Chapter 3

She could feel the separation from her body immediately - it was a surreal sensation, one that she couldn't fully describe to someone who had never experienced this kind of phenomenon. There was blackness once she entered the game, but once her mind had left her body for cyberspace, she found herself transported into a different world. She felt as if the cord between life and death had been cut the moment that her mind left her physical body for cyberspace - it was if she had died in her physical reality, and was reborn into this virtual one.

Tea found herself in the middle of a clearing in a forest. Douglas firs towered all around her, and the familiar scent of evergreen wafted through the air. The ground below her was covered in green grass, which sprouted wildflowers of pinks, blues, and purples. The sky above her mirrored the cerulean in her eyes. She could even feel the rays of the virtual sun warm her skin. This world was colorful, bright, and warm, unlike the persona of the man who played God and created this world.

"Tea!" A voice called. She turned to find Mokuba running towards her,

"It worked," she said softly to herself as she looked down at her hands. Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste - she had it all, and she realized the terrifyingly fine line between the real and the virtual. This was all in cyberspace, but she felt as if she still had her physical body with her. During Battle City, when they were all trapped in Noah's virtual prison, she knew she was in cyberspace. But this – this was on a different level, and she felt her mind begin to doubt itself on what truly was real, and what wasn't.

"Mokuba, it worked!" Tea exclaimed as he approached her.

"Of course it did! My brother designed it remember?" Mokuba said proudly.

A futuristic, holographic screen appeared in front of Mokuba. "Look here, Tea," Mokuba gestured to her. She walked over to him.

"This computer screen appears when you enter this virtual simulation. This is where you can choose your deck, get a map of the game, and get all the resources you need," Mokuba explained. "It's basically your resource when you enter the game - everything you could possibly need, you can find on this screen. Every level has a different terrain, and you can bypass levels sometimes too!" Mokuba continued.

It truly was all incredible. Too bad Kaiba's attitude wasn't as bright and warm as this world he created.

After Mokuba had given her a brief tour of the game, Tea decided that it was fine time to head back to the real world. "Well, I'm glad that you showed this all to me, Mokuba. How about you say we get back?" Tea suggested.

"Sure!" Mokuba said as he entered some data onto the computer screen.


The thunder rumbled and lightning struck the city as Kaiba stepped into the elevator from his office at Kaiba Corp. He leaned against the wall of the lift as it took him to the ground floor. Some well-deserved sleep was what he needed, but the new prototype of his virtual reality simulator was scheduled to be released to the public in the next few months, and he still needed to fix more of the glitches and finalize the coding. Working on the prototype had been part of his daily schedule for the past few months. After a long, tiring day of firing employees, doing business analytics, and other necessary tasks needed to run a multi-billion dollar company, he would retire to the quiet of his home laboratory. Here, he could work on the prototype undisturbed, just as he preferred things.

Once he reached the base of the building, an assistant wearing a black suit and sunglasses was waiting outside of the lobby for him. Once the young CEO exited the building, the assistant opened a big black umbrella to shield Kaiba from the rain. Once Kaiba was in the limo, the assistant shut the door and retired to the lobby of the building.

The mansion before him was a welcome sight. He would work on the prototype for a few hours, write some new code, and then go to bed. The large black gates of the manor opened as the limousine pulled up. Once the car entered the gate, it drove the long stretch to the large entrance doors. Kaiba exited the vehicle, not caring about the rain. He entered into the warm shelter of his mansion, handing his blue trench coat to one of the maids. He stopped.

Why is there a girl's jacket in the living room?

Maybe one of Mokuba's friends was over?

He didn't think anything of it initially – but if he had looked a little closer, he would have noticed that the jacket was the same one that Tea had draped around her chair at the coffee shop earlier today. And if he had looked a little closer, he would have noticed the pink ribbons of her ballet shoes sticking out of her dance bag. Just a second more of observation, he would have easily deduced that Tea was in their house…..and that something was just a little wrong.

He casually walked to the elevator that would take him down to his laboratory. At last, this updated version of his duel dimension system would be complete – a feat that he was working on for the past few years. It was more futuristic, more real, and the monsters far more terrifying. His first Duel Disk that he invented back in Duelist Kingdom changed the game forever, but this would cement his legacy in the history of the entire game.

After a long ride down, Kaiba finally reached the observation deck. He stopped.

Why the hell are the lights on?

Then, it all clicked simultaneously at once. The unusually quiet house, Mokuba nowhere to be found when he got home, the girl's jacket in the living room. The world didn't seem to be at equilibrium anymore.

No. He couldn't have.

He saw Mokuba and Tea in the prototype pods of his updated virtual simulator.

He eyes widened and he clenched his teeth as he raced over to the glass windows of the observation deck.

"Mokuba!" Kaiba yelled as he slammed his hands onto the glass, hoping to get his brother's attention.

With a push of a button in the observation deck, three very large holographic computer screens appeared before him, and so did a virtual keyboard. Kaiba read the complex graphs and charts from the other two screens, and began to read the complex code that displayed on one of the screens. He intended to force quit the program so that Mokuba and Yugi's cheerleader could return from cyberspace, but as his fingers raced across the keyboard, he noticed that the system had froze.

What the hell is going on?

The lights and the screens in the laboratory began to flicker, and sounds of static accompanied the virtual holographic computer screens going gray.

"Mokuba!" Kaiba yelled as he bolted down the stairs from the observation deck to the laboratory.

Mokuba and Tea began to seize in the chairs, bolts of electricity coming from the wires in their temples. Kaiba immediately ran to his brother's pod, and cradled his body in his arms. Once he did, Mokuba went limp - his mind was trapped in cyberspace along with Tea's

NO.

MOKUBA!


The rain drenched the earth with the staccato of a thousand drummers; the thunder the clash of cymbals in nature's cataclysmic orchestra. A whirling storm covered the city, which seemingly reflected the turmoil in Yugi's mind.

"What in the world happened today?" Yugi wondered as he flipped through one of his textbooks. He was sitting on the couch in the living room of his childhood home, the one above the Kame Game shop. His textbooks were scatted to one side of the coffee in the living room, while the other half of the table was covered in his Duel Monsters playing cards arranged into neat rows of five. Usually, when his mind became numb from reading his textbooks, he could switch his focus to Duel Monsters. However, the only thing that preoccupied his mind at the moment was that blinding light that he experienced at the coffee shop today. That vision today was unusual - usually, he experienced such a light only in his dreams.

"I don't see Kaiba in person in four years, and now this," Yugi pondered. The smell of fresh-brewed coffee lingered in the air, and the fireplace crackled in the coziness of his childhood home. Yugi walked over to the large window in the living room, coffee cup in one hand. His other hand was shoved into his pocket as he stared at the heavy rainfall outside. "I thought this was all behind us already," Yugi said to no one in particular. "But why? Why did I experience that vision today?" He stared out of the large window of the living room, as he lifted his coffee cup to his lips.

RING RING

The quiet of the home was interrupted by the ring of the telephone.

"Hello?" Yugi asked as he picked up the phone.

"Yugi." The cold voice said curtly in a no-nonsense tone. Yugi recognized that voice, and the impatience that dripped from it, anywhere.

"Kaiba?" He asked. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" Yugi smiled, with his tone oozing with a tinge of sarcasm.

"Cut the sarcasm, Yugi," Kaiba spat back. "Turns out your little friend Tea decided to try out the prototype of my new virtual reality prototype with my brother, and they've run into some….issues if you will." He said.

"Issues?!" Yugi gasped. "What do you mean issues, Kaiba?!" He was starting to get demanding. He needed to know if Tea was alright. "Where is Tea?!" The interrogation began, the usually calm and collected baritone voice was now laced with fear and worry for his friend.

"Kaiba mansion - be here when you can" Kaiba said curtly.

"Kaiba-" Yugi spat into the phone. The line went dead.

Without any hesitation, Yugi grabbed the green umbrella near the front door, and hurried out in the pouring rain towards Joey's house. If they were gonna save Tea, they had to do this together. If there was anything their adventures from Duelist Kingdom to the Ceremonial Battle taught him, it was that things are just better done when you are never alone, and this was no different - Tea was in trouble, and just like always, they'd get through this together as the team they always were, and would always be.

He ran down the familiar street of that familiar neighborhood, until he came to the steps of a two-story home on well-kept street with gas lamps. The lights in the living room were on, which, to Yugi's relief, meant that Joey was home.

"JOEY! JOEY!" Yugi said as he pounded on the door of his friend's house. In less than a second, Joey answered the door, Tristan standing behind him.

"Yug?" Joey asked.

"Something wrong, bud?" Tristan followed.

They could tell he was exasperated, panting from the run in the rain. His green umbrella didn't shield him entirely from the rain, as his black dress shirt was partly wet. His eyes showed obvious worry.

"Tea is in trouble! We need to go to the Kaiba Mansion - now!" Yugi explained.

"What?!" Both Joey and Tristan said at the same time.

"The Kaiba mansion? What in the world would Tea be doing there?" Tristan asked.

"Kaiba just said to go to his mansion, but I don't know why or what happened!" Yugi said in a panicked voice.

"Well what are we waiting for?! Let's go!" Joey said as he immediately put on his jacket.

All three of them hopped in Tristan's car.

The ride was tense, as Tristan sped towards the Kaiba Mansion. Every second counted. Yugi clenched his fist and bit his bottom lip, while Tristan tightly grasped the steering wheel, his brown eyes focused on the road in front of him. Joey fidgeted in the back seat.

After what seemed like an eternity, they arrived at the large estate. Tristan had not even pulled the car to a halt when Yugi immediately got out of the driver's seat and ran the long stretch to the large front doors. Joey and Tristan immediately tailed behind him, none of them bothering that the rain was drenching their clothes and making droplets of water drip from their hair.

Yugi slammed both of his hands on the door's expensive wood. "Kaiba!" He screamed. "Kaiba!" He pounded again. The thunder in his voice and the loud pounding on the door ensured that he would be heard.

The door calmly opened, and the three boys faced a maid dressed in a black dress and a white apron. She wore her long black hair in a tight bun on her head.

"Mr. Mutou," the maid beckoned, giving them a curtsy. "Mr. Kaiba is expecting you," she said, her voice calm, gentle, yet monotonous.

She moved to the side to let the three of them in. Another maid dressed in the same uniform appeared, holding towels in her hands. Instinctively, Yugi, Joey, and Tristan took them in order to dry off. The maid that had let them in led them through the corridors of the mansion, and eventually brought them to what appeared to be an elevator.

"Please take the elevator down to the basement," she said. "Mr. Kaiba will meet you there." And with that, she departed as Yugi, Joey, and Tristan loaded into the elevator.

The ride down was silent, and the tension in the air could be cut with a knife. Yugi hadn't ever felt this helpless in awhile, and he knew his friends felt the same way. When they finally reached the bottom, Joey stumbled out of the elevator first, intending to sprint to wherever Kaiba was and demand an explanation.

Crash

He bumped into Kaiba himself, and recoiled backwards from the slight impact.

Kaiba scowled at them - he was still dressed in the outfit he was wearing that morning with the exception of his trench coat. A pair of glasses sat on the bridge of his nose.

"Didn't my maids tell you?" Kaiba smirked. "There are no dogs in my house, Yugi." He said as he stared at Joey.

"Listen, rich boy!" Joey began. "As much as I would love to pound your face in right now, we are here to help Tea!" Joey spat back. "So tell us where she is!" He demanded.

Kaiba grunted and turned out and started walking down the long hallway, which was his way of telling Yugi and his friends to follow him. They immediately obliged. He led them to the observation deck of the large laboratory, and from the large glass windows, they saw Tea and Mokuba sitting in their futuristic pods, wires attached to their temples. The pods were then connected to a large supercomputer, and the holographic computer screens appeared showing data that Joey, Tristan, and Yugi couldn't decipher. There was even a screen that monitored the vitals of both Tea and Mokuba.

Both of Yugi's hands were pressed up against the glass. "What happened, Kaiba?!" Yugi demanded.

"Glitch." Kaiba said curtly.

"So what does that mean?" Tristan asked.

"It means that they're stuck in cyberspace."

"No, not again! I had enough of this virtual nightmare back with Noah!" Joey said.

"I'm going after my brother," Kaiba said as he took off his glasses.

"I'm going with you!" Yugi said, determined.

"Please, Yugi" Kaiba started. "If I needed your help I would have asked for it." Kaiba said back coldly.

"You can't do this on your own, Kaiba! Haven't you learned anything through the years!?" Yugi countered back.

"There is only one prototype left, and I will be the one going to rescue my brother." Kaiba said as he walked downstairs to the lab itself. The three followed.

"Well, what about Tea?!" Joey asked.

Kaiba turned around. "Trust me, it won't take me long to save Mokuba and your little cheerleader," he said. "Besides, I am best equipped to handle this mission on my own, since, you know, I designed this thing."

"Well apparently not good enough!" Joey countered.

Kaiba let out an irritated snort.

"We're not leaving until they're both back," Yugi said.

"Suit yourself," Kaiba said as he pushed a button. By this command, a third pod rose from the floor next to Tea, and Kaiba got in, attaching the necessary wires to himself as he got situated.

"Duel Dimension System X, activate!" Kaiba commanded.

With that, his mind left the physical world to the virtual one he created. He was going to rescue his brother, if that was the last thing he ever did.

A/N: Thanks again for all your reviews. I have to find a way to build up Tea and Kaiba's relationship - since they are so different, I didn't think it was plausible for them to just fall in love with each other immediately.