Busted Sarcophagus (Part 2)

DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)

"Anzu?" Mai called to her, waking her up. "Are you okay? You blacked out."

"She took it." Anzu couldn't say anything else. "Satiah took whatever was hurting me." She didn't feel any pain. Hear anything. Sense anything. "It's over."

"The pain is over?"

Anzu nodded. "Yes and no. My heart's filled with it now for a different reason." Oh, she was going to miss her so much. She felt so . . . alone. But? "Yuugi, call Yuugi."

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Kul Elna- True Memories of 3000 years ago . . .

Satiah moved on her way to her goal. The place Bakura never allowed her to visit. Kul Elna. For years, he had watched over her and protected her, all while knowing and suffering the fate of destiny he was not allowed to get away from.

Satiah tried to put him out of her mind, but word from beyond far reaches were saying that he . . . he dug up the last Pharaoh's remains. She knew in her heart things would only get worse, and she couldn't let it be this way. She would never be able to repay all the kindness he showed to her.

She ran away from her current master for that day, to take a chance. Grip it. She even stole Ebonnee, to reduce someone attacking her, for fear of killing her cat. She had to go that far distance alone.

Bakura had no one on his side, but his only friend. She let go of her cat, she doubted she would need her anymore. She would be better off to go and find a new home, than to stay with her. As she moved through Kul Elna, she could feel the despair in its surroundings. She wasn't spiritually strong with her Ka, but she knew well enough that the spirits were there. The pervading loneliness and suffering was thick in the air. "Please?" She had to.

Further in. "Please don't do this." She felt a rush of air around her. The spirits were giving her warning. She should probably feel privileged they hadn't killed her, but she wasn't there for herself. "For as long as I can remember, Bakura helped me. Saved me. He is a good person, and your suffering has corrupted him so much over the years."

The winds howled against her, almost like they rejected her honesty. "I know that what happened wasn't fair to you and it wasn't your fault! I know that you suffer, but what can Bakura himself do? Why punish him?" She felt the sands whipping hard against her skin. "He is the only survivor of Kul Elna, but you throw nothing but a curse upon him for living! Why must he alone be responsible? Please."

She moved to her knees, feeling the sands starting to cut against her. "Please give him a chance." She got off her knees to move closer, the world was going dark around her. She could hear the sound of guttural voices she couldn't understand but pain, envy, anger, sadness and endurance was in all of it. Pervading emotions that Bakura had always had surrounding him. Bakura. Their life. The life of the spirits. Not bowing, not just pleading, they weren't giving in! "No, I will not give up! I will give you anything to just give him a chance! A chance to be free!" All of the times he saved her came to her mind. How many times had she arrived upon his horse, in need of him?

And he gratefully helped her because he was her friend. Her only friend, and she was his. His only friend. "If I don't fight for his soul, no one ever fucking will!" No, she couldn't give up. She felt the winds pushing her back, physically pushing her back through the sands like a force. Fuck it. "I'll do anything, anything, whatever it takes, if you just let Bakura go!" Then, she heard something.

A curse into the next life.

She could see the spirits now, the pervasive clouds, the corrupted faces of the shadows now around her. She could understand them. She knew what that meant. She wasn't allowed a chance in this life, they would take Bakura as the one who would hold their suffering, but she had a chance.

After his death. To save his soul.

There would be a chance. But she paid a price now.

She felt the life escaping from her, little by little, but stayed strong. There was no one else to help him, and they had been draining her soul ever since she came in. ///Satiah: Take it all. Take this as the sacrifice to save him. If not in this life, then the next, I agree./// "I willingly give you all, just save my friend!"

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Kul Elna- Present Day.

With a shivering, strained gasp, Satiah felt the breath of life fill her lungs. Lungs? Her heart was beating. Her heart. She felt pain as she struggled to move. Move. She looked at herself. She was naked.

Her head felt dizzy. Her hands reached for the fallen rocks around her. Her price had fully come to be paid.

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Bakura's House

Now, Satiah remembered. She watched Ryou Bakura open the door on his broken Monster World. "Bakura, my friend, I remember now." She got up, trying to ease her way to him."I gave my life to give you a second chance!"

Bakura's facial expression seemed to change. "What are you even saying, woman?"

"I went to Kul Elna, on that day. I knew you would be gone, and I knew what would happen." She reached out to him and smiled. "It worked. You've returned. You don't have to live, forever trapped in an eternity of darkness and suffering." She wrapped her arms around him. "Bakura. My friend!"

Bakura didn't answer right away. "Rider. You're the reason I am back?" He didn't sound happy nor sad about it. "I live behind Ryou Bakura's command now." He laughed. "Except right now, I could get away with murder with you naked and hugging me. He's not coming out."

She didn't care about something so trivial. Naked was nothing. She hugged him tightly. "You are a free soul." She felt something strange around her though. A sort of light of goodness. It must be from finally fulfilling her purpose. To protect his soul.

"It was stupid," Bakura scolded her. "I didn't save you all those times, for you to just throw your life away, Rider!"

Yep. Her Bakura. "It was mine to do as I wished, only because you helped me." The feeling within her seemed to grow. Cozy and warm.

"Oka-ay?" Ryou Bakura seemed to be back. As he was unused to her being naked, unlike her Bakura, he would be a little unaccustomed of course. "I-I-I, Bakura stepped back so let's s-sit you down over there at the couch, in the other room!" Ryou Bakura said as he took over again. He closed his eyes as he shuffled with her.

Bakura was practically teasing Ryou Bakura by not taking over. "Do you want me to walk over there myself, Ryou Bakura?"

"Yes, please, and I will go find my room. For clothes, for you!" He pointed to the couch. "There, over there. I'll be back."

Satiah sat down on the couch. The air was cool against the skin. The feeling of the air conditioner. ///Satiah: I'm not feeding off of Anzu. This is my body. I can appreciate this feeling, this sensation, with my own body.///

She watched as Ryou Bakura still kept his eyes closed and held out some garments. "Not the best, but something for now?" He kept looking away.

Satiah took her fingers. Fingers. She touched the shirt and pants as she grasped them. She placed them over her body. Everything was right. This was her body. ///Satiah: How? How am I really worth getting back my body? How?///

"I forgot about that birthmark." Her friend Bakura had come back, taking control from Ryou Bakura again now that there was nothing to make him uncomfortable and tease him with. "It still looks like a raindrop."

She finished getting dressed. "I should call Anzu so that she won't worry, but first? May we finally play together again?"

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Yuugi went up the stairs and knocked on Jounouchi's door. Mai had finally called him to come down. Anzu had news, good news for him, but she was in a depressed mood. "Mai Kujaku? It's Yuugi."

"Yuugi!" Anzu's voice answered the door. She opened it and looked at him. Her eyes were puffy, it had looked like she had been crying for a long time now. "I'm sorry, Yuugi. Everything I said was true when I left, except it's not why I left. I didn't want you and Atem to know."

Yuugi reached forward and tightened the hug. No matter what she said, he already forgave her. "What happened?"

"Yuugi." Now her voice sounded hoarse.

Mai answered the door next. "Might as well come in. We need to have a little conversation."

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