Chapter 3- the duels..

As they got off the Ship, Clare said goodbye to her sister, and joined the others.

"Clare! Why the hell did you do that?" Sam yelled.

"Do what? I wanted to catch up with my sister." Clare smiled.

"You could've let me stay too. I like Mai." Sam said.

"Sorry." Clare said to her.

"Yea right." Sam said annoyed, but than Fabian came up from behind them.

"Why didn't Pegasus take you? It would be so much easier." Clare said to him.

"Because I decided to be in the tournament. Besides, it might give me chances to a... you know..." he said with his usual sly voice.

Miercoln took over and slapped him. "Go away Fabian." She said.

"Ah, Miercoln, just the girl I wanted to talk to..." he said, as he grabbed her by the arm, and took her away from the others.

"Clare!" Sam said as she went to run after her.

"Tell her to go away or I'll tell them that you aren't just a personality." Fabian whispered coldly into Miercoln's ear.

Miercoln was shocked, and she did what he asked. "I'll be fine, this'll only take a minute. Sam." Then she turned to him. "How the bloody hell did you find out!" she said angrily.

"I overheard you and Yami Bakura talking. Now, what does this have to do with my brother?"

"That is none of your business. You better leave this alone, or I'll..."

"You'll what? You'll beat me in a duel? You've already done that sweetie." He replied with a grin. Miercoln really did not like this grinning he always does, so she kicked him somewhere... very hard.

"Leave Clare alone, and if you dare to tell anyone about this, you will never be able to have children for as long as you live. Is that clear?" Miercoln said as she walked away leaving Fabian in a lot of pain. When she got back to the gang, she let Clare take over again.

"OK, what happened... she took over again didn't she? Where's the jerk now?" Clare said.

"I don't know, he took Miercoln over there, and he didn't return." Sam said pointing to the forest. "Alright than, let's go to hear what Pegasus has to say, and than run through to the forest to meet with Weevil sooner."

"Good Idea." Clare said.

As they went up the steps, not just Tea, but also Clare saw Bakura. Bakura seemed to stare right at Clare, Clare remembered the meeting with him the night before, but just remembered up to when Miercoln took over for some bizarre reason... now she remembered! He touched his ring with her arm band, and she changed. What did this have to do with her other personality? She didn't know, but she wanted to find out soon.

Finally the fireworks went off, and it was time for Yugi and Weevil's duel. Since Yugi still had his two, he decided to wager both of his star chips, so whoever lost would get off the island. Sam and Clare watched on un-phased, and knowing that Yugi was winning the duel anyway. When Mai came in, she glomped Clare yet again. Than Clare just realized that this was just like a situation in Psychic Academy. You see, Zero, a very powerful person likes to embarrass his little brother Ai, who also has a powerful aura. It seems like all the laughing that Clare did while reading it, was coming back to bite her, because Mai was her Zero...

Anyway, than Joey was ready to duel Mai. Clare and Sam rooted him on the entire time, and he figured out the aroma strategy earlier than he did in the show, allowing the duel to end quicker as well. Mai got mad at Clare, but she told her not to worry about it, and also that she's rooting for Joey because of the fact that she loves the way he cares so much about his sister.

In order to get more star chips, Sam, Clare, and Raen decide to go against people. Sam wanted to be the first to duel, so she found A.J.

"OH my GOD!!!!" Alex, who snuck on the ship with Tea and Tristan exclaimed when she saw him. She decided to go and glomp him, making him VERY happy.

"Oh god..." Sam said grinning. "That's it... I'm dueling you A.J."

A.J. looked at her in amazement. "You?"

"Yea, me!" she said.

A.J. had four star chips, and she wagered her one, but told A.J. to wager two. As the duel went on, Alex rooted for A.J., and the rest rooted for Sam. Sam won, and Alex decided to go with him instead of the gang.

"Good riddance. My Mokuba was too annoying." Clare said.

"You're Mokuba? What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"Never mind. Let's just go on and... Luis!" Clare said as she saw an old friend from her history class.

"Hey Clare, looks like you're hanging out with the famous gang huh?" he said. "Look at me! I got five star-chips already."

"Well, I kinda only have two at the moment, but I wanna duel you."

"You, duel me? The guy who beat you MANY times in school?" Luis boasted.

"I'm not the same girl Luis." She said suddenly turning into Miercoln. " I've changed a lot."

"What are you imitating Bakura?" he joked. "You still have all those different decks?"

"Yep." Miercoln said.

"Alright, than I'll use one of them. The spell caster one." He grinned at Yugi. "Who knows, maybe the Dark Magician will get you disqualified."

"I think not." She said smiling back at him. "This will be their rules, with 2000 life points to start with, and no cards are illegal. Also, I wager my two, and I expect you to do the same."

"Alright, then lets duel shall we?" Luis said as the dueling arena came up. There was about 10 of each kind of terrain on the field, because of the mixture of all the cards.

"I'll go first..." she said drawing a card. "Perfect hand! First, I'll put down my favorite dragon, because I don't have to worry about sacrificing any monsters for it." She said as she took out her Blue Eyes White Dragon. "Beat that Luis."

"Damn it, and we're going by their rules too..."

"I'm not going to attack just yet, because I wanna try to see you defeat this with something. But until than, I'm putting this face down."

"Ok, well, I'm using White Magician Pikeru, and Rapid-Fire Magician. Than I'm gonna use the spell card Mystic Box., and destroy you're Blue Eyes, and shift control of the white..."

"Do you really have to tell me every move? Just do it, and get it over with." Miercoln said annoyed.

"Fine. I destroy the White Magician on your side, and than give you direct damage of 400 points since I used a spell card." Luis said.

"Damn., well, it's my turn..." she said drawing a card, only having 1200 life points left.

"Well, I'm just going to have to use Tribe-infecting virus. After I discard one card from my hand, I can destroy you're Rapid thing with just declaring spell caster."

"What..." Luis said dumbfounded,

"Now, I'm impatient, and I want to win this, so I use Monster Reborn to resurrect my Blue Eyes." She said smiling.

"I'm done for..."

"Now, I'm attacking with my Blue Eyes... directly that is... and now, please hand over the star chips." She said grinning.

"You did get good." Luis said handing over two of his star chips and her spell caster deck.

"thanks." She said smiling.

"So you have different decks Clare?" Yugi asked.

"Yep, I did it just in case my deck wasn't strong enough for a particular area." Clare said.

"That's smart." Sam said.

"I know." Clare replied.

"Hey! I just got two more star chips!" Raen said randomly.

"Wow, I wondered where you went." Sam said.

"Uh, guys, did any of you bring any food?" Joey asked.

Sam and Clare looked at each other, and than shook their heads at each other. Joey than smelled the fish, and ran toward it. From than on they met Maco, and dueled him as well.

They said their goodbyes to Maco, and went on to look for Mokuba. They found him before he could take the star chips away from the kid.

"Stop right there Mokuba." Clare said to him.

"What... how did you..."

"I'm just like Fabian. I know about the whole situation. And believe me, Yugi is gonna help you, and he won't lose to Pegasus." Clare reassured him.

"Did someone call my name?" Fabian said from the bushes.

"You've got to be kidding me." Clare moaned.

"Fabian?" Mokuba said unsure. "Why didn't Pegasus..."

"Pegasus didn't take me because I'm in the tournament." Fabian said to his little brother.

"Fabian, get the hell out of here." Miercoln said taking over.

"You don't scare me Miercoln. I see four star chips on your glove, but I've got nine. All I need is one more and..."

"Let me guess... you won them with the three Blue Eyes?"

"Not exactly..." Fabian said coldly.

"Ok, well I want to duel you than. I'll bet my four, so you have to bet the same." Miercoln said confidently.

"Fine. You aren't gonna lose like last time though... I put the god cards from Yugioh GX in my deck after you beat me with the sphinxes, so I'm really hard to beat." He grinned, and put his four star chips up.

However, Miercoln drew her Blue Eyes in her first hand, and Fabian didn't play anything, so Miercoln won in one turn, and Fabian didn't even have time to draw his god cards.

"Looks like I have eight star chips now." Miercoln said grinning very widely.

The gang left Fabian flabbergasted, and took Mokuba with them so that they could try and stop them from catching him again. However, they still ran into the worker, and still had to duel the "ghost" of Kaiba. Miercoln helped Mokuba realize that he's just an imposter, and for some bizarre reason, she defended Kaiba with this huge monologue about how cruel Pegasus is to them. The Pharaoh still won, but Mokuba was still taken as well.

Finally, they all ran into Mai and rex. When the gang tried to stop him, Clare and Sam interfered.

" Joey's good enough to do it himself." Clare said. "Really, so don't try to discourage him."

"Yea... plus I wanna see Red Eyes..." Raen said randomly.

"Raen, I do too, but that's not the point." Clare said.

"Is that all you two can think about? The Red Eyes? Jeez... Anyway, Joey, do what you do best, and don't worry about losing. You'll do great." Sam encouraged him.

"Fine, don't listen to us, I won't watch this duel." Tristan said annoyed.

"Go ahead idiot." Clare said to Tristan.

"Clare!" Sam said.

"What?" Clare said.

The duel went the same as in the show and Joey won the Red Eyes. Also, when the Red Eyes was on the field, Raen and Clare were squealing with joy, while everyone looked at them funny. Mai hugged Clare goodbye again, but Clare wanted to duel Rex too. She decided to yet again put two star chips up.

"Clare, you really wanna get ten fast don't ya!" Sam exclaimed.

"Hey, anything to not have to do anything until everything is finished." Clare said.

"Now let's get this duel over with." Miercoln said.

"GO CLARE!!!" Mai exclaimed so that everyone looked at her weird. "Well, she is my sister isn't she?"

Miercoln used Clare's dinosaur-based deck, and added both of her Red Eyes Black Dragons, using both of them to beat Rex, winning ten star chips.

"Wow, you didn't even break a sweat!" Sam said high-fiving her.

"Congrats sis, now I've got to go find some other loser..."

"Hey, I have nine star chips right now..." Raen, (again being random) said and stared at Rex. "Care to go again?" she asked him.

Raen beat Rex with her Red Eyes, and took him out of the Tournament.

Now Sam had to win hers. She only had three, but she found a few duelists, and beat them all, winning the ten she needed.

"Well, all we need to do is wait until Joey and Yugi get theirs." Sam said as they were walking around.

"I'm hungry..."

"Oh, I forgot... Uh... we have food guys." Clare revealed all the food that she and Sam had collected and brought with them.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Joey said annoyed.

"We wanted to meet Mako." Clare said.

"No... you wanted to meet Mako... to see that Kraken in action." Sam corrected her.

"Yea, yea." Clare said.

Then she noticed Mai.

"Hey sis! Wanna join us to dinner? We all gotta get rid of all the food that we don't need don't us?" Clare said reminding her that she already has the ten and showing her that Raen and Sam both have ten.

"Why are you still with these losers?" Mai asked curiously.

"Hm, lets see, their my friends." Clare said.

"Whatever you say, but let's let the boys do chores first. Joey and Tristan can get the water, and Yugi can get the firewood."

Everything went according to plan, until Mai went for the walk. Clare stopped her, and made her stay with the group, because she didn't want her sister to be taken by Panic.

Suddenly they heard a rustle in the bushes.

"Come on out whoever you are!" Joey yelled.

Then Bakura showed up.

"I knew it! I knew I saw Bakura!" Tea said.

Sam and Clare looked at each other, as Raen slowly backed away, and out of sight.

"What are you doin' here Bakura?" Joey asked.

"Same as you guys I guess." Bakura replied.

"You gave us a scare sneaking around those bushes." Tristan said.

"Yea, for a minute there, we thought we had somethin' to worry about...pretty silly huh?" Joey said.

Clare and Sam were now very quiet.

"So who's this?" Mai interrupted.

"Oh... a friend from school, Bakura." Clare answered her. "Bakura, this is my sister Mai."

"Nice to meet you." Bakura said in his "friendly" tone of voice.

"Nice to meet you too hun." Mai replied.

"Raen?" Miercoln yelled for her, and than suddenly spotted her. "Uh, you don't wanna go anywhere alone, don't you wanna take Mai with you?"

"Uh... sure Clare..." she said confused.

"What, I gotta baby-sit?" Mai asked.

"No, just go, believe me." Clare answered her sister.

Sam looked at her funny, but than shrugged, as they all sat around the fire.

"Joey, you've been starin' at that card for like an hour, what's up?" Tristan said. Sam and Clare knew what was going on, and they were searching through their deck for the strongest card they could think of for the Shadow game.

"Alright if I tell ya, promise you won't laugh. But when I look at my monsters, I imagine that I'm in there, swappin' blows with whatever the other guy has out. Isn't that weird?" Joey replied.

"Well if you had to chose, than what card would you want to be Joey?" Bakura asked.

"Dis one, the Flame Swordsman kicks everybody's butt! Haa!" he said making a sword motion.

"Not my guys, the Cyber Commander." Tristan said.

Sam and Clare laughed. "Then why does he go to the graveyard!" they giggled quietly.

"You boys and your cards are hilarious." Tea said.

"I think everyone has a card they can identify with. You should see if you can find one for yourself Tea." Yugi said.

"Ok, I pick this one, Magician of Faith, "

"What, you gotta be kidding me!" Tristan said.

"More like the Magician of freaks if you ask me." Joey said.

"Shut up!" Tea recoiled.

"Tell us which ones you Identify with." Bakura said addressing Yugi, Clare, and Sam.

"Oh, Dark Magician hands down." Yugi said with a smile.

"Well... I do like Guardian Angel Joan..." Sam said nervously looking over at Clare.

However, Clare was grinning. "I identify with the Blue..." She said smiling.

Everyone looked at her.

"But you don't have blue eyes..." Tristan started to say but Miercoln took over.

"You want scales?" Sam said to her under her breath.

"I identify with it, because of my own reasons ok!" she yelled in her pure posh British accent, and eyeing Bakura suspiciously. "Well Paladin of white Dragon's ok too..." Clare said holding it up.

"Maybe I'm just out of the loop, but don't you guys think it's a little silly to be comparing ourselves to playing cards?" Tea said.

"Maybe a little, but it's like Grandpa says, it's not about the playing cards, it's about putting a little bit of your heart into something that you care about, you know." They all agreed.

"So which card do you care about most Bakura?" Yugi asked.

"This one is my favorite," he said lifting his change of heart up for everyone to see.

"Isn't that the change of heart card?" Yugi said.

"Kind of a weird lookin' picture don't ya think?" Joey said.

"If you want to see how it works, we can have a duel right now." Bakura said.

"Here we go." Sam said to Clare.

"Not for star chips, just for a little fun." Bakura continued.

"Sure, I'm down with that." Joey said. "After all the duels with the star chips, it'll be nice to have a duel with no strings attached."

"Yea right." Clare said under her breath, but so Sam could hear, who agreed.

"I agree, I think just a regular old duel sounds like a great idea." Yugi said.

"Why don't you guys all put you're cards in Yugi's deck, so it feels like we're all playing." Bakura said.

"That's a good idea." Joey said.

"Yea," Tristan said randomly.

"That's a great idea! But I should warn you that with this all-star team of cards, it'll be tough to beat." Yugi said.

"Yes... very." Clare said half-jokingly, but mostly serious toward Bakura about having the Paladin as her card.

"True, but maybe I'll surprise you." Bakura answered.

"This'll be fun...' Tea said.

"Yea... fun." Sam said nervously.

"Alright, I'm all shuffled." Yugi said.

"Are you sure you'll be ok alone?" Tea said.

"Don't you worry about a thing Bakura, we'll go easy on ya!" Joey said.

"Thanks." Bakura said simply.

"Right, now lets get this duel on the road," Joey said as Bakura suddenly became more serious.

"Before we get started, there's a little something I want to share with you all. Especially with you Yugi." Bakura said.

"Here we go." Clare said nervously, looking at the deck where her Paladin had gone to.

"What's that?" Joey asked.

"You'll see, " he said as he began to call fourth his ring,

"What's he doing?" Tea asked Yugi.

"He's calling his millennium item." Clare whispered to them.

"WHAT!" they all exclaimed.

"Yes and the magic of my millennium ring will take us to the shadow realm." Bakura's other more harsh voice said.

"Man, I hate magic." Joey said.

"We've already accomplished that Joey." Sam said nervously.

"Why are you doing this Bakura!" Yugi said.

"You have something I want Yugi, and I aim to take it."

Suddenly, they have all gone to the shadow realm. However, Miercoln, being not the same person as Clare interrupted Bakura's little soliloquy.

"I really hate you Bakura." She said.

"Ah my love, since you've lost you're host, I guess you won't be getting out of the shadow realm any time soon now will you?"

"Don't count on it Bakura. If you didn't know, the Pharaoh is living inside the millennium puzzle, and will be making an appearance very soon, and while he is here, I advise you to hold your tongue about me, or you will pay for it." She replied, as she lay back down since she saw the puzzle becoming active.

"NO! The Pharaoh!" Bakura exclaimed.

"You want my millennium puzzle? Than you'll have to duel me for it, but if I win, you'll release my friends, and send us all back!"

"Ha-ha, I agree to your ridiculous terms Yugi, but I promise you, there is more at stake her than you can comprehend. This is one shadow game that you cannot win!" Bakura said to him.

Miercoln, was laying down listening to the entire thing, and when the Pharaoh had his back to her, she would sit up, and when he brought out the Paladin of White Dragon, she was ready to let Clare know that she was a Yami through telepathy...