Disclaimer: While the story for the most part is my idea, the characters I borrowed from Yu-Gi-Oh! are (alas) not mine.

"I hoped she'd never leave me
Please God you must believe me
I've searched the universe
And found myself
Within' her eyes

So if she's somewhere near me
I hope to God she hears me
There's no one else
Could ever make me feel
I'm so alive

And now it seems that I
Gave up my ghost of pride
I'll never say goodbye"

~This I Love, Guns n Roses

Chapter 24

Seto checked his coordinates to make sure he was in the right place, though he hoped that he was not. All he could see down below were the smoldering remains of what appeared to have been a campground of some kind. From the look of things it appeared to have burned to the ground. Nearby, the wreckage of four tanks lay strewn across the tundra as well as the burned out body of a helicopter. No!

He was very lucky that there didn't appear to be any sort of life nearby because he wasn't nearly as careful as he should have been landing his jet. He jumped out before the hatch had even fully opened and ran to the ruined plane, his heart pounding again. To his indescribable relief, the helicopter appeared to have been empty which led to the next question: what had happened here? And where was Alistair? He didn't have long to wonder. He heard the rumble of car engines in the distance and ran to climb back into the jet, figuring that was the only way he'd have a snowball's chance in hell to avoid being shot since they surely had bigger guns than the pistol he had stashed in his briefcase.

He fired up the engines, but not before two heavy-looking sand colored trucks pulled up. The fierce-looking men in the trucks all had very large guns trained on his windshield. He put his hands up in the universal sign of surrender and all but one of the men lowered their weapons. He very slowly reached for the switch that would open the hatch, flicked it, and when the opening was wide enough, climbed out of the jet.

"Who are you?" a man with dirty strawberry blonde hair and beard who appeared to be in charge demanded suspiciously. He took in Seto's Blue Eyes White Dragon shaped jet and the insignia on his jacket. Seto saw the man recognize him. He could only hope that his identity would help and not hurt him. "Wait a minute. You're Seto Kaiba, aren't you?"

"Yes," Seto said, his hands still in the air.

"You shouldn't have come here. You're damn lucky it was us that found you and not the rebels or the army. They would have held you for ransom then sent you home in a coffin."

"I'm glad to know you're more reasonable." Seto did his best to sound nonchalant, and even smirked, his eyes never leaving the bearded man's face.

"I know why you're here," Neakail declared. "Come with us to our base and you can take it up with my boss." Seto didn't move.

"What are you, a psychic? Get real, how could you possibly know why I'm here?" Neakail snorted.

"Why don't you come with us and find out? If we were going to kill you we could have done it already, but the way I see it you're not armed with anything lethal enough to protect you from my friend here." He indicated the man wielding the large rifle still pointing in Seto's direction. "Even if you have a gun in that jacket of yours, there's no way you could take on all of us. So be a good boy and come with us now or leave. Your choice." Scowling, Seto lowered his hands. If there was even the slimmest possibility that they knew where Alistair was, he was going to have to go with them.

"Fine. Just let me get my briefcase. And what about my jet?" Neakail pondered the matter before turning to the man sitting beside him in the truck.

"Blaine, make sure he doesn't try anything funny. His gaze returned to Kaiba. "You will fly that…thing back to our base. Get moving." Seto's nostrils flared. How dare someone order him around? Still, they had guns and he didn't so he forced himself to swallow his pride and do as he was told. With Blaine's gun all but pressed against his back he returned to the jet and got in the pilot's chair. Blaine climbed into the passenger seat, his gun now trained on the back of Seto's head.

Idiot, Seto thought. Doesn't he realize that if he shoots me he'll die too? The trucks were already pulling around by the time he started the jet's engines for a second time. He tailed them until they arrived at a monstrosity of a building not too far away. Seto had no idea what was holding the ramshackle bunker up and was none too pleased that he had to enter it after carefully landing his jet beside their other vehicles. He was led by Blaine to a room full of haphazard army-style cots where the bearded man was waiting for them.

"My boss will be here to talk to you in a few minutes, but first let me prove to you that I know why you're here. Sit." Seto sat on the nearest cot and awaited some kind of explanation, trying not to get his hopes up. "You can leave Blaine, he won't try anything once he sees what I've got to show him." Blaine nodded and closed the door behind him.

Neakail walked to one of the many cots, reached under the pillow and pulled out a photograph.

"Recognize this?" he asked, handing the photo to Seto. Seto lowered his eyes to the picture only to find that he was staring at himself, Trudy, and Mokuba.

"Where did you get this?" he demanded.

"I think you know." The voice that rang out was not Neakail's, but Kam's. Seto looked over his shoulder in time to see an older man in a faded camouflage jacket and jeans enter the room.

"I'm done playing games! Where's Alistair?" Seto demanded. Kam regarded him coolly.

"I will tell you, but I want something from you first." Seto had come prepared for such a proposal.

"How much?"

"One million."

"Done." He put the picture aside and set his briefcase on his lap, clicking it open. It was full of local currency with the pistol resting on top. He flipped it so that the case faced Kam. "I have half a million here. You'll have to accept my word that you'll get the other half." Kam contemplated the deal. Robinhood desperately needed the money and half a million was better than nothing even if Kaiba went back on his word.

"I will accept your offer. Neakail, take this money and that lovely pistol to the safe."

"And bring my briefcase back when you're done," Seto put in, his bossy business persona taking over. Neakail grunted. "Now it's time for you to hold up your end of the bargain. Where is he?"

"At the hospital," Kam answered promptly. "He was taken there after an incident that happened yesterday." It took all of Seto's willpower not to let his relief show on his face.

"What incident?"

"He was part of a rescue mission at a tent community nearby. My team was apparently ambushed by several army tanks. Alistair was a fool and shot and killed one of the soldiers. I wasn't there, but the witnesses say that before the tanks could fire back, a strange green light attacked them. I have no idea what that means, but the result was that the tanks exploded and set the tents on fire. While the others helped get the people to safety, Neakail went back for Alistair who had gotten knocked out. Along with several others, he was dropped off at the nearest hospital."

"But he's alright?" Kam shrugged.

"I have no idea. We have bigger problems to contend with than the condition of one person."

"Give me the address of this hospital."

"I'll have one of the men take you tomorrow."

"Take me now." The look in Kaiba's eyes was the same look Kam had seen in Alistair's when he'd demanded to be sent into the field. He regarded the young CEO.

"Fine. We need to check the status of the others we dropped off anyway. I'll have Michael take you."

Even those at Robinhood who didn't know who Seto Kaiba was were buzzing about the rich stranger from Domino and all gathered to gawk as Michael led a blindfolded Seto out to one of the trucks.

"You can take the blindfold off now," Michael said once they'd been on the road for a few miles. Seto gladly pulled the rough cloth from his eyes. They were on a dirt road in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. There were scraggly trees growing here and there out of hard, half-frozen ground, but not much else. Seto couldn't fathom why land this barren looking was even worth fighting over.

"Princess will be glad to see you," Michael said. Seto's brow creased in confusion.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh right, you don't know. That's what we call him. I don't even actually remember his real name."

"Alistair."

"That's it. All he does when he's not working is look at that photo of you. He talks about you in his sleep too, plus someone named Mikey." Seto said nothing. "You know, you're a lot scrawnier than you looked in that picture."

"Just shut up and drive," Seto snapped, too tired to hold any kind of discussion. His lack of sleep was rapidly catching up to him and the heat of the car wasn't helping. Michael shot him a scathing look.

"Hey, you might be some hotshot business owner back in Domino, but here you're nothing so watch yourself. If it weren't for us picking you up you'd have gotten captured or killed by now."

"Whatever."

Twenty minutes later they arrived at the hospital, the only one that remained operational in the region. Michael pulled up to the front, got out of the car and entered the building without a backward glance. Seto wasn't sorry to see him go and he was very much regretting not having put a caffeine pill or two in his jacket pocket. He just had to keep himself going long enough to get to Alistair. Michael was nowhere in sight as he approached a harried nurse at the reception desk.

"I'm looking for someone," Seto said authoritatively. "He was brought in yesterday."

"There were a lot of people brought here yesterday," she replied impatiently. "Try again." Seto wasn't used to being spoken to like that and it took him momentarily aback. Usually people tripped over themselves trying to help him.

"He's about my age, he's got red hair, gray eyes and he's a little shorter than I am." The nurse rolled her eyes.

"You just described about a third of the people here." Seto ground his teeth in frustration. Much as he didn't care for her attitude, she was right.

"He's with the same group as the man who walked in here before me. They were evacuating people from a tent community yesterday when a fire started. His name's Alistair." A second nurse who had stopped by briefly to get a pen spoke up.

"I think I might know who you mean." Seto turned to her.

"Where is he?" The girl looked at the receptionist who shrugged.

"I'll take you." Shooting the receptionist a lofty glare, he followed the younger woman down the corridor which was full of people including more harassed looking hospital employees.

"It happens a lot around here that we get people, like the one you're looking for, that are in comas that we aren't able to identify. It's made a mess of our records," she explained.

"He's in a coma?" Seto asked, dismayed.

"Yes. He hasn't woken up since he got here and we're at a loss as to why which is why his case stood out to me. He had no head trauma, just a couple of scrapes that look like he fell over or something, but nothing serious. Here we are." She stopped suddenly in front of a door. "Normally these rooms are for one patient, but since we have a disproportionate number of coma cases and not enough room for all of them, we've just sort of put them all in here." He nodded impatiently. She opened the door and stepped inside. He followed. Aghast, he saw that not two or three, but seven cots had been jammed into the small room. "Since we couldn't find anything wrong with him we just…" But Seto wasn't listening anymore. He had seen Alistair lying on a cot by the window. Had there been room he would have rushed over, but as it was he had to wade through several other beds to get there.

The nurse was right as far as he could tell. Alistair merely appeared to be sleeping, though he looked a lot different than when Seto had seen him last. His hair was longer and unkempt and his face had taken on an almost gaunt appearance as though he was barely getting enough to eat. What happened to you? he thought.

Had the nurse not been there he would have knelt beside the cot and pulled Alistair's unconscious form to him, so grateful was he that Alistair was alive, but he didn't. Instead he merely stared at him, willing him to wake up. The nurse suddenly appeared at his elbow with a clipboard in her hand.

"Um…could I get you to answer some questions for me?" she asked. "For our records you know? Even though it's much more difficult at the moment the director really wants us to try and keep them up for when this is all over."

"Of course," Seto said absently.

"Ok, thank you." She set the pen she'd gotten from the receptionist's desk on the form. "What's his name? You said it before but I didn't quite catch it."

"Alistair."

"Surname?"

"Kaiba," he said after only a split second's hesitation. She nodded and wrote it down.

"And what's your relation?"

"I'm his…cousin, Seto Kaiba."

"And would we be releasing him into your care?" she asked without looking up.

"Yes. Do you need my insurance information?" She laughed.

"Sorry, it's just that that's so mundane. We don't even usually get paid, you know? The only reason we're even still open is because groups like Robinhood donate to us, the rebels too sometimes, and even the government when they feel like it. Half the time we don't even have electricity. Now for instance. Once it gets dark we have to use flashlights or candles."

"I see. I didn't know…"

"You're not from here I take it."

"No. I'm…we're from Domino."

"How did you end up here? Sorry," she added quickly. "That's none of my business. Anyway, it says on his chart that we're to keep him here for another day to see if he wakes up, if not we were going to have someone from Robinhood come for him, but since you're a relative you can take him. I'm sorry that we can't do more." She looked at him sympathetically.

"Can I stay here?" Seto asked. "We'll leave tomorrow after I've gotten some sleep." Though Seto prided himself on his ability to operate on little to no sleep, he was smart enough to realize that there was no way he could go much longer without at least a nap.

"If you want."

"I do."

"It looks like there's room for a chair, I'll go see if I can find one."

"Thank you. And could I get a coffee or something later?" She looked confused.

"We don't have anything like that here. Just some bread, but I'm not sure I'm allowed to give you that since you aren't a patient, although seeing as he's not eating anything maybe I could get you something…I'll check."

"Thank you," he repeated.

Once the door clicked shut behind her he sank to the floor. Everyone in the room was either sleeping or unconscious so they wouldn't bear witness to his momentary display of weakness.

"I had no idea that the situation here was so bad," he said out loud. "This is ridiculous. No one should have to live in a world like this. I wouldn't even wish this on Pegasus. Well, maybe him…" He could only rationalize talking to someone who couldn't even hear him by acknowledging that if he didn't he'd probably break down and cry over the tragedy of it all. What would he do if Alistair never woke up? It would be worse than if he'd simply been killed because then Seto would have to make the call and he didn't think he'd be able to. He suddenly realized that he could barely keep his eyes open and lay his head on Alistair's chest. He'd just rest until the nurse came back with a chair…

She returned five minutes later having been unable to find a chair, but with a half a roll that she'd gotten from their rations. When she saw that the dark-haired young man had fallen asleep on Alistair's chest she smiled to herself. She hadn't believed for a moment that the two were cousins. She very carefully set the bread next to his head so he'd see it when he woke up and left the room again, careful to close the door quietly behind her. For the young man's sake, she hoped that Alistair woke up.

Alistair was certain that he was dead when he opened his eyes two and a half hours later. There was no way he could have survived being shot at by a tank, four in fact. But his head hurt. If he was a ghost, surely he'd be immune to such things. And to hunger for that matter. And what was that weight on his chest?

He tried to sit up but didn't have the strength. The best he could do was raise his head slightly which was when he realized he was dreaming. Seto wasn't really there. Still, it was a better dream than he'd had in a long time. Since he knew he was dreaming, he wondered if he could exert his influence and mold the dream to his fancy. He very shakily raised his right hand high enough to be able to rest it on Seto's shoulder. It felt solid and warm.

"Seto," he said, but it came out as a whisper and he realized how dry his throat was. He swallowed several times, trying to form saliva in his mouth with moderate success. "Seto," he tried again, and this time it came out a little louder, though still weak. He jostled the other man's shoulder. "Seto." Seto stirred and slowly opened his eyes with difficulty; he was still exhausted. But as soon as his eyes met Alistair's he quickly forgot his fatigue and sat up.

"Alistair," he breathed. "You're awake." He found himself hugging Alistair around his shoulders and pulling him against him out of relief. Alistair's mind was still foggy and he was having trouble processing what was going on, though he did hug Seto back and inhaled the familiar scent of his cologne. Was he dreaming or not?

"What happened?" he asked. "Where am I? What are you doing here?" Seto suddenly realized what he'd done and quickly let go of Alistair and straightened the collar on his jacket to cover the moment.

"I'm not really sure what happened. What do you remember?" Alistair furrowed his eyebrows in concentration, trying to bring order to the thoughts swirling around in his head.

"We were relocating a group of people living in tents a few miles away from our base. The tanks probably came because my…your helicopter showed up on their radar." He paused, telling the story while trying to keep it all straight in his mind was more difficult than he'd thought and doing nothing to soothe his headache. "There was a boy. I guess he left something behind, a toy maybe. They were going to kill him so I shot them first. Then…" he frowned, trying to remember. "Then the tanks turned on all of us and I ran at them and then a light came out of my necklace. It was the Orichalcos, I could feel its power, but then I guess I passed out. That's all I know."

"Your necklace…" It was then that Seto noticed that there was no longer a stone on the cord around Alistair's neck. Neither one of them would ever know that it had shattered after releasing one final burst of energy fuelled by Alistair's anger, the rest of its power exhausted. The moment it shattered the piece of Alistair's soul that had been bound to it had been released.

"Where am I?" Alistair repeated.

"The hospital. Some of your friends took you here."

"My friends? I don't have any friends here."

"Your associates, whatever."

"And how did you find me?"

"I didn't. They brought me here." Before Alistair could ask the inevitable follow-up question: what are you doing here in the first place? he answered it. "There was a tracking device in the helicopter I gave you. When I stopped receiving a signal from it I knew that something must have happened so I flew out here to find out what."

"You were worried about me?" Alistair asked in disbelief.

"Of course not, I just wanted to make sure my helicopter was okay; it's not by the way; it's completely burnt out." Alistair rolled his eyes. He shouldn't have expected any kind of genuine answer from Seto.

Seto…Alistair couldn't believe that he was really there, that he'd risked his life coming to make sure that he was alright. He felt a warmth in his chest that had nothing to do with the sunlight streaming in through the window.

"I'm sorry about your helicopter," he said with a small smile.

"You should be; you obviously didn't take very good care of it." The anger in Seto's voice was genuine, though it had nothing to do with his wrecked helicopter. Now that Alistair was awake, he couldn't help but want to clobber him for having been so foolish.

He didn't believe that some magical power had saved Alistair's life; more than likely one of the tanks' engines had overheated and caused it to explode, or there'd been a gas leakage or both. Both made the most sense and had perhaps been the source of the light that everyone saw. Either way it had been stupid (but admittedly predictable) of Alistair to shoot at a tank in an attempt to help save someone that would probably end up dead anyway. If the tank hadn't exploded right then... "You're such an idiot." Alistair looked taken aback.

"Gee, thanks."

"I'm serious Alistair. I'm not going to go through this again so I hope you got whatever you needed to out of your system because tomorrow I'm taking you home."

"Back to Domino?"

"Where else?"

"No."

"No?" That certainly hadn't been the answer Seto was expecting.

"I'm not done here," Alistair explained, more alert now. He managed to sit up and leaned against the window frame behind him. "I can still help people. Besides," he looked down at his own interlocked fingers. "If I go back with you what am I going to do, work at Kaiba Corp? That's not me. Here at least I get the chance to do something worthwhile, to be somebody. If I work for you I won't have anything to look back on and be proud of because I'll have taken the easy way out.

I've never been able to make my own choices before; everything's always been decided for me. The government decided to take my home and my family away from me, Dartz decided to rescue me and train me to work for him, you decided I would get my pilot's license and work for you, but this, this is something I chose, for better or for worse. You better than anyone else should be able to understand the importance of forging your own destiny."

Do you believe in destiny? Seto had scoffed when the Ishtar woman had asked the question and replied: I make my own destiny. Of course he understood.

"Choose me," he said, eyes shining in determination. "You don't have to work for me, you can do whatever you want, just come back. Trudy misses you, Mokuba misses you…I miss you." He let his gaze drop. "You've done enough here."

"How can you know that?"

"I know you. You've probably been running around here for the last five months working yourself ragged trying to bring peace to the nation or some other philanthropic nonsense."

"No I wasn't. Up until a month ago I was chopping vegetables and mending clothes and sorting inventory." Seto stared at him. "My boss wouldn't let me do anything else because he didn't think I was capable. Because I'd been living with you everyone assumed I was some spoiled brat."

"Is that why they call you 'Princess?'" Seto asked.

"How do you know about that?" Alistair gasped, aghast.

"The guy who drove me here told me. He couldn't even remember your real name."

"See, that's what I mean! I can't leave; they'll think that it's because I couldn't handle it!"

"So what?" Seto countered. "Since when do you care so much about what other people think of you?"

"It's what I'll think of me if I leave with you."

"What, that you're taking the easy way out? Get over yourself Alistair. You don't always have to choose the path that's going to make you suffer just so you can show everyone your scars afterwards and say that you survived. There's nothing wrong with doing what's going to make you happy." As soon as he said it he realized how much he'd changed since meeting Alistair. Before, he wouldn't have believed that those words would ever come out of his mouth.

"I don't know…" Alistair was torn. There was nothing he wanted to do more than go back with Seto, but at the same time he wasn't sure that he should. Could he live with himself if he left for a life of luxury while there were so many people here that were dying? As though reading his mind Seto said:

"People die every day; you don't have to be one of them. But since you seem so compelled to 'help the less fortunate' you can work at an animal shelter, a homeless shelter, any kind of shelter you want. Your choice. But give this up. Please." He didn't add 'for me', but Alistair understood it nonetheless. He reached out and cupped Seto's cheek in his hand. Seto Kaiba was literally on his knees begging him to fly back to Domino with him. If he hadn't been so shocked he would have found it almost funny since he could picture what the look on Darren's face would be if he told him about it.

"Alright," Alistair said finally. "I'll go back with you." A genuine smile spread across Seto's face, the first since being reunited with Mokuba at Duelist Kingdom. Alistair felt lucky to be graced by it and knew that he'd made the right choice.

Author's Note: Ok, let's all let out a collective sigh of relief because Alistair and Seto are back together and have (seemingly) learned their respective lessons. But have they? Let's review:

~Alistair's goal was to forge his own path in life and face his past neither of which he's really accomplished.

~Seto needed to wake up and realize just how much Alistair meant to him which he's now done, but this is Seto Kaiba we're talking about. Stubborn, emotionally detached, insensitive, temperamental Seto Kaiba. Believe you me, once there's no more danger we'll see if he's really learned his lesson or not.