Nice to know that at least some people are reading! I've got two votes for Malik and one vote for Yami, but Malik fans I am frankly scratching my head on how to get him included in the story. I have one or two ideas but both don't see Malik in the story until a chapter or two. So I've decided that Malik will be in the story as a love interest and whether she ends up with Yami or Malik will be a surprise. (No Isis though! She freaks me out!!!!!!!) But remember when I originally thought of this it was ultimately a Yami/Anzu fic. *Star_Chan ducks as her fans, mostly Malik lovers, throw things at her* I'm sorry but while I do love Malik *drool* I had this originally had this as Yami/Anzu story on side of an Anzu centered fic. This is her story people! Malik and the others will just have to take a back seat! But keep your eyes open for my solely Malik/Anzu fic out sometime in late June or early July entitled 'You Wish'. Ok with that said, if anyone is still reading this now that I have left Malik, Yami, and Anzu's fate in the air, enjoy the chapter and REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! Tell me what you want!
P.S- I decided to change Rory's age to 25, it'll work out better in my head. Don't worry, you'll see why!
***********************************************************************
By the time that her father returned home that afternoon Anzu had immerged from the bathroom and hidden Rory's card and a few other documents she had left behind for Anzu. The thought crossed her mind that she should through these things out, but she instead hid them under her mattress. Rain lashed against the window that Anzu looked out as her father had a one sided conversations, trying to work around his daughter's unusual silence.
"So how the dancing going Anzu? You decide on what free style you'll be doing at the end yet?" misinterpreting his daughter's expression he continued. "You don't have to tell me what you chose, I know you want to keep it a surprise. I was just curious if you had decided on one yet." Anzu shook her head 'no' numbly. "Hmm, well you had better decide quick. Two weeks isn't a lot of time to practice." Anzu remained silent, worrying her father. He was about to pry when she finally spoke.
"I think I'm going to go to Yugi's if that's ok Dad." Her father looked at her puzzled.
"In this weather?" he asked
"Yea, I just remember that I had to drop off a part of the science project we were working on. I forgot to drop it off before dance. And since I'm over there I might as well work on it." Anzu said all of this in one breath, unable to look her father in the eyes.
"Well I guess it would be ok," before he could continue Anzu said her goodbyes, grabbed an umbrella, and was out the door. This left Kenji Mazaki very confused. He had never seen his daughter act like this. Maybe some girl trouble that she just couldn't tell her father? 'It's times like this I really wish you were here Yoko,' Kenji thought to himself. He worried about his daughter sometimes, growing up without a mother and her best friends three very odd teenage boys. It wasn't that he didn't trust his daughter or her choice in friends, but sometimes fatherly concern overrode common sense. It was at that point that he was woken from his thoughts by the telephone. "Hello, Mazaki residence" he answered.
"Hello Mr. Mazaki. This is Mika Mitsui from Rhythm and Rhyme dance studio. I was wondering if Anzu was there," a friendly voice from the other end of the line responded. Kenji was slightly surprised to be hearing from the studio.
"No she just stepped out. Anything I can help you with Ms. Mitsui?"
"We were just wondering if Anzu was alright. She didn't show up today after she reserved a studio. She is usually here everyday before a recital and we just wanted to make sure everything was alright." Kenji was slightly flabbergasted.
"She didn't show up to the studio today?" he asked, trying to confirm.
"No she didn't, is everything ok Mr. Mazaki?"
"Ah no, I mean yes. Everything is just fine. Just a miscommunication, I'm sure."
"Ok then. Goodnight Mr. Mazaki," an unconvinced voice told him before hanging up. Kenji shook his head disbelievingly as he too hung up. It was at that point that Anzu hadn't taken anything other than an umbrella before she left.
"What is going on with you Anzu?" he asked his empty house. Meanwhile the girl in question had taken to walking about the rainy streets of Domino. With her umbrella has her only companion Anzu wandered, a lost and confused girl. What Rory had said couldn't be true, could it? Thoughts of such kind coursed through her body until they were interrupted by the splash of a passing car. Anzu looked down dully at her now soaked socks and shoes, when she caught sight of the scar on her right knee. 'You have a scar on your right knee from when you fell in pumpkin patch.' Rory's words echoed through her mind and Anzu took off running, blind to where she was going. When she stopped running minutes later, sides stinging from the speed and severity of the run, she was surprised to find herself in a part of town she usually avoided.
Anzu hardly ever came to the cemetery that her mother was buried in; there were too many memories here. She knew her father came often, and guilt dug at her for avoiding the grave but at the same time unwavering doubt washed over her too. She shook her head in frustration as Rory's claim ran through her head once more.
"No," Anzu spoke to the rain and herself. "Mama, was my real mother. Mom and Dad wouldn't kidnap me. I'm there daughter, I have to be." Rory Waters had to be wrong, she just had to be. Umbrella abandon on her mad dash, Anzu shook her wet locks.
"Anzu?" a new voice questioned. Anzu didn't recognize the voice at first but after a moment's thought she had it. She pushed herself from the bent over position she had been in trying to recover from her mad dash. Folded up pain released as she stood and faced the newcomer.
"Malik? Malik Ishtar?" she questioned catching sight of the Egyptian. (AN: I'm so evil aren't I? Making you think to Malik for another two chapters! Hehe-enjoy my gift from me to you!) "What are you doing here?" she asked not waiting for an answer to her first question.
"I was about to ask you the same thing. You are completely soaked." He moved closer to her so she could stand under his umbrella. Anzu automatically moved half a step back and Malik could hardly blame her. After the way he and his Yami had acted during Battle City he would be surprised if anyone in this city would ever trust him. But a moment later Anzu was beneath the umbrella next to him.
"Thanks she muttered hugging her arms to her body.
"No problem, can I walk you home?" he asked. She merely nodded as a response, eyes downcast, watching the sidewalk as she walked. He couldn't help noticing as they walked, her unusual silence and the lack of light in her eyes. "Are you alright?" he finally asked as they turned a corner. "You don't seem yourself."
"And you presume to know who I am Malik?" she asked coldly, much unlike herself. "I don't even know myself anymore. How could you?" She continued walking, despite the fact that he had stopped walking. Now he knew something was seriously wrong. That was something that his Yami would say, not the Anzu Mazaki that he observed from a far in Battle City. He quickly caught up with her and placed his jacket around her shoulders. The action startled her and she looked up at him in surprise.
"You were shivering," he said with a shrug. "Now are you going to tell me what is wrong or do I have to force it out of you?" he asked in a slightly more serious tone than before, because he was dead serious. He had improved a lot since Battle City but still had very little patients for people and Anzu's behavior was starting to get to him.
"Burn in hell Malik, you and your damn Yami" Anzu told him throwing his jacket back to him and walking meaningfully past him. She didn't get two steps past him when he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back to him. Before she knew what was happening he had her pinned against the side of a brick building and for the first time since he had found her at the cemetery she was afraid.
"You do know that I could kill you right now and not blink an eye."
"Yugi and Yami would have you so," she started to say the first thing that came to her mind but shut up when Malik chuckled.
"You think I give a damn about the Pharaoh or his puppet Yugi?"
"You should," Anzu told him though she was beginning to feel a bit sick to her stomach. "Anyway what does it matter?" she asked him. "Go ahead and kill me, it would make this life a hell of a lot easier." She looked away from him, not trusting her own eyes to look at him. She was surprised once more when she felt his jacket about her once more. She didn't say anything but wrapped the jacket about her shoulders and joined him under the umbrella once more. "Why are you in Domino anyway?" she asked him finally.
"For Isis, she wanted me to look over the exhibit she sent over." He heard Anzu mumble an 'oh' in reply. He would have liked to ask her what she was doing out in the pouring rain, by a cemetery, and talking to herself but he decided against it. Anzu too, had many questions she wanted to ask Malik, but she was lost in daze, her mind everywhere but nowhere at the same time. "We're here," Malik said suddenly breaking her out of her train of thought. She looked up saw that they were indeed at her house.
"Um, thank you" she said as he walked her to the shelter of her porch. He gave a simple shrug of the shoulders in response and began to walk away. "Wait," she called after him. He turned to look at her questioningly from the end of her walkway, waiting for her to speak. "Your jacket," she said taking it off and beginning to walk toward him. He held up a hand to stop her.
" Keep it for now. I'll get it from you the next time I see you." And with that he disappeared into the rainy streets of Domino city. 'Next time?' Anzu thought holding the now damp jacket to her. As she entered the house she had the first chance to wonder how her knew where she lived.
************************************************************************
"Would you like to come with me?" he asked extending his hand out to her. The innocent four year old looked up at him questioningly. She didn't know him, that made him a stranger, and momma had read her enough books about staying away from strangers. 'But', she thought peering around the man, 'Mommy is talking to a stranger too. Maybe it's ok then. Maybe I'm supposed to go with him.' With that thought in mind Tea extended her small hand out to the man who picked her up and quickly walked away. Even in her four-year-old mind, Tea knew this was wrong, so she struggled a bit. She heard her mother scream something, her name, so she struggled a bit harder and the man ran harder. Other people were yelling now, someone screamed the word 'police' and '911'. Those to things clicked in Tea's mind as people that made sure everything was all right. So everything was ok then? Going with this man was ok then? She didn't have another moment to think about it as she was pushed into the back seat of a car and driven away.
************************************************************************
Anzu woke with a start. Cold sweat ran down her face and she felt as if she hadn't breathed in minutes. That dream, that horrible dream. She had dreamt in before, but it seemed like some distant memory. 'That damn woman,' Anzu thought looking glumly at her alarm clock which showed off the time of 5 am. 'No use trying to get back to sleep. Oh joy, I love being up earlier than I have to. Might as well make the best of it.' With that in mind Anzu changed quickly into a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt and strapped on her headphones and diskman. Before going out to run she decided to practice for a bit to make up for yesterday's loss. "Fat chance," she muttered aloud careful not to wake her father. She knew that missing a day of practice, even if it was supposed to be voluntary, was unforgivable in her instructor Mika's eyes. Moving silently down the stairs into her living room Anzu tried to banish all thoughts of Rory from her head. It was difficult to do but after moving furniture out of her way and flipping on her music Anzu became completely lost in her music.
Never give up, Never give up
The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like that
It's not the things you do that tease and hurt me bad
But it's the way you do the things you do to me
I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like that
The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
The song continued on at such a beat and before long Anzu was lost in the peppy rhythm of the music. The song was a part of her usual warm up routine and part of a wide rang of music that Anzu enjoyed listening to. She had picked this song up from walking in on a beginner class. Her friends, particularly Jou and Honda, always blanched when listening to her mix CD's complaining that the mix of American Country, Rap, Pop, and everything in between was just too, well random. But Anzu didn't care; she would like a song no matter what, as long as she could see herself dancing to it or have a story form in her mind, she would listen to it. As if to prove her point, after the poppy Atomic Kitten remake of 'The Tide is High', Eminem's 'Sing for the Moment' blared on her headphones. Anzu just couldn't help laugh at this. Rory Waters was wrong. Only Anzu Mazaki liked such an odd array of music. Only Anzu Mazaki loved dancing and Duel Monsters and had Yugi and the others as best friends. She laughed aloud, not caring if she woke her father as she skipped to Christina Aguilera's 'Dirty'. She was Anzu Mazaki, totally and completely. And nothing, not time, not a manila folder with a computer aged photo, or even an obviously crazy American woman was going to change that.
***********************************************************************
After leaving Anzu's that afternoon Rory had decided to not waste perfectly good time and focus on the other thing that was keeping her in Domino City. Seto Kiaba. She had come across Kiaba personally only once but had met with his predecessor Gozubaro on more occasions than she liked to remember. When Rory was sixteen and first encountered Gozubaro, so early in her career that Fredrick still accompanied her, she and he had nearly killed each other. If Fredrick hadn't happened along Rory wasn't sure she would be here now. Sometimes she wondered if she did want to be there. Pulling out a cigarette, she lit it quickly and took a few quick puffs before throwing it to the ground, snuffing it out, and popping a piece of Nicotine gum. 'Damn dirty hadn't,' she thought 'but quitting is such a bitch.' As she did this the object of her new search pulled into his mansion. The last time that Rory had seen Kiaba had been nearly a year earlier after she had set his Philadelphia plant on fire and stole a top of the line computer program from his home there. Lets just say that she knew the boy would like to tear her limb from limb, the information was irreplaceable. She had made sure of that.
When the limo exited the mansion once more minutes later Rory could see, despite the tinted windows that Kiaba was now accompanied by his little brother. Rory couldn't help but smile slightly. She had nothing against the kid and actually enjoyed watching the hold he had over his brother. Turning and melting into the crowds Rory made her way back to the Domino Heights hotel. She wasn't even halfway there when her phone rang. She answered it quickly and quietly. "You got me," she said simply.
"Waters get your dame butt back to the states right now," Fredrick's voice commanded from across the Pacific Ocean and a country.
"I thought we had finally gotten to the point in our lives that you had come to terms with the fact that you don't have a damn say in my life anymore Fredrick." Rory rubbed her forehead. She knew that Fredrick wasn't dumb enough to forget that she was stuck in Japan.
"Don't give me a hard time right now Rory," he said tiredly. Now Rory knea something was up, he hardly ever used her first name. "I need you in D.C now! You are the only one I trust besides myself to do this job. Now get on a plane and get the hell back here!" It was an order, but Fredrick's orders no longer held any baring on Rory.
"Even if I could Fredrick, I wouldn't. I've got some stuff going here that I'm not ready to give up on."
"In Domino City? I've looked at map Rory, it's hardly worth the metal used to build it. What could possibly be there?"
"Gardner" Rory told him simply
"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked obviously losing his patients and composer as he spoke.
"Tsk, Tsk, Freddy dear," Rory said mockingly. "Your slipping up in your old age. Used to be nothing got to you."
"Are you talking about that missing girl that you've been working on the side for a few years? You're telling me that you actually got something on it in Domino?"
"I think it's her Fredrick". She heard him sigh on the other end.
"You've that before and have gotten no were. Same story here. Now, after practically beating it out to Benton I got you a flight home. It leaves in three hours."
"What if I told you I've got Seto Kiaba here as well?" she asked
"So the elusive genius finally reappears?"
"Yea, he's keeping a pretty low profile. I don't think anyone on the island realizes how big he is. He goes to public school for god's sake."
"Rory, I don't want to sound harsh or anything but," he paused and Rory knew what was coming next. "IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE NOW I'M GOING TO PERSONALLY COME OVER THERE AND DRAG YOU BACK!"
"Try it Fredrick!" she shouted back ducking into an alley so as not to attract as much attention. "We've already established that I don't need you or the Syndication! What else do you have riding on this D.C deal that you're about to have a heart attack over. I'm staying and you can't do a dame thing about it." She finished the last part in a whisper, emphasizing her point. Silence endued on the other end of the line.
"So that's it, you're going to give this up for a whim and a girl? Well I hope that it is worth it." A dial tone followed and Rory put the phone away slightly dejected. Fredrick was the closest thing to a past she had. She could almost call him family. He was the one who had given her the life she led now.
"Damn you Anzu," she cursed to the sky. "You had better be worth it."
**********************************************************************
I know! I know! Short and late. You guys wanna kill me go ahead, but I hope you enjoyed it. Lots of love all. Oh and by the way, I do realize that Anzu is a bit OOC but I think that the way I'm depicting her just fits somehow. Anyhoo, Peace!
-Star_Chan