Hopefully this chapter won't be as worthless as the last three. Téa fans out there will be happy to know that she gets to duel in this one. I only wish she dueled more in the show so I could give her more options during the match. Anyway, she becomes a hero when she saves a certain dueling prodigy from losing his body to the Big Five. Who is it? You'll have to read to find out.

Chapter 11: Virtual World, part 1

I was awakened from my sleep by the feeling of something warm and soft being pressed against my lips. When I stirred, the feeling slowly left and I heard a quiet snap. I opened my eyes to see Téa's face pulling back from mine. Her eyes were closed and her lips were puckered. "Well, good morning to you, too," I said. Her sapphire eyes opened and she smiled sweetly. "Maybe I should let you stay with me more often."

"Let's go. Everyone's probably waiting for us already," she said while tugging me from the chair. I stood and we made our way to the door. Just as it opened, Kaiba came storming down the hall past us. "What's up with him?"

"Must have lost his teddy bear," I joked. Shortly after my comment, Yugi and the others came through. "Hey, guys, what's up?"

"Something's wrong with the blimp," Duke responded. "Some technical glitch or something."

Now worried, I followed my friends to go after Kaiba. We caught up with him on the bridge of the aircraft where he was demanding to know what was going on. None of the technicians knew what the problem was. One of them suggested that someone was controlling the craft remotely.

"Restart the main computer and get us back on course!" Kaiba ordered.

"We can't sir. We've been completely locked out," someone replied.

"Get out of my way!" Kaiba furiously shoved him out of the way and began to type rapidly on the keyboard. He slammed his fist down on the console when the system wouldn't obey his commands. "Blast it! I want to know who's doing this! NOW!"

"Now, now, Seto. Yelling will get you nowhere," a voice echoed through the speaker system. It sounded like a child.

"Who are you?" Kaiba demanded. "How dare you interrupt my tournament!"

"You will find out soon enough, Seto," the voice answered. The communication line cut out soon after that.

"Where did that communication come from?" Kaiba asked one of the techs. He pointed to an island that was just coming into view.

"Seto, the landing sequence has been started," Mokuba spoke up when we got closer to the island. "Looks like this guy wants us to drop in for a visit."

"Oh, I'll give him a visit he won't forget anytime soon," Kaiba replied as the blimp descended.

The speaker crackled to life again. "When you have landed I want to meet with you and your friends. All of them," the voice said. A large opening appeared on the island and the blimp slowly descended into the hanger where it was securely locked down. We followed Kaiba down the boarding ramp, which had been lowered automatically upon landing. A few of Kaiba's guards began to follow us out, but the doors slammed shut in their faces. "I said I wanted to meet with you and your friends, not your hired help. Now, if you will proceed through the door in front of you, our little meeting will begin."

We cautiously stepped through the door, going from the metal hanger to a lush tropical forest. Téa bent down and smelled one of the flowers. "It smells so beautiful," she commented.

"Don't get used to it," Kaiba told her. "It's not real." I watched as Téa touched the plant, but instead of touching it her hand passed right through it.

"How did you know it was fake, Kaiba?" Yugi asked curiously.

"It's quite simple," Kaiba explained. "I designed the technology myself. What I want to know is how this guy got it."

"Very good, Seto," the same disembodied voice said. "And as for how I obtained it, there are some old friends of yours that will explain. Before they do, however, I would like to propose some new dueling rules to you."

"Are you kidding?" Kaiba retorted. "You drag me away from an important tournament and expect to offer me a business proposition? You're more pathetic than I thought."

"Before you turn it down, why not try it out?" the voice continued. Someone walked out of the edge of the forest. It looked like Kaiba, except he was wearing different clothes. The second Kaiba wore a duel disk on his arm. A monster appeared across from him. The mystery voice began the lengthy explanation while the fake Kaiba took the actions. "Now watch carefully. My new rules demand that one monster in your deck will become your guardian, otherwise known as a deck master. For all intents and purposes let's say you choose Blue Eyes White Dragon. Each deck master will stay out of play until they are called upon by the duelist. In this demonstration Kaiba will call his dragon to the field and fuse it with two others into the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Normally fusion monsters can't attack in the turn they are summoned, but since it was fused by the means of the deck master, it can. In my version, each duelist begins a match with 4000 life points and the monster would finish off the other duelist with one attack. But when the monster attacks, the ability of the other deck master activates, in this case, Deep Sea Warrior's ability is that it destroys a monster that attacks directly. Since the deck master was part of that monster, it is destroyed and Kaiba loses, even though his life points are completely intact. Each deck master has its own abilities, but I'm afraid I can't tell you what they are. You'll have to find out yourselves."

"Whatever, I don't accept your rules. Now, let us out of here so I can finish my tournament," Kaiba said without even thinking it over.

"But don't you want to see who gave Noah your virtual world technology?" a different voice asked.

"Noah? Is that the kid that hijacked the tournament?" I wondered.

"That's right, Brian Matthews," yet another voice answered.

"How does he know your name, Brian? Have you met these people before?" Téa questioned me. I shook my head in a negative response. The jungle that we were in vanished and turned into a pitch-black room. A door opened in front of us, revealing five people standing in a backdrop of bright light.

"I thought I recognized those voices," Kaiba stated. "Gansley, Crump, Johnson, Nezbitt, and Leichter. So this is the rock you've been hiding under."

"And they are…who?" I asked.

"They're the Big Five. They were the board of directors of Kaiba Corp until they tried to get rid of Seto and we fired them," Mokuba explained.

"After you fired us, Kaiba, Master Noah saved us by putting our minds into his virtual world," one of them spoke. "However, we don't have bodies anymore."

"So what's that got to do with us?" Joey asked.

"Our minds need new bodies, that's where you come in," explained a fourth voice.

"We aren't going to give up our bodies without a fight," Tristan threatened.

"That's what we were hoping for," the fifth member said ominously.

"Joey!" I heard a scream from behind me. I looked back to see Serenity drop into a hole that appeared underneath her.

"Serenity!" Duke and Tristan shouted at the same time. They ran to the spot she was standing in only to be swallowed by a second hole. Joey was the next to go.

"Brian! Help!" Téa screamed at me as she dropped. I dove towards her and managed to grab her hand as she fell. I started to pull her up, but the hole opened even more and I fell in too. My left hand instinctively clutched the edge of the top. I hung for a few seconds by one hand with Téa's hand in my other. I looked up to see Yugi reach out to me, but the hole opened further and my grip on solid ground gave way. Together, Téa and I fell into darkness.

We fell for at least a minute until a light appeared below us. We fell into it and landed hard on solid ice. Somehow I ended up under Téa and her slender form landed on top of me. It took her a moment to realize what she landed on, but when she did she quickly got off of me.

"Ice. Why couldn't it have been grass? Or a pile of feathers?" I asked, rubbing my lower back in pain. "Are you okay, sweet heart?"

"Yeah. Lucky for me I had something soft to land on," Téa replied as she helped me to my feet. "I didn't hurt you did I?"

"No, I'm fine," I assured her. I looked around to see where we were. It looked like Antarctica. "I don't see Yugi or the others. We must be on our own."

"Okay, so what now?" she asked nervously.

"I guess we wander around and see if we can find our friends or a way out," I suggested. She agreed and we began walking across the frozen water. A cold gust of wind blew against us and Téa moved closer to me. She was shivering from the cold so I wrapped my arm around her in an attempt to warm her up.

When we got further away from land the ice under our feet began to crack. I immediately took a step back, pulling Téa with me. All that happened was it cracked even more and faster. Before we could react anymore it shattered, but instead of falling into freezing water, a large pillar of ice carried us up off the ground several feet. Across from us was another pillar of the same height. On top stood a giant penguin wearing a top hat and a dress suit.

"Well, isn't this a pleasure," the penguin said in a familiar voice. "Brian and Téa, are you ready to lose your bodies to me?"

"You're one of the Big Five aren't you?" I questioned him.

"You catch on quick. I'm the second of the Big Five, but you can call me Crump," he said. "Now, prepare to say good-bye to each other. You're about to lose your bodies to me!"

"I won't go down so easily, Crump," I challenged. I reached for my deck on my belt, but he stopped me from doing so.

"Your deck is invalid here. You both must choose a virtual deck from the card database," he explained. A duel disk appeared on Téa's arm and a scrolling list of cards appeared in front of each of us. "Just touch the cards you want and they'll be added to your virtual decks."

I quickly tapped the cards from my deck that saw and the deck appeared in my duel disk. I looked at Téa as she finished her selections.

"The next thing to do is choose a deck master," Crump continued. "I have already taken on the form of my deck master, Nightmare Penguin."

"I choose Dark Magician Girl as my deck master," Téa said boldly. She had chosen a powerful monster so I figured she had an idea of what she was doing. I had never seen Téa duel before, but from the stories I heard, she knew at least the basics. Plus, she had me to back her up.

I smiled slightly and looked through my monsters. I was about to pick Seiyariyu when something caught my eye. It was Buster Blader. In the picture, he was holding his sword in both hands. Suddenly, he rested the sword on his shoulder, crossed his arm across his chest and bowed. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them quickly. The card had returned to its original image. At that moment I knew what card to pick.

"My deck master is Buster Blader!" I said just as bravely as Téa did. Téa, Dark Magician Girl, and I watched the warrior appear with his sword resting on his shoulder, just like I had seen when the card moved. "You don't stand a chance, Crump," I informed him. "I'll make the first move. I summon Masked Dragon in defense mode."

"I summon Petite Angel in defense mode," Téa declared as she made her move after mine.

"Now for my attack," our opponent said. "I activate A Legendary Ocean. This card decreases the level of all water monsters by one and raises their attack and defense by 200. Then I'll summon The Legendary Fisherman in attack mode. My deck master ability increases the attack of all water monsters by 200. Now I'll set two cards face down and play Stop Defense and change Petite Angel to attack mode. Fisherman, attack!"

"No! Masked Dragon, block the attack!" I shouted. My dragon dove in front of the attack and saved Téa's monster as well as her life points. "You're forgetting that there are two opponents. And, as Téa's partner, I can block your attacks with my own monsters if I wish. Since my dragon was destroyed by an attack, I get to summon another dragon to my field. I choose Armed Dragon LV3."

"Fine, but it's not like it will help you. I end my turn here," Crump finished.

"It'll help more than you know," I said as I drew a card. "I sacrifice Armed Dragon LV3, to summon Armed Dragon LV5! It has an attack of 2400, enough to take more than half of your life points."

"What about The Legendary Fisherman?" Téa asked.

"When Umi, or a card that represents it, is on the field, The Legendary Fisherman cannot be attacked," I explained. "There is a flaw to that. Since I can't attack the monster, I get to bypass it and go straight for his life points. Go Armed Dragon!" The monster charged at Crump with a fist raised. I grinned. I was pulling out all the stops because I wasn't about to let anyone take mine or Téa's body.

"Normally I'd be scared by this, but my trap card saves me. Tornado Wall!" Crump exclaimed. "It negates battle damage to my life points, making your attack useless!" My dragon was blasted back to me without damage, but without doing any either.

"Now it's my turn," Téa stated. "I switch Petite Angel back to defense mode and summon Ancient Elf in defense mode as well." She was playing it safe, which was good. She was the defense while I was the offense.

"Your defenses are useless," Crump said. "I summon Penguin Torpedo. It gains 200 attack points from A Legendary Ocean and another 200 from my deck master ability. Now it has an attack of 950!"

"That's not nearly enough to destroy any of our monsters," I claimed.

"Who said I was going to attack your monsters?" Crump continued. "Penguin Torpedo can attack your life points directly! Penguin Torpedo, attack Téa!"

The tiny monster shot forward into the water and jumped out and flew over Téa's defensive monsters and smashed into her. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't prevent the attack because the monster went around our defenses by its own effect. The attack dropped her life points to 3050. Ice began to form around her ankles and worked its way up to her knees. "What's happening? What are you doing to me?" she shouted.

"Oh, perhaps I forgot to mention that when you lose life points your body will slowly become encased in ice," he explained. "When you lose, you will be one giant popsicle!"

"That won't happen. I won't let it," I said. I was determined to protect Téa at all costs. "I play Stamping Destruction to destroy A Legendary Ocean and inflict 500 damage to your life points. And now that your magic card is gone, so is Tornado Wall and The Legendary Fisherman's defense. I summon Blackland Fire Dragon to the field and attack your Fisherman with Armed Dragon and your Penguin Torpedo with my other dragon!" My attack dropped his life points to 2400 and ice crept almost halfway up his body.

"I switch both of my monsters to attack mode and attack your life points directly!" Téa declared on her turn. The attack would have almost wiped him out, but a last minute trap card changed it.

"I activate Mirror Force!" Crump exclaimed. "This will destroy all four of your monsters and protect my life points from annihilation!"

"I'm sorry, Brian. I'm screwing everything up," Téa said to me.

"No, you're doing just fine. I would have made the same mistake," I assured her. "We just need to be more careful in our moves from now on."

"If you two are done whining, I'll take my turn," Crump told us. "I play Ocean of Regeneration. This card allows me to bring back a water monster from my graveyard each turn. For this turn, I'll bring back The Legendary Fisherman and sacrifice him to summon Giant Penguin! It has 2400 attack power with my deck master ability. Then I combine it with Horn of the Unicorn to raise it another 700 points. Now, attack Brian's life points directly!" The brutal attack cut me down to 1100 life points. Ice formed around me, covering my body up to my shoulders. My arms were still free so I was still in the game.

"I summon The Dragon Dwelling in the Cave, in defense mode," I said weakly. My arms shook rapidly from the freezing temperature that surrounded my body. I could barely place the card on my duel disk and declare my move because of the cold.

"I set one card face down and summon Maha Vailo in attack position," Téa made her next move confidently. I knew that she had a surprise for Crump, though I knew not what it was.

"Are you trying to lose? My Penguin can wipe you out without effort!" Crump said calmly.

"You think so? Just try it!" Téa challenged.

"I will. Giant Penguin, attack!" Crump commanded.

"Perfect! You walked right into my trap!" Téa exclaimed. "Activate Fairy's Hand Mirror! This allows me to take an equipment magic card and change it to one of my monsters. And now Horn of the Unicorn is equipped to Maha Vailo. Thanks to its special effect, Maha Vailo gains 500 attack points for every magic card equipped to it, in addition to what the magic card does." Maha Vailo, with its attack boosted to 2750 easily deflected the Giant Penguin's attack, bringing our opponent's life points to 2050.

"My magic card brings back Penguin Torpedo and I command it to attack Brian's life points directly," Crump snickered.

I began my turn with only 350 points left. The ice was now up to my neck. My next card was Polymerization and it was useless. Just when I thought my time was up, Téa spoke again. "I activate my deck master's effect to draw three cards from my deck and play any one magic card among them," she stated. She drew her cards and smiled happily. "I activate the Sages Stone magic card! It automatically summons a Dark Magician from any players deck to my side of the field."

I watched an orb of light appear on my deck that floated over to Téa and transformed into my Dark Magician. I suddenly realized what she was doing. I didn't know how she knew what I drew, but I would worry about that later. "I move my deck master to the field," I proclaimed. "Then I activate Polymerization to fuse my Buster Blader and Téa's Dark Magician into Dark Paladin! It gains 500 for each dragon on the field and in any graveyard. With four in my graveyard and one on the field, my monster has an attack of 5400! Dark Paladin, destroy his Penguin Torpedo and wipe out the rest of his life points!"

The monster struck its small target and Crump's life points drained to nothing. After they did, he vanished without a trace. The ice around Téa disappeared and released her. I was held for a few seconds longer, which was understandable. I had lost more life points than her and was encased in more ice. Once it all dissolved, I dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms around myself, shivering violently. Téa was at my side at once, putting her arms around me and pulling me close to her.

"It's okay. I'm here," she whispered to me. Her body felt so warm against mine and I couldn't help snuggle against her.

"Hey! Téa, Brian!" someone called out. We turned and saw Yugi half running and half sliding across the icy ground. He made his way to us, nearly falling down more than once. "I saw the end of the match. That was a great move!"

"It was Téa that pulled it off," I explained. "You never saw the card I drew. How did you know your plan would work?"

"I don't know how I knew, I just did. I had a feeling in my heart and I've never ignored what it has told me before," she said sweetly. Yugi helped the two us to our feet and we began walking aimlessly.

"So what happened to you, Yugi? After we fell through that hole, I mean," I asked.

"After you guys disappeared, I dropped into a hole myself," he told us. "I landed in a jungle similar to what we first walked into. I was forced to duel against Gansley, who was in the form of a Deep Sea Warrior. I beat him, obviously, and a door appeared in front of me, which I entered and ended up here."

"You mean a door like that?" Téa asked, pointing at a door that was just sitting in the middle of nowhere.

I approached the door and opened it. Inside was a long hallway that looked like it was in a hotel or something. I looked behind the door frame, expecting to see a building of some sort, but there was nothing. "That's not right," I commented. "This place is crazier than…I don't know. Maybe the Shadow Realm. At least in there, there was a building that went with the door."

We stepped through the strange spectacle and it shut behind us and disappeared. The hallway seemed to stretch on forever in both directions. Yugi and I walked with Téa between us. I looked at pictures hanging on the walls. Most of them were the same. It was a little boy with someone who seemed to be his father. I didn't recognize any of the people in the pictures, but I did see something familiar through an open door. I stopped and stared through the door in amazement.

"Brian? Is everything alright?" Téa asked me. She and Yugi had also stopped and come back to stand next to me.

"I don't know," I said slowly. "This is where I used to live. That's the mansion I lived in before I moved. It's the room that no one used very much. I used to play in there when I was young. Then, when I was older, I spent a lot of time there when I wanted to be alone."

"What? That looks like my bedroom," Téa commented.

"What are you guys seeing? That's my living room," Yugi chimed in.

"Maybe it's all three," I suggested. That drew confused looks from the other two. "It must be something that shows us a place where we…I'm not sure. What do you guys do in these places that's important?"

"Well, when I invite people over, we usually sit around in my living room and talk and stuff," Yugi explained. "But that doesn't seem too significant. What about you Téa?"

"I write in my diary when I'm in my bedroom. But I don't see how that matters," she said.

"No, it does matter," I told them. Once again they looked at me confusingly. "Yugi spent time with his friends there and Téa wrote in her diary. And I…well, I'd rather not talk about that, but there is a connection. Emotions. These are places where we have experienced our strongest emotions."

"That's not completely true," Téa commented. "Lately, I have felt my strongest emotions when I've been with you."

"That is true," I agreed. I looked across from the door and saw a picture of the same kid, but he was alone in the picture. I began to think it had something to do with that picture. "Maybe it's when we were alone? No, Yugi wasn't alone. He was with his friends," I thought to myself. "Wait, my mansion…the young boy…maybe that's it…" I thought I figured it out. "How long have you guys lived in your houses?"

"I think about two and a half years for me," Téa answered. "Yugi lived here when I moved in though so he was here longer. Why do you ask?"

"Because of that picture," I said, pointing to the picture on the wall. "It appears that in that picture the boy is younger than in the rest. When I lived in that mansion, I was younger. You guys spent time in those locations when you were younger. We each see a place of intense emotion that we have visited in our pasts."

"Very good, Brian," Noah's voice echoed from nowhere. The open door shut and disappeared. "I didn't expect you to figure it out so quickly."

"You mean this was a test?" Téa asked.

"Of course, he's toying with us. He put me and Yami through our own puzzle earlier," Yugi said.

"Perhaps I made them too easy," Noah continued. "I guess I'll make them harder for Kaiba. He is my true target after all. Maybe I said too much, but why should you worry about that when Joey has his own problems?"

"Where is he?" I demanded. There was no response, but a set of double doors appeared in front of us. "I guess he's through there."

We pushed the doors open and walked into what looked like a courtroom. Joey was dueling against another one of the Big Five, this one in the form of Judge Man. The monster ordered us to be seated and to stop interrupting his trial. The three of us took a seat and silently watched the rest of the match. Joey barely won, but that's all he needed to be victorious.

"Hey, have you guys seen Serenity anywhere?" Joey asked us after the match.

"Sorry, Joey. We haven't seen any of the others since we got split up," I said truthfully.

"Don't worry. If she met up with Duke and Tristan, she'll be fine," Yugi added. In the distance, we heard a girl scream.

"That sounded like-" Téa started.

"Serenity!" Joey called out as he rushed out of the courtroom. Yugi, Téa, and I rushed after him to help in any way we could.