Chapter Seven

Yami Marik was indeed frustrated and aggravated over the duel's outcome. But when he teleported to where Dr. Portman was reviewing the recordings she had made of the entire incident, he discovered that she couldn't be more pleased.

"This is thoroughly fascinating!" she exclaimed. "Your hold over that man was so strong, he eventually tried to attack the oldest one of the group, even though he had been steadfastly trying to avoid it! Actually, it's fascinating that he managed to fight you enough to keep from attacking Mr. Gansley for so long. And that vicious blow he dealt to Mr. Lector . . . !"

Yami Marik finally sneered. "It was enjoyable, watching him fall apart after that. I wasn't expecting him to be able to break my control after he'd had only minimal luck before. I didn't expect him to be that strong."

"And if he truly was the weakest link, imagine the potential mental strength of the others!" Portman exclaimed. "Of course, this experiment is only just beginning. I want to see how he and the others handle what he did. Plus, there's the next stage of the plan to put into effect."

"I can hardly wait," Yami Marik grinned.

Portman smirked. "We do make a good team at that. Although . . . I must admit that you yourself would make a fascinating case study. All you care about is hurting people. Why?"

A wider smirk. "Well, that would be quite a long story. And it would involve my creation."

Portman leaned forward, adjusting her glasses. "You weren't created in a normal manner?!"

"Hardly," Yami Marik said. "You studied Battle City because you were studying Kaiba. You must have seen the drastic and vicious changes to Marik's personality and appearance during the Finals."

"Yes, and that made me want to study him," Portman said. "He seemed to have a split personality. But he doesn't anymore."

"Because the two personalities split into two separate beings," Yami Marik leered. "I became my own person while still inhabiting his body, but now I'm even more my own person than I was before."

Portman rocked back, staring at him in utter amazement. "You truly are an incredible individual!" she gasped.

"I know," Yami Marik said.

"It's like Jekyll and Hyde come to life!" Portman's eyes gleamed. "You will tell me more, won't you?"

"Oh, I'd be perfectly delighted," Yami Marik smirked with a mock bow.

xxxx

Nesbitt was silent on the drive to KaibaCorp. All of the Big Five were being driven there in Seto's limousine, with Seto intending to supervise once they got there. Nesbitt was too upset about what he had done to even focus on the awkward situation of Seto doing anything more for them. He leaned forward, digging his hands into his hair. He had said so many unspeakably cruel things to the only friends he had, the only people who had never turned their backs on him no matter what had happened. Then he had almost killed first Gansley and then Lector. He would never get the image of Lector screaming in pain and collapsing into the snow out of his mind. He had been so still. . . .

"Nesbitt?"

He slowly looked up. Lector was watching him, frowning in concern.

"It's incredible that you can forgive me for this," Nesbitt told him. "I can never forgive myself."

"We could see that you were trying to break free," Lector said. "You couldn't help what that creature did to you."

"He was the one making you say and do all those messed-up things," Crump agreed.

A loud silence fell over the vehicle. The others were wondering what they were afraid to ask: did Nesbitt really feel any of those ways deep down, even if he would never speak of it in his right mind?

"I swear he was," Nesbitt said. "He must have gone through my memories and chosen things to say that could sound plausible based on what I've really said and done." He hesitated. "Although maybe sometimes I've wondered what you think of me, Lector. . . ."

"I don't agree with you on a lot of things," Lector said, "and sometimes your impulsive recklessness frustrates me. But I still think highly of you, Nesbitt. I always have. We've always cared about each other when no one else has. We're family."

The others nodded. "Of course we've had foolish spats," Gansley said. "There isn't a family that hasn't."

"And there will no doubt be more," Johnson said.

"But it's nothing like the arguments my parents were always getting into," Crump said. "I could always tell how much they really hated each other. I've never felt that with us! I've always known we cared through it all."

"But . . . if I'd really killed Gansley . . . or Lector. . . ." A haunted look passed through Nesbitt's eyes.

"Hey, what I said to Lector about dwelling on the What Ifs applies here too," Crump said. "All it does is make a bad situation even worse. We all came out of this okay. I protected Gansley." He hesitated. "And if Lector hadn't been strong enough to survive that blast, well, I think all of us would have felt responsible, since none of us were able to stop that attack."

Gansley and Johnson silently nodded in agreement.

"Of course we're going to be thinking about that to some extent," Gansley said. "We can't not. But we're going to try to focus on the reality that we've pulled through this trial."

Johnson looked to Nesbitt. "Any time you need to talk, just admit it and come to us. We'll help each other through this."

Nesbitt looked down and nodded.

"Or if you need to scream, or cry, we won't judge you," Lector said quietly. "To be honest, I'm relieved that anything got through to you. When you struck me down with Satellite Cannon, I was afraid you were lost to us for good. But I'm sorry you have to suffer through the pain of knowing you hurt me."

Nesbitt trembled. "It . . . it was horrible," he choked out. "It was like my body was on auto-pilot, acting without my permission. But I was watching by that point; I knew what was happening. It felt like I was watching it through a fog over my mind, though. Nothing was really clear. Then you fell and didn't get up. . . . And suddenly everything came into focus. I was hurting . . . maybe even killing . . . one of the only people I care about. . . . One of the only people who cares about me. . . . And it wasn't even the first time. I stood by and laughed when Khu put you in the darkness. This time, I tried to send you into the darkness myself! . . ." He choked back a sob. He would never deliberately fall apart like this in earshot of Seto Kaiba, but Seto had known they would want to talk in private and had affixed the soundproof partition in their part of the limousine. He was not listening.

"And both times, it hurt," Lector said. "But I know you didn't mean for me to be hurt either time. You thought I'd be alright the first time. . . . And the second time, you weren't in control."

"You must be angry," Nesbitt said. "Surely you must want to scream, yell, something."

"I'm not angry at you," Lector said. "Yes, I'd like to give the thing that did this to you a piece of my mind. I don't know if I'll ever get that chance." He hesitated, then drew an arm around Nesbitt's shoulders. The man immediately went stiff, but he didn't pull away. "There's something much different I'd like to say to you. Thank you . . . for being my true friend."

Slowly Nesbitt looked up at him in disbelief. But as he saw that Lector was completely serious, he was overwhelmed.

"After we leave KaibaCorp, I don't think we should go back to Crump's house," Lector went on, "since some of his servants are apparently mixed up in something against us. But we should probably stick together until we know more about their plot. Let's try my house instead."

"We need to get the blueprints and stuff from my place, though," Crump said.

"And how can you even trust me?" Nesbitt said. "It's probably safer for all of you to stay away from me."

"I doubt you'll be controlled again," Gansley said.

"Even if they tried, you'd likely be able to resist it now," Johnson said.

"We're not afraid to be around you," Crump agreed.

"And we trust you," Lector firmly added.

"Thank you," Nesbitt said quietly. It was far more than he ever could have hoped for or imagined.

xxxx

In the other part of the limousine, Seto was silent, sitting with folded arms as he stared into the overcast night. Mokuba, sitting next to him, watched him in concern. "Seto, are you okay?" He looked down. "You should really let the doctors look at you, too. You also got hit with a direct attack. . . ."

"But a much less serious one," Seto grunted. His expression softened as he looked down at his brother. "I'm alright, Mokuba."

"I hope so." Mokuba looked away. "I thought Lector was dead. . . ."

"So did Nesbitt, I'm sure."

"I bet he doesn't regret hurting you," Mokuba said bitterly.

"Probably not," Seto agreed. "But I don't really care. What I want to know is if he really is the one who threw that bomb at you."

"If he was, he was probably being controlled by Yami Marik then too," Mokuba said.

"Even if he was, I doubt he'd care about that," Seto grunted.

"Unless maybe he'd care because now he knows Lector cares about me," Mokuba said. "So maybe he wouldn't want to hurt me because it would upset Lector. Like Lector doesn't want to hurt you because now he's really thinking about how it would hurt me."

"Heh. Maybe."

Mokuba sighed. "If Dr. Portman is involved, I hope those guys regret letting her go when they could have made sure she didn't."

"They probably do. Not that regretting it helps anything."

Mokuba stared at the floor. "I wonder if Hobson's come back. Do you think he's being controlled too?"

"Probably, unless Portman offered him more money. On the other hand, he knows very well that I can make things very difficult for him if he turns against us, so he might be smart enough to turn down any offer she might make."

"I always kind of wondered why you kept him on at all after you took over," Mokuba said. "He always followed Gozaburo's orders, even the really messed-up ones."

"He knew a lot of important information about the business," Seto said. "I thought he might be useful. That, and I didn't want him telling his information to competitors. I could tell he was interested in money. As long as I am always more powerful than anyone else, he won't see a need to seek employment elsewhere. I certainly intend to remain the most powerful person in town, so all in all, it seemed the most logical option to keep him on."

"He always creeped me out," Mokuba said. "I liked Lector more."

"And look what happened," Seto retorted. "Hobson stayed on while Lector turned against us."

"Yeah. . . . Only now we know Lector always cared about at least me, deep down. You just admitted that Hobson's interested in the money, Seto. . . . Do you think he cares at all?"

"I don't know," Seto said honestly. "I never thought Lector did until he proved it." He leaned back. "But regardless, I'm going to have a long talk with Hobson if or when he comes back."

xxxx

Yami Bakura was also very quiet as he drove to Kaiba Manor. He and Bakura had no real reason to go to the KaibaCorp medical center, so they had decided to go looking for Hobson for the time being since there was little more they could do before either locating him or having that conference with Seto.

Bakura sighed and looked out at the sparkling white snow on every lawn and roof. "I was thinking about the past too, Yami," he said softly. "It would have been impossible not to. It was so horrible when Yami Marik used that Shadow Leech on you. . . ."

Yami Bakura growled under his breath. "At least I had more presence of mind than Nesbitt. I was aware enough to fight against calling out the command for the Ring to harm you."

"You've also been around a lot longer than Nesbitt, Yami, and you've had time to start building up your mental strength after discovering how Zorc used you through all those millennia," Bakura said. "I feel very sorry for Nesbitt. . . . He's just trying to turn his life around and that horrible Yami Marik and maybe Dr. Portman force him to attack his loved ones! They have no shame."

"Of course not," Yami Bakura grunted. "Why would they?"

"I suppose it's foolish of me to think they would," Bakura said, sighing. "It's just hard to comprehend how truly evil some people are."

"That demon isn't even a person," Yami Bakura pointed out.

"True," Bakura said. "But Dr. Portman is. And there are others who are and are just as treacherous. I suppose . . . sometimes it's hard to really believe in peace on Earth knowing that such evil is running rampant."

"I highly doubt there will ever be peace on Earth unless the religions are correct about someday there being a time when people will behave differently," Yami Bakura said. "I find it difficult to believe as well, especially after seeing that people haven't truly changed much in centuries." He paused. "But I don't want you to become as cynical as I am. One of your strengths is your ability to see the goodness in dark souls and believe that the world is not as hopeless as it seems."

Bakura smiled a bit. "It's nice that you feel that's a strength and not a weakness, Yami."

"It can be both," Yami Bakura said. "But it certainly helped save me."

That certainly made Bakura happy. But the events of the day, on the other hand, were worrying him immensely.

"I wonder if the threats are part of the same plot that caused Nesbitt to be mind-controlled or if there are two different things going on here," he said.

"If that fool Hobson can be found, maybe we'll find out." Yami Bakura parked back at Kaiba Manor and got out. Bakura hurried after him.

Yugi's and Duke's groups had been right behind them. Now they got out as well.

"Okay," Yugi said. "Kaiba gave us permission to look around the house and the grounds for Hobson. If we find him, we need to question him about the threats and his part in them. Maybe he won't have any better idea than Nesbitt, if he's being controlled too. We'll just have to hope for the best!"

"Yami and I'll check the house," Bakura said.

"I'll help," Téa volunteered.

"Then we'll check the yard," Duke said.

"Man." Joey gawked at the extensive grounds. "I wonder what it's really like livin' in a place like this. It must be pretty awesome!"

"Except for all the people trying to kill you left and right," Duke muttered.

"Is that why you don't have a house, Duke?" Téa wondered. "The security's better at an apartment building like yours?"

Duke started. "Huh? Oh. Nah, that's not really why." He started twirling a piece of hair around his finger as he walked ahead. His other arm was draped around Serenity's waist. "Let's meet back here in thirty minutes."

"How about twenty minutes?!" Joey shot back.

"Thirty is a reasonable amount of time," Atem interjected. "Alright, everyone. Let's be off!"

Yami Bakura was tense as his group headed inside. Velma, who was preparing to vacuum, looked tense as well.

"Is Mr. Kaiba with you?" she asked in concern.

"No," Yami Bakura grunted, "but he gave us permission to come in here and look for his wayward butler."

"Oh. . . ." Velma bit her lip. "If Hobson's come back, I sure haven't seen him."

"We'll look for ourselves." Yami Bakura glanced down at the Infinity Ring. "If Hobson is here, show us to him," he commanded.

The Ring stayed silent.

"The way it acts, who can be sure if he's really not here or if it's just not cooperating?" Téa groaned.

"We can't," Yami Bakura growled. "We'll just have to keep looking."

"I suppose the best place to start would be his room," Bakura said.

"I can definitely take you there," Velma said, glad for the chance to be able to be helpful.

"Good. Then do it," Yami Bakura grunted.

Velma led the group up the back staircase and into the wing where the servants had their quarters. As they approached one closed door, she stepped out ahead and carefully knocked. "Hello?" she called. "Hobson? Are you here?" When there was no response, she slowly opened the door and looked inside. "He's not here."

"Then at least we're going to see if there's anything in here that will shed some light on this madness," Yami Bakura said, storming past her in determination. Téa quickly followed, while Bakura scratched his cheek in a bit of embarrassment as he trailed after his friends.

A search of the room revealed little. It was as mysterious as the man itself. But he was apparently a very philosophical sort; he had a bookshelf mostly filled with very deep and complex tomes, fiction and non-fiction alike.

"This would so go over Joey's head," Téa remarked as she took a book by Kafka down to leaf through. "He didn't even understand one of the guy's short stories that we had to read for school."

"Well," Bakura chuckled, "he wasn't the only one. I must admit, that author's works are . . . odd, to say the very least. I tried watching a film based on one of his stories and I was completely lost."

"It looks like this guy wouldn't be," Téa said. "Who'd have thought?"

A piece of paper dropped from the book to the floor. Téa started, looking down at it. "Oops. . . ."

Yami Bakura bent to pick it up. On a whim, he opened it. "It's directions to a street corner in town," he frowned.

"Maybe the street corner where he gave Lector that threat?" Téa suggested.

"Perhaps," Yami Bakura agreed. "There's a notation on it, something about going at 11." He scowled. "Unfortunately, it could mean just about anything."

"On the other hand, this is very clear about its meaning." Bakura was frowning at another piece of paper.

"Where did you get that?" Yami Bakura demanded in surprise.

"Out of a different book," Bakura said. He showed the others. Over and over, across the entire sheet of paper, was written one very ominous and dark statement.

Death to all who have betrayed the Kaiba family.

"What the . . . ?!" Téa stared. "This doesn't sound like something he'd write!"

"We have no proof that he wrote this, unless we can find a sample of his handwriting," Yami Bakura said. "But if he did write it, I wonder if that's part of whatever scheme Portman and that demon have come up with. What if he wrote it, but not voluntarily?"

"Mind-controlled into writing it?!" Téa stared in shock. "That is really freaky!"

"I wonder what kind of effect that would have on him when he was left to himself," Bakura said. "It seems like having to write the same thing over and over would seep into his consciousness, even if he wasn't himself when he wrote it."

"We'll save this and show it to Kaiba," Yami Bakura determined.

Going through the rest of the books didn't turn up anything else strange. But they had already found what seemed to be another bizarre piece of the puzzle.

xxxx

To the Big Five's and Mokuba's relief, Lector was proclaimed alright to leave the medical center after he was examined. "But," the doctor sternly insisted as they prepared to go, "you have to rest!"

"Thank you, Sir," Lector replied. "I intend to do just that."

Mokuba smiled up at him. "I'm really glad you're okay, Lector. But you guys all better be really careful; who knows if Yami Marik might come back! Or that creepy mad scientist Dr. Portman!"

"We'll be careful," Lector promised. "We're not going back to Crump's house to stay right now. We just need to pick up what we were working on and take it elsewhere."

"That's good," Mokuba said.

"I just hope your friends are regretting letting Portman go," Seto remarked.

"It . . . wasn't our wisest moment," Johnson said in chagrin.

"To say the least," Mokuba grumbled.

Marik smiled at Mokuba as they stepped outside into the snow. "We still didn't get to do anything in the snow like we were planning," he said. "After we drop the Big Five off at wherever they're going, why don't we and your brother have some fun?"

Mokuba looked up, beaming. "Well, Seto?"

Seto started. "If nothing's going on back at the house," he said. "The others went there looking for Hobson."

That brought a sigh of resignation from Mokuba. "Oh yeah, that's right."

Marik shot Seto a look. After the long and frightening day, he really felt Mokuba needed some fun and happiness. Of course, Seto did as well. But he was worried wondering what was going to go wrong next, and whether Hobson would try to make trouble if he was around.

"I promise I'll try to find time, Mokuba," Seto amended. "Maybe everything's fine at the house."

"I hope so," Mokuba said quietly. "Too much has gone wrong already. And maybe another time, we wouldn't be so lucky with things working out right in the end. . . ."

That was exactly what Seto feared. And another time, it might not be Lector or another of the Big Five getting hurt—it might be Mokuba.