In the apartment that Ishizu and her siblings had taken up residence for the night, the others of the group were there with them as well. It was not spacious, but everyone had found a place to seat themselves. Mokuba sat on a couch with Sugoroku and Rishid, his brother Kaiba leaning against the arm with his hip. On the floor in front of Kaiba was Bakura, Otogi, Shizuka, and Honda. Rebecca and Mariku sat on dining chairs next to a table near Yugi, who was standing with Ishizu. Behind Ishizu, her siblings took up post against the wall. In his hands, Yugi held the last journals of Anzu.
Turning to him, Ishizu said, "Read what she has written of her life in those pages."
"In front of everyone?" Yugi had read most of them already and knew of the secrets she had kept from everyone.
"Are they not her friends as well? Should they not know the truths she kept hidden but has left behind?" Ishizu's eyes glowed with her determination.
Outside, the sand and wind battered the buildings and cityscape. They could hear it scraping against the glass panes of the window behind those on the couch. Kaiba glanced behind him to see that the street lights were but a faint globe of light in the pelting sand.
Shrugging, Kaiba offered. "Why not? It looks like we are not going anywhere for awhile." Everyone else followed his example and settled in for Yugi to read.
Shizuka looked at Ishizu, a cold fear wrapping itself around her heart. "Why were you referring to her in a past tense?"
Mariku and Ishizu looked down at their hands. Rishid gave a strangled cry. Words were not necessary.
Sitting down on the ground by his fiancée, Yugi turned open the first one and began to read. Ishizu silently gathered candles from her bag and set them around the room, lighting each one as she went. Silence from the others was palatable. No one knew what to expect next.
Shackles appeared on Atemu's wrists, heavy black iron with dragging chains. He kept his head bowed, he did not want Anzu to see the pain in his heart that he was going to have to leave her. However, at least now she would be safe he thought to himself. There was no way she could be continued denial of her entrance to Aaru, and with his soul sealed here, Setekh had no right to claim any part of Kemet. She had done all she could to reach to him, but that therein lied the crux and source of the rifts. It was fitting that he give himself up as the sacrifice for the so-called crime resulting from their love It didn't matter if he was here for all of eternity, he felt in his heart he could be buoyed from what will happen by the memory of crystalline blue shining in love and passion for him and him alone.
Yes, over time with his partner, he had learned of compassion and kindness to cure the ills of cold duty and justice, but he had never in that time let himself give in to his heart. He had never lied to Anzu when he told her that night before his and his partner's duel that if it had been another time where he could know peace and life, he would give himself to her. Atemu was almost sad that the time had come, and he only got to know hours with her. It would be enough, because those hours were what the sages and poets had always described. They were transcendent.
"I..." He said quietly from behind his bangs. "I accept my punishment."
Anzu screamed out and ran to him. "No!"
She fell to her knees before him and grabbed unto the tail of his tunic. Tears streamed from her eyes as she shook her head. Anzu could not let him sacrifice himself to this decree that was at its heart her own doing. If she had left alone the need to be with him, then he would not be standing here taking a punishment that she felt by right she should bear.
Turning toward Inpu and Setekh, she cried out to the Gods, "This punishment is not his to bear!"
"He has already accepted it, mortal," sneered Inpu.
Around the group, the other divine were fading, the drama ending and Their place no longer needed. They were satisfied that Setekh would not have a claim to hold any part of Kemet. Aset, Asar, and Ma'at remained, still as statues as they listened to Inpu and Anzu.
His bonds clinking together, Atemu tried to remove Anzu from him as he shook his head. "He is right, my wife. I have accepted the punishment, it is now mine to bear. Please, please go safely to Aaru."
"No," she said to him, turning to look up into his sad violet eyes. "I will not let you go alone."
Anzu stood back up and turned to face the remaining members of the delegation. Standing as straight as she could, she faced these beings whose powers could destroy and mend. It took her a moment as she swallowed, nervousness in her soul, for what she would do next.
"I am his wife, his queen. As a Queen of Kemet, it is my right to share in the burdens of my Pharaoh. I will share in his punishment for it is the result of his need to protect me that has brought this about."
Aset broke Her stance and strode over to Anzu. "Do not do this, young one. Your place is in Aaru now."
The Goddess of Magic was torn. She wanted to stop this from happening but if She intervened, then Setekh would have a claim to Kemet. When Atemu had come to Her for the key to Her spellbook, She thought it would be amusing to ruffle Inpu and Setekh. It was also why She had insisted when he took the gift that should he be caught with it, He had to claim himself as a thief. Yet, since then, She had stood watch over the couple. Aset saw much of Herself and ways in Anzu. She once, too, had gone against creed to save Asar. She just never knew that it would come this far.
Anzu looked at the pale Goddess, but her eyes were unfocused. Atemu was trying to shout over Anzu, to not let her do this. She was looking at Setekh, His red eyes were glowing brighter at the thought of her sacrifice.
"I will share in his punishment," she repeated again.
Shackles and chains appeared on her wrists, a set just like Atemu's. Cold iron on her bare skin caused her to shiver unconsciously. She could bear this she kept thinking to herself.
"Ma'at! No! Is there nothing You can do?" Asar yelled out to the Truth Goddess, trying to prevent the travesty before Him, but knowing that there was little that even He could do.
"They accept the terms of Inpu's punishment. There is nothing I can do to intervene." Then, She, too, faded away from Tuat without another word.
"Anzu... why?" Atemu whispered to his wife, his eyes were focused on the shackles she was now wearing.
Tears trailed down her cheeks. "I could not let you face the dark alone. You would not let me face it alone, and now, I will do the same."
"Begone, Aset! Asar! Leave My domain! Tuat is My sphere and responsibility, not Yours." Inpu called out to the pair remaining.
Glaring at Inpu, Aset went to Anzu and placed Her hand on her shoulder. Leaning close, She whispered to the young woman, "It is always darkest before the dawn."
Then the two gods faded in a flash of light, leaving Anzu and Atemu with Inpu and Setekh. Atemu joined Anzu, the couple awaited what would come next.
"I wish I could have reached out to everyone after Atemu left us," Yugi said, as he continued reading from Anzu's journal. In some ways it felt like an invasion to read it so openly, but Ishizu was right. They were all her friends. They had just read about the night before his and Atemu's final duel, and the conversation that took place at dawn between the pair.
"It was hard in those days. I felt so young and foolish. I mean, I was in love with someone who had no place in this current world. Who was now gone. Even if it was the right thing to happen, it still hurt and it still didn't make it right in my mind.
"I remember Shizuka trying to get me to be more open and flirty. She would call me each evening, and I did try, but it was always a disaster. No one could compare with the mark left upon me by Atemu. And then, school was ending. We would all have new opportunities. I had studied hard, practiced every move, and had the chance to go to New York. Juilliard had accepted me!
"I also thought, that maybe if I went far away from everyone, including you my old friend, that the memories of Atemu would fade away. It was just... so hard some days to look at you and not try to replace you with Atemu. I am sorry. I am also sorry for the way I pushed you away, but I know that you are happier now. If... if I had not, then we both would have been living with a ghost in our hearts and that would have caused only pain.
"Taking everything I could, against my parents' wishes, I boarded a flight to America and went to New York. I know I would have had a comfortable life had I remained in Domino City, but I wanted to follow my dreams and escape the past. Maybe, just maybe if I knew what would happen in the nearly two years I spent in New York, I might not have gone."
With a snap of His fingers, Inpu had sent Anzu and Atemu to a darkened chamber. Above them, a small circle of reddish light cast hazy illumination. Each was chained to a cross-beamed wooden frame. They had some freedom of movement, notably their legs remained unchained, but the chains at their wrist were just short enough to prevent them from being able to sit down. They would cause their entire body to stretch out and keep them at an inch's distance from the hard ground. In addition to this restriction, while they were facing one another, the distance between them was enough that they came also within an inch of each other when painfully stretched against the chains. They had been down there for what seemed to be an hour or so.
Anzu sighed. "Atemu, what do you think will happen to us?"
"I don't know." He looked up at the only source of light. "We may be only here a few more moments or forgotten for eons. It will depend upon the whims of Inpu and by extension Setekh."
"It's so quiet in here, there are no other sounds but us. It's... disturbing." Not even an echo returned her voice.
Atemu looked around, trying to discern what was around them but any walls were lost in the darkness beyond the small shaft of light descending from above. No drops, no echoes, just the sound of their voices and clinks of their chains. She was right, it was disturbing.
Yugi kept reading Anzu's journal. She described the initial joys of living in a new place but there was one piece should could not let go, her cartouche.
"I was in my third month at Juilliard when another classmate noticed it. She thought it was kind of funny for a Japanese girl to be wearing such an Egyptian piece. In a way, I had forgotten that I wore it always. I had worn it since I gave its sister to Atemu when we did not know his name. She teased me about it being a gift from a boyfriend, but I told her that it never went that far. Of course, she was curious but I didn't want to share those moments, yet. There were my last pieces of Atemu and were buried deep in my heart.
"I had decided then, that I had to try to move forward. I still couldn't remove my piece of memory, but I was going to try to live in this world. I began to ruthlessly date. Yet, my memories of Atemu would become stronger, and I could not continue on a second date with any of the prospective suitors. I suppose that is way Instructor Davien took an interest in me. I had quickly earned a reputation as untouchable in a school where sex and lust, pale visages of true love, ran rampant among the artistic.
"He offered me extra tutoring, and I, too blind and naive, saw this attention as only a great teacher wanting to help shape a student. I had thought myself special at that moment. He was a smooth talker. I failed to see our evenings together as dates. However, over the course of a month, he saw them as such and when he tried to push me forward... when I rejected him...
"When I rejected him, he was angry. He tried to take by force what I did not want to give. I think, that night, as I write it now, that he only wanted a kiss. I was so shocked by this, and immediately told him that it was not right. I added that maybe I should not continue our extracurricular excursions. I turned away from him to leave, and he grabbed me.
"Ripping my shirt from me, he threw me to the ground and called me all sorts of cruel names. I did not hold back and gave as good as he gave. He grabbed me again, slamming into the ground once more, but when he went to yank my necklace from me, I kneed him in the groin as hard as I could. He screamed at me, screamed and screamed that I would not continue at this school. I told him he was crazy and I would go to the principal.
"He made it to the school authorities first and was calm and cool, whereas I was impassioned and tearful. They believed him over me. They believed his lies that I had pursued him and been rejected, not the other way around. He claimed that he was trying to help a mediocre student who became attached to him. It was all lies, but my reputation was stained. I was reprimanded by the board. Within weeks of that day, I was later expelled. I was devastated. In a single moment, all my dreams had been shattered and for the first time, I did not feel that trying again would make a difference. Davien laughed when he personally delivered my expulsion notice."
Anzu could hear a strange whispering sound coming from the shadows. They had become silent after awhile, there was nothing they could say at the moment. It was not an awkward silence, but it had not been comfortable, only mutual. They had been waiting from something to happen, anything. She lifted her head up to look around, and the sound of her movement caused Atemu to look up as well.
"Atemu," she whispered, almost afraid to be louder, "do you hear that whispering noise?"
He looked around and shook his head. "I still hear nothing."
Confused, she could swear the sound was becoming more clear. "Are you sure? I can hear it better now."
He strained against his chains to try get to Anzu, to see if the sound she was describing was coming from behind her, but he was still limited by the length of his bonds. Atemu was growing concerned that she was hearing something that he couldn't hear. Was this the beginning mark of what Inpu was planning to do to them? He wasn't sure in this place. Then he could hear something. It was a strange whispering noise that was barely outside the range of hearing.
Across from Atemu, Anzu was now seeing a form take shape behind him. She squinted her eyes at it, staring just beyond her husband's shoulder. Anzu could feel Atemu wondering what she was looking at in the darkness.
"I... I see something behind you," she said, her normal speaking voice cracked slightly from disuse.
He turned, but darkness greeted his eyes. There was nothing there. He turned back to look at her, to tell her there was nothing to be seen. Yet, her eyes were now wide open in abject fear. That was when he noticed something forming behind her. Whatever was there was hazy still and he could not make out any details. The whispering in his head was becoming stronger.
"Anzu, Anzu, what do you see?" He asked her.
"D...D...Davien... he... he was the one who... ruined..." Her voice trailed off into silence.
Stuttering was uncharacteristic for her, Atemu was more worried for her than himself and tried to get her to focus. "Anzu, Davien ruined what?"
Tears trickled down her face as she looked back toward Atemu. "He was the one who ruined my dreams."
Behind Anzu, Atemu could now see who was appearing and striding toward them. It was the mirage of Bakura, King of Thieves.
"After the expulsion, I lost hope. I did not want to return to Domino City a failure. I did not want my parents to find out that my dancing goals had been dashed. I did not want you or any of our friends to know that I had failed. Desperate, and running out of the stipend my parents supplied for my education, I found my way into a strip club called Dancing Dolls.
"I felt like I was just a doll at this point. Men wanted to just use me and manipulate me. Davien taught me that, and that he could easily crush me. Maybe, I might have some control over it if I... So I danced for them and let them slip their crushed dollars bills with nicotine-stained fingers into my costumes. Really, it was just lingerie.
"I despaired. I was alone in my heart. I had become a stripper out of desperation. On the television, they show it as a glorious lifestyle, and I suppose for some it is, if they are fortunate and stronger-willed, but this was anything but glorious. Every morning, I couldn't seem to get the grime off my skin no matter how hot the water.
"Diamond, who in her own way was being a friend, encouraged me to drink more while on the floor. I learned to not stumble, but I was completely intoxicated. Eventually, I started drinking more and more at home. Soon, I was adding in pain-killers and other prescriptions that I would buy from the girls in the back. Regardless of this mind-altered state I was in, I did keep to some of my beliefs. What little they were when compared against what I was doing to myself and the lies to everyone back home."
Jonouchi looked torn, and Mai was holding onto his hand, trying to give him her strength. Then he spoke, interrupting Yugi from reading further, "She could have told us. We wouldn't have judged her."
"We would have helped her, brought her home. Anzu never harshly judged us for anything we did," Honda added.
Mokuba spoke up next. "She would always take the time to read my emails with my stupid problems, give me advice, and I never knew this happened to her." He frowned, and Kaiba glanced at him slightly surprised.
"Not everyone has had that moment and time in their lives where..." Mai said, her voice slightly hesitant, "Where they feel there is nothing that can fix their road and their goals are nothing. I can relate to why she didn't want to share this burden with anyone. I have been there, and I have hurt those I love by the actions resulting from that belief."
Wrapping his arm round her, Jonouchi pulled Mai close to him and nodded. "However, anyone can come back from their own darkness... but it takes more than just themselves. Mai and I have learned this... together."
Yugi and Rebecca nodded, they only knew part of the story of how Mai and Jonouchi were able to get together. Yugi could remember the darkened look when Jonouchi told him he couldn't give him any more details because that would violate Mai's trust in him. Even now, the couple across from them had the image of a darkened memory in their eyes.
"Worthless slut. Second-rate dancer. You know that is what you are and will always be."
She shook her head against the accusation that mirrored what she saw of herself in her heart. Davien's voice cut through her mind like a sharp knife and left sorrow welling from the wound. Earlier, she had felt strong and worthy but with this appearance, that visage had been completely blown away.
"You're not real! You're a figment!" She shouted back at him.
Atemu was distracted by the appearance of the Thief King, confused by Anzu yelling at empty air. He could hear his own apparition laughing at him.
"Pharaoh, she sees what she sees. You cannot save her or yourself from this." His voice was exactly the same timber as when Atemu first met him. Mocking and belligerent in the same breath.
"Who are you really?" Atemu growled at him, he did not like this game.
Bakura threw his red cloak back. Pointing to his chest and then the scar below his right eye. "I am Bakura," he said with a smirk.
Atemu hummed in his throat. "So, I see that you did go to hell."
"Only the best, but you are here now, too. I am going to enjoy the thousands of years we will have together. Old times to catch up with each other, a fresh nubile bride for me to ravish, and you all chained up with nothing you can do about it." Bakura reached over to flick at the chains binding Atemu to the posts. Behind the manifestation of the Thief King, Atemu could hear Anzu's panicked cries with her unseen tormentor.
"You should have been glad that I even took an interest in such a low-born cunt as yourself," Anzu's former instructor purred at her.
She shrank back from him, feeling the wood of the post behind her through the linen gown she was wearing. Anzu couldn't stop shaking her head. This was the man who generated her breaking point. It was after him that all the horrible things began to happen to her life. Drinking, drugs, and the battering of her self-esteem by doing things she never thought she would do. Like a caged animal, she fought at her bindings to try to run from Davien.
He was so close she could feel his breath on her face when he spoke again, "You can't keep running, bitch. Your Pharaoh cannot save you anymore. You made sure of that with your stupidity."
Bakura chuckled again and casually turned to face the Pharaoh next to him and said, "What do you think? Think she'll still be sane in another hour or so? I wonder what will happen to her. It must be terrible to just have to stand here and watch this."
"Fuck off, Thief," Atemu snarled back, "She's stronger than you are giving her credit for."
What was she facing he could only guess at. He knew that she had experienced some tough and lonely years after leaving everyone behind. It was the result of those nights that brought them back together. But, they had left their mark on her. It was when she had given up all hope that he had found himself thrust to her and witnessing her attempt at suicide. He watched her struggling with her own demons, feeling helpless and unable to save her this time.
Davien had reached her, and she struggled to get away from him. Anzu knelt down against the post where her chains bound her, curling up into a small ball. Her heart struggled against the words he was saying. Her self-worth, a reflection of who she was, and all that she had been through was slowly being snuffed out by his assault of words.
"No, get away from me! This... this..." Anzu struggled to fight against this, but the guilt in her heart was overwhelming her.
"You lied to everyone, including yourself. You are worthless, nothing, and just a slut to be used." Davien continued his verbal assault, standing over kneeling form. "You're on your knees, where you belong, Anzu."
Yugi's voice wavered when he read about Anzu's assault the night she had been given a so-called promotion at the strip club. Tears fell down his eyes as he was compelled to continue revealing her thoughts that she had when she had swallowed the pills and drank the alcohol to amplify their affect, so she could die. Her loneliness and pain in her heart, and then, her shock upon seeing Pharaoh Atemu, his former other self. He could hear the near silent weeping of the women in the room and gasps of anger from Jonouchi and Honda, and all the others. He stopped reading to wipe his eyes.
Jonouchi spoke in the sudden stillness. "Yugi, why didn't she tell us? Why couldn't she... We..."
"A woman's heart... is complicated. We..." Mai was the one to answer, her voice soft. "We often see our imperfections first, then our good traits last. They threaten us and when we see the base instincts of people, notably men we felt should be trustworthy, even if every other man we have met is honorable and true that mark cuts us and causes us to question how we should be treated and what we really are."
He turned toward his girlfriend, remembering those same words she had yelled out to him a long ago night in the pouring rain. Mai's admittance of that had marked a turning point for them both, because then he was able to understand her drives much more clearly than before.
Kaiba was silent, absorbing the loneliness and despair from Anzu's story. He could offer no words to the others. The girl he remembered had always been so hopeful. So much so, that she dared to defy him on more than one occasion by trying to show him her perceived error of his ways.
Swallowing the sob in his throat, Bakura tried to remain stoic but he knew what Mai was describing. It was in his heart as well. That loneliness and judgment, which threatened his life at night when he would awake from nightmares. At first, he had not remembered what he had done when taken over by evil of his own Millennium item, but over time, and in his dreams, he had. He had vowed to never let any of them know. Somehow, he remembered what she had written to him, Anzu had perceived this self-loathing.
Mokuba frowned and responded, "I would not have blamed her for what happened."
"Can you be so certain, Mokuba?" Kaiba cut through the conversation.
All eyes turned upon him at once. He shrugged, but continued to look down at the ground in front of him, ignoring their angry stares.
"Can any of us be so certain we would be forgiving, if during the moment, she had called for help? It is easy to forgive her for what happened at her school, but what about if she called saying she was working at this Dancing Dolls? Would we still have her on a pedestal as you did when in high school?" Kaiba frowned and became silent.
"Damn it, Kaiba!" Jonouchi exclaimed, "Do you always have to be like this? Such an asshole?"
To the group's surprise, Bakura was the one to defend Kaiba. "He is being realistic. He is right... would we so easily forgive her then as we are willing now?"
Anzu felt Davien pull her head back by her hair, the golden crown of the queen falling from her to clatter on the ground nearby. She thought she could hear Atemu shouting something, but he was so far away from her. Besides, she was worthless. He deserved a true queen and that was not her. If she had any of those traits, she would not have pursued this course of action that now had them both accursed. Davien was right, she was nothing. She looked up into her attacker's black eyes and gaunt, thin face, tears falling from her eyes.
"Anzu!" Atemu cried out to her.
Something had changed in her demeanor. She was no longer fighting back whatever was there. He could see a shimmer of a figure in front of her, but it was just out of sight. Next to him, the Thief King laughed.
"Shall I reveal to you what she will do next? How she will relive her night before you came back to try to save her?" The originating Bakura offered with a sneer.
He waved his hand in front of Atemu, and then it revealed a tall, skinny man with a dancer's frame. He was dressed head-to-toe in black and currently his hand was buried into the top of Anzu's black hair, pulling her head up and back. His other hand had fallen to his belt, and he began to unbuckle it.
"Anzu! Anzu! No, don't let him do this to you! Anzu! Fight back." Atemu cried out in anguish.
He could hear her sobbing to herself, "Worthless... worthless..."
The Thief King whispered in his ear, "You can't save her. You never could. How can someone who has never truly lived his own life, save another's? You even admitted to being a thief, like me, but you never did the crime. You just thought you could save her again. You were made for each other, worthless and sinful."