A Different Sacrifice (Part 4)

DIMENSION: ANIME (The One That Pays to Save the Day)

"Yes," Yugi agreed when they refused to say anything. "I don't know what I have to sacrifice for it, but yes to everything, yes to all of it."

Kaiba watched as Téa now came out of the Game Shop too. Bastet moved toward her, hopping straight on her head and moving downward against her. Ouch.

"A pleasant surprise for Parts of Atem, they will appreciate this when they know." Bastet purred and took all of the cards away from the pockets of Atem, Yugi, Téa and Masika then disappeared again.

Sekhmet just chuckled and lied down. "Idiots."

"I don't know about you," Kaiba said toward them, "but I think you two morons switched your destiny to something worse than you already had."

"No one else dies," Yugi uttered. "Whatever it is, we'll pay it."

He said that now. Meanwhile, Kaiba stayed close to Serenity but she kept creeping closer to her brother. Being related to Joey was even more annoying than the thought the next Kaiba would have Wheeler genes. He said nothing though. Things might be changing.

He watched as the cat came back with four new cards beneath her.

"Remember. Instead of killing 33 million people, for starters, you chose this for yourselves."

"33 million people?" Atem spoke up. "Yes, anything's better than that!"

"Then it's been decided."

"What about Tristan?" Yugi asked her.

"The child Mana becoming a hybrid is no longer needed," Bastet said to Jounouchi and Mai. "I can take your cards back." The cards came straight from their pockets to her. "We can't reverse her coming, you two rushed her here yourselves."

"It was God's Brew," Joey muttered as he caught a look from Mai. "Oh, hey, my sister and Kaiba?"

"Azure will probably not be needed," Bastet said to them.

Probably? Why did she just say probably?

"You'll give one of these a piece at the end." Bastet tossed four cards to Bakura and Bandit King as well with her magic. "You are now just as important."

Kaiba didn't want to draw the attention to him, but his gut didn't feel right. ///Seto: No./// "I'd rather not change my sacrifice yet." Everyone looked at him strangely. "I trust my instinct. I'd prefer my original sacrifice, Azure with Serenity Wheeler." He held his original card.

"Well, that's not just up to you," Joey had to open his big mouth. "It involved my sister, and she isn't going to want to stay with you."

Annoying. "Sekhmet said our dimension tends to get the easy side of things." Didn't any of them pick that up? "I doubt she was joking." He heard another chuckle come from her.

"There's one smart one in the lot," Sekhmet actually complimented him.

"You still have Skeezy out there to deal with," Seto Kaiba answered back to Joey. "Until then, nothing changes with the deal. She stays with me, and I take care of Skeezy. She leaves? So does your Mai's safety." That was a decent dirty look from Joey.

"A deal is a deal." Serenity might have seen what he'd seen too. "Seto Kaiba hasn't done anything wrong, Joey," she assured Joey. "We can always keep the card."

Hm. Seto glanced toward Yugi, the pharoah, the evil Bakura and the regular Bakura. Their cards were clearly covered, but he could already tell the weight of what they had to carry changed into a different form. He'd rather easily just create a second Kaiba and call his debt over.

"Understood," Bastet said toward them. "If Azure isn't needed, we'll take the cards back later."

"Could?" Yugi was trying to say something. "Could-?"

"No." Bastet's voice was sharp. "You'll choose between two cards. You have now seen the first."

Kaiba noticed Atem's look straight at Bastet. Damn. Those cards were already revealed.

"This would never be a choice," Atem said toward Bastet. "I don't know what the second card is, but I could never do this."

"Neither could I!" The Bandit King was angry as he stormed right over to Atem. "If you do, I will hunt you down into the-"

"I never would!" Atem yelled straight back at him.

"I can't." Yugi looked at the card. "I just can't, who could?"

What did the cards say?

"What do they say, Yug?" Joey asked as he came over.

"33 million lives spared, plus whatever else the total cost of the mayhem will be!" Bastet hissed toward Atem, Yugi, and the Bandit Thief. "You said anything."

"I didn't say a god damn thing!" the Bandit King said to her, choosing his words harshly. "It was Yugi and Atem, I am not fucking doing this!" He tried to toss the card, but it just came back to him. "I will never do this! What's the other option, I want another option as well!"

"33 million lives spared," Bastet said again. "Would you like your original deal back? You can have it back, but we'll have to use our infamously famous God's Brew to take 33 million lives, for starters."

///Seto: That looks like a bluff, is that a bluff?/// It was hard to tell on a cat. He was pretty good at detecting lying though. ///Seto: That God's Brew did have a reason for being here. They never said a thing about the amount of sacrifices to them. It wasn't really on them, just the joining soul thing. They could have done the God's Brew without anyone knowing. Feels like a bluff.///

"What is the second card?" Atem demanded to know. "Why is it not revealed?"

"Hmph." Sekhmet sat up on her haunches. "This is wasting time. I want to move onto the next phase!" She barreled right toward Yugi's chest.

Kaiba watched as almost everyone screamed and Yugi hit the ground, bleeding. Not just a little bit of bandage bleeding. Atem had yelled the loudest as he went to him. The goddess would fix Yugi, he wasn't concerned about that.

He was more interested in seeing Sekhmet having the millennium puzzle perfectly cut into two.

"This will do for now," Bastet said toward them. "We'll be back."

They disappeared. Yugi was healed enough to stand up, but he was definitely still in pain. He just stared at Atem, Bakura, and the Bandit King. "We . . ."

"We can't. Ever." Atem actually looked at Kaiba angrily, like he didn't even want to be casually noticed. "It doesn't matter what it was, we can't pick it."

"You traded 33 million lives, maybe more, for a single sacrifice card," Kaiba had to say toward him. "You knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park."

Still, Atem was angry. He helped Yugi up better, along with Bakura.

"It's okay, Yugi," Bakura said delicately. "Really. I'm sure the other card is doable."

Joey came over to try and help too, but at the same time, he was still stuck between Mai and his sister. Looked like the moron finally made a choice and left their side to help.

Kaiba took his chance to sneak closer to Serenity. "Everything's not over, you were right to back me up. If things end up fine, we'll back out, no problem. Until then, you have to be defiant."

Serenity didn't answer him, but he caught a knowing look back.

"Yug!" Joey came and looked at where the blood had been. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Nothing stuck to the ribs anymore." Yugi sounded pained.

"Stuck to the ribs? You're lucky you still have any after that. Yug?" Joey tried to be gentle as he took over for carrying from Bakura. "You gotta show me that card."

"It's not possible," Yugi muttered. Still, he briefly showed Joey.

Yeah. That should end all suspicion. Joey might be older, but that moron could never-

"You have to remake brand new millennium items?!"

-be quiet when he should. ///Seto Kaiba: New millennium items./// Ooh. Now that would be interesting.