This fic is part of my 'Doctoring the Blue Eyes' saga (a full reading order list can be found in my profile) and although the series as a whole is a YuGiOh!/Doctor Who/Torchwood crossover, this particular instalment is heavily YuGiOh! based.
As usual, I own no rights to any of the shows 'cause I'm poor :P
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"If we take our time
And we stick together
Everything we do
Will go our way
I have no doubt
This situation
Will end and we'll enjoy another day"
- Let's Kick It Up, Paul Gorden
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Chapter One
Cheers and whoops rang throughout the Kaiba Corp basement hub of Torchwood Five as the quartet team celebrated their long awaited and very much deserved victory. After years of precise and what sometimes seemed like painfully slow undercover work , they had finally brought down and seized the alien artefacts hoarded by Henry Van Statten in his gigantic underground bunker.
All of them, working together as a team, had found themselves to be a remarkable force as each one played their part in the long-haul operation. Seto, after much resistance at the start, had reluctantly allowed his company to form a partnership with the American firm in order to reel the suspect closer for observations; to say that he was overjoyed at now being able to tear-up the contracts that were no longer required between Kaiba Corp and Geocomtex was very much an understatement. Diana, under her boss's strict orders had managed to infiltrate her way right up the ranks to become the other CEO's second in command; a pivotal role that would have cost them everything had she not been up to the task at hand. And of course Rebecca and Ryou had shared the tedious tasks of researching, documenting, archiving and double-checking everything regarding the case at hand to make sure that they left nothing to chance or had missed anything that would have allowed Van Statten to escape or foil their inquiries.
Now with the hardest part over, the case had been handed back to the captain whom had originally assigned it to them in the first place. He'd now called upon UNIT for their help to clear the huge haul for their own taking. After that the vault would then be filled with cement to prevent such a haul being accumulated again by the man should he ever regain his memory and find his way back from whatever city he'd been taken to and abandoned there.
"I thought we'd never be able to confiscate his hoard." Ryou stated excitedly as he clutched the two champagne flutes in his hands.
"Nice to see that my team has confidence in each other." Seto scoffed as he removed the foil from around the neck of the ice cold bottle of Cristal Champagne in his grasp.
"No … I … I just meant … we've been working on the case for a long time now ..."
"Leave it Ryou, he's just yanking your chain." Rebecca came to her friend's defence as she witnessed the unnerved and apologetic reaction from him. She sent a disapproving look her brother-in-law's way.
"What?" The CEO replied with raised brows. "It's not my fault that he doesn't get sarcasm."
With the cage now loosened around the bottle's neck and cork, Seto reached for the sabre on the nearby work surface. He held the bottle at an angle away from his team, brought the small sword up and then swiftly dragged the blade along the bottle's surface where it made contact with the lip at the neck's end and torn it, along with the cage and cork, clean off. A stream of foamy bubbles gradually seeped over the neat cut across the bottle's neck and washed away any micro shards of glass that may have remained before the fizzing beverage was then poured into the four glass flutes.
"I'm surprised that Jack isn't here." Diana said angling her glass so that the rising froth within wouldn't cause her drink to overflow.
"It wasn't like I didn't try." Seto sighed at the thought of when he had called to invite the other man over to join their celebration. "Ianto informed me that apparently Jack was too busy drooling over all of the spandex clad athletes to be concerned with our triumph."
"The opening ceremony!" Ryou gasped out loud. He placed down one of the now full champagne flutes before racing round to his desk and switched on his monitor screen that now displayed the start of the London Olympic games. Rebecca joined him as she too watched, her celebratory drink remaining untouched.
The CEO placed the almost empty bottle down next to the sabre and lifted the glass that the white haired man had left there for him. Well, this isn't quite the celebration I had in mind after all that effort we went through for this victory.
Diana approached her boss, glad to be in his presence once again after having spent so much time with that conceited arrogant prick, Henry Van Statten. "So … no acclamations then?"
"You're an adult Diana; don't act like a child and expect additional praise for merely doing your job." He taunted before taking a sip from his champagne.
"Translation please?" She jeered, knowing his humour only too well.
He glanced at the devoted woman over the rim of his glass whilst he drank and then let a smile grace his features when he next spoke, "Well done; of course I'm extremely proud of you."
"Hey Seto, come and take a look at this!" Rebecca shouted to grab his attention.
Together he and Diana made their way over towards the TV screen now showing a man in a long brown trench coat carrying the Olympic torch. "Is that who I think it is?"
"Ah-huh."
"Who?" Ryou asked curiously as he watched the two mascots, Wenlock and Mandevile, now join the cheery looking man in his stride.
"The Doctor." Rebecca explained.
"Ah, so that's what he looks like!" He'd heard stories of the timelord but hadn't known what he actually looked like.
"Wait a minute." Diana joined the conversation. "That's not the Doctor."
"Yes it is." The other woman argued back.
"No, no, the Doctor that I met wore leather, had extremely short dark hair, big ears and nose to match." She'd met the timelord just a couple of days ago in the Utah desert so knew what she was talking about.
"You must have met his previous regeneration." Seto clarified just as the alarm on his cell phone started to beep. He caught a glimpse of the confused look on Diana's face as he consulted his device. "Becky can explain, I have an appointment to keep."
The CEO drained the rest of the champagne from his flute before placing it down alongside the bottle and sabre. He then proceeded to head for the duel disk connected to the workstation at the far side of the room.
"What are you doing with that?" Rebecca called as she followed after him.
"It saves on traveling time." He replied as though she had asked him the most stupid question possible.
"But that's the prototype we've been fine tuning to respond to rift activity." She argued back with just as much scorn as she'd received. "Do you really think you should be taking it?"
"What's your point?" The duel disk 'hopper' was now already fully attached to his arm as he turned to face and stare her down.
"I just don't want you to be snatched away to who knows where if the rift opens." Rebecca made clear the concern she held for him as her brother-in-law and that she wasn't just being defiant.
Seto gave a studying glance back over his shoulder towards the workstation's screen and checked the data it displayed. "Ryou, how accurate is this thing?"
"It's not been wrong so far." The other man shouted back in response to his boss' query regarding the rift monitor.
"Well in that case, we're not due another ripple until late next week." He scanned and traced the information with his index finger so that his sister-in-law would follow and see his reasoning. "I'll be fine."
"I dunno ..."
"Don't!" Seto raised his finger as he spoke whilst looking through the pair of spectacles that enhance her emerald eyes. "You stop that worrying right now Rebecca Kaiba." He pointed down to her abdomen were his next nephew or niece was steadily growing inside her. "It's bad for the baby."
She didn't have the strength or heart to protest any further knowing that he in the mood to attempt to use any little probable excuse at hand to gain what he wanted. Sometimes it was best to just let him have his own way and assume that he'd won. "Okay, but just promise me that you won't cause any damage to ruin the work we've achieved so far, because if you do then you're calibrating the next one on your own."
"I promise." The alarm on his phone sounded again, this time he not only cancelled it but placed the whole handset on silent mode. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a very important business meeting to attend to."
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The flash of light from the hopper left Seto standing outside a rundown apartment block. He glanced around in disgust at what he saw as graffiti covered every wall and rubbish lay scattered across the ground. Looking very much out of place in his smart silver suit he double checked the address hoping he had the wrong neighbourhood. Nope, this is definitely where I need to be.
Grudgingly the CEO entered into the building and made his way for the elevator. A sign hanging from the smashed vandalised outer doors stated that it was 'out of order'. No kidding! He then diverted his path to the stairwells and began to ascend them, doing his best to maintain his cool composure and not be effected by the foul smell of faeces and urine that filled the air. Just my luck that I've got to climb thirteen flights through this stench to reach my destination! He grumbled to himself and remembered his reason for being here.
It had been around three years now since he'd made amends with the group of geeks whom he'd shunned during his youth, though he'd spent rarely any actual time with them since. Mostly, more often then not, they were all busy with their own lives. Him with his 'companies' and family, Yugi situated in Egypt with his excavations and teachings, Tea off gallivanting the continents with her dance group, and Joey doing whatever it was that he did when he wasn't moping around like some angry teenager. In fact he'd seen more of the Taylors over the recent years than the other three all put together. Not that it was something that particularly bothered him, he'd grown use to his own, minimal or selected company over the years after all, but secretly he had been glad to have had the unexpected encounter several weeks backs that now lead him to today. If only it wasn't for meeting here in this rundown shit-hole ...
A short while later Seto finally reached the floor and apartment number he had come here to find and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Came an inquisitive shout from the other side of the door.
"It's me."
"I don't know no mes."
"I'm not in the mood for playing games Wheeler!" He growled impatiently.
"You very rarely are." The sound of a lock being drawn back could be heard and the door opened enough for Joey,- sporting some unkempt facial stubble,- to poke his head around. "I totally forgot you were coming over today."
"It happens." Seto shrugged lazily now having returned back to a calmer state and waited patiently to be invited inside.
"Come in." Joey pulled the door further back to allow his visitor access whilst managed to stay concealed from view.
The CEO strode forward in one gigantic stride and now found himself standing in the hallway of the dank apartment. He turned as he heard the door behind him relocked and saw the other man wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. A perplexed brow was raised questioningly towards the blond.
"Like I said, I forgot you were coming." Joey argued back at the stare he'd received.
"However you choose to spend your free time is completely up to you." Seto held his hands up in surrender to help prove that he wasn't here to start a fight between the two of them. "I'm not here to judge."
"Glad to hear." Joey smirked as he pushed by his guest and lead him through into the main living area of his small cramped apartment. "As for free time, I've got a lot of that lately."
"How so?" The conversation was politely continued as Seto scanned around the appalling state of what the other man classed as a 'home' where empty beer bottles and takeaway cartons covered every inch of surface area possible.
"I've been laid off." He explained the even more unfortunate situation he'd currently found himself in. "The firm I was employed at went bust a few weeks back. I've been searching for work since, but the whole economy is so crap right now that there're very few jobs out there."
"I'm sure something will turn up." Seto's response had zoned into 'uncaring autopilot mode', a technique he'd long since perfected during its endless use in conversations with his wife's best friend. How can anyone live like this?
"With my run of luck it seems unlikely." The scoff was extremely bitter. "This is just another kick in the teeth for Joey Wheeler."
Silence feel between the two men.
Still the CEO continued to take note on the sorry looking state of the place as he viewed stacks of boxed possessions, - no doubt they'd remained untouched over the years since the other man's divorce, - that lined the wall, and dirty clothes forming piles at wherever they had been dropped.
"Anyhoo, you came here to duel, not to hear me bitch like a girl." The blond had now attached his duel disk to his arm and activated it so that the playing field snapped into position.
The brunette shook his head. "I'm not duelling until you put some clothes on."
"And you said that you weren't here to judge."
"That was before I saw the state of the rest of things." Seto's eyes narrowed and his voice became strident. "At least show me that you still retain a shred of pride and dignity; once you've lost that then you really will end up like your old man."
Joey's fist clenched tightly in anger that it sent his knuckles white within a split second. How dare he! He comes here,- into my home,- and thinks he has the right to lecture me?! Why that no good son of a …
Suddenly the anger Joey felt began to gradually subside, even under the stern glare he was still receiving. It had been harsh to hear such a comment spoken to him like it had, but now thinking about it, had Kaiba stated reality bluntly on purpose to cause him to see the situation he'd allowed himself to recede to? Not a single one of his friends had ever taken such a direct angle or shown him any interest since he'd become withdrawn from them over the recent months, so why had Moneybags? Could it be that he actually cares?
"Okay Rich-boy, I'll go change." A sly, yet appreciative, smile crept onto the blond's face as he removed his duel disk and handed it over to his guest. "You just wait right here, feel free make yourself at home." He headed towards and entered his bedroom closing the door behind him.
Make myself at home? Seto did another sweep with his eyes and guessed that Joey wouldn't be too thrilled if he purged the place of everything in sight. It'd be the only way he'd feel comfortable enough to even consider 'making himself at home' in the other man's dwellings. With a sigh he carefully pushed aside an electric guitar, games console controller and empty snack packaging on the messy sofa before setting himself down warily. What the hell happened to you Wheeler?