Kaiba sat with Yugi in a small storage closet in the back of Yugi's shop. He looked rather uncomfortable as the space was minimal and he had to collectively keep his limbs from knocking over boxes of cards and other products.
Yugi looked at Kaiba with relative concern and stayed quiet waiting for his guest to speak.
"Anzu is having nightmares about him." Seto began. His face looked hard and his jaw was set in a frown.
"I do not know why nor do I know what she is seeing but it's been happening enough for it to concern me."
Yugi looked over at him with grave eyes. He wasn't sure the dreams Anzu was having were similar to his but he knew they couldn't possibly be any better.
"Have you asked her about them?" he questioned.
Kaiba scoffed. "Have you met her? When she doesn't want to talk about something, she keeps her mouth shut."
Yugi looked away a little confused. In actuality this wasn't the Anzu he had remembered. She usually shared whatever she had on her mind with anyone who cared enough to ask.
"I see." Was all he could respond with.
"Do you think he's returning." Kaiba paused. "The Pharaoh."
Yugi looked to Kaiba's blank expression. He wasn't sure what the answer was to that question.
"I don't know Kaiba, but I've been having dreams myself."
Kaiba looked at Yugi with a staggered face.
"What?" he couldn't stop the small amounts of relief entering him that it wasn't just Anzu being affected by this.
"They're nightmares, all I can see is death and destruction and it always looks like two golden figures would come from the sky ready to save us all until I open my eyes. I never see what they form into."
Kaiba looked away entranced by his own thoughts. What could all of this possibly mean and what will it ultimately lead to?
"So what will we do?" he mindlessly asked to no one in particular.
"I think we will need to make a call to Egypt first."
Anzu had gone to class and as expected was put into a chair and observed the rest of her peers doing pirouettes. Practice was long and she had grown bored long after her teachers had expressed grave concern over her safety and her injuries.
"You could have hurt your knees even worse." One spoke with a frowned face.
"Anzu darling please be more careful, you are a dancer your body is your tool and canvas." Another spoke.
They all shared their sympathies, as well as some of her classmates but moved on quickly thereafter. Accidents happen but life goes on and the next show must be rehearsed.
The day was beginning to end for those dancing and Anzu couldn't help but think back to her morning. She had walked to school with Atem. The thought alone put her into another state of disbelief. Going through life trying to forget someone you once cared for deeply and burying that was strange when they kept making random appearances.
She couldn't help but smile at how normal they looked and she couldn't help but wish it were true. That maybe they could have been lovers, in a different time.
She sighed and continued her focus back on her instructors. Time needed to go by faster.
It was dark in her apartment. Anzu had taken a cab home deciding she didn't want to walk in the shadowy city streets and was against the subway altogether with her injuries.
She had stayed a little longer to speak with some of her professors about opportunities while her peers trickled out of the long room one by one. She was happy with her venture as she had been given more prospects she would soon explore. Her company was great but she knew she needed to make her own strides as well. It wouldn't be easy as she had no true credit to her name just yet, but her life was never made to be easy. She grew up in a home where climbing to the top meant working hard and being the best. It came from not only her families pride, but the culture norms of her country. Working hard was a sign of wealth in itself and Anzu wasn't about to deny herself the life she knew she deserved.
She dropped her bag near her front door and laid on her couch with a heavy sigh. The day had exhausted her and night had approached quickly. She thought of the events that had marked her life for the past couple of days and couldn't help but think how everything felt right but in a way where it also felt wrong. As though she was on the right track but in the completely wrong direction. She was a mystery to herself and it was getting harder and harder to find what it was she was looking for. She attempted to clear her mind of such puzzles by lazily laying on her couch for a while with the television streaming an old drama. She had seen it already and cried over the unfair ending and now it all seemed so trivial to her. Soon, her position on the snug material could no longer sustain its attention for the television and sleep soundly overcame her.
It was dark, so dark. Anzu squinted her eyes to try and penetrate the thickness of black but to no avail. All she saw was an endless array of pitch shadowy nothingness.
Her mind started to play tricks on her helpless eyes, showing demonic faces and indistinct sleuths. Anzu cowered onto the ground that seemed not to end and placed her arms over her face as to try and rid herself of this horror.
"Look up my child." A voice spoke. It seemed to echo all around but spoke with a whisper in her mind.
Slowly she removed the boundary of her arms from her face and looked up to see an obscure figure standing before her. She could not tell whether it was a man or woman, neither its voice nor appearance gave it away.
It stood tall, taller than any man and held a single scepter with a strident pointed blade at the end. Its skin was snowy and shed some light into the endless void. The eyes, however, mesmerized Anzu the most. She somehow felt she had seen those eyes before. They were endless and somehow held every color known by man but also were black as night. Anzu wondered how this was possible.
The creature in all its horror, was somehow compellingly beautiful. Both an angel and a demon.
"You have grown some." It commented and moved its body around Anzu.
Anzu watched it move never knowing if it walked or glided.
"Who are you?" She wondered out loud. She was surprised her voice held no fear, but somehow she felt content with this outlandish creature.
"I am all and I am nothing. I create but I destroy. I am a foreboding paradox that will never end and always continue." It spoke again in echo's and whispers.
"Why am I here?" she spoke as the creature continued to move in circles.
"You have lost something young one. Something you must find. The tragedies that await you are resolute. I cannot change nor destroy what seeks to harm you and only you. But you can save yourself. You can save what you love. And you can protect what you long for."
Anzu felt its voice resonate through her entire being causing her to grip at her arms.
"I do not understand. Who is trying to harm me?"
"A force that seeks to harm anyone that may come in its way. You have already done so."
Anzu looked at it with confusion and fear. She could not understand ever making some strange higher power angry enough with her that it would want to destroy her. She was only a dancer.
"How can I save myself? How can I save those I love?" The robust feelings of fear entered her body in waves, never wavering and constantly pulling at her heart.
"Your past, Anzu Mazaki. Your future. Your present. These will guide you."
It began to drift backwards and Anzu felt the strong inkling to run after it.
"Stop! I don't know what I'm doing!"
The widespread emotions entering her body caused her to crash onto the floor made of black. She clutched at her arms yelling for the creature to stop, to help her. To tell her she was not going insane. But the creature did not waver, nor did it look back. It went on until it became lost in its own shadows leaving a weeping girl behind to navigate her way through the creature's words.
"Anzu awaken!" Atem shook the crying, flinging girl. He had arrived in her apartment long ago, just watching her sleep. She had seemed content in her slumber until she began to talk of shadows. He watched her shift around on the couch until she started rousing around and screaming.
Immediately his fears of her getting hurt, whether by that of the physical world or in her dreams, came to light and he ran to her. In a very frustrating manner, his fingers kept passing through her body and were rendered useless. He screamed in outrage and could feel the anger rushing to his core. He needed to help her, he needed to save the beautiful blue eyed girl.
Finally, as though his cries had been heard by a higher being did his body become physical enough to be able to experience touch. He touched the porcelain girl before him and tried to get her to wake up from the nightmare she was living.
"Anzu it is a dream, wake up!" he urged on trying to keep her body from experiencing any more damage. Her eyes began to tear and Atem's heart broke at the state of her.
"Anzu please." He finally whispered in her ear.
It was then she slowly opened her eyes. The blue bore into his and he could see the color reminded him of hurricanes. Dark and offset.
"Atem?" she croaked.
Anzu remembered it all. The strange creature, the foreboding warnings, the endless darkness. She thought her nightmare would never end until she was finally awoken. She was not sure, as she slowly opened her eyes, whether God had let her escape from this nightmare or it was through her own vices but she could feel strong arms around her.
She awoke to him. The one man she hated being near but craved to never leave. Somehow she could feel his warm touch as well, but that was not possible.
"I am still dreaming." She declared. "Please let me wake up!" She cried out weakly.
Atem watched her with a disheartened face.
"Anzu you are not dreaming, I am here." He brought her up closer to him and wove his free hand through her dark hair, gently stroking it.
"I will not leave again. I swear it." He pressed on. Atem knew the words he spoke; he could hear them repeating in his mind in a mocking fashion. They were lies. He himself was but a ghost, a lone spirit once again breaking the barriers between what was tangible and what was not.
Anzu said nothing to him as he continued to console her. She remained with closed lids holding tight to the man who would constantly leave her. She thought, maybe if her grip were strong enough, her will great enough he would stay and not linger in the back of her mind waiting to strike her down in plunging motions until she was nothing once more.
Kaiba found her on the couch the next morning. Instantly he ran to her body that seemed grey and limp and felt her form warm. Too warm.
He took out a thermometer from her bathroom vanity and stoutly placed it in her mouth. She groaned a bit but said nothing. Her eyes remained closed.
The beeping ensued after a short time indicating it was done. Kaiba looked carefully at the numbers displayed in the small screen.
103.2
A cellphone was dug out of his pocket and he quickly made a call. Once arrangements were made, he gently picked up Anzu, one hand tucked under her knees, the other her shoulders and walked out of her apartment. His anxiety was growing with every passing moment she wasn't being treated by a doctor. His Porsche speeded down the Domino freeway and immediately reached his destination within ten minutes.
"Doctor Kang!" he yelled in the obscenely quiet waiting room.
Nurses and residents stared at the freaked man in shock as their relatively quiet morning had just taken a turn.
"We will take her." A middle aged nurse came up to Kaiba and held serious eyes. Kaiba watched the woman in spite and shook his head.
"I wait for the doctor." His words were cutthroat.
"Do you not want all her relevant information taken by us before she sees the doctor? It will save him and you a lot of time." She pestered, her hard eyes never leaving his.
Kaiba sighed still seeing no sign of the useless doctor.
"Fine." And gently placed Anzu on the gurney brought out by two younger nurses.
"If she gets worse, I know who to blame." He threatened and watched the nurses take Anzu behind a curtain.