Chapter Five

No one knew what to think or expect as they drove into Domino Canyon and towards Cooperstown. The police had learned that someone had seen a car with Lector's license plate being driven into the canyon, heading towards Cooperstown, and they were afraid Gansley and Seto were correct in believing Cove was hiding there with his victims. They were not at all in favor of civilians going there and possibly confronting a madman, but Seto and Marik refused to be stopped and so did the Big Four. The police drew the line at anyone else going as well, much to the others' consternation.

The drive was long and tense and mostly silent. Seto and Marik were desperately praying for Mokuba to be alive while the Big Four no longer had any similar hope for Lector. They were devastated, caught up their memories and fears . . . and in how they wanted to retaliate on Cove. Hatred begets hatred, and they felt very justified in their thoughts after what Cove had done to Lector.

Cooperstown was its usual eerie self, and as the vehicles finally rolled in on the town's Main Street, it was impossible to deny the otherworldly chill. When their headlights captured a crazed Martin Cove, the occupants leaped out to confront him.

"It took you all long enough!" he cackled. "At long last, I've proved I'm the bigger man over all of you businessmen!"

"Where's Mokuba?!" Seto yelled.

"Oh . . . he's around here somewhere," Cove vaguely replied with an unconcerned gesture. "It could be his blood on my hands . . . or Lector's." He held up his hands. Both were red with blood.

Gansley roared. "What more have you done to Lector?!" he screamed.

"I guess I can deliver the next piece to you in person," Cove mocked. "I don't think I'll tell you what I cut off this time. I'll let you be surprised."

Gansley lunged, his cane bared. Instead of stopping him, the rest of the Big Four charged as well.

"You're just doing what he wants!" Marik exclaimed. But he couldn't blame them.

Suddenly Mokuba ran out of nowhere and into Seto's arms. "Seto . . . !"

"Mokuba!" Marik cried.

"I've got you," Seto said, holding the boy close. "Mokuba, what's been happening?! Are you alright?!"

"Seto. . . ." Tears filled Mokuba's eyes and he hugged his brother. He was too shaken to even speak more.

The Big Four, meanwhile, were still swarming on Cove.

"Where is Lector?!" Gansley boomed.

"If you look around, you'll probably find a little of him everywhere!" Cove replied. He drew a gun. "And finally I have my sweetest revenge against you, Mr. Gansley."

At the same instant he fired, Gansley reached into his coat and pulled a gun of his own. His eyes dark and cold, he returned fire as Crump, Johnson, and Nesbitt dragged him to the ground. Cove fell back, a last, gurgling giggle echoing through their ears before he went silent.

"Are you alright?" Nesbitt demanded.

"No." Gansley sat up, replacing the gun in his coat. "That did nothing to take away the emptiness."

"I hope you have a license for that weapon," an officer remarked to him.

"Yes, I do," Gansley retorted, "and it includes permission to carry it concealed. I was sure I would need it."

"If he hadn't fired on you, would you have still drawn on him?" Johnson quietly asked.

"I don't know," Gansley admitted. "I would have wanted to."

"Any of us would have wanted to," Nesbitt said darkly.

They watched as the police approached Cove's motionless body.

"He's dead," the first officer reported. But as he really looked into the lifeless face, he drew back. "It can't be. . . ."

"What?!" Crump yelled.

"This is Ed Rhodes, a friend of one of our lab men," the officer gasped.

"A lab man?!" Gansley grabbed his cane and was pushing himself up in an instant. "His friend didn't by any chance handle the tests on those severed limbs, did he?!"

". . . He sure did," another officer realized.

"And he could have doctored those results?!" Johnson demanded.

"He could have, but don't get your hopes up," the second officer told him. "Remember, the effects that arm came with were definitely your friend's."

"The tests also showed that the limbs were taken from a dead person," a third officer remembered.

"He couldn't be alive," Johnson argued. "He was probably killed before any of this began!"

"Do any of us even want him to be alive in that condition?" Gansley spoke.

Nesbitt couldn't stand it. He ran out ahead, desperately calling. "Lector! Lector, where are you?!" His voice echoed throughout the cold place, always without an answer.

". . . Lector?" Crump finally called, hesitant and heartsick.

One officer was still examining the body. "I think this blood on his hands is his own," he realized. "He's cut in several places."

Mokuba finally looked up, shaking. "Seto . . . Marik. . . ." He reached out a hand to Marik.

Marik took it. "What happened, Mokuba?" he asked. "Do you know where Lector is?"

"Well . . . I did," Mokuba said. "I don't know if he's still there. . . . And I . . . I'm not sure he's okay. . . ." He choked back a sob.

Horror went through Seto's eyes. He didn't even want to try to comprehend what Mokuba had just been through.

"How was he when you last saw him, Mokuba?" Marik quietly asked.

"He was attacking Cove to save me," Mokuba said.

Seto started. "But he was alive?!"

"Yeah," Mokuba nodded.

The Big Four stared at him.

"Where was he?!" Gansley demanded. Hope was rising in his heart again. It was really possible . . . really conceivable . . . that Lector had survived?

"The old jail," Mokuba said.

Johnson ran out after Nesbitt. "Nesbitt! We need to go to the jail!"

It didn't take long for everyone to find the correct building. Crump hesitantly pushed the door open and stepped inside. "Hello?" he quavered. "Lector? Buddy?"

Despite the lack of response, a chill went up his spine. It felt like someone was there. Or maybe what was left of a body. . . .

Gansley pushed past him into the room and advanced farther than Crump had been able to make himself go. Then he went pale. "There's a body in a cell. . . ."

"A cell?!" Crump boomed. He ran over, his heart racing. "LECTOR!"

Lector was indeed laying in the cell, facedown and very still.

Johnson came in then, trembling. "It's really . . . what's left of . . ." He swallowed hard. He couldn't bear to see. . . . Lector had really been alive all this time, but . . . was he dead now, killed by Cove in their fight? How could he have really fought Cove very well when he was so seriously hurt from Cove's abominable treatment of him?

Nesbitt ran over. "He's not mutilated," he said in disbelief.

Everyone stared at him.

"Are you sure?" Johnson quavered. "The madman couldn't have . . . pieced parts together and sewn them and . . ." He turned away, holding a hand to his mouth.

"He's whole," Gansley whispered in amazed disbelief. "But . . . is he alive?"

Nesbitt desperately tried to pick the lock. When that failed, he looked until he found the keys and tried them all until he found the right one. He opened it, running in and kneeling next to the body. "Lector?"

Lector had been stripped to the waist, and to Nesbitt's horror and anger, discolored skin in various places across his torso was soon obvious. "He's been beaten, just like the kid said!" he cried.

"But . . . Lector's a big guy," Crump protested. "No one could just beat him!"

"Apparently he did quite a number on Cove, judging from how Cove looked," Gansley said. "But some of these bruises don't look like they just happened. . . ."

Nesbitt was on fire. "Cove restrained him," he snarled.

"Yes," Gansley said darkly. "Look at the marks on his wrists! He was tightly held down so he couldn't fight back! That's most likely the only reason why Cove walked away from their fight—because Lector was already badly hurt from these prior beatings and couldn't fight for long! But Nesbitt, is he alive?!"

Gingerly Nesbitt reached out a hand, feeling across Lector's neck and back to make sure they weren't broken before gently turning him over. Lector fell limply into place and Nesbitt laid his hand on the cruelly bruised chest. "I can feel his heart beating," he said in amazement. "He's breathing. . . ." They had all thought Lector was dead after the second call from the lab. But . . . he wasn't. . . .

An immense burden lifted from Gansley's shoulders and joy filled his heart. "He's alive," he whispered. All of the Hell they had all gone through, including Lector, but he had made it through. . . .

Crump whooped for joy, glomping a shocked Johnson. "He's alive!"

Johnson was still having trouble grasping it. He adjusted his glasses with a shaking hand. "Is anything broken? We need to get him out of there. . . ."

Now Nesbitt checked Lector's limbs, marveling that they were still there as he touched each one. "Nothing's broken," he said in relief. "Crump, help me move him!"

Lector suddenly started, semi-conscious, and tried to bat Nesbitt away. "Get . . . away from me," he rasped. "Get away. . . ."

Nesbitt grabbed the flailing hand. "Lector, it's us!" he exclaimed. "You're safe!"

"Safe . . . ?" Lector slowly opened his eyes, looking as disbelieving as they had felt. The utter joy that swept across his features as he focused left all of them deeply moved. "Nesbitt. . . ."

"Yeah." Nesbitt gently lifted Lector's upper body into his arms. "We have to get you out of here. Can you move?"

"I . . . yes." Lector stumbled, trying to stand. He gripped Nesbitt for balance and the others rushed to help steady him. "Where's Mokuba?!"

"He's safe," Gansley assured him. "He's with his brother and the Ishtar boy."

Lector relaxed. "Thank God. . . ."

"We thought you were in pieces, Buddy," Crump said, his joy coming through in full force. "Or dead, and then both. . . ."

"And we weren't sure what was worse," Johnson said.

"I am so sorry," Lector said, anguish slipping into his voice. "That demon told me what he was making you think. I never stopped trying to get away . . . but I never could. . . ."

"But you're safe with us now," Gansley said, his voice filled with emotion. "That's all we wanted." That madman had done all this just to get at him. He had felt so horrible all through this nightmare because of that, although of course he would have been upset in any case. He reached out, taking Lector in his arms. "We can all go home. . . ."

Lector clutched at him, his hands trembling. "Home. . . . With my friends . . . my family. . . ." He looked to all of them.

Crump and Johnson embraced him too, being careful of the bruises. "You're . . . really all here," Johnson whispered in awe. "You weren't cut up. . . ." He shuddered, violently.

"No, I wasn't," Lector told him, "although sometimes when I was being restrained and drugged, it felt like I was missing limbs. . . . And I started wondering in my darkest moments if I was only imagining that I was whole. . . ."

"But you're all attached," Crump whispered. He stared at Lector's arm and hands, as if to reassure himself that they were indeed his limbs and that they weren't someone else's, sewn onto him in some freakish Frankenstein experiment.

"All attached," Lector agreed.

As the others pulled back, Nesbitt suddenly charged in. Lector hadn't really expected further physical contact from him, but now Nesbitt just clutched him close, not speaking. Then he was outright sobbing—crying out of joy and relief and out of all the anguish he had carried through these Hellish days. It was over. It was finally over, and Lector was home. He had wanted that outcome more than anything, as had they all, but they had been sure they would not get it.

Stunned, Lector returned the embrace, holding his friend close. They all had suffered so much because of their love for him, and he had suffered knowing they were suffering and being unable to get back to them. He hadn't cried on many occasions where he might have done so, but he felt tears coming now.

There was no need for words.

"Lector!"

Mokuba was running in as Lector and Nesbitt stepped aside, his eyes bright and joyous. He reached for Lector and the man pulled him close. "I'm so glad Cove didn't get you again. . . ."

"I'm so glad you're alive," Mokuba whispered.

Everyone else wholeheartedly agreed with those sentiments.

xxxx

The mood going back down the canyon was so much different. Mokuba was dozing snuggled between Seto and Marik. Lector was returning with his friends, but not as a corpse as they had feared.

Gansley took a phone call and hung up within a few minutes. "Police officers in the city arrested the lab man," he announced. "He confessed that Cove had been his friend for some time, using the alias Ed Rhodes, and that he came to him asking for his help in faking the abominable stunt with the severed body parts. Rhodes mutilated corpses in the morgue and lied about the lab results, claiming they were Lector's."

Everyone was outraged.

"He had better be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Johnson snarled.

"We'll make sure of that," Gansley growled. "He's just as bad as Cove or he wouldn't have gone along with it."

"If only we could have learned more from the person who brought the boxes," Johnson lamented. "We might have found you sooner. . . ."

"What happened about that anyway?" Lector frowned. "Did he really deliver them in person?"

"We thought he was, and the police were staking out the house, but it ended up that he was using messenger services," Nesbitt said gruffly. "The poor kids didn't have any idea what they were delivering. And they couldn't offer much help about Cove. From the description of the person who handed the stuff to them, it might have been the lab man instead."

Lector raised an eyebrow. "Didn't they watch the news? How could they have not at least suspected what was going on by the second or third package?"

"Struggling college kids don't have much time for news," Nesbitt grunted. "And he used a different place every time, just in case they did start getting wise."

"He was very intelligent, but he used it for all the wrong reasons," Gansley said darkly.

"I can't imagine how all of you have suffered," Lector said, anger filling his voice. "I am so sorry."

"You suffered too," Crump said. "Look at you—you're all beat up!"

"I'll be alright with some rest," Lector said. "Cove must have studied mob-style beatings. He knew just how to do it without breaking anything."

"Bruises can be very painful," Johnson frowned.

"I know," Lector winced.

"And Mokuba said you were drugged and told about what Cove was doing to us," Gansley said.

"Not to mention you said you started to wonder if you really were missing limbs," Johnson said with a shudder.

"I did," Lector said. "I must have frightened Mokuba terribly." He shook his head. "He'll probably have nightmares for a long time."

"He won't be the only one," Crump said. "I bet you will . . . and I know we will. We haven't had a good night's sleep since this mess started!"

"But at least now, when we wake up, we'll be emerging into a world that's been set right, instead of just remaining in our nightmare constantly," Gansley said.

Everyone agreed.

"Welcome home, Buddy," Crump smiled, laying a hand on Lector's shoulder.

Lector reached up and gripped it. It was so amazing to be going home.

xxxx

Mokuba screamed, starting out of a nightmare and back into reality.

"Mokuba! Mokuba, it's alright. It's not real."

He looked up, blinking as he focused on Seto. Marik too was looking down at him in concern. The car moved under them, still headed back down the canyon.

"Seto . . . Marik . . . I feel really stupid," Mokuba mumbled.

"Don't," Seto retorted. "What happened would be more than enough to upset anyone."

"Some people might never recover from it," Marik agreed. "But I know you're strong enough that you will."

Mokuba looked away. "I hope so. . . . It was Lector who really suffered, though."

"Both of you did," Seto insisted. "It couldn't have been easy for you, knowing he was being hurt and not being able to help him."

"It was awful," Mokuba admitted. "He was being beat up so bad, but he didn't even cry out until he was tortured about what his friends were feeling. I was put in the next cell so I couldn't stop it, but I heard every time that creep hit him or kicked him. . . ."

Seto and Marik exchanged a sickened look.

"He said it helped him just for me to be there, but I don't see how I really did much of anything to help," Mokuba continued. "I was just something else for him to have to worry about."

"If Lector said you helped him, Mokuba, then you did," Seto said. "Just being there for someone can be the greatest help of all."

"That's right," Marik agreed. "You can't imagine how much it helped me just for Rishid to be there in my darkest moments."

Mokuba tried to smile a bit. "Well . . . maybe I did help, then. . . ."

"You can count on it," Seto said firmly.

xxxx

Lector just wanted to go home to rest, but he consented to an examination at the KaibaCorp Infirmary first. Everyone was relieved when he was proclaimed safe to go home.

It was an unspoken agreement that the rest of the Big Five would stay with him that night. They had stayed together all through the nightmare, and now that Lector was safely with them, they wanted to make sure he was alright. Lector wouldn't admit it, but he really wanted them there too.

Lector wasn't sure how he would sleep that night, but to his surprise he didn't seem to have any nightmares. As he roused up sometime later, however, he started when he saw Johnson standing in the doorway. "Johnson?" he mumbled, still sleepy. "Are you alright?"

Johnson came in, definitely looking pale. "I dreamed that we found you mutilated . . . and dead. . . ." He sank into a chair next to the bed. "I had to come in and make sure it . . . wasn't real. . . ." He shuddered. "I always used to be calm, cool, and collected. When this happened, I was the first to break."

"There's no shame in that," Lector told him. "What Cove did was abominable." He looked away. "If I had been one of those left behind to receive the packages, I would have broke too."

"With fire, no doubt, like Nesbitt," Johnson said. "Not by running off to the bathroom because the shock is so horrifying that your stomach can't stand it. . . ."

Lector sat up in bed with a frown. "You think you're weak," he realized.

"I am, aren't I?" Johnson retorted.

"Not at all," Lector insisted. "I'm sure every one of you reacted to this in different ways. None of those ways are wrong! I just feel horrible that I caused so much suffering." He looked away. "Although I can't deny that I'm glad to be cared about so much." He hesitated. "As far as being weak goes, I feel like I am. Cove managed to drug me more than once so he could restrain and beat me. I should have been able to stop it."

"I'm sure Cove had very sneaky ways of drugging you," Johnson frowned.

"He did," Lector said. "Most times he did it while I was asleep or unconscious. When I was awake, he hid the drug in his hand. But it still upsets me."

"I'm sure any time you were awake, you were trying to protect Mokuba," Johnson said.

"That's true," Lector admitted.

"Then your attention was divided, and Cove was counting on that," Johnson said. "I wouldn't be surprised if that's another reason why he chose to abduct Mokuba."

Lector looked sick at the thought. "If it was, I pray Mokuba will never know it. That poor boy has enough issues with self-confidence and blaming himself as it is."

"Unless the lab man knew it too and it will come out in his trial, that knowledge died with Cove," Johnson said.

Lector nodded, and then froze as a new thought came to him. "Does my family in New Orleans know about what's been happening?"

"Not unless the news took the story that far," Johnson said. "None of us wanted to tell them. Of course . . . if you'd really been dead . . . we would have had to have told Evangeline, at least. . . ."

"Poor Evangeline," Lector sighed. "Well, I'm sure she didn't know or she would have been calling. We gave her all of our numbers."

"I can't really think that anyone but your father wouldn't be upset about something so horrible," Johnson said.

"Maybe even he would," Lector said. "Although I doubt it."

Johnson did too. Despite the man's pleading Guilty for the explosion at his warehouse that had almost killed several people, he had remained standoffish and uncommunicative towards Lector.

"Anyway," Lector said, "it doesn't matter. I've moved on."

"Have you really?" Johnson asked. "Can anyone really move on from the way your father treated you?"

Lector paused. "I've accepted the way things are," he said. "Naturally I will always regret the way things are, but I can't change them. There is nothing I can do unless my father has a change of heart. I just have to live my life as best as I can. You don't know how grateful I am that I don't have to do it alone."

"Objection," Johnson said with a bit of a smile, "I think I do. Most likely about as much as we're grateful you're still here to live your life."

"That's a good point," Lector acknowledged with a smile of his own.

A shadow in the doorway caused them both to look up. Nesbitt was standing there, looking awkward.

"You had a bad dream too?" Johnson wondered.

"No. . . ." Nesbitt came into the room. "I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't a dream." He looked to Lector.

"It's real," Lector assured him.

Gansley and Crump soon appeared in the doorway as well and went in. Seeing Lector alive and well, Gansley relaxed, peace coming into his eyes. They were all together again, just as it should be.

"Are you alright, Gansley?" Lector asked.

"I wondered if I would ever be alright again," Gansley growled. "Especially since this madman was deliberately targeting me. But yes, I'll be alright now."

"Same here," Crump said.

"I wonder if there was any specific reason he picked me to abduct or if I was just the first one he was able to get," Lector frowned.

"I can't say," Gansley said. "I would have been just as upset if he had chosen any of the others."

"Honestly, I think he chose Lector on purpose," Johnson said. "He was ranting about proving himself the bigger man. I think in his twisted mind, he felt he could prove that the best by harming the physically strongest man among us."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Lector growled.

"At least it's over now," Crump said.

"The scars may remain for a while," Gansley said.

No one was surprised about that thought either.

"But we'll recover," Johnson said. "If Lector had been dead . . . or mutilated . . . we never would have been able to."

Lector shuddered but said, "If I was mutilated, it would have been hard to recover, but I know I would have eventually, since I wouldn't have been alone."

"Never," Gansley vowed.

The others echoed their agreement.

None of them felt like going back to bed right away, so they lingering for a while, sometimes talking, sometimes just quietly enjoying being together again. When sleep at last overtook them, it was peaceful and pleasant for the first time in days.