A/N: Got the second chapter done pretty quickly. I've still got dozens of ideas bouncing around and not sure which will find their way into the actual story. I've only received one review so far, but it was very encouraging. Thanks for the input!

Disclaimer: There's a lot this time… to put it simply, I don't own the rights to anything. I do, however, own some Pizza Pops. Yummy.

Chapter Two: Kennel

Yugi had finally persuaded Mokuba to leave the sleeping Kaiba and eat breakfast with the gang. Everyone had agreed the Mokuba needed to relax for a while and get his mind off of his injured brother. He was in surprisingly high spirits, especially since Serenity had told him Kaiba had been conscious for a while yesterday.

The gang had helped themselves to Mokuba's stockpile of cereals. The actual kitchen in the residence had very little in the way of food. "Most of the cooking is done in the servant's residence out back." Mokuba had explained.

The kitchen itself adjoined the dining room, which was very seldom used, as it was large, fairly empty and echoey. Two sides of the kitchen were walled in and covered in various cabinets, appliances and one large window. The other two walls of the kitchen were countertops, black marble to accent the white and chrome of the rest of the room, lined with barstools.

At the moment, Joey was in the process of relating a rather lengthy story about his encounter with the vice principal at their school. He was standing atop one of the bar stools, with everyone gathered round and watching him. It was then that Kaiba chose to make his appearance, bedraggled and dishevelled, Kaiba's attempts to clean himself before leaving his sickbed had obviously not been successful. He took a glance at the group, and then headed for the fridge.

"Seto! You shouldn't be out of bed!" Mokuba scolded.

"Ridiculous," was Kaiba's one word retort.

Kaiba was aware that all eyes were silently on him as he poured himself a glass of lemonade and placed it on a counter separate from the rest of the group. Then, reaching into his freezer, he pulled out a small plastic package. Proceeding to a featureless black slab on the wall, he pushed it in and it popped out, revealing that it was, in fact, a microwave. He tore the package and shoved the contents in, then walked to his espresso machine. "Pizza pops, two." He stated simply, and the microwave sprung to life. He took a hit of espresso, and poured another as he made his way to the stool where he had placed his lemonade.

Gradually, his eyes slid to the gang, Joey still poised precariously on the stool, arms in the same exact position they had been in when Kaiba had entered. He hated them seeing him like this, but at least their fear of him was intact. He muttered something under his breath.

"What was that, Kaiba?" Duke asked.

Kaiba turned and looked deliberately at Joey, then said in a clear, loud voice, "I said that I didn't recall putting in a kennel."

The cobalt-eyed billionaire had expected a retort, but he had not expected it to come from the tiny, mild mannered Serenity, "Listen, Kaiba! You may not want us here, but damnit, Mokuba does. This is hard enough on him, so if you give one god damn about him you should try to make nice, alright?"

Kaiba looked at the girl and raised an eyebrow, amused that she could be genuinely forceful. "You're right." He said, sipping his lemonade, then smirking, "That's why I said it under my breath."

Serenity huffed and sat down. Joey hopped off his chair and returned to his cereal. "Looks like moneybags is back to normal." He muttered.

The microwave gave off a sound, indicating it was finished, and Kaiba stood and retrieved his breakfast. Sitting, he returned his gaze to where Mokuba sat in the thick of the group. "Mokuba!" He barked, and Mokuba ran over to him. "What do we know?"

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Seto Kaiba was back, though not at full strength. Leaning back in his chair behind his desk in his office, he was in his element. Duke, Yugi, Tristan and Mokuba were there too, going over with him what they had gleaned from going over the security video.

"We can tell that they were trained, but not professionals." Yugi started.

"Why not professionals?" Kaiba asked passively.

Tristan closed his eyes and scratched the back of his head, "To be honest? 'Cuz you're still alive. No offence, we've seen what you can do, but against four professional hit men, no one person could survive."

Kaiba grunted, and then "Point taken."

Tristan relaxed visibly. Even in his present condition, there wasn't one amongst them who was truly unafraid of Kaiba. Yugi continued, showing the shot they had cropped earlier from the digital video.

"As you can see here, they appear to bear the insignia of the Ghouls." Yugi stated, pointing to the cloak hood on the large plasma screen on Kaiba's office wall.

"Ghouls?" Kaiba asked, surprised, "Wasn't Marik their leader? And didn't you make nice with him after that whole…" he waved his hand in the air, while hunting for the word, "affair."

Yugi nodded. "That's why we find that so surprising."

Duke stole a glance at Yugi and they nodded at each other, each wondering if Marik's dark side was back, and if so, with what possible repercussions.

Then Mokuba chimed in, "Our sources on the street tell me that gang activity is increasing again. It's possible that the Ghouls are operating again, and possibly looking for vengeance after they were crushed in Battle City."

Kaiba nodded, "The three I incapacitated," he began, "Have they been of any use thus far?"

"Actually…" Tristan began, sweatdropping again.

"They were 'lost in transit', according to the cops we talked to. Someone hijacked the meat wagon they were on." Mokuba finished for him.

"Figures." Kaiba said, starting to rise to his feet, then visibly wincing and reconsidering the action, sitting back down in his chair. "Anything else?"

"Yeah." Duke said, "We think there's an insider."

That piqued Kaiba's interest, "What!"

Duke indicated the fried control on the gate. "There were four men perched on your wall, the gate control was destroyed, the circuit broken and nobody in security thought to check it out? It seems fishy."

Yugi nodded. "The Ghouls are no amateurs. There's a good chance there's a man inside."

A grunt issued forth from the seated Kaiba. "Great. Mokuba, how many people do we have on staff?"

Mokuba checked a clipboard he was holding, "Twenty-one living in the servant's house, nine occasional workers." He replied.

"Great." Kaiba said again, deadpan. "How many do we know we can trust?"

"Three." Mokuba stated. "Watanabe, Cecil and Derek."

Kaiba nodded. "Start finding replacements for everyone else."

Yugi, Duke and Tristan looked at each other. Kaiba looked up at the group, noticing their discomfort. "If there's nothing else, you may go."

The three shuffled out the door, closing it quietly behind them. True to his plan, Kaiba had cut off the painkillers, against Dr. Watanabe's orders, and as a result everyone around his mansion was walking on eggshells. With the others out of the room, Kaiba turned to Mokuba.

"How are you?" He asked his younger brother.

"I'm… I'm alright." Mokuba said shakily.

"Mokuba," Kaiba said, "Don't lie to me."

"Fine…" Mokuba admitted, "I'm really scared. I mean, I know you're tough, but seeing even you get hurt like that… I don't know what I'd do if they took you away from me, Seto."

Wincing through the pain, Kaiba stood and hugged his brother gently. "Mokuba… nobody could take me away from you. I'd fight through hell to protect you. You know that."

Mokuba nodded wordlessly and hugged his brother back, not realizing the agony his brother was in because of the force of even his gentle hug on his wounds. Kaiba was not about to break the hug because of his injuries. He could be stoic for Mokuba. He owed his brother that much.

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A simple game of pool had been the plan, after all, the table was so nice and it was just sitting there. Now, Tristan owed Duke seventy-five bucks, and they were only on their third game.

"Give it up, Tristan, I don't really need to take any more of your money, you know."

"Cram it, Duke." Tristan snapped, dusting his cue. "I'll win that back and more. Just you watch me."

"Alright… I'll watch you lose if you like." Duke retorted.

The game, in fact, had turned into a contest of machismo, as both Serenity and Tea were watching. Joey and Yugi couldn't have cared less, engaging in a game of Soul Calibur 2 on Kaiba's PS2, hooked up to the enormous television Joey had drafted plans to steal. Mokuba walked into the room and smiled, happy to see all of his friends in the same room and having a good time. He hopped over to the couch.

"Called winner!" Mokuba shouted, sitting behind Yugi to get a good view of the match.

"Sure thing, Mokuba. Just as soon as I'm done trouncing Joey."

"Oh yeah, well at least I don't play with a girl character!" Joey shot back.

"Joey, Necrid's a big spiky monster thing, how can you tell?" Yugi asked as he executed the finishing combo.

"'Cuz you have to be female to be a bitch like that." Joey pouted, dropping the controller on the floor.

"Alright!" Mokuba yelled, picking up the controller and sliding onto the floor. "I never beat Seto! Maybe I can beat you!"

"Good luck, Mokuba." Joey said dryly, "He fights dirty."

Mokuba selected Nightmare. Yugi went with his usual: Necrid. The match began, and Yugi couldn't see Mokuba's hands anymore. Hit with a flurry of combos, Yugi could do very little but watch. Managing one attack, he wasn't surprised to find it guard-impacted and then countered. He dropped his controller in defeat.

"And you don't beat Kaiba?"

Mokuba laughed, one of the first times in days, and stated, "He uses Raphael. He has that stupid dodge combo and I can never hit the jerk."

Joey and Yugi laughed along with Mokuba, glad the kid seemed finally to be relaxing.

"What's so funny?" Tea asked, turning around. Tristan owed Duke an even hundred now, but Duke had agreed to drop it if Tristan told Kaiba he looked 'very pretty today' the next time they were in the same room. Tristan hoped Joey or Yugi would lend him the hundred.

"Nothing, nothing." Mokuba said. "Guys, thanks again for being here." He added.

Tristan smiled, walking over to the couch where they were seated. "Hey, no problem, but just to return the favour, could you lend me a hundred bucks?"

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Kaiba was standing on his third floor balcony, placed at the end of the central stairs that ran like a spine through the middle from his house and not far from any given room within the mansion. It was eleven o'clock p.m., and he was unable to sleep. The searing pain that was sparked whenever he moved, or worse, touched something, would not allow him to lie down, never mind sleep. Still, he refused to use the painkillers again. Addiction was part of Kaiba's personality, but never in conjunction with substances.

Serenity had been wandering herself, also unable to sleep. She had been forced to share a room with Tea, since there were only three guest rooms, and, unbeknownst to most, Tea really snored. Finally, she found her way to the balcony, surprised to find Kaiba standing on it and drinking… what was it? Lemonade. He seemed to like that drink.

"Kaiba!" She scolded, "You of all people should be in bed."

Kaiba shrugged, not bothering to take his eyes off of whatever he was staring at. Another awkward silence ensued, and Serenity finally decided to ask him the question she'd been itching to ask for a while.

"Kaiba? Why is it you keep challenging Yugi?"

Kaiba finally turned to look down at the girl (and being more than a foot taller than her, he did have to look down) and raised an eyebrow. He stared for a moment, then turned back to whatever he was staring at. "You wouldn't understand."

Serenity pouted, "Well I'm not gonna understand if you don't at least try to explain it to me?"

He thought about that for awhile, then realized how to explain it. "You're a student, right?"

He's changing the subject, the red haired girl thought, frustrated, but fine, if he wants to be that way. At least he's courteous enough to want to talk about me. "Yeah."

"What are you studying?" He asked, the question clearly planned.

She paused, then finally, "Mainly science. Biology."

"Why?" He asked, continuing his line of questioning. "Do you want to go to college or university?"

"Yeah." She answered, not entirely comfortable with where this was going. The shorter girl hated that she had to look up to Kaiba to meet his gaze.

Kaiba rolled his eyes, she still didn't see what he was getting at. "What do you want to study for? What do you want to be?"

Brown-eyed girl hesitated, and Kaiba turned and raised an eyebrow. Their eyes met, and Serenity smiled. He had nice eyes. "An optometrist." She said, finally. She didn't know why she was telling the shadow of a person standing beside her that. She hadn't really told anybody yet.

Kaiba nodded his approval, remembering that this was the girl that was just coming out of eye surgery when he had met her at Battle City. He recalled the nerd brigade saying something about her being nearly blind. Surely, he could understand her motivations. "That makes sense. So you want to be an optometrist?" She nodded. "But you're not."

She recoiled, offended. "I could be!"

Kaiba rolled his eyes again, "I'm not saying that you couldn't be. I'm saying that you aren't. You're striving to be something more than what you are. I'm the same thing. Right now, I'm the second rated duelist in the world. When I defeat Yugi. I'll be the first." He sighed, thinking this was fairly fundamental, "It's life." He said simply, "You seek out the next challenge, and overcome it. When I was the first rated duelist, I spent a lot of my spare time challenging new, up-and-coming duelists, searching for someone to be a challenge. Yugi is that challenge. I'll beat him, and then I'll move on to the next challenge. That's all there is to it."

Serenity nodded slowly, digesting the words, then commented, "Kind of like how Joey keeps challenging you and Yugi even though he never wins?"

Kaiba frowned. Here, he thought he could have a decent conversation with the mutt's sister and she had to bring him up. "Your mutt brother ought to start a few rungs lower. Yugi and I are both way out of his league. Maybe he'd have better luck with an opponent only slightly above his skill level. They can train monkeys to play Duel Monsters, can't they?"

This time Serenity rolled her eyes, "Can't go ten minutes without being a complete jerk, eh?"

Kaiba turned, seeing her flushed and clearly angry. She's kind of cute when she's angry, he thought snidely. "I consider it better than lying."

"Even if it's just to spare someone's feelings? You could've just left it, y'know?" She shouted at him, furious for making her think he wasn't so bad. "I can't believe I thought for one second you weren't the asshole everyone makes you out to be!" And with that the fiery redhead stormed off.

Kaiba was shocked to find he felt somewhat bad about the encounter. The younger Wheeler didn't seem as much of an idiot as her brother, and they'd almost had an intelligent conversation (mainly because he'd done most of the talking, but even still). Still, she was a Wheeler. The end to their conversation had been inevitable. In his mind, at least.

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Joey was surprised to find himself treating the next day somewhat like Christmas. He had woken up early to sneak down to Kaiba's living room and grab the tv, Tess, as he had named her, before anyone could beat him to it. He was surprised to find Kaiba himself playing video games even before him. Joey was unaware, but Kaiba hadn't slept at all that night. Kaiba was playing on his Gamecube, navigating his way through Resident Evil 4, shooting evil villagers with a shotgun to release stress.

"Surprised to see you up this early, Wheeler. Trying to catch the mailman? They're trained to avoid mutts like you."

"Cram it, Kaiba!" Joey yelled, "I… I wanted to play some video games. After all, I've been separated from mine while I'm staying here."

"Oh? What video games do you play, Wheeler? No wait, let me guess. A mind as simple as yours wouldn't be likely to hand anything more than a first person shooter. Am I right? Or does your mind go so far as to delve the depths of the sports game as well?"

"Cram it! Besides, you're one to knock shooters while your playing one."

"Survival/horror, mutt." He said disinterestedly, "You'd probably hide under your bed covers. If you could follow what was going on, that is."

By now, Duke had made his way down to the living room, still groggy and half awake. He looked at the screen, "Resident Evil. Nice choice."

Both Joey and Kaiba ignored Duke. "I could school you at any game." Joey snapped at Kaiba.

Duke rolled his eyes, he knew where this was going.

"That a challenge, fido?" Kaiba asked, turning to look at Joey with a sceptical look on his face. Duke watched in amazement, as he kept shooting –and hitting- without looking at the screen.

"You're damn right it is, moneybags!"

"Name your game." Kaiba said simply, gesturing to his rather large assortment of video games. Joey turned and started browsing. Kaiba started hunting for a save post.

Tea strolled into the room, "Oh, morning all! Hey, Kaiba, you're up early!"

"Here!" shouted Joey as he pulled a copy of Need for Speed Underground out of the collection of games. "I'm the king of racing games!"

Realizing what was going on, Tea looked sceptically at Joey. "Joey, are you sure you want to challenge Kaiba at his own game in his own home?"

"Eh, old stick-up-his-ass here can't beat me at a racing game. C'mon, Tea, you've seen me play!" Joey retorted, placing his hands proudly on his hips.

"Play what?" Yugi asked, strolling into the room in his pajamas.

"Joey's challenging Kaiba again." Duke said, rolling his eyes as he sat on one of the large leather couches. "This time it's Need for Speed."

"Come on, Rover, are we playing or not?" Kaiba asked, looking over at a rather annoyed Joey.

"Course! I wouldn't let you off that easy." Joey said, tossing Kaiba the game and grabbing a controller.

"Right," was the monosyllable reply from the brunette.

Tristan entered the scene while both were still busy customizing their vehicles. Kaiba had long ago unlocked every possible upgrade, and each spent time choosing their ideal options. Joey's rather tacky orange and purple sports car, covered in every possible area by decals stood in sharp relief to Kaiba's gunmetal coloured, understated car.

"Oh, great, what this time?" Tristan asked, sitting atop the couch to get a good view of the coming confrontation.

"Kaiba's really awakened the beast this time." Yugi said with a chuckle, "He insulted Joey's skill at video games."

"Watch out!" Tristan cried sarcastically, "When you have as little of a life as Joey has, you get darn good at those things."

"Say what you will," Kaiba said with a smirk, "I could beat this amateur with my eyes closed."

Finally, the race was ready to begin. Everyone except Mokuba and Serenity, who had been late getting to bed, was gathered round, anxious to see if Joey had finally found something he could beat Kaiba at. The race started, and Kaiba was off to an early lead. It was a two-lap race, so Kaiba had sacrificed a high top speed in favour of good acceleration. It also allowed him some leeway for collisions. Traffic was set on high, and he had a sneaking suspicion there'd be at least one frontal collision this race.

Mokuba had found his way into the room, quickly picking up all of the details from the other spectators. The two racers seemed intensely focussed. "C'mon, Seto, trash him." Mokuba said, happy to see his brother out of bed and lively again.

Kaiba was out of practice. Missing several of the shortcuts that Joey hit, his lead was cut considerably, and Joey was getting closer to fifth gear and his significantly higher maximum speed. They were already beginning the second lap, and Joey was less than three seconds behind Kaiba.

Yawning, Serenity finally made her appearance. She couldn't help but giggle as she saw her brother and his 'hated enemy' Seto Kaiba street racing in a video game against each other. The tension had become so high, and everyone was so focussed that they were each leaning into the curves as the racers, now neck-and-neck, whizzed past them, adding to the hilarity of the spectacle.

Coming up fast on the end of the race, Joey was narrowly in the lead. Confident he could maintain the lead he manualed into fifth gear and started cutting his corners. Kaiba didn't seem nervous, however. Coming to the exit that led to the finish line, only the front end of Joey's car was in front of Kaiba's. Just as the two came on the exit, Kaiba swerved into Joey and Joey's front end hit the divider square, stopping him dead. Kaiba cruised through the finish line, officially fifteen seconds ahead.

"And so you lose." Kaiba said, rising to his feet. He was suddenly uncomfortable with the number of people in the room. Besides, he had work to get back to.

Joey hopped to his feet in a rage. "No fair! You cheated, you no good dirty…"

"It's a perfectly legitimate tactic." Kaiba stated simply, as he brushed past Joey. "You might've won if you'd thought of it first."

Serenity giggled as Joey raged at a disinterested Kaiba. Just last night the man had seemed a total ass, and yet here he was playing video games with her older brother and having the same arguments Joey and Tristan had. Chuckling softly to herself, she enjoyed the scene, a seemingly normal fraternal squabble between her brother and his avowed enemy. Kaiba was a hard man to figure out, she decided to herself. There was probably a lot more to him than any of them gave him credit for.

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Seto Kaiba found his way back to his office and sat down in his office chair, setting out his laptop, grimacing with the exertion. He had no idea why he'd entertained the mutt's stupid challenge other than that he enjoyed stomping the brash fool back into the dirt. In fact, he didn't know why he still entertained the nerd brigade in his mansion. His mansion. He had permitted them because they comforted Mokuba, and comfort was something Mokuba had been lacking since the attack. Still, Kaiba was up and able again, though in a limited capacity. Tomorrow, the gang would have to go.