Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, nor do I claim rights to any of the affiliated characters. Any brands you may recognize in this chapter are the sole legal property of their respective owners.

Warnings/Notes: First and foremost I owe more gratitude than I can express to my faithful readers and reviewers. I honestly did not expect this story to have a following; it was just something floating around in my head that has kind of evolved over time. In any case this chapter is eventful and I encourage you to leave any questions, feedback, etc. you may have to help guide the process of future chapters.

Enjoy chapter seven.


Chapter Seven: Playing With Fire


"Look how fragile you are." He toyed with her bangs, sweeping them to the side of her forehead and allowing the shorter places to fall back into position, "What kind of fool hurts a child?" Tea did not stir but he posed a soft "Hmm?" to reiterate.

He could feel the warm trail of breath against his skin as he gently rubbed the back of his fingers against her red, chaffed cheek. Her eyelids fluttered but did not open, and as he gathered her in both arms to stand, he began humming anew. "I think the boys need to relax. It's time we cut the melodrama; wouldn't you say Kaiba-boy?" Cerulean eyes settled daringly on the ring master, hand clutching his brother as they rose to be corralled.

"It's a little late for that." He quipped, sweeping Mokuba in front of him and placing one hand on each of the boy's shoulders to guide him. Makoto grunted in warning, casting a sideways glance to his boss as if looking for permission to allow their closeness.

"Come along." The elder prompted sternly, leading the way to an extravagant region of the castle. From behind him he could hear Mokuba whispering hurriedly to his brother; do you think she's hurt, Seto? Really hurt? The other answered with a slight shake of his head, pressing the child onward behind Yugi.

As Pegasus balanced Tea bridal style long enough to push the white painted door open, he caught Kyoshi shoving roughly against Yugi, "Don't get any ideas." He snarled, seeing the boy's eyes travel from hallway to hallway, trying to navigate the castle.

"I'll handle that thank you." He called over his shoulder in warning, laying Tea down on a makeshift daybed in the floor-length window seat. "For now get them seated." They assembled like clockwork, each boy sitting in the front most section of reclining chairs that dotted the living area in rows. The room was a homey shade of ivory, decorated entirely in muted neutral tones. The outlandishly expensive television seemed out of place amidst what may've otherwise been a modest living room. As it flickered to life in front of them, the guards at their banks sunk into seats in the row behind their captives.

Pegasus was grinning like a school boy beside Tea, stroking her hair lovingly as he placed her head in his lap. He looked passed the others, unfazed, as the television began to play a ceaseless marathon of cartoons.

Yugi noted that Funny Bunny was a lot like the shows of his elementary school days, endless games of cat and mouse that led nowhere and always yielded the same results. Over and over he watched the pink rabbit escape a brown, menacing bulldog in increasingly unorthodox ways. Once, the demented beast had simply winked away his bones, congealing into a puddle of pepto bismol fur and settling into a tiny crevice between the candy store and police station. When the enemy had headed off in the wrong direction, the tricky hare emerged, grinning and giggling as he hopped out into the street, vanishing through a manhole cover adorned with white graffiti of a rose and laurel leaves.

He sighed, eyes sinking heavily as boredom coaxed him into sleep. He blinked a few times to keep his eyes open, trying to stay awake to see Tea return to consciousness. All at once, in the haze of almost oblivion, it came to him. In the conjoined bathroom to the room he and Joey shared, there was a small ventilation shaft between the shower and toilet, engraved with the same symbol. He jerked forward in the chair, biting his lip to suppress a gasp.

"Yugi-boy?" Pegasus almost seemed bored, "What's the matter?"

He paused to collect himself, still half-asleep and trying to piece together a plan, "Nothing." He murmured, sinking slowly back into the cushioning fabric of the recliner, "I dozed off." He continued, laughing dismissively.

The TV halted, paused by Croquet at the entryway, leaving a dull his of static lingering in the otherwise silent room. Yugi could feel the breath settling uncomfortably in his chest, expanding against the vents of his ribcage in a tightened burst, "Must've been quite the dream."

"Yug?" Joey mouthed, not daring to divert his gaze from the scene of Funny Bunny in wild suspension, tongue hanging sideways out of his mouth, lips stretched in a wide, howling smile as a mallet occupied both hands well above his head, ready to come down on the unsuspecting skull of McGruff's newest sidekick.

"It's nothing." Yugi mouthed back as Pegasus returned his attention to the sleeping child in his lap. But that was far from the truth.

"Feed them Croquet." Pegasus instructed as he gathered Tea's limp form to his own. From his perch beside the door, the graying head-of-security noticed a sickening look of contentment on his employer's face. As he cradled the girl, Croquet battled with thoughts of what truly made the man tick.

"Sir?" He questioned, remote lingering in his hand.

"They've seen more than enough for today." He replied lowly. Yugi tried to ignore the way Pegasus's eyes found his in silent warning. He forced himself to repress nagging thoughts in the back of his head that screamed Pegasus knew, Pegasus always knew.

As they filed in for dinner Pegasus paused for a single moment at the table. Though they expected him to join, he turned with Tea in the opposite direction of her bedroom, and left.

Clever little shit. The flamboyant host mused to himself as he wandered back the hall to the master suit, it was no matter, however. He was prepared for these things.

Just a few paces from his bedroom, a familiar presence commanded his attention, "I don't like to be followed around my own castle, Kyoshi."

The younger pulled nervously at his collar, "I apologize sir, I got a little turned around." He rubbed the back of his head amicably with one hand.

Pegasus approached the door, "Your quarters are directly to the left of the dueling arena, bathroom and kitchen included. You can manage that much, can't you?"

He opened his mouth, trying to find his voice, "Yes sir, I'm sorry." He added again.

"It's lucky you've run into me, actually. It's time you and I had a little chat. Meet me tonight around nine o clock, it's important the children are settled in first."

Kyoshi paused nervously, "Of course sir," then, before he could stop himself, "Meet you back here, you mean?"

Pegasus chuckled in a way that made him feel immediately and hopelessly stupid, "Ask Makoto, when the time comes he'll show you the way."

Then, like a ghoulish caricature, he disappeared behind the door.


"So you gonna tell me about earlier?" Joey whispered once safely away from the guards.

Yugi hesitated for a long moment, pacing the length of the room before sitting down on the bed and motioning Joey closer, "Remember how thin the walls are." He mumbled as the taller boy shot him a confused look.

"Right." He replied quietly, leaning in close.

"When Pegasus had us watching that cartoon, I noticed something. Do you remember when the rabbit fell through the manhole?" Joey paused for a moment, nodding, "The cover had a symbol on it that matches a vent in the bathroom." The shorter boy pointed a thumb over his shoulder to the adjacent door.

"And?"

"That's how the rabbit got away Joey, through the passage marked with rose and laurel. What if that vent leads us out?"

The taller body tensed, shoulders edging up defensively, "Are you crazy?" He hissed, "We don't even know where it goes."

Yugi flinched, knowing Serenity was weighing heavily on Joey's mind, "I know this is crazy." He began, putting both hands up in a show of empathy, "But it's the only chance we have right now. Trust me, I'm not going anywhere without you, you know that."

Joey shoved a fist down against the cushioned mattress, "Of course I know that!" He snapped, "But I don't even know what vent you're talking about, what if it's blocked by something? Hell, what if it's a trap?"

"We've only gotten this far by taking risks. This entire tournament was a gamble." Yugi replied slowly, trying to ease caution into the hand that moved to rest on his friend's shoulder, "It's either make a go of this, or go insane waiting to be rescued."

Joey rose suddenly from the bed, crouching down as if meaning to sit but being unable to force himself. He combed a hand through his hair, running it across his face to clear his head, "Yug, if he finds you…" Serenity passed his mind, her thin frame limp under hospital sheets, stripped of her smile and the smell of his mother's homemade laundry detergent, faint lavender and chamomile, "We gotta give it more time." He declared at last, "We need a better idea of what could happen."

Yugi paused, looking down at the carpet meekly, "If I had my puzzle." He began, "We'd stand a lot better chance against him. You know that's what it comes down to Joey, us against him."

"And his guards, and his traps."

The shorter boy wilted further, finally moving the arm Joey had disturbed into his lap, "It's like Bakura said, all we need is a chance."

Joey brought both hands up to the sides of his head, clenching angrily, "I hate this."

"So do I."

Silence descended upon the room, harsh and disorienting. Joey paced until it no longer did anything to distract him from his thoughts. He had promised to take Serenity to the beach, he had promised to be there the next time her mother brought home a man, half-naked, slurring drunkenly the morning after as he reached across the breakfast table, squeezing her shoulder. He slid the wallet from his pocket and flipped it open for her picture.

She was smiling timidly for the camera, eyes alive with the usual excitement of picture day. He missed her smile, the way she joked through the hurt to tame his frustration, even when he was scathing and harsh, lashing out toward their mother in the kind of secrecy only two siblings really share. Trembling fingers traced the outline of her face desperately. The only question was whether she needed him to take a chance at being free more than she needed him to play it safe by ignoring the vent for a few more days. Just until after the surgery.

It takes one good lawyer to put the heat on someone else.

He bit back a sob at Kaiba's words, back to Yugi, avoiding his eyes.

"Go." He croaked, reaching out his free hand to steady himself against the wall for a moment before tossing the bathroom door open, "Just come back in one piece, would ya?"

Yugi paused, meeting his friend's gaze determinedly, "Joey…"

"C'mon." He motioned, crouching down in front of the vent to force the rusting cover off. The two worked at either side of the metal, trying to pry it quietly from the hinges, with every hideous screech of protest, Yugi winced while Joey worked faster. "Don't forget what's at stake." He prompted as the vent fell into his hands.

"I won't." Yugi replied, bracing himself, "If it sounds like the guards are coming in, get up and turn the shower on, it'll buy you a little time anyway."

Joey nodded in understanding, "I will." He assured, "Get out of here." Yugi nodded, sizing the vent for a moment before making a move to enter, "Wait, wait wait!" Joey opened the top drawer of the dresser and grabbed a fistful of bandanas, "These were Serenity's, she gave them to me for luck." He replied, extending them, "In case you need them."

"Thank you."

"Now go."

Yugi wrapped his arms around the taller form one more time before taking a deep breath for courage, "For luck." He murmured and, tying the bandanas around his wrist, he turned and shimmied into the narrow corridor.


In the opposite wing of the castle Pegasus was filling his time with worry, Tea had been asleep for several hours, and though she showed no signs of lasting distress of injury, he worried that her lapse in consciousness was a sign of something serious.

"Darling." He shook her gently, peeling back the comforter of his bed to expose her body to the cool draft of night. "You're never going to sleep tonight." He chided, voice gentle and coaxing, "You know I can't have you on a different schedule than the others, it would hardly be fair." As his tones shifted from serious to silly he began to try harder to pull her out of sleep.

She heaved a deep breath when he held a hand over her nose, but he did not have the heart to completely restrict her airway for fear she would be unresponsive. Even now, as she clearly descending back into dreams, he was unsure she was fully capable of gathering coherency.

"You know better than to worry me like this." He stood at her bedside, cupping her cheek and removing the compress he'd laid across the inflamed flesh. "I'm sorry I was harsh, but you know I love you to the moon." He bargained, almost desperately, smoothing his hand across the warmth of her hair, "You are my everything." He whispered as Funny Bunny called out from his alarm clock on the end table, reminding him of his impending meeting.

He reached a hand out to cut the noise, but paused for a moment, watching the child intently for any signs of disturbance to her slumber. When he saw none, he pressed snooze, effectively signaling the end of the chanting. Trying to prepare himself to deal with Kyoshi was nearly impossible as he battled long-repressed feelings of guilt and anxiety.

"Don't you get any ideas of meeting Mama." He prodded in the last moments before he pried himself away, hardening his resolve for business, "Trust Daddy's timing for that." He pressed a kiss to her forehead, turning grudgingly to the door and making sure to lock it behind him. He had no real worry of her waking before his return, but as he trailed the hallways to his new destination, he vowed to be quick. If she was still asleep when he returned, he would have to page the doctor from the top floor, if she was not, he would have more than one person to punish tonight.

The room he eventually found himself in was small compared to the rest of Duelist Kingdom, an eight by eight former study with bookshelves lining the right and left walls in their entirety. Even still, Pegasus had grown to treasure it. The size made it intimate, perfect for those special sessions of discipline he so often needed to host among his employees. There was a large oak door at the far end with what looked to be an old-fashioned, rusting mail slot in the middle. He sat in a chair a few feet away from it, across from another seat that directly obstructed the view of an engraved rose.

Two raps at the entry pulled him from his quiet musings, "Come in." He beckoned the younger. "Have a seat."

He could feel Kyoshi tremble, taking half a step back in apprehension as the cockiness that had followed on his heels was devoured by tension. He never turned to address the man, merely sat cross-legged, gesturing lazily to the seat opposite him. Hesitantly the thinner frame approached, he cleared his throat at least three times in eight steps, and as he settled fearfully into the chair, it became painfully obvious that he had been drinking to calm his nerves. His face was slightly flushed, eyes well hidden behind shades that did not match the well-lit space.

"Good evening." Pegasus leveled his gaze with the other's.

"Evening." Kyoshi mumbled sheepishly, sitting up straighter in an attempt to excuse his awkward entrance.

"You've been spending a lot of time around the children. What do you think?" Even more unnerving to Kyoshi than the small, unfamiliar space and limited audience, was his boss's uncharacteristic desire to get straight to business.

He grunted uncomfortably, "They're something else alright." He replied with a laugh that was quickly lost to silence.

"Oh?"

Even he could tell the comment had not been received well, but there was little he could do to explain it away, "You know how these things are, lots of yelling and whining." He glanced around the room for something to hone his focus, anything to distract him from the redwood eye burning a hole in his face.

"Children are rowdy by nature, Kyoshi."

"Yeah."

"You seem to have a particular gripe against little Yugi."

Across from him Kyoshi began wringing his hands nervously, beads of sweat pooling at his already greasy hairline. He fidgeted, recalling his foolish advance toward the boy a while earlier, "Not the kid per say." He at last managed, "You know, I just - he couldn't think it was okay to ignore you."

"Ah." The room had swelled with animosity, as Kyoshi shrank back into his chair to get away from the psychopath, Pegasus smiled in acknowledgement, "You wanted to teach him a lesson?" He asked, voice riddled with contempt.

He felt numb, "Something like that."

"The last man I knew to discipline another's child was found three days later on a subway track, in pieces."

Kyoshi swallowed thickly, wishing he'd done more to quell the anxiety bubbling in his stomach, "I...should get back to work."

"No, no, you're exactly where you need to be."

"I don't understand."

He uncrossed his legs, leaning forward, "In the room behind you there are two very important items. The children seem to think they have a claim on them." He moved the hair out of his face, millennium eye fully illuminated, "Little Yugi is going to come looking for them tonight."

Kyoshi pressed his hands into his pockets, only to withdraw them a moment later. His fists tensed slightly, mouth opening and closing as he sputtered, gaping and awe-struck, at the gaudy abomination of metal.

"Sir?"

"The concept is simple." Pegasus moved his hair back into place, smile stretching widely across his lips, revealing fine wrinkles at their edges. Below him, a slightly heeled shoe clacked against hardwood, shackles slid out from slots underneath Kyoshi's chair and clasped around his ankles. "If the weight of your body shifts from this position it will send you plummeting to your death. If little Yugi wants his precious puzzle, he'll have to sacrifice you to get to the door." He laughed casually, "I'll admit the setup is a bit rustic, even for me, but if he does gather the courage to kill you the shackles at your feet are set to ensnare him. When he so much as touches the latch on that door," He motioned to the slot beyond the hired muscle, "he'll be in for quite the surprise."

"What the hell?!" The breath left him suddenly and he wheezed, choking violently on the words, "You can't do this to me, I'm on your side!"

"You are an uncouth swine with no sense of boundaries." A clock chimed from the hall and he rose, bowing mockingly, "I'd love to go on, but its bedtime and I have children who need tucking in."

"You're fucked in the head! I ain't touched a hair on him and you've got the nerve to be pissed when you're willing to kill him?!"

"Don't worry your pretty little head about that, I'm ninety five percent sure Yugi won't get that far, and even if he does, well, it would ruin the surprise to tell you."

The elder had already turned his back to the scene and started toward the exit, "Wait, god damn it! You're making a mistake - "

He waved a hand dismissively toward the other, "Goodbye Kyoshi. I wish I could say it's been a pleasure."

"If you leave me here I swear to god I'll kill that little fucker! As soon as I see him, he's mine, you hear me? He's mine!"

He paused a final time, redwood eye glinting in the crack of the door, "That's right." he mocked, "show him who's boss, Kyoshi." With a throaty laugh he turned again, and was gone.


Yugi took shallow breaths, trying to ignore the faint smell of decay at every inhale. By moving slowly he knew he was taking a huge chance not only with his safety, but with Joey's. The longer it took him to get back, the more risk he took of the guards finding out he had left the room. There were factors working against timeliness, however. For one he was wedged tight in the shaft, lucky to fit at all. More importantly, too much noise would alert them he was on the move, and give them a direct path to wherever he ended up. Little room to control his movement meant he was not graceful, and aluminum was certainly not soundless.

He tried to tame his fear by focusing on strategy, but without the spirit of the puzzle to incite said courage it was an impossible task. When he came to the first fork in the shaft he noticed a fading stamp along the metal, branding 'Rosewood Inc.' to the right. With no other lead, he began to crawl, leaving bandanas like bread crumbs to guide the way back. At thoughts of the fairytale, he almost laughed. Hopefully Pegasus would not cook them all at the end of this.

Eventually, keeping right whenever possible and littering the shaft with bandanas, he came to a vent. The scene it opened to was strangely unfamiliar. This ward of the castle was old-fashioned, and though Pegasus's abode didn't have a cohesive theme, it was a bit eerie to see scenes from a museum in a hallway.

Footsteps drew near, a stray feminine voice groaning, "Two more hours, Joy."

"Yeah, yeah," the rasping voice of an older woman acknowledged, matching strides with her companion, "Just a few more bathrooms and we're done for the night."

They stopped just a few paces in front of the shaft and he carefully forced himself backward, letting the shadows encircle and conceal him, "Then we can finally have some fun." The younger tossed her head back, hand following in the motion of taking a shot.

He waited for the laughter and footsteps to fade before easing out into the corridor, crouching to shift the vent back into place. The two women had gone right, and though it felt odd to break the pattern that got him this far, he did not want to risk running into them. Aside from that, his path to freedom dictated more than the bathrooms they were off to clean.

He turned left and hurried off, staying close the wall in the shadow of hanging light fixtures. Navigating was easier than he expected, but he prayed he was not trapping himself in a labyrinth of hardwood hallways and well-staged potted plants. In the desperate need to get somewhere, he picked up his pace, socks making little noise on the floor but not allowing much traction either. As he slid about the corridors he eventually came to stand at the middle of a final crossroad, the right path leading him down a dead end where a window let in moonlight against a bouquet of dried flowers.

"Who's out there?" He froze, breath catching in his throat as he willed himself to be silent and still, "That area is off limits." The voice echoed, taking a step closer from the opposite corridor, "If Master Pegasus hears about this he'll have your head." The body began to approach quicker, and at the sound of steady footsteps, he tore off to the end of the hallway. "What the hell –"

The footsteps were gaining ground on him, coming in long, fast strides his own legs could not match. He passed the first few doors, socked feet slipping on polished hardwood as he lunged for an escape. He needed the window, the window, the – his chin connected hard with the floor, a fire of pain and adrenaline. He scrambled to his feet, disoriented but not deterred.

"Jesus Christ!" The elder yelled, "It's one of those kids!"

Shit.

He followed the hallway to the final door on the right, marked with a white rose and laurel. He did not have time to climb onto the decorative table to reach the height of the window. The body at his back was closing in, as he tore open the last remaining barricade between their two forms he felt the older man grab for his shirt collar, fingers grazing it before disappearing behind thick oak.

The door slammed hard, convulsing hands setting the deadbolt he knew would not keep Pegasus's goons at bay for long. He jerked his gaze up, intending to find something to block to the door and buy him more time, but stopped dead in his tracks.

Kyoshi.

The breath left his body in one violent blow, legs crumbling beneath him. He was trapped.

This was the end.

His back absorbed every well-placed, powerful kick the security guard was throwing to the back of the door, but he could not force himself to move away. Part of him, numbed by defeat and wounded by the reality of having disappointed – failed – his friends, hoped the two men would kill him now. He expected one of them, at any moment, to send a bullet or a sturdy oak door crashing into his skull, crushing, tearing, obliterating.

"C'mere kid."

He followed the voice with listless eyes; up from the ground…Kyoshi's feet were bound. He forced himself up, straining hard to be sure his tired mind was really deciphering this, Kyoshi had fallen into the trap set for him. He almost laughed right in the man's face.

"Looks like Pegasus did know what I had planned." He announced, more to himself than to the man across from him, "But his little trap caught you instead." He slowly approached, being sure to keep more than arm's length away, as Kyoshi's wrists were curiously not bound. From behind the brunet he could make out an engraved rose on what looked to be a door.

"Wait, WAIT!" He wasn't sure why, but something about the urgency of Kyoshi's tone stopped him.

"I've had enough." He spoke, gravel-voiced and trembling, "My friends and I are getting out of here, you sick creep."

"Are you?"

He spun around to face the entryway, the guard from earlier was nowhere to be seen, but in front of him, barely in the door, was Pegasus.

He drew a deep breath, opening his mouth as if to reply before deciding against it, he maneuvered around Kyoshi, who was still yelling in protest, "If you touch this chair I'm dead. "

"You're lying." He pressed both hands to the back of the chair, prepared to lean his full weight against it to tip it over.

"No." Pegasus called casually, coming into the room, "For once in his pathetic life, he's telling the truth. The moment you move the chair his ankles will be released and the platform he's on with plunge him into the sea." He chuckled, reaching into his pocket to withdraw a fistful of items, "Maybe we should give him these Yugi-boy, for luck."

Serenity's bandanas, but how did he…

"Don't! D-don't come any closer, I'll do it!" He exclaimed, too frantic at the shrinking proximity of their bodies to continue his thoughts.

"What, make another rainbow in my ventilation shaft?" The elder threw his head back, laughing uproariously, "Go on Yugi-boy, make Daddy proud." Yugi looked from Pegasus to Kyoshi, hands on the back of the chair too weak from exertion, and lacking any traces of adrenaline to push it over.

Pegasus moved directly in front of Kyoshi, who was sputtering something he didn't care to hear, "I'm truly surprised. Caring, innocent, pacifist Yugi doesn't have the heart to kill a man?" He clapped large hands over Yugi's, pressing down hard, "What a shame." With a violent jerk, he sent Kyoshi forward into his chest, and in the next instant, screaming down a dark wormhole to the ocean.

Yugi's screams chorused those of the soon-to-be-corpse long after he had crashed into the waters below. "There's a lot Daddy's capable of that you seem not to understand." Strong arms took Yugi in a vice grip and threw him into the middle of the room, pinning him harshly to the ground, "I think it's time we changed that."

"Please." The child sobbed openly now, his face contorted in a snotty mess of fear and guilt.

"You've tried my patience for the last time." He growled, knee pinning Yugi on his back as he withdrew a glistening card from his pocket.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, "I just want to go home." Begging felt worse than the defeat, but if it would save his friends he was willing. As he continued to plead, the man turned the duel monster's card in his hand, slowly revealing Solomon's face. Grandpa.

"It seems you need persuaded to behave." A glint of malice crossed the wine colored iris as he placed both hands on the paper to rip it.

"Stop!" He shrieked, "I swear it won't happen again. I just wanted to go home." His voice wavered, breathing ragged and quick, for a moment Pegasus thought the child would vomit and choke, "I'll do whatever you want."

"You said that before." Gone from his voice was the trace of cheer and mockery, what remained was the hollow drawl of something Yugi did not want to face. "Do you know what happens if I rip up this card, Yugi-boy? Your grandfather's soul will split into tiny fragments; he will splatter bloody, warped memories across the shadow dimension for the rest of eternity." He pressed the boy's skull harder against the floor, leaning against his chest until their two forms were practically on top of one another and their breaths were mingling with tears, "The human body can last for years on life support, without a flicker of the soul, but even when that decays he will be the same as the other skeletons underneath. Take it from me; it's much more painful to split soul than sinew."

"Ple-ease Daddy," Pegasus moved away, kneeling beside the boy and gazing intently at him as his fingers traced the edge of the soul card.

"Daddy means business." He assured with a hellish smile, "You know I hate to have to punish you so severely."

The thought of hurting his friends was unbearable, but losing grandpa was unspeakably worse. Without grandpa there was no reason to be here, nothing to go home to if they ever got out of this mess. As much as his friends meant to him, he was nothing if not for Grandpa.

The words came spilling out before he could register their impact, "I love you."

The elder ran a hand through his hair, bending to kiss his cheek, "I love you too darling." He purred, "You know you deserve this right?" Yugi sobbed, burying his face in his hands, "You know you deserve this." Pegasus repeated, and through the numbing frenzy of anxiety, he nodded. Something stirred deep within Crawford at the sight of the hysterical child, two personalities waging war against one another, "I want to hear you say it, 'I deserve this.'"

The soul card lay abandoned on his lap, both hands holding Yugi's away from his face, "I deserve this." He cried out into madness.

The broken eyes did not haunt Crawford because he had caused the trauma, but because they relayed the truth of Yugi's thoughts. He was not simply miming as the elder had expected, he was internalizing, believing the feeling of worthlessness.

A sharp pang of regret settled in the red-clad chest, "Never again." Cried the child, empty in a way Pegasus never intended him to feel, broken too completely, too irreversibly if he went through with this.

"Never again." The captor repeated, pocketing the card and gathering the child in an embrace.

Danger miraculously averted, Yugi screamed thanks to anyone listening, ignoring the pull of his spirit toward the door a few feet away, where the puzzle set in wait for him. It was all he could do to process Grandpa's temporary safety, and that was enough. Nothing else mattered, even escape.

"I love you." For a moment as Pegasus held him, gently extending mercy in authority, the child thought he might truly mean it.


Additional Notes: Not the end but certainly a new beginning. Major brownie points to anyone who can guess the speaker of the final 'I love you.' Chapter 8 will be a bit delayed given the upcoming holiday so please be patient, and, as always, thank you for reading.