PROLOGUE

"It's time. Mokuba, you're in charge."

Upon hearing these words, Mokuba felt a lump rise in his throat. His attempts at playful conversation were clearly not going to distract his brother from attempting what he had likely been planning to ever since he saw what the Quantum Cube was capable of when Diva used it to traverse a distance of close to six thousand miles in a matter of seconds.

"Seto… promise you'll come back," he mumbled, trying to hold back tears.

This was insane. His older brother, his rock, the most important person in his life, was going to put attempt to harness an ancient piece of technology they knew nothing about in an attempt to access another dimension. If Mokuba had been told someone else was going to attempt it, he'd have thought they had a death wish. In Seto's case, he knew that his big brother had actually worked out the science to the point where he had at least a reasonable chance of success, even if it was not assured. That, however, still didn't make the teenager feel much better.

"Duel Dimension System, activate," he heard his brother roar, in between beeps from the satellite signaling that launch was imminent. Mokuba could barely bring himself to look at the screen depicting what his brother was about to attempt on camera, but he did so anyway. The floor below the pod opened, and Seto's pod began to tilt ninety degrees.

This was it. The craziest part of it all. Seto was going to attempt to cross over to another dimension, specifically, the afterlife, by accelerating his pod through the space elevator connecting the satellite and the Earth and using the kinetic energy of the pod to power the Quantum Cube.

There were no more words. Just the steady hum of the machinery at work Mokuba could hear over the intercom. His nails dug into his palms almost hard enough to draw blood as he switched his gaze from the camera to a computer depicting readings from the whole crazy experiment, which was now on its way. The pod had begun its long journey down to the surface of the Earth, one which its sole passenger did not intend for it to complete.

Mokuba placed a hand against the console in front of him to steady himself. The space elevator seemed to be trembling as a result of the sheer velocity of the vehicle, containing his brother, traveling through it, and was passing those reverberations onto the space station. He focused on the screen, his breathing shallow.

The pod kept speeding up.

"What the hell?" swore Mokuba. This wasn't working. Whatever portal, or wormhole, or dimensional gate that his brother seemed determined to open, well, did not exist yet… and if that state of affairs didn't change soon, it would mean Seto's pod, and Seto by extension, was likely going to continue accelerating until something stopped this from happening. That something, was, of course, the ground.

Mokuba stood up in panic to make his way over to another console. In that moment, the space station shook again, and Mokuba collapsed onto one knee. He felt a momentary shooting pain in his body, his mind swimming from the terror. After what felt like an eternity, but was in reality only a few seconds, he slowly rose and made his way over to the other screen.

The safety protocols of the elevator shaft had kicked in successfully, just like if any other elevator car in free-fall. were The pod had begun to decelerate. It would eventually be deposited safely at the bottom. Its passenger would likely survive, but would likely need medical attention at the bottom after being subjected to G-Forces that would undoubtedly knock any human unconscious.

Mokuba allowed himself a brief smile, and reached over to grab a communicator.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was a triumphant feeling. After all the time and resources he had spent on Earth into digging up the Millennium Puzzle, after dealing with that psychopath Diva, and now literally breaking through the very fabric of the cosmos, Kaiba stood before the man he had been waiting to face again for the last six months.

The Pharaoh, Atem, was seated on a throne made of gold directly opposite him. Without breaking the eye contact between them, he stood. Kaiba then lifted his left arm, and with a thought, his new Duel Disk materialized into existence on it.

Atem gave a small smile.

Kaiba opened his mouth to speak. The words, "You know why I'm here" had already formed in his mind, but he found that they would not leave his lips. It was bizarre. Try as he might, he was unable to produce a sound.

Simultaneously, he realized that the scene around him was changing. A slow darkness was creeping in, blotting out the people lined up on either side of Atem's throne one by one. Kaiba turned from one side, then to the other, still unable to speak. He looked at Atem, who was still in the same position, frozen solid. Kaiba tried to gesticulate wildly in an attempt to ask what the hell was going on, but it was useless.

He realized he now couldn't move his feet. The darkness swallowed Atem, and was now almost onto him. It was seconds away, when-…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kaiba's eyes shot open and he let out a sharp gasp. He shoved his palms into the bed and shot up into a sitting position. He was breathing heavily; his brow drenched. He remained that way for almost three quarters of a minute, his mind still spinning.

He looked around at what were unfamiliar surroundings. He was in a bed with white sheets, dressed in some kind of light gown – a hospital gown? The room was quite bare otherwise, just a desk, a chair and a door that led to what was likely a bathroom.

Egypt… The palace… The Pharaoh…

He certainly wasn't where he had thought he was a minute ago. His breathing began to slow slightly and the disappointment began to set in.

Kaiba gripped the sheet next to him hard, his knuckles white. It had been a dream.

He snarled.

The experiment with the space elevator and the Cube had failed.

He had failed. He hadn't managed to access the afterlife and find Atem. He had no doubt passed out in the elevator pod from the G-Forces that had gotten too high for him to keep consciousness after the Quantum Cube failed to open a portal and before the safety measures had kicked in, and now found himself in some pitiful hospital room…

It really was pitiful. The infirmary at Kaiba Corp's corporate headquarters in Domino was a state of the art facility. The furnishings wouldn't look out of place at a luxury hotel. Why had he been sent here, wherever here was? The extent of the room's furnishings besides the bed were a small nightstand and a couple of chairs in the corner.

He looked around again, and realized something curious. The room had no windows. All the light was coming from two electric tube lights in the middle of the ceiling. With this information processed, Kaiba realized he didn't even know what time it was.

To hell with this. He swung his legs off the side of the bed and got to his feet. He felt a bit unsteady on his feet, but otherwise fine. He was going to get out of this ridiculous gown, go back to his manor, regroup, and then return to the space station to figure out what the hell had gone wrong. By this point, Kaiba was under no illusions that a lot of what he had experienced over the years since he had found himself involved with Yugi and his little gang wasn't at least somewhat supernatural, but he could manipulate the Quantum Cube using science. He knew that. When Diva had tried to use it on him, his technology had been able to resist it.

He wasn't giving up. Not by a long shot…

His thoughts were interrupted by the only door in the room opening. Kaiba, still sitting on the side of the bed, looked up to see a middle aged man walking through. He was dressed in a white lab coat and was carrying a clipboard in one hand and a blood pressure pump in the other. A stethoscope hung around his neck.

"Ah, Mr Kaiba… Glad to see you're awake."

"Who the hell are you, and where the hell am I?" demanded the CEO in response, standing up. He felt utterly ridiculous in the hospital gown, but tried to ignore the feeling as he glowered at the doctor.

"Easy, Mr Kaiba… I'm Dr Tanaka. You're at Tokyo Metropolitan Hospital, sir. You were flown here by helicopter direct from your space elevator while unconscious."

Tanaka pulled up a chair next to Kaiba's bed and sat down, motioning for Kaiba to do the same.

"I feel fine. I don't need to be here," snapped Kaiba.

Tanaka gave him a severe look. "I am the physician, Mr Kaiba. I will determine that." He pulled the stethoscope off his neck and put it to his ears.

Kaiba grunted and sat back down, allowing the man to check his heartbeat and then his blood pressure, then he noted them both on the clipboard.

"One hundred and eighty centimeters… seventy-five kilograms… Sixty five BPM… One fifteen over seventy-eight…"

He put the clipboard down.

"Well, you are correct, Mr Kaiba. You are indeed in fine physical shape for a man who literally fell out of space. I'm no engineer but I have no doubt the shock dampeners on your elevator had a lot to do with this. The G-Forces you experienced were therefore high enough to make you lose consciousness but you have suffered no long term damage whatsoever."

Kaiba glared at him. "Great. I'm leaving now then."

"Not so fast sir…" retorted Tanaka. "I pronounced you in fine physical shape… Psychological, on the other hand…"

Kaiba stood up immediately, his anger mounting. "What the hell did you just say?"

Tanaka stood up as well and put his hands up defensively. "Please, Mr Kaiba, relax."

"No," spat the billionaire in response. "I am Seto Kaiba, I'm not going to sit here and be insulted by some no-name in this dump…"

He strode towards the door until he heard "I am afraid I cannot allow you to do that, Mr Kaiba."

He whirled around, intent on drowning the man in his building rage when he noticed Tanaka was holding a pager of some sort in one hand. His thumb was flattened against a button on it.

Kaiba was speechless for a second. He was angry enough to scream his throat hoarse, but instead dropped his voice dangerously low. "What part of this hospital am I in?"

"You're on the psychiatric care floor, sir," replied Tanaka stiffly. "Where you would expect someone to be after they dropped themselves out of the sky in a metal box on purpose."

Kaiba's eyes bulged. "Go to hell," she snarled. "My private enterprises are my business. You don't have a right to-…"

He was cut off by the realization two rather large orderlies had arrived behind him, and each one had placed a hand on either arm.

He turned to glare at each of them and then looked back at Tanaka.

"Now, Mr Kaiba, if you would please sit…"

Silently fuming, Kaiba paced his way back to the bed; the orderlies maintaining a semi-firm grip on his biceps.

"Per Japanese law, Mr Kaiba, people who are a danger to themselves and possibly others may be held in psychiatric care for up to seventy-two hours, and possibly longer depending on certain circumstances. What you did was beyond reckless not only with regards to your own life, but you also risked harming the people working at your facility on the ground if the safety measures had not kicked in," lectured Tanaka. "I don't know what was going through your head, but it's our job here to find that out and help you ensure it does not happen again."

He leaned over and picked his clipboard and instruments off the nightstand.

"This is bullshit," growled Kaiba flatly. "I want a lawyer. Call my brother, this is not going to stand. I'm going to sue this place to the point where your grandchildren's grandchildren will be paying off the debt…"

"I can call your brother, Mr Kaiba, but that wouldn't serve the purpose you think it would," replied the doctor primly. "After all, who do you think had you committed?"

Kaiba's pupils dilated at that. His mind went empty for a second.

The next thing he knew, he was standing over Tanaka, who was lying on the floor, his fist throbbing. Evidently he had blanked out in rage, escaped the grip of his two captors and floored the physician with a right cross.

"That's a damn lie," he hissed, venom dripping with each word. "How dare you insinuate… my own brother…"

Suddenly, he felt the pressure on his arms resume, joined by a tugging around his torso too. The orderlies were restraining him and were not being as gentle as earlier. Tanaka rose with a groan, rubbing his jaw, as Kaiba was being dragged back towards the bed.

"I'm sorry to do this, Mr Kaiba, but you've left me no choice…" He had extracted a syringe from a pocket in his lab coat while Kaiba was forced into a sitting position on the bed.

Kaiba was in peak physical shape. He lifted weights four mornings a week for an hour and a half and had trained mixed martial arts for years, in addition to weapons training. He had bodyguards, of course, but Seto Kaiba never relied solely on anyone but himself. He was resisting as heavily as he was able, but the orderlies both had at least thirty pounds on him, and he was not operating at peak physical efficiency, having been awake for less than five minutes at this point.

He continued to struggle as Tanaka came over with the syringe. The orderlies each placed a foot on one of his to stop him from kicking out.

"This will only hurt for a second Mr Kaiba… When you wake up, perhaps you can reflect on your behavior and realize your brother Mokuba may have had a point."

Kaiba felt a sharp poke in his upper arm, and then the darkness began to take him again. The last image in his head was of his brother's smiling face.

"Did he really-…"

Then he was unconscious again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Welp. How does one begin to address an absence of nearly a decade? It genuinely wouldn't surprise me if no one who reads this was around when I last updated YuGiOh! Nightrise considering that was back in July 2012.

In the event there is, I'll begin with an apology. As you probably guessed years ago, that story is permanently discontinued. It was completely my fault. I added WAY too much into the mix and the scale of the story got completely out of hand. I don't think I could have finished it even three years later (assuming I actually tried to do justice to the foundation that had been laid). I grew up, went to college, and just lost interest in YuGiOh for a while. In hindsight, I also made several creative decisions with that story that were honestly… bad. When I look at the outlines I wrote for the remainder of the story for a couple people who asked how it would have ended, there were plot twists that made absolutely no sense. So in a way I'm glad I didn't finish it. Why? Read on.

I have good news. 1) This story will not suffer the same fate. I WILL finish it 2) I have a plan to incorporate some of the best elements of my plans for how Nightrise was going to go into this story. It will happen in a way that makes sense, and a way that does not take away from the spirit of what the original YuGiOh series was really about.

That last part is REALLY important to me. I'm writing this story because I somehow got back into the series a couple months ago (I wish I remember what sparked this), and felt incredibly nostalgic. I have had periods like this when I thought of completing Nightrise, but I knew the task was gargantuan, and like I said above, it just wasn't worth it because of some major issues with the plot.

This story will be perfect to satisfy my nostalgia. It is basically a love letter to my childhood, of which the original YuGiOh series was a HUGE part. Come December, it will have been NINETEEN years since I saw my first episode of the show. I think that part of my life deserves a true tribute, and I will make it happen with this story.

This story will not be on the scale of Nightrise, but I assure you, I'm a better author and planner now than I was a decade ago (I'd hope so anyway after growing up!). I have a definite plot in mind and won't go adding tons of things willy-nilly to complicate matters like I did in Nightrise.

In addition to the original series itself, I'd like to dedicate this story to four people in particular, whom I've known for a really long time at this point. We haven't always kept in touch, but they were around when I was still beginning Nightrise in 2008, and I hope to see them here as well. Metal Overlord 2.0, Mei1105, ShadowBlade from Pojo, and most significantly, 7th Librarian, who actually helped me expand on my original premise for the plot of this story.

If anyone else is around from the old days, welcome back. It'll be a delight to see this through together. At the end of the story I will provide my original outline for the rest of Nightrise for those who are interested, but I assure you, this story will be a more than worthy substitute.

A LOT has changed in the last decade but let me assure you my love for this series has been renewed to the point it likely even exceeds what it was back then.

So strap in and enjoy the ride. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.

PS: This chapter is on the shorter side compared to the rest of the story. I likely won't have the kind of gargantuan chapters Nightrise did, but this is just a taste. Don't worry!