Here's a story for all you Noah lovers out there. Did Noah ever return to Seto and Mokuba? This tells how our favorite virtual maniac got a body again. Will have a sequel.
"Ack!" Whump, Whump, Whump, Whump, Thud.
"Seto! Noah fell down the stairs again!"
"Noah! Are you alright?"
"Just bruised. Ouch, right into the bookshelf too. Uh-oh. Seto! Help!" Bang
"Setooooo! The bookshelf fell over!" Mokuba yelled. He didn't need to yell. His older brother, the brunette one, rounded the corner and surveyed the scene before him. Mokuba was sitting on the stairs giggling, and his non-identical twin, Noah, was lying on the floor at the foot of the stairs, surrounded by books and pinned underneath a heavy bookshelf.
"How did you manage this?" Seto asked, crouching down to look Noah in the eye.
"I forgot that I actually have a body. On top of that, I was daydreaming while I was walking down the hall and didn't see the stairs." Noah used his best 'I'm really sorry' look. Seto groaned.
"Honestly, if you weren't my brother you would be in sooooooo much trouble. Hold still." The brunette got a good grip on the edge of the bookcase and slowly stood up again, taking the restraining object with him. Noah scrambled out from underneath and hurried to help his brother stand the shelving up again.
"Please note: If you weren't my brother, I wouldn't be here in the first place." Noah pointed out, collecting an armful of books and putting them back on the shelf. "And if you weren't my brother, I probably wouldn't be so clumsy to begin with."
"Blame that on Mokuba, not me." Seto growled, bonking Noah on the head with a rolled up copy of National Geographic.
"Who was the one who managed to get super-glued to his crawler? Who got the syrup to explode all over himself? Who managed to turn his hair green for three weeks? YOU, not me." Mokuba pointed out. Seto stuck his tongue out at his little brother.
"That was accidental, not clumsiness."
"Okay. How 'bout when you managed to trip over three chairs, an end table, and the couch on your way from the living room to the kitchen in broad daylight? Or when you did a major belly flop in the pool? Or when-"
"ENOUGH ALREADY! Fine. Noah got his clumsiness from me. Are you happy now squirt?" Noah and Mokuba laughed. "Humph. No respect, even from my own brothers!" Seto stomped out of the room.
"You really love to get him before he's had his coffee in the morning, don't you?" Noah asked, replacing the last of the books in their respective places.
"Yup. He's funny when he's only half awake."
"I agree with you on that!"
/Later that day-about 3:00-3:30 pm/ Noah lay sprawled out on his bed, enjoying, for the umpteenth time, the feeling of actually having a body again. His mind wandered back to when the chain of events that led to his 'resurrection' had been started…
/18 months ago/ "I hate spring cleaning." Seto Kaiba grumbled, scooping up a stack of CD's and flopping down in front of his computer with them. Two hours later, he had gotten through 28 of them, and there was one left. The brunette slipped the disk into the computer and waited for the information to appear on screen. What happened instead was quite a shock. The screen turned black, and white lettering began appearing on it. The real shock, however, was what the text said:
Greetings Seto! I was starting to wonder if you'd ever load this disk! Seto gaped. Rather startled, he typed a response:
)Noah? Is that you?(
)Who did you think it was? I did say that I'd be back, didn't I?(
)But…in my computer?(
)I transferred all of my data onto the database of your blimp before you left. How long has it been since then?(
)Nearly three years.(
)How are Yugi and the others?(
)You'd be surprised.(
)Try me.(
)I'll get Mokuba instead( This turned out to be a biiiiig mistake. Mokuba proceeded to practically sink roots at that computer. For the first week of this, Seto thought long and hard about what he could do. Despite the fact that Noah had originally tried to kill him and the other participants of the Battle City Finals, he'd turned for the good and had helped them escape both the virtual world he'd created, and from the clutches of Gozaburo Kaiba. Seto groaned. To add to the problem, Noah was family, and that did mean something. He spent the rest of spring break going over all possible ways of bringing the boy back to the real world. Finally, at 1:27am, a pop-up add for group of scientists who were trying to find a financial backer for their cloning services appeared on the screen. Intrigued, Seto clicked on it. By 7:30 that morning, he'd arranged for a meeting with the men. By the same time the next day, they were working on a plan to create an actual human body. Since Seto didn't want a copy of himself or of Mokuba walking around, the plan was to splice his DNA with Mokuba's. This would create a being that looked something like the Kaiba brothers, a fitting appearance, seeing as Noah was their brother, though it was by adoption, rather than blood. Then, he got an idea…
Gozaburo had had the odd habit of keeping reminders of his triumphs, as well as things he mourned. When his wife died, he had the bones of her left hand and her wedding ring brought to him, and then had created a wire framework. For the rest of his life, his wife's hand, wearing her wedding band, had sat on his desk. Seto bet that, due to his adoptive father's tendency to do things the same, and the attachment he'd had to his only child, that there might be a part of Noah in the office. He grimaced. He hadn't reentered that office after Gozaburo's disappearance. Cursing and swearing under his breath, he dug the key out of his safe, and entered the room. He found what he was looking for immediately. A glass sphere rested on the desk. Inside the glass was a lock of sea-green hair, and silver letters that spelled out Noah's full name (Noah James Kaiba) his birth date (June 15, 1987), and the date he'd been lost. Also, a single line: 'We never know how precious our children are until we lose them'.
Smiling at this line, Kaiba took the memento to the lab. The hair was removed and analyzed, and then DNA was taken from it. Mokuba and Seto both gave blood for DNA of their own, though Mokuba had no clue about what was going on. While the scientists began work, with all the technology and funds of KaibaCorp at their fingertips, Seto drew up new paperwork for Noah, calling him his twin brother, since that was the age Noah's body was going to be. In the lab, under the careful watch of some of the best cloning experts to be found, Noah's new body grew and developed at high speed. After it was decided to be the proper age, the growing process would be slowed back to normal for an eighteen year-old. The only disadvantage would be that Noah was going to hit all the things a normal teenage boy hits at 13-16 when he lived again. Voice change, added muscle; in short: puberty. Excited beyond all reason, and without explanation, Seto told Noah that he was going to be downloaded into a mobile body in three days. Noah immediately made the computer screen bloom in a display of gorgeous virtual fireworks. Seto laughed, and then transferred Noah from the computer game he'd been in (so he could play with Mokuba) onto a disk. Mokuba was a tad annoyed that his playmate couldn't play, but was cheered up by the fact that Noah would be walking in three days.
The day came. Noah's body had been prepared, and all that remained was for his mind to be uploaded into it. Seto slipped the disk into its slot, and clicked 'download.' A gentle hum announced the completion of the process. Praying that something hadn't gone wrong, Seto walked slowly over to Noah and shook his shoulder. Noah squeaked in shock and sat bolt upright, grabbing Seto's wrist. Then he stopped. He lifted his hands and stared at them. Then his hands went to his face, and he felt his features in disbelief.
"I have…you made…a body…a real body." He whispered, he voice shaky. When he said it, his hand went to his throat. "I can…my voice...you…how…I'm real…not a robotic body…human…me."
"You got it. And know you're my blood-brother, instead of an adoptive sibling." Noah smiled, his eyes filling up with tears.
"I…I have a family again." He murmured. Then, he threw himself at Seto, hugging him frantically as tears poured down his cheeks. Seto smiled, hugging back. He knew some of the things Noah cried for: he was alive again; he had a family that loved him. He'd never been able to cry when he lost his body, when his father forgot him, when Gozaburo used him as a pawn. Now, he could. And he did. And Seto held him through it.
Later, Seto got Noah to hold still long enough for the completion of the legal records. Noah had been missing, he was legally Seto's twin, non-identical yes, but related through blood. As it turned out, Noah got the best qualities from his brother's DNA. After he quit growing, he stood as tall as Seto, a full 6 foot 4 inches. His hair, no longer the rather peculiar shade of green it had been, was a rich honey color. His eyes were the same sapphire shade that both of the Kaiba brothers had, and close to the color that Noah had had before. He preferred to keep his hair at the same length he 'd always had, and he liked it that way. It took awhile for him to stop tripping over his own feet and the like, but it was worth watching. Noah was so happy with being alive that nothing else, except his family, mattered to him. He had a real life, and that was what was important. /End Flashback/
Noah smiled to himself. It had been three years since he'd gotten a real body, and he never got over the joy of actually having one again. He still goofed sometimes, ending up in odd predicaments, like getting stuck in a large bush, upside-down. Still, he had friends, a family, and a body. "Noah! Dinner's ready! Get down here!" Seto yelled. Noah grinned and ran out of the room. When he got to the stairs, he vaulted expertly over the rail and landed with a thud on the lower floor. After dinner had been eaten and the dishes had been washed, with a break for a towel-snapping war, the three brothers could be found in a comfortable heap on the floor in the living room, in front of the fire. They were flipping through a photo album, the one that had been started to keep track of the creation of Noah's body, and had been transformed into a book of memories. Pictures in here all had something to do with Noah. The following is a list of a selection of snapshots from the book:
Seto dressed up like a clown, a bribe he'd used to convince Noah to leave the house to hang out with Yugi and company.
Noah, about to be tossed into the pool by Duke and Tristan, followed by another picture of Noah in mid-air.
Noah caught under the mistletoe and being kissed by Rebecca Hawkins. He's blushing like crazy.
A group photo of the three brothers, posing together at a ski resort in the US
Another group photo, this one of the rest of the group (Yugi and everyone else) dog piling Noah and Seto.
Noah and Seto together at the Senior Prom, making faces at being stuck in dressy clothes.
Noah and Yugi, wrestling, followed by several pictures of the mayhem that stemmed from the game, including the other boys from the group getting involved, and the two being hung from the rafters at the Kaiba place by their ankles.
Noah tackling Roland, and the next image of Noah being given a noogie by the big man, and then of Seto yelling at Roland, Noah giving his twin puppy eyes, and the three laughing fit to burst.
And lastly, a picture of everyone at the beach the previous summer.