Chapter 25

SK was starting to feel strangely tired. He didn't know if it was a side effect of the Kaiba's control over him or something which had been subconsciously programmed into him, but either way it was starting to make the whole idea of communicating a real drag. Still there were things he needed to get across, so as much as it pained him to do it he had no choice but to try.

'SK think storm not good,' he made a slight noise of disgust at himself, before sighing and just accepting this was how he had to talk now.

'You think this storm is a bad thing?' Yugi frowned at him.

'Power make things crazy,' he tilted his head to one side. 'Seto, Tristan, power,' he made sparking gestures with his fingers and hoped the others would follow his train of thoughts.

'You think they're acting this way because of the storm,' Joey folded his arms. 'It is possible I guess, but even so, what's the point to any of this?'

'Maybe they're trying to depose you,' Yugi pressed his lips together. 'It wouldn't be the first time the Pure's made a power play.'

'Yes, but the last time she only did it because she was emotional and upset because of Win's...' Joey trailed off before shaking his head. 'She may not always agree with me, but she understands I need to be in control for a reason.'

'Yes, but she also thinks things need to change,' he half turned away, 'more so now than ever and her feelings on the matter are a lot stronger than you might think. If this storm is magnifying everything then maybe...'

'Why can't my baby sister just accept her place in all this?'

'Win,' SK licked his lips, 'both acting,' he sparked his hands again, 'remember?'

'If Win's personality and traits aren't divided equally amongst the hosts it is possible that the Pure is taking advantage of Tristan's need to change things.' Yugi tilted his head to one side.

'So the storm starts just as Tristan rocks back into town and magnifies his craziness which in turn sparks off the Pure's craziness which means she's then influencing him whilst he's influencing her?' Duke cocked an eyebrow. 'Is that really the logic we're trying to go with here?'

'Whatever the truth its time my sister and I confronted them,' Joey flicked some of the hair out of his eyes, 'it's the only way we're going to resolve this.'

'Great,' Téa grinned, 'we'll help.'

'I don't think so,' he shook his head, 'you and Duke are both powerless and SK is useless to us in his current state. The three of you are to stay here.'

'But…' Téa began to protest, but before she could get any further Joey and Yugi had disappeared. 'I can't believe they're leaving us out again. Tristan's our friend too; we should be able to help him.'

'But it's not Joey and Yugi going to help Tristan,' Duke shook his head, 'it's the First and the Face of Friendship going to help their sister and Win. It really doesn't have anything to do with us,' he began fiddling with something inside his breast pocket.

'Duke think something help?' SK licked his lips, then growled at the nonsensical nature of his statement.

'Hm?' Duke frowned at him.

'Duke think know something?' He tried again. 'Something might help?'

'I... uh...' Duke hesitated for a moment, before pulling an envelope out of his breast pocket. 'Tristan gave this to me; he said I was only to open it if something happened to him.'

'And you haven't opened it yet because?' Téa cocked an eyebrow at him.

'Honestly, I'm a little afraid of what it might say,' he stared at it. 'What if I read what's written and it doesn't explain anything or worse, what if it explains everything.'

'How would knowing everything be worse than knowing nothing?'

'I don't know; I just... get this really weird feeling about it. Tristan trusts me to know when to open it and right now I don't feel like it's the time.'

'Then let me open it,' Téa took the envelope off of him, 'problem solved, right.'

'Wrong,' SK took the envelope off of her as his tongue skated across his lips. 'Tristan say Duke know then Duke know,' he attempted to hand the envelope back to Duke who hesitated as he reached for it.

'SK you should open it,' Duke's words sounded dry. 'It's not as though you can really tell us what it says right now and at least this way you'll have more of a clue what's going on. Téa and I don't need that yet because there's really not a whole lot we can do regardless of what we know. But you... you could really do with this information right now.'

'Okay,' SK nodded, before taking a deep breath in.

His hands trembled slightly as he opened the envelope. Duke was right, whatever was in here could explain everything or nothing and either way it was just as bad. At least in the not knowing you could speculate safely without worrying too much. SK swallowed hard as he pulled the document out of the envelope and scanned over it. A deep frown pulled its way across his face and he found himself scanning the document a few more times before giving it a more in-depth reading just to be sure he wasn't losing his mind. A numb feeling moved through him as he folded the document back up, placed it inside the envelope and handed it back to Duke.

'Well?' Téa stared at him. 'Does it explain everything or not?'

'The... the s-storm...' SK licked his lips again as he tried to force a full sentence out, 'the... the s-storm didn't... didn't make... make them crazy.'

Mai's insides felt as though they were trapped on some funfair ride, whilst the rest of her was still on solid ground. The longer Kaiba and Tristan remained where they were instead of going after the mother the worse the feeling became. She couldn't understand it. They knew as well as she did that the height of the storm was fast approaching, so why were they being so calm about it. What did that know that she didn't?

Just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore a strange smile appeared on Kaiba's face and he took a step towards the entrance of the chamber they were in.

'They're coming.'

'They're coming?' The weight of the words felt heavy inside of Mai's mouth as though she had no idea what they meant. 'You mean... all this time... the mother was coming to us?

'I would have liked to have guided her here,' Tristan smirked, 'but it was never really necessary. She would have come no matter what, because how else could she do what's best for her child.'

'You think giving the child to you is what's best for it?' Mai tried to shake the fuzzy feeling she was filled with.

'You'll agree with us too when you find out who the mother is,' he shrugged.

'Why, who is she?'

'Patience Mai, you'll find out very soon,' Tristan's eyes focused on the entrance.

The sound of voices echoed down the corridor outside. Mai could tell from the way they were getting louder that the owners of the voices were quickly approaching. For a moment a deep frown formed on her face, then she remembered what Kaiba and Tristan had said about the mother not being alone. The fuzzy cloud which hung over her brain lifted slightly as she sensed a great power approaching with the group. A power which resonated out of the weapons each of them were holding when they finally entered the room. But despite this it wasn't the weapons Mai found herself focusing on.

'Catilin? Ahna? Jay?' The words fell out of her mouth before she could stop them. 'But… but… but…'

'Mai,' Catilin took a step towards her, her eyes filled with the confusion of a little girl.

'I don't believe this,' Jay focused his gaze on Tristan and Kaiba, 'you're the ones after Ahna's baby? You're what we're here to stop?'

'And you just walked yourselves right into a trap,' Kaiba chuckled. 'We knew with SK out of the way you wouldn't be able to resist the chance to redeem yourself. You're so predictable.'

'We already figured this might be a trap,' he pointed his Sword towards Kaiba, 'why do you think we came prepared?'

Kaiba laughed again and reached a hand towards him, within seconds Jay was struggling to stand upright. It was a battle he quickly lost as he was brought down to his knees.

'Did you really think those weapons could stand up to us?' Tristan took a step towards him, flicking his hand to one side in order to telekinetically disarm Jay. 'Those weapons were made for us, both when we created them originally and the recreations Ahna's ancestors forged.'

'We never intended for the gods to have those weapons long term,' Kaiba lowered his head slightly. 'My sisters and I knew exactly what would happen to them, but we also knew it needed to be done. How else were we going to get the weapons down to the mortal plane without our children kicking off?'

'And now you've brought them back to where they belong,' Tristan folded his arms, 'how very noble of you.'

'I won't let you hurt Ahna,' the fourth member of their group, the young man Mai didn't recognise, took up a position in front of Ahna and held the shield out in front of him.

'Covo don't be a fool,' Ahna placed a hand on his shoulder, 'you're not dealing with normal mortals right now. One of them is the host of the Pure.'

'What?' Covo glanced towards her. 'You're kidding, right?'

'Does she look like she's kidding?' Tristan lowered his head slightly.

'Uh...'

Before the boy identified as Covo could say anything else, Tristan used the same telekinetic technique to disarm him that he'd used on Jay. He then refolded his arms as a smug look filled his face.

'We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way,' Kaiba took a step towards them. 'But either way that child belongs with us.'