The Rarest Lapis Lazuli- Ch. 2

Chapter Two- Germinated Plans


Joey---------------------------

I spit into the sink and then smiled up at my reflection. I was in a good mood today! School would be easy today- probably not any pop quizzes or anything. It was going to be a good day.


I wet my hand and ran it quickly through my hair. I shook my head quickly and my thick yellow hair fell messily into place. I shot a grin at myself, in the mirror. I was a good-looking guy. In the right light, my eyes looked gold… gold, like a reflection of my gold heart. Yeah!


I had bought myself some new clothes recently. Right now, I was just wearing my favorite boxers. They were black, with little cartoon dogs on them. I went back into my bedroom and opened my closet. I had cool T-shirts with various insults on them, ranging from the village missing their idiot to the garden missing their ho. But, it was a school day. I dressed into my uniform and grabbed my sling backpack.


"Bye dad," I said, jumping over the railing of our first-story apartment. I landed clumsily on the ground and started running to school. I wasn't late. I just felt like running. As I reached downtown, I heard someone yell, "Joey! Wait up!"


I stopped and turned around. Bakura was behind me, waving at me, running towards me. "Hey man," I said, once he was closer to me. He was out-of-breath, but seemed to be in a pretty good mood. He had really changed since we got rid of the evil spirit in the Millennium Ring. Bakura was also a good-looking guy already, but getting rid of the evil spirit seemed to give his dark eyes a bit of a sparkle. The girls adored him… he knew I was jealous.  


I could feel that today was going to be a good day, oh yes. The weather was spectacular and hot, again, like it was yesterday. There was a bit of a skip in my step as Bakura and I crossed the school's front lawn towards the front doors. I saw our group of friends crowding around near the entrance. Bakura and I joined them. I clapped my hand on Téa's shoulder because she was standing closest to me now and bade everyone good morning.


This group of people, here, standing in front of me, was what I lived for. If it wasn't for them, no doubt I'd be in a gang, or failing out of school, or who knows. These guys made me strong and made me a good person. I had completely renounced my ways of getting into fights- although, I did have some decent memories of fights. One time, I'd thrust this guy into an outhouse at a construction site and then tipped it over. He'd burst out of the damn thing covered in diarrhea and piss. It was so funny. But, no, I don't do that kind of crap anymore.


Beaming at me were the faces of Duke, Yugi, Téa and Tristan- long-haired, green-eyed Duke was the handsomest, most-girl-beloved guy in the school, alongside Bakura. He was kind of like Kaiba when it came to how we became friends- he used to be a cheating, conniving ass, but, unlike Kaiba, actually turned into an awesome, nice guy when acquainted with Yugi. Yugi did have that effect on most people. Yugi was very influential. I sometimes got surprised that I didn't do everything like him, yet- I mean, I'm an individual and all, but Yugi knows how to do crap right. Like when he gets into fights, he uses monsters and shit, and I think that's just a little bit cooler than that I once used actual shit and shit.


"Hello, everyone," Bakura said. I looked over my shoulder and saw that, right on time, the usual groups of girls were standing around, oogling at Duke and Bakura. Sigh.


Tristan had earbuds in his ears and was headbanging to whatever song he was listening to. I didn't trust this. "What's this?" I asked, snatching an earbud away from him.

"What- no!" he gasped. "Hey, I'm listening to that!"


I stuck the end of the bud in my ear and laughed richly. He was jamming out to one of the newest hit pop songs called "Fun"- it was certainly not the manliest song around. Tristan was a pretty manly guy- he owned a damn motorcycle- but this was kind of hilarious.


"Fun? Pretty awesome," I laughed, shoving the earbud back at him. Growling, he took it, and insisted, "Come on, that song is great. You know you like it."


I made a kind of "pfffff" noise as everyone else laughed.


"No, Tristan, I like that song," Yugi admitted hesitantly, and he sang, "Be cool. Be cool. I've got my eye on you, baby. Be there. Be there. Your face makin' me go crazy. You know. You know.  I want you and that's about it. Your love. Your love. Please don't make me go without it."


"Thank you!" Tristan shouted as we all were wiping tears of laughter from our eyes. He and Yugi joined in a duet: "Our night will never be through. Time together, just me and you. You will never see, you'll never see your life in the same way."


"Dude, you guys never cease to amaze me," Duke chuckled. Then, the school bell rang, and we all hauled our asses inside.


-


"Die, you stupid bastard!" I shrieked loudly at the television, hours later. "Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Yes!"


It was relatively late in the afternoon. I was playing my favorite first-person shooter video game. I had beaten it about a hundred billion times before, but it never got old. I was real good at it.


It was late in the afternoon. I heard the door open and shut. "Yo, dad," I shouted, over the sound of the television.


"Put your dick in your ass, Joey," was the drunk-sounding reply.


I was used to this. My dad and I had a horrible relationship. Ever since he and my mother got divorced, we didn't even have a family. This was mostly why Serenity and I were so close. My father hated me. He was ashamed of my fighting record and barely-scraping-passing grades. Whatever. I didn't care, anymore, what he thought of me. I'd even learned to, in my own mind, turn all of his insults and taunts into compliments. Like, this one- if he's telling me to put my own wang in my own ass, then that means that he was saying that it was, like, big enough for that to be possible. Cool.


The phone rang. I set down my pizza slice and video game controller and lifted it off of the receiver. "Yo," I said.


"Joey," Yugi said, on the other line. "I got a message from Pegasus just now. He's in town. He wants to see all of us."


"Pegasus?" I asked, confused. I didn't really like Pegasus… once he lost the Millennium Eye, he became a lot less creepy. But, he still never ceased to freak me out at least a little bit.  "What does he want?"


"He didn't say. But, he says it's important. He's calling Kaiba right now," Yugi replied. "Can you come to my house, now? I told Pegasus he could meet us here, with Tristan and Téa."


"Yeah," I said, supposing, why not. "I'll be right over."


I entered Yugi's house twenty minutes later to see the sitting room filled with Yugi, his grandfather, Téa, Tristan, and Pegasus. I frowned at the scene. Generally, when Pegasus wanted to see us all like this, it meant that something was wrong.


"Hi, Joey," Yugi said, as I sat down next to him. This was strange. Why were we doing this…?


Pegasus clapped his hands together happily. He was a tall, disgustingly cheerful man who never really grew up- he was eight years older than all of us, but he was significantly more immature… or, so he seemed to be. Several times he'd proved to us how freakishly smart and cunning he was. Of course, every time, it was a bad thing. At least since Bakura had taken the Millennium Eye from him a few years ago, he had become more reasonable to work with- you couldn't help but respect him at least a little bit because he was the creator of our favorite game… "Good! Now that we're all here, I've got something big to show you!"


I frowned again. Did he invent some new card game, or something? What does he want?


Pegasus pulled back a lock of his silver hair. We all gasped when we saw that the Millennium Eye was lodged into his skull, again.


"How did you get that?" I gasped aloud. "The Millennium items…"


"…Were not destroyed, if that's what you're thinking!" he said. "I wanted to have the Eye, again. Here's the thing- I'm a bit nervous.  Atem has gone to the afterlife. You know this. But, the world of his memories was put on by a shadow game, initiated by Bakura, who is also gone… but, that's the thing. It was a game. Do you know what I'm afraid of? I'm afraid that it's possible that the only thing accomplished from it, really, was the releasing of Atem's and Bakura's souls."


Nobody said anything. Pegasus continued, "…not Zorc's. Is he still out there? I don't really know. I sent my excavation team to Egypt; they were able to find the destroyed tomb where we left the Millennium Items. We took the Eye. Now we have to go down there and get the rest of the items."


"Go to Egypt?" Téa asked, surprised. "Why didn't you bring them all with you, now? Why do we have to go there?"


"I don't want to touch all of them! They aren't mine to handle! They can't be together like that!"


We all exchanged uncomfortable looks, but Pegasus went on, "My team has cleared a path for us; they have found the tablet of the Pharaoh's Memories under a pile of rubble," excited, now. "I think the best thing in the world would be to give each of you a Millennium Item. That way, not only are they out of the tablet… because you know that Zorc needs them all to be together in order to resurrect if he's going to… but, you kids can control monsters in the case that Zorc is doing well on his own…"


"What, you want us to fight monsters with you?" Tristan asked, raising his eyebrows.


"If it comes to that!"


…actually, that was pretty interesting. If I had a Millennium Item, I could summon a God card. That's pretty cool. What were the odds that we couldn't defeat Zorc, especially if we summoned Horakhty in real life? Sweet.


"I wanna do it," I said. Pegasus smiled at me; everyone else frowned. "Isn't it dangerous…" Téa began, but Pegasus insisted, "It's dangerous not to! The truth is, it may be nothing. It may be absolutely nothing. Zorc may be long, long, long gone and that's very likely. I'm just worried of the off-chance that he's not very long gone at all. Please, won't you all do me this favor?"

She frowned, but then said, "Well… okay…" hesitantly.


"Cool!" Tristan said, having the same attitude that I did. "You're going to take us to Egypt?"


"Absolutely! Bright and early tomorrow morning, if you kids want! It's a long flight, even with my high-powered plane."


"You said you talked to Kaiba," Yugi said, as Pegasus stood up to leave. "What's he doing?"

"I called him after I called you. He asked if the aliens forgot to remove my anal probe."


Tristan snorted with laughter. Pegasus sighed. "So, to answer your question, Yugi-boy, he's just giving me trouble, like he always does. But, we need him- who better to hold a Millennium Item… particularly the Millennium Rod… than him? I'll get him to come with us. You'll find I can be very persuasive."


I didn't really like the sound of that, but agreed that Kaiba should come with us. He pissed me off almost all the time, but I had to say that, without him, we probably would have been trapped in many more horribly sticky situations than usual. He's saved my life quite a few times, I hated to admit.


"Fine," Téa said, "What time do you want us to meet at your airport?"


"As early as possible, tomorrow morning," Pegasus said cheerfully. "We must get a move-on! How about 5:00 A.M.?"


I groaned, but Yugi said, "Okay, I guess."


"Don't worry," Pegasus chirped. "My plane's high-powered engine will reduce the travel time by a little bit!"



-


We walked onto the private airplane bright and early the next morning. It was large, for what it was- there were ten rows of seats that lined the sides of the plane. Yugi, Téa, Tristan and I had all ridden on this plane before. We had all ridden here to go to Duelist Kingdom, the first time the Orichalcos had given the world trouble. The seats were in groups of four, situated so that they were facing each other.


I leapt onto a chair and bounced for a moment. The seats were very comfortable. Yugi sat down next to me. Tristan began to sit down in the seat across from me, but before he did, he asked, "Wait, is that Kaiba over there?"


I turned my head over my shoulder and looked at the group of seats that was behind us and saw the strangest thing I'd ever seen. Kaiba and Mokuba were sitting in two of the seats- sitting up, but their eyes were closed and they were …wearing pajamas. I knitted my eyebrows. They were both wearing button-down nightshirts and long pajama pants.


What were they doing there, like that…? I stood up out of my seat and approached them. "Hey, Kaiba?" I asked.


Neither of them moved. I was startled to see that they were both hardly breathing, and their heads both hung limply on their chests. They couldn't be just… sleeping?


Téa came up behind me and asked, "You don't think Pegasus… like, drugged or tranquilized them… do you?"


Yugi and Tristan came over to where we all were standing. I looked at Téa. "I wouldn't be totally surprised if that was true…"


"Hello, everyone!" Pegasus said, happily, from behind us. We all turned around. "Oh, you've found the Kaiba-boys. Funny sight, aren't they? Although, I must admit that I admire their taste in pajamas! They match, and everything!" He giggled and came and stood near where all of us were standing.


"Dude, are they okay?" Tristan asked, somewhat angrily- we could all tell, by the look of their pale faces and scarce breaths, that they weren't just sleeping-


"Well," Pegasus sighed, "You know Kaiba-boy. No matter how much and how nicely I asked, he just insists on not playing along… so I did what I had to do!"


Drugs. I knew it. But, then, Pegasus started fumbling in his coat pocket. Then, he pulled two cards out of his pocket and held them up. They looked like hand-painted portraits. One of them featured Kaiba, and the other, Mokuba. "What're you…" I began, but then, Pegasus said, "You're looking at their poor empty shells, lying there. We simply need them to cooperate, so I put their souls into these cards!"


There was a moment of silence; then, Téa shouted, "What? Pegasus, that's crazy! Don't… don't do that to them!"


"Why not?" Pegasus asked casually. "They'll only die if I leave them like this for a whole day… it's only been a few hours, now. They're fine. I'll put them back once we're in the air!"


He skipped off, leaving the four of us standing in stunned silence.


"I don't like him," Téa said, shakily, after a moment. "He's… he's nuts…!"


We were all frowning at the Kaiba brothers' crumpled figures. But, what could we do for them? We all sat back down in our seats and the plane started moving. I looked across Yugi out of the window and saw the scenery go flashing by. Then, I felt the wheels of the plane leave the ground. Here we were, going to Egypt, again. Yet another fantastic adventure to add to my collection.

Pegasus returned after we had been in the air for an hour or so. "I guess I ought to wake up the Kaiba boys," he said happily. He took the cards out of his pocket again and pressed the cards to their necks. His Millennium Eye glowed for a moment. Then, both Kaiba and Mokuba recoiled and took deep, shuddering breaths.


"Hello, boys!" Pegasus chirped happily.


Kaiba's hand gripped the armrest of the seat tightly. After a second, he forced his eyes open, and Pegasus leaned over him and said, "Good morning!"


Kaiba's hand clutched at his stomach. Obviously struggling to breathe properly, he weakly yet furiously gasped, "Pegasus… you cock-sucking bastard…" before coughing.


Mokuba whimpered and leapt out of his seat and rushed past us, towards the bathroom. Kaiba watched him go worriedly for a second but then Pegasus said, "Oh, come on, don't be mad!" Kaiba looked back up at Pegasus. "We're going to have a grand adventure! This wouldn't have happened if you had just agreed with me and come along!"


"Just… come along?" Kaiba snarled, between sharp breaths and frequent flinches from pain. I was actually scared. I didn't think I had ever seen him so angry. "I'm a …damn… businessman! I can't just… come and …agh! …go on adventures with you guys! And to force me… to, like this…"


"You won't regret this one," Pegasus said, happily. Kaiba now clutched at his chest and said, "You… are going to pay… for this…"


Pegasus seemed unafraid. He walked off gaily, pleased with what he had accomplished. If I was him, I would have probably jumped off of the plane by now.


Mokuba returned, looking pale and shaky. He whimpered, "I threw up."


Kaiba sighed, rubbing his forehead, and said, "I'm sorry. Are you okay now?" Mokuba nodded miserably and slunk back into his seat.


"Are you guys okay?" Téa asked. Kaiba looked up at her. "Okay enough," he said. Téa nodded and said, "I'm sorry Pegasus did that… do you want me to ask the stewardess for hot tea for you guys, or something?"


Kaiba's eyebrows raised, some. He said, "Well… yes, I suppose. Thank you." Téa walked off to find the stewardess.


It was a somewhat hesitant situation, as Kaiba had never really been friends with us. Mokuba was good-natured and was often friendly, but Kaiba's arrogant attitude and demeaning speech made him real hard to get along with. Part of me knew that deep down… way deep down, he was a pretty somewhat decent guy, but the majority of me was constantly furious with his put-downs. Though, we had all been on so many adventures together that, the truth was, we had all done each other huge favors, and thusly all respected each other at least to some extent.


Téa returned with the tea a few moments later. Drinking something warm brought color back to both of their faces. After a moment, Kaiba looked at Yugi and asked, "Do you have a cell phone with you?"


Yugi nodded, but said, "What, you want to make a phone call? Isn't that a bad idea, on a plane?"


Kaiba had this incredible talent for having the shadow from his bangs over his eyes make him look extremely threatening. That look on Kaiba's face immediately told Yugi that there was to be no arguing. Yugi reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone and handed it to him. Kaiba stood up somewhat shakily and walked to the back of the plane and out of sight. Mokuba watched him for a moment before finishing his drink and setting it down. "Thanks for getting that for us," he said to Téa, who asked, "Does your stomach feel okay?" He nodded in response.


"What happened to you guys?" Tristan asked. "Like, did Pegasus just burst into your house?"


"As far as I know," Mokuba said, with a shrug. "I woke up when I heard Seto swearing at him, real loudly. I went to investigate, and I saw that Pegasus was standing in his room, and by the time I had gotten there, he had already knocked Seto out- I guess he had leapt out of bed to confront Pegasus, because I found him on the ground." He sighed. "Pegasus turned around and saw me, and didn't even give me a chance to react before his stupid eye flashed and I felt this horrible pain right here…" he pointed to the spot directly over his heart, "and then of course, we woke up here. I don't know how he managed to get into the house. When did he get his eye back?"


"Not long ago," Yugi muttered.


Kaiba returned, then, and handed the phone back to Yugi, and sat back down in his seat. Pegasus came up to us a little bit later. He cheerily said, "We're about to land. Are you all ready?"


Nobody really said anything. I shrugged and Pegasus clapped his hands together once. "Good!" he said. "Oh, by the way, Kaibas… I'm sorry that you have to wear your jammies to the pyramid." Kaiba scowled. "I didn't want to go digging through your closet to get clothes for you… but, I did find your shoes!" He pulled two pairs of shoes out from under another seat. I hadn't noticed them before. "There you go. Well, get ready to get off of the plane!" He walked off. Grudgingly, Kaiba and Mokuba put on their shoes and stood up. They seemed healthy.


"Let's follow Pegasus," Yugi said.