Author Notes: I know I've been a little too "friendship fixes everything" lately, so at the end of this chapter (and in the remaining chapters of this season), I return to the angst that I know you people love. ^_^ Enjoy and please review if you want to see what happens next! ;)
"Seto?" Ryou was a few steps inside the garage with a cell-phone to his ear. The brunette looked up and couldn't help but wonder how long his hesitant friend had been waiting for them.
"Yes, what do you need?"
"My mother is wondering when we'll be arriving in Domino," Ryou said, trying to hide a slight smile of amusement. "She also asked, 'Where on God's good earth does he plan to land that thing?'"
Seto couldn't help but laugh. "We'll be arriving in Domino around three o'clock, give or take a half hour. As long as no bad weather pops up, we should be good to go. Duke, did you find the sonar equipment?"
"Oh, right, I was supposed to do that." Duke grimaced apologetically. "I'll get right on that when I'm done with this. It'll be mostly computers, though, so once I get it booted up, it's up to you to figure out what it says."
"And, where we're landing?" Ryou prompted.
"Industrial Illusions has an office building in Domino," Seto answered as he stood and dusted off his hands. "The roof has a helicopter launchpad for the use of company helicopters, like this one." He pointed to the I-squared logo on the tail. "We'll radio the Industrial Illusions air-traffic controller, assuming they have one on duty at the time. If we can't get in touch with them, we'll look for the next best thing, which will probably be the nearest empty field. We're loading enough fuel to get us that far in case we need to."
"Okay, thanks. I'll tell her." Ryou stepped out of the garage for a few moments to finish his call. When he'd hung up, he stepped back inside and walked closer to the aircraft. "She's relieved that everyone's okay. She panicked when Mokuba disappeared. Called the police and everything."
"I'm grateful that she cares."
"She's probably telling the police right now where Mokuba and Adina are. I hope Pegasus gets what he deserves." There was a tone of bitterness in Ryou's normally peaceful voice.
"I do too, but that's probably not going to happen." Seto's blue eyes narrowed in bitterness. "Millionaires like him always manage to buy their way out of an arrest."
"Not just that," Duke added, looking up. "But this island is in international waters."
"Are you sure?" This news bothered Seto for reasons Ryou couldn't understand.
"Yeah, he mentioned it my first day here."
"Damn it!" Seto kicked the side of the helicopter and turned away to pace in the other direction, tense as he ran a hand through his hair, which was becoming messier the longer he was in the garage.
"Why is that a bad thing?" Ryou asked slowly, facing Duke with his eyes still fixed on Seto.
"Because it means that unless he reenters Japanese waters or lands, he can't be arrested, charged, indicted, or prosecuted," Duke informed him, looking sour. "In other words, he gets away with everything, because he can stay here forever and have food shipped in from the outside."
"That's awful. Isn't there anything they can do?" Ryou's eyes darted between the two of them, Seto's previous exclamation making perfect sense now.
"Not unless we deliver him bound and gagged at the doorstep of the police department," Seto growled.
"Is the gagging really necessary?" Duke asked, eyebrows raised.
"No, but I'd still prefer it." Seto huffed with annoyance and went inside the helicopter, now out of Ryou's sight.
"Do you think we can take on the extra weight?" Duke asked, and Seto popped his head out again, looking thoughtful.
"I don't know off the top of my head, but I could check the numbers." Set hopped out, snatched the second manual off the floor, and flipped to the page where he did those calculations.
"Wait, you're not... serious about this, are you?" Ryou asked, but neither teen answered him as they looked at Seto's sketched math, pressing the manual to the front of the helicopter and smoothing out the pages between them.
"How much do you reckon Pegasus weighs?" Seto asked after a moment.
"More than that," Duke said with a sigh, pointing to the number representing how much weight they could still take on without compromising their ability to get to Domino within reasonable safety margins.
"It was a good plan while it lasted." The long-limbed teen made no effort to conceal his disappointment as he went back in. "I'm not sure we would have been able to fit him inside, anyways. We don't have enough seats for us all as it is."
"Who said anything about carrying him inside the helicopter?" Duke joked. "I thought you'd insist on letting him hang by a rope from the bottom and letting him go for a swim."
As Seto's rich laughter resonated from inside, Ryou's eyes widened in shock. "That's absolutely barb—" Duke slapped his hand over Ryou's mouth before he could continue.
"You know what, I think I'll go find the weather sonar systems now. The sooner, the better right? Ryou, how about you give me a hand?"
"Sure," Ryou answered after pushing Duke's hand away and giving him a confused glare. Duke rolled his eyes and put a hand on Ryou's shoulder to guide him into the back of the garage where a door, previously unopened, awaited them. Duke pulled the door closed behind them, and Ryou was willing to stew without mentioning what had bothered him, but Duke wasn't about to let it rest. His hand returned to Ryou's shoulder after flicking on the lights, holding him at arm's length as bright emerald eyes studied Ryou's face.
"How well do you know Seto?" the mechanic asked after waiting long enough to make Ryou profoundly uncomfortable.
"Fairly well." Ryou crossed his arms defensively. "I've known him longer than you have."
"Then, unless you know something I don't, you know he's not the kind of person to actively seek revenge."
"No, he doesn't seek revenge, as far as I know," Ryou answered after a moment's thought, uncrossing his arms as he realized this wasn't going to be an argument. "He retaliates, he defends, but that's all. Even back before he and Joey were friends, they fought all the time, but every fight ended the day it started."
"If you know him well, you know that he doesn't have a lot." Duke's eyes were serious, almost sad, as he spoke of Seto. "Let him have his revenge fantasy."
"Okay."
Duke dropped his hand from Ryou's shoulder and stepped further into the room.
"Looks like we found what we're looking for."
"We have more people than seats, so it's going to be a tight squeeze," Duke said as he handed headsets to all of their passengers as they boarded one by one. "Please wear these at all times to protect your ears. They are equipped with short-wave radios so we can still talk to each other. Both children must sit on someone's lap, and a couple people may have to double buckle."
He handed the last headset to Joey, who commented, "You sound just like a flight attendant."
"That's kinda the idea." Duke rolled his eyes before closing the door behind Joey and joining Seto in the cockpit, where his partner was just starting the engines.
"Pre-take-off checks complete," the brunette informed him. The garage door was open, ready for their departure. "Everyone buckled in?"
"As best as we can manage," Yugi answered, speaking for them all. It was cramped, but they weren't terribly uncomfortable.
"Would you like to go through the emergency procedures, O captain, my captain?" Duke smiled at Seto with easy-going amusement.
"It mostly all boils down to don't do anything stupid. If you have to consider whether or not something is stupid, then it probably is. In the event of an emergency landing—"
"Stick your head between your knees and kiss your bum goodbye!" Duke interjected with a wide grin.
Mokuba and Adina started giggling; they didn't feel the weight of the risk yet. This still felt like a game to them. They trusted Seto too much to believe that they would crash.
"Duke—"
"You got something to add to that?"
Seto rolled his eyes and retorted, "I was going to say, 'Stay calm and let women and children out first,' but if all goes well, it won't matter either way." He and Duke exchanged a grim look before returning their gazes to the instruments panel and turning on the rotors. Getting out of the helicopter hangar would be the trickiest part.
"I-squared tower, this is Zulu Echo Foxtrot Romeo requesting current weather conditions in Domino."
"Zulu Echo Foxtrot Romeo, this is I-squared tower. Current weather is sunny with low winds from the north-east."
"Thank you, over." Seto looked to Duke. "Want me to take controls for the landing?"
"Yeah, my hands are starting to cramp up." Duke looked relieved, and Seto placed his feet on the pedals, seizing the throttle and the control lever again. "You ready?" Duke asked, and when Seto nodded, he flipped a few switches.
"I have control."
The vehicle lurched a little, but remained relatively steady.
"Are you sure you know how to land this thing?" Mai asked dubiously from the back.
"No, but I don't need any back-seat pilots," Seto sighed, clearly irritated.
"It's so cool that you're going to land a helicopter, Seto! Just wait till I tell Amane about this!" Mokuba was immensely proud of his brother.
"Who's Amane?"
"My girlfriend." Mokuba answered Mai with a hint of vanity.
"Mokuba, what did I tell you about calling her your girlfriend?" Seto prompted with a disapproving tone.
The child sighed heavily and answered, "That I'm not allowed to until I'm twenty-five."
Seto's peers snickered, but he was grateful when none of them commented on it.
"Amane is my little sister," Ryou clarified, slightly adjusting Mokuba's position on his lap. Beside him, Adina was perching on Anzu's, looking content and sleepy as she cuddled with the teenager. She'd imprinted on her at Death-T and now that they'd met again, she clung to her and her alone. "She's in Mokuba's class at school."
"Twenty-five? Really?" Duke asked, glancing at Seto in amusement.
"He's a child. If I set the bar high enough, he won't try to haggle the age lower," Seto answered, feeling the need to justify himself.
"I can still hear you!" Mokuba crossed his arms indignantly as Adina giggled at them.
Seto rolled his eyes and deflected the matter entirely. "How about you just go back to playing the game."
"You're not going to play?" Anzu asked in surprise. "But you're the best at it!"
"I need to focus on flying the helicopter, but thank you."
"Where did we leave off?"
"I think it was Joey's turn again."
"Okay then: I went through customs and all I had to declare was some jelly from New Delhi, a speedo from Toledo, a beret from San Jose, green tea from Hawaii, a violin from Berlin, some cattle from Seattle, a cow from Glasgow, gin from Berlin, some stew from Peru, a daffodil from Brazil, some pork from New York, a chalice from Dallas, some maracas from Caracas, a comb from Rome, and... a spring from Beijing!" Joey looked quite proud of his contribution.
The game continued until they were quite close to Domino, at which point Seto asked for everyone to be quite so he could focus. It was one thing to be flying out over the middle of the ocean where they were the only people around for miles. It was another thing entirely to be flying out over a metropolitan city where they were openly visible and could potentially crash into a skyscraper. Duke communicated with the air traffic controller since Seto didn't have any free hands to do so himself.
When they landed, the Industrial Illusions employees were quite confused by the pilots who exited the cockpit. Duke and Seto explained that they couldn't find any certified pilots on the island and they'd had to take matters into their own hands in order to return, so the employees tentatively accepted their reasons and decided not to report them. Or press charges for their unauthorized use of their helicopter.
"It's not as if we were stealing it," Duke said with a smug look. "It was a hijacking at worst."
The group was ushered inside, and the ATC assigned an intern to help them all get home. Adina was easy enough to take care of. All she had to do was call her home and tell them where she was, and a limo was immediately on its way to pick her up. Mai called a cab and bid everyone farewell, promising that she'd see them again at the next Duel Monsters tournament. Joey regretted not getting her number before she left. Duke's motorbike was in the Industrial Illusions parking garage, so he took Joey back to the marina where he'd left his car. Ryou's mom arrived to pick them up about ten minutes after they landed. She texted Ryou when she arrived, and they all went downstairs to meet her.
Amane and Miya were standing outside the van when the group of teens exited the front doors of the office building, and the instant Mokuba was outside, Amane dashed forward to throw herself at him. They hugged tightly standing in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Oh, I'm so glad that you're alright." Ryou's mother sighed with relief, looking a little frazzled. Ryou smiled apologetically as he approached her and gave her a hug, feeling guilty for leaving her home alone with no one to help take care of the kids. Then again, he had left Marik with her, who'd then snuck onto the ferry with Anzu...
"Thank you for coming to pick us up, Mrs. Bakura," Anzu said politely as the younger ones finally broke from their embrace and began to sign to each other, still in a little world of their own. Seto was keeping an eye on them, though.
"Oh, it's no trouble, dear," she replied, smiling warmly. "You all can come over to our house for the rest of the day, if you like."
"Do you think you could drop me off at the hospital first?" Yugi asked, looking anxious. "My mom's there with my grandfather, and I want to see how he's doing."
"Of course. Which one is he at?"
Yugi told Ryou's mom which hospital his grandfather had been admitted to and they all climbed into the van. It was also a tight squeeze, like the helicopter, but not as bad. They left Yugi and Anzu at the hospital then went home. Seto and Mokuba stuck around for a couple hours, playing games with Ryou, Marik, and Amane. They probably would have stayed until dinner, as Ryou's mother had invited them to do, but Seto got a call from Duke that changed his plans.
"It's been a couple weeks since we've seen each other, how about we go out to do some catching up?" Duke asked casually.
"Go out?"
"Yeah, I'll take you and Mokuba out to dinner. It'll be fun."
Seto bit his lip as he thought about the offer, then said, "Do you have room for the three of us on your bike?"
"Of course I do, but I was thinking Joey could join us. He'd give us all a ride. If you say yes, I'll let him know that we're on for tonight and tell him to pick you up. Where are you right now?"
"Wait, hold on, I haven't said yes yet." Duke was moving too quickly through his plans for Seto to make up his mind.
"Come on, Seto. You and I both know that you don't want to go home yet." Duke's tone was knowing, almost sympathetic. "Like I said, it'll be fun." When Seto still hesitated, he added, "Mokuba will like it. It'll be good for him, besides."
"We're still at Ryou's house," Seto answered with a sigh. When Duke put it that way, he couldn't say no. Mokuba got along with Duke and Joey, too. He liked them, and Seto was glad that Mokuba liked his friends, but beyond that, he thought it'd be good for Mokuba to spend some time having fun after his unpleasant experience. He didn't want his brother to become fixated on his abduction or his imprisonment or the time he'd spent with his soul separated from his body. He didn't want Mokuba to be traumatized because Seto hadn't been able to protect him.
Dinner was fun, and Seto was glad that he'd let Duke talk him into it. Joey and Duke argued over picking up the tab while Seto insisted on paying the tip.
Joey dropped Duke off at home first, then did the same for Seto and Mokuba. Seto tried to tell him that he could drop them off and let them walk the rest of the way, but Joey was happy to take the time to drive them home. He wasn't keen on returning to his own home where his detached, yet critical, parents awaited him. This made Joey the only friend who'd seen the part of town where the brothers lived with their neglectful father. He followed Seto's directions and didn't comment when they arrived, just wished them a goodnight and promised to catch up with Seto soon. After all, people had been going in every direction during the Duelist Kingdom finals. No single person yet knew everything that had happened, and collectively they were still trying to put all the pieces together.
The moment Seto and Mokuba walked through the door to their apartment, their father was there, grabbing Seto by the front of his shirt and shoving him against the door.
"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded, clearly furious. Good God, he was sober. He was always harder to handle when he was sober.
"Go, Mokuba," Seto said calmly. He didn't need to be told twice. He dashed away in the direction of their bedroom.
"Where is it?"
"Where's what?"
Seto was slammed against the door again, and he could have sworn that he heard the wood crack behind his head.
"Don't get smart with me," he father sneered, Seto's fists clenching at his sides. "Where's the money?"
"My money, you mean?" He'd put nearly all of it into a savings account a week before they left for Duelist Kingdom—not even a checking account, because a checking account could be withdrawn from via ATM, which his father did have access to. He'd be making weekly visits to the bank unless he updated his files with Human Resources at KaibaCorp and opted-in to direct deposit. In the event of an emergency, he'd written the account and pin numbers on a small slip of paper and tucked it behind the pictures in Mokuba's and Seto's lockets; the only one who knew it was there was Joey, so that in case anything happened to him, Mokuba wouldn't be left with nothing. And he knew that something might happen to him; it was normal to hear gun-shots exchanged at least once a night in their part of town. It was only a matter of time until their luck ran out and he got caught in the middle of something violent.
Even now, though, he was caught in something violent. Every aspect of his life was saturated with violence. His father threw a punch aimed at his son's face, but Seto ducked under his arm and wrenched free from the grasp on his shirt. His first thought was to grab the first thing his hands found, but the only thing on the kitchen counter was a newspaper, and that would hardly do him any good. While his eyes still sought a weapon, his father turned and tackled him to the floor. That's when the fight really began.
Father and son grappled in a nasty bout of wrestling that gradually shifted from the kitchen to the living room, where empty beer bottles were just within reach. While his father shouted insults, Seto did his best to keep his mouth shut. In the back of his mind, he kept seeing Mokuba's frightened face from the last time something like this happened. Seto was only subdued when his father grabbed a bottle before he could and smashed it against the side of the teen's head.
Mokuba heard the crash of the bottle and flinched. He bit his lip as he stared at the bedroom door, wishing that he could intervene. Seto was always protecting him, always standing between Mokuba and every threat they faced. Mokuba appreciated his brother and every sacrifice he'd made for him—even though he had no idea just how much Seto had sacrificed on his behalf—but he wished that Seto didn't have to suffer so much. He crept up to the door and listened carefully, a morbid sense of curiosity taking hold of him.
"Just cooperate next time, and we can do without this mess," Mokuba heard their father say. His statement was punctuated by a slamming door. Mokuba sighed with relief. He was gone. They were safe. He unlocked the door and started changing into his pajamas, expecting Seto to come in any moment now. A couple minutes went by as Mokuba changed and brushed his knotty hair, getting ready for bed, but Seto still didn't appear. Worried, he left the safety of their room to check on his brother. What he saw made him gasp.
"Seto!" He ran over to his brother's side where he lay unconscious on the floor. He shook his shoulder and repeated his name, but to no avail. His young heart pounded rapidly in his chest as panic seized him. Seto had prepared him for this kind of situation, though. Instructions on what to do in the event of an emergency had been drilled into his head quite faithfully, so Mokuba reached for his brother's cell-phone before he did anything else.
"Hello?"
"Joey, come back! I need your help!"
"Calm down, Mokuba. What's wrong?"
"Seto's hurt and he won't wake up!" His voice went shrill as he struggled to speak without shouting outright.
"I'll be right there." Joey swerved as he turned his car around in an empty intersection and accelerated. "Just stay on the phone with me, Mokuba. Everything's going to be okay."