Please Read and Review: I really love hearing from people reading the story, and I'd like to know what you think, and where you think it's going.

IMPORTANT! ANIME NOTE: At the end of the DOMA arc, Kaiba and Yami are fighting together against Dartz (the main bad guy). Kaiba sacrifices his life points to Yami (not sure how that works – I'm relying on summaries) and falls into Yami's arms – since this is a kind of Shadow Game, he believes he's giving up his life. He tells Yami he's glad to finally repay his debt, and dies in his arms. (Cool, huh?) Anyway, it obviously comes up more than once in this story, but I refer to it here.

POV NOTE: From here on, the narration changes, often in mid chapter, depending on who's POV is needed to carry the story forward. I have put in extra spacing, and labeled each POV change, so I hope it's not confusing.

NAME REMINDER: Seto refers to the 13 year-old Seto Kaiba, and Kaiba refers to the 18 year-old Seto Kiaba.

Thanks to Kagemihari for a complete Beta review.

CHAPTER 4: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

KAIBA'S POV

I should have known something would go wrong before the day was out. Anniversaries, even secret ones, are a bitch.

I was lying on the floor with Mokuba, playing chess. Sort of like old times… very old times. Ever since Battle City I had decided to reclaim the game. It wasn't Duel Monsters, but it wasn't bad either.

Mokuba's moves were starting to get erratic. He was nodding off as he played. I probably should have called a halt to the match, but bed times were one of the few things I had never gotten the hang of, never having had one myself.

I don't know why I bothered answering the door. I mean, I do have security guards for that sort of thing, but no one suspicious would have made it to the front door, anyway. When I opened it, there seemed to be a swarm of Yugi-tachi on my front step.

Before I could ask what the hell they were all doing there, the mutt broke in, "Whoa, Kaiba, you're in sweatpants!"

Does anyone wonder why I ignore these idiots? I mean, it was late; it was Saturday. What did they think, I slept in a fucking trench coat?

I ignored the loser, as I always did. Focused, as I always did, on Yugi – or more specifically, his other self. So there really were two of them, just like the e-mail had said. Yugi had sent it. After all the times I had used him to relay messages to his other self, I guess he had decided to return the favor. And logically, one couldn't expect a 3,000 year old ex-spirit-of–a-dead-pharaoh to know much about computers. The message had been simple: "Wanted you to know – we each have our own body." I read it every day. I had never responded. That would have meant admitting that I was important enough to them… to him… to rate a message. It would have meant admitting that he was important enough to me, to make me glad to receive his e-mail.

And now they were here on my doorstep.

"Oh great," I sneered, "Does this mean that I have to beat both of you now to reclaim the title?"

Yami gave me that half smile of his. He was the only one who ever got my admittedly snide jokes. The grin stretched into the familiar smug smirk – the one that always meant trouble.

"Brace yourself, Kaiba," he said. "Yugi and I aren't the only duplicates in Domino."

SETO'S POV

I couldn't see him. The crowd was in the way. His voice was deep and resonant as he bantered with Yami. I tried the words 'friendly rival' on my tongue, but they still felt alien. As he talked to Yami, his voice wasn't exactly warm, but it wasn't cold either.

The tri-color twins finally stepped aside so I could get a good look at him. He was tall. Hell, I could have guessed that. Even now, I was almost as tall as the runt at my side, only a couple of inches shy of his crimson-eyed twin. But he towered over them all.

I had always been taller than the other kids my age at the orphanage. It had been an advantage, though I had learned that brains, ferocity and determination counted for more.

His face was as smooth and as expressionless as the porcelain masks that probably still hung in the dinning room. His eyes hadn't widened in surprise, or even narrowed in suspicion. Their hardness told me that my worst nightmares had come true.

Gozaburo was dead and he was alive. That probably meant that he had won. But from where I stood, it looked like at best, a partial victory. One glance was enough to tell me that Gozaburo had sunk his hooks in me deeper than I would ever want to acknowledge or admit. I took a step back.

Now his eyes gleamed like a predator that had spotted its prey. He reached out – not to stop me, but to assure himself I was solid. "So, it's not a hologram," he murmured. He looked around, and for the first time his voice showed an emotion beyond detached amusement.

"Where's Mokuba?" he asked sharply.

I looked him in the eye. Said nothing. Held my ground.

He smiled; a wolf's smile; Gozaburo's smile.

"Very good. I wouldn't trust me either. Luckily I know how to break this stalemate. It seems that before you show me your Mokuba, you want to see mine. I can play that game."

"MOKUBA, come here," he yelled.

MOKUBA'S POV

The sound of my name woke me up. I had fallen asleep over the chessboard, scattering the pieces. I'd been losing anyway. I heard Nisama call me again. I couldn't identify the emotion in his voice– not that his voice was ever easy to read – even for me.

There was a note of suppressed excitement in it, I decided, even of urgency. But there was no danger. I knew that. If there had been a threat, he wouldn't have called my name; would have died on the threshold before alerting a potential enemy to my presence. That could only mean one thing…. Yugi and his friends were here.

I ran to the door, rubbing my eyes. I had just enough time to brace myself before a blue-eyed, brown haired tornado reached me, and almost knocked me over. He held my face in his hands and looked into my eyes.

"Mokuba!"

He was my brother… but he was my age and my size. I didn't know what had happened, but he was real, he was solid, he was hugging me – with a look of relief in his normally expressionless eyes. I didn't know what the hell was going on, so I ended up saying the first thing that popped into my head.

"Wow… I think I'm taller than you."

"No, you're not," he replied immediately.

But Nisama, my Nisama, cocked his head, stared at us intently. "Yes he is," he said in his measured voice. "By about a quarter-inch."

I sighed at the satisfaction lacing his voice. It was so like my brother to take my side, even against himself.

But Nisama was speaking again.

"Well, now that you've seen that my Mokuba is alive and in good health, it's time to go get yours. If you need any more proof of my bona fides – here."

He slipped his locket off his head, tossed it to his younger self. I stared at the two of them, suddenly cold – suddenly afraid I knew what was going on. It had taken him over two years to redeem that promise. Thirty months until the Duel Monster lockets hung around out necks, guarding our photos.

"Don't you want to know where Mokuba is?" the younger version asked.

"I already do," he answered. "I was the one who checked out that play place – just in case I ever needed somewhere to stash Mokuba for a few hours. My ace in the hole. I never got to use it – or so I thought."

Nisama had his coat and shoes on, was starting to push his way through Yugi and his friends.

"Kaiba – stop!" the Yugi my brother always dueled called out. I could see the frustration growing in his crimson eyes when my brother ignored him.

He didn't understand. There was a Mokuba out there, and neither version of my brother was going to be totally sane until he was home.

"Yugi," I said, appealing to the smaller of the two, "Let him get Mokuba. If your aibou tries to stop him, Nisama's going to do something he'll regret later."

Yugi's eyes went blank. Then I heard the other one call out, "Be careful, Kaiba. There's more at work here than you know."

But my brother only bared his teeth in his grin. "Incorrect. I know far more about this night than you. I've had five years to think about it… to try and figure out what went wrong… to ask myself how we wound up back at the mansion with no memory of getting caught… and it looks like I'm finally going to get some answers."

Five years ago my brother had tried to escape. That failed attempt had begun an odyssey that left him as CEO of Kaiba Corporation 2 ½ years later; that left my adoptive father dead on the sidewalk under Kaiba Tower's windows. It was a journey that had brought my brother to the brink of murdering the people before us… to his almost killing me… before another year had passed. That had to led his heart being shattered by the man now calling his name with worry and concern… that had led to my brother offering his own life in atonement as he fought by his rival's side.

Five years ago my brother had begun a voyage that had never really ended, that had carried him, in its wake, back to the mansion… back to playing chess with me on the floor, as he tried to piece together the shards of the life that had begun to shatter, exactly five years ago, today. I looked from one to the other of my big brothers, as they stood on either side like bookends… with Death-T, with Battle City, with Kaiba Corporation, with me, with their promises… between them; separating them.

"So, it was a good plan after all," Nisama said with quiet satisfaction, his words breaking into my thoughts.

There was an undercurrent of excitement in his voice as he jumped into the car, his younger counterpart already beside him. As I followed Nisama, I knew he was already focused his answers, focused on the future. I wondered what price he was prepared to pay this time.

He turned to his younger self. "You'll be pleased to know, your logic was impeccable. I never saw Kaeru again."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know people were waiting to see Kaiba and Seto meet – then I realized that at their first meeting, the only thing on either of their minds was (surprise): Mokuba!

HEIGHT NOTE: I know it's a temptation to think of Mokuba as a shrimp. But that's because he's always next to Kaiba. If you think about it, he's five years younger than the rest. And those are the five years when boys do their most growing. And even now, he's Yugi's height (Okay, Yugi is a shrimp!) But he's also not that much shorter than Anzu or Jounouchi, considering the age difference. So I think it's likely that he's actually tall for his age – if he was ever around anyone his own age. Besides, I just couldn't resist making him slightly taller than Seto.

RESPONSES:

DOMA & Death-T (Lightning Sage) I kind of look on those two events as bookends, too. Death-T is all about Kaiba destroying himself. After Alcatraz, its clear that Kaiba has accepted the mission Yami an Mokuba gave him – to try and rebuilt his life without anger or bitterness. And in DOOM you see him trying to do that. This is the Kaiba I'm trying to portray here – someone who understands now what he has to do, and will never stop trying to free himself from his own anger and hatred – and who has made some progress. I see him, at the start of this story as having attained a fragile peace with himself, or thinking that he has...

Yami (Desidera) I thought there were real parallels between Yami in DOOM and Kaiba – mainly that they both feel like they've betrayed their "aibous" and both have been forgiven by their partners. I do think, though, there are important differences in how they'd react, which is a thread that continues on and off for some time.

I've always felt that Yami sees the world through Yugi's eyes. That Yugi frames his experience. So I think that when they were sharing his body, he'd share Yugi's feelings to a certain extent. I don't think it would work the opposite way – because Yami (except for DOMA) defers to Yugi, a lot. But I think once he was in his own body, he would suddenly be aware of his own feelings and desires. I think he always had a connection to Kaiba, but once in his own body, those feelings would sort of rush in on him.

Yami and Yugi (Tokemi) In this story, I picture them being close, although DOMA has put a strain on them, mostly from Yami's POV. But I also see Yami as being excited about being in his own body, and Yugi being maybe a little protective of him, since he realizes Yami's going through some new experiences.

Ties That Bind (dorichan) I thought it was a great story, too. I was sorry to see it left incomplete. (Although, I guess I should, in a weird sort of way be grateful, since I wouldn't have written Déjà vu, otherwise. BTW, I did write the author for permission.) The idea of bringing Seto and Mokuba to the future obviously stuck in my head. I see the characters differently, so I hope the story has a life of its own.

Seto (Leland Lancaster) I worked hard on not making him cuddly, but I have to admit, he's stolen my heart along the way.

Notes on writing: (AnimeFanArtemis) Realizing that people were actually looking forward to a new story was a little scary – in an absolutely wonderful way. (You should have seen me smile at the computer screen!) But, I definitely cross my fingers a little more each time I post.