Title: Relief 1/?
Author: Yami no Kaiba
Series: Yugioh
Rating: Pg-13
Pairing: None (yet)
Disclaimer: If I could own one thing from the whole series, I’d own Seto. Unfortunately, unless the creator of Yugioh was willing to sell me Seto Kaiba’s character ownership for two bucks, I’d never get him. I do, however, believe I own what my twisted mind puts him through. I think.
Summary: What if the Noa Arc had ended in a different way?
Warning: Spoiler / psychological torture / introspection / angst (it's Seto for crying out loud, when is there not angst?!)

*---*---*---*---*

Seto fell to his knees, staring at nothing. His normally fiery icy blue eyes were unfocused, as if the scene around him was not what he saw.

[No... It wasn’t supposed to end like this. Little brother, why? Why did you pick him?]

Seto didn’t even react as he felt the coolness of another’s skin against his forehead, nor when high maniacal laughter split the silence around him.

[Mokuba... I’m truly alone now. What was the point of you stopping me, back then? Why’d you have to give me hope only to crush it yourself? Mokuba...]

Seto could feel himself fading, but he didn’t care. [True death of the soul... That’s what's happening now, isn’t it? No more chances, no more reincarnations... Just utter deletion. Yet, there are also no more expectations to reach, no more stress from work and school, no more pain, no more crushed hopes. No more betrayal, like Mama and Papa promising to always be there, my trust in my adoptive father as an adult to do what's right, or Pegasus, whom I had thought of as a friend, even though we were only business partners.]

[Yet I thought Mokuba would always be there, always supporting me, always loving me. But now... Gods, he must of finally seen what all the others had, what drove them away and turned them against me. I must be one sorry piece of human trash, for even Mokuba to turn to another.]

Seto’s eyes focused for a moment, even as his form grew more and more translucent. Tilting his head back, he looked into the triumphant blue eyes so like his own of the dead child who had stolen the one thing that made life livable for the teen. [I should feel angry... But I’m not. I don’t feel anything, really. No, wait, that’s not right... I feel... relieved? Like something really hard that I’ve been working on for a long time is finally over. Yes, that’s it. Ever since Mama and Papa died, nothing’s been right. This, me dieing, this is right. Besides, what's the point to living, if you’re alone?] A slow, soft smile came to Seto’s lips.

The boy above him stopped laughing, troubled at the sight. Why would the defeated brunette smile like that? Seto was dieing after all, all his things, including his very body, taken over by the dead child that so remarkably resembled him.

"Arigatou, Noa," came the barely whispered last words before the soul of Seto Kaiba faded into glistening specks of light, and with one final wash of golden light, departed forever from existence.

--To be Continued.