Thanks again for the review :)

Also thanks to the shadow lurkers, alerters, and favers ;)

Chapter Ten

With Seto's mind heavily focused on his next destination it took only a couple of minutes for the stepbrothers to arrive at the download site and with plenty of time to spare he insisted that the younger boy get the sleep which he had been disturbed from earlier, assuring Noah that he would wake him right away if any more subconscious images appeared. This gave Noah the chance to rest and Seto the chance to be on his own for a while as he planned ahead for possible ways to reclaim his body from his stepfather and tried to justify as to why he was keeping his stepbrother with him.

The time passed quickly as Seto came up with numerous ideas for reclaiming his body, most of which involved the use of his abandoned virtual pods, but hadn't found a single reason as to why he kept Noah around since the boy was of no more use to him now that he was so close to being reunited with his brother and own body. It was nearing nine o'clock when finally he spotted the open link between Mokuba's multi media player and the music album that his brother was about to download. Unsure of just how long they would have to be able to transfer into his brother's device Seto swiftly grabbed a hold of the sleeping boy and jumped across the open link where they both landed in a heap as they downloaded to safety.

"Huh?" Mokuba glanced down at the screen on his multi media player. I wanted to download music, not a podcast. He was about to press delete then started to pay closer attention to the images displayed as he heard two familiar voices come though his earphones as they started to argue.

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"There wasn't time."

"Would it have killed you to wait just a second longer?"

"Possibly."

"Then why not just leave me behind?"

"Because...? …………? You're right, why the hell didn't I?"

"Could it be that you actually care about me Seto?"

"If I knew you were going to act ungrateful and delirious about it, then I would have left you behind!"

"This has to be some kind of joke!" Mokuba exclaimed at seeing Seto and Noah now stood face to face and annoyed with each other.

"Mokuba?" Both of the disagreeing boys looked up out of the screen at the sound of his voice and saw Mokuba jump, startled by the unexpected response from them.

"Okay, I'm hitting delete now." Mokuba said out loud.

"Nooo!" Seto screamed out. He hadn't come all this way only to be deleted by the one he was fighting to be reunited with. "Please Mokuba, don't press that button, we can explain everything."

Mokuba's finger hovered above the delete button as he glanced down into the tiny, terrified blue eyes of his brother staring back up at him. He had no idea as to what was going on or as to why he was talking back to the hoax image. "Explain away then."

"It's me Mokie." Seto began as though calling his brother by the nickname that he hadn't used since their time at the orphanage would suddenly make everything okay. Yeah right. He thought sarcastically to himself as his brother would probably want more proof than that. "Look, the short story is that Gozaburo escaped from the virtual world using my body, leaving me trapped inside cyberspace."

"That's a lie!" Mokuba interrupted angrily. "My brother is in his own body, Yugi rescued him from the virtual world just before it was destroyed, so this has to be some kind of a sick joke."

"It's no joke little brother. Our stepfather switched places with me when he struck out after losing the duel that Yugi saw ending. He became me and I became the monster he had turned into during his rage from the defeat." Seto explained with his eyes pleading for his brother to believe him. "If it hadn't been for Noah's help I would never have been able to escape from that place to find my way back to you."

"Noah?" Mokuba had almost forgotten about the other boy on the screen as he had been so outraged with the tiny version of Seto and looked across to see his stepbrother smile sheepishly at him.

"I'm afraid it's the truth brother." Noah nodded and caught a brief glimpse of the disapproving glare from Seto at hearing him address Mokuba as his brother. A genuine pleased and happy smile appeared on the green haired boy's face at being able to see the dark hair boy again. "I told you that I'd be back didn't I? Returning Seto is the favour that I owe and promised you."

Water began to well up in Mokuba's eyes as he realised that what he was being told had to be true as the parting conversation he'd had with Noah hadn't been heard by anyone else, so how else could the tiny Noah have known what he had told him? He glanced back to his tiny brother. "I'm sorry that I didn't believe you Seto."

"I wouldn't have believed me either." Seto laughed to lighten the mood and stop himself from shedding a string of tears like Mokuba was now doing.

"Don't cry Mokuba, everything is going to be okay." Noah assured as he watched his younger stepbrother wipe the tears from his eyes.

"I almost lost you both." Mokuba sniffed. "And now that I know Gozaburo is back, - in my brother's body - I'm scared." Both his voice and eyes showed signs of fear as he spoke.

"Why's that?" Seto tried to remain calm as he dreaded to think what his stepfather might have done to his little brother. "Has he hurt you in anyway?"

"No." Mokuba shook his head. "He's been acting just like you Seto; it's just that I said a few things that I shouldn't of." His voice became quieter as he began to explain about the military base. "After the tournament was over we flew to the place where he had been storing his and Noah's bodies, and once there he switched off the support systems that had been keeping them alive all this time." He gazed at his stepbrother who looked slightly shocked by the revelation. "I'm sorry Noah."

"At last, my body can rest in peace." The green haired boy whispered sadly as a happy tear trickled down his cheek.

"I said my final farewells to them both." Mokuba continued and began to fidget. "But the things that I said, - well more like yelled at him - weren't even remotely nice and I'm pretty sure that you would ground me for life if I ever use language like that again." He flushed slightly and averted his gaze from Seto so as to avoid a possible scolding for the swearing he'd just confessed to. "He's more than proven that he won't tolerate anyone who opposes him, so what if I'm next for the remarks I made?"

The comment made by his brother disheartened Seto greatly. It was like Mokuba had already accepted that Gozaburo had won but he too shared the fear his brother had. He looked longingly at the scared and saddened grey-blue eyes and knew that he would never give up on his brother. "It's okay Mokie, I can have everything returned to normal in just a few hours time, but I'm going to need your help, so you have to stay strong okay?"

Mokuba nodded in reply. His brother may have been distant and sometimes even cold towards him in the past, but one thing Seto never did was let him down, so he knew to believe when he was told things were okay.

"Why aren't you doing your homework?" Kaiba's cold voice came from the doorway to Mokuba's room.

A chill ran through Mokuba now that he knew Gozaburo was right behind him. Stay calm, you can do this. You have to, for Seto's sake. He told himself as he prepared to speak with his stepfather and as he turned around to face him, felt the electronic device ripped from his hands, leaving him with only the earphones as they came unplugged. Give that back!

Kaiba's eyes narrowed in disgust as Gozaburo viewed a brightly coloured cartoon of children playing a card game as the monsters came to life out of their cards. "Wasting your time I see, looks like I'll have to confiscate this."

"No!" Mokuba exclaimed in panic of being parted from his brother again then calmed his voice as he started to act towards his stepfather as though he was Seto. "The tasks for my languages' assignments are on there so I need it." He received an unconvinced glare. "Please Seto, I promise that I won't use it to watch anymore cartoons until I've finished everything." Still there was no reply from Gozaburo so Mokuba resorted to using puppy dog eyes which always worked on his brother but would his stepfather fall for them?

"Which languages?" Gozaburo demanded not buying for one minute that the boy was telling the truth.

"French." Mokuba replied instantly with the only language that he was study. Why did he pretend that he was taking more than one? He then added the first language which entered in his mind. "And Russian." Crap! Why had he said that, he didn't have a clue about Russian? Please don't ask me to speak any right now.

Kaiba's cell phone rang and Gozaburo answered it with his gaze still firmly fixed on Mokuba. "What is it?" he snapped and then listened as Kaiba's secretary explain that several business associates were waiting at Kaiba Corp for a meeting which he was running late for. "I'm the one that calls the shots, if they don't like it then they know where the door is." The call was ended on that note and Gozaburo handed the multi media player back to its owner. "I have work to do now, as you do too. I expect to see all of those assignments completed by the end of the day."

"Understood." Mokuba smiled as he took back his device and watched Kaiba leave before he plugged his earphones back in and looked down at the screen to see one of his cartoons being played. "Seto? Noah?"

"We're right here Mokuba." Noah's voice spoke out over the cartoon which slowly faded to reveal the two boys.

"I'm very disappointed with you." A disapproving look was on Seto's face.

"For what?" Mokuba exclaimed before the cartoon reappeared behind Seto and Noah as the title credits played to reveal that the series he had stored on his device was the cheap imitation cartoon of his brother's favourite card game. "Oh that, I can explain. I was searching for 'Duel Monsters' but accidentally typed in 'Duel Masters' and …." He broke off as he saw his brother's lips turn up in a smile.

"Just messing with you kiddo." Seto smirked. "But it does look like you've gotten yourself into a bit of a dilemma as now our stepfather will be expecting that Russian assignment you lied about."

"I know." Mokuba frowned. "What am I gonna do?"

"Leave it with us." Noah smiled. "We'll have those assignments done in no time, won't we Seto?"

"You guys are the best." Mokuba beamed as his brother nodded in reply to his stepbrother's question. "Now what can I do to help get you out of there?"