Notes: Many thanks to Ladyamberjo for inadvertently inspiring this chapter's final twist!

Chapter Six

Seto didn't speak as his chauffeur drove them into the hills of Domino City and over near the cemetery. Only then did the man stop the car, in full view of some of the oldest graves.

Lector glowered at the eerie sight out the tinted window. "What are we doing here, Mr. Kaiba?"

Seto leaned forward, glaring into Lector's line of vision. "I really don't know what to make of you, Lector," he said. "I never thought you really cared about either Mokuba or me. When you joined up with Pegasus, I was sure of it. And you were part of all the Big Five's outrageous schemes against me. But now you claim that you were never in on the plans to hurt Mokuba and you've helped him more than once. I want to believe you really won't target him. But in any case, you've been acting very suspicious tonight. How can I trust you about anything?"

"Maybe you can't," Lector retorted. "Except that I won't hurt Mokuba."

"How did you make it back?" Seto demanded. He still couldn't quite bring himself to refer to the Shadow Realm by name.

"I don't know," Lector said honestly. "I was restraining that man Khu from going after Mokuba and I saw you and the others going inside the portal the Pharaoh had opened. I didn't think I had any way there. But then everything went dark and I woke up in my body on a bed at the infirmary."

"And how did you manage to use your body right away?" Seto persisted.

"I also don't know that," Lector said. "When I woke up, I was just able to."

Seto wasn't convinced. "Were you alone when you woke up?"

Lector looked away.

"I hadn't thought you were good at lying, Lector," Seto said. "In some ways, you're the most honest member of the Big Five. In other ways . . ." His expression darkened. "You're the biggest liar of them all."

"And just how do you figure that?" Lector turned back to face him.

"You were Gozaburo's right-hand man, as you've reminded me so many times. And yet you were willing to betray him and try to claim KaibaCorp for yourself once I suggested it. Then you were willing to betray me when you weren't happy about the changed direction of the company. You colluded with Pegasus to bring me down. Then you conspired with the rest of the Big Five when that failed. After that, it was Noa. Then you worked with the Big Five on a new plot again. And all the while you're blaming me for everything, including Gozaburo running away in shame. Don't you think maybe some of his shame came from his entire board of directors turning against him, especially you?"

"Yes!" Lector slammed his hand on the door's arm rest. "Yes. . . . I know it did."

Now Seto was surprised. "You're acknowledging that?"

"I wouldn't have several hours ago," Lector said. He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees and lacing his fingers. "But yes, Mr. Kaiba, I always knew it. I didn't want to admit to my part in Gozaburo's breakdown, so I cast all the blame on you. I made myself believe that you knew he would have such an extreme reaction and you didn't care."

"I didn't know." Seto's voice was like ice, but there was no lie in it. "Still, I can't deny I was glad to have him out of my life. He was a hard man, Lector. You knew that, but you didn't agree with all of his methods. Maybe you didn't know about some of them. I wouldn't be surprised if he kept some secrets even from you."

Lector rose up a bit. "What do you mean?"

"He would emotionally and psychologically break people down," Seto said. "You saw some of that in the workplace, but it went far deeper than that. He wasn't fit to have children."

Indignation began to rise in Lector's heart again. "If you're not a liar, Mr. Kaiba, you're still just ungrateful to him for what he did for you! He rescued you and your little brother from that orphanage. If he was hard on you, it was because he didn't want you to turn out like the spoiled brat Noa became. He doted on that boy. I never saw such a devoted father!"

"His feelings for Noa changed, if they were ever really the way you saw them," Seto said. "He may have only put on a front of a devoted father. Noa believed he never had Gozaburo's respect. I saw firsthand that he didn't." He leaned back. "As for whether or not he was hard on me because of how Noa turned out, I couldn't say. I did learn valuable lessons from him on how to successfully run a business. I'll admit to that much. But it wasn't worth the rest of what he did. I'm not sorry that he ran away. I didn't plan on it, but having him out of my and Mokuba's life was the best thing that could have happened."

"And when the rumors started coming out that he had killed himself out of shame, you weren't sorry for that either?" Lector bitterly snapped.

Now Seto looked away. "He was a coward." But his hand clenched slightly. In spite of everything Gozaburo had done to him, that news had shaken him more than he would ever likely admit. He had wanted the man out of his life, but not that way. This discussion was dredging up memories and pain that he had hoped not to face again.

Lector noticed Seto's reaction. "And that makes it alright?"

Seto clenched his teeth. While on the one hand he honestly believed it, he had to admit at least to himself that perhaps that had been his excuse to cope with it, just as blaming him had been Lector's. He detested killing. That was why he had changed KaibaCorp into a gaming company instead of a company that manufactured death. He hated the thought that he had helped drive anyone to his death, even someone like Gozaburo. Still, his pride made him not want to say any of these things to someone who had hated him for years. Even if telling it might help him in the end. . . .

"No," he finally opted to say. "That doesn't make it alright."

"He couldn't bear to face life after everything was taken away from him and everybody betrayed him. Including me." Lector straightened. "I have denied that for years, but now I will have to come to terms with it."

"And do you regret it, Lector?" Seto sat up straight too.

"I regretted it the moment I saw that look in Gozaburo's eyes," Lector said. "If I could do it over, I wouldn't go along with your plan to take over the company."

"Well, what's done is done," Seto said. "So instead you'll have to decide where you're going to go from here."

Lector gave him a wary look. "You're really not going to have me arrested?"

"Probably not," Seto said. "Like I said, I don't need the bad publicity. I've just managed to clean things up from the last disaster you and your associates caused. If the public is finally ready to start forgetting it, I don't want to remind them."

"What about running me out of town?"

"I might do that . . . quietly," Seto said. "Although if you play nice, maybe I won't."

Lector sighed, heavily, and leaned back against the seat, staring up at the ceiling. ". . . Dr. Portman was there when I woke up," he confessed. "She did something to my body so I could use it right away, but I don't know what it was. She wouldn't tell me.

"One thing she did tell me is that she may have put some kind of chip in my brain to mind-control me. She said she successfully did it to someone else already."

"I read about it in the newspaper, as outlandish as it sounds," Seto said. "But I doubt she did it to you. The person she did it to needed brain surgery. You didn't, and I don't see any evidence of such a surgery."

"I don't either, but it pays to be cautious," Lector said.

"Did she tell you anything about her plans?" Seto asked.

"She's after you," Lector said. "She wanted me to help her drive you out of your mind with people reporting seeing me all over town. It still sounds like childish pranks to me."

"No doubt it's only the first step," Seto said with a frown. "She'll have far worse planned for the future. Are you going to go back to her?"

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Mr. Kaiba," Lector growled.

"Well, you'll have to decide by the time we get back to downtown Domino City," Seto said as he gestured for the chauffeur to start the engine. "Although if you go back to her, you might be able to gather information and spy for me."

Lector scoffed. "Do you honestly believe I would ever work for you again? I don't believe you would want me to."

"You're right," Seto said. "I wouldn't trust you, Lector. Although, you would probably work for whoever you felt offered you the best deal. Portman promises not to mind-control you. I control practically the entire city of Domino. I could certainly be generous to you, if I felt you'd really earned the privilege."

"You already betrayed me once, Mr. Kaiba," Lector retorted. "I wouldn't trust you either."

"You know, if you and the rest had simply agreed to play ball and not have protested changing KaibaCorp to a gaming company, I wouldn't have taken away any of your duties," Seto said. "Even if you didn't have any moral objections to running a weapons factory, I thought you would see the business sense in gaming and be onboard for the money it would make."

"We all believed in what we were already doing," Lector said. "Nesbitt especially didn't want to give that up. His specialty was constructing weapons. He had no interest in childish things like games!"

"And what about you, Lector? What was your interest?"

"Your stepfather and I worked together to build KaibaCorp into what we wanted it to be," Lector said. "That was our legacy, something we were both proud of. I had no intention of changing it from that!"

"Interesting, that even though none of you wanted KaibaCorp to become a gaming company, you all learned how to play Duel Monsters and challenged me with it time after time," Seto said.

"We were meeting you on your turf," Lector said. "We felt such a defeat would be the most meaningful way to topple your empire."

"And you were probably right," Seto said. "But none of this answers the question of whether you're going back to Dr. Portman or not."

"I don't know," Lector growled. "You've trapped me between the Devil and the deep blue sea, Mr. Kaiba. I'm just not sure which would be worse, working for Dr. Portman or working for you. I don't trust either one of you!"

"Well," Seto said calmly, "you still have a little more time to decide."

The car rolled on.

xxxx

Down the street, Yami Bakura started the engine of the van as soon as the limo started to move. "They're leaving again," he mused. "Let's see where they go, shall we?"

"It looks like they're turning around," Bakura said. "Maybe they're going back the way they came."

"If so, this has certainly been boring and uneventful," Yami Bakura grunted. "I would have rather stayed back at the store."

"I think we saw everything they had for the lawn," Bakura chuckled.

"Yes, and I had some delightfully terrifying ideas," Yami Bakura sneered. "I plan to start implementing them once we're home."

"I really do wonder what Father will say if he comes home from Cairo and sees your hard work," Bakura remarked.

Yami Bakura just shrugged. "I'm the man of the house when he's not there, which is still 75% of the time. If I want to turn the yard into a fright fest, I have a perfect right."

Bakura couldn't even say he didn't have a point. Yami Bakura was indeed in charge the majority of the time. A year ago that would have been a terrifying thought. It was still at least somewhat unsettling, but at least Bakura knew that making the front lawn gruesome was the worst he would do. He was a responsible adult, as strange as that was to realize at times.

"I'm glad you're in a good mood, Yami," he said softly. "I just hope Lector or this Dr. Portman woman won't ruin it."

"They probably will," Yami Bakura grunted. "Or they'll try. But as long as they don't manage to harm you, everything should be fine."

"Just me?" Bakura said with a bit of a smile.

". . . Or any of the others," Yami Bakura amended with a scowl. "Although I'm still sure Kaiba would have been able to handle this situation by himself with his chauffeur as back-up."

"I suppose, if things continue to be as quiet as this," Bakura said. "Téa thought we should be prepared, and of course we should be."

"This Dr. Portman will probably strike when everyone least expects it," Yami Bakura said. "Such as when everyone's in school."

"Oh dear." Bakura sighed at the thought.

"And perhaps you should let the others know that Lector has been found," Yami Bakura said. "Unless Téa has already done that."

"She probably hasn't had the chance." Bakura took out his phone and dialed.

xxxx

Téa hadn't. A sudden influx of customers had kept her very busy ever since the Bakuras had left to shadow Seto and Lector. Mr. Thorton had even needed to help with ringing people up. He had been in the process of combing his hair when Téa had called him for help, and said comb was currently stuck in his hair, which everyone diplomatically did not point out.

At last the final customer left and Téa slumped against the counter in relief. "Whew. . . . That's everyone." She took out her phone to search for new messages, but no one had tried to call. That could either be good or bad. Frowning, she called Bakura.

"Hello?" The British boy sounded distracted.

"Hey, Bakura," Téa greeted. "What's up?"

"Oh! Téa! Well, we're following them back to the city now. They parked for a long time up by the cemetery and . . . talked, I suppose."

"That's weird," Téa frowned. "Are you sure everything's okay? Can you see inside the limo?"

"Not very well, with the tinted windows," Bakura said. "But it seems like everything's alright. . . . They're heading back the way we came. Should I try calling Kaiba?"

"Then he'll know you guys have been following him," Téa sighed. "Or Lector will. . . . Maybe Kaiba already knew."

"I wouldn't be surprised. Well, I'll let you know when we stop. . . . Oh my!" The brakes screeched.

"Bakura?!" Téa gripped the phone tighter. "Bakura, are you okay?! What just happened?!"

There was no reply.

xxxx

Getting into a KaibaCorp-owned building after hours was never easy. The only really surefire ways were either to have a cardkey . . . or to know someone who had a cardkey.

Dr. Portman no longer had a valid cardkey of her own, of course. But she had met with her nurse's assistant, who was hiding from Seto's men, and he had given her his cardkey with his blessing. Naturally, after the prior breach of security, that was only the first step. But the odorless and colorless knockout gas she spread up and down the halls quickly rendered all of the security guards helpless and gave her the edge she needed.

Now she was in the infirmary, looking down at the comatose bodies of the other members of the Big Five. She had just finished injecting the last one with the same drug she had used to heal Lector's body. He had regained consciousness only moments later, his body repaired and able to be used. There was no reason to believe it wouldn't work on all the rest.

Indeed, within minutes the first one's eyes opened. But as Dr. Portman sneered, bending over him to make sure all was well, it was immediately obvious that something was different from what had happened with Lector. Whereas his eyes had been filled with emotions, and light, these eyes were blank and dark.

She rocked back. "Can you hear me?" she asked. "Mr. . . . Gansley, is it?"

Gansley gave a low grunt and sat up, seemingly heedless of the IV and other wires attached to his body.

The other three men were starting to move now as well. But with each of them, as he sat up, the eyes were similarly without life. And when they started to get to their feet, they started trying to walk without removing the IVS or anything else first.

"Look here," Portman exclaimed. "Why don't any of you answer me?!"

Gansley kept walking, nearly banging into a table.

Portman swiftly pushed it aside, grabbing his arm in the process. As she pulled out the IV and unhooked the machines, there was no reaction from Gansley.

Everyone else was nearly walking into the walls or the beds or the tables as well. Portman had her hands full rushing to intercept each of them, calling out commands that none of them obeyed.

Finally the answer dawned. "Their spirits never made it back," she gasped in realization. "I have awakened their bodies, but without souls to guide them!"

Her shock was only momentary. Then her eyes gleamed with a frightening madness. "What an incredible scientific breakthrough!"

"Kaiba," Gansley suddenly rumbled.

Portman jumped a mile. "What?"

"Kaiba," the other three echoed.

"Destroy Kaiba," Gansley continued.

"Destroy Kaiba!" came the answering echo.

Portman was all too delighted. "Their hatred of Seto Kaiba runs so deep, their bodies remember it even without their souls!"

She watched, intrigued, as the Big Four lumbered out of the room. Then she chased after them, fully intent on documenting every moment of this new terror.