Random update is random. But since this story is still being faved and added to alerts, I suppose I should do something for it. There is finally internet pr0n for those who voted for it, it's not the weirdest kind I've seen, but considering the rating...

Anyway, as usual, I hope you like it and it makes sense. Thank you everyone for all the reviews for the last chapter; they were helpful in getting this one out. ^^ I'm glad everyone liked Seth as he was because I liked him, too. I added a bit more of his relation to Yami in this chapter because I've always thought it paralleled Kaiba and Mokuba's relationship. Not the same, but there is a common principle in both.

See the Light

Chapter VII - Truth

Street surveillance cameras were not the most reliable pieces of technology, he knew, but there was definitely something of interest here. Once more, all but ignored by the dense population of the internet café, Mitsui rewound the clip and stared at it.

There, it was no mistake. Seto Kaiba had indeed come into the Blue Moon Café late in the morning and he indeed came with a companion. Said companion looked awfully familiar, much like Kaiba himself, but there was no way of telling for sure. For a while, Mitsui entertained the idea that Kaiba may have renewed ties with some of his old family members to fill the void Mokuba had left, but the idea was immediately discarded. No, the CEO of KaibaCorp was too egoistical and proud for that. A new business partner, perhaps? But he had heard nothing over the proverbial grapevine that Kaiba was remotely back in business. So, who could it be…?

The young man's train of thought was harshly interrupted by a phone call. Moving toward the corner for added privacy, he put the cell phone to his ear and one eye on the replaying clip.

"Good morning, this is Kuroki Mitsui."

A long pause, which bought a satisfied smile to his lips. "Of course, I'm interested, sir. I've already relocated to Domino and I can start…" Mitsui trailed off, spotting someone sliding over to his computer from across the café. "…anytime. Please excuse me—hey!"

The potential usurper looked up in surprise, the large violet eyes indicating he had been caught off guard.

"Are you blind? I'm using this space." Mitsui snapped rather unreasonably, but the contents of that computer were not for civilian eyes. Besides, it was obvious that the other boy with his spiky tri-colored hair and punk accessories was some sort of delinquent.

"Er, I'm sorry…I thought you were finished." The boy apologized in the total opposite manner of a delinquent. "It's the only free one in the entire café."

While he stammered his apologies, Mitsui successfully shut down most of sensitive information before logging off in a hurry. "There, do what you like." He turned away in disgust.

While the boy stared at the generic welcome screen, Mitsui took a breath and lifted the phone back. "I apologize, sir, there was a small accident…of course, I can come in tomorrow. Will the president be expecting me?" The voice on the other end replied and Mitsui smiled again. This was almost too easy. "Well, I can still come in and familiarize myself with my duties before he gets back."

"Indeed, thank you, sir. It's an honor to be chosen by the Kaiba Corporation."

It was sometime in the evening when Seth awoke with a start. It wasn't the sudden crackling of voices over the headset, but something else altogether that broke the surface of his consciousness. Thankfully, he still remembered getting into Kaiba's aircraft in the morning, and so he caught himself before the shadows which acted as his first line of defense did any damage. Amused as he was by the thought of Kaiba's expression if he were to be suddenly stranded a few hundred meters in the air without an aircraft around him, this was no time for petty revenge.

Pressing himself against the glassy windows, Seth could see the verdant canopy of trees part and an imposing castle rise into view. It was massive, elegant and if his senses didn't deceive him, it was positively littered with spell signatures. He could tell that the actual magic was cast long ago, but it wasn't certainly wasn't all gone. He instinctively reached for the Sennen Rod; better to be prepared, just in case. The Item grew warm in his hand and the bezel eye flickered slightly.

Seth blinked at the unnatural play of light. "So, I wasn't dreaming…" He murmured to himself, while his mind automatically cast for Kaiba, who was contentedly busy in the cockpit. He obviously didn't sense anything out of the ordinary, except maybe a small shift in mechanics that caused him to snap irritably into the headset.

"Priest! I said sit down, so I can land properly."

Seth rolled his eyes, but didn't argue as he settled back into the narrow seat. Whatever he sensed wasn't active, so he could afford to let it slide without even mentioning it to his frazzled light. Once they were safely on the ground and out of the plane, Seth relaxed his handle on the Sennen Rod; if it wasn't going to harm them, there was no need for him to be too concerned. Instead, he focused his attention to the sight before him.

Pegasus's castle was the first and closest sign of royal eminence he'd seen since in a long time. True to the old style, his and Kaiba's arrival was greeted by their host's representatives forming two lines on either side. And true to haughty royal manner, Kaiba ignored everyone and kept his eyes forward, intent on the man waiting to the greet them at the entrance of the opulent mansion. It was about that time when Seth found out that as odd as his light's secretary had been, she could have been slightly worse. She could have been this guy.

"Kaiba boy!"

He had to move fast to avoid being swept into the same typhoon of hugs that even Kaiba could not have seen coming. A pair of refined and graceful looking arms were wrapped around his light's toned body and two sound kisses placed on both of his cheeks before everything settled and Seth was able to get a good look at the man who was supposedly behind all their current evils.

Needless to say, it was a little disconcerting. Pegasus wore an appropriately starched old fashioned suit and kept his hair properly tied back, leaving one fringe to frame his face, but whatever air of mystery and villainy these gave off was instantly smothered to death by the eye-patch with a bunny stamped on it. Modern day evil, it appeared, needed a bit of work.

"How have you been?" Pegasus asked softly. One hand was on Kaiba's left shoulder and his visible eye had a sympathetic doe-like expression. "I haven't heard from you in months!"

Predictably, Kaiba pulled away with an irritated shrug. "Fine." He said tersely. "I've been busy."

"Ah yes." Pegasus nodded knowingly. "I heard about the meeting in New York."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes briefly, but soon reverted back to his usual reserved expression. "Cocktail parties aren't meetings; in fact, it was Isakov's idea of a get together for those of us who were in New York already on other business."

Pegasus nodded again without taking his eyes off his visitor. "Well, how lucky that the friends of the former Kaiba empire happened to gather in the same place at the same time."

"Are you trying to imply something?" Kaiba asked, folding his arms. His face was still calm, but his eyes were intense, practically radiant with hope of a new challenge—one he was determined to win. Seth, feeling himself forgotten for now, watched the two with interest. He knew the two had a history which left Kaiba with an eternal grudge, but if he read this man correctly, Pegasus had no intentions of feeding that grudge or apologizing for the cause of it.

The elder man did not rise to Kaiba's bait, but reverted back to his jovial self with a huge grin and a slap on his young visitor's shoulder, much to the chagrin of said visitor. "Of course not!" Pegasus declared loudly and for the first time, took notice of Seth. "But go on, Kaiba-boy, introduce me to your new friend! I'm sure I haven't met him before."

Biting back a reply regarding the abrupt change of subject, Kaiba moved aside, bringing Seth into the limelight. "That is because he didn't exist as of two days ago. This is the priest of the Sennen Rod; Yami-Yugi's friend, not mine."

Pegasus visibly started. His only eye took on a look of reverence as he regarded the priest. "The Sennen Rod and the priest, he is the Other Seto."

"My name is Seth." The High Priest corrected the other man pleasantly before Kaiba had a chance to do so in the opposite manner. He was intrigued if not impressed; a man in this day and age who spoke so casually about the Sennen Items, correctly guessed his identity, lived among all these spell signatures and Pegasus didn't even seem to belong to any clan of Keepers! You failed to mention quite a few details, my light.

"My priest." Pegasus inclined his head respectfully. "An honor to have you in my home."

"The pleasure is all mine." Seth's smile was radiant, and for all appearances looked amiable, but Pegasus wasn't naïve enough to let the underlying steel pass unnoticed. Seth didn't trust him and despite his disapproving expression at Kaiba's hostility, he sided with his light.

"Then, I suppose this surprise visit has much to do with you." Pegasus stated and Seth tilted his head quizzically. With him? But hadn't Kaiba come here to investigate the man on behalf of KaibaCorp?

But before the doubts could further germinate, Kaiba himself stepped forward to clarify. "Actually, it pertains more to some suspicious goings on in my company, so you can save it with the bowing and scraping."

Now it was Pegasus's turn to flirt with uncertainty. In all the years he'd known the man, he had not seen Kaiba behave this strangely. The excessive belligerence was obviously a front because even Kaiba did not needlessly—and so weakly—antagonize someone on their home turf. However, his excuse of an investigation was not completely airtight; after all, if something happened to KaibaCorp which merited a personal inquiry by the CEO himself, Pegasus would have heard about it long before this meeting. But then again, Kaiba wouldn't to admit being under attack as a distraction.

Pegasus didn't know what to think yet, but there was no reason to let Kaiba know that before they had a chance to talk formally. The silver haired man schooled his features and folded his arms. "Well then, come inside. The open grounds aren't really the best place for these matters."

Without a word, Kaiba picked up his briefcase and walked beside their host down the stone path leading to the doors of the mansion. Seth followed in their wake, occasionally glancing up to marvel at the modern architecture of the courtyard, the gardens and one lonely tower in the distance.

It hadn't been two hours since his arrival, and already the air in the castle was rife with confusion. Kaiba usually didn't mind; uncertainty was a powerful advantage because it kept his opponents too busy guessing his next move to think about theirs. Not to mention that the first thing anyone dove to protect upon being caught unawares was their main weakness.

However, Pegasus hadn't done anything of the sort. In fact, even to Kaiba's highly suspicious sensibilities, he seemed genuinely convinced that the priest was the purpose of the visit. That and his thinly veiled surprise at the real news went a long way to confirm his ignorance of the matter, if not his innocence. Besides, Kaiba knew Pegasus, even before the fiasco at Duelist Kingdom. The elder man was never one to hide his motives behind obvious farces; he didn't care for total victory, but he liked the game and there was no logic in backtracking after getting his opponent to show up and play. Even when he had been after KaibaCorp's holographic technology, he hadn't made overt gestures of friendship; he merely came as a business partner. Kaiba had welcomed him into his life not only because he was impatient to bring Duel Monsters to life, but because he still wasn't used to someone who didn't like to win, but liked to be winning. The later betrayal was a very mild surprise, but it shouldn't have even been that if he'd read the clues. In the end, he couldn't help but agree with the expression on Pegasus's face when he prepared to seal his soul.

You should have known, Kaiba-boy.

Yes, he should have. He should have trusted his own feelings, his own instincts, rather than what fate had presented him with. Right now, his instincts sought to dismiss Pegasus as the one behind the phone-call. The guy was eight different kinds of crazy, but after all he'd been through, he wouldn't mess with the dead. With a deep sigh, Kaiba closed the file in his hands and looked across the guest suite to the study table. The only reason he was studying hardcopies was because Seth was using the laptop. He had avoided speaking to the priest for the entire plane ride here, but the second the door to their suite closed, Seth insisted on calling Yami. Kaiba didn't intend to acquiesce, but in all practicality, fighting with the priest was a waste of time better spent tracking this new threat. In the end, he put up enough of an argument to convince Seth to use email instead. All he had to do was enter a fake address and let Seth say whatever he wanted. It was a brilliantly simple idea, and the fact that the genius sorcerer of Egypt typed at fucking 10 wpm worked to his advantage by leaving him time before dinner to concentrate on his research without having to wonder what his self-proclaimed other half was up to.

The CEO stood up and stretched discreetly before walking over the table. Seth was no longer typing, but his head was tilted at an odd angle as he surveyed something on the screen. His actual expression was impassive, but Kaiba noticed enough subtle twitches of his lips and eyebrows to infer that something more interesting than email was running on the laptop. Padding up behind Seth, he took one look at the screen and scoffed.

"Really, priest, you've never seen a naked woman before?"

Seth blinked at the sound of his voice and turned to give him a withering look. "I've seen plenty." He began sardonically and then hesitated before gesturing at the badly filmed clip on continuous loop. "…although none who could pipe a bag of frosting with their va—."

"It's not frosting, it's a meringue." Kaiba cut in abruptly. In spite of himself, he leaned down to make a show of examining the clip while Seth winced at another young lady's display of her bizarre culinary talents. "Frosting is too highly viscous for that."

"Good to know." Seth deadpanned as he pushed away from the work station. "And here I thought you had no hobbies outside work."

"Well, at least the Pastry Shop Pussycats don't sidetrack me at work." Kaiba swiftly took over the laptop and wasted no time closing the clip, disposing it and running an antivirus. Whatever the priest's perversions were, he didn't need them on his machine. Behind the offending imagery, his email window was still open and still very blank. The epically important letter to Yami hadn't gotten very far, it seemed, and the CEO smirked condescendingly in Seth's direction. "Barely legal yet entirely too distracting for you, priest?"

Seth twirled lazily in the computer chair and shot him a dirty look. "As if I'd let you take me for an idiot, Kaiba. For all your compliance and grace in allowing me to write this electronic letter, we both know it won't reach Yami. Did you really expect me to waste my time only to play your fool?"

Ah, so the stupid ghost had been clever enough to catch his deception. Kaiba responded with an unrepentant shrug. "You've given me little else to expect. My main concern here is Mokuba and if fawning all over Yami will get you out of my hair, I'm not one to discard a good opportunity."

"Well, here's a good opportunity to learn something, little light." There was a muted scrape of shoes against the carpet as Seth stopped the chair in mid-revolution to look directly up at the brunet. "If Yami was my mission, I would first be at his side. And secondly, I would deem him important enough not to eschew any assistance that might be in his best interest."

A light pause and it was Kaiba who broke their intense gaze to hide a snort of laughter. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the priest narrow his own and tighten his grasp on the arms of the chair. "You've got to be joking. Maybe I can't read your mind, but I sure as hell can spot a lie when I hear one. Would you really trust anyone else to care for Yami like you? Or more to the point, would you ever let him think, even for a second, that he can't depend on you?"

Seth's dark blue eyes glimmered dangerously, but his voice had gone soft, just like the calm before the storm. "I'm not without limitations, and I don't pretend otherwise."

"You mean, you learned not to pretend otherwise." Kaiba retorted casually. Almost immediately, his features twisted into a sneer. "But as for the question you so cleverly dodged, the answer is no. You are terrified of looking helpless before him; why else would you follow him into that hellhole of shadows?"

The anger finally broke loose and Seth shot to his feet. His fingers twitched impulsively, seeking the warmth of the Sennen Rod in the face of a new threat, but the Item was lying peacefully on the bedside table in Seth's half of the suite. The priest barely suppressed his rage. "You know nothing about those circumstances!"

"I don't need details when I understand the principle." Kaiba stood his ground and held the priest's eyes with his own. He noticed them becoming colder than the abyss and remembered how only two days ago, his heart clenched in fear before those eyes while his brain scrambled to find ways to diffuse the situation before it went from bad to worse. Now, he barely steeled himself to meet them. "You pledged yourself to him after death, because you failed him in life. In fact, even with your fancy Sennen Rod and your stone monsters, you failed to save one slip of a boy—"

"Enough!" Seth snarled and a let out a string of curses in what Kaiba presumed to be ancient Egyptian. It was a poetic tongue even as it abused, and for once, Kaiba wasn't bothered by the fact that he could understand it.

He raised his eyebrow at the raging priest. "If my ancestors are godless filth, what does that say about you?"

A menacing crackle in the air was the only warning before the priest struck his first blow. A muffled crash resounded through the room, but Kaiba barely winced as his back collided against the study table beside his laptop. Catching his breath was a little difficult when Seth's forearm was pressing against his neck, but that was the least of his concerns. He watched the priest visibly struggle to rein in his assault, to return to his unruffled state before he did anything too regrettable, but if he thought he could turn back after taking on Seto Kaiba, he had another thing coming. The CEO braced himself and kicked out; thanks to his awkward position, it didn't reach his intended target, but Seth stumbled back anyhow, allowing him to raise himself up off the desk and see about doing his own damage.

"Stupid ghost," Kaiba clenched his fist and aimed straight for the other man's face, causing the priest to yelp and stumble back with a hand to his mouth. Seth looked absolutely astonished to see the streaks of red across his palm and Kaiba took advantage of the pause to follow up with a rather brutal backhand, letting all the anger and frustration of the last few days fuel his attack. Seth staggered again as his head snapped to one side and bit his already injured lip to keep from groaning out loud. Fringes of russet hair obscured his eyes and Kaiba didn't need to see them to know he was blinking back tears, but he didn't feel the barest stirrings of sympathy or regret. If he gleaned anything from observing the priest over their short time together, Seth was all about appearances. He probably made a good statesman in his time because he was naturally dispassionate, but it stood to follow that he dealt poorly with the irrationality of his own violent emotions. Even the merest crack in his detached front sent him scrambling for recovery or a distraction. When they fought about lunch in KaibaCorp, dredging up the memory of the orphanage had been a distraction to draw attention away from his obvious displeasure at being defied. Now, Seth was stalling for recovery and damned if Kaiba was going to give it to him.

He grasped a handful of the priest's shirt, forcing the man to look up, however defiantly. "Taking the truth personally never bodes well. Do you honestly believe giving your soul to Yami will bring you redemption?"

That earned him a killing look. "Pharaoh traded his own wings for our freedom. Even as our king, he died serving us when it should have been the other way around." Seth's voice was strained, though it was full of conviction. "I will never forgive myself for that, and in pledging my soul to his, I still seek to fulfill the duty I owe him—even if I am handed off to you."

Seth wiped the blood from his lips and wrenched himself out of his light's grasp. Or rather he tried before Kaiba growled deep in his throat and pushed him backwards. The priest braced for the impact only to find himself sprawled across the king-sized bed, next to Kaiba's briefcase. Unfortunately, there wasn't a chance for him to rise as the CEO loomed up above him, his refined features twisted into a sneer.

"And what of my duty to my brother?" Kaiba hissed bitterly, and Seth stopped struggling. "Don't I get to fulfill that? I was all he had and I failed him."

"Kaiba…" Seth's voice was hardly above a whisper perhaps because he was shocked, because his light's fingers abruptly tightened around his neck or perhaps because he finally found the reason behind Kaiba's sudden lack of fear. Mokuba. The light of the light who wasn't a light.

"For all your yapping about being my other half, how could you miss it?" The brunet's tone was less accusing than it was disappointed. "I'm living the same nightmare you did, only I can't sit around waiting to die so I can seal my soul to his! I don't even know if I'll be allowed to see Mokuba when I'm in hell, so this is the only way I can live for him."

And Seth had to admit, he was living indeed. The mere memory of his brother not only stirred life into the shattered fragments of his heart, but imbued them with purpose. For Mokuba, Kaiba could be fearless, loyal, vibrant and beautiful—he could be…himself! And hadn't that been the goal this whole time?

"You really want to help, priest?" Kaiba asked, leaning down so their faces were mere centimeters apart. "Just shut up. Don't run to Yami, don't try to bully me into asking for unnecessary help and don't try to tell me I can't do this…or I won't hesitate to take you out, no matter how many magical powers you have. So think, do you really want to fail your king a second time?"

Seth raised an eyebrow and his lips curved sardonically at the advice-cum-threat. It was hard to be intimidating when pinned under another man on top of Pegasus's Funny Bunny stamped bedspread, but Pharaoh's youngest High Priest never shied away from managing impossible things. "That, dear light, is out of the question. In the end, you will still be on your best behavior or broken beyond repair."

Kaiba smiled mirthlessly. Seth's annoyingly self-assured expression still made him want to hang the priest out to dry, but he believed that statement—he knew determination when he saw it. "Fine. You do for Yami and I'll do for Mokuba, but you won't insult me by insinuating that I can't handle myself as well as you." The last part came out a bit more forcefully than he intended, but it served its purpose. Seth nodded solemnly up his light.

"Understood. Now, move." The priest made to get up, only to wince suddenly and sink back into the mattress. He looked weary, probably due to the long flight, but the bloody lip, the slightly discolored jaw and the generally messed up face didn't help. Even his eyes had dulled, compared to their previous intensity. Kaiba, who had long since perfected the art of looking rosy-fresh even when he was bone-numbingly tired, couldn't be bothered to dredge up the pity. But the other man did look pathetic and he supposed he could return a favor. Before he knew it, the CEO dipped his head and captured Seth's lips with his own.

To his credit, the priest got over his surprise almost instantly and tilted his head to relive the awkwardness of their current position. This wasn't like two nights ago when their respective stresses forced them into each other's arms to seek comfort; this was entirely controlled and anything but comforting. Seth pushed against his tongue and Kaiba smirked against his mouth, nipping lightly on his cut lip, tasting spice and fresh blood. For a ghost, Seth was pleasantly warm and after having gone without it for so long, Kaiba was rather impressed by the effect of human contact as he reacquainted himself with it.

The kiss lasted for five seconds before the brunet withdrew to stand up and stretch again. Seth sat up and frowned irritably when he felt the tenderness in his lip and jaw. What a violent light he had; it was as if the Gods enjoyed provoking him. He glared at Kaiba, who mocked him further by ruffling his hair while sorting out the contents of his briefcase. "Tend to yourself, priest. You'll need your pretty face for dinner in ten minutes."

A/N: End chapter seven. This one went in a completely different direction than I originally intended and I think I like this one better. There wasn't much of Pegasus in this one because Seto and Seth needed a chance to talk...er, fight and I needed a chance to write Kaiba's side of the story. He may be callous and disrespectful, but he's got his reasons. And really, it's not as if Seth was such an angel in his time. So, if this is to be a relationship between equals, there had to be a little role reversal. As fun as it is writing kick-ass priest, it is funner writing kick-ass Kaiba.

As always, please take a sec to review and tell me if there is anything to be fixed.