The four duelists standing on the top of one of Domino City's tallest skyscrapers are about to begin the duel. Both teams are determined to win, each for very different reasons.

Mai and Yugi need to save Tea, at all costs. They will never forgive themselves if they fail, not even in the afterlife (since they're fully aware that death awaits them in case they lose).

Umbra and Lumis, on the other hand, just wish to do Marik's bidding. It may sound pathetic to normal people, like you or me, but, to miserable, brainwashed people like them, to cleverly manipulated souls like theirs, serving Master Marik is the most fulfilling thing that could ever happen to them!

Umbra and Lumis have known each other for a long time. They met long before Master Marik entered their lives. Their relationship back then was very different from now. Lumis was a rich businessman and Umbra was working in the former's company. Lumis was a really bad boss, a money hungry jerk who abused his employees in various ways. Both of them were unhappy. Lumis because he never thought he was rich enough (and because he probably suffered from the Napoleon syndrome), Umbra because he had to work for that 'jerkface' to make a living.

However, everything changed when Marik brainwashed them. Now they are equals. And the old hatred between them is long since gone. Now they hate only Master Marik's enemies. Lumis no longer cares about money; in fact, he put his entire fortune at Master Marik's disposal (just as so many other rich people Marik has brainwashed). In Master Marik's society, there is no such thing as bosses or employees. There is no such thing as men or women. There is no such thing as poor or rich people. There is no such thing as tall or short people. In Master Marik's heaven, we all are genderless angels and Master Marik is our infallible God!

Lumis and Umbra are 100% sure they can win this. On the other side of the field, Mai seems more confident than Yugi. Not that Yugi does not believe in himself, mind you; it's just that he's more cautious. He knows he must win to save Tea, but he also knows a well known saying: easier said than done!

Lumis and Umbra knew beforehand that they were going to engage in a tag team duel today, so, most likely, they have prepared their decks. He bets the decks of those two scumbags are built in such a way that they support each other perfectly, in such a way that they work together like a well oiled machine. He and Mai, on the other hand, have not done any preparation of the sort. So, can he and Mai find a way to effectively cooperate? If they want to have a chance, they have to find a way soon!

'Mai,' Yugi draws his partner's attention. 'I know you are a proud duelist and you have learnt to fight your own battles and all, but I hope you have realized that, in this duel, we have to work together.'

'Don't worry, Yugi. I'm aware,' Mai comforts him. 'One must be an idiot to believe that they can win such a duel by themselves. I mean, not even someone with Kaiba's size of ego would be that delusional!'

Yugi smiles.

Lumis declares his first move. 'I set 2 cards. And that's all for now. I end my turn.'

The holograms of two face down cards appear in front of the short duelist.

'My turn,' Yugi declares. So, that freak didn't summon any monster on his first turn. Then again, since no player can attack on the first turn, Lumis doesn't have to worry about his life points for the time being.

Who knows what the strategy of those two Rare Hunters is? Who knows what kind of decks they play? In any case, Yugi guesses he'd better start out in a defensive style.

'I summon the Mystical Elf (800/2000) in defense mode.'

A blue skinned but arguably attractive female monster appears on the field. She has long, straight, strawberry blonde hair. She's dressed in an archaic, celadon robe that leaves her shoulders and elegant neck exposed. Also, she's wearing a white headband. She's kneeling, with her eyes closed and her hands clasped together, and chanting something in a really beautiful voice.

It's Umbra's turn. 'I set 1 card. Then I play the Shining Abyss (1600/1800) in attack mode.'

A grotesque, faceless monster appears on the field. The lower half of its body is dark blue and oval shaped. The upper half of its body is thinner and a lighter blue color. It has long arms and two golden wings on its back. Also, there are some golden patches on its body. The aforementioned monster marks its entrance with an eerie bellow.

Mai makes a grimace. Why would someone want to put something like that in their deck?

'Because this is a faceless monster,' Umbra thinks, as if he had read Mai's last thought. 'And when a monster of the faceless archetype is on our field, our mask cards can be activated!'

(Author note: In the series, I found the mask cards Lumis/Umbra played a little too overpowered, so I decided to put a limitation on their usability in my fanfic; they can be activated only when at least one monster belonging to a certain category is on your field. Otherwise it would make no sense that those two guys were the only duelists who used those cards in the series.)

It's Mai's turn. Those guys already have three face down cards on their field. This can't be good. So let's destroy them! 'I play the Harpy Queen (1900/1200) in attack mode.'

A Harpy monster appears on the field. Her wings are white, her skin is human like and her green hair is tied in a seductive ponytail. She's wearing an elastic, navy blue leotard. In the later editions of this card, the aforementioned leotard covers almost her entire body, however, Mai has the early, uncensored edition, so the hologram that appears on the field graces us with a good portion of her lovely flesh!

'Also, I play a field spell card. The Harpys' Hunting Ground.'

This card depicts a hovering Harpy about to swoop on a group of colorful little creatures running around helplessly. 'As long as this card is on the field, all winged beast monsters gain 200 ATK and DEF points.'

The Harpy Queen closes her eyes, tosses her head back and sighs, gladly receiving the boost coming from the field card, which increases her ATK points to 2100 and her DEF points to 1400.

'Lastly, I play the Harpy's Feather Duster. It allows my Harpy monster to attack and destroy all spell and trap cards on your field!'

Well, nobody can do a normal attack, since this is the first turn, but this is a special kind of attack.

Umbra gasps. Oh no. All their face down cards are going to be destroyed. Their strategy will be ruined.

'Way to go, Mai!' Yugi cries. It seems that, thanks to her, they are off to an awesome start.

'Don't worry, partner,' Lumis chuckles comfortingly, about to activate one of his set cards. 'I'm having our backs! MASK OF CONTINUITY!' (ORIGINAL CARD)

Mai and Yugi gasp.

'This mask card is a continuous trap card,' Lumis explains, raising his finger with a smile. 'As long as it is on the field, every time an opponent activates an effect that destroys spell or trap cards on our field, I can pay 500 life points to negate that effect!'

The feather duster on the Harpy Queen's back disappears before its effect resolves. Lumises life points drop to 3500. A small price to pay to get rid of one of Mai's most powerful cards.

The blonde duelist growls. 'I end my turn.'

On that note, it's Lumises turn. 'And now, folks,' the short duelist inwardly says while letting out a creepy chuckle, 'we will begin showing you the true power of our masked decks!'

'I play an equip spell card,' the Rare Hunter says out loud. 'Mask of Unity!' (ORIGINAL CARD)

Lumis equips the aforementioned card to his partner's monster. Umbra turns and smiles at him. 'Thanks, pal,' he gives the shorter duelist a thumbs up as a mask is attached to his faceless Shining Abyss.

'No problem, Umbra,' Lumis smiles back. Then he turns towards their opponents and, with his face hardening, explains the effect, 'This card can be equipped only to a faceless monster. The monster equipped with this card gains 500 ATK and DEF points for each mask card on the field, including this one of course.'

Umbra carries on in place of his ally, 'And, right now, there are two mask cards on the field: the Mask of Unity and the Mask of Continuity.'

The Shining Abyss receives a massive power up, with its ATK points skyrocketing to 2600 and its DEF points to 2800.

Mai and Yugi grit their teeth. Those scumbags have already managed to build up such a powerful monster. So this is the power of their teamwork!

Before ending his turn, Lumis summons a monster. 'I play Melchid the Four Face Beast (1500/1200) in defense mode.'

A strange monster appears on the field. Its body consists of four masks, with each of them having a different facial expression.

Mai sighs and lowers her eyes. She's no longer that confident. She has to give them that they make a formidable tag team. What can she do? Well, now it's Yugi's turn, so she guesses all she can do now is hope that her partner will keep them in the game.

Yugi smiles. As impressive as their opponents' teamwork is, it is not impossible for them either to summon a powerful monster. 'I play Jack's Knight (1900/1000) in attack mode.'

A muscular, tan skinned warrior appears on the field. He has middle length, blond hair. He's protected by blue armor. He's wielding a shiny sword and a golden shield.

Yugi carries on, 'And I equip him with the Lightning Blade.'

The electric sword replaces the one the knight was holding, thus increasing his ATK points to 2700.

Umbra gasps. 'Yes!' Mai cries. Now their monster is stronger than that of the opponents, albeit by a small margin. They can win!

However, once more, Lumis doesn't seem to worry!

Yugi, who hasn't noticed that, declares an attack, 'Jack Knight, attack the Shining Abyss.'

'I activate one more continuous trap card,' Lumis cries. 'Gravity Bind!'

A blue sphere appears where Lumises face down card was. A sphere emitting strange waves.

Before Jack's Knight can strike with his sword, a glowing green net falls on him and heavily restricts his movements, causing him to fall on his knees, writhing in agony.

Yugi's and Mai's eyes widen. It doesn't take the two shocked duelists long to realize that all monsters on the field are trapped in such a net.

Amid the monsters' cries of agony, Lumis explains, 'As long as the Gravity Bind is on the field, every level 4 or higher monster on the field is rendered unable to attack.'

'WHAT?' Yugi cries, his eyes bulging in terror. Oh, no. Almost all low level monsters in his and Mai's decks are level 4! This practically means that they cannot attack at all! To make matters worse, due to Lumises Mask of Continuity, they cannot get rid of the Gravity Bind with spell/trap destroying cards.

'We know you have a God Card each in your decks,' Umbra declares with a solemn expression. 'But, even if you summon them, they won't be able to attack. Your Gods are useless now!'

Yugi sighs. He admits that scumbag is right. Gods cannot be destroyed by effects and any other kind of effect that targets affects them only for one turn. However, the Gravity Bind does not target; it affects the entire field, so it works normally on Gods too!


Marik and Yami Mokuba, who are watching the duel through the former's Millennium Rod, seem pleased.

'See? This is why I call those two the Anti God Force,' Marik says with a smile.


Mai does not seem as worried as Yugi. She turns to him. 'Wait, if the Gravity Bind affects the entire field, that means that their level 4 or higher monsters can't attack either,' she points out. 'Therefore, it may not be as bad as it sounds.'

'It is, Mai,' Yugi thinks, without gracing his partner with a look. 'I'm pretty sure there is more to this combo than that!'

'My turn,' Umbra cries and draws. 'Now I play a continuous spell card. One Sided Mask.' (ORIGINAL CARD)

The aforementioned mask is attached to the Gravity Bind card on Lumises field.

'This card can be attached to a continuous card of ours that normally affects both sides of the field. As long as the One Sided Mask is attached to it, that card now affects only your side of the field!'

'WHAT?' Mai shrieks. Those assholes!

'That means that now the Gravity Bind affects only you and your monsters are the only ones unable to attack,' Lumis unnecessarily explains.


Rebecca is lying on a bench, gazing at the sunny sky, with her hands under her head and one knee raised. Some passers by look at her curiously for a while before shrugging and resuming walking.

The girl has just won one more duel, and, therefore, she's in the finals. Now she can relax.

Or can she? She wonders how Yugi and Mai are doing. Is it possible that Yugi is right? That Tea has indeed been kidnapped by the same jerk who kidnapped and brainwashed her too a few weeks ago?

Is it possible that this jerk is planning to attack Mai and Yugi? In that case, what are they going to do?

Rebecca abruptly sits up and inwardly scolds herself. She knows she shouldn't worry. Those two both are awesome duelists. Almost as good as herself! Almost! So they will have no problem defeating anyone that Marik asshole sends against them.


Mai closes her eyes, places her hand on her chest and sighs, trying to remain calm. Everything will be okay. Even if she and Yugi cannot attack, there is still one way for them to win. The Harpy Phoenix Formation! It's already in her hand. When she draws the Elegant Egotist, she will multiply her Harpy and then play her overpowered spell card, which will destroy all monsters on the opponents' field and deal heavy damage to their life points, leaving them virtually dead.

Umbra chuckles. 'I know what you are thinking, gal,' he says in his head. 'We have studied your past duels and we know all your strategies. Your last hope is the Harpy Phoenix Formation. However, to activate it, you must have at least three Harpy monsters on the field. Which will not be possible once I play my next card!'

'Mask of Encroachment,' Umbra cries out loud. (ORIGINAL CARD) 'To activate it, I have to pay half my life points, but it's totally worth it.'

Mai raises an eyebrow. As Umbra's life points decrease to 2000, the tall man explains, 'Now I get to select three unoccupied zones on a player's field and those zones cannot be occupied by cards as long as this mask is on the field.' After making a pause for the sake of drama, he continues, 'And I choose three monster zones on your field, Mai!

'SON OF A...' Mai screams.

Umbra crosses his arms, relaxed and satisfied. He lets out a booming laugh. 'Now, even if you draw the Elegant Egotist, you can't triple your Harpy, since you have only two usable monster zones left. In other words, you don't have enough zones to summon the Harpy tokens.'

Yugi's eyes bulge in horror. The strategy of those two abysmal souls is perfect! What can he or Mai do? The opponents have shut down their low level monsters. They have shut down their Gods. They have shut down their combos. They have shut down their decks! Is there any way left for them to win?

'Also, I almost forgot,' Umbra adds with a sarcastic wink. 'Now there are four masks on the field. Which means that the ATK points of my Shining Abyss have increased to 3600!'

Mai turns her head to Yugi, seeking some hope. But the grim expression on her partner's face is speaking volumes.

'Shining Abyss, attack the Harpy Queen,' Umbra points forward. The monster gathers a ball of energy between its hands and fires it. The Harpy monster is annihilated and Mai's life points drop to 2500.

'Trap card activate,' Umbra cries immediately. 'Faceless but Relentless.' (ORIGINAL CARD)

This card depicts the silhouette of an oval shaped monster. 'When a faceless monster I control destroys a monster in battle, it gets to attack one more time,' Umbra explains. 'Shining Abyss, destroy Jack's Knight as well.'

The Abyss fires one more time and Jack's Knight is destroyed, with Yugi's life points dropping to 3100.

'We need... to win...' Yugi thinks, panting in desperation. 'We must... take Tea back.'