Chapter 12
DECEMBER 21; 11:20 AM
Ryo
I slipped into Joey's room, carrying a plate of food that I was planning on using to bribe him awake. "Joey, you need to wake up now!"
Joey groaned at first, pulling the blanket over his head. Then he uncovered his head again, sniffing. "Breakfast in bed?"
"You can eat first, but then I need you to wake up Mai. I'll be busy trying to wake up Kaiba."
"Wha, lazybones isn't awake yet? What time is it?"
"Almost eleven-thirty. The Pharaoh told me to let you sleep."
"When did he show up?"
I smiled. "You were unconscious." Then I stared at his plate; where did all that food go? He was as fast as I was! "Now anyway," I disregarded that question as unimportant, "you have to wake Mai."
"How's Yugi?" he asked as he got up.
"The Pharaoh told me to let him sleep a little longer than you. I plan to wake him up in time for lunch."
Joey grinned foolishly at me.
"Mai…" I reminded him with a smile.
"Right! Going!" And with that, he ran out the door.
I sighed and went to Kaiba's room.
He still looked asleep, with a frown on his face. What was he dreaming about?
"Kaiba, it's time to wake up." I carefully shook his shoulder. I mean, let's face it, Kaiba's a more powerful psi than I am. I don't want him to get mad at me.
He rolled over. "Go away."
Well, if he can use telepathy, then he's definitely awake. I tried again. "Kaiba, what about our plans for today?"
He had evidently decided to ignore me.
After trying for about five minutes, Joey came in to see me. "Didn't you get him to move yet?"
I glared at him. "I thought you were going to wake up Mai."
"I did. Need some help?"
I sighed and stepped back.
Joey stepped up to the bed and looked like he was considering the situation. Then he leaned over. "Kai-ba…today was when we were going to rescue your girl-friend, remember?"
Suddenly, Joey went flying backwards into the wall!
Looking back, I saw that Kaiba had rolled onto his side facing us, and was glaring at Joey. "She's not my girlfriend, Wheeler."
Wincing from the impact, Joey retorted, "You don't deny that you like her, though. Come on, get up; I had my breakfast, now you need yours."
12 NOON
Yugi
I stretched and yawned. My dreams had been very strange. What had woken me up?
"Yugi…"
"Bakura? Is that you?"
"Yes. It's time for you to get up. You need to eat so that you have the strength for our rescue mission."
Oh. "Okay." I got up and glanced at my nightstand. Lying there was a small pocket-sized statue of a human being curled up. Horus. It's nice to see what he actually looks like. I picked it up as I left, I mean why not?
Everyone was together in the main cafeteria. Joey, Mai and Kaiba all had their statues sitting in front of them. I joined them and we all ate in silence. I didn't have to read anyone's minds to know we were all thinking about Anya, and hoping she was okay.
"Well," I said when we were done, "we'd better get what we need and go."
"I already thought of that," Pegasus said, displaying the box we saw in the arena. "Joseph told me about the amulets that give power, and while everyone else was eating, I went and got them."
"And I have Houou," Tea added, holding up the phoenix-ball as Pegasus distributed the energy-medallions evenly among the duelists. There were about twenty in the box.
"Wow." For a moment, I wasn't sure what to say - it seemed like everyone was ahead of me. Then, I asked the obvious question. "Who's coming with us?" By "us," I meant me, Bakura and Kaiba, and that came through in my mind.
Joey, Tristan, and Tea were predictable after everything we've been through. "We're coming!"
Mai looked almost offended that I suggested she stay behind. "Well, I'm going: someone's got to keep Joey out of trouble!"
Joey beamed at her. "I love you too, Mai."
She socked him. Why aren't I surprised?
Pegasus raised his hand. "I'm coming along; if I stayed here, I'd end up so bored!" And he set his hand to his forehead, as if being bored would be the worst affliction in the world. What a ham.
Kaiba rolled his eyes, but answered, "If you insist. But you're not riding with me."
Seto
"Well, that brings up an interesting point," Mai spoke up, "who's riding with whom? Most of us have monsters that can fly, but…not all of us can summon monsters."
Yugi hesitated. "Well…Horus my magician can fly, but not with more than one passenger easily."
"So you'll be riding alone," I finished, "meaning everyone else needs to find a different partner."
Amazingly, Yugi didn't take any idiotic offense.
Once we got outside, all of us called our monsters. Soon, two dragons, a griffin, and a tall magician stood looking at us, alongside…Houou? Oh, Tea must have summoned her.
I leaped up onto Morpheus' back and looked down. "Bakura, you're coming with me." I was determined to get there first.
He looked a little nervous, but he let me lift him up in front of me.
I decided to be a good boy and wait for everyone else to sort themselves out.
Wheeler looked up; his dragon was almost the same size as Morpheus. "Ah…Hotaru? Could you maybe bend down a bit further?"
Hotaru looked decidedly amused, but he did.
"Okay," he looked behind him, "who's riding with me?"
Tristan decided to go with him, and Tea mounted up behind Mai on Solana's back, tossing Houou's statue-ball to Pegasus.
"So I'm riding the lovely bird?" he cracked.
Houou gave me a look that I could easily read as "this is going to be a long flight." But she lowered down to let him mount anyway.
Horus picked up Yugi, and we all took flight.
"All right, Bakura," I asked, "where's Anya?"
Bakura pulled out a compass that he'd apparently made the same way as we duelists had made our spirit-statues, and closed his eyes. The needle spun and finally pointed off towards the east.
That was all the direction I needed; Morpheus spun off, with the others following close behind.
IN FLIGHT; 1:20 PM
I needed something to distract myself, even temporarily. But the only thing worth any attention was Bakura's compass.
Well…why not? "How does that compass work, anyway?"
Bakura seemed surprised that I was asking him that. But he answered anyway. "It lets me track what I want it to track."
"Could anyone else use it?"
He cocked his head, studying it. "Well…anyone else could, I suppose…but only I can control it."
Huh? That didn't make any sense.
It must have leaked past my shields, for he elaborated, "I can track whatever I need to, whether I really want to or not. Anyone else…it would only point the way to whatever they want the most."
"Oh." After a minute, I asked, "Can I hold it, or would that throw it off our course to Anya?"
"Um…" He studied me. "You said yesterday that you were in love with Kisara. If you want to save her really badly, then we'd stay on course no matter which of us is holding the compass." And he held it out to me.
I took it carefully and held it up. The needle spun wildly for a moment, but then steadied out again – still pointing the direction we were flying.
I'm coming, Kisara; coming to prove my worth. And with any luck, no one else was listening.
