Notes: I had a different location written in at the ending, but I decided to change it due to Crescent Blue's musing.

Chapter Seventeen

By the time Lector and Nesbitt caught up with the rest of those in the cemetery, they had collected almost all of the treasure and were just about to go for the final part. Yami Bakura found it for them, but as the drawer opened, Evangeline was bewildered to only see a folded piece of paper. "What?"

"Maybe it's a deed to some more property," Tristan suggested.

"Yeah! Without ghosts," Joey added.

Evangeline slowly opened it. "No," she said. "It's a letter from Grandmother." She looked to Lector. "Let's go inside and we can both read it."

"Alright," Lector said in some surprise.

"We also need to think about how we're going to catch whoever's been coming in through the North wing," Atem said.

"Well, since they seem to come every night, why don't we set a trap?" Yugi suggested.

They all started to walk back towards the house. Snakes looked to Yugi in concern. "What kind of trap?"

"Like waiting for them at either or both of the places," Yugi said. "Some of us could hide in the North wing's sitting room, while the rest wait at the secret panel leading to the rest of the house just in case he slips past the first group."

"Maybe we shouldn't keep pressing our luck in the North wing," Tristan worried. "I'm really amazed the ghosts didn't hurt anyone the last couple of times people were in there."

"What if the ghosts who live there have never hurt anyone?" Yugi suggested. "Nesbitt could have been hurt by an outside force."

"Voodoo?" Nesbitt frowned. "I don't even believe in it."

"I just remembered," Angelique exclaimed. "Dr. Raven made Evangeline forget about when she talked to Mr. Kaiba!"

"Yes, but that was with voodoo," Gansley grunted. "I really don't think voodoo would work on Nesbitt, and Dr. Raven doesn't even have his powers anymore."

"Still, I'm starting to think we should talk to Raven about all this," Lector frowned. "I wasn't even thinking that maybe he did this to Nesbitt because of him having done that to poor Evangeline. I assumed he didn't have his powers anymore, but maybe that's what he wants us to think!"

"If we don't catch our other intruder tonight, then I definitely agree we should try to question Dr. Raven in the morning," Atem said. "But I have this feeling we're still missing a key piece of the puzzle," he sighed. "If only I could remember what I found in the basement, and who attacked Yugi and Téa!"

"First things first," Yugi soothed. "Let's catch the living bad guy and maybe he'll have some answers."

"Meanwhile, by now it's too late to take anything to the bank," Evangeline worried. "What should I do with it for tonight?"

"Try putting it in the strongbox," Gansley suggested. "And keep it with you at all times."

Evangeline nodded. "Maybe I will."

xxxx

Mokuba had been sitting with Marik for quite some time, reading to him and sometimes listening while Ishizu or Rishid read. Marik had settled into the pillow, listening with a peaceful smile.

"You know, we haven't done this in quite some time," he remarked. "I didn't even realize how much I missed it until now."

Ishizu smiled. "We should definitely do it more often. You shouldn't have to be feeling under the weather for it to happen."

"I remember Seto used to read to me," Mokuba mused. "He's been so busy lately that there hasn't been time for anything like that, but I'd still like it."

"Then I'm sure he'd do it if he knew," Marik said, already planning to tell him.

"I wonder where he is now." Mokuba got up to look out the window.

At that moment the rest of the group entered through the front door and headed upstairs. "Hi, guys," Yugi greeted when they reached Marik's and Rishid's room. "How's it going?"

"I'm feeling a lot better," Marik said.

"That's great," Téa beamed in relief.

"Hey, is Seto with you guys?" Mokuba asked.

"I met them coming in," Seto said from the back of the group. "I was downstairs looking over the doors Nesbitt and Johnson found."

Mokuba was horrified. "You were in the North wing all alone?!" he cried. Gansley and Crump had sent text messages about the news, but Mokuba hadn't thought Seto would investigate by himself.

"I was careful," Seto said. "They didn't do anything to me."

"I'm thinking more and more that those ghosts really aren't malevolent," Yugi said. "They just don't like company."

"Well," Evangeline said, "why don't we have dinner and then wait for our 'guest'?"

"Works for me," Joey said. "But I'm not going in the North wing!"

"Of course not," Seto grunted.

xxxx

After a late dinner, the groups opted to wait for their intruder in both locations. There was always the chance that after entering the house, he took other secret passageways that they hadn't found, so it seemed wisest for some of them to wait in the North wing's sitting room.

"How long do you think it'll take?" Crump wondered. Evangeline had wanted to be right at the first entrance, so all of the Big Five had gone with her.

"Let's hope not long," Gansley grunted.

They weren't sure how long they had been waiting when the knob slowly turned. The door opened, revealing both moonlight and a silhouetted figure. The person went inside, shutting the door after them before walking quietly through the room.

"Now!" Gansley ordered.

Lector and Nesbitt leaped out of the shadows, dragging the trespasser to the floor.

"Hey!" came a yell in an alarmed male voice. "What are you doing?!"

Lector's stomach dropped. "Michel," he whispered.

Evangeline lit an oil lamp and glowered at their brother. "Michel, what do you think you're doing?!" she demanded.

The secret panel leading out of the wing flew open. "You caught him?!" Joey yelled.

"Yes, we caught him," Evangeline said bitterly, "and it's our dear brother Michel."

". . . Michelle?!" Joey said in disbelief.

Téa facepalmed. "It's the French form of Michael."

". . . Oh." Joey flushed, embarrassed.

Rishid stormed over to Michel, his eyes flashing. "Did you chloroform my brother?!" he snarled.

Michel looked away, his eyes filled with guilt. "I didn't use much. . . . I didn't want to risk it being an overdose. . . ."

"Any at all is too much!" Rishid boomed.

"And just why have you been sneaking around in my house?!" Evangeline demanded.

". . . I was hoping to find the family treasure before you did," Michel said. "I knew if you found it, you'd want to give some of it to Démas, and . . ."

Lector regarded him in disgust. "You wanted my share too?"

"It's not like that!" Michel insisted. "But Father disowned you, and . . ."

"Oh, you're disgusting," Evangeline spat. "I feel like not giving you anything!"

"You found it?!" Michel cried.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Evangeline sneered.

Lector laid a hand on her shoulder. "I don't need any of it, Michel," he said coolly. "I'm well-set."

"But you're that psychopath's silent partner?!" Crump yelled. "You were gonna kill all of us?!"

"I don't think so," Atem frowned. "He was being so careful about the chloroform. If he intended on murder, he wouldn't have cared."

Johnson was horrified. "So there's still someone else?!"

"There has to be!" Michel exclaimed. "I wasn't going to kill anyone! And I wasn't working with anyone else! I did all of this on my own—copying Evangeline's key, coming here every night, looking for the treasure . . . ! No one else knew, not even Phillipe!"

"You live with him," Evangeline objected. "How could he not know?"

"Well, he doesn't," Michel insisted.

Crump looked to Lector. "What do you think, Buddy?"

Lector rubbed his forehead. "I'm afraid I believe him," he said wearily.

"So what do we do with him now?" Crump wondered.

"The house isn't in Evangeline's name," Michel said. "It belongs to the whole family. I wasn't trespassing!"

"You hurt Marik," Rishid growled. "That is assault."

Evangeline nodded. "I'm calling the police." She took out her phone.

"Like the family needs more bad publicity?!" Michel exclaimed. "Please, Sis, I'm begging you not to call! I won't do this again. Anyway, if you've already found the treasure, there's no point."

Evangeline frowned. "I'm tired of being Little Miss Nice Girl. I lived under our father's thumb for years and didn't try as hard as I could to find out about Démas when he was in a coma. I didn't try harder to contact him when he woke up, either. I'll never forgive myself for that. And I'll never forgive our father for what he did to Démas."

"Michel does need to pay for what he's done," Atem said. "But are you operating more because of a desire for justice or your own bitterness?"

"Honestly, Pharaoh, sometimes they're the same thing," Yami Bakura grunted. "Especially if there's a personal stake in it. You know that well; you admitted to feeling bitter and hateful towards me in our final fight."

"Yes, and I regret it," Atem said. "I never stopped to think that you weren't only Zorc. I could have destroyed you forever."

"No one could have not felt bitterness and hate in such a situation," Yami Bakura said.

"Not to mention, right now I honestly don't care, Pharaoh," Evangeline said. "This is hardly the same thing as possibly destroying someone forever. That was what our father tried to do to Démas. Marie tried to use corrupted voodoo on Mr. Nesbitt and now Mother and Michel want to keep ostracizing Démas in spite of their objections to what Father did! I'm calling the police. And tomorrow I'm going to start legal proceedings to change my last name just like Démas did." With that she walked out of the room with her phone to find the number of the police station.

Lector stared after her. "Evangeline. . . ."

Atem sighed, heavily. "She'll have to find her own way. But I admit, in spite of what I said, I have a hard time faulting her for her actions." He glowered at Michel. "There is something drastically wrong with this family. Perhaps in ancient times Lector would have been seen as the villain and his father as the hero, but those archaic views are long gone. Lector has turned his life around, and he certainly doesn't deserve such treatment as he's been receiving."

Yami Bakura nodded. "If you didn't want the family to have any more bad publicity, you shouldn't have started doing things that would result in such if you were caught," he sneered. "You're a pathetic thief anyway."

"I wouldn't have been caught if this door hadn't been found," Michel said bitterly.

"So you're not even sorry?" Yami Bakura said. "I have very little patience for turning against your family when they don't deserve it. Your family should be the most important thing in your life." His eyes flashed. "You abandoned your brother, and really, your sister as well. And she has every right to turn her back on you now. I never would have encouraged Lector to go back to his family had I known then what they were really like."

"You encouraged him to come back?" Michel said in surprise. "When was that?"

"When we thought his real family was dead after they all died to save him," Yami Bakura said. "I thought you were his real family then. As saccharine as it sounds, I had it backwards."

Bakura laid a hand on his shoulder. "Yami. . . ." He knew how badly this must be affecting his friend. Losing his family in the Kul Elna massacre at age six had made Yami Bakura fiercely outraged at any disloyalty among families. One never knew when their family might be taken, and he felt that time with them should be considered more precious than anything else.

Yami Bakura growled. "I hope your father rots in prison. And I hope your actions bring down whatever was left of your family's reputation."

Michel looked to Lector, who had remained quiet. "Is that how you feel as well, Brother? I know you've never been very forgiving when people have hurt you. Even as a kid, you had trouble with that."

"Quite frankly, I don't know how I'm feeling right now," Lector said. "Our father hurt me in a way you could never comprehend. I never wanted to come back here. But I had to in order to testify against him, and now my friend doesn't remember me, my brother tried to rob and cheat our sister, and our sister is sinking deeper and deeper into bitterness because of you and Father and everyone else in this miserable family! If none of you want to change your ways, then I say all of you deserve your just desserts." He turned and stormed out as well.

Nesbitt was still holding tightly to Michel's wrists behind his back. "And you'd better not try anything funny," he warned. "I'm a kendo master."

Michel made a face. "Great. Just great."

Gansley sneered at him. "I'm pretty handy with a cane." He waved it at him.

"I won't try to get away," Michel insisted.

"Good," Yami Bakura smirked.

xxxx

Lector didn't make a reappearance when the police arrived to arrest Michel. Evangeline and others gave their statements, including Marik, and the police officers slowly shook their heads.

"You poor people have had more than your fair share of trouble lately because of these nuts," one of them commented.

Evangeline managed a small smile. "Aren't you supposed to appear more impartial, Officer?"

He sighed. "Sometimes it just gets to you."

"It sure does," Evangeline sighed too.

The group watched as the vehicle drove away moments later.

"Did Démas go up to his room?" Evangeline asked.

"I don't know, but Nesbitt turned Michel over to me and went after him," Crump said.

"And now we're stuck with the problem of who else could be behind this," Téa moaned. "If we figure a spirit had to be involved to tell that guy what Johnson said in Noa's world, and Noa was the only one who knew . . ."

"Wait!" Atem gasped. "I remember what I figured out in the basement. There was someone else who knew!" He ran out of the room. "We have to make sure the others are safe!"

xxxx

Lector wasn't in his room, and Nesbitt had been wandering around for what seemed like ages, desperately looking for him. "Lector?!" he called. "Lector, where are you?!"

He stiffened as he went into the second floor hallway and saw the dark-haired ghost gliding towards the stairs to the ground floor. "What the . . ." No one else had ever mentioned her leaving the second floor hallway, unless it was she who also appeared on the third floor. For some reason Nesbitt didn't understand, he felt compelled to follow her.

The ghost walked downstairs, either unaware of Nesbitt's presence or uncaring. Or perhaps she wanted him to follow her. She headed towards the study and through the open French doors to the backyard.

Nesbitt stared after her. Lector was in the backyard; somehow he knew it. He ran through the doors. "Lector?!"

The ghost was still there, turning right. Nesbitt ran after her, traveling over the grass until the family cemetery was in sight. The spectre walked up to the open gate and promptly vanished.

Nesbitt didn't waste time being disturbed by the sight. "Lector?!" He tore into the cemetery and stood looking around. Where would Lector go? The place hadn't seemed that big in the daytime, but at night, whether Nesbitt wanted to admit it or not, it was eerie.

"Nesbitt?" Lector sounded nearby.

Nesbitt swiftly walked around the tombs, making his way towards the other's voice. When he rounded a tomb's corner and found him, Lector was standing by the same tomb they had spoken at earlier that day.

"What are you doing here?!" Nesbitt demanded.

"I don't know," Lector sighed. "I guess I just wanted to get away for a while, at least until Michel was taken away. Are they gone?"

"Yeah, probably," Nesbitt said. "I handed him off to Crump and came to find you."

Lector stared at him. "You just decided to come find me on your own?"

"Well . . . yes," Nesbitt said, looking awkward. "You came looking for me earlier. . . . Even without remembering you, I knew something like this had to be a rough blow for you. . . ."

"It has been," Lector sighed. "But while Evangeline's growing more and more bitter, I seem to be growing more and more weary." His voice cracked. "I don't know how much more I can take. . . ."

Nesbitt's eyes flickered with surprise that Lector would reveal a vulnerable side to him when he didn't even remember. Lector must be desperate, he thought. Or desperately missing his friend. . . .

"You shouldn't have to take any more," he said angrily, protectively. He might not remember, but he knew he didn't want Lector to be hurting so much. Lector didn't deserve that at all. If there was only something, anything he could do for his friend . . . !

Lector looked at him, again surprised. "You almost sound like you remember," he said quietly.

"Maybe in some ways, I almost feel like I do," Nesbitt said. "I know I'm tired of seeing you be hurt, by me or anyone else. I can't comprehend your family treating you the way they do. Why don't they recognize that they're blessed to have you? They've known you all their lives and they can't see it. And I . . . I don't remember who you are, but I see it so clearly."

A light came into Lector's eyes at those words, a light that hadn't been there since Nesbitt had awakened with amnesia. Nesbitt saw it and recognized it, and he remembered when he had seen it before. Lector had looked at him like that when he had realized Nesbitt cared. . . . When Nesbitt had revived after being killed trying to save him. . . . Whenever Nesbitt had shown concern and love for him. . . .

I do know him, Nesbitt realized. We've been through so much together and we care about each other so completely and unconditionally. He's . . . my best friend. . . .

"Thank you," Lector said, breaking into his thoughts. "Thank you for telling me that." He rested a hand on Nesbitt's shoulder. "Let's go find the others. They're probably worried."

"I'm sure they are," Nesbitt agreed.

They started back towards the gate. But before they could reach it, a strange, dark substance appeared in front of them, shapeless at first and then gradually taking on the form of a man. "So! You're undoing all of my plans, are you?!"

Lector fell back. "Gozaburo?!"

Nesbitt stared. It was impossible, but he recognized the voice. "But . . . you're supposed to be trapped in the Shadow Realm," he gasped.

Still, it was indeed Gozaburo Kaiba standing in front of a tomb and glowering at both of them, his gaze like ice. "I found a way to set myself free just so I could cause chaos and misery for the five men who betrayed me!" he cried.

"You!" Lector realized. "It was you who tripped Yugi and hurt Nesbitt! You gave him amnesia!"

"Very selective amnesia, designed to hurt my former right-hand man," Gozaburo sneered.

"How did you do it?!" Nesbitt boomed. "I want my memory back!"

"Do you really think I'll tell you?" Gozaburo mocked.

Lector snarled. "We'll find a way to fix it," he vowed. "There has to be a way! He's already remembering some things!"

"Yes, and he wasn't supposed to," Gozaburo said in disgust. "He was supposed to be leery of you, to even be afraid of or angry at you. Instead, he gravitates to you even without remembering you! So I tried targeting Johnson by telling that fool who hates him about when Johnson told Noa that Gansley and Crump were useless, but that didn't work either! What is it with the five of you?! Why can't I destroy you?!"

"Because we found something that you still haven't, Sir," Lector said. "That love and friendship are actually invaluable. We never could have made it through all that we did without each other."

Gozaburo roared. "Well, if I can't destroy you one way, I'll destroy you another!" Before their horrified eyes he transformed to his flaming demon form and lunged, slashing at Nesbitt.

"NO!" Lector screamed. He dragged Nesbitt to the ground. At the same moment, he felt the claws rake through his back.

It's what he did to Mr. Kaiba, he realized in terror. He's torn through my soul and he's going to trap me in the darkness!

Nesbitt stiffened when he felt Lector go limp. "Lector?!" He pushed the other man back to see into his face. "LECTOR!"

It was the way he screamed Lector's name. He knows me, Lector thought as he faded. He finally knows me again. . . . Nesbitt, I'm sorry. . . .

The darkness covered him.