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To enter the forbidden plane, the human body must undergo disassembly before it rebuilds itself on the other side, or else it will be destroyed. This new dimension must be tricked into thinking you belong there, at least long enough for your unfinished business. Seto’s body ceased to be anything more than an unrecognizable tangle of cellular structures. Every atom in his body stood in a single file line, his consciousness tethered by one conviction: I will not know defeat. He didn’t know how long he stayed as that inert clump of nervous tissue. Minutes, hours, days. Eons. Each moment a compendium of everything he’d ever felt. Every fear, joy, pain and pleasure passed through him like water through a sieve. Yet there was no indication of time passing, and no sensory input other than the occasional phantom sensation of where his limbs once were.
He waited, and waited, and waited until a sliver of light cut through the nothingness. His eyes were the first to reform. Then the head. Ribbons of flesh sailed through the dark aether as his body wove itself back together, a twisted dance of carnal circuitry. Seto watched as each sinew slowly became a unified organism once more. The final thread found its place. At last, he had hands again. Hands! Arbiters of blessings and torment. He relished having a body again. The dark aether banished itself, making way for the field of reeds. A panoramic view of an idyllic desert landscape greeted Seto. He looked around for his dimension ship, scanning the wheat-colored dunes for any sign of it. Nothing, not a single scrap. He began walking, and the clock began ticking. As clever as his tricks were, they could only sustain him for so long. Piece by piece, the netherworld tried to send him back to where he came, snapping off fragments with each breath, each heartbeat. Telling him he didn’t belong. Seto didn’t deign to care that this paradise wished to expel him. A good afterlife should allow visitors. Or perhaps whichever one Atem resided in.
The sand in Atem’s final resting place was unlike any on earth. It was cold, as if the blazing sun above was purely ornamental. It reverted back to its original state after each footstep, and there was no wind. Only floating detritus that gave the impression of movement. Was this really where Atem really wanted to spend all eternity? He was almost offended that the pharaoh chose this place over him Domino. If Atem stayed, would it be any different? Would Seto tire of the rematches and always scrambling for an empty title. When every game has been played, every card drawn and dice thrown, does it matter who’s the king of them?
Larger plumes of black aether emanated from his body. He was disappearing faster. Dissolving, rather. It wouldn’t be long before the netherworld realized he wasn’t dead and turned him into Kaiba Seto au gratin. He could ruminate later.
Tech boots met ancient stone tiles. Illustrious ruler of destiny, Atem faced the seer of unknown worlds once more. The pharaoh rose to greet him. Seto readied his duel disk. Atem wordlessly began the duel with a spell card face down.
Maybe Seto was walking along a predetermined path. A variable in an ancient If-Then statement. If Atem, then Kaiba chasing after him. Perhaps he met his destiny on the path he took to avoid it; The path of choosing Atem over his life, over Kaiba corporation, everything.
But maybe, just maybe, a new path was being paved. A new string drawn from the loom of fate. Something beyond Seto compelled him to be here, but it was up to him to decide what came after. To twist them into something that was his, and his alone.
Atem summoned three monsters and ended his turn. None of which were in defense mode, and Seto just played an amplifying spell card. Rookie mistake
“Paradise has treated you too well, Pharaoh. It looks like you’ve already forgotten about dueling. About us .”
His bearing went from that of a king to a boastful school boy. “I haven’t forgotten anything, Kaiba. Especially not you. In fact, I remember you so well that…”
He revealed his spell card, messenger of defeat, making blue-eyes unable to attack.
“I know exactly how to counter you”
And Seto’s life points dropped to zero. Atem won.
It was silent.
“You’re quiet.” Atem said. “What are you thinking about?”
Seto flashed a grin. “There isn't much to be said when you’re defeated by a dead man,” He said
Atem smiled back. But it was a withdrawn one. The previous levity vanished.
“Just as losing doesn’t kill you, victory doesn’t grant me life,” Atem said. “But you already knew that, didn’t you? Or did you only come here to test your self-imposed maxim?”
Defeat equaled death. Except, it didn’t. He would walk away here as a living man. And Atem would remain here, unchanged, and be no more than a private fact from Seto’s life compendium. Three thousand years of imprisonment in exchange for what? Different prison, same principle.
“I suppose I did,” Seto said.
“Are you satisfied?” Atem asked, taking on a gentler tone.
That was a funny question. It rode on the assumption that Atem was giving something to him, something separate from himself. Seto bristled at the bold presumption. That just by giving him the time of day, Atem was disemboweling a feral beast from his primitive vices. Are you done? Is it out of your system?
It pricked Seto.
“Satisfaction is the death of progress. If I declare my thirst slaked, then what’s left?”
“Peace,” Atem said, “That’s what’s left.”
Seto wanted to ask For you, or for me?
A hollowness spread in Seto’s chest, but he ignored it. “If peace is another day in that lab working toward a future without you in it, then I don’t want peace,”
“Then what do you want?”
For these feelings to mean something. For some indication that this was something new and not a tick on a predetermined box.
Shock crossed Atems face. Was this a sign?
“Kaiba, your body is..”
Seto looked down. Half his torso was missing. The netherworld made ample progress in devouring him. His skin became the consistency of gelatin sheets, and he was hollowed out from the inside. Part of his ribcage jutted outward, warped by decay.
“It doesn’t matter. Duel me again. Come back with me.”
“Not in the state you’re in,” Atem said. “At this rate you will…”
Die? Please, it’s not like it was the first time.
“I’m sending you back,” Atem said firmly.“I will place a seal. It should make the exit easier,”
The decay rose to his neck. He felt a burning sensation where his throat was. “You can’t do that to me,” Seto choked out. “You can’t just send me back,”
Atem shot him a glare, but it softened into a look of pity. He muttered an incantation under his breath. The eye of udjat appeared on his chest, glowing. Everything happened so fast.
“Where will I wake up?” Seto asked, barely accepting the hand he’d been dealt. With the dimension ship gone, a smooth landing wasn’t promised.
“…I don’t know,” Atem admitted. “Hopefully the same place you were right before you passed through here.”
Seto raised an eyebrow at that. But he didn’t press Atem for more. As long as the “same place” meant the space station, and not the abyss.
“Will you at least stay with me until..” His voice gave out, completely succumbing to the voracity of heaven.
“Of course,” Atem nodded. “I’m not going anywhere,” He clasped his hand around Seto’s. They remained like this for some time, right up until his arm dissolved.
Atem propped him up with the nubs of his shoulder.
“When you’re going back, it might help to think of something to keep you together. That’s how I was able to return to aid Yugi,”
Seto pretended to think hard about something or someone to imagine on his way back, even furrowing his brows to make the act convincing. Through squinted eyes, he studied Atem, commiting each detail to memory. His eyes were a more soothing shade of violet, not the shocking hue of Yuugi’s. He bore the scent of myrrh and a flower he couldn’t name. Seto liked it.
“Do you have it?”
Seto nodded.
“Alright. Concentrate on it,”
Veins of black ink crept into his vision, slowly occupying his eyes, until Seto’s vision completely blacked out, and he was once again bodiless. This time, he knew he was moving. He wasn’t a clump of cells either. Throughout the boundless void and countless heavens, he felt Atem. The conviction that bound his spirit was I know what it means to love.