WhiteAsukalover: Thanks for the review!

MythCreatorWriter: Yeah, I love that song too. I was thinking of making that last chapter a song-fic, but I felt as though with all the POVs changing and then on top of song lyrics, it would be a bit confusing. Nah, they won't have anything to do with being stoned, but it is a bit deeper than I'm sure people are ready to expect. Anyways, I wish to post this as quickly as possible (mainly because my cat is starving and I haven't fed her yet) but thanks for the review!

Rena Redhead: Yeah, not sure where they all went, but I kinda wish they would come back. Oh well, its fine, I'm sure it's something important anyway. Nothing to worry about. It's okay if you don't remember the episode, the only reason I do is because I've seen it a bazillion times(and even with that, I still have to re-watch a bazillion times more to write the chapter correctly. Annoying, neh?) What Noah did is most definitely, or at least probably, not legal. But that's the show (or maybe just the virtual world) its hard to tell since it is the virtual world and no one's ever had a 'deck master' before and the effects they use all seem a bit strange, but you work with what you've got. Anyways, thanks for the review and keeping up! Prepare to be amazed and excited!

Here's more lyrics from the song I had previously quoted before("Best of You" by the Foo Fighters), because I feel it still pertains to this story and the scene that is about to unfold:

Has someone taken your faith?

It's real, the pain you feel.

The life, the love you'd die to heal.

The hope that starts the broken hearts.

You trust, you must,

Confess.

Chapter 23: Face-to-Face

-M-

I heard this loud banging. Or, no, it sounded more like tapping. Someone was tapping on a thick glass of some sort. How obnoxious, where was it even coming from? It ceased at one point and at last, I felt I could finally be at peace. That was until a muffled voice started calling my name from afar. I think that was what brought me back and helped me come to. I opened my eyes and looked up.

The first description I had for this place was whiteness. There was nothing but whiteness, everywhere, as far as the eye could see. This didn't, however, help me to understand where I was or why I had been sent here. The muffled voice picked up again as I sat up and turned around. I was astonished to see Seto standing a couple feet away from me. He looked happy to see that I was okay.

"Mokuba, you're alright." Something came over me and I began to run towards him. I was so happy to see him, so happy to know he was okay even after that… that, thing-had attacked us, whatever it had been! Seto started backing away and shaking his head. Why was he doing that? I was overjoyed to see him; didn't he feel the same way? "Mokuba, wait-"

I didn't wait, I ran right to him. Just as I came near him and prepared to tackle hug him, SMACK, I fell to the ground.

"Hey, you okay?" Seto asked in a worried tone. I had to steady myself for a while to regain my balance; I was still a bit dizzy from the collision. I slowly got back to my feet and looked back in my brother's direction. Slowly I reached out towards him; my hand came into contact to the glass force field I had run into previously. I placed both hands on it.

"What in the world…"

"I tried telling you, but you didn't listen to me." I knocked on the force field a couple times. It really was glass. That was the tapping I heard. I looked back up at Seto.

"What is this?" Seto shrugged.

"I don't really know. Some sort of glass wall." I knocked on the glass again. It seemed pretty thick to me. It probably wouldn't break easily. But if it was a wall; that meant it would have to end… at least at some point. I turned towards my brother and he already seemed to have picked up on my idea.

We both began walking opposite directions from each other and down the wall. I kept one hand sliding across the thick glass, trying to see if there was ever a point when the wall would end and I would be able to walk around it to the other side. Seto was doing the same. But no matter how far we walked, it seemed the wall never did come to an end.

"I have a feeling this might go on forever," Seto called over to me from the many feet had walked away. I looked back at him.

"You're probably right," I called back. We walked back until we met up with one another again. We stood in front of each other now, awkwardly. I placed my hands on the glass and stared at my hands. I slowly began to put pressure on the glass, trying to see if maybe I could push the glass down. It was no use, no matter how hard I pushed; it didn't budge or crack at all.

"I don't think that'll work either." I turned back around to see what was behind me. There was nothing, nothing but nothingness. This place was starting to creep me out by how isolated we appeared to be. I quickly turned back towards my brother.

"Where do you think we are? What is this place?"

"I'm not really sure, but I think it might be a glitch in the system because we're not where we're supposed to be." I glanced at him with interest.

"Where should we be instead?" Seto paused for a moment.

"If Noah used my same blue prints to create this virtual world, then we should be in, what I dubbed, No Man's Land." I wanted to chuckle at the silliness of the name, but I didn't. The situation we were in simply wasn't something to chuckle at right now. I looked around.

"No Man's Land, huh? Is there a reason you made it so boring?" I asked in a monotone voice, finding myself getting more and more freaked out by the situation.

"No, I specifically remember designing No Man's Land to be bit more interesting. I guess Noah slacked off a bit when he created this place." I shrugged. "I guess this means we're not in Kansas anymore," Seto added. I glared at him.

"This really isn't the time to make overused references." And the truth was; I wasn't. My mind slowly went back to recalling the duel I had just witnessed, what Noah had used me to do in order to win over Seto. Then sending us here, after he had his random new 'deck master' come out of nowhere? It made me more and more mad as I thought about it.

"I can't believe Noah, is that even legal what he did?" I asked, becoming frustrated, "I mean; Shinato's Ark becomes Shinato, King of a Higher Plane? I didn't even know you could choose a magic card to be your deck master, let alone have your deck master turn into something else in the middle of a duel! He broke the rules!" I started pacing back and forth. I was surprised Seto wasn't more outraged by this fact. I stopped and turned towards him. "Aren't you angry about this?!"

Seto looked down.

"I had a feeling he might pull a move like that from the beginning, I'm sad to say. After he brought you onto the field to use as a shield, it was clear he wasn't going to play fair. I just tried my best to beat him my own way, and by the book," Seto gripped his fist, "And I still failed…"

"It's not your fault Noah is a cheater, you didn't do anything wrong. You shouldn't be hard on yourself because of that." Seto turned his head away.

"But I should be, for if I had only prepared myself for a move like that, one I had a feeling he would make, he never would've beaten me, and we wouldn't have been stuck here." I frowned at this statement. My brother wasn't one to take failure well, so when it happened he either got insanely angry, or massively depressed. I hated seeing him this way. I hated being here. I got angrier.

"Well I don't know what you're so depressed about because I'm just plain pissed. I want out of here. I need to get out of here so I can make Noah pay for what he did." It was weird having the roles change. Usually Seto was the one that got angry over something someone did, and I would be the voice of reason. Not this time, though, not after what he did, not after he controlled me.

"Stand back. I'm going to punch through this glass." I took back my arm and readied myself to launch it right through the glass when Seto told me to stop.

"That won't work either, Mokuba. You need to calm yourself down. Noah wants us to get upset." I glared at him again. Now I was becoming angry with Seto.

"You think Noah wants us to get upset? We're in No Man's Land. We're not being watched right now, Noah doesn't care. He's probably already taken over our bodies! He's probably in the REAL WORLD, laughing at us!" I prepared myself to try and break through the glass again but again, Seto called for me to stop.

"Please, cool it for a minute; you're just going to hurt yourself." I couldn't stand Seto talking down to me like that. Who did he even think he was? What gave him any right to lecture me?

"Don't talk to me like I'm a little kid! I know my limits; I've experienced more painful things!" Seto placed his hand on the glass. He was trying to look stern and unemotional, a wonderful trait he picked up from our step father, but sorrow was breaking though. Something was upsetting him. I was too angry to care. I was too frustrated to even predict what would be said next.

"Like you did in Duelist Kingdom?" My eyes went wide. My arms dropped. My jaw fell slightly ajar. I turned away from my brother's general direction.

"Don't," I said in a deadly tone.

"Mokuba, I saw what happened. Noah showed me those memories; I know what they did to you." I twisted back his way to yell at him.

"I said NOT TO TALK ABOUT IT."

"Mokuba, we need to talk about this. Why wouldn't you tell me?" I crossed my arms and looked away again. Now all my anger had switched from Noah to my brother.

"You know what? I wish you hadn't brought back my memory! At least then I wouldn't have to remember what happened! At least Noah wouldn't pester the living hell out of me about it!" I found my language becoming a bit more vulgar, but I didn't care. My mind was already warped with anger.

"I'm your BROTHER; I have a right to know what happened! I have to be the one to make sure every person whom ever hurt you gets what they deserve! Why couldn't you have just told me?"

"I told you, it was TOO PAINFUL. Do you understand English?!" Seto was really started to get mad at me. I had never seen him mad, but at this point, I didn't care. I wanted to fight with someone. I wanted to get this anger I had harbored inside for so many years to go away. It was time to let go.

"That's not the only reason you didn't tell me, I know it's not! Just spill it!" That was it.

"Oh, okay. You wanna know the reason, Seto Kaiba? You want to know? BECAUSE IT WAS ALL YOU'RE FAULT! The only reason I was kidnapped in the first place was because YOU abandoned me! You left to 'go find yourself' and didn't even bother to think about what would happen to me!

"I waited for you. God, I would wait for you all night long. You never did come. And I was left to think and wonder where you were, pondering why you would even leave me to begin with! Then when you finally came, Pegasus sends me to the Shadow Realm! So you still wanna know the reason I never told you? You still need to know the truth? I never told you a single thing because at one point I gave up all hope on you ever coming to save me.

"And I HATED you for it. I hated you so much. I wished you had never been my brother. You let me down. You let me fall into Pegasus's clutches and I had to wait a long time before you ever showed up to save me. What took you so long, Seto? WHY DIDN'T YOU COME FIND ME?" I had to take in a deep breath to fully regain all the oxygen I had lost in my long rant. Everything I had ever kept buried inside myself for so long had finally come out. I was so twisted with emotion; my body was shaking from saying it all at once.

I didn't even realize I had started crying halfway through the rant. It was probably because the rest of my body was already having such a hard time dealing with what had been said. I had kept this dark secret of mine for a very long time now, and it having said it out loud in words was doing a number on me in every aspect. It was making it hard for my body to even function normally.

Truly the hardest part, though, was being experienced by my brother whom I was sure was blown away by hearing the truth. I noticed this because I had never, in my entire life, seen my brother speechless. I had grown-up believing my brother knew everything therefore meaning he would have a response to anything that ever came his way. Something witty, something clever, he always had something to say. Not this time though, not at all. His face was pale and his eyes dulled with regret.

He didn't speak and I didn't want him too. Things were coming out now, things had to be said. My thoughts couldn't be stopped. I turned away from my brother; I was unable to look at his speechless face. I turned my back to him and leaned against the glass wall.

"Every day, I hate myself for hating you. I hate myself for not being stronger. I hate myself for not being truthful. I hate myself for how much I depend on you. I hate being you're little side kick, I hate not being my own person. I hate everything I've ever done to you, everything I've ever cost you. I hate that I killed mom. I hate that dad died. I hate that you carry the pain and that I'm just supposed to go on living. I… hate… this…" My legs finally gave way and my body slide down the glass to the floor.

"So… that is how you feel…" I heard my brother say in a voice so soft; I wouldn't have been able to recognize it if I hadn't known it was him speaking to me.

"Yes." I heard a thump against the glass wall behind me and felt another body slide down the slick glass. My brother and I were now back to back, staring in opposite directions. I sighed; I didn't know what to say, or what should be said. Everything had come out now. I assumed it was his duty to speak up and make it right again, he was, after all, the older brother.

"Hey Mokuba…" My head perched up at the calling of my name.

"Yeah?"

"You know how… I hate the feeling of being vulnerable?" I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"Yeah Nii-sama… I'm quite familiar." He paused.

"I hate this feeling even more." I opened my eyes.

"What feeling would that be?"

"That I… let you down, and that I've lost your trust because of it." I heard Seto get up again. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you, an experience that kills me inside…" I turned my head. I pondered what he could possibly be trying to get at. I stayed silent and listened. Seto took another long pause to gather himself and prepare for what he was about to say.

"I never told you what happened… after I left, while you were kidnapped. I tried my best to avoid telling you completely, because… I didn't want you to think less of me. But I think, as a result of what I let happen because of it, that you have a right to know about it. You deserve to know what happened, and what it was that kept us apart while you were being held captive by Pegasus."

Truthfully, I didn't know if this was at all what I wanted to hear from my brother. I didn't know if this would make things better or worse. I guess what I did know was that… I wanted to know. All that time I had spent in the dungeon at Pegasus's castle, I could wonder about nothing more than what my brother was doing to keep him from rescuing me.

I needed to know everything in order for us to really be okay.

A/N: You know, before I start talking about my chapter in depth, I wanted to say something that came to me as I was writing the last little bits of this chapter. One of the biggest things I remember from my childhood was wanting to hold onto that naïve state of mind I had when I was younger, wanting to continue to believe in better things, and wanting to hold onto that image of the world that had never been broken till now. I say this because this chapter really reminded me of how I use to view my parents as a kid, and how I felt when I discovered they weren't super humans or gods… but human beings, just like me, with flaws that seemed almost unforgivable. Now this isn't to say that my parents aren't amazing people, believe me, they are. But this is about breaking that image of immortality they once held in my eyes and seeing something new, both good and bad. I'm saying all of this because I feel Mokuba is going through the same situation, and will discover the same thing in the following chapter as everything is revealed. Besides that, I liked this chapter a lot, I hope you liked it too, and I hope to hear from you guys soon.