WhiteAsukalover: Indeed he is, thanks for the review!

MythCreatorWriter: Awesome. That's EXACTLY the reaction I wrote that last chapter for. It made me feel so successful to know that it was exactly what I got. I'm so happy. That's great. Don't you love when everything goes exactly as planned? You're quite welcome:] Dude, seriously, if you loved that, you're going to love all the other little additions I'm going to add to this story to connect it back to the first story. ITS GOING TO BLOW YOUR MIND!(I feel like I've already said that about a bazillion times now… I suppose I can't help it, I'm so excited for it) Thanks again for your wonderful review and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

SereneShadows: Its fine! Sometimes I go into update frenzies and everyone has a hard time keeping up! But have no fear, for here is another chapter! And thank you! I always try to end my chapters with an extra special zing to it… You know, the kind of ending you want to linger in the air a bit and keep you up at night… or maybe I'm thinking of horror movies. Its okay to make the boy suffer for the sake of a good story!(does that sound wrong?) Hahaha, anyhow, thanks for the review and enjoy the chapter!

AmePiper: Oh my, Ame, how I LOVE your reviews! BTW, 'oh my stars' is a fantastic phrase that I might actually have to steal, you adorable little thing! I LOVED your review and it was well worth the anticipation I've had for it the past week or so! I'm REALLY glad you liked it, because I really did work hard on that last chapter to make it exactly perfect!:3 You said that your idea was only a mere suggestion but I think its what inspired me to really take this story and do something different with it. I think you're going to love the other little snip-its I'm going to add in for my own fun as well! Oh yeah, and I read your comment while I was in Lit Mag and my friend looks over and sees your review and she's like "Wow, dude, what is this?" And I was like "A review from a reviewer that LOVES ME who lives in ENGLAND." And oh man, my friend was SOOOOO jealous:p It was AWESOME! I'd go on about how much I want to seduce you right now, but I have a bazillion chores to do and I've been sitting in a car for the past two hours. But dude, thank you SO MUCH, for your awesome review! ENJOY!

Chapter 15: Family Matters

-M-

So there I was, kneeling and in shame, staring out into the darkness that had already betrayed me, looking in the very same spot for any signs of my brother's return. But I had a feeling he wouldn't be returning anytime soon. I had a feeling he would be gone forever. These feelings stung me in ways I couldn't even describe. There was a small bit of me that felt that couldn't be real, but I was too upset, I was too afraid.

"Nii-sama…" I said in a quiet voice to myself; "What happened?" I didn't even know how everything had ended up like this. I didn't want this to be real. It had to be a dream. This had to be one very bad dream.

"Looks to me like your brother could care less about your or where you end up." I continued to stare blankly into the darkness ahead, even with the newly present voice talking to me. This had to be a dream, just a bad dream… "I, on the other hand, would like to help you, Mokuba."

I looked up. A ray of light? A sign of hope? No, it couldn't be. I stared at the man that I had just been running away from only a mere five minutes ago and suddenly saw him in a new light, in a new way. He was smiling down at me with concern and affection, something I hadn't seen before. Something I was yearning for after receiving such a harsh greeting from Seto.

"Mokuba… I promise that I'll take care of you. I'll be the brother you never have, and I'll save you. I'll keep you safe, trust me. I'll be there for you when you need me most." I kept staring at him, unsure as to what to say. I knew he was bad, I knew it… or, I had. Now I didn't know what to believe. With Seto gone, things had become unclear. I didn't know where to go or what to do next.

All I knew was that I was in pain. Seto… the way he had hit me, the way he had tossed me to the side… I held my hand against my swollen cheek and let it sit there for a moment. It still stung, not from the blow itself, but the hatred behind the hand that had slapped my face. I was alone. I was scared. I wanted my Nii-sama more than ever.

I just wanted to get away from this pain, from this fear, from everything.

I kept gazing into Noah's eyes, when suddenly his eyes grew larger, and his pupils began to glow red. Before I could turn away, before I could do anything, the light came at me, and consumed me in a way. I felt everything suddenly slip away, all my bad feelings lost in space. I stared into Noah's eyes, and suddenly I felt the void in my heart was complete. I wasn't alone.

"It's going to be okay, Mokuba, now that you're with me," Noah cooed softly into my ear as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against his chest. I sat there without any resistance, letting him take hold of me and hug me. I was so confused, but his voice was relaxing, and his arms comforted me. "I'm the only one you can trust from now on. Seto is the one who hurt you, Seto is the enemy. I'm your Nii-sama now."

I continued to stare blankly, listening to his words carefully. As Noah would speak them, I would understand them and believe them.

"Seto is the enemy…" I said out loud, "I trust you… Nii-sama…"

-S-

I stood in the middle of the road, motionless. All those images… from Duelist Kingdom, of my brother… starving and being beaten, did that all happen? Was it all a lie made up by Noah? Or was this the… I stopped when the thought came to mind. Was this what Mokuba had been keeping from me all this time? Was this the painful experience he could never bring himself to talk about? I had to find Mokuba, and I had to find him soon. I needed to make things right again, and I needed to find out the truth.

I was contemplating my next move, my next plan of action. Lector hadn't given me information and time was running out. Mokuba was in trouble, and I had to find him soon. I heard Yugi and his friends discussing and cheering from behind me, but I had basically trained myself to tune them out. I had more important issues at hand. Then I heard cackling in the distance.

I looked up into the sky as the voice above spoke in an all too evil voice.

"Well Seto, you may have won your duel but you have lost something of greater importance; your brother!" I looked ahead and growled with annoyance.

"Where is he?" I saw up ahead a tunnel had magically appear farther up the road from me.

"Follow the road ahead, and you may find him. But you better run fast, your time may run out."

"Mokuba! I'm on my way!" I called out, hoping he could hear me. I sprinted forward and towards the tunnel without another second to lose. My brother's life was at stake, and who knew what Noah could be putting him through just then. I proceeded towards the tunnel when Yugi called for me to stop.

"Kaiba! Wait! That might be a trap!" I stopped and turned towards him, I was going to try and make this very clear for him, since I didn't have a lot of time to go into detail.

"Just stay out of this Yugi! This is family business!" I barked back at him. Wheeler, of course, had to step forward and try to start a fight. I rolled my eyes.

"Who do you think you are?" I would need to take care of that moron later, but for now, I needed to get a move on.

"This doesn't concern you, so just stay out of it!" I twisted back around and headed down the tunnel. I didn't care what or if they said anything afterwards, now I could focus everything on finding my younger brother. I continued to run for quite some time, keeping my senses alert for anything suspicious. Knowing Noah, this tunnel would probably have something unexpected prepared for me. But I didn't care.

I stopped when I came to a fork in the road. The street split up two ways, and I didn't know which one was the right one. I grew angry with the idea that Noah was messing with my head even more, but I didn't have time to make a decision about this. I went with my gut and took the right road, keeping a speedy sprint as I took my turn.

"Nii-sama…" I looked all around as I ran. I thought I had heard Mokuba just calling out to me. "Nii-sama…"

"Mokuba?" I stopped running for a moment and turned down another side street that was beside me. My eyes focused on the darkness within, when I saw the outline of a figure appearing from out of the darkness.

"Nii-sama…" Mokuba stood in the middle of the side street, his head cocked to the side. His eyes were sad and full of sorrow.

"Mokuba!" I called out to him, glad to have finally found my brother. I began running towards him, but just as I did, the boy began to grin, and his hair changed. I stopped immediately when his hair became short and green, a smirk was replacing the hurt frown on his face. I froze and looked up as Noah, in the body of my brother, floated above me. Before I could do anything, a shiny bright, blue light shot out from the locket around his neck and transported me.

And then I was falling. I was simply falling through a hole of plain darkness. I expected that only the worst was yet to come when someone was falling or had fallen, so I didn't expect anything great to come from this. In fact, I was expecting to fall into a pit of lava, or maybe even a river of needles that would most likely kill me on impact. I hated falling. It makes people more vulnerable, it gives a feeling of—

My body fell against the floor hard. The shock from the collision paralyzed my body for a few moments, but it recovered quickly. I slowly pushed myself up and off the floor, back onto my feet, ready to fight anyone. I was happy to see Noah was standing right in front of me because I was ready to clobber anyone in my path.

"It's good to see you again, Seto." I stared at him with stern eyes.

"Noah, tell me where's my little brother? I demand that you bring him--" I stopped mid-sentence when I saw Mokuba appear from behind Noah.

"Mokuba." His eyes were full of fear, and his hands were clamped onto Noah's shoulders.

"Yep, your little brother is safe and sound, thanks to me." I shook my head in disgrace; it was taking everything in me to hold back from attacking him. I started walking over towards him, but mainly over to retrieve my brother from him.

"You're the one who took him from me in the first place; you'd be the last person he would be safe with. He's coming with me."

"Don't you remember? It was Nesbitt that was the one that kidnapped Mokuba, not me. You should've kept a better eye on him Seto, little brothers can be easy to lose and hard to keep. But anyway, I was the one that saved him, so maybe you should be a little more grateful." I ignored every word he said and continued towards my brother. I grabbed Mokuba by the wrist and pulled him over to my side.

"Let's go, Mokuba." I just need to get my brother away from this guy and then everything would be—

Mokuba pulled his wrist out of my hand, forcefully. I stopped and turned around, staring at him. I was confused.

"What's wrong Mokuba?" I asked. Mokuba stood there silently, looking off to the side in anger and shame. I blinked a couple times. After a couple seconds I said, "Come over here." Mokuba shut his eyes and turned away.

"No!" Mokuba ran towards Noah and hid behind him. "I want to say right here, with my Nii-sama!" I felt a burn of anger inside of me, upon hearing Mokuba call Noah 'Nii-sama.' It had become obvious that Noah had done or said something to poison my brother's mind and turn him against me.

"Noah, what have you done? What did you tell my brother?" I was glaring at Noah, but my eyes kept glancing at my brother. The way he was clutching to Noah's shoulder in fear, the way his eyes looked at me like I was some sort of mad man, or some kind of stranger. What had he done to Mokuba?

"I didn't tell him a single thing. Mokuba came to the realization that you don't care about him all on his own. He's seen your true color now." I glared at him. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How dare he infect my brother's mind with lies!

"Shouting won't do you any good and it most certainly won't reverse all the painful memories he had to repress from your betrayal and abandonment. He's finally come to the conclusion that you cared more about the company and your own personal gain than him."

"That's not true! I would never do such a thing! Mokuba, please, snap out of this! You can't possibly believe those lies!" I looked desperately into my brother's face to see whether he was coming to a realization or not. But he just stood there, staring at me, with those same frightened eyes. This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't be true.

"Must you raise your voice?" I glared at Noah and glanced back up at Mokuba again. My angry expression changed when I saw the look on his face. Mokuba was… afraid. He was afraid of me. I retracted my fist and let it hang by my side instead.

"Mokuba, you know it's not true!"

"We heard every single last word that came out of Lector's mouth; the struggle of power, the manipulation, stocks you took for yourself… You used Mokuba to get to where you are today and you used his stocks to get what you wanted! You never cared about Mokuba for one second, so maybe you should be the one to stop telling lies."

"I would never treat Mokuba like that! Mokuba, you must understand-!"

"You've said enough." Noah turned back towards my brother, placing his hands on Mokuba's shoulders and whispering softly to him, "Its okay. I won't let him hurt you anymore. Let's go." Mokuba face looked down and allowed himself to be pushed away and towards the couch. This wasn't happening, I couldn't let this happen.

"Leave him out of this Noah! This isn't just some game, that's my little brother. You will not destroy the only family I have!" I watched in disgust as he placed Mokuba on the couch and stood back up glaring at me.

"You have no family." I felt my body tense up at his words. Noah turned his back to me and sat down, chuckling as he may. I lowered my head in anguish. "You're all alone now. It's already become apparent that Mokuba enjoys having me as a brother rather than you. And he won't be the last thing I'll take away from you."

"Enough," I said with a slight bit of exasperation. Could this really be happening? I didn't want to believe a word of it, I just couldn't push myself to believing that my brother had actually left me to be on Noah's side. It just wasn't possible. And yet there he sat, on the other side of the room, his back turned to me as he sat beside the one person who had put us here in the first place.

"You don't deserve anything you have; I do. So it's only fair that I take what's been rightfully mine from the very beginning, at least before you took it away from me."

"And how do you figure that?" Noah looked back at me and grinned. It was true that I still did not know much about this boy whom had been holding us captive in this virtual land, but I had picked up facts here and there; pieces of a puzzle that just needed to be put together to seek the truth. I didn't know how I was going to understand what I was about to witness next, and I wasn't sure what it meant.

Now I just wanted my brother back. That's all I wanted. I looked down at Mokuba for a split second, hoping he would turn his head when he sensed I was looking at him, calling out to him mentally and emotionally. Mokuba never turned around; he didn't even glance at me.

I truly was alone.

A/N: Wow, I can't believe I finished all of my review replies and didn't even remember to write an author's note! Usually I write the author's note right after I finish the chapter and then write up the review replies, but I've had this chapter done for a while now and I'm surprised I didn't think of it before hand. My bad! Anyhow, so… I felt some concern about my lag in updating and this was a result of the site being down for the past couple days. Also, I had a lot of stuff going on last week. Not to mention I turned 18 on the 22nd!:D Very exciting. I was hoping to post this chapter then, but as I said before, the site was down:[ Hopefully it has been fixed and I'll be sure to get back into the updating jive again! Thanks for reading you wonderful, wonderful people!

P.S: It was my birthday on the 22nd!^^ I would have updated and given you this chapter as a special present, but fanfiction was a failure:[ But anyhow… HORRAY FOR BEING 18!:D