Chapter 12:

Title: Shadow Wars Inc.

Author: Fairyfae

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: SetoxYami

Genre: Action, Romance

Spoilers: None of which I am aware.

Warning: Cussing

Disclaimer: Me no own...TT

"Hey Set baby. Waz up?" Bakura aimed a giddy smile in the direction of the two entering figures.

Yami raised an eyebrow and Seto snorted, "You're drunk."

"Way to state the tru-lo boss-man. You were a little late so I thought I would try out your wet bar." Seto's eyebrows imitated Yami's as Bakura actually giggled.

"Tru-lo? It looks like you kept trying his wet bar for some time. How much exactly did you have to drink?" Yami asked.

"Idunno." Bakura's response was slurred and barely intelligible. "I hadda try a lil' of evrything. One bottle of Vodka, tequila, rum, grenadine, goldschlagger, sweet and sour…"

"Idiot. That's enough. What kind of help will you be now?' Seto scowled. "Wait. You drank sweet and sour without mixing it with anything? He shook his head, "Never mind. I don't care. Follow me."

"Sur thing boss-man. I could walk behind your behind all the livin long day." Bakura started to laugh as if he had said something clever. Yami glared and Bakura fell on his butt and kept laughing. "Lookie Set baby. Yami-kins is possessive of your butt." He leaned towards Yami in a conspiratorial manner and whispered loudly, "You an ass-man huh. I can understand that. Seto is one sweet piece of ass on some kick-ass long legs. Ha. Ass on kick ass. I kill me. Hey, Yami." Bakura rolled shakily from butt to knees. "Show me a lil' Seto lovin. I wanna see you spank him good."

Seto ground his teeth as he walked over to his delinquent employee. "Idiot, imbecile, incompetent, irreverent, moronic…" the tall figure continued to mumble as he dragged Bakura by his hair outside the building and into the back yard.

"Hey! Respect the coif dumbass." Bakura whined, limbs flailing in an ineffective attempt at stopping the other from pulling him bodily from the room.

Reaching the outdoors, Seto continued to pull on the ex-thief until they were standing on the bridge that separated his Jacuzzi from his pool. Methodically, Seto removed his long, blue trench coat and addressed the amused former spirit that had been following, "Yami, hand me that buoy cord."

Anxious to see what Seto had planned for Bakura, he complied. Seto securely tied the cord under Bakura's armpits as the other protested and batted humorously at the CEO's head. Finally finished. Seto pushed the figure over the side of the bridge and into the hot tub.

Clothing soaked, Bakura sputtered, "Hey, waddaya think ya doin. Bastardo."

Ignoring the others words, Seto placed his foot on Bakura's head and shoved him under much to the amusement of Yami.

Resurfacing, Bakura continued to cuss. "Shit. You bastard Shithole."

"A bastard shithole am I." Seto smirked, "Not yet." On that note, he used the cord to yank the inebriated figure out of the hot tub only to drag him into the much colder pool.

The extreme temperature change caused Bakura to gasp and weeze, every part of his body protesting. "Holy freeking gods and goddesses!" Bakura scrambled for the side of the pool where he violently lost his intake of the last hour to the accompaniment of Yami's riotous laughter.

"Are you doing better or do I need to put you back into the hot tub again?"

"Bastard!" Bakura quietly snarled while trying not to lay his head in vomit.

Seto yanked the cord causing Bakura go under again, "What did you say?" The false politeness in Seto's voice was thicker than molasses.

Finally stabilizing on the surface, Bakura yelled, "I said give me a minute!" He winced sharply at the noise. Simultaneously he wrinkled his nose in disgust at the vomit coating his arm and tried to glare the laughing pharaoh to death. In his mad dash to the surface, Bakura had reached over the pools side without looking. If the amused looks on Yami's and the bastard's faces were any indication, he should never glare and wrinkle his nose at the same time. Damn, he hated when a high was so rudely interrupted. Now everything was just spinning and he felt like shit.

Bakura felt so bad that he hardly reacted when a hand reached down and grabbed the back of his shirt to haul him onto land…and into stuff. Crap. Gross. "You had better clean up and try to make yourself presentable if your going to be any help to us." Bakura winced again. Those arrogant tones could belong to only one person. "Come on. I'll help you."

"Don't bother." Seto snapped. "I'll have one of his underlings take care of him. After all, part of what I pay them for is to put up with his adolescent crap. I'll meet you both in my computer lab in an hour." Seto turned a cold voice on Bakura, "And this time, I mean in thirty minutes."

Bakura winced a third time under the weight of the ice cold words and tried like the very devil not to hear the loud footsteps moving away from him. He was already humiliated and he wasn't looking forward to being more so in front of his underlings.

"Come on Bakura." He felt his filthy shirt being pulled over his head and his arm being thrown over wiry shoulders. "If you want to be in your room by the time your staff comes, you had best get moving." Grateful and unwilling to show it, Bakura allowed the pharaoh to help him to his room where he would force himself to take a shower. Today was going to be a long day.

Exactly thirty minutes later, Yami entered the computer lab trailed by a grumbling but clean and dry Bakura. He figured that if they had taken the hour, Seto would have been even madder. In the middle of the room was a device, similar to the portable holographic devices Kaiba marketed for the duel monsters game. Kaiba had his back to the door as the others walked in. "Take a seat. We'll begin in a moment."

Silently, Yami and Bakura moved to chairs surrounding the device. Bakura collapsed and Yami sat gracefully. Yami noticed Seto feeding paper to the computer consol before he turned in his rolling chair to join the rest of them. "I have just completed feeding the information that we've compiled into a recently developed analytical program."

"Recently developed?" Yami questioned.

"Yes. As in I developed it just now in an effort to help us figure out this problem. It's really only an adaptation of a previously developed program."

Yami smiled approvingly at Seto. "Really? I'm impressed." Seto blushed and attempted to not look flattered. He failed horribly.

Bakura groaned and bowed his head to sip the coffee-like sludge he was gripping tightly between both hands, "Don't tell me I sobered up to hear you two slobber all over each other. And here I thought I was done puking."

Seto glared, "Enough of the small talk. We've already wasted enough time this afternoon."

Bakura just glared back, "Damn workaholic."

Seto decided to ignore the thief in the interest of progress. "All right. Here is what we have so far. Here is Setting A, the headmaster's office." Seto pushed a button and the device clicked on. Yami's eyes opened in wonder as he examined the holographic approximation of the room from Seto's dream. The hologram was an exact replication of the room except that now he could see everything. The walls looked transparent and the objects in the room looked solid. Even Bakura perked up and looked as interested as a person with a hangover could. Backed up to one transparent wall were two three-dimensional solid black figures. They looked like 3-D silhouettes. Behind a desk across from the two silhouettes stood the hologram of Mr. Wilton, the headmaster. In front of the head master stood a figure where the back was distinct but the face was indistinguishable. That figure was petting what looked like a giant spider. Behind the spider stood the figure of a little girl and behind the girl stood the figure of a mousy looking man in a lab coat.

Bakura's blood shot eyes examined the scene. "So this was your dream huh? Brutal."

"Yes." Seto confirmed, "This is my memory from when I was ten."

"Moving on," Seto pushed another button and a second hologram popped up next to the first. "Here is Setting B. This is the room in Kaiba Corp.'s ex-weapons lab where Bella was sold. After talking with her, I looked up our old records on the building and was able to get a security recording that showed us exactly what the room looked like before I shut it down. For simplicities sake, I assumed that the facility's offices, aside from the labs used for experimentation," Seto's face scrunched in distaste, "have not changed much since then." In this room Yami saw Bella, and two 3-D silhouettes. Outside the holographic room, he saw Seth crouching by the window.

"Now we add in what we know. First thing we know is that Hydra, Kaiba Corp, and the Orphanage were all connected by a massive donation about the time that this memory took place." Kaiba started.

"That's right." Bakura cut in, "Kaiba Corp. and Hydra which is now Expire, sent money to the orphanage. Some of that money went to treat the headmaster's daughter."

Yami nodded, "In the dream, we found out that the orphanage's headmaster, Mr. Wilton made a deal with two company representatives or heads. That deal was he would sell out the children with whose care he was charged in return for enough money to treat his daughter."

"Correct." Seto continued, "And I know my step-father. If Kaiba Corp. was the company to pay, at least partially, for the Samantha Wilton's hospital bills and this was part of a business agreement, my adoptive father was in that room. The bastard never used representatives to take care of major business dealings. He wasn't known for being a trusting individual. "

"Understandable seeing that he was taken down by the person closest to him." The glares sent at Bakura from Seto and Yami were one step from killing him, "Grief. Take your Prozac pills you two. I was just stating what happened." Deciding it would be a good idea to put everyone back on track, Bakura picked up with the previous conversation. "So you think one of the invisible people in the room was Gozoboro?"

"Yes. The cigar smoker, as you liked to call him, was my adoptive father. I am sure of it." Seto growled partly in response to his adoptive father's name and partly in anger from Bakura's statement. Taking a calming breath, he pursed his lips and pushed a button. One of the silhouettes in Setting A filled in with color until a life-like miniature of Gozoboro stood in the room. "I also think he had one of his most trusted lawyers with him. At that time, a Mr. Sho was in favor with my father, a fact that I overlooked when firing my father's previous staff. At that time, Mr. Sho looked clean. I should have known better. No one who worked with my father was clean."

Yami looked at the self-recrimination on Seto's face and decided now was not the time to deal with it. Instead he asked, "You think it was Mr. Sho in the room back then?"

"I don't know." Seto shook his head, "But I suspect that it was. How many people in my company can really be involved in something this off the wall? A couple powerful traitors may slip past me from time to time but, due to past betrayals, I keep pretty tight surveillance on all the powerful people who serve me."

"And you think its Mr. Sho in the room with Gozoboro because Bella identified him as the man who picked her up?"

"Think about it Yami." Seto leaned towards the other, "Bella saw Mr. Sho talking to someone we know is another major player in this crazy scenario."

"All right. I am willing to concede the possibility that Mr. Sho was one of the unseen men in the room." Yami stated before reaching over to Seto, "May I?"

Seto quirked an eyebrow but handed over the device in his hand. "It's the purple button."

"Ah." Yami depressed the purple button and one of the figures in Setting A and one of the figures in Setting B lit up. Both figures gradually filled in until they looked like the same man, Mr. Sho."

"Wait, I'm lost." Bakura broke in.

"And this is a new thing?" Yami stopped him.

"Shut up pharaoh. I wasn't with you when you interviewed the latest brat."

"And whose fault was that?" Seto interrupted.

"What is this? Gang up on Bakura in a twisted game of twenty questions day. Gods! Fuck both of you. I hope Expire succeeds in killing you both."

Yami was quick to retort. "An occurrence that would result in the eventual breaking of the barrier between the mortal world and the shadow world. How long would you get to keep your body then?"

Bakura just stuck out his tongue and crossed his arms over his chest.

"And I pay you money." Seto sighed. "Whatever. What you hadn't heard was that Bella identified Mr. Sho as one of the people involved in the dealings between Kaiba Corp. and Expire. He was also the man that programmed her to kill me."

"Really? I'm starting to like him already." Bakura growled but he did lean forward to continue his examination of the holographic scenes. "So that just leaves one blank person in Settings A, the headmasters office and Setting B, the weapons factory office."

"That's right." Yami confirmed, "And it was our investigation that places the CEO of Expire in the headmaster's office and Bella that places the same man in the weapons factory."

Bakura raised an eyebrow, "Mr. Hatahori was in the weapons factory?"

"Yes." Seto confirmed, "Bella informed us that he was the person handing her over to Mr. Sho."

"Now that is interesting. Give that damn thing pharaoh." Yami raised both eyebrows but complied. "Do I need to push them all?"

Seto was exasperated, "It's the yellow button."

"Figures. I hate yellow." Bakura pushed the button and Mr. Hatahori appeared in Settings A and B. "So this is what we have so far. Mr. Hatahori, former CEO of Hydra and current CEO of Expire made a deal with Kaiba Corp., i.e. Gozoboro, and Mr. Wilton, headmaster of Seto's childhood home years ago. In on the deal was a Kaiba Corp. lawyer, Mr. Sho and an unknown lab rat that worked for Mr. Hatahori. Just over a week or so ago, Mr. Sho and Mr. Hatahori met at a supposedly closed weapons plant from Gozoboro's days as lead man in Kaiba Corp to sell a monster-calling little girl. Is that right?"

"That's correct, but there is more." Seto confirmed.

Bakura scoffed, "And the fun just keeps multiplying."

"Shut up Bakura." Seto threw out casually, "I know where the rest of the donation money sent to the orphanage really went."

"You could track the money?" Bakura couldn't believe it. Kaiba tracked the cash flow when he couldn't.

"Of course you fool. I took the time to gather all the clues." Kaiba looked down his nose at the other. "Bella told us that her and Seth were raised under the orphanage. At some time, they built a facility underneath the orphanage. They must have done it right after I was adopted. They could have used the renovations as a cover."

"Asshole. My job wasn't to track the money flow. It was to try to find the people who tried to kill you." Bakura pouted.

"They are one and the same you idiot."

Yami broke in before the two could start arguing in earnest. "I'll create a scenario and you tell me if you think it's plausible. Years ago, in the headmaster's office, Gozoboro, Mr. Wilton, Mr. Hatahori, Mr. Sho, and an anonymous lab rat that is probably dead if he was in the facility Seth destroyed, made an agreement. They agreed that Mr. Wilton would alter records in the orphanage so that children could disappear into Hydra/Expire experiment labs. Kaiba Corp. agreed to be a financier and marketer of the weapons that Expire would design. They were also responsible for providing Expire with facilities in which they could work. Once the deal was sealed, Gozoboro and Hatahori donated large sums of money to the orphanage allegedly for renovations. In reality, the money went to build a facility underneath the orphanage and to pay off Mr. Wilton by taking care of his daughter. To hype positive publicity, Mr. Hatahori used to visit the sick little girl to whose recovery he donated money. During that time, Samantha Niwa, the headmaster's now married daughter, took the picture that she showed Ryou during questioning. The same picture I recognized as being one of the men in Seto's dream. The same picture Bakura found to be Mr. Hatahori, CEO of Expire. The facility under the orphanage made the transfer and theft of infant children easy. It also provided a facility where the children could be raised and programmed easily. Weapons construction began and Hydra Corp. supposedly went bankrupt. In reality, they went underground and become the assassin's organization called Expire. Mass production, however, takes some time since they are trying to raise the children from infancy. Meanwhile, Seto takes over his father's company and fires all staff that dealt with weapons production. He gives orders to destroy remote facilities and alter close facilities so that they could start making gaming consoles and equipment. The shady deal made with Expire goes south due to Seto's stance on weaponry."

"Of course that is what leads to the current situation." Seto breaks in, "As usual, someone has the audacity to try to take my company away from me for their own damn uses. Expire must have tried to make contact with someone in Kaiba Corp. The loss of all the weapons facilities Gozoboro was probably lending them would have been a huge blow regardless of their ability to generate capital with their pathetic little assassination attempts. They would have tried to contact someone they know. We know from what Bella said that Mr. Sho is in contact with Expire. Therefore, it is likely that they knew him. Most likely they knew him because he was the lawyer with Gozoboro in the headmasters office."

Bakura was tired of listening so he took his turn, "So, Expire contacted Mr. Sho who decided to help them out by giving them access to shut-down facilities which he doubtlessly saved from destruction. Steadily, he's been siphoning funds from Kaiba Corp. to the facilities for operation and supply costs. Unfortunately for them, Kaiba is a pain-in-the-ass to everyone around him." Seto glared at Bakura but didn't interrupt, "Mr. Sho decided that Kaiba had to go. Expire doubtless agreed since it would be easier for them to do business with you gone. It must be hard to market children with you around."

Seto took back over, "Hard but not impossible apparently. Seth mentioned that numbers 1-15 had been sold to gorilla groups around the world, hence our rather colorful newscasts lately."

"Colorful newscasts?" Yami questioned.

Bakura snorted, "So much for your ability to keep up with politics. And to think, you actual led a country once. Oh wait. No you didn't. You just died."

"Do you want to lose your body right now Bakura?"

"You wouldn't dare" But just in case the pharaoh did dare, Bakura started to contribute again, "South Africa, Brazil, Iraq…dozens of countries have been experiencing odd attacks. I always knew it sounded a little like shadow creatures were participating in mini-shadow wars all over the world. I just thought I was being fanciful. Apparently not."

"Fanciful is not a word I would use to describe you. Then again, most words I use to describe you are banned in polite company." Seto threw at the thief.

"That shouldn't stop you then. Since you can't escape yourself, you are never in polite company." Bakura replied.

Seto just returned, "I am not the worst person I haven't been able to escape from thief. Now back to the subject at hand. On my trip to the weapons factory, the one where you bumped into me again," Seto suppressed his blush at Yami and Bakura's frighteningly similar smirks. God, it must be an Egyptian thing…they all probably attended a smirking school. Yami and Bakura were probably at the top of the class. Clearing his throat he continued, "Yes. On the way to the factory, I heard a broadcast about giant insects attacking a plant in South Africa. Bella told us that she was being sold to South Africa to replace someone who had or was in the process of 'burning out.' I think Bella was being sold to that group. She also remembers them talking about an old business deal between Kaiba Corp and Expire. Apparently I was a hindrance to the continuance of that agreement."

"See. He's a pain in the ass to everyone." Bakura pointed out in an out-of-place reasonable tone.

Seto just continued, "Mr. Sho picked up Bella and talked to Mr. Hatahori about killing me. Mr. Hatahori, however, had already been busy plotting to get rid of me. In that vein, he programmed Seth. Unfortunately for them, the site of Bella being given to Mr. Sho was enough for Seth to break their control. Seth destroyed the facility in Egypt but he was unable to save Bella. Instead, Mr. Hatahori, Mr. Sho, and Bella escaped by helicopter."

Yami picked up the narrative, "From here, we have no clues concerning Mr. Hatahori's location. We do know that Mr. Sho returns to Kaiba Corp. While there, he meets with the person who is supposed to buy Bella. With the factory in Egypt destroyed and Seth out of control, Mr. Sho reneges. He feels he needs to keep the girl in reserve, in case of an emergency. The gorilla group is upset because they already paid Mr. Sho for the girl."

"Wait a minute. I am beginning to see this." Bakura broke in almost anxious to contribute now. He, like the others in the group, was almost irresistibly drawn to puzzles and games of any sort. It was possibly the only thing that bound them all. "The payment that went from the gorilla group that tried to assassinate Kaiba, the same damn one that disappeared into Kaiba Corp. and Mr. Hatahori's bank accounts, that payment was for Bella, right? And the person who received the money in Kaiba Corp. is Mr. Sho, right?"

Seto answered, "We have yet to look into all of Mr. Sho's accounts but the computer should complete that search in no time. I am positive that Mr. Sho is the recipient of that payment however. You already figured out that Mr. Hatahori received money from the gorilla group."

"Cool." Bakura couldn't suppress his excitement as the pieces began to fit. After all, winning is fun.

All three of the room's occupants were now charged with energy. They almost had an answer, something substantial with which they could work. Nobody could get past them. They were wallowing in the feeling of superiority and invincibility. Kaiba took over the completion of the puzzle, "And now the assassination attempts come into play. Since Expire could not send Seth to me, they decided to leak information concerning the weapons plant thereby sending me to Seth. They knew that I would confront the situation directly."

"What they knew is that you would get pissed off and fly off half cocked to kick there asses Kaiba style." Bakura cut in.

"Your about to get your ass kicked Kaiba style."

Yami picked up where Seto left off, "However, the gorilla group decided to take matters into their own hands. They decided that if they could get rid of Kaiba, they could get a hold of Bella easier. Therefore, they took potshots at him in the lobby. That attempt failed and the perpetrators escaped."

Seto took back the floor, "I show up at the factory, as anticipated but I am able to escape unharmed."

"With help." Yami points out.

"With hindrance. If you hadn't shown up…"

"If he hadn't shown up you would have been dog chow. Now shut up and lets finish this. I still feel like shit," Bakura tried to hide his desire to finish the puzzle with his usual charm. "Word must have gotten back to Mr. Sho that Seth couldn't kill you. Expire and Mr. Sho were desperate since you now have a potential source of information in Seth. Now what?"

Yami answered Bakura since Seto seemed intent on burning a hole through the others forehead with his eyes, "According to Bella, they reprogrammed her quickly. Her new program involved killing Kaiba. Unfortunately, they didn't specify which Kaiba so the girl went for Mokuba when he showed up, unexpectedly, in Seto's office. That is the last attempt on Seto's life of which we know."

"Wow. That's pretty complicated. Ya'll are amazing. Did you hear that Seth. Isn't our new family amazing? So you think that's what that nice man meant when he said that the not nice man was contagious. Does that mean that we will become amazing too? Maybe the crazy guy was amazing and he made our dad amazing and our dad made the nice man amazing. Hey, the nice man played with us. I bet we're already amazing. I hope daddy saves that others soon so we can show them how amazing we are."

The room's three occupants turned to the door to see Seth's hands raised in an aborted shushing motion, Bella leaning precariously over the threshold.

Seth stared Seto in the eyes and he moved slightly in front of his sister. "Sorry sir. I know you told us to go to bed. I have no excuse."

Seto sighed, "I suppose you heard all that."

Seth nodded once and Bella nodded like a head-banging rock star.

Yami addressed the children, "Well, there is nothing for it. I suppose that you had a right to know anyway. Still, you must learn to listen to Seto."

Bella threw herself at Yami and wrapped her arms around his legs causing the others eye's to crinkle in amusement, "I am so sorry. It was my idea. I wanted to watch daddy. I still can't believe I have a new daddy. And then you talked and I listened. I can't help but listen cause ya'll are so amazing. And Seth told me we should go so it wasn't his fault…"

Seto leaned over and put a hand on Bella's head, "It's all right. I think we're done now and I think you should take that nap like I told you too."

Yami just chuckled and pried the girl off his legs. Lifting her onto his lap he soothed the agitated child. "Come on. I'll tuck you in."

"And here I didn't think my stomach could turn any more." Bakura made a gagging notion before sipping his now frozen coffee. Oh Yuck. "I don't know which is more disgusting. My cold coffee of Yami turned den mother."

Yami was on his way out the door when Seth's question stopped him, "Sir. Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

Seto responded, "You may ask me anything Seth. You don't need permission."

Seth nodded firmly, "Okay. What are you going to do now? Your step-father is dead right. And so is the lab coat," Seth gulped back tears, "You said Mr. Wilton was gone earlier and you don't know where Mr. Hatahori is. What are you going to do?"

Seto looked at the other two adults in the room…Well he looked at the one other adult in the room and Bakura, "Our next step is to go have a talk with Mr. Sho."

Yami's eye's darkened with the righteous malice unique to him and Bakura's lips curved in a sadistic smile. Looking at the adults, Bella's lips pursed into a silent 'Oh' and Seth's stance became defensive.

"Time to go to bed children." As Yami escorted the two out of the room he heard Seto's voice.

"Yes Bakura. You can bring your toys. And I think I'll have Yami bring his talismans too." A malicious laugh trailed after the children as they walked down the hall and Yami rolled his eyes. They would be lucky if these children ever slept peacefully again.