Immediately Rishid ran forward, ducking under the rope with growing trepidation and screaming for Marik. That fence was charged with unnumbered amounts of voltage. If Marik had hit it, there was no telling how badly he could be hurt. When Rishid saw the scene before him, it made him stop in horror and shock.
Marik and Seth were laying in a tangled heap next to the fence. It seemed that both of them must have hit it. Nuru was standing over them, trying to pry Seth away and looking rather disturbed. Rishid ran over, going pale as he saw Marik's limp body up closer. He couldn't tell who had hit the fence hardest, but Marik was still and his eyes were closed.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Rishid demanded furiously, kneeling down and scooping Marik into his arms and away from Nuru's uncaring hands. The boy's eyes fluttered open slightly in confusion, staring up at Rishid before he sank back into whatever state he had been in. There were no burn marks on his body, but he seemed stunned.
"Lord Seth got into a fight," Nuru replied, bending over the priest.
"I'm certain that 'Lord Seth' caused the fight!" Rishid snapped, holding Marik closer to him.
Nuru ignored him. Standing up slowly, she chanted a spell and vanished with Seth.
Rishid glared after them and then held Marik closer. "Are you hurt badly, brother?" he asked in concern. The boy's flesh was pale, a stark contrast against the black leather jacket he was still wearing.
Marik's eyes opened again and he blinked, trying to focus. "No," he managed to say, "I'm not hurt. I didn't hit the fence full force. Seth did. But . . ." He trailed off, looking confused. "Someone else touched the fence," he said then.
Rishid didn't understand. "What?" he exclaimed.
"They . . . touched it on purpose," Marik said weakly. "I saw him in the shadows. He grabbed the fence and . . . seemed to be charging it with electricity. Then Seth hit it and . . . he and I were fighting . . . and so the sparks channeled into me."
Rishid gently carried the boy inside and laid him down on the couch, biting his tongue to keep from making angry remarks about the unfairness of it all. Marik was always being hurt. Now Rishid again examined the boy's hands and flesh, checking for burns. Marik let him do so without protesting, just watching with bleary eyes. This, perhaps, worried Rishid more than anything else. But as before, he found no injuries.
Marik smiled now. "Don't worry, Rishid. I'm just weak." He breathed with a rasping sound, his chest rising and falling painfully. "But I'm worried about Ishizu. Nuru was wearing the Tauk!" The memory came back to him vividly of the golden material around the treacherous woman's neck and he struggled to get up, fearful for Ishizu's safety.
Rishid paled at this news. He had been so concerned about Marik that he hadn't noticed what Nuru had around her neck. But he didn't want Marik struggling to get up. Gently the man tried in vain to hold Marik down, but the youth was insistent on finding his sister.
Marik managed to walk several feet before his strength gave out and he fell backward to sit down hard on the floor. Grunting from the pain that shot through him, he got up and tried to go forward again. Rishid came over, smiling in amusement, and gently took the boy in his arms. Marik needed to rest. And yet he wanted nothing more than to make sure his sister was alright.
But neither needed to fear. A bright light suddenly shone in the room and Shadi appeared with Ishizu. Marik and Rishid blinked in surprise and astonishment at the sight and then hastened forward to embrace their sister. Ishizu received them both, holding them close to her as she smiled. She could tell that Seth had already struck here. Marik felt so weak in her arms! But he was alive and conscious. Ishizu breathed thanks for this.
Shadi smiled faintly at the reunion. "It would be wise for you to organize a meeting with the others," he said before vanishing.
Ishizu pulled back, gazing into Marik's tired eyes. "Yes," she agreed, "it would. And we shall. But you, my dear brother, must lay down."
Rishid was actually relieved when he heard Marik utter a protest.
****
Yugi and the others wasted no time in getting to the Ishtars' home when Ishizu called them for a meeting. When Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Téa came in, they were a bit surprised to see Duke and Mai had turned up among the others. Mai they hadn't seen in quite some time, but here she was in the spacious living room, teaching Serenity how to apply makeup.
Joey wasn't extremely happy about this. "Hey!" he exclaimed, forgetting everything and running over. "Serenity's too young to be gettin' into this kinda stuff!" Angrily he lifted a compact of rouge and studied it before holding it up for emphasis.
Serenity blinked at him. "Oh, Joey, it's not much," she smiled. "And these are just natural colors. It's nothing extravagant."
Mai's reaction was a bit different. "So that's it, then?" she said, tossing her long blonde hair. "'Serenity's too young to be getting into this kind of stuff'? No 'Hello, Mai, it's good to see you again'? Well, I'm glad I know how *important* I am to you." As usual, it was impossible to tell whether she was serious or if she just wanted to get a rise out of the Brooklyn boy. Mai was truly an enigma. Hardly any of the gang could even begin to understand the things that went through her mind.
Joey immediately turned pink and started to stammer, the way he usually did when Mai said something that threw him for a loop. Tristan just grinned in amusement, watching him try to string together the right words and make amends for his mistake. He was certain that Joey had a crush on Mai. And perhaps some part of Mai saw Joey as more than just an oddball teenager who liked to pig out on food.
Marik laughed softly from where he was propped against the couch, Mokuba right at his side. He had rested for an hour or so while Ishizu made the phone calls, but then had insisted on sitting up when everyone started coming. He didn't want them to know what had happened to him. Ishizu knew, of course, and she wouldn't have tried to have the meeting now except that everything was happening so fast. Something needed to be done. And in order to figure out what that something would be, they all needed to work together.
Seto was on Mokuba's other side, his arms crossed. He looked extremely bored with the entire situation. If he had had his way, Mokuba wouldn't have come. But here was Mokuba, having insisted on coming after overhearing about the meeting on an extension. Still Seto didn't understand why he always gave in to his brother's demands. But maybe some part of him thought that Mokuba would be safer with him at this point, even if he did have to wind up learning everything that was happening.
Bakura had come as well. He was rather sad and moody, as Marik often was. His Yami hadn't returned home last night, but Mr. Ryou had found Bakura and had insisted that the boy come home. Bakura's mind had been foggy and clouded from the cold weather at the time and, though he had struggled, he hadn't succeeded in getting away. Now his thoughts were still on where Yami Bakura could be. He knew the thief felt betrayed. And he didn't know how to make him understand. Oreo hadn't returned either. Bakura could only hope that she had found the Yami and was somewhere safe and warm with him.
"Are all of us here now?" Duke spoke up in irritation. "I'd like to get this meeting done with before Christmas." He was twirling a piece of hair around his finger, the emerald eyes narrowed with what he considered the absurdity of it all. The problem weighing on his mind was what to do about his shop. He had been surprised that he wasn't arrested after the police had found the cocaine, but to his greater surprise, it had been Gabrielle who had let him go.
"It might have been one of the employees who brought it in," she had said, "and not Devlin himself. Therefore, we won't arrest him until we have positive proof." But Duke's shop was still closed. Undoubtedly word would get to the news about that.
Duke's remark rubbed Tristan the wrong way. He turned to face the other boy, his hazel eyes flashing. "Look, I'm sure we've all got important things to do, but this meeting takes priority now, so why don't you just shut up?" Tristan had never got on well with Duke, but especially not if Serenity was in the same room with them.
"We must not become incensed one with another."
Ishizu's soft voice brought silence upon the room. The Egyptian woman came in from where she had been going over some last minute things in her library, walking with a poised and refined step to the last vacant spot on the one couch, by Rishid.
"A wise man said, A house divided cannot stand. As long as we speak with sharp tongues with the intent of emotionally harming someone else, our problems will not be resolved. Instead, a new one will appear and hinder us in solving the original conflict." Ishizu smiled softly, pleased with the new quiet.
Yugi nodded firmly, then suddenly noticed something. "Ishizu, where's your Millennium Tauk?!" he exclaimed, his violet eyes widening even more than anyone thought they could. Ishizu had always worn the Tauk, except for the brief time when it had belonged to Yugi himself. Now that she wasn't, Yugi knew instantly that that must be part of the reason as to why they had been called out.
"It is good you have asked," Ishizu replied solemnly. "The Millennium Tauk has been stolen." She spoke simply, seeing no need to gloss over the incident. At everyone's shocked comments and questions, Ishizu began to tell the story as best as she could remember it. "Nuru and Seth are formidable opponents," she said at the conclusion. "I do not know what they are striving toward, but it is unnecessary to say that it must be something dangerous and deadly."
"Maybe," Bakura blurted out, "it all has something to do with why Khu came!" Then he blinked his brown eyes in surprise, as if just then realizing what he had said.
Instantly the room again filled with shocked questions. Bakura did his best to answer, but truthfully, he was at as much of a loss as everyone else. The things Khu had said to Mr. Ryou didn't make the picture any clearer, nor did what he had said to Yami Yugi, at least not at first glance.
"He said the matter was personal," Yami Yugi mused, having emerged from the Puzzle, "and Bakura's father reported that Khu threatened the world's end."
"What's he thinkin'?!" Joey burst out, leaning back on the chair he was in and nearly tipping onto the floor. "Is he gonna try to pull off some kinda end times thing?!"
"Actually," Serenity spoke up with a blink, "I thought it sounded like this Khu maybe is trying to prevent someone else from doing it."
"Someone else like Seth," Mai nodded.
"But that'd mean the brothers turned against each other," Joey put in, lowering the chair back to the floor after Rishid gave him a warning look.
Marik nodded slowly. "Yes," he said at last, studying his hands. "That is what it would mean."
Sensing that Marik was having trouble with remembering the past again, Rishid kindly laid a hand on his shoulder. For it *was* the past. No matter what had happened then, it was long over. And though Marik still felt heartsick about it all every now and again, Rishid knew something that he wasn't certain Marik did—Battle City, in the end, had brought them all closer together as a family. What's more, it had brought about the Pharaoh being found and Yami Marik being banished. And Marik had friends now. Rishid smiled softly to himself. Sometimes horrid trials could wind up bringing about good.
"Okay," Mai said slowly, "just supposing this is true. What would make Khu decide that Seth's plan wasn't one he wanted to be involved with? He never seemed to have any qualms before about doing things that would hurt people."
No one had any answers.
Duke took the silence as his moment to speak up. "While we're on the subject of people changing, maybe you should take a look at Gabrielle Valasquez," he said grimly.
All eyes immediately turned to him.
"Gabrielle?!" Téa repeated in shock. "But . . . she's always helped us!"
Duke shrugged. "Hey, it seems agreed here that people can change. And what she's been doing lately smells weird to me." With that he began telling of the police officer's odd behavior of late, though he left out mention of what happened at his shop. But that incident had pushed him over the edge. Even though he had resolved not to speak of his suspicions about Gabrielle, now he wanted to.
Even though no one seemed very receptive.
"I just can't believe that Gabrielle would turn bad," Téa said stubbornly.
"She's been with us through so much," Yugi added, blinking his violet eyes. But though he spoke these words, he knew sadly that Duke was right about people changing, and not always for the better.
"Maybe she's just, you know, working undercover or somethin'?" Joey suggested. "You know, like tryin' to pretend she's one of the corrupt officers so she can infiltrate?"
"Maybe," Duke muttered, but he didn't look convinced.
Ishizu laced her fingers. "I believe that the best course of action for us at this time would be to find Khu," she stated simply.
Bakura twiddled his thumbs, his soft eyes full of worry and despair. "And Yami," he whispered before remembering that no one knew the thief had fled.
Tristan looked at him. "That guy's running loose again?!" he exclaimed. He, perhaps more than most of the others, disliked Yami Bakura. The whole incident at Duelist Kingdom had never ceased to stop freaking him out. But of course, he knew that Yami Bakura had done good things occasionally. There was the time when he had fought against Seth during a vicious battle and wound up taking the hit for everyone, though that hadn't been in his original plan.
But Tristan's remark only made poor Bakura more upset. He clenched his fists tightly, nearly drawing blood, and then looked up with eyes flashing. "He was angry about Khu being on the porch!" the boy cried. "You know what Khu did to him in the past!" Bakura sighed sadly then, studying the floor. "So he . . . he just left . . . with Oreo. I don't even know if they're alright!" he bemoaned.
Yugi laid a hand on Bakura's shoulder. "I'm sure they're fine," he said comfortingly. "Oreo probably found Yami Bakura and after he sulks for a bit, I'm sure he'll come back with her."
Bakura sighed and tried to manage a smile. "I suppose," he said softly. "But I've never seen him as angry as he was then. . . ." Remembrances came back to him of the tomb raider's words and he shuddered noticeably. He had truly believed Yami Bakura when he had screamed that he would steal everyone's souls if Khu were allowed in the house.
"Hey, the guy's gotta come back sooner or later," Joey shrugged.
The lights flickered ominously, causing everyone to come out of their thoughts and look up. It was probably from the storm, they decided. But even so, there was a certain nagging feeling that wouldn't go away, a feeling that said this wasn't just the storm and that in fact, the storm was the least of their worries.
Téa broke the uncomfortable silence. "Where would we go to look for Khu?" she wondered, uneasy at the thought of purposely searching out one of their enemies. And she had especially never been fond of Khu, after everything he'd done.
"Look no further."
The cold voice brought everyone to attention. Khu was right there in the house, behind them! He looked a bit stronger than when Bakura had seen him, but even so he was leaning slightly on his staff. His eyes were dark and forbidding, and the long bangs fell into them as he appeared angry at the world.
Seto, who had been mostly silent, now glared back just as coldly. "Why are you here?" he demanded.
"Yeah, and how'd you get in?!" Tristan added. "The doors were locked!"
Khu ignored them and walked over to Marik. "You saw my brother!" he stated forcefully. "What was he up to?"
Marik narrowed his eyes. "I don't know why he did what he did," he retorted, unsure of whether he should tell anything to one such as Khu. As it turned out, he didn't need to.
"He wanted to study your tattoo scars, didn't he." Khu didn't wait for an answer and instead looked at the boy's sister. "And his girlfriend stole your Millennium Item."
"Hey!" Joey yelled before Ishizu could answer. He got up in irritation. "How would you know all this unless you were involved?!"
Khu snarled. "I know my brother."
Now Yami Yugi strode up to him with a pharonic air. "If you are fighting against your brother now, then you must join with us and tell us what he is plotting," he said sternly. He had had just about enough of Khu's antics. And Seth's.
"I don't have to tell you anything, Pharaoh," Khu hissed. "You can't control anyone in this room. You're not the ruler of Egypt any longer."
With that the lights went out. When brightness again filled the room, Khu was gone.
****
Outside in the snow, on top of the power plant, a lone figure perched. Casually he leaned forward, touching the power lines and charging them with extra electricity. He smirked to himself, his pupil-less blue eyes narrowing in thought as he caressed the wires. Wild black hair blew out in back of him and the snow fell upon the locks, but their owner paid no heed. "Such an unsuspecting city," he grinned. "I must have the attention of the one I am challenging, but in order to gain it . . . a few slight . . . disasters will have to occur first." He gave a raucous laugh.
Marik and Seth were laying in a tangled heap next to the fence. It seemed that both of them must have hit it. Nuru was standing over them, trying to pry Seth away and looking rather disturbed. Rishid ran over, going pale as he saw Marik's limp body up closer. He couldn't tell who had hit the fence hardest, but Marik was still and his eyes were closed.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Rishid demanded furiously, kneeling down and scooping Marik into his arms and away from Nuru's uncaring hands. The boy's eyes fluttered open slightly in confusion, staring up at Rishid before he sank back into whatever state he had been in. There were no burn marks on his body, but he seemed stunned.
"Lord Seth got into a fight," Nuru replied, bending over the priest.
"I'm certain that 'Lord Seth' caused the fight!" Rishid snapped, holding Marik closer to him.
Nuru ignored him. Standing up slowly, she chanted a spell and vanished with Seth.
Rishid glared after them and then held Marik closer. "Are you hurt badly, brother?" he asked in concern. The boy's flesh was pale, a stark contrast against the black leather jacket he was still wearing.
Marik's eyes opened again and he blinked, trying to focus. "No," he managed to say, "I'm not hurt. I didn't hit the fence full force. Seth did. But . . ." He trailed off, looking confused. "Someone else touched the fence," he said then.
Rishid didn't understand. "What?" he exclaimed.
"They . . . touched it on purpose," Marik said weakly. "I saw him in the shadows. He grabbed the fence and . . . seemed to be charging it with electricity. Then Seth hit it and . . . he and I were fighting . . . and so the sparks channeled into me."
Rishid gently carried the boy inside and laid him down on the couch, biting his tongue to keep from making angry remarks about the unfairness of it all. Marik was always being hurt. Now Rishid again examined the boy's hands and flesh, checking for burns. Marik let him do so without protesting, just watching with bleary eyes. This, perhaps, worried Rishid more than anything else. But as before, he found no injuries.
Marik smiled now. "Don't worry, Rishid. I'm just weak." He breathed with a rasping sound, his chest rising and falling painfully. "But I'm worried about Ishizu. Nuru was wearing the Tauk!" The memory came back to him vividly of the golden material around the treacherous woman's neck and he struggled to get up, fearful for Ishizu's safety.
Rishid paled at this news. He had been so concerned about Marik that he hadn't noticed what Nuru had around her neck. But he didn't want Marik struggling to get up. Gently the man tried in vain to hold Marik down, but the youth was insistent on finding his sister.
Marik managed to walk several feet before his strength gave out and he fell backward to sit down hard on the floor. Grunting from the pain that shot through him, he got up and tried to go forward again. Rishid came over, smiling in amusement, and gently took the boy in his arms. Marik needed to rest. And yet he wanted nothing more than to make sure his sister was alright.
But neither needed to fear. A bright light suddenly shone in the room and Shadi appeared with Ishizu. Marik and Rishid blinked in surprise and astonishment at the sight and then hastened forward to embrace their sister. Ishizu received them both, holding them close to her as she smiled. She could tell that Seth had already struck here. Marik felt so weak in her arms! But he was alive and conscious. Ishizu breathed thanks for this.
Shadi smiled faintly at the reunion. "It would be wise for you to organize a meeting with the others," he said before vanishing.
Ishizu pulled back, gazing into Marik's tired eyes. "Yes," she agreed, "it would. And we shall. But you, my dear brother, must lay down."
Rishid was actually relieved when he heard Marik utter a protest.
****
Yugi and the others wasted no time in getting to the Ishtars' home when Ishizu called them for a meeting. When Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Téa came in, they were a bit surprised to see Duke and Mai had turned up among the others. Mai they hadn't seen in quite some time, but here she was in the spacious living room, teaching Serenity how to apply makeup.
Joey wasn't extremely happy about this. "Hey!" he exclaimed, forgetting everything and running over. "Serenity's too young to be gettin' into this kinda stuff!" Angrily he lifted a compact of rouge and studied it before holding it up for emphasis.
Serenity blinked at him. "Oh, Joey, it's not much," she smiled. "And these are just natural colors. It's nothing extravagant."
Mai's reaction was a bit different. "So that's it, then?" she said, tossing her long blonde hair. "'Serenity's too young to be getting into this kind of stuff'? No 'Hello, Mai, it's good to see you again'? Well, I'm glad I know how *important* I am to you." As usual, it was impossible to tell whether she was serious or if she just wanted to get a rise out of the Brooklyn boy. Mai was truly an enigma. Hardly any of the gang could even begin to understand the things that went through her mind.
Joey immediately turned pink and started to stammer, the way he usually did when Mai said something that threw him for a loop. Tristan just grinned in amusement, watching him try to string together the right words and make amends for his mistake. He was certain that Joey had a crush on Mai. And perhaps some part of Mai saw Joey as more than just an oddball teenager who liked to pig out on food.
Marik laughed softly from where he was propped against the couch, Mokuba right at his side. He had rested for an hour or so while Ishizu made the phone calls, but then had insisted on sitting up when everyone started coming. He didn't want them to know what had happened to him. Ishizu knew, of course, and she wouldn't have tried to have the meeting now except that everything was happening so fast. Something needed to be done. And in order to figure out what that something would be, they all needed to work together.
Seto was on Mokuba's other side, his arms crossed. He looked extremely bored with the entire situation. If he had had his way, Mokuba wouldn't have come. But here was Mokuba, having insisted on coming after overhearing about the meeting on an extension. Still Seto didn't understand why he always gave in to his brother's demands. But maybe some part of him thought that Mokuba would be safer with him at this point, even if he did have to wind up learning everything that was happening.
Bakura had come as well. He was rather sad and moody, as Marik often was. His Yami hadn't returned home last night, but Mr. Ryou had found Bakura and had insisted that the boy come home. Bakura's mind had been foggy and clouded from the cold weather at the time and, though he had struggled, he hadn't succeeded in getting away. Now his thoughts were still on where Yami Bakura could be. He knew the thief felt betrayed. And he didn't know how to make him understand. Oreo hadn't returned either. Bakura could only hope that she had found the Yami and was somewhere safe and warm with him.
"Are all of us here now?" Duke spoke up in irritation. "I'd like to get this meeting done with before Christmas." He was twirling a piece of hair around his finger, the emerald eyes narrowed with what he considered the absurdity of it all. The problem weighing on his mind was what to do about his shop. He had been surprised that he wasn't arrested after the police had found the cocaine, but to his greater surprise, it had been Gabrielle who had let him go.
"It might have been one of the employees who brought it in," she had said, "and not Devlin himself. Therefore, we won't arrest him until we have positive proof." But Duke's shop was still closed. Undoubtedly word would get to the news about that.
Duke's remark rubbed Tristan the wrong way. He turned to face the other boy, his hazel eyes flashing. "Look, I'm sure we've all got important things to do, but this meeting takes priority now, so why don't you just shut up?" Tristan had never got on well with Duke, but especially not if Serenity was in the same room with them.
"We must not become incensed one with another."
Ishizu's soft voice brought silence upon the room. The Egyptian woman came in from where she had been going over some last minute things in her library, walking with a poised and refined step to the last vacant spot on the one couch, by Rishid.
"A wise man said, A house divided cannot stand. As long as we speak with sharp tongues with the intent of emotionally harming someone else, our problems will not be resolved. Instead, a new one will appear and hinder us in solving the original conflict." Ishizu smiled softly, pleased with the new quiet.
Yugi nodded firmly, then suddenly noticed something. "Ishizu, where's your Millennium Tauk?!" he exclaimed, his violet eyes widening even more than anyone thought they could. Ishizu had always worn the Tauk, except for the brief time when it had belonged to Yugi himself. Now that she wasn't, Yugi knew instantly that that must be part of the reason as to why they had been called out.
"It is good you have asked," Ishizu replied solemnly. "The Millennium Tauk has been stolen." She spoke simply, seeing no need to gloss over the incident. At everyone's shocked comments and questions, Ishizu began to tell the story as best as she could remember it. "Nuru and Seth are formidable opponents," she said at the conclusion. "I do not know what they are striving toward, but it is unnecessary to say that it must be something dangerous and deadly."
"Maybe," Bakura blurted out, "it all has something to do with why Khu came!" Then he blinked his brown eyes in surprise, as if just then realizing what he had said.
Instantly the room again filled with shocked questions. Bakura did his best to answer, but truthfully, he was at as much of a loss as everyone else. The things Khu had said to Mr. Ryou didn't make the picture any clearer, nor did what he had said to Yami Yugi, at least not at first glance.
"He said the matter was personal," Yami Yugi mused, having emerged from the Puzzle, "and Bakura's father reported that Khu threatened the world's end."
"What's he thinkin'?!" Joey burst out, leaning back on the chair he was in and nearly tipping onto the floor. "Is he gonna try to pull off some kinda end times thing?!"
"Actually," Serenity spoke up with a blink, "I thought it sounded like this Khu maybe is trying to prevent someone else from doing it."
"Someone else like Seth," Mai nodded.
"But that'd mean the brothers turned against each other," Joey put in, lowering the chair back to the floor after Rishid gave him a warning look.
Marik nodded slowly. "Yes," he said at last, studying his hands. "That is what it would mean."
Sensing that Marik was having trouble with remembering the past again, Rishid kindly laid a hand on his shoulder. For it *was* the past. No matter what had happened then, it was long over. And though Marik still felt heartsick about it all every now and again, Rishid knew something that he wasn't certain Marik did—Battle City, in the end, had brought them all closer together as a family. What's more, it had brought about the Pharaoh being found and Yami Marik being banished. And Marik had friends now. Rishid smiled softly to himself. Sometimes horrid trials could wind up bringing about good.
"Okay," Mai said slowly, "just supposing this is true. What would make Khu decide that Seth's plan wasn't one he wanted to be involved with? He never seemed to have any qualms before about doing things that would hurt people."
No one had any answers.
Duke took the silence as his moment to speak up. "While we're on the subject of people changing, maybe you should take a look at Gabrielle Valasquez," he said grimly.
All eyes immediately turned to him.
"Gabrielle?!" Téa repeated in shock. "But . . . she's always helped us!"
Duke shrugged. "Hey, it seems agreed here that people can change. And what she's been doing lately smells weird to me." With that he began telling of the police officer's odd behavior of late, though he left out mention of what happened at his shop. But that incident had pushed him over the edge. Even though he had resolved not to speak of his suspicions about Gabrielle, now he wanted to.
Even though no one seemed very receptive.
"I just can't believe that Gabrielle would turn bad," Téa said stubbornly.
"She's been with us through so much," Yugi added, blinking his violet eyes. But though he spoke these words, he knew sadly that Duke was right about people changing, and not always for the better.
"Maybe she's just, you know, working undercover or somethin'?" Joey suggested. "You know, like tryin' to pretend she's one of the corrupt officers so she can infiltrate?"
"Maybe," Duke muttered, but he didn't look convinced.
Ishizu laced her fingers. "I believe that the best course of action for us at this time would be to find Khu," she stated simply.
Bakura twiddled his thumbs, his soft eyes full of worry and despair. "And Yami," he whispered before remembering that no one knew the thief had fled.
Tristan looked at him. "That guy's running loose again?!" he exclaimed. He, perhaps more than most of the others, disliked Yami Bakura. The whole incident at Duelist Kingdom had never ceased to stop freaking him out. But of course, he knew that Yami Bakura had done good things occasionally. There was the time when he had fought against Seth during a vicious battle and wound up taking the hit for everyone, though that hadn't been in his original plan.
But Tristan's remark only made poor Bakura more upset. He clenched his fists tightly, nearly drawing blood, and then looked up with eyes flashing. "He was angry about Khu being on the porch!" the boy cried. "You know what Khu did to him in the past!" Bakura sighed sadly then, studying the floor. "So he . . . he just left . . . with Oreo. I don't even know if they're alright!" he bemoaned.
Yugi laid a hand on Bakura's shoulder. "I'm sure they're fine," he said comfortingly. "Oreo probably found Yami Bakura and after he sulks for a bit, I'm sure he'll come back with her."
Bakura sighed and tried to manage a smile. "I suppose," he said softly. "But I've never seen him as angry as he was then. . . ." Remembrances came back to him of the tomb raider's words and he shuddered noticeably. He had truly believed Yami Bakura when he had screamed that he would steal everyone's souls if Khu were allowed in the house.
"Hey, the guy's gotta come back sooner or later," Joey shrugged.
The lights flickered ominously, causing everyone to come out of their thoughts and look up. It was probably from the storm, they decided. But even so, there was a certain nagging feeling that wouldn't go away, a feeling that said this wasn't just the storm and that in fact, the storm was the least of their worries.
Téa broke the uncomfortable silence. "Where would we go to look for Khu?" she wondered, uneasy at the thought of purposely searching out one of their enemies. And she had especially never been fond of Khu, after everything he'd done.
"Look no further."
The cold voice brought everyone to attention. Khu was right there in the house, behind them! He looked a bit stronger than when Bakura had seen him, but even so he was leaning slightly on his staff. His eyes were dark and forbidding, and the long bangs fell into them as he appeared angry at the world.
Seto, who had been mostly silent, now glared back just as coldly. "Why are you here?" he demanded.
"Yeah, and how'd you get in?!" Tristan added. "The doors were locked!"
Khu ignored them and walked over to Marik. "You saw my brother!" he stated forcefully. "What was he up to?"
Marik narrowed his eyes. "I don't know why he did what he did," he retorted, unsure of whether he should tell anything to one such as Khu. As it turned out, he didn't need to.
"He wanted to study your tattoo scars, didn't he." Khu didn't wait for an answer and instead looked at the boy's sister. "And his girlfriend stole your Millennium Item."
"Hey!" Joey yelled before Ishizu could answer. He got up in irritation. "How would you know all this unless you were involved?!"
Khu snarled. "I know my brother."
Now Yami Yugi strode up to him with a pharonic air. "If you are fighting against your brother now, then you must join with us and tell us what he is plotting," he said sternly. He had had just about enough of Khu's antics. And Seth's.
"I don't have to tell you anything, Pharaoh," Khu hissed. "You can't control anyone in this room. You're not the ruler of Egypt any longer."
With that the lights went out. When brightness again filled the room, Khu was gone.
****
Outside in the snow, on top of the power plant, a lone figure perched. Casually he leaned forward, touching the power lines and charging them with extra electricity. He smirked to himself, his pupil-less blue eyes narrowing in thought as he caressed the wires. Wild black hair blew out in back of him and the snow fell upon the locks, but their owner paid no heed. "Such an unsuspecting city," he grinned. "I must have the attention of the one I am challenging, but in order to gain it . . . a few slight . . . disasters will have to occur first." He gave a raucous laugh.