One of the large support beams shifted, a hand appearing from underneath as a gasp turned into a cough. Her lips pressed into a thin line while she shimmied until free and stood. The home they had grown up with, the very building that housed their family, was now gone. Loss was swept away by a sense of self pride as she worked her way through the rubble. Though she was covered head to toe in dust and ash Anzu had never felt so pleased with herself when she spotted the unconscious siren farther within the rubble. "How do you like me now, you sick bastard?" she groaned as a dull throb of pain made itself known in her right shoulder. "Sorry, Seto, but I guess those remodels you wanted will finally be happening." Cerulean eyes glanced towards the once extravagant building as she limped down an all too familiar pathway. Never in a thousand years did she think that Seto's emergency destruction system would actually be useful but it was lucky for her that she had remembered the dang password in the first place. Exhaustion caused her eyelids to droop as she stumbled and fell into the dirt. They fluttered closed as the need for sleep crashed over her like a curtain of rain, carrying her off into dreamland if only it weren't for the insistent pressure tugging her to stand back up. Whatever was pulling her towards the loch could wait a little longer. All she wanted was a nap…just a small one, not even ten minutes will do…
"Mamorubeki hito to sekai ga aru node, mō uso o tsuku koto wa dekimasen…" Someone was singing. It was just soft enough that she could faintly recognize mother's voice from the old home movies they kept, but what was she singing?
"You'll grow up to be a beauty, I'm sure of it," a voice tickled her ear as fingers gently tickled her face. A pair of shadows appeared above her, one pair of eyes looking down on her with curiosity while the other pair held weariness. "Be gentle, you two, she is much younger and fragile than either of you." The hands holding her carefully repositioned her tiny body so that she was sitting upright when one of the shadows moved away and cooed softly when the one who remained held their hands out. "Would you like to hold her?" They nodded, carefully following the instructions of whoever was passing her, and earned a smile when she lightly patted their cheeks. Amethyst gems of glittered like stars when she rested a chubby hand upon his own that was carefully holding her. Their gaze only broke for a second when a woman's face appeared next to his, her beaming smile fond as she pressed her lips against Atem's temple then placed one upon her own, a voice like honey coming from the beautiful woman as she too joined in the singing.
"Hōseki no yō ni kagayaku umm no yasashi-sa to ai in tsutsuma rete, watashi wa umaremashita…"
"…Anzu…Anzu…"
Someone was calling her. Her heart knew them, if its sudden increase in rhythm and warmth were to amount to anything, and was wide awake when the heavy lids of her eyes fluttered, finding herself back on her feet. That annoying pressure was back and tugging on her chest even more than before. "Alright, I'm going, I'm going," she huffed, taking each step slowly as her legs wobbled with warning. The song she had heard grew louder and stronger within her ears as she approached the end. Her vision blurred as the glittering loch came into view, the pull now so strong that it was practically leading her along by an invisible thread. "There'd better be something worth it when I get there like a bite of food or a soft bed…" The words died on her lips as her strength finally caved and fell heavily to her knees in the sand.
The ground never rose to greet her though. "Afraid I don't have either to offer you," a deep voice whispered in her ear as arms wrapped around her form. "I hope you can forgive me."
Tears prickled her eyes as she clung to him, the fear she had been swallowing since finding herself alone with Bakura rising to form a lump in her throat as his cooler body temperature soothed her own. She bit her lip in hopes to better hold off the tears but the strength radiating off of his form caused her defenses to crumble and she was soon hiding her face within the crook of his neck as his hand cradled the back of her head.
His heart could have wept in relief to have her back in his hold, that she was in one piece and alive caused his being to release all of its pent up stress from worrying about her in the form of a deep sigh. "You were very brave, Anzu, but perhaps next time you should tell me so I do not worry so much?" Her apology was muffled but he could care less. She was here, in one piece, a little scratched up but otherwise alive. They slipped into the water as an ear piercing scream filled the air, his arms keeping her close as he surfaced below the dock. It's shadow should hide them well enough and there was enough room for her to breathe as her wide cerulean eyes locked upwards.
They fell to rest upon the merman as he flinched. She whispered his name, her throat protesting in strain of making the sound as the salt water she had accidentally swallowed burned its sensitive lining. "What's wrong?"
"This sound," his head restlessly went from side to side as if he were trying to ignore it. "It's her summoning song."
There was a legend that spoke of a song that would cause all of the sea dwellers to rise from the darkest depths of the ocean to rise and form an army that would decimate the land masses so that the Earth would be a planet of water. Is that what the goddess was trying to do now? Panic filled her when his being trembled when the scream changed pitch, climbing then falling down the scales as the seconds ticked by, a ring of white flickering around his pupils whenever their gazes met. His head stilled as her hands tightened their hold upon him, forcing him motions to halt as she rested her forehead against his own. Her breath caught when the white ring threatened to overtake his amethyst, the golden fin that was keeping them afloat pulsing with magical power as it grew a long dorsal fin that stretched from between his shoulders down to the tail's tip. The song, this strange summoning, was forcing him and possibly all merfolk to undergo a strange transformation? What could she possibly do to help him? "You have to fight it, Atem, block her out!"
. . . .
The throbbing headache was making his mind numb, intensifying as a new note was reached, each thread of his sanity unraveling like a cloth coming undone. Then there was silence. His breath was ragged as a consciousness brushed against his own. Ice filled his veins when her triumphant smirk filled his mind.
. . . .
She shook him slightly. He had become unresponsive to her calls and his head was now hanging too low for her to see his face clearly. "Talk to me, why did she stop?" A gasp came from between her lips as a dark chuckle was her only warning. He suddenly slammed her against the dock's base beam, the impact so forceful that she was momentarily stunned, and found herself staring into cold white eyes that sent shivers down her spine. The water had grown colder, her breaths coming in faint clouds as she stifled the urge to cry out when he pinned her arms roughly to the wood. The once glittering golden tail was now a shocking white, matching his eyes and the webbing that had appeared between his fingers and the small fins that had sprouted from behind his ears. Even the scales that had been scattered across his torso were now such a vivid white that they stood out almost painstakingly against his tanned skin. Her body wanted to shiver, the cold of the water and air promising hypothermia, but one wrong move might make things worse.
His upper torso was crushing her own, causing her breathing to come in short quick gasps. "Well, little human, it seems that it was much easier than I expected to take over your so called 'beloved'." The voice that came from between his lips was warped, a strange mix between the goddess and that of Atem. She stiffened as a hiss filled the limited space and felt sharp teeth meet her neck. When had his head bent?! "How shall I have him kill you? The ways are numerous, each delicious in their own way…" A lengthened nail slashed through the corset holding the upper half of the ruined dress and earned a grimace from the girl as the bare skin of her upper abdomen met the water. "Gutting you like the fish you consume would be one, but then again there is strangulation and drowning, where I can watch as the pathetic light leave your eyes."
Anzu saw spots as the hand grasped her throat. The tears she had tried to hold off betrayed her as she forced her face to remain in a neutral expression. No way was she going to give the goddess the satisfaction of knowing she was scared or in pain.
"Come now, girl, you can at least put up some sort of fight." His head tilted to the side, giving her slender neck a brief squeeze. "Do you not wish to live?"
"You think…that you can use him…like a tool, a puppet, to do…your bidding?" she gasped. "Why don't you just come and…do it yourself?"
White eyes narrowed. "Just for that, I will thoroughly enjoy what comes next."
"You and me both." Anzu growled. Her head swung backward then forward, a sickening crack sounding as it impacted his. It was just what she needed to break free and sent them backwards with a kick to the chest to impact with the support pole behind them. "I'm not about to do the Dead Man's Float anytime soon so you better be ready for one hell of a fight." A gold outline surrounded her figure as she moved from under the dock so that she could have firm footing upon the beach. "And I'm not about to let you use Atem!"