Yggdrasil's 3rd Root – Well, there's Seto/Pegs interaction in this next part, though they're gonna have to work to get to a relationship stage. The getting there is half the fun for me. *g* I'm sorry you had a few problems with the story so far, but hopefully things will get clearer now that the preliminaries are set aside. You really think I get his voice right? I dunno, it takes me some time to get his dialogue down the way I want. I can envision how he thinks for some reason, but what he says is something I have to mull over for a while. Now I agree with you about Kaiba – his words seem to flow much better. Maybe that's cause I relate in RL more to Kaiba. *shrug* Scary, huh? Hopefully you'll like where I'm going with this more, dear. I hope I don't give you deja-vu anymore though. I'll take your words to heart. =)

Ok, and as stated previously I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or the characters therein.

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Part 2:

The suited men gave each other curious glances before nodding a quick assent, moving quickly past their employer. Pegasus waited until their footfalls completely receded before approaching his captive. Through the iron bars, Pegasus could make out the slumped figure, brown hair mussed. The floor was littered with American coins, useless in Japan but quite effective for tormenting helpless captives.  His blue eyes stared vacantly into space without expression. The silver-haired man sighed, the sound terribly soft in the narrow underground chamber as he retrieved the soul card from his breast pocket. The image on the small rectangle was the same as the disgruntled man in the cell, except the eyes wore an expression of infinite despair, the collar of the blue coat turned up in an expression of regret and shame. Pegasus stared from the card to the shadowy human form for a moment before focusing his energy in a single bright force, manipulating the ties of body and soul. He furrowed his brow, merging the soul once more to the body in a blinding flash of golden light the likes of which the dank dungeon walls had never seen. When the illumination subsided the card was blank, and a low groan emanated from the cell. The eyes blinked twice, regaining focus for a moment. He took in his surroundings, disoriented until he turned his head to see Pegasus's expressionless face watching from the other side of the iron bars.

"Pegasus! What's the meaning of this?" Seto Kaiba sat up with a start, realizing too late that the effects of his spiritual imprisonment had not entirely worn away as with a groan he slumped against the wall again. "What have you done?"

From outside the cell Pegasus cocked his head to the side, his inquisitive gaze passive and deceptively innocent. "Done? Why I've done exactly as I promised. You failed to defeat me, Kaiba, and so here you are."

The chestnut haired man shook his head, willing in vain for the dizziness to fade as his memory became clearer. "I'm your prisoner then?"  His words were acid.

"Mmhmm … indeed. So sorry about the squalid accommodations, but I assure you in your usual state you don't mind." Kaiba expected the man to smirk or laugh, but instead he stared, his light brown eye softening for a moment as he observed. "How are you?"

"How do I look!? You arrogant fool, did you come here just to gloat?"

At once Pegasus' expression hardened, a cold smile twisting the corners of his mouth. "Touchy aren't we? Really, Kaiba-boy, I assumed you'd be more of a mind to talk now that we've settled the disagreement over who is the better duelist. You shouldn't have been surprised – the champion can never stand a chance against a game's creator you know."

"I could have defeated you if you weren't such a blatant cheat!"

There was a brief flash of light from behind the silver mass of hair as Pegasus smirked. "Locked in a dungeon and still you rail against me. How endearing. But you still haven't answered me, and I'm genuinely curious. How are you, and by that I mean how are you feeling?"

"Why should you care? You're the one that trapped me here!" Kaiba struggled to his feet, wavering dangerously as he threw his body against the bars, gripping the iron desperately. "You won, Pegasus. At least let Mokuba go free."

"That's not an answer. Is it really so hard to say yes or no?"

"You miserable son of a bitch, of course I'm not alright! Let Mokuba go free!" Kaiba reached one arm through the bars suddenly, snatching for the long strands of silver hair.

Pegasus though merely leaned backward a tad, the desperate fingers swinging past his face in a wide arc. "That's no way to treat your host, Kaiba-boy. Do you somehow think I enjoy keeping you in there? Do you think this entire plan revolves around you alone? My but your arrogance astounds me. Sit down before you hurt yourself."

Kaiba stubbornly remained standing, his face contorted in a grimace as he fought against his own weakness. "Coward! You hide behind your cards and your guns and now bars. Come stand in here with me and we'll see how smug you are!"

Pegasus's expression was unreadable for a moment before he shrugged. "Very well. I suppose a bit of chit-chat can't hurt. Just remember I have a duel tomorrow."

He turned with a flourish and pulled on the bars beside the captured man. Kaiba stared agape as the cell door swung wide. "You … left it unlocked? You madman! How dare you taunt me like that!"

"Yes I know. Ain't I a stinker?" He snickered as he stepped inside. Kaiba lunged forward but Pegasus only caught him with one strong hand, holding the other man by the shoulders. Kaiba struggled and growled to no avail. Pegasus was stronger than he appeared, and there was no way Kaiba could break free in his weakened condition. "The effects of the soul ensnarement will last for quite a while I'm afraid. I can't have you rushing about like a crazy person. You'll spoil all my perfect plans."

"Damn you and your plans!" Kaiba struggled but only succeeded in wearing himself out more. Pegasus waited patiently until Kaiba was breathing hard, his muscles twitching. He struck Pegasus' chest, but the blow was little more than a light tap. His strength was all but vanished. He had no idea why he was so exhausted. "You've drugged me?"

"Drugged you? Kaiba-boy, you wound me! I've done no such thing. Drugs are too unpredictable. I wouldn't trust them not to harm you, and I so want you to remain unharmed." Pegasus smiled warmly, pulling the other boy against his chest with care. Kaiba remained stiff and wide-eyed, shocked as Pegasus stroked his hair. "This will be over soon enough. I hold no grudge against you, you know. I won't harm you or Mokuba, don't worry."

Kaiba wanted to struggle but he was so tired that the effort seemed pointless. Though he was unaccustomed to being defeated and mocked, there was little else he could do. Pegasus had Mokuba, and Kaiba didn't trust the man to make good on any promises. The way he ran his long fingers through his hair was strange at first, Kaiba was never one to enjoy or encourage physical contact, but once it began he couldn't deny how nice it felt. He decided to kill Pegasus later, once he could actually do some damage. At the moment, the least he could do would be to try to understand why Pegasus had released him from the soul card, if only temporarily.  Perhaps there was still a way for him to urge the older man to release his brother from his grasp.  "You've already harmed him enough, keeping him prisoner here!" He paused, Pegasus' words of mere moments ago finally sinking in. "And of course you hold grudges, you sick bastard, I refused to sell my experimental holographic technology to you. It makes perfect sense – you wanted Kaiba Corporation from the start. You knew I wouldn't sell –"

"Don't worry about it. The matter is none of your concern."

"Damn you, of course it's my concern! My company is my highest priority –"

"Second only to Mokuba, I know. You can think on nothing else when those two concepts preoccupy your mind, and there is never a moment in your life that you are not pondering one subject or the other." He sighed, brushing some of the brown hair away from the face of his captive. Kaiba scowled and tried to pull away, but still Pegasus was the stronger of the two. "You are such a stranger to me, Seto Kaiba. We are as different as the sun and moon."

"Listen, I don't care what twisted game you have planned for Yugi Moto. I'm perfectly willing to walk away from all this if you return my brother and my company unaltered or harmed."

Surprisingly enough Pegasus only snickered. "Oh, Kaiba-boy, you're so amusing! Do you really think I'll believe such a thing? You'll never forgive what I've done today, stealing your company and your brother on top of defeating you in a televised duel before your precious Big Five. You expect me to believe you would end it, just like that? Do you take me for that much of a fool?"

"I only wanted to give you a final chance before –"

"Before you what? Growl at me? Ooohh, I'm terrified now!" He began to laugh outright, the noise deafening to Kaiba's ears.

The younger man grit his teeth. "Stop that! No one laughs at me, especially not a frilly bastard like you!"

"But you're so cute when you're furious!" Pegasus only laughed harder.

"You'll regret this, Pegasus. Somehow I'll get out of here and I'll –"

"Yes I know, we've discussed this already." Pegasus' shoulders still shook occasionally, but aside from that disturbing detail the manic laughter had ceased. "Truly I didn't come here to mock you, Kaiba-boy."

"Of course not. I'm sure you always come to this part of the dungeon for the scenery."

Pegasus snorted but reigned in his impulse to start in on another round of giggles. "I only wanted to alleviate your fears somewhat. When I leave you, it will be as though you've fallen into a deep sleep. You'll awaken when this situation is over with and done. Then you may have your brother and your company – I honestly have no use for either."

"That doesn't make any sense!"  Kaiba's mind whirled in confusion.  The explanation was completely against any concoction he had imagined.  Either Pegasus really was a madman, or Kaiba had been used as a puppet the entire time – his goaded duel with Yugi, the entire show with Pegasus, even the capture of his young brother and the treason of the Big Five.  Could it all have been Pegasus' plan?

"I know. You don't have the big picture, so it seems unfinished. Trust me, it will work out best for everyone involved. I've thought this through quite carefully, you know. One can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, that's all, and I assure you the eggs in this particular omelet will be only cracked a little, not broken."

"If you think I'm just going to sit here while you carry out some crazy plan …"

"I know, you'll kill me or crush me with the entire weight of the Kaiba Corporation or something. You need some new threats, Kaiba-boy. There are far worse and more permanent things than death or poverty."

"If you like I can think of worse punishments, Pegasus! Let go of me!" The older man complied, allowing Kaiba to stumble backwards on his unsteady legs. He remained standing for a moment, before his knees gave out and he landed rather ungracefully on the dirt floor once again, the palms of his hands scuffing against the cold stone. He grunted, glaring up at the slim figure that towered over him, the silvery hair luminescent and otherworldly by the flickering firelight. "You think you can intimidate me, that I'll fall for your tricks? You're a cheat and a thief, Pegasus! Yugi may think you possess some weird magic, but I won't be so easily fooled. I'm no gullible child you can manipulate."

"Ah, I see. Afraid I'll do something worse to you, hmm?"

"Release my brother or so help me –"

"Yes? Go on, Kaiba-boy, I'm all ears. Tell me, what do you plan to do?" There was a period of silence before Pegasus laughed, the honeyed sound thick and rich as expensive candy, reverberating back and forth in the tiny stone cell. "You are hardly in the position to do anything. We've been over this topic before." He laughed again, covering his mouth with the back of one slim hand.

Kaiba slumped in his cell. There was no hope then. He would remain trapped and helpless in his cell indefinitely, his mind drifting in some foggy place just beyond the realm of memory. Kaiba Corporation would be in even worse peril as Pegasus took control from the Big Five. But worse was the fact that he could never convince Pegasus to release his brother.

Pegasus cocked his head to one side quizzically, his visible eye glazing for a moment before he managed a smile, closing his eye and allowing the cascade of silver hair to wash over his face. "I see. So you begin to discover despair, hmm? I never would have thought you capable of such a thing."

Kaiba scowled and said nothing, he refused to give his jailer the privilege of a retort which might confirm or deny any suspicions. To his amazement, further elaboration of his weaknesses did not come, the silence hanging in the moldering air for a long while before it was broken by Pegasus' sigh. "Oh Kaiba-boy, I wish you wouldn't sulk so."

"I'm not sulking."

Pegasus raised one delicate silver eyebrow. "Oh yes you are. I know sulking when I see it, dear boy, and I must say that your performance in the area is entirely disagreeable."

Kaiba snorted. "I don't remember asking for your approval, Pegasus."

"I never said you did."

The silence reigned again for a moment, marked only by Kaiba's labored breathing. He was exhausted, but his strength was returning slowly. He felt that if he stalled the older man long enough there might be a chance for him to overpower his captor, find Mokuba, and escape. He didn't put much hope in that plan, though. After suffering such a humiliating loss, Kaiba didn't think himself capable of handling any task that required careful planning. He'd already fatally underestimated Pegasus and lost everything he cared about in the process. There was very little self-confidence left to him. He was in the hands of his most despicable enemy. "What do you want with me, Pegasus? Are you just biding your time until you have me killed?"

Pegasus' eye went very wide and he regarded Kaiba in a new light, as though in horror. "Kill you – what are talking about?"

"Don't act so shocked, you cheating son of a bitch, you know damn well what I mean!"

"I assure you that I –"

"Your assurances are useless. There's nothing you can ever say that might clear your name. The very sight of you disgusts me."

Kaiba watched a myriad of emotions flicker across Pegasus' face. He'd never before thought a man possessing only one eye could still manage to show so much emotion. There had been anger and indignation, but something else as well, something akin to fresh hurt. The fact that he might have wounded the impenetrable Pegasus gave Kaiba a glimmer of hope, and he instantly decided that if possible he would find what had caused the pain in his foe so that he might better exploit it.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, however, he noticed Pegasus' expression grow increasingly cold until finally he stood with haste. He towered above his weakened enemy, leveling a stony glare before with a smirk he pulled the curtain of silver hair aside, revealing the glint of gold. Unconsciously Seto Kaiba shuddered in revulsion, there was something so disgustingly appalling about the object being lodged in a person's skull, it especially marred the otherwise untainted androgynous beauty that was Pegasus' face. He watched as the older man's smirk vanished, replaced by a disdainful snort. "Really, Kaiba-boy, there are people with far worse defects than mine."

Kaiba raised his chin, glaring into the face of his tormentor to match the cold expression. "There is no worse defect than yours, you bastard. I promise you, once I get out of here I'll make you suffer."

Pegasus only sneered, the eye beginning to glow bright enough to illuminate the stone like a small sun. "You'll never get away from me, Kaiba-boy."

Kaiba squinted in the light, the wave of nausea rising over him familiar enough to let him know the full weight of Pegasus' threat. He thought of Mokuba, wondering how he'd ever be able to rescue the boy upon whom Seto's whole world depended. Then, his thoughts faded, and he knew nothing but darkness.

The cell was still once more as the light subsided; the guards had been sent away and noticed nothing of the conversation. Seto Kaiba's sightless eyes glazed and his body slumped, staring soullessly at nothing. Pegasus slowly lowered the hair before his Millennium Eye with shaky fingers. He didn't need to look at the soul card in his hand to know whose despairing visage was now emblazoned across it. He sighed, his single living eye closed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He replaced the soul card in his breast pocket absently, he didn't want to be reminded of what he'd done.

He couldn't explain why he'd come in the first place to visit Seto Kaiba, why he'd felt compelled to free the boy from his spiritual prison and hold an idiotic conversation. It had been as pointless an exercise as he'd thought it would be, yet somehow he'd been unable to resist. He glanced at the soulless shell and closed his eye again, turning violently away from the sight. "Ah God, what am I doing! Cecelia, is this really the way? Is there nothing else I can do to reunite us in this mortal world?"

He stood in silence, his back turned to the soulless body and his spirit warring with itself in an internal struggle. He'd never really wanted to hurt anyone, but there was really no other choice, was there? He'd never been one to rely on the good will of others to get something done, especially with so much on the line. True he'd hired many security guards all under the supervision of Croquet, but he'd fooled himself into thinking that his plan might finally be realized without any danger to another living being. Cecelia would never want him to hurt anyone, so why was he doing it? He didn't really need Yugi Moto's Puzzle, only the power of the Kaiba Corporation's most secret and advanced technological breakthrough – living holograms.

He'd first learned of it with his Mind Sweep during a ritualistic business conference, ever since then he'd known his chance had finally presented itself. After seven years of waiting he and Cecelia would finally be reunited, even if only for a short time. The hologram would not hold up forever, but he had no doubt her soul would manifest itself within the hologram long enough for the lovers to spend a few stolen moments together. It had been seven years of hell without his beloved, and though he'd channeled his desire and despair into his work enough to make Industrial Illusions the premiere game manufacturing company in the world and Duel Monsters the hottest game on the market, he'd lost the ability to be truly happy with his own accomplishments. He'd tasted love, and there was nothing material that could fill the empty void in his heart.

So why was he in Seto Kaiba's cell? Why had he talked of superfluous things, never once searching the man's mind for knowledge of the two key cards necessary to access Kaiba Corporation's technology?

He envisioned Kaiba's pale, soulless body laying propped against the wall, slumped forward upon its knees like a broken toy. There was something heartbreaking about him, something Pegasus just couldn't put his finger on. He'd met Seto Kaiba many times, the two speaking often about nothing, neither of any interest to the other outside of Duel Monsters. More than once Kaiba had offered to pay for Pegasus to create cards which would better enhance his precious Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and each time Pegasus had flatly refused. There had been nothing more between them, and over the past three years Pegasus had made a home off the coast of Domino City, Japan they'd watched each other with curiosity and appreciation for a fellow-minded businessman. There was nothing beautiful about Seto Kaiba, the most striking feature being his sharp cobalt eyes which flashed to life most nicely in the heat of battle. The trench coat helped, but beneath the flashy garments Kaiba was just a lanky teenager like any other – after years of sketching the human figure Pegasus could discern the strengths and weaknesses of a form at a glance. Even his hair was normal, plain brown and cut abominably with no thought of flattering his brooding eyes. He was everything Pegasus was not, and perhaps that was what he found so very intriguing.

Pegasus ran a hand through his hair, his vision through the Millennium Eye flashing to life briefly before his hair fell back into place, blinding it into sedation once more. He was at a loss, and no Mind Sweep could solve the puzzle in his own heart. He didn't know what to think about his own motives or if he even fully understood them. He glanced at the hunched form once more before, with a pained expression, he turned away, moving out of the cell and closing the iron bars once more with a clang. Surely he'd be able to think more clearly once Yugi Moto had been defeated and he'd turned his attention to the task of reviving Cecelia. Everything had made more sense when she'd been at his side. He'd tell her everything, of his strange attraction to a cold and self-centered youth with eyes that recalled a stormy sea. Surely, once he and his beloved could speak to each other again, everything would fit logically into place once more.