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Chapter Thirteen

Stay strong; stay strong, for Seto's sake. Mokuba had continued to chant to himself during the journey from the Kaiba Corp building across town to the warehouse that stored all of his brother's company's prototypes, and even now as he stood behind the controls of the virtual pod system he still repeated the phrase over in his mind. His stomach flipped with nerves and prayed that Seto's plan would work as he glanced over to his brother's body that was still under the control of their stepfather. "This thing's ready to start any moment now Seto, so we better get into the pods." He said with more forced cheeriness as he left the controls behind him and headed for his pod.

Kaiba's gaze was fixed upon the dark haired boy who now sat inside one of the virtual pods and about to place his headset on. Something wasn't right, surely after the recent events his youngest stepson wouldn't be so keen to want to enter another virtual world, even if it was to play computer games. "I don't think this is such a good idea Mokuba."

"What?!" No! I've come too far now for you to ruin everything.

The surprised look he saw on Mokuba's face told Gozaburo that the boy hadn't been expecting that kind of comment, indeed something wasn't quite what it seemed. "Aren't you scared after what happened to us yesterday?"

"Yes." Mokuba replied truthfully before he had the chance to realise that the word had left his lips. Stay strong; stay strong, for Seto's sake. "But I know that it's not possible for any of them to get at us now, and if he did then you'd be there protecting me from that evil bastard." Still his brother's cold blue eyes were fixed tightly on him and Mokuba slowly began to remove his headset. "I understand if you're scared though Seto."

"Who's scared?!" An angry roar erupted from Kaiba's mouth. You're getting paranoid you old fool, this child only wants to play, there's nothing threatening about the situation. Gozaburo saw the shaken look on the young boy's face before he turned away to enter his own pod. First he'd make his boy content and then he'd show no mercy towards him. I'll show you who's an evil bastard my boy, once I've finished with you, you won't be able to so much as breathe without some part of your body causing you pain. The headset was slammed on and Gozaburo waited to be transferred into the game's system.

Mokuba's hands shook as he placed his own headset back on which seemed to cause the sound of his racing heart to increase inside his ears. I've done my part Seto, now it's your turn.

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It took just a couple of seconds to upload Gozaburo's mind into the virtual pod system and the old man now found himself alone in vast emptiness. He glanced down at himself to see that he still took his stepson's appearance thanks to the cloaking disguise he had attached to his data before fleeing his virtual world. When the other boy arrived he'd still be completely unaware of everything that had taken place between his brother and himself, so maybe it would be a 'nice' surprise if he revealed his true form? The twisted smile was on Kaiba's face once again. To rape the innocent whilst he was happy or scared, the decision was now too hard to make, but one thing for sure was that he'd do it there in cyberspace before they returned to the real world for round two.

Mokuba slowly came into focus and joined his big brother in the emptiness. "Aww man, the game hasn't finished loading yet!" He complained as he looked around them and then smile up at Kaiba. "Let's play chess while we wait."

The two brothers stood opposite each other as a huge raised table and chess board materialised in front of them. One by one each piece appeared on their designated squares and the game was ready to start. "You go first bro." Mokuba insisted but received a blank look back from Kaiba. "What's wrong, don't you want to play chess?" There was no reply and the game vanished.

"I've got some things that I need to tell you little brother, and I don't think you're going to like them." Kaiba smirked as Gozaburo waited excitedly to see the shocked look cross the boy's face as pixel by pixel the disguise he wore fell apart from the youthful boy to reveal his true form.

"Gozaburo!"

"That's right you runt." He laughed at Mokuba who seemed genuinely surprised, though Gozaburo could have swore he detected a slight trace of sarcasm in the boy's voice. Don't let the paranoia get you again. "I switched places with your brother during our duel to escape from the virtual world, leaving him behind to perish on the doomed sea-base."

"Tell me something I don't know old man." Mokuba sneered and he too dissolved to reveal a very smug Seto standing in his place. "Surprise stepfather."

"Seto!" Gozaburo exclaimed in horror of seeing his eldest stepson stood before him. I knew I wasn't being paranoid! "Impossible, how did you escape?"

"You should have taken better care of your offspring."

"Noah." The old man growled through gritted teeth. "Where is he?"

"Somewhere you can't reach him." Seto's deep blue eyes narrowed dangerously on his stepfather. "Its judgement day Gozaburo, and you're not going to be able to escape punishment for everything you've ever done to me and my brother."

"I've never laid a finger on Mokuba." Gozaburo glared back into the cold icy stare of his stepson.

And that's the way it's going to stay. Seto told himself as a smirk crept onto his face. "Who said anything about Mokuba?"

What?! Less than two days ago, when Gozaburo fled the virtual world, he had left behind two boys who hated each other beyond all things imaginable so how on earth had they bonded so well during that time? From the way his stepson had spoken it seemed that Noah at least, as Seto wasn't the kind to share any kind of personal information, had spoken up of the abuse suffered at his hands. Could it be that their hatred of him is what united them? No, it had to be something else. But what else could have prompted the boy before him to acknowledge the other as his own brother?

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Mokuba waited impatiently beside the virtual pod where his brother's body remained motionless. Come on bro, it shouldn't take you this long to get back to your body. He leaned in closer to check that Gozaburo hadn't somehow messed up any of the connections and jumped at the sight of Kaiba's eyes springing wide open.

"It's okay Mokuba." Kaiba said as he saw the younger boy back away with a startled look on his face.

"Seto, you're back!" Mokuba exclaimed happily and raced back over to hug his brother as he stepped out from the pod.

"Not quite." Kaiba frowned and the younger brother pulled away in confusion. "It's Noah."

"Noah?" Mokuba almost cried at hearing that it wasn't his brother after all. "Something's gone wrong hasn't it? What happened? Where's Seto?"

"Your brother's fine Mokuba, there's just been a slight change of plan."

"What kind of change?"

"We have to get the other pod connected up so that Seto can use it to escape from father that way instead."

"Why? What was wrong with the old plan?"

"There was nothing wrong with the old plan." Noah sighed as he tried to calm the distressed boy. "But you know Seto he………."

"He's confronting him isn't he?" Mokuba butted in and saw his brother sigh sadly which meant that he probably was. "He should have learnt from last time, look what happened then!" the younger boy grabbed hold of Kaiba's white coat and shook him. "He knows, Gozaburo knows that you've both returned."

Noah carefully eased Mokuba from him. "That's not possible. If father had known there's no way he would have gone ahead with any of this."

"But he did stall to try and stop our plan from going ahead a number of times, and why else would he ask me how much I love Seto?"

Kaiba's face drained of colour and his eyes dilated as Noah asked; "Did he do anything to hurt you?" he saw the younger boy shake his head. "Don't worry Mokuba, father doesn't know."

"How do you know?"

"I just do." Noah growled in Kaiba's voice and Mokuba fell silent. "Seto changed the plan for a different reason, one he's not fond to admit. He wants to give us both the chance to say our goodbyes before…………"

"My brother's a self righteous jerk!" Mokuba stated angrily before his lips trembled and the rest of his words became sobs. "I've already said my goodbyes to you twice Noah and I can't do it again. I know Seto is going to delete you when he wipes the system's data and there's nothing that I can do to change that." He broke down into showers of tears. "I can't believe that he would do this to us both."

"Mokuba please don't be sad for me." Kaiba's voice was a whisper as Noah attempted to assure his stepbrother that it was time for him to move on.

Pulling away from his brother, Mokuba dried his eyes and fought back the rest of his tears. "I'll have to go and get some tools to connect the pod." His teary eyes looked up towards Noah and his mouth quivered before he raced off out of the room.

Noah approached the virtual pods' main controls and tried to bring up what was happening inside the programme to no avail. Damn you Seto! He smashed a fist down hard onto the console and stared hard at the screen that reflected back Seto's face. It would be so easy for him to just stay where he was, inside his stepbrother's body, and live out the life that had been snatched away from him all those years ago. Noah looked deeper into the sapphire blue eyes staring back at him. I'm sorry brother, but this is the way it has to be. He hated to see Mokuba cry and wanted to make him stop.