Hey! Thanks for the reviews! This has to be my favourite chapter yet :D

Ally of Justice Kaibaman

Chapter 14

Seto returned in the early hours of the morning; Mokuba had already gone to bed by his order and now the CEO strolled through the hallways in a casual shirt and jeans. His patrol had been quiet, the criminals had heard he was back and scurried under the rocks they'd come from – even Bakura and Mailk, which worried him.

Check on the Mutt, go to bed, he thought and ran a hand through his long hair. I can't be bothered tying it back tonight... He reached Joey's room and slowly turned the handle, not wanting to disturb the blonde in case he was sleeping; as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw the bed was undisturbed. Frowning, he flicked on the light and took a step inside.

"Mutt?" No answer. He took another step inside, then another.

"Hey, Moneybags." He turned, and the last thing he saw was Joey, with a serving tray, before everything went dark.

He woke some time later to jaunty whistling and a throbbing head; he forced his eyes open and found Joey pushing a full-length mirror, covered with a sheet, to the right side of the bed next to the window. He tried to sit up, but found himself tied to the bedposts. "You better start explaining, Wheeler!" The blonde ignored him. "Wheeler!"

"Try again, Rich Boy." The blonde turned to look at him and blue eyes widened.

"Red!" Seto struggled in his bindings. "Where's Mokuba? Did you hurt him?"

"He'll have a lump, I've got a better way of making him suffer; but for now..." He pulled the sheet from the mirror. "Say hi, Joey."

All Seto saw was his own reflection, but, surrounded by black smoke and clouds, Joey stared at the brunette. Don't...Red, please...

"'Please', geez blondie, grow a backbone. Y'know, you've gotten really soft since meeting that shrimp – you know that?" Red stepped in front of the mirror. "Remember the days when you used to settle things with your fists? Remember how feared you were, Joey?"

"I left that behind me! What does my past have to do with now!"

"The past makes the future, time moves forward from the past – often repeating parts of history," he replied, strolling over to the bed and straddling Seto's waist. "People – sometimes – learn from the past; what you're going to learn here is that if you weren't such a weakling, if you hadn't turned yourself into one, you'd be able to defeat me and save the man you love."

Honey and blue eyes grew wide. Red looked down at Seto. "Didn't know, huh? The idiot is gay and has the hots for you." He drew a kitchen knife from behind his back with a tight smile, tapping Seto's cheek with the flat side. "It's one of the reasons he wanted to work at Kaiba Corp. right, Joey?" He looked to the mirror and Seto followed his gaze, not seeing Joey pounding his fists against the glass.

"Stop it! He has nothing to do with anything! Why are you doing this!"

"To make you suffer; I feed on it, or did you forget that already? The more you suffer, the stronger I become. Simple."

"You're insane," Seto sneered and Red turned his attention back to him.

"Yeah, I am." He brought the blade to the collar of the CEO's shirt and cut it in two, leaving a thin bloodline down Seto's chest. "My, my, these aren't all battle scars," he observed as he pushed the material aside and tilted his head in thought. "Ah, the adopted Father, right? Worked you like a dog – wait, Joey's the dog, you were meant to be a puppet." He smirked.

"I was nobody's puppet!" Seto growled.

Red rolled his eyes and studied each scar. "Einie, meanie, minie..." He pressed the tip of the blade into a scar on his ribs; Seto hissed through the pain. "Mo. Which one next? How about...the shoulder!" The rammed the blade in and the CEO let out a cry.

NO! Stop it!

"Make me, Joey!" Red pulled the blade out and licked the blood off slowly. He gaze shifted to the crying form in the mirror. "Pathetic..." He slashed Seto's chest randomly and Joey fell to his knees.

STOP!

"Ah, isn't that wound from me?" Red poked the red line on Seto's stomach. "Let's re-open it!" He pushed the tip into one end and slowly cut open the healing wound; Seto's cries echoed around the room and he pulled helplessly at the restraints on his wrists and ankles.

Joey wept as he begged Red to stop and helpless patted the glass as the darkness slowly began to envelop him; it reminded him of the time he had been under Malik's control, trapped in the darkness and unable to stop himself from destroying his best friend in a duel. Yugi had helped him break the mind control, he'd also helped him when Red had taken his body in the Capsule World – but where was he now, when he needed him the most?

"Wheeler!" Seto cried. "Y-You're stronger than this!"

Am I though?

Red laughed. "That's it, Joey, doubt yourself!" He looked to the mirror. "Hey, keep your eyes on us, ok? Because I'm going to finish this, get the kid and make him watch his Brother die!" he laughed. "Then I'll make you watch as I kill the kid!" He gripped the handle of the knife with both hands and raised his arms high.

NO!

Seto watched the blade come down and stop inches above his chest; his gaze moved up and he eyes grew wide. The blonde's right eye was honey coloured while the left was still red. "Joey?"

"S-Sort of..." The right arm fought for strength over the left.

"You can't stop me, Joey!"

"I stopped you before!"

Red chuckled. "Yeah, but Yugi's not here to finish the job for you!" Arms rose again and Seto braced for the worst, only to find the binding on his left wrist slack; he opened his eyes and found his reflection in struggling honey eyes.

"R-Run..."

Honey became red. "DIE!"

Seto rolled to one side as the blade came down again and elbowed Red in the temple; he rolled off the bed and the CEO quickly untied himself as Joey continued with his inner struggle, the knife soon turning on himself. Seto wasn't sure who was trying to force the blade into their own chest, but he leapt to wrestle the blade away from them.

"Kill me!"

Seto froze. He hand Joey's arms pinned under his long legs and found himself looking into pleading honey pools. "What?"

Tears fell down the blonde's face. "Do it...If I die, then he's dead too – he can't hurt anyone again!"

In a short bout of blind rage, Seto slammed the blade into the floor, inches from the blonde's head. "I will do no such thing! You've just proven you can fight him and you will continue to fight him!"

"I don't know if I can..."

Seto placed his hands on Joey's face, forcing their eyes to meet; his hair falling around them like a curtain. "I'll help you."

"Why?"

The CEO frowned. "I can't do something nice for a change?"

Joey nodded. "I think he's gone...for now..."

Seto sighed and rolled off the blonde, clutching his stomach. "Go to the phone and press the red button; Roland will come."

Joey did as he was told and unsteadily retrieved the first aid kit from the bathroom, along with a bowl of water and a washcloth. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve and began cleaning the wounds. "Are you still with me?" Seto grunted in reply. "Rich bastard...Do you think duelling has made me weak?"

"Hard to say, I didn't know you back then. This is hard for me to admit but...you're one of the strongest people I've known." He opened his eyes. "Do you think it's made you weak?"

Joey sat back to think. He had faced tougher, and scarier, things duelling than he had when he was in Hirotani's gang; his mind had been controlled, he'd taken on the full force of an Egyptian God – and died for a moment – and had his soul taken to be fed by the Great Leviathan; not to mention all the other weird things in-between. By all accounts, he should be dead – or at least in a mental institution. "No...it hasn't." He watched the CEO close his eyes again and heard Roland calling for them down the hallway. "Hey...do you think I'm a good duellist?"

"Don't push it."