Let's get on with the duel.
Akiza sat huddled on the ground, still reeling from the last attack. Just when it looked like she might have the upper hand early on, Slick never lost his cool and managed to summon a powerful beast.
"I can't do this," she sobbed. "That thing's too powerful."
"Don't give in, Akiza," Crow rallied from the sideline. "You still have a chance. Just don't lose sight of what you're fighting for."
"He's right," the dancer told herself, standing up and drawing to hold six cards again. "This is my opportunity to show that I have skills." She gazed over her hand, trying to come up with a way to stand up against Des Gardius. Her best option would be to call up the monster Yusei gave her, Black Rose Dragon. Unfortunately, she didn't have any tuner monsters in her hand. All she could do now was play defense and hope for the best.
"I place one monster face-down in defense mode and leave it at that," she concluded her move.
"Running scared already?" Slick jokingly asked to rattle her. "Looks like this is already in the bag." He drew to hold two cards, one of which would seriously hurt her chances of winning.
"Do you see what I hold here?" he asked again, waving the card in between his fingers. "This little beauty's gonna let me get to your life points, even if your monster's hiding in defense." The owner placed it in an open spell/trap card slot and sure enough, Akiza caught his drift.
"Anything but that," she begged emotionally.
"'fraid so," Slick negated verbally. "With Stop Defense, your monster has no choice but to stand up and fight." Akiza gulped as she saw her defensive monster, Lord Poison, pop up in a veil of sparkles. This wasn't part of her plan but she wasn't about to let her monster get massacred.
"Go Des Gardius!" the owner commanded his monster. "Knock her monster out of the park!" The fiend raised its claws, ready to strike. Quickly thinking, Akiza looked at her hand, selected a card, and discarded it to play its special effect.
"By discarding Hedge Guard, my monster can't be destroyed in battle this turn," the dancer explained under pressure. The fiend's claws swiped at Lord Poison, who stood there, not moving a muscle.
"That may be so," Slick hissed. "But your monster has to give up half its attack strength to do so." Akiza gulped again and braced herself for the recoil as her score dropped down to 50 life points. Meanwhile, Yusei was just coming out of his beaten stupor to find himself outside in the night environment.
"What in the world's going on?" he moaned, trying to regain his composure. "Where am I?"
"It's about time you got up," Crow greeted him. "Akiza's fighting that son-of-a-bitch so she can stay here with us."
"And what happens if she loses?" Yusei followed up.
"She leaves, no questions asked," the former thief said in a straight and emotionless voice.
"All right," she breathed, still holding her own. "I'm up." Akiza's hand now held five cards and she just drew the card she was looking for.
"Godspeed, Akiza," Yusei thought to himself. "You can do this."
"I call in Twilight Rose Knight," she declared as a purple armored knight armed with a sword faded onto the field. "Now I can summon an extra plant monster to join it, like my Evil Thorn!" Next to the knight came a life-size thorny bulb attached to a stem.
"You may have more monsters than me, but it makes no difference," Slick resisted. "You can't beat Des Gardius."
"Yes, I can," Akiza countered while she waved her arm above her, initiating a Synchro Summon. "And Black Rose Dragon will help me do it." From a pulsating green stream of light and three rotating rings came a malevolent-looking dragon, wearing a rose on its neck and sporting several vines like tentacles.
"She did it," Yusei said to himself in regards to Akiza actually getting her best monster on the field. "But don't lose it so quickly."
"I activate my dragon's special ability," the dancer explained, pulling a card out of her graveyard. "By removing a plant monster from play, I can reduce your monster's attack strength to zero." The tentacle-like vines went after Des Gardius and squeezed it into submission.
"All right my pet, sic 'em!" she commended her monster. The dragon built up a ball of energy in its maw and launched at the fiend, disintegrating it and bringing Slick's score to 1,600. Even after his monster left the field, he didn't seem worried at all.
"Boo-yahh…" she celebrated, having rid the field of that walking nightmare. "Wait, how come you're not concerned that Des Gardius is gone?"
"Because of its unique ability, that's why," the owner explained, pointing to the three masks left behind. "When Des Gardius goes to the graveyard, I can play The Mask of Remnants from my deck." Akiza, Crow, and Yusei watched as the three masks combined to make another one with horns. Even worse, the mask shot straight onto Black Rose Dragon.
"What've you done to my dragon?" the magenta-haired woman demanded to know.
"When my remnants mask is played via Des Gardius' effect, your monster is forced to switch sides," Slick listed as Akiza's monster stomped over opposite her. She quickly looked at her hand, hoping to find a solution to rescue her signature dragon. Fortunately, there was something she could do.
"I play the spell, Mind Control," the dancer continued her turn. "With this card, Black Rose Dragon's coming home." Its eyes flashed and it returned to Akiza, still wearing that mask.
"Now to break your hold on my beast," she said again, picking another card to play. "I use De-Synchro!"
"Perfect. Now she can split her dragon into the two monsters she used to summon it," Crow said to add explanation. Everyone watched as Black Rose Dragon glowed and disappeared, destroying the mask in the process, as Twilight Rose Knight and Lord Poison came back in defense position.
"I'm still not done," Akiza interrupted. "By sacrificing my Evil Thorn, I can slam you with 300 points of damage and reinforce my monster count." The first thorn exploded, shooting its thorns like missiles and reduced Slick's score 1,300. After that, two new thorns came up in attack position.
"Are you ever gonna finish?" the owner asked, feeling impatient.
"Yes, I will," Akiza added as she placed one card on the field face-down. "Word to the wise, with Twilight Rose Knight in play, you can't attack of my plants."
"By not summoning her dragon again, Akiza's managed to survive another round, provided her face-down card is one that can stop Slick from attacking," Yusei surveyed the situation.
"Finally, it's my turn," the angry man uttered, drawing to hold two cards. "You may have managed to wipe my Masked Beast off the field, but I can still win without it." He placed a card face-up in the monster card zone and out came a centaur armed with a spear and shield, ready for battle.
"Go Exarion Universe!" the owner hollered. "Wipe out that knight and bring Akiza back to me! By the way, my centaur friend can inflict piercing damage by reducing its own strength by 400." The beast raised its spear and struck Akiza's Rose Knight, almost effectively winning the duel.
"I play Dimension Wall!" she declared, her last trap flipping up. "Now the damage is reverted back to you." Slick was taken by surprise as he saw his life points drop to 900.
"My turn!" the dancer continued, drawing to pull the one card to bring her victory. "I play The Warrior Returning Alive. With it, I can rescue my fallen knight." She reached into her graveyard, pulled the aforementioned card out, and put into back into play.
"Sucks to be you, eh Slick?" Crow gloated from the sidelines.
"My thoughts exactly, Crow," Akiza agreed. "Now I bring Black Rose Dragon back into play!" She beamed as she watched the knight and Lord Poison tuned to create her signature beast.
"Now, by removing my Evil Thorn from play, I can render your centaur thing helpless," she reiterated as her dragon devoured the thorny plant bulb and holding down Exarion Universe. "Go my beast! Finish 'im off!" The dragon built up the final blast in its maw and hurled it at the centaur, annihilating it and bringing Slick's score down to zero. The owner watched as he saw his monster bite the dust. To add insult to injury, his loss meant Akiza could stay with Yusei and his friends. He shook off the shock of his defeat and went over to congratulate her.
"Well, Akiza, you beat me," he said in a calm and submissive tone. "Congratulations. Aside from you winning your freedom, I believe I owe you something." He reached into his suit-vest, pulled out a sealed envelope, and handed it to her.
"What's this for?" she wondered.
"Your final pay," Slick answered. "In addition to it, I've enclosed a little bonus for bringing a crowd day in and out, even after you and the other girls drove away those producers."
"Thank you, really," the now former dancer thanked him. "When you get back, tell them that I'll miss them." The owner stayed silent as he got back into his car and drove away into the night. She looked over to see Crow giving her thumbs-up and to her surprise, Yusei actually standing after enduring a horrendous beating.
"Way to go," the laser marked guy said to her, showing no ill effects. "You won." She leapt over and squeezed him tightly. She was thankful the man who showed her kindness and gave her a steady home was perfectly fine.
"Thank goodness you're okay," Akiza sobbed in joy. "I just….uh…" She ran out of words and instead held him in her arms for a few more seconds.
"Now can we all go to sleep?" Crow interjected. "We can celebrate Akiza's victory in the morning." The hugging pair decided it was necessary to get some shut-eye and all went inside, relieved that mess was over and done with.
Akiza managed to pull off an improbable victory, with 50 life points, no less. That deserves some merit. As for what happens next, who has the best idea? Try to make it reasonable and something that would happen in the actual anime continuity. Review if you wish and stay tuned.