A Christmas Carol with Kaiba

Darkness of Christmas Future

And then the surroundings changed. They were in the cemetery again, this time late at night, and ahead of them was a different tombstone. But it wasn't the tombstone Seto saw, but the beautiful, long silver hair of the woman who knelt before it. She had her hands to her face, but she didn't sob. That wasn't like Kisara. And even as she watched she lowered her hands and he could see her face was dry.

"Go on," said Bakura, giggling with glee. "Oh, please, you have to see this one."

"You said we were done."

"I lied." he sounded as though he had just said the world's greatest joke. "Best Christmas ever, but you have to see. Go on."

"No! None of this has anything to do with me!"

"Ah, but don't you see?" His smile did reach his ears this time. "It has everything to do with you. The future brings with it regrets, lost potential, lost chances at happiness and fulfillment, and you, dear Priest, have a future full of it. And if you take a step forward, you'll get a taste of just how heavy your chains will be."

Again the scythe came up and Bakura shoved the butt-end of it into his back. Seto stumbled forward to Kisara's side, his heart racing, the clammy mist of the cemetery sticking to his skin and his feet numb from the cold.

Tremulously, he looked up.

Seto Kaiba

Beloved Brother

Gone, but not forgotten.

19XX to 20XX

Besides him Kisara sat as beautiful as that night so long ago. Her face was paler than usual, but she kept her head bowed respectfully.

Seto scrambled back to his feet.

"I thought you said it was wrong for one to know the time of their death."

"Like I or anyone else has ever cared about your well being," said Bakura.

"You're wrong," said Seto, needing to justify the flutter of panic in his chest. "Mokuba cares about me, and—-Yugi," And whoever had sent all these ghosts to him in the first place, whoever that was.

His guide just tipped his head back and roared with mirth, an arm clutching his stomach. It rankled in Seto's ears, made his blood run cold.

"Shut up." he muttered.

But he didn't. He even started bending over, grasping his knees for support.

Seto couldn't listen to this any longer. He turned to Kisara, who still had her head bowed, her hair lifting in a faint breeze. The ache in his chest added to the panic in his gut and he collasped at her side.

"Kisara, I swear, when I wake up from all this I'll find you—"

"Wake up? It's too late! Don't you see your death before you?"

"But I can change that!" Seto jumped back up to his feet. "Ebeneezer Scrooge changed his fate, so can I!"

"Who the hell is that?" asked Bakura, still peeling with mirth and wiping at his eyes. "Aw, who cares! Look at your life, Seto Kaiba, take a nice long look!"

And he did. Facing his tombstone with the woman he had thrown aside at his feet, he looked back. The days rushed before his eyes, blurring together till they all seemed like one. The only ones that stood out were the reluctant adventures he had taken with Yugi and the others and the times he had spent with his brother. They shone out with a gold he had never noticed. What was that? When had he become so lonely? When had he become so...greedy?

He saw Gozaburo in his mind's eyes, weighed down with chains.

"My only comfort now is knowing that you too will be in chains when this life ends."

Because that's all Gozaburo was. Without his company, without his power, who did he return to? What did he go home to? Who would want to welcome that man into their love and warmth? Who would want to keep him company? No, he would be tossed away into a corner, and Gozaburo would welcome it, because he was a hateful, cold, mistrustful man who always looked for betrayal and never had a need for love in the first place.

And Seto had become just like him.

Bakura's black robe gained a life of it's own. The hem's ambiguous edge slunk over the ground, swallowing the earth, swallowing the sky. He could see his white teeth flashing and that cat-like gleam returning to his eyes.

"Poor little man. It would better if I drug you back now with me to the shadows. It would be a waste to let you back into the light where you don't belong."

Seto recoiled, the squirming, stabbing feeling he had a habit to avoid curling up with the shadows, strangling him, cutting through him.

"No," the shadows weren't stopping. His Kisara had vanished, so had the cemetery. "No, you can't do this. You don't have the power! You're just some Ghost of Christmas!"

"And I don't give a damn about Christmas," growled the teeth.

He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. His limbs were being caught up in the darkness. The more he struggled, the tighter they pulled. Bakura was laughing again.

Because Seto Kaiba...

Was terrified.