Deja Duel

Back home in Domino, Kaiba was facing problems of his own. Though the monster sightings were starting to occur less, reporters had still been coming to his company demanding answers. "I said, 'hold all my calls'!" he ordered. "And tell those reporters out there once and for all that KaibaCorp is not responsible in any way for the monster sightings, end of story. And don't come back until they're gone." And his associate leaves the office and does as ordered.

The timing of these disasters couldn't be worse either. Kaiba was just beginning to start his latest project. For all he could assume, someone was trying to sabotage his company and ruin him. But he couldn't get any leads about what was going on and who was behind it.

Just then, his little brother came running in. "Seto, check out our database. There's someone out there buying off every share of our company. I just saw it myself."

Kaiba looks up the database and sees that his brother is right. "If these numbers are accurate, almost half of KaibaCorp was just brought by one person and they're still buying. But how can that be?"

"What are we going to do?"

"We have to stop them. If they buy any more shares, they could take over the entire company and there's no way I'm going to allow that." He could only think of one person who would do this. Just then, his phone rang. "Yes?"

"Kaiba boy, I've missed you," Pegasus said cheerfully.

"It was you," Kaiba growls.

"I'm afraid I'm guilty as charged. It looks like we're partners now. This is going to be so much fun."

"This company's mine," Kaiba firmly stated.

"You're always so uptight, Kaiba boy," Pegasus teased. "Why don't you treat yourself to a nice vacation?"

"Enough. I will never let a snake like you wrap yourself around my company, is that clear?"

Keeping calm and collected, Pegasus tells him, "Relax, I don't want your company. I just needed the upper hand so I could force you to do something for me. Plus, I was bored and it was fun. You see, since both of our reputations are at stake thanks to these pesky monsters, I thought we could post our public image by dueling each other."

"You must be out of your mind, Pegasus," said Kaiba.

"Should I take that as a 'no'? Well, I'd reconsider if I were you. Because if not, I'll take the rest of KaibaCorp and tear it apart piece by pathetic piece. What's it gonna be? Do we have ourselves a rematch or should I just proceed with plan B? I need an answer, Kaiba boy."

Kaiba could clearly see that Pegasus was making a proposal he couldn't refuse. His company was on the line once again and his reputation was bad enough as it was. Besides, this could help him understand what was going on and what he could do to stop it. "You have yourself a duel, Pegasus."

He was pleased to hear that. "I thought you'd see things my way, so I set up an arena for us at Duelist Kingdom for old time's sake. Don't forget to bring your Blue-Eyes White Dragons." Then he hung up the phone and closed the monitor.

Mokuba didn't like how things were going. Before all this mayhem, the brothers were supposed to start building the theme park of their dreams and Kaiba even promised not to duel again until their project was complete. But he had to break his promise in order to save his company. He went down to the vault in the lower levels of the building and took out the briefcase containing his duel disk and cards. After that, the Kaiba brothers went to the roof where their jet was.

Before climbing aboard, Kaiba notices his brother's worried expression and asks, "What's wrong?"

Mokuba already established how worried he was about this setup, so he confessed his real concern. "I thought we were going to build KaibaLand."

"We will, Mokuba, just as soon as I teach Pegasus a lesson." Hearing his brother's promise, Mokuba finally joins him and takes his seat.

It took about an hour for them to make it to the island. The brothers just wanted to settle their business as quickly as possible. Duelist Kingdom brought the both of them bad memories of when Pegasus toyed with them and kept them as his prisoners to take over the company. Kaiba landed the jet close to the castle where Pegasus was waiting.

As they walked through the corridors looking for Pegasus, Mokuba noticed how deserted the place seemed. "It looks pretty empty. Pegasus' staff must be on vacation or something." That made things a little easier for the Kaibas. Neither of them liked any of the goons. But the silence was pretty disturbing.

"That means less people to get on my nerves," said the elder brother. "Let's just find this lunatic so we can leave."

They kept walking, but couldn't find Pegasus anywhere. The last place they came to was the site of the dueling ring. But the arena wasn't in place nor was the bridge holding it. Kaiba and Mokuba almost fell to what looked like a bottomless pit. Kaiba was fed up with this. "Show yourself, Pegasus," he called out, "unless you've come to your senses and gone home."

The sound of sinister chuckling filled the area. "Your lack of patience never fails to amuse me," said Pegasus. Finally, he reveals himself at the other end of the room.

"You're as irritating as ever," Kaiba said as Pegasus continued chuckling. He could see that he had not changed one bit since their last encounter.

"Come on, where's the love, Kaiba boy? After all, we've been through so much."

"I didn't come here to catch up. I came to duel you so you'll get out of my life."

"That's not nice," Pegasus whines mockingly. "What did I ever do to deserve such hatred?"

"It's a rather long list and I'm short on time," Kaiba tells him. "Most recently, you stuck your nose where it didn't belong when you started buying out pieces of my company. And I'm sure you're the one who's been ruining my reputation lately by starting this monster scare. Admit it; you made it look like Duel Monsters are running around all over the world just to get some attention."

A brilliant assumption, but no evidence to point out. "Do you honestly believe that or are you afraid to admit what you truly think?" Pegasus asks. "Maybe these Duel Monsters are real."

Kaiba laughed. "You should know by now that I don't believe in your hocus-pocus mind tricks and I certainly don't believe in real monsters."

"You're still trying to get away with that 'I-don't-believe-in-magic' speech? Don't you think it's time to give it a rest already; especially after that time we shared not so long ago in this very castle," Pegasus asks, sounding a little more serious. "But of course, as always, I'm true to my word. You already know that."

"That's enough!"

"What's wrong? Did it suddenly become a crime to reminisce about old times between friends, Kaiba boy?"

"Listen, if you're trying to mess with my head by bringing up what happened in the past, I'm afraid it won't work. That's old news. This time, it's you who's gonna suffer," Kaiba promised. He really was tired of people doing this to him all the time by mentioning past events.

"Then let's get this duel on the road. It's time for the rematch of the century," Pegasus declared, and the arena came down and the bridge began connecting to it. "Well, well, well, here we are again; in the exact same spot where I devastated you last time. Ready for a repeat performance? Who knew I would get to destroy you twice in one lifetime?"

Before taking his place to the arena, Kaiba tells Mokuba to leave and get somewhere safe. He remembered the dangers Pegasus posed and didn't want his brother to be victimized or used against him again. Mokuba does as told and heads to the upper deck where he thinks he'll be safe. "Let's get on with this duel. The sooner I defeat you, the sooner I can get on with my life. You've wasted enough of my time already, Pegasus."

"Is it me, or are you always in a bad mood?" Pegasus asked mockingly. "We're about to play a friendly game, so why don't you do us a favor and lighten up?"

Kaiba had enough games and wanted this to be his last for the day. But he promised he would feel better once the duel would be done. Pegasus places his cards on the table and Kaiba connects his duel disk to the monitor with a cable. Pegasus makes the same opening move he made in their first duel and summons Toon Alligator in defense mode. After that, he plays a card face down. Kaiba had a feeling Pegasus was trying to psyche him out with the same moves he made in their first duel. For his move, he summons Spear Dragon and attacks Toon Alligator. Though the comical reptile was in defense mode, Spear Dragon's special ability still did damage to Pegasus' life points, so he lost 300 life points. And after attacking, Spear Dragon automatically switches into defense mode. To end his turn, Kaiba plays two cards face down.

Pegasus draws a unique magic card called Toon Table of Contents. When played, Pegasus would be permitted to add a card to his hand as long as it was a Toon-based card. Kaiba had a bad feeling Pegasus was going to choose Toon World and he was right. Pegasus paid a thousand life points and activated his favorite card. Next, he summoned Toon Masked Sorcerer, a comical spellcaster with 900 attack points and 1400 defense points.

But Kaiba remembered the strengths and weakness of Pegasus' Toon cards. He revealed one of his face down cards. It was a trap called Cloning and he used it to create another Toon Masked Sorcerer. Because they had the same number of attack points, the fight would result in a stalemate, but Kaiba had other plans in store. He sacrificed his two monsters to summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Pegasus reveals his own trap card as well. It was Toon Mask and when played, Pegasus could sacrifice his Sorcerer to summon the White Dragon's Toon counterpart.

"You know how much I hate that thing!" Kaiba snapped. "Your Toon Dragon is a disgrace to the original Blue-Eyes!"

"Don't say that," said Pegasus. "You'll hurt his feelings." And the Toon Dragon started crying, releasing waterfalls of tears from its eyes.

"Well, let's see how he feels about my next card." It was the magic card Shrink and Kaiba used to cut the Toon Dragon's attack points in half. To Pegasus, Kaiba just made his monster extra cute and lovable. "I'm through dealing with your pitiful excuse of a Dragon, so let's focus on the real Blue-Eyes." He activates another magic card called Charm of Lamentation to raise his Dragon's attack points. She launches her White Lightning, but her Toon counterpart escapes it. But Kaiba knew what he was doing. His magic card also allowed him to draw a card from his deck every time his Dragon failed to attack. The key to beating this washed up has-been is somewhere in my deck, Kaiba thought to himself. I just have to keep drawing cards until I find it.

Pegasus gives up 500 life points so his Dragon can attack Kaiba directly, but the brunette protects himself by activating Negate Attack. But Pegasus' turn wasn't over yet. He played a magic card called Toon Rollback, giving him another chance to attack. The Toon Dragon wasn't permitted to attack twice in one turn, but Pegasus was going to use a different monster. So he sacrificed his Toon Dragon and summoned Toon Dark Magician Girl. She appeared from the bindings of Toon World like she had just woken up from an afternoon nap and dealt 2000 points of damage to Kaiba.

Blue-Eyes launched her White Lightning towards Toon Dark Magician Girl, but the adorable little mage put on a show by absorbing the attack into her hat and making birds and confetti appear from the explosion it contained. Kaiba's Charm of Lamentation was still in play, so he drew a card from his deck. It was a magic card called a Wingbeat of Giant Dragon, allowing him to destroy Toon World and the comical mage with it by first returning his Dragon to his hand.

"My precious Toon World," Pegasus moaned.

"Nice one, Seto. You did it," Mokuba cheered. "I never doubted you for a second."

Kaiba ends his turn by summoning Versago the Destroyer, a fiend with 1100 attack points and 900 defense points. "Your move, Pegasus." But the creator of Duel Monsters leaned down staring at the table. "Hello?" Kaiba called to him. Not hearing a response, he's assuming he's giving up. "Last chance and I win. I'm taking your silence as a forfeit. Not that I blame you. I'd quit too if my strategy was as lame as yours. You're using the exact same tactics you used the first time we dueled here. In fact, you almost made the same moves card for card. What's the deal, Pegasus? You're a lot of things, but predictable isn't one of them."

Pegasus pulls himself together and grins at Kaiba. "I just haven't been myself lately. In fact," then he speaks with a different voice and finishes by saying, "I mean that quite literally."

Mokuba was confused. "What's going on?"

"Surprise!" What turned out to be Pegasus was actually a young redhead with gray eyes in disguise. It was Alister. "I've waited this day for a long time, Kaiba boy."

"You're going to pay for tricking me like that!" Kaiba shouted.

"Pretty good imitation, right," Alister asks, speaking with Pegasus' voice.

"Identify yourself!"

"Alister's the name, Kaiba boy. Now let's duel," the redhead declares and activates his duel disk. He draws from his deck and looks at the card in pleasure. "This magic card is about to change everything; the Seal of Orichalcos." Just like before, a magic ring surrounds itself around the field and creates the symbol inside of it. The symbol also appears on Alister's forehead and a red light of hatred glows in his eyes.

"Explain yourself now!" Kaiba demands.

"Oh, as if you're gonna believe me?" Alister sarcastically asked. He decides to explain anyway. "We're trapped in here until the duel's over. Once I beat you, I'll be able to get out. Of course, you, on the other hand, won't be quite as lucky as myself, Kaiba boy. When you lose, your soul will be locked away for all eternity. But this time, you won't be set free!" Alister knew that the first time Kaiba was up against ancient magic, he lost his soul. But Alister was also determined to make sure Kaiba's soul would stay trapped.

"Enough tricks, Alister," Kaiba demanded. Mokuba comes down from the deck and tries to approach his brother, but the barrier of the Seal pushes him back.

"Did that seem like a trick to you?" Alister asked.

Mokuba gets back on his feet and pounds his hands against the barrier. "Let my brother out," he cries. "Who do you think you are anyway? You have no idea who you're messing with."

Alister disagreed. "I'm messing with a greedy little punk who's just as pathetic as his old man."

That got Kaiba mad. "What did you just say to me? No one compares me to my stepfather and gets away with it. Do I make myself clear? He was a worthless snake."

"Like you," Alister commented.

"My family business has nothing to do with you! Who the hell put you up to this anyway?"

Alister plainly answers that he's fighting in the name of all the people who suffered by the hands of the Kaiba family and the company. Kaiba was used to hearing that meaningless vow, but it wasn't like he was the one who had to pay for Gozaboro's sins. But now wasn't the time to explain and it was still Alister's turn. He summons a fire attribute monster called Gorlag and thanks to its special ability, it gains 500 additional attack points for every fire attribute monster on the field including itself. Plus, with the Seal of Orichalcos in play, Gorlag was another 500 points stronger and had a total of 2000 attack points. And by destroying Kaiba's monster, Gorlag's second ability activated, summoning Versago the Destroyer on Alister's side of the field and turning it into a fire attribute monster. To end his turn, Alister plays a card face down.

Kaiba had to admit that Alister was a skilled duelist, but as he looked at the cards in his hand, he figured he could win the duel easily. He summons Pitch-Dark Dragon in defense mode and places a hidden card face down.

Alister had a feeling he knew what that hidden card was. Why else would Kaiba play a weak dark attribute monster on the field? "Let me guess, that's Crush Card, isn't it?" Hearing Kaiba growl, Alister takes his surprised and annoyed expression as a 'yes'. "I've had my eye on you for a long time, Kaiba, and I know every pathetic detail of your life including your obvious dueling strategies."

"I see. Is that why you dragged me all the way out here?" Kaiba asked in mock flattery. "I had no idea you were such a big fan of mine. If you wanted my autograph, all you had to do was ask me for it."

"You make me sick, Kaiba!" Alister snapped.

"What did I do?"

"You ruined my life!" Alister lowers his voice and says calmly, "Now this is all I have. He's my family." And he holds out a damaged and almost completely burnt action figure of a robotic soldier named Dyna Dude.

"You realize you're holding a busted action figure, right?" asked Kaiba.

Alister looks at the toy in anger and sadness. "You have no idea what this means to me."

"You love your doll," Kaiba teased. "How cute."

"I do," Alister says softly. "Know why?"

"Humor me."

Alister raises his voice once again and tells him, "It used to be my brother's. But now I'll never see him again because your father took him away from me!" Seven years ago, Alister's hometown was threatened with war. He had no father and his mother was captured by the tanks that invaded his city. As the enemy continued to attack, homes and buildings were reduced to rubble. The only family Alister had left was his little brother Mikey, a redhead with gray eyes like him. To stay strong and be brave, Mikey held on to his favorite Dyna Dude action figure and prayed for his hero to rescue him and his brother. Alister knew that his little brother needed that spark, but he also had to be the one to keep himself and his brother safe.

They made it to the outskirts where other refugees and orphans went to for safety, but it was too good to be true. The tanks came back and started attacking the camp. Alister tried to escape, but the impact of the blasts separated him from Mikey. He looked around, but all he could find was the nearly destroyed action figure. Mikey had been captured as well. Then Alister met Dartz for the first time and learned from him that the man who was behind the attacks and destroyed everything Alister knew and loved was Gozaboro Kaiba.

"Your father did this to me and now you run his evil empire, so it's your fault too," Alister growled. "It's time you paid for his sins by giving up your soul to the Great Beast."

Mokuba felt sorry for Alister for the pain he was caused, but it didn't sound fair for him to put it on Seto. "My brother's innocent!" He protests. "Our stepfather was a big jerk, but don't blame Seto for that! He knew Gozaboro was wrong. That's why he changed KaibaCorp into a company that helps people. Sorry, Alister, but what happened to you is not our fault! You may not know this, but my brother and I grew up without a family also!"

"You poor thing," Alister said, not really caring. "Why don't you imagine what life would be like if you didn't have your brother either?" Mokuba could never imagine such thing. His older brother meant more to him than anything else in the whole world. Kaiba told Mokuba to stay out of this, but Mokuba just wanted to help his brother. It made the redhead feel disgusted. "Don't worry, Mokuba. Your brother won't push you around anymore once I take away his soul." He speaks directly to the elder brother and tells him, "Just take a look at yourself. Everything you own was paid for by KaibaCorp; the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the same money that took my brother away. Now it's time for you to pay me back by giving up your soul!"

The way he was hearing all this seemed to Kaiba that Alister was just wallowing in self-pity. But he was also just as aware of the pain and suffering Gozaboro brought upon the innocent people. He did have a reputation for violence and cruelty. Plus, Alister was about the same age as Kaiba when he lost everything. "You have a good point. My stepfather was a tyrant and what he did to your family was wrong. And you deserve to be paid for that. But then again, I don't care that you brought me here to threaten to put me out of business. Let's just continue this duel and if you're lucky enough to win, maybe I'll decide to help you."

"When I defeat you in this duel, you will help me," Alister vowed. He revealed his hidden trap Royal Decree, rendering all other trap cards useless. The Crush Card was of no use to Kaiba any longer and his strategy was crushed. Gorlag defeated Pitch-Dark Dragon and brought it back to Alister's side of the field as a fire attribute monster to raise its attack points by 500. After that, Versago attacked Kaiba directly, leaving him with a sparse 400 life points.

The card Kaiba drew from his deck was Card of Demise and he played it to draw three cards. Next, he activated White Dragon Ritual and sacrificed Blue-Eyes White Dragon from his hand to summon Paladin of White Dragon. Before attacking, Kaiba played Monster Reborn to resurrect the Blue-Eyes he sacrificed. The Paladin attacked Pitch-Dark Dragon with his Ionic Spear Burst and dealt 500 points of damage to Alister. Gorlag also lost 500 attack points. Blue-Eyes attacked Gorlag, dealing 500 more points of damage and now that Gorlag was gone, Versago would be going to the graveyard as well. Kaiba decided to activate his Paladin's special ability and summon another Blue-Eyes to take his place.

To Alister, Kaiba's moves were as predictable as ever. He played Pot of Greed to draw two cards from his deck. Then he played another magic card called Atonic's Flame to destroy all monsters that weren't fire-types. Since Kaiba's Dragons were creatures of light, they were destroyed. The magic card also allowed Alister to summon Gorlag from the graveyard. After that, he equipped his monster with Fire Whip, giving it the power to control the two Dragons that were just destroyed. And now that they were fire-type monsters, Gorlag gained a thousand additional attack points for a total of 3000. And the Seal of Orichalcos gave the White Dragons 500 additional attack points as well. But Alister was forbidden to attack this turn, so he played a card face down.

It was all up to fate now. Kaiba needed to believe in the Heart of the Cards. It was the only way for him to win. If he didn't find a way to stand against the hotheaded redhead and his firepower, Kaiba would go down in flames. He placed his fingertips on his deck, but before he could draw his card, he felt a strange power being released. Immediately, Kaiba was transported to the Dominion of the Beasts and was standing before the two remaining Dragons sealed in ice. "I must be hallucinating."

Dark Magician Girl's voice called to him. "Kaiba, you have been chosen to release the mighty Critias. All you have to do is remove the sword." Kaiba didn't know what this was about, but he went up to the statue and gripped the sword sheathed in the Dragon's fang. He removed it, releasing a charcoal gray Dragon with violet eyes.

"All right, I'm just about ready to wake up from this dream," Kaiba said, trying to keep his cool.

"Now join forces."

"Anything to shut you up." And Kaiba places his palm against Critias' head and begins to feel his power joining together with the Dragon's.

Kaiba found himself back on the dueling field holding a card with the Dragon's picture in it; the Fang of Critias. A red light was also glowing around him and just like what happened to Yugi, he earned his wings as a mark of a chosen warrior. They were red dragon wings. What's going on? I've never felt anything like this before.

Mokuba stares in amazement. "Wings? My brother has wings?" Alister was watching too and had a bad feeling about what it meant.

I didn't put this card in my deck. And the picture looks exactly like the Dragon I just dreamt about. Is this another one of Alister's tricks?

Then Dark Magician Girl's voice echoes in his head. "No, play this card. It's the only way to win."

Trusting in her voice, he summons the Dragon he released. "I play Fang of Critias!"

"What!? You don't have that card!"

"What do you call this?" Kaiba merges Critias with his Crush Card to form Doom Virus Dragon. Although he had 1900 attack points, the Dragon's special ability allowed him to instantly destroy every one of his opponent's monsters with 1500 or more attack points. Doom Virus Dragon was about to attack Alister directly, but the redhead saved himself by activating a magic card called Contagion of Madness, causing Alister to lose 1900 life points and Kaiba to lose 950 life points and the match resulting in a draw.

The Seal of Orichalcos couldn't take both of their souls, so Alister and Kaiba were both safe. But the brunette had a feeling he hadn't seen the last of the redhead. He even heard Alister promise to come back and finish what he started.

Mokuba and Kaiba left the castle without having any idea of what just happened back there. The older brother actually didn't care about how Alister was just able to disappear after the duel came to an end. What was really bothering him was how he came to be in possession of the Fang of Critias and how he got a pair of wings. And if these wings were real and he could actually control them, then he had to embrace that a great power was at work. The magic of the Orichalcos seemed just as real. Kaiba knew that the more he ignored it, the more it would continue to bother him. So for the time being, he decided to accept that this was all real. He had to learn more about what was going on here and the only way to get any further information was to go to Industrial Illusions and see the real Pegasus. After all, he created Duel Monsters and must have some knowledge of Kaiba's new card.