Chapter 21: Javas's Choice

The spiraling world of complete and utter darkness morphed in her dizzied vision. Her body now limp she could only watch her surroundings shed the veil of blackness to expose a large sunlight room. At first she was blinded by the intense light and turned from it, her eyes watering. She listened to the distorted chuckling with an empathic look consuming her face as her eyes adjusted. Slowly the golden ray curtains pulled back and exposed their own secrets, basically a large room.

The room had a high ceiling, but even with it she could see the large brown trunk of an immense tree taking up most of the floor, its canopy so huge it had broken through the roof and let in some spots of light where the leaves parted. The large windows on the walls were the major source of the light, clear with white light. The floor was a wooden one, with large bumps of ingrown roots clawing through the panels, where there was no large shelf case that was, and many were scattered about and around the base of the immense tree. The floor was covered in small sphere like objects, varying in green, yellow, and red colors. Dully looking at them, Kaede recognized them as apples. Tilting her head slowly up she ignored her swore neck and saw the same round fruits hanging cheerful from the branches, one dropping every few minutes.

Sleepily she wondered how this could be possible. She had seen trees grow through buildings, but never one so precisely placed in the center, unless centered for the building. Where they in a museum? Could they be in a museum? She had never heard of an exhibit like this one and knew she would've at least from the school. She would've been the first one there on the opening day. No, this had to be newly and secretly constructed. A surprise display?

In the thick mist of grogginess she heard a piercing voice brush over her thoughts, making the struggle to awake for more important. A familiar vocal sounds were coursing through her mind, the ones that had kept her awake for weeks, the ones she had searched for so desperately for many summer hours. They were the quiet speech of the great tree.

She battled the muzzy coating covering her conscious mind, the voice a huge tool against the barrier, but not sharp enough to cut it open. Shortly after she gave up for the time being, letting the whispering lull over her, staring at a faded blue couch, covered with large pink flowers, nestled upright on one large branch, making her puzzle at with hooded eyes.

"Welcome young Ryou," a twisted voice buzzed in her ear. She felt the warm surface against her back vibrate, matching the sounds produced. She realized dozily that the warm surface holding her was actually a body, a man. She was too sleepy to fully understand what that meant. Nor did she put much thought into what a young Ryou could be.

"By your calm mood, I can conclude your reaction of your first trip through the shadow realm wasn't powerful enough to rip apart my spell. Good. That is very good…" Kaede watched placidly at the stranger's feet, striding forward with complete ease, kicking the purple cloak up and letting it flutter down, over and over again. She also studied two pale arms sticking outward, ten peach colored fingers clasped loosely around the purple clothed arm hugging under her chin. It took several long seconds for her to realize they were her own arms and fingers and even then the indifference wrapped around her was too tight for panic.

Sudden a bounce was added to the strides and a loud cheerful voice emanated tunefully, making the girl wince at the thick layer of pain booming in her ears for a brief moment.

"Ah! Mr. Ryou! Look at what I brought you!" Kaede rolled her half closed eyes up in the direction of a sudden scuffling moment. Behind a large golden flickering bar, a haggard white-haired man stared back at her, a look of complete anguish engulfed every inch of his face, his knees buckled and his arms swayed slightly, and his brown eyes wide.

"…No…" His voice quivered in response, "Not her, too." Kaede listened to a deep laughter.

"Yes oh yes, her too Mr. Ryou! But don't look so hurt; think of her as…temporary company. But do not worry, you can still talk for a while at least, about how nicely she has grown, for example… look at what she can do!" She didn't even flinch as a hand grabbed her calf. In a swirl of motion she watched the world slip upside down and felt her hands hit the floor lifelessly. The tight pain bit back the shroud a few inches.

"Look at these vines! I've never seen anything like this growing anywhere! Have you? I think they're something to admire… I like the thorns, a wonderful touch wouldn't you say?"

"Put her down!" Bakura yelled helplessly, noting how much his grip was swaying. The figure sniggered playfully and let the momentum of his swing, making the father's anxiety grow.

"Put her down?" He asked after a few hanging moments. "Okay Mr. Ryou, as you wish!" The shape flung his hand wide and let the girl drop head first into the floor. Or that's would've happened if the vines about her legs hadn't lurched out and spread onto the floor over her head, leaving her legs, creating supports that held her weight and saved her from a dented in skull. After a few moments the plant righted her with care, caressing her with the parts of the vine that were not spike covered. It created a make shift sleeping bag about her, right in front of the captor, the thorns grown to a foot long now, pointing at him. Slowly her attacker stepped back, a laugh lightly coating his unseen lips.

"Impressive. Even the plants care for her. This will be more challenging than I thought… oh and don't worry. If you think those plants will get her out of this room, think again. Like all plants they can't move unless it is suggested to them, but protecting itself and its own is simply instinct. And it can only go so far, wouldn't you say?" Bakura was silent, and watched the figure with a look of sorrow as he walked out of the room, removing his hood and taking a deep breath of air.

Bakura looked away. For that past two days of this prison, he found that it was not his four feet by five feet prison that was so painful. It was not that he was locked in the room of which his wife had always done great magical works. It was not that it was his own home he was incarcerated in.

It was the fact that the monster that caged him, tortured him by using the body of his own child to do so.

The father braced himself as the figure turned, eyes bright and an evil smirk on the boy's face, a bright millennium eye burning fiercely on his forehead. Two glinting hazel orbs, the eyes his wife had given him, burned softly while looking at him.

"Don't worry, Mr. Ryou, she will be well taken care of…" Said the twisted voice from the mouth of his son. The boy turned, but before his face was completely out of sight Bakura watched a single tear slide silently down his check. The father knew that the pain from his captivity was far less painful than the immense agonizing hurt that was being caused by his son's, or what was left of him inside.

Bakura took the message of the tear and clung to it, as he watched over his other child. The single drop said it all.

"I'm sorry Dad."

"I'm sorry too, Mat." Bakura replied quietly, his own tears starting to slide down his face, the ache in his heart too much to bear.

"I'm sorry too…"

Javas tried not to meet eye contact with anyone. He found the best way to do this was to study the carpet lining of the limo floor and to remain as inconspicuous as he could. For the third time Javas found his eyes straying to the heavy black boots of the shifting man a seat away from him.

When the man had first walked into the door they had immediately met eye-contact. It only to a moment, but it would be a memorable experience. Javas had looked the stranger over carefully, with his vigilant blue eyes. He noticed the similarity between his blonde hair and the man's hair. He even felt his own blonde locks to make sure. The man must have been thinking the same thing, since they both reached and touched their hair at the same time.

Then his father walked in. The reaction was not of which Javas would have liked.

"Alright, I've found my son, and you can find your friend and his daughter. I believe we are done here." Kaiba said briskly, sitting with one leg crossed in his seat, looking placidly at Yami and Yugi.

"If that's what you want Kaiba. Thank you." Yami replied as Yugi nodded in agreement. Javas kept his head down for a few more moments. His heart was telling him different. He couldn't just leave her there. He cared about her…right? He thought he did. Then he should do something. Javas twiddled his thumbs nervously, glanced at his father's shoes, and back to his own. He couldn't. All his life his father had been the commanding one, the one you never argued with, ever. The fear inside him was deep. But what could his father possibly do to him? So he wasn't what he had always wanted. No child ever seems to be. He had to do something.

"It's not what I want." Javas said suddenly, lifting his eyes warily away from his father, toward the man.

"I want to help in any way I can."

"Javas, no. You've had a full day. They can take care of themselves, they'll be alright."

"No I haven't, Father. She's my friend. I have to help." Javas retorted, turning to his dad's stony face. Yami and Yugi remained silent, knowing when to stay quiet. The glaring of father and son was strong, neither giving in. Joey wasn't as perceptive.

"You know, the Kid's right. Friendship is important." Joey replied looking at Kaiba's heating face.

"Shut up, Wheeler."

"Don't tell him that!"

"I said no, Javas." Kaiba retorted angrily.

"But Dad!"

"I said no."

"I don't care! I'm helping whether you like it or not!"

"JAVAS!" The boy was silenced, but he still glared viciously at his father. A glare of a Wheeler. Kaiba was seeing it in double. Both Wheeler and his own son were glaring at him like he was a horrible man. They were so much alike. They could be passed off as father and son, more than him and Javas. They were both so stubborn…

Something the three of them shared.

"Do you know, what it's like worrying about you for the past two days?" Kaiba asked Javas in a soft voice, "Do you know how scared I was? I was afraid I was never going to see you again. Do don't know what that is like. I use to worry about your Uncle, but never was it as powerful as I worry for you. You are my only child. Only. I can't bare the thought of loosing you." Both looks of hatred evaporated, Joey's before Javas's, but the boy looked at his father for the first time with new eyes. Joey regarded him with a proud look, which puzzled the CEO.

"Your Dad's right, Sport," Joey supported, carefully nudging Javas in the shoulder with a fist lightly.

"Don't worry; we'll get your friend back." Javas looked at Joey warmly. Kaiba felt a nerve twinge and controlled his jealousy for now.

"That is nice of you…Mr. Wheeler…but I have to help get her back." Kaiba sighed. There was just no dealing with his son sometimes.

"Alright, Javas, you win, but we're not doing anything dangerous. This will be strictly computer work. Do you hear me?" Javas smirked approvingly of his father.

"Deal." Javas replied. Yugi smiled warmly at the two, making him wonder if he could have had conversations like this with his own son. Yami looked uneasily out the window, watching the people passing rapidly by, a guilty look on his face. After several moments he glanced back and found a small smile on T.R's face. He ignored it, and turned back to the problem at hand.

"When we get to the Game Shop, do not go inside the house. We don't want any repeats of what happened to Bakura before we start looking. I'm sure you have something to help track down the Ryous while TombRobber checks to see what we can use in Kaede's mind."

"Then after we form a plan, we go in and save them." Javas finished. Yugi nodded a small innocent smile on his face. Yami, knowing better, kept his usual silence and looked at the lack of color in the Robber's face, his eyes shadowed by his white hair, his hands clasped lightly together. It was easy to see what he was fretting about, being the only one to actually see past the act he showed off so effortlessly. Yami had experience with such masks, he was sorry to admit, but sometimes it had proven necessary. He wondered if having such an ego was necessary for him, and immediately answered yes to the stupid question.

Being that young when you lost your parents, in that time, a child had to become tough to survive. An easy way of doing this was by locking up all the pain and never seeing it again, to get angry to cloud over it. TombRobber had become a master at it. And Yami pitied him for it.

They reached the house, got out from the car one at a time, T.R and Javas in the middle to protect both youths. Kaiba and Joey were in the front and Yami and Yugi took the rear. The group was tense as they set foot in the shop, Joey and Kaiba both shared a look of complete and utter sternness as they looked about the still turned over counters, smashed cases, books and boxes dispersed across the room. Standing in the middle of the room, Javas was the first to speak.

"Why did you leave the place a mess?" He asked, stepping carefully over a piece of glass.

"…We figured it was evidence." Yugi replied, paying no heed to the crunching as T.R walked over it boredly, headed for the back room, despite Joey telling him to stop. He was ignored, the teen completely at home in the dark atmosphere. Yami could understand his shady thing. If you were the biggest and baddest thing out there, then you had nothing to fear. The dark was nothing to fear if you were the monster.

"…But the police haven't been here?" Javas continued, puzzled, as Joey walked up the stairs. Kaiba remained in the room, looking over the room, a brief case clasped in his fist.

"No, we decided not to call it in. They're involvement would only complicate things." Yami replied, picking up a turned over broom.

"Trying to tell people about alternate spirits only seems to make people think you're crazy." Yugi added, his tone trying to be cheerful.

"I don't blame them." Javas said, just before a loud bang and a yell sounded from the other room, making the three adults turn to the noise. They listened to Joey's hurried footsteps with deaf ears as TombRobber came back into the Shop with company.

Lifted out in front of him, by the back of the shirt, was a struggling girl, shrieking now to be let go. T.R looked over her tiredly and let her go, placing her onto the floor lightly. The lady straightened and looked nervously around the room with wide chocolate brown eyes, looking ready to bolt, until T.R clasped his hand on her shaking shoulder.

"Don't panic. She's the missing child." He sounded placidly. Christa glanced at him nervously, looked at Yami, Yugi, and Kaiba, then let her eyes settle on Javas.

He wasn't prepared for such a look and felt the urge just to melt away. He was the only one to waver under her gaze. She slowly gazed back at the floor, wringing his hands anxiously before she found her voice.

"My father said that he had friends here. I came for help. I didn't know where to go. When I found the door open I decided to wait inside. I swear I didn't do this. When I heard you come in I thought-"

"There is no need, Christa. We know what's going on, and we are going to make things right. I'm sure Javas can explain this whole story to you while we start to look." Yami gave Javas a knowing glance before he turned to Kaiba, ready for the huge 'how this machine works' speech before the CEO even knew he was going to give one. Yugi glanced at Joey, taking the broom from Yami's hand as he started to clean up the mess.

Joey joined him as Javas lead Christa nervously into the other room, looking white-faced and nervous for the first time in days, knowing he was out of his league. Christa kept glancing at the boy, a small safe smile slowly creeping onto her face as she relaxed, listening intently to the boy's fast voice, studying his handsome face with interest.

T.R was the only one left with nothing to do, which suited him just fine, or would have if he didn't feel so damn sick right now. He had this gurgled clawing feeling writhing in his stomach, making him want to throw up even though there was nothing in it. He tried to ignore the sense since it was obvious that thinking about it would only make it worse, but found that his reasoning was also flawed since he had something else that would be far worse to think about than just throwing up. He also knew the two probably interlinked with each other.

He pondered them icily as he walked away from the group, the need to be alone making it self present. He found himself walking up the stairs, with stalking feet, his large monstrous shadow cast on the wall by the dim light, dipping with his nimble steps, reflecting his dark nature, not caring where his feet brought him.

He wasn't surprised when he reached Yugi's old bedroom, shadowed and old looking under the thin layer of dust on the desk by the window, the chair, and the bed. The closet door was open and full of boxes, the mirror on the inside of that door showing a middle aged teenager in a large black trench coat, with white hair and a young face, but his eyes were those only had by the every old and wise, staring back at him. Those eyes were troubled.

He lightly caressed the ring around his neck, trying to comfort himself even a little, by its soft warmth and steady one-eyed gaze. He listened to the arrows chime and remembered the first time he had actually admired the noise, after he had taken it from the priest, a winning from a well-placed duel. He was disappointed when the Ring did not sway the nagging feeling. That only meant it had something to do with it.

And when Yami walked into the room, that feeling intensified.

"Do you know what you have to do?" the Pharaoh asked him with a stern stare. The thief gazed at him with a slight look of discomfort. Yami knew that it probably felt ten times worse than that. After several moments of dead silence he spoke again.

"If you won't voluntarily, I will be forced to ask Christa to make you. That would mean I'd have to explain this whole situation…fully." T.R gritted his teeth.

"Fine." He snarled. He firmly clasped the chair and with swift dexterity swung himself into it, letting his coat flap down at his sides as dust puffed up around him. He ignored it as he pulled lightly at his sleeves, before taking a deep breath and settled.

For a long moment he hesitated, his eyes flickering with thoughts. Yami allowed him this period, shutting the door softly behind him. It would be better to do this in private, for TombRobber, so he coated the door with a silent repelling charm, the same spell he used on Javas's door, except he added a lot more power to it, just in case, before he swept off some of the dust on the bed before he sat down across from the thief.

"Are you ready?" Yami finally asked him, making T.R glare at him before he let the breath out and closed his eyes, starting to concentrate. Yami took that as a yes and waited, his hands folded patiently.

After about ten minutes of nothing but silent breathing before Yami finally shifted and cleared his throat.

"…Robber?"

"Yes, I'm at the wall. Shut up." T.R spat, looking up at the black slicked wall, deciding whether or not to actually go through this. After a moment of annoyance he dug his fist into the small glowing opening, the sludge and immediately started to empty it, yelling things at Yami as he did so, trying to blow off steam.

The goop was easy to remove, and soon the shinning light was growing and spreading in front of his eyes. He didn't want to take down the wall. It was a defense on his part. Instead he'd make a hole large enough for him to enter and climb through. The easiest way to do that was to use the damage he had already made to his advantage.

He braced himself as her dizzying sent washed over him, as he clawed back another huge blob, his teeth gritted against it. His whole mind quivered as he brushed against the bubble of hers, making him recede from the wall in surprise and uncertainty.

"I can't do this." He growled menacingly at the phantom voice of the ancient king around him, glaring at his blackened fists.

"You can and must." Yami replied carefully. T.R looked at the hole with a twisted look of dread and disgust, as he tried to make up his mind. Yami watched his expression spread clearly on the face of his body and fidgeted nervously. If the Robber didn't go through with this, it could mean precious time. They'd have to think of another plan, one more dangerous than the one he was risking now. He didn't want to go there.

"I can not, Pharaoh." TombRobber muttered his face placid with his lips barely moving. Yami made himself stop shifting and studied the teen's hands grasping at the sides of his chair. The thief was weakening. He was afraid of what could happen to him if he crossed that barrier. Or maybe Kaede? He had to coax him through the gap somehow.

"…Are you telling me that the Great Lord of Thieves can not simply walk into the mind of a mortal?" Yami asked suddenly, his voice smug and mocking. TombRobber clenched his teeth down harder, his anger rising. Yami smiled slightly. What better way to force him than to insult his ego?

"You're not afraid of her, not the king of thieves…are you?"

"Afraid? Of a mortal? Don't joke with me."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

Book Dragon: "Please Review"