Kay: I'm not going to apologise. You guys should know that my heart is breaking because I took too long to update.

Choc: Don't listen to her. She's a lazy, uninspired, boring, unreliable-

Vamp: I think they get it Choc.

Kay: O_O... never thought I'd see the day when Vamp defended me from Choc. That's just how I know that I've royally messed up.

Vamp: You were busy with family and suffering writer's block and suffering through endless projects. I'm just making sure people know your reasons. I'm nothing if not fair.

Choc: She also made promises... and then broke them...

Kay: Okay, I am apologising. (I'm sorry) I just won't ask for your forgiveness. This conveniently turned out to be a long chapter so hopefully that makes it better. I struggled with this for so long.

Choc: Enjoy you wonderfully patient sweetie pies~

Last Time

Keep quiet. Hold your tongue.

"If you care so much Joey why aren't you helping us?" Tristan was shouting now, heads were turning to him.

"I am helpin'! It's bec-"

It was on the tip of his tongue.

What the Sects were, that he was part of them, Kaiba too, how he'd approached the arrogant bastard for information. That they'd come to what was vaguely a mutual partnership and everything afterward. All of it.

But then Joey did something he rarely considered before acting. He thought.

The consequences for such a reckless action could be devastating. He couldn't risk his friends' safety.

"… I can't tell ya." He finished lamely, his hair hung in his eyes as he shamefully lowered his head. Tristan stood up stiffly. Everything he'd feared was true; Joey didn't really care.

"Thought so." He stalked off and silence descended on the table, broken rudely and gracelessly by the bell for class.

"C'mon Joey." Yugi coaxed the dark-looking boy.

Joey stood up slowly to follow his friends. The smaller boys walked beside each other and didn't look back. So they thought he didn't care either, huh? He clenched his fists and didn't realise he'd stopped walking. His hands shook as he watched the backs of his friends drift away from him. He was suddenly assaulted by a heated rage. It was painful and his limbs immediately stiffened as he refrained from punching the ground and breaking through it with the incredible unnatural strength he suddenly felt.

His sight was slipping and Yugi and Ryou's brightly coloured hair was fading. Their forms were getting distant, leaving him. Like his old identity, like his friend's trust and faith and, with every gut punch of power and rage driving him to his knees, like his own life.

Chapter 8

No one could deny that Seto Kaiba was a royal jerk.

But they couldn't deny he had great taste in cars as well.

This fact was proven by the turning of heads as one of the most expensive cars the public had likely ever seen ghosted past the lucky few that got to. Lazarus, the ghost that remembered nothing from his old life besides his first name and love of cars, sat proudly in that magnificent piece-of-artwork's driver's seat.

His head jerked to the side suddenly and he slowed the car.

What was that feeling he was getting? From that strange old building?

He braked and the car stilled. He drifted through the door and hovered uncertainly. He'd never felt this before. Sensing spirits leaving their bodies was normal for a ghost but this was a violent fight. Like a spirit was caged in its shell and couldn't leave no matter how forcefully and numerously it strained against its forced bonds.

Something unnatural was going on here.

"Maybe I should tell the boss…?" he muttered aloud.

"Hi there." The woman appeared out of nowhere. He blinked and stepped back warily.

"I'm afraid you've seen too much, my dear."

His eyes widened and he fought the immediate fear he felt. "I-I didn't see nothin'-."

"If so then what were you going to tell the boss?"

Her absolute calm had the heart he'd ceased to have ages ago pounding against his chest for some reason.

"It's a good thing my beautiful experiment number one has already woken up. Duke, my boy, bring our guest inside for some tea."

Joey didn't say goodbye to his friends that day. If anything, he avoided them. It was a good thing he did that or he might have ended up hurting one of them as he fought his growing rage. It came in bouts of uncontrollable strength and fever and he had to fight to just keep still. Needless to say, he paid less attention in class that day than he ever had before.

He also noticed, when not fighting intense anger, that Seto Kaiba was absent from school that day. Well, absent from all the classes the CEO shared with the blonde boy and considering the fact that they shared more time together than either wished, it was safe to assume the brunette was absent from school altogether.

Standing outside of Domino High's front gates Joey wondered if Kaiba even cared.

I mean, 'e said it 'imself. The HSect takes care o' dese sortsa things, he doesn't get too involved.

The tired boy would have gone home to start his search for a master instead of fruitlessly waiting if he hadn't gotten a stronger bout of rage as a limo pulled up in front of him. For some reason a certain smell was constantly attacking his nostrils. A scent that stung his nose with its cold and yet soothed the heat of his rage as it permeated him.

Before he could think on it further the door to the expensive car opened and a boy suited in a private school uniform opened the door. His pleasant expression disrupted as he laid eyes on the strained face of the blonde.

"Joey! Are you alright?" Mokuba ran to his friend.

"Jus' peachy Mokes." Joey muttered through gritted teeth. The moment the concerned boy made contact with the struggling wolfling the blonde stilled. It was the scent without the cold. And for some reason, though the cold soothed the heat of his anger, the absence of it calmed him. Joey breathed a sigh of relief for the first time since lunch.

Mokuba still frowned in concern.

"You sure?" he tried to confirm.

"I'm right as rain, kid." Joey assured him with a smile on his face, looking believable this time around.

"Where's moneybags though?"

"Seto had something to check out. He told me he got a call this morning about one of our chauffeurs, Laz."

Joey nearly choked at "one of our chauffeurs", I mean, how many could you need? Then he frowned. Was something wrong with Laz? The guy seemed okay last Joey saw him.

In truth, Mokuba was anxious as well. His brother may have some degree of concern for his employees, supernatural or not, but he wouldn't let himself be called away for something trivial.

"So why are you here Mokuba? Ya don' need ta pick rich-boy up from school if he's not here." Joey grinned, once he reasoned that he had enough on his plate and Seto could deal with whatever the problem was concerning Laz, and ignored the twinge of guilt.

"I'm here to pick you up today." Mokuba smiled in return, shrugging off his own worry. "Seto said that because he couldn't, I would have to show you around the facilities today like he promised you yesterday."

Joey blinked.

"Now come on," Mokuba urged. "We need to get this investigation in full swing already."

"He wasn't anywhere in the school."

"Yugi, when have you ever known Joey to stay longer than necessary after school?"

"I know, Ryou, but we haven't seen him since lunch and I'm worried."

"Well he wasn't in detention, or sleeping in his last class so I assume he went home."

"Or to Kaiba's." Tristan bitter voice cut in.

The three officially stepped outside of Domino High School just as a limousine swept away from the scene. The three boys watched it go in silence.

"Well in either case he's not here anymore." Ryou stated. Yugi looked thoughtful.

"You know this whole 'hanging out with Kaiba' thing started on Monday." He observed.

"Yes, from when I saw him stay behind to talk to Kaiba for a bit after lunch." Ryou added.

"Yeah, and then that same day he ran off after school and told me to tell you guys not to wait for him." Tristan put in.

"And every day since then…" Ryou began.

"Joey's been getting a ride from that bastard." Ryou blushed at the way Tristan put it. Curse the time he spent with Bakura in his head.

"Don't get angry guys," Yugi tried to relax the tension in a way that wouldn't make Tristan blow up at them. "Maybe the reason Joey's hanging out with Kaiba is to get information from him." he suggested. Ryou looked accepting but Tristan, though he looked like he wanted to believe it, was still sceptical.

"Then why didn't he tell us?" he demanded.

"Maybe Kaiba doesn't want anyone to know that he's helping Joey." Ryou suggested. Yugi nodded.

"That sounds possible, I mean, those two have never gotten along. If people find out Seto Kaiba is helping Joey Wheeler they'll assume the sexual tension the fangirls imagined broke and that there are things going on that no one in polite society should speak of." He said with an amused yet, strangely, still innocent smile.

Ryou blushed again, thinking of what Tristan had said earlier. Oh, double-curse that spirit's filthy mind and those evil fangirls.

"I don't care about the reasons for not telling the school, if he really cared he'd still tell us." Tristan dismissed. "Now I'm doing what we should have done the moment we found out Duke and Téa were missing." Tristan began to walk in a specific direction.

Ryou caught up as Yugi sighed with worry at his friends and spent a little extra time missing Atem before following. He decided to agree with the taller boy before the anxious brunette chased them away.

"It's not like we can do anything else, we don't have Atem's spiritual assistance anymore."

Ryou nodded. "It was bound to happen eventually, so let's go now."

It wasn't the mansion. That he wasn't surprised about.

It wasn't Kaiba Corp either. That he was surprised about.

The biggest surprise of all came from the fact that Domino City's Sect Headquarters was located within the second biggest building in Domino.

He didn't know what the building was for but its real purpose was hidden so well and yet dominated the building so much that it hardly mattered. Joey stepped out of the limo, making sure to keep as close as he could to Mokuba Kaiba as the boy had a strange way of calming his rising werewolf instincts just by proximity and Joey needed a break from fighting the urge to attack someone.

His first words were: "Eh? Here?"

Mokuba chuckled.

"Yes Joey. Here."

They entered the building, leaving the growling of motors from passing cars and bustle of people walking the streets behind, and Joey tried as hard as he could to find anything unusual within the building. He put the, admittedly limited, observance skills he had to the test. They'd walked past a receptionist desk, several waiting areas and four tables where you could make your own coffee while you wait and Joey still hadn't seen anything unusual.

"If this is it why's everythin' so normal?"

"It's a secret headquarters for a reason Joey. There are certain, select floors in which Sect operations are conducted. This company also employs regular humans who are not given clearance to access these levels." Mokuba started his description of the facility once they'd entered the elevator; his childish voice gained a practised air of sophistication.

"Sect operations are conducted on levels: two, which acts our level one, four to six, ten to seventeen and the top floor which acts as the office of the head of this Sect building."

"Wait-wait, wait, wait. A whole floor?" Joey stared incredulously at the shorter boy as he watched the floors go by.

"He needs the space, trust me. He's as involved with Sect cover-ups as anyone else in this building and not all directors care as much."

"Oh?" Joey vaguely questioned, looking for more information.

"Yeah. Most Sect building directors are just wealthy HSect members. All they're required to do is provide headquarters and they maintain their own companies or careers with little to no involvement in the actual work of HSect. This director's special, he uses the entire floor to observe all Sect and normal employees, keep up to date with any problems and findings of the organisation, as well as keeps a part of it to manage his own company."

Joey whistled as the doors swished open.

"Sounds like an impressive guy." He admired as they stepped onto the floor.

"What floor is this?" he looked around.

"Thirteen."

It looked like a normal office with boring cubicles and partitions separating them. The only unusual thing about them was their unnaturally large size. It looked more like an apartment building.

This image was reinforced when they walked past an open cubicle and saw an occupied bed.

Joey breathed and was suddenly shocked. There was a smell nearby that was… familiar to him. He sniffed several times to catch more of it but as he continued to walk the scent became fainter until the lightly desperate pants he was making subsided with a curious look from the black-haired boy beside him. A midnight-leaf green eye tracked his movements past the cubicle door and lanky limbs unfurled as a boy stretched languidly, preparing to meet the visitor.

After an awkward dismissive smile at Mokuba Joey stared forward, determined to figure out the smell the next time he came across it. For now, though, there was a door up ahead and the shorter of the two companions led him to it. A golden plaque labelled the room as the Director's. Joey wondered, not for the first time, how the Sects gathered their information. There were probably reporters to keep an eye out for any Sect member breaking the rules. If any of those events got out of hand they'd have Sect lawyers to bail out the Sect offenders. Joey frowned. They better have a specific jail of their own to keep the criminals in.

The dull click of the oak-wood door opening made him drop his musings as he startled. He took a tentative step into the room, following Mokuba's lead. His mind went completely blank and his mouth dropped before he stuttered out a startled cry.

"P-Pegasus?"

Said silver-haired man gazed curiously at the bug-eyed boy and then turned to the smaller of the two.

"Mokuba, child, I have been patiently waiting for your dear big brother. Are you here to tell me where he is?"

The small boy eyed the crimson-clad man and crossed his arms defensively. "Mr Pegasus, I wasn't aware you were arriving today," He said guardedly. "Or at all." He muttered.

Maximillion Pegasus stepped away from the rows of camera screens situated on the right wall of the director's room and walked toward the pair.

"That's a bit of a hostile greeting my dear boy, something on your mind?"

Mokuba pouted momentarily then sighed in resignation as he dropped his arms. "It's nothing."

Before the eldest and youngest could continue to converse Joey's rattled voice cut in.

"W-wait a second!" at their expectant looks Joey's franticness turned down a few notches and in a, slightly, calmer tone he demanded to know why Pegasus was there.

"Well, if you'd let the conversation continue Mr Wheeler you wouldn't have had to ask." Pegasus berated the flustered teen. Mokuba turned to him next.

"I don't know either Joey, you really should have let him speak." Being scolded by both of them made Joey's cheeks redden and he tentatively traipsed toward one of the chairs in front of the director's seat. Sitting quietly he waited for Mokuba to sit down next to him and for Pegasus to begin explaining.

"Well, Kaiba-b-," he was interrupted by the sound of the door opening a second time and a lanky tar-headed boy with dark green eyes entering the room. He froze in the doorway and took in three heated gazes nervously.

"Uhm… did I interrupt… something?" he questioned tentatively. A sigh was heard from Mokuba as he closed his eyes and chased away his irritation.

"You wouldn't be the first. Come on in Jordan, what did you want?" the smaller, dark-haired boy inquired.

"Ahaha… I was looking for Sarah…" he trailed off.

"Ah, the director isn't here at the moment. The sweet girl ran off on some errand shortly after leading me here." Pegasus informed the boy.

"Oh. Can I wait for her then?"

"Go ahead," Mokuba invited. The boy, Jordan, took the seat beside Joey and that scent flared up in Joey's nostrils again. He frowned and glanced distractedly at the new arrival before a few words caught his ear.

"-thinks this might escalate to involve the world, and I have to say that I agree." Joey drove his gaze to reach the standing silver-head as he explained his involvement.

"A few of my visiting employees took on the police station at the moment of our arrival. They were lucky enough to get a description of this strange event from three teens approaching them today."

"Who?" Joey questioned, keeping his voice neutral.

"Yugi Motou, Ryou Bakura and Tristan Taylor." Pegasus listed without looking at the blonde.

"It's nothin' I haven't told ya."

"True, but the boys' description of the area prodded my men into searching the police station for any further evidence of strange activity in the buildings nearby. They should be telling me the results of their search soon."

There was a buzz and the man elegantly pulled out a sleek cell phone. He tapped the screen a few times before searching the room with his eyes and approaching a connector located in the corner of the room closest to the director's chair.

He plugged his phone into the system and a menu popped up on the biggest of the screens. After a few minutes of navigation there was a report depicted on the screen.

"I see." Jordan husked. Joey's eyes flicked toward him.

"What?"

"If you read the report it says that a woman, probably a neighbour of our suspects, reported seeing two people, a man and a woman, carrying what seemed to be two corpses to their apartment. She debated a few minutes before deciding to call the cops but before they could get there, her neighbours had disappeared. The woman hadn't seen the pair leave, only enter."

A silence followed. Joey wanted to hope, it was hard not to with the evidence staring him blatantly in the face. The two people on the other side of the line that Tristan had mentioned. Jabdul and something Jordan. This could be them.

"The bodies they were carrying looked like a boy and girl too." Pegasus noted.

Joey stiffened. Corpses? Bodies? Joey had to remind himself that Tristan had told him that the two crazies had said they only looked dead. His heart calmed slightly.

"The bad news is that the two apparently left no trace of their presence," Jordan continued. Joey's heart skipped again. "No traces, no leads."

Joey gritted his teeth and growled in slight frustration. His anger was coming back to him, weird, Mokuba was supposed to sooth that. He glanced back at where he expected the boy to be and found an empty chair. He breathed heavily, his muscles shook with that new and strange confounding rage. Why was he so angry?

"Hmm? What's wrong with Mr Wheeler?" Pegasus muttered curiously, his words going unheard by the struggling wolfling. Jordan twisted to face Joey and his eyes widened.

"Shit." He muttered. He stood up slowly as Joey's efforts to calm his breathing obviously failed. Lightly, but urgently, grabbing the elder man's hand he tugged a startled Pegasus to the door. "Be quiet and distance yourself." He instructed firmly.

Pegasus ignored the disrespect as curiosity enveloped him and he became rooted. A harsh tug forcefully pulled his body away from a struggling Joey and his ear to a panicked Jordan. "Mr Pegasus, are you in the mood to die?" he questioned irately. Getting the message Maximillion followed the tar-head into the hallway.

With nothing to attack, Joey found his rage calmed slightly. After a few minutes he was back in control and his anger was barely there. At that moment Mokuba stepped back into the room and looked at him quizzically.

"Er… hey." He said into the silence.

"Mind telling me why Jordan and Pegasus are fearfully staring at you from a safe distance away?" the boy looked slightly amused.

"This is not something you can tell anyone Jo. Especially those in the Sect world. They're legally obligated to capture you or personally execute you in this situation."

Joey grinned shakily but didn't know what to say. He couldn't think up an excuse. Mokuba's light grin faltered at Joey's averted eyes and masked expression. He bit his lip before calling to the two standing behind him and stepping back into the office.

With Mokuba's presence restored Joey felt the remains of his unnatural rage dissipate. He smiled in relief but realised that Mokuba was only a temporary fix. He needed to find his true master, and soon.

"You even gave Jordan a scare," Mokuba said suddenly. "And there's not much that scares our top nose in this department." He praised.

Joey frowned. Jordan laughed lightly and stepped forward. He dumped himself in his previous seat and slipped down on it so his butt was seated on the edge of the chair. Was that what he'd been smelling?

"Yep," Jordan affirmed. "I'm a wolf. Just like you." Instead of relaxing Joey this served only to make him put up a guard, a wall to ward off the tar-head.

"We're done here I believe." Pegasus said. Joey took the out and stood to leave. Mokuba followed suit but was halted by Pegasus' voice. "There is something we need to discuss young Kaiba-boy, I need you to stay behind." Mokuba stilled and bit his lip, knowing that the man wanted to know where he'd slipped off to.

"It's alright Mr Kaiba," Jordan offered as he stood as well. "I'll give the new guy a ride home."

Mokuba nodded and smiled. "Alright, bye Joey." He called after the retreating boys' backs. "Bye Mokes." Joey called over his shoulder.

"Now, since the royal Prince Kaiba will not grace me with his presence personally, I must ask you to answer my questions. I take it your brother has told you what I need to know?"

Joey apprehensively watched the other werewolf wave to people in passing cubicles and tore his inner calm to pieces wondering exactly why the two had left the room and been looking at him like that.

He glanced back as Jordan smirked at a girl who then blushed. He heard the soft chuckle that followed and turned forward again. They couldn't know, could they? Or Jordan wouldn't be smiling like that. He wouldn't be following Joey with such a cheerful, carefree expression. Where were the growls? The mean looks and tense postures and narrowed eye-?

"Hey! Have you met the new guy?" Joey's body was so tense he felt it would hurt to move. Jordan held him in a headlock, turned to face the occupant of a cubicle mere centimetres from the elevator, Joey's eyes twitched toward the doors.

"What're ya talkin' about?" he frowned pseudo-casually. Jordan looked down at him as the occupant, apparently used to the 'wolf's behaviour, merely looked curiously at them.

"The new guy."

"Jordan, we're not getting a new guy. We don't need a new guy." Jordan looked up at the woman and frowned before blushing furiously.

"Huh? Guess I just assumed." He muttered sheepishly.

He laughed nervously as the woman rolled her eyes and turned to work again. Jordan anxiously toed his way to the elevator where Joey was finally given momentary relief only to tense again at the strange boy's next words.

"What's your name?"

Joey glanced sharply to his right where, beside the buttons, Jordan stood nonchalantly.

"... Joey." He said simply. Jordan nodded in response, his shaggy hair rubbing against the walls of the elevator. A few moments passed in silence and Joey watched the floors tick down. 14... 13...

"I'd give you a day."

Joey's attention diverted. "'Till what?"

"'Till you snap. And then another hour after you're captured to die."

Joey counted the days in his head. If taday is Thursday then...

"I've got till Saturday, don' underestimate me." Joey growled then blinked. "Wait, why aren't you turnin' me in?"

"Would you rather I haul you to the nearest cell and lock you up?" Jordan asked acidly. Joey didn't back down.

"O'course not, but I'd like ta know ya motives fer helpin' me." He argued. Jordan looked to the floor for a moment before meeting Joey's curious gaze.

"If you must know, my cousin was in your situation. Orphan, grew up without knowing who he was, by the time we got to him it was too late. He had a week."

Joey's expression cooled from fiery to solemn within moments.

"I spent every minute of that time with him. I watched him be torn apart by our self-made chains. He didn't just get angry, he became depressed. He had a day left before he begged me to kill him."

Joey swallowed.

"So maybe I'm waiting to see how long it'll take you to beg." He murmured darkly.

Joey's lip quivered. In rage or fear, he didn't know. Jordan observed him with dead eyes.

He's reacting timidly. Maybe I didn't need that extra insurance… he thought, remembering his earlier outburst to his colleague. Of course he knew Joey wasn't going to be working in the building, he just needed someone to see them together so they'd know who to look for when he showed up mauled and bloody.

"But... actually… I know that last week he spent with me was happy, so maybe I want to know... who you'd beg to take your life."

Joey shut his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth. A deep rumble started in his throat but Jordan didn't run this time. There was nowhere to run to.

"Do I look like I'm about ta run ta you?" The blonde exploded. "Joey Wheeler does not beg! I've been tru tough spots tonsa times, if I can deal wit all o' dat then I can deal wit dis. So, once again, don' underestimate me."

Jordan blinked.

4... 3... 2...

He smirked, it widened into a smile, and then a full-on grin. The doors opened and Joey was once again grabbed by the taller boy as he laughed.

"I like you Joey," He chuckled.

"So I'm gonna help you."

Kay: Hopefully, even with the wait, this chapter was enjoyable and you'll tell me what you think?

Choc: All our love to reviewers

Kay: Huggles to ZackTaylor (Sorry I didn't thank you last chapter) and kittywitchy Your review made sure I remembered to update. This went out to you two (That statement may have been more useful before the chapter) :P