A/N: WELL THAT DEADLINE PASSED BY DIDN'T IT? Sorry for the late update, but my past two weeks have been crazy. Seriously, they wouldn't be out of place in a soap opera. Stalkers, coursework, being the calm-person-who's-calm-was-broken-by-two-friends-fighting-who-then-had-to-resolve-their-argument-via-yelling, cancer. ECT. That and writer's block makes me a sad Ava.

RECAP AS TO WHY THIS TOOK SO LONG:

Coursework, laptop death, birthday, new netbook, more coursework.

~Ava

~XxX~

The world started again.

I collapsed to my hands from my waist, not able to stand as I was coughing so hard from dust. I glanced up for a second, holding one fist to my mouth as I coughed once last time, and smiled at Mokuba lunging at Kai-Seto and hugging him. I felt a few vague memories niggle at the back of my head...something about a room? Or was it cards? I shrugged inwardly and turned my mind back to the matter at hand in time to hear Duke say something confusing.

"We're back! That must mean that Yugi won the duel!" He said, smiling and squeezing Serenity's shoulder, much to the chargrin of the robot monkey, Tristan. The three of us that were still on our knees frowned with varying degrees of confusion, Kai-Seto seeming more annoyed than Mokuba or I.

"Duel?" Kaiba glared at Duke, "What duel?" Duke's hand tightened protectively on Serenity, Tristan doing the monkey equivalant and Joey moved infront of her, I snickered inside, evidently Serenity was loved. Teá answered K-Seto's question with her own frosty tone.

"Your duel, Kaiba. Yugi dueled using your deck and his in exchange for getting all three of your bodies back and for Noah to free us from this place," She gestured over my shoulder as all of us glanced at Noah and Yami standing on rocks that were slowly lowering into the ground. I frowned, debating the logic behind levitating rocks before shaking my head to clear it of such thoughts, I stopped trying to find the logic behind some things that happened to us around the time I found out that there were two Yugis. I looked back to the brothers, finding that both Mokuba and I were watching Kaib-Seto intently, picking up on the tic in his left cheek that only appeared when he was suppressing annoyance. I should know, I'd triggered that tic many a time before.

"He dueled with my deck?`" K-Seto asked, keeping his voice deviod of emotion, "My deck?" I rolled my eyes in mild disgust at the seriousness in his voice.

"Oh yes, it's the ultimate travesty. Yugi saved our lives with your pieces of card." I wiggled my fingers, "Oww..." Ka-Seto sighed exasperatedly.

"Callaghan..." He paused, shaking his head slightly, "You still don't understand." A sniff, "I wouldn't expect you to, either."

"I'm deliberately the only sane one around here Kaibaaacck-Seto." His tic strengthened as I corrected myself.

"You are to address me by my last name only Callaghan."

"Darling, I don't listen to you at the best of times-"

"-Callaghan. If you think that I will take kindly to-"

"Quit bickering! Both of you!" Teá snapped at us before pointing to Yami and Noah, Noah was...thrown backwards by a light from the Puzzle Yugi had. I frowned, confused.

"Wha-"

"You have failed me for the last time, Noah." An oddly familiar voice boomed across my own, drowning out my question. Overhead, the sky darkened dramatically.

"That voice...it can't be..." Kaiba's mildly confused tone made me slightly worried, worry that solidified at the same time as the clouds did.

"Gozaburo!" Mokuba called the name of the man whose face was visible in the virtual clouds. Noah beamed happily.

"Yes! Father! It was all his idea! And he's going to hand over KaibaCorp to me!" He turned from us to the cl-Gozaburo, still smiling at the appearance of his Father, "Isn't that right, Father?" The laughter that followed made everyone think differently.

"Why do you think I would do that, Noah?"

"I really don't like where this is going~" I sang under my breath, moving closer to Teá and cringing slightly at the sight of the man I had seen earlier. I may not have had an adaquate reason for hating him due to personal experience, but I knew a little of what he had been like and what he had done. I shuddered.

"Sorry, Pop but your time was over when I took over KaibaCorp." Kaiba said, sounding equal parts bored and angry. I couldn't help the inner smirk that I got at the sarcasm, not to mention the vauge respect I felt for him at the moment. I mean, he was staring at his supposedly dead Step-Father's face in a virtual sky and he hadn't even flinched yet.

"When I first adopted you, Seto," Gozaburo spat his name, "you were only for the purpose of serving my real son as competition to get him up to the standard of a real Kaiba heir." Another dark laugh from the man, "But Noah's little...accident changed my plans, you see, Noah needed a body and I didn't need Seto..." I saw Teá blanch at his words, my mind caught up to where she was and I too, quivered a little.

"You were going to transfer Noah's mind to Kaiba?" Teá pointed a hand at Gozaburo, fearless, "That's just sick!" Serenity and I exchanged glances and I edged a little closer to Teá. Another laugh from the man in the clouds.

"Ha! That plan died out quickly," a sigh of exasperation, "Noah soon proved that he wasn't fit for taking over KaibaCorp and besides, why would I want to change Seto's mind when he had a perfectly good one?" Gozaburo glared at said 'son.' "So I transferred all my efforts to Seto, until he stabbed me in the back and stole my company from me!" He said the last sentence with venom practically dripping from the words. I snickered a tad at his reaction, seemingly petulant for an older man. I glanced over my shoulder to the brothers, gauging their reactions. Seto was still glaring at Gozaburo with what seemed like every ounce of hate in his body and Mokuba was looking over at Noah, who had collapsed to the ground on his knees after hearing his Father's betrayal. I ran back over what their Step-Father had said in my mind, frowning heavily at one paticular clause. I braced myself, if Teá could call him out, I could too.

"You were playing with children's lives!" I yelled, still partially hiding behind Teá, who had the common undecency to stop being my shield and move to my side rather than stay infront of me. My eyes widened slightly when she moved and I floundered in my accusation for a moment, but regained it at a look from Yami that clearly said, 'go-on'. I shook my head to clear it, "Tha-did it ever occur to you that you were going to essentially murder a child for another?" I regretted speaking the second the heavy eyebrows turned in my direction and the eyes they shrouded narrowed at me.

"I fail to see how the trade would have failed, had Noah been successful heir material for KaibaCorp, I would have gone through with it. An orphan for an heir is not an unfair trade-off, girl, it's basic business to fire the weak employees to make way for the stronger ones." I had been quailing under his scrutiny for most of his answer, but my sense of utter horror seemed to cut through it, giving me a slight burst of inner strength.

"Employees?" I glanced back over my shoulder to glare at Seto, "Did h-wha-" I choked on my words and waved my hands in defeat, I couldn't argue with an unethical bastard, especially one with the power to crush me if I said what I wanted to say.

"So now what?" Joey took over my indignant attitude for me, brandishing a fist to the man in the clouds. Gozaburo laughed.

"I had myself put in the same suspended animation as I had had Noah in after Seto stole my company. And now it is time for revenge, Seto!" Had I a wall, I would have slammed my head into it, this was all for revenge? Really? I thought that only happened in books and movies. My mouth moved before I reigned my inner monologue in, apparently the thinky-thoughts came out of the talky-mouth while I wasn't paying attention. Gozaburo glared at me once more and I decied I was already in too deep to not make the most of it.

"What now, time to take over the world?" I snarked, feeling the adreniline rush that came with basically taking your life into your own hands for the sake of a one-liner. It appeared my stars weren't crossed today, as Gozaburo laughed at my last sentence.

"Why should I take it over, girl, when I can steal myself one of your bodies and bend the world to my will?" I frowned inwardly, that sure sounded like 'taking over the world' to me, until my ears caught up with my brain and relayed the rest of what he had said. Yami beat me to the punch, incredulity-wise.

"You're planning one stealing one of our bodies? How do you plan on bending the world to your will with one of us as your puppet?" Yami had taken that same stance he had when he was supporting Joey against Odion earlier...huh, it seemed like a lifetime ago...

"Of course, none of you little people holds anywhere near the amount of power I need, and I do have a personal score to settle..." His eyes travelled to Seto and we all got the hint.

"You snake." Seto hissed at his Step-Father, glaring at him again. If looks were bullets.

"Ha!" An ironic laugh from the older man, "You have the nerve to call me a snake? You're the one who took away my company using underhanded methods, Seto!" My brows knitted together at his words, underhanded by who's rules? I had seen how he had been ousted from power, it seemed to me like it was more a morality tale about how brotherly love can overcome even the most bastard-y of clever men. I shrugged inwardly, bitterness was probably the answer.

"Yeah, but," I looked over my shoulder again, "sorry for this," back to Gozaburo, "he's only the techy guy, he deals in freaking card games," I could practically feel the utterly dispairing attitude from behind me as I spoke, "he isn't exactly the president of the United States or the British Prime Minister." My skepticism seemed to amuse Gozaburo however, as what I said seemed to warrant some form of, 'Villain's Exposition.'

"You are right, girl. What my adopted son has done with my company has devalued it-"

"Not what I sai-"

"But I am no fool-"

"Debatable." Came a mutter from Duke, standing in front of Serenity.

"I have placed several of KaibaCorp's old warheads in space, just out of range of any of the Earth's goverment's best weaponry." We froze at the word, 'warheads,' "I shall bend the Earth's goverments to my will and Seto will get the blame!"

"Well, fuck." Teá voiced my opinion in a rare moment of swearing for her.

~XxX~

A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to come out, this is a new netbook that I am having to write on as the old one died a death after eleven long years of service, I had to use the money I was saving to go to America for two of my very good friend's wedding on this thing as I need it for my coursework. X_X Also, I'm writing this at the same time as I am writng up a 45,000 word essay on Tsarist Russia, the Nihilists and the troubles that Imperial Russia faced from the western world. Pity me please. And review, reviews are not only nice, but tell me what the hell I'm doing right and what the hell I'm doing wrong. JACK. WE HAD A DEAL, I UPLOAD THE NEXT CHAPTER, YOU REVIEW. ¬_¬ DOO EET. AND THE REST OF YOU, DON'T THINK YOU'RE GETTING OFF EASY. YOU TOO.

~Ava

(I love you all really XD)