He could hear footsteps. They were currently just distant echoes, but he guessed they meant it was coming soon, at long last. He'd received what was as good as a promise earlier that day. He could be grateful it had been delayed this long, at least. He counted fourteen days, two weeks, since it had first been threatened. That made twenty six days in total he'd been sitting here, and now, something was happening, though it was not exactly what he had hoped for.
Seto Kaiba, handcuffed and blindfolded, letting some perverted guard have his way. Quite a pathetic situation for the rich and powerful head of Kaiba Corp. His designated guard, if he had a name, had made advances on Kaiba on the twelfth day he'd spent in this dark room, but for whatever reason, hadn't touched him since. But today, when he'd come at his usual daily time, whenever it might be, to feed and water Kaiba, he'd groped at his torso quite lecherously. This, to Kaiba, confirmed that the footsteps he could vaguely hear now, several hours later, were that of his guard's, ready to come and take what he would of him by force. Disgusting.
These people clearly had no shame, treating prisoners like animals, but this impending abuse was not at the forefront of Kaiba's mind. It would be humiliating, but there was nothing he could do about it in his present state, so he might as well do his best to ignore whatever his guard had in mind. It was the implications from his guard's advances that affected Kaiba, not the approaching act itself. No, the subject Kaiba was thinking of was the same subject he always thought of in this place. Mokuba.
If he had been terrified by what may have happened to Mokuba on his twelfth day here, it was like a mild concern about the weather to what he was feeling now. Twenty six days, almost four weeks, by far the longest he'd ever been separated from his brother. Never in his life had he felt such fear, for quite little actually frightened him in the world. The knowledge of what his brother might be experiencing truly terrified him. When awake, he tried to stop himself imagining exactly what was certainly happening to Mokuba elsewhere in this place, and think of how jubilant his little brother would be when they got out of this prison. However, whenever he fell asleep, he could not stop the dreams of his brother tortured, mutilated, abused and murdered, seeping from his subconscious into stark view. Thus he constantly willed himself to stay alert and awake, fearing these nightmares, and the possible truths they held.
His guard had not taken advantage of him yet, but unfortunately, he knew this could only be a special case for him, and that Mokuba would not be kept safe by this delay. He had long deduced that his own fame was the reason they'd left him here and separated him from the others. Most likely his guard had been told to only do his duties, and not touch Kaiba, by whoever was in charge. But Mokuba...he knew they would do whatever they liked to Mokuba. His guard's overeager interest in Kaiba had long since betrayed this place's nature. Any torture they inflicted on his brother would be, at the bare minimum, sexual in nature. As much as the thought shamed and disgusted him, he had to hope this was all they would do to Mokuba, and not physically torment him as well.
If anything like that happened, it would be his fault, his fault for not doing his duty and protecting his little brother, for not saving him in time. In fact, it was already his fault, for bringing Mokuba along with him that evening, twenty six days ago. Mokuba was already a far better person than himself; he'd known that for a long time. Mokuba was caring, gentle and intelligent, the best the human race could ever produce, and he didn't deserve to be destroyed like this. He deserved to be happy, and Kaiba had failed to provide that for him, failed him utterly.
All of a sudden, he heard a great scraping noise, as the door was opened. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed the footsteps growing louder. It quickly shut again with an echoing bang.
"Took me two damn weeks to get my shift partner out there to turn a blind eye, bet you've been just dying of anticipation, eh?"
The feet shuffled slowly across the concrete, drawing closer and closer to Kaiba, who felt himself instinctively attempting to recoil, to no avail.
"I'm gonna be doing this every chance I get, just so you know what to expect"
A short, high laugh erupted from the unseen guard, which ceased as abruptly as it began.
"Bigshot Seto Kaiba, ready to have my cock in his mouth, this really is fucking brilliant. Serves you right for thinking you're so much better than everyone else, lording over us with your money and your company. Fucking insulting us putting your stupid little kid brother second in charge! Well, look at you two now. Your brother's getting fucked like a bitch every night over at the mansion, and you're gonna join him in that nightly bit of fun, starting right now!"
Kaiba felt himself shaking with fury, the hot rage coursing through him. If only he could see, he would teach this bastard to dare talk about Mokuba, to insult him like this. Without warning, the gag in his mouth was ripped out, and a pair of rough, harsh lips pressed hard against his own. They pressed in harder, and harder, before suddenly being jerked away, but the gag did not return. Kaiba spat out to his side, trying to get the horrid taste of smoke and various other toxins out of his mouth.
Out of nowhere, he felt a hand seize him by the throat, and hold his face straight. He could smell the man's foul breath from mere inches away.
"Where should we start, then, Kaiba? Jumped up little shit, it's about time you got taught a few lessons in who's really boss around here"
The breath drew away; the man seemed to have stood up. Much to Kaiba's revulsion, he heard a zipper begin to descend. However, his captor appeared to reconsider, for he stopped abruptly.
"On second thought..."
Kaiba felt the breath return, and expected that the man was once again crouching in front of him.
"First off, I'm gonna tell you exactly what's gonna happen. Just so you know, then you can look forward to it. Right now, my cock's gonna go to the first place it belongs, down your throat. Then these pants you've got are coming off, and I'm gonna fuck you like there's no tomorrow. Got all that? I really hope so, it's gonna be daily from now on. And don't worry about being the only one in the family, by now little Mokuba Kaiba's probably had twenty different cocks down his throat and up his ass. You can think over that while you're working, Kaiba. And one last thing, you're gonna be watching me while you do it"
To Kaiba's shock, he felt the blindfold be lifted off his eyes, and dropped to the floor. He immediately shut his eyes, finding even the tiny amount of light in the room, a single small bulb dangling from the ceiling, a blinding glare to his vision. His captor was laughing once again, still crouching in front of him. He gradually opened his eyes, his vision returning after nearly four weeks in darkness. He could see...
"Seto Kaiba, my own personal bitch, how absolutely fantastic"
Kaiba was still adjusting, still comprehending that he could suddenly see once again, as the guard rose back to his feet. Kaiba looked around wildly, the blur slowly vanishing from his vision. The room looked to be some kind of maintenance space, dark, dank and filled with rusted pipes, shooting in all directions. His guard was finally revealed to be a short, unkempt man of medium build, with a bony, plain face, and a shaved head. He wore a sleeveless t-shirt and faded jeans, and Kaiba could see, as he expected, the outline of keys in the right pocket.
He was smirking down at Kaiba, while beginning to finish unzipping his jeans. At that moment, Kaiba hated this dirty thug more than anything in his entire life. This scum, who'd taunted him with Mokuba, insulting his brother with disgusting insinuations, and was ready to molest Kaiba himself.
Now, for the first time in four weeks, Kaiba spoke.
"You made a mistake"
The guard ceased his movement, and stared down at Kaiba, looking deeply amused.
"Ha, really? What's that then?"
Kaiba began to inconspicuously draw his legs in, even as he stared up rigidly at his captor.
"Well? What's mister billionaire go to say for himself? I didn't bring a condom?"
Kaiba merely continued to stare, not responding.
"Well, what is it? Answer me you little shit!"
"You took off my blindfold"
His legs shot out, smashing into the guard's calves, and sweeping them over to the side, sending the filthy thug crashing loudly to the floor, landing on his side. Kaiba wasted no time, and wrenched his legs out from underneath the thug, pivoted to the side and caught the man's head between his feet, one heel on the side of the chin, the other beneath. Without pausing, for this man deserved no mercy, he kicked his foot out, twisting the thug's neck around in an instant, resulting in a sickening snap that echoed throughout the room. Immediately, his body went limp, and he moved no more.
Kaiba paused, taking deep, rattling breaths, as he gazed, almost fascinated, at the bizarre position of his guard's neck. He had just killed a man. Just like that.
He could thank Gozaburo for the quick killing method, as his years of study had of course contained a small but effective section on such lethal defences. But he had never actually killed someone before, and even if this man deserved it, the sound of his neck breaking was still echoing throughout Kaiba's mind.
With a start, he realised he was wasting time, and that he likely had mere moments to further his escape. This was no moment to feel guilty for giving scum like this what they deserved. The guard had mentioned a "shift partner", and there was a strong chance he had heard the crash, and was coming to investigate. If Kaiba could hear footsteps through the door, someone would certainly someone slamming into the floor.
With no time to lose, he swung his legs around, stopping over the dead guard's left jeans pocket. Trying to hold the leg steady with one foot, he began to kick at the bottom, attempting to force the keys up and out of the pocket. They slowly began to move, bit by bit.
Suddenly Kaiba stopped, listening carefully. Sure enough, he could hear footsteps approaching, and what sounded like a man calling out something. He had to hurry, or he was dead.
He kicked furiously and frantically at the pocket, desperate to get it out in time. The footsteps grew louder and louder, even as the keys barely moved.
"Come on!"
With the next kick, the keys abruptly flew out of the pocket, landing a foot away from the body. Kaiba hastily planted his foot on the keys, before raising himself up off the ground, and shoving the keys along the floor, underneath him. They hit the wall with a sharp crack, and he dropped back down to the ground and seized them in his hands. The footsteps were just about outside the door. He quickly sought out the smallest key, the one that would fit in the handcuffs, and twisted his hands around painfully to fit it into the tiny hole. With a dull click, the handcuffs opened, and dropped off his hands, clattering to the floor.
He had no time to adjust to having his hands free; the door was already beginning to open. Kaiba launched himself up, across the room, just as the door swung inwards. A man not dissimilar to the one lying lifeless on the floor had just entered, clutching a handgun. At the unexpected sight of Seto Kaiba lunging at him, the startled guard raised his weapon, attempting to shoot down his assailant, but failed, as Kaiba managed to grab the man's arm and force it sideways. However, the gun still fired, and a cloud of dust erupted from the floor behind them, even as Kaiba felt a searing pain in his side. Ignoring it, he seized the gun arm with both hands, wrestling wildly for the weapon. The gun went off again, this time hitting the wall to their left, showering them in more dust. Kaiba spun on the spot slightly, managing to just twist the guard's wrist around enough so that he lost his grip on the handle of the gun.
Catching the gun in his fingers, he immediately swung it upwards, slamming the butt of the handle into the man's temple. The thug's eyes went slack, and his struggle weakened. Kaiba raised his hand up and struck his head a second time. This time the guard's legs gave way, and he crumpled to the road, before slumping limply against the doorframe.
Kaiba stumbled backwards, beginning to feel the full effects of the events at last. He head was spinning, his heart was beating uncontrollably, and he was breathing raggedly. He pulled open his coat, to check his side, still burning with pain.
He had gotten lucky, the bullet had just grazed the skin right above his right hip, leaving him with what was effectively a deep gash. He staggered over to the first guard and put the gun into his pocket, before reaching down and tearing his shirt almost in half, to use as a temporary bandage. He quickly pressed it to his side, trying to stop the blood now seeping liberally from the wound. Clutching it carefully to the injury, he crossed the room again, and began to pull the unconscious guard over to where his would be rapist lay. Kaiba searched through both men's pockets, finding nothing of value other than the second guard's own set of keys, which seemed to include a key to some kind of vehicle.
He picked up the discarded handcuffs and locked the living guard to one of the sturdiest looking pipes running along the floor. He moved slowly back across the room, still holding the cloth tightly to his side.
He walked through the open door, turned, and slammed it shut. Cycling through the numerous keys until he found the correct one, he locked it, sealing the still living guard inside completely.
The adrenaline was beginning to lose its effect, and his dizziness stemming from the gunshot wound was disappearing. After the rapid escape from his prison of four weeks, he was now able to think clearly and cohesively again. His first thought, which came to him in the blink of an eye, was-
"MOKUBA! MO-MOKUBA! CAN YOU H-HEAR YOU?"
His voice was weak, and he was short of breath; his injury had taken a larger toll than he had thought. He withdrew the handgun from his coat pocket, and began to wander down the narrow, grey corridor.
"MOKUBA! YUUGI! YAMI! IS ANYBODY HERE?"
He knew it was stupid to shout like this, if there were any other guards, he would attract them right away, but he needed to know where his brother and the others were.
Kaiba wandered through the seemingly endless building, growing increasingly disturbed by the rooms he found. One was empty except for chains lining the walls, while another was simply a huge bath. Finally he found himself in what appeared to be an open warehouse, where a large stage had been erected in the centre. Just what kind of a place was this? And where was Mokuba and the others?
Kaiba recalled that the first guard had mentioned a "mansion" in passing, was that where they were now? They certainly weren't here in any case.
He crept along the corridors near the huge open room, and before long, he opened a door and found himself standing in bright sunshine, apparently at Domino City's wharf, judging from the distant buildings. The salty breeze lapping at him from all directions, he walked slowly around the building, searching carefully. Turning a corner, he stopped dead in his tracks, as he spotted exactly what he had been hoping for. A small van was parked beside the building, and Kaiba knew already his captors are been kind enough to keep the key on them.
He wasted no time in entering, and starting up the engine. He opened the glove compartment, finding a large stack of papers, which he quickly shuffled through, feeling a great sense of relief wash over him as he came to the final page; a map. From the highlighted roads on the page, it seemed to be directions to a sizable building out in the countryside, well past the outskirts of Domino. The building could definitely be called a mansion.
Kaiba smiled grimly, and dropped the gun and map in the passenger seat, before beginning to drive the van away from the building, towards the roads. Logic, and every kind of common sense dictated that he should go to the police, let them know he was alive, and get help from them, but logic and common sense were not on Seto Kaiba's mind right now. The only thing he wanted, was to save Mokuba. He would not delay it for even a second, so he was heading straight to this mansion, to rescue his brother, and the others, and almost more importantly, to kill whoever it was that was behind this whole situation. Revenge for what had happened his brother, himself, and the others was very much at the front of his agenda.
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The room was eerily silent, as it was every night in this place. Mokuba Kaiba was not afraid of the dark, he hadn't been for a number of years now, but there was something truly creepy about this room at night. It might be the way the shadows cast by the wall on the door hid it in darkness completely, looking like anyone could be standing and watching, unseen. Perhaps it was just the memories of what happened here during the days and evenings becoming more vivid in the darkness. He was especially glad to have Jounouchi here right now, the big blonde's tight embrace was strangely reminiscent of his brother's, something he was eternally grateful for. For whatever reason, some nights the men would let one or two of them out of their chains until the morning, and tonight they had left Jounouchi free.
So, much to Mokuba's relief, Jounouchi was asleep, laying alongside him on the mattress, and holding Mokuba close to him, just as Seto did so many nights. So for these few hours, he could be comforted, and forget that where he was. Forget that he was twelve, and spending most of his day being felt up by disgusting old men. Even forget that it was nearly a month since he had last seen his brother, twenty six days.
He had begun to think of himself as a strong person, before all this. Seto had always been telling him that he was a tough, capable boy on his way to independence, and he'd fully believed that. No doubt Seto did too, but now, Mokuba knew it wasn't true. The moment he'd woken up in that first room, just less than four weeks ago, he'd not been thinking of how to help himself get out, he'd immediately panicked, screaming for his Nii-sama. Without Seto, he was lost, and scared, a far cry from independent, to say the least.
He knew most people would, and probably did, call him pathetic over his dependence and downright obsession with his brother. He could not see his relationship with Seto as pathetic, no matter much people might claim he was blindly committed. He loved his Nii-sama more than anything, more than life itself, and he could simply not see any faults with either Seto himself, or his relationship with him. He knew, regardless, that people ridiculed how devoted he was, but he couldn't bring himself to care, he loved his brother, and that was all.
But now, having been separated from him, he could only sit, hoping with every fibre of his being that Seto would walk through that door, and take Mokuba away from this horrible place. He still had no doubt that his relationship with Seto was perfectly healthy, but he did feel ashamed that he could do nothing at all, without his brother there. It was a disservice to him, to just sit around waiting for a rescue. Seto wouldn't sit around, he would force his way out right away, and help everyone else at the same time. He would be such a disappointment to Seto if he found out how helpless Mokuba was without his Nii-sama there with him.
He'd never tried to resist the vile advances from the men here, just lain here and taken it. Even if his tiny body had no real hope of any resistance, the principle would have been there. Without Seto, he'd just given up. Maybe he was pathetic after all.
Suddenly, splitting through all his mundanely grim thoughts, he realised that it was now Saturday. His stomach lurched horribly, as he remembered what awaited him this evening. That bastard, Carter, would be here, abusing him again. It was hard enough having to cope with the minimum of three times a week, and more if Higuchi wished for entertainment, being touched, molested, and degraded. But this wasn't enough punishment for Mokuba, he needed an extra abuser that no one else had. Carter was the worst by far, for he wasn't some middle aged businessman or politician, he was a big, powerful man in his prime. He did not seem to enjoy Mokuba screaming when he was taken, like several of the clients did, but he were merciless, not caring if Mokuba got hurt, only interested in satisfying himself. The two times he had come here had been agony beyond belief, and had left him bleeding heavily for hours. This third time would be just as bad, he knew it.
What was it he had done to deserve such punishment? True he had once been quite a hooligan, but that was only for a short time, and it was so long ago now, why would it come along to haunt him only now, and why so severe? He was only twelve, he hadn't even started puberty yet, in fact, before this he had known almost nothing of sexually based matters (as Seto had not found them suitable things for him to know at his age), but here he was, being abused like this on an almost daily basis. It didn't make sense. He had been sure he'd managed to become a good person, but it seemed not. Why else would he receive extra punishment?
And how long was it he would be punished for? He'd been here nearly a month already, how much longer. Another month? A year? His whole life? If he could just be given a chance, he could change. He didn't know what it was he'd done wrong to deserve this, but he could find out and make up for it, if he could just be let go from this torture.
He wanted the assaults to stop. He wanted his friends to be saved. He wanted to be given a chance to redeem himself for whatever it was he did wrong. Most of all he wanted his Nii-sama. Over dependent or not, obsessed or not, too devoted or not, loving him too much or not, he still wanted Seto here to comfort him, to help him.
Jounouchi's grip around him tightened, almost as though he'd somehow subconsciously heard Mokuba's silent wish for his brother's comfort. Before this, Mokuba had liked Jounouchi very much, he'd considered him a good friend, and a good person. But now, after the lengths he'd gone to keep Mokuba comforted, he considered Jounouchi one of the most selfless and kind-hearted people he'd ever met. If they got out of this, he would put a stop to Seto's constant putting down of him. That was completely wrong, he didn't deserve Seto's insults, now more than ever. Over to Mokuba's left, still chained and also asleep, was Otogi. He hadn't known Otogi before this, but he had done the same as Jounouchi, giving up his own comfort for Mokuba's sake, and he would be forever grateful for it, no matter what happened.
He looked up at the moonlight filled window, wishing he had his locket, to have something familiar, that had comforted him so many times before. For the strangest reason, he felt that Seto was thinking something similar at that moment. He supposed that would be called a brotherly connection.
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A/N:
Now we're really getting somewhere ;). I hope people don't look on Kaiba's actions as being OOC, I always thought he would have it in him to defend himself lethally if needed, not to mention the capabilities.
The passage of time in the story will be slowing from now on, since there's going to be a lot happening in the next few chronological days.
Feel free to tell me what you think of the stry so far, feedback from the readers is extremely helpful to me while writing, and I'd like to know if anyone has any problems with the direction it's going. Thanks very much for reading.