Welcome everyone ! I'm trying to accomplish a few personal goals with this fiction, my 1st one being having a blast with writing a confident, full of himself, no-nonsense character such as Kaiba. I also always thought it would be fun to see how the classic characters would react to the current evolution of their favorite card game. Don't hesitate if you want to let me a little comment, especially to correct my grammar, since I'm not a native english-speaker.

Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen: let Seto Freaking Kaiba steal the show!

Chapter 1 : For Seto Kaiba, Eternity is barely the beginning

After a several-hour flight, we finally landed in the middle of the night. So high in the mountains, the icy winds of Peru worked like savage beasts, biting every bit of our exposed skin.

That was cute. I fought far worse than savage beasts. When you summoned three dragons of legend to destroy a mythological Leviathan trying to engulf the world in darkness, let's just say it was hard feeling concerned about a windy night. No, at this hour, I, Seto Kaiba, only had one concern.

The helicopter.

Makuba and I took my private jet to fly from Japan to our branch in New-York, but there, I let my staff convince me to abandon my jet because it would be easier to land on the sharp peruvian mountains in helico.

A rational argument, of course. And I bore no grudge against helicopters. They were nice, if you were a millionaire. But someone of my standing should really fly in something more serious.

"Makuba, take a note. Find how to manufacture a Blue-Eyes White Dragon helicopter.

- Yes, brother ! When do you want it ?

- Tell our engineers that I need it for our return trip. They have until sunrise."

If you were not able to distort every known law of aeronautics in one night to model a helicopter after a children's card-game, you should not bother applying to KaibaCorp.

Our local guide was waiting before the ruins, escorting our science team. I took a few seconds to admire the ancient pyramid, hidden in the heart of the forest and illuminated by the moon. It truly was a jewel. Thousands of archeologists spent hundreds of years trying to discover it. Well, they would have an even harder time discovering it now. I just bought this parcel of the mountain. It was not strictly speaking legal, but I found an arrangement.

Our first scientist took a step forward. I tried to remember his name, and then realized I didn't really care. From now on, he would be Steve.

"Steve, brief me in.

- Sir, my name is…

- I make approximately one million dollars per second. Just hearing the beginning of your sentence cost me one million. Do you really think it's important enough to finish it and cost me another million, or can we begin the part where we revolutionize science and the understanding of the world as we know it ?

- Yes sir, of course sir. Here is what we know for now.

- I'm all ears, Steve."

While he was briefing me about all their discoveries, we entered the pyramid. Artificial lightings were already deployed. The neon tubes created strange games of light and shadows on the ancient stone walls. Outside, the raging wind and the noises of the forest seemed deafening, but here, they were no other sounds than our own footsteps. After the briefing was over, we marched in absolute silence. Another man could have described the atmosphere as ominous. Fortunately, I was not another man.

After a few minutes, we arrived at the Altar. This sacred room was so huge that even I had a hard time evaluating it. Proportions seemed off. Ancient statues were guarding the way, each of them taller than two men. Even after all these centuries, the floor was still shaded by the blood of millions. How many were sacrificed here? After how many deaths did it stop mattering?

Finally, I stopped. All of our equipment was standing here, monitoring, calculating. Understanding. I spent months and billions of dollars chasing it. Ever since Yugi, the real Yugi, disappeared in his ancient tumb. I should have let it go. Everyone told me to let it go. Even my brother. But I could not. I could not let him vanish in the past, ravishing me of my revenge. I had to defeat him. I had to claim my pride and my title back from the King of Games. Even if it meant toring space and time apart.

"Steven.", I ordered.

Wait. Was it Steve or Steven ? Maybe Makuba was right. Maybe I should try to at least pretend to pay more attention.

"Yes, sir ?

- Is the Anomaly under control ?

- Yes, sir. It is dormant at the moment. We suspect it has been the case for at least five-hundred years.

- But you are confident you can reactivate it ?

- Correct, sir. Everything is still here. The rift is still in place. We can stimulate it to reactivate it. We already performed a few tests and we can confirm that the Anomaly is responding to our equipment. However, sir, I feel obligated to issue a warning. We think we are still too early in the testing phase to try something as drastic as to travel through the…

- Mister Kaiba, I beg you ! Do not cross the Altar of Eternity !"

I turned to see our guide. He seemed terrified. Of course he did. I should have predicted this. It seemed obvious some of the locals would believe in the mystic mumbo-jumbo around the Altar. Maybe I should have tried to explain. To explain that the Altar of Eternity may be an item of legend, but that there was nothing magical about it. If was a rift moving through time and space, the aftermath of a genius hundred, maybe thousands of years away in the future, finally succeeding where everyone else before him failed. Finally cracking the code of reality and opening the doors of time.

I tracked this rift around the world. There were traces of the passing of the Altar in Morocco, in Norway and in China, but they were too ancient. Even the most advanced technology of this century could not do anything to open it again there.

However here, deep in the Purivian mountains, hidden in an ancient Inca pyramid, the Altar of Eternity was finally within reach. Dormant, yes. But a five-hundred-year slumber was just enough to stay within the grasp of our technology.

I could have explained all of that to our guide. But it would have been a waste of time. Although, if I was right, very soon, time would no longer be an issue for me.

"Activate it."

My orders were simple. Stevie nodded. He disapproved, of course. The whole team disapproved. But they knew that I did not travel half the globe just to look at the Altar and leave.

They pressed a few buttons. Suddenly, the air changed. A powerful breath invaded the room, carrying the voices of billions of people crying, laughing, shouting. Dying. There was… I could not really describe it. The Anomaly was an absence. An absence in the void. Everyone else stepped back. Mokuba shouted at me, a pleading glance on his face:

"Seto! Please! You don't have to do it! We can still wait! "

I should have answered him. I should at least have tried to reassure him.

But, instead, without even looking back, I crossed into the Altar of Eternity.