Chapter Eleven
The Big Five suddenly appeared in the hallway behind Angelique.
"Hey, what's going on?" Crump asked. "I thought you were going to a safehouse somewhere."
"I really felt I needed to bring this to Mr. Kaiba, when I remembered about it," Angelique said. "I convinced the officers to bring me by on our way to the safehouse." She looked to him and the others. "I think this concerns all of you too. Look at the picture."
Everyone crowded around to see. The painting on the lid definitely depicted Seto's ancestor. Surrounding him were people who did indeed resemble the Big Five.
"What the heck?!" Crump exclaimed.
"I know you said that our ancestors were magic users, but you didn't say they worked with Mr. Kaiba's ancestor," Lector said.
"I wasn't sure how you would take it," Atem admitted. "They were also completely loyal to him."
"No usurping Egypt plots, eh?" Crump shrugged. "Oh well. We're not our ancestors, as we've already established. And anyway, we've buried the hatchet with Kaiba."
The others nodded, although Nesbitt still looked annoyed regardless.
Joey was still staring at the picture. "That's just freaky," he said.
"We just happen to run into someone who has something like this in their possession?!" Tristan added in disbelief.
"I doubt it was a coincidence at all," Atem said. "We were meant to come here. Shadi tried to set that in motion."
"So what the heck are you doing with it?!" Crump asked.
"A strange man gave this box to my great-great-grandmother and charged her with keeping it safe until the right time came for it to be given over," Angelique said. "After meeting all of you, I really feel it's the right time."
Seto took the box. "Thanks. It's locked, though, isn't it?" He frowned, lifting it up and looking underneath the overhanging edge of the lid.
"The man said that those destined to have the contents will be able to open it if they're all together," Angelique said. "Well . . ." She stepped back. "I'd better go. I hope I've helped. . . ." She looked down. "I feel terrible I didn't do more when you and Mr. Crump were trapped in the freezer."
"Hey, you just didn't know how to get past the crazy lady on your own, right?" Crump said. "As soon as Johnson came, you got him to help you."
"I'd been threatened and I was afraid," Angelique said. "But I knew I couldn't let you two die in there. I just didn't know what to do." Suddenly remembering something, she looked up at Johnson with a jerk. "Oh . . . ! Are you . . . ?"
"I just found out I'm alright," Johnson said. "That woman was only trying to scare me."
"Thank goodness." Angelique smiled. "I'll see all of you later. Please be careful!"
"We'll be as careful as we can be," Seto grunted.
As Angelique and the officers departed, the Big Five entered the suite and Seto shut the door after them. "So now what?" Crump asked.
Seto set the box on a table and scowled at it. "I have no idea. If we all have to be together, maybe we all put our hands on the lid?" he suggested, half-sarcastic.
"It's worth a try," Yugi said.
As soon as all six of them placed a hand upon said lid and tried to lift it up from the edge, it complied. It creaked open easily, as though it had never been locked.
"Well? What the heck's in here?" Crump wondered.
Seto reached down, lifting out a ring with a rectangular slab of what looked like crystal or diamond set deeply within it. "Rings," he said in disbelief. "Six rings, all with different colors."
"Oh wow," Yugi gasped.
Mai came over to look. "Too bad they're all men's rings," she remarked. "This purple one would match my eyes perfectly, don't you think?"
"I imagine they're expensive." Gansley picked one up that looked like it had onyx in it.
"Priceless," intoned a new voice.
Everyone jumped. Shadi was now standing before them.
"Shadi!" Yugi exclaimed.
"Where'd you come from?" Crump demanded.
"He comes and goes whenever he pleases," Seto grunted. He waved the diamond ring at Shadi. "Explain this."
"They are rings that control powers related to the Duel Monsters elements," Shadi answered. "Light, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Darkness. There is one for each of you, originally wielded by your ancestors and now passed down to you."
"So . . . who has what?" Crump blinked.
"Seto Kaiba and Mr. Gansley have already chosen their rings," Shadi said. "Light and Earth, respectively. Yours is Water."
Crump's eyes lit up. "Well, that's great with me!" He grabbed a light blue ring.
"Mr. Johnson's is Wind," Shadi continued. "That is the green one."
"I see." Johnson lifted the deep green ring.
"Mr. Nesbitt's is Fire," Shadi said.
"That fits," Crump said, while Nesbitt scowled. "But wait a minute! That means Lector's is Darkness?!" He frowned. "That's not right."
"It certainly isn't," Johnson objected. "I should be Darkness. Lector was always better than the rest of us! Why does the universe seem to disagree with that?!"
"It is not an evil darkness," Shadi. "More correctly, it is powers relating to the night. The night is beautiful and mysterious, but not evil."
Lector slowly reached into the box. "Purple is my favorite color," he noted, but he still looked lukewarm about the whole thing. "What, exactly, are we supposed to do with these?"
"They will only work in times of great crisis that threatens the world," Shadi said. "In ancient times, the Pharaoh Seto and your ancestors wielded them when the Millennium Items were not enough."
"So they're extremely powerful," Seto noted.
"Yes. But they were not forged of evil, as the Millennium Items were," Shadi said.
"Is it dangerous to use them?!" Mokuba demanded.
"It would be more dangerous not to," Shadi replied.
"I don't remember hearing about these at all," Atem said in surprise. "I didn't have them during my reign."
"No, you did not, my Pharaoh," Shadi agreed. "They were commissioned by Seto Kaiba's ancestor during a dangerous time for Egypt, before the seventh Millennium Item holder of his reign had been found. They were still used after the last Item holder was found, when situations were dire enough. Now, with the Millennium Items gone and only some of the Infinity Items in use, they are needed again."
"I see," said Lector.
Yami Bakura grunted. "You could simply give us more Infinity Item holders, since it sounds like these rings have more conditions for their use."
"The time may come when that will be necessary," Shadi calmly answered. "Right now, the world needs the rings . . . and their holders."
". . . So it looks like we're going into the saving the world business for real," Crump said.
"A good investment . . . if we come out of it alive," Gansley grunted.
"Oh, you'd help anyway," Serenity smiled. "You did against Khu."
"Because Lector was in danger," Nesbitt said flatly. He sighed. "Of course, we've got that same situation here."
Lector nodded. "I want to protect my family, even though it would seem that most of them no longer care about me." He folded his arms. "But I don't want the world to be taken over by a great evil in any case. That wouldn't be a pleasant place for us to live . . . or any of you." He looked at the group, and Mokuba in particular.
"Then you are all agreed," Shadi said.
"Yes, we are," Johnson said.
Seto scowled but nodded. "I don't have much choice."
Shadi looked at them. "Any of you can use the elemental powers of the rings wherever you are, if the crisis is world-threatening enough. But in order to release the ultimate power of the rings, you must all be together."
Seto grunted. "Why's that?"
"Because in their ultimate form, the rings will open the dimensional door between this world and the Duel Monsters' world and summon your signature creatures," Shadi said.
"Blue Eyes," Seto whispered.
"And ours is . . . the Five-Headed Dragon?" Lector realized.
Shadi nodded. "Yes. It was also your ancestors' signature creature. Its five elemental heads represented their vastly different personalities, but also how well they worked together as a team . . . and how much they loved each other. They were inseparable, as the five of you are."
"Sounds good to me," Crump said.
"Wouldn't it be easy for them to fall into the wrong hands?" Gansley grunted as he slipped the onyx ring onto his right hand.
"They will only work for the six of you," Shadi said. "Yes, it is possible for them to be stolen, but they will do villains no good. Nor will they be able to sell them if they try. Their eyes will be masked to their true beauty and the gems will look like common rocks."
"That's handy," Crump said.
"But for us to be given these rings now . . . doesn't that mean we're going to face an enemy deadly enough to require them?" Nesbitt finally spoke.
"Yes, it does," Shadi said. "Mai Valentine had a theory that Dr. Raven's crates did not merely contain vodun knick-knacks. She was correct. He was after something very dangerous—an artifact that could be used to take control of the entire world."
"Oh great," Seto scowled.
"Is it an amulet?" Yugi asked.
Shadi didn't answer. "Dr. Raven believes your father stole that artifact from him on purpose," he said, looking to Lector.
". . . And did he?" Lector asked.
"That, you will have to discover for yourselves," Shadi said. "As well as the artifact, wherever it currently is. It must either be turned over to me or destroyed outright." He stepped back. "If Dr. Raven or your father tries to wield this weapon, it will be a crisis more than sufficient to activate your rings."
"Wait!" Gansley ordered. "You haven't told us how to make these rings work!"
"They will respond to your wills," Shadi said. "But remember, only when the crisis is grim enough. And only magic-based. A crisis built around technology or other non-magical means will not activate them."
"They're pretty picky, aren't they," Crump remarked.
Shadi did not respond. Instead, he vanished.
Everyone stared after him for a long moment.
". . . Well, that was different," Crump said at last. "Hey, who wants to eat?"
Seto regarded him in disbelief, but almost everyone else chorused in the affirmative.
Joey grabbed the phone. "Oh yeah! Room service for everybody!"
While Joey took orders from most of the group, Seto went back to the couch and lifted the laptop.
"We did rather get sidetracked from looking at the pictures," Atem said as he suddenly appeared next to him. "Let's examine them together right now."
Seto was agreeable to that. "This is the first crate," he said. "Mostly dolls and figurines.
"The second crate has a lot of amulets and mojo bags." Seto frowned at the pictures. "All of the amulets look pretty similar. Or at least, none of them immediately look like a candidate for a magical device that could destroy the world." Sarcasm dripped from his voice.
"It's even possible that what we're looking for could be hidden within one of the mojo bags," Atem said.
Scouring the rest of the pictures left them no less confused than before. Seto growled, setting the laptop back on the table. "I don't know what we're going to do."
"We could search for records of a vodun artifact with incredible powers," Ishizu said as she came up next to them. "There are several museums devoted to vodun in the city. Someone there may be able to help us."
"And if that fails, we could run a bluff," Lector added. "Show the pictures to my father and tell him we see the artifact in them, then see how he reacts. I'm still not convinced he didn't steal the crates."
"You'd be willing to see your father again?" Johnson asked in concern.
"I don't want to," Lector said, "but I may need to."
Johnson laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Alright," Seto said. "There's not much we can do tonight, although I'll run an Internet search on . . . ugh . . . magical artifacts. We'll eat and try to get a decent sleep. In the morning, Ishizu and Rishid can go around to the museums. If we can't learn anything that way, we'll run the bluff on Lector's father."
Atem nodded. "Very well."
xxxx
Seto's Internet search yielded information on a couple of rumored objects with dangerous levels of power, but neither of them seemed to resemble anything in the photographs. In disgust and frustration he gave up, and after finally agreeing to eat something, he tried to settle in to sleep.
It wasn't easy. Even with the light off, he knew that diamond ring was still on his nightstand, glistening in the glow from the moon outside. Magic was still intruding on his life. Worse still, now he had to use it.
"Seto?"
He looked over as Mokuba appeared in the doorway. "What is it?"
Mokuba came in and stood near the nightstand, looking at the ring. "Are you okay? I know this must be the last thing you ever wanna do."
"It's certainly at the bottom of my list," Seto grunted. "But unfortunately, magic is real and I always knew it. I just denied it with all my heart because I didn't want it to be real. And I hoped a day like this would never come. But now that it has . . ." He picked up the ring and turned it around between his fingers. "I'll fight with everything I've got to keep you safe."
"I know," Mokuba said softly. ". . . At least this happened at a point when we know we can trust the Big Five. . . ."
"I guess this is probably why their lives were spared," Seto muttered.
"Maybe some of it," Mokuba said. "But I like to think it was also just because of how much they love each other. I'll never forget how Lector looked when they were all laying dead around him. . . ." He shuddered.
"People aren't allowed to live because of love," Seto retorted. "If that were true, our parents never would have died."
Mokuba looked down. "Maybe it's a case by case thing," he suggested. "We were able to go on, but maybe Lector couldn't have, especially since he'd already lost his biological family. . . ."
Seto grunted. "It's a moot point anyway." He set the ring down.
"Maybe you should wear that, Seto," Mokuba said. "I mean, if it's so important and all. . . ."
"I'll put it on in the morning," Seto sighed. "I doubt anything will happen while I'm in bed."
"Okay." Mokuba smiled at him. "Goodnight, big brother."
"Goodnight, kid." Seto allowed himself to smile a bit as he sank back into the bed.
xxxx
None of the Big Five were quite sure what to make of their new charge either. As they wandered around their suite, pretending to get ready for bed while really just lost in thought and confused, Crump caught up to Lector.
"So, this is really something else, huh?"
Lector looked down at the amethyst ring on his right hand. "I don't think I've fully processed it yet. I feel like I just stepped into a fantasy quest like that first virtual reality game was."
"No kidding," Crump said. "Me, I feel like I walked into a reboot of Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Everybody used magic rings on that."
Lector stared at him. "You watched that?"
A shrug. "You know I've always cared about the environment. Yeah, I always watched it when it was first on. It was kind of a guilty pleasure. Besides, even if I'd never seen it, it'd still make a good pop culture reference."
Lector shook his head, a bit amused. But then again, maybe it wasn't so surprising. He already knew Crump still watched certain animated films on occasion, although generally only if they were about penguins.
"You know what's also wild is that speaking of that first virtual reality game, the Five-Headed Dragon was the boss monster in that," Crump continued. "Now in real-life, it's the good guy."
"So are we," Lector said.
"Sometimes that's also wild," Crump said. "We were the bad guys for a long time. And even when we were, we probably didn't think we were, did we?"
"Not if we weren't being honest with ourselves," Lector said. He looked towards the bedroom. "In any case, we had better try to get some sleep if we want to have any real hope of solving these problems in the morning. Maybe using the rings won't prove necessary."
"It probably will," Crump said. "But you're right; we'd better try to sleep. I don't know if I really will, though. And you . . . you must have a lot on your mind tonight. . . ."
Lector sighed and averted his gaze, running his fingers over the amethyst in the ring instead of facing Crump. "Nothing that hasn't already been talked about."
"Well, you just come and get me if you wanna talk, okay?" Crump said.
Lector nodded. "I'll do that." He looked up. "Thank you."
"Anytime." Crump waved to him and disappeared into the other bedroom.
Lector turned, looking to Gansley on the daybed in the living room. He had apparently decided to lie down during their conversation and now seemed to be asleep. Why he had chosen the daybed this time was anyone's guess. Maybe he wanted Nesbitt to have someone around if he wanted to talk tonight, since Nesbitt usually grabbed the daybed if Gansley didn't.
Well, that was alright. Lector was fine sharing a room with any of the others as long as they each had a separate bed, and luckily, in this suite they did.
He wandered into the bedroom and found Nesbitt sitting on one of the beds, staring down at the floor. "Are you alright?" he asked.
Nesbitt looked up at him. "This is insane," he said. "I'm not a hero."
Now Lector saw that instead of the floor, Nesbitt was staring down at the citrine ring that had been allotted to him. "We already knew we were going to have to fight a 'great evil,'" he said.
"Yes, but that's not the same thing as being given a magic ring that belonged to your ancient ancestor and told to go save the world," Nesbitt scowled.
Lector sighed. "No, it isn't," he admitted.
"And will we even know what to do with these things when the time comes when we'll have to use them?" Nesbitt persisted.
"That man seemed to indicate we would," Lector said. "I suppose if it's a matter of will, we'll have to be careful not to set them off accidentally with an overload of emotions."
"And I'm Fire," Nesbitt growled. "Great."
"I can be very emotional myself," Lector said. "I could have easily fit the bill for Fire tonight."
Nesbitt looked up at him. "You've scolded me more than once and called me a fool for being impulsive and reckless."
"And you were," Lector said. "But this time, I'm the fool." He wearily sank onto the other bed. "I thought my father cared about me still. I got all of you out here and plunged into this kind of danger because I thought he actually wanted to reconcile."
"It's like Gansley said—we all made our own choices to come with you." Nesbitt looked away uncomfortably. "But I'm sorry about your father. I don't know what it would be like to have the love of someone important to you and then lose it."
Lector paused. "You also say you never cared about anyone until you met us. Is that really true? What about your family?"
"You're my family," Nesbitt responded. He laid down on the bed.
Lector frowned. For whatever reason, Nesbitt did not want to reveal his family life. Lector would respect that, although it certainly made him both curious and concerned. Why would Nesbitt want to stay quiet about it?
"Alright," he said. "I'm going to try to sleep. You should too."
"I know." Nesbitt turned out the lamp.
For a long time Lector lay awake in the dark room, trying to remember if Nesbitt had ever mentioned anything about anyone in his family in all the years they had known each other. Shortly after he concluded that Nesbitt never had, he dropped to sleep.