Continuing to bridge the gaps in Seto's character arc in Dawn of the Duel

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, I never did, and I probably never will.

"After all this time
Things I thought that I'd left behind
Are catching up with me"

Down the Hall, We Are Scientists

Chapter 2

After his investigation into a possible connection between Bakura and either Pegasus or Siegfried von Schroeder ran cold, Seto chalked the incident up to Bakura having lost his mind and tried to forget about it which turned out to be quite difficult given that he still had Pegasus's golden eye lying on his desk. He couldn't explain why he didn't just get rid of it, but every time he made a move in that direction something else would come up and distract him long enough to forget about it again.

He was certain that having it around was the cause for the strange dreams that had started the day he'd received it. In the dreams he kept seeing the same faces, faces that looked strangely and unsettlingly familiar, yet try as he might he couldn't quite place them. All the dreams took place in what appeared to be ancient Egypt.

At first he didn't want to tell Alistair about them because he knew it would just result in another 'magic is real' speech, but after two weeks of waking the redhead up because he was thrashing around in his sleep, he caved.

To his credit Alistair didn't give him a speech, but instead asked Seto to describe the dreams while he listened with rapt attention.

"What do you think they're trying to tell you?" he'd asked, his gray eyes serious.

"That I need to stop thinking about what Bakura told me and get rid of that eye."

"What did you do with it?"

"It's on my desk still, why?"

"No reason."

"It's not because I'm considering going to Egypt if that's what you're thinking."

"I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to." Alistair had bitten his tongue and not told Seto what he really thought about the whole situation.

His research had led him to the very tablets that Ishizu had shown Seto several years previously. He clearly saw the striking resemblance the pharaoh on the tablet bore to Yugi, but couldn't say the same for the other figure, though the dragon above its head did look like Blue Eyes. Still, given the circumstances he felt it was a fairly solid hypothesis that Ishizu had told Seto that he was the reincarnation of the figure on the tablet, who apparently had been a member of the pharaoh of the time's royal court.

The only piece he couldn't quite grasp was where Bakura fit into the story. He'd learned that Ryou Bakura had been a transfer student at Domino High School and was a friend, albeit not a good one, of Yugi's, and had joined his group of friends on the Duelist Kingdom Island as a cheerleader halfway through the tournament, and had been one of the finalists in the Battle City Tournament which, when he read it again, did sound vaguely familiar. Most recently he'd booked a flight to Cairo. And that was all Alistair could find out about him aside from his medical history which painted a picture of a sickly young man who had been in and out of hospitals all his life, though not in the last year which was interesting.

The only supposition he could make was that because he had a Millennium Item, Bakura too was being possessed by the ancient spirit of a prior incarnation.

As for Seto's 'dreams', he was convinced that they were in fact memories from his past life. Not, again, that he could share any of his theories with Seto without running up against the wall the CEO's stubbornness had created to ward off any and all possible arguments that would lead to him having to admit he'd been wrong.

Later that day as he was sitting in his office, Seto received word from Roland that Yugi and his merry band of dweebs had flown to Egypt. It was too big a coincidence for him to ignore and he wondered what had prompted the sudden trip, though it didn't take long for him to come to the conclusion that Bakura had gotten to them too and convinced them to go.

But why? Could it be that Bakura hadn't been after Kaiba Corp after all? Then what had he been after? What did he stand to gain if Seto flew to Egypt? He didn't like the situation at all and felt horribly manipulated which he confided to Alistair that evening as they got into bed, though he left out having thought he heard the cry of the Blue Eyes White Dragon coming from within the Millennium Eye.

"If there's one thing I can't stand it's someone trying to manipulate me!" he said angrily. Alistair decided against adding that there were many things that Seto couldn't stand beyond being manipulated including, but not limited to: repeating himself (though he did it often), people who were slow on the uptake (though he himself was constantly guilty of just that), incompetence (as defined by him), losing (as proven by his obsession with defeating Yugi), friendship (though he had in a strange sense become friends with Yugi), people who believed in magic (despite sleeping with one), and people who didn't fall over themselves to do what he wanted (even though he almost always ultimately decided he could have done it better himself).

"Are you familiar with the Serenity Prayer?" The question took Seto aback.

"The what?"

"It goes like this: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to tell the difference."

"Did you get that from a fortune cookie?" Alistair sighed in frustration.

"The point is: either let things run their course after accepting that you have no control over them, or do something about it." It was a sentiment he found himself conveying quite often given how prone the brunette was to complaining.

"I'm going to get to the bottom of this and make sure he pays for making me waste my time!"

"Might I offer a place to start?"

"Not if it involves ancient Egypt."

"It does, but hear me out: say that it is all a hoax-."

"Which it is."

"That doesn't really matter if Bakura believes that it's true and acts accordingly."

"What's your point?"

"He told you that you should go to Egypt to discover why Blue Eyes is your favorite monster, right? And that it has something to do with the past, correct? I think that what he's referring to is connected to the story Ishizu told you the day she gave you Obelisk."

"Hold on, how did you know about that?"

"Security camera footage from the museum."

"You stalking me will never not be creepy. Continue."

"She told you that you, like Yugi, are a reincarnation of someone from the past, am I right?" Seto nodded, trying to figure out where Alistair was going with this. "Then wouldn't it make sense, since Bakura has one of the Millennium Items just like Yugi does, for him to…think that he is a reincarnation too, maybe of the previous owner of the Millennium Ring?"

"I guess, but what does that have to do with me? I don't have a…wait, are you saying you think that he thinks that in a past life I was the owner of the Millennium Eye and that's why he gave it to me? So I'd join his and Yugi's little Easter-egg hunt for proof that in a past life we lived in Egypt? He really is insane!"

"It's the most logical conclusion I can draw."

"Now I'm really not going. What a bunch of morons." The idea that the whole thing could be explained away by saying that Yugi and Bakura were off chasing a fairytale made Seto feel a lot better. Suddenly he was completely relaxed. "It was pretty clever of you to put that together," he said, looking sideways at Alistair who was leaning against the backboard, his head resting against his hands which he'd placed at the back of his neck.

"Always the tone of surprise. You keep forgetting that I'm actually pretty smart. I can only assume that subconsciously it's one of the reasons you like having me around."

"Could be." But seeing Alistair sitting there half naked was reminding Seto of a very different reason.

Sex was such a wonderful way to relieve stress; Seto wished he would have known about it before. It was a lot cheaper than the sleeping pills he'd used in the past and more than twice as satisfying.

The Next Day:

After returning from his lunch break, Seto sat at his desk and pondered, once again, what Bakura had said about his bond with Blue Eyes. Of course there was no magical reason why it was his favorite, but despite now knowing why Bakura had randomly shown up, Seto found himself pulling out one of his three dragons. As he stared at the card he found himself saying:

"Can't these people see this is only a card game?" only to turn to the eye that always seemed to be staring at him and adding: "what're you looking at? You think I'm going to let you change my mind?" He picked it up. "I am not flying to Egypt." The eye stared resolutely back at him. "Look at me: I'm talking to some golden antique eyeball." Suddenly the eye seemed to glitter. He brought it closer to his own eye to see what was emitting the light only to have a sudden brief vision of Yugi dressed as an Egyptian Pharaoh. He was so startled that he leapt up and dropped the eye which landed on the carpet with a dull thud.

"No way! It's a trick!" There was no way that what he had seen was real, that his dreams were real. He was only seeing things because he hadn't been sleeping well, that was it. Nothing more. Still, the hallucination left him shaken and he ended up going home early. Mokuba was out with friends, as was Trudy, but Alistair was there.

"You're home early," he commented, setting Moby Dick aside as Seto barged into his room. "What's the matter?" Seto collapsed onto the couch beside him before saying anything.

"I think I'm losing my mind," he explained matter-of-factly, resting his face in his hands. Alistair placed a hand on the CEO's back, alarmed by what Seto had said but trying to keep his voice calm.

"What makes you say that?" He scooted in closer.

"I keep seeing and hearing things that I know aren't there. Today I had a vision of Yugi dressed as a pharaoh after talking to Pegasus's Millennium Eye and yesterday I'd swear I heard Blue Eyes. I've been prone to having hallucinations in the past, mostly in the last four years, but I didn't have them nearly as frequently as I have recently. I really feel like I'm starting to lose my grip on reality. What is wrong with me?"

Alistair would have found the situation funny if Seto hadn't sounded so scared.

"You're not crazy," he said, his voice soothing, massaging Seto's upper back. "Just calm down."

"Calm down?" Seto demanded, standing up and knocking Alistair's hands off him. "I just told you that I'm hearing voices and you're telling me to calm down?"

"Look, I know you don't want to hear this, but maybe you're not hallucinating; maybe…well…maybe it's for real."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Actually, yes. Wouldn't you rather have magic, reincarnation, and visions be real than have the reality be that you're cracking up?"

"That's like saying 'wouldn't it be great if war wasn't real? Wouldn't that just be so much more pleasant? Let's pretend that it's all just staged.'" Seto suddenly noticed how hurt and angry Alistair looked. "That was an insensitive example, I'm sorry. But do you see my point?"

"All I see is a man so hell-bent on being right that he'd rather say that he's crazy than admit that perhaps there are things in the world that he can't grasp or explain and that he was wrong to deny their existence." Alistair's sympathy for Seto's fear was completely gone.

He was fed up with hearing Seto ignore blatant evidence that he was wrong, and he couldn't believe that he'd used war as an example to try to prove that he was right. They'd been together long enough for him to know how unconscionable it was to bring that up, especially when he knew Alistair still occasionally had nightmares about it.

"Is that really what you think of me? That I'm choosing to think I'm losing it? Thanks a lot."

"Go prove everyone wrong then why don't you?" Alistair taunted him, standing too. "Fly to Egypt and show everyone that it's just one big mind trick. That the only one living in the real world is you; the sole person not suffering from the delusion that we live in a reality where magic exists.

All the things that happened at Duelist Kingdom: fake. Pegasus just knocked people out using some drug emanating from the arena and used a mirror trick to see what cards people were holding. All the stuff Ishizu Ishtar told you: some fairytale she invented to drum up interest in her exhibit. Those 'hallucinations' you had: just the result of sleep deprivation and the stress of hosting and dueling in such a huge tournament. That Anubis guy who showed up in the middle of your duel with Yugi: some guy that Yugi defeated at some point who used a time bomb to make it seem like real monsters were destroying your duel dome. Dartz: another bored rich guy who thought it would be fun to pretend that he was a ten thousand year old Atlantian with the capability of sealing people's souls away. His henchmen: gullible idiots. Oh, and the US coastguard too. Those supposed 'visions' I showed you: just the result of a hallucinogenic drug I slipped into the water on the plane. Am I forgetting anything?" Seto hated to admit it, but hearing Alistair listing all those things did cause his confidence to waver. "It must be such a burden having to deal with everyone you know living in a dream world."

"Enough! I get what you're trying to prove." There was a pause in which Seto digested what Alistair had said while the redhead glared at him, his arms crossed. "Maybe I will go," he said finally, more to himself than to Alistair. What did he have to lose? There was no way he'd get any work done if he kept hearing Blue Eyes and having weird visions. What would happen if he spaced out in the middle of a meeting and started seeing things? He'd end up at a mental institution.

"Do whatever you want, you always do."

"Can you cut me some slack and ditch the attitude?"

"Ironically that sounds like something almost every single one of your employees could say to you."

"I don't think that's funny."

"I'm not laughing." Even though a small part of him wished that Alistair would give him a break every once in a while, Seto was mostly grateful that he didn't; that was what made him so much different from everyone else.

"So are we going or not?"

"We? No, there's no 'we'. If I decide to go, I'm going alone."

"Why? If it's all just 'hocus pocus' it's not like it's dangerous." Seto rolled his eyes.

"Use your brain. Who would I be flying out to go find? Actually, I'll just make this easy: Bakura and Yugi. I already told you why I don't want Bakura to know about you after what happened to Mokuba, and as for Yugi and the Geek Squad…let's just say that regardless of what they might say about not telling anyone, Wheeler's got a big mouth. The last thing I want to have to deal with while I'm in the middle of a psychotic break is the media. Besides, with me gone I need someone here to make sure that Mokuba does his homework and goes to bed on time." Alistair could have pointed out that Trudy would be just as capable of looking after Mokuba but knew that that wasn't the point.

"Fine, I'll stay. When are you leaving?"

"If I decide to go it'll be tomorrow; no point waiting around thinking about it."

By the next morning he'd made up his mind; his dreams, just as unsettling as ever, had kept him up half the night and Alistair too by default.

"They're not even nightmares," he explained, like he always did after a bad episode. "I don't know why I keep waking up feeling like they were."

"I have dreams like that too," Alistair mused, absentmindedly fixing Seto's disheveled hair. "Even if it's a happy memory I always wake up with a knot in my stomach."

"I'm being stupid. These aren't even real. I'll fly to Egypt, but it's just going to be to prove once and for all that this past life nonsense is a joke and that everyone who believes in it is an idiot."

"And how is that going to solve your problem?" Alistair asked, crossing his arms.

"Once I can prove without a doubt that it's just a sham I can put it behind me for good and hopefully that'll stop me from hallucinating." Alistair was no doctor, but he was fairly certain that wasn't how it worked. But once Seto got something in his head it was almost impossible to change his mind no matter how rational the argument against it might be. He supposed it didn't really matter; either Seto would go and come back a believer or he wouldn't, though Alistair didn't hold out much hope. He knew firsthand and perhaps better than anyone, aside from Mokuba, just how stubborn Seto could be.

"Alistair, can you promise me something?"

"That depends."

"Don't tell anyone where I'm going. When Mokuba or Roland or Trudy ask you where I went tell them you don't know." Alistair slowly uncrossed his arms.

"Why?"

"I don't want them to know that anything's wrong." Alistair could see that Seto was serious and so against his better judgment he promised.

"They'll come looking for you though you know. There's nothing I can do about that."

"Let them. I'm going to jam the transmitter on my jet. That should slow them down long enough for me to do what I have to."

"Fine. But I really wish you'd realize that you don't have to do everything alone."

True to his word, after Seto left Alistair didn't breathe a word of his whereabouts to anyone, not even when Mokuba started crying after realizing his brother was gone, and tried his best to console the teen while pretending he had no idea where Seto was.

His act fooled Mokuba and Roland, but Trudy saw right through him.

"You know where he is, don't you?" she asked him after Mokuba had stormed out of the house on the back of having accused Alistair of not caring that Seto could be in danger.

"Bakura could have done something terrible to him and you don't even want to try and find him!" he'd yelled, tears still streaming down his cheeks. "I hope when he gets back he never forgives you!"

"What makes you think I know anything?" Alistair asked, lowering his eyes lest they give him away.

"I wasn't born yesterday. You care about him too much to be so calm. He told you not to tell anyone, didn't he?"

"I promised," he conceded. "And now Mokuba hates me."

"No he doesn't. He's just worried about his brother. It's cruel of both of you to make him suffer."

"What was I supposed to do? Tell him? Seto would never forgive me if I did that. He has his reasons for not wanting anyone to know."

"He always does." She sighed. "But he isn't always right."

Despite Seto's best efforts to hide his location, Mokuba was finally able to override the jam on the jet's signal. Seeing that Seto was in Egypt took him aback, but he quickly got over his surprise and had Roland book him a flight.

It was only upon arriving at the Cairo airport that Mokuba realized he had no idea where to go from there. He spoke nary a word of Arabic, and when he tried calling his brother's cell phone it went straight to voicemail just like it had been doing all week. He was starting to panic when he heard a familiar voice coming from behind him.

"Mokuba?" Duke Devlin asked questioningly as he and Solomon Motou walked through the gate and into the terminal. "What are you doing here?"

"Duke? Mr. Motou?" Though he didn't know either of them well, Mokuba was glad to see them. They could lead him to Yugi who would surely know where his brother was. He'd put enough together on the flight over to realize that Seto had gone chasing after his arch rival yet again, despite having confided that he didn't think he'd be able to defeat him. "I'm here to find my brother. Do you know if he's with Yugi?"

"Kaiba's here too?" Duke asked in surprise. "I thought he didn't believe in all this magic stuff."

"After everything he and Yugi have been through together I certainly hope he isn't still denying it," Mr. Motou cut in.

"So you don't know?"

"No, sorry, this is the first we're hearing about him being here," Duke said apologetically. "But you're welcome to come with us when we meet up with Yugi; maybe he knows where he is."

"Thank you."

Out of the shadow of his older brother, Mokuba turned out to be good company as the trio made their way to downtown Cairo where Mr. Motou had arranged for them to catch a ride on a cruise liner owned by Ishizu Ishtar and her brother Marik that would take them to Yugi and his friends.

"Hey, I think I see them!" Duke called to his companions once they'd been on the boat for a little under a half an hour, shielding his eyes against the sun as he squinted towards the shore.

"Is Seto with them?" Mokuba asked hopefully, craning his neck to see.

"I can't tell." But Mokuba had spotted his brother's unmistakable silhouette.

"He's there!" he pointed then ran back below deck, running Mr. Motou over in his race to the exit.

"Be careful!" Solomon grumbled, picking himself up off the ground and dusting himself off.

"I'm sorry," Mokuba apologized. "But I saw my brother!" Seeing the look of excitement on the younger Kaiba's face, Solomon felt his momentary annoyance fade.

"It's alright, no harm done. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

"He better be!"

As soon as the ship docked Mokuba ran down the gangplank and leapt on Seto, throwing his arms around his neck and almost knocking him flat.

"Seto!"

"Mokuba?"

"You took off without telling anyone, so Roland and I tracked you down." He stopped himself short of saying anything about Alistair, though he planned on telling Seto all about the redhead's seeming disinterest in his disappearance as soon as they were alone.

"I see." Seto did his best to sound annoyed. "I didn't know I needed to report every move I make to my little brother." Still clutching onto him, Mokuba replied:

"Well you better not do it again or I'll take over Kaiba Corp and make you work for me."

Back in Domino Alistair wiped the sweat from his brow as he hoisted himself onto the roof of the abandoned building in the middle of the woods.

Since Seto left he'd been spending all his free time in the forest with his books and had discovered the ruined structure. At first it had caused him to shrink back in fear as it reminded him of the ruins of his hometown, but then he'd noticed how nature had started to reclaim the building which had caused the fear to subside.

For no tangible reason he'd decided to climb it and read while sitting on the roof though he first took a moment to take in the surrounding landscape from the new height. The wind whipped through his hair as he gazed upon the nearby trees. He decided then that while the top of the mountain was where he could go to remember his family, this place was for him.

Author's Note: How many of you noticed all of the 4Kids dialogue? I warned you I was sticking to canon (in this case, dub canon).