Chapter Text
The second morning of captivity they escorted Kaiba to the interrogation room again, and he wondered what the USAF had up their sleeves this time. He had to give them some credit. After refusing to speak, they'd left him alone, until now that is. They clearly weren't in the habit of wasting their own time at least, so he had to assume they'd gotten a hold of some kind of leverage to use against him. Whether it would work or not remained to be seen.
The door to the room opened permitting the very last person he expected to see. He sat up straighter.
Atem stalked into the room, and there was very little doubt in Kaiba's mind that this was the ancient king.
The Pharaoh's posture had always been assured, loose, as if he owned the place by nature of existing there. There was a hint of a smile on his face, but those eyes were as mercurial and unreadable as ever. Kaiba's heart clenched in spite of himself. The other thing he noticed was that this child king was only a few inches taller than Yugi. He'd always imagined someone older, his own age at least. That preconceived notion crumbled in the face of the real thing. Was this how old he'd been when he died?
Atem smirked. “Kaiba,” he acknowledged quietly. “I see you've gotten yourself into some trouble.”
“You owe me a duel,” Seto said, leaning back in his chair. He would have crossed his arms, but they were cuffed to the table.
“Do I?”
“We're in this mess because you had to go play damsel in distress,” Kaiba said hoping for a sigh, a frown, a vein in the Pharaoh's forehead to twitch... anything at all.
Atem only smiled. “I suppose I do,” he said easily. “You brought Yugi here, after all.” He braced his arms on the back of the empty chair and seemed about to say something else.
Kaiba pursed his lips and drew on the power of the rod, which was still hidden in his clothes. “You will inform these people that they are to free me at once, and that I am of no further use to them,” he said.
While he spoke, Atem's gaze had turned a bit distracted, as if attempting to follow two different conversations at once. Abruptly, Kaiba felt the pressure of the mind manipulation snap like a rubber band stretched too tight too fast.
Atem's gaze sharpened and the Pharaoh leveled him with a distinctly unamused look. “You knew that wouldn't work,” he said flatly. “And you shouldn't be using that thing.”
Yes. This was the Pharaoh, and he was more powerful than ever. He'd just defeated a millennium item by his own strength alone.
“If you want out of here, go ahead and tell them of your dealings with me and the millennium items,” Atem said. “After that attempt however, that is all the advice I'm going to give you.”
“So I'm just supposed to come to heel like an obedient dog?” Kaiba snapped. Was Atem really going to throw him to the wolves? The Pharaoh was smart enough to know his attempt with the rod just now was only a test, though part of him that he was firmly ignoring acknowledged he'd been a bit out of line.
Atem had been turning away from the table with the clear intent to leave, but he turned back, leaning over the chair again with the threatening grace of a panther. “I'm expecting you to cooperate with these people,” Atem said. “And if you do, we may even be able to let you in on the secrets here. In fact, I'm counting on it. Kaiba, there is more going on here than...” The Pharaoh let the sentence trail off and sighed.
Kaiba could feel the red tape keeping Atem's mouth closed. The urge to cross his arms had his fingers twitching. He waited and Atem met his gaze again.
“There are things I need to tell you,” Atem said slowly. “There is a danger, and the last thing I want is to leave you, of all people, ignorant of it. But it is also imperative that I maintain an allegiance with the people running this operation and that means playing by their rules. Kaiba, I need you on my side.”
Kaiba scoffed. The Pharaoh was all but begging him for his cooperation. “Is this another of your world ending threats you're so good at finding?”
Atem tilted his head slightly. “World threatening no,” he said. “The enemy is not interested in senseless destruction. But people like Yugi, Mokuba, Ryou, Anzu and Shizuka are all in danger. Everyone we know with a pure and open heart are at risk.”
Kaiba sat up straighter. He almost asked what this threat was, but remembered that Atem was bound to silence. “You shouldn't have signed anything before I got here,” he said.
“Bold of you to assume I remembered you when I first got back,” Atem said unrepentant. “Besides, there are people here I trust and have even come to like. And Kaiba, if you use the rod on them, I will be very angry.”
The Pharaoh turned to go and Kaiba almost swore he saw the king's indigo cape flutter behind him.
Atem turned to look back at him from the door as he knocked. “Just remember what's at stake here, Kaiba,” he warned one last time before leaving.
Major Carter entered and sat down at the table. There was no trace of the blond bimbo she'd presented to him the first time they'd met. “Let's try this again, shall we?” she said. “After this, we'll talk about signing some non-disclosure agreements.”
After securing Kaiba's cooperation, Dr. Fraiser had collected both him and Yugi and ushered them into the safety of her office in the infirmary. Though she did let them know she had a few follow up questions for them in the wake of Yugi's story. Daniel was there with a tape recorder as well.
The doctor sat them down in a ring of chairs and took Atem's left wrist, carefully working the bandages loose.
“From what we were able to gather, there was a menace that attempted to destroy Kemmet,” Daniel said, likely for the benefit of the recording. “Zorc? Who was he? Where did he come from? For that matter, how did the millennium items come to be?”
Atem's expression soured, and Yugi leaned over to bump shoulders with him. The Pharaoh smiled briefly at his younger look alike and he sighed. “That story starts with the millennium items,” he said then leaned forward to meet eyes with Daniel and Dr. Fraiser briefly. “Now let me make this clear. I do not know the method of their creation and even if I did, I would take the secret of it to my grave. The only thing I will divulge about their forging is that they are an abomination of human sacrifice, and it was that very act that opened the door for Zorc to enter this world.”
“So he wasn't a part of the Egyptian pantheon,” Daniel said. “He's something else entirely.”
“Correct,” Atem said, nodding once. “The other key piece you must understand is where he came from. Now, Kemmet was weakened by the recent uprising which resulted in sealing away a certain large artifact. My uncle Aknadin was desperate to shore up our defenses. At the time, we were aware of a parallel plane where monsters dwelled and if one was determined and strong enough, they could summon one of those creatures under their own strength, but it was costly and certain creatures took the effort of entire crowds of people to summon. My uncle found a way to undercut the cost of these summons with the items.”
“Creatures?” Dr. Fraiser couldn't help but ask looking up from Atem's wrist.
Yugi reached for the pack on his belt and held up a particular card. “Like this one,” he said.
Atem smirked abruptly. “You want me to call him, don't you?”
Yugi said nothing but stared at Atem with pleading eyes.
Atem's gaze slid away from that devastating look but the damage was clearly done. He sighed. “I suppose a demonstration is in order,” he said. “Kuriboh, I summon you!”
The fuzzball appeared in the room with a slight pop. The creature turned to look at Atem and crooned excitedly. “Grrrrrooooo!” It got louder when it saw Yugi and cannon-balled into the boy's chest.
Yugi giggled and pet the monster. “Yes! It's very good to see you too!” he said. “This is Kuriboh. He's gotten us out of more than a few tight spots, haven't you!”
“Grrrrroooo!” the creature said turning to greet the others in the room, though he stayed in Yugi's lap.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Fraiser were staring at the creature in astonishment.
“Um....!” Daniel said. “Janet? Doesn't that look like one of the things we saw with the whole... gas leak... incident? The one that caused mass hallucinations?”
“Yes,” Janet said slowly. “You said these creatures were from a parallel dimension?”
“One out of phase with ours?” Daniel added innocently.
“That works...” Atem said slowly looking back and forth between the two. “In any case, that dimension is where Zorc came from. He latched onto the grief and rage of a survivor who witnessed the slaughter in the creation of the items, to anchor himself to this world. It took him some time to gather the strength he needed to begin his mission. I was sixteen when he made his first gambit and defiled my father's tomb.”
“We know the story from Yugi's description of the memory world from there,” Daniel said. “How did you defeat him the first time around though?”
“It was after I caught up with the thief,” Atem said somewhat heavily. “He told me the truth of their creation and what it had unleashed. That is when I had the idea to use all the aspects of my self as a seal to bind Zorc. My soul for his, my memories for his, even my name for his. His creature, Diabound had already almost brought me to my knees, and he had my cousin Set under his influence. So I trapped us both inside the puzzle.”
“So let me get this straight,” Janet said as she carefully unwrapped the bandages from Atem's right wrist. “You spent three thousand years trapped in a cursed object with a world destroying monster?”
“More or less,” Atem said, shrugging slightly. “I don't remember much of that time, and Zorc was more tightly bound than I was by nature of the spell. There was just a sense of darkness and...” Pain. Enough that he'd had several nightmares about it.
Kuriboh crooned sadly and turned to cuddle into the Pharaoh's side, earning a small smile.
Dr. Fraiser was studiously focusing on the raw, damaged skin she was treating, but he could see the threat of tears in her eyes. That would not do.
He set a hand over hers. “I do not regret it,” he said. “The lives I saved would have been payment enough, but now I got to meet you and several other dear friends. Not only that, but I don't have to distance myself to maintain the farce of godhood. This is the closest I've ever been to anyone.”
Yugi scooted his chair closer and leaned against his shoulder.
Atem cast him an apologetic smile. Yugi had been present when he'd remembered the first time around. Those old griefs had pressed down on his shoulders like a familiar and very unwelcome weighted cloak. He hadn't meant to burden Yugi with it at all.
Still, Fraiser was able to look at him and smile as she finished with his other wrist, re-wrapping it, and securing it with a bit of tape. She sighed. “First chance I get, I'm taking both of you out for ice cream.”
Yugi gasped in delight. “Really?” he said excitedly.
Fraiser smiled at his enthusiasm. “Granted it could take some time,” she admitted.
Atem winced slightly. Yugi was technically in Kaiba's charge while they were in the US. Then there was the situation with Jack, or, well, Niell. Not that he was supposed to know about that...
“Alright you two,” Janet said. “I'm pretty sure they're serving pizza for lunch in the cafeteria. Just make sure to eat some salad too, alright? And Kuriboh needs to go back where he came from.”
The fuzzball crooned agreeably and popped back out of existence.
Atem laughed as Yugi jumped out of his chair and did an excited spin. “I promise, we'll both have some salad," the Pharaoh said, and let himself be dragged out of the infirmary.
Mai seemed a bit nervous for this trip which was a bit unlike her. Still, stakes were high and her encounter with the winged dragon of Ra at the hands of evil Malik had shaken her up. She was alright with normal duels of course, but when the 'fate of the world' was brought into it, she got understandably flinchy. Jou put a hand on her shoulder as they made their way to their boarding gate.
She startled a bit, but turned to smile at him.
“Something wrong?” Jou said, leaning a bit closer both to reassure and let her know he was listening.
Mai smiled a bit more genuine and leaned into him. “I'm surprised you're so calm actually,” she said. “I just hope Kaiba knows what he's getting himself into, that's all.”
“Hey, our guys'll be fine,” Jou told her. “Don't tell Kaiba I said this, but the guy really is smart. Genius level smart, and Yugi's more capable than a lot of people give him credit for.
Mai's lips went pinched for an instant, her eyes narrowed. “Maybe, but they're on foreign soil potentially going up against the US military.”
Jou stumbled and took a couple of hasty steps to recover. “Hold the f-! What?!”
Mai glanced around, a few people had looked their way, but were mostly going about their own business. “Lower your voice,” she said quietly, but with enough venom to snap Jou out of his shock.
He looked around as well, but by that point, they'd been dismissed.
“Guess that explains how you've been so calm this whole time,” Mai said. “Though I guess it's not fair of me to assume you'd know.”
“Who ever said anything about the military?” Jou said quietly, managing to keep his alarm under wraps.
“I'm from the US, as you know,” Mai said. “And it's decently common knowledge that the Cheyenne Mountain Complex is an old missile silo testing base, but I hear there's still an active presence there.”
“You're kidding me,” Jou said, shaking his head. “And if the millennium items are somehow mixed up in all this, then it's fair to say there's more going on in that complex then they're advertising. Dammit! I let my little buddy go head first into this mess!”
“Kaiba will have done his homework,” Mai said. “Or, at least, I hope he has. He will be careful.”
“And we're only a day behind them at this point,” Jou said. “We'll just have to hope nothing happens before we get there.”
“Right,” Mai said, but it looked like she had her doubts.
Jou almost wished he hadn't asked. Now he was all nervous too...
“What do you make of all this?” Hammond asked his favorite team.
“Their stories all corroborate,” Sam said shaking her head. “Not that we have much evidence supporting it. The monster he summoned for us seemed harmless enough, but they used to use them as weapons. That could be a major concern right there.”
“And what of these millennium items?” the general asked.
“We found the two Yugi had,” Daniel said. “The puzzle and the necklace just like he said. We haven't had time to run any tests on them. The thing I'm concerned about is that Yugi mentioned they had three...”
Sam frowned, sitting up a bit straighter. So where was the third item? If the two they had were under Yugi's care then... “Oh dammit,” she said quietly. “Kaiba has it.”
Teal'c's brows shot upward in alarm. “He must have used its abilities to avoid the search,” the Jaffa inferred.
Daniel sat back in his chair, raking his fingers back through his hair. “Yugi did say the rod was capable of mind control,” he said.
Hammond's eyes narrowed angrily. “If that... kid has been using a dangerous piece of technology on my people, there will be hell to pay,” he said quietly.
“He's behaved himself so far though,” Sam said, then winced. “I'll have a talk with Atem, but for now, I don't think we should behave any differently, yet.”
“Davis is working with him on paperwork, yes?” Hammond said. “Major, I want you to go over every agreement with a fine tooth comb as they go.”
“Yessir,” she said.
“In the meanwhile, how are the efforts with Colonel O'Niell?”
Sam winced. “We see no way to reverse this,” she said. “Fraiser is taking a closer look at the discrepancy she found with his DNA, but in the meanwhile it seems we're stuck looking for similar occurrences. We're also going to try to reach the Asgard to see if they know anything about this.”
Daniel nodded. “Teal'c and I found a list of people with similar stories,” he said. “We're about to narrow the list down to those still living in the US.”
“You have my go ahead to conduct interviews,” Hammond said with a nod. “Keep chasing down any leads you find. I want no stone left unturned.”
Daniel and Teal'c buried themselves into the database, taking down the names of every instance of the abduction story they found on US soil.
Jack had somehow managed to sneak his way into Daniel's office and was in the desk chair, spinning this way and that, looking bored and understandably frustrated. Though they had managed to find some better fitting clothes for him at least. “Are we sure this is going to turn up any useful information?” he said to the room at large.
“We won't know unless we try,” Daniel said distractedly as he took down another name.
“Daniel Jackson,” Teal'c said, holding up a particular page.
Both Daniel and Jack looked over. Teal'c only used both given and surname at once if he was certain he'd found something of import. He indicated one of the entries on the page.
“Katashi... Mutou?”