I DO NOT OWN YU-GI-OH!
Chapter 15 – Place Your Bets
Seto Kaiba awoke in the middle of the night –a bad feeling clouding his dreams and turning them into nightmares. He grunted and rubbed his eyes and then sat up from the bed of leaves next to the fire he had made.
The fire was dwindling low, a few embers highlighting his surroundings, the faint glare from the moon filtering through the treeline of palms. He looked down at his hands, and was very surprised to see them slightly shaking.
What had he dreamed of? He couldn't remember. He fisted his hands and settled back down on the ground. He closed his eyes to fall back asleep.
He was nearly back asleep when he began to have that bad feeling again. He felt so restless.
He turned on his side and grunted. He sighed and rolled again, unable to get comfortable. Before he knew it, he rolled again, but this time his back collided with something else warm and soft –but still firm enough to keep him from rolling again.
He forced his eyes open from their heavy lidden, sleep-deprived state and looked behind him.
There she was –simply sleeping next to him; Gardner... with her back to him, sleeping.
She must have gotten up and sleepwalked her way over. She definitely wasn't awake anymore. He was amazed she made her way around the fire and to him without him noticing. As tired as he truly was, he sighed and laid back down, his back hesitantly resting against hers.
When the warmth spread from her own back to his, their body heat shared, he relaxed. Something about this whole thing calmed him completely; and for a split second he didn't try to make up some excuse as to why he felt that way.
The bet they had made was temporarily forgotten as sleep overtook him again, and his dreams this time weren't as restless as they had been.
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Yugi and the gang all headed to the hospital in the morning when they found out that Mokuba Kaiba was in the hospital. Serenity looked particularly worried, as they headed over in Mai's car. Somehow they all managed to fit.
When they got there, they rushed up to the VIP section. Roland recognized them and let them in to see the younger Kaiba. Roland didn't look too good either; with his arm in a cast. They opened the door to Mokuba's room, they all sucked in a worried and horrified breath.
The boy was bandaged all around his head and both his arms. One of his legs was hanging out of his bed sheet with a large wrapped bandage around his thigh. From the look on his sleeping face, he was in pain.
Serenity rushed to his side and patted his hand. His eyes flickered open and slowly focused on the people around him. "Mokuba! You're awake!" Serenity exclaimed and tears formed in her eyes.
He simply nodded, his throat too sore to talk. He smiled weakly to let them know he felt better than he looked. Everyone smiled nervously back. The poor little guy looked horrible.
Roland came into the room too and looked sadly at his young master. "Sir. The mansion's almost completely gone. They started to target the main headquarters in the city as well. Not much is left." He reported, and the boy simply nodded, keeping silent.
"Were any people in those buildings hurt?" Tristan asked, concerned. They had all seen the devastation on the television that morning.
"No casualties –only injuries." Roland reassured them.
Mokuba smiled briefly; some good news.
"Whoever is doing this is a madman. He has to be stopped!" Mai interrupted, her anger getting the better of her. Seeing everyone in so much pain was horrible to witness.
"The have no idea who's doing it Mai, they haven't been able to track them on anyting." Serenity cut in. most were surprised she even knew that information –but then again, she had been spending a lot of time over at the Kaiba's and in Mokuba's company.
"When'd we last hear from Duke?" Joey asked, turning to Yugi, trying to steer the conversation so it wasn't so stressful. Joey might have acted like an idiot most of the time, but when it came to his sister, he knew when she was at her rope's end.
"Last I heard from him –he was headed out into the ocean for some reason with some guy to go after a clue. That was a day ago, though. I don't know where he is now. I haven't heard back from him, and his cell phone is out of area." Yugi said, and everyone was silent again.
Yugi hoped, for all of their sakes –especially Mokuba's- that Duke solved the mystery, and soon.
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Duke and Dan found themselves face to face with a mechanical island within hours of going in the direction of the fighter. Duke blinked a few times to be sure he was seeing it correctly.
It was huge! A skyscraper in the middle of the ocean, staying upright miraculously.
They approached slowly, their engine on low. So far, the perimeter defenses didn't seem to be operational –which was a very good thing.
Duke noticed a sentry gun eroded away and rusted, obviously not working. A few seagulls perched on the guns that probably once held back intruders such as themselves.
Dan managed to 'dock' inside a small port. Inside the small port, seagulls flew around noisily and swooped down close to their boat.
Dan tied the boat to a large gun that was covered in bird droppings. "Well. We're here."
Duke nodded. "This place sure is a bucket of rust. There's no doubt this is where the fighters are coming from, but I don't think anyone lives here. This place doesn't seem functional anymore." Duke replied as they strode to what looked like a stairwell.
They went up the stairs and finally, after getting exhausted from all the steps, reached the top. Duke pushed open the rusty door with a loud creak and groan from the old metal. The room was dark, but he could see a few lights blinking.
Duke slowly walked and went up a small platform, and suddenly the floor beneath him lit up with flickering lights. There was a loud hum as old machines continued to power themselves.
Dan came up to stand next to him and they stared at the consoles.
"It's military kid, can't you tell." Dan replied.
Duke frowned. "Military?"
"Yeah. Were these friends of yours enemies of a military?"
Duke thought a moment and remembered back to the virtual world they had all been trapped in. Didn't they find out that Kaiba Corp used to be a weapons manufacturer for militaries? "I think they were. I believe they sold military weapons, if I'm correct."
"Hmm. Being in that kind of business can bring a lot of allies, but a lot of enemies too."
"Yeah." Duke said, slowly and carefully brushing off dust from the controls. He found a read-out screen with a list of 'wings' that were in operation. About half of them were highlighted in red and were blinking 'destroyed'. The others were in green and read 'operational'.
"Dukie, you better come take a look at this one!" Dan exclaimed, and Duke tried to refrain from hitting the old man for calling him that again.
He leaned in and saw the screen. It listed a mission in progress. His eyes widened. The mission was cleared labeled: destroy Kaiba Corporation and all Kaiba inheritants.
Before Dan or himself could say anything else, there was a loud bang behind them.
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Tea awoke and smiled faintly. Why was she smiling? she wondered as she stirred from sleep. She felt warm, particularly her back. She shifted her weight and moved her hips back, but she hit something... and it grunted.
She froze. Was she... sleeping next to him? When'd that happen?
Alright, she did remember a little bit from last night. She remembered Kaiba making noise across the fire. He was grunting and sighing a lot. She kept hearing the leaves of his makeshift bed rustle around. It was getting distracting, and it was keeping her from sleep.
She had wanted to just get up and clobber him upside the head with a stick until he was quiet, but she didn't remember much after that. She assumed she drifted back to sleep. But apparently, that was not what had happened.
Somehow she had to get away from this akward position before he woke up and yelled. She slowly began to roll the opposite way.
She rolled a few times, now on the sand, continuing her escape. She had rolled several times before she noticed that he supposed escape was not as discreet any more.
Kaiba was fully awake, turned around, propped up with his right hand and staring at her.
She stopped her rolling and dared to look him in the eyes. Big mistake.
Even though his eyes looked tired, they were clear and only slightly droopy. But his hair was all mussled and a healthy stubble has gathered on that perfectly chiseled chin of his. Laying down like that, with his arm supporting his head, he looked so carefree –so unlike himself. For some reason, to Tea, he never looked sexier.
Big mistake indeed. She felt hotter under his un-blinking gaze.
"What are you doing?" He finally broke the slightly pleasant silence.
"S-stretching." She said nervously and reached out her arms and arched her back into the sand.
Kaiba had to bite his tongue to keep from thinking bad things. The way her shirt rode up past her belly to her ribs when she stretched, and the way her hips were slightly peeking out from those loose pants, was enough to make his mind go into hibernation and his hormones awaken from a frozen, carbonite prison.
When she finished stretching –or pretending to stretch- she turned back over to Kaiba to see that he had his back to her again. Maybe he was still tired.
She stood up and brushed the dirt from her body and proceeded to head towards the water cove.
After she left, Kaiba sat back up and rubbed his head. He needed to clear his mind –he had to be vigil about all this. He wouldn't lose the bet –he never lost to anything. Well, maybe that wasn't entirely true. He had lost to Yugi quite a number of times.
He tossed a stone into the dead fire causing the wood to crackle.
For a moment he thought again to his 'situation' both being stranded on a deserted island, and a bad feeling he kept having about Mokuba. For some reason he had a bad feeling that something was wrong with him. He was worried.
He remembered some things from his dreams last night –and most concerned Mokuba or being crushed alive under large stone pillars. He shivered at the thought that Mokuba could be hurt; and he hadn't been there to protect him.
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Mokuba lay in bed, the painkillers making him drowsy. All the others had left, even Serenity, and he was now alone.
He thought about his brother. He was so worried about him. The more he thought about it, the sadder his heart would get. And with each passing day, and no sign of him returning, he felt like a part of him died.
Taking care of an entire company as well was no better on his 'childhood' or his inexperienced nerves.
He still felt numb from the recent attacks that left his body in bandages. He was in pain, but it didn't matter much compared to what he was lacking in his heart.
His most terrible nightmares had all seemed to come true. His brother was gone, Kaiba Corp was in ruine, his home was demolished, and the Kaibalands were doing horribly due to recent events. He had no one, nothing, no place.
He had promised he would not cry anymore, but as he fell back into a tumultuous slumber, tears streaked down his cheeks.
A/N: Well... everyone. I have some bad news. I can usually take criticism pretty well –especially when it's constructive and informative... but after receiving them for EVERY single one of my fanfics –all at the same time -it is a little too hard on my nerves. I don't like getting criticsm –and I know, I should damn well get used to it, and well, this is fanfiction where others review –so I'm practically asking for it right? Well, due to recent events in my life, and a stressful time both at home and work (and school)---I'm not going to update anything until I'm in a better mood. And who knows when that'll be. Go ahead, write a nasty review yelling at me that I'm being immature and whatnot, that's fine. I'm not reading my fanfic emails anymore either. Well, gotta go.