Power of the Heart Season 3 ~Yami Yugi Love Story~

Secrets Within

~Yami~
"This duel is over, Noah!" I shouted as I won the duel. I won, Sera. Just like I promised.
"Impossible! I can't lose!" Noah shouted.
"I'm afraid you just did so my friends are now free!" I told him. It was then my friends were out of their stone state.
"I'm back!" Tristen shouted. "Well almost," he added.
"Serenity!" Joey called.
"Joey!" Serenity replied.
"Kendra!" Duke hugged his girlfriend who happily hugged him back.
"Seto!" I heard Mokuba and Sera call as they fell into their big brother's arms.
"Mokuba, Sera," he said holding them.
"Is it over?" Mokuba asked.
"Well, it looks to me like everything is back to normal around here," Kendra replied.
"That must mean Yugi won the duel," Duke agreed.
"What? What duel?" Kaiba asked.
"You're duel. Yugi took over when you, Sera, and Mokuba were turned to stone, then he combined your deck with his deck, then he beat Noah," Tea informed them.
"My deck! He dueled using my cards?!" Kaiba asked.
"Seto, calm down. I know he took care of your cards. Jeez, have some faith," Sera told him making me smirk a little. I looked back at Noah.
"You've been defeated, Noah. Not just by me, but by all of us for it was only by the support of my friends that I was able to win this duel and the more you tried to destroy that friendship, the stronger it grew," I stated as our platforms floated down. Noah fell to his knees looking down.
"This isn't how it was supposed to happen at all," Noah sulked. I walked forward.
"Listen to me, Noah. You've been all alone in this virtual world for six years and it's distorted your mind," I told him. He was silent for a moment.
"...No one will...my life was stolen...It's not fair! I deserve to be the president of Kaiba Corp. and I would be if Seto and Sera hadn't robbed me of my life! I want it back! And I'll start by escaping to the real world in your body! From now on I'm you!" Noah said as he ran up to me. As soon as he touched me, something happened. "What? What's this? Who are you?" He asked. Sera walked up and grabbed my hand. "Answer me! Your mind is full of secrets!" Noah told me. I was able to see the secrets in his mind as well! I then saw tubes like the ones we were in at Kaiba Corp. That's us! Where are we?!
"What have you done?!" I asked.
"Let...me...in!" Noah shouted.
"Not on my watch, Noah!" Sera shouted before waving a hand. A light of white and blue made him skid back as she waved her arm.
"What are you two? You're not like the others," he glared at us. Sera glared at him.
"We're people you don't want to mess with, kid," she lowly growled. I gave a gentle squeeze to her hand to calm her down which thankfully it did.
"Yugi! Sera! Are you okay?" Tea asked us as the others ran up.
"Try touching me!" Joey challenged Noah while glaring.
"Stop it, Joey. Violence isn't gonna get us out of here," Serenity told him.
"You have failed, Noah. So it's time to set us all free," I stated.
"And give me my real body back pronto!" Tristen added.
"So, you want your body back?" Noah asked Tristen before laughing. "Your real body's back where it has been since you arrived," Noah stated.
"What does that mean?!" Duke and Kendra asked.
"Enough with the games, Noah," Tea told him.
"Don't you get it? There are no real bodies in my world, everything here's virtual, that means all of you too," Noah stated.
"I don't get it," Joey said.
"I do. We're not just trapped in a virtual world, we're all a part of it too," Sera informed glaring at Noah.
"Exactly, your real bodies are strapped into cyber pods that are hardwired to my virtual simulator. So everything you experienced has only happened in your mind," Noah said.
"So that's why it seems so real here. Our minds are being tricked into feeling things that aren't really there," Tea said.
"Of course, when the floor opened up we didn't fall into a virtual vortex. We were knocked unconscious and locked in your virtual simulation pods!" Kaiba piped up. It's then purple clouds appeared.
"Now what?!" Joey asked.
"Um...I'm not liking this one bit," Sera mumbled.
"You have failed me for the last time, Noah!" We heard a man say.
"That voice!" Kaiba started.
"It can't be!" Sera finished.
"Father, no! Give me another chance!" Noah exclaimed. Sera and Kaiba's step-father?
"Too late for that!" The man told him.
"What's going on?!" I asked. A face appeared.
"Gozaburo!" Mokuba exclaimed.
"Wait! Not yet! Father, I need time!" Noah told him.
"More time?!" Gozaburo asked before groaning. "You've had more than enough time to prove yourself. It's time for me to finish things off now! That's why I digitized my own mind when Seto and Sera disgraced me by taking over my company. I wanted revenge! And now the time has come!" Gozaburo declared. I gently pushed Sera behind me.
"So you've been behind this the whole time," Kaiba sneered as I felt Sera shake.
"Yes he has! Right father? And you're gonna give Kaiba Corp. to me," Noah smiled.
"You had your chance, Noah and you failed, son!" Gozaburo replied shocking him.
"Look, pops, you had your chance also and you failed when you lost Kaiba Corp. to someone more fit for the job," Kaiba told him.
"You and Sera? I taught you both everything you know! Seto, Sera, you fools. You thought you could out smart me? It's about time you learned the truth about why I adopted you both. After you both beat me at chess I thought you'd both be the perfect people to motivate my real son Noah who was quite a slacker," Gozaburo told them.
"So you just used them? That's not cool!" Tea told him.
"How mean!" Serenity agreed.
"You're lucky you're not real," Kendra growled obviously protective of Sera.
"Noah needed to work more on his studies. I thought Seto and Sera could give him the push he needed to someday take over Kaiba Corp., but then Noah had his little accident and his body was rendered useless. I tried to preserve his mind in cyber space, but I soon realized he would be the same spoiled brat unworthy of inheriting my company. So I turned my attention to you, Seto and Sera. I thought maybe you two could be the heirs to my fortune so I pushed you to your limits. And Sera, being the coward you were, you left to go to another country," Gozaburo told her. I glared at him. Sera's far from a coward.
"Don't talk about her like that!" Kaiba and I shouted.
"You gave up on your own son and you trapped me alone in cyber space!" Noah told him.
"Noah..." I heard Sera whisper.
"Poor guy," Mokuba agreed.
"Not at first, initially I thought I could still use Seto and Sera to help you," Gozaburo told his son.
"You used us! And what was it you planned to do, Gozaburo?! Force us to play chess against your virtual son to increase his intellect?" Kaiba glared.
"No, not quite, Seto," Gozaburo replied.
"Then what?!" Sera growled.
"I had something much more interesting planned," he told her.
"Enough, will you spit it out?!" Sera and Kaiba sneered. Its times like this that you know they're siblings.
"Very well, even if Noah could learn how to run a multibillion dollar corporation he still lacks one major thing; a body! And that's where you came in, Seto," Gozaburo told Kaiba shocking him.
"That's sick, you were going to transfer his mind to Seto?" Sera glared.
"Relax, that plan only works in a short time. Noah's mind. Why would I give you Noah's mind when yours was perfectly fine? So I concentrated on you, Seto. So you could inherit my empire. And when Sera was old enough, she would marry into another family to combine our companies, but then you two stole it! So using the same technology I used to digitize Noah's mind into my computer network, I digitized my own mind retreating to cyber space to plot my revenge. Then I built this place for my final plan, to take over your body myself!" Gozaburo said looking at Kaiba.
"But father! So you used me to trap them here," Noah frowned.
"That's the only thing you did right, but now I'll take it from here! The fun and games are over!" Gozaburo told him.
"You snake!" Sera and Kaiba snarled.
"I can't believe you two have the nerve to call me a snake! I was the most powerful being in the entire planet before you two came along and stole that power away from me! Don't you realize I treated you both better than I treated my own son?!" Gozaburo asked. I felt Sera shaking again.
"So beating us was a way of treating us better? Huh?!" She glared.
"Thanks for nothing! And we'll make sure you'll never regain your power!" Kaiba glared.
"You're too late!" Gozaburo told him. An image appeared of a satellite.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Just look! It's part of my newest plan! This is one of the many satellites Kaiba Corp. put into orbit when I was still in charge," Gozaburo replied.
"And what are you gonna do with that?" Joey asked.
"These satellites can beam signals to every computer system on earth and connect them back to the underwater base that holds my supercomputer. No one on earth will escape me, I'll have access to every home on the planet," Gozaburo laughed.
"I knew he was a pervert," Sera grumbled.
"Please, that has to be the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard," Noah told him.
"I'm surprised you feel that way, Noah. After all, the idea came from you. Don't you remember, my son?" Gozaburo smirked.
"No!" Noah gasped.
"So, Seto, as you can see I'm no longer interested in taking control of your body in order to regain Kaiba Corp. I've set sights on bigger things," Gozaburo told him.
"Lunatic," Kaiba and Sera spat.
"You can believe whatever you want about me, Seto and Sera because once my plan works, I'll be the most powerful being on the planet once again and now one will be able to stop me this time!" Gozaburo said.
"Oh yeah?" Duke challenged.
"Seto, Sera, Noah, this is about so much more than acquiring one company, for when I'm finished everyone on earth will become virtual! I plan to digitize the entire world and I will reign as the cyber ruler on new planet earth!" Gozaburo laughed before disappearing.
"Get back here now!" Kaiba ordered.
"We'll stop him, Seto. I'll make sure of it," Sera said glaring at where her step-father had been. I gave a gentle squeeze to her hand which she returned. I looked at her and took her Crystal off before placing it on her neck.
"There, back where it belongs," I told her. She smiled at me.
"Thank you," she said before kissing my cheek. We then left the area, following Noah who said he decided to help us out.
"My father's gone for now, but you have to escape quickly and I know the way out, so follow me," Noah said to us.
"And why should we believe you, Noah?" Joey asked.
"What choice do we have?" Duke retorted. Noah ran up.
"There it is, a possible exit. Ah...never mind. This is one of several remote stations built by my father. It can give us to all the programs emergency exits, but it seems my father has locked the system and closed off every exit to stop us from escaping. When he showed up after six years, he promised to help me, but he was lying. My father was using me," Noah said sadly. Sera frowned and walked up to him. She pulled him to her side like she would Mokuba.
"Hey, you weren't alone there. He used me and Seto too. You didn't deserve that because like any child, you just tried to make your father happy," she told him gently. He didn't answer. "Noah? Are you okay?" She asked him. No answer. I saw something in Sera's eyes. She's suspicious of him.
"You sure there are no other exits around here?" Joey asked.
"Yeah, maybe there's a way out of here you're not thinking of," Tea agreed.
"I've had enough of this monkey business, I wanna wake up in my own body!" Tristen exclaimed.
"We gotta stop this old man from digitizing the world," Joey said.
"And we can't do that in here," Tea added.
"Very perceptive," Noah said.
"Every virtual reality program has more than one emergency exit system. So why don't you try thinking harder, Noah?" Kaiba asked.
"What's wrong, Seto? Don't you want to stay a while? We won't be a lone in this virtual world for very much longer," Noah laughed. "My father said he's bringing the whole world here and that means I'll never have to be lone again. We'll be one big happy family!" Noah laughed. Mokuba ran up to him and started shaking him.
"Noah, you have to get ahold of yourself! You're in danger too and we all have to work together now!" Mokuba told him making Noah stop laughing.
"Mokie, you're right," Noah said making Mokuba jump back.
"Seto?" We heard Mokuba ask before shaking his head.
"Calm down, Mokuba. It's me," Noah told him.
"I can see that, Noah," Mokuba said before he started to walk back. Sera sighed.
"Okay, time to snap him out of it," she muttered. She then slapped him across the face shocking all of us. "Are you back now?" She asked him. He held his cheek.
"Why did you do that?!" He asked.
"You were losing it. Slapping always brings a person back from that," she stated.
"Oh, right, sorry," he told her. She smiled a little.
"No problem," she replied.
"Wait, something has just occurred to me. There is one more escape route here," Noah remembered.
"Where is it?!" Joey asked.
"Tell me!" Kaiba demanded.
"It's a doorway I created and it leads directly to the real world. I'm quite sure my father has no idea that it exists. You can escape and warn the world of his plan," Noah said.
"Then what are we waiting around here for?! Let's go!" Joey said eager to get out of here.
"Very well, just follow me," Noah told us. We then started following him.
"It's not too far from here," Noah said as I hung back with Kaiba and Sera.
'Seto, something's not right,' Sera said setting up a mind link between the three of us.
'She's right, I think Noah's lying to us. He's not to be trusted,' I agreed.
'Why don't you try telling me something I don't already know, Yugi?' He thought back.
'If you're so sure this is a trick, then why are you following us, big brother?' Sera smirked.
'You should know, Sera. We were taught to always keep our enemies close by,' Kaiba replied. He broke off his mind link and walked off with the others. Sera and I hung back then.
'Maybe Kaiba's wrong. Maybe Noah is trying to help us now,' Yugi thought.
'But why?' I asked.
'His dad betrayed him again, so Noah must want to stop him as much as we do,' he thought back.
'Perhaps,' I agreed.
'Come to think of it, You, Noah, and Kaiba really have a lot in common, Sera. You were all mistreated by Gozaburo and you need our help to defeat him,' Yugi thought to Sera.
'You're right, we're all on the same team now. So why don't you take it from here?' I smiled at Yugi.
'Guys...just be careful. My instincts have never failed me and I know something bad is going to happen. Be careful, okay?' Sera asked us. We both nodded to her. I quickly kissed her before letting Yugi take over. 'Quick, sneaky, Pharaoh,' I heard Sera grumble in her mind making me smirk.
~Sera~
We caught up with the others, my instincts telling me not to trust Noah. Yes, he's been mistreated like me and Seto, but I still don't trust him.
"Alright, where is this exit already?" Joey asked impatiently.
"There," Noah answered stopping in front of a brick wall with a wooden door. "Your freedom lies beyond this door. Once you walk through you'll wake up in the real world," Noah told us.
"I don't know about this, guys," Tea said. I'm not the only one getting a bad vibe from this.
"The real world's just beyond these doors," Noah told us. We all walked through and I blacked out. I woke up in a clearing then.
"Hey, you!" I heard. I turned to find a girl with light green eyes and short black hair. I raised an eyebrow.
"Can I help you?" I asked crossing my arms.
"Maybe. Are you Sera Kaiba?" She asked me.
"Who wants to know?" I asked her. Man, this seems really familiar...I've said this before!
"The names Aria Bennett," she answered. I blacked out again and woke up to darkness.
"I-I think so. What the hell is going on?" I asked. I was in a chair and my eyes were blind folded. "Okay, this isn't real!" I shouted. All of a sudden I was with all my friends.
"Can anyone tell me what's going on?!" Tristen asked.
"I don't know," Duke answered.
"Neither do I," Kendra agreed.
"I do. Noah must have tricked us," Yugi stated. I nodded glaring at the ground.
"I knew we shouldn't have trusted him," I hissed.
"Let's find that punk, right now! Where is he anyway?" Joey asked looking around. We all then looked around.
"Hey, Kaiba's gone too," Tea mentioned.
"And Mokuba," I added worried. I grabbed my locket. Just hang on, brothers. We'll find you soon and get out of this cyber space.