Chapter Five

Seto hung up the phone in disgust, slumping back into his chair and raising a hand to rub at his forehead. He had just finished talking to Siegfried, and he was not pleased with the results. The German had told him about the strange paper he had come into possession of, but Seto could not figure out what it meant. And he had become even less pleased when Siegfried had reported what the Valkyrie had said about Doom Reborn going to combine the Orichalcos with the Solid Vision system. It all sounded like nonsense to him, and there was nothing he would like better than to decide it could not happen, but at this point he knew that would be foolish.

I hate to say it, he thought to himself, but it's really too bad Dartz is dead. He might be able to shed some light on what's going on and how it would be possible for them to use the Orichalcos stones like that. Even if I don't want to believe that it's some trinket from ten thousand years ago, I know that it has some kind of hypnotic properties. Combined with Solid Vision, it could be disastrous.

"What's wrong, big brother?"

He started, looking up into Mokuba's wide and worried blue-gray eyes. He had been so caught up in his reverie that he had not heard his brother approaching at all. Now he shook his head with a sigh. "Nothing," he responded.

Mokuba frowned. "Come on, Seto, I know it's gotta be something," he said firmly. "You looked really upset when I came in. . . ." He swallowed, wondering if Seto had learned something bad in relation to the company. He dearly hoped not. Seto had been spending such long hours struggling to get KaibaCorp's stocks back up after the fiasco with the Duel Monsters had began. All of the gaming companies' stocks had gone down then, and Seto was just relieved that things were finally starting to level out. "Does it have something to do with that robbery in Hamburg?" the boy asked suddenly.

Seto blinked in surprise and looked over at him, then nodded slowly. "In a way," he answered. Now it seemed all the more likely that Doom Reborn had been responsible.

Mokuba sighed, sitting down on the nearby couch. "That was really weird," he said quietly. "Who would do that?"

Seto growled. "That's what I'm going to find out," he declared firmly. And if it was Doom Reborn, I'll show no mercy.

He turned his attention to the monitor as a chime signaled the arrival of new mail. His eyes narrowed immensely when he saw it was from Pegasus. "Oh great," he muttered as he clicked on it, "what does that Toon-obsessed has-been want now?" Of course Mokuba came over to see as well, and Seto let him.

Hello, Kaiba-boy!

It's really been such a long time since we've had a chat.

Why don't you ever come to see me? Don't you like me

anymore? It really does get so lonesome here in my

little castle. But oh well! Down to business. I found out two

very interesting things that I think even you will appreciate.

First, there's an entire city over in Germany where everyone

has been found laying comatose! That's quite suspicious, don't

you think so? It sounds like the work of the Orichalcos to me.

Also, there's been a strange, winged creature flying over my

Domino Canyons cabin lately! I had Kemo track him down to

another nearby cabin, and guess what he found? . . . Have you

made a guess yet? Do come and see me, and I'll let you know

then if you guessed right! I'm still at my cabin right now, so you

can easily be here within the hour. I'm sure you're online at this very

moment, and that you're reading this with that irritated frown on

your face! I'll be waiting for you, Kaiba-boy. Do hurry, won't you?

Time waits for no man!

Seto suddenly felt ten times more irritated that he had a moment before. So now he had to go see Pegasus and play guessing games with him? That was not how he had wanted to spend the day. And he could not care less if Pegasus had gained some strange new stalker. But what he did care about was what had been said about the German city. Pegasus was right—that did sound suspicious. And too much so for comfort. Seto would need to investigate into that.

Mokuba read over the email again, his dark eyes wide. "That's nuts!" he exclaimed to the incident Pegasus had written about. "Are you going to go, Seto?" Suddenly he wondered if Leonhard was alright. But surely he was. He was probably either in Hamburg or in the von Schroider castle that was outside the city limits. Pegasus had not mentioned what city had been affected, but if it had been Hamburg, the boy had a feeling that Pegasus would have said so.

Seto stood up. "It looks like I don't have any choice," he grumbled. "It's just possible that Pegasus may have something important to say, so I can't ignore this. Besides, maybe he'll have some more information on that city." He closed his laptop and picked it up to take it with him. He was not planning to invite Mokuba to come along, but if his brother wanted to, it was alright with him—as long as he stayed away from Pegasus. And he was certain Mokuba would comply with that.

Mokuba shuddered, biting his lip. Reading the information about the entire city's population losing their souls disturbed him extremely. How was that even possible? Were they not only able to steal souls if they won in duels? "Seto?" he asked quaveringly.

Seto looked down at him. "What is it?" he returned.

Mokuba looked at the floor. "Is . . . is it possible that Doom Reborn could do something awful like that?" he said softly. He dreaded the answer. And yet even if it was not Doom Reborn, it would take a lot of power to send a large city into unconsciousness. So, really, it would be someone dangerous to deal with either way, and it really did not matter if it happened to be Doom Reborn. But Mokuba still would prefer to not deal with them again, anyway.

Seto shook his head, turning to walk to the door. "You're asking the wrong person, Mokuba," he said then. "I don't know. I've tried not to believe in that sort of thing, so I didn't calculate any kind of power levels that it's reported to have."

Mokuba hurried after him. "Yeah," he said softly, "I know, but . . . you've had to start believing in it now, haven't you, big brother?"

Seto grunted. "I don't want to," was all that he would reply as they headed out the front door. And that's an understatement, he thought to himself.

Armina knocked frantically on the door to the von Schroider castle. Her heart was racing. If what she had been hearing was true, then that meant that Dritte must be inside. But how badly was she hurt? The reports she had been hearing were not favorable, and she was deeply concerned. The final battle had begun. They could not afford to lose any of their ranks. Or at least that was what Erma would say, she thought to herself with a rueful smirk as one of the maids finally let her in. Erma was always thinking about the greater good and often came off seeming cold and detached. But Armina knew that Erma genuinely cared about the others.

The maid blinked at her. "Oh, you're Meister Siegfried's secretary, aren't you?" she said in sudden realization.

Armina nodded curtly. "I came to see him about an urgent matter," she declared.

"Well, I believe he's occupied right now," the maid replied slowly. "Some strange woman arrived on the doorstep. . . ."

Armina walked past her. "I know," she said smoothly. "That's the urgent matter."

The maid blinked in surprise and then hurried after her to show her the way to the room where the Valkyrie was. Armina accepted this calmly. What she was concerned about now was how to reveal to Siegfried what her true identity and purpose here was. Would he believe her? Would he be angry at the deception? And would he understand the urgent need to stop Doom Reborn?

Armina thought back to the email she had received from Clarimonde. She still did not understand the statement "Lead Master to victory," nor how she would make it come to pass. But she imagined that she would need to decipher it very soon.

She drew her breath in sharply when they reached the room. The maid left her then, and she went in, gazing at the ill Valkyrie in the bed. Siegfried was sitting in a chair next to the bed, looking exhausted. Leonhard was next to him, his hazel eyes shining with worry. The boy looked up as Armina entered, blinking in surprise.

"Armina! What are you doing here?" Leonhard exclaimed. Siegfried came to attention, looking over questioningly.

"I wasn't expecting to see you tonight, Fraulein," he said quietly, not able to help wondering again what had gotten her so upset earlier. Now she appeared perfectly calm and collected—except for the emotions flickering through her eyes. "As you can see, we have a guest tonight." He gestured to the unconscious woman in the bed. "And a very curious guest at that."

Armina walked past the armor, which had been moved into a small stack near the wall, and surveyed the Valkyrie again. "How badly was she hurt?" she wanted to know. If Clarimonde's dire predictions were true, and all of them were being attacked, what were the chances that all of them would make it through? And . . . if Erma truly was dead, the leadership position would fall to her, Armina. She did not know that she was ready for that. But of course, if the responsibility did fall to her, she would do her best to make certain all went according to plan.

Siegfried sighed. "The doctor was here not that long ago," he replied. "He believes she will recover, though he said it could take some time." He blinked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Pardon, but do you know her?" He had noticed her reaction to the other woman, and it seemed rather curious to him, almost as if recognition had shone through her deep blue eyes. Actually, when he thought of it, the Valkyrie and Armina both had the same sapphire color to their irises.

Armina hesitated for a moment. She was still reluctant to speak of these matters, but that was what she had come for—well, that and checking on the condition of the injured. And so she nodded slowly, pulling up the quilt better around the unconscious Valkyrie. "Yes," she admitted quietly. "This is Dritte . . . my sister."

Leonhard gaped, not sure what to say. He supposed now that he thought about it, and could see them standing side by side, a certain resemblance was indeed obvious. But it seemed such a peculiar thing—that Armina's sister would come to the home of Armina's employer. How had such a coincidence come to pass?

When he looked to Siegfried to see his reaction, he was surprised to see that his elder brother had slumped back, looking astounded. But then when the man spoke, the reason for his immense shock became clear.

"The Valkyrie cards that Pegasus created were based upon the versions from Wagner's operas," Siegfried mused, sitting up straight again and looking Armina in the eyes. "There, they were nine sisters, while their counterparts in mythology may or may not all be related." He frowned slightly, somewhat overwhelmed by what this seemed to mean. Had another Valkyrie been masquerading as his secretary for the last few months? Or was all of this one massive misunderstanding? Perhaps Dritte had been attending some sort of costume party and that was why she had been dressed as one of the Duel Monster Valkyries. Though Siegfried was willing to admit that the thought of her randomly getting injured and then randomly coming to the castle made a lot less sense than the thought of her having been in a battle that was most certainly not random, and then coming here on purpose. She had called him Master, and had acted as if she knew him.

Armina nodded, reaching back to undo the clasp around part of her long aquamarine hair. Instantly it swished back into its normal position, with fluffy bangs coming to rest on either side of her forehead. Slowly and precisely she then removed her glasses, accentuating her blue eyes. "My real name is Schwertleite," she announced quietly, "and both Dritte and I are part of the nine."

Leonhard was speechless. This was so much to take in all at once. He had known Armina since she had first started to work for Siegfried, and never once had he imagined that she was one of the legendary Valkyries. And he had not thought that Siegfried had felt any different. After all, he certainly would not have a reason.

Now the businessman smiled calmly. "I always felt that there was something quite unique about you," he remarked, looking for all the world as though he was not surprised at all. "I simply was never able to determine exactly what it was." He had decided that he had been stunned long enough and that it was time to fully embrace this bizarre series of events. He supposed that, since Duel Monsters were still all over the world, it was not so extremely odd that the Valkyries would have come.

Then a new thought occurred to him. "If I may ask, what was it that upset you so badly earlier? Did it have something to do with all of this?"

Schwertleite hesitated again, then nodded. She knew she could no longer harbor any doubts about revealing the truth. They would never be able to begin fixing the problem if she did not speak. "My sisters and I have been fighting Doom Reborn, which has been causing many problems for both your world and ours. I decided to go incognito as your secretary because I knew they might target you. . . . Then today I got an email from Erste, who was using the alias Clarimonde." As she proceeded to tell the contents of the email, she could see that the two brothers were both surprised again.

"So . . . all of your sisters are in trouble?" Leonhard was aghast. He could fully understand what the turquoise-haired Valkyrie's pain would be in such a situation. He felt the same pain whenever Siegfried was hurt.

"Yes," Schwertleite said quietly. "And probably all of them have ended up like Dritte . . . or worse." She could not forget how Erste had said that she was seriously wounded. The entire email had been filled with a sense of despair, and Schwertleite did not doubt that if Erste had not been able to get treated properly, she could be dead.

Siegfried narrowed his eyes. "We will find them," he resolved. Doom Reborn was greatly annoying him, with the way they kept appearing in his affairs. It was long past the time that the organization should have ceased to exist. There was no telling what calamities they would cause the longer they remained in power, especially not when considering the horror stories he had heard about the original Doom.

Schwertleite smiled weakly. "I know you are brave, Master," she proclaimed. "But it will not be easy." Next to impossible, was more likely. The Valkyries had scattered all over the world, dealing with the various branches of Doom Reborn that had begun to spring up in many different nations. This new organization appeared to be more dangerous than its parent in many ways. Not only were they more ruthless and cruel, but they seemed to have more of an influence over many different peoples and races. They were growing in large numbers almost daily.

Leonhard bit his lip. "Dritte said something about Doom Reborn coming after Siegfried because he invented the first Solid Vision system," he spoke up worriedly. "Why would they do this! What do they think they could do with gaming technology?" He was almost afraid to learn the answer.

Schwertleite was about to reply when a flickering glow bathed the room in extra light before plunging them into complete darkness. Instantly she tensed. This was most likely not a natural blackout. They were probably about to be invaded. Quickly, in the privacy of the darkened room, she transformed into her Valkyrie armor and gripped her sword. They would not be able to stay here. They would have to find a way to leave, but she worried over how they would move Dritte.

Siegfried frowned. "What is going on here?" he wondered. "It isn't storming outside." He wanted to think that it was a broken fuse, but he had the feeling that it was not.

Slowly the door opened.

Raphael shook his head, watching as Valon bent over Alister, who had fallen asleep again on the couch. The redhead's skin was still pale, and he still felt weakened, but Raphael was certain that he would be alright. Valon's obvious concern both gently amused and touched him, most especially when he recalled how poorly the Australian and Alister had gotten along during Doom. They still had many disagreements, but they were slowly starting to better understand each other and had finally admitted, at least to themselves, that they did care about each other.

"You're hovering," he remarked in the silence.

Valon started, then glared. "No, I'm not!" he snapped, straightening up. "I was just checkin' to see if he was breathing." Which was true, but Valon had been very impatient for Alister to wake up again and had been frequently going to see how he was doing. "I mean, c'mon Raph, he got knocked up pretty bad by that crazy thing!" And Valon was still angry about it. He felt that he was justified. After all, he did not really take kindly to odd creatures that broke into the house and tried to kill his friends.

Raphael grunted. "He'll be fine, Valon. He just needs to rest." He watched Liu leap up by Alister and purr. The redhead did not stir, still obviously quite deeply asleep.

Valon glared at the cat. "You traitor!" he scolded, remembering how she had rubbed against Alexander and Dartz. Liu only continued to purr. Valon rolled his eyes.

Raphael sighed and sat down in a chair. "You know that she's friendly with everyone," he said flatly, even though he was not extremely pleased himself that his cat had rubbed against someone whom he considered to be an enemy. Dartz had hurt them all in drastic ways, and yet Alexander and Liu both seemed to adore him. Raphael did not understand why, but he was certain that Alexander would someday discover that the Atlantean cared nothing about him. Then the strange creature would have nowhere to go—unless he came there.

The blonde frowned. Where had that thought came from? That was a strange thing to think of without warning. He supposed it was true, however. And he did not particularly relish the thought of Alexander moving in.

Abruptly Valon broke into his thoughts. "Well, you of all people can't be happy about her being chummy with that bloke!" he retorted.

Raphael growled, turning away. "I don't want to talk about it."

Valon frowned at him. "Sometimes you're as bad as Alister!" he remarked.

Raphael gripped his upper arms and refused to answer. That was still a sensitive subject for him. He never discussed it with anyone and instead kept it all inside—the pain, the anger, the hatred. He was certain, after all, that he could handle it. But so many such feelings were as a time bomb waiting to go off. And assuredly, if he continued to meet up with Dartz, all of that pent-up fury and hurt would break free.

Valon sighed now and turned on the television, making certain to keep the volume on Mute. As he turned on the closed captioning and realized he was watching the news, his blue eyes suddenly opened wide. "Holy . . .!" he gasped, leaning forward.

Raphael blinked, turning to look at him again. "What is it?"

Valon pointed at the screen. "They're talkin' about a whole city of knocked out people!" he exclaimed. "And they can't wake any of 'em up!"

Immediately Raphael perked up, his eyes narrowed. As he looked at the TV screen, the words Breaking News suddenly flashed and the reporters looked grave. Quickly he looked to the closed captioning running across the bottom of the screen.

"We have just received word that this bizarre phenomenon has happened again," the anchorwoman was saying. "This first incident took place in a German city. Now it's happened in a coastal Japanese town—the exact same thing. And nearby motorists claim that they saw a strange and foreboding green symbol in the sky, hovering directly over the city."

Raphael clenched his fists. Valon just stared.

"How could something like that happen!" the Australian burst out, gesturing to the TV set. "This is crazy! We weren't able to do stuff like that!"

Raphael shook his head. "I think," he growled, "we need to find Dartz and get some answers." Dartz may or may not be involved in Doom Reborn, but Raphael was certain that the golden-eyed man would know what was going on. And Raphael would not rest until he knew as well. This madness had to be stopped.

Dartz snapped off the television in disgust. Chris had come running to him with the news as soon as Alexander had teleported in with him, and Dartz was highly displeased and angry. His feelings had only increased as he had watched the news coverage of the two incidents. And he was confused as well. He had never been able to do such things with the Orichalcos. How many special powers did it have that he had never known about? And how had Doom Reborn learned?

Chris looked up at him worriedly. "What are we going to do, Father?" she asked.

Dartz shook his head. "I don't know," he muttered, slumping back against the couch. For one thing, they needed to find out where Doom Reborn's new headquarters was located. Branches were appearing all over the globe, but the main one was a very well-kept secret. Dartz was growing annoyed. Every now and then he was still trying to buy stock in Paradius, but he still could not find the company. There was not even a website that he could go to, but that was a clever move on the part of Doom Reborn. They were doing everything in their power to make certain that they would not be traced. Dartz had done the same when he had owned Paradius.

Alexander, who was stretched out on his stomach and had laid his hands on Dartz's lap, looked up at him. "We need to stop them," he said softly. "They might hurt Alister." His wings drooped as he tried to sort out the many questions going through his mind. What was life? What was death? Why did he exist? Was he not supposed to make Alister happy? He no longer knew how he would do that.

Dartz shook his head. "Now why would they do that?" he asked flatly. Alexander was even more confusing now that he was sobered from realizing that Alister did not want to die. Dartz was not certain what the creature would do now, though he was obviously happy and even awed that Alister had not been angry with him. He had also noticed that Alexander had been more hesitant about snuggling, which he really did not mind.

Now Alexander shrugged helplessly. "Well . . . maybe they're angry because Alister doesn't believe in their goals," he suggested. "Didn't they get really mad at the people who stopped the other Doom?" He sat up, worry evident in his eyes. He could not let those people hurt Alister, or Alister's friends either. And though he was not certain what he could do, that did not change the fact that he felt the overwhelming urge that he had to do something to protect them. If Alister wanted to live, then Alexander could devote himself to that. And he knew Alister would be broken if anything happened to Valon or Raphael, so they would have to be protected as well.

Dartz narrowed his eyes. He knew that what Alexander said was true. It still outraged him, what he had later learned about the reason behind Duke's servitude to Doom Reborn. Slowly he stood up, knowing that nothing would get done if he just stayed there.

"It seems to me," he said slowly, "that Doom Reborn must have bases near the cities that were attacked. After all, it must take quite a bit of energy to generate Seals that large."

Chris bit her lip. "So . . . is that where you're going, Father?"

Dartz nodded. "Hopefully I'll find some answers." He looked at her firmly. "You and Ironheart should stay here." He was about to add that Alexander should as well, but the redhead leaped up too.

"I want to come!" he said firmly. "I have to help." He looked at Dartz pleadingly. "I could be useful, and I want to stop the mean people."

Dartz felt frustrated. He wanted to tell him that it would be better if he stayed home too, but then shook his head and decided not to even try to protest. It was very hard to argue with the innocent being who only wanted to be helpful.

At that moment there was a knock on the door. Dartz frowned over at it, and Ironheart crossed the room to answer it. This seemed very odd, as they did not have visitors. Deciding that a precaution would be a good thing, Ironheart looked through the peephole. Then he started in surprise.

Dartz raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Ironheart moved to open the door. "Maximillion Pegasus and Seto Kaiba," he announced.

He was so frightened . . . so cold and alone, and his head was aching. His grandparents had been taken away for some strange reason, and the men who had taken them had been mean. One of them had pushed him into the desk. He remembered hitting his head, but not much else until now.

He worried about what they were doing to his grandparents, and he worried about being alone. He had never been alone before, at least, certainly not like this. And he felt so dizzy. . . . Shivering, he curled into a ball.

Suddenly he felt that there was someone else in the room. His blood went cold. "Who's there?" he whispered, even as he felt himself being lifted up. Immediately he gave a cry and tried to pull away, but then he was held close to something warm. And the touch was not something dark and chilling, but rather warm and loving. He shuddered again and gripped a handful of the person's clothes. "Who are you?"

He was held close. "I'm here to keep you safe," a soft voice replied. "I love you . . . Alister, I love you so much. . . . I live only for you."

The four-year-old child snuggled, closing his eyes. He did feel safe with this being. "Are my grandparents okay?" he asked softly.

There was a pause. "I . . . I don't know," came the reply. "But I'll stay here with you until they come home."

He considered this. "Okay," he agreed, snuggling now.

Alister's eyes flew open. Slowly he tried to focus on the room around him, and on Valon and Raphael, who were talking to each other. What was that, that he had been dreaming? It seemed so realistic, as if it had been a memory instead of a dream. But he did not remember what it could have been. He had been a small child in the dream, and he had apparently been in Sweden, visiting his father's grandparents. Those things had happened in real life, but the dream's events puzzled him. If that had happened, why did he not remember any of it?

Noticing that he was awake, Valon perked up. "Hey! It's about time you woke up!" he cried.

"How are you feeling?" Raphael asked, coming over.

Alister slowly sat up. Confused, he thought to himself. "Fine," he said aloud. "I'm fine."