Whilst the cops where busy rounding up Drew and Ramon's unconscious bodies the students where making their way to the ship, pier 17 was a fairly large pier which was why they were taking so long to reach the ship, Theresa was leading the group this time around with Marcus walking behind her and Brandon walking by her side holding her hand, the others were trailing behind them wondering when the next duelist was going to show his/her face.

"Man, watching you and Chloe duel those assholes have really wetted my appetite for dueling." Marcus commented as he glanced towards his duel disk, Theresa turned to him and smiled.

"Marcus, it doesn't take a lot for something to wet your appetite so that's not saying much." Theresa commented and Marcus grinned at that. "That said I don't blame you one bit, Ramon and Drew didn't exactly make it easy for us."

"I still can't get over the fact that you used to date the asshole." Brandon pointed out and Theresa blushed slightly.

"I…was a different person back then, a total troublemaker." Theresa admitted with a sigh. "I guess you can blame the bullshit that duelists in Osiris Red and Ra Yellow endure from most of the Obelisk Blue students for that, I thought that if I stood up for myself they'd leave me alone."

"That didn't end well I take it?" Marcus asked and Theresa nodded.

"To say the very least, my method of dealing with those assholes was to duel them, if I won, which I did most of the time, then they'd leave me and the other students in Osiris Red, and Ra Yellow when I moved up to that dorm, alone." Theresa said before frowning. "It worked for a while, I kept myself out of trouble and stood up for the other students, however the Obelisk Blue students must've gotten wise to my tactics and decided to use them against me, the next time I defended another student from bullies they're leader would only accept on the condition that I dueled them at midnight."

"That's past curfew." Brandon realized and Theresa nodded. "You must've suspected that something was up."

"Part of me did but I could see no alternative so I accepted." Theresa said before frowning. "I beat him but the next day I got called into Maria's office and was told that an Obelisk Blue student had reported to Martin that I had violated curfew, conveniently leaving out the fact that another Obelisk Blue Student also violated curfew. I argued my innocence but it was no use, even though she sided with me the Board of Directors were willing to believe the Obelisk Blue student's word over mine, that incident earned me a week worth of detention, a report in my file and left me disillusioned with the teachers, to the point where I became a notorious troublemaker."

"I'm guessing the whole incident with Drew scarred you straight?" Marcus asked and Theresa nodded obviously ashamed off the fact. "I don't blame ya to be honest Theresa, if an Obelisk Blue student pulled a stunt like that with me and the teachers disregarded my story just because of my dorm I'd be pissed as well." Marcus added but any response Theresa had was cut off by an unfamiliar female voice.

"So, you've finally arrived." A young woman who looked to be in her late teens said as she stepped forward, she was good looking with shoulder length raven hair and brown eyes and she was clad in a black stomach exposing tank top, denim shorts and black boots, however what caught Marcus's attention was the Orichalcos duel disk on her arm. "It's been too long Marcus."

"Marie? What the hell are you doing with these bastards?" Marcus asked and Marie scowled at that.

"Are you really that surprised that I joined up with them Marcus?" Marie asked with a frown as she glared at Marcus. "Your dad didn't exactly give me much of a choice after he gave up on me."

"He didn't give you much of a choice? If you didn't keep getting in trouble with the cops then he wouldn't have given up on you!" Marcus pointed out and Marie scowled at this. Sensing the other's confusion Marcus sighed. "I'm sure you guys want to know what her beef is with me." Marcus said as he turned to them, the others nodded and Marcus groaned. "Okay, I've mentioned before that my dad's a social worker, one of his main duties is overseeing an orphanage like the ones that Chloe and Kimberly lived in."

"And what do you know? I was unfortunate enough to end up as an orphan under his care." Marie said with a scowl as she folded her arms. "I did everything that was asked off me at that damn place but that was never enough for that bastard."

"Hey, don't you talk about my dad like that!" Marcus snapped at her before activating his duel disk. "Like I said; if you had stayed out of trouble than my dad wouldn't have given up on you but if you aint going to listen to reason then I'm going to have to beat some sense into you!" Marcus added and Marie grinned before activating her own duel disk.

"I was hoping you'd say that." Marie said with an evil gleam in her eyes as both duelists drew until they had five cards in their hands. "You may have beaten me back when I lived it the Orphanage but I'm a much better duelist than I was back then and I have the Seal of the Orichalcos backing me up." Marie added and Marcus frowned. "Let me guess, you're wondering why I never encountered you during the tournament? Blame my damn pride, I thought my dragon deck would be enough to knock the champ out of the tournament but I was wrong."

"You're still using your dragon deck?" Marcus asked clearly offended by this. "Joining up with those bastards on the ship wasn't enough? Now you have the sheer audacity to use the deck that helped me kick start my love for dragons?"

"I knew that would strike a chord with you." Marie said with a grin. "Just a fair warning though, my deck is nothing like you remember it, that weak ass deck that centered entirely on beating my opponent down with dragons? I threw it in the trash long ago."

"Great, so what deck IS she using? All I know is that she still uses dragons." Marcus thought before looking at his hand. "I like to think of myself as a gentleman so ladies first." Marcus said and Marie grinned before drawing her first card.

"That's fine by me." Marie said before looking at her hand. "No sign of the Orichalcos yet, fortunately I have a way of bringing it to my hand." Marie thought before picking up a card. "I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown, it's your move." Marie set the monster down and Marcus frowned before drawing his card.

"Playing defensive on her first turn? Her deck's definitely changed." Marcus thought before looking at his hand. "I start with the Spell Card Cards of Consonance; as long as I discard a weak Dragon Type tuner from my hand this Spell Card will allow me to draw two cards." Marcus played the card and after discarding the card he drew two cards. "But that's not all, the card I discarded was White Stone of Legend (1/300/250) and I can use its effect to add my Blue-Eyes White Dragon to my hand." Marcus added before picking up his deck and searching through it, he found the dragon at the bottom of the deck and added it to his hand.

"So, you finally got the Blue-Eyes White Dragon huh?" Marie asked and Marcus nodded, she grinned before folding her arms. "That piece of junk's worthless, especially compared to the card I have in my deck." Marie added and Marcus's eyes narrowed.

"She has a dragon better than the Blue-Eyes White Dragon? She's gotta be bluffing, the only cards that come to mind are Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon and Five Headed Dragon and those things are incredibly rare, not to mention hard to summon." Marcus thought before looking at his hand again. "Okay, I set two cards facedown and summon Alexandrite Dragon in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the beautiful dragon seemingly made of crystal appeared on the field (4/2000/100). "And unlike most Level 4 monsters with 2000 or more attack points this thing doesn't have any crippling side effects, Alexandrite Dragon go get her defense monster!" Marcus commanded and the dragon breathed fire at Marie's facedown monster, however what the monster was surprised Marcus is it ended up being a small grey owl (2/300/500) which was quickly incinerated by Alexandrite Dragon's flames.

"You fool, that's what I was hoping for!" Marie said as she held up the monster card. "You just destroyed An Owl of Luck, and with its flip effect I can search through my deck for a Field Spell and add it to the top of my deck!" Marie explained and Marcus's eyes widened as he realized what she was up too, without another word Marie searched through the deck before finding the card and placing it on top of her deck.

"Well, in that case I won't keep you; I set a card facedown and end my turn." Marcus said despite knowing what was going to happen next, Marie drew her card without hesitation and played it as soon as she drew the card.

"Then neither will I, I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Marie played the card and Marcus braced himself as the seal enveloped both duelists, soon afterwards the Seal's symbol appeared on Marie's forehead and she grinned evilly. "Now the real fun begins!"

"I have to respectively disagree with your idea of fun." Marcus said bluntly and Marie chuckled before playing a card.

"Do you really? Well I respectively ask that you tell that to someone who gives a shit about your opinion!" Marie snapped at him before her monster appeared on the field. "In the meantime say hello to the monster that's going to melt down your dragon, Debris Dragon!" Marie announced and the monster that appeared was a small grey dragon with black, bat like wings and red armor (4/1000/2000) and as the seal appeared on the dragon's forehead its attack increased to 1500.

"Nice try but that little guy doesn't stand a chance against my monster." Marcus said cockily and Marie grinned as she retrieved An Owl of Luck from her graveyard.

"Who said he's going to be doing the attacking? First I activate his effect, well technically he has several effects but this is one of them, when he's Normal Summoned to the field I can Special Summon one monster with 500 attack points or less from my graveyard." Marie played the card the grey owl reappeared on the field with a hoot, Marie didn't seem to care that its attack increased to 800 due to the Seal however. "Only downside is that my Owl's effect is negated as a side effect but since he's a flip effect monster that doesn't really matter does it?"

"I still don't see how that helps you." Marcus said as he glanced towards Debris Dragon with a wary eye.

"You're about to see why, Debris Dragon is a tuner monster!" Marie said with an evil grin and Marcus's eyes widened as the statement dawned on him, Marie sighed however. "But he comes with a couple of restrictions, the Synchro Monster in question has to be a Dragon Type and the non-tuner monster can't be a Level 4 monster."

"Yeah but I'm guessing your using his effect to get around that problem." Marcus pointed out and Marie just grinned. "Okay, at the moment she has enough for a Level 7 Synchro Summon, question is besides Exploder Dragonwing….oh crap!" Marcus thought as realization dawned on him. "Don't tell me you're bringing out Exploder Dragonwing!"

"No she isn't Marcus, the non-tuner needs to be a dragon remember?" Theresa called out from the sidelines and Marcus grinned as he thought back to the Semi-Finals duels.

"Your friend's only half right; Exploder Dragonwing does require the non-tuner monster to be a Dragon type monster." Marie said as her facedown card flipped up. "And that's why I set my trap card last turn; I activate D. Tribe, being a Dragon user you should know how this works."

"Yeah, all monsters on your side of the field are treated as Dragons until the end of your turn." Marcus confirmed with a frown as An Owl of Luck transformed into a weird, dragon/owl hybrid. "This is bad, Theresa could barely beat this dragon when she dueled Eddie, what chance do I have?"

"Now let's get this show on the road, Debris Dragon it's time you gave An Owl of Luck a tune up!" Marie commanded and the two dragons took flight, Debris Dragon disappeared and four green rings surrounded An Owl of Luck. "I tune Debris Dragon with An Owl of Luck to Synchro Summon Exploder Dragonwing!" Marie played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, once it faded the dragon that had plagued the Semi-Finalists during the Semi-Finalists appeared on the field in all its glory (7/2400/1600) and as the Seal appeared on its forehead the dragon's attack increased to 2900.

"Great, that thing's bad enough on its own but with the Seal backing it up it's practically invincible." Lance winced as he saw the dragon's stats increase.

"Chloe's right, you do suck at being motivational!" Marcus shouted at him and Lance sweat-dropped whilst laughing nervously.

"Now I enter my battle phase and….." Marie started but was stopped by a load roar that made Exploder Dragonwing cower in fear. "What the….." Marie trailed off before turning to Marcus and seeing that he had activated a trap. "Threatening Roar, I should've guessed."

"That's right, and now that I've activated this trap your dragon can't attack this turn." Marcus said proudly, Marie frowned before setting a card facedown and motioning for Marcus to take his turn, Marcus wasted little time in drawing his card and he looked at it.

"Not that it makes much difference but I shift Alexandrite Dragon into defense mode!" Marcus switched the position of the monster and the shiny dragon crouched down. "I also set a monster in defense mode and end my turn at that." Another monster, this time facedown, appeared next to Alexandrite Dragon and Marie drew her card.

"Is that all you have? Well that's too bad because my dragon's about to rip through your defenses!" Marie said with a grin before pointing to Alexandrite Dragon. "Exploder Dragonwing, attack Alexandrite Dragon!" Marie commanded and the dragon took flight and flapped its wings at Alexandrite, the dragon grunted in pain before its hologram shattered. "But that's not all, or have you forgotten about Exploder Dragonwing's effect?" Maries asked and all Marcus could do for an answer was wince in pain as his life-points took a hit.

M (f): 8000

M (m): 6000

"Is that the best you got?" Marcus taunted Marie as Exploder Dragonwing landed on the ground, Marie frowned before motioning for him to take his turn and Marcus drew a card.

"Okay, this is more like it!" Marcus thought before playing his drawn Spell Card. "I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Marcus announced and Marie shielded herself as three golden swords rained down on top of Exploder Dragon pinning him down. "Now your dragon can't attack for another three turns."

"Yeah, fat lot of good that will do you!" Marie scoffed and Marcus frowned. "Is that all? I don't have all day."

"Yeah, that's all." Marcus confirmed and Marie drew her card.

"Damn, I was hoping for Mystical Space Typhoon, still this monster will come in handy once his swords wear off." Marie thought before summoning the card. "I summon another dragon to the field, Lancer Dragonute!" Marie announced as a green dragon appeared on the field wielding a spear (4/1500/1800) and his attack increased to 2000 thanks to the seal. "I know he doesn't look like much, even with the Seal in play, but his effect makes up for it, basically he can inflict piercing damage as soon as he's able to attack which should be in a couple of more turns."

"I'm guessing that by that you mean you're ending your turn?" Marcus asked and Marie nodded, once the first sword disappeared Marcus drew his card. "I set this monster in defense mode and that ends my turn." Marcus set the monster facedown and Marie drew her card.

"Damn, I still haven't drawn Mystical Space Typhoon." Marie thought as she looked over her hand. "I'll pass for now." Marie said and once the second sword disappeared Marcus quickly drew his card; he added it to his hand and sent his two facedown monsters to the graveyard.

"I sacrifice my two monsters in order to summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" The two facedown monsters, briefly revealed to be Troop Dragon (2/700/800) and The Dragon Dwelling in the Cave (4/1300/2000) disappeared from the field and in the second monster's place stood the mighty dragon ready for battle (8/3000/2500). "And like it or not Marie, even with its power boost, Exploder Dragonwing's about to get blown away by my Dragon's White Lightning!" Marcus said with a grin as the legendary dragon opened its mouth and let loose with its famous attack disintegrating the Synchro Monster in seconds.

M (f): 7900

M (m): 6000

"And just to be on the safe side I'm setting these two cards facedown and ending my turn." Marcus set the two cards down and Marie drew her card without hesitation…and grinned when she saw it.

"Remember what I said earlier about having a monster in my deck that makes Blue-Eyes White Dragon look like Petit Dragon?" Marie asked as she picked up Lancer Dragonute and pocketed it. "Well I just drew it, but in order to summon it I have to remove one Dragon Type Monster from play so bye-bye Lancer Dragonute…" Marie said as the green dragon disappeared from the field. "And hello Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!"

"You're summoning Red-Eyes what?" Marcus shouted in surprise as a new dragon appeared on the field, it bore a resemblance to the famous Red-Eyes Black Dragon but was more metallic with a silver gleam and its red eyes had a demonic quality to them (10/2800/2400) and its attack increased to 3300 thanks to the seal.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Marie asked rhetorically before grinning. "But it gets worse, for you anyway, you see Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon has a very powerful effect as I can Special Summon one Dragon Type monster from my hand or graveyard, and since this thing was the only dragon in my hand, well, guess whose back?" Marie asked as she retrieved Exploder Dragonwing from the graveyard and summoned it; sure enough the mighty dragon reappeared on the field with a mighty roar and its power boost intact. "However since your Spell renders me unable to attack I'll end my turn with a facedown card." Marie set the card facedown and as soon as the final sword disappeared Marcus drew his card. "But be warned Marcus, come next turn you're dragon's history!"

"We'll see about that!" Marcus said before looking at his drawn card. "Decoy Dragon, this little guy will come in handy if my trap fails." Marcus thought before adding the card to his hand. "Blue-Eyes, attack Exploder Dragonwing with White Lightning!" Marcus commanded and the dragon prepared to once again disintegrate the Synchro Monster with its famous attack.

"I don't think so!" Marie cut him off as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Synchro Deflector; this can only be activated if my opponent selects a Synchro Monster I control as an attack target, not only does it negate the attack but it destroys the attacking monster in the process!" Marie explained and Marcus's eyes widened as the dragon roared in pain before its hologram shattered. "You can still do a normal summon so I suggest you do so quickly." Marie added and Marcus growled.

"Fine, I will." Marcus said as he played a card, seconds later Decoy Dragon appeared on the field ready for battle (2/300/200). "That ends my turn." Marcus announced and Marie drew her card.

"You really think I'm that stupid? I'm a dragon user as well Marcus; I know what that little runt does!" Marie scoffed as she looked at her drawn card. "I choose to pass." Marie said and Marcus drew his card without hesitation.

"Well, can't blame me for trying." Marcus shrugged as he started planning his next move. "I summon Lord of Dragons to the field in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the tanned dragon protector appeared on the field (4/1200/1100). "Now I activate the Spell Card Flute of Summoning Dragon which, as you know, lets me special summon two more dragons from my hand so give a warm welcome to Rare Metal Dragon and Luster Dragon!" Marcus played the cards and the two dragons appeared on the field, the first was a metallic dragon with a horn (4/2400/1200) and the other was a beautiful sapphire dragon (4/1900/1600).

"Is that all you've got? I can beat those things in my sleep!" Marie scoffed and Marcus grinned.

"Who said I'm done?" Marcus asked as he played the last card in his hand. "I activate Natural Tune and with it Luster Dragon becomes a Tuner Monster!" Marcus said and Marie's eyes widened at that. "Luster Dragon, do me a favor and give your fellow dragons a tune up!" Marcus commanded and Luster Dragon took flight, Decoy Dragon followed quickly as did Rare Metal Dragon. "I tune my three monsters together to Synchro Summon Trident Dragion!" Marcus played the card and a new dragon appeared in the place of Rare Metal Dragon, this one was a massive three headed dragon that was red in color and very intimidating (10/3000/2800). "Now I activate his effect, I destroy my facedown card and my dragon gains an extra attack this turn." Marcus explained as the facedown card's hologram shattered.

"How will that help you? Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon is still stronger!" Marie protested….only for her eyes to widen when a gold coffin appeared behind Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and opened up, the dragon roared just before it was sucked into the coffin which subsequently shut tightly before shattering. "Your facedown card was Dark Coffin?"

"You got that right, and since I could only use one of its effects after I destroyed it Dark Coffin was the obvious choice." Marcus added with a grin before pointing at Trident Dragion. "Trident Dragion, attack Exploder Dragonwing!" Marcus commanded and the three dragon heads breathed fire at Exploder Dragonwing incinerating it. "Are you ready for another go Trident Dragion?" Marcus asked and in response the three heads breathed fire at Marie…

"Not this time, I activate Dimension Wall, the attack will still go through but you take the damage instead!" Marie activated her trap and the flames hit an invisible force field, some of the flames bounced back at Marcus and he screamed in pain.

M (f): 7800

M (m): 3000

"You're going to have to better than that to keep me down." Marcus said defiantly as he got to his feet, he had some minor burns from the attack but was otherwise fine. "Besides I've still got Lord of Dragons on my side of the field and he can still attack!" Marcus said confidently and the spell caster casted a spell at Marie which struck her in the chest bringing her life-points down to 6600. "That ends my turn." Marcus announced and Marie drew her card.

"As much as I hate to give my opponents any kind of advantage this will work in my favor as well." Marie said as she played the spell card she drew revealing it to be Card of Sanctity, both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands and Marie looked at her new cards. "This won't help much but at the very least it'll keep the damage to a minimum; I activate the Spell Card Dark Door!" Marie played the card and Marcus frowned. "Now we can only attack with one monster per round."

"And since it doesn't target monsters Lord of Dragons won't protect Trident from it." Marcus thought with a frown as she set another card in defense mode and motioned for him to take his turn; Marcus drew his card and looked at it. "Well since I can only attack once I may as well make the most of it, Trident Dragion I command you to attack her defense!" Marcus commanded the dragon and the three dragon heads breathed fire at the facedown monster, revealed to be Red-Eyes Wyvern (4/1800/1600) which was quickly incinerated. "Now I set a card facedown and call it a turn at that." Marcus announced and Marie drew her card.

"I chose to end my turn but as I haven't attacked or summoned this turn Wyvern's effect activates from the graveyard." Marie said as she retrieved her dragon from the graveyard and pocketed it. "On the condition that I don't Normal Summon or set a monster during my turn I can remove Wyvern from play to bring back an old friend!" Marie said and without another word she retrieved Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon from the graveyard and played it, soon afterwards the metallic dragon returned to the field with its power boost to boot.

"Oh great, I thought that thing was gone for good!" Marcus moaned as he drew a card. "I shift Lord of Dragons to defense mode and set a card facedown." Marcus announced as the tanned spellcaster knelt down and a facedown card appeared behind him. "That ends my turn." Marcus announced and Marie drew her card without hesitation.

"You know I COULD bring back Exploder Dragonwing and use its effect to wreak havoc of your life-points." Marie said before playing the card that she had just drawn. "But why do that when I can do the same with Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon? I equip my dragon with the spell card Big Bang Shot, this gives him an extra four hundred attack points and a trampling effect!" Marcus's eyes widened as Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon glowed as its attack increased to 3700. "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, roast Lord of Dragons NOW!" Marie commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the tanned spellcaster incinerating it.

M (f): 7800

M (m): 1400

"Make your last move Marcus!" Marie demanded and Marcus drew his card without hesitation, he played it revealing it to be another Cards of Consonance and once he discarded a Tuner Type Dragon monster he drew two cards.

"This duel's over Marie." Marcus said as he looked at the two cards he had just drawn. "I win!" Marcus added earning himself a confused look from Marie. "First I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy Big Bang Shot!" Marie's eyes widened in horror as a tornado ripped through the field destroying Big Bang Shot's hologram, as soon as it did Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon was sucked into a portal and Marie reluctantly pocketed her best monster. "I'm not done; I equip Trident Dragon with not one but two Megamorphs tripping his attack power!" Marcus played the cards and just like he said Trident Dragon's attack power skyrocketed to 9000. "If you've got anything you want to say now's the time."

"Why should I bother? It's the end of the line for me." Marie demanded and Marcus frowned. "Fine, there is something I wanted to say anyway, those crimes I committed? They weren't my fault."

"Weren't your fault? The CCTV Cameras caught you and only you on tape!" Marcus pointed out and Marie sighed.

"That wasn't what I meant, I never met my parents, they died in a car accident when I was still a baby and as a result they never got a chance to teach me right from wrong and those hacks at the orphanage weren't exactly helping in that regard." Marie said angrily as she glared at Marcus. "So yeah, I'm blaming your old man for the crimes I committed, don't like it? Well that's too bad because it's the truth!" Marie shouted at Marcus who somehow kept his cool.

"That's not true Marie." Marcus blinked before looking over his shoulder, Marie's eyes narrowed however when she saw Marcus's dad, he was tall and shared Marcus's hair and eye color…..and that's about it, he was well built with semi-long hair and brown eyes who was wearing a business suit.

"What are you doing here?" The two competing duelists asked simultaneously, though in Marcus's case it was because he was surprised to see his dad and in Marie's case it was out of anger towards Marcus's dad.

"I was in the city to watch my son compete in his first duel." Marcus's dad said before motioning to Marcus. "You did well son."

"Heh thanks Dad." Marcus said as he blushed from the complement, Marie on the other hand fumed at the site of Marcus's dad.

"You have a lot of nerve showing your face after all this time." Marie scowled as she glared at the older man. "It's not enough that your negligence ruined my life but you had to show up just as your son was about to trap my soul in the Orichalcos to rub it in to boot?" Marie accused him and Marcus's dad's eyes narrowed at her accusation.

"First off I've been watching this duel since it began, Theresa's mother gave me a call and let me know what was going on." Marcus's dad said with a frown. "That said, you have no one to blame but yourself for your crimes Marie, there were several other orphans under my care that came from similar circumstances to yours and you know what? They turned out okay, in fact from what I've heard one of them is making a name for himself as an actor in Hollywood." Marcus's dad added and Marie growled.

"THAT COULD'VE BEEN ME!" Marie shouted at him and Marcus's dad stood firm. "If you hadn't given up on me I wouldn't be in this mess."

"Marie I never gave up on you." Marcus's dad said and Marie blinked in confusion clearly taken aback by his statement. "I never gave up on any of the children in my care, however the moment you started committing crimes was the moment that any prospective parents lost interest in adopting you, I tried to change their minds but they were deadest on either adopting another kid or trying it the natural way so to speak." Marcus's dad said and Marie's eyes widened as it dawned on her.

"You…you're lying, you must be!" Marie stammered as she fell to her knees, Marcus turned to his dad as if to say "should I finish her?" and Marcus's s dad shook his head.

"No need, look." Marcus's dad said before pointing at Marie, Marcus turned around and saw that Marie had surrendered the duel and that the seal was closing in around her.

"Marcus…Jack…..I'm sorry." Marie said tearfully just before the Seal took her soul away, once Marcus was sure that it was safe to do so Marcus deactivated his duel disk before turning to his dad.

"Dad, I'm not unhappy about seeing you or anything but, why didn't you say something sooner?" Marcus asked after a few minutes. "Doing so probably would've saved me a headache or two."

"I wanted too but throughout the duel I was at a loss for what to say." Jack said as he turned to Marie's unconscious body. "That girl has a lot of issues; hopefully she'll get the help she needs when she's freed from the Orichalcos."

"Speaking of which, let's move." Brandon said as he stepped forward. "We've defeated three of them so far and whoever's left is bound to be a lot tougher."

"You kids go ahead, I'll let the cops know that there's another Orichalcos duelist to apprehend." Jack said as he leaned against a crate. "If you need any help let me know, I may be old but I know a few tricks as far as dueling's concerned."

"We will Dad, I promise." Marcus said as he and the other students walked off.

*meanwhile on the ship*

"Another duelist falls." Michael grunted as he watched the proceedings on the monitor. "I'm beginning to see why they were eliminated so early." Michael added and the leader frowned as he took a sip of his drink.

"Come now Michael, did you honestly think I'd recruit these people if they weren't talented duelists?" The leader asked as he took a sip of his drink. "Besides, if the next duelist fails then they will have to deal with you, no one has emerged from a duel against you with their soul intact, let alone victorious."

"I am well aware of both of those facts." Michael said bluntly as he looked towards his duel disk. "And they have their own problems in the form of the next duelist; he has quite the grudge against Brandon's father."

"Whether or not it will translate into a victory for him or another situation like the one with Marie is another question all together." The leader said plainly as the two men looked towards Michael's next minion and the student's next obstacle.