"Hey, what happened down there, Ryou?" Joey asked as the three teens—that is, the two teens and the pharaoh in a teen's body—came back into view.
"I think I just let the pressure get to me," Ryou admitted with downcast eyes, but Joey was quick to slap him on the back and say something encouraging as Mai watched them with amusement.
Marik glanced up at Seth with a questioning look, and Seth inclined his head ever so slightly. It wasn't just the pressure of his first major tournament duel that had messed with Ryou's mind; it had been the Spirit of the Millennium Ring. Seth hadn't been able to confirm that it was the spirit or not until he'd heard Ryou's description of events. The spirit, Bakura, was slippery and subtle, making him difficult to pin down. He was most dangerous indeed.
"Now the duel between the finalists, Joey Wheeler and Yugi Moto, shall commence!" Croquette announced, eliciting a groan from the lanky blond he'd named.
"Aw, come on! Don't we even get a lunch break?" Joey asked.
"It's not even lunch time, Joey," Yugi pointed with a small smile, amazed by his friend's capacity to consume food indefinitely.
"I'm still hungry," Joey grumbled, but Mai poking him in the side redirected his focus.
"Good luck out there. Give it your best shot, Joey." There was something sensual in her eyes, something sultry in her voice, and it was enough to make Joey blush and stammer his thanks.
"Can the duelists please enter the Duel Arena!" Croquette called, urging them on.
"I guess this is it," Joey said, looking to Yugi again and holding out his hand. "Don't go easy on me, alright?"
"I won't, Joey. We'll both duel our best so that the strongest of us can challenge Pegasus to win those souls back."
Everyone in their little group could feel the weight their mission, and Yugi couldn't help but glance up at Seth. The tall brunette turned his solemn sapphire eyes towards the shorter teen's violet ones and nodded in agreement. Seto, Duke, Mokuba, Adina, and Mr. Moto... they all needed to be freed. Now.
Yugi and Joey started their duel and Seth turned to Marik, who was comforting Ryou with a warm embrace.
"I'm going to retrieve the children from Pegasus' dungeon. I don't want them waking up there when their souls are released."
"Will their souls be released?" Mai asked dubiously, still unsure how much of this she believed.
"I have faith," Seth answered simply.
"Wait, Pegasus is keeping Mokuba and Adina in a dungeon?" Anzu asked in disgusted disbelief. "What a monster!" She threw a glare at him from across the room, then turned back to Seth. "You'll need help to carry them both, so I'll go with you. You three need to cheer them on while I'm gone!" That last sentence was directed at Mai, Marik, and Ryou, who nodded in understanding.
"Thank you," Seth replied, a bit surprised by the offer, but grateful for it nonetheless. "Let's go."
"How are the brats doing?" one guard asked as he relieved the other of his duty.
"Still brain-dead," the other answered as he stood from his chair. "I don't really see the point in guarding them when they're like this."
"I guess that just makes this the easiest job in the world, right?"
"Wrong." Seth stepped out from the shadows, his Millennium Rod pointed at both of them, casting them under a hypnotic spell. Stepping closer, he demanded, "Hand me the keys."
The guard handed Seth the heavy key ring from his pocket, and Seth moved towards the cell door with the keys to figure out which one fit in the keyhole.
"What did you do to them?" Anzu asked as she stepped out from the tunnel and stared at the guards in shock.
"I've merely… persuaded them to help us. Magically, of course," Seth answered as he fumbled with the keys. They clanked eerily in the otherwise silent room, the sound bouncing off the stone walls with a slight echo. Anzu, creeped out by the whole place, stood closer to Seth. She shivered and crossed her arms in an attempt to keep herself warm.
"Are you cold? You can borrow my coat," Seth offered, surprising her with his chivalry.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm fine." Anzu turned to look away from the blank-faced guards to look at the blank-faced children. "Oh, they look so sad." Her forehead creased with concern. "Are they really going to be alright?"
"They will be, as soon as their souls are released," Seth assured. He found the right key and heard the mechanism click within the lock. "Got it." The cell door swung open, and Seth let Anzu enter it first before following and kneeling beside Adina first to free her. There was only one key small enough to fit these locks, so it only took a minute for Seth to free her from the manacles and let Anzu pick her up.
"The poor dear!" Anzu exlaimed as she noticed the skin of Adina's wrists where the manacles had rubbed them raw and bloody. "How could Pegasus do this to children?"
Seth opened his mouth to answer, but a transmission coming through on the guards' radio transceiver interrupted him.
"We received a signal that the cell door has been opened. Is there a problem?"
Seth pointed the Millennium Rod at the guards again and spoke, his words repeated by the guard he'd chosen to answer the radio call.
"Everything is fine. There must be something wrong with the signal. I'll check it. The children are still here."
"Alright. Update us soon."
"It's kinda creepy that you can do that," Anzu said with a shudder, holding Adina more tightly in her arms.
"Then I guess it's a good thing I'm on your side," he answered with a smug grin before he resumed freeing Mokuba. Mokuba's wrists were in the same state as Adina's, much to Anzu's dismay.
"Maybe we can find a first aid kit on our way back," Anzu suggested, Seth nodding in approval.
"That's a good plan. We should be able to get them back without any trouble, so long as we don't get lost." Seth lifted Mokuba in his arms after pocketing the keys and hooking the Millennium Rod into his belt, then led the way out of the dungeon. Anzu stopped at the doorway, looking back at the guards.
"What about them?"
"They'll snap out of it soon enough on their own," he answered nonchalantly. After nodding hesitantly, she followed him out.
"Congratulations to Yugi Moto, the champion of the Duelist Kingdom tournament!"
"That was a great duel, Yug," Joey said with a sad smile.
"Indeed it was, Joey. You fought well." The two friends shook hands as Croquette approached Yugi.
"Yugi Moto, as champion you may choose either one of two prizes: three million dollars or the opportunity to challenge Maximillion Pegasus to a duel."
"I'll challenge Pegasus to a duel," Yugi answered without hesitation.
"Very well, then, Yugi-Boy," Pegasus crooned from his throne. "The duel shall commence after lunch."
"Boo-yah!" Joey exclaimed, excited at the prospect of food, even if it did come from such a vile man as this.
As they walked towards the dining room, Anzu and Seth rejoined them, Anzu carrying Adina in her arms, and Seth carrying Mokuba on his back, a first aid kit in one hand.
"Oh good, you found them!" Ryou cried, letting the children's corporeal freedom cheer him a bit. His spirits were still a bit low after his duel with Joey.
"You should have seen the place where they were locked up!" Anzu was filled with righteous indignation, and she had a look in her eyes that said "I'd kick him in the balls if I ever had the chance."
"Can you please look after them?" Seth asked as he set Mokuba down on the floor beside the wall, and Anzu readily complied, setting down Adina as well and opening the first aid kit.
"What happened to them?" Yugi looked shocked; he'd already known that their souls were stolen, but why did they need a first aid kit?
"Pegasus happened to them," Seth answered as he stood. His eyes looked above and past Yugi as someone else entered the hallway. When the former pharaoh crossed his arms, the others turned around to see Pegasus behind them, looking surprised to see Seto standing again.
"Isn't this a delicious surprise," Pegasus intoned, trying and failing to keep the shock out of his voice. Seth stepped forward, positioning himself directly between Yugi and Pegasus.
"For a man who's used to getting what he wants, I suppose it must be," Seth retorted coolly. Pegasus was studying Seth with one narrowed eye and one glowing eye, his features contorting into a sneer of frustration as he peered into Seth's mind. At least, he looked into the part of his mind that Seth showed him: violence, war, blood, gore. Seth filled his mind with these things so that they created a cacophonous din that prevented the creator of Duel Monsters from seeing anything else. All Pegasus could know from invading Seth's mind was that he was an ancient soul too, just like the spirits inside the Millennium Puzzle and the Millennium Ring. He wasn't Seto, but someone else. Pegasus withdrew from Seth's mind, recovering his mask of serene superiority.
"It doesn't matter if you have their bodies back," he scoffed with a toss of his hair. "Because you're never going to win back their souls." With that, he strutted down the hallway, turning his back on them all.
"Hey, you wanna say that to my face, you big coward!" Joey yelled after him, shaking his fist in anger.
"Calm down, Joey," Yugi urged, grabbing hold of the back of Joey's shirt to keep him from running off to tackle Pegasus to the ground, which was what Yugi feared he would do if Yugi didn't hold him back. "Getting mad isn't going to help anybody."
"Then can I bash his head in after you beat him in a duel?" Joey asked, looking down at his shorter friend with the hope that he would endorse the blond's request.
"I don't think that will be necessary," Seth replied calmly, looking less tense now that Pegasus was out of sight. "There's a reason that he's collecting souls. I don't know what that reason is, but there has to be one."
"Why does there have to be a reason?" Ryou asked as he held Mokuba's arm steady for Anzu while she secured gauze around his wrist with medical tape. He looked up at Seth with a vaguely sad confusion.
"Because nobody does something so drastic and purposeful without a reason for it," Seth answered gravely. "And if those souls are necessary for whatever he's planning, then losing them will frustrate anything he was scheming, rendering a physical beating unnecessary."
"How did they get hurt?" Marik asked awkwardly, his concern more than apparent.
"They were chained to a wall in the dungeon." Anzu looked absolutely furious at this. "Anyone who chains children up in a dungeon deserves to get beaten up."
"This is neither the time nor the place for violence," Seth cautioned. "Seto had quite the same sentiment when he found them, though."
"How did he know that Mokuba was taken?" Ryou looked more curious now. "My mom was trying to call him to tell him, but it kept going straight to voicemail."
"How did your mom know about it?" Mai asked, interjecting so that she could understand precisely how these teenagers were connected to one another.
"Mokuba was staying with my family during the tournament," Ryou explained, purposefully leaving out why Mokuba didn't stay at his own home. It wasn't his right to share anything about Seto's private matters. His answer seemed to sufficiently satisfy Mai, so he looked back to Seth and asked again, "How did Seto know?"
Seth pulled Adina's paper airplane, now folded squarely, out of his pocket and unfolded so that the others could see the letter.
"He found this out in the woods. Pegasus must have told her his plan, so she tried to warn us."
"Good for her. The kid's got guts," Mai commented in praise, and the others murmured their consent.
Seth pocketed the note and looked back at Anzu, who was packing up the first aid kit.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm still hungry," Joey said, bluntly hinting that they should continue on their way to lunch.
"I'll take the kids to my room for now, then," Seth said, picking Mokuba up again. "I'll meet you there."
"I'll help you," Mai volunteered suddenly, surprising the others. "You can't carry them both at once, after all." She lifted Adina into her own arms, and while she didn't seem like she was used to handling children, she was competent enough.
When the others were out of earshot, Mai broke the silence.
"So, you're Seth, and Seto is someone else?" she asked somewhat suspiciously.
"Yes."
"Right." She paused for a moment to think, and Seth waited patiently, sensing that she was trying to figure out what she really wanted to ask him.
"So which of you did I kiss, and which one kissed me?"
Her question didn't faze Seth in the least.
"You kissed Seto, and I kissed you."
"Uhuh." She was still eyeing him strangely, and Seth could guess that he'd never have to resist her temptations again.
Author Notes: Please review!