Chapter 29

Jay's image continued to flicker and buzz as more and more of what he was saying fell into obscurity. It was like trying to deal with an old fashioned TV who's aerial had been bent and no one could quite get it in the exact right place to pick up any kind of clear signal. Téa gave a heavy sigh and tired to push her own frustrations away, but no matter how hard she tried all she could think about was how SK had replaced on incoherent dead guy with an inaudible one.

As Jay's voice buzzed and rattled its way through another indecipherable sentence, Téa turned her attention towards SK. His translucent body had partially sunk into the floor below in a manner which reminded Téa of some kind of video game glitch. The thought on its own was marginally disturbing, but not as much as several other half formed thoughts trying to creep their way in.

'What I don't get is why aren't you here properly?' Téa turned her attention back towards Jay 'I know it's a dumb question to ask; you don't even really know why you're here, never mind anything else. But if we could figure out why whatever it was SK was trying to do didn't work properly then maybe we could figure out exactly what it is we're supposed to do to fix it.'

'Is there some way you could ask him?' Duke indicated towards Jay. 'I mean, are there other ways for the dead to communicate with each other?'

Jay half rolled his eyes and shook his head. There was something about the response which annoyed Téa a little. It was as if he were expecting them to know the question was dumb or something.

'This is such a stupid situation,' Téa made an almost involuntary noise of disgust. 'We should be trying to figure out a way of helping Joey and the others, not playing charades with Static the Friendly Ghost.'

Almost as soon as Téa had finished speaking, SK's body gave a violent and spasm-like jerk. Instantly the three of them jumped back in surprise. For a full five minutes an unearthly silence filled the room as all three of their eyes focused on SK. It was like watching something out of a creepy old horror movie. As they watched, SK's body lifted its way back out of the ground and slowly became solid again. It then twisted and jerked on the floor a few more times adding to the computer glitch image Téa already had in her head. When a loud groan escaped him and his eyes started to flicker open Téa wasn't sure if she was relieved or just too freaked out to care how or why this had happened.

'Are... are you okay?' Téa's mouth felt dry.

'SK hurt,' the words moaned their way out of him as he pushed himself up onto all fours. 'Where SK?'

'Still in Kaiba's office, what's the last thing you remember?'

'Seto...?' The word sounded slow and thoughtful. 'Seto...?' There was more strength to it this time as though SK were waking up. 'Ah, Seto, SK remember.' He half jumped to his feet and focused his attention on Jay. 'Help SK. SK make good.'

'…wrong…SK?' Jay's face was filled with a look of confusion.

'Long story,' Duke rolled his eyes, 'and I doubt you'd understand much of it right now. That's if you're getting as little of what we're saying as we are of what you're saying.'

'Jay help SK.' SK licked his lips as he made his way towards Jay. 'SK help Jay.'

'What… do?'

'SK Jay.'

'…'

'Jay help SK?'

After hesitating for a few moments, Jay nodded. SK licked his lips for a second time and walked towards him.

'Wait… doing?' Jay backed away.

'Jay help SK.'

'…' the words were obscured by buzzing but the anger on Jay's face read as clear as a bell.

'Jay,' SK's tone was serious, 'must. Only way.'

'SK what are you planning to do?' Téa felt totally clueless.

'SK Jay.' SK licked his lips again.

'… me…' Jay flailed his arms about in agitation.

'I didn't understand a word of that,' Téa shook her head. 'SK what are you planning to do?'

'SK Jay.' SK refocused his attention on the other dead guy.

'F… SK.' Jay had now backed so far away from SK his back was pressed up against the wall.

'Jay,' SK's expression was as serious as his voice, 'know right. Know must. Only way. Jay know only way.'

'...'

'Jay.'

For a long couple of minutes the two of them locked gazes in what Téa could only guess was a silent battle of wills. Then Jay gave a heavy sigh and appeared to relent. He then made his way towards SK. The second the two of them connected a bright and blinding white light filled the room.

'What's going on?' Téa found herself forced to look away.

'You think I know?' Duke sounded exasperated.

It didn't take long for the light to dim. The second it did Téa turned her head back towards where the two dead guys had been standing. Instantly her heart turned over with a strange feeling of fear.

'SK,' Téa swallowed hard, 'what… what did you do?'


She was a sixteen year old living in a world where she was amongst the oldest of her race. Completely cut off from Earth she had no one to talk to about what it was like to be pregnant, never mind what giving birth was going to be like. Okay, so she'd had a keen interest in medicine before discovering she was a Silkoneon, but she'd wanted to be a general nurse, for adult patients. And if that wasn't bad enough then the fact her captors were clearly losing their minds was.

It was just her and Tristan now. She wasn't totally sure where Kaiba had gone, but if she were being totally honest she didn't really want to know. Having both of them there put her in a lose-lose situation. An involuntary groan of pain escaped her as another contraction rippled through her body.

'Why aren't you helping me?' She gritted her teeth.

'You're not nearly far enough along to warrant help yet,' Tristan lowered his head as he continued to lean against the wall.

'At exactly what point did you become an expert on giving birth?'

Tristan's face filled with a strange smirk and his eyes flicked up towards her. For a few long moments there was silence, broken only by the pain caused by her latest contraction.

'You know back in ancient times women often had to give birth standing up,' Tristan idly studied the nails on his right hand. 'There were no real painkillers back then either, at least none which had anywhere near the same effect as modern medicine I mean. Back then labour was a real struggle for women and is probably why a lot of twigs like you would have died in child birth.'

'Is there a point to this or are you just trying to piss me off now,' she glared at him.

'It wasn't easy setting this place up for you, you know Ahna,' Tristan folded his arms. 'I know it's not exactly hospital standards and I have absolutely no intention on providing you with any painkillers, but it's a lot more comfortable than what your ancestors would have had to put up with. So why not try relaxing a little?'

'I'm in labour and you're asking me to relax?'

'It'll help conserve your strength which will make it easier for you in the long run,' Tristan shrugged. 'Right now all you're doing is tiring yourself out.'

'You're really being a bastard right now, you know that' she growled at him. 'I hate you.'

'Of course you hate me, evil always hates good.'

'You're deluded if you think you're good right now.'

'You're wrong,' he took several steps towards her, 'I know things are a little... crazy right now, but that's only because the rain is heightening everything. Then again the rain is just waiting for your child to be born; a child capable of changing everything. I'm just trying to make sure that child has the chance to fulfil their destiny. Don't you understand that Ahna? You're child doesn't belong with you, because you were so weak you gave into evil.'

'But I'm not evil anymore.'

'That doesn't matter Ahna,' he shook his head, 'your child will be a chaotic balance. Balances don't have the same sense of right and wrong the rest of us do and we can't risk your weakness becoming the child's.'

'So you're going to take my child away from me without letting me have the chance to prove myself?'

'If you wanted to prove yourself you should have told Joey about the baby,' he turned away from her.

'I... I couldn't...'

'Of course you couldn't. You couldn't because you'd already betrayed him once. You'd already proven to him you couldn't be trusted. Worse still you're weak Ahna. First you were used by evil then you allowed evil to push everything good in you to one side. Joey can't even stand to look at you and you know it.'

'Maybe,' she lowered her gaze, 'but that doesn't mean I don't have the right to raise this child. My child.'

'But it's not exactly your child though, is it Ahna?' Tristan flicked his gaze back towards her.

'That depends on how you look at it I guess. But you yourself said this child has four parents and last I checked I was still one of the four.'

'If we can do without Gan, we can do without you,' Tristan rolled his eyes.

'What happened to you,' Ahna stared at him. 'You're not the kind and loyal friend Veronie told me about.'

'That friend died the second the First was mortalised,' Tristan gritted his teeth, 'the second I realised I really was different to everyone else. I think I could sense your child coming even then, but it was so buried under the other crap I had to deal with I didn't see it until it was almost too late.'

'Is that when you brought Kaiba in on this too,' she braced herself against another contraction.

'What makes you think I was the one who brought him in on anything,' Tristan laughed. 'Things aren't as straight forward as you think. In fact things are a lot more complicated than you could possibly realise right now. Like your child for example, it starts the story.'

'What?'

'The story those restless spirits were telling when you decided to go all blackheart on us. Don't you get it, in our version of the story you're Lillyannu and your child is...'

'Kayma,' the word came out in a burst of pain, 'but... how...?'

'How did I figure it out? It really wasn't that hard.' Tristan met her gaze. 'I could sense your child that day... the day which showed me who I really am... the day which turned me into this,' he stared down at his own hands. 'I knew Ahna, I knew what you and Gan had created and I knew one way or another I had to protect that child from you. It wasn't until later I knew it would be like this. And it does have to be like this Ahna, because your baby really is the child of this storm.'