Another Seto chapter in which things will finally begin to come clear. Those of you who have questions just might find a few answered.

Though now that the end is in sight, plot bunnies and suggestions for future works are welcome.

Enjoy.

The morning after the first night that Seto had held Pegasus captive in his home, he wasn't sure what to expect when he went in to work. He couldn't have anybody finding out what he'd done to the fellow CEO so he'd turned to that witch for help. However, the solution she presented seemed almost too convenient and he wasn't sure he trusted her.

After all, how could people just forget? How could a human disappear, as if he'd never been in the first place?

He went up to his secretary and asked her a question, feeling just slightly tense.

"Do I have any upcoming meetings with I2?" He asked her.

"Yes," she replied. "In fact, the president is waiting for you now."

"What?" He gasped.

"He came by this morning. Said he had something important to talk to you about, that it couldn't wait. I let him go up. Are you entirely alright, sir?" She asked, noticing he had gone slightly pale.

"I'm fine," he snapped and marched to the elevator.

On the way up, uncertainty plagued his thoughts. The president? Wasn't that Pegasus? Perhaps there was an interim president. What if the urgent subject he'd come to discuss was Pegasus' disappearance? Could he keep up a charade or would his guilt and the trace clues lead inevitably back to that locked room at the end of the hallway?

He reached the door and grasped the handle, twisting it so that it swung open.

A silver-haired man sat in the chair before his desk and stood.

"Hello, Kaiba," said Tenma Yakou casually. "I hope you don't think me rude for stopping by this early…"

"You're Pegasus' replacement?" Kaiba interrupted.

A confused look crossed the other man's face.

"What? Who? Kaiba what on earth are you talking about? I just came by to talk to you about a few licensing issues."

His throat went dry.

"Oh. Sorry. I'm… a bit tired."

Tenma regarded him warily.

"I can see that? What were you doing all night?" A grin crossed his face. "I'll bet I can guess…"

"Don't," Kaiba snapped and sat down at his desk, using the furniture as a barrier between himself and the other man.

Yakou shrugged.

"You're right. Not my business. Moving on…"

He went on to talk about a few last minute changes that needed Kaiba's approval before they could begin advertising in other countries. Logos were involved as well as certain programs, but none of it really seemed to impact Kaiba.

What mattered to him was the surprised with which Tenma had reacted at the mention of Pegasus. Before, as he recalled, the younger man practically adored his corporate superior and looked upon him with the highest regard. It was as if the other man didn't even remember him, which shouldn't have been possible. Not with someone like Yakou. He wouldn't have forgotten. It was as if Pegasus had never been was totally erased.

Nobody would remember – which meant that nobody would come looking.

He really was free to do whatever he pleased with Pegasus. Yet the thought of that was simultaneously liberating and terrifying. It made him feel almost nauseous to think of what that woman could do and how she could alter the shape and perception of the reality around them.

It was downright unnatural – but that didn't mean he wasn't going to take advantage of the situation.

When he got home, taking advantage of everything was precisely what he did. Once he'd realized that nobody would nose around, all manner of strange ideas popped into his head. Before then, he'd never really known how deranged he could be, what deep and inappropriate desires lurked beneath his repressed surface. He started to covertly purchase a variety of accessories to use during their nightly forays. Pegasus never objected, though he sometimes had to be instructed.

Ever since he'd swallowed the potion, he'd been extraordinarily submissive, to the point where he was almost like a doll. For some reason Kaiba relished that image and he decided that it was only appropriate to dress him like one as well. He bought dresses – fluffy, ribbony ones – and forced Pegasus into the outfits, complete with lace stockings and clunky shoes. He used make-up and applied it to the other man, painting him brashly like a cheap whore. He chained him up but soon found that the man's utter lack of resistance was beginning to bother him.

He tried to see if he could get the man to not love him. So he forced upon him every indignity he could think of, first for revenge, then his own amusement and finally to try and get him to grow a spine. But through all of it, Pegasus docilely accepted whatever was done to him so that all that was left for Kaiba was the pleasure of the act itself.

Being dominant seemed almost a waste with him.

Kaiba first began to suspect that something was awry around then, after his lust for revenge had finally died down and he was beginning to get frustrated with the ease with which he could take what he wanted. Not that he didn't enjoy the sex… the problem was that he'd always found a certain joy in the chase, even if resistance was feigned.

Now Pegasus was just… there. Dull and lifeless.

He really didn't know what to make of it.

When he found himself ill and realized that Pegasus was taking care of him, he suddenly felt revolted as well. What was he doing, wasting his life on a man who could do nothing but smile at him with empty pleasantness? Was he that pathetic that he would resort to needing someone so unresisting, even to the point of being cared for by him?

He'd left Pegasus alone, trying to drive thoughts of the man and his own increasing obsession with him from his mind. Then he reached home and found Pegasus lying on the floor, obviously extremely ill.

"I love you."

At those simply words Kaiba felt a sudden crush of responsibility, not unlike the one Pegasus had.

"No you don't…" he whispered dryly. "You don't do anything. Not love or hate or anything, do you? You've no will at all…"

Against his better judgment he found that he couldn't simply allow the man to die right then and there. He didn't know why – it wasn't as if anybody cared if Pegasus lived or died – but he could not. He couldn't say whether it was from a desire not to lose his own personal sex slave, the one he could beat, or the result of something more, but he placed him on the bed and called the woman.

After all, he couldn't contact a doctor. She was really his only possibility.

He drove himself to the shop in one of the smaller cars and was unsurprised to find her waiting.

"I need you," he told her abruptly.

"I expected as much," she replied.

He ignored the slightly condescending tone of her voice and continued.

"Pegasus is very ill. I don't know with what, but he is and I need you to cure him. You'll have to come with me," he said, ordering it though realizing that she might refuse to come.

He didn't know what he'd do if she did.

That problem never became an issue, however. She gathered a few supplies and then went with him in his car to the Kaiba Mansion. She looked at the man lying in the large bed with an appraising glance before turning to the man who'd brought her there.

"He has pneumonia."

"Can you fix it?" He demanded.

"Of course."

She set up a little warmer and started to boil ingredients, adding pinches and drops of this or that to the slightly bubbly mixture. As she prepared the concoction, Kaiba suddenly looked at her curiously.

"What did you mean when you told me before that my debt was paid?"

"Just that it was taken care of," she replied casually.

"By whom?" He insisted.

"A previous customer," she said, adding something that caused the mixture to briefly smoke. "I will repeat as I did to Pegasus – I always complete the job I've been paid to do."

"And what job would that be?" He growled.

She didn't reply but instead turned of the electric warmer. Stirring the mixture a few times, she waited until it had slightly cooled and then poured it down Pegasus' throat. He groaned and rolled over.

"There," she said. "That will clear up the pneumonia and there's a little bit in there to balance him as well."

"Balance him?" He asked.

"Yes; you did quite a number on him."

"How so?" He mused. Suddenly, he grew angry with the woman. "Look, I've had just about enough of this cryptic bullshit. I don't care who you are – you're not leaving until you've explained yourself and what you've been doing to us. Why is he like this? I wasn't this bad. What the fuck is wrong with him that he can barely even talk now?"

He stood brashly between her and the doorway but she didn't seem nervous in the least. Instead, she calmly responded.

"With you," she informed him, "There was resistance. With him, there was not. To give that potion to one who is already quite enamored, especially in the amount you gave him… You fairly broke him."

"And you fixed it?" He asked.

"What little I could. He will never be altogether there again."

He paused for a moment to consider this, and then moved on.

"You still haven't answered all my questions. Why did you do all of this? And do it still? And how the hell are you doing it anyway?"

"I was paid," she said, "To make you submissive. And I do what I'm paid to do."

"But you don't," he cried. "Because I'm not!"

She smiled at him eerily and he shivered.

"Oh, aren't you? Do not lie to yourself Seto Kaiba. You hit him because you need to hit him. It feels good to you, doesn't it? Overpowering someone else. Of course, since he doesn't resist that quite takes away your delusion of conquest; but you need to hit him anyway, just to feel like a man, just to feel in charge. Unless you stand upon someone else, you don't feel very tall at all, do you?"

"That's a lie…" he whispered.

"Think what you will of what I say. But why do you think it's a lie? Because you don't want it to be true? Because something inside of you says differently? Why do you think it's a lie?

What's more," she went on, "Is that this is what Pegasus wants. He wants to be hurt, wants you to do every little thing you do to him – and not because of some liquid you forced down his throat.

When you touch him – even to hurt him – you validate his existence. Love or hate, to him it makes no difference just as long as you give him attention and he gets to be around you. You stay which was all he ever really longed for.

Thus you give him what he wants. And you need him at the same time to fulfill yourself, satisfy yourself, make you feel good about yourself."

"I don't need him!" He declared furiously.

"Then why didn't you let him die?"

When he couldn't answer, she went on.

"I promised Pegasus that I would give him what he wanted. And so I did – in a fashion. He thought he wanted one kind of dominance – but they all say that. And I know better. So what I gave him would do what he wanted; it would just take some time."

"So then, what you gave me…"

"Merely a catalyst. One can't go back; but one can go forward much more quickly. It sped you through the first part of the process to the state you two are in now. That's how it works. The relationship morphs and changes until at last it finds the best way to make things work, like a puzzle where each different piece is tried until the one which fits is found."

He felt his blood begin to seethe.

"Are you saying that I'm not in control of myself! Is that what you're saying?" He shouted. "Because I AM! Perfectly! I feel as I did before that bastard poisoned me and everything is right again with my mind…"

"Really now? And what would you know of being in control? You seem to lose it quite easily. Always have. But if you say you think you are…" She smiled. "Then rid yourself of him."

Seto felt as though he were rooted to the carpet.

"You see what I mean? Not so easy now is it?"

"You… You're confusing me. I know who I am and what I think. I felt this way before. Didn't I?"

"Did you realize it?"

"I can't remember…"

"I did tell him that your insincerity would melt away. Eventually." She cast a glance a Pegasus. "He was sure at his core that you did feel something, that all you needed was to be shown that you wanted it. When you grew angry inside my shop – you glimpsed it then, didn't you?"

He turned his face away from her, feeling nauseous. None of it made sense, or at least he didn't want it to. But it was all making him feel cold inside, like he was a boat being pulled through fog, unable to see or control where he was going.

He was beginning to regret inviting her over.

"Who paid my debt?" He asked.

"I always deliver."

"Who was that client?"

"That is privileged information. I was paid to keep my silence, to a point."

"I DEMAND to know!" He screamed at her.

"You've no right to demand anything of me," she replied. "Just know that I always do my work. Eventually," she said with a hint of an ironic smile.

"So where does that leave me?" He asked, half to her and half to himself.

He stood there numbly as she pressed a small vial into his hand.

"And now I really must be going."

She walked out of the door leaving him staring at the small object in his hand. Then from the bed Pegasus groaned. Kaiba set the vial on his dresser and walked over to the four-poster as if he were in a trance and sat down beside Pegasus.

He looked at the other's face which was beginning to regain color and wondered. Who was he, anyway? Someone who needed to abuse, making him the one who needed Pegasus? But then didn't Pegasus need him to for attention? Where was the line drawn between who was in charge and who wasn't? Perhaps there was no line at all and they were both the same…

"Seto?" Pegasus mumbled.

Kaiba smiled. He'd said something different for once.

"I'm here," Kaiba said, bending down and kissing him. "I'm here and…"

He suddenly wanted to promise the other that he would never go away again, but found that he couldn't make such a promise. It felt too unlike himself and too insincere. Any he wasn't in the habit of making promises he couldn't keep anyway.

Pegasus' fever was going down and suddenly Kaiba had an intense desire to simply feel him. He didn't know why, but if they could just lie there, together, as if they were the only ones in the world, perhaps things would be just a bit better.

"Undress," he told Pegasus, even though the man was tired and still somewhat ill.

However, he lurched out of bed and clumsily began to take off what few garments he was still wearing. Kaiba saw that he was sweaty and marveled at the scars and bruises that spread out over his skin. He hadn't even realized… Pegasus had never complained… It was quite disconcerting.

As Pegasus' clothing slipped to the floor he started removing his own. He waited patiently for the silver-haired man beneath the cool cotton sheets and soon felt the other body beside him. The room was pleasantly cool and the air contrasted nicely with the warmth of flesh he was feeling. Pegasus was just slightly taller, but since he was broader there was more of him with which to draw Pegasus in.

He folded his arms around the other man and felt the others soft skin, marred by his brutality. Pegasus buried his face in Kaiba's neck and Seto pressed his body closer, as if he could make them merge together by force of will. He could feel bones beneath the skin, but this failed to make him shudder after all he'd just experienced.

Rather, it made him glad, as if he could absorb Pegasus into himself by imagining his structure, his anatomy and making it part of himself. His mind created bizarre visuals for him of the two connected, like in some disturbing horror film, yet that only seemed to solidify his possession. Mind and body both held the other man captive. In a way.

"I don't even know…" He muttered. "I don't even know who I am…"

A dark brown eye looked up at him and a soft pink mouth opened expectantly. Kaiba planted his own upon it and slid in his tongue, working it gentle and clutching Pegasus so hard the man whimpered.

He broke away with a gasp.

"All I want is your body. That's all. Should it be so strange that I have needs, that I'd want someone beautiful yet ambiguous to fulfill them? And yet all I could ever want was your body…

The question is why. And what do you see beneath everything, anyway? Did your Eye tell you something that I still don't know? Was I even me to begin with or was I erased before you even met me, did you dig like the archaeologist you pretend to be to find a me that even I'd forgotten?"

"You're Seto and always have been to me…" The other whispered speaking an intelligible sentence for the first time in a very long while.

Kaiba felt a rush of relief to hear him speaking; a conversation would be more fulfilling than apostrophic confession.

"But who is Seto? Something that was beaten into shape by Gozaburo, like clay being pounded? Was I like that all along and did he merely release it? Or did he erase the Seto that was and replace him? And why can't I care about anything, it's like there's something in my way…"

And he suddenly felt dead inside when he thought of her comments about having been paid.

He suddenly had his suspicions.

"Or maybe," he sighed tiredly, in a resigned tone, "Maybe there's nothing left and I'm just a shell that others pull apart, empty and fill, and use again over and over. Him, you, the whole world wants 'me' for something else and whoever I am or was has not part in that."

Pegasus kissed him upon which he fell quiet, and then grew indignant.

"What? Do you think that's all you have to do to shut me up? That physical pleasure should be my answer?"

"It makes you happy…" he whispered. "And all this… talk… makes you so sad."

"I have to know!" He yelled and suddenly pushed the other man away. "It's not just idle talk! It matters to me if I'm being controlled or was and forgot about it and I don't even know what I've been doing all along!" He suddenly felt frustrated and panicked, suspicious of everything. "I can't trust my own memories anymore to know that they were mine – what if you weren't the first? I'm almost positive – AM positive you weren't! I can't trust anything or anybody…

I can't say for sure who I am or if I love you or not… Hell, I can't even say what love is anymore…"

"Then just come back to bed," Pegasus said patiently.

"And what? Sex will solve it? It won't… it won't give me answers." He spat out at the other man, but felt himself wandering over to the bed and getting in once more. It was, after all, cold without the covers.

"Some answers never come…"

Seto sneered at him but didn't reply. Instead he forced Pegasus into the pillows and they copulated. At the end of it, he held Pegasus from behind, his arms wrapped around the older man's waist. He pressed a cool hand onto his abdomen.

"You know," he mused languidly, "You should have been a woman. You're enough of an emotional, prissy basket case to be one. And you look good in dresses. Besides, if you were…" He nibbled Pegasus' ear, "If you were, you could give me children. Beautiful, pale little children with white hair and blue eyes, just like that girl I saw but didn't down in that tomb, the one with the dragon."

"Mmmmmmm…"

"And you could wear the prettiest outfits. And we could walk in the sunlight and make love in bizarre places and I could take care of you always, my pet, my favorite, my darling…"

"She could do it. I will if you want," the other murmured. "For you."

"Just shut up and go to sleep," Kaiba grunted. "I'm being stupid. I feel like I'm drunk…

I need to think."

He fell asleep, pushing out of his mind the responsibility of his company and the fact that Mokuba was probably wondering what he was doing by now. It was midday, but the room was dark and he found that if he shut his eyes tightly, he could forget for the moment.

If only that moment could stretch on forever. Because if he couldn't remember at all, maybe – just maybe - he could start over.

And that's it for now – long chapter. Hope you all enjoyed.

I'm really grateful for the lovely reviews I have received – including some that actually saw where this was headed. Great job!

Again - all reviews are appreciated as well as plotbunnies, as I said at the beginning, since the story will probably only have a few more chapters.

Thanks muchly.