My Oh Mai, It's In the Cards (Part 2)

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

Hollywood, California

"Hey, Duke!"

Huh? That was a familiar voice. Half annoying, half nostalgic. Duke Devlin looked between an alley and saw an old friend. "Joey Wheeler?" He smiled and went toward him. "Wow, I haven't seen you in a long time. How have you been?"

Then, he felt himself getting grabbed and pulled up by his shirt. "What the hell, Man?!"

"What's God's Brew?" Joey didn't look friendly at all anymore. He looked like he was ready to beat him up. "Your new business venture, pretty expensive and pretty flashy. Pretty sure there's something not on the up and up with it!"

Whoah. "My God's Brew?" How would he ever know anything about it. "Are you still friends with Yugi?"

"I'm not here for idle chat, tell me about your God's Brew!" Joey demanded. "Last time you were all into dice games, and now you are brewing up luxury alcohol?"

"I don't brew it up," he said. "Well, I mean my company mixes it. How'd you even know?"

"I got friends with connections," he said. "Sometimes, you just strike gold. Now tell me."

"You really won't believe me." He felt Joey about ready to attack. "It was because of this cat and tiger!"

"Cat and tiger?" Joey actually seemed to listen. "Were they a talking cat and tiger?"

The words could be Joey teasing him, but Joey looked sincere. Maybe they messed with him too? "Yeah, they do."

"Okay, go on."

"They were like goddesses. Egyptian. I'm not kidding," Duke promised him. "They told me my role was to provide a drink called God's Brew, and that it would be responsible for saving the world. I didn't want to believe, but the tiger looked really hungry."

"Yeah, that tiger is real hungry, ask Yugi." Joey sat him down. "What's in it?"

"This special mixture mostly, comes pre-packaged and labeled as a special alcohol falsely," he admitted. "I am using the funds to work on my games. It's not real popular, Joey, it's too expensive. They wouldn't let me drop the price or anything on it."

"So only the elite can get it?" Skeezy and Kaiba. "Man? What the hell." He completely let go of him. "Who else is getting it?"

"Senators and people in charge of stuff?" Duke reckoned. "The cat and tiger control the distribution more than I do. For some reason, certain people start to change their minds or do things they don't normally do when they consume it. It's like drinking way too much in a night and the next morning completely blanking out, but like a hundred times worse. I've seen this group of three business professionals that ordered one bottle to celebrate a new merger. Next morning, they were found waving their clothes off the empire state building and were completely insane. They're still locked up to this day, it never wore off."

Damn. "That is powerful." So, those goddesses were in charge of that stuff?

"Even the bottle itself? It just beckons people. Someone just needs to be near it, and they get this feeling like they want to try it. When they do, it tastes like some nostalgic thing they love the best in the world."

"Yeah." Joey couldn't say much more. "I gotta go then. Sorry about jumping you, Duke Devlin."

"Ah, I could have taken ya if I had to," he said falsely. Really, Duke didn't fight much anymore, he was a business person. He watched Joey walk off, wondering what God's Brew had done to him?

———————————————

Game Shop

Kaiba entered into Yugi Muto's Grandfathers' shop. Serenity Wheeler must have something to do with the Egyptian connection. After a strange call from a Joey Wheeler some time ago, he started to look into things himself too.

Now he was ready to see what Yugi knew. "Old man."

Yugi's grandpa raised his head from a game he was looking at. "Seto Kaiba? I'm surprised to see you here. Yugi tried to reach you. It was hard to even get your number, what with the whole duel monsters school now. When he did, you didn't help at all."

"I laughed in the phone and hung up." Eh. "I didn't remember. I do now. Where is he?" Kaiba asked as he came closer. "I want to know if he knows someone named Serenity Wheeler." The old man seemed out of it.

"Of course he does, so do I," the old man said. "That's Joey's sister."

"Joey . . . Wheeler." The guy who called him. He knew him that well?

"Of course Joey Wheeler," the old man said. He looked at him strangely. "You remember Joey Wheeler, don't you?"

The guy who called. "How exactly do I know Joey Wheeler?" He heard the sound of someone coming downstairs. Yugi?

"You don't remember Joey?" Yugi stood there, staring straight at Kaiba. "You would never forget Joey Wheeler. Both of you tried to ruin each other's pride several times. He placed second in Duelist Kingdom, and he lasted onboard for your Battle City Duels."

Hmmm. Kaiba knew he should really notice that. Also, Téa was there behind Yugi. "Gardener is back?"

"You remember Téa, but you don't remember Joey?" Yugi looked at him like he was strange. "So you do remember the goddesses I tried to talk to you about it before you laughed at me and accused me of having a mental health crisis?"

"Did I hit a sore spot, you don't have to be so descriptive of the moment. I was there." Damn. He couldn't risk messing with Yugi right now. "Joey is Serenity Wheeler's brother, right?"

"Yes." His yes sounded strange.

"Yes. The main point I am here is not because of this Joey," Kaiba told Yugi. "I know there is something between Serenity Wheeler and I. A very important connection, and I am not able to remember it." He held up her card. "I know she's gotta have something to do with a cursed payment."

"Serenity Wheeler was on your ship in the Battle City finals with us," Yugi tried again. "You weren't nice to her or her brother."

Oh. Sounded like him. But? "Why is my memory being compromised still?"

"Kaiba," Yugi said as he came in closer with Téa. Téa however stayed further behind. "You are not the only one having weird occurences happen. Yugi and I, while another spirit and Téa, have been cursed."

Kaiba watched as Yugi took off his rope, but the puzzle remained there. "What?"

"It's growing from Yugi's chest," Yugi said, "and I am not Yugi. The woman beside me." He nodded to try and get her to approach closer. "Is Masika, another spirit."

No way. "Pharaoh?" Insane. Insane! "So, they did punish the dead." The dead. "Sekhmet."

"Sekhmet." Yugi grew closer. "You have met them too."

"Sekhmet is one bad kitty that you do not want to mess around with," Kaiba revealed. "Deal with Bastet. Don't piss her off, or a tiger will put you in unbelievable amounts of pain." Yes. The more he thought about it, the more he remembered. He pointed at Yami. "You are living half lives now, aren't you? All of you. I get it now." He whipped out the cards and plucked some that had weird names on it. "Light Masika, Dark Masika, Light Yugi and Dark Yugi. Here, take your whole lot." He tossed four to Masika, and two to Atem.

Masika caught the cards and looked at one.

Yami caught the cards and looked at one

Ooh, that expression. "What do the cards hold for you?"

Yami put the card away. "We are switching bodies almost every other day. This is the only information I knew before I got this. Thank you, Seto Kaiba."

Yeah, his eyes and expression didn't look thankful at all. "Thought so. Yugi was never into tanning salons when I knew him." Ah, he'd tease later. What was his own punishment dealing with Serenity Wheeler? "You aren't the only ones involved." Bastet said it. He almost wanted to laugh it off. It was almost comical. A situation he would never find himself in. He remembered that much. "Serenity Wheeler . . . I'm supposed to . . ."

"Bastet revealed your name after Sekhmet bit off Yugi's hand," Yami admitted. "It is back, but we were offered to ask questions for a few minutes in return."

"Knowledge for a limb, sounds familiar," Kaiba said. "What information was Yugi's hand worth?"

"For you? Nothing. For us? Nothing but puzzles and frustration."

Hm. Kaiba started to notice his card finally changing. It had a large blue eyes white dragon on it. ///Azure. The next wielder of the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Daughter of Seto Kaiba and Serenity Wheeler?! Will you sacrifice her power to save all of reality?/// "No!" What? It didn't even stop there! "What? What?!"

"It's . . ." Atem tried to say something. "It's not easy to read your payment, is it?"

Kaiba's nostrils flared as he stared and read the card. "So another me, needs more power? Than they already had?" He scrunched his other hand together, trying to contain his anger.

"Kaiba." Atem came down further. "Payments are never easy."

"Don't give me that!" He didn't want to hear it. "Where is Serenity Wheeler? I need to talk to her," he said as he gritted his teeth. "Now."

"Oh, not in that state," Yugi's grandfather said to Kaiba. "No, no, you must settle down first."

Seto didn't have time for this! He took his own card and shoved it right in the spirit's face. "Tell me!"

Yami was reading the whole card, taking more time than Kaiba did. "The other you is in danger. The other me is in danger. The other Yugi is in danger."

"Damn it, just tell me where she lives?!" Kaiba showed him another card. "See this one?" He showed it off. It kept changing names on it. "This is your secondary payment, or it's someone called Dark Bakura's. I also have a changing one for Yugi. Now, someone is going to get this card to hold. Who will it be?"

"More?" Atem looked almost as angry. "We are already-!" He caught himself from saying more. He looked at Kaiba, gave him the numbers to an address, and took the card as Kaiba got out of the little shop.

---

"Atem? You okay?" Grandpa asked Atem. "Both of you don't look so well."

Atem glanced toward Masika. She had three cards in her hand, and one that looked like it was revealed. He could guess what hers said, since one of his had been revealed too. "We made the sacrifice."

She nodded. "We must keep it." She looked at the other card with her name. "This won't reveal itself to me."

Atem looked at the other cards. One was for Yugi, and another one was Yugi changing to Bakura when he moved it around. He also had the one Kaiba showed him that had his name and Dark Bakura on it.

A part of him had thought, like in the past, they could find some way out. But, with the card. Even if they did, they couldn't take it anymore. ///Yugi. Please come back soon.///