Yugi: So when will things get better for me?
Dunno. They might start to get better soon, but then change quickly...Not really sure at the moment.
Yugi: Oh.
Sorry.
Yugi: That's alright.
Yugi curled up in a ball, unable to sleep. He stretched out and sighed in frustration. The seven-year-old threw back his covers and sat up. He slid his feet into the tan slippers that Mana had given him as a welcome home gift and headed to his door. Yugi crept to the library and spotted the disc that he had been curious about. He started up the vid-player and inserted it into the proper slot.
The media began playing.
"So, my dear husband, this is Heba and his twin's room." Hismother's smiling face appeared on the video."I can't believe that we're having two babies! I always wanted more children. I wonder what the second baby is."
"Dear, we won't know as Heba is hiding the second baby from view."
"I hope it's a little girl. But if it's another boy, I'll love him just the same."
The scene changed.
"What's wrong with Heba," his mother cried out as the bundle was removed and handed to someone out of camera range."Aknamkanon, what's wrong with our baby?"
Yugi watched, stunned as a tiny and still infant was lifted from the incision and handed carefully to a nurse who shook her head after a few seconds. "It was another boy. I'm sorry." Moments later his mother had breathed her last.
Yugi watched in disbelief as the three of them were prepared to be taken out of the room. "Doctor! Come quick!"
"It's a miracle! The second baby is alive."
"Get me an incubator! Nurse, clean that baby and get him warm."
The small infant, Yugi realized, was himself.
Another scene appeared on the screen...This time it was on Yugi's first words according to the title that appeared.
"Say Daddy, Yugi." It was their father trying to get Yugi to talk.
Baby Yugi squealed. "'Ami'." Yugi laughed silently at the scene.
"No, Yugi, Say Daddy." A younger Aknamkanon shook his head, smiling at his little boy.
Baby Yugi called out. "'AMI'!"
"I give up." Their father sighed as younger versions of Atem and Yami entered the view of the camera.
Baby Yugi looked over at them and squealed in delight, "AMI!"
Even then, Yugi could see the disgust in the boys' eyes toward their younger brother. His heart fell.
The title switched over to Yugi's first steps.
The little boy had pulled himself up, using a footstool. His older brothers were at the dining-room table doing their homework. The infant spotted them and began to toddle over to where they were. The camera shook as its operator chuckled softly. Baby Yugi tripped over his unsteady feet and fell to his rear.
He gave a small pout and crawled over to a low table to pull himself back up and began his unstable journey. When he reached an empty chair next to Atem, Baby Yugi let out an excited squeal, startling his brothers. "Dad," a younger Atem complained, "We're trying to finish our homework. Could you stop recording and get him?"
Baby Yugi giggled and reached for him, wanting Atem to pick him up. "DAD!"
Yugi watched the disc until he fell asleep; forgetting the auto-replay light was on. The video was playing when Yugi was finally discovered by Aknamkanon around 7:30. He was sound asleep, with dry tearstains on his cherubic cheeks. Aknamkanon didn't have to wonder why as he saw the vid-player was running, the disc with Yugi's infancy playing on the projector.
Atem and Yami rushed into the library. "Dad," Atem started, "we couldn't find him any…"
"Shhh," their father said quietly. "He's still sleeping. You boys need to head to school before you're late."
The two brothers got home and decided to continue working on their science project. They were designing a compact EMP device. They had picked this because Mana and the Kuriboh were supposedly designed to be shielded from such disruptors and this was the best way to test said feature.
The device was simple in design. It would only shut off any electronics in the room it was in, and was designed to shut off after exactly 30 seconds allowing quick rebooting of the systems affected. Atem had Yami look for Mana. The youngest teen found said android in the library giving Yugi a math lesson. Yami smirked as he knew Yugi's lessons were only three-fourths done when he hit math with Mana.
He met up with Atem in front of their rooms, "She's in the library with him. This will be perfect; if we knock Mana's systems offline in front of him, we can watch the show. She'll reboot and Dad won't know."
The pair crept towards the library and set the EMP charge on a five-second timer and rolled it into the large room. The device went off, but instead of Mana shutting down, Yugi collapsed from his chair, struggling to breathe. The droid stopped speaking and noticed her charge paling as he stopped breathing.
Atem and Yami rushed into the room as Mana pushed a pager button for their father. Atem remembered the CPR classes that their father had insisted they take just before Yugi was born and started the technique on his youngest brother. Yami watched as Atem worked on Yugi's fallen form. He had a feeling that something wasn't right. "He's not responding," Atem gasped as he continued to try CPR on Yugi. "Yami, that pack that Dad keeps in the medical supplies, go get it!"
Yami headed to the medical wing of their home and grabbed the pack that he and Atem were told was for when CPR failed to revive the one they were trying to save. He rushed back to the library as Atem stopped CPR. They used the pack to deliver a shock to Yugi's chest, instantly earning a response from their brother. Amethyst eyes snapped open as Yugi was revived. Their father ran into the room and saw the three on the floor. "What happened in here?"
"Yugi nearly died," Atem stated. "He just stopped breathing and we saved him, Dad."
Yami tried to collect the EMP device from next to Yugi's leg, but was caught. "Yami, what is that you're trying to hide from me," Aknamkanon questioned.
Yami sighed, "Our science experiment. We were working on it and wanted to test how well Mana was shielded from EM pulses."
Aknamkanon's eyes narrowed, "You boys are forbidden from having any device that disrupts electronics in this house. Do I make myself clear?"
The two nodded, feeling upset that their father was being unreasonable.
Aknamkanon called Isis and Ishizu over to examine Yugi. The sisters rushed over and checked over the youngest. "What happened," Isis questioned Aknamkanon.
He brushed back Yugi's wayward bangs, "His brothers thought to 'test' Mana's EMP-shielding and nearly killed Yugi in the process. I've forbidden EM pulses from this house. How is my baby boy?"
"Papa," Yugi groaned. "Not a baby." Amethyst eyes cracked open as he spoke. "My head hurts, Papa."
The man let out a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness you're alright. Let's get you to bed, Yugi."
The boy allowed himself to be carried to his room and put to bed. Ishizu stayed behind to tuck her favorite patient in. "Shizu," Yugi yawned, "Why do my brothers hate me? Is it because I lived while Mama and my twin didn't?"
"Your brothers are hardheaded teens that could care less about anyone but themselves. Trust me kiddo, I know because I've got two teen brothers and another about your age," Ishizu stated. "They'll come around. Just give them time and maybe a few more good health scares…Just not intentional though. Sister and I wouldn't be too happy to hear that you did something stupid."
"Ok, Shizu," Yugi yawned as he drifted off to sleep.
Atem and Yami were in Atem's room talking. "Dad is so unreasonable," Yami fumed. "We can never do anything right in his eyes. Yugi probably had another of his 'fits' and forgot to breathe."
Atem let his brother rant about their father's favoring their little brother. "Perhaps we're the ones being irrational," he pointed out when Yami growled in frustration and plopped onto the bed.
Yami glared at him, "What makes you think that?"
"Yugi was the only one to live through the day he was born. He's had a weak heart because of the trauma and being born prematurely," Atem pointed out. He continued, "We've blamed him since day one and mistreated him at the same time. You stabbed him in the shoulder and Dad had Yugi moved to where we didn't know he was. We haven't given him or Dad any reason to trust us easily."
"So, you're saying that we should try and give the runt a chance and get to know him?" Yami sighed. "I don't know, Atem."
Atem scooted closer to his brother, "He nearly died in front of us today, Yami. Had I not remembered the CPR that Dad required us to learn and then used the machine Dad keeps 'just in case', we would have lost our baby brother…for good. This isn't going to be easy for me either. We could try to accept him together, for Dad."
Yami sat up, "For Dad."
Yami: How could you have me do that to Yugi?!
Atem: We nearly killed him!
Relax. Yugi's fine. That was a stand-in for him. No actual harm was done to Yugi in this chapter. He had a note stating that he was scheduled for a Duel and that Kaiba wasn't going to take no for an answer. *Shows note with various threats from Kaiba.* Amethyst-Jade sent a reply, but I think it wasn't very pleasant. She said something about a deck destruction virus affecting Kaiba's deck.
Mokuba: Until next time!
