Lu: Bad news... I can only update maximum once a week. I'm so sorry. Reasons: I've got more homework stupid school. My Mum's boss is back so she needs to use the computer more I have no time I'm really sorry.

Yami Lu: No you're not.

Chapter 20 – Duel: Bakura vs Malik

Yugi, Joey, Duke, Ryou and Mai turned up in the same area. Ishizu approached them from behind.

"I don't suppose any of you would like a duel yet?" she asked.

"Not yet, Ishizu," said Yugi. "We only just got here."

"Very well. I shall find my brother, and see if he wishes to duel," said Ishizu, and walked off.

"Well, let's try and figure out our approximate position," said Ryou.

"Well, when I played it, you started in de middle of a forest," said Joey.

"Very helpful, Joey," said Duke, sarcastically. Suddenly, Kaiba appeared beside them.

"Hey Kaiba," said the group in unison.

"Hello," said Kaiba.

"Why do you have to come in here?" asked Duke.

"Mokuba has been kind enough to hide all of the maps, so I have no idea where he put them. It's not fair if you guys get all the fun," said Kaiba, smiling.

"You wanna come with us?" asked Yugi.

"Umm, OK," said Kaiba uncomfortably. They started walking.

"So, how does all dis work?" asked Joey.

"All what?' asked Kaiba.

"De scorin' and stuff," said Joey.

"Well, the map has the location of another map on it. The final map has the location of the qualification card," said Kaiba.

"So, it's a bit like Duellist Kingdom and Battle City put together," said Yugi, thinking carefully.

"Yes, that is what I was aiming for," said Kaiba, smiling. He had wanted someone to figure it out.

"Why haven't we seen anything yet?" asked Mai. Kaiba stopped.

"I don't know," he said, his smile turning into a frown. "It is programmed so people can encounter monsters every 10 minutes or so. Maybe it works slower with more people." He sighed. "I'll have to work on that." He started walking again.

"So, how do you find the maps?" asked Ryou.

"According to Mokuba, they should just be lying around. Monsters also carry them. Mokuba placed the maps so they were spaced out. This is a big virtual world. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes us a long time to find any other duellists, which is good in a way. It means that people will probably have a map by the time you duel them," said Kaiba.

Meanwhile, back in the building, Mokuba was checking that everybody had got into the virtual world OK. He made sure that everybody was in the world, by checking it on the GameBoy-like screen. He saw Yugi, Joey, Mai, Ryou, Duke and Kaiba walking together.

"Well, he's trying," thought Mokuba. Then he was grabbed from behind.

"Hey, let go of me!" shouted Mokuba, struggling against the strong hands that were gripping him by the arms and legs. He tried to get a glimpse of his attacker. It was a robed figure.

"If you weren't invited to the tournament, then you're not welcome here," said Mokuba.

"Who said I wanted to duel?' said the robed figure in a gruff voice. Mokuba was bound and gagged by other members of the robed group.

"What do you want?" said Mokuba in a muffled voice. The group ignored him.

"OK, which one is Yugi Muto?" asked one member of the group.

"Does it matter?" said another one. "As long as we don't unplug Marik, it doesn't matter." They went down to the end of the row, next to Malik.

"OK, unplug this entire row except Master Malik," said the man that had grabbed Mokuba. They began unplugging the pods. When they got to the beginning of Yugi's group, they unplugged one, but then Tea and Tristan came up behind them and hit them on the head, knocking them out. They had come in when they heard Mokuba shouting.

"Mokuba, are you OK?" asked Tea, untying Mokuba and removing his gag.

"I think so," said Mokuba.

"How do we get these to work again?" said Tristan, gesturing to the unplugged pods.

"I have to rewrite the program," said Mokuba. "But I don't know what I have to do. Only Seto knows."

"Oh no!" shouted Tea. She ran over to one of the unplugged pods. Mai was sitting in it.

Back in the virtual world, Mai had collapsed.

"Mai!" shouted Joey, shaking her. "Mai, come back to me! Listen to me, Mai, you've gotta get up!" She lay unconscious on the floor.

"What happened?" asked Duke, shaken.

"One of the pods must have been unplugged," said Kaiba. "But who would have done that? Mokuba was standing guard up there..." All the colour drained out of Kaiba's face.

"Mokuba!" he shouted, and fell to his knees. "Something must have happened to him. He wouldn't have let them unplug the pods." He said this in a quavering voice.

"It's OK, Kaiba," said Ryou. "The rest of our pods would have been unplugged if anything was desperately wrong. Something must have happened to our advantage just after Mai was unplugged." Kaiba was shaking, but he managed to stand up.

"You're right," said Kaiba.

Joey was letting his tears fall silently onto the ground.

"Is there anyway that we can get her back?" asked Yugi softly.

"Not unless Mokuba can figure out how to overwrite the program," said Kaiba. "But I am the only one who can do it perfectly. We'll have to wait until the program runs itself out and returns us to the real world." Yugi let one tear fall silently down his cheek. Yugi's Puzzle flashed, and Yami appeared.

"We must keep moving," he said. Joey looked up, crying silently.

"Joey, it's the only way we can get Mai back. If we can get a couple of maps, that means that we'll have accomplished something today," said Yami quietly. Joey nodded, sniffed, and got up. He picked up Mai in his arms, and followed Kaiba, who had already started. The others followed them.

"I hope Mai's OK," said Ryou.

"So do I," said Yami. "Not just for Mai's sake, but for Joey's sake. He's finally found someone he likes, and for it just to be over like that..." he trailed off.

"What, are Mai and Joey going out?" asked Duke.

"Yeah, didn't he tell you?" asked Yami.

"Not yet," said Duke.

"Well, they've been together for about two weeks now," said Ryou. "I think you're the only one out of us who doesn't know it."

"What, does Kaiba know?" said Duke.

"Yep, he walked in on us last night," said Joey.

"I'm really sorry about that," said Kaiba.

"Have you two been listening to our whole conversation?" asked Duke. They both nodded.

"I didn't mean to," continued Kaiba. "Anyway, better me find out than Marik. He'd use that information against you." Joey nodded. Tears were still trickling slowly down his face.

"Look!" said Kaiba, running towards a tree. A small shred of paper lay there, glowing slightly. "It's a map!" said Kaiba.

"Well done, Kaiba!" said Duke.

"Do we all have to have our own maps?" asked Ryou.

"Well, not really," said Kaiba.

"So we can all look at your map!" said Duke.

"Well, yes, basically," said Kaiba uncomfortably. A week ago he would have gone and told them to find their own maps. But now...

"Where does it say we have to go?" asked Yami.

"Well, according to my memory, we're about here," said Kaiba, pointing to an area on the map. "So we have to go here." He pointed to a small star on the map.

"So we have to go up here?" said Duke, pointing up a small track. Kaiba looked at the map. Joey looked over his shoulder.

"I'm not sure," said Kaiba.

"Don't we have to go through de bush?" said Joey quietly. Everyone looked at him. "Well, if we started dere," said Joey, gesturing to the map with his head. "Den we'd be around here, facin' this direction, so we'd have to go through dere." Kaiba looked at Joey, and then back at the map.

"I think he's right," said Ryou. Yami and Duke nodded. Kaiba sighed.

"Then let's go," he said. He walked into the bushes.

"Just when I think I've figured Joey out, he goes and confuses me again," thought Kaiba. "He acts so stupid, but then, when he's stressed, he suddenly can show intelligence." Joey walked silently behind the rest of the group, holding Mai in his arms.

"Dis is all Malik's fault!" shouted Joey suddenly. Yami turned around.

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"I just know, I can feel it," he said, shaking with suppressed rage.

"Joey, calm down," said Ryou, alarmed. Joey took a couple of deep breaths, and started walking again. He didn't look at anyone, simply stared straight ahead.

"Man, Joey's scaring me," whispered Duke.

"He's really determined. Malik seems to have something in for Mai and him. It's good that Malik doesn't really know that they're going out, otherwise he'd target one or the other to force the other one to do something. Not that he doesn't already," said Yami. Ryou nodded.

"Let's just hope we don't run into him while we're here," he said.

So they continued walking in silence for about ten minutes. Joey still seemed to have tears dripping down his face. Mai had not even stirred since she had fallen, and Joey was desperately concerned for her.

But as they were walking down the road, a monster rose up in front of them. It was big, long and had huge fangs.

"It's attack is 3500 and its defence is 2500!" shouted Kaiba. "It's too strong for my Blue Eyes!"

"Yami!" shouted Joey. Yami nodded.

"Teamwork," he muttered.

"I play de Red Eyes Black Dragon!" shouted Joey, while his favourite monster appeared on the field in front of him.

"And I play the Summoned Skull!" shouted Yami. "And we'll fuse them with the Polymerisation Card to create..."

"De Black Skull Dragon!" shouted Joey. He had lain Mai down on the floor while he was duelling. "I'll use my Dragon Claw card to raise his attack power by 500, bringin' his attack power up to 3800."

"Black Skull Dragon, attack!" shouted Yami. The Dragon shot a fireball at the other monster, which was blasted into little pieces.

"Good job!" said Bakura. Joey bent down and picked Mai up again.

"Well, let's get goin' again," he said in a flat voice.

"Joey, you've gotta cheer up," said Yami.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because it's really depressing, having your best friend remain silent," said Yami. Joey stared at Yami for a moment, then nodded.

"OK Yami, I'll try and keep my spirits up, but you guys have to help me. It's really hard, what with Mai..." he trailed off. Another tear rolled down his cheek.

"C'mon, Joey, she'll be OK, Kaiba will fix her as soon as we get back, right Kaiba?" asked Duke.

"Sure," said Kaiba. "It's my duty as owner of the tournament to ensure duellists safety." Joey nodded, and swallowed.

"OK, I'm ready," he said.

"Let's go," said Kaiba. Yami tried to lift up Joey's spirits by reminding him of all the other times that they had pulled through.

"Joey, remember what happened when Kaiba was trapped in the virtual world, and you and Mai were digitized away. We got you back then, didn't we? And how about when Malik trapped Mai's mind in the Shadow Realm. We got her back then, didn't we?" said Yami.

Joey thought about it for a moment, and then replied "Yes."

"And we're going to get Mai back this time too," said Yami.

"Thanks Yami," said Joey, with a weak smile.

"That's what friends are for, Joey," said Yami, smiling.

At that moment, a figure appeared on the road ahead. It was Malik.

"Malik," hissed Joey.

"Hello, Wheeler," sneered Marik. "What happened to your girlfriend?" Joey blushed furiously.

"Malik, did you have anything to do with Mai being unplugged?" asked Yami.

"Maybe," Marik said evasively.

"Malik, did you or did you not get people to unplug Mai's pod?" asked Kaiba.

"Why don't you try and make me tell you?" said Marik. Ryou's Millennium Ring flashed.

"Malik, shall we finish our duel?" said Bakura.

"Gladly," said Malik.

"For all the Millennium items here now," said Bakura.

"It's time to duel!" shouted Malik.

They withdrew their decks, set them in the duel disks, and began.

"Where were we?" asked Bakura.

"I had just destroyed your monster," said Malik.

"And I had taken away your life points with my magic card," said Bakura.

They began to duel. Joey sat down on the grass, lay Mai across his lap, and started to brush her hair away from her eyes.

'Mai, come back, please,' he thought, and tried to restrain the tears that were fighting to come out again. He held her close to him, in a hug.

'Mai, I promise, I will stop at nothin' until you come back to me,' he thought, gritting his teeth.

Kaiba watched the duel with interest. He didn't know what to think about the Millennium items anymore. Already today, he had seen Ryou and Yugi change dramatically within a matter of seconds. They both supposedly possessed Millennium items. He looked around. Yami was watching the duel with his arms crossed. Duke was watching the duel and looking slightly confused, because he didn't really know what was going on, because he had not been in the shack at the top of the mountain. Joey was sitting on the floor cross-legged, with Mai's head resting on his lap. Kaiba approached him.

"Are you OK, Joey?" he asked. Joey looked up with weary eyes.

"I don't know," he said. "Mai is like a soul mate to me, like Yuge and Yami are. And den, she just collapses randomly... it's just too much." He looked down, shaking his head.

"Joey, we will get her back. I'll override the programs, and we'll find her here tomorrow morning," said Kaiba. Joey looked up again suddenly.

"Tomorrow morning? She'll be here overnight?" he asked. Kaiba nodded. "She can't stay here on her own overnight. I'm staying with her," said Joey.

"You don't have a choice. You have to come with us unless someone unplugs your pod too," said Kaiba.

"Can't you just override de system here? You said dere are voice activated commands dat you can use to stop de game," said Joey. Kaiba suddenly looked like he'd had an idea.

"I can stop the game, but only for me. I'll go out, get Mai back, and come back in," he said. Joey's face brightened. "End stimulation," said Kaiba, and he disappeared.

Lu: Review!