Thankies reviewers :)

(hands out freshly baked cookies)

Chapter Nine

Everything was a blur as the two stepbrothers travelled along the internet. For several hours they had been thrown across wi-fi frequencies, inside broadband cables and down numerous phone lines as Seto struggled to keep focused on their destination. Millions of doorways passed by either side of the two boys as they held on to each other during their journey in the bright corridor that they sped through.

Focus. Seto's mind screamed at himself. Even though Noah had explained to him that going out onto the internet would be like this, he still hadn't prepared himself for the task which was unlike anything he'd experienced before. It was like riding the rollercoaster ride from hell, whilst trying the recite Shakespeare's complete works backwards, as they travelled in the bright chaos. His eyes were scrunched up tight but still Seto could see all of the exits whiz by until the website he'd been searching for came into view and they passed through a barrier to enter his chosen destination.

Suddenly the boys were ripped apart from each other. Seto landed hard on the ground and he suspected that all of his bones would have shattered from the impact had he still been in his physical form. He pushed himself up, his head still spinning, and looked around for the stepbrother who he saw running towards him.

"Wasn't that the most exhilarating thing you've ever experienced?" Noah laughed and helped the CEO up onto his feet.

"That's not the word I'd use to describe it." Seto held his head which was refusing to stay in one place and was glad that his stomach remained in the real world as otherwise its contents would soon be scattered for all to see. He was certain that information passed almost instantly along the internet and yet it had taken them so long, probably due to his lack of concentration on their destination. "How long were we travelling for?"

"Only a few hours." Noah smiled after he had summoned a clock to appear from within the site's programming. "The first time I ever travelled the internet it took me weeks to get back to the virtual world, father wasn't pleased at all." He stopped talking about his experience and the happiness faded from his face.

"You okay kid?" Seto asked trying to sound concerned and fulfil his 'empty-made' promise to Noah about helping him to overcome the memories of Gozaburo.

"Yes." Noah nodded with a heavy sigh. "Nothing happened once we were separate worlds, but still….." He trailed off as he thought about his father. "How can I hate him Seto?"

"Quite easily after the things he's put you through." Seto replied coldly. Surely he didn't have to remind his stepbrother of what he had seen in the boy's dreams?

"He's my father, asking me to hate him is like asking you to hate Mokuba." Noah argued, knowing that his stepbrother could never understand the father and son bond that they had once shared. He saw Seto struggle, but manage, to hold back what he knew would be an unpleasant remark for having compare the situation to the bond between his stepbrothers. Glancing at the site around them Noah changed the uneasy subject. "What are we doing here?"

All around them were displayed hundreds and possibly even thousands of photos of cloud formations; each one of them was different in its own unique way. "The Cloud Appreciation Society?" Noah's nose wrinkled with confusion as he had been expecting his stepbrother to take them to his company's website.

"You didn't think for one second that I'd leave an obvious backdoor to Kaiba Corp through my own website did you Noah?" Seto asked the confused looking boy in an amused tone. He led the way through the site with no trouble at all as he'd visited there on many occasions and stopped in front of the photo he loved the most. The photo showed his company's building and there in the sky behind and above it the clouds resembled a huge white dragon. He reached out to touch the image which dissolved to reveal an access panel that asked for a password to proceed onwards to Kaiba Corp and entered his own code: Nikita.

"Another girl Seto?" Noah laughed but got no reply from the older boy. "You think you're quite the ladies man don't you?" He continued to laugh even through the icy disapproving glare that he was receiving from his stepbrother.

The password was accepted and the two of them entered through the door that opened up and instantly arrived inside Kaiba Corp's main computer system. Seto gave a sigh of relief as he knew that they'd be no more running involved and could now focus on planning a way to reclaim his body. He tried to bring up the connections to the many security cameras he had in place in order to track down the impostor's movements but failed. Closing his eyes to concentrate better, Seto tried again but found that the script for the cameras and other parts of his system were no longer there. "Someone has been deleting my programmes." He growled.

"Erm, Seto, I think you should take a look at this." Noah's voice sounded scared.

As he reopened his eyes Seto was met with the view of a long line of red flame monsters coming speedily towards them. He knew immediately that Gozaburo was behind it all and that he had arrived too late to be able to do anything to prevent it from happening further. The monsters deleted every bit of data in their path most of which had taken Seto months to create and even years to perfect, all that hard work, gone just like that.

"We have to leave now!" Noah yelled as he grabbed hold of his stepbrother's arm and pulled them both out of the system to re-enter the internet. They only remained in the bright chaos for a few seconds as the green haired boy flung them both into the nearest site which was an online entertainment retailer. Both boys landed apart from each other and Noah glanced across to where his stepbrother knelt staring into the empty space in front of him.

Seto's mind was having a hard time trying to register everything that was happening. He cursed himself for having chosen his mother's name as the password but knew that the reason he had done so was simply so he didn't forget her completely. His memories of her had long since faded but as long as he remembered her name then she'd always be with him and Mokuba, watching over them, and what better way to permanently imprint the name in his mind than to have it be the code for accessing his everyday life? He cursed again, this time for being so predictable that his stepfather had known that his password would be one of the few things he had cherished most. Seto's eyes burned as he felt foolish for ever thinking that there could possibly be a higher power out there watching over him as his life continued from bad to worse.

"Stay strong Seto." Noah placed a comforting hand on his stepbrother's shoulder which was quickly pushed aside. He didn't attempt to comfort the older boy any further as he knew his efforts would be unwanted, but Seto had vowed to help him conquer his past and so he would remain by his stepbrother's side waiting to be able to repay the favour if the chance ever arose.

Closing his eyes helped to ease the burning sensation and Seto took a deep breath to clear his mind. So far that day he'd lost not only his body, but his duel tournament as well as his company and was determined not to lose the most important thing to him. Mokuba. Seto's eyes reopened as he rose to his full height, he'd keep on fighting for his little brother like he always had done even if he could no longer be there in person. He'd be there until the end of time to watch over Mokuba, but how was he going to be able to do anything for his brother from where and how he was now?

"Now what?" Noah asked as he watched Seto slowly move away from him. "We could try accessing Kaiba Corp again as the monsters should have finished their work by now, and even though I'm pretty sure father won't waste a moment changing passwords to keep us locked out for good it still couldn't hurt to try." There was no response to his suggestion. "Seto?" He saw his stepbrother touch the image of a music CD which brought up all the information on the product that could be purchased through the site. "Seto, this is no time to be buying music!"

The Des Feral Imps was the name of the group whose CD Seto was viewing which would soon be available to buy or download the next day. A grin appeared on his face as he knew that they were his brother's favourite band and that Mokuba would waste no time downloading their new album onto his multi media player just as soon as it was made available. He pulled up the clock from the site's programme and saw that the current time was almost half past ten at night, that left him just over one and a half hours to get to the site where Mokuba acquired his music from before the first download would be available to purchase.

With thoughts of Mokuba in his mind causing him to do nothing but focus on the next destination, Seto strode over to his stepbrother and took firm hold of the boy. "Get ready Noah, we're going surfing one last time."