"Seto!," came the frightened, childish voice.

Kaiba couldn't believe it!. It was happening again!. The same terrible vision he'd seen during that last battle with Yugi.

The little, five year old version of Mokuba was once again trapped in the ultimate dragon as it rotted and melted away around him. "Help, Seto!. Please help me!."

"No!," Seto cried, falling to his knees. "No!. Please!. Don't let me see this happening again!."

Mokuba reached out his small hand, tears rimming his eyes. "Brother, please!. You promised!. You promised to help me!."

"Mokuba!." Seto stared as the younger, ten-year-old version of himself rushed forward to save his little brother.

"Seto, hurry!."

"I'm coming!. I'll help you!."

"Don't let me down!," the child cried in terror. "Help me!. Big brother!."

But, just like the first time, it would be to late. Though young Seto tried his best to reach young Mokuba, the little boy was consumed, screaming, by the decaying ultimate dragon.

"Mokuba!," young Seto screamed as his little brother once again vanished before his eyes. He stared in shock at the place where the dragon had disappeared.

Tears streamed down Kaiba's face. The younger version of himself turned to him with a look of disbelief and loathing. "You're rotten to the core, Kaiba, just like that dragon!. It's all your fault!. Why, Seto?. Why didn't you help him?. You promised you'd always be there for him!. You promised him, Seto Kaiba!. You promised!."

Seto didn't even have to look to know that he was rotting away. First his hands, then his face. The next moment, once again, he was thrust backwards into the darkness, screaming the name of the only one he had loved, the one whom he had lost forever… "Mokubaaa!!!"…

"No!," Seto cried as his eyes snapped open. Breathing heavily, he sat up from the keyboard and brushed his brown bangs away from his eyes. He was back in his office at the Kaiba Mansion. He must have fallen asleep at his computer desk.

"Mokuba..," he whispered. His hand automatically went to his neck for the familiar locket… but it wasn't there… He had left it at his little brother's grave this afternoon… He wasn't worthy of it anyway… He was never worthy of Mokuba…

Why?Â… Why couldn't he have saved him?... First his mother and father, and now his little brother… Why did he have to lose everyone he cared about?... He thought back to his duel with Pegasus… Yugi had advised him to have faith and believe in the Heart of the Cards… but how could he expect him to have faith in the Heart of the Cards when his only heart was ten years old, had scruffy black hair with gray eyes and wore a blue bandana and a locket?… And now… Now that heart was gone forever...

Seto roughly brushed the tears from his eyes... As much as he tried to block them out, he couldn't get the accusing voices out of his head...

"You should never have challenged me, Kaiba!."

"Don't let me down!. Help me!. Big Brother!."

"You're rotten to the core, Kaiba, just like that dragon!. It's all your fault!. Why, Seto?. Why didn't you help him?. You promised you'd always be there for him!. You promised him, Seto Kaiba!. You promised!."

"He spared you!. Kaiba, he showed you compassion, which is more then you deserve!."

"Yugi may have lost one lousy Duel Monsters game, but at least he hasn't lost his heart!. Not like you, Seto Kaiba!. You spend so much time with your machines you've forgotten what being human is about!. Yugi has a heart, Kaiba!. Yugi has us!. Friends who'll stand by him no matter weather he wins or loses some lousy game!. And what do you have, Seto Kaiba?. What do you have at the end of the day?. Tell me!. Tell me!."

"Yeah, keep foolin' yourself, Kaiba!. Yugi's twice the man you'll ever be!."

"Your best failed you!."

"You lose, Kaiba boy. And you've lost so much more then just this duel. You've lost the only chance you have at rescuing your baby brother. You let him down."

"Stop it!," Seto finally screamed, burying his face in his hands. "Stop it!. Stop it!. I tried my best!. I did!." He raised his tear-stained face to gaze out the office's balcony window into the dark, clear night. "Mokuba…," he sobbed brokenly. "I'm sorry... I'm so very sorry... I failed you..."

Kaiba gripped the edge of his desk, his hands shaking. It would have been better if Yugi had been Mokuba's brother, or Tristin. Hell! Even that dog, Joey, would have been a better brother them him!. The most important and only promise he'd ever made in his life, and he'd broken it!. Yugi and his friends would not have broken that promise. They would not have failed to rescue Mokuba!.

Slowly, the young CEO pushed himself up to his feet… Gardener, Wheeler, Moto, even Pegasus… They were right about everything… They had always been right... In spite of all his money and power, the only thing he'd ever had in the world was his little brother... and now that Mokuba was gone, he had nothing and no one to live for anymore…

Seto left his computer desk and made his way to the office balcony... As he opened the sliding door, he closed his eyes and breathed in the night air… The breeze cooled his face, and he rested his arms on the balcony railing...

All through most his childhood it had been just him and Mokuba... He remembered those days at the orphanage... Allot of times, prospective parents had wanted to adopt only him, saying he was an absolute genius, a son to be proud of, but he would turn them all down, insisting that he would never leave without his little brother... It had always been that way... Wherever one brother went, the other would be sure to follow… Pegasus's island… The castle... The shadow realm...

"But don't worry, my dear friend. I will spare you the agony of carrying on in this world without him," Pegasus's taunting voice came back again…

Trembling, Seto gritted his teeth and clenched his hands, banging one fist down hard on the railing. "Why?!," he cried. "Why didn't you finish the job and destroy my soul too?!. You know I can't go on without him!. You know!."

But maybe that had been Pegasus's whole intention in the first place. He knew how much Mokuba meant to him. He knew Kaiba would rather die with his little brother then carry on in this world without him.

The cool wind freezing the tears on his face, Seto skillfully climbed up onto the balcony railing... Using his martial arts training, he was able to balance himself on the edge... Remembering the incident upon the tower back in Duelist Kingdom, he almost had to laugh at the irony!.

He gazed upwards at the sparkling, jeweled sky… Then he lowered his head to look downwards... As every light in the mansion, save for his office, was turned off, it was impossible to make out anything but darkness below… It was just like when his soul had been imprisoned in the shadow realm...

"Pegasus," he whispered before he stepped off into the darkness below him. "Wherever you are, I have a message for you. If you want to destroy what's left of my family, then it's a package deal. You get me too."…