NOTE: Sorry again…nothing can make up for it…please read on…hope you enjoy…last chapter…thank you again for staying with it and reviewing….
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!
Chapter 12
A Dream Within a Dream
"You're joking."
"I assure you, I'm doing everything but joking, dear brother," Noa gave a nasty smirk his way, even though he sounded lighthearted. "I am Gozaburo Kaiba's true son, and you are nothing but his stepchild. Which makes you my stepbrother, along with Mokuba over here…" Noa gestured to another end of the vast room, and Seto saw Mokuba leaning against the wall, grinning toothily at him.
And by toothily, it was thus implied that his new-found fangs glittered in the light shining on him.
Serenity stood next to him, twirling her revolver around on her index finger. Duke was sitting on the floor on the other side of Mokuba, running his finger along the bloody edge of the notorious blade he carried. His eyes were still a dull, forest green, and he seemed to be breathing a little heavily. Joey was on the floor as well, with his head on his knees. He looked up slightly, hearing Mokuba introduced, and Seto saw his eyes had turned an insane red.
"And to give us some privacy…" Noa snapped his fingers, glancing at Tea, who was still watching the two. Her eyelids became heavy, and she sank to the floor, asleep. Or so it would seem.
Seto blinked once, somewhat astonished, "What did you do to all of them?" He could not give away his concern for his brother, but it was still there. Bouncing around in his chest, his heart yearned to see his little brother let go from Noa's clutches. But there was nothing he could do. Not now, at any point.
"I did nothing but merely influenced their souls," Noa sat in the air, as if there were a seat there, and looked at his hands.
"And where are the others? Yugi and Valentine…Taylor and Bakura?" He was almost afraid to ask.
Noa laughed: it was a rather high pitched chuckle, "Well, it turns out they died too late to be of any real use." Seto's eyes widened slightly when he heard the word "died."
"Died?" he spoke before he could shut his mouth.
Noa could not hold his smirk off, "Why of course. Didn't I tell you that I was only interested in you, Seto? Did I not say that they came where they shouldn't have come, and paid the price for it?
"Duke and Tristan were stabbed. Joey and Mai died by glass shards. Yugi and Ryou drowned. Mokuba was well…transformed into a vampire, per sae. And because he couldn't bear to see the girl he likes die, he rather…influenced her to become dark as well. Tea's soul was stolen. That's it, Seto. You are the last living person here. Now you know what became of your friends and family.
"Face it Seto, out of everyone in this room, you're the one most alive…."
Seto's hand instinctively went to his chest. Again, he found no wound from the bullet. Noa noticed this action and continued to explain, "It was all a scenario, Seto. I messed with your head, you might say. It was all an illusion. But a very convincing one at that. In reality, you were still asleep, Seto Kaiba. You never woke up from that dream you, Tea, and I were in. I just made it continue. Your body was still on the floor of that front hall. Did it ever occur to you that a gun wound would hurt far more than that? That you wouldn't have just been stunned as you were? Your mind does not know the pain of a gun, so it had to make something up. And it did the best it could."
"One can't feel pain in dreams," Seto replied, logically.
"Unless someone is controlling the brain that is having the dreams," Noa tapped his fingers together. "Seto, the world you are living in now has just expanded in your mind. All you thought mythical is real, and all reality has been shattered. What do you say to that?"
"I say it's all bull," he answered, "And I have only one question."
"Ask away."
"Is this still a dream then?" Seto asked.
"Perhaps. But then, perhaps not. Tell me, Seto, do you know the myth about spirits? In actuality, it's not really a myth. However, it is said that through dreams, spirits can better contact humans."
"I've heard that, yes," Seto replied.
"Then if this was a dream…I could touch you, no?" Noa walked over and reached out towards Seto's face.
Seto swatted at his hand to push it away, in an immediate reaction.
His hand phased right through. Noa smirked, satisfied, and stood back. "Do you see now, Seto? This is all very real. Your soul is in my realm now. The realm where I control all….."
"So what is it that you want then, kid?" Seto spat, standing up, finally. "This elaborate plan surely has a plot, doesn't it?"
Here, Noa's face took on a vengeful look, "Reprisal, of course. Sweet revenge. My life may have been stolen from me early on, but that didn't mean that I was still alive. My father found ways to keep me living, at least…virtually. But after he adopted you, he started to just forget that he even had a real son. And eventually, I knew he had entirely forgotten me.
"Soy you know what I did, Seto?"
Seto glared at him, "No, and I honestly don't care."
Noa frowned, "That's what I thought you'd say. But I'll tell you anyway. You see, Seto, I knew a lot about you, even back then. But with no one to come down and visit me in my little horror hole, life was no longer very appealing. But then, I remembered something that my father had once told me. It was about the ring, with the green gemstone embedded in it.
"He said that a strange man came to him one day, in his more youthful years. The man looked like some sort of American hippie, crossed with some priest who wore ancient looking robes. My father was in a bit of a slump in those years, and he was very desperate for money. When the man came to him –he didn't give a name- he offered him a chance to make his desires into reality.
"My father took him for an ignorant fool and was just about to walk away, when the man held up the ring. My father didn't know what had inclined him to do so, but he could not help but to look. And as he gazed at the ring, he became more attached to it.
"My father gently took the ring and asked, "What's the catch? Nothing like this can make "desires reality" without costing a fortune."
The man laughed with a cold chuckle and replied, "You need not pay anything for it. But in order to make it work, you must be willing to sacrifice some of yourself, or part of someone else in order to use it. Don't worry: the stone has never killed anyone! That person may just feel a small part of himself or herself missing. They may even go unconscious for a time, (or for life), but it does not kill.
"That stone –its given name is Orichalcos- can show you what life can be like. It can make it happen. All it asks in return…is a little sacrifice here and there." With that, the man gave him one last look –my father felt so small under the gaze of his mismatched green and yellow eyes- and turned around, leaving.
"He never saw the man again, but he said that from that day, he's had nothing but luck on his side.
"Of course, one day, my father died: you must know the story," Noa stared hard at Seto, who just stared back, "And some of his possessions were brought down into this "basement," if you'd call it that, near where I was. Among those possessions was his ring.
"I had almost given up on life, Seto. There was no point to it anymore. I did nothing all day by figure out logarithms and some other nonsense. It was a boring and futile existence, and I was sick of it.
"But when I saw the ring, his story came back to me. What type of sacrifices would it want, I asked myself. And it hit me.
"Souls."
Seto furrowed his brows, "Souls?"
"Yes," Noa nodded, "The ring took souls…or parts of them, depending. And so, I knew what I wanted to do. My body was still alive: my brain was still functioning, as were my heart and lungs. Thus, I still had a soul. I devised a way to get around the stone sucking me into it, and still staying free of that virtual nightmare.
"All in all, what I pretty much wanted to become, is what you see here. A specter. I knew the tales: ghosts came to earth with their work incomplete. I certainly believed I had left things undone on this world. Such as making you pay for stealing my father's attention from me.
"So I decided that I would unplug myself. The virtual world would disappear, and with it, my virtual self. And because it was connected to my body; that would supposedly shut down as well. But I thought that with the ring being so close, and so eager for the souls it yearns for, it might try to catch me, like a vacuum, before my soul disappeared forever.
"Another upside: the Orichalcos had never been known to kill anyone. So it needed to suck a soul from a live body. If it caught me before the realm of Heaven did, then by its magic, it might still keep my body alive, but still unconscious, as it has been for six years. And yes Seto, four out of those six years haven't been virtual consciousness. Four have been magicked into life.
"I'm still here. Therefore the plan I just told you about did indeed work. And my body is still as alive as ever it was since that blasted truck hit me.
"Tell me Seto, have you ever believed in ghost stories?"
"Frankly, no. You still could be another hologram as far as I'm concerned," Seto retorted. "You phased right through me. It just proves it."
"True. But, can holograms hold things?" swiped the dagger from Duke, who's head was on his knees, and held it out in front of him, towards Seto. "Can holograms kill?"
"NO!"
Noa froze and his eyes widened slightly. Seto narrowed his eyes at the sudden outburst. It was a familiar shout…. Yet so hoarse, it was almost unfamiliar….
"Mokuba?" Seto turned around to the fanged boy, who was still leaning up against the wall.
But as he looked that way, he saw that not only had Noa bewitched Tea into falling asleep, but the others as well. He had not really taken in the fact before, jut thinking them to be lifeless zombies; but they really were asleep!
Noa's eyes condensed and he spun around in the air, throwing out his arm as he yelled, "QUIET!"
"S-Seto! Help us!" the voice had become meeker, and much softer. "Set-"
"ENOUGH!" Noa launched the dagger into the darkness of a corner of the shadows. Silence responded.
"MOKUBA!" Seto scuttled towards the direction where Noa had thrown the knife. He reached the dark area, trying to adjust to its lack of light. Dimly, he could see the outline of his brother, chained up against the wall in a sort of medieval manner, and the knife lodged right by his skull. He lay deep within the dark wall.
"Next time, I'll make sure not to miss," Noa hissed, walking over and wrenching it out of the wall, none too gently.
The resulting action caused the dagger to scrape by, slicing Seto's arm. He grasped and placed his weight backwards, to miss the dagger as it neared his chest. Seto fell too the floor, clutching his arm, where he could feel blood trickling against his hand. This pain hurt more than the gunshot. Noa seemed correct. He hadn't known what a gunshot would feel like, so the pain was bearable before he "passed out." But if this really was real, then this slice hurt like crap.
And he knew the pain of knives from before, whether it was an accident or not.
Seto was still staring at Mokuba, amazed. His eyes traveled back and forth from the boy before him, and the unconscious vampire a little ways off.
"I don't understand," he whispered.
"And you were never supposed to," Noa answered. "He was to remain silent, so that you never knew. But I suppose now, that I must tell you."
"Spit it out, now," Seto breathed a little more heavily than normal. His shoulder was throbbing, and the liquid oozing between his fingers did nothing to help calm him down. He needed to top the flow of blood fast, before he lost too much.
Noa glared at the little crumpled figure of Mokuba and drew out, "These are their real souls. I only used their physical bodies to do my bidding. Call them zombies if you'd like, but in essence, I separated them, just as I myself am separated. So, lucky for you, their spirits are still intact, even if it doesn't quite look like it.
A light shown somewhere –Seto could not tell from where- and is shined on the line of prisoners, hanging against the wall. Seto's eyes widened as he looked down the row. Duke, Mokuba, Serenity, Joey, Yugi, Ryou, Mai and Tristan…. They were all kneeling on the ground, looking beaten and scarred. Their heads hung lifelessly. Mokuba's head was barely held up as he regarded Seto with his dull, dark gray eyes for the first time in hours.
"Seto…it really is you. …Y-You have to help us…" he whispered. "Help…Se…to…."
Seto suddenly felt something cold under his chin.
"How can he help you…when he can't help himself?" Noa inquired, holding the blade steady under Seto's jaw. "This has gone far enough. Your time has long since passed, brother. I've wanted my revenge for years now...and I shall finally have it! With your spirit out of the way, I can take my place in your body – a finely functioning one, and reclaim my original title as the Kaiba Corp. president. No one will ever know the difference between you and me.
Seto's mind was racing. What could he do? He was pretty helpless against an intangible ghost.
Wait….
Intangible?
Seto looked down towards his chin (a rather difficult task). He swore he felt something on his chin…and not the dagger.
It was the edge of Noa's finger.
He WAS touching him!
So what does this mean? How can he be touching me, when he couldn't before? No, wait…. I couldn't touch him before! He never laid a finger on me. I just passed through his arm! So in some sort of bizarre reasoning…I can't touch him, yet he can touch me!
But didn't he say that he can only touch people in a dream, because ghosts are closest to people in their subconscious?
None of this is making sense! But then…some of it is. Something in my mind says, "It makes sense! Just think!"
…
…
…
Of course.
If he can only touch me in my sleep…then this MUST be a dream! He was only waiting for me to react and push him away before…so that it would look like it wasn't a dream!
I'll give him credit for slyness. But in the end, it didn't work. Seto Kaiba falls for nothing.
…
…
…
Wake up.
Wake. Up.
WAKE UP!
WAKE UP!
"WAKE UP!" Seto suddenly looked up and shouted. Noa jumped from the sudden outburst, the knife falling from his unclenched hand.
Seto sat up right as his eyes opened. His eyes were wide, and he had broken out into a cold sweat. He looked at his hands; his breaths coming out in long draughts. He felt both his chest and shoulder.
Nothing.
It was just as he had known it. It had all been a dream. Either that, or Noa had only removed his soul for a time.
Seto looked around frantically, fearing that he was still in the fight for his life.
Nothing. He was in the main foyer. The dusty pieces of furniture still lay around, and the broken chair from their first few minutes in this cursed mansion still lay scattered in piece in front of the collapsed staircase.
But there was one thing missing.
Tea. He had brought her body out here, but now it was gone. In it's place was a most familiar ring.
Thinking quickly, Seto grabbed a nearby piece of fabric and grabbed the ring, using the fabric as a shield. It must have had some sort of curse on it now, to take Tea's soul away with a supposed touch; yet his father had worn it throughout his days.
Seto ran to the door, his heart still pounding. There was nothing he could do for the other people in here: they were all gone.
He felt tears come to his eyes. As much as it pained him to leave Mokuba behind…nothing could help it. He didn't know where his brother was, and he could have been dead for all he knew. Everyone else had died, and Noa had only wanted Seto's body.
He would just have to escape and hope that if there was any ounce of life left in the others, that they too would find a way out of their horror hole.
He put his hand on the handle of the front door. Last time, it had been locked tightly. He was positive it still was, but what hurt was there in trying?
He pressed down on the handle, and the door swung out easily.
Seto stared out the entranceway. He couldn't believe it. He was free.
Just like that. Nights of turmoil and horror in this mansion; and he could see the exit from here.
It was too easy.
Hehehahahaha….
Seto spun around, expecting to see Noa standing behind him, like so many times before. But there was no boy.
Just a voice….
"Run Seto…run. But you'll get no where, fast."
Seto took off. He knew when he was given a chance. And it was any chance he was eager to take. Even if he could have been walking into a trap, there were ways to deceive the deceiver. Seto's mind worked quickly like that.
He tore down the front lawn, walking over both gravel and grass, caring about nothing but getting to the gate and letting himself out.
His feet carried him far, yet it still felt like an eternity would pass before her reached the exit.
He was almost there though…he could almost reach the gates, and swing them back.
"I TOLD YOU; YOU CAN'T RUN, SETO!"
Seto looked back, just enough to see Noa's form flying from the mansion, like an arrow: with the tip of the dagger aiming straight for him. Behind him, the souls of his friends and Mokuba flew, each waving some mad objects as well.
Serenity laughed in unison with the other darkened spirits and shot some bullets in the ground, near Seto. He felt the pebbles fly up and graze his bare skin, and hit the covered parts of him, though still making a mark.
"DEATH IS JUST AHEAD, SETO!" Noa called out.
Seto tried to quicken his dash, but his hearty was already beating harder than it ever had, and his legs were tiring from his mad sprint.
He ran smack into the gates, not caring how much it hurt, and pulled at them to get them open.
But they remained locked. He pulled hard and furiously for a couple seconds, all the while, looking back over his shoulder at the long drive.
The flood of ghosts was gaining upon him quickly. But he couldn't escape!
He was right…I did run into death….
He clenched his hand, and felt something beneath it.
The ring….
Seto spun around and held up his hand.
Time seemed to go into slow motion.
The ghosts were not two meters away from him when he held up the ring and revealed it.
Noa's eyes widened, but the other ghosts barely seemed to notice what Seto held.
Seto gritted his teeth. God save my soul….
As the entourage neared, the green emitted a bright, pale green light that obscured everything.
Seto was blinded in the action, and felt a cold chill descend upon him from when the great white light around him suddenly turned black.
Aye. That's the end of the story. …Save the epilogue. But there you have it! An update, FINALLY! I know it was probably a bit (or a lot) confusing (I myself had a time trying to write it in a non-confusing manner) but it was the best I could do, and the best logic I could get. It may not have been the best chapter ever, but it was a chapter. I hope it was good enough for you all! The epilogue should be pretty short, so look for that last and final update next! Hopefully not TOO far into the future. PLEASE REVIEW!