Seto heard one word before he forced himself into action.

"Shit!"

He threw a hand back, knocking his palm against the wood harshly to feel for its edge. It was a pathetic line of defense, but if he could get back to his feet, he could at least hide behind it.

He picked out the faint echo of footsteps as he sucked in a deep breath and pushed himself to stand. Stepping with his right foot made his whole leg tingle, so he focused most of his weight on his left.

Before lights appeared in the distance, illuminating the doorway, his shoe connected with whatever Pegasus had kicked earlier. He paused only long enough to feel for it. Its edge cut the index finger of his right hand and he pressed it into the handle to stop the minimal bleeding.

A knife.

With a weapon in hand, Seto squinted through the darkness at the room. One door, one exit, not even closed. But light and footsteps stormed his way, too close for him to run without running into them.

He braced himself against the table that wouldn't protect him so much as give him a few extra seconds. He tried pushing it, but just forced a wobble. With how close the footsteps sounded, he couldn't use it to barricade the door in time.

The mysterious 'they' needed him to lay low; Pegasus never mentioned killing him, but it didn't mean he wouldn't. The wooden table had been thick enough to support his weight. It might slow down a bullet, although guns never seemed much like Pegasus's style.

His hands shook with the strength of his grip on the knife. For a moment he considered moving, taking position by the door to take a swing at the first person to come through, but his arms already drooped under the sedative. He might not have the force needed to implant the knife into anyone's chest and pull it back out. And anyone looking at him would see that any exertion could send him into unconsciousness, which ruled out the simple act of showing them he had a knife.

Even Pegasus should have known better than to leave a weapon.

So he stayed in the shadow behind the table and watched as the floor grew brighter on either side. That brought up another issue. He could be approached from either direction, maybe at the same time. With the number of footsteps now near enough to count, fighting back seemed less plausible. Seto moved one arm across his waist and hid the knife behind it, clutched in his other hand. Maybe he would get lucky and Pegasus would approach first.

The world behind his eyes shone red instead of black. A light flicked on overhead, sending a jolt of agony through his temples. His head swam as he tracked the footsteps.

Click, echo, disappear.

"You've gotta be kidding."

The first man to enter the room sounded like a rookie, but Seto couldn't force his body to move before it counted so there was no way to confirm it. He craned his neck as far as he could to peer beyond the table without giving himself away.

Pegasus was nowhere in sight.

"What's going on?"

But he recognized that voice, like gravel.

"He flipped the whole fucking table." The obviously younger man grunted after he spoke, brandishing his pistol. "I thought you gave him a double?" Seto's mind wasn't working at full capacity, but the statement still made him uneasy. What was Pegasus trying to pull?

The second prompting of the familiar voice brought a name but not a face. Croquet, Pegasus's feeble equivalent of Isono. "Slight miscalculation," he said, stepping close enough that Seto caught the outline of his black suit before he turned in the direction of the doorway again. "What are your orders, sir?"

Pegasus stepped lightly, as if he pranced instead of walked. Even in the haze of pain and exhaustion, Seto sensed the man's anger building.

"How cute..." Pegasus purred, "He's playing hide and seek."

"Sir, I'll have to ask you-"

"Relax," Pegasus cut in, his tone a note sharper than usual, "That won't be necessary." He made a vague gesture to the taser in Croquet's hand.

They couldn't take a chance with Seto's heart, not when it was already overstimulated by the drugs and struggle.

He side-stepped the head of security, who followed on his heels around the right side of the table. Pegasus tutted at Seto's crumpled form, but kept himself painfully still. Crawford's crouching form blocked a little of the light and Seto's eyes focused as sharply as they could on the approaching body.

He leaned close enough for Seto to feel warm breath against his skin, and in one swift motion Seto thrust the knife forward.

"Ah, ah," Pegasus chided, grabbing his wrist and twisting in what he thought should break the younger's grip.

Seto held fast to the weapon. Escape wasn't possible, but he wasn't about to surrender free movement again. He wasn't in a position to kick Pegasus, and with the little strength he could muster while keeping the blade clutched tight, it would feel more like a nudge anyway. He jabbed his hand forward, settling for any impact he could make, even on the arm vying for his last semblance of an upper hand.

"Sir?" Seto watched from his peripheral vision as Croquet raised the taser, but paid it no mind. He couldn't use something like that with Pegasus hovering over him the way he was, latched on as if his life depended on the outcome.

A new wave of fury swept over him and he jerked his arm back violently, knocking Pegasus off-balance and on top of him as Seto's back clapped against the floor. The knife caught the red blazer, but with only enough force to graze the fabric. Pegasus shifted his weight to the wrist holding Seto's and finally broke the younger's hold.

"You're causing a lot of trouble for someone who so graciously kept you alive." He panted, bringing the knife to Seto's throat. "But don't you worry, you'll be worth it."

Each breath of air burned furiously. Seto's eyes blurred with moisture as he tried to steady his racing heart. He could still get out of this; he just had to think. The man's name was on his lips, but he couldn't get it out. The blade caressed his skin, too close.

Everything was too close.

"I'll make sure you're worth it."

The knife followed Seto's movements as he tried to slide away. His chin tilted back from it, but his gaze stayed locked with Pegasus, or rather, the three blurry images of him.

"What the fu-" The knife pressed down in warning, breaking the skin right above the other wound. "-does that mean?"

His hands looked for purchase on the floor, only brushing up against the scattered rope at the foot of the table. He stopped moving once he found it. Being surrounded, Seto knew his chances of getting out were almost nonexistent, but he wouldn't let Pegasus get away unscathed.

"I told you to stop touching me," Seto said. Rather than lean back from the knife, he moved toward it, embedding it deeper into his skin until drops of blood rolled down the side of his neck, over the stitches Pegasus had just applied.

As focused in on Pegasus's expression as he was, Seto picked out the widening of his eye and the tauting of his mouth. A sharp "Sir!" came from somewhere in Croquet's direction which both Pegasus and Seto ignored.

Seto kept their gazes locked and his neck against the knife that Pegasus still hadn't moved. His left hand wrapped the rope around his knuckles and squeezed it between his fingers. While masking his movements as putting more pressure on the knife, Seto shifted his weight so his right side held the majority.

He leaned too far forward and nicked himself more than he had intended, flinching at the sudden tear. Pegasus withdrew the blade enough that Seto couldn't cut himself on it anymore. His features faded from shocked to amused and Seto wouldn't accept that smug face leering down at him anymore.

With his fingers clenched and the rope surrounding his knuckles, he narrowed his eyes so the three images merged into one and swung up his fist with all his strength, landing squarely on Pegasus's jaw.

Pegasus's face throbbed on impact, teeth gritting against each other. Seto was too close and too weak to hit with any real strength, but it was enough to send the knife clattering across the room. Pegasus's guttural moan evolved into growling as he realized what'd happened. He blinked heavily and touched the chaffed skin of his cheek where the rope had dug in.

The other hand shot out like a viper for Seto's fist, but his men were too quick. Seto winced as he was ripped from floor to feet. He knew Croquet couldn't read his thoughts, but he was just as smug proving he was not the feeble one between them.

Seto's face connected hard with the stone wall. He tried to turn his head to face Pegasus, but with three men pinning him down he could barely open his eyes. His lashes fluttered against the stone, lungs contracting pitifully, desperately, for breath.

His body moved without his consent, but there was nothing he could do to fight back anymore. They fitted his ankles with tight, heavy shackles he could only assume would be chained to something. Mokuba's face came flooding back.

Everything ached.

How long had he kept Mokuba down here? What sick things had Pegasus done to his brother? Seto's mind whirred with torture Mokuba might have repressed, abuse he'd been too ashamed to speak about, even if he wanted to. His eyes burned even as the light dimmed and his line of vision tunneled into the generic corridor of the dungeon.

"Take these."

A flare of red and black in his peripheral vision. More shackles?

What was the point of...

He swallowed thickly and tried not to wish for saliva to coat his mouth or throat.

Oh.

His wrists.

He twisted as much as he could in the awkward line of their hold, but got nowhere. They pulled him back and out of the room, down the dark stone hallway. After a minute, the slowing of their pace meant they were nearing their destination.

He was almost out of time.

But shackles meant the handcuffs would come off, even for a moment.

He tried to stop walking long enough to brush hips with the men at either side, feeling for weapons, but they shoved him forward.

"We'll get it right this time," the rookie joked.

Pegasus nodded sagely from behind. "Pad them with something interesting," he spat, "Rusted nails, barbed wire." Seto heard him fishing something from his pocket, or else rustling the fabric of his blazer. "After all, what's a fight without a little...incentive?"

Not finding what he was looking for, Pegasus headed back the way they had come.

Seto's right ankle gave under each step, but the guards who held him up wouldn't relent to give him a moment to find a surer pace. The constant movement seemed to wake the sedative, mixing it more until the rows of electric torches dragged together into a long, bright line. Another step and his knee gave.

"Watch it!" one of the guards said, jerking Seto back up and a few feet forward.

Without his arms to balance him, Seto bumped into the guard who had yelled, taking the chance to double-check for weapons, but still unable to feel out any.

The cuff rubbed at his already-raw wrists, and Pegasus's mention of adding something more caused Seto's hands to clench. He couldn't be worth anything dead, and he trusted that even Pegasus in his insanity would recognize that nails or wire might cut through his wrists.

What a way to go—unintentionally slit wrists. He wondered if Mokuba would find out, what Mokuba thought about Seto's current absence, how Pegasus thought it could have ever been Mokuba.

They had been talking, Seto realized, but he must have started listening in toward the end of the conversation. Blood pulsed in his ears, and as soon as Seto paid it attention, his head flushed cold and his vision black.

His next sensation was hitting the floor, his head cracking against the cool stone. For a moment, the pain from his neck, wrists, ankle, and chest disappeared, replaced with a pleasant nothingness. It came back, joined with a sharp ache from his head and the buzz of voices flooding around him.

Seto felt someone kneel beside him. His hands numbed underneath him and the metal from the cuffs dug into his back. He tried to sit up, but his head spun and he fell again.

"What do we do? He's...I think he's bleeding."

Croquet side-stepped Branning to Seto's limp body, pushing Seto's hair back as much as he could without disturbing his neck. Blood matted the tresses in a slow stream. "Get Hadley down here," he ordered. Marcus Hadley was a fellow bodyguard, but doubled as a paramedic. When Croquet finally passed his prime, Hadley was the man favored to take his place.

"You get him chained up. We don't want any more surprises."

Branning, though far from the rookie Seto assumed him to be, was too shaken to move. "Y'don't think he planned that, do ya? With all the talk about how he'd-"

"I don't know," Croquet cut in, doing his best to tune out the other man's words as he rechecked Seto's still rapid pulse. "It doesn't matter to us," he concluded, braving a glance over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps he knew came too soon to be the ones he was waiting on.

"Mr. Pegasus." Croquet rose to full height, unable to do much before he knew if it was safe to move Seto and fit the rest of the restraints.

"What happened?"

"We thought his stumbling around was for show, sir, but he blacked out. Hit his head on the way down."

Pegasus bit back a thousand stinging remarks. How many men did it take to catch a limp body? Not a foot from their grasp, no less. "Where is-"

"Behind you," Hadley called with a practiced note of urgency as he weaved through the sea of men. "Someone bring a light closer, too many shadows."

Croquet, despite being the only man of higher rank, obliged him. "Kid's a fighter," he warned, and at this Branning found the nerve to kneel beside Seto, ready to shackle his wrists.

"I'd leave him cuffed for now," Hadley said. He did a quick examination and gave the okay for Seto to be moved into the cell, propping him against the wall as best he could. "Neck and back are fine, thankfully, but we can't rule out a concussion. Not sure how long it'll be 'til he rouses, but I'll know without much trouble then. Want me to wait it out?"

"No," Pegasus replied in a tone that said: don't argue. "Leave us, all of you. You've done enough."

Hadley worked himself back to his feet, letting his tongue trail over his teeth as he chose his words. "All right," he relented as Croquet took a step toward the stretch of dungeon. "Call me if he vomits."

Pegasus watched them go, making sure the torches were returned, but didn't close the door. He bent to Seto long enough to inspect the gash on his head before taking a seat on the bed.

The red light of the camera flashed once, then stayed on.

"Alone again."