Oh well look at that, the last chapter, oh well that was fun. I bet you're all dying to know what will happen next.

Chapter seventeen: Kaiba is dead.

Kaiba opened the door of his mansion, even if it wasn't the first time they came in, the others couldn't help but look around, especially Joey.

"So, where's this computer so we can get fixed?" Yami asked.

"It's in the basement." Mokuba said as he started to lead the others.

"And where do you think you are going?" Kaiba asked.

Mokuba stopped dead in his track, he had hoped his brother wouldn't realise how late it was.

"Your room is upstairs kid."

"But Seto I'm not ti…" Mokuba wanted to say tired but he yawned instead.

A smirk appeared on Kaiba's face. "Go to bed, it's past midnight." Of course there was another reason why he didn't wanted Mokuba to come, he didn't wanted his little brother to see what happened that day.

Mokuba knew there was no way he would win and he really was tired so he hugged his brother tightly. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight Mokuba." Kaiba said as his brother walked up the stairs.

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"Are you sure w are going to the basement?" Joey asked when they entered an office.

Kaiba just smirked as he opened one of the secret door of the mansion and walked down.

"That's one big computer." Tristan said when they finally reached the bottom of the stairs.

"That was Gozaburo's computer."

"Then why did you put the program on this one?" Yami asked.

"Simple, that's the last place Gozaburo would have looked."

Kaiba arranged everything to be able to watch whatever the little bug had caught, of course Kaiba wasn't going to stay and watch. When everything was ready he walked out of the room under the excuse of checking on Mokuba, Yami was the only one to catch the real reason.

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Mokuba looked up at the sound of knocking on his door, he still wasn't in his bed. "Come in."

Kaiba opened the door and stepped inside. "So, still not ready?"

"Well…I was…"

"Playing videogame." Kaiba said pointing at the TV.

"That's a way to see it."

Kaiba smiled and sat down on the bed. "Come on kid, it's late."

"Why aren't you with the others?" Mokuba asked as he got under the covers.

"Let's just say that I don't really want to see what happened that day, living it is enough for me and even if it was an accident I still feel guilty about it."

"You shouldn't, it wasn't your fault."

"I guess we'll be fixed at the end of this stupid trial, in some kind of way I think that I feel better now that it's no longer a secret."

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When Kaiba came back downstairs all the gang was in the living room. "So?" Kaiba asked.

"Everything's on the tape, all happened exactly like you said." Joey said.

Kaiba sat down. "Good, now there's only one problem left."

"What problem?" Joey asked.

Yami was the one to answer his question. "Kaiba has the technology to make a false tape, I'm sure that Kamiya will try to use that against us, especially since everyone think Kaiba's the one who destroyed the first tape, why would he have if he didn't had something to hide."

"But I thought you said that it was the creepy butler who took it." Joey said.

"It's him, the problem is, he's saying I'm the one who ordered him to do it."

"Fortunately I have a solution to that, you remember when he talked with the butler?" Yami asked.

"But it's not like he will repeat it." Kaiba said.

"He won't have to." Yami said as he held out a small recorder.

"But if they can say that Kaiba's one is a fake wouldn't they say the same about this one?" Joey asked.

"They can't." Kaiba smiled a little. "That thing is so old that it's totally impossible to make something fake on it with any kind of computer, it's not compatible with anything."

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The trial finally came, Kaiba was eager to get this over with and get on with his life but some other people liked to take their time to explain how he cruelly killed Gozaburo to complete his task of getting everything his father had. This stupid Kamiya was making him pass for a heartless murderer who would enter some random house at night to kill children while Gozaburo was the saint who saved him from the orphanage. Kaiba wanted to laugh.

After Kamiya finished telling what 'happened' Mr Tahaki, the lawyer who was supposed to make sure Kaiba ended in jail moved to another question, one that Kaiba didn't liked about when they interrogated Mokuba.

Kamiya was saying how Mokuba had seen the whole thing and how Kaiba had threatened him if he repeated it to anyone. Everyone was shocked, especially the jury but Kaiba wasn't worried about this, soon it was Kaiba's lawyer's turn to interrogate Kamiya.

"I have only one thing to ask you, are you sure there isn't anything you want to change from your story?"

"Why would I change the truth?" Kamiya answered, sure of himself.

"As your wish." That lawyer turned back toward the jury and everyone else who came just for the fun of it. "What I hold in my hand is the original record of your little interview with Mokuba Kaiba, as you can all see this kind of tape is too old to be modified by any kind of computer."

"Where in the world did you got that?" Kamiya asked.

"Well Mokuba being minor he had the right to have someone with him, Yugi didn't trusted you that much, and with reasons, so he recorded the interview."

As they listened to the tape, people started to give Kamiya dirty looks, Kaiba on the other hand was smiling mockingly at him.

"Anything to say for yourself?" The judge asked.

Kamiya shock his head.

Kaiba's lawyer continued. "I also have here proof that Gozaburo was paying you money so he would never have any problem with justice, something that Seto never did." Kamiya stayed silent. "I'm done."

After that things became a little bit more easy as it was Mokuba and Kaiba's turn to speak, the problem came when it was Hobson's turn, When he started his story about Gozaburo going up to speak with Kaiba and never coming back and how Kaiba ordered him to destroy the tape.

And once again, thanks to Yami, they had a way to make him lose credibility; of course it wasn't enough to show he was lying like they did with Kamiya but it was enough to create a big enough doubt in the jurist's mind, after all, a small doubt was all you needed to win.

Then came the time of the big final, the record they got from the electronic bug, this time Kaiba couldn't walk outside to 'take care of something' so he closed his eyes. However the sound was more then needed for him to picture the complete accident in his mind.

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It only took the jurist three hours to make up their mind about the verdict, the wait however was unbearable, not only for Kaiba but for the others as well. Then again there was a good point to all of this, Kamiya had been accused of a rather large amount of corruption and would probably be in jail for quite a long time.

As everyone made their way back to their seat, the jurists came out of the room, Kaiba had never been so nervous in his life, even if you had to know his well to be able to tell, even if they decided it was an accident he could still easily end up with 5 years. Usually when a decision was made that fast it was because the person was guilty.

The few second that the little paper with his fate written on it took to end up in the judge's hand seemed like hours to Kaiba, he could feel Mokuba hugging him tightly; he put an arm around his little brother's shoulder to reassure both of them.

As everyone in the courtroom raised the judge started to read loud what was written on the paper. "We, the member of the jury declare Seto Kaiba innocent…" Kaiba let out a breath that he never realised he was holding, he didn't hear a thing after that, he knew all that really mattered to him.

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About fifteen minutes later Kaiba finally came out in the road, the jurist had however requested something and he had to find out what before he could leave. As he stepped outside the first thing he saw was a big mess of black hair attaching itself tightly after his legs. Yugi and the other were just behind him with smile on their face, Kaiba smiled back at them.

"So, what does they wanted to talk about? Nothing bad?" Joey asked.

"Nothing really, I was expecting worst. They want me to see a psychiatrist or something like that to make sure I'm fine, apparently it was a really traumatising experience to me."

"Well, I guess you should consider yourself lucky." Yugi said.

"I guess so, who knows, it might even help me." Kaiba shrugged his shoulder.

"I don't believe it, the great Seto Kaiba saying that something could help him, hell must have frozen over by now." Joey said.

They all laughed, even Kaiba.

"Wait a second, did you just laughed?" Joey asked in disbelief.

"Maybe." Kaiba replied.

"Now I'm sure, hell has frozen over."

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Two days passed, it was now time to return to school, the morning had been horrible for Kaiba, since only people in the courtroom had seen the tape almost no one believed he was innocent, people kept giving him death glare everywhere, not that he minded that much what they thought, it was just getting rather annoying.

Kaiba closed his locker and sighed, it was lunchtime, which meant being in the same room as all the other student. Not something he was looking forward too.

"Hey Kaiba!"

Kaiba looked up to see Yugi and the other in front of him. "Wanna join us?" Yugi asked.

Kaiba thought about it for a second, it all depended on him right? "Sure."

Now that was something that really surprised the other students; Seto Kaiba eating at the same table as Yugi and his friends. Kaiba didn't talked that much, but he liked the company, not that he was going to admit it out loud.

"Where's Joey anyway?" Tristan suddenly said. Lunch had started 15 minutes ago, Joey was never this late.

"It dunno." Yugi said. "He sure had been acting strange today, he actually arrived 5 minutes early this morning."

"5 minutes, woah that's a first." Tristan said with a smile. "Hey Kaiba, where're ya going?" He asked when Kaiba stood up.

"I'm just going to check out something."

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"Stupid thing, why couldn't I just shut up for once, stay for 8 hours my ass." Joey said as he splashed his face with water.

"It would last longer if it was a better mark."

Joey looked up to see Kaiba two meters away from him, the young CEO was watching him with interest and concern. Unfortunately by looked up Joey let him see the one thing he had been hiding all morning, a rather big black eye. Joey was tempted to insult him but thought against it.

"So, what exactly were you saying about shutting up?"

"None of your business."

"You're starting to sound like me. So what happened to you?"

"I opened my big mouth again."

"Let me guess, your father?"

"How did you…"

"You wouldn't be trying to hide it if you had got it from a street fight or something like that."

"I guess so, then again you do know first hand how it feels."

"It's nothing to be proud of, but it's nothing to be ashamed of either."

"Look who's talking."

"Someone who almost got imprisoned for the murder of his stepfather."

"But that was an accident."

"Maybe, but I never regretted his death, if he hadn't died there then maybe one day I would have killed him on purpose. You can do a long of things when you are under the control of your rage."

"So what, maybe it crossed my mind when I was angry, but I would never do it."

"You never know, rage can make you blind, you should talk to someone who can help you before you do something you might regret. Now finish putting your make-up and come, you're friends are worried."

When Joey finished hiding his black eye the two of them walked back to the cafeteria. "Hey Kaiba, thanks."

Kaiba smiled a little. "Don't call me Kaiba, he's dead."

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Three month passed since the day the trial happened, since that day Kaiba had been passing more and more time with Yugi and the others, at first he was mostly quiet but as time passed he started to open more, of course there was some things that were left unknown about him but if thing goes his way they would remain as so.

Surprisingly Joey was the closest one to Kaiba, there was just something that passed between the two but the others couldn't put their finger on it, call it silent understanding, after all they both endured the same thing as child, of course no one else knew.

For those who are wondering Joey did got some help… well in fact he just got lucky, his father got five years of jail, something that had to do with drug, Joey didn't really understood everything but he didn't really cared. He went to live with his mother and Serenity who moved back in domino, to Tristan's joy.

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Here, finished, now all I have to do next is thanking all of my reviewers, I love you all.