Chapter Twenty

As told from the perspective of Mokuba Kaiba-

At 5:30p sharp, Seto was waiting impatiently by the front door. "Come on, Mokuba; it's a long flight," he commanded.

I frowned back up at the double-doors at the top of our staircase. I'd definitely seen her this afternoon so I knew that it wasn't that nobody'd wished her out of the card… Did Kisara decide that she didn't want to come to the party, or that she would attract too much attention...? I pleaded with her, in my mind, to show up...

"Mokuba!" Seto snapped again.

I sighed and walked towards him. I guess Kisara could, like, fly to Pegasus' party if she wanted to. I was disappointed by that, too, though… traveling in style in the helicopter was part of the experience that I wanted her to have… "What are you waiting for? Did you forget something?" Seto continued, obviously ruffled.

"Um... I guess not," I sighed, in defeat. The butlers held the doors open for us and Seto's foot was halfway out the door before I heard Kisara shriek, "Wait!"from the top of the staircase. My heart leapt- "Kisara, really, there's-" Seto began angrily, but he couldn't finish the sentence once he turned around.

Kisara was standing at the top of the staircase, staring with huge worried eyes down at us. She was ...stunningly, unbelievably beautiful. Her hair had been drawn up into several buns on the top of her head, pinned together by a lily that matched the one fastened to Seto's lapel. Jewels hung from her ears and lied lightly around her wrists.

The dress that we had designed couldn't have accentuated her better- the body of it was the color of Seto's tuxedo and the trimmings that flowed off of the sides was the same light-blue that lined the edges of Seto's jacket and pants. Fantastic! I loved it. Every single thing was just so perfect.

I was beaming at her as she walked down the stairs towards us, cheerfully saying, "I am sorry if I am late!" Her grace was just incredible- she glided over to us and happily kissed Seto on the cheek.

She and I were both were amused by how it was extremely obvious that he was not breathing. He was staring, lips parted, at Kisara- finally, he inhaled somewhat sharply and whimpered, "Kisara... I..." he swallowed and smiled and said, "Unbelievable. I thought that it wasn't possible for you to be any more beautiful."

As we walked to the helicopter (Kisara in the lead, eager to ride in a helicopter), Seto looked down at me and quietly asked, "Was it your idea that she come to the party?"

I nodded and beamed up at him. He kissed the top of my head and we all climbed into the helicopter, bound for Pegasus' island.

As told from the perspective of Joey Wheeler-

Téa, Yugi, Tristan, Serenity and I stood in front of Pegasus' castle in the private Duelist Kingdom island at 8:00p that night. It was actually really cool- Pegasus had sent a private jet to come pick us up and bring us here. The flight had been a few hours, but it didn't affect our moods.

I was feeling confident and strong. Everyone looked good. Téa and Serenity were beautiful in their long ball gowns- Téa's was slinky; a velvet, deep blue with sparkling gold jewels sewn into it all over; Serenity's was shimmering and silver with a lot of rhinestones stuck to the bodice of it. Tristan matched her completely, much to my dismay- his collared tuxedo was completely made of the same satin gray stuff. He had a silver pocketwatch's chain hanging out of his pocket. Yugi matched Téa in the same way that Tristan matched Serenity- tuxedo made completely out of the same material and color. He was the only one out of us who was wearing a cummerbund. Cuff links shined gold on the edges of his wrists and ankles.

And, me- I looked good. I was wearing all-black, with the edges of the jacket and pants trimmed in a forest green. My shirt, too, was black- tie, green. I also had matching silk green gloves. I flipped the long tails of my coat. Yeahhhh.

"Cool," Tristan said, running a hand through his hair. He had gelled and slicked it back; he looked extremely different without the large spike on the top of his head. He (and Yugi, I guess,) was the only one whose hair was staying in place; it was very windy out here, by the ocean. Téa had put her hair into a low bun, but it was starting to fall, from the wind. "This'll be awesome."

Of course we had brought all of our Millennium Items. I knew that Tristan was wearing the Key under his shirt. Yugi looked silly with the Millennium Puzzle hanging from his neck while in a suit, but Téa had been clever: the Tauk was wrapped around her hair bun. The Scales were tough to carry around- I had stowed them in a black leather briefcase and was carrying them with me that way.

The sound of a helicopter was on the horizon. Kaiba. I was surprised he was even coming, after all of the funny antics that Pegasus had pulled lately. Yugi looked up at the sky, noticing the noise, too. "Hey, look, it's Kaiba's chopper," he said, pointing upwards.

We all waited as the helicopter landed a few yards away from us. The door to the aircraft slid open and Kaiba and Mokuba jumped out. I frowned. Of course they were decked in the finest outfits that their enormous amounts of money could buy. Their tuxedos matched- both pearl-colored, both had colored trimming around the edges of their jackets and pants, with single stripes going down their arms and legs- Kaiba's was a sky-blue, Mokuba's, a dusty purple. Large lilies that matched their individual color schemes were pinned to the left sides of their chests, and long capes hung to their ankles, suspended by golden buttons on their shoulders. They both looked… well, very, very wealthy. Douchebaggy, maybe.

Kaiba approached us. A girl who matched him, and Mokuba, were following him. "Good evening, dolts," he said carelessly. Mokuba adjusted his purple bow tie… I noticed enormous diamond rings on each of his hands. It was now, now that they were standing immediately side-to-side, that I realized how tall that Mokuba was getting- Kaiba was now only a head and a half taller than he was, which was really saying something. "Let's go," Kaiba continued. "I'm sure that Pegasus would be annoyed if we kept him waiting to torture us any longer."

The brothers and the girl walked past our group. We followed them into the building. I gasped aloud upon seeing the inside of the building. Everything was decorated lavishly. Statues of Toon monsters were spread out, everywhere. It was kind of cheesy-looking, but also kind of cool… in the center of the room, there was a large fountain, and dinner tables were set up near the walls. Near the fountain there appeared to be a kind of dance floor. An orchestra was playing classical music on a balcony.

"Pegasus sure knows his interior decorating, doesn't he," Tristan muttered, looking around, like I was. "Yeah," I said. It was kind of hilarious. I could see that all of the plates and cups and crap were big goblets and had big jewels on them and were red and sparkly and stupid-looking. If they weren't obviously made of porcelain and glass and stuff I'd have felt like we were going to be served on plastic kiddie plates.

We were then greeted by a beaming, black-eyed Pegasus. I had to suppress a laugh… he had taken off all of his bandages, and it appeared that he had tried to cover up his facial wounds with makeup. Like, actual makeup… wow. There was a sort of powder foundation that attempted to hide his bruised nose and the three-inch-long laceration on his right cheek. I'd consider pitying him if he wasn't so creepy already. Who gave him makeup? Did he actually have a fashion designer who did his makeup? I wondered how often he actually wore makeup. He'd probably look okay with a coral-colored lipstick or something. …I had to remember to go watch a lot of porn later to make up for the fact that I knew what coral lipstick looked like.

"Good evening, kids!" he said, jovially. He was completely at-home with all of these people, like this. "You never cease to amaze me with how good you all look! Make yourselves at home. I'll start my speeches in a little while. I'm sure you'll know some of the other guests."

I actually didn't particularly like the sound of that… my instincts were proved correct when Pegasus looked over our shoulders and chirped, "Zieg-boy!"

I turned around and saw good ol' Ziegfried von Schroder walking through the door. I had never seen anyone look quite so flamboyant. He was wearing a large fur coat (in July?) with pink trimming and had pulled his long, freaky pink hair forward over his shoulders, and he had this really hilarious-looking feathery weird hat thing on his head. He was smiling widely at everyone. He said, "Ah, Pegasus!" happily.

The men greeted each other with giant, cheery hugs. Then, Ziegfried offered to shake Kaiba's hand (he declined angrily and excused himself. Mokuba followed him) and then turned to me, frowned, and said, "Vhat is a duelist of your caliber doing at a party like zis? I didn't expect Herr Pegasus to be so lenient with ze guest list, much less letting you control a Millennium Item!"

He chuckled darkly and walked away, content with torturing me and not greeting Yugi or anyone else who was with me. Furious, I turned to Tristan and asked him if he happened to have a piece of paper with him- Téa overheard me ask this, and said, "I have a notepad in my purse."

"Let me borrow it," I seethed. She handed me a small notepad and a pen. I flipped to the first blank piece of paper and scribbled a message on it, tore it out of the notebook, took the piece of gum out of my mouth and stuck the paper to it. Then, I said, "Ziegfried! Wait up!"

He turned around lazily and said, "Joseph, I am sick of seeing you. Vhat do you want," carelessly.

I approached him cheerily. "Look," I said. "I think we got off to a bad start the other day and… well, back at Kaiba's tournament." I patted him squarely on the back. "I just want'ta say it's good to see you again."

He frowned and said, "You vaste your time, Joseph," and turned away. But, this was fine. I had to say that a sign that read "I take it up the ass" complimented his furry coat quite nicely.

Later, it was almost dinnertime. People were still standing around, and Tristan and I were roaming the ballroom, checking out everything (and in my case, everybody). "What's that," Tristan asked and pointed down.

A little white wrapped thing was on the ground. I'd never seen that before. It almost looked like candy but it had no logo or anything. "I don't know, dude," I replied. "Can we eat it?"

"It's on the ground, I don't want to eat it," Tristan muttered.

"Yeah," I said. He and I just stood over it for a while, staring at it. Was it a toy? Like, a fast-food action figure? Who dropped it?

"What are you guys looking at?" the white-haired girl who came with Kaiba asked. She looked down at what we were looking down at. "I have never seen that before," she whispered.

"Yeah, we don't know what it is either," Tristan said. "Maybe it's candy."

"People like candy," the girl said and nodded. "Then, this thing must be good."

I shrugged. "Kisara? Kisara, what are you doing over here-" Kaiba asked, coming up from behind us, too- he looked at me and Tristan and asked, "why do you all look so much stupider and more clueless than usual?"

"Seto, we do not know what this thing is," the girl told him, excited. "Do you know what this thing is?"

Kaiba looked down at the ground, his eyes widened, and then he looked back at us and frowned. "Really," he growled. "You are all captivated by this?" Téa walked over too, before I had time to ask Kaiba what it is- Téa sighed hopelessly and said, "Joey and Tristan… sometimes, a woman experiences a cycle which regards cleaning herself up and preventing spills-"

Horror washed over me. Really? This was a tampon? Sick, dude! Tristan and I gasped aloud and shrieked in disgust, and the white-haired girl began, "I do not understand, how do you use-" but Kaiba dragged her away. Téa sighed. "Leave it alone, guys. It's not gross. It's not used or anything."

Tristan's eyes got huge. "No. No, no, no, I got a great idea," he gasped. "I don't care that it's not used, it's hilarious. Hold on. Joey- I'm gonna use the Millennium Key to take off the wrapper and put it in Ziegfried's hairpiece thing."

I stuffed my fist into my mouth and bent over from uncontrollable laughter- I wiped tears out of my eyes and gasped, "oh my gosh do it, oh my gosh do it-"

"Okay help me guide it," Tristan whispered. "We gotta make this seem low-key."

Téa rolled her eyes and said, "No, I'm not even going to be a part of this. No, I'm walking away."

"Okay bye," I told her. "Okay so lift it up…" Tristan pulled the Key out from under his buttoned jacket and then pointed it at the tampon. He twisted the Key and the wrapper peeled off. Then he slowly levitated the unwrapped tampon about two feet into the air.

"Okay keep it about here," I told him. "There's enough people that we can probably keep it hidden if we keep it at this level."

"Yeah that's good," Tristan muttered. "Okay, now, let's walk together so it can be between us and hide."

"Yeah okay," I said approvingly. I was shaking with freaking uncontrollable laughter. This was so hilarious. This was one of the best luckiest pranks we'd ever played. Tristan and I were geniuses. Absolutely. We walked casually near where Ziegfried was standing- luckily he was near a huge group of people.

"Okay careful…" Tristan muttered, tilting the Key upwards- the tampon flew up to my shoulder-level. "Are you blocking it from view?" he asked me.

"Yeah I got this," I muttered, shifting so that my shoulder hid it from Ziegfried. "Okay, ready to land it on his hat thing?"

"Ready."

It was noisy over here. I raised my arm and yelled, "Hey, Yugi! Yugi, where'd you go?" Tristan made the tampon fling, hidden behind my arm, and land securely on Ziegfried's hairpiece. He didn't even flinch. He totally didn't notice. Yugi looked over his shoulder at me from about twenty feet away. "What, Joey?"

Forcing myself not to laugh, forcing myself not to laugh, forcing myself not to laugh, I responded, "Oh nothing, forget about it," and Tristan and I shuffled away out of the front doors and once we were out the front doors we burst into the biggest laughing fit we'd ever had- keeled over, leaning on each other for support because we were just absolutely dying- Ziegfried was walking around with a tampon in his hair and a sign on his back- it was the funniest shit I'd ever seen, the absolute funniest shit I'd ever seen-

"Oh my gosh, Joey, I mean it," Tristan cried, rubbing his eyes. "We are so awesome. We define awesome."

"We are the definition of awesome." I agreed with him, slapping him on the back. "Come on, I'm hungry after all'a that awesome."

It was dinnertime, fortunately- everyone was getting served. We sat at one of the long tables with Kaiba and Mokuba (the very-well-adorned Ziegfried was at another nearby table). Sitting between Téa and Tristan, I noticed that several girls at a nearby table were staring at Kaiba and giggling; I could hear them going on about how striking he looked, and how they thought that the girl sitting next to Kaiba wasn't that pretty. I frowned. Either he couldn't hear them, or he was completely ignoring them. Was he used to this sort of attention? They were all pretty girls. How come Kaiba always got the crushes? Yeah, maybe he was handsome… but, he was a handsome douchebag.

I lowered my voice so that Kaiba couldn't hear me speak. Mokuba, Yugi and Téa were sitting between us, so I knew that he was far enough away that I could diss him behind his back. "What does Kaiba got that I don't," I muttered grumpily to Tristan, still looking over my shoulder at the girls.

"About a hundred trillion dollars," he replied, immediately, halfway through a bite of steak. Téa snorted into her water glass; Serenity, on the other side of Tristan, giggled. Tristan wiped his mouth with his napkin and then said, "We've already discussed his giant schlong, too, you know."

I snorted and jammed part of a baked potato into my mouth and chewed on it angrily. My schlong was big, too, damnit…! Even my dad knew that I could stick it in my ass!

Mokuba's little girlfriend skipped up to him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, which made his face go spectacularly red. The girl had good timing- as soon as she properly greeted Mokuba, livelier music suddenly started to play. Téa got up. "Can we dance, Yugi? I'd love to dance!"

Yugi sheepishly got up, and so did Mokuba and his date as well as Tristan and Serenity. Lots of people were getting up to go dance- now would be a great time for me to find a date, too!

I started scouring the room for potential pretty girls that weren't flirting with Kaiba. But, then I noticed something that distracted me even from that: Pegasus.

He was sitting at a table, alone. He was leaning his head forward in his hands, but I could still see his face… his good eye was kind of blurry and blank. His mouth was just slightly open. I watched him slyly for a minute or two. He never blinked.

Startled, I went over to him. "Yo, Pegasus…" I began.

He did nothing. He only continued staring forward, completely lifelessly. I waved my hand in front of his face. "Pegasus," I said, slightly louder.

Still, he did nothing. Now I was scared. Was he having a stroke? Seizure? I put my thumb on his wrist- he didn't react at all to my touch. I could feel his pulse. It was kind of slow, but… but, steady, which was strange… what the hell was wrong with him?

I had to go tell someone. If this was Millennium- Item related, then I had to tell Yugi or something…

At least Yugi was easy to spot in a crowd. I ran up to him on the dance floor. "Yugi," I said, having to shout to be heard over the music and lively chatter.

"What," he replied loudly, from being tangled around Téa. "Can it wait, Joey? I'm kind of busy…"

"No, dude- Pegasus is-"

A new song started playing: I soon recognized that it was the opening chords for "Fun." Téa shrieked, "Oh, I love this song!" and dragged Yugi closer to the speakers. Yugi shouted, "Talk to me about it later, Joey!" as he left.

Crap. Okay, so I had to find Tristan now. At least he was easy to find, too, because his suit was silver and caught even the low light really well. I found him on the other side of the dance floor… and watched him leap on the little stage that the speakers were set up on, and grab the microphone and immediately start singing "Fun" as loud as he could.

Damn. I ran up to the stage and tugged at Tristan's pant leg. "Tristan, can I talk to you-" I began, but Tristan kicked my hand out of the way and didn't stop singing. Serenity stood next to me and giggled, "It's okay, Joey. He's treating me well on our date! Don't worry."

"No, but- that's not what I'm tryin' to-" I began, but Serenity patted my back and continued, "Please don't yell at him. Really! I'm having a good time dancing here."

"It's important!" I shrieked, tugging on his ankle again. "Pegasus! Pegasus is-"

Tristan bent down and grabbed Serenity's hand and literally pulled her, as she laughed and laughed, up on the stage, and he kept singing loudly into the microphone, pinning her to his hip, "Come and visit me one-on-one! We'll have fun when the day is done!"

This wasn't going to work. I swore under my breath, but then saw Kaiba at the fondue table, stabbing pieces of steak and broccoli with a skewer. The girl who had come with him wasn't near him. He didn't look too busy to listen to me. I approached him and said, "'Ey, Kaiba-"

"Wheeler, did you know that, in medieval England, people with your intelligence levels were usually stoned to death?" he asked, not even turning around, voice an annoyed monotone.

"Yeah, yeah, funny," I said quickly. "Somethin's wrong-"

"They wouldn't even consider giving you a trial, Wheeler-"

"Look at Pegasus!"

He sighed and set down the plate and looked over his shoulder. "What is he doing," he asked lazily.

"I mean… look at him! Don't you think he looks weird?" Was I going crazy, or was I the only one who noticed that Pegasus's good eye was twitching and that he had some kind of shadow over his face…? Look at him- he was leaning his chin on his folded hands at his own fancy party. Why wouldn't he be up, dancing with his friends, or something? He was catatonic or something!

Kaiba studied him for a moment. At least it looked like he noticed something. "What, you think he's gone crazy? Use your Item on him, if you're worried," he said, turning back towards the table and stabbing more broccolis. I thought about that for a moment. Using my Item wasn't a bad idea at all… that way I could tell if Pegasus was just zoned out, or was having a stroke, or was being possessed…

Ziegfried then walked past us. I stuffed my fist into my mouth again to stop from busting into laughter- the sign was still stuck to his back, and the tampon was still on his hat, and nobody had told him about it! Kaiba lazily looked up when I snickered. When he saw the sign on Ziegfried's back, his eyes widened and he looked at me, lips parted in surprise.

"Looks good on him, don't it," I asked, proud of myself.

"You did that?" Kaiba asked.

"Sure did. Stupid asshole deserves it."

Kaiba looked at Ziegfried again and narrowed his eyes again, and quietly asked, "Is there a tampon on his hat…?" amazed.

"Yeah! Tristan and me put it there. Ziegfried's such a son of a bitch butt hole that we figured he'd had it comin' for a long time."

To my enormous shock, Kaiba laughed. "Good one. I respect that," he said.

"You do?" I asked, amazed.

"Sure," he said, turning back towards the table and drizzling melted cheese over his broccolis. "I hate him more than I hate you. Take it as a compliment. Actually, though, if I might be so bold as to correct you, I've heard through the C.E.O.- gossip chain that it's actually Ziegfried's boyfriend who takes it up the ass…"

"No way! Seriously?" I gasped, only truly somewhat surprised… I had to be sure to go laugh about this with Tristan immediately…

Kaiba looked over his shoulder at me and gave me a look that beamed a message into my head- "…duh, you brainless idiot," and I realized that he had been kidding.

"Wait, was that a joke?" I asked, now completely surprised. He turned around to face me and his eyes widened and sparkled. "Good, Wheeler! I'll have one of my associates get you a biscuit as a reward!"

I was floored. I stammered, "You- but, what- you did it again! You made a joke!"

He narrowed his eyes and frowned at me. "No, I'm bein' serious!" I continued. "You're… funny! I didn't know you were funny! You just made a joke!" I gasped.

"Perhaps you haven't noticed, but I'm exceptionally intelligent. I can be motivated by people whom I detest to invent insults that are comical."

"Kaiba actually has a sense of humor… you learn somethin' new every day," I muttered, still amazed. Now, he looked surprised too- he said, "You learn things? Nuh-uh." Then he turned back to the fondue table. I stood there in silence for a moment before saying "Hey! That was another joke!"

"That one wasn't, really. Go away, Wheeler," he said, annoyed.

I returned to the table and started rooting around for the Millennium Scales. Kaiba sat down at the table next to me while I dug through my bag. The white-haired girl floated over to him. She asked, excitedly, "What are those people doing?"

Kaiba and I both looked over our shoulders at a group of people that were standing behind us. They were dancing. Breakdancing, swinging their hips to the music that Tristan was making (he was now singing his third-or-so karaoke track)...

Kaiba said, softly and gently, "In the modern day, we call those people retards."

"Retard," the girl repeated. "I do not know the word 'retard.'"

"Those people are retards. You can tell, because they're dancing like that. People like that, you're supposed to feel sorry for."

"Oh," the girl muttered sadly. "I am sorry."

"Yes, it's truly a tragedy. Wheeler, here, understands firsthand what it's like to be a retard. Don't you, Wheeler?"

"Yeah," I said, watching those people dance, amused. They really weren't very good.

"But, they look happy," the girl continued, scratching her head.

"That's the way of the retard. They're always happy."

"Then, is it bad to be a retard?"

Kaiba blinked. Even I was surprised at how there wasn't really a good answer to that question. Kaiba said, "Yes, because you end up looking like that."

"Can I be a retard?" the girl laughed. "How do you become a retard?"

"You... you dance like one," Kaiba stammered.

"Will you dance like a retard with me?" the girl asked. She sounded extremely eager. Kaiba's eyes bulged, and I laughed. "You know how to be a retard!" the girl said happily, turning to me. "Will you teach us, Wheeler?"

"Kisara, please," Kaiba groaned, annoyed. "I don't want to dance. Let me eat."

"Okay," the girl said. Her spirit was not dampened. "Does Mokuba know how to dance like a retard? I want to go find him."

She skipped off. Kaiba sat down at the table and then looked down at the Scales in my hand. "Is something happening?" he asked, though it was clear that he didn't really care, before sticking a cheesy broccoli floret into his mouth and chewing on it.

The scales weren't doing anything. I frowned, then worriedly said, "Then… well, Pegasus must be, like, havin' a stroke or somethin'!"

Kaiba just looked up at me, mouth full. He didn't say anything, but I read the message in his eyes: "I don't give a quarter of a damn."

I groaned. "If we don't help him, then this party will go awry and you'll have to spend your own time and your own money havin' a press conference to tell the world that your company is innocent."

Kaiba swallowed his broccoli and sighed. "I have better things to do. You help him, if you think he's dying."

"I am, but-" I began, but then felt completely cold- like, a wave of freezing wind had mysteriously washed over the entire room. Confused, I looked around. The people who were sitting at tables were starting to hold their shoulders. Kaiba said "What the-" next to me. I looked down at him and saw that he was looking at his water glass. I was surprised to just watch the water freeze in the glass, in front of my eyes.

My breath was rising in front of me. Why… it was July. It wasn't supposed to be cold…

Many of the lights blinked off and the music stopped playing. People groaned from the dance floor. It was dim in the room. People were looking around confusedly.

Then I felt something shift in my hand. The Millennium Scale tilted with a loud "thunk" and was at the most possible askew angle that it could be at. Shit. Something terribly evil was in the room, and…

Pegasus leapt out of his chair, overturning his table and sending glasses and plates crashing. Now, people were noticing that something was terribly wrong- people on the dance floor and at nearby tables started shrieking.

With a great crash, Pegasus sent the table soaring- people near him screamed, and from the tip of his finger a shining red light erupted and shot straight for the stage-

"Tristan!" I shrieked- he fell backwards, fell right onto his equipment- he'd been hit, he'd been hit-

And that was when Pegasus looked right into my eyes- and I could feel that he was completely taken over- that he wasn't Pegasus, that he was …something else. That he was a something else that had every intention of harming everyone here-

I knew that seconds were going by- only seconds, but it felt like time had stopped- I couldn't stop looking into his eyes- and then a sort of wind built at my feet and burst around me, and it was suffocating me-

There was a cloud, a cork in my throat- and the world went black.