Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, nor do I claim rights to any of the affiliated characters.
Warnings/Notes: The following chapter contains somewhat graphic mention of bodily injury and distress, which may be triggering for some readers. There is also a LOT of choice language / profanity compared to earlier installments.
x-Sheeqsee112-x: Thank you again for the awesome feedback, I'm glad you liked the last chapter. Some of Pegasus's scenes were hard for me to write, although a bit easier than reading them because I have built the pathology of his character until this point. I hope you enjoy chapter twelve.
Yoko Sakura: Thank you for the review, no this is not the end. We're getting close, though.
Just me: Thank you for your feedback and opinions of the characters so far, I can't wait to see if anything's changed at the end of this chapter.
Triva: Thank you for your review, I really appreciate it. I'm having a great time writing so I'm happy it's paid off so far. I hope you enjoy chapter twelve.
Chapter Twelve: Comeuppance
Heat swelled around her in a merciless haze. For a moment, as she reached the opposite end of her village and tore off for the catacombs in the distance, she wondered if the gods were mocking her. If Naeem's death was their will she would do everything in her power to deny it, even if it meant denying them. The breeze teased her for a moment, a gentle whisper through the flowing fabric of her skirt.
It kept her nerve to push forward, and as she reached her destination she found herself thanking whoever forgave her blasphemy. Panting for breath, she paused to glance back at the distant blur of life she had just come from. At this hour it was full of people gossiping, straining their backs to carry goods, and coaxing their children indoors to escape the warmth of midday. All that was left for her was the tomb of sand and stone she had come for, and the stretch of dusty space that would never lead her home again.
Forcing the hand that clutched her heart to her side, she turned and hurried into the dim, humid tunnel. Laughter lured her deeper and deeper until five silhouettes appeared, sitting against corners of the tiny, narrow room.
"What's this?" The broadest of the group rose to his feet, quickly followed by the others, "You stupid bitch." He came into the shadows of the tunnel, grinning wildly, "This will be the last mistake you ever make." In one stride he reached her body, strong arm dragging her closer.
"I've come to make an offer." She whispered shakily. Behind him, the four remaining men burst into cruel laughter.
"What can someone like you offer us?"
"My body, my servitude," she began hurriedly, "I need you to carry out my wish, and then I will be yours."
She tried to free herself from the first man's hold, but found she could not. Adrenaline built in her veins as he jerked her to his chest, hands roaming freely over her body, "We can take all we want from you right now." He breathed huskily.
"500,000 pounds," she shrieked as his rough hand covered her mouth to muffle her cries. At this, he drew back away from her, curious.
"That's a lot of money for one loose woman." He mused, running a hand along his beard and taking in her obvious outrage, "Give me one good reason to believe you've got that hidden away." He lurked dangerously close again, "Seems to me like you can't afford to eat and dress."
"My husband," she panted, trying to quell the fear that had risen in her stomach, "struck a business deal with the Americans that have been wandering here."
"Talk straight." He snapped, impatient, "Tell us what you want and where to get the money, you deliver first."
She shook her head, "No. You get nothing until the men who killed my son are dead, in front of me."
Annoyance was quickly replaced by curiosity as the five men formed a line to barricade the end of the corridor, "Don't waste our time with this shit, let the law deal with it."
"The law finds nothing wrong with it." She seethed.
"Then blame your son for being worthless enough to let himself be killed."
She clenched her fists so hard her body shook, trying to repress the urge to slap the man, "You'll either help me or you won't."
He countered the challenge with one of his own, "We'll get the money, one way or another."
Asking a band of thieves to avenger her son was not the justice she had planned, but it had been less than a day since the news, and she could hardly function. As they moved into the dry heat of open air, she pressed forward and allowed them to lead as she murmured directions through the wind. When the journey dictated the use of a rental car, which she had parked in the shade of two vacant houses, the men looked to one another in confusion.
"You better know what you're doing." Came the gruff voice of the last man to climb into the car, knife glistening in his free hand as he hoisted himself up.
In the driver's seat, Karim did little more than shift gears and start off down the dustbowl path to payment, "How far out?" He asked.
The woman crossed both arms over her chest to hide her trembling, "Not far, in about twenty miles there'll be a dig site, the men we're after are there."
To her dismay they rode in silence, no conversation or lewd behavior to distract her from her confliction. As the road beneath them dipped and curved, she tried not to lose her stomach on the vagrant's bare feet. She focused hard on the rusty floorboards against his caramel skin, stained with dirt and blood. Every time she pried her eyes away for the village approaching through the window, her son's smile threatened to force her out at fifty miles an hour, colliding hard with the dirt to be broken, and bleeding, and one with him.
"Turn right." She instructed as they reached the end of the buildings, and he did so wordlessly.
"How many?"
She jumped, frightened by the sudden intrusion of his voice, "Two." She replied.
He shook his head angrily, "Not how many you want dead." He spat, "How many he's got waiting for us on the inside." She swallowed thickly, she hadn't thought of that. They were six people strong, three with guns, two with blades, and her with nothing but her hands. But she was not afraid, she could kill both men if she had to, in such slow, sweet agony that they begged for the end and she laughed at them, spitting blood from her own wounds.
"Not many." She mumbled, "I've seen most of them spread out to talk among the locals during the day."
"What do they want here?" Someone from the back asked, lazily propping his foot against the back of her seat.
"How should I know?" Anger flared in her gut, "They're foreigners who've come to see how many dead they can collect for their games and their religion."
He kicked hard against her back and she lurched forward a bit at the unexpected impact, "No response from the authorities? And they're American? Either they've got serious money, or you're a lying sack of shit." He grunted lowly in disgust.
"My husband said they came in the night." She paused to swallow her tears, expecting to be mocked for them, and was met with sudden, eerie silence. "They told him they only needed to ask Naeem a few questions, then they would bring him right back. They paid my husband first, we needed the money, he had no reason to think they'd…"
"Did you find the body?" It was the leader, Karim, who spoke, hand rising unconsciously to trace the scar over his eye.
"No."
"But you think he's dead?"
"Our neighbor saw them carrying a sheet of canvas, they thought it was an animal's corpse, they didn't think my husband would let our sons go with men like that after dark. How could they know?"
He shifted the car into park and sat, motionless, not too far from the underground cave of hieroglyphics, "So your husband told you that a group of Americans, who've been talking to people at normal hours for weeks, took your son in the night to ask him questions, killed him without anyone seeing, and walked the dead body right passed your house? Not even westerners are that stupid."
Her heart fell into her throat, and then rose again in a miraculous flutter of hope, "Then you think Naeem is still – "
"I don't think your husband talks about your kid being dead unless he's actually dead." He got out and slammed the door behind him, on cue; the others leapt from their seats and checked their weapons for rounds.
She forced her heavy feet forward, and at the thief king's beckoning, stayed in the middle of the assembly. "Get down!" He shouted once their targets were in sight. "Get the fuck down on the ground, right now!" He roared, they threw their hands up hesitantly, the woman and youngest man dropping to their knees in submission.
"What's this about?" Addison demanded; hand on his hip to draw the pistol from his pocket.
"You touch it; I blow her fucking head off." Karim jerked his gun to the woman on the floor, and on cue one of his men snatched her ponytail around his hand and yanked her to her feet again, thrusting a knife against her throat.
"Which one of you took my son?" The shaking mother called, stepping out from behind the three unoccupied gang members, who had drawn their weapons in a line of defense before her, "Tell me now!"
"Who are you?" Addison asked, moving both hands in front of him in a show of surrender, "We have no one's child." Even his oblivious female companion knew it was a lie. His eyes shifted to the small connected room where the corpse lay, still uninhabited by the spirit.
"Please, I haven't done anything." She moaned, trying to twist away from the blade drawing cool metal to her neck, breaking a layer of skin in the struggle.
"Shut up." Naoki gripped her tighter and pulled the knife back deep enough to draw steady blood. She shrieked in hysteria.
"Help me!" She sobbed, "Please somebody."
"No one's coming to help you, bitch. You're gonna die slow and afraid, just like my baby."
"Your son wanted to die!" Addison exclaimed, thrusting himself toward the brunette, "He knew what the exchange meant. His body would be given to the spirit of the item and he his family would be paid 500,000 pounds." Naoki pulled the knife back in warning as Addison approached, there was nothing he could do but keep talking, frozen in place, "Ask the other child, he was there when we started talking, he heard his father agree! Ma'am I'm sorry you lost your son, but your husband offered him to us and the boy drank the poison of his own accord."
"You're lying, my husband would never – "
"He did!" Hito cried from his place in the dirt, "I swear he saw the ring and everything. He told us it was an honor to serve the entity."
The thief king pointed his gun at the elder's head, cocking the trigger, "Make a choice girl." He called back to her, and she froze, eyes darting from their faces to the room beyond them.
"I want to see it." She cried, "I want to see the item my husband made an offering to." In her heart, she couldn't make herself believe the man she loved would be so desperate for money that he'd….
Addison nodded toward the room, and an unoccupied member of the gang darted for the briefcase inside, thumbing it open and gasping at the expensive keepsake, solid gold, magnificent. "Boss." He moved to pick it up.
"Don't touch it!" The leader snapped, "Turn the fucking case around." Confused, the lackey did so, revealing the millennium ring. A smirk graced the criminal's features before he broke out into hearty laughter, "That's the real thing, and this is way out of your league."
"W-We had a deal – " The distraught mother sputtered.
"These ain't the people you want dead." He pressed, "Your husband offered your son to one of the seven sacred items, no one put a gun to his head."
"Just shut up!" She yelled, "This proves nothing."
"Please, let me explain." Addison begged, heart racing as his companion's blood slowly began to clot, her eyelids closing heavily in Naoki's hold as she succumbed to fear and pain, "We were hired by a man named Pegasus Crawford. He's looking to collect the millennium items to resurrect his wife, he needed the spirit to leave before –"
"He did this out of love?" Malice crept into her voice, "What of Naeem's soul? What of my son?" She broke down sobbing, body heaving as she took in the grizzly scene around her. If her husband had anything to do with this, it was his blood she wanted above anyone else's. But even still, even still she would not have her son back, and every second was another reminder of that.
"I'm so sorry."
"Oh don't feed me that! You're not sorry, you did it! You did it knowing it would kill my son!"
"He agreed." Addison pressed.
"He was a child!" She snarled, "Are you a person or an animal? He was a child. It wasn't his place to die for someone else's fantasy. You tell your employer that if he wants his wife, he can bring her back with the ancient ritual."
"Enough!" The thief king ordered.
"No!" She screamed, thrusting a finger at the eldest of Pegasus's team, "You call him now, and you tell him there's another way to bring back his wife. I won't kill you for someone else's sin, but I will make you see it was yours. For every day I suffer, you will suffer. A thousand years you will live in misery, and still it won't be enough."
"Your husband's probably skipped town." Karim interjected, hoping to distract her.
"Then send one of them after him." She gestured to the men on either side of her, and rolling his eyes, he did so.
"Find the woman's house; no way he'd go without the money." Asa, the chosen member, nodded and turned wickedly to face the exit, "If you're stupid enough to try and keep it all to yourself, we will find you, and we'll make you wish you never walked this earth." The other stopped, sweat forming on his forehead.
"I got it, you idiot. Just talk her out of this." He pressed forward, pocketing the knife, "I'll make it twice as slow for you, so pretend you're watching." He slipped his hand into hers for a moment, and hurried off to the task awaiting him.
The leader shook his gun, a testament of his thinning patience as she relayed an incantation to the archaeologist, "With this ritual, the man you worship will suffer the same pain I have suffered. Let him know true agony for once in his life." She turned to the leader, the stench of adrenaline clinging to her body, "I'm going to join the other, I want to see that my husband's last breath is not in front of his son."
Karim blinked, fury creeping under his skin, "I thought we came because your fucking kid is dead."
"I have two sons. My youngest doesn't need to see – "
He whipped around for a brief moment, "Ali, make sure these men do what she wants, everyone else come with me. We're getting out of here."
Riddled with confusion, the remaining guard sputtered but directed his gun to Addison, nodding to his friend to let the woman go. She fell limply to the floor as the three chased out of the dig site. "Boss, what the hell?"
The tallest of the group turned to his client and slapped her roughly, "You weak, soulless, piece of fucking shit. You're killing your son's rat of a father, then offering yourself to us as payment? What the fuck is your kid gonna do? You gonna leave him on the streets to be like us? That's what'll happen!"
"How dare you!"
"How dare I? How fucking dare you drag us out here over the death of your son, when you're leaving the other one to rot in hell! Where the fuck do you get off sending us on a manhunt as a murderer? You're no better than those men, you're no better than any of us! You get your husband's blood and my word is good, I'm done with you."
"I only wanted…my child is…" She fell to the ground, legs unable to support her weight any longer, "Omari, forgive me. Forgive Mama." She had been so caught up in wrath that she had not stopped to think of her youngest child, clinging to her in the night, needing her. She had been blind to his cries, even though he had been hounding her with questions about the boy who taught him to carve a staff, to fly a kite, just hours ago. It had not seemed true before, but she realized now that she was leaving her healthy child for one long departed.
"We get this done and walk out with the money." He addressed only his men until turning to her, forcing her onto her feet and off to the final resting place of the man she married, "We can do much better than you."
The process of erasing their memories was slow and draining. Yugi's, as it turned out, had been the shortest and least challenging. Joey fought twice as hard, convinced he would never wake from the inevitable slumber. It took nearly an hour for him to surrender to sleep, and only in the last few minutes was he weak enough to stop resisting Pegasus's arms as they embraced him. Tristan's time passed in much the same way, although he had to pin the boy down to stop him from throwing punches. The body beneath him was moved by adrenaline alone, and once the rush subsided, was too weak from malnourishment to even squirm. He knew then that he had let the strike go too far. As painful as the task was, he blamed himself for letting them endure such bodily harm because he was too soft hearted to do it sooner.
He waited an hour, gathering his strength before he resumed the chore. Two glasses of wine had numbed him a little, but nothing could prepare him for the agony of Ryou's turn. He, like Yugi, knew what was coming. He didn't fight for a moment, rather broke down into hysterics and begged not to be trapped there. Pegasus held him closer than he had held anyone, assuring him that he was safe with Daddy, and it would be over soon. Had the boy's terror not forced him to relive the only experience more traumatic than torturing a child, he would have ended everything. But Cecelia came to him in waves as he hushed and soothed the boy, making the agony quick for both of them. He was too close to victory to pull out now.
Seto fought hard to see Mokuba go, but it was nothing two guards and a sedative couldn't fix. The child succumbed easily compared to the rest. He was too small to fight physically, and resorted to calling for Seto as Pegasus held and soothed him. Eventually his young mind was won over by the cooing of the man above him, and his spirit surrendered to the bliss of oblivion.
Pegasus was left with two children and no more capacity for alcohol, lest he render himself stupid-drunk and useless. An impossible choice left him standing in the hallway between two doors, Seto's and Tea's. The boy was weak from hunger and sedative, so Pegasus hoped he would be the easiest, and quickest, to take care of. Steeling himself, he advanced to Tea's door. She was so close to perfect, did he really need to do this to her? He shook his head to clear it. Trust was not everything, she had memories he could not allow, thoughts that may corrupt or trigger something in her siblings – and aside from that, she was scarred by the loss of a family member that was not his.
He promised to help her heal, and by purging the pain he would fulfill that. He pushed the door open and approached her. She could have no family aside from the one living within these walls. "Tea, come with Daddy for a minute." She turned from the wall opposite him, frightened by his sudden presence in the room. She had been too lost in thought to catch the heavy footfall drawing closer and closer to the bed.
"Is something wrong?" She asked hesitantly. He shook his head no, but his gaze betrayed everything. There was a potent sadness in his eye, oozing conflict not even her nightmares could bring to life. She drew back away from the bed, stumbling to her feet and putting a hand against the wall she had been studying.
"What's all this?" His voice took on that hallow softness she remembered from their earlier conversation, and all at once she realized what her pounding heart had been trying to tell her. What Pegasus Crawford felt may have been love, but it was not the warm flutter of comfort she knew. This was something sinister, a glint of madness stirring that she had been blind to in grief. "Don't be afraid, your friends are waiting for you." He had advanced and taken her wrist while she was busy deciphering the warnings in his good eye.
"Waiting?" She whispered, "I don't understand."
He smiled knowingly, wrapping his free arm around her shoulders and giving her a push toward the door. The hand resting on the wall behind her clawed for something to hold on to, but there was nothing to keep her pinned to the safety of her room. He walked her effortlessly to the doorway. As they entered the halls, she matched his strides reflexively.
"You're such a good girl." He crooned, "So strong and polite, just like your mother." He pressed a softened hand over her eyes, freeing the wrist it had taken, and they descended into cold.
Though they fell for only a moment, her stomach doubled up long after her feet hit the ground. His hand was blocking her vision but still she squeezed her eyes shut. The anxiety built and she tried to calm herself by thinking of his comforting words. Your friends are waiting for you, your friends… friends… friends. She froze, heart thrusting through her chest and shaking her veins with epiphany, he hadn't said brothers, he had said….
"Pegasus!" She jerked from his hold unexpectedly, and he struggled to grab her before she hit the stone ground. "What is this place?" Raw fear gripped her as she took in the stretching purple surroundings, radiating sorrow and suffering.
"Mattea." He scolded, "Don't be so rash, you'll hurt yourself." His hands were snaking around her again, tugging her backwards as she set her feet, trying to wrap her up and protect her from the worst of this place.
"How did we get here?"
"It's alright to be scared honey, just let me – "
"Tell me the truth," her voice broke with tears, "did you bring me here?"
He was silent for a moment before both of his hands dug themselves into her shoulders and pulled her back against his chest. He gathered both of her hands to her stomach and pinned them in his own, wrapping the other arm around her as if to swaddle her with his body.
"I'm so sorry." He cooed hurriedly, "I can't risk letting you keep your memories, if they triggered the others', it would only make things complicated. I need you trust me, Tea. Trust Daddy like you promised."
She twisted violently in his hold, kicking her feet back against any part of him she could reach. He held her stronger than ever, body somehow newly energized despite not sleeping since before the ordeal with Yugi.
"What about the things you promised?" Pain seared across her forehead as her emotions built, adding to the stress the shadow realm was layering on her mind, "You told me you loved me! You told me this would get easier!"
"It will!" He shouted, exacerbated, "If you would trust my judgment this would be a lot easier on you."
"On me? The only person this entire nightmare has helped is you." She sobbed accusingly, "I trusted you. I told you I couldn't deal with losing my brother, so to help me, you bring me to some fucking wormhole of hell, listening to people sobbing and begging, and asking to be spared? I can't do this!" Her body went limp from exertion and he knew, battling with the lump in his throat, that surrender was not far off, "Please don't make me do this anymore."
"Look at me." Every stitch of confidence unraveled and he sunk to the ground with her, cradling the failing form of her body in his arms. He remembered hurting her all those weeks ago, praying over her and begging for forgiveness. He had found it, only to forsake it. He brushed tresses of her hair back, letting a tear fall onto the pale skin of her cheek. Her eyes were knives in his back, and for a moment he almost couldn't speak. "I was wrong." He mumbled, then, raising his voice, "It wasn't supposed to go this far, you know. But they were so stubborn and they wouldn't give me any leverage." He shook his head in frustration and resumed stroking her hair, "I know I've hurt you here, and I will carry that on my soul for the rest of my life." He paused, swallowing the moisture behind his eyes.
"It doesn't have to be this way."
"No matter how cruel I seemed, I always loved you." He brought her forehead up gently in the crook of his arm, and bent to kiss it. "Your eyes are stepping stones back to the happiest and darkest times in my life, and I know I was hard on you for that. I'm sorry. I only wanted the seven of you to be mine."
He expected her to be falling into sleep, but her eyes were wide open, no more fantasies and charades, "I've learned a lot from you and your game. All of us have. Kaiba will never admit it, and Yugi doesn't understand just yet, but you've connected us in ways we never would have been, if not for duel monsters. For all the times you've hurt us, there has been good too. You don't have to own us to make us yours." She took his hand in hers and clutched it with the last of her strength. He remembered Cecelia's trembling fingers doing the same as she took her final breath, "Our hearts were always full of you."
She spent her final moment of consciousness in forgiveness, because as long as she knew joy, hope, sadness, and regret, she would love Pegasus Crawford. Somewhere deep down, she did not resent that his face would be the last she'd see, if this was the end of her life. She fell into sleep and he held her body to his, dragging it, with the last of his strength, to the master bedroom and collapsing onto the bed.
The shadow realm was behind them, he knew, but it weighed on him with all the fury of the dimension they had just left. Still, he gazed down at her with the focus of novelists penning their final pages, reading the little lines across her forehead. He could see her in pink slip dresses trimmed with lace and tied with bows, a white cardigan trailing after her as she ran down the beach, laughing to the wind, calling for Mama.
She would stumble and take too-big strides in eagerness, and he and Cecelia would laugh at having raised clumsy children. Her sundresses turned to ball gowns and he pictured her at prom, doting on a rough-edged boy with gaps between his teeth. Even now the anger flared in him, urging him to protect his child, and he could almost feeling Cecelia's calming hand on his shoulder, pulling him back.
"Let her go." The soft voice said, and he would. She would dance until her feet ached with all the ingrained grace of age, mirroring her mother's languid turns and spins. He would come early to pick her up, watch her last dance in the arms of a boy he did not approve of, taking him back to first ballet lessons and pirouettes. In five years she would finish college with an engagement ring and his heart would ache, as it ached now, because he would have to let her go.
He closed his eye and imagined her mature, glowing beauty as she talked about marriage. Eyes the picture of her mother's the day he had taken her hand, free spirit running to a soon to be son-in-law. Suddenly illusion faded to a white background, and his sons in well-kept suits vanished to reveal just he and his daughter. She extended her hand for his, and his mind forced the figment of the fiancé to her side, but in truth he was not there. It was the final father-daughter dance before giving her away, and her lips were saying, "Our hearts were always full of you."
A dry sob cracked out into stillness and he broke away from the dream. The child in his bed was unfazed, and he scooped her up to carry her on fawn feet. Humming the tune of the song he and Cecelia walked down the aisle to, he danced and swayed with her in his arms.
"You'll always be my baby." He whispered as the pace picked up and the music played out in his head. "No matter what happens to come between us, don't forget where your home is."
Tears came and he danced through them, cradling her like the small child she should have been. Fingers trailed her cheek to coax blue eyes open and gaze longingly upon them, knowing their child may have had them, too. But she was too far gone to wake, and he did not force her. She loved him, just as he would always love her, and she never needed bribing with birthday candles and vacations. He fell to his knees, tucking her into the bed and trembling as he struggled to grip the sheets. She had been his without questions, reservations, or grudges.
He wept into the fabric of the comforter, picturing his wife, who had loved him beyond his fame, fortune and titles. She was always his better half, and in present reality, his only daughter had become that, too. He had been too blind to see that she admired him, despite everything, with no persuasion at all.
The shrill ring of his phone pierced his thoughts, and he let out a low growl as he fished for it. Clearing his throat to force traces of tears away, he flipped it open, "Hello?"
The remaining gunmen lowered his weapon, leaving the two conscious members of Pegasus's team baffled. "The ritual that woman mentioned is a curse of ancient Egypt." He began, suddenly tired and strained, "It's a trick more horrible than books can tell and men can imagine. It goes against nature. The dead aren't supposed to live again."
Addison thought to reach for his pistol, but knew he couldn't risk it with Olivia unconscious at the criminal's feet, "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying anyone who's ever spoken the damn thing has been damned, and I got no place in this. Nothing you do is gonna bring that kid back, he's gone. Whether you want your boss to succeed or suffer is up to you, but something like this doesn't pass over messengers."
"So this is the only way Pegasus gets what he wants, but if we do this, it hurts all of us?" Hito questioned, confusion prominent in his voice.
The thief turned his back to them, "I don't know if there's one way or a hundred, I just know it shouldn't be done. There's another life to be with the dead, they don't belong in this one. People here believe there's a special place in hell for those that defy fate, and that curse has proved it over and over. You have any part in him going through with this, and you're done in, for good. Forget your families; they're as good as gone to you. The minute someone starts chanting, it's over for anyone involved."
"You think telling us this pardons you?" Addison spat disgustedly.
The native only laughed his way out of the cave, "I'm telling you not to be stupid. Keep a secret and no one gets hurt."
"If that were true, and you were in danger, you'd have killed us already."
The man stopped and turned to face Addison a final time, shrouded in the darkness of the path unlit by lanterns, "Egypt, lake of eternal fire, hell's all the same to me." With that he turned again, and was gone.
"What the fuck was that about?" Hito struggled to his feet, turning to Addison, who immediately grabbed his gun in one hand and cell phone in the other, "What are you doing?"
"I can't pretend we didn't kill that boy." He raved, clearly unnerved, "For nothing. The spirit of the ring wouldn't have taken this long to possess a soulless body if it was actually interested in one."
"Why would he lie to us?"
Addison shrugged, trying to steady his fingers enough to dial, "Hell if I know."
"What are you doing?" Hito repeated angrily, taking a clumsy step toward his coworker.
"I'm going to find out what's really going on here, and then I'm going to tell him about that damn incantation. We owe it to those kids; otherwise they'll end up like the boy in there. His mother was right; they're innocent victims in this."
Hito lunged for the phone as Addison cocked the pistol, "Didn't you hear that guy? If you tell anyone about this, we're all dead. I'll be damned if you're dragging me into it, and Olivia too. If you have regrets that's your own business, I'm not delivering myself to demons on a silver platter."
"I've told myself that over and over." He shook his head numbly, "But I allowed all of this to happen. For years I indulged that man's fantasies, the sicker they got the more distant I became, but I never encouraged him to get help. He would've been fine if he'd have just talked to someone. But I didn't tell him that because I was too concerned about losing my job for one of the most prestigious men in the world. Now a child is dead, and I'm a party to it, and if we don't stop this scheme – whatever it really is – seven more could be dead before tomorrow."
The younger's anger was too strong to suppress, "They could be dead right NOW, you idiot. We're not there to see them alive and well, he's kept them brainwashed for months, the fucking damage is done. Even if they get out of there, you think they're just gonna go back to school dances and part time jobs dipping ice cream? Pull yourself together; you're too far in to play the sympathy card."
"Don't make excuses for this." He pulled up speed dial contacts and pressed one. Almost instantly Pegasus's number became visible.
"You'd seriously leave Martha without a husband, James and his kids without their father and grandfather – for strangers? Don't do this, I won't let you do this."
Pegasus's voice sounded on the other line, and Addison moved the phone against his jacket momentarily, raising the gun in his other hand, "You don't have a choice."
"Hello?" Pegasus hissed into the phone again.
"Sir, we're having a problem with the millennium ring, the spirit hasn't accepted the offering."
He brought a hand to his face, moving the curtain of hair away, "What do you mean it hasn't accepted the offering?"
"We think maybe it's because it was a child, sir we made a terrible mistake but the boy was willing and we assumed – "
"It is a malicious spirit." He spat, "It doesn't care if the host is a child as long as it's able bodied. Why a full team of armed, articulate men couldn't persuade someone older is beyond me, but if you preyed on the weak I assure you, the only one morally affected is you."
Addison blinked at the man's underlying outrage. He knew his boss was dying to tell him how incompetent and pathetic he was for picking a child, of all people, and for a moment he had hope, "How are the children, sir?" He asked, lowering his tone until it was soft and calm.
"They're missing their mother." Pegasus growled to reiterate his word was not to be questioned.
In that moment, Addison realized that no matter how much his employer grew to the love the hostages, it would never be enough to let them go, "We've found an ancient ritual that can bring back the dead without the seven sacred items." He admitted, battling with the tremors as they began to wrack his body.
Pegasus, plagued by heartache and anxiety at having one child left to purge, ignored the sharp pang of skepticism rising in his bones, "You're serious?" He barked into the phone.
Addison moved the gun away from Hito and pressed the barrel to his own head, "Yes sir, all you have to do is – "
"Spare me the details." Pegasus interrupted as his employee cocked the trigger, ready to relay his message and surrender himself for his sins, "You can explain when you observe this ritual, in person. Come as fast as you can, my patience grows thin." The phone snapped shut. Addison dropped the device to the ground and sobbed. Even his reprieve of guilt, it seemed, would be on Pegasus's terms. He prayed he could keep his composure long enough to be the man's undoing.
"Get up." He ordered shakily as he fired the round into the wall opposite him, disturbing the foundation of the cave. "Put her over your shoulder and lead us out, we're going back to the island."
Pegasus rose with newfound strength and stamina, pressing a final kiss to Tea's forehead before carrying her off to waiting doctors, "Take good care of her." He called threateningly over his shoulder as the doctors cast one another puzzled looks. Six children in various stages of starvation, rendered unconscious within forty-eight hours of one another, something didn't fit. It was a unanimously silent acknowledgement. In the end they observed his wishes and cared for the six children they knew their employer would soon make seven.
As Pegasus gathered Seto into his arms, he noted that his instructions had not gone undone. The boy was bound by his wrists and ankles, cursing furiously as he squirmed, a ragdoll against broad shoulders.
"Don't fight your father." He scolded sternly as they reached the gruesome purgatory, but Seto was far from hearing him.
"You sick creep, get your hands off me! Take me back to Mokuba – "
"Mokuba is sleeping peacefully, soon you will be too." Pegasus hushed, running a hand through the boy's baby-fine hair. He wasted no time in engulfing the child in a white, soothing light, millennium eye working to overtax his mind as quickly as possible. Seto had already endured horrific abuse and trauma, and Pegasus worried that this may not be as effective as it appeared to be for the others.
His eye glowed, filling him with an ominous surge of power as Kaiba's last conscious memories took shape. Pegasus could feel himself become a figure in the child's imagination and realized that this was not just a memory, but a recurring night terror.
"Seto." He whispered soothingly, "I need you to relax, this will be over quickly." It did not shake the man from his wrongful place in the child's head. He was forced to be an audience to the disturbing final images of Seto's consciousness, which unfolded in shrill screams from a television.
"Jesus! JESUS!" Somewhere below him, he could make out an office with a small television sitting on a desk. In the far corner of the room, a young Seto Kaiba stood in the corner, listening to his stepfather's favorite movie scene over and over.
Something swept him in closer, and the screen became clear. Smoke encircled a woman, flames crawling up a wooden stake where she was bound, devouring her flesh and gnawing tediously on her bones. She screamed in white-hot agony, begging, praying, scrambling for any coherent thoughts that might distract her from the pain. The demented businessman Pegasus knew from a few functions his father held, grinned wickedly at the screen, his hands fumbling under the desk as his breaths became deep and irregular. Holding Seto closer, he flinched away from the dream in disgust.
"This is where you're going, you worthless little shit." The graying CEO spat as the child muffled his terrified cries with both hands, "If you don't start living up to this company name, you're gonna burn in hell. You're a bastard child with no hope left in this world, and it'd do me no good to see you baptized – even the savior doesn't want you."
Seto shook convulsively in the corner, pressing both hands over his ears, and eventually, when his stomach threatened to void itself, over his mouth again. Over and over he listened to the woman scream, experiencing her death a thousand merciless times, praying to be saved from the atrocity. But there was no savior for him. There was only the devil and a remote, dragging a cursor back, rewinding, replaying, getting off.
Pegasus forced himself out of the boy's mind, panting and sick. Beneath him Seto was limp, burning with shame, embarrassment, and self-loathing. The darkness was weighing on him and he knew sooner or later he would face the end. He had been too stupid to abandon Yugi and his ridiculous friends to get he and Mokuba to safety. His heart clenched at the thought of his little brother, Mokuba didn't deserve this. He hated Pegasus, he hated him more than –
"Sweetheart, I am so sorry." The bastard was holding him like he held Yugi the first few days of their captivity, in the dining room. "I'm so, so sorry." Was he crying? Seto tried to shrug away from his hold, but knew it was a wasted effort.
"You're not sorry." He choked, "You always wanted this." For the most part, he could force himself to forget about those long nights in his stepfather's study, tell himself that religion, and fate, and destiny were not real. Sometimes he believed it. But as he lay in what he believed to be the final moments of his life, he feared, somewhere deep inside of him, that fire was waiting on the other side. The only comfort he could take in an afterlife being real, was Pegasus being subject to its endless torture when he met his own end.
"Listen to me." Pegasus begged, battling with his emotions, trying to ignore the rage that swelled in his stomach knowing Gozaburo Kaiba was already dead, safe where he could not make him suffer for his unspeakable cruelty. "You're just fine; you can hear your heart beating normally, and your breathing relaxing. I just need you to sleep for a little while, and when you wake up you won't have those thoughts, anymore.
"Shut up!" He hated that his body was admitting it by visibly relaxing in the man's arms, but the words gave him hope. He was shutting down to rest, not decomposing, not slipping into death.
"I love you, son." Pegasus brought him into an embrace, placing his head delicately on his shoulder.
Kaiba jerked, fighting unconsciousness a few more moments. Without knowing why, he looked at the aura surrounding him and Pegasus, and began to question if this place was earthly. Whenever he woke up, he would force himself to stop dealing with these thoughts – they only destroyed his clarity, but for now, in Pegasus's arms, something final came spilling out before he could stop it.
"All my nightmares are of fire."
The awful memories of childhood lost their potency little by little until they faded entirely. As Pegasus prattled on about the life he would have as his son, he wondered – in a fragmented moment of drug induced weakness – if this was what real fathers told their children. He shook his head to banish the thoughts, trying to ignore them by surrendering to blackness.
The world was a soft voice of someone he tried to hate, and the blonde curls of a woman he didn't know, then, before he was ready, it was simply gone.
Author's Note: I know there will be some strong feelings about this chapter, and that's okay. I'm not here to preach anything, Yugioh does have loose ties to religion and I am in no way intending to mock someone's belief. This was intended to be used as a character study and element of plot, nothing more, nothing less. Loose ends will be tied up next chapter, but if you're really confused about something (and it doesn't give away future chapters) I'm more than happy to discuss it with you. As always, thank you for reading.
