3 Never Existed

“As I said, at the end, sometimes Horakhty is nice,” Bastet continued to reason. “Perhaps Horakhty thought it charitable to give this gift for the very last moment of the future God Atems to enjoy for that sake of balance?” Bastet meowled sadly as she strummed her sistrum. “I know not what sacrifice would fit to never be born. I do not know how this ever counted, even if tricked. I do not know if my sistrum is helping me with how I feel right now.”

“No more.” Atem refused. “No more, this will be a mistake that can never be undone! Yugi ” Atem called to him. “We have the memories of the first part of the last dimension, but not the second. Don’t take it, refuse to accept it!”

“Right, I will not collect it within me!” Yugi had been bombarded with memories and power with no control at first. Now, feeling the beginnings of his god power, he could restrain like Atem.

“Uh? I was just sharing what happened as a whole?” Bes was confused. “Thought you should know they were theirs. You can become gods, that doesn’t affect anything.”

“Yes, it does,” Yugi corrected him. “We saw another vision. Zorc will take Silhouette if we don’t do something now, before we change.”

“Right,” Atem agreed. “It must be now.”

“Another vision?” Bastet asked. “Of what?”

Yugi looked toward Bastet. “Send Hikaru and Silhouette to their original dimension, and end this charade. Let them grow up. Let me have the life I wanted with the woman I loved. Girl I loved. Crush I loved but never told. Wife I loved.”

“Do you know how many people want that extra time? That extra time with those they lost. Losing everything. Losing parents. Losing children. It all hurts,” Sekhmet said to them.

“Yeah, but the difference is, I’ll get it,” Yugi said angrily, “because I’m becoming a god, and I’m not so happy about being tricked for ten thousand years!”

“Nor am I happy that my only child will be considered a demon!” Atem called her out. “You all made a deal with Zorc. A goddess could take it, but there was not goddess energy she made within her. We need a chance to remove it, and you didn’t care to tell us about it!”

“Demonness? Our Silhouette has demon energy inside of her still?” Sekhmet looked just as shocked as them. Bastet’s mouth gaped open with a strangled cat screech and Bes just stared at them.

“Demonness? Ooh, that’s a pure shit show right there,” Bes answered with a whistle. “I didn’t share that vision, no credit to me. Who else knows them who shared that?”

“We aren’t happy at all with anyone right now!” Yugi felt his body fill with energy so strong, he could barely contain it. “I’m not taking anything else, we are going to stop this, and I want Anzu Gardner Téa Mazaki Muto now!”

“I need to speak to Masika too,” Atem said. “I need to know many things, and I need to figure out how to stop Zorc before he takes someone innocent with him!”

“Zorc is not a problem. You can feel your own power obviously,” Bastet answered. “You can arrive on Earth, wave your hand once, and he’ll be done. Demons are nothing to gods, and you apparently are a powerful one. Not even formed, and you are already taking control.”

“It’s true,” Bes agreed. “To put it another way? A stream of piss from you on Zorc would make it scream in agony and defeat.”

Bastet rolled her eyes at Bes. “They get the hint.”

“Zorc is not a problem?” Atem practically growled. “A wave of my hand to protect the Earth from him, but I can do nothing to save where it really counts for us. Eternity. Demons are nothing to gods, but they cannot live with each other. That’s what Isis said in the vision. Do you really believe I will leave Silhouette to suffer out there?” Atem shouted. “You are out of your mind if you think we will let this happen. I will not leave everyone but Yugi to Bakura.”

“I won’t lose my family or Atem’s family,” Yugi agreed. “And I want to live a happy eternity with Anzu Mazaki and Hikaru. Wait. A Yugi gained Hikaru back?”

Manga Dimension:

“Hey.” Jounouchi came into the game shop with Mana. “Hey, Yuugi.”

“Hey.” Yuugi was fixing up his books while Anzu was relaxing beside him. Hikaru was resting upstairs. 

“Where’s Atem?” Jounouchi looked around. “Making out with Masika in a corner somewhere?”

Anzu just smiled. “I don’t think it’s like that.”

“Not yet? Eventually spirits are bound to get horny. I know Mai said they don’t, but they’ve had their bodies for a few months now. He is married to her. She’s egyptian with like no problem about that kind of-“

“Oh, shush,” Anzu scolded him as she held her hands out for Mana. Jounouchi handed her over. “Oh, who’s such a pretty girl, huh?” She held her for a little while.

“Hikaru sleeping again?” Jounouchi asked. “He sure does sleep a lot. Mana sleeps, but not as much as him.”

“All babies sleep for awhile, and they are all different. Hikaru likes to sleep during the day,” Yuugi admitted. “He’ll be up tonight.”

“He wasn’t up very much last night though, Yuugi,” Anzu admitted looking at Mana. “I took care of him. He was awake for two hours and he’s been sleeping awhile. Plus, it has been some months, Yuugi. This kind of thing is real common with newborns and stuff. Shouldn’t he be on a schedule by now?”

“I don’t know. He was born different,” Yuugi reminded her. “His date got pushed up.”

“Mana got pushed up too.” Jounouchi took Mana back from Anzu. “She don’t sleep nearly as much. Maybe you should get him checked out?”

“What do I look like, a terrible mother? We’ve had him checked out,” Anzu said toward him. 

“They said that sometimes babies are awake when you think they are sleeping because they are being quiet,” Yuugi agreed. “He’s probably just a quiet baby.”

“No one’s that quiet, Yuugi,” Anzu said softly.

“You got a quiet baby?” Mana made a loud screech right on cue. “Yeah, rub it in. Quiet and good baby, best in the world,” Jounouchi said. “Seriously, where’s Atem?” He looked over toward a corner. “Oh. You two are playing games I see. Really? Connect Four, Atem?”

“It’s her favorite,” Atem said. “She tried something different yesterday, so I agreed to Connect Four again. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

“It’s just so lame. You and Yuugi are the King of Games, and you are playing Connect Four?” Jounouchi rolled his eyes. “Become a real King of Games and play with her already.”

“We are playing a game right now?” Masika’s voice came full of confusion.

“Yeah, right over the head,” Jounouchi said as he left the corner. Anzu had gone to check on Hikaru since he’d been talking so much about it. “I can’t stay long over here, Mai’s actually making dinner for me.” He smiled. “Well, me and Mana and her is what she said, but it’s really just us eating. So.”

“Yuugi?!” Anzu yelled from upstairs. Yuugi ran upstairs with everyone else also following them. “Yuugi!” Anzu grabbed him and pulled him into their room. “Yuugi? Yuugi. Yuugi?”

Yuugi looked around the crib. The pictures of Hikaru. The toys. Hikaru wasn’t just gone, everything of his was gone. “Atem?”

Atem was just as stunned. He didn’t understand it either. Masika went to hug Anzu right away. 

Yuugi tried to call for help for him. He called the police, to let them know his son was missing, but he couldn’t find any records that showed he had a son. The doctor’s office didn’t have him labeled with a son. Even Anzu’s family didn’t know what she was talking about. It was like he never existed in the first place.

The only people who could remember him, were people involved in the god’s game. To everyone else, he never even existed . . .

The knowledge surprised him that just hit. Omnipotence was weird. He could feel shouts of someone yelling at divinity that sounded just like him. “I get it. You took him away, after you gave him back. It was changed now, it was Yuugi’s child? But what about. . .?” Yugi grabbed his head. “It was the whole of Atem’s child, it couldn’t just be that, where was the other side?”

Qebhet appeared in front of them with more water and gave Yugi a glass. “Do not struggle with seeing, you are new, relax. I will explain. By creating one side perfectly, and the other side was left with no creation, they had a perfect template of dark and light. Instead of creating the one child they were to create, they could now see a split and create two. One for dark and one for light. However, they needed a little extra soul, and that cannot be possible in human, so they waited,” she said calmly. She said it all like she was reading a bedtime story.

“When you had won for reality, your future was already ordained, even before Ammut now. Once the light half’s child was taken, the two could be born together, and destiny could be balanced again.” Qebhet smiled. “All they needed was a good decoy to get it done. The cats are good for that. Your children are gods, they are just not what you expected, because it’s more just in the soul for their makeup. They don’t act like gods. They don’t have any extra power like gods. No omnipotence like gods, and what little power they did have, most went to the price of saving. They are the children of both of you, one for each side. Zorc had more than .06 percent of demon put inside of the daughter, but for reasons unknown, it was left behind.”

“Why . . . did you tell us this?” Atem asked her.

“I bring comfort to those who are lost. I don’t often share roles between right or wrong, that leads to allies and all my time playing games, training for meaningless competitions, and putting my godliness on the line for brutal battles,” she replied.

“All the good stuff you guys are going to love here,” Bes pointed out.

“I would rather enjoy lovely games like solitaire for eternity.”

“Yeah, not my style. Oh yeah, I need to get Seshat over here, you guys are going to need some help in understanding others, everybody speaks everything.” He disappeared while Qebhet continued.

“I did not see an ounce of comfort in this staying hidden from you, and so I shared the omnipotence with you before final formation,” she said softly. “I hope knowing this brings you to a healthy resolution to saving your new little goddess. I am your ally for small things, please don’t invite me to rowdier games and competitions in the future.”

Yugi spoke quickly straight to Atem. ///Yugi: The world we left behind, my wife and Masika just happen to speak English in it. Our children can live in both dimensions. We saw that future. It can’t be coincidental, Horakhty wants us to do this, but it isn’t making it obvious.///

///Atem: It is hard to tell, but that is how it should be with the highest of gods. That version of Joey has a mirror, I sense it. They have plenty to gamble with, many things were won. We can gamble for Silhouette’s soul.///

///Yugi: It’s settled, whether it’s really what Horakhty wants, or whether it makes them mad, we can do this. I will have an eternity with Téa and Hikaru, I am not giving them to Bakura to keep them out of hell.///

///Atem: Agreed, and they will not end at six. It is decided. We will help our other selves, and fight for the eternity we deserve./// “Horakhty is not pleased, and we don’t care,” Atem added. “We can become gods, have the children with us, and have our wives in eternity? No. That’s a lie.”

“No,” Yugi agreed. “We want what we want.”

“We want what we deserve!” Atem said harshly.

“A life with their kid and their wives. When they get that enrichment of growing old together. When the demonic is permanently kicked out. Then, we’ll gain that back.”

“But not until it’s over for them,” Atem agreed. “Not until it’s over, for the last of the Atem and Yugi on Earth.”

“Do you have any idea how . . . awkward this situation is?” Sekhmet growled in annoyance. “You are exactly 99.5% gods, to stop won’t lead to Horakhty liking you. You’ve gained all of the powers, all of the time, and even omnipotence.”

“Right. So, I don’t care if it bugs anyone,” Yugi answered honestly. “I’m not taking my last form. I’m not doing anything, except getting back to . . . oh, I’ll just try beloved?” Yugi reasoned. “Everyone has so many different names, but it’s all still one woman. Oh no, I know! My goddess.”

“Oh, don’t even,” Sekhmet growled. “It does not work like that. She can’t be a goddess, she’s just a favorite spirit.”

“She was my goddess ever since I met her on Earth. Everytime I met her.” Yugi smiled dreamily. “Every time she yelled my name, or at me.”

Bes laughed. “Yeah, I knew I liked these gods. See Seshat, good gods. What do you say?”

Atem just chuckled as My Goddess appeared in the air above Yugi. This felt right. They would win, that future they saw would never happen. “Even as an almost god, you are the same, Yugi.”

Bes introduce them to the person who did that. Seshat. She tapped Yugi and Atem’s hands. “Gods and goddesses do not like to give up their language, they are nostalgic. There is no official language. This will allow you to see what they are speaking, when you don’t understand. You can also use it to write what you feel, which is exactly what this part of the future God of Atem just did.”

“Yugi’s fine, I like Yugi, and Atem like’s Atem.” They had tried to explain that before, but maybe they would get results this time with their names. Yugi tried it again, but wrote it with his own fingers. “My Goddess. Nothing else fits for her.”

“Definitely close to becoming a god,” Sekhmet groaned. “They certainly have the overblown pride we tend to have.”

Yugi underlined his word. “Give me her. Now. She’s worried, I know she’s worried. She has every right to be worried, take me to her! Now! Or I’ll? I’ll find her myself. Where is she?”

“Selfishness definitely set in too,” Bastet agreed.

“It isn’t selfish to want a little girl to not go to hell with her mother,” Atem growled. “I don’t care about the deal that was made in the cave. Now, quit goofing around, you promised us them and you will take us to them!” Atem commanded, even managing to shoot sparks out of his fingers. He looked at them afterwards, unaware of how that happened, but he knew the word he wrote. It was something Bakura would have said. “Goodness.”

“You write with feeling,” Seshat warned him.

“Fine, but I suggest toning it down for them,” Bastet warned each of them. “You wrote an ancient curse word at me, that wasn’t nice. I know I wanted new gods, but this is not what I had in mind.”

“Wait, wait! Another new thing to watch out for Yugi and Atem!” Bes warned them. He had heeded their names. “Did you know that gods and goddesses don’t even know where each other always come from? All they usually have is a storyline. There is a rumor though, that Qebhet might be the daughter of Anubis, so treat her allyship carefully.”

“Don’t engage in rumors. She is lovely,” Bastet said to Bes as she bowed to Qebhet.

“I’m just saying, consider her your closest ally, she doesn’t pick to help very many,” Bes told them. “She hates commotion, but she put herself on the line with her actions. Whoever is escorting you around in those visions probably knew about the demonness if she said something ‘about learning a lesson’.”

“Isis?” Yugi questioned. “Why would Isis do that on purpose?”

“Remember guys, you aren’t really guys anymore, you are gods. You’ve gotta think outside the mortal box. There’s a reason you were just created and Taweret, Qebhet and I took a leap to help. Gods that have done something great before becoming gods tend to be more powerful than others. Remember Set? Yeah? I can already tell your power is trampling him.” Bes counted on his fingers. “Let’s see. Zorc. Leviathan. Set against ending reality itself. Other gods are gonna see that power and either befriend it or be against it.”

“Isis may not like your power level. Giving you an instant weakness in your creation, it is her style,” Bastet agreed.

“Well she did create Horus, and you know how she created Horus,” Sekhmet answered oddly.

“It’s just a rumor, no one can prove origins,” Bastet told them. She cleared her throat giving off a small ‘mrowl’ at the end. “Isis is a special case anyway, we can’t instantly say she did it on purpose.”

“But she could have,” Sekhmet warned them. “She might not be your ally this time.”

“Anyway, let’s take you to your future wives as promised,” Bastet said.

“Wait.” Atem held his hand. “In the vision? The . . . wives. Is Masika being Silhouette’s mom, the reason she was referred to as wife?”

“One of you married her,” Bastet said. “Even if you don’t know it, you can sense it, can’t you?”

“So, because one of me married her, I am bound to marry her?” Atem asked.

“No, that’s just why she was referred to as wife,” Bastet said. “But, you will have to remarry them if you want them to join you in your new lands.”

“I can marry my goddess,” Yugi easily said.

“No. You see, just as you are always together, and always apart. So are they,” Bastet said. “One cannot go with you to your lands, and the other stay. Your children can each come, if they don’t have any demon in them. I am sure you figured that out.”

Yugi looked toward Atem. “Well, one of you married her once?”

“That vision of when Hikaru was taken. Yes, I suppose, but I don’t think it was out of love. Not the way Jounouchi was speaking.”

“They will remain at their marriage chapel until you return to them,” Bastet smiled. “They have on their ethereal dresses, and the place is beautiful. I decorated it all up for them. Go see them, and maybe you will feel better.”