I didn't intend to turn this whole thing into a long-running arc, but it seems to have gotten away from me. And regardless of my original intentions, I think this storyline is still worth exploring.

I may decide to switch back to oneshot scenes for a while, just to flex my fingers and get back into the swing of things, but regardless of what I eventually decide to do, I will finish this. We just might have a hiatus. It depends on what y'all are interested in.

I'm trying to get back to posting things regularly, but life has been pretty wild lately. This whole past year has been … taxing.

Here's hoping I can wrest my imagination into submission this year.


1.


Kaiba immediately set himself in front of the new arrival. Mokie wasn't sure if his brother was forming a barrier between Noa and his own older counterpart on purpose, but he very clearly did. And judging by the look on Mokuba's face, Mokie realized that it was a very, very smart move.

Mokuba looked ready to rip a hole into Hell.

Mokie approached. "Noa?" he asked slowly. "What's going on? What's the matter?"

He supposed he expected to hear that there was some kind of technical problem. That they had a handful of seconds to shut down the simulation and leave the pods before their bodies exploded in a shower of metal. Maybe they were trapped in the simulation, and would have to keep playing the game until Noa figured out how to fix it. Maybe the NPCs weren't operating correctly, and the actual goal of the game had just been thrown out with the proverbial bathwater.

Noa sent a look of feral terror Mokuba's way before he gestured frantically for Kaiba to come closer. Kaiba did so. Noa whispered for a while. Mokie saw his brother's every muscle tense up, and realized that—whatever it was that Noa had to say—it was not good news.

". . . Okay," Kaiba said eventually. His tone had changed. His spirit had changed. "Okay. It's fine. I'm on it." He stood up. Without turning, he said: "No doubt you have choice words for me again. So let's get one thing explicitly clear: I am under no obligation to explain myself to anyone here. Trust me or don't. I couldn't care less if I tried to force myself." He turned his gaze back over one shoulder to glare directly into Mokuba's soul. "You are not my brother. I am not yours. I do not answer to you."

Mokuba did not answer.

Seto, for his part, looked suddenly terrified.

Kaiba took a step toward his brother's doppelganger. "But you will answer to me if you look at him like that again. You may bear a passable resemblance to my family, but if you think that's going to stop me from putting a bullet through you as soon as you take one step toward either of those boys behind me, for any reason, you are catastrophically stupid."

Mokuba's eyes narrowed to slits. "You're quite adept at playing the moral high ground, considering your track record of sympathizing with sociopaths."

Kaiba's grin was savage. "Noa Kaiba is a byproduct of his father's flagrant disregard for decency. A survivor of systematic abuse and neglect who lashed out at those he found abhorrent for daring to spit on the name he'd been taught—indoctrinated—to worship." Blue eyes swept up and down Mokuba's body before boring back into him. "So yes. I sympathize. If you want me to demonstrate just how much . . . give me a fucking excuse."

Noa and Seto shared a look of shared horror, both apparently convinced that Mokuba was inclined to do just that.

Mokie, however, let out a long-suffering sigh. "Are you two done with your pissing contest yet?" he asked flatly. "Niisama. Seriously? You're scaring him. We're here for a reason, aren't we? Shouldn't we pay attention to that?"

Kaiba took a step back, stole a glance at the boy who shared his name, and ran a hand through his hair. ". . . You're right." He turned on a heel and left the room.

Mokie then glared hotly at his own counterpart, and Mokuba actually flinched. "I'm going to pretend that you're throwing a hissy fit on my behalf, because you've got it in your head that he's reckless when it comes to taking care of me. It's probably more flattering than what's actually going on, and you're still dead wrong about basically everything, but I like to see the good in people."

He turned toward the door, making to leave as his brother had.

He stopped next to Noa. "C'mon," he said, smiling at the boy with seafoam hair. "We've got a world to save."

Mokie winked, attempting to be reassuring. Watched Noa's face contort. Listened as Noa whispered in his ear. Ignored how quickly his mouth went dry, and put a hand on Noa's shoulder.

His face went slack.

"NIISAMA!"


2.


Mokuba had to admit, though he surely didn't want to, that he was impressed by just how quickly Kaiba shot back into the room at his brother's summons. He didn't scramble, he didn't stumble; he was simply there, sidearm in hand, with eyes like bonfires. He knelt by his brother as though he hadn't just done something 96 percent of the general population was physically incapable of doing.

"What is it?"

Mokie lifted up the hand he'd placed on Noa's shoulder. Then he placed it back on Noa's shoulder. "N-Niisama . . . I . . . I thought . . . I thought he was a hologram."

Kaiba's face screwed up in confusion.

Noa, for his part, looked equally stunned. He lifted up his hand, and placed it on Mokie's shoulder. He hissed in a harsh, sharp breath. His bright blue eyes, wide and wondrous and more than a little frightened, turned to his elder. "Aniue . . . I . . . he . . . !"

Kaiba reached out a hand of his own, and watched Noa place his atop it.

"You're . . . solid," Kaiba said. "This isn't just resistance. This isn't a . . ." He turned the boy's wrist this way and that. "This isn't Solid Vision. My tech can't do this." His tone was low, hesitant, his eyes swift and searching.

Mokie tentatively touched Noa's back.

"I can . . . feel a heartbeat," Noa said shakily. "A pulse. Blood. Bone. Muscle. I can feel it all." He sounded almost horrified. He looked desperate for some kind of answer. Some kind of explanation. "How is that possible? I'm not real! I was never born! Aniue, I'm not even a person!"

Mokuba stepped closer to his own brother, as he watched this unfold. He wondered, in spite of himself, how Kaiba would respond to this. What would he say, to this post-modern Pinocchio? To this mind-warper? This . . . narcissistic accident?

Kaiba didn't say anything at first. He looked like he was waging war with himself. Mokuba could see the battle waging behind those eyes, and felt a sudden ache of empathy that surprised him. He knew that battle. He could feel that confusion. Those eyes were suddenly more familiar than anything Mokuba Kaiba had ever seen, known, or felt.

And then Kaiba put a hand on the boy's cheek. Not the entire hand, not at first. Just his fingertips. Noa sniffled. Opened his mouth to speak again. Couldn't. His lip quivered.

Kaiba smiled. It was soft, lovely, reassuring.

It was a smile belonging to the father none of them had ever had.

"You are now."


3.


It's not a simulation anymore. I can't access the console. I can't access anything. We're . . . we're actually trapped here. This is real. I can't get us back home. I can't do anything.

Was he surprised? Honestly?

No.

Seto Kaiba had never been one for clichés and platitudes, but that old mainstay about hoping for the best and expecting the worst had been a guidepost for his entire life, ever since that day so many years ago when a classmate with wild hair stepped into his path and . . . never left.

"What . . . what are we going to do?" Mokie asked, hesitantly.

"What can we do?" Noa put in, almost panicking.

Magic. That's all this was. More magic.

Just another day at the office.

"Nothing worth doing is ever easy," Seto muttered. He looked down at the boys looking to him for guidance. Both their faces were familiar now. Some part of him wanted to be angry, but there was something about the way Noa's lip kept quivering, how his eyes kept darting every which way like he thought he might come across an escape hatch if he just wished hard enough.

He couldn't be angry.

Not now.

Seto drew in a breath, and settled himself. "Who am I?" he asked.

Noa looked confused. Mokuba did, too, for a moment. Then he smiled. "You're Niisama," he said with conviction.

Recognition sparked in Noa's eyes, and he smiled, tentatively. "Aniue," he offered.

"That's right."

Seto actually chuckled. He wondered how much his old bravado would help him here, then decided it didn't matter. He'd only ever managed to live by throwing himself at everything. Doing things by halves just wasn't in his nature.

This was just another game. Just another gamble.

The only thing different now was the stakes.

That oh-so-familiar smirk lit his eyes with wild blue fire.

"This changes nothing. This world still isn't prepared to deal with me."