Sakakku

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Notes: I'm not sure I got Téa's quote right, but it was something close. Bit of language in here, sorry if this offends anyone.

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Chapter 7

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Mokuba spent all his days at the window of the mansion he lived in, now alone. Alone with the strange dreams of Yugi… and of Yami… as two people, hiding, together yet alone in a desert.Seto had hired many people to work in the mansion, but when he left Mokuba sent them all away- with a sack of silver and gold each, because he felt bad. He was all by himself now, although in the first few days after he'd contacted the Rare Hunters they were in and out of the mansion, asking him questions about Seto and rummaging through his big brother's belongings. They seemed to like him- occasionally a Rare Hunter would ruffle his hair and tell him that Marik and Bakura rewarded those that were loyal. Mokuba was torn between pride at the deception and dread as they found what could be clues to his brother's whereabouts. But soon enough all his feelings went away and all he knew was utter, utter boredom.

That combined with a sense of impending doom made for rather unpleasant days.

A man walked slowly down the streets, scanning the houses casually, but his gaze kept returning to the mansion Mokuba sat in. The black-haired boy peered carelessly out the window, but his attention was piqued when the man turned down the dusty road that led to the front door. Mokuba leapt from the seat and flung open the door before the man even knocked.

The stranger seemed startled, but recovered quickly. "Mokuba Kaiba," he said quietly.

Mokuba gazed up at him. Must be one of Marik and Bakura's employees, even if he wasn't dressed as a Rare Hunter. The man wore white robes and a turban that not only covered his head, but most of his face. "That's me," he said politely. "Can I help you?"

"I need to speak to your brother," the man said.

Mokuba furrowed his brow. "I already told you guys everything I know about Seto," he said, growing nervous.

"What?" The man seemed startled.

"Didn't Marik and Bakura send you?" he asked, feigning ignorance.

"No!" the man exclaimed. "No… may I come in?"

Mokuba considered slamming the door in his face, but his curiosity got the better of him. "Okay…" he said, letting the door swing open. The stranger came in, and he pointed to the kitchen. They both went in and took seats at the wooden table.

"Where is your brother?" the man said, cutting right to the chase.

"I don't know," Mokuba repeated. "If I did know, believe me, I'd tell you."

"What do you mean you don't know?" the man asked, putting his hands on the table. Mokuba felt his stomach clench.

"I don't know," he said firmly, staring into the stranger's eyes- what he could see of them, anyway. They were mostly in shadow. "He probably went to look for Joey- I mean, Yami! No, it was Yami." He was sweating now, and extremely confused. He was in big trouble…

But the stranger simply stared at him. "Seto Kaiba left?" he breathed.

Mokuba looked up with a start. "Who are you?" he demanded, all of a sudden angry and afraid. Everyone knew that Seto was gone. They were all looking for him!

The man paused, then reached up and unraveled his turban. Mokuba leapt away from the table, knocking the chair over and falling on his back. "Mokuba, stay still!" Kimo hissed.

Kimo. Pegasus's guard. The one who had kidnapped Mokuba in Duelist Kingdom. "Stay away from me!" Mokuba commanded in a high, frightened voice.

"Ssssh!" Kimo said, rushing over and clamping a swift hand over Mokuba's mouth. The boy had a sudden flashback of the last time he did that and began struggling.

"Mokuba, I'm not here to hurt you!" Kimo said angrily. "I'm here to see Seto! I have a message for him from Pegasus!"

Unsurprisingly, this did little to reassure Mokuba. His eyes filled with visions of a soulless big brother, and he kicked out.

"Damn!" Kimo swore, releasing Mokuba to grab his leg. Mokuba turned over to scramble away, heart pounding too much to scream. But Kimo recovered enough to grab Mokuba again, and lifted the boy up. He sat Mokuba on the kitchen table, hand still over his mouth, and looked at the boy in the eye.

"Listen, Mokuba," Kimo breathed. "Pegasus sent me here with a request for help from your brother. He has information that might be able to bring down Marik and Bakura."

Immediately Mokuba stilled.

"When he painted the God Cards, he found out certain things," Kimo continued. "He's going to try and find a man who might know more. He wanted your brother to come with him to search for Shadi: Seto is knowledgeable about these things." Kimo searched Mokuba's eyes again, and removed his hand from his mouth and stepped back cautiously. Mokuba didn't move.

"Please keep this a secret," Kimo pleaded. "If Seto's really gone, I'll return to Pegasus and we'll set out alone. But no one can find out, understand?"

"I'm coming with you."

xXx

"I. DON'T. CARE." Tristan bellowed.

"That's exactly the problem!" Duke hollered back. "You don't care about anything. You don't care about me. You don't care about yourself. I'm beginning to think you don't even care about your friends!"

Tristan's head jerked back as if he had been slapped. "My friends are the only things in this god-damned screwed-up world that I give a shit about!" he screamed. "You just don't understand, Devlin, because you've never had any friends!"

Duke bit down so hard that he cut his tongue. Without waiting for a response, Tristan wheeled around and stormed out of the house.

His anger died down almost immediately and he returned to his almost robotic-state of existence. But this time, Duke's eyes were hovering in his minds eye. The disapproving looks he'd shot at Tristan… the exasperated ones… the triumphant ones whenever he made a breakthrough in Dungeon Dice Monsters… but most of all, the stricken look when Tristan had claimed Duke hadn't ever had friends. And behind the visions of Duke's hurt eyes were the two boys in the desert… Yugi and Yami, from his dreams…

All of a sudden, he felt a strong urge to go tell Duke that he was his friend. Tristan wasn't entirely sure where the feeling had come from, and was slightly freaked out by it. And he was very sure Duke would be as confused as he. But the urge was gnawing at him, and he spun around to run back home.

But a shout of laughter stopped him in his tracks- it was such an unfamiliar sound. He backtracked and peered around the corner. A group of villagers were huddled together, watching what appeared to be a group of brothers. The eldest was juggling, while his younger brothers were clambering on each other's shoulders to form an impressive show of acrobatics. Tristan glanced around- amazing. All the villagers were laughing, and clapping their hands, and some were dancing. The first smiles he'd seen in months, and he felt a tugging at the corners of his mouth. It felt strange and unnatural on the stiff lines of his face.

The boy on top of the acrobatic stack suddenly pulled out a dagger from his tunic, and everyone gasped. He grinned down at them, and carefully tossed it at his older brother. The juggler grabbed it deftly and threw it in with the sacks he was tossing, managing to juggle without injury. The crowd broke into thunderous applause once more, and Tristan hesitantly joined in. He eyed the brothers as they ended their antics and took bows. Why did they look familiar to him?

"Thank you," one of the middle boys announced, stepping forward a little. "This has been a presentation of the Roba brothers, circus employees of Marik and Bakura, sent to you directly from the palace!" The crowd, relieved that they could cheer safely for them, and thrilled at the thought that their oppressors were finally providing them with some entertainment, and possibly nervous as to what would happen if they weren't enthusiastic about employees of Marik and Bakura, broke into applause and whistles.

Roba? Oh, right, Joey had dueled one of them.

Tristan's head snapped up. Joey had dueled one of them! He'd dueled Espa Roba! Images flashed through his mind: he and Serenity had watched the duel via laptop. She'd cheered him on, and Tristan had called Téa to make sure their blessings were passed onto Joey. And they had been, and Joey had beaten Espa Roba. Later, the two guys had talked about the duel, but only briefly. Joey had told him a little about Espa, and his brothers. Would Roba remember Joey?

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Espa beamed at the crowds, refusing any gifts offered to him. He and his brothers were paid pretty well by the palace, and these folks were obviously poor. That was why the Roba's were there, after all. Marik and Bakura had finally realized that to keep the people happy, they needed to start offering something. They'd sent for the Robas, who had gained quite a reputation in their small village with their tricks and their looks. Of course, the Rare Hunters sent to fetch them hadn't told them this; the Robas had been afraid they were in trouble at first.

But all was well now, and he was happier than he'd been since Battle City. The last real spark of affection he'd felt was right after Joey Wheeler had defeated him in a duel; it went a long ways toward showing him how much his family cared for him. To be working together now was a miracle in this hard world. This was their first stop after leaving the palace, and it had worked better than they could have dreamed.

He scanned the people, all looking thrilled. Maybe they would stay another day; he was torn between being with these needy people longer or looking for others to entertain.

A boy with brown hair forming a spike at the end was trying to push his way through the crowds. "Espa Roba!" the boy called, and Espa turned slightly. Had he told anyone his first name? Perhaps the stranger had overheard his younger brothers.

"Espa Roba!" the boy repeated, now standing in front of him. He was tall and muscled, and cleaner than most. This was odd. The brown-haired boy bit his lip, as if thinking about something, and finally said: "Do you need a place to stay for the night?"

"Yeah!" His youngest brother immediately chimed in. Tommy Roba clutched Espa's hand and looked up with pleading eyes: "Can we stay here another day, Espa brother?"

"Oh, well…" Espa hesitated. "I suppose so." The decision was made for him.

xXx

Half an hour later, the crowd had reluctantly let the Robas go, and they walked with Tristan to the outskirts of the city, where Duke's house was. Espa had heard of Devlin, and was amazed to find that Tristan Taylor was living with him. The younger boys ran ahead while Tristan and Espa talked about the dice-master.

"Actually," Tristan said, once everyone was out of earshot, "I recognize you. You dueled my best friend, Joey Wheeler."

"Joey?" Espa's jaw dropped and he stopped walking. "Your best friend?" An image of a brown-haired girl flew through his head. 'Joey, your sister and Tristan are watching your duel from the hospital!'

"Yeah," Tristan said, pushing his jaw up. "I know you're employed from the palace. But do you really want to follow Marik and Bakura?"

"No," came the immediate answer. Tristan looked, startled. Espa stared him down seriously. "Did you see their faces back there?" he continued. "Everyone was so happy, and so surprised, and so glad to have a molecule of joy in their lives. Can you imagine living without joy?"

Tristan looked down. If only Espa knew. "I wish I knew where my friends were," was the first thought that came tumbling from his lips. But what about Duke? Didn't he count?

"Joey escaped," Espa said quietly. Tristan looked at him in disbelief. "It's true," Espa said, "everyone in the palace was in a tizzy over it when we got there."

"Joey…"

"Do you want to go look for him?"

Tristan once again stared at Espa. "How did you…"

Espa winked and tapped the side of his head. "Psychic."

A smile, a real smile, crept to Tristan's face. "I'll go right now," he announced.

"You're not alone," Espa told him. "I'll help."

Tristan's eyes widened. "I can't ask you to do that," he protested. "You could be putting your life in danger."

"I know."

Silence hung in the air, then Espa took a deep breath. "Tommy!" he called, and the youngest brother came trotting back.

"We're almost to the house, Tommy," Espa told the boy, ruffling his hair affectionately. "But Tristan and I aren't going to come with you, okay? Don't tell anyone until you're in the house."

Tommy's eyes grew large. "Espa brother?" he began to ask, but Tristan cut him off.

"Tell Duke I sent you," he said, crossing his arms. "You can stay as long as you like."

"You should only stay a little while," Espa cautioned, "then you might like to move on. You're all grown up enough to go without me, just listen to Sammy okay?"

Tommy asked hesitantly, "Are you going on an adventure, Espa brother?"

"You could say that," Espa agreed. "But I'll be back, okay? That's a promise. Just maybe not soon." He sniffled. "Tell everyone I said good-bye…" He stretched to look at them, dashing down the dirt road and laughing playfully. A tear dripped from his eye: "I wish I could tell them myself, but time is important…" He swallowed painfully.

Tommy looked at him somberly, then reached up and hugged him tightly around the neck. Tristan watched the two brothers, feeling like an intruder, but unwilling to turn away. A lump grew in his throat; was this really two emotions in one day?

Espa broke contact first: "You'd better go." He didn't add it, but Tristan felt as if he were thinking, Or I'll never be able to let go. Tommy, somehow understanding, dashed down the road. And Espa and Tristan turned and marched steadily away.