Author Notes: This takes place during Seto's childhood and then jumps ahead to the Season Three Virtual World arc. This one is really intense, more intense than my usual stuff, but it was written for a request, so here it is. Requests are super-welcome and can be placed in the reviews and by voting in the poll in my profile. Enjoy!
Seto Kaiba, even as a twelve-year-old kid, would do anything to protect his younger brother. Mokuba was the only family he had, the only person he loved or cared about. That was why he now hated himself for trying to fight back when Gozaburo started to beat him this time around. Gozaburo had been so enraged by Seto's resistance that he'd immediately announced that he was going to beat Mokuba. The child had immediately panicked, screaming that he'd do anything, anything at all, if only Gozaburo would not lay a hand on his little brother. Of course Gozaburo had known that Seto would react that way. That was exactly what he'd wanted to hear.
That's why he now had his adopted son bound, gagged, on his hands and knees, the child buck-naked and quivering in fear as his step-father seized his narrow hips and rubbed his erection between Seto's legs, making him whimper.
"Keep quiet, my boy," Gozaburo chuckled. "Or I'll have to silence you in my own way." Seto turned out to be unable to restrain himself from making noise, and each time he made a sound, his step-father brought the short whip down across his back. Tears streamed down the child's cheeks as he forced himself to cope with the pain in silence, when really all he really wanted to do was scream.
"Gozaburo!" Six years later, an eighteen-year-old Seto burst through a door in the Virtual World to see Gozaburo sitting in his chair, at his desk, in his office, at his company.
"Long time, no see, Seto," Gozaburo chuckled, and before Seto could react, Gozaburo used his thoughts to slam the door shut, remove Seto's coat, and clasp his son in shackles. A jolt of panic shocked Seto out of the confident, calm demeanor he'd worked so hard to create for himself. "I've been lonely here in the Virtual World for so long. I was hoping you would come and visit me."
Seto's chest tightened with a fear he hadn't felt for several years as he realized what Gozaburo was planning. "No, I'm not a child anymore, Gozaburo. You can't force me." He tried to sound calm, but there was a quiver in his voice that betrayed him. This was all a nightmare come true. No, this wasn't happening, this couldn't be happening.
"That's where you're wrong, Seto! I have absolute power in this world, and there's nothing you can do to resist me."
Seto could feel his heart pounding in his chest like a jackhammer as Gozaburo stood and moved to stand in front of him. When had he picked up that whip? This one was different from the one he'd used on Seto as a child. This one was longer and more vicious; as Gozaburo got closer and Seto got a better look at it, he could see bits of barbed wire and broken glass embedded in its length. Gozaburo shifted the whip from one hand to another, and the movement made Seto flinch. Gozaburo chuckled again.
"Good to see that all my years of careful training haven't gone to waste," he gloated, before lifting the whip and snapping it in the air behind him. "On your hands and knees, now!" Seto dropped to his knees, letting them smack the hard floor with a thud, then leaned forward to put the rest of his weight on his hands, his head low as Gozaburo's conditioning was reawakened within his mind. His body began to tremble in fear, something it hadn't done since he was a child. "Good dog." Gozaburo was suddenly behind him, reaching around to undo his pants and pull them and his briefs down to his knees. Seto's throat closed over as he squeezed his eyes shut.
No, no, NO…
"Yugi, Seto's being held captive by my father at the top of the KaibaCorp Headquarters!" Noah said frantically. "I need you to go back and free him so that he can return to the real world as well!"
"You got it, Noah!" Yugi hurried to the location Noah Kaiba had mentioned. Even though Kaiba refused to acknowledge any of them as friends, Yugi knew that they and Mokuba were the best friends Seto had in the whole world.
When he opened the door of Seto's office, he wasn't prepared for what he saw. He never expected to see his arch-rival a bloodied mess huddled in a ball in the corner on the floor (no longer chained, although Yugi didn't know that he had been). It was pathetic enough that the violence it implied made Yami take over, protective of Yugi. Gozaburo was sitting on the edge of his desk smoking a cigar, looking incredibly pleased with himself. A bloody whip lay across his desk, and Yugi felt sick to look at it.
"What have you done to him?" Yami demanded of Gozaburo. Seeing the great Seto Kaiba reduced to a trembling mass of blood and tears shook him to his core. What manner of man was this who could do such a thing to someone so strong and proud? Gozaburo laughed like the evil maniac he was.
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Gozaburo retorted smugly. Yami rushed over to Seto, glancing over his shoulder at Gozaburo just once before he knelt beside his rival, all of his attention focused on the injured teen in front of him. Seto had his arms wrapped around his head, and only now could he hear what Seto was whispering to himself.
"This isn't happening, not again, not again. This isn't happening, this can't be happening…" The phrases repeated over and over again, and Yami recognized the behavior all too well. It had been in a vision shown to him by the Millennium Rod: a young priest Seto being raped as a child, and the only way he could cope with the painful reality was by denying it entirely.
"Kaiba…" Yami murmured, resting a hand gently on Seto's shoulder. The former champion flinched at the sudden contact and opened his eyes, blinking in surprise as if he hadn't realized that Yugi had entered the room. More tears fell from those deep blue eyes as he fell silent and shame registered in his expression. "Kaiba, we need to leave now. The entire network is about to be destroyed, and if we're still here when that happens, we'll die too!"
"Yugi…" It was all he could say in response. His eyes flicked back to his step-father, whom Yugi's spirit was still watching with fear. Just as Yugi screamed a warning to the Pharaoh, Seto moved suddenly, and for a few moments, Yami was disoriented. Then he heard a weak sound of pain from Kaiba, and he realized what had happened. Seto's arms had wrapped around him as he put himself between his step-father and his rival, letting the whiplash be absorbed into his already bleeding body.
"Kaiba, you protected me… Thank you." The words seemed so inadequate, but Yami was all too aware of their time constraint. "We must hurry if we're going to survive this."
"Pharaoh, he's going to—" Yugi began to call out a warning to Yami, but it was too late to do Seto any good, for Yugi's cry was cut off as Seto grunted with pain again, the sound of the whip striking his back making Yami's stomach churn.
"He's not going anywhere, isn't that right, my boy?"
"Yes, father," Seto muttered resentfully.
"Now get off of him, or did you not get enough earlier?" The mocking tone in Gozaburo's voice confused Yugi for a moment before it finally clicked for him what had happened. As Seto let go of Yami and dropped himself on the floor, leaning back against the wall as he turned his face away in shame, Yami straightened up and turned around, seeing the sick expression on Yugi's face as his hikari understood the situation.
"Just go, Yugi," Seto whispered, looking at the floor as he pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs. "No point in both of us dying."
"What?!" Yami couldn't believe his ears as he watched the best duelist he'd ever faced give up so easily. Or, perhaps, it wasn't quite so easy… How long had Seto been trapped up here with Gozaburo? How long had it taken the monster to destroy his step-son's spirit?
"No, Kaiba, I'm not leaving without you," Yami insisted stubbornly, bending over and taking Seto's shaking hands in his own, pulling him up into an unsteady standing position. Seto sagged forward against Yami for a split second, then Yami heard Yugi scream out another warning as Seto quickly pushed Yami against the wall and put himself between Yami and the whip yet again.
"Get out of here while you still can, Yugi!" Seto insisted, panting with the mere effort it took to stand.
"You should listen to my son, Yugi," Gozaburo added lazily and took another drag from his cigar. "He's a genius, you know."
"No thanks to you!" Yami snapped back, putting an around the taller teen and helping to support him as he led him to the door. "Noah, we need a shortcut out of here! Seto can't go very far!" he shouted into the air, praying to the gods that Noah had heard him.
"I'm working on it!" came the answer almost immediately. Yami continued to lead Seto to the door, blocking the brunette's view of his step-father. He let out a cry as the whip struck his own back, Seto flinching at the sound of the whip and tightening his hold on his rival.
"Yugi…" He sounded so pained, it made Yugi want to cry as he watched on, feeling helpless.
"We must keep going," Yami ordered, grimacing in pain as he lead Kaiba forward.
Gozaburo then cracked the whip in the air, making Seto flinch and close his eyes. Snap, snap, snap went the whip in the air, and Seto began to cower against the wall, unable to take another step forward.
"We're almost there," Yami grunted as he pulled Kaiba away from the wall. Never before had so short a distance seemed so far.
"Yugi, the shortcut is up! As soon as you exit the office, you'll be back in the real world! But you must hurry!" Noah shouted. Yugi came up along Seto's other side, helping in what little capacity he could as Yami lunged for the door, dragging Seto along with him, managing to save all three lives in the process and still shut Gozaburo out.
"Seto…" Yugi whispered as he sat up in the Virtual Reality pod, looking over at him with sad eyes. Seto stared straight ahead of him, his eyes focused on no point in particular as he spoke.
"I trust you not to tell anyone what you saw in there, Yugi." Yugi just nodded, blinking back tears as Seto turned his attention to waking Mokuba.
