Chapter 2

As the rain pounded loudly against the window behind him, Kaiba stared almost vacantly at the computer screen. He didn't really have the concentration for this right now; there were too many other things on his mind. Things which the heavy and oppressive rain made feel even more daunting. Tomorrow would be the first time he'd faced Yugi and the others since he'd become host to the Pure. Up until this point he'd been deliberately avoiding them and in the process he'd left Mokuba feeling understandably neglected.

He gave a heavy sigh and pushed his chair back from his desk. Awkwardly he got to his feet and made his way towards the window. Three months had done a lot to improve his coordination, but it still wasn't quite right. His body was covered from head to toe in fresh bruises from the numerous inanimate objects he'd walked into or tripped over in the last week because his body wouldn't always do what he wanted it to. And now he would have to face Yugi and Joey knowing full well he hadn't regained complete control over his motor function. Okay, so according to Mokuba neither of them had fully adjusted to being hosts yet either, but he was Seto Kaiba, he couldn't afford to have any weaknesses, they could.

Still if he put off seeing them for any longer then they would know just how much he was suffering because of the Pure and Kaiba couldn't allow that either. Besides there were other factors at play here. A flash of lightning tore across the sky and a few seconds later a ripple of thunder roared out. In that one moment Kaiba could sense the true importance of the storm and he wasn't the only one. Inside of him the Pure stirred; something big and unmistakably important was about to happen and neither one of them could afford to miss it when it did.

In the early morning light and with sleep bleary eyes Téa hadn't been sure at first she was really seeing who she thought she was seeing. Then, as her mind slowly pulled itself awake, a strange kind of certainty filtered through her.

'Tristan?' Her words were drowned out by the heaviness of the rain which hadn't let up since the night before. 'Tristan?' She tried again, louder, but still he didn't appear to hear her.

Lowering her head and the umbrella she was holding slightly, she did her best to run down the rain drenched streets towards him.

'Tristan,' she caught hold of his arm, 'is it really...?'

Before she could finish her sentence he'd pulled his arm away. With her balance already a little off his action was enough to send her crashing face first towards the pavement. The second her body collided with the ground she cried out in pain.

'Tristan...' she half rolled over in order to stare up at him.

The eyes which met with hers were filled with anger, fear and confusion. The same three emotions hardened Tristan's jaw line and caused him to clench and unclench his fists several times. A part of Téa was afraid he wanted to hurt her, but that fear came from an irrational place of pain sparked by the unexpected nature of the situation. Without a word Tristan bent down and rescued her umbrella before it had a chance to blow any further down the street. He then held it over her as she got back to her feet, half surprised he hadn't offered her a hand in getting up.

For a few moments they both stood staring at each other in silence, then Téa reached out a hand to touch him just to make sure he was really there. He flinched back before she could and his eyes filled with a warning look.

'Are you...' Téa's mouth felt dry, 'are you really here?'

'It looks that way, doesn't it?' Tristan's voice was flat and edged with a strange level of annoyance.

'Do... do the others know you're back yet?'

'No.'

'Then you should come with me to Yugi's, we're...'

'No,' he cut her off.

'No?' Téa frowned at him. 'But everyone's been so worried about you, they...'

'I'm not here to see them, not yet.'

'I...'

'I haven't even been to see my parents yet,' he turned his head away from her.

'Uh... sorry, I thought...'

'Whatever it was you thought, you thought wrong Téa. The only reason you saw me at all was by chance. Here,' he pushed the umbrella in her direction, 'I don't need this.'

'But your jacket doesn't even have a hood; you'll catch your death of cold.'

'If only I could,' he gritted his teeth.

'Tristan...?'

'What's the matter Téa, were you expecting me to come back as the good old Tristan? The person I was before Battle City, before everything started to change. That Tristan is gone and there's no way for him to come back.'

'That doesn't mean you're not my friend,' Téa jutted out her chin, 'and that doesn't mean I don't care about you.'

'Still singing the same old tune,' Tristan rolled his eyes, 'you don't change Téa.'

'If changing means I have to stop caring about my friends, then who wants to?' She took the umbrella back off him.

'Friendships change with people, but if you don't change with them then you'll just get left behind.' Tristan turned his gaze back towards her. 'Everything and everyone is changing Téa; they change because they have to. You'll gain nothing from remaining as you are.'

'But I won't necessarily lose anything either,' Téa felt like she had to stand her ground. 'And you're right, people do change, they change all the time, but good friends don't care about things like that. Good friends will always be there for each other no matter how much they change over the years. Hasn't everything we've been through together proven that to you?'

'Whatever,' he started walking away.

'Tristan,' she jumped after him, grabbing hold of his arm as she did.

'Let go of me,' he violently pulled his arm away this time, sending her crashing even harder to the ground.

'Tristan?' Téa gawked up at him.

'Things are changing Téa, change with them or lose everything.'

'What...? What's that supposed to mean?'

Tristan didn't answer, instead he just walked away. Téa could feel her heart pounding hard in her chest as she gathered herself back to her feet again and rescued her umbrella. Tristan had returned even more like the stranger he was becoming than when he'd left. But it didn't matter how much he tried to push the others away, their friendship was strong and they would break through to him eventually. As he disappeared from sight, Téa gave a heavy sigh and continued on her way to the Kame Game shop. She now had the in her hands the best piece of information any of them had had in months; changed or not Tristan was finally home.

His sandy brown hair stuck to the sides of his face like drenched rat tails. His black sleeved white top and black combat style trousers were both soaked through and clung tightly round his body as the wind battered against him. In his whole life he had never experienced a storm with this much natural power and poetic chaos; it was just a shame that power was no longer going to be harnessed.

'I am chaos,' he stretched his arms out and lifted his head to the sky, 'I am the storm. I'm changing the details, but I'm not changing what I am. I will always be chaos. I am the storm. I am chaos.'

'Is that what the C stands for?'

'What makes you think the C stands for anything?' He turned towards his expected guest.

'You expect me to believe your name is CL, just CL and that those letters don't stand for anything?' His guest cocked an eyebrow.

'You mock the idea of my name actually being CL, yet you have no problem with thinking its Chaos?' CL smirked at him.

'Whatever, do you have what we need?'

'Here,' he pulled the bag he was carrying off his back and tossed it towards his guest. 'Just remember what we talked about though, yeah? You're to take her and keep her off the radar, but that's it.'

'You know the longer I'm out in this storm, the more I'm starting to wonder why you want us to just wait,' his guest threw the bag onto his back. 'A storm like this is never going to come along again; just think about the potential you're wasting here.'

'Trust me, no one understands what will be lost better than I do,' CL turned away from him, 'but if you saw the hell I lived in you would know...' he clenched his fists. 'Things have to change, starting with this. If you get it right this time... if you do this and not them... then everything will change for the better. And who knows, maybe the power of the Duite will be enough to save whatever potential is lost.'

'I still think now is the best time...'

'You still think?' CL glanced back towards him. 'Are you sure he's not putting words into your mouth? I told you, you can't let them take control, it's the worst thing you could do right now. Things will just get messing and complicated and they won't change. You have to follow my plan, not theirs.'

There were a few long moments of silence as thunder rumbled across the sky.

'Is he still going through with tonight?' CL glanced towards his guest.

'He is as far as I know.'

'Then this is where it all begins again,' he clenched his fists and lowered his head slightly, 'here's to hoping I get it right this time.'

'Tristan's back?' Yugi wasn't quite sure how to process the information. 'Are you sure?'

'Positive, I spoke to him and everything,' Téa dried herself off with the towel Yugi had provided for her. 'In fact I can credit my overly drenched condition to him too.'

'What do you mean?' Duke frowned.

'Well let's just say I won't be trying to touch his arms again in a hurry,' she pulled a face, before giving a heavy sigh. 'I don't know, maybe he's just become sensitive about being touched, but both times I tried it I ended up face first on the pavement.'

'He deliberately pushed you over?' Yugi did his best to focus in on Téa's emotions, but Duke's proximity made it almost impossible.'

'I wouldn't say it was deliberate,' she began rubbing her hair with the towel, 'it felt more like a gut reaction. I mean, he wasn't violent towards me he just... had to shake me off I guess.'

'How did he seem?'

'Well three months away definitely hasn't done anything to improve his attitude,' Téa rolled her eyes. 'If anything it might have driven him even further towards being a moody, arrogant loner. You know all he really needs is a white trench coat and his own company and I would happily start calling him Kaiba.'

'Tristan Kaiba, could you imagine that,' Duke laughed.

Téa smirked back at him and the instant she did involuntary laughter came out of Yugi. He didn't think their joke was particularly funny, but because they did he had no control over his response. It was annoying, but it couldn't be helped. Instead of getting worked up about it, he did his best to suppress it, but doing so allowed the pain in his chest to elevate.

'Yugi are you okay?' Téa frowned at him. 'We... we're not hurting you are we?'

'It's not you,' he shook his head, 'it's the rain. I can sense everyone in the city right now. All their emotions are like a giant weight on my chest.'

'Is there anything we can do to help?'

'Can you stop the rain?' Yugi forced a laugh as he managed to get the pain under control again.

Before either of his friends could answer there was a knock at his bedroom door. It opened less than a second later to reveal his Grandpa.

'Yugi there's... someone downstairs for you.'

For a moment everything in the room fell into a strange kind of stillness as Yugi found his empathic abilities reaching out towards his Grandpa. He knew from the tone of voice as well as the choice of words there was something the old man wasn't telling him, but with so many other emotional distractions it was impossible for Yugi to read anything more into it than that.

'Who is it?' Yugi forced the words out of his mouth.

'They... they've asked me not to say, but I really think you should go down and see them.'

'Okay,' Yugi felt strangely numb as he got to his feet.

'Do you want us to come with you Yugi?' Duke frowned at him.

'No... no I can do this on my own,' Yugi shook his head. 'You guys wait here for me, I won't be long.'