Sdrive: Here it is, the exciting conclusion to Peace's duel.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Oh, and one reviewer asked about Devils Dread Roots, it is an actual Japanese card that has yet to arrive in America, I did not take it from D4NNY if that is wondering. And even if it was originally D4NNY's I would have asked first, and chances are he would have said yes. But it is an actual card. Also, I manipulated a small rule with a quick play card, so don't say it's wrong. Authors right! So with that out of the way, here it is.

Yami: Previously on Yugioh…

"For all the things this thing has put you through…" Kokuro began half to himself, and half to Ryou, "…for all the pain this thing has caused you, somehow, it just doesn't seem right if it isn't with you." He looked down at the ring again and sighed. "However, Sayora will just come after it again. I guess I can hold onto it for a while," he said looking at it. "It's not like Bakura can take me over anyway." He put the Sennen Ring over his neck and tucked it into his shirt

He looked around and thought he was hallucinating when he saw a kind looking girl standing in the middle of the room. The girl was wearing a purple kimono, and had long black hair that went almost all the way down her back. She had a blue sash around her Kimono and had hazel colored eyes.

"Seirei!" he exclaimed.

Seirei nodded, "Yes Kokuro Samé, it is I. You're visions, they are a part of you. I can't say that even I know how, but they are. That much I'm sure of. Kokuro, this whole tournament is not what it seems. There are people pretending to be people they aren't, and there are motives here that aren't entirely clear. Sayora is…" suddenly Seirei cried out in pain and fell to her knees. "I'm being pulled back," she said. "Sayora has realized that I've contacted you." With that she pushed her legs up and landed a kiss on his lips. Although she was only a spirit and he didn't feel anything, Kokuro began to blush. She cried out in pain once more and then her spirit disappeared.

"It is just for this duel," Sayora said. "But Mr. Ishtar wants to use a version of the rules called the Deck Master System."

Peace finally selected a card he thought would be good. "My Deck Master will be Tsukuyomi!" he announced.

"My Deck Master is The Winged Dragon of Ra!" Marik called out as suddenly the card began to glow and a large metal sphere appeared in the sky.

"Finally I sacrifice my face down Legendary Fiend, my Newdoria, and my Dark Jeroid!" A large Demon began to rise up from the ground. It had skeleton bones all around it's body and greenish, bluish skin. It had large demonic wings also with skeleton bones around the perimeter. The right arm, unlike the rest though, was black along with its lower torso. Its attack points were shown once it was fully formed. (4000/4000) "Meet Devils Dread Roots!" Marik called out.

Marik had just summoned a beast known as Devils Dread Roots (4000/4000). And it seemed as though he was about to win the duel. He had Coffin Seller, which had taken away most of Peace's Life Points, active on the field as well as one card under the table. On the field he had his Dread Roots and a defending Revival Slime (500/1800) which he had powered up using his Deck Master's ability. He also had 3 cards in his hand and 4000 Life Points. Peace had only one card under the table and 2300 Life Points.

"What…what is that?" Peace asked worriedly.

"To make up for the lose of my true Egyptian God Card, I needed some other powerful card to substitute for it," Marik explained. "It came in the form of Devil's Dread Roots. This powerful monster cannot be special summoned in anyway. Also, its special ability says that it must be offered with 3 monsters. I had drawn it earlier but your Thousand Eyes Restrict made it impossible to use. So I waited for the perfect time to summon it."

"So, is it just a super powerful 4000 point monster?" Peace asked hopefully.

"Do you really think it would require three sacrifices if it only had 4000 Attack and Defense Points?" Marik asked.

"Damn," Peace muttered.

"Devil's Dread Roots cuts the attacks of all monsters other than itself by half." Marik watched, as his Revival Slime got weaker. (250/1800) There is no possible move you could make that would allow you to defeat a monster of this power! Devil's Dread Roots, destroy this pitiful fool and make him my obedient servant!" Marik called out as Devil's Dread Roots began to assimilate energy around it's clawed hand. It then released a shockwave of power that erupted from its hand. "Good bye Peace."

Peace had his head down, but he was secretly smirking. As the attack got closer he looked up showing his smirk. "Thanks Marik, you got the perfect monster out to end this duel for me."

"What are you talking about?" Marik asked nervously.

"Reverse Dimension Wall!" Peace called out as a swirling vortex appeared in front of him. "This card is a weaker version of Magic Cylinder. Instead of completely negating the attack and forcing you to take damage equal to your monsters attack, it instead just makes you take the damage I would have taken. But at this point the difference wouldn't really even be that clear. Because you are going to take the full attack! An attack worth 4000 points of damage! Exactly what you have. It's over Marik, I win!" The shockwave entered the vortex and another vortex appeared behind Marik and the shockwave came out of it. There was a big explosion and smoke covered the entire arena.

"Way to go!" Mina called out to Peace.

"He did it!" Yami said smiling. The smoke started clearing slightly and they could all here Marik's chuckling.

"It's not over yet!" Kokuro and Yamato said at the same time.

As the smoke cleared they all watched as Marik's Life Points only fell by 2000. (L.P. 2000) "What did you do?" Peace demanded.

"I activated a handy little spell from my hand," he said chuckling. "And it's got an emphasis on little." They all saw that Devil's Dread Roots was no longer as big as it had been. (2000/4000) After they got over their shock they looked to see that the card Marik had saved himself with was Shrink. "My Shrink card cut Devil's Dread Roots own attack points in half, making it so that I only took 2000 points of damage. And to think, I almost didn't activate Pot of Greed this turn. I guess I should be glad I did," he said laughing manically. "I end my turn, and with that Devil's Dread Roots attack power returns to normal!" (4000/4000)

"He was so close!" Yami exclaimed. "Will he be able to get out of it?"

"I doubt it," Marik said. "Any monster he summons will instantly lose half of its attack points. Not that he has anything that would have more than 4000 points to begin with. He should just give up, it would be so much easier."

"Never!" Peace announced.

"What!" Marik exclaimed surprised.

"A true duelist never gives up, even in a situation like this," Peace said. "As long as there is a tiny hope for me to win, then I'll go on, and that hope comes with each draw, which I make now!" he announced as he drew the top card from his deck. He looked down at it and hung his head.

"It's over isn't it?" Marik asked. "You drew, and you failed. Now to begin my turn," he started to draw a card.

"Not so fast!" Peace said.

"What are you talking about? I saw the defeated look in your eyes, you don't have anything you can do!"

"The look in my eyes wasn't defeated," he said as he brought his head up, his eyes now narrowed. "They were saddened. Saddened that you have absolutely nothing to stop me from winning, and that the duel was so short. I expected a challenge from the former leader of the Rare Hunters, but then again I guess just having rare cards doesn't make you a good duelist."

"You have nothing!" Marik exclaimed.

"I have this," he announced as his graveyard began to shine. He took his Magician of Faith, and Thousand Eyes Restrict and put them into his pants pocket. Suddenly a giant blue dragon with steel armor all around its body, long blue wings, and long reddish hair appeared on the field roaring loudly. (3000/2500) "Meet my strongest monster. Chaos Emperor Dragon-Envoy of the End!"

"Way to go Peace!" Kokuro said congratulating him.

"That…that's the dragon that Sdrive won from his girlfriend," Marik said stunned.

"Right, and it's also the card he gave me right before the duel," Peace added. "I'm sure you know what this means. Chaos Emperor Dragon does lose half of it's attack points due to your Devil's Dread Roots, but as I'm sure you know that doesn't matter. (1500/2500)

"Once Peace pays 1000 Life Points, all cards in the hand, and on the field will be destroyed, and you will lose 300 Life Points for each card destroyed in this way," Kokuro explained. "And since Chaos Emperor Dragon is also getting destroyed, it also counts for the effect. By my calculations, that's seven cards, Math Boy, do the math!"

"With Pleasure," Peace said. "Seven times 300 is 2100, exactly 100 more than what you have."

"Marik, I would want nothing more at this moment than to defeat you myself," Kokuro said to him. "However, if anyone else had to defeat you, I'm glad it was my best friend. And because I knew I couldn't truly defeat you myself, I specifically gave this card to Peace; in hopes that he could use it to finish you off, and it looks like my hopes came true. It may be Peace's duel, but I think I speak for both of us when I say this last blast is for Kelly!"

"Well put," Peace said to him. "I offer up 1000 Life Points, to finally defeat you!" he called out. (L.P. 1300) The Dragon began to glow and it let loose a blast of fire that destroyed Devil's Dread Roots, Revival Slime, and Marik's face down card, and Coffin Seller. It also blasted his hand and then Marik himself. It finally blew itself up and caused a massive explosion that sent Marik flying backwards. (L.P. 0)

Kokuro and Yamato allowed the Wall of Light to vanish as the rest of the group minus a few people cheered for Peace. "Peace is the winner!" Sayora called out. "There will be a half hour break before the next match." With that she left the arena while Yamato, Kokuro, and Yami walked over to Peace.

"Way to go," Kokuro said giving him a high five.

Peace returned the high five and then took the card off the disk and handed it back to Kokuro. "Thanks, but I think you should hold onto it for the rest of the tournament Sdrive."

Kokuro nodded and smiled, "You're welcome. Oh, and call me Kokuro from now on," he said.

Peace looked at him confused but then smiled realizing what he was doing, "Alright Kokuro."

Kokuro nodded. "Way to go Peace," Joey said from the sidelines. "We'd hang here but we all need to prepare for the next round."

"Alright, thanks guys," Peace said waving. The other duelists left and Kokuro noticed that Stephanie had looked up at him before walking out with the others.

He was about to say something when they heard a groaning from Marik's side of the field. They ran over to Marik only to see that it was instead Malik now in control. He stood up weakly and smiled, "Thank you Peace. You've gotten rid of the Darkness forever for me."

"You're welcome," Peace said. Suddenly Malik fell limp; Yami just barely caught him.

"Do you think Sayora took the regular Malik too?" Kokuro asked.

Yamato shook his head, "more than likely he's just exhausted. We should take him to his room to rest."

"Wait," Kokuro said taking the Sennen Rod that was through one of the loops in Malik's belt. "Someone needs to watch over this."

"How come?" Peace asked.

Kokuro sighed and unzipped his coat. He then pulled the Sennen Ring from the inside of his shirt causing Peace, Yamato, and Yami's eyes to all widen. "Remember when I said I came from Ryou's room?" They nodded. "Well, Sayora was just leaving it as I was going in. She also had the Sennen Ring in her kimono. When she pulled it out to show me I took it from her. I would have left it with Ryou but I was worried that she would just go after it again. I feel if we leave the Rod with Malik she'll take it as well."

"I'll take it if you want me too," Peace said.

"Alright," Kokuro said handing it to him. "I think you deserve it. Any one have any objections?" Yamato and Yami simply shook their heads. "I guess we take Malik to his room now." It was then when some of the medics came in with a stretcher and told them to step away from Malik. They put him on the stretcher and exited him out of the arena.

"I have a question for you," Peace said. "You said that you spoke with Sayora but she never left the arena. In fact, I was the first one here and she was here the whole time."

"I sensed another Time Lap," Yamato said.

"A what?" Yami asked.

"A Time Lap. Right before everyone finished scanning his or her cards at the Battle Tower there was one then too. I fear Sayora has some kind of power that allows her to freeze time."

"But how?" Peace asked.

"I'm guessing she has one of the new, undiscovered Sennen Items," Yami said.

"I suppose so," Kokuro said. "I guess we really need to step up our game then."

"Is everything a game to you?" Yamato asked him.

"If you can't find some fun in it then you'll just be depressed all the time," Kokuro said shrugging.

"So, now what?' Peace asked them.

"Don't make me hurt you," Yamato said walking over to him hand raised.

"He's got a point though," Kokuro defended stepping in between them. "We have a half hour before the next duel. What should we do till then?"

"I suggest we follow the lead of Joey and the others and prepare," Yami said. "Out of the four of us Peace is the only one who has dueled. Any one of us could be next."

"He's right," Yamato said.

"I suppose," Kokuro said. He looked down at the Ring around his neck, it was still pointing at the puzzle. "I really wish it would stop doing that, it's getting annoying." Suddenly the ring fell limp. "Well, that was convenient," he said.

"How did you do that?" Yamato asked.

Kokuro shrugged, "beats me."

Inside of the Sennen Ring Bakura was chuckling. "Thank you fool," he said to himself. "By being next to the Pharaoh for long enough I was able to jump my spirit back into the ring. And now I can use the portion of my spirit in the ring to call back the pieces of me in the Shadows. Once that is completed all I shall need to do is get the Ring back to Ryou, but that shouldn't be too difficult," he chuckled.

Five minutes later, Kokuro was looking through his deck off to the side of the arena. He had told the others he wanted to be alone.

"It isn't anything personal," he said. "I just feel like looking through my cards in silence. I'm afraid if I try to prep with you guys around, a conversation about some kind of magic will start up."

Kokuro shifted through his deck over and over and over. Just mindlessly looking at the cards. Some of them he held up the light to look at the different colors that appeared when the light hit the foil. It was entertaining to him, and at the same it took away from the seriousness of the situation. He was able to do what he used to do in Domino. Just then a pink beam of light came from him and Selaya walked up to him in a yellow kimono with flowers on it. Her pink hair fell down her back.

"Are you alright?" she asked him.

"I will be," he responded to her.

"Are you sure? I know this whole thing has been really bad for you."

He nodded, "Everything will be fine once this whole tournament is over," he said re-assuring both her and himself.

"Alright," she said hugging him before she vanished again.

Kokuro shuffled his deck together and looked around. He then checked his watch. "Another 20 minutes," he thought to himself. He pushed himself off the side of the wall and walked over to the door. Swiping his card through, the door opened and he walked out of it. The others turned to see him walk out the door.

"Sayora is obviously after something," Yami said. "And I have a feeling its him she's after."

"But why?" Peace asked.

"It could be due to the magic that he released during Bakura's duel," he suggested.

"But that doesn't make any sense," Yamato said. "We didn't even know he had that kind of power, how could she know?" They all began to think about it.

Sayora was in a private room that she hadn't given a key too. She was looking out at the island while someone else was in the room with her. The figure was but a mere silhouette. When the figure spoke it seemed to be female, and even slightly familiar. All it said was, "I want out."

"Why would you want out?" Sayora asked. "You're not getting cold feet are you?"

"You know why I want out," the figure's voice said raising.

"Ahh yes, you have grown close to them with your constant spying, have you not?" There was a pause when neither of them spoke. "Yes, you have, there is no need to tell me, I already know."

"You have too!" the figure shot back. A tear fell from her face down onto the ground by her feet. "I know you have, and I don't need some kind of magical eye to tell me so!"

Sayora didn't say anything at first, and then she began to speak. "I suppose their liveliness is addicting."

"Your reasons for this whole thing, I understood them. And that's why I let you use me like this. But as I watched them fight for their own lives, and for the lives of their friends, I realized that the way you went about it was completely wrong! That is why I want out!"

"You poor child," she said. "It's a shame," she said pulling the Sennen Rod from her cloak.

"What! Marik had that! And I'm pretty sure the others gave it to one of them to hold on to!"

"They did," she responded. "But I had a feeling you wouldn't want to take part anymore. So I used a certain hourglass to take it without them noticing, and replaced it with a Red Herring."

"And what, you're going to use it on your…"

"Yes I'm going to use it on you," she said a little disturbed. "Not that I want to mind you. But you have left me with no choice."

"You can't!" the figure yelled.

"Like I said, you've left me with no choice," Sayora said turning to the figure and raising the Rod. It began to glow and the figure clutched her head. "Don't worry, I'm not going to control you," she said. "I wouldn't be able too. But from what I've learned, the Sennen Items can take the darkness in a person's heart and make it stronger. Especially this item. And that is what I shall do." The Rod stopped glowing and Sayora looked at the figure. "How do you feel?"

"Much better," the figure responded in a more sinister voice. "I remember what I signed up for now."

"Good, you may leave now." With that the figure headed out of the door. Sayora turned back to the window, "I didn't want to do it Sega, but you left me with no choice. I'll return your purity at the end of the tournament," she said with hint of sadness in voice

Kokuro was standing in his own room looking out the window. He had too much on his mind to really think of anything in particularly. Shi appeared in spirit form next to him, "You're awfully quiet. I like it, I could get used to this."

"Just go away," Kokuro responded.

"You know I can't do that," he said. "Ever since Itonami bonded my soul to the Harp I've been stuck to it. As long as you hold the Harp, you hold me."

"You knew Itonami?" Kokuro asked.

"Quite well as a matter of fact."

"You wouldn't be willing to tell me anything about him would you?"

"No."

"I figured as much," Kokuro sighed. He then looked down at the Ring, "You know, I don't really need the Harp as long as I have the Ring."

"You also can't use the Ring," Shi pointed out.

"No, I guess not," Kokuro said as he looked out the window again. With nothing more to say Shi returned to the Harp.

Kokuro shook his head and walked out of the room, it was almost time for the next match. He walked through the halls when he bumped into Stephanie. "Sorry about that," he said.

"Watch where you are going," she responded as she headed down the hall.

"What's with her?" Kokuro asked himself. He did some quick calculations in his head. 'Three duels have passed, that leaves 5 more. She must just know that she's getting close to dueling and is a little jittery.'

He continued down the hall and swiped his card causing the doors to open for him. He walked through and noticed that Yamato, Peace, and Yami were still there, along with most of the contestants. He walked over to them but didn't speak with them. Everyone waited in pretty much silence for the final contestants to show up. When they did Sayora began to speak.

"Greetings finalists," she began. "So far we have seen three intense duels. I'm sure that the last five duels of the finals will be just as intense if not more. Remember, being a finalist in the greatest tournament ever created puts a lot of pressure on some people. So forgive anyone if they seem to not act like themselves."

Kokuro's eyebrow raised a tad before turning to look at Stephanie, 'I'll bet Sayora did something to her,' he thought to himself.

"With that said," Sayora began. "Let's view the next match up!"

Mina: Well, it appears that Peace won with the card that Sdrive gave him. Things start to heat up in the next chapter. A few things about the tournament are revealed in the next duel, and we get to see some hot magician action. I can't say too much about it, but you won't want to miss Soul Control. See ya then!