Yu-Gi-Oh!: Avatar

Fanfic Chapter 8: Hidden Ally
Episode Basis: Duel With a Ghoul

Previously on Yu-Gi-Oh: Coming to the aid of a Duelist in need, Yugi and the others stumbled upon Kimo, one of Pegasus' guards, who was forcibly taking a kid off the island because he lost all his star chips and his cards even though the kid said that they were stolen. The thief turned out to be Mokuba Kaiba, the younger brother of Seto Kaiba. Mokuba wanted to eliminate Yugi so Pegasus wouldn't have to face him. Mokuba revealed that some corrupt Kaiba-Corp. executives made a deal with Pegasus that if he could defeat Yugi in a duel, they would turn over control of Kaiba-Corp. over to him. Yugi convinced Mokuba to aid them but it was Kimo who had the last laugh. Not only did he send the boat before the agreed upon time limit expired, but he knocked the kid's star chips and some of Yugi's as well into the water. He then grabbed Mokuba. Yugi volunteered to duel for Mokuba's freedom, but Kimo revealed that Yugi's opponent would be none other than... Seto Kaiba?! Whom Kimo says is a "ghost." But is it Seto Kaiba or is it not Seto Kaiba?


Kimo was laughing at his own joke. "Yugi, you don't stand a ghost of a chance beating Kaiba, because this time, he really is a ghost."

"A ghost?!" Yugi gasped.

"Stop it, Kimo!" Mokuba snapped.

"For a ghost, he looks pretty solid to me," Harold commented.

"It's the truth. Two witnesses saw him fall to his death!"

Yugi and his friends all gasped in horror at that.

"Liar! Take back what you said."

"Get used to it," Kimo said. "All that's left of Kaiba is your memories... plus one really cranky ghost just looking for revenge."

"There're no such things as ghosts!" Harold snapped.

"And that's not Kaiba!" Yugi threw in.

"Well... he's seen better days. So I guess it's time to duel with the ghoul."

"It can't be! That guy's nothing but a fake! A trick by Pegasus! Don't worry, Mokuba, I'll win your freedom!"


Speaking of Pegasus, the eccentric millionaire was watching this conflict on his view screen. He laughed, "This is extremely entertaining! I just love reality TV."

"Who is Yugi dueling?" Croquet asked.

"It's Kaiba, or what's left of him. The poor boy had shown so much promise."

"But how... he... it's... how did you do that?" Croquet stuttered.

"I really can't take all the credit; I had help... from Yugi."

Croquet's head was spinning.

"And now, to return the favor, I'm going to teach him a lesson about the true power of the Millennium Items!"


"Yugi," 'Kaiba' spoke. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"That's enough!"

"I am no longer of this world, and it's all because of you."

Yugi was rapidly losing his patience.

"I could've had it all. But when you beat me, you took away more than just the match; you took away my life and destroyed my soul."

"I've heard enough, it's time to start the duel!"

"Well, go to it!" Kimo ordered Harold.

"Huh?"

"An official match must be overseen by a Watcher."

"Forget it!" Harold snapped. "I only watch over fair duels, and this couldn't be furthest from it!"

"You better," Kimo said taking out a gun. "Or the brat gets a new air hole if you know what I mean."

"This time, you won't beat my cards."

"You may look like Kaiba, but there's no way you can imitate his deck!"

"You mean my deck."

Yugi growled.

"Beat him, Yugi!" Mokuba cheered. "He's nothing but a fake."

"Yeah, that don't even look like Kaiba!"

"That's right," Tea threw in, then amended, "Wait, if it's not a ghost, and it's not Kaiba, then...?"

Yugi! It was Kaiba, his thoughts penetrating Yugi's mind. I know you can sense my thoughts and I know you can see the truth. I am Kaiba, but this time you're dueling someone who has nothing to lose! "Kimo, once I beat Yugi, Pegasus can have Kaiba Corporation. All I want is revenge. Three stars say I win."

"Fine, that means when the duel's done, I'll have six!"

Harold took his place on the Watcher platform and cast Yugi an apologetic glance. He then announced, "This Duel Monsters match puts Yugi Moto versus Seto Kaiba..."

"It's not him!" Mokuba argued but was silenced harshly by Kimo.

Harold was reluctant but he continued. "The winner will receive six star chips. Let's duel!"

(Y: 2000)
(K: 2000)

"Guess I'll go first," Kaiba decided. "And I'll start off with the Hitotsu-me Giant!" A green one-eye monster wearing a loin cloth appeared.

Yugi gasped.

"Is something wrong, Yugi? It's your turn to move."

The Hitotsu-me Giant is how Kaiba started our last duel.

"There's a card just like that in my brother's deck!"

"Hey, just 'cause it's the same card doesn't mean it's the same deck!" Joey argued.

"The Hitotsu-me Giant is a common card if I'm not mistaken," Harold said. "There're probably twenty decks with that type of card!"

He's trying to confuse me by making the same move that Kaiba did. But it'll have the same result! "I'll start off with this card! Go, Dark Magician!" The magician appeared. "Dark Magic Attack!" The Dark Magician held out his hand and the giant fell to pieces. "So much for your Giant!"

(Y: 2000)
(K: 700)

Kaiba didn't seem worried by it. "You're as strong as ever, Yugi," he laughed.

"What's with that Carbon-Copy Kaiba?" Joey asked. "He's laughing like he doesn't even care!"

"It's funny how things have come full circle, Yugi. What are you thinking in that feeble brain of yours? I bet I know, you've come to the conclusion that no matter what, there's no way you can win. And you'd be right. Even a simpleton like you now knows that I must be Seto Kaiba. And once you accept that fact, you might as well accept defeat!"

"I don't care who you are," Yugi returned. "You're going to lose to me just the same."

"But Yugi, you barely beat me the last time we dueled, and this time your big advantage is gone."

"What do you mean?"

"Exodia, you've lost Exodia." Yugi gasped. "You could only beat me with Exodia in your deck and without it, you can only lose."

Hey wait a minute, Harold thought. How would Kaiba know that Yugi lost Exodia? It happened after their first duel and on the boat out of the eye reach of any of Pegasus' spies. Kaiba wasn't there, so who told him?


The Kaiba mansion was being guarded by two of Pegasus' guards. They were stationed there to keep any intruders out.

But one intruder got by them: Seto Kaiba!

Despite evidence to the contrary, he survived his leap of faith by holding onto a ledge. After getting back up, he made his way back to the Kaiba mansion. He jumped the fence on the side and opened up a secret underground staircase leading inside. Once inside, he accessed a secret passageway that led to a control room hidden behind a book shelf. He booted up his super computer.

"Running identification protocol, please state your name," a female voice announced.

"Seto Kaiba," Kaiba recited.

"I thought I seen it all," the computer said as the boot up screen came on. "But having to break into your own house?"

"It's too long a story for right now."

"'Too long a story'? Well maybe I'm not in a talkative mood myself," the computer said in a snooty voice.

"I'd find that hard to believe."

"Such a smart boy, while you were out gallivanting a hostile takeover of Kaiba Corporation has begun."

"I know."

"At the same time, Maxamillian Pegasus kicked off his Duel Monsters Championship at Duelist Kingdom." Images of both person and place appeared on the front screen followed by a new picture: Yugi Moto. "If Yugi Moto can be defeated by

Pegasus or a competitor representing him, then the new Kaiba Corporation board has promised him complete control of the company!"

"He won't win," assured Kaiba. "His deck has Exodia." Kaiba shivered. Even now, seeing Exodia destroy all three of his Blue-Eyes White Dragons chilled him to the bone.

"Yeah, well, sometime after you lost to Yugi, he lost Exodia."

"No way!" Kaiba said surprised.

"It's true. A third-party scan of Yugi Moto's deck revealed that Exodia is not included among the cards." Kaiba lowered his head. "When it rains, it pours. Pegasus knows all about the corporate bylaws that require a living Kaiba heir to make any change of control legal. Mokuba's his prisoner and with you out of the way, it seems like Pegasus will exert all kinds of pressure to make your brother do what he wants, one way or another. So now you know. What are we going to do?"

"They'll keep my brother safe at least until the takeover is complete so I got to make sure that Pegasus doesn't defeat Yugi in a duel, no matter what. I'm not going to give up Kaiba Corporation without a real fight! It's take over time... by me! We're going to hack right into Pegasus' computer mainframe. Next stop... the Duelist Kingdom!"


Yugi was rapidly becoming upset at Kaiba's verbal attack. "Are you here to play head games or Duel Monsters? It's time for your move."

Kaiba laughed evily. "And it's gonna blow your mind." He took a card from his hand. "This next card's a blast from the past... with am emphasis on blast!" He turned the card around so that Yugi could see it.

It was the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Yugi had never been more startled... and frightened in his life.

"I attack with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" The dragon rose from the ground.

Yugi's friends were horrified. "Only one deck's got that," Joey said.

"That means... what they say is true," Mokuba realized. "My brother really is dead!"

"Looks like the advantage is mine," Kaiba pointed out.

So this really IS Kaiba's deck, Yugi thought. There's no other explanation. But does that mean that Kaiba is...

"Don't worry, Yugi, my feelings weren't hurt when you called me a liar. Now admit you were wrong!" Yugi scowled. "Not having a body really isn't so bad; you wouldn't believe what I save in food bills alone. But I still get to enjoy the finer things in life, like revenge! And I'm going to savior its sweet taste for a very long time."

"Shut up!" Mokuba cried. "Please, someone make him go away!"

Joey, Tristan, and Tea could only watch in horror.

"Almost breaks my heart... if I had one."


"We've easily broken through the Duelist Kingdom's computer system," the computer announced as a map of the island appeared on the main screen.

"Too easy," Kaiba thought out loud. "Okay, when it comes to computer duels, Pegasus has met his match. Now, it should be a piece of cake to find the field in which Yugi was dueling."

"I'm looking, I'm looking... access denied!" An error message appeared on the screen.

Kaiba shot up, "What did you do wrong?"

"Don't blame me, I finally found the security and it's all around Yugi's data."

"I should've known. Fine by me; all right, Pegasus, go ahead and give it your best shot. There isn't a computer system in the world that I can't break into. Here's the thing, every computer has a back door if you know where to look. And guess where we're going to look."

"Search me."

"It'll be quicker if I take over on manual for a while," Kaiba said as he began programming codes. "Data from all the duels is being beamed from the island and to an orbiting Industrial Illusions satellite and back down to their main frame. These transmissions are obviously highly encrypted. If we can somehow force the Industrial Illusions computer offline, I'm sure their back up systems won't have as much security."

"Are you saying we can make their computer crash from here? But how?"

"A computer crash is exactly what I had in mind. The biggest computer crash ever, and I'm going to use Pegasus's own satellite to do it."

"But I've already tried to hack into their systems!"

"My idea's different. Once the security's down, we should be able to freely access the data. Be ready with a search for the Dark Magician. If Yugi's dueling, he's likely to use that card."

"Gotcha, Dark Magician inquiry standing by."

"Excellent."

"So spill it already, how are we going to use Industrial Illusion's own satellite to bring down their computer?"

"By bringing down the satellite itself, down all the way!"

The computer began loading the satellite schematics. "M-class pregnant series. Booster rocket controls online. Searching for orbital coordinates." The screen showed graphic details of what was happening. "Breaching on board computer security.

You are now the proud owner of an Industrial Illusions satellite."

"Great! Now plot a crash course for the computer mainframe."

"Uploading new coordinates now."


In space, the satellite's boosters fired and the satellite started to descend to Earth. Its target was the computer mainframe on top of the Industrial Illusions' headquarters.


Kaiba watched this with a smirk that just screamed 'I'm right!' "Virus software won't stop this. Pegasus, you're on notice that Kaiba Corporation's still mine."

"Satellite impact in ten seconds!"


The satellite struck its target dead on causing an intense shockwave and tremor.


All this was unknown to the people gathered around Field 146 where Pseudo-Kaiba was relishing in his summoning the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. So much so that he decided NOT to attack Yugi, preferring to draw out his victory. He laid a card face-down.

There's more to this than meets the eye, Yugi thought. "Dark Magician, go to defense mode." Turning the card sideways caused the Dark Magician to genuflect. "And I summon the Curse of Dragon on the defense as well." The Curse of Dragon's wings were closed up around it.

"Smart playing, Yugi, unfortunately it wasn't smart enough. You played right into my hand: Defense Paralysis!"

"A trap!" Yugi's two monsters were switched to attack mode.

"Now all your monsters on the field have switched to attack mode. And they'll stay that way as long as my card's out."

Joey, Tea, and Tristan gasped.

"It's time. Blue-Eyes White Dragon, use your White Lightning!" Kaiba's dragon blew Yugi's away.

"Yugi!"

(Y: 1000)
(K: 700)


Field 530 had three monsters, but none of them were the Dark Magician.

"Still no Dark Magician," Kaiba said. He was beginning to wonder if Yugi was even playing it.

"We've exhausted almost every possibility of locating Yugi Moto. Field 146 is the final active duel."

"Then, search Field 146."

The screen showed a hallway leading to a large metallic-like door with the number on it. The "camera" zoomed in but suddenly froze up.

"What's that?"

"Looks like I crashed."

"Reboot," Kaiba ordered. The screen unfroze. "Enter Field 146!"

"I'm frozen again! Its worse this time," the computer said.

"Hold on," Kaiba said as he ran an analysis. "I see, it's a virus, and a good one at that. That can mean only one thing: searching for Yugi's cards activates the virus. Yugi's inside! Get ready to go in!"

"But the security door!"

"I've come this far already and I'm not about to blow it. Actually... yes I am." He sent the cyber equivalent of dynamite at the security door and blew it open. "Huh, what's that?" The screen showed a large castle surrounded by an ocean.

"It's a virtual fortress. Sensors indicate that all the information from Yugi's duels is processed here." The image zoomed in to the large metal door. "You won't blow your way through this thing, it's the ultimate defense and it's impossible to penetrate it without the password."

Kaiba smirked. "A password. Knowing Pegasus, that ego maniac wouldn't think that anyone would outsmart him and get this far. We're going in!"

"The password?"

"Pegasus."


How can I defeat his Blue-Eyes White Dragon?

"Yugi," Kimo called. "You got to admit for a stiff, this Kaiba sure got game!"

"That's not my brother!" Mokuba said practically screaming at Kimo. He turned to Yugi. "Yugi, you know that's not him! Everyone thinks he's a bad guy. But I know my brother and he's not mean like this, he's my best friend in the whole world. That thing's not him!"

Mokuba really holds his brother on a high horse, Harold thought.

Yugi was thinking something entirely different. I wish I could be as sure as you are, Mokuba. I don't know what to believe. What I do know for sure is that this duel isn't over yet! "Magical Hats, conceal the Dark Magician!" The Dark Magician disappeared and four hats with question marks appeared. "He's under there somewhere, but which one?"

"Are you so simple that you have your Dark Magician doing simple hat tricks?"

"It's not a trick and it's not so simple. Your move, but you better think twice before you choose. Just do the math: four hats, only a 25 chance you'll find the Dark Magician. The real question is: what else is hiding underneath."

Kaiba's eyes widened.

"Way to go, Yugi!" Joey called. "Now that's what I call pulling one outta your hat."

"All right!" Mokuba cheered.


"You were right about the password!" The computer said as the doors opened. "The virtual fortress is unlocked, we now have access to Yugi's data and it was just his turn."

"Pegasus thinks he can make up all the rules in this game, but he could've never thought of this brand new twist: I'm back!"


At the dueling field, Kaiba's shock was replaced by cockiness. "So predictable, Yugi. I know where your Dark Magician hides."

"If you're so sure, than move."

"It's a shame this duel's going to end so soon. White Lightning!" The dragon launched an attack towards one of the hats.

If he picks the right hat, I'll lose more than just this duel, much more!

To Be Continued