Cassie slowly pulled the blanket over her head.

"Oh no!" Martin declared, tugging on the fabric. "You don't get out of this that easily."

"Can't hear you, sleeping," Cassie said. "Zzzzzz. Zzzzzzz. Zzzzz."

"You are just saying Z-z-z-z-z over and over!" Caesar exclaimed. "No one is buying it!"

"And no one actually goes Z-Z-z-z-z-z when they sleep," Sally pointed out.

Aria raised her hand. "I do."

"Cassie, come on out."

"Nope! Cassie is sleeping. Please leave your message at the sound of the beep."

She remained silent after that.

"Where is the beep?" Sally asked.

"Exactly."

Martin grit his teeth together and pulled on the blanket again. "Cassie, you are explaining this!"

The woman in question pulled the blanket up, revealing her shadow-covered face. "There is no Cassie, only Zuul." She let the blanket drop down over her head after that.

"Come on, you can't expect us NOT to have questions!" Caesar complained. "The Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon? How long were you hiding that?"

"In the dark there is moon light and stars hang over-bove…" Cassie sang to herself, ignoring them.

"Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon!" Martin snapped. "How did that-"

Cassie's phone began to ring.

Sally slowly leaned over to look at the screen. "Its… uh… its Mr. Kaiba."

Cassie continued to hide.

The phone stopped.

"Maybe he'll give up?" James said, speaking up for the first time since Brom had summoned the Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon onto the field.

ALL of their phones began to ring.

"Aw crap."

"Someone has to answer," Sally reasoned.

"Or, and hear me out," Caesar said, "no one answers."

"This is Kaiba!" Martin exclaimed. "He once hunted me down in the catacombs of Paris to ask why he couldn't redesign our office building to look like the Blue-Eyes White Dragon! Zoning laws be damned!"

"…no he didn't," Sally said.

"Okay, it wasn't the catacombs but it could have happened!"

Aria picked up her phone.

"Hi Mr. Kaiba!" she chirped nervously. "Hmmm? Cassie? No, Cassie isn't real. Figment of your imagination! Bye!"

She hung up.

The others just stared at her.

"…think he'll buy it?"

~MC~MC~MC~

"Look at that thing!" Tea exclaimed in shock as we all stared at the Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon. "It… I never…"

"Its… impressive," I admitted, startled but for a completely different reason. 'Almost every card I've seen in this world… I remember it existing in my world. Or its close enough to something that I can see it having existed but I just didn't know about it. But… I've played a Wight deck. I know the monsters. There is no such thing as the Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon.' My gaze pulled away from the growling skeletal dragon over to Brom. 'Is it because he's a god? Can he gather cards that don't exist in my world or this world and bring them here? Or is it something else… have my actions caused this world to evolve so much that now cards I've never even heard of are being created? And what does that mean for the future? Do I run the risk that Dartz now will have more powerful monsters? What about Yami Bakura and his… ghost demon puppet things?'

I didn't get time to consider the new monster as Brom had decided to let us know all about it. "The Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon is mighty like its flesh and blood counterpart. But unlike them the process of turning it into a wight has filled it with new and deadly abilities. For every Wight monster in my graveyard it is able to attack and destroy one of your monsters."

"My Reactor Slime!" Marik exclaimed.

"And the tokens you created. They were never going to be a strong defense against me, Marik… they were always doomed to fail. Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon!" The skeletal dragon let out a roar that made all of us tremble and shake. It felt like someone had grabbed hold of our bones and given them a rattle.

"Remember though," Marik said darkly, "My Slime Barrier forces you to attack my Tokens first."

"What is he planning?" I muttered to myself.

"Edwin?" Mai asked.

"Marik wants his Reactor Slime to be the last one destroyed…why?"

Mai frowned. "It must have a secondary effect then."

The Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon drew back its head before unleashing a glut of blue flames at the two slimes, causing them to instantly evaporate, leaving only faint bits of steam to show they had been there.

"And now… I imagine you are going to do something with your Reactor Slime," Brom stated. "Perhaps your downface card?"

"Not at all, Death God," Marik said with a menacing leer. "In fact, I decided to show you how truly superior I am when compared to you! You need that flayed and demuslced beast to do your dirty work? I have no need. I can kill myself! I destroy my Reactor Slime!"

The monster trembled, a shrill scream that might have been steam bursting from it or perhaps the monster itself letting out a wail of pain bursting into the air, making everyone but Marik and Brom cover their ears. The creature's lower half began to bubble and pop while the metal of its top half bulged out before, in a grand explosion, the entire thing detonated into pieces.

And, in its place, was a glob of silver slime.

"And now you see what I have been preparing. What the Reactor Slime had brewing inside of it!"

The silver slime began to twist and expand, great spikes suddenly shooting out from its surface, its form twisting into something decidedly inorganic and impossible for life. I was reminded of a video I had seen, talking about how one had to consider when making an alien race they had to figure out how the race could evolve naturally that way. A living creature could not have wheels, for example. How would the blood vessels work and not become knotted up. How would the blood even flow properly? There were rules that living creatures needed to obey. The Slime that was shifting and transforming before us all… it couldn't be alive. It was an impossibility.

And yet… there it was.

'So it comes from someplace else… the Shadow Realm where life doesn't need to have logic to govern it.'

"Behold, Death God, The Metal Reflect Slime! 3000 defense points! More than enough to handle your pathetic Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon!" Marik threw his arms out wide. "Come now! Declare your attack! Watch it spray off my monster's metallic form, unable to penetrate it! Do you see now? Even your mightiest monster falls before the power of my Slime."

"And Marik would know about Slime…" Yuri muttered darkly to herself.

"Its almost fitting, isn't it?" Renard stated. "I wonder what Brom is reading into this."

"Not much," the large duelist said, revealing Renard had spoken a bit more loudly than he'd realized. "I do not believe that every choice and every action we make is some how connected to some deep seated trauma or moment in our past. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." He looked over Marik's side of the field for a long moment. "But… you have made a grave error in your determination of this duel."

"And that is?" Marik asked, not sound concerned at all.

"You believe my Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon is my most powerful monster." Brom's eyes began to glow with dark light, burning away at his pupils leaving only darkness that radiated from his eyesockets. "The Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon is a wight. And all wights answer to the call of their King… the true power of their kind." He gestured at his King of the Skull Servants. "He remains my most powerful monsters."

"Hey, that's right!" Tristan declared. "Its at 4000 attack points! That's more than enough to take down Marik's Metal Reflect Slime."

"It… was at 4000," Brom corrected. "But then I tribute those two Wight Monsters in order to bring forth my Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon."

"Oh… oh!" Tea exclaimed. "And when a Wight is in the graveyard it gives the King of the Skull Servants another 1000 attack points! Meaning that Brom's monster got another 2000 attack boost!"

Yugi's eyes went wide. "That means that the King of the Skull Servants is at 6000! Twice the attack power of the Metal Reflect Slime."

"Think the commentary crew for CCN likes it when we do their job for them?" I asked.

~MC~MC~MC~

Scott and Marc glanced at each other.

"Uh… heheh… just ignore them, folks!" Scott said quickly. "We do important work here at CCN!"

"Very important!" Marc echoed.

The two weakly laughed as Scott subtly typed on his phone.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Stop pointing that out?" I asked, looking down at the text I'd received. "Troy?"

"No idea," Troy said, popping up next to me. "But if you'd like I can troll whoever it is back? I could send clown porn."

"Why would you want to get them aroused?" Mai asked.

I slowly turned towards her.

"What? If its tastefully done…"

"Is… is that why you wanted us to do Pennywise and Georgie as a couple's costume last Halloween?!" I demanded.

Mai was saved from answering me (and honestly for my sanity it was probably better she didn't) by Brom holding out his hand. "And with your field empty it is time for my King of the Skull Servants to end the threat of your Metal Reflect Slime. King of the Skull Servants, attack Marik and eliminate his final monster!"

But just as the King of the Skull Servants was preparing to attack Marik let out a dark laugh.

"You have rushed right into my trap, Death God! Reveal my facedown card: Slime Conversation!" The card, which showed a bunch of Ojamas on a conveyor belt, looking out nervously as they neared a machine, only for the belt coming out of it to have produced Slime Monsters, appeared on the field. At once the machine itself appeared, a twisted dark thing that looked like a fusion of Reactor Slime and Dark Factory of Mass Production. "This card allows me to select once per turn the weakest monster on your side of the field and convert it into a Slime Monster. So I will now claim your Lady in Wight!"

The Skeleton woman let out a cry as cables suddenly grabbed onto her, dragging her onto the conveyor belt and restraining her. She struggled as she was yanked into the machine, which let out a shrill whistle before, from the other end, a slime with a goopy version of her head appeared, landing on the field with a dull smack. Most of her body, that which had been covered in a dress, was just a wad of thick gunk, but the upper part resembled her bony face and hair, only made out of a bluish silver slime that dripped and stretched as it struggled to hold its shape.

"And became of my Slime Barrier I can force my Wight Slime to defend my Metal Reflect Slime, protecting me for your attack completely and utterly!" Marik cackled as Brom was forced to destroy the mutated Wight. "Does it burn you, Death God, that for once you do not have a choice in who lives and who dies?"

Brom though merely stared right at Marik, not fazed by his taunts. "That is where you and so much of humanity get it wrong, Marik. I never got to choose who died. That was not my domain. I am a Death God… not a Dying God or a Wounding of the Innocent God. I am a Death God. I am drawn to the dying and the dead. I am drawn to those that must die but the die is already cast. Their own actions determine their fate."

"You would have me believe that you have so little power?" Marik challenged.

"If every god and goddess suddenly disappeared… the sun would still rise. The moon would set. The seas would churn. Life would begin… and it would end. The gods… so many of us like to believe that we control such things but that isn't the case. We are… the custodians of such forces. We make them tidy and clean. Keep them running smoothly. Yes, there would be problems if every Death God disappeared. The fall of cities to plagues and disasters would be far more chaotic than it is under our guiding hands… but they would fall the same."

Brom paused.

"It was not me, nor any of my brothers and sisters, who placed the Millennium Rod in your hand, Marik. YOU were the one that killed your father. A savage death as you tore his chest to bits. That was you and only you. We merely… directed things."

"…good," Marik said with a dark leer. "I am glad to hear that. In my weaker mindset I tried to claim it was the Pharaoh who did it. He and his gods and his laws. They were the reason he died, not I. In my delusions I sometimes thought that it was even that sniveling boy-" He jabbed a finger right at Yugi, "-who did the deed. That he was the one that killed my father and I only happened upon his corpse after he had fled.

"But… it was meeeeeeeeee."

He relished the word. Let it roll along his tongue and cling to his teeth. It was a fine steak dinner and a rich wine and a carefully rolled cigar all bundled together in a single word.

"I ripped the Millennium Rod from his fingers and even as I approached him he commanded me to stop. Told me to obey him. To heed his words for he was the head of Tombkeepers and it was my duty to obey. But I was done obeying him. Of listening to that weak and pathetic little man as he gibber on about the might of Pharaoh! He was a fool, Death God! He couldn't see that the one he should honor was not that dead and buried child… it was me. For it was not the Pharaoh who held his life in his hands.

"In all the years I had known him he had never shown a crumble of fear. I wonder if he even understood the emotion. Fear though is natural for weak things such as him… was it not my duty to teach him? That is why I plunged the Millennium Rod into his chest. I didn't even know what I was doing… and I'm glad for that! Had I known he would have only suffered a little. He didn't earn a clean and swift death… his needed to be long! Tortuous! All the suffering I endured under his twisted rules and edicts had to be paid back onto him!"

Marik shut his eyes, clearly remembering the moment when he'd killed his father, savoring the memory.

"Again… and again… and again I drove the Millennium Rod into his chest and his stomach! I didn't know then the magic it possessed so I couldn't rip his soul away and force it to languish the darkness of the Shadow Realm. No… all I know was its sharpness and I used that. Used it to stab him half a hundred times. Even as his commands turned to pleas and then those pleas turned to the screams of butchered beast!" He pointed a finger right at Brom. "It was me, Death God! I was the one that killed him! And I would it again and again!" Marik chuckled. "Perhaps I will. First I will win this tournament… and when I do I will claim the Pharaoh's Puzzle and the Egyptian Gods! And I will use their power to rip my father's soul from the depths of the Underworld so I might kill him every day."

He paused.

"Of course… I will need some practice." He slowly slid his gaze towards the others. "Little Yugi… I wonder how you will fair when I force the Pharaoh to watch me master my craft on your pathetic weak form. Perhaps I will allow you to live… if you agree to slaughter your friends for me-"

At once the Pharaoh took over but his eyes blazed black and gold, much as my eyes once at. As for me I was already stepping forward, the Millennium Key emerging from my chest and though I naturally couldn't see them I knew that my eyes were burning white and gold while heat gathered on my shoulder blades.

Marik though merely laughed at the sight of us. "Oh… did I touch a nerve?"

"That is enough, Marik!" the Pharaoh thundered. "I will not stand by and allow you to threaten those I care for."

"If you care for them so much, Pharaoh, you will stop me!" He threw out his arms, though thanks to whatever transformation he had gone through his limbs seemed too long and bony, jutting out more like the spines of some twisted demon than the appendages of a human being. "Ah, but you won't, will you? Because that is all you are, Pharaoh: someone who makes is grand speeches and dramatic declarations of protection… and then stands by with narrowed eyes and a glower upon their face when someone refuses to meekly bow to him." Marik leered at the Pharaoh. "So yes… I dare you to stop me. Because I know you won't. That is the difference between the two of us, Pharaoh: I have the will to do what I desire. You don't."

"You have the will to prove time and time again how weak you truly are," I retorted.

"Weak?" Marik asked, holding the Millennium Rod and pointing it right at me. "You think I am weak? I-"

"Have done nothing," I said, cutting him off. "Wait, that's not entirely true… you have shown that you are willing to hurt those that can't fight back."

"Exactly!" Marik laughed. "They are weak and thus deserve to suffer!"

"They are weak and can't fight back," I retorted.

"I just said that."

I let out a huff. "You see yourself as a lion, Marik… and you are right. You are a lion of the Savannah." I paused, letting the comment linger for several moments… before dropping the guillotine blade down. "The lion is a cowardly beast. It doesn't hunt often. Instead it waits for the stronger and the smarter to come and actually make the kill before it rushes in and steals it away. Its nobility? Its strength? All smoke screens." I took a step forward. "You are a scavenger, picking away at the meals of others who are far better than you and proclaiming that you are so mighty and terrible. Hear your roar and tremble… even as you hide, unwilling to dirty your claws."

My eyes flashed.

"I am the wolf. My pack and I sweep upon our prey and drive it down. And then share the spoils. You are a solitary lion with no pride… and I mean that in more ways than one. So yes… keep making your threats about how you'll rape this person or brutalize another. Because we all know what they truly are: the weak boosts of a sad little boy desperately trying to convince the world that he can fight back."

And with that I turned and began to walk away.

"Fleeing so soon, Chaos?" Marik demanded. "No more speeches to give?"

"Not for you," I replied before continuing on, my friends turning to follow me. I might have told the others that I wanted to help Marik… but sometimes the only way you could help someone was by allowing them to fail and fall all on their own. To let them stumble and collapse… and be ready for them to finally reach out to you. "Sorry Brom… good luck to you."

Brom chuckled at that and waved me off. "Apology accepted."

"Chaos! Return at once… I wish to hear more of your boasts!"

I just kept walking.

"Chaos!" Marik shouted, it clear he was trying to make his voice sound bold and strong… but to my ears it was the pleas of someone desperate for attention.

I didn't even react.

"CHAOS!"

The elevators closed behind me, Mai, Yuri, and Renard.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Hey Joey," Koyo said, walking up to the blond as he sat alone in the viewing galley.

"Oh, hey Koyo!" Joey said with a grin that couldn't have been more fake if he painted it on his face. "What's up man?"

"Not much, just wanted to see how things were going with you," Koyo said. "I noticed you weren't at the duel."

"Eh, I don't feel like watchin' that creep Marik duel. Ain't no fun in him pullin' his creepy Shadow Realm bullcrap, ya know."

"I suppose so," Koyo said. "Honestly I'm still getting used to the idea that magic and all that is real. Before Battle City it was…" He rolled his hand about.

"Man, I hear ya!" Joey said with a more genuine smile. "Crazy stuff, am I right? Till Yug and I became friends I thought life was pretty simple, ya know? Didn't realize it was so crazy and all that."

"Do you regret it?" Koyo asked. "Knowing what you know?"

"…nah," Joey said after a moment, clearly having thought about what Koyo was saying. "Better ta know than ta not. Sure, ya could see it makes me a bit more paranoid… ya realize what could happen at any moment. But better to be able ta prepare than for it ta suddenly hit ya! If I was just a regular duelist who went into Battle City without any knowledge about Millennium Items and Shadow Realms and all that… heh, I'd probably be back at my old man's place lickin' my wounds and wondering if I should go to some bar ta catch the finals."

Koyo nodded at that. "It's a healthy way to think about it."

They lapsed into silence.

"And… you not watching… it doesn't have anything to do with Brom, does it?"

Joey's shoulders slumped. "Maybe," he admitted. "I know they guy seems alright but… man, he said some harsh truths." Koyo didn't miss that Joey called them 'truths'. "Ain't easy ta go and get a second helpin' of that."

"I suppose you're right," Koyo stated. "Have you talked to Serenity?"

"Kinda… I mean we talked about things after…"

Joey's face screwed up.

Koyo understood what he was going through. He dimly remembered that they had left their world and been stuck on a ship for a long time. That they had fought in a war. And he knew all that was important. He did! It was just… it all felt like a dream. Or something that had happened ages ago instead of only mere hours. It was like trying to think back to his first day of kindergarten: he could remember what had happened but it wasn't clear. He only could get the vague sense that it had happened.

"And…" Joey trailed off yet again.

But rather than allow Joey to just end the conversation there Koyo persisted. "And what?"

"Well… the thing is… I don't really like talkin' about my feelin's and all that, ya know? Heck, even with Yug its hard. He's willin' take try and talk things out but it just ain't something I like doin'."

"Is that why you haven't talked with Edwin and Mai yet?" Koyo asked.

That caused Joey to roll back his head and groan. "Man, I am not lookin' forward ta that conversation! How do ya apologize for… all of that?"

"I don't know," Koyo said. "I think you have to start by apologizing in the first place."

That made Joey moan in frustration. "I just don't know how ta! Selene got me all mixed up and man it is weird ta think Mai has a goddess livin' in her head. Wouldn't want ta be Ed, dealin' with all that."

Koyo considered Joey for a long moment, not wanting to ask the question that was slipping past his teeth… and yet at the same time desperate to know.

"Do you still love her?"

"Love?" Joey asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning back a touch. "Nah man, I never loved Mai. I mean, as a friend she's great, especially after she settled down and stopped actin' like she was better than us." He frowned, jaw working back and forth. "And I suppose that Ed is ta be thanked for that. He got her ta actually take a moment and stop actin' so horrible ta us. Stop thinkin' she was so much greater and we were little more than dirt under her heel. But… man, I don't know." He rolled his head back so it was resting on the top of his chair, eyes staring at the ceiling.

"What made you want to be with Mai, then?" Koyo pressed.

Joey gave a shrug. "Well, she's gorgeous… I mean ya have ta have noticed. Blonde hair, long legs…"

"Mmmhhmmm," Koyo said, not mentioning that while he liked those traits Mai had certain things he wasn't interested in… and lacked others.

"She's just the gal that…" Joey suddenly blinked.

"What is it?"

"She's what my old man used to sayI should be getting as my girl… but couldn't."

"What do you mean?"

Joey sat back up, resting his elbows on his thighs. "My dad… he used ta go on and on about how useless I was and how I wouldn't amount ta anything. Said if I was any kind of man I would get some blond bombshell with huge boobs and an ass that wouldn't quit and show her just how powerful and strong I was. But that I wouldn't be able to because I'm just a nothing."

"That… is so fucked up," Koyo finally said, unable to think of a better way to phrase. It.

"Yeah, my old man is an interestin' piece of work."

"Piece of something…" Koyo muttered. "So… what… you were only interested in Mai because your father said that's the type of woman you should be with?"

Joey blinked at that.

"Huh." He shook his head. "Man, if Brom were here that shrink would probably read so much into all of this!"

"Probably," Koyo muttered softly to himself before looking at Joey. "So… ignoring your dad… what are you looking for in a partner?"

Joey, to his credit, remained quiet and actually considered that question. "…well, I'd like them ta look a certain way, I guess… not sure I'd be able ta be with someone I didn't think looked hot." He gave a weak shrug. "But… I don't know man… I guess… well, my mom and my dad didn't work out so I wouldn't want that. Fightin' all the time and keepin' secrets and all that. I want…"

He chuckled.

"I want what Ed and Mai have. Or Tea and Yug. Or hey, gramps!" Joey's face lit up at that. "Sometimes Yugi's grandpa tells me about what him and Yugi's grandma were like. How they could like different things but never judged each other for that and if they did like something the other enjoyed then they bonded over that. I want that. Like what I have with Yug and Tea and Tristan only… more."

"So someone that makes you feel safe to be yourself?" Koyo asked.

"Yeah."

"I want that too," Koyo said, shifting slightly in his chair.

"Well, I hope ya get it."

'Kiss him,' Koyo thought to himself. 'Kiss him you idiot. Grab those blond locks and kiss him!'

He leaned in…

…and let out a sigh, though he made sure to smile all the same so Joey didn't think he was upset.

"I hope we both find that," Koyo finally said, forcing himself to look away lest Joey realize how much his heart was breaking.

~MC~MC~MC~

Marik grit his teeth together so hard even he was shocked that he hadn't caused them to shatter under the pressure.

'That arrogant fool Chaos thinks he can be dismissive of me?!' He stared at the closed elevator, almost expecting it to open again and allow him a chance to show that prancing mocking jester just what true power was. 'He belittles my desires? I will tear all he loves to shreds! And even as he begs me and admits all of his errors I will still drive him so low even my slime will look down upon him!'

He looked over the field, eyes narrowed and mouth twitching in annoyance.

'But first… I must finish this duel!' he thought as he drew…

…and burst out into laughter.

Marik threw his head back, cackling loudly.

"This is it, Death God! Your time is over! With the card I have drawn you will fall! I will do the impossible and defeat Death itself!" He pointed at the Metal Reflect Slime. "I'll start by altering my monster, transforming it into a new and far better form! Thanks to the energies that still linger about the field from my Egyptian God Card my Metal Reflect Slime is able to absorb the power of the ancients and as such transform itself into a mimicry of that power. So behold the final evolution of my Slime… The EGYPTIAN GOD SLIME!"

The Metal Reflect Slime suddenly shuddered before it began to balloon out, body twisting and distorting as it grew in size. The bottom remained a puddle of goo but the top of it began to split and transform, turning into a mockery of Obelisk the Tormentor. Marik smiled at that… that was his sister's Egyptian God Card so it worked so very well to force his Metal Reflect Slime to take on a bastardized form of the Tormentor. Its features were elongated to an extreme, with great horns like a bull and spikes covering its body. The 'beard' nearly reached down to its navel and its arms were far thicker and muscular only to suddenly retreat into thin parts of the body.

"Egyptian God Slime can not be destroyed in battle and so long as it is on the field it can force you to only attack it."

"Not much of a threat, considering my King of the Skull Servants is still quite powerful," Brom stated. "Yes, you can protect your other monsters, but my King of the Skull Servants is still able to overcome it quite easily. So… I naturally assume that you have something else in mind. Some other card that will allow you to overcome my monsters and bring my time in Battle City to an end?"

Marik laughed. "Oh, how I do love it when the sheep know they are being led to the slaughter! Yes… yes I do have more plans for you monsters and it continues with this: Burial From The Different Dimension!" He held up the card even as light began to pour out of his duel disk. "With this card I can take my Winged Dragon of Ra and place it back in the graveyard!"

A great and terrible cry filled the air around him as the golden light became so blinding that even Marik was forced to shield his face from its intensity. Still… it was worth it as he could tell, even without looking, that his monster had returned to the graveyard, waiting for a chance to aid him once more.

"And before you say a word," Marik continued, "just because I can't easily summon Ra back to the field doesn't mean he doesn't have his uses. The Winged Dragon of Ra will indeed help me defeat you, Death God… and it will do it from the very grave you forced me to toss it into!" Marik held up another card. "I activate Slime Mimicry!" The spell card, which depicted a Slime Monsters slowly transforming into a Gate Guardian, flashed on the field. "This card allows me to select one monster in my graveyard and transform a Slime Monster into that monster, gaining its effect and name. And I select the Winged Dragon of Ra!"

The Egyptian God Slime threw back its head, letting out a gurgling bubbling cry as its body began to transform once again. Marik wasn't for sure if the metamorphosis hurt… honestly he didn't give a shit if it did or didn't. All that mattered was that the features of Obelisk the Tormentor were fading away, replaced with the beak, talons, and wings of Marik's great golden god.

"Behold: The Winged Dragon of Ra Slime!" Marik declared as the silvery copy of the Winged Dragon of Ra finally finished its transformation. "And with my Slime now having Ra's powers I can do this! I sacrifice 4900 of my lifepoints and grant them to the Winged Dragon of Ra Slime!"

His slime monster shot out gooey tendrils that wrapped around Marik, draining his lifeforce into him even as it yanked him towards it. But where a weaker man would have screamed into the Heavens over the pain the monster was causing him Marik could only laugh. Pain was an old friend, one he happily welcomed. Because what came after was power. Raw, pure, beautiful power. The power that would allow him to give to all those that stood in his way a chance to understand pain.

Only theirs would not bring them anything.

Marik slammed into the Winged Dragon of Ra Slime, his lower half sucked into the creature's forehead, slime tendrils drilling into his flesh. And still Marik laughed, throwing his arms out wide, cards gripped in his hand as he rose up, towering over Brom, his dragon, and his pathetic Wight King. (Marik-100)

"And by adding my 4900 lifepoints to my Winged Dragon of Ra Slime, its attack increases to 7900! Mighty enough to defeat your King of the Skull Servants… or more importantly your Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon!" Marik cackled as his monster began to charge up his attack. "This is your end! This is where you fall! Your grand weapon won't be able to save you! Your dragon will die! YOU! LOSE! WINGED DRAGON OF RA SLIME! ATTACK WITH SLIME CANNON!"

The dragon opened its beak and unleashed a blast of energy right at the Blue-Eyes Wight Dragon, shattering it to pieces. (Brom-0000)

"That is how you die! The mighty Death God! Slain by the last Tombkeeper! Poetic, is it not!?"

Brom… merely shook his head and pulled out a single card, setting it down on the ground.

"You take this far too seriously," he said even as Marik found himself dropping to the ground, the holoprojectors turning off. "Its just a game."

Marik stared at him in surprise and shock before rushing forward. "What are you doing? Fleeing? You can't hide from me! I defeated you!"

"You beat me in a card game," Brom merely said with a wave of his hand. "You earned my rarest card and move on to the next round of the Tournament. That is all."

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR CARD! I BEAT YOU! YOU HEAR ME!"

"I hear you," Brom said, flicking his arm out and causing his card to fly back to him. "And if you don't want this then I'll simply take it back."

"I BEAT YOU! I BEAT DEATH!" Marik roared even as Brom went to the same elevator Edwin had left in. "PHARAOH! DO YOU SEE? I-"

Marik turned and found the Pharaoh gone. As were his friends.

In fact… Marik… was all alone.