Author's Note

Hey, sorry about the long wait everybody. To make it up to you somewhat, here's a chapter of Kaiba being awesome.

Chapter 18: Champion With Eyes Of Red

The room was filled to the brim with computers covered in blinking lights, and wires that snaked in all directions amidst the machinery. Seto Kaiba lay naked inclined in a coffin-like structure, his arms crossed in an 'X' and his body hooked up with wires like the cyborg he probably wanted to be. On the other side of a hard plastic screen from Kaiba, a forest green-skinned woman clad in a pure white lab coat and rimless frames stood at a computer terminal, reviewing Kaiba's vital signs before he was sent into the virtual world.

"Mr. Kaiba, are you sure you want to do this?" the female technician asked.

"Yes, I'm sure!" Kaiba replied irritably. "This king's gone unchecked for far too long."

"Okay, if you insist..." the female technician said, pressing a few keys on her keyboard. Kaiba's capsule closed with a hiss. Beams of light scanned Kaiba's irises, and soon the world fell beneath him and he found himself falling into a whirling tunnel of colors. After a couple of seconds, a spinning KaibaCorp logo faded into existence before him, accompanied with the sound of a woman's voice.

You are now entering KaibaCorp Virtual Systems, the woman's voice sounded clinical and artificial, more like a robot than a human to Kaiba.

After a couple more seconds, Kaiba finally landed on solid ground, this time fully clothed and donning his signature white trench coat, its coattails billowing magnificently in the virtual wind, as well as a dormant Duel Disk on his left arm.. He was in the middle of a good-sized forest clearing, with trees surrounding him on all sides and the canopy they formed making it impossible to see beyond. That, and the rest of the world hadn't been rendered, and frankly didn't need to be. The skies were perfectly clear, no sun or clouds in the sky at all, as rendering them was a waste of processing power.

"Alright, Sombra, reveal yourself!" Kaiba demanded.

No sooner than Kaiba had voiced his demands than clouds of shadow began to pour from the endless forest, and the blue skies turned to overcast. "Ah, Seto Kaiba," a heavily guttural voice addressed Kaiba, sounding as if he had inhaled an entire canister of argon. "Come to embrace the darkness, I suppose?"

"Spare me your last temptation crap. It's time to duel!" Kaiba declared as he activated his Duel Disk, which glinted despite the lack of any visible light source.

"A duel, you say? I suppose I should take a more appropriate form then," the voice said. Out from the cloud of shadows walked a tall, lanky man with brown hair and blue eyes with dilated pupils, making his irises look like homogeneous blue disks. He was wearing the standard indigo Domino High School uniform.

"What the-?" Kaiba said, taken aback by the form Sombra had taken.

"What's the matter, don't you recognize me?" Sombra teased, his guttural voice replaced by a new voice exactly like Kaiba's, except in a dull monotone that somehow managed to come off as smug. "It's me, Seto Kaiba."

"You're not me!" Kaiba objected.

"Au contraire, Seto. I'm more you than you realize," Sombra said.

"Are we going to duel, or are we going to just stand around talking?" Kaiba asked. "I'm getting bored, and bad things tend to happen when I'm bored."

Suddenly, another duel disk materialized on Sombra's left arm and promptly activated itself. "Enjoy this duel, Seto Kaiba, for it shall be your last! My victory shall stand for all time!"

Each duelist drew a hand of five cards and added 8,000 Life Points to their names.

"It's my turn!" Kaiba drew a card. Wait a minute... he then noticed some of the cards he had in his hand. Black Dragon's Chick? Red-Eyes Black Dragon? I don't run either of those cards.

"What's the matter, Seto? Notice anything different?" Sombra prompted.

"If you think giving me Joey Wheeler's deck as a joke is funny, you are sadly mistaken," Kaiba said as he slammed a monster down on his Duel Disk. "I set two cards face-down, and then summon Black Dragon's Chick in attack position!" as soon as he finished his sentence, a red egg appeared in front of Kaiba, immediately hatching into a tiny black dragon with 800 Attack Points.

"Joey Wheeler? No, I was thinking of someone else, someone with brighter colors in their hair," Sombra clarified.

"...Maximillion Pegasus?"

Sombra shook his head and said, "Your skull is as thick as your ego is large, but it won't matter soon enough. Play your next cards."

"With pleasure! Now I'll send Black Dragon's Chick to the Graveyard and summon the Red-Eyes Black Dragon in attack mode!" Black Dragon's Chick shined red and was deposited into the Graveyard. The space it formerly occupied shined inside a pillar of light containing Kaiba's newest dragon with 2,400 Attack Points. Red-Eyes roared at Sombra, sounding somewhat like a falcon's cry, but he stood unfazed. "Man, that sounds so weird when I say it. I'll end my turn!"

"Ah, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon," Sombra said, drawing a card. "Formidable, yes, but not nearly strong enough! I play my Twinkle Wish magic card in order to summon a monster from my deck!" he said. In front of Sombra, a more powerful pillar of light shone as bright as the invisible sun, and its shock wave nearly blew Kaiba off his feet.

"Are you summoning...?" Kaiba stood transfixed, dreading what he thought would come next.

"Yes! Come forth, Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" As Sombra said this, the pillar of light dissipated, revealing Sombra's Blue-Eyes standing approximately one head and neck higher than Red-Eyes with 3,000 Attack Points, roaring to establish its dominance.

"B-Blue-Eyes?" Kaiba asked in sheer disbelief, taken aback by the fact that someone would dare to use his signature card against him.

"How does it feel to have your own cards used against you, Seto?" Sombra inquired.

"How dare you?!" Kaiba growled, barely keeping his rage under control. "I'm going to kill you!"

"Try it!" Sombra taunted as he extended his right arm in a commanding gesture. "Blue-Eyes, destroy him!" Blue-Eyes charged up a ball of white lightning in its maw.

"You've activated my trap card, Spellbinding Circle!" Kaiba declared.

"Spellbinding Circle?" Sombra asked, as he had never seen this card before, and so was puzzled as to what it did.

"It's a card that lowers a monster's Attack Points by 700, and also makes them unable to change their battle position," Kaiba explained as Blue-Eyes dropped to 2,300 Attack Points.

"What?! No! Now your Red-Eyes is stronger than my Blue-Eyes!" Sombra exclaimed.

"Tell me something I don't know, Joey Wheeler," Kaiba said, extending his own right arm in response. "Red-Eyes, Inferno Blast Attack!"

Blue-Eyes fired her beam of white lightning at Red-Eyes, only for it to be completely absorbed by the black dragon. Red-Eyes, in retaliation, fired a beam of white hot fire and, after a final roar of defiance, the white dragon was no more, and Sombra was down to 7,900 Life Points.

"I-I thought Blue Eyes was supposed to be invincible," Sombra said.

"Well you thought wrong, didn't you?" Kaiba replied.

"I end my turn!" Sombra growled.

"It's my turn!" Kaiba said, drawing a card. "First I'll summon Princess Celestia in attack position!"

Princess Celestia shimmered onto the field, standing firm alongside the Red-Eyes Black Dragon with 3,500 Attack Points.

"Now, Red-Eyes, Celestia, attack his life points directly!" Kaiba commanded.

Red-Eyes fired a beam of fire at Sombra, and Celestia fired another beam, this one of pure magic, forming a sort of swirling cocktail of energy pointed directly at Sombra's face, lowering his life points to 2,000.

"You'll pay for this, Seto Kaiba..." Sombra growled.

"Heh, not likely," Kaiba said. "I end my turn!"

"It's my turn!" Sombra drew a card. "First I'll play Monster Reborn in order to bring the Blue-Eyes White Dragon to the field!"

The Blue-Eyes White Dragon returned to the field, encased in a pillar of light which was only shattered with its mighty roar.

"I think you're going to like what I'm going to do next," Sombra said. "Next I shall sacrifice the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in order to summon the all-powerful King Sombra in attack position!"

Blue-Eyes was suddenly engulfed by a cloud of darkness that sprouted from the ground, being replaced by King Sombra's equine form with 5,000 Attack Points, trotting slowly and methodically, as if he had all the time in the world.

"B-Blue-Eyes..." Kaiba said, his rage building fast. "You sacrificed Blue-Eyes to summon yourself?"

"Do you like it?" Sombra asked rhetorically. "Go, me, attack his Red-Eyes!"

King Sombra charged up bolts of darkness within his horn, then fired them directly at Red-Eyes, shattering him almost instantly and dropping Kaiba's Life Points to 5,400.

"I end my turn," Sombra said.

"Rrgh, it's my turn!" Kaiba drew a card. Still nothing! he thought. There's probably not a card in this entire deck that can stand up to King Sombra.

"Well, are you going to do anything?" Sombra asked.

"i'll set one card face down, and then end my turn!" Kaiba declared, setting his card face down.

That face down card could be anything, Sombra thought. I better play it safe.

"It's my turn!" Sombra drew a card. Perfect! he thought. "First I'll play this card, the Pot Of Greed, which allows me to draw two cards!" Sombra drew two more cards.

"That's not what it does," Kaiba said.

"Yes it is!" Sombra insisted.

"Nope, according to the text on the card, it says 'if the opponent is named Seto Kaiba when you play this card, immediately surrender the match to him'," Kaiba bluffed.

Sombra took a look at his Pot Of Greed, and said, "This card only says 'draw 2 cards'."

Dammit, I knew he'd call my bluff, Kaiba thought.

"Now I shall play my Endless Staircase magic card, banishing your Princess Celestia from the field!" Sombra went on.

Princess Celestia went up in a puff of smoke, to Kaiba's anger.

"I also play the Mystical Space Typhoon! Destroy his face down card!" Sombra commanded as fierce winds ripped Kaiba's card to holographic pieces.

"Now I shall summon my own Princess Celestia to the field in attack position!" Sombra declared.

Next to King Sombra's equine form, a copy of Princess Celestia appeared with 3,500 Attack Points., this one with a more devious and maniacal expression on her face, matching King Sombra's shark-toothed grin.

"This-this can't be real!" Kaiba denied.

"Oh, it is real, Seto Kaiba," Sombra said as he extended his right arm to give the killing blow. "Now, my monsters, attack his Life Points directly!"

Princess Celestia and King Sombra both fired blasts of energy from their horns, coalescing into one beam, like Kaiba's copy had done with Red-Eyes before, except this time with more darkness. The combined blast nearly swept Kaiba off his feet as his Life Points plummeted to 0 and Sombra became more recognizable, his irises turning bright red and his sclera bright green, purple fire spewing from his tear ducts as he laughed maniacally.

"You lose, Seto Kaiba," Sombra said as Kaiba's feet were encased in crystals tinted black. "And here you shall remain."

"No," Kaiba stated matter-of-factly.

"No? What do you mean no?! I'm literally sealing you in crystal right now!" Sombra asked incredulously as the crystals grew to Kaiba's ankles.

Kaiba raised his right arm. "Virtual world program disengage!" he said, and was suddenly surrounded by an iridescent pillar of code, taking him apart voxel by voxel.

"What do you think you're doing?! Cease this foolishness at once!" Sombra growled with the voice of the legion as the virtual world fell apart before him.

"Do you even know who I am?! I'm Seto Freaking Kaiba!" Kaiba boasted, then laughed triumphantly as he shot up the pillar of code as a sillhouette of light, leaving two empty molds of black-tinted crystal as the only evidence he'd ever been there.

"No, no!" Sombra barely had enough room to stand as the world transformed back into pure light. "I will destroy you, Seto Kaiba! Mark my-" he was cut off by the virtual world program no longer being active, much to his chagrin.

As Kaiba flew towards some nondescript point at the end of the multicolored tunnel, a large KaibaCorp logo grew and spun in front of his face.

You are now exiting KaibaCorp Virtual Systems, the female voice said.

"Gee, thanks, I never could've guessed that," Kaiba snarked.

Soon after, back in the real world, Kaiba's virtual reality coffin opened with a hiss, and he burst out of it without thinking about what he was not wearing. The forest green-skinned technician blushed uncontrollably.

"Sorry, sorry!" Kaiba apologized as he frantically tried to pull his clothes back on. "Why did I even need to be naked for that? There are other virtual reality systems in this universe that allow you to keep your clothes on."

"I'm guessing it was for fanservice, Mr. Kaiba," the technician said, looking away out of respect.

"That makes way too much sense," Kaiba said.