Chapter 6: The Plan

Ischizu combed her hair neatly in front of Yuugi's dresser. She was worried, clearly. Mokuba was getting more and more depressed the longer they took to take action. But there wasn't anything they could do, not really, anyway. It was a break from school, and thus, giving a last comb to her dark hair, she went to the kitchen to eat breakfast with the boys. Mokuba sat there, dejectedly, next to Yuugi. His confidence had been shattered. Kaiba hadn't told them about where he was being held. Perhaps he didn't trust his own brother.

"We need to plan." Jounouchi said, pouring milk into bowls. The younger Kaiba noticed that was the opposite way his brother did it. He always poured the cereal first to make sure he had enough. He busied himself with locket, fidgeting with it, and then finally opening it and staring at it for a long while. He gave a deep sigh. How he wished to go back to those days. Even if they lived in an orphanage, all Seto had was Mokuba, and all Mokuba had was Seto.

"We don't even know where Kaiba is," Yuugi said, accidentally flipping the cereal box upside down and thus creating a tidal wave of cereal on the table. Because it was clean, Yuugi scooped up a handful and dropped it into his bowl. Ischizu, feeling more polite, decided to make herself some coffee instead. Mokuba swept some cereal grains into his bowl and began to eat. Even the cereal wasn't the same.

Sifting a packet of sugar into her coffee, she blew on the surface lightly, deciding to stand near the stove instead of back at the table. Ischizu felt strangely out of place. Jounouchi and Yuugi were teenage boys, and Mokuba was a preteen, while she was a grown woman. Perhaps she, like many others, had overlooked the fact that Seto was a teenager as well. Biting her lip, she downed some of her coffee, trying to block him out. She could feel his warm, tender kisses on her mouth, his hand in her hair. It was unbelievable. She sipped some more coffee sadly.

"I know that, Yuugi! But we gotta at least try!" Jounouchi said, with his mouth full. Mokuba induced a laugh. How could he be laughing at a time like this? His brother was captured. And it was his entire fault. He admired Jounouchi's courage. At least he wanted to do something. But he knew that Yuugi was right. There was nothing they could do. Not now, anyway.

"I feel like I am unable to go home." Ischizu says, almost in a whisper to herself. The dark-haired boy hears this, and shoves another spoonful of cereal in his mouth. He knew he couldn't go home either. Perhaps both Ischizu and him were unsafe. If they went to their homes, those men could always come after them. But it wasn't them that they wanted. It was his brother.

"I'm sorry, Jounouchi, but we need to find out Kaiba's location first." Yuugi argues, placing his bowl in the sink. Jounouchi does the same, and even Mokuba follows suit. Ischizu is standing near the wind, her cup of coffee in her hands, gazing distantly off at something in the horizon. Perhaps, she too, misses Kaiba.

The bell rung at that moment, and Jounouchi leapt over Yuugi to race him to the door. The younger Kaiba stays near Ischizu, and while she isn't looking, he holds one of her hands, lacing his fingers through hers. She looks down at him with a weak smile and squeezes his hand. They have something in common now. She places her cup in the double-sink and closes her eyes.

Maybe it is just a dream and she will wake up next to Kaiba, and perhaps she fell asleep when she was massaging him. Yes, that would make perfect sense. She just wants to make it all go away. But she can't, because this is reality, and no matter how much she dislikes it, she can't change it. She opens her eyes again.

"Otogi!" Mokuba lets go of her hand and rushes to the doorway, where the young businessman is standing. Unlike Jounouchi, Mokuba has liked Otogi for a long time. They became quick friends after making several business deals, and sometimes he would take the younger Kaiba out for ice cream, much to Kaiba's discontent.

"Hey, kid. I heard what happened." Otogi forces a smile, which he hasn't done in a long time. He rubs Mokuba's hair gently before pulling away from the child and looking at him. He looked sleep-deprived and sad. Otogi had definitely not seen the youngster in this mood for a long time. Usually he'd drag his stoic and stubborn brother around to places in order to get some 'light of day' since he had even called his brother a 'vampire'. Otogi had laughed at that one. But there was no laughing evident in his face. The businessman traced his finger underneath the boy's eyes and down to his chin, pulling it up.

"These men in dark suits came and took my brother away. They said they needed his 'skills'. I really don't understand." Mokuba shook his head sadly, and Ischizu stood at the window, deciding that her heart was crumpled and broken. So broken that she really did not want to talk to anyone right now. She wanted to escape into some room and never come out. A weak, raggedy sigh escaped her.

"Ischizu? I heard from Yuugi that you thought that Kaiba knew what was going to happen. You mean he seemed strange right before those men came?" Otogi stood up, striding over to her, and placed a consoling hand on her shoulder. It seemed as if most people had forgotten that she had been there, that she had seen it all, and most importantly, she had been with Kaiba right before it all happened.

"Yes. I think he knew what was going to happen. Right before he was taken away, he was quiet, and then when he talked, it seemed as if it was the last time he'd say those things. Maybe he had known all along that those people were coming for him." She said, insightfully, tilting her head upwards to look at the ceiling. Why hadn't Kaiba just told them where he was?

"I think you're right," Otogi said, the light dancing in his eyes. Perhaps he, too, had heard that strained tone in his voice. "None of us knows what's going on, but to tell you the truth, I think it has something to do with his birthday. Why would those men have waited until after his nineteenth birthday to kidnap him?" The realization struck Mokuba like lightning. Of course! Why hadn't he thought of it before? If those men had wanted Kaiba, why hadn't they taken him a year ago, or two years ago? What was going on?

"Otogi? Do you have an idea who it could've been?" The raven-haired child had tugged on his hand, as if he thought that the older boy had forgotten all about him. He breathed in gently, touching the dark hair of the boy in front of him.

"I'm not sure. I have…a clue. But, it's a long shot." Ischizu immediately turned around, as if intrigued that perhaps, they were on to something. Yes, everything seemed to add up! After his nineteenth birthday? His 'skills'? It seemed as if the men had wanted Kaiba to do something for them that they could not do themselves. What did Kaiba had that nobody else did?

"There were these men, that came almost two months ago to my office. They called themselves the LEAF. LEAF was an organization that created space satellites to improve worldwide Internet connections." Mokuba gasped as soon as he heard Otogi say these words. It was making sense now. They were piecing together a puzzle practically blindfolded, but something clicked.

"LEAF! Are…are you serious?" Mokuba's lip trembled. No, it couldn't be them. Every member of LEAF had been jailed years ago. When their leader had left them, the group disbanded, only to be jailed afterwards because they were guilty by association. This could not be the same organization that Otogi was talking about. No way!

"Mokuba? What do you know?" Otogi grabbed the boy strongly by the shoulders. Ischizu, immediately concerned, knelt next to the younger Kaiba. If only they could bring the pieces together, they could solve the puzzle. Maybe Kaiba didn't think they were so stupid after all. He knew they would be able to find out where he was on their own.

"Otogi, do you remember when we were trapped in the Virtual world, by Noa? Gozaburo said that he had stolen Noa's idea of creating worldwide Internet connections to take over people and digitize them. But KaibaCorp, at the time, only made weapons, so they had to order the satellites by another organization, called LEAF," Mokuba said, and it was then that Otogi's eyes widened. "who would make the satellites for us, but they never asked any questions. After Gozaburo's plan was out in the open, the police jailed everyone that was associated with it. LEAF hadn't known anything about my stepfather's plans. LEAF's leader was killed by the police, and the rest of the members were jailed."

"This is much, much more serious than I thought." It was at that moment, Yuugi and Jounouchi decided to come in, lingering at the door as they noticed how everyone was absorbed by what they were saying. "At first, I believed that Kaiba had something to do with those men. But that is not true. If LEAF wanted revenge, they might have killed him. I think I understand what is happening..." Ischizu drifted off, her hand clasped over her mouth as if her ideas were true horrifying to be said. Otogi looked at Mokuba wildly to understand.

"You see? After we left the Virtual world, the satellite was still there. The only one who was licensed to control it was my stepfather. His death meant that the satellite was transferred to the company, but since my brother was head of it, he had the ability to still use it. But I don't think that satellite was used just for Internet communication," Mokuba said darkly. Yuugi, who had finally caught up on the conversation, dreaded what was to come. "LEAF didn't just make satellites for us. They made them for the government, for other organizations, so basically other people. That means that to save money, they made a basic model for their most frequent customers. They didn't customize our satellite for communication only. It is a government weapon."

Jounouchi jumped at the word, 'weapon'. The younger Kaiba buried his hand into his hair, as if all this talk was making him dizzy. It was true. So it was true. His brother hadn't had anything to do with it. But he knew that when Kaiba wanted to protect something, he would make it so that there was no possible way anyone other than himself would be able to unlock it. Like a password. Mokuba felt faint.

"So your brother didn't inactivate that satellite?" Otogi asked, incredulously. It seemed as if all was lost. If LEAF had the ability to use that weapon, why didn't they already? But they had needed Kaiba for something. They had needed his 'skills'. Why would…?

"Of course not! My brother disabled the satellite and put it in hibernation. It was left that way for a long time. It would have been too costly to go up and destroy the satellite itself. And my brother didn't have the authority to, anyway. He programmed a password to it that nobody else would be able to guess." Mokuba finished. He almost could feel his knees buckling.

"What was the password?" Yuugi asked, gently from the doorway. It was the only question he had ever asked the entire time. Perhaps saving Kaiba would be much more difficult than he had thought. But if it were a password no one would be able to guess, why would LEAF try to get it out of him? If they killed him, they'd never find out the password. LEAF didn't take anyone hostage either, and thus, that meant Kaiba had nothing to lose…

"His genetic code." Ischizu answered for him, plainly. "If Kaiba was the only one who would be able to open it, it would be his own blood. The organization knows that. That might be why they would take him, instead of killing him." Mokuba shuddered at her words. She was right. Ischizu had understood that Kaiba would not have made it a simple word password that anyone could figure out by bruteforcing. He had made it nearly impossible to activate the satellite. But he had forgotten one thing. As long as he was alive, there was always a chance.

"What do you mean? They could've killed him and still used his blood!" Jounouchi shouted, and the dark-haired boy looked up at him menacingly. How could he even say such a thing? He didn't understand what was going on at all.

"Seto knew that as long as he was alive, the satellite had a chance of activating, and that anyone could just use a sample of his blood as the password. He programmed the password so that it had to be confirmed every three hours." Mokuba said, but upon the confused looks on everyone's faces, he added, "But that isn't the only thing to his password. His heart rate, blood pressure, fingerprints, and retina scan, had to be put in as a preliminary measure. It would take at least two days for the satellite to activate with those alone. To use any of the features, they'd have to put my brother's genetic code."

"Geez. Your brother sure knew how to protect something." Jounouchi said, more of an afterthought than a real thought. Everyone seemed slightly relieved that there was still a chance to stop the satellite. But they still looked distressed. "Okay, so now what? We know what's going on, and what LEAF might try to do, but where? We still don't know anything about that."

"Not true. Kaiba would not have withheld information such as that if he knew that we would be incapable of discovering it on our own. He knows that we have the resources to do so," Ischizu said. She was beginning to understand Kaiba's methods. He was clever. Very clever. He knew that Mokuba would have known about the satellite, and would somehow be able to connect it to everything else they had found out.

"But what about his birthday? You said that had something to do with it too, right?" Otogi asked, leaning against the kitchen counter. All this talking had made him weary. There was only one thing to do – deactivate the satellite, and save Kaiba. But how? They were teenage kids, and very ordinary ones at that. Except for Mokuba, who actually knew a thing or two about LEAF and the satellite, the rest of them were pretty much clueless.

"The satellite had manual checkups every year by a special support team sent by my brother. After the satellite was found out, he assigned his birthday to be the day to send the special team out there to make sure everything was fine-tuned. LEAF is using OUR rocket to get up into space!" Mokuba said, rather distressed. Yuugi folded his hands together in his front. There wasn't any way to get back into space, no, not at all. If LEAF had taken the rocket, what was left? How would they be able to stop the shuttle in time, and more importantly, how would they be able to retrieve Kaiba? After LEAF had used him for their purposes, they would..they would..discard him. A lump formed itself in Yuugi's throat.

"Your brother isn't the only one with a space rocket." Otogi said, and everyone looked at him rather oddly. He threw up his hands. "Geez, it's not like it's that expensive. I put one up there for future plans." Jounouchi raised an eyebrow. "Okay, you know what? It's best not to ask questions. Let's find out where Kaiba is, then. We know the organization that has him, so why don't we use that information to find out the rest?" Yuugi nodded, but still..things didn't look good.

"It is unnecessary. There are snipers on the roof of Kaiba mansion. They must know something about the organization, and if not, we can still pry something out of them," Ischizu reasoned, and it was clear that she was right. They needed someone inside the organization in order to get information about it. Jounouchi chuckled slightly.

"I don't think it'll be a problem. Mokuba? You told me you used holograms to escape, right?" Jounouchi asked, with a sly smile on his face. Mokuba's grin grew wide. "I think we'll be needing your genius again."