"She's sleeping but I don't know if she'll ever recover from all this." Rebecca said as she came out of the basement of their destroyed hideaway. Inu-yasha held Kagome in his arms. They could not believe all that had happened to them since they'd come to the future. This was a terrible tragedy which sickened them all in their hearts. They watched helplessly as a brother and sister fought a battle to the death against each other. One being killed and the other being maimed for life. Young Kaede would forever carry the scars of this terrible battle and though her body would mend, her heart and soul never would. She had killed her brother. Or had she?
"He wasn't our son anymore, Kagome." Inu-yasha said as they looked out at the grave where Hiro lay. "He stopped being our son when he sold his soul to the machines."
"I just hate that this had to happen." Kagome said with tears streaming down her face. "We never even had a chance to get to know him the way he was before all this." "But we will someday." Inu-yasha told her. "Remember that this future isn't the only future. We've still got time to be together and raise our family up the way we want. Once we've fixed this world, we'll…"
"There is no fixing this world." Kaiba stated. "It's ruined forever and it's all my fault! So much death, destruction, and waste. All I ever wanted to was to build something that would show the world how great a man I could be. Instead I've destroyed everything that I've ever cared about."
"Kaiba. You've changed a great deal since we've known each other." Yugi/Yami said to him. "We've been rivals, friends, and enemies. Now though I believe that we are brothers. For I too share some of the responsibility for the shaping of this world."
"How so Yugi?" Tea asked, shocked.
"I'm was the driving force behind it all. My constant victories against Kaiba in our past duels evidently fueled his hatred for living things and caused him to retreat deeper and deeper into the world of the cybernetics and robotics." Yugi/Yami explained. "Perhaps if I had been less prideful and more understanding of Kaiba's need to succeed, then none of this would ever have happened."
"Oh Dad." Yoko said feeling defeated. The last vestage of their world had been destroyed. Their home, their hideaway, their sanctuary was gone. Now there was no turning back from the path of all out war with the Technos. Now there was no reason not to fight. "Okay, that does it!" She shouted.
"What are you talking about?" Ichiro asked.
"I mean that's it, I'm fed up." Yoko told him. "I'm fed up with Cyber One, and with the Technos, and with all of this. I never wanted this kind of life, I was just kind of born into it, but now I'm going to fight back. I'm tired of trying to simply exist. That's not enough anymore. I want the life I was robbed of."
"I'm with you, Yoko," Ichiro said, "Let's take Cyber One down once and for all."
"Count me in," Kaede said from behind them. They all turned and saw her dressed ain the tunic of an old red kimono, the sleeves cut short, and red pants that came to her knees.
"What the jeck did you do to my kimono!?!" Inu-yasha yelled, but Rebecca pushed past him and ran up to the teenagers.
"You are not getting yourselves killed!" Rebecca yelled at them. "I haven't raised you all up like my own children just to go an destroy everything I've worked so hard to build. I've made you the best Duelists in the world- we can survive this! Cyber One's power source won't last forever, we just need to hold on-"
"Wait a minute, his power source?" Kaiba asked.
"It's an anti matter fusion reactor. But with no one left to maintain it, itll shut down in another 20 years."
"What do you mean no one left?"
"All the Kaiba Corp employees have been absorbed… and now with Hiro dead, there's no left to maintain the power cord itself."
"Yeah, Hiro was just as big an egghead as he was a fighter… that's why Cyber One took him. Aside from Rebecca, he was the smartest person in the world…"
"Guys, I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but our time is running out," Mokuba said. "With each minute we stay here and do nothing, the smaller our window of opportunity to get home becomes."
"How much time's left?" Tea asked him.
"Four hours." Mokuba replied.
"So if we don't retake the pyramid in four hours we're stuck here?" Sango asked.
"Hmm," Miroku mused.
"What are you thinking?" Sango asked him.
"I'm thinking… Why haven't I met any of my offspring?"
"Oh, of course, Rebecca," Sango asked, "What becomes of mine and Ryo's children?"
"Your's and what!?!" Miroku exclaimed.
"Bakura never had any children," Rebecca said, "He was one of the first ones absorbed. And Kohaku was taken just last week."
"Ko…haku…?" Sango asked, trembling.
"Miroku's son," Kaede said. "He was a year younger than me, and boy what a cutie! It's a shame, but I admire his courage. Rather than let Cyber one absorb him, he cut his own Wind Tunnel and let himself and the techno who beat him get sucked in… He and Hiro had been best friends…" Kaedelooked down in reflection.
"Sango," Miroku said, butting his arm and Sango's shoulders, "We must avenge our son!"
"Who said he was mine!?!" Sango exclaimed, blushing and pushing him away.
"He was named after your brother, who else could his mother be?" Miroku asked. Then his eyes went starry and he said with great emotion, "I knew one day you would bare my children, I just knew it!"
"Please, I was probably grief stricen over Ryo's passing," Sango said, crossing her arms.
"Then why have your lovely cheeks turned so rosy?" Miroku asked flirtatiously.
"Shut up lecher!" Sango yelled.
"That sounds like yours and Kohaku's fights," Yoko pointed out to Kaede.
"Yeah, and I'll never get to slap his cute face again," Kaede said.
"Your dirty son tried to get with my daughter?!" Inu-yasha growled at the monk.
"Why are you angry with me?" Miroku asked him.
"Cause it's your legacy!" Inu-yasha yelled, "That does it! When we get back I'm making sure you don't spawn- for the sake of my daughter's honor!"
"Dad! Please!" Kaede said, her face turning beet red.
"As funny as all this is," Mokuba interjected, "We now have 3 hours and 45 minutes to retake the pyramid."
"Then let's go!" Yugi/Yami said, activating his duel disk.
---------------Scene Break---------------
The main entrance to the Pyramid was heavily guarded. Technos roamed the grounds, searching for intruders, since Cyber One knew that the invaders from the past would return sooner or later to escape to their own time. Just when all seemed quiet, one Techno zeroed in on an object that seemed to be approaching them at an incredible speed. Then, with a loud whistling that surrounded them from all sides, a rocket came flying towards the Technos, and impacted squarly on the sensor of the first Techno, sending shrapnel flying in every direction.
"Perimeter breach in sector 001!" Wailed another Techno. He and the other cyborgs activated their duel disks, and jetted off to search for the intruder.
Meanwhile, with the cost clear, Yugi/Yami led the Resistance and his friends to the great doors of the Pyramid.
"Okay, we're here," Joey said, "But how the heck do we get inside?" looking up the immense structure.
"Like this," Kaiba said. He took out an ID card, and swiped it along a scanning mechanism, and the doors slowly began to open.
"How did you know that would work Seto?" Serenity asked.
"Simple," Kaiba said, "Cyber One wouldn't have bothered to change the Security Codes since there was no one left with an ID pass to get in."
"Stop talking and let's do this," Ichiro said, leading his own friends inside.
"You people spend way too much time flapping your gums," Yoko commented on her way in.
The company entered, and looking down three identical corridors, Kaiba asked Rebecca, "Which way is it to the Antimatter Reactor?"
"Corridor Three," she said, ointing to the left, "Sub level 6."
"That's all I need to know," Kaiba said, running down the corridor. Yugi and the others followed him.
"Kaiba, wait!" Yugi/Yami cried to him, "What is your plan?"
"Simple," Kaiba called back, "Go to the Reactor and destroy it and Cyber One."
"What about the kids?" Kagome asked. "Where did they go?"
"They have their own mission," Kaiba told her, "Their going to be our diversion.
--------------Scene Break--------------
"Wind Scar!!" Kaede cried as she sliced and hacked Technos apart left and right. Yoko blasted open doors with her mini Plasma Cannon, while Ichiro readied his duel disk for battle. They blasted and slashed their way down over twenty doors… then they finally reached the main control room, where Cyber One, waited.
"Ahhhhh," said the deep rumbling electronic voice of the gigantic super computer. "So… Welcome, Ichiro Kaiba… Son of my creator. Are you prepared… to die at last?"
"I'm ready, Cyber One!" Ichiro cried out as he slapped his arcds into his Disk, "But you won't take me like you took my father, and Yoko's father, and Kaede's parents, or any of our other friends and family! Today's judgment day for you, Cyber One! And you've been found guilty of murder and treason against humanity! I think the question really is… Are YOU ready to die?!"
"Noble words…for one so young and foolish. I believe… you've under estimated me," Cyber One said as two large arms, made of woven wire and metal, extended from his motherboard. One arm became a duel disk, and the other produced a deck. "I have every card ever made at my disposal… What do you have… Ichiro Kaiba?"
"I have this," Ichiro said, producing the Millennium Rod from his back pocket.
Yoko gasped, "Ichiro, you're not strong enough to control that!"
"Then it is a Shadow Duel you seek," Cyber One said. "Excellent."
------------Scene Break------------
In the depths of the Pyramid, there was a room covered from floor to ceiling in parking and sputtering machinery. Wires or red and blue and green sprawled on the floor and on the walls and even in open doors ways, like the out of control web of some enormous electronic spider. As they entered this room, Inu-yasha used his Iron Reaver to cut the wires apart, the others crawling and climbing over the debris, until there was a clear way to the reactor.
A huge glowing chasm with tubes and pipes filled the center of the floor, swelling up to a great shining light in the center, glowing with the intensity and brightness of the sun. This was the anit matter core.
"Alright," Yugi/Yami said, "How do we disable the core, Kaiba?"
"It can't be disabled," Kaiba confessed. "Unless a large enough amount of matter is mingled with the anti matter, causing an anti nuclear meltdown of the entire system."
"You mean there's no way to stop Cyber One?!" Inu-yasha exclaimed.
"There is one way," Kaiba took the card key from around his neck, and plugged it into a nearby console. Suddenly a large chain length fence came up, separating Kaiba from the others.
"Kaiba, what are you doing?!" Yelled Yugi/Yami.
"I've made the appropriate calculations in my head," Kaiab answered. "One hundred and eighty pounds of matter should be just enough." And he spread his arms out to his sides.
"Seto no!" Serenity cried, and she ran for the fence, but she was shocked and thrown back into Joey's arms.
"Sis!" Joey cried, "wake up!"
"Kaiba stop!" Yugi/Yami cried from behind the wire screen. "You don't have to do this Kaiba. Please just stop where you are and turn around!"
"No Yugi, I have a responsibility to my son and to the future." Kaiba said as he looked away from over the side. Soon Cyber One would be destroyed and the world would be set free of this madness.
"Kaiba don't you understand that if you die then your son will never exist?" Yugi/Yami asked.
"You're wrong Yugi, he exists, even now he is growing strong. I have been many things in my life Yugi, but never a perfect Gentleman." Kaiba said referring to girl who still lay unconscious in Joey's arms. "Take care of Serenity, Mokuba, and Ichiro for me Yugi. Mokuba, they're your family now."
"Seto no!" Mokuba screamed. "Don't do it, please!" All the tears, all the cries, and all the pain in the world was not enough to save the world from this great evil. But one man could do it if he would. One life could set it all right again. So with love in his heart and sadness in his eyes, Seto Kaiba made the ultimate sacrifice.
"Goodbye." He said then stretched our his arms and leapt over the side. He fell far, far down, and deep into the core of the Anti-matter reactor that powered the Cyber One complex. As he fell his last thoughts were of Serenity, Mokuba, Ichiro, and Yugi. Yugi who had been his nemesis for so long. Yugi who he would now leave behind to take care of his family and friends for him. He knew that Yugi was the right choice. Something inside told him so. Yugi had always reached out to him even when he didn't want him to. Kaiba supposed in the grand scheme of things it was better that he die as Yugi's friend rather than taking their feud to the grave with him… again.
-------Scene Break---------
"Kaiba!!!!" They all screamed.
"Big Brother!" Mokuba and others clung to one another as their sometimes friend, sometimes adversary fell to deep into the anti-matter core and met his end.
"Kaiba!!!" Yugi/Yami pounded the ground and ripped at his own hair as he cried out in sorrow and anguish. Seto Kaiba was gone. Suddenly a great burst of energy exploded forth from the midst of the core and the ground beneath them began to shake.
"Run!" Came Ichiro's voice as he and Yoko came running out of the main control center. They ran right past the others and headed for the exit. "This place is going up and I don't think that any of us want to be around to see it!"
The group climbed back over wires and metal, and out the doors, past sputtering and malfunctioning Technos and computers as the air filled with the stench of burning circuits and silicon. Then, as they ran out the entrance doors, and took cover behind old broken cars, they watched the pyramid glow, and crumble in on itself, the outer casing shattering like a fine crystal globlet dropped on the floor. The backlash of the explosion sent a great wind, covering a fifty mile radius on debris. But as the dust and wind died, and smoke curled into the air from the ruins, the heroes broke down and all wept for the one life they could not save.
-------------Scene Break--------------
"Oh Joey, please, tell me it isn't so." Serenity begged. "Tell me that Seto's okay."
"I'm sorry sis, he's…" Joey couldn't say it because he still couldn't believe it himself. Kaiba was dead.
"NO!!!" She cried. "No, why did you let him do that, why!?!" Serenity beat her small fists on Joey's chest and cried the deepest tears of sorrow for her lost lover while the others watched and wept also for their fallen comrade.
"Damn him!" Ichiro cried out at last as they all stood there crying. "Why'd he have to go and do that? Doesn't he know that now I'll never be born?"
"If that's true then what are you still doing here?" Tristan asked.
"Cause." Serenity said to them all. "I'm pregnant." Everyone looked at her in astonishment and Ichiro fell to his knees before her with Yoko at his side.
"Mother?" He asked. Serenity nodded and put her arms around Ichiro. She held him as closely as a mother holds her child and the two of them wept together.
"I can't let this happen Yugi." Joey said as looked at his sister and her child.
"What are you talking about Joey?" Yugi/Yami asked.
"There's a power inside of me that I can use to fix all of this. I can go back and fix everything so that this future never takes place and therefore Kaiba won't have to die and leave my sister pregnant and alone."
"Joey, no, it's too dangerous!" Kagome shouted, "Remember what happened last time you turned back time? We all met again anyway and things changed but not very much. We still put a lot of people in danger with our adventures."
"She's my sister." Joey said to Kagome. "I love her and I would do anything for her. Even bring back a guy I know ain't no good for her." Joey held up his Millennium Key and called upon his counterpart from the past to come take possession of his body.
"I am here Joey." Rafiq said. "Let us do this quickly." Suddenly the key began to glow and before anyone else could object any further time began to flow backwards. The sun retreated across it's arch in the sky and moon rose and fell. For Joey/Rafiq time stopped and everything around them began to change. Days passed, weeks passed, and then years passed all in reverse. He saw the ruined city begin to rebuild itself and with it the world too rebuilt itself. All who had been absorbed by the Techno-duelists were revived and all who had died to save the future were brought back. Joey/Rafiq did not stop until at last they were standing back on the roof top of Kaiba Corp Headquarters where this all began with a duel between Kaiba and Yugi.
"Kaiba my old friend, this must end now. We can not continue to battle each other like this for such high stakes." Yugi/Yami said.
"I know that Yugi, that's why this will be the last time we'll battle. Because this time I'll be the victor." Kaiba said.
"Go Seto!" Serenity and Mokuba cheered together and they laughed and smiled as if nothing bad in the world could befall them.
"Hey Yugi!" Joey called to his friend.
"What is it Joey?" Yugi/Yami asked walking over to him.
"I think this time you might ort to let Kaiba there win this one. The future might depend on it." Joey whispered in Yugi/Yami's ear. The two friends looked at each other and Yami knew what he meant though Yugi did not. Yugi's mind had been altered by course of events but Yami's mind still retained the memories of the other time line and therefore, when he stood before Kaiba to duel, he stood prepared to throw the game. For the future's sake.
"Yugi." Kaiba said looking across at him. "Don't hold back."
"What?" Yugi/Yami asked.
"I'm asking you not to hold back from giving me your best. Winning this duel will give me no glory unless I win this duel on my own. I'm asking you this as a friend." Kaiba said. This took Yugi/Yami by surprise.
"What should we do?" Yugi asked Yami.
"We should do as Kaiba asks, and play him admirably." Yami said. "This time I believe he may just win the duel without our help."
"Okay." Yugi said then they merged back into the one being. "Let's Duel!"
-----------------Authors' Note----------------
Bluerain: Hoe does it end?!?!
SirLarry: Write your own conclusions ;-) And let us know your ending in your reviews.
Bluerain: TTFN!