Zahra AU Info

When Yugi gave Anzu the Millenium Puzzle as thanks for helping Jounouchi find the last piece, she was possessed by the ancient Nameless Pharaoh and acted as an instrument for his twisted justice whenever the souls of herself or her friends were trespassed upon. However, Anzu was not the intended vessel for Atem's spirit, and as their wills clashed and changed one another Atem's methods only became more brutal, not less as they would've under Yugi's influence. As a consequence of Atem's brutality and Anzu's hair-trigger temper, Jounouchi was nearly put under a Penalty Game that Anzu managed to stop only halfway through. With Jounouchi being preyed upon by his old gang leader, Yugi spent all of his time at school with Jounouchi... leaving Anzu all alone, even as she was working at Kame Game herself as Yugi was still terrified of her. Meanwhile, Anzu and Atem began greatly resenting one another for all this.

To atone for what Atem did to Jounouchi, Anzu called off the Penalty Game entirely when the younger of the Kaiba brothers came for revenge for what Atem did to Seto. Instead, Anzu befriended Mokuba, adding him to her Monster World group with Yugi and Sugoroku as she tried to repair her relationship with Yugi. As such, she was warned about Death-T and hid the fourth Blue-Eyes from Seto before he could destroy it. Anzu and Atem were forced to ascend Death-T alone, but grew closer as consequence, making them almost-allies when they defeated Seto for the second time.(Although because of the several close calls during the duel that could've been prevented with a more balanced rules set, Anzu panned Duel Monsters as a whole in her gaming column.)

After a pleasant and thoroughly unsupernatural game of Monster World with the new student Ryou Bakura, Anzu was challenged by Pegasus to enter Duelist Kingdom; the prize being enough money to pay her way through dance college in the states. With the rules changed due to her article, the game's popularity exploded, allowing Pegasus to make all of Japan his Duelist Kingdom. And so Anzu set off with Bakura and Yugi by her side, Jounouchi still unaccounted for and Honda unwilling to accompany the person who hurt his friend.

Early on in the tournament, Anzu clashed with Shizuka, Jounouchi's sister. She was a fierce duelist, carrying on her brother's wish to win the tournament and use the prize to repair her eyes in his stead as Jounouchi couldn't so much as touch a Duel Monsters card without recalling the Penalty Game. Shizuka blamed Anzu for Jounouchi's current plight, but despite the initial hostility between the two, Shizuka and Anzu became something like friends over the course of the tournament and even traveled together in the latter half.

However, an incident with Bandit Keith nearly left their entire group stranded on a mountain peak with no way down. Once they reached the bottom, Anzu considered backing out of the tournament while Shizuka resented her for giving up on her dreams so easily. Before Anzu could make a decision, Pegasus revealed that he had carded Jounouchi, and that if either of them wanted to save him, they'd have to defeat him. And so Shizuka and Anzu pressed on, determined to beat Pegasus.

In the semifinals of the tournament, Anzu barely triumphed over Shizuka in a match full of tension of all kinds. Pegasus was a fearsome foe, and while Anzu managed to keep up the Mind Switch tactic to stave off the Millenium Eye's mind reading throughout the duel, the toll it took on both Atem and Anzu was great. Each time they forced a switch, the "friction" between their souls blurred the line between their identities. After saying goodbye to Shizuka (and giving her the money to fix her eyes), Anzu and Atem occasionally lost track of who was who doing what in the months before Battle City. But in the dazed delirium right after the battle, Shadi appeared, explaining Pegasus's tragic backstory.

Anzu and Atem subsequently agreed that somebody who gave out dangerous artifacts to obviously narcissistic assholes with a superiority complex just because he was "supposed" to have it was dangerous. When Shadi admitted he'd do it all again, Anzu and Atem worked in unison to tear his spirit apart and let his own items pass judgment on him for his sins before returning the Key and Scales to the antiquities department.

In between dealing with an insane clown and his posse of one son, a highly precocious American girl with vengeance in her heart, and wacky adventures in Kaiba Land's VR game, Anzu learned of what had happened to Jounouchi in the wake of what she did to him: he was recruited by his old middle school gang, who had been progressively isolating him even as Yugi tried to reach out. That wouldn't stand. Reaching out to Hideo, Anzu conducted a raid on Hirutani's hideout, subjecting his entire gang sans Jounouchi to Shadow Games before rescuing Jounouchi and getting some sense back into him, restoring their bond.

The Battle City preliminaries played out largely as they were supposed to, with one exception: Shizuka. She had spent her money on getting Jounouchi out of his father's custody instead of on her eyes, rendering her permanently blind. In addition, not wanting to deal with her confusing feelings for Shizuka, Anzu cut off all contact after Duelist Kingdom, leaving her bitter once more. Nonetheless, they reconciled, and even grew closer after Malik's proxy game.

Aboard the Battle Ship, the changes continued to snowball. Mai and Ishizu tied out their matches with Yami Malik and Seto. In unison, Anzu and Atem threw themselves in front of the God Blaze Cannon, allowing Mai to free herself and force a draw, but this had a cost: it further fused their souls, and Anzu and Atem spent much of their time in Noa's virtual world wandering in a fugue state, not sure of who they were. However, they had enough of their wits about them to refuse to let Noa kill himself to fend off Gozaburo, and sealed his soul into one of the "spare rooms" in Atem's spirit chamber, allowing him to roam as an independent being throughout its confines.

At Alcatraz, Anzu and Atem triumphed over Yami Malik, but the stress of the duel put the final nail in the coffin of their individual identities. And so Zahra was born (although they wouldn't find their name until much later); a composite soul of Anzu and Atem that nonetheless had their own identity and personality. They hid this for as long as they could, feeling guilty for "trapping" their components and hiding them away from their friends.

When Dartz sprung his plot and unleashed the Leviathan, though, things went catastrophically wrong. The influence of the dual soul on Timaeus nearly stalled the Eye of Doma, and rather than being destroyed, it claimed dominion over Domino City. Zahra's home turned into a hellscape of crystal and Orichalcos monsters, and they were forced to flee. Zahra roamed the Earth in an attempt to find Dartz and stop the darkness for a full year, traveling alongside the physically-manifested Noa, Shizuka, a Spirit of the Ring looking to save his host's soul to advance his plans, and a largely-useless Jounouchi.

After Rafael forcefully revealed the truth of Zahra's being to the group, Shizuka grew distrustful of them, and Dartz played upon these feelings to induct her as a soldier of Doma. But Zahra loved Shizuka even more fiercely than Anzu, and managed to break her out of it before the final battle. This acceptance of the self turned out to be the key to freeing Anzu and Atem, but the two found they liked being Zahra. So much so that when they re-fused to defeat Dartz, they decided to stay that way. This also propelled Zahra to confess to Shizuka, and she reciprocated their feelings.

Unfortunately, they still lived in a society, albeit one permanently changed due to the permanent integration of monsters within it. The KC Grand Prix was largely a gesture of cooperation between humans and monsters, and Zahra and Shizuka helped negotiate between the two species during it while dealing with paparazzi and a Seto that was growing increasingly frustrated about the disappearance of his rival.

Entering the realm of the Pharaoh's Memories proved an oddly nostalgic experience for Zahra, despite Zorc's plans for the realm. But rather than abandoning the souls of those in the past once all was said and done, Zahra used the memories stored in the monsters they were based off of to bring Mahaad, Mana, Kisara, and more to the present with them, giving everyone a happy ending.