Disclaimer: I do not own YGO, and I doubt I ever will.
D/N: Yes, for my 'older' fans (Eriso: AHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAHHAHA! Fans... ) ... you may be familiar with the story title. I'm rewriting it. Also, for those of you wondering about Diplomacy, NO, I obviously did not delete my incomplete 164 review story. It was gone when I logged on one day. Go figure. Everything good that I write always gets deleted before I finish. As a matter of fact, this story was the only one I actually managed to complete! Typical. So, anyways, I can't repost Diplomacy because I've only got, like, half the story. I've only got half the story because my computer is always being randomly attacked by viruses, and so I always just managed to post the chapter. I've never downloaded my chapters back because I never figured FANFICTION WOULD DELETE IT! ... But hey, quick summary of the ending: Everyone's sane again and Mr. Fred-Sir's dead. We're all happy. Anyways, here's the story! Oh, and freakishly lazy today, so unfortunately, poor Joey won't be having his adorable little accent that we all know and love. But it's there. (Eriso: -.-;;)
OO- Note: I've decided to take out any dialogue that was formerly in capitals and switch it to lowercase. I find writing as though my Caps Lock button is having a... capping spree is extraordinarily... hmm... pathetic and extreme. I think the words 'roared' preceded or followed by 'Joey' is enough to let you know that he's going for blood. -OO
OooOOOooO"Take that back, Kaiba!" Joey snapped at the brunette CEO sitting before him, calmly alternating between reading a book and shooting insults over it at the already quite aggravated blonde before him. "I'm just as good as you are - any day!"
Kaiba sighed, and flipped the page. Without looking away from his book, he replied, "So I see." He paused for a moment, before adding, "You always seem awfully eager to get that point across, Wheeler. Something to prove?"
"I'll give ya something to prove!" Joey roared, lunging for Kaiba's throat, but was practically tackled out of the air by Tristan, and who was then aided in restraining the enraged teen by Tea, Ryou and Yugi. "Lemme go! He's askin' for it, big-time!"
Kaiba merely kept on reading, shaking his head slightly. "You know, mutt, you keep up that behaviour and you'll be forced to go to obedience school."
This was then quickly followed by some not-so-nice words of choice from Joey.
"Joey! Calm down!" Tea told him, desperately clinging to his shirt. Sure, she wasn't exactly fond of Kaiba either, but she really didn't want to be a witness to a murder. Most likely Joey's. "Don't give him the satisfaction of getting you all riled up!"
"Besides," Yugi added, "fighting never solved anything."
"No, but it's always made me feel better!" Joey managed to get out, even while gnawing on Tristan's arm in an attempt to break free.
"Joey! Stop it!" Tristan said, peeling his arm out of Joey's mouth. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"I'm not finished with him yet!" Joey snarled, beginning to flail and only just missing whacking Ryou in the head. His eyes continued to burn a hole into Kaiba's head, which was still directed towards his book. Unfortunately for him, it was only a figure of speech. "I've got a bone to pick with him!"
"Speaking of bones," Kaiba put in, "Don't you need to go dig one up or something instead of wasting my time? All you're doing is humiliating yourself, and I've got better things to do."
"Yeah," Joey cried out, breaking free of the gang's grasp and lunging at Kaiba once more. He made it a full foot before Ryou caught hold of his leg. "Like goin' t'see a doctor!"
Kaiba shook his head at him once more, standing up and closing his book. "I think I'll just leave you to foam at the mouth without me. I came to read my book in quiet, but since you don't seem to be willing to leave me in peace, I'll have to go elsewhere. Find someone else to yap at." He eyed Yugi, raising an eyebrow. "Good luck."
Managing to get Tristan's hand off of his mouth, Joey yelled out at him, "Yeah, you better run! You coward!" When Kaiba disappeared from sight, the blond shook the others off of him, sitting on the ground and sulking with an acquired skill.
Tea rolled her eyes at his actions. "Joey, knock it off." She said, sitting on the bench. "I don't know why you and Kaiba just can't be friends, or at least tolerate each other's presence. I mean, you guys are really alike-"
"Don't you ever," Joey snapped, shooting up and sticking a finger in her face, "ever say that I act anything remotely close to that egoistic prick."
"Yeah, Tea, what were you thinking?" Tristan said. "The only way those two would get alone is if the world was about to end, and even then it's still iffy."
"You never know." Ryou shrugged. "There have been bitter enemies that have been forced to work together on several occasions."
"Oh yeah?" Joey glared at the semi-albino child, "Name some."
Ryou blushed. "Oh... uhm... well... there was..." he stammered. "I... uh... can't think of any off the top of my head, but I'll be sure to let you know when I remember."
"Yeah, whatever." Joey grumbled.
"Hey," Tristan said, his eyes brightening. "There was this episode of Justice League where Superman had to fight his alter-ego or whatever and he asked Lex Luthor for help-"
"You watch Justice League?" Tea snorted. "That show's for babies!"
"It's a good show!" Tristan and Joey cried. "Shut up!"
"Joey, you've got to stop letting Kaiba get to you." Yugi told him, returning to the original topic. "I'm sure that if you show Kaiba on the outside that you're completely unaffected by his insults, that he'd leave you alone!"
"And on the inside?"
"Go nuts." Tristan grinned. "Curse his children, offer his soul to the Devil, offer your soul to the Devil if he takes Kaiba's."
"Tristan!" Yugi cried.
"What?" Tristan blinked. "It's not like anyone's gonna hear him!"
"God will." Tea pointed out.
"Yeah, like Joey's gonna go to Hell for saying a few bad words?" Tristan laughed. "If that's the case, he was doomed years ago!"
"Hey!" Joey said sharply. "Shut up!"
Tristan held his hands up, as if to stop any oncoming attacks. "Ok, ok! Relax!"
"'Relax'," Joey repeated savagely. "'Relax,' he says. Gee, Tristan, what an amazin' piece of advice you gave there! Wow, that's gonna solve all my problems. Let's go preach to all the poor people in the world. 'Hey, poor people! Tristan says relax!' You're a freakin' genius."
"I was just trying to help." Tristan retorted. "Don't get all snippy at me just because Kaiba got the best of you. Again."
Joey leapt to his feet, glaring at the teen. "Kaiba did not get the best of me." Joey grit out.
"Sure, man," Tristan said, rolling his eyes. "Whatever you say."
It took several moments for Yugi, Tea and Ryou to pry Joey's hands off of Tristan's neck.
OooOOOooO"See you later, guys!" Tristan waved to his friends goodbye at the end of the day. "Bye, Joey! Hope your nose heals!"
"Shut up!" Joey snapped. He was feeling a lot worse. Beating up Tristan usually cheered him up, mostly because it really made his self-esteem soar, but due to some fluke, Tristan had bloodied his nose. It was never a good day when Tristan got him.
"Joey?" Yugi said, as the two began walking home.
"Yeah?"
"Can you promise me to not get into anymore fights with Kaiba for a while?"
"No."
"Ok... Can you promise me to try and not fight with Kaiba for a while?"
"... I promise nothing."
Yugi shrugged. "That'll have to do. But Joey, really, you have to stop fighting with him all the time. I hate seeing my friends get into fights."
"Yeah, but what can I say? It's in my blood!"
"Fighting's never amounted to anything, Joey." Yugi told him.
"It will someday." Joey assured him. "Someday I'm going to get that jerk. Then it'll all be worth it."
Yugi chuckled. "So, you're willing to fight with him thousands of times and lose just to beat him up once?"
"Yup!"
Yugi laughed louder this time. "That's some logic you've got going there, Joey."
"Hey, I spent a long time comin' up with that plan." Joey said, playfully flicking the shorter boy on the shoulder. "A lot of real effort went into that."
"So I see."
"Yes, you do."
They eventually made it to the Game Shop after a few more minutes. Turning to Joey, Yugi said, "Well, here's my house. I'll see you tomorrow, ok, Joey? And try not to dwell on the whole thing with Kaiba."
"Sure, Yugi. I'll forget all about it what with you remindin' me every three seconds." Joey grinned. Waving goodbye, the two parted ways.
As time passed by, Joey soon found himself alone with his thoughts - a dangerous place for him to be. Fighting with Kaiba always made him start re-evaluating his life. Joey had recently moved in with his mom after finally testifying that the living conditions with his father were...inadequate. So now, instead of living with the evil drunkard, he was now living with the woman who gave him to the evil drunkard. Oh, well. At least he had Serenity.
Life was definitely harder living with his mom. She expected so much more from him and was constantly on his case about everything, as though making up for lost time or just getting him used to a warden's job. She seemingly carried the constant fear with her that he was going to sprout into an evil serial killer or something. But then again, his oh-so-angelic school record of fights and suspensions, not to mention the out-of-school rumbles, weren't exactly going to make his mom suddenly change her mind.
Great. So instead of living with a parent who couldn't care less, he now had a parent that couldn't trust him to not beat something senseless. Hurrah. That was better... how? But anyway, it wasn't like he was too crazy with his mother either. After dumping him with dear dad, the motivation to impress her sort of... faded. The only reason he wasn't complaining about staying with his mom was for Serenity. He wasn't about to let her get pulled away from him again. But really, he couldn't take too much more of his mother's endless pestering of whether -
A noise roused Joey out of his thoughts, as he blinked away the words running through his mind. He'd reached the last crosswalk on the way to his house, he realised.
"It's like God won't drop it..." Joey muttered.
There, in the middle of the street, was a floppy-eared, brown-furred puppy. It was just... lying down without a care in the world, suddenly noticing Joey and barking happily at him. In turn, he rolled his eyes, about to cross the road when a flash of metal and light caught his eye.
Speeding down the road and swerving dangerously to the left and then sharply to the right was an SUV. The driver - most likely drunk - apparently didn't seem to notice or care about the creature sitting on the road. If anything, it sped up.
"Uhm..." Joey blinked. It was going to stop though, right? It was getting a bit too close for comfort, and he wasn't the one in harm's way. "Come on, you stupid dog, move." He murmured, acutely aware of Tea's previous words and the familiarity of his own. He was about to further investigate that thought when he heard a worried whine coming from the puppy.
"Anytime. Really. But in the near future. Or now, whichever." Joey said to the dog, casting quick glances at the vehicle streaking towards it.
It was now or never.
"Time to be a hero, Joey," he told himself, taking in a deep breath. He bolted across the road, grabbing the dog, and almost dropping it, his body and mind screaming in protest the whole while. Keeping a firm grip, he collapsed on the other side, landing heavily on the cement.
"Right," he wheezed, sitting up. "Cement is hard. Not nice to fall on. Got it." He shook his head, trying to get rid of the faint stars who had begun performing a ballet in front of his eyes.
Joey got up stiffly, the puppy down on the ground. "Idiot." He said to it as soon as he was on his feet. "You could've been killed, you know that?." After a few moments of glaring and the sudden realisation of the communication barriers between them, Joey sighed and turned home. Another whine caught his attention, stopping him, as the trailing dog bumped into his leg.
He looked down in annoyance, gruffly telling it, "Go away. You're alive, so leave." The puppy merely cocked its' head to one side and let it's tongue roll out of its' mouth. It was obviously not understanding. What a surprise. "Go on. Leave." Joey said again, waving his hands for effect.
Apparently the dog seemed to take this gesture as, 'Hey, look, I've got tasty hands! Why not sample them?'
"Ow!" Joey cried, jumping back. "You ungrateful, little..." Joey stopped, shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "I'm talking to a dog... and I've got a feelin' the conversation's goin' no where fast." Focusing his attention back on the canine, he said, "Can you... leave... or somethin'?"
Nothing doing. The dog merely rolled onto its stomach, barking happily.
"Yeeeeeeeeah... ok... I'm gonna... leave now..."
Joey looked down again a moment after. There was the puppy, trotting happily alongside him. Stopping, he sighed, picked up the dog, carried him back a little bit, put him down, then walked on. And it worked... for three seconds. Joey looked back behind him, and, not surprisingly, the dog was still behind him.
"Look, dog! Stop followin' me around!" Joey snapped. "I've got better things to do with my life then dog-watch!" A sudden urge to read books and wear tacky trenchcoats washed over him. Shaking his head as if to erase that thought, he was annoyed to find it didn't work. "What, we can build Etch-a-Sketches, but we can't apply that technology to a simple task in the human mind?" he muttered. In a louder voice, he said to the canine, "Look, just... go home or whatever. I can't bring you with me, so go away." And then Joey began to walk off, only to find that, once again, the dog had not left his side.
Beginning to pick up his pace a bit, he broke into a light jog. The dog was still there. Finally, Joey went into a light run, quickly resorting to an all-out sprint.
Reaching home sans the canine, Joey whipped open the door, jumped in, then slammed and locked the door behind him. Leaning against the wall as he caught his breath, he called out, "I'm back!" Something was weird about that dog. He didn't know why, but he just got a strange... feeling around it.
Sighing as he dismissed the thought, he kicked off his shoes. He heard his sister reply from upstairs, "Great! I'll be right down!"
"Yeah," Joey yelled, taking off his jacket, "You'll never believe what that jerk Kaiba did - whoa - Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Barely a second later and Joey was behind a chair, staring at the dog with wide eyes. Suddenly grabbing a hold of himself, he stalked out from his hiding place and stormed over. "You." Joey snapped, grabbing the puppy by the scruff of his neck, and opening the door. "You. Out. Now.."
"Joey, what's going on down there?" Serenity asked as she bounded down the stairs. "I heard you scream and - Oh my gawd! Is that for me?" Serenity squealed with delight, rushing up to Joey and snatching the puppy out of Joey's hands. Kneeling down on the floor, she promptly began playing with it.
"No, it's not for you. It followed me home after I saved it from becoming a pancake earlier." Joey said. "Serenity, you know we can't keep it."
"Why not?" Serenity asked, bringing out the dreaded puppy-dog eyes as she held the puppy to the side of her face to add a double doggy-stare. He felt his heart melting at the mere thought of looking at them. "Please, Joey? I promise I'll take good care of him!"
"It's up to that mother of yours, and you know how she is." Joey shrugged, walking out of the room. "She'd flip if she found out."
"I'll talk to her..." Serenity said softly, stroking the dog's head. She paused for a moment before calling out, "She's your mother too, you know."
"Biologically, yes. In reality, yes. Technically, no." Joey called from the kitchen. "She gave me up, remember? Besides, she'd never say yes to a dog anyway. Want a soda instead?"
"No, thanks." Serenity smiled. She kissed the puppy's wet, black nose. "I'd rather have a puppy."
"Of course that means you just lost out on both." Joey grinned, walking back in. "I'll drink yours then."
"How considerate."
"I'm a considerate kinda guy."
"So I see." Serenity murmured, busily rubbing the dog's belly, tickling its paws, and scratching it under the chin. "Well, I'm keeping Zeus anyway."
"Zeus?"
"It's gotta have a name, right?" Serenity explained. "We can't just call it 'the dog' all the time."
"Don't name it, sis." Joey shook his head, sitting down in a chair. "You'll start getting' attached after."
"Well, duh!" Serenity rolled her eyes. "We're going to keep it!"
"You're that sure, huh?"
"Yup!"
"Well, in that case," Joey grinned, lying down on the ground next to the dog and his sister. "I've got the perfect name for it."
"Oh?"
"Yeah."
"What is it?"
"Kaiba the Second."
"Kaiba?"
"Yeah."
"That rich guy that's always giving you trouble?"
"That's the one." Joey nodded, taking a swig from his pop.
"I thought you hated him."
"So I do."
"Then why are you naming the dog after him?"
"You wouldn't understand."
"So I see."
"Why's everyone saying that today?"
"It's the new phrase of the month."
"So I see."
"Clever."
"I'm a clever kinda guy."
"So I see."
"Are you finished?" Joey finally asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Maybe." Serenity giggled, returning his expression.
"... So," Joey said, after a moment's consideration, " That would make KaibaII your dog?"
"Yup." Serenity chirped.
"That's a big responsibility." Joey told her. "You'll have to look after him, and play with him, and feed him..."
"I will."
"You promise?"
"Of course!"
"Good," Joey smirked, getting off the floor and sitting back on the chair. "'Cause it just pissed all over the rug, and of course, owners are on clean-up duty."
"Joey!" Serenity gasped, horrified at how close it was to her. "You did that on purpose!"
"Well, obviously! I'm not cleaning up after it!"
"Not going to clean up after what, Joseph?" another voice called out.
"Mom!" Serenity cried out in shock, jumping up and standing in front of the dog. "Uhm... you're home early!"
"Yes. I finished my work ahead of..." Mrs. Wheeler (Let's just call her Diane, ok? Mrs. Wheeler is now Diane.) trailed off, her eyes jumping from Joey to Serenity and back. "What's going on?"
"Uhm... nothing out of the ordinary." Serenity hastily replied.
"Oh, really?" Diane raised an eyebrow.
"Really, really." Serenity assured her.
Diane was silent before saying, "Then that's... water? Or is it from the dog now chewing on my chair?"
Serenity looked at the creature, tearing a hole into the fabric. "Uhm... mom... I can explain..." she began softly. "You see... Joey brought a dog today..." She paused quickly. Her mother sent a peculiar look to Joey, who retaliated with a blank, bored expression on his face. "He saved it from being run over... and it followed him back home... It doesn't have a collar or anything, and we think it's a stray... so can we... keep it?"
Diane sighed, studying all three faces. Finally, she said, "Clean-up this mess, and then we'll make some posters. If no one calls, then yes, you can keep the dog."
Serenity cheered, then picked up the dog and cuddled it, almost to the point of nausea, and then proceeded to clean up the rug. Diane left the room, leaving them to do whatever it was they wanted.
"I didn't think she'd cave so quickly." Joey muttered.
"She's not as cruel as you make her out to be, Joey." Serenity told him. "She's very, very nice. Anyway, I have to go clean this thing. Look after KaibaII for me, ok?"
"Whatever." Joey grunted, then looked at the brown puppy. "Happy? You get to stay."
OooOOOooOI'm here.
I am where I need to be.
I've returned.
I knew one day they'd forget.
I knew they'd forget about me.
I knew they'd forget about what they did to me..
I haven't.
I remembered.
I have it burned into my mind.
I am here now.
I have my plan.
I have my motivation.
I cannot be stopped.
I have power too great.
I have capabilities too numerous.
I speak my name again.
Razatul.
I am Razatul.
I was banished.
I have returned.
I will complete my destruction on all.
I will destroy those who destroyed her.
OooOOOooO
OOOOO
OOOOO
D/N: AREN'T I GOOD! Now, for those you who've read the previous story I wrote, I hope you like the writing now that I'm more experienced. Yeah, there's been a lot of changes, but still technically the same basic plot. Anyways, I'll update soon. Feel free to ask me any questions you wish. I'll more then happily answer them for you. And please, grieve for my precious Diplomacy story. T.T