Notes: Thought it was time for a little Cheershipping, since I've referenced it several times in recent fics but haven't had the chance to show much of it. I also reference the fics Lead Me Through the Fire and Close Your Eyes, Clear Your Heart, which are basically part of this timeline (except for the fact that the characters are older in those fics and I decided I didn't want them older, so I put them back at canon ages, lol).

Chapter Four

Yugi and the others were deeply concerned and shaken when Atem told them all that was happening.

"No way!" Joey exclaimed, straightening from where he had been leaning against the couch. "Lector's back and this Portman lady is probably responsible?! And now they might be after Kaiba?!"

"That's just Kaiba's theories," Atem said. "But Téa said she saw Lector and I believe her."

"I don't think that Portman is any lady," Tristan said darkly.

"She sure sounds dangerous," Yugi worried. "Someone should stay with Téa."

"Bakura will probably do that," Atem said. ". . . Both of them. Maybe even Kaiba, if he believes strongly enough that Lector might come back."

"Yeah, I guess Kaiba can be trusted in a crisis," Joey said slowly.

"Of course he can!" Yugi insisted. "He's never let us down when there was life-threatening danger going on. Don't forget how he protected us from Zorc!"

"That's true," Joey conceded. "He probably hates every minute of it, though."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Atem said. "He let you have a pizza party at his house. That's no small thing."

Joey snorted. "Come on! That was just 'cause Mokuba begged him. You know he can't say No to his little brother!"

"Yeah," Yugi said. But from his tone, he wasn't convinced that was all there was to it.

Joey paused, blinking at him. "Yug, you can't really think . . ."

"That Kaiba wanted us there?" Yugi smiled a bit. "I don't know that he didn't. We've all come a long way, Joey, Kaiba included. I like to think he did want us."

"He didn't say so," Joey said.

"Do you really think he would?" Atem gave him an amused look. "Kaiba has been without friendship for so long, and insisting for years that he didn't need it or want it, that I can scarcely believe he would be able to let go of his pride and admit to the opposite even if he discovered it was true."

Joey stared. "You really think Kaiba thinks of us as his friends now?!"

"I don't know," Atem admitted, "but I also don't know that it isn't possible. I never have been able to get a chance to talk with him since my return."

"No kidding," Yugi sighed. "Things keep happening. First it was Yami Marik and Bandit Keith and the new Rare Hunters. Then it was the Big Five. Then it was Yami Marik and the Big Five . . . er, Four. Then Kaiba was trying to run damage control from what the Big Five did while we started remembering when Yami Marik tortured us about Bakura being dead. Now . . . who knows what's happening!"

"Well, I say we'd better get out there and find out what's happening," Tristan interjected. "We have a fallen businessman and a mad scientist to look for."

"We should see if Duke wants to help too," Yugi said.

"Good idea," Atem said. "We could use his car."

"And my truck?" Solomon spoke up.

Everyone jumped a mile.

"Grampa!" Yugi exclaimed. "I didn't hear you come in!"

"None of you did," Solomon said wryly.

"But that would be great if we could take your truck," Yugi added. "Some of us could go with you and some with Duke."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Solomon said. "Duke may not be available tonight."

Tristan frowned at the certain way Solomon had said that. "And just why not?" he countered.

"It looked like he had a date."

Dead silence. Then Joey hit the ceiling. "WHAT?!"

Yugi had to awkwardly laugh. "Well, Serenity did choose to try dating him, Joey," he said.

"And I'd say Duke has been a perfect gentleman through it all," Solomon added.

Joey sighed. "Yeah, I know. He has." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "And Serenity's grown up a lot from the adventures she's had with him. I guess . . . I guess it's just hard accepting how much she's grown up sometimes."

"No matter how much, she'll always want and need her big brother, Joey," Yugi said softly.

Joey turned away. "Of course she will," he said gruffly. ". . . Okay then. Let's not ask Duke. I don't want Serenity to know what's going on here. We'll all just go with Gramps."

"Fine with me," Tristan said.

"Oh hey," Yugi remembered, "we could also ask Mai to help."

Joey frowned. "Nah. I don't wanna involve her in something else crazy either. She's just getting settled here, finding a house and all."

"She might be upset if you don't ask her," Solomon said. "For that matter, Serenity might be upset at being kept out of the loop as well."

"I still don't want them involved," Joey retorted. "But maybe we should call on Marik and his siblings. They'd sure wanna help too."

"I'm sure Mokuba has already called them," Atem said.

". . . Good point," Joey conceded.

xxxx

Atem was right. Mokuba had called Marik as soon as he had hung up with Seto, and by now Marik had arrived at Kaiba Manor. He took off his helmet and hurried up to the porch.

"Who's there?!" Velma demanded from the other side when he rang the bell. She sounded positively terrified. Of course, that wasn't unusual under the circumstances.

"It's me, Velma. Marik." He leaned on the doorframe with one arm.

"Are you sure you're Marik?" Velma countered.

"Come on, Velma, just let him in," Mokuba sighed.

The door opened, with Mokuba at the helm. Amused, Marik walked in, his helmet under his arm. But he quickly sobered. "Are you alright, Mokuba?" he asked.

"I guess," Mokuba replied. "I'm . . . confused more than anything else, I think." He went and flopped in a soft chair. "I mean . . . I wanted Lector to be okay and to make it back. I was hoping maybe he was different now. But it sounds like he probably isn't."

"Maybe," Marik said. "I wouldn't give up on him yet, but I would be cautious."

"Yeah. . . ." Mokuba frowned. "And I wonder why the others aren't back too. . . . Or if they still will be later. . . ."

Marik pondered that. "I thought Lector probably made it back because he really didn't mean us any harm and he was thus able to pass through Yami Bakura's barrier."

"I want to think that," Mokuba agreed. He leaned forward. "And there's a bigger problem too! Seto didn't want to tell me much of anything. You know what that says to me? That he's in danger!"

"Or he thinks you are," Marik said.

"I don't think Lector would hurt me," Mokuba frowned. "But maybe whoever he's working with would. . . ."

"Well, I'll do all I can to make sure no one does," Marik said firmly.

"But meanwhile . . . who's gonna make sure Seto's okay?" Mokuba whispered.

Marik didn't have an answer for that. Seto tried to take care of himself, but he didn't always succeed. He laid a hand on Mokuba's shoulder.

xxxx

Duke, meanwhile, was indeed on a date. Serenity had met him at the Black Crown and he had driven them to a fancy restaurant, where they had settled into a booth and were examining the menu.

"This is really amazing," Serenity smiled. "I've never been to a place like this before, Duke."

"Just one of the many perks that comes from stepping out with me," Duke smirked, brushing his hair away from his face. He sobered. "We haven't had much time to do that lately."

Serenity averted her gaze. "Yeah." It wasn't unusual for everyone in Domino to have problem after problem, but she had longed for a break for ages. Of course, so had everyone else. "By now I think everyone always wonders 'What next,' instead of just being relieved that whatever was happening is over." She played with the edges of the menu.

"Well, that's not hard to understand," Duke sighed.

"No, but it's discouraging anyway," Serenity said. Genuinely perking up, she added, "But one wonderful thing that's come out of all this is that Mai's back."

Duke nodded. "I was starting to think she'd never come back. It seemed like she was always running away from her demons. Of course, I did the same thing." His expression darkened.

"You were trying to run towards a solution," Serenity protested.

"Mai told herself the same thing about what she was doing for a long time," Duke said. "I was running away from the pain, the guilt. . . . I thought I could make everything right by going back in time and stopping David from dying. And when he was finally back, I thought that was what I'd done."

"I'm really not sure how what we did with time worked," Serenity said. "I mean . . . yeah, at first we really did think we were setting time back, but then we realized we'd only temporarily erased everyone's memories of . . . things. And yet it seems like everything that happened . . . if it still happened . . . took place over a much longer period of time than what we've ended up with. . . ."

"I know," Duke frowned. "Sometimes I wonder if we really did set time back, and yet at the same time, everyone still had their memories of the way things went the first time."

"Maybe," Serenity said. "It really doesn't matter." She smiled at him. "You have David back, and you can feel free to have your friendship with him, and that's all that's important."

Duke slowly nodded. The past, where his store manager David had been killed trying to help Duke handle a gang of drug smugglers secretly operating from the Black Crown, still weighed heavy on his mind when he thought about it too much. He tried not to and to just push it away instead. But no matter how much it felt like a bad dream, he always knew it had been real.

Serenity looked at him in concern. "It still bothers you, doesn't it?"

Duke slumped back in the chair. "I know it shouldn't; it's all over and done with. But I can't help it, Serenity; sometimes I can't stop thinking about it. I wish it had never happened, that I'd known who to trust in the police department so I wouldn't have needed to go to David. . . ." His voice lowered. "And that I would've been willing to acknowledge that David was my friend without any of that having to happen first and him having to die. . . . But I worry and wonder if I never would have figured that out otherwise. . . ."

"I'm sure you would have eventually," Serenity said gently. "David always meant the world to you. That's why you trusted him and went to him in your hour of need."

"Yeah. . . ." Duke shook his head and set the menu on the table. "Oh, I'm a real piece of work. We're supposed to be on a date and I'm going on about my personal demons again."

Serenity just smiled at him. "You have to get that pain out somehow. I'm just glad you're opening up to me instead of keeping it bottled inside."

"I guess. Maybe it's all the stress of so many weird things happening lately that's brought it all out again." Duke flipped the menu open. "We should probably try to order."

Serenity looked through the various dishes. "Everything sounds so tasty," she commented.

It took some minutes, and three visits from their waitress, but at last dinner choices were decided and the teens went back to talking as they waited for their meal.

"It's funny, actually, but sometimes I wonder what's happened to the Big Five," Serenity remarked.

Duke started. "What?!"

"Well, I mean, Joey told me about having to go to the Shadow Realm to rescue Mokuba when Yami Marik took him there, and that one of the Big Five actually tried to help Mokuba. I wonder if the other members of the Big Five got mad at him."

"Probably," Duke grunted.

"And I wonder what really happens to people to cause them to go bad like that," Serenity continued. "They couldn't have always been that way."

"Maybe not, but I have a hard time think of Nesbitt having any good in him," Duke said, his voice darkening. "That guy was seriously messed-up. He dueled us and Tristan, insisted on taking Tristan's body even though the duel was a draw, tried to murder Kaiba with a metal pipe, kidnapped Mokuba. . . . Then he tried to kill Mokuba when they turned up here in the city recently. Not to mention me and David and Marik too."

"That was horrible," Serenity said softly. "I have to admit, it's pretty hard trying to think of Nesbitt having any goodness, and yet he must have to start with and lost it along the way."

"I guess." Duke peered at her. "What made you think about those guys right now?"

"Well, we were talking about what happened with those drug smugglers, and I thought about them, and then I started thinking about some of the other bad guys we've run into, like the Big Five," Serenity explained.

". . . That makes sense," Duke conceded. He sighed. "Well, knowing how things go, you'll probably get an answer to your question about what's happened to them sooner or later."

"Probably," Serenity agreed. It was definitely an unsettling thought.

"But let's not worry about it now," Duke went on. "Let's try to make this evening something special, especially since who knows when we'll have another chance."

Serenity's smile deepened. "Just being here with you makes it special, Duke."

Duke finally smiled too. "That goes double since I'm here with you."

It was cheesy, he knew, but he sincerely meant it.

xxxx

Lector had finally calmed down somewhat from Dr. Portman's psychological torture, but now he was angry. "You know," he said to her as she continued to watch the monitors in her van, "all these things you've been telling me could backfire and make me not agree to help you at all."

"Oh, I'm not too worried." Portman never turned to face him as she continued speaking. "You see, Mr. Lector, I had plenty of time to . . . shall we say, manipulate your body while you were unable to use it."

Lector stiffened. "Just what are you saying?"

"Did you ever hear of a man called Captain Caldwell?" Portman smoothly asked.

"No, I can't say I ever have." Lector's voice was filled with frost.

"Captain Michael Caldwell of the United States Air Force. He was murdered down in California because he knew too much. His head was completely bashed in on the left side."

Lector did not like where this was going. "So?"

"I brought in a neurologist and we worked on Captain Caldwell day and night to repair his brain, his skull, and his life. But I wanted to see if an upright man could be forced to turn against his moral principles if science insisted." Now she turned to face him, and her eyes were wild though her voice did not rise. "I surgically implanted a chip in his brain that forced him to do my bidding if he didn't want to suffer horrific physical pain!"

Now Lector took a step back. "You're not saying . . . I mean, there was nothing wrong with my brain! You couldn't have done some surgery like that on me!" Panic started to rise in his heart.

"Can you take the chance that I didn't?" Portman returned.

"I . . . I don't believe you!" Lector spat. "You couldn't have!"

"Even if I didn't, I know plenty of things that are just as cruel and just as excruciatingly painful." Portman stood. "And if you so much as try to defy me, Mr. Lector, I promise I will use one of them on you."

Lector clenched his teeth. "What do you want me to do?" he asked in a growl.

"Go back inside the mall and to that store," Portman said. "Go inside this time and walk up and down the aisles. The girl is sure to see you, and since Seto Kaiba is inside looking at the security cameras, he will see you too. Once you're sure he has, get out of sight."

"This is ridiculous," Lector spat. "I never wanted to play childish pranks!"

"I told you, they're anything but," Portman sneered. "They're mind games."

Lector turned, wrestling the back door of the van open with a flourish. "I could just leave and not come back. If I still want to take revenge on Seto Kaiba, I want to do it my way, not anyone else's!"

"If you're really willing to chance that I haven't put something in you, then by all means, try it," Portman returned.

Lector gave her a cold, hard look before stepping out of the van and into the autumn night. Halloween was quickly coming on, and he would be one returning ghost that none of them would want to see.

Except maybe Mokuba. . . .

Guilt pricked his heart as he started to walk. He really didn't want to do anything else that would hurt that boy. Of course, he knew that hurting Seto would hurt Mokuba. And now after the painful memories and thoughts Dr. Portman was dragging to the surface, he wasn't even sure if there was any point to hurting Seto. They had both betrayed Gozaburo. And what if Seto really hadn't ever thought the man would run away? He certainly hadn't planned on Gozaburo downloading his spirit into a virtual world. Of course, who would plan on something like that?

Lector clenched his fists. Seto had still betrayed the Big Five and Mokuba, and he could be angry about that. But . . . after all the anger and rage and hatred, was it worth going after him anymore?

He stepped through the doors of the mall.

He wasn't expecting Seto Kaiba to be standing right there, arms folded as he glowered at his ex-employee. "Lector. So you really are here. Why?"

Lector just stared at him, his heart racing, the anxiousness building. What to say? What to do? In Noa's world their meeting had been perfectly planned. He had thought long and hard about what to say to his hated nemesis. Now, there hadn't been any planning whatsoever. He was just suddenly here, gawking at his old enemy while Seto glared right back, completely unimpressed.

It was uncharacteristic, perhaps, but instead of saying much of anything, Lector finally just choked out, "Mr. Kaiba!" and ran.

But he didn't run outside, back to the van and Dr. Portman.

He ran deeper into the mall.