Yu-Gi-Oh! Generation Fusion!

by Autismo555

A masked man, known as the Controller, has plucked the major focal points of Duel Monsters history and gathered up the biggest villains from each timeline to destroy the history of Duel Monsters itself! Now with the help of their friends and allies, Yugi Muto, Jaden Yuki, Yusei Fudo and Yuma Tsukumo join forces to prevent the threat from destroying the game they love!

8. Rise of The Controller (Part I)

Chapter 8: The Controller! (Part I)

Okay... first off, I want to thank you all who have waited patiently for the release of this new chapter, and I'm sorry this chapter was late. I was busy all summer, and I was coming down with writer's block with this chapter. So, I needed to write a few short stories so I could get my creativity juices flowing.

I was also distracted by my WiiU, even more so now that Super Mario Maker has been released. I made a couple of levels and I've repeatedly tried to pass the Expert Level on the 100-Mario Challenge, but I always come out short. It's a good thing I'm not playing it right now; Super Mario Maker is the new Nintendo ragequit. Also, I blame Legend of Zelda in part for getting me hooked onto their fanfiction stories.

One more thing: My fall semester at college has recently started, and with my workload, it might take me a while before I can go on with my story. So, here is my chapter, with the first real Duel of the story (not involving the four main protagonists against the main antagonist). It will include some made-up cards for my "OC", mixed with some real-life cards of my own (please don't be mad. I tried one certain combination using some certain cards, but I never got it to work, and it seemed a bit rushed and too Trollshida to write up). After the Duel is finally done in the next chapter, then fans of Jaden Yuki fans rejoice, because I am planning on a story arc that will focus on him and a few familiar characters as well. Plus, I'm planning to separate the cards by type featured in each chapter. So without further ado, here we go!

EDIT: Apparently, YGOrganization is renaming the name of a certain "Blue-Eyes" monster to what they perceive its name to be, so I'll be renaming that card like the Organization is naming it until they are released into the TCG.

EDIT (2): I am also changing the appearance of the spaceship as it unfolds into a weapon. It only seemed right to make it more sci-fi.

---

Domino City Plaza - Domino City

Tension filled the stillness in the air as Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, Yuma, and Astral stared down the masked man the four Duelists saw in their dreams. Watching the scene unfold near one of the materialized "Gate Blocker" Monster Cards blocking their way out was Joey, Tristan, and Tea, all of them wearing a face that was a concoction of uneasiness and fear mixed together as they were cornered when three of the materialized machines from the "Security Orb" Trap Cards descended before them, engaging their intimidation mode by channeling their high voltage tasers on their stubby arms. Alexis and Syrus stood by, rendered unable to move an inch when they found themselves surrounded by those same machines, resurfacing the frightened side of Syrus that he deliberately buried years ago. That only left Chazz, Hassleberry, and Dr. Crowler, trapped in the corner of the backside of a "Gate Blocker" and the building wall behind them while the three "Security Orbs" made it clear that the Plaza was strictly off-limits to all outsiders.

In case there was anyone cunning enough to make it into the Plaza by ways of the building tops or aircraft, a squad of "Security Orbs" glided through the airspace in a rhythmic pattern: Two rows of four "Security Orbs" formed the perimeter around the Plaza, each row moving clockwise or counterclockwise, and two groups of two "Security Orbs" scanned the rooftops in a cross-like movement. With such a tight-knit unit guarding the area, the Domino City Plaza officially became the meeting ground between the four Duelists and the masked man.

Yugi shifted slightly backwards and growled. "So it is you!" he declared. "You're the man we saw in our dreams!"

"The very same one... who brought you and everyone else into this realm... Yugi Muto..." the masked man confirmed. "I am pleased to see that my message has gotten around you four..."

"And what kind of a message was that?" Jaden asked.

"A subconscious telepathic imagery message... Jaden Yuki..." the masked man clarified. "While you four were in your temporary state of unconsciousness... I have encoded a telepathic message that could only be received... through each of your own unique delta waves... and set it so you would receive it through your subconscious..." The masked man pointed at Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma. "I have sent that message to you four specifically... and gave you each a subliminal GPS coordination to the place where the time anomalies were gathered the most. Now that we are all here... it is time that we discussed the matters of your... predicament..."

"Wait, so you've abducted us and our home from our timelines just so you could have a little chat with the four of us!?" Yuma sputtered, holding up his clenching fist to the man. "You've really got some nerve, pal!"

The masked man looked down at Yuma, whose eerie, piercing glowing red eyepieces made the boy reel back a little. "Your temper serves you well... as does your stubbornness, Yuma Tsukumo..." the masked man observed, making Yuma grunt in annoyance. "Both of those traits are easily made up for in your eagerness... to take on a more difficult challenge, do they not? Tell me, how often will you dedicate your life... to overcome any obstacles that stand in your way... before your resolve has finally weakened?"

Yuma's brow narrowed down furiously as he growled at the masked man, his clenched fists trembling uncontrollably. Noticing his human friend's reaction, Astral slowly descended until the tip of his unformed feet nearly touched the ground, his expression calm on the outside, but clearly concerned on the inside. "Stay focused, Yuma, do not let his words sway you easily," Astral advised. "He is trying to get you angry so that he could gain the upper hand against you."

"I know that, Astral," Yuma responded, "but the way he said it just really got to me."

"It should," the masked man replied. "What you experienced just now... was one of your deeper fears brought to light... the harsh truth of reality that every living being keeps hidden within themselves... mostly behind a mask of their own..."

"Speak for yourself!" Jaden yelled. "You're the only one wearing a mask, so why don't you take that off and show us who you really are!?"

"Because that would be ill-advised, Jaden..." the man said. "If I were to remove this breathing mask from my face... then my existence will come to a slow and painful end... just like everything else in this Void. For you see... I am the one who brought all of you into this forsaken realm... and I am the only one who can bring you all out... so if you were to knock my mask off of my face... then every last particle of space left... will be wiped away from existence..."

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" Yusei asked.

"No... that is an important fact that you should know... Yusei Fudo..."

"So you know our names." The Turbo Duelist's glowering eyes narrowed down further. "Just who are you?"

"Who my real name is does not matter... what matters is my ambitions to steal your timelines... each from a separate point in the Timestream..." the masked man said. "All you need to know... is that I am the one who now controls the fate of everyone in my hands... I am the only one who controls the only fabric of existence within the Void... I am the Controller of the Ultimate Shadow Game..."

Yugi looked up with bewilderment. "The Controller of the Ultimate Shadow Game?" he recapped.

"Yes..." the "Controller" said with a nod of his head. "As we speak... we are currently engaged in a Shadow Game within the depths of nonexistence itself... a Shadow Game that combines every era in time... every dimension trapped in this space... and every living being who reside in those eras and dimensions... into the ultimate game of survival that will test their Dueling skills. The rules are quite simple if you can all follow along... everyone must survive in the Void for as long as they can... everyone, including Duelists and non-Duelists alike. If anyone loses this game... then they will be unfortunate enough to become the next prey to the Void... and wiped from existence forever..."

Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, Yuma, and Astral all looked the Controller with a mixture of uncertain and/or fearful looks. Yugi retained his trademark narrowed gaze with a small growl; Jaden wore a shocked look with slightly gritted teeth; Yusei's collected stare grew intense as he lowered his brow; and Yuma and Astral stood by while both of their faces were decorated with fear.

"You're going to eliminate everyone from existence for some sick game!?" Yugi replied with shock and anger.

"And we need to survive in the Void!?" Jaden asked for clarification.

"This is bad!" Yuma yelped.

"Indeed," agreed Astral. "This will most certainly spell trouble for all of us."

"If you thought these rules are bad... then you do not fully fathom how troublesome the situation really is..." the Controller added in. "You four are the most vital Duelists that I have ever come across... so you and only you can stop this game from progressing any further. You see... I have certain gateways leading to one area I have created... that will lead you to my spaceship... and each one is hidden somewhere in every era and dimension. All you have to do... is figure out where these hidden gateways are within seventy-two hours... and defeat certain key individuals who know the location of these gateways...

"There is a catch, however..." the Controller continued. "You, and any friend who still remain in the game... will have exactly seventy-two hours to find these gateways... or you will automatically lose this Shadow Game. It does not matter which of your friends still remains... but if you are eliminated from the game... if you fail to make it through the gateway when the countdown reaches zero... if you fail to defeat me in a Duel..." The Controller brought his right arm up to his face, the modules radiating a light, light blue glow. "...then with my hand, I will eliminate the course of Duel Monsters from history... forever..."

Yuma gulped. "Forever? He's going to destroy Duel Monsters... forever?"

"That's not gonna happen!" Yusei assured the boy. "We won't let you destroy Duel Monsters for your own gain!"

"Yeah, that's telling him!" Jaden spoke up, holding a determined fist to his chest level. "We've dealt with a time-traveling psychopath before, so we can totally take you down easy!"

"There's no way, we'll ever become pawns for your game!" Yugi resisted.

"You do not have a choice..." the Controller said as he brought his hand around and back, admiring the scenario around everyone. "Look around you. You are trapped in the realm of nothingness... locked in this plaza by solidified holograms... with strangers and faces that only a few here can recognize... force to oppose the only human who came from a destroyed future. It is quite like when you, Yusei... when you and your friends tried to oppose the only other human left from a destroyed future... and when you, Yugi, and Jaden banded together... to stop his loyal henchman, Paradox... from destroying Duel Monsters and its creator..."

Yusei gasped. "How do you know about that?"

"Data, Yusei..." the Controller answered. "Encoded within even the single most solitary particle... lies the entire history of the universe..." The Controller turned his palm upwards, and a tiny, holographic circle of data was projected from his hand which in turn, created a slowly rotating dome that surrounded the sextet. "...and I have spent countless years... watching as the entire universe unfurled... from the moment of creation..."

The dome consisted of a futuristic circuitry-like pattern, each one slowly changing colors like the outlines of the connecting bridges at the edges of their stolen eras, with single lights traveling within the lines. Several slightly transparent screens appeared on the circuits, each one of them almost as tall as the plaza clock's pole, and every one of them depicting a certain era in time or a section in the universe that remained a mystery to mankind.

Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma gawked at the different images that appeared on each screen. One screen revealed the entire Solar System in a perfect line, viewed at an angle, starting from Pluto and ending with the bright, yellow Sun in the middle. Another screen depicted the human race when they were merely Cro-Magnon with one such man standing at a cliff near the sea, wearing a sabertooth tiger skin article of clothing, holding a spear in his raised hand as he led a few of his fellow Cro-Magnon people on the hunt. Another screen viewed the Horsehead Nebula in an infrared vision as the clouds of the star formation flowed slowly like viscous jelly.

"I have seen the many the wonders of the universe..." the Controller said as he raised his arms upwards, just as the screens flickered to include the images of a cloudy, light blue planet, the city of New York, the Astral World in its galactic form, the Jurassic age of the dinosaurs, and a cluster of galaxies. "I have witnessed its history and legends... its awe and mystery... its creation and its destruction... they are nothing but bits of data... from a universe that no longer exists in my time..."

Yusei gasped. "A universe that no longer exists?"

With a grunt, Yugi turned to the Controller with anger contorted on his face. "What do you want with us, Controller!?" the King of Games demanded. "Why do you want to destroy Duel Monsters!?"

The Controller in turn looked down on the King of Games. "It is not what I want, Yugi... it is what I must do..." the masked man started explaining. "For you see... as the four of you may know... Duel Monsters had become not just a simple card game in your time... it became the mechanism... that changed the course of the history of the universe. But like any good machine... there was no plan in the mechanism... that did not have its own flaws..."

"What do you mean by flaws?" Jaden asked, seething anger through his teeth.

"In four different eras in the Timestream... there was an anomaly that rippled... through the very fabric of space and time itself..." The Controller turned his head and faced the four Duelists, who shifted uncomfortably or instinctively under his gaze. "Each of those anomalies... contained unpredictable primordial energy... that even my data could not fully compute. Nothing could have recorded these anomalies at first... but with the data from the universe... I have seen firsthand the effects those anomalies caused... as well as the dangers that came with them."

"Danger?" Yuma parroted.

"Yes..."

The holographic data circle projected just above the Controller's upraised palm flickered and altered, and a screen appeared before the four Duelists, depicting a thin red line surrounded by long spirals of neon yellow, blue, and green glowing streaks. Four dots appeared appeared on the line, the furthest one at the top producing a single round wave that spread throughout that line. The second dot from the top was located at a forked point where the line split away from the left of the dot, where another round wave was produced, slightly faster than the first. The third dot, further down on the main line, forked off once more where another wave emitted from that same spot, faster than the other two. Finally, on a line split away from where the line with the third dot was the fourth dot, sending out a wave that was much faster than the previous three.

The main line, mysterious as it looked, were decorated with blurs that looked like someone used an eraser on the screen. There was a blur just before the second dot, another blur was found a distance before the third dot, and third blur was just inches away from meeting with the fourth dot. "Each of these anomalies had an adverse effect... on the fabric of space... and they had the power to transcend through time. Normally, the smartest minds of each of the four timelines... would dismiss this as an unknown phenomenon... but I know otherwise..."

The dome of screens flickered from Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma's Duels, and different images appeared, one-third of those images showing a white hole in outer space, another third of the images showing a scientist with blonde, spiky hair standing alone before the old Ener-D reactor, and the final third showing Yuma pulling his broken Golden Key from his neck which glowed shortly after the string holding it snapped off. "What you are all witnessing right now... are the effects the ripples had... on one point around your timelines. These ripples appeared as distortions... within the time stream... unfelt... previously unexplainable. Each of the ripple had a somewhat harmless effect... but when they combine... they can prove to be quite catastrophic."

Yugi's eyes widened. "What do you mean catastrophic!?"

"In one such area within the time stream... the four ripples had converged into one point of the time stream..." the Controller said as he showed four of his new adversaries the screen depicting his story. "Their energies were too unstable... to predict at the time... but by the time we did... it was too late..." Moving down the main line, the four ripples converged onto one point of the time stream. When the ripples met, the screen went fuzzy around that area, growing intense with each second until the picture went blank. The Controller pulled up a screen of a metropolitan city that spanned from the seafront to the lush green mountain range in the very back.

"The combination of unstable primordial energies... was too much for the energies... of time and space to handle. As a result... the combined energies caused an implosion... that ravaged the existence of time and space... and with this devastating force... everything and everyone in that era disappeared into oblivion... and I watched with devastation as my entire life was stolen from me..." Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, Yuma, and Astral all drew back with shock as pillars of white light suddenly sprouted out from nowhere, pulling in all of space like a glowing back hole, making it expand. Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma and Astral couldn't help but watch with horror as the screen panned to view a different area of the city, forced to watch panicked citizens being sucked in the pillars in a vain attempt to escape its pull.

"No way... that can't be right..." Yuma stammered. "Is that what's gonna happen to us in the future?"

"No, I know it can't be true," Yusei said as he witnessed his biggest fear come true on screen. "The future of all mankind and Duel Monsters is supposed to be bright..."

"It was bright in my era... once upon a time, Yusei..." the Controller stated. "Now as you all perceive... I am the last living human being in existence... a remnant of a destroyed future..."

"But why go after us, Controller!?" Yugi bellowed at the masked man. "What does any of this have to do with us!?"

"Take a look at the eras where they appeared... King of Games..." the Controller replied. "The source of those primordial energy ripples... came from each of your times and eras..."

A wave of shock spread through the four Duelists and the humanoid spirit, all of their eyes widened and their irises and pupils shrunk to express their horrified reaction. Yugi grunted through grit teeth, Jaden stood with a slacked jaw and a collective gasp, Yusei gasped too through his clenched teeth, Yuma's breathing shortened because of the lump formed in his throat, and Astral remained silent as his stoic demeanor collapsed. To prove this point, the Controller brought up images of The Great Leviathan's first attack on the Duel Monsters trapped in the Human World, Yubel's climactic moment when she used "Super Polymerization" to fuse the Twelve Dimensions together, Yusei's Duel with Z-one as the Divine Temple was falling through that rift in space, and Yuma and Nash's Duel when the Human World and the Barian World were coming so dangerously close to colliding.

"You mean... we're all responsible for the destruction of time and space!?" Jaden spoke out.

"In an unintentional way... yes. The four of you were considered heroes in your time... for not only the Duels you played... but for protecting your home from succumbing to certain doom. While you have indeed fought to keep your eras safe... the energies from a certain Duel each of you has fought... contributed in the destruction of time." the Controller answered as he raised his armor clad fist and pointed his finger at the quartet. "That is where you come in... for you see, should my first plan fail... I will use you all as part of my contingency plan... so that I may eradicate Duel Monsters from existence... and prevent the destruction of the universe that I have lost..."

After a prolonged moment of silence and shock had passed by, Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, Yuma, and Astral stood by at the ready while the Controller remained in his spot, calm, quiet, and menacing altogether. "So you're just going to use us like pawns for your own twisted game!?" Yugi argued with the cloaked figure as he brought his left arm to his face and held his fist up to the Controller, swiping it for added effect. "That's not going to happen any time soon, Controller, and we'll make sure you'll never go through with your plan!"

"That's right!" Yusei agreed, furrowing his brows. "If you're gonna destroy Duel Monsters and take us down with it, then you'll have to go through us, first!"

"Yeah totally!" Jaden shouted with determination, holding his fist to his chest level with excitement. "We'll be able to take you out, no problem!"

"Alright!" Yuma shouted, copying Jaden's fist raising before his smile melted away with a curious thought. "Wait a second. If you're really going to erase Duel Monsters from existence, then how are you going to do it?"

Astral looked up to the glowing, spherical, planet-sized sphere hovering just above the protective atmosphere of Domino City, his eyes squinted lightly. "I think I may know how. He will use that spaceship to fulfill his plans."

"You are as intuitive as always, Astral..." the Controller said, making the humanoid spirit draw back in shock. The circuitry within the eyepieces was programmed to pinpoint any and all spirits currently residing in the times and dimensions he snatched. "As you already know, Yuma and Astral... in order for my plan to work... I will be using the power of the Numeron Code... to restart the universe... without the overextended history of Duel Monsters... written in its text..." A collection of gasps came from the four Duelists as the Controller raised his arm and pointed to the spaceship. "Now, then... take a look at my ship... and watch closely... because this is the only time in your lives that you will ever see... what the technology from my time is capable of..."

The modules on the Controller's gauntlet glowed blue, slowly transitioning into white lights on his palm shone the same kind of light. In response, the markings on the Controller's ship blinked with colorful lights as they traveled around the ship, outlining the four spheres around the dome, and the middle section; however, to anyone's surprise, the lights traveled downwards to the bottom of the sphere in sixteen different lines, ending at the very base of the ship in one single point. Suddenly, the quaking noise began to roar as the sections between those sixteen lines split into eight, slowly opening up to reveal the insides for the entire eras to see.

At the same time, the four spheres set around beneath the glass dome extended outwards, and revealed them as energy-storing silos that reached out as long as it took for someone to cross the distance between Earth and the moon, half the size of Jupiter. Each silo was automatically connected by a support beam shaped in an arc, giving it the appearance of a planetary ring. With each beam connected to the silos, the arced curves resembled a full circle around the base of the dome.

The bottom of the ship continued to open as the eight sections parted and revealed something that horrified anyone watching the spectacle. Slowly reaching down out of the opening of the ship was a laser cannon with enough firepower to destroy the Milky Way galaxy from the inside. Slowly reaching down out of the opening of the ship was a laser cannon with enough firepower to destroy the Milky Way galaxy from the inside. The cannon itself was a four-layered energized weapon, each one a gigantic flat disc with a hollow center to make room for the cannon, supported by beams that doubled as energy modules to transfer the destructive energy inside. At the tip of such cannon was a violet jewel, glowing brightly as it began to collect energy for its inevitable ignition.

Yugi's eyes slowly widened at the sheer size of the laser cannon, pointed and aimed towards him and the middle of the sea. "What... is that!?"

"The instrument that will end the universe... and begin a new one..." The Controller held his arms up to bask in his weapon's glorious size. "Yugi... Jaden... Yusei... Yuma... Astral... I present to you... the E.N.D Cannon..."

Each of the four Duelists became paralyzed with shock while they stared up at the Controller and his superweapon with mixed reactions. Yugi's eyes widened to match his shocked look with his barred teeth; Jaden retained his shocked face, except he grit his teeth this time; Yusei's eyes narrowed with anger and disbelief; Yuma and Astral could only stare with slacked-jaw horror as the small gathering of Yugi, Jaden, and Yuma's friends nearby shared in with the shock as well. Tori covered her hands with her mouth, a muffled whimper emanating from behind her palms; Alexis gasped like she gave an exasperated sigh while Syrus yelped with fright; and Joey and Tristan gave a mixture of grunts and gasps, with Tea's gasping being the loudest of the trio; and from the other side of the "Gate Blocker" and barely seeing much over the "Security Orb" drones, Chazz, Hassleberry, and Crowler could only whimper or gasp out of fear.

Their very essences were being shattered by the appearance of the E.N.D Cannon's menacing firepower, and by the dim, crimson glow of the Controller's eyepieces. For the first time in a long time, Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, Yuma and Astral realized that despite their best efforts in Dueling, there was no way they could win this battle of extremely high stakes.

---

Out of nowhere, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet appeared from the Aurora, over the airspace of Domino City. "I'm really getting tired of flying through here," Kaiba complained as he recovered from the jarring journey through the lights.

Despite sustaining minor damage from turbulence caused by the sudden quake earlier and the familiar, painful feeling from flying through the Aurora, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet was still going as strong as its pilot after he guided it over the strange, colorful, kiddie-like metropolis. From the pilot seat, Kaiba took note of the areas that stood out the most from the thick jungle of metal-plated buildings: a tall spire tower with yellow "ribbons" and a red heart perched at the top, the one-hundred foot wall surrounding the tower and everything else inside in a five mile radius. Kaiba narrowed his eyes; aside from his blatant assumption of the "so-called city" being just another hologram added into his "hacked" KaibaCorp computer systems, there was something wrong about the whole scenario, and he knew that deep in the pit of his chest.

"Something's not adding up. That electromagnetic pulse I felt earlier should've knocked me and my jet out of the sky, and wiped away the holograms by now; but according to my damage assessment, my jet had only sustained very minimal damage, and those holograms are still active." Kaiba continued to monologue in his head while he pressed some buttons on his control systems. "Now that I'm back at Domino City, I need to contact Mokuba and make sure that nothing has been tampered with in the KaibaCorp database. Perhaps that pulse must have caused more damage there than it had up in here."

Kaiba pressed a button to open his communications link with the secret runway base underneath the Kaiba Dome. "Mokuba, can you hear me? Mokuba?"

At the other end of the transmission was a thick layer of static, making Kaiba suspicious as he grasped both hands on his steering controls. "Great. First my hacker messes with my holographic technology, now he's gone and jammed all communications on my private radio frequency. He must be using military-grade comm systems jammers to block off all wireless communication all over the city."

Kaiba tilted his steering mechanism to the right, which allowed his Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet to fly into the direction of the Aurora, until something inside of him told him to look. He cast his gaze upwards, and lightly gasped when he saw what appeared to be a space cannon in the sky where the red giant used to be. "What!? What is that thing!? What happened to the sun!?" Kaiba snapped out of his shock when he quickly realized his most logical answer. "Oh, of course. My hacker must have used my holographic technology to add in the panic all over Domino City. Well, no longer. This farce has gone long enough. I have to get back to the city, find out who this person is, and when I do I'll make sure that he feels the very weight of the world on his shoulders!"

---

Domino City Plaza - Domino City

"Okay, I've dealt with a brainwashing laser cannon once before," Jaden said as he was intimidated by the sheer size of the Controller's E.N.D. Dreadnaught Cannon, "but that big blaster is another story!"

"Better you than me!" Yuma replied. "I've dealt with a cannon that could destroy an entire dimension before, and it wasn't this big!"

"I take it you are surprised... by my Energized Nothingness Dreadnaught Cannon..." the Controller said, no one sure if it was pride or a small quip they heard in his synthetically deep, robotic voice. "This cannon was designed to rewrite the data encoded within the Numeron Code. In three days maximum... my cannon will gather enough energy to create a devastating force... that is infinitely more powerful than a single cosmic explosion..."

Yugi felt a lump rise in his throat, but was too intimidated to find the urge to keep it down. "That cannon... does it really have the power to end the universe?"

"With a cannon that big and that much energy that thing could pack, I'd have to say yes," Yusei simply answered, staring wide-eyed at the weapon.

Jaden stepped up to confront the masked figure. "Look, Controller, even if you are doing this because the universe in your time was destroyed, we can't let you go through with it!"

The Controller looked down at Jaden, and Jaden alone. "Do you really believe that you can defeat me, Jaden?" he asked, admiring the realm and everything trapped within. "Take a look around you. There is nothing you can do to stop the destruction of your eras... not even with the extraordinary abilities you all possess. My E.N.D. Cannon was designed with a fail-safe destruction program... once it reaches full capacity. When I apply the command codes and give the order... and when my cannon fires at the Numeron Code... it will restart the entire universe... and everything and everyone you each hold dear... will disappear from existence and become one with the Void..."

Yugi growled. "That's not going to happen!"

"It will happen... like everything else in the universe... the fate of you and your timelines is inevitable..." The Controller's red eyepieces gleamed. "...and like I said before... there is nothing that you can do... to stop me..."

"If that's what you think, Controller, then why don't you come down here and Duel us, here and now!?" Yusei argued, grabbing the other three individuals' attention. "If you're so confident that we'll go down without a fight, then that's where you're wrong, pal!"

"You said it!" Yuma agreed with the Turbo Duelist, bringing his fists up in a ready stance. "There's only four of us, and one of you, so there's no way you can win!"

"Perhaps that is all he needs," Astral stated matter-of-factly.

"You are correct, Astral," the Controller answered. "Even when facing four of the most extraordinary Duelists in time... I possess a power in my Dueling skills... that is far ahead from your own. You are all welcome to Duel me if you like... but with this power I possess... there is considerable doubt that the four of you combined could ever win against me..."

"That doesn't mean we won't try!" Jaden spoke up.

"Yes," Yugi nodded to Jaden before turning to his foe, "and when we combine our hearts into one Duel, then there's no obstacle that we can't overcome!"

The Controller looked the four Legendary Duelists for a short moment before a metallic exhaling breath escaped his mouthpiece. "I see that you are all ambitious... to save your time and eras just like me..." the masked man said. "Very well... I will Duel the four of you at the same time... but should I win... then I will commence the Ultimate Shadow Game as I had planned... long ago..."

The Controller brought his left gauntlet up and typed in a few command codes inside the ovular gem. Suddenly, a white Deck holder with a round, blue jewel steadily materialized above the gem, holding at least fifty Duel Monsters cards stacked in its pile until it met the ceiling on the inside of the holder. Then, from the blue jewel, an arc-shaped hologram appeared, solidified into the shape of five golden blades where the Controller could play his cards with ease. Finally, jutting from underneath that Deck holder was a slot that acted as its Graveyard.

In response to the challenge being accepted, Yugi swung his arm out at full length, activating his Duel Disk by combining the two separate blades containing the Monster Zones and Spell/Trap Zones to the middle, where the Graveyard was accessible for all cards. "Controller, you will not succeed with your plans!"

"Right! Now let's get it on!" Jaden yelled as he stretched his arm out as well, and his the smaller circle set into the Duel Disk slid out, making the other half of the blade pop out of a compartment.

Yusei threw his arm out to his side as his Duel Disk was activated automatically. "Hope you're ready, because we're not going to let you destroy our timelines!"

"You're going down, Controller! Get set to get decked!" Yuma applied Duel Gazer to his left eye and brought his arm out, his Duel Pad already in place on his wrist while the Monster Card Zones popped up and set into place.

Finally, when the unsheathing of the Duel Disks was done, the Legendary Duelists brought their Disks to their chest with a determined look on their face.

-ELSEWHERE-

"I need to get back to KaibaCorp and find out who's behind this!" Kaiba thought as he flew the Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet over Domino City. There, as he went airborne near the Domino City Plaza, Kaiba looked down and saw something flying over the buildings below, catching his surprise and his curiosity. It looked round and red with a couple of antennae sticking out from the sides with a green concave in the center. "What the...!? What is that!?"

Suddenly, Kaiba felt his jet jar as something hit his left engine turbine, causing it to explode. The warnings blinked in his cockpit as the damage assessment appeared on the screen. Outside, the materialized "Security Orbs" flew up to Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Jet intruding in their sealed-off area and began to shoot lime green lasers beams from their center. One of the "Security Orbs" got a lucky shot by shooting one laser beam into the engine turbine, completely destroying it. With only one engine turbine unable to hold the aerial craft in the air, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet began to descend at a fast rate.

Before the Duel between the four Duelists and the Controller could go underway, some of the patrolling "Security Orbs" turned and flew up into the air. This left only several of the materialized Trap Cards behind to keep the Duelists' friends in line and everyone but the Controller baffled by the sudden change in events. "Whoa. What's going on?" Yuma asked as the last of the patrol disappeared from the building rooftops.

"It appears that we have an unexpected visitor..." the Controller answered, using his eyepieces to view what his security was viewing, "...and he looks as if he is directing his anger towards me."

Back in his shuddering cockpit, Kaiba held onto the shuddering steering handles with an iron grip for dear life while he tried to focus over the commotion. A few of the "Security Orbs" have hit the Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet with their lasers, most of them scraping only a few inches beneath the shimmering metal, but a couple of them blasting the landing gear to pieces. The Dragon-shaped jet descended down in a smoking trail, heading straight into the plaza. With what little choice he had left, Kaiba set his jet to crash into the sea, gripped his suitcase, pulled the handle at the side of his seat, and was shot off into the air with his seat before a parachute opened to slow down his fall.

A few of the "Security Orbs" took notice of Kaiba's slow descent and, as part of their protocol, the "Security Orbs" approached Kaiba with their antennae energized at high voltage while their green lasers were charged to fire. "I don't have time for this," Kaiba complained as he unstrapped himself and jumped out of seat, just in time to escape the laser blasts that incinerated his seat. He fell several feet to the rooftops, rolled upon landing, then jumped off one of the "Gate Blockers", landing inside the plaza. Yugi, his friends, and Jaden gasped when they saw who made his unannounced arrival.

"Hey, is that..?" Jaden asked.

"Kaiba!" Yugi shouted.

"Who's Kaiba?" Yuma asked Astral, prompting the spirit to hover down to him.

"Seto Kaiba is the CEO of KaibaCorp and Yugi's eternal rival," Astral explained. "He is the only Duelist who wields the power of the 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'."

"Whoa, really!?" Yuma gasped, looking back at the slender, brown-haired Duelist. "Man, to see Yugi's rival drop in like that is a real treat, especially since he's got the legendary 'Blue-Eyes'!"

The mere sight of Kaiba dropping in made Joey fume. "What's he doin' here?"

"Maybe he's dropping in to say hi?" Tristan guessed.

"Yeah, but it doesn't look like a friendly hello to me," Tea said.

Kaiba scanned the area of the plaza as the "Security Orbs" descended towards his position. There, standing in the center, he saw Yugi with little surprise, standing beside three other people that he didn't recognize. Then, his blue eyes found themselves matching the masked figure of the Controller standing with his holographic Duel Disk already active, making him glare. "From the way you're dressed like a bad cosplayer at a sci-fi movie convention, I'd have to assume that you're the one behind this madness."

The "Security Orbs" slowly approached Kaiba with their antennae conducting enough energy to stop the hearts of fifty men with a single shot. Noticing this, the Controller raised his hand, ordering his solidified Trap Cards to cease fire.

"And from what the historical archives described... you must be Seto Kaiba... the only one who has mastered the power of the 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon...'" the Controller said. "Tell me... do you use humor to mask the stressful situation when facing down a powerful opponent... or does it help cover the oversized ego you develop as a child?"

Kaiba smirked. "Funny. I didn't take you for a psychoanalyst for a minute there."

"I do not require a degree... to know what makes you function, Mr. Kaiba. Now tell me... what can I do for the only Duelist... who can wield the powers of the legendary White Dragon?"

"Well, for one thing, you're gonna have to shut your little pet project down."

The Controller's eyepieces glimmered as he tilted his head down ever so slightly. "Oh...? And why would I do that?"

"You know perfectly well why," Kaiba said with a frown. "You've hacked into the KaibaCorp database, you used my company's technology to project a hologram so you could spread pandemonium all over the city, you're using signal jammers so every cellphone in the city is rendered useless. And what's worse, you've had to go through with this plan while I'm trying so hard to rebuild my company's already tarnished reputation!"

The CEO pointed at the Controller with as much hatred as he could muster. "Thanks to you and your hacking, everyone in the city will begin to panic. Not only will the whole city go in an uproar, but my company will be ruined forever! I don't know what else you're planning to do with my holograms, but I assure you that when I'm done with you, I'll be knocking that ridiculous mask off of your face!"

"That would be ill-advised, Mr. Kaiba. Without my mask... I can no longer control my breathing... and I'm the only one who can stop this..." the Controller replied. "Besides, I have no desire to fight you. I have no need to damage your company any further... what with KaibaCorp's reputation already in tatters... nor will I Duel someone whose desire and ambitions... blind him to the truth..."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

The Controller pointed his finger towards the brown-haired CEO. "Ever since your recent attack on your company from Schroeder Corp... the company's credibility has gone down by an approximation of six percent. As the days pass and your company dwindles by a small fraction... you wanted to restore your company's reputation... and your reputation along with it. Of course... you would do anything to rise back on top of the world... even if it meant you had to break the rules. That's why you've kept that extra 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' in your Deck during your last Duel with Yugi... despite keeping your word not to use it."

Everyone in the plaza drew back with a gasp, especially Kaiba's, whose eyes widened at full length. "What!? How did he know!?"

Joey reacted to these facts with an angered face, his pointing finger, and steam being blown from his ears. "So you were cheatin' after all!" the Brooklyn-accented Duelist shouted. "Then that means your Duel wasn't a fair fight!"

"Quiet, Wheeler!" Kaiba growled before turning back to his foe. "Listen, pal, I don't know how you've managed to listen in on my last Duel, but you have no right to presume what I do, especially since you're trying to create mass hysteria with my technology!"

"Then you are even more foolish than I have presumed you to be..." the Controller responded. "You put your desires to rise back up before the needs of others. Think about it, Mr. Kaiba... if your little brother could see you now. An egomaniacal person who hides his hurt behind a mask... angry at me for exploiting the truth... and trying to shift your and your company's problems on someone else. Tell me... what sort of example does that set for little Mokuba?"

Kaiba's anger finally reached its zenith as he grabbed his suitcase and lunged at the Controller. "I've heard enough from you!" he snarled, swinging his suitcase at the Controller.

Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma watched as Kaiba attempted to physically attack their foe. "Kaiba, wait!" Yugi attempted to shout, only to fall on deaf ears.

Kaiba yelled a battlecry as his suitcase came close to his target. Then out of nowhere, the Controller raised his right arm, and the suitcase suddenly stopped just inches away from his face. To the shock and horror of everyone witnessing the spectacle, Kaiba was frozen like a statue, the only muscles he could move being his terrified face. His whole body was caught in a white aura, the same color as the glowing modules of the Controller's gauntlet.

"What's going on!? What's happening to me!?" Kaiba thought. "Why can't I move!?"

"Your pride has always been your greatest weakness..." the Controller stated as Kaiba tried in vain to budge his muscles. "You have lived a rough childhood... overcome many hardships... and survived the tyranny of your stepfather, Gozaburo... but none of that will excuse you for the behavior you have exhibited..."

The lights on the Controller's gauntlet glowed brighter, and a shockwave was sent from the palm of his hand, sending Kaiba bellowing in pain across the plaza. Yugi was horrified when he saw his friend and rival being blasted back, and hitting his back hard against the wall of the building. "Kaiba!" Yugi shouted as he and his three comrades rushed to his aid. "Kaiba, are you alright!?"

"Don't come any closer, Yugi," Kaiba snarled. "Now that freak just made this fight personal!"

"Kaiba, listen to me!" Yugi begged. "The Controller is a foe beyond anything that we've went up against! You have no idea what he's capable of!"

"Do you!?" Kaiba snapped, making his rival jump back a little. "I don't care if he's some sort of magician! Now that he's messed with me, I'm going to make him feel the weight of the world on his shoulders!"

Using what strength he had, Kaiba pushed himself up from them ground, trembling as he stood on his feet. His body swayed with weakness at first, but his stamina would not let him down, not especially when he pointed his finger at the Controller. "Alright, you freak! This is the last straw! You've messed with my company, the city's going into disarray, and now you've made me angry! If you have figured me out like you think you do, then why don't you put that knowledge to the test in a Duel!?"

"As tempting as it sounds... I'm afraid I must decline" the Controller said. "My fight is not with you, Mr. Kaiba... my fight is with these four..." he motioned to Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma."...and these four alone. I have no interest fighting someone who throws Dueling tournaments for his own benefit."

Suddenly, Kaiba cracked a smile across his lips. "Says the man who hides his face behind a mask," he remarked. "Like you said, anyone wearing a mask is a coward. And by the looks of your costume, I'd say you have some serious issues, pal."

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba... I do have serious issues..." the Controller replied, holding his free hand out and crumpling it into a fist. "For as long as over ten generations... I have lived a life of perpetual nothingness inside of a cramped capsule... waiting for the moment when I could finally rise up... and take back everything that was stolen from me. I have lived a long lifetime on feeding tubes and a mask... with little to no memory of my home and of the people in it. I have spent my life... watching the entire history of the universe through the particles of data... that made up the space in my capsule... but no longer will I continue to linger in the Void... as my plans to restart the universe will finally come true..."

"Wow, so you're alone and you have no friends," Kaiba said flatly, "and you think you change everything by hitting the reset button entire universe?"

The CEO of KaibaCorp crossed his arms and chuckled. "Good luck with that, because last I checked, there's no way that even you can hit the reset button on the universe, let alone have a reset button! Now you want to take your personal problems out on my city!? You've got a lot to learn about letting your past go and moving on like me, and creating pandemonium is not how you move on!"

"No... it is not... the pandemonium that will spread throughout your city... and the shot reputation of your company... will only become of minor significance... in comparison to what I have planned for this city... and every other place I have trapped in the Void..."

"Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your plans are gonna change," Kaiba said, pointing his finger. "Because once I beat you in a Duel, you're going to regret even thinking about coming to this city!"

The Controller sighed, knowing that Kaiba would be insistent with Dueling him. "Very well... I was willing to Duel these four at the same time by the time you arrived... but if you are willing to be destroyed by my hand... then I think I shall start this Ultimate Shadow Game with an exhibition match..."

The Controller's gauntlet lit up, and the Deck he had already placed in his Deck holder flickered, the set of fifty-card data being replaced with a new set of fifty-card data. "Know this, Mr. Kaiba... the wagers that were placed in theDuel between me and these four... shall now be applied in this Duel... and if you happen to lose this Duel... then I will continue with my work as I intend to complete..."

Kaiba gave another smirk to his enemy and scoffed. "Then you better hope that you don't lose," he said as he set his suitcase down and opened it up, "because I'm about to crush your hopes!" Inside the suitcase, stacks of cards face-up filled the space inside the red velvet cushions while Kaiba's Duel Disk was strapped in the inside of the lid. Without another moment, Kaiba took his Duel Disk out, strapped it onto his wrist and activated, staring at his opponent with a seething glare.

"Kaiba, you don't know what you're doing!" Yugi advised. "You need to stand down before you get hurt!"

"Save it, Yugi! There's no way you can stop this Duel now!" Kaiba snapped, inserting his Deck into the Deck holder. "Besides, you've had your turn saving the world many times already, so now why not give someone else a chance for once?"

Yugi drew back with a disapproved, hurt look. "Kaiba..."

"So, rich boy's gonna Duel dat freak?" Joey asked his friends for clarification.

"That's what it looks like from here," Tristan answered.

"Then for once, I'm betting dat Kaiba's gonna crush dat creep."

"Yeah? I'd wager a pepperoni pizza that he'll win by a landslide."

"I'll see your pizza and raise you a supreme pizza with a chocolate malt milkshake."

Tea did not hear nor acknowledge her two friends' exchanging of words. Instead, she looked down into space with a worried look on her face, and hands held at her chest. Joey was the first to notice this change in her behavior, and turned to her with a concerned face with Tristan following suit. "Hey, Tea, you're awfully quiet. Somethin' on your mind?"

The brown-haired girl was snapped from her saddened reverie, looked to her friends, then looked back down. "Yeah, but it's not good. I have this bad feeling that Kaiba might lose this Duel, no matter how hard he'll try and win."

"Huh? What makes you say that?" Tristan asked.

"I don't know," she said anxiously. "Just call it an intuition."

As Kaiba took his stance against the Controller, Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma and Astral stepped aside to witness the Duel for themselves. They waited at the plaza's malfunctioning clock, a fair distance away from the match. "Hey, Yugi," Yusei said, turning to the King of Games who turned to him back. "Out of all people, you've Dueled against Kaiba the longest. Do you think that he has a chance of winning against the Controller?"

Yugi turned back to the Duel. "Kaiba is indeed the strongest opponent that I've ever faced," he said, glancing towards the cloaked figure, "but the Controller is another story. Who knows what tricks he may have in his sleeve?"

Kaiba revealed his Duel Disk to the Controller, the two blades combining together as he drew his five cards. "You're going to pay for messing with my company!" Kaiba shouted as the Controller followed up by drawing the top five cards.

"And you are going to pay for assuming such nonsense in the first place..." the Controller said, activating a certain command in his gauntlet's jewel. "I activate the 'Cross Over' Field Spell!"

From the Controller's jewel, a holographic image of a Spell Card appeared, the picture of a black space with two streams of energy, one blue and one red, crossing over each other. In the space wee two patterns of circuitry leading into the horizon, the top pattern being yellow and the bottom part being green. When the "Cross Over" Field Spell was played, a ripple of glittering lights spread as far as the parameter of the plaza, leaving everyone bemused when the saw nothing changed.

"Okay, I'll bite. What's with that card you just played?" Kaiba asked.

"It's a Field Spell from my era called 'Cross Over'... a handy little card that allows everyone from a different time and dimension... to Duel each other without restrictions..." the Controller said. "Despite the rules stating that only one Field Spell can be active one at a time... we are allowed to play any Field Spell we want... so long as we are able to keep only one Field Spell on either of our fields..."

"Except there's only one flaw in your card's design, you freak," Kaiba said.

"And what would that be, Mr. Kaiba...?"

"In order for this Field Spell to work, we each need a copy of this card, and last I checked, I don't have that card in my Deck."

"You don't, do you...?" the Controller asked, pointing at Kaiba's Duel Disk. "Then what is that in your Field Spell Zone...?"

"What?" Kaiba opened up his Field Spell Zone in his Duel Disk and his face fell into shock. There was a copy of "Cross Over" already active. "But how!? How did you slip this card into my Duel Disk!?"

"Everyone who wields a Duel Disk of any design has a card like this in their Deck..." the Controller explained. "It's to help make this game so much easier for some people..."

"What?" Yugi pulled out his Deck, inspected it, and gasped. "He's right! I have a copy of that card in my Deck as well!"

"Me too!" Jaden said, looking at his Duel Deck.

"Same goes for me, too!" Yuma said.

"Looks like the Controller wasn't kidding when he said that everyone has this card," Yusei said.

Kaiba growled. "Enough stalling, already! Field Spell or not, I'm still going to win this Duel and make you pay for what you did!"

"Don't make a promise that you can't keep, Mr. Kaiba... if might not come true in the end..."

"LET'S DUEL!"/"LET'S DUEL!" the two Duelists shouted as their Life Points became 4000.

Turn 1: Seto Kaiba (4000)

"You're going down, freak!" Kaiba said as he drew his first card. He looked down in his hand, and saw that it contained "X-Head Cannon", "Monster Reborn", "Attack Guidance Armor", "Y-Dragon Head", and "Return from the Different Dimension." He added his "Shrink" card to his hand and reached for his Machine-Type monster.

"I Summon 'X-Head Cannon' in Attack Mode!" Kaiba shouted as the twin-barrel shouldered, human-like robot appeared, floating on its spiky orb (1800/1500).

"And next, I place two cards face-down and end my turn," Kaiba declared, two face-down cards appearing in his Spell/Trap Zone.

Turn 2: The Controller (4000)

"Then it is my turn..." the Controller said as he gently drew his card. When he drew that card, he let out a little chuckle.

"I'm sorry. Did I miss the joke somewhere?" Kaiba asked sarcastically.

"On the contrary, Mr. Kaiba... I merely find this card quite fitting for out Duel..." the Controller said. "But tell me something... do you still believe in the possibilities... of a past life?"

"Oh please, not you too," Kaiba grumbled annoyingly. "When are you people going to learn that I don't look back at the past? I always stay in the present so that I can move forward to the future."

"A wise philosophy, Mr. Kaiba..." the Controller commended, "but even you should believe that there are things in this world... that many people don't understand. Sometimes, you have to look back into the past... in order to pave your way to the future. Maybe if you looked into your past life... as a High Priest for the Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt five millennia ago... then maybe you will find a better way into the future..."

"Look, are you going to sway me with that fairy tale, or are you Duel?"

"If you really aren't swayed with the facts... laid before your eyes, Mr. Kaiba... then I will make a believer out of you with this card..." the Controller said as he slapped a Monster Card in his Monster Card Zone. "I Summon my 'Pharaonic Sorcerer' in Attack Mode!"

Appearing out of nowhere came a humanoid monster with a slightly slender build and a golden mask covering its entire face, but leaving a couple of Egyptian-styled eyes. (1000/1000) He wore a violet headwear and a purple sleeveless top, both with gold trimmings with a blue jewel in the center; a purple skirt reaching to the ankles worn by open-toed sandals, a purple cape, and wore golden accessories on its arms. Yugi gasped when he saw the "Pharaonic Sorcerer" wield a familiar artifact in his crossed arms: a golden rod topped with a spherical head with two blades on both sides and an eye in the front.

The spirit of Yugi Muto appeared next to Yami. "Pharaoh, look! Do you see what I see!?"

"I see it, but I don't believe it!" Yami Yugi said. "How did he acquire that item!?"

Jaden turned to the King of Games. "Hey, Yugi, is something bothering you?"

"There is, Jaden," Yugi said. "Take a look at that monster! Look at what's in it's hands!"

"What!?" Jaden replied with shock before he looked at the Controller's field and gasped. "Hey, you're right! That 'Sorcerer's' holding the Millennium Rod!"

Yusei was shocked to hear this. "No way! You don't mean the Millennium Rod of the seven Millennium Items, do you?"

"I'm afraid so," Yugi confirmed with a nod, "but it looks to me like the Controller has somehow converted the Rod into a Monster Card."

"So what's so bad about it, anyway?" Yuma asked, having not heard of the Millennium Items.

"What's bad is the Millennium Rod has the power to take control of the minds of people," Yugi explained. "It was with such power that was used by an evil force that threatened the safety of the entire world."

Yuma's eyes widened and he gasped before looking back to the Duel. "So do you think that the Controller is gonna use that power in this Duel?"

"I don't know," Yugi replied. "We'll just have to wait and see."

Kaiba was unimpressed by the Spellcaster-Type monster on the Controller's field. "Wow, so you've got yourself a weak monster on your field. Is that supposed to intimidate me?"

"No... but perhaps these two face-downs will..." The Controller slapped two cards face-down in his Spell/Trap Zone. "... I'll end my turn... and revert it back to you."

Turn 3: Seto Kaiba (4000)

"I thought you'd never say that," said Kaiba as he drew his card. "I activate my 'Pot of Greed'! That allows me to draw two more cards!"

Kaiba drew his two cards and looked at them, making his eyes squint at the two cards that he was ready for. "I Summon my 'Y-Dragon Head'!"

Appearing to the left of "X-Head Cannon" was a red, metallic dragon with blue eyes, giving a robotic screech as it was Summoned in Attack Mode. (1500/1600)

"And next, I activate 'Double Summon'!" Kaiba said as he activated the aforementioned Spell Card, the card itself appearing in its holographic mode. "Now I get to Summon another monster from my hand, and I've got the perfect Monster in mind! So now I get to Summon my 'Z-Metal Tank'!"

Next to "Y-Dragon Head" on it's right was a yellow tank, with two armored continuous tracks, two black exhaust pipes, two turquoise hatches, and a module in the middle resembling an eye. (1500/1300)

Kaiba clenched his hand into a fight fist. "And now that I have three of my required monsters on the field, I can combine my 'X-Head Cannon', my 'Y-Dragon Head', and my 'Z-Metal Tank', to creat my 'XYZ-Dragon Cannon'!" the KaibaCorp CEO announced as his three flew up in the air. The wings of "Y-Dragon Head" detached and flew away as a circular port on its back opened, magnetically inserting the spiky orb from "X-Head Cannon's" lower part. The combined Machine-Type monsters were attached to the back of "Z-Metal Tank" as the turquoise hatches opened up and revealed twin cannon barrels from inside. When all was done, the combination of "X", "Y", and "Z" was complete, and a new Fusion Monster too the place where the three Machine-Type monsters once stood. (2800/2600)

The spectators trapped in the plaza gasped in wonder as Kaiba Summoned his "Dragon Cannon", Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, Yuma, and Astral being the louder. "Look at that. In just one move, Kaiba managed to Summon one of his best monsters," Yusei said.

"I know. So cool!" Jaden cheered, bringing a fist to his chest.

"As astonishing as it may be, I fear that Kaiba has played into the Controller's hands," Astral said, killing the cheerful mood.

"Huh? What do you mean, Astral?" Yuma asked.

"His two face-down cards. By Summoning his 'Dragon Cannon', Kaiba has unknowingly allowed the Controller to gain an advantage."

Kaiba threw his arm out to give his attack command extra effect. "Now, 'XYZ-Dragon Cannon', attack that 'Pharaonic Sorcerer' with Cannon Firestorm!"

The barrels on "X-Head Cannon's" shoulders and from the "Z-Metal Tank's" hatches glowed as the "Y-Dragon Head" charged an energy beam in its mouth. When the attacks were all charged up, the barrels and the energy beam shot at the Spellcaster-Type monster, causing an explosion that shrouded the Controller's field with smoke. Seeing how the attacks brought on a little satisfaction, Kaiba crossed his arms and sneered, giving a short, deep chuckle under his breath.

"Too bad. Looks like I made your little magician disappear after all," he said, looking back up. "In addition to losing your monster, you've lost 1800 of your Life Points as well. Too bad."

Kaiba waited until the smoke cleared. When it did, his eyes widened and he gasped as the "Sorcerer" still stood in its place, protected by a dome-like barrier conjured by its Millennium Rod. "What!? Why hasn't that Monster been destroyed!?" he demanded as he saw the Controller's Life Points remain intact. "And your Life Points haven't gone down by a single point! Why is that!?"

"Because I had predicted you would use such a tactic, Mr. Kaiba..." the Controller's voice rang out as he became visible through the smoke. "My 'Pharaonic Sorcerer' cannot be destroyed by monsters with less than 3000 Attack Points... therefore, no matter what you throw at my monster... it will remain on my field... "

"But why haven't your Life Points dropped!? This doesn't make any sense!" Kaiba looked closer and saw that his opponent had an active Trap Card in play, and immediately recognized it. "Oh no! That's 'Spirit Barrier'! So that's why your Life Points haven't been tampered!"

"Very good... since I have a Monster on my field... I take no battle damage..." the Controller looked at his Spellcaster. "...and with my 'Pharaonic Sorcerer' unable to be destroyed by most monsters... I am... in the sense of the word... invincible..."

Kaiba growled in response. "So you've set me up for that," he grumbled. "But no matter. Once I get rid of a card from my hand, your Monster will be destroyed!"

"No you won't... because by attacking my 'Sorcerer', you've activated my Trap... 'Spiritual Enchantment'!" the Controller said as he revealed his second face-down card.

A Trap Card flipped up from its Zone, depicting "Pharaonic Sorcerer" looking at the viewer, holding his Millennium Rod as the eye in the front glowed and created illusions of the eye. As the card glowed, so did the eyes of the real "Pharaonic Sorcerer" as he held out the Millennium Rod and made it glow. Reality-warping waves shot from the eye of the Rod and made contact with "XYZ-Dragon Cannon", wrapping it in a yellow glow and making the eyes of the three parts dull and lifeless as it slowly made it's way to the Controller's field.

"Oh no! My 'Dragon Cannon'!"

"Is mine..." the Controller finished for Kaiba. "When you attacked my 'Sorcerer' and failed to destroy it in battle... I activated my 'Spiritual Enchantment' Trap Card... which can take control of the monster that attacked it... and equip it to this card. Of course, the monster's effects are negated... but that is the only other monster you can target for attacks or effects. So you are left without another monster by your side..."

"That's what you think," Kaiba replied. "I end my turn!"

Turn 4: The Controller (4000)

"Then let the games continue..." the Controller said, drawing his card. "Go, 'XYZ-Dragon Cannon'! Attack your former master directly!"

Like before, "XYZ-Dragon Cannon" charged up its attacks from its barrels and the metallic dragon mouth before it released their energies into one attack. Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, Yuma, and Astral all gasped as they saw Kaiba in the line of fire. "Oh no! If Kaiba gets landed with this attack, he'll lose more than half of his Life Points!" Jaden exclaimed.

"Kaiba!" Yugi shouted as the beams nearly hit the Duelist.

"I activate my Trap Card!" Kaiba shouted. "'Attack Guidance Armor'!"

The Trap Card flipped open, and an armored chest plate with a fiendish appearance complete with red eyes materialized. Quickly, the armor disappeared before reappearing onto the body of the "Sorcerer", causing the red eyes to glow. "Now that your monster - my 'monster to be exact! - attacked, I can use this card to redirect your attack!" Kaiba explained as the streams suddenly curved around and went for the Spellcaster. "Your monster may not be destroyed by my 'Dragon Cannon's' attacks or any of my monsters' attacks, but since you have my monster I can use this card to turn that attack against you!"

As the energies from the attack approached the "Sorcerer", the monster took its Millennium Rod and conjured another barrier around it. The dome shimmered as the energies from the "Dragon Cannon's" redirected attack made its impact on the barrier and caused another explosion, leaving the Controller and his "Pharaonic Sorcerer" safe from harm. "Very clever of you, Mr. Kaiba... you knew that by using your own monster's attacks against my 'Sorcerer'... you would evade the direct damage from your Life Points... by turning my 'Sorcerer's' special ability against me. Well played..."

"Ha! I don't need any praise from the same lunatic who threatened my city and threw me back against the wall," Kaiba sneered.

"If you think I am doing this out of mental delusion... then I shall have to force my hand..." the Controller said as another face-down card appeared on the Controller's field. "I place a card face-down... and end my turn...

Most of the spectators huffed a sigh of relief as Kaiba narrowly made it out of the round in one piece.

"Boy, I'm glad that's over. I think my heart stopped for a moment there," Yuma said, sighing.

"It kinda makes you wonder, thought," Jaden said. "Do you think that Kaiba stands a chance against the Controller?"

"I should hope so," said Yusei. "Otherwise our eras and homes will be toast."

"Knowing Kaiba, he won't allow that to happen, even if he doesn't believe in our predicament," Yugi said, turning to the Controller with a frown. "However, the Controller is another story. He seems to be reeling Kaiba into a trap, and we'll never know when he'll make his move."

Turn 5: Seto Kaiba (4000)

"Then it's my move!" Kaiba declared. "I draw!"

Kaiba looked at the card in his hand, a Spell depicting a robed man reeling back in shock as a small guillotine sliced through a Deck of cards. "I activate my 'Card of Demise'!" Kaiba declared. "Now I get to draw until I hold five cards, but in five turns, I have to discard my entire hand!"

Kaiba looked down at his cards, among them being "Negate Attack", "Vorse Raider", and "Mystical Space Typhoon". The one that caught his eye, however, was one that made him smirk before he looked up to his opponent with that same smirk. "Oh well, looks like luck isn't on your side, Mr. Mystery," he said. "I activate my Trap Card, 'Return from the Different Dimension'!"

The Trap Card flipped up, the artwork template glowed, and a dimensional warp appeared above everyone's heads. "Now for the cost of half of my Life Points, I get to Summon as many of my Monsters that I removed from the game!" Kaiba announced as his Life Points dropped significantly in half. (Seto Kaiba: 4000 = 2000) "So now I get to Summon two of my old friends, 'X-Head Cannon' and 'Z-Metal Tank!"

From the dimensional warp came the two mentioned Machine-Type Monsters, each one in Attack Mode. "Now why would Kaiba do that?" Yuma asked. "He gave up half of his Life Points just so he can Summon those two monsters. Surely, he's gotta be up to something?"

"You're right, Yuma," Yugi replied, "and I have a good feeling what it is."

Kaiba waved his arm out. "Now, I sacrifice my 'X-Head Cannon', and my 'Z-Metal Tank!" he shouted as his two monsters disappeared from the field. "That allows me to Summon my all-powerful monster! I'm sure you have no trouble figuring out what it is, mystery man, because if you know my Dueling styled, then I'm sure you can guess this monster!"

Kaiba slapped a certain Monster Card on his Duel Disk. "I Summon my 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon!'"

The four Legendary Duelists and their friends trapped inside the plaza gasped while the Controller kept his cool stance. A pillar of light shot from the ground behind Kaiba as a silhouette formed inside, later breaking out to reveal the most powerful Normal Monster in the game. The "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" unfurled its wings and unleashed a mighty roar that seemed to make the very air vibrate within its area, making the windows shatter and emanating the feeling of power. (3000/2500)

The spectators were in awe as they saw the appearance of the legendary ferocious Dragon staring down the enemy. Jaden pumped his fist to his chest which trembled with excitement. "Oh yeah, now that's what I'm talking about!" he shouted. "Kaiba's got his most powerful Monster out on the field!"

"And it looks like it's ready to go on the offense," Yusei commentated with a surprised face.

Yuma watched the display with expanded, pupil-less irises and sparkles in his eyes. "Oh, wow! It's the 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' itself!" Yuma said with wonder. "I can't wait to rub it in Bronk's face when we get back home!"

"Providing, of course, that we even go home," Astral vehemently lamented, making Yuma's face deflate with embarrassment.

"Do you always have to kill the mood, Astral?"

Yugi stood at the sidlines, equally as impressed as his three comrades at Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". "That's a good move. Kaiba's 'Blue-Eyes' has enough Attack Power to wipe out that 'Pharaonic Sorcerer'," he thought. "But in order to defeat it, he'll need to destroy his own monster to do it. After all, with that 'Spiritual Enchantment' Trap Card still in play, Kaiba has to attack any other monster other than that 'Sorcerer'."

"There it is... the 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'..." the Controller said with calm admiration. "How exhilarating... Truly, one would feel honored to be standing in the presence... of the great white dragon..."

"If you think that's good, then wait until you get a load of this!" Kaiba said as he played his first Quick-Play Spell. "First, I play my 'Shrink' card! This cut's my 'Dragon Cannon's' Attack Points in half!"

The effect of the card kicked in as the size of the "XYZ-Dragon Cannon" was cut in half, and it's Attack Points fell by the same amount. (2800 = 1400/2600)

"And before I can do anything else, there's one more card, I have to play!" the CEO yelled as he played his second Quick-Play Spell. "Go, 'Mystical Space Typhoon'! This card can destroy one Spell or Trap Card on the field, and your 'Spirit Barrier' happens to be the target for getting blown away in its devastating winds!"

A maelstrom of powerful gusts shot from the Spell Card, sweeping the Trap Card away until it shattered in golden shards. With that done, Kaiba threw his arm out. "Now, my 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'! Attack my 'XYZ-Dragon Cannon' with White Lightning!"

With another roar, the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" gathered a ball of white, raw energy in it's mouth before it fired a mighty blast, destroying the Fusion Monster and creating a massive explosion. The destruction of the "Dragon Cannon" also caused the Trap, "Spiritual Enchantment" to shatter, which in turn, destroyed the "Pharaonic Sorcerer". The wind from the impact blew into the Controller's face as he took the impact by standing his ground with his arms wide open. (The Controller: 4000 = 2400)

"Amazing... such raw power..." the Controller said as he wiped the dust from his shoulders. "You've managed to bite off a good chunk of my Life Points. I once dreamed of experiencing the power... of a legendary Duel Monsters Card when I was just a boy... but now that I have had the distinct pleasure... of fulfilling that childhood dream for myself... I feel like my childhood has returned to me..."

"Oh, so first you threaten my company, now you're thinking about how my last attack is bringing back old memories?" Kaiba asked. "Looks like you have bigger problems than I thought."

"You are free to presume whatever you like... but it is you who will regret underestimating me... once I take control of this Duel..."

"With what?" Kaiba asked. "You have no Monsters on your field, and all you have is that Trap Card that's still in play. Unless you happen to have a card that's supposed to scare me, then this Duel won't last for very long."

"Oh, but there are several cards in my Deck... that can scare you, Mr. Kaiba..." the masked man replied, "and they will, too... for you see... in your bid to demonstrate your immense power... you've only destroyed all the cards on my field... all without thinking of the consequences. You have left my field empty... played your favorite card to do it... and left me wide open for a direct attack. I can expect no less... from the man who helped revolutionize the Duel Monsters game into something more..."

The Controller's eyepiece glimmered, giving off an awful feeling as Kaiba seemed to feel it in his gut. "But all that is about to change in my next move... and whatever I have planned... you'd better be ready for, Mr. Kaiba... because I intend to use a fraction of my power... into this one Duel."

Kaiba growled. "I place one card face-down and end my turn!" he said, placing said card in his Spell/Trap Zone.

Turn 6: The Controller (2400)

"Then it's my turn!"

The Controller drew his card, and examined it. "Exactly the card I need..." he muttered, making Kaiba raise his eyebrow with curiosity as he held out a Monster Card, depicting another "Pharaonic" monster with the same mask, but with a beige headdress, a beige sash over it's masculine body, and a beige skirt held by a blue-and-gold belt while holding a set of golden scales with an eye in the center.

"I activate the effect of my 'Pharaonic Balancekeeper' from my hand!'" Suddenly, jutting from the Controller's Deck was the "Polymerization" card, sticking halfway out for the card's owner to pluck it. "First, I must send my 'Polymerization' from my Deck to my Graveyard..." he said as he sent said card to the Graveyard. "...and once this deed is done... I can now Summon a DARK Spellcaster-Type Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck!"

"He can what!?" Jaden yelped as Yusei, Yuma, and Astral watched with gaping mouths.

"That cannot be!" Yugi retorted to the move.

"No way, that's impossible!" Kaiba denied. "In order to Summon a Fusion Monster, you have to use the right Monsters from your hand or your field!"

"That would be the case under normal circumstances..." the villain said, pointing a finger at Kaiba. "But you provided me the edge I needed..."

Kaiba relled back with shock. "I did!?"

The Controller nodded once. "Yes... and I have your 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' to thank for..." he revealed, making Kaiba gasp and look up to his towering Monster. "I knew that by taking control of one of your strongest monsters... you would use be forced to use your 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' to destroy it... and wipe my field of any cards I had. Not only have you emptied the field of my cards... but you have also increased the chances... of me being victory in this Duel..."

"So you were planning this from the start!?"

"Yes..." the Controller nodded once more. "...and I will allow you to witness the second phase of my plan... come into fruition right now. Since you control a monster with 3000 or more Attack Points on your field and I have no cards on mine... I can activate the other special ability of my 'Balancekeeper'... and use any number of Spellcaster-Type monsters from my Deck... as Fusion Material for the Fusion Summon of my Fusion Monster."

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes..."

Kaiba, Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, Yuma, Astral, Joey, Tristan, Tea, Alexis, Syrus, and Tori all looked on in sheer horror as four Monster Cards jutted out from the Deck. The Controller took each of those cards out and held them high over his head as they all glowed. "I use my 'Pharaonic Foreseer'... my 'Pharaonic Keykeeper'... my 'Pharaonic Seeker'... and my 'Pharaonic Soulgazer'!" the Controller declared. "I call upon the combined powers of Ancient Egypt! I Summon the most powerful force of Egypt... to help bring me victory to this fight!"

As the Controller chanted like anyone would during a ceremonial ritual, the four "Pharaonic" monsters their owner was using for the Fusion Summon appeared one-by-one. The first was "Pharaonic Foreseer", a female humanoid wearing an Egyptian female headdress with gold wings, a beige dress that wrapped around her slim figure with a small cape flowing from her shoulders, and a golden necklace with the same mysterious eye. Her body turned red as it formed a swirl in the center behind the Controller's field.

The second monster was "Pharaonic Keykeeper", another hooded humanoid that wore a beige dress with an enormous cape flowing at it's back, and a golden ankh in his hand with an added feature to help it resemble a key. The Spellcaster's body was turned to yellow as it joined the red swirl in the center.

The "Pharaonic Seeker" was a Spellcaster who wore a headdress with gold trimmings, gold shoulder plates with a grand, flowing cape held underneath the plates. Dangling from it's nape to it's chest was a golden ring with five chime-like spikes dangling from the bottom half, and a triangle built in the center with another eye etched inside. His body turned lime green and joined the other two colorful swirls to help and call upon a much stronger monster.

Finally, there was the "Pharaonic Soulgazer", a tall, slender humanoid Monster with hair extending to the middle of it's back with blue-and-gold-trimmed armor over it's beige robe, the dress itself reaching past it's feet and down on the ground. Unlike it's three comrades, there was the same mysterious eye taking the place of where the left eye hole usually was. The body of the "Pharaonic Soulgazer" became blue and joined the swirl, therefore completing the required number of Monsters used as Fusion Material for the Fusion Summon. When all four colors came into the same swirl, a luminous glow emanated from the background, and the Controller's field became as bright as the sun.

"I Summon my Fusion Monster! Now, 'Pharaonic Highruler'... arise!"

From out out of the light came another humanoid monster that was estimated to stand at eight feet tall, wearing a royal Egyptian headdress with gold and blue stripes. He was a muscular Spellcaster with a blue outfit, a big, orange cape reaching down to the backside of his shins and golden shoulder plates, gauntlets, a gold belt to hold the gold-and-blue striped skirt that split midway to reveal the legs with golden boots on his legs and feet. In his crossed right hand, he held a sword, unsheathed and sticking up straight. Like his loyal subjects, the "Pharaonic Highruler" wore another golden faceless mask with the eye holes, and a familiar upside-down pyramid artifact hanging from his neck with the eye at the center. (2500/2100)

Yugi was among the shocked witnesses to watch as the powerful Egyptian-themed monster appear on the Controller's field, even more so when he saw the familiar artifact. "Pharaoh, look! On that monster's chest!" Yugi Muto's spirit encourage. "Is that what I think it is!?"

"Indeed! It's the Millennium Puzzle!" Yami Yugi answered as he looked down at his own Millennium Puzzle and held it. "Somehow, the Controller was able to create cards based on the original wielders of the Millennium Items. That monster must be based around me when I ruled as pharaoh of Egypt over 5,000 years ago! Could it be that he knows about the secrets to my past as well!?"

Kaiba couldn't help himself as he took a fearful step backwards away from the giant pharaoh looking down on him through his eye holes. "What is that thing!?"

"This is the monster that will ensure your defeat..." said the Controller. "This is the beginning of the end for you..."

---

Pushing his strength into his legs, Kite rushed out of his laboratory and out the automatic doors so that he could see what was happening out there. The Photon Duelist made it to the outside world, and when he looked up into the dark, soupy abyss of the Void, his whole body froze like he was staring down the very embodiment of fear. Hovering above his father's city was a cannon taller than the red giant that seemingly disappeared, and its deadly laser was pointed right into the sea.

"No way! Was that thing the red giant all along!?" Kite asked rhetorically as his shivering widened eyes befell the super weapon. Upon his quick reflexes, Kite turned tail and ran back into his lab, stopping before the fallen, burnt heap of machinery that was his robotic servant. "Get up, Orbital, we've got a big emergency on our hands! Initiate Protocol Wake-Up Call now!"

Just like before, Orbital's smallest eye blinked a few times in response to the voice-activation code built in his sensors. With one jump, Orbital 7's soot-black body reverted back to its natural beige colors, landed hard on his metallic posterior, and rubbed his head with his robotic claw. "Ugh~ What ha-ha-happened? Why d-d-does my central process-cess-cessor feel like it's been through a l-l-lighning st-t-torm?" the android asked to himself as he continued to caress his aching circuits.

"Orbital," Kite simply said, nearly giving his android a Barian Crystal heart attack, "there's no time to waste. Bring up the images from the cameras at the dockside port overlooking the sea."

Orbital 7 shuddered, giving his master his formal "Y-Y-You got it, Boss!" salute before he extended his body upwards and his metallic tentacle appendages to the keyboard. After typing in a few command codes into the computer, the holographic monitors popped up one-by-one, including the images of the security cameras overlooking the sea past the Heartland pier. When Orbital 7 laid his android eyes on the images of the orbiting cannon on the screens, the first immediate response was to panic with his mouth latch ajar, his antennae stiffened at full length, and bullets sweating out of who-knows-where he sweats.

"WAAAHHHH~! What is that thing!?"

"That's our red giant," Kite answered, making Orbital jerk his head around to face him. "It was using a holographic camouflage to conceal itself from prying eyes."

"S-S-So in a way, it wa-wa-was hiding in plain sight!?"

"Exactly. Orbital, run a full diagnostic scan on that cannon with every available scanners that we've got."

"Y-Y-Yes, sir!" Orbital quickly tapped on the keyboard, activating a scanning program that slowly moved a horizontal and a vertical white line across the screen. Little squares popped up from the moving line's trail, giving the screen its exact dimensions of sixty inches by eighty inches. Within those 60" by 80" dimensions, the orbiting cannon was outlined in a white aura, causing an abundance of screens to pop up. These screens depicted the image of the cannon shown after being scanned by Kite's state-of-the-art computer systems, ranging from the thermal scans, to the x-ray scans, all the way to the cutting-edge dimensional scans and the temporal scans.

Kite's eyes fell on the temporal scans, both widening when he made a discovery. "No way! How is that possible!?"

Orbital turned up to his astounded master. "Master Kite? Wh-Wh-What's wrong?"

"This scan can't be correct. There's no way something like this could happen... unless..."

"U-U-Unless what?"

Kite eyes narrowed. "Looks like we underestimated our guy, Orbital. It looks like he's more complex than we ever thought."

"So now-ow-ow-ow what do we d-d-do, Master Kite?"

The Photon Duelist crossed his arms, lowered his head, and closed his eyes. "Nothing."

Orbital 7 gasped, looking at his master with an exasperated, antennae-stiffening, mouth latch-dropping look. "B-B-But Master Kite, we c-c-can't sit around doing n-n-nothing! We'll never resolve th-th-this mess if we can't do any-y-ything!"

"And that's precisely what we'll have to," Kite replied. "Right now, Yuma and Astral must be going up against our foe as we speak. The only thing we can do now is wait and see how everything plays out."

All Orbital 7 could do was give a solemn whimper, forced to sit idly by with his inventor as he let the computers run automatically.

-ELSEWHERE-

"Hey, what's that up in the sky!?"

"It looks small!"

"Don't be ridiculous! It's obviously big!"

"What is it going to do to us?"

"Whatever it's pointing at, it better not be at us."

These were among the frightened and timid murmurs heard from the conscious graduates of Duel Academy. In his office, Chancellor Sheppard stared at the space cannon aimed directly into the middle of the sea. His eyebrows were narrowed, but the uncertainty in his eyes betrayed his facial expressions. Normally, he went through with his philosophy that people don't need to be afraid of what they don't understand, but this was one of the few times that Sheppard decided not to follow up on this rule.

"Stay strong, Jaden, and be careful," Sheppard murmured to no one in particular. "It looks like this is going to be the biggest battle of your life. The question is, can you win this war?"

-ELSEWHERE-

Jack, Crow, Akiza, Leo, and Luna ran out of the clock shop when they heard the commotion come from some of the conscious citizens outside. When five of the six Signers ran out to the plaza to see what the noise was about, they gasped when they saw that supposed "sun" disappear, only to have an orbiting superweapon in its place, aiming its energized cannon right into the ocean. "Whoa, look at the size of that thing!" Leo wondrously said. "It's like something I've seen from those sci-fi movies I've seen on TV!"

From the first sight of the space cannon aimed at their metropolitan city, some of the citizens began to panic to the point where they began running around the streets in terror. "I don't like the looks of this, guys!" Jack stated as a few citizens ran past them.

"You're telling me," Crow replied. "Whatever that thing is, it doesn't look friendly."

"A giant floating space cannon doesn't even remotely look friendly, Crow," Jack remarked.

Suddenly, Luna's world around her grew dark, catching her off-guard when she was visited by the spirit of a big-eyed, furry, brown puffball with a red-with-gold-trimmed ribbon tied onto her mouse-like tail. A concerned chirp resonated from the feminine "Kuri" monster, speaking in a language that Luna could only translate. "Kuribon, what's wrong?" Luna asked her Spirit Partner, returning a disheartened chirp in response.

In the next moment, Luna was brought back to reality with a gasp. "Uh oh," the turquoise-haired girl squeaked, bringing the attention of her friends to her. "Kuribon says whatever that thing in the sky is, it'll be really bad news."

"Bad!?" Leo blurted, holding both fists to his chest with anxiety. "Come on, Luna, tell us! How bad are we talking about here!?"

Luna held her hands together at her chest, and dipped her head down with a scared frown. "We're talking majorly bad," she answered fearfully, "like 'possibly the end of the world' bad... and even though Yusei's prevented the city from being destroyed many times in the past, I don't think that he can stop it this time."

Crow went wide-eyed with shock. "You've gotta be kidding me!?" he exclaimed, looking up at the space cannon. "Then what are we supposed to do!? Yusei can't take this fight alone!"

"No, he won't," Jack said as his stoic face returned. "If Yusei can find the help that he's been looking for, then maybe he can get us out of this situation by the skin of our teeth."

"But what if that's not enough?" Akiza argued. "For all we know, Yusei must be in danger as we speak!"

"I'm not saying it's going to be easy, Akiza," the blonde Turbo Duelist replied, "but that doesn't mean we can lose faith in what Yusei's doing. We just have to believe that he's doing everything he can to stop this madness."

Akiza looked down with a worried face, holding her hand to her chest. Slowly, she turned to face the cannon hovering in the depths of that murky, black abyss. Her eyebrows twitched a little in an effort to hide her uneasiness as she tried to reach out to Yusei, not telepathically, but with her feelings. Akiza prayed that those feelings would somehow reach Yusei, wherever he found himself in this empty dimension. "Be careful, Yusei..."

---

Domino City Plaza - Domino City

"This is the end for you, Mr. Kaiba..." the Controller informed Kaiba as their two monsters squared off in a staring contest.

"This is the end of nothing," Kaiba protested as the Attack Point gauges appeared on both monsters. "Did you forget that my 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' has 500 more Attack Points than your monster?"

"I am well aware of that, Mr. Kaiba... that is why I'll activate my 'Pharaonic Highruler's' special ability..." the Controller declared. "When this card was Fusion Summoned this turn... it gains 200 Attack Points for each DARK-Attribute Spellcaster monster currently in my Graveyard."

"Wait, so how many Spellcasters is that in total?" Yuma asked.

"He used five of those 'Pharaonic' monsters to Summon that 'Highruler', so that's about 1000 Attack Points," Jaden said.

"Don't forget about that 'Pharaonic Sorcerer'," Yusei said. "Last turn, Kaiba sent it packing to the Controller's Graveyard, so that's an additional 200 Attack Points."

And with 2500 Attack Points to begin with, plus 1200 additional Attack Points to boost, that would put it to a total of," Yugi gasped. "3700 Attack Points!"

A dark aura wrapped around the "Pharaonic Highruler" as he uncrossed his arms and bellowed a mighty war cry. (2500 = 3700/2100)

"Oh no!" Kaiba realized. "That monster is stronger than my 'Blue-Eyes'!"

"Yes... but before I can make my move... is there is just one more card I must play from my hand..." the Controller said as he revealed his Spell Card. "I play 'Monster Reborn'... and with it, I am able to revive my 'Pharaonic Sorcerer' that resides in my Graveyard..."

A double-layered purple portal appeared from the ground, and from its dark, murky center came a familiar Spellcaster wielding the Millennium Rod. (1000/1000)

"Oh please. You brought back that pathetic monster just so you could weaken your 'Highruler' by 200 points?" Kaiba asked as the Attack Points from the "Highruler" was deducted by the aforementioned amount. (3700 = 3500/2100)

"My monster's Attack Points do not matter to me one bit... Mr. Kaiba... and I am about to show you why... by utilizing the power of my 'Pharaonic Highruler'!" The Controller turned to his Fusion Monster and held his gauntlet out to it. "Now, my pharaoh... tap into the power of your Millennium Puzzle... and use the combined magic of the seven Millennium Items... left to you by your fallen comrades!"

The Millennium Puzzle on the monster's chest glowed, and the silhouettes of the five monsters used to Summon appeared from the ground, their Millennium Items glowing brightly to perfectly contrast their dim, ethereal forms. Everyone in the plaza gasped as they saw the spirits rise and take their place in a single line, flanking the "Highruler" and completing the septet of monsters who wielded the seven Millennium Items. "Now that the spirits of the Sacred Guardians of Egypt are gathered... it is time that I took control of this Duel... by using the abilities of every 'Pharaonic' monster I used to Summon my 'Highruler'..." the Controller monologued, "...and the first monster that I choose... is my 'Pharaonic Keykeeper'!"

The Spellcaster holding the Millennium Key reached his hand out as the Key began to glow. "Since my 'Highruler' has inherited the ability of my 'Keykeeper'... I can activate it's effect... and as my 'Highruler' was Special Summoned... I'm allowed to activate one Field Spell Card from my Deck."

A Field Spell Card (face-down) jutted halfway out of the Controller's Deck, making it easy for him to pluck and activate his Field Zone. "And what better way to commence a sacred ceremony... than to do it in a more appropriate setting?" the Controller asked rhetorically as he placed his card in the Field Zone. "I activate the 'Spirit Tablet Sanctuary' Field Spell!"

The Controller's Duel Disk began to crackle with electricity as the entire ground was covered in holographic green-outlined squares before they disappeared in a flash. Suddenly, the ground everyone treaded on began to shake, causing them to stumble a bit, and making a couple of spectators including Tori and Syrus to fall. "What's going on now!?" Kaiba demanded as the ground underneath their feet began to transform suddenly from a cobblestone plaza to a sandstone circle as ramped buildings rose up and took the place where the city buildings were once built. The buildings were made of sandstone, holding lit torches against the magnificent structure as a holographic exit rose behind Kaiba's location. From behind the Controller rose an obelisk with Egyptian hieroglyphs, built on top of an unfinished pyramid structure with two obelisks guarding the entrance, and two taller obelisks nearly three-quarters the size of the pyramid in the back.

With the addition of a few palm trees, and a well for containing water, the "Spirit Tablet Sanctuary" Field Spell was complete. The Domino City Plaza was officially transformed into Egyptian-styled battleground, making a few spectators gasp in awe, but leaving Kaiba unfazed. "Well, congratulations, you've created an Egyptian tourist attraction," Kaiba remarked sarcastically. "Tell me, is there going to be a tour guide to give us a look into that antiquated building of yours?"

"There are no tour guides..." the Controller said, "but I do not need to show you around this sanctuary... when I can instead explain the powerful magic... residing within its walls."

Before anyone could ask, a giant, rectangular stone tablet rose from the ground with the same layout for all Duel Monsters cards. The tablet that emerged behind the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" began to glow, pulling in the roaring dragon as it disappeared into the texture, its original artwork fused with the stone. "Oh no! My 'Blue-Eyes'!" Kaiba gasped as he saw his best card disappear into the stone. (0/0)

"Has been sealed..." the Controller explained. "Now any monster on the field when this card is activated... gains a Spirit Tablet Counter."

"What is a Spirit Tablet Counter!?" Kaiba asked.

"I am glad you asked. Whenever a monster has been Summoned... with the exception of those from the Extra Deck... the effect of my Field Spell activates... placing a Spirit Tablet Counter on any and all Summoned monsters from your Deck..." The Controller pointed to Kaiba's sealed "Blue-Eyes", the etching closely similar to its card artwork. "Now any monster is forced into Attack Mode... it's Attack and Defense Points become 0... and it cannot attack... activate their special abilities... or be sent to the Graveyard unless it is destroyed by battle or by a card effect."

Kaiba grunted with surprise. "So that means that my 'Blue-Eyes' is powerless!"

"Not entirely... for you see... you can free your monster from that Spirit Tablet Counter... all you have to do is pay 500 Life Points to do so." Kaiba's LP gauge popped up, revealing him to have 2000 Life Points left. "That is quite unfortunate for you, Mr. Kaiba... because if you hadn't paid your Life Points to play your Trap Card... then you would've had eight chances or less... to free your monsters from those stone tablets before you reached zero... but you cut your chances of victory in half... in order to Summon your 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'."

Kaiba growled as the facts came to him like a swift punch in the face. Then he was struck with another realization as he saw his opponent's field. "Hold on a second! If my Dragon has been sealed away by your Field Spell, then why haven't your monsters suffered the same fate!?"

"Easy... each of my 'Pharaonic' monsters is unaffected by my 'Spirit Tablet Sanctuary'. You could say that the magic of the Millennium Items... protects them from the magic of my 'Sanctuary'..."

Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, Yuma, and Astral all watched the Duel with astounded faces as the Controller shut Kaiba down with his tactic. "Oh man, it's a perfect lock!" Jaden exclaimed. "Kaiba can't make a move with his best monsters sealed away in stone!"

"Let's not forget that whenever he needs his monsters, he has to pay 500 Life Points in order to set them free," Yusei explained. "But even that won't be enough since he paid half of his Life Points for his 'Return from the Different Dimension' Trap Card."

"And every monster that he does Summon gets sealed away, too!" Yuma said in a panicky voice. "Isn't there any way for him to Summon his monsters without paying any Life Points!?"

"Unless Kaiba is able to figure a way around the effect of that Field Spell, then I am afraid that he has very little options left," Astral stated regrettably but matter-of-factly.

"If I know Kaiba, then I know that he'll figure a way out of this," Yugi Muto's voice rang out in the King of Games's head. "It'll take some doing, but I have the utmost confidence that Kaiba will overcome this obstacle and take down the Controller."

"Now that your monster has been sealed and weakened... I can now turn my attention to depleting your Life Points!" the Controller yelled. "'Pharaonic Highruler'! Swing your sword... and strike down that 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'!"

Upon the command, the "Pharaonic Highruler" brought his sword up and swiped it, creating a glowing, green shockwave traveling to the stone tablet containing the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". Everyone in the plaza gasped as the shockwave came close to Kaiba's sealed monster. "Oh no! If this attack hits, then it's all over!" Yugi yelled.

"Not so fast!" Kaiba countered. "Reveal, Trap Card! 'Negate Attack'!"

As the Counter Trap Card flipped up, a red-and-blue vortex blew out of the artwork and towards the shockwave, dissipating it into thin air. "Sorry, but since your 'Highruler' declared an attack, I can negate that attack and then end the Battle Phase!"

"So you've managed to escape certain defeat so far..." the Controller said as he reached for another card in his hand. "I must commend your efforts, Mr. Kaiba. If you hadn't activated your Trap Card... I would've won the Duel..."

"Please. A psychopath like you shouldn't even be praising me for my efforts," Kaiba spat. "Especially since you're the one who sealed away my 'Blue-Eyes'."

"Regardless, your survival these last two turns... have proven quite fruitful... and to reward you for your effort... I shal activate my 'Card of Sanctity'..."

From the murky heavens, a light shone, releasing six beams of radiance to illuminate the dull and dark scenery. "You know this card, Mr. Kaiba... and now we will have to draw until we both hold six cards in our hands."

As per the card's effects, Kaiba and the Controller both drew until they hit their six card limit. "And I think I'll place these two cards face-down..." the Controller informed as two face-downs appeared in his Spell/Trap Zone. "That ends my turn..."

Turn 7: Seto Kaiba (2000)

"Then it's my turn!" Seto Kaiba declared as he placed his fingers on the top card of his Deck.

"And before you can draw your card..." the Controller interjected, "I activate the inherited effect of my 'Pharaonic Foreseer'...!"

"What!?" Kaiba said, his eyes widening as the spiritual shape held her hands on both sides of the glowing Millennium Necklace.

"Before you conduct your normal draw... you must reveal the top card of your Deck to me... then place it back at the top of your Deck..." The Controller pointed his finger at the CEO."Now then, Mr. Kaiba... show me the top card of your Deck..."

Kaiba slowly took his top card, looked at it, then revealed it to the Controller as a Trap Card depicting multiple dark germ cells with a purple kanji written on it. The Controller's eyepiece glistened as he inspected such card. "Hmmm... 'Crush Card Virus'... such a powerful Trap Card indeed, Mr. Kaiba..." the Controller commented. "With that card... you would be able to destroy all Monster Cards in my Deck with 1500 or more Attack Points... leaving me to fend myself with only weaker monsters..."

"That's right. You seemed to be well-informed of my card's effects," Kaiba confirmed as he placed his Trap back on the top of his Deck and looked at his hand.

"And if I happen to have the right monster for the job, then I can spring my Crush Card Combo on him and seriously cripple his Deck. Lucky for me, I already have just the monster who can help me," he thought as he looked down to see a Monster Card with the artwork of a dancing clown on it. "My 'Peten the Dark Clown'. Not only will he help me destroy that freak's Deck, but if he tries to attack me directly, I'll fortify my defenses by Summoning another copy of my 'Dark Clown' from my Deck. That's where that mystery man made his mistake. If I can't play using monsters on my field, I'll have to rely on my Graveyard to help take him down."

"Were you planning on trying to counter my Field Spell, Mr. Kaiba?" the Controller asked, catching the brown-haired Duelist by surprise. "I'm afraid that won't work for you... not when the ability of my 'Highruler' replicates the effect of my 'Pharaonic Seeker' in my Graveyard..."

"What!?" Kaiba yelped as the Millennium Ring hanging from its owner's silhouette began to glow.

"During each of your Draw Phases... I must send one card from my Deck to my Graveyard... and depending on the Type of the card I've sent... you must add one card with the same Type from your Deck to your hand..."

"Why would he allow me to add a card from my Deck to my hand?" Kaiba asked in his thoughts, looking at his Deck. "Unless he's trying to avoid my 'Crush Card Virus'!"

A Monster Card from the Controller's Deck jutted out, making its owner take it and send it straight to the Graveyard. "I've sent my Level 8 Dragon-Type monster from my Deck to my Graveyard..." the Controller said as a LIGHT Dragon-Type monster, its artwork obscured by the shine of its Ultra-Rarity descended to the bottomless pit of the Graveyard. "Now you must add a Monster Card from your Deck... with the same Type and Level as the monster I sent to the Graveyard..."

Kaiba growled as he took out his Deck and took out a certain card that fit those requirements. "Looks like I have no choice," Kaiba grumbled as he inserted his Deck beck into his Duel Disk. "I'm adding my 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' to my hand!"

"And because you did... I play the inherited ability of my 'Pharaonic Soulgazer'!" the Controller declared, motioning to the spirit with the glowing Millennium Eye. "Now if a card is added to your hand... you must reveal that card to me... then if it is a Monster Card... then you must shuffle that card into your Deck, face-up."

Kaiba grunted, taking his newly-added "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and turning it to show the Controller. "There, are you done now?" he asked, placing his face-up card on the top of his Deck and shuffled.

"I am quite done..." the Controller answered, bringing his upturned palm at Kaiba for civility. "Now I will allow you to finally make your move... if you still can..."

Kaiba once again looked at his cards and grumbled. "Looks like this freak has me in a tight spot. He somehow found a way to skip my Draw Phase using that 'Highruler's' special ability, so I'm unable to draw any useful cards. I'll have to make due with what I have in my hand." His eyes narrowed. "But first, there's something that I've gotta do first, and even if I have to give up some more of my Life Points, it's the only way I can beat that creep."

"What do you think Kaiba's thinking right now?" Jaden asked.

"Probably the same thing that I'm thinking," Yusei said. "He must be thinking about his next move. With the top card of his Deck out of commission, the only way he can survive is by using whatever he has in his hand."

"But there's something that worries me," Yugi said, his look contorted in suspicion. "If the Controller's plan was to seal away Kaiba's monster's, then he would've been able to win with that last attack, but he should've known about Kaiba's Trap Card last round. But he allowed Kaiba to play his Trap Card and replenished Kaiba's hand too easily. Now the Controller sealed off Kaiba's Draw Phase because he knew that his 'Crush Card Virus' can seriously destroy his Deck, and that leaves Kaiba with only one option left. He wants Kaiba to free his 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' on purpose, but for what?"

Astral, being the serious, quiet observant spirit that he was, looked around the field for an idea. When at least his heterochromic eyes fell on the "Sorcerer", everything began to make sense, and he gasped.

"I know what he's planning!" he blurted, catching his allies' attention.

Kaiba held his fist up as he declared his next move. "Now, I pay 500 Life Points..." (Seto Kaiba: 2000 = 1500) "...so that I can free my 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'!"

Yugi turned with shock to his rival. "Kaiba!"

It was too late. The stone tablet concealing the Dragon began to crack, light seeping out in bright rays as the seal became broken. Then, after a few more cracks whittled away at the rock, the Spirit Tablet exploded, sending shattered fragments flying in every direction while the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" spread its wings and bellowed its signature roar. (0/0 = 3000/2500) Kaiba stood triumphantly as he regained his "Blue-Eyes", much to the surprise of Joey and Tristan, both cheering in the sidelines.

"Look at dat! Kaiba managed ta get back his strongest monster!" the Brooklyn-accented Duelist cheered.

"Darn straight!" Tristan agreed with equal enthusiasm. "Now the Controller won't stand a chance against Kaiba's 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' once he's able to destroy his monster!"

"Um, guys?" Tea called. "Don't you think that move was a little too easy, even for Kaiba?"

"Huh? Whaddya mean?" Joey asked backed.

"I mean that Kaiba's move was too easy. All he needed to do is pay 500 Life Points so that he could free his Dragon from that stone tablet," Tea explained. "If that's the case, then why did the Controller allow Kaiba to free his Dragon even if it meant that he would get further behind in his Life Points?"

Joey perked up a bit. "Now dat ya mention it, it does seem a bit strange. Da Controller must have somethin' up his sleeve."

"Yeah, that is if he's got any sleeves," Tristan joked.

Kaiba stood with his arms crossed as he bellowed out a satisfied laugh. "Well, what do you know? Looks like I took that chance after all!"

"And now that I have taken that chance, there's just one more card to play," Kaiba thought with a smirk as he held a Spell Card with a circular relic. "My 'Megamorph' Equip Spell Card. With it, I can double my 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon's' Attack Points and raise it to 6000, giving it more than enough power to take down that 'Pharaonic Highruler' and wipe away the remainder of that creep's Life Points. He may have a Field Spell to seal my monsters and a monster that uses the special abilities of the monsters used to Summon it, but I have the perfect winning combination in my hand. Soon, I'll make that man wish he had never messed with my company's holographic projection system and tarnish the rest of my company's reputation."

"So what's with the silent treatment?" Kaiba asked the Controller as the masked man stood still and silent. "Has the overwhelming power of my 'Blue-Eyes Dragon' left you speechless?"

"Speechless no... but the overwhelming power of your Dragon is another story..." the Controller said, baffling Kaiba. He tilted his head down, his eyepiece glimmering once more. "...and I shall illustrate... with the true power of my 'Pharaonic Sorcerer'..."

"You what!?" Kaiba yelled before a blinding light illuminated the entire field.

As it turned out, the light was glowing brightly from the eye of the "Sorcerer's" Millennium Rod, shining a subliminal memory awakening data into the eyes of Kaiba as he stood at his place with frozen nerves. "Aah! What's happening!?" Kaiba demanded to know as he quickly covered his face with his arms, one eye squinted open and the other shut. While he and the spectators yelled against the light while shielding their eyes from the bright illumination, Kaiba's head began to swim as the light activated the memories of his past life he denied. The sensation hit him like he ran straight into a brick wall, and everything went white.

-VISION-

With a grunt, Kaiba opened his eyes and gasped.

He found himself in an emptiness of darkness, falling at a nosedive speed towards a light at the end as rays of dimmer lights zoomed past him in the direction opposite to his dive. "Ah! What's happening to me!?"

After a few quick moments, the light quickly engulfed the screaming Duelist, drowning out his screams into naught but an echo.

When Kaiba opened his eyes again, he found himself floating in the air, transparent as a non-existent being.

"Huh!? Where am I!?" Kaiba barked as he looked around and found himself in a familiar location. He was in a dark chamber lit only by torches held on the walls, all made up of sandstone bricks, etched with ancient hieroglyphs and artwork of the Egyptian pantheon of their various deities. At one end of the chamber was the exit while the other end was raised up in elevation to hold the empty throne built on top.

"Oh great. Am I having one of those visions again?" Kaiba muttered as he spotted a couple of robed individuals with five stone slabs planted on the ground. "And what's with those two, anyway? Are they supposed to be Dueling or something?"

Upon closer inspection, Kaiba gasped again as the two robed individuals looked familiar to him. "Hold on! Is that...!?"

He first looked at the shortest robbed man and gasped when he saw the spiky hair on his head, wearing the Millennium Puzzle that dangled from his nape. "That's Yugi! But that means...!"

Kaiba looked to the sorcerer's opponent and went wide-eyed as he recognized the tallest robed figure, the one who resembled the "Pharaonic Sorcerer" from the Duel earlier but without the golden mask. The figure had a devious smirk stretched across his lips as he held his Millennium Rod in his crossed arms. "That guy looks like me! But that's impossible!" Kaiba protested. "There's no way that I could've been related to some Pharaoh of Egypt over 5,000 years ago!"

"Priest Seto! You have made a foolish mistake to side with The Dark One!" the Yugi counterpart bellowed with his voice. "Your master's reign of terror will be over!"

"On the contrary, my Pharaoh," the priest said in Kaiba's voice, dripping venom with his superior's title. "It will be your reign that will be over! And I shall rule over all of Egypt like I was destined to since the day I was brought to this earth!"

The Pharaoh pointed his finger at him. "Your master has filled your head with lies and deceit! He only wanted to use you and your power so he could quench his selfish desires!"

Priest Seto suddenly pointed his Millennium Rod out to his foe. "And it shall be my power that will finally defeat you, Pharaoh! When I win this battle, I shall have all of Egypt in the palm of my hand while my master rules the world and you will rot for eternity in the shadows!"

The Millennium Rod's eye glowed, allowing one of the tablets lying on the ground to rise up. Etched on that tablet was the image of the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" which glowed as the Dragon was summoned from the stone with a mighty bellow.

The Pharaoh tilted his head down and clenched his fist. "I did not want it to be this way, old friend," he said with regret in his voice, "but if I am to save the world from your master's evil power, then I must do whatever I can to stop him, even if it means that I must take you down!"

The Pharaoh swung his arm out, and the eye of the Millennium Puzzle illuminated. One of the stone tablets lying on the ground slowly rose up with the image of a tall humanoid Spellcaster before the stone glowed. With its magic freeing it from its prison, the "Dark Magician" emerged, arms crossed and staff powered with its shadow magic.

Kaiba gasped as he recognized this confrontation between the two magic-users. "Wait a minute! I know this Duel!" he shouted as the walls were replaced with dim purple with light violet glowing on the horizon, a the Tablet of Lost Memories slowly rising in that horizon. "It's that same Duel I saw on that tablet in the museum! The same Duel that Ishizu said I had with Yugi over 5,000 years ago, but that's impossible! There's no way that masked maniac could ever make me believe that I was part of an ancient Duel between me and Yugi, let alone know how he was able to get that information!"

As he ranted about his vision, the Millennium Puzzle on the Tablet of Lost Memories began to glow. Kaiba shaded his eyes with his arm as the light quickly covered everything in sight, leaving his yells to be drowned out.

-END VISION-

Once more, Kaiba opened his eyes, shielded by his arms as the light slowly faded away. The experience of having Kaiba's memories swimming so suddenly in his head left him swaying dizzily and lost most of his focus, so it would take him a moment before he could recover from his head-throbbing experience. The spectators watching the Duels uncovered their eyes, seeing spots pop up everywhere for a moment until they've finally got a hold of their senses.

"What just happened?" Yusei asked. "That light just came out of nowhere."

"Yeah, no joke," Jaden complained. "I almost felt like I was going to be blind for a week."

"Oh, man, I feel like I'm gonna be seeing polka-dots for days," Yuma whined as he swayed back and forth, eyes in a thick black swirl.

"What concerns me more is what purpose did that light serve," Astral said. "Why did that 'Sorcerer's' Millennium Rod act up so suddenly?"

When Yugi opened his eyes, and his senses came back in full, he gasped at what he saw.

"What... did you... do?" Kaiba growled as his perception was slowly becoming focused.

"I merely made you look back at your past life, Mr. Kaiba..." the Controller stated. "You were looking at a Duel... between your ancestor and the Pharaoh... were you not? You cannot deny that you and that priest... had very much in common... when it came to power..."

"Don't try and talk down to me, you creep," Kaiba snapped as he regained his balance. "I am nothing like the man I saw in my vision. There's no way you can make me believe that I was some priest in a past life just because he Dueled against some pharaoh and controlled that 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' like I can. That's all some mind trick to throw me off-guard."

"Then you may want to look closer, Mr. Kaiba... because I have already thrown your guard off three minutes ago..."

"What are you talking about?" Kaiba asked as his vision finally went crystal clear. When he looked at the Controller's field, he felt his entire body petrify at the sight he beheld. "What!?"

"Oh no! It can't be!" Yugi screamed as the other Legendary Duelists looked up in his direction and shared in his surprise.

"Hey, what's the deal here!?" Joey asked while he, Tristan, and Tea looked on in bewilderment. "How'd that happen!?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Tristan said. "But I think Kaiba's in big trouble!"

"No way!" Syrus exclaimed while Alexis looked on worriedly.

"That's impossible! This can't be happening!" Kaiba denied as he saw a familiar Monster Card under his opponent's control. "How did my 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon" join your side of the field!?"

Kaiba's eyes widened further when his gaze fell on the Spellcaster on his opponent's field. "Unless... you've set that 'Sorcerer' up to take it!"

The Controller chuckled. "I would reward you for your educated guess... if you weren't halfway correct..."

"Huh?" Kaiba heard the familiar roar of a Dragon on his side of the field, and looked up to see his "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" still on his field.

"No, it can't be. My 'Blue-Eyes' is still on my field," he said with wavering confusion before he turned to the Controller, "but if that's my 'Blue-Eyes', then what's that monster on your field!?"

"This monster is a copy of the same Dragon monster I sent... to the Graveyard to activate my 'Highruler's' special ability..." the Controller said, a shadow of his eye barely visible behind the glass of his eyepieces. "This is also a monster that has also served you since Ancient Egypt..."

The Controller raised his hand to his "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" lookalike as if he was showcasing it. "Seto Kaiba... allow me to introduce the monster that stands opposite to you. The 'Blue-Eyes White Ka Dragon'. While my Dragon may not be as strong as your Dragon... it will provide me with a key role for your defeat..."

"But how did you even Summon that monster?" Kaiba growled, hissing a little through gritted teeth.

"It's quite simple, actually..." the Controller answered. "When you removed that Spirit Tablet Counter from your 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'... I was able to play my Trap, 'Spiritual Release'... a Trap Card that activates when you control a Monster Card without a Spirit Tablet Counter... and I control my Field Spell and my 'Pharaonic' monsters. Now I can Special Summon a weaker monster from my Deck with the same Type, Level, and Attribute as your monster."

The Legendary Duelists gasped. "So that means that no matter what monster Kaiba frees from the effect of that 'Sanctuary', the Controller will always find a way to fortify his field with his own monsters!" Jaden deduced.

"Yeah, and from looks of it, he's got Kaiba figured out, too," Yusei said.

"The Controller must have watched all of Kaiba's Duels -no, ALL of our Duels- and devised a strategy to take us down," Yugi explained. "He must truly be the remnant of a destroyed future."

"Then... does that mean that our future... is lost?" Yuma stammered with his crimson eyes glimmering with moisture.

"That remains to be seen," Astral said before looking at the masked man with suspicion in his eyes. 'But the real question is how someone like him can know our Dueling strategies and how to counter them. Just who is this man? How much does he know about the mysteries of time and space that he claims to know? What strange abilities does he possess that remains a mystery even to me? More importantly, will he use these strange abilities to decide our fates once and for all?"

"It is still your move, Mr. Kaiba... I suggest you make it..." the Controller said, making Kaiba wince. "...because if you cannot make your comeback soon... then everything you own... among everything and everyone I have trapped... will all disappear into the Void..."

Kaiba stood with narrowed eyes, while everyone trapped in the plaza were forced to stand by and watch the Duel unfold, knowing that the Controller had a higher probability of winning.

-TO BE CONTINUED-

---

SETO KAIBA'S CARDS

-NORMAL MONSTERS-

Blue-Eyes White Dragon x 2
(LIGHT/Level 8/Dragon/3000/2500)
This legendary dragon is a powerful engine of destruction. Virtually invincible, very few have faced this awesome creature and lived to tell the tale.

Vorse Raider
(EARTH/Level 4/Beast-Warrior/1900/1200)
This wicked Beast-Warrior does every horrid thing imaginable, and loves it! His axe bears the marks of his countless victims.

X-Head Cannon
(LIGHT/Level 4/Machine/1800/1500)
A monster with a mighty cannon barrel, it is able to integrate its attacks. It attacks in many ways by combining and separating with other monsters.

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Peten the Dark Clown x 3 (mentioned)
(DARK/Level 3/Spellcaster/Effect/500/1200)
When this card is sent to your Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; Special Summon 1 "Peten the Dark Clown" from your Deck.

Y-Dragon Head
(LIGHT/Level 4/Machine/Union/Effect/1500/1600)
Once per turn, you can either: Target 1 "X-Head Cannon" you control; equip this card to that target, OR: Unequip this card and Special Summon it in face-up Attack Position. While equipped by this effect, the equipped monster gains 400 ATK and DEF. (A monster can only be equipped with 1 Union monster at a time. If the equipped monster would be destroyed by battle, destroy this card instead.)

Z-Metal Tank
(LIGHT/Level 4/Machine/Union/Effect/1500/1300)
Once per turn, you can either: Target 1 "X-Head Cannon" or "Y-Dragon Head" you control; equip this card to that target, OR: Unequip this card and Special Summon it in face-up Attack Position. While equipped by this effect, the equipped monster gains 600 ATK and DEF. (A monster can only be equipped with 1 Union monster at a time. If the equipped monster would be destroyed by battle, destroy this card instead.)

-FUSION MONSTERS-

XYZ-Dragon Cannon
(Level 8/LIGHT/Machine/Fusion/Effect/2800/2600)
"X-Head Cannon" + "Y-Dragon Head" + "Z-Metal Tank"
Must first be Special Summoned (from your Extra Deck) by banishing the above monsters you control. (You do not use "Polymerization".) Cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard. You can discard 1 card, then target 1 card your opponent controls; destroy that target.

-SPELLS-

Card of Demise
Normal Spell
Draw until you have 5 cards in your hand. During your 5th Standby Phase after this card's activation, send your entire hand to the Graveyard.

Double Summon
Normal Spell
You can Normal Summon 1 additional time this turn. You can only gain this effect once per turn.

Megamorph
Equip Spell
While your LP is lower than your opponent's, the equipped monster's ATK becomes double its original ATK. While your LP is higher, the equipped monster's ATK becomes half its original ATK.

Monster Reborn
Normal Spell
Target 1 monster in either player's Graveyard; Special Summon it.

Mystical Space Typhoon
Quick-Play Spell
Target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy that target.

Shrink
Quick-Play Spell
Target 1 face-up monster on the field; its original ATK is halved until the End Phase of this turn.

-TRAPS-

Attack Guidance Armor
Normal Trap
During either player's Battle Phase, when a monster declares an attack: Target 1 monster on the field; equip this card to that target. The equipped monster becomes the new attack target for the attacking monster, also all battle damage inflicted by the attacking monster is inflicted to the equipped monster's owner's LP.

Crush Card Virus
Normal Trap
Activate only when a DARK monster you control with 1000 or less ATK is destroyed by battle: Destroy all monsters with 1500 ATK on your opponent's field, and in their hand and Deck. (Damage calculation is applied normally.) Those monsters cannot be Special Summoned from your opponent's Graveyard. If this card is not in your Graveyard, negate this effect.

Negate Attack
Counter Trap
Activate when an opponent's monster declares an attack: Target the attacking monster; negate the attack, then end the Battle Phase.

Return from the Different Dimension
Normal Trap
Pay half your LP; Special Summon as many of your banished monster as possible. During the End Phase, banish all monsters that were Special Summoned by this effect.

THE CONTROLLER'S CARDS

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Dragon Spirit of White x 2
(LIGHT/Level 8/Dragon/Effect/2500/2000)
(This card is always treated as a "Blue-Eyes" card.)
This card is treated as a Normal Monster while in the hand or Graveyard. When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can target 1 Spell/Trap Card your opponent controls; banish it. During either player's turn, if your opponent controls a monster: You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from your hand.

Pharaonic Balancekeeper
(DARK/Level 4/Spellcaster/Effect/1000/1000)
This card is unaffected by the effect of "Spirit Tablet Sanctuary". When this card is in your hand: Send 1 "Polymerization" from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard; Fusion Summon 1 DARK Spellcaster-Type Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using DARK Spellcaster-Type monsters from your hand or your side of the field. If your opponent controls a monster with an original ATK of 3000 or more and you control no cards, you can use DARK Spellcaster-Type monsters in your Deck as the appropriate Fusion Material.

Pharaonic Foreseer
(DARK/Level 4/Spellcaster/Effect/1000/1000)
This card is unaffected by the effect of "Spirit Tablet Sanctuary". When this card is Normal Summoned: Your opponent must reveal all Set cards on their field and in their hand (Card and their effects are not activated at this time). During your opponent's Draw Phase, before your opponent conducts their normal draw while you control this face-up card: Your opponent excavate the top card of their Deck and reveal it, then place it back on the top of their Deck.

Pharaonic Keykeeper
(DARK/Level 4/Spellcaster/Effect/1000/1000)
This card is unaffected by the effect of "Spirit Tablet Sanctuary". When this card is destroyed by an opponent's monster with 3000 or more ATK: You can pay half your LP, then target up to 5 monsters with 1000 or less ATK and DEF in your Graveyard; Special Summon them in face-up Attack Position. You can only use this effect once per Duel. When this card is Special Summoned; You can activate 1 Field Spell Card directly from your Deck.

Pharaonic Seeker
(DARK/Level 4/Spellcaster/Effect/1000/1000)
This card is unaffected by the effect of "Spirit Tablet Sanctuary". During your opponent's Draw Phase, while you control this face-up card: You can send 1 card from your Deck to the Graveyard; your opponent must add 1 card of the same type (Spell, Trap, or Monster Card) from their Deck to their hand instead of conducting a normal draw, and if the card you sent to the Graveyard was a Monster Card, your opponent must add a Monster Card from their Deck with the same Type and Level equal to that monster's Level to their hand. Once per turn, during your turn only: You can discard 1 card; add 1 card with the same Type (Monster, Spell, or Trap Card) from your Deck to your hand.

Pharaonic Sorcerer
(DARK/Level 4/Spellcaster/Effect/1000/1000)
This card is unaffected by the effect of "Spirit Tablet Sanctuary". This face-up Attack Position monster cannot be destroyed by battle, except with monsters with an original ATK of 3000 or higher. Level 5 or higher Dragon-Type monsters you control cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects, also it cannot be destroyed by battle except by your opponent's Dragon-Type monsters. Monsters Summoned to your field cannot be affected by the effect of "Spirit Tablet Sanctuary".

Pharaonic Soulgazer
(DARK/Level 4/Spellcaster/Effect/1000/1000)
This card is unaffected by the effect of "Spirit Tablet Sanctuary". During your opponent's Draw Phase, if your opponent adds a card from their Deck to their hand while you control this face-up card; your opponent must reveal that card, and if that card is a Monster Card, they must shuffle that card into their Deck face-up. If that face-up Monster Card is the top card of your opponent's Deck, they cannot draw that card, except for the cards underneath. If your opponent draws a Monster Card(s) with the same name as that face-up, they can add that face-up Monster Card to your hand.

-FUSION MONSTERS-

Pharaonic Highruler
(DARK/Level 10/Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect/2500/2100)
2 or more DARK Spellcaster-Type monsters.
Must first be Fusion Summoned. This card is unaffected by the effect of "Spiritual Tablet Sanctuary". When this card is Fusion Summoned; it gains 200 ATK for each DARK Spellcaster-Type monster currently in your Graveyard, also this card gains the effect(s) of all Spellcaster-Type "Pharaonic" monsters used as Fusion Materials.

-SPELL CARDS-

Card of Sanctity
Normal Spell
Each player draws until they have 6 cards in their hand.

Monster Reborn
Normal Spell
Target 1 monster in either player's Graveyard; Special Summon it.

Polymerization
Normal Spell
Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand or your side of the field as Fusion Materials.

Spirit Tablet Sanctuary
Field Spell
When this card is activated; change all Defense Position monsters on the field into face-up Attack Position, and if you do, place 1 Spirit Tablet Counter (max. 1) on every monster on the field. Monsters with a Spirit Tablet Counter cannot attack, change battle positions, activate its effect(s) (if any), and cannot be sent to the Graveyard except if it is destroyed by battle or by card effect, also their ATK and DEF become 0. Each time a monster(s) from the Main Deck is Normal or Special Summoned: Place 1 Spirit Tablet Counter on that monster(s) (if that monster(s) was Set or Special Summoned in face-up Defense Position this turn, change it to face-up Attack Position). During either player's turn: The turn player can pay 500 LP; remove 1 Spirit Tablet Counter from a monster(s) the turn player controls. Monsters Special Summoned from the Extra Deck cannot by targeted by this card's effect.

-TRAP CARDS-

Spirit Barrier
Continuous Trap
While you control a monster, you take no battle damage.

Spiritual Enchantment
Continuous Trap
If your opponent's monster(s) with an original ATK of 3000 or less attacks a face-up "Pharaonic Sorcerer" you control but did not destroy it by battle: Target 1 monster your opponent controls; take control of that monster, and if you do, equip it with this card. The equipped monster's effect(s) (if any) is negated, also your opponent cannot target "Pharaonic Sorcerer" for attacks or card effects. When the equipped monster leaves the field, destroy this card. If "Pharaonic Sorcerer" leaves the field, destroy this card. If this card is destroyed, destroy 1 face-up "Pharaonic Sorcerer" you control.

Spiritual Release
Continuous Trap
Once per turn, during your opponent's turn, if your opponent controls a monster(s) without a Spirit Tablet Counter: You can target 1 of those monster(s); Special Summon 1 monster from your Deck with the same Type, Attribute, and Level as that target but with an ATK less than or equal to that target's original ATK in face-up Attack Position, but it cannot activate its effect(s) or change battle positions. You must control 1 face-up "Pharaonic" monster and 1 face-up "Spiritual Sealing Sanctuary" in your Field Zone to activate and resolve this effect.

LUNA'S CARDS

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Kuribon (spirit)
(LIGHT/Level 1/Fairy/Effect/300/200)
When your opponent's monster attacks you directly: You can reduce the battle damage to 0, and if you do, Special Summon this card (from your hand). During damage calculation, if this card is attacked by your opponent's monster: You take no battle damage from this battle, then your opponent gains LP equal to the attacking monster's ATK, then you can return this card to your hand.

OTHER

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Gate Blocker x 10
(EARTH/Level 4/Rock/Effect/100/2000)
While you control this face-up card, your opponent cannot gain Speed Counters during the Standby Phase by the effect of "Speed World".

-SPELL CARDS-

Cross Over
Field Spell
At the start of this Duel; force this card's activation from your hand or Deck. If each player controls 1 copy of this card, this card gains this effect:
● Cannot be targeted by, or destroyed by card effects. If any player activates a Field Spell Card; that player can place that Field Spell Card underneath this card (min. 1). This card's name becomes the name of the card placed underneath this card, also it gains its effects. (Each player can only have 1 Field Spell Card placed under 1 copy of this card. During either player's turn, if a player activates a new Field Spell Card while a player controls 1 copy of this card with a Field Spell Card placed underneath it; that player must send that card to the Graveyard.)

-TRAP CARDS-

Security Orb x 12
Normal Trap
When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Change the battle position of that card. If this face-down card is destroyed by your opponent's Spell/Trap effect: Target 1 monster your opponent controls; destroy that target.