Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still/Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still/Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still/listen to the words long written down/when the man comes around
- The Man Comes Around, Johnny Cash
Mai groaned as she rubbed her head, looking around at the place they landed with a frown. In front of them was a large building, more like a castle from some cheap video game, that was colored a dark purple, with some sort of areas lighter due to the sunlight, while the shadows themselves were far darker, going from purple to almost black. The whole thing looked odd, like some unnaturally organic thing that only grew on remote, isolated islands, and she swallowed when she saw the huge, snake-like monster at the corners, the heads down and mouths open as the tails pointed upwards to the sky.
"And here I thought they'd taken that ugly thing down," she heard a familiar voice mutter as she turned, seeing Varon looking over at the building too, but with a look of hatred and contempt.
"What...what is that?"
"The former headquarters of Paradius, a company I was...employed by, you could say. You could also say they bribed the Warden into doing unsavory things and I got a job as a thug out of it. Not the best way for things to go." He let out a slow breath before saying, "That's where Raphael and Alistair are from, where I met them. It was where Layla rescued me from, and where I took those two out of, even if they didn't want to leave. I didn't think they'd go to KaibaCorp, or do…" he shook his head. "I don't get how it's here."
"It's not really here," she told him seriously, "I know this look. This isn't the real world."
"Oh, it's real enough, Miss Kujaku," a voice said, making the two turn as a man stepped up to them, the business suit and cold demeanor telling her that this was probably one of the Big Five they fought the first time. He was stocky, with white hair that stood out against his bald head, and his suit was a dark blue color with the same snake-like thing that adorned the top of the castle. He smirked at the two, every inch the businessman who thought he knew what he was doing, and was going to convince you of the same thing. He adjusts one of his cuffs before saying, "Well, well. I'm a bit surprised to see you again, Miss Kujaku, and with such a…" he glances at Varon, sizing him up as Varon looks ready to launch himself at the suited man. "Your choice of company certainly hasn't improved, now has it?"
"Funny, I could say the same thing about you and your group. Whatever did happen to you five? Last we saw you, you were stuck, mentally, in a game. I heard from someone that was never a good option."
That didn't even seem to register with the man as he looked back over at her, instead he simply continued like the insult and question didn't phase him. "I suggest you do your best to hurry through the gauntlet. After all, you wouldn't want to keep Seto-kun and that little girl of his waiting, would you?"
He disappeared with a snap of his fingers before they could answer, getting Mai to glare at the place he'd been before letting out a breath. "What the hell is going on?"
Konosuke Oshita frowned as he brought himself back to the throne room of the Paradius, shifting as he looked around the unfamiliar room and the place he'd taken up as his domain for the time being. It doesn't feel like a room he can be really comfortable in – instead, it feels like a prison of some sort, made up of water and snakes and why is he here? He hates snakes, he can hardly swim, why is he even here?
Konosuke shakes his head, trying to focus. He's got a job to do, he has to deal with these two and take out the two who followed Seto-kun into this area, giving them more time to get everything together. After that, they can get their new, better bodies and not have to worry about the failing ones. After all, it had been proven by that hacker that staying in the pods for too long would only cause issues - at least with this, they would have better bodies, younger and healthier and better able for them to take care of business and return KaibaCorp to its true purpose.
Konosuke smiled at the thought as he moved around the room, stopping when he looks down at the symbol underneath, seeing the huge snake, wrapped around the world and biting its own tale, one mosaic eye seeming to watch him as he walked back, glaring at the area.
"Stop it," he chided himself, turning from the snake and looking back to the monitors, seeing the two enter as the other two wandered easily through the halls. Good, everything was started, and he just had to monitor things from here. Kaiba-san would reward him greatly once this was all done.
"It doesn't add up," Shuzo muttered as he sat in his own room, monitoring things and typing on the sheet that would give him the best outcomes, taking every mathematical equation into account. Around him, the icy realm remained quiet despite the overheating supercomputers and the lounging penguins behind him. "What is he trying to do?"
After the meeting and the introduction to the group into the Virtual World, the first people to enter without using the pods, Shuzo had begun to work. Hacking and movement through computers was math, though one that he wasn't as good at as others like that Hinagata or anyone else, but it was enough that when he built up this icy area, near the castle that Konosuke had taken against all odds, he'd been able to really think for once.
And it didn't add up. The other four were in areas they wouldn't normally go into, with fears that were easily exploited. Not to mention that the ones who were brought in weren't even being monitored that well, save for Mokuba and that girl. So why was all of this going on? What was the purpose of it?
"What is the real plan? What is he doing?"
Varon had hoped that he wouldn't have to tell Mai about this part of his life for at least a little while. At least until he was ready to really bring it up and know what to say about the whole thing. Trying to explain you were part of an evil group bent on world destruction at the hands of a massive serpent-spirit is…
Well, there is just no good way to talk about it or even start that conversation. Especially not with someone who had to deal with strange powers and things like that. So getting to the subject of "my last job involved me attempting to get a person to pay up their soul to a serpent called Leviathan, and my coworkers were very much invested in their job" had been near impossible before the whole kidnapping thing. Now, it was more a condensed version as they headed inside and paused, looking around at the huge ceiling and the ornate walls that he remembered from the last time he'd been here, escaping with Alistair over his shoulder and following Layla as she lead the way out, dragging Raphael with her.
Now, he had to find those two and hopefully drag them out of here again. That should be an even more interesting conversation, over the one he has to have with Mai later about his past and the like. Of course, right now came up the question of how the hell they got to where they were going and what the hell they were supposed to do. The huge foyer was just like before – without any real weapons, and without any actual signs of where to go and what they had to do.
"Great," Mai muttered as she looked around the area then looked back at Varon, "So now what?"
He shifted a bit. "Um…what makes you think-?"
"You're best friends turn out to be the two who kidnapped Katsuye and Mokuba right after Katsuye just woke up, and they acted like assholes about the whole thing. So…now what?"
Varon let out a sigh before finally pointing to the far door, "That one, it'll lead us further in, but I might be wrong, considering this isn't the actual palace. It was kinda destroyed the last time I saw it, but I was a bit busy dragging a former friend out."
Mai looked at it and then gave him a smile. "Alright. So, should we head in and deal with your former friends who can't be grateful?"
He smiled a bit. "Let's do that, then. I might have to talk to you about what happened on the way."
Mai let out a bit of a laugh before she grinned at him. "I expect at least a good idea of what the deal was with those two, Varon. After all, they were your friends, and you met that Jean guy who tried to date me."
He groaned at the memory of that idiot who'd harassed her right before Varon had to go off and pick up Shizuka. The memory of Shizuka and Katsuye sours his mood, but he nods finally before saying, "It really started with the place I grew up, and a fire that some punks set, and what I decided to do about it…"
Mai is worried as they walk through the huge mansion, the whole thing feeling wrong as they continued through. It was odd, how much the place reminded her of the Virtual World while also showing off that it wasn't that either, that something had happened within it to change things up. The place felt like everything was watching her, even when she glanced around and saw it wasn't, and that resulted in her wondering if that wasn't what was happening right now. As it was, the path they'd ended up taking was showing them a multitude of violent and war-filled paintings, the hugeness of them as well as the protected qualities saying that they would have been originals, if this was all real. It was odd and distracting, and she was suddenly grateful that Varon's story, while sad and upsetting, was overall short as they walked. At the same time, the silence, save for their footsteps, was deafening and only added to the surrealness and uncanniness of this place. If anything, she was grateful for Varon's presence even more than the few broken pieces of weapons and the like they'd found in one of the dusty rooms, the 'trashed' look as off as the rest of the place, as if staged instead of really broken in anger or over time. Varon currently held a long bit of a wood that resembled a bat, and she had a
"So, besides that Jean guy," Varon finally asked, nearly startling her with the sound of his voice, "anyone else I have to worry about?"
"Not really," Mai said, glancing up at the painting of a woman watching a sleeping man, a nail to his head with a hammer raised high, about to strike. "Oddly enough, none of the other guys were as much trouble as Jean, or they got the hint really quickly."
"That's good to hear. I'd hate to have to watch you kick their asses again. Makes a man feel inadequate if I can't at least help out."
She snorted at that, casting him a half-hearted glare as he winked at her, showing he was mostly trying to calm her down even as he was uncomfortable with the setting. The pictures turned dark, the final one that of a woman being gawked at by men, though the photo seemed to change from her turning away, the men reaching, to the men's hand violently holding her hair as she screamed.
The scream they heard made both jump, Mai gripping tight on the Varon's hand as he reached over to hold it, the two backing up equally and both in a fighting stance. It ended abruptly, as if whoever had been yelling was now silenced, which only served to make Mai even more tense as they slowly moved forward, from under the final, dark image of two women holding down a struggling man as one of them sliced into the man's head, blood splattering everywhere as she did and his arms attempting to push back the other woman. It was unsettling and only added to the tense atmosphere of the area as they slowly walked forward, stopping again when they saw the two men from before, the ones Mai now knew were Alistair and Raphael. Their appearance didn't make Varon relax, though. If anything, he stiffened even more, the hold turning almost painful on her hand as she looked at them then back to Varon.
"What the hell?" Varon growled out as the two began to move forward, their movement odd in a way that suddenly made Mai feel uncomfortable in a way she couldn't define, in a way they hadn't been even when they were holding onto the unconscious Mokuba or that tablet that showed them the Big Five and their taunts to Varon. Something had changed within the few minutes they were gone, and now Mai wanted to do nothing more than run, or use the makeshift bat on them if they got closer.
"What's wrong, Varon?" the voice was still there for the red-haired man, Alistair, but it was off just by a bit, and something about it made her tense even more than Varon was. At the moment, she doubted he could tense anymore without breaking or doing something. "Aren't you happy to see us again? Happy to finally be home? Come on...let's introduce your girl to the boss."
Varon shifted to move Mai only a bit behind him as she took on her own stance, ready to attack as the taller, blond man and the red-head came forward, their movements fluid but also stiff, odd, and something about their clothing and the way they moved in it making the whole thing feel odd and only got her hoping to run.
Alistair got too close, reaching out a hand as she heard something, something she couldn't quite figure out, when Varon swung, Alistair too slow to stop the blow as it hit the side of his face and sent him against the wall, the two moving further back as Raphael tisked, sounding annoyed.
"You shouldn't have done that," he said, his voice cold and dull, monotone in a way that was almost like an old computer reading off lines, "it's not very nice, and it's not going to change things. You two are stuck here, like we are." Something in his eye glittered, green instead of dark, and Mai found herself looking around, panicking in a way she hadn't when she faced down Marik.
That was a threat of death, but in a way that at least showed off. This is like being hunted...hunted by a whole house.
Alistair slowly started to get up, and whatever Varon saw, it made him freeze only a second before he turned, Mai following him as they both bolted back the way they came, coming to a sudden stop and nearly running into a wall that hadn't been there before, the paintings now all gone and replaced by huge windows, looking out to a landscape that wasn't at all like the one they came through, but the coloring the same as before.
"Come on!" Varon yelled at her, racing as she followed him, grabbing him and stopping when she saw a door, cracked open, and pulled him in.
The room was dark, and the two breathed heavily as she fumbled around, finding a light switch before turning it on, swallowing back a scream as she put a hand to her mouth, trying to stay quiet.
On a bed was a strange, huge machine, something slowly coming out of it as it began to open and move, as if it was attempting to push something out. A man stood nearby, yelling at others, and as the two walked a bit closer, they realized the group were behind glass. Varon grabbed her hand, tugging, as Mai slowly started with him.
From the machine started to come a dark-haired head, darkened by blood and fluid, and finally out of it, with an umbilical cord, was a child.
"Sir, it's a success," a white-clad man said as others moved around, cleaning off the child as it began to wail, the sound loud while Mai stopped briefly. She knew that man. She'd seen him before.
"Mai," Varon hissed as she glanced at him, then back before nodding, heading out while the man took the child and touched it's hand.
"My son...Noa Kaiba."
Kaiba? But he didn't have a child...did he?
They barely make it out of the room and stop when they almost fall into what looks a pit, something suddenly flickering and going out before the dark purple and unnatural colors of the house are changed up, a new floor in front of them, and one she remembers from the big ball and from going to visit with Mokuba.
"This...this is Kaiba's mansion?" She mutters quietly as they start forward again, cautious. "But...why? Why make something like this?"
Varon didn't answer as they raced down the hall slowing before they ducked into another room, this one at least not dark or showing some disturbing scene of some sort, the two pausing as Varon finally said, "I don't know. I just…whatever is going on…I don't…what did they…" he shook his head. "That wasn't those two. What I saw from where I had hit Al…that thing that was pretending to be Alistair." Varon looked shaken, swallowing before he said, "We have to get out of here, Mai. We have to get the others and run. This place isn't right."
Ren glared at the computer screen, then winced at the movement pulling on her bruised cheek, the reminder of what happened only solidifying her determination to fix things and throw out the hacker or virus or whatever had gotten into the computers. Whatever it was, it had done something to Oni-san, and she wasn't about to let that fly. Currently, he was being held somewhere else, because he was afraid and upset over what happened to her, and she was going to fix this so he could be welcomed back in.
The code was old, but the hack or whatever was half-assed at best, and Ren smiled a bit, not even bothering to wince at how it pained her split lip or the other injuries that had just been briefly treated before she and the rest of the team went back to work. They were going to do their best to protect Hinagata, and that meant dealing with this treat and understanding what was going on.
"The ship is arriving from the island," one of them reported, "it's on manuel."
That was bad, and Ren listened as a few scrambled to work through getting in contact with the group over radio and direct a private ambulance there to help care for the injured that were onboard. When she heard that the Kaibas weren't onboard, and neither were many of the contestants, she froze before beginning to type again, focusing on her work.
She had to fix this, and leave the rest of the worry to the rest of the team. They knew what they were doing, and she could let them work on that while she fixed the system to allow them to get to Alcatraz and get everyone safely.
Notes: The paintings mentioned are by Artemisia Gentileschi. Also, Ray Bradbury influenced me for some of the others stuff...that is never a good thing. That will be explained later.
