Woo hoo! My second update in a day. I think that's a personal record. Anyway, I will warn readers in advance: this chapter is weird since it concerns the Shadow Realm. I had to do something so that it wouldn't just be darkness everywhere Seto went. And some of this has something to do with the plot as well. So I am warning you, you need to have such an open mind about everything for this chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, and the plot belongs to Dragon.

Chapter 5

I did open my eyes. But, everything was dark. I looked around me, without getting up, not trusting my old joints to hold my weight this soon after I awoke. But for some reason, those 'old joints' didn't seem as 'old' anymore.

I lifted my arm. It seemed like the only thing I could lift off the seemingly nonexistent ground. I could see my arm, so at least I hadn't gone blind. But my eyes must have been messed up, because my hand didn't look wrinkled. "What the hell?" I murmured. I touched my throat. My voice wasn't croaky and shaky anymore. What was going on? I tried to convince myself that this was just some shit crazy dream. But everything just seemed so real. My hand rose to my face. "What the hell?" I repeated, a bit louder this time.

"No, not hell."

I would have jumped a foot in the air if I could move. The voice was not familiar, but in some weird way, I thought that I had heard it before, from a dream that I can only vaguely remember. I looked up and saw a tall figure standing just a few feet away from me. He was wearing a head dress, and was carrying a staff…

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Come now, Kaiba, surely you haven't forgotten the favourite monster of your rival," the figure said smugly. He walked towards me, and I could see now that he was wearing purple. No way. There was no way that this could be…

"The Dark Magician?" the figure smiled smugly as I made my revelation. "Is this some kind of sick joke?" I yelled. What was going on!

The smile dissolved into a confused frown. "You don't know what is happening, do you?" he asked.

"You think! Would you please tell me why I am in darkness, talking to the magician from a card game, and why I am suddenly young again!" I yelled louder this time. I fingered my throat, sore from not yelling for a few years.

He walked towards me and held out a hand to help me up. My pride was going to make me refuse, but at that moment I did not trust my own legs. I reached for his hand reluctantly. I swayed on my feet for a second when I had fully righted myself.

"Now will you tell me what is happening?" I said, glaring at him. I stood at the same height as him, so didn't feel intimidated.

"Do you remember your promise?" he asked.

"My promise?" I repeated.

"The promise you made to the Pharaoh."

"The Pharaoh? Yami?"

He didn't answer me, but his eyes said it all. My eyes widened in realisation. I looked down at myself. I was wearing a long sleeved black turtle neck and black pants. The same clothes I was wearing to the funeral. I swayed on my feet again as more memories than I could handle in my current state suddenly bombarded my mind. But one memory stuck out in particular: my promise I made to you. The last words I said to you at the cemetery.

If there is any way… "…on this earth that I can find you, I will. I promise."

The Dark Magician nodded solemnly. "It is time for you to fulfil that promise, Kaiba."

"How?" I asked numbly.

"Well, you have already-"

"No, I mean how did I get here? Where is 'here'?"

"This is the Shadow Realm. The Pharaoh has been ruling it since the death of his hikari. As for why you are here, well, the Puzzle brought you here."

The Puzzle? Of course. It must have held me to my promise.

"I'm not sure I want to be here." I said, looking the magician straight in the eye.

His eyes widened minutely, the only emotion on his otherwise impassive face. "But this is the only chance you will get to fulfil your promise to Pharaoh, Kaiba."

"What? The promise I made to an inanimate object some 70 years ago? Yami probably does not even remember me."

"There is only one way to find out, Kaiba," the Magician said. Then his eyes saddened. "You don't know how much the death of his light affected the Pharaoh. After he found himself here in the Shadow Realm, he had too much time to think about Yugi's death."

My eyes widened in realisation. Of course. Yugi was the only reason you were 'alive'. You lived to protect your hikari. And then he died. Because you were protecting me. Yugi's death must have wrought you with guilt.

My mind immediately took me to Mokuba. How would I feel if had died? If had died and I blamed myself. Surely the guilt would have driven me mad, and I probably would have eventually taken my own life.

With that thought, I raised my eyes to the Dark Magician's. The sadness was replaced with raw determination. 'Even if you refuse, I will drag you to the Pharaoh by your hair if I have to' those eyes seemed to say.

But I needed no further persuasion. I nodded to the Magician and he offered me a small smile in return, gratitude showing in his eyes.

He led the way and I tried to match his determined stride with my own hesitant steps.

"How is it that you know where you are going?" I asked the Dark Magician. Everything was darkness around me, and I could not distinguish one sight from the next.

My companion did not stop, but he slowed as he talked to me.

"One's mind is an amazing thing." Was all he gave in response.

My brow creased in confusion. Before I could question the odd statement, the Magician continued: "Manipulation, Kaiba. If you can manipulate an image in your mind, it will appear before your eyes." He stopped and turned to face me. "Try it now. Close your eyes and think of a place that you know well. If you think of a place that you know well. If you think about it enough, and concentrate on that image alone, it will be applied to the Shadow Realm."

I frowned again, but this time not in confusion. What kind of fool did he take me for? Of course the mind is a brilliant thing, but to put anything to something that isn't there?

The purple-clad man frowned and exasperation clearly showed on his face. "Kaiba, I know you think this is ridiculous; that I am playing you for a fool. But some 70 years ago you were in love with a shadow of a man. A spirit."

I stared at him, but then closed my eyes. As much as I hated to admit it, the shadow monster was right.

"Now, clear your mind of everything but a place that you know well," the mage commanded.

I tried to obey him, but clearing your mind of 86 years of thought was no easy task. Everything in my life swirled around in my head like a hurricane. But I focussed my mind on the last thought I had before I died. Unsurprisingly, it was of Mokuba. I forced my mind to work backwards from that thought: the signing of my will, handing Kaiba Corp. over proudly to my little brother, the birth of Kaila, my brother's marriage to Sakura, the countless failed dates, you - my one love and ex-rival, Battle City, Noa's virtual world, Duellist Kingdom, the realisation that you and Yugi were two different entities, my awful treatment of Yugi's grandfather, my stepfather Gozaburo, the orphanage, my parents. Finally, the bombardment of images stopped and I was left with nothing. Nothing but an image of the mansion I called home for all but 13 years of my life.(1)

This was the image I got when my mind was clear. I studied it closely in my mind: the colour of the walls both inside and out, the shine of the windows, the position of all of the rooms on every floor, the gardens. When I was sure I had studied every detail from my king sized bed to the tiniest crack in the wall, only then did I open my eyes. And gasped in shock at what I saw.

Before my eyes was the mansion! The light walls and carpeted floors replaced the darkness of the Shadow Realm.

I looked to the side and almost jumped when I saw the Dark Magician, forgetting momentarily that he was there. He wore an amused expression. "I take it that it worked?" he asked.

"Yes," I answered incredulously. "Can you not see it?"

"No, Kaiba. Unless permitted, no one else can see the landscape that your mind created. That is also why you could not see anything around you when you first came here, for you could not see my own place."

I nodded in understanding. "That makes sense," I murmured, then baulked at what I said. Did this really make sense to me? To my scientific mind? I frowned. Yes. It did make sense. Because like the Dark Magician had said, I was in love with a spirit. With the shadow of a man. And although I may have been able to deny many things in the time I had been in the Shadow Realm, I could not deny that.

"Shall we continue?" the Magician asked.

I turned and smiled my first real smile since my arrival.

"Lead on."

We walked a bit further until we entered a room - no door held us back and no windows welcomed the day light. But sitting on a throne of what I can only describe as the finest stone was the most beautiful, elegant being I have ever seen.

The Pharaoh Yami.

My love.

You.

A/N Hope it wasn't too terrible. I just needed to do something about the darkness for my own sanity.

Anyway, please review, and no flames please!