"Okay, Bes, we have a job for you," Bes complained as he arrived at one of the Game Shops. Wrong one, it was all closed up. "You need to go no more than three days to fill each baby with soul for eternity unless the spirit part of Atem, yada, yada, bleh." Why him? "Oh and don't forget? Tell them about the twinning so they don't think we killed their kids, but don't let them know that Zorc has the original set of children. And don't make a joke with the word Set! And remind Atem that he's full human, and he should try and act more human with his body!"
This was beyond stupid. Bes was a first time get-to-know kind of god, but this was a lot on his plate. He rolled his eyes and took a deep breath.
Fine. He'd go visit that Joey guy's house and try to pull this off.
When he arrived, he observed from the ceiling. Everyone was pretty awkwardly silent. Some of them were mourning. "Mourning." He spoke and noticed they looked up. "Morning too. So we didn't kill your kids, we twinned them, I got the whole thing wrong." To prove his point, he twinned Joey.
"Hey, what the-?"
"Hey, what the-?"
Both Joey's backed away from each other. "What the heck is that?"
"Hey, I'm Joey! What are you talking about, what the heck are you?"
"See so twinning starts almost like an identical copy, but the longer it's alive, the more it chooses different things to say. Same personality, just doubled." Bes snapped him away. "So I removed his memories and threw him in another dimension, I didn't kill him." That should make them feel better about that.
Téa stood up. "You are so twisted!"
He was? "He'll be fine? I didn't let him survive long enough here or he could have blown up your dimension. Twinning shouldn't exist for very long or it destroys dimensions, but you had plenty of time. No worries?" So angry all the time. "Your kids aren't moving in different dimensions, so we duplicated them, and it solved the problem."
"Why won't the babies stop crying?" Ethereal but not so Ethereal right now Yugi asked.
"The age reduction. It's weird when they just pop into existence as you saw with Joey," Bes bullshitted them. He pointed to the two babies and gave them more souls. "So sometimes twinning can have a few problems, but it's fixed now. See?" Babies stopped crying.
None of them looked like they fell for any of it.
"Bottom line?" Bes tried again. "Your kids are safe. They weren't killed, they are yours. The gods had to do something, you all were crossing around dimensions like you owned the place."
"Oh." Yugi seemed the first to get it. "Is that why we are being punished? We know the rules about being seen in another dimension from going to get Masika."
"It's a little more flexible after death," Bes said. "Anyway, you guys were super upset that you were dying without your children that had been waiting for like 10,000 years to be born and only get like six years. So we fixed that. You're alive, you can grow old, you're welcome."
Okay, he gave the extra soul. Told them about twinning.
"So you didn't split the kids?" Mai asked him. "They are still Hi and Sil? The babies are Hi and Sil?"
"Yep, no split. That would be murder to you guys, and you wouldn't be happy about that. Right?" Just checking.
"Of course we wouldn't be happy if you split our kids!" Téa said angrily. Man, the First Tear sometimes.
"Well, we didn't. So, chill." He made a note to himself. Each time he came back, he'd just be invisible. Now, was he missing anything? Don't make any set jokes. Bummer. What else? "Oh yeah, you." He pointed to the spirit of Atem. "So you're human now. You're body isn't leaving, you'll never be a spirit again. Go explore things with your body."
"Excuse me?" he said politely.
"Go like do things with your body that you couldn't as a spirit," Bes said. He looked toward Masika. "You too. Have fun with your body. It's your gift, use it."
Masika seemed to pull more inward. "I am fine with my body, Oh Mighty God. Thank you for your words of wisdom."
"Look? So there's this thing coming up," Bes tried again. He needed these two to get more experimental if there was even a chance. "We might bring Bakura back, and he'll definitely be trying things with his body if we do that."
"We don't need to know things about the human body," Joey said to Bes. "I think they get the point."
"Well, not you. You do things fine with your body," Bes said to Joey. "You are a champion in that. Anyhow, it's not just the body, but like, playing with your human body, might lead you more to the answer?"
"The answer to what?" Yugi just had to call him out. "What else is coming?"
"So like . . ." Damn, of course they would see it meant something. "It's obvious everyone here is looking like me like I'm not telling the whole truth. Look, I'm restricted on what I can say. Just, I don't know? Maybe think about the physicality of two used to be spirits."
"Bes!" Isis and Horus both shouted at him.
He winced. "Hang on. I got news from the front." He disappeared.
He reappeared in front of an angry Isis. "What?"
"He was waiting for that," Isis scolded him. "Keep the explanations minimum! How hard is that?"
"None of them are believeing me. They can tell I'm hiding shit," Bes said in his defense.
"You just-! You just put in a new option for Zorc," Horus insisted. "He can no longer mess with his conditions, but he added a new one because of you."
"If the Atem and Masika formers spirits have a physical child together, it counts just as much as 'I love you'," Isis told him.
Oh. "Well, hey, that's not bad. It's a second option. Didn't hurt things." Probably didn't help things. "Guy would probably say something like I love you before getting messy with another person." He actually did good.
"Just? Keep it simple," Isis told him. "Don't explain much more."
"I threw in the whole Bakura thing. I figured they should know," Bes said before they bugged him about that. "When's he coming back? The more certainty I got, the less incompetent I look."
"I don't know yet. In a couple hours, or maybe next week if I don't forget. Now get back there and be more careful."
Bes disappeared again.
He reappeared on Joey's ceiling again. "So Bakura is gonna be back in either a couple of hours or next week. Isis is kind of busy with stuff right now."
"Hey." Joey approached him closer. "Could we go back to that whole physicality, two spirits, and something coming part? Please? It'd be appreciated, Bes, really?"
Oh. "You'll have a better future the more the spirits act like real people with real bodies." That wasn't a lie. If the former spirits won, then they could eventually be gods, and the royal line of legendary stories would be a thing again. Although it was really about pulling the kids out of being demon again, and fixing the two pair into one again, he couldn't say that. Restrictions sucked.
"Is there some kind of battle coming that Atem and Masika have to be ready for?" Téa asked.
Battle. Could he call it a battle?
"Does Bakura count in this, God Bes?" Masika asked.
Uh? Oops! "Nope, nope, nope! Bad idea, he does not count for this one." The gods wanted to release him to have a chance to wrangle up Atem in jealousy. Although, seriously, he was not seeing the point. "Doing physical things with Bakura isn't going to help, we need Atem and you to get physical with your bodies for a better future." That was the closest he could say it. "Bye."
He disappeared.
Joey touched his head. "So . . . was that what I think it was?"
"I don't know," Mai said to him. "The babies stopped crying at least."
"Yeah, but was that short for . . . you know?" Joey looked toward Yugi.
Yugi just looked at Téa. "I don't know."
"You don't know what in particular?" Atem asked Yugi. "Most of the babbling didn't make sense." He looked toward Silhouette. "At least the child was not killed and reborn."
"It would have been terrible after all she'd been through." Masika didn't seem to look any different either. "Téa? Do you think driving a car would count for using my body more?"
"The way he said it, I'm thinking driving something," Joey said while Mai shoved him gently.
"I don't know, Masika," Téa said. "Um. That was weird."
"The important thing is that Hikaru and Silhouette are fine," Yugi said. "Hi and Sil is what Joey called them. I guess, they could stay Hi and Sil?"
Joey looked toward Yugi and Atem. "So someone is going to be coming over soon, because if you hadn't guessed, you don't live in Domino's Game Shop where you woke up at. You lived in New York, and you are currently on the dead list. So, my stupid Brother-in-Law is going to have to help you out. I barely managed holding two kids here, no way can I handle four adults and two babies. Tristan will be coming soon too. He's got a bigger place, and Miho won't mind helping you out. She's actually been trying to get pregnant."
Bes appeared on the celing again. "Yeah? So, just to let you know, pregnant women around the twinning repaired might kind of mess up unborn souls. Be a little weary of that. At least five feet apart at all times." Then he disappeared again.
"Okay, I better de-invite Tristan over pronto just in case," Joey said a little angrily. "I swear sometimes."
Bes appeared again. "Sorry?" He disappeared again. He appeared again. "So yeah, hopefully this is the last time you see me. Isis made it clear that this is the last time you physically get to see me. Sorry. Bye." He disappeared again.
As there was a knock at the door, Joey answered.
"You're fired!" A little girl said first pointing at Joey. Then she just smiled. "Hi, Uncle Joey."
"Damn, it's true." Kaiba was right by the door beside Serenity. "Just can't stay dead?"
"Not an option anymore for them," Joey said. "They pissed off the gods."
"Not surprising." Kaiba came in.
The little girl went over by Yugi and Téa. "Hi, Hi! Welcome back to living. Your kids got super small."
Uh? "Thanks," Yugi said trying to be polite. "Are you Azure?"
"The one and only," she said proudly before skipping over to see the other baby. "Cute. Weird. Hi Masika. Hi weird ancient pharaoh living again. How's it going so far?"
" . . . fine," Atem responded.
"Cool." She pointed at Masika suddenly. "You're fired!"
"It's so great your teaching her such wholesome values," Joey called out Kaiba.
"That wasn't me," Kaiba said back to him.
"That was her Uncle Mokuba," Serenity told Joey. "He said if she got stronger and bolder while she was younger at saying it, it would be easier for her to do when she was older, because she has a kind heart."
"You're unfired," Azure said to Masika. "But did you believe that you were?"
"I don't have a job with you," Masika said slowly. "That I know of. You are a handful."
"I am Azure Kaiba, next in line to lead Kaibo Corp, and number one collector of Blue Eyes White Dragons! I was supposed to control the next Blue Eyes, but my power was stolen by another dimension," she said so casually. "It would have been cool though. If I had a dragon, I would make it sail through and go whoosh with it's fire!" She danced her hands and her bodies around. "Then I would have it spell out You're Fired in smoke! It would be so cool."
"She's . . . unique," Yugi said to Serenity and Seto Kaiba.
"We don't keep secrets," Serenity said. She held her hand out. "Azure, come closer so I can see you better."
"See?" Téa asked.
"Oh. It's. I'm still officially blind," Serenity said. "But I can see blurry colors. I can tell she's in front when I see her blue."
"Hey!" Mana stuck her head out of her room. "Azure!"
Mana and Azure both ran to each other and then started hopping around each other in a circle.
Azure stepped away and shouted, "you're fired!"
Mana just giggled. "You should make it better." Azure walked past her. "You should add doing this." She grabbed her from behind the shoulders and squeezed, "You're fired!"
Azure shrieked while Mana laughed.
"Yeah, okay, just take Azure to your room," Mai insisted. "Go have fun. We need to talk about things."
"Hey, did you see Hi and Sil? They are babies again."
"Yep, and there's an ancient pharaoh now too. Hey, want to know something cool?" Mana said. "They put in a park just a block away from us!"
"Oh, that's cool, did you get swings?" Azure said before she closed the door.
Kaiba sat down with Serenity. "So what's the deal?"
"Well apparently the babies aren't safe with Miho, so you get six new guests," Joey said to Kaiba. "Have fun. Might want to help them out with the whole death thing too. I'm gonna go use the bathroom real quick."
Joey headed to the bathroom. His head was spinning and he stared into the bathroom mirror. For so long, Yugi, Téa and Masika were proclaimed dead. He took care of their kids. Then out of the blue, he goes to the kids room and sees the scribbling of Atem's name. And just when he started to feel relief?
Hikaru came back without Silhouette speaking another language. Hikaru was so distraught, that kid didn't go to sleep, his body had to get worn out first from all the crying and worrying. Joey went to get more rest, and then he hears Mai scream, and gets filled in.
Seeing them alive, even seeing the damn cats back to life in the back room, he was feeling joyful. Then saw Hi and Sil. Babies again.
Joey didn't know how to take it. He just waited. Hoping. Then, Yugi's voice on the phone. Not just his, but Yami's too. Damn. He really had not only Yugi, but Atem too. Masika. Téa. Even the damn cats.
It was joyful. Then they thought the babies had been split, and it wasn't joyful anymore. Then the babies were safe, and it was joyful again. And now? He had his little niece yelling you're fired at people, his daughter talking about ancient pharaoh's and the new playground in the same sentence and yeah.
He threw up. After he did that, he felt a little better. He hadn't had to deal with things of this scale for a long time. He flushed the toilet and rinsed his hands. "Alright. Get it together, Joey. You've been through rougher moments. Keep it together." He took a deep breath, and slapped himself a couple of times.
Hi and Sil were okay, just babies. Yugi was back along with Masika and Téa. Atem was back too. These were all great things. So there was the focus. He opened the door again. Hopefully, things could start to settle down again.