Chapter 33

'I am Soul,' SK repeated the words in order to break the stunned silence which had fallen. 'I control the spiritual so I'm the only one who can control the dead. If the other three try it only hurts them, because the dead don't have bodies or hearts or minds in the same way the living do. Body should have known better when he tried to control Jay before,' he turned his gaze towards the youth, 'but then Body always needs to play hero, so I guess I can understand.'

'What do you mean he needs to play hero?' Kaiba frowned. 'None of you have been around long enough...'

'Body and Mind are old,' SK cut him off, 'they've been around many times and have had many lives, but certain things have always been true for them. Heart and I might be young, but we know what these things are, because we know each other. When you're as close as we are, you just know these things.'

'But... you still need to be closer,' Joey almost dragged out the words. 'I mean... Win is one being, not four.'

'We know. I know. So once Body is back to his full strength then we'll be ready to become one again. That's what needs to happen now.'

'Why do we need to wait for Body's strength to return? Why can't we just do it now?'

'Because Body is the strongest. He was always made to be the strongest. Even if he was the youngest he would still be the strongest.'

'Okay, what?' Joey cocked an eyebrow at him. 'Just what the hell is so special about him exactly?'

'He's the solid concept.'

'Huh?'

'He's the bit that holds the rest of us together.'

'I see…' suddenly Joey felt the warmth of Heart's arms around his waist; turning to her, he couldn't help but smile. 'Feeling a bit more friendly now, are we?'

Glancing round at the others, Joey could see that Mind and Body, had attached themselves to Duke and Kaiba in a similar manner. He couldn't help but smirked at Kaiba's lack of resistance to this, but knowing what Body's power was, he wouldn't like to say for sure exactly what that lack of resistance was about.

'So once we've put you all back together what exactly are you planning to do?' Joey turned his attention back to SK and Soul.

'We plan to cure the darkness.'

'Huh?'

'When you last faced the Reganna a poisonous rain fell across the land, filling everyone it touched with little seeds of darkness. Seeds which spread out into everyone those people came into contact with and then out further from them, till everyone and everything was infected. This poison of darkness is what created the downfall of the multiverse, or at least that's how I understand it from what the Future Body told me.'

'I see,' Joey pressed his lips together.

'For the last three months Mind, Body and Heart have been gathering all those seeds together and replanting them into three pots.'

'Pots?'

'You mean people, don't you?' Kaiba's voice was strangely tight. 'You had them move all the seeds of darkness, as you put it, into three people, didn't you?'

'Yes, that's right,' SK nodded.

'And let me guess Yugi and Jay were two of them?'

'Yes,' he nodded again, 'and Ahna the third.'

'Ahna?' Joey's whole being filled with horrified concern.

'They had the most seeds to begin with, so it made sense.'

'What do you mean they had the most seeds to begin with?' Duke frowned. 'Weren't they cleansed already? Shouldn't they have less than everyone else? And what about Catilin for that matter? How did she avoid it when they didn't?'

'Catilin didn't avoid it. But during the time I had before the darkness fell I was able to transfer what was in her into the next most viable host; Yugi. See I needed her. I didn't need him.' SK's voice was strangely firm. 'And there was more darkness in the three of them to begin with because they were the hosts and the darkness just wanted to get back to what was familiar. It was why moving all the seeds was so easy.'

'So basically in order to cure the darkness you first had to reform the Reganna?' Kaiba massaged his temples. 'Was that really such a good idea?'

'It had to be done; the future Body knew it was risky, but he also knew it was the only way. We have to cure the darkness.'

'And how do you cure darkness exactly?'

'The same way the darkness was killing the light in the hell future,' SK's voice was eerily calm.

'What do you mean?'

'When light becomes darkness it dies; so to cure darkness you turn it into light.'

With the up most care and using the slowest, smallest movements he could muster, Covo began trying to work lose the ties around his wrists. As he gained more movement, he delicately attempted to pick at the knot resting just below the base of his hands. All the while his eyes kept making glancing up towards the three of them, who currently appeared oblivious to his escape attempts. Soon, however, he knew he would have to make more noticeable movements if he was going to get anywhere, but the longer he could delay making them, the better.

Crovell made some chirps and squeaks which caused a few crude remarks to circulate round the trio. Inside Covo fumed, his concentration momentarily broken. Crovell might not have been his flesh and blood, but he thought of him like a son all the same. For anyone... anyone, even his own mother, to say anything untoward about him... Taking a deep, angry breath in through his nose, Covo forced himself to return to the task at hand. He could feel the knot becoming looser and looser as he continued to pick at it. Eventually it became loose enough for him to slip one of his hands out; unfortunately this also meant the end to any subtle movements.

For a few painfully long minutes he found himself watching the others for any sign they were paying the slightest attention to what he was doing. They weren't. Covo could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he forced himself to think about exactly what it was he was about to do. All three of his opponents were either more powerful or better skilled than he was. For him to come out of this crazy mess of a situation unharmed was no doubt a long shot. But he owed it to himself and to Crovell to try.

He knew his best chance was to catch them off-guard. The more sudden and unexpected his escape attempt, the greater the chance he would be able to pull it off and take Crovell along for the ride. He couldn't afford a single slip up. This was undoubtedly the most risky thing he would ever do and, for all he knew, it might well be the last thing he would ever do. If Ahna was still acting like herself, she'd be the one person he would say goodbye to and his heart almost wept at the thought. But this was not the time for weakness; this was the time for action. Squeezing his eyes shut, he mentally counted to three. It was now, or never.