A/N: This is the last chapter, although I might add an epilogue as a teaser for the sequel. We'll see. side note, I posted the lemon continuation of chapter 62 on here under the title Sensation. I really wish this site could create a way to connect fics from the same series.

Secondly, I will be posting a cracky omake in answer to a request from a review. She wanted a scene in which the Egyptian and Greek pantheons met face to face. It will be a separate oneshot which will be a cracky AU to this series.

Lastly, the sequel is in the works and I'll hopefully go back to updating the prequel too.

Chapter 64 summary: In which froyo is good, secrets just won't stay secret, Oliver finally confronts Kaiba about something, and Kaiba gives Oliver something before slipping away.

Froyo, Moral Dilemmas, and Farewells

"This is good!" Mokuba cheered. He promptly took another long lick of his raspberry and chocolate frozen yogurt topped with marshmallows, chocolate syrup, sprinkles, cherries, chocolate chip cookie dough chunks, and mini gummy bears.

Thea cheered in victory and swallowed a spoonful of birthday cake and vanilla frozen yogurt mixed with strawberry slices and sprinkles. "Told you," she said. "Much better than ice cream. And healthier too."

Kaiba rolled his eyes but put another spoonful of french vanilla and raspberry frozen yogurt. She was right, frozen yogurt was good. It gave gelato a run for its money. He hooked his foot around a the leg of a chair at a nearby empty table and pulled it closer so he could prop both feet up on the seat. He sank down into his own chair and relax eating his froyo.

Oliver chuckled at the act that so clearly reflected the elder Kaiba's age. It still sobered him when he thought of how young Kaiba, his brother, and many other members of the Shadow Court were. But moments like this made him feel relieved that while the Courtiers were young and wielded incredible power, they could still act their age and relax in safety every now and then. It was so endearing, Oliver reached out to muss Kaiba's hair, only to have his hand caught by Kaiba's quick reflexes.

"Touch me and I'll smack you," the nineteen year old said blue eyes glowered at Oliver before suddenly being covered by brown fringe. Kaiba blinked in confusion, whirling around to Mai who was cackling victoriously. Annoyed, Kaiba set his cup of froyo on the table and vigorously shook his head, running his hands through the strands trying to make it somewhat presentable again grumbling in Japanese the whole time.

"Grumble all you want, hon," Mai said with a cheeky grin. "Just wait until they find out."

"Find out what?" Thea asked.

Kaiba's face burned and he glared at his Sorceress hatefully. "If you breathe a word..."

"Ha! I won't have to," Mai said jovially. "It's them. No one will have to tell them. They'll know."

"Who? Know what?" Thea demanded.

"Yami and Yuugi," Oliver said. "Their close friends of theirs."

"Okay, so I got the who," Thea said nodding over exaggeratedly. "Now how about the what?"

Kaiba rubbed his hands over his face before clamping his mouth shit, glaring Mai into silence, sending a warning glance at Oliver, and spooning another dollop of frozen yogurt into his mouth.

"Ni-sama's embarrassed because he has a lover," Mokuba said.

Kaiba choked and stared at Mokuba dumbstruck. "Mokuba!?"

Thea grinned. "Oh, I see," she said slyly. "I bet she's pretty." Kaiba flushed a deep red. "Or he," she added and watched delighted as the flush deepened. "Or both," she added just to tease. She was shocked and frankly impressed when she saw Kaiba's ears turn red as he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You had a threesome?"

"It's complicated and no, I did not have..." He waved his hand helplessly before giving up. "I will track down those godforsaken bastards and wash their mouths out with soap," he growled. "After I castrate them."

"Careful loverboy-"

"You're on my last nerve Sorceress," Kaiba warned. He glared at her. "You promised you wouldn't tell anyone else."

"I didn't," she said. "You started it, I commented, and Mokuba finished."

Thea winked. "No one will hear it from me," she said. "Cross my heart."

Oliver shrugged. "Not my business. I'm just glad you're getting the chance to act your age."

"Act my-" Kaiba stopped and stared at Oliver as if only just seeing him. He cast a wary glance at the others before removing his feet from the other chair and standing. "Walk with me," he commanded softly and walked off leaving Oliver to quickly catch up.

They walked down the sidewalk away from the frozen yogurt shop to the street corner where Kaiba stepped closer to stone and wrought iron wall surrounding the park and leaned against it. He rested his forearms on the flat top of the stone wall facing the grassy field and crossed his legs at the ankles. When Oliver finally joined him, he spoke.

"It bothers you," he said. "My age." Oliver's silence was answer enough. "I did not realize... Why?"

"Why does it bother me?" Oliver asked and was met by curious yet wary blue eyes.

He felt a twinge on his Shadows and reached out to Kaiba's Shadows cautiously. He was surprised to feel Seth's Shadows mingling with Kaiba's. Intrigued, he opened his Shadow sight and was greeted by a vague outline hovering near Kaiba's shoulder. It was insubstantial and ghostly but Oliver knew it was Seth.

He glanced at where he assumed Seth's eyes would be before meeting Kaiba's eyes and speaking. "I'm not sure how you feel about it or how your culture views the concept," he began slowly, "but in America, the idea of child warriors is repulsive at best, inhumane and, well frankly barbaric."

Kaiba's eyes widened and he blinked. "Child...warriors...?" He turned away and stared out at the park again. "I never...actually thought about it like that before," he said softly. "I guess it's so close to what I've always known that..." He shrugged. "It started as just a game, an escape from the hell that was my life. Then," his eyes dropped and Oliver felt a wall or a shell slide down between them, "things happened and my Shadows emerged. I wasn't using them consciously, but I was using them anyway. I nearly killed Yuugi's grandpa soon after I met him."

"If you don't mind me asking," Oliver said softly, "how...why did that happen?"

Kaiba ducked his head but not before Oliver saw the faint blush on his face. "He had a Blue Eyes White Dragon card in his collection. I wanted it. No one can have her but me." He sighed. "I didn't know about my connection to her back then, all I knew was that I had to have all of the Blue Eyes White Dragon cards at any cost."

"All of them?" Oliver asked. "How many are there?"

"Originally, there were four copies of the card ever released. I managed to get my hands on three, but that's where I ran into a problem." Kaiba lifted his head and rolled his shoulders. "Only three copies of the same card are allowed in one Deck at a time during a duel. It's the rules of the game. I don't tolerate cheats, but I couldn't use the fourth copy. So I was faced with the dilemma of tolerating someone else having Blue Eyes and potentially using her against me, or taking her card and never using it." He took a deep breath. "I settled for the alternative. I took the fourth card owned by Yuugi's grandpa and ripped it in half so it could never be used again."

Oliver listened silently. "And that's when the Pharaoh cast the Penalty Game on you," he said softly. Kaiba nodded and Oliver sighed. "But you recovered and now you're friends."

Kaiba nodded with a half shrug. "Friends," he said slowly. "I wonder about that sometimes," he mumbled. "The things we've been through over the past few years make what happened this week mere child's play," he said louder. "What happened this week was difficult but nowhere near as bad as DOMA was, or the Memory World MORPG."

"The what now?" Oliver asked in confusion.

Kaiba waved it off. "Don't worry about it. It's not important. This child warrior thing, though," he said, bringing the original topic back, "what about it bothers you?"

Oliver was silent as he gathered his thoughts together, attempting to put them into words in a way that represented what he felt accurately and gently. "Young people, people who aren't adults, fighting wars, battles, torturing and being tortured. Hunger Games or Battle Royale type stuff. It just... It just bothers me. It's against everything I believe in. Children are to be protected. Not to say they shouldn't fight for what they believe in or defend themselves in a fight. I mean they should not be soldiers tossed onto the battlefield and treated as war hardened veterans."

Kaiba hesitated. "But we are. We are battle hardened veterans. Whether we want to be or not, that's what we are. Better to defend our own then sit back and do nothing. And besides," he said pushing himself up so he stood tall, "it's not like we asked for this."

Oliver watched as Kaiba thrust his hands in his pockets and returned to the table where Mai, Thea, and Mokuba still sat. Kaiba said something to Mai before grabbing his new clothes and handing his little brother his clothes. He herded Mokuba inside to the bathroom so they could change for the party in and hour. Oliver did not return right away. Instead, he sat back and thought about Kaiba's words. The child warriors aspect of the mess still bothered him and would probably never stop bothering him.

When Kaiba was on the battlefield, he was an exemplary strategist and soldier; but when things were calm, Oliver saw hints of the nineteen year old boy he was poking through the many layers of defenses. Kaiba was clearly a victim of some sort of abuse, Oliver would be blind, deaf, and dumb to be completely oblivious to that fact. But all in all, Oliver was proud to call Seto Kaiba his Regent.

The party was a simple affair. There were probably only about twenty people there total. The Kaiba brothers stood out from the crowd due to their choice of clothes. Dressed in the white pant suit and lacking his traditional signature trench coat, Kaiba appeared more like a stern intern or businessman, not the powerful Shadow monarch and warrior Oliver had come to know. Mokuba wore a matching suit with shorts instead of pants and followed his big brother everywhere. Well, he did until he found the snack table.

Oliver could not hold back his smile when Mokuba grabbed one of the small glass plates and filled it with fruit and pastries. Kaiba was busy speaking to several young women who were interested in opening a game shop and wanted his opinion on how to do it successfully. Kaiba was polite and methodical in everything he said and did, although he hardly smiled much at all.

He moved through the crowd systematically until he paused, staring at the entrance. Curious, Oliver turned to see none other than Yuugi walking into the room. He had a bag slung over his shoulder and a smile on his face. He waved to Kaiba who sighed and looked away.

Yuugi ran up to Kaiba and pulled several packaged thing out of his bag and handed them to Kaiba. The CEO stared at the three packages fixedly before grabbing the one on the far right, holding it up and staring at it as if he could see through the packaging. He nodded and tore open the package and pull out several cards which Oliver assumed were Duel Monsters cards.

Blue eyes flicked to the side unerringly catching Oliver's. Calmly, Kaiba plucked a single card from the small pile, dropped the remaining cards and loose packaging to Yuugi who fumbled for them, and walked over to Oliver. When he was close enough, he held out the Duel Monsters card and waited for the vigilante to take it.

"What is this?" Oliver asked curiously. The card had some kind of arrow drawn on it but with instructions written below the image.

"Spell Shattering Arrow," Kaiba answered simply. "It's a simple Spell that can cause quite a bit of damage."

Oliver took the card and read the directions. Destroy all face-up Spell Cards your opponent controls, and if you do, inflict 500 damage to your opponent for each.

"You're saying I can use this?" Oliver asked.

Kaiba nodded. "You needed something and I figure since you're quite...sharp, this would suit you well. Besides," Kaiba grinned slyly, "you can keep nuisances away from this place better if you manage to use this."

Oliver smirked. "Is that a challenge?"

Kaiba shrugged and walked back to where Yuugi stood. They spoke in soft Japanese before Mokuba ran up handing his big brother a cup of steaming hot coffee. Kaiba continued speaking but placed a grateful hand on his little brother's shoulder. Yuugi said something and Kaiba glanced out the window before nodding and walking back to Oliver.

"I'm leaving," he said.

"That's rather sudden," Oliver said.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "I'm trying to beat the media to the airport if I can. Also, I've heard back from one of the potential cities for the next KaibaCorp Battle City Tournament and I need to respond. Not to mention all the work I have to catch up on." He sighed and held out a hand. "It was good meeting you, kohai. Should you need me, you have my number."

Oliver lifted an eyebrow. "Oh, I do?"

"Noa put it there," Kaiba said casually. "Speaking of which, you'll find Noa is gone from your computers. He did leave a way to get back in should he need to and a way to contact us should you need to. Try not to, though; at least not through that connection. We do have civilian lives to live."

Oliver chuckled and shook Kaiba's hand firmly. "I look forward to seeing you again, then."

Kaiba smirked. "You will."

Without a backwards wave, Kaiba walked off, coffee in one hand and his other on Mokuba's shoulder. Together with Yuugi, the group left the room followed closely by Fuguta and Roland. Oliver shook his head and looked down at the Spell card in his hand. Hopefully it would prove useful, just not too soon.