A/N: I'm so sorry to keep you guys waiting. It's just that I haven't been on lately and my internet wasn't working. But now, I'm back with a new chapter. And this chapter will be about the gang getting their invitations to Duelist Kingdom and a duel will be happening between the Muto cousins and the inventor of Duel Monsters, Maximillion Pegasus. But will their strong family bond be enough to beat him? Read on to find out.

Chapter 3: Yugi and Stacey VS Maximillion Pegasus

The next day, Stacey got a little sleep since her uncle was in the hospital. Another school day and another duel for Joey. Téa was also building a deck and she was dueling Joey today. Stacey was starting to build her deck too, but she needed more cards, which she'll get today.
Joey always lost, since he didn't know how to play that well. Outside during lunch, Joey, Yugi and her talked about why Joey couldn't win.

"What am I doing wrong?" Joey asked. "Well, let's start by looking at your deck. let me see it." She said, holding out her hand. he handed her his deck and all she saw were monster cards, no magic or trap cards. "Did you fill this with just monster cards?"
"You bet I did! I filled it with every butt-kicking monster that I could find." Stacey sighed.

"Joey, no one can win with just monsters. you need magic and trap cards. this game isn't just about strategy. magic makes your monsters stronger or weakens your opponents, and traps can help you in a tight spot."

"How do you know so much, Stacey?" Yugi asked her.
"You think I've been here for three days and not listen to every word you and Uncle Solomon say?" She replied. he smiled, and blushed a little.
scratching the back of his neck. "See? that's what I have to be learning! You need to help me some more." Joey said, coming near them.

He then had a big smile on his face and nudged Yugi a little with his elbow. He's been acting a little weird around her lately, which was creepy considering that they were cousins by blood.

Since it was the end of the day now, Joey, Stacey and Yugi were headed to the shop. Mr. Muto had been teaching Stacey and helping her with her deck. and he wanted Mr. Muto to give her a very special card. He had to admit something, he really loved Stacey a lot.
She was beautiful, fun to be with, they shared a connection with the Millennium Items that they had and he'd heard her sing, her voice was like an angel. The bad thing was telling Joey and Mr. Muto, now it's been torture. being near her and having Joey nudging him, he hated him making it so obvious, even though he kept telling him that Stacey liked him and not Yugi.

It's been a few weeks now since their duel with Kaiba and since Yugi reunited with Stacey. She's still living with him and Mr. Muto, so her skills in dueling have been improving. Mr. Muto put on some tournament footage with Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor. training Joey has been hard work for him, he hardly ever got a break, since Mr. Muto didn't want to help her with his present for Stacey, so he had to give it to her himself.
"Stacey?" he called out. she was in her room now since she ran out of the shower. the door was open a crack, so he peeked a little.
Her hair was up in a towel, but she wasn't dressed, she was in her pink thong underwear. He tried to look away since it was inappropriate, but he couldn't. he was doing fine, until he tripped and landed on his face. He heard a gasp and then a sweet voice.

"Yugi? are you okay cuz?" He looked up to see Stacey, but she put on a robe, holding out her hand for him to take. He felt so embarrassed,
he was sure his face was a tomato by now. Getting up, he looked down a little ashamed. Great. out of all the people to fall in front of.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm really sorry about that Stacey. I just have something for you."

"Really?"

"Yeah! hold out your hand." He placed a card in her hand, but a very powerful and rare one. it was almost as powerful as a Blue Eyes White Dragon.
"It's a Gold Eyes Silver Dragon. it has power that is almost equal to the Blue Eyes White Dragon. since your building your deck,
I wanted you to have this one." She smiled and hugged him, so naturally he hugged back. she smelled so nice, he didn't want to let her go.

"Thank you Yugi, you're so sweet! I'll treasure this card! Oh and I'll be out with you guys in a minute, I gotta change cous." She said,
grabbing her clothes and kissing him on the cheek while on her way to the bathroom.

"Nice! finally got a little kiss, Yugi?" Joey just had to ruin the moment for him, didn't he? He was really red by now as he turned to face him.

"If you like her so much, why not say something Yugi?"

"I can't. and besides, she's my cousin. it would be too weird. and anyway, she likes you. look, Joey, let's just drop it." He said, passing by him,
going to the living room. he sat down on the couch, watching the rest of the match between Weevil and Rex.

Stacey changed really fast in her usual outfit and sat down in the middle of the sofa next to Joey and Yugi. Mr. Muto came in with a package for Yugi, actually
it was for the both of them. weird, she hasn't been there in a long time and yet she's getting mail. It was from the company that invented Duel Monsters,
Industrial Illusions. She and Yugi looked at the box in suspicion. why would they send them something?

"You think they heard about you beating Seto, cuz?" She asked. "Maybe, since he dropped out of the tournament because of me."

"Yeah and hearing Kaiba's name gives me a headache." Joey said, putting his hand to his forehead.

They watched the match of bugs and dinosaurs, both of these boys looked like good duelists, but they had the most annoying voices she had ever heard.
Weevil won, and was given the trophy by Maximillion Pegasus, the president of the company. He had long, silver hair, a red suit and white, fancy-looking shoes.
He also had the weirdest-sounding voice ever. she and Yugi both opened the box. it contained: two gloves which included two stars each and a video tape.
Yugi popped the tape into the VCR and pressed play to see Pegasus.

"Greetings little Yugi and Miss Stacey, I'm Maximillion Pegasus. I've heard some interesting things about both of you.
Your defeat of Seto Kaiba has intrigued me so much that I have decided to investigate your dueling skills personally right here and now."
"How does he expect you to duel a tape, cuz?!" She asked. "That's crazy!" Tristan said. Pegasus laughed and flashed a light from his eye.

"No, it's magic." Everything was dark, everybody but her and Yugi were frozen in their positions. She poked Joey, but he didn't move.

"What have you done?" Yugi asked. "Where the hell are we, you psycho ass?" She cursed.

"In a world called the Shadow Realm. I'll return both of you when our duel is done. both of you against me." He said, smirking.

Then came the same feeling from before, the spirit of the Millennium Anklet taking over, and she could feel Yugi changing too.

"This duel will be 15 minutes only. the one with the highest life points wins. let's begin, shall we?" Pegasus said.

She pulled out her deck and setting it on the opposite side of Yugi's. they both drew five cards and he just kept ranting.

"You've never faced an opponent like me before."

"You may be good, but we will beat you to save our friends." She said in her spirit voice. "You'll never save anyone with that Ice Queen card in your hand."

Stacey gasped, how did he know what she had in her hand?

"I told you, you've never faced a duelist like me before. I know every move you make, before you can even make it. like Stacey putting down that Ice Queen card and I can capture it with this trap card." He held up a trap card with a big black jar on it. it started to light up and take her Ice Queen out of her hand, trapping it in smoke and making it disappear. How can he do this? first he read her mind and now making the cards come to life but without an arena?

This is impossible! "The shadow realm can make any monster come to life and the impossible is quite possible, Miss Muto."

He laughed a little at his joke, she just thought it was so annoying and not funny. She tried so hard to control her temper, but it was difficult.

"Don't you think these cards hold magic in them?"

"You should, you invented this game." Yugi said. "What if I told you I didn't? in Ancient Egypt, they would hold duels in other dimensions, just like we're doing.
But not with cards, but with real monsters. so powerful and so unstable, they nearly destroyed the entire world."

"Nice story, Pegasus, but these monsters aren't real." Yugi said. "Tell that to the Dragon Piper!" the same purple little monster came out,
playing a piper, drawing out Yugi's dragon and then turning it against them.

"I have to counter. Silver Fang!" Yugi yelled, throwing down his wolf. the dragon breathed his fire and destroyed it. But, it was so hot,
and some of the fire got to her, right on her arm. she could feel her flesh burning, slowly cooking from the heat. the pain was so bad, she was about to faint.

"Need a little break, Miss Stacey?" Pegasus laughed. "As you can both see, these monsters are very real. and as you can see by Stacey's burn,
they are quite dangerous. nice to see that time is almost up, so make a move, girl."

She looked at her cards, just thinking, then she drew one very fast and placed it on the field, hoping this wasn't going to be the last move she makes.

"Are you okay?" she heard Yugi ask her, the concern in his voice rang through. "I'll be fine, don't worry, we have to finish this duel."
She said, pretty much lying that she was okay. her arms were shaking a little, trying to draw a card.

"Oh, you two are so ignorant of the power your millennium items hold." Pegasus curtly puts in. they both looked at each other as Pegasus continued.

"5000 years ago, a powerful Pharaoh locked the magic of the shadow games away. he trapped the magic in eight millennium items. the millennium puzzle and the millennium anklet have powerful magic that you couldn't even imagine. having that power could change your lives forever, if you knew how to unlock it.
well, enough talking, the clock is ticking and I believe it's still Stacey's turn."

Quickly drawing a card, she threw it on the playing field. "Dark Magician Girl in attack mode." Emerging from the card, she attacked the dragon,
at least letting her have some assurances that they could still win. they're up by 300 points, but seeing the clock was making time almost stand still.
but then she just couldn't take the pain, she fell over, passing out on the floor.

"Stacey, wake up." She knew that voice, it was Yugi, his normal voice, she guessed he finished the duel without her. he smiled when she opened her eyes.
she was on the sofa, feeling so drained and weak with her duelist glove on and her arm was bandaged up. "How long was I out, cuz?" she asked.

"A couple of hours, I lost, and..." he trailed off, and looked over to the other side of the room. his grandfather and her uncle, laying on the floor, lifeless.
Looking back at Yugi, his eyes in tears, trying to mutter out something. "He took grandpa's soul, and he won't give it back unless we beat him in the finals."

She grabbed his hand, pulling him close to her and hugging him. "We'll get your grandfather and my uncle back, I promise. The Muto cousins will not back down now. We're family and family comes first. So, I want you to suck it up and quit crying, because like dad always told me, 'crying shows weakness'.
So, are you with me or not?" Yugi smiled through his tears as he wiped them away: "You're right. We are family, and families stick together no matter what!"
He said, with determination in his large eyes as he and Stacey both pinky-swore.
"We'll get you back Grandpa. We promise!" Yugi thought, as Stacey was also determined, seeing as Solomon Muto was the second most important person to her.

Whew! Okay, that was a long chapter. But it was worth it. But don't worry. The debuts of my other characters will come. Just not now. They'll probably show up towards the end, seeing as one is related to Duke Devlin, Téa and Ryou Bakura. But there's going to be three other characters who are related to Joey and Serenity and they might show up towards the end as well. I'm not exactly sure, seeing as I just want to focus on Stacey and her relationships with Yugi, Téa, Tristan and Joey, seeing as I'd rather focus on their friendship first before they start getting serious.