AN UNLIKELY ALLY
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When Kaiba came to, he kept his eyes shut while allowing his mind to shake off the cobwebs of sedation. He was sure it had all been a really weird dream. Surely, surely there was no way that he was trapped in a psychiatric ward in Tokyo… Perhaps he had passed out during his adventure with the Quantum Cube, but he was going to open his eyes and he would be lying on his Alaskan King bed back in his Domino penthouse…
Finally, he snapped his eyes open, and was greeted with the bitter disappointed of reality. He was, indeed, in the same dreary room as before.
Kaiba swore, and pulled himself upright. He was still somewhat unsteady from the tranquilizer, though it seemed to be improving by the minute. Now was the time to take stock of the situation and think about his next move logically.
His use of the Quantum Cube in the space elevator had failed to open the portal he was hoping to. This much was obvious. He for a moment considered the notion that he had actually succeeded and was actually right now in another dimension, but discarded it. He had been trying to enter the afterlife, and he sincerely doubted any version of that plane of existence looked like this. Even if the Cube had misfired and taken him to some other dimension, there was no way Tanaka and the two orderlies were extra-dimensional beings who just happened to know how to mimic human behavior and also were aware of personal details about him.
He was definitely back on Earth. The question was, where, and who was holding him?
At the bottom of the space elevator was a floating Kaiba Corp base in the Pacific some miles east of the Japanese Home Islands. That was where he had landed, and that was where his unconscious body was no doubt collected. Now, there was a chance that armed hostiles had taken the base by force and made off with him. In that case, they were probably holding him for ransom and everything with the psychiatric doctor was probably just mind-games.
A chance, yes, but an infinitesimal one.
Kaiba was under no illusions he had made his fair share of enemies over the years. There were the corporate ones, and the weird ones that he had faced during his grudging time in Yugi's little circle. The latter were all defeated and gone for good. Pegasus, though Kaiba never really trusted him again, had no real motive. Marik seemed fairly harmless with his dark side defeated. Dartz was gone for good, as was that hideous monster the Pharaoh had killed during the fever dream that was his trip to ancient Egypt. That left Diva, who again seemed pretty thoroughly defeated.
Plus, these sorts of kidnappings never seemed to be in accordance with any of their style. No, the only possibility was that this was a corporate rival, and even that wasn't anything but a tiny one, because Kaiba did not have rivals. He only had inferiors, and none of them would have the courage to try something like this.
What definitely sealed the deal that this couldn't be some kind of kidnapping by an outsider was the level of operational security around Kaiba Corp's space elevator was airtight. He had two groups working the floating base in rotating two week shifts. While they were on the base, they had pretty much no contact with the outside world that wasn't monitored. If someone in Kaiba Corp had leaked information to an outsider of Kaiba's work with the Quantum Cube, that person would be found out instantly.
No, all these factors had Kaiba fairly certain that he hadn't been kidnapped from the base by intruders. That could only mean one thing: this was a Kaiba Corp inside job.
Even that seemed ludicrous to Kaiba, but slightly less so than the proposition that this was some outside enemy. After the Big Five betrayed him post-Duelist Kingdom, Kaiba had been very thorough about making anyone he suspected of similar disloyalty redundant. He'd even been happy to settle a few lawsuits against wrongful termination claims to make absolutely sure he wasn't looking over his shoulder in his own company. Were there board members who disagreed with some of his decisions? Yes, but they all eventually saw the error of their ways once the quarterly earnings reports came in. Plus, he knew all of them very well and unless one of them was a better actor than Daniel-Day Lewis, none had the courage to pull something like this.
That eventually brought his thoughts to the place he had been deliberately avoiding since rising again.
Mokuba.
The hair on Kaiba's neck began to rise as the old rage of his younger years began to build again. He had punched Tanaka hard enough to draw blood for suggesting that his own brother had betrayed him, and he still wished he had put more strength into the blow.
And yet…
Mokuba was the only person who knew the full details of what he had attempted in the space elevator. He had also been fairly insistent that he thought it was a bad idea. Was it actually possible that he really thought Kaiba had lost his mind and was doing this out of real concern?
No, Kaiba decided immediately. This was Mokuba. This wasn't something Kaiba would ever admit to anyone, including Mokuba himself, but he considered his little brother to be his greatest achievement, even amongst all his wealth and power. Kaiba had sacrificed his own chance at a normal childhood to make sure Mokuba would have one. Well, not normal per say, not with all the lunacy they'd gotten mixed up in over the years, but at least a happy one... and it worked.
Mokuba was a happy kid. A kid who knew what his brother sacrificed for him. Kaiba knew he knew because this was something Mokuba constantly told him. He was always begging Kaiba to take his foot off the gas with the company and try and live his life a bit. He kept saying that having sacrificed so much already, Kaiba deserved a chance to be happy himself. It was ludicrous, of course, because Kaiba was happy. He didn't need anything besides the loyalty of his brother and his company. It was likely the foolish sentimentality of Yugi and his friends rubbing off on his brother that led him to suggest there was something missing from Kaiba's life…
Kaiba shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. The point was, he knew Mokuba and more importantly Mokuba knew him. Even if his younger brother actually believed that Kaiba had actually crossed a line, he would never betray him in this way. Not after everything he admitted he knew Kaiba had done for him through their lives.
No. Kaiba didn't know how, but this was a third party who was playing mind games with him by blaming his brother. He had already been through the possibilities, and all of them seemed highly to extremely unlikely, but they were still more plausible than the idea of his own flesh and blood turning on him.
They might even be holding Mokuba himself, or if they weren't, were still in a position to harm him if they had managed to somehow infiltrate Kaiba Corp to the point where they could kidnap its CEO himself. That only fueled Kaiba's motivation to get himself out of this dump and unleash his full wrath whichever scumbag had done this to him.
He curled his hand into a fist again, trying to control his anger. There would come a time to channel that rage eventually. Right now, he needed to remain calm, and think.
He knew he had to get himself out of here. He couldn't rely on his captors, whomever they were, to abide by Japanese law and let him out after seventy-two hours. Even if they did, who knew how much damage they could do in that much time? Clearly, they had a reason for wanting him captured, and were likely using this time to act on it.
Unfortunately, it didn't look good. After his assault on Tanaka earlier, he doubted that anyone would enter the room again without backup. He was likely to have at least three people supervising at all times. As fit as Kaiba was, he knew he couldn't win a three on one fight barefoot and in a hospital gown against opponents who already had their guard up.
He grimaced.
He was Seto Kaiba. He would figure it out, one way or another.
"Mokuba… I'm coming, somehow or another. Their mind games won't work me. Hold tight, little brother."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A few hundred miles away in Domino, the Kaiba Corporation's board of directors were convening a special meeting. About half of the dozen board members were in Japan and had flown in at short notice. The others were in various cities around the world and were attending via video conference.
The meeting took place in the main board room on the twenty-seventh floor of the company's corporate headquarters. The physically present board members were scattered across either side of a long rectangular table, while a big TV with split screens depicted the ones calling in.
The north side of the table had a single empty chair, reserved for the CEO and majority shareholder, Seto Kaiba, who was the one who called the meeting. Next to the chair stood his right-hand man and most trusted advisor, Roland.
Roland didn't operate within the structure of the board, as his title was simply "Special Advisor to the CEO." He had served in that role since Mr Kaiba took over the company as a teenager, and his loyalty was beyond question. Especially after his continued insistence to stand by his boss after the attempted takeover by the Paradias Corporation, the level of trust Mr Kaiba placed in him was something Roland considered to be a source of pride. At times, when Mr Kaiba was too busy with R&D to attend board meetings, he even sent Roland as his liaison.
This was why Roland was deeply surprised to learn about the board meeting via email. Normally, Mr Kaiba would tell him he planned to call one and then he would be the one contacting other board members. It was merely three hours ago that he had been in his office when he learned that this taking place. Last he knew, his boss was on the space station, so he presumed something quite important had come up for him to return and call this meeting on such short notice.
He figured he would find out soon enough, as he stood next to the table in an immaculate suit, sporting his ever present sunglasses even indoors. He surveyed the accumulated board members. They seemed to be getting restless, wondering just as he did as to why they had been summoned on such short notice.
The door to the conference room cracked open. Roland turned his head, expecting to see the tall CEO stride in. He was in for a bit of a surprise, however, when it was not Mr Kaiba, but his younger brother Mokuba, who had entered the room.
The teenager was wearing a suit, and carried a briefcase that he set down at the head of the table.
"Mr Kaiba…" muttered Roland hesitantly. Mokuba glanced at him, and then at the rest of the board.
"My brother will not be attending this meeting. I was the one who called for it, as there's a pressing matter we need to discuss as a company right now," began the young man, briskly pulling his chair out and settling into it.
The board member nearest to him cleared his throat a bit nervously. "Uh… Mr Kaiba. It is highly irregular for the board to meet without the Chairman present. Also, I mean no disrespect, but that chair is reserved for your brother…"
Mokuba turned to face him. "My brother is no longer Chairman or CEO."
The entire room, including Roland, did a double take.
"Please explain yourself, Mr Kaiba," insisted a woman sitting further down the table.
Mokuba nodded in her direction. "Certainly. The facts are these: Seto has been demonstrating increasingly erratic behavior as of late. He has spent an enormous amount of capital on projects that had no potential profitability, from an archaeological site in Egypt to a virtual reality system he spent many hours in. He even used company resources to hold a man against his will recently. I've been worried about his mental state for some time now, and realized I had to act when he almost killed himself yesterday by performing a dangerous experiment in the space elevator with an incompatible piece of technology."
Roland couldn't believe his ears.
"Thankfully, he survived, but he is currently unconscious in a Tokyo hospital. As his next-of-kin, I came to the conclusion that in his present state he is a danger to himself. I'm in the process of having him declared mentally incompetent for the time being, so he can get the treatment he clearly needs. In the mean time, I have power of attorney over his assets, which include his Kaiba Corp stock. As such, I will be taking over as acting CEO until such a time my brother is healthy enough to return. Any questions?" Mokuba finished with a bright smile.
The rest of the room was buried in a deathly silence. Roland was unsure if this was a literal nightmare.
Just as he was about to speak up, a board member from one of the screens did.
"Mr Kaiba… if this is all true, we will need to see proof of this."
Mokuba didn't even look at the source of the query while nodding. "Of course. If you all would check your email, I have already had expense records sent over to each of you as evidence of my brother's… frivolous activities while using company money. The incident with the space elevator needs to be kept under wraps to protect the company's reputation, but rest assured, it happened. There is video of what he attempted, and once you witness it, I am sure you will all agree that my brother needs to focus on his mental health right now, as opposed to the company… the company, which I believe will be in very safe hands with all of us until he is well again, don't you agree, ladies and gentlemen?"
Slowly, a murmur of agreement rose around him.
Roland was almost apoplectic. What was happening?
Mokuba rose, his knuckles pressed against the table. "Well, that will be all. Nothing else really changes. Do your jobs, my friends. We are one of the five largest companies in the world and will need to continue to function even if my dear brother is not running things for now."
The screen blinked off, and the physically present board members began to shuffle out. Roland stayed behind, holding his breath.
Once everyone else was out, Mokuba turned to him. "Ah, Roland, glad you've stayed behind. I had something I wanted you to-…"
"Sir, if I may…" began Roland, the agitation showing in his voice.
"If you may what, Roland?"
"Sir… this decision you've taken regarding Mr Kaiba, I mean, your brother's health… are you sure about it?"
Mokuba shook his head, looking down for a moment. "It's a sad situation, Roland. It was a very difficult decision to make, but I had to do it, for both Seto's health as well as that of the company. You've been in Tokyo for the last few months so you haven't seen what he's been going through up close."
"No sir, I haven't been, but I know Mr Kaiba," Roland cut him off indignantly. "There... there has to be more to this. He always has a reason for what he does. You can't just-…"
"I can, Roland," retorted Mokuba. "In case you're forgetting, he's my brother. You may know him, but I know him better, and right now he is not capable of running this company. I have both the legal and moral authority to make this decision."
"Sir-…"
"You're overstepping yourself, Roland."
Seto Kaiba's right-hand man froze at this. While Mokuba hadn't really raised his voice when he uttered those last words, something about it felt really off to him. It was as if the words were not coming from a teenage boy, but someone else. He couldn't quite put his finger on who, but it felt like it was someone older, with a great deal of arrogance, authority and cruelty speaking. The words sent chills down his spine.
He looked at his new boss. Mokuba Kaiba was barely five foot six, but right now he seemed to take up the whole room.
"Yes, of course sir… I apologize."
Mokuba smiled brightly at him in response, suddenly back to being a jolly young man. He walked to the other side of the room, looking out of the window, with his silhouette being illuminated by the late afternoon sun.
"Don't worry about it. Now, after you leave, there's something I want you to do… Contact the space elevator base. I want the piece of technology my brother took with him when he descended the space elevator brought here and sent to our R&D division."
"Of course, sir," Roland nodded with trepidation, slowly inching towards the door.
Mokuba did not turn back to face him, continuing to look outside.
Once Roland made it to the door, he darted outside and closed it. He stood pressed against it, breathing heavily, sweat pouring down his brow.
What was that?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Kaiba had no way of tracking the time that had passed, but he knew it had been several hours since his bust-up with Dr Tanaka. The door had a food tray slot through which he had been given a plastic jug of water and a glass, and later a meal, by an unseen individual. The bland soba noodles and chicken had been difficult to scarf down, but Kaiba ate it anyway, more out of boredom than anything.
He had examined every inch of the room and quickly affirmed he couldn't break out physically. His best bet was going to have to be to fight the next time someone else was physically present in the room, even if the odds were against him. The only other option was to try and talk someone into helping him, and that was something Kaiba had little illusion was a forte of his. He was used to giving orders and having them obeyed, or just getting things done himself when the need arose. Coaxing someone to help him with no real leverage was not something he had much experience with.
In either case, he needed someone else in the room to try either route, and he could do nothing but wait until that happened. He had no need or desire to sleep, after having spent many hours unconscious first before arriving at the hospital and second due to the tranquilizer Tanaka had given him, so even that was not an option to pass the time with.
Currently, he was sitting against the wall opposite the bed, staring at a random spot on the ground.
This was a feeling he had never really known. Seto Kaiba had not been kept somewhere against his for an extended period of time for a long while. Not since his bastard of a stepfather had exercised power over him. Yes, Pegasus and Dartz both had stolen his soul, but both were times during which he wasn't really sentient. It was akin to being asleep.
What made this harder were the mind games his jailers were playing. His mind kept flitting back to their words about Mokuba, but he was determined not to let them win. He knew that whatever the circumstances, his little brother would not betray him.
He forced his mind away. Instead, he pondered once more the object of his obsession for the previous six months.
Atem.
The Pharaoh had spent millennia locked away in that damn Puzzle. The Puzzle… the Puzzle that had gotten him in this mess in the first place by not behaving the way he wanted to once he had rebuilt it. Sure, Atem had reappeared… but not until after Kaiba lost. This had forced Kaiba to take even more drastic action with the space elevator and the Quantum Cube.
Had he been cognizant of the fact that he had been locked away for that long? Well, if he had been, it certainly didn't seem to affect his intellect and strategic ability.
Kaiba would ensure the same. No matter how long these scumbags kept him in this pathetic prison, he would not let it get to him. He was Seto Kaiba, and he-…
His thoughts were interrupted by a click from the door, which then swung open. Kaiba turned, expecting to probably see Tanaka again, no doubt flanked by the same two goons who had restrained him earlier.
It was someone else. His jaw dropped.
"Roland?!"
It was a shock, and then a relief to see his most loyal employee standing in the doorway with a grim smile on his face, and holding a metal briefcase.
"Mr Kaiba… I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to see you're ok!"
He shuffled in and closed the door behind him, while leaving it unlocked from the outside.
Kaiba stood up, for a second feeling ridiculous in front of an employee in his present attire, but soon let it go.
"Roland… What the hell is going on? Who brought me here?!"
"No time for that, sir," came the hurried reply. Roland put the briefcase down on the bed and opened it. He pulled out a change of clothes and handed them to Kaiba. It was a simple dark gray shirt with matching trousers, and a belt. A complimentary purple trench coat lay in the case as well. It was a set he wore from time to time as an alternative to his usual light gray coat with black underneath.
"Put these on… we need to get you out of here. I'll fill you in when we're safe."
Roland turned back to the case as Kaiba quickly changed. By the time his boss was finished, he handed him the trench coat, as well as something Kaiba did not expect to see: a deck, contained in a small metal case. His deck, specifically.
"I made a stop at the space elevator base before I came here, sir," he explained. "When they pulled you out of the pod your personal effects got left behind… I picked up a change of clothes for you, and I knew you wouldn't want your cards left behind either."
Kaiba slipped the case onto his belt. He felt more like himself already.
"Good work, Roland. Now let's go back to HQ at Domino and find out who-…"
"We can't go back there, sir," came the reply from Roland, who had stepped back toward the door and opened it a slit, peering out.
"Why not Roland?" snapped Kaiba impatiently. "You need to tell me what is-…"
Roland turned around and shook his head. "When you're safe, Mr Kaiba. We need to leave now. I have a jamming beacon on me that knocks out any security cameras while we're here, but security guards do patrols on this floor and we need to leave before they come around next."
Kaiba bit back his retort, deciding to suppress his need for answers immediately. Roland had come for him when he really didn't think anyone would. He'd trust him to get him out and then explain whatever was necessary.
He followed his subordinate through the door into a dimly lit corridor, with locked doors lining up on either side. Roland lifted an exaggerated finger to his lips. Kaiba rolled his eyes at that, but nonetheless obeyed, walking as quickly as he could while ensuring his footfalls made the minimum possible amount of sound.
At the end of the corridor, Roland stopped him and peered around the corner, before ushering him to the right. It had led them to an elevator lobby.
There were three elevators, and each one had a panel that seemed to require some form of card to be scanned before it could be called. Roland to Kaiba and whispered, "Keep a lookout, sir, I'll work on this."
He produced a small tablet and wire from inside his jacket, which he then connected to a port on the elevator panel. Kaiba hung behind the corner of the wall, at an angle that he would be out of sight of anyone who might come down the corridor but still able to hear their footsteps.
It was a tense couple of minutes, but it seemed like Roland had managed to do as he said he would. He beckoned to Kaiba, confidently tapped the tablet one final time, and then pressed his thumb against the elevator's down button.
About twenty seconds later came a ding to signal the elevator had arrived. The duo stood to either side of the doors, which slid open smoothly.
Standing in the elevator, holding a tray with a glass of water and some pills in a small cup, was one of the orderlies who had been in Kaiba's room earlier. He looked up and saw the CEO standing outside the elevator, now dressed very differently. His jaw began to drop.
Before sound could follow, Kaiba acted. He took two huge steps forward and hit the man with an uppercut in the jaw. It was a ferocious blow, and Kaiba had put all the built up anger of the last day into it. The tray clattered to the ground, resulting in water spilling all across the elevator floor, while the orderly's body snapped backward, thudding against the wall and then crumpling to the floor. He was quite unconscious.
Roland had already darted to the corner of the lobby to check and see if anyone was walking down the lobby, or if the sound of Kaiba's attack had attracted anyone. Thankfully, this did not seem like the case so far.
"We need to hide him," hissed Kaiba.
Roland nodded, and tried a couple of nearby doors, while Kaiba scooped the his arms under the man's armpits and began dragging him out. They got lucky on the third try, finding a storeroom of sorts unlocked. They switched, with Roland dragging the man in and Kaiba ripping the wires off a nearby telephone, using them to quickly hogtie his unconscious former tormentor, before finally unceremoniously stuffing his mouth with his own shirt and closing the door on him. It was a shoddy job, but the whole thing had taken less than two minutes, and would buy them more time than if they had just left him in the corridor for someone to find, or free to raise the alarm when he woke up.
They made their way back to the elevator, and Roland had it take them down to the ground floor.
"You might want to try and keep your head down, sir," he muttered, as the doors slid open.
Kaiba scowled, but after a thought he pulled the sides of his trench coat's collar up, to shield his face from people passing by next to him.
Thankfully, they had little trouble from that point. They did pass by a few harrowed looking nurses, but it seemed it was only really those who worked on the psychiatric care floor who new that Kaiba was supposed to be held there. By the time they made it to the main entrance, Kaiba felt his nerves begin to let up a little bit.
The pair were now in the open. It was fairly late at night, and cool. Kaiba took a second to stare into the inky black Tokyo sky, enjoying the freedom he hadn't experienced recently. He didn't even know how long he'd been locked in there.
"This way, sir, there's a parking structure…"
Kaiba ceased his reverie to catch up to Roland, jogging to his side before snapping, "Talk, now, Roland, how the hell did you pull this off?"
"I had to bribe a couple of people. The hospital switchboard operator I called was very concerned about privacy issues, but I said I was a family member, and all I wanted to know was the room number you were being held. I paid him six months' salary in coin after. Even if he realizes I got you out, he won't say a word to avoid being held responsible," chuckled Roland.
"I also paid someone in local government for the blueprints. The doors are all locked digitally, I was able to open it the same way I did the elevator. Plus I had this," he continued, as he held up a small black plastic device with an antenna, "to stop the cameras transmitting. Thankfully, this is just a normal hospital that happens to have a psychiatric floor, not an actual behavior health ward. The security is lighter. It's just as well, I don't think I'd have been able to do anything else by myself."
They had made a right, turning onto a block that had a giant multistorey parking structure to one side.
Kaiba allowed himself a grin. "It was good work, Roland, as usual. Now, let's go back to Kaiba Corp and once we find out who the hell did this-…"
"Sir, I already told you, we can't go back there."
They were now inside the structure. Kaiba placed a hand on Roland's shoulder and stopped him in his tracks.
"Enough. Tell me why. It also seems like you have an idea of who did this, considering you knew where I was. I want the full story."
Roland sighed.
"This is going to be hard to hear sir… It's…"
Kaiba waited impatiently.
"Sir, it was your brother."
It was everything Kaiba could do not to punch someone for accusing his brother of betrayal for the second time that day.
He fixed Roland with a piercing glare, and spoke in a deathly quiet tone. "From the beginning, Roland."
The other man nodded nervously.
"Yes sir. So the last time I heard any news of you was about thirty hours ago, when you supposedly left HQ in Domino to go to the elevator base and take the elevator to the space station. This was fairly routine so I didn't think much of it. The next day – today, that is – I got an email calling a board meeting in the late afternoon. I thought I'd see you there and figured it might have been important to have you come return and call a meeting on such short notice. Sir, can we talk in the car?"
"Fine," growled Kaiba in response.
They darted across the ground level of the structure until they found Roland's car. It was a subtle all-black Toyota. Roland got in the driver's seat, and Kaiba joined him on the other side. The former got the engine started, reversed out and they were soon cruising away from this location Kaiba had no desire to ever visit again.
"So when I got to the meeting, the entire board was present, but obviously your chair was empty," explained Roland as he drove. "We waited, and then eventually your brother showed up. Sir… Sir, he told us you had been extremely erratic for the last few months, and he had been concerned for your mental health… That you did something in the space elevator that was the final straw for him, and he had you committed for your own wellbeing."
Kaiba stared stonily ahead, unwilling to believe this, but remained silent, allowing the other man to continue.
"He went on to say that while you were committed, he was using his power of attorney as next of kin to take control of your shares and become acting CEO until you were out. The board demanded proof, and he said he'd send them some transaction reports. Sir, I know this is bullshit-…"
"Just finish," snapped Kaiba.
"They went along with it, sir. I stayed behind and tried to talk him out of it. Sir, it was as if he was a different person. He was so… cold. Finally he shut the conversation down, and good God sir, I've never been this scared. I know it sounds strange to say, but you can't deny, Mr Kaiba, over my years working for you, we've encountered some very unnatural things that are hard to explain."
Kaiba turned to face him, his eyes widening slightly. "What are you saying, Roland?"
Roland pulled over and hit the brakes. He breathed out softly.
"Sir… this sounds kind of insane, but when Mokuba was in the room with us, and especially when I spoke to him one on one, it didn't feel like him. I don't know how to describe it, but something felt very wrong. When he yelled at me at the end, sir, it felt like he was huge and I was suddenly very small. I don't know how else to talk about it. The last time I've felt that scared was at the Battle City finals, sir, when that psychopath Marik Ishtar was menacing the rest of us."
"What else happened?"
"After that sir, he told me to call the elevator base and have it send over a particular piece of technology that you had supposedly been carrying with you on the space elevator."
Kaiba was staring at him raptly now.
"I didn't do it, Mr Kaiba. I knew by that point something was very wrong with him. I knew this because your brother would never betray you, and like I said, talking to him just felt wrong. I made the phone calls to figure out where you were, and while I was waiting on the information I needed, I took a chopper to the base to grab your personal effects," he continued as he gestured to the clothes Kaiba was now wearing, "before I came here to get you."
"What about the technology he was referring to?"
"I don't know what it is, Mr Kaiba. We last met when you had just gotten back from Egypt, as you'd been spending most of your time since then at the space station. At that time you didn't tell me anything about a new technology you were planning on using."
Kaiba nodded. "It's called the Quantum Cube. It came into my position after the Duel Exhibition at Domino last week. If it was still at the base when you had dropped by, he'll have probably just called for it again. It'll be at HQ soon enough, if it's not already."
Roland let out a breath. "I'm sorry sir-…"
"Don't apologize, Roland," Kaiba cut him off. "You've done extremely well. You've been my most loyal employee for a long time now, and you've proven it again. Trust me, I won't forget this."
His subordinate place a hand on the wheel and smiled. "Thank you sir. What do we do now? You can't go directly back to HQ… your brother has the board convinced you're insane. Plus the hospital has probably found out you're gone by now and might have the police looking for you."
"You're most likely right when you compared this to some of the… crazy situations we've dealt with in the past," replied Kaiba. "The Quantum Cube, it's at the root of all this. If you're saying that Mokuba has not seemed like himself, it's likely having some kind of effect on him. As much as I hate to say it, I'm going to need some help in this situation that only one person can provide."
Roland nodded. "Ok sir, how do we get there?"
"It's not we, Roland, it's me. I need you to go back to HQ and be my eyes and ears within it."
"Sir?" replied Roland in a bit of a panic.
"You want to help me, right, Roland? You already have, a lot, and this is how you can continue to do so. Someone is messing with my company, and while I work to secure it on the outside, I need you to keep an eye on what's going on the inside. Don't worry," he added at the end, as if pre-empting the concern Roland was about to raise. "If you got me out as cleanly as you said you did, he won't know you've done anything. There's no video evidence because of the jammer, and none of the staff on the lower floors would recognize you. The only lose end was the guy I knocked out, and he didn't see you; I am quite sure of that. Even if he did, it was for a split second, and I hit him really hard. Trust me, he's not going to put you there."
"Sir, what about the staff at the base-…"
"They don't know what's going on. Even if they knew you visited, they'd chalk it up as fairly normal. My guess is the board isn't publicizing the fact that my brother has replaced me as CEO or that I was locked up. It'd be bad for business. No one on that base is going to call Mokuba and tell him that you were there so he can put two and two together. Trust me," highlighted Kaiba at the end.
Roland nodded, a bit helplessly, but he knew what his boss was saying made sense.
"Even if he does eventually realize you've been helping me, it'll take some time. By then, I'll have figured out a way to fix this," finished Kaiba.
Roland breathed. "Ok, sir, where are you going? If you need the car I can-…"
"No, just drive to Domino. Not HQ," highlighted Kaiba at the end. "Get off near your place and I'll take the car the rest of the way. You have a secure line on your work phone, right? I'll call you on that."
Roland nodded, and pushed the engine into gear again. They drove, mostly in silence. The streets were fairly empty, which was unsurprising considering it was creeping up to four thirty a.m. at this point. Domino was an eastern suburb of Tokyo, and the trip would take about an hour and a half.
Roland was in the kind of silent autopilot most drivers entered at night, while Kaiba mainly alternated staring through the windshield and the passenger window in deep contemplation. His exterior was fairly collected, but his mind was whirring.
After what seemed like much less than ninety minutes, Kaiba was shaken from his thought by a quiet, "Sir, we're here."
It was Roland's luxury apartment building. A modest establishment given what Kaiba was paying him, but quite high-end by most people's standards.
They got out of the car and switched sides. Before entering again, Kaiba looked directly at his benefactor.
"I'm serious, Roland… I'm not going to forget this. When I fix this and get the company back, I'm making you a partner."
Roland bowed his head. "You honor me, Mr Kaiba. I'm just doing my duty to you and the company."
Kaiba nodded. "Just find out what exactly is happening at HQ, especially with the Cube. Like I said, I'll call you on your secure line soon. In the event things do get really bad, go to ground."
With that, he got back in the car and drove off.
He kept going for another twenty minutes, passing into a slightly less affluent but still decently well-off part of town as the first rays of sun creeped over the horizon. He was a few blocks away from his destination when he noticed a rather anonymous looking parking lot, where he decided to leave the car and walk the rest of the way.
It was six twenty-eight a.m. when he arrived where he needed to be. Sunrise was complete, and the birds were chirping.
He grimaced. Seto Kaiba hated asking for help from anybody, particularly him. He had, however, no choice. At this time he had no resources and the people in charge of his company thought he was crazy. Also, he had already dealt with the Cube before.
Kaiba rang the doorbell to Kame Game Shop, and waited.
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GearfriendTheSynchro: I almost expected you to be the first review! Yes, 2020 was a hell of a year. I half wish I had had this surge of inspiration last year so I could have finished it with plenty of time during quarantine instead of binging Netflix haha. As for Nightrise, this will be the spiritual completion to it in some ways, as I said I will be incorporating the best ideas from it in a way that actually makes sense within the context of the original series. You'll understand how by the end. Either ways, it's good to have you back!
Reaver72: Another OG! Yes, I know exactly what I'm doing with this story and there will be no distractions. It will obviously be a lot shorter than Nightrise would have been but I think what I have planned here will end up being more satisfying than how Nightrise was going to end in terms of how good the storytelling will actually be.
7th Librarian: You're such a troll and I love it haha. And yes, my Nightrise outline was… a bit much. I think it would have worked with the modifications we talked about, but at the same time I'm fine with just having this be its replacement so to speak, especially in a post DSoD world. After everything that movie represented I'd definitely want to have it included in my canon.
ChronicerDL: Welcome, and I hope you enjoy the other stories! Keep in mind I was more or less a kid when I started writing so the quality is quite poor at first, though by the middle of Nightrise I think it was vastly improved. This will hopefully be my best story quality wise though, even if it'll be a lot shorter.
Harrison: Seems like someone isn't a Kaiba fan… This might not be the right story for you then, haha! I kid of course. Welcome!
We're back again!
I actually wrote four chapters before uploading the prologue so I have a bit of material to fall back on. I'm going to try and update Mondays, either every week (if I maintain my backlog to a reasonable level), or two.
I'm still second guessing myself a little bit on my writing skills (it's been a LONG time and there is some rust), so any and all feedback is welcome.
