Thank you again for all your kind reviews. This is continuing from the last chapter. It's the big reveal on who's behind Jounouchi's kidnapping. I won't keep you in suspense. Onward!

Warning: Language and mentions of child abduction

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Chapter Thirteen

Jounouchi jerked awake a few hours later. His heart pounded rapidly in his chest, and his breathing felt like he ran a mile as fast as he could with no breaks. He felt someone move beside him and jerked when that person touched his shoulder. Finally comprehending where he was, Jounouchi melted into Kaiba's arms. Tears ran down his cheeks and collided with the shirt Kaiba was wearing. It had been a long time since he had a nightmare that severe. Kaiba eased Jounouchi back down so he could lie under the covers again. He held him close, rubbing his hand up and down his back. He felt the shaking in the blond's body slowing. "I'm sorry," Jounouchi mumbled over and over again.

Kaiba murmured calming words to the blond until he finally stopped shaking. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Jounouchi, at first, shook his head, but then stared up into Kaiba's eyes. He shuttered and tried to press himself closer towards the brunet. "It's the same dream as always." Jounouchi's voice quivered. "It's always when they burned my feet. It was the most painful experience of my life. It was slow torture." Jounouchi glanced down at his feet. "It hurt for a long time, but eventually they cleaned my feet, thinking that I 'learned my lesson' and allowed them to heal. Not even breaking my feet felt as painful as that."

"I'm sorry, Jounouchi. I should have found you sooner."

The blond pulled away from Kaiba and stared at him. He couldn't believe that Kaiba still believed he was partially responsible for this whole event. It angered him, and he found himself snapping before he could hold it back. "Don't you ever think of blaming everything that happened to me on yourself? Unless you physically hurt me, I don't ever want to hear you say that. You don't have the Millennium Necklace. You can't see the future. Nothing you could have done would have prevented this."

Kaiba was shocked that Jounouchi was becoming more and more like himself. He knew what the blond said was correct, but every fiber of his being was telling him that he was still to blame for at least something. "I could have told you sooner that I loved you."

Jounouchi blushed and shook his head. "You didn't know. Let's make a promise. Promise me that we can start over now. I don't want the past to interfere with our present feelings. I'm not ready for a relationship more than this, but that doesn't mean I'll never be. Stop blaming yourself and live happily with me now."

Kaiba smiled softly. "I'm always happy near you."

"Then let go of your self hatred and only hate the men that did this to me. Actually only hate my master. That fucking red haired leprechaun."

Kaiba sat up and looked at Jounouchi. "What did you say?"

The blond laughed. "He had red hair and green eyes and was shorter than me but much stronger. He was not from Japan. He had an accent. It wasn't American. I don't know what it was." Jounouchi stopped and gasped. "I remember him!"

Kaiba moved out of the bed. "If I played you some people's accents will you recognize it?"

"Yes. I can hear his voice clearly in my head."

"Good. Keep it there and come with me." Kaiba got out of the bed and walked through the mansion towards his office. He was sure he could find some videos of people talking in their native tongue. He turned the laptop on and looked up at Jounouchi. "Are you okay?"

The blond slid his hands behind his back and sighed. "I'm fine."

"Come sit down." Kaiba moved the chair away from the desk and waited for him to sit down. He rubbed his hand briefly behind Jounouchi's back, feeling his body still shaking. Navigating through the websites, Kaiba began with the Irish accent since he compared the man to a leprechaun. He pulled up the video and watched Jounouchi's reaction.

"That's it I think. It's not exactly, but that's what it sort of sounded like."

"Did he mention anything around you that might lead to why he was in Japan?"

Jounouchi frowned and placed his hands on his face. "I don't know. There would be times when I wouldn't see him for long periods of time. Those were the worst times. The men he left in charge of me wouldn't feed me and the abuse was far worse than anything he would do."

"When was the last time you think you saw him before I rescued you?"

"It was a long time."

"That would explain why we couldn't find him. He must come here at certain times during the year." Kaiba picked up the phone and dialed Roland's number. "Stake out the house. Jounouchi says that the man he called master disappears for a long period of time. He might be due back soon." Kaiba turned Jounouchi in the chair and knelt down beside him. "Is there anything else you remember about him that might help us find him faster?" Jounouchi shook his head. The brunet smiled and wrapped his arms around him. "Thank you, Jounouchi. W-what's the matter?" Kaiba was shocked to see tears rolling down his cheeks.

Jounouchi couldn't form words as he battled with keeping his emotions under control. "E-every time." The blond took several deep breaths. "Every time he left, they would bring me someone to 'play' with."

"Take it slow, Jounouchi. Keep breathing." Kaiba hated seeing Jounouchi fall apart, but apparently he remembered something that he never thought of before.

"They said I would get lonely without my master. They said that they would keep me happy. They were the ones that told me to do that. How could I have refused them? Oh, gods!" Jounouchi shook and the words spilled out of his mouth. "That's what they were planning with Mokuba. They wanted to torture me. They wanted to see if I would remember him. I tried to push Mokuba away. I tried to keep them all away from me. They...They...I feel sick." Jounouchi launched himself out of the chair and ran as fast as he could up to Kaiba's room, passing several bathrooms along the way.

He barely made it before all the food in his stomach came back up. Why didn't he remember that very important thing? Kaiba came into the bathroom and knelt down beside the vomiting blond. He ran his fingers up and down his back, attempting to calm the shivering man. "Please don't touch me right now," Jounouchi whimpered in between dry-heaves.

Once he settled down, Jounouchi sat back on his legs. Kaiba remained where he was beside him, giving him a few minutes to calm down. Surprisingly the blond started talking first. "They kidnapped boys around Mokuba's age every time my master left. I guess they wanted to see how much it would take to break me. At first when I was still in the right mind, I resisted them. I couldn't do that to those children. The pain was too great and I..." Jounouchi moved quickly towards the toilet and heaved whatever was left in his stomach. He pushed Kaiba away from him. "How can you stand to touch me after hearing what I did to children and would have done to Mokuba if you haven't arrived in time?"

Kaiba frowned and sat on the floor next the still broken man. Even though he was remembering his past, the pain from knowing the things he did in that place was enough to torment any person's soul. The brunet ignored his protests and pulled the blond into his arms. "You had no choice. They were going to hurt you and maybe even kill you. You had no choice," Kaiba whispered into his ear as he gently rocked him back and forth. Jounouchi turned and sobbed into the warm chest in front of him. Everything felt like it was crashing down on him. Why he forgot about that to begin with was something he didn't understand? He was confused by the comfort that Kaiba was giving him, thinking that he was too disgusting and horrible to ever deserve anything like that.

After several long minutes, Jounouchi finally calmed. Kaiba hated asking the question that lingered in his mind, but he needed the answer. "What happened to the children? Did they kill them?"

"I don't know," Jounouchi's cracking voice whispered. "One escaped."

"What? How?"

"I wedged a piece of his clothes into the lock on the door. They thought it was locked and walked away. I don't even know how they could have thought it was locked. It didn't make any sense, but I'm not questioning right now. I grabbed him, trying to keep him quiet the whole way up the stairs. I could barely walk, but I was determined to save him. Once he was outside, I told him to run and never come back. At first he didn't move. He was scared and lost. I told him to run towards where he heard a bunch of cars driving. I watched him as he disappeared down the street. I don't even know if he made it home. They found me a couple hours later still sitting on the porch with the kid missing. That's when they broke my ankles. The pain and the punishment were too much and not long after that I became the dog they wanted me to be. I never fought them after that. I did exactly what they said."

Kaiba wiped the tears from Jounouchi's eyes and cheeks. "You did what you had to do in order to survive. Let's get you back to bed." The CEO helped Jounouchi off the ground and laid him onto his bed. The blond didn't struggle and let Kaiba tuck him under the covers.

"Will you stay with me?"

"I will. Let me get my laptop first. Will you be okay for a moment?" The blond nodded and curled up under the covers. Kaiba walked quickly back to his office and pulled his computer and its plug up to his room. He had a feeling that the man Jounouchi called master had to be a businessman, considering that he would only visit at certain times during the year. He was there often enough to not be considered a person vacationing in Japan. It made more sense that he came on business trips. If that was the case, Kaiba had a high chance of finding the man and maybe Jounouchi would recognize him by pictures. He frowned and slowed his pace back towards his bedroom. Just getting the voice triggered a horrible memory for the blond, he didn't know what sort of reaction Jounouchi would have to seeing the man again. Did he want to risk his recovery just to find the man? The brunet opened his door and looked at the huddled figure underneath the blanket. He'll have to ask him first. That was something he defiantly knew.

Kaiba sat down on the bed, feeling the blond moving closer to him. The brunet placed his hand down on Jounouchi's shoulder and started clicking through the businesses located in Ireland. Making a list of names and doing some research. When none of the CEO's appeared to have any business associates with anyone in Japan or fit Jounouchi's description, Kaiba moved his list towards the companies in nearby countries. After several hours of searching, Kaiba finally found someone that looked like how Jounouchi described his master. His main business was located in America, but it was created in Ireland. He found that the CEO would travel all around the world. Kaiba glanced at Jounouchi before he started hacking into the company. He discovered the times that he would travel to Japan.

Kaiba was completely engrossed in doing the research and hacking into systems that he hadn't noticed that Jounouchi had came out from under the covers. The blond glanced at the picture that Kaiba had on his computer. "That's him," he whispered.

Kaiba moved the laptop off his lap and wrapped his arms around Jounouchi. "I figured. He's the first one that I discovered that had the same features, and he traveled to Japan eight times during the time that you were missing. It would make sense if there were eight children that those men brought to you."

"I don't remember how many there were. What are you going to do about him?"

"He has a plane ticket in a week. I'm going to capture him first. I'll think about what to do about him more later. We have time to plan something."

"I want to be there when you capture him."

Kaiba was shocked. He didn't know if it was a great idea. "I don't know, Jounouchi."

"I promise to let you know if it becomes too much. Please let me try."

Kaiba sighed. "If I promise to think about it, would that be enough?" Jounouchi nodded. "Okay. I just don't want him hurting you anymore."

The blond smiled softly and snuggled close to him. "My protective dragon." Jounouchi placed his head on Kaiba's lap, feeling the brunet run his fingers through his hair. He suspected that Kaiba might not give him the chance to confront the man that destroyed his life, but he had a week to convince him that he will be fine. Actually, he had a week to convince himself that he was ready. He smiled, feeling the fingers running through his hair. He loved it when Kaiba's smooth fingers ran through his hair. It always calmed him. Kaiba breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Jounouchi's muscles relax. He knew that the blond was pushing himself to recover faster, but he never thought he would take it so far as to want to see the man he called master. Kaiba leaned further against the headrest. He was going to give the blond a chance to face his fears even though he didn't agree with it. Kaiba was sure Doctor Tsuzuki would be angry at him for risking everything on this one event. He sighed and continued to watch Jounouchi, making a mental note to call the doctor and schedule an appointment for him tomorrow. Jounouchi was going to need to talk about his recent discovery about the young children.

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The next chapter will be the capture of Jounouchi's master. We are getting closer to the end. Five more chapters left. Hopefully I'll be able to tie all the ends together this time compared to the first story where I left some open. Thank you all for reading this chapter. I hope you like it. Please review.

Angel Dov