"Master Marik…Obelisk the Tormentor has just been played in Battle City. And the owner of the card is Seto Kaiba." A man in a Rare Hunter cloak, informed Marik.

They were in Marik's secret hideout, and the servant's name was Odion.

"I knew it." Marik said. "Ishizu is conspiring against me…and gave Kaiba the card to stop me. I remember when I found the Winged Dragon of Ra card in Egypt. My second God card. One more and I would be unstoppable! But my sister, Ishizu confronted me as I left the underground vault where the card had been hidden. She told me that her Millennium Necklace told her that I would betray her. Three thousand years ago, our family swore to protect the Pharaoh's tomb. She wouldn't imagine that one of their own would be their greatest threat. I told her I was claming what should have been mine from the beginning! Although she warned me that I'd never find the third God card. I tried using the Millennium Rod against her, but her Millennium Necklace protected her."

Odion listened.

"I know that Ishizu gave Obelisk to Kaiba in order to tempt him to hold the Battle City tournament. But…Kaiba doesn't understand the true strength of the God cards. Once I have them all, the power of the Pharaoh will be mine!" Marik cried. "Tsk…but what irritates me the most right now is that Slifer the Sky Dragon just disappeared. I don't know how it could have happened…but…I'm sure someone in this tournament is holding it. And we will find them and get the God card back! But first…I'll have to soften up the Pharaoh a bit. My minions! Dispatch Arkana to take care of Yugi Muto!"

Honda walked to the door of Shizuka's hospital room to head to the tournament.

"Honda…wait." Shizuka said.

Honda turned around.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Will you take me to the Battle City Tournament on the day I get my bandages off? I want the first sight I see to be my brother dueling." Shizuka said.

Honda smiled.

"Okay." He said with a nod.

"You did a great job Joey!" Anzu said.

"Shizuka should have her bandages off soon. So you must try hard for her." Grandpa said to Joey.

Joey nodded.

"Of course! Well…I'm going to go and look for another duel. See you two later, okay?" He said before turning and leaving.

"Hey Mr. Muto. How about we go look for Yugi?" Anzu suggested.

"Good idea. I'd like to see how my grandson is doing." Grandpa said.

They both turned and went their separate ways from Joey.

Yami looked at the Red Eyes Black Dragon card.

Yugi appeared next to Yami in spirit.

"I'm glad Joey let us hang onto it. Now we have Joey's heart in our deck!" He said. "With Marik and the Rare Hunters after us, we're going to need all the help we can get. I just hope Joey can survive the tournament without it!"

"Joey's a great duelist, and he gets better with every duel. He beat Espa Roba without his Red Eyes." Yami said.

"Yeah. Maybe we need the Red Eyes to help us fight Marik." Yugi agreed. "We don't even know what he looks like! How will we know when he strikes next?"

"YAMI!"

Yami and Yugi looked up to find Cat running towards them.

"Cat?" Yami asked.

Cat stopped in front of them and bent over, catching her breath. Once she could talk, she looked up. "I found you." She said with a tired smile. "How are you doing in the tournament?"

Yami smiled at her. "I'm doing fine. But I should ask you the same thing." He said.

"I dunno…if winning one locator card is a good thing, then I must be doing okay!" Cat said, looking proud of herself.

"That's great!" Yami chuckled. "Keep it up and you'll be in the finals in no time."

Cat laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "That…might be asking for too much."

But their conversation was cut short when a man popped out from behind the nearby trees.

"Hello Yugi." The man said.

Cat and Yami turned and looked at the strange man.

"My master is waiting for you inside the tent over there." The man said.

The two turned their heads slightly to find a large tent nearby.

Yami frowned.

"Cat…maybe you should leave. I have a feeling this could be dangerous." He said in a serious tone.

"Well…I understand your concern. But…I'd feel safer with you." Cat said.

Yami was about to protest, but the man spoke up again.

"If you're concerned about your little friend, I'd be happy to take care of her." The strange man chuckled evilly.

Cat tensed up and moved a little behind Yami, scared.

"On second thought…maybe you should stay with me." Yami said and began to move towards the tent, Cat not far behind.

While this was happening, Anzu and Grandpa were just passing by. They spotted Cat and Yami going inside the tent.

"YUGI! CAT!" Anzu called to them. But they didn't hear.

Inside, the two spotted a Magic Box set up on a stage. The strange man from earlier was there, beckoning them to enter it.

Anzu and Grandpa entered the tent just in time to see Cat and Yami disappear into the Magic Box, just as it collapsed, leaving no sign of the two!

Anzu and Grandpa gasped in shock.

"YUGI! CAT!" Anzu cried.

"Seto! I've just received word that Yugi and his friend has disappeared from the tournament surveillance system! Their Duel Disk system is being blocked somehow!" Mokuba reported, looking at his hand-held computer.

"What? That's impossible!" Kaiba said. "I guess we'd better fine them."

Yami and Cat exited the Magic Box and into a dark room, where they see a computer displaying Yami's Battle City duelist data.

"What? Why does it have your data on the screen?" Cat asked, still partly hiding behind Yami.

All of the sudden, the Dark Magician in his profile changed. Its cloak turned red and its smile turned evil.

The new and strange Dark Magician materialized itself into the room.

Cat cried out in terror as it appeared in front of them.

"You're not worthy to have me in your deck. It's time you met the true master of the Dark Magician!" The strange Dark Magician said to Yami.

Yami grinned.

"Enough of these tricks." He said.

Suddenly, the duelist appeared.

"Hello Yugi Muto. I am the illusionist, Arkana! Soon your Dark Magician will be playing for me!" Arkana said.

Cat stared at the strange Rare Hunter. He had long purple hair in a ponytail and his skin was fairly pale. He wore a strange red suit with a black and green striped mask, which matched his bowtie.

Finally, he had a duel disk on his arm, white shoes and a red, black and green hat.

"I accept your challenge Arkana! Every duelist chooses cards for his or her deck from many types of cards." Yami said. "But sometimes a card can choose a duelist. And the Dark Magician has chosen me."

Yami held up his Dark Magician card to prove his point.

Cat listened to Yami's words carefully. She started to wonder…if the Dark Magician Girl, who brought her here, had chosen her?

"Hmph. Follow me." Arkana said as he led Yami and Cat downstairs to a dueling arena. "Your superiors have ordered a real spectacle!"

"Who are you working for?" Yami asked.

"I'm sorry, but I can't say." Arkana replied.

"Yami…I have a strong feeling that he may work for Marik." Cat whispered to Yami, not moving from her comfort zone, behind Yami.

Yami nodded in agreement.

Once the two men entered the dueling arena, Cat stayed behind outside of the arena, knowing this was Yami's duel. All she could do was watch.

The two men met in the center of the arena and shuffled each other's decks.

"Don't try any sleight of hand." Yami warned Arkana.

"Heh…okay then. If you're so worried, we'll cut each other's decks. Just to be safe." Arkana said.

The two did so on the table that was in the center of the arena.

Once they gave each other their decks back, the table sunk down into the floor. Then, the floor beneath them moved back into their dueling positions; locking their legs in place with shackles that emerged from the sides of the ring.

"Now neither of us can escape!" Arkana laughed. "But there's an extra twist."

Once he said that, two whirling saws came out of the sides of the rings.

(In the Japanese version, they're not "Dark energy disks, they're real saws. I thought the real saws would be more interesting.)

"The saws will get closer to each player as his life points decrease. The loser will be cut in half!" Arkana explained and two boxes rose in between their feet. "These boxes contain the key to unlock our shackles. The box will only open when the player's opponent's score reaches zero, so only the winner will be able to escape."

Cat gasped and covered her mouth in horror. She was seriously started to feel fear.

"Is this…the true nature of the Rare Hunters?" She whispered to herself as she felt her legs starting to shake. She was almost too scared to watch.

"Are you some kind of demented madman?!" Yami asked.

"I'm just undefeated." Arkana said simply.

"Not for long." Yami growled.

The duel began.

Only after three turns, Yami was able to summon his Dark Magician.

The Dark Magician launched a direct attack on Arkana, causing his life points to go down to 1500 points.

Arkana's saw came closer to him.

"Arkana! Stop the duel and end this madness! My Dark Magician has already taken over half of your life points! One more direct attack and you're done for." Yami said.

Arkana only laughed.

"I'm a master magician, and I've saved the best trick for last!" He said.

"He's a madman." Cat said.

Outside, Anzu and Grandpa walked around the streets.

"What could have happened to them?" Anzu wondered.

"We've got to search every inch of the city until we find them." Grandpa said.

"Mr. Muto…you don't think…that they were kidnapped by the Rare Hunters, do you? Just like Joey predicted?" Anzu asked.

"Anzu, I don't know. Let's just hope we find them soon." Grandpa said in a serious tone.

The duel wasn't going to well. So far it was a stalemate.

"Arkana! Unlock our shackles so we can finish the duel honorably!" Yami demanded.

"No!" Arkana refused.

"Tell me what's going on then! Why are you dueling for Marik?" Yami asked.

Arkana removed his mask, causing Yami and Cat to gasp in shock.

"Once, I was a world-renowned stage magician. I was in love with my assistant, Kathryn. We were going to be married, but then a routine escape trick went wrong and an explosion destroyed my career and my good looks!" Arkana explained. "I drove Kathryn away from me…unable to let her see me. And by the time I'd realized my mistake, she was gone. Then I met Marik, who promised to help me win Kathryn back if I destroyed you, Yugi!"

"Working with Marik will only bring you more suffering!" Yami warned him.

"Why should I listen to you? I'm counting on Marik to bring Kathryn back!" Arkana cried and snapped his fingers, causing a door to open, revealing a shadowy form of a woman sitting behind a curtain.

"This is my Kathryn, waiting for me to destroy you, Yugi! Once I do that, me and my darling can go away together!"

Cat looked at the form of the woman.

Was that really her? No…it couldn't be.

"You're a fool to trust Marik! You should put your trust in yourself and in you cards!" Yami snapped.

"They're just cards." Arkana said.

"I don't think so. My heart is in my deck." Yami disagreed.

"You depend too much on your Dark Magician to protect you! I designed my deck with one purpose: To take your Dark Magician away from you!" Arkana said.

Anzu and Grandpa ran through the streets, still desperately searching for Cat and Yami.

During this time, Kaiba and Mokuba had returned to Kaiba Corp's Battle City headquarters, also searching for Yami and Cat.

"If Yugi, his friend and their opponent's duel disks are cut off from the Kaiba Corporation's computers, they must be playing somewhere that has its own internal computer dueling system." Kaiba said. "Find all computer systems within Battle City that are compatible with Kaiba Corp's! And let me know if any of them refuse to identify themselves!"

"I'll keep looking around." Mokuba said and left the room, while Kaiba waited for his employees to do what he had told them to do.

Anzu and Grandpa stopped a moment to rest. They looked up when they spotted Mokuba running towards them.

"Hey guys!" Mokuba called. "Kaiba has just found out where Yugi and your friend are! I'm headed there right now!"

"Then we'll join you." Grandpa said.

It was a while until both Yami's and Arkana's Dark Magicians were in the graveyard.

Yami had just played "Dark Magic Curtain", which allowed him to summon, Dark Magician Girl.

Arkana had another Dark Magician on the field and ordered him to attack the DMG, but in response, Arkana's Dark Magician was destroyed.

"What?! How can this be? My monster was stronger!" Arkana cried.

Cat looked at the Dark Magician Girl.

"She still has tons of questions to answer for me…but now isn't the time to ask them." She muttered to herself.

"Dark Magician Girl gains 300 attack points for every Dark Magician in the graveyard, making her strong enough to defeat your Dark Magician." Yami explained.

"But you had only one Dark Magician in your graveyard!" Arkana protested. "She shouldn't have been able to beat my Dark Magician!"

"There are two Dark Magician's in the graveyard. Mine and yours." Yami explained. "Now, Dark Magician Girl, attack Arkana's life points directly!"

The Dark Magician Girl did so, causing Yami to win the duel.