Random talk: Um… Sorry for the long delay in updating? I had major writers block until I actually met someone who was a fan of my fics in real life! Just as I was getting in the grove of writing this chapter, my laptop broke! I didn't have a backup of it, and I was hoping get it downloaded. It would have been too much just for fics so I forgot about it. Lately I've been thinking about my fics so I decided to pick it up again!

Edit: I was recently re-reading this fic for kicks when I noticed a minor fact that I totally forgot about: Jonouchi and Kaiba were in their 30s when they got de-aged. How I wrote this chapter, I figured they just got out of high school when it happened. So I did a minor re-write of the parts that conflicted with past chapters.

Mirror Image

Chapter 8: Tales of the Past

"What the hell is going on?" Duo yelled in shock. He just witnessed a guy he got along with fairly well kiss someone who he was hoping wasn't his boyfriend.

"Duo, there is a perfectly good explanation," Quatre calmly said, trying to keep the peace.

The unmasked Kaibaman shoved Jonouchi away with a glare. He sighed as he turned to those confused. "I'm not Heero, not exactly. It's a long story, but I once went by the name Seto Kaiba." The ex-gundam pilots stared in shock, not believing what was just said.

"He's telling the truth," Quatre confirmed. "He's like Jonouchi-kun, just slightly different. I don't understand it fully, but his soul fractured in two: Heero and Seto."

Kaiba walked passed the group, taking off his jacket as he went by. "Since you caused this mess, you get to have fun explaining the rest of this, Mutt."

"Oh, come on, hun!" Jonouchi whined as he tried to follow the other. Something flew by his head and imbedded into the wall. He looked back to see what it was, and paled. "When did you make metal cards for you ninja tricks? I mean, you could make Duel Monster cards lethal, why make metal ones?" Sure enough, there was a metal card sticking out of the wall along with a few strands of blond hair on the floor.

"Keep talking and you'll find out," Kaiba said with his typical smirk. "Now excuse me while I shower. Heero hates having so much hair gel in our hair." With that said, he left the room for the adjacent one.

Jonouchi coughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah… Anyways, questions?"

"Why not explain how you two are in our time," Zechs said, being the first one to snap out of their shock. "And why Heero is younger then you if him and Seto are one in the same."

"Good idea!" Quatre said as he sat down at a computer. He smiled as he put on a headset. "I'll go over the data while you explain. Seto-kun told me the whole story and then some."

"Knowing Seto, the brat has been watching the data…" Jonouchi muttered.

"I heard that!" someone yelled from the speakers of the computer. "Turn me around so I can give him a piece of my mind!"

Quatre sighed and turned the laptop around to face the rest of the group. There on the screen was someone who looked like a slightly younger version of Heero, or Kaiba for all they know, only with two toned green hair. From his expression, he wasn't happy.

"Hi Noa, long time no see," Jonouchi grinned. "Now get to work so I can explain what happened to these nice gentlemen. You can bitch me out later."

"Fine! You owe me!" Noa yelled, slightly turning his head. Quatre smiled weakly and move the laptop back to work. Jonouchi laughed and shook his head.

"Alright, where it all started…" Jonouchi mused. "I guess it started with a depressed Yuugi."

Yuugi sighed for the hundredth time that hour it seemed to Jonouchi. He really hated to see his best friend like that. Since the pharaoh, now known as Atem, left for wherever, Yuugi hasn't been the same. Sure he was fine the first few weeks, but he got worse over time. None of them could cheer him up, not even dueling. He would put on a fake smile to not alarm his friends, but they all knew he was sad. Even Seto Kaiba was concerned!

So they had a plan. The gang went behind Yuugi's back to see if they could bring back Atem to cheer the pint-sized duelist up. They got in contact with Malik and Isis to see if they could find something about giving Atem a body and put his soul back into it. They were surprised with their results.

"So there is a technique that will allow us to do what we want," Malik said as he laid out various sheets of paper with notes scribbled on them. "The only problem is that we need shadow magic to do accomplish this."

"Great! You can pull it off! I mean, you can use the Shadow Realm and all!" Honda yelled excitedly. Malik shook his head sadly.

"I can only tap into it," Malik sighed. "Shadow magic doesn't flow through me. Since the pharaoh left this world, the Shadow Realm has been closed off to all unless you were born with innate skill for it. Bakura or Yuugi might have it due to being partial reincarnations. Nee-san has access since she's a full reincarnation, but we checked before I left Egypt and she doesn't have enough power."

"What about Kaiba?" Anzu asked. "He's a reincarnation as well."

"We've thought about that, but I doubt he would even help," Malik said.

"I-I'll ask him," Jonouchi muttered, blushing. "We're kinda dating anyways." There was a pause before it all sunk in.

"WHAT!?" the whole room yelled at the blond.

"When did this happen?" Otogi asked, confused since he was sure it would have made news by now.

"Why did you keep it a secret from us? From me!" Honda had a pained looked due to his best friend not trusting him with such information.

"What makes you so sure he would help us?" Malik added, skeptical about getting the help they needed.

"One at a time!" Jonouchi yelled. "It happened shortly after Atem left. Mokuba invited me and Shizuka over a few times since they're dating, sorry Honda." At that, Honda and Otogi practically cried after years trying to get with her. "They had it in their mind that we would make a 'cute couple' or something. One thing led to another and before we knew it, we were hanging out alone. It was only last year that we started dating. I was kinda scared to tell you guys. He's actually cool about coming out as a couple."

"That still doesn't tell us why he would help out," Malik pointed out.

"Because in his weird twisted way, he cares," Jonouchi sighed. "Remember how Mokuba told us about their childhood? Well, Kaiba's got some abandonment issues from what Mokuba gathers, so he doesn't let anyone close if he can help it."

"Right... Well, we'll try Bakura first. If that doesn't work, Kaiba might be our only hope."

"Turns out Bakura was like Isis," Jonouchi said. "He was only slightly better though. After doing some pleading, Seto agreed to help. He was oozing in shadow magic despite what he believed about it. All that was left was the ceremony. While the Shadow Realm might be all powerful, we didn't know there was a price to pay."

"So what's the big surprise?" Yuugi asked Anzu as she led him into the basement of Kaiba Manor. "Why are we at Kaiba-kun's place anyway?"

"We all noticed how sad you have been since Atem left," Anzu said as they walked downstairs. "So we found a way to bring him back!"

"W-what?" Yuugi stammered in shock. "But what if he doesn't want to come back?"

"We checked," Malik said as he finished the last of the lines. "He wishes to return as well. He feels out of place with all his memories of the present time. Now, Kaiba you remember your part?"

"Yes, let's just get this over with," Kaiba said. He waited until everyone was clear from the circle, but looked briefly behind him to see if Jonouchi was still there. The blond smiled softly to show support and gratitude for what was about to do.

"Didn't this kind of shit happen in some anime and went terribly wrong?" Honda asked out loud.

"Not helping," Kaiba muttered before he started to repeat the words Malik told him earlier. While he didn't fully understand the words they flowed out of his mouth with ease, like he always spoke the language.

The circle started to glow softly but then grew in intensity rapidly. The light was near blinding that no one noticed Kaiba wincing in pain, yet he continued to chant. It was when it got too painful that his voice started to weaken that Jonouchi noticed the pain Kaiba was in. He put his hands on Kaiba's shoulder to make him stop only to feel the pain that Kaiba was facing. Jonouchi screamed unable to hold it back like the brunet was.

Everyone was alerted to what was going on. While they couldn't see exactly what was going on, something wrong was happening. They knew they shouldn't move in fear of ruining the circle, thus causing the ceremony to stop and having disastrous effects. Anzu held Yuugi back knowing that he would want to help whoever was screaming.

Kaiba stopped chanting, with it the scream died. The light slowly faded to reveal the aftermath. In the center of the circle was a naked Atem, just like how he was when he was sharing a body with Yuugi. Yuugi ran towards the recently brought back pharaoh to check on him. Everyone stood in shock that it actually worked. Even Atem was in shock that it worked. All but three stared at least.

While Yuugi and Atem talked, Malik ran towards where Kaiba and Jonouchi once were. In their place was a pile of the clothes they were wearing with a younger version of themselves. They appeared to be four or five in age, with Kaiba's hair in disarray. Thank god they were unconscious as this probably would have been too much to take in at once.

"We have a problem!" Malik yelled to get everyone's attention. The panic in his voice caused everyone to rush over to where he was.

"What happened?" Anzu gasped at the sight.

"There was a side effect, and we warned Kaiba," Malik sighed as he rubbed his face. "None of us expected this to be the side effect…"

"Wh-what do we do now?" Atem coughed, not used to his voice.

"Wait and see."

"When we woke up, you can imagine the shock we had to find out we were little kids again," Jonouchi said with a rueful smile. "They tried to find a way to reverse it but due to the Shadow Realm and our young bodies, there was a painful backlash. We would have died if Seto didn't put us in cryogenic sleep. Something about the long sleep to even out the Shadow Magic coursing through us or something like that."

"Figures you still can't figure it out," Seto said as he stepped out of the bathroom. He was wearing Heero's typical clothing only his hair was slightly wilder. "Basically, because we had so much Shadow Magic coursing through us due to the ceremony it was killing us from the inside out. Putting us to sleep allowed the magic to even out. At the same time, it caused my soul to split into two creating Heero. Don't know why it didn't happen to Katsuya."

"I'm special!" Jonouchi argued. "But I think it might have happened. Something feels missing."

"How are we supposed to believe all this?" Wufei asked. "Heero would never go along with this kind of thing, but how do we know that this isn't just some look alike?"

"If J was still alive, he would prove it," Seto answered. "You can do a DNA test if you wanted to, or I can let Heero take over and let him answer any questions you have."

Before anyone could respond, Seto closed his eyes in concentration. There was a slight visible change when he opened his eyes. His eyes were colder and his hair more tame then before. Without warning, he drew his gun on Jonouchi who raised his arms in surrender.

"Don't kiss us without warning again," Heero said coldly.

"I can't win with you two can I?" Jonouchi laughed nervously. Suddenly there was a knock at the door to the room accompanied with a familiar voice.

"Heeeeeero! I know you're in there!"

Random talk: So here you go! This was mostly to explain how this fic was possible to happen. Basically, as I like to say when all else fails, "Shadow Realm is all powerful". Only it wasn't in this case in a way. They couldn't reverse what happened. Originally it was going to be both Yami and Bakura who returned, but then I said why the hell would they bring back Bakura after everything he put them through?

Anyways, I'm going to take a slight break while I try to remember what I was going to do from here on out. Besides, the other fic (Forgotten One), I know where I'm going and I'm more excited to finish that one since I know how it's going to end. This doesn't really have an end right now.

Rubai-chan, over and out!