Hey Guys! I finally came up with a new story and I would really like to know your opinion about it! Thanks and enjoy:)

Summary: Six years after the ceremonial battle Anzu Mazaki has become a dancer and lives the good life in New York City. But as she walks home one night from practice, she is caught in something that will change her life forever...

A secret society takes her in to protect her, and to her surprise, Seto Kaiba is involved too.

We're in This Together

Prologue

Flashforward..

„Tell me, Kaiba, what is going on?! I-I need to know, it's my right to know what's going on!"

„Listen Mazaki-"

„No, no you listen." Her patience was really gone, she gritted her teeth demanding an answer. She looked so angry, Kaiba thought her vein in her forehead was going to burst. „This is not only about you, Kaiba." She stated bravely, taking a step towards him and looking him dead in the eye. His arrogant smile would vanish from his face soon, she would make sure of that. She's had enough of his games. „ Believe it or not, but for the first time, you're not alone in your perfectly laid out life. You put me in this, this is partly your fault. So tell me now: What. is. Going, on."

Noticing that she wasn't about to let it go, and this time he couldn't find a good enough excuse to fob er off with, he let out a defeated sigh, pushing himself off of his desk that he was leaning on for support during her rant. He ran one of his hands over his face, took a few steps around the office, trying to buy some time. From the corner of his eyes he watched her grim expression. Noticed, that her hair was slightly muffled, that her clothes were crinkled and the circles under her eyes were a deep blue, almost as blue as her irises. She really had been through a lot, but it was not entirely his fault. If he had been given the choice, he would have never put her in such great danger. But unfortunately, he didn't have a say in this and somebody else had made that decision for her a long time ago.

„Well, it's quite a long story, if you want to hear it from the beginning..." He glanced at her briefly, hoping she wouldn't want to hear the whole story then. But her expression remained grim. She was tough, he knew that because she's always been that way, and now all this had made her even stronger. She folded her arms over her chest.

„Let's hear it." He could almost smell her victory over him. But she didn't seem to give in yet. Examining his office, his eyes wandered to the red arm chairs in the corner by the huge windows, silently telling her to have a seat. He didn't plan on standing here all night with her, and from the tired look on her face, her legs probably wouldn't make it either. They settled down in each one of the arm chairs and when they both felt comfortable enough for the story to begin, Kaiba started:

„So, as you know, my stepfather was a cruel man..."

Chapter 1

„Anzu, are you coming to Zoe's party tomorrow? I heard her new penthouse had a large balcony and they would have a barbecue. You can't imagine how long it's been since my last barbecue!"

Anzu smiled at her friend's words while stretching her left arm above her head, then continuing with her right arm. She had originally planned to go the party, but now that Sarah mentioned the barbecue, she wasn't so sure. She had an important audition next week and eating heavy food just didn't fit with her meal plan at the moment. „I have to see if I can make it, maybe I just stay longer after the classes tomorrow to practice a bit more." she eventually explained, continuing with the stretching of her arms.

Sarah let out a sigh, but didn't argue Anzu's choice. She knew her too well by now, knew how stubborn and ambitious Anzu was. If she continued like this, she would be at the peak of her career as a dancer before the age of 24. After Anzu finished high school, she went to Juillard and became a really good dancer, she always belonged to the best dancers in her classes and was involved in many productions already. Still, she managed to fly to her hometown Domino at least twice a year, to visit her friends and family. Her parents weren't too happy with their daughters choice of career, not only because they barely saw her anymore but also because they feared for her to never get married and have kids. Anzu hated it whenever her mother told her about her worries, Anzu didn't feel like thinking about marrying someone and having kids at the moment and those conversations only always ended with an argument with her mother. How could she possibly make it clear that that just wasn't what she imagined her life look like? She knew so many girls she went to high school with who had so much potential but got married too soon, became mother's and never followed their path. She imagined them getting divorced someday and ending up with nothing.

And besides, Anzu didn't have time for dating anyway. She hadn't been interested in anyone since the Pharaoh had left and made her bitter towards the word love. Now that a few years passed, Anzu hoped that feeling would too, but now she just felt like she wasn't really capable of love other than friendship. Maybe some people were made like that. Maybe love wasn't for anybody after all.

xoxo

It was past ten after Anzu left the building, Sarah had left half an hour ago just like anyone else. Anzu always waited to shower until they left, wanting to have some personal space. She was really sensitive about her body and didn't like the other girls to judge her. She once overheard a conversation by some girls when she just started out at Juillard that one girl left an audition crying because one fo the judges said she was too fat just because she had large breasts. That was Anzu's main problem too. It was one thing to stay slim and fit, she could do that by controlling her eating habits and going to the gym. But when she looked at other girls, there was always that one trait that made her different from anyone else. All the girls seemed tiny, flat stomach, flat breasts, like they had the body of ten year olds, but for Anzu, her breasts were larger than anyone else's and it could have been something to be happy about, but not for the lifestyle she chose to live in. Luckily, no judges had ever pointed out that her chest was too large, but she could feel it everyday in practice, that the weight was putting her down, that it kept her falling behind the other girls who didn't have to carry that extra weight. Anzu noticed it everyday, and everyday she grew more and more uncomfortable and some days she even could swear that her chest was growing bigger still so she tried to hide it more, scared that one day someone could point them out to her and end her career. Some part of her knew that it probably was stupid to think that way since her breasts were only an average c-cup, but it was still to big for a dancer's, and also her biggest insecurity.

So that's why she never showered with the other girls and cringed everytime they had to line up in class. As Anzu made her way to her bus stop down the street which was wet fresh with rain tonight, she once again thought about the money she was saving up either for her next trip to Domino this summer or for an operation for breast reduction. When she walked by a row of penthouses, she had a loud crash next to her, like a garbage can flying crashing against a wall or something. Whatever it was, it startled her and she stopped abruptly, tearing her away from her depressing thoughts. Her blue eyes stared down into the small alley between two cement houses. When she saw the green eyes of a street cat stare back at her, her heart beat decreased and she was about to go on on her way, but then another figure appeared at the end of the dark alley. He, too, came to a standstill when he spotted her looking straight at him and she probably would have disappeared from his view if he hadn't worn a ski mask and holding a knife in his left hand that reflected the moon. Before Anzu knew what was happening, the masked man was at her side and dragging her down the narrow space between the houses until they stood on a backyard and she was pressed against the wall. The action occurred too fast for her to process what was happening, her eyes and mind tried to adjust to the new situation, surrounded by houses, by strange armed men and the only witness the moon. She heard him cough before she saw him, but to her right lay a man, unmasked and unarmed, bleeding to death with a knife in his chest and blood running down his face from a large wound on his forehead.

„How much did you see?" a male's voice asked her suddenly, making her take her widened eyes from the bleeding man and focusing fearful ones on the figure who spoke to her. He was dressed in all black, also with a ski mask over his head, he had broad shoulders and was about 1,80 ft tall. All in all, he was terrifying.

„No-Nothing." Anzu finally managed to say, confused how she even got here. Wasn't she under the hot shower just minutes ago? Her hair was still wet or was it because she was sweating?

„Lier." now a knife was at her throat, how did it get there so fast? How did the man come so close so far? Was that her that let out that breathless scream?

„I don't know what you mean..I I didn't see anything..I don't know what you're talking about." she tried again, even though it wasn't easy talking with a knife that close to you and rigth about to cut your neck off.

„Well, she's definitely saw too much now. We can't let her go," Now a guy, Anzu thought it was the one who dragged her here, spoke up from behind the other man who was currently blocking her view and holding the knife to her throat. The man in front of her growled lowly in his throat, it made Anzu even more terrified but she could only wonder what they meant with that they couldn't let her go now.

„Then why the fuck did you bring her here?!" he snarled at the other man.

„I caught her looking down the alley and thought-"

„I only saw a cat." right when Anzu spoke those words, she regretted them. Shut up shut up shut up, her kind scolded her, haven't you learned anything from the horror movies you watched with Jonouchi and Honda?

„A cat? Ha!" now the man in front of her laughed out loud, he took the knife from her throat and for a second Anzu thought it was over, she was free and could head home, crawl under her blanket and cry her fear off, but then a heavy hand pressed down on her head, making it ache and makg her sink under the pain to the ground. The coughs of the man lying next to her and stilled, she noticed now. She wanted to scream but couldn't find air as the man continued to press her against the wall with all his might. Was he trying to kill her like that? Because with his weight and with her weight, he surely would succeed.

„Bruce, stop it. Just give her some pills that make her forget and leave her here. You know the cops might come to check this area soon and we still have to get rid of this body." Anzu couldn't see the man who spoke now, but she was sure what or who he meant with „this body".

„We just kill her with the pills." Bruce, the guy that was crushing her, suggested, letting go of Anzu who could finally gasp for air again. Seconds later Bruce came awfully close to her again, leaning down to where she cowered by the brick wall and pressing his large palm over her mouth and nose, forcing something into her – the pills! Anzu tried to fight him off, keep her mouth closed, but it was too late and he was too strong. He yanked at her hair, making her scream from pain and her head slammed against the wall in the process, making her vision blurry. Anzu could feel that she was about to faint, barely felt how dirty rain water was forced down her throat and the pills along with it.

There were many days to die. She could have fallen down the stairs this morning when she left her apartment. She could have slipped and tripped in the shower, and no one would have found and helped her because she was alone and they would only find her naked in her own blood in the morning. She could have died fighting monsters and dragons. Every way was possible. But here, in a dark alley, through the hands of another, on the night when the moon was full, she never would have imagined that.

She could feel her limbs go numb, saw her vision blurred and then even the blackness faded, until there was nothing, nothing at all.