Chapter 28 "Lamplight"

The group filed through the small entryway that seemed to lead from the crumbled side of the house to the friendlier, less falling apart side. They walked into what appeared to be a small, personal library of sorts. Several large, interconnecting bookshelves took up the majority of the space toward the center of the room and, close to where they came in at, a small desk was nestled into the corner with old notes and books left open. Everything was coated in a respectable amount of dust. Toyo sneezed and sent a cloud up.

Seto laughed and started leading them through the maze of literature, explaining "This was my grandpa's study. I can't really say I know what's all on these shelves, but I'm pretty sure it's most of his personal research."

Zen marveled just a bit, his eyes scanning over the dust covered bindings on the shelves as he passed, "All of this is his research?" He asked, a bit of excitement in his voice, "There must be decades worth of work in here…"

Seto shrugged, stopping in front of a door and fiddling with the doorknob. "Well, he'd been living here for a really long time by the time he found me after I crashed in his yard. And he d-died of old age at that. Is it really surprising that he has all that?" Seto asked, genuinely curious. His attention was pulled back to the door when he finally got the knob to turn, and he grinned a little.

Zen shook his head, following alongside everyone else as the maroon haired boy pushed into the next room, "Well, no. It's not terribly surprising; just a little staggering is all. You know, Seto, you never did really elabo-" The silver haired teen stopped abruptly, losing whatever train of thought he might have been about to embark on. He was not the only one who was hit with this effect, though. This seemed to be everyone but Seto's reaction to the room they had just entered.

Seto had just led them into a large, dim, two-story circular room with a set of doors on the other side. Bookcases were scattered around a little sparsely in this room compared to the one before it, and it looked a lot more lived in than the other room. There were moth bitten blankets and carpets scattered about, and even a couch. Tables were scattered about haphazardly and the same with their accompanying chairs. There was even a little stove set up off to the side, though it was doubtful that it would work at the moment. A single, skinny if elaborate spiral staircase led up to the floor above them, seemingly the only way to reach the second floor. Broken ladders hung down just above head level.

But perhaps the most astonishing thing in the entire room was the large telescope in the center that cut through the floor above them, pointed towards the domed ceiling.

However just like the room before it, everything was coated in a dusting of gray.

Everyone's amazement faded off at differing speeds, but Zen ended up standing with his mouth agape for a good few moments. His red headed best friend waved a hand in front of his face a little worried before shooting Seto a look.

"I think you broke him."

This seemed to break the silver haired teen out of his stupor and he swatted Toyo's hand away from his face, "I am not broken." He stated, absolutely not pouting indignantly in his friend's direction, "I was just appreciating Seto's grandfather's telescope. I don't think I've ever seen one this large outside of a book." He admitted, walking forwards into the huge piece of equipment slowly as everyone began to disperse throughout the room. Sai wandered back into the study while Toyo decided to take a rest on the couch. Crow's first destination was the other set of double doors, which he quickly discovered just led back outside on the opposite side of the house from where they'd come in at.

Seto set about getting some more light into the room and walked over to the large crank that was situated on the far wall. Although it took quite a bit of effort to actually make the thing turned, the maroon haired boy finally managed to do so. The result of this action was a loud, drawn out groan from the metal roof as it began to draw apart and let in sunlight. Dust and dirt cascaded down from above, showing just how long it had been since anyone had opened the roof.

Seto let go of the crank with a proud smile and turned back to face the room, a little surprised when he found that everyone had come back in at some point and were now staring at him.

"What?"

Crow, who had come back in from outside, strutted over and flicked him in the forehead, "Would you warn us before you decide to do something like that? I thought the ceiling was collapsing in." He snapped.

The maroon haired boy flinched back a little at the tone in the pirate's voice and looked around at the other people in the room. They all seemed tense…like they had thought that the house was collapsing or something. Had the noise really startled them that much? He turned to look back at Crow, who was looking at him expectantly and tapping his foot.

"I'm sorry I scared everyone, I just wanted to get some light in here, that's all…" He apologized, making sure to look around at everyone as he said it.

Crow let out a stressed sigh and ran a hand through his hair before he set it on top of Seto's head. "It's all good, I was coming back inside anyways. I needed you for something." Seto looked at him curiously. Crow ruffled his hair once more before he pointed at Sai and Zen, "And Zen and Eye-patch. Toyo, your attendance isn't mandatory for this one." The red head responded to this by flopping even further into the couch.

Sai scowled at the pirate as he began leading the four of them back outside, "I have a name you know."

Crow didn't look back at her, but from where he was Seto saw the smirk forming on his face when he shot back, "Oh, I know."

Sai continued scowling. Zen sighed and shook his head, "Really Crow, you can be so immature." The purple clad pirate actually turned his head and glared at Zen for that one.

"You know, none of this relates to why I brought you guys out here, so we're dropping this." He stated finally, rolling his eyes before he turned his head back around forward.

"And why exactly did you bring us out here?" Sai asked, raising an eyebrow at Crow as he seemed to lead them towards a random spot in the field of grass. Crow didn't immediately answer her, which prompted another scowl, but continued on forward towards whatever their destination was. Seto himself frowned a little, wondering just what the pirate had discovered.

Crow led them to a spot that was about twenty feet away from the house and gestured at seemingly nothing. He received three blank stares. The pirate let out a sigh and gestured again, this time downwards. And once again, for a moment, it looked as if he wasn't actually indicating anything other than a patch of grass, until one took a closer look. Crow was, in fact, bringing their attention to something.

It was completely overgrown with weeds at this point and covered in all manner and form of rust, but they were looking at an odd, bent out of shape thing made of metal that was partly submerged in the ground. The former shape of the thing appeared to have been square-like, if the four prominent pieces of metal were anything to go by. Just sticking out of the ground was the corner of something, though what exactly was up for question.

Crow kicked one of the bits of metal sticking up out of the ground idly, "This is what I brought you out here for." He told the three of them, "Seto, do you have any idea what this is? I mean it looks like junk, but it's like, the only metal thing I've seen in this field that wasn't at your house."

Seto frowned a little pensively down at the heap of twisted metal before he let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "T-That's kinda sorta…the thing I c-crashed down in." He admitted, looking away when the rest of the group look at him in shock. There was a very pregnant pause.

"Ok, you know how you never really wanted to talk about that?" Zen asked, setting his hands on his hips, "Now might be a fantastic time to elaborate. Because I know I'm not the only one wondering how exactly you survived an impact that crippled…" The silver haired boy paused, waving his hand at the remnants of metal in the ground, "…whatever this thing is."

At this point Zen was looking at him rather expectantly. Crow's look was more curious than anything, having only heard an abridged version some months back, and oddly enough so was Sai's. Seto wondered what exactly was going through her mind at the moment. The dark haired girl hadn't spoken much since they'd arrived at the house aside from snarking at Crow. She actually hadn't spoken very much since they'd left Topaz, now that the maroon haired boy actually thought about. It was sort of odd.

The eye patch wearing girl noticed his staring and gave him a sort of bemused look, "Well?" she prompted, "Are we gonna get a crash site explanation or are you just going to stand there awkwardly?"

Seto blushed a little and averted his eyes downward, shuffling his feet. He wasn't being awkward! …Ok, maybe a little, but that was beside the point. "Th-There isn't really a whole lot to tell…" He said, glancing back up at them, "I don't even remember it happening, I was maybe five years old…Grandpa said I was really little. He used to tell me stories of how I just sort of crash landed during his yard during an eclipse, 'like a falling star', he used to say." Seto gave a helpless shrug "That's all I really know, honestly."

Everyone let that information weigh in their minds for a few moments. Although it wasn't particularly useful information at the moment, it certainly was an interesting tidbit. If nothing else it might help them while looking through the old man's records: they had an event to start at now, and could build from there.

Zen let out a sigh, "Alright, I don't think we're going to get much more out of this thing." He stated, turning away from the crash site, "With all the damage done to it, it's probably useless for anything but scrap metal now. I say we head inside and start looking through his notes. We'll probably have more luck there."

"You mean going through all those books?" Crow asked, obviously a little put off by the sheer bulk of their mission.

Zen shrugged and shot his captain a small grin, "What, afraid of a little heavy reading? Besides, we're spending the night anyways, might as well put the time to good use." The navigator said.

"It's not like you'll be doing all the reading yourself, y'know." Sai commented, "I'm pretty interested to see what that old geezer's got written too. This is the best lead I've had on the treasure in months~" Her glee was pretty evident. Crow rolled his eyes and surprisingly kept whatever biting comment he had on the tip of his tongue to himself. Instead he started walking back towards the house, following the other pair who had already started off. He paused and glanced back when he noticed Seto wasn't following him. The maroon haired boy had actually not moved from his spot by the wreckage and was staring down at it.

The purple clad pirate wandered back over and set his head on the maroon haired teen's shoulder, causing his boyfriend to jump at the sudden contact. Seto craned his head a little and shot Crow a confused look. The pirate turned his head to meet the other boy and placed a quick, chaste kiss on his lips. While Seto's face was now covered in a light blush, Crow's was hiding the bit of concern that he felt.

"Are you worrying that pretty little head of yours again?" He asked, moving his head so he could wrap his arms around the other boy from behind.

Seto smiled softly and leaned into Crow's chest, "W-W-well, no, not really. Yes, k-kind of…" He started, stuttering like he always did when Crow started acting affectionate, "It's just…i-it's sort of weird, you know?"

Crow frowned, although his boyfriend couldn't see it, and said "No, I don't know. Enlighten me, I beg of you."

His sarcasm earned him a laugh from the maroon haired boy in his arms, who had finally relaxed a little, "Well…I don't know, I think at some point in my life, I a-accepted that I was never going to know really where I came from. That I just sort of crashed here for no reason…but now? There's people other than me trying to figure it out. I might actually figure out where I'm from…" Seto let out another small, but happy laugh, "It just feels all weird."

Crow grinned a little and kissed the top of Seto's head, "The good kind of weird?"

The maroon haired boy craned his head back and smiled at him, "The good kind of weird."

The pirate gave a small laugh at that and gave the other boy another quick peck on the lips, "Good." He said, unwrapping his arms from around Seto's shoulders and taking his hand, "Now, come on. That's enough emotional reflection for one day. We've got work to do!"


Work went slowly. Once Seto had reiterated that he had absolutely no idea what exactly was on which shelves, everyone set off to try and tackle what reading they could in the time they had. Toyo was the one who had surprisingly hit the jackpot in regards to finding Seto's grandfather's personal research, coming across several volumes that contained notes on what he had thought of the maroon haired boy's flames and ability to see them. Also covered in one of the books were details of the heap of metal that had crashed in his yard, which had resembled a cage of sorts before nature had its way with it. Toyo, however, left all of the heavy reading to Zen and the others, much more inclined to continue looking at some of the more unorthodox books that the old man had kept on his shelves.

Seto was finding that the man he'd come to call his grandfather was actually even smarter than he'd made him out to be. The majority of his research was made up of notes on the sky and meticulously detailed star charts, detailing things that even Zen had a hard time wrapping his head around entirely. The man had traveled a lot before he'd settled down in this field, as his charts detailed the skies of far off lands that Crow said were on the other side of the world. Seto was a little ashamed of himself when it dawned on him how little he actually knew the man who raised him. Then Crow showed him a log that fondly covered the first night Seto had shown his grandfather the fires in the sky, and he decided that he'd known him well enough.

Hours passed and soon the room became too dark to read in. Toyo voted that they stop and continue in the morning.

"It's not even that late yet." Crow pointed out, sitting against one of the bookshelves.

"But we can't read in the dark." Toyo argued, pouting at the pirate from his own spot on the floor. He was sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him, and he looked about ready to fall back onto the floor and just take a nap, "Can't we just regroup tomorrow on this thing?"

"Um…" Both pairs of eyes turned to look at Seto, who'd felt the urge to speak up from his spot by Crow, "We've got some lanterns setting around, w-we could use those if they work…"

Toyo eyed him with a look of pure look of betrayal that almost made the maroon haired boy feel guilty. Almost. Crow rolled his eyes and stood up, stretching as he did so before offering Seto a hand up which the other took gratefully. Toyo huffed a little and did the exact opposite of both of them, falling back dramatically onto the floor. Crow walked over and kicked his leg.

The red haired boy groaned and glared up at his captain, who met the look evenly before Crow just rolled his eyes.

"Come on, get up." No movement, "Don't make me kick you again." Still nothing. "Don't make me get Zen over here." Nope, still nothing, "I'll tell Ren how unhelpful you're being when we get back." Crow smirked triumphantly when that one caused a reaction. Toyo hopped up and dusted himself off, the scowl never leaving his face during the entire process.

"Quit grinning like that. Seriously, you're freaking me out." Toyo complained dejectedly, shooting Seto a small glare when he heard the other trying to stifle a laugh, "Let's just get this over with."

And so they went back to the room containing the large telescope and Seto directed them towards where he remembered the lanterns being on the first floor. Both pirates followed their instructions as the maroon haired boy went to check the second floor. Even with the moonlight filtering in through the open roof the room was terribly dark, which made finding the grimy lanterns all the more of a challenge. Crow found his after a few minutes of searching, finding it far back on one of the shelves. If his grumbling was anything to go by Toyo was having no such luck.

The pirate was just turning around to see if he could help his friend out, when he noticed an odd thing happening with the shadow of the telescope. That being: there was an oddly Seto-like shadow walking on top of it. Crow looked up slowly, hoping that it was just some weird lighting effect and that his boyfriend was not, in fact, pulling some idiotic stunt. His hopes were quickly crushed when he saw the maroon haired boy silhouetted against the moon, arms outstretched and walking away from where the telescope cut through the floor above them. There was a lantern on each of his arms that shook with each ginger step the boy took.

Crow let out an exasperated sigh and rushed up the steps, not sure yet what he was going to do once he got his hands on his idiotic boyfriend. He made it up there at about the time Seto was getting close to the landing. Rolling his eyes once again, the pirate walked over and offered the other his hand. Seto looked a little surprised to see it, but nonetheless smiled and took it as he stepped up onto the landing.

Crow didn't let go right away, "Seriously, is there something with you and stupid stunts today?" He asked. Seto just laughed a little.

"No, I used to do that all the time when I was younger." He said.

"And your old man let you get away with it?" Crow asked, still not letting go as Seto led him back to the stairwell.

The other boy gave a nervous sort of chuckle at the question, "Well, no…not exactly. I kinda did it without his permission." The boy admitted.

Crow perked up curiously at that, "Are you telling me that you, Seto, stick in the mud that you are, were a rebellious little child?" He asked, his voice betraying apparent awe.

He got smacked in the arm for that, and Seto failed to glare at him, "I'm not a stick in the mud!"

Crow laughed, smirking at the other before he playfully ruffled his hair, "No, of course you're not." He conceded, the teasing smirk never leaving his face. Seto stared at him. Crow rolled his eyes and pushed the boy towards the stairs, "Come on, let's get back down there before Toyo decides that our vanishing means that he doesn't have to keep working."

Seto grinned a little at that and took the lead going downstairs, "Can't have that happening, huh?" He asked, "Watch your step."

Crow shrugged the warning off and follow the other back downstairs. The trip was uneventful until they reached the base of the stairs, when a certain pirate lost his footing and crashed into his boyfriend's back. The two of them ended up in a pile in front of the stairs. Seto groaned and tried to shove Crow off of him. Crow winced and rolled off.

"I warned you about the stairs…" Seto started.

"Shut up. I don't want to hear it." Crow grumbled. Seto chuckled.

Toyo walked over and stood above them, looking down at them with an eyebrow raised in question, "You know, I got kicked for doing this earlier." He quipped.

Crow scowled up at the redhead as he sat up, "And you'll get kicked again if you keep talking." The pirate said, standing up before he helped Seto up. "Did you find that lantern?" Toyo nodded, holding up the item in question. "Alright, that's four altogether, let's see if they work."

At first, it seemed as if none of them were going to work. They couldn't get a single one to light. Crow was quickly getting annoyed with the things while Toyo was starting to have trouble hiding his triumphant smile. It took several minutes and a fair bit of fiddling around with the wick, but Crow finally got two of the four lamps lit. Crow's and Toyo's respective emotions flip flopped. The red head let out a sigh and the pirate captain was the picture of smugness.

"Alright then, reading on into the night it is." Crow announced, carefully lifting the two lanterns up and walking back into the study, his two companions trailing behind him.

"Back to 107 Recipes for Bachelors for me, then." Toyo mumbled, settling back onto his spot on the floor and picking up the previously discarded book. Crow shot him a look.

"Have you done anything productive the entire time we've been here?" Crow asked, rolling his eyes when the redhead replied with an apathetic shrug. Crow sighed and turned his attention over to Seto, who was just getting settled down himself, "Hey, you wanna do me a favor and run the second lamp over to Patchy and Zen?"

Seto rolled his eyes a little at the nickname for Sai, but nodded still and stood back up, "Yeah, I can do that." He said, grabbing the second lantern up off the floor. Crow grinned at him in thanks before sitting back down grabbing the nearest discarded book. The maroon haired boy smiled fondly at the intense look of concentration on his friend's face before he walked off into the maze of shelves.

As he looked around, though, trying to find where the pair might be, he found something odd. Seto paused where he was at and took a good look around himself, frowning. At this point, he was entirely used to not being able to locate Sai with his white vision. While it was terribly unnerving, he'd gotten used to it. Usually to compensate for her lack of fire he kept an eye out for Zen's mellow, blue flame while looking for her since they were usually together. The problem was he couldn't find Zen's fire anywhere.

He'd double checked around to make sure it wasn't a fluke of some sort. He'd looked back the way he'd come and easily spotted Crow and Toyo's respective flames, so his white vision was working perfectly fine. So then where was Zen? Seto started walking again, slowly, letting his mind wander to different possibilities. It was doubtful that the silver haired teen had wandered that far out of his range of vision with how dark it was getting out, since the forest was so close by. So then, where was he? Seto took a deep breath and kept walking, trying not to let his mind jump to any scarier conclusions.

He let out a quiet sigh of relief when he rounded one of the corners and was met by the warm glow of a lantern. His heart quickly sunk, however, when he found that the only person near said lantern was Sai laying on the floor with a book in front of her. He felt worry and suspicion needling at him again. He walked over slowly.

Hearing his footsteps, Sai glanced up from whatever she had been reading and shot him a curious glance. "Hey." She greeted.

Seto forced a smile onto his face, "Hi." He greeted back, "Guess you guys were thinking ahead of us, huh?" He asked, indicating her light source.

Sai blinked and glanced over at the lantern before nodding, "Yeah, Zen found it on top of one of the bookshelves earlier. We can't exactly reading in the dark, right?"

"Yeah, right." Seto nodded, trying to keep himself from sounding too nervous, "Where is Zen, by the way? Did he go out for a walk or something?"

The dark haired girl looked at him oddly for a few seconds before she sat up straight. Sai shook her head, "Not that I know of." She answered, "He found something in one of your old man's logs and went to go check out his desk. But that was, like, twenty minutes ago and I really haven't heard a peep from him since." The blue eyed girl shrugged, and looked at him curiously, "Can't you see him with that eye of yours?"

Seto floundered for an answer for a moment, not sure whether or not to tell her that he actually couldn't see Zen. After a moment he gave a slight shake of his head, "N-No…I don't see him anywhere. I'm gonna go check out where you said he went though, see if when I get closer I can see him any better." That was a lie. The desk was only a few bookshelves over and from where he was, he should have been able to see if anyone was over there. All of those scary conclusions were jumping to mind again.

Sai eyed him for a moment quietly, and the maroon haired boy worried that she was going to ask to come with, or if she didn't believe him. In the end the girl just shrugged and went back to her book with a small wave, saying "Have fun with that. Tell him 'hi' for me."

Seto blinked. That had better than expected. He actually managed to smile this time, "I will." He told her. She didn't answer and Seto took that as a sign to quit disturbing her reading and continued onwards.

The pathway quickly dimmed again once he got away from where Sai was camped out at, and the encroaching darkness unsettled him a lot. Seto shivered and turned around, looking around just a little frantically for a second before his eyes landed on Crow's familiar, midnight purple fire flickered into view. The sight alone calmed his panicking heart a little. Seto let out a small sigh and turned back around. He started walking again after a few seconds. It was just a little further until he got to where Sai said Zen went. He was over-reacting.

Seto wasn't sure what he was expecting when he rounded the corner that brought his grandfather's desk into view, but he certainly wasn't expecting what he saw.

Zen was sitting at the desk.

But something was really, really off.

"Zen…?" Seto called out, hoping to get the other boy's attention. Was Zen even awake? …Yes, he was awake. His breathing was way too irregular for him to be sleeping."Zen?" He tried again, taking a few steps closer. He still received no response from the silver haired teen. An uneasy feeling rolled in the pit of Seto's stomach as he took a few steps closer to the silent teen. He stopped behind the chair and watched as Zen's shoulders rose and fell with quiet, heavy breaths.

"Zen…" Seto tried once more. Nothing. The maroon haired boy then went against every single warning bell going off in his head and gently set his hand on Zen's shoulder.

The reaction this time was immediate. With lightning speed Zen was turned around in his chair and there was a death grip around Seto's wrist. Seto let out a pained cry as a horrid jolt jumped through his body, far worse than any shock received from touching someone than he'd ever felt before. He stared terrified at the other boy before him, and tried to pull away from the person who looked so drastically different than what he was used to.

Zen was an absolute mess. His hair was in total disarray and going in all directions at once, looking nearly white in the lighting. And he was pale as death, as if all of the blood had been drained out of him. Seto almost swore his skin had taken on a blue tint. But the single biggest thing different about the silver haired boy was his eyes. The maroon haired boy shivered under the silent gaze, wondering just when these cold, red eyes had replaced the warm mahogany ones he was so familiar with.

Another jolt rocketed through him and Seto was almost sure this was what being struck by lightning felt like. His brain went absolutely blank, and it felt as if every ounce of blood in his body had frozen solid at once. It was such a jolt that Seto didn't even cry out, instead just crumbling to the ground as his legs gave out beneath him. Darkness flickered at the edges of his vision as he tried to look around, his eyes landing on Crow's fire in the distance.

It was the last thing he saw before everything went dark.

End Chapter