Border Between the Afterlife (Part 1)

When a different goddess came back Atem hadn't met before, he found himself teleported to someone else. It felt different. He felt different. "What is going on?"

"Sorry, work must be fast. I am Taweret," she said to him. "You and Sekhmet have put Masika in a terrible position."

"Miscommunication of the biggest kind," Atem said. "Is she here?"

"Yes, but you can't reach her. Also, you must be careful when you get her. You cannot come too early or too late. It's dangerous. Come." Taweret led him away. "Sekhmet has tied her mind to Masika so that if you have questions, you may ask through her."

That would make things a lot easier.

"Silhouette is already born."

That would made things a lot harder. "Already born?" Atem asked.

"Sekhmet had to make a deal with Zorc. He tossed her into the Border Between the Afterlife," Taweret answered. "No living thing can stay there for a vast amount of time. She had to have Silhouette to survive. We also had to steal a special cape for her to wear, to help the chances they make it through as well." She pointed to a structure ahead of them. "Understand that you aren't actually here. You are more of a shadow that she can see and hear. You cannot touch, and you cannot go in."

"I understand," Atem said. He headed toward the sanctuary and looked in. She was facing away from him.

"Such pleasant company."

That voice. ///Atem: Zorc.///

"Thank you very much. You didn't have to give me so many gifts. Sacrificing a past wife and a new daughter. I'm overjoyed." Zorc's voice was heard but he couldn't be seen.

"Zorc is present," Taweret said. "We had to make many deals with Zorc. Your other selves will hate you, and the price you pay is the price of something you had caused."

"Accident." He didn't know how many times he could say it. Zorc was around there? "He's just lurking around?"

"Oh no, no. He won't leave this area. Already, we owed him so many favors," Taweret said again. "There is less than a half percent of demon inside of your daughter now, but we had to get inside to help Masika."

Demon? "A goddess demon human?"

"Small, and it will be the power that is sacrificed. Humans are more vicious than that much demon in her," Taweret said. "Sekhmet said you cannot speak to Masika until you bow at her feet if she wished it."

Oh, great. "Yes, fine." It wasn't a big deal to him. He came closer to the sanctuary entrance. "Masika? Do I need to bow at your feet before you answer?"

"No, Atem." For once, she just used his actual name. "If you promise me something."

After all she'd been through? "If I can grant it. Is it fixing an eternity of less worry?"

"No, the goddess' already did that, you can't use that one with me," she said. She turned around.

In her hands, was a . . . toddlerish . . . it was staring at him, with the eye of wdjat on her head. Not with evil malice, just curiosity. She was trying to chew on Masika's small cape, but Masika was moving it away and shifting her around.

"We are trapped in here until Seto Kaiba comes to get us," she told him. "Sekhmet has left me tied to her thoughts, so that I can convey questions to her."

He tried to come closer, but he could feel the power holding him back. "Silhouette." Mainly human, he could see and feel it. A tiny bit demon, but Taweret was right. Not much. Godly power, he felt something from her slightly. Mainly, besides being bigger than the average newborn, she looked? "She's normal." She felt quite human.

"Yes, mostly human," Masika answered.

Her hair was absolutely the strangest thing about her. It didn't stand up like Yuugi's at all. Instead it was straight. A straight rainbow of pink, black, yellow and white flowing down.

"You don't get very long, Atem," Masika told him. "The goddesses have stretched their power more than anyone knows, and it takes energy to come here with them. I cannot be attained except through some gateway that Seto Kaiba had once created. It would not let him reach over. It will now."

"I know that Téa, you, and the powerful children you possess will be sacrificed in place of recasting the millennium items." He wouldn't waste time. He heard a coo from Silhouette as she tried to put the cape in her mouth again.

"No, Dear, capes devised by madmen aren't for putting in the mouth." She moved her around again. "It will be dangerous to come and get me. It seems in this border, that dimensions mix across it."

Silhouette reached out toward him with her chubby little hand.

///Masika: Anyhow, you don't need to stay for very long. Sekhmet did something else.///

"What did she do?" Atem asked. "I thought with all that light the goddess would be brighter."

///Masika: She is wasting her energy on keeping us alive, Atem.///

"Right." That made sense. "You are finally calling me Atem. Thank you."

///Masika: When a goddess treats you lower than I, it muddies the illusion you are someone I really need to watch out for.///

"Wonderful. That you are calling me by my name, not that I'm mud on Sekhmet's heel." Still, he would take it. "This isn't over. If Seto Kaiba devised a way to reach, then we will get you two out."

"They aren't going anywhere." Zorc's voice invaded the space. "I know so many details, Atem. I know more than you. I know your past. I know your future. I know exactly when they want me to leave, and I know how dimensions work too. Is it funny that a demon can be mistaken as an angel when things just take the right turn?"

///Atem: I don't like the sound of that.///

///Masika: Neither do I. Dimensions crossing here would be extremely bad according to the goddesses, Atem.///

"More than bad," Taweret said as she came near. "Whether you recast the millennium items or not, you need to get her and Silhouette out. If a goddess dies in there, that will be her space for all of eternity. If she goes with Silhouette's power, it won't be enough of a sacrifice. Téa and her baby Hikaru will make up the rest."

"I can't." How? "There must be some other way than to sacrifice all of this?"

"Yes. You can sacrifice millions of lives, as was the original payment," Taweret reminded him. "The price to save is high, and that will not change." She sighed. "We must go."

Now? Already? "It hasn't been ten minutes."

"I need to reserve some energy, I cannot waste it anymore," Taweret said.

///Masika: Don't worry, Atem. I will see you soon.///

"How?" Atem asked. "Sekhmet gave you the power to communicate with her and we haven't even . . . ///Atem: Wait. Have you been speaking through the mind with me?///

///Masika: Yes. Sekhmet wanted to connect me to you, and Téa to Yugi. She said Pharaoh's are good leaders, and keeping in contact would be the best way to make you understand.///

"Close your eyes," Taweret commanded.

Atem closed his eyes. He felt even more strange and swore he felt a light nearby.

"Half open your eyes to the twilight light. If you see too much light, you've gone too far. If you head toward the twilight, you will see Masika and Silhouette here. I took you here so that you could connect visually and mentally. The more you stay connected, the less chance she will get infected by Zorc. The more he is around, the worse off Silhouette and Masika will be."

Atem walked in the direction of the light. She was right, he could still see the sanctuary though his eyes were closed. He opened his eyes when he heard a gasp. "What's wrong?"

Taweret opened her large mouth to scream Zorc's name."You nasty demon!"

"What?" What was Zorc causing to happen?

"I'm just helping a friend get to another friend a little easier." Zorc's chuckle. "A little sooner. You know the rules of borrowing from another dimension. Better hurry."

Taweret gripped her paws together. "They are here. Honda and Masika."

Honda? "Who is Honda?" Atem asked.

"Honda is Tristan, from another dimension. The Masika from that dimension, Zorc has already grabbed her and brought her here! You cannot cross, no one can cross each other." She patted her feet to the surface hard, rumbling the area. "We haven't even seen Seto Kaiba, there's no way you can physically come here until after the other one is gone! That is so much longer."

Zorc just laughed. "Well, you did fetch me Honda back from the sands as a favor. You knew things were coming."

"We did what we had to. Our influence, it always gets in the way," Taweret said. "A million reasons why we don't bother with humanity. Even those who care end up ruining it even more. Ooh, and the cape?"

"Yes, things can't be missing when they are needed." Zorc's voice again. "Play fair."

"Oof! Fine. Time to go. Let's hope your Seto Kaiba has his own capes."

"Wait." Atem looked toward Masika. "You never actually asked anything of me yet. What did you want for a promise?"

"Later," she insisted.

---

"Man." Honda opened his eyes. He was on some kind of floor. Cold stone. He pulled himself up and looked around. He didn't recognize the place. Around him, was a strange sparkly cloak. The cloak ran kind of small, a little too tight and rode too short. "Weird. What am I doing in this?" He noticed not far though was definitely a throne. "No way." He stood up and started to walk. He wanted to run, but his whole body felt weird. The smaller cloak didn't help either. He walked faster and then did move into running. When he reached the outside, he saw no one.

Everything was empty. "Now this I know." He walked around the empty area. He was around it in the Land of Memories. The puzzle. This couldn't be the Land of Memories anymore though. The puzzle was gone. "This is Atem's afterlife." He stood still and looked at the weird suit around him again.

It didn't look like something that belonged in Atem's time. It looked like something from the modern day. "Have I been stuffed here?" He was in the middle of walking home when buildings started to crumble. Then, he saw some people wearing gold ankhs, and then? Then he woke up there. "Hey!" He shouted out to the emptiness. "Anybody out there at all?" Hmm. There must be someone out there. He started to walk out there. Somewhere. Someone must be out there. "Hey there, nice to see someone."

He approached a lone horse. "Not a human, but this will still work." He got onto it. "Alright. Naked butt bare on a horse. I'm sure that will feel great for awhile. Not. Now though. What am I supposed to do here?"

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