To Kill A Friend (Part 3)

The Limo

Atem and Masika took off, but he decided to start off with something else. "I won't pursue you to kill you or to have you sacrifice yourself. You are right, we don't know what is happening. I am sorry about his actions, Kaiba isn't the best with words."

"Kaiba can just fuck off." She put her finger in her mouth to try and remove the meat in her teeth.

"He's not the only one who could work on manners," Atem reminded her.

"Sorry." Her attitude flipped again. Masika was a great actress, able to change her role. "I do have manners, I just get worked up sometimes." She crossed her legs again. "You aren't spitting fire anymore to get what you want?"

"No. In the afterlife, I was told that this journey to come back was optional. I must remember that," Atem confessed to her. "I still don't understand it though. Optional. Something dangerous and dark must be coming to assemble so much in this time. How could being here be merely 'optional'?"

She shrugged. "Maybe the gods felt you did your part already. Once you pay for something once, it's done with. You don't repay."

"Did my part." He had accomplished his tasks. His duties to join the afterlife where he should be. "I served my purpose for what happened." Was that it? Did the gods not want to involve him because he paid his dues? He need not bother? Is that what happened with all the other Pharaohs? "I could choose to save or not." The payment was paid. "I won't let darkness cover this world. I don't care if I owe nothing to the gods, I could never let darkness consume it." He looked out the window. "We are almost to Bakura's. Are you sure you wouldn't rather go to the Game Shop?"

"Ryou Bakura was nervous. He'll feel better if I go back." The car stopped. "Tell Anzu I will be back first thing in the morning to her. We'll figure out things from there." She got out. "I'm sorry I tricked you. I won't become a meaningless sacrifice until I know what's going on. Night, Atem."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Atem asked.

"Hm? No, I don't think so."

"Like all of Kaiba's dresses, Masika?" Atem reminded her. "You didn't bring any dresses back yet."

"Oh, dear, Atem?" She postured with her hand to her chest. "I'll return them but they are in Ryou Bakura's room. I wouldn't dare wake him up." She smirked and turned away, her cape seemingly flowing with her up the steps. "I'll give Seto Kaiba this, he knows how to dress up his entertainment."

Nope. Kaiba didn't have a chance at getting those dresses back. Atem watched her head away. ///Atem: Everything is drawing together, yet I just don't feel it. She's right. I can't just look at this situation with my eyes, I have to use my heart./// "Driver? To . . ." Hmm. ///Atem: Using my eyes and heart is a better idea./// He started to feel worried. Even though Ryou Bakura was in control, Atem didn't like the idea of Masika going up there. Not after a date with him. Would Bakura trust he had nothing happen and believe her? "A moment."

He got out. He just wanted to wait a few minutes to see how Bakura would react.

Ryou Bakura's Apartment

She was greeted back in easily. Ryou Bakura was a little nervous, asking if she was okay. "I was fine."

Then, Bakura kicked in. "He won a game for a date. Don't give me everything was fine. What did he do? What did he ask? What did he want?" he demanded.

Ah. Bakura. "No worries. He thought I was something from a prophecy, but he gave up." She shrugged. "Simply a date, Bakura. We went in a limo, ate some shrimp and hot food, and then came back. Nothing more. Oh, and of course, my real name. It was part of the deal."

"Did he start calling you . . . Masika?" Bakura seemed to be even more pissed. She swore his nostrils flared. "That's a nice way to get back at someone. Names. Names have power. He started to call you that, didn't he?"

"This isn't Egypt. Names have no power." He looked edgy though. ///Satiah: He's starting to come back around. I can feel it. Bakura's starting to care./// "I am okay my friend. Atem isn't going to hurt me."

"Atem? You are calling that bastard by his name?" He brushed up right against her. "What prophecy?"

"A light goddess of some sort," she answered. "It's fine, nothing happened."

"Really?" He grabbed her hands with his and started to walk her backward. "Strange. I feel it again. A prophecy you say? Hm. That's interesting." He pulled her closer and stole a kiss.

She pulled away. "What the hell was that? What are you doing?" Ryou Bakura, where was he? And the look in Bakura's eyes. That wasn't goodness.

"Oh, I definitely feel something in you!" He was excited as he stole another kiss. "That's power, that's real power. That is what he wanted? Well." He tried to smile. "Why don't we have you move in here instead of with Anzu? Who needs them. We've always been everything to each other."

///Satiah: Where was Ryou Bakura? Why was Bakura running unchecked? What kind of energy is inside of me?/// It's destroying my friend all over again. "Stay away, this energy isn't good for you."

"Oh no, I think it's very good for me." He refused to let go. "You're like a living millennium item. Oh, Rider. Let's go have some . . ." His eyes squinted. "Whatever's inside, it's too strong. Get out." His eyes corrected himself. "Don't listen to that. We were meant for each other. Give me that power!"

"Unhand her!"

She looked behind Bakura. He hadn't closed the front door, and Atem was making his presence known. He didn't leave. ///Satiah: I don't have a choice.///

"Bakura, let her go! She's not a millennium item," Atem demanded. "Give her here."

"Why? You want the same thing." Bakura kept her close. "She's my friend, go home to your own."

"You are wrong," Atem warned him. "I have become a friend with her too."

"Of course you have, so convenient. Go away!" Bakura demanded.

"No. That power is corrupting you." The odd eye of Wdjat glowed on his head. "I can feel you trying to take it. It's not yours, and you are going to ruin all of your progress if you take anymore."

"Any more? Oh, I am taking the whole thing!" Bakura insisted. "What can you do about it? She's my friend. If I got this much from a couple of kisses? She sacrificed herself away for me three thousand years ago, I'm sure a little bit of a good time for that power will be easy to get for me."

"Alright." She looked toward Atem. "Take it away. Please."

"What? No. No, you aren't going to give in to him." Bakura held her tighter as the eye of wdjat glowed on his head too. "No way, this is destiny. That power of hers is mine! She came back after 3,000 years for me, and brought me one hell of a goody. Thank you, dear."

"That is not how you should speak of your friend. She isn't here to give you that power. She is here because she was a good friend, who never stopped trying to help." He tried to come closer, but Bakura wasn't giving her up either. "I would never dream of speaking that way about her. She's-"

"If you say she's your love at first sight-"

"-She's like me ," Atem finished his sentence. "No one else out there besides the three of us have gone through these experiences, and there is no way I will ever discuss anything with you."

"Mutual feeling, Pharoah." Bakura snapped at him. "Go!"

"But with her, I can. We can share things with each other no one else will ever understand."

"Like living again," she said from Bakura's hands. "It's sweet suffering."

"Yes." Atem gestured to her. "We are spirits. We are alive right now, but . . ."

"We still live like spirits." She understood. "Stuck. We still feel so apart from everything."

"Oh? So? Because you are both alive now you're bonding? Well, pardon me while - I don't care." Bakura looked back at her. "You can't just give up everything for me and then run to my worst enemy!"

"I can't give up everything for you, only to see you become corrupted by what I possess." She countered back. "I'll make sure this power is gone."

"No, you better not you . . ." He was losing control again. His eyes twitching terribly. "Get out, Satiah, go. Your power gives him power, I can't, I'm sorry, go!"

She felt Atem grab her hand and pull her from his weakened grip as anything made of glass or porcelain shattered in the room. They didn't have long. Bakura.

"This way, go!" Atem pulled her out the door and down toward the elevator. They got into the elevator as they looked back down the hall. Wind was coming from the room as Bakura came out of it.

"Get back here with that, that's mine!" Bakura yelled at them. "Rider!"

The doors closed on them. She thoughtfully touched it. How could this be? "I brought him back to be good, but being around him? Instead of strength, I weaken him."

"I understand now." Atem disrupted her thoughts. "I was right not to kill you. You can't use the power, you are a container for the millennium energy, but it's not infinite. You awakened power within Bakura. I felt that power, it radiated from you." He crossed his arms. "Don't worry, Bakura will be back to normal. You are but a breath of power, short term but massive."

"Three thousand years. Bakura is all I know." She needed to pull herself together. "A little longer."

"There is more than him out there." Atem stepped off the elevator with her and went out the front doors. The limo was still there. "People we are going to right now. They care for you too."

"His energy is right behind us, I can feel it." She turned around. Bakura. He was teeming with energy, his wdjat eye still glowing.

"In." Atem made her get into the limo and closed the door. He turned around and faced Bakura from his distance. "Stop your rampage, the power is limited. Even if you get to her she is just a puff of the energy. It's not everlasting. Go inside. You will get your friend back one day again."

"That puff can do a lot of damage in a short time," Bakura said, "so give her back!"

Atem went around to the other side of the limo and got in. "Go."