Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Stranger of the Duel ❯ The Truth Comes Out ( Chapter 23 )

Disclaimer: yep, still don't own Yugioh…

Note: If you've got the CD or still happen to have Kazaa (you should really delete that!), then listen to Until the Day I Die by Story of the Year. It really adds a slow-motion feel to this chapter.

Another note: please excuse the deus ex machina, but I really couldn't think of anything better.

`nother note: Sorry; this chapter is unbelievably short. Eh… too bad for you.

The Truth Comes Out

Talon pushed Bakura out of his face with one arm, and carefully placed the bottle of elixir on the chair behind him, out of Bakura's reach.

"You forget that I am not as old as I am, Bakura."

"Just give me the bottle."

"Never."

Talk was minimal as the fistfight ensued. Punches were thrown (and caught quite uncomfortably); the flexible men kicked high at each other's necks; one was pushed against the wall, then grabbed his attacker's shoulders to flip the positions around; the tussle was angry, deadly; pulse pounding in each ancient's ear. This would decide everything.

Usually it would have been an equally matched battle. Today, though, Talon hadn't taken his spoonful of potion. His inner body was aging-quickly. His appearance was the same, but he was growing weak, too weak to hold Bakura off any longer.

***

Only one way to make sure of it's perfection. Seto ran a hand lovingly over the glass lid to his precious virtual reality pod. He unlatched the handle and lifted the cover carefully, stepping into the pod. This one was self-contained; there was no need for an outer moderator to control it. He hit the green button and prepared himself for the test.

It would be a long series of pointless actions, just to make sure they worked. Left, right, jump, duck, crawl… Graphics aren't marked by pixels; the edges aren't jagged. Yes, the monsters look three-dimensional, horribly three-dimensional. Knowing the game, Kaiba passed the many levels quickly and painlessly; knowing where to pause for darting arrows, which moves to make against which monsters, who were friends and who were foe.

After completing the game, he stepped out of the pod, noting the creakiness of the hinges. He'd made a list in his memory of slight errors in the game, and he was going to fix them all.

***

Cali tread quickly and quietly, her feet padding along like a cat's on Kaiba's smooth marble floor. She climbed his staircase, noting its splendour with just the slightest tinge of jealousy.

On the second floor, she found what she was looking for- computers. She sauntered over to one sanctimoniously, sitting on the silver seat. She turned it on, fingers flying furiously over the keyboard as she hacked her way into Kaiba's mainframe.

Well, he hacked into my phone; this isn't much different.Yes it is! Fine.

Kaiba's security was tight, almost as tight as her own. However, Cali was skilled enough to override his precautions and enter. It's not as if she were stealing top-secret information or swiping plans to Kaiba enigmatic new product; she just needed to tie up a few loose ends before she broke a few more principal laws.

***

One final punch threw Talon to the floor, faint with inner age. His muscular exterior proved to be just a front now; inside, his organs were rotting away and bones slowly crumbling to dust. This day was almost up; without another swig of elixir, Talon and Oten would die.

Talon lay on the stone ground motionless, only moving to inhale huge amounts of air to try to rehabilitate his respiration. Bakura was panting as well, but nowhere near the extent of Talon's malfunction. Hands on his hips, he addressed his former employer.

"You love her too."

"That's ridiculous."

"What were you going to do with her power? Absorb it? What could you even do with it; only she knows how to use it… I saw you watching her, long ago. I saw the way you looked at her."

"That is enough!"

"You never cared about the High Priest position, did you? You killed him because you thought she loved him."