Chapter 17.

Joey was marching back home, bawling his eyes out. He made sure to stay strong and not break down in front of Kaiba....he had no intention on giving him the satisfaction. "Stupid jerk Kaiba....who needs him, anyway!!" Joey kicked a can, continuing down the road. "He told me he wouldn't do that again! He told me he wouldn't push me away....why's he do this shit to me?? What the hell did I ever do to him!"

"Joey, wait!" A voice came running up behind him.

Joey turned, and asked, "Mokuba?"

"Please don't be mad at him. Seto's always done this to people....whenever they get too close. He really does care about you!" Mokuba said.

"Yeah, well from what I've seen I'd say he's over it. The guy's probably jumping for joy now that I'm gone!" Joey said, turning his head away, so Mokuba couldn't see the free-flow of tears coming from his eyes. "Why are you here, anyway? I thought you were mad at me for beating up on your brother at the hospital...."

"I was, until I realized what was really going on. I found out only a couple days ago, when I started to hear him cry out your name in his sleep." Mokuba said, causing Joey to whirl around in surprise. "I told you Joey, he cares for you....you're never out of his mind, that's why he's so afraid of you. I'm the only person he's ever allowed to be close to him, and that's because I'm the only family he has. He's afraid of getting hurt, so he pushes everyone away. And by the way, he wasn't jumping for joy after you left. I saw him collapse on the floor in grief after you were gone, letting out everything he was bottling up while you were still there."

Joey wiped his eyes, unable to imagine Kaiba getting that emotional for anything. "I dunno....I can't see it. But....why's he afraid of me, and what's that got to do with his changing back and forth??"

Mokuba sighed, "He's afraid because he cares so much!" 'Didn't I just tell him that?' He thought. "As for the other thing....well, Seto needs to find an excuse to justify his actions. If he doesn't, then he'd have to admit to himself that he's pushing you away because he's afraid, and if he couldn't find another reason than that, then he wouldn't do it, because he'd feel he's being cowardly. But this whole thing started after he got out of the hospital. He made this deal with Charujin that we'd settle if they gave him all the information about the device they used on him. He's been re-creating it."

"He, WHAT?? Is he nuts?? Why would he do a stupid thing like that??" Joey asked.

"Because he stuck it in his head that the machine made him care about you, and he thinks this machine can take it away." Mokuba said.

"That's crazy....you don't think that's true, do you?" Joey asked.

"If the machine did anything, it took away his memories long enough to allow himself to open up to someone else for a change. But, I don't think the machine caused him to care about you. He was with both you 'and' Yugi when he was a woman, and he doesn't have Yugi on his mind....it's only you." Mokuba said.

"Good point....I should have used that on him." Joey said. 'Stupid me....'

Mokuba shook his head, "It doesn't matter, he was ready for a battle with you. No matter what you came up with, Seto would have said something to argue with it. His plan was to make you hate him, and get you to stop going after him...."

"Well, then I guess it worked." Joey pouted, though the water-works finally stopped.

"Please Joey, don't say that. I have an idea to show Seto how wrong he is!" Mokuba said.

Joey eyed him curiously, asking, "You do?"

Mokuba gave a mischievous grin, nodding, "Yep....it's full-proof!"

Joey continued to be suspicious of him, as he said, "You know, between you and your brother, your whole family's weird. You got one brother plotting one thing, and the other brother plotting against him."

"Only when his plans are self-destructive. Someone's gotta look after him, he wont!" Mokuba said, exasperated.

"All right....what's the plan?" Joey asked, thinking this felt the same as back when both the Kaiba brothers used to whip up evil plans against Yugi. Atleast this time it was directed at Kaiba himself. With Mokuba sharing with Joey his idea, it made this whole thing feel kind of neat to him....like he was a secret agent, or something!

Mokuba smiled excitedly, saying, "Okay, well I've been keeping up to date recently with the project that Seto's been doing, and I found out that it's already up and running. They tested it on an animal and a person, and passed both. Now he plans on finding someone to go into it and be affected long term, while being hooked up to a device that analyzes everything that he or she goes through, while in this state, to see how it affects the person on an emotional level. Once that's completed, he's positive it will show him how he was not only affected, but how to reverse it, as well."

"Okay, so all we have to do is wait for him to do the final stage, and that'll prove to him that he's wrong." Joey said.

"No....instead, I'm going to choose someone as the experimental guinea pig, mainly you, and put you into a job at Kaiba Corp, close to Seto, to prove to him once and for all that it's not the machine, but him." Mokuba said.

"Wait a minute! You mean you're going to turn me into a girl!??" Joey cringed.

"Don't you see....that would be perfect! All this time he's been telling you how terrible it is, and how you can't understand what it feels like to go through what he did. This way, he can't say that to you, anymore!" Mokuba said.

"But if I'm the experiment, won't he figure out it's me??" Joey asked.

"No, cause I'm gonna choose the person in the experiment, and say it's some guy I met, and insist he let me deal with this part of the project, while guilt him into not taking any part of the water park project that he promised he'd help me with, originally. You'll get your own ID and everything. The things they use to hook you up wont be seen since it's goes nicely under your clothes, kinda like a hidden tape recorder, but it records only you from the inside. And I'll list your new job was given by the temp employment agency he uses once in a while, so it wont look like I hired you. It'll work, trust me! I got it all covered!" Mokuba smiled, confidently.

Joey swallowed, having a really bad feeling about this idea….