"Come, Bakura." Anubis called out as he entered the hallway. "Osiris, and the forty two judges are ready. You will now stand trial!"

The jackal-headed deity approached the cell with calm, deliberate footsteps. Ryou stared up at the god, terrified that he would be seen. But Anubis passed right through him, as though he didn't even exist. Bakura gasped for a moment. His hikari was telling the truth about not being dead.

"Yami…" Ryou gasped, as Anubis took Bakura's chains in his hand, and picked him up off the stones. Unable to escape, although not due to a lack of trying, the former king of thieves was dragged along behind him.

Ryou just sat there, frozen in shock and despair.

"Ryou! Please!" he called out, jerking his neck around to see his hikari one last time. "Ryou!"

His former host turned around, and their eyes met again.

"I… I don't know what I can possibly do… but… I'll… I'll think of something!" he answered back, quickly rising to his feet.

"Hikari!" Bakura shrieked, as Anubis strode through the great hall of Ma'at, towards the main throne room. Ryou raced alongside, struggling to keep up.

"I won't leave you, yami." He whispered, and grabbed onto the chains. "I'll be beside you until the very end, no matter what it is... Even if… if you get… get devoured!"

The thief Bakura did not even notice when Anubis dragged him through the final set of doors. His mind, instead, was focused completely on what his former host had just said. The reply left him nothing short of awestruck.

"You'd do that?"

"You're my yami." Ryou answered, and turned to face the many eyes that stared through him.

Anubis dropped behind a tall podium, presided over the trial and judgment ceremony. A massive scale, similar to the millennium one that Ryou had unearthed, rested at his feet.

The tiny goddess Ma'at, sat quaintly on top of the great scale of judgment. Pinned to her headband was a large feather.

In front of the scale stood another deity, with the head of an ibis. The scribe, Thoth, husband of Ma'at, stood patiently, tablet in hand, in order to record the judgment of the dead.

Ryou's eyes scanned the room. Sitting in rows beside Osiris were forty-two other gods, just as his yami had described earlier.

Meanwhile, Bakura had risen to his feet at the command of Anubis.

"What… what's going on?"

"Like I told you…" he whispered to Ryou while the gods of judgment were still speaking amongst themselves. "This is a trial."

"Lord Osiris, I present to you Bakura, of Kul Elna." Anubis genuflected in the presence of the other god.

Bakura scoffed, refusing to even share a glance with Osiris. He glanced back down to Ryou. The trial was about to start. He only had a few moments to say anything to the boy who he had called his host for most of a decade.

"It… It's been nice… in your mind." Bakura whispered, fiddling with his hands again. "Much better than the ring."

Ryou glanced upward.

"A lot less lonely." He offered a smile, but his attention was quickly diverted again. Ryou couldn't hide the small smile that came as a reply, even despite the circumstances.

"We shall now read forth the charges. Do you deny them, Bakura?" Anubis announced again.

"What does it matter!" he shouted back. "Just get on with it already!"

"The deceased has spoken, Lord Osiris." The jackal-headed deity spoke calmly. "May Thoth record his denial, and may the judges begin speaking their verdicts."

Osiris nodded, and turned to his left. One of the more human-like figures on the first row stood up.

"This is it." Bakura whispered under his breath. He glanced down at Ryou. By the time the judges finished, his former host would probably find being alone a much safer proposition.