Elemental Magic
Agent Malkere
Disclaimer: I only borrow the characters; I do not own them.
A/N: This story was partially inspired by Jenivi7's story Phoenix. I highly recommend reading it.
It had been a long day and had been a bad day and Seto Kaiba had no patience left for any of the members of the geek squad at that moment. For that matter, he didn't have enough patience for anyone let alone them with their stupid Egyptian fairytales and friendship speeches. Mokuba was in the hospital, an inexplicable virus had somehow caused the entire Kaiba Corp mainframe to crash, none of the cars were working properly so now he was having to walk home from work, he had a splitting headache, and it was raining. And now, to top it all off, (as if today hadn't been bad enough to begin with) Seto had accidentally run into Tea Gardener who was now screaming at him for some reason that he couldn't even remember. She hadn't noticed that he hadn't actually said anything yet.
Turning around, thinking of escaping Tea's voice, which was grating on his nerves, Seto started to walk in the opposite direction only to find Gardener once more blocking his way.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going, Kaiba? I'm not done yet!"
"Well I am!" he snarled in response. "Leave me alone!" With that he attempted to continue the shortcut he was taking down the narrow side road.
"Oh no, you don't!" Tea was suddenly blocking his way again. Why? Why did the bottle of Aspirin in his pocket have to be empty?!? He would give anything for about ten of them right now. Seto tried to remain calm and cool – without the Aspirin – despite the circumstances, but what Gardener did next was just too much for Kaiba to bear. She had the audacity to look smug; folding her arms across her chest with an expression that said she knew that she had already won. His extremely limited patience finally gave up the ghost and he snapped. Think: nuclear fallout times ten.
His voice started off as a deadly hiss and then grew to a roar on the last three words,
"I said, leave. ME. ALONE!!!" Suddenly all of the frustration and worry and anger and pain focused into a single point within his body. From somewhere deep inside Seto, somewhere dark and forgotten, a pulse of powerful energy surged through his body and filled him until he felt lightheaded and dizzy. What the heck was going on? Just as suddenly as it had come, the energy rushed out of him along his focused beam of emotions like a laser, leaving him feeling like an empty, hollow shell. He never noticed that his eyes were squeezed tight shut and therefore missed all of what was happening around him.
--
Tea stared open mouthed at Kaiba whose head was bent and fists were clenched. He was suddenly looking a lot more menacing than usual. Maybe she had pushed things a little too far this time. Kaiba had been looking rather more stressed out than normal when Tea had first run into him – now he looked like he was ready to go after blood. More specifically, her blood. Not good…
Out of nowhere a wind had started to pick up and was swirling in almost a mini tornado which seemed to be centering on Kaiba. The young CEO's blue (Duelist Kingdom) trench coat billowed up so the bottom edge almost came up to his shoulders and gravity seemed to lose control on his hair which floated around his head in a sort of chestnut halo. Things didn't really start to get worrying, though, until Tea noticed the blue glow which appeared to be radiating from Kaiba's body. Uh oh… Whatever was going on, it didn't look good. Even as she thought this, a rush of air slammed into her and sent her, literally, flying. Tea was crashed bodily against the wall behind her leaving the dancer stunned and winded.
Tea gaped at Kaiba as she fought to get her breath back. What the heck had just happened?!?
Blue light and wind now gone, Kaiba looked even paler and more drawn than before swaying back and forth unsteadily on his feet, eyes closed. The dancer eyed him untrustingly. Great, was Kaiba possessed or something? This didn't have anything to do with another freak's plans for world domination, did it? She didn't have time to help save the world again – she had an essay due on Monday.
Slowly edging forward, Tea pulled the green raincoat she was wearing a little closer around her, noticing that the black umbrella Kaiba had been carrying had also joined her in smashing into the brick wall along with a now very dented trashcan lid. The handle of the umbrella had snapped clean in two. She glanced back to Kaiba who was still just barely managing to stay on his feet, head hanging, apparently not noticing the rain which was now drenching him. Putting her hands on her hips, Tea glared at him.
"Very funny, Kaiba," she snapped sarcastically. "Now, how the heck did you do that?" Her question received no response, not even an acknowledgement, which succeeded in ticking Tea off even more. "Was it some freakish new type of hologram that you've invented, by any chance?" Still no response. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" Her anger bypassed commonsense and self preservation and propelled Tea over to the silent CEO's side. She shoved him in the arm rather hard.
Instead of retaliating in any form, Kaiba simply collapsed. Tea stared slack jawed at the lip form on the ground in front of her, completely taken aback. Okay, Kaiba was officially the first person she had even met who could remain standing while unconscious. That was just weird.
Tea pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and speed dialed Yugi's number.
"Uh, hi Yugi! You're not going to believe what's just happened…"
--
Seto didn't want to wake up; he had a feeling that he'd really regret it and, besides, he was exhausted. It felt like he'd been awake for two days straight – something which he'd unfortunately had experience with before. His headache was what finally forced him fully back to consciousness, if not coherent-ness. Groaning at the pounding in his head, Seto slowly reached up one hand and gently massaged his temples without opening his eyes. Somewhere over him he could hear voices but he still couldn't make out what they were saying yet.
Darn he was cold! It felt like he had been dunked in a tub of ice water! Seto could feel his sodden clothes clinging heavily to his body. Where was he? He certainly wasn't in his bed back at the mansion – at least there he would have been warm and dry. The only time he had ever woken up in a cold, wet bed was last year on April 1st due to one of Mokuba's distinctly overly enthusiastic April Fools pranks. Not to mention that his mattress was a whole lot softer than whatever it was he was lying on – it felt like concrete. Might as well have a look around.
Slowly opening his eyes, Seto squinted at his surroundings, namely, several pairs of extremely familiar looking shoes that were standing in a semicircle around him. Oh, damn…. Lifting his gaze, the young CEO was rewarded with the sight of the geek squad staring down at him with variations of concern and confusion. Only something about the group wasn't quite right….
"Where the heck am I and why the hell are there two of you?!?" he snapped, his latter question directed at Yugi. Seto was given a look of complete and utter shock by both versions of his rival before the two Yugis exchanged a bewildered glance with each other. The translucent Yugi was a few inches taller than the solid Yugi with a few more spikes of gold in his hair and a more angular shape to his eyes which made him appear older and more jaded than his counterpart. The solid Yugi was shorter with a rounder face and larger rounder eyes which emanated a level of innocence and naivety which no high school student should be capable of.
Seto forced himself to sit up even though every muscle in his body seemed to scream in protest. Actually, it was more like his muscles were screaming 'Don't get up! Go back to sleep!' but he ignored them anyway. He folded his arms unsteadily across his chest and glared at the geek squad, waiting for an answer.
Short Yugi bit his lip and glanced over at his doubled image again. Tall, transparent Yugi nodded and suddenly there was a flash of golden light from the eye of the puzzle around solid Yugi's neck. When Seto could see properly again without seeing any multicolored spots, the two Yugis had switched places – the taller one now solid and the shorter transparent. He clutched his temples with one hand; it felt like firecrackers had started going off inside of his head.
"Don't do that! You're making my headache worse!"
Now the entire group was staring at the young CEO in bewilderment.
"Stop what?" asked the solid Yugi, his voice sounding distinctly deeper than before.
"You could see that?!?" interrupted Tea in shock before the taller Yugi could continue.
"Who are you and what have you done with Kaiba, the jerk we all know and hate?" Joey eyed him suspiciously. Seto rolled his eyes and immediately regretted it as it caused the world to do a slow, stomach-turning flip in front of his eyes.
"Get a brain, mutt," he snarled. All of this was still getting him no closer to an explanation of what the hell was going on. He thought about standing up so that he could tower over them and intimidate an answer out of the dorks, but thought better of it. Seto had a strong feeling that standing up wouldn't be the wisest move at the movement. Falling flat on your face was never particularly impressive, no matter where you were.
Tristan took a few hesitant steps forward and poked Seto in the shoulder.
"Alright, who's really in there? Yami Marik or the evil spirit of the ring?"
"Get. Your. Hands. Off. Me."
Tristan hastily jumped back and retreated behind Joey.
"Okay! Only evil Kaiba!" He shot a nervous glance at Joey, who had stepped to one side so that he wasn't standing between Tristan and Seto any more. His friend shrugged.
"Who'd ya expect? It's always evil Kaiba in there."
Seto, who had been glowering icily at Tristan, turned his attention momentarily back to Joey.
"Shut up and quit yapping, mutt, or I'll call the pound. Dogs aren't supposed to be wandering around the city without a leash on." Seto smirk as he watched Tristan surreptitiously clamp one hand over the blonde's mouth in order to prevent another one of the mildly famous (at Domino High anyway) Kaiba-Wheeler fights. He returned his glare to the two Yugis this time. "None of you have answered my question yet."
'Yami, do you think he means that he can see both of us at once?' asked the shorter, translucent Yugi.
"And I can hear you, too. What a surprise," the CEO snapped irritably. He was sick of this. With a snarl of frustration, Seto dragged himself to his feet and nearly fell down again in the process. Why was he so tired? Why was he even bothering with trying to question the geek squad? They were always useless, using magic as an explanation for darn near anything out of the ordinary, though, Seto was forced to admit to himself that he couldn't come up with a logical explanation for two Yugis standing around – especially one you could see through… and was now floating about a foot off the ground…. Seto's face went slightly paler at this sight. His eyes were playing tricks on him that was all. …Really convincing tricks. And so were his ears.
"Hear who?" Tea asked, frowning. "None of us said anything."
"Oh, please, Gardener, I'm not deaf and blind. Do you really think I'd fall for that?"
"Then what did you hear?" ask the taller Yugi before Tea could make the scathing retort that she obviously wanted to.
"What do you think? Him," here Seto pointed to transparent Yugi, "asking you if I meant that I could see both of you at once – which by the way, I can. Now, are you or aren't you going to tell me what's going on?!? If not, you can stop wasting my time."
"First o' all, moneybags, there ain't even anybody standing where you're pointing," stated Joey. "And second," here he leaned forward and squinted at the CEO, "why are the ends of your hair turning green?"
Seto froze for the briefest moment in panic before collecting himself once more. "None of your damn business, mutt," he snapped and then, deciding that an explanation wasn't worth this much trouble, he left at a fast pace, trench coat fluttering slightly behind him, mutter a string of foul curses which occasionally involved the words 'green' and 'hair.' He was going to go home and change and then visit Mokuba again in the hospital and forget all about this unsettling encounter.
--
Yami, Yugi, Joey, Tea, and Tristan watched Kaiba go in a rather non-plus-ed silence which lasted for several minutes after the CEO of Kaiba Corp was out of sight. It was Tea who finally said something.
"You're right, Joey. The bottom three inches of his hair were green. Weird."
"So, have ya got any idea what moneybags was talking about, Yami?"
The ancient pharaoh nodded his head with a small rueful smile,
"Kaiba could hear Yugi and I talking through our mind link."
"Huh? How?"
"I'm not completely sure but if what I can remember of my past is correct, I think I have a fairly good idea."
A/N: What do y'all think? Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!
