LW: I updated!

Joey, Tristan + Duke: GENKI NO SHAWAA!!!!

LW: That means, Shower of Happiness, I think. However this chapter isn't so happy...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Start Chapter*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Almost as soon as the game shop disappeared it reappeared again, but this time with a dramatic change. The bright, glowing, atmosphere of the holiday party had been replaced with a dark, gloomy aura. There was no light, except for the flashing red and blue of an emergency vehicle parked outside.

Serenity, Tea, Bakura, Joey, Mai and Tristan were all huddled quietly around something on Yugi's cream-colored couch that Kaiba couldn't see from across the room. Two paramedics were looking over that something, and after a few tense moments, one stood up, shook his head and said a few quiet words. His speech had an immediate effect on the others. Tea and Mai put their heads in their hands, and started to sob, and Bakura slid to the floor hiding his eyes with his snow white bangs. Joey kneeled by the couch, with a stricken look in place of his usual blithe expression, and Tristan turned mournfully away.

Kaiba tried to move closer, but Poinsettia grasped his sleeve in a vice- like grip, preventing him from seeing something she'd prefer he didn't. Kaiba was curious, but didn't try to argue. "Did something happen to Yugi?" he asked quietly. Poinsettia didn't respond, instead keeping her expression grimly blank.

All remained silent in the shop, until Joey suddenly raised his fist in the air, and slammed it into the floor.

"Damn it all!" he screamed in sorrow, "Why'd they have to go an' get our hopes up?'We may be able to save him' they said, 'don't give up hope yet.' Damn doctors! He'd been frozen for hours! We knew it from the moment we found him, didn't we? It's not fair! They couldn't do anything! They couldn't do anything, an' neither could we! It's not fair! It's just not fair!" He stopped, and repeatedly punched the floor in frustration, then gave way to tears. Mai placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Joey," she whispered sadly, "don't say things you don't really mean. You know it wasn't the paramedics' fault that this happened, and it wasn't our fault either. These things just...Happen." She buried her face in Joey's shoulder. Serenity kept her head in her hands, but said,

"When I saw him, I, I was thought that he might have still been alive. But his eyes were closed, and he was frozen all over so we called an ambulance and his...I don't understand. Who'd be cruel enough to kill a little boy on Christmas Eve?" She stopped suddenly and went back to crying.

Tea wiped her eyes, leaned over the back of the couch and asked,

"Yugi, you were the one who found him, weren't you?"

Kaiba walked haltingly to where Tea was speaking. There, sitting against the back of the couch was Solomon Motou, comforting his shaken grandson who clung to him with his violet eyes wide and wavering. "We were too late." he sobbed, "Just a few minutes too late...if only...I should have noticed he had left...I actually forgot that he was here...He's gone...I'm so sorry."

A cold sickness washed over Seto Kaiba. He felt numb, cold and ready to collapse. His heart rate quickened, and his eyes widened as the realization of whom they were talking about hit him. "No." he breathed softly, and took a step towards the couch. "No, please no, tell me this didn't happen." He stepped again. Poinsettia made no effort to hold him back, but instead closed her eyes and let herself drift towards the ceiling. Kaiba stepped through Joey and Tea, and dropped to his knees.

"MOKUBA!"

There on the couch everyone had hidden lay the body of little Mokuba Kaiba. He was sopping wet, his raven-black bangs plastered over his small innocent face. Someone had placed a blanket over his still form as a last desperate attempt at warming him. His sad little smile was frozen in place and his eyes were closed, never to open and brighten his face again. Kaiba made no attempt to hide his feelings this time. "Mokuba..." he cried in grief, "...how could this happen? Wake up! Wake up and say you're alive! I can't bear losing you! You're the only one I have, don't leave me!"

He tried to grasp the hand of his little brother, but his passed through Mokuba's. He became overcome with choking sobs. "You're too young for this to happen...you never did anything to deserve this. Oh Mokuba...please." His own brilliant blue eyes softened and filled with tears, and he collapsed in grief.

No one spoke for a while. No one, until Yugi managed to squeak out, "Kaiba got here a little while after the ambulance did. Where is he now?"

Tristan replied, "He went upstairs, he said he wanted to be alone for a moment. He was really stunned."

"I think we should leave him be for now," whimpered Bakura. "Mokuba's death has left him as a sort of empty shell of a human. It's...it's worse than being soulless. He needs time to pull himself together."

For the moment, the present-day Kaiba remained still stunned and grief- stricken on the game shop floor. He gradually came to his senses.

'This can't be right,' he wondered, 'why would the spirit show me this, this horror if she can't do anything to reverse it. There must be some way, there had to be.' "Spirit!" he called, she did not answer "Poinsettia?" he asked uncertainly. He searched in panic around the room, and saw the hem of her skirt disappearing through the ceiling and followed her. He pursued her to a dark room, gloomier than the one downstairs. The room was obviously used for storage, being filled with boxes of every game imaginable.

Underneath the only window in the room rested the silhouette of someone who was, and yet was not Seto Kaiba. Everything was the same about him, and at the same time different. He had the same blue eyes, but dulled with grief; the same brown hair, but disheveled. Kaiba's future self raised one of these hands slowly, as if in physical pain, and grasped the locket hanging from around his neck for comfort. Kaiba felt himself do the same. In a voice unlike his own that trembled and shook his future image began to talk.

"Is this a punishment? Is this the price I have to pay for what I have done? It must be, because there is no greater price to pay than losing you Mokuba, none at all."

He flipped the locket open, and in painful anguish cried, "Little brother, why did this happen to you? Why did you wander away from the party? Why didn't you come home to the brother who loves you? Why have you left me all alone"

Overcome, he paused and sighed, "Maybe because I left you alone when you needed me the most." Slowly, he stood up and leaned against the window, still gazing into his locket.

Poinsettia watched in grief. This was the fate worse than death. The loss of his last loved one would drive this boy insane, it was obvious to her. What she did not understand was why she had been summoned for this case. The image continued his lament.

"In a way, you could say that I deserve this pain. My suffering reflects that of the people I've made suffer, and yet no crime I've ever committed is greater than this one...I let you down little brother. I wasn't there for you when you needed me the most. While the rest of the world celebrated, you were alone. I didn't understand what those holidays of yours were all about, but I understand now. I understand why you left Yugi's party. You were the only one without the one you loved by your side. You needed me and I wasn't there! I broke my promise!"

He stopped again, and put a put hand to his face. After spending the next few minutes gazing longingly into the locket, he slowly closed it. In a wave of grief, he fell to his knees clutching his heart and taking short, painful breaths.

"Mokuba," he gasped, "throughout all of my life, I have never felt a pain as great as this...I wish...I wish only to end it, I can't go on alone." His eyes fell on his infamous briefcase, the one that his little brother had always struggled to carry for him. "A way out..." he murmured, "a way out." He pulled it near him, and turned toward the window, his back facing Poinsettia and the present-day Kaiba. He pulled something out of the case. Something shiny. Something that Kaiba couldn't see as Poinsettia gently pulled on his trench coat sleeve, leading him out the door and back down the stairs. He followed her in a dazed, shocked obedience, trying to understand what he had just heard.

Through a window at the front of the game shop, the paramedics were routinely preparing a body bag and stretcher in the blinding snow. Yugi, Tea, Joey, and the others looked on in silence, still suspended in a numb sorrow. Yugi asked quietly, "Has Kaiba come back downstairs yet? I know that he'll want to say goodbye." He motioned toward Mokuba's undisturbed body. Before anyone could reply, from upstairs Seto Kaiba's grief-laden voice rang out,

"MOKUBA, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR WHAT I HAVE DONE, WHAT I HAVE NOT DONE, AND WHAT I'M ABOUT TO DO! PLEASE REMEMBER THAT I LOVE YOU!"

With that he finished, and throughout the game shop a sudden 'BANG!' of a gunshot echoed followed by a heavy thud. Everyone froze. The existing Kaiba stared up at the ceiling, his mouth open, and his body shaking. Everyone did the same, until finally Yugi broke the horrible silence, broke away from his grandfather, and tore up the stairs. Within a few moments, his screams were heard. "KAIBAAAAAA!" Outside, the paramedics looked at each other, nodded, and started to prepare another body bag. The screams and voices melted away as did Yugi's living room, leaving Kaiba kneeling in the darkness, unaware of anything except his own sorrow.

*~*

"Why can't I stir this? Hey! Tristan, it says to add five tablespoons of water to the icing mix, not five teaspoons."

"How would you know Joey, you're the one who lost the recipe!"

Joey and Tristan glared at each other from opposite sides of a wooden bowl full of powdery icing mix. The rest of the gang inched away from the pair, who were infamous for their botched cooking attempts.

"I did NOT lose the recipe! It misplaced itself."

"Suuuure, Joey, it just walked off by itself. Now if you're too fragile and delicate to stir this then I'll just plug it into the electric mixer, put it on high."

"Tristan, no!" Yelled Bakura, "I beg of you, please don't-"

From his place at the window, Mokuba could hear the loud whir of machinery accompanied by the sounds of wet icing splattering against any person or thing in range. That was all followed by angry screaming.

"Tristan, I just got this skirt YESTERDAY!"

"I'm sorry Tea, please don't kill me, it was Joey's fault, ow, OW! Hey I need to use that later. Not the face, not the face! Alright, the face, the face! Aw come on, OW! Joey, HELP!!"

"Why it's your fault!" Joey lobbed a blob of gingerbread icing at Tristan, who managed to escape Tea's pummeling long enough to dodge it. The icing chose Mai's beloved hair for a target instead.

"Joey, prepare..."

"Mai, please don't be mad!"

"...for the longest..."

"Stop lookin' at me like that Mai!"

"...ass-kicking of your life!"

The kitchen erupted in a food fight which covered everyone in sticky icing excluding Yugi who was smart (and small) enough to take cover in a wastebasket. Too bad it wasn't an empty wastebasket.

Mokuba wasn't sure if he'd ever felt more alone. Yugi's friends looked like they were having so much fun yet he didn't want to join in. Nobody seemed to notice him by his window. He remembered how Yugi told him that Seto might change his mind. 'Seto isn't coming.' He told himself, 'Why am I even here? It's too weird to feel lonely when there are so many people here.' He checked his watch. 'It's noon, it won't be dark for a few hours. I need some fresh air.'

Mokuba didn't know where he was going as he put on his jacket, cap and boots, and he still didn't know after he slipped un-noticed out the back door. He shivered as he noiselessly closed the door behind him and pushed his way through the heavy snow.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*End Chapter*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lil Washu: That chapter was hard to write....owies. Leave a review if you're not too busy crying to hard or devising ways to kill me. I'll update soon!