A/N: Alright, getting back into this now. XD
As usual, all reviews are apprecitated, as are shamless ego-boosts XD
MY SISTER'S MUM JUST HAD HER BABY! FFFF So happy for her right now~
Also, a friend of mine came up with an idea as we were IM'ing, would anyone be interested in asking me questions on AIM or Messenger about this fic? (Or just shiz in general XD)
~Ava
~XxX~
"Holy mother of-" The curseword never made it past my lips as I was, once again, confronted by the blue monstrosity that lived in Kaiba's deck. Though I had seen it a fair few times before and was no longer rendered completely stunned to see it, however, I was still amazed when confronted by the sheer size and power of it; it's attack points were strong enough to fell Lumis and Umbra's, (we had been privy to their names during the duel), monsters. I had wondered why Yami and Kaiba were playing two monsters each that last turn...
"Brilliant, fantastic and wonerful to watch, but-" I got up from my spot by the fire-door and brushed my blouse and trousers down, walking over to the males who were currently dividing the locator cards they had won between them, "we didn't get the location of either our friends or your brother." I gestured to Yami and myself with one hand while pointing to Kaiba. His eyes flicked over my shoulder to something behind me, he smirked and spoke.
"Callaghan, I knowexactly where my brother is." At his words I frowned, then heard an all to familiar "thup-thup-thup" coming closer by the second. I spun on my heel to be faced by a white helicopter, different to the last with the "KC" emblazoned in red along the sides. I stared for several seconds.
"Ho-" I trailed off as the chopper landed on the roof and Mokuba stepped out, waving at his brother and then at us. I shook my head disbelivingly, trailing after my friends as we walked over to Mokuba. "Your brother is...astounding." I said honestly, it was no secret that myself and people under the age of fourteen didn't tend to like eachother very much, but I would certainly make an execption in this one's case. As I finished my sentence I caught the proud look in Kaiba's eyes, that shocked me a little as I bundled into my new phobia; I hadn't really thought of Kaiba being the kind of person to be proud of anything. But, as I seated myself and took note of the decidedly different helicopter interior, it became clear to me that such a thing wasn't the case. I was snapped out of my revire by said person's voice.
"You aren't going to hyperventilate again are you Callaghan?" His voice held more and a hint of a taunt, but I disregarded it, crossing my legs as I shifted a little in my seat opposite him.
"No Kaiba, not this time I don't think. This helicopter is...spacious to say the least. And the doors aren't open..." I shuddered and glanced out of the window to the far left of me, frowning at the buildings as they passed by. So long as I didn't see the ground, I was fine.
"And will you be able to undo a children's grade seatbelt?" He seemed to be enjoying my new blush of utter embarrassment as Yami turned from scouring the streets with his eyes, to looking at me with a mixture of amusment and disbelief, obviously confused as to my history with helicopters and how Kaiba knew about it, I just rolled my eyes at both males and settled for running my finger through the velveteen seat covers to either side of me. I had chosen to sit on the opposite side to my friends but in the middle, so I had adaquate space near me. Unfortunately that meant I was directly opposite Kaiba and since we both sat with our legs crossed, limited leg room. I frowned at this helicopter, feeling the pilot shift his weight in his seat directly behind mine.
"How much does this cost exactly?" I asked the question I had been thinking since I first saw him hanging out of the same chopper nearly a week ago. He frowned at me for a second, his eyes unfocusing a tad as he obviously calculated the amount.
"Roughly $250,000 for the chopper itsef, add another...$25,000 for the fuel every few weeks-" I gawked at him, dignity fleeing me at his words.
"Weeks? Weeks? WEEKS? Are you demented? The rent of the flat in London didn't cost that much a year!" I was close to yelling but reigned myself in before I fully lost composure, instead I sat back into my seat, having risen out of it at my third repeating of the word 'weeks.' The three males infront of me however had different reactions; Mokuba smiled at me as if to say, "Well what did you expect?" Kaiba just smirked at my little...outburst and Yami just looked mildly amused. It appeared that everyone else was used to the mind-boggling wealth that this seventeen-year-old possessed.
"Well thanks Kaiba," I said, deliberately sighing over-theatrically, "now I feel like I have quite literally done nothing with my life..." I was silent and ignored the smirk on his face until a thought struck me, "Greenpeace must hate you." His smirk dissapeared quickly before retorting.
"My company protects a large portion of the Amazon Rainforest, several parks in Japan and even a few areas in England." He addressed my point head-on but without the usual coldness, rather, in it's place there was a slight tone of justified-pride. Yami and I exchanged a look of mild shock at the lack of arrogance in what he had said, I acknowledged the rebuttal with a nod of my head, about to say something when Mokuba shouted after looking out of the window.
"Hey, Bro! That looks like Joey! But...what's he doing in a shipping yard?"
"Joey!" Yami shouted at his blonde headed friend, regardless of the fact that he couldn't hear him through the metal and glass. I turned in my seat, streching my neck to see out of the same window, frowning as I did so and we neared.
"Uhh Yami...I don't think something's right with Joey..." There was something wrong with his eyes...
"Very little change then." Kaiba muttered as the helicopter landed, I slammed my hand down on the red button this time, actually remembering how to use it, and glared at Kaiba.
"Not the time." I hissed, following him out and onto the docks, he frowned at me a little before the two Kaiba brothers and I tuned back to the conversation, well more like challenge, from Joey.
"Hahaha Pharaoh! I have taken control of your friends Joey and Teá in preration for our duel!" As Joey spoke Teá walked down a set of portable stairs, common to shipping grounds. I froze, my brain catching up with my ears. Was Joey speakingin third person? And his voice seemed so...monotone, very unlike his usual upbeat manner. But the kicker for me came when Teá started o speak, the same lack of emotion behind her voice and the normal happy, friendly girl I had made friends with seemed to have been quashed by, who I now knew to be Marik. Something twisted in my gut as I thought about that, he could get inside my friends heads and control them, before it was just strangers, which, while terrible, wasn't personal. I had no attatchment to the mime, but Teá was the first person I talked with in a new country, the first person I had befriended, (or rather, befriended me), in a new country. This was sick, twisted and something that both Yami and I were visibly angered by.
"Release them Marik! Your problem is with me, not my friends." Yami said, sounding startlingly commanding for being the other half of Yugi, I'd have to watch out for my shorter friend in the future. Marik forced a condescending laugh through both Joey and Teá. My eyes narrowed behind my fringe, I had been subconsciously angling my body so I was partially hidden behind Kaiba but now threw my usual cowardice to the wind, stepping fully out to stand nearer Yami.
"You sick, demented, twisted freak." I spat at the controlled-Joey, I could have said it to Teá, but I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I said what I was planning to her. "Were you not loved enough as a child? Is that it? Or maybe you were an outcast at school?" I feigned pity and folded my arms, really, once I got into it it was no different to insulting Kaiba. "I apologise, you aren't twisted, no, see, what you've done is sprained your mind. I am sorry for you, give them back." Both heads of my friends turned to me in a spooky unison.
"Girl, I don't know who you are but you are already annoying me. Don't speak of things you know nothing about." It was the mouth of Teá he used this time, leaving me feeling unnerved and a little hurt, though I knew it wasn't Teá speaking, I realised just how hurt I would feel if she actually ever did dislike me. It seems I've found a friend I don't want to miss. Both heads turned back to Yami.
"Now Pharaoh, I challenge you to a duel!" Yami nodded and followed the 'Joey' as Teá was escorted away from us by a man in a purple cloak, I gaped as I watched everyone present follow too, giving chase once they turned a corner.
~XxX~
"But it's just a bloody cardgame..." I tailed off my murmur at one look at the Saw-esque scene before me. Joey and Yami were to duel eachother, the loser would be dragged to the bottom of the ocean via an anchor chained to their ankle. If Kaiba, Mokuba or I tried to interrupt or prevent the duel, Teá would be crushed by a shipping container. Whatever way I looked at the proceedings I was still stupifed by the violence and malice behind it. If Yami won, he'd lose a friend, if he lost, he'd die, if we tried to help, the duel would still continue and Teá would die. That was alot of death for something I had previously considered a petty children's cardgame. The duel had been going for several minutes as, in a rare instance, Kaiba and I were silently resolved to work together to see if we could find a way out for them.
We saw nothing.
I unconsciously drew closer to the two brothers, standing behind Mokuba and scouring the docks with my eyes, tring to find a gap in Marik's plan somewhere when I saw Joey's Red Eyes Black Dragon dominate the docks. I gasped, then chastised myself for doing so in the presence of Kaiba, who smirked at me for a second. I frowned at him before realising that what I had remembered as Joey's card, was in fact Yami's now. But it wasn't, because Yami, was now Yugi. I stared some more at what was in front of me, now having no other choice than to accept that there really were two people in one as Yugi placed his puzzle around Joey's neck.
"Joey, you've got to remember, you've got to break free of him! Take it Joey," Yugi said, as he did so I noticed that both of my friends seemed to be sapped of their strength, barely being able to stand. "It's the symbol of our friendship." Yugi was having more than a little trouble taying on two feet and I moved forward to help him when I felt something blocking my way, I looked down and saw that Kaiba had placed his arm out in front of me, flicking his eyes up to the shipping container above Teá before I remembered what would hapen if we tried to intervene. I stepped back once more and balled my hands into fists as Marik forced Joey to summon a meteor. A meteor that would end the duel by obliterating one of their life-points in a few turns time. I moved forward once more and found myself unhindered. At the same time I heard Mokuba shout at his older brother. I quickly glanced around to see that Kaiba was no loner on the same side of the docks as us, instead running towards Teá and the man who held her hostage. Taking my chances I followed, in time to see the person that, until recently I had considered cruel and a jerk disable a grown man with a trading card.
"Wha-Did you just-" I stood over the man who was unconscious on the ground, disbelief in my voice as I stared at Kaiba and then the card beside the man, Kaiba looked down at the man then back at me as if it was perfectly possible for someone to use a piece of card in their attempts to foil an evil plot. I snappeed out of my stunned silence quickly, instead running over to Teá and crouching beside the chair she was tied to.
"S-Sophie..." She said, vision clearing and her voice no longer monotone, "where...what are Yugi and Joey dueling f-Marik." She had been sounding fairly dreamlike throughout the first half of her sentence, but that cleared the second she remembered, the shutters coming down in her voice.
And that was when the anchor fell.
~XxX~
A/N: OOoooOOOoooOOoo, I've noticed a spike in my reading figures! I don't know w hy, but it's nice that so many people like this thing! You can expect another update tomorrow, I'm getting back into this.
~Ava