The quarterfinals have finished. Now... it's just a matter of time before the Semi-Finals begin. But what's lurking in the Shadows?
Disclaimer: RDF1 doesn't own anything in this fic, technically not even the original content.
One more thing: For those that do not know, my general writing style is rewriting canon, changing dialogue to fit my ideas of a story. So if I'm skipping a bunch of dialogue, it's because of who I'm focusing on and how much I want to rattle through the duels themselves, since Dialogue is actually 60 percent of these episodes. I write under the assumption you have seen the show before, so if you haven't, why are you reading this beforehand?
(Chapter Begin)
(Recap)
"What have you done to Bakura, Marik?" demanded Yami.
"I don't know who this Bakura is," responded Marik, "But if you mean the Dark Spirit of the Millennium Ring? Where else do people go when losing a Shadow Game?"
"Then Bakura's gone too," sighed Maria, looking away from Yami.
"You will pay for this, Marik!" declared Yami.
"Save it," countered Maria, "There has been enough dueling for one day. Save your strength for the next round."
"Indeed," said Marik, "You will need all your strength to stand a chance against me!"
With that, Marik walked off, laughing his evil laugh.
"Maria!" said Téa, since the dark mist of the Shadow Realm vanished, "Why do you have the Ring?"
"Because it belonged to my previous incarnation. Bakura gained it by chance. And unfortunately, he's in the Shadow Realm right now," explained Maria, "But, now I'll be able to do more to help out, so long as the Ring answers to me."
"Then couldn't you bring Bakura and Mai back?" asked Téa.
"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that," said Maria, before turning to Yami, "The Millennium Items are always in a power struggle with one another. A duel like this helped determine which item was able to overrule the uses of another. Since Marik won against Bakura, the Ring isn't allowed to interfere with the Millennium Rod for some time. Now, it's late, and we all need sleep. Especially now that we lost yet another to the Shadow Realm."
"She's right Téa," said Yami, walking over to Téa, "It's over for now. We need to get some sleep."
"Also, that Evil Marik has been after Odion's life as well, so as a precaution, I have had him moved to a different room for safe keeping."
"That's good," sighed Téa, as the Marik within her was grateful for Maria's quick intervention, "We've lost more than enough people already."
The three of them returned downstairs to where the rooms were, and when Maria finally got back to her bed, she collapsed onto her back, strangely content with the day's events. Sure, Bakura shouldn't have been dragged into his dark spirit's affairs and thus the Shadow Realm, but hopefully with a full night's sleep and the Magic of the Millennium Ring at her command, she would be able to do more in the coming days.
(Recap End)
Unfortunately, a full night's sleep was cut short at the blimp started turning fast and without warning. Getting on her day clothes, Maria headed to the control room to see what's up.
"Sit rep me, Mokuba," said Maria.
"Something's wrong with the steering. We're veering off course," informed Mokuba.
"It's the auto-pilot!" added one of the pilots, "It's changed coordinates suddenly after the sun rose."
"Mokuba, move," ordered Maria, as Mokuba allowed Maria to sit at his control console.
Maria then started typing away at speeds no one could keep up with. It was then that Kaiba showed up.
"What's going on here!" demanded Kaiba.
"We've been hacked, sir," informed Maria, "I'm running a scan and malware broke through our Firewall, overriding the auto-pilot and taking control of the blimp."
"Can we regain control?" asked Kaiba, knowing Maria would be better than any of his other techs on board for counter-hacking.
"Not soon enough," said Maria, "Their code is older, and thus harder to counter against, but there's a modern spin here I'm having to learn as we go."
Just then, Yugi and friends showed up.
"Not a good time, Yugi," said Maria, "we've just been hijacked and we don't need the distraction!"
"Is that why we were woken up bright and early this morning!?" whined Joey.
"Is that tower meant to be our destination for the finals?" asked Yugi.
"Yes," said Kaiba, "You're looking at Kaiba's corps' hidden skeleton in its closet. The Original Kaiba Corp."
"Our step father, Gozaburo, ran the company before our takeover five years ago," informed Mokuba, "Back then, it was a Military company making the latest weapons in war technology. After the takeover, Seto destroyed all military factories as a sign of the more peaceful change in direction."
"Save the rest of the history lesson for later," said Maria, interrupting them, "Our hacker's bringing us to them. There's a submarine surfacing soon, and we're on course to meet it."
"Why thank you, that saves me the trouble of telling you your destination," said a voice over the intercoms. Soon the screen changed from the island to a young boy with Green Hair.
(AN1)
"Who are you!?" demanded Kaiba.
"It seems you haven't changed a bit, Seto," said the boy, "But I don't answer to you. Now, we play the game by my rules. I'll tell you more inside."
"Will our host do us a courtesy of informing us of his namesake?" asked Maria, trying a different tactic, getting on Seto's nerves.
"Why, of course Maria, since you asked so nicely," chuckled the boy, in a slightly condescending way that was pointedly at Seto, "I am Noah, and I'm inviting you into my home for the foreseeable future.
No later than saying that, the aforementioned Submarine breached the surface of the water and opened it's doors to let the Blimp inside as the auto-pilot led it to a perfect landing.
"Please exit the vehicle and enter the door in front of you," announced Noah.
Unbeknownst to Noah, Maria managed to connect with his system, giving her a backdoor entry just before the Blimp finished landing. Everyone minus the Ishtars and the employees departed the blimp and entered the room as directed.
"I'll leave you with my associates now," finished Noah, before he stopped speaking through the speakers.
"And just who are these associates?" asked Tristan.
"That would be us," came a voice as five silhouettes appeared behind a blinding backdrop.
"I know that voice," said Maria, as the lights dimmed a little, revealing five old men in business suites.
"Why yes," said another voice, "It is us, the Big 5."
"The Board of Kaibacorp!" followed another.
"Gansley, Crump, Johnson, Nesbitt, and Lector," clarified Mokuba.
(AN2)
"Ex-Board," clarified Seto, "You pigs betrayed me and I dumped you into that virtual world you planned to leave me in."
"You betrayed us first, Kaiba," replied the Gansley, "and now we're back to get revenge!"
"And thanks to Noah, we now have our chance!" added Nesbitt.
"However, since we no longer have our original bodies, we need new vessels," informed Johnson, "But don't worry, we can't just steal yours that easily."
"To that end, we propose a Tournament, a Duel Monsters Virtual World Tournament. Winners leave to real world, while the losers stay here in Cyberspace for all eternity!" continued Crump.
"But before we start, we must inform you of the rules," said Lector, "Let's begin the demonstration."
From there, the room lit up again, blinding the group for several seconds before they appeared in a jungle like area, fallen to the ground.
"Okay, not nice," grumbled Maria as everyone got up, taking in the prehistoric sights.
Maria studied the area around her, even as a giant dinosaur walked by and noticed them. She and Kaiba didn't even flinch as the Dino tried to swipe at them while the others panicked, only for the claws to pass through them without touching them.
"Calm down guys," said Maria, "We never left the room, this is just another virtual projection."
"I won't be intimidated by holograms," added Kaiba, who didn't even need to study the area to figure out what took Maria several seconds.
"Note that only two of your senses are interacting with this area, sight and sound," explained Maria as Téa reached out to touch a plant, only to pass through it.
Before long, another Seto Kaiba entered the clearing, wearing his pre-battle city attire. From the other side, Total Defense Shogun entered as well.
"In order for this tournament to be fair, we must introduce to you the rules we'll be adding alongside your battle city rules. The exhibition duel will be between Total Defense Shogun and a virtual Seto Kaiba," explained Gansley, "Total Defense Shogun will be acting as Deck Leader while Seto Kaiba's deck leader is Blue Eyes White Dragon."
As soon as he said it, a Blue Eyes appeared behind the Virtual Seto. Virtual Seto took the first turn and summoned Lord of Dragon, followed by Flute of Summoning Dragon to summon two more Blue Eyes to the field. He then moved his Deck Master Blue Eyes to the field as well before playing Polymerization to create Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
"As you can see, the Virtual Seto fused his Deck Master with two other Monsters," informed Gansley, "This new Monster is his new Deck Master as a result. This new monster is nearly unbeatable..."
Virtual Seto then used his Deck Master's Ability to allow Fusion Monsters to attack immediately.
"Now, Total Defense Shogun is also a Deck Master," added Gansley, "And thus he has his own ability. Total Defense Barrier, which acts as a Mirror Force against the Monster that declared an attack against it."
(AN3)
Sure enough, Total Defense Shogun blocked the attack and sent it back, destroying Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Since the Dragon was Virtual Seto's Deck Master, he lost the duel and was destroyed as well. Soon after, the room reverted back to white background and the Big Five appeared once more.
"Well, now that you know the rules, we can begin," said Lector.
"I beat you once before, and I can do so again," declared Kaiba.
"But wait, they didn't say who's going to be dueling," spoke up Téa.
"That's because they'll duel each of us until we win or they get our bodies," glared Maria, already having an idea on her deck.
"You chose a smart one to replace us Kaiba," said Johnson, "I'm not sure if we should be insulted or impressed."
"We'll see if those smarts can withstand the duels to come," added Nesbitt.
"Now, let us begin!" declared Lector.
(AN4)
Suddenly the floor began opening up below each of them, causing all of them to fall down the tubes, with a light show that eventually caused them to pass out.
(Chapter End)
Alright, on to Author Notes...
AN1: I'm pretty sure it's well known by now, but Noah is kinda meant to be a reference to Seto Kaiba in Season 0, who had green hair. And this kid's screwed the rules by commandeering the blimp.
AN2: This is mainly so I don't have to keep up the mystery in the fanfic. Even though my writing style is assumed prior knowledge of the events I'm writing about. Using names is so much easier, especially when you can just naturally introduce them.
AN3: Apparently there's more to this effect that what is scene, but since this is a ZTK (Zero Turn Kill), there's not much to really explain. Look up Deck Master rulings by TGS Anime. He does a good job explaining things.
AN4: I'm giving more speech parts to each of them randomly... just because.
Virtual World Arc has begun. Not entirely sure how many chapters this will take, because I will be skipping at least some of the duels, given the focus away from Maria, but I will be adding in some original material as well. Also, thanks to a review, I know who Maria is facing as well as when and why. So that helps, but because of what I'm trying to do to make it more interesting... well, you'll see next time.
So, until then...
Later,
RDF1