Chapter 34

A noise of disbelief came out of Yugi as he shook his head and made his way towards the door. Instantly he felt Tristan's hand on his arm again, stopping him from moving. He turned back towards his old friend allowing their gazes to meet.

'What's the problem now, we've told you the truth,' Tristan held his gaze.

'You honestly expect me to believe you're doing all this for Crovell?' Yugi shook his head. 'Kaiba's not the type to share his glory with anyone and nor is the Pure.'

'Maybe not normally, but this isn't a normal circumstance. This is about the fate of the multiverse. You must know we're not lying to you.'

'But you are still hiding something from me, I can tell,' Yugi broke away from him and made his way out of the room.

Without even waiting to see what the other two would do, he made his way towards the staircase. The energy, or whatever it was, he'd been sensing before was still there and still just as strong. He made his way up to the second floor and allowed the energy to lead him towards its source. The room he entered was small and almost completely empty. The only item of furniture in the whole room was a simple wooden table along the far wall and on this table rested a beautifully ornate butterfly head axe. There was no doubt in Yugi's mind that the axe was the source of the energy he'd been sensing, what he didn't know was what the hell the axe actually was.

'Yugi...' Tristan's voice sounded from behind him, 'I... I can explain.'

'Explain what exactly,' he turned to see both Tristan and Kaiba entering the little room. 'What have you been up to? What is this?'

The pair of them exchanged yet another covert look. Yugi gritted his teeth, turned his head away from them and made his way towards the axe.

'Don't touch it,' Kaiba grabbed hold of his arm as he reached a hand towards the weapon, 'it's not ready yet and we can't risk anything tainting its power.'

'Why not? What is this thing exactly?'

'The Elemental Axe,' Tristan's voice was carefully small as he took up a position to Yugi's right.

'The Elemental Axe?' Yugi shook his head as the Face of Friendship quickly fed him some information. 'Are you planning on using it to get your powers back?'

'In our current state there's just no way either of us can use the Axe,' Tristan shook his head. 'Unlike the other Elemental Weapons, the Axe doesn't replace missing powers; it enhances and magnifies existing ones.'

'That's not to say the Axe doesn't have power all of its own,' Kaiba released his grip on Yugi's wrist and folded his arms. 'There are a number of things the Axe can do provided it's in the hands of the right person.'

'And who is the right person exactly?' Yugi cocked an eyebrow at him.

'We told you,' Tristan gave a heavy sigh, 'we're doing all this for Crovell. The weapon's our gift to him.'

'You expect me to believe you would create something like this and then just willingly give it away?' Yugi laughed in disbelief.

'You're right, we're not just doing this for Crovell,' Kaiba's face filled with a serious look.

'We weren't lying when we said Crovell is the future,' Tristan lowered his gaze slightly. 'But our place in this future hasn't been decided yet.'

'You're trying to gain favour with him, aren't you?' Yugi backed away slightly. 'That's what all this is about; you're trying to ensure you have a good position in this new order your envisioning, aren't you?'

'Why not,' Kaiba pulled himself up to his full height. 'What's the point in knowing where things are going if you're not going to at least try and better things for yourself in the process? We're not lying when we say we're doing this for Crovell, but that doesn't mean we're not also doing it for ourselves.'

'Mai, you're okay,' Catilin clapped her hands together, before launching herself into Mai for a hug. 'We've been so worried about you.'

'I know, I'm sorry,' Mai instinctively stroked her hair, suddenly feeling strangely motherly.

'Who's your friend?' Catilin pulled away from her and stared at Jo.

'That would be my sister,' Crovell folded his arms.

'I see you failed to keep your promise to me,' Jo narrowed her gaze on Crovell for a moment, 'if I'd waited a second longer...'

'I'm sorry, alright?' He turned away from her. 'I guess we were lucky you were keeping an eye on her then.'

'Luck had nothing to do with it C,' she pouted, 'I know you too well, remember? I knew you'd get tied up somehow.'

'I'm guessing from your age, you must be Jo,' Duke took a step towards her. 'Crovell just said you were his sister, but he didn't mention which one.'

'You're right,' Jo's voice was strangely tight, 'I'm Jo.'

'And do you agree with the idea of replacing the First with Crovell?'

'Agree with it?' She laughed. 'I'm the one orchestrating this whole thing. Crovell needs to be in control and if this is the only way we can achieve that goal then it will be done.'

'Where we're from everyone who's still alive agrees with what we're doing,' Crovell's face took on a serious look. 'In fact most of the people who are now dead gave their approval for us to find a way to usurp the First before their deaths.'

'Where we're from its called the Cult of Crovell,' Jo rolled her eyes. 'Which I've always found a little unfair myself since he'll need me to rule at his side. I am the brains of this little operation after all.'

'So you see what we're doing... our plan... it's the right thing to do and the only person who'd ever disagree with that is Mokuba.'

'We were this close to killing that wretched little insect,' Jo held her thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart, 'then he had to go exploit a temporal anomaly and switch bodies with his past self.'

'Sometimes the things that rat does just makes me physically sick,' Crovell shook his head. 'I'd worked hard to try and make sure that monster would never come into being and he goes and ruins it all.'

'We don't know that for sure,' Jo folded her arms. 'If we find a way to switch them back before it's too late it should be okay. I know he hasn't exactly been left with the best of babysitters, but none of them would deliberately try to screw him up.'

Just as he finished talking the baby Crovell appeared out of nowhere into Ahna's arms. For a few seconds there was a shocked and bewildered silence.

'Hello there little one,' Ahna gave a nervous laugh, 'how did you get here?'

'You really were a troublesome child, weren't you Crovell,' Jo smirked.

'No more so than you were Jo,' he shared her amusement.

'Are you telling me my son already knows how to Jump in his sleep?' Ahna flicked her gaze between the two of them.

'Yeah he does,' Crovell grinned cheekily, 'in fact I learnt some of my most impressive techniques in my dreams; so you might wanna watch out for that.'

'You're really, really powerful, aren't you?' Catilin blinked at him.

'Yeah, but that's really not important right now.'

'He's right,' Jo nodded, 'what's important right now is that we all get some rest.'

'Why?' Catilin stared at her.

'Because it's late,' she shrugged, 'and the wolves attack in the morning.'

The doors to their chamber crashed open to reveal the minuscule, dark haired teenager. His presence caused Set to rise to his feet and, for the first time since they'd put their plan into action, he felt the need to speak.

'Who do you think you are entering the Chamber of the Wen like that?'

'I think I'm Win Mokuba,' the youth met and held his gaze, 'and is that really any way to great the Soul of your father?'

'My father... my true father... is long dead,' Set gritted his teeth. 'You mortalised fragments might be good enough for the Mistresses, but you mean nothing to me.'

'I had forgotten you used to tell yourself that,' the youth laughed.

'What do you want,' Du got to his feet and took a step towards him.

'To offer my services in exchange for your obedience.'

'Impudent wretch,' Sta slammed his fists against his chair as he too got to his feet, 'how dare you make such a suggestion to us?'

'No you're wrong,' he shook his head, 'the real question is how can I not?' A dark laugh juddered out of him. 'See I come from the not too distant future and in my timeline this little... distraction you're running right now fails to hit the mark. Sta might have a great deal of influence over the wolves but he can't really control them.'

'Liar, I'm in complete control over them,' Sta glared at him.

'No brother, you're the liar,' Du shot him a look. 'We all know the wolves aren't being as obedient as you promised us they would be. It doesn't matter how you try to dress it up, the truth remains the same; you have no real control over them.'

'You're siding with this mortalised fragment over me?'

'I'm not taking sides, I'm simply stating the truth,' he folded his arms.

'Children please, stop your bickering,' the youth smirked at them, 'it gets tiresome quickly and trust me you won't like me much when I'm bored.'

'So then leave,' Sta took a step towards him, balling his hands into fists as he did. 'Nobody asked for you to come here.'

'Again I beg to differ,' he waged a finger at him, before pulling something out of his pocket and holding it towards them.

For a second Set found himself frowning in confusion. Then a strange wave of realisation moved through him and he found himself exchanging uncertain glances with his sons.

'You want to use that to take control of the wolves?' Sta's voice was laced with anger.

'I do. Like I said they're a distraction, but it's a distraction we can use to our advantage if we do it correctly.'

'You know she's amongst the wolves, right?'

'Oh don't worry; I won't be using this on her,' the youth met his gaze, 'just on the other wolves.'

'What exactly is your plan?' Set found himself more than mildly curious now.

'One I think you're all going to be extremely interested it,' the youth moved towards them. 'But tell me first, do you still think I'm an impudent mortalised fragment or am I someone you actually want to listen to?'