Chapter 35

He couldn't believe it. It had all happened so quickly he wasn't even totally sure he'd seen what he'd seen. For a start out of nowhere Covo managed to break free of his bonds. Then, just as he was about to jump Ahna for the infant, the two mute blondes appeared out of nowhere and one of them took the child before he had a chance. The second blonde then grabbed hold of Covo's wrist and in the blink of an eye all four of them had vanished without a trace.

There was a dark look of pure, unadulterated anger on Ahna's face as she glared at Jay. He squirmed with all the discomfort and displeasure of a small child upset at being accused of something they hadn't actually done.

'Not my fault,' Jay lowered his head and shifted his gaze away.

'Liar,' Ahna tapped his face, forcing his gaze back up towards her, 'you were stupid enough to leave a trail for them to follow, weren't you?'

'Not on purpose.'

'Oh no, you never do anything like this on purpose, do you?' Ahna's voice was tight and angry. 'I only just managed to get him settled now; do you have any idea how far back this is going to set us? We need the little brat to be on our side.'

'I know.'

'We should go after them,' he folded his arms, suddenly feeling the need to interject himself into the conversation.

'Oh please,' Ahna rolled her eyes, 'you're smarter than that. It's a trap and a fairly obvious one too. They want us to chase after them, don't you get it?'

'I do,' he shrugged, 'but giving them what they want can be just as much fun if we do it right. I'm getting bored of this... nothingness, we have to do something... exciting or else I'm going to go out of my mind.'

'Well, at least you're starting to sound more like yourself,' Ahna's gaze gave him a slow once over.

'So, is there anything we can do?'

Ahna appeared to think for a few moments, before a slyly cruel smile spread across her face.

'You know something, there is,' she closed her eyes for a moment and swiftly Glamoured herself into Mai.

'Uh... hey, do me too, do me too,' Jay clapped, 'that looks like fun.'

'It does, doesn't it?' Ahna chuckled as she slowly made her way around him. 'And what's more it'll only get to be even more fun when they see us like this. Making people question what they think they know is always so much fun.'

Almost as soon as Ahna had completed her circuit around Jay, he Glamoured into Catilin. For a few seconds he studied himself in the mirror, then he laughed, clapped and bounced on his heels in the same manner Catilin herself might have.

'Yay, I can do her, I can do a real good impression of her.'

'I know you can,' Ahna smiled at him, 'in fact she's the only one you could do an impression of. So,' she turned her attention towards him, 'that just leaves you, my dear older sibling, so tell me, just how good are your impressions?'

Covo blinked several times as his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness of moving from a dimly lit bedroom to the relatively sunny area of his new surroundings. It took him a few seconds to realise he was now at the Sacred Huntay in the middle of Kama Traydon, which made him feel even more awkward when he realised he wasn't alone.

'I... I swear I didn't Jump here on purpose; I would never violate the rules like that.'

'It's okay Covo, we know,' Joey sighed, before turning his attention towards one of the two strange looking blonde girls. 'It's not that I don't trust you, but do you mind passing me my son? I'd like to check he's okay.'

The blonde shook her head, but said nothing.

'Crovell is my son, I just want to make sure he's okay, you know I'm not going to hurt him, right?'

She nodded.

'Then give him to me.'

She shook her head again and turned her gaze towards Covo.

'Oh please don't tell me you're thinking what I think you're thinking,' Joey gave another head sigh as he pinched the area between his eyebrows. 'Let me guess, you want to give my son to Covo, right?'

She nodded again.

'Does actually being a child's father count for nothing anymore? Seriously I'm starting to feel like some kind of spare part in Crovell's life; something he could easily do without and not even notice I wasn't around,' Joey shook his head. 'Fine, go ahead, hand my flesh and blood over to Covo.'

Without hesitation the blonde did as she was told. There was something awkward about the way she passed Crovell over to him and it took Covo a second to adjust the child into a more comfortable position. As he was doing so the blonde in front of him cast a glance back towards the other girl. Their gazes met and held for a single moment, before the other blonde nodded, causing the blonde in front of Covo to turn her attention back towards him. She then placed her right hand above Covo's heart.

'What are you doing?' Joey's voice was filled with curiosity.

The blonde made no attempt to respond to Joey's question. Instead her visible violet eye lifted to meet Covo's gaze. As their eyes locked, Covo felt a spike of fear move through his stomach. The sensation was so sudden and unexpected he simply put it down to the bizarre nature of the situation they were in. He took a deep calming breath in, but almost as soon as he'd exhaled it the feeling of fear returned. It was stronger this time and kept resonating through him like some kind of continuous pulse. Instinct made him hold Crovell closer to him, as everything inside of him just wanted to pull away and run.

'Heart,' the sound of the voice made Covo almost jump out of his skin, 'I asked you a question; what are you doing?'

Covo's heart began to race as he glanced in the direction the voice had come from, only to realise he didn't recognise the monster who'd spoken. In fact he didn't recognise any of the demons which surrounded him, especially not the one directly in front of him with the waxy smile spread tauntingly across her face. Slowly he started backing away from her as everything in him told him he had to run. This was more than just a fleeting instinct now, this was a serious command. He had to run. He needed to run.

'Covo, are you okay?'

'Stay... stay away from me,' he shook his head as he stared fearfully at the monster who'd spoken. 'Stay away from me, stay away from me, stay away from me.'

'Covo...?'

One of the monsters took several steps in Covo's direction. Every instinct in him was now screaming for him to run, but still he remained frozen to the spot. He was too afraid to move. Too afraid to breathe. Too afraid to even think. He was just so very, very afraid.

'I told you to stay away from me,' he gripped Crovell closer to himself, 'so stay away from me. Stay away.'

'Covo, I...?'

'Stay away!'

In that single moment of blunt emotion, Covo's feet became unstuck. Not willing to waste a second he turned and fled the area of the Sacred Huntay. He ran and he ran and he ran as fast as his feet would take him. Within what felt like seconds he cleared the gardens of Kama Traydon and broke out into the wider world of Sil. Without thought or hesitation he continued to run forward. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't really care. His destination wasn't important; the only thing which matter was that he kept moving until he reached somewhere safe. He had to keep moving. He had to protect the child. He had to reach somewhere safe.

Almost as soon as Covo was out of sight, the Sacred Huntay had filled with the sound of a loud club like song. A waxy, self-indulgent smile filled Heart's face and she started dancing in what must have been the weirdest victory celebration ever. Within seconds Soul had joined her, dancing in a more manically free-spirited way than any of his contemporaries had. It wasn't the first thing about Soul's behaviour which marked him out from the others, but it did caused Kaiba to once again question just how much his brother's madness might have affected his Id.

Kaiba tried to shake those thoughts from his mind and focus on the events which had just occurred; namely Heart using her power over the emotional to put the fear of hell into Covo. What exactly did the foursome have to gain from it? Or was this caused by Heart acting out her Egos own secret desires? After all there had to be some part of Mai that wished Crovell didn't exist, right?

'He's way too fast for a stag,' Joey panted as he re-entered the Huntay.

Joey had chased after Covo, like a cheater going after its prey. But clearly his chase had been as successful as it had been long. A part of Kaiba felt strangely disjointed with Joey's premature return. It wasn't that he'd expected the guy to be successful; with the power the foursome could boast between them they would clearly always get what they wanted. No his feelings of irritated disappointment were more due to how quickly Joey had given up on chasing down the guy kidnapping his son. Well maybe kidnapping was situationally the wrong word to use, but still...

'What are they so happy about?' Joey's voice dripped with annoyance.

'Putting the fear of hell into Covo I suspect,' Kaiba rolled his eyes as he turned his head away.

Joey stormed his way across the Huntay and grabbed hold of Heart's arm in a clear attempt to stop her from moving. She just smiled back at him and tried to get him to dance.

'I'm not in the mood Heart,' Joey's voice was heavy and serious. 'I want you to reverse whatever it is you've done to Covo and bring him back here now.'

Heart shook her head and gave him an emphatic look which suggested she thought he was better off staying away.

'Heart he has my son,' Joey gritted his teeth, 'I want you to bring him back right now.'

Again she shook her head.

'Heart I'm serious, I want you to bring them back here right now.'

Heart cast a glance back towards Mind, who nodded. She then placed her free hand on Joey's chest and a strange, almost teasing smile appeared on her face. To Kaiba's disbelief, Joey then began laughing.

'This isn't funny Heart,' Joey's voice hiccup out of him between laughs, 'I'm trying to be serious here,' his body began to crease up under the strain of the fit. 'Stop it.'

It didn't take long for the laughter to completely incapacitate Joey. Clear signs of strain began to show on his face as he struggled to breathe.

'Stop,' he fell to his knees clasping his stomach, 'can't… breathe…' he gasped out the words between laughs, 'can't… breathe…'

Kaiba had been so focused on Joey he hadn't even notice Body rise from his position in front of the tree and cross the Huntay towards them. Once he reached Heart, he took hold of her shoulders and forced him round to face her. There was a serious look on Body's face and it was clear he wasn't happy with what was happening. With an almost unexpected display of speed, Soul leapt onto Heart's back and began batting Body's hands off of her. The youth shook his head and motioned emphatically towards the still suffocating Joey, but Soul continued to batter him away.

Body let go of Heart and continued to gesture towards Joey. Heart's visible eye darted towards where Mind was standing, but before she could get a reaction from the other girl Body blocked her view. He then returned to gesturing at her; this time his movements were over-exaggerated and almost too passionate for the cause. These movements caused Soul to jump down from Heart's back and position himself between her and Body. From where he was standing it was now impossible for Kaiba to see what the youngest member of the foursome was doing. But whatever it was sent Body storming his way across the Sacred Huntay towards Mokuba's unconscious body.

He effortlessly scooped the body up into his arms and flicked a look back in Soul's direction. Their eyes locked for a single moment, before Body stormed his way out of the clearing and into the forests of Kama Traydon. By this time the sound of Joey's laughter had disappeared. Kaiba cast a quick look towards him and allowed his gaze to meet with a clearly concerned Heart's as Soul idly kicked at the ground.

'Very clever,' Kaiba clapped sarcastically, 'you've just knocked out the First.'