Crossovers
- Alpha And Omega (Fanfic): Due to the Citadel forming a blockade between the Rebuild!Earth and the rest of the Mass Effect Galaxy, the only way Misato and Rebuild!Shinji can get back home is by cutting a deal with Hackett. The price for entry? One EVA unit for Alliance research. Misato is understandably hesitant, given what the EVAs have done to her world, but goes through with it, figuring that if Hackett wants to shoot himself in the foot with the tech then that's his business.
- In Avenger of Steel, this is brought up when Logan meets Ichiro Yashida and hears his offer to take away Logan's healing factor. As much as Logan might regret how he'll outlive all his friends, he refuses to help Yashida after the man's actions nearly killed Kitty and Rogue.
- In Avengers: Methteilien, Thanos contacts Earth to suggest an alliance against Morgoth (Morgoth having stolen the Mind Stone to prevent Thanos completing the Infinity Gauntlet to perform his universal cleansing). However, the Avengers and the Free Peoples all know that Thanos is just the lesser of two evils (as Thanos simply wants to kill half of all life where Morgoth would destroy the universe) and refuse to consider such a deal.
- "Back to the Light
" features Buffy Summers make the equivalent of one when she discovers that she is actually a chameleon-arched Rani (Doctor Who). When events lead to Buffy becoming aware of her true origin and discovering the locket containing the Rani's essence, she makes a deal with the Rani where she will be allowed to live out the rest of her potential lifespan (or until she suffers fatal injuries), at which point she will open the locket and allow the Rani to retake control of her body, at the cost of one of the Rani's remaining regenerations. - Blood That Flows:
- The Golden Dragon elder under the Fire Dragon Lord, along with his loyal followers, make one with Dynast Grausherra in hopes of gaining the power to kill the last Ancient Dragon. He's a plain Hypocrite, as he accused Lina of doing the same earlier with the Lord of Nightmares.
- Vita and the other Wolkenritter made a similar deal with the Book of Darkness. For extra power, they would become its Guardian Knights upon their deaths. It didn't work well, as Signum was shown murdering Vita shortly after Vita got her powerup.
- And now that her plans have been derailed and she's been weakened once more, Levi has struck up a lasting bodyguard deal... with Curren Huckebein. The other Huckebeins followed, except for Cypha and Arnage, with the former preventing the latter from doing so.
- In The Bridge (MLP), Bagan gathers several Kaiju and offers them several boons if they agree to serve him. When Grand King Ghidorah and Legion tried to tell him to shove it, his response is to send them all to their knees in pain and threaten to kill them where they stand if they don't accept. Once they accept, he keeps his word and grants them their boons. He's still screwing them over, because he told them that they would conquer the universe under his leadership, but he's really an Omnicidal Maniac and he's just biding his time until their efforts allow him to regain his full strength. Once that happens, he plans to wipe out all life, including them.
- "Bridges" opens with Jack O'Neill (Stargate SG-1) learning that he is the father of Xander Harris (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). When Vice-President Kinsey attempts to blackmail O'Neill into retiring by threatening Xander, although the Slayers easily defeat the NID agents sent to abduct him, they conclude that the best way to stop Kinsey for good is by making a wish. After they summon D'Hoffryn, he agrees to let them make a wish so long as they sign a suitable contract that affirms they won't interfere with his business in future, the Scoobies and D'Hoffryn spending some time drawing up a relevant contract before he summons the vengeance demon responsible for oppressed constituencies.
- Child of the Storm has a couple of examples.
- Lucius allying with Gravemoss is presented in this fashion, since it is patently obvious that Lucius has, at first, absolutely no idea how bad Gravemoss actually is and it is heavily implied that Gravemoss is going to turn on him the moment he gets bored. To confuse matters slightly, Lucius procures the Darkhold for him in exchange for allegiance, meaning that technically, both do deals with the devil.
- In turn, wielding the Darkhold opens one up to possession/enslavement by its owner, Chthon, who... makes his presence known, shall we say.
- The backstory reveals that Grindelwald made a series of these in order to increase his powers to (according to Loki, who would know) "godlike" levels.
- In the sequel, it's revealed that Surtur's 'Great Captains' are individuals who willingly served him in exchange for a degree of autonomy, retained identities, and - at their weakest - planet-busting levels of power.
- Doctor Strange's bargain with the Time Stone for his legendary precognitive powers and agelessness is portrayed as a mixture of this and a Bargain with Heaven, depending entirely on your perspective of the Enigmatic Empowering Entity. Their shared purpose is ultimately benevolent, but Strange has done a lot of horrible things in pursuit of it, and beneath his style and swagger, is ultimately a broken man who has resigned himself to being Necessarily Evil. The power behind him, meanwhile, seems fundamentally amoral - just opposed to Thanos - and is implied to have emotionally manipulated Strange the way he has everyone else since.
- Children of Time:
- In the finale, Professor Moriarty offers Sherlock Holmes a Sadistic Choice: Holmes's soul, or Watson's slow, tortured death. And goes as far as to have Watson's bad arm broken. Horrified and desperate, Holmes agrees.
- Much later on, things seem to have been set right... until Moriarty kidnaps Beth Lestrade and tells her he's about to kill Holmes, Watson, and the Doctor. Beth frantically begs him not to and offers herself as a willing slave in return for their life and liberty — a deal Moriarty agrees to, almost certainly understanding how much it would hurt Holmes.
- Collateral has Marinette make one with Kyubey after Hawk Moth manages to take her Miraculous, wishing to stop Hawk Moth. He is defeated as a result of the wish altering the course of history, but the ramifications soon hit hard as Marinette finds out just what Kyubey's deal entailed and the Kwami and Master Fu quickly come to regret not warning Marinette about the Incubators ahead of time.
- Crazy Irken and ? (Invader Zim-based crossover fic anthology by D_rissing and nightmaster000. note ): In the Total Drama chapter, Courtney agrees to help Zim with his plan to brainwash most of the world into obedience in exchange for ruling by his side and having a chance to get revenge on Gwen and Duncan. And since the circumstances of the plan end up meaning that Courtney is the only one that the brainwashed will obey, Zim actually has to keep up his end of the bargain.
- The Equestrian Wind Mage: When Ganondorf arrives in Equestria during Season 2, he recruits Grey Hoof and the Bone Fiends to serve him by offering to lift their curse in exchange for service. However, Vaati knows that they're more useful to Ganon as undead, and therefore Ganon is unlikely to hold up his end of the deal.
- Equestrylvania: When Dirt Nap is recruited by Dracula's minions, they offer him the power to take revenge on Ponyville for shunning him by fusing him with the demon Aguni. Notably, they warn him that it will cost him his soul, but he doesn't care and accepts.
- In Evil Be Thou My Good, depending on whether the Cenobites are 'devils' in that sense, Harry is able to reconstruct the Lament Configuration after accidentally opening it as a child (causing the death of the Dursleys) and tricks Voldemort into letting him use it. Harry subsequently makes a deal with Pinhead where the Cenobites will get the souls of Voldemort and his available twenty-seven Death Eaters in exchange for his freedom and the return of Sirius Black (the Veil leading to the Cenobite dimension), and the students and staff of Hogwarts won't be harmed (although Pinhead warns that he can't vouch for their mental safety after witnessing him in action). Pinhead explicitly notes that he and the other Cenobites spared Harry in their initial encounter because he recognised that Harry had been touched by Fate and Destiny, which are forces that even Pinhead wouldn't oppose.
- Cole MacGrath directly names this trope when referencing his alliance with Alex Mercer in Evolution. Cole knows that Alex is leagues above him in terms of power, and would be willing to kill him if it suits his needs, but Cole needs Alex's help with both protecting Empire City and getting Moya off his back.
- Flashpoint 2: Advent Solaris plays with this trope, as Mephiles proposes a deal to Barry in promising him a chance to undo the downer ending of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, only for Barry to refuse as he doesn't want to ruin the new lives of everyone for his own selfish reasons. However, Mephiles had been expecting this and proposes a new deal - promising to "help" Barry get his powers back to help "prevent" the current timeline from ending in disaster instead.
- In The Gods Awaken, Nyarlathotep makes one with Boscha promising that he would help her surpass Willow in return for her service.
- In The Gotham Knights of Middle-Earth, Tim and Cassandra try to make a deal with Klarion by threatening Teekl, but the effort proves pointless as Klarion isn't powerful enough to do anything to Sauron.
- Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters: As shown in the Ludmoore family's Origins Episode, Jonathan Ludmoore's reaction to being banished to Earth by the Oracle was to cut a deal with Mab, last of a bloodline of shapeshifters that Kandrakar drove off of Meridian — she agreed to marry his son and pass her powers down through his descendants, in order to grant them a chance for eventual revenge against Kandrakar.
- Halloween Unspectacular:
- In one of the stories in the first edition, the Evil Syndicate (minus Vlad, who refused to even partake in such madness) makes a deal like this with Terminus and the Reapers: they'll help the Reapers get back to their own universe, and in return they'll get an agent within the Nicktoons through indoctrination (Sandy being the chosen victim). The trope is even name-dropped:The Syndicate, it turned out, were not doing a deal with the devil. On the contrary, a deal with the devil would have been much more moral.
- In "The Infernal Machine", Vlad ends up making one of these with Bill Cipher, which ends with much of Oregon and Amity Park destroyed and several heroes heavily injured or dead. Given that Vlad was always one to balk at such deals in past stories, this also shows how much Sanity Slippage he's endured.
- One of these, in the form of a bet, is why the Devil gives Gaz a wish-granting pocket watch in the story "Come and See" from the eighth edition. As per the Devil's arrangement with Dib, if Gaz can resist using all seven wishes in the watch (and unleashing the apocalyptic side effects of each) she'll be freed from the damnation she's already doomed herself to, but if she uses all seven wishes, she's still damned and will be immediately taken to Hell.
- In one of the stories in the first edition, the Evil Syndicate (minus Vlad, who refused to even partake in such madness) makes a deal like this with Terminus and the Reapers: they'll help the Reapers get back to their own universe, and in return they'll get an agent within the Nicktoons through indoctrination (Sandy being the chosen victim). The trope is even name-dropped:
- In Hell Has All the Good Musicians, Mr. Crowley, better known as the Dealmaker, twists the standard bargain. If the buyer tells him a tale of their own depraved cruelty and malice, the Dealmaker will give them almost anything. For example, he gave Blackbeard knowledge of navigation in exchange for the murder of his father. It's implied that the real price is whatever the buyer does with the gift; the buyer's already damned, and the Dealmaker enables them to drag themselves deeper into Hell.
- Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily: "The Six Swans/The Toy Brick Car" opens with a fable about a mouse who tries bargaining with a predator to protect her and her kind. The predator betrays her trust, and the other mice condemn her as no better than the other monsters, casting her out.
- In Magic and Mayhem, it is explained that Pact Witches, such as the Sanderson sisters (Hocus Pocus), gain their powers through such bargains. Wendy (Casper Meets Wendy) notes that this makes it impossible for Pact Witches to be anything but evil, where conventional witches like herself could go either way.
- In The Marvelous World Of DC, just as in canon, Rasputin made a deal that led to Hellboy being summoned to Earth, although in this case the demon he made a deal with was Trigon.
- In Once Upon a Supernatural Time, various deals are made with Rumpelstiltskin and Crowley.
- In One Helluva Broken Day: SCP-1879-2 inverts this trope. That is to say, he maneuvers Lucifer himself into a Faustian bargain for a mysterious monster (SCP-999) in exchange for dumping a bunch of SCP objects in Hell.
- The Dresden Fillies:
- He Who Walks Behind granted Obsidian power in exchange for his heart and his service.
- Novel Notion made a deal with another demon to sacrifice 120 other ponies and Celestia in exchange for similar powers. He tries making another deal in the epilogue with a huge demonic dragon, but the dragon isn't interested and it swallows him and his allies whole.
- One Foot – Another Multiverse SI: How the plot starts. After being run over by a train main character Poe makes a deal with Marvel's Mephisto to save his life not knowing who he is.
- Revival: Maya Lottie/Nyarlathotep makes a deal with the Loud siblings on Leni and Lola's souls promising to return them to their bodies if they gave her the Necronomicon. They do so, but she decides to toss the souls into a rip in space-time anyway.
- The Rider's Angel is a Lost Girl fic that includes the character of Seth, a motorcyclist who made a deal to save his mother from cancer and thus became the latest incarnation of the Ghost Rider, even after his mother and sister died in a brutal home invasion. Carver Slade, the original Ghost Rider, explained to Seth that when someone’s time is up they will always die, so Seth making the deal to save his mother from cancer just led to her being killed during a brutal home invasion after seeing his sister die rather than passing peacefully in the hospital. Later in the fic, Seth makes a more standard deal with the Ash and the Morrigan that he will keep both parties up-to-date on his activities in their territories and may assist them if he is willing to take action against their enemies, with the understanding that he won’t be a supernatural hitman and his control over the Rider when the spirit is unleashed in the presence of evil is limited.
- SCP-2043: The Magical World: The SCP Foundation used to let eligible D-Class personnel make wishes with SPC-2043-1/Kyubey and become magical girls, at the cost of someday becoming witches. The Foundation attempted to get some benefit out of the bargain by only allowing wishes that could aid the organization, but something happened that resulting in their forbidding any wishing with Kyubey at all.
- Sixes and Sevens:
- The Faustian Queen, much like her comics counterpart, likes to tempt mortals into making deals with her. She pursues Emily through the girl's childhood, offering beauty, love, and power, but all of them are rebuffed. She appears again when Emily is older and her father is dying, tricking her into accepting a deal to save her father in return for giving up her firstborn child and then placing a geas that prevents her from remembering said deal.
- Cynthia von Doom made a pact with Chthon to gain the power of The Scarlet Witch in order to protect her village and enact revenge upon the imperial soldiers who killed her husband. The cost of this is Chthon turning the village against her for this act, spurring them to chase her and Victor away and being left defenseless against the next wave of soldiers.
- "Sharper Points" features Amanda Waller (Arrowverse) assembling a supernatural version of Task Force X that includes John Constantine, Papa Midnite, werewolf Faye Chamberlain, newly-turned vampire Felicity Smoak, Alvin Desmond (Doctor Alchemy), Felix Faust and Dean and Sam Winchester (Supernatural). It is subsequently revealed that Faust caused the crisis that brought them together to try and get out of his deal with Crowley by giving Crowley the others in "exchange", but Crowley makes it clear that he has "ethics" which include sticking to his deal where he gets Faust's soul when time runs out.
- The Swarm of War: Not counting the obvious examples of the Chaos Marines having sold their souls to Chaos, there is Judanus' deal with Ahriman to get him into Warp before he's killed by the Swarm.
- Temporal Anomaly: Oma Zi-O (Kamen Rider Zi-O) gives one to Two (Drakengard 3) after restoring her mind; in exchange for bringing back to life the orphans she's had to put down thanks to her Song's effects turning them into monsters, she must join his harem along with her sisters - swearing both her body and soul to his cause, meaning she'll have to end her relationship with Cent, her lover and true love, permanently. Since she considers what happened to them her worst failure to the point of it breaking her into a shell of herself, Two takes the deal.
- In Trust Doesn't Rust, Needy makes a deal with Lucifer to save Jennifer's life.
- In The Weaver Option, it's revealed the T'au were nearly driven to extinction when the Chaos Gods chose them as playthings. The first Ethereals made a deal with Enslavers, sacrificing their race's vast psyker potential in exchange for protection from Chaos.
- In Well Travelled, Taylor makes one and notes that what people often forget is that when offered a deal with the devil that the the devil usually holds all the Cards.
- In the Supernatural/Arrow crossover When Demon Hunters Meet the Arrow, when the heroes plan to hand Malcolm Merlyn over to the League of Assassins in exchange for Sara Lance's freedom, in order to protect Thea from being caught up in the League's revenge on Malcolm, they make a deal with Crowley. In exchange for giving Crowley video evidence of Dean acting like a dog under the influence of a potion, Crowley ensures that anyone who can support Malcolm's claim that Thea is his daughter has either had their memory of knowing Malcolm erased or been driven insane, depending on what they knew about his criminal activities.
- In A Saga of Parallel Worlds, Fred Fucks sold his soul to the Devil so that he could make shitty games for the rest of his life.
- In Animorphs Redux, David makes a deal with Crayak that allows him to travel back to the past as Crayak and the Ellimist 'reset' the timeline, as well as granting David a new variation of the morphing power.
- My Child centers around a demon named Xaphan trying to get Levi to sell his soul to him, using every method he can to persuade him. However, Levi wants none of it and basically tells Xaphan to fuck off every time. He does eventually end up making a deal with the demon to save his son from dying in childbirth, and the story ends with him being tortured in Hell for it.
- Alabaster Orchestra: Uryuu does this much like in canon, though his plans are apparently up in the air with Ichigo remaining loyal to the Emperor and refusing to assist him.
- In A Protector's Pride, Yhwach made a deal with the ruler of Hell many centuries ago. Yhwach would stop aging and all of his descendants would inherit Quincy powers. In exchange, anybody killed by a Quincy goes to Hell, no matter their deeds in life.
- In Father Goose and the Black Knight, Xander and his Slayers sometimes offer demons and vampires a deal for information. The reward varies from getting a pass the next time they meet to, when they're truly desperate, picking up their tab for the next month at a given demon bar.
- Where Angels Fear to Tread reinvents Angelus as a powerful demon trapped within Angel's body; originally Angelus was the unstoppable Butcher Knight, summoned by Darla to serve as her champion, but after Angelus killed the current Slayer, who was also Angel's lover, Angel made a deal with Heaven where he would be permanently bonded to Angelus to keep him in check. Darla eventually learns a spell that allows the Butcher Knight to retake control for a time even if Angel will eventually force him back down, but when Darla targets Buffy (here the reincarnation of the first Slayer Angel loved), Angel makes his own deal with Angelus; as Darla will eventually die for good and remove the only person who can unleash Angelus, Angel will allow Angelus full control for one year every decade, and also be able to call upon Angelus's power when facing a significant enough threat for the other nine years, so long as Angelus doesn't hurt the innocent during his time in control.
- Attack of the Teacher Creature: Discussed:Hobbes: I'll pass, thank you. I'm not interested in that stuff. I didn't sell my soul to the devil.
Calvin: Neither have I.
Hobbes: Yes, but you nearly did once.
Calvin: Well, it seemed like a good offer!
- Young Offender: Since the first generation cyborgs (Cyborgs 001 through 004) escaped their clutches early on, the Black Ghost organization gets clever when it comes to the second generation. Instead of simply kidnapping people to turn into cyborgs, they find ways to get them into their debt first; that way, if they think of backing out, well... it'd be a Shame If Something Happened.
- Blackened Skies: Kaede offers to owe Celeste a favor in exchange for her cooperation. While she asserts that this won't involve hurting anyone, she still feels as though she's making a mistake as they agree upon the terms.
- The Golden Boys Last Temptation: A crimelord -nicknamed Boss "Smiley"- hints then-presidential candidate Prez he can take him to the White House if Prez turns a blind eye to his criminal activities. As telling the story, Supergirl deliberately compares it with the Devil offering Jesus the world in The Four Gospels.
- In the Hellsister Trilogy, Satan Girl is locked up in an inescapable cell when she hears a voice asking if she wishes freedom. She agrees before asking who the voice’s owner is and what it wants in exchange. Darkseid breaks her free, teleports her to his location, puts her to sleep and "harvests" her unborn child.
- Terminal Justice has Batman beg Mr. Black, who the League believes to be Death (they're right, he just doesn't know it yet), to spare his butler Alfred. Mr. Black uses his fragment of a philosopher's stone to give Alfred roughly fifteen more years of life. He then goes on to kill Joker, Two-face, Scarecrow, and Riddler, seemingly as payment.
- Here There Be Monsters: Unlike the Marvels, who are empowered by gods, Ibac and Sabbac's powers stem from a deal with Lucifer himself.Both his and Sabbac's powers stemmed from the same diabolical source. Both of them had done deals with a fearsome and evil entity, and had been enabled to change into a new, more powerful, and more evil sort of being with the speaking of a word.
- With This Ring:
- As he associates with John Constantine, Paul has encountered multiple cases of people making deals with devils, but he recognises that it never works out well, because demons will always try to cheat you, and on one occasion he wonders why more people don't try to make deals with angels instead.
- Subverted when Paul encounters Carol Bowen, and learns about how she's made a deal with Triskele — who is well known for cheating on her deals and claiming people's souls early. What Paul didn't realise was that rather than being in over her head, Ms Bowen is actually a succubus who knew exactly what she was doing, and escapes while Paul isn't looking.
- Disney Villain Songs (Lydia the Bard):
- Megara makes one with Charon after Hercules repays her Heroic Sacrifice and leaves her pinned beneath the pillar to die. Charon grants her the knowledge of how to steal the gods' power and immortality for herself, starting with Hades; in exchange, Charon will be part of her new pantheon once she's overthrown Olympus.
- Anastasia strikes a deal with the demons inside of Rasputin's reliquary: if they help her become the next Empress of Russia, she'll let them loose upon the masses as part of her plan to avenge her fallen family.
- Tiana accepts Dr. Facilier's offer to be turned back into a human and given the restaurant she and her father always dreamed of having. While there's seemingly no strings attached, her desire to expand her empire ever further grows alongside her reach, and it's implied that she's also bargained with the Friends on the Other Side in order to gain access to their magic.
- Kingdom Hearts 3: Final Stand: In chapter 27, Sora is fully prepared to make one with Xehanort by offering himself up in exchange for Eraqus, but Aqua refuses to let him.
- Occurs twice in The Lion King Adventures:
- In Miss the Girl, Moto makes one of these with Hago in exchange for appearing irresistible to Nala. What does Hago want in return? Simba.
- Zazu makes one with Death in Darkness Falls in order to save his father from being executed by King Ahadi. However, Death just kills his father personally, as opposed to King Ahadi doing it.
- Happens in one Mansionverse story where the Hatbox Ghost actually summons a slew of infernal demons who insist a deal be made to justify the Inconvenient Summons. The Ghost Host manages to trick them on Hatty's behalf with some clever Loophole Abuse: when the time comes to seal the deal, he hands them the standard form for a damnation contract… the one that states the demons will take possession of the soul "once the contractor is dead". Since Hatty's already a ghost, the contract is in fact null and void.
- Vow of Nudity: Ni-Bast, a khenra slave Spectra meets in one story, made one with her now-master, a devil blacksmith named Melopi, in order to protect her sister Amehnot as she went off into war; in exchange for Armor of Invincibility for her sister, Ni-Bast would serve him until Amehnot returned. While Melopi fulfilled his end of the bargain honestly, Amehnot was killed by a jealous rival on her own side before she could come home, effectively making Ni-Bast's servitude lifelong.
- In an untitled fic, Milton Grimm offers Raven and Briar a deal: they can abandon their inherited destinies (which are both very bad, in different ways) if they take up each other's. They agree, but the resulting Bad Future is only slightly better than it would have been otherwise (and perpetuates the oppressive Legacy system).
- Mike's New Ghostly Family:
- In the world of the fanfic, demons allow the damned souls to make one-time wager with their tormentors, with a condition that, if a damned soul wins the wager, they'll receive 1000 years free of torture, but losing a wager would mean that limitations Heaven imposes on their torments would removed, allowing the demons to torture the helpless victim for 1000 years instead. William Afton makes one such wager with Nightmare, his demonic tormentor, with the conditions being that if Nightmare revealed the dark truths of the past regarding Mike and the ghost kids, they would turn on each other and break their family apart. Nightmare, on the other hand, believed that they would stand strong and loyal to each other even after those truths were revealed, ultimately winning the wager. A rare case when the devil in question winning the deal turns out to be a good thing, at least for the heroes.
- However, another demon lord, named Vucarik, would approach William Afton and make a deal with him; Vucarik would free Afton from Nightmare's shackles and give him power to allow him to have revenge on Mike Schmidt for giving his victims a happy ending, and in exchange, William Afton must flee to Earth at the earliest opportunity. Though he merely intended to use Afton to distract Nightmare from foiling his plans in overthrowing Lucifer, Vucarik fully honored the deal, giving Afton the demonic essences of younger Nightmares and giving him overwhelming powers...which is bad news for Mike Schmidt and his family.
- In "Dreams Before the Dark" chapter, Nightmare appears in Mike Schmidt's dreams to strike up a bargain with the man, asking for a portion of his inner darkness for personal needs (which turned out to be recreating Mike's dark side to use for his Ultimate Custom Night torture) in exchange of promising to be indebted to Schmidt and willing to provide aid in his time of need. Interestingly, before Nightmare told him about the nature of the bargain, Schmidt was fully prepared to tell him off, having heard about all the stories where people sold their souls to demons only to end up being screwed over, but Nightmare scoffed at Mike's implication, stating that this practice is no longer used in Hell, because a human must have a full knowledge of the pact and the demon must honor it in full, or otherwise Heaven would nullify the contract, which is why that tactic was discontinued and is treated as a joke among the self-respecting demons nowadays. Nightmare even told Mike that he would fully honor the deal (which he did much later), and it will not affect his placement in the afterlife, and ultimately, Mike reluctantly accepted the bargain.
- "Broken Mirror" sees Demona and Macbeth make a deal with a spectral figure (later identified as the Archmage) who comes to them in their dreams; in exchange for their immortalities (although Demona thought she was only sacrificing her human form at first), this figure allows Macbeth's wife and four gargoyles from Wyvern (including Hudson's long-lost mate) to be brought into the present.
- Common among fics taking place in the Transcendence AU, where Dipper and other demons derive their powers from making deals.
- Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way vs. Canon: Played for Laughs in Sapphire Eleanor Rose Suzette de Mont vs. Canon. Charlie rather casually mentions doing this. Multiple times. According to another character, making deals with higher powers in general is fairly commonplace.
- Hivefled: The Grand Highblood and the Condesce have a hobby involving inflicting Cold-Blooded Torture on teenagers, including their own descendant, and threatening the victims' friends until they sign over their souls. The ghosts of the two thousand plus victims are bound to a pocket dimension known as the Trap, until the Grand Highblood dies and hands them over to his patron spirit, who is apparently like him only more so.
- We Must Be Killers: After the uproar following the 3rd Quarter Quell interviews, Snow confronts and threatens the mentors, mockingly dares them to name alternatives (like cancelling the games altogether or doing a reaping with normal tributes) and hints that he can cancel the games if he chooses to, but they will have to offer him something that it will cost them very dearly to lose (whether personally or for their whole districts) and that will leave him feeling like he came out on top. The mentors back down and vote to let the Quell continue (although some of them are rebels already planning to sabotage it).
- Ages of Shadow:
- Brenner agrees to help Jade to gather the power to finally escape her imprisonment in exchange for immortality.
- Jade convinces Alonso to serve her in exchange for safety and power for himself and his sister.
- Queen of Shadows: Lord Rokutaro is implied to have made a dark deal with the entity living in the catacombs under his castle. As revealed during the Battle of Tobe, he sacrificed his family members to the Weaver in exchange for an Immortality Inducer.
- Horseshoes and Hand Grenades has the Serpents imposing deals in order to resurrect the people they want to contract with. For example, Shun, having been killed by Ryusei, makes a contract with Vasuki but he must live till the Earth's destruction, thus never being able to be with the people he loves. Shotaro gains one with Damballa to never be hurt again, but has his body transformed into one of a Creepy Doll and his sanity shattered along with it.
- The Vow plays a variant of this. Ten years following Lord Shen's banishment from Gongmen City, he's approached by Master Oogway who asks Shen to design a way to keep the fallen Kung Fu prodigy Tai Lung restrained. As payment, Oogway tells Shen the location of an abandoned mine rich in metals that are usable in crafting cannons. It's made pretty clear that Oogway considers the entire affair of transacting with the disgraced, ambitious, and mass-murdering noble to be this trope, which Shen — who greatly dislikes Kung Fu masters — notes with satisfaction.
- In Zelda's Honor, this is the underlying reason why Naar and every man in his army is able to revive from the dead moments after they die. Naar made a deal with Barrachas, a Hunger demon of the old world, loyal to Demise. In return for immortality, Barrachas requested Naar to spread the war to Hyrule and other lands to continually find fresh bodies for him to further link together using shards of the Fierce Deity Mask. This accumulation of souls would eventually be used for the revival of Demise.
- "Alloparent" features an unusual variation where the Devil was essentially the "innocent" party in this deal. After a chain of events lead to Lucifer bonding with Trixie Espinoza since a chance meeting when she was two, after Chloe divorces Dan when Trixie was almost abducted Dan signs over his parental rights to Lucifer as he's clearly more interested in being Trixie's father than Dan is. However, when Lucifer and Chloe compare the legal documents they were provided, they realise that not only did Dan and his lawyer (Charlotte Richards) ensure that Chloe was unaware of the change from Dan to Lucifer, but they also manipulated the child payment agreement. While Chloe has been receiving the amount Dan agreed to pay based on his current level of income, Lucifer has been making far larger deposits than that, along with a few million dollars in what was intended to be a trust fund for Trixie's future, only for Dan and Charlotte to steal the excess and run away with it.
- "A Deal with the Devil" is essentially a 'High School AU' where Chloe Decker, after being raped at school and disregarded and disbelieved by virtually everyone else, impulsively performs a ritual that summons Lucifer to make a deal to get revenge on those responsible for her assault. Unlike most examples, Lucifer and Maze (summoned to help him coordinate his efforts) stick to the terms of Chloe's deal and even accept her input in their plans, such as initially infecting Charlotte Richards (here Chloe's main school nemesis) with a skin-rotting disease and then curing the infection as part of a plan to frame Charlotte for Chloe's death. At the fic's conclusion, Chloe is 'promoted' to a level where she is essentially the Queen of Hell after her death, as Lucifer and Maze were both intrigued by her passion and ingenuity.
- Breaking the Deal stresses the dangers of this, highlighting how Spider-Man's deal with Mephisto in One More Day was one of the worst decisions he could have possibly made. No matter what the devil got out of it, he was inevitably going to do awful things with it.
- Mega Man Recut has Dr. Light accepting funding from Senator King, who is in with the Syndicate. He is not aware of this.
- In the Demon Alya AU, Marlena and Otis were unable to have children. They then struck a deal to take the demons Nora and Alya in, treating them as their own daughters; in exchange, they were granted the ability to have kids of their own in Ella and Etta.
- Prince Charming: Adrien makes one with Plagg, the Spirit of Misfortune. Plagg provides Adrien with a cursed ring that will strip Adrien of his blessing of charm and beauty each night, and as a side effect transforms Adrien into a cat-human hybrid. Adrien, in return, must provide Plagg with as much cheese as he wants for the rest of his life.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Bad Future Crusaders: Despite everything that Twilight Sparkle's actions cost her, Sweetie Belle still cut a deal with her new government in order to secure her own position as leader of the Diamond Dogs — gems mined by the Dogs were used to fund the creation of Environment Equestria, who in turn assured that the valley where the Diamond Dogs live always gets the right weather to ensure they can sustain an actual society.
- In the ultimately unfinished Fan Film "Choices" by Duo Cartoonist, a young Celestia (a unicorn at the time) made one with Discord to save her sister from a terminal illness. The terms of the deal are kept a secret by Discord himself, but it's strongly implied that it has something to do with her and Luna becoming Alicorns. Discord even has a pretty kickass Villain Song about it, one that adds some further hints regarding how the deal works...Discord: You want to change what lies ahead
For you dread what you've just seen through the glass
But if you pay the price and you make a deal with me
The day she takes her final breath will never come to pass... - Codex Equus:
- The Children of Ispita, a group of evil deities, inherited the ability to offer such deals from Ispita herself, although Ispita's deals are more effective, as she is more powerful than them. As such, her children often rely on her power to make their own deals stick.
- Ivory Towers summoned and made a pact with the Greed Archdemon Don'yoku, selling him her soul in exchange for power. Helping her conquer Corporatum had another benefit to him as well: he was able to grow stronger by feeding off the massive amounts of greed this created to increase his own strength.
- After running away from home, Princess Witching Hour, then called Cleansing Flames, tried summoning a demon so she could get the power needed to take revenge on her Abusive Parents, feeling she might as well be a sinner if her parents treated her that way. However, the alicorn Winter Opera intervened, and offered to take her in instead.
- After he was blinded saving his classmate from an out-of-control carriage, Crimson Star tried researching ways to restore his sight, including summoning eldritch and demonic forces. However, his research would be swiftly ended by Golden Scepter, which contributed to his spiral into a deep depression, having realized that he's now on the same level as those he had dismissed and wronged. Unfortunately for him, the fact that he tried making a deal with demonic forces in the first place was what factored into his eye injuries becoming permanently untreatable, although it's still debated whether the nether energies present had tainted his eye injuries, or Golden Scepter's intervention had left the state of his son's eyes "incomplete" as the demon was in the middle of performing the transaction.
- Stoltus, the evil god of Pride, Perfection, Potential, and Evil, shows people images of his best potential selves in order to stroke their egos and convince them to take "shortcuts" in order to achieve their predestined greatness — including abandoning their friends, loved ones, and moral restraints. Accepting his offers will lead to eternal damnation, which delights him, but refusing them and becoming great through hard work delights him even more.
- In his mortal life, Night Terror made a deal with Temnobog's eldest son, Yarost, so he could continue murdering young fawns. He ends up being burned alive by the parents of his victims. However, he also made a secret second deal with Yarost's mother, Ispita, so he could escape his punishment and continue his crime spree. Thus, he ended up in the dream world, where he would terrorize innocents and leave no trace behind. This infuriated Yarost when he found out about the deal, and presumably teamed up with Princess Luna and Tenya to find him. Luna and Tenya would confront and defeat Night Terror, which ended with Yarost dragging him off to hell.
- Vermillion Bird made a deal with Abaddon for immortality and power in exchange for acting as his herald. After Abaddon was sealed away, he kept the powers but Abaddon was no longer able to call the shots on him.
- Implied with Dread Knight. No one is sure what exactly happened, only that, when she was finally driven to the Despair Event Horizon by the Equish' abuse and condemnation, her country's betrayal and the King in Heaven's seeming abandonment, she allowed diabolical forces to corrupt and empower her into a vengeful avatar who subsequently caused widespread devastation across Prance, both before she was contained by Shining Lance and after she was released during the Great Wars Era.
- Throughout history, many villainous and shady Deer bargained away their souls to Temnobog in return for some sort of power, which led to the Deer term "Touched by Temnobog". It's actually a bad thing since deriving power from Temnobog is a sign of moral weakness, and he drags their souls down to his hell-realms once they die. The only exceptions are those he explicitly hired to sow constructive Evil (Blood Fang) and those he blessed to be his champions because he was impressed by their moral integrity (King Strazha Svetilo).
- Amoral and even villainous Scholars of the Stars often make bargains with demons in exchange for more knowledge, which they literally equate to power.
- Inverted with Moony Ray Vaughoof; an In-Universe rumor in the Second Age spoke about him being so talented with guitar-playing that the Devil himself sold his soul to him just to learn how to become just as good.
- Contraptionology!: Towards the end, desperation drives Applejack into accepting the Nightmare on the hope that she will have just enough slivers of self-control left with which to stop Discord and save her friends.
- The Best Night Ever: Subverted. After coming so tantalizingly close to success but failing, Blueblood considers releasing Discord from his stone prison just to escape the time loop. However, Blueblood's gone through enough positive character changes by this point that he can't bring himself to do it, and vows to soldier on the right way.
- Diaries of a Madman: Discord forcing Celestia into one with him kickstarts the plot of the story, and he later forces several other characters into such deals to suit his own ends.
- A Dream: The main character Valiant brings himself back from the dead by making a deal with the most beloved entity he could find: Santa Claus. He briefly wishes he had made the deal with The Beatles instead.
- Equestria Divided: Some of the characters bargained with various creatures for power with varying results:
- Applejack traded her eye to a truth spirit that the Thunderhoof shamans conjured up in exchange for True Sight.
- Fluttershy receives visions from whatever made the Everfree Forest the way it is.
- A possible explanation for the Laughing Mare is Pinkie's ghost asking something from the Astral Plane to bring her back to life, and getting screwed over hard.
- Getting Back on Your Hooves:
- The Diamond Dogs agree to help Checker Monarch ruin Trixie's life in exchange for a huge payment of gems. They quickly find out that Checker is somepony they shouldn't have messed with and are horrified by the methods she uses, but can't back out or she'll turn their mine into a parking lot, with them still in it. In the end, they get out of it by helping the Mane Six trick her into an Engineered Public Confession.
- Helping Hoof made one with Checker. He never earned his Cutie Mark and was being hounded by his Abusive Parent Iron Hoof for it. So he agreed to work for Checker in exchange for her helping him fake earning a Cutie Mark and a job. Checker keeps her end of the deal, but Helping Hoof was reduced to little more than her puppet to torture as she pleases. In the end he gets free by finally helping expose her and turning himself in to the guard.
- Inner Demons has a couple of metaphorical examples.
- First off, Rarity outright refers to Trixie willingly agreeing to serve Queen!Twilight in her evil in exchange for power as selling her soul.
- Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo pledging loyalty to Queen!Twilight after she ages them up and gives them their Cutie Marks fits the thematics a little better.
- A Knight To Remember: Dim offers to release the potential of Nuance in exchange for Nuance leaving Quiet alone. Blackbird banishes his avatar before Nuance can respond.
- The MLP Loops: Pinkie Pie offers one of these to Svengallop once he finally pisses her off enough. Applejack immediately leaps in to stop the deal, and states that while Pinkie Pie can deliver, it's a bad idea all around. Sure, he'd get his soul back next loop, and probably no more tarnished than it already was, but it's the principle of the thing. (Pinkie just wanted a spare soul as a chip for the next time she and the Warhammer 40,000 Elder Gods had a poker night.)
- Myths and Birthrights: Leviathan gave Chrysalis a piece of Moloch's (another demon lord) throne to use against Tyr during Twilight's coronation gala so that the demon's plan shall continue unchanged while Chrysalis will also have her revenge against Equestria.
- The Nuptialverse: Chrysalis was once a normal pegasus, until Discord offered her the power of the three pony races in exchange for destroying the Energy of Friendship (the fires that destroyed the Windigos) to allow him to enter Equestria. Notably, Chrysalis thought that he was going to turn her into an alicorn; instead, he decided it would be funnier to make her a changeling.
- Pony POV Series:
- Diamond Tiara agrees to free Discord in exchange for him curing her mother's insanity (though to be fair, she didn't know who she was dealing with until the very end). Surprisingly, Discord actually keeps up his end of the bargain, but it seems that since he swore on His Parents, he didn't have much choice in the matter — and in any case, he managed to completely corrupt Diamond and break her to his will in the process, so he still screwed her over.
- Dark World!Diamond Tiara made one with Discord: to be driven insane and become his first Dragon in exchange for being able to be with her mother. A resurrected Scootaloo takes issue with her because of this: unlike Discord's other minions, she chose to be his minion, but got off easy. To her surprise Diamond agrees with her.
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse:
- Over two thousand years before the story, Grogar made a deal with Tirek; one hundred pony souls in exchange for the secret to becoming a lich. There were complications, such as one of the hundred ponies dying before Grogar could sacrifice everypony in Tambelon, and the little fact that Grogar gave up his soul for the knowledge, which he needed to become a lich in the first place.Tirek: The deal called for one hundred souls, not ninety-nine. I cannot be held for your inability to count.
- It then turns out there's more than one deal going on: Prince Bray of Tambelon brought Grogar to the island so he'd kill Bray's family, letting the guy become king. Grogar neglected to mention his spell would also kill everyone else on the island. And the only reason he kept Bray alive was so that Bray could help him become a lich by killing Grogar in self-defense. Can't become lich by killing yourself, after all.
- In the out-of-continuity Nightmares Yet to Come, it turns out Cloud Kicker managed to get caught up in one of these with the main villain. However, there are some complications. Namely, they had conditions which the devil in question has agreed to keep to, which have also tied their hands in actually resolving the deal, but which the villain also insists on keeping, in repayment for Cloud already fulfilling their part of the bargain.
- Over two thousand years before the story, Grogar made a deal with Tirek; one hundred pony souls in exchange for the secret to becoming a lich. There were complications, such as one of the hundred ponies dying before Grogar could sacrifice everypony in Tambelon, and the little fact that Grogar gave up his soul for the knowledge, which he needed to become a lich in the first place.
- To Serve In Hell: Pegasi who swear fealty to Nightmare Moon are turned into thestrals, her favoured children. For Nightmare Moon's enemies, this is comparable to selling your soul. Rainbow Dash, one of the first thestrals, is deeply self-loathing for what she's done, and neither Nurse Redheart (now doctor Redheart) nor Scootaloo are keen to let her forget.
- Who Is This Lord Tirek You Speak Of?: King Sombra gained his dark powers by sacrificing his blood relatives to Grogar. In the present, he attempts to keep the Mane Six as Sex Slaves so that he can have a steady supply of children to sacrifice and dramatically boost his powers. Later subverted when it is revealed that Grogar has no interest in souls whatsoever. He agreed to the deal because he wanted to empower Sombra so that the tyrant could plunge Equestria into darkness, and, due to things that Sombra was unaware of, Grogar had a loophole in the contract so that he could always do away with Sombra later if he proved ineffective.
- Glass Marionette (Naruto):
- Discussed when Kankuro needs Kabuto's help with reattaching his severed hand. While the latter is still undercover, Kankuro hints that he's well aware that it isn't a good idea owing any kind of favor to him.
- This is why Itachi and Kisame choose to visit Konoha when they do: Itachi had previously bargained with Danzo to spy on Akatsuki for him so long as he kept Sasuke safe. With Danzo breaking the terms by attempting to kidnap Sasuke, Itachi wants to renegociate new terms with the Godaime.
- A Growing Affection: Sasuke gives his body to Orochimaru in exchange for Orochimaru killing Itachi.
- Lay Down Your Burdens has an interesting example when Naruto makes a deal with the Kyuubi. Naruto doesn't want to be a jinchuuriki anymore and Kyuubi doesn't want to be imprisoned in a human, so Kyuubi teaches Naruto enough about seals that he can safely remove his seal and they can go their separate ways.
- (LINK MISSING, please add)In one story, Naruto fears that any child he has within Konoha will suffer the same childhood he had, and is thus strongly against participating in the Clan Restoration Act. The only way to get out of it is if a parent or guardian refuses on his behalf, but since he's an orphan, the closest thing he has to those are the Sandaime Hokage (who is the one strong-arming Naruto) and Kakashi (who praises Naruto for being lucky enough to be with multiple women, and is thus unsympathetic to his plight). Naruto is eventually forced into accepting Danzo as his guardian, who refuses the CRA on his new charge's behalf in exchange for Naruto training under him.
- Read the Fine Print: Shinji signs a contract to trade his soul to Asuka for chocolate, barely paying any attention to the bit regarding the Infernal Administration. Years later, when Shinji finds out he truly sold his soul, both kids are visited by a demoness who confirms the contract is legally binding.
- A Bed of Thorns: Rumpelstiltskin demands Belle's hand in marriage in exchange for saving her fiefdom from ogres.
- This Bites!: B.R.O.B. isn't a devil, but it's still an omnipotent entity with little conscience that only cares about staying entertained. Case in point, it flung Cross into the world of One Piece with only the clothes on his back, well aware that he was now Made of Plasticine in a World of Badass. So from Cross's perspective, it's definitely this when he becomes so desperate that he resorts to making a bargain with B.R.O.B. to save the Going Merry from her canon death. But for how much of a jerk it is, B.R.O.B. seems to take its deals seriously: in exchange for Cross pulling out all the stops to make the invasion of Enies Lobby as entertaining as possible, it gives him just enough guidance to locate exactly what he needs.
- In Pokemon: Shadow of Time, this is speculated as the reason Ghetis has survived everything he's been through so far.
Protectors of the Plot Continuum
- Things I Am Not Allowed to Do at the PPC: Attempting to sell your soul to agent Doom will only annoy him, as the deal won't go through due to him only being half-demon.
- Coeur Al'Aran:
- ARC Corp: Blake makes a deal with a fae anomaly, The Lady in the Lake, wherein Blake gives up her capacity to feel emotions for a week in exchange for the power to kill an anomalous Winter.
- Forged Destiny: This is the Greycloaks' only unifying factor. The only thing their members seem to have in common is a desire to summon Salem and ask for a wish. Merlot asked for the power of the Grimm while Tyrian asked for a fair and just ruler. Neither were given what they truly wanted.
- Relic of the Future: The inciting incident is a twenty-something Jaune making such a deal with a dying Salem after he and his friends have scored a Pyrrhic Victory against her which has left everyone else dead and the whole of Remnant in smoking ruins. Salem, in a last-ditch effort to save herself, uses a powerful spell to send Jaune back in time which Jaune agrees to: Jaune is banking on changing things for the better to retroactively save his friends' lives and achieve a victory where the cost of killing Salem isn't so high for the rest of Remnant, whereas Salem is banking on Jaune causing ripple-effects that'll be beyond his ability to control in the last-ditch hope that they'll give her past self a chance to secure her own victory instead.
- Sonic X: Dark Chaos has quite a few from Lord Maledict;
- Tsali vowed to serve and follow Maledict if he would help the fox get revenge on the Seedrians. The Devil promptly turned him into a Demon Lord and revived him in exchange for eternal servitude. Also, Venus ritually sacrificed several of her fellow Seedrians to Maledict for the power to protect her people from Tsali. He answered, although not in the way she expected.
- The rewrite implies that Dr. Eggman made one with Maledict as well, after Maria and Gerald Robotnik were killed by GUN. Eggman wanted to get revenge on humanity for destroying his family; Satan gave him a genius-level IQ and affinity towards machines, in exchange for commanding him to hunt down the Chaos Emeralds and helping to conquer the universe.
- The Count's World: Dimentio strikes one with a shady Shaman in "Springtime for Dimentio," transforming him into a Boo (so he could court Lady Bow) in exchange for his voice.
- In The Corrupted Innocent, Bela and Deanna are able to make a 'deal' with Crowley where he returns the Colt to them and all they have to do in turn is do just enough damage to him that he can claim he was forced to give it up (while taking care to ensure that they couldn't just kill him and take it that way).
- In Death Becomes Him, when Dean makes a deal to bring Sam back, the demon only brings Sam 'back' in the sense that Sam is walking and talking while leaving him physically dead. With Sam's body still suffering from decomposition and other issues, eventually the only solution is for Bobby to make another deal, trading his own soul and the now-useless Colt in return for Dean being freed from his deal and Sam being restored to full health.
- In Five Times Azazel's Plan Couldn't Work, after a chain of events lead to Crowley learning about Azazel's deals back in 1972, he makes a different deal with Liddy Walsh, one of Azazel's intended targets. In return for curing her father of cancer, rather than the usual ten years before she would go to Hell, Crowley just asks to possess her for a short time so that he can trap Azazel for breaking the rules, although he notes to himself that the experience will leave Liddy with nightmares for the rest of her life.
- In It's All in the Details, the Winchesters spend the first few chapters believing that 'Cas' is a demon or a pagan god that made a deal with Dean to save Sam's life. Later, the Winchesters and their allies form a tentative 'alliance' with Crowley; they don't make an explicit deal with him, but they agree to support his plans to make himself the King of Hell as they recognise that he's the better candidate than any of Lucifer's followers.
- In Objective, Ivan, to keep two of Bellisair's goons and Bellisair himself safe, makes a deal with Lunatic to work with him and the other heroes in capturing Luthor Bellisair and keep him alive so they can make him undo the brainwashing he put on Kotetsu. In exchange, Lunatic will have one shoot to kill Bellisair without the heroes interfering after they captured him and make him "atone" for his sins. Of course, that doesn't stop Lunatic from torturing Bellisair to get the information on his NEXT power and any clues on how to free Kotetsu from his objective.
- The Heart Trilogy:
- In Heart of Fire, Sauron tries to make one with Smaug; gain gold and glory by serving the Dark Lord as the unstoppable beast of war. Not wanting to serve anyone, Smaug turns Sauron down, prompting the latter to send Bolg to capture Smaug's soulmate Kathryn, intending to use the Seer as a bargaining chip.
- The last third part of Heart of Ashes has two examples.
- After Kathryn abandons Smaug (who has lost Erebor and Thrór's treasure) for hurting her one too many times, Sauron (who's been driven away from Dol Guldur) contacts the furious dragon and offers his help in retaking Kathryn and Erebor in exchange for swearing allegiance to the Dark Lord. Smaug accepts this time and attacks Vathvael to take Kathryn back, with Sauron's taint controlling him with varying decrees of success until Gandalf contains the taint.
- In order to get back at Smaug for killing her daughter Freyja, Andraya hands Kathryn over to Fankil who gives the witch spells for resurrecting Freyja. All this despite knowing that the demon needs Kathryn to release his father Morgoth from the void.
- In Keepers of the Elements, Courtney makes one of these with Radcliffe in exchange for powers of her own so she can get revenge on most of the Keepers, but Gwen in particular.
- In Turning Red: Secrets of the Panda, Jason's ancestors are revealed to have made a deal with a demon in order to take down Sun Yee.
- The Land of What Might-Have-Been;
- It could be argued that the Elphaba who became the Empress did this when she agreed to the surgery that would make her beautiful to earn "forgiveness" from the citizens of Oz.
- Later, Elphaba has to basically make one with the 'Agglomeration' of the essences of the alternate versions of Roquat the Red, allowing this combined essence to reside in the back of her mind as it guides her back to the Deviant Nations through a complex network of portals.
- The Shattering of Oz;
- The Nome King convinces Glinda to work on translating the Grimmerie for him by promising to send her back in time to her first visit to the Emerald City, where she can join Elphaba's rebellion against the Wizard.
- Chapter 26 sees the King do it again, this time with Elphaba, offering her a chance to restart her life without green skin, even showing her a few memories of her alternate self to help persuade her. Elphaba refuses... because she doesn't think she deserves it.
- In Ripples, this happens a couple of times:
- Will/Van first makes contact with A'lek'hol'an during a near-death experience. He offers to save her and give her enhanced magical powers, in exchange for her becoming his avatar. Not having much of a choice, she accepts.
- Phobos later frees Tracker from his imprisonment and offers him a job hunting rebels. The undead hunter agrees, but does not actively submit to Phobos' control.
- I Woke Up As a Dungeon, Now What?: Warlocks are humans who make a contract with a dungeon, killing people and feeding their corpses to the dungeon in exchange for immortality, unlimited magical reserves, and the service of the dungeon's minions.
- In Being Dead Ain't Easy, Yami Bakura says he'll help save Joey if he gets the Millennium Puzzle in return. Joey adamantly refuses, so Yami Bakura makes an offer to Seto Kaiba instead—Joey's life for KaibaCorp. By the end of the story, Be Careful What You Wish For is in full effect... for Yami Bakura. The whole plot was kicked off by a disgruntled former employee repeatedly trying to assassinate Kaiba, cumulating in Kaiba heavily injured and the assassin dead. Even though Yami Bakura wasn't responsible, the former CEO dragging himself to HQ (where the assassin's dead body is still cooling) to sign over the company and immediately being driven to the hospital makes Bakura look incredibly guilty. Conviction by public opinion aside, normal Bakura has no idea what's going on and neither of them know how to run a company. Yami Bakura decides it's more trouble than it's worth and returns the company.
