Chapter Five: Mistakes

Location: Vienna Airspace, 5000 ft.

Time: 11:13 pm.

It didn't matter what Marcus tried to tell him. Mokuba had felt air turbulence at its worst in the back seat of the Blue-Eyes-White-Jet, cruising at an altitude of eight thousand feet, and it didn't even come close to this.

'Marcus, gimme a break, to hell if that's just air resistance! There's something wrong, now tell me what's going on.'

Marcus rubbed his head a little.

'…The autopilot's failing sir. But like you said, we do have an experienced pilot…'

...Unfortunately, the only experienced pilot Mokuba Kaiba would trust to get them out of this kind of situation wasn't on the aircraft.

'Yeah, well… how experienced are they with the kind of stuff we saw on the news, Marcus? Let me in the cockpit.'

'Sir?

'You heard me, move aside.'

It was funny, really. A part of Mokuba wanted to feel glad that at least one of his employees (who he could actually trust this time) seemed to be trying to shield him from worry. But since he'd been worried (not to mention annoyed) ever since they left Japan, Marcus hadn't really helped much, so Mokuba shoved his way through the door to the cockpit.

And froze dead in his tracks.

It looked like something out of a horror movie. A really bad one with substandard visual effects that managed to look more sick than terrifying. The entire viewing window was glazed over with a mess of web-like substance, glowing like midnight fungus or something out of a radium laboratory and as Mokuba kept looking, he saw the webs take on forms. Humanoid forms. Really, really, creepy humanoids, with hands and nails (sort of) and web-like fingers gripping the glass.

'Oh, shit, Marcus what the hell is that?'

Whatever it was, it had covered the plane like an extra skin, clinging against freezing winds' as their downward decent became more and more unstable.

Whatever the stuff was, wasn't going to help them land. Mokuba's mind raced. If that stuff had gotten into the jets... the engines...

The Pilot barely glanced over to see Mokuba's entrance. All of the usual Kaiba Corp employee decorum had gone from the older man's face as he fought to keep the plane on a steady descent, while reaching for his radio.

Vienna Airspace, 4000 ft.

Time: 11:33 pm.

'This is Brava three-two-one KC International, requesting urgent assistance from all available stations, Brava three-two-one over.'

'…'

'Repeat this is Brava three-two-one, Kaiba Corporation intercontinental business transportation. We are experienced technical difficulties and require urgent assistance, calling all systems; do you read me, over?'

'……He… call…'

'Hello? Hello! Brava three-two-one calling incoming signal, do you read us? There are children on board, repeat there is a child on board.'

'….Crkle. We're… no… he… fi…signal… ver.'

'Oh, for god's sakes, speak up!'

'…Tthree… one? This… Brava two three three, also of Kaiba Corp… Connection. O…er?'

'Wait Kaiba Corp? You're Kaiba Corp? I'll be damned the kid was right. I… can you try to clear your signal, pilot? I can't understand a word you're—'

'Brava… three-two-one… my… we're both… Ba Corp.

'You did say Kaiba Corp didn't you? You're in Vienna Airport? Right now? I… please repeat your serial number and designation... Jaikana? Hell, is that you down there? You're telling me he actually took you into this?'

'…eah spea... yourself, man. What the… ll're you… up there… Daisuke?'

'God, we'll explain that later. We're having trouble landing. We were destined for runway twelve, Vienna International Airport. Controls have been jeopardised by… by, god I don't know, they're everywhere!'

'Wa… wha… you do… we can't… state yo… ination?'

'There's no time to explain, man, we're going to crash! Get us out of this before we get the heir of Kaiba Corporation killed in his own airplane!'

Location: Vienna International Airport Runway Twelve.

Time: 11:34 am.

When Kaiba next stormed out of the cockpit he had managed to work himself into even more of a bad mood than he had already been in. Just looking at his "cargo" was making him tense up. Usually they weren't worth this much attention. 'Remind me never to do you people a favour ever again.'

…In fact, he didn't really trust them to remind him. He'd just have to write his own post it notes.

'Oh-kay, and you're talking about what, exactly, Kaiba?' Joey sighed. He had been pacing up and down the cabin, muttering under his breath, eyes flickering back and forth between the floor and the plane exit.

'Turns out another Kaiba Corporation registered jet is approaching flight path twelve right now, and it isn't under my authorisation which means it can only have come from one person.'

Everyone looked at him. 'Mokuba?' Téa asked.

'We two are the only ones who have clearance. He probably followed all the way from Domino.'

'…You trying to tell me a teenager is flyin' that jet?'

His remark earned him only a second's worth of scornful glance and by the time Joey realised the problem with what he just said, Kaiba has charged back into the cockpit.

'Okay. Not to be obvious, Kaiba, but aren't we stranded on runway twelve?'

'Exactly. Sit down already, I've got a jet to move.'

He didn't as much as glance at them as he disappeared into the cockpit. Really, he should have stayed in there the whole damn flight and saved himself the bother, but some of his employees got sweaty if he stuck around for very long, and the last thing anyone needed was a nervous pilot.

Said pilot was one of this oldest employees; he'd been in the company since long before Gozabaru's death, and was honestly one of the few people Kaiba trusted at the controls of a vehicle besides himself. He glanced up as Kaiba entered.

'Ah… Mister Kaiba—?'

I know you heard me say that, Pilot, but I don't see you following my orders.'

'B-but we have to re-establish the engines sir it… could take several minutes.'

'You've got two of them.'

'But sir, I—'

'One minute fifty four seconds! Do it!'

'Sir… look.'

Hs voice has changed to something more dazed than frightened… Kaiba looked up.

The white eyed face has returned to the smashed glass of the window, frozen in a moment, like a bad illustration. Then before anyone could so much as blink, one of those very much not-human hands reached through, to spear a pilot through the heart.

Seto didn't hear the scream that followed. There's too much white noise blocking it out.

Vienna Airspace, 3500 ft.

Time: 11:40 am.

'Brava two-three-three this is Brava one-two-three, what's your current status?'

'…'

'Damn it they were just there, I swear it! I… Brava two-three-three this is Brava one-two-three, are you receiving? Come on Jaikana, answer me.'

'…'

'This is a stricken Kaiba Corporation Aircraft. Distortion is increasing, we… we may be losing your signal and…

'…And I don't know how well I can concentrate with those things all over my window. It's not fog, Jaikana… It's sort of clinging to the glass, freezing over and breaking away. It's alive and… and we can't see anything. I know it sounds crazy I know I don't I-I swear I'm not taking anything. Brava two-three-three please answer our signal.'

'…'

'Brava, listen to me, we need landing guidance and we need it now. Brava two-three-three are you receiving me? Hello? Where the hell did you go?'

'…'

'Jaikana, damn it, help me out here!'

Vienna International Airport Runway Twelve.

Time: 11:43 am.

Seto Kaiba was running out of patience. Which, given his current position - a slammed shut and locked cockpit door on one side of him, and Joey Wheeler's endlessly irritating face above - was understandable.

'There's no sense acting like a fool, Wheeler. Don't you think I've already tried to find another way?'

'So what, you're telling me that the engines are bust? We're stuck here? No way out?'

'I can fly a plane, idiot. Which is just as well given we're lacking pilots now. We also lack the fuel, time, and windows to even think about taking off.' He moved to the upper left of the plane and dragged up a layer of plush carpet. There was a hatch beneath it and Kaiba pulled it open.

'Kaiba, will you try to be a little clearer about this, Tristan said. 'We have no idea what's happening. An' whaddya mean, we lack the pilots? We had one of em, last I checked!'

'Yeah, well. Now we don't.'

The shocked silence lasted the whole time it took for Kaiba to reappear from the under-floor storage unit. He dragged an industrial strength security light out of the compartment after him, shoving it across the floor; ignoring Ryou when he reached out to help.

'Kaiba…' Téa murmured, realisation dawning on them that the pilot was no longer with them.

'Oh, God,' Tristan muttered.

'You're kidding, right? They can't have been… Kaiba?'

'Forget the pilots. I can fly the plane, if worst comes to worst.' Shocked silence fell from a drawn-out pause. 'Look we don't have time for this. They're dead or gone or... whatever those freaks are planning to do to them. But the people on that incoming plane are not. If my brother's amongst them, you'd better pray it stays that way, because god knows, I should've known better than to even consider doing you idiots a favour like this in the first place. This wouldn't have happened if Mutou didn't owe me the duel of a lifetime!'

'I thought you said that you owed him?' Mai murmured.

'Wrong Mutou! And be quiet, Valentine. Or do you go by Wheeler now?'

'Oh-kay… I'm going to let that slip on this one occasion,' Mai snarled. 'Just where did you get those giant lights? Actually scratch that – never mind where they came from, just tell us what you're doing with them?'

'What does it look like?' He heaved the metal frame of the light up in both hands. 'The airport is pitch black, they need something to tell them where we are. Provided the emergency display cameras we installed are still working-' (and thank god the people running around with millennium items hacking into people's brains had given him that idea) '-then they should have a way to see the runway from the cockpit.'

'And if they aren't working?' Mai asked.

No one answered. The handle of the plane doorway stuck when Kaiba tried to open it. So he opted for delivering a front kick to it. It was kind of funny, really, how the only thing none of them were wondering about was where Kaiba learned to knock down doors like that in the first place.

Then a hand was holding him back, and with his arms weighed down by a heavy industrial floodlight trailing giant cables back into the plane, Kaiba wasn't in a position to pull away.

'Kaiba, wait, you can't go out there! What good's it gonna do if you get yourself ripped to pieces?!'

'Let go of my arm or regret it, Taylor. I'm not about to let my brother die in a plane crash because we parked in a bad spot. If it's him in that jet he's going to smash right into this craft at one hundred and thirty miles per hour. Gardner, shut the door behind me.'

Before Téa could open her mouth to answer, the airplane door was opened and Kaiba stepped out into the darkness, leaving them standing in a disturbed silence, waiting for the sounds of screaming and cries that were sort-of, yet-anything-but human. They never came. Nobody relaxed.

'Do you know, I think Kaiba might be lightening up,' Ryou said. 'I mean he actually bothered to explain things to us a little before he charged out into the—'

'Not now, Bakura.'

'…Sorry.'

Location: Vienna Airspace 2000 feet,

Time: 11:43 am.

On the bright side, at least the monsters had started to peel away from the window.

They'd been struggling with the reinforced surface for several thousand feet now. Their frozen bodies were breaking to pieces – and yet some still continued to cling with their hands and toes and hair and whatever else. It didn't make Mokuba feel any better because now he'd got to thinking about what those things could do to his brother and what he'd gotten their last good pilots into.

He was still thinking this when the pilot in question sat up yelling, his eyes fixed on the crackling screen of the monitor besides them - a viewing portal showing a clearer view of the underside of the plane, and the landing gears. The things were mostly useless, one of those many additions that Mokuba was fairly sure their planes only had in order to fill up an empty space with over the top technology. But right now, it was a screen which, fortunately, was not covered by hideous bodies. A screen showing a bright, flickering light several miles below and ahead of them.

'Sir, there's someone on the runway! We're being given a signal to steer several degrees right.'

Mokuba loosened his grip on the back of the pilot's chair, blinks and forced himself not to overreact.

Seto.

'…Daisuke, can you control the plane at all?'

'I can try.'

Highway En-Route to Vienna International Airport.

Time: 11:50 pm.

Yugi Muto hated driving. Especially in the dark.

'You… you sure you're okay up there, Yami?'

'I'm fine, Yugi, keep your eyes on the road!'

This kind of explained why he's failed his test three times, (running over two garbage cans and ending up with Joey swearing never to get in a car with Yugi sitting behind the wheel ever again. Which was saying something; given that Joey had experienced Honda's driving.)

He was still, however, better at it than Yami.

So Yugi kept driving, even with white-grey shadows curling around the vehicle and the rather uncomfortable sensation of shadow magic, creeping around his ears like the smoke of cigars.

'Keep my eyes on the road, yeah, sure! Yami, how fast are those things going?

'The speed of darkness, I'd expect,' Yami called down. Yugi could sense the power crackling along his other half's body - the shards of darkness that dug into the back of his neck even when Yam was aiming the attack away from him. 'Nowhere close to the speed of light but enough.'

'Aaaand this jeep has a limit of—' A bump in the road followed by a heavy swallow and Yugi has simply no idea at all how Yami manages to keep his footing. '—One hundred and fifty!'

'This might be a good time to test that claim. I don't know how long I can hold them off!'

Yami's hand was visible through the skylight and Yugi could practically smell the brimstone, like something out of a hellfire, pulsing on his Other Self's fingers- the darkness of the shadows clung long and hard. They'd both be smelling sulphur for days afterwards – a sign of what Yami had gone through in his mastery of darkness.

The body of another creature collapsed against road ahead of them and Yugi would've run over it, except the body seems to have totally disintegrated by the time he got there, and the ragged remains of its clothing were snatched beneath the wheels.

'Ah! Y-Yami is it just me or was that one…?'

'Falling to pieces before it even hit the road,' Yami's voice was cold and dangerous, filled with the rage Yugi always hated to hear from his Other Self. 'Dark spirits are pushing these human bodies far beyond their limits. They use up all the body's energy and then... just step out of the carcass and leave it to rot.'

Yugi swallowed. 'And the people... they just…'

Yugi thought about the girl they'd met drawing in the town square. The guy who met them getting off the plane. The taxi driver who didn't speak Japanese and the hotel manager who did and wanted him to show her the cards in his deck. Yugi felt his eyes water just a little. His fingers gripped the wheel too tightly and one hundred and twenty miles per hour seemed to slow to a crawling space. '...It's going to kill them all, isn't it? It's really going to… All of them. They're all gone.'

He had to tell himself it wasn't their fault. They were just normal humans taken over and turned into shells by the darkness. None of them would remember the moment their lives ended. It wasn't them trying to kill Yugi and his other –it wasn't their shadows wearing him down. They were just lost bodies, soon to be lost souls and…

And Yugi just couldn't blame them for that, no matter if they were currently trying to kill him. They didn't know what they're doing. It was humans his other was currently taking apart with blasts of shadow magic, and they didn't deserve to be destroyed that way…

Yami knew it too. No wonder Yugi could feel so much guilt and anger pulsing against their soul-link.

The next attack came from the front.

It took Yami -facing behind them, to take out the creatures chasing them down- by surprise and their screams sent him jolting into the jeep's glass rooftop. The already splintered glass of the front broke further beneath the pressure and Yugi felt the pane shatter, the shards glancing off the inside of the windshield. 'Yami!'

'Yugi! Stay down!'

The warning wasn't heeded, because there was no way Yugi could get down. Yami's leg glanced against his shoulder far-too-hard and he could practically feel the claws of the beasts overhead, scraping across his others cheek. He could feel them, hear them too, the shock waves of the creatures attack. The shock sent both of Yugi's hands flying from the steering wheel. Overhead, he heard Yami yelling but couldn't quite make out what he was saying.

It's not their—

His eyes weren't on the road any longer.

—Fault.

And a few seconds later, neither was the vehicle.