Okay, here's chapter 12. I want to mention that there is a well hidden Gundam Seed reference in here somewhere. Note that I don't own Gundam Seed either. I'm pretty sure this isn't what happened in the show, but anything past Noah's defeat I haven't seen. From here on out, I'm wingin' it!

Chapter 12: Virtual World, part 2

"Where is she?" Joey asked out loud. We were running down the longest hallway in the world, searching for the origin of Serenity's scream. We passed the same scenery the entire length of the hall. It reminded me of an old cartoon where they passed the same furniture over and over again. There were no distinguishable landmarks so there was no way of telling if we were just on an endless loop. Then something caught my eye. It was a gray door that looked like it was rusting out.

"Maybe this is it," I told them. I turned the knob and pushed it as hard as I could but it wouldn't budge. "It must be locked."

"I'll show you locked," Joey said. He kicked the door with full force and it promptly fell flat.

"So much for locks," Yugi muttered. Joey ran through the door with us close behind. We stepped out onto a catwalk that overlooked a large room. Down below, I could make out two figures dueling. It was Duke and Serenity and they were up against one monster. It looked like Machine King, only it was a little different. Between the two sides of the field was a large gap that dropped into a pool of molten rock. There was also a gap between Duke and Serenity that had a single monster floating above it.

"Saint Joan, attack!" Serenity's timid voice called out. I watched as the fairy-type monster took down the machine in a single stroke. It must have been the deck master because there were no other opposing monsters and the holograms shut down. We found a stair case and quickly clambered down to meet with the victors.

"Serenity!" Joey shouted. She turned around and rushed to her brother. They met in a hug halfway. "I'm so glad you're okay, sis."

"Joey, he forced us to duel him, we didn't have a choice," Serenity cried.

"It's okay, you won and now you're safe," Joey comforted her.

"During the duel…Tristan lost and he disappeared," she explained through her tears.

"What does she mean?" Yugi asked Duke.

"We were behind in the match, way behind. Tristan brought his deck master to the field, which was a risky move to start with, but it was the only monster that could take down his," Duke explained. "Then Nezbitt played Limiter Removal that doubled his power and Tristan didn't stand a chance. The floor beneath him collapsed and he fell into the pit."

I listened to his explanation and walked to the edge. I looked down and felt the heat rising from the magma. Something wasn't right though. "He's alive," I said plainly.

"Sorry for being pessimistic, but are you nuts? No one could survive down there," Duke said.

"Think about it. The Big Five need bodies. Why would they dump something they need into something that could destroy it?" I stated my point. "They can create portals to other parts of this place. We've seen it before, right when we got here. It only makes sense that they made a portal down there and took him away at the last second."

"He's right," Yugi added. "All he have to do now is find out where they took him." We agreed with him and found an exit to the factory like area. The door led us to an alley where we ran right into Kaiba and Mokuba.

"Hey you guys!" Mokuba exclaimed. "It's good to see you again!"

"It's not like I'm glad you're alright, but I can't let the Big Five threaten my company again," Kaiba said smugly.

"Good to see you care," Téa said sarcastically. I could have sworn I heard Kaiba mutter "sorry" under his breath.

"Come on, we're leaving," Kaiba commanded. Suddenly, the roar of a vehicle echoed through the alley. A motorcycle with a dark figure on it came from around the corner. I pressed my back against the wall of a building and held Téa against me, out of the way. Yugi and Duke were across the way and Joey slammed himself against the wall, with Serenity, next to me. The rider grabbed the only person that couldn't get out of the way in time, Mokuba. The bike skidded to a stop a few feet away from us.

"What in the world are you doing, ya jerk?" Joey demanded. The rider turned around wearing an evil grin. "Tristan?"

"What do you think you're doing, Taylor? Let my brother go this instant!" Kaiba ordered angrily.

"But Mr. Kaiba, that wouldn't be any fun, now, would it?" he said. However, it wasn't Tristan's voice that came out.

"Leichter," Kaiba snarled.

"Now if you want him back you'll have to come get him," he sneered. He revved the bike's engine a couple times and rode off down the alley. Kaiba rushed after him, leaving the rest of us behind.

"Stay here, I'll go after them," I said to the others over my shoulder.

"I'm coming with you!" Yugi shouted after me.

"Me too!" Téa called out.

The three of us ran in the direction Kaiba went, but he was faster than we thought and we quickly lost sight of him. Then a different motorcycle rushed past us, flowing from the back was Kaiba's trench coat.

"Great, now we'll never catch up," I commented. "At least we tried to help."

"Yeah. Let's get back to the others," Yugi said. "I don't think we should be separated too long while we're here."

We turned around to retrace our steps only to hear a horn blaring. An old blue pickup truck pulled up to us with a familiar driver.

"Hey, guys! Check out we found!" Joey shouted. Astonished, Yugi took a seat in the cab next to Duke and Téa and I climbed in the back with Serenity and a monkey.

"Monkey? What? That wasn't here when I left," I thought. "Where did you get this?" I asked.

"Oh, him? After you guys ran off, this little robot just showed up," Serenity explained. "We couldn't get rid of him. We tried but he just clung to my leg."

"Here, let me take a look. I'm pretty good with electronics," I said. She nodded and picked up the robot and held it out to me. When I grabbed it, the robot monkey grabbed Serenity's arm and held on for dear life. After carefully prying the fingers back, I finally got him away from the girl. I examined the robot up and down before finding a door on its back. I opened it and started fiddling with the wires. Serenity started talking to her brother through the open rear window and Téa watched over my shoulder as I messed with the circuitry.

"Figure it out?" Téa asked me curiously.

"I'm not sure," I replied. "I think the memory systems are in the head, but I haven't found a power source yet. It looks like it has a black box like an airplane. It might be some sort of surveillance device that Noah sent after us. I may be able to override it by bypassing the power flow through another system."

I tugged at a couple of wires and connected them to an arm servo control. The arm started waving around wildly. With a startled yelp, I pulled them back out and replaced them in their original places. I turned to Téa and laughed nervously. Then I heard a click. Looking back in the mechanical body, I saw a panel open on the black box. Inside was a numerical button pad and a LED screen.

"What's that?" Téa asked.

"A control panel, maybe?" I wondered. "Looks like it's a programming command system. I wonder…" I typed in a few combinations, but nothing seemed to happen. Then I typed in a long series of ones and zeros and a whirring sound came from it.

"What did you do?" Téa asked. She sounded pretty scared.

"I typed in 'communicate' in binary," I replied. "It was just a simple command line that I used a long time ago when I was trying to build a robotic bird."

"How did that turn out?" Serenity asked. I wasn't aware that she was paying attention to our conversation.

"Well, I couldn't find a small enough chip that could hold the AI and the command recognition program. Then I couldn't find a power supply to power it long enough," I explained. "Eventually, I gave the project up, though I think I still have it packed up somewhere."

"Man, I wish he'd stop messing with me," a voice said.

"Tristan! Where are you?" Serenity called out.

"You can hear me?" Tristan's voice asked. I shut the compartments on the robot and it jumped up and hugged me. "You fixed me! You fixed me!"

"Tristan is the monkey?" Téa asked. "How does that happen?"

"I don't know but if he doesn't stop hugging me I'll really 'fix' him," I stated. He quickly jumped off of me and ran back to Serenity, who actually picked him up and hugged him.

"Oh, Tristan. I was sure we would never see you again," Serenity whispered to him.

A loud noise from up ahead drew our attention. Joey slammed on the brakes and he, Yugi, and Duke piled out to take a look. We looked in amazement as a rocket took off into the sky and disappeared past the clouds. I traced the trail of smoke back down to its source, straight ahead of us on a long bridge.

"Joey, let's move it!" I shouted and pounded on the roof a couple times. Everyone got back in and Joey headed down the road as fast as the truck could go, which wasn't really all that fast.

"You are starting to annoy me, you know that?" Noah's voice boomed. "I can't have you going to help Seto out." A hoard of monsters appeared in front of us and began to close in.

"Keep going Joey. I'll hold them off," I told him. I held up two cards and summoned the monsters to our aid. "Go my Luster Dragons!" My two monsters appeared and easily kept pace with the old truck. They cut down monster after monster to protect our ride from attack. Yugi crawled out the back window and summoned his own Dark Magician and Swift Gaia the Fierce Knight to help out as well.

Soon we came upon the place where the rocket was shot off from. Kaiba was in a duel with one of the Big Five, who was in the form of Jinzo. The deck master had Kaiba's trap cards disabled and another card had his magic cards out of commission. He did manage to summon his Blue Eyes White Dragon and win the match, but his opponent disappeared with Mokuba.

"That's it! I've had it with this place!" Kaiba shouted at nothing. "Release my brother now Noah!"

Noah made no vocal response, but the world around us began to wobble and morph itself into something new. It was a rocky, mountain-like environment. In front of us stood a boy, seemingly ten years old. Oddly enough, he looked like a miniature Kaiba. He had a duel disk on his arm as well. I knew he wasn't part of the Big Five, I counted the battles and I accounted for all five. This must have been Noah.

"Seto Kaiba we meet at last," Noah said. "I told your brother how you have abandoned him. He wasn't to thrilled with it. But he's safe with me now."

"What are you talking about, you freak?" Kaiba questioned.

"That was uncalled for," Noah replied hurtfully. "I'll just have to put you in your place." His duel disk activated and a deck appeared in the proper place.

"You're challenging me?" Kaiba retorted. "When you lose, you're going to release Mokuba and let us all out of this place."

"Agreed. But if I win, you'll stay here forever!" he said with a laugh.

The match began and, for awhile, it was an even match. But Noah's deck master, Shinato's Ark, held any monster Kaiba sent to the graveyard for Noah to use whenever he wanted. As Kaiba's life points dropped to next to nothing, he played one last card.

"I activate Final Attack Orders!" Kaiba exclaimed. "It forces both of us to summon a monster and which ever has the higher attack points wins the match. I choose Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

"I choose Shinato's Ark!" Noah proclaimed. Kaiba's monster easily won the match up, but Noah's life points stayed intact. "Ha! I guess you didn't know that when Shinato's Ark is destroyed, it summons another more powerful creature. Behold, Shinato, King of a Higher Plane!"

Before Shinato could strike, Mokuba came running out to his brother. Noah was horrified and dropped a lightning bolt down on him and Kaiba, turning them to stone.

"No, Kaiba!" Yugi called out to them. "What have you done, Noah?"

"They were getting on my nerves," he said without a hint of care. "Since Kaiba can't duel anymore, he forfeits and the rest of you stay here forever."

"Wrong. Kaiba still has 200 life points," Yugi challenged. "I will finish what he started."

"What? Yug, are you insane? You can't win against him in that bad a shape," Joey said trying to get his friend to reconsider.

"Maybe not, but that's not going to stop me from trying," Yugi replied determinately. "I have to do this, not only for our safety, but for Kaiba and Mokuba as well." He stepped up to where Kaiba's deck master, Kaiser Sea Horse, was standing and he and Noah began the duel. Me and the others cheered for the guy who was fighting for us. Noah made derogatory remarks about us from time to time. Our faith in Yugi was making him mad and he appeared to be losing his focus.

"That's it!" Noah yelled after a few moves. "For each turn you fail to defeat me, Yugi, I will turn your friends to stone!"

"Noah, your fight is with me. They are just spectators, so leave them out of it," Yugi commanded.

"Perhaps you need a demonstration?" Noah replied. Another bolt of lightning dropped from the sky, striking the Tristan robot. We watched in horror as he slowly became a statue.

"Yugi, you better beat this guy!" he shouted before the transformation was complete.

Noah looked at him curiously. "Well, that's one less problem to worry about."

"My turn is over now, so make your move," Yugi responded.

"Ah, yes. Now you lose someone else," Noah continued.

"What? You already took one of them!" Yugi shouted.

"That was a demonstration, this time it's for real," he said. "Who should it be? How about one of the love birds? Hmm…okay, the boy!"

I realized he meant me. I quickly shoved Téa away from me so she wouldn't be caught in the trap with me. She tried to come back but I held her in place with the Millennium Bracelet. "I'm sorry, Téa," I told her quietly. "Now, Yugi. Take him down!"

Téa began to cry and her face was the last thing I saw.


A sudden bright light forced me to slam my eyes shut. Once it subsided, I looked around and saw a bunch of rocks. "Wait, Yugi!" I said out loud. I remembered my body turning to stone and Yugi was battling Noah. I quickly located them and saw Noah sitting on the ground with a terrified look on his face.

"How? I lost…I never lose!" he said.

"Well, you did lose, so now let us go," Yugi replied.

"Yugi, you did it!" Duke cheered. "We're not stone anymore!" I looked around and saw that everyone was fine. Téa quickly found me and hugged me tightly.

"You may have won, but you'll still never leave!" Noah declared. "In thirty minutes, the entire island will explode, taking all of you with it!"

"Mokuba, take them back to the blimp and wait for me there," Kaiba said. I hadn't even noticed that he and his brother were free as well. "I have some unfinished business to take care of."

"Didn't you hear what he said? This place is gonna blow sky high!" a worried Mokuba declared. His brother just gave him a stern look. "Alright, bro. I'll get them out of here."

"Good," Kaiba said simply before rushing off.

"Wait, what about Tristan? "I asked. "As funny as he is right now, we can't just leave him like that."

"Noah, you little punk," Joey said, picking the boy up by his shirt. "You better fix this or else!"

"Fine," he replied. A moment later Tristan's body, his real one, appeared in front of us. "Here's the body, but to get his mind back in it you'll need to use the transfer command on the robot. If you can figure it out, then you get him back. Little good it will do though since you'll all be gone in a few minutes."

"Okay, you guys get going," I told them. "Tristan and I will catch up."

"I'm not leaving you," Téa told me. I glanced at Yugi who nodded. He grabbed Téa's hand and tugged her away with everyone else.

"Alright, come here, monkey boy," I ordered playfully. He complied with a happy smile on his digital face. I opened the compartments and typed in the command and Tristan's body got up. He thanked me and we started to run to catch up with the others. I looked back at Noah, who was surprised at what I had done. I called out a farewell to him. "See ya in the next life!"

About a minute later we came upon an open door with Yugi standing in the door frame. He waved to us as we came into view. He led us up the ramp to the blimp, but I noticed that the roof hatch was still closed. We went to the bridge were Mokuba was trying to get the systems back online.

"Get the engines on now, but don't take off until Set gets back," he told one of the engineers.

"Won't do any good," I told him. "The roof access is still closed."

"Hello? Kaiba craft three?" a young girl's voice came through the communication system. "Is this thing on? Hello?" A screen changed from static to the image of a familiar blonde haired, green eyed face.

"Alexis? How did you get into the system?" I asked.

"Hi, Brian! I can't leave for one day and not have you get into a boat load of trouble, can I?" she responded. "Listen, I'm gonna help you out, one last time. But you'd better not pull something like this again."

"Promise, last time," I answered. "We need engines primed and the roof access door opened. Can you do it? Oh, and, while your at it, can you adjust the self destruct thing?"

"Good grief. You're really in over your head," she said, surprised. "I'll see what I can do, but you're gonna owe me big." I grinned and the monitor shut off.

"Who was that?" Mokuba asked.

"She's are best change for getting out of here," I replied. Ten minutes later we heard the loud, metallic creaking of the roof doors opening and the engine status displayed all green lights.

"Okay, I got the first two things done, but…uh…" Alexis said through the speakers again.

"But what?" I asked.

"I was trying to reset the clock on the bomb, but it…uh…" she continued. "Well, you guys have three minutes to get clear. Sorry!"

"Alexis! If I survive this…" I started to say, but the line clicked off. "She hung up on me. She hung up on me."

"It's okay as long as Kaiba get here soon we'll be safe," Téa comforted me. No sooner than she had said that, Kaiba yelled to take off through the internal intercom. Kaiba came through the bridge door a moment later dragging Noah with him.

"What's he doing here, Kaiba?" Serenity asked.

"Well, if you must know, he's my and Mokuba's brother," he said.

"We can figure it out later, guys," I informed them. "Right now, I think we should strap in for some turbulence." We all found seats and braced ourselves for the impact. When it came, the shock waves rocked the aircraft violently, throwing a couple people from their seats.

"Straighten this thing out and put us back on course!" Kaiba shouted over the blaring alarms. The pilots pulled on the manual controls to right the ship then someone else began typing in the destination for the autopilot. "We should arrive at the Battle Tower in about an hour. You can return to your rooms and get some rest."

"What about Noah?" Yugi asked.

"I haven't decided what to do with him yet," Kaiba replied. "And thanks, Yugi. You and your…friends." Kaiba nearly choked on the last word. Yugi just smiled and nodded. Then we filed out of the bridge and headed back to our rooms.

Téa and I went to my room, where I sat at the table and looked through my deck. Téa silently looked out a window, gazing at the sea below us. "I never thanked you, Brian," Téa spoke up after several minutes. I set my cards down and stepped up behind her, resting my head on her shoulder and placing my arms around her waist.

"What are you thanking me for?" I asked.

"For saving me. In our duel with that penguin guy I mean," she answered. "If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't be here now."

"You're the one who saved me," I told her.

"But if I was by myself, I would never have had the courage to continue the fight," she continued. "Also, you're the one who figured out Noah's puzzle. I don't think Yugi or I could have solved it. And then there was Tristan…"

"Hush," I whispered. I kissed her on the cheek. "We both did our part, and let's leave it at that."

"Okay," she whispered back. She pulled away from me and turned to face me and spoke in her regular voice. "Now, you have the final matches to prepare for, so I'm going to go check up on the others."

We shared one more kiss before she left. I sat back down and continued looking at my cards. There was one that had a small sticky note attached to the front of it. On it, was one word written in a very neat script. The word was "Alexis."

"One last time," I said, smiling to myself. I gently pulled the note off and looked at the Prohibition magic card that I held in my hand. I wondered how she had slipped it in my deck without my notice. "You always find a way to help out, don't you?"