One More Kiss Goodbye

Yugi just laughed. They probably did sound like they were crazy, but they weren't. They just understood concepts that one version of Téa and Masika couldn't right now. Even trying to explain wasn't easy for them, and that was okay.

One was okay, for now. They'd press the subject to join her with her other self much later. For now? Mainly, the feelings of being with Téa again after all that happened had left him a little delirious.

He would straighten up for her though. Right after he did something important. "I'm sorry if I am overwhelming you, Téa. I'll back off a little bit. It's probably just a side effect." He gave her a little kiss. "I'm still just Yugi."

"Good." Téa looked better. "So, Yugi, back to our original question? Where are we?"

Yugi looked around it. "Certainly not Egypt. More like a themed restaurant of Egypt."

"Yeah, I was thinking that too," Téa agreed. "So, what is this? Why are we wearing the dresses that we were wearing with Sekhmet and Bastet?"

Yugi looked at their dresses. "You were wearing those after news of the kids."

"Yeah." Téa looked at them. "So, why are we dressed in these like ethereal dresses and in an Egyptian style themed restaurant without the food?"

There was a loud 'ugh!' and a crack of lighting heard.

Oh. "Maybe there is food around here someplace," Yugi kidded her, kissing her again. Bastet was not happy about that; she had decorated it to be nice for them. She had tried to add a modern touch to what she was used to. "Uh? I'm afraid there's a reason I am stealing a lot of kisses from you. This place is like our wedding chapel. Don't worry, I don't have this kind of taste. Bastet did it."

"Wedding chapel?" That didn't make any sense to her. "I appreciate the thought from a goddess, but we're already married, Yugi."

On Earth, in some versions, but not all. He, as every Yugi, needed to marry her, if he wanted her to stay with him in the Land of the Gods. If he tried to explain that again though, it would make her feel weird. What could he say to relate to her? One Yugi, just pull the one Yugi she knew. Those memories. That life. "Our marriage ended in our life. You said it yourself, 'til death do you part. Atem and I can visit, but to have you always by our side, we need to marry you as full gods."

"Oh? Okay." Téa was ready. She had already married him once.

"I'm not a god yet," Yugi reminded her. "There's still . . ." There wasn't a way to rephrase it, and he didn't want to worry her about being separated into a different afterlife. That would not be the future. "There's a piece of me missing, and I'm not collecting it yet. I want it to take care of Hikaru and Silhouette. After their time is over, then I'll marry you all over again. Until then, I can only visit here." He held her hands in his as she moved up the kissing more, now realizing she might not see him for some time again.

Then came the next part. "Why are Masika and I both dressed like this then?"

Ah. That was Atem's part. Yugi looked at Atem.

"Two parts of Masika. Two parts of God Atem." Atem looked toward Masika again.

She shirked backward. "No way."

Atem gritted his teeth. "I am not good at this, but, marrying a god would leave you-"

"I am no one's that I do not approve," Masika said to him. "I don't have to choose any master husband. Those were your own words to me, Atem!"

"We have probably a few decades to work on that," Atem said. "It is choice. You can choose to marry me?"

"I can choose not to."

"It would be better if you chose to?"

"No."

"Yeah. In order to get married too, it's all or nothing. Forever together and forever apart," Yugi recited to her. It counted a lot more than they understood. "I want to marry you and take you to where I'm eventually going to be at. The whole of Atem, meaning me and Atem, have to marry the whole of Masika. You and Masika. Then later on when they pass, Hikaru and Silhouette will come with us too."

"Oh." Téa looked toward Masika.

"No," Masika said again. "I am willing to call him Atem. I am even willing to play games with him, and even call him a friend. But? I am not marrying him."

"It's just for show?" Téa insisted to her.

"This is ridiculous. One of me has already married you, and I bet I know how," Atem started. "I rule that I am your husband now, and you are my wife."

"Atem, I don't think that works anymore. You left that part of the afterlife," Yugi told him. "Also, just commanding someone to be your wife, is not the best way to start?"

She just looked at him strangely. "I rule that I am still not in Ancient Egypt, so leave me alone about this matter. Maybe there is some other you that some other me married. As weird as that is even to say. That one probably did not send their child with her to the Shadow Realm."

"Oh, are you going to hang that over my head for eternity?" Atem complained. "I did say sorry. I think."

"Yes, and so we made friends." She smiled. "We made friends. That's it."

"Being married to a god will have advantages." Atem tried to say.

"Yugi. This doesn't feel real. It feels like a strange dream," Téa said as she looked into his eyes. "It still feels like we can hold each other, but we don't have bodies anymore. We aren't alive anymore. I mean? You're becoming a god, but I'm still just a dead person, right?"

"Don't think of it that way," Yugi insisted. "Dead. Spirit. I don't care what you or I are. One day, I'll marry you and bring you with me. Until then, I'll visit whenever I can."

"But? Hikaru and Silhouette," she said. "I'm so worried about them."

"Joey's taking care of them now, and they'll be okay. They are probably having a really tough time right now, but things will get better." One more kissy kiss. "I'm going to help the kids, while helping the last of me. I need to go visit some cats that are used to being rowdy against others." For once, they wanted that.

"Correct," Atem agreed. "We will need them now, and they greatly owe us for all the trouble they gave us in life. Bastet clearly wants forgiveness while Sekhmet wants her other half, happy."

"Yeah. We can work with that," Yugi agreed. "We've also met other gods and goddesses, and they seem to want to help." He smiled. "We'll make friends. We'll get things done. One more for the road." He kissed her one more time for longer.

"I'll be right here, ready for you when you are ready, Yugi," Téa answered with such love in her eyes. "I'll try to talk to Masika too," she whispered. "That's going to be much harder, the fact they even became friends is tough to believe."

"It's okay. As much as I want to take you with me, I have a lot of things to do anyhow." He had to save the kids and be ready. "I love you." He watched her disappear, knowing his time to stay was up.

 ---

Bastet appeared, clearly not happy about the treatment of her hard work. She had returned them back from where they had came from. "They shall be waiting in the chapel for you both when you are ready. I am warning you now, Isis will question why you are not becoming full gods. If you tell her about Silhouette, and she isn't on your side, it could be bad."

"I get that," Yugi agreed.

"We do," Atem agreed. "Since she was in that vision, and she said that 'lesson' line, she might have a hand in it. There might even be an imbalance of demon verses gods when we come, which is causing this to happen."

"Yes, now you are thinking outside the mortal realm," Sekhmet complimented him.

"It doesn't matter though. I won't let it go down this way."

"We don't need to get into that," Yugi said. "If no one says anything about that? Then, we'll stick to this. We were shown who Hikaru and Silhouette were, and we don't want to end them early? We want memories of them, so we are leaving one version alone to grow up with them. After that, we will join and become gods."

"That would work perhaps," Bastet said, "but when they pass, they still move to you. You'll have to sound better than that."

"They are going to perish this fast. Children, who should have been a child born nearly ten thousand years ago, and they are rewarded with only that!" Atem pressed harder. "They deserve something more."

"There we go, now that is more convincing," Bastet agreed as she nodded at Atem.

"So? We need something else from you," Yugi started. "Take my children and give them to my last selves now."

"Oh, Isis will not let that happen. Neither will Taweret. She may have shown you their existence, but she isn't going to bend backwards to let you steal children from another dimension."

"It's their dimension too," Atem answered her. "They belong to both; they should be shared. The other us' need to see them and hear from you."

"The other you's will trust Isis," Bastet told him. "She was the one who gave them the miracles they had wanted back again. She restored everything and gave the best happily ever after they could have hoped for. We, on the other hand, separated all of you from each other and tried to selfishly produce gods so Sekhmet and I could always be apart." She threw her hands out in a 'no' fashion nearly the whole speech. "It will not go well."

"Then? We'll get a ride too," Yugi said. "We'll talk to these last selves too."

"It will burn too much of your power to be on that earth, you aren't even full gods yet," Bastet reminded them. "Besides, you can't get a ride from me, I would be escorting and watching the children. To even pull this off, Sekhmet will have to leave for distraction. Sekhmet is never very far from me, even now. She will have to be out of my absolute presence to trick Isis," Bastet tried to explain.

"Bes or Seshat for a ride?" Yugi asked.

"Just call to them. If they aren't busy, they will come," Bastet insisted. "Bes would definitely come if you promise him God's Brew later. You are absolutely sure about this?"

"That dimension got a happily ever after, and I sense a lot more. They have things to gamble away," Atem said. "If they can give back some of the winnings, we should be able to make things balance enough to get Silhouette back."

"It's all about balance, right?" Yugi asked Bastet.

"A certain kind of balance, but it is a good place to start," Bastet agreed. "Even if I get them back to the yous there, Isis will show up soon after. I cannot keep them there, and they will continually be returned."

"There's a way around everything," Yugi and Atem said together.

"For now, this is what we need from you," Atem said. "You clearly want to be allies now, even though you cursed us so very long ago. This is what you can do for us. Help us save Silhouette."

Bastet bowed. "You have had good plans in the past. I will trust that. You can count on me, I will send your children, back to the only yous left in existence."