Shadow Game of Connect Four (Part 4)

DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)

Half a second. Long enough to say 'we could call this a draw'. She had let her mind wander for a second to think of the time, and she was now in tender territory. ///Satiah: He could win one of two ways./// She needed to block off both ways within two turns. Then again, if he added his piece right there, even if she blocked off that one. . .

It was his turn. He placed it in. "It's over, no matter how you see it," Atem warned her. "I win."

So, he already saw that future move when he said he won. There was no way of winning. She stood up. "Fine, I lose."

Yet, nothing happened. The warmth and the glow inside of her hadn't moved away.

///Atem: She can't use the power. The power inside hadn't turned it into a shadow game./// "Good to see you not playing this out to the end." Atem moved. "I will be back with better clothes for you to change into, if you take a shower. Kaiba's request." He left the apartment a moment. Atem would have skipped the clothes, but Satiah was wearing Ryou Bakura's bulky clothes.

The limo was there and a guide held out clothes along with two bags. "Here. Take these all to her so you don't waste time," the guide commanded.

Atem did as he wished, remembering what Seto Kaiba said on the phone. Atem had wished it would work, but it was like Kaiba knew it wouldn't. Kaiba was sending his foolproof planner, his guide, clothes and a special reservation ready and waiting no matter how late or early they would be. Atem had to follow the guide's advice, and do his best not to mess up. If he let the date just move as planned, he'd gain her trust enough to get her to lower her defenses. ///Atem: I have to get my energy back. I have to do this.///

He went back up to Ryou Bakura's room. She was putting the game up as he walked back in and passed the clothes to her. "Put one of these on and we'll get going." She easily snagged all the outfits and bags without a word and took them to Ryou Bakura's room with her. That was a little too easy.

"Whatever you're going to do," Bakura said, catching Atem's attention. "It makes no difference to me. You're just wasting time if you thought you'd get a reaction. Ooh, this guy once played jump rope with my father's corpse so I think I'll fuck over his only friend to make him hurt? It doesn't work, Pharaoh. She isn't a friend, Ryou Bakura is making me do this."

The wording as always with this fiend! That's what Bakura wanted though. "You would have cared if I hurt her?" Atem spoke up, instead acting like he misheard, which would bother Bakura more. "Well. You are showing some redeeming colors." He shook his head. "I am not trying to get to you." He didn't need or want to involve himself with Bakura at all. Not at all.

"Sure you're not, Pharaoh," he answered. "Unlike all the other worshippers of Egypt, she isn't drooling for your hands on her." He held up his finger. "I don't know what I feel coming from her, but it probably has to do with you . It apparently was supposed to create a shadow game, but it didn't? Once again, I don't care. She can handle herself. She did back then when things were much worse."

///Atem: But you brought it up. The good side is slowly starting to leak through./// "I will do my best not to hurt her."

"You can't. Care or not, I still have the memories of my muddy girl. She may have forgotten, but she's still my ragtag bitch. She won't let herself be hurt. She stays in control, it's what I taught her," Bakura warned him. "All the tricks, they were mine, to help her survive." He smirked. "Man tends not to bruise the ones who come willingly to them. It was an easier way to live back in your glorious kingdom days."

Atem had nothing more to say.

"All those innocent maidens, and oh don't forget clean. Clean, clean, clean. The best maidens of them all. The best in the land. The most loyal and worthy. Rider is none of those things, but you still shouldn't test your limits . . ."

Atem and Bakura both turned around. The dress was an off-white, but it sparkled. Her hair had been different than Anzu's, a slightly different color with more of a wave and strange white highlights Atem hadn't noticed before. The hair ornament partway through the sides and back brought out the subtlety of it. There was also a cape that was an off-grey color around her. She even had shoes that matched the outfit and a fashion purse.

Even Bakura seemed a bit surprised what happened when she had been placed in proper clothes. "Well. Still the mud beneath," he muttered to the Pharaoh.

"Okay." She closed the door behind her. "Downstairs?" Still, her eyes lingered on him too. "To begin this date."

The limo

"Satiah." Now that Atem was finally away from Bakura, he would finally talk. "I believe there is a great danger approaching the world in the future. One that I or Yuugi alone can't fend off. Perhaps, Yuugi may not even be here at that time, so I can't return. But? It was said that a new god would come with the light of a goddess."

She watched him, waiting for him to say something else. "And? What does that have to do with me?"

"You took the energy from Anzu," Atem said again, "while you were still a spirit, and then went straight to your own body."

"Are you kidding?" She scoffed. "I'm not a goddess, I'm far from that."

"I'm not a god," Atem said, "yet I was considered one. Did you know that you were slightly glowing?"

Satiah scratched her hair and wrinkled her nose. She didn't seem to know what to say to that.

"Your actions speak louder than your words." Atem looked out the window. "I don't see Bakura in you at all. Do you know what I see?"

"What?"

"An actress."

Well, what to say to that? "It gets me through."

"I also see something else. I see another of my friends," he said looking back at her. "Jounouchi was far from a model citizen when Yuugi met him. Whenever Yuugi got beat up, he didn't come over with a towel and sweet words, asking if he's okay and taking him home to make him better. That was Anzu. No, Jounouchi rushed over without a thought and beat the opposer up." He smirked. "Honda does the same thing. When something happened that they couldn't handle? Then I stepped in."

"I don't fight," she corrected him.

"You fight in a different manner," Atem tried again. "There is a reason Bakura was with you."

She shrugged. "I don't remember these kinds of speeches on Anzu's dates. Then again, I was rarely present for them." She looked out the window. "It's late but this city is so alive still."

"Sir?" The limo driver's voice sounded from the front. "We will be at our goal in ten minutes."

"Good," Atem answered a moment, but went back to her. "I asked for more than a date too. I asked for your real name."

She squirmed with a long extended sigh. Bakura knew it too, it was part of the payment. "So few know it."

"For a very long time, I didn't know my name," Atem said. She knew that. "Nothing about myself. You should let others call you by your name, this isn't Ancient Egypt. No one will use it to hurt you."

She crossed her arms and breathed harshly. It felt like betraying Bakura, but it was part of the deal. "Masika."

"Masika. I obviously had need of a date for a reason," he confessed. "For the sake of the future of the world. I humbly ask of you something, Masika."

"Don't do it yet." The guide's voice commanded. "It's way too early in the date for that."

"Why are there two voices?" She looked at the King suspiciously. "Are you playing a different game?"

"No. He is the one that handed me the clothes for you to wear," Atem said. "There is no second game."

"Oh." She seemed to be thinking. "Are you still there?" she asked out loud.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Do I get to keep the clothes?"

"No, Ma'am."

"Why not?"

"They are Mister Kaiba's property on loan."

"For his entertainment women?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"What do I have to do to be an entertainment woman?"

"Nevermind, Sir, go ahead and ask."

"No, seriously? What do I have to do to be one of the sparkling jewelry rings that show for one night on Kaiba's arm?" She closed her eyes. "Oh wait, I can't. I hate ruses, fancy words, or games that lead nowhere. There are better things to do. You still want the energy inside of me so what are you planning?"

As Atem thought, she didn't want to drag it out either. "I have a strong feeling that the goddess light refers to the energy inside of you. You know that. It is radiant and unrestrained but I don't know if it will stay forever." It was time. "I joined with Yuugi during his . . . coupling." That word would work. "Though I wasn't present, I was with him. It was several hours later before I was able to communicate. The coupling is what gave Anzu my power. That? That's my power in you. I need it back."

"Nothing happened when we played," she said. "So then what?"

"I must perform the same action that caused it."

"No." A decent answer. "You are Bakura's greatest enemy, I'd rather die."

"Yes, I figured so."

Oh, the way he said that. ///Satiah: He's going to kill me.///

"That is millennium power and I need it to summon the gods. If the Earth is in trouble, it's going to need it. Therefore? I need you to do something. I need you to sacrifice yourself for me."

"We are at the destination, sir." The voice on the intercom sounded but neither one was interested in getting out yet.

"Damn it." Running short. Running very short. Of. Patience. "I have choice here, in this time!" she answered. "I don't have to sacrifice myself to some Egyptian King! I'll let the world burn in flames first before I die for you!" She got out of the car, slamming the door.