"Mana, I am concerned about Pharaoh and his queen," Mahado said to his companion.
They were standing on a ridge that overlooked the blue Nile and kingdom offshoots in Aaru. A light breeze was blowing amid the reeds, but otherwise, it was silent. Occasionally, a large fish would leap from the river waves and descend once more into the blue depths. People lounged along the banks, some weaving baskets and others chatting animatedly.
Mana nodded to her teacher and lover. "The last we knew anything was after I brought Anzu's symbol to her in spirit and then... Pharaoh vanished, shouting out that she was calling him."
She sat down, putting her elbows on her knees while she cupped her chin. Mana frowned at the landscape in front of them. Everything had felt off since Atemu had left to get to Anzu. Blue was not quite the same blue as it was before. Even the air seemed to have some sort of stale quality to it. It was hard to put into words just how even if everything appeared the same, it was slightly off.
Mana pulled up a handful of sand and let the grains fall through her fist. They were caught by the light breeze and carried off. She watched as they began to float away toward the east, in front of her, but then the direction changed and they went behind her. It was then that she heard Mahado drop his was staff. It clattered upon the ground, ignored as she joined her beloved to stare at the west.
"This has only happened once before... and recently... but not like this." Mahado said aloud.
Inky blackness stained the western skies and poured itself through the blue. It carried itself overhead of the pair of magicians and blotted out the eastern sun. Mahado and Mana clung to one another as they watched the sky vanish and be replaced with a stygian shade that couldn't be considered night. Darkness covered Aaru.
"Mahado, what is happening?" Mana whispered as she laid her head on his chest.
He wrapped his arms around her, viewing the darkened landscape that was once bright Aaru. Below them, the river began to swell and flood its banks. They could see people running in all directions, confused by the sudden change. This was a land where everything was the same. A place of tranquility. Now, it had been altered.
"I don't know," he murmured into her hair, his eyes dark in worry.
She looked up at him, "Could this be related to Pharaoh? Or his queen?"
Mahado frowned and nodded. "Yes, it is possible. Realize that the Gods Themselves are intertwined with their path. Some assisting, and others are hindering it. Like Setekh and Inpu..."
He let the implication hang on naming the two gods he felt were the source of this problem.
"Setekh has always wanted a piece of Kemet and Aaru for his own. It has been a source of contention since beyond our days," Mana said, filling in his unspoken insinuation. "Could this be the result of Their interference?"
"That was what I was thinking,"Mahado replied.
Staying within the comfort of her beloved's arms, Mana looked across the horizon. "What can we do?"
Anzu could hear the slither of his belt coming from his pants. Davien was wasting no time in getting what he wanted. Her heartbeat in her ears deafened her to any other sound. She could see his lips moving, but it was like she was watching from within someone else. This wasn't her. This couldn't be her. Yet, she knew it was. She had sat on her knees before and scarred her soul in the process.
She tried to remember how she got here. Everything was so difficult to comprehend. Her heart was hurting inside her chest, and she thought she would die from the pain of it. Why did these terrible things have to happen? Anzu could remember a time when she had been naive and thought that anything could be solved if you believed and were true enough. This man in front of her had proved her completely wrong.
Her sight was blurred by her tears, but she thought to herself that it didn't matter. He was going to use her and throw her away, just like she thought she deserved. That was why she ended up at Diamond Dolls. It was the only place that would have her after countless job applications with no working papers. Pain radiated across her scalp as he yanked her head by her hair. She stared at the ground and his black slippers.
"If you ask me, she seems a bit of a whore," the Thief King offered without caring to be asked.
Atemu gave him a baleful stare before turning his attention back on Anzu. He had been calling her name, trying to get her to respond to him.
"Anzu! You've got to hear me!" His voice was cracking from the strain. Inside his chest, icy blood pumped through his heart.
Bakura continued to laugh as Anzu sat weeping, her head yanked about by her apparition. He reached out and grabbed Atemu by his neck. As he applied pressure to his trachea, darker laughter emanated.
"You cannot even save yourself from me. What makes you think you can save her?" Bakura sneered, enjoying himself.
Atemu frowned, thinking to himself that he was right. What had he done to truly help her? His leaving the first time had hurt her, his state of death had led her to her own death, and her desire to be with him had brought them to this place. All because he had wanted her with him. He had been selfish. He felt he had done a greater disservice to her than he would have if he had just kept away. If you came down to it, he was the one at fault. Bakura released him, seeing the defeat in Atemu's eyes.
Smirking, the Thief King made his way around Atemu to pull him up against him. He adjusted Atemu's head so he was forced to stare at Anzu and the male figure in front of her. He could hear laughter coming from her tormentor as she wept on her knees. Her headdress laid on the ground like gutter glitter lost after a parade. A moment later, the man's leather belt joined it as he flung it one-handedly from his pants.
The unknown figure to Atemu knelt down next to his wife and licked the side of her face, she cringed with the touch of his tongue on her skin. This gave Atemu a small hope that she would do something, anything, to fight back. He could hear this man calling her all sorts of derogatory terms and each one cut him to his soul. He felt powerless in the face of this, and Bakura was making sure he would see it all.
However, she did nothing. He could see defeat in her eyes as she accepted his disgusting caress and informed her that now she was being a "good slut." Atemu felt his blood boiling from the inside and he pushed the other man off of him, trying to run to her. Chains from his shackles held him back, just out of reach of her.
"You can't save her," Bakura hissed as he strode back in front of Atemu.
Bakura swung his arm back and then forward, slamming Atemu back against the wooden beams behind him. Atemu grunted from the impact. A flash of red light cut across Atemu's violet eyes as his fists clinched at the edge of his shackles. A small cold smile began to form on his lips.
Yugi turned to the last page of Anzu's journal and sighed. He felt emotionally drained from the experience and rubbed his teary eyes. Everyone in the room was completely silent as they took in everything they had heard. They knew something wasn't right from the tone in Anzu's letters to each of them, but to now know the full truth of her experiences, it weighed on each of them heavily. Her journey in New York and how she felt the Pharaoh had saved her, to her study of the forbidden heka and her decision to go to her beloved's tomb. Their reverie was soon shattered. Something crashed outside and they could hear a car alarm going off. Looking at the clock, it was close to two in the morning.
"I suppose..." Yugi hesitated at first, but continued, "I suppose it is time for bed."
Shizuka was weeping silently in front of him, her head on Honda's shoulder. He was trying to comfort her, but finding himself at a loss on how to deal with her emotional state. He felt lost and was hurting over what Anzu had been through at the same time.
Sniffling back a sob, Shizuka finally made a coherent sentence, "Ishizu, is she... is she... dead?"
Those who had figured it out already shifted their eyes away, trying not to look at either Shizuka or Ishizu.
Ishizu approached her and simply said, "Yes." The younger woman fell into the Egyptian's arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Then why are we here if she is dead?" Kaiba cut through Shizuka's sobs.
He was staring at Ishizu, whom he considered the orchestrator of this whole trip. She could have said this on the phone. Now, they had heard the life story of a woman who probably had not intended it to be read before an audience. It bothered him. He wondered if Mokuba would read his entire sordid past to a roomful of people.
The entire room turned and stared at him, shock at his statement blanking their faces. Then, Jonouchi's face twisted into rage as he leaped forward and grabbed Kaiba by the collar, nearly tripping over Bakura who was half-twisted on the ground in front of the other man. Mai was jumping up at the same time, trying to stop Jonouchi. Yugi joined the fray, too, to stop Jonouchi from pummeling Kaiba. Kaiba was unfazed by this display from Jonouchi and with a smooth stroke, he applied a jujutsu move that had the blond-haired man flung back against his friends. Bakura yelled as he barely dodged a flying foot that would have knocked him unconscious.
Kaiba pointed at Ishizu. "You have fostered your superstitions on us more than once. What do you think is really going on if Anzu is already dead? This is no longer and never has been a 'rescue' mission."
Rishid looked over at his foster sister. He had been wondering this as well every since he realized that the young woman he had spent so much time with was dead. He had suspected it since the strange storms began, but at that time, he was not ready to face that realization. It bore down on his heart and soul.
Ishizu stared down the finger pointing at her and into Kaiba's accusing blue eyes. She felt Mariku's hand on her shoulder, trying to offer comfort from his diatribe. She shrugged him off and approached the center of the room and took Yugi's place.
"What we rescue now is not her life. It is now her soul that is in question and where it will go. Also, the Pharaoh may be affected," she responded.
Mokuba spoke first, "What do you mean?"
She looked into each person in the room in their eyes, and many glanced away from her intensity.
"For us Egyptians, those of us who follow the old ways, there is belief that judgment takes place before the Scale of Ma'at. However, there must be certain preparations done in order for the person to be able to be weighed by Her. In addition..."She paused for a moment. "using the Millennium Tome can leave a mark upon the soul and in some ways, defies the Gods Themselves."
"What!" Rishid shouted. His former stoic appearance of expressionlessness shattered. "How could you let her study the book if you knew all this!"
She looked down, her hair falling pass her golden headband to conceal her features, before responding. "She would have used the book regardless of the dangers. My hope was that, if she realized how dangerous it was, maybe she would not do it. At the very least, that if she did, she would have a better chance of not damning herself."
"This is preposterous. Are you meaning to say that I've traveled thousands of kilometers for a ghost story?" Kaiba cut into the conversation.
Bakura quietly spoke up, adding his opinion, "Do you deny what is happening outside? What almost happened when we landed at the airport? What even happened on the plane? You had to have felt it."
"I-" Kaiba stopped himself. To completely deny it would amount to a lie.
"Yugi." Ishizu focused her attention on the young man standing next to Jonouchi. Rebecca snapped her head up from her contemplation at hearing her fiancée's name.
Looking slightly confused, he replied, "Yes?"
"What do you think would happen if the Pharaoh released the darkness that is sealed within him?" There it was. The heart of the matter, outside the safety of Anzu.
"It could... It would..." Yugi's voice trailed off, he was scared to even put words to what he thought.
"Evil? Sealed inside the Pharaoh?" Rebecca interjected. "Yugi told me of how he defeated Zorc in the memories, so that evil was never sealed by Atemu."
Mariku turned to face her. "That was not the only evils he had fought."
Her mouth opened and shut without a word.
"My other me," Yugi said, "fought countless other types of evil in this world and sealed the darkness of not just Egyptian terrors."
Jonouchi turned and looked at Yugi. "Are you saying that with all that is happening that the... that what I've seen him do... what you've told me he and you have done... could be released?"
"Yes, and if that darkness inside of him finds a way out," Ishizu flatly spoke, "then not just are Anzu and the Pharaoh at stake."
Outside, the wind howled against the window of the living room as sand pattered against it like torrential rain. Lightening crashed through the darkness of the sandstorm. Unusual events together as one. Suddenly, the artificial lights around then flickered and became dark. The only illumination now came from the candles Ishizu had lit around the room earlier. Even Kaiba was starting to look uncomfortable.
"What do we do, Ishizu?" Yugi asked her, his voice trembling.
"Mana," Mahado said to her after a time, "We must gather the priests and sages of our time. There has to be something that we can do."
The magician looked at his apprentice and love, his eyes were dark with determination. She nodded and they ran from the cliff, borne on the speed of their heka, toward the palaces below. Each split from the other to travel toward the three kingdoms affected: the kingdom of Atemu's, his father, and Pharaoh Seto's. They ran pass startled denizens of Aaru, confused spirits who could not understand what was happening in the place of tranquility.
Mana sought out Pharaoh Seto and Kisara. She found them in his throne room, deep in discussion over the current issues at hand. Rapidly explaining to them what Pharaoh Atemu had been involved in, the interference of the Gods Themselves, and what she and Mahado worried about the darkness, they agreed to follow her back to Atemu's palace.
Mahado only went to Pharaoh Akhenamkhanen's palace to locate Atemu's father for assistance. He explained the dire situation he felt that was facing Aaru, including details he had not yet revealed to Mana. They were suspicions, but the old Pharaoh nodded. He knew intimately that Mahado possessed power that many could not understand and that he would have a sense of what they could be facing. In addition, he felt concern regarding the presence of Setekh involved in the matter. Inpu could be expected, but the father was far more dangerous than the son.
As both Mana and Mahado returned to the palace, their guests in tow, they roused up the rest of the guardians of the Millennium Items. Since most had died during their tenure in Pharaoh Atemu's time, they were easily found here among their known companions. Heated discussions began as they debated over what was occurring and what, if anything, could they do about it.
"My son is different from other Pharaohs, both past and future," Akhenamkhanen said to the delegation. "We know this, because it has been witnessed his power to prevent the destruction of our homeland, Kemet."
Mahado and Seto nodded. They had seen this with their own eyes, and it was Atemu that bequeathed the title of Pharaoh to Seto after he vanished. Much was also learned when Atemu had returned to Aaru. The river of time was strange in that it seemed forever and short all at once. However, it was as it should be, even if their lives involved dualities of existence. They were aware of his adventures with his living host that he called his partner, the one who had solved the Millennium puzzle that Siamun had disassembled and placed in Atemu's tomb that was later found by his reincarnate.
Looking confused by the exchange of dialog, Mana spoke up, "What would happen if Pharaoh were to lose control?"
"Nothing that anyone can foresee, I fear," Isis spoke up next.
Karimu looked down and pondered the situation as he rubbed his chin. He then asked, "What can we do, my friends?"
Purplish-black tendrils began to coil along Atemu's arms as his eyes faded from violet to red. Bakura stepped back, surprised by the sudden change in the Pharaoh he had been tormenting. He stood up straight, his back ramrod straight as he pulled his wrists in front of him. Atemu looked at the shackles, seemingly for the first time, began to concentrate on them. Cracks began to form on their surface as the darkness grew around him.
The Thief King began to laugh suddenly. "Yes! Show your true self! Try to save her, and see how fruitless your efforts really are!"
Atemu could barely hear him, the roar of blood in his ears was too great as he watched the man in front of Anzu preparing himself to sully her. She seemed incapable of fighting back, lost in her own grief and guilt. He had promised her he would protect her with his soul, with everything. It didn't matter what that entailed, he would give it all to her.
He could see the tendrils of evil radiating off of him, twisting and twining with his bonds, but it didn't matter anymore. If Anzu was hurt, it would destroy him. If anyone hurt her, he would destroy them. Right now, he didn't care if this man and Bakura were illusions or not. He would remove them from existence, one way or another. No cost was too great.
Staring at Bakura with glowing red eyes, Atemu concentrated with all his might and a blast of red light radiated from him to strike the man who had desecrated his father's grave. It knocked him to the ground, but he kept laughing. It was a grating noise to Atemu's ears. He wanted nothing more than to silence the voice that had seeded doubts within him. He could hear the metal of his bindings cracking as he exerted greater force upon them. He could also feel something else within him threatening to crack open.
Isis and Ishizu, incarnate and reincarnate, both spoke at the same time to their respective groups, "We must pray and offer up our hearts and hopes to our friends in need. For them to find a way to save Kemet and the world, and for them to have strength through whatever blocks their way. They must know they are not alone."
"What is this-" Kaiba tried to interject, feeling that this was getting more ridiculous by the second.
"Shut up, Big Brother," Mokuba interrupted him as he grasped Bakura's and the newly seated Jonouchi's hand. Others were clasping hands to one another until a circle was formed. Only Bakura and Yugi had hands that were free. They extended them to Kaiba.
Looking infuriated at this prospect of some bonfire bonding ceremony, he took a step back. Yugi motioned with his open palm.
"Like you have anything else you can be doing right now?" He offered.
Honda added, "In another few hours the sun will rise."
Silence descended on the room as everyone looked at Honda. Otogi spoke up, looking at the man on the other side of Shizuka, "What has that got to do with anything?"
Shizuka was ducking her head with a slightly embarrassed look.
"I'm saying, he can leave then. Right now... there's..." His voice trailed off and he looked down in his lap.
"If the sun even rises. Kaiba, have a little faith?" Ishizu said, trying to reason with him.
Bakura tried to give him a reassuring smile and said, "Hey, if nothing happens, then you can get full rights to I told you so's on all of us. So, why not?"
"Fine. But if you people start singing, I'm out of here – sandstorm or not." Kaiba snapped and grasped the two hands offered to him.
As many began to bow their heads, Ishizu said, "Simply concentrate on Anzu and the Pharaoh. Will your presence to them. Easy enough...even for Kaiba to do."
She could not conceal her smirk when she heard him growl under his breath from across the room.
In Aaru, the group there had clasped each other's hands without any contempt or argument. They had all been touched by magic at various points in their lives and felt that through their power of belief they will be able to assist their Pharaoh.
Anzu could feel the tears burning hot trails on her cheeks as she watched Davien unzipping his pants. He began to waver and transformed into the form of the man who had forced this same event upon her when she was at Dancing Dolls. He was the same one from that night when she had first become a VIP girl. She gasped as he rippled into this form. Anzu could smell the stink of his cigarettes coming off of his clothing as he yanked her head closer to his crotch.
A strange golden glow began to emanate around her and this distracted her for a moment from what was about to happen. She looked over and saw Atemu, really saw him again in this place. He was overlaid with red and violet energies that appeared unhealthy. In front of him, the Bakura from his memories was on the ground laughing. Atemu's eyes were glowing bright red. However, like her, he was suddenly distracted by the mirage of gold appearing around him.
"Remember... you are never alone..." A ghostly feminine voice reverberated in the chamber.
Another voice spoke up, this one male, "We are with you in spirit and thought..."
"Please, do not be sad." This one sounded like Shizuka's.
Was this one Yugi? "Please, do not feel guilt."
"I freely give you my strength..." Many voices were now speaking. Their statements crashing and echoing upon one another.
She watched, surprised, as the glow took the form of her friends around her. It was warm and kind, and she felt surrounded by their kinship to her. In their eyes, she knew they knew everything and they were here. They were still willing to support her. Anzu smiled through her tears. It had been so long since she had seen her friends, all of them. She missed them so much, but she had been so ashamed to face them again. Yet, here they were, and they were supportive. They had not turned their backs on her.
Around Atemu, he saw his priests, guardians, and his childhood friends. He stopped in his concentration, and the red light in his eyes faded back to violet. He could feel the dark energies around him fading in the glow of this healing light. The cracking noise of the chains had stopped, but they had been damaged enough that he was able to yank his arms forward so his bindings snapped apart. He was free. With warmth in his heart, he turned his eyes toward Anzu and could see a rapturous look on her face. Bakura blocked his view of her, awash in a red light.
"Begone!" Atemu pointed his hands toward Bakura and felt a surge of power flow through his being. Golden light radiated from his fingertips to push the Thief King back into the dark.
At the same time, Anzu looked up at the marks of her damaged self-esteem. She was not alone, even though she had been damaged. She was not alone. Her friends forgave her and still cared for her as much as she did them. She could feel the man's fingers in her hair and she yanked herself back, disregarding the pain as he tried to grip her head harder. She kicked upward and connected with that offensive tool he had planned to use on her. He crumpled to the ground in front of her.
She stood up and looked down on him, ready to fight. Atemu was racing toward her. Anzu felt the manacles on her wrists come undone, and the chains fell down to the ground at her feet. Looking at her wrists, she felt herself smile as she glanced up to see her husband and the glow of their friends around them. They were not alone in this place of damnation. In front of her, her attacker vanished like smoke.
"Atemu!" She cried to him as he grabbed her and crushed her against his chest with his embrace.
He was kissing her forehead and cheeks. "Anzu! Oh Gods, Anzu! I thought I was going to lose you."
She pulled back from him enough to be able to look him in the eyes. "Me, too."
They kissed, quickly and with passion. For the moment, they were safe. Bathed in the golden light, they felt their spirits renewed with hope. They had a chance now.
Staring at each other from the ring of glowing golden essences, Ishizu and Isis made eye contact and nodded to one another. Everyone else around them seemed unaware of each other's presence.
"Pharaoh!" Both women called out.
The couple turned their heads to face the near identical women. He nodded.
Isis spoke first, "Pharaoh, since you left to follow your queen, things have begun to change in Aaru. Darkness covers the land."
Ishizu raised her eyebrow at the mention of 'your queen', but didn't ask. However, she also spoke, "A great sandstorm has extended from the Valley of the Kings and is currently battering the city nearby. Flooding and great storms also have appeared in the last day among the living."
Anzu gasped out-loud, gripping tightly to Atemu. "It is as They said, the heka I performed has harmed not only the physical world, but Aaru!"
Atemu shook his head. "How can this be? The spell wasn't even a true success."
"I suppose it is all in the matter of the energies, I am not a magician of caliber to determine this. One moment." The image of Isis vanished for a moment, including the one of Mahado. They returned within moments. "Mahado has not heard of this happening either, but what is odd, is that Aaru recently had darkness but it was not this blackness. It was more of an evening sky."
He frowned as he remembered the reeds and Anzu appearing by the shore of the Nile. The sky overhead had become like that of a midnight sky with thousands of stars shining down upon them. He had pushed her into the sand. This event had had happened not long after he had first appeared with her in New York. He heard her sharp intake of breath.
"I thought that had just been a dream... I had forgotten it," she murmured aloud. Anzu looked at the glowing delegation and then at Atemu. "Atemu, I... I have been bypassing into Aaru, haven't I? The incident on the plane, and that night with Diamond, but every time I've experienced something related to Aaru... I was always dying or near death, wasn't I?"
He had buried these thoughts deep within himself, and he had always intended to investigate them again, but so many events had happened in so short of a time. It had been impossible to make a subtle query. His answer was plainly evident on his face.
"How is that...?" She tried to ask.
He interrupted, "I don't know." He looked at Isis and Ishizu. Their surprise was obvious.
"How many times has she entered Aaru without..." Isis asked, her voice betraying her shock.
Anzu shrugged, and answered for herself. "I don't know. A handful or more."
She frowned. "Then, apparently, it is possible that her casting of the spell is causing these disturbances."
Fresh tears filled Anzu's eyes. It was she that was truly the source of all the problems that the worlds were experiencing. "Then, Setekh was right!"
"No, He cannot be," Atemu vehemently ascertained. "Something else must be happening. Those brief moments never caused any real issue."
"But this time, she is truly dead." Ishizu cut into Atemu's argument.
Anzu guiltily looked down, afraid to see the faces of her friends in the glow even though it seemed only the two women could interact here.
Isis countered, "Regardless, Atemu and his queen being here is not going to fix this. Neither one of them belong here."
"Yes, I do," Atemu quietly said, "I made the choice to come here."
Shrugging like it was a simple and minor inconvenience. "You made the choice to come here, but you do not belong here, my Pharaoh. I witnessed the weighing of the Queen's feather, she doesn't either."
Anzu looked up at the shaft of red light far above them. "But how will we get out?" she asked.
"If my descendant will give me leave, we can combine the powers we have gathered here to lift you out of Tuat and back to the crossroads," Isis stated.
Ishizu nodded and the two strode forward toward Atemu and Anzu. Ishizu grasped Anzu's shoulder, and Isis took hold of Atemu's. Both of the women closed their eyes and the golden glow became incandescent and white. The couple closed their eyes at the brightness and felt themselves being buoyed by the power of their combined friends.
In Tuat, the denizens and souls all stopped in their torments and punishments to stare in awe as an orb of bright white light ascended into the sky. It floated in the reddish darkness for a moment before bursting in a stream of pure incandescence, forcing them to shield themselves from the sudden illumination. From within His temple, Inpu could barely contain the rage and shock that something like this had just happened. He had realized immediately that the two within the vanishing light were Atemu and Anzu.