Seto Kaiba opened his eyes slowly and found himself in a dark room. He sat up and got to his feet quickly, remembering what had happened to him. He observed the room coldly. As his eyes adjusted to the light he could see that he was in what looked to be a huge black empty space. He could not see the walls, nor the ceiling. Everything was black. "Where the hell am I?" He thought out loud.

"Welcome Seto Kaiba." A woman's voice resonated around the room. Kaiba looked around for the source of the voice but there was no one there other than himself. The voice echoed eerily in the huge space. Kaiba gritted his teeth.

"Who's there?" he snarled, "Where am I?"

"You are in the virtual world. Please choose a companion." A monitor rose from the floor and it blinked into life, illuminating the room harshly. Even with the light Kaiba still could not see the edges of the room. He looked more closely at what was on the screen. He saw several different thumbnails with pictures of some of the people he knew from Duelist Kingdom and the Battle City Tournament.

What the...? "Who are you? And what is this place?"

The computer repeated his previous instruction. "Damn computers." Kaiba muttered under his breath. He wasn't going to get anywhere if he didn't follow the computer's instruction. He took a step forward towards the computer. After surveying the list briefly he looked to the ceiling and snorted. "You want me to choose to spend time with one of these nerds? You've got to be joking."

In the same voice, the computer once again repeated its last instruction.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He scrolled through the faces once again, this time looking at them more closely. He spotted Mokuba's face on the second page and paused, his finger hovering above the screen. But he hesitated before pressing the button. It was obvious that he was trapped somewhere. Either he was in a virtual world, as the computer had told him or he was elsewhere. Either way he was definitely in danger and had a feeling this was only the start of what was to come. If he really was in a virtual world then his body must be plugged into a machine somewhere else. And that would mean Mokuba would also be around there. However, Kaiba's experience with virtual worlds had been that it was safer to be captured and in a cell than being in the world with him. God knows, the virtual world could be programmed to hurt your body. At least Mokuba would have control of himself to some extent and saved from this danger if he was left with his captors. No, I'll choose someone else. He huffed and scrolled back to the beginning.

'The mutt. No way, he wouldn't have the brains. Yugi's cheerleader, Gardener. No, she doesn't seem to do anything for those nerds apart from annoy me. Taylor. No. Dice-guy. No.' He quickly flicked through the other candidates before returning to the one person he thought could help. 'Yugi.' Kaiba gritted his teeth. He hated having help. He didn't want to have to choose anyone, but this was the best chance he had to save his company and his brother. His finger hovered over the thumbnail of Yugi's face before bringing it down to press it.

Before he could make contact with the screen however, the entire screen went blank.

"Time is up. Random selection being made." The computer's voice announced.

"What the hell?" Kaiba shouted at the voice, "I was just about to choose."

"Selecting random companion." The computer's voice said. 'Damn computer.' Kaiba thought. A thumbnail then appeared on the screen. "Companion selected."

Kaiba's face dropped, his eyes turning colder than ice. "Tea Gardener selected. Please wait."

'The cheerleader. I have to spend time with Gardener the cheerleader. Oh great. Wonderful. Perfect.'

Kaiba then realised the computer was standing in front of him. 'I could hack my way out of this surely...' he approached the computer slowly and fingered around the front, looking for a way to remove the panelling. However, as soon as he found a small opening he felt a jolt of electricity run through him. He was pushed back several metres from the lightning bolt that had struck him. He slowly began to lose consciousness, the darkness in the room fully consuming him.


"Kaiba. Kaiba. KAIBA." A female voice said, the volume and pitch of her voice rising with every repetition.

Seto Kaiba groaned and rolled away from the voice. It really wasn't the voice he had hoped to hear. He had hoped to have returned to his bedroom; that this whole escapade was just a nightmare brought upon by work-related sleep-deprivation. Once he was facing away from the girl he opened his eyes. No longer was he in the dark room; he was lying in an open field. Green grass surrounded him. He sat up quickly and looked around. Apart from a smattering of trees, he could see nothing. Noone else was here apart from himself and... her. Thinking of Gardener he shot a sideways glance in her direction, making sure he was discreet. He didn't want her thinking that he cared. Which he most certainly did not. He was merely interested in seeing how she had reacted to their predicament.

His first thought was that she looked confused. 'Well who wouldn't be?' He thought to himself. She was sitting down, her arm outstretched from where she had been shaking him. 'Had she been trying to wake me for long? And anyway how did I-? Oh yeah, virtual world.' Kaiba stood up and looked around before striding away from Tea, leaving her on her own.

"KAIBA" Tea Gardener repeated for the third time, shaking the unconscious figure of her acquaintance. He groaned and rolled to face away from her. She sighed. At least he was awake now, even if he wasn't talking to her. She looked around her surroundings again, going through the most recent events for about the fifth time. She remembered she had been spending the day with Yugi and her other friends and Kaiba's limo had showed up. She remembered climbing through the door... but no matter how hard she tried she could not remember past that point.

She looked at where the CEO had been a minute earlier but he had disappeared. She looked around and noticed he was striding away from her at quite some speed. She gritted her teeth. It had been his limousine and his voice that had made her and her friends go into the limo. It was his fault she was in

"KAIBA!" She shouted once again and began to run after his disappearing figure.


Kaiba had advanced quite a distance before he heard Tea shout his name. He rolled his eyes and continued walking. If she wanted to speak to him, she could walk at his pace; he wasn't going to wait for her.

"KAIBA, SLOW DOWN!" 'Argh! I knew this would happen.' Kaiba said grinding his teeth before slowing down to a halt. He didn't watch her as she approach, nor did he lay eyes on her when she began to speak to him.

"What- No where are we?" Tea asked her cheeks flushed from the running she had done to catch up with him. She glared at him when he didn't reply. "Well? Are you going to answer me?"

Kaiba took a deep breath, calming himself. He was so prepared to snap back at the impatient girl in front of him. Who did she think she was? He was Seto Kaiba, CEO of KaibaCorp and she was being utterly rude. 'Figures. The mutt rubbed off on her. Always knew he was a bad influence.' He eyed her cautiously.

"Well Gardener, unlucky for you, we are both stuck in a virtual world. So I suggest you-"

"AGAIN?" Tea interrupted incredulity in her voice. "This has already happened once! Where is everyone else?" She mused looking around; there was no sign of life apart from her and Kaiba and the grass they stepped on. True it felt real, but so had the other virtual world. She turned back to Kaiba who she could see was tense. "Who's behind it this time Kaiba? Is it the Big 5? Or Noah? No it can't be Noah, he didn't escape from..." She trailed off, remembering her company. "Are we in danger?"

"SHUT UP!" Kaiba roared. His irritation and frustration at the girl in front of her had grown and grown over her little speech and he could not take any more questions. He ignored the obvious anger of the girl in front of him, the tell-tale sign being the reddening of her face. "I don't know where the rest of the nerd-patrol is. I don't know who is behind this. And of course we are in danger you silly girl. I just want to find out how to leave this place, find Mokuba then discover who is behind this and make them pay..." Kaiba lowered his voice as he trailed off in his sentence, forgetting the girl in front of him. He had almost growled out the last few words. He suddenly remembered why he was speaking and looked up at the girl in front of him, giving her his signature icy stare. He noticed that she had taken a few steps back from him. This time he directed his speech to her. "And it would help if I didn't have some girl following me and asking me dumb questions!"


"SHUT UP!" Tea stopped mid-way through her next sentence and stared disbelieving at the boy in front of her. Had he just...? Her face reddened in anger. "I don't know where the rest of the nerd-patrol are. I don't know who is behind this. And of course we are in danger you silly girl. I just want to find out how to leave this place, find Mokuba then discover who is behind this and make them pay..." All through this sudden outburst of Kaiba's Tea had been growing angrier and angrier. However, his last sentence had done something very different to her. Kaiba had actually managed to scare her. She felt herself stepping away from him; whether it was his ice-cold eyes or the menacing tone that filled his voice as he trailed off, she subconsciously took a few discrete steps away from him. It had almost been like he forgot she was there, but then a spark of recognition filled his face and he turned to her, his eyes ice-cold once again. "And it would help if I didn't have some girl following me and asking me dumb questions!"

Tea looked as though she wanted to make a retort but bit her tongue. She knew what Kaiba could be like and being on his bad side when she didn't know where she was or how she got there, or whether anyone else was there, was a really bad idea.


Meanwhile Kaiba had turned away from her. He was breathing slightly more heavily after his outburst. In truth, he hadn't meant to be so harsh. The recent events had lead to a ball of stress building in him and it was easy to let out his anger on the annoying girl that hung around with his arch-rival.

He continued to walk away, slower now, to give Tea a chance to keep up. She did not see this as a kind action; as far as she was concerned he was walking off without her again. She hurried to catch up, not wanting to be left alone in a place like this; however she stayed slightly away from Kaiba, walking with her thoughts as company.

'What am I going to do?' she thought, 'I'm stuck with Kaiba. He doesn't seem to know what's going on either. Where's everyone else?' Tea didn't enjoy being alone. Nor did she enjoy being in the company of Seto Kaiba. 'Where's Yami?' She wondered as she trailed even further behind Kaiba. 'I hope he and the others are okay, not hurt.' The thought of someone hurting her friends was horrifying to the brunette; the one thing Tea Gardner held above anything was friendship and the associated behaviours with it; kindness, generosity, trust and compassion. If anyone laid a finger on any of her friends she would be angry. Her thoughts turned back to Kaiba. 'Looks like he's lost Mokuba too. So maybe I'm not quite alone in this situation. If he would just talk to me perhaps this would get better.'

She hurried closer to Kaiba, beginning to walk beside him. Kaiba was surprised at this but continued walking despite this.

"Kaiba, we really need to talk about this."

"What is there to say?" Kaiba snapped. "We are stuck in a virtual world. I had to pick someone out of the nerds I met at the tournaments to 'help'," he added the inverted commas with his fingers "Me find Mokuba and escape. I don't know who sent me here, but I do know that they want me out of the picture. Permanently. And by whatever means necessary. Is that enough talking?" He huffed and continued to walk.

Tea was taken aback at Kaiba's second outburst. She had expected Kaiba to put up more of a fight to get him to talk. But he had just involuntarily given her all the information he knew. In fact, in the few short, angry words they had exchanged, she didn't think she and Kaiba had ever had a conversation half that length. She smiled a small smirk. She was getting somewhere. Maybe by being here with Kaiba she could try to get to know him. Try to pull him out of his shell, maybe even find out why he hated her and her friends so much.

'I had to pick someone out of the nerds I met at the tournaments to 'help' Kaiba's words hit her. He had picked her? She felt a warm sensation flood through her and colour rose in her cheeks.

Kaiba looked at her and snorted, mumbling something very much like "Don't flatter yourself." Tea's blush quickly changed to blotchy anger but then the world around the pair grew blurry. The green of the grass seemed to meld with the blue sky and everything changed. Tea gasped in fright and grasped onto Kaiba's arm, not thinking what she was doing.

Kaiba's eyebrows knitted together. The scene was dissolving; the virtual world was changing. He looked down at the frightened girl clutching his arm and repressed a sigh. He really could not do with another girl gripping onto him. He had enough of them back home. However for the moment he did not shake her off; her expression of confusion and fear seemed to get the better of him. As the new scenery emerged however and they were on solid ground Kaiba pulled his arm away from a now very self-conscious Tea. Her question completely forgotten and embarrassment apparent on her face.

She did not remain embarrassed for long as she took in the scene around them. This time they were standing in a field with a picnic table set in the middle. That was the only object as far as the eye can see. Suddenly a voice boomed around them. Tea shrieked in surprise, clutching onto Kaiba once again. This was too much contact between them; he huffed and pushed her away, concentrating on the voice.

"Welcome Seto Kaiba. I trust you are enjoying yourself?"

"Who are you? And what do you want?"

"Ooooh, straight to business. I like that about you Seto; you take no prisoners." The effeminate male voice continued. "Who I am is not important; what I want? Well that's simple. To ruin your life." The voice laughed and Kaiba growled. "But I want to play a fair game with you Kaiba. A roleplay game. You are in my virtual world. In this world there are several, shall we say, challenges that you, and your friend, will come across. You must face and rise victorious in these challenges in order to continue to the next level. When you reach the final level, you will meet me face to face and there we will decide who the winner is. But enough of that – you will not get that far anyway." The voice laughed and Tea saw a vein pulse in Kaiba's head.

"What have you done with my friends?" She shouted, balling her fists looking towards the blue sky.

"Don't worry Miss Gardener, your friends are safe and I am sure you will be seeing them very soon." The voice chuckled darkly but before Tea could say anything else it continued. "To make this computer game as realistic as possible, I have programmed into this world a few upgrades that will help you along the way. A few twists and turns there, a few helping hands there, and voila you have the perfect game. And you two are the main characters. I will be watching this game intently; please do not disappoint to entertain me."

"This is not some game. You can't do this!" Seto said, hands balled into fists.

"Oh Seto, but I can. And I already have. Besides, I've quite enjoyed it so far. And I think it's just going to get even better. So ta-ra, Seto. I won't be speaking to you anymore. I hope you have fun, and do remember if you come across anything you don't understand, well, feel free to ask the computer; it'll help you. Well just a little anyway." The voice chuckled again. "Adieu,"

"Wait-" Kaiba began but was cut off by the scene dissolving again, and they were transported to another location. This time they were transported into what looked to be like a forest. They were surrounded by trees, but the huge canopy above them let the light in. If Tea wasn't so angry, perhaps she would have found this mysterious glade beautiful; as it was she was in no fit state to admire the scenery. She turned to Kaiba; he looked like he was in exactly the same position as her. Angry.

"So are we just going to stand here or are we actually going to beat this game?" Tea snapped at Kaiba after he had remained motionless for about five minutes. This snapped Kaiba out of his trance and a smirk replaced his face.

"Oh no. We are not merely going to win this game. We are going to destroy it. Noone is going to stand between me and my company. And no one mocks me and gets away with it." Kaiba's voice lowered into the same menacing growl he had done the previous day, once again sending shivers up his companion's spine. For once, she was glad she was on Kaiba's team; she certainly did not want to face the wrath of this angry man. Kaiba swept away, his coat billowing out behind him as he strode further into the trees.

Tea rolled her eyes in annoyance. Why can't he wait for me for once? She huffed to herself as she jogged to catch up with him. "Kaiba, we need to work together on this. If you are just going to prance off and leave me behind, you have another thing coming. I know we had our differences in the past but why don't we just ignore that and start afresh. We need both of us to win this game. There has to be a reason I was sent here, and it wasn't just left to you."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "Me, need your help? No thanks. I am better off on my own."

Tea's eyes bulged in anger. "Alright, fine then, be like that. I was hoping you'd be better than this Kaiba, but I guess the other guys were right when they said you weren't worth our time." And with that she strode away from Kaiba, in the opposite direction, leaving him to contemplate what she just said.

Hmph, I'll show her. He said as he strode away from where she had gone. She offered a clean slate. Why would I want that? Those nerds did everything they could to stand in my way and she has to cheek to offer me a clean slate. He scoffed. He began to think about all the things he hated about Tea Gardener. But to his surprise, he came up with nothing. The one thing that she did that Kaiba found annoying was the amount of time she spent talking about teamwork and friendship; two things he despised. But essentially, there was nothing wrong with Tea Gardener.

"BIG BROTHER!" A very familiar voice rang through the trees around Seto Kaiba making him freeze.

"BIG BROTHER!" It shouted again, bringing Kaiba out of his reverie.

"MOKUBA!" Kaiba replied without thinking. He began to run towards the source of the noise, before halting. Wait, how can Mokuba be here? He wasn't a part of this game. I am here alone with Gardener. This is one of those challenges. It must be. However, something was nagging in the back of his head. If it was really Mokuba, he could not leave his brother alone in a place as dangerous as this. He knew he was renowned in the business world for his cruelty, his determination and his ambition, but one thing he sure was was very protective over his little brother. He began to run again. I'm coming Mokuba. I'm coming.