Hopelessly Violet

Part 3- The Truth

A week had passed since Joey visited Kaiba Corp. Seto typed rapidly on his laptop doing the monthly finances and sending emails to advertising companies in the attempt to spread more knowledge of the theme park he had opened to the public late last year. Every day consisted of emails and finances-- a life he was not fond of living after going through what he had gone through just months prior. His obsession to win a duel against Yami Yugi was finally put to an end when he traveled to ancient Egypt to have the last battle. The obsession drove Seto-- it made him an even stronger duelist. The passion in his heart and in his veins pushed him every single day and gave him something to look forward to, but that was over, it had been left in the past along with Yami Yugi himself.

He stood up from his desk and faced the window, looking down at the snow-covered buildings. His heart started to race while he watched as the individual snowflakes fell gently from the sky, it was a romantic scene to him. Suddenly, the image of Joey laughing in the snow slapped his mind with no warning. Seto stepped back confused and frustrated, a drop of sweat ran down his temple as his heart began to beat faster. Joey's absence caused Seto to miss him, "No, I can't let that loser cloud my judgment!" He slammed his fist against the heavy-duty glass window then after taking a deep breath, he sat back down and looked at his computer screen. He came across a word processing program and apprehensively clicked on it, opening a blank document with a flashing cursor at the top left corner. Seto sat up straight to gain his composure before he started to type a message then afterward he sent it to the wireless printer. After reading the message, he pressed a small blue button on his desk and paged Mokuba to come to his office. The electric doors opened as Mokuba stepped in, "You needed something, Seto?" Seto walked over to Mokuba with an envelope and handed it to him, "Mokuba, I need you to deliver this to Wheeler."

"But bro, why Joey? Is this a legal document or something? Did he do something wrong?"

"No, Mokuba please just give it to him. Make sure no one sees you hand him the envelope and make sure to tell him to read it in private." Seto walked passed Mokuba and left the room. Mokuba looked down at the blank envelope, "Wow, Seto seems more on edge than usual. What could this be? Oh well, just gotta do what Seto says." He folded the envelope and stuck it in his pocket.

* * * *

Yugi, Joey and Tristan were in the card shop looking at an advertisement for the newest cards to be released on a computer when a car door slammed and stole their attention. Mokuba entered and walked over to them, "Hey, Joey can I see you for a second?" Mokuba led Joey outside to the side of the building, "What the-? Ay, what'da drag me out in the cold for?" Mokuba didn't respond, instead, he looked down at his pocket and pulled out the folded envelope, "Here, this is for you. Open it alone, okay?" Without pause, Mokuba stepped back into the black car and left.

Joey held the envelope up and analyzed it, then he set it onto the card display case and all three of them stared curiously down at it. Tristan swiped it up with a quick swoop, "What do you think it is, Joey?" Joey shrugged then grabbed it from Tristan, "I don't know, but we're about to find out." he tore the envelope then unfolded the piece of paper that was inside and proceeded to read it out loud despite Mokuba's specific instructions to read the letter in private, "Come to Kaiba Corp. alone today at four-o'clock, there is something I want to show you. I also wasn't being completely honest with you yesterday; you should know the truth." Yugi looked up at Joey, "What wasn't he being completely honest with you about?" Joey looked at the time on the computer screen, it was already three-thirty. He picked up the letter and shoved it in his pocket then opened the exit door, "Uh, I'll explain when I come back. See ya's!" Yugi and Tristan looked at one another, "Well, that was weird." Tristan remarked.

Joey held the crumbled letter up to his face and read the short message over in his head as he walked to Kaiba Corp, "Kaiba wants to tell me the truth? What was he lyin' about in da first place? Dis better not be a trap or somethin'."  Joey thought to himself. As Joey stepped close to the entrance, the doors automatically opened. One of Seto's guards was awaiting his arrival by the elevators, "Follow me." said the guard. One by one, the numbers on the little screen counted up until finally the woman's voice announced that they had reached floor 23. Seto stood there with his duel disk open, "Duel me, Wheeler." Joey was shocked by Seto's strange request, "Why'd ya wanna duel me, Kaiba? So you can insult me more? Sorry pal, I'm not doin' it." but Seto's face had not been as stern as it usually was, "I'm not going to insult you. I just want to have a good clean battle." Seto tossed another duel disk and eyepiece to Joey; the duel disk looked so different from what he was used to seeing in the past and he certainly has never worn an eyepiece to duel someone. He strapped the duel disk to his arm and then inspected the strange eyepiece before clumsily setting it on his face, "Why do I gotta wear dis thing on my face?" Seto walked over to the control panel pressing buttons, "It gives you the ability to change the virtual reality world with your mind." 

The room remained as it was until Seto gave Joey the cue to think of a place to go and before they knew it, they were both standing upon a giant pizza box! "We're not dueling on top of a pizza box." Seto demanded. "What? Ya told me I could choose where we go!" Seto closed his eyes and exhaled heavily, "Fine." They both dueled for hours, taking turns changing the location in which they battled.

Seto beat Joey twice and Joey proudly beat Seto once. After they finished, Joey took off his gear and walked toward the elevator but was quickly stopped by Seto who was still standing in the middle of the room, "I didn't call you down here just for a battle." Seto said. Joey looked behind his shoulder, "Oh yeah, I remember ya said somethin' about tellin' me da truth." Joey walked back toward Seto with his hands tucked inside his pant pockets. Seto could not look him directly in the eyes because what he was about to admit had clearly been information he wanted to keep deep down in his subconscious, "I was always a little jealous of you, Wheeler. I grew up without a proper childhood and took over the business at a young age, so fun and laughter wasn't exactly something I had. I was taught to take life seriously, but watching you live life so freely well, you had the freedom that I've always wanted. I also may see myself as a better duelist than you, but I have also seen you duel many times and I was...impressed." Joey's initial look of shock soon changed to a smug grin once he completely registered what Seto had said, "Finally, rich boy admits that I, Joey Wheeler, have skill." The internal party happening inside Joey's head had soon been shut down after seeing Seto's look of anguish. Joey got close to Seto and put a hand consolingly on his shoulder, "Ay, ya know, it's never too late ta have fun. I could teach ya how! It's easy." Seto brushed Joey's hand off his shoulder then turned away, "It's not that simple. The moment I let my guard down is the moment Kaiba Corp crumbles into the ground. I can't lose what I have worked so hard to create. Success doesn't come to the weak." Joey stood in front of him again. Seto looked down into Joey's eyes, and this time Joey was the one being stern, "Ay man, quit with da pitty party. Having fun don't mean ya gotta lose touch of ya business. Ya gotta have a balance or you'll grow old and be a big fat grump. Hang with me and I'll show ya da ropes." Seto's eyes turned so cold as he remained looking down at Joey, "I've heard enough of this." then he turned and started to walk towards the elevator, but before he could enter, Joey grabbed him and hugged him close, "I wanna be ya friend, Kaiba." Seto cocked his head down and closed his eyes, not hugging Joey back but also not pushing him away. For a moment, the two enemies stood quietly embracing one another.