Sonny: Thanks for the review! Your nice words mean so much! I hope you enjoy the chapter.

MythCreatorWriter: It's not you who I'm worried about surviving the duel, it's meX.X But I think I'll be good to go on that, writing a lot of this wasn't that super painful. But damn, does this duel run on! Oh well, it'll all be worth it when we get to the next couple epic scenes. Believe me, we wish the creator did a lot of other things differently… we can start with exhibit A being… Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Lol. GX literally makes me want to smash my head into a wall. But that's a tale for another day. For now, thanks for your review, and enjoy the chapter!

WhiteAsukalover: I'll try to, hahaha! Thanks for the review!

AmePiper: I know, I'm sorry about my lack of rendezvous! Lifestyles are quite busy and sometimes sadful. But I'm not going to bring sadness into this because I've written a fantastic chapter that I think you'll adore! Yay for me portraying Noah well! That's always nice to hear. I can't believe you've written a 70 chapter long story though! That's like an epic right there! Haven't you been working on that story for, what? Four years now? Wow, that's awesome! I wonder how you would be able to finish such a story… I hope that snow has stopped by now! But until then, thanks for the review and enjoy the chapter!

SereneShadows: Thanks so much for being so nice to me! I really needed that today, your reviews were lovely! I hope you enjoyed my PM/it didn't take too long to get back to you on that. I best be going soon, but I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Rena Redhead: Sorry for updating, dear, I know how you hate when I update and you haven't been able to review yet. I just need to self esteem boost, and quite frankly, I felt the tone and theme of this chapter was too fitting. Sorry for being lame though, I hope you shall forgive me!

I feel like I have one more thing to say before we started this chapter off. Earlier this morning, I saw some show called "First Look" on HBO about the movie 'Coraline'(which, by the way, looks like a really rad movie) They had lots of interviews and talked with people about the production. But what I found to be the most interesting was a quote I caught from the writer who wrote the book 'Coraline'. He said "When I was a kid, I use to think that bravery was not being scared in a certain situation. Now I know that bravery is all about being scared and still being able to face your fears and overcome the obstacles at the same time." Those aren't the exact words, but it's the basics of what I caught from his quote. I had this in mind when writing the second half of this chapter.

Chapter 12: Call Them Cowards

-S-

No time for thinking, no time for breathing, all I could do was act. The man standing across from me, I had figured, wasn't a man at all. But what he actually was in reality was hard to put my finger on. I hated men who hid behind masks, or hid themselves away from the truth, I thought of them as cowards. He would continue to toy with me and my mind, when he would hide behind lies. But it was no use. I knew what this would all come down to. We were going to battle.

"You don't have any idea who you're dealing with, do you?" The man asked me. From the sound of his voice, I could tell who I was dealing with. That much I knew for sure.

"You're Lector, it's become obvious," I said with confidence. I held up my arm and activated my duel disk, "Now let's get this duel over with so I can defeat you." Lector held up his arm as well and snapped his fingers. Floating cards appeared beside his head.

"I was thinking the exact same thing," Lector said, "So choose the cards you wish to put in your deck and let us begin." Cards appeared floating beside my head as well. It wouldn't take me long to decide what I wanted in my deck; I already knew what I needed and what I would want. The virtual cards disappeared as a deck was formed in my duel disk.

"Now you must choose a monster to act as your deck master," Lector instructed. This would be another procedure that wouldn't take much time. I had a monster in mind already.

"I'll choose Lord of Dragons as my deck master!" I stated, holding the card out in front of me. The monster appeared floating in mid-air beside me.

"I have already taken the form of my deck master; want to guess which one it is?" Lector asked. I still wasn't able to figure out what kind of monster he could possibly be behind that disguise. But it wouldn't matter in the end, because I was going to defeat him no matter what.

"I don't know, and I don't care," I said, "I'm going to beat you either way, so you might as well spoil the surprise so we can begin this duel." Lector flipped out his own duel disk and held it out in front of himself.

"Very well then; it's time to duel!" Lector drew his hand as well as his first card. "I'll set one monster in defense mode and place two cards face-down and end my turn." I didn't hesitate to make my first move. I knew exactly what was on the line and knew there wasn't much time to waste.

"I play Spear Dragon in attack mode!" I said, placing my monster onto my duel disk. The blue dragon appeared in front of me, ready for battle at my command.

"Oh Seto, even if you did attack, my life points would be safe because my monster is in defense mode."

"Wrong Lector, because of Spear Dragon's ability, you lose life points even if you're monster is in defense mode. Somehow, I expected you to know this game better… now Spear Dragon, attack!" I commanded, pointed my finger towards the enemy. Spear Dragon flew up from the ground and opened its mouth. Its attack came spiraling out of its mouth and right at Lector's face down. The set monster was Hiro's Shadow Scout.

"You've not activated Hiro's Shadow Scout's special ability which forces you to draw three cards and discard the two magic cards you've just drawn."

"I think you're missing the point Lector because I don't really care, and you still lose life points either way because of Spear Dragon's effect." Lector's life points went from 4000 to 2600, which already put me in the lead. I looked down at my hand and announced that I was placing one card face-down and ending my turn. With the activation of my Crush Card, this duel would be over in no time.

"Before I begin my turn, I'll activate the card Solemn Wishes and draw. Solemn Wishes increases my life points by 500 each time I draw a card." This would make Lector's life points go back up to 3100. This didn't worry me one bit; in fact, I was hoping he would really enjoy those few life points, because this duel would be over soon. Then they would all pay for what they had done to Mokuba.

"I'll place one card in defense mode and also set one card face down. Now it's your move." This was a little bit strange. Lector must've been able to tell that my Spear Dragon would be forced to go into defense mode when it attacks, and because Spear Dragon had 0 defense points, this would make it an easy target. So why wouldn't he want to attack my monster? "Would you mind hurrying up and taking your turn? I'd like to defeat you as soon as possible so that I can take your body for myself."

"As if," I spat back, picking out one card from my hand and summoning it onto the field, "I summon Giant Germ onto the field and I also switch my Spear Dragon from defense mode to attack mode. Now Spear Dragon, destroy his face-down monster!"

"Not so fast, for I activate my trap card, Mask of Perplexity!" A mask appeared on the field in front of me, and a bright light shown all around. The mask looked seemingly harmless until it shot out towards me and attached to my face. I yelled in agony as it covered my entire face. I placed one hand on it, attempting to pull it off, but it was no use. It was stuck there, and no my vision had become weak. I could barely see the field in front of me!

"Now you won't be able to tell which monster you'll be destroying when you attack. So, who will it be? I doubt you'll be able to make the right choice with that mask impairing your vision." I looked all around, but everything practically looked the same. I saw a card face down and order my Spear Dragon to attack it. It looked like Lector's face down monster, but when the mask floated off my face, I saw it was my own monster, my Giant Germ! I watched as the floating pink monster exploded right in front of my eyes. I grinned.

"Looks like I hit right on target," Lector looked confused, but he wouldn't be for long, "I needed to destroy my Giant Germ in order to activate my Crush Card trap!" I clicked the button on my duel disk and the trap card revealed itself. Now Lector would have barely any monsters in his deck to play, and everything would go smoothly from there.

Just then, a small pink beam shot out from Lector's sunglasses and went right for my trap card. I covered my eyes as it hit and destroyed my all powerful trap card. When I took my arm down, I looked down at it, baffled. I stared back at Lector in surprise.

"How were you able to destroy my trap card like that? You must have the ability to destroy traps…" I had now realized what monster he was, "I get who you're deck master is now, you've taken the form of a Jinzo!" Lector pulled away his disguised and tossed it in the air, proving me correct. The monster stood apart from me, the all powerful Jinzo, with the ability to destroy all traps, rendering a quarter of my deck useless. This wasn't good, I hadn't anticipated this.

"You're right, Mister Kaiba! And with this monster's power, I'll defeat you and take your body!" Lector bellowed a loud and evil laugh. I looked down in shame; I should've been able to see something like that coming. "I've been waiting for this moment for far too long, Mister Kaiba. For years, I had seen you rise to power, a power that should have been mine!" I narrowed my eyes and titled my head down. I had a feeling I knew where he was going with this.

"As your step father's right hand man, I not only helped run Kaiba Corp., I also helped raise you." I wanted to object to his claim right then and there, but I knew Lector was going to keep going. The thing was; no one raised me, I raised myself. "And how did you repay me for doing that? By taking away everything I ever held dear to me!"

"How was it that I did that, Lector?" I asked, getting frustrated and annoyed. Lector held nothing dear to himself. Lector didn't even understand what it meant to care for someone; the only thing he ever cared about was money and his job.

"I would've been next in line to take over, but you had been forcing your way to the top. I'll never forgive you for that!" I felt I knew what instance he was talking about. The day Gozaburo had given me a challenge to prove myself to him, once and for all by giving me a lesson in the real world.

Gozaburo had entrusted me with ten million dollars. Gozaburo had explained to me that this was no gift, for he was landing me the money as a test. He gave me one year to repay the money, but ten times the amount of it. Gozaburo had me sign a contract promising that I would do just that as he explained that passing the test, would earn me the last name Kaiba. If I failed, Mokuba and I would have to return to the orphanage. What had I done? I accepted, as I had accepted every test Gozaburo had ever presented me with. And I went in with the same confidence too; that I was to win it all.

-M-

It was a strange thing, to watch my brother through a screen that seemed farther away than it actually was. It was an even scarier concept with Noah watching me and my every move. I could feel his judgmental eyes, always following my every reaction as my emotions moved with the duel. Truthfully it was quite creepy, but I didn't care. I would react and cheer on my brother through it all.

When my brother was winning; I was happy and egging him on, like I always would if I had been standing on the sidelines. When my brother was put in a hard spot, I would gasp and be afraid. I would worry for my brother and curse Lector for his seemingly illegal moves. Anything that put my brother in a tough position I disliked. And there Noah would stand, reacting with me, always opposite of my emotions.

And then it would come down to Lector's speech and a reminder from our past. I recalled the memories just as vividly as I'm sure Seto did. I had been present through-out most of his training, and it was the most remarkable time of my life. To watch my brother work the real world as a card game was remarkable.

At the time, I had thought turning ten million dollars into a hundred million dollars in only one year seemed impossible, practically inconceivable. But I should've known my brother better, because Seto always had a plan. He had told me the very thing had believed in the most—that business was nothing more than a game. Seto would explain it to me using cards.

Seto told me to pretend that each of the one hundred cards he had laid out in front of himself was a piece of a company. The trick of the business was to own more cards than anyone else. Seto explained the most crucial part of this business was that no one could ever own more than you if you held fifty-one out of a hundred.

And my brother had done just that. The following evening, Seto had instructed Lector to spend all ten million dollars to buy fifty-one percent of a company. It could be any kind of company, as long as they valued their workers. Lector had done so the very next day. I thought I had figured out Seto's plan; that he intended to make the money he needed from the company he bought. But the truth was that the company didn't make very much money at all, but somehow, Seto had seen a way to get the money he would need.

And Seto did exactly as he had said. Seto met with the president of the company and offered to sell him back the company at ten times the price. If the president wouldn't comply, Seto threatened to fire all his workers and shut the place down. To save his employees, the president had done the only thing he could do, which was agreed to the outrageous deal.

Just like that, Seto had earned all the money he needed and passed his test. It had been a learning experience for me, considering I had never seen my brother in action, much less how he had acted in the business world. It was the first time I had seen him, really seen him, in the many months that we had preoccupied the Kaiba Mansion. That was the first time that it had become apparent that Gozaburo had changed the brother I had once known.

As naïve as I was back then, I wasn't old enough to really be able to see what a monster business actually was. I didn't really think that this would be the first of many deals Seto would make in which he would rely solely upon a person's weaknesses and passions to force them into a deal they didn't want to make. Remembering this only brought forth bad feelings and past regrets I had managed to put behind me.

"One reason I feel I would be a better pick for Seto's role as president of Kaiba Corp. is because I know his job has changed the person who once was," Noah said out of the blue, while turning towards me, "Aren't I right?" I glared at him.

"How do you know so much about us?" Noah shrugged and acted as if he didn't know for himself.

"Well, when you have the technology to process one's memories, it becomes easy to learn about someone rather quickly."

"I suppose that explains all the simulations you presented us with," I said more to myself than to Noah, "Do you really think you can bring us down just by replaying all of our bad memories? Let me tell you this, Noah, it has and will take way more than a bunch of bad memories to hold us back. Don't you forget that we've actually LIVED through most of what you're showing us, so simply seeing it can't possibly have as much of an effect."

"Oh, is that true, Mokuba?" Noah asked with a slight bit more interest. He was staring at me with that evil grin of his, but I would stand tall and strong, just as my brother was in the duel I was watching on the screen.

"It is," I said, calmly.

"Something tells me that can't possibly be true for ALL of your memories… there are still a couple more I haven't revealed to you or Seto." I looked his way.

"And what are you referring to?"

"I think you know exactly what I'm referring to." A pinch of pain could be felt in my chest. A 360 was performed by my insides. A worry was welling in my head, one that had been present nearly the whole time we had been stuck in this virtual prison.

And like a coward I pretended I didn't know what he was talking about. Like a coward I avoided confrontation. Like a coward I concealed myself in lies to hide away from the truth.

My eyes went back to being glued to the TV screen and watching my brother duel, like nothing had even been said between Noah and me.

A/N: Yay updates! Updates are nice, are they not? I think they are! So… this duel is REALLY LONG. Which is why Seto's half of the chapter went on for much longer than Mokuba's half was able to. I hope you guys aren't too annoyed by that, but I wanted to get as much of the duel under way so I could get it out of the way sooner! Not to mention Mokuba is barely seen in this part of the duel/episode I am re-writing. Don't worry, all the parts that Mokuba is actually in will be in, and hopefully there's going to be less dueling in the following episode, but we'll just have to see about that. But hey, thanks for reading! I'm not sure where you all live, but where I live it is a beautiful day, and I hope it's a beautiful and wonderful day for you all too!

P.S: The second to last paragraph was inspired by a short sentence in Rena Redhead's story, "Custody" which is, by the way, a fantastic story and one that all of you should read if you know/like Teen Titans/Batman/Superheroes from the DC Comic book realm in general! This one goes out to you, babe.