~*~*~*~*~
Clink.
"Ow!"
Clatter.
"I say!"
Clunk.
Ryou Bakura shot Jim a chocolate glare as the detective pulled yet another knife off his slender frame. Late afternoon sunlight trickled through the bullpen windows, deepening the taller hikari's indignant look. "Do you mind?"
//I'm surprised the tomb robber hasn't maimed him yet,// Yami chuckled in the back of Yugi's mind. //So this is a police station? Hmm. I wonder how Tristan would compare it to the medjay barracks.//
//You don't remember?// Yugi asked, trying to keep his thoughts as quiet as possible. Blair was perched on the desk right by them, after all; who knew what a Guide could hear of magic.
//...No.// His darker half's tone turned amused. //I wouldn't worry so, aibou. Ryou's enough distraction for the both of us.//
True. Blair was openly staring as his partner shook the silver-haired teen down. "The last time I saw anybody carrying this much illegal hardware, I was stuck in the crossfire of a bunch of drug-lords in a Peruvian rainforest," the anthropologist said wryly. "If you hit water, you'd sink."
Ryou crossed indignant arms, yelped again as Jim promptly twisted them apart to get at something else. "I would not!"
"A knife," Solomon was saying in a low, serious tone, casting a dark look at the three well-crafted blades currently in Blair's possession. All strong steel, all definitely meant for self-defense rather than casual use; Tristan and Joey had been very helpful. "I gave you permission for a knife. As in one, singular."
//Almost enough distraction,// Yami amended.
"Ano... we might lose one?" Yugi scratched at the back of spiky hair, giving his grandfather an embarrassed smile. //Did we have to have three, Yami?//
//We've been over this, aibou. One, and we have to close to hand to hand. Two, and we have the option of throwing. Three, and we've a tool as well.//
//...I don't like it.// But he'd started practicing with Tristan anyway, Joey jumping in with enthusiasm, Tea with mingled interest and trepidation. The sheer relief from Yami as they blew dust off millennia-old skills was worth his shaky knees at the thought of actually using them.
//I'd worry if you did, little one.// Yami wrapped comfort around him. //I pray we never need use them. But I want you to live, aibou.//
"Given what my detectives pulled up from the Asian crimes files, I can't say I'm surprised about Bakura." Simon was scowling, staring into his mug as if the curdled brew might suddenly turn into something resembling coffee. "They're minors, and the state hasn't got a limit on knife length. But Sandburg tells me you know they've got problems, Mr. Mouto. I am seriously tempted to charge you with felony endangerment."
//Why does he have to loom like that?// Yugi groused.
//Why can't Kaiba walk like an ordinary person, instead of stalking like an angry leopard?// Yami's amusement rippled down their link. //It's habit.//
Seto. Yugi's hand touched the Puzzle, felt the vibration of a dragon's growl. //Kaiba?//
Yami's laughter was answer enough.
Solomon stood straight, long used to the rest of the world towering over him. "Captain, I can explain."
"I doubt that." Violet swirled as Seto Kaiba stalked into the bullpen, Mokuba, Rafe, and Brown in his wake. "Mouto. Yugi." He glanced at Jim as the detective finally let Ryou go. "You missed one."
"Where?" Dusting off his hands, Ellison shot him a scowl.
"How should I know?" Seto's smile was thin and dangerous, a cruel curve of lips. "I've dealt with Bakura. And based on past experience, you've missed at least one." Cold blue eyes swept the bullpen, settled on the malfunctioning percolator. Narrowed.
"Um... you're standing between Kaiba-kun and the coffee," Yugi murmured to an unnerved Rafe.
No fool, the dark-haired detective scrambled out of the way as the young CEO bore down on the nearest source of caffeine.
"Even goes after coffee the same way." Brown made his way to Blair's shoulder, voice low. "Blair, he headed straight for here. Straight for here. Like Jim finding you. You're sure he's not-?"
"Pretty sure," Blair nodded. "Ah, Kaiba. That machine's not-"
Kaiba glared at the percolator. The machine hiccuped, and coffee began trickling into the pot.
"Okay, that's just too weird," Henri muttered.
//Not used to sorcerers, are they?// Yami's snicker was tempered with relief. His greatest rival and ally was here, ready to strike if Bakura turned treacherous.
//We're stronger together than apart.// Yugi smiled into the cold blue gaze, reading the tell-tale protective twitches that meant something had threatened Mokuba. And the coolly amused twist of lips that meant Seto had taken great pleasure in grinding whatever it was into dust. //If we can just talk him into staying....//
And he caught Blair studying him oddly. //Hide!//
A door slammed in his mind, Yami seeking refuge in a soul room filled with traps. Yugi hid a wince, already feeling cold inside. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right.
It's just until we get out of here, Yugi told himself. Just until we're safe.
"Ha!" Jim grabbed for silver hair, drew out a steely thread with slender black plastic handles. "Got it." Inspected his catch as Ryou sulked, and whistled. "So is Bakura why you carry a bulletproof briefcase, Kaiba, or are your competitors really that scary?"
Clinging near the violet trench coat, Mokuba turned a miniature version of his brother's glare on the detective. "My big brother's not afraid of anything!"
"Uh-huh." Jim stalked toward the CEO, presented a hand, palm up. "Knife. Turn it over."
Kaiba snorted. "I have a permit, Detective."
"Really." Ellison's smile was feral.
"Ah, guys?" Yugi ventured. A shimmer of white was misting around Kaiba, just as a flex of furred black was fading in around the detective. Not visible to normal eyes, not yet; but with the anger vibrating in the air, it wouldn't be long. Oh boy.
//This could get ugly,// Yami whispered, the dark stone door of his soul room open a bare crack.
No kidding. Yugi slipped his hand under his open coat, silently undoing the cover snap on the belt pouch holding his deck.
"Yugi," Grandpa said sternly.
Yugi met his grandpa's gaze, looked pointedly at Kaiba's ready stance. Shadows were already singing around the CEO, dragons ready and eager for a sorcerer's call.
And Blair was eyeing them both, inexplicable anger in teal eyes, as if they were a puzzle he had to figure out or die. "Jim."
"What?" But the detective relaxed minutely, no longer an inch away from trying to grab Kaiba's weapons by main force.
"A bit of help, here!" an Australian accent called from the hall.
"'M'okay," Mai Valentine mumbled, as a redheaded detective half-dragged the purple-clad Duelist into the bullpen. "Really. Jus' need to sit down...."
"Mai!" Yugi ran to help prop the blonde up, guiding her into the nearest chair. She looked so faded. "How'd you find us?"
"Monsters, people screaming, general insanity...." Mai yawned, blinking widely. "Wasn't hard, Yugi." Dazed violet eyes fixed on a flowing trench coat. "Kaiba? Ryou? Someone throw a tournament and didn't tell me?"
"No." A quick sweep of blue eyes over her, and Kaiba headed for the coffee machine once more.
"Monsters?" Mokuba asked, moving back near Grandpa. "You mean-" He glanced at the detectives, and shut up.
"Connor?" Simon growled.
"I think we may have some answers, Captain." The redhead let go of Mai, backed off with a dark look of her own.
"Leave her alone. She's hurt!" Yugi took Mai's right hand, seeing as much as feeling the disruption in the Duelist's aura that was the wound of a first, unaided summoning. //Yami, help me!//
//This isn't just speaking, aibou,// Yami warned. //Grandpa can sense us shaping a soul's energies. Blair's a Guide. He will see us.//
//We can't leave Mai like this!//
//Nor will we. But be prepared. We may have to fight our way out of here.//
Yugi nodded slightly, already soothing the flow of Mai's magic as Yami gently merged with him. He didn't want to fight. But for Mai... Mai was a friend.
"Yes. She is hurt," Connor said pointedly. "Though I'm not certain how, given that the Creature from the Indigo Lagoon we shot never seemed to touch her."
"As in, big, scaly, fanged creature," Jim stated.
"Pops up, wreaks massive amounts of havoc, then vanishes into mist," Rafe added.
"All of the above. And for some odd, inexplicable reason, instead of seeking a hospital or a psychiatrist like an ordinary soul faced with the paranormal, she wanted to find you, Yugi." Connor planted fists on her hips. "Now, why would that be?"
"That's none of your concern." Kaiba pressed a half-cup of coffee into Mai's left hand, helped her guide it to her lips. Arched a dark brow, taking in just who now stood beside him. "Slowly, Valentine."
"Monsters in my city?" Simon growled. "It damn well is my concern, Kaiba. Connor!"
The redhead dipped a hand into the pouch strapped to Mai's leg, sparking a squawked "Hey!" from the Duelist.
She dares. Yami's eyes darkened, scarlet touching violet. She dares take a Duelist's deck.
//We'll get it back,// Yugi reassured him, never letting up on the slow, even strokes that shifted Valentine's aura from jangled exhaustion into healthy weariness. //Mai first.//
Stalking over to the captain, Connor turned up a familiar card. "Mirror Wall, Simon."
"Decrease the attack of all your opponent's attacking monsters by half," Simon read off. "What the hell?"
"Rose Whip," Connor turned up next. "What Ms. Valentine used on the creature itself. And in the car, she called our B-movie stray a Root Water. A creature that causes tidal waves. Which is precisely what it did."
"Duel Monsters?" Blair squeaked.
Jim drew in a breath, nostrils flared. "That's it. That's what they're all carrying." Turned to his partner. "What is it?"
"It's a trading card game, Jim," the anthropologist reported, confused. "Some of my students are into it. I looked at a few cards, but the way the game mish-mashes archetypes and monsters and magic together from all kinds of mythologies kind of grates on my nerves...." Almost against his will, his gaze swiveled to Kaiba.
"Magic," Megan breathed. "You did stop the blast."
A subtle twitch of fingers sent Mokuba behind him. Seto's expression was cool and unmoved as a glacier. "Inspector. Have you checked in with reality lately? Explosions behave unpredictably. They don't just stop."
"Nice act." Jim stalked toward the cold-faced teen, jaw just as set and dangerous. "You must have learned from a pro. But I can see your pulse jump from here." The detective's eyes narrowed. "Hand over the cards."
//You're right, Yami. This is going to get ugly.// Yugi winced, retreating to his soul room. //And I'm betting the answer is-//
"No."
Ellison's voice dropped, edged with menace. Black fur began to mist into being once more, a dark shimmer lengthening into a lashing tail. "I don't care who you are. I don't care who your teachers were. You're seventeen, and I know more dirty tricks than you could have picked up in a lifetime."
"Ah, Jim...." Simon managed, staring at the white curves of scales forming out of the shadows. Rafe and Brown were close behind Solomon as he headed to the farthest corner, dragging a reluctant Blair in their wake.
"Mother love us." Megan was frozen, Mai's cards still in hand. "What is that?"
"Never seen a dragon before?" The Duelist's empty cup clattered to the desk, as Mai prepared to hit the ground at the slightest hint of White Lightning. "Duck."
Oblivious, Ellison leaned into Kaiba's space, face inches from the slighter teen, light blue eyes boring into a gaze as deep and cold as the northernmost sea. "Hand. Over. The cards."
Chill fire crackled in Kaiba's eyes as black and white haunches bunched, ready to spring at each other. "Never."
And Yami felt the Shadows tilt.
"Swords of Revealing Light!"
Jaguar and dragon crashed into glowing blades, roaring impotent challenges as they scrabbled at the magic holding them fast.
"Now." Yami stalked into the middle of the suddenly silent bullpen, granting Mokuba and his grandfather a reassuring smile. "Perhaps we can talk like civilized people."
"You!" Jim turned on tri-colored hair, swore under his breath as he slammed into a blocking blade of light. "What the hell are you doing, Yami!"
Rafe gulped, found his voice in the face of the impossible. "Yami? I thought his name was-"
"Yugi and Ryou are multiples. Yugi may be a cute kid, but this personality's dangerous-" Blair lunged forward. "Jim!"
Solomon held him back, eyes flicking between the half-solid Blue Eyes White Dragon hissing behind Kaiba, the misty black jaguar snarling beside Ellison. "He's not hurt, Blair. Swords of Revealing Light only stops attacks."
Kaiba casually leaned against a glowing sword, smirk reappearing as he shuffled through his deck. "But not for long."
"Long enough to see reason, I hope. Stubborn as the Nile in flood, the both of you." Yami crossed his arms. "Kaiba! These folk are not your enemies."
The dragon master snarled, gaze fierce and bright and wild as the Blue Eyes coiled behind him.
"He wants to take away Seto's dragons," Mokuba whispered.
//And Seto knows it,// Yugi said through his link, uncharacteristically grim. //This isn't like the Xavier Institute, Yami. Somebody's still out there, right now. Somebody who tried to hurt Mokuba. Kaiba's so close to the Shadows....//
I won't let him fall, aibou. A spark of humor lit the ruby gaze. I'd rather not see the ceiling brought down on top of us. How would we ever explain? "The detective wants his companions safe. I know you understand that." Yami turned on the trapped Guard. "Ellison! A Duelist won't give up his deck. There are monsters on the loose, creatures that might attack any who bear the touch of magic. Mokuba is at risk. If you think Kaiba will release the one weapon he has for his brother's defense, you're a greater fool than I dreamed."
"Captain, the Swords only stop your opponents' attacks," Solomon intervened, voice wary as Simon's hand dipped toward his ankle.
Growling, the captain straightened. "Your grandson's got a serious attitude problem, Mouto."
Attitude problem? The pharaoh frowned.
Yugi chuckled, tickling down their link. //Sorry, Yami. They don't see a pharaoh, or even a Duelist. All they see is a kid. A short kid.//
Not quite all, Yami thought, looking over a wide-eyed Megan, a white-faced Blair. He felt the echoes of magic in them, the solidity of self that would see the lightning-streaks of gold decking red-and-black hair.
"Thank you, Captain, I'm aware of that," Solomon said dryly. "Please, no gunfire. Yami will protect Yugi, and given that you've relieved him of his mundane weaponry, I'd rather not take my chances on how. And if Kaiba decides to send his dragon against your detective's soul-beast-"
"Crispy kitty," Mai put in, blonde hair barely visible over the desk she'd crouched behind. "Even with your puppy over there to help. Silver Fang he's not."
"You see Blair's wolf?" Megan pursed lips in a silent whistle.
"Of course they do, Inspector. They're Duelists. That's what happens when you mix magic with the cards... and magic runs in my family as much as Kaiba's," Solomon finished, gaze distant.
Yami wove between edged light, touched half-solid scales. "Easy, great one. I swear, I'll not let them take you from him."
The Blue Eyes rumbled, fangs bared with the anger that crackled off Kaiba. *The young one....*
"Any that strike for him will deal with me."
Kaiba's snarl might well have come from his dragon. "My brother, Yami. I'll protect him."
"I know. But he is safe now." Yami reached out, slow and careful, allowing Kaiba to see his every move. "All of us are safe now."
Seto's fingers tightened, eyes blazing azure as he watched the Guard's snarling jaguar spirit. "Nenem-ek, per-a'a. Mehi-ek kheftey-ek...."
You're making a mistake, pharaoh. You forget your enemies....
Yami held calm on his face like ice over his storm-tossed soul. Wild magic and anger had done what Kaiba rarely would of his own will; loosed shards of his previous incarnation's memories, the high priest warning the pharaoh he had served so long and loyally millennia past.
//Yami?// Yugi sent question along their bond, feeling a sliver of memory slide into place.
Gods. The Guard had reason to oppose him.
But why?
//I hate to say it, but... he is a cop.//
And they'd removed an enemy of the people that mortal laws no longer recognized existed. All a cop would see was a killer - though they should have no proof even of that.
//What do we do?//
//Protect our own, aibou. And bluff.// "Sekha-i khenmes-i, Seth," Yami said carefully. "A'nen-i. A'nen er pen new. A'nen en Mokuba." I remember my friends, Seth. Come back to me. Come back to this time. Come back to Mokuba. "Seto." Yami wrapped his hand over the sorcerer's white-knuckled grip on his deck. Called his gentler half forward, even as he fit his own magic against the raw anger surging through Kaiba's aura. "When have we lied to you? When have we ever?"
"Seto?" Mokuba gripped his brother's coat. Let one hand trail along misty scales, wonder in gray-blue eyes. "I'm okay. Really."
"Jim?" Blair's voice was low and soothing behind him. "It might be easier for them to get rid of tall, white, and scaly if we could convince el tigre there to back off a little...."
The Blue Eyes vanished, taking the Swords with it; Yugi felt Seto sag. "I refuse to explain this," the CEO gritted out in Japanese. "Any of it."
"I know." Yugi let the taller teen lean on him, noting how Seto's gaze searched ceilings and corners. "What are you looking for?"
"Cameras," came the low growl. "The Electric Snake seared the security system at Questscape. Their cameras didn't stand a chance-"
Yugi stifled a snicker. "They won't have any here." He turned a deliberate look Ellison's way. "They'd have too much to explain themselves."
"I know this was freaky." Blair was rubbing a thumb along Ellison's arm, all of his attention focused on his partner. "Heck, I'm freaked. But everybody's in one piece, let's just relax here...."
"Damn it, Blair, that kid is dangerous!"
The anthropologist sighed. "Jim, tell me one person in this station who isn't dangerous. With the possible exception of Ryou-"
Silence.
Yugi glanced over the room. No sign of silver hair. Uh-oh.
Blair was visually searching the room, gaze flicking to various cracks and corners behind the slack-jawed detectives. "Um... where is Ryou?"
"More to the point," Simon said dryly. "Where are his knives?"
Jim closed his eyes, seemed to listen-
Just as Yugi felt a tremor in the Shadows. //Something's come through!// Yami warned.
"Dan!" Jim raced for the stairs, Blair on his heels.
"Look after Mai!" Yugi flung at Kaiba, dashing after them.
//Are you sure this is wise?//
//No,// Yugi admitted, trying to catch his breath as they hit the first landing. //But seeing monsters is one thing, Yami. People do that in Domino all the time; you give them a little time, and they think it's just a bad dream. Do you want to try and get these two out of Bakura's cards?//
~*~*~*~*~
//I don't want to be here!//
Bakura's fangs glinted in the basement's fluorescent lights. "Why, hikari," he purred, following his Ring's pointers toward traces of Shadow magic. "Don't you want to see who the pharaoh killed?"
//I'm sure... I'm sure Yugi had a reason.//
Oh, of course, Bakura thought bitterly. The pharaoh always had a reason to kill.
//And you don't?// A mental swallow; a shiver down his own nerves, as the first bitter tang of Formalin reached his nose. //But this is a morgue, Bakura! It's full of dead people! Fresh dead people!//
Keh! Like that was supposed to bother him....
//Dead people without any valuables!//
Bakura stopped cold. Sweet Isis. Did they have any idea how dangerous that was, leaving bodies with no protective amulets? Natron itself kept most creatures of the Dark at bay, but present-day mortals didn't even use that. They wouldn't dare.
//Oh yes, they would! Haven't you ever watched "Tru Calling"?//
Well, yes; but that was a story about an untrained mage going back in time to stop deaths. He'd thought the lack of protective charms was a way to add more dramatic tension, pathos at the sight of the unguarded, unavenged dead-
A wry chuckle bubbled through his link. //I thought I felt you listening in Literature.//
Bakura snarled. //Tell anyone and I'll eviscerate them.// Golden pointers leading the way, he pushed through the windowed door.
"Examination by Dan Wolf. Subject has been identified as Rob Barlow, twenty-nine, employed as security at Questscape. Probable cause of death... gee, let me think." A dark-haired Native American in blue scrubs shook his head, looking down at the massive shard of van steel impaling his scorched corpse's chest. "On first observation, massive trauma to the upper chest, caused by shrapnel. Blood has been drawn and sent for analysis...."
//I doubt we can blame that one on Yami,// Ryou said dryly.
Bakura rolled his eyes, ghosting past the medical examiner. //Of course not! The one we're looking for is right... here.// The Ring's spirit held his hand just above the drawer handle, amber eyes widening as he sensed the torn patterns of magic. //Necromancer!//
Ryou leaned back against the wall of his soul room. //Relative of yours, yami?//
//With magics like that about him?// Bakura snorted. //Destroying the world is a madman's game, hikari. I have greater plans than that-//
Shadows trembled behind them. Wolf's knife dropped with a clatter to a steel table.
Riiiip. Shred. Slurp....
//I don't want to look,// Ryou whispered. //I don't want to look, I don't want to look....//
Bakura looked.
Tattooed hide, gray as the grave. Teeth filed to points that ripped through dead flesh like a steak knife. A twisted, rune-scribed staff of a shovel, holding a shaking medical examiner at bay as the creature fed.
"Help..." Wolf whispered, dark eyes fixed on the red carnage spilling over his examining table. "Somebody... please...."
//Gravedigger Ghoul,// Ryou identified the Shadow creature. //But... that's a magic card.//
Bakura clung to the shadows, unwilling to draw the Ghoul's attention by reaching for his deck. Far more likely with this creature than most; the undead had no beating heart of their own to distract them from the gentle pulse of the Heart of the Cards.
So their unknown enemy was growing bolder in his strategy. If perhaps more bizarre. Why unleash a creature meant to take monsters out of a Graveyard here?
Wolf was scrabbling backward, hand closing on a tray of autopsy tools. The Ghoul loped off the table, crimson gaze fixed on warm meat, black tongue drooling stale blood. "Anybody... god...."
//It takes two Monsters out of your opponent's Graveyard, yami!//
Wolf flung the tray. Metal points jabbed undead flesh, mere pinpricks as claws dragged the examiner down.
Fangs at his throat, Wolf screamed.
"Spiritualism!"
A trio of skeletal ghosts swept out of a dark door, jaws chattering with chill laughter. Bony fingers closed on gray flesh, misty forms swirling, wrapping fluttering ectoplasm about the struggling Ghoul. Cackling madly, they dragged the snarling undead clear of Wolf, vanishing into darkness once more.
Just as Ellison slammed through the morgue door. "Dan!"
A whimper from the floor.
"Holy...." Blair's jaw dropped as he took in the wreckage of lab and bodies, the ghosts misting back into Bakura's card. "Dan, you okay?" He held out a hand behind him. "Don't look."
"Why not... oh." Yugi whistled, stopping just on the edge of the doorway. "Ryou? Are you okay?"
//Better than okay!// Warmth pulsed down Bakura's link; Ryou, smiling and open as a sunflower. //You saved him, yami!//
The Ring's spirit growled. //Don't get any ideas, hikari. I took out an opponent, nothing more.// He tested the patterns of magic one last time, listening for any hint their enemy might play the card again. Snorted, and retreated to the Ring. //You deal with this.//
Ryou smiled nervously at three pairs of accusing, stunned and terrified eyes. Looked past, to Yugi's encouraging smile. "Ah... glad I could help?"
~*~*~*~*~
"Munched." Dan was seated at Blair's desk, a mug of coffee pressed into shaking fingers. "It got munched...."
Closing the door to his captain's office behind them, Jim Ellison cast a dark look in the direction of their Duelist-packed interrogation room. Cocked an ear, obviously listening to make sure Megan had their guests properly corralled out of normal earshot. "It's them, Simon. These creatures are after them. The rest of us are just collateral damage." He crossed his arms, gaze hard. "What do we do with them?"
Simon shook his head, watching the bullpen as Blair talked their terrified medical examiner down. He didn't even want to think about the mess left over from what had been a straightforward autopsy. Pieces was the least nauseating description that came to mind. Set up appointment for Wolf with the department shrink, he noted down. Thought a second. Check morgue audio-tape log. Make sure shrink knows he was not hallucinating. "Ellison, right now what I want to know is, what do I do with you."
"Simon-"
"Don't 'Simon' me, Detective. Not right now." Simon took off his glasses, rubbed throbbing temples. Damn, he should have grabbed a cup of coffee while the percolator was still scared of Kaiba. "I should have said something a long time ago. But I thought you and Sandburg were just working out the kinks in this sentinel thing."
"Simon-"
"And some of it was that," Simon acknowledged, running over his detective's protest. "Around the department, you're a hell of a lot easier to deal with. You smile. You trade info. And you are always, always there when we need you." He seated his glasses back over his nose, shot a glare through scratch-resistant lenses. "The problem comes in when you have to deal with anyone outside this department. And you do not play well with others, Detective."
Yep, there went the jaw grinding. "This is about Kaiba."
Oh no you don't. "This is about a consistent pattern of behavior, Detective. This is about the fact that any time somebody walks through that door who thinks he's just as much of a top dog as you are, you think you've got to take him down. Well I've got news for you, Detective." Simon drew himself up to his full height, deliberately looming over Jim's retreating blond hairline. "I am the top dog in this department. Keep this up, and you're challenging me. And don't you dare think I won't take you down."
"I asked him nicely."
Simon eyed his detective. Let the silence draw out.
"He's the one who almost had a dragon in our laps!"
"In case you hadn't noticed, Detective, Kaiba is seventeen," Simon said levelly. "Legal adult or not, he's a bundle of raw nerves and you know it. Forget the company. Forget the magic. He's a teenager with no parents, and a little brother to look after. A little brother who would've been killed if Kaiba hadn't pulled one hell of a rabbit out of his hat this morning." Simon held that icy glare. "Given that mess downstairs, I'm willing to believe your cat could have done some serious damage. And Kaiba knew it. Which means you did not ask him nicely, Detective. You might as well have pulled a gun on him. If Yugi hadn't been there to talk him down-"
A ghost of a flinch. Simon blinked. Reran events in his head. Oh, hell. "Yugi's like Blair."
"What makes you say that?" Jim asked, too quickly.
Simon arched a skeptical brow. "Behavior patterns, Jim. Hospital. Here. And Kaiba's got the same kind of raw edges you used to have, before you got used to the puppy-dog eyes and all... that... bouncing...." Aw, no. No way. Couldn't be.
Only the way Jim's eyes suddenly slid aside, it damn well could be.
"Jim." Simon gentled his tone. If what he suspected was true, there was a good reason for Ellison to be snapping at everything in sight. "Tell me they're not related."
A stranger would never have seen the wince. Simon sighed. "Talk to me, Jim."
"None of your business, Simon."
"When it's making you snap at people who could probably take on our whole SWAT team? It damn well is my business."
Ellison shrugged reluctantly. "You know that guy Naomi never mentioned?"
Blair's father. What a thing to do to a kid. "Yeah."
"Solomon Mouto."
Which makes one leather-clad Japanese teenager with innocent eyes, multiple personalities, and a bad case of magical decks... Blair's nephew, a part of Simon's mind that wasn't frozen in shock calculated. Why me?
"He said his family stonewalled Naomi when she tried to get in touch with him. That he didn't know he had a second son until a month or so ago," Jim went on, words grating over each other as he dragged them out. "I was listening. He was telling the truth." Ellison looked down at Simon's desk. "Yugi doesn't know."
Simon stifled the urge to pound his head against the wall. Or better yet, Jim's. Your partner's had his world flip upside-down, and you're in here?
Oh, right. That last bit was his fault.
"Go look after him, Jim." Simon lifted a hand as Ellison turned to leave. "This does not let you off the hook, Detective. You keep stepping on people's toes, somebody's going to drive a spike through your foot. You hear me?"
"Yes, sir."
~*~*~*~*~
"So...." Dan gulped down the last of his extra-sugared coffee. "Weird question to be asking a white boy, but - you know any way to keep the evil spirits out of my lab?"
"I'm working on it," Blair assured him, hand hovering near the bandages on the medical examiner's neck. Felt an odd prickle in his fingertips; a whisper of sensation, warmth and shadows and desert-clear air.
Why desert?
Yugi had held his hand over Dan's wound just like that while they were in the hall; Blair had seen a shimmer of gold and purple shadow swirl around small fingers, wiping away the lingering darkness in the Ghoul's bite.
Just to be sure, Yugi had said. Bakura sent the Ghoul back to our enemy's hand, but the walls are pretty thin right now. It wouldn't be good if something else latched onto the bite.
As if "something else" crashed through his life every day.
Magic runs in my family as much as Kaiba's.
Blair chafed his arms, feeling suddenly chill. No. No way. I've got enough weirdness in my life. I mean, come on, I died already. I don't need monsters under the bed!
"You okay?"
Blair relaxed into Jim's hand on his shoulder. "Been better." Man, I don't want to say this. But the last time he and Jim had left out little details, people had ended up dead. "There's something really strange about Yugi and Ryou."
"No kidding." But Jim's tone was understanding, not dismissive. I'm listening.
"I keep hearing these whispers around them," Blair admitted. "That's how I knew Ryou was gone. It got quieter all of a sudden." Fingers clenched on his desk. "It's like I can almost hear the personalities talking to each other. Deciding when to switch, when to back off. I can't make out the words, they keep ducking when I try to listen but... god. That's-" He bit back crazy.
"I thought multiples switched personality under stress?" Jim's face was suspiciously still; the detective never liked admitting there were things he didn't know cold.
"Usually. Sometimes we don't always know the stressor, but-" Blair stopped. Thought about what he'd seen. "Jim. We've got a problem."
A dark blond brow lifted.
"Multiples don't pick which personality comes forward," Blair explained. "Those two do. And once an alter's got control, it's supposed to take a while before the core personality comes back. But you saw those two snap right back, just as soon as things calmed down. Heck, Yugi came back while Yami was calming Kaiba down...."
"And didn't miss a beat," Jim finished. "Not normal?"
"I don't know. I just don't know." Shaking confusion away, Blair tilted his head at Dan. "You said there was something you wanted us to see?"
"Yeah." With an effort of will, Dan steadied his hands. Flipped open a folder. "Jim. You asked for people to keep an eye out for anything weird in the way of suspicious circumstances?"
Jim flipped through the offered file. Frowned at the head shot of dilated eyes, brown barely visible around black pupils. "And you put down heart attack?"
"As tentative," Dan confirmed. "I haven't gotten the tox screen back yet, but so far everything but the eyes is consistent with massive heart failure."
"Dilation argues for narcotics," Jim pointed out.
"I know that, Jim," Wolf said patiently. "But I didn't find any needle-marks. No raw areas on the skin from a transdermal patch, no trace of smoke in the lungs, nothing in the stomach except half-digested blood. Which is a squick factor all in itself, but - I'm telling you, this guy just DKO."
"Done Keeled Over," Jim filled in at Blair's questioning look. He flipped through the rest of the pages. "Carl Olshaker. 38, dealer in rare books, finances in the toilet. No wants, no warrants... huh. There's a seven-year-old restraining order against him, filed by-" The detective whistled, and pointed Blair toward a paragraph.
"Corinne Santiago." Blair winced as he read the scene report, skimming the clinical details of what must have been a disturbing subversion of ancient rituals meant to lay the dead to rest. "Subject found in Point Grey Cemetery after some kid called in a report of vandalism." Sprawled on sigil-painted grass, with Corinne's picture floating in a cauldron of blood. Oh, man.
"Did you say Corinna? She's not-" Rafe glanced at the folder. "Oh, sorry. Wrong case."
"What about Corinna?" Jim pounced. Blair rolled his eyes. Jim was just constitutionally incapable of ignoring a Major Crimes case, no matter how many times Simon thwacked him over the head with the departmental regs.
"Miss Johnston's in the hospital," the younger detective admitted. "Coma. Your Jane Doe from this morning. H and I were heading over there to talk to her mother. Would have gotten to her sooner, but given what Kaiba did at Questscape-" He spread empty hands. "Though I suppose if it wasn't for Kaiba, she would be one of yours, Dan - Jim?"
The sentinel had pushed the folder aside, giving Dan a narrow look. "The body. The one that was mutilated. Questscape security?"
"So what was Questscape security doing in an alley with Miss Johnston?" Rafe flexed predatory fingers, a detective's sense of pieces that didn't fit awake and hungry. "Thanks, Jim. If we could get you two on this one...."
"But you can't." Jim seemed suspiciously at ease about it. "We'll just have to do our assigned duty of escorting a certain visiting Kaiba Corp. CEO instead."
Rafe grinned. "Which just happens to include getting a full description from Mokuba of exactly what went down in that alley?"
"Could we do any less?" Blair shrugged. And waited until Henri and Rafe were on their way out before whispering, "Are you insane? He said he didn't want our protection!"
"I'm not letting that crowd run loose in my city, Blair." There was no give in Jim's face. "Besides, you and Solomon need to talk. Without our visitors in earshot."
"Our-?" Oh. Spiky hair at six o'clock, with a ticked-off CEO on the right flank.
Spiky hair with an armful of brown hairball, sporting a full set of green claws. The creature's yellow eyes blinked at them, almost as wide and innocent as the teen carrying it. "Ohwoooh?"
Dan shrank back. "Oh god. Get it away!"
"It's all right," Yugi said hastily, scratching the hairball under what might have been a chin. "This is Kuriboh. He won't hurt you." He offered the critter like an oversized kitten, waiting until Dan reached out a tentative hand. "I thought you should see that not all the monsters mean to hurt you."
"Oooh?" Warm brown fur leaned into the M.E.'s stroke, purring.
Laughing, Blair identified the odd, half-sound at the edge of his mind. Yami. Doesn't sound mean, just-
Slam!
The anthropologist suppressed the urge to shake out his fingers. He was standing in the middle of the bullpen; he had not just gotten his hand slammed in a very cold, very heavy granite door.
So why does it feel like I ought to have bruises?
Some of the strain had left Dan's face. "Harmless, huh?"
"Unless you hit it," Kaiba said coolly. "Then it explodes."
Dan froze mid-scratch.
Yugi sighed. "Kaiba...."
"You don't want them trying to shoot it, do you?"
What do you know? There is a sense of humor under all that chill, Blair thought, catching sight of an infinitesimal curve of lips just before it vanished. Way, way under.
"Um." Dan cleared his throat. "It's... uh, cute."
Jim's nostrils flared. He sniffed. "Does it shed?"
Kaiba crossed his arms, wrist-guards glinting in the sunset. The sardonic quirk of lips resurfaced, darker this time. "You've never met a fiend before, Detective. I doubt you could possibly be allergic-"
"Ah-choo!" Jim backed off, eyes watering. "Ged thad-" Another explosion of sneezes. "Damn!"
"Get it out of here!" Blair hustled his sentinel into a chair near an open window, glared at Dan and Yugi. This didn't look like a bad reaction, not yet. "You two. Bathroom. Scrub off. Now!"
"Blea-choo!"
"And you." Blair switched his glare to the smirking CEO as the Kuriboh-exposed pair skidded into the hall. "You knew that would happen."
"No." Storm-wild, that gaze, and just as deadly careless of human frailty. "But I suspect Bakura did."
"Ba'gura..." Jim managed.
"He has a truly vicious sense of humor." Kaiba shrugged. "Consider yourselves warned."
"He's god a regord."
Almost in the hallway, Kaiba stopped. Turned. Gave Jim a cool, unimpressed look. "You'll have to come up with better lies than that, Detective. Anyone who knows Bakura knows he doesn't have a record. And I doubt he ever will." Trench coat flaring, he swept out of sight.
"Mind clueing me in on what that was for?" Blair grumbled, testing exposed skin for any sign of hives. Little feverish, definitely congested, but so far Jim looked okay. This time.
"You're-" Jim blew his nose. "Anthropologist. Group dynamics?"
Blair hesitated. Fit that interaction against the other behavior he'd seen from the Duelists. Kaiba doesn't trust Bakura. And he and Ryou aren't friends. Not that I think Kaiba's got friends.... "Yugi's holding them together. How?"
"Maybe some things run in the family, Chief." Jim tousled curly hair. "So get out there and tell your nephew I'm not going to drop dead on him, okay? He sounds pretty upset."
Nephew. God. "You're that sure?"
"We can run a DNA test," the sentinel shrugged. "But even Simon can see it."
Blair's stomach flip-flopped. "Oh god. What's he going to think? What's he going to say?" Cops had a lot more experience with the mentally unhinged than the average man on the street, most of it bad. Multiples weren't bad, exactly; though one or more of the personalities might have a larcenous or even homicidal streak, they weren't as unpredictably erratic and hazardous to life and limb as, say, your average paranoid schizophrenic....
"I say you worry too much, Sandburg."
Blair stiffened. "Simon-"
"Blair." The captain stepped around the desk to face him. "I looked up shamans, after I finally pried that little detail out of your partner. And I did a little research on Santeria. Experts say alternate personalities come with the territory. They also say those personalities show up early to late teens." Simon thumped him on the arm. "Now, given that you're closer to my handsomely mature age than acne and still all in one piece, I'd say you're not going to crack on us. So relax. Breathe. That's an order."
Almost against his will, Blair felt comforted. Simon was okay with this. The rock of Major Crimes was steady under his feet. "Thanks, Simon."
"And get these lunatics out of my station before they find something else to blow up!"