YUGIOH
Blast in the Past
Chapter 24.
Morning came, and everyone woke up that was left here. Joey looked over at Yugi, saying, "Anything, yet?"
Yugi sighed, "He returned last night, Joey. Yami is back."
"Great! So....what about Kaiba?" Joey asked, wondering if he was awake inside there, or not.
"Well, uh....we'll just have to see." Yugi said.
"What? What do you mean we'll have to see? I thought if Yami found Kaiba, everything would be okay." Joey said, as Mokuba turned to hear.
"Well, it's not as easy as that, Joey. There is powerful magic involved here." Yugi said. "He still has to fight against his hearts desire to come home. Things like that might....take time."
"How much time?" Joey asked.
"I don't know." Yugi said, sadly.
Mokuba dropped his head, saying, "Maybe he'll be happier there, than with me...."
Before Yugi could say anything about that, the doorbell rang. "I'll get that." Mokuba said.
"We'll come, too." Yugi said.
Yugi, Joey, and Mokuba came upstairs, and Mokuba opened the door to reveal an ugly shriveled old lady. She looked at Kaiba's little brother and said, "That's him." Causing a couple strong men to grab Mokuba.
"Hey, you leave him alone, you creeps!" Joey said, attempting to attack the men, but there were more. This lady came with a small army of what appeared to be a security force that worked for Kaiba, Corp. Another one of them knocked Joey down, others pulled out guns.
One of the security officers snapped, "If you interfere with the law, you will be put in jail!"
"Why are you taking Mokuba away!" Yugi demanded. "What right do you have to do this??"
The woman pulled out a paper, saying, "I'm afraid an agreement was made with the head chairman of Kaiba Corp., Mr. Marshall."
"But Marshall worked it out with the lawyers. We're doing a virtual reality experiment, in order to bring my brother back!" Mokuba cried. "This was agreed upon....I am supposed to have a few more days."
"I know I did." Marshall came forward from the crowd of security. "I made that deal to give this company more time to write the proper paperwork up that would give me control of Kaiba Corp., if there was no Kaiba able to legally run the company. Mokuba is too young, and his brother is a vegetable downstairs. So, I voided the last court order, allowing human services to do their part."
"How could you? How could you do this to us?" Mokuba squirmed.
"For power. You'd be surprised what a person is capable of doing, to get what they want." Marshall said. "But we are also here to not only take Mokuba away, but pull the plug on Seto Kaiba. He can go back to a hospital or maybe a nursing home, to go drool in a bucket, or whatever."
Mokuba struggled to escape, kicking and screaming as they began to drag him away, the other 2 helpless to do anything about it, when a voice cried out, "Let my brother go, NOW!!"
Everyone froze and turned to see Seto Kaiba at the top of the stairs, struggling to stay standing, as he was leaning heavily against the doorway. But his determination was still as strong as ever to protect his little brother, despite his present condition. He looked at the snake Marshall and hissed, "If you don't order that witch to release my brother, the one that's going to be left drooling is you, after I forcefully remove all your teeth with my fist!"
The woman glanced at Marshall, then nodded to Kaiba's security which dropped Mokuba, and turned to leave. "Seto! You came back!" Mokuba cried out, running to his brother and embracing him.
Kaiba held his brother, saying, "You know I'd always be here for you, Mokuba....I promised you that."
Marshall now stammered, "Uh, Mr. Kaiba, sir....it's not what it looks like! I was only looking out for the best interests of the company. It was going to suffer without you....surely you wanted the business to continue on...."
"Security, hall this trash out of my sight. Marshall....you're fired." Kaiba snapped.
The security guards now turned against Marshall, as he was picked up, guns aiming at him. Marshall was now the one kicking and screaming, as he ranted, "No, you can't do this! You can't let me go, Kaiba....this company needs me!!!"
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Kaiba felt very tired and drained, and his joints were terribly stiff. It had been over 2 weeks in this world that his body laid dormant in bed, totally still, with fluids being pumped into him to keep him alive and going. His body was in dire need to have solids again, and he had the worst taste in his mouth.
"Come on, big brother, let me help you to a chair...." Mokuba said, helping his brother to the nearby living room.
Yugi approached, saying, "Kaiba....how are you feeling? Do you need anything we can help with?"
Kaiba looked over at Yugi and Joey....people he knew for the past few weeks as good friends, now were nothing more than acquaintances. "No, I'm fine." He said, pausing before he added, "Thank you...."
"Sure." Yugi smiled.
"What were you two doing here, anyway?" Kaiba asked, curious.
"Well I had to be here, Kaiba. As you might remember, I used the magic of the Millennium Puzzle to contact you, and let you know what was really happening." Yugi said.
Kaiba rubbed his head, saying, "No offense Yugi, but I am so sick of hearing about magic right now....I just don't want to hear anymore about it."
"Okay." Yugi said.
"So what's his excuse?" Kaiba asked, referring to Joey.
"Yeah, well....Yugi here and Mokuba were downstairs keeping you company, so I thought I'd add a little extra support for them, that's all." Joey said, expecting a fight, but hoping that wouldn't happen, right now. After all, Joey didn't really feel right having to fight someone who could barely walk, at the moment.
"Joey stayed here and kept me company while you were in the hospital, Seto!" Mokuba said.
"You stayed in my house all this time?" Kaiba asked.
"Uh, well....I didn't wanna leave the kid alone, by himself. Listen, I'll go to the spare room, and pack my things up now, okay?" Joey asked.
"Wheeler...." Kaiba said to him, as Joey was trying to turn away.
Joey turned back, knowing it was coming. "All right, just say it and get it over with, already...." Joey sighed.
"Thank you." Kaiba said. "For helping my brother out, when I couldn't."
"Uh...." Joey stammered, not expecting to hear something nice from him. "Well, yeah....okay. No problem. Happy to help."
"Can Joey stay here longer??" Mokuba asked.
Kaiba smiled, saying to his brother, "Don't push your luck."
Yugi then nudged Joey, saying, "You know, we should be going, anyway. Feel free to call, if you need anything...." With that said, Yugi practically pushed Joey into the spare room his stuff was in, to start packing, figuring that Mokuba would want some quality time with his brother.
Mokuba climbed on Kaiba's lap, and hugged his big brother, then looked up, saying, "Yugi said you got everything you ever wanted from that thing you touched." Even sitting on him, Kaiba was still taller.
"Not everything." Kaiba said. "'My' Mokuba wasn't there."
"But he said I was there, too." Mokuba said.
"No you weren't, you were right here. There was a Mokuba there, but he wasn't the same. He didn't go through the same things that we did together. And once I realized you were still here waiting for me, nothing else mattered, anymore." Kaiba said.
Mokuba smiled, and hugged him again, saying, "I love you, big brother."
"I love you, too." Kaiba replied.
"Seto....what was it like to see our Mom and Dad again? I don't even remember them." Mokuba said.
"I was old enough that I still remembered them. It was good to see them again....maybe it even gave me some closure that I needed." Kaiba smiled. "They were very caring....you would have liked them."
Kaiba brushed his own hair back with his hand as he said this, and felt his hair didn't feel too clean. He then gently took Mokuba off his lap, and said, "We'll have to finish this in a little bit. I desperately need a shower."
"You shouldn't need one too bad, big brother. The hospital says they gave you daily sponge baths!" Mokuba smiled.
Kaiba shuddered at the thought of who was touching him while he was out of it, and moved even quicker towards the shower room, feeling he needed a shower even more desperately than he originally thought.
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Yugi and Joey came down stairs with Joey's stuff, and Mokuba approached, saying, "Sorry you have to go so quick."
"Where's Kaiba?" Yugi asked.
"He went to take a shower. He didn't seem too happy when I told him about the sponge baths he had at the hospital." Mokuba shrugged.
Joey laughed, "I gotta remember that one, next time he tries ta pick on me, again."
"Well, have fun with your brother, Mokuba." Yugi said, and left with Joey.
As things got back to normal in the Kaiba mansion, no one realised when Kaiba woke up and came upstairs, the stone had also magically returned, and was presently lying on the floor beside the virtual reality chair, for any other unsuspecting person to walk by and touch it.