Disclaimer: I do not own this story, anime, manga, etc. Created for entertainment purposes only.

Chapter 9

With the field reduced to sixteen, there was considerably less hubbub at 10 when the finalists gathered in the conference room adjoining the immense exhibition hall which would host the rest of the tournament. Well over half of them had been in situations like this before and knew it was crunch time, so they stood around all serious and stoic, not wanting to let any of the other duelists think they might be nervous or unprepared. Yugi entered the room already bonded with his inner spirit, stalking in like a prowling lion with a long black coat swishing in his wake. He caught Kaiba's disdainful glance from across the room, and just gave him a cool smile in response. Kaiba had donned his favorite white coat, it gave him an imposing figure and today he wanted to look like a champion. Everyone, in fact, seemed dressed a little more stylishly, as if expecting to be the one featured on camera later in the evening. Valon looked like had come straight from a club, with a black mesh shirt over a tank top and sunglasses perched in his wild hair. Marik certainly looked the part of an Egyptian nomad, in a sand-colored tunic that showed off his arms and the bands of gold he had donned once again. Even Eiri's button-up shirt was not quite buttoned up all the way. The friends among the group greeted each other with subdued pleasantries, aware that now none of them were safe from each other, it was every man for himself. Or woman, as Mai and Shandy both looked like they were eager and prepared to kick some ass. The British girl was sitting cross-legged on a table in her oversized jeans, watching everyone come in and smiling at them as if to tell them with just a glance "no hard feelings, but I'm going to slaughter you." Valon sidled up behind Joey and Yugi, who stood together talking. "She looks like a Spice Girl," he muttered under his breath.

"I wouldn't know," Joey said curtly. "Watch out for her, she's seriously dangerous. I had a hell of a time beating her."

"Oh, had a little trouble with the girl, eh mate?" Valon snickered. "Don't worry, I'll put her in her place."

Joey growled and shot a look over his shoulder, but Valon wandered away with a little laugh, heading towards the water cooler set up for their use.

When it was time, Croquet entered the room and made sure the door was closed securely behind him. "Good morning, duelists," he said professionally. "May I have your attention? The arena is nearly finished being set up, and they'll begin seating the spectators shortly. In the meantime, I'd like to go over the pairings for your matches and how the eliminations will proceed."

The sixteen duelists gathered around him, looking rather like a small, rag-tag army with their duel disks on their arms. Croquet had with him only a clipboard, and turned it outward so they could see the illustration of the tournament sequence. "As you'll note," he began, "you have already been assigned a bracket and dueling order. They are arranged as fairly as we knew how, weighted appropriately to your performance in the first rounds. This had to be done to ensure that no one who faced each other in the elimination rounds yesterday will have to duel the same people again in the first round today. After the quarterfinals, however, it all depends on who advances. The first eight duels of the quarterfinals will proceed in this order…" Using a pen as a pointer, he ran it down the four on one side and then the four on the other side, as they were appropriately numbered one through eight. "And the winners of each will advance to the next round against each other in this alternating fashion. We continue like this until two are left for the championship match. The last two eliminated will battle each other for third place, and both of those duels will be televised later this evening. Any questions?"

Everyone glanced at each other, looking fairly certain they understood. Croquet took the roster from his clipboard and tacked it to the wall. "This will remain here for your convenience. This room serves as the green room for the finalists, and only winning duelists will be allowed to enter from the outside once their match is over. The losers may have a seat with the rest of the tournament participants in the audience. Those of you who have not yet dueled are welcome to watch also, from reserved seats in the front row." He pushed his dark glasses up onto his nose and looked around the room. "Good luck, all of you. I'd suggest you avail yourself of the light breakfast provided for you, because the tournament goes without break until dinner."

The finalists looked over to the table that had some simple fare laid out for them, fruit and doughnuts mainly, as the tournament judge left them. Joey gave a shrug and went for it, and pretty soon everyone had followed suit. Nibbling at food was a good way to keep from having to make small talk until the announcement was made that the tournament was about to get underway. As he stood apart from the others, Yugi glanced aside to see Eiri coming up to him with a strange, almost eager smile. "Good luck," he said, holding out a hand. "If all goes well, we'll be facing each other."

Yugi hesitated, but then took his hand. Instead of shaking it sternly, Eiri just held it. "Yes, I suppose so," Yugi said quietly with a little smile. "If that's what you want, you had better not lose."

"Don't you lose, either," Eiri dared him. His smile flashed brilliantly for a moment, and then he wandered away with an extra swagger in his step.

A small box was set up ringside for the finalists to sit and wait their turn to duel, and after the spectators had all been seated, they were finally brought out to be cheered and watched. It turned out that the audience for the tournament was not just the losing duelists, but random game fans from off the street, as Pegasus had advertised locally that the finals would be open to the public to watch. It made for a large and boisterous crowd, but also annoyed some of the finalists as they took a seat. "That's no fair," Joey pouted. "We couldn't bring any of our friends or family from home, but anyone living in Hong Kong gets to come watch us play?"

"It's all right, Joey," Yami Yugi assured. "We may not have Tristan and Duke, or Bakura, or my grandfather, but you and I have Mai, Marik, Rebecca, and many other friends to cheer each other on." His glance went briefly to the tall figure at the end of the row, sitting with his arms crossed tightly and a dark look on his face. "I feel for Kaiba, though. He doesn't acknowledge us as friends, so without Mokuba here for him, he has no one."

Pegasus arose from his special box seated high above the arena floor to make yet another swelling speech about talented game play and exciting duels, but most of the finalists didn't want to listen to him any more and instead scrutinized the field. It was set up as a cross between the old style of holographic arenas and the new duel disk method of play, with the proper card spaces to indicate monster, magic and trap, and graveyard zones drawn on the floor, but instead of arena stations, just an open space for the duelist to stand and command his or her holograms. Enormous emitters were suspended from the ceiling and stationed properly so as to not obstruct the audience's view of the game, meaning players didn't have to rely on the small portable emitters from their duel disks to provide spectacular monster battles. The sound and light system was nothing short of a rock concert setup, with dazzling intellibeams tracing colored patterns around the floor and shining like spotlights on Pegasus as he rambled. At last, he declared the start of the quarterfinal round, and with a splash of lights and a thunder of fast-paced techno music, the audience roared their approval. Win or lose, it was going to be a tournament none of them would forget.

The very first round pitted Marik against one of the second chance duelists, the top finisher from Europe. Marik won handily, able to always keep at least one monster on his side of the field and never having to summon anything higher than a level six creature, while his opponent scrambled to be able to have enough sacrifices to summon his high-level, flashy monsters. Joey took out his opponent with a fast and explosive duel, and then Yugi faced Rebecca. She looked as determined as ever to knock him out of the top spot, and appeared not to be intimidated by him. Yugi had not seen her duel in years and figured she had already grown light years beyond the strategy she employed last time they faced each other in an arena, but he still breezed through the duel to a win. For a minute it looked like she might pull out an upset, getting an enormous dragon on the field that was sure to stop Yugi's Queen's Knight, but he summoned the other two in the combo and used Brave Attack to send them one after another to cut down the dragon until they overcame it, and its fall took the rest of Rebecca's life points. Yugi gave her a sympathetic look across the arena, knowing she must be crushed, but even he was surprised at how simple it was to beat her. Perhaps all that saving the world and dueling in the shadow realm actually had pushed him to a level above those who were only in it for the game and the prizes. She didn't look at him as they returned to their seats in the private box.

Valon went next, and dismantled his opposition without flinching. He looked like he would be an incredible challenge to face. Shandy stepped up and knocked another second chance duelist out of the tournament with a few creative strategies that, for the experienced duelist, looked painful to have to lose to. For once, Mako was able to advance to the next round, battling steadily against Tenpou's ninja combos and coming back from a deficit to beat him. Kaiba battled hard against his opponent, and actually had to exert some effort in order to win. Mai's duel was last, against Eiri Murakami. She broke out strong, deciding to use her Amazon cards to their best effect, but Eiri held his ground against her and battled back, his sorcerers working in combination with each other to hold off sneak attacks and traps. In the end, he overpowered Mai, and with a last explosion of her monster being wiped off the field, she stared, stunned, as her life points dropped to zero. Eiri did not look surprised, but he was rather excited to have won against her. Joey stood up from his seat the minute the match was over, and waited for Mai to return to the finalists' box, hanging her head dejectedly. "I can't believe it," she murmured as she reached his side. "That combo always works for me. How did he do that?"

Joey put an arm around her. "It's okay," he said soothingly. "You did your best, you played a perfect game."

"Not perfect enough," Mai said morosely. "If it were perfect, I'd have won."

"Aww…" Not sure what else to stay, Joey just hugged her, and she sank into him with her forehead resting on his shoulder. She wasn't in tears, not Mai, but she didn't like losing and found his consolation welcome. Joey snuggled her and rubbed her back, and then pulled her back to look at him. "Hey. It's okay. You know I don't care if you win or lose. You kick my butt all the time, remember."

Mai smiled wanly at him. "Yeah, I know. It just hurts. It always has."

"I'm sorry. I wanted to see you go all the way, I really did."

She shook her head slowly. "I wouldn't have. If not this guy, someone would have ended it sooner or later. Even if it was Yugi in the final round." She glanced back at him, as he stood patiently beside them.

Yugi smiled gently. "I'm sorry, Mai. But you did really well. I've never seen you duel stronger."

"Thanks, Yugi." Mai leaned her head on Joey's shoulder for a minute or two more, letting him run his hand along her back to soothe her, and then tugged him by the open front of his jacket. "I'm going to get a drink of water from the green room. Save a seat for me, would you?"

"Sure thing." He watched her go, glad that her duel had been last so they could have this brief break to let the loss sink in before the action resumed. "Man, that sucks," he muttered to Yugi. "She played her best, but Eiri just had it in for her. He played as fast and hard as she does."

"It's been a while since she truly met her match," Yugi murmured deeply. "But I think dueling us for fun has kept her sharp. It may look like she lost hard, but she's just as good as the rest of us. This round of the tournament just happens to be stacked with incredibly talented challengers."

"I know. But she's right, it still hurts to watch someone you care about lose." Joey sighed and dropped back into his chair. "At least this time she didn't lose her soul or nothin'. It could have been a lot worse." He glanced toward the door to the green room, waiting for her to come back. "You know, Yug," he mused quietly, "I think I get what you meant the other day by not having your heart in the game. Losing sucks, but if you've got nothing to win for, you get over it. It's just another game, then. But maybe…just maybe, I got a reason to put my heart in it."

Yugi's eyebrows arched curiously. "Oh?"

"Yeah." Joey still gazed at the door, a faint smile creeping onto his lips. "I've been thinkin' about that prize money. Five million yen goes a long way. I could buy a house with that."

Yugi smiled in amusement. "And what would you do with a house, Joey?"

"Make a life for myself. With Mai." He turned to his best friend, his brown eyes deadly serious. There was so much stir in the hall that no one would have been able to hear what he said next, except for Yugi. "If I get to the final round, and I can win that prize, I can use it to build a life with Mai. I'll propose to her, on the spot."

Yugi's eyes widened. "Joey! You would?"

"Yeah." He smiled wistfully in a different direction. "I've been kind of thinking about it, you know, just dreaming. It's a big maybe. But winning this tournament would make it easier for us to really go and do it. You know?"

"Joey, I think that's wonderful," Yugi said sincerely. "But don't let your placing in this tournament determine your plans for a lifetime of happiness. If you love her that much, consider your proposal no matter what. After all," he added with a knowing smile, "there may be other people in this tournament with their own legitimate, noble goals that they're striving for."

"Yeah, I guess." Joey looked to see Mai returning, a full glass of water in hand. "Don't tell anybody what I just told you, okay? I gotta think more about it."

Yugi nodded, and both of them turned completely innocent faces to Mai as she stepped back into the box and sat down beside Joey. The next round was about to begin, and a holographic grid snapped to life above the dueling arena to show how the pairings would advance. There was an alternating pattern to the way the first round had been numbered, so that the winners of the first and third duels would face each other, the second versus the fourth, and so on. This meant that Marik would face Yugi, Joey had the rematch of a lifetime waiting against Valon, Kaiba would battle Shandy, and Eiri would duel Mako. Those wins would duel in a cross pattern, first against fourth and second against third, to determine the final round. Straightening up determinedly, Yugi rose to step down to the arena to face Marik.

They met in the center under a judge's watch to shuffle their decks and cut them for each other. Marik was calm and steady, with a light of excitement in his pale blue eyes. He and Yugi smiled at each other over their cards. "You don't know how long I've waited for this chance," Marik breathed. "It's time for me to duel you for real, no shadow games, nothing but you and me pitting our skills against each other. I owe you an honorable duel…my pharaoh."

Yugi's smile deepened, as Yami within understood and appreciated the sentiment. "I'm looking forward to this," he said quietly. "No matter who wins, we'll know we both played our best and played with honor."

"Yes." Marik handed him his deck. "Just don't beat me too badly."

Yami Yugi chuckled as he turned and went to his place. Marik took up position and pushed his deck into its slot, making his duel disk light up to begin. He was fairly sure the pharaoh and his partner were going to win, but he had no intention of just letting it happen. He intended to fight hard, and push them to their limits so they could know, after all this time, just who was more powerful when souls weren't on the line. Yugi drew his first hand with a flourish and fanned it out, trying not to smile at his cards. This was going to be interesting.

Marik stood calmly at his position and strung the duel along at the start, laying out monsters and an apparent defense without revealing anything about his strategy. He even wore the most inscrutable of faces, a very slight smile that made him look as calm and calculating as the pharaoh himself. Yugi pushed at his defense with an attack or two, but could discern nothing of where the duel was going. He had gained for himself a considerable army, four monsters on the field, but Marik had two monsters with staggeringly high defense points standing as a shield while he ordered his Magic and Trap cards. At last, he pounced, blasting away all four monsters and more than halving Yugi's life points in one turn. Rather than his old standby, Revival Jam, Marik had discovered another monster that could only be destroyed under a very specific set of circumstances, and equipped it with Raregold Armor so that Yugi could only attack it, even if he had something that could attack directly or take down one of the defensive monsters. Unfortunately, getting himself to that point had also cost him life points, as he had let Yugi attack him in order to trigger Traps and set up his monsters, so they were nearly even. But times like this never threw Yugi off his game; on the contrary, it forced him to think beyond the cards and find creative new ways to come back and win. It seemed he and Marik were locked in a wrestling match, as he tried a few different ideas to see if he had met the conditions to destroy the monster glaring at him across the field. Then, he drew the special card from Pegasus, and knew what he had to do. It was a matter of getting the Dark Magician on the field, though, and as it turned out, Marik's monster was not immune from being offered as a tribute. Dark Renewal snatched it and Yugi's Kuriboh in order to awaken his favorite mage. He cleared out one of Marik's defenses, but the other would have to wait, so he set his rare Trap card and ended his turn. Marik was not at all intimidated, and already knew what he would do if the Dark Magician ever appeared on the field. In fact, he could win the game on this move. He drew, and blinked with a moment's surprise that he had drawn a card he needed. "Well," he said placidly. "I guess the 'heart of the cards' doesn't work only for you after all."

Yugi's brows twitched. "Oh?"

Marik put on a firm and determined half-smile as he threw down cards. "First I activate Monster Reborn to bring back the monster you just destroyed, but not for long. I'll sacrifice them both in order to bring out something much stronger!" A vortex opened on his side of the field, and a great, hulking shape reared up out of it, stretching toward the roof with a screech. It was a Black Tyranno, with 2600 attack points – just enough to nip the Dark Magician off the field and nibble Yugi's life points. But Marik wasn't content with that. "Black Tyranno's effect is, if your monsters are in defense mode, he can attack your life points directly."

Yugi took a step back in surprise, noting that his life points were holding at 800. "But my Dark Magician is in attack mode," he pointed out.

"Not for long." There was one card face down on Marik's side of the field, and he pointed dramatically to it as it activated. "I play Block Attack!"

To Yugi's concern, his Dark Magician suddenly lowered himself to one knee with his staff in front of him, in defense mode. "No!"

"It was an amazing duel, Yugi," Marik admitted. "I can't believe I'm really going to do this. Black Tyranno, attack his life points directly…"

The giant black dinosaur lunged with its jaws wide open, bypassing the Dark Magician in order to chomp the last bits of Yugi's life points out of existence, but a burst of light across the field knocked it up and backwards. The audience gasped, Marik growled, and looked to see what had stopped his game-winning attack. A Trap had been activated by his opponent, though he still wasn't sure what effect it had created. The Magic card he had just played suddenly vanished. "Wait a minute!" he protested. "Even if you had a Trap card that stopped my Magic card, Black Tyranno can still destroy your Dark Magician."

"Not any longer." The light faded, and a much bigger, darker Dark Magician stood at full attack, his hand outstretched from having just blown away the Magic card. The duel stats displayed above the arena showed his attack points to be 3200. Marik stared, confused. Yugi crossed his arms and smiled. "You aren't just facing my Dark Magician. This is the Sorcerer of Dark Magic, a much stronger monster than you thought at first."

Marik scowled fiercely. "You can't summon a monster on my turn, and the Sorcerer of Dark Magic can only be special summoned a certain way…"

"Not according to my Trap card." Yugi glanced toward it. "In exchange for my Dark Magician, Rite of Transference allows me to bring out the Sorcerer of Dark Magic when and where I need him, even in the middle of an attack."

The arena went quiet, but for the background music being played at a low volume underneath their action. Marik shook his head in disbelief. "What is that card? I've never seen that card before."

"Neither have I," Kaiba muttered from where he sat watching. He was angry enough that he got to his feet, then, and shouted across the arena. "Pegasus! What kind of a trick is this? That card doesn't exist! Yugi just played an illegal card, therefore he should be disqualified and kicked out of this tournament on the spot!"

Even the music cut out now. Spotlights and every eye in the audience went to Pegasus where he sat observing the duel from on high. He only gave a slightly more wicked smirk than usual. "Negative, Kaiba-boy. Your Duel Monsters database must be out of date. That card most certainly exists, I created it myself."

Kaiba snarled and pointed an accusing finger. "Then you're enabling Yugi to cheat!"

"Don't be stupid," Pegasus said in an unexpectedly sharp tone. "Rite of Transference may be one-of-a-kind, but it's not cheating to have it or to play it. Or else I'd have to kick you out for holding the only three existing Blue Eyes, wouldn't I?" Kaiba bristled angrily. Pegasus just tossed his hair casually. "Besides, I didn't actually give Yugi that card."

"That's right," Yugi said calmly, his eyes also on Pegasus. "He gave it to my grandfather, as a gift."

"And whatever Mr. Muto chooses to do with his cards is no business of mine," Pegasus sniffed. "Truth be told, I was hoping to see it again. You've had it since, hmm…was it summer last year, Yugi-boy?"

"Before that," Yugi replied warily.

"That's right," Mai spoke up. "I remember he had it last spring, he beat me with it once."

"There, you see? No need to cry foul, it's a perfectly legal move. And a stunningly good one, no less." Pegasus eyed Yugi sneakily for a moment before waving a hand. "Resume the duel! My judgement is final."

The music came back up, and Yugi and Marik faced one another again. "Well?" the former asked his opponent. "Do you wish to complete your attack?"

Marik eyed the Sorcerer facing his dinosaur and relaxed his alarmed stance. "No," replied, sticking a card into his duel disk. "I'll lay this face down and end my turn." He had only 700 life points left, but even losing the Black Tyranno, he would remain in the duel one more turn. Perhaps his Trap could lengthen that survival.

Yugi drew his card and pointed at the face-down card on the field. "The Sorcerer of Dark Magic's special ability allows him to negate and destroy Trap cards, so if that's a Trap on the field…"

The card vanished in a small explosion. Marik stared, gritting his teeth in a little growl. The Sorcerer summoned up an impressive light show and blasted the Black Tyranno to smithereens. Yugi laid a card facedown and ended his turn. Marik had no choice but to draw, and gaze defeatedly at his hand. He had no cards that would hold off such a powerful attack, and only one meager monster to put up. He heaved a sigh and raised his hand over his duel disk. "I guess I have no choice, then," he said. "I should have known it was too good to be true."

"Marik, no!" Yugi shouted. "I won't let you surrender to me."

Marik frowned. "Why not? You're going to win anyway."

"Surrender is the cheap way out." Yugi clenched a fist determinedly. "You're better than that. I'm only ahead by a few hundred life points, and I have only one monster. You don't know that it's over yet. Fight, Marik! Fight like I remember. You're no coward. You're strong, and I know you have it in you."

Marik listened, his face blank, and then he regained a peaceful smile. "All right. You deserve my best, pharaoh. I'll fight to the last life point." He glanced at his hand again, and quickly played three cards. "Two cards face down, and this monster in defense. And no," he added, "those aren't Traps."

Yugi nodded and drew. Despite his encouragement, he also knew he was going to win. He just didn't like to see Marik backing himself into a corner and taking the easy way out. He gestured to his facedown card, activating Shadow of Eyes, a trap which switched Marik's monster into Attack. It was a plain, normal monster, no effects, nothing to prevent it from being destroyed. Marik held his ground and kept his posture straight as his monster was blown away, causing him to lose. He only lifted his head and smiled across the way at his opponent. Yugi smiled back, and Croquet declared him the winner.

It wasn't until the two of them had walked back to their seats that Marik took Yugi aside and clasped his hand. "Thank you for pushing me," he murmured. "I needed that. That was an amazing duel. If not for that one card…"

"Yes, I admit, you almost had me," Yugi chuckled. "It's good to see you're just as strong as ever on the field." He glanced up as they walked past Kaiba, for his rival was eyeing him with utter contempt. He chose to ignore it. "As long as you don't hold my rare card against me."

"I don't think, as former leader of the Rare Hunters, that I have any right to complain about your cards," Marik said wryly. They laughed, shook hands, and took their seats as if nothing had happened. After all, an even more important rematch duel was about to take place, and Yugi wanted to make sure he didn't miss a moment of it.

Joey took a deep breath as he heard Croquet announce his name as being up next, against Valon. It had been a long time since they last faced each other, but he remembered it clearly. He had given grudging respect at the end of their fight, because Valon had dueled him like no one ever had before, pushing him to his limits both mentally and physically in order to overcome both duelist and the spell that held them both trapped. But after that, he hadn't seen Valon again, not even to know whether he had repented of his troublemaking and wanted to make amends. Yet, here they were again, this time with far less than their souls at stake, and Joey was just as apprehensive and determined to win. He knew he didn't have to prove anything to Mai, or to Valon really, but he couldn't let himself be eliminated. Not when he had greater goals in mind, and certainly not by this upstart. If he had beaten him in dire circumstances, facing a deck full of strange armor cards that he had never seen before, he could surely beat him in this plain old arena. After watching the first round duel, Joey couldn't even be certain Valon was still using his armor strategy. They only gave each other a cursory glance as they walked to the center of the arena together and faced each other to shuffle. Valon cocked his opponent a pleasant grin. "Funny meeting you here, after all we've been through."

Joey snorted. "I dueled you, what, once?"

"Yeah, but I'd think all the other background stuff counted for something." Valon deftly shuffled Joey's deck without much fuss. "You still don't trust me."

Joey raised an eyebrow. "You tried to take my soul and steal my girlfriend."

"She wasn't your girlfriend at the time," Valon said innocently. "Really, mate, I'm not foolin' you. I'm not the guy you dueled back then. Sure, I still got my good looks and my attitude, but I'm not out to get you. I got no reason." He set the deck firmly in Joey's outstretched hand. "This is just for fun."

With a soft sigh, Joey nodded and returned Valon's deck to him. "All right, then. Just for fun."

"'Course, I'm still gonna win." Valon grinned and winked and turned to go to his place.

"Yeah, in your dreams." Joey slapped his deck into his duel disk as he walked to his place. The last thing I need right now is to be rattled. He's not even trying to play any head games with me and I'm still second-guessing everything. Maybe he's right. I just have to let go of the past…let go of anything I had against him. He pulled out his first hand and nodded, mostly to himself. "All right, Valon. I'm gonna give you everything I've got, because I know you're not gonna hold back."

"No way in hell." Valon drew a card. "My move first…"

As expected, both duelists came out swinging. Valon did not appear to have his armor cards, or if he did, he wasn't using them, relying instead on a strategy of reversing his opponent's moves to backfire on him. It was something of the same effect his futuristic armor had had, but without the fancy equipment. Joey quickly realized what was going on and changed his tactic, playing a little more smart and less with the aggressive displays of power that were coming back to bite him. To his surprise, Valon was playing fast and loose with relatively low-powered monsters that required no tributes, using them in conjunction with just the right Magic or Trap card to deliver enough of a blow to Joey to make it count, though often they required a life point or card payment to work. Thus, by the time things got really heated up, they were both down considerably in points. The crowd was fully into the duel, cheering wildly for the fast, ferocious action and the flippant comments both duelists delivered. Joey realized, then, that he was having a good time. Make that, a really good time. Dueling Valon was difficult, but also a lot of fun. Pretty soon he had forgotten all about his noble goal necessitating a win and just played to be the victor against a worthy opponent. Valon was just as determined to win, perhaps to prove that he didn't need the Seal of Oricalcos to be able to win a duel, so he battled hard and wormed his way out of sticky situations with ease. He was winning over fans in the audience, though many were also just as enthusiastic about Joey. Sitting in the middle of it all was Yami Yugi, watching curiously. He had never seen Valon duel, apart from the first round that day, so he was eager to see why he had provided Joey with such a challenge when they met on opposite sides of a cause. He figured Joey's attempt to explain how the duel went fell far short of exactly how thrilling and incredible it actually was. Beside him, Mai sat in pensive silence, mostly just watching the other two points of their past love triangle battle it out. She hoped they weren't doing this to impress her, because her mind was already made up and no amount of aggressive male posturing was going to sway her. Nonetheless, it was an interesting duel, and both she and Yugi rooted on Joey at appropriate moments.

Valon had reduced Joey's life points considerably below his, but from there Joey was holding him off, not able to advance but not losing any more either. He played defense well, and considered the cards in his hand for what kind of strategy they could provide him. He had Rocket Warrior standing before him, and was fairly certain once he weakened Valon's monster, he'd be toast, but there were cards on the field to be wary of. He had nothing in his hand to help himself, though, and figured the only way to know for sure was to attack. If he lost his monster, he still had Scapegoat to protect him. It was his turn, and he drew an even better monster, but one that required a sacrifice to summon. Rocket Warrior would do. "All right, Valon," he warned, "check it out. I'm sacrificing Rocket Warrior…"

"Oh no you're not. I've got a Trap card." Valon pointed smartly to his card graphic as it raised. "As long as this is in effect, neither of us can sacrifice monsters to summon bigger ones."

"What?" Joey stared at it, and then groaned. "What kind of a trick is that?"

"A pretty good one," Valon smirked. "Now it's up to our regular guys to duke it out. No fancy dragons or big burly guys with swords, just the little ones. Though, I'm guessing this helps me more than you."

Joey muttered under his breath. "Fine, I'll lay this card face down and that's it. Back to you."

"With pleasure." Valon drew and studied his card with a comically cute face, which quickly turned into a wicked grin. "Well. This may look familiar to you, Katsuya…" He slapped down a monster, which appeared on the field as a tiny metallic helmet.

"Oh no," Joey groaned loudly. "Not this again."

"What? I thought you had fun last time we played with this." He plucked a card from his hand and shoved it in the right slot. "Activating Full Armor Gravitation."

In the audience, Rebecca quietly said, "Oh, no."

Yugi glanced at her. "What is it, Rebecca?"

"Valon's favorite move. At least, he used this strategy on me."

"It's his favorite, all right," Mai confirmed. "The boy loves his mecha armor."

Yugi glanced from them back to the field. He had never seen this monster before, nor the Magic card that was just played, but was treated to an immediate lesson in how it worked as Valon swiftly drew the top ten cards from his deck. "And now," he taunted, "I get to summon any and all armor cards I have…" He fanned out the cards, but the smirk on his face vanished instantly. "What? No…"

Joey laughed snidely. "What's the matter? Didn't get what you were looking for?"

Valon growled at his cards, and only flicked Joey a brief glance before continuing. "Maybe not as many as I hoped for, but I still have some." He slapped down three more, two arm-pieces and a set of boots. The rest of the cards were deposited in his graveyard. "And now for the fun part," he declared.

Joey expected this. "Sure you want to mess up your hair?"

"I'm not putting the armor on myself this time," Valon informed him. Instead, he pointed to his monster standing on the field. "It goes on my Warrior Dai Grepher." He stood there smirking confidently as the helmet, arm guards, and boots swished over and slapped themselves on the burly warrior, fitting him perfectly, though the suit of futuristic armor was incomplete. "Welcome to the twenty-first century, mate."

Joey looked through his hand, contemplating his options. Valon's armor had taken him apart last time, but that was when he donned it himself. How different would it operate equipped to his monster? At least he wasn't in for any huge surprises – he knew how these cards worked, and what to expect from them. "Your warrior looks silly," he remarked. "He's got nothing protecting his sensitive parts."

"He doesn't need it," Valon assured him. He paused and looked over Joey's monster, calculating points in his head, and then coolly stood back. "That's all for now. Your move, Katsuya."

Joey drew his card, frowning a little in uncertainty. What the hell? Why didn't he attack me? His Dai Grepher is way more than my Rocket Warrior, and that thing on his arm can destroy monsters regardless of attack points. Wait… He remembered some small, fleeting detail from his past. That's right, if he uses its effect, we both lose the life points. And he can't survive 1500 life points' damage, that means I'd win. He breathed a tiny sigh of relief that he had just narrowly escaped losing the duel and ordered his move. "All right, pretty boy, here we go. I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight…in attack mode!" The great warrior in a suit of black armor rose up before him. "First up, I'm getting rid of your fancy boots. Rocket Warrior, attack his Overboost!"

Valon stood without flinching as Rocket Warrior streaked for his monster's feet. "Dai Grepher, activate Overboost special ability." The warrior crouched, and just before he was hit, leaped straight up into the air. Rocket Warrior circled around and returned to his spot, having completely missed. Dai Grepher did an acrobatic flip and landed back in position, unharmed. Valon laughed brashly. "Bet you didn't see that one coming! Overboost lets my monster dodge an attack from anything with less than two thousand points."

Joey made an annoyed noise. "Your armor cards have more special abilities than Kaiba has dragons. I'm never going to keep up with them all."

Valon shrugged. "You can always take off your shoes and count on your toes, if it gets too hard."

The audience laughed. Joey quivered in frustration, starting to rethink his ideas of considering Valon fun to duel. "Fine. That's all for me this round. But you watch it – this isn't over yet."

"I hope not," Valon said brightly, "I'm having fun." He drew, and gave a short, triumphant laugh. "Now this is more like it." He jabbed the card in a slot. "I activate Pot of Greed. Now let's see what we get." He glanced over the two cards and perked right up, his grin widening. "That's it, baby. That's what I need." There was one position for a monster card open, and he took it. "Active Guard! Attach to Dai Grepher!"

The holographic warrior flexed as his torso was encased in the last piece of armor, and gave an appropriate little yell of manliness. Joey just stood with his mouth open. "Oh crap."

"Now it's time to get down to business." Valon pointed toward his foe. "Attack his Rocket Warrior with Buster Knuckle!"

The right arm of the suit began to glow, and the warrior charged forward, drawing back a fist to strike. That particular piece's special ability destroyed its target without needing to have the points to do so, and subtracted its attack points from both players' life points. Joey dropped to 400. Valon, however, remained unscathed, as the Active Guard he had just added absorbed the attack damage, reducing it to zero. Joey looked concernedly at his Gearfried, since he wasn't sure the left hand armor was going to destroy him the same way, but Valon chose to end his turn after setting a card face down. "Bad move," Joey warned. "Take me out now or you're going to be sorry."

"I'm not worried," Valon said breezily. "My Jet Gauntlet won't do enough damage to wipe you out, I'll wait till next turn and hit you with Buster Knuckle again. The look on your face when that happens is worth enjoying," he added.

"Joey's right," Yugi muttered, though only Mai heard him. "Valon's making a costly mistake. You never leave Joey with a handful of life points, he will use them to come back."

"His mistake to make," Mai shrugged.

Joey closed his eyes, wishing with all his might as he drew his next card. He blinked at it, and then added it to his hand, where he was able to see the cards working in combination to turn this little development around. Rather than gloat, he took a breath and straightened up, a courageous look in his brown eyes. "I warned you," he said. "Now here it is." He extended his hand toward the face down card graphic on his side of the field. "First, I activate Needle Wall. And since it's my turn…" A holographic die dropped straight down out of nowhere and landed on his side of the field. "Whatever number I roll, you have to count which monster that is on your duel disk and destroy it."

Valon shook his head sadly. "Desperate move, mate. If you think it'll help…"

"Oh, I know it'll help." Joey tossed his hand dramatically. "Roll the die!"

The die upended itself and rolled across the field, as within the duel disk processor a number was randomized and popped up, stopping the die so it displayed that number. Joey watched it heatedly, hoping for one particular number to come up. Come on, come on… The die stopped on one. Joey pumped his fist in the air. "Yeah! So the first monster on that end of your duel disk…"

"…is Active Guard," Valon sighed. "Damn."

Joey was already on his next move, even as Valon dumped the card in his graveyard and the breastplate vanished from his warrior's body. He could no longer attack with his armor cards, or he would suffer damage. "Two cards face down, and this little baby in defense mode. Then I'll switch Gearfried to defense mode also. And I'm feelin' pretty confident, so I'll end my turn and see what you got."

"All right, all right, no need to get cocky." Valon drew and gritted his teeth. "I got no choice, I guess." He hit the button to activate the face-down card on his field. "This lets me negate the effect of a continuous Trap card for one turn, and one turn only. So I can ignore my card that keeps us from sacrificing monsters, and summon this." He removed Jet Gauntlet, Buster Knuckle, and Overboost from his warrior, leaving him with only his head protected, and slapped down a new monster. "Guilford the Lightning!"

Lightning speared down from on high, arcing over his side of the field to announce the arrival of a powerful warrior. Joey flailed excitably. "That's my monster!" he cried. "No fair!"

"Oh, you have one too?" Valon grinned. "Then you know what it does." His gaze hardened. "Guilford, wipe out his monsters, starting with the face-down one!"

The enormous, heavily-armed warrior slashed downward with a lightning-graced sword, halving the card and exploding the monster hiding beneath. Joey let out a mocking laugh. "That's all for you, sunshine."

"What?" Valon looked to see a little neko statue crumble. "What the hell was that?"

"Neko Mane King. You flip him, your turn's done." Joey stuck out his tongue. "Serves you right for taking the bait. You should have attacked Gearfried first."

Valon sighed in frustration. "I had better plans for him. No matter. Next turn I'll get him."

Joey drew, and didn't bother keeping a poker face at what his card meant to him. Valon could see that he was back in control of the game, but there was nothing he could do about it, except hope that he wasn't about to lose the rest of his armor cards. His opponent held out the card daringly. "Finally! I can get a higher level monster on the field too."

"No you can't," Valon taunted, "my Trap card's back in effect. You can't sacrifice any monsters."

"Who said I needed to make a sacrifice?" Joey calmed himself and stuck the card in the last open slot. "Hold on to your sunglasses, Valon. I activate the Magic card Release Restraint!" It appeared on the field, flipped up, and then vanished with a glow. "Watch this, it's pretty cool."

In front of him, Gearfried the Iron Knight roared powerfully, flexing his arms. The glow from Release Restraint enveloped him, cracking his armor apart at the joints and letting it fall away with a loud crash. From inside leaped Gearfried the Swordmaster, who stepped out and brandished his sword at Guilford to the sound of impressed cheers from the audience. Valon noticed something important. "He's got less attack points than my Guilford," he said in exasperation. "Don't tell me you went to all that trouble for a weaker monster, Katsuya!"

"I'm not done yet." Joey summoned a monster first, one meant for defense but clearly lacking in attack points. "And now for this." He flung out a hand to activate the two face down cards on his field, both Magic. "Burning Soul Sword, and Shield and Sword!"

The blade in Gearfried's fist changed to a flaming golden sword, while his attack and defense points, as well as those of all the other monsters on both sides of the field, exchanged for each other. Gearfried and Guilford were both now slightly less powerful, but the lightning warrior still had the advantage. "You've cracked," Valon decided. "One too many direct attacks on your life points or something. I'm still stronger."

"Only because I haven't offered up a monster to the Burning Soul Sword yet." Joey glanced at his formerly weak, now rather powerful defense monster, and watched its newly-boosted attack points transfer to the sword. The sword, in turn, transferred these points to Gearfried, giving him the advantage.

Valon's hands dropped to his sides. "Oh, hell."

"Show him why they call you the swordmaster, Gearfried," Joey commanded.

The bare-chested warrior charged across the field, swinging the flaming sword. Guilford leaped in to intercept, their blades clashing magnificently, but Gearfried parried, deflected the lightning blade aside, and cut down Guilford with a stunning explosion that rocked the arena speakers. The audience erupted in thunderous applause at the spectacular finish, as Valon watched his life points disappear. "Winner of round three, Joey Katsuya!" Croquet announced.

Valon remained standing there, arms still drooping, while the grid powered down and their monsters disappeared. Joey started towards him, and was glad to see Valon likewise start across the arena, a hand outstretched. "I don't know why," he began, "but you're the only duelist who's ever handed my ass to me. Twice, no less."

"Yeah, well," Joey said with the beginnings of a smile, "it's not easy. You're one of the best, Valon. I mean that."

"Yeah?" Valon slugged him in the shoulder. "You're not so bad yourself, Katsuya. You've got heart. I've always seen that, it's why I like you." He pointed a scolding finger at Joey's face. "You didn't trust me, you thought I was here to get all up in your face, didn't you? But when you beat me that first time, I saw why Mai couldn't forget about you. You're really something. I lost my will to carry that grudge after that." He nudged Joey with an elbow and turned to walk back to their seats, so the next duel could get underway. "Never got the chance to say it to your face, though. Things went a bit wonky after that."

"Yeah, that's putting it lightly." Joey nudged him back. "You're all right, Valon. I'm sorry I didn't trust you, you deserved a second chance and I wasn't about to give it to you."

"Um, Mai?" Rebecca said as they watched the two opponents head their way. "Your boyfriend and your former crush are buddying up to each other."

Mai stared at them, not sure she was seeing what she was seeing, but then cracked a smile. "Good. Valon could use a friend like Joey."

Yugi chuckled to himself as he watched. Yes, it seemed he wasn't the only one who managed to make friends out of past enemies.

As they passed, Kaiba rose from his seat and glared at them. "It's about time you got off the field. It's time for a real duelist to show these people how it's done."

Joey and Valon stood aside as he brushed rudely past, and then Valon stuck out his tongue. Before they could enter the private box and take seats, however, Shandy stepped past them, giving them both a perky smile and a salute with her duel disk. Valon suddenly took on a grin of a different kind. "Good luck," he wished her. "Kick some ass."

"Plan to!" she said happily, and strode boldly away to her duel.

Valon looked after her with a little pout. "Ah, too bad. She's cute."

"I thought you said she looked like a Spice Girl," Joey reminded him.

"Yeah, but I never said that was a bad thing," Valon pointed out as he picked out a seat and lounged in it.

After Joey had sat down, between Mai and Yugi, his girlfriend leaned over and whispered throatily in his ear. "Were you trying to prove something to me out there?"

"No," he answered, glancing aside to her with a smile. "I was just trying to win so I could go to the next round."

She smiled back. "Well, you looked damn good doing it."

"Thank you." Joey then turned the other way, nudging Yugi with his elbow. "What'd you think?"

"That was one of the best duels I've had the pleasure of watching you win," Yugi said honestly. "But focus now, Joey. One of these two will be your opponent in the next round."

"Huh?" He looked back out toward the field, at Shandy and Kaiba shuffling decks. "Oh man! I don't know what's worse, the girl who almost kicked my ass or the guy who always does! I'm in for it now."

"It's going to be Kaiba," Mai said matter-of-factly. "He's on a mission, and no one is going to stand in his way."

Joey's look suddenly hardened. "I will," he declared. "I've been pushed around by him one too many times. He's gonna go down in a big way, I'll make sure of it." He then sighed and leaned over to Yugi. "I just wish I had the chance to take a nap before my next duel. I'm worn out."