Ave Maria

All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."

He must have been tired out from the drama the previous night because he didn't wake until eight o'clock. The curtains on his windows were wide open, the sunrise evident from the reddish light that shone into the room, giving it a pre-apocalypse glow. He could have swore that he had shut the drapes out of habit when he stumbled in his room around three, and his eyes drifted to the chair in the corner.

Mokuba was in his pajamas, staring blurry-eyed at him. His knees were hugged to his chest like he was in some sort of pain, and Kaiba felt the initial spike of guilt and worry.

"What's wrong?" he asked, throwing the comforter off him and slipping on his robe over his t-shirt and shorts with a speed that rivaled a parent rushing to their crying child. "Are you hurt? Hungry? I'll get up and cook something…"

Mokuba sighed. " Nothing's wrong, Nisama."

"But?"

Mokuba chuckled over his brother's puzzled stare. "Mai's up and Jonouchi is the bathroom. I thought you might need to talk to her."

"Why would I need to talk to her?" Kaiba slid off his robe, seeing he didn't need it, and went to his closet. He shuffled through it, locating a black button down shirt, and with his back to Mokuba, stripped off his shirt and put on the shirt in one smooth motion. Some people may have found it odd that the male didn't even change in front of his own brother but it was something Mokuba was used to. His brother was afraid of his own nudity and the marks that marred his body, contradicting his perfect nature.

"I think you know why."

"Did you sneak into the room and watch the tape like everyone else?" Kaiba sounded annoyed and Mokuba smiled angelically at his brother.

"No. I was awake for the fight you and Jou had with her."

Kaiba nodded and went to his dresser to grab a pair of pants. He walked into his bathroom, kicked the door closed, and changed out of his shorts and into the pants within a few seconds.

"So what do you want me to do?" Kaiba sat down on the bed, slipping his dress shoes out from under the bed.

"Just talk to her. Admit that you were wrong to watch it without permission."

"But she wasn't going to tell us. She lied to Jonouchi about what happened."

Mokuba sighed. " Maybe not. But you would have done the same thing if you wanted to hide what happened. Think of how you felt when

Yugi and his friends got sucked into Noa's world and how angry you were that they were discovering things about you that you didn't want known. You knew they wouldn't do anything with that knowledge to hurt you…" Kaiba snorted, "…Well, not too badly, but still it felt like you were being violated. Mai probably feels the same way. She knows you and Jonouchi, but how long has she known you? Two, three weeks? That's not enough time to trust a person with your dark deep secrets."

A smile graced Kaiba's face, a real one, which was extremely rare. It was one of a parent seeing their child doing something extraordinary and it made Mokuba feel warm inside but also a little bit uncomfortable.

"I need to know what happened with her there."

"I know. Tell her that. Tell her that you can wait until she's ready."

"And if she isn't ready soon?"

Mokuba smiled. " You can make her."

Kaiba returned the smile and finished tying the lace of his shoe. He stood up, arching his back to crack it into place. "I'll be back." He left his room to Mokuba, and walked down the stairs to the kitchen.

Sure enough, Mai was on one of the stools, reading the newspaper, the hand that wasn't flipping through the pages on her coffee mug.

"Mornin'," she muttered without looking up, taking another swig of her coffee. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down across from her. He took a swig of it to calm his nerves and found it very strong. It was perfect.

"I want to apologize for not telling you in advance that I would be watching the tape," he began and she looked up, taking another swig of her coffee. Her eyes looked tired and he wondered how much sleep she had gotten after the fiasco. "I didn't think and for that, I am sorry."

She was smirking. He probably just made an idiot of himself then. She took a sip of coffee and spoke. " I guess I should apologize for not being so forthcoming about the events that transpired there. I have illusions I would like to keep intact, as do you and Jonouchi. The tape…"

"The tape could revel those things?"

She nodded and slid off the stool to grab a peach from the fruit bowl. " I appreciate the fact that the both of you have been so open about yourselves to me but I'm not used to having people in my life that I can trust. Give me some time to get used to the idea."

It was unspoken that she would give the tape back or start talking about it. Kaiba wasn't happy with the fact there was no time limit but he supposed he could wait. He had other resources to use.

Mai took a bite of her peach and wrinkled her nose. She showed to him that it was moldy and she jumped up, throwing it in the garbage and sprinted for the bathroom.

Kaiba took another sip of his coffee and moved the newspapers from Mai's seat to his.

'''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' ''''''''

"Where were you?"

Jonouchi looked up at the fuming Shizuka, dropping his duffel bag and shutting the door behind him. "Why not at school?"

She was sitting on his couch in one of his over-sized sweatshirts, knees tucked under it that gave her a package-sort of look with a head on top. " I thought something might have happened to you. When I came by this morning, and you weren't there…" she trailed off and Jonouchi walked over to her to hug her. He kissed heron the forehead and took a seat next to her on the sofa.

"Sorry I didn't call you and tell you where I was. I was spending the night at Kaiba's."

"Kaiba?"

"Yeah," Jonouchi scratched his head. " He's not really that bad of a guy once you get to know him." Shizuka gave a look of disbelief. " I'm serious. He is starting to be a bit nicer to me now. It's really weird…"

"How did therapy go with him and Mai?"

Jonouchi sighed, lying his head on the pillow. "It was a disaster. Kaiba and Mai were both more reluctant to talk to her then I was."

"They have more to hide then you."

"Huh?"

"I mean, Kaiba obviously has had a traumatic childhood. Mai probably does as well for her to be as strong emotionally as she is."

"And you're saying I didn't?" Jonouchi took his head off the pillow to stare down his sister who was starting to get that fearful look in her eye, realizing she may say the wrong thing.

"No. I'm not. I'm just saying theirs were probably worse then yours…"

And yet again Shizuka messed up what she was going to say because he glared. "Of course. I can't compare to poor Kaiba who was orphaned and had to become a father to his little brother who got stuck with a psychopath father who made him into a corporate billionaire and ended all emotions in Kaiba to the point he wouldn't blink if he killed someone. Well, some of us aren't given such obviously tragic lives like that, Some of us just get beaten and have to survive without any great reward coming out of it."

"I'm sorry," she whispered after his tirade stopped.

"I'm sorry too, Shizuka. I'm sorry that you couldn't see the truth."

She got the pun and it stung deeper then she had expected. She hadn't wanted to hear her brother telling her how their father started to beat him and how mother wouldn't allow him to live with them. She just wanted to pretend that both had ended up okay when their parents separated.

"I'm sorry," she repeated and Jonouchi turned on the TV. It was another sitcom and they watched it in silence.

''''''''''''' ''''''''''''' ''''''''''''' ''''''''''''' ''''''''''''' '''''''''''''

The eraser scraped against the paper and Kaiba gritted his teeth, hoping the paper wouldn't tear under his onslaught. He pressed the ruler to where the eraser stubs were, and redrew his line. It connected to the others at a perfect ninety degrees and Kaiba took a long needed breath, sitting back in his chair.

He was drawing a floor plan of the school. He wasn't sure why he felt he had to draw one but he found it easier to indulge his urges than to suppress them. Names filled the square boxes of the people who had died in each room and he had drawn little skulls where the bombs had been placed. Dotted lines showed the journeys Jonouchi and Mai had made, ending in the auditorium just where they intersected. He couldn't help but focus on it. His obsessive nature wouldn't allow him to look at anything else. Sure, he may have promised he wouldn't ask her or bother her about the tape until she was ready to talk about what happened, but he had to know. He couldn't leave some information lying around if it could help him unscramble the mystery. What mystery he was solving was still unknown to him but he knew eventually the question his subconscious was telling him to answer would soon be clear.

He stared at the lines. Jonouchi's panicked run through the school made sense. In the huge floor plan of the school, which was dangling off his oversized desk, Jonouchi had stayed in one small area, dashing in between the rooms there. Mai's story was completely different and had no logic to it. If he drew the floor plan correctly, which he was positive he did, the room she was in was at the other end of the school. It wasn't just exaggeration. With the number of shooters and bombs that were planted through the school, some not outside but in the corridors of the hall, it was humanly impossible to get to one side of the building to another without getting killed.

He had sent for her medical files earlier in the week. It had been illegal to even ask for them but money could do a lot of things. When he had viewed them, he had noticed the lack of injuries on her when she and Jonouchi arrived at the hospital. She didn't have any scratches and none of the blood on her was her own. The only damage on her was the bruises along her stomach and ribs. The cryptic writing in the file didn't name the cause but Kaiba suspected it was from being shot and the bullets being stopped by the vest. It piqued him that she wouldn't talk about it so he could have his theory validated.

He shifted the floor plans off his desk and took out his copy of Time Magazine. He had found the yearbook pictures of all the students helpful and he scanned through them, making sure he had circled in red ink all the shooters that he knew of. Counting them quickly, he came to thirty-two circled and he growled. That was much more then the suspected amount that the magazine had reported.

He grabbed the phone and dialed the extension to his brother's phone. Not saying a word, he heard feet hitting the steps as his brother bounded up to the stairs to his at-home office.

"What do you need?"

"I need plane tickets and a press conference."

Mokuba looked at him confused. " You're not going to America, are you?"

Kaiba didn't answer. He just lowered his eyes in shame.

"Can't you just stop obsessing over it? Why do you need to go there?"

"I really don't know." Kaiba was being honest and he met his brother's eyes. Mokuba walked over to the desk and shifted the magazine to peak at the floor plans.

"What do you hope to find there, Nisama? Do you need any other explanation for the reason the kids did it besides they were fucked-up kids? Are you searching for redemption because you've already found it? Do you think that obsessing over it will change what happened?"

"Yes…to all those things," Kaiba mumbled, folding up the floor plan quickly. " I can't just sit here and know that I could be doing something."

"You just don't know what."

Kaiba nodded and looked up at his brother. More and more, he began to feel like he was the child, begging for permission from the adult, Mokuba. " Can you do it for me?"

Mokuba smiled. "I'll do it. I'll order five tickets."

"Five?"

Mokuba was already gone and Kaiba puzzled over the significance of five. It wouldn't get them a deal and he didn't think he knew five people. He sighed and flipped the switch for his computer, going back to his normal work.

''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''

"What do you think of Mai?"

It was the first thing that popped in Jonouchi's head as the sitcom Shizuka and him were watching ended and he tried to find a topic to end the standoff between them. He regretted the question as soon as he asked it from the interested look he saw on Shizuka's face. He had seen it before on Anzu when she talked about Atem or saw a matchmaking opportunity.

"She's nice enough. Sort of cold, has an angry undertone to her. Why'd you ask?"

"No particular reason. I just didn't get her sometimes."

Shizuka waited for him to speak, seeing he was trying to word it carefully.

"Being around her is a lot like being with Atem. You are talking to someone who is nice enough to you but yet is so far advanced from you that you feel inadequate in their presence…"

Shizuka didn't have the guts to point out that sounded very much like a crush.

"They always appear perfect. They don't doubt or fail. You notice people never notice you but them…all eyes are always on them like they are a magnet for attention. They attract without trying."

"I had the same impression of her at first too. I don't know her as well as you do but if she is anything like Atem, she is not unattainable. She has flaws but she burrows them deeper then anyone can possibly dig."

"I guess what I don't like about her is that she doesn't care. She doesn't apologize for lying. She didn't say sorry for hogging the attention at Yugi's funeral. She just shrugs and mentions that's the way life works. She can't be sorry for the things she isn't and can't apologize for the things she can't control."

"She does care about you though, Jonouchi. She sat at your bedside while you were in your coma, reading stories to you. Of course, she swore for me to never tell a soul, but…she did apologize oddly enough for saving you. She said she didn't have the right to do that."

Jonouchi stared at the coffee table in silence, mulling over what Shizuka just said. He did think it was weird that was what she apologized for. A mental note to ask about it when the topic could be broached was made.

"Hey, Jonouchi. Why haven't you had a girlfriend in awhile?"

"That's sort of random," Jonouchi sighed, running through his memories. " Yeah. It has been two years since my last one." He laughed nervously.

"Why is that, Jonouchi?"

"I don't know. I guess I didn't want to involve whoever I was with in my dueling and all the misadventures that came with it."

"Are you going to continue dueling?" Shizuka asked.

"Don't know."

"You should duel Mai."

"Why? She probably has the same problem of remembering I do."

Shizuka seemed to ignore what he was saying. " Mai could be involved in your dueling."

All the not-so-subtle clues Shizuka had interjected into the conversation suddenly jumped out at Jonouchi and he glared. " I don't like Mai in that way."

Shizuka gave a knowing smile.

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Kaiba watched the plane fall to earth and skid across the runway before hitting a full stop. It filled him with a nostalgic feeling because he wished he had been the one flying today and not just a passenger. Maneuvering a plane through the skies made him feel alive, like he was so close to death if he performed one thing wrong. Being a passenger just made him sluggish and confused.

"Ready?" he asked the people behind him.

Jonouchi only scowled and Shizuka punched his arm, smiling brilliantly enough for both of them. Mokuba was standing with Mai who looked to be in a passionate with a bag handler from her arms wailing around and the anger that radiated off her. Mokuba was looking up at her in a mixture of respect and awe as she convinced the man to go back to the plane and find Mokuba's bag.

It looked to be a normal trip. But Kaiba knew better. It would be the trip to answer all his questions.

Author's Note: This isn't a complete chapter. This is just what I got done in the past two days. I have to keep to deadlines and I am horribly stressed out now between work so this is what I got. I'll put the rest of the chapter up on Friday or before then, keeping to my weekly updates. I plan on doing a walk tomorrow to raise money, read Harry Potter, then shop. I am working less next week so I can write more.

Enjoy. And sorry that it isn't up to standards.

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