Burying the Past Part II

The Arcade loomed in front of them.

'Wait!' Yugi suddenly stopped. The rest of his friends skidded to a stop around him. 'Where are the Kaiba brothers?'

'Kaiba and Mokuba?' Shauna asked from above. 'Mokuba's already out. Kaiba's duelling Gozaboro.'

'Oh, no,' Yugi said. 'He might not get out on time.' He turned.

'Yugi!' Joey called.

'I've gotta go after him,' Yugi said. 'Somebody has to. Sharee, make sure everyone gets out!'

With a sigh, Sharee shook her head and then looked up. 'Shauna?'

'Don't worry,' she said. 'There's another way out.'

YGO

'You may as well give up now, Seto,' Gozaboro said. 'It's my move now. Are you ready?' He drew. He only glanced at the card before he called out the attack. 'Exodia, Necross, attack Seto's Vorse Raider right now!'

The eyes of Exodia Necross flashed. He punched at Vorse Raider.

'Nice try,' Kaiba said. 'But I play the trap card, Negate Attack!' The card flipped up on the field and glowed brightly. 'It stops your monster in its tracks!' Sure enough, the massive fist was stopped right before it hit Vorse Raider. Kaiba smirked. Gozaboro said his Exodia Necross couldn't be destroyed by trap cards. But I can still stop its attacks with them.

'Look, all you're doing is just delaying your eventual defeat,' Gozaboro insisted. 'My Exodia Necross is unstoppable. So just admit that I've outsmarted you this time, Seto.'

'You're sadly mistaken, as usual,' Kaiba said. 'Your Exodia is far from unstoppable. And I've already figured out a way to defeat it.' It was…rather simple, really. And, judging from the timer he had on his duelling console, he had less then ten minutes to pull it off.

'Then do it, boy!' Gozaboro snapped.

Kaiba smirked. 'Where were we?' he drew. 'Ah, yes.' He played a card. 'I activate the magic card, Shrink!' The card appeared on the field and flipped up. It glowed brightly as it was activated. 'Now I'm able to reduce the attack points of your monster by half. So your Exodia Necross is now weaker.'

The monster's attack points dropped to 1400.

'And next I'll sacrifice my Vorse Raider to summon Luster Dragon!' Kaiba's Vorse Raider disolved and Luster Dragon then stood in his place. Kaiba called out the attack. 'Now, Luster Dragon, attack his Exodia Necross!'

With a snarl, the Dragon opened his mouth and let an energy blast rip across the field. It hit the monster head-on. With a growl, Gozaboro covered his face. His life points dropped down to 900.

'Ah,' Kaiba noted with satisfaction. 'So even though your monster seems to be invincible, it does have a weakness after all. It's just as I suspected.'

'What weakness?' Gozaboro demanded. 'Tell me!'

'Even though Exodia Necross can't be sent to the graveyard, if I attack it with a more powerful monster, you still lose life points,' Kaiba said.

'So get to the point, Seto!' Gozaboro snapped.

'It may be true that Exodia Necross is invincible,' Kaiba allowed, 'however, that doesn't mean you are.'

'We'll see about that! My Exodia Necross gains 1000 points with every battle, bringing it up to 3800!' The attack points flew up. 'Exodia,' he drew, 'attack! Destroy his Dragon with your mighty fist!'

Exodia Necross attacked the Luster Dragon and Kaiba's Dragon was destroyed. Kaiba calmly watched, only raising an arm to shield his eyes from the light. His life points dropped down to 2600.

'Seto,' Gozaboro said, 'prepare to sink into virtual darkness while my strength grows!' His Exodia Necross gained a further 1000 attack points, bringing it up to 4800.

YGO

Sharee shoved the Arcade doors open and ushered her friends inside. Joey was just finishing off the last of the Duel Monsters Gozaboro Kaiba had sent after them. She looked in and blinked. 'Into the light?'

'Into the light,' Shauna confirmed from above.

There was a light glowing over the red and blue platform on the stage at the back of the Arcade.

'Let's go!' Serenity ran ahead.

Sharee watched as Serenity ran in first, holding Tristan's robot monkey "house", followed by Téa. They all vanished in a flash of light. Duke followed next. Sharee waited for Joey to back into the Arcade. Then the two of them looked at each other. They glanced back outside again, towards the KaibaCorp building.

'I don't feel right leaving Yug here,' Joey said.

'Me neither, but we're not gonna help anyone going after him,' Sharee said. 'Come on!'

She dragged him up into the light.

Real World

Mokuba refused to leave without his brother.

So, he sat at the computer and watched. He twisted around as he heard the computer voice activate.

'Now uploading data from virtual world to simulation pods.'

The lights on the pods began to flash and Mokuba quickly reached over to open them up.

'Where am I?' Téa asked.

'In their main control room,' Mokuba said.

'So we really have been here all along?' she asked.

Téa sat up first, followed by Serenity.

Serenity smiled. 'It looks like we all made it back without any problems!'

There was a series of monkey noises and they all turned to look at Tristan. 'Yeah? Speak for yourselves!'

'Tristan, you're fine,' Serenity said. 'You don't look like a robot monkey anymore.'

'Wha…?' he sounded delighted at that. 'I mean, that's great!'

Téa just side-eyed him. 'I gotta say, he doesn't look that different to me.'

Tristan tried to get up and fell out of his pod, again with monkey noises. 'I'm fine!'

The girls laughed and Mokuba managed a small smile. It would probably take a while for him to shake off the whole was-a-monkey thing.

Duke was up next, followed by Joey and Sharee. Sharee didn't say anything. She was the first to pull herself out of her pod and she walked over to him. She patted Mokuba on the shoulder.

'How's Kaiba's duel going?' she asked.

'He's pretty sure he knows how to win,' Mokuba said. 'I'm just worried he won't get out on time.'

The rest of the group gathered around behind them.

Sharee glanced at the timer in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. 'Let's see.'

Mokuba hit a few switches.

Sharee took in all the data. 'Don't suppose I can convince anyone to run back to the blimp? You know, just so when they do get out there's not a mad rush of ten people trying to get back and the blimp trying to leave before the timer hits zero?'

'Some of us probably should,' Duke agreed.

'But nobody wants to,' Tristan added.

'Of course not,' Sharee grumbled.

The automated voice echoed down. 'Impact in four minutes. Evacuate immediately.'

'Maybe we don't want to,' Joey said. 'But we gotta! Come, you guys!'

Everyone but Sharee and Mokuba ran.

Virtual World

'It's my move now!' Kaiba drew. He immediately played the card he'd drawn. 'I activate the magic card, Pot of Greed!' The card in question appeared on the field. 'It allows me to draw two more cards.' He took the cards and added them to his hand. 'Next I'll play a monster in defence mode.' The card appeared, face down, on the field. 'And finally I'll place this face down!' He set his final card and it appeared on the field as well. 'And that's all for now.'

Gozaboro growled in rage. 'How can you be so confident when it's obvious that I have the advantage, Seto? Exodia Necross has 4800 attack points now! You'll never summon a more powerful monster!'

'We'll just see,' Kaiba said. 'You have a lot to learn about the game of Duel Monsters, and the first rule is: never rely on the power of a single monster to win a duel.'

YGO

Yugi finally came up to KaibaCorp tower. He looked down at his duel disk.

Less than four minutes. I'm coming, Kaiba!

He ran into the building.

YGO

'Prepare to lose your body, son!' Gozaboro sneered. 'Exodia! Attack! Destroy his face-down monster!' Exodia attacked. The monster—the Ancient Lamp – was destroyed. 'Now my beast gains 1000 more attack points!' Exodia Necross's attack points flew up to 5800. 'Too bad! You have no monsters left to protect you, Seto! One more attack and freedom is mine!'

Kaiba merely drew. Ah. Excellent. He took a card from his hand. 'First I'll play Monster Reborn, to bring my Ancient Lamp back from the graveyard!' As he played the card, the Ancient Lamp reappeared on the field. 'Now, watch and learn, Gozaboro.' He played another card. 'I use my Lamp's special ability to summon La Jinn, the Mystical Genie of the Lamp.' The Genie emerged from the Lamp. 'There's a reason I haven't been able to destroy your Exodia Necross – I've been attacking its body when I should have been attacking its soul. So, now, I activate the trap card, Soul Demolition!'

The card in question flipped up and glowed brightly as it was activated.

'No!' Gozaboro howled out. 'You can't do this!'

'I'm afraid I can,' Kaiba said. 'I know that the soul of your monster lies in your card graveyard, and my trap allows each player to destroy every monster in their opponent's graveyard.'

Gozaboro growled in aggrevation.

Kaiba smirked in self-satisfaction. 'For the small price of 500 life points each.' He flipped over the cards in his discard pile. 'As you can see, my graveyard doesn't contain much. However, look at yours. It contains the five cards that give your monster power – the five pieces of Exodia, the Forbidden One!'

Exodia Necross began to smoke as Kaiba's card took effect. The five cards in question appeared around the monster.

'No!' Gozaboro cried. 'This can't be!'

'First I'll destroy, Exodia's Left Leg! Which protected it from magic cards.' The card faded. The left leg behind it turned gold. 'And next I'll destroy the Right Leg of Exodia,' the same thing happened there, 'followed by Exodia's Left Arm. Then I'll destroy the Right Arm.' Both suffered the same effect as the legs. 'So your Exodia Necross loses the 4000 attack points it gained. Now, the last piece goes – the Head of Exodia the Forbidden One!'

As that card dissolved, Exodia Necross was no longer there. Instead, there stood the normal Exodia.

'Nooooo!' Gozaboro howled.

Kaiba's life points dropped to 100. It didn't matter though. 'Now, your creature drops to its original 1800 attack points!'

Just that happened. Gozaboro growled through his teeth.

'Too bad. And it's no longer protected from my monsters. So I sacrifice both of my creatures to summon this!' La Jinn and his Lamp vanished. 'My Blue Eyes White Dragon!'

A portal appeared in the sky and, with a crackle of electricity, the Blue Eyes White Dragon entered the field with a mighty roar. Her attack points, at 3000, were more than enough to take Gozaboro out. And he knew it.

'Noooo!' Gozaboro screamed.

'And I'm afraid that's checkmate,' Kaiba said. 'Now, Blue Eyes, attack his Exodia Necross!'

The White Lightning shot out of the Blue Eyes White Dragon's mouth and crossed the field with a magnificent light show. Gozaboro screamed as his Exodia Necross, robbed of all its powers and protections, was destroyed by one of the most powerful Dragons in all of Duel Monsters.

Gozaboro's life points dropped to 0.

'You lose, step-father!' Kaiba didn't think it too much to say he got a bit too much enjoyment out of that.

For a moment, Gozaboro stared in shock. Then, 'How could I lose this?'

'That's what happens when you challenge someone who's superior to you in every way.' Kaiba threw his own words, from years ago, back in his face.

'I'll show you who's superior!' Kaiba watched as Gozaboro's body transformed into a massive red monster with a distorted voice. He seemed to be made up entirely of energy and designed to look as terrifying as possible. 'By taking over your body, Seto!' He charged.

Kaiba drew back. 'Wait! What about our agreement?!'

'Sorry!' he sneered, not slowing down even slightly.

Suddenly the platform moved back. 'Huh?' Kaiba looked back.

He should have been surprised to see Yugi at the controls…but he wasn't.

'Jump, Kaiba!' Yugi called.

Kaiba was in the middle of jumping anyway. He slid down to get away from Gozaboro. He landed by the control panel, next to Yugi.

Shauna's voice came from above. 'Get on the roof!'

The two of them bolted, Gozaboro still giving chase. Having a massive bulk, though, meant they easily pulled ahead of him.

'Why are we going up to the roof?' Yugi called up.

'You're gonna have to jump off the north side of the building!' Shauna responded as they emerged out onto the roof.

'What?!' Yugi demanded. They both skidded to a stop at the edge of the north side of the roof and looked down.

'There's an exit portal half-way down,' Shauna told him. 'Hurry! You've only got a minute left – literally!'

Kaiba and Yugi looked at each other.

Then they both took a swan dive.

The last thing they head from Shauna was, 'There's a missile being launched…now!'

Real World

The final two pods opened and Sharee and Mokuba spun around.

Kaiba and Yugi climbed out. Mokuba jumped off the chair and rushed over to his brother.

'Seto!'

'It's okay, little brother.' Kaiba briefly hugged him. 'Let's go!'

'What about the others?' Yugi asked, looking around.

'They already went back to the blimp!' Sharee started running. 'Now, let's move!'

YGO

Back in America, Shauna sat at her computer and watched Gozaboro Kaiba act like a overgrown baby.

Gozaboro roared in outrage. 'Seeettttoooo!'

Shauna flicked the mic on her headpiece back to her mouth. 'Oh, please.'

'What?' He lifted his malformed head. 'Who are you? How dare you interfere!'

'How dare I?' Shauna scoffed. 'That's rich! You don't get why people turn on you, but look at how you treat them! You treated Kaiba like crap and he turned on you. Of course he did. The world will be a much better place without you in it.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Gozaboro snarled.

'It means just as you wanted to erase Kaiba's mind,' Shauna said, 'yours will now be erased. I've now sealed off all the exits and you're stuck here. Oh, and there's a missile heading straight for you, so your whole supercomputer's about to be destroyed.

He cried out in alarm. 'Nooooooo!'

'Goodbye.' She cut the connection and turned her attention back to her sister.

YGO

'Alert! Alert! Central Command Computer will destruct! Evacuate the base immediately!'

Yugi, Sharee and the Kaiba brothers ran through the base. The blimp was already lifting off as they ran out. They must've been spotted because the blimp paused in mid-air. Sharee quickly spotted their friends. The steps for boarding the blimp were still lowered, even as the aircraft lifted up.

'Hurry up, guys!' Duke called out. 'Let's go!'

'You can make it!' Téa called.

Sharee picked up speed in…what might be considered an unconventional way. She flipped forward, somersaulting her way ahead of the boys and to the blimp. As she did so, she was reminded of her wound. It tugged with the movement. With one final flip, she hooked her knees over the railing of the steps. One of their friends grabbed her ankle, to pull her up or hold her steady, she didn't know.

She reached out a hand.

Kaiba wasted no time; he grabbed Mokuba first and threw him up. Sharee caught him by the arm and yanked him in. Duke leaned over and grabbed Mokuba, pulling him up onto the stairway. Kaiba took a flying leap and somehow managed to bypass them all. That only left one person.

'Yugi!' Sharee called, even as Kaiba ran in. 'Borrow some strength from the Pharaoh! Trust me, you'll make it!'

Yugi had clearly never tried this before. But, the Pharaoh had clearly decided to give him that strength anyway. Yugi looked entirely surprised as he suddenly moved faster and caught Sharee's outstretched hand. Borrowing strength from Mayet, Sharee pulled herself up. She dragged Yugi onto her back and rolled her spine to get onto a sitting position on the railing.

Their friends pulled them the rest of the way up.

They all tumbled into the blimp after Kaiba and the walkway was raised.

'Stay down!' Sharee barked.

Not a moment later, the blimp was rocked by the shockwaves of an explosion that gave final peace to Gozaboro and Noah Kaiba.

YGO

Kaiba ran into the cockpit.

Roland spun around. 'Mr. Kaiba, I'm afraid this ship is too slow to escape the explosion!'

Kaiba jumped into a pilot's seat. 'I'm taking control!' Sorry, old man, but there's no way I'll let you win!

With that declaration, Kaiba slammed his fist into the emergency thrust button.

With that, the balloon portion of the blimp was detracted and the craft lost 90% of its weight.

They tore clear of certain death.

YGO

The ship flew back over the ruins of the supercomputer.

'Noah was a crazy brat,' Joey said, 'but I can't help feeling for him.'

'Yeah,' Mokuba said. 'What Gozaboro did to him screwed him up. I actually wonder if he even knew the difference between right or wrong at the end.'

'Probably not,' Sharee said. 'That's why he saw no problem doing what he did. That kid was tortured every day since his accident. It's really no wonder he went mad. I, for one, am glad he finally can rest in peace.'

'Hm.' Mokuba nodded.

'All right,' Kaiba said, 'that detour was a complete waste of my time and effort. So let's move on and pretend that nonsense never happened. It's time for us to continue the Battle City Finals.' He turned to his employees. 'Set us back on course: to KaibaCorp Island.'

'Yes, sir.'