The following takes place during The Rescue and Friends 'til the End.

I pull the card out of the Deck and stay in the same position for a few seconds without looking at it.

"What will you do?" the Rare Hunter asks.

I look at the drawn card and smile. "I sacrifice Torpedo Fish and Giga Gagagigo to Summon Levia-Dragon – Daedalus!"

"What?!"

My ace monster appears on the field roaring (ATK: 2600).

"There was only one card in my Deck that could break your combo!" I say.

"What are you talking about?!"

All of a sudden the water under Daedalus starts spinning as my monster roars once again.

"I activate the effect of Levia-Dragon – Daedalus!" I declare "When there is a Water Field along with Daedalus, it creates a deadly vortex that obliterates every other card on the field!"

The vortex keeps increasing its strength as it sucks away every single card on the field besides Daedalus. After a few seconds the only card left on the field was Daedalus itself.

"I attack with Daedalus! Water Blast Cannon!"

My monster obeys my order as it fires the attack against the Rare Hunter.

LP Richard 1300

LP Rare Hunter 0

I silently approach the Rare Hunter as I take his Locator Card and the Spell of Pain card. I hear him chuckling. "What's so funny?" I ask.

"Do you think I haven't got a backup plan?" he says with his voice altered, a Wedjat Eye appearing on his forehead.

Before I can ask him questions I hear Rebecca screaming. I turn around and I see her being captured by a couple of other Rare Hunters and get dragged inside a chopper that was approaching.

"You bastard, what are you doing?!" I ask angrily.

"Allow me to introduce myself" the Rare Hunter says "My name is Marik and I'm controlling this guy's mind thanks to the power of the Millennium Rod"

"Just what do you want with me?!"

"When someone goes into the Underground Dueling World, only two roads are in front of him: join the Rare Hunters or perish. You're the greatest Underground Duelist, therefore you must join the Rare Hunters"

"I already told your minions I'm not going to join you!"

"Very well then. This means your girlfriend will die"

I am losing my patience. "Where are you taking her?!"

He chuckles in response. "If you really want to know, I'm taking her to the Domino Pier. I'm giving you one chance to save her life"

The Rare Hunter then faints.

I arrive at the Pier fifteen minutes later. My God, how much I ran! What I see though, frightens me a lot: Joey, Tea and Rebecca are staring at me, a blank expression on their faces.

"Richard!"

Yugi runs towards me from a spot as he calls my name; Seto and Mokuba are with him.

"You've been pretty fast, Richard" Rebecca says with a smirk, her voice being the same as the Rare Hunter's.

"Rebecca!" I exclaim "She's controlled by Marik! And probably even Joey and Tea..."

"So this is Marik's power..." Seto observes from behind me.

"Rebecca, you have to wake up!" I say.

"Wake up?" she asks "I'm wide awake, enough to beat you to a pulp!"

"It's no use! She's complitely controlled!" I think.

"You can't run from me or this Duel, a Duel with our lives at stake, fighting until our last breaths!"

"Rebecca, Marik is controlling you to convince me to join the Rare Hunters"

She ignores me. "Follow me. The stage for our Duel of Death is over there"

"No matter what you say, you cannot escape this Duel" Joey says with the same voice.

"Rebecca has become my puppet and her emotions and memories are being controlled by my anger!" Tea continues.

Me, Yugi and Seto follow them and arrive in a place under construction: there is a wooden field with an anchor attached on top of some strings, right above us.

"This is the place..." I state observing the environment.

"Before the Duel begins, you will each attach those handcuffs to your ankles" Tea says doing said action to both me and Rebecca "The anchor above you weights 600 pounds! When either player's Life Points drop to 0, it will fall"

"Now look at your feet" Rebecca says "That box contains the key to the handcuffs and it will open when the opponent's Life Points will go down to 0"

I look at the box and see a counter, set on 4000 Life Points.

"This means that before the anchor drags both of us to the depths only one can escape"

"I'm not Dueling under these conditions!" I declare, my eyes filled with tears.

"The anchor will still fall down by itself in within 40 minutes" she says "In that scenario, we'll both sink"

"If you want to save Rebecca, all you have to do is lose" Tea says "And when you'll do, you'll join the Rare Hunters and Yugi will give me his Millennium Puzzle and Egyptian God Card!"

Egyptian God Card?! That Egyptian God Card?! One of the three most powerful cards in the game?! And Yugi has one?!

I see Seto's face becoming a mask of fear. "I can't accept this!" he declares "I will not let Marik do what he wants with my tournament!"

"This is not a tournament Duel!" Joey states "Rebecca doesn't have any Locator Cards. We gave her a Duel Disk, but not any kind of partecipation requirements in order to enter the tournament. So better stay in your place, Seto Kaiba!"

Seto backs off groaning.

"I almost forgot" Rebecca says "This is an ante game! Yugi, give Slifer the Sky Dragon to Richard!"

I see Yugi throwing me a card, which I catch: so this is a God Card...

"Put the Slifer card on the floor!"

I obey.

"Now only the victor may lay a finger on the God Card!" Rebecca says activating her Duel Disk.

"LET'S DUEL!"

LP Richard 4000

LP Rebecca 4000

"You get to go first!" Rebecca declares.

I silently draw a new card and place it in the middle of the other cards I have. "How can I fight the girl I love knowing that both our lives are at stake!" I think.

"Hurry up and Summon a monster!" Rebecca yells impatiently.

I groan and take the second card on my right. "Amphibious Bugroth MK-3 in Defense Mode!"

A red scuba diver-like robot appears on my field (DEF: 1300).

"I... end my turn..."

"My turn, here goes!" she says drawing a card "I play Raigeki!"

All of a sudden a thunderbolt hits my monster and destroys it.

"Next I call out Ruby Dragon!" she declares placing the second card from her left to the Duel Disk.

A red version of Luster Dragon appears on the field (ATK: 1600).

"Attack him directly!"

A quick claw attack and I lie on the floor.

LP Richard 2400

LP Rebecca 4000

"What's wrong? I thought you were better than that!" she says laughing "Come at me, Richard!"

"It's my turn!" I declare drawing a card and placing it on the Duel Disk "I Summon Aqua Madoor in Defense Mode!"

The masked mage appears on my field (DEF: 2000).

She chuckles and draws a card. "It's useless to defend in front of me! I'm gonna use this against you!" she declares showing me the drawn card "Hinotama!"

From the card a huge fireball appears and hits me.

LP Richard 1900

LP Rebecca 4000

"What?!" I hear Seto exclaim "Magic Cards that directly damage the player are banned!"

"I added a ton of illegal cards printed by my Rare Hunters in Rebecca's Deck" Joey says "No one using a store-made Deck can beat this Deck!"

"How's it feel, the power of Hinotama?" Rebecca mocks me "It's your turn!"

I know she isn't completely fell into Marik's spell. I'm going to save both of us! "I draw my card!"

I then scan my hand. "I don't have anything powerful that can stand up to that monster. I need to strengthen my defense and buy some time!"

I then take the third card from the right, which is Shadow Spell, and I declare: "I place this face-down! And following that I play Torpedo Fish!"

I place the first card on my right on the Duel Disk and the mechanical fish appears. (ATK: 1000).

"Torpedo Fish? Are you kidding me?!" she asks angrily "If my monster attacks yours, you're going to take a serious hit!"

I don't say anything.

"Looks like you're risking your life to save me" she observes smirking.

"I won't die, Rebecca" I answer "And I won't let you die either!"

She chuckles. "This duell will end when one of us will. Now go, Ruby Dragon, attack Torpedo Fish!"

As her monster quickly rushes towards mine, I declare: "I play my face-down card! I protect Torpedo Fish with Shadow Spell!"

The dark shackles appear from the card and Ruby Dragon gets captured, its attack power decreasing to 900.

"That won't work against her Deck of illegal cards!" Seto exclaims.

"It doesn't matter if I play a monster or not" Rebecca says taking the first card on her right "All I need to do is pulverize your Life Points! So how about I use this again? Hinotama!"

The fireball hits me again.

LP Richard 1400

LP Rebecca 4000

I hear her laughing histerically. "It seems like my Deck has been powered up too much!" she says "I don't even need monsters!"

"What do I do?" I think "What do I have to do to bring you back, Rebecca?"

I silently draw my card which is Levia-Dragon – Daedalus. I add it to my hand, which also contains Order to Charge, Double Attack, Spell Shield Type-8 and Negate Attack. "I sacrifice my two monsters to Summon Levia-Dragon – Daedalus!"

My ace monster appears on the field (ATK: 2600).

"I'm sorry, Rebecca... but I have to do this!" I declare, tears coming out of my eyes "Daedalus, attack with Water Blast Cannon!"

Daedalus fires its attack and hits Ruby Dragon.

LP Richard 1500

LP Rebecca 2300

"That attack was nothing!" Rebecca says smirking.

It's no use! Looks like I have to go another way. I didn't want to do this now, but it may be the only way to free Rebecca!

"How long are you going to stall?!" she asks annoyed "I use Hinotama!"

The fireball hits me for the third time.

LP Richard 900

LP Rebecca 2300

I get up and say weakily: "Rebecca... I don't think... I can take your Life Points down to 0..."

"Then I will!" she answers taking the second card from her right and placing it on the Duel Disk "I activate Tribute to the Doomed!"

I start walking towards her.

"This card destroys any of your monsters as long as I discard one card from my hand!"

I continue walking as my ace monster gets wrapped in bandages and dragged down into the ocean from a demonic hand.

"How's that?!" she says smirking.

I finally arrive in front of her. "I want to tell you something" I say placing my hand on her cheek.

As I do so, I see her eyes shining once again. Is she back again? I don't know, but I must continue if I want to save her.

"I... love you, Rebecca..."

She looks at me with surprise as both our cheeks turn red.

Finally, Richard confessed his feelings! But Rebecca is controlled by Marik. Will this be enough to undo Marik's spell? You'll find out next time! Until then, hasta la vista!