DGG: Just so you know, I call Ryou by Bakura and the evil Bakura by Yami Bakura. Trust me. It's relevant to this story.

Chapter 6: Uncertainty and Regret

Later that night Seto decided to stop working. He was just too distracted. So he decided to take a cold shower to snap out of it. After that, he didn't feel much better. He kept thinking about what Mokuba had said to him. Seto knew his mother had loved him. She did. He sighed as he thought about her, and how she wasn't there anymore. It wasn't fair to Seto. Mokuba had him to look up to and get support from, but Seto had no one to get comfort from or look up to.

He decided to check up on Mokuba. He was pretty upset about Tilly being fired. Seto was right outside the door when something snapped in his mind.

'What am I doing? He insulted the love I received from my mother. Why am I going to him like it never happened? That little brat. I took care of him when we went to the orphanage, and protected him from our step-father, and just look at how he repays me. He gives me zero respect. He deserves to be miserable. He deserves to be thrown out of the window for that matter. That would teach him to disrespect me.'

Seto turned away from his brother's bedroom door and went back to his own room only to pass out on his bed once again. He woke up to see his brother's worried face.

"Seto, are you okay?" Mokuba asked, hints of fear in his voice.

"Why would you ask me that? Why wouldn't I be okay, Mokuba!" he snapped back at him.

"Big brother, you're bleeding!"

Seto looked down at his stomach and saw that he was bleeding, and that it hurt like hell.

Seto winced slightly, putting his hand over his fresh wound.

"What happened?" asked Mokuba.

"What happened? I fell asleep, that's what happened!" yelled Seto. "How do I know you didn't come in here and cut me while I was sleeping!?"

"What!" gasped Mokuba. "Why would I do something like that? You're my big brother!"

"Revenge."

"About what?"

"Tilly."

"Seto, I'm upset about it!" Mokuba shot back, horrified. "I didn't turn into a psycho because of it!"

He only glared at Mokuba who had tears welling up in his eyes. Seto didn't seem to care that his brother was so hurt from what he just said to him. Mokuba finally just broke down and started to cry, and tried to grab a hold of his brother so he'd comfort him. Seto shoved him away then got up to go clean off his newly formed cut. Mokuba watched him walk away from him and cried harder and eventually ran off back to his own room.

'Why am I saying those things to him? It's like I don't have any control over what I'm saying!' Seto thought to himself.

He looked in the mirror and saw the monster he'd become. He couldn't take it anymore. He hated his reflection more than anything and he just couldn't take it. He curled his hand into a fist, and punched the mirror. He watched it shatter and watched the pieces fall everywhere. They glinted from the light hitting them in certain angles. Seto looked at his right fist, which had shards of mirror in it, and began picking them out and wrapped his hand.

"Why is he doing this!" sobbed Mokuba into his pillow. "He knows I would never hurt him!"

Mokuba didn't know what was going on or what to think. He'd only gone in there to try and tell him that he was sorry, and found his brother laying on his bed, bleeding. He only woke up his brother, hoping he didn't try to kill himself and that he was too late!

"How could Seto say that about me! I would never turn against him and try to kill him!" Mokuba sobbed some more. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, letting all the tears flow out. Mokuba loved his big brother and Seto knew that. Mokuba hoped that Seto loved him...or that he still did if he ever did before. Mokuba's heart sank even more. This can't be happening.

"I can take control of the mortal's thoughts and words," said the voice with satisfaction. "What he has been saying to his loved one is making him hurt more, and the more hurt he is the more powerful I am. I need to keep this going."

Seto finally came out of the restroom. He couldn't think of why he was acting so harshly towards Mokuba. Yeah, he did insult Seto and his mother's relationship, but he wasn't trying to shut him out in the cold. So why was that what he was doing? Seto tried shaking the whole thing out of his head and decided to go see if Mokuba was all right. Once again, he walked down the hallway and stopped right outside his door.

'I can't do it,' Seto thought, so he turned away and decided to work some more.

For the remainder of the weekend, Seto and Mokuba didn't really see each other. Mokuba did have more nightmares, but didn't bother Seto with them, and Seto saw more cuts appearing out of nowhere after he pass out. He wondered if was passing out due to lack of sleep, but waved the thought from his mind. When Monday came, Seto went on to school only telling Mokuba to stay inside at all times since he would be there alone until Roland came. Mokuba only nodded and Seto got in his limo and left.

When Seto had woken up that morning he didn't quite feel like himself, and was having a hard time doing the simplest of math problems, which he usually could have done in the blink of an eye. By fourth period, which was chemistry, he wasn't feeling so well. Yugi had noticed Kaiba acting strangely and went to see if he was all right.

"Hey Kaiba," Yugi greeted.

"What," Kaiba said without raising his voice like he was annoyed.

"Are you feeling okay?"

"What do you think?"

"You don't sound like it."

"I'm fine."

"I'm not so sure about that, Kaiba," Yugi said. "You haven't even insulted Joey today, and that's something you usually do when you walk through the front doors!"

"So what," he said dully. "I didn't feel like interacting with that mutt today."

"Yeah but..." Yugi started.

"Yugi, I don't need to hear about your concerns for me," Kaiba said, starting to walk away.

"Yami," Yugi called out mentally.

"Yes," he answered.

"There's definitely something up with Kaiba."

"That darkness I feel around him is growing stronger. If only we could stop it."

"Do you think that he's doing anything? Maybe he's planning something again," suggested Yugi.

"Look at him Yugi. And like you said, he hasn't even insulted Joey today. There has to be something wrong. That dark aura from him is getting stronger and I don't know what to do about it. We can't tell him because he won't believe us, and… "

"Geez Yami, I get it, but we have to help him," said Yugi, "even if he doesn't know it."

Just then Kaiba fell to the floor and everyone gasped while the teacher called the office to come down and take him to the clinic.

"I think something is happening to him, Yugi, and it obviously isn't good."

Yugi nodded in agreement just as someone came down to take Kaiba to the clinic. After that class, the day was pretty uneventful.

Kaiba awoke lying on an uncomfortable bed in a room he'd never been in before, but he did know where he was. He was still at school which meant he must be in the clinic.

'No, I passed out here! ' he scolded himself mentally.

Just then, a familiar face came through the doorway.

"Mr. Kaiba, you're awake," she said.

Kaiba rubbed his aching head and looked up to find Tilly looking worriedly at him.

"Tilly? Do you work here now?" Kaiba asked.

"Yes," she answered. "How are you feeling?"

"Wait a minute, why do you work at my school?" asked Kaiba, completely ignoring her question.

"Because they had a job opening," she answered. "And I needed the money."

"You have money," he said. "Why did you need another job so quickly?"

"Sir, I never got the chance to tell you or Mokuba but.." she started.

"But what?"

"You remember how I got married last month?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm... pregnant, and we're going to need a bigger place," she told him.

Kaiba was shocked. He couldn't believe he'd fired her. If she were still worked for him she would have gotten the money easily, but now she worked for Domino High School. Now it'll take her a bit longer to get some extra money, and hopefully before the nine months are up.

"So how's Mokuba?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Fine," Kaiba said flatly.

"Does he have a new teacher yet?"

"No, Roland is watching Mokuba and making sure that he reviews his notes and things."

"Sir, I'm sorry about what happened," she apologized. "I didn't think that you'd be so upset."

"I know," Kaiba said. "I overreacted. You can see Mokuba sometimes or talk to him."

"Thank- you," she smiled.

"And just wait until Mokuba hears that you're pregnant," Kaiba said, perking up a bit. "He'll be bouncing off the walls."

"I could see him doing that," Tilly said. "But what do you want to do about our current situation? Do you want to stay here, go back to class, go home?"

"I'll...I'll stay here for awhile."

"All right Sir," she said and got up and left to go work on some papers at the front desk.

Kaiba felt like an idiot for firing her, and now it was definitely too late to get her back. Kaiba sighed, laid back down, and quickly fell asleep. After awhile, he was being shaken awake by Tilly.

"Mr. Kaiba, I think you should probably be going now," she said.

"What? What time is it?" asked Kaiba.

"It's past four, Sir," she answered.

Kaiba looked at the clock on the wall behind her and it read 4:15. He couldn't believe that he'd slept that long. Especially while he was in school.

"Your teachers dropped off your homework," said Tilly. "It's on the front desk."

"Fine," he said flatly, sitting up.

"Your phone rang a few times."

"What?"

"I thought you would have woken up to answer it, but all three times it rang you just kept on sleeping."

"Well why didn't you answer it!"

"I'm not obligated to do that anymore."

"Fine, I'll be going now," he said.

Kaiba picked up his work, put it in his brief case, and walked outside. The limo wasn't there, and at the moment he didn't really care. So he started walking back to his home.

At Yugi's house, the gang was talking about Kaiba's behavior today.

"Now that you mention it Yugi, Kaiba didn't seem like himself today," Tristan said.

"I noticed when he didn't insult me!" cried out Joey. "And I had some insults to throw right back at him today too!"

"So, he just passed out? Right in front of everyone?" asked Téa.

"Yeah, he seemed like he was tired, and he didn't raise his voice too much while I was talking to him," replied Yugi.

"What did Yami have to say?" she asked.

"Well, he said that the dark aura he felt around Kaiba was growing stronger."

"Well duh," said Joey. "Have you seen the way that guy acts?"

"No Joey, it's an evil presence," said Yugi.

"Well Kaiba is..." he started.

"JOEY!" cried Yugi. "You know what I mean!"

"Hmph," he replied, putting his nose in the air and turning away from the rest of them.

"Okay so what's goin' on with Kaiba? I mean, what's gonna happen to him?" asked Tristan.

"I don't know," Yugi answered. "I don't think Yami knows either."

"Don't worry Yugi, we'll figure it out," Téa said, trying to cheer him up a bit.

"We'd better figure it out soon because Kaiba doesn't look like he's going to last two more days," said Yugi.

"I hope he doesn't last two more days," Joey said.

"Joey!" exclaimed Téa. "That's cruel even for you."

"Yeah well..." he said.

"Anyways...maybe we should all pay Kaiba another visit," suggested Tristan. "I mean we could try to get more answers outta him."

"I'm not so sure that would work, Tristan," said Téa. "It didn't work so well the last time."

"We should call Bakura," said a deeper voice. They all looked over and saw Yami sitting in Yugi's place.

"Why him?" asked Joey.

"He would definitely know if something dark is here, and may know a little more about it," he answered.

They all agreed and called Bakura.

"Yes, we've been feeling something dark too," said Bakura's soft British voice on the other end.

"Does Yami Bakura know anything else about it?" asked Yami.

"He seems to, but that doesn't always mean that he does."

"Ask him."

They waited a few moments while Bakura asked his Yami about it. After a few moments a harsher sounding voice answered them, "Why do you need to know, Pharaoh?"

"Because it's coming from Kaiba and I'm certain that it's not him."

"So you're saying that something is feeding off of him, like a parasite?" asked Yami Bakura.

"That's what I'm guessing," he answered, clearly aggravated..

"I'd say that you're right."

"What or who is the parasite though?"

"That is something I'm not going to tell you."

"What!"

"You heard me, Pharaoh. I'm not telling you unless you do something for me."

"Depends what you want."

"And because I already know that you won't give me your Millennium Puzzle, I'm not telling you anything, Pharaoh. Bye."

"Bakura!" Yami yelled, but it was too late. He already hung up.