"Kaiba, perhaps you can help me understand." Atem said, trying to keep up with Seto's pace as he strode down the sterile hospital hall.
Isono had shown up and Seto left the cramped room as soon as the doctor began explaining his story a second time. He wasn't interested in hearing it again, so he paced.
"Understand what?" Seto asked after a delay.
"I thought you would be overjoyed that Mokuba is alive."
"Mokuba is not alive."
"I don't see where your suspicion stems from. What the doctor said makes sen-"
"What the doctor said was bullshit. He was just feeding me a line."
"Again, I don't understand where this is coming from."
The two men reached the quarters the hospital had provided Seto with, and he stopped walking at the door. He hesitated, but after deliberating he decided there wouldn't be much harm to inviting Atem in. He closed the door behind them both.
"You weren't the one who found his body." Seto's voice was low, quieter than he was used to speaking.
Atem was silent, searching Seto's face.
"I heard you say that. I didn't know. I'm so—"
"Stop apologizing," he commanded abruptly, and Atem did his best to nod in agreement. "I may not be a doctor, but I could tell he wasn't breathing. My boy had fallen out of the sky into the face of a mountain, if you want to be dramatic about it. I had no real hope he could have made it through that crash when I saw it on the newsreel."
"Kisara is alive."
"Kisara was lucky. What do you think the odds are of that happening twice in the same crash? Did you see the images on the news?"
"I saw them. But if the doctors were able to get him breathing again—Kaiba, he said that Mokuba was conscious! He said your brother was talking! What if he wasn't lying about that?"
"There's no time to get emotional about this. I want Mokuba to be alive. Of course I do. But for that to happen, that airplane needed to have not crashed. It's already happened, and there's no amount of hoping that can undo it."
"So what do you think has happened?"
Seto was quiet for a while. He kicked off his shoes, slugged off his coat and sat down on the bed.
"I think that this was planned, but from how far back I can't say. The investigation on the crash is still ongoing, but I'll be waiting on the details of how it may have happened."
"Please don't tell me you think that Mokuba, along with nearly everyone else on the aircraft, might have been targeted? That would have to be quite an elaborate scheme."
"Did you meet the Big Five? My employees, especially the most demented of them, bleed elaborate schemes."
Seto paused, trying to fight the flood of memories that struck him when the Big Five came to mind. Noa Kaiba's childish laughter echoed in his head, freezing his feet in place. He'd never gone back to that island. Had he really ensured that the computer Noa existed in was really destroyed?
He shook his head. Paranoia wouldn't help him now.
"Don't forget," he said, "that I owned the aircraft that crashed. All of the workers on board were men and women I employed. I believe I need to be focusing on what this doctor wants me to do, and what I ought to be doing instead."
"And where does that leave you now?"
"I think I'm supposed to believe what the doctor is telling me."
"Supposed to? According to whom?"
"Himself, of course. And whoever he's working with, or working for."
Atem let out a grim chuckle.
"You always seem to see the whole world as an enemy. What makes you think these doctors have anything to gain by deceiving you?"
"Almost everyone has something to gain by deceiving me. It just so happens that I'm too cynical for many of them to be capable of succeeding. In this particular case, it would not be the first time that my own employees have tried to stab me in the back. I just need to know what Doctor Marangoz and Himura are up to."
"Since you clearly don't believe what the doctor is telling you, then what do you believe?" Atem gestured wide with his arms. "What is your grand theory on all of this, Kaiba? Do you think he's setting you up to believe that Mokuba is still alive because the illusion will serve him somehow?"
"Mokuba had been used as a pawn to get to me more times that I would like to count. It wouldn't surprise me that, even in my brother's death, someone is willing to use him to get something from me."
"To get what from you, exactly?"
"What these people always want: money, power, revenge. Maybe some combination. Because, somewhere in the thought process of these masterminds, they expect that when my brother is put in danger I'll turn into any other important man with a knife to his family's throats, blubbering and shaking and pouring out the contents of my bank accounts at the robber's feet."
Atem found a sly smirk gracing his lips.
"But Seto Kaiba doesn't act that way."
"I can't afford to let myself get swept up in the notion of something that defies what I've seen with my eyes and felt with my own hands. I know my brother is dead. I knew that well before I found his body. Whatever these medical geniuses are trying to cook up against me, I can't allow it to work."
"It's no wonder you can't allow yourself to call anyone your friend."
Seto's gaze shot up to Atem's face and his eyes narrowed.
"Don't start."
Atem put his hands up in surrender.
"I'm not starting anything. But I suppose I don't mind suggesting, since we're on the subject, that I never sought any of those things from you, regardless of how you may have seen my intentions. I do hope you know that."
"No, of course you didn't. You just irritated me to the point where I'd wished you had, so I had a better excuse to put you out of my misery."
Despite his words, Seto quirked the faintest of smiles.
"Kaiba, you can try to fight me for as long as you want. But I'm not going away again any time soon. I hope you know you can trust me. No matter what you think of me, I consider you a friend."
Seated on his bed, Seto stared at the floor between his feet.
"...I know."
Atem chuckled. "Good. Now that that's out of the way, I hope you'll take my attempts to assist you somewhat seriously." Before Seto could speak, Atem waved his hand. "I'm not interested in hearing you tell me that you don't need any help. Your brother was dead, and now you need to figure out whether or not that still holds true. Holding a prideful grudge against me will only get in your way right now."
Seto breathed a deep sigh and stood up from his mattress.
"That is, more or less, what I was going to say."
I noticed a pattern in Atem's behavior as of late. He shared expressions of concern with Isis when he seemed to think that I wasn't watching. But when I noticed the glances being shared between himself and wider range of my royal court, my uneasiness deepened.
I stayed up later into the night, listening at my window for footsteps in the courtyard below. I didn't hear them often, but on the occasion that I did I was quick to follow. I found myself stalking the people I was supposed to trust, and finding that trust growing shallow as I witnessed the secret visit to the courtyard.
Atem nodded grimly, in response to a statement I had been too late to hear. "I understand. I will do what you need in order for this to work."
I hadn't been standing behind the bushes long this night, but I had a mind to burst into the scene and demand an explanation for the secret meeting. Something about my adviser's grim expression made me stay in the shadows. I felt as though I were more likely to hear the truth secretly than directly.
I realized that I could have felt threatened by the secret activity, but—though still strongly suspicious—I didn't allow myself to. If these three had been plotting against me personally or planning an attack, Isis would not have had to announce that I not be told during the first meeting I had overheard.
I reasoned that it must be something they knew I would want to get involved in, and for whatever reason, Isis insisted that I oughtn't. If only I had shown up sooner...
"Why would you be concerned about our King?" Shada asked. He sat beside Isis, twirling his Key in his fingers.
"Haven't you noticed how he's changed?" Atem suggested.
"He's Pharaoh now. Why shouldn't he be a different person?"
"No," Isis chimed in. "Shada, listen to what our Prince has to say."
Atem nodded. "Set's previous office was High Priest, the highest position of authority on the Pharaoh's Royal Court. He handled his office justly and with passion. He would do the same as King of Egypt. A higher rank shouldn't alter his personality this much."
"I guess you're right," Shada said. He turned to Isis. "Still, I don't see how you expect this to work. How can I use the magic of my key without the subject before me?"
"This is an experiment, Shada," Atem answered. "I would like to use our items together, combining their powers."
"This has never been done before. It could be dangerous."
"Perhaps. But with the power of the items fading as they are, the danger is lessened. But that is why we must act quickly, before the magic fades completely."
"You really believe this has to do with the Pharaoh's condition?" Shada asked.
"I do. Egypt's king effects the flow of power through these items in an astounding way, and the reverse can also be said."
Shada nodded, then turned to Isis again. "Have you used your tauk to see how this will play out?"
"You know it doesn't work that way, Shada. My tauk shows me what I need to see, not necessarily what I want to see."
"And it showed you that the Pharaoh needs us to do this? Isis, this feels like treason."
"We've all seen how Priest Aknadin behaved when he took for himself a taste of the throne." The gathering was silent. Even Mana seemed to have nothing to say. "I realize it has been pushed under the rug, but we all heard Aknadin announce that Set is his son. If pushed to the wrong limits, I fear Set may become more like his father than any of us—including the Pharaoh Set himself—wish to see."
"I still don't see how what we're doing will help with that," Shada protested.
"Atem was the first to notice our Pharaoh's odd behavior as of late, and the first to pin down the reason. He believes that our Pharaoh's soul is in mourning. I must say I agree," Isis explained.
"This has to do with that girl who unleashed the White Dragon, doesn't it?"
"I believe it does," Atem answered.
"But... she died. How can we use her to help the Pharaoh now?"
"I have a belief," Atem said, "that the two souls are searching for each other, even through the afterlife. I believe they are trying to find their way together. If we can help them do that—if not in this life, than perhaps in another—Set's soul might be at peace here."
"We're going to try to use our items to play with the future, is that it?"
"Exactly," Atem said, a smirk spreading across his face.
"When do we start?" the magician girl asked.
"I will need to gather certain tools. It will take some time. When everything is ready, I will let you know."
Before I could glean any more answers, the three gatherers rose and dispersed. None of them, of course, came my way. The only destination in my direction were my royal quarters, and none of them had reason to go.
When the three had disappeared from view, I moved into the clearing by the fountain where they'd sat and settled in myself. I wasn't certain how to feel about the meeting I'd just witnessed. But with so little information, I didn't have many actions to choose from. I decided that I wouldn't act at all, for the time being. I would watch those three, and anyone they came into contact with outside of official business.
A/N: I get some of my chapter titles from lines in songs. This one is a mangled line from Chevelle's "Dos". The connection may be vague, but I always think of Kaiba and his relationship with Yugi and Atem when I hear the song. That through everything, they always have his back. ("Upon themselves, showed up again.") Even against his will, sometimes.