52

As sunlight broke over the horizon, Seto smirked and turned up the electronic tint on the car. Even so, they would have to wait until darkness to check the rooftops. Even sunglasses could only go so far in protecting a vampire's eyes, and he didn't have any welding helmets.

"We could always go find some," said Mokuba.

But then they'd have to go to the other side of town and then figure out a way to get gas—no. Seto already had a plan in place. Eyeing the skyscrapers to either side of him as he drove the eerie, empty downtown streets, he found a space and pulled over.

"Mokuba, did you bring your tablet?"

His brother sighed. "Nothing's changed. The only thing broadcasting is the evacuation order."

Seto gave him a flat stare, and Mokuba stared back. Than slapped his forehead.

"I'm an idiot. Hold on."

From a backpack between his legs, he dug it out along with a broadband transceiver, which he plugged in before setting it on his lap and getting to work.

Seto reached into the backseat to grab his own laptop, brushing the back of his hand against the sleeping Joey's knee as he did so. It was warm, and that reassured him, somehow.

"I take it you want back up scrambler for the firewall resets." Mokuba reached down to pull out a detachable keyboard as well, which was little more than a plate of clear plastic and invisible wires. "State Security or Pentagon?"

"Only the Federal powers could order an attack on civilians." He opened his laptop.

Mokuba didn't point out that, even if they did manage to hack into the US Army, they couldn't do much to stop them if an attack on the city had already been ordered. There were million minds and computers in the system and only the two of them. The best they could do was confuse a few shots, but, then, that was probably what Seto had in mind.

"While you set that up, I need to see about something."

Mokuba just nodded, already shuffling through black and white screens and html code.

Seto closed his eyes. He reached for the darkness in the footwells and in the back seat, where it was at its thickest. He felt a sleepy response curl back up into his mind.

The same wall of glass spread before him, with Yugi at the center. It took him a moment to find her in the pile of comforter, which also half swallowed Atem. Sunlight poured in, and he found himself pleased that at least his mind's eye was unaffected by the light.

Concentrating, he tried to push himself there, as he had the night he had seen Joey dying in the alley. Smells came to him first, of the plastic new carpet, old food, cleaner, and the heady sweet scent of the humans before the light cleared and he could see the skyline. He had already tried the night before to focus his vision on the buildings surrounding Yugi's perimeter, but found a new limit to his power. He could only see certain people who he focused on, and only a certain distance away from them. This meant he couldn't back up to see the building she was in or any of the others, which he found, to his growing disgust, that he couldn't make out which buildings curled in around the apartment. From the angle his vision permitted him, he could only see an opposing wall of one-way glass windows.

He came back with a gasp, catching himself on the steering wheel. Knives stabbed into his brain with each beat of his heart, drying his throat and tingeing his vision red.

"Maybe you should drink something," said Mokuba.

"Just give me a moment." He sucked a breath through his nose, clenching the hard leather of the wheel. The red backed off. The knives dulled to sticks.

Another unfortunate rule to his powers he had found was that he had to know the person in order to focus his visions. Trying to catch a glimpse of who or what had taken Yugi and Atem to this place had done nothing. He also couldn't see the future, though he had a theory that the glimpses he had seen of Joey before the unfortunate attack had been bits of her past. At the moment, however, he had no idea how to focus onto the past of Yugi or Atem to catch a glimpse of where they had gone, not for a lack of trying—which had almost left him vomiting from the pain.

"If only I could figure out what my talent is…" said Mokuba quietly.

He let himself have a moment to catch his breath before straightening and opening his laptop.

"Time to hack us some real news."

Seto didn't notice the time go by even less so than he had as a human. Since he didn't get hunger pangs, nor light headed from low blood sugar, there wasn't much to distract him. Nor did he have to go to the bathroom nearly as often. He did, however, find himself nodding off. When a huge, jaw cracking yawn finally broke him away, he found that Mokuba had fallen asleep as well. They really were like narcoleptics.

I can't wait to be human again. Now that the possibility was actually in sight, a thrill went through him at the thought. To be able to sleep when he darn felt like it and not when his body forced him to, to eat, to not be in constant fear of accidentally murdering someone, to once more feel soft skin and not think about what it would feel like to sink his fangs into…

Ear-splitting thunder shook the whole car, jerking him awake from a sleep he didn't remember falling into. Joey and Mokuba woke with yelps.

From a street a few blocks ahead of them, a plume of debre and dust flew out like a gust of lava plume. Another pound of thunder sounded farther away.

At least they now knew what the army had planned next for the city.

Parts of a building collapsed across the road some distance ahead, mortar and glass shooting sky high like poofs of glitter, followed by a shockwave that shoved them into the back of their seats, lifted the front wheels of the car off the ground, and burst their eardrums.

Through the buzzing pain of his shot ears, Seto slammed the start button of the car and swerved around. Dust filled the air like an ashen fog.

"No! Find Yugi!" Mokuba snatched at the side of the wheel, nearly killing them all right there. "I'll drive!"

Debris pattered across the hood and top of the car. Seto didn't argue. With more lithe flexibility than he thought he had, he slid into the passenger seat as his twelve year old brother leapt over him to the driver's seat.

A beam of something bounced off the hood. Joey started to scream.

Author's note: I'm sorry this chapter is so short. I've had a really hard week due to a bad falling out with a neighbor and friend so the next chapter isn't finished yet. The ending of this story is getting pretty close, though. :) So soon you'll have the whole story to enjoy. Again, I am sorry. If I get the next chapter and the chapter after it finished, I'll post up another chapter before Monday. Until then, I wish you luck with all your various endeavors.