Chapter Eight
The mood at Melody's house was quite bright, in spite of the discovery of the dagger. When the group arrived, Christmas music was playing on the sound system and Mr. Muffin was loafing on the couch arm, purring away. Melody was petting him and humming along.
Bakura smiled at the sight. Oreo meowed in greeting to the other cat, and Mr. Muffin meowed back.
"Well, things look good around here," Joey said hopefully.
"They are," Mrs. Nosaka said. "That horrible evil spirit is gone. Do you think this dagger we found was his?"
"I don't know, Mrs. Nosaka, but we'd like to see it," Yugi said.
"It's still where we found it," Mr. Nosaka said. "We were waiting to explore further until you were all with us. Let's go." He led them all down to the basement and past a room with a window and a counter next to the door.
"Wow, what's this room?" Téa said in surprise.
"Mr. Muffin found it last night," Melody explained. "It doesn't feel creepy at all! Melody stayed here to sleep."
Joey picked up one of the figures on the counter and then set it back down. "Weird," he proclaimed. "But I'm all for anything that doesn't feel creepy!"
"Of course you would be, Wheeler," Seto grunted.
Despite the removal of the evil spirit, Mr. Muffin was not keen on exploring the frightening hallway. He stood by the good room and rubbed the wall while the group started down the corridor.
"This is the dagger," Mr. Nosaka soon announced. He pointed to a weapon lying abandoned on the floor near a closed door.
Yami Bakura bent and picked it up. "It is an Eon Item," he growled. "The symbol they all have is on the other side." He held it out for the others to see.
"So what's an Eon Item, or do we want to know?" Mr. Nosaka frowned.
"They're magical items created by some renegade Vikings," Bakura said in concern. He held Oreo away from it.
"Yeah, and they always cause us a lot of trouble!" Joey moaned.
"This one doesn't seem to be doing anything," Serenity said. "Maybe we can lock it away with the others before anything goes wrong."
Seto gave it a cursory glance. "Fine."
Tristan suddenly pulled it out of a shocked Yami Bakura's hands. "What are we all so worried about?" he snorted. "The other Eon Items all activated right away, but this one's just sitting here."
Yami Bakura snatched it back. "The Eon Axe still hasn't manifested its powers," he pointed out. "They're not to be taken lightly, even if they are just 'sitting here.'"
Tristan held up his hands. "Okay, okay." He stepped back and then grimaced, bringing a hand to his forehead.
"Are you feeling alright, Tristan?" Bakura asked.
"Yeah, it's just a headache," Tristan told him. "I didn't get a lot of sleep last night."
". . . Have you gone through these rooms?" Atem asked, wanting to diffuse the awkward moment.
Melody stood at the edge of the hallway holding Mr. Muffin. "No, we just found the dagger," she said.
Yami Bakura promptly opened the door of the room where the dagger had lain in front. A strong musty odor drifted out at them.
"Oh dear," Bakura said.
Mr. Nosaka frowned at the darkened and apparently empty room. "We'll have to air this out. I wonder if all the rooms down this hallway are like this."
Melody opened a door on the opposite side of the hall. "Melody thinks so," she proclaimed.
"At least they don't feel evil," Joey quavered. "Right?"
"There's no evil presence in any of them," Yami Bakura agreed.
"I wonder if there might be any clues on how this Eon Dagger works and what it's doing here," Yugi said.
"You're all welcome to look around," Mr. Nosaka said. "But I'm sure you all have Christmas plans for today, as we do. We don't want to impose."
"We'll just look a few minutes," Yugi promised. "Maybe we can split up so it will go faster."
Several of the group went into each room, but there wasn't a lot to see. Most rooms were very bare, cleaned out in the move. Only the room near the dagger had anything in it to speak of—a long, metal box positioned with several empty crates.
"What's this?" Bakura blinked in surprise.
Yami Bakura lifted the lid and rolled his eyes. "Empty. Maybe the dagger was originally in it."
Bakura sighed. "Oh well."
Oreo stared at the box and promptly hissed at it.
"That's never a good sign," Bakura said in concern.
Yami Bakura grunted. "We'll take it away, along with the dagger." He closed the box and headed out of the room. Bakura hurried after him.
Everyone else had already gathered back in the hall. "Well?" Mr. Nosaka asked.
"This is all there was," Yami Bakura said abruptly, holding up the box. "We'll take it and the dagger and go."
"Thank you for coming," Melody said with a bow.
"It was no trouble," Yugi smiled at her.
The group began to file upstairs. It was only then that Joey realized Tristan had somehow slipped away in the mass of people. "Hey, where'd Tristan go?!" he frowned.
"He's not here?!" Téa looked around, bewildered. "I'm sure I saw him come up!"
"He must have already left," Atem frowned. "But not staying to say Goodbye isn't like him."
"I was surprised he felt like coming today at all," Yugi admitted. "I was hoping he was in a better mood."
"He seemed alright, until he took that dagger," Bakura remembered. "He said he had a headache from lack of sleep. Maybe he was going home. . . ."
"I'm going to check on him," Yugi declared. He took out his phone and quickly typed.
Serenity watched, biting her lip. She would offer to send the message, but under the circumstances she supposed it would be better for her not to have much contact with Tristan. He was angry and hurting because of the situation involving her. The less reminders he had, the better.
"He's not replying," Yugi frowned.
"I don't like this," Téa said. "He can't be that far ahead of us. We'd better look for him."
"Maybe text the others too, just in case he'd wander off somewhere else," Joey said. "That one time he went to talk to the Big Five."
"They all stayed home since Nesbitt is recovering from last night," Téa said. "Tristan probably wouldn't want to bother them. . . ."
"It won't hurt to text them anyway," Joey said. "Last night Tristan wandered over to the bikers' place. Valon texted about it later."
"We'll let everybody know," Yugi agreed.
"Even Duke?" Bakura wondered.
Yugi hesitated. "I guess we should let him know," he agreed.
"Does he even know about the ghost being that Brutus creep?" Téa realized. "We didn't text him about that last night because we thought it would be too upsetting for him."
"What?!" Serenity cried. "The ghost was that horrible person?!"
Téa froze. She had forgotten that Serenity didn't know either. "Yeah," she admitted. "He said that's who he was. His family used to own this house."
"That's awful," Serenity breathed.
"Well, we'll figure out what to do about who to text while we're looking," Yugi said. "I don't know, guys. . . . I have this feeling we really need to find Tristan right away."
"Then we will," Téa determined.
"Melody will help," Melody declared. "You've all tried to help us. It's the least Melody can do."
Serenity smiled. "That's really nice of you, Melody. Doesn't your family have plans?"
"All of your families probably have plans too," Melody said. "We'll find Tristan first."
"Right!" Serenity said with a nod.
xxxx
Lector came to attention as the new texts appeared on his phone. "Something might be wrong again," he frowned as he looked to most of the others. Nesbitt was still resting, but the remaining four and the girls were sitting at the kitchen table and finishing a late breakfast.
"Oh boy. Now what?" Crump frowned too.
"Mr. Taylor started behaving strangely at Miss Nosaka's house, even randomly picking up the dagger they found, and now he's disappeared again," Lector reported. "Everyone is going out to look for him again. Yugi says he has a particularly bad feeling."
"Then some of us had better look as well," Gansley grunted.
"We'll definitely go," Evangeline declared. She and Angelique got up.
"Nesbitt needs to stay here," Johnson said. "He's in no condition to get up exerting himself."
The floor creaked and everyone jumped. Nesbitt was standing in the doorway, pale and holding on to the doorframe. But he looked very determined.
"I'm alright," he insisted. "At least I could ride in the car while we're all looking."
Lector sighed. "Oh Nesbitt. . . ."
"You guys are like two peas in a pod when it comes to tryin' to do too much too soon," Crump proclaimed.
"I want to go," Nesbitt said. "It was said last night that maybe I should talk to Tristan. Well, maybe I should. I don't know that I could say anything new, but I want to try."
Finally Lector smiled in resignation. "I'll get you something to eat while we're looking," he said. "And you'd have to promise to really stay in the car."
Nesbitt grunted. "I'm not ten years old."
"No, but you overexerted yourself, and I'm sure you remember how weakened Lector was for some time afterward when he did that," Gansley replied.
That brought a scowl. "Yeah, I remember."
"So just give in and let us be mother hens for a while," Crump said. "You wouldn't do anybody any good by trying to get out and join the action before you're physically able to!"
Nesbitt went red, but he had to concede to that logic. "Alright," he muttered.
xxxx
Tristan stumbled around a corner, grabbing the lamppost with a shaking hand while gripping his forehead with the other. His head was pounding. It had started right before he had picked up the dagger and had only gotten worse afterwards.
Why had he even picked up the dagger? He hadn't had any intention of it. Suddenly the impulse had overwhelmed him and he had grabbed it.
"What's . . . happening to me?" he gasped through clenched teeth.
The dagger is yours. Reach out for it and it will come to you.
"I don't want it!" Tristan trembled, staggering forward to fall on the snowy sidewalk. "I'm not thinking these thoughts. What is this?!"
Call the dagger.
"No!" Tristan reached out, gripping a handful of snow. "No. . . ."
Call the dagger!
Both hands went to Tristan's ears, but it was no use. The voice was in his mind; he could still hear it clearly.
CALL THE DAGGER.
"WHY?!" Tristan finally screamed.
Because you are the one to wield it.
"Siegfried von Schroeder's supposed to be the one who needs the Eon Items to fight those renegade Vikings!" Tristan pushed himself to his knees and then completely upright. Everything seemed so deserted. The snow whirled around him, silent and isolated. It was strange, really; he hadn't made it that far ahead of everyone else. Why hadn't they caught up by now? He had wanted to be alone when he had left, but now he didn't want it. He wanted someone to tell him what was happening. He wanted someone to make it go away.
You need it.
"I don't . . . need it," Tristan hissed through clenched teeth.
Destroy your enemies with it.
Tristan forced himself to resume walking. The snow was still falling, still spinning, and everything was still eerily silent except for that voice, that insistent, pounding voice filling up every corner of Tristan's mind so he couldn't think of anything else.
"I don't have enemies," he rasped.
You have one. You know who I mean.
Tristan stopped walking, the color draining from his face. "No. . . . He's not my enemy. . . . Not like that!" He clenched both fists. "I helped beat him up before, and that was bad enough! I'm not going to do even worse to him! Serenity would never get over it!"
That's your only reason? You want to hurt him, deep down.
"No, I don't!" Tristan's hands flew to his head. "Get out of my head!"
You beat him up on Kaiba's blimp. You weren't being mind-controlled then. That's your true self. You want him hurt!
"No!" Tristan yelled louder. "I tried to save him when we fell over the edge!" Why wasn't anyone coming? Wouldn't he have disturbed the entire neighborhood by now? Wouldn't Yugi and everyone else have heard him?
You want him dead.
"NO!" Now Tristan was running, running, desperate to drown out the voice, frantic to make it go away. Houses and streets flew past, barely noticed by him. Cars screeched to halts as he ran blindly across roads. He didn't hear them. He had to make it stop, he had to get help, he had to . . . he had to . . .
Suddenly the Black Crown was looming over him and he was running across the parking lot and through the sliding doors to the warm interior. It didn't make sense why it was there, or how he was there, but he was there, and Duke was standing in front of the counter and staring at him, and the Eon Dagger was in his, Tristan's, hand with no explanation.
"Duke. . . ." He spoke, and the voice was his, but the words were not his own. He was not saying them; why were they coming out of his mouth? "We're going to settle this here and now."
"Tristan?!" Duke went stiff against the counter, his hands behind him as he gripped it. "What is this?! Why do you have that thing?!"
Tristan took a menacing step forward. "Because I can command it to come to me and it obeys." His hand shook. Would Duke notice? Or would he only see the dagger, especially after what had happened before? Would he only remember being beaten up by von Tassle's men and Tristan, and not Tristan's horror and regret and self-hatred over being mind-controlled into such a fate?
Duke did notice. "You don't want to do this, Tristan." He spoke more evenly than he probably felt. The fear was in his eyes.
Something in his calm tone pierced through to the real Tristan and he couldn't fight back the wave of frustration and anger. So smooth, always so smooth. . . . He lunged, swiping at the air in front of Duke. "Yeah, I do," he said low.
Duke leaped away. "Tristan, put the knife down," he ordered.
Tristan snarled. He didn't want to do this, he knew he didn't want to do this, but hearing Duke was making him so angry. He hated that smoothness, that self-confidence, that insistence on being in charge. . . . He had wanted to give it to Duke on Seto's blimp, or on the roof of the Black Crown, and he had never succeeded in delivering what was deserved.
. . . He hadn't ever tried to fight Duke on the roof of the Black Crown. . . .
"I hate you!" Tristan spat. "You blew into our lives, tried to split up Yugi and Joey's friendship, helped your dad steal the Millennium Puzzle and hold it for ransom, nearly got Yugi killed with that Devil's Boardgame, and then you stole Serenity!" He kept advancing on Duke, swinging the dagger like a madman.
Duke kept jumping away and running around shelves. He couldn't hide the look in his eyes; even if he knew something was very wrong and Tristan wasn't himself, the words were devastating. He still felt horrible for what he had done to Yugi and Joey. He had abandoned that element of the plan before long and had tried to focus on dueling Yugi with Dungeon Dice Monsters. But he hadn't been able to hate Yugi like his father had ordered. He had been groomed since childhood to take revenge for his father's mistakes, but he couldn't.
The dagger was in his face, cutting down his cheek. He grabbed Tristan's wrist, his hand shaking as he tried to force it back.
Tristan leaned in, uncomfortably close to Duke's face. "You thought you could just worm into our group and have anything you wanted," he snarled. "You'd probably say all's fair in love and war. Well, it's not! You took away what I wanted and dreamed of. You ruined my plans and made sure I'd die. Now you're going to suffer! That's only fair."
At last Duke shoved Tristan back. "Tristan, what are you talking about?!" he exclaimed. "You're not making sense!"
His heart pounded in his ears. The ghost last night, the one that hated him. . . . Could he be someone from Duke's past? The way Tristan was talking, he sometimes sounded like he was someone else. The ghost was supposed to have been exorcized, but what if it had been forced into that dagger or some other bizarre thing? Maybe now it was possessing Tristan through the dagger. Duke had to get it away.
Tristan's expression twisted in a sickening manner. "Oh, don't you even remember me? I know you forgot about me when you tinkered with the space-time continuum, but I never forgot about you. The store made such a good drop and you ruined all of that!"
Duke hadn't thought he could get any paler, but he could imagine that now he had. "Brutus," he rasped. "You were the evil spirit in Melody's house!"
"That's right," Tristan sneered. "It's a good thing I bound my soul to this dagger some time ago so I wouldn't leave Earth after death. I knew sooner or later I'd have my chance for revenge. And wasn't it a delicious irony that my hated enemy and his friends were the ones asked to help rid the house of its evil spirits?"
Duke pressed himself against the endcap of the shelf. Of all the days for Lumis and Umbra to be late. . . . He was here alone with a madman, and even if Tristan could break free, he really was angry with Duke too.
"So the exorcism just forced you back into the dagger?" he guessed.
"That's right," said Tristan. "I can no longer haunt that house. But I was in the dagger, and when your friend came close enough this morning, I influenced him to pick it up so that I could link my mind with his. He left the dagger behind, but I called it to us across miles!" His eyes were wild.
Duke stared at him in horror. That meant that just getting the dagger away wouldn't do any good. Somehow he had to break Brutus's hold over Tristan, but . . . how?
". . . So what are you going to do to me now?" he asked. "Kill me?"
"Of course." Tristan leaned in closer. "I'm going to stab you in the heart and then leave your friend here with your body." But then his eyes widened in alarm. "No!" He shoved Duke away from him and stumbled back, shaking.
Duke fell hard against the shelf but immediately looked up. Could he dare to hope? "Tristan?!"
Tristan reached out, gripping the wrist of the hand holding the dagger. "Get . . . get away from me!" he cried. "I can't hold him off!"
His expression twisted again. "Of course you can't! Your anger and hatred fuels me! Why do you think I chose you for my host? You want him hurt too, even if you don't want him dead. But that's plenty for me to work with!"
Utter devastation filled Tristan's face. "No!"
Duke looked and felt devastated too. "Tristan . . ."
The sliding doors opened, finally admitting Lumis and Umbra. "What's going on in here?!" Umbra gasped.
Duke looked to them with a jerk. "Call the others!" he ordered. "Tristan's possessed by an evil spirit in that dagger! I don't know what to do!"
Lumis promptly pulled out his phone and dialed. "Go hide somewhere, Mr. Devlin! We'll hold him off."
Fear stabbed Duke in the heart. "No!" That was not an acceptable solution either! He couldn't let them be attacked here again!
A sudden roar from Tristan caused them all to look over with a collective start. He had the dagger pointed at his own heart. But his hand was shaking.
"Tristan, no!" Duke exclaimed. "That's not going to help! He could probably just reanimate your dead body! And even if he couldn't, I don't want you to do that!"
"If I can't stop him, this is the only choice I have left!" Tristan screamed. "I'm not going to let him use my body to kill you, Duke!" He brought the dagger closer, in spite of Brutus fighting against him.
Immediately Duke lunged, grabbing Tristan's arm with both of his hands. "This . . . isn't the solution!" he protested. "Tristan, do you really hate me so much that you can't cool it so that this guy loses his power over you?!"
Tristan clenched his teeth. "I . . . don't know," he had to admit. "I'm trying to cool it, but . . . nothing's helping. I'm still mad . . . just not enough so that I want to kill you!"
"Well, that's not saying much, especially when Brutus can twist your feelings to suit him!" Duke shot back.
A dark essence suddenly rose from Tristan's body, curling around the dagger. "It most certainly isn't," Brutus's hateful voice whispered. "But if he's going to continue being stubborn and fighting me, that isn't the only way to get what I want."
Abruptly the dagger dropped from Tristan's hand. Before anyone could think what to do, it animated seemingly on its own and propelled off the floor, tearing into Duke's flesh. For one split-second he looked at Tristan in shock before his eyes deadened and he crashed to the floor, stabbed in the heart.