Writing this chapter was agony. I had no idea how to do it without going into too much exposition or plagiarizing, so I revised a lot to reach a happy medium. This is heavy on actual plot from the English dub, so, hopefully it was accurate without being, again, plagiaristic. I really wanted to do a "behind the scenes, what they were really thinking" type of fic, and this is the muddy part. I hope you enjoy.

Reflexive Rescue

Compared to collecting the Egyptian God Cards, rescuing Mokuba seemed like a simple task. After all, Kaiba had had to rescue Mokuba before, and Lumis and Umbra, once he and Yugi had their numbers down, were pathetically simple. With Obelisk, what would have been an irritation was actually a pleasure. There was nothing quite like using a god card. It was like what he felt when he had an orgasm, only the pleasure was undiluted by any shame or secrecy or sadness. This was a pleasure he wanted to lord over the world. Obelisk, the mighty Juggernaut, was his machine, his vessel, and, piloting Obelisk, he was able to feel everything Obelisk felt. Controlling a god card was not merely controlling a hologram. It was as if he possessed Obelisk, and from his seat in its skull he could feel the muscles bunch and the lightning gather in his blood as if it were his own.

Oh, it was glorious.

At first, he was surprised Mokuba had been able to escape on his own. Watching Mokuba running toward him, he felt pride at his little brother's new independence . It made him feel like he had succeeded in promoting Mokuba's resourcefulness. So far, he had been a good father.

He had watched Yugi take Slifer from the pierced bald freak with the Mickey Mouse shoes, or, at least it looked like Yugi. There was something strange about the midget with the multicolored spike hair. Sometimes, Kaiba could hear Yugi's voice deepen when he watched him duel. The shrimp's eyes looked harder and older, unsettlingly so. Kaiba could even swear that Yugi grew a few inches during intense duels. During this duel, however, he only felt jealous that it was Yugi, not he, that was winning Slifer. Using Obelisk to subdue another god card would be exquisite. He could imagine himself inside Obelisk again, feeling the lightning gather in his fists and fly from his palms, seeing Slifer fall and then feeling the slick surface of the card between his fingers as it was handed over…

No matter. He would win Slifer from Yugi soon enough. The delayed gratification would make it even better, and Yugi was a more worthy opponent than the creepy mime.

Yugi had insisted on accompanying him and Mokuba to the docks to meet Marik. Kaiba hoped that Yugi wouldn't stand in the way of his vengeance. He could see it now—he would be standing over Marik, ready to drive the heel of his leather shoe into his teeth, and Yugi the pacifist and all his little friends would pull him off. That would mean Kaiba would have to waste valuable ass-kicking time subduing the little Gandhis before getting back to stomping in Marik's teeth and taking his god card. He didn't care about Yugi's little friends.

Except, Tea would be there.

Mokuba was really worried about her. "We have to help save her, Seto!" He was practically in tears. "I couldn't have escaped without her. Promise me we'll help rescue her!"

"She'll be fine, Mokuba," Kaiba had said, speaking around the rock that had lodged itself in his esophagus. Tea? Tea Gardner, of all people, had saved Mokuba?

They had arrived at the dock, where Marik was waiting. He had leaned out of the helicopter before it landed. Kaiba 's eyes swept around the scene, taking in the details. There were two platforms by the dock. Wheeler was standing on one platform, and Kaiba could see that he was chained to it. The sun glared off the chains.

The helicopter was coming in for a landing next to a crane. Hanging from the crane's hook were ropes that were wrapped around a large crate that looked to weigh at least 800 lbs. The crate dangled over the other platform. On the platform was a simple wooden chair, looking rather incongruous with the rest of the setting. The crate cast a shadow over the platform. Kaiba wondered what the chair was for.

The chopper landed, and Yugi leaped out of it and ran to the platform. Moron. Didn't he know it could be booby-trapped? Not to mention the fact that Wheeler sounded strange, like two voices were speaking through his mouth. One of the voices, the one underlying Wheeler's normal voice, was nasal and whiny, even more than Wheeler's.

He heard a giggling coming from behind Wheeler. He looked up and saw Tea walking down the metal staircase that led to the dock. Even now, he marveled at the grace of her walk, at her ability to float down steep metal stairs, slick with ocean spray, in high heels. The walk was hers, but that laugh was not; it was a cruel parody. Underneath Tea's natural, vivacious giggle was the same grating, harsh voice speaking through Joey. Her eyes were dull and lifeless, her face blank, like she had been lobotomized. Kaiba would have preferred to see her eyes filmed with tears and fright, her face pleading, than to see her like this—empty and numb and dead.

She climbed onto the other platform, and sat down on the chair. Kaiba gazed at her. She was so small and young and fragile, so absolutely helpless. He liked that she was that way when he was pressing himself against her and putting his hands on her body; it made him feel powerful, strong, even more mature, but her vulnerability sickened him now.

Through Joey, Marik was describing what he was planning to do. Kaiba listened to him drone on and looked at Tea sitting on that platform. She wasn't even blinking, just staring into space with those dead eyes. The crane's engine turned over and growled awake. He watched the shadow of the crate cage Tea in a square of darkness as one of Marik's mind slaves positioned it over the chair, over her.

At that moment, all went silent, except for a little voice in his head that said

No. No. Not Tea. No.

He reflexively jumped forward, but the Wheeler/Marik thing snickered and whined that if he interfered, the crate would be dropped. And, for the first time in his life since Gozaburo molded him in his own image, Kaiba froze.

As he stood there, his stomach churning, he remembered the icy water from the hose and shivered. He remembered Mrs. Prosser's body pinning his legs against the table, her hands pushing him down as she bound him in the…diaper (just remembering the sensation, and seeing the cloth in his mind's eye, made his stomach lurch toward his throat and the tears prick his eyes). This was like that. Marik was another Prosser, another Gozaburo. How many were there in the world?

Tea sat still in the chair. Her back was straight, and in the shadow of the crate her face was solemn. Kaiba was struck by the regality of her pose. He thought of her smile, and her shining eyes, never aimed at him. He imagined that smile, those soft eyes, that soft skin, the long, dainty bones, being gone, crushed under the crate.

His heart convulsed. He felt a sensation that he'd only ever felt with Mokuba. His heart was trying to heave itself through his chest and pull itself toward her. Where before there were words—denials and her name—now there was only this sensation. The sensation made inaction impossible. He gave into it.

What he did next was not a conscious action on his part. In retrospect, he knew that it would seem stupid to anyone but him, but to him, it made perfect sense. He just grabbed a card and threw it.

When it worked, when the men were disarmed, when the crane was pulled away from Tea and she was safe, he could go back to caring about the god cards. After all, that was the whole point of this exercise. The sensation in his heart passed as soon as Tea was safe

He didn't give Tea, or the sensation, another thought until after the duels on the Kaiba Corp blimp were over.