A/N: I have a lot of explaining to do. Long story short, life happened. Long story long, at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 34 summary: In which Honda wishes language barriers weren't a thing, Harriman is not a bomb tech, and Seto despising someone messing with his things.
34: Cautious Allies
Honda blinked. His English wasn't anywhere near as good as Kaiba's, but he knew an insult when he heard one. He glanced warily between Kaiba and the military officer. The tension in the helicopter was electric. He could almost smell ozone in the air.
Kaiba didn't like this man, but he was willing to work with him. That meant this guy must have done something to attract the young CEO's interest. Honda knew from experience that could be a very good thing or, more often than not, a very bad thing. Honestly, Honda didn't really give a damn so long as it helped him save Jounouchi, Anzu, and Yugi. Everything else came second.
"You're military?"
Oh yeah. Honda turned to Bakura who stood next to him, holding on to the nearest railing running along the roof of the helicopter cabin. Bakura's wide brown eyes were clear and bright in his pale face. Good, it wasn't the other guy.
"Unfortunately," Kaiba replied, shooting the albino a withering glare.
Yeesh. Honda really wanted to know what made Kaiba hate his friend so much.
"Did you get a good look at the bomb?" Kaiba asked, jerking Honda's attention back to the problem at hand.
He shook his head. "No. It was in a backpack. Anzu was holding it." He grimaced when Kaiba's blue eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Look man," Honda growled. "I tried to get the damn thing from her but she stopped breathing. She stopped fucking breathing okay?! What was I supposed to do?"
"Her eyes," Kaiba said curtly, cutting of Honda's rant with a cold finality. "What did her eyes look like?"
"What do you mean what di-" Wait. Kaiba's eyes glowed. What if… But no, Honda would've noticed something as obvious as that. Her eyes never glowed. They just looked glassy and… "Blank," he said, only just now comprehending what he'd seen. "They were blank. Actually," he added, straightening as he went over the events in his head detail by detail, "so were Jounouchi's now that I think about it. It was weird. It was like his eyes weren't feeling anything he was saying."
"Mind control," Bakura murmured, drawing Honda's attention. Their gazes met and Honda nodded.
"Most likely," Kaiba agreed. "Motorcycle boy, think hard. Did anything happen that was unusual? Did you smell something, see something, hear something? Anything? Did someone touch them? It could be simple like a brush of shoulders."
But Honda was already shaking his head. "No, nothing. Most people left us alone actually. I mean," he corrected when Kaiba lifted a disbelieving eyebrow at him, "during the active hours of the game, yeah, people talked to Jounouchi and Yugi a lot. They played at least three different games between them today. But nothing unusual."
The CEO held his gaze for a moment before turning away. "Then that makes this more complicated," he muttered.
"I'm not a bomb tech," the military man said in English. "But if you let me borrow your phone, I can call-"
"No. It would take too long for them to act. Besides," he turned to stare out the windshield at the ground below, "I doubt this would fall under their expertise."
Without another word, Kaiba patted his pilot's shoulder and strode back to the door, gripping the handle, and sliding it open. The rush of wind from the helicopter was loud and strong enough to feel almost like a punch to the face. Honda adjusted his position so he stood next to Kaiba, ready for whatever he saw.
Or, he thought he was.
"Jounouchi," he whispered.
His friend was too far away to see clearly, but Honda grew up with that blonde idiot. He knew Jounouchi's mannerisms like his own handwriting. And never in all of those years had he ever seen Jounouchi bend quite like that. It was just wrong. It didn't look natural. It made him sick to his stomach.
It looked like the blonde Japanese-American was laughing hysterically at something, but Honda could almost feel his friend's fear and pain. Hell, maybe he really was feeling it. After the things he'd witnessed, he wasn't about to question it.
Jounouchi, fight it! We're coming.
Coming.
It was quiet but familiar. It wasn't as bright or present as Yugi's constant pleas and cries, but it still pierced through his clouded mind. Like a call from a distance.
I believe in you!
Yugi. Jounouchi clawed against the force holding him under. He could see now. He could hear now. He could feel the foreign hate overpowering his ability to think straight. It threw off his balance, literally. He felt wobbly, uneasy, and even nauseous. The hate was crushing and overwhelming and absolute and would not-
STOP! Stop it! Yugi!
…
Helicopter?
Seto hissed in displeasure when the puppy looked up and saw them coming. His advanced healing gave him an edge, but he wasn't a Jaffa. If he jumped from the helicopter now, he'd break his legs. He had to wait.
He hated waiting.
Finally, they got close enough to the ground to satisfy him. He jumped, landed on the balls of his feet, and rolled to absorb the impact. Rolling his shoulders to shake off the impact, he strode directly at the unsanctioned duel.
Just in time to see Jounouchi activate the illegal spell card Hinotama.
Shock jolted through him as the holographic meteors appeared in the sky and then blazed through the air directly at Yugi, and him. Annoyance flared briefly as Seto sneered at the oncomi-
He barely had time to gasp before every instinct within him suddenly shrieked and he found himself stumbling backwards, dragged by the Shadows. Staggering against the onslaught of fear and survive! He couldn't agree more with the latter sentiment. The first however, was offensive.
Annoyance melted into the glowing embers of anger as Seto lashed at the overprotective Shadows clinging to him and deliberately stepped forward. He heard three thumps behind him before the sound of helicopter's rotors rose up and away. Good. As long as Mokuba was out of range, Seto wouldn't have to worry about him. Isono Roland was probably the one person Seto trusted the most, aside from those who knew of Seto's true nature and the ancient past. Isono would protect Mokuba to the end.
"What the hell was that?" Harriman gasped, coming shoulder-to-shoulder with Seto.
"I thought that card was banned!" the filthy Tomb Robber reborn cried.
"It is," Seto confirmed, glaring at Jounouchi's Duel Disk.
How had a banned card circumvented his SolidVision system and been allowed to manifest in a duel?!
Adrenaline thrummed through his body at the same time the tingling sensation of energy danced across his skin. Magic. How had he not noticed it earlier?! This entire area sang of magic. It vibrated the air, burned at his senses, and made his Shadows seize him and overrule his common sense. No wonder he'd felt such an intense fear reaction. It hadn't been his reaction at all. It had been theirs.
Interesting. That meant either whoever was controlling the mutt had at least some grasp of magic, or the mutt was drawing on his own magic. Dear Ra save Seto's patience if it was the latter. He could only imagine the mischief Jounouchi would get up to while making himself a nuisance.
The girl though… One good look at Mazaki and Seto knew she wasn't being mind-controlled in the strictest sense. Motorcycle boy was right about the blankness. Her eyes were almost glassy and her face was completely unresponsive to any outside stimuli. Judging from what Honda told him before, she only responded to Yugi trying to call for help or when Honda tried to get the bomb away from her. That meant her mind was more than likely completely absent from the situation leaving only pre-programmed responses to specific triggers. She was basically a doll in deep hypnosis. Freeing her could be difficult if he couldn't figure out the trigger the hypnotist used to ensnare her mind.
Annoying as her situation was, it was workable. Jounouchi, however…
The blonde boy was in the middle of a duel with Yugi. Actually, Seto took another look at Yugi, feeling the duelist's presence with his Shadows, make that Yugi and Yami. If they were both dueling Jounouchi, that meant there had to be a semblance of conscious thought in the mutt's head. He wasn't hypnotized. But Seto wasn't willing to default to full on brainwashing either.
Brainwashing only did so much, after all. There were too many different types of brainwashing too. Each type had their own weaknesses, triggers, and limitations on both the caster and the victim. Judging by the obvious cheating Jounouchi was conducting while dueling, something the idiot would never do no matter how awful he played, Seto would hazard a guess the mutt's mind was subverted as well.
If that was the case, then it ruled out any possibility of nish'ta being involved. Thank the gods. Sort of. Nish'ta might be a pain in the ass, but one good shock and the victim was free from it and immune to the parasite. Also, the victim's consciousness was never complete subverted; more altered to focus on the caster's goals.
No. It was far more likely the person responsible for brainwashing Jounouchi had suppressed the mutt's consciousness entirely and inserted their own instead. Though effective, it wasn't the best or wisest tactic from Seto's experience. That particular method was tiresome and required a firm, absolute hold over the victim as well as a constant presence of some sort. In other words, the caster had to be nearby, either physically present or present in some other way like an item on the victim's person that always reminded the victim of the caster. This was needed to reinforce the caster's hold against the victim attempting to fight back.
Unfortunately, that didn't change anything. Seto couldn't leave things as they were. Yugi, and Yami, could handle Jounouchi in a duel without breaking a sweat. But forcing themselves to hold back and not hurt the mutt as well as prevent the mutt from winning? That could be difficult even for Seto.
Then there was the bomb in the backpack Mazaki was holding close to her chest. If anyone tried for it, Seto had no doubt it would trigger a reaction.
On second thought, maybe that was what they needed to do. As long as Mazaki didn't trigger the actual bomb, then maybe…
"Motorcycle boy," he said just loud enough for Honda to hear.
"Yeah?"
"The bomb. Was it on a countdown or hand triggered?" he asked, shifting his stance to something more grounded and balanced.
"Countdown technically," Honda said, earning him a narrow eyed looked from Seto. Wincing, Honda rolled his shoulders in a nervous shrug. "It's set to go off forty minutes after the duel began. But if someone wins the duel before then, it'll go off too."
So a lose-lose scenario. Annoying.
Yugi and Yami were doing a good job keeping Jounouchi busy, but it was a stop-gap method and wouldn't last forever. He fingered the cool, golden rod hooked to his belt loop and felt his Shadows ripple at his feet.
"Harriman," Seto said, drawing the man's attention. "How good are you at hand-to-hand combat?"
The airman squared his shoulders and pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. "Depends," he said after a moment. "Against-" he glanced at Honda and Bakura, "-the average person, I can hold my own."
Good. There weren't any Jaffa or Goa'uld here, other than Seto that is. But just in case. "Honda," brown eyes locked on him, "you take Mazaki down. Do what you have to."
To his credit, Honda nodded despite the hesitance in his eyes and nervous gulp. If there was one thing Seto could always count on when it came to Yugi's geek squad, it was their knack for doing whatever was necessary to save their friends. Admirable, except when it got in his way.
"And the bomb?" Honda asked.
"Leave that to him," Seto said, nodding to Harriman.
The airman stiffened in surprise, before grimacing. "I told you, I'm not a bomb tech."
"True, but you're familiar with computers and circuitry, are you not?" Seto countered. At Harriman's nod, Seto grinned. "Besides, you can always call me for help."
And didn't that ruffle the airman's feathers. Grin still plastered on his lips, Seto took one step forward. Only to have his arm grabbed. Frustrated and annoyed, he yanked his arm free and shot a wicked glare at the boy who wore the reincarnation of the infamous and hated Thief King.
"What about Jounouchi?" the Ring-bearer demanded, his brown eyes glittering with worry.
Seto refused to believe the emotion.
"Leave him to me," Seto hissed.
"I can't work with the bomb," Harriman said firmly, drawing Seto's attention. "I'm not trained to deal with that. Just because I understand computers doesn't mean I can work with bombs. I'm just as likely to set it off than stop it. This isn't Hollywood."
Blue eyes narrowed in frustration, but Seto accepted the honesty. Technically, it made sense. Better to admit you know your limits rather than ignore them and suffer the consequences.
"Fine," he grumbled. "Take care of Mazaki." At the curious look, Seto clarified, "The girl." Harriman nodded so Seto continued, "Honda, stay close to Yugi. Nothing touches him, understood?"
Honda nodded without question, much to Seto's relief. However-
"What about me?" Bakura asked.
"What about you?" Seto said in a cold tone.
"You're with me," Honda said, placing a hand on Bakura's shoulder, his brown eyes daring Seto to argue.
However much he wanted the Tomb Robber reborn as far away as possible, Seto would settle for the brat staying far away from him. The proximity to Yugi was unnerving, but he doubted the brat would try anything right now. Too much attention.
"Then I guess I'll handle the bomb," he said, dismissing the geek squad and striding confidently over towards Mazaki and Jounouchi with Harriman by his side.
This wasn't his area of expertise. Not even close. He had no training in the diffusion of bombs. Thankfully, Set was handling that. But handling a mind-controlled person wasn't easy either, even if he did have some experience with that. Well, he had experience with the being mind-controlled part anyway. Both times.
Walter shuddered at the memory of Hathor. At least Set's mind-control was minor and short-lived. Hathor was an evil bitch who he would never forgive. Thank god she was dead.
This poor girl was young and he didn't like the flat, no one home look in her eyes. It broke his heart and made every argument against following orders from a goa'uld die on his tongue. He couldn't turn his back on this. So when Set snatched the explosive backpack from the girl's arms, Walter jumped in and wrapped his arms around hers, pinning them to her sides. She never cried out. She made no sound other than gasping as she struggled.
It took him a moment to notice that the girl was no longer struggled against him so much as reaching up to her face. He didn't loosen his grip, but he did plant his feet firmly in place and focused his attention on her face. It was turning blue. What the hell?!
It took a moment to process the information before he realized what was happening and finally released his hold on the girl. Before she could collapse limply to the ground, Walter caught her and eased her down onto her back. Her hands were clawing at her throat and she wheezed, unable to breathe. But there was nothing tied around her throat and she wasn't choking or coughing. What the hell was going on?!
Golden light flashed to his left, briefly drawing his attention. He figured it was probably the holographic duel still going on next to him -which was beyond stupid, by the way- but it wasn't. He was immensely grateful for the fact he worked at Stargate Command and had thus been exposed to an ever-growing list of insanity. Because where he expected to see a ribbon device or some other goa'uld shenanigans, he instead saw a circle of seven, golden, glowing swords imbedded in the ground in a circle around the backpack.
And Set was leaving?!
"Wha- Where are you-"
The sound of a muffle bang! followed by a brilliant blaze of swirling fire and what vaguely looked like a shock wave slammed against the ring of swords. What. The. Hell. He didn't even feel the shock wave. It was just a faint shimmer against the golden swords swallowed quickly by the swirling flames within the force field.
It had to be a force field. It was the only thing that made sense. He couldn't think of anything else that could contain an explosion like that. But he'd never seen a force field that looked like that before. Not only that, where had Set managed to hide a shield generator like that? The shield was small, true, but how-
Coughing and frantic gasping and whimpering startled him back to the matter at hand. His head whipped back to the young woman who was now breathing deeply, gulping down air like it was all she ever needed. At this point, it probably was. The glaze was gone from her eyes. Now, her earth brown eyes were bright and aware and scared.
He quickly snapped into recovery mode. "Easy, easy," he said in as calm a voice as he could. "Breathe slowly. You're alright. You're alright. I'm sorry that happened to you. Are you okay?"
She blinked, struggling to sit up. Walter slipped an arm around her back to support her. Slowly, she caught her breath and stopped shaking. Several seconds passed before she nodded.
"I'm okay," she huffed in a scratchy voice. "Thank you." She drew a long, slow, deep breath, closing her eyes and raising her shoulders. After a moment, she released it all in a long sigh of relief and opened her eyes. She glanced at him and offered him a shaky smile.
"Sorry. I should've been paying closer attention," she said tiredly, her English fairly good through her accent.
Walter shook his head. "Mind control isn't something you can really keep an eye out for, I'm learning," he said dryly. She did a hilarious double-take at him, brown eyes wide with surprise. He just shrugged and gave her a Yes, I'm serious look. "Trust me."
That drew a faint laugh, which Walter took as a victory.
His relief faded almost as fast as hers though. She finally looked around as if to figure out where she was, and noticed the golden sword, force field thing. Her eyes grew wide in surprise. Walter couldn't blame her. It really was something. The flames inside were beginning to fade as the oxygen inside the force field was used up.
But before he had a chance to attempt to come up with some excuse for it-
"Swords of Revealing Light?" she whispered in confusion.
Wha-What now?
Then she looked up at the holographic duel and whatever color she'd recovered drained from her face. "Yugi!" she shouted, scrambling to get to her feet.
Her cry was surprisingly loud coming from an abused throat. It was rather impressive. What was even more impressive, was the shock of violet that flashed in their direction at her voice. Now that was a unique eye color. The short duelist's tense expression eased to a mix of relief and gratefulness. Then those violet eyes hardened and locked on the Wheeler.
Or, Wheeler and Set. What was Set doing?
It was amusing in a sly part of his mind, watching Jounouchi posture arrogantly at his approach. If only it actually was Jounouchi. That reminder brought back the seething fury that licked at his mind. Whoever, whatever had the audacity to subvert Jounouchi's mind deserved to understand just what exactly they had done and how big of a mistake it was.
He caught the struggling Jounouchi's chin in a steel grip. The thing possessing Jounouchi attempted to struggle. Once. Briefly. The moment the thing realized it couldn't escape was deliciously satisfying. But the moment it saw his eyes flash gold was glorious.
"I don't take kindly to snakes like you taking what belongs to me," Seto said calmly, a passive smirk on his face. "Or were you unaware that connections such as these can go both ways?"
Jounouchi's borrowed eyes widened in horror a split second before Seto drew on the power of the Rod, strapped firmly to his belt under his coat. It was easy to thrust his consciousness into Jounouchi's head. Backed by a Millennium Item, the invader had no way to fight back with any real success. It was pleasing to feel the foreign consciousness writhe in fear as Seto raked sharp, mental talons across the foreign mind.
You have interfered in a sanctioned duel under my supervision and cheated. By doing so, you have declared yourself my enemy. By hijacking someone else's mind to do your dirty work rather than facing your opponent face-to-face, you have lowered yourself to beneath the belly of a snake. A mere worm. Pathetic.
The consciousness writhed and shrieked like a serpent in his inescapable, Rod-empowered grasp. A familiar type of serpent.
Well, well.
Your choice of host is detestable alone. But your choice of mind to hijack was your last mistake. I do not take kindly to someone messing with my things. Hear me, snake. I am Queen Nephthys, Dynast of Tau'ri by order of Ra himself. And you have trespassed on the mind of my First Prime.
Horror. Shock. Pleading for mercy. Promises of loyalty.
Disgusting.
Surrender yourself to me in person and I might consider granting mercy. Until then, I give you this… gift.
Kisara blazed into his mind; her pure, brilliant light blinding the intruder. The flap of enormous wings. A deafening roar. A shriek of agony.
Silence.
Retreating from Jounouchi's mind, Seto waited, studying the blonde boy's face closely. It took a second for Jounouchi's mind to free itself from the trappings of the intruder's bindings and return to the waking world. When he did, he'd have one hell of a-
"Aw, god!"
Seto smirked. "Headache?"
"Ugh. Fuck you, moneybags," Jounouchi groaned, clutching his head with both his hands.
Snickering, Seto let the boy sink to his knees and groan. Right on cue, messy bleached blond hair appeared in Seto's vision, blocking Jounouchi's head from view. Releasing his hold on the idiot's chin, Seto hummed.
"Take care of your friend, Yugi," he said, not bothering to hide the dark amusement from his voice. "He'll have a headache to rival the mother of all hangovers."
He could feel the look Yugi shot at his back as he walked away. He didn't even bother to dodge when Mazaki, Honda, and the Tomb Robber reborn rushed past him to join the growing group of nerds. Sweeping his trench coat back slightly to tuck his hands in his pockets, he stopped by a now standing Harriman and the charred remains of the backpack. A wave of his hand and the spell dissipated. The grass and the hems of his pants rustled in the resulting rush of air, but nothing else happened.
Then he returned his hand to his pocket and looked at Harriman. The airman met his gaze evenly. Impressive. Though the quick glance over Seto's shoulder at the pile of idiots back there was a dead giveaway of the numerous questions held under military grade self-control.
"They'll be fine," Seto said. "This isn't the first time stuff like this has happened." He rolled his eyes. "Definitely won't be the last either."
Harriman frowned in typical human dismay. Dear Ra, have mercy on his lack of patience. Turning on his heel, Seto strode away.
"Want to talk? Walk. Otherwise, you're dismissed," he called without looking over his shoulder.
He snorted when he heard quick footsteps hurry up to fall into step next to him.
"You're a dick."
"Hardly the worst insult," Seto drawled. "Severe lack of originality too."
"Didn't realize I was being scored," Harriman groused.
Seto snickered. "Always assume you're being scored. You usually are in one way or another."
The airman shot him a disquieted look before sighing and shaking his head. Seto enjoyed the silence. Yugi's royal highness could deal with the backpack. He got himself into this mess, he could clean up after himself. Seto couldn't be expected to do everything for him. Especially after being forced to dodge meteors. That did tend to sour the mood.
The KaibaCorp helicopter was hovering farther away near the downtown area. Normally, Seto would prefer a ride, but he was in the mood to vent. A duel would do. He might actually enjoy testing out Obelisk's god card. Although, considering the brief test he'd done on his own duel computer… maybe not. He'd have to rebuild that damn thing from scratch.
"Was that mind control?" the airman asked suddenly as they rounded another curve on the park pathway.
Damn. He wanted to talk. Fuck.
"It was," Seto said simply. "I told you what I did to you was a form of hypnotism. An advanced but subtle form of suggestion. Your general commanded you to keep an eye on me. I merely suggested that meant wherever I went, not just in that location."
The airman considered his words in silence. The silence continued until Seto rolled his eyes and sighed.
"What happened to Wheeler was a full replacement of consciousness," he said, because damn it, he would probably have to explain eventually anyway. "It requires a very powerful psychic, sheer force of will, and usually a focus of some sort. You would need to overpower the victim's mind and will by force, which is never easy. You have to lock their victim's consciousness away so they can't fight you leaving their body empty like a puppet. During all of this, you must somehow maintain control of your own body. It's not something most psychics can do."
"That sounds like a goa'uld taking over," Harriman said boldly, not bothering to apologize.
Seto merely shrugged. "I wouldn't know. For a psychic, they must continually crush the victim's consciousness. I've never had to do that." Not that the airman would ever believe him, but whatever. That wasn't his problem.
A/N: Long story long: I graduated with my Master's then got a surprise contractor job at a well known utility company. As a contractor, I'm paid hourly but I don't get vacation or sick leave. This isn't the utility company's fault; it's the contract. But it does mean I have work over 40 hours in order to build up enough extra time to take a day off when/if I get sick or just want a vacation. MY boss is super chill and understands my situation so he lets me do what I need to.
But this job also required that I move closer. Rush hour traffic where I live is notoriously hellish and I was currently living equaled 1 hour (or longer) sitting in rush hour traffic at 6am and 5pm every day. Nope. So I started looking for a new place.
Thing is, gentrification and the increasing number of "luxury" *cough* overpriced and tiny *cough* apartments were going at $1,3k per month. And that was just the rent. There were "required" fees that weren't included in that price. These fees were ridiculous too. They were for stuff like valet trash (because people can't carry their own trash to the dumpster. Nope, they gotta have someone else get it for them. You have no choice in this fee, btw.), paid parking (because even though you live here, you have to pay for a parking spot too or you might not be able to park at your own freaking place), etc.
The amount ended up being so ludicrous, that I literally bought a house. My mortgage payment is cheaper than the monthly rent for those apartments (fees included). And I now OWN this house so I can do whatever the heck I want to it.
Oh, and I got a dog. So my dog, my life, my job, and everything else conspired against me. I never had time to write. Writing is my stress relief. Without it, I have trouble dealing with stress properly. But I was able to start DMing D&D again finally. 5e is so cool coming straight from 3/3.5e.
Now, my company has ordered all of its employees living/working in the metro area to telecommute until further notice due to COVID-19. Because of that, I was able to actually have time to write.
Thus, this happened. Sorry for the delay. I'm still here and I'm still working on this. Life just dropkicks me every now and then.
