Thankies :)
Yeah, I want him stopped too!
Chapter Eleven
To carry out his brother's plan, Mokuba needed to enlist the help of Yugi and the gang to help him set up the virtual pods, which had been dismantled ever since the Big Five had tried to trap Seto there previously, but failed to do so, which led to his brother finally getting rid of them for their continuous treachery in their loyalty. He still got the chills as he remembered how they had handed him over to Pegasus, who had kept him locked up to try and break his will in order to sign Kaiba Corp over as his brother had supposedly been 'taken care of' by them also. But Mokuba knew that they couldn't return to hurt either of them anymore as he'd witnessed Noah delete all five of them back in the virtual world, and soon Gozaburo would face the same fate once Seto was back in his body.
Seto had insisted that he wasn't to reveal anything to the 'geek-squad' about what had happened and so Mokuba had instead fabricated a story about how he wanted to get the gaming system up and running again as a way of trying to get his brother to relax and overcome the disappointment of losing the tournament. A sly smile crept on Mokuba's face as he recalled the look of horror he had seen his brother display less than an hour ago when he had joked about Joey winning the Battle City tournament and Seto would probably have continued to believe the lie if he hadn't broke down into a fit of giggles and revealed the actual outcome. The smile faded as Mokuba turned his thoughts towards Noah. What would become of his stepbrother once all of this was over?
Clearing his mind, Mokuba concentrated on fixing the pod, which Joey and Tristan had carried for him a few minutes ago, to the main unit. Once the whole thing had been set up as Seto had instructed, all he then had to do was convince Gozaburo that the two of them spent every Saturday night playing together in the virtual computer game. His brother had assured him that their stepfather would still be keeping to the same routine so as to not blow his cover, but still Mokuba was nervous about leaving his two brothers on the virtual pods' system while he faced Gozaburo alone.
"It's my last chance to spend some quality time with my sis before she goes back home to our mom and what am I doing? Moving these pieces of junk around for Rich Boy's benefit!" Joey exclaimed angrily as he helped Tristan carry one more of the large virtual pods which he then let go of causing his end to drop down and received heated looks from both his friend and the younger Kaiba brother for his action.
Serenity gave a small burst of laughter at her brother's stupidity as the pod caught the toes of his right foot. "I don't mind helping out your friends if they need it." Along with Yugi and Tea, she was busy cleaning down the control surfaces that had been gathering dust from not being in use.
"Kaiba's no friend of mine." Joey grumbled as his removed his footwear to massage his throbbing toes. "Especially after that prank he pulled yesterday."
"In case you've forgotten Joey, we're here because Mokuba asked for our help not Kaiba." Yugi spoke up to remind his friend why they were there as the dark haired boy had called them for help an hour earlier.
"The least you could do is show your thanks to him for calling out the medical helicopter that came to rescue us." Tea added.
"Yeah, if it wasn't for the little dude, none of us would have escaped from the island." Tristan also joined in.
"I guess you're right." Joey sighed and turned to face the younger boy who was still busy connecting the first pod in the middle of the room. "Sorry Mokuba."
"Don't worry about it." Mokuba told the blonde. "Seto's been under a lot of pressure lately and isn't quite himself, but I know he'll thank you in person the next time he sees you."
"I can hardly wait." Joey muttered sarcastically as he lifted the virtual pod once more.
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Noah frowned at the text he had just typed for several of Mokuba's assignments that he had been working on, all of them were complete but none of them were good enough to merit anything higher than a C grade for his stepbrother. "Can't I let him have at least one A?"
"No." Seto replied bluntly as he worked on a cloaking programme which he planned to use against his stepfather later that day, he'd finished his share of his brother's assignments ages ago.
"How about a B then?" Several phrases of the French assignment were quickly altered by the green haired boy as he knew it would increase the grade.
"No." Seto replied again more firmly. "Mokuba's smart but he's not exactly a grade A student so anything too high may cause the old man to become suspicious."
"Okay." Noah sighed admitting defeat and re-altered the French assignment back to the way it was. "There finished." He looked across to his stepbrother who was busy typing away. "Why didn't you warn him?"
"There was no need to; I don't think that he'll be disappointed with the grades."
"I wasn't talking about the assignments Seto and you know it." Noah snapped as his stepbrother tried avoiding the question relating to Gozaburo abusing them in the manner he had done.
"He doesn't need to know." Seto stopped typing and remained calm despite the way the younger boy had just spoken to him. He would keep that part of his past locked away from his brother as revealing it would probably do more harm than good, and there was no way he wanted Mokuba to blame himself for the abuse which had been endured to keep him safe from their stepfather. "The poor kid is scared enough as it is without adding to his worries and fears."
"What if something happens to him?" Noah's voice was merely a whisper, he didn't envy Seto for the hard decision he had made over Mokuba's safety and sanity.
Then I'll never forgive myself. Words would never express the feeling Seto had if something were to happen to Mokuba which he could have prevented. The sheer thought of his innocent little brother having to experience any kind of abuse from their stepfather sickened him, so to know that Mokuba might fall victim to the sexual abuse deeply troubled him. And the fact that if it were to happen it would be his body causing the suffering … well, there just wasn't a word that could possibly describe his feeling of despair.
Noah now felt extremely guilty for having brought up the subject which had caused his stepbrother to coil up in his own thoughts as Seto stared into the space in front of him with his eyes glazed. "So, how's that cloaking programme looking?" He attempted to drag Seto out of his wallowing.
It took a few moments for his stepbrother to react and activate the programme but Noah soon found himself staring face to face with Mokuba. "Well?" the dark haired boy asked using Seto's voice.
"Perfect."
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At Kaiba Corp, Mokuba left the elevator and nervously approached his brother's office. In his hands he held the pile of assignments that Gozaburo was expecting from him and was thankful that both his brothers had bailed him out of the tight spot after he had lied about studying Russian. Now he just prayed that his stepfather wouldn't question him about the subject. You can do this. He told himself as he took one last deep breath before he knocked on the door and slowly entered to see Kaiba sat behind his desk as he screamed down the phone to whoever was on the other end.
"I don't care if you have a wife and kids! You're clearly incapable of doing your job so you're fired!" The phoned was slammed down and Gozaburo's attention turned to the boy who had entered the room. "What brings you here Mokuba?"
"These do." Mokuba smiled and held out his load as he presented the pile of papers to his stepfather. "I finished them all, just like you asked, like I always do." Don't over do it. His mind told himself.
Gozaburo took the papers, quickly flipped through them and Kaiba's brows rose from his surprise. He found that all of the assignments were complete and even ones for the two languages which he hadn't been expecting as he had been so sure that the boy had been bluffing about studying them, clearly not. The quality of the work wasn't anything to rave about as this boy's intelligence was obviously nowhere near as high as his older brother's, but still there had to be something that the younger boy was good for.
"And now that my homework has been taken care of, and you don't seem to be busy, why don't we start tonight's gaming a few hours earlier?" Mokuba smiled widely as he over expressed himself with his forced fake happiness. There was no response from his stepfather. "Come on bro, we play your virtual pod games every weekend."
"Not this weekend kid." Gozaburo dumped the pile of papers back in the arms of their owner and saw a baffled look on the young boy's face. He wasn't going to waste his time playing some childish computer game when there was still a lot of work to be done reorganising his company. "I have a lot of work that I still need to do so tonight is cancelled."
"But."
"No buts!" Gozaburo roared scaring his youngest stepson and then let out a sigh as he assumed his oldest stepson would do the same after startling his brother through no fault of the boy's own. "Some things have to be sacrificed, everything comes at a price."
No you can't do this! Mokuba's mind screamed to himself. Seto's relying on me to get you into that pod and I won't let him down. He resorted to the puppy dog eyes like he had done earlier. "What kind of price do I have to pay for you to play with me?"
The purely innocent question was received in completely the wrong manner as Kaiba's eyes fixed on his brother. That's what you're good for. Gozaburo's mind sneered as he rose out of the chair and approached the dark haired boy.
Yes, I did it! Mokuba's mind rejoiced at the sight of his smiling brother coming towards him, clearly Gozaburo wasn't going to work after all; Seto's plan would still go ahead.
Kaiba now stood in front of his brother with both arms raised as he then clamped them on either side of the smaller boy's shoulders. "How much do you love your brother Mokuba?"
The younger boy looked into the cold sapphire eyes that stared down at him. He had sensed something not quite right about the question he had just been asked and didn't feel like providing an answer to it. Why had he been asked that? Was it possible that Gozaburo knew about his brothers' return? The look he received and grip on his shoulders grew more intense the longer Mokuba stalled with his answer. He had to say something. "I…." he paused as the look on Kaiba's face twisted with a malevolent smile as his answer began and now he was scared.