Rock Bottom: Season One

News

The next day, after dropping Mokuba off at Ryou's house, Seto was back at KaibaCorp, working with his new partner. He brought back the Duel Disk prototypes, which his new partner didn't seem to approve of. He suggested there were too many ways for them to go wrong and that they needed to shrink the technology further. As an engineer, that was his job, though. He started drawing up new plans while Seto tackled a debugging assignment he'd been given in his absence. They wanted him to correct the errors in a code written by another employee. He wasn't told what it was for or what it was supposed to do, which was normal at KaibaCorp because information was highly compartmentalized, just given the code's file location and a document listing all known errors.

On one monitor, he worked on the code, frowning at it as he tried to decipher its purpose and function. On his other monitor was a live stream from the Domino News Network. He liked knowing what was going on in his city and in the world, and after asking his partner if he wanted to listen to and receiving an affirmative answer, he let the volume come through the computer's speakers.

He was in the middle of rewriting nearly an entirely line of code when he heard his colleague ask him to turn the volume up.

"...has passed away. The creator of Duel Monsters was founding in his swimming pool with a blood alcohol level of point one eight," the newscaster said in calm, rapid speech, as they were trained to do. "Police have not yet released a statement concerning the cause of death, but they do suspect foul play. Noah Kaiba, the CEO and president of KaibaCorp, now owns Industrial Illusions, a company he was already in business with. Mr. Pegasus had no family, and has left the majority of his money to be divided among various charitable organizations. In other news, the city council will be voting on a bill tomorrow that, if passed, will institute a new..."

Seto sat for a few moments as he processed the information. Pegasus was dead. He had no grief for the man, but it still concerned him that he'd been murdered. If he'd died of natural causes, like drowning because he was drunk, they would have just come out and said so. And if Pegasus was dead, then where was the Millennium Eye? Would it be buried with him? Would the medical examiner that conducted the autopsy remove it? Would it find it's way into a police evidence locker and just stay there?

I suspect that the Millennium Eye has changed hands, Seth murmured in the back of Seto's mind as the brunette returned his attention to his work.

What makes you so sure?

The Millennium Items tend to find their way into the hands of people who were either destined to have them or who seek to use their power for vile purposes.

Should we be worried?

Let me do the worrying, son, and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

"I can't wait until Dad comes home," Ryou said with a sigh as he and Marik got into bed late Friday night. "I hope he stops traveling after this trip. I don't like it when he's away for so long."

"I really like your dad," Marik said as he got under the sheets on his side of the bed. "I hope he stays home too." He gathered up his fair hair into a loose low clump at the back of his head and began wrapping a hair elastic around it as Ryou got up to close the door. He returned and flicked off the nightstand lamp.

"The places he goes to are dangerous," Ryou continued softly, settling in bed beside Marik. They were both laying down now and facing each other. "And I'm glad that he was able to save you and your family, but I think the time for those travels is over."

"Hmm." Marik's hand found its way to Ryou's cheek, and the Brit gave a small, contented sigh. They both snuggled nearer to the other, and their faces moved slowly, carefully closer in the darkness. When they first tried to kiss, their lips missed, and Marik laughed softly at the mishap. He stopped laughing, though, when fingers seized his hair at the roots and yanked him down into a kiss rougher than Ryou was capable of. A tight knot of fear formed in the pit of Marik's stomach.