Chapter Four

Yami Bakura had to admit he was impressed by how methodically Nesbitt dueled. He was very cold and hard, seeming only to care about the duel and nothing else. Still, at the same time, there was something in his attitude that was chilling, even to the old thief.

"You're very shrewd," he commented after several precise moves. "I can see why the leader of this Orichalcos movement wanted you."

Nesbitt placed his next cards on the field. "He said out of all of my friends, I showed the most promise."

"And why do you think that was?" Yami Bakura asked. "What was he looking for?"

Now Nesbitt wavered. "I . . . don't know," he realized.

"You wanted to be strong," Yami Bakura said. "Perhaps that means he preys on the weak."

"I am strong!" Nesbitt boomed.

"Ah, but what were you before?" Yami Bakura mused. "Were you truly weak? Or was that only your perception of yourself? What if you were already strong but didn't recognize your true worth?"

"Then why didn't Dartz tell me I was strong?!" Nesbitt snapped. "Why would he let me wallow in my misery?!"

That was a surprise. "Dartz?" Yami Bakura's eyes flickered. "He's behind this madness?"

"He introduced me to the genius of the Orichalcos," Nesbitt said. "He's going to remake the world just as it should be."

"Oh? And how is that?" Yami Bakura watched the man carefully.

". . . He didn't say." Nesbitt frowned. From his expression, that realization was just coming to him now.

Bakura was more involved with watching Yami Bakura. "Have you met this Dartz before?" he asked. "You sounded like you knew him."

"That's hardly important right now!" Yami Bakura snapped. He looked back to Nesbitt. "If you don't even know how the world is going to be remade, how do you know it will be something you will like?"

Nesbitt faltered again. ". . . Dartz will let each person have their own personal remade world," he said at last.

Yami Bakura snorted. "Is that what he told you, or does the Orichalcos make you blindly believe that? There can only be one remade world, you fool, and that will be whatever Dartz sees fit to inflict upon it! Most likely it will be a world of nothingness, as there won't be enough people to properly populate it. He may even be the only one left by the time it happens. All of his servants may have fallen by then, including you."

"No!" Nesbitt snarled. "That isn't true!"

"Perhaps in your right mind you would be smart enough to see what I can see plainly," Yami Bakura said.

"I can see that you're in for it now." Nesbitt had just drawn his next card. Now he held it up.

"Oh my!" Bakura gasped. "What is that?! I've never seen that card before!"

Yami Bakura growled, but stood his ground. "Is that . . . ?"

"Yes! The Seal of Orichalcos!" Nesbitt slammed the card into the Field spell drawer and the treacherous turquoise circle began to spin down from the sky, locking the Duelists in place. At the same moment, the dark flames rose from the ground, enveloping Nesbitt in their merciless fire. He screamed, pushing on his Duel Disk with his free hand as though it was burning him. Then he slowly sneered, his eyes glittering with a red glow as the Seal formed on his forehead. Unlike before, now it remained permanently.

Yami Bakura snarled. "So now that the Seal is on the field, both of our souls have become the stakes?"

"That's right." Nesbitt's expression twisted in a cruel and heartless manner. "And now it will be my pleasure to make yours my first offering to Master Dartz."

"You said you weren't interested in me," Yami Bakura reminded him.

"Do you believe everything people say?" Nesbitt returned. "Of course I'm interested in you! Master Dartz wants strong souls to power the Great Leviathan! You should make an ideal contribution to the beast!"

Bakura took a step back. "He's changed," he gasped. "Actually playing the Seal of Orichalcos card makes the evil force's power over him increase even more!"

"That surprises you?" Yami Bakura grunted.

"Perhaps not, but now we're in far greater danger!" Bakura exclaimed. "Do you have any plans for getting us out of this?!"

"I'll have to try to force the duel to end in a draw," Yami Bakura said. "But if that fails, I will have no choice but to win and let the Seal take his soul."

Bakura clenched a fist. "His friends deserve to at least try to get through to him again!" he retorted.

"I won't let him lose if I can at all help it!"

Yami Bakura looked to him with a jerk. "If you do anything to try to make me lose . . . !"

Bakura looked back with steely eyes. "I pray I won't have to."

"Are you going to draw or what?!" Nesbitt interrupted.

Yami Bakura glowered at him but drew his next card. "I suppose Dust Tornado or De-Spell won't work," he said. "Your Seal is far too powerful to be destroyed by ordinary anti-spell cards."

Nesbitt smirked. "You're right. You're welcome to try, but it would be a waste of a card."

"I suppose it would also be a waste to try to attempt further conversation," Yami Bakura remarked.

"Now you're catching on," Nesbitt sneered. "All I care about right now is sending you on to the Great Beast's domain, where you will wait with the other captured souls for the time when all of you will be needed! Then I will have my revenge and prove my true strength to the ungrateful idiots who betrayed me!"

Yami Bakura looked down at his cards. "I have to end this fast," he muttered. But would he be able to? His current hand didn't look that promising and Nesbitt's field was only growing more powerful. It wouldn't take much for him to plow through Yami Bakura's weak defense and take out all of his lifepoints.

"I don't see any way for you to end this in a draw," Bakura said as he also studied the thief's hand.

"Just wait," Yami Bakura growled.

"It won't do to wait very long," Nesbitt said. "The way I see it, you'll only last one more turn at the most!"

Yami Bakura laid a card in Defense mode. "Then by all means, feel free to attack me," he said.

As it turned out, he not only managed to hold on longer than one turn, he finally succeeded in regaining control of the duel and turning it around. To Bakura's great relief, Yami Bakura at last played the card that would bring the duel to a close in all of their favors. The Seal vanished, sending the occupants flying backwards in various directions.

Nesbitt was promptly on his feet again. "This isn't over," he threatened. "You manipulated this duel to end in a draw, but you won't be so lucky next time!"

Yami Bakura was soon standing as well. "Just what do you plan to do?"

"I'll find you again," Nesbitt vowed. "After I take down my former friends, I'm coming after you!" He turned, fleeing into the remaining darkness of the night.

Bakura stared after him. "What are we going to do?! He's under the spell far worse than before!"

Yami Bakura turned away. "That's his friends' problem. I'm not going to deliberately seek him out anymore."

"Well, I suppose I should be glad of that, but we've caused him to get into a far more serious condition for them to find him in!" Bakura countered.

"His friends knew there were risks," Yami Bakura growled. "They wanted my help anyway." He headed off down the sidewalk. "I'm going to bed. Yugi can solve this problem, as I already determined for him to do. I would prefer not to get in this Dartz's way."

Sighing, Bakura trailed after him. "You do know him," he prompted.

"I met him once or twice in Egypt," Yami Bakura finally admitted. "He was . . . interesting, but even then I could tell that he was a dangerous sort. We more or less agreed to stay out of each other's plans. He didn't meddle in Egypt, and I never intended to get involved now."

"Well, now we are involved," Bakura said. "I wish there was a way we could help get things back to the way they're supposed to be."

"It will be interesting to see whether Nesbitt's friends can do exactly that," Yami Bakura remarked.

xxxx

Solomon pulled over to the side of the road to take Bakura's call when it came in. Gansley and Johnson waited tensely, listening to Solomon's side of the conversation and straining to hear Bakura's. From what they could hear, the news wasn't promising. When he hung up, the worry was clear in their eyes.

"Well?" Johnson demanded.

Solomon sighed as he restarted the truck and resumed driving. "Nesbitt is very deeply under the Orichalcos's spell, and he's only growing worse," he announced. "Playing the card increased the effect of the evil to the point that he was interested in sacrificing Bakura's soul, whereas he hadn't been interested before."

"Oh no!" Johnson moaned.

"But if he played the card, what happened in the duel?" Gansley frowned.

"Bakura managed to end it in a draw," Solomon said. "Nesbitt ran off, but threatened to get Bakura after he gets all of you."

Johnson slumped back in the seat. "No. . . . How are we going to save him?!"

"I must admit, I'm not sure," Solomon said. "Perhaps your friendship can still get through to him. I do think that if anything can, it's that."

Gansley massaged the bridge of his nose. "I have never before had to entertain the idea that friendship can actually move mountains," he grunted. "It sounds ludicrous. This isn't a 1980s cartoon! And yet . . . for us to never turn against each other, for us to want to stay together and to follow Lector into the light . . . that certainly counts for something momentous. You and I, Johnson, have been terrible people for most of our lives. But we're actually willing to listen to someone who has a different view and to try to be better human beings. Not just anyone could have that effect on us."

"I quite sustain your verdict, Gansley," Johnson said. "Obviously friendship can move at least some mountains. Still, it can't solve everything. So we're still left with one very disturbing question . . . can it move this mountain?"

Gansley gave a heavy sigh. "All we can do is try."

"It would help, I'm sure, if you could figure out why Nesbitt was driven to accept the Orichalcos," Solomon said. "But I know you've already been trying to do that."

"We have all racked our minds over and over with no success," Gansley sighed. "He believes himself to be weak, but we don't know what kicked that off. Perhaps he's thought it for some time and it finally came to a head."

"But something had to push him over the edge," Johnson said. "Crump wondered if it was how he broke in Noa's world and tried to leave on his own. Would that really bother him to that extent? We're all troubled by what we did there, but it's hard to believe that Nesbitt would have been affected worse than the rest of us."

"I really don't know anymore," Gansley said wearily. "Nesbitt has always been so closed-off from the rest of us. He wants to be with us, that much is clear, but he doesn't tend to reveal his innermost feelings. I've never pushed him, although Crump has tried to encourage him to talk to us."

"Crump does that with all of us," Johnson smiled a bit.

"He's an odd mother hen," Gansley smirked. "But perhaps it's fitting when he's the bird enthusiast."

Johnson might have delivered a cheeky remark in response, if not for a familiar sight out the window right then. "There's Nesbitt!" he cried.

Solomon threw on the brakes. "Where?!"

Johnson leaned forward, pointing at the windshield. "There, standing on that street corner by that cheap motel!" He leaped out of the truck and ran over to their wayward friend before anyone else could react.

Gansley swiftly recovered enough to chase him out the door. "Johnson, wait!" he called.

Solomon sighed as he watched them go. "Now, should I join them or not?" he said aloud. "I don't really know the man. I might only make things worse." He looked towards the light of the new day just dawning from the East. "I think the best thing is to stand back and pray that their friendship can indeed pierce through the darkness of the Orichalcos."

Nesbitt turned as Johnson ran over to him. In a moment, Gansley caught up as well. "So, the two of you decided to come crawling back to me?" Nesbitt grunted.

"Crawling back to you?!" Johnson stared at him. "What are you talking about?! We've been worried about you and looking all over for you!"

Gansley laid a hand on Johnson's shoulder. "Nesbitt, we know this isn't really you talking," he said. "The Orichalcos has twisted your mind and your heart. But will you tell us why you've done this to yourself? What made you believe you were so weak that you had to turn to dark magic for the answer?"

Nesbitt looked away. "I know you know. How could you not know?" He started to clench his fist at his side. "I wondered why you kept me around even knowing how worthless I am. But then you spurned me when I finally did something about it!"

"Worthless?!" Gansley's eyebrows knitted. Nesbitt's emotional problems were growing ever more concerning. He had always acted so arrogant. How could he feel worthless deep down? And how had Gansley missed it? He was the leader; he should be able to understand the others intimately.

"We didn't spurn you, Nesbitt!" Johnson exclaimed. "We would never do that! But we saw that you had done something dangerous to yourself! We couldn't accept your offer of power and do the same to ourselves!"

"So you were all cowards?!" Nesbitt snapped. "I can't believe that! You're just making up excuses, trying to get me to take you back! Well, I won't! You had your chances and you showed how little you thought of them!" The turquoise ripples were passing over his body again.

Johnson took a step back, not wanting to be blasted again. "Nesbitt, please . . . !" His normally smooth demeanor had faltered. "I can't stand to see you like this!"

"You won't have to once I take your soul for the Great Leviathan!" Nesbitt countered.

Gansley clenched his teeth. This was impossible! They were just going around in circles. Nesbitt wasn't in any shape to listen to them. If he challenged one of them to a duel, they would be forced to go through with it. But ending things in a draw apparently wasn't the answer to saving him. What could they do?

". . . Did you accept this force knowing you would have to steal souls?" he asked at last. It was a question they perhaps should have asked at first, but they had all been so shocked and horrified and stunned that they hadn't really stopped to think about it beyond assuming the Orichalcos had forced that desire on him. It was chilling to think of Nesbitt accepting knowing what he had to do, but on the other hand, it was heartbreaking to think that he might have accepted not knowing.

"What does it matter?" Nesbitt retorted. "I don't care about people. I could have felt like I'd pay any price for strength and power."

"You could have," Gansley agreed. "Perhaps you did. But perhaps you didn't. You could have been used and manipulated to the point that you had no idea what would be wanted of you."

"It doesn't matter," Nesbitt growled.

"It matters to us," Gansley insisted.

"We want to know just how badly you've fallen," Johnson added.

"So you can spurn me some more? No thanks!" Nesbitt snapped. "I'll only say that I still want to take your souls now. I really wanted to challenge Lector first, but that doesn't mean I really will."

"Why do you want to challenge him first?!" Johnson demanded. "You've never really hated him!"

"Oh, suddenly you know me so well?" Nesbitt mocked. "And yet you can't even figure out why any of this is happening?"

"Nesbitt, you're a good person," Johnson tried again. "Don't do this!"

Now the turquoise wave shot forth once more. Gansley only barely managed to tackle Johnson out of the way in time.

"I'm not a good person!" Nesbitt screamed. "Don't patronize me! You know what I am! You have to know!"

Johnson rolled over on his back on the grass, staring up in Nesbitt in horrified disbelief through newly askew glasses. "Nesbitt," he whispered. "What happened? What's wrong with you?"

Gansley was staring as well, but from his expression, he understood a little better what was happening, albeit not why. "His self-hatred is tremendous," he realized. "That must be what the Orichalcos is feeding on. Don't forget that he also called himself worthless earlier." He sat up. "But why, Nesbitt?" he said louder. "Why do you hate yourself so much? Is it because of what happened in Noa's world?"

"You should know better than anyone that I'm worthless, that I'm the lowest scum of the earth," Nesbitt snarled. "All of you!"

"But we all made mistakes back then!" Johnson exclaimed. He pushed up his glasses. "Nesbitt, you can't really believe you're so much worse than the rest of us!"

"Can't I?" Nesbitt spat. "None of the rest of you did what I did!"

Gansley got to his feet. "So this is about your moment of weakness," he frowned. "You've been emotionally tearing yourself to pieces because you tried to get out alone."

"I was weak!" Nesbitt snarled. "But even then you didn't abandon me! Yet when I made myself strong with the Orichalcos, you chose that moment to turn on me!"

"Nesbitt, we didn't," Johnson pleaded. "We would never turn against you!" He stumbled to his feet. "We want you to come back to us—the real you, not this twisted version of you generated by the Orichalcos!"

"I will never go back to how I was before!" Nesbitt retorted. "I couldn't anyway; I sold the old Nesbitt's soul for strength!"

"I won't believe that!" came another voice.

Everyone jumped and turned. The limousine had pulled up, somehow without any of them really noticing. Lector and Crump had got out, and it was Lector who had spoken. Now he was approaching Nesbitt in determination.

"Nesbitt, I am so sorry for what I said earlier," Lector said. "I was angry and hurting, but I should have controlled myself better. It's so obvious to me now that you are also hurting, desperately. You never would have done this otherwise!"

"Too little, too late," Nesbitt snapped. "Like always."

"Nesbitt, whatever your reason for doing this, I fully believe that you are still in there, fighting to get out," Lector persisted. "If your soul was gone, you couldn't be as aware and alert as you are right now. I'm going to find you and set you free!"

Surprise flickered in Nesbitt's eyes before he suddenly sneered. "Well, well, so you've really come to me, eh? I'll make sure you don't get away." He held up his Duel Disk. "Duel me now, Lector. And if I feel like it afterwards, maybe I'll take down the other fools as well."

"What the heck?!" Crump yelped. "Lector can't duel you! None of us can! Not when you have those freaky stakes for doing it!"

"Although that's only if I draw the Seal of Orichalcos," Nesbitt pointed out. "Well, Lector? Are you going to go through with this?"

Lector drew a deep breath. "I didn't want to, but I don't see any way around it," he said. "Yes, Nesbitt, I'll duel you. And I'll find a way to save you before it's over." He went back to the limousine to collect his Duel Disk. His three uncorrupted friends chased after him.

"Lector!" Johnson exclaimed. "What if Nesbitt does play the Seal of Orichalcos?! It's too risky!"

"I know the odds likely aren't in my favor," Lector said. "But talking to Nesbitt hasn't worked, so maybe dueling is the only way to get through to him. I have to try."

Gansley had to smile, despite the worry flickering in his eyes. "Then try, Lector. Do whatever you think might return Nesbitt to us."

Lector nodded. "I will." He placed his deck in the card holder.

"And take care of yourself at the same time," Crump said. "We can't lose you too!"

"I'll be careful," Lector said.

"And you should also be aware that Nesbitt is gradually revealing more and more what's been going on in his mind and in his heart," Gansley continued. "He is clearly suffering with an extreme and poisonous self-hatred. Perhaps also depression."

Both Lector and Crump stiffened. "What?!" they chorused.

Johnson nodded. "He's been calling himself worthless and saying he's not a good person," he said in dismay.

"Then . . . he doesn't hate me," Lector whispered. "He hates himself. . . ."

"I don't know how I didn't see it," Gansley said. The heaviness in his heart manifested in his voice.

Crump frowned. "Well, we all saw something was wrong," he said. "We just couldn't figure out what it was. Nesbitt's really a good actor, you know? He tried so hard to put on a show for us and pretend everything was okay. But now . . ." He looked to where Nesbitt was impatiently waiting and going through his deck one last time. "Buddy . . ."

Solomon got out of his truck and came over to them. "Nesbitt truly does need help," he said in concern. "And I'm certain that you are the only ones who can give it to him."

"But if he's having all these problems, he probably needs a licensed therapist or something!" Crump exclaimed.

"Perhaps," Solomon said. "But friendship and love can do amazing things. I've seen it over and over with Yugi and his friends. I still think all of you hold the key to saving this poor man."

"You know, I wonder if Nesbitt really knew what he was getting into," Crump said. "What if this Dartz creep only told him the Orichalcos would give him power or make him strong or whatever, so he agreed to try it on that basis? Maybe he didn't know anything about stealing souls until it was too late. After the thing corrupted him, he probably wouldn't be aware enough to care."

"That makes sense to me," Lector said. He looked down at his deck. "Our poor, foolish friend. . . . To get into a mess like this, his pain must be incomprehensible."

"Are you coming or what?" Nesbitt suddenly snapped.

The others jumped.

"Yes, Nesbitt," Lector said. "I'm coming."

He took a deep breath and walked forward to meet his fate.