Sorry for the long wait. I finally got around to doing the next chapter.
You learn about Heba's pat now.
Enjoy!
Chapter 9- Heba's Past
Heba sat in the meeting room, looking over everything that they had gathered.
There was no doubt that Maxamillion Pegasus was Falcon.
'Well, I know who we're going after now. The only problem is that I don't know how to go about this. There is no doubt that he is well guarded at all times. He won't be easy to get to.' Heba thought.
"Heba, what are you doing?"
Heba looked up to see Ryou standing there. "I've determined that Maxamillion Pegasus is Falcon. Now, we're going to have to figure out how to get to him." Heba said.
Ryou walked over and sat down beside Heba. "Heba, it's four in the morning." Ryou said.
"I know that, Ryou." Heba said.
"Heba, I am going to ask this as calmly as I can. Why the hell are you doing this at four in the morning?!" Ryou shouted.
Heba remained unfazed by the outburst. "Ryou, this is important. The sooner that we deal with Falcon, or Pegasus at it were, the sooner you all can go back to normal lives." Heba said calmly.
"Heba, you don't need to do this. We will be fine if this all waits until tomorrow around seven, not four in the morning." Ryou said.
"Ryou, I couldn't sleep, so I decided that I would do something productive." Heba said.
"Heba, you didn't need to do that. You need to rest." Ryou said.
"Ryou, I will be fine. Go back to your lovers. If they wake up, they'll wonder where you are." Heba said.
"But-" Ryou started.
"Go." Heba said firmly.
Ryou knew that when Heba acted like this that there was no way that he would talk. "All right. I'll go to bed." Ryou said. He got up and headed out. He turned back and looked at Heba. 'I hope that whatever is going on with him, he figures it out soon.' Ryou thought. He then left the room.
Heba put his face in his hands. 'I am doing the right thing. I know that I am.' Heba thought. He was trying to convince himself of that.
Everyone except for Heba sat in the meeting room.
"Where's Heba at?" Joey asked.
"My guess would be bed." Ryou said, sipping at his coffee.
"Heba never sleeps late." Malik remarked.
"Well, you do when you're up at four in the morning, working." Ryou said.
"What?!"
"I came in here this morning, and I saw Heba working." Ryou said.
"Why would he be working then?" Amara asked.
"I don't know. He said that he couldn't sleep." Ryou said.
"Geez. That's too early to work even for Heba." Joey said.
"I don't know what is with him. He did figure out that Maxamillion Pegasus is Falcon." Ryou said.
"That's good, right?" Akefia asked.
"Yeah. It is, but I'm worried about him. It's not like Heba to stay up that late to do that." Ryou said.
"Well, he always works through his problems by himself, so he'll work through this one just like all of the others." Joey said.
"What are you going to do about Pegasus?" Seth asked.
"Don't know yet. Heba will figure that out although I can tell you that he's a dead man because he won't stop otherwise." Joey said.
"There's got to be something that we can do." Mariku said.
"Well, we leave that to them. We don't know anything about this, after all." Bakura said.
"We'll deal with it just like all the others. It's not the first time that we've had to go after someone who is rich and powerful." Malik said.
"So, you can do it?" Seto asked.
"Oh, yeah. That won't be a problem. We'll do a lot of preparation, but we'll manage to do it in the end." Ryou said.
Heba was in the gun training room. He fired at several targets in the simulation before he started to just fire at the target, making sure to hit the cardboard target in the kill spots.
Heba took off his protective earphones and placed the gun down.
"Heba."
Heba turned to find that Amara was in the room. "Hello, Mrs. Akana. What can I do for you?" Heba asked as he reloaded his gun.
"I was wondering if you had time for us to talk." Amara said.
"If you're wondering how long you have to remain here, I can't answer that." Heba said.
"Heba, Ryou mentioned that you were up at four in the morning working on this." Amara said.
"I was having trouble sleeping, so instead of tossing and turning and never getting to sleep, I decided to get up and do something productive." Heba said as he aimed his gun and fired at a new target, hitting it in several kill spots.
"Heba, when someone has trouble sleeping it usually means that something is bothering them." Amara said gently.
"Why would there be something bothering me? There is nothing to be upset about." Heba said.
"Could it have anything to do with Yami and Atemu?" Amara asked.
"Why would I be having a problem with either one of them?" Heba asked.
"Maybe because when you were dating Yami, Yami was cheating on you with Atemu behind your back." Amara said.
"Mrs. Akana, I dealt with what they did a long time ago. I don't hold grudges." Heba said.
"Heba, I've talked to Yami and Atemu. They both love you and-" Amara started.
Heba slammed the gun down on the table. "Can we not talk about this?" Heba asked rather angrily.
Amara was startled. She had never seen Heba get very upset, and it shocked her.
Heba took a deep, calming breath. "I'm sorry. I just don't want to talk about this." Heba said.
"Heba, keeping everything bottled in isn't going to help matters." Amara said.
Heba turned and looked at her. He could see nothing but kindness and sincerity in Amara's eyes as well as concern.
"Heba, please. Talk to me." Amara said.
Heba walked over and shut the metal doors, locking them.
"Heba?" Amara asked questioningly.
Heba turned back to her. "Mrs. Akana, please promise me that whatever I say to you will never leave this room." Heba said.
"You have my word." Amara said.
Heba walked back over and picked up the gun. He looked at it, as if contemplating what is was used for.
"Heba, what is it?" Amara asked.
"Yugi." Heba said.
"What?" Amara asked.
"Yugi." Heba repeated.
"Heba, I don't understand. Why are you saying that?" Amara asked.
Heba turned around to face Amara. "Yugi. That's my real name." Heba said.
Atemu and Yami were in their room.
"I wish I knew what to do about Heba. He just won't listen to us." Atemu said as he paced the room.
"I wish that we had just told Heba how we felt about him seven years ago. It would save us a lot of heartache." Yami said.
"I know. Yami, I've been thinking. Maybe we need to just leave it alone and let Heba come to us." Atemu said.
"Atemu, I don't know if he will come to us." Yami said.
"I know that Yami, but we can't do much else. We can't force Heba to want to come to us. He needs to be willing. I mean, we'll still try to talk to him and get him to understand. I just think that we might not need to go at him as strongly as we have been." Atemu said.
"I know. I just wish that there was a way for us to get him to understand that we never meant to hurt him." Yami said.
"Maybe we can get him to understand that at least before we have to leave." Atemu said.
"I hope so. I don't want him to hate us." Yami said.
"What do you mean Yugi is your real name? I thought that Heba Morin was your real name." Amara said, clearly shocked.
"No. Yugi Mutou is my birth name. Heba Morin was a name that was given to me. I don't use my birth name for several reasons." Heba said. He pulled out a chair and sat in it so his chest faced the back of the chair and he crossed his arms over the back of the chair.
Amara pulled out a chair and sat properly in it.
"Mrs. Akana, I-I don't know how to explain this." Heba said.
"Just take your time." Amara said.
"I have never told anyone this. In fact, very few people know this about me. Not even Ryou, Malik, and Joey know about this." Heba said.
"What is it?" Amara asked.
"I was born into this world. My parents were assassins in this organization. You know my father, Manny Mutou." Heba said.
"Manny? They're your parents?" Amara asked, shocked.
"Yeah. I think that you know them." Heba said.
"I do. We went to high school with him. Aknankanon and I, I mean." Amara said.
"Well, not long after high school, they both joined this organization and took up the life of assassins. They loved this life. Well, they eventually fell in love with each other and got married. Then they had me." Heba said.
"You were born into the world of assassins." Amara said.
Heba nodded. "It wasn't usual for assassins to fall in love or even have children. Most assassins give their children up for adoption so that they don't have to worry about raising them. My parents decided that they would keep me and raise me. If you can call it that." Heba said.
"What do you mean?" Amara asked.
Heba stood up and started to pace. "I don't know what the meaning of love is. My parents never showed that they loved me. Truthfully, I don't know if they did love me." Heba said.
"Heba, they must have loved you." Amara said.
Heba gave her a bittersweet smile. "Mrs. Akana, I really don't know what it feels like to be loved. My parents were not conventional. When most five-year olds were playing with toys, I was being taught martial arts and how to use a gun." Heba said.
"You were five and you knew how to use a gun?" Amara asked.
Heba nodded. "I was never called by my real name. I couldn't be called Yugi Mutou because if something were to happen, it could be traced back to my parents, so they were forced to give me a fake name that I would use in any undercover missions that I had. That's why I'm called Heba Morin. As far as the world is concerned, Yugi Mutou is just an average boy who isn't really known." Heba said.
"I had no idea you had such a hard life." Amara said.
"I didn't think that it was a hard life. I was eight the first time that I went out on a mission. I was twelve when I went on my first solo mission. I never felt anything. The people that I killed, I never felt anything for. They were just targets that I had to kill." Heba said. He sat back and down and rested his head on the chair. "I thought being an assassin was all there was. I didn't know anything about the real world. I thought that the real world was killing people. I never had an undercover mission before, so I never had a reason to try to fit in with anyone. I fit in with the other assassins. I was fourteen when I was declared the best assassin in the organization. I was proud of myself. I thought that it was the greatest thing that had ever happened." Heba said.
"Something happened to change a lot of things, didn't it?" Amara asked.
"Yes. My first undercover mission was protecting you and your husband." Heba said.
Amara looked at him in shock.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in." Yami said.
The door opened, and Aknankanon walked into the room.
"Hi, boys. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Aknankanon asked.
"No, Dad. What is it?" Yami asked.
"Well, I wanted to know what you guys were going to do about Heba." Aknankanon said.
"Dad, we're trying to talk to him, but he won't listen to us." Yami said.
"He doesn't want to have anything to do with us unless it relates to the attempts on our lives." Atemu said.
"Are you just planning to give up?" Aknankanon asked.
"I don't really know." Yami said.
"Well, you can't. Not if you want to be with him." Aknankanon said.
"What?!" Yami and Atemu exclaimed at the same time, blushing.
Aknankanon sighed. "Yami, your mother and I are neither blind nor stupid. We both knew that you were seeing someone behind Heba's back, and we did find out that it was Atemu. You didn't hide it as well as you thought." Aknankanon said.
Their blushes deepened.
"Besides, it's obvious from the way that the two of you look at Heba that you both want him. You're both in love with him, and I think that you should keep trying. You shouldn't give up on someone that you love." Aknankanon said.
"Dad, we don't want to give up. He's just making it so hard to get close to him. We're just not sure if we can get him to understand that." Yami said.
"Then you try again. You can't just give up because he doesn't want to listen. You keep trying until he does." Aknankanon said.
"Do you think that that will work?" Atemu asked.
"You'll never know unless you try." Aknankanon said.
"I guess we'll have to." Atemu said.
"Aknankanon and I were your first mission?" Amara asked.
"Undercover mission, yes. I was surprised when I received orders that I was supposed to protect you. That's rarely given. I wasn't told why I was supposed to protect you. I didn't ask why. I just followed the orders that I had been given." Heba said.
"So, you moved to Domino." Amara asked.
"Yeah. I was told to watch over you, and I was to stop any attempts on your lives. I had to become like a normal person. That, for me, was hard. I didn't know what a normal life was, so it was hard. I had to get an apartment, a job, and I had to go to school. I made up that story about how my parents were killed in an accident a few months before and that I proved myself able to live on my own." Heba said.
"You got an apartment in the building across from where we lived, and you started going to Domino High." Amara said.
"Yeah. I'll admit that at the start, I did plan to use Yami to get close to you." Heba said.
"Then, that relationship meant nothing to you." Amara said bitterly.
"I said at the start, and I didn't plan to get involved in a relationship like that. I just decided I would be his friend so that I could keep an even closer eye on you. As you know, I was there for almost a year, so it was a long undercover assignment." Heba said.
"What happened?" Amara asked.
"At the start, I avoided most people. I didn't really know how to interact on a normal level, so I decided to stay to myself. I decided against using Yami because I didn't want to chance anything happening to him as a result of what I did. It was Yami who approached me. It was the first day that I attended school, actually. He took me on a tour of the school. I had the same classes as him." Heba said.
"Yes. I remember that day. Yami came home talking about you. He thought that we you were a sweet person. He also talked about how cute you were." Amara said.
"He wouldn't have been like that if he had known what I was really like. I had the same classes because this organization arranged it like that. Yami and I ended up talking to each other about a lot of things. I found myself being rather relaxed around him although I still guarded myself." Heba said. He sighed. "Over time, things started to change. I started to change. I was losing my cold assassin exterior. I was becoming normal. I started liking music, going to the movies, hanging out with friends, and other things that teenagers did." Heba said. He smiled. "It was the first time that I was ever really happy. Without realizing, I started falling for Yami." Heba said.
"The feelings were real then." Amara said.
"Very real. I had never felt like that before. I didn't realize at the time what I felt for him. When Yami asked me to go out with him, I said yes, and we started dating." Heba said. He smiled. "No one had ever treated me the way Yami had. He was so kind to me, and he was always trying to things for me, or buy things for me. No one ever gave me anything." Heba said.
Amara smiled. "I know. Yami would always use his allowance on you." Amara said.
"I finally realized that I had fallen in love without really knowing what love was. Yami and I grew very close. I had never let anyone as close to me as I let him." Heba said.
"Do you regret letting Yami get close to you?" Amara asked.
"I don't know. I mean, I knew that when the mission was over, I would have to leave. I was trying to find a way to tell him and make it sound real. I couldn't tell him the truth. At least, not at the time. I soon found out that I didn't have to. I found him in bed with Atemu." Heba said.
Amara looked down. "You were hurt." Amara said.
"Yeah. I was. I had trusted him, something I had never done before. I was very hurt. He wanted to explain to me then, but I didn't want to listen." Heba said.
"Why didn't you go back and ask him?" Amara asked.
"That night was when that assassin tried to kill you and your husband. I had let myself get so wrapped up in my relationship with Yami that I let my guard down, and you and your husband almost paid the price. If I had been a second later, you two would have been killed. I would have failed." Heba said.
"Heba, it wasn't your fault." Amara said.
"Yes, it was. I realized that I had to separate myself from that world. I was an assassin. It's all I ever was. I couldn't live in a world where killing wads a crime. I had to leave because if I didn't, I would have made more mistakes. I decided that I would never open my heart to anyone again. I just couldn't risk the hurt again." Heba said.
Amara was unable to believe anything that she had heard. "Heba, I didn't realize that things were so hard for you." Amara said.
Heba smiled. "I was the one who decided that I would live this life. I couldn't get what I had been through in Domino out of my head. I found that I liked that life. I liked not having to sneak around. I liked being around people who acted like they cared for me. I liked being able to live freely." Heba said.
"You had a taste of a normal life, and you didn't want to let it go." Amara said.
"No. I didn't. I liked being with Yami. I loved him, and I know that he loved me, at least for a while. I liked that feeling. He showed me what love was." Heba said.
"Heba, why don't you talk to Yami about this?" Amara asked.
"And tell him what? That everything I told him about me was a lie? That even after learning he cheated on me I love him? That I love Atemu, too? That we can't be together because of the life that I live?" Heba asked with tears in his eyes.
Amara watched Heba in sympathy. She had always seen Heba as a strong, untouchable person who didn't care about anything as long as he got the mission done.
Now, she a hurt, broken young man who had never had a chance at a real life because of the world that he had been born into. She saw someone who wanted to be loved, but thought that he couldn't be because of his past.
Heba wiped the tears away. "You know, I envy Yami." Heba said.
"Why?" Amara asked.
"Because he had such good, loving parents. He was loved as a child. I wasn't. I always envied him because of that. When I saw how you worried about him, how you treated him with love, how you were always proud of him, I really envied him. I never had that. I guess, in a way, it's what I longed for, but knew I would never have." Heba said.
"Heba, I'm so sorry. I don't know what to say." Amara said.
"You don't need to say anything." Heba said. He looked up at her and smiled. "Thank you for listening. I have kept all this bottled up for seven years. Thank you for letting me tell you." Heba said.
Amara nodded. "I'm glad I could help." Amara said.
To Heba's surprise, Amara pulled him into a hug.
"Whether you realize it or not, Heba, you are loved." Amara said. She pulled back and looked at him. "You are not alone. Yugi." Amara said.
Heba smiled at her. "Thank you for everything." Heba said.
Amara nodded. "You have done so much for my family. Thank you for everything." Amara said.
"Just doing what I do best." Heba said.
"Yugi, can I offer you a piece of advice?" Amara asked.
"Yes." Heba said.
"Talk to Atemu and Yami. Tell them all this. Tell them how you feel. I think that it would be the best thing for right now." Amara said.
"I'll think about it. And call me Heba. No one knows my real name." Heba said.
"I think that they should." Amara said.
Heba nodded. "I'll think about what you've said, and thanks again for listening." Heba said.
Amara nodded and went to the door. The sound of gunfire caused her to turn.
Heba was shooting at the targets again.
'Heba, I hope that you find the answers to what hurts you so much. You deserve to be happy, even if you don't believe it.' Amara thought. She left the room.
Heba wasn't able to concentrate now. All the memories of his past were coming back.
Heba closed his eyes as tears started to come. 'I can't do this. Not now.' Heba thought. He put the gun away before leaving the room.
"What should we do?" Yami asked.
Atemu sighed. "I don't know. Your father is right. We have to keep trying. I want Heba to understand that we love him, and that we want to be with him." Atemu said.
"I'm not sure that he would want that given the past, though." Yami said.
"Well, we're going to have to try and do something. It's not like we can just leave and pretend that we didn't find him again. Things have changed. We finally found him again, and there is no way that we can just let him walk away again. We have to hold on to him this time." Atemu said.
"Do you think that he'll listen to us?" Yami asked.
"I honestly don't know, Yami, but we're going to try." Atemu said.
Yami nodded. "How do we do that?" Yami asked.
"I don't know yet, but we're going to find a way to reach him no matter what it takes." Atemu said.
Amara walked into the room that she shared with her husband and found that Aknankanon was on the bed, reading a book.
"There you are. I was wondering where you had disappeared to." Aknankanon said, marking his page and putting the book aside.
Amara sat down on the bed beside Aknankanon. "I was in the firing range talking to Heba." Amara said.
"Why?" Aknankanon asked.
"Because I knew that something was bothering him, and I wanted him to talk about it." Amara said.
"Did he talk?" Aknankanon asked.
"Yes, he did. I would tell you, but he made me promise him that I wouldn't tell anyone, and I am going to honor that promise. I will say this. He has had a hard life." Amara said.
"And I'm guessing that Yami and Atemu's going behind his back didn't help matters at all." Aknankanon said.
"You know, he loves them. Heba loves Yami and Atemu as much as they love him. He has his reasons for not wanting to be with them. Truthfully, he needs them." Amara said.
"Do you think that we should try and help them?" Aknankanon asked.
"No. We need to let them work this out for themselves. It's the only way that they will truly be happy if they end up together in the end." Amara said.
"You're supposed to say 'when they get together', not 'if they get together'." Aknankanon said.
"I don't know what will happen, and neither do you. We have to just wait and see what happens." Amara said.
Heba walked into his room and looked around. He saw the meager things that he had. They were only necessities besides a few things he did for replacing.
Heba covered his mouth as he looked at the room in what seemed to be through foreign eyes.
Heba saw a room for someone who had nothing, but a life of solitude. He saw a place that wasn't him. Not anymore.
Heba walked over and sat down on the bed. He reached over and took out a picture from the nightstand.
It was of a man and woman.
Heba's parents.
"What was so wrong with loving me? Why were you never there for me? Why did you instill nothing but distrust for everyone around me?" Heba asked.
Heba put the picture back up and wrapped his arms around himself. He felt cold, but he knew it wasn't from the room.
It was his heart, aching.
Heba covered his face as the tears started to come. "Why is this so hard? I'm an assassin. I'm supposed to feel nothing. B-but I can't. Not anymore." Heba said.
Heba was tired.
Tired of hiding.
Tired of killing.
Tired of lying.
Tired of being alone.
Heba turned and fell face first on the bed, burying his face into the pillow.
"I'm tired of this empty feeling. Why can't I just go and tell Atemu and Yami what I feel? Why can't I do it? I just want to know that I'm loved and not alone. I want to be with them." Heba said.
Heba sobbed into the pillow, feeling his heart shatter as he admitted what he had denied for seven years.
Hope you liked it. I hope everything was clear about Heba's past. I'll still refer to him as Heba for now. Also, I hope I showed that Heba was torn up about the siutation wiht Atemu and Yami.
Next: Heba and the others plan how to take down Falcon/Pegasus. There's also a traitor in the Guild.
R&R.