Chapter 12

Lus had stayed out all night and, for the first time since he'd disappeared, Yugi was starting to feel genuinely worried about his son. Across the table from him, Téa's cold gaze held his. There was no avoiding her silent accusations and he was beginning to feel extremely guilty for not showing more concern the night before.

'I'm sure he's fine,' a forced smile made its way across his face.

She said nothing. Instead she rose from the table and left the room. Shuddering at her coldness, Yugi sighed and stared blankly down at the table in front of him. In a few moments he'd motivate himself to leave the house in search of his son again, but for now he just wanted to sit there and dwell over the million worse case scenarios spinning round in his mind.

But, despite everything, he still didn't feel as though his son were in any kind of danger. For a moment he found himself checking the underside of his wrist to make sure there was no tattoo showing. He then flicked an energy ball into his hand just to make absolute certain his powers were available to him. Everything appeared to be working the way it should be, so either he was still pretty convinced his son wasn't in any kind of danger or he genuinely wasn't.

Still it didn't really matter if he was in trouble or not, the problem was they didn't know where he was. As Yugi made his way into the hallway and grabbed his coat one single prevailing thought filled his head; Lus had been out long enough, it was time to bring him home.


'I don't feel right about doing this,' nervously he bit his lip.

'You were fine about it last night.'

'Yes, but that's before I realised you were serious,' he shot him a look. 'What you're doing is dangerous.'

'Don't you mean what we're doing Lus?' Crovell laughed as he placed an arm around his neck. 'You're as much a part of this as I am.'

'I haven't done anything yet,' he gritted his teeth, 'neither of us have; we can still stop this.'

'Not an option.'

'But... what if things go wrong? What if…?'

'Things won't go wrong Lus,' he cut him off, 'not if you stick to the plan.'

'And if I don't?'

'Then you'll be responsible for orphaning one of your best friends. Same thing goes if you back out of helping me now.'

'When did you turn into such a monster,' he stared at him.

'Oh trust me Lus, I'm no monster. Now use your power on me.'

Lus hesitated for a moment, before closing his eyes and concentrating on Crovell's form. Carefully he then imagined that form slipping into nothing, piece by piece, until it was completely invisible to the naked eye. Opening his eyes again he glanced up to where the older boy had been standing; he was half relieved, half terrified to see him completely gone.

'Your power is still the best Lus,' Crovell's voice sounded more than vaguely amused, 'and the more it advances, the more impressed I become with it.'

'Thanks...'

'You're still worried, aren't you?'

'How can I not be? Seriously Crovell, it's not too late...'

'Oh but it is. It was too late the moment you followed me out of the house yesterday. You're a good boy Lus, but you're working for Chaos now; be careful not to forget that.'


Lazily he sighed and snuggled back into the bed. On his chest, he could feel the weight of his partner's head resting against him; sixteen years of bliss and nothing had changed between them. Somewhere in his mind he found himself thinking back to a time when things weren't like this; a time when he didn't think of the love of his life as anything more than an annoyance in a group full of annoyances. It was weird how uncomfortable the thought made him, but it wasn't the first time he'd had it recently. Ever since Taylor had first announced the project he wanted to work on with his cousins Kaiba had been thinking more and more about his past; wondering what he would change if he had the chance or even if he would change anything at all.

Sighing again, he gently stroked his lover's hair as a soft smile formed on his lips. Their relationship worked because of everything they'd suffered through together, if he had to it all again he wouldn't change a thing. Closing his eyes, he allowed his mind to indulge in half formed dreams, before the loud sound of voices and a sudden chill around him alerted him to the fact something was amiss.

'Hey, what's the hold up?' Joey's voice sounded arrogantly from nearby. 'When are we going to find out who we duel, Kaiba?'

'Huh?'

His eyes flung open and for the first few seconds everything was too bright, too sharp and too clear for him to make heads or tails of it. When he finally got over the shock of being able to see, he was amazed to find himself standing in the large dining hall of the airship he'd used to host the first half of the Battle City Finals almost eighteen years ago. He took an unsteady step back, wishing for an almost surreal moment someone would come along and take his vision away again or at least make it more like the well tuned haze he experienced in his dreams; anything to make the reality of the situation he was in somehow less strange.

'Hey rich boy stop stop ignoring me and answer my question already; what's the hold up?'

'Oh right,' he forced himself to regain some composure and just go along with what was happening. 'Let's begin this now,' he spoke into the communications device on his collar.

'Sorry Mister Kaiba,' a voice sounded back, 'but only seven finalists are present; shall I bring up the eighth?'

'Yes, now,' he kept his voice as level as possible as he tried to remember exactly what his actions had been. 'Let's go,' he turned his attention towards a stage at one end of the room, as the lights dimmed and a random ball generator rose from the base of it.

'Huh? What's that thing?' Joey face took on the expression of a completely clueless moron, reminding Kaiba exactly why he'd had no real respect for him to begin with.

An awed silence descended upon the room and as it did he allowed his gaze to drift curiously towards Tristan. Unfortunately his future lover appeared to be just as fascinated by what was happening as the group surrounding him and instantly Kaiba's heart sunk. It wasn't his Tristan and whatever was happening to him, he was in it alone.

'Finalists and guests,' the suit standing beside the machine began, returning Kaiba's gaze to its previous focus, 'may I have your attention please, now, the first two duellists for round one will be chosen by lottery.'

'What's the jackpot?' Mai's voice drolled with sarcasm.

'To guarantee fairness,' the suit continued, 'each pair of opponents will be chosen completely at random. You've all been assigned a number from one through eight. This selector will now choose the first two numbers.'

'Yugi vs Bakura,' Kaiba couldn't help but murmur under his breath.

'What did you say?' Mokuba eyes turned curiously up towards him.

'Nothing,' he gritted his teeth.

It was weird, even though he knew the Mokuba stood next to him was not the one who'd abandoned his children, just knowing he'd grow up into that Mokuba made Kaiba feel a mild amount of resentment towards him. Still now wasn't the time to think about things like that. Now was the time to try and figure out just what the hell was going on.

'The second pair of numbers will not be drawn until the winner is declared in the first duel,' the suit brought his attention back towards the machine, 'thus you will not know your opponent identity until just before you duel.'

Again, Kaiba's eyes couldn't help but glance towards Tristan. If he remembered this situation correctly, now would be the time for him to make some lame pun about the selection system. But there was nothing. Curiously confused he was unable to shift his gaze away from him. Could he have been wrong? Could this be his Tristan?

'I'm fighting the urge to yell out bingo,' Tristan turned towards Duke, dashing all of Kaiba's hopes in one incredibly lame line.

Sighing heavily, he once again turned his attention back towards the stage. If he had to live through this all again, so be it; it would be worth it to end up where he'd been before. He just had to make sure he didn't screw up. The only problem was being so near, yet so far away from the love of his life was just about going to kill him. He'd only been living it for a few minutes so far and he already couldn't stand it.