Noah's Secret

Shauna watched with a level of amusement…and pity.

Noah really was incapable of understanding the level of loyalty between two brothers. Of course, all the records she had indicated he was an only child. He didn't understand how it was possible – not that it applied here – to hate someone's guts and yet be willing to kill for them at the same time.

Shauna doubted that kind of thing was within his comprehension.

And that was without speaking of the bond between the Kaiba brothers, as a direct result of their life circumstances. Some things could eliminate sibling rivalry entirely, or nearly so. What Seto and Mokuba Kaiba had gone through as children was one of those things. And now Shauna knew that for a fact.

Then Noah gave a nasty smile. 'What do you think your brother's thinking right now?'

Mokuba looked at him in confusion. 'Huh?'

'Tell me,' Noah said. 'Do you honestly believe your brother is coming to rescue you, or is he glad you're out of his way once and for all?'

Mokuba sat down with complete confidence. 'Seto's definitely coming here to get me. And, when he does, you'll be sorry.'

Shauna made a decision. She grabbed her headpiece and flicked the microphone down over her mouth as Noah said, 'Is that right? Well, why don't you ask him yourself, Mokuba?'

The code went across the screen. With the tap of a single button, Shauna cancelled the programming out. Mokuba twisted around on the couch and saw…nothing. He looked back at the still-smugly smirking Noah and frowned. He briefly glanced up before he asked.

'What are you talking about? Seto's not here yet.'

'What?' The smugness went off Noah's face and he twisted around, to find nothing but darkness. For a moment, he looked confused, then he made out like he knew that. 'And isn't that telling? He's not coming for you?'

'Heh.' Shauna said into the mike.

Noah's head snapped up, his eyes going wide. 'Who…?'

Virtual World

Mokuba was glad to hear Shauna's voice echo down from above.

He'd gotten the feeling, which only increased the more he spoke, that Noah was trying to turn him against his brother. Speaking of, Noah looked absolutely shell-shocked. Mokuba stood up. 'Shauna, where's Seto?'

'He's still on that bridge,' Shauna said. 'The problem with this virtual world is that he's got no idea how to find you. I'll give him a pathway in a minute and I bet he will tear down it.'

'Who are you?' Noah demanded.

'Oh, of course! How rude of me!' Shauna was definitely smirking as she said that. 'I am Shauna Pertinicle. I'm Sharee's sister. And I've got my fingers in everything here. So, from now on, this will be a tug o' war between you and me, kid.'

'Who are you calling a kid?' Noah demanded.

'You,' she said. 'I've got your records here. It says you died when you were 8.'

Mokuba looked at Noah, stunned. 'You're dead?'

'He was hit by a car,' Shauna answered for him. 'Died on the way to the ER. From the looks of things he was put in here as a last resort. But giving a kid the kind of power Noah's got here does weird things to their heads.'

'What do you know?' Noah demanded.

'Well, I know what it's like to have a sibling for starters,' Shauna said. 'The records I've got indicate that you're an only child. So you don't even understand the standard sibling relationship when you love someone and hate them at the same time; when there's nothing you wouldn't do for someone but, at the same time, you could cheerfully bash their heads in.'

'That doesn't make sense!' Noah insisted.

'See?' Mokuba could easily see Shauna shrugging as she answered that one. 'And so don't even try to understand the relationship between the Kaiba brothers. I saw what you showed them, Noah. No one should have had to go through what they did, especially not children. And the fact that they only had each other to rely on through that…well, that makes everything make a lot more sense.' She chuckled.

'I'll take back everything Seto Kaiba stole from me!' Noah snapped.

Shauna sighed as if dealing with a petulant child. 'Noah, Kaiba stole nothing from you. You lost everything from the moment that car made contact with your body. What stole everything from you was a mundane accident. A horrible tragedy, but a mundane accident. It happens to hundreds of people every year. The difference is that, with you, somebody decided to drag it out.'

And Mokuba suddenly felt himself pitying Noah. He had died, but his mind had been trapped in this virtual world. He probably also wasn't quite right in the head anymore. Still, that didn't take away from the fact that he was dangerous and he had decided to target Seto and him, specifically.

Noah growled angrily.

'Mokuba,' Shauna said. 'Noah can make everything incredibly life-like here. I'll block what I can, but don't drop your guard. I don't think Noah will let you back to your brother until Kaiba's soundly defeated him. So if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. And if it seems out of character, it's fake.'

Mokuba nodded.

Noah just looked even more livid.

YGO

Kaiba stood in the road, ignoring the dork patrol's chattering on the other side.

He paid attention, though, when he heard Shauna's voice from above. 'Kaiba.'

'What?' Kaiba demanded. 'Did you find Mokuba?'

'Yes, I did. And I've got a program running designed specifically against Noah. It should keep him from doing anything until I get this done. He has to break through it first. I imagine his temper tantrums will slow him down. Kid's got a God Complex big as the Taj Mahal.'

'That doesn't inspire confidence,' Kaiba remarked, folding his arms.

'Yeah, sorry about that. At any rate, I can give you a direct path to the room where he's holding Mokuba.' As she said that another tunnel materialised.

This'll lead me directly to Mokuba! And then I can make Noah pay for what he's done!

Kaiba bolted. The section of the road behind him reappeared.

'Kaiba, come back!' Yugi called. 'You can't face Noah alone!'

Kaiba stopped to glare back at them. 'Just stay out of this, Yugi!'

'What?' Yugi asked.

'Who do you think you are?' Joey demanded.

'This doesn't concern you, Wheeler,' Kaiba said. 'It's family business.'

He took off again.

YGO

'Then why does he let Shauna help him?' Joey demanded.

'Because Shauna's technically his employee,' Sharee said.

'I think we should still help him save Mokuba,' Yugi said.

'Yeah.' Tristan had moved his little robot monkey self and Serenity was now holding him. 'And if he finds Noah, then he might find my body.'

'He's right,' Serenity said. 'Following Kaiba maybe the only way to save Tristan.'

'Hallelujah! Did you hear that?' Tristan turned around and hugged Serenity. 'Thank you, Serenity!'

He was getting a little too snugly, so Duke grabbed his tail and picked him up.

'Oh, I wouldn't worry about that,' Shauna said from above. 'But you can follow him if you'd like.'

'Okay,' Yugi said. 'Thanks. Now, I'm going after Kaiba.' He ran for the tunnel.

'Hey, Yugi, wait!' Joey called.

'I'm going too!' Téa ran after him.

'Ah,' Joey groaned as they disappeared into the tunnel, 'give me a break! Great! So now what are we gonna do?'

'We're gonna go in there and help Kaiba find Mokuba,' Serenity said.

'No can do, sis,' Joey said. 'I'm sick of helping Kaiba, and not getting any thank yous.'

'I'm with you,' Duke said. 'If we were in trouble, Kaiba would never go in after us.'

Serenity dropped her head. 'Well, guys…suit yourselves!' Serenity ran after them.

'Hey, stop!' Joey grabbed his hair. 'I can't believe this! Even my own sister won't listen to me!' He huffed. 'All right! I'm going in!' Joey ran after him, leaving Duke with a stunned expression for a moment.

'Ah! Come on!' And Duke ran after them. 'Can't we talk about this!'

Suddenly, the tunnel vanished.

YGO

Kaiba ran through the tunnel. 'I'm coming, Mokuba!'

But he had to slow to a stop as he came to a fork in the tunnel. Kaiba looked, seeking some indicator of which road Mokuba was down. Suddenly, an arrow flashed onto the wall of the right-hand tunnel. It looked like something Shauna would do. He hoped it hadn't been long enough for Noah to have regained any control.

Kaiba ran down the tunnel on the right hand side.

The arrow vanished.

Kaiba ran through the darkness.

'Seto!' he heard his brother cry out.

Then he tripped in the darkness.

YGO

Yugi and Téa slowed to a stop as they came to the fork in the road.

'Great!' Yugi looked between the two paths. 'Wanna flip a coin?'

An arrow suddenly appeared on the wall of the left-hand tunnel.

'Nope, he went this way!' Téa was quick to take the directions.

Yugi followed. 'Slow down, Téa! Your legs are longer than mine, remember?'

He soon caught up though and the two of them ran down the tunnel a little way. Then they saw something up ahead.

'Hey!' Téa exclaimed. 'Check it out, Yugi!'

'Yeah, there's a light ahead!'

'I hope that means we chose the right path!'

'Well, we're about to find out!'

They passed through the doorway and came onto a woodland path. They both gasped as they looked up at the massive, overgrown mansion in front of them. It looked like it'd been long-since abandoned.

'It's some kind of an old mansion or something,' Téa said. 'Really old.'

Yugi wandered forward to the gate.

'Be careful, Yugi.'

Yugi wrapped a hand around the bars of the gate and found it closed tight. 'Whatever this mansion is, someone doesn't want us going in there. I wonder why.'

Téa stepped up behind him. 'Hey…do you hear what I hear?'

Yugi turned to face her before listening. 'Huh?' He didn't really hear anything.

Téa lifted her hand to behind her ear. 'It sounds like…crying.'

Now that she'd said, he became aware of it. 'Yeah! I do hear it!'

The Pharaoh spoke up. And that's not ordinary crying, Yugi.

The Pharaoh's identification flew into Yugi's head, though he'd personally never heard this kind of crying before. 'It's a baby!' But what would a baby be doing here? 'Maybe that's some kind of virtual nursery.'

Téa's eyes widened. 'Or, what if…that baby is all alone!'

Yugi was startled by the idea.

'We gotta get in there and find out!'

YGO

'Is it me, or did it just get foggy?' Duke asked.

'No, it just got foggy.' Sharee turned. 'Serenity, get back in the truck.'

'Why?' Serenity asked.

'In case it being foggy is a precursor to them attacking us,' Sharee said. 'There's a reason most assaults happen in the dark.'

In response, both Joey and Duke looked around suspiciously.

'Well,' Duke remarked, 'the virtual fun never ends in this place.'

Kaiba landed on a red carpet.

'Seto!'

Kaiba snapped his head up and immediately ground his teeth. The first thing he saw was Mokuba chained to a wall with a shackle around his neck. He pushed himself up, but before he could even move one step closer, that green-haired brat suddenly appeared between them.

'Not so fast, Seto,' Noah said.

'Noah,' Kaiba growled. 'Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kick the stuffing out of you right now!'

Noah smirked. 'You wouldn't want anything to happen to your brother, would you? And now I've evicted your computer geek friend.'

'Nope,' Shauna's voice came from above. 'I'm still here.'

Noah's face tightened. 'You're more resourceful than I thought.'

'Yeah, that's not saying much,' Shauna said. 'You don't tend to give other people too much credit, as far as I can tell.'

Noah's face tightened further.

Kaiba would ordinarily be amused, but he had Mokuba's safety to worry about right now. 'Let my brother go, you dirty snake!'

'I don't think so,' Noah said. 'I've got everything you want now, and there's nothing you can do about it.'

'Okay,' Shauna said. 'How's this? Kaiba, this little overcompensating pipsqueak here is Gozaboro's biological son who was killed when he was hit by a car at the age of eight.'

Kaiba started. 'He's who?'

Suddenly, a couple of documents digitally assembled just on Kaiba's left. Looking over, he saw that they were a Death Certificate and an Autopsy Report for one Noah Kaiba. He heard Noah cry out a protest as he took in the information from both documents. When he turned back to the gobsmacked twerp, they digitised.

'Well, that explains a lot.' Kaiba crossed his arms across his chest. 'Mokuba, are you all right?'

'I'm fine, big brother,' Mokuba said. 'Shauna already told me.'

'It seemed sensible in the moment,' Shauna remarked.

'How did you find those?' Noah demanded.

'They're public records, kid,' Shauna said. 'If you know where to look, they're easy to find.'

Kaiba smirked. 'I'm glad I put you on staff.'

'What?' Noah demanded.

'Oh, you don't know?' Kaiba asked mockingly. 'Shauna is on an internship program with the American branch of KaibaCorp. By the time she finishes high school, she'll be sufficiently trained to step right into the job.' He nodded his head up. 'And this is why I gave her that position.'

'What is?' Noah demanded.

Shauna spoke up again. 'Try…this.'

The TV behind him flicked on.

YGO

Yugi ran through the hallways of the mansion. 'Téa, I still hear it but there's not a baby in sight!' He met up with her.

'And it's getting louder!'

Yugi pointed down a corridor. 'Let's go that way.'

'It's gotta be coming from one of these rooms!' Téa insisted.

Yugi grabbed the door handle of the nearest room and pushed it open. As he stepped inside, he looked around. 'No babies in here.'

Yugi checked the next room and started. He quickly moved back into the hall, where Téa was backing out of a room. 'Hey! I found something!'

He took Téa back to the room.

'It's a rattle.' Téa leaned over and picked it up out of the cot. 'I'd be crying too if I were stuck in a creepy old house with no rattle.'

Yugi looked around. 'You know what? I don't think there's really a baby in this place at all, Téa.'

'Then who's crying?' she asked, looking around. 'Unless it's just a digital sound file that's part of Noah's freaky virtual universe!'

'Exactly.' Yugi looked around and something caught his eye. He wandered over to take a look. 'Check it out, Téa! It looks like a picture of someone. This might tell us where we are.' He picked up the photograph and frowned. The face of the frame was covered with grime.

Yugi wiped it away.

'So who's in the snapshot, Yugi?' Téa asked.

'Huh?' Yugi looked closer. 'This is weird.'

'What is?'

YGO

Joey was glad that Serenity had moved into the truck.

If they did get ambushed, like Sharee was expecting, Serenity would be the slowest to move and react. Of course, Sharee was counting on the rest of them to be able to jump into the back of the truck real fast. Joey's attention was suddenly drawn when Robot-Monkey Tristan squealed and started yelling about something over the edge of the bridge.

'What's up with you?' Joey asked, walking over.

As he looked over the edge, the water suddenly shot up. Giving out a cry, Joey jerked back. Tristan jumped up and clamped around his head. The torrent of water cleared to reveal five very familiar-looking Deck Masters. They all hovered there, looking as smarmy and smug as they did in the duels and all laughing.

'No way!' Joey yelled. 'It's four of the Big 5! We beat you freaks of nature fair and square!'

'But we still have some unfinished business to take care of,' the Deep Sea Warrior one responded.

Duke drew back. 'What do you creeps want from us?'

'Simple,' the same guy said. 'The same thing we've always wanted.' His eyes flashed. 'Your bodies!'

'What now, Joey?' Serenity asked.

'Don't worry, sis,' Joey said. 'These guys couldn't duel their way out of a paper bag.'

'What makes you think we wanna duel you?' Leichter asked.

'My associates and I have had enough games,' the first guy said. 'Now it's time for us to take action!'

'How's that?' Joey asked.

'Why duel you when we can take your bodies by force?' And he led the charge.

'Everyone in the truck!' Sharee barked. 'Joey, throw some monsters at them!'

Tristan was the first to dive in the truck, followed by Duke. Joey grabbed a handful of monster cards and slapped them down onto his duel disk. All of the monsters appeared in front of him and met the charge. Then Joey turned on his heel and dived into the tray, landing right on top of Duke.

Sharee spun the key in the ignition. It sputtered once and then – with a line of code shooting over the car clock – roared to life. Sharee put her foot down and tore away from the Big 5. Joey's duel monsters were being quickly destroyed, but they'd given her the diversion she'd needed.

'Now what?' Serenity asked in a panic.

'Now…evasive driving!'

YGO

Kaiba watched as a scene began to play out on the TV. Noah went to move in front of it and then the whole room was gone. Apparently, Shauna was showing Kaiba this whether Noah liked it or not. The scene showed an office he hadn't seen in a great many years and two figures.

'Huh,' Kaiba remarked. 'Noah and Gozaboro…'

'Yes.' Noah tried to come out like he was in complete control of this situation, which was…admirable in its own way. 'He and I have a history as well.'

Kaiba rolled his eyes. 'I already know what the history is. In case it slipped your notice, Shauna just told me.'

Noah's face tightened.

'Kaiba!'

Kaiba looked over. He was surprised to see Yugi and Gardner had just walked through a door. Téa muttered to herself. Yugi, on the other hand, ran over to him with what looked like a picture frame. 'Does this thing mean anything to you, Kaiba?'

Kaiba took the picture frame and took a look. 'Hm. This is a picture of my stepfather and Noah over there.'

Shauna spoke from above. 'Yugi, it turns out that Kaiba and Mokuba were adopted because their step-father's biological son was killed in a road accident. That's who Noah is, if you'll direct your attention to the projection.'

Kaiba looked over.

Gozaboro opened his desk drawer and pulled out a photograph and slid it across to Noah.

Noah picked it up and looked at it. 'Who's this kid?'

'He is my latest acquisition.' Kaiba wasn't surprised at the way Gozaboro referred to him, but he noticed Yugi start and look up at him in concern. Kaiba cringed. Gozaboro went on. 'His name is "Seto" and he and his brother will be coming to live with us. He's extremely intelligent. You could learn a lot from him.'

Okay, that remark was a surprise.

Noah looked up at Gozaboro.

'And that's my plan,' Gozaboro said. 'Seto will be here to constantly challenge you. My hope is that having him around the house will motivate you to improve your study. After all, if I'm going to hand KaibaCorp over to you someday, Noah, you'll have to prove to me that you have the intellect it takes to run a company of this magnitude.'

Noah smiled self-confidently. 'All right. You won't be disappointed, father.'

The projection faded away.

'Hold on,' Shauna said from above. 'We already worked it out. Gozaboro would have had no reason to adopt the two we now call "the Kaiba brothers" before you died. And that conversation just reeks of subtext. So this interaction doesn't make sense unless…'

'Unless,' Kaiba said. 'It was done in the virtual world. Gozaboro worked out how to come in here before he died.'

Mokuba started, alarmed.

Kaiba had a very good idea he knew what his brother was thinking…because Kaiba was thinking it too.

In the next moment, the whole room surged.

YGO

Sharee spun around a tight corner.

Everyone else screamed as they moved far too quickly for any of them to be comfortable. Sharee was more worried about dodging Leichter's eye lasers to really worry about any of their alarmed screaming. She even turned out Serenity beside her as she clutched the dashboard.

'Be careful!'

The Judge Man guy moved in front of her.

'Sharee, straight ahead!' Duke yelled.

Sharee narrowed her eyes and kept going straight. I'm either about to hit him or crash horribly. Her friends all screamed at her nonsensically. His eyes widened as he realised what game she was playing and he chickened out at the last moment. Clearly, those human instincts were still in effect.

Unfortunately, there was an unexpected turn. Sharee spun the wheel. The truck overbalanced and Sharee found herself in a skidding sideways vehicle. There were screams all around her. That told her that her friends were still with her. Sharee ground her teeth.

The truck finally came to a stop.

Okay, Sharee said to Mayet. I'll need your help for this!

And you shall have it.

Looking around, Sharee saw Duke and Joey had barely managed to hang onto the grate at the back of the cabin. Actually, Joey had managed to hang onto it and Duke had managed to hang on to him. Looking around, Sharee found Tristan's little robot body clinging to the grate.

Sharee quickly pulled herself out through the open window next to her and sprung up. Planting her feet on the door, she spread her arms. A warm buzzing passed through her body. A protective translucent golden barrier appeared around them. The four members of the Big 5 didn't notice.

They surrounded them.

'Well, well, well,' Leichter crowed. 'Look what we have here! Soon, all of your bodies will belong to us!'

Duke got ready to fight, but Joey was looking at the barrier.

Leichter eyed them both. 'Now…which of you two should I choose to take control of!'

'Hold on!' The Nightmare Penguin guy snapped. 'I wanna have first choice, Leichter!'

Leichter faced him. 'We're going in size-order, Crump, so you choose last!'

'That's the most ridiculous—' Crump's rant was cut off as he ran into the barrier…and bounced off of it.

'What?' the Deep Sea Warrior guy demanded. 'What is that?'

'Called a force-field,' Sharee said. 'And you wanna get to us, you have to get past it.'

'How'd you make a thing like that?' Duke asked, looking up at her.

After two years, Sharee was very good at deflection. 'Tale for another time.'

Leichter fired his lasers at it, only for them to be dispersed over the surface of the barrier. 'Oh…That's a good one. How did you make that?'

'Like I'd tell you.'

'You can't keep it up forever,' the Judge Man guy stated.

'No, but I can keep it up for quite a while.' And if she got tired, she'd just switch over to Mayet.

At that moment, there was a bright light above. Everyone lifted their eyes. There was an orb of light overhead. It took Sharee's eyes a moment to adjust, but she soon saw a figure inside the light. And it was the figure of a person she recognised. She just wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not.

'Attention, fools!' Noah called down. 'This game is over!'

'Master Noah!' Deep Sea Warrior guy stepped forward.

Smirking, Sharee dropped her arms and the barrier. 'Oh, were you not supposed to be trying to steal our bodies like this?'

Noah ignored her. 'Really? So you're not breaking my rules? What kind of fool do you take me for?'

He tried again. 'Please! I can explain, Noah!'

Noah's eyes narrowed. 'I gave you all the chance to win your freedom and you all failed!'

A massive dust storm kicked up. Joey and Duke cried out and covered their faces. Sharee dropped down. She stooped over. Yanking off her bandanna, she unfolded it and covered her own face with it. She still heard Noah's voice over the roaring winds all around them. It looked like he took his rules quite seriously.

'Now you'll pay the price! Gentlemen, you're all dismissed. No one disobeys my rules and gets away with it.'

The dust settled and the wind died down.

Sharee lowered her bandanna and looked around. She tied it back on as she looked down at the stunned boys. Reaching down to help Serenity out of the truck, she looked around some more, searching for signs of their enemies. She didn't see hide nor hair of Noah or the Big 5. But what she did see?

'Hey, guys!' Téa saw them first – or maybe just called them first. She, Yugi, and Kaiba were making their way across the desert.

Yugi was the first to break into the run though. 'We found you! Is everyone all right?'

'We're all fine!' Joey rushed over and he immediately caught Yugi in a friendly headlock.

'Awesome!' Yugi exclaimed. 'That's the best news I've heard all day!'

'Those wimps never stood a chance!' Joey crowed.

Téa rushed over to greet Serenity and Sharee. 'I guess the action never stops.' She reached up.

'You can say that again!' Serenity reached down and caught her hand as Tristan jumped up and down excitedly.

Sharee hopped down from the top of the truck. 'So what'd we miss?'

'Turns out,' Yugi said. 'Noah is the biological son of Kaiba's step-dad.'

'And he died when he was eight,' Téa added.

Sharee looked at Kaiba, who was glaring down at a photograph. Okay, that explains things.

It certainly does.

Yugi walked back over. 'Kaiba?'

Kaiba lowered the frame and looked at Yugi.

'How did Noah get here after he died?'

Kaiba frowned. 'Obviously, Gozaboro put him in here.'

'That,' Sharee said, 'I believe.' She frowned. 'But he can't have intended to leave him here forever. There's no logic in it.' She paused and then looked over at them. 'By the way, how'd you guys get here?'

'Noah ejected us from the room,' Tea said.

Kaiba scoffed. 'It wasn't Noah.'