Innocence?

Mystical Knight Dragon: Ugh, it's been so long since I updated, mainly because I was angered by that evil QuickEdit thing. It's really annoying… I don't know how anyone can stand it. It doesn't let you use asterisks, carats, underscores, the and sign, etc. It's eeeeviiiil! Evil, I tell you! …In other words, I would like to thank my reviewers for sticking around with me for so long, but especially Caecuslupa and Silently Broken. They reviewed just the other day, reminding me that I still have fans for this story and that I needed to get my butt in gear and update again! It's been over eight months! I could have died at least twenty times in that period of time and no one would have known! …Yeah. Sooo… Ah, yes! Much thanks to the rest of my reviewers as well! Bakuras-Hell (I don't remember if I sent you the picture or not… It's been so long that I can't remember… T.T), Dark Magician Girl / Hikaru, Dark-Autumn, KokoroHikaru, Fuzzle-sama, Hiei Lover Girl, and of course, Caecuslupa and Silently Broken.

Marikay-muse: Ah yes…What happened to all of the good ficcies? A few years ago, every fic you clicked on was abso-bloody-lutely wonderful! Now that has a giant stick up its arse and a huge fetish for censoring everything in sight, nothing is worth reading anymore.

Indie-muse: Our challenge to you is to let MKD read some good ficcies again…pwease? She's getting desperate… :P

Disclaimer: Wow, I haven't written one of these in forever! For the past six months of writing I've done (which was on I've owned the characters. Oh, and I don't own these. XP

And now, here is the chapter that I've taken over six months' break on! (Marikay: It had better be good, ne?)

And now (finally)…

Chapter 18: Puddle of Angst (Otherwise Known As…OMK, MKD ACTUALLY UPDATED!)

Marik's words spun through Yami's head, tumbling over and over in a fit of confusion. Ryou had killed Yugi! There had to have been some mistake… Maybe he had said harpoon instead of Ryou…or—or something! But…Ryou wouldn't even swat at the summer-time mosquitoes much less kill someone…!

"What do you mean by this?" Bakura snarled. "How dare you accuse my light of—?"

"But he's not dead, you said," stated Marik in an offhand way, completely ignoring the others in the room. "Then, that's good."

"Marik…," Yami said warningly. "Explain yourself."

Marik shrugged and turned the television back on. "Why don't you go ask Ryou about it? Or Yugi, now that he's alive?"

The Eye of Horus shown brightly on Yami's forehead. "Marik!" he roared. "If you don't answer me right now—!"

Marik didn't let Yami finish his sentence; he had decided that he had pushed his luck too far. With a wave of his hand, he explained, "Yugi was walking to the store and met up with Ryou. They exchanged a few words, and whatever Yugi said pissed off Ryou…and he killed him."

"Why didn't you do anything to stop him?" Yami snapped.

"There wasn't any time! The knife was in Yugi's neck before I could do anything. It's your light's fault in part, too; he didn't even want me near him."

"That's because you'd scare the shit out of even the Grim Reaper!"

Marik and Yami were practically at each other's throats by that point, on the verge of sending the other to the Shadow Realm.

"Hey, guys," Malik interrupted nervously. "Why don't we see if Bakura can't contact his light yet?"

All eyes turned towards Bakura, and he shifted nervously under their stares.

"All right… I'll try again…but I don't know if he'll answer back…"

Ryou?

/Mmphffmm…… What/

"He answered!"

…Change POV—(Third Person) Ryou's POV…

Ryou sat up suddenly in the bed, the dream awakening him suddenly. He was extremely hot and he was sweating profusely. It was bad enough that he had to live through Yugi's murder once, but to dream about it as well… It was like going to Hell and back…and back again…and again…

He let his head rest back on the pillow, not really wanting to go back to sleep, but having no choice not to, either. The Chinese sailors would be back any minute to question him any minute, and he needed to be fully alert.

He closed his eyes, and Yugi's face immediately popped up in his mind. His eyes shot open; his breath came out in shallow puffs.

Why can't I get away from him…? He's everywhere…!

He leaned over and retched.

Unfortunately for him, that was the moment that his yami tried contacting him once more.

Ryou?

/ Mmphffmm…… What/

He felt Bakura's relief and happiness wash through him, and it was almost enough to make him sick again.

Ryou! Tell me what happened!

/Bakura, I—I don't know how to tell you… But Kaiba! Kaiba's in trouble/

That bastard can wait! All I care about right now is you, hikari! Daijobou? Speak to me!

/Bakura… I…I can't…/ Tears streamed down his cheeks. He didn't think he'd ever be able to tell his yami what happened… Bakura would never look at him the same way again. He would never trust him…

Trust him…

It took Ryou so long to trust Bakura and for Bakura to return that same trust, but once Ryou told his yami about what had happened in the past few hours, how long would it take to rebuild that trust once more? Years? Decades?

Eons?

Never?

What if they could never trust each other again? Ryou would never be able to take that sort of pain. His yami meant the world to him… He was his other half for chrissakes! What are two halves if there is no trust?

Ryou, just—Fine. We'll talk when I see you. Now where the fuck are you!

/I'm on a boat somewhere…/

What the hell? A boat? What are you doing on one of those? (What is a boat, now that I think about it?) Ryou, just tell me where I can find you!

/I—I don't know… I really don't… But you can't worry about me! You have to find Kaiba! He's in trouble/

Yeah, I can see him on this mystical box that Marik's watching… Terevishun, or something. They're talking about a ransom or something, but I don't quite understand—

/RANSOM!/

What? Is that bad?

/Oh my Kami, yami! Kaiba—you have to save him! He's with Mokuba! Yami, I—/

Right then, Sven walked into the room, pulled up a chair to the side of the bed, and sat down expectantly. "Shizura? Are you ready to talk now?"

Ryou blinked a few times, letting the room come slowly into focus. "I suppose so… What do you want to know?"

"What is your relation with Seto Kaiba?" Sven demanded.

"We've met…" Ryou trailed off. He didn't know what sorts of answers Sven was expecting, but the word friend would have been a highly suspicious term when describing Seto Kaiba. And seeing as how Ryou didn't want anyone to know who he was, he decided to give a bit vaguer of an answer… (A/N: …Vaguer is a word…? Sorry, but that just bothers me… It should definitely be "more vague.")

"How so?" Sven pressed.

Ryou cocked an eyebrow. "What are you implying?"

"Nothing, nothing," Sven said hurriedly. "It's just that the Seto Kaiba doesn't just…meet people. And now that there's this whole 'ransom' ordeal going on… You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, now, would you?"

Ryou decided that playing dumb would be best. He shook his head no. "There's a ransom for him?" Then, deciding to be a bit bolder—"Wait, where were those men on that ship taking him? What's going on?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. But if you can't…then we'll be nearing land soon."

"Where?"

Sven shrugged. "South Korea."

I'm going to be stuck in South Korea? Shitshitshitshitshit…

"Unless…you give me some answers."

Answers? Like what? Shitshitshitshitshit…

"And if you answer me correctly Shizura—we'll make a detour to Fukuoka."

Ryou thought for a moment, then answered slowly and hesitantly, "What do you want to know?"

…Change POV—(Third Person) Kaiba Bros. POV…

Kaiba watched as one of the sailors marched down the stairs, making a good deal more noise than was necessary.

"Get up here!" he snapped. "We're gonna announce our kidnap to the world!"

Kaiba glared but didn't stoop low enough to throw a retort. He took Mokuba by the hand and led him up the stairs, not even looking at the other sailor.

"Come on, Mokuba… Let's see if we can get out of this dump."

The moment they arrived above deck, they were grabbed roughly and thrown in front of a video camera. A few sailors piled behind them, each with black masks (so that their identities could be covered). The first one spoke in Chinese, and the next two translated to Japanese and English:

"Here we have the great Seto Kaiba brought down to his knees. The CEO of the gaming industry doesn't seem so great now, does he? If you want to keep your precious games, Emperor Akihito, bring nine billion yen to the Togachi building in downtown Tokyo. No guns. You treat us nice, and we'll treat you nice. If you don't comply, well…" One of the security guards cocked a gun and placed it behind Mokuba's head. "Then the kid gets it. We will contact you in one hour to further our demands and hear your response."

The camera turned off, and Kaiba was thrown back down the stairs below deck…but not before he heard the distinct voice of Pegasus…

"Nii-sama?" Mokuba asked quietly once they were below deck again. "Nii-sama…Will they really kill me?" He looked up at his big brother and saw that Seto Kaiba, the Seto Kaiba, that iron wall of arrogance, had tears in his eyes.

Kaiba reached out and hugged his brother as hard as he could. "No, no, they won't Mokuba… I'll protect you with my life… I won't let them hurt you…"

"N—Nii-sama…?"

Kaiba let go. He had to remain strong for his little brother, but…it was so hard… The thought of losing him… He just couldn't bear it. He meant what he said; he would protect Mokuba with his life.

But now there was the matter of Pegasus. He had distinctly heard him laugh, but he had not, in fact, seen him. Something fishy was going on, and it was seeming more and more like one of the sick games Pegasus was likely to come up with…

"Nii-sama? Wh—when can we go home? I—I'm cold…"

Kaiba took his jacket off and wrapped it around his brother's shoulders, shuddering against the cold himself. "We'll be home soon… I promise."

"Just so long as I'm here with you, nii-sama," Mokuba muttered before drifting off to sleep against his brother's shoulder.

A silent tear ran down Kaiba's face and landed softly in Mokuba's thick, black hair. He quickly wiped at his steely blue eyes, but another tear ran down his face just as quickly.

"My, my, what do we have here?" A faint chuckle was heard above. "The great Seto Kaiba has finally fallen."

"What do you want, Pegasus?" Kaiba snarled, mustering up as much hate as he could at the moment, despite his weariness. He didn't even have enough energy to look up at the other man.

"Nothing, nothing…I just want to see you in your last moments of misery and pain." He laughed. That sick, horrible laugh. It crept through Kaiba's bones and made him shiver.

"Do anything you want to me, Pegasus, but don't hurt my little brother!"

"I wouldn't dream about it…" Another laugh, this one worse than before. "Why don't you just try getting some sleep, Kaiba-boy? It may be the last thing you ever do…"

The door above them was shut tightly and the click of a lock could be heard.

At least the wind isn't blowing now, Kaiba thought bitterly.

After a few moments, he too began drifting off to sleep, hoping that in the morning, this would all just be a dream…one long, terrible dream…

Just a dream…

Mystical Knight Dragon: Whoo! I FINALLY got this chapter out! I hope it was good enough for your standards… I tried to make it as long as possible…

Marikay-muse: Yeesh, she hasn't updated in so long that she probably doesn't even have any reviewers left. Prove her wrong by leaving a pretty review. c: