YUGIOH
Hopeless Collisions
Chapter 8.
Kaiba had returned to Kaiba Corp, heading into his office.
His first stop was his secretary, where he asked, "Where is he?"
"In your office, sir." She answered.
"Hold my calls, and order someone to send me another laptop to my house." He stated.
"Yes, sir."
Kaiba entered, quickly becoming agitated to see Pegasus sitting in his seat, feet up on the desk. Kaiba placed the Rod down on the desk, saying, "Next ingredient....one Millennium Rod. Now, get out of my seat!"
"I had to clean your office, I'm afraid." Pegasus said. "It's not good keeping so much alcohol in one little desk."
"I had no intention on drinking any." Kaiba flatly responded.
From that response, Pegasus smiled, "Ah....good. We just hit the next phase of your recovery. You've just reached denial....congratulations!"
"I don't have a problem." Kaiba retorted coldly.
"Wonderful!" Pegasus said, hinting that those words were also part of the denial thing.
"You're really getting on my nerves." Kaiba added, irritated.
"You know, they say that's one of my strong traits. Would you agree?" Pegasus asked.
Kaiba snapped, "Can we get down to business?"
Pegasus stood, allowing Kaiba to have his seat back, as he sat down on the couch next to him. "Well....the next step is to get you to use that thing. Did you win it, or was it given to you?"
"I battled for it....Marik lost." Kaiba answered.
"Even better. You won it through battle, you're bloodline's correct....in all aspects, you should be able to conjure up it's magic. That's what we have to work on, now. If you can't work it, then we wont be able to use it for what we need." Pegasus pointed out.
Kaiba leaned back in his chair, feeling a slight headache coming on, as he thought how a drink would be good right about now. But that caught him off guard, wondering if Pegasus was right about him. He didn't realize he began to have such a need for the stuff, except to drown out thoughts on Mokuba and a voluntary attempt at slow death. Perhaps he would have to work on that, more. "All right....what do I do?"
"Who do you have to do your meetings for you, now?" Pegasus asked, assuming there was a no way a drunken insomniac would be doing any public relations for Kaiba Corp.
"That would be Mr. Randal Jasper, our new Public Relations head. I hired him, when I couldn't...." He couldn't admit the total truth....not to Pegasus. "I felt he was good for the part, and keeps annoyances off my back."
Pegasus smiled, saying, "Of course. Now, I want you to pick up the Millennium Rod, and focus on him. You have to try to call on its energy, and attempt to use the Rod's power on Randal."
"Why him?" Kaiba asked.
"Because this man you have recently given a position of real power to be in. He's the one in this company that could hurt you the most. It would be a good idea to find out how loyal he's been to you, or how treacherous. My bet is on him plotting against you....it's so hard to find good help, these days. Now, take the Rod....and focus. Remember, use your brother as your inspiration....you're doing this for him." Pegasus said.
"And how would you know how this Rod works?" Kaiba asked.
Pegasus shrugged, "It's a Millennium Item....it can't be much different from the Eye." Pegasus then smiled, "Besides....just to be on the safe side, I went to a very reliable source to find out as much as I could about it. He's an old friend of mine....a certain spirit who protects the Millennium Items, and who's helped me so much."
The reply caused Kaiba to wonder at first if he was talking about Yugi. But since he still didn't want to believe in any of this, he decided that any further questions on the subject just wasn't worth it. So instead, Kaiba took the Rod.
Pegasus nodded, pushing him to focus. Kaiba closed his eyes in an attempt to try and concentrate on Randal, per Pegasus' suggestion. And to his surprise, the Rod indeed came to life....pleasing Pegasus to no end.
For that moment, Kaiba could feel himself inside of the man's mind, able to pluck whatever strings he wanted to control the man, like a puppet....change his mind and attitude to whatever Kaiba wanted, from the inside. And Kaiba didn't like what he saw. Pegasus was right to be suspicious of the man in power closest to Kaiba. Randal had been plotting with someone, preparing to take pictures of Kaiba the next time he had a drinking binge, and exploit it to hurt him and the company, allowing Randal to take charge of the business, with the help of one of Kaiba's competitors.
Kaiba pulled out, in fear of what he felt....it worked. He really wasn't expecting this magic to work for him, and yet it did. His eyes twitched as he quickly released the Rod, allowing it to fall back onto his desk, feeling very uncertain about this whole thing.
"It worked! Excellent! And on the first try, too. Wonderful! And here I wasn't sure if it was going to or not, being how obstinate you are about magic." Pegasus said. He studied the boy, then added, "Oh, come now, don't let this get to you....be happy. You're now one step closer to getting your brother back! By the way, what did you find out about him? Was I right about him....was I?"
Kaiba nervously looked over, saying, "Randal's been planning on trying to take over Kaiba, Corp. He's been working with another company against me."
"I figured as much. Now, here's the fun part that I want you to do next. You're going to tap into that little brain of his, and make him your mind slave. You're going to change his mind and attitude about you, twisting him to be instead the most loyal employee you have. He will in fact become a double agent, giving you all the information you want about this other company. At the same time, he will give them all sorts of false information, messing them up and helping you out. With this item, you can instantly flush out your enemies and twist them to your will. Fun, isn't it? Mine was similar, except I couldn't change their minds....simply suck their souls and cast them to the Shadow Realm. A pity, really. But, that brings us to our next part. Because afterwards, you're going to find another person who's not loyal to you, and cast that person to the Shadow Realm. You'll see that the more people you do that to, the stronger your power becomes."
This spirit friend of Pegasus knew that much about the Rod? Strange. But Kaiba didn't question it....he didn't care. Plus, he was still slightly shaken about the whole Rod/magic thing. Kaiba looked back over at the Rod still laying on the desk, and said, "I don't I like this one bit...."
"My....so fearful, and over just a little trinket. Funny, and I didn't think anything could shake the great Seto Kaiba." Pegasus mused.
Kaiba glared angrily over at Pegasus, then snatched the Rod back up defiantly. Any hesitation he had felt, he quickly buried, once again reminding himself, 'For Mokuba'. Something within himself still reminded him that magic was not something to rely on. But, since no technology in the world was going to bring back his brother, he didn't have many other options.
He looked back down at the offending object, and muttered, "By the way....Ishizu and her brother seemed to think if I used this thing, it's going to cause some sort of major catastrophe."
"Since they wield no items themselves at the time, how would they know?" Pegasus asked.
"They also said this item can't bring Mokuba back." Kaiba added.
Pegasus smiled, "Yes, that's true. I was told the same thing about mine. But then, that's not including your Virtual Reality system into the whole mix. Trust me on this, Kaiba boy....I wouldn't steer you wrong. Now, back to the lesson at hand. Reach out for Randal again, and twist the man's mind...."
Kaiba closed his eyes again, finding it much easier to enter his mind than last time, since he had all ready done it once. "He's in a meeting." Kaiba said, not opening his eyes.
"Probably plotting your destruction now. Can you tell what the meeting's about?" Pegasus asked excitedly, like he was teaching a kid how to play baseball.
"He's....talking to one of the company reps, the company that is trying to take me down." Kaiba said. "You're right....he's making plans to take pictures the next time I drink. They have a plan to drug my coffee for safe measures."
Pegasus laughed, saying, "Boy, wont they be surprised? Hey, since that person's here, why don't you take over the other man's mind instead, and have him start assaulting people, and spouting about destroying Kaiba Corp? Have him admit everything....it would definitely cause major damage to your competition."
"I'm not turning the man into some lunatic that's going to hurt my employees." Kaiba snapped. But Kaiba did partially do as Pegasus suggested. He left Randal's mind, jumping into the other to get information on the other man and what he knew about this other company. Kaiba then caused them to rush the meeting short. And as this other person left, Kaiba attempted to tweak the man's mind so that he would return to his company.....giving them false information. At the same time, this guy had access to pull out some seriously damning information that could cause major harm against them, if put into the wrong hands. He would have him bring that information back and use it against them to take them down.
Kaiba then finally pulled out, shocked at just how easy the Millennium Rod made it for him to manipulate others. It felt like an extension of himself that he had been missing for far too long.
"Well....did it work?" Pegasus asked.
He looked over, saying, "Yes." His face now masked to hide any fear or discomfort he felt from using the Rod. Even now, he still didn't want to believe in magic. But after what he'd seen and done, how could he disbelieve it?
"Wonderful! Now, I want to make sure to warn you on one thing....you do not want to try and pry into the mind of one that wields another Millennium Item. Not only will it probably not work on them....they will sense your prying, and know something's up. We don't want to alert others of your new-found power. It will attract those other holders to you....understand? Now for our next lesson, we will start you on the use of Shadow Magic. Are you ready, yet?" Pegasus asked.
"Shadow magic?" Kaiba asked.
Pegasus replied, "You know....banishing people to the shadow realm, or wherever else you'd want to stick a person's soul."
Kaiba hesitated for a moment, before answering, "No."
"No, you don't understand?" Pegasus asked.
"No....I'm not ready."
Pegasus approached, and put his hand on Kaiba's shoulder, asking, "Nervous?"
Kaiba shrugged him off, snapping, "I'm fine!" Then placing the Rod down, he stating, "Personally, I've all ready had my share of this shadow magic. From what I've seen, I never found anything good about it." Kaiba said, remembering Yugi shattering his heart, then the times that both Yugi and Pegasus ended up shoving him into a card.
Pegasus smiled, saying, "I see. But, this is different. This is Shadow Magic that you will be in control of. Believe me, you'll need to understand it's use in order for us to succeed in what we're doing. Now, did you use Randal or the other company spy to control the mind of?"
"His name's Miller. I used the Rod on him." Kaiba said.
"Good. Then, we'll go back to Randal. Focus on him again. But, this time instead of calling forth the power you're using to see into his mind, you'll be using this power to take claim his soul and suck it into the Shadow Realm." Pegasus said.
Kaiba glared over at Pegasus like he was insane, and said, "You've got to be kidding me. And I'm suppose to understand this, how??"
Pegasus sighed, saying, "All right....I suppose we'll have to do this the 'hard' way."
Pegasus then pulled up a seat next to Kaiba, seeming to be very focused, suddenly. You would think he was getting ready to use his Millennium item, except for the fact he no longer had one. "Kaiba....I want you to look into my mind to see what I am trying to explain to you. It will allow you to fully understand what you need to do. I have done it, so I have full knowledge....it's simply not something I can easily describe."
Kaiba looked at him, in shock. "You....want me to invade your mind?" Kaiba then gave a smirk, saying, "No thanks....I want to keep what sanity I have left. Knowing you, your mind's probably filled with those disgusting toons."
"There's nothing wrong with my toons!" Pegasus said, defensively. He then calmed and smiled, saying, "This is not an easy offer, you know. I'm doing this for the both of us. Don't worry about it....I didn't ask you to brainwash me, just to look at the information needed to understand how to make full use of the Shadow Realm. It's very important you learn every aspect of the Millennium Rod. Now, please....go ahead. If anything, it might also teach us both that we can trust each other."
There was hesitation, but Kaiba did as Pegasus asked. At first entry, Kaiba realized there was a lot more depression and instability in the man than he showed on the outside....and a great feeling of emptiness. Kaiba had seen moments here and there when Pegasus' outward mask cracked. Like the moment when he confessed on becoming an alcoholic twice from the loss of Cecelia.
Yet, despite the mass of emotions and chaos floating around, there were also parts of Pegasus' mind that was far stronger than would be expected. Those parts gave Kaiba resistance to enter further....parts of his mind actually blocked from Kaiba's immediate view. "Strange." Kaiba admitted out loud. "I didn't know you can resist me. You no longer have an item, do you?"
"No...." Pegasus said in a strained voice. "But, because I was destined to be the wielder of one, and all ready had use of one once....even though I don't have the power to fight against you, I have the strength to resist you to a point. But, you do realize you have the power to further invade my mind if you want....right? It's up to you if you really feel you must do that. I wouldn't be able to stop you."
"I'm not here to interrogate you....I'm here to get what you told me to get." Kaiba said. In an instant, he found the information, absorbing it so that he could fully understand without explanation....gathering the visual, the feeling, the sensations of invoking such power. He also now understood what Pegasus meant about trust. He was trusting Pegasus that he wasn't hiding anything from him, while Pegasus was trusting him that he wouldn't use that power to hack into his mind and see what there was to see. And it was tempting too, since he still didn't trust Pegasus. But, he didn't do it.
Kaiba had finished and came out of it. Pegasus looked over and smiled, "Didn't pry, did you?"
"I wouldn't like anyone to do that to me....so no, I didn't. Besides, I'd prefer not to count on this stupid trinket. I've gotten this far in life without it all ready....I'm not going to start depending on something, now." Kaiba replied.
Pegasus smiled, saying, "That's true....but you're doing this for Mokuba, not yourself. And unfortunately, this is the only way. Now find Randal, and cast him into the Shadow Realm."
"But to do that, I have to approach him....don't I?" Kaiba said.
"Yes. So, what are you waiting for? Call him over." Pegasus said.