"D-death?" Anzu repeated, shocked.
"Aibou, tell your fiancée to go home," Atemu said. He let go of Yuugi's elbow, almost pushing him out of the way.
"What's going on, Atemu-kun?" Yuugi's voice trembled just a little, but he was determined to stand his ground. He wasn't a doormat. "I don't like…"
"I do not like it either," Atemu said suavely, "but in the interest and well-being of your fiancée, she should leave immediately."
"You just can't discard me like that!" Anzu pointed at Atemu. "Explain what you meant about that ship, carrying death!"
"I speak nothing but the truth." He narrowed his eyes. "The pilot of that ship is a murderer and his co-pilot is a criminal with a prize on his head."
"Do they know you? Do you know them?"
"Quite well, actually." Atemu didn't seem to be perturbed in the least. "Go now, Anzu. This is no place for a lady like yourself."
"But Yuugi…"
"He will be safe, as I promised. I will bring him back. Do not worry, Anzu. This is merely for your own protection."
The girl looked from one to another, obviously not too happy. Yuugi swallowed. He didn't want anything to happen to Anzu, and he hated fighting. "Maybe it's for the better if you leave, Anzu-chan," he said. He flinched from her angry glare. The silence was uncomfortable and strained. Finally, she turned on her heels and walked away without saying goodbye to Yuugi. He wanted to go after her, but Atemu held him back.
"Let her go, aibou."
"Why are you calling me like that, anyway?" Yuugi asked, recognizing his own maternal language. His grandfather had taught him since Yuugi was young, next to the common, universal language that was spoken. He had no idea where Atemu could've gotten the knowledge. "Why are you calling me 'partner'?"
"Take Bakura's bag and get inside the Datura," Atemu urged him, ignoring his question. "I will deal with this."
"You owe me an explanation," Yuugi muttered, feeling upset and angry as well. He picked up Ryou's bag.
"I do," Atemu said calmly. "Go inside now." He watched Yuugi's retreating back, heaving a sigh of relief when he was out of sight, safely on board of the Datura. Trust Marik and Malik to show up at the worst time possible, thwarting his plans. It was of no use to get angry about it. History had taught him the experience to deal with Marik and his unpredictable behavior. It had always been this way and it would continue to be, until the very end. But the end wasn't near… no, this was only the beginning and he had two Others on the field: Yuugi and Ryou. His hand went to the holster attached to his belt, in which his deck was safely stored. He could feel Osiris' heartbeat, comforting as always. It was only a matter of time before he would command the other Gods again. Atemu closed his eyes for a moment. Millennia worth of images flooded his mind, images of the hundreds, thousands of lives he had lead as Pharaoh, as ruler, as King, standing above everything and everyone… he opened his eyes again and straightened himself, his posture confident as he waited for the October to dock and its occupants to disembark. He noticed two people in the distance after a while, approaching him. Atemu's lips curled into a small smile. It looked like Marik wasn't wearing weapons on display for once, he probably didn't want to get into trouble with the bureaucracy of Vertregg 12. On the other hand, Marik had broken so many rules on so many planets that Atemu wondered why he even bothered. He waited patiently until the two walked up to him, Malik with eyes growing wide and Marik with a bored expression on his face. Tension immediately rose, growing thick, almost tangible. Atemu had to restrain himself from balling his fists. Marik was always accompanied by anger, and it fueled his own - but he needed a steady mind. He had to move his pieces in just the right position; without Yuugi, he was lost. He had to be careful and not make a similar mistake as when he thought he was talking to Bakura, but it turned out to be his Other.
"Marik," he greeted him, his voice neutral.
"Pharaoh," Marik answered, hostility raw and audible.
"I see you have found your Other," Atemu said. Marik snorted. He was never far from his Other as he was the one to give birth to him, every time. It was the vicious cycle they were all caught in; contrary to Bakura and Atemu who had to search for their Others over and over again, Marik was close to his Other, a big advantage. Atemu smirked at the thought when he could show Marik his advantage.
"You have found yours as well," Marik said. "It's just like you, to find him on a planet that thrives on bureaucracy."
"Why do you not introduce us?"
"Pharaoh, this is Malik. Malik, this is the asshole I told you about."
Malik was raised with certain manners, but he couldn't get himself to extend a hand and say "Pleased to meet you.". In fact, he was gawking at Atemu rather impolitely, but the other didn't seem to mind.
"I am sure that Marik told a lot about me." Atemu glanced at the taller man, "and judging from the way he introduced me, he cannot have told you the most positive things."
"Our tribe is ruined and dispersed all over the galaxy because of you!" Malik blurted out, the familiar anger welling up in him. "It was you who forbade us to settle, it was you who made us lose our home, only to protect your precious name and memories! For nothing!"
Marik put a hand on Malik's shoulder, showing an appreciative grin. "That's much better," he said. "I thought you forgot what I taught you."
"You have spoon-fed this poor guy hatred and lies from the moment he was born," Atemu said, shaking his head. "He has never heard the other side of the story, the one in which you betrayed your Pharaoh and his entire Court!"
"I will never accept you as Pharaoh!" Marik raised his voice. A few people turned their heads, but quickly walked along. "You killed everything we ever believed in!"
Atemu's hand went to his holster, the slightest of movements, but Marik noticed it.
"Not here," he barked at him.
"Since when do you care about civilians?" Atemu asked disdainfully. Marik didn't answer. Malik looked from one to another, annoyed. It was obvious that he still missed out on a lot of important information. Marik had talked about the Pharaoh for so long, but never about what was going to happen when they'd actually meet. It couldn't be about yelling and trading insults. Malik reminded himself to calm down. If he stayed angry all the time, he wouldn't be able to concentrate and he'd miss out on even more things. Malik stared at Atemu, who was working over something. The silence was extremely uncomfortable.
"It is not in your hands," Atemu suddenly said.
Marik growled. "I'll get it back," he said. "I know who took it."
"It does not take a genius to figure that one out."
"Be careful, Pharaoh…"
"You have nothing to say about me, Marik. Do not blame me if your fault leads to your own demise."
"What do you mean, 'demise'?" Malik asked. He usually didn't care how people spoke to him or Marik, but Atemu's disdainful tone of voice was hard to stomach.
"You took the thief on board, did you not? How could you even be surprised when you found out what he had stolen?"
"I always want to wring your neck whenever I see you," Marik clenched and unclenched his fists. "Your slim little neck, and I want to wring it until I'm sure there's no air left and you…"
"What's going on?" Everybody's head snapped to the right, into the direction of the voice. Yuugi stood in the open door of the Datura, looking confused and a little scared from the commotion.
"It is all right, aibou," Atemu said. "You can come down and meet our… visitors." Yuugi hesitated, so Atemu beckoned him. As soon as he made the gesture, Yuugi heaved a sigh of relief and hurriedly climbed down, closing the distance between him and Atemu as fast as he could.
"Aibou, allow me to introduce you to Marik and Malik Ishtar," Atemu said. He didn't bother to reverse the introduction. Yuugi bowed to them as per his upbringing in the traditions of his long-gone homeland.
"Malik-kun, Marik-san," he greeted them, assuming that the slightly taller one with the spikier hair and menacing scowl on his face wouldn't appreciate being referred to as '-kun'.
"Hello, eh…" Malik started.
"Mutou Yuugi," he said. "Please call me Yuugi."
Malik felt badly as soon as he met the Pharaoh's Other. He could see that Yuugi was kind and trusting, exactly the traits the Pharaoh would prey upon. Malik's opinion of Atemu was heavily influenced by Marik's stories but in the first five minutes of actually meeting the Pharaoh, Malik was convinced all of Marik's words were true. Despite the physical similar traits, their personalities couldn't be more different, and he felt sorry for Yuugi.
"You two must be brothers..?" Yuugi asked in blissful ignorance.
"We don't have time to chit-chat," Marik cut him short. Immediately, Atemu stepped in front of Yuugi.
"You will not interrupt him," he said and fell silent when he saw the expression on Marik's face change. His eyes narrowed to mere slits, and his jaw tightened. Marik was easily distracted, but now something had caught his attention that changed everything. Atemu looked over his shoulder, at the Datura and saw Ryou Bakura climb out of the ship. So much for his big reveal; apparently Ryou got restless or anxious on board, and decided to come out of his own, his back turned to the others as he climbed down.
"Bakura!" Marik yelled.
"No, Marik, he is…" Atemu tried to grab him at the sleeve of his jacket, but he wasn't strong enough by far to stop him. Marik batted him away like an annoying fly and lunged for Ryou.
"You filthy, motherfucking thief!" He grabbed Ryou, tore him from the ladder and threw him on the ground.
"How's it going?" With a large cup of coffee in his hand, Jounouchi checked up on his friend. Honda had just finished the basic weapon training, instructing the fifteen guards. Before he joined Jounouchi's team, Honda had worked for KaibaCorp.'s military department and had extensive experience with weapons in almost every field imaginable: training, instructing, designing, developing and researching.
"I've set up some target dummies in the basement," Honda said, "for a little practice. Don't get me wrong Jounouchi, they're fine and dedicated men; it's just that they never had to carry a gun here. This is a research facility with limited resources, the only enemy you have to fight here, is boredom."
Jounouchi scratched the back of his head. "Was it a mistake to give every guard a gun?"
"No, I don't think so. They have the right to defend themselves, whatever happens."
"Good work. Now, grab something to eat and then get your ass to bed." Jounouchi checked his watch. Eight hours left, by his estimation.
"Did you know I actually considered becoming a security guard myself?" Honda sounded amused.
"You?" Jounouchi asked incredulously.
"Yeah. I've always been fascinated by guns, as you know… but I failed the intelligence tests to be in the actual service," he grinned, with only a slight hint of bitterness. "My parents couldn't afford private education like Otogi, and scholarships were out of my league. No, on brainpower alone, I would never make it into the KaibaCorp. program."
"Tell me about it," Jounouchi muttered. He had tried to get into the program himself, but the requirements were so harsh that after failing a few times, he had given up on it. The program was Kaiba's own fishing pond of talents and new recruits, or as many disappointed and rejected applicants liked to call it, 'Kaiba's private army of servants'. There were other ways to reach one's goals, even if one had to take a detour. Honda pulled out his own gun, a modified electromagnetic pulse amplifier and checked if it was fully charged.
"Anyway, I figured that working as a security guard would be rather worry-free and not complicated. Less exciting, but if it would earn me a steady paycheck, it was worth it, especially with a future family in mind."
"What made you change your mind?" Jounouchi handed him his gun, a pointed laser charged one. Honda took it apart in less than thirty seconds and checked the battery and recharge unit of the weapon.
"Too boring, man. Look around here - these guards walk their same rounds and their same shit routine every day, all day long. It would drive me mad!"
"So much for your future family," Jounouchi provided. He grinned. Honda returned him his gun.
"It's in excellent condition," he said. "Do you think we're going to actually need all these arms? I mean…" Having this much experience with guns didn't mean that Honda was trigger-happy and wanted to shoot everyone in sight. "That guy…"
"I know." Jounouchi put his gun away. "We've set up the EMETS especially to catch that asshole. I wonder why Kaiba didn't warn us for him."
"Warn you for who?" Kaiba entered the room, along with Mokuba. His younger brother greeted Jounouchi and Honda enthusiastically.
"Kaiba," Jounouchi said gruffly. He changed the tone of his voice. "Hey, Mokuba. What's up?"
"I don't have news for you," Kaiba said. "There's no information available on this 'Bakura'. No identification, no hits on his fingerprints and no facial recognition. He has somehow managed to acquire the same tag as Ryou Bakura and when he wakes up, I'm going to force him to tell us how he did it."
"How's he doing?" Honda asked out of curiosity.
"Unresponsive at best," Mokuba answered. "I saw the readings of the heart monitor. Technically, he can't even be alive. No one can survive with a heart rate that slow. Tests have shown that he's still breathing, so... he is alive…"
"This planet doesn't dispose over the proper medical facilities," Kaiba continued. "As soon as we've finished our business here, we're going to take him back to Altana. I want to know how he managed to break into my security system."
"What's that?" Honda asked and pointed to the box Mokuba was carrying.
"Oh, this? Headsets for communication." He put the box on the table. "I already gave Otogi one, these are for you and the guards, and me and Seto will take one as well."
"No you won't," Kaiba said.
"Big brother…"
"No. I want you to stay with Rebecca on board of the jet."
To make a quick escape, should things get out of hand, Jounouchi provided in his mind. It said something about Kaiba's personality that the toughest and hardest CEO around had such a soft spot for his younger brother. Only Mokuba called him by his first name (albeit rarely) and only Mokuba could tug at his brother's heartstrings. It made Kaiba a little bit more human, but Jounouchi didn't like to think of Kaiba as a human. Something in Mokuba's words stood out to him.
"You're getting a headset as well?" he said, suspiciously. "Are you going to play commander for this operation?"
"This is my research facility," Kaiba answered, his icy blue eyes fixated on Jounouchi. "It goes without saying that I'm going to be supervising all of this."
"Kaiba, with all respect," even if it took Jounouchi much effort to say this, "no. You're not a part of our team. We're perfectly adjusted to each other, we only need half a word in any given situation. You're a businessman, not a bounty hunter. Even so, we're expecting an extremely dangerous individual. You just can't jump in and take over command."
"You have set up the EMETS. I know when to spring a trap."
"Kaiba, no." Jounouchi didn't care if Kaiba fired him on the spot. With or without contract, he was going to do this job, and he was going to keep Kaiba out of it.
"Don't be ridiculous. I agree that Ishtar's 'friend' is dangerous, but the EMETS will render him immobile, end of story. He's the biggest threat and once removed, Malik Ishtar himself can be subdued by the guards. He'll surrender quickly. I don't see the problem."
Honda stared at the headset in his hand. "I agree with Jounouchi," he spoke up, defending his friend. Honda didn't have specific management skills and had never been a team leader, but he still spoke up. "We've been working together for quite some time now. We've been through a lot of situations, and it takes a very different kind of insight to deal with these guys. The bounties are getting higher and more dangerous, and this is someone I've never seen the likes of before. If he's truly able to modify his own weapons, then we have either an extremely intelligent person or a straight-out psycho on our hands. Judging from the very little footage we've seen of him, I guess it's the last. That's no situation for you to be involved with."
An icy silence fell. Kaiba mulled over his words, his lips drawn in a tight, bloodless line. Jounouchi was sure that Kaiba was going to overrule them and take over command anyway. After all, he had the authority. It was, however, Mokuba who solved the case.
"Big brother, Jounouchi and Honda have a point," he said. "They have dealt with a lot of extraordinary situations. They have always delivered, whatever bounty you demanded. Jounouchi knows his stuff. I trust his judgment."
"I know you do, even if I still don't know why." Kaiba didn't look at his brother, his stern gaze was meant for Jounouchi. "If you say so, Mokuba. However, I will be listening in and reserve every right to make an executive decision when things go astray."
"They won't," Jounouchi gave back.
"Great! Now that's settled, you guys better catch some sleep before this all goes down." Mokuba picked up the empty box and walked to the door. Isono, one of Kaiba's most trusted right hands, offered to take the box from him and the two of them were soon out of earshot. Kaiba hadn't left yet; he crossed his arms in front of his chest, obviously not happy with the situation.
"This entire 'plan' of yours rides on your only assumption that Isthar and his friend figure out that their… goal is on Yllsen Volta V," he said, voice menacingly low. "Your assumption better had work out, Jounouchi. This is a multi-million research facility, and it'll come out of your bonus if you damage anything or fuck this shit up. Make it work."
Chapter 16 | Chapter 18 |