"We're all standing with our backs against the wall, sooner or later,

Waiting on a phone that never calls, at all.

Heartbreak comes rollin' in like a storm, sooner or later,

Trying to swim but you're sinking like a stone, alone."

Sooner or Later by Matt Kearny

XXXVII

If it had been anyone else, Seto would've been able to swallow his pride. He would've been able to pick up the phone, call Mokuba, and ask his brother to come back home. He would've apologized for being an inconsiderate jerk, and Mokuba would've joked that being a jerk was second nature to Seto, and they both would've reconciled. The problem Seto faced was the same as it had always been: his pride. Seto's pride could sometimes prove to be more powerful than his kinship with Mokuba, and it was why Seto had let Mokuba walk out the door after their fight. That was a weakness that Seto often misconstrued as a strength, even in cases in which he knew he was wrong.

Knowing he was wrong, however, wasn't the problem. The problem was admitting it, not only to the other person, but first to himself. To distract himself from the clear course of action he needed to take, Seto was watching the press release from earlier that day on his computer. He got through watching half of the video before he felt the need to pause it. It was the look in Mokuba's eyes that prevented Seto from watching the rest. Mokuba's light-gray eyes resembled nothing of the fourteen year old boy Seto had raised. The way they looked, distant and disconnected, did not belong to Mokuba. His eyes, instead, belonged to the person he was emulating… his older brother.

"I'm in no place to comment on my brother's whereabouts nor his plans to resume control over Kaiba Corp. Those facts will present themselves in due time. I have no further comments to give." Seto closed his laptop, unwilling to hear more of the news report. He let himself fall back into his computer chair and stare up at the spinning fan above him. His eyes became mesmerized by the blades of the fan. Each time one of the blades cut through the light, Seto came closer and closer to realizing just how long three months really was. It had been easy for him to forget how many days and weeks had gone by while he was confined to the four corners of his room.

Seto closed his eyes after they began to hurt due to staring directly into the light. His right hand rose from the arm rest and reached for the locket around his neck. It felt cold at first, causing his fingers to retract from touching the metal. The second time around, he let his fingers wrap around the locket, warming the metal with the palm of his hand while his eyes remained closed. He didn't need to look at the photo inside the locket—he had stared at it many times before, always in situations of either desperate need, nostalgia, or both.

Seto could still remember the day he received his locket—it was given to him by Mokuba the day after he took over Kaiba Corp. The two of them had decided to take a little trip out of Domino City back to a park in the suburbs where they had grown up. The whole idea was Mokuba's and Seto smiled as he remembered sitting on the swing set that represented a part of their childhood that ended after their parents died.

"Here Nii-sama," Mokuba had said, opening his palm to reveal the small locket it contained. Seto reached out and grabbed the locket, staring at it curiously.

"What is it? A necklace?" Seto held it up to his face to get a closer look.

"It's a locket. I have one too." Seto turned to see Mokuba place a similar locket around his own neck. Mokuba smiled and gestured back toward the one in Seto's hand. "If you look inside, it has a picture of me in it… from when we were kids. Mine has a picture of you."

Seto opened the locket, interested in seeing what picture the locket contained. There were few pictures that had been taken of the boys growing up. The picture of Mokuba that was in it was from the time period where they lived at the orphanage. Before Seto could react, Mokuba placed his hand on top of the locket, causing Seto to look up. Mokuba was still smiling, giving Seto's hand a small squeeze before speaking.

"I made these for us so we would always remember where we came from and who we are to each other. That dream that we shared in the orphanage… we're living it now, but I never want us to forget what we had to do to get here." Seto placed his other hand on top of Mokuba's, looking directly into his eyes with a smile to match the one that had briefly disappeared on Mokuba's face as the boy recalled the tragedies that had led them to this point.

"I would never forget what we've been through—you should know that. It's the reason why we even came up with this dream to begin with… to have a better life." The last thing Seto remembered from that day was receiving a hug from Mokuba, one that reinforced the promise made back at the orphanage. The promise that everything they would ever do would be for each other and for moving forward.

It wasn't until Seto opened his eyes and found himself in the same empty office he was in before that he understood the depth of what Mokuba had said during their fight. Taking his anger out on Zigfried's company was his way of lingering in the past—both professionally and personally. He wasn't sure why he continued to be surprised that Mokuba was always right, but the boy tended to know better than Seto.

Knowing this, however, didn't change that it had been an hour since Seto had last seen Mokuba and the fact that Mokuba hadn't reappeared was concerning. Seto's decision not to call Mokuba was not only out of pride but also respect—if Mokuba wanted space, then he deserved that much. Nevertheless, an hour of space without any communication began stirring up a familiar feeling in the pit of his…

"Mr. Kaiba?" Seto twirled around in his office chair to find Isono standing in the doorway.

"Has Mokuba called?"

"No, sir. Unfortunately I still haven't received word from Master Mokuba," Isono replied. Seto ran his hand through his hair, thinking to himself what he should do next. It was very unlike Mokuba not to contact him, even though they were in a fight. Still, Seto expected him to at least contact Isono, just to let someone know he was okay. Seto didn't want to jump to any conclusions, but Isono's look of trepidation began to stir the emotions he was trying to contain.

"I'm assuming you haven't contacted him yourself, have you?" Seto asked, rising from his chair to do a bit of pacing in between thinking to himself.

"I have not, Mr. Kaiba. Should I contact the authorities?" Isono asked.

Seto stopped pacing and shook his head without looking up from the floor.

"No, not yet. Let's wait a while longer before we start contacting anyone."

"As you wish," Isono stated before he continued, "Oh, and I also came to inform you that there's a visitor waiting for you at the door." Seto looked up.

"A visitor? At my home? Who is it?"

"I'm not sure, sir. Shall I turn them away?" Seto rolled his eyes as he pushed past Isono to walk down to the foyer. Seto wasn't one to take visitors, especially not ones that came to his home, but in light of recent events, he had to be sure it wasn't someone important. When he opened the door, however, he wasn't sure what category the visitor fell under.

"Hey Seto," Kisara said, but the words seemed to taper off when his eyes locked with hers. Immediately following eye contact, Seto attempted to slam the door in her face, but to no avail. Her astonishment in seeing Seto in person wasn't enough to distract her from the reason she was there, so she quickly managed to throw her foot in the doorway before it closed. Seto twisted around to shoot a glare at Isono standing behind him.

"How—exactly—were you 'not sure' about who this was?" Seto hissed, his hand still firmly gripped on the doorknob.

Isono gave an apologetic bow before speaking.

"I apologize for the lie, but I felt it was necessary to give Miss Safiya a chance to speak."

"You don't have the authority to decide who gets to speak to me." While Seto was preoccupied with his conversation with Isono, Kisara took it upon herself to throw her body against the door and shove it open. Caught off-guard, Seto nearly fell over, and Isono quickly rushed to his master's aid.

"Look, I know you're angry, but I need to talk to you," Kisara said, taking hold of the door and closing it behind her. Seto regained his footing, shoving Isono away from him as he walked past Kisara.

"I'm not interested in talking to you." Seto reopened the door and gestured for Kisara to leave. "Now if you wouldn't mind, escort yourself off my property before I'm forced to call the police." Kisara's eyes didn't even acknowledge the door's existence. There was determination displayed on her face, the kind that emanated from her body and sought to be heard. Her determination was once a quality that made Seto attracted to her, but in this moment, only brought about annoyance for him.

"It's about Mokuba," she said.

"I told you already, I don't care about what you have to say. I don't want to hear what you think about my actions or how they relate to my family. I suggest you get out before…" Suddenly Seto's words seemed to escape him as Kisara brought up her hand. A small, card-shaped locket was dangling from her fingers. The mere sight of it made Seto's composure disappear.

"No…" Seto backed away from the door as he became consumed with thoughts and scenarios concerning Mokuba's whereabouts. Images of his brother being trapped in a dark room, alone and scared, flooded his mind. Isono also became shaken up when he saw what was in Kisara's hands and frantically took out his phone in response.

"I'm calling Master Mokuba but no one is picking up. If it goes to voicemail, should I contact the authorities?"

Seto snapped out of his trance and turned to Isono.

"No. Keep calling until he picks up or I say otherwise." Seto shifted his focus back to Kisara, snatching the locket from her hand. "Tell me everything you know about how you got this." Kisara opened her mouth to speak but right as she did, Seto's phone began to go off. All eyes were directed towards Seto as he frantically pulled it out and answered.

"Mokuba?!"

"Hello, Kaiba." Seto recognized the thick German accent almost instinctively.

"Zigfried?" Seto took a moment to recollect himself and hide the panic that was originally in his voice only seconds earlier before he continued. "What are you doing calling me? If you wanted to whine about the state of your company, you could've just e-mailed me like any other successful business man. Let this be a lesson to you: the next time you try to blindside me, just remember one thing—"

"…Nii-sama?" Seto's heart stopped for a brief moment.

"Mokuba? Mokuba, where are you? Are you okay?!"

"I don't know where I am but I'm—" The line went dead before Mokuba could finish and Seto's phone dropped to the floor. Kisara was about to ask what happened but seeing the look on Seto's face already gave her the answer: Mokuba was in grave danger.

"Sorry to have cut that conversation short, but I felt that was all the information that needed to be relayed," Zigfried said, tossing the phone to the ground after hanging up on Seto. Mokuba watched the device collide with the ground before looking back up at the man who was currently holding him captive. Zigfried walked away from Mokuba to a desk that was on the other side of the room. He opened the top drawer and Mokuba's heart dropped.

"If you even think about hurting me with whatever you have in there, I can't even begin to describe what my brother will do to you," Mokuba said, attempting to pull his hands out of the rope that constrained his wrists to the arm rests of the chair. It didn't help that his legs were tied as well… or that he was in, what appeared to be, an empty warehouse. Mokuba hadn't seen many horror movies, but he had seen enough to have an idea of what was coming next. His only objective was to stall long enough until Seto's arrival.

"Not to worry, Mokuba. I wouldn't dream of harming you." It was then that Zigfried turned around and revealed what he had pulled out of the desk. Instead of tools of torture, he was holding a first aid kit. Mokuba became relieved, although his mind wasn't totally at ease as Zigfried kneeled down in front of him, placing the first aid kit to the side. He clicked it open and pulled out cotton balls, bandages, and rubbing alcohol. The mere sight of these items reminded Mokuba of the throbbing pain in his head from when Zigfried's thugs knocked him out in the alleyway. Mokuba went from staring at the first aid kit to staring at Zigfried.

"What are you trying to do? Make me look nice before my brother gets here so that way he's not as pissed?"

Zigfried soaked a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol before bringing it up to Mokuba's forehead. Mokuba's face instinctively backed away. Zigfried sighed with frustration.

"There's no need for such an attitude. It wasn't by my instruction that my henchmen hurt you. I only instructed them to bring you to me, but I do apologize for them getting overzealous in the process." Again, Zigfried inched the cotton ball towards Mokuba's head and, again, Mokuba utilized what little space he had to move away. "If you're going to be like this, then fine."

Zigfried took hold of Mokuba's head, locking it in place, as he softly dabbed the cut above Mokuba's left eye. Mokuba winced with pain as Zigfried cleaned the wound but then relaxed when the bloody cotton ball was put down and bandages were brought up. Mokuba didn't resist him as he tied the bandages, but the angry glare remained.

"So what is this supposed to be, exactly? A polite kidnapping?" Mokuba spat.

"An opportunity for negotiation. Your brother refuses to talk to me face-to-face so I created the scenario for us to do so." When Zigfried was finished with the bandages, he picked up what remained on the floor and began putting it back into the first aid kit. Mokuba couldn't stand to sit there and watch Zigfried clean his wounds, like some sort of nurse, while he remained strapped to a chair like a prisoner. One act of kindness didn't cancel out an act of evil.

"You do realize that I'm strapped to a chair, right? And that your henchmen were the ones that socked me in the face? What makes you think he's going to be willing to talk to you?" Zigfried returned to the desk on the other side of the room, putting away the first aid kit and throwing away the soiled cotton balls. As restless as Mokuba felt, he tried to focus on the objective: the longer he stalled with conversation, the more time Seto had to rescue him.

"Young Mokuba, you might've been playing the role of a CEO for 3 months, but that doesn't mean you understand what it takes to be a CEO," Zigfried said, with his back still turned to Mokuba, "There are a ways to communicate in business beyond your understanding."

"This isn't business, this is kidnapping! This is against the law!"

Zigfried continued with putting away his things as he spoke. "Well, what your brother did wasn't business either. It was betrayal."

"You stole our ideas and tried to pawn them as your own to ruin our reputation!" Suddenly Zigfried turned around and Mokuba's mouth shut instantly.

There was a gun in his hands.

A/N: AFTER TWO MONTHS (and seven days), IT IS FINALLY DONE! You guys have NO idea how frustrating this chapter was and it's entirely why it took me so long to finish it and post it. What happened was I actually did finish this chapter early last month and it contained most of the things that happened in this chapter, but I absolutely hated it. Turns out I hated it for all of the right reasons: it was bad… really bad. It was so bad that I had to go back to the drawing board and I spent a better part of this month contemplating giving up the story entirely. The state of the chapter was so bad, it made me feel like I was a bad writer entirely… but I stuck with it. I took a two week break, spent a lot of time walking and thinking, and then I came up with this. My beta reader, Caroline, played a big part in sculpting it to perfection (as she always does), so a big thank you goes out to her as well! As always, I hope to stay on a fairly regular update schedule (posting a chapter once per month) but ultimately my goal is to write to the best of my ability and if my chapter isn't the best it can be (like last month), it may take longer to post. Thanks, as always, for reading and reviewing! Hope you guys have a great Halloween later this week!