Even Fate Makes Mistakes

At first, Mokuba wasn't sure why he woke up. His bedroom was still shrouded in the thick haze of night, just as it had been before he fell asleep. A lazy glance at the glowing alarm clock on the other side of the room told him it was just before four in the morning, the time when whether it was late at night or early in the morning was really just a matter of opinion. Sighing, he melted back into his blankets and tried to stretch out, only for his elbow to unexpectedly ram into another warm body right beside him, one that definitely hadn't been there earlier. Mokuba was startled, but not afraid; after all, there was only one other person who could feasibly be there with him. He gingerly hoisted himself up and switched on the lamp at his bedside and allowed its soft light to confirm who his visitor was.

His brother was asleep right beside him, slightly curled up on his side right in the center of Mokuba's bed. Perplexed, Mokuba watched him for a moment, frowning as he mulled over what could have brought him there. Perhaps he'd called out in a nightmare; this was something he frequently experienced when he was younger, but hadn't happened for several years. Seto would come in to comfort him, but had usually retreated back to his own room after making sure he was able to drift off again. Maybe he'd been tired and accidentally dozed off himself…? It wouldn't have been the first time for that, either.

It didn't seem likely, though. Mokuba always had vivid recollections of his nightmares before, every detail and emotion clinging to his mind until the comfort Seto provided sent it all away. No, nothing like that had happened, and Mokuba knew that his brother was there for his own comfort, but had no idea what happened that precipitated that need.

The younger brother reached out and lightly touched his brother's head, removing his hand when Seto moved in response to the touch. He lazily turned onto his back and wrapped one arm around his head while leaving the other draped across his stomach, then shifted around and mumbled a bit before settling back into stillness. Within moments, he was snoring, something that happened frequently when he slept on his back. Mokuba sighed and leaned against the headboard; he'd been debating whether or not to wake his brother and see what was wrong, but figured it'd be best to let him be for the time being. After all, there'd be plenty of time to talk in the morning. He gingerly climbed over his brother, taking care to avoid bumping into him again, then slid off the bed and padded out of his room and down the hall to the kitchen. Yawning, he pulled a tall glass from a cupboard and shoved it under the water spout built into the refrigerator, filling it all the way to the top, first with ice, then with water. He was just about to take a sip when he noticed that his brother's laptop was still whirring away on the table of the breakfast nook, surrounded by a disorganized swarm of papers.

Now that his curiosity was piqued, Mokuba began shuffling through the papers. They all seemed to be normal business reports; the only thing out of the ordinary was the fact that they were simply left sprawled all over the table. He stacked them together, then proceeded to reach for the laptop, bumping the trackpad and waking it up in the process. He figured that Seto had likely just run the reports and expected to be looking at the program that would have delivered them—but that's not what he was seeing. The browser was open to a search engine, on which it appeared that his brother had been searching about dreams of dead people.

"What the…" Mokuba muttered under his breath, trailing off in utter bewilderment. His brother wasn't exactly the type to believe in dream interpretation, let alone spend what looked to be more than a substantial amount of time reading about what dreams mean, as the amount of darkened links indicating the sites had been visited would suggest. Baffled, he made a mental note to ask about that one later before he gently closed the lid and brought the computer up to his brother's office. He plugged it into its usual spot before heading back to his bedroom, where he was surprised to find his brother awake and sitting up in bed, rubbing his eyes roughly and breathing erratically, as if he had been startled and was trying to get his breath back under control.

"Hey…Seto, you okay?" Mokuba asked as he slowly walked into the room. His brother's attention immediately snapped to him, as though he hadn't realized that Mokuba wasn't still sleeping beside him yet. Mokuba walked across the room and sat down beside him. "What's going on?"

Seto shook his head and kept staring straight ahead. "Just a weird dream," he said quietly, but the wildly haunted look in his eyes told Mokuba it was much more than that.

"About…him?" Mokuba asked, and when Seto nodded while keeping his gaze locked straight before him, he scooted a bit closer and rubbed his back for a moment, like Seto had done for him when he had his own nightmares about their adoptive father. He was just surprised to learn that Seto had them too—it's not something Mokuba was aware of at all.

"You had one earlier too, right? That's why you're here?"

Seto nodded once again without making eye contact, and Mokuba knew that he wasn't going to get much else out of him right then. He slightly relaxed when Seto laid down and stretched out on his back again instead of bolting away, which Mokuba was expecting him to do. He laid down beside him and rested his head on his brother's chest, waiting patiently for him to fall asleep. After what could have been ten, twenty, or even thirty minutes, Seto had begun to snore again, and with the hope that they'd both be able to get a bit more uninterrupted sleep before the day ahead of them, Mokuba dozed off once more as well.


Mokuba didn't wake up again until quite awhile after the sun had risen; his blankets had been showered in its warmth long enough to become uncomfortably hot. He kicked back the covers and turned his attention to his brother. Seto was still asleep, lying on his side with his back to Mokuba. Sighing, the younger brother slid out of bed before glancing at the clock, which told him it was nearly noon. His stomach froze and dropped to the floor, and he started dashing around his room to round up everything he needed and get ready to go. He knew that his brother had a meeting in just over an hour as well, and started steeling himself for the oncoming lecture about forgetting to set his alarm and oversleeping.

"Oh, crap—Seto, wake up, we really need to get going," Mokuba called over his shoulder as he hurried to his closet and began frenetically stripping out of his pajamas and into a sweater and a pair of jeans. "You have that meeting at one and I'm already late for the tutor…at least my exam isn't until tomorrow, though. Have you seen my—"

He cut his sentence off when he realized that Seto hadn't moved an inch. His brother was generally a rather light sleeper, except whenever he was particularly sleep deprived, in which case saying he was 'dead to the world' was a bit of an understatement. Mokuba rolled his eyes as he tugged on his socks and sneakers, then went back over to shake his brother in a second attempt to awaken him.

"Seto, it's almost noon, we have to get going."

No response.

"Seto," Mokuba pressed insistently, growing from frantic to frustrated. He hopped back up on his bed and pulled on his brother's shoulder, causing him to turn onto his back; however, he remained unresponsive. His eyes were still closed and his face appeared calm, but no matter how much Mokuba shook him, there was no change. Seto's chest was rising and falling normally, and an ear to his chest confirmed that his heart was indeed beating as well. Officially panicked, the younger brother scurried to the nearest phone in Seto's office, and he called the emergency line right away, giving the operator the address as soon as she asked for it.

"And what's the situation, sir?"

"My brother won't wake up," Mokuba said breathlessly as he ran back to the bedroom. "I've been shaking him and yelling at him, but he won't wake up."

"Have you checked for a pulse? Is he breathing?"

"Y-yes, to both," Mokuba said, fighting back tears. "But he won't answer me, I don't know what's wrong."

"Do you know if he took anything, or are there any other medical conditions you know of that could cause something like this?"

"N-no, I don't think so…"

"All right, it's a good sign that he's breathing, just stay calm. You're okay. I've already got an ambulance on the way to you, just stay with me until it arrives, all right?" Mokuba nodded before realizing she wouldn't see him over the phone.

"Okay, thanks…they'll be here soon?" He asked, staring intently at his brother's chest to make sure it kept moving.

"Yes, it looks like they're in the neighborhood now—I'd go down to meet them, they should be there in just a few moments."

Mokuba rushed down the last flight of stairs, through the living area, and straight through to foyer, where he swung the front doors open just in time to find an ambulance and a police car pulling up through the gates, lights flashing but no siren.

"They're here," Mokuba informed the operator, who told him it was all right to hang up and approach the medics. He thanked the woman on the phone and hung up as the medics and officers approached him.

"All right, kiddo, we're going to need you to show us the way," one of the cops said. Mokuba nodded, and guided them upstairs to his bedroom, where Seto was still lying unresponsive. He watched as the medics loaded him onto their stretcher and quickly examined him. The knots in his stomach were twisting and tightening themselves, but loosened just the slightest bit when he heard them confirm to each other that Seto was indeed still breathing and his heart was still beating.

"We're heading out," one of them said as they took the elder brother down on the stretcher. One of the officers turned to Mokuba, frowning.

"Is there anyone around to take you to the hospital? Or we could, if needed…"

Mokuba thought for a moment. There was a chauffeur, Seto's personal assistant, his head of staff…but none of them were around currently. Realizing that the officers could get him to the hospital more quickly than anyone else, Mokuba asked if they'd take him. The ambulance had already taken off by the time Mokuba walked out there, and within seconds, he was on his way too.


Hours had passed, most of which Mokuba spent sitting right next to his brother's hospital bed as doctors and nurses ran test after test after test. Seto remained unresponsive, and Mokuba had begun to feel physically ill as the fear and anxiety began to rot away in his stomach. It had been too long without any answers, and the fact that nurses and doctors were frequently deliberating over something in small clusters while glancing over at Mokuba didn't really help things at all.

He sighed and slowly rose to his feet, sparing his brother one last glance before wandering through the door, where he immediately caught the sound of a familiar voice. He whirled around and spotted Téa, who was standing outside a room just a couple doors down, speaking with Joey and Tristan. The three of them looked about as scared as Mokuba felt as they spoke among themselves, until Téa's tear-filled eyes locked with Mokuba's. Joey and Tristan noticed him as well right as she motioned for him to come over.

"What are you guys doing here…?" Mokuba asked as he approached them, frowning as he recognized the notable absence. "Where's Yugi?"

"In there," Téa responded, gesturing to the room behind them. "Something's wrong, but we don't know what yet…we just know he can't answer. Are you here with your brother?"

"Seto's sick, and the doctors are still running tests," Mokuba said. "Wait, what did you say was wrong with Yugi…?"

"We don't know yet. He's unconscious and we can't wake him up," Téa said as Tristan nodded in affirmation beside her. Joey leaned against the wall as he shook his head and blew his bangs out of his eyes.

"Which is kind of ironic, considering he's mentioned not being able to sleep at all because he's been having dreams about the pharaoh all week. Real vivid scary ones, apparently."

Mokuba gasped as his eyes grew wider than saucers. He'd just assumed that Seto's dream had been about Gozaburo, like the nightmares Mokuba experienced. But given the historic link between Yugi and Seto and the fact that they were sharing the same mysterious predicament, it dawned on him that the answers they were searching for were likely mystical, not medical.

"Seto had some crazy dreams last night too. He wouldn't talk about it, and I just assumed it was about something else. But now he won't wake up either."

Téa's hand flew to her mouth as Joey and Tristan exchanged a look.

"Wait…seriously? There's no way this is a coincidence," Joey said. "Mokuba, you're not messing with us, are you?"

A dark scowl briefly eclipsed the terrified vulnerability on the child's face, but it was Téa who responded to Joey's asinine question.

"Joey, why on earth would he do that?" she demanded.

The blonde raised his hands up in surrender. "Hey, sorry, I don't know, I'm just spitballing here. None of us know what's happening. It's always Yugi that has the answers." He sighed and shook his head.

"Still, whatever the cure is, I think we can all agree that it's not in this hospital," he said, narrowing his eyes. "So now the question is, where do we get it?"

"I don't know," Téa responded. "Maybe we should start by going back to Yugi's place. His grandpa might be able to start us in the right direction, and he wanted hourly updates anyhow. Mokuba, you should come with us, just in case. We don't know what's going on or who's behind this, so we should stick together until we have more answers."

"All right," Mokuba agreed. "I'll call our driver, he'll give us a lift to the game shop."

"Maybe then we'll get some answers."