AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is the final chapter so far as the original plot (involving Dar, Rex, and Roba) is concerned (and boy was it hell to write, not to mention to read!); merciless criticism is very much appreciated. I may, however, put up some epilogues and side-stories, as if you weren't tormented enough.

Fifteen: Just a few more screws to put in, and…

Seto cursed colorfully as a rental car nearly collided with his own-no, make that actually did collide, but not too severely. He noted the license plate number, storing it away and putting "have that lunatic arrested" on his mental to-do list.
"Is this the place, sir?"
He nodded as they pulled up before the Game Shop. "This is the place."
He got out and walked to the entrance, then took a step backward as a truckload of fireworks seemed to have gone off within. He proceeded to slam into someone and keep on going. Backwards, that is, and then down in a tangled heap.
"You really should watch where you're going, Kaiba-boy."
He got to his feet, saw the rental and made the conclusion. "And you," Seto shot back before he had really processed the identity of the speaker, "need to learn that Domino City is not your private bumper-car arena."

***

Once the light had dwindled, Sapphire let out a howl, "ONII-SAN!" and proceeded to leap forward and hug Jewel as only a little brother could. Jewel gasped and fell back against a display, capsizing the whole shebang and sending booster packs skittering across the floor, gleaming under the lights. A stack of fake-leather jumbo game cases joined them. Yugi and his grandfather fell to their knees and scrambled to gather them up.
Sapphire colored and let go. "Sorry about that."
Jewel smiled good-naturedly in response and brushed some hair out of his face. "It's all right."
"Jewel!" Once again he fell back, this time into the wall. Haku quickly pulled him away from it. "Jewel, how could you, I nearly went insane wondering if you'd really been split in two or something, and here you are coming out like nothing happened!"
Jewel blinked. "Actually… I think I was, for a bit."
Haku and Chihiro and Sapphire (once the latter had finished handing Yugi an armful of boosters) and just about everyone in the shop stared at Jewel's jacket (suspiciously resembling Yugi's, except in a larger size) as if they could look so hard as to look straight through and see the scar where his flesh had parted company and then rejoined.
"I apologize," said Chihiro, "on Seto Kaiba's behalf, for that incident."
"Apology not accepted. You had nothing to do with it."
Sapphire picked up two more boosters, stuck out his arm out in Yugi's direction, and as Yugi reached out to take them, promptly dropped them.
Yugi blinked. "What was that for?"
Sapphire pushed himself up halfway onto his toes (Yugi wasn't at all that much taller than he was) and stared in the direction of the door. "It's him."
Haku sighed. "Little brother, he did say he might be coming to check on us."
"I'm not talking about him," said Sapphire. "I'm talking about him."
Chihiro looked where Sapphire was looking, frowned and said something in Japanese. Joey turned to Jade. "What'd she say?"
And Jade looked, too. "I dunno exactly what, but I'm pretty sure Pegasus is dead meat. If she gets her way."
The door began to swing open. Sapphire let out a kind of a squeak and half-jumped behind Chihiro, but headed forward in midair so he returned more or less to his original position.
"Well, well, Yugi Motou, you really should keep an eye on your monsters."
"I second the Snow Queen," Hikari growled. "He. Is. Dead. Meat."

***

Tani blinked. "Oh. It's him. Yugi, you'd better hide the knives somewhere else. Else being somewhere harder for me to find, because, well…"
"Now, now, ladies," said Pegasus. "Please, be reasonable."
"Reasonable my arse." Hikari turned to Yugi. "Yeah, you'd better hide those knives, otherwise someone might be tempted to use them. I'd hate for you to have to clean up all of that."
"Look, I understand that perhaps you might not have been very happy with what happened to you in the duel-"
"If you could get sucked up by that and get blown up by Gabriel and come out all smiling and cheery, I'll be absolutely positive-positive-positive you're insane." With each "positive" Hikari seemed to clench her fist tighter. Jade was mildly surprised that she hadn't drawn blood yet.
"- but really, that is no reason to resort to violence."
"Eye for eye, tooth for tooth," Michael muttered. Jade jumped slightly; he hadn't heard the knight come up beside him. He then wondered what Michael could mean by that. Did he think Hikari should have arranged to jam Pegasus into Relinquished and fry him, or what?
"After all, we are all past the Dark Ages, are we not?" He smiled in a way that was probably meant to be appeasing but instead intensified the glares and formed a couple of new ones. "Can we not settle this reasonably?"
Hikari mock-considered this for a moment. "Um… no."
Yugi's grandfather groaned and began to bang his head against the counter. Jade realized why - any fight that broke out in the Game Shop would undoubtedly end up trashing merchandise. That was Not Good. "Look, I know you're all out to take each other's heads off, but could you puh-lease take it outside?"
Hikari smiled. "Fine, then. Out we go."
Haku stepped in front of her as a rather rumpled-looking Kaiba entered. "What is this we business? You've got your share already, Hikari Kenshin, in case you've forgotten. Or do you think I don't watch the news?"
Jewel raised his hand and waved it like a kid at school. "Um. What's all this about?"
"Yeah," said Rex. "What're you going on about?"
Haku looked at them. "It's a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?"
"Yes," they said.

***

Jewel blinked now that the story was told. "Don't you think you're overreacting a tad?"
"What do you mean, we're overreacting? He-"
"Yes, yes, you just told me." He made appeasing gestures that were far more effective than those performed several minutes previously. "Really, I know you're all quite bright, but the way in which you attempt to settle this issue makes you look like idiots." Glance at Pegasus. "All of you." Shadi nodded in the background. "Hikari, Tani, while motivations are certainly justified, you could have waited until he was up and about."
Turn to Pegasus. "Now, I'm sure playing the villain can send people on insane power trips, but really, an apology is in order."
"Oh. Sorry," he deadpanned.
"Now, this is getting absolutely ludicrous. I really think you should wipe the scoreboard, so to speak. If I hear of any revenge enacted upon each other for events taking place before this moment, I will speak to the offenders. Perhaps do more than speak. Is that quite clear?" Hasty nods from everyone, including a Seto Kaiba who seemed to have entered mild shock.
Sapphire tilted his head to one side. "Oh, and about several millions currently residing in Seto Kaiba's personal bank account as compensation for the absolute botching of one of the Kaiba Corporation's products… is that okay?"
Yugi spoke after a moment. "You mean… the virtual world?"
Kaiba whacked his forehead; he could be heard muttering, "If it could slip stuff in it could've slipped stuff out."
Haku put a hand over his mouth. "You didn't!"
Aaron laughed. "He did! Good job!"
Pegasus laughed even harder than Aaron.
Hikari laughed even harder than Pegasus. "Oh is Bakenrenef going to blow a fuse when he hears about this…"
Sapphire shook his head. "No, no, no. It was completely legitimate. When you take into account all the extra time that'll have to be spent re-reprogramming the game and debugging all over again and everything, not to mention certain other stuff, several millions seems quite a reasonable settlement. A couple of express mails, and that was it."
Kaiba nodded, finally beginning to smile. "How much for lawyers' fees?"
He shrugged. "Jane says forty percent is usual."
"And you settled for how much exactly?"
"Seven millions."
"That gives you two point eight. Use it wisely."
Sapphire gaped. "You've got to be joking."
"I assure you I am not joking."
"Then you're drunk."
"I'm not drunk, either."
"Then you're just insane."
"When are you going to take the money and shut up?"
"Now, I guess."
"I didn't know he was like this," Jewel whispered to Michael.
Michael shrugged. "Times change."

***

November 15, 2003

The Scales, by now, were back with Shadi, who had retired to Egypt after things settled down some (the survivors of the Raptor house's chocolate massacre were sent along to make it easier). Battle City was well and truly over. While Rex hadn't quite gotten into the top eight, he'd still gained a respectable standing. Part of this was due to his sudden fantastic luck with card drawing. When he'd asked Dar about this, Dar had grinned and said nothing. He liked to think that if he challenged Mai now he'd win, or at least make it close.
Dar passed the newspaper to him. He looked over the latest updates on the case. They'd had a hearing yesterday, it seemed, around the time the blimp had landed and the duelists had marched off, to much fanfare. Yugi Motou now had another tournament won to add to his list.
Oh God, he thought as he read more, were the Robas one messed-up family, or were they one messed-up family? The mom had been, to be blunt, pushing up daisies for over a year. The dad had been in Oregon, for crying out loud. They said he'd gone all the way to NYC at one time.
"Rex?"
"Mm?"
"Someone called Zachary-"
Rex snatched the phone. "Yeah?"
"I wanted to talk to DelaSangre…"
Rex threw the phone at Dar. Dar caught it and held it the right way. "Hello? Oh, yeah, them." Pause. "You're welcome, I guess." Longer pause. "Yeah, that's me. You're… Tommy, right?" Still longer pause. "Really, it was nothing. Honestly. Yesterday? It was Yugi Motou, you know, the spiky-head."
He counted off on his fingers. "Then Wheeler, Ishtar, Kaiba, Bakura. Not necessarily in that order. Sure he took out Jinzo. Much hash was made by Jinzo." Short laugh. "No, I don't think there's enough room over here… sorry." He laughed again. "No, nothing wrong with donkeys. Ever read one of those Christmas books, see what Mary's riding? Bye and good luck." He pressed the hang-up button and turned to Rex. "Feel like visiting Jade today?"
"Why not?"