"Yugi!" Seto Kaiba shouted from across the table. "I'm waiting for you to make your move, or are you still in shock that my dragon destroyed your most precious magician?"

The memories started to fade as the pharaoh stared up at his opponent. Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon stared back at him.

"I told you to make your move!"

The pharaoh looked around, momentarily forgetting where he was. He… was dueling. His three closest friends were standing behind him. Mokuba was sitting off to the side, watching his brother.

"This was the destined duel that the tablet predicted…" The pharaoh whispered to himself, looking through his hand as though he had just drawn it for the first time. He glanced down at his deck, and at his graveyard. The dark magician card was sitting on top.

"Come on Yugi! You can turn this duel around!" Anzu shouted.

"It's just one monster! You've got stronger ones in there!" Jonouchi added. "Pull out a ritual card, and show Kaiba who's boss!"

"Yeah, come on, man!" Honda added his voice to the encouragement.

The pharaoh looked down, at the one jack's knight on his side of the field. A tear rolled down his face.

"Oh please." Kaiba snarled. "I kill one of your monsters, and you start crying? What kind of duelist are you?"

At that exclamation, the cheering stopped and his friends grew concerned.

"Yugi?"

"Are you okay?"

"… I am all right." The pharaoh answered timidly. He hadn't cried since he lost Yugi to the fiendish seal of oreichalchos, and it was still a very foreign emotion to him. "But Mahaado is not…"

Everyone exchanged confused glances.

"Who the hell is Mahaado?" Honda asked.

"A priest…"

"What?"

"He was a priest. He died fighting for me, while I was pharaoh."

Kaiba rolled his eyes at the mere mention of past-life nonsense, but the others listened intently to the spirit of the millennium puzzle.

"You remember…?" Anzu gasped. "But the duel… You have to win the duel to regain your memories. And the duel is still going on!"

"No." the pharaoh answered. "Isis only said that I had to defeat the soul of my most powerful priest."

"Uh… isn't that what you're doing?" Jonouchi asked. "You know, fighting Kaiba, the guy in the stone tablet."

"No. I already defeated that soul…" the pharaoh slammed his cards down on the table. Tears streamed down his cheeks. "When I played my dark magician card…"

"I don't get it…" Jonouchi whispered to Honda. "The guy on the tablet sure looked a lot like Kaiba."

"Don't look at me!"

"Yugi?"

"Yugi!" Kaiba shouted again. "Stop with this nonsense and finish our duel!"

The pharaoh weakly nodded, and placed his hand over his deck. It was the universal signal of conceding the match.

"What?!" Kaiba roared. He was furious! "You can't just give up! You wanted a duel! And we're just getting started!"

"The duel is already over." The pharaoh answered. "I have everything that I came here for."

He looked up, meeting eyes with Honda, Anzu, and Jonouchi. Carefully the pharaoh picked up his deck, and walked out of the room. No one said a word.

"If you wouldn't mind… I think I want to be alone."