Chapter 3 - Chapter Three
Submitted January 23, 2009 Updated April 22, 2009 Status Complete | Takes place in the middle of Season Five- right after the Grand Prix tournament, and before they go on the memory journey to Egypt. I hope you guys like it! I'm not used to writing fanfictions! X]
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Anime/Manga » Yu-Gi-Oh! series |
Chapter 3 - Chapter Three
Chapter 3 - Chapter Three
“What do they want, Seto?” Mokuba asked, frightened, as I drove down the highways that led to my office building. The KaibaCorp headquarters building was the tallest and most fantastic in the area- standing directly in the heart of Domino City, it stood as a symbol of financial and social power. “Why were there so many in our house?”
I frowned. “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know if that lizard in the sky is back, or anything…”
“Does… does he… do they… want your soul? …Like last time?”
His voice was so quiet, timid; I looked down at him for just a second. His eyes were wide and fearful; searching my face for answers.
“I… I don’t know,” I said again, wishing I could say more, because I wondered, myself, what the monsters were after… and how they would go about getting what they were after.
We skidded to a stop in front of headquarters. “Come on,” I told him; I opened the front door to the building and we entered; I then locked it behind us. “Let’s go to my office.”
We rode the elevator to the top floor of the building. Everything was quiet and still.
We entered my office and I locked the door behind us again. Immediately I sat down at my computer and looked online for information about these monster sightings. Did anyone know who was responsible?
My heart sank as a horrible thought dawned on me. What if history was just going to repeat, completely? What if my company was blamed for the sightings, again? I had just held that tournament to restore my profits and stock value… only a month ago, we had opened some of our theme parks… if these monsters were to ruin me now… because of Dartz, my company had become crippled, because the world had thought that my technology was responsible for sending people into comas. It had proven hugely difficult to build even the small amount of amusement centers that I did; now, because of Dartz, my profits had been smaller, and I had been forced to put the building of the Atlanta, Georgia amusement park on hiatus… I had held the tournament to restore my reputation, and my stock value was high again, so finally I was starting to build the remaining parks that I had originally intended be finished by now.
There was nothing as far as news on the internet; this must be a completely new occurrence. “Turn on the television,” I told Mokuba, and he did, flipping through the channels to find a news station.
I sat at my desk, clenching my hands together in fury, waiting for something to come on the television. If Dartz was going to try to ruin the reputation of my company, again… I swear, I will tear him apart, personally…
“Look, big brother!” Mokuba said, startled; he had found a news station that was reporting on a swarm of monsters. “They’re all over the place! Downtown and everything!”
I growled under my breath. Dartz, you son of a dog…
The door to my office violently slammed open; Mokuba yelled and I leapt out of my chair, startled. “What the hell!” I shouted.
Three monsters entered the room, rapidly. Mokuba yelled again and backed away from the couch, against the wall. They started tearing up my office; I opened my desk and took out the gun and knife that I kept hidden in the top drawer.
I fired bullets at the monsters; most of them hit, and two of the monsters fell and stopped glowing before disappearing in puffs of smoke. The third monster was faster and was nimble; I was startled when it jumped up and was clinging to the walls and ceiling, like a giant spider. I kept firing the gun; the symbol on its forehead glowed and a laser shot from it and in just the blink of an eye, hit me squarely in the chest.
I dropped the gun in shock; it landed on the floor but didn’t discharge. Crippling pain shot from the middle of my chest where the continuous laser beam was hitting me; I couldn’t breathe, and the world was spinning… colors swirling in front of my eyes, I could feel my own warmth draining…
I knew only milliseconds were passing, but it seemed like years went by… I was overwhelmingly cold, immobilized by the shooting pain… I heard a far-away voice shout, “Seto! No!”
There was a loud bang in the room; some of the intense pain lifted, and through blurred eyes, I saw that the green light was gone, and I heard a thud in front of me; the monster had fallen from the ceiling and then disappeared like the others. I felt my knees hit the ground; I fell forward, catching myself with my hands. I was now looking at the floor, but my vision was foggy…
Chest heaving, I felt cold sweat drip off of my forehead. My chest was stinging angrily; a small jolt of pain shot through me, and I winced and flinched from it. Then, vaguely I felt hands on my shoulders; somewhere, a voice was shouting my name…
I swallowed hard and shakily sat down, on the floor. I looked down at my hands; involuntarily, they were trembling… I had hardly ever felt so cold…
I took a deep breath and blinked a few times; another small jolt of pain shot through the spot on my chest where the beam had hit me; I winced again, but managed to lift my head slightly. Slowly, Mokuba swam into view in front of me; his face was pale, and eyes wide with terror. His hands were on my shoulders, and he was shaking me lightly, asking my name over and over…
“Mokuba,” I whispered.
The relief was evident in his eyes, but he still seemed frightened. He took his hands off of my shoulders. “I killed it,” he whimpered, voice shaky, still worried and upset. “Are you okay? Speak to me...!”
I was cold, and it was very hard to breathe… I wanted to say something. Chest heaving, I tried to bring myself to talk… I was still involuntarily trembling all over…a jolt of pain would still shoot through me, every few seconds…
The world was slowly starting to become more visually clear. Mokuba was standing over me, still, looking very upset. I took another deep breath and shakily pushed myself up. I was standing, but dizzy and winded, sick… I had to lean my hand on my desk, or else I might have collapsed again…
“It only shot the laser for like a few seconds,” he said, trembling. “Only like a few seconds, but… but… you look sick… really white… are you okay?” he asked again.
I managed to nod and then sat down and leaned back in my computer chair, hand planted firmly to the spot where the laser had hit me. Every heartbeat brought a sting of pain; I swallowed hard again, chest heaving. Mokuba was standing right next to the chair, worriedly staring at me; I looked at him, and whispered, voice shaky, “…you shot it?”
He nodded shortly, wide eyes still staring intently at my face, desperately wanting to know if I was okay.
I managed to curl my mouth into a mild smile after wincing from a jolt of pain again. “I’m… I’m impressed. You’re a good shot; not even I could hit it…”
He laughed shakily. “It was standing still…”
“I think I’m okay…” I said. I pushed myself out of my chair and shakily walked towards the couch, and collapsed onto it. Mokuba was still hovering over me, looking very upset.
I was on my back, on the couch, now. “I’m okay,” I muttered sleepily, rubbing my forehead. I wasn’t really in constant pain anymore… just cold, and tired…
“Can I do something to help?” Mokuba asked, but then the phone rang. He left the couch and went to answer it.
I closed my eyes. This was so strange… it wasn’t quite like when Dartz had defeated me. When Dartz had defeated me, I didn’t feel pain, like that… I only had felt uncontrollably tired, not quite so cold… was this different?
I supposed that the monsters were different than the seal, itself… I sighed. I wasn’t so cold anymore. What had it done to me… my mind wasn’t so foggy anymore. Even the periodic pain surges were getting weaker.
Vaguely I heard Mokuba talking on the phone. I wondered who he was talking to. Who would think to call the office so early in the morning?
I sighed again. The TV’s voices were becoming clearer. I felt better…
I heard Mokuba hang up the phone. I opened my eyes and lifted my head somewhat so that I could see that he was walking towards me. “Who…was it?” I asked.
He sat down on the couch next to me. “Yugi,” he said.
I was surprised. “What?” I asked.
“He said he called here because we didn’t pick up at home, of course… he’s dealing with a lot of monsters, too…”
I frowned and put my head down again. I wasn’t surprised. So did he want my help in dueling, again? It was happening all over again…
“They want to come here,” he continued. “They want to figure out a plan to stop these monsters soon…”
“Fine,” I said, closing my eyes, mildly irritated; but, I supposed that his Egyptian god cards were the best weapon against the monsters, again. Last time we didn’t have them; at least, this time, we did.
There was silence for a second, again… I opened my eyes and saw that Mokuba was still sadly looking at me. “Are you okay?” I asked him.
“Y… yeah…” was the weak response.
I pushed myself into a sitting position; it was slightly hard to do. His mouth twitched into a smile when he saw me do that; but he went back to frowning after only a second. Was he still worried about me?
I stood up off of the couch slowly. “Don’t worry,” I said, once I balanced myself on my feet, which took a moment; my head felt just light. “I’m okay. I promise.” He got off of the couch, too, but immediately proceeded to throw his arms around my hips. I was surprised; he whimpered, “Let’s do everything we can to get rid of the monsters! Work with Yugi, or get new cards, or…”
I didn’t know what he was talking about. He continued, somewhat on the verge of tears, “I’m scared! I don’t want to lose you again… not like last time…”
He gripped my shirt, cheek to my stomach, sniffling but not crying; I put one hand on the top of his head and the other on his shoulder. What could I tell him? Could I promise that nobody would get hurt this time? He had just watched me get hurt… I was fine, but I was fine this time… would there be a next time?
He looked up at me. “Please?” he asked. “Please, let’s do whatever it takes to get rid of them… if it means working with Yugi, or Joey, or anyone like that… let’s do it, okay? Please?”
My heart broke. “Alright,” I said.
He smiled and let go of me. “Good, because they’re all coming here in a little while. I gave Yugi the guest pass-code so that he can open the front doors. Yugi said he had bad news.”
“Bad news?” I asked, heart sinking. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know… but he said he had bad news.”
The phone rang again. I passed Mokuba and picked it up. “Yes?” I asked.
“Kaiba-boy!” came the cheerful reply on the other line.
“Pegasus?” I asked, slightly horrified. I looked down at the video phone’s screen; it certainly was him. He was leaning back in a chair, feet up on his desk, looking just delighted to see me.
“The one and only,” he continued. “I… wow, my dear boy, you don’t look so good… have you been working too hard? You should let yourself rest once in awhile!”
“Don’t worry about that,” I snapped; it infuriated me to even see this man, let alone hear him speak. “What do you want?”
“What do you think I want?” he asked, with a giggle. I frowned deeply; he was so annoying... “Surely you’ve seen these rotten monsters running around, too? Don’t tell me you haven’t!”
“I have seen them,” I growled. “Yugi is coming over here soon to work with me about them. What do you need about it?”
“I’m inviting you to a party, Kaiba-boy!”
I wondered if I had heard that correctly. I looked up at Mokuba, briefly; he looked as shocked as I felt. “What?” I asked, stunned.
“A dinner party! You and Mokuba-boy simply must come to Duelist Kingdom tonight!”
“Tonight?” I gasped. “Tonight? That’s… not a lot of notice, you idiot…”
He ignored me. “I’m meeting with many other corporation heads and we’ll discuss this nasty monster problem.”
“Why do I need to come all that way for that, especially tonight? Don’t waste my time; just tell me your plan here, now!” I shouted.
“Now, now, that’s not any fun at all,” he replied, bouncing on his chair. My insides boiled. “Attending this meeting will be to your benefit. It will prevent the world from believing that you’re at fault for this monster problem, again!”
“My fault?” I roared into the phone. “You know these monsters didn’t come from any of my games or machines, Pegasus! I’d sooner believe that they’re your fault!”
“I don’t think they’re your fault, Kaiba-boy, so you don’t need to jump down my throat!” Pegasus retorted, sounding hurt. “I don’t think you’re the guilty one, but everyone else in the whole world might. This media-covered party is where I’ll hold a press meeting to show the world that this is an ancient problem, and has nothing to do with your company or mine!”
I stood, silent, for a moment. I wasn’t sure what I believed about where the monsters came from, but I desperately didn’t want this to happen to my company all over again… I’d do anything to prove that my company is innocent.
“…Fine.” I said, thoroughly irate. “Fine. I’ll fly out this afternoon. But, I swear, Pegasus- if you’re turning this into some sort of sick game-”
“Oh, wonderful!” Pegasus said. “The party starts at eight-thirty. Wear your finest garb! This will be huge!” And with that, the phone’s screen went black, and I set the phone down on the receiver.
“So… Pegasus is throwing a dinner party… to tell the media where the monsters are coming from?” Mokuba asked slowly.
“Yes,” I said, brushing my hand through my hair and sitting down at my desk chair. “Fine. We can fly out at six and be there on time.”
The door then opened and Yugi and his entire party walked in. I expected this; I wasn’t surprised to see Yugi surrounded by Duke Devlin, Tristan, Téa Gardner, Joey Wheeler, and Serenity Wheeler. Yugi was the one person in the world whom I considered to be a truly talented duelist; he was the only person who could actually defeat me without cheating. I had quickly learned not to judge a book by its cover, with Yugi- he stood hardly four and a half feet tall… well, maybe five feet including his unbelievably weird hairstyle.
“Woah, Kaiba, you look sicker than usual, what’s wrong?” Joey Wheeler immediately asked, shaking messy blonde hair out of his face, fixing narrowed amber eyes on me. This guy was also in my grand prix tournament, and had lost hilariously to Ziegfried von Schroder, a feminine male duelist whom I had crushed without much of a sweat. He was among the many banes of my existence.
I frowned. “Nothing. What happened to you, Yugi? What’s the bad news?”
There was a loud crash from several floors down. Everyone gasped in surprise; when there was silence again, I said, “Let’s go kill those things.”
I had another gun stashed in this room; I took it out of my desk and picked up the other gun that Mokuba had left on the floor. “Use these,” I said, setting them on the desk next to the knife. Tristan, Duke and Joey, immediately interested, proceeded to go through the weapons and argue over them. They ended up fist-fighting for just a second; Joey nearly tore out Duke’s dangling dice earrings, Tristan nearly lost an eye… the girls were shrieking at them, telling them to grow up. I sighed, irritated, and picked up one gun before exiting the room, Mokuba at my heels. If there were monsters downstairs, we had no time to waste…
“Stay right with me,” I told him, as everyone else followed.
“Where did it sound like it came from?” Téa, a frustratingly headstrong brunette girl who I knew had a thing for Yugi, asked, as we walked down the hallways.
“Try the first floor,” I said, and we all entered the large elevator that sent us shooting to the ground floor.
The elevator door opened, and immediately a monster was there, right in front of us; Tristan, with albeit impressive aim, shot it right through the head, and it dropped to the ground and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
“Yeehaw,” he said, as Joey high-fived him. We all cautiously exited the elevator. The lobby was quiet, until Serenity, Joey’s innocent redheaded sister, gasped and shrieked; we all whipped around to see her pointing to a figure on the ground.
“Roland!” Mokuba yelled, leaving my side and rushing to him and turning him over. My stomach dropped when I saw that Roland, one of my top employees, was completely motionless on the ground, eyes closed, face stark white…
“Call an ambulance!” I roared, and saw, from the corner of my eye, Duke go to the phone on the receptionist’s desk; Mokuba moved aside so that I could now lean over Roland, looking for his pulse… nothing… his skin was cold…
“Damn,” I whispered under my breath, heart pounding. This couldn’t be happening.
“Seto,” Mokuba said desperately, “He’s not breathing… what do we do…”
It took only two or three minutes… long, horrible minutes… for the ambulance to skid up to the front door and for some paramedics to rush in with a gurney. They kneeled over him, ripping off his shirt and taking his pulse; after several seconds of jabbing him with needles and shocking him, one paramedic looked up and said, “Mr. Kaiba…we’ve lost him… he was gone before we got here...”
I stood in shock. Time could have been at a standstill, at that point; the ground seemed to be swirling under my feet. My top henchman and advisor was dead?
“That can’t be!” I shouted. “He looks untouched! Who did this?”
But it hit me, as Mokuba clung to my sleeve, shaking with silent tears. The monster. That monster had killed him…
“Keep him alive,” I ordered the paramedics. “It’s only been a few minutes. Take him to my hospital and put him on life support. Now!”
They both looked at me for a second, and then, sticking several more IVs into him, lifted Roland onto the stretcher and left the building with him.
Yugi’s friends were all standing, silent, until Serenity squeaked, “so that’s what the monsters can do…?”
I turned around to face all of them. “Have you run into them?”
“There was one in my house,” Joey said. “I killed that one, and we met at Yugi’s store, where the place was swarming with them…”
“Did any of you get attacked?” I asked. Mokuba was still clinging to my sleeve, not paying much attention to anything other than worrying about Roland.
“No, I don’t think so,” Joey responded.
I looked down at Mokuba. He sniffled and let go of my sleeve, but proceeded to gently take my hand, wiping his eyes.
“That’s where the bad news comes in,” Yugi said. I looked back up at him. “The monsters that broke into the store were able to steal the Egyptian god cards …again.”
A horrible wave of disappointment washed over me. “Really?” I asked angrily. “They stole the cards?”
“Yes,” Yugi responded. “I believe they took them to the same place that Dartz did. I think the best thing we can do is go straight to where Dartz kept them last time.”
I frowned. “What, you want me to go, too?”
“We need your duelist skills,” Yugi said. I wasn’t moved; Mokuba gripped my hand tighter. “Without a duelist of your caliber, we stand no chance. I believe that the enemy we might face this time may even be stronger than Dartz was.”
I didn’t even bother to wonder why Yugi thought this… personally; I thought it was Dartz, himself. “Pegasus insists I go to a dinner party in Duelist Kingdom tonight. Figure out a plan and tell me about it on Saturday,” I said shortly.
Yugi smiled; I could tell that he was almost surprised that I wasn’t putting up much of a fight to avoid going. “I’m glad you are involved, Kaiba,” he said. “Come on, guys.”
They all left the lobby of my building. I sighed. I didn’t particularly like working with these people… but… I had promised…
Mokuba sniffled again. I knelt down so that we could make eye contact. “Roland’s going to be alright,” I told him, because I somewhat believed it. “We’ll keep him alive until we can figure out what’s going on with those monsters. He’ll be okay.”
Mokuba nodded, but tears continued to leak their ways out of the corners of his eyes. I smiled at him. “Okay?” I asked reassuringly.
“Yeah, but…” he began, voice very choked up. “But, Seto… that monster stopped his heart. That monster killed him…”
I sighed. “I know,” I said sadly.
“And… and… what if… what if I hadn’t shot the monster in your office? What if we hadn’t had the gun… or something?”
I knitted my eyebrows. “What…” I began, but he started crying harder, and whimpered, “That could have happened to you, Seto! That could have been you, twenty minutes ago! This time… this time… the monsters…they’ll stop your heart! They’ll kill you! Can… can we really bring Roland back? Would we have been able to bring you back, if I hadn’t killed it…?”
He threw his arms around my neck and sobbed into my shoulder. I didn’t know what to say… was he right…? What would have happened to me if he hadn’t shot the monster…? He had saved my life… yes, he had. I hadn’t thought of that, at the time. I held him, back, leaning my head against his.
“I d…don’t want to lose you, big brother… not again,” he whimpered, clutching my shirt, not really crying anymore, now. “…Roland…”
“Don’t worry,” I said, in the most soothing voice I possessed, after a moment. “Don’t worry…” we let go of each other. I ruffled his hair and stood up, before saying, “So, thank you for shooting that monster, huh?”
He chuckled stuffily, hugged me around the waist for just a second, and then ran off, outside. I followed him; he said, “Come on, I want to wear my tuxedo!”
I frowned. “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know if that lizard in the sky is back, or anything…”
“Does… does he… do they… want your soul? …Like last time?”
His voice was so quiet, timid; I looked down at him for just a second. His eyes were wide and fearful; searching my face for answers.
“I… I don’t know,” I said again, wishing I could say more, because I wondered, myself, what the monsters were after… and how they would go about getting what they were after.
We skidded to a stop in front of headquarters. “Come on,” I told him; I opened the front door to the building and we entered; I then locked it behind us. “Let’s go to my office.”
We rode the elevator to the top floor of the building. Everything was quiet and still.
We entered my office and I locked the door behind us again. Immediately I sat down at my computer and looked online for information about these monster sightings. Did anyone know who was responsible?
My heart sank as a horrible thought dawned on me. What if history was just going to repeat, completely? What if my company was blamed for the sightings, again? I had just held that tournament to restore my profits and stock value… only a month ago, we had opened some of our theme parks… if these monsters were to ruin me now… because of Dartz, my company had become crippled, because the world had thought that my technology was responsible for sending people into comas. It had proven hugely difficult to build even the small amount of amusement centers that I did; now, because of Dartz, my profits had been smaller, and I had been forced to put the building of the Atlanta, Georgia amusement park on hiatus… I had held the tournament to restore my reputation, and my stock value was high again, so finally I was starting to build the remaining parks that I had originally intended be finished by now.
There was nothing as far as news on the internet; this must be a completely new occurrence. “Turn on the television,” I told Mokuba, and he did, flipping through the channels to find a news station.
I sat at my desk, clenching my hands together in fury, waiting for something to come on the television. If Dartz was going to try to ruin the reputation of my company, again… I swear, I will tear him apart, personally…
“Look, big brother!” Mokuba said, startled; he had found a news station that was reporting on a swarm of monsters. “They’re all over the place! Downtown and everything!”
I growled under my breath. Dartz, you son of a dog…
The door to my office violently slammed open; Mokuba yelled and I leapt out of my chair, startled. “What the hell!” I shouted.
Three monsters entered the room, rapidly. Mokuba yelled again and backed away from the couch, against the wall. They started tearing up my office; I opened my desk and took out the gun and knife that I kept hidden in the top drawer.
I fired bullets at the monsters; most of them hit, and two of the monsters fell and stopped glowing before disappearing in puffs of smoke. The third monster was faster and was nimble; I was startled when it jumped up and was clinging to the walls and ceiling, like a giant spider. I kept firing the gun; the symbol on its forehead glowed and a laser shot from it and in just the blink of an eye, hit me squarely in the chest.
I dropped the gun in shock; it landed on the floor but didn’t discharge. Crippling pain shot from the middle of my chest where the continuous laser beam was hitting me; I couldn’t breathe, and the world was spinning… colors swirling in front of my eyes, I could feel my own warmth draining…
I knew only milliseconds were passing, but it seemed like years went by… I was overwhelmingly cold, immobilized by the shooting pain… I heard a far-away voice shout, “Seto! No!”
There was a loud bang in the room; some of the intense pain lifted, and through blurred eyes, I saw that the green light was gone, and I heard a thud in front of me; the monster had fallen from the ceiling and then disappeared like the others. I felt my knees hit the ground; I fell forward, catching myself with my hands. I was now looking at the floor, but my vision was foggy…
Chest heaving, I felt cold sweat drip off of my forehead. My chest was stinging angrily; a small jolt of pain shot through me, and I winced and flinched from it. Then, vaguely I felt hands on my shoulders; somewhere, a voice was shouting my name…
I swallowed hard and shakily sat down, on the floor. I looked down at my hands; involuntarily, they were trembling… I had hardly ever felt so cold…
I took a deep breath and blinked a few times; another small jolt of pain shot through the spot on my chest where the beam had hit me; I winced again, but managed to lift my head slightly. Slowly, Mokuba swam into view in front of me; his face was pale, and eyes wide with terror. His hands were on my shoulders, and he was shaking me lightly, asking my name over and over…
“Mokuba,” I whispered.
The relief was evident in his eyes, but he still seemed frightened. He took his hands off of my shoulders. “I killed it,” he whimpered, voice shaky, still worried and upset. “Are you okay? Speak to me...!”
I was cold, and it was very hard to breathe… I wanted to say something. Chest heaving, I tried to bring myself to talk… I was still involuntarily trembling all over…a jolt of pain would still shoot through me, every few seconds…
The world was slowly starting to become more visually clear. Mokuba was standing over me, still, looking very upset. I took another deep breath and shakily pushed myself up. I was standing, but dizzy and winded, sick… I had to lean my hand on my desk, or else I might have collapsed again…
“It only shot the laser for like a few seconds,” he said, trembling. “Only like a few seconds, but… but… you look sick… really white… are you okay?” he asked again.
I managed to nod and then sat down and leaned back in my computer chair, hand planted firmly to the spot where the laser had hit me. Every heartbeat brought a sting of pain; I swallowed hard again, chest heaving. Mokuba was standing right next to the chair, worriedly staring at me; I looked at him, and whispered, voice shaky, “…you shot it?”
He nodded shortly, wide eyes still staring intently at my face, desperately wanting to know if I was okay.
I managed to curl my mouth into a mild smile after wincing from a jolt of pain again. “I’m… I’m impressed. You’re a good shot; not even I could hit it…”
He laughed shakily. “It was standing still…”
“I think I’m okay…” I said. I pushed myself out of my chair and shakily walked towards the couch, and collapsed onto it. Mokuba was still hovering over me, looking very upset.
I was on my back, on the couch, now. “I’m okay,” I muttered sleepily, rubbing my forehead. I wasn’t really in constant pain anymore… just cold, and tired…
“Can I do something to help?” Mokuba asked, but then the phone rang. He left the couch and went to answer it.
I closed my eyes. This was so strange… it wasn’t quite like when Dartz had defeated me. When Dartz had defeated me, I didn’t feel pain, like that… I only had felt uncontrollably tired, not quite so cold… was this different?
I supposed that the monsters were different than the seal, itself… I sighed. I wasn’t so cold anymore. What had it done to me… my mind wasn’t so foggy anymore. Even the periodic pain surges were getting weaker.
Vaguely I heard Mokuba talking on the phone. I wondered who he was talking to. Who would think to call the office so early in the morning?
I sighed again. The TV’s voices were becoming clearer. I felt better…
I heard Mokuba hang up the phone. I opened my eyes and lifted my head somewhat so that I could see that he was walking towards me. “Who…was it?” I asked.
He sat down on the couch next to me. “Yugi,” he said.
I was surprised. “What?” I asked.
“He said he called here because we didn’t pick up at home, of course… he’s dealing with a lot of monsters, too…”
I frowned and put my head down again. I wasn’t surprised. So did he want my help in dueling, again? It was happening all over again…
“They want to come here,” he continued. “They want to figure out a plan to stop these monsters soon…”
“Fine,” I said, closing my eyes, mildly irritated; but, I supposed that his Egyptian god cards were the best weapon against the monsters, again. Last time we didn’t have them; at least, this time, we did.
There was silence for a second, again… I opened my eyes and saw that Mokuba was still sadly looking at me. “Are you okay?” I asked him.
“Y… yeah…” was the weak response.
I pushed myself into a sitting position; it was slightly hard to do. His mouth twitched into a smile when he saw me do that; but he went back to frowning after only a second. Was he still worried about me?
I stood up off of the couch slowly. “Don’t worry,” I said, once I balanced myself on my feet, which took a moment; my head felt just light. “I’m okay. I promise.” He got off of the couch, too, but immediately proceeded to throw his arms around my hips. I was surprised; he whimpered, “Let’s do everything we can to get rid of the monsters! Work with Yugi, or get new cards, or…”
I didn’t know what he was talking about. He continued, somewhat on the verge of tears, “I’m scared! I don’t want to lose you again… not like last time…”
He gripped my shirt, cheek to my stomach, sniffling but not crying; I put one hand on the top of his head and the other on his shoulder. What could I tell him? Could I promise that nobody would get hurt this time? He had just watched me get hurt… I was fine, but I was fine this time… would there be a next time?
He looked up at me. “Please?” he asked. “Please, let’s do whatever it takes to get rid of them… if it means working with Yugi, or Joey, or anyone like that… let’s do it, okay? Please?”
My heart broke. “Alright,” I said.
He smiled and let go of me. “Good, because they’re all coming here in a little while. I gave Yugi the guest pass-code so that he can open the front doors. Yugi said he had bad news.”
“Bad news?” I asked, heart sinking. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know… but he said he had bad news.”
The phone rang again. I passed Mokuba and picked it up. “Yes?” I asked.
“Kaiba-boy!” came the cheerful reply on the other line.
“Pegasus?” I asked, slightly horrified. I looked down at the video phone’s screen; it certainly was him. He was leaning back in a chair, feet up on his desk, looking just delighted to see me.
“The one and only,” he continued. “I… wow, my dear boy, you don’t look so good… have you been working too hard? You should let yourself rest once in awhile!”
“Don’t worry about that,” I snapped; it infuriated me to even see this man, let alone hear him speak. “What do you want?”
“What do you think I want?” he asked, with a giggle. I frowned deeply; he was so annoying... “Surely you’ve seen these rotten monsters running around, too? Don’t tell me you haven’t!”
“I have seen them,” I growled. “Yugi is coming over here soon to work with me about them. What do you need about it?”
“I’m inviting you to a party, Kaiba-boy!”
I wondered if I had heard that correctly. I looked up at Mokuba, briefly; he looked as shocked as I felt. “What?” I asked, stunned.
“A dinner party! You and Mokuba-boy simply must come to Duelist Kingdom tonight!”
“Tonight?” I gasped. “Tonight? That’s… not a lot of notice, you idiot…”
He ignored me. “I’m meeting with many other corporation heads and we’ll discuss this nasty monster problem.”
“Why do I need to come all that way for that, especially tonight? Don’t waste my time; just tell me your plan here, now!” I shouted.
“Now, now, that’s not any fun at all,” he replied, bouncing on his chair. My insides boiled. “Attending this meeting will be to your benefit. It will prevent the world from believing that you’re at fault for this monster problem, again!”
“My fault?” I roared into the phone. “You know these monsters didn’t come from any of my games or machines, Pegasus! I’d sooner believe that they’re your fault!”
“I don’t think they’re your fault, Kaiba-boy, so you don’t need to jump down my throat!” Pegasus retorted, sounding hurt. “I don’t think you’re the guilty one, but everyone else in the whole world might. This media-covered party is where I’ll hold a press meeting to show the world that this is an ancient problem, and has nothing to do with your company or mine!”
I stood, silent, for a moment. I wasn’t sure what I believed about where the monsters came from, but I desperately didn’t want this to happen to my company all over again… I’d do anything to prove that my company is innocent.
“…Fine.” I said, thoroughly irate. “Fine. I’ll fly out this afternoon. But, I swear, Pegasus- if you’re turning this into some sort of sick game-”
“Oh, wonderful!” Pegasus said. “The party starts at eight-thirty. Wear your finest garb! This will be huge!” And with that, the phone’s screen went black, and I set the phone down on the receiver.
“So… Pegasus is throwing a dinner party… to tell the media where the monsters are coming from?” Mokuba asked slowly.
“Yes,” I said, brushing my hand through my hair and sitting down at my desk chair. “Fine. We can fly out at six and be there on time.”
The door then opened and Yugi and his entire party walked in. I expected this; I wasn’t surprised to see Yugi surrounded by Duke Devlin, Tristan, Téa Gardner, Joey Wheeler, and Serenity Wheeler. Yugi was the one person in the world whom I considered to be a truly talented duelist; he was the only person who could actually defeat me without cheating. I had quickly learned not to judge a book by its cover, with Yugi- he stood hardly four and a half feet tall… well, maybe five feet including his unbelievably weird hairstyle.
“Woah, Kaiba, you look sicker than usual, what’s wrong?” Joey Wheeler immediately asked, shaking messy blonde hair out of his face, fixing narrowed amber eyes on me. This guy was also in my grand prix tournament, and had lost hilariously to Ziegfried von Schroder, a feminine male duelist whom I had crushed without much of a sweat. He was among the many banes of my existence.
I frowned. “Nothing. What happened to you, Yugi? What’s the bad news?”
There was a loud crash from several floors down. Everyone gasped in surprise; when there was silence again, I said, “Let’s go kill those things.”
I had another gun stashed in this room; I took it out of my desk and picked up the other gun that Mokuba had left on the floor. “Use these,” I said, setting them on the desk next to the knife. Tristan, Duke and Joey, immediately interested, proceeded to go through the weapons and argue over them. They ended up fist-fighting for just a second; Joey nearly tore out Duke’s dangling dice earrings, Tristan nearly lost an eye… the girls were shrieking at them, telling them to grow up. I sighed, irritated, and picked up one gun before exiting the room, Mokuba at my heels. If there were monsters downstairs, we had no time to waste…
“Stay right with me,” I told him, as everyone else followed.
“Where did it sound like it came from?” Téa, a frustratingly headstrong brunette girl who I knew had a thing for Yugi, asked, as we walked down the hallways.
“Try the first floor,” I said, and we all entered the large elevator that sent us shooting to the ground floor.
The elevator door opened, and immediately a monster was there, right in front of us; Tristan, with albeit impressive aim, shot it right through the head, and it dropped to the ground and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
“Yeehaw,” he said, as Joey high-fived him. We all cautiously exited the elevator. The lobby was quiet, until Serenity, Joey’s innocent redheaded sister, gasped and shrieked; we all whipped around to see her pointing to a figure on the ground.
“Roland!” Mokuba yelled, leaving my side and rushing to him and turning him over. My stomach dropped when I saw that Roland, one of my top employees, was completely motionless on the ground, eyes closed, face stark white…
“Call an ambulance!” I roared, and saw, from the corner of my eye, Duke go to the phone on the receptionist’s desk; Mokuba moved aside so that I could now lean over Roland, looking for his pulse… nothing… his skin was cold…
“Damn,” I whispered under my breath, heart pounding. This couldn’t be happening.
“Seto,” Mokuba said desperately, “He’s not breathing… what do we do…”
It took only two or three minutes… long, horrible minutes… for the ambulance to skid up to the front door and for some paramedics to rush in with a gurney. They kneeled over him, ripping off his shirt and taking his pulse; after several seconds of jabbing him with needles and shocking him, one paramedic looked up and said, “Mr. Kaiba…we’ve lost him… he was gone before we got here...”
I stood in shock. Time could have been at a standstill, at that point; the ground seemed to be swirling under my feet. My top henchman and advisor was dead?
“That can’t be!” I shouted. “He looks untouched! Who did this?”
But it hit me, as Mokuba clung to my sleeve, shaking with silent tears. The monster. That monster had killed him…
“Keep him alive,” I ordered the paramedics. “It’s only been a few minutes. Take him to my hospital and put him on life support. Now!”
They both looked at me for a second, and then, sticking several more IVs into him, lifted Roland onto the stretcher and left the building with him.
Yugi’s friends were all standing, silent, until Serenity squeaked, “so that’s what the monsters can do…?”
I turned around to face all of them. “Have you run into them?”
“There was one in my house,” Joey said. “I killed that one, and we met at Yugi’s store, where the place was swarming with them…”
“Did any of you get attacked?” I asked. Mokuba was still clinging to my sleeve, not paying much attention to anything other than worrying about Roland.
“No, I don’t think so,” Joey responded.
I looked down at Mokuba. He sniffled and let go of my sleeve, but proceeded to gently take my hand, wiping his eyes.
“That’s where the bad news comes in,” Yugi said. I looked back up at him. “The monsters that broke into the store were able to steal the Egyptian god cards …again.”
A horrible wave of disappointment washed over me. “Really?” I asked angrily. “They stole the cards?”
“Yes,” Yugi responded. “I believe they took them to the same place that Dartz did. I think the best thing we can do is go straight to where Dartz kept them last time.”
I frowned. “What, you want me to go, too?”
“We need your duelist skills,” Yugi said. I wasn’t moved; Mokuba gripped my hand tighter. “Without a duelist of your caliber, we stand no chance. I believe that the enemy we might face this time may even be stronger than Dartz was.”
I didn’t even bother to wonder why Yugi thought this… personally; I thought it was Dartz, himself. “Pegasus insists I go to a dinner party in Duelist Kingdom tonight. Figure out a plan and tell me about it on Saturday,” I said shortly.
Yugi smiled; I could tell that he was almost surprised that I wasn’t putting up much of a fight to avoid going. “I’m glad you are involved, Kaiba,” he said. “Come on, guys.”
They all left the lobby of my building. I sighed. I didn’t particularly like working with these people… but… I had promised…
Mokuba sniffled again. I knelt down so that we could make eye contact. “Roland’s going to be alright,” I told him, because I somewhat believed it. “We’ll keep him alive until we can figure out what’s going on with those monsters. He’ll be okay.”
Mokuba nodded, but tears continued to leak their ways out of the corners of his eyes. I smiled at him. “Okay?” I asked reassuringly.
“Yeah, but…” he began, voice very choked up. “But, Seto… that monster stopped his heart. That monster killed him…”
I sighed. “I know,” I said sadly.
“And… and… what if… what if I hadn’t shot the monster in your office? What if we hadn’t had the gun… or something?”
I knitted my eyebrows. “What…” I began, but he started crying harder, and whimpered, “That could have happened to you, Seto! That could have been you, twenty minutes ago! This time… this time… the monsters…they’ll stop your heart! They’ll kill you! Can… can we really bring Roland back? Would we have been able to bring you back, if I hadn’t killed it…?”
He threw his arms around my neck and sobbed into my shoulder. I didn’t know what to say… was he right…? What would have happened to me if he hadn’t shot the monster…? He had saved my life… yes, he had. I hadn’t thought of that, at the time. I held him, back, leaning my head against his.
“I d…don’t want to lose you, big brother… not again,” he whimpered, clutching my shirt, not really crying anymore, now. “…Roland…”
“Don’t worry,” I said, in the most soothing voice I possessed, after a moment. “Don’t worry…” we let go of each other. I ruffled his hair and stood up, before saying, “So, thank you for shooting that monster, huh?”
He chuckled stuffily, hugged me around the waist for just a second, and then ran off, outside. I followed him; he said, “Come on, I want to wear my tuxedo!”
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