MythCreatorWriter: It's funny that you say that I keep the character's I don't like in character because I seriously thought some people be like "OMG, WHY ARE YOU SO MEAN TO JOEY?!" Even though that would be the totally in character thing for him to say, I can't help but take every jab I can at him BECAUSE of the fact that I don't like him:p And it's true about the author's likes and dislikes, but it's always nice to know that readers will like the story even if you think it's total crap. Although I might say that I definitely love this chapter cause it's super excited!(even though a lot of what happens here is in the show, but there are some added extras that some may catch if they've watched the episode a bazillion times/in Japanese) Anyways, I best be off on another adventure!(I actually want to start writing the next chapter already, I'm really excited for the next scene) Thanks for the review!

WhiteAsukalover: Thanks for the review!

Celestial Blood: I'm glad that you like it! It's okay if you didn't review the other chapters; I still think you're rad anyway! Thanks for the review!

Chapter 27: Old Habits Die Hard

-M-

I opened my eyes when I finally felt comfortable only to see that I was standing in the middle of a plaza all by myself. I looked all around. There wasn't another soul in sight. But only moment ago I had been with them… where could they have gone?

"Hello?" I called. I waited for somebody to respond, but no one did. "Where is everybody?" I said, thinking out loud as well as calling out to see if anyone would hear me. There was still no answer from anyone nearby.

"Their gone…" I had concluded, but where? I noticed Seto wasn't anywhere either, which usually wasn't a good sign, at least not for me. "Nii-sama?" I yelled, but there was still no answer. I was beginning to feel anxious. What if they had left without me? What if Seto had forgotten me?

No, that wasn't possible. Seto would never simply 'forget' me. I was his younger brother and if there was anything Seto had proven to me in the last couple hours; it was that he cared about me… a lot. Still, it didn't comfort this feeling of being utterly alone.

"Mokuba?" I jumped and twisted around when I heard another person's voice. To my surprise, it was Noah. Noah ran towards me. "What are you still doing here? The others have already made it to the real world!" That didn't make me feel any better, but thankfully Noah already seemed to have a plan of action.

"Here, follow me. I'll lead you to the nearest exit so we can get you out of here." I smiled.

"Wow, thanks Noah." I began following him down the sidewalk and through the deserted virtual city. It was a swell thing, what he was doing for me. I felt I was really beginning to see Noah in a different light; he had truly become a different person. I guess anyone could change that easily if their father had betrayed them like Gozaburo had to Noah.

As we walked together, I started thinking about friendships and bonds, how they can be formed and strengthened in the not so typical way. For example, my brother and I. Our bond seemed to have a history of nearly shattering after every traumatic event, but in the end, triumphs and leads it to become even stronger. Then there was Joey and Yugi, whose bond was always strong no matter the odds but was also similar in that it got stronger after traumatic events as well.

Although Noah and I had only just started interacting with one another, I felt like after discovering his father's true intentions, he would begin to see a friendship being born between us. I mean, why else would he be helping me escape? I began to try and think of ways I should repay him for what he was doing.

"Here we are," I broke out of my thoughts and looked up.

"An arcade? Is this where the exit is?"

"Yep," Noah led me into the arcade. I ran over to a couple of the games and sat down. I might not have created the virtual world software but I always had a general idea of how these things worked.

"I bet the exit is in one of these video games, isn't it? I just have to beat it to open the door, right?" I said, beginning to play a game of Pacman as I was talking. I beat the entire game easily and within a minute but nothing happened. I frowned. This must've not been the game with the exit.

"Not this game… maybe this one," I said to myself, shifting over to the game right next to it. The game was Galaga. I started beating the levels just as quickly as I had with the last game. "Man, I can't wait to get back home," I said to myself. The idea made me kill about fifty more aliens even faster.

Within only two minutes, I had been able to beat that game too. But still, as I neared completion of the final level, nothing happened. I placed my hands down on the controls.

"Hey Noah, are you sure the exit is hidden in one of these games? I can't seem to find it… do you know which one it is?"

"I'm not sure, but I think you're getting warmer," Noah said. I shrugged, completing the final level with ease. I started thinking about going to the real world again and realized Noah wouldn't be able to come with us.

"Oh yeah… you don't have a body, do you? Which means you can't return to us with the real world…" An idea came to mind just then, "But I bet Nii-sama could make you a new body! I mean, sure, it probably won't be like your old body, but at least you'll be in the real world." I completed the game and turned towards Noah. He seemed rather astonished by the idea. I smiled once more and ran over to him.

"The technology experts at Kaiba Corp. are top notch, I bet you anything they could construct some sort of a robot body for you," I said with confidence, "After all Noah, we are brothers, aren't we?" And I did mean it. So what if Noah wasn't our brother by blood? The Kaiba Brothers weren't some elite group of superheroes that no one else could join. I guess we were kind of like the mutants from X-Men in a way. All three of us had endured something that gave us both great pain and power—it was also an experience none of us had signed up for.

Noah was still staring at me with disbelief. I didn't look too much into it, I was sure he was just in shocked with gratitude. Although I would've liked to wait around to see what thanks he would give me, I was still anxious to get out of the virtual world.

"So Noah, this place has a lot of games in here, but if we play each one of them it'll take forever to find the exit. Are you completely sure you don't have a clue which one has the exit in it? Maybe the exit is somewhere else."

"You're right! I know, how about we try that one over there?" Noah pointed passed me at a game that was in the very back of the arcade. It was a DDR machine. That was it! I had a feeling that would be the one that could take me out of here. I ran over to the stage with Noah following close from behind me. I walked up the steps and looked around.

"This looks kinda cool, but where's the exit?" I walked over to one of the platforms.

"Right here!" I heard Noah yell just as he jumped at me from behind. I felt this surge of pain cut into my back and shoot up through my spine. I felt myself lose all control of my body as I began to fall through another portal of swirling colors. All of this seemed familiar in a bad way.

Before I knew it, everything went white… again.

-S-

It wasn't long before I had reached the heart of Domino City and had begun making my way through the empty streets. It was strange to see the city like this, never in my life had it looked so deserted and dead. But I wasn't one to focus much on scenery and I had other things on my mind. I should have figured Noah never planned to set us free, anyone could've been able to see that. It was just another trap.

But instead of focusing on that, I decided to forget Noah for now. It was time for me to go straight to the source and take down the man behind all of this madness; my step father, Gozaburo. I hoped he didn't actually think his plan was going to work out in the end. Dragging the whole world into this virtual dump? Gozaburo must've been more senile than I thought.

I stopped and looked up. I was standing in front of the Kaiba Corporation building. I titled my head to look all the way at the top. I had a feeling I would be able to find Gozaburo here. The old man was probably sitting in my office right now, waiting for me. That fool, I was going to show him. I had taken him down once before and I planned to do it again. Only this time, it would be for good.

I looked back down and walked forward into the building. Walking through the automatic glass doors, there was no one at the front desk to greet me. It seemed even the virtual Kaiba Corp. was just as deserted as the rest of this virtual city. This was something I would've never seen in real life, for there was always someone on the job at Kaiba Corp.

I walked past the front and right over to the main elevator. I clicked the button to go to the top floor and the doors closed. I let out a long sigh and leaned against the wall, crossing my arms. I closed my eyes for a moment, just letting them rest and gathering my thoughts. I had to put an end to my step father's nonsense once and for all. My eyes shot open when I heard the elevator dinging; I had come to the top floor.

I exited the elevator and walked down the long hallway. I knew exactly where to go, I knew this entire building by heart. I could feel an immense amount of energy building up inside me, urging me to move forward and face the man that haunted my nightmares every night. I stopped when I reached the door, twisted the knob, and kicked open the door.

"Ah, Seto… I was expecting you. However, I wasn't expecting such a poor display of manners." I walked through the door and stood in front of his desk. Gozaburo was sitting on the other side of it, sitting in MY business chair.

"Cut the charades Gozaburo, I'm not here to chat with you."

"Well that's too bad, because I was thinking we could have a father-son chat. Why don't you take a seat? Stay a while?" I glared at him.

"In your dreams." Gozaburo eyed me.

"Seto, why don't you just give in now and make things easier for yourself. Or you can choose to meet the same fate as your friends." There was a chess board with chess pieces already set up on his desk. He took up his queen and moved it two spaces forward. A screen folded down from the ceiling behind me, and I could hear Yugi and the others battling off dueling monsters. They weren't doing so well, even Yugi.

"Take a look. My army of monsters could wipe them out at my command if I so choose." An image of Yugi could be seen after he lost his Curse of Dragon to one of Gozaburo's monsters. I looked back at Gozaburo.

"Your little threats don't scare me and if you know what's best for you, I would suggest letting us go before I really get angry." Gozaburo rose from his seat. He looked me in the eye, and I made an effort not to look his head, just to keep looking straight out the window. Gozaburo started chuckling. It was probably because this had been a habit he had beaten into me when I was a child, never to look directly into Gozaburo's eyes unless being spoken too. Even though it had been a long time since he had died, the habit had still left its mark on my mind.

Gozaburo began walking towards me and stood right beside me in the opposite direction, he turned his head towards me, smirking.

"You haven't changed a bit, have you?" I could feel his body heat; he was standing so close to me. My body remained still, my eyes fixed on looking straight forward and nowhere else. His mere presence beside me still sent a chill down my back, as it always had when I was a kid. Gozaburo would only get this close to me when he was going to punish me back in the day. I had come to correlate a person's closeness with punishment. Gozaburo turned his head towards me, "You're exactly the same kid you use to be."

I didn't say anything.

"Alright, I know the perfect way to settle our differences. Do you recall the chess match we had the day I met you? Well I propose a rematch." I smirked with amusement.

"You are not worth my time," I could tell Gozaburo was peeved with my response, "Why would I want to play chess with someone who couldn't even beat me when I was just a kid?" Now Gozaburo was the one who looked smug.

"What makes you think I want to play another game of chess with you?" I turned my head with shock.

"Then what exactly did you have in mind?" I asked. The first thing that came to my mind was hand to hand combat which I was possibly more excited about then I should be. I could only imagine what it would look like; a 72-year-old man against his 16-year-old son. That would've been a sight to see.

"I'm talking about a game you're quite fond of; duel monsters." I stared at him with disbelief. Was he being serious right now? Was he actually suggesting we play the game he had always discouraged me to play when I was a child?

"Really?" I asked out loud. Gozaburo continued having that evil, cunning look in his eye. "What are you up to?"

"You seem mad; I thought you'd jump at the chance to duel your step father to win your freedom." I glared at him. I couldn't believe my step father was the same sick and twisted man he had always been. He disgusted me.

"You're wrong, Gozaburo. You can't play with my life like it's a game."

"Oh really? That's quite a surprise to hear, coming from you, considering that's exactly what you did to me, Seto, on the day you stole the Kaiba Corporation from me."

"How tragic. You're here because I outsmarted you and took away your precious little company."

"I'm here because you stole my company and took my life." I narrowed my eyes as I looked at him.

"You killed yourself, how can you blame me?"

"Don't talk like it wasn't your fault. You're the one that drove me to the edge, in reality; you're the one that killed me. That's why I plan to get rid of you first before I digitize the entire world." There he was going on about that digitizing the world stuff. I rolled my eyes. As if.

"And why exactly do you have to beat me in a duel to do that?" I asked, uninterested in even hearing the answer.

"To humiliate you, like you humiliated me. And once I beat you at your favorite game, I'll make sure you never stand in my way again! I'll erase your mind and reprogram you as my servant. Then you'll obey my every command just like the rest of the world. How does that sound to you, son?" I turned away from Gozaburo and looked down, closing my eyes.

"I have never served anyone but myself and I've never backed down from a challenge either, Gozaburo, you should know that," I opened my eyes, "So let's duel."

A/N: Yes! Awesomeness! I can't wait! I'm excited!(Awesomeness is a word?!) Anyways, so, I'm excited. Not because there's yet another duel coming up(although it is the last duel of this story) but because it's a duel against Gozaburo! And who couldn't be more excited about that? Also, you guys are probably wondering what the hell Mokuba is going to be doing this whole time. Well, like I keep telling you guys, don't worry about it, I've ALWAYS got something interested and original waiting for you! Plus, I'm actually REALLY excited to write Gozaburo and Seto's interaction in their duel. It's going to be super cool because I'm going to have them talk about a lot of awesome stuff as an added bonus:3. I know some people, or at least one person, had asked whether I was going to have a section where it was from Noah's POV and I was thinking if I was going to do that, these next upcoming scenes would be the time to do that. But honestly, I hate the kid so damn much and I think I'm going to have too much more awesome stuff going on with the REAL Kaiba Brothers that I don't think I'll do Noah's POV(I'm sure not many of you are that unhappy about that) But anyways, expect cool stuff! Thanks for reading!