Mai leaned back as she watched Crowler surrender the match on-screen, giving Rebecca the victory. "I'll give the kid some credit: that was one vicious combo. Still, I hope for her sake she has something else up her sleeve, or she won't make it much further in this tournament."

Joey shot her a questioning glance in response. "What do you mean, she won't make it much farther with that? I'm not so sure either of us would do so well if we got caught in that combo. After all, you do realize Harpie's Feather Duster is banned now, right? I seem to remember that being your only real way to clear out spells and traps."

Mai just glared back at him. "You can cut out the weakling act, hon. I watched the video from the last Japanese national championship. I know you wouldn't have to worry about that combo, because you can deal out effect damage faster than Rebecca would be able to recover her life points. Although since I do know that about your deck, I suppose in the interest of fairness I should give you a hint about mine: I don't even need a Feather Duster for my Harpies to eat up my opponent's spells and traps."

Joey rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well, can't blame a guy for trying. It's been so long since I've seen you duel that I had to try something to see if I could get a little advantage. Nothing personal—sort of like how you never told me you had Dark Sage in your deck back in Duelist Kingdom, right, Yugi?"

Yugi had mostly recovered from Mai grilling him for details about Téa, but he still shot his best friend a glare for dragging him back out onto some coals. "Oh, ha ha. I believe you more than made up for that when you stole what was at the time my Red Eyes, then used Inferno Fire Blast on me and finished it off by making my Dark Magician attack me directly with Roulette Spider."

Mai quirked her eyebrow at this, so Joey gave her the brief version. "Remember in Battle City how I didn't have my Red Eyes? I had to beat the Pharaoh to get it back. Took me six tries, but I got it in the end."

The friendly bickering was briefly interrupted by the reappearance of the duelists' faces on the screen, with Rebecca grayed out and Crowler blacked out to eliminate them from this random drawing. However, the next matchup still included one familiar face, and this time it was Mokuba's voice that announced the matchup.

"Looks like the second match will feature me, the reigning American Pacific Regional champion against John Sheppard, the reigning Himalayan Regional champion. Mr. Sheppard, if you could please report to the dueling stage."

The bald man with the goatee walked past their group, and Yugi couldn't help but hear him mutter "Perfect…" as he swapped some cards into his deck. He wondered what that was all about, but considering everyone here had passed Rebecca's background checks, he supposed it couldn't be too sinister. And if it had been something more on the magical side that likely wouldn't show up in a background check—well, he supposed he couldn't rule that out, but even when Diva had proven magic wasn't completely out of the picture after Atem left, Yugi had at least noticed something was strange with the supposedly normal Aigami. Yugi wasn't getting any of those sorts of vibes since he had ended his duel with Mokuba, so whatever Sheppard was muttering about must have been more along the lines of mundane tournament intrigue than anything of a mystical persuasion.

Still, Yugi found his eyes tracking Sheppard's progress across the room until Mai's surprisingly timid voice grabbed his attention. "Joey… you don't think we'll end up dueling each other right away, do you?" Yugi clearly wasn't the only one that had noticed her tone, as Joey had taken on the serious expression he usually only wore when someone close to him had their life, soul, or major medical operation on the line.

"Mai, what's wrong? I've seen you go through many things, but I've never heard you scared before. I don't know if I can help, but can I at least listen?" Mai seemed to fight with herself for a little bit before sighing and continuing.

"This is probably stupid, but I can't help but worrying that when I'm out there dueling you, I'll just keep having flashbacks to the last time we dueled. I know this tournament doesn't have any stakes, but I'm not sure I'll be able to go through a duel without seeing you collapse inside the Seal."

Joey clenched his fist, but as this wasn't a problem he could punch into submission he had to fall back to his second instinct. "Mai, I want you to promise me two things. First, no matter how difficult it is, I want you to go out and face this. You don't have to beat it right away, but fighting it is the only way to get through. Remember when I said it took six tries to beat the Pharaoh? The first two didn't really count, because every time I knocked down his life points I saw that anchor at Battle City dragging Yugi down into the ocean."

"Yeah, but that was because of Marik, and need I remind you that you kicked him out of your head and saved Yugi. I chose to join Dartz, and then I succeeded in taking your soul before I snapped out of it. And don't blame it on manipulation, because I have to live up to the choices I made."

Yugi could tell Joey didn't agree with Mai, but he wisely chose to stay silent on that matter and moved on. "Anyway, the second thing I wanted you to promise me is that you'll talk with Téa after this tournament. She has a gift for helping people through stuff like this—or at least, she really helped me get my head on straight after my first two duels with the Pharaoh and I know she also helped Yugi after the Pharaoh almost knocked Kaiba off of Pegasus's castle."

Mai's eyes went wide. "Wait, is that why you were struggling so much in your duel with me? I can't remember what I said to you, but I'm sorry for being so rude to you—especially knowing what you went through right before that." Yugi shook his head in response.

"I needed to hear it. It was the push I needed to stop trying to shut Atem—the Pharaoh—out. Though Joey's right about Téa. If she hadn't been willing to duel you for me, I don't know if I could have even made it to the point where I was dueling you. She just has a way of helping you find the best in yourself, even if you can't see it yourself."

Mai took one look at the look on Yugi's face as he talked about Téa and couldn't find the heart to bring him down by teasing him about it. Even if she had wanted to, however, she would have lost the opportunity as Rebecca came running up to the table and somehow managed to gracefully slide into her seat without slowing down.

"Oh, great. Made it in time. I was worried I'd miss all of Mokuba's duel before I could get here." Considering the television screens were just showing Sheppard stepping out of the elevator, Joey couldn't help his confusion. "What do you mean, you'd miss the duel? You must have gotten off of the elevator once Sheppard got on, and it doesn't take that long to walk down a hallway."

Rebecca scoffed at Joey once again. "Seriously, do you do any research at all into your competition? I know this is basically an exhibition match, but I'm not sure how you got to be the favorite to win the Japanese title with that kind of lax attitude."

Yugi cut off his younger friend. "To be fair to Joey, it's not like I religiously poured over the decks of my opponents before dueling them anyway. I mean, Pegasus only used his Toon deck once against Kaiba before I dueled him, Marik kept pulling out new effects from the Winged Dragon of Ra and seemed to switch up his deck to fit whatever Shadow Game he wanted to create, and Dartz used a deck that with the exception of the Seal of Orichalcos was made of cards I had never seen before."

He then turned back to Joey. "She does have a point though. I've dueled against Mokuba a few times as part of my work with Kaiba Corp, and his deck is built to end duels quickly. Unless he's taking the first turn of a duel, any turn of his could be enough to take all of his opponent's life points."

At this, Rebecca shot a smug glance towards Joey. "See, it pays to know these things. One thing Yugi probably doesn't know, though, is that Sheppard practically uses the same deck. Since either of them could wipe out the other in one turn, it wouldn't surprise me if this duel ended within the first couple of turns."

Rebecca wasn't the only one who was excited for the upcoming matchup. As Mokuba shook hands with his opponent, he couldn't help but share his enthusiasm. "This is going to be great. I haven't run across anybody else who uses Cyber Dragons before now, and I'm interested in seeing how my variation on the deck compares to yours."

Sheppard frowned at Mokuba's excitement. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you on multiple fronts. I no longer have Cyber Dragons in my deck- I've passed them on to my protégé Zane, who's a little bit younger than you are now. However, the fact that you are using Cyber Dragons at all is posing a huge problem—and I don't like having to be the person to try and rectify that situation."

Mokuba hardened his face into the trademark Kaiba glare he had been forced to perfect in his brother's absence. "I'd be careful if I were you. That almost sounded like a threat. You'll find that I don't take threats to things I care about lightly."

Sheppard seemed to be cowed by the hostility. "I don't mean it to be that way at all—though my hands are somewhat tied. Still, if you count the cards as something you care about, we might be able to take the easier path here—"

Whatever Sheppard was about to say was interrupted by the tournament announcer loudly clearing his throat. This was enough to both duelists' attention to the fact they were currently standing in the middle of a large crowd expecting them to duel, not converse. The older duelist shook his head as he started walking to his position, but called over his shoulder, "Look, I realize a duel isn't the best place to have a conversation. Still, I'm going to try to explain myself, and can you at least promise to talk with me after the tournament when we'll have more time?"

Mokuba briefly thought back to the duels of a couple years ago, where things like his brother's duel against Yugi at Battle City or the tag duel against Dartz seemed to last for hours with all the exchanged banter, card-explaining, and ancient destiny monologues. It seemed this duel might be going down a similar path. However, his curiosity was sufficiently piqued for him to respond to Sheppard with a nod—and then realizing the older man wasn't facing him, a quick "I'll talk with you when this tournament finishes."

With the pre-duel conversation cut short, Mokuba drew his opening hand, which consisted of Cyber Valley, Evolution Burst, Polymerization, and two Cyber Dragons. Sheppard likewise investigated his opening hand before addressing his opponent. "Well, since I will need to be the one doing the most talking, how about I go first?"

Mokuba's eyes narrowed, but he nodded his agreement. Thanks to the effect of Cyber Dragon, most of his deck's plays went off even easier if his opponent had a monster while he didn't—which was why Mokuba preferred to take the second turn in his duels. However, since Sheppard had played Cyber Dragons of his own, that meant Sheppard knew full well what he was getting into and likely had a hand that would let him counter that advantage.

Sheppard drew his first card and started his explanation. "The reason you've put me in a tough spot is Cyber Dragons are only supposed to be used by members of our order. They are the sacred guardians of our temple, and having an outsider use them is seen by some as an act of heresy. So, I was sent to rectify this situation by making sure you took one of two paths."

He set one spell or trap face down. "First, I could defeat you, and force you to stop using the Cyber Dragons so they are no longer outside of our control." Setting another card in his back row, he continued, "The second option involves you joining our order, and thus no longer being an outsider. While this is preferable to the first, I know you can't afford to leave everything behind to spend months to years in the mountains of Nepal, so following that logic, I have no choice but to follow the first path."

Having stated this, he then smiled at Mokuba as he set a third card. "Of course, if there's one thing I look forward to in my students, it's the ability to be flexible. If you are faced with two impossible paths, carve your own third path. Find a way to be part of our society without being a full-time member. Convince me that you are worthy of the honor and be ready to convince all others who would challenge you."

He ended his speech by setting a monster in defense mode and ended his turn, leaving Mokuba a little wrong-footed at the change in demeanor. However, one did not get to be the head of Kaiba Corporation by getting shaken that easily, and Mokuba quickly recovered with a smirk of his own as he drew Magnet Reverse. Immediately after drawing the card, however, Sheppard interrupted him.

"I activate my trap, Cyber Summon Blaster!" The first card he had set flipped up, bringing forth a tank with a giant radar dish on top of it. "This card inflicts 300 damage to my opponent whenever a Machine monster is Special Summoned. It's quite the weapon in a Cyber Dragon deck—but more importantly, just as effective of a weapon against a Cyber Dragon deck."

Having such a card sprung against him before he could make his first move was a little bit disappointing, but ultimately the card wasn't as effective as it sounded. "You do realize most players would gladly pay 300 life points to be able to Special Summon their deck's central monster from their hand, right? It may no longer be free, but I'll gladly pay such a small price to be able to summon my Cyber Dragon!"

The serpentine dragon burst out of the ground with a crackle of blue energy, snarling at Sheppard. Mokuba expected to hear the whine as Sheppard's blaster prepared to fire, but what he hadn't expected was for the leftover blue energy radiating from Cyber Dragon to suddenly gather on Sheppard's side of the field. The egg-shaped mass only lasted for a second before it violently burst open revealing a mechanical tyrannosaurus, which let out a deafening roar that served to silence Mokuba's dragon.

"You may not have worried about the trap on the field, but you should have worried about the trap in my hand. I can Special Summon my Cyber Dinosaur from my hand whenever you Special Summon a monster from your hand—and my monster is 400 points stronger than your dragon. Of course, since two Machine monsters were just Special Summoned, my Blaster gets to inflict damage twice."

The appearance of Sheppard's monster took Mokuba by enough surprise that he had forgotten about the charging blaster, but Sheppard's words gave him just enough warning to brace himself as the radar dish unleashed two blasts of lightning, bringing him down to 7400 life points. So far this hadn't been the best of starts for the young Kaiba, but luckily he still had the cards he needed to turn this around.

"My dragon may be outmatched now, but that won't last for long. I activate my spell card Evolution Burst, which lets me destroy any one of your cards at the cost of my Cyber Dragon being unable to attack this turn. Cyber Dragon, destroy his facedown card on the far right!"

The Cyber Dragon hissed and spat out an arc of blue lightning which vaporized the facedown trap, which turned out to have been Cyber Shadow Gardna. Still, Sheppard seemed confused at Mokuba's tactic. "So, you had the opportunity to destroy my Dinosaur, but instead you went after one of my facedown cards. What are you planning?"

Mokuba just smirked back. "I'll show you, but first, how about you listen to one of my questions? You say that the Cyber Dragons are the sacred guardians of your temple. I mean no offense by this question, but why? They aren't based on any spirits or deities that I'm aware of, which means these cards only have as much meaning as you would give to them. I know exactly why they are important to me, but why are they important to you?"

Sheppard's gaze hardened as he responded. "Honestly, I haven't seen enough about you yet to know if deserve to hear our story. It's rather rude to ask such a personal question without being willing to share your own reasons as well."

Mokuba took a deep breath as he prepared his response. The particular pull he felt towards the Cyber Dragons wasn't something he could fully explain. Once he had held the cards, he knew they would be the ones he would build his deck around, but he wasn't quite sure why. Of course, he wasn't sure if he'd ever learn the full reason—after all, Yugi wouldn't have known his connection to the Dark Magician was due to the spirit of the Dark Magician swearing eternal loyalty to his past life if he hadn't gotten the chance to find that past life's memories. And Seto had been quite vehement that his attachment to the Blue Eyes White Dragon had nothing to do with the fact a high priest who looked much like him had a complicated relationship with a woman who had housed the dragon's spirit—though the fact that he had provided this much detail when Mokuba had broached past lives indicated it was quite often on his mind.

Not being able to explain the full reason why he used the cards, Mokuba decided to share the reason he had sought out the cards in the first place. "It all goes back to when my brother disappeared. Back then, when people heard the name Kaiba, they thought of two things: our company and my brother's Blue Eyes White Dragons. I was suddenly in charge of the company, and I wanted to provide just as strong of a presence on the dueling field. Then I saw the Cyber Dragons and they just reminded me too much of the Blue Eyes—with being Light attribute dragons that could fuse into a three-headed version of themselves."

"As I looked into it more, I realized that viewing the Cyber Dragons as successors to Blue Eyes gave me even more to strive for. The Cyber Dragons were weaker than their predecessors, but their abilities gave them the potential to do new things—like this! I activate Polymerization to fuse the Cyber Dragon on the field with the Cyber Dragon in my hand to summon Cyber Twin Dragon!"

The second Cyber Dragon coiled around the first, and blue arcs of electricity jumped between the two eventually welding them into a single body with 2800 attack points—and the ability to attack twice each turn. Mokuba didn't even bother watching the fusion finish as he finished his story. "These cards serve to constantly remind me that I can achieve great things even if a part of me will always be in my brother's shadow. They are the goal I strive towards!"

Mokuba hadn't realized how emotional his speech had gotten until he was suddenly forced to stop talking when another blast of electricity from Sheppard's trap hit him and knocked him down to 7100 life points. The minor shock was enough to get him back in the game, though his opponent was just shaking his head at him.

"After that, I almost feel bad for the move I just pulled. You might want to take a closer look at Cyber Twin Dragon." Mokuba glanced at his monster and didn't see what Sheppard was talking about- until he noticed an orange band nearly hidden away at each of the joints connecting two segments of the dragon's body. The bands seemed to grow in size until Mokuba was able to make out that they were made out of flames before his monster was forcibly dragged over to Sheppard's side of the field.

"By Fusion Summoning a monster, you allowed me to activate my Chthonian Polymer trap card. I had to sacrifice my face-down Cyber Phoenix to do so, but that's a small price to pay to take control of your monster."

Mokuba couldn't help but wonder how things had gotten so far out of his control. Every time he summoned something, Sheppard had either used it as an opportunity to summon something stronger, or simply taken control of the monster he had just summoned. To top it all off, he had taken damage every move he made. The only saving grace was he still had one move left—and hopefully it would be able to protect him from the 8100 damage he would otherwise take next turn.

"I still haven't Normal Summoned anything this turn, so I'll summon my Cyber Valley in attack mode to end my turn." The smaller variant of a Cyber Dragon appeared on the field, though this monster looked more like an organic snake covered in armor instead of a fully mechanical creature. Statistically this monster was much weaker than any other Cyber Dragon variant with zero attack or defense points, but it made up for that shortcoming by having a variety of useful effects.

Sheppard sighed as he drew his next card. "I guess it's only fair to explain why our order uses Cyber Dragons, since you explained your reason. Or at least, the short version. Around 15 years ago in Tibet, an avalanche threatened to destroy a small village. However, the snow seemed to part around the village, saving everyone. One of the novice monks in the area at the time swore he saw a metal dragon attack the snowpack to change the flow. The rest of the village was quickly convinced that he had hallucinated the whole thing, and when he refused to change his story the monk was treated as if he were insane."

Sheppard set the card he had drawn into his spell and trap zone as he continued. "Over the course of the next 13 years, his continued insistence became something of a joke to the locals—and any of the artwork he created trying to honor the guardian spirits he saw ended up just being sold to tourists as a local curiosity. Then that all changed one fateful week, due to two unrelated events.

First, I arrived in the village to visit a friend who had moved there. Ultimately this wasn't the important thing, but what was important was Industrial Illusions had just released the first Cyber Dragon cards, and I happened to have one of them in my deck. I thought it was an interesting coincidence when I saw sculptures based on the card, but later that week the village came under attack by monsters in armor.

Of course, later on, we realized this wasn't something that limited to our particular location, and we had just gotten involved in a global outbreak of the monsters. We were about to get slaughtered—until multiple real life Cyber Dragons appeared and started fighting back. This saved the life of three quarters of the village, though the monsters faded away after the attack. In honor of the spirits that saved our life, and in remembrance of those who died there, we wanted to gather all the Cyber Dragon cards in the world in order to teach people how to use them properly."

Sheppard looked prepared to continue, but one of the members of the crowd took this moment to shout out, "Get on with the duel!" Realizing his short version hadn't been that short, he rubbed the back of his neck. "Like I said, I can give you more details later. Now, I know this ultimately won't work, but I can't just let you choose to use Cyber Valley's other effects, so I'm going to have to attack it. Cyber Dinosaur, Cretaceous Charge!"

The tyrannosaur cloaked its body in electricity and started to run towards Cyber Valley, though it didn't make it more then a single step before Mokuba's monster exploded. This seemed to let out an electromagnetic pulse that deactivated all the other monsters on the field. Mokuba blinked in surprise before drawing the card offered by Cyber Valley's effect, and with the effect resolved the monsters reactivated as Sheppard's Main Phase 2 began. Mokuba couldn't help but chuckle at his opponent. "Remind me to give out a bonus after this is over. Somebody really worked to overhaul that effect if all the monsters on the field were Machine type."

Sheppard couldn't help but smile back at his opponent as he ended his turn. Mokuba took a deep breath as he prepared to draw. The Magnet Reverse and Magnet Force in his hand weren't enough to help him right now, but the former would let him make a brilliant comeback if he drew the right card. Of course, even if he wasn't able to work well with his deck, he knew the odds were still in his favor. For the play he wanted to make, he could draw any one of eleven cards in his deck. He drew his next card and smirked at his opponent. "I summon—"

Sheppard quickly interrupted him. "Since you are starting your Main Phase, I activate my Cyber Shadow Gardna trap card!" The trap card summoned itself as a monster, looking like a black mechanical angel, though Mokuba knew it would be able to shapeshift into whatever monster it battled. Sheppard just kept grinning. "By my trap's effect, it is Special Summoned as a Machine type monster, which means my Blaster activates. And since this trap can keep setting itself unless you sacrifice a monster attacking it or use an effect, you might need to get used to this happening over and over again."

The radar dish blasted Mokuba again, but he didn't particularly care about the fact that his life points went down to 6800. He had been worried about Sheppard's facedown card considering how well the man had countered every move so far, but now that he knew what it was he had gone from turning the duel around this turn to outright winning it this turn. "I'll admit, it's been fun dueling you, but it's time for that to end. As I was saying before you activated your trap, I summon my Cyber Dragon Zwei to the field!"

The new monster more closely resembled Cyber Dragon than Cyber Valley had, only having a more triangular head and slightly smaller size as the noticeable differences. "As I'm sure you know, my newest monster can change its name to Cyber Dragon as long as I reveal a Spell card in my hand to you. So, I'll show you my Magnet Reverse to activate that effect!" In a blue flash, Cyber Dragon Zwei's head changed shape to match the original dragon, though Sheppard wasn't clear what the point of all of this was.

Mokuba couldn't help the victorious grin that came to his face. "Confused? Don't worry, it won't last for long. I just needed a Cyber Dragon on the field in order to summon this monster from my Extra Deck." Sheppard continued to stare.

"How? Since one of the cards in your hand is Magnet Reverse, and you only have one other card, you can't have something in your hand to both give you more materials for the fusion and a card that will let you actually fuse them."

"Simple. I happen to have a monster that can summon itself without Polymerization. And while I may not have all the needed materials, you certainly do. I'll send Cyber Dragon Zwei, Cyber Twin Dragon, Cyber Dinosaur, and Cyber Shadow Gardna to the Graveyard in order to Special Summon my Chimeratech Fortress Dragon!"

Cyber Dragon Zwei started emitting sparks and arcs of lightning as it overloaded its internal circuitry to create a giant electromagnetic field. The pull of this field soon proved to be too much for all of the Machine monsters on Sheppard's field, who though they tried to resist the pull only ended up being broken down into parts for their trouble. The parts soon welded themselves together in the form of a giant dragon with multiple hatches along its body—three of which opened up to reveal the heads of the draconic monsters used to summon the behemoth.

Mokuba had expected Sheppard to be surprised or a little upset that his three monsters had just been taken from him to create a 4000-attack point behemoth, but he hadn't expected the look of terror that crossed the older man's face. "You would go so far as to use a Chimeratech monster in a friendly duel? While I am not familiar with the Fortress Dragon, we have a deck that uses two other Chimeratech monsters. We were forced to seal it away because everyone who summoned one suddenly developed heart problems."

This news quickly robbed Mokuba of any of the thrill of victory—much more so than the easily ignored 300 points of damage he took from Cyber Summon Blaster. It might have seemed crazy on the surface that a simple trading card could cause heart problems, but Mokuba had seen first hand what the Seal of Orichalcos or a fake Winged Dragon of Ra could do.

"Okay, I'm definitely going to need to examine those cards after this tournament. I haven't had any problems with using Fortress Dragon before, but it's my duty to make sure it's safe to enjoy the game. Maybe it's a different card in the deck that's the problem, so I'll have to examine the whole thing. Now, how about we finish this duel? I'll activate the Magnet Reverse I showed you earlier, letting me summon one Machine monster from my Graveyard that can't be Normal Summoned. Since it's impossible to Normal Summon a fusion monster, that makes my Cyber Twin Dragon the perfect target."

The two-headed dragon returned to Mokuba's field, letting Sheppard's trap once again inflict 300 damage to Mokuba. Still, it was pointless as the duel was effectively over. "Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, Evolution Result Artillery!" All four heads on the giant monster blasted Sheppard with a sonic wave, taking away half of his life points. As soon as he straightened up from the aftereffects of the damage, Mokuba called his last move. "Now, Cyber Twin Dragon, attack him directly twice! Evolution Twin Burst!"

The dragon's left head let out a burst of orange plasma that knocked Sheppard's life points down to 1200. The right head immediately followed this up with an attack of its own, knocking Sheppard down to 0. Mokuba didn't even bother waiting for the counter to finish decreasing as he started walking across the field to shake the older man's hand. The crowd seemed shocked at such a quick conclusion to the duel, but they burst into cheers as the announcer called out, "And in a shocking turnaround, Mokuba Kaiba advances by taking all of his opponent's life points in a single turn!"