Chapter 26

'That's a lot of active Huntays,' SK licked his lips as his eyes scanned the map in front of them. 'How the hell are we supposed to find the right one?'

'By process of elimination, obviously.'

'Obviously,' he rolled his eyes, 'and exactly how long is that going to take?'

'Hey, you're working with a Huntay expert here,' Jay grinned, 'this is barely even a challenge.'

'Since when were you a Huntay expert,' SK cocked an eyebrow at him.

'I'm not; I was talking about Octan. He is a Desmitus after all.'

'And that makes him an expert because…?'

'Because the Desmitus are believed to be the children of the gods and the Huntay is the ring of the gods, so the two are kind of connected,' Jay tilted his head to one side. 'There's a more in depth and complicated explanation as to why and Octan did explain it to me once, but... well there are some things which even go over my head.'

'Finally, some sign you were actually once human,' SK's tongue skated across his lips again.

'Are you just going out of your way to insult me on every possible level today?' Jay glared at him. 'Because, as you continuously like to point out, I'm not officially the Helper here, hell I'm not even officially a Guardian right now, so I don't actually have to help you out at all.'

'Fine, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you.'

'Whatever, just sit back and watch an expert at work.'

He couldn't look at him. He physically couldn't bring himself to look at him as every fibre of his being trembled with a mixture of exhaustion and unfiltered emotions. His hands shook as he buried his face into them desperate to get some kind of control back over himself. This was it. This was his limit. This was the moment which had completely broken him. Because he couldn't... he wouldn't believe this guy was...

'You… you're lying,' his voice was so small even he wasn't certain he'd spoken.

'Am Tristan,' he heard Yugi's voice repeat Body's awkward and childlike statement.

'You can't...' he shook his head, 'I don't believe you. How... how can you be him?'

'Body Id, Tristan Ego.'

'Is that some kinda psychobabble?' Joey sounded curiously confused.

'Our Egos our waking selves,' now it was Duke's turn to speak in Mind's all too calm manner. 'We are Ids. Desires. Basic human instincts. We belong to individuals, but we are also Voices and belong to each other. It is why we have more freedom than our Egos, but more control than most Ids.'

'I... I don't follow.'

A slightly hysterical laugh came out of Kaiba as he forced himself to his feet. Under the circumstances he wasn't completely sure how he felt about what he'd just figured out. A part of him just wanted to ignore it. To bury it and push it away, because acknowledging it would mean admitting Body really was who he was claiming to be and at that moment in time he wasn't sure it was something he could face. But at the same time he was being presented with an opportunity to show Joey up and ever since the Pure had become a part of him, Kaiba just couldn't resist those.

'Please don't tell me they really need to spell this out for you Wheeler,' his voice was as dry and drained as he felt, 'they call themselves Mind, Heart and Body, right? So of course they're all part of each other,' a stuttered half laugh forced its way out of him. 'You're all Win, aren't you?'

'They're all Win?' Joey spoke before anyone else had a chance to reply.

As he spoke Heart moved herself off of Joey's lap and pulled back the hair covering the left side of her face. Kaiba found himself watching Joey's reaction with a mindlessly fascinated curiosity.

'M-Mai,' Joey's eyes bulged, 'but...?'

'And you're Catilin, aren't you?' Kaiba forced his attention towards Mind.

Nodding, she pulled the tatty hair back from the dark side of her own face, revealing the transplanted features of the Silkoneon queen.

'But… but… but how is this possible?' Joey pulled back from Heart. 'I... I don't understand.'

'This is possible thanks to Soul,' as Duke spoke Mind stared down at her own hand. 'He's the only one with the power to release us and the power to put us back again.'

'Soul...' Kaiba allowed the word to roll out of his mouth, 'you mean Mokuba.'

'Yes,' Mind nodded as Duke spoke. 'He was the one who brought us out because he needed us to do something important, but we cannot finish that important task without him. It also means there's nothing to stop us from coming out and, as much as we like having lives of our own, being like this is hurting our Egos. So it is vitally important we complete our task and for that we need Soul.'

'How long has it been since you saw Soul last,' Joey frowned at her.

'Three months,' Mind's gaze lowered and so did Duke's voice. 'At first we could only appear at night whilst our Egos were sleeping, which was fine because at the time there was no rush for us to finish what we were doing and no danger to our Egos whilst we were doing it. But the longer it went on... If we do not complete our task soon then our Egos may never wake again. Please, you have to help us.'

'Help you with what exactly?'

'I told you, we need Soul, but none of us have the ability to summon him.'

'And you think we do?' Kaiba folded his arms.

'You must... you have to... it's the only thing we could think of,' Duke's voice reflected the pleading look on Mind's face. 'Please, you must help Soul break free of his Ego, you have to.'

'Well I guess there's no harm in trying, right?' Joey shot a look in Kaiba's direction as he pulled himself to his feet.

Kaiba found himself staring back at Joey as a scattering of half crazed thoughts ran round his head. If he wasn't so tired... if he wasn't allowing his emotions to get the better of him... if he could think clearly he would know how to answer that question. As it was all he could really do was stare.

'Kaiba...?' Joey took half a step towards him.

'No,' he shook his head, 'no, after everything my brother's been through I don't think doing something like this to him is a good idea. They've already admitted being like this is hurting the others, so why should I put my brother in that kind of danger too.'

'Oh, I don't know, maybe because the others won't wake up again if we don't,' Joey rolled his eyes. 'What's wrong with you?'

'I...'

'Seriously what's wrong with you?' Joey's voice toned with concern. 'I know ghosts with more colour in their cheeks than you have right now. Not to mention the fact you're hardly acting like yourself.'

'I... I'm just tired,' he shook his head again as he stared down at his own hands.

'We can help you with that if you'll let us,' Duke's voice was calm and almost pleasant.

'I... I don't even know if I trust you right now,' Kaiba stared at Mind.

'I promise you we'd never do anything to hurt you or anyone,' Mind's face filled with a sweet but waxy smile as Duke continued to do the talking for her. 'We always put the needs of others before our own, even those yet to be born.'

'Those yet to be born,' Joey leapt on her words, 'wait... does this mean you three had something to do with Mai's nightmare the other night?'

'The child's Id was putting too much of a strain on Heart,' Mind turned her attention towards Joey, 'it was putting them both at risk. We had to do something. It was drastic, yes, but it needed to be done.'

'What needed to be done?' Joey's head moved slowly from side to side. 'Mind, just what the hell did you do to my child?'