Chapter 31
When Ahna had attacked her, Covo had been too stunned to put up any kind of resistance. Instead he'd allowed her to take the now screaming Crovell from his arms and place him down in the nearby crib, before forcefully tying Covo to one of the bedposts. By the time it even occurred to him he should fight back somehow, he was already bound and gagged.
Once she was satisfied he was securely captured, Ahna had made her way towards the crib. Covo then watched as she did something unseen to the screaming infant. With every second that passed Covo felt his heart pound with a mixture of painful emotions. He couldn't understand what was wrong with her. He didn't understand why she was doing this. All he knew for sure was that he wanted her to stop.
'Baby's are loud,' without warning Jay entered, holding a beautiful butterfly axe in one hand as he attempted to childishly cover his ears, 'make it stop.'
'I'm trying,' Ahna glanced up towards him, 'it's not exactly easy you know, he's been contaminated.'
As she was saying this Yugi entered. There was a look on his face somewhere between confusion and curiosity about the situation. He took up a position next to the door and folded his arms.
'I don't care, make it stop,' Jay pulled a face, 'it's so noisy I can't hear myself think.'
'I didn't realise you had the capacity to think,' Ahna smirked. 'But I'm doing my best here, he'll recognise me soon enough and when he does we'll be unstoppable.'
'Yay,' Jay clapped as Crovell's cries began to die down into crackling whimpers. 'Do you think this puppet will serve us better than...?'
'Now, now little sibling, you know better than to mention that traitor's name,' Ahna cut him off.
'Traitor?' Yugi frowned at her.
'Let me guess, you're still asleep?'
'Asleep?'
'Yes, yes, yes he is,' Jay nodded furiously, 'so it's your turn to play teacher, right? Playing teacher is a boring game, so you should play it.'
'Are you calling me boring?' Ahna cocked an eyebrow at him.
'No,' Jay shook his head, 'I'm calling playing teacher boring. So are you going to teach him now?'
'No,' Ahna focused her gaze on Yugi as she lifted Crovell out of the crib, 'he can learn what he needs to learn all by himself. This infant is still going to take a little while before he truly remembers that he's ours, so we're in no rush for his new host to submit, not yet anyway. Although if we keep throwing in gender references I'm sure we'll provoke a reaction sooner rather than later.'
'Uh... I hadn't even thought about that,' Jay blinked at her, 'you're so smart.'
'And you're just an idiot child,' Ahna rolled her eyes, 'you don't need to think and from now on you won't have to.'
Joey couldn't keep his mind on the conversation at hand. Maybe it was because Heart still had him completely and utterly bewitched. Maybe it was because he knew Heart was a part of Mai and seeing any part of Mai giving her affections away to anyone else so easily cut him deeply. Or maybe it was just because the trio themselves had a draw to them so strong it would take a lot of strength and determination not to be distracted by them; a theory Joey could well believe given the fact he wasn't the only one whose attention kept getting drawn towards them.
Glancing round at the others, Joey amused himself with their reactions for a moment. For a start Duke wasn't even trying to pay attention to anything else. With no powers of his own to counteract whatever layer of magic helped to make their attraction so strong it was perhaps unsurprising he was powerless against it. Then again Joey was now making assumptions magic had anything to do with this. It could have just been hormonal or more likely still the after effect of Mind's control over him. It would be impossible to tell without asking and who wanted to have that conversation?
Kaiba, on the other hand, was doing his best not to appear distracted by them. Although all his attempted resistance actually did was add another layer of confusion to his already scattered behaviour. Joey had never seen Kaiba quite so irrational; and it was even worse when you noticed just how hauntingly ill he looked. Whatever had been happening within the Kaiba household the last few months had done a real number on him and Joey wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to feel about it.
Movement out of the corner of his eye brought his attention back to the trio. Body had moved into an upright sitting position now, although his head was still resting lazily against Heart's shoulder. It was pretty obvious he was starting to recover, although how much longer it was going to take for him to return to his full strength...
'I know they're rather attractive to look at guys, but we really have more important things to be talking about right now,' SK's voice cut through his train of thoughts.
A sheepish feeling moved through Joey as he turned his eyes up towards the Helper. He'd been the only one he'd not bothered to examine just now, because he knew instinctively the trio held no attraction for SK. He didn't know why SK was able to resist when the rest of them weren't, but the thought that SK had a stronger will than them was a little scary.
'Sorry SK,' Joey averted his gaze, 'I was just thinking about the best method to summon Soul. I mean, that's what we were about to do before Jay went haywire on us and I still think it's the best thing to do right now.'
'As much as I hate to admit it, I agree,' Kaiba folded his arms.
'Okay,' SK licked his lips, 'so how exactly do we summon Soul?'
'Maybe we should bring Mokuba here,' Duke gave a nervous cough, 'after all he is Soul, right, and Soul's the one with the power to bring the others out so maybe Mokuba knows how to bring Soul out.'
'I doubt it,' Kaiba's voice was sharp and defensive.
'I agree with Duke,' Joey sighed, 'I mean, I have some ideas about the best way to go about summoning Soul, but just having Mokuba here to begin with might make this whole situation a lot easier.'
'No.'
'What do you mean no?'
'I mean, no you can't bring my brother here. I don't want him involved.'
'But regardless as to whether or not he's physically here, we're going to at least have a part of him here, so he's going to be involved no matter what,' Joey cocked an eyebrow at him. 'I know you're not exactly acting rationally right now rich boy, but even you have to see the logic there.'
'I don't...' Kaiba gritted his teeth, 'shut up Wheeler.'
'What's going on with you,' Joey studied him.
'I told you, I'm tired.'
'And I'm telling you I don't believe that. Well, I believe you're tired, but there's definitely more to this situation than just that.'
'I thought I told you to shut up Wheeler.'
'Make me,' Joey met and held his gaze, 'come on, make me shut up, because right now that's the only way...'
Before Joey could even finish his sentence, Kaiba had punched him hard across the face. It was enough to stun Joey into a momentary silence; he'd barely even seen Kaiba move.
'Now, will you please shut up,' Kaiba's voice was strangely stilted and quiet as he backed away.
'Gee, remind me not to be concerned about you in future,' Joey rubbed his cheek. 'Then again I guess I should have known better; it's not like we're friends.'
'No, just sisters,' SK gave a nervous laugh as his tongue skated across his lips.
His comment cause both Joey and Kaiba to glare at him. Joey could understand the guy trying to defuse the tension, but there were definitely better ways to do it. Ways which didn't hit so uncomfortably close to home.
'So, who's up for bringing Mokuba here,' Joey's gaze flicked around the rest of the group.
'I told you that's not happening Wheeler,' Kaiba's voice was tight, 'why can't you just let it drop already?'
'Because we need Soul and this is the best way I can think of getting him.'
'It's not the best, it's just the fastest,' he shook his head, 'that's not a good enough reason to put my brother's life in danger. I'll be the first to admit I'm not exactly thinking clearly right now, but I'm still thinking a lot more clearly than any of you, since you all seem to have missed the obvious here.'
'And what exactly is the obvious?' Joey cocked an eyebrow at him.
'If we bring Mokuba here and then release Soul, both his Id and his physical body will be at risk,' Kaiba's voice was dry. 'That's why I objected, it's just taken me a while to put it into words. My brain might be working slower than normal, but it's still working, which is more than I can ever say about yours.'
He hadn't really used his powers before now, so it took him a while to figure out how they worked. Once he had his first priority was checking on the other three Win hosts. They were all unconscious and for some reason he took this to be a good sign. After all he had a vague recollection of doing something useful before the true force of his nightmares set in.
Once their bodies had been assessed he began trying to work out exactly where their Ids had run off to. Unfortunately he couldn't remember what kind of instruction he'd given them or even if he'd given them any at all, but some instinct led him to the gates of Kama Traydon. It made sense to start his search here, since he knew this was where he needed them to be. As he made his way through the garden towards the Sacred Huntay a strange dreamlike tiredness washed over him. Each step filled him with a heavy kind of weariness like nothing he'd ever experienced before. It didn't worry him though. In fact, just the opposite. He felt completely calm; so much so it bordered on being unnaturally tranquil.
As he neared the Huntay, the sound of raised voices met his ears. Again he wasn't worried, he felt too peaceful to care about much of anything. Even the reasons why he was there had become an all too distant memory.
'Mokuba?'
The alarmed tone of the speaker registered, but only just and even that wasn't enough to snap him out of his trancelike state. Bright colours danced in his vision as it slowly blurred out of focus. His head felt heavy, so it made a strange kind of sense for him to lie down upon the hard ground and close his eyes. After all he'd been through to get here, if sleep made sense to him, then why shouldn't he sleep?