Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Stranger of the Duel ❯ Defiance ( Chapter 24 )

Disclaimer: Haven't I told you enough? I don't own the show or characters.

Note: Another extremely short chapter. I don't care if it's "abrupt," but I'm not trying to have cliffhangers. Oh well.

Defiance

Kaiba wiped the excess oil off of his pod meticulously. He was really finished at last. Months of work had finally come to a close; his project would hit the markets soon. Now it was time to alter his product specifications.

Seto's hand was already on the door when he distinctly heard the computer tut at him.

"What?"

"Oh nothing, it's just… It's getting just a little bit messy down here, don't you think?"

Yes, Seto had indeed been thinking that his workshop could do with a bit of cleaning. He'd been working on the pod and knocking his elbows into projects half-forgotten and tumbling stacks of papers over as he passed.

The pod could wait. Seto couldn't stand an untidy workplace, and wouldn't let a custodian into this private area. It was up to him to clean it off.

Seto was an efficient cleaner. He knew exactly where everything went: old projects in a shelved cabinet, locked of course; tools in the box or hanging on the wall; tables cleared; sinks flushed with drain cleaner. Understandably, this took Seto quite some time, but shorter than would be expected.

"Are you happy now?"

"Very. Don't forget to log off."

Seto sighed with resignation and keyed an overall pass to log out of his system.

***

Cali pulled her disc out of her pocket, inserting it into the computer's drive. She quickly brought its contents up onto the screen by hitting a few keyboard shortcuts. Her eyes welled with tears aberrantly as images of her late father filled the screen. He was smiling in some and facing the camera with a stern business expression in others; this was the father she remembered and missed.

She analysed the photographs shown on the screen, comparing them and trying to find common elements in all of them. As she discovered each bit that she needed, she wrote them on a small scrap of paper she happened to have in her pocket… things like hex codes for hair and eye colour, angles of bone structure, and appearance of scars.

Then Cali searched for Kaiba's game imaging program… but couldn't find one. Of course he does everything by hand; he just loves overcomplicating whatever he can. I guess I'll have to do this his way.

Although game components weren't Cali's specialty (she dealt more with real time, online interactions), she had enough knowledge of three-dimensional programming to construct a graphic of her father.

Something was wrong with it.

***

Talon lied on the hard stone floor of his ancient hideout, his energy depleted and too weak to sit up.

"You don't deserve to live anyway," Bakura said as he grasped the cool glass bottle.

"Just one sip… Thief, you'll regret this…" Talon pleaded painfully as his internal organs writhed within him.

"I doubt that."

Bakura turned abruptly and exited, leaving Talon to shrivel up alone. He knew that if Talon were dying, Oten would soon follow. Without their leaders, the cult would disband on its own; Bakura wasn't to be concerned with that. Now, he had to find Cali and hold up his end of the bargain.

***

Hmm… the eyes were perfect, the nose was perfect, the skin was perfect… what could possibly be wrong with the image? It was too perfect; humans are marred with slight deficiencies and faults. Cali realized this and once again her fingers leapt nimbly from key to key adding wrinkles and frown lines and rogue hairs.

There… finally, she had finished the perfect likeness of her father. Now all she had to do was make it real and life-sized. She knew what she needed, a virtual reality pod. She knew Seto was developing one; he'd mentioned it once or twice. She knew exactly where to find its plans.

***

Seto climbed his great staircase once more, going back to that filing cabinet to record his minor changes. What he was about to witness would allow everything to make sense for him.