Okay, I admit, I've been slack. Oh well! Next comes the epilogue! So watch out: D
Enjoy.
Chapter 12 - In the Company of Wealth
The steady drip of the IV kept steady rhythm with the oxygen mask, heart monitor, and numerous other contraptions set up around him. Seto felt sore, as if he had been run over by a car and then thrown a few hundred yards. When he tried to move his fingers, he didn't doubt it. Pain was inevitable every time he moved, and it scared him to think that he couldn't feel his legs at all.
But that didn't even brush the iceberg. He was aware, oh yes, he could hear his brother coming in the room every few hours and he could feel his brother's warm fingers wrap around his own hand. Mokuba must've sat beside him for hours on end, only to get up for a drink, food, or the restroom. Just the thought of the care Mokuba gave him made his heart beat heavily.
If only he could open his eyes. If only, with the days --- maybe weeks he stayed as he was --- that he could just have enough strength to move his lips to thank his little brother.
How long had it been? That was something to ponder. Time was lost in the eerie darkness. Only his brother's softly spoken words kept his sanity, and his thoughts that he was indeed alive.
Then, one day, his brother spoke worriedly to him. "Seto . . . it's been a week. Please wake up. The Doctors say that there's nothing wrong with you, but why don't you wake up? Do you not want to? After what happened to Joey . . ." his brother's voice faltered.
The mutt? What had happened to him? Seto wished for his brother to go on about the subject, but he didn't and instead tightened his hands around Seto's wearily.
"I just want you to wake up and come home. Please come home. Don't you want to come home?"
I do, Seto said to himself. That stupid monitor keeps me up at night. The stupid beeps . . . But the real reason was the darkness that surrounded him. He didn't want to think about it, or else he would be scared of it even more then he already was.
"Just come home. Please come back."
Seto felt his brother's forehead against his arm and the wetness of tears. If only he could lift his arms and comfort his brother. If only. It tore his heart to hear his brother sob for him. In some ways, this was worse then being dead. Now he was just helpless.
"I want you to come back. You're here . . . but you're not. You're miles away probably." Mokuba sniffed. "Somewhere away from his yucky hospital with its cafeteria food and cranky old nurses that won't let me stay here with you at night! They don't understand, do they? They don't have a brother."
Seto tried to grasp Mokuba's hand, but the command fell to the pits of his mind. Nothing wanted to move. Nothing wanted to help him break the spell of silence he drowned in.
"I'll stay here with you. I promise. Forever." His head lifted from Seto's arm. "We're a team. And heaven nor hell can break that! Nothing can!" But then he just began to cry harder, harder than Seto ever heard. It was a cry that told him that things were not looking up, that the Doctors had said something to Mokuba that could not have been good. "But this stupid coma has. Dr. Mathias said that you're shutting down . . . that you're ---" the words choked him in the throat. Instead, he changed to a different subject to no avail, and then to Duel Monsters, which almost cheered Seto up if it wasn't for the constant interruptions of sniffling and hiccups.
Then the day ended, and Mokuba was forced to leave again. The next day he came, then the next and the next until almost two weeks passed without any change. Only the news of growing worse.
A tube had been stuck down his throat to make him breath, and wires had been hooked to his chest to monitor every change in him, even his mind was being constantly monitored now. And the darkness just kept growing. Growing.
Mokuba finally had let slip that it was only a matter of time now before Seto was dead again.
"I doubt you're listening anymore," Mokuba said wearily, as if haunted by something tragic. "And --- and I know you don't want to be like this anymore. It's just --- just that . . . you --- you aren't gonna wake up, are you? The Doctor said you won't wake up, that there isn't a chance . . . not even for a miracle. He says --- says to just ---" Mokuba caught a sob in his throat, he had been doing that oddly well lately, just as Seto does. It was so he could not let anyone see him cry, not in public anyway. "He says to unplug you. To let you go peacefully since there is nothing, in man, medicine, or miracle that can help."
Seto felt his mind go cold at the thought. He knew he was getting worse, but he was beginning to live with it --- but now . . . this. Maybe he hadn't been trying hard enough? No . . . he had been trying. All along he had!
"So . . . if you, you know, want to stay with me. I --- I need you to tell me. Just tell me you love me. I need you to tell me, even though I already know. But I need you to tell everyone who doesn't believe me. I need you to show them how a miracle works." His brother was in tears by the end, sniffling and hiccupping so much, it made it hard for any other words to come. The sounds sank deep down into the pits of Seto's heart and hammered themselves there, to be taken notice of, to be acknowledged forever on.
Unconsciously, Seto's eyelids tightened and his eyebrows furrowed. A miracle. Now they were talking about miracles instead of worth. Maybe they were connected? Your worth was how much someone cared for you, and a miracle fed from how much someone loved and prayed for you. They had some of the same aspects . . . some of the same boundaries. But miracles, like worth, was limitless. It only takes one person to pray for you, and one person to love you with all their heart for a miracle to happen. Only one person. Mokuba. I think . . . he might be right.
"Show them . . ." Mokuba sniffled, "Show them how wrong they are about my brother."
No one underestimated Seto Kaiba. Took him as a quiter, as someone who would abandon the only person in his life that filled his heart with joy and happiness. The only person he would ever die for. Part of his own blood . . . part of his own family. Without any warning whatsoever, Seto's hand moved to Mokuba's and grasped it. Icy blue eyes opened to meet tearful navy. Mokuba.
Mokuba looked so ragged. His hair was in a ponytail, out of the way of his face, and deep circles wound themselves under his eye. He must've have slept too well. Or not have slept at all some nights. But, as quick as Seto had seen them, they were gone, replaced by the look of sheer wonder. "S-Seto . . ."
The elder squeezed his brother's hand tightly.
"Seto!" Mokuba yelped for joy and hugged his brother tightly, bypassing all wires and tubes connected to him. "Seto!"
The elder tightened his hand around Mokuba's and nodded slowly, feeling the scratching pain of the tub in his throat. There were tears in Mokuba's eyes, but Seto could also see a little of himself in there also, the hardness that made him Seto Kaiba. And there was no doubt, demons or angels watching, that a miracle had happened.
"You came back --- I knew you would!" Mokuba cheered and cried into Seto's chest hysterically. "I knew you would! This --- we --- I . . . I thought I'd lost you again."
Seto shifted and closed his eyes tightly. But you won't. Not as long as I can fight. He hooked his chin on his brother's forehead and rested it there, just listening to the silence of all the hospital sounds and his brother's quiet sobs.
But when the nurse walked in, Mokuba was not the only one with tears staining his face.
A few weeks later, not only was Seto to his full potential again, but he was about to leave with his brother to return home. Fitting the last accessory, his trench coat, to his lean form, he marveled in the short mirror and glanced to Mokuba thoughtfully, who laid on the hospital bed with a deck of Duel Monster Cards, arranging them in order from magic to trap. Pulling down his cuffs, he inspected himself one last time before turning to his brother.
"Are you sure you got the word out that my dying was a hoax?"
Mokuba nodded absently. "Completely. Media news was all over it. Right now there are hundreds of news reporters outside the hospital fixing to cause a riot if you don't go out there soon." He placed the Blue-Eyes White Dragon on top of the organized deck, then picked up the Red-Eyes Black Dragon. "Are you gonna go see Joey now? He's out of intensive care . . . on the top floor now."
Seto glanced down. The top floor. That's where he was for a long time, as he remembered. It wasn't a pleasant floor, the floor for the terminally ill patients. "So he hasn't woken up yet?"
"No, not even Yami or Bakura can bring him back. They tried everything . . ." Mokuba's voice was small. "But he won't come back. Yami says that he's not even there --- that no one is in there."
Suddenly, Seto stiffened. "Wait." He spun around to the door, grabbing his clothes in his steel brief case and opened the door. "Come on Mokuba."
"What's up?"
"Nothing. Just come on."
Reaching the top floor, Seto shoved past a few nurse in his brisk step to Joey's room number, 906. A doctor just surfaced from the room, muttering to a tall woman with auburn hair and a sad expression, Joey's sister --- what was her name? --- Serenity, yes, Serenity, was behind her. Seto stopped behind the doctor to catch the last few sentences.
" . . . he's almost gone. This is a medical bafflement, almost as disturbing as Mr. Kaiba's. But Mr. Wheeler, he's worse. We've tried everything from electric jolts to brain simulations." The Doctor shook his head. "You know what you have to do if this keeps up, Ms. Wheeler. Be prepared, that's all I ask." Then he turned around to find Seto glaring at him. "Oh, Mr. Kaiba."
"Are you telling these family members to just give up on a loved one? Is that what you told my brother?" His fist tightened around the briefcase handle. The Doctor sputtered, then snapped his mouth closed. "Out of my way."
The Doctor quickly step to the side, and then stumbled away.
Seto turned to Serenity and bowed stiffly in greeting. "I'm here to see the mutt."
Ms. Wheeler looked puzzled. "Mr. Kaiba? What do you want with my son?" Her voice was distraught, as if she was trying to hold up five-hundred pound weight alone. Just as laddened as his brother had been while fighting back tears.
"I want to pay my respects to him," Seto replied, still cold and detached as always.
Her mother was about to object when Serenity gave her a weary look and bowed in return. "Thank you, Mr. Seto. I think Joey will like that a lot."
"Thank you," Seto muttered in reply and walked through the door into the quiet room, and asked Mokuba to stay outside. He obeyed reluctantly and retreated to the waiting room with Serenity and her mother. Seto put his briefcase on the nearby table and rolled up his sleeves, taking the long silence with the monitor's beeps as a soothing time to think his thoughts out.
Finally, he leaned against the end of the bed and nudged Joey's foot. "Jonathan. Come out."
Joey lay dormant still, without a change in heart or respiratory rhythm. His hair had darkened, from the vibrant blonde it was, to a honey brown, lighter than Seto's. Almost Serenity's color. Almost.
"Jonathan. If you don't answer and stay within him without contact, you'll never see outside these walls alive. Never."
For a moment, the heart monitor jumped, then calmed again.
"Now show yourself if you want to live, and living is not just feeling a heartbeat and air in your lungs. Take that from someone who knows now. If you want to live, you have to face your enemies, not cower to them. And right now, your enemy is the mutt, isn't it?"
The respiratory monitor began to compress faster, the heart monitor quickening its beeps to show aggravation.
"So face him. Don't be a coward. I don't see how someone could live by taking someone else's life. If you don't just take it like a man, both of you will die. You have a second chance, like me, so do you really want to waste it?"
"He'll shove me out." Jonathan took the oxygen mask from his face, opening his eyes to reveal a pure, dark blue. "He'll cast me away, just like Arthur had to with Excalibur."
"Yes," Seto agreed, "but also on the other side, it said 'take me'. It's a double-edged blade, Jonathan. You've faced one before, I'm sure."
"But what of his friends? His parents who keep pestering him to wake up when he's not even here."
"Then where is he?"
Jonathan lifted a hand to point to the bracelet beside Seto's briefcase. "In there. Safe. I couldn't risk him staying out with your fight with that demon. Trickery is always abound with evil."
Seto reached back for the bracelet and tossed it around in his hands. "So you protected the mutt? More than I would do." He caught the bracelet in his left hand and tossed it to the spirit. "Tell him that."
"He will cast me away."
"Then, if you're so scared, quit your pitiful charade and act as Joseph to get out, and then you'll have a life of your own."
Disheartened, the ex-Crusader shook his head and looked out of the window. "I can't do that."
"Why?"
"Because, Seto, this is his life. And, no matter how much I'd want to change it, it's his and not mine and will never be mine." Jonathan closed his eyes again. "So what do I do?"
"You are so stupid," Seto grumbled. "Do you actually think that he'll be as heartless as me?" He scoffed. "You have to be joking."
Jonathan gazed to the bracelet in thought, and then slipped it on slowly, shedding an unearthly light upon the room. When the light blinked out, Jonathan stared to the wall behind Seto, spaced out. One eye was dark blue, the other a rich chocolate brown. Seto shifted under the mindless gaze and began to pace the room.
He must've paced for at least an hour, with only the heart monitor stuttering sometimes or the soft muttering of someone's voice through Joey's lips. He'd lost track of who said what in the long run, and finally gave up the whole memorization game to think on his own.
It had been at least two months since . . . well, his first death which the newspapers spazzed out about --- which had been cleared up by the miracle of his brother, who had full-heartedly claimed earlier on that he was not dead at all. Thank the Lord for his little brother's faith, the CEO had to say to himself every morning as they sat down for breakfast and every night when they went to bed after this day. Thank the Lord for it all.
Seto yawned and folded his hands over his chest. So, the next thing there is to do is to re-paint my company building, catch up on the work, and, of course, settle all legal settlements with Malsworth. Seto had to groan at that task. Malsworth had given him back his company, after declaring bankruptcy which wasn't all true. What the truth was, Seto didn't know, but it really didn't matter now that he had his wealth and titled restored.
Suddenly, he stopped his pacing and looked to the bed. Someone had cleared their throat. Joey's hair was still that matted honey brown, but his eyes were normal, the chocolate that annoyed Kaiba to no end.
"Nice to see ya, Seto." Joey said weakly. Dark circles wove under his eyes. "Glad ya dropped by."
"I'm only doing this because ---"
"I know, I know. Johnny --- Jonathan --- told me." He winced as if someone had just stabbed him in the head and then muttered, "Jeez, now I know why Yugi's always distracted . . ."
"Now I have two mutts to annoy me instead of one, huzzah for me." Seto quirked an eyebrow as Joey growled. Then, unexpectedly, the CEO bowed to his opponent. "It pains me to say thank you, but I do. If it wasn't for your help, I probably wouldn't've succeeded."
Joey, startled, bowed his head in return and winked. "No prob."
Seto scowled, gathered his briefcase, and left the room, absently brushing past a nurse, who he formally droned that she'd better go and check up on Joseph Wheeler. Moments later, pandemonium rung through the hallways, all nurses and doctors rushing into the room, along with Joey's family and friends who'd gotten there just moments ago.
Seto got Mokuba and they headed out of the hospital. When they left the front door and met the news cameras, the story had already floated down from the top floor, that Joseph Wheeler was also alive and well.
As they parted through the media finally without much enthusiasm, Seto paused at the sight of the ex-Pharaoh, hands in pockets and looking quite casual. Seto frowned, wondering what would the nuisance wanted now, and wandered regally up to him. Mokuba tagged by his side.
Yami, under drooped eyelids, traced the lines on his Puzzle lazily, unaware of Seto's presence. The CEO gave a slight cough and Yami shot his crimson eyes up to meet Seto's fiercely, then they softened. "So you're leaving." There was a sullen tone in his enigmatic voice. "To start a new life yet again I suppose."
"Yes, what else would you expect me to do?" Seto folded his arms over his chest. He can't possibly expect me to not live my life!
"I expect nothing different," the spirit said in the same nonchalant tone.
Seto snorted. "Then why are you here? Surely not to preach to me. I don't see how you could, you don't have a life like I do ---"
"--- No no, of course I don't. I gave mine up a long time ago. Life is something around me now, not with me." He sighed and dug into his pockets for something. "Yugi wanted me to give you something, I think it's a letter or an invitation or something. Who knows what my aibou plans these days . . ."
Seto watched as he searched every pocket, dug through every single little crevice where an invitation could be stuck, and finally found it at the knee-joint pocket, for he was wearing unusual (for him) cargos at the time. The brunette inhaled deeply. "For once, I know that something is bothering you, and it shows --- badly."
"Hmm? Oh, yes . . . of course," Yami said absently, unfolding the invite to give to Seto. His hands were unusually clumsy as he tried to unfold the letter that had been clearly folded in the football style by Tristan, who must've gotten bored at the Game Shop and messed with the invite. Yami didn't seem to notice that he kept on trying to unfold the same flap.
Mokuba blinked in confusion, "Uh . . . Yugi, let me do it."
"What? Oh --- oh right. Here," he handed the invite over. "That's the invitation, or whatever it is."
The raven-haired youth took the note, but didn't open it. Instead, he kept his attention to the spirit's abnormal behavior. "Is there something wrong? You know, we can ---"
A camera flashed directly in his face. Mokuba growled and shoved the paparazzi away, and the news media's microphones. Seto gave them one glare, and they retreated to their cars as quickly as they had come.
"Thanks Seto," Mokuba smiled. "Yugi --- Yami, I mean, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, you assure I --- I mean, I assure you, nothing is ham --- harmfully wrong." He rubbed his temples. Seto raised an eyebrow in question. "Truthfully, nothing's wrong. I just have a little dizzy spell, that's all."
"How long has the dizzy spell lasted?"
"Hmm? Oh, umm . . . forgive me of my forgetfulness. I--- I assure you that I'm fine, alright? Now if you'll please ---"
Seto held out a long arm to block the spirit's path, and instead turned him in the direction of the limo. Mokuba led the disoriented spirit by his hands while Seto nudged him on with a hand to his back. They climbed in and Yami sighed hazardously as Seto slammed the car door.
"Now," Seto frowned, "why is the great Game King dizzy, disoriented, forgetful, and completely airy today?"
"It's been happening for . . . ah, I think since you fell into your coma. How long ago was that?" The spirit shook his head. "I can't remember, scrambling are dates and words are the mixed --- I mean . . . mixed are the words --- my words are mixed up."
Mokuba nodded slowly, "I think we can see that. So it happened when you and Seto and Joey were up in the building?"
The spirit nodded unsurely. "I believe, if I am not mistaken . . . maybe it was that spell? The demonic aura might have set my soul-waves awry, but that I doubt. Or it might have been that white, luminous light at the end? No . . . that light seemed to rid me of my headache, at least for a while."
"So it was the spell that knocked you and Joey both cold. The one Jonathan cast, right?" Seto asked.
"I believe so."
"Then you're screwed up because of that."
Yami nodded vaguely. "Maybe it had a ruinous affect on me since I am only an ethereal being? Yes, I think that was it. I know I've tried to heal myself . . . but maybe all my attempts have failed? I cannot remember."
A slight sigh escaped Seto's thin lips as he leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "Then they're only one solution."
"Solution?" Mokuba and Yami chorused together.
Uneventfully, Seto unbuttoned his coat sleeves on his right arm and then rolled it up, revealing the blue and silver bracelet he had acquired earlier. "Lean forward," he muttered and Yami cautiously obeyed. Seto gently touched the ex-Pharaoh's forehead and concentrated on the bracelet.
His pinky twitched, and then the bracelet squeezed his arm, swelling with a surge of pure, overwhelming power that Seto forcefully molded into his fingers. The tendrils of magic seeped into the spirit's head, giving Seto brief glimpse's of the Pharaoh's mind and soul, jumbled and ransacked as if someone had gone in with a sledgehammer and tore the whole place apart. Doors were hanging open by their hinges, whole staircases had crumbled to the ground . . . the throne in one of the only unlocked memories vandalized. Such disarray . . . this was hardly the work of an angel's spell, but yet it didn't wreak of demonic aura either.
Seto's eyes focused on Yami again. He knew what had happened but didn't say a word. He was protecting his aibou, he told himself calmly. It must've been when the spell took affect. He didn't want Yugi affected, so he tried to fight it after falling victim to it, turning it into his own disease with his own shadow magic --- I can't believe that I'm actually saying this! Seto scowled inwardly as his magic retreated into his bracelet again and he sat back. "Don't muck with spells like Jonathan's again."
" . . . Understood." Yami leaned back, rubbing his forehead thoughtfully, rather relieved. He looked better also, moreover his regal self rather then a disarrayed spirit, but the confusion still showed slightly in his eyes, and it would for a while. "How should I repay you?"
"Call it even," Seto opened the car door again. "I bet Joey's waiting for Yugi."
Yami stepped out of the limo. "Yugi's already there ---" Seto and Mokuba gave him a startled look " --- in spirit, I assure you. We are still bound together by the Puzzle, no divine entity changed that or will ever I suppose." He gave that arrogant smirk of his. "But I'm not complaining." Waving, he bid his farewells and set off into a run, but then on second thought, hopped backwards foolishly to speak with the Kaiba brothers again. "And, so you know, I'm glad you're well Seto. It is nice to see a rival on his feet again."
"I feel the same," Seto replied. "But don't expect me to duel you anytime soon."
Yami paused to frown. "Why?"
"Because it'll be a miracle if I have enough room to squeeze in Mokuba within my busy schedule."
Mokuba pouted and jibbed him in the ribs. Yami gave a quiet chuckle. "I believe, Seto, that you should be counting your miracles. Lately, they have been happening quite often, wouldn't you agree?"
Mokuba grinned and winked at the spirit, who did the same and turned towards the hospital. "See ya Yami!"
The spirit waved back and disappeared into the crowd.
"Miracle? Hmph, there's no such thing --- Mokuba! Stop that ---"
In the instant, Mokuba dove for his brother and tackled him to the ground. Seto landed with a loud thump and then rolled, tossing his brother onto the sofas and slammed the car door shut. The driver sighed and opened the hatch to the back.
"Mr. Kaiba, where to?"
For a brief moment, Seto surfaced from the chaos. "Home," he managed to command before Mokuba tackled him as if he was diving into a mosh pit.
And, happy to report, on the news for the next few days, the news reporters kept calling the incident at Domino Health Care Hospital, "Two Miracles in One".
But all Seto paid attention to was his brother, and the renovations to his company building which were beginning to get underway. Soon everything would be normal, or as close to normal as possible.
Though one thing stuck in Seto's mind as he worked on his company and spent long hours on his laptop; the worth of someone, and how far a corrupt person would go to snag as much wealth and power as possible.
And the price one pays to live in the company of wealth.
Stay tuned, yo.