The match before the final curtain of the Duelist Kingdom. Maximillion Pegasus versus Mai Valentine. Mai Valentine versus Maximillion Pegasus. Man versus woman. Creator versus champion. Darkness versus light. The winner takes it all!

The two duelists are shuffling their respective decks. Mai is looking at Pegasus, her eyes blazing with determination. Pegasus can almost see her duelist aura surrounding her. He, on the other hand, does not seem to emit any aura at all; he's just casually humming and shuffling his deck, as if this duel is nothing more than a chore. No opponent has ever pushed him to the extent of him having to take a duel so seriously as to emit a duelist aura! And he knows that this fight shall be no exception.

Maximillion Pegasus! The undisputed gaming master. The genius who created the game called duel monsters. (Or at least that's what most people believe; few know that all he actually did was turn into a card game the bloodsoaked shadow battles conducted with real monsters in Ancient Egypt thousands of years ago.)

At first sight, he seems an ever collected, humorous, insensitive, manipulative, spoiled, rich jerk. However, deep down, he's a broken man. The loss of the one and only woman he ever loved devastated him.

Before Cecelia died, Pegasus had never given much thought to the concept of death. He unconsciously believed he was going to live forever, as most people who have never experienced sorrow in their lives. With his father being the filthily rich owner of a casino chain, Pegasus grew up in a protective bubble, oblivious to normal people's problems, having no knowledge of the poverty and misery around him. The greatest sorrow he ever suffered in his childhood was that time he accidentally missed an episode of his favourite cartoon show, Funny Bunny! No kidding, little Max cried for days afterward, before he finally watched a rerun of that episode (there was no Internet back then).

When he met Cecelia, at what would otherwise have been another boring social event his parents had dragged him along to for the sake of dad's prestige as a sucessful businessman and a happy family man, even though they both were still children, they instantly knew they belonged to each other. They kissed for the first time a few weeks later!

They married eight years ago, when they were only 17! Still almost kids! Nevertheless, neither Pegasuses nor Cecelia's parents had any objections, since both families belonged to high society and the fathers of the two young lovers saw that marriage as an opportunity to do profitable business together.

Cecelia had a heart attack and died on the wedding night! As the autopsy showed, she had had a heart disease for a long time, but she didn't know. Her chest had warned her multiple times, but she never consulted a doctor; she would always interpret those pains as excitement about her upcoming wedding.

After his lover passed away, Pegasus isolated himself. He would spend days in his chamber, without talking to anyone, without eating, barely drinking some water just so that he wouldn't die of dehydration.

He no longer cared about anything. He didn't even care when both his parents died in a car accident soon after Cecelia. He could live without his mom and dad, but not without his lover.

After inheriting his father's vast fortune, he traveled a lot around the world, delving into various philosophies and religions, refusing to accept that death was the end of everything, that he would never see his dream girl again. For a long time, he tried to embrace various theological approaches, with none of them really bringing peace to his tormented soul.

He started with what was the official religion in his homeland, USA, in other words Christianity. He visited churches and discussed with priests and pastors. However, Christians' idea of the afterlife, an asexual state with no earthly pleasures, did not sound to him very promising regarding a possible future with his lover past this world.

His journeys to India did not give him further hope either. He deduced that Buddhism was essentially a nhilistic theory rather than anything else.

And, of course, Islam by no means agreed with him for what I think are obvious reasons!

And so, he began studying religions of the ancient past, seeking Gods no longer worshipped by anyone. During his journey across Egypt, he discovered the Millenium Items, the Millenium Eye. Or should I say the Millenium Eye discovered him! The Millenium Eye chose him! That moment, the moment that golden artifact was violently attached to his eye by that tomb keeper, the moment he caught a glimpse of his deceased lover, Pegasus felt a glimmer of hope in his heart for the first time in a long time.

Pegasus is not sure whether it will work, but, after some visions which the Millenium Eye gave him, revealing to him Ancient Egyptian secrets, he has come to believe that maybe there is a way to revive Cecelia by combining the magic of the Millenium Items with Kaibacorp technology. It is a really complicated method, too complicated to elaborate on here.

But even if that fails, he will at least be able to use Kaiba Corp technology to create lifelike projections of his beloved wife. Even this is better than nothing. Who cares how much harm he has to do in the process? Who cares how many souls he has to sacrifice, how many lives he has to ruin? A world without Cecelia is not a world worth living in!

The Big Five have agreed to appoint him as the new president of Kaiba Corp if he wins the Duelist Kingdom tournament, thus restoring the company's status, which was damaged after Seto Kaiba, the supposedly undefeated world champion, lost to that no name called Yugi. In other words, this duel is all that is left between him and Kaiba Corp, between him and his hopes of seeing Cecelia once again.

The voice of Croquet interrupts his thoughts: 'And now, Miss Valentine, allow me to explain to you what prize awaits you in case you defeat the King of Games. Have a look at your Glory of the King's Opposite Hand card.'

With a sigh of boredom, Mai does so, merely to do him that favor. Why doesn't that stupid bodyguard just get to the point?

'As you can see, this card is blank,' the grey haired referee states the obvious, eliciting one further sigh from the woman. 'This is symbolic of the size of your prize. There is no limit to what you can ask Mister Pegasus for.'

Mai's eyes widen. 'No limit?' she gasps, placing her palms on the duel board.

'Absolutely no limit, woman,' Pegasus answers in place of his subordinate. 'You can ask for anything you wish and, if it is in my power, I will do it. For example, you can ask for Kaiba Corp, this island, my Millenium Eye, even all of the above, even everything I possess!'

'Wow,' Mai whispers, astonished. If she wins this duel, she can become the most powerful woman in the world!

'However!' Pegasus carries on, raising a finger. 'Mind that, if you lose, a picture shall appear on this card. A picture of you! Your soul shall be confined to another dimension, where you will spend the rest of eternity, alone, wishing you had died instead.' The white haired man adds an evil laugh for emphasis.

Silence. Pegasus allows his words to sink in. Mai is still looking at the card. She gulps, trying to hide her trepidation.

'I get it,' she finally talks again. 'I have a lot to win but also a lot to lose.'

'Wrong, woman,' Pegasus cries with a demonic smile. 'You have a lot to win and EVERYTHING to lose. MHAHAHAHA.'


Yugi, Joey and Tristan are running along the corridor when they see a crying Tea sitting on the floor, with her back resting against the wall. The girl has buried her head between her knees.

The three boys stop in front of their female friend. Yugi places his palms on his knees and leans towards her. 'Tea? What's wrong?' he asks with concern.

Tea raises her head, her eyes still wet. 'Mai is going to challenge Pegasus.'

'We know,' Tristan informs her. 'That's where we're going right now.'

'Well, you guys go without me,' Tea sobs. 'Who cares if that stupid bimbo wants to throw her life away? Let her suicide.'

Joey sighs. Okay, there are two ways of doing this: the fast way and the slow way. The slow way is to let Yugi deliver a speech (which, by the way, he's about to begin right now!) about love, friendship, a duelist's honor etc until Tea comes to her senses. The fast way is to... you know what, just watch Joey do it!

'ENOUGH OF YOUR BULLSHIT, GIRL,' the blond boy grasps Tea by the collar, eliciting a squeal of shock from the latter, forces her to stand up and forcefully shakes her. 'MAI IS OUR FRIEND AND WE SHALL STAND BY HER SIDE. GOT IT?'

'Y-Yes, sir,' Tea gulps in a low voice, her widened eyes having dried in an instant!

The group resumes running, heading to the duel hall.


'Now you can cut each other's decks,' Croquet instructs the two duelists.

He walks over to Pegasuses duel board, takes his master's deck, gently places it on a purple pad and carries it over to Mai, who cuts it. Next, he repeats the process with Mai's deck. Pegasus just taps on it once. 'It's good as it is,' the Duel King forgoes his right to cut his opponent's deck, seeing no reason to; even in the unlikely case that that woman has bothered rigging her deck, it will do her no good against someone who can see the opponent's cards and read their minds. Croquet returns the deck to Mai.

The referee returns to his original position and produces a coin. 'A coin will be tossed to decide who will go first,' he declares.

'No need, Croquet,' Pegasus interrupts him with a dismissive gesture. And, turning to Mai, he carries on, 'I'll let you make the first move, woman. Believe me, you're going to need every advantage you can get in this duel. Not that it will make any difference in the end, mind you!'

Mai rolls her eyes and checks her starting hand. After some contemplation, she makes her move.

'I set 1 card.'

A square on the field starts emitting a flickering light.

'Next, I play the Dunames Dark Witch (1800/1050) in attack mode.'

An arguably sexy woman appears on Mai's field. She has middle length, purple hair and blue eyes. She's wearing white gloves, boots the same color, a golden headband and a short dress with red as well as with white areas. Large, white wings are attached to her back. The monster opens her arms, as if she's ready for battle.

'I end my turn.'

Mai inwardly smiles. 'That female monster may not look particularly strong, but no woman is alone,' she thinks. 'If that jerk is careless enough to attack, I'll activate my face down card, Female Solidarity.' (ORIGINAL CARD)

Pegasus smiles as his Millenium Eye glows in an ominous manner. 'I see. She has set Female Solidarity,' he thinks. And, as he selects a card in his hand, he (still inwardly) carries on, 'Unfortunately for you, girl, I have the perfect counter to that in my hand!'

'First, I set 1 card,' the male duelist says out loud. 'And then I play the Dark Dog (1800/1300) in attack mode.' (ORIGINAL CARD)

A pitch black dog with a creepy yet cartoonish smile appears on the field. It barks a few times in a row to make its entrance.

'Do you remember the Dark Rabbit monster I played against Kaiba boy?' Pegasus rhetorically asks, referring to his fight with the ex world champion, which Mai watched along with other people yesterday. 'That monster was based on Funny Bunny, the main character of my favourite childhood cartoon series. When I was creating the duel monsters cards, I guessed that, since I had created a card based on that series' main character, it was only fair that I also created a card based on Funny Bunny's main antagonist, Ruff Ruff McDogg, the policeman, or should I say the policedog, who would chase Funny Bunny without ever catching him.'

The dog on the field growls and bares its teeth, as a reaction to his creator's words but also in order to frighten Mai's monster. However, the Dunames Dark Witch is just staring indifferently. Equally indifferently, Mai replies, 'I don't care what you used to jack off to when you were a child and your dick was as small as it is now! Just make your move!'

Kinda angry that Mai belittled his favourite childhood show, moreover by swearing, Pegasus takes a serious expression and yells, 'Dark Dog, attack. Rabid Bite!'

With its eye pupils disappearing, the barking dog starts running towards Mai's monster, who takes an alerted expression and a fighting stance.

Mai smiles. 'You might think that, since both monsters have the same number of attack points, they will both die,' she says. 'Though I don't know why you bothered attacking in that case. Anyway, sweetie, be prepared to cry like the crybaby that you are. For I activate a trap card. Female Solidarity!'

Mai forcefully turns over her face down card. It depicts a group of women walking on a street, presumably holding a rally. The front row of those women is carrying a white banner that says, in large, black letters, 'NO WOMAN ALONE.'

'As this banner says, no woman is alone against men,' Mai explains, still holding the trap card. 'When a female monster of mine whose original ATK is 2000 or less is attacked by a male one, I can activate this card. It allows me to send from my deck to the graveyard a monster that has the same name as the one under attack. For this turn, the ATK points of my female monster that is being attacked increase by an amount equal to the ATK points of the monster I sent to the graveyard this way!'

Mai picks up her deck, searches it and sends another Dunames Dark Witch to the graveyard. As a result, the spirit of the second Dunames Dark Witch appears on the field briefly and holds the hand of the first one. The two female monsters exchange meaningful smiles.

'Observe the power of solidarity among women, you male pig,' Mai cries determinedly, staring at Pegasus, as the ATK points of her monster increase from 1800 to 3600!

The Dunames Dark Witch braces herself with a confident smile, sure that she will kill the charging dog easily.

'Heh! This will leave him virtually dead,' Mai thinks with a victorious smile.

'I'm sorry to disappoint you, Mai girl,' Pegasus chuckles (actually, he's lying; he's not sorry at all!) as he activates his face down card. 'But look what I've got here. Absorb Spell!'

Mai gasps in what is probably the most unpleasant shock of her life.

'From your expression, I can tell that you know what this quick play spell card does,' Pegasus carries on, showing her a green card depicting the hand of a mage or something gathering energy which is coalescing into a dark colored sphere. 'When my opponent plays a card that increases the ATK points of one of their monsters, one of my own monsters shall reap that benefit instead!'

Mai is helplessly watching, with her eyes bulging, as the ATK points of her monster drop back to 1800 while the ATK points of her opponent's monster skyrocket to 3600.

The dog resumes its attack and bites the witches waist, thus cutting her lovely body into two. The dying Dunames Dark Witch closes her eyes and lets out a howl of pain. Blood spurts from both severed halves of her body before they both break into a million tiny pieces each.

Mai is staring into space with an expression of horror as her life points drop from 2000 all the way to 200! She can't believe this. This man can really read minds after all. There is no way that he just happened to set the perfect counter to her trap. That's why he attacked when both monsters had the same number of ATK points. He wanted Mai to activate Female Solidarity so that he could activate Absorb Spell, thus depleting her life points.

Oh, God, what is she going to do? It's only the first turn and she has already lost 90% of her life points! For the first time, she wonders whether it was really smart of her to challenge Pegasus.

Meanwhile, the Duel King, who is reading his opponent's mind even right now, sensing her despair, smiles. It seems that this woman has finally realized what she's up against.

'Too late, Mai girl. There is no turning back now,' Pegasus thinks and has an inward, evil laugh.