The flames were everywhere/but no one really cared/It always burned up there before

- Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway), Billy Joel

They're not acting like he expected them to act. Even the constructs he'd reworked, after they'd fallen in, were malfunctioning. At this rate, his calculations were telling him he'd have to push for completion and he wouldn't have the Big Five to play with while fixing up everything. He would still have what he wanted, not to mention he could easily rework the others as needed with minimal trauma after the necessary adjustments. No bothering with the issues that he had to when remaking the two that had once worked for Paradis, nor the added issue of the man who had somehow wandered into his world, scarred and feral. All he had to do was bring Seto to where he needed to be. The problem were the others and their inability to stay where they needed, or their constant searching for the others.

Things were far easier with large groups that could be directed and controlled. It was even easier with numbers and letters and all of the other things that made sense.

He glanced over at the two he'd managed to catch, frowning as he walked over to the female he'd managed to get when they all fell into the world that Father had created for him. He understands his need to use Mokuba, not to mention sees the appeal of having a younger brother around for him to play with. The girl, though, the one who was brash and rude, that he originally held for Hirutani...she interests him in a way that others don't, making him frown as he tried to figure things out. What was this? He was better than this, better than base emotions, and yet this woman brought them up in her. He wanted her with them...if he had to keep Seto around in order to keep her, he didn't see a reason why he shouldn't if it meant keeping Seto from trying to fight back.

It was probably the mental readout he kept noticing for her, the sudden spikes of different waves that he'd never seen before, save in one other person. However, that data had to be corrupted, or there would have been a sign of another person walking around, separate from this girl. Yet there wasn't any sign of that - instead, she was here, trapped with him, and the sudden dips or spikes made him have to devote more and more energy to ensuring she remained stable now that he's put her where he can easily start working on manipulating her mind and creating a good place to trap Seto.

The company, Father's legacy, all of that is mine. Everything you are - your body and success, your abilities - all of those were promised to me, and all of those, I will have. Father gave them to me, and even if he didn't plan for your uprising, your usurping of power, I will regain my rightful place, and bring KaibaCorp back from where you've taken it.

He frowns when a beeping sound catches his attention, having him bring up the screen. Ah...it appears that Alistair is damaged and in need of repairs. He'll deal with that first, so catching the two that those ones were after will be easier.

They're already easier to handle, at least this way. I'll have to see what happens later, when I finally get the rest of them and finish the tests. I'll have to punish Oshita as well...that should be easy enough. After all, I don't really need that house anymore, and reworking the coding to deal with a human mind requires a great deal of data to wrap it in. A water snake will be perfect for him, then, since the Five were so keen to try to take up elements as a dragon beforehand.


Shizuka tells herself, for what feels like the thousandth time since she found herself in the huge, underground tunnel that supposedly was a replica of Pegasus' castle, that she must be brave. She's pretty sure that the others are here somewhere, but the whole place is dark and filled with odd symbols that make her feel frightened, holding the wood stick she found close to her as she creeps forward. She has to find Katsuye and the others, she promised herself she would, and Katsuye has done so much for her. Her sister has done a great deal, and Shizuka feels the need to find her and make sure she's happy after all of this.

She lets out a shriek, or almost does, when she runs into someone as she turns, Varon's hand going over her mouth as Mai moves over to see how she's doing. "Shizuka…are you ok?"

A slow nod as Varon finally lets go, the two holding a pipe and other item as Mai smiled at her, though the whole thing was shaky as she asks, "How did you get here? Did you see one of the Big Five?"

She nods again, swallowing and trying to not feel as afraid as she does. "I…they said it was Pegasus' castle. I can't…I don't know if it's…"

"No, it is," Mai confirms, "but I'm confused how we got here. This whole place feels so odd." She glances at Varon, who appears as confused as she is, before saying, "Come on. Let's see what else we can-."

The whole thing seems to turn, making them all stagger as the world shifts, the walls seeming to glitch out to show a wall with odd, light-lined blocks of black that appear only to lead around before the world changes again, the whole area seeming blurry, as if the world was now more like the way that Shizuka had sometimes seen things before the surgery, or on a grainy video of a game that was instead pushed down in resolution for some reason. It made them all pause, as Mai frowned and looked at the walls and the like before saying, "What's going on?"

Varon looks like he's surprised but also defensive, holding up the pipe he has as he mutters, "Don't care, so long as it doesn't happen again, or those blocks come back." Shizuka shifted as she saw Mai look at the wall, as if trying to figure something out, before the older woman said, "Let's get back outside."

"Why?"

"Because I have an idea, and being underground in a maze isn't going to prove anything," Mai pointed out, Shizuka looking at the dark area before letting out a breath. They had to find Katsuye, and Mai was right. Being here, even if they were afraid, didn't help them find her sister.

Varon is quiet, looking around, obviously worried and unnerved by something, before he nods. "Ok. Let's go."

The group start to move out of the underground labyrinth slowly, Mai and Varon moving her to between them as they try to head the way back and out, the whole thing making Shizuka feel claustrophobic and confused. If she focused on her other senses, as she had before the surgery, she thinks she can hear something, like a mechanical whirring and clicking sound seeming to become a strange background noise that she tried to pinpoint when they paused to look at a turn, only to realize it was coming from all around them – under, over, to each side. It surrounded them, and sounded like a giant computer attempting to keep cool or work, the whirring sound going up and down, down and up, as Varon started to move one way.

"Wait," she said, getting Varon to stop as she glanced at the blurriness that she'd once been used to, the way the bricks had gone from realistic to almost like someone could no longer see right. She listened, finally closing her eyes to try to get a better idea of what was going on, to feel, but it was so loud, and coming from all over.

"What?" Varon asked her after a long moment, getting Shizuka to slowly open her eyes as she looked to Mai and Varon, who were watching her carefully. She swallowed before saying to the two, "I can't...there's a strange sound, but it's everywhere. Normally you can hear stuff working in just one area, or somewhere specific, but...it's all over."

"Meaning...what, we're inside a huge...machine or something?" Mai asked.

"It would explain the way things are working," Varon muttered and looking back at the area they were in versus the area behind and before them. "It's low-res until we pass through the area." He moved a bit away, the area between him and the two women starting to look less bright as he got further away. Running back caused the whole area to get loud, loud enough to get even Mai and Varon to wince at how loudly things got, though Varon only paused long enough to motion before the group began to run again, the machine sound growing louder as it attempted to work or do whatever it was trying to do. The whole thing started to get louder and louder as heat built up suddenly right before there was a sudden, coughing stop and the dark area, along with the lit blocks they'd seen before, and emergency red lights along the floor, came on.

"Yes!" Varon said through clenched teeth, "I got it!"

"Great, we've got everything turned off, so what?" Mai asked, confused.

"So…this means the whole this is a simulation – a machine. It means-."

"That you're not really in a labyrinth. Obviously," a new voice nearby got Shizuka to nearly let out a scream as a man walked out and into the red lights. Shizuka recognized him as the man who'd been holding Katsuye and saying she was his or something, and Mai seemed angry, holding the piece of wood up as she moved to get near Shizuka and defend her.

"Oh, don't be such a bitch," the man said, "I know my labyrinths well. I just happened to pick this one as mine after I got out of the one that kid threw me into while he took my queen away."

"She's not yours, Hirutani," Mai growled out as Shizuka watched Varon move forward as well, his pipe raised just in case.

"Of course she is," he muttered, stepping forward, getting a bit closer into the red light, enough for them to see him as Shizuka put a hand to her mouth, trying to hold in the scream as everyone slowly backed up. The man was the dark haired one who'd been holding onto Katsuye when she'd found her and Mokuba, but he was changed, sharp teeth showing as he gave them a lopsided grin. Out of his head, with blood dripping down the side of his head as twisting, dark horns grew out and up, the large, white bone horns grew out and up, the process obviously still continuing as he moved his head, looking like the feel was too heavy. "She's mine. She'll always be mine, no matter what any of those two say. The Kaibas don't get to keep her. She was meant to be mine. I went through a labyrinth for her, and she will be mine, or I will not lead you all to the center and it's master."

Shizuka and the others were quiet, Varon watching the man as Shizuka heard the beginning of the machine start to wake up again, ticking and whirring like a computer starting up.

"We don't have a choice, huh?" Varon growled out as more and more of the sound started, with Mai looking around worriedly as more heat began to fill in. At Hirutani's nod, the trio slowly moved forward, Hirutani turning his head a bit to look at Shizuka briefly before saying, "Follow me" and taking them down a darkened path.


They'd gotten the group in the plane to a hospital, and Ren had been seen to, insisting on not leaving despite what had happened and the fact that security had, after some debate and realizing what else was going on, had cuffed Hinagata away from the monitors and away from Ren. It didn't make him feel better, though he also wished he was further from a monitor, as looking at any of them resulted in his head pounding, and once it'd resulted in him having to get the handcuffs changed after he'd attempted to escape and gotten his wrists red with blood. The new position let him hear what was going on, but not help out in a way that Hinagata might actually do some good. Of course, considering the headaches and blackouts and...and what happened with Ren...he was willing to allow himself to be trapped like this and help out in whatever way he could.

No matter what she said, Hinagata wasn't about to forgive himself for hurting her in that way, though he hadn't seen or heard what happened, and his memory was completely blank after he'd noticed the start of…something…going on after whatever had happened with the battle between the finalists. He knows that something seemed to have wrecked the computer system, and that Ren and the others had managed to isolate it from going too far, but that it was probably his fault.

Whatever had happened in that virtual world he'd been trapped in, it had left him as a damned mole and now it was attempting to take over KaibaCorp using now-defunct passwords and access points that were once used by the Big Five, though at the moment it was like Kogoro or even Oshito or someone similar, but things kept changing. It was like they were attempting to get control, or the person who was attempting didn't know how to avoid the traps and like that Ren and the others were setting up. It was weird, and no one could really explain what was going on.

Hinagata wished he could, but he only had a guess that it was linked to the virtual world, the one that the elder Kaiba had locked him in after he'd discovered it. He knew the Big Five had gone there but not to the one where Kaiba Seto and the others had gone. The information he got from the others, often written down, seemed to suggest that Kaiba Gozaburo had some other place, probably on Alcatraz Island, to hide out in. It explained why they couldn't find the bodies of the Five, not to mention all the power and technology put into that place. So little was information on the place in the official records, or at least on the electronic ones, that digging out the semi-official, paper copies was required.

Of course, Hinagata couldn't trust himself to not destroy those if he saw them either. Whatever had happened to him, to make him go on those two rampages and hurt Ren in such a way, made him feel useless in helping figure things out. He wished he could at least talk about what was going on, or that they simply put him in a jail while Ren and the others fixed it. He's not sure what Ren thinks this will help, only that she believes it will, and that they might be able to figure out the weird things going on so they might rescue the few left on that damned island.

"Hinagata?"

He glanced over to where Ren was, trying to not look at the computer screens or anything else that might trigger whatever had caused him to attack her, and later attempt to attack the others and hurt himself. He can't look at her, not without thinking about what he'd done to her.

"I think I might have some idea of what's going on," Ren told him, looking serious. He hated when she looked like that, like he was normal when what had happened resulted in her being so badly hurt. "It's very confusing, though."

"What does that mean?" Hinagata muttered, looking down as he heard her type and others moving through paperwork and the like. Why hadn't she just let him go somewhere else, somewhere that would at least allow her to be safe, he isn't sure, but telling him this isn't going to help either.

"I mean it's confusing because it makes no sense, because Gozaburo Kaiba hid a bunch of stuff before he hid you, and trying to figure out the timeline is really odd. It's worse when I try to figure out where that woman came from!"

That got Hinagata to frown and actually look at her, confusion overcoming his fear of what would happen if he caught something on the screens nearby. "What woman?"

"The one who who'd been with Ishizu Ishtar and Jounouchi Katsuye," Ren told him, "Layla Naunet, but I keep finding information about her from...freakin' decades ago. It's worse than the confusing mixed-up stuff from the older Kaiba."

That...didn't make sense. "How many decades?" It was something he could help with - something outside of KaibaCorp that he could focus on. He trusted Ren and the others to do this.

She looked at him, obviously realizing what he's thinking as she bites her lip, finally letting out a breath and saying, "The earliest information I found about her was from the early 19th century."

Everyone is quiet as she adds, "And...and for this, it looks like Gozaburo Kaiba had a son. But I can't find any information about his mother, or what happened to him before Gozaburo Kaiba adopted Seto and Mokuba Kaiba."

He watched her before he said, his tone serious, "I can't stay here...but I can check out a few paper records. I know that will let me get everything we need. It's not just here, Ren, and you know that. Please...we have to figure this all out and get them off that island."


Shizuka is worried as they walk through the claustrophobic darkness, the sound of the machine labyrinth they were in now dulled or gone, along with the heat it was producing. She shivered again, rubbing her hands up and down her arms as she watched the strange monster that had once been a person who Katsuye was...intimate with? loved?...that had known her sister during a time when she'd been a different person. Shizuka somewhat knows about this time in her sister's life, when times had been bad. She's not sure what happened, as mother wouldn't talk about it, she only knows that this person knew Katsuye during that time, and that she hadn't wanted anything to do with him when they'd saw her, before coming into the odd labyrinth.

Varon and Mai are quiet as they walk beside her, but she can guess they're trying to figure out what Hirutani's plan is, or a way to escape if they need to. They stop before long and the darkness disappears a bit, once more showing them in a place that looks like those virtual reality places, the lights along the bottom of each block glowing blue and showing where pillars and the like appear.

"Here," he said, turning his whole body to look at them, his massive horns an obvious weight on his head. "This is outside the mansion." He paused and looked around, the only small sounds of a machine going making him as uneasy as Shizuka. "I'm not sure what that bastard is up to, but it seems like he's only powering a few places."

"Considering how trapped we were in the mansion he built, I'm not surprised," Varon pointed out, obviously annoyed, "the question is why trap us? And what did he do to the other two that were with you?"

That question seems important to Varon, as Shizuka recalls those two had been his...friends, she supposes...while Hirutani considers the answer to that question, apparently uncertain himself. "I don't know."
"Bullshit."

Hirutani growls at them, the sound more animalistic than human, and repeats, "I don't. When we all fell, I went back into the labyrinth. When I came out, it was like this. There are others, but few….people. I can smell those," he drew in a breath, away from them, and then looked back slowly. "There's only three others in this whole place who are people."

"I'm hurt," a new voice caused them all to freeze, Varon and Mai turning to try to shield Shizuka as Hirutani looked over at the person. "You say we're not real?"

A hissing sound near Hirutani made him turn, growling low in his throat as something odd, a man-shaped shadow with a long tail, started to move near them.

"Do you like it, Varon?" the voice from before asked, but it was off, and Shizuka shrank back to near Mai as she saw the man finally, part of his face gone to reveal circuitry instead of blood and bone, "We finally have a leviathan. Wouldn't Dartz be proud to know all he had to do was find Noa-sama, and he could've been the leviathan we wished upon the world?"

Varon didn't bother to glance at the shadow of the hissing thing, keeping his eye trained on the machine-man and with the pipe he held raised in a defensive position. "No offense, Alistair, but that's a pale imitation. I'm sure whoever had their code messed with is so happy to hear it."

The hiss turned into something like a scream, the human voice in it making Shizuka want to cover her ears, as Alistair seemed to pause, listening, before looking back at Varon. "I'm supposed to go back, but I will deal with you first, traitor."

"Like to see you try, you couldn't even beat me as a human, what makes you think this time is different?" Varon egged on with a smile, even though Shizuka could hear fear in his voice. Hirutani was facing off against the other monster in the shadows, and Shizuka looked between the two groups, her own fears coming up quickly as she thought about what she might be able to do. She hadn't been very athletic, even before the operation and all that was going on, but she wanted to help somehow. She couldn't keep hiding.

Katsuye made her mistakes but she's moving forward, finding herself a way to live, and she has Kaiba-san to love her, no matter her flaws. I can't allow myself to just be weak all my life because that is what I was told! I have to help!

Something seemed to fill her at that thought, as if the darkness that Hirutani had brought was now responding to her. She heard popping sounds, like lightbulbs bursting, and for a moment, she could see the snake-thing near Hirutani, the torso and head of a man that was morphed and warped into that of a snake, blood-like water falling from him as he flailed, hissed, and screamed. The man called Alistair had been replaced, and she saw inside the machine, blood and organs and a brain that was being probed, and another, larger thing, watching them all.

She screams at what she's shown, holding tightly onto Mai as the voices seem to disappear as Shizuka feels the darkness from the maze that Hirutani had been in seem to focus on her, trying to show her what is going on, the center of the maze that isn't really one, just a confusing move that twists and throws them back to the same spot, and she shivers at seeing it, but also realizing one other thing. The person in charge of the maze is changing things, and something dangerous is coming up from it. It makes Shizuka shiver again before the darkness suddenly pulls in, seeming to come into her hands, creating a large ball that feels like yarn, the familiar feel reminding her of the time when Katsuye had taught her how to knit and crochet, even though her older sister was better at sewing. It was something to do, and the patterns didn't always require her to see to know what she was doing, to create a pair of gloves or socks.

The ball is dark, so dark that it feels like it's just absorbing light like a black hole, and she suddenly sees the way, the best way, through to the next level, and closer to Kaiba-san and Katsuye. She swallows and turns to look over at Mai, who is watching Varon but still holding onto Shizuka, while Hirutani looks at her with a strange look in his eyes. Shizuka looks back down at the ball of black-dark yarn, noting a stray thread, before pulling at it and letting the ball drop, the thread wrapping around her finger before it rolls off and out, a bit further out as Alistair seems to notice it, starting to move after it right before the ball stops and something steps out of it, growing larger as it does, a large claw casually swatting at Alistair, ripping huge lines into his clothing and skin as it finally emerges.

It's a sphinx, or something like that, with a face like Mona Lisa, only with a mouth full of lion's teeth as it roars at the snake-man who had once been one of the Big Five, the roar a combination of a human and lion's voice as it went after the man-snake, the snake twisting, as if uncertain how to attack as it let out another human-like scream, Varon moving to swing again at Alistair as the machine thing came closer, attempting to get at the sphinx as it tore into the writhing man-snake-thing while Hirutani growled at it all, looking back at Shizuka with a sudden and deep anger.

"That's my power! Not yours! You will not be the Ariadne. I won't let you become the Mistress of the Labyrinth!"

Shizuka is still holding the piece of yarn, or whatever the material is, and as he charges her, head lowered like a bull's, she turns, and wraps the thread around him before leaning back and pulling. Mai, the wood held like a bat, swings at Hirutani as he passes Shizuka and comes within range, striking him hard against the head as the darkness in the yarn suddenly wraps around him, tightening, and he begins to choke and struggle.

Alistair lays where he fell after the last bash, and Varon manages to look over just as Hirutani falls as well, landing heavily as the yarn started to thicken and tighten around him, Shizuka letting go and racing towards the ball of darkness as Mai runs over to him, and the group follows the dark ball as it rolls away, leading them deeper into the fortress.


Noa Kaiba glares at the monitor and quickly moves to check on the others. He'll have to send out Rafael to get Alistair now, and the repairs will take up more of the energy he's been using to track down the other Big Five. Apparently, one of them realize what was going on, and now at least two are missing in the machine, and one is attempting to hide in the kingdom that Noa gave him.

"You're not playing by the rules," he growled out, amazed at how he feels. He's angry, though it's not surprising. Whatever had killed Konosuke had not been something he could really register, and Hirutani shows signs of a transformation that Noa certainly didn't put on him, not to mention he appeared to be fighting and dying against some other entity.

The monitors on Jounouchi Katsuye's pod beeped suddenly, signaling another odd change in her mentality. He glanced over at it and waited, seeing what might come, and when nothing did, he smiled. Well, at least she was still in the world he created. All he needed was Seto, and he'd have a family ready. A younger brother who adored him, and he'd have Seto's woman as well. Noa wasn't sure what he'd do with her, to be honest. It made no sense that Seto would risk so much for some woman that appeared capable of handling herself. He almost wants to just throw her in with the rest, see how they handle it.

The report of the power loss due to his changes makes him sigh. Alistair he can fix, at least, but the Big Five?

"You don't want to play this game, then fine," he muttered to the monitor currently displaying the three racing after whatever they'd seen, possibly just going blindly further into the interior, closer to where he was keeping Kaiba busy, "we'll stop playing, and start getting serious."