cleared his throat before speaking, "There's someone here to see you." He looked drenched and a bit unruly like he'd been wandering through the storm. "She claims to be a close friend of yours. She's badly hurt too, sir. Leg wound. You have doctors down there who can help her out, right?"

"Send her down and log off! You're wasting precious power!" With that, Mokuba hung up, not caring who this 'friend' was. He wasn't going to let that guard use any more valuable electricity—the only thing keeping his brother alive at the moment.

Mokuba pounded his fist against the glass window once again, demanding an update from the technicians.

"The virtual world is almost operational," replied a tech, who was madly typing away on a keyboard. "Just a minute or so and we'll have access to Mr. Kaiba's brain activity."

The air in the room suddenly felt cumbersome. Mokuba knew what they were all thinking…

If there was any brain activity at all…

Looking at Seto through the glass, Mokuba prayed his brother's mind was still functioning. Whatever the case, regardless of the circumstance, Mokuba would bring his brother back.

The minute ticked by as if it were an hour, the room operating in hushed tones, anticipating the results the technician would soon deliver. Mokuba's palms began to sweat, and the hand that was still plastered up against the glass slipped, causing Mokuba to temporarily lose his poise. Quickly, he regained his composure as the technician called him over.

"Mr. Mokuba, sir!" The tech yelled as Mokuba scurried over to her, her voice high-pitched and shrilled. "Have a look at the screen!" She pointed to the monitor. A tiny line gradually rolled up and down, drawing small hills on the display screen. The line was barely moving— but still moving nonetheless.

"Mr. Kaiba's brain is still working! From the looks of it, his brain is producing waves at the delta brainwave frequency."

"And what does that mean?"

"It means—" The technician stopped herself.

"What!?" Mokuba demanded, clenching his fist.

She swallowed nervously, "It means he's one step away from becoming brain dead…."

The air was suffocating and stale. No one spoke. Mokuba forgot how to breathe.

After a moment of silence, the tech spoke up, "What are you going to do, sir?"

Mokuba took a deep breath and declared on his exhale, "Whatever it takes."

Without warning, the door to the control room oscillated open, revealing a very injured and saturated Tea. She limped into the room, practically carrying her left let with her. The guard followed behind, begging her to 'slow down' and to 'take it easy.' She refused as she glanced around the room, quickly locking eyes with Mokuba.

"Mokuba!"

"Tea!" He should've guessed it was her the guard had called about. He and Seto were both anticipating her arrival. But nevertheless, he hadn't had time to think about the possibility of her stopping by since the power had gone out.

His eyes scanned her battered appearance, widening when he noticed the major flesh wound the guard had warned him about. The blood mixed with rainwater dripped down her leg and pooled on the floor beneath her. She was covered in mud and debris as if she'd just jumped into a swamp before arriving here.

"Tea!" He shouted her name before mumbling to himself, placing a shocked hand over his mouth. "Look at you…."

She hobbled over to him. "Where's Seto!?"

Purposely ignoring her, Mokuba shouted to no one in particular, "Get a medic!"

Getting right up in his face, Tea grabbed the younger Kaiba by the collar and demanded through grit teeth, "Where is he!?" A strange chill ran down Mokuba's spine as she reminded him so much of Seto. Maybe they were more alike than he thought? Or maybe they'd picked up each other's mannerisms?

"Are you even listening to me? I just ran here in this typhoon all the way from the goddamn airport and you chose to ignore me? Tell me where he is!"

The guard that followed Tea into the room immediately grabbed her from behind and peeled her away from Mokuba, profusely apologizing to his boss for letting her inside.

"Put me down, please!" She begged while thrashing around like a banshee. "I need to see Seto before it's too late!"

Mokuba's face fell as he turned his head toward the window. Tea's thrashing immediately ceased when she noticed the expression the young man carried. There was nothing pleasant about the way Mokuba looked. Something was wrong.

"No… Mokuba… he couldn't have…"

The young CEO shifted his gaze upon her, "Tea, I'm sorry… You're too late…"

The phrase rang in her ears like a siren that just wouldn't quit. The face she wore was a concoction of apprehension and shock. Her eyes widened to the news, taking in the full effect of Mokuba's words. Too late. No. She couldn't be! She worked so hard, she'd come so far, and for what, this godforsaken result? No!

She fell to the floor in a heap, tears streaming down her face. The guard let go, backing away from the scene as she shouted, "Is he alright!? Please tell me he's alright!"

Mokuba knelt on the floor next to her, rubbing her back to calm her down. "Tea, please listen to me. We don't have a lot of time."

She looked up, his sentence catching her attention, "What do you mean?"

"Kaiba Corp. is running on a backup power generator right now. Seto's still alive, but he won't be for long if we can't get him out of there."

Tea took a moment to try and make sense of it all. "So… the power outage didn't kill him. He's alive and stuck—" She cut herself off. Taking a mere moment to wrap her head around the notion that Kaiba was now the one stuck in the virtual world and not her. The tables had turned.

"Yes, but we don't have much time. Maybe two hours at most to get him out of there."

"Two hours!? It took us over six months last time!"

Mokuba's eyes dropped, "I know…"

Confidence and determination boiled within Tea. She knew what she had to do. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she stood up and said, "Get a second pod ready." She limped off toward the door, like a woman on a mission.

Mokuba ran after her, grabbing her upper arm, "Stop! You can't! We'll figure out a different way!"

Tea raised a questioning eyebrow at him. "And what's your plan, hmm?"

"We'll figure one out," the young CEO repeated.

With sharp resolve, she pulled her arm away from him, throwing his words right back in his face, "As you said, we don't have much time, so unless you have a well-thought-out plan ready to go, this" she pointed an abrasive finger at her chest, referring to herself, "is the only option."

The young man frowned, letting go of a pent-up sigh. She was right. He turned to his staff and yelled, "You heard her! Get a pod ready!"

Tea smiled, dropping her hardened demeanor and replacing it with her usual soft and caring one. "Thank you, Mokuba," she pulled the young Kaiba into a hug and promised in a feathery light whisper, "I'll bring him home."

After drying off and getting her wound wrapped, Tea found herself hooked up to a number of cables, some for medical purposes and others to monitor her brain activity. Sitting in that pod didn't strike a chord in her memory banks, but it did make her wonder if this was how Kaiba felt… risking his life to save hers… If he had not done so, she wouldn't be in this position right now. Hell, she'd probably still be comatose.

Mokuba's voice came through the headpiece speakers, "All systems are set. Are you ready?"

She didn't know how to communicate vocally with this technology, so she reached out the arm that wasn't bogged down with all of the medical and electrical cables and gave the younger Kaiba a thumbs up.

After seeing her response from the glass window, he replied, "Listen carefully…. When we upload your mind into the system, our backup generator's power level will take a toll. Once that happens, you have maybe an hour— at most— to get both you and Seto out of there before the reservoir of power hits zero. You'll both die if that happens, do you understand me?"

Again, Tea didn't know how to respond. Logic would tell her to just speak and assume Kaiba was smart enough to install a microphone, but instead, she gave Mokuba another thumbs up.

As a way of acknowledging her gesture, he continued to speak, "Unless the city returns the power sometime soon, you have only an hour to get out of there." Mokuba was nervously repeating himself. Tea could hear the shakiness in his voice, but he continued on with determination despite his clear anxiety over the current situation. "There's no low power mode. No shocking you both back to life if you miss that window of time. Understand? You have one shot at this. Do you think you can do it?"

Another thumbs up.

Mokuba exhaled, coming through like a loud, muffled wind in Tea's ears. "Okay. We don't have much time. Let's do this."

A low hum came from the base of the pod and Tea felt it tremble just a little. The last thing she recalled from the real world was Mokuba thanking her for rescuing her brother. In her mind, it wasn't a rescue mission, but a simple sacrifice.

Because if she had to go through hell just to bring him back— even if it was just him, and only him— then goddammit, she would.


A/N: Please don't kill me for being away for half a year. I intend to finish this story, it's just that a lot has happened to me in the past few months that's kept me away.

First, I've had terrible writer's block. And I'm not talking about a casual bout of it for a few days or weeks. No, I mean like I could barely finish this chapter and I started it in August kind of writer's block. I couldn't even write in my journal. It was so bad. Now, I understand that's no excuse, but this was the worst I've ever had it, so please be kind.

Second, due to my writer's block, I got a bit lazy (yes, I know, not an excuse) and started re-watching the Dragon Ball series, which includes Z and Super. Anyone else here a Dragon Ball fan? Did anyone catch my reference in this chapter? (Anyone else excited for the Dragon Ball Super Broly movie!?)
And finally, I've been traveling quite a bit. I went to Thailand and helped build homes for those who are in need of shelter. It was a wonderful experience and I would do it all over again. If you're interested in pictures please feel free to check out my Instagram.

So, to wrap things up, I apologize for being away for so long. I plan to continue updates on a more normal basis. Please send feedback! I love all of your reviews and critiques! Thank you so much for reading. See you next time!