Seto Kaiba wakes up trapped in a room with a glass wall, and is told by his so-called host, Pegasus, that he is there to provide Pegasus with company. He soon learns others—Mokuba, Yugi and his friends—are trapped there as well, and after struggling to find out why they were all taken, his thoughts turn to escape. With no way out but cooperation, Seto struggles to find an escape while playing Pegasus's latest game.
Glass can be found here
. An AU/sequel, Shattered, details a universe where everything that could go wrong did. Unlike Glass, which was more focused on mind games, Shattered features body horror and explicit violence alongside the psychological aspects and is not for the squeamish.
Has nothing to do with the Interactive Fiction retelling of Cinderella by Emily Short, or with the 2019 film by M. Night Shyamalan.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: In the manga, Pegasus died when Yami Bakura took his Millennium Eye. In the anime, he went into a coma and later had a Heel–Face Turn. In this story, his Freudian Excuse doesn't begin to hold up for staying to his evil ways.
- Affably Evil: Pegasus, naturally. Odd in that a couple of POV shifts make it very clear that he very much wants his victims to be happy, but is much more determined to execute 'justice' for Cecelia.
- The Alcatraz: The island as a whole is this for everyone trapped there, but much of Seto's time is occupied with a truly inescapable room that he can only get out of through mutual trust.
- Big Brother Instinct: Kaiba is immensely protective of Mokuba, so seeing Mokuba imprisoned along with him and being unable to do anything about it is one of his worst fears brought to life.
- Bittersweet Ending: In the end of Glass, Pegasus is dead and everyone escaped, seconds away from rescue, but their trauma from being imprisoned for over a year isn't going away anytime soon.
- Body Horror: Many characters are grievously wounded, lose limbs, or lose certain senses in Shattered, which makes their situations even more dire.
- Bottle Episode: A majority of the story is just Seto, Pegasus, and a glass wall, with occasional looks into other characters and locations.
- Buried Alive: In Shattered once Pegasus has finally had enough of Seto he has him buried alive. Since Seto is already weak from months of inactivity and everyone else on the island is under Pegasus's thumb, there's no escape. Pegasus later relents and has him dug up, but the trauma breaks Seto's will completely.
- Darker and Edgier: Unlike Glass, which was more focused on mind games, Shattered features body horror and explicit violence alongside the psychological aspects.
- Defiant Captive: Almost all of the seven prisoners.
- Mokuba makes a habit of verbally resisting Pegasus, and after a while, so does Téa. Mokuba also attempts to manipulate Pegasus by seeming to give in so he can work on him later.
- Kaiba is this throughout the story, using logic and reasoning to determine how to maximize his chances of reuniting with Mokuba and then escaping; he hits despair near the end, but only briefly before he finally comes up with an escape attempt.
- Bakura himself is docile, but Yami Bakura is restless, forcing Pegasus to take drastic measures, which he hates doing because Bakura can't keep his darker half under control despite their best attempts.
- Duke never stops resisting Pegasus and unlike the other six, the latter didn't care as much about keeping him happy as he was never supposed to be there. Duke makes a few attempts to escape and no attempts to cooperate and unlike the others, Pegasus doesn't try to make him, so he's left in poor condition for the whole story.
- Joey resists from day one. Even after he's locked up in a dirty dungeon cell with no heat, no hygiene, no toilet, and only the most basic foods for six months, he still doesn't give Pegasus an inch to even try conditioning him. Even Kaiba is impressed at the level of resistance, even if it does throw a wrench into his plans. And Pegasus had finally reached the point of trying to give him luxuries to make him stop acting out, which he had promised himself he wouldn't do, before Kaiba convinced Pegasus to let him knock some sense into Joey.
- Downer Ending: Shattered posits a world where the escape failed and goes downhill from there, with a warning that Pegasus will win completely. By the end of things, the remaining guests hang on his every word and Tristan is finally captured to complete the set.
- Drinking the Kool-Aid: Joey accuses Kaiba of this—verbatim, even—when he tries to get him to give in so he can get out of the dungeon.
- Enemy Mine: Kaiba plans to work with everyone, even those he personally dislikes, in order to escape. Yami Bakura and Joey feel likewise.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Near the end of the story, an unprofessional interaction between Pegasus's physician and one of his guards who's on bad terms with her is all that Kaiba needs to break out of his resignation and come up with a do-or-die escape plan.
- Fake-Out Make-Out: Yami Bakura does this to Kaiba to mask handing over the necessary implements for the escape plan near the end of the story.
- The Ghost: Yami Yugi is mentioned but never seen. Yugi's goal for most of the story is to get the Puzzle back, but in the final chapter he finds it's been shattered and before he can complete it he's captured.
- Insistent Terminology: Throughout the story, the prisoners frequently call Pegasus insane, and he frequently corrects that to 'eccentric.' In the final lines as they're staring down at Pegasus's corpse, finally free, Joey corrects Duke in the same way in a failed attempt at humor.
- Kill It with Fire: Seto's plan to escape is to burn down the island, knowing help will be called.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Tristan didn't go to the convention where everyone was taken, leading Duke to get kidnapped instead. Pegasus thinks of him as an outlier as a result, "the good three plus Duke" being one example.
- Recursive Fanfiction: Several other authors have written stories in Glass's world, with The Whole World Blind, Sentiments, and Fractures focusing on Ryou, Tea, and the Yugis' lives during and after the story, while Shadows focuses on what Tristan was doing the whole time.
- The Reveal: Chapter 19 reveals why Pegasus imprisoned everyone. It's "revenge" for Cecelia's death and Duelist Kingdom; since they kept her dead, he's keeping them there as payment.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: While not the end of the work, in chapter 53 Seto is sent back down to the glass room, invalidating all of his progress from before.
- Stockholm Syndrome: Pegasus is counting on this developing in his guests, particularly Mokuba, Ryou, and Seto. Shattered has this fully take hold in the remaining guests.
- Tailor-Made Prison: Kaiba's prison is truly inescapable and meant to drain his psyche, as everything he needs to live is only seen and accessed through the other side of the wall. Joey and Ryou Bakura have it even worse, being locked in the dungeons for months.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Kaiba can't stand Yugi's friends or Yami Bakura, but both parties realize they'll have to work together if they want to escape.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapters 32 and 33 have the closest Pegasus comes so far to just giving up and having everyone killed, with Mokuba unknowingly saving the day.
- Chapters 40 and 41 have Seto finally being let out of the glass room and placed with Mokuba, shaking up the status quo of the entire story and opening up many possibilities.
- Chapter 53 ends with Seto being sent back down, rendering all of his progress before null and void. Even though it only lasts for two weeks, the scare tactic works on both him and the readers.
- Shattered mentions in chapter 17 that Pegasus is only caring for three people instead of four, hinting someone has died or will die soon; it turns out to be Seto, who's buried alive. By the time he's dug up, he's become a shell of himself and does exactly as Pegasus wants.
- Yandere: In Shattered Ryou becomes so dependent on Pegasus's attention he injures himself to leave no time for anyone else.
