XOXOXOXOXOHOXOXOXOXOX

I have no comment to respond to how long I have gone and remained inactive, I can only state that I have had issue with my life that drew my immediate attention, and thus was unable to update or create any new works.

But I've been slowly freeing up my time, and while I can't make any guarantees that I'll get back into the same groove I had before, I will say that I will not abandon my works, nor will I go off on another hiatus without at least warning you, my readers.

Anyways, this is yet another story that has been sitting in the back of my head, and it's a story within our favorite Anime/Manga that revolves around a real-life card game: Yu-Gi-Oh!

This story's protagonist is none other than the arch nemesis of the main character [Yugi Mouto, for all those who can't remember] of the original series, Seto Kaiba.

The idea for this story came up after watching the second season of the anime all the way to the conclusion of the filler arc known as Waking the Dragons. I saw Seto Kaiba's reaction to his loss against his rival, and it suddenly hit me that his reaction to that critical part of the story would make a good start for a different fanfic of my own.

It will follow similarly to the actual storyline, following directly from Kaiba's loss, except there will be a bunch of differences and alternate outcomes to the same conclusions, and not all of them will necessarily revolve around Kaiba alone.

There will also be some AU elements of the story, as a word of warning, because for some of the parts of my story to make sense there has to be some things that happened in this story that did not actually happen in the canon storyline.

Most of all, there will be a small harem for our blue-eyed breaker of rules and hoarder of money, it will be composed of three different women, and I won't immediately come out and say who, expect that none of them are completely one hundred percent OC (I'll leave it to you to figure out and speculate as to what that might mean), except that they will have ties to Seto's past in both the normal and the Yugioh-esque definition of the past.

The harem is already decided, and it isn't for the purpose of inflating Seto's already oversized ego (there should be some way of sucking away arrogance with liposuction or something, he could really use it!), rather it's to present an even greater conflict as well as to explain the roots of Kaiba's journey into darkness. If you don't like the idea of a harem, or you're one of those fangirls that wants a yaoi pairing, go jump in a giant blender (in the case of the yaoi fangirl, I'll even offer to toss you in myself), because when I stamp my foot down on something, it's practically the law.

The initial chapter is somewhat short, because…

1: I am currently trying to work on several fan-fictional works at the same time, and would have an easier time making updates if they were reduced in size. I mean, do you really expect me to be able to upload two to five new ten-thousand word chapters to my stories every week, especially considering the strained schedule that I have to work under?

2. I'd like to see what you think of it before I move on, after all the more attention and the more reviews I get, the greater inspiration and drive I possess and thus the greater the frequency of my updates become.

3. I still have to hash out some plot-bunnies, and I'd rather not have to endlessly edit and re-edit all of my works. That's a bitch and a half, and it's something I would prefer to avoid if I could.

Anyways, enjoy what I have for now, I'll be posting up a few one-shots within the week, so hold out as much as you can, because I reward those whom are patient and loyal. So place your bets and watch the fourth wall… collapse.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh, nor the characters of Yugioh, and I deny any right to that which is the property of the Yugioh anime/manga/trading card game, they are the properties of their respective owners/creators, and I claim nothing other than the usage of the words in this story that are not copyrighted in the order that pertains to this story.

Private Disclaimer: I do not claim any right to pay for the insurmountable damages caused by my unmatched works, if someone suffers any injury or illness as a result of reading my godly works, I am not liable for any of them, no exceptions. By reading this awesome story of uber pwnage, you agree to do so at your own risk and not my ass's risk, and thus forfeit any right to sue my aforementioned ass for something completely out of my control as you seek to further your evil plans towards world domination by oppressing the world's population of lovable ferrets, you sick bastard….

Once again reader, you have been warned.

P.S. This message will now annihilate itself with it's anti-message counterpart. You have ten seconds to evacuate the vicinity, and if you fail to do so… too bad! :D

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It… was impossible, it simply couldn't be real, it had to be a nightmare as there was no way this could be real… there was simple no way that he, Seto Kaiba, could have lost to his arch nemesis in the semi-finals of the Battle City Tournament…. His tournament. The whole tournament was set up for Seto to be able to do what he had always promised he would do: win, win back the title he so rightfully deserved, the title that had been stripped from him along with his pride and his dignity, to claim the role as World Champion and King of Games, but even as he stood there, the harsh touch of reality came crashing down on Seto Kaiba.

Seto Kaiba… had lost, again.

To the one person whom made Seto's blood boil and brought his mind to the brink of insanity, to him…

Yugi Mouto.

Even as Seto stood there in silent shock, the short duelist with tri-colored hair was talking to his friends, to the groupies that always seemed to follow Yugi around, each of them praising him and inflating the magic-obsessed duelist's already deluded ego. Hell… even that bastard mutt was offering his congratulations to the victor, and he had been hanging on the edge of life and death for the love of Kami!

Seto had taken no small amount of satisfaction in seeing the blonde-haired Wheeler reduced to a comatose figure on a bed, he had engorged himself on the look of despair that the moron's state had on his group of friends, particularly Yugi's… as anything that might mess up Yugi's game was only another of a long line of advantages that Seto held over the undeserved winner.

Yet… here he stood, beaten and broken, a martyr of the God's in their quest to maintain the supremacy of the still-current King of Games, having been denied what was by all means his position in the finals, and his Egyptian God Card.

Obelisk…

With a sudden revolting shock, Seto Kaiba now realized that, because he had lost, he was now required to surrender his most valuable card to the winner of their duel… he had to hand over his God Card, Obelisk the Tormentor, to that blasted midget… just like Ishizu had predated.

The mere thought of that woman suddenly broke Seto's trance, and brought forth a howling fury the likes of which he had never experienced before.

'That conniving witch!', Seto thought with no small amount of bitter contempt, and to think he had actually gone out with the woman, seen her as a possible love interest… if - and this was something Seto couldn't even fathom to believe, that he might think possible - she had been able to see the future, wouldn't she have known what Seto might have felt for her? Didn't she think him important enough to warn him that this might happen, that this might be the outcome of this duel that had been rigged in the favor of that fool whom believed in such a stupid ideology as the Heart of the Cards?

Did Ishizu even care? At any moment when they had gone out and talked on their dates, did she even once imagine that Seto would lie here, weak and defeated, a mere shell of what he once was?

'Of course… she's more than likely in love with that midget… just like the other two… just like they were…', once again Seto answered to himself, thinking over just how pathetic he really was, 'This is the third time I've opened my heart to a girl, only for it to be denied…'

…and for Seto, it would be the last.

Not even aware that his eyes had slightly changed, Seto became aware that Yugi was approaching him, probably to rub it in his face by offering his unneeded sportsmanship and that garbage deal that he called friendship. And Seto wouldn't allow his pride to sink no lower, and before the midget could even speak a word, Seto began walking away in the direction of the exit of the stadium, drawing the attention of everyone… even the dark arrogant visage of Yami Marik was surprised by Seto Kaiba's silence.

After all, they were expecting Kaiba to begin yelling and denying what had happened, they expected him to make another oath to defeat Yugi once and for all, they expected him to make some smartass remark to Joey now that he had recovered and shown himself to be in an adequate condition to stand and talk, they even somewhat expected him to fall to his knees in despair and ask himself in a pitiful desperation why and how he had lost.

Silence and simply leaving without so much as a look back at them… was the last thing anyone had expected, and it made them wonder just what the CEO of Kaibacorp was thinking right now. And of course, Joey had to open his mouth to break the silence between them.

"Hey, moneybags! Where do you think you're going?"

To everyone's steadily increasing surprise, Kaiba didn't even slow down as he walked away at a brisk pace, and his little brother Mokuba looked at him in immediate concern.

'This isn't like him. No matter how many times he failed at anything, he never just stayed silent and walked away like nothing happened. Seto… what is wrong with you?', Mokuba thought to himself, which drew the attention of some of Yugi's friends, most notable Tea, whom had grown somewhat attached to the younger Kaiba brother, and looked towards him in a questioning glance, a growing despair slowly overcoming her as she looked upon the image of Seto Kaiba as old feelings began to reawaken.

Even when she turned to look back to Mokuba, the obvious question easily discernable on her face, when he turned to acknowledge her, the only response Tea received was a blank stare that basically stated that the younger Kaiba knew as much about what was going through Seto's mind as her. And that brought no relief whatsoever to her, and for the first in a long time Tea Gardener began to doubt the stability of her and her friend's lives.

Unknown to her, the demons of her past were preparing to rear their ugly faces once more, and it had everything to do with the boy-practically-man in the white leather duster that was walking away from them.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

'This is strange… Kaiba has never taken defeat in this manner…', rising legend and the current King of Games, World Champion, also known to his friends as Yugi Mouto thought worriedly, and his alter-ego - the ancient spirit of the Millennium Puzzle whom had forgotten his name and has taken to calling himself Yami, or Yami Yugi as Yugi's friends had also nicknamed him - shared his sentiments upon the thought of their recent conquest over the arrogant duelist that took the role as his greatest rival.

'I barely recall this, but I remember from my past someone very similar to Kaiba, whom I believe might have been Kaiba's past incarnation from my time, he was just like Kaiba in both appearance and even shared a few of the same portions of their personality. And not once, do I ever recall him ever acting in this manner after a loss.' Yami mentioned to his host and lighter half, which did nothing to alleviate the strange feeling that Yugi felt, a feeling that always predated another life-changing in his life…

It was like the calm before the storm, and it never failed to hit land, as every time Yugi experienced this feeling, some new threat to his life became apparent: the video-tape sent from Pegasus that invited him to Duelist Kingdom, the soaked Mokuba arriving to his home to ask for his help, the meting with Ishizu and the announcement of the Battle City Tournament, each and every time Yugi felt that sinking feeling that something awful was coming his way, like a disaster of a rollercoaster with him along for the ride.

That same feeling now made itself present as Yugi looked upon Seto Kaiba walking away before he could even offer his appraisal of Kaiba's sheer brilliance and tenacity during their duel, which Yugi had to admit was something that he needed to thank Kaiba for.

If it weren't for the hard game that Kaiba presented, Yugi might still have some doubts that he might even stand a chance against Marik, yes… for a long while Yugi still doubted whether or not he could actually defeat Marik, especially in the state that he was now.

The Marik Ishtar that Yugi had prepared to face was crafty, subtle, and insightful, he had watched each and every duel that Yugi had played - seeing as he ultimately possessed the ability to see through the eyes of the slaves that he created with his Millennium Rod, thus making it as if he were right there himself watching Yugi duel - and thus knew a great assortment of Yugi's cards and strategies. There was little that Yugi could have pulled off that wouldn't be expected by the leader of the Rare Hunters, and thus Yugi was at a major disadvantage…

Then the unexpected happened with the fall of the Marik-imposter known as Odion and the revelation of an even darker portion of the wielder of the Millennium Rod, and with his fall into a coma an even more dangerous Marik made his debut: the sick and twisted individual that was the manifestation of all the darkness within Marik's heart, all of his rage and hate, pain and despair, everything that had turned the once innocent grave keeper into a malicious puppet-master.

Unofficially coined as Yami Marik by Yugi's friends - to parallel the surprising pattern of darker halves that wielders of Millennium Items seemed to develop - this side of Marik was a monster the likes of which Yami Yugi hadn't even thought possible. In contrast to the - relatively speaking - 'lighter' half of Marik, whom sought to collect the God Cards and take possession of the Pharaoh's power to rule the world, this Yami Marik had only but one desire: to destroy this world, and banishing each and every soul in it into the dark depths of the Shadow Realm, until this entire world was blanketed by darkness itself.

Despite his resolve and his drive to protect his friends and save the world, Yugi still held a great many doubts that he could meet the expectations that his friends and associates had set for him. Both the sixteen-year old teenage student and the five-thousand-year old Pharaoh held their reservations about whether or not they could meet the tasks set before them, and what would happen to all those that held faith in them should they fail.

However, the duel with Kaiba had erased all of that, because when facing Kaiba… the only way to win was to free yourself of all doubt and hesitation, because if you even allowed yourself to doubt your chances for even a single moment in a duel against an opponent of Seto Kaiba's caliber, the duel was - in all practicality - already over for you.

And with his victory over the formidable ex-World Champion, Yugi and Yami Yugi stood ready for anything that the fiendish Yami Marik would be able to dish out, and with their victory they earned possession of Kaiba's own God Card, Obelisk the Tormentor… a beast so formidable that it ended up pulling a draw in a confrontation with Yugi's own Slifer the Sky Dragon, and with both at his side…

Marik's own God, the supposedly most powerful and quasi-invincible beast that could attain the form of a fiery phoenix that could destroy even another God Card upon it's resurrection.

The Winged Dragon of Ra.

Even as he lamented on that, Yugi turned to look onto the face of his opponent in the Battle City Tournament Finals, his adversary that would face him for the right to take possession of all three Egyptian Gods, the person he would face to determine the fate of the very world itself… and even more surprisingly and worrisome, Yami Marik's attention was not directed towards himself.

No, to Yugi's utter shock that even with the realization that the demented lover of torture would be facing his much-desired opponent, Yami Marik's eyes were focused on the walking figure of Seto Kaiba as he walked away from the stadium that marked his defeat against him.

But what truly set Yugi and his ancient counterpart on edge was the look in Yami Marik's eyes as he walked away: confusion, wariness, disturbance, and… no, the last emotion had to have been a trick of light. There was absolutely no chance whatsoever that Yami Marik, a being who was born from and thrived on the despair of others, a living nightmare and quite possibly terror incarnate, was afraid of Seto Kaiba.

And before Yugi could even bother to contemplate this possible paradox, he suddenly became aware that something very small and fast was heading right towards him, and on pure instinct he barely caught the two cards that had been tossed his way, and looked upon the first one to recognize the blue coloring that was synonymous with the Egyptian God, Obelisk the Tormentor, that Kaiba was now forfeit in an ironic twist by the very rules set for his own tournament.

The second card was completely unexpected, a Spell card that Yugi recognized as being extremely rare and valuable, seeing as he had heard mentions of the card from his grandfather, whom had complained that he had never once managed to get a single set of to sell in his card shop.

Fiend's Sanctuary…

Getting ready to interrogate Kaiba in his sudden strange actions and his unusual behavior, Yugi came no further than looking into the eyes of his rival as he remained standing and facing him after throwing in Yugi's way, the two cards currently held in the possession of his hands.

And both light and dark half froze at what they saw, and suddenly understood the expression of fear that had crossed Yami Marik's face.

Gone were the freezing blue depths that were characteristic of Seto Kaiba's eyes, left instead were two golden-yellow orbs that gleamed within the dark shadow created by Kaiba as he leaned his head forward to shadow the level around his eyes and forehead.

In that one look into Kaiba's eyes, Yugi felt as if has being faced with the fatal stare of the Basilisk of legend that killed with a single gaze; and, deep down Yugi recognized that if Kaiba had the ability to harm people simply by looking at them, Yugi would be nothing more than a rivulet of blood flowing down the sides of Kaiba's duel tower, mere chunks of flesh no larger than to fill a matchbox scattered all over the clothes and skin of his friends.

Every single second that Yugi remained under the piercing stare of Seto's eyes felt like an eternity, and Yugi screamed mentally as he fought to escape the suffocating madness that those eyes seemed to inject into his very soul, and for the life of him Yugi was powerless to break the spell created by Kaiba's monstrous gaze.

For an entire minute Yugi was forced to endure a torture that would make Yami Marik green with envy… or even disgust, if the expression on his face even hinted somewhat as to what was going through that psychopath's mind, and were it not for Yugi's predicament, both he and the Pharaoh would have taken a guilty pleasure in seeing that evil abomination squirm like the leech he truly was, but that was not the case.

Not a single word was issued by everyone, not by Mokuba or Roland, not by Tea or Joey, not by any of Yugi's friends, even the aforementioned Yami Marik remained completely speechless as they also bore witness to the dull-yellow color of Kaiba's eyes that threatened to bring them into the folds of insanity as they stood mesmerized, forced to watch as Kaiba seemed to deliver an unknown message to his better, before turning around and breaking the spell that Kaiba seemed to have created with naught but his own stare. All eyes remained on him as he slowly walked away into the exit of the duel tower's stadium, not once breaking the silence that he seemed to maintain with incomparable zeal.

Upon being freed of the Deathlike-glare, Yugi collapsed to his knees as his friends took a moment to decide if whether or not what they had just seen was reality or a cruel illusion spurned by Fate herself, all of them equally confused and horrified by what they had seen, even Kaiba's little brother Mokuba had been subjected to the effects of his older brother's eyes.

None of the others noticed as Yami Marik silently sped after the elder Kaiba brother, with an expression of livid rage and jealousy upon his visage, most likely having realized just what feeling he had experienced from the defeated teenage CEO, and more than likely wanted to wipe off the incriminating mark on his tarnished record of unrestrained evil, completely unaware that he was lowly walking into a deadly trap of his own making, upon the inception of which… he would not survive.

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Away from all of this, on one island of the many islands reaching over thirty in number that composed the Bonin Islands, while all of this was happening, deep within the confine of one of the islands lay an out-of-place structure that seemed alien to the surrounding tropical jungle surrounding it, especially seeing as the structure looked completely untouched by the passage of time: every single inch of the structure was as pristine as it had been when it was first constructed.

The relatively alien structure was similar to a pyramid in it's design and composition, but lacked a simple design and featured characteristics to suggest it as some sort of temple, thus leaning more towards a ziggurat in it's classification… but no ziggurat was as significantly large as the megastructure that laid right before the very eyes of the observer, this was monument that dwarfed the pyramids of Egypt like a new supermarket shadowed over an old grocery store.

Deep within the confines of this giant megastructure, lied a mind-boggling array of hallways and doors that composed a labyrinth the likes of which were beyond human comprehension, as if one could look at the blueprint of the entire structure they would be utterly stumped, as the design of the mysterious structure seemed to suggest that it was not meant to be entered by conventional means, in fact… there were some levels of the structure that existed without any physical means whatsoever of moving between them: no secret passageways, no hidden tunnels, not even a way to explain how those who constructed this enigma of a structure were even able to breathe with a noted lack of ventilation to the outside…

It was as if someone had magically created and then hollowed out portions of this structure, and even then the question remained: what was it for? Did it exist to honor some God of some forgotten people, was it used as a site for sacrifice for arcane rituals, was it made to entomb a figure whom had attained a divine status? Maybe it was created to house something valuable and ward off intruders?

Or the only other explanation: was it built, rather not to keep people out, but to keep something else, in?

Nevertheless, within this structure laid a single area that was impossible to chart or detect, and it was intentionally done so apparently upon observing the way that the area was designed, which seemed to confirm the latter explanation for the structures intended purpose: there were metallic chains that were too far advanced in design and structure as to be surreal, and locks and mechanisms far beyond the potential capabilities of the people that had to have created this bizarre structure in a remote jungle on an island almost nonexistence in the knowledge of the modern world.

And in this area, if one could look into the antechamber, they would immediately be able to discern that the room stood as a final warning to anyone that would have inexplicably found themselves within this structure, because the doors that lead to whatever lied beyond that room were composed of a sangrian-colored metal that seemed alien in it's composition… and the realization that the door was not completely solid, but rather seemed to be made of an ethereal substance similar in nature to a liquid, making it as if the door were made out of metallic blood.

If one were willing to risk their life and enter the room, they would be shocked to bear witness to a room similar to the one that had originally housed the Millennium Items themselves, except in this room the overall feeling that the room emanated would give the unfortunate individual present that they were being watched by something, yet nothing in the room would suggest an actual being present.

The single most significant part of this apparent tomb took the form of a bizarre rendition of a sarcophagus on the side of the room opposite the entrance, from which strange glowing runes stretched out and apparently covered every square inch of the room, even the floor itself were littered with bizarre runic symbols that ironically themselves were composed of another set of runes, and even those runes were composed of another set… and only God could tell if those runes were nothing more than a combination of even smaller runes themselves.

The sarcophagus itself was designed more for some strange beast than an actual person, as the sarcophagus was almost as large in height to reach the ceiling, and it was wide enough to cover two-thirds of the wall it was displayed on. Upon closer observation, the sarcophagus looked reminiscent in design of some hellish dragon with features that made it look like it had been inspired by a minotaur in it's design, and the yellow eyes of the beast within it's equally disturbing black sclera made it look truly like demonic abomination.

The last thing anyone would have normally seen within the presence of the sarcophagus, before they suffered the deadly horrific fate that all intruders faced upon entering the tomb without permission of it's denizen, was the glowing eyes of the sarcophagus. However, several hundred kilometers from this structure's very location, one Seto Kaiba had taken the first step to an alternate path in destiny from which there was no turning back, and instead of the eyes of the beast merely glowing, they would have died hearing something that transcended any known terror thought possible: a cross between the agonizing wails of thousands of tortured souls, and the bullish roar of a beast that would consume all upon it's release.

The dragon has awakened, and by an unknown means it anxiously watched as the individual that would bring it back it's former glory began his own transformation, the chosen one of this devourer of life, the human known as…

Seto Kaiba.

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And there you have it folks, the first chapter of Wrath of the Dragon is out, I hope you found yourself at least mildly entertained, otherwise you just wasted a small chunk of time from your lifespan, at which I mock you. MOCK YOU!

I can't give a definite as to when the next chapter will come out, only that when it does, prepare to have your pants blown right off your asses, because the next chapter will rock you… rock you, like a hurricane.

And remember this: every time you read and don't review my works, a ferret cries.

And what heartless person would want to make a ferret cry?

Yeah, I'm looking at you, Britney!