Anzu and Satiah's Dilemma (Part 2)

DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)

Horakhty.

"I told you." Horakhty addressed Atem. "It was over. You could move on."

"It's not time," Atem said. ///Atem: If I can get Horakhty on my side./// "This would never be optional for me to ignore. Mankind is not ready to end yet. I was in this time before. I know it is rougher, but it's nowhere near unsavable. Please."

"Look upon what Sekhmet does, and reflect. I offer you one last chance. Come back to the afterlife, where it's peaceful. This moment in time never should have involved you." She gestured to his other self. "Yuugi, the other part of you, would have come home. At this moment, you would have been whole. It was Hathor that lured you here."

All of the events and the people involved had changed where Yuugi would have been on the final day most of mankind left the Earth. "Yuugi was supposed to have died. The curse would have broken on my afterlife." ////Atem: Yuugi would have been at my side again. This is how it should have been, if not for a personal vendetta of Sekhmet and Bastet./// "My personal curse is gone?" Atem asked.

"Yes," she assured him. "You will put yourself through an ordeal you shouldn't have had to. My hand will be forced."

Atem closed his eyes and shook his head. No matter what. "I will accept any ordeal. I can't turn back. Not at the cost of man."

"Does man still deserve another chance?" Horakhty asked. "If Set wins, you will have a terrible afterlife. This is too large. Did the battle you had undergone before you went on to the afterlife mean nothing? Let this go."

"I put my all into every battle," Atem confessed. "I did learn that I can't always win." He touched his chest. "This isn't about me though. I have no powers, and no puzzle. I have nothing more than anyone else, and still, I will find a way to fight."

"All things end," Horakhty reminded him.

"But it's not yet!" Yuugi interrupted. "I've lived in this time too. If I'm really part of the Pharaoh, then that should count too. I know that I can't win all the time either. Some games aren't worth playing, sometimes the price is too big. But for humanity. For the chance for everyone to keep living, any game is worth it!"

"For every man, woman, and child!" Atem joined him. "I can't just look away and let this happen!"

"And I'm nobody important at all," Jounouchi shouted too. "I'm not the best representation of humanity, but I haven't done a bad job living. Have I? I think, I think I've been doing okay!"

"I never step away to lose on purpose," Kaiba spoke up from the entrance of the shop. "I never give up."

"Humanity deserves one last gamble," Atem urged Horakhty. "Billions of people were silenced into an unfair ending." Not yet. Not this way. "When it's time, no interference is necessary. Mankind will burn themselves out. Until then, the fire to live rages inside each of them." Atem pushed himself to his knees. Yuugi and Jounouchi followed suit. Even Kaiba had bowed along with Bakura. "I beg you. We will take any deal."

"Such determination still. The game for humanity will go on," Horakhty stated. "No extra help will come from the Legendary Gods but I will grant you a chance for a future, if you win. Between yourselves will be a gold box. Put the father's name in it within three hours, and it will open. The lighted ones will know. Make the right decision." Then, Horakhty disappeared.

"You see?" Set questioned him. "You shouldn't be here, this is useless. Your afterlife is waiting for you. Peaceful, calm, and uncursed. It's time for everything to end. All of the gods are on my side, except two rebellious goddesses that should have been one. Two that didn't dare come out while Horakhty was present. What does that tell you?"

"The goddesses have their own agenda, and humanity has its own," Atem answered. "I didn't hear Horakhty giving up." Atem stood up once again. "I heard Horakhty giving us a chance." He looked toward the wielder holding the Ankh. "Let them go."

"Does this look like the chance? I summon Saint Osiris, the Sky Dragon!" Set reached his hands toward the sky and the sky dragon appeared, obeying him.

"All things change." Bastet finally came out from inside the Game Shop and crossed Atem, in the form of Destiny. Anzu and Satiah's pet cat.

"Call upon it, Seto Kaiba," Sekhmet demanded as she jumped down from the top of the Game Shop, smashing into the ground, denting the cement. "The dragon!"

"With pleasure." Kaiba held out his hand. "I summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Shizuka held onto his coat, but continued standing, as the dragon was released.

"You are going to fight a god with a dragon?" Set looked at Kaiba as if he were an idiot.

"He's not the only one." Atem nodded toward Jounouchi who was more than ready. "I summon the Dark Magician!"

Jounouchi hung on tough as the Dark Magician came. When they were summoned, each of their eyes glowed a brighter shade of blue. Like a sheen of power yet to be discovered.

Before anyone summoned an attack though, Bastet had ran straight up the Blue-Eyes legs with the speed of a rodent, up it's neck and bit it. It reacted by swaying its neck around with a loud roar. She was flung off, onto Shizuka, climbed upon her, and smacked her neck with her teeth.

"Crazy cat!" Kaiba tried to get her off, but she flipped backward. He tried to help cover the wound on Shizuka. Shizuka's eyes stared with ovalized pupils. They were that of a dragon now.

"Serves you right, believing you can take on a god," Set said to Kaiba. "I don't know how you two managed to get a pair of monsters, but they can't beat a god."

"They are no ordinary monsters," Atem warned him. "Will you lose before you are even ready for the game?"

Set gestured above him at the sky dragon. "You talk big. Are these women the lighted ones Horakhty spoke of?" He looked toward his wielder. "Let go of them. Until I know who they are, I don't want to tamper with them. It will upset Horakhty." Still, he smiled. "Do you want to try this great power you claim to wield against the god now?"

///Yuugi: No, Atem./// Yuugi looked toward him. ///Yuugi: We aren't ready, and he just gave them back. We have to back down. This isn't a game worthy of playing, it will only waste time. It's an ego trip.///

It was so hard to listen. Losing or backing down was not something Atem was ever keen to do. ///Atem: I want to take him on, but Yuugi is right. We know nothing of what Horakhty gave us. Only three hours and I get nothing from this fight./// "Dark Magician, return back to Jounouchi." ///Atem: I am no longer a hot-headed teenager, or a worshipped Pharaoh. I can't let him get to me. To win the game that counts. I have to back down from this battle.///

Kaiba called the Blue-Eyes back too. Apparently, Bastet could bite like Sekhmet. He was trying to stop the flow of blood on Shizuka.

"Fine." Set called off the sky dragon. "Just remember your place." He glanced back toward Anzu and Masika one more time, like he felt something strange from them, before leaving with his Ankh wielder.

"Are you okay?" Yuugi moved toward Anzu first. "Do you know what Horakhty meant?" She shrugged. ///Yuugi: She knows./// "We need to know."