Author's Note:
What is wrong with me! I have not updated in a while. I guess I was just lazy.
I would like to give my thanks to all my loyal readers!!!
Again I apologize for not updating sooner. I hope that you like this chapter and that I don't disappoint anyone.
Onward!
'Yami
talking to Seto mentally'
Seto talking to Yami mentally
'Bakura
talking to Jou mentally'
/Jou talking to Bakura mentally/
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Jou was panting hard; he was running without taking a look at his surroundings. He was in a gloomy looking hallway. Tiny little light bulbs on the walls barely lighted the corridor, leaving the ceiling and the floor dim. The nerve-racking hallway appeared to never end. But he didn't care; he just wanted to get out of here. This all seemed too surreal, like a bad dream. He stopped running after he realized he was going in circles. He could only hope that Bakura was not close. He wiped the sweat forming on his brow with his sleeve shirt.
He looked around; smoke was coming off a vent on the ceiling. On his left side there was a closed gate that gave off a soft green light and strange noises. He could actually hear voices inside that room.
Jou jumped in surprise when he noticed that someone was coming out of the room. He didn't want to get caught so he quickly strode over the gate and kneeled at one side of the door. The door hissed as it slid open, and the green light illuminated the hallway, making the place even creepier. Two guys came out of the door. They were wearing white and gray robes. Both were holding a stretcher, with what it looked like was carrying an animal's body covered with a blanket. Surprisingly there wasn't any blood in it. The guys proceeded on carrying the stretcher down the hallway; neither of them noticed Jou hiding.
Before Jou could consider what was going on, Bakura's voice echoed. Jou started to get nervous and worried that Bakura would find him, acting quickly he sprinted inside the room before the door closed. Tense, he waited until the voices disappeared. When everything was quiet and still, he let out a sigh. He brought a hand to wipe off the accumulating sweat on his forehead but stopped when he heard a soft crunch.
Turning around, he almost got a heart attack. He saw a dismembered cow's head on top of a platform. There were tubes that would bring rich oxygenated blood to the head, while other tubes would take blood out and pass it through a machine that would clean the crimson liquid. Another machine was working as lungs for the cow. If Jou wasn't so freak out by it all he would be interested in the technology that the aliens had.
"WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS THIS!?"
Wanting to get out, he turned to the door. But, unfortunately for Jou the door was right next to a shelf. And on top of the shelf there were glass jars containing organs and human body parts.
This was of course too much excitement for one day, as his eyes rolled to the back of his head and crashed to the floor.
"Oh, look who we have here" Bakura said excitedly as he stepped inside the room. A soft moo, made him turn to look at the cow's head, "Looks like Blondie couldn't handle seeing Mrs. Clairie" The cow dumbly stared back at him.
"I guess now I'm stuck carrying him back, but damn why did we put the room on the other side of the ship?" he complained.
He picked Jou up in his arms and headed to the exit. "See you, Mrs. Clairie" He said to the cow, who just answered with an annoyed moo.
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"Prince Yami, I'm proud to say that my daughter Anzu will be a good wife,"
Yami glared at the Head of the Council, then turned to his left, "Father don't you have something to say?"
"Son… You are old enough to make decisions for yourself… except this time I'm making this decision for you. And besides, you might start to like the idea." He responded his eyes twinkling happily and ignored the glares that his son was sending him.
"Prince Yami, you will marry my daughter in two full moons from now, by then you will be back from your trip to Earth," said Anzu's father.
"What trip to Earth? Is there something you are not telling me Father?" Yami asked. His eyes were narrowed and his hands were turned into fists.
"We decided that we need to study the human race more closely. Since you have been so interested on humans lately, you were chosen to go to Earth and find whatever you can about them. Not just the humans alone you also need to learn about the environment and if you can, their weak points as well," said Yami's father with an almost business-like voice.
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…will be a good wife…
…find their weak points as well…
Seto took a step back, (Yes, he is still eavesdropping --) and thought about everything he just heard. Yami was getting married. At that thought, mixed feelings settled on the pit of his stomach; sadness, disbelief, and jealousy. He mentally kicked himself. He couldn't really be jealous, could he? He didn't have a reason to. Yami was getting married, he should be happy for him. He shook those thoughts out of his mind and thought about the other muffled conversation he just heard. Whose weak points were the aliens looking for? Were they planning an attack? The inner voices in his head were demanding to stop listening and go back to the room were Bakura was probably waiting for him. He already heard too much, he had to leave before some one sees him. Slowly he backed away and turned to the direction that he came from.
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"As you know Yami, in a few months we will start the invasion on Earth and we need all the information we can get. Of course we only want to destroy the humans not the planet itself, which is why you must go as soon as possible. Oh, and don't forget to give us a report on what you found out every once in a while. If you find that the planet just isn't habitable for us then you will let us know and we can come pick you up," Yami's father explained.
"Perfect, can this get any worse?" said Yami sarcastically.
"I almost forgot, you will take Bakura with you as well. He can help you in some of your research and could serve as a bodyguard."
Yami let out a groan and stood up to leave, but was stopped when his father spoke again. "Yami, take the humans that you gathered back to their planet. Tomorrow I will send a servant to prepare everything for your journey." He finished.
Without saying anything he turned on his heels and left the room. Quickly he made his way back to the 'room' where Bakura, Seto, and Jou were at. But as soon as he opened the door he froze as he watched the scene in front of him. Bakura and Jou were at the floor, Bakura was in top of Jou holding his wrists above his head. Bakura was enjoying harassing him, but Jou was screaming and cursing at Bakura to get off of him.
"Bakura, what the hell are you doing? And where the hell is Seto?" Yami shouted making Bakura jump in surprise.
"Calm down Prince, Blondie and I were just trying to get to know each other better. And I think Seto said something about going to boil his eyes."
"Well then, this all better stop when I come back with Seto."
"Yes, sir" he mocked. Bakura watched as Yami left to look for Seto, and he turned to Jou.
"So, what do you want to do now blondie?" Bakura asked Jou while giving him an evil smile.
"Get away from me, you… you pervert!" Jou quickly moved as far away as possible from him.
"Aww, do you hate me now, blondie?" Bakura teased him, until Yami returned with Seto. Who looked like he was about to puke at the sight of Bakura and Jou.
"Bakura, stop this right now, get away from him!" Yami angrily shouted at him.
"Alright! Alright!" he said moving to stand to the other side of the room. "How's this, your highness?" Bakura said giving a mocking bow.
"Better, though I would die of happiness if you were stranded on a planet on the other side of the galaxy"
"…"
After a few seconds of silence, a new boy entered the room. He looked just like Yami except smaller and had a child-like look in his eyes.
"Hello brother, I brought some food for you and your guests, I also came to tell you that everything is ready for your trip tomorrow." The boy said, giving the humans a polite smile. He placed two trays of food on the small table in the center of the room and went to stand next to his brother.
"Seto, Jou, I want you to meet my brother Yugi, he is the one who made the collars that are around your necks. Yugi, these guys are the humans we took and performed tests on." Yami introduced them while giving his brother a smile.
"You performed tests on us? What kind of tests?" Jou stood up quickly and closed his fists tightly on Yami's shirt.
"Calm down Jou, I just made few tests to see if you guys have any type of diseases. We also measured and weighted you two. I got a sample of your DNA, performed some
X-rays to see your bones, scraped some skin cells, and got a sample of your hair. Some of the servants got some brain scans, got a bit of urine from you two. And finally Bakura drew out a little piece of bone tissue, all done without even leaving a scar. And finally we took a few photos of you to remember you." Yami clarified.
"Why do you need to perform so many tests on us?" Seto asked he was a bit offended that he was touched when he was asleep.
Yami smiled slyly, and put an innocent face "That's a secret, we can't tell you that." Somehow, Yami reminded Seto of Mokuba, who by now must be wondering if his brother went to another business trip without telling him. Making sure Yami turned away, Seto let a small smile tug his lips.
"Well, let's eat!" Bakura said from his spot on the opposite side of the room, breaking the silence. At this comment Jou beamed and started eating everything he could get his hands on.
'Wow Blondie! You look so appealing when you vacuum your food.' Bakura joked.
To Seto's and Yami's surprise, Jou started choking. Smirking, Bakura went over to him and padded him on the back. Once everything passed, Jou shockingly began to eat slower.
/Bakura, you bastard don't you ever do that again/
'But blondie, I was only stating the truth. Why did you have to start eating slower?'
Both Seto and Yami and raised an eyebrow at the silence that came over the other two.
"I see that the collars are working very well right Bakura?" Yugi said to him, proud of his invention.
"They are perfect little brother, we can communicate very well," Yami smiled at his brother.
"That's good to hear. Well, now as soon as you guys finish eating I will send some servants to escort your humans to their rooms" Yugi ignored the choking sounds that Jou and Seto did at hearing the word 'your' and swiftly left the room.
"Alright, listen you two, I will send the servants to wake you up in the morning to lead you to the navigation room, and we will leave after that, if you're not there by then, we will leave without you" Yami told them quickly.
After the small warning, everyone went back to eat. Suddenly an interesting thought came over to him and voiced it to Yami.
You guys can eat human food? asked Seto
Yami smiled, 'Yes we can eat anything you eat but we try not to take in to much sugar. Our bodies are just not well designed for breaking it down. We of the Jekun race are mostly carnivorous and predators, but we can digest other types of food'. Yami explained before going back to his own food.
After a few minutes they were done eating. A servant came in to take Seto and Jou to their rooms.
"Alright, you will have a few hours to rest. Then we will come and wake you up early and take you to the navigation room and from there we will go back to Earth." Yami said quickly, he could tell that the humans were worn-out and needed some rest.
Seto followed the servant silently, trying to keep up with the alien's powerful stamina. After going through many hallways, they finally reached a door.
"Here you go; this will be your room. If you need anything please call. Good night sir." He said. He bowed and left before Seto could even register what he just said.
He opened the door to his room and walked inside. He barely had the strength to remove his trench coat and shoes before letting himself fall on the bed. He immediately fell into a dreamless sleep.
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Seto was suddenly awakened by someone knocking on the door. Slowly he got up and opened the door, while rubbing the sleep of his eyes.
"Good morning," Yami greeted him, "Don't worry you will get more sleep on the ship."
Quietly, they both started walking towards the navigating room. When they got there, he saw Bakura and a very unhappy Jou waiting for them. Once a few greeting were exchanged, they went inside the ship. Then Yami turned to face the two tired looking humans.
"You can sleep on these chairs and by the time you wake up, we will arrive at Earth. The distance between here and your planet is about 700 million light-years away, but it will only take us about an hour and a half. Rest well." Yami said and then left to operate the ship with Bakura.
It wasn't really hard for Seto and Jou to fall back asleep; they both sat on the very comfy
chairs and were immediately sound asleep.
An hour and a half later, Seto woke up well rested and relaxed. It seemed to him like he slept for three days. Jou woke up soon after him. They stretched a bit then walked out of the small room. They met with Bakura and Yami in the piloting room.
"We have successfully landed on the same place we picked you up at" Yami said motioning for the others to follow him outside. Seto frowned, something was different about Yami; he looked a little pale. He was surprised when he realized that he was worried about him.
"We're ready, let's go" Bakura said and everybody followed. The door opened and silently walked outside. It was still dark in the forest and silent. All the wildlife was quiet as they watched them walk out of the ship. Jou and Seto took a deep breath, happy to know they were finally at home. But before the doors closed again two figures ran out of the ship.
"Wait, we are coming too!" Yugi shouted at them running to them, a boy with the same silver hair as Bakura stepped after him.
"What the hell are you two doing here?" Yami snapped at them.
"We wanted to see how this planet looked like. So we snuck inside the ship. We can't let you guys have all the fun" Yugi innocently smiled.
"We are not here for fun, we are here for research." Yami said, trying to cool down. His father was going to kill him.
"Why are you here little brother?" Bakura asked Ryou, who was very interested in everything his gentle chocolate brown eyes landed.
"I tried to stop the Prince to not sneak in the ship, but he insisted Kura" Ryou answered still looking around the forest.
"Are we ready to go?" asked Jou breaking the tension, and looking very eager to go home.
Yami still hesitated about letting his little brother stay on Earth, but in the end he sighed and said, "When we get back you will be in a lot of trouble, Yugi"
"I'll take the risk"
"Fine"
"Let's go" Seto said leading them to where their cars were still parked. Strangely, Seto noticed that Yami, Bakura, Ryou, and Yugi looked paler than usual.
At the sight of their cars, Jou leaped in joy and ran the small distance between them and the cars. Seto too walked towards them but stopped when he noticed that the others weren't following. He turned to look at them. Both Ryou and Yugi were touching and looking at everything they could while saying some 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs'. They were very fascinated with the trees and grass that grew out of the ground. Bakura was sitting on the ground and poking a beetle with his finger, he wasn't very pleased though when he ended up poking the beetle to hard and crushing it. Yami was currently looking at the stars and constellations. He was also very captivated by the moon.
Yami kept concentrating on the stars, when he felt someone watching him. He turned his head to find Seto staring at him. He gave him a reassuring smile and turned to the black and grey spaceship. The ship was long, narrow, and smooth not saucer-shaped like most alien ships that are seen on TV. There were many blue and yellow lights dimming inside. Yami lifted his arm to the ship and his bracelet shined repeatedly. The ship purred softly, barely making a sound as the motors turned on, and the ship elevated into the sky until it was not visible anymore.
"Let's move, we need to leave before the sun rises" Yami ordered and everybody walked in silence. Except for the crunch, snap, crunch of the twigs and leaves in the ground, which Yugi and Ryou tried to avoid stepping on without much success.
Yami stopped walking, his face was much paler and he was panting hard. He dropped to his knees which brought everybody's attention on him.
"Yami, are you alright?" Seto kneeled by his side and held him to his chest to prevent him to fall to the ground. He noticed that he was having trouble breathing.
"He's going to be fine. You see, our planet is composed of solid minerals coated with gases but mostly hydrogen. Our bodies are designed to breathe the hydrogen instead of oxygen like you humans. Your planet does have hydrogen gases but not nearly as much as ours, so the Prince is having a harder time to breathe. He will soon be able to adjust to it." Bakura explained, he looked a little pale but clearly he was not suffering as bad as Yami.
"Why doesn't it affect you three as badly?" Seto asked holding Yami closer.
Bakura glanced over his shoulder while walking over to where the cars were parked, "As a soldier and protector of the king and the Prince, I travel to many planets and some of them have low hydrogen as well. And since Ryou and Yugi are younger their bodies adjust to different environments faster" With that he motion to Ryou to follow then went to wait next to Jou who was already next to his car. Ryou caught the meaning and followed his brother, but not before giving Yugi a shy smile and a bye. Jou climbed in the driver's seat and Bakura and Ryou on the back seat. As they drove away he could hear Bakura ask if he could drive, but was answered with a very loud 'hell no!'
Yugi had to smile he couldn't believe that he was finally on the planet that his father always talked about. If it weren't for the trips that the Jekun race made to earth and extracting human DNA they wouldn't be able to change their body into human forms. He turned to look at his brother; his smile was quickly replaced by a frown.
"Can you walk, Yami?" he asked, his boyish features were curved in a frown and his amethyst eyes were full of concern.
Yami smiled weakly and nodded. Seto supported him on his right side and Yugi on his left. Together they walked towards Seto's expensive looking car. Gently holding Yami with his left hand, Seto opened the door with the other and they placed Yami in the passenger seat. Once that was done, Yugi climbed into the back seat while Seto started the car. Quickly, the country side started to disappear as they neared the city.
One look at Yami told Seto that he was asleep and didn't look like he was a having a hard time breathing anymore. This surprised Seto quite a lot, after all they just arrived at Earth a few minutes ago and they have already adapted to an environment that took humans thousands and maybe even millions of years to adapt.
Taking a look on the mirror Seto saw Yugi with an amazed expression as he observed the lights and the people passing by. These aliens were different than people usually described them. He slightly wondered what his hyper brother would think. He wasn't even sure if he should tell his brother that aliens were staying with them. He question to himself if these aliens even possessed as a threat. He pushed those thoughts out of his mind and paid attention to the road before him. The trip to Seto's house was uneventful and quiet.