Chapter Eight

To the Big Five's relief, they collected the blueprints and Nesbitt's sketchpad from Crump's house without further difficulty and they took their cars to Lector's house up the street. Lector's maid was gracious to all of them, as she always was, and headed upstairs to prepare their rooms.

Lector was pleased to finally be able to relax after the bizarrely long day. It was only now occurring to him that the only time he been asleep in over 24 hours was when he had instead been unconscious for several moments, and that was hardly a restful experience. Even though the evening was early, this realization suddenly made him ready to collapse. He prepared for bed as quickly as he could.

He wasn't expecting to find Crump waiting for him when he emerged from the master bathroom after a brief shower. The older man was waiting uneasily in the connected bedroom, shifting his position and looking awkward.

"Hey, Lector," he greeted, making no acknowledgment of the fact that Lector was only wearing a towel at the moment. "Are you really okay?"

"You heard what the doctor said," Lector replied. He opened a drawer in the chest of drawers and took out shorts and night clothes.

"Yeah, I know what the doc said." Crump came over closer to him. "But is it really true? And even if you're more or less okay physically, that doesn't mean you're okay emotionally. I know how upset and betrayed you felt after Khu put you in the darkness."

Lector tightly shut the drawer. "I meant everything I told Nesbitt. I can't consider that he was the one attacking me today, because he wasn't. Now if you'll excuse me." He vanished back into the bathroom.

His hands shook as he climbed into his clothes. It was true that he didn't blame Nesbitt or consider him responsible for what had happened. But it was still terrifying whenever he thought about his Satellite Cannon turning against him via Brain Control and striking him down. The person controlling Nesbitt had no doubt done that on purpose, knowing it would likely shake Lector up on multiple levels. As if it wouldn't be bad enough to be attacked by his own, supercharged Duel Monster, it eerily paralleled real-life, where his dear friend had had a form of Brain Control used on him as well.

He slumped back against the sink, covering his eyes with his hands.

"Lector?!"

He jumped a mile. Crump was still there, on the other side of the door. Well, at least he hadn't tried to get through it. He respected Lector's modesty, unless Lector gave him a good reason to plow through the door anyway, like not answering.

"I'm alright," Lector insisted. He drew a shaking breath and pushed away from the sink.

"How the heck long does it take to get into a pair of pajamas?!"

"I'll be out in a minute."

It wasn't a surprise when he came out a couple of minutes later, fully dressed, and found Crump still there. The older man still looked distressed.

"Crump, I swear to you that I'm alright," Lector told him.

"You didn't seem very alright when you stormed back in here," Crump retorted.

"Well, what do you want me to say?!" Lector finally snapped. "That yes, what happened today tore me up inside? That the things that creature made Nesbitt say and do cut me to the core? I know he hurt you and the others too."

"Yeah, he did," Crump agreed. "But he didn't almost kill us." He shifted. "I didn't wanna say this in front of Nesbitt, but . . . I really thought you were dead, Lector," he confessed. "If Nesbitt hadn't flown off the handle, I would have."

Lector's expression softened. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"And you seemed upset that we weren't talking about what happened when Khu . . ." Crump swallowed hard. "When he killed the rest of us. . . ." He cleared his throat and looked away uncomfortably. "So, well . . . if you wanted to talk about this, I just wanted you to know I'm around. . . . That, and I guess maybe I wanted to talk about it a little. . . ."

"I guess you did," Lector said. "But that was thoughtful, Crump."

"Yeah, and well . . . for all my preaching about not dwelling on the What Ifs, I know I'm gonna have nightmares tonight." Crump shuddered. "I thought maybe you would too."

"Probably," Lector said. He sighed. "To be perfectly honest, I have only rarely had a good night's sleep since we got back to our bodies. My mind must be working overtime to process all the things in dreams that it couldn't while we were wandering spirits."

"Sounds like it." Crump hesitated. "Or maybe you've been trying so hard to be strong that you're finally cracking under the strain. Nothing's really gone right for us ever since we tried to help Seto Kaiba take over KaibaCorp. Who can really say which of us has suffered the most, you know? But out of all of us, you're the only one who was really devastated by having betrayed Gozaburo. You couldn't even face it, it hurt you so bad. You had to throw your blame and guilt on Seto because you couldn't deal with it. So that added some extra pressure on you alone. And you had a loving family, something I never knew with my folks, but they disowned you." He shook his head. "I can't imagine how that's hurt you, Buddy."

Lector wearily sank onto the edge of his bed and leaned forward, resting his arms on his lap. "Technically it was just my father who disowned me. Or at least, that's how it started. If none of them even tried to find out about me after we fell into those comas, then they all cared more about pleasing my father than knowing if I was alright. And my father must have stopped caring altogether." He stared at the floor. "I wanted to believe it was all in my head, that he really was just speaking in anger and surely they would want to see me when I was finally awake after over a year in a coma. . . . But he just hung up on me as soon as I identified myself. That's when I knew . . ." His voice cracked. "It wasn't all in my head at all."

"And you never told us about that either, until Johnson asked," Crump said quietly.

"I wanted to try to move on," Lector said. "We got into our messes because we couldn't forget the past. But in the end, some things . . . are just too hard to forget." He looked up sadly at Crump. "We all committed sins, but you kind of think your family will still love you even if they detest what you're doing. At least . . . that's what I thought. I miss them, Crump. . . . My father, my mother . . . my brothers and sisters. . . . Well, maybe not my older sister's children." He scowled. "I always got stuck baby-sitting for them, and I'm telling you, the word 'hellion' was invented for them. They sent every other sitter running from that house in terror. The only one besides me who tried more than once ended up hyperventilating and having to call the paramedics to help her. . . . Of course, they couldn't do anything with those kids either." He sighed. "They're the reason I've never liked children in general."

"You're changing the subject," Crump said.

"I know," Lector grunted. "I had so much trouble with them and later with Noa, when he was still alive. . . . He grew more and more spoiled every day. But Gozaburo loved him, even if Noa never thought so. You don't try to preserve your dead child's brain and spirit in cyberspace if you don't love him. Noa's death . . . it just warped Gozaburo into someone I didn't recognize. He was always ruthless, but there was humanity in him when Noa was around."

"You're not a rambler," Crump said. "You must be leading up to something."

"I think I blamed Seto for what happened to Gozaburo," Lector said. "Another kid I didn't get along with. I didn't just blame Seto for driving Gozaburo to running away in shame; I blamed him for changing the man a lot before that. I thought Seto must have been a difficult child and Gozaburo couldn't take it so soon after losing Noa. Seto says that wasn't true and Gozaburo was abusive. I didn't want to listen. I knew he'd never hurt Noa. But . . . what if Seto was right? Maybe Gozaburo really changed that much. . . . Or maybe I never knew him the way I thought I did . . . just like I never knew my family the way I thought I did."

He laughed ironically. "The only child I ever really liked was Mokuba, and eventually I turned against him when I let my hatred and frustration towards Seto get out of control. I'm still angry at Seto for using us and Mokuba; I probably always will be. But I pushed that child away and drove my family away. . . . I'm good at losing people I care about." He gripped the quilt. "Nesbitt and I don't normally get along. Maybe part of me wonders . . . could that thing have used some real, buried resentment towards me when he took Nesbitt over?"

Crump sat down next to him in concern. "Hey, I've got Nesbitt to talk to me too," he said. "He just doesn't like people in general, Lector. He told me he was surprised he cares about us. Somehow we just got under his skin, even you. He doesn't resent you. And . . . you're not worrying you'll lose all of us, are you?"

"I did, after what happened in the Shadow Realm," Lector said. "I don't really believe it now, and yet . . . I suppose I can't help but worry. I never thought I'd lose my family's love. . . ."

"Gansley was right, you know," Crump said. "We've stuck together through thick and thin when everybody else jumped ship. And that thing you said about family still loving you in spite of whatever garbage you've pulled? I'd say that describes us pretty well. Don't you think?"

Lector pondered on that. "Yes . . . I suppose so."

"Sure. All of us have said and done things that probably could have split up weaker groups. We're strong. Don't you forget it!"

Lector finally smiled a bit. "I've never really talked with any of you like this until yesterday."

"You didn't need to," Crump said. "Or eh, maybe you didn't think you needed to. Maybe we all kind of need it now and then. And I'm tellin' you, if I ever run across your old man, I'll probably greet him by belting him one."

"You wouldn't want to do that," Lector said, even as he was touched by Crump's protectiveness. "He'd get back at you for it."

"That's okay," Crump said. "He should know it's not alright to turn against his son. If he was upset with your life choices, locking you out wouldn't help any! Maybe if you'd had better influences, you wouldn't have sunk down with the rest of us." He hesitated. "Your good influence when you finally wanted a change is what helped the rest of us out. I don't know if we would've decided to turn our lives around too if it wasn't for you."

"You probably would have eventually," Lector said. "Gansley's usually pretty reasonable. I'm sure he would have realized that you were all stuck in a rut, like I did."

"Maybe," Crump said. "But you had something the rest of us didn't: an outside influence for good in the form of Mokuba Kaiba. When we went too far, your protectiveness of the kid kicked in. And even though we were ticked off at you for it, eventually we all had to be grateful for it."

Lector slowly nodded. "I'm glad I could help."

"Are you feeling any better?" Crump asked.

"Some," Lector said. "Maybe I'll try and get some sleep."

"Yeah, you should. And if any more nightmares happen tonight, come and check on me. I'll probably either be awake or glad to get woke up."

"I'll keep that in mind," Lector said in a bit of amusement. He paused. "Thank you."

"Hey, don't mention it." Crump looked awkward again. "Thank you . . . for, you know . . . not dying. We don't wanna be the Big Four." He patted Lector on the arm and headed for the door.

Lector stared after him. Crump really was a loyal friend. They all were. It had been understandable to doubt them after the disaster with Khu in the Shadow Realm, but even so, he felt badly now that he had.

He slowly climbed into bed and turned out the light. Maybe now, after having really opened up to the others over the last 24 hours, he actually would sleep better—in spite of the disaster with Nesbitt.

He hoped Nesbitt would be able to get some decent sleep as well.

xxxx

Nesbitt was very wide awake despite also having not had any sleep in over 24 hours. He paced his room, restless, before finally giving up and going into the hall. Gansley was already there, leaning on his cane as he stared into the distance from the upstairs railing.

"You can't sleep either, huh?" Nesbitt spoke, feeling awkward. He was the reason for everyone's sleeplessness, naturally. . . .

Gansley turned to face him. "I haven't even tried yet. I slept later today because of what happened last night, so I'm not particularly tired at the moment."

Nesbitt was sure that was only partially true. "You're . . . really not afraid to be around me? After what I did to Lector, and tried to do to you . . . hasn't it occurred to you that maybe I'm the one who hit you last night?!"

Gansley gripped his cane a little bit tighter. "It's occurred to me," he agreed. "But you've conquered whatever invaded your mind. No, Nesbitt, I'm not afraid to be around you."

Nesbitt looked away, clenching his fists. "I'm afraid to be around me," he said bitterly. "It took almost murdering Lector to snap me out of it!"

"And that's why you won't let it happen again," Gansley insisted. "Now that you're aware of having been mind-controlled, they have no further hold over you."

Nesbitt spun back around. "How can all of you just dismiss it like that?!" he cried. "We all turned against Lector just because he'd been shielding Mokuba Kaiba from us, but you want me around after I showed I'm capable of killing you?!"

"It's not like that." Now an edge had entered Gansley's voice. "We learned from what happened with Lector. We realized we were wrong to abandon him. And he came to trust all of us again despite what happened. We wouldn't turn against you, especially when you weren't responsible for your actions! You are not capable of killing us, Nesbitt! Why else would what happened have shocked you back to yourself?"

Nesbitt was stunned into silence. "I . . ." He shook his head. "It still overwhelms me, that you all care about me this much. I haven't absolved myself of responsibility yet."

"It will take time," Gansley conceded. He hesitated, but finally added, "I still feel guilt over what I said and did when Khu tried to assimilate Lector into the darkness. I don't know when I will forgive myself for that."

Nesbitt stared at Gansley in surprise. "I had no idea."

"I haven't admitted it aloud until now," Gansley said. "How would you have any idea?"

"Fair enough." Nesbitt looked away. "I thought I'd locked myself away in my own world, with my machines and my technology. I didn't think I cared about anyone else. . . . That I could care. How did this even happen?"

Gansley chuckled. "I ask myself the same question. I believe Johnson does as well. I doubt any of us know the answer. And in the end, does it matter?"

"I guess not." Nesbitt turned back. "When I thought I'd killed Lector, I didn't know how I would keep living either. Is it normal to feel so illogical?"

"It's human," Gansley said. "Strange to think about, though. . . . I've lived for years caring only about business and not people, and yet the four of you have become so important to me."

Nesbitt sighed, staring at the floor. "I had enough presence of mind not to attack you directly, at least for a while. Then I lost control of myself and almost did. I would have, if not for Crump. I am . . . so sorry. . . ." He scowled. "People say that, and yet what does it mean? How does it matter? It hardly begins to make up for whatever damage was done."

"I suppose in some way it does," Gansley mused. "It can help to know the person feels badly for what happened."

"Maybe." Hearing a voice up the hall, Nesbitt looked towards the sound with a frown. When the person came close enough that he and Gansley could hear the words, they were both stunned.

"Yes, they're all here now," Lector's cook was saying. "Something happened to Mr. Lector. . . . I don't entirely understand what, but apparently it's Mr. Nesbitt's fault."

Nesbitt flinched and clenched his fists. Gansley frowned.

"You want me to do what?!" the cook exclaimed. "I know we want to get rid of them, but that way?!"

Nesbitt went stiff. "What is she talking about?!" he hissed. "And who is she talking to?!"

"We're certainly going to find out," Gansley insisted. "Just wait a moment."

". . . No, I haven't fixed anything for them yet. Mr. Lector went to bed early. I don't know if the others are going to."

"She's going to poison us!" Nesbitt snarled.

Gansley waved a hand at him to be quiet. They had to be sure.

"Alright, if you're sure it can't be traced. . . . I'll test it on just one of them first."

Now Gansley had heard enough. He stormed forward, Nesbitt going out ahead of him. To their surprise, Johnson emerged from around another corner. "So, what, exactly, are you going to test on one of us?" he asked.

The woman jumped a horrified mile and immediately ended her telephone conversation. "I wasn't even talking about any of you!" she gasped.

"Do you honestly expect us to believe that?" Nesbitt grabbed her before she could run and tried to wrench her phone out of her hand.

Gansley just leaned on his cane and watched. "Clearly, we haven't left the danger behind at all. I wonder . . ."

"What?!" Nesbitt hissed.

"What if some or all of our servants are mixed up in a plot against us?" Gansley suggested. The cook's eyes widened. "I heard Crump's maid complaining that we've come back so she doesn't have full run of the house anymore. What if they all feel similarly? They must have all enjoyed living in our homes as more than servants while we were gone." He looked at the cook, who was ashen now. "Am I right?"

"I'm not talking without a lawyer," the cook weakly answered.

"Oh, I'm a lawyer," Johnson sneered. "Of course, not yours. But you'd be well-advised to tell us what we want to know. I'm sure you're aware of Nesbitt's violent tendencies. He's had a very rough day and could easily snap if something else goes wrong."

The cook trembled as Nesbitt's arm tightened against her throat. "You won't stop it," she insisted. "It just started as a few of us idly talking and wishing you hadn't come back, it's true. We weren't planning on actually doing anything about it."

"So how did it become that?" Gansley asked.

"One of us—and I'm not saying who!—suddenly suggested trying to get rid of you. We weren't going to go along with it going that far, but . . . well, that person didn't want us to tell on them, so they said if we didn't go along with them, they would kill all of you, then call the police and pin the blame on all of us. I swear!" Tears came to the cook's eyes. "I wasn't really going to poison any of you. I was just going along with it on the phone. I was just going to slip you some sedatives in your soup."

"And how did you expect to get away with that if you were expected to kill us?" Johnson retorted.

"Oh . . . I would have thought of something. . . ." A weak shrug.

Johnson took that moment to grab the phone from her. "All we have to do is look at the name and number of the person you were talking to and we'll know who wants us dead."

"That won't work," she told him. "They were calling from a payphone."

"People still use those?" Nesbitt snorted.

"It was part of the set-up," was the insistent reply. "They didn't want to be able to be traced in case anyone ever saw our phones' records."

"Great," Nesbitt snarled.

"Hmm." Still calm and collected, Gansley met eyes with the cook. "Do you mean to tell us that you're just going to let yourself go down without even telling us this person's name?"

"You can't arrest me," the cook haughtily told him. "Not for something I said on the phone."

"No, but Lector can certainly fire you," Gansley replied. "And then you may be in danger from your co-conspirator. They may fear that you'll talk and so they'll silence you first."

She looked around nervously. "I'll take my chances."

Gansley sighed. "Her mind is made up. There's nothing more we can do with her."

Snarling, Nesbitt shoved her as he released her from his grasp. She turned, fleeing down the stairs.

"Well, now what?!" Nesbitt exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

"We'll have to tell Crump and Lector," Gansley said. "I hate to wake Lector right now, but he needs to know. And . . . as distasteful as it is, I suppose we'll have to call Seto Kaiba, just in case this ties in with what his butler's doing."

Johnson chuckled under his breath, adjusting his glasses.

"You think this is funny?!" Nesbitt cried in disbelief. "I fail to find anything funny about this situation whatsoever!"

"Just think about it for a moment," Johnson replied. "Our servants are plotting against us and want to overthrow us. They want to be the masters of the house. Doesn't it seem rather like poetic justice, after we plotted to overthrow Gozaburo and later Seto Kaiba?" He leaned back with a smirk. "All of our real problems started with those plans. Now, we have to unravel such a mess ourselves, and try to stay alive while we're doing it."

"At least we weren't trying to kill anyone when we tried to take over the company," Nesbitt growled.

"Not then, but eventually we became so desperate and filled with hatred and vengeance that we tried that too, when we took over Kaiba's augmented reality game," Johnson said. "Except for Lector, who tried to stop us at every turn."

"Alright," Gansley conceded. "Yes, I see your point, Johnson. But poetic justice or not, we need to survive this. Come on; let's go tell the others."

Johnson sobered. He didn't look forward to that.

xxxx

Duke was tense as he and Serenity wandered through the extensive front yard of the Kaiba Manor. Lights along the wall and the side of the house guided their way, but he was still highly alert for anyone who might jump out of the shadows at them.

"It's spooky here," Serenity said, voicing Duke's thoughts.

"As long as we're alone, it's fine," Duke said. "Only it almost seems too quiet. Where's the security guards? Not to mention Yugi and the others."

"There's Mai over there," Serenity pointed. "It looks like she might have found something."

They hurried over. "What's going on?" Duke asked.

Mai frowned, holding up a red belt by the buckle. "I have no idea. I just found this dropped here in the snow."

"Okay, now that's just weird," Duke frowned. "That looks like one of Alister's belts."

"That's right!" Serenity exclaimed. "I forgot that someone was trying to blame Alister for that bomb in the morning!"

"Unless he really did do it," Duke retorted. "Don't forget, he could have been controlled, like Nesbitt and maybe Kaiba's butler."

Terror passed through Mai's eyes. It was hard for her to picture something as frightening as being made to do something horrible without even remembering it later.

"So maybe he's here somewhere and lost this?" Serenity blinked.

"Maybe," Duke said. "I think he usually wears two and one's just there for aesthetic reasons."

Mai looked up at the house. "And he climbed in through that window?" She reached over and pushed it up. "It's open!"

Serenity hurried over and looked inside. "Hello?" she called.

"Watch it, Serenity," Duke exclaimed. He pulled her away from the window just in case something unfriendly came flying out at her. When nothing did, he slowly moved forward again and shined his Smartphone into the darkened room.

"Do you see anything?" Serenity asked.

"No," Duke frowned, "but that doesn't exactly instill me with confidence." He started to climb inside. "I'd better see if anyone's in here."

"I'm coming with you," Serenity insisted. Before Duke could protest, she was climbing in as well.

Mai sighed. "Oh well, what the heck." She followed them in.

"Maybe if we could find a lightswitch," Duke muttered.

Without warning the lights clicked on overhead. Alister was standing over by the lightswitch, silently watching them.