Notes: This chapter contains mild spoilers for the end of KaibaCorp Grand Prix (Grand Championship) and it alludes to a short story I will be writing soon.

Chapter Eight

Ishizu set aside the glass of water she had been sipping from and turned her attention to Professor Arthur Hawkins, who was sitting at the other side of the round table on his hotel room's balcony. "This is very intriguing, Professor," she said quietly, sorting through the various papers and photocopied pictures concerning the underwater city he had discovered some time back. "It is a shame that the originals were lost."

Arthur nodded gravely. "It is," he agreed. He still was trying dearly to recover from the harsh blows that had been dealt to him and all of his research when several of Dartz's henchmen had blown up his laboratory. While he had tried to keep copies of what he was working on at the museum in Florida, not everything had been there and much of his life's work had been on his computer. Recently he had gone to Florida to retrieve what he could of his Atlantis research in order to attempt determining a solution for the treacherous disaster that had befallen many locations all over the world. So far he still was not certain of what the solution was, but he believed that he was getting closer to finding it.

"You believe that, just as before, someone has breached the gate between our world and that of the Duel Monsters," Ishizu remarked, carefully lifting up a page with copies of several photographs of the carvings the Professor had found, "but why is it that you have decided that they are operating from here in the city?"

Arthur leaned back with a sigh. "I've been studying how many Duel Monsters, on the average, have invaded each area," he answered. "It's been a long process, but I have determined at last that the most monsters per square mile have been found right here in Domino City." He narrowed his eyes. "My question is, Who is responsible for this and why? And since it's what happened in the past . . . are the culprits and their motives the same as before?"

Ishizu nodded in approval. "These are the same queries that have been in my own mind," she declared. "What has become of this man Dartz?"

"He just disappeared!" Rebecca spoke up, suddenly appearing on the balcony as she shoved the glass doors open and stepped out.

Both Arthur and Ishizu turned to look at her. "Rebecca, how long have you been there?" Arthur chided gently. His granddaughter knew of what he had been working on of late, but he had not wanted her to become involved, as she had her school studies to concentrate on. And yet he knew that she was not likely to simply let the matter be. She had probably been doing research on her own time.

"I just came now," Rebecca said, smiling sweetly as she sat down.

Ishizu nodded a greeting to her. She had met Rebecca in the past and had been impressed by her intelligence, though she also believed that the young girl was too arrogant and self-assured at times and not cautious enough. "You say that Dartz has simply disappeared?" she mused now, pondering over this strange and interesting news.

Rebecca nodded. "After the end of Doom, Yugi had to report to the government on his success. They had asked him and the others for their help, you know. Anyway, he told them that Dartz was dead." She frowned thoughtfully, helping herself to a cookie. "I don't believe it, though."

Arthur sighed. This was obviously a subject that he and Rebecca had discussed many times before. "Now, Rebecca, we have no reason to believe that Yugi was misleading the government," he said wearily, "and with the way you care so much about him, I have a hard time believing that you think it of him."

Rebecca munched slowly on the dessert before speaking again. "We know all the weird things that happen around Yugi," she explained calmly. "Maybe something did happen to Dartz, but Yugi knew that it was so crazy that the government would never believe him. Maybe he told them the only logical thing he could think of." Rebecca wondered herself what all had transpired during the final battle. Yugi had not spoken of it to her, nor did she know if he had told anyone else. She only knew that Dartz had never been seen or heard of since then and that he had been reported as dead to the government.

"It's true that the Paradius company is being rebuilt," she continued now, adjusting her glasses, "but the person behind it is doing it with the San Francisco government's permission." She smiled slightly in self-satisfaction. "I don't think Dartz would have been able to accomplish that. Anyway, Yugi said that Dartz was free of the Orichalcos's influence. Whether he's dead or not, this is probably true." She laced her fingers together. "Of course, on the other hand, after ten thousand years of being under its spell, it's not likely that he could be entirely sane after finally being freed."

Arthur rubbed his forehead. "Please, come to the point, Rebecca," he said in slight frustration. "Do you or don't you believe that he was responsible?" He himself was not certain what to think. He wanted to believe what Yugi had told the government. Dartz had been a dangerous man, after all, and it would be better if he was dead. But if he was not, was there a possibility that he was behind the treachery with the Duel Monsters? Arthur hoped dearly that Doom was not going to repeat itself.

Rebecca shrugged. "At this point, it's really hard to say," she admitted. "Even if he was trying again, though, would he really be stupid enough to try the same methods twice? It seems like he'd try being original."

Ishizu listened quietly to the conversation, pondering silently over the situation. She had never met Dartz, though she had indeed seen some of his men, just as the Hawkins family had. Rebecca was making several valid points to consider. "Even if Dartz is not responsible for what is happening, we should make every attempt to find and question him," she spoke at last in her quiet, even voice. "He possesses valuable information that may be necessary for us to know in order to bring this madness to a halt."

Arthur and Rebecca both looked over at her. "That's very true," Arthur conceded, "but what if he truly is dead?"

Ishizu smiled quietly. "Then," she replied simply, "we cannot speak to him."

Raphael watched as Alister came into the living room, noticeably dejected and angry with himself. The blonde man frowned. When Alister openly displayed emotion, something was definitely wrong. "What happened?" he asked quietly. He had been in the shower, so he had not heard the confrontation, but it would have been impossible to have mistaken the obvious tension when he arrived downstairs and collapsed on the couch mere seconds before Alister had entered the room.

Alister stopped at the landing of the stairs and looked back. "Valon remembers that I tried to kill you and him," he said flatly. "So it looks like anything we tried to do to help him feel comfortable and welcome is null and void." It seemed so ironic to him, that this had to be the cause of a problem for them, when he had just been pondering over the experience the previous night. He could not help recalling how Valon had caught him as he had been tightly clenching his fist, and how the boy had given him one of his own handkerchiefs to wrap around the small, yet irritating wounds. Valon had seemed to like him then, or he surely would not have finally agreed to come back. But now Valon thought much worse of him than when he had just considered him an insane stranger. Now Valon knew that he had been with Alister and Raphael before—and that he had nearly died at Alister's hands.

Raphael's frown deepened. "Did you try to explain that you were being controlled?" He stroked Liu gently as she came over wanting love. The man was sickened by this new development in their problem. He was afraid that Alister was right and that Valon would definitely want to leave now. He would probably return to the gang, and who knew what would happen to him there. Raphael did not want to think about it.

"Yes," Alister said bitterly, "I told him, but he doesn't believe me. And really, why should he? I'm a stranger to him. Now I'm a psychopath to him as well." He gripped the banister post until his knuckles turned white, but feeling that it was pointless to remain, he proceeded up the stairs and to his room.

Raphael watched him go, feeling saddened. After pondering for a moment, he got up with Liu in his arms and went into the kitchen. He found Valon still there, eating slowly and gazing out the window. It appeared that the boy did not notice Raphael's presence, so the older man was surprised to hear him suddenly speak.

"That redhead's crazy."

Raphael sighed. "Because of what he told you?"

Liu meowed, reaching gleefully to bat at Valon's fascinating, fluffy hair. Though Raphael tried to grab her paw, he did not manage to halt her expression of curiosity in time.

Valon started as he felt a large spike vibrate from Liu's prodding. "Yeah," he grumbled in reply. "He tried to make the excuse that he was being controlled when he tried to kill us." He finished off his cereal and turned to face Raphael, disturbing Liu's amusement.

Raphael sat down slowly. "Why couldn't it be true?" he asked quietly. "Alister loves both of us as brothers. He never would hurt us deliberately." Liu hopped down to the floor, eager to dine on her dry kernels of cat food.

Valon narrowed his eyes. "But you can't mind-control somebody," he protested. "You can't make a bloke do somethin' he doesn't wanna do."

"I know," Raphael admitted, "but there's such a thing called 'possession,' where the victim doesn't have a choice." Valon rolled his eyes at this, but Raphael persisted, telling him about the Orichalcos and the complete truth behind Alister's "psychotic" behavior in the past. He was determined that Valon would hear him out, whether the Australian would believe him or not. The man had to pray that something he was saying would get through to him.

"Alister never stopped fighting it," he concluded. "Valon, he risked his own life to save us." He could never forget that time, when Alister had surrendered the penalty game and then had been punished by the Orichalcos's near-fatal lightning. It did seem strange that his soul had not been taken, even without him possessing the actual Seal of Orichalcos card, but Raphael did not want to think too much about that. He was just relieved that Alister had been alright.

Valon still did not look convinced. "Well, he made the problem, so of course he'd need to fix it," he muttered.

Raphael was exasperated. "You missed the whole point! He didn't make the problem, Valon. He was poisoned by the Orichalcos. That's what caused him to go temporarily crazy."

Valon pushed the empty bowl aside to lean his elbow on the table. "Yeah? Well, you said that he kept pushin' it back until he let his hatred out and then this Orichalcos thing took him over. So I'd say he made the problem."

Inwardly Raphael groaned. Technically, he supposed, Valon was right. But he knew it was not as simple as that. "Alister felt hatred because we were being hurt," he tried to explain. "That's the tragedy of it. He lost control because he had to watch us being tortured. Then the Orichalcos got control of his mind and made him lose all concept of reason." At least that tragedy had a happy ending, he murmured to himself. But what about this one? Will it end happily?

Valon tried to comprehend this. "So you're sayin' he got ticked 'cause we were bein' hurt, and yet when this force-thingy got control of him, that's when he tried to hurt us instead?" He frowned. "All of this is crazy. How am I supposed to know that you're tellin' the truth?" he demanded.

"You can't," Raphael grunted, then paused. "But if you search your feelings, you'll find the answer, Valon." He stood up, laying a hand gently on the boy's shoulder as he went to get the carton of eggs out of the fridge.

Valon watched him, still frowning. Search my feelings? he muttered to himself. How the heck am I supposed to do that when my feelings are all mixed up? I dunno who's tellin' the truth or if I'm in a nuthouse or if I'm with chums. He played with his spoon, idly watching Raphael go about making breakfast for himself. I guess I can't deny that I really did feel happy here . . . until those dumb memories started up. But just 'cause I was startin' to settle in doesn't mean anything. Or does it?

He continued to ponder, not realizing that an angry Rocky had seen him through the window and was already plotting his next move.

The businessman fell across his keyboard in exhaustion, allowing himself a short rest. There was so much work to accomplish—problems to sort out within the company, problems without, problems with the latest business deal. . . . A lot of his problems stemmed from the way his company's reputation had faltered after the KaibaCorp Grand Prix dueling event. That was his own fault, he knew—and everyone else knew it as well—which had also led to yet another problem.

His board of directors had turned against him when he had returned home after the Grand Prix was over. Disgusted and angry with what he had caused by his obsession to destroy KaibaCorp, the oldest member had shot him repeatedly right in his own home, having gone mad himself in his frustration over not being able to run the company as he saw fit. Alphonse Schneider had been with the business even before the current CEO had been there, and according to him, both the previous CEO and the current one had been driving the company to ruins when he, Alphonse, knew exactly what it needed. The Grand Prix disaster had been the final straw for him. And though this man had managed to trap Alphonse by sending him through a trapdoor in the house, he had not been able to get very far before collapsing on the floor from the multiple wounds and the blood loss. If his brother had not found him, he most likely would have perished. As it was, he still had not completely recovered from that experience. Pushing himself to salvage the company's reputation did not help his sleep deprivation any.

The door creaked open, but the businessman—lost in his doze—did not stir. He vaguely heard someone approaching, but he could not make himself move to see who it was. Then he felt a small hand on his shoulder.

"Elder brother?"

He started, opening his eyes to look up at the young child standing beside him. The man sighed, stifling a yawn as he sat up and leaned back in his chair. "What is it, Leonhard?"

The magenta-haired boy looked at him worriedly. "You haven't been getting sleep again," he said with a frown. "After what happened, Siegfried, you can't afford not to sleep properly!" He still experienced nightmares about what had happened after the end of the Grand Prix. Finding his brother laying on the floor in a pool of blood after having heard the shots ring throughout the mansion had been horrible.

Siegfried sleepily reached out to pick up a rose laying on the desk. "The damage my actions caused the company was catastrophic," he replied, turning the flower around in his hands and being careful of the thorn. "Repairing it is my highest goal right now. I can sacrifice a bit of sleep for that."

Leonhard did not look happy. "You almost sacrificed your life!" he blurted out before biting his lip and looking down at the floor, afraid that his brother would be angry with him for that comment. He felt very insecure at times, and he knew that he and Siegfried were not as close as they had been when they were children. After Siegfried had begun to be groomed to take over the von Schraider company, the two brothers had drifted apart. Leonhard had watched his obsession grow over defeating Seto Kaiba and destroying KaibaCorp, and yet he had tried to stay loyal to the man he looked up to so highly. When he had realized the full extent of the damage that Siegfried would cause near the end of the Grand Prix tournament, however, Leonhard had refused to help him any further. The boy hoped that Siegfried was completely finished with his obsession now, though he could not be sure. He had not spoken of KaibaCorp at all since then.

Siegfried remained silent after Leonhard's remark. The child continued to stare at the floor, regretting his outburst, even though he knew it was the truth. Then he felt a hand gently come down on his head. Surprised, Leonhard looked up into his brother's sea-green eyes. Though at times they flashed with anger and jealousy, now there was only kindness reflected in the orbs.

"I know that was hard for you," Siegfried said quietly. "I am sorry for what you suffered because of me."

"It's alright," Leonhard answered just as softly, relieved that his brother was not angry. "I'm just worried about you. . . ."

"I will be fine," Siegfried reassured him. "Now, what was it you wanted to talk with me about?"

Leonhard glanced out the window before looking back to him. "I heard on the news that Duel Monsters have been found here in Germany!" he exclaimed. "They've been appearing all over the world lately, and now they've come here!" He was not certain what to make of this strangeness, but he had the feeling it definitely was not good. Since he had not been exposed to the many supernatural things that Yugi and the others had been, however, Leonhard had not even considered that the monsters were real.

Siegfried blinked in surprise. "Really?" he murmured. "This is interesting. I have heard about the monster sightings, but at first I thought it was a publicity stunt of some kind." He set the rose down and stood up, going to the window himself in an attempt to see if he could discover any of the creatures.

Leonhard stared at him. "It isn't?"

"I actually do not know," Siegfried replied, "though I've heard rumors that they are real." He smirked slightly in amusement at the thought. He did not believe it was so, and he still wondered if it was an elaborate publicity stunt set up by Seto Kaiba.

"But . . . they couldn't be real, could they?" Leonhard said in an awed near-whisper.

Siegfried shrugged. "I suppose anything is possible," he said with disinterest.

Mokuba leaped off the motorcycle almost as soon as Marik drove onto the street where they had tracked the telephone booth to. The Egyptian boy shook his head in amusement as he parked the vehicle and climbed off as well, observing Mokuba running eagerly to the booth. "Do you see anything?" he called, removing his helmet before following the child over.

Mokuba shook his head, walking around the booth and then stepping inside. "It all looks pretty normal from here," he replied, "and I guess trying to take fingerprint samples won't do a lot of good. I mean, a lot of people have probably used this booth since last night." He sighed, wishing that there was something, anything, that they could use as a clue.

"Maybe," Marik said slowly, taking in the area. "This is a rather quiet street, though. I can't imagine that too many people would have passed by here needing to use this phone in just a few hours. I've actually never tried dusting anything for fingerprints, though," he admitted with a rueful smirk, "so I'm not even sure how we'd go about it."

Mokuba grinned. "I can take care of that!" he announced. "You go ask somebody if they saw anything last night."

Still amused by the boy's enthusiasm, Marik agreed. He doubted that he would find anything out, however, and after questioning most everyone on the small street, he had to admit that he had been right. People were not prone to looking out their windows after dark, especially recently, and someone using the telephone booth was not interesting enough to keep their attention. Still, he pressed on and tried the last home, where he was amazed to find a bit of useful information. A little girl had seen someone with long, mint-colored hair placing a phone call in the middle of the night. She had been awake because a dragon had roared outside and she had been scared. When her mother had tried to comfort her by showing her that the dragon was not outside, she had seen the being using the telephone.

Thanking her, Marik left and came back over to Mokuba. The description meant very little to him, but he relayed the news anyway and was surprised to see the boy's blue-gray eyes widen in complete astonishment.

"That sounds like Dartz!" he cried.

Marik stared at him. "You mean the one who created this Doom nonsense in the first place?" he said in disbelief.

Mokuba nodded vigorously. "But it doesn't make sense," he sighed. "Why would Dartz warn my brother about trouble? And if he did, does that mean he's not behind this thing about Paradius being rebuilt?"

Marik shook his head, about to reply, when he noticed that Mokuba's attention was focusing elsewhere. "What is it?" he asked.

The raven-haired boy pointed to a couple of Duel Monsters, which were headed for the building that Dartz had found the previous night. "They're going over there!" he announced. "Let's follow them and see what's going on!" With that he was running down the sidewalk after them.

Marik frowned. "That could be dangerous!" he yelled, but Mokuba was already too far away to be heard. With a muttered Egyptian curse, the teenager chased his friend and just hoped that this would not be something they would regret later.

Neither Tristan nor Ms. Kawai had managed to find a way out by the time Duke returned. To their surprise, he unlocked both of their doors and then stood in front of them with crossed arms and a wicked smirk.

"Well," he said smoothly, "I guess you're wondering why you've been brought here."

Ms. Kawai narrowed her eyes. "Aren't you one of Joseph's friends as well?" she demanded, thinking that she recognized him. In fact, she seemed to vaguely remember his funeral from several months back, though she knew she must surely be remembering wrong. It would have had to have been someone else. Duke's next words seemed to clarify her memories, however, leaving her more confused than before.

Duke laughed. "It's like I told Tristan here," he replied. "I was, but that's all over now. That guy's dead and buried." He reached into his pocket and threw an Orichalcos stone at each of them. "Here's the deal—you two are going to start working for Doom Reborn, just like I am."

Tristan stared at the stone in disbelief, then threw it to the floor. "You've gotta be kidding me!" he yelled, wishing desperately that this was just a bad dream.

Ms. Kawai stared at her stone dumbly, then looked up with a frown. "What's going on? What's Doom Reborn? What is this stone supposed to do?" She glared at Duke, wondering what on earth was going on. If this was the boy who had apparently died, how had he come back to life? Had he faked his own death? In any case, she was highly disgusted with him now, since she did not know him as Tristan did and she did not know that he would never willingly join an organization such as Doom Reborn.

Tristan groaned. "I should've known Joey would never tell her any of that stuff," he muttered low. He could also sense her dislike of Duke, and he could not blame her, with the way he was acting. She had never liked him much to begin with. Finding him behaving this way—or what Tristan felt must surely simply be his body without his soul—definitely was not helping her opinion of him any.

Duke kicked the stone back to Tristan. "I didn't think you'd accept this yet," he declared, "but before this day is over, you're going to. The lady will, too."

Tristan had the feeling that it was going to be a very long day.

Rocky, still watching the bikers' home, was indignant and annoyed. So Valon had gone back there! Why? Did he remember his true past? But that was not supposed to happen. What would have triggered it? The purple-haired young man clutched his mace tightly. "I don't take any kind of betrayal lightly," he growled, wondering just how much Valon had told the other two about the gang. This could turn out to be disastrous for him. Angel might believe in Valon's loyalty—or at least, in his disinterest in getting the gang in trouble—but Rocky did not.

Slowly he got up from his concealed location once he was certain that no one was looking out the window. He would find a way into the house, and then Valon would be sorry that he had left so soon. Rocky would drag him back to his well-paying and impatient parents and collect the rest of the bounty, no matter what the consequences would prove to be. He did not care how well Valon would trust his parents, if he would trust them at all. All he cared about was getting paid. This money would support the gang for a long while.

He crept around the house, looking for a way in. At last, seeing a basement window in the back, he shattered the glass with his weapon and leaped inside. At this point, he did not care if they heard his noisy entry. That did not matter now. He was not one of the top mercenaries in the city for nothing. His eyes glinted with the prospect of the fights that were certain to ensue, culminating in complete chaos and in him getting what he wanted.

"You're gonna be paying hard for this one, Aussie," he muttered as he looked for the stairs, "with your friends' lives."