The conclusion to the duel! What are Yami and Yugi being so mysterious about? I'm not going to answer, just read and see for yourself!

Disclaimer: Do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. If I did, there would most certainly be no such thing as card games on motorcycles, and the pharaoh would have come back from the afterlife somehow. I do, however, own Sarana.

Chapter Three: Heart of the Cards

Back to the duel…Kaiba summoned X-Head Cannon and laid one card face down, then Sarana played one more facedown card…

"I activate my Trap Card Ultimate Offering," Kaiba declared, "By paying 500 Life Points per monster, I can Summon extra monsters, and I know just the two I need!" His Life Points dropped to 3000 as he played two more monsters. "Y-Dragon Head and Z-Metal Tank!"

As the monsters appeared, I felt a twinge of fear as they loomed over me.

"If you're really a champion, you'll know that these aren't ordinary monsters," Kaiba continued, "They combine!"

Before my very eyes, the three monsters separated and came together into one big terrifying machine with 2800 Attack Points!

I looked back at my hand and realized something. I whipped my head back to Kaiba. "It took you three monsters and 1000 Life Points to Summon that weakling? You're kidding, right?"

"Are you nuts?" Joey shouted at me, "His Monster has almost 3000 Attack Points and you're defending with a monster with no Defense Points!"

"There's more to power than just Attack Points, Joey," I heard the older Yugi say mysteriously, "Sarana knows what she's doing."

That makes one of us, I thought.

"Ultimate XYZ-Dragon Cannon! Attack!" Kaiba ordered.

"Trap Card!" I countered quickly, "Threatening Roar! This card prevents you from attacking on this turn!"

Kaiba scowled, but he canceled his attack. "My turn is over."

"All right!" I drew my next card. "You Summoned your cannon with a heavy price, but I shall bring forth my champion with very little cost!"

Well that sounded corny, I thought, but I plowed on anyway.

"I sacrifice my Light Effigy!" The effigy disappeared in a spiral of smoke. "And I Summon…Guardian Angel Joan!" A giant ball of light descended on the field and exploded. An angel with short red hair, a gleaming white dress, and golden wings appeared. She had 2800 Attack Points.

"How did she do that?" Joey demanded. "That's a Level 7 Monster!"

"It's simple, Joey," I explained, "Light Effigy has a special ability: if I sacrifice it to Summon a Level 7 or higher monster of LIGHT, it counts as two tributes."

"That's still not enough to beat his cannon," Joey groaned.

"Sarana's not done yet," Yugi reminded him. No, I was most certainly not done.

"I equip my Guardian Angel Joan with the Spell Card Cestus of Dagla!" Joan's hands suddenly held two rounded daggers. "This new weapon increases her Attack Points by 500!"

"But that means that she can destroy my cannon!" Kaiba protested.

"Very smart, Kaiba, did you figure that out by yourself?" I mocked. "Joan, attack!"

The angel flew at Kaiba's cannon and destroyed it with one slash of her daggers, reducing his Life Points to 2500.

"We're not done yet, Kaiba! Joan has two abilities! First, I gain Life Points equal to your cannon's attack Points!" my Points zoomed up to 6800. "Also, because of my Cestus of Dagla card, I gain the Life Points you lost!" I earned another 500, for a total of 7300 Points!

Wow, I really was kinda good at this!

Outside the duel…

"Holy cow! 7000 Life Points?" Joey's jaw dropped, "Are you sure this is her first duel, Yugi?"

"Absolutely certain," Yami answered. "She's destined to be a champion, all right," he commented to Yugi.

"I just wonder why she's doing so well against Kaiba, I mean, he gives us difficulty, but she's wiping the floor with him!"

"That's because Kaiba's been going easy on her," Yami explained, "He didn't believe you when you said she was the American champion. Now he realizes that she is competent, and it won't be so easy for Sarana now."

Back to the duel…

Kaiba faced me with loathing burning from his eyes. "My move," he muttered, drawing his card, "I bet you're thinking how special you are, just how awesome you are to have trumped me this time. But you haven't seen the worst of me! I place two cards facedown and Summon Saggi the Dark Clown in Defense Mode and end my turn." The creepy clown gazed at me with the one eye not hidden behind his massive hat.

"Oh no!" the other Yugi gasped, "I can't believe he's using that combo."

"Wait a minute…is that…?" Joey started to ask.

"I'm afraid it is," the other Yugi said grimly.

It's what? I wanted to know.

"If you're really a champion, you'll attack my clown," Kaiba taunted coolly. Well if that was how he was gonna be…

"I draw!" I rapped out. "Joan! Attack!"

"No!" Yugi shouted, but it was too late! The dark clown didn't stand a chance against the angel's daggers! In an explosion of pixels, Saggi was gone.

Once the dust cleared, Kaiba lowered his arm from shielding his eyes. "I can't believe you fell for that one, champ," he gloated, "Trap Card, activate! Crush Card!"

"Crush Card? What?" I didn't like the sound of that card!

"This card is activated when a DARK monster with less than 1000 Attack Points is destroyed," Kaiba explained mockingly, "It releases a virus that destroys all monsters in your deck, hand, and field with more than 1500 Attack Points!"

"Tch…" I looked down at my deck and sure enough, most of my monster cards were catapulting to the graveyard. With a gasp, Guardian Angel Joan collapsed and disappeared in a blast of smoke! "I lost almost half my deck!" I realized with horror.

"That's what happens when you mess with Seto Kaiba, owner of Kaiba Corporation!" Kaiba bragged in his cold voice. In a swift movement, he drew a card from his noticeably larger deck. "I activate my other facedown! Magic Virus Cannon! (no idea if that's its actual name…) This Spell Card destroys ten Spell Cards in your Deck!"

"Oh no!" I gasped," I only have ten Spell Cards!"

"Oh, yes!" Kaiba threw back, "Now say goodbye to them!"

Horrified, I watched helplessly, as all of my Spell Cards, including a Mystical Space Typhoon on the field, vanished and reappeared in the graveyard. That left me with nothing but weak monsters, Trap Cards, and only a few turns to try and win!

"If you think you've seen the worst of it then you thought wrong!" Kaiba continued, "I activate Polymerization!" He thrust the card high into the air, "And I know what three monsters I want to fuse!"

"He can't do that!" Joey protested, "She's just …"

"A rookie who has never actually played before now?" Tristan finished, before he could stop himself.

Kaiba glanced at him. "I knew it before I even approached you nimrods that she couldn't duel to save her life." He looked back at me. "And here's the proof. Her deck wiped out, no monsters on her field, defending with only two Trap Cards. Now she will feel my full wrath!"

I could only watch in mute fear and anger as three gigantic white dragons appeared and merged together to create –

"My Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" Kaiba declared.

At this point, I took a moment to look around and saw that my public humiliation was going to be witnessed by a lot of people. Whispers of, "Seto Kaiba…" "Kaiba's here?" "Why is he dueling a rookie? And a girl!" filled the room.

"Ultimate Dragon! Direct attack!" Kaiba roared.

The huge, three-headed dragon loomed over me, its three mouth opening, ready to blast away a huge chunk of my Life Points!

"Trap Card!" I defended, praying that it would slow him down. "Ordeal of a Traveler!"

"What?" Kaiba was astonished.

"This Trap Card stops your attack and returns your dragon to your hand unless you correctly guess what kind of card I'm holding!" I explained. I held one up for him to view. "Spell, Monster, Trap. You make the call."

Kaiba glared at the card in my hand while he figured it out. "It's not a Spell Card, because I destroyed all of them," he muttered to himself, "And it's most likely not a monster, either. Trap Card!" He shouted to me.

Flibbertegibbesnapperwidget. He was right. I flipped it so that he could see that he was correct. With a smirk, he continued his attack.

"Sarana!" Yugi and his friends shouted as I was engulfed in white lightning! Because it was a hologram, I felt no pain, but I still screamed as I was blinded by the sheer white light!

Outside the duel…

"Someone has to stop this match before Sarana gets hurt!" Tea cried.

"Kaiba won't stop it!" Tristan said in frustration, "All those times Yugi was in danger, and he didn't do anything! He's insane!"

"Sarana still has 2800 Life Points and a few cards," Yami observed. "There's still a chance she can turn this around."

"What, are you crazy?" Joey shouted," This is Kaiba we're talkin' about!"

"You're still sure of this?" Yugi asked nervously.

"Yugi," Yami said, "She can see me, when we're communicating. She feels my presence. If she can't do this, then I don't know who can!" his answer was so emphatic that it almost knocked Yugi over.

Back to the duel…

I fell to my knees as the lightning disappeared, panting and staring at my Duel Disk as my Life Points dropped all the way to 2800.

"This is what happens when rookies try to tell me that they're champs," Kaiba said with a smirk. "Now would be an excellent time to beg for mercy."

I stayed there on my knees. He was right; I was foolish to even try and beat him…

"Don't give up, Sarana!" Joey shouted, but I only half-heard him. Other people called out to encourage me, but I was about to put my hand on top of my deck to surrender when –

"Trust in the heart of the cards," I remembered. I had no idea what Yugi had meant by that, but now, looking at my deck, I began to understand.

I whipped my head back to face Kaiba. "Who said anything about begging for mercy?" I countered, staggering to my feet. "I may not be a duelist yet, but I won't give up until I am a champion!" I drew my card with a swish…and gasped in astonishment.

Outside the duel…

"I think she's got it," Yugi remarked to the pharaoh, and was surprised when the latter shook his head.

"We will know when she has it," Yami insisted.

Back to the duel…

"I play my Spell Card Pot of Greed!" I proclaimed proudly, "I can draw two cards!"

"What?" Kaiba was stunned, "But you said…"

"Well, obviously I was wrong, now wasn't I?" I countered, and drew one card. As I moved to draw the next, something weird happened. It was like a shockwave ran through me, from the card underneath my fingertips. There was this little pulse in my finger, but when I took my hand on the card it was gone. It was as if…the card was alive. After a moment's hesitation, I drew the living card.

It was one I had never seen before, but it looked really, really familiar…

"Now she has it," I heard the other Yugi say. Caught off guard, I turned back and saw Yugi in a ghostly form, and realized that now I could hear them too.

"Let's hope she can use it," the real (?) Yugi said the other one.

"I Summon Ray and Temperature in Defense Mode!" I announced, "And I use your Ultimate Offering, paying 1000 Life Points to Summon Barrier Statue of the Heavens and The Forgiving Maiden in Defense Mode," one by one my monster appeared with their arms lifted in front of them to defend themselves and me at all costs. "Now I pay another 500 Life Points!" I had only 1300 Life Points left.

"What are you scheming?" Kaiba demanded.

"I sacrifice all three of my monsters!" Each monster became a red orb, which flew up into the ceiling! Suddenly, thunder clouds appeared where there should be none! Lightning crashed and thunder soared, shaking the museum! And out of the storm slithered a huge red dragon with buffeting wings, long, lethal teeth, and ginormous claws!

"Slifer the Sky Dragon!" I shouted as it descended upon the field to an impressive collective gasp of surprise from the audience.

Kaiba's reaction was easily the best. His mouth dropped wide open and his eyes practically popped. "How did you get that card?" He yelled hoarsely, "It's an Egyptian God Card, and the only one of its kind is Yugi's!" he pointed a quivering finger at Yugi. "What have you done?"

"I've proven that Sarana is a better duelist than you will ever be, Kaiba," the other Yugi answered in a calm voice.

"Really," Kaiba sneered, "Because if my memory is correct, Slifer's power is determined by the number of cards in that owner's hand, and I see absolutely none in Sarana's, which means that it has zero Attack Points! Should've thought farther ahead, rookie!"

With a gulp, I realized he was right. As mighty as it looked, Slifer wouldn't stand a chance against the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!

"Don't give up yet, Sarana!" I heard Joey encourage.

"We're all here with you!" Tea added.

I turned my head once again to face them. "You can do this!" Tristan shouted.

"Heart of the cards, Sarana," the other Yugi reminded me quietly, "Trust them."

I still didn't quite understand what he meant, but I gave him an acknowledging nod. The real Yugi stood beside him and gave me an answering nod.

Looking back around, I saw my two facedown cards, and I saw a plan that could turn this duel around!

"All right, Kaiba!" I said, "Give me your best shot!"

"With pleasure." Kaiba drew his card. "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! End this duel and destroy Slifer!"

The dragon opened its three mouths in preparation to obliterate me and Slifer!

"I won't let that happen!" I countered. "I activate my Trap Card! Sakaretsu Armor! This card instantly destroys an attacking monster…like your dragon!" a sword catapulted from the card and hurtled toward Kaiba's dragon.

"Not if I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Mystical Space Typhoon, you won't!" Kaiba played his card that would shatter my strategy unless –

"Trap Card! Dust Tornado!" The two whirlwinds collided and canceled each other out, allowing my first card to destroy the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!

Outside the duel…

Joey rubbed his eyes. "I did not just see that. I did not just see a rookie destroy the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon…did I?"

"You did," Yami told him. "Kaiba still relies on power and brute strength to give him the victory, but Sarana has a deck that balances power and strategy to form devastating combos."

Back to the duel…

"My move!" I declared, moving to draw the final card in my deck. This is my last chance, I thought, my last move to get Kaiba down to no Life Points. As Yugi's friends sent more encouragement, I remembered once again what the mysterious other Yugi had said. Heart of the cards…guide me. And I drew my card as Slifer's power went up by one thousand.

"I Summon Mudora!" The muscular fairy swung his sword threateningly. "His special ability gives him 200 extra Attack Points for every fairy in the graveyard! I count sixteen, that that gives him 3200 more Attack Points, so he has a devastating 4700 Attack Points! More than enough to wipe out your Life Points!" Kaiba stared at me with wide, hating eyes. "Go, Mudora! Direct Attack on Kaiba!"

And in one slash, it was game over.

Come on, the media can NOT ignore this happening. How will Sarana cope. Even more importantly, why is Yami so interested in Sarana? Keep reading, and R&R pretty please!