Atem was beginning to worry. Serena had not yet returned after 20 minutes. "Rei, I'll be back with Serena. Good luck," He added. Rebecca is here… if something happens, they'll be together, he reasoned as he took off in Serena's wake.

"Ok… she went to get a drink. That Mexican restaurant is the closest place, and it's right about-" Atem was cut off by a voice.

"Well, isn't this a coincidence," Kaiba said dryly as the two met on the sidewalk. Atem narrowed his eyes. Was this planned? "I'm not interested in a duel at the moment. Primarily because I don't think you'd be able to even if you wanted," He added. Atem frowned and cocked his head. "Check your deck pocket," Kaiba told him impatiently.

Atem nodded and pulled the cards from their box. "See? I have my deck right…here…" He slowed down as the bottom card, Gladiator Beast Laquari, caught his eye. "Oh, no…" He said as he realized what had happened. Then he looked up at Kaiba. "How did you know?"

Kaiba smirked. "Because your deck is being used and you aren't the one summoning Valkyrion. Come on," He said, motioning for Atem to follow him. Atem's eyes widened. Serena had gotten caught in a duel with his deck? They walked a couple blocks further before stopping dead, both of them gaping in shock at the monstrous winged demon before them.

"Serena!" Atem called out. Serena's head snapped around and her expression turned from fear to relief.

"Atem, this isn't-"

"Your deck?" Kaiba finished. Serena looked at him, surprised that he was actually there. She nodded. "I can't cancel a duel just because you used the wrong deck; this isn't a fixed deck tournament. Carry on," He told Serena. Then he looked Neflite dead in the eye. "And mark my words; if she doesn't take you down, I will," He added.

Neflite smirked. "Still sore about your security being knock out last night?" She asked. Kaiba grinned.

"No. Still sore about getting your asses kicked last night?" He shot back. Neflite narrowed her eyes, thought for a moment and turned back to Serena.

"I attack with Dreadroot!" She declared. Serena's eyes widened as the beast reared back and viciously swiped at her. Neflite grinned. "Half of your Life Points in just one attack, Serena. How does it feel to- huh?" She asked stupidly. Serena's Life Points hadn't budged.

"I used a card that's stalled Yugi out of situations many a time, Kuriboh! I can discard it to avoid damage from one attack!" Serena told her. Neflite sighed and impatiently motioned to pass the turn. Serena nodded and, hands shaking, drew.

"She won't win with such poor confidence," Kaiba remarked. Atem nodded in agreement. "She isn't in that bad of shape. Three reversed cards and," Kaiba lowered his voice as to not let Neflite hear, "if I know your deck, one of those is probably Mirror Force," He added.

"Maybe. But lest you forget, I'm not the one using the deck. When I duel, my heart is in that deck. I respect and rely on each card with all my being. Serena's never even seen half of the cards in my deck. We showed it to her and her friends during their learning, but I doubt she memorized it. She will have to have faith in that deck if she wants to defeat the Wicked God," He replied.

"I…" Serena looked at her hand. There had to be something. HAD to be. This was Yugi's- no, Atem's deck! The deck that beat all three Egyptian Cod Cards! "I summon Gazelle, The King of Mythical Beasts in Defense Mode," She said halfheartedly as she laid down the card. The familiar brown lion-like beasts rose with a snarl (1500/1200). "W-what's going on?" She asked as the Dreadroot glowed with a blue aura. Gazelle was surrounded with the same light and collapsed to the ground (750/600).

"The power of Dreadroot is that it slices the ATK and DEF power of every other monster on the field clean in half!" She said, grinning. Serena's mouth fell open, and even Kaiba's eyes widened.

"That thing… wait a minute," Kaiba said. Atem looked at him. "You said that when you dueled Wicked God Avatar, it transformed into your monsters? Took on a ball form?" He demanded. Atem nodded. "So, it takes the attack and defense of other monsters to fuel it's own. Now we have The Wicked God Dreadroot, with 4000 ATK and DEF. Sound familiar?" He asked.

"…the same stats as Obelisk the Tormentor. And a sphere shape stealing points from other monsters… these things are dark answers to the God Cards!" Atem realized. Kaiba nodded. "And now Serena would have to play a monster with over 8000 points to match it," He said.

"There's not a card in your deck capable, is there?" Kaiba asked sharply. Atem frowned.

"If she could get Slifer… she'd still need 8 or 9 cards in her hand…" He muttered. Serena's upper lip trembled as she ended her turn.

"Dreadroot, attack Gazelle!" Neflite ordered. Dreadroot swiped a massive claw at Gazelle and with a weak growl the beast vanished. "Your turn," She said. Now Serena was shaking completely as she drew. Her eyes looked sullenly at her draw as she placed a face-down monster.

"Rinse and repeat," Neflite was crowing at this point as Big Shield Gardna disappeared. Serena drew again and Set again. This process repeated for two more turns, Wicked Dreadroot obliterating King's Knight and Watapon were destroyed.

"She's going to lose," Kaiba stated plainly. "She's got no confidence in herself, she's given up. Say goodbye to Slifer," He said bitterly. Atem closed his eyes; not only would losing Slifer be an immense loss, it would destroy Serena. After Watapon was demolished, Neflite passed turn again. Serena looked down as she drew again.

"Atem," Kaiba said. Atem was still lost in thought. "ATEM!" Kaiba roughly shook him by the shoulder. Atem's eyes snappped open. "Look!" He said sharply. Atem turned his eyes to Serena and stared in shock.

She was no longer trembling. Her face no longer showed even concern, much less fright. She sported a smug smirk and Atem sensed the same fierce energy he'd felt from Amy radiating from her. "What the…" Kaiba muttered.

"Had ya goin' didn't I?" Serena asked. Neflite narrowed her eyes. What was with the sudden turnaround in acting? She had a full hand, Serena'd been doing nothing but stalling and she'd proven that none of her facedowns could stop the God.

"You thought I was just dragging it out, huh? You think you're so big and bad and invincible just because you have some huge honkin' devil on the field? I think it's time to bring you back down to Earth!" Serena declared.

"You want to shut up and get on with your fail of a comeback?" Neflite asked impatiently. Serena grinned.

"First, I'll Set a card. Then I flip Heart of the Underdog!" She said. "Next, I play Card of Sanctity to put my hand size to six!" She continued. She held a card up. "I drew a Normal Monster, the Mystical Elf, so Heart of the Underdog gives me an extra draw!" She said. She drew. "Well, what do you know? Jack's Knight! Another draw!" She said. "I draw Queen's Knight… Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress…Celtic Guardian…Finally. I've drawn De-Fusion!" She finished.

"Yay. You drew a bunch of useless cards. Now you have to discard for your hand limit," Neflite said boredly. Serena sighed and shook her head.

"You just haven't learned the subtleties of this game yet, have you?" Serena mocked her opponent, who snarled. "I flip Monster Reborn! You know what it does. I revive Valkyrion!" She declared. The metal warrior rose again (3350/3800 1675/1900).

"Another weakling," Neflite remarked with a fake yawn.

"Neflite, look at my hand," Serena told her. Neflite looked at it and shrugged. "I'm playing the De-Fusion card I drew to separate Vakyrion into its three components; Alpha, Gamma and Beta!" Kaiba's mouth fell to the floor, recognizing the same play from his tag team duel in the previous Battle City with Yugi. Was she seriously going to…? (A/N: I know this is illegal in the real game, but it happened in the anime before)

"My warriors did their best the last time I played 'em. Now they're going to a greater cause. I sacrifice all three!" Serena announced. Atem, having watched this entire process, slowly began to smile. She hadn't been afraid; she'd been screwing with Neflite's head. Neflite had gotten so confident in Serena's lack of action that she thought the Moon Princess was too afraid to think straight. So confident, in fact, that she had gotten so caught up in obliterating Serena's monsters and making her squirm that she hadn't bothered to make a backup plan.

"I Summon Slifer, the Sky Dragon!" Serena called. Down came the dragon of legend, twisting and turning in the sky as it roared. Kaiba's face became stoic; the sight of Slifer reminded him of the losses Yugi had handed him with it. "I hold 10 cards in my hand, Neflite. Even with your evil God's effect, his power is more than enough (10,000/10,000 5000/5000).

"Impossible! I had you down to a sniveling mess on the brink of defeat! How?!" Neflite screamed, infuriated. Furious with herself for not realizing what was happening, furious at Serena for pulling it off and furious that she'd had the bad luck of running into Serena with the wrong deck.

"Hmph. Slifer, attack. Trump that evil bone pile with Thunder Force Attack!" She ordered. A bolt of energy from Slifer's mouth obliterated the Dreadroot (Neflite: 8000 7000) and Slifer broke free of the blue aura (5000/5000 10,000/10,000). "I discard four cards for hand limited (10,000/10,000 6000/6000) and end my turn," She finished.

Neflite grimaced, but grinned. Serena had drawn a lot of cards and her deck was quite thin. Meanwhile, Neflite's deck was full of monsters that couldn't be killed. She'd deck Serena out, that was it! "I set a monster and end my turn," She said.

Serena drew. "If you think you're going to use your Spirit Barrier and unkillable monsters to wait me out, you're sadly mistaken. I first summon Magician's Valkyria," She said. A younger version of the Dark Magician Girl appeared. "Then I activate Magical Dimension, sacrificing Valkyria for another Magician. The Dark Magician, that is!" She said. The Valkyria was encased in a coffin, which then opened back up to reveal the Dark Magician.

"Since the Summon was successful, the Spell also destroys one of your monsters," Serena added. Neflite cursed as Spirit Reaper was destroyed. "I played two cards, so Slifer has lost some strength (6000/6000 7000/7000 5000/5000) but it's still more than enough. Attack Neflite with Thunder Force Attack!" She said. Another thunderous strike hit home (7000 2000).

"Finish this! Atem, if you would?" Serena said. Atem smiled and stood aside her.

"Dark Magician! Dark Magic Attack!" They ordered in unison. The famed sorcerer leveled its staff at Neflite and fired a blast of black energy at her (2000 0). Neflite groaned as her Life Point readout flashed red in defeat. This was not good. So very much not good. Beryl was going to have her hide for this. And Bakura… Neflite shuddered at the thought.

"Fine! Take your stupid locator card," Neflite spat, tossing it at Serena. She turned to leave, only to bump into Kaiba. "Out of the way, Mr. CEO," She snarled. He smirked back.

"You owe her your rare card still," He said. Neflite froze. Oh, crap. Oh, no. Oh, hell no. "If you refuse, I'll disqualify you right here and now. And if what you say is true about wanting to be in the finals for your big plan or whatever, you'd better pay up," He said coldly.

"…Fine," She said as she handed Dreadroot to Kaiba, who gave it back and pointed at Serena. "Gonna make me do it, aren't you?" She muttered as she walked to Serena and shoved the card at her. "Ugh…" Neflite moaned as she took off to deliver the bad news.

"Serena… I need you to do something for me," Atem began. Serena raised an eyebrow. "Give me back my deck," He said with a grin. She blushed and nodded, trading back his deck for her own. Kaiba snorted.

"Well, that was fun and all, but I have business to attend to if you're done stealing decks," He said sarcastically. Serena rolled her eyes and sighed as he walked off. Serena started to head into the restaurant to FINALLY get that drink when Kaiba stopped.

"…Far be it from me to say it, but…" He paused for a moment. "Not half-bad for a beginner. Don't get cocky over one compliment. I expect to see you at the finals. The same to you, Amarten," He called over his shoulder.

"IT'S ATEM!" The Pharoah yelled, fuming. Kaiba grinned. This tournament was getting very interesting.