Notes: Thanks to Harry2, Azalea542, and ThickerThanLove for various suggestions throughout!

Chapter Six

Everything had happened in a matter of moments. Everyone in the castle had heard the explosion, and they all came running immediately. But when they arrived, they found the same horrible scene the Tsunamis had been greeted with.

"Nesbitt?!" Johnson screamed. "Lector?!" He ran over in horror, Crump chasing after him and Gansley following as best as he could.

Lector wouldn't meet their eyes. "He's gone," he whispered. "He's gone. . . ."

"No!" Johnson tried to pull Nesbitt's body out of Lector's arms. "He's not gone! Did you even try to revive him?!"

"I tried so hard," Lector rasped. He wouldn't let go.

"What happened here?!" Gansley cried. He laid a hand on Johnson's shoulder and shook his head. Lector wasn't ready to let go.

"This is all my fault," Akio Tsunami said, badly shaken. "That Magician's Valkyria appeared and tried to strike us down. I don't understand! They're normally peaceful creatures of Light who protect other Spellcasters! But that one wanted to kill us, and this man wouldn't allow it. He blasted at her with his magical ring and then they were both laying dead from their colliding blasts. . . ." He ran a hand over his face. "If we had just gone back, it wouldn't have happened! . . ."

Mako gripped his father's shoulders. "We were going back," he said. "We didn't think we wouldn't be safe on the grounds!"

"Well, what do you think now?" Crump snapped at Critias. "Was that the act of a coward?!"

". . . No," Critias admitted. "He was very valiant."

"And so are the rest of them," Atem said. "I have been proud to consider all of them my friends." He looked sadly at Nesbitt. "We have all lost a great man tonight."

"My sister!" Dark Magician Girl screamed, running over to the Magician's Valkyria. "She wasn't one of the renegades! Why . . . how . . . how could she do this?!"

Yugi fell back in horror, just staring in disbelief at the catastrophe around them. "This is my fault," he gasped. "I knew we should just go home! I knew it! But I didn't have enough confidence in myself to push it, and now . . . now it's too late. . . ." Tears cascaded from his eyes. "They're gone. . . ."

Atem laid his hands on Yugi's shoulders from behind. "This tragedy must be answered for, and we must get to the bottom of why the Magician's Valkyria attacked. But for now, we must all leave before anything else goes wrong."

Critias growled, but finally, grudgingly said, "Yes, you should. Get all these innocent civilians back to their world."

Atem heaved a shaking sigh, looking to Dark Magician Girl as his heart twisted. This was his Dark Magician Girl, the one whose presence was infused in his deck. He hated to leave her to deal with this horror and grief, but his first priority was the safety of everyone else from the human world. He would certainly come back. "I am so sorry," he said to her.

She shook her head. "I don't understand any of this!" she exclaimed. "She would never attack of her own free will!"

Atem stiffened. "Then she must have been controlled somehow," he said. "The renegades wanted someone on the inside, or perhaps they wanted to make it look like you yourself are one of them, so they did something to your sister that would make her obey their every will."

"Or the Orichalcos is already here," Dartz feared. "The way her behavior switched 180 degrees . . . that is what happened to my people . . . and me . . . when we came in extended contact with the Orichalcos stones."

Dark Magician Girl stiffened. "You're right." Her hands shaking, she searched through her sister's clothes. When she produced a familiar green stone, she dropped it to the grass like a hot rock. "No! . . ."

"Holy . . . it really is the Orichalcos," Valon exclaimed.

Alister just stared at it. "But . . . when I destroyed the Neo-Orichalcos, that was supposed to have destroyed the force that made both types of stones!"

"Obviously it didn't," Critias growled. "At least, not in our world."

"You definitely destroyed the Neo-Orichalcos," Seto said gruffly. He remembered that all too well. "But the original Orichalcos was probably already here, just waiting for someone to find it."

Dark Magician Girl got to her feet. "We have to find this stash of Orichalcos," she declared. "I won't allow any war against the renegades until we're sure that their behavior isn't the Orichalcos's fault!"

Critias gave a curt nod. "We will set out in the morning to look."

"There's one thing, though," Valon said. "The Orichalcos works with the darkness in your heart. If you've accepted your darkness, it's probably not gonna affect you. That was the case with me. My personality never changed when I used the thing."

"Maybe it affected you differently," Raphael said. "Maybe it made you think you're worse than you are. Maybe that's what it does to those Vorse Raiders too."

"Whatever it does, we'll find out," Dark Magician Girl vowed. "But now, all of you, please go back before any more tragedies happen!"

Atem nodded. "We will. But again, I am sorry." He took out the candle-holder and opened a new portal. He would close both from the other side.

Both Johnson and Crump reached to help Lector, but he stumbled to his feet without their aid, still clutching Nesbitt's body. "All of you go through first," he said blankly. "It's not too late for you."

"We won't let it be too late for you, either," Gansley said, drawing an arm around Lector's waist. "We'll all go through together."

Lector didn't protest. He stepped through with Gansley, Crump and Johnson immediately following. All the rest of the group followed suit.

This new portal came out in the Mutos' kitchen. Mrs. Muto turned from the sink in stunned shock as everyone emerged into the small room. "Yugi?! Atem?! Dad?! What's going on here?!" she cried.

Solomon heaved a deep sigh. "It's a long story," he said, his heart heavy with grief and worry. He knew Yugi. The boy would not be able to get over feeling like this was his fault.

"But what . . . what is this thing that just opened in space?!" Mrs. Muto demanded.

Atem mentally counted everyone to be sure they were all out before he activated the candle-holder and sealed the doorway. "That was a portal," he said. "There's another up in our room."

"Hello?" Bakura was peering into the doorway. "We're still waiting in the bedroom . . . oh. Oh my." He stared at Lector holding Nesbitt's lifeless form. "What happened?!"

It took all of Lector's strength not to just collapse on the floor and give in to the utter and complete hopelessness. "He's dead," he choked out, walking past Bakura and heading for the stairs. "My dear friend is dead."

"Someone's dead?!" Mrs. Muto screamed.

"Seto?! Lector?!" Now Mokuba was running in past Bakura. He quickly surveyed the situation, seeing that Seto was alright while Lector was most certainly not. Horrified, he ran after his friend. "Lector?!"

Lector turned at the top of the stairs and looked at the child, his eyes empty. "Nesbitt is dead," he rasped, "and right now, I feel like I've died as well."

Mokuba's heart shattered. He understood completely. "Oh Lector. . . ." Tears filled his eyes. "I'm so sorry. . . ."

"I know," Lector said. "Thank you, Mokuba. I'm glad you're alright." He started down the steps. Each one felt like a hill. At the bottom he almost stumbled and collapsed again, but he forced himself to stay balanced.

The other three were immediately surrounding him, steadying him, holding him close. "Let's go home," Gansley said quietly.

Lector gave a weak nod. Home meant any one of their houses, and right now, he didn't care which one they went to.

Mokuba stared after them as they left. "Seto . . ." He turned to look at his brother, who had appeared next to him. "What happened?!"

Seto drew an arm around Mokuba and held him close. "We're still not completely sure," he said grimly. "But we're going to find out, and we're going to stop it from happening again."

Mokuba hugged Seto close as the tears continued to fall. "But . . . that won't bring Nesbitt back," he whispered.

"No," Seto agreed. "It won't." His eyes darkened. Nesbitt had died heroically, fighting off someone who shouldn't have even been an enemy. He was relieved that Mokuba hadn't been over there when it had happened, but he feared for his brother's safety as long as this problem was unsolved. Dark Magician Girl could open portals too. What if the Orichalcos corrupted her and then she decided to bridge the gap between their dimensions? Seto wouldn't trust that it wasn't possible. They were all in danger as long as the Orichalcos was still out there.

"What are we gonna do?" Mokuba asked.

"I don't know," Seto admitted. He was at a loss to know what to do now.

Atem hugged Yugi close. "But we must come up with some kind of a plan, even if right now that's just joining in the search for the Orichalcos stash."

"I guess that's the most important thing to do right now," Seto growled. "I'll help. I wish we had some kind of tracking technology to hunt it down faster."

"You could invent it, Seto," Mokuba said.

"Yeah, but not overnight," Seto sighed. "Plus I'd need a sample of the Orichalcos to build it, and I don't want that thing anywhere near me for as long as that would take."

Mokuba shuddered. "I sure don't either."

"We'll just have to search the old-fashioned way and pray it will be quick enough to stop any more calamities," Atem said.

Seto nodded in agreement.

Yugi drew a shaking breath and looked to Mako. "Do you and your dad need a place to stay tonight?"

"We're set up in the Royal Hotel, Yugi," Mako quietly replied. "Thank you for asking."

Yugi weakly smiled. "I'm glad you guys are together."

"So am I," Akio said, laying a strong hand on Mako's shoulder. "I only wish the same could be said for those poor men."

Yugi nodded and looked away. "Yeah. . . . Me too," he whispered. "Me too. . . ."

xxxx

Lector barely spoke on the drive home. He sat silently in the limousine, cradling Nesbitt's body close to him. He wasn't catatonic, as he would respond when talked to, but he just didn't have the strength or the heart to keep talking.

"I was right there and I couldn't do anything," he whispered.

"If you had activated your ring, you would be dead as well," Gansley said quietly. "I know you feel like perhaps death wouldn't be so terrible right now, but you wouldn't want the rest of us to lose two and not just one, would you?"

Lector shook his head. "Of course not. But I . . . I don't know how I will ever get over this or be the same as I was before."

"You can't," Gansley said. "Loss isn't something you get over. It becomes part of who you are. None of us will ever get over this."

"Yeah," Crump said, his voice thick. "We all love Nesbitt and we're all close. But I know you two . . . you really had something unique and special going. You guys became inseparable. That's . . . that's why people like Gozaburo and Yami Marik targeted you two so much. They saw how your relationship was changing and getting deeper."

"We . . . we were just talking about that before . . ." Lector couldn't keep talking. The clenching in his throat made it impossible.

The limousine stopped.

"We're at my house," Gansley said quietly.

Lector fumbled with the door and finally got it open. "I . . . I don't know how I'm going to let him go," he rasped. He stumbled out into a lightly falling snow, still holding Nesbitt's body.

"Don't worry about that right now," Gansley said. "Just take him upstairs. Be with him. We'll come in a bit. And don't forget to change out of your wet clothes."

Lector weakly nodded. As they reached the porch, Gansley unlocked and opened the door for him and he went in, not even remembering to politely stamp the snow off his shoes before heading for the stairs. No one pointed it out.

It was only after a door upstairs quietly closed that Johnson couldn't hold back any longer. He sobbed, sinking back against the wall and then slowly to his knees. Crump and Gansley hurried to support him, but Crump ended up sinking down with him. "Oh Buddy . . ." He hugged Johnson close.

Johnson gripped the knees of his trousers. "I . . . I couldn't break down in front of poor Lector, but . . ." He choked.

"I know," Crump said softly. "Man, I know. . . ." His voice was getting thick now. "And I dunno how I'm gonna tell George. . . ."

"George?!" Johnson said in disbelief.

"He liked Nesbitt. I could tell," Crump insisted. "I mean . . . of course he didn't like him like we do, but I mean . . ." He trailed off. "Oh, I know I'm just sounding ridiculous. . . ."

Johnson shook his head. "You're just trying to deal with grief, the same as I am."

Gansley gripped his cane and just watched. He felt so helpless. And as always, he couldn't really feel free to take the time to grieve. He had to be strong for everyone else. He turned away, unable to stop several tears from slipping down his face.

"Hey," Crump rasped, "I just realized. . . . We didn't get to do that legal adoption thing. And now Nesbitt . . . he can't even be part of it. . . ."

"We're still going to do it," Gansley growled. "And Nesbitt will be part of it. We'll list him on the papers."

Crump looked up at him. "Gansley . . . we know you're hurting too. . . . It's not a sin to show it. . . ."

Gansley shook his head. "Johnson couldn't bring himself to cry in front of Lector. I can't do it in front of any of you. I . . . can't. . . ." He held a hand to his forehead.

"Gansley. . . ." Crump got up and hugged him close. He didn't say more, but he didn't need to.

Johnson got to his feet and came over, embracing Gansley as well. He also didn't speak.

Gansley heaved a shaking sigh. He was glad that two of his friends were there.

For a long moment they stayed there like that, silently trying to make sense of it all and drawing strength from each other's presence.

". . . Should we really keep leaving Lector up there alone with . . . ?" Johnson said at last.

"No," Gansley said. Trying to pull himself together, he gripped his cane and started towards the stairs. "We're going to have to say Goodbye and . . . call the mortuary. . . ."

"I know," Crump said. "I sure don't wanna, though. . . ."

"I'll do it," Gansley said stiffly.

"Why not have one of the servants do it?" Johnson said. "I know none of us wants to have to. . . ."

Gansley paused at the bottom of the stairs. "Perhaps, in some strange way, I want to do it myself instead of delegating the task to a servant. It's . . . one of the last things I can do for him now. . . ."

Crump laid a hand on his shoulder. "I guess that's true. . . . I didn't think of it like that. . . ."

Gansley sighed. ". . . Let's go up." He started up the stairs, looking tired and old. Crump and Johnson quickly followed.

xxxx

Lector laid Nesbitt on the bed in the room Lector always claimed when they stayed over at Gansley's house. The motionless form went down just as Lector put him, not moving in spite of Lector's most agonized prayers and wishes.

Lector stepped back, his hands shaking as he started to peel off his wet suitcoat and undo his tie. "Ex-excuse me for a moment," he stammered in grief. Just another way he was struggling to deal with his anguish; he knew Nesbitt wouldn't reply.

He disappeared into the bathroom and quickly changed clothes. He wished more than anything that Nesbitt would have moved when he came back, but he saw that was absolutely not to be.

Trembling more, he slipped out of the room and next-door to Nesbitt's room, quickly gathering underwear, pajamas, and a towel and hurrying back. Nesbitt didn't usually wear both parts of pajamas, preferring tank tops or T-shirts, but it was cold and somehow Lector wanted to dress him warmly, even though he knew it was ludicrous. Really, he didn't have to get Nesbitt out of the wet clothes at all. Still, he felt he had to, somehow.

He drew a shaking breath as he reached for Nesbitt's body and lifted him, resting him against his shoulder as he started to slip the limp arms out of the suitcoat's sleeves. "I am sorry," he whispered. "I know you won't like this. You'll feel awkward, maybe even embarrassed, to need help. And that will probably bother you more than my having to strip all of these wet clothes off of you." He set the suitcoat aside and went for the tie next.

Please talk to me, he said silently. Please move, or groan, or do anything to show me you're not dead. . . .

But of course there was no response.

Lector really didn't know how he managed to keep from breaking down as he worked. Sometimes he still told himself over and over that Nesbitt was hurt, not dead, because otherwise he just couldn't take it. But the truth always stabbed him within the next moments, when he couldn't feel Nesbitt's chest rising and falling or when there was no breath on his hands. Nesbitt was so limp, and of course the task was difficult without anyone to help Lector lift him to get the wet clothes off and the dry clothes on, but he didn't feel like calling for the others yet. It was a private moment, and he knew it would be their last. At last he finished, and for a long time he just sat on the edge of the bed, staring at his friend's body in helplessness and anguish.

". . . I wonder where you are now," he said at last. "Did you already move on to Heaven, or are you still here? Are you trying to communicate with me right now and I just can't hear you or feel your presence because I'm so lost in grief?

". . . I hope you'd get sent to the right afterlife. You wouldn't end up in the Duel Monsters' afterlife because you died in their world, would you? . . . No, I can't imagine God letting that happen."

He gripped a handful of quilt. "God. . . . Imagine me really thinking about Him again, and knowing He's real. . . . I fell away so long ago and got caught up in so many worldly ventures. . . . I even lost my honor eventually. I know you'd disagree, but it's true.

". . . You were so happy today, excited about your submarine being a hit. . . . Was that really only this morning? It feels like an eternity ago now. And then you saw that Gradius. . . ." He couldn't continue this line of thought. It was shattering his heart too much.

He stood and walked to the window, then turned back. "You're so limp now, but you'll be getting stiff soon. I can't bear to be around for that.

"You know I'll try to go on, don't you? I'll have to, for the others' sakes. . . . Of course I'm thankful they're still alive, and naturally I want to be with them. But . . . honestly, Nesbitt, I never wanted to die before in my life, until I woke up and found you and all the others laying dead around me after Khu killed you. Both then and right now . . . death doesn't sound that bad. I'm halfway there now; part of me died with you. Oh, don't worry . . . I'm not suicidal. I'm just thinking . . ." He shut his eyes tightly. "There's actually a reason to look forward to death . . . because you're there and I'll see you again, and talk to you. . . ."

He was just about to his breaking point when the door slowly opened and Gansley stepped inside, followed by Crump and Johnson.

"I'm sorry, Lector," Gansley quietly told him. "I'm sure you know we have to call the mortuary."

Lector went stiff. "I . . . can't," he choked out. "I know we have to, but . . . I can't. I can't. . . ."

Crump walked over to him and hugged him close. "I know, Buddy. . . . I know. . . ."

Lector looked to him in grief. "You were Nesbitt's first friend out of all of us," he remembered. "I didn't like him for so long, and I had trouble getting along with him even after I started to like him, and now I feel like my soul is torn in two!"

Crump gave him a sad smile. "Yeah. Like I said, you two had something real special. We're all nuts about each other and all that, but you guys . . . I think in some ways, you were the closest pair among us. Maybe it means even more because it took you guys so long to get to that point."

Lector shook his head. "I'll never recover from this. . . . I know I wouldn't if it was any of you, but . . ."

"You don't havta say it, Buddy," Crump soothed. "We know."

Gansley had taken the moment to speak quietly to Nesbitt without being overheard. He smoothed the younger man's hair back and laid his hand on his chest before stepping back.

Johnson came forward to try to say his Goodbyes next, but he found himself just staring at Nesbitt instead. Finally he choked and shook his head. He would have to try again later. He couldn't do this right now.

Crump somehow managed to keep himself composed long enough to speak softly to Nesbitt, gripping his other hand before stepping back.

Lector drew a shaking breath. It was his turn, but he didn't know what to say or do or even think. He felt blank, empty, as he tried to think of more to say. Nesbitt was his dear friend, his brother. He stood over the other man for a long time, not speaking, not knowing how or what to even say that would possibly begin to encompass his feelings. Still, he had to do something. This was his last chance. Finally he bent down, kissing Nesbitt on the forehead.

Somehow that act shattered whatever ability he'd had to keep himself composed. His grief-stricken anguish took over and he sobbed, grabbing Nesbitt's hand between his as his knees suddenly grew weak. He crashed to the floor by the side of the bed.

"Buddy . . ."

He could hear Crump starting to move to him in concern, but Gansley stopped him and held him back. Lector needed this moment.

The stirring under Lector's hands nearly startled him out of his mind. He looked up with a jerk. He hadn't jostled the body; Nesbitt was opening his eyes and looking down at him in confusion. "Lector . . . ?"

Lector just kept staring, unable to believe this was real. "Nesbitt?!" He clutched the hand tighter. "You're dead. . . ."

"You're not dead!" Crump exclaimed, tearing over now. "What the heck?!" He hugged Nesbitt as best as he could with Lector still there. "Is this a fairytale world or something?!"

"Fairytale . . . what?" Nesbitt weakly hugged Crump and then slowly sat up, looking to Lector.

Johnson and Gansley were hurrying over now too. "Lector kissed you," Johnson explained. "And . . . you woke up. . . ."

Nesbitt was still trying to grasp what was going on. He felt foggy, like he was coming out of a deep sleep. But apparently the others hadn't thought it was just a deep sleep. "Lector . . . ?" He looked at his friend, who was still just staring at him, stock-still, trying to work out in his mind if this was really happening or if he had lost his mind and was imagining it.

Finally Lector came to life. "Nesbitt!" He choked on a sob as he pulled the other man close. "You're alive! You're alive. . . ."

Nesbitt, stunned and confused, slowly hugged back.

Gansley smiled. "Welcome home, Nesbitt." He laid a hand on Nesbitt's shoulder.

"You all thought I was dead," Nesbitt realized. "I'm sorry. . . . I didn't mean . . ."

"You were protecting Lector and the Tsunami family," Johnson said. "And you were struck down. . . . But it really must have been like a fairytale, wasn't it? It was an enchanted death . . . something reversible. . . ."

"But we all love him," Crump said. "Why weren't we all able to bring him back with our feelings? And why does it have to be a kiss?"

Gansley shook his head. "I don't know why fairytales tend to work that way. Let's just be grateful something worked."

They all certainly were. They surrounded the bed, all embracing Nesbitt at once.

Nesbitt looked around at all of them, his true family, his brothers, and he smiled. He gripped them as tightly as he could.

It was Johnson who looked up first with a sudden realization. "If you're alive, then what if the Magician's Valkyria is too?! We need to get a message to that Dark Magician Girl that she needs to see if it's an enchanted death!"

"You're right," Gansley exclaimed. "I'll call Yugi." He hurriedly stepped back and took out his phone.

"Magician's Valkyria?" Nesbitt sank back into the pillow, stunned. "The one who attacked us?"

"Apparently she was under the control of the Orichalcos," Lector explained. "And she's that Dark Magician Girl's sister."

"Oh." Nesbitt held a hand to his forehead. "Yeah, you'd better let her know. . . ."

"Are you alright, Nesbitt?" Lector asked in concern.

"I'm fine," Nesbitt assured him. "Just a little dizzy. . . ." He frowned. "I wonder if you could say that magic is like a computer program and it needs a specific end command to stop. Maybe the kiss is like that end command. . . ."

"So maybe just loving ain't good enough and it needs some kinda action for the magic to recognize it?" Crump said. "Maybe that makes sense. Figures you'd try makin' some computer explanation out of it." He gave a fond smile.

"That's the only way I know how to look at the world," Nesbitt said.

"No," Lector said softly as he reached to grip Nesbitt's hand. So warm, and full of life, unlike how cold and still it had felt only moments earlier. . . . He shook himself back to the present. "Nesbitt, you look at the world like a kind and caring human being. I didn't even realize how deeply you could feel until early this year, when you thought you'd lost me. And . . . I'm not sure I knew how deeply I could grieve . . . until tonight. I . . . didn't know how I was going to go on, even though I of course knew I was going to try."

Nesbitt looked at him in alarm. "Lector . . ."

"I'm alright now," Lector insisted.

"But I've got another disturbing question," Crump exclaimed. "If Lector hadn't kissed you, does that mean we would've buried you alive?!"

Nesbitt went stiff. Clearly that hadn't occurred to him.

"I refuse to believe that would've happened," Lector said fiercely. "One way or another, we would have got you back, through Shadi coming to tell us the truth or some other inadvertent method of breaking the spell."

The others certainly wanted to believe that as well. But for now, they just wanted to focus on the reality that Nesbitt was alive and back with them.