Strings is still kneeling and looking at Mai, his eyes lifeless.

'So?' the woman impatiently crosses her arms. 'Will you give me the ante, freak? Or do I have to clobber you to get it?'

Suddenly, Stringses eyes begin glowing with a blinding yellow light.

Mai gasps and steps back.

'You can take your locator card as well as the Egyptian God Card from this corpse, Mai,' Marik speaks through the body. 'Enjoy your two Egyptian Gods while you have them. For I will soon get them back.'

Mai rapidly recovers from the surprise. 'I have just defeated you, nutjob,' she clenches a fist with a confident expression. 'And I can do it again if needed, anytime, anywhere.'

Marik makes Strings toss his head back and burst into laughter. Creepy laughter that causes both Yugi and Mai to wince.

His eyes back to Mai. 'Neither Slifer nor Obelisk are a match for the third God Card, the Winged Dragon of Ra. Even with both Gods in your deck, you shall stand no chance against me, when we meet in person, woman.'

Mai gulps. Is... is Ra really that strong? No, it can't be. That guy is definitely bluffing!

With one more creepy laugh, Marik releases that dead body from his mind control and Strings falls on the grass.

Marik is still laughing, sitting on the floor and casually hugging a knee.

He knows that today's loss is no big deal. After all, he still possesses the most powerful of the three Egyptian Gods, the Winged Dragon of Ra. And even though Marik does not know all Ra's powers (in fact, he doesn't even know that Ra has more powers than the ones he knows about), he knows that much: Obelisk's and Slifer's effects are useless against Ra.

Even Gods know their superiors! And, being higher in rank than the other two Gods, Ra cannot be affected by their effects or be destroyed in battle by them!

Yami Mokuba, on the other hand, doesn't seem in an equally good mood.

'Worthless idiot!' the possessed boy yells. 'How can you laugh at such a moment? I told you that it was risky to leave your God Card in the possession of a brainless mind slave, but NOOOO, Mister Know-it-All always knows better!'

Marik stands up, with a comforting smile. 'As I said, neither Obelisk nor Slifer stand a chance against Ra. In the worst case, I will personally fight that woman at the Battle City finals and get both God Cards from her corpse.'

'You'd better do so,' Mokuba growls, clenching a fist. 'Because, if you are proven incompetent again, I will kill you and fight Yugi and his friends by myself.'

'You think you can kill me?' Marik chuckles, stroking the end of his Millennium Rod. 'I would like to see you try.'

The two partners-enemies exchange ambiguous looks. Finally, they both decide to back down.

'So, what is our next plan?' Mokuba sighs.

After a moment of silence, which Marik allowed for the sake of drama, he caresses his rod and answers, 'Well, the first day of the Battle City is almost over. Let's go out and party tonight and we shall form a new plan tomorrow.'

'We? Oh, no,' Yami cries, shaking his head. 'No no no, Marik. I saw how "effective" your plans usually are. This time, I (points at himself) will be the one who will form a plan.'

'Fine,' Marik sighs with a chuckle. 'So what is your plan, genius?'

This time, Yami is the one who allows a moment of silence for the sake of drama. With an evil grin, he says, 'We will target Yugi's friends. This always weakens him considerably.'

Yami knows this from experience. Remember that time, at the Duelist Kingdom, when he trapped the souls of Yugi's friends into cards and then forced Yugi to duel him over the Millennium Puzzle?

Yugi was so vulnerable during that duel, wasting one powerful card after the other, merely to keep those monsters that had merged with his friends' souls alive at all costs. He almost lost that duel due to that. And he would have lost, had that Bakura fool not interfered.

'His friends, huh?' Marik caresses his chin. 'I admit this is an interesting idea, partner. So... let us see...'

The blond madman holds his Millennium Rod vertically and a scene appears above it. It's Tea and Tristan. They are walking on the sidewalk and chatting.

Marik's eyes remain fixed on that scene for a while. 'Let's kidnap the cute girl,' he finally decides.

He turns to Odeon, who is still standing in a dark corner, with his back leaning against the wall and his arms crossed. 'Odeon, we're going out,' he informs him.

'Yes, master Marik,' the taller, bald man nods obediently.

'Take this with you,' Yami Mokuba produces a can of sleeping spray.

Marik bursts into laughter. 'What do you take me for, Mokuba or whatever your name is?' he protests, offended. 'I'm not a common thug or anything.'

And, raising his Millennium Rod to the level of Mokuba's head, he continues, 'This is all I need to kidnap someone!'

Mai walks over to the dead Strings and takes one locator card. 'Perfect!' she says in her head, looking at the aforementioned locator card with a smile. 'Now I have six! This is the first day of the tournament and I'm already in the finals!'

Next, she searches in the deck of Strings and takes Slifer the Sky Dragon.

Yami Yugi walks over to her.

Silence. The two duelists exchange serious looks.

'Mai,' Yugi breaks the silence. 'That was amazing. I admit that, back at the Duelist Kingdom, although I deemed it presumptuous to ever say it out loud, I didn't regard you as my equal. I still believe that I would sure have won against you that day, at the semi finals, if I had played as well as I could from the beginning of the duel. However, nowadays...'

The boy stops, runs his fingers through his multicolored hair and carries on, 'Nowadays, I'm not so sure I can win against you.'

Mai smiles with satisfaction. Her eyes to the Slifer card.

And then... it is happening again. One of those Ancient Egypt related visions.

So here we go again. Mai is floating. Without her physical body. Light as a feather.

Where is she this time? This must be a hall in some ancient palace. Is it... a throne hall?

And the one sitting in the throne... is Yugi! He's wearing Ancient Egyptian royal clothes, as in previous Mai's visions.

And the ones around him... they are those guys that fought that gargantuan, black Zorc creature in that vision Mai had months ago. Kaiba is there too. Except that, this time, he's not fighting against Yugi, but rather by the side of the other priests. What the hell is going on here? Mai has so many questions!

And she gets even more questions when she realizes whom all those fellows are fighting. Bakura!

Or is he? His skin is more tanned than that of the Bakura Mai knows. And he's dressed in a red garment that leaves his torso exposed (Mai would admit that his defined muscles make him considerably sexier than Modern Bakura, if she wasn't too shocked to feel horny right now). And that expression in his eyes. An expression of deep hatred. Is this really the same timid, British mannered boy Mai met at the Duelist Kingdom?

All creatures the priests have summoned seemed defeated at the hands of Bakura's giant monster. It looks like a light gray, serpent like statue. One end looks like a bald humanoid with a lifeless expression, defined muscles, a dark gray horn on its forehead and two white wings on its back. Its other end looks like a snake ready to attack its prey.

'Diabound!' Bakura commands his creature. 'Finish off those self righteous bastards.'

That moment, Yugi decides to move his butt off his throne and intervene. 'Bakura, you have done enough. A pharaoh would never allow insults like yours to go unpunished. I SUMMON OBELISK THE TORMENTOR!'

A stone slab rises from the ground. One depicting Obelisk, with the divine monster materializing out of it.

Mai tries to smile before remembering that she doesn't have her physical body right now. She has no idea what Bakura's (or whoever that guy is) problem is, but she doesn't like his attitude at all, as sexy as she finds him. Obelisk is gonna kick his butt!

However, that moment, everything goes black. Everything except Obelisk. Huh?

The God turns into his card. The blue card depicting him. And now... Pegasus is holding it. And smiling. Is he smiling at Mai?

'This is my gift to you, my love,' the white haired man says.

Mai tries to reach for it. But how is she supposed to do that without a physical body?

'Come on, Mai. What are you waiting for?' Pegasus wonders, growing impatient. 'Take it.'

'I can't,' Mai tries to say. But how can she produce voice without a physical body?

Pegasus now looks annoyed. 'Mai? Will you take it or not? MAI!'

'Mai? MAI! Are you listening to me?' Yami Yugi's voice brings the woman back to reality.

The woman takes her eyes off Slifer, gasps and steps back.

'Mai, are you okay?' the present version of the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle asks, somewhat worried. 'You were staring into space.'

The female duelist sighs. Then, to Yugi's surprise... she gives him the red colored God Card! 'Here. Take Slifer!'

Yugi's eyes widen. 'Mai... what are you saying?'

Mai sighs again, with the arm she's holding the God Card with still extended. 'Look... don't ask how I know what I'm about to tell you. I just know! God Cards are not ordinary cards. Not any duelist can control them. The only reason I could successfully command Obelisk was that, when that card was recreated, Pegasus put a part of his love of me in it.'

It is true that each and every card has a part of the creator's soul (that is to say, Maximillion's soul) in it. And, when Obelisk reappeared, part of Pegasuses soul was devoted to Mai. However, the woman knows that, if she tries to command Slifer, it will most likely not end well!

'Don't give it that much thought, Pharaoh,' the blonde woman smiles. 'Just take it.'

Yugi finally reciprocates the smile. 'I shall accept your gift, Mai,' he declares and takes the red card.

'Even though I'm not sure I understand all details regarding what exactly is going on at this tournament and what the stakes are, I know this much: You are a millennia old spirit and, if the world is in danger as that Ishizu chick said, you are the only one who can save the day.'

Yugi smiles again and nods, trying to be modest nonetheless.

'But mind you,' Mai raises a finger. 'Someday, when all this is over, I will duel you over the God Card I just gave you. And, when that day comes, when I have defeated you and proven that I'm a worthy possessor of all God Cards, I will take it back!'

'It will be an honor, Mai,' Yugi places his palm on his chest. 'I will be waiting.'

Tristan is sitting at an outdoor cafeteria table, sipping his coffee and waiting for his female pal, Tea, to return from the restroom. Darn, what is taking her so long anyway? I mean, he knows that girls usually spend a lot of time refreshing themselves, but this is ridiculous.

Ok, now he's worried a little.

The lad stands up and enters the cafeteria. 'Hey,' he asks the bartender. 'Did you see a girl with dark brown, middle length hair in a bob hairstyle enter the restroom?'

'Oh, yeah, I did,' the worker casually answers, shaking a shake. 'A few seconds later, some weird guys wearing black hoods entered too. And she exited the restroom accompanied by them. They exited the cafeteria through the back door.'

'What?' Tristan cries. 'And you didn't do anything?'

'What am I supposed to do, dude?' the bartender chuckles. 'She seemed to be following them willingly. I mean, it's not my fault if your girlfriend decided to leave with a bunch of guys she just met. Either she's a slut or you have treated her really poorly...'

Tristan does not even bother explaining to the bartender that Tea is not his girlfriend.

There is obviously something wrong here. Tea is not the kind of girl who would flirt with a bunch of strangers. He must call the police. And Yugi and Joey.