Chapter 2

Seto Kaiba walked briskly to his desk and grabbed the phone in his left hand as he dialed with his right.

"Yes Mr. Kaiba, how can I help you?"

"I need a favor."

"Anything Mr. Kaiba."

"I need you to set up a meeting with the board."

"Yes sir, that shouldn't be a problem. You have some openings next week, when would you like the meeting?"

"Tonight." There was a moment of silence.

"I don't think I can schedule a meeting with every member of the board for_" She was cut off

"I don't care what you have to do, what you have to cancel, what the board members might be busy with, just make it happen." Another long moment of silence, followed by a very timid,

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba."

The helicopter had travelled a long way from Domino City and the cloud of dust was only visible in the distance as a dirty cloud blowing to the north. Being away from civilization, Kaiba was able to look down without obstruction. He saw what had once been a forest. Now there was a canyon with trees, dirt and rocks crumbling into the gaping hole. The helicopter flew over an area where there was a river. The water flowed shakily through the new rocks and dams made from fallen trees and squirmed to the side of the canyon where it cascading down into darkness. The empty river bed on the other side of the canyon oozed mud and sand over its edge into the abyss. Kaiba looked back to Domino and saw new black smoke rising from the dust and immediately looked back to the forest. The helicopter started turning left to avoid a pillar of thick smoke rising from the woods where Kaiba could see the glow of a fire and a fallen power generator building. There was a cracked road leading away from what had once been a strong structure and the helicopter seemed to follow it. One of the guards looked out the window and turned to the CEO

"We're heading for Zeta City, we've received information that they were only slightly affected by the earthquake and the helicopter pad at their Kaiba Corporation building is functional. We should arrive within an hour." The CEO continued staring out the side of the helicopter. 'Mokuba?'

Kaiba hung up the phone and turned around to look back at his window. From this location in the room, he could not see any of Inner Domino City. He could only see the ghetto islands on the lake surrounding it. He closed his eyes and sighed, then opened them again. He told himself that he was making the right decision. He had to be. He couldn't let things go on like this. He couldn't live like this anymore.

He turned back to his desk and sat down in the black leather chair. He leaned his elbows on the desk and crossed his hands, placing them in front of his mouth as he leaned forward and stared into space while squinting his eyes. He refocused his gaze and shifted it to the left of his laptop. There stood a framed picture of Mokuba as a smiling child: the same picture he kept on him at all times in his locket. He felt the locket now underneath his dress shirt. He always held Mokuba close to his heart. He smirked, thinking of how corny it all was that he was literally holding Mokuba close to his heart. He pulled his hands away from himself and leaned back straight in his chair. He tapped his fingers on the edge of his desk and then rubbed the back of his neck while closing his eyes again. He took a breath and kept still for a moment, holding his breath. He then reached for his phone and began dialing.

...

"Are you busy?... Can it wait?... Yeah it's important…" Even after the response Kaiba took a second to breath.

"I'm leaving Domino City" There was silence on the other line. Kaiba spun his chair around to face his wall with the window on the left. He grabbed the picture of Mokuba with his free hand and stared at the smiling child in the frame. The smile calmed his nerves. Kaiba had spent his life in Domino. It's the only place where he had lived with his biological parents. The hospital is where his mother died, though he didn't like to think about the city like that. It was also where his father had died in a car accident, again he didn't like thinking about it. The city was where he lived in an orphanage and the Kaiba mansion he was brought to with Gozabura was in Domino. Ok, so he had a lot of bad memories here but even the bad ones were memories in the end. He took over Kaiba Corp here, he dueled Yugi for the first time here, the Battle City tournament had been held in Domino, Ishizu gave him Obelisk at the Domino Museum, all that junk with Egypt had started here. Domino City was his home. But most importantly, all of his good memories with Mokuba were in this city. He had called Domino City home for 40 years now. Deciding to leave Domino for good… No he decided. He shook his head. This place wasn't Domino anymore. He stopped living in Domino 3 years ago. Domino died three years ago. This place didn't hold the memories of his brother. This was just a place. No more. His memories were with him, wherever he went. They would stay with him. And he reached to feel his locket.

The helicopter touched down on the landing pad and the CEO stepped out. The Zeta building was much smaller than the headquarters. And aside from one small tower which they had just landed on, the building was only 3 floors tall. The Zeta building was mostly for shipping and manufacturing, though some company business was done there, most was done at the headquarters, which was now dust. Security guards and a man in a black suit greeted Kaiba as he walked away from the helicopter.

"Hey Kaiba. It's good to see you're alright." An older Duke Devlin looked up at Kaiba and put his right hand on his shoulder. About ten years ago his game shop had been taken over by Shroeder Corp, now out of business, and Kaiba had offered him employment looking over the newly opening Zeta station for Kaiba Corp. Duke had happily agreed and had done a fantastic job, making the Zeta station one of the most successful with the least issues. Unlike the CEO, Duke Devlin took on a very different appearance from that of 17 years earlier. Gone were the headband, dice earing, teenage lankiness and most of his hair. His body was more muscular, but less toned, much different from the natural thinness of a teenage boy. His hair was cut much shorter though still held a messiness to it. Some things never changed. Also things that hadn't changed were his emerald eyes were still bright but now had a pair of glasses that often reflected the light with an intimidating glare when he smirked. It wasn't in a creepy way though; more in a confident 'I'm better than you' sort of way; which Kaiba approved of in a high ranking employee, as long as the 'I'm better than you' wasn't directed at himself. Kaiba immediately eliminated those looks from employees. Now Duke adjusted the glasses on his face

"The entire branch is monitoring the situation and we're taking safety precautions." The two and their guards walked into the building and took the stairs down as a precaution in case a quake hit while in an elevator. The risk was low, since the Zeta station was in a location where the topography neutralized most quakes. But it was better to be safe and taking the stairs wasn't too extreme of an inconvenience.

"We're also preparing to send aid to the city once the worst aftershocks stop. But we've been keeping updated and it looks bad. We were all relieved when we received the call from your helicopter that you made it out ok. We haven't been able to see what's going on inside the city though. The dust cloud is blocking everything and no news copters can see what's going on."

"The Kaiba Corp Headquarters collapsed." Kaiba said without a pause between Duke's statement and his. Duke looked shocked.

"I saw it collapsing as we flew away." Duke bit his lip and kept walking. He faced his eyes toward the ground.

"We feared something like that. We haven't been able to make contact with anyone… But we didn't expect the whole building to have collapsed. We were hoping that the communications system was just down" There was a long silence as the two men continued walking down the stairs.

"Do you know if anyone's ok?" By anyone Kaiba knew that Duke was referring to their old friends. Though Duke had also lost touch with them for the most part, when he thought of Domino he thought of them as his friends. Kaiba shook his head and spoke rare words for the genius

"I have no idea."