It takes a moment for the realization to sink in.
With Mai still being shocked and silent, Yugi is the one to break the silence. 'MARIK!' he clenches his fist, looking at Joey. 'Is that you?'
'Yes and no,' Joey chuckles, with his hands in his pockets. 'What you can see right now in front of you, pharaoh, is a blend.'
'A... blend?' Yugi raises an eyebrow with worry.
'That part of Joey that has always been envious and resentful of your success has merged with my personality, which I implanted in his mind,' Marik explains. 'His hatred has merged with mine! Our combined hatred will destroy you, pharaoh!'
Yugi gasps. Joey... hates him? Come to think of it, since that incident at the Duelist Kingdom tournament, when Joey got disqualified because he had lost his 'Glory of the King's Hand' card, Joey has never been the same again.
Yugi's eyes slowly get wet. Oh, Joey. If you were in so much pain, why did you never talk to me? We could have solved this together. Why did you keep the misery all to yourself? Why did you run away? Why did you opt to fight your battles all alone?
In any case, Yugi now has to fight to save his friend. But can he do this? Is he in any condition to fight right now, shocked as he is?
Sensing her partner's doubts, Mai, who is standing behind him, recovers from shock and regains her determined expression. She walks over to Yugi.
'Yugi, let me fight in your place,' she says, in a tone of voice that makes it sound as if she's just announcing this rather than asking for permission.
Yugi gasps and turns to her. 'But-but, Mai,' he cries, with his eyes widening. 'This duel is no joke. I know you have always regarded Joey as a goofy duelist who defeated you due to dumb luck at the Duelist Kingdom, but now he's possessed by that Marik madman. This will be a life or death battle, it will be a...'
'I'm aware,' Mai interrupts him, placing her hand on his shoulder. 'And, just between us, I always respected Joey more than I showed. In fact, I think I can understand him in ways that you can't.'
For what is perhaps the first time in his life, the great Yami Yugi takes a gag expression of puzzlement. 'What do you mean?' he asks in a low voice.
Mai does not bother fully explaining; she's not sure she could word this, even if she did want to fully explain it, anyway. 'No offense, honey. I know you are Joey's lifelong friend. I know you have known him for way longer than I have. Even so, being a woman, I can sense things that a man cannot, not even a man like you, Yugi. So I think I have a better chance of bringing that blockhead to his senses than you have.'
Seeing that he cannot change her mind, Yugi sighs in resignation. 'Mai... please, don't get yourself killed this time either.'
The woman rolls her eyes. 'Wow, thank God you gave me this advice,' she mumbles sarcastically before walking towards Joey.
'It seems it has been decided who will fight,' a distorted voice is heard.
For a moment, Yugi thinks that it's Marik speaking through Joey's body again. And he's half right! It is Marik indeed, but he's not speaking through Joey this time!
The next moment, the multicolored haired duelist realizes that this is a female distorted voice. 'TEA!' the boy cries, turning his head.
The girl, who also is possessed by Marik, approaches, accompanied by a group of Marik's henchmen.
'Leave her alone, scumbags,' Yugi yells and runs towards them.
Two or three of them push him back, forcing his butt to the concrete.
'Ouch,' Yugi cries. For all his mind crushing powers, he's not really strong physically.
'Think before you act, Yugi,' Tea shakes her finger with a creepy smile. She willingly allows another henchman to wrap his arm around her shoulders and produce a knife, which he holds right in front of her throat.
Yugi's eyes bulge as he stands up unconsciously rubbing his aching rear.
'If you try to interrupt the duel that is going to take place, this man will slit the throat of this girl,' Marik warns Yugi through the body of the latter's female friend.
The Pharaoh growls.
In the meantime, both Joey and Mai have chained themselves to an anchor hanging above them. Marik is explaining the rules through Joey's body. 'When a player's life points reach zero, the box at the other player's feet will open. That box contains the key that can unlock the chains and save the winner's life. As for the loser, they will be dragged into the ocean and drown. Understood?'
'Understood,' Mai nods, having got used by now to being involved in such scenarios.
'One more thing,' Marik makes Joey raise a finger in a warning manner. 'If neither of us wins within one hour, both of us will be dragged into the sea.' Next, he points towards a time counter above them, the indication of which is already 59 minutes and 40 seconds!
Mai growls. She has to find a way to save both herself and this Joey blockhead, whom she has to admit she cares about. But how will she save them both?
'And now, before we shuffle our respective decks, take your God Card out of your deck,' Marik orders his opponent through Joey's mouth. He did that for three reasons: because he doesn't want to risk his precious God Card getting wet when Mai sinks to the bottom of the ocean, because he doesn't want to bother diving to retrieve it and, of course, because it will be easier to defeat Mai without that card in her deck!
On Marik's instructions, Mai removes that card from her deck and puts it in her deck box, which she places on the ground, next to the key box.
The possessed Joey produces a coin. 'Heads or tails?' he asks Mai.
Too preoccupied to respond, the female duelist remains silent.
'Heads or tails?' Joey asks again, impatiently. 'I remind you that the clock is ticking and, in less than one hour, the anchor will fall anyway. It is not in your best interest to stall!'
Mai raises her eyes to Wheeler. 'I have been waiting for this duel for so long, Joey,' she expresses her sadness. 'Ever since you defeated me at the Duelist Kingdom, I was planning to avenge myself in a rematch someday. But not like this! This is not the rematch I dreamt of, Wheeler. I do not wish to kill you.'
Not caring about any of the above and seeing that Mai will not pick a side of the coin, the possessed Joey does so himself. 'I choose heads,' he declares and tosses the coin, which falls on the concrete.
The possessed lad crouches to see the result. 'Tails,' he informs Mai, not bothering cheating. 'You can go first.'
Mai presses herself to focus on the duel. She has no idea how to save both herself and Joey, but, for the time being, she has to play a card.
'I play the Amazoness Fighter (1500/1300) in attack mode.'
Mai's well known muscular, female monster appears. She clenches her fists with a sad expression on her macho but still attractive face, as if she can sense her master's sorrow.
'I end my turn.'
'Your monster is strong, Mai,' Joey comments with an ominous smile while drawing a card. 'But it doesn't matter how many monsters you have on the field or how strong they are once I play this card. Dark Hole!'
Mai gasps as her opponent places on his disk a spell card depicting what its name says. A black hole appears above the field and sucks the Amazoness Fighter, who vanishes amid her screams of anguish.
'Dark Hole?' Yugi says in his head, with his eyes widening. 'But... but this card is banned!'
'When I play this card, all monsters on the field are destroyed,' Joey unnecessarily explains.
'Hey,' an annoyed Mai cries. 'Spell cards that destroy monsters on the opponent's field or deal direct damage are illegal in this tournament.'
'Good point,' Joey chuckles. And, with a more serious expression, he carries on, 'Except that this is not a Battle City duel, sweetheart. This is a life or death battle. And the only rules that apply here are MY rules.'
To emphasize his point, Marik makes Joey point at himself, though he's actually referring to Marik.
In Mokuba's place, Marik is casually sitting on a chair, with his legs crossed, and watching the duel through the Millennium Rod. 'Oh, yeah, baby,' he drawls proudly. 'I have filled the deck of that deadbeat duelist with illegal, player killing cards. Mai is as good as dead!'
Mokuba, who is standing next to his partner with his arms crossed, chooses to make no comments for the time being.
'And now that your field is empty, time for some direct attacks,' Joey grins. He looks at his hand. Great. He has one Marauding Captain in his hand. But he can get one more if he plays this spell card.
'Reinforcements of the Army,' he declares. The aforementioned spell card depicts Marauding Captain leading his army into battle. 'With this, I can add one level 4 or lower warrior monster from my deck to my hand. And I choose a Marauding Captain.'
Mai growls as Joey nonchalantly picks the aforementioned monster from his deck.
'Now, I normal summon the Marauding Captain (1200/400) in attack mode. And thanks to his effect, when I normal summon him, I get to special summon another level 4 or lower monster from my hand. Which, in this case, will be another Marauding Captain!'
Mai gasps.
'Oh no,' a worried Yugi inwardly says. 'This is one of the best defensive combos in the game. As long as the Marauding Captain is on the field, the opponent cannot choose any other warrior monster as an attack target. That practically means that, when there are two Marauding Captains on the field, the opponent cannot attack at all. Well, unless Joey plays a non warrior monster, but something tells me that almost all monsters in his deck are of the warrior type.'
'And now, Marauding Captains,' Joey unnecessarily points forward, 'attack that bitch directly.'
The two battle scarred warriors strike Mai with their swords, causing her to wince and step back as her life points are reduced to 1600.
'My-my turn,' she stutters and draws one card. 'I play the Harpy Queen (1900/1200) in attack mode.'
The aforementioned Harpy monster appears on the field.
'Then I set 1 card and end my turn.'
Joey draws a card and snickers. 'I have no way to destroy this monster for now,' he admits. 'But who says I need to destroy your monsters to win, baby? All I need to do is reduce your life points to zero. Ookazi!'
'What?' Mai shrieks.
The Ookazi spell card depicts a house in flames.
'This card inflicts 800 points of damage to the opponent. Just like that!'
Flames momentarily surround Mai and cause her to fall on her (sexy!) butt as her life points drop to 800.
'Turn end,' Joey declares and crosses his arms with a smile of satisfaction. Mai has only 800 points left. And his deck is full of burn cards. The next time he draws one of them, Mai is dead. Now all Joey needs to do is hide behind his defensive combo of Marauding Captains until he draws another effect damage card!
'Darn. This duel is too much for Mai,' Yugi thinks. 'She can't handle it. She's gonna get killed unless I do something.'
Yugi momentarily looks at the possessed Tea, who is still immobilized by the Rare Hunter. Unfortunately, he has to take a chance here.
He has to call Tristan. Perhaps Tristan can help bring Joey back to his senses.
But how is he supposed to call Tristan? If he takes out his cellphone to call him, the next moment, the Rare Hunters will kill Tea.
Perhaps he could send him a telepathic message with the power of the Millennium Puzzle. He has to try. Let's hope that the Rare Hunters won't suspect anything. 'Tristan? Tristan? It's me, Yugi. Can you hear me?'
