Chapter 11
October 18-22
Back in London, Siegfried stretched in his office chair and leaned back into the soft leather. Elsa sat across from him on the lounge, her silky blonde hair flowing around her shoulders in a loose cloud.
"Young Mokuba must have heard the newscast by now," he said, letting his eyes travel across her form. "We should be able to move into Kaiba Corp soon."
"Yes," she crooned. "It is all falling into place."
Suddenly a frown creased his delicate features and he leaned forward.
"Are you sure Kaiba has been taken care of? He's notorious for outwitting almost everyone. He may not be dead. And we've told the news we didn't find anything when James radioed that the jet had exploded. What if he's alive? What if he makes it back to Japan and tries to take his company back?"
Elsa just laughed.
"I don't remember you being quite so paranoid, darling. Of course, Seto has been taken care of. I planned it all myself."
"All the same, I would like to send a team out to be sure. I lost to him once, Elsa. I have no intention of doing so again."
She heaved a martyr's sigh and sat up.
"Fine. Fine, send your little recon team. But I am telling you, they won't find anything. I have the utmost faith in my men."
"You don't know Kaiba as well as I." Siegfried paged his secretary. "Get my head of security."
"Yes, Herr Schroider."
"Oh, Siegfried, you are so cute when you're nervous." Elsa stood smoothly to her feet then came around his desk to give him a kiss. "I will make the preparations and when you are through worrying about ghosts, you may come join me."
Over her shoulder, Siegfried spotted his little brother, Leon, gazing at him with hopeful eyes.
Do not worry, Leon. Soon we will have our revenge and your spirit can rest.
He looked back up at his blonde partner with a smile, and so missed the hope in the boy's eyes change to pain before he quietly disappeared through the wall.
"Ryou! Ryou, open up!" Atemu banged on the apartment door over and over. "Ryou, I know you're in there!"
"Oh!" A soft gasp made him turn to see a little old lady peeking from a small gap in the door. "Are…are you here about that English boy?"
"Yes! Yes, have you seen him?" Atemu hurried over and the lady opened the door a little wider. It caught on the chain but he could still see about half of her face. It was a very kind face so he tucked his hair behind his ear and began again.
"Please, ma'am. I really need to find him."
"Oh, you won't find him here, dear."
"Do you know where? He could be in real danger, ma'am, please."
The lady hesitated, her dark eyes glancing over his shoulder to Ryou's door, then she shut the door, undid the chain, and let him inside.
"Thank you, ma'am, thank you." Atemu waited until she'd locked, chained, and deadbolted the door to her satisfaction before speaking again.
"Do you know what happened to Ryou?"
"Oh, that poor young man. Such a nice boy. He used to come over every Tuesday for tea but he hasn't done that for months." She sat down on her sofa and a fat, silver tabby jumped into her lap. Atemu said a silent prayer to the animal in his head, fighting the urge to hurry her, and sat in a chair on the other side of the coffee table.
"Last week," she went on, "Beatrice, the American exchange student from down the hall, said she smelt this horrible stench coming from the room. And chanting."
"Chanting?"
"Horrible, grating sound. Beatrice says it's Latin but I don't think so. It's too guttural for that. And…" Her voice broke and she started petting the cat a little harder than before.
"Grandmother, what is it?" Atemu leaned forward. He could see her thin lips trembling and tiny beads of moisture at the corners of her eyes.
"The screams," she breathed. "Sometimes…late at night…I don't know if the others hear them but…he sounds like he's in so much pain. Are you going to help him? Please, say you will. I can't bear the thought of that sweet, innocent boy getting hurt."
"I'll do all I can, grandmother. Now please…do you know where he is?"
The lady rubbed her lips together, petting the cat faster. The poor thing mewed up at her then jumped onto the coffee table and into Atemu's lap. He cradled the tabby and it started purring. The deep, throbbing sound soothed his frazzled nerves, bringing a small smile to his lips.
"Cats were sacred in Egypt. For this one to take such a liking to you, you must be a very special person indeed."
Smiling, the lady dabbed her eyes.
"You seem like a decent young man. All right. I was walking by his apartment one day and I heard him talking to someone. An older man. Mean, vicious, brutal man. He was yelling and saying all these horrible things. Anyway, I think he said something about going downtown. They had to meet someone about some supplies."
"Supplies. Did you hear anything else?"
She inhaled sharply.
"Ryou…begging…Oh, please, help him. Please."
"I will, don't worry. I have to go now, but thank you for your help. And just to be safe, do you have anywhere you can go? A friend's house? A relative?"
"Do you think I'm in danger?"
"I don't know but I wouldn't want anything to happen to you and I'm sure Ryou wouldn't either."
"I um…I have a sister in Tokyo."
"Good! Go get your things. I'll call a cab for you. Hurry!" The small bit of Pharaoh he'd slipped into his voice got her moving and within twenty minutes, the sweet old lady was on her way to Tokyo with her pet cat, Jasmine, safely in her lap.
"Okay…downtown." Atemu waved them off then walked back to his car. If Bakura was conducting a ritual, there were only a few places where he could buy such supplies. Domino had about five, three of which were standard tourist attractions off Main Street. The other two sat nestled far away from prying eyes, deep in the heart of the wharf district. Those shops were real. He'd seen them on one of the late-night walks he took to clear his head and he remembered feeling the Shadows that cloyed around those buildings. They might not sell Shadow Magics per say, but he knew power when he felt it.
That was at least two weeks ago, and he just hoped those shops hadn't moved. Reaching into his pocket, the Pharaoh opened his cell phone and quickly dialed Yugi.
"Moshi moshi?"
"Yugi, I think I may have found something. Are you all right there for a little longer?"
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about me. Everyone's pretty stable here. What did you find?"
"I'll tell you later. But I'm going downtown and I won't be able to answer my phone."
"Okay, be careful, Yami."
"I will. Try and get some rest."
"Sure thing. Bye."
"Bye."
On the other end of the line, Bakura hung up his phone, the ring at his neck glowing under his shirt. Downtown, hmm?
Well done, Pharaoh. Well done. He'd find the Wiccan shop soon and he would learn what items he bought, how many, and what the shop owner thought about why he needed them. Atemu must have talked to one of the neighbors, maybe that nosy American next door. No matter, he'd take care of them later.
Slipping the phone into his pocket, Bakura turned to face the prone forms of Tea and Mai. Yugi had left for Joey's room an hour ago. He'd be back soon to check on them but it would take at least ten minutes to get down here.
"Sorry, Yugi," he muttered. Walking over, he reached out to grip the cords of both respiratory machines and, with a slow, smooth motion, ripped them out of the wall. Sirens went off immediately. The two started gasping, wheezing.
"I need you out of the way a little longer."
Tugging the hat a little lower over his eyes, the thief phased out of the room to the stairs at the other end of the ward. He frowned at Ryou's lack of protest then shook his head and headed down to the parking lot. The stupid mouse must have cried himself to sleep.
Disgusting.
He had just enough time to get back to the apartment, pick up his things, and move to a better area. Cackling to himself, Bakura got in Ryou's little POS and drove back to the complex. He Knew as soon as he entered the building that Mrs. Banks wasn't home. He grinned.
"Nice, Pharaoh. Very nice. But you can't protect them all. I wonder how little Mokuba's doing without his brother to wipe his butt?"
~~*~~
Well, to be perfectly honest, "Little Mokuba" had had better days. So far he had climbed through his window four times, his brother's window twice, and tried the back door, servant's door, and side door three or four times each. Scott caught him at every turn, even beating him to the different places. The man must have a map or blue prints or something. Only Mokuba and his brother knew the house this well but this guy had the mansion on lock-down. And while it upped his standing as a bad guy, Mokuba found it really, really annoying.
Sighing, the teen flopped backwards on his bed. Okay, so they tried to kill his brother. That meant they were probably going to try and use Kaiba Corporation by-laws to force him into either running or selling the company. It was an old trick but it was a plausible one so he should've expected someone other than Pegasus to try it. Problem was, it wasn't Pegasus and a traitorous board of directors this time. Elsa Seiler and Siegfried von Schroider were backed by some of Europe's most powerful aristocratic families. Those two were dangerous and if the rumors were true, at least one of them wasn't all that stable. Could he really hold them off until Seto got back? How long would that take?
Mokuba rubbed his eyes hard then put his hands behind his head. Plane crashes were unpredictable. He lost count of how many stories he'd heard over the years of miraculous survivals. Elsa and Siegfried would have known that so they either had to kill Seto and Melody beforehand then blow up the plane, or follow up with a team later. Maybe one of those search and rescue teams wasn't there to rescue them at all. And if Seto or Melody had gotten hurt in the crash itself…
Mokuba let out an exasperated scream.
"Shut up in there!" Scott yelled, banging on the door.
"I'm constipated!" Mokuba yelled back. "I haven't pooped in four days!"
He heard Scott make a disgusted noise and grinned. He'd tried too hard to escape today. Scott would no doubt watch even closer now, knowing what he could do, how many places he could squeeze through. Which also meant he couldn't try and escape from the house. That left school or work.
But Scott had special permission to watch him at school, for "protection" or some other stupid excuse. Not to mention his teachers. They hadn't let him out of their sight all day. He couldn't even go to the bathroom without someone following him to make sure everything came out all right.
Fine, so he'd have to escape from the Kaiba Corp building. He'd gotten make-up work from school for the next two weeks so he could spend more time with the company. Starting tomorrow, he would go to the Kaiba Corp office instead as the vice-president should. He could throw enough of a tantrum, make enough of a scene that Scott would cave, and nobody would be suspicious if he didn't show up at class. He'd have to get out of the office building if he was going to get out at all.
But where would he go? Yugi was still at the hospital and he couldn't hide there, not with that many people always cleaning and snooping. They would know to look at the Game Shop because he was there a couple days ago. Everyone else was in the hospital and he sure couldn't go to Ryou's.
Maybe…maybe he could look for his brother himself. Mokuba sat up, his mind racing. It was just crazy enough it might work. He'd find Seto on his own, taking a major piece out of their plan by removing their entrance to the company while at the same time, making sure his brother was safe and healthy enough to kick their corporate butts from here to the Stone Age.
The teen laughed out loud and flopped back onto his back.
"Hey! Keep it down!"
Mokuba laughed again, took a deep breath, and started singing at the top of his lungs.
"I am Henry the eighth I am
Henry the eighth I am, I am
I got married to the widow next door
She's been married seven times before
And every one was a Henry—Henry!
She wouldn't have a Willy or a Sam—no Sam!
I'm her eighth old man, I'm Henry—"
"—Henry the eighth I am!"
"If you don't stop, I am going to punch you in the mouth!"
Melody laughed at Seto's back and stretched.
"Maybe we should stop for lunch," she suggested.
"No."
"No?"
"I want to get out of here as soon as possible."
"Yeah yeah yeah." She swung the bag onto her other shoulder, staggering slightly when the weight hit her legs. "What time is it?"
He glanced at his watch.
"Almost seven, Domino time. Novosibirsk is two hours earlier than Kyoto so…almost five."
"How you holdin up?"
"I'm fine, Solo. Would you be quiet?"
"Ya know, if we're gonna be stuck here for who knows how long, you might as well be nice to me."
"Me?" Seto turned to raise an eyebrow at her. "You're the one that started throwing rocks earlier like a spoiled brat, not me."
"Oh yeah, like you're so much more mature than I am."
"Glad you can admit it."
"Jerk."
"Again with the insults?" He started walking again and she fell into step with him. Or at least, she tried. With his legs so much longer than hers, she could only match every other step. It bugged her.
"I thought you said you were a writer," he said accusingly.
"I never said I was a writer, not to you." She narrowed her eyes. "Did Mokuba tell you?"
"He might have mentioned something."
"I thought you didn't talk to your brother."
Seto whirled on her and she froze, her stomach clenching, her eyes wide at the feel of his anger slamming into her.
"I'll take your sarcasm," he said, his voice hard and cold. "I'll take your insults. But talk about my brother that way again, and I will leave you here to freeze to death. Do you understand me?"
She opened her mouth and closed it, her senses flooding with the testosterone coming off him. His eyes glinted like twin sapphires, as hard and cold as his voice. She could lose herself in those eyes.
"Do you understand me!"
Or not. Melody glared back, resisting the urge to turn her own amber eyes yellow.
"Forget it, Kaiba. Forget I said anything."
"This isn't one of your stories, Solo! You can't hit backspace here. It doesn't work that way. Quit trying to shirk out of what you do; it's annoying and you need to grow up!"
"Don't tell me what to do, you stupid prick! You're no better than I am, Mr. Buy-out-a-company-and-bankrupt-some-idiot-just-so-you-can-get-a-piece-of-cardboard! How dare you try to tell me what to do! You know nothing about me; just forget everything!"
"Don't you worry! As soon as we get back to Domino, your name'll just be a nasty taste in my mouth and you can keep running to New York or wherever it is you need to go to get some kind of penance for whatever it is you screwed up."
"I don't need penance! I could've let you die earlier and then all my problems would be over! It's your fault I can't call for help, ya know. If it weren't for you, I'd already be home in New York!"
"Oh you poor little rich girl, I feel so sorry for you."
She blinked.
"How did you—"
"I'm not stupid, Solo. Only two people can live in such an expensive city and then just up and leave it for one of the most expensive countries in the world: criminals and rich kids. And you don't have the guts to be a criminal."
"I do too. I've gone through more than you could ever dream of."
"Oh, you are so pathetic! You think just because one bad thing happened in your life, you have the right to play the martyr. You know nothing of the world, Solo. You have no idea what's out there. They will eat you up and spit you out if you keep going like this and you will not always have your cute little family to fall back on! Now, grow up, grow a set, and, for once in your miserable life, act like in adult!"
Melody squeezed her eyes shut, a few drop of moisture slipping out the corners of her eyes. But when she looked up at him, her face was set in the same blank mask he so often used.
"Then, by all means, let's get you home, Mr. Kaiba. I'd hate to see you as such a pretty corpse." Glaring, she shoved past him into the underbrush.
"Solo!"
"It's growing dark," she called back. "Do hurry up before the wolves get you."
He pursed his lips.
"It's not the wolves I'm worried about."
They made it another two hours before Seto began to stagger. The day had not gone well, even by his standards. Technically, it was in his best interest to be nice to her, but she took everything the wrong way. And she was just so childish! If she could fight intelligently he might have a different opinion of her but outside of the public arena, she just turned everything around because she couldn't say anything on her own.
Where was that woman from the dinner? She had opinions, intelligence, fire. In another world, he might have found her attractive but somehow, between then and now, she'd degenerated into a spoiled brat. It all came from that stupid habit of hers to try and redo everything. He knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt now.
Seto weaved slightly and his vision jumped again. He knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Where had he been going with this? He was thinking about how childish Melody was, and he was about to draw some conclusion about it. He couldn't remember now. It felt like a cloud of cold fog had wrapped around his brain, slowing his thoughts, hindering his movements.
"Kaiba."
He managed to glare back at the girl, who had started to build a fire pit at the base of a tree. They must be fairly close to the timberline but a semi-sparse pine forest still managed to thrive in the icy ground. It was shelter, in any case, and Seto couldn't exactly be picky.
"What?"
"Come here. Let me check your shoulder."
"It's fine."
The girl rolled her eyes and went back to tending the tiny fire. When had she gathered tinder? Had he zoned out that much? Shaking his head, Seto sat down on the other side of the fire and waited while she fed larger limbs into the flames.
"So are you going to give me something to eat or would you rather I hunt something myself?" he asked. Melody threw a bag of chips at him.
"What? No catty comeback?"
"Kaiba, I'm cold, I'm tired, and my head hurts from fighting with you all day. If you're not gonna let me check your shoulder, I'm going to bed."
With that, she flopped over on her side and closed her eyes. Seto just blinked at her.
Maybe I was too hard on her today? He shook his head. Nah. I could've been a lot worse.
~~*~~
Four days passed this way, each day worse than the last. Atemu could only get a few things out of the magic shop owner, a hippie with one too many blunts in his lungs, and ended up searching Ryou's apartment directly. Bakura was long gone, taking clothes, toiletries, and whatever supplies he'd bought from the store.
A pentagram covered the living room floor, drawn with chalk and covered in silver dust and drops of black wax. In the middle of the pentagram sat a small, ceramic figurine of Ammit, the monster of the underworld that eats the hearts of people who fail Maat's feather test, and a broken figure of Horus, the protector of the Pharaoh. It was a childish message but a powerful one all the same. Ammit had devoured Horus, as Bakura, with his twisted sense of right and wrong, aimed to devour Atemu and the others. And while Atemu didn't have the Millennium Puzzle anymore, he still had some strength of his own.
Reaching out with the part of his mind that had always heard the Shadows, the Pharaoh followed Bakura's trail all over Domino and into Kyoto and the mountains beyond. Sometimes he would only miss them by a few minutes, but each time he missed them, he felt Ryou grow weaker. Time was running out for the boy. If this took much longer, Bakura might not have a host at all.
Yugi ended up literally worrying himself sick at the hospital, forcing the doctors to admit him and put him on complete bed rest. The others, while shaken from Bakura's meddling, had recovered for the most part but were in no condition to leave the hospital and wouldn't be for another few weeks.
Mokuba had decided it would be better to behave for a while, making Scott think he had won. Gradually, the paranoid traitor let up his hold and by the end of the fourth day, Mokuba felt it was time to leave. He booked a ticket to San Francisco on the office computer, knowing they would track him, then snuck down the maintenance stairs at Kaiba Corp. From there, he made his way to the pier in the next city, aiming to stow away on a ship to Hong Kong. Atemu found him walking along the side of the road and convinced him to help him look for Ryou instead because, as he put it, it would "be his hide" if Kaiba found out Atemu had let the youngest Kaiba out of his sight. From then on, the two stayed in hotels, an aggravatingly close step behind the tomb-robber.
On the other side of world, Siegfried and Elsa made preparations to forcibly take Kaiba Corporation. A fake search for Mokuba and some expertly forged documents, and the police had no choice but to let the two Austrian tycoons move into Domino City's power base.
Meanwhile, in what felt like the middle of nowhere, Seto had grown steadily worse. Though he was as stubborn as ever, Melody kept smelling something black and nasty floating around him. On the second day, she noticed an inflammation around the wound in his shoulder and a slight heat coming from his forehead. By the fourth day, thin red lines snaked out from the wound and up his collarbone. Blood poisoning. Infection had set in, and they were out of whiskey.
~~*~~
"Hey! Helloooooo. Blue eyes!" Melody clapped in front of his face and he jumped.
"What?" he snapped. She eyed him nervously.
"Maybe we should stop for a rest."
"I'm fine." He clenched his teeth, staring hard at the ground in front of him, but his eyes still looked fuzzy. Melody shivered and looked up at the sky.
"Solo! Let's go!" His words slurred together, worse than this morning. Melody could feel his aura fluctuating, pulling in too close to his body. It used to spread out, an almost visible force that intimidated everyone nearby. When he walked into a room, people acknowledged it, even respected it.
He felt so quiet now.
"A storm's coming," she said at last. Dark, roiling clouds covered the horizon, filled with glaring eyes and gaping mouths. She shook her head. Ada was right. She had the imagination from Hell.
"We need to find some shelter, Kaiba." Even though, after the other night, letting him freeze sounded disturbingly good.
"We're…fine…" He staggered, slipped on a patch of pine needles.
"Seto!" She grabbed his arm to steady him and he cried out. "Oh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Kaiba, I didn't mean to…Here. Here, sit down."
He managed a weak glare but let her push him down onto a boulder. Frigid blasts of wind blew down from the north. She shivered.
"Okay, Ada told me what to do, we just…Bugger!"
"What?" Seto tried to focus on her face. "Just what?"
"Don't rush me, I'm thinking." She stared up at the sky again. "I don't remember. I don't remember! Melkor take it, how hard is it to remember a few woodcraft tricks!"
"Melody." He latched onto her wrist, a surprisingly strong grip given his condition, and she froze. "I'm sorry…I yelled at you…You're a smart girl…but you're panicking again…Now calm down…and tell me…what we need to do…"
She could feel his stubborn strength, his steadiness like water flowing around her hand. Her heartbeat slowed slightly and she took a deep breath.
"The wind's blowing too fast for a fire. We need to find shelter from the blizzard before the temperature drops."
"Fine." Seto closed his eyes then slowly opened them again. He was getting nauseous. She could feel his fever rising, smell the sweat on his forehead. The wind whipped her hair into her face, stinging her neck and catching on the hood of her sweatshirt.
"Okay," she said. "Okay, this boulder will work, and those trees. It's too late to build a lean-to. Give me your coat." She took the coat before he could say anything then with a couple waves of her hand, a trench of snow opened up on the other side of the boulder, deep enough to reach the ground.
"My feet are cold…"
"I'm hurrying, blue eyes. I'm hurrying." She threw the coat down into the trench. "Take off your shirt."
"What?"
"Just do it!" Seto Kaiba was one of the strongest, none-preternatural Alphas she knew of but, regardless of the type, a stern enough tone will get any Alpha's attention. In his addled state, Seto struggled to obey and just the fact that he listened tied her stomach in knots.
"I-I can't feel my hands…"
The wind howled around them now, snapping them with little snow and ice crystals.
"Never mind your hands, hon. Let's get the rest of you warm first. And for the record, I really didn't mean to do this."
He passed out before he could ask.
~~*~~
"A blizzard's coming up, sir." A young man dressed in black fatigues clicked a few more keys on his laptop. "Any trail they left will be gone by morning."
A dark haired man with mutton-chop whiskers flicked his cigarette out the window of the truck then rolled up the window.
"Freddy, what did we find at the crash?"
"Um…tracks?"
"And in the jet itself?"
"Blood. Lots of blood. One of them bled towards the cockpit—we found a piece of bloody metal at the site—and the other bled towards the back from a piece of a chair. That blood pool was a lot bigger."
"Good boy. And which way were the tracks going?"
"South."
"And that means they're heading to Novosibirsk. It's the only city big enough for any kind of public transportation and that prick'll wanna get back to his little brother as fast as possible. But with the blood loss, I'd say they won't even make it through this storm."
"Oh. Okay, guess that means our job's half done."
"Nice when Nature helps out, isn't it? Get some rest, Freddy. John," he tapped the driver on the shoulder. "Pull up somewhere so we can catch some zees. We still need to find the bodies to get paid."
~~*~~
"I'm telling you, Temu, we need to go left."
"Mokuba, I've been here a thousand times with Yugi and Grandpa. I know where I'm going."
Mokuba rolled his eyes and sat back in his seat.
"We've been driving for three hours. I'm tired and hungry, you're fried and irritable, and, to top it off, we're running low on gas and we have no cash."
"If you're tired, sleep. And we have plenty of cash. Just because we can't use you're credit card, doesn't mean we're destitute. And I am not irritable."
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Mokuba!" The Pharaoh shot a look at the boy, who turned to stare out the window.
"I could have found my brother by now."
Atemu sighed and propped his elbow on the door.
"Mokuba, I know you're worried about Kaiba but I need your help here. You are the only one that can help me find Ryou and that boy is weakening every day, maybe even every hour. I cannot do this on my own."
Rubbing his eyes, Mokuba leaned his head back and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he crossed his legs in the seat.
"Okay, Temu. What do we know for sure?"
"Bakura is skilled in Ancient Magic, more than just Egypt. From the items he bought from that magic store, I would say he knows a great deal about witchcraft and necromancy as well. I also found a pentagram on the floor of Ryou's apartment. Do you know this symbol?"
"I know it. The star inside a circle to echo the five pointed star in apples and stuff."
Atemu gave him an incredulous look and the boy shrugged with a sheepish grin.
"I read a lot."
"Very good. The pentagram was used in some of our more obscure rituals to symbolize the four cardinal directions and one to honor the sun."
"So…what, is he trying to summon a Duel Monster?"
"Not exactly. The circle is a boundary for collection spells, usually to summon or conjure something. From the feel of that apartment, I think he's collecting different essences, different aspects of the soul. A skilled enough magician can even capture emotions and I think Bakura's collecting from a sister, lover, friend, brother, and father."
Mokuba's eyes widened.
"Theresa, Mai, Tea, Joey, and Seto. Wait, Joey and Seto are both brothers. Who's the father?"
"Kaiba. Think about it, Mokuba. Your brother is like a father to you. Joey looks after Serenity but she still has her mother. I think Kaiba got targeted because of his parental role in your life. He's the only parent you have and because he's male, he fits the profile for someone born in an extreme patriarchal society."
"But the crash was probably planned by someone in London. Siegfried von Schroider and Elsa Seiler have moved in; they practically own Kaiba Corp now."
"Then we need to get you back home."
"No! That's the thing, Temu, as long as I'm out of their reach, they can't force me to hand over the company. Right now, all it looks like is that I went to San Francisco to find Duke Devlin and get him to help find my brother. I'm away from the company because I'm an immature kid worried about Seto and they moved in illegally because neither me, nor Seto would sign those papers and everyone knows that but they can't prove it yet."
"Wow," Atemu said quietly. "You've really thought of this."
"Course I have. No one else will."
Atemu opened his mouth to say something else when something white darted in front of the car. He swerved.
"No, wait!" Someone cried. "Stop! Stop, please!"
"It's Ryou!" Mokuba yelled. Atemu pulled over to the side of the road and the dark-haired boy jumped out.
"Ryou?"
The white-haired teen stood in the middle of the road, shaking violently, his clothes hanging off his frame in tatters.
"Pharaoh…" His voice sounded weak, dry, as if he hadn't had anything to drink in days. The other two hurried to his side and led him back to the car.
"Ryou, what happened?" Mokuba asked. "Are you okay? Where've you been? Why didn't you call?"
"Water first, young one." Atemu reached into his bag in the back seat then ushered Ryou into the back and handed him a water bottle. While the white-haired teen drank, Atemu and Mokuba noticed dozens of new cuts on his arms, and a couple on his neck. Dark circles hung under his bloodshot eyes and his hair fell awkwardly over his face, as if he'd pulled at it for hours and ripped some of it out.
Mokuba shut and locked the doors and Atemu turned the car back on.
"What happened, Ryou?" Atemu asked, pulling onto the road.
"No, don't go this way. Bakura has a trap for you at the next bridge."
"How did you get away from him?"
"I don't know." Ryou took another drink. "He's been acting really weird lately. Nightmares. Memories." The boy sobbed into the water bottle and rubbed his eyes. "I can still hear the screams. They won't leave him alone."
"Who, Ryou?" Mokuba asked, his voice trained to what he used on scared animals that snuck into the Kaiba Corp warehouses. "Has Bakura hurt you?"
"No. No, it's not him. It's not—AAH!!" He threw his hands up to defend himself, thrashing at something they couldn't see. Mokuba grabbed his hands, trying to keep him from hurting himself, but the wiry teen was a lot stronger than he looked. Atemu hit the gas.
"Just a little longer, Ryou, hang on!"
"NO! Yami, make them stop! Yami!"
Atemu glanced into the rearview mirror, his heart clenching at the sight. Suddenly Ryou threw his head back, his mouth and eyes wide, tears sliding down his cheeks. His entire body tensed, his back arching further than should be humanly possible.
"Atemu?" Mokuba asked. Atemu looked again. Shadows clawed at Ryou, writhing around his skin, wrapping up his limbs, pouring out of his mouth.
"Bakura, let him go!" He tried to pull over but the car wouldn't respond. Ryou gagged.
"Bakura! As your Pharaoh, I command you to let him go! You're hurting him!"
The white-haired boy started laughing, a harsh, mocking sound, and the wheel started turning wildly. The car swerved back and forth across the road, making Mokuba scream.
"You're too late, Pharaoh!" Bakura growled. He snapped his head down and glared at them through his bangs, his eyes red as blood. "The boy is ours! You cannot win this time! HA!" He launched himself through the window, vanishing into the darkness. Atemu called after him, grappling for the wheel, and the car skid to a stop on the side of the road.
The two sat there, panting, for a full five minutes. Finally, Atemu stirred.
"Mokuba?"
"I'm okay. Maybe…maybe we should go back to the Game Shop or something. Look up Seto's locket and maybe you can…I dunno, scry for Bakura."
"Yes. Yes, that sounds good." Prying his hands off the steering wheel, Atemu shifted gears, turned the car around, and headed for home.
"We'll start again tomorrow."
"Right. In the daylight."
When they got back to Domino, they checked into a hotel on the outskirts of the city. The search for Mokuba hadn't led them to the Game Shop yet but all they needed was one fan screaming "Moku-Chan" and the entire force of Irmgard and Schroider Corp would descend on the tiny little Game Shop. They could wait a little longer.
"All right, I'll try calling Isis again," Atemu said, letting his hair out of its band.
"And I'll see if I can hack into the company's satellites." The boy plopped down on the couch and opened up his laptop. He and Seto used to have a game of who could hack into the mainframe faster then rebuild the security so that the other one couldn't crack it. They would bet all number of things on the winner of each round, but the prize most often ended up as chocolate. Unknown to the rest of the world, Seto had an enormous sweet tooth and with his superior hacking skills, he usually satisfied it.
But his skills weren't that superior. Flexing his hands, Mokuba proceeded to go through every back, side, and trap door he knew of. Unfortunately, Siegfried von Schroider knew more than just how to brush his hair to a high gloss. He'd rebooted the system, accessing lower level files while keeping the higher level files behind the firewall Seto designed. Mokuba had locked it when he escaped but he still whistled through his teeth at the sheer amount of information Siegfried could now access. No wonder he was Seto's main rival.
That Seiler chick was good too. He'd known of her for years, even googled her once when she tried to flirt with him over the phone before she realized he was still in middle school. She couldn't handle computers as well but she could manipulate people like a master puppeteer. She'd rearranged every guard shift and round so that the corner offices, already under high security, were virtually unreachable. All the other employees, financial and public relations people in particular, now stood to gain hundreds of more dollars if they could make the illegal takeover seem like a smooth merger to the press.
Of course, nothing but Schroider's meddling stood out this clear. It took Mokuba over two hours to find the orders then translate the subtle, well-worded messages into blunt, one-line threats. At length, the boy sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"Are you all right?" Atemu asked. Mokuba nodded with a yawn.
"Seto usually deciphers all this legal jargon, not me." He then told Atemu what he'd found. The Pharaoh leaned forward on his knees, lacing his fingers.
"As long as there are rulers, there will always be a separate language of power. What about the satellites?"
"I'm getting there."
"Be careful, child. They could track you."
Mokuba scoffed, his slender fingers flying over the keys.
"I doubt that. I'm jumping all over the place. San Fran, Denmark, Belgium, Lisbon, Quebec. It'd be like trying to unravel the wires in your brain."
"Yes, you are a Kaiba." The older man leaned back and stretched while Mokuba accessed one of the satellites used for the Battle City Duel Disks. "What are you looking for again?"
"His locket." He held up his own to show him. "Our lockets act as key cards for the highest level programs but they also act as homing beacons. Seto had that part installed the second time I got kidnapped. Ya know, with the rare hunters? Did you get a hold of Isis?"
"No. I didn't even get her message service."
"It's called a voicemail, Temu. Okay, satellite's looking."
Suddenly the lights flickered. Static snaked across the monitor and Mokuba smacked the side.
"Oh come on, don't do this to me. Someone must have hit a power line."
Atemu frowned. His gaze focused inward as he slowly stood and walked over to the window.
"No. Hurry, Mokuba. Shadows surround this place. Bakura won't let us get very far if he can help it."
"I'm trying, I'm trying. NO!" The screen went black, then blue with basic computer alerts, then back to his desktop. "Stupid—the system kicked me out! They must've found me or thought they had an intruder and shut it all down. I can't try and get back in now or they'll find me for sure! Dang it!"
"How far were you?"
"Not very. All I know is he's still in Russia. Or his locket is anyway." Mokuba swore under his breath and leaned back into the couch. Atemu smiled gently.
"Don't think like that, child. And don't swear."
"Seto does."
"You're not Seto."
"Yeah." Sighing, the black-haired boy blinked slowly up at the ceiling. "Wait. What did they used to call Bakura? Back in Egypt?"
"Tomb robber, thief, street rat, demon…"
"No, like a title. Thief Lord?"
"Thief King, though he was hardly material for a king. He was arrogant, abrasive, over-achieving—"
Mokuba tuned the ranting Pharaoh out and typed "Thief King Bakura" into Google's search bar. It was a long shot but at this point, they couldn't do much else. After a few seconds, the results appeared. The first few talked about Battle City and the God Cards. The next five had nothing to do with Bakura at all. Mokuba pursed his lips and scrolled down.
"Hey. I think I found something."
"About Bakura?"
"No. But look at this." He clicked the link and a red web page decorated with purple drapes and gold crowns popped up. "It's a research paper by a student from the University of Cairo."
"Cairo? That's…Thebes?"
"Yeah, I think so. This guy says he's found proof of a thief king line in the ancient world, from Egypt to Babylon to Persia, Macedonia, all over the Mediterranean.
"The thief king has even been thought to be a thief queen, robbing nobility
and wealthy merchants. With each new ruler of the underworld, the crimes became more vicious and the thief king or queen more elusive. I have
reason to believe these thief lords are connected based on their method of operation and target choice, seeming to attack people involved in the black
arts or the supernatural dealings of the day."
Mokuba scrolled down to four pictures of ruins and two more of ancient fresco paintings.
"What if all these thief kings and queens are connected a little more than they think? They don't say anything about the ring, but there's this unspoken rule about those, right?"
"There have been several expeditions concerning my reign but the tomb-keepers have been very careful about keeping the Millennium Items a myth."
"Okay, so there's no mention of the Millennium Ring but…what if…what if the thief lords aren't just copy-cat thieves? I mean, I know every major city and every civilization has their Godfather but…is it too crazy to think the ring has something to do with all these?"
"It does say they attacked dealers in the supernatural." Atemu folded his arms and stroked his chin in thought. "I never learned everything about how the ring works but I do know that Bakura has been conscious these three thousand years, while I have been locked in the puzzle, virtually asleep."
"So he's been body hopping. Going from host to host."
"It's very possible."
"What did you say that spell was for again?"
"Collections used to summon or create."
"And the different aspects are different sides of a person's life. Different relationships."
"Without which a person's life is void and empty." Atemu stared hard at the laptop. "Like theirs. Millennium Items have been known to extend a person's life but even with ten more years, for Bakura to be awake for three thousand years, he'd have to have…"
"At least a dozen hosts."
"He's not trying to summon a monster. He's trying to summon a body. And he's using the essence of the different pains to fuel the pentagram."
"Why doesn't he just make a body or buy one or something?"
"He is." Atemu turned to look Mokuba in the eye.
"He's using Ryou as the raw material."
