WARNING: My Beta reader was disturbed by the flashback scene in the chapter so I felt it only fair to warn you all that ahead lies child abuse and rape.

Chapter Fourteen

It had been four years since the old man's 'unfortunate accident' that had released Seto from the nightmare he had foolishly imprisoned himself in since winning the chess game at the orphanage, and he planned to be victorious against his stepfather once more. When the old man lost to him this time that was it, he'd finally stay down, there would be no more returns; Gozaburo had used that ticket already.

"Let's settle this in an all out brawl." Seto stated. This time there was no need for chess boards, dueldisks, or company shares. "Anything goes, last one standing gets to keep my life and everything that goes with it."

"That's fine by me." Gozaburo sneered at his overconfident stepson. "I hope you're ready to lose Seto."

"In your dreams old man." Seto struck out with his clenched fist and hit his stepfather square in the jaw. So this was what it came down to; no strategy, no thinking, just plain old instincts fuelled by emotions that had been stored and suppressed over time. "That one's from me, and this one's for Noah." He struck out at the old man's face again and sent Gozaburo toppling down to the ground. That was easy; perhaps a little too easy?

Seto waited cautiously for the old man to get back to his feet before attacking him again. Just as his fist was about to collide with Gozaburo's face once more, his stepfather disappeared from in front of him, leaving Seto to swing out at nothing. He staggered slightly but quickly regained his balance and turned to see the old man stood several feet behind him. Seto had seen Noah disappear and re-appear a couple of times before, yet this was not something he himself had learnt or been explained how to do. Damn!

"What's wrong Seto?" Gozaburo sneered as he saw the startled expression on his stepson's face. "You look so surprised by my move despite the fact that you yourself declared 'anything goes'."

"Nothing surprises me when it comes to you old man."

"Is that so?" Gozaburo laughed as his eyes narrowed on the boy who he then sent flying backwards and slammed hard against a wall which materialised from nowhere.

Pain surged through Seto who curse at the stupidity of ever creating the emotion-recreate programming that he used on all of his company's products, which was one of the things that kept Kaiba Corp ahead of it competitors in the business field. He slid all the way down to the ground as he kept his view fixed on his stepfather. The old man clearly knew how do manipulate the programme in ways that he didn't, giving Gozaburo an advantage that Seto knew he'd have to disable and fast.

"You're a fool Seto. The time you've had to develop your physical strength over the years would have given you a huge advantage if we had been fighting in the real world." The old man paced speedily towards his slumped stepson glaring down at him in amusement. "But we're not in the real world now boy."

Seto quickly got back to his feet but soon found himself slammed against another wall as he struck out at his stepfather again. Time to change tactics. He had been hoping to completely thrash out against Gozaburo to get the revenge that he and Noah deserved to have, but he also knew that things currently weren't in his favour and that he'd be foolish to risk them getting any worse with the stakes that were on the line. Deleting his stepfather's data would end it all now and probably be his best course of action as it was one of the few things he knew he'd be able to do in the virtual surroundings. As he focused on his stepfather's data and attempted to remove several of the script's digits, a stream of electrical energy raged through him, causing an unbearable amount of pain.

"Looks like you came across my shielding programme." Gozaburo laughed at the sight of his stepson flail from the unexpected shock. "You've spent less than forty-eight hours in cyberspace, so what chance do you have against I who have spent the last four years like this?"

Not wanting to admit it but the old man did have a point. Seto was too inexperienced within the controls of the virtual world to be able to turn things back around in his favour. "I won't be defeated by you Gozaburo." He pushed himself back on to his feet and swayed slightly as he regained his balance by overcoming the painful tingling sensation that still ran through him. As soon as Mokuba had connected the second pod then Noah would return, that would be his chance to escape and finally leave the past behind him, all he had to do was stand off against his stepfather until that time.

Using the strongly present anger and hatred, Seto clenched his fists and leapt out at his stepfather again, determined to hit the old man many more times before the time came for him to flee the system. Again Gozaburo disappeared from in front of him and Seto continued straight onwards to fall flat on his face. His hands were ready to push himself up when suddenly they were snatched away and clasped behind his back before Seto felt his stepfather's knee between his shoulder blades that kept him pinned down where he was. Now he began to panic and tried to calm himself to be able to remove the cuff data that had been used to bind his wrists together, but had his concentration broken as his hair was grabbed tightly causing his head to be pulled back into an uncomfortable and painful position.

"Now this brings back memories, eh boy?" Gozaburo chortled as he pulled even harder on Seto's hair, all the combined pain bringing tears to the furious blue eyes. "It seems like only yesterday that I first dominated you." He took great pleasure at both seeing and feeling his stepson squirm in his grasp from mentioning the traumatic experience. "I see you haven't forgotten either."

# Seto knocked on the huge wooden door of his stepfather's office, rechecking through the papers that he held in his hands for one last time to make sure that any and all mistakes had been corrected. He'd just spent the past six hours cooped up with his stepfather's pug-faced servant Hobson, as he struggled to complete the tasks that had been set for him and now it was time to turn in his efforts. Gozaburo's voice was muffled by the door, and having been confirmed entrance clearance, Seto pushed it open to enter inside, the cuts on the back of his hands stinging from the pressure felt by the action.

"Finished already have you?" Gozaburo sounded surprised at seeing the young boy so soon, he was quite sure that it would have taken his stepson all day, perhaps even into the night for him to complete the advanced study schedule that had been set.

"Yes sir." Seto bowed his head as he approached the desk and held out the papers before him for the old man to read. The cuts on the back of his hands were visible for his stepfather to see.

"Slacking again eh?"

There was no reply as Seto bit on his tongue to stop himself from answering. He never slacked at anything though Hobson clearly disagreed about the issue and would find whatever chance he could to use the old fashioned cane on him. If this was the price that had to be paid in order to keep him and Mokuba together and away from the orphanage then so be it. His eyes wandered a quick glance at his stepfather who was busy reading through the pages of written text.

It had been a number of months now and although Gozaburo clearly resented having to adopt the two boys, as promised, Seto got along pretty well with the old man, when it suited them both. Yes he was made to excel in his studies which kept him apart from his little brother quite often and the punishments he had to endure could be vigorous at times, but still things weren't that bad for the pair of them.

"Seto, spell haemorrhagic." Gozaburo ordered as he continued to stare at the papers in front of him.

"H-A-E-M-O-R-R-H-A-G-I-C." Seto reeled out the answer and was pretty pleased with himself as most kids his age didn't know the word's meaning let alone spelling.

"If you know how to spell it out loud then you should have been able to spell it correctly on paper!"

The piece was thrown back at him and Seto glanced down to see the typo he had missed. His heart sank as he knew that a punishment would soon be coming his way and the chance of spending time with Mokuba to play Duel Monsters later that evening would also be taken from him.

"But I'm willing to overlook it, just this once."

"Thank you sir." Seto bowed his gratitude to his stepfather who smiled at him from behind the desk. There'd be no punishment and he'd get to play with his little brother after all. "I can assure you that I'll try harder in the future so that it won't happen again."

"Everything comes at a price though my son." Gozaburo added to let the young boy know that he wasn't going to escape his punishment that easily. He rose from his seat and made his way around to the other side of his desk.

Son? Seto blinked in amazement. That had been the first time that his stepfather had ever referred to him in that way, usually it was by his name, junior or simply 'boy' but never had it been son. Had the old man come to accept the two orphans as his own? Two arms were gently and affectionately placed on either side of Seto's shoulders as Gozaburo looked down at him and asked; "How much do you love your father Seto?"

Father? That was it, he didn't need anymore proof; Seto had finally found that sense of belonging that he'd been hoping to regain since the deaths of his parents. He looked up at the old man, - his father, and replied: "I'll be forever grateful that you adopted my brother and I …" But Seto never got the chance to finish his sentence as he was thrown hard towards the CEO's desk, winding him upon impact as his body slammed against its edge.

Seto's mind raced with confusion of the sudden change of situation. One moment Gozaburo had been kind towards him and then like a flick of a switch had flung him away. He pushed himself up and struggled to breath from the pain in his battered ribcage only to find himself forced back down onto the desk top as his body was bent over the side, feet dangling just inches above the floor and Gozaburo's hand pinning him there as it rest between his shoulder blades.

"I'm sorry." Seto wheezed now convinced that he was indeed being punished for the error he had made in his work. But did one little mistake really justify the physical pain he was suffering right now? Why not just confiscate more of his possessions, or be made to rewrite and extend the work he'd just finished, even doing the servants chores, surely they were all more fitting punishments for the tiny mistake he had made? "I promise that I won't hand you any more papers until I've rechecked every single letter of my work."

"This is about so much more than just a spelling mistake my boy." Gozaburo sneered as he pushed harder onto Seto's upper back making the boy whimper from the force of the pain. "This is the price you'll pay for humiliating me in that flee-ridden orphanage."

So that was why he was being punished, all because he had taken and won the risk to get a better life for himself and Mokuba. Tears stung at his eyes from his own foolishness for having thought that they had found a place amongst a family to call their own. How could his stepfather have been so cruel to build up his hopes and abuse them like that?

The pressure on Seto's back was lifted as Gozaburo's hands now fumbled at the waistband of his pants. The boy attempted to push himself up to escape and was struck across the back of his head. "You stay exactly where you are and I'll go easy on you, failure to do so and you'll wish you hadn't been born." He hissed threateningly.

Fear of what kind of worse punishment would be awaiting him caused Seto to obey what he had been told as his pants and underwear were stripped down to his ankles, the cool air of the room could be felt against his naked flesh. His ears were filled with the sound of his frightened heart and could just make out the tingling sound of his stepfather's belt which he assumed would soon be striking over his bare behind like it had done many times before.

Trying to take his mind from the situation Seto thought about teaching his little brother how to play Duel Monsters later on that evening, if he was still allowed to that was. He pictured a confused look on Mokuba's face as he explained about the rules of the…..

"Aarghh!" He cried out in pain, but not from the belt blow like he had been expecting. Instead the CEO had forced his erect member into the small opening of Seto's rear.

"Did that hurt?" Gozaburo asked sarcastically and thrust hard to make the boy cry out again. "This is the price you will pay during the time you spend living under my roof, you pathetic nobody!"

Tears fell from the big blue eyes and sobs escaped his lips with each thrust that followed to the rhythm of his stepfather's immoral act. If Seto had known that this was to be the price for winning the chess game then he'd never have challenged the old man in the first place. But what had been done now couldn't be undone so he would suffer and learn to endure it, not for his sake, but for Mokuba's. #