Fear was riding Agatsuma Soubi like a wild horse. Its venomous poison coursed through his veins, and despite everything he was trying to do to keep hold of the tenuous thread of sanity that was left to him, it was fraying in his desperate hands. One solitary thought kept him from throwing himself to the ground and collapsing into his own beckoning nightmares: Ritsuka. Must get to Ritsuka.

Soubi was seriously having trouble distinguishing reality from the never-ending array of ominous delusions that haunted him as he rushed towards his Sacrifice. He tried to concentrate on what he knew were solid facts. Someone had kidnapped Ritsuka. Someone, some real, living person, had knocked him out in the hospital. Ritsuka had called to him. That meant Ritsuka was alive. Now all he had to do was get to him.

And yet, it wasn't going to be that simple. First, he could only just barely detect Ritsuka's presence, which meant he was likely unconscious. Again. Ritsuka was also very far away. This knowledge did not exactly fill Soubi with confidence, nor do much to allay his mounting fear. Second, no matter how he tried to deny it or explain it away, what he had seen and experienced at the hospital had scared him worse than anything else. Seimei. Alive. I refuse to accept it. I don't even know who I am anymore…

He had been just lying there in the hospital, Ritsuka cradled in his arms, exhaustion having taken over, his eyes half lidded. It had happened like something out of a nightmare: suddenly, Aoyagi Seimei was standing over him.

Seimei. Soubi blinked, then blinked again. This can't be real.

"I've come for Ritsuka."

His deep voice, the casual way he stood there, the way his lip was curled into that half smile… It was exactly, exactly like Seimei. But Seimei is dead.

Soubi automatically pulled his Sacrifice closer to him. No. This is a nightmare. No. I refuse to believe this is real.

"No…"

The man's face darkened. Soubi knew that look. It was the ominous glare that preceded violence. The man that would be Seimei brought his face within inches of Soubi's. "You. dare. refuse. me."

Soubi couldn't help it; he panicked. Years of obeying Seimei's every wish and whim under the threat of brutality had been driven into him like a wooden stake. Fear gripped him, its cruel talons cutting deep into his crawling skin. He couldn't breathe. No matter what his mind told him, his entire physiology insisted: this person must be obeyed without question.

"Give him to me."

A battle was going on inside Agatsuma Soubi that he could not win. His entire being was dedicated to protecting and obeying his Sacrifice. That was the reason for his existence. The only reason. Without that, he was nothing, nothing at all. But both of these people are my Sacrifices.

No, Ritsuka was his Sacrifice. Ritsuka. Seimei was dead. It was not possible that Seimei was alive. Not possible.

His Fighter senses told him otherwise, however. This was no illusion: that man, whoever he was, Seimei's twin, was definitely standing there, smiling cruelly at him, looking very, very corporeal. Soubi shook his head, trying to clear it. If this is truly Seimei, I have no choice but to obey him. Yet even as that thought occurred to him, his arms tightened protectively around Ritsuka. No.

A feeling started rising in Soubi that was entirely foreign to him, one that he found absolutely horrifying. There was a part of him, a new and raw and untried part, that didn't care who was whose Sacrifice. The truth was that he would protect Ritsuka with his life no matter who the hell that man in black standing in front of him was. He would protect Ritsuka, not because he was programmed to protect his Sacrifice, but because… because he loved him. Not because Seimei ordered him to love Ritsuka, not because he needed to forge a bond of love between the two of them in order for them to function as a Fighter-Sacrifice pair, but because Ritsuka was the person he cared about most in the world, and that was the end of it.

The aftermath of that realization shook him straight to the core. He simply sat there, blinking. Could it be? Could I really be free of these chains?

Soubi looked straight into the eyes of the man claiming to be his ex-Sacrifice. "I watched Aoyagi Seimei die."

The man in black struck like a cobra, lightning-fast and vicious. He grabbed Soubi by the hair and slammed the back of his head savagely into the wall. "No. You saw what I wanted you to see. Your eyes belong to me. I decide everything you see, everything you hear, everything you taste, everything you feel. I am your everything. You are nothing without me."

You are nothing.

His hand tightened around Soubi's hair, fisting it viciously. "What do you say?" Soubi only stared at him with watering eyes, squeezing Ritsuka tighter. He smashed Soubi's head into the wall again with a sickening crack. "Answer me!"

"Yes, Master."

"Let go of him."

"Yes, Master."

I am nothing. I exist only to obey. I must obey. I must… But his arms would not comply. Fighting through blinding pain and nearly crippling fear, he clung to Ritsuka and refused to relinquish him.

"I said let go of him!"

Soubi struggled to remain conscious as his head was once more battered against the wall behind him, but it was a losing battle. He attempted to summon his Fighter's abilities, but the repeated blows had disoriented him. He felt himself wrenched out from under Ritsuka, his Sacrifice's little fingers slipping out of his frantically clutching hands. Then he was slammed straight into the wall face first and knew no more.

That is, until Roy's singing had brought him back. And now I've lost the only allies I had.

Soubi sighed. He didn't even want to know what he'd done to Ed and Roy on his way out the door. It had all happened in a blinding flash of light: he had heard Ritsuka's call, and then he was being restrained, and he hated, he hated being restrained… He'd fought against it for all he was worth, and he imagined he'd now ruined any chance of them helping him get Ritsuka back. And Kio wasn't talking to him, either. Alone again. As always.

But he hadn't had any choice. He had to get to Ritsuka. Ritsuka was in danger, and he needed to reach him now. The question of how exactly he was going to help him when he got there was not something he needed to think about right now. Ritsuka. Must get to Ritsuka. The one I must obey. The one I… love.