Chapter 42

Angrily the fake Mai made a swipe for the pendent, but Joey pulled it back and walked cockily away from her.

'Really Mai,' Joey smirked, 'is that any way for a pregnant woman to behave?'

'Of course to answer that honestly, she would have to actually be a pregnant woman first,' Kaiba shared in Joey's cocky amusement.

'That is true, although Ahna was a pregnant woman at one stage. Do you think that means Gan was too?'

'I'm not sure you'd really class Gan as being a woman,' Kaiba half lowered his head, 'unless of course the Reganna have finally decided to conform to gender.'

'That would be far too simple for them, don't you think,' a sly grin filled Joey's face. 'I mean, gender would make them like us and the last thing they would want to be is like us.'

'True, although having a child by one of us seems to be no problem for them at all. I always knew they loved us really.'

'Shut up,' the fake Mai flicked a black energy ball into her hand and aimed it at Kaiba. 'This won't kill you, but since you're powerless right now it will hurt like hell.'

'Are you sure about that?' Kaiba gave a half laugh as he flicked a white energy ball into his own hand.

'How...?'

'A little gift courtesy of Body,' he threw the ball at her.

Gritting her teeth, the fake Mai threw her own energy ball back at him. The two projectiles collided midair causing a small explosion as the cancelled each other out. The explosion caused the air to whip around them for a few moments and instinctively Duke pulled the baby Crovell closer to himself. Things were about to get really dangerous and there was just no way he'd let any of them hurt the child.

'I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say this whole Glamour thing was your idea Gan,' Kaiba fixed his gaze on the fake Mai, 'it's certainly your style. I'm assuming you were aiming for some convolute divide and conquer strategy here, I mean, it is your specialty after all.'

'Naturally,' the fake Mai struck a dramatic pose. 'I should have known he was playing into our hands too easily,' she flicked a look into Joey's direction, 'at what point did you figure it out?'

'The second you arrived,' Joey smirked as he lowered his head slightly. 'So what exactly was your plan? Make us lose faith in Win? Do you really think donning a few disguises would do that?'

'We weren't fooled even in the slightest, but we knew we couldn't take you on alone,' Kaiba flicked another energy ball into his hand. 'Playing along allowed us to buy a little time to figure out exactly how we were going to deal with you.'

'I always did hate telepathy,' the fake Tristan gritted his teeth, before flicking his head towards the other two imposters, 'grab the brat and run.'

Duke did his best to protect Crovell, but the Catilin fake was too swift for him, somehow managing to take the baby out of his arms without Duke letting go. He made a loud, indignant gasp as he watch the fake Tristan break free of Body's grip and all three Reganna members vanish from sight. It all happened so quickly Duke almost couldn't believe it had happened at all. For a few long moments there was a deep and unnerving silence as all eyes turned towards Joey and Kaiba.

'So... you knew they were fakes,' SK's tongue skated across his lips, 'you knew they were fakes and you just played along with them? Couldn't you have found some way of telling me you knew they were fakes?'

'I did,' Joey cocked an eyebrow at him, 'it's not my fault you weren't able to pick up on it.'

'But... I don't...'

'It was the smell,' Joey cut him off, 'the Glamour ability doesn't cover a person's smell. As a Silkoneon herself Ahna was more than aware of this, that's why when she was running around as the copycat duellist she always did her best to mask her scent. But Gan is arrogant and clearly ignorant to the sensitivity of a wolf's nose. I knew who they were the second they entered Kama Traydon, but since I couldn't be totally sure what they were up to I couldn't let them know anything, not until I had a little surprise of my own to back it up.'

'It's a good job telepathy was the first power to reassert itself,' Kaiba tilted his head in thought, 'or else your behaviour might have raised some suspicions.'

'You think after all this time I don't know how to project my thoughts and carry on a normal conversation,' Joey narrowed his gaze.

'That's exactly what I'm saying,' he smirked, 'and as of yet I haven't been proven wrong.'

'Err... okay,' SK blinked and licked his lips at the same time, 'I have a question, why did the Reganna retreat just now?'

'Because Re hates failure,' Kaiba shrugged, 'especially when it's someone else's plan.'

'You're just lucky Re didn't realise you were onto him before you made it back to the Sacred Huntay; it could have been a little messy else,' Joey pulled a face.

'I could have defended myself,' he waved his right hand in a dismissive manner, 'besides, Body was never too far away.'

'Yeah, I bet he wasn't.'

Kaiba glared at him for a moment, before shrugging and turning away.

'So what do you think they want the kid for anyway?'

'He's Gan's son just as much as he is mine,' Joey sighed as he freed SK and the others from their binds, 'and we all know just how powerful he is, so it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.'

'Well, at least we have the Axe again now. It doesn't exactly swing things in our favour, but it will help out a lot, especially when we recreate Win.'

'Wait, wait, wait,' SK licked his lips again as he rubbed his now freed wrists, 'since when did we have the Axe?'

'Since I apprehended this from Gan,' Joey held up the axe shaped pendent.

'Um… Joey, hate to tell you this, but… last I checked the axe was a little bigger than that.' Duke cocked an eyebrow at him.

'Did you seriously believe people were the only things which could be disguised through the Glamour ability?' Joey rolled his eyes.

'I... I hadn't even considered it.'

'You wouldn't, but for someone like Gan this level of Glamouring is just as instinctive as it would be for the Face of Friendship.'

'What do you mean?' SK frowned.

'Sometimes I wonder if you pay attention to anything,' Kaiba shook his head. 'You were there the last time the Reganna introduced themselves, so you should remember the way they kept referring to the Mistresses when they were giving their names. That wasn't just for dramatic effect or whatever; it was to remind us of their Opposing Names.'

'Opposing Name?'

'Re, Gan and Na were the names we gave to them,' Joey gave a heavy sigh, 'but they were not the names they gave themselves. Both sides refer to these other names as the Opposing Names because that's what they are.'

'Okay…'

'You still don't get it do you?' Kaiba folded his arms impatiently. 'The Face of Friendship is known for taking on the face of someone's greatest friend; she is the master of the Glamour ability; its one of her specialist skills and therefore something the two of us can't do. Ahna is Gan and Gan is also a master of the Glamour ability, which is why her Opposing Name is the Face of Foe.'

'Now you're just making it sound like Re can heal and Na is telepathic,' Joey shot him a look, 'it's not as simple as that, mostly because it's not strictly speaking true. Not all our abilities are reflected in them. It is true Gan and the Face of Friendship have the most in common, which is why it's so easy to make the comparison when using the title the Face of Foe.'

'Sorry, I didn't realise you were going to get all pedantic about it.'

'And you're forgetting just how much our Helper needs things spelled out to him. Why else do you think he hasn't even noticed that we've taken over yet?'

'Now that is a good point,' Kaiba cocked his head to one side.

'I hadn't not noticed,' SK's tongue skated across his lips, 'I just didn't think you needed me to state the obvious.'

'Wait, are you saying they're the First and the Pure right now?' Duke felt a mild level of confusion move through him. 'But... they don't have the white glaze over their eyes.'

'That's because we don't actually need it,' Kaiba smirked, 'we only use it normally for the benefit of those surrounding our hosts or if we know we're going to need to exceed a certain level of power.'

'Okay... but doesn't Joey's voice also go all weird and multi-tonal when the First is in control?'

'You're right, it used to,' Joey pulled a face, 'it was the way my voice sounded when I first came into existence, but do you really think if I learnt to control that defect once before I wouldn't be able to learn how to again?'

'I guess that makes sense, but...'

'What are Re and Na's opposing names?' SK jumped in before Duke could finish what he was saying.

'The First Darkness and the Unpure,' Joey pressed his lips together, 'like I said before, the two of them have less in common with the two of us than Gan and the Face of Friendship, but that doesn't mean their Opposing Names aren't similar to ours.'

'I see...' SK licked his lips yet again, 'but what about the Face of Friendship? Isn't she being controlled by Re right now? Does that make her... them a balance?'

'No,' Kaiba's voice was firm, 'true balances can't be created through artificial methods. In fact they rarely occur in nature and definitely can't occur when the two sides are fighting against each other. It may not look like it, but right now there is a power struggle going on inside Yugi's body; it's just unfortunate the Face of Friendship won't be able to win without help.'

'Our sister can be saved,' Joey's lips twitched into a smile, 'and we will be the ones to save her, my son and the rest of the multiverse.'

'Okay, so you have a plan then?' SK met Joey's gaze.

'Yes we do and you already know what it is,' he turned his gaze towards Body, 'we recreate Win.'