I apologize for these past couple chapters being really boring. I tried to cut this one as short as possible so I can move on with the story. To summarize: Chapter 8 is Yugi vs. Bakura; Chapter 9 is Marik vs. Mai; Chapter 10 is Kaiba vs. Ishizu. They have to be here for plot and stuff. I'm going to go into Noah's virtual world, but I'm going to cut that short as well. It will only last a couple chapters. Then I'll jump back to battle city for the final battles. If you watched the episodes from here on out, they won't help much. I'll be taking chunks out, changing the story line a bit, and wrapping up. My guess is another six or seven chapters and I'll be done.

Chapter 10: A Duel with Destiny

"Stop! I have arrived!" a female voice called out from the now opening elevator. I sensed a familiar, yet strange, presence from the duelist. I realized I had noticed it earlier but paid no attention to it. The woman walked out onto the arena. She was dressed in familiar looking Egyptian attire.

"I can't be…" I murmured.

"Duelist state your name," Roland demanded.

She removed a veil that covered her lower face before speaking. "I am Ishizu Ishtar," she stated boldly. "And I have foreseen your failure, Kaiba." She looked thoughtfully at me then Yugi, but said nothing to us.

"That's just great," Joey commented in frustration. "One Ishtar is bad enough, but two?"

"I don't think we have anything to fear from this one, though," I told him.

"What are you talking about?" Kaiba demanded from Ishizu. "I'm going to destroy you with the very card you gave me, Obelisk the Tormentor!"

"You are wrong Kaiba. If you play that card, it will be your downfall," she informed him calmly.

"Let's just duel and see how wrong you are," Kaiba snarled. Both of their duel disks activated simultaneously and the match began. "I summon Vorse Raider, in attack mode, and set two cards face down."

"I summon Keldo in attack position and end my turn," Ishizu said without hesitation.

"You think you can beat me with lame moves like that?" Kaiba threatened. "Vorse Raider, attack!" Keldo was destroyed, but Ishizu didn't even flinch from the move.

"You attacked just as my Millennium Necklace showed me," she stated. "I summon Mudora and equip it with this magic card that raises its attack to 2100. And now I will attack Vorse Raider."

"I activate my face down card, Shrink!" Kaiba countered. "It cuts the attack of one monster on the field by 1500. And I'll choose Vorse Raider. Then I'll activate my Crush Card. By sacrificing Vorse Raider, I destroy Mudora and any other monster that has an attack of 1500 or more!"

"A very good move, Kaiba," Ishizu commented as she discarded almost half of her deck. "But as my Millennium Necklace has shown me, I do not need strong monsters to beat you."

"Is she kidding? There's no way she can win without a strong monster, especially if Kaiba summons his Egyptian god," I noted to the others.

"Again with this Millennium Item nonsense?" Kaiba asked angrily. "When will you fools realize that this magic doesn't exist? All of you are a bunch of idiots!" He then drew a card to begin his turn.

"My necklace tells me you drew Virus Cannon," she told him. Kaiba's eyes went wide and he just stared at her. "I take your silence as a yes. Go ahead and play your trap card."

"Fine! I play Virus Cannon!" Kaiba yelled. "It forces you to discard ten of your magic cards from your deck."

"Very well, ten cards it is," she replied calmly.

"Wow, talk about playing with half a deck…" Joey thought out loud.

"Now for my turn," Ishizu continued. "I play Swords of Revealing Light. Now you can't attack for three turns."

"Stalling for time are you?" Kaiba laughed. "It doesn't matter if I gave you twenty turns, you still couldn't beat me."

"Three turns will be enough, thank you," Ishizu replied almost jokingly. "But for now I will set a card face down and end my turn."

After drawing his next card, Kaiba started laughing. "I just drew the card that will be your downfall! Obelisk the Tormentor! Lucky for you, I need three monsters to summon it. So I'll summon Dark Goblin, in defense mode. And end my turn."

No comment or change in expression came from Ishizu. She drew a card and nodded at it before placing it in her hand. "I summon a monster in defense mode, place another card face down, and end my turn."

"Sounds like your plan of stalling isn't working out too well," Kaiba commented as he drew. He was about to pass his turn when Ishizu spoke up again.

"I activate my trap card, Exchange of the Spirit!" she declared. "I forces us to switch the cards in our decks with those in our graveyard."

Kaiba's face turned to a look of pure horror. He only had a few cards in his graveyard and Ishizu had over half of her deck in hers. This put Kaiba at a serious disadvantage. If it got to the point where he couldn't draw any cards he would lose automatically.

"With my next turn I summon another monster in defense position," Ishizu said as she made her move.

Kaiba drew, but ended his turn immediately without doing anything. Ishizu's Swords of Revealing Light wore off after that. "Looks like your ploy didn't work. After three turns you haven't summoned a single monster that can beat me."

"Like I said, I don't need monster's to beat you," Ishizu replied calmly. "I summon another monster in defense position."

"Ha! You just played into my hand!" Kaiba said excitedly.

"What's Kaiba talking about?" Tristan asked. "He's about to lose and he still thinks he's going to win."

"He must have a way to summon his Egyptian god card, Obelisk the Tormentor," Yugi told us in suspense.

"What is it?" I asked curiously.

"I activate Soul Exchange!" Kaiba answered my question with his move. "It allows me to use your monsters for a tribute summon! I'll take all three of them to summon Obelisk the Tormentor!" The giant monster rose out of what seemed to be nothing and towered over the entire arena. The power that came from it seemed to be dark and empty, but endless at the same time. "Obelisk the Tormentor…" Kaiba's command trailed off.

"Why is he hesitating?" I wondered. Suddenly I felt several spiritual energy sources react. Two of them, I noticed, were my bracelet and Yugi's puzzle.

"What's going on?" Kaiba shouted. "Why am I being shown these things?" The Millennium Items seemed to be responding to Kaiba, the very person that didn't believe in their power. For the first time during the duel, Ishizu looked surprised. Kaiba regained his composure to make a very surprising move. "I sacrifice Dark Goblin and Obelisk the Tormentor to summon my Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

"What in the world is he doing?" Duke asked in amazement. "His god card is much stronger than his dragon."

"How can this be? This is not what I saw!" Ishizu exclaimed in fear as she took a step back.

"Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack!" Kaiba ordered his monster. The dragon obeyed its master and wiped out the rest of Ishizu's life points.

"And the winner is Seto Kaiba!" Roland announced.

"As if there was any doubt," Kaiba snorted as he turned to leave.

I shook my head. "What just happened?" I thought. I stared at my bracelet in wonderment. "What exactly did Kaiba see? It must have been something that was incredible enough to convince Kaiba not to attack with his Egyptian god."

"Brian, did you feel that as well?" Yugi's question broke into my thoughts. I looked at him and nodded. "I felt the energy of several Millennium Items, possibly all that are here. I think there's something about Kaiba that none of us knows. Maybe something that even he doesn't know."

"Hey, you guys coming?" Téa asked us. Joey, Tristan, and Duke had already headed down and were gone. The three of us stepped into the elevator when it got back up to our level and went down looking for them. "So, was that the same woman we met at the museum?"

"Yeah, it was," I told her. "What I want to know is what exactly happened up there. No matter how many times I look at the duel in my head, Obelisk would have won. Ishizu had no monsters or any other cards on the field when Kaiba's god card was going to attack. It just doesn't add up."

"Well, don't worry about it too much," Téa comforted me. "At least it wasn't you out there."

"Not yet," I replied. "No matter who I go up against in the next round, I'll have to face one of the god cards." Just then the doors opened and we stepped out into the hallway. Téa grabbed my hand and stepped up to my right and Yugi came up on my other side.

"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you," Yugi laughed. We walked into the selection room again, hoping to see who was going to duel first in the next round. Roland and Mokuba were standing on the platform next to the lottery machine.

"Okay, Roland, everyone's here," Mokuba told him.

"Attention, duelists," Roland began. "The official four remaining duelists are as follows: Brian Matthews, Yugi Moto, Marik Ishtar, and Seto Kaiba. The tournament will continue when we reach our final destination tomorrow morning. Until then, you are free to use the facilities that are on board."

"I'm gonna go check on Mai," Joey stated as he left. "Catch you guys in the morning."

"Well, better get some sleep while we can," Tristan told us. Then a grin came to his face. "Aren't you sharing our room, Téa?"

Téa rolled her eyes. "There's no way I'm spending the night with you two," she said defiantly. "Especially not with Tristan. Not after what happened at Yugi's sleep over on his last birthday."

"It's okay, Téa," I assured her. "You can stay with me."

"I'll bet," Tristan snickered as he and Duke left the room.

Everyone else had left while we were talking so, once again, it was just me, Yugi, and Téa. Or so we thought. We turned to leave when a voice quietly called out to us. "Lord Yami, may I speak with you?"

"Ishizu?" Téa questioned when she saw the woman.

"I am glad to see you two are helping the Pharaoh like you promised," she said with a slight smile. "Formalities aside, I have a favor to ask you, Yami."

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's my brother, Marik," she explained. "He wasn't always like this. Ever since he took the tomb keeper's test, he has been inhabited by an evil presence. It has just recently became more powerful and taken over my brother completely. I must ask you to save him."

"Save him? He nearly drowned Yugi and Joey!" I exclaimed. "Then he endangered my girlfriend and trapped Mai's mind in the Shadow Realm! And if that doesn't take the cake, he's a threat to the entire world!"

"That's right! We could have been killed!" Téa piped in.

"I assure you that it was evil within his body that did those terrible things," Ishizu commented. "I believe that it has also sent my brother's real soul was sent to the Shadow Realm as well. Please, I beg you, help him."

"I don't know…" I thought out loud. "Your call, Yugi. What do you think?"

"I think we should at least try," Yugi answered after a thinking for a few moments. "But no matter what happens, his evil must be stopped!"

"Thank you very much, my king," Ishizu responded. "I hope this helps you in your struggle. My Millennium Necklace. It no longer shows me the future, but perhaps it will be of better use to you."

"Thank you, Ishizu," Yugi thanked her as he took the item from her. "I'm sure it will aid us in our fight."

"Attention. Lights out in two minutes," a voice called out through the loud speaker.

"Better get to our rooms," Yugi suggested. He turned and walked to his room after saying good-night. I was going to do the same when I noticed Téa wasn't following me. I turned back around and listened to her talk to Ishizu.

"Ishizu, wait," Téa pleaded. The other woman looked to Téa questioningly. "Please, I have to know, when we defeat the evil in Marik, will the world be safe again? Or is there another evil out there somewhere?"

"I do not know," Ishizu responded. "Yugi is the one that has the power to answer that now. Good night Téa, Brian."

"Yeah…" Téa said quietly. The two of us silently walked back to my room to get some sleep. We passed Mai's room on the way and saw Joey sitting in a chair by her side. We waved to Serenity, who was the only one in there that noticed us walk by. "Poor Joey. I hope this will be over soon."

"Me, too," I replied. I quickly opened the door to my room upon arrival and we stepped in. Téa sat on the bed and removed her shoes and socks then wiggled her toes. I stepped up to the window and looked out onto the city below. I decided to try to cheer Téa up a bit by asking what happened at Yugi's sleep over, but when I turned to her, she was curled up on the bed, fast asleep. I crept over and gently pulled the sheets up over her shoulder before bending down and kissing her lightly on the head.

"Sleep tight," I whispered. I sat down in a chair where I found myself drifting off to sleep.