Chapter 20

He hadn't had the chance to try and speak with his Daiosen again, meaning the grownups were now short the one piece of information which could have made their job so much easier. Sighing, he stared through the bars of his sister's crib, as his parents and the other teenage adults stood about discussing what to do next. Behind him, Jo moved about as much as her infantile body would allow. Since her little power display the day before, she'd started behaving more like he'd wanted her too. It made him happy to know she truly was his equal, but didn't make her any more useful to him in this situation than she already was.

Then again it wasn't as though he was going to be much use in this situation either. His one and only opportunity to help had slipped through his fingers, all because his mothers and the other women had come back too soon. It frustrated him, but there was nothing he could do about it, other than watch and pray things turned out the way he wanted them too. His sister made a slight gurgling noise, causing him to turn his attention towards her.

'Jo, three,' a babyish smile pulled at his lips.

To his amusement, three of his alphabet blocks appeared in the crib next to them. Giggling, he clapped his hands in appreciation. Then his eyes caught sight of which three blocks they were; L, A, T. Much to his annoyance, his sister could already spell.

'So we have no Jay, no SK and no idea why anyone would want to kidnap Téa, Mai and Kaiba,' Duke sighed.

'Maybe it's not Téa, Mai and Kaiba,' Catilin tilted her head to one side, 'maybe it's Téa, Mai and Piper. You said it was Piper who left right?' Her eyes turned towards Tristan.

'It was her clothing missing,' Tristan rolled his eyes and turned his head away, 'but what would anyone want with Piper.'

'What would anyone want with Kaiba?' Joey shook his head. 'Just because you're gay doesn't mean the rest of the world is. Besides, it makes more sense for it to be Piper, you said yourself it was her clothes missing and since the other two known victims are Mai and Téa...'

'Known victims?' Tristan cut him off. 'What is this, some kind of police investigation?'

'Not yet it isn't,' Yugi sighed, 'but only because I managed to convince Téa's parents to hold off calling the police again just yet. They weren't happy and it was hard trying to bluff a believable reason without exposing... all this,' he vaguely indicated around him, 'but I'm not sure how long their patience will hold out for.'

'Then we really need to start figuring this whole mess out,' Duke began massaging his temples, 'so maybe we should treat this like some kind of police investigation, get a board and timelines and whatever else going.'

'Well I can do you a white board,' Joey casually flicked his hand causing a large free standing white board to appear in the middle of the room.

'Okay, where did that come from?'

'At the moment Crovell and Jo are the only infants on Sil, at some point they're going to need to be educated and I'm still not sure whether that's going to happen here or on Earth,' he averted his gaze, 'I figured it would be good to have one round just in case.'

'Well I guess it's nice to know you're actually thinking about your kids' futures,' Duke made his way towards the white board and picked up one of the pens. 'Okay, so this is what we know so far; at various points yesterday Mai, Téa and Kaiba all went missing,' he scrawled their names onto the board and circled them, 'SK was unexpectedly transferred onto Liekta Dayena's Council and Jay... disappeared,' he put a question mark under Jay's name. 'We know from SK, Jay was acting really weird after Nayta's death yesterday, but what we don't know is if he's another victim or if he's somehow involved in the kidnapping itself.'

'I don't like the patterns you're drawing,' Catilin frowned at him, 'you're making it sound like its Jay and I can't believe it's Jay.'

'And neither can I,' Ahna folded his arms. 'I know he doesn't exactly have the best track record, but I honestly don't think he would do something like this. Not without a good reason.'

'Maybe he does have a good reason,' Covo pressed his lips together, 'we just don't know what it is yet.'

'Why are we stood around looking for reasons anyway,' Tristan folded his arms and half turned away from them. 'We should be out there looking for them; all we're doing right now is wasting time. Or do we only actually look for people when they happen to be your son,' he glared at Joey.

'When Crovell went missing we knew how and where he went missing,' Joey gritted his teeth. 'We have no idea who would want to kidnap Mai, Téa and Kaiba, let alone how they managed to do it. Think about it Tristan, Mai and Téa might have had limited abilities to defend themselves, but even if it was Piper who was taken and not your precious Kaiba, she still has access to the Pure's powers. So why didn't she defend herself? We can't risk going out there until we at least have some idea what we're up against.'

'So what, in the meantime Mai, Téa and Seto are just supposed to wait around and suffer whatever kind of torture their captor is putting them through,' Tristan shook his head, 'I don't think so.'

'I agree with Tristan,' Mokuba nodded.

'Yeah and exactly how medicated are both of you right now?' Joey's eyes flicked between them.

'Don't you dare pull the mental health card on this one Wheeler,' Tristan met and held his gaze, 'or so help me...'

'For what it's worth, I think we should be looking,' Duke cut them off. 'I know we don't have a whole lot to go on, but I don't think that's going to change unless we actually get some clue or evidence or... whatever and we're sure as hell not going to find any arguing like this.'

'Don't you think I know that?' Joey turned on him. 'My wife and sister...' he cut himself off. 'Mai, Téa and Kaiba are all out there somewhere, being held by someone strong enough to capture and contain the Pure. That frightens me.'

'It frightens me too,' Yugi pulled a face, 'but... I just keep feeling like we should be out there doing something.'

'Okay, fine, but we're not all going,' Joey rolled his eyes, 'Ahna and Cat, I want you two to stay here and try to figure this situation out.'

'Why us?' Ahna frowned.

'Because if anyone can see this situation for what it is then its Cat and at least one of my kids should be with their mother right now.'

'I understand,' she nodded, 'just be careful, okay?'

After his multiple escape attempts the day before, Dayena had stuck SK in her personal library for the day. Round almost every single corner was one of her council members, silently keeping an eye on him. Every time he spotted one of them he felt himself groan; if this was the method she used to make people accept their deaths it was a wonder anyone ever did. Not that he believed for a second that was the real reason for his transfer, of course. No the real reason was something far more sinister, he just didn't know what it was yet.

Sighing, he ran his hand along the bindings of several thick books as he made his way through Dayena's library. Pulling one out, he quickly thumbed through it. Something told him Dayena had put him in here for a reason and the only way he was going to find it was by looking. It took several attempts; several different leather bound books, before the name Octan Tessin Cayta leapt out of the page at him. He may not have been working for Dayena for long, but he did know most of these books logged the time and date of death of every living person since the beginning of human existence. He also knew from things Jay had told him Octan's death shouldn't have been logged.

Octan's demise had been the Boy's doing and was caused by a Status Swap, rather than a physical death. Octan had technically died without dying and, just as it wouldn't have if his death had been part of a spell or ritual which required the removal of physical remains from existence in order to work, it didn't count as a death and therefore didn't get logged. But that wasn't the only irregularity about the entry; the time and date were also inconsistent with what he knew of Octan. In fact, the time and date were the same as Jay's. Frowning, he began to scan through the book for Jay's entry. But it wasn't in there. Taking the next book down from the shelf, he continued his search. Still nothing.

'This can't be right,' his tongue skated across his lips as he reached for another book.

'What can't?' A voice pricked from behind him.

Turning round, he saw a pretty blonde, with bright green eyes, dressed in a short black tunic, watching him.

'You're SK, right?' A brief smile flashed across her face. 'Our new recruit.'

'Yeah,' he nodded, 'and you are?'

'Elizabeth David,' she held her hand out towards him. 'Dee decided you might benefit from a little one on one death coaching. So if there's anything I can help you with...'

'There is actually,' he cut her off, 'I'm looking for my friend and he doesn't appear to be in here.'

'That's not exactly what I meant...'

'I know, but it's important, please.'

'Okay,' her face filled with a bewildered smile, 'what's his name and which year did he die?'

'Jay Richard Peters and nineteen sixty-eight.'

'Okay,' she turned towards the shelves and pulled down another book before quickly thumbing through it. 'It should be in here somewhere and I should know; I logged that particular entry myself. Pretty exciting too, almost as soon as his name was on the paper he was whisked away to the Mistresses' Council, very VIP.'

'I bet,' he licked his lips, 'so have you been working for Lady Dayena for long then?'

'Only my whole afterlife.'

'And how long is that?'

'Two hundred years next Tuesday.'

'Wow,' he almost chocked.

'You act like that's a long time, it's actually pretty average for...' she trailed off as a deep frown crossed her face. 'Well that's odd.'

'What is?' SK's tongue skated across his lips again.

'His log entry is missing.'

'What do you mean, missing?'

'I mean, it's not there; it's just a blank line on the page. Very odd.'

'Well if it helps, Octan has an entry for that day.'

'Really?' Elizabeth almost laughed in surprise. 'I mean, I know Dee joked to me about adding him in; after all he did technically die when Jay did, but I didn't think she actually would.'

'I can show you if you like,' he picked up the book and thumbed through to the entry. 'Here.'

'But... I don't understand... that's my handwriting,' she blinked in disbelief.

'You sure?'

'Positive. But that doesn't make any sense; I swear on my life I never logged him. I logged Jay.'

'Things aren't always what they appear,' his tongue made several more passes across his lips. 'Tell me, are we allowed to access Liekta Arrena's library?'

'Technically no, but I'm trusted by both Ladies; they'd make an exception for me, I'm sure,' her face filled with a serious look. 'When Dee suddenly transferred you like that I didn't think much of it; everyone knows the Mistresses' current Helper has done everything in his power not to accept his death.'

'Thanks,' he rolled his eyes, 'it's nice to know what people really think of me.'

'It's not like anyone thinks less of you for it; considering everything you've been through since accepting the post... But, well the old Mistresses' Council members were loved by everyone and nobody's really felt comfortable since they... you know. So it made sense for Dee to want to... lessen that feeling of discomfort by making you more accessible. Like I said, your transfer really didn't seem that strange to me; until this morning when Dayena was so insistent I be the one to help you.'

'I take it she wouldn't normally ask you to do something like this?'

'No, I've helped people before, but I've never been ordered to help anyone before. And now I find someone's been messing with my work; this can't be a coincidence, something's going on here and I'm going to do everything in my power to help you.'

'Why?'

'Because somebody changed my log entry SK and I really, really hate it when people mess with my work.'