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Chapter 3 - A Plea Left Unheard

Seto sat in the dark. He drifted just out of the reach of the sweet embrace of sleep. It beckoned and even though he knew that Yami couldn't come in, he still felt too unsettled to give in and relax. So he sat, listening to the house settle. He listened to the soft breathing from the bed. The boy had rolled over a few times but he was still sleeping soundly. Still blissfully unaware of how close he had come to a nightmare that night.

The vision of that pale talon, reaching up to spread sickness and sorrow, was burned into Seto's mind. The moment had been quick, a few seconds, but as it played in his mind it was painfully slow. The hand appeared. Slowly floating. Reaching out. Hungry for the opportunity to ruin something that was close to Seto. He bit his lip and tried to swallow the anger that was rising. He should have ripped Yami's little hand off! He should have torn that cursed appendage clean off!

The anger seethed and roiled in his breast, but he would have never managed that. He would have grabbed for it and caught nothing but air. Yami would have danced away. Then he would have lunged in. Holding Mokuba in front of himself, Seto would have had to turn his back to Yami. The monster would have sunk his claws into his back and Seto would have been undone. No, it had been much wiser to just move away, rather than to have confronted Yami. However, he scolded himself for his outburst. He could have handled that without yelling. If he had kept a better hold of his anger, then he wouldn't have needed to try to keep Mokuba asleep. He cursed himself for using his powers on the boy. It was a breach of trust. An abuse of power. It was one step closer to the beast becoming just like the monster.

A soft knock on the door interrupted his private torture. Seto ignored it. It was probably some maid, who had woken up and gone into the kitchen, coming to inquire about the broken glass. He could deal with that in the morning. The visitor wasn't dissuaded by the silence and the door slid open. The visitor spoke, but the voice didn't belong to anyone in Seto's employ. "He's back in town." A silence stretched out uncomfortably and the visitor sighed. "You know, you might win yourself some peace if you just showed him a bit of the affection you showed that boy."

Seto grunted.

"Maybe if you just went over for a cup of tea-"

"I will never go back to that monster!" Seto growled. His still clasped hands flexed in agitation.

"I'm not saying that you should go back- just a little visit-"

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to warn you about Yami-"

Seto stood up abruptly, the force of it caused the chair to slide back several inches. He walked to the door quickly and shoved the other man out of the way. He hissed, "I will not have that name said in Mokuba's presence." He closed the door behind himself, grimacing. Once more he attempted to put a barrier between Yami and the innocent.

"Ah. I apologise."

Seto sighed and lead the way to the living room. His silver haired visitor followed quietly behind him. Seto gestured towards a seat and the two old acquaintances sat down across from each other. A coffee table sat between them, separating them. On that table sat the weight of the decades of silence that had developed between the two old friends. The separation had been broken with short and sporadic meetings when one or the other felt some urge to see their oldest friend. However, it was the events which occurred in those gaps which pushed them further apart.

"Have you really come to urge me to make amends with my sire?" The word, sire, tasted bitter and foul in Seto's mouth. The creature who had given him the curse, the infection for which there was no cure. The vampyr who had transformed him. The one who had created the beast and the fire within him.

The visitor chuckled, "Never. I only ask that you see your way to visit him. I think a civil interaction might go a long way to giving you some more peace." Seto's jaw tightened. His guest hurriedly added, "I'm not suggesting that you do anything but pretend to have some affection for him. He's your sire after all. And he's always been fond of you. So-"

"I have told you, countless times: I want nothing to do with him. I don't even want to have anything to do with his world but this-" Seto shook his head in disgust and looked down at himself. "this curse means that I must remain a part of it."

"Just a moment of peace between you two-"

"MAX! You know as well as I! There is no peace that can be had! Yami will never just let me go to tea once and be satisfied with that! He takes and takes! He will always want more! It will never be enough!" Seto felt himself shaking again. "You, of all people should know that there is no negotiating with someone like him! Even you didn't just go to tea! You had to-"

"YES!" Maximillion snapped and then cleared his throat. "Yes. I know what I had to do." His gaze fell to the floor. "I will have to live with that until the end of time." His hand seemed to reflexively rise towards the left side of his head, but it quickly sank back into his lap. Seto had long wondered what was be hidden behind the silver locks which were now always styled to hide half of Max's face. Something had transpired in one of those gaps between them and Seto never felt that he had the right to question him.

The two sat in silence for a long time. Maximillion looked across at his old friend. Seto finally seemed to have calmed down, possibly enough to listen to reason. There was something important that needed to be done. If he could only get Seto to go see his sire. "Just a short visit would show a certain measure of respect. Then-"

"WHAT!?" Seto roared, slamming his fist through the coffee table. He jumped to his feet and glared down at Maximillion. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY THAT TO ME! IS THIS THE SAME MEASURE OF RESPECT YOU GAVE YOUR SIRE? You murdered that bastard and now you want to tell me to-"

The rant was ended with the sharp sound of a palm connecting with Seto's cheek. His head snapped to the side with the force of the blow and he froze. Seto stood in stunned silence. Turning his head back, Seto looked at Maximillion. He stood in front of him, shaking with a rage Seto had never seen.

"You do NOT have the RIGHT to say that to me!" His voice began as a whisper but rose as his hands became fists. Clenching and unclenching in agitated paroxysms "You are just a spoiled brat! You have NO IDEA what I went through! ESPECIALLY ONCE YOU LEFT!"

Seto started to open his mouth to apologize but Maximillion continued. "NO! You do not get to apologize! You LEFT! Never turned to look over your shoulder. Never came to fulfill your promises! You LEFT ME!" A crazed laughter began to force its way from his throat and Maximillion reached up. Shaking fingers grabbed a fistful of his silvery hair.

He pulled the silver curtain back from his face and revealed his left eye for the first time in a century. Seto swayed. He felt a vice grip his chest. There, marring the delicate features. There, hideously mismatched with his right eye. There, staring at him, unblinking. Was some hideous metal facsimile of an eye. Protruding from the socket and clashing in every conceivable way with the tailored and cultivated aesthetic of its owner. Even its gold color seemed to be in defiance of the wearer's naturally silver hair.

Seto reached up to touch his friend's cheek. Still stunned. Still reeling he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Something in him needed to touch Max's flesh. Wanted to touch the eye. Confirm that it was real- or better yet, confirm that it was not. This was some sort of nightmare and if he could touch it then he would realize the fiction for what it was and awaken.

Slapped away, his hand fell back down.

"NO! Just look! LOOK AT IT!" Maximillion snarled. "Do you know how I came by this cursed object?" His right eye bore into Seto, pining him to the spot. "My master."

An explosion of sickening laughter rolled forth, Seto felt himself sway momentarily. "He wanted to use the magical properties of this thing but with the gifts, comes a price." Seto looked at the shaking hand still holding open the silver curtain which had shielded the Seto for so many decades. The fingers pulled at the hair they held in a iron grip, threatening to tear the strands out at the roots. "So he tore out my eye. I felt every scrape. I heard every one of my own screams. That is-" Another fit of shrieking laughter overtook Maximillion. "That is until I fell unconscious from the pain."

Seto's gaping mouth opened and closed dumbly as he tried to form and release words.

"My master was a clever one, too. Far more clever than yours. At least when Yami is cruel he doesn't think. But not my master. No. He's too clever by half! Do you know what he did? To make sure that I could never be rid of this cursed thing?" Stepping closer to Seto, Maximillion hissed, "He made sure that my eye could never grow back." His right eye quivered as a forming tear struggled to break free. "I will have to live for all eternity, incomplete. And that ache in my head will forever remind me of the cruelty that I suffered at his hands. But PLEASE tell me how difficult it is for you to receive a visit from your sire once in a while."

The silver curtain of hair fell back in place and Seto blinked.

"I'll see myself out." Maximillion's words hung in the air and Seto looked around the empty room.

The beast felt the fight drained out of him. He felt the righteous indignation flow out of his body. This void was quickly filled with a guilt and heart ache which quickly drove him back to his brother's bedside. Back to the safe shores of Love.