Sandstorm Amaterasu Zira: He sure can, my friend:] And thank you! I shall always try to succeed at that, it's like my number one goal in life(okay, so maybe its not, I think we can all agree that everyone's number one goal should be to try and succeed our own self goals, but succeeding other people's goals is nice too!) Thanks for the review!

WhiteAsukalover: Wasn't it an epic plot twist?! I did think it was pretty clever myself when I came up with it. As I have said before; not sure if I was going for a laugh, but if you did, I still think it's a good human reaction to have. And I didn't save Noah because that's not what happens in the show. Although I have some very original scenes, I am trying to go along with the show as well, only filling in plot holes in between to do my own thing with them, I'm sorry to say. Thanks for your review though!

MythCreatorWriter: Dude, do you want to know the dirty little secret behind Joan being his mother? That plot device was made up ON THE SPOT. No joke, in the last, last chapter, when Joan was talking about her not existing… I had already pre-written that scene on paper because I tend to think of conversations more than actual scenes and I build my scenes off of those. So I was typing it out in the chapter and dear lord, I had no idea what I was getting at, it was just supposed to make Mokuba think. And then the other day I was walking with my family to get lunch and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, she's his mom.' Like, it literally just came to me, like that, totally random. I actually got that idea when we first came to the beach… cool! I don't think Mokuba is the only one who gets to see her; I like to think with my stories its spread out evenly between both brothers. About the Noah thing, I switched it up a bit by mixing in both things he said in the English and Japanese version, which is exactly what I did in this chapter in some ways as well. Sometimes the Japanese have more in depth lines, but the Americans tend to explain the situation better by sacrificing the in depth lines. It kinda sucks, but that's how it is. Anyways, I better start my editing, but thanks for the review!

Chapter 32: The Great Pretender

-M-

When I opened my eyes I hadn't expected to be alive. I mean, I really hadn't. I think I might've blacked out a bit during the blast, but I wasn't sure. I couldn't remember much of the escape except when I had been holding into the railing, looking out the window and seeing nothing but flames. Oh yeah, and thinking about Noah. That was something else that was on my mind before I kind of… faded out.

I got up and looked around. Everyone was just now recovering from the explosion and getting up on their feet, the passengers all seemed relatively okay from my end. But as I scanned the room, I couldn't see Seto anywhere. Where had he gone? I remembered him assuring me about something, and then running out of the room after he did… I got up in a fright.

I tumbled on my feet as I ran across the room in the direction of the navigation room. Just as I was halfway there, I spotted Seto just exiting it. His face was cool and collected, as always, but I could spot a bit of sweat on his face. I had a feeling that was because Seto hadn't been too sure we would make it out of that blast either when we were making our escape. His face brightened when he saw me at the end of the hallway.

"Mokuba, are you alright?" I didn't bother answering him. I ran towards him, my uneasiness gone as I leapt into his arms and hugged him.

"Please say it's over…" I said quietly to him, wrapping my arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. Seto hugged me as well, patting my back soothingly.

"It's over, little brother, it's over. You're going to be just fine…" Seto's voice was soft and delicate, speaking words and spreading calmness throughout my body, but somehow… I couldn't completely feel the same way. All of me wanted to listen to his every word and agree with him, but a part of me knew that just wasn't true. I didn't say anything about it, though, even as we broke away from one another.

"I have to see how the other passengers are doing, did everyone seem okay to you?" Seto asked me as we started walking back down the hall in the direction I had come from. I briskly attempted to keep up with his pace as we walked.

"Yeah, everyone seemed fine."

"Even… Joey?" I chuckled a little.

"Yeah, even Joey."

"Damn," Seto said under his breath, but loud enough so that I could hear. I let out a heartfelt laugh or two. Seto grinned as we entered the viewing room; which was the room that was between the lobby and the control room. His grin disappeared as we did when he saw that everyone had shifted from the lobby into the viewing room, the attention fell on Seto when he entered.

"Kaiba, there you are. We thought we lost you since we didn't see you after we got back into the blimp…" Yugi said.

"We had hoped we lost you…" Joey said under his breath. I knew my brother had heard that, but didn't necessarily care that he did. Joey seemed to be the only one disgruntled by my brother's unharmed condition.

"Where did you go?" Serenity asked.

"I went into the control room."

"Wait; were you the one who got us out of that blast?"

"Who else do you think could've done it?" Yugi's friends seemed to be pretty impressed by this, I wasn't though. I was use to seeing my brother excel in stressful situations. What was truly amazing was that he always managed to come out successful in the end, knowing I wasn't as skilled.

"Wow, that's so cool!" Serenity said with amazement. The subject was quickly dropped though when Yugi and his friends noticed the viewing window at the edge of the room. They all walked towards it, Seto and I followed without much of a thought. Yugi and his friends were looking down, somewhat saddened to see Noah's station up in flames in the middle of the ocean.

"…You know, Noah might've been a jerk at the beginning, but he turned out alright in the end. The kid did have it pretty rough," Joey commented.

"Yeah… All he ever wanted was to be loved by his father," Tea said with sympathy, "I wonder if his mind was destroyed when the computer was destroyed."

"Noah made a great sacrifice to save us all… but knowing him, he probably saved his mind on a backup file. I'm sure he'll be back," Yugi said with ease. For a brief moment I looked over at Yugi and smiled. The idea was a nice thought, and I honestly hoped that he was telling the truth.

After all that Noah did for us, he deserved to be able to have a chance to be alive again.

I noticed a small table nearby with some white lilies placed on top. I took the bundle of them out of the vase and held them towards an opening in the window. I carefully fitted the flowers out and dropped them through the window. I felt it was appropriate to honor Noah's memory, and the chance he had of returning to the real world.

As I watched the lilies float down onto the water, I kept hearing Noah's voice in my head, mainly the last thing I had heard him say before I escaped the virtual world.

'I am a human, not a machine.' I understood what he meant and I agreed. Someday, I hoped, Noah would return as the human that he was. Unfortunately, Seto's voice broke me out of my hopeful thoughts and did what he did best; go right back to business. Never was there a day where Seto neglected to remember his duties as CEO of Kaiba Corp. and as a top-ranked duelist.

"Alright, that little detour was a complete waste of my time and effort," Seto said with his arms folded. I looked up towards him just as he turned away, "So let's move on and pretend that nonsense never happened. It's now time for us to get back to the Battle City Finals. I'll set us back on course for Kaiba Corp. Island."

"What…?" I said quietly to myself. Seto then walked out of the room without saying anything else. I was in total disbelief after hearing him say such a thing.

"Yep, that's Kaiba for ya. Always a jerk, never caring about anything other than what he wants," Joey explained to Serenity, shaking his head with disagreement. "I swear; that guy acts as if nothing matters except winning and card games; mainly both." I looked down on the ground in disbelief. Was that really it? Was Seto really going to close the subject just like that by pretending it didn't happen? I couldn't believe him…

"Yeah, sometimes it really does seem that way. Kaiba sure has a way of moving on," Tea added.

"Eh, seems like more of an asshole kind of way of dealing with it," Tristan huffed. The whole group froze up with tension at the word and suddenly all turned towards me, expecting me to already be fuming with rage. They began handing out the apologies immediately.

"Hey, sorry Mokuba, I didn't mean for it to come out that way, your brother just has a different way of dealing with stuff…" Tristan said with quickness.

"Yeah! That's it; it's how he deals with stuff!" Duke stated. I shook my head as I came back to the conversation. I had heard the things they were saying, but I really didn't pay much attention to them. My mind was still trying to figure out why Seto would take everything that happened and just… act like it didn't matter.

"Um, yeah, sure, it's fine. I'm not mad. It's okay," I said, throwing out whatever forgiving phrase came to mind without really thinking about it, "I… uh, have to go…" I said in a bit of a dazed voice. The rest of the gang stared at me oddly, observing me as I walked out of the room, blank-faced.

"Hey Mokuba, you sure you're okay?" Yugi asked before I left the room.

"Yeah, I'm fine," waving a hand in the air without turning back towards him. I drifted out of the room aimlessly; I was too deep in my thoughts to pay attention to where I was going. I just wanted to be alone for a while… to think about some things. I started my way into the stairwell, deciding randomly that I would go up to the roof of the blimp, just until I got my head straight.

I really didn't understand why Seto's words were confusing me so much at that moment. I mean, I understood my brother, and how my brother was. It was the kind of response I would've expected him to say. Seto never looked too much into things that happened to the past, in fact, he usually just wanted to forget it all and move on. That was why we were even having the Battle City Finals at Kaiba Corp. Island. I was well aware that the island used to be where Gozaburo would produce weapons and military vehicles, until Seto took over, tore it all down, and built the duel tower.

It was Seto's intent from the very beginning, he had put this whole tournament together so that he could beat Yugi, be crowned the greatest duelist, and finally be able to put the memories of his past aside. That was the only reason this tournament existed… That's all Seto wanted to do. He just wanted to close the book and never look back again.

I came to the elevator and pressed the button. The doors opened up immediately and I stepped inside. I requested to go to the roof and the doors closed. I looked down at my feet in confusion as I waited.

Why was this bothering me so much? Seto had always been like this… always. I couldn't understand why it was getting to me now, especially since we just had our big confrontation back in No Man's Land. We finally talked about what happened in Duelist Kingdom, we had talked about everything! For the first time in months, I thought we were okay again…

So why did I feel like I was lost again? Why did I suddenly feel like I didn't know where we were anymore, or… where I was, at least? I was lost in a world of emotions and I couldn't understand why.

The doors opened and I walked through the long hallway. In less than a couple minutes I was on the roof. The rushing winds, even though they were violent, had a calming effect on me. I walked over to one of the railings by the edge and leaned on it. I looked down at the water below. It was a beautiful sight.

I began to think that maybe… just maybe, I had hoped for more out of my brother. I hoped that things would be different this time, that everything we went through had changed his mind and views on how he saw our past, that it wasn't something to just forget, that it was apart of us, apart of who we are to this day; apart of how we've become.

I put my head on my folded arms that I had prompted up on the railing. I closed my eyes a bit, letting the wind blow my hair in all different directions, wishing it could take these problems away, or at least this realization that my brother and I… were still not okay.

"Mokuba." I opened my eyes and turned my head. Seto was standing just outside the entrance onto the roof, he looked confused. "What are you doing up here? I've been looking for you everywhere. Why didn't you pick up your cell?" I put my hands to my sides, feeling both my pants pockets. They were empty.

"Sorry Nii-sama, I guess I must've forgotten my phone in my room." Seto didn't look pleased with my answer, but shrugged.

"Okay, well, come on. Lunch will be ready soon."

"But… I'm not hungry…" I said quietly. Seto gestured me to come over to where he was so we could walk in together. I knew sure he didn't hear me, especially with all the wind blowing around. I didn't repeat myself though; I just stuck my hands into my pockets and walked over to him. I followed him down the hall and into the elevator. Even then, I continued to look at the ground.

It was all I could do! I didn't know what to say to him, or if I should say anything. I would glance up at him a couple times, but never for too long. It made me feel too weird… I felt so lost. Seto eyed me as the elevator doors opened.

"Are you alright, Mokuba? You're acting a little weird."

"I'm fine," I mumbled to myself. Seto shook his head, giving up on trying to figure out what was troubling me. I mentally thought to myself that if he had asked me only once more if I was okay, I'd have the courage to tell him the truth. But he didn't… and away we went, down the hall, back to our room.

"I have to pick up something real quick before we go," Seto said, slipping into his room and getting something off his desk. I stood there, planning on being motionless, anticipating nothing to happen… unfortunately, that wasn't what happened. I slammed the door shut behind me. Seto jumped from surprised and twisted around. "Mokuba! Jesus, why'd you do that?!"

"How can you act like none of that mattered to you? How can you live with yourself pretending that the past didn't happen??" I could tell Seto didn't like my random angry outburst, I didn't care though. I couldn't keep pretending. We had to talk about this.

"Mokuba, don't talk to me with that tone of voice."

"I'll talk to you however I want! You can't just turn your back and pretend that didn't happen, because it did happen! Noah exists, he's our brother, and we left him to die along with our step father. Doesn't any of that bother you?" Seto took up the file he had just taken off his desk and threw it across the room.

"You do NOT talk to me that way; I am your older brother, Mokuba-"

"That's right; you're my older brother, just like Noah!" Seto was exploding with rage. He wasn't outwardly showing it, but it was all in his eyes. I had never seen him so mad at me before… but right now, I didn't care because I felt the same way.

I realized that it couldn't continue to be this way. That things had to come out, that the truth had to surface or else I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I needed to talk to Seto, to really talk to him. I wanted him to understand.

"I don't want to talk about this, not now, not ever," Seto said in a very low voice, one that I had dubbed his 'death voice' many years ago. This usually was a warning sign for any living person messing with Seto Kaiba. For me, this was a green light.

A/N: Okay guys, so I really did think that this would be the last chapter to Consequences but I was surprised to find that it wasn't and this ended up having another chapter to go. And this time around I'm sure the next chapter is the last one!(I have pretty much the next chapter written, I just need to get around to editing it on top of finishing up Severance and such!) I'm trying my best to finish both my chapter stories before I leave the country July 18th, but it may be tougher than it looks! Anyhow, on the subject of the actual chapter, you guys should really be proud of what I have here and in the next chapter. I wrote this the last night I had at the beach, alone with my 3 younger brothers, and my 2 friends, and ALL of them were sugar high, jumping up and down, and dancing to loud rap music. It was SO annoying and it made writing SO hard. But I got it done and let me tell you… it's awesome. I can't wait to show you guys the ending because it is really fantastic. I had such a high when I finished it(3 hours later, I came out of my room and my brothers and friends were lying on the floor dead after crashing) And it just felt so good. I wanna say this is my best work yet, but you guys can decide when the next chapter comes! Anyways, sorry this is long, I just felt like I had some stories to share! Thanks for reading!

P.S: I just finished proof reading and editing my story and I'm sorry if this chapter seems a bit rushed! I'm not sure if it seems that way because I'm in a rush right now or what, but yeah, my bad if it is! Peace!