The Wrong Kaiba! (Part 2)

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

Same pattern. Same go around. While Kaiba was definitely interested in the conversation, it also wasn't going anywhere. Everything was at a standstill, and he hated wasted time. Right now, Tristan was hanging onto Serenity tighter than she was to him. She may have been blind, but she looked practically dead, like she just gave away her own soul.

He left the area, no one was going to bother him for a little while. He just went over to his car and called Mokuba while bringing out his blue eyes white dragon card.

"Hello?"

"Mokuba. I'm going to be later coming home with Serenity. There are a lot of things going on tonight," he said. Yes, there were many.

"Oh, okay. Was Tristan okay?"

"Yeah, he'll live, but he won't feel well for too long," Seto admitted.

"Why?"

"I'm stealing his girl."

Mokuba just laughed. "I'm sure she'll say yes one day, Big Bro. At least she moved in. When do you think you'll be home?"

"It might be awhile, it might be days," he said. "I'll come back when all deals are secured."

"Does that include Skeezy? Your special employees are already saying they see him bringing in a huge number of his best fighters. He really wants Mai back."

"They can handle the little things right now. I have something bigger to tackle with Serenity."

"Seriously? You are on a different level tonight, Bro. It'll be weeks before I see you."

"Nah, probably a couple of nights. I found her weakness." He flipped the card over. "I know what she wants."

"Joey safe? You already gave her that, that's why she moved in."

"That's what her brother wanted, and it's what she needed. I know what she wants for her own, selfish desires. I'm going to expose it, and win." He caught it, right before she signed that card. "See you soon."

He left his car and went back again. No one had really moved, nothing new had happened. He couldn't make his move yet. ///Seto Kaiba: Just wait, Tristan. You aren't holding Serenity, just a big chunk of slippery ice. Enjoy it while you can.///

—

Border Between the Afterlife

Sekhmet lied beside the entrance. ///Sekhmet: You need to convince him. This is bad. Everything is out of time.///

"Let me tell him the truth," Masika said. "He is waiting for something. They are all waiting to know all the options. If after knowing the options this is what they choose, then so be it."

"None of it will help you," Sekhmet spoke to her. "That damn Seto Kaiba of yours never finished building anything."

"I can explain the best I can, before it's too late," Masika encouraged her. "They need to understand why it has to be us. Please?"

"I will visit here everyday that I can," Sekhmet promised. "I will not abandon Silhouette. I will see her everyday, I will talk and visit, I will be good. I promise, I won't even have any human meat on my breath the day I visit. Not strongly at least." She pulled herself up. She couldn't stay long. "Tell him. Make him see why, and let the Pharoah's choose the right course of action. Everything that has happened, that has been given, has been for a reason. Remember that."

Masika watched her disappear. ///Masika: Atem.///

///Atem: Any options?///

///Masika: I have to tell you several things going on in the other dimension, and why the choice is always between us and the millennium items.///

Atem held himself strong as Masika filled him in on many facts in the other dimension. ///Atem: It all makes sense now. Thank you. Masika?///

///Masika: I am here still.///

But it wouldn't be for long. "Yugi." He walked towards him. "I understand fully our choices, and the reason for them."

"How do we save them all?" He asked.

Oh. This was hard. "Zorc was in the place Masika was at. Both Masika's. He possessed the other Masika, and he drew Téa in with her. Téa is no more and neither is Masika on the other side."

"Oh. That's bad," Yugi admitted.

"When the other us in the other dimension win, one of two things will happen to break them apart. The first option. The goddess' left some power in each of them. Not to create a god." Oh Yugi, he did not want to say this. "When they are fused to the original Masika they no longer exist. You would have to cut and fix the souls at just the right points to receive them back. This is impossible without knowing where to do that. Only Zorc can do it."

"Oh." Sympathetic but it wasn't clicking yet with him.

"That's what the millennium items are for." Joey picked it up some. "He has to be lured to help or they can't be separated."

"Yes, Joey. If he doesn't, the winners either lose them forever. Or?" Atem stared at Yugi. "We are the payers, Yugi. They need an exact blueprint of where they break."

Some. A little denial that he was getting it right. Then it hit him. "They are taking ours away to cut them out like sewing fabric?! Then what happens to ours?"

"Living beings from one dimension to another do not mix well. They would not have survived." Atem did not want to share the rest. "That option is with both of them, Masika will expire before it happens at this rate."

"Then? What about the children?" Yugi asked.

"Just an aggressive tactic to make us listen. If we gather the energy of the millennium items, or if we agree to sacrifice them all now, they will leave Hikaru. They would have with the other but they are trapped."

Oh, that look. Atem felt that look too.

"Sorry. Oh, sorry." Joey wasn't doing well in the corner. He clinged to Mai. She didn't say anything as she comforted him.

"Talk to Thoth." Seto Kaiba interrupted. "He's the one who writes and sees everything. We need to get past the cats, and go to the real person who knows what can and can't happen."

Thoth? "You don't pick and choose who you can reach," Atem told him. Especially someone like Thoth.

"Sekhmet is the mother to a goddess who is just about to die," Kaiba said coldly. "Hit it where it hurts. Have Masika beg to her that Thoth might be the only one to know a way. Get tough. Get mean, Pharaoh! Or you're gonna be left with nothing but the sting of being a loser."

It was strange that Seto Kaiba was actually helping, he must have been in a good mood. It was a crazy idea, but perhaps? ///Atem: Masika. Please. Before it's too late, ask Sekhmet if she will let Thoth talk to us./// No answer. ///Atem: Sekhmet cares about Silhouette greatly, if anyone could see any way out of this, it has to be Thoth. You must ask. Masika?///

///Sekhmet: Too weak.///

Sekhmet. ///Atem: We must talk to Thoth, please! Seto Kaiba does not have anything built on this side, there is no way to reach them.///

///Sekhmet: Thoth will not respond anymore.///

///Atem: Why? Please, tell me why.///

"Sekhmet: Thoth. Eh? He's a geek with a grudge."

A geek with a grudge? ///Atem: What is the grudge?///

///Sekhmet: All dimensions are similar, and we chose the dimension to pay where we could influence with a cat instead of the one he wanted.///

///Atem: It . . . did not have to be us?///

///Sekhmet: All are similar. He foresaw a dimension where Seto Kaiba had green hair, and there was another very close member to your group called Miho. It's still similar enough.///

///Atem: Maybe not, because our Seto Kaiba does not have the way over!/// Okay, he had to try and stay calm. He was talking to a goddess. Yet? ///Atem: Admit that he was right, so that we can get some real help./// All he heard was the sound of groaning. ///Atem: Are you really going to let your daughter die just because of your pride?///

///Sekhmet: Oh, don't even. You are a Pharaoh, you could have thousands of kids and never see one a day in your whole life. You see children every day in the streets, see so many different ones all the time. Have you any idea how long it's been since there's been a trace of a new goddess?///

///Atem: A very long time I imagine, and we can continue this important discussion if you would like, if you just contact Thoth to try and save that new goddess you claim to wish for?/// Pride. Pride was many people's failure. It was his oftentimes too.