Mokuba. It had only been a day since they last spoke, but the time had stretched out making it seem like so much longer. Seto had to take another breath to collect himself before asking, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah? I mean, I'm a little freaked. Isono isn't letting me go outside or get on the computer. What's wrong?"
More anger piled on to Seto's already tall stack and he closed the door on it to focus solely on Mokuba. He was okay. And if Isono wasn't letting him get on a computer, then there was probably one around.
"Mokuba," Seto said, then catching his tone, he repeated his brother's name again, softer this time. "Is there a television or computer near you?"
"Isono says I can't—"
"I don't care what Isono says. If there's a television, turn it on. Find the news."
Seto glanced up as Pegasus appeared at the top of the staircase. He made no move to descend, but held Seto's gaze with an indiscernible expression. As long as he didn't take the phone away, he could look at Seto however he wanted.
"Okay. Hold on...Isono? Where's the remote? Seto said to let me have it...Okay, let me find a channel."
He didn't want to back himself into a corner, but Seto took another step back until he could lean against the wall opposite Pegasus. The glass was still in his hand, now dangling by his side. Getting it had caused more damage to his hand than expected, and looking back, Seto wished he would have wrapped the flannel shirt around his hand before breaking the mirror.
"What...? Seto? You're all over the screen. We both are. There's, I don't know, a bounty on us? We've disappeared and KaibaCorp burned down. It's pretty much gone—" Mokuba's voice cracked but he kept talking, mostly too jumbled to make out until, "They've got footage of another fire. It's the Game Shop. Someone burnt down Yugi's home. What's happening?"
With the glass held carefully, Seto covered his face, closing his eyes so he didn't catch his reflection.
"Apparently Gozaburo isn't done with us."
That started the sobbing and Seto couldn't think of anything to do to comfort his brother. He held the phone to his ear and listened to Mokuba cry and throw doubt on the situation, only stopping once he hit the realization, "Gozaburo survived. Does that mean Noa—"
"Don't think about that. Where are you?"
"I don't know. The car windows were blacked out and Isono hasn't said anything."
Seto lowered his hand to stare at Pegasus again. Maybe he told the truth about Gozaburo, but that left a lot of other details to account for. But no, those would have to wait.
"Where are you, Seto?"
He didn't know if he could answer, if he should answer. Mokuba didn't need to know about the past two days, not with the news he just confirmed for Seto. Mokuba would run to him. Seto wouldn't risk Mokuba's safety.
"I'm okay, kid. But I need you to put Isono back on."
"But—"
"I'm sorry. This is important. I love you, Mokuba."
"Yeah, I love you too."
Seto lowered his gaze so he didn't have to bear Pegasus's eye while ending the conversation with his brother. Mokuba was safe. Pegasus hadn't lied about everything.
"Seto-sama—"
"Explain how I would support hiding in Pegasus's dungeon rather than fighting my own battle." Then with a glance back up to Pegasus, "And where is my brother?"
Isono took a second to think through his words before turning to Mokuba, wishing he could usher him out for this, and trying to explain.
"I understand your anger and—"
"We don't have time for you to dance around the issue. Stop trying to placate me and answer the question."
"I should've talked to you," Isono finished, taking a practiced breath. "It sounds like he told you about the email that started all this. It doesn't seem like much compared to what we've faced in the past, but we both know Gozaburo. If he's making a move he's got the next twenty planned, and there were only so many ways to throw a wrench in them."
"You're telling me with a straight face, in front of my brother, you didn't trust me to enhance my own security?"
"It wasn't you I couldn't trust, sir. That's what I'm calling to tell you. Aizawa's at the head of this whole mess. We think he's the one who leaked the backup files."
He heard Mokuba scream, "That's a lie!" before Isono hushed him.
Seto braced himself against the stairs to keep his footing. Everything went numb, the world reduced to blackness and the rhythm of his heartbeat. This had to be a lie. Aizawa was Seto's first new hire, the head of his security beyond KaibaCorp's headquarters, the man in charge of every camera, every vault, every scrap of sensitive code. Was he really such a grave judge of character?
He put the phone in his opposite hand and let the shard of glass he clung to as a weapon dig into some of the fresh cuts of his wrists. He didn't have time for pity; he still needed to get to Mokuba. The new development made that almost impossible.
Aizawa knew their unmarked vehicles, had created the panic room in the Kaiba mansion and helped him scout remote locations for extended, private getaways. There was still plenty of money in offshore bank accounts and their biological parents' home in the suburbs of Osaka, but they'd be sitting ducks there.
Kaiba could create security measures Aizawa had no hope of getting through, but it took time. Resources.
"Where is Mokuba?" he repeated, more emotion in his voice than he could afford to relay.
"We're at the ranch in Shibetsu."
Seto tensed instinctively, creating a new cut across the palm of his left hand. The ranch. In Shibetsu. That's the best Isono could do? He racked his mind for any suitable place Aizawa wouldn't immediately infiltrate, but came up empty.
A ranch.
He was concealed by miles of ocean, hundreds of traps across rough terrain, and an architectural labyrinth. Not to mention a wealth of guards and weapons. Mokuba had four walls and Isono.
"Who else is with you?"
"No one, sir."
Seto wanted to make a break for the door but couldn't force his legs to work. Wanted to berate Isono for trying something like this by himself, but after word of the latest betrayal, knew it was exactly what he'd have done.
Pegasus had been telling the truth about something else. Seto couldn't risk going to Mokuba.
"Get my brother to me, and we'll figure this out in our own way."
"It's not safe for any of us to be on the move right now. Most of the fear came from speculation before. The fire confirmed it, prompted investigation."
Isono paused to comfort Mokuba and Seto felt his heart plummet to the ground. He wasn't there to hug him until tears stopped seeping into the fabric of his undershirt. Wasn't there to wrap him in his coat and tell him to pick a movie they could watch in bed.
He was here.
On an island.
Stranded.
Isono didn't have to finish. Aizawa—he refused to attribute this to Gozaburo until the man showed his face—was on the move, and that meant increased risk of being intercepted, or at least spotted. One man, no matter how skilled, wouldn't be enough to protect Mokuba. And Seto had two hands, no weapons, no cover of his own. He drowned out the words on the line to form a plan. Even a skeletal one. A place. A way of travel.
"Are they letting you keep the phone? Seto-sama?"
"I'll get back to you."
Because the last thing he wanted to do was face the man at the top of the stairs and ask for help.
"The two of you traveling together more than doubles the risk, sir, but this is still your call. I have plans to leave the country with Mokuba on Friday if things have calmed down. We've got Mancini in Barcelona."
It was Tuesday. Mancini had sheltered them during the outcry of Gozaburo's death. He was predictable, but prepared. At this rate, he wasn't sure prepared would be enough. He doubted anyone behind this would travel to Italy and take on those connections for Mokuba's life. But Gozaburo wanted his body for Noa. How much danger did being together put them in, compared to what he could contend against?
More than doubles the risks, Isono had said.
Of what? Capture? If they couldn't find Seto they'd use Mokuba as bait to draw him out. They all did.
He bowed his head.
They all did.
"What will you have me do?"
"Hold."
Seto moved the phone from his ear and pressed it and the fist wrapped around it to his head. I would have had you tell me from the beginning. But he would have to wait to follow through on that line of thought.
Mancini was a known associate. If the Game Shop burning down had been related to Aizawa's plans for Gozaburo to return, then it could be under surveillance. Particularly since he shared a link to helping Seto with Gozaburo. It was too obvious to risk, even with Mancini's resources and connections. The travel between the ranch and Barcelona would be too vulnerable. Certainly they were watching the airports, ports, train stations.
Seto had escape plans in place, plans that Aizawa hadn't help put together, but that didn't mean they were still viable. In the two days Seto had been gone, Aizawa might have gotten into his computers and servers, found the hard copies in his home. He would have to come up with somewhere new, but that meant time, money, resources that he couldn't access without Pegasus going along with the idea.
Because as checked-out as he currently seemed, he could throw Seto back in the dungeon at any moment.
But this was about keeping Mokuba safe. While Pegasus didn't have the cleanest track record with that, he might relent if Seto agreed to stay. Not forever, just until this nonsense blew over.
He shook his head at the thought, but put the phone back to his ear.
"Is he still in the computer?"
"Sir?"
"If he has downloaded himself into a body by now, which I doubt he has since he's looking for mine, then there's not much we can do. But if he is still in the computer, I can take it down. Permanently."
"The risks involved in that—"
"Are negligible. I can stop him before he goes further."
"They'll trace it to you."
Seto caught himself nodding. Part of him was surprised that the phone hadn't been taken away at the first mention of going after Gozaburo, but if they would let him work through the idea, maybe it wasn't such a stretch.
"Which will give you the distraction needed to hide Mokuba in the event I fail or can't take it down in time. I just need a decent computer."
Croquet watched Seto's gaze land on Pegasus and started for the stairs, but Seto held firm in the middle of the landing. Not one word had passed between them and he was already trying to talk Pegasus out of it. A hand rose to his throat in a firm declaration. No. He tried to shove through but Seto shouldered him back.
The call with Isono was cut short. He maneuvered backwards up a few stairs to keep his eyes on Croquet in the meantime. He had to get the first word in. If Pegasus's head of security got him alone before Seto could, it would be all over. He could hear the conversation now: "We can't risk our lives to potentially save two boys. We thought this would blow over. It didn't. Let him risk his own neck, no one else's."
Pocketing the phone for fear it'd be taken, he turned again to face Pegasus.
"We need to talk."
Crawford shook his head, looking way too exhausted for someone with nothing at stake, "We've already done our talking," he said. "You want out."
Seto bowed his head so Pegasus wouldn't see him grit his teeth. He couldn't catch a fucking break. If he told the man he wanted to stay, he'd hear no clarification. Take it as permanent. As sure as he'd been just an hour before that facing Gozaburo would be better, he couldn't risk Mokuba's life. If it meant complicating his own with escaping by force, so be it.
He swallowed thickly.
So be it.
"I need a computer." Even if he was desperate enough to reduce himself to begging, he didn't have time.
"I'm the monster here, Seto. You don't need anything from me."
He blinked for a long moment, willing himself to ignore the comment. "I can take down the backup copy if you give me access to—"
"Anything I give you access to, they have access to," Pegasus interrupted. "I have nowhere near the software KC offered you. There's no telling whether or not you'd be successful, and our networks are already linked enough to cause trouble. You'd lead them right to you."
"I thought you wanted to protect me."
The only thing more dangerous than seeing Pegasus's reaction was his refusal to meet Seto's eyes at all. He visibly defeated, head hung so his hair concealed any trace of emotion.
"I thought you said you'd rather die," he whispered.
"I'm asking a lot," Seto said. He tried to take another step forward only to think better of it. "You still come and go, so you could get me the computer I need to protect Mokuba. I'd offer to pay you back but I doubt that's your concern."
Pegasus turned his back on Seto, so Seto made up for it by walking closer. Maybe he'd start rambling, but this plan could work. It would work.
"If you're worried about your staff, send them away. You can leave me alone and I'll draw them to me. I want to draw them to me."
It might have been a long shot, but what other option did he have? Hide in the hope that Gozaburo would fail? That Aizawa banked everything on finding Seto and Mokuba and didn't have a backup should they stay hidden? Hope didn't build KaibaCorp into the empire it was—had been, Seto reminded himself—and it wouldn't save his brother.
"They burned down the Game Shop. If they are looking for me there, it won't be long before they get here. What does it matter if they find me a few days early? I'll be able to give Mokuba an escape."
He'd have to make plans for that first, but with a secure computer, Seto could manage, pick a random spot on a map and send Mokuba and Isono there.
"I understand what I'm asking, but I can destroy the computer holding him—" it was a risk, "—and staying here will give me the most time."
Seto's breaths were heavy in fear that Pegasus would take him literally, but it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was getting Mokuba to safety.
If Pegasus would just stop playing this victim act, Seto's chances might be better. Seto wanted to shove him, punch him, wake him up from the delusion that everything in the past two days somehow made Seto the villain.
"This is about Mokuba. Not you, not me, not whatever you've been claiming to want out of this. It's about getting that kid somewhere safe."
Seto reached the top of the flight and stalled there. His knew his next sentence and desperately didn't want to say it. He squeezed the glass and used the cutting pain to focus. Mokuba had to be protected, no matter what the cost.
"Name your price."
