"But at what cost?"

There was nothing but ominous silence, and brooding, vicious waiting for an answer that could shatter everything

Yami held dear, if he hadn't already. Yami knew very well how much of a cost there might be, considering how

much he had already paid, in vain. Seto grimaced, but he himself did not know if it was from impatience of Yami's

silence, or his own fear of the answer.

They eyed each other, warily as wolves looking for the best way to bring down the prey by the throat.

Yami's eyes were brilliantly focused, narrowed to dagger points, as he glared at Seto with deceptive indifference, and

a scowl. Seto's own eyes had retreated to their usual safe haven of glacial scorn, his whole body forced into

an ironic posture of casual disregard. It was a convincing show, a good mask.

Seto's fist was clenched until the knuckles were white around the cold iron grip of the fire poker he had covertly

tucked under his blanket. It was a split decision, a hasty snatching of the only weapon he could find in a few precious seconds,

after Yami's demented glee at the horrifically bloody images, and the warning that curled in Seto's gut that he was

at the mercy of one who had shown he had no mercy left to give.

Unknown to Seto, Yami was well aware of his stashed weapon, and was almost amused at the desperation his

conniving had sunk to. Yami allowed himself a regal snort at the futility. Yami was perfectly able to dismember

Seto with a mere wish, a thought, an urge...but...

Yami shivered miserably, allowed a languid blink at Seto's sharp glance, pondering indifferently what the outcome

might possibly be. He didn't give a damn any more.

It was Seto's snarl from the increasingly unbearable tension of being held a prisoner, his fear of going insane,

and his loathing at being so violated, and stripped of everything that propelled the normally calm, and deliberate

CEO into rash, and stupid action.

Blindly, Seto swung the poker in a high, wide arch, the point aimed squarely at Yami's temple.

Yami did not even trouble himself with a complimentary flinch, or even to move his head away, merely hissed

under his breath, and smirked, sadly.

Seto's squawk of alarm brought forth a wan, smug shake of Yami's head, as Seto found himself abruptly, and viciously

flung through the air. Seto flew forward, and found his skull colliding with agonizing force against the stone of the

fireplace's mantle.Seto literally saw stars, bright, slamming flecks of light that swirled around his crippled awareness, and felt to the

very bones the icy ache that froze his skull with the thunder of the blow.

He was clearly stunned from the collision, from the sharp jerking of his muscles in one spasmodic twitch, the same futile

movement a cockroach might make after being crushed, Yami mused, indifferently.Seto's eyes lingered in vacant cloudiness for a long second, before they closed and Seto slithered downward, harmlessly, the poker clattering down beside him with a harsh clang that echoed throughout the room.

He lingered between the velvet darkness of surrender, the tearing abyss of welcoming oblivion sliding over him as Seto suddenly

jerked to life and snapped his head upward in a harsh shake. He grit his teeth and fought the urge to vomit at the dizzying sensation

of his own brain being so rattled from the stone.

The only sound was Seto's harsh breathing, as he trembled and struggled to stay awake. He startled involuntarily when Yami's

shadow glided in unwelcome view over his splayed legs.Vaguely, Seto felt the warm heat of blood trickling down the gash in his temple.

He placed a palm to his temple, and stared stupidly at the dark red that covered his shaking palm, before glancing up at Yami again.

With infinite sadness, and a mockery of concern, Yami knelt to caress Seto's hair away from the cold forehead with a colder chuckle.

Seto flinched in revulsion, as his eyes shot open, the confusion suddenly vanishing with the fiery awareness and the violating fury at the

touch. Seto jerked his head away, with a low growl, "Don't touch me, you monster!"

Monster...Yami's silken laughter was soft and eerily gentle as he allowed his fingers to drift down to Seto's quaking throat, lingering

as he felt the breath panted out frantically, warm against his icy fingers.

Seto's breath quickened as he tried to scuttle away on heels and elbows, when his tremoring limbs suddenly buckled beneath the weight

of the sudden, terrorizing paralysis.Seto's muscles went slack as cloth, and completely still, despite the fiery anguish and his screaming instincts twitching in the echoes of movement through his core. It amused Yami to watch Seto's tortured realization that he had been abruptly and absolutely stripped of any means to defend himself. He felt the cruel grin lighting his lips grow even darker at Seto's involuntary whimper of fear, and his eyes sliding shut as the shame of his own weakness.

For Yami, it was idle entertainment to watch Seto's futile fight to regain some control of his own flesh, the attempt of straining to even slide his fingers

into fists only resulting in a whine of absolute agony, shrill and sharp against the harsh confirmation that he was, indeed, unable to move at all.

It was the sum of every nightmare he had ever woke up from in a blind, frenzied panic, the cruelest torture that Seto could ever endure: being completely

at the mercy of somebody else, it was agony of enduring with no chance to defend himself, it was the stranglehold of terror and Yami was not

sure that Seto could handle any more without being broken beyond repair.

Yami watched Seto grit his teeth, and strain and groan in determination to unshackle his body from whatever force was keeping it so horrifically still,

fighting the situation with every bit of rage and fear he had at his disposal, which, Yami noted, was quite substantial. It was feeling the sickening contrast of

iron will in all its storms raging against the reality of broken flesh, the refusal of anything less than a snarl and renewed struggle, rising and ending with

Seto's defeated slump into exhaustion, after a few hours of warring so uselessly.

Seto's eyes seared up at Yami with open loathing, when Yami knelt so that Seto could see his smug satisfaction. Seto, however, did not seem to be as easily broken as Yami thought. Through the mind link, Yami could feel Seto's hatred radiating out from each word laced with a whispered hiss and all of Seto's

defiance...

Do you enjoy flinging the fairy dust around because you couldn't take me on like a man?

Yami smirked in vicious amusement at Seto's helpless rancor, as he merely sat back on haunches, and folded his arms, amused.

Seto sighed, eyes radiating with the promise of retribution, and Yami only troubled himself to poke Seto's side in a teasing tap. Seto's

seething hatred only grew hotter and more painful as the words spewed up like lava.

Don't touch me!

Yami's fingers never withdrew, merely draped over his forehead again, and lingered, and Seto screamed through the mindlink,

Stop this at once! What the hell is wrong with you?!