Chapter 30 - A Shocking Betrayal

After having the limo brake down on them and then spending a good half an hour hitch hiking to get another ride, the gang finally reached industrial Illusions Headquarters. It was a very tall building, designed to suit the most recent trends in architecture. They all walked inside, admiring the simple but gorgeous modern design. What they noticed as soon as they arrived however, was that it seemed eerily quiet. After looking towards the front desk and noticing it was empty, the gang looked around the large reception area, to find there appeared to be nobody in sight. It seemed very odd for such a large building to be in such silence.

"Hello?" Tristan called out as he looked around, "Pegasus?"

Rose walked over to the abandoned reception desk. "The place is completely empty, Tristan," she said. Joey suggested it could be some kind of holiday, and Tea pointed out that the door wouldn't be open if that were the case. "Sounds suspicious to me," Rose said, walking behind the desk. She curiously poked her way around the desk, looking for some sort of clue as to why there was nobody there. "Guys, the phones are down, too," she said, putting the handset back in it's place with a puzzled expression.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Yugi said, his spirit appearing beside Yami.

"So do I," Yami agreed, stepping forwards to look around the empty space. "I suspect the thieves that were after Pegasus may have already found him," he said, his tone grave. "And if that's the case, then I'm sure they'll be expecting us."

There was a moment of silence while the gang thought of what to do next, but were then caught off guard when the doors started closing. They frantically ran towards the exits, but were too slow, and the doors locked tightly once they had fully closed, with the gang almost running into them in the process. They were trapped. Joey and Tristan growled, pushing against the doors, but it achieved nothing. Just when they thought things couldn't get weirder, they heard the sound of a motorbike. A bike? Rose thought, inside Industrial Illusions? They all turned around with bewildered expressions on their faces, wondering where the sound was coming from.

As they had guessed, someone on a motorbike darted out in front of them and skidded to a stop, its tyres screeching on the ground as it did so. The driver was no doubt female, and Joey instantly knew who it was.

He stepped forward, "...Mai? Is that you?" he said expectantly. She took her helmet off, confirming their suspicions. Everyone sighed in relief upon seeing the familiar face. "Hate to say I told you so, but I did," Joey said to them all. "As for you, what brings you to San Francisco Mai?" he asked with a smile. Mai simply glared at him. He was confused at her silence. "Huh? Don't we get a hi?" he asked. "What's with the silent treatment Mai?"

"I'm not Mai," she said bitterly, getting off of the bike. "At least not the Mai you knew." Nobody knew what on earth she was talking about. She looked exactly like their old friend from Battle City. Even Rose knew it was her, and she'd only just met Mai at the very end of the tournament, hours before they went home. Mai then pulled a card out from the top of her deck, "Alright gang, say hello to Pegasus." She held the card up so they could see, and everyone gasped as their suspicions were confirmed, his soul had been captured. But what surprised everyone the most was the fact that Mai was in possession of that card.

"Alright, you better start talking," Joey said, pointing a finger at her.

"Or else what?" a heavily accented voice said from above them. They looked up and saw two out of the three biker punks from a few days ago. "What's the matter Wheeler? Did your little reunion with Mai not go as well as you expected it to?" The one with thick brown hair taunted. The gang were finding it hard to come to terms with what Mai had said, let alone the fact that she was hanging out with these creeps. It wasn't long ago that she had been great friends with them all.

"Tell me this is all a joke!" Joey said to her desperately, not believing that she could be in alliance with their enemy. "You're on our side, remember?"

"You're still our friend, right Mai?" Tea asked hopefully.

"I was never a part of your little play group," Mai said bitterly, "And now I'm going to break you apart one by one." She smirked. This definitely wasn't the Mai they had come to know. It boiled Rose's blood to see her friends betrayed by this woman. Because Rose had never found such loyal friends before, she would be quite willing to set straight anybody who took advantage of them. Rose had heard about Duelist Kingdom and how they had all stuck out their necks for Mai. Not to mention the fact that Joey had almost lost his soul just to save Mai from the shadow realm back in Battle City. After everything they had been through, Rose couldn't understand why Mai was acting this way, and it didn't put the woman very high in her books.

Mai challenged Joey to duel, claiming that she wanted to eliminate him for some unknown reason. He eventually accepted, hoping he could convince her that she shouldn't be with those biker creeps. As her first move, Mai activated the Seal of Orichalcose. The large luminous circle surrounded the field, locking in the two duelists and sealing out their friends. Now only one of them would come out standing.

"It's just as I feared, the seal is controlling her," Yami said, watching as the seal appeared on Mai's forehead. She appeared to be even more bitter and aggressive than before now. Joey tried reasoning with her as the duel played out, but she simply didn't care. It appeared that she only cared about eliminating him. Rose balled her hands into fists, Mai was getting lower and lower on her list the more that time went on, and she felt no guilt in hoping that Joey would win this duel.

"I can't believe she's sided with the enemy!" Tristan raged, not being able to hold back his anger any more.

Rose nodded in agreement, "Don't worry Tristan, Joey will come out on top."

"They can't go through with this," Yugi said, "If they do, one of them will lose their soul!" Rose then felt a slight pang of guilt. She had forgotten that even though Mai had betrayed them, Yugi still considered her a friend and would be willing to do almost anything to make sure that neither duelists lost their souls. Perhaps Mai's change of attitude wasn't anything to do with her at all, and it was as Yami explained: the seal was controlling her. As much as Rose tried to see it the other way, she still wasn't very fond of the woman, whether she was in her right mind or not. Rose decided to keep her thoughts unspoken however, for she knew not everyone here shared the same opinion. She was still hoping that Joey could somehow talk some sense into her however, for this would solve their problem. Rose wasn't quite sure if that would be possible though.

"The puzzle is powerless against that seal," Yami said, frustrated as he watched the duel unfold.

"Aye Pharaoh!" Valon called down to them, "Quit mumblin' to yourself down there will ya? In case you didn't realise this last time, nothing can break the seal of Orichalcose. Once it appears, it doesn't disappear until a soul's ben captured." He smirked down at them. Joey wasn't going so well by this point, Mai had 6 Harpies on the field and Joey was only barely holding his own. With a measly 200 life points left, he was about to forfeit the duel, thinking that if Mai saw him sacrificing himself for her, that maybe she would see the light. Defeated, he moved to place his hand over his deck.

"Joey no!" Yami called out, causing him to stop in surprise and turn towards the gang. "Forfeiting is not the answer, if you give up the duel you're giving up on yourself and your friends. If you want to save Mai then keep fighting," he urged.

"Are you sure?" Joey asked, sounding unsure.

"Yes, because right now Mai is driven by anger, jealousy and hatred, so you need to remind her what duelling is truly about: trust, conviction, and heart," Yami explained.

"He's right Joey," Rose said, "If you want Mai to see the light, giving up will do nothing, she needs to see you fighting with all of your heart, and that you're doing it for her." Rose certainly wasn't very fond of Mai, but she knew that the blonde meant a lot to Joey, so she wanted him to break through to her as much as the rest of the gang did, especially if her behaviour was all because of the Orichalcose.

"You're right," Joey said, moving his hand away from his duel disk and curling it into a fist. "I forgot what really matters, I forgot the heart of the cards..." He then lifted his head up, determination clear on his face. "This duel is still on Mai, and from now on, I'm giving it everything i've got!" he said, his eyes blazing with a new motivation.

So Joey finally started duelling his best and he was eventually slowly catching up to Mai, keeping his life points in tact for now. They then heard a familiar voice call out from behind them, and turned to see Duke standing outside. Tea and Tristan greeted him, before explaining the situation of how they were trapped inside the building. Duke said he'd try to get them out, and ran off to hastily find a solution.

Suddenly, Joey's deck started glowing, as did Yami's. He pulled out the card on top.

"The eye of Timaeus," Yugi said. "It's glowing."

"That's weird," Rose said, looking over his shoulder. Both Yami and Joey suddenly seemed to be off with the fairies for a moment after that. "Um hello?" she said, waving her hand in front of Yami's face. "Okay, I'm officially confused," she said, staring at him blankly. They then both appeared to come back to reality, and Rose just blinked at them. "What's going on?" she asked, quite confused

"Joey just gained a very valuable card, and he's about to draw it," Yami said, looking towards the duel in front of them with the slightest smirk on his face. Rose smiled, and turned towards Joey.

"Like your Eye of Timaeus?" she asked.

"Exactly." Rose wasn't quite sure how Joey could suddenly have a new card in his deck, but she didn't question it. There were lots of questionable things going on nowadays that she just had to accept, and this would have to be one of them.

Joey was finally catching up in the duel; he and Mai were almost even in life points. Mai appeared to be getting quite distressed about it, too. But just when it looked like Joey might win, Valon suddenly jumped over the railing and somehow broke the seal. The resulting blast blew everyone off of their feet, as they all let out similar cries of surprise as they skidded to the ground.

Hey everyone!

I'm sorry it took so long to post this chapter, i was so caught up in finishing TMABH and starting Back and Forth that i didnt have much time for this :/ but it's all good! now I'm focusing on this and Back and Forth :D

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter :) im always happy to hear what you think!

PharaohsThrone :)