Serpent's Vow

13: Scouting the Gate

Pegasus leaned back and stared at his unexpected guest distrustfully.  He didn't have the Eye anymore so his ability to read Kaiba-boy's mind  was kaput, but that didn't mean he couldn't read the boy's expression.  Nor could he forget what he'd seen in Kaiba's head.

The mind in Kaiba-boy's young body was old; older than every mind he had ever touched. It was slippery and conniving and serpentine and alien.  It was hard to believe something like it even existed in this world. It  was more akin to nightmare fodder and the darkest fears of humanity,  less so the sunlit world of reality. Yet, despite all of that, or  perhaps because of that, Pegasus knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Seto Kaiba would have defeated him in a fair duel.

Now that thing  was standing in front of him, in his private home in the mountains of  Colorado. How the snake found him was... Well actually, considering  Kaiba-boy managed to hack into Pegasus' systems and change the course of  that ill-fated duel with Yugi by dissolving the Blue Eyes White Dragon,  tracking Pegasus' location shouldn't be too hard. Still, it wasn't  something Pegasus found particularly pleasant to think about.

After  that long-winded explanation, however curt and sharp tongued it might  have been, Pegasus was willing to give the snake the benefit of the  doubt. After everything Pegasus had seen with Shadi and the Millennium  Eye, it made sense. The flashes of glowing gold eyes, the pyramids in  the sky he'd always thought were the disjointed images of a dream, and  the sight of enormous stone blocks falling to crush him only for his  mind to wake up before they hit... Everything was unbelievable and yet so  incredibly real.

Leaning back on his deck chair, Pegasus sipped  his wine and regarded the Goa'uld before him. "You didn't have the  Millennium Rod with you when you came to my little island kingdom," he  said, lifting a perfectly plucked eyebrow inquisitively.

"Your gun carrying goons didn't give me much choice in the matter," Kaiba-boy said dryly.

"Understandable," Pegasus admitted, nodding elegantly. "No hard feelings, I hope."

Sharp blue eyes narrowed dangerously. "Don't push your luck."

Pegasus  lifted his wine glass in a show of gratefulness. "I admit," he began,  "I wasn't expecting your reply to my email to be so," he hummed,  "personal."

"I find often the less informed someone is, the more  often they tend to act recklessly," Kaiba-boy said, turning to gaze out  at the view from the patio. "Recklessness can too easily be deadly."

"Coming from you, that's rich," Pegasus scoffed.

"Coming  from the person who kidnapped my little brother and stole more than one  soul just to see their long dead lover," blue eyes flashed gold,  "you're one to talk."

Ooh, nicely done. That was a particularly  needling attack. Pegasus set his wine glass down on the table by his  reclining chair and crossed his legs at the ankles.

"Well," he  said, adopting a calm, casual demeanor, "as much as I appreciate this  astonishing show of trust," mm, yes, that was a very impressive glare,  "I'm afraid I'm unsure of the purpose of your presence here. You could  have simply told me everything over email or a phone call."

"After how easily I hacked you before?" Kaiba scoffed. "Don't be more stupid than you already are."

"Hmm, point."

They  sat in silence that was surprisingly companionable. Pegasus wondered at  the oddness of the situation. Despite their animosity and obvious  reasons to despise one another, Kaiba-boy seemed to be calm.  Fascinating.

"Why are you here, Kaiba-boy?" he asked finally. "I was under the impression you would prefer it if I was six feet under."

"I do."