Chapter 38

Joey gave a loud groan and squeezed his eyes even tighter shut than they already were. His chest ached. His head felt both heavy and light at the same time. The ground below him was hard and unyielding and all he could think about was how he'd managed to laugh himself unconscious. Considering the circumstances he wasn't totally sure if it was something he should be embarrassed about or not.

Giving another loud groan he forced his eyes open. He winced against the hardness of the daylight as the blurring image of Heart moved into his view. He blinked a few times to clear his vision allowing him to see the anxious expression strewn across Heart's face. Instinct made him lift his hand up and gently stroke the hidden left side of her face.

'It's okay, I'm not that mad at you.'

Heart's expression filled with relief as she pressed Joey's hand against her cheek.

'You know there are better ways of winning an argument,' he gave a muted laugh, only to wince at the pain it caused.

'Welcome back to the land of the living,' Duke peered down at him. 'How you feeling?'

'Like my chest's about to collapse,' he groaned for a third time, 'but otherwise fine.' Grudgingly he sat up and stared round at the others. 'Hey where's Kaiba?'

'After you passed out, Body left with Mokuba's body and Kaiba followed him.'

'Great,' Joey rolled his eyes, 'now I get what this was all about.'

'Huh?'

'I'm not quite sure how I know, but... Heart wanted to stop the laughing fit, but when she looked to Mind for permission Body blocked her.'

'But Body was the one who wanted the laughter to stop, wasn't he?' SK's tongue skated across his lips. 'So...?'

'So why didn't he let her get that permission, probably because he'd been told not to. The four of them aren't idiots. They know we've probably picked up on a lot of their habits by now, including the one which means everything they do they check back with Mind first. If Heart had checked back with Mind and she'd refused to let her stop then the rest of you would have probably started interrogating her or something. They couldn't risk anything happening which might stop Kaiba from following after Body.'

'But why?'

'Because this was the only way they could give Kaiba access to the Pure's powers without me interfering.'

'What?' SK laughed in surprise. 'You really think they would go to these lengths for that?'

'Body's still not back at his full strength so whatever it is he needs to do is probably going to take a while,' Joey sighed as he pulled himself up from the ground. 'If I were conscious and present then I'd probably find some way of stopping him. No, not probably, I would. I still think giving Kaiba access to the Pure's powers now is a bad idea. He's already unstable, the two of you have seen that, all blurring the boundaries between him and the Pure is going to do is further confuse things for him. We all saw what her influence on him did before...'

'But we still need the Pure's powers right now,' Duke cut him off. 'Why are you the only one unable to understand that?'

'Because I've seen the way he's acting and I'm worried about my...' Joey cut himself off. 'The First is worried about her sister. They are a part of us, so if we're affected by something then so are they. It was why the First was so powerless against Sta's control three months ago, because I was. You just need to look at Kaiba to see something's not right with him and the First is terrified about what that means for the Pure.'

'And here I thought you were just worried the Pure might try to usurp the First again,' SK's tongue skated across his lips as his gaze narrowed on Joey, 'because from where I was standing that little carry on you had before was filled with macho-testosterone and not sisterly concern.'

'Do you have any idea how confusing it is dealing with two peoples' sets of feelings all the time?' Joey glared at him. 'I was going to come off as a jerk either way, so I might as well be a jerk on my own terms, right? But whether you want to believe me or not I am genuinely concerned about that arrogant bastard you call a cousin. I don't think him having his powers back right now is a good idea.'

'But they do,' Duke shrugged and indicated towards the Voices, 'and I think we have to trust that they know what they're doing.'

'And I want to be able to trust them, I do, but a lot of the decisions they're making right now are pretty reckless. Making Covo afraid of everything as a way of protecting Crovell, knocking me out so they can lift the power block on Kaiba's body; the ends aren't really justifying the means.'

'I guess you do have a point there,' Duke pressed his lips together, 'I mean they had no idea how long you were going to be out for.'

'So who's plan do you think it was?'

'Huh?'

'Well I think we all know it wasn't Heart's idea. If anything she was the only one who wasn't in on it. So which of the other three do you think came up with the brilliant plan to knock me out.'

'Well... err... if I had to guess I'd say Body or Soul,' Duke pulled a face as he half turned his head away. 'I mean, they were the ones who were here when you and Kaiba had that little argument before, so they're the ones who knew something needed to be done.'

'Well I guess that makes sense,' as Joey spoke Heart wrapped her arms around his waist and lightly kissed his cheek. 'Well I'm glad you're feeling a little friendlier now.'

Joey found himself studying Mind for a few moments, before casting a glance towards Soul. Mind was busying herself shifting the Elemental stones into ever so minutely different positions, whilst Soul was amusing himself with a makeshift game of hopscotch. It was clear they were getting pretty bored now. Joey's eyes shifted back towards Heart, his fingers edging along the scar across her lower stomach. He knew he had more important things to be worrying about, but for some reason only one thought kept nagging its way through his mind.

'Hey Mind,' the sound of his voice cutting across the silence made the dusty blonde jump, 'do you remember what you told us before? About having to move Jo's Id I mean; I want to know, can it be reversed?'

Mind stared at him for a few thoughtful moments, before shrugging.

'Look, I understand what you were saying and I agree that Blesséd Mothers are a good idea, it's just…' he pressed his lips together. 'Well normally Blesséd Mothers are, you know, mothers and,' he coughed nervously, 'well there are going to be certain potential repercussions for what you did, if you can't reverse it I mean.'

Mind's single visible eye glimmered with understanding for what he was saying. The problem was she clearly didn't think she'd done anything wrong. Whether or not there was a way to reverse it didn't concern her. Why would it? Problems like that were the concern of the Ego and not the Id, or at least that's what Joey was forcing himself to put it down to.

'Maybe the reformation of Win will reverse it somehow,' Joey sighed, 'because it's probably going to be better for everybody involved if it does.'

'Err... I think I missed a page of this story somewhere,' SK blinked in confusion as his tongue moved back and forth across his lips.

'It's not important right now SK,' Joey gave a dismissive flick of his hand, 'and hopefully it never will be.'

Panic. Everything had dissolved into complete and utter panic. It pounded hard through his veins. It fluttered wildly in his stomach. It made him feel hot and cold in the exact same moment. It surrounded him. No. They surrounded him. He didn't know where they'd come from, but he was certain he knew what they wanted; the child.

He tried to run. Running was all he was good at. Running was all he knew. But without warning he found himself trapped with no way out. Nowhere he could run. No escape. He tried to think of something... anything to save the child from the evil he could sense closing in on him, but it was impossible. His brain was only capable of one train of thought and that train of thought wanted him to run. But he couldn't run. There was nowhere to run. He was trapped. Trapped. Trapped.

He had lost. There was no other explanation for it. No other fate for him now. He had lost. He had failed the child. All he had left was fear and the instinct to run, but neither were of any use to him. Not anymore. He had failed. He had failed. He was trapped and he had failed.

'Don't kill him,' Gan caught hold of his hand.

'I wasn't going to kill him,' Re's face filled with a cruel smirk, 'I just want to have a little fun.'

'Oh yeah and whilst you're having your fun, my host will dig her grubby little fingernails into me and claw her way back to the surface,' Gan glared at him. 'Her feelings for him are strong and thanks to the existence of the brat my hold on this body is unstable at best. We can't afford to take any chances.'

'Then maybe you should start digging at your little host,' Re turned his nose up at her, 'break her down, consume her, make her yours. She won't disobey you then.'

'Again you underestimate the strength of maternal instincts,' Gan rocked the screaming child from side to side. 'Besides, I don't have the same taste for driving my host insane that you seem to.'

'Who said anything about me driving my host insane?'

'Break her down, consume her, make her yours,' Gan gave an overly dramatic imitation of Re, 'what else could it translate into other than drive your host out of her mind. Besides, insanity is your specialty.'

'So exactly how long is it going to take you to settle that brat again?'

'I don't know. Fortunately whatever little fear spell that idiot was under seems to have slowed any influence they might have had over the child down considerable. However he was with them for quite some time, so...'

'Need I remind you my patience is thin at the best of times Gan,' Re gritted his teeth, 'I refuse to wait all day for you to get that brat under control again.'

'You won't have to wait all day,' Gan rolled her eyes, 'in case the sunset wasn't enough of a clue, night is coming. A little on the early side as well, don't you think?'

'You crafty whore, what did you do?' Re's face filled with a shark like grin.

'As much as I'd love to take the credit for it, this was actually Na's doing.'

'Well I guess you needed to have your uses,' Re patted Na's cheek.

'I like the darkness,' Na grinned, 'it makes me tingle.'

'We are the darkness,' Re laughed, 'and it's time to remind those arrogant bitches of that.'