Premonition (Part 2)

DIMENSION: ANIME (The One That Pays to Save the Day)

Bakura led Atem straight over, they must have worked out a strategy over the phone.

"Masika," Atem greeted her. "I wanted to discuss something with you, and we tend to get along better when we are in the middle of a game."

"I am not in the mood," she answered truthfully.

"Oh, come on." That sway was not his. The way he just pulled out the game anyway, that was not like him. He was already gaming his open personality. "We can finish one game of Connect Four, and I will leave you be."

He was still plainly yet aggressively setting up the game. "I'm tired."

"It won't take long," he insisted.

"It always takes long with me," she insisted back.

"Masika." Yep, there was his real voice. "You know me well enough to know, that if I want to play a game, I will find a way to make someone play a game. Sit up straight. We are talking."

Unfortunately, he was right. Pharaoh always got what they wanted. She grabbed a game piece. "Yes, Greatest Pharaoh of all-"

"Greatest Pharaoh, yes I was, and don't forget that."

Masika watched the area around them turn dark with a familiar mist. They were in their own space now. The rest of the world was gone, only their table remained with them. Impossible. How?

Oh. That's how. She saw Atem swing the necklace up from his hand. ///Masika: Atem has tricked me, Téa, I told you this would not end well. Téa?///

"Trying to get through to Téa?" Atem held up the millennium necklace he had hidden on him up more clearly for her to see. "It will be harder in the shadow realm."

Shadow realm. Again. This place. Atem was not messing around with her. "If you trap me here, Téa will never speak to Yugi again." Not even phased. No, they were too concerned about her to think of such a menial thing.

Then, as if a reoccuring nightmare couldn't be more true, Atem reached into his pocket. The Connect Four was just a lull to make her accept the game. "I need information on Téa. The sooner you tell me what I want to know, the sooner you will be allowed to leave."

Shadow realm. Not here again. "You don't have a single remorseful bone in your body to be so cold as to bring me back here."

"Tell me what I want to know, or you will end up staying here. Check your side of the table. There's a drawer. Open it." Factual. Simple.

Masika already knew what would be in it. Bakura must have prepared the area earlier. Too sweet. What a nice cover. She opened it up and saw the cards. If she lost a game with him, she would stay sealed in the shadow realm.

"Everyone knows Téa is hiding something," Atem told her. "What happened up there with the goddesses?"

"She yelled at them like they were common trash," Masika said. "Quite amazing."

"Téa yelled at them? There must have been a reason."

"Yes, we were flung into orbs and taken out naked."

"I don't think that's it," Atem said. "That's not enough to make her book the fastest trip out of here. Something is happening. How much time do we have?"

Technically, it wasn't against Téa's will. "I have no idea. Less than a year."

"If it's less than a year, and not simply days, then why is she running?" Atem asked. "Her life is at stake."

"She doesn't know how long either." ///Masika: If I leave him mad, and he leaves me here, then the goddess inside will stay in the shadow realm too./// He would end up trapping his own . . . ///Masika: Daughter./// "You are making a very big mistake doing this. You have no idea what you put on the line by trapping me in the shadow realm. I cannot tell you, but you cannot do this."

"I understand that the goddess' may have already made my friend a sacrifice card." He wasn't stupid. "It's clear to everyone her life is in danger. Why isn't she asking for help?"

"She would rather die than let any of you know the truth." How could she approach this. "If you have to choose to remake the millennium items, or sacrifice your friend, which will you choose? Sorry, you don't get that choice. She made it for you."

It was just enough information. Enough that they could understand why she was running. Hopefully enough to pull her out of the game.

"Her life is the sacrifice, I already guessed that, that is nothing new. Why do they want the millennium items recasted?" Atem asked. "Is it yours too?"

It was getting more dangerous now.

"Masika." Oh, that pause. "You have lived a life before. I am your Pharaoh in your afterlife, I can make it easier for you."

Yep. "You're ready to sacrifice me?"

"We should not even be here, we have been through our life cycle. If you returning to your afterlife saves Téa, you must accept it. So should she. Running off to New York and placing you in the safety of the Bakura's does not change the facts. State what you want in your afterlife."

///Masika: I am not getting a choice, Téa./// "You will regret this for thousands of years, and then, you will regret it more!"

"State what you want, or tell me the full truth." Committed.

"My afterlife. I want . . . I want . . ." What to tell him? "The day I died. Where you met Sekhmet and Bastet. When you killed me with Heba." It wasn't just coincidence.

"That is not how you died," Atem replied.

"The great Atem sacrifices me and mine for what he thinks is something greater! Maybe being punished in the puzzle wasn't an accident, maybe it was the price you paid for this mistake now! A mistake so great you needed to be pre-punished for it!"

"You aren't making any sense, I never killed you and yours before, you died sacrificing yourself for your friend. Is the shadow realm disturbing your mind already?"

"If I tell, Téa will stop being my friend. I still feel an obligation to her. However, I have a greater obligation too. I do not want to fail either one." Masika waited for him to make whatever move would knock her card away.

"What will you tell me?" Atem knocked away her card easily with some trap. "What is the prophecy of the light goddess?"

"I don't know," she said. She placed another card in defense.

"What is the light?" Atem asked, this time attacking it and taking it out. "Where did it come from?"

"The other dimension, as well as this one. That's all I know about it," she told him. Another card in defense.

"Can it come out without causing death?" he asked. "Do I have to sacrifice you to save Téa?"

How much longer could she keep this up? The shadow realm was always such a drain. Strangely, she found herself wiping at her eyes. Grieving? "I can't believe I'm actually crying." Yet, she had been. "I haven't cried in thousands of years, I thought I couldn't anymore." She felt herself sniffling. "This body is betraying me."

"The body is not betraying you." The edge of the enemy he had used on her was waning, but he still attacked her card, wiping it out. "It doesn't let you hide what you are feeling deep inside. You do not want to lose Téa's friendship, nor do you want to lose yourself or Téa again. Fear. Doubt. It's all written on your face."

Fear. Doubt. "She should tell, Greatest Pharaoh, everyone involved deserves to know what is going on here, as well as on the other side."

"You know about the other side's of you?" he asked.