“Are you sure that they would be here tonight?”
“Of course I’m sure! I got the information personally from Tea herself!”
“Did anyone remember to bring the napkins?”
“I got ‘em!”
The Wheelers, the Taylor-s, the Ishtar-s, the Bakura-s and Mr. Solomon Mutou were all gathered at Yami Forest, clattering and chattering about as they tried to set up the picnic, laying out the food, drinks and utensils on the huge widespread picnic cloth while Tea Gardner was on her way in her expensive steel blue SUV to meet up with the lot. The moon was full and high in the skies and the stars illuminated the night sky, as if knowing that they were preparing for the big event and helping them by giving them whatever light they could muster for them to see, although the camping lights they set about them were good enough to help them visually. A few minutes later, Tea’s SUV drove past a distance and parked her car along with the others’ and got off hurriedly with a big thermos pail.
“Hey, guys! Am I too late? Are they here yet?” Tea yelled as she came close to the group.
“Nope, you’re early,” ‘Mrs.’ Taylor replied. “They’re not here yet.”
“Thank goodness,” Tea sighed in relief. “I hope you guys like 1982 Sauvignon.”
“Ah, liquid of the Gods, they’d say,” Mr. Ishtar said as he took the pail from her and inspected the wine bottle.
“It’s still hard to believe that it’s been almost a year since they left,” Solomon lamented as he helped Mrs. Wheeler to lay out the main course.
“Yeah,” Mr. Bakura agreed. “And it’s hard to believe how much our grandkids have grown.”
“I was shocked when I woke up from this weird dreamless sleep and hearing Joey said he had come to say his goodbyes,” Mr. Wheeler grinned. “I almost thought he was going to do something stupid, but I guess my son truly loves his ol’ Seto so much to make this decision.”
“I was a little upset at first,” Solomon agreed. “I thought Yugi was making a rather brash decision, forsaking everything to go live a life that was absolutely foreign to him, but when Lord Seth performed the transformation and Yugi did nothing to hold back, I knew I couldn’t keep Yugi forever.”
“I’ve always thought of Lord Seth to be a no-nonsense, no fun kind of guy,” ‘Mrs’. Bakura said. “I didn’t think he’d be the one to actually suggest this sort of deal. But I have to admit, unable to be part of our kids’ future lives is definitely a big setback.”
“At least we were allowed a monthly visitation,” ‘Mrs.’ Taylor said, “even if it is only for a day.”
“I guess you’re right on that. I didn’t take Ryou to be such a romantic. He’s always been the goody-good boy and the studious little geek in the family. I guess kids these days are just full of surprises.”
“I thought my son never had a soft side,” Mr. Ishtar laughed. “My ‘wife’ and I were constantly worrying our heads off over whether or not is he ever going to marry a decent man with such ego and ferocity of his. I swear he got that from his Egyptian warrior ancestors. To think that he would actually succumb to that Whisperer lad with such a submissive level, it’s hard to decide whether we should be relieved or not about this new him.”
“I was also surprised to receive the news about them joining the Night Clan as well,” Tea said. “You should’ve seen my face when those middle men quads Fortuno, Charlie and Bickford, and Snipes announced to me that Joey, Yugi, Malik, Tristan and Ryou are no longer considered a citizen of Domino Island and requested that I erase them from the citizenship registrar records. Miho said I looked like someone just died or something, and seriously, I thought that they’ve done something really crazy and got themselves banished or something!”
“People have been hounding me with questions about my kid’s whereabouts after they didn’t see him for more than two weeks after the confinement period,” ‘Mrs.’ Bakura said, “and my daughter had been curious, but it didn’t take long for her to understand without having me explaining where her twin brother has gone, and she was fine with it. She did us a great favour to spin some sort of romantic white lie to those who asked about my Ryou meeting a prince charming while he was emotionally healing and said that this ‘prince charming’ had swept him off his feet and brought him to his hometown to marry. I swear the fairy tales I used to read to her when she was a child definitely come in handy.”
“Where is your daughter anyway?” Solomon asked. “She’s not joining us this month?”
“Got her sights set on the new kid in town. She’d rather date him than see her brother, saying that she sees his brother every month anyway. She sure is a free-spirited girl.”
“So what did you explain your son’s disappearance to your friends, Rishid?”
“I had to tell my friends my son decided to go on a self-discovery pilgrimage to help cope with the loss of his son,” ‘Mrs.’ Ishtar replied. “During the one month confinement, they understood that Malik did not want visitors, but, like Hector’s situation, I had to tell them something after everyone noticed that he stopped going to school. They were sympathetic when I mentioned Malik was devastated when his son was announced Whisperer-dominant and didn’t ask any further. Well, technically, we weren’t lying, coz Malik did look like he wanted to just jump off the building and die. What did you tell your friends, Solomon?”
“Oh, I didn’t tell them anything,” Solomon replied. “It was Tea who helped me spin the tale, although her boss and the rest of the girls in the department—Mai included—knew the truth. I just confirmed whatever she said after she gave me the heads-up.”
“Well, what did you tell them, Tea?” Mr. Taylor was curious.
“I told them that after the pregnancy and the birth, Yugi’s powers he had inherited from his exorcist parents finally came into full bloom and decided to pursue his late parents’ career,” Tea said. “And I told them he arranged with me to send him on private exorcism tutelage in a remote third-world country. No one was the wiser. Besides, no one doubts an Immortal, well, not much anyway. What about you, Bobby?”
“Pretty simple, actually,” Mr. Taylor replied. “Since my little Tristy is a crazy adrenaline jock junkie, everyone was not surprised that told them that he decided to quit school to join the athletic field and pursue a career as a professional athlete, although they were rather surprised that he would leave at such short notice. I even told them that he went off to seek some of the most seasoned retired athletes to train him and said that he wished to return home a champion and refused to tell us where he would be undergoing his training. Many of his jock underlings were rather sad to hear him go though, for they would never find anyone else capable in sports like him. I guess that’s something I can be proud of.”
“But he still couldn’t get over his love for cuddly things,” ‘Mrs.’ Taylor chuckled heartily. “On the day he left, he insisted I go back home to get him his favourite frog plushie and his favourite kitten Puddles with him. No matter how that Duke fellow tried to coax him out of it, he wouldn’t listen, and he wouldn’t leave without them even though Lord Seth told him to grow out of those things. You can imagine how fast and how much speed limit I broke just to drive home to get them and come back to the hospital again.”
“Glad my son doesn’t have any annoying attachments like yours,” Mr. Wheeler chuckled, “although I did discover his hidden stash of porn hidden up in the ceiling tiles.”
“I heard from everyone that your son decided to transfer to an elite school in Romania to pursue a career in business and become a CEO of the gaming industry,” Mr. Ishtar said. “Did you really tell that crazy tale to everyone?”
“Actually it was my idea, Ted, not Al’s,” Mrs. Wheeler raised her hand and grinned sheepishly. “I’ve always seen my Joey being exceptionally talented in games. Why, remember that Chinese kid Feng Long who challenged Joey into an arcade game duel when Joey was only 9? He practically rocked the socks off him with an almost perfect score and won the 1,000 dollar cash prize, and that kid was about twice his age and had been known to be the games prodigy in his hometown.”
“Oh yeah,” Tea grinned, remembering the day he decided to treat his friends to a lavish teppanyaki dinner after the duel. “We definitely remember that, Linda.”
“Usually it’s the closer friends that took a rather hard blow of their disappearance,” Mr Bakura said as he lit the final lamp and replaced the glass cover back on before putting it beside another lamp on the grass. “We do miss them from time to time, but other than that, life seemed to go on normally. Everyone else seemed to be OK with them gone.”
“You don’t say,” Solomon sighed. “I had to handle Yugi’s not-so-secret admirers, demanding where I ‘hid’ Yugi and crying and begging me to tell them his true whereabouts so that they could go there and look for him. Kids these days. Yugi doesn’t even realize how attractive he is to his fellow human men.”
“But then he wouldn’t have met up with the love of his life now, would he?” Tea smiled warmly at the old grandfather.
“Now that is the best I’ve heard all day, Tea dear.”
As they put the finishing touches to their picnic dinner, they would occasionally look around to detect any presence, may it be the arrival of their VIP guests or unwanted prying eyes. The last thing they’d want happen would be some random people finding about their monthly night escapades. They could do without having to create any hubbub and unwanted attention in the island.
“Our kids seemed to be very at ease with their new physical looks now, and their fluency in Whisperer language astounds me every time I hear him speak with their mates and kids,” Mr. Ishtar said in pride, reminiscing the day he and his ‘wife’ first saw the changes in him as if it were yesterday.
“I assume you, Bobby and Al have received the news I got from the human middle men,” Tea noted, earning a happy nod from Mr. Ishtar in reply.
“Oh, what news? Pray tell,” ‘Mrs.’ Bakura was interested.
“I thought I told you,” ‘Mrs.’ Ishtar replied. “We’re going to be grandparents again. Malik, Tristan and Joey are pregnant again. Malik would be expecting twins, and Tristan and Joey a baby each. It is not known of their gender or dominance, though.”
“Well, that’s fantastic!” Mr. Bakura exclaimed and clapped Mr. Wheeler on the back. “Congratulations, Al, Linda!”
“I do hope it’s Human-dominant this time,” Mrs. Wheeler said hopefully. “It’s nice to have a baby around the house again.”
“True, but then it’s still our kids’ decision whether to let us look after them or not,” ‘Mrs.’ Taylor agreed. “After all, they are the parents.”
“Shush!” Tea hushed everyone, drawing their attention. “I think I hear them coming!”
As everyone quiet down, they could hear the ever familiar slight muffled rumbling noise and sparks of static they anticipated every month of the visitation day. Everyone crowded to the spot where the usual vortex supposed to appear and waited impatiently. The first people who jumped out of the vortex were, of course, their little grand-pups. All of them tottered or crawled towards their grandparents, calling them in baby-talk.
“Oh, goodness! My, my, how you have grown, kids!”
The next people to come out soon followed. First, out stepped Ryou Bakura and Bakura hand in hand, followed by Duke Devlin and Tristan Taylor, after that Yugi Mutou and Yami Atem, then Malik Ishtar and Marik, and finally Joseph “Joey” Wheeler with Seto Kaiba at his wake before Seto closed the vortex with his Millennium Rod. They all look the same as they were since the day they left Domino Island and their human lives for good, but the only difference was that Joey and the gang were wearing what female Whisperers wore back when they existed and they were sporting huge bat-like wings that spread as wide as a Halfling like Duke Devlin would, and when they spoke, it came out either silky or husky, depending on the person.
“Hey, Ma. Hey, Pa,” Joey said as he came and hugged his parents. “How’s life treatin’ ya?”
“Lovely, sweetie. Just lovely, now that you’re here,” Mrs. Wheeler reciprocated. “How’s the baby doing?”
“Fine,” Joey smiled as he unveiled the robe to show his slightly protruding tummy. “Imma ‘bout 3 months along now, but I dinna think I’d git knocked up again so soon.”
“You and your articulation, son,” Mr. Wheeler sighed in defeat. “Even as a Whisperer, you still speak worse than your Grandpa.”
“Am not!”
“Puppy dear,” Seto said as he approached Joey with an arm around his waist. “You don’t seem to be able to get by without at least having to clash tongues with your father once, do you?”
“But he started it,” Joey whined in Whisperer Tongue to his beloved.
“Remember what the Royal Medics say about your hyper emotions, Puppy dear.”
“Yes, luv. I dinna forget.”
“So, son,” Mr. Taylor said as he came to Tristan. “Looking a little pudgy, I see?”
“Dad! I am not fat!” Tristan protested as he punched his father’s shoulder softly. “I’m only 3 months along!”
“Keeping you fairly awake now, didn’t he, Duke?” ‘Mrs.’ Taylor asked slyly as he noticed the dark rings under his Halfling son-in-law’s eyes.
“He is rather ‘frivolous’ at times, Father, not that I really mind,” Duke grinned, earning a death glare from a very blushing red Tristan.
“Look what I’ve got for all of you,” Solomon said as he took out a huge pouch and opened it for all the pups to see. Their eyes sparkled at the sight of the content. “It’s your favourite jellybeans!”
Snow, Destiny, Hope, Night, Dragon, Naga, Winchester, Tenenbaum and Shuu cooed in unison as they reached their hand into the pouch to take their share of jellybeans and giggled as they compared colours with each other.
“Don’t eat too much, children,” Yugi said as he picked Destiny while Yami picked Hope up. “You don’t want to spoil your dinner,” Yugi then spoke humorously in Human Tongue, “I hope Tea hasn’t worked you to death.”
“Oh, don’t you worry your socks off, Yugi,” Solomon chuckled. “I’m as strong as an ox!”
“And I did not work your grandpa to death,” Tea protested. “I’ve been very lenient to him these days, thank you very much.”
“Ah, Tea, frisky as always, aren’t we?”
“You’re still the little squirt I always know. Don’t you forget that!” Tea grinned as she gave Yugi a noogie, earning a hearty chuckle by Yugi, Solomon and Yami.
“How Marik treating you?” ‘Mrs.’ Ishtar asked. “Not bruising you again, I hope.”
“And miss out mind-blowing sex? You’re kidding, right, Mom?” Malik grinned naughtily, earning his ‘mother’s rolling eyes of defeat as a reply.
“Please keep your private bed life to yourself, son,” Mr. Ishtar groaned. “And don’t overdo it. You have twins to think about.”
“Don’t worry, Dad. Marik’s been very gentle,” Malik replied. His parents definitely did not want to know his definition of ‘gentle’.
“So how’s working under Lord Katz been for you?” ‘Mrs.’ Bakura asked Ryou who was carrying Shuu.
“It was fine so far,” Ryou replied. “Who would’ve thought that a Whisperer would be pregnant for exactly a year? It was a rather big hubbub when we first set foot into the Sky City as Whisperers after we consummate the deal and chose the transformation. He just collapsed all of a sudden and the birth took almost 4 hours.”
“Yeah, I remember you telling me that he almost died of blood loss or something,” Mr. Bakura said as he cuddled Winchester and Tenenbaum. “So are he and his three pups still alright?”
“Oh, they’re fine. Fit as a fiddle, I’d say. They’re really best friends with our kids, and being Lord Katz’s personal assistant handling all his paperwork was a breeze, although I’m still trying to get the hang of reading Whisperer language.”
“Guys! Come on! Dinner’s gonna be cold if you don’t hurry up and tuck in!” Tea called as she popped the wine bottle open and poured everyone’s drink.
“We’re coming!” Solomon replied and invited everyone to have their picnic dinner.
As everyone chattered and ate merrily, the moon and stars continued to shine diligently for them, allowing them to savour the night of family togetherness before the morning sun makes it appearance to see them off home for another month.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Whispers in the Dark-Chp25
“Wh…Where am I…?”
Joey opened his eyes slowly. Instead of the usual thorn vine garden, he was greeted with the sight of white ceiling tiles and the slow and steady beeps of the heartbeat machine. A few sun rays managed to seep into the cracks of the half-closed drapes from the window that looked out to the city and lined itself throughout the room and against the other side of the wall. The window itself was fogging up because of the cold snow and muffled sounds of people passing by outside the room on both sides. The ticking of the digital clock on the wall showed that it was around 3pm on a cold December afternoon.
“H…How long was I out…?” Joey whispered, his voice a little hoarse because of long-term disuse. He turned his stiff neck a little to look around and noticed that he was in a white room that stank of disinfectant. It didn’t take long for him to remember that he was in a hospital. Scenes of his encounter with Maximillion Pegasus and his days in the Lair came running back into his memory bank as his train of thoughts slowly but steadily unhinged from the rusts of time and turned, working its way through the conscious world. He touched his protruding belly and felt something rather unsettling, but he just smiled and ignored the feeling, thinking it being probably hunger or his babies moving.
As his mind cleared little by little, he turned to the other side to see Seto’s head propped on his arms as he slept while one hand was holding possessively on his. He began remembering the words Maximillion Pegasus spoke to him as he studied Seto’s features. He looked slightly pale and thin, and his hair was a little messy, possibly bed hair or something. There were dark rings under his eyes and Joey could tell he never really had a good night’s sleep—or for his case, a good day’s sleep—and his breathing was slightly ragged, like he had just finished crying. He realized how true Maximillion Pegasus’ words rang in his mind about Seto truly caring about him and not blaming him a single bit. He knew then that if Seto had hated him for what he had done, he wouldn’t be here starving and staying up for him and being by his side. The feeling of Majah’s touches, kisses and his offending member inside him still lingered, but somehow after his talk with Maximillion Pegasus, it didn’t seem so bad anymore. He knew he could handle it if he had Seto by his side, and realized how foolish and selfish he was for letting himself be so childish. Tears fell from Joey’s honey-brown eyes as he reached his other free hand that was touching his pregnant belly over to Seto and stroke his cheek softly.
“I’m sorry, Dragon…I didn’t know…I’m sorry…”
The feeling of Joey’s soft stroke on his cheek slowly made Seto stir from his sleep. He blinked his eyes open and rubbed the sleep off them before looking up to see a sobbing Joey stroking his face tearfully. He immediately shot up and hugged him, purring and whining as tears fell out of his ice-blue eyes uncontrollably.
“Puppy…! Puppy…!” Seto whimpered, kissing Joey’s cheeks over and over again as his own salty tears smeared all over him.
“Oh God, Dragon. I’m so sorry…” Joey sobbed, hugging Seto back tightly. “I didn’t know you’d care…I thought…I thought you’d hate me…”
“No…No hate…”
“I feel so dirty…Ya still luv me even wen Imma dirty ho?”
“Shh…No say that…Not dirty…”
“It…It hurts…”
“I’m…here…”
“No, I mean…It hurts, my stomach…”
Seto let Joey go and noticed that Joey was wincing in pain, his hand clutching his bulging abdomen tightly. A wet spot on the bed indicated that his water had broken. He quickly reached over to press the alarm button to call for medical help. A midwife soon barged in, gasped and hollered for backup, shouting that Joey’s has awakened and has gone into labour. Word began to spread fast of Joey’s awakening as the other young ‘mothers’ who have been following up along with Joey’s gang passed the word-of-mouth about the news, which soon reached to the four’s ears. They hurriedly followed behind the rest to gather around the ICU to see the doctor and midwives rushing in with the necessary equipment to help with Joey’s labour. One of the midwife assistants went to the waiting lounge where Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler spent their nights there to break the news and they, too, went into the ICU to accompany their son before the doctor closed and locked the door and pulled the drapes from all prying eyes.
“Oh my little Joey, I was so worried,” Mrs. Wheeler hugged her son in relief. “You gave us a scare there.”
“Imma so sorry, Ma, Pa, Imma so sorry,” Joey sobbed, yelping as a contraction hit him hard.
“It’s alright now, son. Just hang in there,” Mr. Wheeler rubbed his son’s back. “The midwives are gonna help you now.”
“Ow, ow, ow! Da head! I can feel da head!” Joey screamed as he held onto Seto tight. Seto hugged him back and hushed him, purring at his ear to soothe him and help ride out the pain.
“Looks like the baby’s good to go,” the doctor said as he pushed the blanket up to Joey’s thighs and spread his legs. He inspected for a moment and announced, “Yup, he’s fully dilated now and I can feel the head coming. OK, Joseph, on the count of three: one…two…push!”
Joey sat up with the help of Seto and let out a strangled yell as he pushed with all his might. Voices of coaching from both the doctors and the midwives and his parents echoed throughout the room, all of them helping Joey to keep his strengths up and help him with the delivery. Even those outside the ICU were either biting their nails or praying or silently cheering them on as they gave their moral support to Joey who was suffering the wrath of childbirth inside.
“Almost there,” the doctor, who was in charge of catching the birth, coached. “It’s almost out.”
“Shit, fuckin’ shit! Agh, it hurts!!!” Joey cried, gripping Seto’s hand to the point of almost crushing it.
“Just a little bit more, Joseph.”
Joseph screamed in pain as he pushed the baby out for the doctor to catch. Tiny squalls of the baby’s first breath of air rang throughout the room and everyone, including those outside waiting, breathed a sigh of relief. By then, Lord Seth had heard the news and, along with Lord Katz, stood outside the ICU waiting for the delivery to be over.
“It’s a little pure boy,” the doctor announced as he cut the umbilical cord and passed it to a nearby midwife to be passed to Joey and Seto. Joey, with trembling hands, reached over to take his little baby.
“Oh, he’s beautiful, Dragon, look,” Joey whispered as he showed the baby to his beloved. Seto purred and nuzzled his nose against the baby’s, smiling proudly and fatherly at the sight of the tiny little treasure he and Joey created.
“Dragon…” Seto whispered back as he pointed at the baby. Joey realized that he was naming him.
“Yeah, Dragon. I like dat name…Ow!”
Before he could savour the moment, another contraction hit him, indicating that his other twin baby wanted out. The midwife took the baby from his arms and passed it to another midwife who, in turn, washed and cleaned the baby in a tub of warm water. Joey whined, reaching his hand out to ask for the baby back.
“It’s OK, sweetie,” Mrs. Wheeler said, holding him back. “They’re just gonna clean him up. You got another one you need to take care of.”
“It hurts…I canna do it anymore…I’m too tired…” Joey panted, wincing at the incoming contraction.
“Yes, you can, son. A Wheeler never gives up,” Mr. Wheeler coaxed.
“No…No, I can’t…”
Seto took Joey’s chin and planted a deep kiss on his lips. Neither of them moved. Their lips just pressed together, enjoying each other’s warmth as Seto tried to convey in his own way his concern, love and faith he had on Joey, urging him to be strong. Joey returned his kiss by pressing against him even harder while sobbing. After a couple of minutes being like this, the need for air and the contraction within Joey broke them apart. After coaching Joey into breathing, the doctor quickly told him to push, in which he did.
“That’s very good, Joseph, keep going.”
Joey’s hospital gown was getting drenched with his sweat as he pushed as hard as he could.
“That’s it, son. You can do it.”
Joey practically ripped off his father’s sleeve, but neither cared about that.
“Come on, sweetie, just a bit more.”
Blood, blood and more blood began to seep through the bed sheets and Joey’s head was beginning to spin.
“You’re almost there, Joseph. Keep it up.”
“God, it hurts…!!!” Joey cried, his tears flowing out of his eyes like rain.
“Just a bit more, Joseph,” a midwife coached. “Just give it a big hard push.”
Joey took a deep breath and pushed.
“Almost there. Push harder, Joseph.”
Seto winced as Joey gripped his hand harder than before, but he wouldn’t let go, now that he had him.
“Harder, Joseph, harder!”
“Wat da fuck do ya think Imma doin’?!”
Everyone, including the ones outside winced at Joey’s harsh yell. The four tried to stifle a laugh.
“One more push, I promise, just one more push.”
Joey panted, took another deep breath and let out a strangled scream for the umpteenth time as he pushed down with all his might. Finally a loud, strong cry was heard as the doctor helped the newborn baby he caught to breath. His older brother joined in the crying as soon as he heard his younger brother cried and soon, two little squalling winged infants were in Joey and Seto’s arms.
“Congratulations, Joseph. You have a pair: a pure boy and a herm boy. Good work.”
“Good work, son!” Mr. Wheeler congratulated, patting his son’s back. Mrs. Wheeler was at loss of words as she cried tears of joy looking her son carrying her little Halfling grandchildren.
“They’re perfect, luv. They look just like ya,” Joey spoke, his throat a little sore from screaming for so long. “What do you think, Seto?”
Seto nodded in agreement.
“What do you want to name the other…”
Before Joey could finished, the atmosphere became hushed as Lord Seth entered the room. Joey’s heart skipped a beat. This was it: Lord Seth was going to use his nose to tell whether his twins are Whisperer-dominant or not. Quietly with the cold aura lingering about him, he walked towards Joey who was carrying one of the twins and lowered his head, sniffing silently. Then he leaned forward to Seto who was carrying the other twin and sniffed silently again. He straightened up and gave the knowing look to Lord Katz. Lord Katz understood that gesture and came close to Joey.
“Well? Are my grandkids Whisperer- or Human-dominant?” Mr. Wheeler asked.
“I’m sorry to say that they are Whisperer-dominant,” Lord Katz replied in Human Tongue. “You will have to be part of the Sending Off ceremony, I’m afraid. If you please…”
Lord Katz gestured Joey to pass the twin he was carrying to Seto. Joey’s swollen eyes welled up again as he reluctantly passed the baby to Seto. As Seto regretfully took the baby, Joey begged, “Please, luv, let me at least know their names.”
Seto nodded and jerked his head to one twin, “Dragon,” then jerked his head to the other, “Naga.”
“Dragon, Naga,” Joey repeated. “They sound perfect. Take good care of ‘em, will ya?”
Seto nodded in promise and gave a deep passionate kiss to Joey before leaving together with Lord Katz and Lord Seth to join his fellow Whisperers who were already waiting in a visitor’s lounge with their Whisperer-dominant pups, leaving Joey sobbing in Mrs. Wheeler’s arms and Mr. Wheeler shaking his head in dismay. As they passed by the waiting crowd outside, the four could tell from Seto’s facial expression that Lord Seth had yet again announced another Whisperer-dominant child. They quickly went in and had a group hug, comforting the grieving Joey.
“Are you happy now?” Seto growled under his throat. “I have honoured the tradition, stayed by my mate’s side until he gave birth, and you have broken his heart by announcing that he will never see our pups again. Are you happy now, brother?”
“Brother dearest, please…” Lord Katz pleaded, not wanting the twin brothers to start another fight. Lord Seth turned sharply towards Seto and glared at him.
“Is that a challenge? Even now you defy me. I have yet to reprimand you for that very unrespectable and irresponsible act you allowed happen, making His Majesty come all the way for such trivial matters as your unworthy mate! I should’ve known you have not learnt your lesson! Do you wish to be issued the Forbidden Blue’s curse again?!”
“Go ahead! I’d rather die than be separated from my Puppy ever again! My Puppy had been through so much, now he has to suffer another blow of sadness again. If this is the tradition you take such great pride in, I wish I was never part of this.”
The twins shot a long 5 minute death glare at each other, with Lord Katz worrying in the background. Finally, Lord Seth released his death glare hold and turned around, speaking with his back facing his brother, “Go to the visitors’ lounge and join your fellow brethren. The Sending Off ceremony starts tomorrow at midnight.”
And that, without giving Seto a chance to argue, he gave one last icy look at Seto before he left the hospital without a word, with Lord Katz tailing behind him, leaving Seto to his own thoughts.
“This is not fair!”
Seto banged at the door of the lounge, fiddling with the knob to see if it would budge. So far, no luck. As soon as Seto entered the room, someone closed the door behind him and locked him from the outside, and Seto found himself facing a whole group of new Whisperer fathers sitting in the room looking rather forlorn. His fellow friends didn’t look too cheerful either.
“It’s no use, brother,” Yami said as he hushed Destiny and Hope. “Ever since Lord Seth announced that the ceremony would be held at midnight tomorrow, we have been, what humans would call, ‘sequestered’. We are isolated from our mates with one of our Royal Guards standing out there guarding the door, letting no one in or out except to let the human midwives in to feed our babies with milk formula or to issue us their daily supply of diapers.”
“Personally, I think Lord Seth is trying to keep us away from our mates,” Bakura commented. “I don’t believe for a single moment that this ‘sequestering’ is meant for all of us.”
“Curse it!” Seto banged at the door one last time before giving it a kick and stomped to a nearby sofa to sit. “Seth is going to pay dearly for this! I am definitely going to give him a telling off after the ceremony!”
“Please, brother,” Duke said as he patted Snow’s back to help him burp. “It’s over now. Our jobs are done. There’s nothing we do about it anymore. Just leave it be. Don’t make it worse as it is.”
“And allow our mates to die of misery and heartbreak?!” Marik growled. “Has Lord Seth not caused enough damage already?! First he punished us for loving our mates, now he’s punishing our mates for loving and carrying our pups to term by separating us like this! How could he have the heart to do this?!”
“After the ceremony, we will never see our mates again. Not even a single parental visitation is allowed…” Yami trembled as he leaned against the wall before slumping down. “H…How…How would I survive without my Light…?”
“My Soldier was so devastated when Lord Seth announced Snow to be Whisperer-dominant,” Duke said as he cradled Snow. “I fear he would do worse to himself than just cry a river.”
“Mine too,” Marik said, his tone sounding a little worried. “Without me to give him ‘special treatment’, I fear he would do himself much more damage than I can give him.”
“My Princess is too fragile to be separated from either of us,” Bakura spoke with a quiver in his voice, “He tried so hard to hide his sadness and pain from me when Lord Seth made the announcement, but I call tell that he is not as strong as he looks.”
Seto remained quiet, listening to his fellow brethren’s woes about their mates’ possible fate after the ceremony. He didn’t want to think of it, neither did he dare to think of it, but he knew deep down in his heart, the possibility of his little Puppy ending up the way his fellow brethren feared their mates may end up as well was no further from the truth.
“Hey, Jo. You OK?” Tristan asked, tapping Joey, who was looking out at the falling snow outside, on the shoulder.
“Yeah, sorta,” Joey replied half-heartedly.
“Phew! For a moment there I thought you went back to the zombie’s state,” Yugi said as he wiped away an imaginary sweat.
“I ain’t dat dumb,” Joey chuckled and punched playfully at Yugi’s chin.
Joey and the gang were in Joey’s new hospital room chatting away while waiting for the hour of the ceremony to arrive. After being diagnosed by both the doctor and the psychiatrist, Joey was deemed fit to be transferred to a regular room and free from possible therapy or counseling. The four would come often into Joey’s room to chitchat with him and reminiscence about the days they were pregnant and all their misadventures while helping Joey to cope by talking and discussing about his experience and how he can handle it without being overreacting and over-dwelling on it. The midwives told them that after the ceremony, they will have to undergo the one-month confinement period like all previous ‘mothers’ did after childbirth to prevent their bodies from any possible future complications and to help them heal up both in physical and in strength, especially those who had to undergo Caesarean due to birth complications.
They were issued a steady diet of chicken cooked in rice wine and sugar cane juice and were told to take short walks daily even if it’s just around the hospital grounds or in the recreational area behind the hospital. And everyday the midwives will pay a visit to the ‘mothers’ to be pumped of their breast milk to feed the babies currently looked after by the Whisperers in the visitors’ lounge, but so far they were still not allowed visitations or even allowed to go to the floor where the visitors’ lounge was and gave no explanation as to why the isolation. But Joey and the gang can pretty much guess what’s going on.
“I miss my triplets,” Ryou sighed as he touched his now flat tummy. “I’m so used to carrying them and now that they’re not in me, I just feel…like something’s missing.”
“Why don’t they let us see our baby?” Tristan grumbled. “It’s just not fair! We won’t get to see them anymore and they don’t let us spend some last moments together!”
“I heard it’s because they wanted to remove the attachments between ‘mother’ and child so that they won’t be any trouble during the ceremony,” Yugi explained. “They don’t want us to make a fuss and cry and get all hysterical when our mates leave off with our kids.”
“I guess it’s…understandable,” Malik admitted. “If I have my Night ripped off from me one more time, I swear I’ll go into a crazy murdering rampage, tradition or no tradition.”
“Still, I’d feel happy if I could just hold Dragon and Naga, just this once,” Joey lamented. “I miss them so much.”
“We should’ve admitted to each other about our feelings for our mates sooner,” Malik sighed. “Then we could’ve prayed hard together at the temple and maybe, just maybe, they’ll grant our wish and let us have Human-dominant babies.”
“Unfortunately, statistic-wise,” Ryou said, his mind going into studious mode, “throughout the generations they have been giving birth to more Whisperer-dominant babies than Human-dominant babies. There has never been a statistic offset since the beginning of the ritual, there’s no reason why it should…”
“Would you cut it out?!” Yugi suddenly snapped, shocking everyone. “Who gives a fucking damn about the statistics?! All we want is someone that can be by our side so that we won’t have to spend the rest of our lives being so fucking lonely missing our mates and wondering how they and our babies are doing! I understand that we will never see Yami or Seto or Bakura or the others that we love, but at least we have someone to remember them by! Is that so much to ask?! God, how much more hurt they can do?!”
Yugi soon fell on his knees, broke down and cried, while the others watched in shock. They have never seen Yugi bursting out like this before, not even when they had disputes between themselves and argued. He had always been the pacifier and the peacemaker of the group and never really raised his voice, unless it was out of fear or shock. But deep down, they knew he spoke the truth. Every last word he said was exactly how they felt, and it must’ve hard for Yugi who had been the goody-goody guy in the group to hold it all in.
“C’mere, Yug,” Joey knelt down in front of Yugi and hugged him close to his chest. “Well, s’bout time ya bin honest tuh yerself. It’s alrigh’. Let it all out.”
Yugi bawled and buried his face in Joey’s chest, crying like he hasn’t been crying for ages. The rest of the gang joined in a group hug and let Yugi pour out his sadness and frustrations in their arms.
“I want my Destiny! I want my Hope! I want my Yami! I want them back! It’s not fair! It’s not fair!!!”
“It’s OK, Yug, we’re here for you,” Tristan said, letting his tears fall free, followed by the others.
As they held and comforted each other, a silent figure slinked away quietly from Joey’s door, avoiding from being seen.
The clock chimed twelve, indicating that it was already midnight. Lord Katz came up to the Whisperer guarding the visitors’ lounge door and nodded his head. The Whisperer bowed before unlocking the door and announcing to all the new Whisperer fathers inside that it was time for the ceremony.
“Alright, brothers. It’s time. You may leave now to the front of the building,” the guard said, “except you, milords.”
“What?” Seto and his brethren were surprised to be stopped in their tracks by the guard. “Brother-in-law, what is the meaning of this?”
“You will see soon,” Lord Katz smiled. “Please come along with me.”
Seto and his brethren were confused as to why the sudden change of atmosphere, but they knew better than to go against the second-in-command of the royal throne. As they gave one last look at the Whisperers following behind the guard towards the direction of the hospital entrance, they followed Lord Katz up to the floor where the staff of the hospital usually have their important, sometimes secret, meetings at the second top floor. Inside, they were shocked to see their human beloved cornered by Lord Seth and a few Ethereals Royal Advisors from the royal office of Maximillion Pegasus.
“Brother! What are you doing to my Puppy?!” Seto demanded, but was held back by Lord Seth’s cold glare.
“Nothing more than I would allow myself to do, if that’s what you are wondering about, my blood brother,” Lord Seth replied, standing between Seto and his brethren and Joey and his gang. “Honestly, the things I do for you ever since you were a pup.”
“What does that suppose to mean?”
“Wat da heck are dey talking tuh each other?” Joey whispered to his friends, earning a group shrug by them as a reply. They couldn’t understand any of this sudden happenings either. One moment they were all prepared to meet their Whisperer mates for the Sending Off ceremony as soon as they heard the clock chimed twelve, the next moment the Royal Advisors came into their room unannounced, ignoring and putting their questioning parents into a deep slumber and ushered them up to the staff’s meeting room and come face to face with Lord Seth, the Lord of the Whisperers of the Night Clan. It all happened so fast that they didn’t even have time to react, and being left in the dark like this was not exactly helping.
“What do you want, brother? Another swearing to you that we will stay away from our human mates? I am not going to do it. I’m sick and tired of following your…”
“Silence, Seto Kaiba!” Lord Seth growled suddenly, making everyone jump. Seto stopped talking. Whenever Lord Seth called him by his full name (the surname was their mother’s name), he knew he meant business, and that he knew better than to interrupt anything his twin brother wished to say.
“Now that I have your attention,” Lord Seth continued, “I was about to propose something to your human counterparts, which is something that has never been done in the history of Ethereal or humankind. This is the first and last time I will ever do such a big favour for you, and no matter how much I despise going against protocol, I…” he hesitated before looking away, his face looking slightly pink on the cheeks, “I have to admit…I do not wish your grief, and it’s the least a blood brother could do for his younger blood brother after all these centuries of hardship.
“I assume you all are able to understand Human Tongue audibly, so I shall switch my language for your human counterparts’ sake,” Lord Seth said before taking a deep breath and faced Joey and the gang, speaking in Human Tongue, “Forgive the sudden surprise, but I do not wish to have any other prying eyes or ears while I do this.”
“Do what?” Yugi asked. “What exactly are we doing here? Why aren’t we part of the Sending Off ceremony?”
“Yeah,” Tristan butted in. “Aren’t we supposed to be at the hospital entrance watching our mates leave with our babies?”
“Well, circumstance that arose has changed the outcome,” Lord Seth replied. “But first, let me ask you all one thing: How much do you love my brother and his brethren?”
“Imma willin’ tuh sell mah soul tuh da Devil ‘imself if I coulda just hav a minute wif mah Seto,” Joey replied wholeheartedly.
“I’ll climb the highest mountain and swim the deepest sea if it means being able to be with Duke Devlin forever,” Tristan replied.
“I’m willing to die for him to save my Master Marik’s life,” Malik replied, his hand on the choker around his neck.
“I’ll fall from heaven and rise from hell just to find my Yami,” Yugi replied, his eyes never leaving his beloved.
“I’d do everything my friends had said they would do for their mates and more just to even catch a glimpse of my Bakura,” Ryou replied despite the blush on his face.
Lord Seth glanced at his royal mate and, after earning a nod from him, turned back to Joey and the gang and said, “What I am about to say is something no one alive or dead has ever done before. Neither Ethereal nor human has ever attempted to do this. It may actually alter the very fabric of your mortal lives forever. So, as you human say in terms of striking deals, ‘take it or leave it’.”
As Lord Seth continued, outside, the snow fell on every human standing at ground level and on every crevice of earth as they watched the Whisperers flew off from their stand towards the direction of the Yami Forest, their flapping wings echoed into the night.
Joey opened his eyes slowly. Instead of the usual thorn vine garden, he was greeted with the sight of white ceiling tiles and the slow and steady beeps of the heartbeat machine. A few sun rays managed to seep into the cracks of the half-closed drapes from the window that looked out to the city and lined itself throughout the room and against the other side of the wall. The window itself was fogging up because of the cold snow and muffled sounds of people passing by outside the room on both sides. The ticking of the digital clock on the wall showed that it was around 3pm on a cold December afternoon.
“H…How long was I out…?” Joey whispered, his voice a little hoarse because of long-term disuse. He turned his stiff neck a little to look around and noticed that he was in a white room that stank of disinfectant. It didn’t take long for him to remember that he was in a hospital. Scenes of his encounter with Maximillion Pegasus and his days in the Lair came running back into his memory bank as his train of thoughts slowly but steadily unhinged from the rusts of time and turned, working its way through the conscious world. He touched his protruding belly and felt something rather unsettling, but he just smiled and ignored the feeling, thinking it being probably hunger or his babies moving.
As his mind cleared little by little, he turned to the other side to see Seto’s head propped on his arms as he slept while one hand was holding possessively on his. He began remembering the words Maximillion Pegasus spoke to him as he studied Seto’s features. He looked slightly pale and thin, and his hair was a little messy, possibly bed hair or something. There were dark rings under his eyes and Joey could tell he never really had a good night’s sleep—or for his case, a good day’s sleep—and his breathing was slightly ragged, like he had just finished crying. He realized how true Maximillion Pegasus’ words rang in his mind about Seto truly caring about him and not blaming him a single bit. He knew then that if Seto had hated him for what he had done, he wouldn’t be here starving and staying up for him and being by his side. The feeling of Majah’s touches, kisses and his offending member inside him still lingered, but somehow after his talk with Maximillion Pegasus, it didn’t seem so bad anymore. He knew he could handle it if he had Seto by his side, and realized how foolish and selfish he was for letting himself be so childish. Tears fell from Joey’s honey-brown eyes as he reached his other free hand that was touching his pregnant belly over to Seto and stroke his cheek softly.
“I’m sorry, Dragon…I didn’t know…I’m sorry…”
The feeling of Joey’s soft stroke on his cheek slowly made Seto stir from his sleep. He blinked his eyes open and rubbed the sleep off them before looking up to see a sobbing Joey stroking his face tearfully. He immediately shot up and hugged him, purring and whining as tears fell out of his ice-blue eyes uncontrollably.
“Puppy…! Puppy…!” Seto whimpered, kissing Joey’s cheeks over and over again as his own salty tears smeared all over him.
“Oh God, Dragon. I’m so sorry…” Joey sobbed, hugging Seto back tightly. “I didn’t know you’d care…I thought…I thought you’d hate me…”
“No…No hate…”
“I feel so dirty…Ya still luv me even wen Imma dirty ho?”
“Shh…No say that…Not dirty…”
“It…It hurts…”
“I’m…here…”
“No, I mean…It hurts, my stomach…”
Seto let Joey go and noticed that Joey was wincing in pain, his hand clutching his bulging abdomen tightly. A wet spot on the bed indicated that his water had broken. He quickly reached over to press the alarm button to call for medical help. A midwife soon barged in, gasped and hollered for backup, shouting that Joey’s has awakened and has gone into labour. Word began to spread fast of Joey’s awakening as the other young ‘mothers’ who have been following up along with Joey’s gang passed the word-of-mouth about the news, which soon reached to the four’s ears. They hurriedly followed behind the rest to gather around the ICU to see the doctor and midwives rushing in with the necessary equipment to help with Joey’s labour. One of the midwife assistants went to the waiting lounge where Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler spent their nights there to break the news and they, too, went into the ICU to accompany their son before the doctor closed and locked the door and pulled the drapes from all prying eyes.
“Oh my little Joey, I was so worried,” Mrs. Wheeler hugged her son in relief. “You gave us a scare there.”
“Imma so sorry, Ma, Pa, Imma so sorry,” Joey sobbed, yelping as a contraction hit him hard.
“It’s alright now, son. Just hang in there,” Mr. Wheeler rubbed his son’s back. “The midwives are gonna help you now.”
“Ow, ow, ow! Da head! I can feel da head!” Joey screamed as he held onto Seto tight. Seto hugged him back and hushed him, purring at his ear to soothe him and help ride out the pain.
“Looks like the baby’s good to go,” the doctor said as he pushed the blanket up to Joey’s thighs and spread his legs. He inspected for a moment and announced, “Yup, he’s fully dilated now and I can feel the head coming. OK, Joseph, on the count of three: one…two…push!”
Joey sat up with the help of Seto and let out a strangled yell as he pushed with all his might. Voices of coaching from both the doctors and the midwives and his parents echoed throughout the room, all of them helping Joey to keep his strengths up and help him with the delivery. Even those outside the ICU were either biting their nails or praying or silently cheering them on as they gave their moral support to Joey who was suffering the wrath of childbirth inside.
“Almost there,” the doctor, who was in charge of catching the birth, coached. “It’s almost out.”
“Shit, fuckin’ shit! Agh, it hurts!!!” Joey cried, gripping Seto’s hand to the point of almost crushing it.
“Just a little bit more, Joseph.”
Joseph screamed in pain as he pushed the baby out for the doctor to catch. Tiny squalls of the baby’s first breath of air rang throughout the room and everyone, including those outside waiting, breathed a sigh of relief. By then, Lord Seth had heard the news and, along with Lord Katz, stood outside the ICU waiting for the delivery to be over.
“It’s a little pure boy,” the doctor announced as he cut the umbilical cord and passed it to a nearby midwife to be passed to Joey and Seto. Joey, with trembling hands, reached over to take his little baby.
“Oh, he’s beautiful, Dragon, look,” Joey whispered as he showed the baby to his beloved. Seto purred and nuzzled his nose against the baby’s, smiling proudly and fatherly at the sight of the tiny little treasure he and Joey created.
“Dragon…” Seto whispered back as he pointed at the baby. Joey realized that he was naming him.
“Yeah, Dragon. I like dat name…Ow!”
Before he could savour the moment, another contraction hit him, indicating that his other twin baby wanted out. The midwife took the baby from his arms and passed it to another midwife who, in turn, washed and cleaned the baby in a tub of warm water. Joey whined, reaching his hand out to ask for the baby back.
“It’s OK, sweetie,” Mrs. Wheeler said, holding him back. “They’re just gonna clean him up. You got another one you need to take care of.”
“It hurts…I canna do it anymore…I’m too tired…” Joey panted, wincing at the incoming contraction.
“Yes, you can, son. A Wheeler never gives up,” Mr. Wheeler coaxed.
“No…No, I can’t…”
Seto took Joey’s chin and planted a deep kiss on his lips. Neither of them moved. Their lips just pressed together, enjoying each other’s warmth as Seto tried to convey in his own way his concern, love and faith he had on Joey, urging him to be strong. Joey returned his kiss by pressing against him even harder while sobbing. After a couple of minutes being like this, the need for air and the contraction within Joey broke them apart. After coaching Joey into breathing, the doctor quickly told him to push, in which he did.
“That’s very good, Joseph, keep going.”
Joey’s hospital gown was getting drenched with his sweat as he pushed as hard as he could.
“That’s it, son. You can do it.”
Joey practically ripped off his father’s sleeve, but neither cared about that.
“Come on, sweetie, just a bit more.”
Blood, blood and more blood began to seep through the bed sheets and Joey’s head was beginning to spin.
“You’re almost there, Joseph. Keep it up.”
“God, it hurts…!!!” Joey cried, his tears flowing out of his eyes like rain.
“Just a bit more, Joseph,” a midwife coached. “Just give it a big hard push.”
Joey took a deep breath and pushed.
“Almost there. Push harder, Joseph.”
Seto winced as Joey gripped his hand harder than before, but he wouldn’t let go, now that he had him.
“Harder, Joseph, harder!”
“Wat da fuck do ya think Imma doin’?!”
Everyone, including the ones outside winced at Joey’s harsh yell. The four tried to stifle a laugh.
“One more push, I promise, just one more push.”
Joey panted, took another deep breath and let out a strangled scream for the umpteenth time as he pushed down with all his might. Finally a loud, strong cry was heard as the doctor helped the newborn baby he caught to breath. His older brother joined in the crying as soon as he heard his younger brother cried and soon, two little squalling winged infants were in Joey and Seto’s arms.
“Congratulations, Joseph. You have a pair: a pure boy and a herm boy. Good work.”
“Good work, son!” Mr. Wheeler congratulated, patting his son’s back. Mrs. Wheeler was at loss of words as she cried tears of joy looking her son carrying her little Halfling grandchildren.
“They’re perfect, luv. They look just like ya,” Joey spoke, his throat a little sore from screaming for so long. “What do you think, Seto?”
Seto nodded in agreement.
“What do you want to name the other…”
Before Joey could finished, the atmosphere became hushed as Lord Seth entered the room. Joey’s heart skipped a beat. This was it: Lord Seth was going to use his nose to tell whether his twins are Whisperer-dominant or not. Quietly with the cold aura lingering about him, he walked towards Joey who was carrying one of the twins and lowered his head, sniffing silently. Then he leaned forward to Seto who was carrying the other twin and sniffed silently again. He straightened up and gave the knowing look to Lord Katz. Lord Katz understood that gesture and came close to Joey.
“Well? Are my grandkids Whisperer- or Human-dominant?” Mr. Wheeler asked.
“I’m sorry to say that they are Whisperer-dominant,” Lord Katz replied in Human Tongue. “You will have to be part of the Sending Off ceremony, I’m afraid. If you please…”
Lord Katz gestured Joey to pass the twin he was carrying to Seto. Joey’s swollen eyes welled up again as he reluctantly passed the baby to Seto. As Seto regretfully took the baby, Joey begged, “Please, luv, let me at least know their names.”
Seto nodded and jerked his head to one twin, “Dragon,” then jerked his head to the other, “Naga.”
“Dragon, Naga,” Joey repeated. “They sound perfect. Take good care of ‘em, will ya?”
Seto nodded in promise and gave a deep passionate kiss to Joey before leaving together with Lord Katz and Lord Seth to join his fellow Whisperers who were already waiting in a visitor’s lounge with their Whisperer-dominant pups, leaving Joey sobbing in Mrs. Wheeler’s arms and Mr. Wheeler shaking his head in dismay. As they passed by the waiting crowd outside, the four could tell from Seto’s facial expression that Lord Seth had yet again announced another Whisperer-dominant child. They quickly went in and had a group hug, comforting the grieving Joey.
“Are you happy now?” Seto growled under his throat. “I have honoured the tradition, stayed by my mate’s side until he gave birth, and you have broken his heart by announcing that he will never see our pups again. Are you happy now, brother?”
“Brother dearest, please…” Lord Katz pleaded, not wanting the twin brothers to start another fight. Lord Seth turned sharply towards Seto and glared at him.
“Is that a challenge? Even now you defy me. I have yet to reprimand you for that very unrespectable and irresponsible act you allowed happen, making His Majesty come all the way for such trivial matters as your unworthy mate! I should’ve known you have not learnt your lesson! Do you wish to be issued the Forbidden Blue’s curse again?!”
“Go ahead! I’d rather die than be separated from my Puppy ever again! My Puppy had been through so much, now he has to suffer another blow of sadness again. If this is the tradition you take such great pride in, I wish I was never part of this.”
The twins shot a long 5 minute death glare at each other, with Lord Katz worrying in the background. Finally, Lord Seth released his death glare hold and turned around, speaking with his back facing his brother, “Go to the visitors’ lounge and join your fellow brethren. The Sending Off ceremony starts tomorrow at midnight.”
And that, without giving Seto a chance to argue, he gave one last icy look at Seto before he left the hospital without a word, with Lord Katz tailing behind him, leaving Seto to his own thoughts.
--:--
Seto banged at the door of the lounge, fiddling with the knob to see if it would budge. So far, no luck. As soon as Seto entered the room, someone closed the door behind him and locked him from the outside, and Seto found himself facing a whole group of new Whisperer fathers sitting in the room looking rather forlorn. His fellow friends didn’t look too cheerful either.
“It’s no use, brother,” Yami said as he hushed Destiny and Hope. “Ever since Lord Seth announced that the ceremony would be held at midnight tomorrow, we have been, what humans would call, ‘sequestered’. We are isolated from our mates with one of our Royal Guards standing out there guarding the door, letting no one in or out except to let the human midwives in to feed our babies with milk formula or to issue us their daily supply of diapers.”
“Personally, I think Lord Seth is trying to keep us away from our mates,” Bakura commented. “I don’t believe for a single moment that this ‘sequestering’ is meant for all of us.”
“Curse it!” Seto banged at the door one last time before giving it a kick and stomped to a nearby sofa to sit. “Seth is going to pay dearly for this! I am definitely going to give him a telling off after the ceremony!”
“Please, brother,” Duke said as he patted Snow’s back to help him burp. “It’s over now. Our jobs are done. There’s nothing we do about it anymore. Just leave it be. Don’t make it worse as it is.”
“And allow our mates to die of misery and heartbreak?!” Marik growled. “Has Lord Seth not caused enough damage already?! First he punished us for loving our mates, now he’s punishing our mates for loving and carrying our pups to term by separating us like this! How could he have the heart to do this?!”
“After the ceremony, we will never see our mates again. Not even a single parental visitation is allowed…” Yami trembled as he leaned against the wall before slumping down. “H…How…How would I survive without my Light…?”
“My Soldier was so devastated when Lord Seth announced Snow to be Whisperer-dominant,” Duke said as he cradled Snow. “I fear he would do worse to himself than just cry a river.”
“Mine too,” Marik said, his tone sounding a little worried. “Without me to give him ‘special treatment’, I fear he would do himself much more damage than I can give him.”
“My Princess is too fragile to be separated from either of us,” Bakura spoke with a quiver in his voice, “He tried so hard to hide his sadness and pain from me when Lord Seth made the announcement, but I call tell that he is not as strong as he looks.”
Seto remained quiet, listening to his fellow brethren’s woes about their mates’ possible fate after the ceremony. He didn’t want to think of it, neither did he dare to think of it, but he knew deep down in his heart, the possibility of his little Puppy ending up the way his fellow brethren feared their mates may end up as well was no further from the truth.
--:--
“Yeah, sorta,” Joey replied half-heartedly.
“Phew! For a moment there I thought you went back to the zombie’s state,” Yugi said as he wiped away an imaginary sweat.
“I ain’t dat dumb,” Joey chuckled and punched playfully at Yugi’s chin.
Joey and the gang were in Joey’s new hospital room chatting away while waiting for the hour of the ceremony to arrive. After being diagnosed by both the doctor and the psychiatrist, Joey was deemed fit to be transferred to a regular room and free from possible therapy or counseling. The four would come often into Joey’s room to chitchat with him and reminiscence about the days they were pregnant and all their misadventures while helping Joey to cope by talking and discussing about his experience and how he can handle it without being overreacting and over-dwelling on it. The midwives told them that after the ceremony, they will have to undergo the one-month confinement period like all previous ‘mothers’ did after childbirth to prevent their bodies from any possible future complications and to help them heal up both in physical and in strength, especially those who had to undergo Caesarean due to birth complications.
They were issued a steady diet of chicken cooked in rice wine and sugar cane juice and were told to take short walks daily even if it’s just around the hospital grounds or in the recreational area behind the hospital. And everyday the midwives will pay a visit to the ‘mothers’ to be pumped of their breast milk to feed the babies currently looked after by the Whisperers in the visitors’ lounge, but so far they were still not allowed visitations or even allowed to go to the floor where the visitors’ lounge was and gave no explanation as to why the isolation. But Joey and the gang can pretty much guess what’s going on.
“I miss my triplets,” Ryou sighed as he touched his now flat tummy. “I’m so used to carrying them and now that they’re not in me, I just feel…like something’s missing.”
“Why don’t they let us see our baby?” Tristan grumbled. “It’s just not fair! We won’t get to see them anymore and they don’t let us spend some last moments together!”
“I heard it’s because they wanted to remove the attachments between ‘mother’ and child so that they won’t be any trouble during the ceremony,” Yugi explained. “They don’t want us to make a fuss and cry and get all hysterical when our mates leave off with our kids.”
“I guess it’s…understandable,” Malik admitted. “If I have my Night ripped off from me one more time, I swear I’ll go into a crazy murdering rampage, tradition or no tradition.”
“Still, I’d feel happy if I could just hold Dragon and Naga, just this once,” Joey lamented. “I miss them so much.”
“We should’ve admitted to each other about our feelings for our mates sooner,” Malik sighed. “Then we could’ve prayed hard together at the temple and maybe, just maybe, they’ll grant our wish and let us have Human-dominant babies.”
“Unfortunately, statistic-wise,” Ryou said, his mind going into studious mode, “throughout the generations they have been giving birth to more Whisperer-dominant babies than Human-dominant babies. There has never been a statistic offset since the beginning of the ritual, there’s no reason why it should…”
“Would you cut it out?!” Yugi suddenly snapped, shocking everyone. “Who gives a fucking damn about the statistics?! All we want is someone that can be by our side so that we won’t have to spend the rest of our lives being so fucking lonely missing our mates and wondering how they and our babies are doing! I understand that we will never see Yami or Seto or Bakura or the others that we love, but at least we have someone to remember them by! Is that so much to ask?! God, how much more hurt they can do?!”
Yugi soon fell on his knees, broke down and cried, while the others watched in shock. They have never seen Yugi bursting out like this before, not even when they had disputes between themselves and argued. He had always been the pacifier and the peacemaker of the group and never really raised his voice, unless it was out of fear or shock. But deep down, they knew he spoke the truth. Every last word he said was exactly how they felt, and it must’ve hard for Yugi who had been the goody-goody guy in the group to hold it all in.
“C’mere, Yug,” Joey knelt down in front of Yugi and hugged him close to his chest. “Well, s’bout time ya bin honest tuh yerself. It’s alrigh’. Let it all out.”
Yugi bawled and buried his face in Joey’s chest, crying like he hasn’t been crying for ages. The rest of the gang joined in a group hug and let Yugi pour out his sadness and frustrations in their arms.
“I want my Destiny! I want my Hope! I want my Yami! I want them back! It’s not fair! It’s not fair!!!”
“It’s OK, Yug, we’re here for you,” Tristan said, letting his tears fall free, followed by the others.
As they held and comforted each other, a silent figure slinked away quietly from Joey’s door, avoiding from being seen.
--:--
“Alright, brothers. It’s time. You may leave now to the front of the building,” the guard said, “except you, milords.”
“What?” Seto and his brethren were surprised to be stopped in their tracks by the guard. “Brother-in-law, what is the meaning of this?”
“You will see soon,” Lord Katz smiled. “Please come along with me.”
Seto and his brethren were confused as to why the sudden change of atmosphere, but they knew better than to go against the second-in-command of the royal throne. As they gave one last look at the Whisperers following behind the guard towards the direction of the hospital entrance, they followed Lord Katz up to the floor where the staff of the hospital usually have their important, sometimes secret, meetings at the second top floor. Inside, they were shocked to see their human beloved cornered by Lord Seth and a few Ethereals Royal Advisors from the royal office of Maximillion Pegasus.
“Brother! What are you doing to my Puppy?!” Seto demanded, but was held back by Lord Seth’s cold glare.
“Nothing more than I would allow myself to do, if that’s what you are wondering about, my blood brother,” Lord Seth replied, standing between Seto and his brethren and Joey and his gang. “Honestly, the things I do for you ever since you were a pup.”
“What does that suppose to mean?”
“Wat da heck are dey talking tuh each other?” Joey whispered to his friends, earning a group shrug by them as a reply. They couldn’t understand any of this sudden happenings either. One moment they were all prepared to meet their Whisperer mates for the Sending Off ceremony as soon as they heard the clock chimed twelve, the next moment the Royal Advisors came into their room unannounced, ignoring and putting their questioning parents into a deep slumber and ushered them up to the staff’s meeting room and come face to face with Lord Seth, the Lord of the Whisperers of the Night Clan. It all happened so fast that they didn’t even have time to react, and being left in the dark like this was not exactly helping.
“What do you want, brother? Another swearing to you that we will stay away from our human mates? I am not going to do it. I’m sick and tired of following your…”
“Silence, Seto Kaiba!” Lord Seth growled suddenly, making everyone jump. Seto stopped talking. Whenever Lord Seth called him by his full name (the surname was their mother’s name), he knew he meant business, and that he knew better than to interrupt anything his twin brother wished to say.
“Now that I have your attention,” Lord Seth continued, “I was about to propose something to your human counterparts, which is something that has never been done in the history of Ethereal or humankind. This is the first and last time I will ever do such a big favour for you, and no matter how much I despise going against protocol, I…” he hesitated before looking away, his face looking slightly pink on the cheeks, “I have to admit…I do not wish your grief, and it’s the least a blood brother could do for his younger blood brother after all these centuries of hardship.
“I assume you all are able to understand Human Tongue audibly, so I shall switch my language for your human counterparts’ sake,” Lord Seth said before taking a deep breath and faced Joey and the gang, speaking in Human Tongue, “Forgive the sudden surprise, but I do not wish to have any other prying eyes or ears while I do this.”
“Do what?” Yugi asked. “What exactly are we doing here? Why aren’t we part of the Sending Off ceremony?”
“Yeah,” Tristan butted in. “Aren’t we supposed to be at the hospital entrance watching our mates leave with our babies?”
“Well, circumstance that arose has changed the outcome,” Lord Seth replied. “But first, let me ask you all one thing: How much do you love my brother and his brethren?”
“Imma willin’ tuh sell mah soul tuh da Devil ‘imself if I coulda just hav a minute wif mah Seto,” Joey replied wholeheartedly.
“I’ll climb the highest mountain and swim the deepest sea if it means being able to be with Duke Devlin forever,” Tristan replied.
“I’m willing to die for him to save my Master Marik’s life,” Malik replied, his hand on the choker around his neck.
“I’ll fall from heaven and rise from hell just to find my Yami,” Yugi replied, his eyes never leaving his beloved.
“I’d do everything my friends had said they would do for their mates and more just to even catch a glimpse of my Bakura,” Ryou replied despite the blush on his face.
Lord Seth glanced at his royal mate and, after earning a nod from him, turned back to Joey and the gang and said, “What I am about to say is something no one alive or dead has ever done before. Neither Ethereal nor human has ever attempted to do this. It may actually alter the very fabric of your mortal lives forever. So, as you human say in terms of striking deals, ‘take it or leave it’.”
As Lord Seth continued, outside, the snow fell on every human standing at ground level and on every crevice of earth as they watched the Whisperers flew off from their stand towards the direction of the Yami Forest, their flapping wings echoed into the night.
Whispers in the Dark-Chp24
“Please, brother dearest. You must come home and rest.”
“Not until I am the first person he sees when he wakes up.”
Lord Katz sighed. He should’ve known Seto was just as stubborn as his twin brother. They definitely came from the same bloodline of indignant families. There was no budging Seto from his decision.
It had been almost two weeks since Joey lost his mind from reality and became that stoic state. His pregnancy was almost due within the next two weeks and still he had not recovered from his stupor. He had to depend on nutrient and IV drops because he wouldn’t open his mouth to chew or swallow his food, and the midwives have to help him exercise his limbs daily because he wouldn’t move an inch. He just stayed in bed, lying there like a lifeless doll with no motor skills or reflexes whatsoever. Lord Seth had helped relay the news from his twin brother to the doctors telling about the rape incident with Majah, and they all agreed that it was the cause of his shocked state. So far, medication and outside help was keeping him and the babies alive, but that alone was not enough to straighten him out. Unless Joey was willing to face his demons and snap out of it by his own free will, he would probably never get over it.
The doctors and midwives agreed that if Joey kept remaining like this until the due date, they will have no choice but to perform a Caesarean to help him give birth. Seto would not hear of it. He strongly believed that when the time comes, Joey will wake up and he will be by his side to help him through the birth. But so far, nothing has changed. Joey remained stoic and unresponsive, and no matter how Seto spoke to him and tried to wake him, he did not budge. Even when his other friends came over to visit him and tried their luck (with Tristan being the usual rough style he is), Joey continued to remain lost, his eyes so blank and his face so unreadable, you’d almost think he was dead. And because of Joey, the whole Sending Off ceremony, whereby those who gave birth to Whisperer-dominant babies must give over their babies to their Whisperer mates and send them off, had to be postponed due to the fact that every ‘mother’ must be present and accounted for to do this ceremony.
“Shit! Why did it turn out this way?” Tristan cursed, punching the wall of the ICU with one hand while holding onto his baby with the other. Despite the fact that he was rather glad he could keep his baby a little longer before the Sending Off ceremony, he was still worried about his best friend’s wellbeing. After all, they have been together since childhood before meeting the rest of the gang.
“If only I had enough magic powers like my parents,” Malik said guiltily as he breastfed Night. “I would have busted through that door or that wall and rushed into the room to stop that son of a bitch! They were just a few doors beside me and I…”
“Don’t blame yourself, Malik,” Yugi leaned close to touch his shoulder as he was carrying both Destiny and Hope in his arms. “It’s no one’s fault but that Fallen Ethereal’s, and Seto has already taken care of him. It’s not your burden to bear.”
“Poor Seto,” Ryou said as he looked through the half-closed drapes of the window of the ICU at Seto who was holding Joey’s hand and stroking it. His triplets were being fussed at by his parents and twin sister, so he left them to baby-sit for a moment. “The rape incident must’ve hit hard on Joey. I don’t know what I’d do if this ever happen to me. I think I might end up just like Joey as well.”
“It’s understandable,” Yugi agreed. “It’s almost as if you feel like you are betraying your lover by having sex with another person even though it’s not your intention. Like you’re dirty all over and no longer worthy of your lover’s love. It’s a tough thing to happen. I can understand why Joey wished to escape reality like this.”
“Speaking of the Fallen Ethereals and Bad Seeds, whatever happened to them anyways?” Tristan asked.
Yugi then told the gang about what he heard from his middle men friends Fortuno, Charlie and Bickford and Snipes: Apparently after killing and arresting those involved, they were quickly brought into trial where Maximillion Pegasus, without further ado, charged them of treason, disrupting the peace, attempts to overthrow the Lord of all Outer Beings and attempted murder on the teen ‘mothers’ and their babies, and they were immediately sentenced to death. Marik the Royal Executioner wasted no time in excising his work and did what he did best. All of them died a very slow but violent death through Marik’s dark sadistic torture games, and it was a no-brainer that Marik loved every second of what he did.
Lord Zorc Necrophades, on the other hand, was powerless against the Outer Beings due to his weak and vulnerable condition. Seto took pleasure in driving Zorc’s spirit out of the body and Yami did the honours of disintegrating it into nothingness, never to be seen again. After executing all the Bad Seeds and Fallen Ethereals, everyone in the Ethereal Clan got together to discuss and come to an agreement of their territorial dispute and finally managed to clear all frustrations and tensions that have been put off for so long as they signed a treaty stating the proper equal distribution of lands for each and every Outer Being in the Ethereal Clan. So, from now on, the aftershocks were officially resolved and everyone has agreed in the Ethereal Clan to live harmoniously and prosperously under one unison.
“Thank goodness that’s resolved,” Ryou sighed in relief. “I wouldn’t want to become another tool for ransom again.”
“Say, Ryou,” Tristan voiced out, “we all know Yugi and Malik’s babies’ names. What did your Bakura named your kids?”
“Well, we had a little disagreement, but after a long thought and suggestions by my parents, we decided to name them Shuu, Tenenbaum and Winchester, all of them names of our first few ancestors who had done the ritual. We thought it’d be right to honour them that way. What about you, Tristan?”
“You’ll laugh. It’s kinda cheesy,” Tristan blushed a little, scratching his chin a little. Seeing that expression from Tristan for the first time sparked their interest and curiosity even more.
“Oh, really? Do pray tell, my friend,” Ryou stroke his chin with a wicked grin.
“I’d rather not.”
“Come on, Trist,” Yugi persuaded. “What can be worst than ours?”
“You’ll laugh. Seriously.”
“Try us,” Malik challenged.
“Well…we…uh…actually it was my parents and Duke who made the final say, like I didn’t exist or something, and I was running out of ideas…” Tristan hesitated.
“Oh, come on, spit it!” Malik groaned impatiently. “Out with it, buddy!”
“TheynamedhimSnow!” Tristan blurted out in one whole breath, feeling rather agitated.
“Snow? Why Snow?” Yugi widened his eyes in disbelief. Tristan replied with a finger pointed towards the ICU’s inside window where snow was falling outside, fogging the glass as it fell.
“Wow! Is it winter already?” Ryou said. “Time sure flies past real fast!”
“Yeah, well, thing is they cheated me out of a chance to decide a name,” Tristan looked away, his face obviously flushed pink. “Since my kid was born a herm, they’d thought of giving him a slightly feminine name, and it just so happened to be snowing outside while I was KO-ed in bed, so they decided to name him ‘Snow’ whether I liked it or not.”
“Aww, that’s so cute!” Malik cooed, sounding almost teasingly sarcastic.
“See?! I knew you’re gonna react that way!” Tristan exclaimed.
“At least we’re not laughing,” Yugi grinned. “But seriously, Trist, it’s quite a nice name. I’d name one of my kids ‘Snow’ if we hadn’t already decided the names.”
“You’re not just being nice, are you?” Tristan raised a skeptical eyebrow, which in turn was replied with a simultaneous shaking of head by his fellow friends. Everyone soon turned their gazes at Seto who was still at Joey’s bed still holding his hand and stroking it against his cheek with a very worried and sympathetic Lord Katz standing beside him. The four of them sighed in unison.
“I know I shouldn’t say this but,” Tristan voiced out, “Jo’s gotta get out of that trance. He’s gotta think about the babies in him! He’s not doing either his babies or himself any good moping around like this! And look at Seto! When was the last time he ate?”
“You’re right,” Ryou agreed. “His babies are the main priority right now. If he didn’t wish to live for himself, he should at least live for his babies.”
“Yeah,” Malik nodded in agreement. “Where’s all the love he had for Seto and the babies gone to?”
“Any suggestions? We’ve pretty much exhausted everything so far. Nothing seems to work,” Yugi asked, concern rang all over his tone.
Almost as soon as Yugi asked that, a simultaneous idea came into their heads. It was as if they were almost as psychic and as telepathic as Fortuno and Snipes. They were the exact definition of “Great minds think alike”.
Soon, Yugi knocked the ICU door, entered and waved for Lord Katz to come over.
“Forgive us, Your Majesty, for being so bold as to ask of this.”
Almost everyone in the hospital crowded outside the ICU to catch a glimpse their VIP guest, wondering why he was doing here and not tending to other important matters in the Ethereal Clan.
“Do not worry, mortal friends. I am always here to help the needy. I am honoured that you have recognized my talents.”
There was no other way around it. The four had to brave themselves to ask the impossible from Lord Katz: to send in Maximillion Pegasus, who has the highest power and authority of the Outer Beings to help snap Joey out of his endless reverie. Lord Katz was hesitant at first, but knowing that his mate Lord Seth could not and would not consent into meddling with human affairs aside from the ritual, and knew that any other Ethereal Clan would be nonchalant and apathetic about Joey’s situation, he had no choice but to comply with the four’s wishes. He made the secret trip with Marik, accompanied by Yami, Duke and Bakura, to go meet up with Maximillion Pegasus to help Seto and Joey heal their current situation. Maximillion Pegasus, after much consideration and consultancy from his Royal Advisors, agreed to make the trip down to Domino Motherhood Institution to try his luck on waking Joey up.
“Y…Your Majesty…! What brings you here?” Seto stood up immediately at the sight of Maximillion Pegasus and was prepared to bow before him but was halted by the Ruler.
“I came here on the account of compassion, dear Royal Advisor,” Maximillion Pegasus smiled as he came close to the unresponsive Joey, with Seto’s four Whisperer friends, Lord Katz and Joey’s four friends following behind his wake. Mr. and Mrs Wheeler, after receiving the call from Yugi and the gang about their attempt, had already driven at top speed to the hospital and were also part of the group inside the ICU watching Maximillion Pegasus do his magic. He made a gesture and the door turned the lock and the drapes were drawn by itself, blocking out all the disappointed spectators.
“I’m sorry we had to resort to this, Your Majesty,” Lord Katz spoke apologetically.
“Oh, I do not mind one bit, Lord Katz, though I do have concerns of your royal bairns’ health by making that long trip to see me.”
“I had trustworthy companions, Your Majesty.”
“I must say, Seto, you have such great companions. They were willing to risk protocol to call for me to help your human counterpart. I sure hope my visit here does not go in vain.”
“I humbly apologize in advance,” Seto looked down humbly and stepped aside to allow Maximillion Pegasus do his work.
“In under no circumstances should I be disturbed in this process,” Maximillion Pegasus said as he had one hand hovering over Joey’s forehead. “It would be advisable if you all step aside for this.”
Everyone nodded and moved a respectable distance away from Joey’s bed. After making sure that the surrounding was quiet and that everyone was far from him, he laid the hand onto Joey’s forehead and closed his eyes as he began to concentrate, delving deeper into Joey’s subconscious mind…
“…seph? Joseph? Joseph Wheeler?”
Joey opened his eyes at the soft call of his name. He found himself lying on a bed of thorns as usual. The pain, the stabbing, the sheer sting of it all was the only way to make sure that he was alive, yet trapped in this void world where he would always punish himself for allowing himself to be taken by someone other than his beloved.
“Joseph Wheeler? Can you hear me?”
“Who…Who are ya…?” Joey asked as he saw a man with long silver-lavender hair looking down at him. He seemed to only have one eye, for the other eye was made of gold, like an eye-patch the shape of an eye that covered all the way to his eyebrow. He noticed him staring at it and jerked his head so that his long bangs would cover it.
“I am Maximillion Pegasus, the man responsible for all the Ethereal Clans of the Outer Beings, and the man responsible for your pregnant predicament.”
“Ah, so yer da head honcho behind da ritual. Pleasure tuh meet ya,” Joey smiled weakly. “Forgive me fer not salutin’ ya n all, bad back, ya know.”
“No offence taken, young mortal friend,” Maximillion Pegasus said as he sat in midair, hovering above Joey in his thorn garden. “You have a rather… interesting abode here. Although I must say in human terms, the ‘fashion statement’ here needs a little uplifting.”
“Ya dun need much stuff wen ya wanna torture yerself.”
“Yes, about that,” Maximillion Pegasus began to touch on the topic, “I’m here because of a personal request by someone.”
“I ain’t goin’ back if dat’s wat ya tryin’ tuh tell me.”
“And pray tell, why not?”
“Ya know wat happened. Ya da head honcho n all.”
“Yes, but I would like to hear it from your own lips.”
“I…was raped…” Joey said hesitantly. “Some guy named Majah sorta confessed tuh me while fuckin’ mah brains out n wants me tuh be his bitch. I told him I dinna wanna, n he was pissed n all, but I can’t stop feelin’ dirty n all dat shit. I feel guilty, so I’m ‘ere punishin’ mahself. Happy?”
“Funny. I don’t see a shred of dirt on you anywhere,” Maximillion Pegasus chided in a nonchalant way. “Aside from the fact that you’re bleeding from head to toe because of all those thorns on you.”
“Ya know exactly wat I mean. Dun play around wif me.”
Maximillion Pegasus noticed that whenever Joey spoke and got a little emotional or agitated, more thorn vines would slowly slither from the ground and wrap around Joey’s already bound body, making him wince as the thorns dug deeper into his skin, drawing blood. He could tell that the trauma of being raped had left him very emotionally scarred, and he could understand why he felt he was betraying his Whisperer mate.
“You do know that it’s beyond tradition to fall in love with your Whisperer mate.”
“Yeah.”
“Yet you still love him.”
“Yeah.”
“Enough to allow yourself to be tortured like this everyday for the rest of your life?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you ever thought about your friends? Your family? They’re really worried about you.”
“At least they got their lovers to luv ‘em. They’re not dirty like I am right now.”
“And your child? What of them?”
“They got doctors tuh cut me open n git ‘em out. Imma fine wif dat.”
“And your Whisperer mate? Have you ever thought about him?”
“He’s…better of withou’ me.”
“What makes you so sure?” Maximillion Pegasus probed some more, folding his arms across his chest.
“I was raped, fer cryin’ loud!” Joey snapped, the vines grew even more, not only all over his body, but all over the place as well, building itself into some sort of defensive fence around him. “I was taken by dat son of a bitch n freakin’ fucked like I was some ho! He wanted me tuh luv him instead of mah Seto! He wanted me tuh betray Seto! He made me a fuckin’ ho n made me betray Seto by fuckin’ me!
“How would ya feel if ya taken away from yer lover n git raped while ya carryin’ ya lover’s babies?! How would ya feel if ya bein’ touched ev’rywhere n licked in places only ya n ya lover r suppose tuh share togetha?! How would ya feel if ya bein’ tempted by some bastard n was actually drawn into a lil’ bit coz his deal wuz a once-in-a-lifetime deal?! How would ya feel if ya body canna stop feelin’ the dirty touches n the icky kisses as ya bin violated ova n ova again?! How would ya feel if ya insides wuz totally filled wif yer rapist’s cum?! How would ya feel wen ya wake up ev’ry mornin’ thinkin’ how dirty ya was n how yer cheatin’ pussy had bin screwed by someone else other than ‘im?! How would ya know?! Ya dunno shit bout me!”
Maximillion Pegasus could tell by the tone, the emotion and the amount of vines increasing that Joey was in a lot of pain, and was blaming a lot on himself. If he didn’t do something, soon he would be buried by the vines and shut out of his mind, and he would never get to speak with Joey again. It’s now or never.
“And you believe that you are being self-righteous by allowing yourself to suffer like this?”
“What?” Joey was surprised at that question.
“What makes you so certain that your friends would care whether you have been defiled or not? What makes you so certain that your friends are not looking out for your safety and judging you of your past experiences?” Maximillion Pegasus asked. The hesitation on Joey’s face and the slow but steady shrinking vines gave him the cue to continue, “Why would you assume that they would think of you any lesser than you are? For what purpose have they brought me here to speak to you if not out of concern for your wellbeing?”
“Well…I…I neva asked fer their pity…”
“But they wish to give it anyway, whether you ask of it or not. And what makes you so sure that your Whisperer mate had not forgiven you or had not put a single blame on you? Have you considered the trouble and effort it took for him to go all the way to where you were held captive to rescue you? Have you ever wondered why he is still by your side even though he knew you have been defiled by the Fallen Ethereal? Have you considered that?”
“B…But…I…”
“And have you ever considered what will your state do to the pups in you? Have you ever wondered what if the human doctors have performed an unsuccessful surgery, or whether because of your refusal to eat or drink or sleep it may cause harm to your pups? The pups you and your beloved Whisperer mate have created? Do you wish for the death of your pups as well because of your selfishness, especially when they are almost due any time soon?”
“No! No, I would neva let mah babies die! I would neva…”
“Then what are you doing here lying down on this bed of thorns wallow in self-pity and misery when your mate and your pups need you?”
“I…But…I’m dirty…I betrayed mah Seto’s luv…I dun deserve tuh…”
“It is not for you to choose one-sidedly whether or not you are worthy for someone. Although other people have no right to judge you, you, too, have no right to deny yourself some inkling of self-worth. What other people truly view you may surprise you.”
“I…I dunno…”
“It is your choice, my young mortal friend, whether or not you wish to release yourself from your own self-made prison and embrace whatever past, may it be dark and murky, or bright and shiny, and learn from it rather than grieve for it. Think wisely, Joseph Wheeler.”
Maximillion Pegasus’ blinding disappearance was the last thing he saw before he found himself staring back at all the vines that covered around him like a half-shell roof and the blood-red sky hovering above…
Everyone waited eagerly for Maximillion Pegasus’ news as soon as the Ruler of the Outer Beings blinked his eyes open. Quietly removing his hand from Joey’s forehead, he turned to the awaiting crowd behind him.
“He holds much contempt about himself. The prison he encased himself in is hard and painful, indicating how much self-loathing he had on himself for the rape incident he experienced in the Lair,” Maximillion Pegasus relayed whatever he deduced from Joey’s state of mind to the crowd. “He strongly believes that he would be judged by the people for his experience and wishes nothing more than to shoulder all the burden of his lustful sin and avoid the hatred you may harbour against him, especially you, Seto.”
“I would never blame him for what happened!” Seto exclaimed. “It’s not his fault! He is not the one to blame! It’s that bastard Fallen Ethereal’s fault! My Puppy was never in the wrong!”
“Good God, Your Majesty, we would never blame or judge him for what happened to him!” Ryou exclaimed as well, shocked to hear the Ruler’s words about Joey.
“Yeah! Moreover, I blame myself for this! I should’ve seen that coming and saved him no matter what! I’m the one to blame!” Malik cried, his heart panged in pain at the thought Joey blaming himself over all this.
“We are all to blame here! He can’t just think it’s all his fault and shoulder everything! If we had tried harder to stop that guy from taking him and Malik away…” Tristan couldn’t continue; he was too choked up about it.
“You have to help him, Your Majesty! He can’t do this to himself!” Yugi was already in tears.
“Please, Your Majesty,” Mr. Wheeler pleaded as he hugged his sobbing wife.
“I have spoken to him, and I have tried the best I can to convince him that he was not in the wrong,” Maximillion Pegasus sighed as he draped his cape across his shoulders. “But I cannot force him to make a speedy decision. The mind is a very fragile matter. It will be up to him to decide. Good day, everyone. I wish the best.”
With that, he left the ICU, his personal bodyguards who were waiting for him outside the room following behind his wake. As usual, Seto sat beside Joey and held his hand while the rest left the ICU to let them be alone together, ignoring the questions showered at them by the curious doctors, midwives and young ‘mothers’ and their parents. As Yugi reached to close the door of the ICU, Seto purred and kissed Joey’s forehead.
“I’ll be here waiting for you, no matter how long it takes for you.”
“Not until I am the first person he sees when he wakes up.”
Lord Katz sighed. He should’ve known Seto was just as stubborn as his twin brother. They definitely came from the same bloodline of indignant families. There was no budging Seto from his decision.
It had been almost two weeks since Joey lost his mind from reality and became that stoic state. His pregnancy was almost due within the next two weeks and still he had not recovered from his stupor. He had to depend on nutrient and IV drops because he wouldn’t open his mouth to chew or swallow his food, and the midwives have to help him exercise his limbs daily because he wouldn’t move an inch. He just stayed in bed, lying there like a lifeless doll with no motor skills or reflexes whatsoever. Lord Seth had helped relay the news from his twin brother to the doctors telling about the rape incident with Majah, and they all agreed that it was the cause of his shocked state. So far, medication and outside help was keeping him and the babies alive, but that alone was not enough to straighten him out. Unless Joey was willing to face his demons and snap out of it by his own free will, he would probably never get over it.
The doctors and midwives agreed that if Joey kept remaining like this until the due date, they will have no choice but to perform a Caesarean to help him give birth. Seto would not hear of it. He strongly believed that when the time comes, Joey will wake up and he will be by his side to help him through the birth. But so far, nothing has changed. Joey remained stoic and unresponsive, and no matter how Seto spoke to him and tried to wake him, he did not budge. Even when his other friends came over to visit him and tried their luck (with Tristan being the usual rough style he is), Joey continued to remain lost, his eyes so blank and his face so unreadable, you’d almost think he was dead. And because of Joey, the whole Sending Off ceremony, whereby those who gave birth to Whisperer-dominant babies must give over their babies to their Whisperer mates and send them off, had to be postponed due to the fact that every ‘mother’ must be present and accounted for to do this ceremony.
“Shit! Why did it turn out this way?” Tristan cursed, punching the wall of the ICU with one hand while holding onto his baby with the other. Despite the fact that he was rather glad he could keep his baby a little longer before the Sending Off ceremony, he was still worried about his best friend’s wellbeing. After all, they have been together since childhood before meeting the rest of the gang.
“If only I had enough magic powers like my parents,” Malik said guiltily as he breastfed Night. “I would have busted through that door or that wall and rushed into the room to stop that son of a bitch! They were just a few doors beside me and I…”
“Don’t blame yourself, Malik,” Yugi leaned close to touch his shoulder as he was carrying both Destiny and Hope in his arms. “It’s no one’s fault but that Fallen Ethereal’s, and Seto has already taken care of him. It’s not your burden to bear.”
“Poor Seto,” Ryou said as he looked through the half-closed drapes of the window of the ICU at Seto who was holding Joey’s hand and stroking it. His triplets were being fussed at by his parents and twin sister, so he left them to baby-sit for a moment. “The rape incident must’ve hit hard on Joey. I don’t know what I’d do if this ever happen to me. I think I might end up just like Joey as well.”
“It’s understandable,” Yugi agreed. “It’s almost as if you feel like you are betraying your lover by having sex with another person even though it’s not your intention. Like you’re dirty all over and no longer worthy of your lover’s love. It’s a tough thing to happen. I can understand why Joey wished to escape reality like this.”
“Speaking of the Fallen Ethereals and Bad Seeds, whatever happened to them anyways?” Tristan asked.
Yugi then told the gang about what he heard from his middle men friends Fortuno, Charlie and Bickford and Snipes: Apparently after killing and arresting those involved, they were quickly brought into trial where Maximillion Pegasus, without further ado, charged them of treason, disrupting the peace, attempts to overthrow the Lord of all Outer Beings and attempted murder on the teen ‘mothers’ and their babies, and they were immediately sentenced to death. Marik the Royal Executioner wasted no time in excising his work and did what he did best. All of them died a very slow but violent death through Marik’s dark sadistic torture games, and it was a no-brainer that Marik loved every second of what he did.
Lord Zorc Necrophades, on the other hand, was powerless against the Outer Beings due to his weak and vulnerable condition. Seto took pleasure in driving Zorc’s spirit out of the body and Yami did the honours of disintegrating it into nothingness, never to be seen again. After executing all the Bad Seeds and Fallen Ethereals, everyone in the Ethereal Clan got together to discuss and come to an agreement of their territorial dispute and finally managed to clear all frustrations and tensions that have been put off for so long as they signed a treaty stating the proper equal distribution of lands for each and every Outer Being in the Ethereal Clan. So, from now on, the aftershocks were officially resolved and everyone has agreed in the Ethereal Clan to live harmoniously and prosperously under one unison.
“Thank goodness that’s resolved,” Ryou sighed in relief. “I wouldn’t want to become another tool for ransom again.”
“Say, Ryou,” Tristan voiced out, “we all know Yugi and Malik’s babies’ names. What did your Bakura named your kids?”
“Well, we had a little disagreement, but after a long thought and suggestions by my parents, we decided to name them Shuu, Tenenbaum and Winchester, all of them names of our first few ancestors who had done the ritual. We thought it’d be right to honour them that way. What about you, Tristan?”
“You’ll laugh. It’s kinda cheesy,” Tristan blushed a little, scratching his chin a little. Seeing that expression from Tristan for the first time sparked their interest and curiosity even more.
“Oh, really? Do pray tell, my friend,” Ryou stroke his chin with a wicked grin.
“I’d rather not.”
“Come on, Trist,” Yugi persuaded. “What can be worst than ours?”
“You’ll laugh. Seriously.”
“Try us,” Malik challenged.
“Well…we…uh…actually it was my parents and Duke who made the final say, like I didn’t exist or something, and I was running out of ideas…” Tristan hesitated.
“Oh, come on, spit it!” Malik groaned impatiently. “Out with it, buddy!”
“TheynamedhimSnow!” Tristan blurted out in one whole breath, feeling rather agitated.
“Snow? Why Snow?” Yugi widened his eyes in disbelief. Tristan replied with a finger pointed towards the ICU’s inside window where snow was falling outside, fogging the glass as it fell.
“Wow! Is it winter already?” Ryou said. “Time sure flies past real fast!”
“Yeah, well, thing is they cheated me out of a chance to decide a name,” Tristan looked away, his face obviously flushed pink. “Since my kid was born a herm, they’d thought of giving him a slightly feminine name, and it just so happened to be snowing outside while I was KO-ed in bed, so they decided to name him ‘Snow’ whether I liked it or not.”
“Aww, that’s so cute!” Malik cooed, sounding almost teasingly sarcastic.
“See?! I knew you’re gonna react that way!” Tristan exclaimed.
“At least we’re not laughing,” Yugi grinned. “But seriously, Trist, it’s quite a nice name. I’d name one of my kids ‘Snow’ if we hadn’t already decided the names.”
“You’re not just being nice, are you?” Tristan raised a skeptical eyebrow, which in turn was replied with a simultaneous shaking of head by his fellow friends. Everyone soon turned their gazes at Seto who was still at Joey’s bed still holding his hand and stroking it against his cheek with a very worried and sympathetic Lord Katz standing beside him. The four of them sighed in unison.
“I know I shouldn’t say this but,” Tristan voiced out, “Jo’s gotta get out of that trance. He’s gotta think about the babies in him! He’s not doing either his babies or himself any good moping around like this! And look at Seto! When was the last time he ate?”
“You’re right,” Ryou agreed. “His babies are the main priority right now. If he didn’t wish to live for himself, he should at least live for his babies.”
“Yeah,” Malik nodded in agreement. “Where’s all the love he had for Seto and the babies gone to?”
“Any suggestions? We’ve pretty much exhausted everything so far. Nothing seems to work,” Yugi asked, concern rang all over his tone.
Almost as soon as Yugi asked that, a simultaneous idea came into their heads. It was as if they were almost as psychic and as telepathic as Fortuno and Snipes. They were the exact definition of “Great minds think alike”.
Soon, Yugi knocked the ICU door, entered and waved for Lord Katz to come over.
--:--
Almost everyone in the hospital crowded outside the ICU to catch a glimpse their VIP guest, wondering why he was doing here and not tending to other important matters in the Ethereal Clan.
“Do not worry, mortal friends. I am always here to help the needy. I am honoured that you have recognized my talents.”
There was no other way around it. The four had to brave themselves to ask the impossible from Lord Katz: to send in Maximillion Pegasus, who has the highest power and authority of the Outer Beings to help snap Joey out of his endless reverie. Lord Katz was hesitant at first, but knowing that his mate Lord Seth could not and would not consent into meddling with human affairs aside from the ritual, and knew that any other Ethereal Clan would be nonchalant and apathetic about Joey’s situation, he had no choice but to comply with the four’s wishes. He made the secret trip with Marik, accompanied by Yami, Duke and Bakura, to go meet up with Maximillion Pegasus to help Seto and Joey heal their current situation. Maximillion Pegasus, after much consideration and consultancy from his Royal Advisors, agreed to make the trip down to Domino Motherhood Institution to try his luck on waking Joey up.
“Y…Your Majesty…! What brings you here?” Seto stood up immediately at the sight of Maximillion Pegasus and was prepared to bow before him but was halted by the Ruler.
“I came here on the account of compassion, dear Royal Advisor,” Maximillion Pegasus smiled as he came close to the unresponsive Joey, with Seto’s four Whisperer friends, Lord Katz and Joey’s four friends following behind his wake. Mr. and Mrs Wheeler, after receiving the call from Yugi and the gang about their attempt, had already driven at top speed to the hospital and were also part of the group inside the ICU watching Maximillion Pegasus do his magic. He made a gesture and the door turned the lock and the drapes were drawn by itself, blocking out all the disappointed spectators.
“I’m sorry we had to resort to this, Your Majesty,” Lord Katz spoke apologetically.
“Oh, I do not mind one bit, Lord Katz, though I do have concerns of your royal bairns’ health by making that long trip to see me.”
“I had trustworthy companions, Your Majesty.”
“I must say, Seto, you have such great companions. They were willing to risk protocol to call for me to help your human counterpart. I sure hope my visit here does not go in vain.”
“I humbly apologize in advance,” Seto looked down humbly and stepped aside to allow Maximillion Pegasus do his work.
“In under no circumstances should I be disturbed in this process,” Maximillion Pegasus said as he had one hand hovering over Joey’s forehead. “It would be advisable if you all step aside for this.”
Everyone nodded and moved a respectable distance away from Joey’s bed. After making sure that the surrounding was quiet and that everyone was far from him, he laid the hand onto Joey’s forehead and closed his eyes as he began to concentrate, delving deeper into Joey’s subconscious mind…
--:--
Joey opened his eyes at the soft call of his name. He found himself lying on a bed of thorns as usual. The pain, the stabbing, the sheer sting of it all was the only way to make sure that he was alive, yet trapped in this void world where he would always punish himself for allowing himself to be taken by someone other than his beloved.
“Joseph Wheeler? Can you hear me?”
“Who…Who are ya…?” Joey asked as he saw a man with long silver-lavender hair looking down at him. He seemed to only have one eye, for the other eye was made of gold, like an eye-patch the shape of an eye that covered all the way to his eyebrow. He noticed him staring at it and jerked his head so that his long bangs would cover it.
“I am Maximillion Pegasus, the man responsible for all the Ethereal Clans of the Outer Beings, and the man responsible for your pregnant predicament.”
“Ah, so yer da head honcho behind da ritual. Pleasure tuh meet ya,” Joey smiled weakly. “Forgive me fer not salutin’ ya n all, bad back, ya know.”
“No offence taken, young mortal friend,” Maximillion Pegasus said as he sat in midair, hovering above Joey in his thorn garden. “You have a rather… interesting abode here. Although I must say in human terms, the ‘fashion statement’ here needs a little uplifting.”
“Ya dun need much stuff wen ya wanna torture yerself.”
“Yes, about that,” Maximillion Pegasus began to touch on the topic, “I’m here because of a personal request by someone.”
“I ain’t goin’ back if dat’s wat ya tryin’ tuh tell me.”
“And pray tell, why not?”
“Ya know wat happened. Ya da head honcho n all.”
“Yes, but I would like to hear it from your own lips.”
“I…was raped…” Joey said hesitantly. “Some guy named Majah sorta confessed tuh me while fuckin’ mah brains out n wants me tuh be his bitch. I told him I dinna wanna, n he was pissed n all, but I can’t stop feelin’ dirty n all dat shit. I feel guilty, so I’m ‘ere punishin’ mahself. Happy?”
“Funny. I don’t see a shred of dirt on you anywhere,” Maximillion Pegasus chided in a nonchalant way. “Aside from the fact that you’re bleeding from head to toe because of all those thorns on you.”
“Ya know exactly wat I mean. Dun play around wif me.”
Maximillion Pegasus noticed that whenever Joey spoke and got a little emotional or agitated, more thorn vines would slowly slither from the ground and wrap around Joey’s already bound body, making him wince as the thorns dug deeper into his skin, drawing blood. He could tell that the trauma of being raped had left him very emotionally scarred, and he could understand why he felt he was betraying his Whisperer mate.
“You do know that it’s beyond tradition to fall in love with your Whisperer mate.”
“Yeah.”
“Yet you still love him.”
“Yeah.”
“Enough to allow yourself to be tortured like this everyday for the rest of your life?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you ever thought about your friends? Your family? They’re really worried about you.”
“At least they got their lovers to luv ‘em. They’re not dirty like I am right now.”
“And your child? What of them?”
“They got doctors tuh cut me open n git ‘em out. Imma fine wif dat.”
“And your Whisperer mate? Have you ever thought about him?”
“He’s…better of withou’ me.”
“What makes you so sure?” Maximillion Pegasus probed some more, folding his arms across his chest.
“I was raped, fer cryin’ loud!” Joey snapped, the vines grew even more, not only all over his body, but all over the place as well, building itself into some sort of defensive fence around him. “I was taken by dat son of a bitch n freakin’ fucked like I was some ho! He wanted me tuh luv him instead of mah Seto! He wanted me tuh betray Seto! He made me a fuckin’ ho n made me betray Seto by fuckin’ me!
“How would ya feel if ya taken away from yer lover n git raped while ya carryin’ ya lover’s babies?! How would ya feel if ya bein’ touched ev’rywhere n licked in places only ya n ya lover r suppose tuh share togetha?! How would ya feel if ya bein’ tempted by some bastard n was actually drawn into a lil’ bit coz his deal wuz a once-in-a-lifetime deal?! How would ya feel if ya body canna stop feelin’ the dirty touches n the icky kisses as ya bin violated ova n ova again?! How would ya feel if ya insides wuz totally filled wif yer rapist’s cum?! How would ya feel wen ya wake up ev’ry mornin’ thinkin’ how dirty ya was n how yer cheatin’ pussy had bin screwed by someone else other than ‘im?! How would ya know?! Ya dunno shit bout me!”
Maximillion Pegasus could tell by the tone, the emotion and the amount of vines increasing that Joey was in a lot of pain, and was blaming a lot on himself. If he didn’t do something, soon he would be buried by the vines and shut out of his mind, and he would never get to speak with Joey again. It’s now or never.
“And you believe that you are being self-righteous by allowing yourself to suffer like this?”
“What?” Joey was surprised at that question.
“What makes you so certain that your friends would care whether you have been defiled or not? What makes you so certain that your friends are not looking out for your safety and judging you of your past experiences?” Maximillion Pegasus asked. The hesitation on Joey’s face and the slow but steady shrinking vines gave him the cue to continue, “Why would you assume that they would think of you any lesser than you are? For what purpose have they brought me here to speak to you if not out of concern for your wellbeing?”
“Well…I…I neva asked fer their pity…”
“But they wish to give it anyway, whether you ask of it or not. And what makes you so sure that your Whisperer mate had not forgiven you or had not put a single blame on you? Have you considered the trouble and effort it took for him to go all the way to where you were held captive to rescue you? Have you ever wondered why he is still by your side even though he knew you have been defiled by the Fallen Ethereal? Have you considered that?”
“B…But…I…”
“And have you ever considered what will your state do to the pups in you? Have you ever wondered what if the human doctors have performed an unsuccessful surgery, or whether because of your refusal to eat or drink or sleep it may cause harm to your pups? The pups you and your beloved Whisperer mate have created? Do you wish for the death of your pups as well because of your selfishness, especially when they are almost due any time soon?”
“No! No, I would neva let mah babies die! I would neva…”
“Then what are you doing here lying down on this bed of thorns wallow in self-pity and misery when your mate and your pups need you?”
“I…But…I’m dirty…I betrayed mah Seto’s luv…I dun deserve tuh…”
“It is not for you to choose one-sidedly whether or not you are worthy for someone. Although other people have no right to judge you, you, too, have no right to deny yourself some inkling of self-worth. What other people truly view you may surprise you.”
“I…I dunno…”
“It is your choice, my young mortal friend, whether or not you wish to release yourself from your own self-made prison and embrace whatever past, may it be dark and murky, or bright and shiny, and learn from it rather than grieve for it. Think wisely, Joseph Wheeler.”
Maximillion Pegasus’ blinding disappearance was the last thing he saw before he found himself staring back at all the vines that covered around him like a half-shell roof and the blood-red sky hovering above…
--:--
“He holds much contempt about himself. The prison he encased himself in is hard and painful, indicating how much self-loathing he had on himself for the rape incident he experienced in the Lair,” Maximillion Pegasus relayed whatever he deduced from Joey’s state of mind to the crowd. “He strongly believes that he would be judged by the people for his experience and wishes nothing more than to shoulder all the burden of his lustful sin and avoid the hatred you may harbour against him, especially you, Seto.”
“I would never blame him for what happened!” Seto exclaimed. “It’s not his fault! He is not the one to blame! It’s that bastard Fallen Ethereal’s fault! My Puppy was never in the wrong!”
“Good God, Your Majesty, we would never blame or judge him for what happened to him!” Ryou exclaimed as well, shocked to hear the Ruler’s words about Joey.
“Yeah! Moreover, I blame myself for this! I should’ve seen that coming and saved him no matter what! I’m the one to blame!” Malik cried, his heart panged in pain at the thought Joey blaming himself over all this.
“We are all to blame here! He can’t just think it’s all his fault and shoulder everything! If we had tried harder to stop that guy from taking him and Malik away…” Tristan couldn’t continue; he was too choked up about it.
“You have to help him, Your Majesty! He can’t do this to himself!” Yugi was already in tears.
“Please, Your Majesty,” Mr. Wheeler pleaded as he hugged his sobbing wife.
“I have spoken to him, and I have tried the best I can to convince him that he was not in the wrong,” Maximillion Pegasus sighed as he draped his cape across his shoulders. “But I cannot force him to make a speedy decision. The mind is a very fragile matter. It will be up to him to decide. Good day, everyone. I wish the best.”
With that, he left the ICU, his personal bodyguards who were waiting for him outside the room following behind his wake. As usual, Seto sat beside Joey and held his hand while the rest left the ICU to let them be alone together, ignoring the questions showered at them by the curious doctors, midwives and young ‘mothers’ and their parents. As Yugi reached to close the door of the ICU, Seto purred and kissed Joey’s forehead.
“I’ll be here waiting for you, no matter how long it takes for you.”
Whispers in the Dark-Chp23
“Oh my God, Joey!!!”
All the parents of the teen herms of Domino Island craned their necks out of the rooms to see what the loud shout was about. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler were shocked to see Joey in Seto’s arms looking more dead than alive, and as he was being manhandled by the midwives and the doctor-in-charge, he had not said a word. His eyes continued to stare at nothing and his body showed no sign of movement as the doctor and midwives tended to his slit wrists, applying medication and bandages around them and gave him some IV drops for his obvious malnutrition and dehydration, and since he was fortunate to not swallow the birth-inducing meds Illust-chan wanted to force-feed him, he suffered no effects of induced childbirth and the twins in him were issued a clean bill of health. The doctor diagnosed that the ordeal they have went through in the Lair had possibly caused some form of trauma and he has yet to get out of the shock, thus Joey’s vegetative stance. He was quickly admitted into ICU for further observation and to wait out his pregnancy term, and his parents were urged not to enter for the first few days to try and let him ride out the shock on his own for a while.
The mission was a success. Every last one of the Bad Seeds and Fallen Ethereal who tried to escape was either killed or cornered by the army forces of both Maximillion Pegasus and the Outer Beings. They were all arrested and shrunken to almost ant sizes by a human middle man who had the power to alter the sizes of matter. They were all held captive in small glass cases prepared by the army forces of the Fairies and kept for safe-keeping by Mahad and Obsidian the Dark Magician. They found the pure human men who were used to lure and capture the teen herms in a filth room, their severed bodies stacked upon each other to be left to rot as they were no longer of any use to the Bad Seeds and Fallen Ethereals in their plans for domination. Lord Zorc Necrophades, who was in the state of stupor in his room due to lack of strength without a new sacrifice to devour, was immediately taken to custody and sealed alone in an enchanted amulet to be added in the collection of other prisoners.
Akhenadin was nowhere to be seen as he had his fill of excitement and had probably returned to his dark sanctuary after having done with Majah left over by Seto. He had to admit that he had fun catching all his victims by surprise to make way for the rest of his comrades to enter the Lair without stirring much commotion, and he enjoyed looking at the horrified faces of people as they were engulfed and their souls absorbed into his black hole-like darkness, but he was one to get bored easily when the kill was too easy. Besides, he was not in a mood to claim the spoils of war. He’d prefer to be on his own doing whatever Dark Dwellers do best when they’re in their own little world. He was fine with the Outer Beings reaping all the glory, as long as the affairs of the Outer Beings and of the Ethereal Clan are no longer his concern, being the non-chooser of sides he was.
Illust-chan was returning with another dose of the birth-inducing meds when she saw the haphazard state the room was. She spotted Malik with Joey and was all out for bloody murder when she was stopped in her tracks by the sudden appearance of Marik, wielding his scary dark static-crackling powers in his hands. As he did on Diesel Kane and his gang, he sent off the black tendrils through Illust-chan’s veins, giving her a slow, painful, excruciating death. This time, Malik did not stop him from doing what he did best and was able to witness the end result of what would’ve happened to Diesel Kane and his gang. By the time he was done, Illust-chan was in shreds all over the place as the tendrils exploded within her, bursting every single vein it had crawled into, her brains, body parts, entrails, bones and almost anything that made a person’s body sprawled all over the floor in a bloody pool of mess.
After letting Akhenadin take care of what was left of Majah, Seto quickly returned back to the Lair where Malik had him in and tend to his wounds. Malik has finally reunited with his beloved and apologizing profusely between tears about him not waiting for Marik to see him giving birth, and Marik in turn held him tightly in his arms and hushed, whispering in his limited Human Tongue that everything was OK. While Marik held his little pup for the first time, Seto was busy with his Puppy, wrapping fresh clean sheets around his wrists and whispering spells to stop the bleeding. Joey was alive but barely, as his face looked pale with no sign of breaking out from his shocked stance. As Seto carried him in his arms all the way back to Domino Island along with Lord Seth and his other fellow Whisperer, Joey continued to stare in space and show no response whatsoever to his surroundings. It was as if he had totally lost touch of reality and couldn’t be bothered to wake up from his sleepless dreams.
Malik and his baby Night (whose name was approved by his Master Marik) was tended by the midwives as soon as he reached the hospital along with Joey and the other Whisperers. The midwives checked Night’s weight, height and all things concerning a newborn baby while the doctors checked Malik’s health. So far, so good. Since Malik was the first to give birth, Lord Seth did his royal duty to honour the ritual and sniff out the newborn pup. It was a no-brainer that Lord Seth announced that Night was a Whisperer-dominant, which confirmed Illust-chan’s guess. Malik had expected this to happen, and had prepared himself to face the consequences of giving birth to a Whisperer-dominant baby, but he couldn’t help feeling sad knowing that he would never see Marik or Night ever again after this. And though he didn’t wish Marik to see him, Marik knew that his little Dark Chocolate was crying and sobbing in his arms. All the Royal Executioner could do was hush him and stroke his back to comfort him, and promise him that Night would be in good hands.
As soon as the sedatives and medication to delay the birth wore off, the whole hospital was soon overwhelmed with young ‘mothers’ whining and crying in pain as their contractions kicked in. The hospital had to call for doctors from other hospitals and clinics and Lord Seth had to send the message to Maximillion Pegasus to gather as many human and Ethereal midwives as possible to cover the shorthand of staffs. All the Whisperers involved in siring the children of the young ‘mothers’ quickly sniffed them out and went into their rooms to witness the birth.
Tristan tried to act tough when Duke came in to witness the birth, but when Duke held his arm, asking if he was OK and telling him that he was here with him, Tristan couldn’t stop his tears from overflowing. Mr. and ‘Mrs.’ Taylor were glad to meet Duke for the first time, and did not ask questions about why he and Tristan were so intimate with each other, seemingly giving them a sort of knowing look when Duke planted a chaste kiss on his forehead and helped him ride out the pain. Due to his strength and stamina from his life of being a jock, giving birth was a little bit easy for him, although Tristan still couldn’t hold back the tears and the pained curses and swears as he struggled to push the baby out into the world. His cold sweat drenched the hospital gown he was wearing and blood was all over the sheets, and there were almost a few times when Tristan wanted to stop and give up, but with his parents and Duke’s encouragement, he managed to pull through. After about almost half an hour and the umpteenth time of pushing, a beautiful herm Whisperer was soon caught by the midwife. Lord Seth entered and sniffed the baby out, and announced it to be a Whisperer-dominant. Despite the fact that he announced first time in Solomon’s lecture on the ritual that he would not cry when Lord Seth made that sort of announcement, Tristan bawled and wailed in agony in Duke’s arms, screaming “No! No! No!” over and over again while Duke tried as best as he could to calm him down and hush him, rocking him gently to and fro until his little Soldier passed out from fatigue.
Yugi, on the other hand, couldn’t be bothered with all the formalities of introducing Yami to Solomon as he wrapped his arms around Yami and kissed him hungrily, savouring the taste of his mouth that he had missed so much since he was held captive in the Lair. Solomon looked a little disapproving at first, but decided to leave them be as he could see that Yugi was riding the pain much better with Yami’s presence. Yugi tried to be strong at first as they started off the birth, but soon was flooded with tears and pain as he felt the babies inched out of his vagina. Due to his smaller built than his fellow feminine friend Ryou, it was a little hard for him to push the baby out, so the midwife had to resort to using a pair of surgical scissors to cut the vagina wider, earning a painful wail from the little ‘mother’. The whole room echoed with his agonized screams as he gave birth to Destiny first, almost squeezing the hell out of Yami’s hand and tearing the sleeve of Solomon’s shirt. As was experienced by Malik, the head and shoulders coming out were the worst pain he felt, and he almost passed out from the pain and the amount of blood he was losing, but hearing Solomon’s encouraging words and feeling Yami’s reassuring hold on his hand and back, he managed to snap out of near unconsciousness to push Hope out. The midwife announced that he gave birth to both a pure boy and a herm boy, but that didn’t matter much as Lord Seth’s announcement that they were both Whisperer-dominant. Yugi somehow knew this was going to happen, but like Malik, he couldn’t help crying over the thought of not seeing Destiny and Hope—and Yami—ever again.
Ryou was glad that Bakura kept his promise and came back to witness the birth. Although he had sustained a few wounds from apprehending some of the most stubborn Bad Seeds, he was still up and about enough to come in and hug his little dear Princess, whispering that he was here and not going anywhere. Giving birth for Ryou was, as Tristan would put it, like a bitch. Even though the midwife asked if he wanted to do Caesarean due to his condition, Ryou refused, saying that he wishes to experience childbirth and wanted Bakura see him bearing the fruit of their love on his own. Ryou made no effort to stop his tears or his screams of pain though as the triplets were pushed out of him one by one. He had to be given the scissors treatment as well because of the amount of babies he was giving birth to, but despite crying and screaming in pain, he made no effort to stop pushing unless told so by the midwife. One by one, the babies edged painfully out of him, and one by one, their cries rang through the delivery room as the midwife announced that they were all beautiful pure boys. Lord Seth entered as soon as the midwife allowed him and his nose told him that the triplets were all Whisperer-dominant. Ryou felt in his gut all along throughout his pregnancy that his triplets would be Whisperer-dominant and smiled through his tears, asking Bakura to take real good care of their babies. Bakura could tell from his forced expression that he was just as sad as any other ‘mother’ who was going to lose their child forever, but he just held his words back and nodded in promise. If Ryou could be strong about this, then he had to show his support too.
The entire birth in Domino Motherhood Institution lasted all night and the whole hospital was filled with tiny squalls of babies taking in the first breath of air. Lord Seth had witnessed and smelt through the entire delivery room and had announced that 75 percent of the babies born were Whisperer-dominant, while the other 25 percent were Human-dominant. Out of those Whisperer- and Human-dominant, about 60 percent of them were pure boys and the rest were herms. Those involved in the record-keeping quickly took note of the information so that they could store it in their database later for future reference, while those involved in the delivery services congratulated each other for a job well done and celebrated their success with a light cocktail punch along with Lord Seth and his clan and Maximillion Pegasus after making sure the young ‘mothers’ were tucked in nicely in bed and asleep and their babies put in their cribs nice and warm.
Probably the only person not celebrating with the rest was Seto. Instead of being in a delivery room like the rest of his friends and fellow Whisperers, he was forced to linger around the hospital aimlessly up and down each floors because he was not allowed into the ICU and that his beloved was not one of those ‘mothers’ there pushing and screaming and crying and giving birth to what seemed to be the most beautiful creatures known in mankind’s history. He would pass by the ICU once in a while, but the drapes were drawn, shutting out the view of his beloved and the door was locked, making him unable to enter. He wanted to use magic to go in but he would need his brother’s Millennium Rod for it, and it didn’t take a genius to know that his down-to-earth brother would strongly refuse. His own battle staff did not come with the function of teleportation, so it was pretty much a useful piece of stick for him. He could try using his superhuman to break through the door, but then again, this would attract too much attention, and it would certainly earn him a sound scolding from his brother.
Seto cursed under his breath. Even though he and his friends had been removed of the Forbidden Blue’s curse for this mission, he didn’t find it the least bit comforting being with his mate. He remembered the time Lord Seth and Lord Katz called for the five to the council room of commons, and the cold, authoritative tone his twin brother spoke as he announced his decision…
“Milord?” Yami looked up, not sure what he was trying to say.
“Everyone’s worries have come true,” Lord Seth replied. “The young ‘mothers’, including your human counterpart you dwell your emotions upon so much, have been held captive by the very enemies we are fighting against for His Majesty Maximillion Pegasus. They have become collateral damages of the aftershock wars, and it’s your fault your human counterparts are into this. What have you to say for yourselves, brothers?”
The five lowered their heads, not wanting to admit that their Lord was right, but did not dare to speak otherwise.
“Now it has come to this, I have no choice but to allow Lord Katz to undo the Forbidden Blue’s curse so that you may perform your duties to your best efforts. All I need to know now is whether you lot have already learnt your lesson.”
After a rather long silence, Seto knelt on one knee and muttered, “We have wronged you dearly, brother. We ask humbly for your forgiveness.”
“Are you sorry for what you have done?”
“Yes, brother. We had put both our human mates and our clan in perilous danger. We are sorry.”
“Are all of you in unison with this?” Lord Seth turned his gaze at the rest of the four.
“Yes, milord,” the four replied as they, too, knelt the way Seto did.
“Very well,” Lord Seth said, then turned to Lord Katz and ordered, “Release them from their confines, beloved.”
“Most certainly, milord,” Lord Katz sighed happily and came forward to the four. Extending the pendant that kept the Forbidden Blue, he summoned the dragon out and gave it the signal to remove the curse. The Forbidden Blue opened its mouth up wide and blew out white-hot fire that surrounded the five. The fire licked through their skins and burnt out the mark on their shoulder, turning it into ashes of nothingness. By the time the fire subsided and the Forbidden Blue returned to the pendant, the troublesome mark that caused their near-death countless times was gone, leaving their shoulders bare and clean as a baby’s bottom, as if it had never existed.
“Now gather your men, brothers,” Lord Seth said before he left the room. “We are going to war.”
“Curses!” Seto growled as he slammed his fists hard on the door of the ICU. Millions of questions of regret ran through his mind. Why didn’t he ask his twin brother to remove the curse mark sooner? Why didn’t he sneak off and try to save Joey as soon as he heard the confession made by the traitor? Why couldn’t he get to the Lair sooner? Why did he waste his time fighting with that idiotic Fallen Ethereal when he should be tending to Joey? Why did it have to be like this? Why? Why??
“Brother Seto?”
Seto turned to see Marik standing before him, his eyes a hint of concern between his maliciousness. To be more exact, his features had seemed to soften up a little more ever since he started caring for his human counterpart Malik. Being in love definitely does wonders to the savage beast. He would’ve laughed at and teased Marik and thanked Malik for being such the submissive masochist if his heart wasn’t so overwhelmed and broken by Joey’s state right now.
“Leave me be, Brother Marik,” Seto whispered just enough for the Royal Executioner to hear.
“I can help you.”
“Does that include waking my Puppy up from his sleepless nightmares?”
Marik shook his head, saying, “But I can help you be by his side.”
Before Seto could register what Marik had just offered, he held out his hand and placed it against the door. A vortex soon appeared and seemed as if it was swallow part of the door he was touching. The vortex grew larger and larger until it was big enough for a person to go through. Soon, through the vortex, Seto could see his beloved lay stoic on the bed without any reaction whatsoever.
“Your Dark Chocolate has really changed you, Brother Marik,” Seto smirked as he looked at Marik appreciatively. “You’re behaving almost like I used to know you.”
“Breathe a word of this and I will make sure your soul never return from the afterlife,” Marik growled warningly, his demonic eyes sporting a hint of embarrassment.
Seto nodded in thanks and went through the vortex into the room. As soon as he entered, Marik quickly closed the vortex and walked off, hoping that no one saw him. Seto made his way towards Joey’s bed and took his hand while sitting down on a chair. As usual, Joey made no attempt to acknowledge his presence and didn’t even so much as flinch at Seto’s touch. His eyes continued to stare at nothing in particular and his lips never moved or utter a peep. Joey would occasionally blink a little and his chest would rise and fall slowly as he lay there with bated breath, but other than that, he was showing no signs of mobility.
“Puppy…? Puppy…Me Seto…” Seto tried to call him in Human Tongue, but seeing Joey did not react, he tried to speak in his own language, “Puppy, please. Look at me. It’s me, Seto, your Dragon. Please wake up.”
Silence replied him. Seto held onto Joey’s hand tighter, his shoulders trembling as he tried to hold back his tears.
“Please, Puppy. Please wake up. I’m so sorry for not rescuing you earlier. I should’ve been there for you. I should’ve been there to stop that Fallen Ethereal from defiling you. Even now I can still smell his putrid essence on you. It tears my heart to know what horrible things you have been through. I’m so sorry…”
Despite him trying hard not to cry, his ice-blue eyes betrayed him and allowed the tears to flow down like rain, droplets falling onto the hand he held. He had never felt so bitter and upset before in his whole life, not even when his parents died in the War and left them all alone to fend for themselves and rule over the Whisperer Clan side by side. His heart felt as if it had been clenched by the toughest claws in the world and then smashed in with the biggest stake you can find. Every inch of his body felt like it was pulled down by chains connected to lead and sunken into the deep sea below. Who would’ve thought loving someone with all your heart and soul and seeing the love of your life slipping slowly away from you would feel so utterly painful?
“I’m…sorry…”
Seto’s head shot up as he heard Joey’s soft, almost inaudible whisper. He looked at Joey and saw two trails of tears falling from the corner of his unblinking eyes. Though the rest of his body still remained stationary, to hear and see Joey’s reaction, however small, was all he needed.
“Puppy…?” Seto cried in Human Tongue, placing his ear near his lips. “What…you…say…?”
“I’m sorry…I’m…sorry…”
“It’s…OK…” Seto assured him, stroking his cheek.
“I’m…no longer…yours…I’m sorry…”
“Shh…”
“Bye…”
“What…?”
Joey’s silence returned again. Again, his Puppy returned to same old stoic state, his eyes blank, his body stiff, his breathing bated and his mind elsewhere. He was gone again in his sleepless nightmares and no matter how Seto shook and called him in both Human and Whisperer Tongue, he made no reaction.
Soon the whole hospital rang loud with Seto’s roar of agony.
All the parents of the teen herms of Domino Island craned their necks out of the rooms to see what the loud shout was about. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler were shocked to see Joey in Seto’s arms looking more dead than alive, and as he was being manhandled by the midwives and the doctor-in-charge, he had not said a word. His eyes continued to stare at nothing and his body showed no sign of movement as the doctor and midwives tended to his slit wrists, applying medication and bandages around them and gave him some IV drops for his obvious malnutrition and dehydration, and since he was fortunate to not swallow the birth-inducing meds Illust-chan wanted to force-feed him, he suffered no effects of induced childbirth and the twins in him were issued a clean bill of health. The doctor diagnosed that the ordeal they have went through in the Lair had possibly caused some form of trauma and he has yet to get out of the shock, thus Joey’s vegetative stance. He was quickly admitted into ICU for further observation and to wait out his pregnancy term, and his parents were urged not to enter for the first few days to try and let him ride out the shock on his own for a while.
The mission was a success. Every last one of the Bad Seeds and Fallen Ethereal who tried to escape was either killed or cornered by the army forces of both Maximillion Pegasus and the Outer Beings. They were all arrested and shrunken to almost ant sizes by a human middle man who had the power to alter the sizes of matter. They were all held captive in small glass cases prepared by the army forces of the Fairies and kept for safe-keeping by Mahad and Obsidian the Dark Magician. They found the pure human men who were used to lure and capture the teen herms in a filth room, their severed bodies stacked upon each other to be left to rot as they were no longer of any use to the Bad Seeds and Fallen Ethereals in their plans for domination. Lord Zorc Necrophades, who was in the state of stupor in his room due to lack of strength without a new sacrifice to devour, was immediately taken to custody and sealed alone in an enchanted amulet to be added in the collection of other prisoners.
Akhenadin was nowhere to be seen as he had his fill of excitement and had probably returned to his dark sanctuary after having done with Majah left over by Seto. He had to admit that he had fun catching all his victims by surprise to make way for the rest of his comrades to enter the Lair without stirring much commotion, and he enjoyed looking at the horrified faces of people as they were engulfed and their souls absorbed into his black hole-like darkness, but he was one to get bored easily when the kill was too easy. Besides, he was not in a mood to claim the spoils of war. He’d prefer to be on his own doing whatever Dark Dwellers do best when they’re in their own little world. He was fine with the Outer Beings reaping all the glory, as long as the affairs of the Outer Beings and of the Ethereal Clan are no longer his concern, being the non-chooser of sides he was.
Illust-chan was returning with another dose of the birth-inducing meds when she saw the haphazard state the room was. She spotted Malik with Joey and was all out for bloody murder when she was stopped in her tracks by the sudden appearance of Marik, wielding his scary dark static-crackling powers in his hands. As he did on Diesel Kane and his gang, he sent off the black tendrils through Illust-chan’s veins, giving her a slow, painful, excruciating death. This time, Malik did not stop him from doing what he did best and was able to witness the end result of what would’ve happened to Diesel Kane and his gang. By the time he was done, Illust-chan was in shreds all over the place as the tendrils exploded within her, bursting every single vein it had crawled into, her brains, body parts, entrails, bones and almost anything that made a person’s body sprawled all over the floor in a bloody pool of mess.
After letting Akhenadin take care of what was left of Majah, Seto quickly returned back to the Lair where Malik had him in and tend to his wounds. Malik has finally reunited with his beloved and apologizing profusely between tears about him not waiting for Marik to see him giving birth, and Marik in turn held him tightly in his arms and hushed, whispering in his limited Human Tongue that everything was OK. While Marik held his little pup for the first time, Seto was busy with his Puppy, wrapping fresh clean sheets around his wrists and whispering spells to stop the bleeding. Joey was alive but barely, as his face looked pale with no sign of breaking out from his shocked stance. As Seto carried him in his arms all the way back to Domino Island along with Lord Seth and his other fellow Whisperer, Joey continued to stare in space and show no response whatsoever to his surroundings. It was as if he had totally lost touch of reality and couldn’t be bothered to wake up from his sleepless dreams.
Malik and his baby Night (whose name was approved by his Master Marik) was tended by the midwives as soon as he reached the hospital along with Joey and the other Whisperers. The midwives checked Night’s weight, height and all things concerning a newborn baby while the doctors checked Malik’s health. So far, so good. Since Malik was the first to give birth, Lord Seth did his royal duty to honour the ritual and sniff out the newborn pup. It was a no-brainer that Lord Seth announced that Night was a Whisperer-dominant, which confirmed Illust-chan’s guess. Malik had expected this to happen, and had prepared himself to face the consequences of giving birth to a Whisperer-dominant baby, but he couldn’t help feeling sad knowing that he would never see Marik or Night ever again after this. And though he didn’t wish Marik to see him, Marik knew that his little Dark Chocolate was crying and sobbing in his arms. All the Royal Executioner could do was hush him and stroke his back to comfort him, and promise him that Night would be in good hands.
As soon as the sedatives and medication to delay the birth wore off, the whole hospital was soon overwhelmed with young ‘mothers’ whining and crying in pain as their contractions kicked in. The hospital had to call for doctors from other hospitals and clinics and Lord Seth had to send the message to Maximillion Pegasus to gather as many human and Ethereal midwives as possible to cover the shorthand of staffs. All the Whisperers involved in siring the children of the young ‘mothers’ quickly sniffed them out and went into their rooms to witness the birth.
Tristan tried to act tough when Duke came in to witness the birth, but when Duke held his arm, asking if he was OK and telling him that he was here with him, Tristan couldn’t stop his tears from overflowing. Mr. and ‘Mrs.’ Taylor were glad to meet Duke for the first time, and did not ask questions about why he and Tristan were so intimate with each other, seemingly giving them a sort of knowing look when Duke planted a chaste kiss on his forehead and helped him ride out the pain. Due to his strength and stamina from his life of being a jock, giving birth was a little bit easy for him, although Tristan still couldn’t hold back the tears and the pained curses and swears as he struggled to push the baby out into the world. His cold sweat drenched the hospital gown he was wearing and blood was all over the sheets, and there were almost a few times when Tristan wanted to stop and give up, but with his parents and Duke’s encouragement, he managed to pull through. After about almost half an hour and the umpteenth time of pushing, a beautiful herm Whisperer was soon caught by the midwife. Lord Seth entered and sniffed the baby out, and announced it to be a Whisperer-dominant. Despite the fact that he announced first time in Solomon’s lecture on the ritual that he would not cry when Lord Seth made that sort of announcement, Tristan bawled and wailed in agony in Duke’s arms, screaming “No! No! No!” over and over again while Duke tried as best as he could to calm him down and hush him, rocking him gently to and fro until his little Soldier passed out from fatigue.
Yugi, on the other hand, couldn’t be bothered with all the formalities of introducing Yami to Solomon as he wrapped his arms around Yami and kissed him hungrily, savouring the taste of his mouth that he had missed so much since he was held captive in the Lair. Solomon looked a little disapproving at first, but decided to leave them be as he could see that Yugi was riding the pain much better with Yami’s presence. Yugi tried to be strong at first as they started off the birth, but soon was flooded with tears and pain as he felt the babies inched out of his vagina. Due to his smaller built than his fellow feminine friend Ryou, it was a little hard for him to push the baby out, so the midwife had to resort to using a pair of surgical scissors to cut the vagina wider, earning a painful wail from the little ‘mother’. The whole room echoed with his agonized screams as he gave birth to Destiny first, almost squeezing the hell out of Yami’s hand and tearing the sleeve of Solomon’s shirt. As was experienced by Malik, the head and shoulders coming out were the worst pain he felt, and he almost passed out from the pain and the amount of blood he was losing, but hearing Solomon’s encouraging words and feeling Yami’s reassuring hold on his hand and back, he managed to snap out of near unconsciousness to push Hope out. The midwife announced that he gave birth to both a pure boy and a herm boy, but that didn’t matter much as Lord Seth’s announcement that they were both Whisperer-dominant. Yugi somehow knew this was going to happen, but like Malik, he couldn’t help crying over the thought of not seeing Destiny and Hope—and Yami—ever again.
Ryou was glad that Bakura kept his promise and came back to witness the birth. Although he had sustained a few wounds from apprehending some of the most stubborn Bad Seeds, he was still up and about enough to come in and hug his little dear Princess, whispering that he was here and not going anywhere. Giving birth for Ryou was, as Tristan would put it, like a bitch. Even though the midwife asked if he wanted to do Caesarean due to his condition, Ryou refused, saying that he wishes to experience childbirth and wanted Bakura see him bearing the fruit of their love on his own. Ryou made no effort to stop his tears or his screams of pain though as the triplets were pushed out of him one by one. He had to be given the scissors treatment as well because of the amount of babies he was giving birth to, but despite crying and screaming in pain, he made no effort to stop pushing unless told so by the midwife. One by one, the babies edged painfully out of him, and one by one, their cries rang through the delivery room as the midwife announced that they were all beautiful pure boys. Lord Seth entered as soon as the midwife allowed him and his nose told him that the triplets were all Whisperer-dominant. Ryou felt in his gut all along throughout his pregnancy that his triplets would be Whisperer-dominant and smiled through his tears, asking Bakura to take real good care of their babies. Bakura could tell from his forced expression that he was just as sad as any other ‘mother’ who was going to lose their child forever, but he just held his words back and nodded in promise. If Ryou could be strong about this, then he had to show his support too.
The entire birth in Domino Motherhood Institution lasted all night and the whole hospital was filled with tiny squalls of babies taking in the first breath of air. Lord Seth had witnessed and smelt through the entire delivery room and had announced that 75 percent of the babies born were Whisperer-dominant, while the other 25 percent were Human-dominant. Out of those Whisperer- and Human-dominant, about 60 percent of them were pure boys and the rest were herms. Those involved in the record-keeping quickly took note of the information so that they could store it in their database later for future reference, while those involved in the delivery services congratulated each other for a job well done and celebrated their success with a light cocktail punch along with Lord Seth and his clan and Maximillion Pegasus after making sure the young ‘mothers’ were tucked in nicely in bed and asleep and their babies put in their cribs nice and warm.
Probably the only person not celebrating with the rest was Seto. Instead of being in a delivery room like the rest of his friends and fellow Whisperers, he was forced to linger around the hospital aimlessly up and down each floors because he was not allowed into the ICU and that his beloved was not one of those ‘mothers’ there pushing and screaming and crying and giving birth to what seemed to be the most beautiful creatures known in mankind’s history. He would pass by the ICU once in a while, but the drapes were drawn, shutting out the view of his beloved and the door was locked, making him unable to enter. He wanted to use magic to go in but he would need his brother’s Millennium Rod for it, and it didn’t take a genius to know that his down-to-earth brother would strongly refuse. His own battle staff did not come with the function of teleportation, so it was pretty much a useful piece of stick for him. He could try using his superhuman to break through the door, but then again, this would attract too much attention, and it would certainly earn him a sound scolding from his brother.
Seto cursed under his breath. Even though he and his friends had been removed of the Forbidden Blue’s curse for this mission, he didn’t find it the least bit comforting being with his mate. He remembered the time Lord Seth and Lord Katz called for the five to the council room of commons, and the cold, authoritative tone his twin brother spoke as he announced his decision…
--:--
FLASHBACK BEGINS
“Have you all learnt your lesson now?” Lord Seth asked, his arms across his chest with his cold blue eyes staring down at them royally.“Milord?” Yami looked up, not sure what he was trying to say.
“Everyone’s worries have come true,” Lord Seth replied. “The young ‘mothers’, including your human counterpart you dwell your emotions upon so much, have been held captive by the very enemies we are fighting against for His Majesty Maximillion Pegasus. They have become collateral damages of the aftershock wars, and it’s your fault your human counterparts are into this. What have you to say for yourselves, brothers?”
The five lowered their heads, not wanting to admit that their Lord was right, but did not dare to speak otherwise.
“Now it has come to this, I have no choice but to allow Lord Katz to undo the Forbidden Blue’s curse so that you may perform your duties to your best efforts. All I need to know now is whether you lot have already learnt your lesson.”
After a rather long silence, Seto knelt on one knee and muttered, “We have wronged you dearly, brother. We ask humbly for your forgiveness.”
“Are you sorry for what you have done?”
“Yes, brother. We had put both our human mates and our clan in perilous danger. We are sorry.”
“Are all of you in unison with this?” Lord Seth turned his gaze at the rest of the four.
“Yes, milord,” the four replied as they, too, knelt the way Seto did.
“Very well,” Lord Seth said, then turned to Lord Katz and ordered, “Release them from their confines, beloved.”
“Most certainly, milord,” Lord Katz sighed happily and came forward to the four. Extending the pendant that kept the Forbidden Blue, he summoned the dragon out and gave it the signal to remove the curse. The Forbidden Blue opened its mouth up wide and blew out white-hot fire that surrounded the five. The fire licked through their skins and burnt out the mark on their shoulder, turning it into ashes of nothingness. By the time the fire subsided and the Forbidden Blue returned to the pendant, the troublesome mark that caused their near-death countless times was gone, leaving their shoulders bare and clean as a baby’s bottom, as if it had never existed.
“Now gather your men, brothers,” Lord Seth said before he left the room. “We are going to war.”
FLASHBACK ENDS
--:--
“Brother Seto?”
Seto turned to see Marik standing before him, his eyes a hint of concern between his maliciousness. To be more exact, his features had seemed to soften up a little more ever since he started caring for his human counterpart Malik. Being in love definitely does wonders to the savage beast. He would’ve laughed at and teased Marik and thanked Malik for being such the submissive masochist if his heart wasn’t so overwhelmed and broken by Joey’s state right now.
“Leave me be, Brother Marik,” Seto whispered just enough for the Royal Executioner to hear.
“I can help you.”
“Does that include waking my Puppy up from his sleepless nightmares?”
Marik shook his head, saying, “But I can help you be by his side.”
Before Seto could register what Marik had just offered, he held out his hand and placed it against the door. A vortex soon appeared and seemed as if it was swallow part of the door he was touching. The vortex grew larger and larger until it was big enough for a person to go through. Soon, through the vortex, Seto could see his beloved lay stoic on the bed without any reaction whatsoever.
“Your Dark Chocolate has really changed you, Brother Marik,” Seto smirked as he looked at Marik appreciatively. “You’re behaving almost like I used to know you.”
“Breathe a word of this and I will make sure your soul never return from the afterlife,” Marik growled warningly, his demonic eyes sporting a hint of embarrassment.
Seto nodded in thanks and went through the vortex into the room. As soon as he entered, Marik quickly closed the vortex and walked off, hoping that no one saw him. Seto made his way towards Joey’s bed and took his hand while sitting down on a chair. As usual, Joey made no attempt to acknowledge his presence and didn’t even so much as flinch at Seto’s touch. His eyes continued to stare at nothing in particular and his lips never moved or utter a peep. Joey would occasionally blink a little and his chest would rise and fall slowly as he lay there with bated breath, but other than that, he was showing no signs of mobility.
“Puppy…? Puppy…Me Seto…” Seto tried to call him in Human Tongue, but seeing Joey did not react, he tried to speak in his own language, “Puppy, please. Look at me. It’s me, Seto, your Dragon. Please wake up.”
Silence replied him. Seto held onto Joey’s hand tighter, his shoulders trembling as he tried to hold back his tears.
“Please, Puppy. Please wake up. I’m so sorry for not rescuing you earlier. I should’ve been there for you. I should’ve been there to stop that Fallen Ethereal from defiling you. Even now I can still smell his putrid essence on you. It tears my heart to know what horrible things you have been through. I’m so sorry…”
Despite him trying hard not to cry, his ice-blue eyes betrayed him and allowed the tears to flow down like rain, droplets falling onto the hand he held. He had never felt so bitter and upset before in his whole life, not even when his parents died in the War and left them all alone to fend for themselves and rule over the Whisperer Clan side by side. His heart felt as if it had been clenched by the toughest claws in the world and then smashed in with the biggest stake you can find. Every inch of his body felt like it was pulled down by chains connected to lead and sunken into the deep sea below. Who would’ve thought loving someone with all your heart and soul and seeing the love of your life slipping slowly away from you would feel so utterly painful?
“I’m…sorry…”
Seto’s head shot up as he heard Joey’s soft, almost inaudible whisper. He looked at Joey and saw two trails of tears falling from the corner of his unblinking eyes. Though the rest of his body still remained stationary, to hear and see Joey’s reaction, however small, was all he needed.
“Puppy…?” Seto cried in Human Tongue, placing his ear near his lips. “What…you…say…?”
“I’m sorry…I’m…sorry…”
“It’s…OK…” Seto assured him, stroking his cheek.
“I’m…no longer…yours…I’m sorry…”
“Shh…”
“Bye…”
“What…?”
Joey’s silence returned again. Again, his Puppy returned to same old stoic state, his eyes blank, his body stiff, his breathing bated and his mind elsewhere. He was gone again in his sleepless nightmares and no matter how Seto shook and called him in both Human and Whisperer Tongue, he made no reaction.
Soon the whole hospital rang loud with Seto’s roar of agony.
Whispers in the Dark-Chp22
“How is the situation in the Lair?”
“Looks calm enough.”
The cavalry had arrived and were hiding out of sight from the Lair where the Fallen Ethereal and Bad Seeds’ hideout supposedly be. According to the instructions given by those involved in the pursuit of the Bad Seed who used to own that Lair, it was located somewhere in the outskirts of Scotland, deep in the forest where it was secluded enough to hide away from both human and Ethereal eyes. If they were to walk down the forest towards the end, they would find themselves in front of a scenic view of the Loch, where the Loch Ness monster was used to rumoured to be in. Of course, before the peace treaty between Ethereal and humans, everyone called it the Loch Ness monster because of their ignorance towards the variety of Outer Beings coexisting with them. After the treaty, everyone soon knew that the Loch Ness monster was just one of the Beasts that were used as a main transport to dive down into the lake to meet up with Ethereals who lived in water, like the merfolks and the Hydro Dwellers. It was said that to avoid suspicion and capture, the Bad Seed actually used teleportation on days when it committed its crimes in a regular basis while it went all out over the world to perform its dastardly deeds, thus the high-level seclusion and the tedious time it took for those involved in the pursuit to arrest it.
After the long meeting on how to strategize their ambush on the enemy, everyone departed to gather their best forces yet, both human and Ethereal side. The human middle men gathered together to form their own team while the Ethereals went back to their clan to address their army forces into battle, or in other words, what was left of the clan that swore loyalty to Maximillion Pegasus. Seto was hell bent on getting his Puppy back, so it was no wonder when he quickly made his way to the army forces and drilled them to get their gear up to fight. The Ethereal middle men, including Duke Devlin and his remaining loyal colleagues, also ganged up in their own force and joined the fight. Yami, Marik and Ryou joined Seto in his army force and headed out. This time, Maximillion Pegasus personally came along with about a dozen of his finest bodyguards to join the fight. He believed that allowing this atrocity to happen was his fault in the first place for not being a good leader, and that he wishes to take responsibilities for this whole mess.
Trying to convince Akhenadin to join the team was not an easy task. Just looking for him alone was like trying to find a needle in a haystack as he takes great refuge in places where it’s so dark you can’t even see your fingers even if you held it a millimeter in front of your face. If it weren’t for Dark Dwellers’ nature to be born with eyes glowing in the dark like Whisperers, you wouldn’t even see him even if he’s right under your nose. They were relieved to find out that Akhenadin had not picked sides in this war aftershock, but neither would he yield into participating in another senseless war. All the Heads of the Outer Being, including Lord Seth, had to issue him a handsome sum of bribery just to get Akhenadin to sway to their side. He was now officially in the team, only he was concealed and blended into the pit of the darkness of night, waiting for the signal and the right time to strike.
“Let’s hope it stays that way before we get to rescue the ‘mothers’,” Seto said as he gave the signal to his soldiers to make their stealth move. His soldiers nodded and followed his every command, followed by the rest of the army forces. Maximillion Pegasus nodded and held up his hand, as a signal for Akhenadin to pitch base at the mansion tower.
Meanwhile, inside the Lair, things were hectic in the dungeons. Seeing as they were running out of time and their Lord Zorc Necrophades was running out of patience, the Bad Seeds and Fallen Ethereals decided that they could not wait for the ‘mothers’ to come to term and have resorted to induce childbirth. They slipped some mild birth-inducing medication into the ‘mother’s corn soup before giving them the feed of the day, and by the late afternoon, the ‘mothers’ began to react to the medication as they began to feel the birth pangs one by one. Yugi was the first among the Domino gang to react.
“Oh God…Oww…It hurts…!” Yugi cried, doubling over and clutching his abdomen tightly.
“What the…?” Tristan was next to feel it. “What’s wrong with us…? It’s…too soon…”
“It…It must be the food…!” someone from Gammon High exclaimed. “They must’ve…slipped in…something…! Oww!”
“It must be…some sort of…birth-inducing meds…” Ryou said as he, too, felt the contractions.
“F…Fuck! What are they thinking…?!” Tristan groaned. “We’re not even due…!”
“I think…their master is…getting a little…impatient,” someone from Maximillion spoke, holding back a yelp as a contraction hit him.
“Well, well, well, I think the medication worked beautifully.”
Everyone looked up to see a group of Illust-chan’s lackeys appearing in front of the cell gate. One of them took out the key to unlock the gate and let everyone enter.
“You…You bastard!” Tristan cursed. “What are you trying to do?!”
“It’s our sister’s orders. We’re just doing our job,” the leader of the lackeys smirked, then signaled to his men, “Come along, brothers. Let’s take them all upstairs to the Birthing Chambers. Don’t worry your socks off, ladies. You’ll be well taken care of. After all, most of the midwives you’ve come to know in your world are imposters from our team.”
As the lackeys reached over to pick the struggling, protesting ‘mothers’, the ground suddenly rumbled like there was a mini-earthquake going on underneath the Lair. Somewhere in the middle of the cell, the floor began to crack and cave in, revealing dozens upon dozens of dwarf-like men carrying axes and spears as they popped out like moles one by one. All of them swiftly and silent hacked and decapitated every single Bad Seed and Fallen Ethereal that were there to take the ‘mothers’ up to their doom. Not a peep was made from the lackeys as their heads fell and rolled off their shoulders one by one to the ground with the speed and agility of the dwarf-like men that could render Flash or Superman speechless. As the headless lackeys fell onto their knees and toppled to the floor, a familiar face along with his team came out of the hole.
“B…Bakura!!!” Ryou almost screamed with joy but was luckily hushed by Bakura’s kiss. They French-kissed each other for almost 2 minutes before the kisser was reminded by one of Bakura’s comrades about their mission. Bakura grinned and immediately asked the dwarf-like men to carry all the ‘mothers’ and escape through the hole they made.
“Bakura! Thank goodness you’re here!” Yugi cried in relief, almost forgetting that he was in pain. “Where are the others?”
“Around…” Bakura grinned as he hugged Ryou possessively.
“What about Duke? Is he here?” Tristan asked worriedly.
Bakura nodded before replying, “Come…”
With that, Bakura’s team and the gang of dwarf-like men, or to be exact by their real clan name the Underground Dwellers, carried all the ‘mothers’ through a long and dark tunnel that had a lot of twists and turns. Then, from their original route, one Underground Dweller took the lead and started digging with his pitchfork at top speed, deviating towards another direction. They went on and on until they finally reached the surface which was right beside the Loch. There, part of the group of human middle men was there to take over. One of them who had the power of creating force-fields made a huge one to surround the ‘mothers’ while one of them who had the power of teleportation entered the force-field and teleported everyone to Domino Island and into Domino Motherhood Institution where Mai had built specifically for midwifery and delivery just for the ‘mothers’ of Domino Island when the day comes for the mass delivery ritual. In the hospital, the human midwives who were already briefed about the mission and awaiting their arrival soon quickly ushered all the ‘mothers’ into designated delivery rooms and were given a sort of sedative medicine to ease the pain and delay the birth temporarily as it is important and compulsory in the ritual tradition to have the father of the child to be present at the birth. Luckily, the hospital was big enough to accommodate all the ‘mothers’ and soon, their parents were either flown in, shipped in or drove in to be by their side while awaiting for the Whisperer fathers to arrive from the mission to attend the delivery.
Some of the Whisperers in Bakura’s team were sires of a few of the young ‘mothers’, including Bakura, but they couldn’t stay and start the delivery as they had a mission to complete. Ryou cried and sobbed and begged Bakura to stay, tugging at his arm desperately, even though both knew that they had to separate for now.
“Please! Please don’t go, Bakura! Please! Stay with me!” Ryou wailed.
“Let go…” Bakura pleaded, trying to pry him away. Ryou’s parents and twin sister tried to coax Ryou to let go.
“Come on, son,” Mr. Bakura said. “He’ll be back soon. Don’t worry.”
“I don’t want to be alone! I want Bakura with me!”
“You have us, darling,” ‘Mrs.’ Bakura said. “We’ll accompany you till then.”
“Yeah, bro. He’s got a job to do,” Ryou’s twin sister agreed. “He’ll come back for you.”
“Promise…” Bakura nodded in agreement, then whispered into Ryou’s ear, “Love you…”
Ryou hesitated for a moment, then sniffled and let go of Bakura’s hand. Bakura planted a chaste kiss on his forehead before rushing off together with his team to accomplish the mission. Again, with teleportation, they returned back to the Loch in Scotland and made their way together with the human middle men to join the rest of the troop in their ambush.
“I’ll return soon,” Bakura muttered to himself. “I’ll return to watch the birth of our beautiful pups, Princess. Wait for me patiently…”
“What the…?”
As Illust-chan and the other midwives realized that the lackeys she sent were getting a tad too late, she decided to go downstairs to investigate, only to discover her lackeys all sprawled on the floor on their own pool of blood and their heads scattered all over the place. The crack on the floor of the empty cell told her enough that the enemy has already begun their ambush.
Cursing under her breath, she made her way back up and dismissed all the midwives, telling everyone to get ready to retreat. She poured quite a large dose of the birth-inducing meds into a vial of milk and made her way towards Joey’s room where he was kept prisoner. Malik, who was held captive in his room two doors away from Joey’s, heard her passing by and banged the door as usual, demanding out, in which Illust-chan stopped for a while in front of the door and decided to get back to him later. Without the courtesy of knocking, she barged into the room to see Majah stroking Joey’s honey-blonde hair. She took a glance at Joey and saw that he was staring at space, his eyes as blank as a doll’s as he allowed Majah to pet him like a little dog.
“Move aside, Brother Majah,” Illust-chan said in an authoritative voice.
“Sister Illust-chan,” Majah stood up, hugging Joey in his arms protectively. “What are you doing here?”
“No time for idle talk. We are being ambushed. Sooner or later, they will come here. We cannot wait any longer. At least he would do.”
“Do what, Sister Illust-chan? What are you trying to do?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Illust-chan growled as she pushed Majah aside to force-feed Joey with the milk. “If we want our lord to have the strength to escape safely, he will need at least one sacrifice. I’m going to need this little brat to do that.”
“Sister Illust-chan! You promised!” Majah exclaimed as he tried to wrestle the milk away from his sister. “You promised that Joseph will not be part of the speed-up process! You promised you’ll let him carry to term! You cannot go back on your word!”
“My word is law here, Brother Majah, and my word right now is to make this brat give birth now and give it to our lord! Have you forgotten our noble cause?!” Illust-chan shrieked, her voice booming across the room as if there were two people speaking through her mouth. Whenever Illust-chan gets agitated or angry, her wrath was not to be reckoned with. If she began to spout a double overlay voice, she meant business.
“But…But I love him…”
“This brat is not worth loving if he can’t even make a simple swearing of the heart! Now step aside, Brother Majah! Don’t make me do something worse than it is!”
Majah wanted to resist, but he knew through experience that despite his larger built, his powers were no match to his sister. Shoving Majah away, she pulled Joey up by the hair and put the vial of milk onto Joey’s lips and tried to make him drink. Joey made no effort to open his mouth or swallow. All the milk trickled from the sides of his lips and stained his chin, neck and shirt as he continued to stare in space, his mind went to goodness knows where.
“Curse the gods of Ethereal!” Illust-chan spat as she threw the vial against the wall, shattering it into pieces. “What the hell is wrong with him? What did you do to him, Brother Majah?! Why is he like this?!”
“I…I don’t know…” Majah replied sadly. “He’s been like this since we had sexual intercourse. He wouldn’t eat, he wouldn’t speak, he wouldn’t even sleep. He’s just lying there staring at nothing, like a living dead.”
“Well, snap him out of it! I’m going off to make some more and also see if everyone else has escaped! I want him alive and kicking by the time I come back!”
As Illust-chan stormed out of the room, Majah slowly picked Joey up in his arms and lightly patted his face, trying to get him out of his reverie. He called out his name dozens of times but he wouldn’t budge. Finally after shaking him a little, Joey’s eyes finally reacted. They slowly shifted, bringing his gaze towards the broken shards of glass that was once the vial of milk. Without warning, he pried himself out of Majah’s embrace and walked over to the shards. Majah, who was shocked and overwhelmed that his love was finally up and about, did not expect what happened next: Joey reached down to pick up one shard and, with two strokes, slit both his wrists.
Majah gasped and ran to Joey, trying to press the slit wounds down to stop the bleeding. His eyes filled with horror as he saw Joey finally smiling for the first time since he got into this godforsaken place. It was the exact same smile that Majah has seen and fallen in love with, only it was for a totally wrong reason.
“Joseph! Joseph, my love! Why did you do this?! How could you be so stupid?! Stay with me, Joseph! Stay with me!”
“I’m…sorry…” Joey whispered, his voice almost inaudible.
“What?”
“I’m…sorry…Seto…I’m…no longer yours…”
“Puppy…?”
Majah looked up and narrowed his eyes in contempt as he saw his love rival Seto standing there staring at the sight of a bloody Joey before him. Seto widened his eyes in horror at the blood that was spouting from both his beloved’s wrists and saw him in the hands of a Fallen Ethereal. He narrowed his eyes just as equally in contempt as Majah and growled.
“What have you done to my Puppy?!”
“Your Puppy?” Majah echoed, speaking in rather fluent Whisperer Tongue as he tore off a bed sheet to tie up the bleeding slit wrists. “He’s my woman! I will not let you have him!”
“Get your hands off my mate, you ugly piece of vile putrid waste!”
“Over my dead body!”
Laying back Joey on the bed, the battle of Majah and Seto ensued. Seto’s staff clashed with Majah’s claws as they fought all over the room and crashed through walls, demanding dominance. Whenever someone from Seto’s team tried to reach over to take Joey away, Majah would let out his superhuman eagle-like screech and the sound waves sent them toppling over headlong onto the ground or flying out of the room, crashing through the window as they went. Seto and Majah’s battle aura collided with each other as they fought to the death, breaking everything beyond their wake. It got to one point when their fight was so intense, Majah’s punch actually sent Seto flying and breaking through the walls until he actually landed onto Malik’s bed in his room. Malik, after getting over the shock and quickly holding his bawling baby, realized who it was.
“Seto?! Oh my god, where is Joey?! Is he alright?!”
“Protect…Puppy…” Seto struggled to get up as he lunged forward to strike Majah again. Malik quickly went towards Joey through the holes of the walls and was horrified to see Joey’s pale blank look as the blood began to seep through the bed sheet tourniquets tied around his wrists. By then, Majah was so bent on the kill and lust for Seto’s blood, he barely noticed as Malik tried to both hold onto his baby and drag him to the next room through another cracked hole on the opposite wall.
“I’ll have you know,” Majah roared as he gave a blow at Seto, who in turn blocked it with his staff, “my woman almost swore his heart to me!”
“He is not your woman!” Seto growled as he whacked his staff at Majah’s head. “He’s my mate! Mine! He and the pups within him are mine!”
“And what good would that do you?!” Majah kicked Seto’s side and punched his gut. “You will never be by his side! You will take the children away and leave him heartbroken, regretting that he had ever done the ritual! You will make him cry for eternity and sad forever in his life for the love between you that cannot be! I can provide whatever you can’t!”
“No, you won’t!” Seto flung Majah out of the window with the power of his staff, then followed after him to resume fighting. “You will use him again and again, and you will harm my pups out of spite! You will never love him as much as I do! You only want him for his body!”
“I can provide him love and affection!” Majah screeched, his sound wave banging and rumbling against Seto’s built. “I can give him a family! A real family! I can be a loving father to his pups and a faithful, loyal husband to him! I will be there for him, answering his every call and granting his every wish! You will leave him and make him marry someone he does not truly love and have a family he does not truly want! At least with me, he gets to keep the pups and never have to fear of anyone leaving him alone! I can be what you can’t, and will always be what you never will! I reign supreme in this rivalry! I win!”
“Maybe so,” Seto said as he smashed the sound wave away and repelled it back to Majah as much as possible. “But I will remain in his heart and soul forever. I will be the only person he truly loves, and will always be the one he would think of whenever times serves him. You are doing me a favour by letting him keep my pups because his pups will always remind him of me, the lovechildren created by us becoming as one both heart and soul. Every sleepless night he will think of the nights he made love to me. Every time you shower your love to him, he will think of my tender loving care. Every blood you shed on our clan will only deepen his hate for you. You are contradicting yourself because you are not the person he truly loves either and the family you want to give him is not what he truly wants. You’re being a hypocrite.”
“How would you know how I feel?! How would you know what he would be thinking?!”
“Because those are the exact things I would feel.”
With that, holding his staff like a baseball bat, he swung as hard as he could, using the speed and strength to amplify the effect of his staff’s magic force to pummel Majah to the ground. The force of Seto’s magic severed both Majah’s huge raven-black wings and without the advantage of flight, he soon fell headlong towards the ground, with tree branches breaking his fall in between, and rammed his back hard on the earth below. By the time he came round, he realized Seto towering over him with ice-cold eyes that spelt murder, and his whole body was paralyzed, possibly because he broke his spine from the fall.
“You…You don’t deserve Joseph…! He’s mine!”
Seto didn’t reply, but his whole fiber of being was seething with anger, hate and vengeance as he raised his staff high in the air and rammed the lower end of it real hard onto Majah’s manhood, drawing blood. With the staff still embedded onto what’s left of the Fallen Ethereal’s dick, Seto knelt down and brought his face close to Majah and hissed in a very venomous tone.
“This is for defiling my Puppy.”
So saying, he got up and turned his back at Majah, leaving him there to die. He crossed paths with Akhenadin, who looked like he had quite good fun making carnage in the Lair, gazed sideways indirectly at Majah and walked off. Akhenadin understood that gesture and closed in to Majah, claiming what’s left over for him.
His blood lust face grinning from ear to ear was the last thing Majah saw before complete darkness engulfed him.
“Looks calm enough.”
The cavalry had arrived and were hiding out of sight from the Lair where the Fallen Ethereal and Bad Seeds’ hideout supposedly be. According to the instructions given by those involved in the pursuit of the Bad Seed who used to own that Lair, it was located somewhere in the outskirts of Scotland, deep in the forest where it was secluded enough to hide away from both human and Ethereal eyes. If they were to walk down the forest towards the end, they would find themselves in front of a scenic view of the Loch, where the Loch Ness monster was used to rumoured to be in. Of course, before the peace treaty between Ethereal and humans, everyone called it the Loch Ness monster because of their ignorance towards the variety of Outer Beings coexisting with them. After the treaty, everyone soon knew that the Loch Ness monster was just one of the Beasts that were used as a main transport to dive down into the lake to meet up with Ethereals who lived in water, like the merfolks and the Hydro Dwellers. It was said that to avoid suspicion and capture, the Bad Seed actually used teleportation on days when it committed its crimes in a regular basis while it went all out over the world to perform its dastardly deeds, thus the high-level seclusion and the tedious time it took for those involved in the pursuit to arrest it.
After the long meeting on how to strategize their ambush on the enemy, everyone departed to gather their best forces yet, both human and Ethereal side. The human middle men gathered together to form their own team while the Ethereals went back to their clan to address their army forces into battle, or in other words, what was left of the clan that swore loyalty to Maximillion Pegasus. Seto was hell bent on getting his Puppy back, so it was no wonder when he quickly made his way to the army forces and drilled them to get their gear up to fight. The Ethereal middle men, including Duke Devlin and his remaining loyal colleagues, also ganged up in their own force and joined the fight. Yami, Marik and Ryou joined Seto in his army force and headed out. This time, Maximillion Pegasus personally came along with about a dozen of his finest bodyguards to join the fight. He believed that allowing this atrocity to happen was his fault in the first place for not being a good leader, and that he wishes to take responsibilities for this whole mess.
Trying to convince Akhenadin to join the team was not an easy task. Just looking for him alone was like trying to find a needle in a haystack as he takes great refuge in places where it’s so dark you can’t even see your fingers even if you held it a millimeter in front of your face. If it weren’t for Dark Dwellers’ nature to be born with eyes glowing in the dark like Whisperers, you wouldn’t even see him even if he’s right under your nose. They were relieved to find out that Akhenadin had not picked sides in this war aftershock, but neither would he yield into participating in another senseless war. All the Heads of the Outer Being, including Lord Seth, had to issue him a handsome sum of bribery just to get Akhenadin to sway to their side. He was now officially in the team, only he was concealed and blended into the pit of the darkness of night, waiting for the signal and the right time to strike.
“Let’s hope it stays that way before we get to rescue the ‘mothers’,” Seto said as he gave the signal to his soldiers to make their stealth move. His soldiers nodded and followed his every command, followed by the rest of the army forces. Maximillion Pegasus nodded and held up his hand, as a signal for Akhenadin to pitch base at the mansion tower.
Meanwhile, inside the Lair, things were hectic in the dungeons. Seeing as they were running out of time and their Lord Zorc Necrophades was running out of patience, the Bad Seeds and Fallen Ethereals decided that they could not wait for the ‘mothers’ to come to term and have resorted to induce childbirth. They slipped some mild birth-inducing medication into the ‘mother’s corn soup before giving them the feed of the day, and by the late afternoon, the ‘mothers’ began to react to the medication as they began to feel the birth pangs one by one. Yugi was the first among the Domino gang to react.
“Oh God…Oww…It hurts…!” Yugi cried, doubling over and clutching his abdomen tightly.
“What the…?” Tristan was next to feel it. “What’s wrong with us…? It’s…too soon…”
“It…It must be the food…!” someone from Gammon High exclaimed. “They must’ve…slipped in…something…! Oww!”
“It must be…some sort of…birth-inducing meds…” Ryou said as he, too, felt the contractions.
“F…Fuck! What are they thinking…?!” Tristan groaned. “We’re not even due…!”
“I think…their master is…getting a little…impatient,” someone from Maximillion spoke, holding back a yelp as a contraction hit him.
“Well, well, well, I think the medication worked beautifully.”
Everyone looked up to see a group of Illust-chan’s lackeys appearing in front of the cell gate. One of them took out the key to unlock the gate and let everyone enter.
“You…You bastard!” Tristan cursed. “What are you trying to do?!”
“It’s our sister’s orders. We’re just doing our job,” the leader of the lackeys smirked, then signaled to his men, “Come along, brothers. Let’s take them all upstairs to the Birthing Chambers. Don’t worry your socks off, ladies. You’ll be well taken care of. After all, most of the midwives you’ve come to know in your world are imposters from our team.”
As the lackeys reached over to pick the struggling, protesting ‘mothers’, the ground suddenly rumbled like there was a mini-earthquake going on underneath the Lair. Somewhere in the middle of the cell, the floor began to crack and cave in, revealing dozens upon dozens of dwarf-like men carrying axes and spears as they popped out like moles one by one. All of them swiftly and silent hacked and decapitated every single Bad Seed and Fallen Ethereal that were there to take the ‘mothers’ up to their doom. Not a peep was made from the lackeys as their heads fell and rolled off their shoulders one by one to the ground with the speed and agility of the dwarf-like men that could render Flash or Superman speechless. As the headless lackeys fell onto their knees and toppled to the floor, a familiar face along with his team came out of the hole.
“B…Bakura!!!” Ryou almost screamed with joy but was luckily hushed by Bakura’s kiss. They French-kissed each other for almost 2 minutes before the kisser was reminded by one of Bakura’s comrades about their mission. Bakura grinned and immediately asked the dwarf-like men to carry all the ‘mothers’ and escape through the hole they made.
“Bakura! Thank goodness you’re here!” Yugi cried in relief, almost forgetting that he was in pain. “Where are the others?”
“Around…” Bakura grinned as he hugged Ryou possessively.
“What about Duke? Is he here?” Tristan asked worriedly.
Bakura nodded before replying, “Come…”
With that, Bakura’s team and the gang of dwarf-like men, or to be exact by their real clan name the Underground Dwellers, carried all the ‘mothers’ through a long and dark tunnel that had a lot of twists and turns. Then, from their original route, one Underground Dweller took the lead and started digging with his pitchfork at top speed, deviating towards another direction. They went on and on until they finally reached the surface which was right beside the Loch. There, part of the group of human middle men was there to take over. One of them who had the power of creating force-fields made a huge one to surround the ‘mothers’ while one of them who had the power of teleportation entered the force-field and teleported everyone to Domino Island and into Domino Motherhood Institution where Mai had built specifically for midwifery and delivery just for the ‘mothers’ of Domino Island when the day comes for the mass delivery ritual. In the hospital, the human midwives who were already briefed about the mission and awaiting their arrival soon quickly ushered all the ‘mothers’ into designated delivery rooms and were given a sort of sedative medicine to ease the pain and delay the birth temporarily as it is important and compulsory in the ritual tradition to have the father of the child to be present at the birth. Luckily, the hospital was big enough to accommodate all the ‘mothers’ and soon, their parents were either flown in, shipped in or drove in to be by their side while awaiting for the Whisperer fathers to arrive from the mission to attend the delivery.
Some of the Whisperers in Bakura’s team were sires of a few of the young ‘mothers’, including Bakura, but they couldn’t stay and start the delivery as they had a mission to complete. Ryou cried and sobbed and begged Bakura to stay, tugging at his arm desperately, even though both knew that they had to separate for now.
“Please! Please don’t go, Bakura! Please! Stay with me!” Ryou wailed.
“Let go…” Bakura pleaded, trying to pry him away. Ryou’s parents and twin sister tried to coax Ryou to let go.
“Come on, son,” Mr. Bakura said. “He’ll be back soon. Don’t worry.”
“I don’t want to be alone! I want Bakura with me!”
“You have us, darling,” ‘Mrs.’ Bakura said. “We’ll accompany you till then.”
“Yeah, bro. He’s got a job to do,” Ryou’s twin sister agreed. “He’ll come back for you.”
“Promise…” Bakura nodded in agreement, then whispered into Ryou’s ear, “Love you…”
Ryou hesitated for a moment, then sniffled and let go of Bakura’s hand. Bakura planted a chaste kiss on his forehead before rushing off together with his team to accomplish the mission. Again, with teleportation, they returned back to the Loch in Scotland and made their way together with the human middle men to join the rest of the troop in their ambush.
“I’ll return soon,” Bakura muttered to himself. “I’ll return to watch the birth of our beautiful pups, Princess. Wait for me patiently…”
--:--
As Illust-chan and the other midwives realized that the lackeys she sent were getting a tad too late, she decided to go downstairs to investigate, only to discover her lackeys all sprawled on the floor on their own pool of blood and their heads scattered all over the place. The crack on the floor of the empty cell told her enough that the enemy has already begun their ambush.
Cursing under her breath, she made her way back up and dismissed all the midwives, telling everyone to get ready to retreat. She poured quite a large dose of the birth-inducing meds into a vial of milk and made her way towards Joey’s room where he was kept prisoner. Malik, who was held captive in his room two doors away from Joey’s, heard her passing by and banged the door as usual, demanding out, in which Illust-chan stopped for a while in front of the door and decided to get back to him later. Without the courtesy of knocking, she barged into the room to see Majah stroking Joey’s honey-blonde hair. She took a glance at Joey and saw that he was staring at space, his eyes as blank as a doll’s as he allowed Majah to pet him like a little dog.
“Move aside, Brother Majah,” Illust-chan said in an authoritative voice.
“Sister Illust-chan,” Majah stood up, hugging Joey in his arms protectively. “What are you doing here?”
“No time for idle talk. We are being ambushed. Sooner or later, they will come here. We cannot wait any longer. At least he would do.”
“Do what, Sister Illust-chan? What are you trying to do?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Illust-chan growled as she pushed Majah aside to force-feed Joey with the milk. “If we want our lord to have the strength to escape safely, he will need at least one sacrifice. I’m going to need this little brat to do that.”
“Sister Illust-chan! You promised!” Majah exclaimed as he tried to wrestle the milk away from his sister. “You promised that Joseph will not be part of the speed-up process! You promised you’ll let him carry to term! You cannot go back on your word!”
“My word is law here, Brother Majah, and my word right now is to make this brat give birth now and give it to our lord! Have you forgotten our noble cause?!” Illust-chan shrieked, her voice booming across the room as if there were two people speaking through her mouth. Whenever Illust-chan gets agitated or angry, her wrath was not to be reckoned with. If she began to spout a double overlay voice, she meant business.
“But…But I love him…”
“This brat is not worth loving if he can’t even make a simple swearing of the heart! Now step aside, Brother Majah! Don’t make me do something worse than it is!”
Majah wanted to resist, but he knew through experience that despite his larger built, his powers were no match to his sister. Shoving Majah away, she pulled Joey up by the hair and put the vial of milk onto Joey’s lips and tried to make him drink. Joey made no effort to open his mouth or swallow. All the milk trickled from the sides of his lips and stained his chin, neck and shirt as he continued to stare in space, his mind went to goodness knows where.
“Curse the gods of Ethereal!” Illust-chan spat as she threw the vial against the wall, shattering it into pieces. “What the hell is wrong with him? What did you do to him, Brother Majah?! Why is he like this?!”
“I…I don’t know…” Majah replied sadly. “He’s been like this since we had sexual intercourse. He wouldn’t eat, he wouldn’t speak, he wouldn’t even sleep. He’s just lying there staring at nothing, like a living dead.”
“Well, snap him out of it! I’m going off to make some more and also see if everyone else has escaped! I want him alive and kicking by the time I come back!”
As Illust-chan stormed out of the room, Majah slowly picked Joey up in his arms and lightly patted his face, trying to get him out of his reverie. He called out his name dozens of times but he wouldn’t budge. Finally after shaking him a little, Joey’s eyes finally reacted. They slowly shifted, bringing his gaze towards the broken shards of glass that was once the vial of milk. Without warning, he pried himself out of Majah’s embrace and walked over to the shards. Majah, who was shocked and overwhelmed that his love was finally up and about, did not expect what happened next: Joey reached down to pick up one shard and, with two strokes, slit both his wrists.
Majah gasped and ran to Joey, trying to press the slit wounds down to stop the bleeding. His eyes filled with horror as he saw Joey finally smiling for the first time since he got into this godforsaken place. It was the exact same smile that Majah has seen and fallen in love with, only it was for a totally wrong reason.
“Joseph! Joseph, my love! Why did you do this?! How could you be so stupid?! Stay with me, Joseph! Stay with me!”
“I’m…sorry…” Joey whispered, his voice almost inaudible.
“What?”
“I’m…sorry…Seto…I’m…no longer yours…”
“Puppy…?”
Majah looked up and narrowed his eyes in contempt as he saw his love rival Seto standing there staring at the sight of a bloody Joey before him. Seto widened his eyes in horror at the blood that was spouting from both his beloved’s wrists and saw him in the hands of a Fallen Ethereal. He narrowed his eyes just as equally in contempt as Majah and growled.
“What have you done to my Puppy?!”
“Your Puppy?” Majah echoed, speaking in rather fluent Whisperer Tongue as he tore off a bed sheet to tie up the bleeding slit wrists. “He’s my woman! I will not let you have him!”
“Get your hands off my mate, you ugly piece of vile putrid waste!”
“Over my dead body!”
Laying back Joey on the bed, the battle of Majah and Seto ensued. Seto’s staff clashed with Majah’s claws as they fought all over the room and crashed through walls, demanding dominance. Whenever someone from Seto’s team tried to reach over to take Joey away, Majah would let out his superhuman eagle-like screech and the sound waves sent them toppling over headlong onto the ground or flying out of the room, crashing through the window as they went. Seto and Majah’s battle aura collided with each other as they fought to the death, breaking everything beyond their wake. It got to one point when their fight was so intense, Majah’s punch actually sent Seto flying and breaking through the walls until he actually landed onto Malik’s bed in his room. Malik, after getting over the shock and quickly holding his bawling baby, realized who it was.
“Seto?! Oh my god, where is Joey?! Is he alright?!”
“Protect…Puppy…” Seto struggled to get up as he lunged forward to strike Majah again. Malik quickly went towards Joey through the holes of the walls and was horrified to see Joey’s pale blank look as the blood began to seep through the bed sheet tourniquets tied around his wrists. By then, Majah was so bent on the kill and lust for Seto’s blood, he barely noticed as Malik tried to both hold onto his baby and drag him to the next room through another cracked hole on the opposite wall.
“I’ll have you know,” Majah roared as he gave a blow at Seto, who in turn blocked it with his staff, “my woman almost swore his heart to me!”
“He is not your woman!” Seto growled as he whacked his staff at Majah’s head. “He’s my mate! Mine! He and the pups within him are mine!”
“And what good would that do you?!” Majah kicked Seto’s side and punched his gut. “You will never be by his side! You will take the children away and leave him heartbroken, regretting that he had ever done the ritual! You will make him cry for eternity and sad forever in his life for the love between you that cannot be! I can provide whatever you can’t!”
“No, you won’t!” Seto flung Majah out of the window with the power of his staff, then followed after him to resume fighting. “You will use him again and again, and you will harm my pups out of spite! You will never love him as much as I do! You only want him for his body!”
“I can provide him love and affection!” Majah screeched, his sound wave banging and rumbling against Seto’s built. “I can give him a family! A real family! I can be a loving father to his pups and a faithful, loyal husband to him! I will be there for him, answering his every call and granting his every wish! You will leave him and make him marry someone he does not truly love and have a family he does not truly want! At least with me, he gets to keep the pups and never have to fear of anyone leaving him alone! I can be what you can’t, and will always be what you never will! I reign supreme in this rivalry! I win!”
“Maybe so,” Seto said as he smashed the sound wave away and repelled it back to Majah as much as possible. “But I will remain in his heart and soul forever. I will be the only person he truly loves, and will always be the one he would think of whenever times serves him. You are doing me a favour by letting him keep my pups because his pups will always remind him of me, the lovechildren created by us becoming as one both heart and soul. Every sleepless night he will think of the nights he made love to me. Every time you shower your love to him, he will think of my tender loving care. Every blood you shed on our clan will only deepen his hate for you. You are contradicting yourself because you are not the person he truly loves either and the family you want to give him is not what he truly wants. You’re being a hypocrite.”
“How would you know how I feel?! How would you know what he would be thinking?!”
“Because those are the exact things I would feel.”
With that, holding his staff like a baseball bat, he swung as hard as he could, using the speed and strength to amplify the effect of his staff’s magic force to pummel Majah to the ground. The force of Seto’s magic severed both Majah’s huge raven-black wings and without the advantage of flight, he soon fell headlong towards the ground, with tree branches breaking his fall in between, and rammed his back hard on the earth below. By the time he came round, he realized Seto towering over him with ice-cold eyes that spelt murder, and his whole body was paralyzed, possibly because he broke his spine from the fall.
“You…You don’t deserve Joseph…! He’s mine!”
Seto didn’t reply, but his whole fiber of being was seething with anger, hate and vengeance as he raised his staff high in the air and rammed the lower end of it real hard onto Majah’s manhood, drawing blood. With the staff still embedded onto what’s left of the Fallen Ethereal’s dick, Seto knelt down and brought his face close to Majah and hissed in a very venomous tone.
“This is for defiling my Puppy.”
So saying, he got up and turned his back at Majah, leaving him there to die. He crossed paths with Akhenadin, who looked like he had quite good fun making carnage in the Lair, gazed sideways indirectly at Majah and walked off. Akhenadin understood that gesture and closed in to Majah, claiming what’s left over for him.
His blood lust face grinning from ear to ear was the last thing Majah saw before complete darkness engulfed him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)