Yu-Gi-Oh!
Obsession in New Orleans
By Lucky_Ladybug
Notes: The characters from the show are not mine. Any other characters and the story are! This is part of my post-series Pendulum Swings verse, which started as a Yami Bakura redemption arc and has now also redeemed the Big Five. It continues shortly after A Christmas to Remember, but I'm not sure if that needs to have been read first or if one can follow along easily enough just with this story.
Chapter One
Atem had been sitting awake for some time, staring across the room he shared with Yugi without really focusing on anything on it. The moonlight shone through the skylight, its beams highlighting Yugi as well as various objects in the room. Yugi remained sound asleep, without any knowledge of either that or Atem's troubled feelings.
He wasn't sure why he was restless tonight, really; everything had been going so well. On the other hand, maybe that was exactly why he was restless. Whenever they were allowed some respite from their problems, more generally followed within a short amount of time.
"Good evening, my Pharaoh."
Atem jumped a mile. Shadi had suddenly appeared in the room, standing to the side of his bed.
Atem looked to him with a jerk. "What are you doing here?!" he exclaimed. "And why now, after all the times I petitioned you to come? I needed you to take a message to my priest Seto about Khu, but you never came!"
"You did not need me then," Shadi answered. "It is now when my message is most gravely needed."
Atem rocked back. "Well, what on Earth is it?"
"First I must tell you that I was waiting until now to come because of what needed to transpire first," Shadi continued. "The men known as the Big Five had to choose to fully relinquish all ties to their old, vindictive lives and fully embrace lives where they are not trying to harm Seto Kaiba. Due to Gozaburo Kaiba's intrusion on everyone's lives several weeks ago, this came to pass at long last."
"Are you saying that the Big Five are important?" Atem stared at him. "I know that angel Kasumi said she had permission to revive them because it wasn't their time to die yet, but I didn't know their presence would ever bring you here."
"Their ancestors served as your priest Seto's Millennium Item Guardians, as of course you know after your time spent in the afterlife," Shadi said.
"Yes," Atem said slowly. "And ironically enough, they were unceasingly loyal."
"Their modern-day descendants have the same courage and determination," Shadi went on, "and the same capacity for loyalty. This is obvious from their devotion to each other and the protectiveness they have started to openly display towards each other and others—even Seto Kaiba, the one they hated. Yes, they are important to the future of the world. They have long been negatively influenced by cynicism and hatred and bitterness and are still just newly experiencing their journey back to the light.
"Very soon they will begin another journey, one that will lead to darkness and heartache and despair." Shadi looked firmly at Atem. "They will encounter a great evil, one that will try to devastate all of them. If left unchecked, that evil will spread and eventually try to destroy the entire world."
"Oh no," Atem gasped. "Is this the fight you've been preparing Yami Bakura for?!"
"No," Shadi said, "but this person could eventually join forces with the person who will bring about that fight."
Atem clenched a fist. "What would you have me do, Shadi?"
"You do not 'have' to do anything, my Pharaoh," Shadi said. "Your time of fighting is over. Yet you continue to fight on."
"Of course," Atem said. "I wouldn't leave my friends in danger."
"Very well." Shadi nodded. "This great evil is in the city of New Orleans, a corrupt vodun priest who is using that art for wickedness and not for good. Soon you will hear that for reasons of their own, the Big Five are journeying to New Orleans. They have no knowledge of this man and would likely scoff at his claims of magical powers. They will already be at odds with him due to their reasons for going to the city, and if he somehow learns of their ancient Egyptian ancestors who wielded magic, the results may be catastrophic. You and the others must follow them to New Orleans. All of you together must defeat this man before he brings death and destruction across the city and eventually the world."
"Then we will do it," Atem promised.
"I know," said Shadi.
"But exactly who do you mean by 'the others'?" Atem asked. "Does that include Seto Kaiba as well?"
"He is vital," Shadi replied. "Aside from him, you may bring whomever you wish." Then he was gone. Atem was left staring at the spot where he had been.
"Atem?" Yugi stirred, blinking sleep out of his eyes. "What's going on?"
Atem started and looked to him. "A great deal," he said. "I finally had my conversation with Shadi, but it wasn't at all what I had expected."
Yugi sat up like a shot. "Shadi was here?!"
"Just now," Atem said. "I'll tell you what he told me."
xxxx
The Big Five were all awake that night, meeting at Gansley's house to work on their project of Crump's penguin sanctuary and theme park. Or four of them were, at least; one was still absent.
"I wonder where Lector is. . . . He said he'd come. . . ." Crump looked around the room impatiently, as if Lector might suddenly appear.
"Then he'll come," Gansley said calmly.
Nesbitt was silent, staring at the floor. Yesterday, Seto Kaiba had come to him while they were all at Nesbitt's house and had told him that after extensive testing by him and Scott Irvine, they had found that all the Duel Disks he had manipulated while under mind-control would not have detonated after thirty minutes, as he had threatened. He had been relieved about that, but after Seto's departure he had ran upstairs and locked himself in his room, sickened that he had ever disabled the safeties in the first place. Not only had he directly attacked Lector and tried to attack Gansley, but he could have killed all of them had the Duel Disks really exploded. He had already been so overwhelmed and grief-stricken about the direct attacks that he had not let himself think about the other problem, subconsciously feeling that he could not take that burden as well. No one had brought it up, either, knowing it was difficult enough to help him heal as it was.
Him locking himself in his room had worried all of the others, and outright terrified them when Johnson had revealed his prior concerns of whether Nesbitt might even try to kill himself because of being unable to handle his guilt and horror. He had promised he wasn't thinking of any such thing when they had come up and called through the door; he just needed to be alone for a while. They had been willing to respect that, but Lector had wanted to say one thing before they went back downstairs.
"You know, Nesbitt, you understand technology. You had to know how the Duel Disks worked in order to take the safeties off in the first place, and while you were examining them you had to know they wouldn't really blow up . . . even though that thing made you say they would."
That had brought Nesbitt to the door. He had opened it to stare in disbelief at the other man."Even Kaiba was worried about it," he had retorted, "and he invented them! It was a possibility at the very least."
"Alright, it was a possibility," Lector had conceded. "But it was a stronger possibility that they wouldn't."
"All of you seemed worried about it at the time," Nesbitt had pointed out.
"We'd have to all be fools not to be worried when that announcement of detonating the Duel Disks was made," Lector had flatly responded. "But it's obvious now that there was no real reason to worry."
Nesbitt sighed, heavily. He was still sure Lector had only been saying those things to try to help him feel better. He and Lector had their differences and always would, but Lector would always be a loyal friend to him, better than Nesbitt was sure he deserved.
Crump looked over at him. "You okay?"
Nesbitt sat up straight. "Yes. I'm just wondering about Lector."
The sound of the doorbell brought all of their attention up. In a moment Nesbitt's maid appeared, with Lector in tow.
"So here you are," Gansley greeted.
"What was with the delay?" Crump asked. Spotting a piece of paper in Lector's hand, he added, "Does it have something to do with that?"
"Yes. It's a telegram," Lector told him. He looked from Crump to the others. "It's from my father."
"Your father?!" Gansley stared.
"He wants me to come to New Orleans," Lector said. "He doesn't say why, just to come as quickly as I can."
"That's odd." Nesbitt came to look at the telegram. "He disowned you and wouldn't even talk to you on the phone, and now he suddenly wants to talk to you with no explanation?"
"It would seem so." Troubled, Lector folded the telegram and put it in his pocket. "I'll have to go."
"Why?" Crump retorted. "I wouldn't jump through hoops for my parents, not after the way they've always treated me."
"My father used to love me," Lector said quietly. "You've never known that love from your parents, Crump, so you can't understand what it's like. Maybe he wants to reconcile. Or maybe there's some trouble."
"If there's trouble, best to stay out of it," Crump said.
"I don't want him hurt," Lector shot back. "Or my mother or my brothers or my sisters. I'm going."
"Then we're coming with you," Crump declared.
Lector looked to him in surprise. "After everything you just got through saying?"
"Hey, just because I don't agree with you wanting to go doesn't mean I won't support you when you do," Crump said. "If you think there's trouble, then we need to be there for you."
The other three nodded in agreement.
Lector was still amazed. "But . . . what about working on the project?"
"We can't do that without all of us," Crump said.
"Anyway, even if there isn't trouble, I'm sure you could use some support," Johnson said. "It can't be easy facing family who left you out in the cold."
"That's true," Lector admitted. "Yes . . . I really would appreciate it if you came. All of you."
"We all will," Gansley promised.
"Of course," Johnson added.
Nesbitt, who still had trouble opening up, finally pushed back his pride and said, "We won't leave you to deal with this alone." Lector had showed him nothing but understanding and kindness regarding the mind-control disaster, even though he had been the one Nesbitt had hurt the most seriously. Nesbitt had every intention of doing all he could to be there for him in turn.
"Thank you," Lector said quietly.
xxxx
Seto sat at the desk in his home office, deeply frowning as he stared at the green strongbox Mokuba had removed from Gozaburo's bedroom. The key was still missing and no one had any idea what was inside. Crump's maid Cora had insisted that none of them had any interest in Gozaburo's belongings and that making Seto think they did had been a red herring to distract from their true motives. Maybe that was true, but Seto was still troubled wondering about the key's location and the box's contents.
The key could have been missing for years, for all he'd know. Gozaburo could have taken it with him to his underground fortress. Maybe they would never know one way or another, but Seto had the bad feeling that someday this mess would come back to bite him.
The sharp ringing of the phone startled him back to the present and he grabbed the receiver. Who would be calling at this hour? "Kaiba."
"Hello, Kaiba," Atem's voice greeted him.
Seto leaned back in his chair. "Shouldn't even you be in bed right now, Pharaoh? What's going on?"
"Well . . ." Atem awkwardly cleared his throat. "It's . . . kind of hard to explain. . . ."
"For you?" Seto said in disbelief.
"I doubt you will want to hear this, but I have been contacted by Shadi tonight," Atem said. "To cut to the point, we need to go to New Orleans."
"WHAT?!" Seto shot upright. "What on Earth for?!"
"Apparently there is a great evil there that we must stop before it aligns with an even greater evil," Atem said. "Shadi said that if that happens, the entire world could be in danger."
Seto clenched his teeth. Not again! he silently fumed in despair. "And just what is this 'great evil'?"
"I don't know details," Atem said slowly, "but he's a corrupted vodun priest."
". . . You're kidding. Please tell me you're kidding."
"I know it sounds outlandish . . ."
"That's the problem," Seto interrupted. "It sounds so outlandish that with our luck, it's probably true. Ugh." He leaned forward on the desk, passing a hand over his forehead. "I don't think I want to hear any more. How many people have to go to New Orleans? Duke Devlin has money too, you know."
"Yes, but it would take a great deal of money for him to put all of us on a commercial jet," Atem said. "You have access to private planes."
"That doesn't answer the question," Seto said.
"All of the usual group will be going—myself, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Téa, Bakura, Yami Bakura. . . . The Ishtars will all be there. Duke and Serenity may come, although of course Joey doesn't want Serenity along. . . . Mai has insisted on coming. And . . ." A long pause. "Kaiba, Shadi said you are 'vital.'"
"Oh no," Seto immediately retorted. "You are not dragging me into a fight against some nut who uses cloth dolls and made-up spells to torture susceptible people who are idiotic enough to believe it works."
"Well, if you believe that's all it is, then surely you won't have any trouble fighting the man at all." Seto could hear the amused smile on Atem's face.
"Look, Pharaoh. Why would Shadi say my presence was vital?" Seto snapped.
Atem sighed, heavily. "I didn't want to get into this yet, Kaiba, but I'm not fully sure of the answer myself, unless it has to do with what else Shadi told me."
"Could this get any worse than it is already?" Seto growled.
". . . When I was in the afterlife, I met the people who were your ancestor's Millennium Item Guardians," Atem said at last. "One of them was Roland's ancestor."
"Well, that makes some semblance of sense," Seto grunted.
"The others were the ancestors of the Big Five." Atem fell silent, waiting for the eruption.
Instead, Seto just snorted. "And what? They betrayed my 'ancestor' and nearly caused the destruction of Egypt?"
"Actually, they were completely loyal to him," Atem said.
"How nicely ironic." Seto let his arm drop to the desk. "So what relevance does that have with the here and now?"
"I'm not fully sure of that either," Atem admitted, "but Shadi said the Big Five are also capable of that kind of loyalty. They have certainly displayed it in their love for each other. He fears for their safety from this evil. They're apparently going to New Orleans for other reasons, but will end up encountering the vodun priest."
"So basically, you want me to go to New Orleans to help chaperone the Big Five," Seto said flatly.
"I don't know that I would put it exactly like that," Atem said. "We're all supposed to fight this evil together, including you and they."
"Great."
"They did try to protect you from Gozaburo at the risk of their own lives," Atem reminded him.
"That's still hard to believe," Seto said. "I didn't see it happen."
"No, but you felt their light along with everyone else's when you were trapped in Gozaburo's memory world," Atem said. "And you did agree with them to bury the hatchet."
Finally Seto exhaled, sharply and in frustration. "Alright. I'll have a private jet at the airport for all of us. When do you plan to leave?"
"In the morning, probably," Atem said. "Everyone is packing now."
"Are you planning to tell the Big Five about all of this?"
"Well, I . . ." Atem paused, talking to Yugi in the background. In a moment he got back on the line. "Yugi has already called them. He managed to learn that they're going to New Orleans because Lector's father suddenly cabled for him to come. He didn't tell them about Shadi's message yet, but he implored them to be very careful."
"Lector's father?" Seto's eyes narrowed. He still remembered calling to tell him that Lector had fallen into a coma and might never wake up. The man had been silent for a long moment and then had finally said, "Démas is no longer my son. Whatever happens to him is of no consequence to me." Mokuba, who had been there, had been badly shaken for a parent to behave in such a way.
"Yes," Atem sighed.
"I doubt any of them will be happy about the hocus-pocus nonsense," Seto said.
"Most likely not," Atem agreed. "Nor are any of us. You should have heard Joey's reaction."
"Oh, I can well imagine." Joey's fear of anything supernatural was almost legendary. "Alright, you'd better go pack. I'll see you in the morning."
"Thank you, Kaiba. Oh . . . and will Mokuba be coming?"
Seto scowled. "I'd rather he didn't, but I don't know where he'd be safest. If I take him, he gets hurt. If I leave him behind, he gets hurt. Everyone uses him against me and Marik!" He gripped the phone. "I guess in the end I'd rather have him with me. And of course I know he'll want to come."
"Then we will see you both in the morning," Atem said. "Thank you again." He hung up.
Seto sat at his desk for a long moment, his fingers laced and propped under his chin as he stared into the distance. What were they getting into?
At last he stood. He didn't want to wake Mokuba now, but he would get him up early enough in the morning to pack. Meanwhile, he was going to try to get some sleep himself . . . although he doubted it was possible.
"Voodoo," he said aloud to the empty room. "Of all the things I never thought I would have to deal with in my lifetime."
And he still wouldn't have to deal with it if he didn't take Atem's or Shadi's words seriously. It hadn't been that long ago that he wouldn't have. But he had been forced to accept that it was all true. There still were a lot of nutcases who believed in magic where there wasn't any, but Atem and Shadi always seemed to know when it was real.
Not to mention that those people were his friends now, for the most part. He didn't want them to get hurt. And, unfortunately, if Shadi felt that he was "vital" to this mission, well then, he probably was.
Scowling, he stalked out of the room and upstairs.
xxxx
Dr. Portman was at the console in her van, twisting knobs and turning dials, when Yami Marik suddenly appeared just to the side of it.
"Well, hello," Portman purred in greeting. "I've just been listening in at Mr. Kaiba's house. Everyone is going to New Orleans."
"I know," Yami Marik leered. "I couldn't be more pleased."
"Neither can I. All that we did for the last part of the experiment was so enjoyable and intriguing. Now, to have the chance to continue our work in a land of dark mysteries and magic?" Portman's eyes gleamed. "It will definitely stretch Mr. Kaiba's nerves to their limit, and I'm certain that the thief and the Big Five won't like it either, not when all the mysteries and the magic turn against them!"
Yami Marik cackled. "They will make plenty of enemies without us even doing anything. But if all goes well, I'm sure we'll want to personally step in and manipulate events at some point along the way."
"I certainly will." Portman leaned back. "I just need to arrange a flight down there."
"Oh, no need for that," Yami Marik grinned. With a wave of his hand, they and the entire van vanished in a cloud of purple smoke. The only trace of them left was Yami Marik's mad cackling on the wind.
