Battle City (part 2)

These are the final playoff rounds from the Battle City story arc.

Quarter-finals
For the quarterfinal round, the duels were to be staged atop Kaiba's airship with the Duelists for each duel determined by lottery.

Yami Yugi vs. Yami Bakura
Yami Yugi and Yami Bakura are selected to duel each other first. Before the duel begins, Yugi deduces that the person he is dueling is not Bakura, but the spirit of the Millenium Ring. Yugi gains a huge advantage in the first few turns, destroying Bakura's monsters one at a time and bringing him down under 500 Life Points. However, this plays directly into Bakura's strategy, allowing him to summon Dark Necrofear and, when Yugi destroys it in his next turn, allow him to play a powerful Field Spell Card known as "Dark Sanctuary".

While Dark Sanctuary is in effect, one of Yugi's monsters is possessed with an evil ghost so that when it attacks, the attack would be negated and Yugi would lose Life Points equal to half of that monster's ATK. It also increased Bakura's Life Points by the same amount. Bakura then activates "The Dark Door", which lets Yugi attack only once every turn, as well as "Destiny Board", which, when all five "Spirit Messages" are played while Destiny Board is active, would give Bakura an automatic victory, essentially putting a time limit on the duel.

The next few turns would back Yugi into a corner as all his attacks backfired, decreasing his life points while Bakura's rose, and Destiny Board was nearing its countdown. In desperation, Yugi is forced to summon "Slifer the Sky Dragon", as Slifer is immune to the effects of Dark Sanctuary.

However, before the end, Odion, posing as Marik, pretends to free Bakura from the evil spirit's control with the Millenium Rod, and prevent Yugi from continuing his attack (as an attack by Slifer might hurt the injured Bakura even more than he already was). This tactic almost works, until the spirit defies Marik and takes control of Bakura again, as he still requires Bakura's body to exist. With the spirit back in control, Yugi proceeds with his attack, winning the duel and advancing to the semi-finals.

Joey Wheeler vs. Odion Ishtar
Joey duels Odion, posing as Marik, in the second quarterfinal match. Odion gains a huge advantage at the start, destroying most of Joey's monsters and dropping his Life Points to 200 with his array of powerful trap cards. Joey tries to surrender at this point but is persuaded to stand up again by Mai Valentine and his sister Serenity.

Joey manages a comeback by summoning "Jinzo", whose special ability prevented Odion from using any Trap Cards, and brings his Life Points to 400. Odion then activates Swords of Revealing Light, preventing Joey from attacking. While Joey summoned the other two cards he won in Battle City (Insect Queen and The Legendary Fisherman), Odion gathers the cards needed to summon "Mystical Beast Serket". Using Serket's attack power and ability to increase its ATK with every monster it destroyed, Odion destroyed all of Joey's monsters and left Joey wide open without options.

At this point, Joey deduces that Odion is not really Marik, as Odion had been winning this duel fairly while Marik always used tricks and deceit. Just as Odion was about to attack directly with "Serket" and win the duel, Marik forces him to instead play his counterfeit of "The Winged Dragon of Ra", in order to prevent Marik (posing as Namu) from being exposed and ruining his plans. Odion, obeying his master, sacrifices "Serket" and half his Life Points to summon the Winged Dragon of Ra. However, the counterfeit card refuses to obey him and the real Winged Dragon of Ra inside Marik's deck would unleash its rage on both duelists, knocking them unconscious.

Since both were tied at 200 Life Points each, Kaiba announced that the first duelist to wake up would win. Although Joey would win the duel by virtue of Kaiba's verdict, Yami Marik was unleashed due to Odion being rendered comatose.

Yami Marik vs. Mai Valentine
The third semifinal sees Mai Valentine face off against Yami Marik. Marik turns the match into a Shadow Game, where both duelists would lose portions of their memory whenever one of their monsters was destroyed. Due to this, Mai's mental abilities are greatly affected as her memory of her friends is slowly erased.

Despite this disadvantage, Mai greatly outplays Marik and even manages to use her cards to steal "The Winged Dragon of Ra" from Marik's deck. Although at one point she is in a position to win by attacking directly with her 3 Cyber Harpie Ladies, she instead Tributes them to summon The Winged Dragon of Ra. She is surprised when the Egyptian God appears in Sphere Mode, unable to be used.

A gloating Yami Marik reveals that in order for it to obey Mai (and thus, for Mai to use the card), Mai must recite the ancient hieratic text on the card. With Mai clearly unable to do so, Marik successfully recites the text on his next turn, and uses Ra to attack a defenceless Mai and win, leaving Mai critically injured (in the English anime, she is sent to the Shadow Realm).

Seto Kaiba vs. Ishizu Ishtar
The final quarterfinal duel saw the eighth "mystery duelist", who reveals herself as Ishizu Ishtar, face off against Kaiba. Although Ishizu predicts that she will win, thanks to the ability of her Millennium Necklace to see into the future, Kaiba manages to systematically destroy Ishizu's deck using "Crush Card" (Deck Destruction Virus of Death in Japan) and "Virus Cannon". Ishizu turns the tables dramatically when she plays "Exchange of the Spirit", requiring both players to switch their Decks with their Graveyards, thus leaving Kaiba with only six cards in his deck and Ishizu with all her most powerful cards that had been destroyed by Kaiba.

In desperation, Kaiba attempts to summon "Obelisk the Tormentor" using Ishizu's own monsters (summoning them to his side of the field with "Soul Exchange), while Ishizu, knowing Kaiba's intention, applied "Blast Held by a Tribute" to one of her monsters. When Kaiba tributes her monsters to summon Obelisk, the trap's effect transfers to Obelisk, which would cause him to self-destruct when Kaiba launched an attack and wipe out Kaiba's Life Points.

When Kaiba attempts to attack with Obelisk, however, Yami Marik's Millennium Rod activates on its own, causing him to have a flashback to his past life in Ancient Egypt. In it, he is holding a dead girl in front of a large tablet showing a carving of the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". Even though Blue-Eyes is less powerful than Obelisk, Kaiba places his trust in Blue-Eyes. He summons Blue-Eyes to the field using Obelisk as one of the two sacrifices, foiling Ishizu's strategy. Kaiba attacks directly with Blue-Eyes and wins.

Shadow Game: Yami Marik vs. Yami Bakura
In an unofficial Battle City duel after the Quarterfinals, Yami Marik and Yami Bakura (bearing the soul of Marik) attempt to defeat Yami Marik in order to win Marik's body back. Yami Marik turns this duel into a Shadow Game in which the bodies of the two duelist would fade away as they lost Life Points. Yami Bakura attempts to steal "The Winged Dragon of Ra" (since he can successfully use it with the original Marik to help him translate the hieratic text), but Yami Marik outwits him by playing "Joyful Doom", draining the ATK of the monsters Bakura tributes to summon Ra. This causes Ra's ATK to become 0 when it is summoned.

Bakura eventually sacrifices Ra to summon more powerful monsters, but Yami Marik turns the tables by activating "Monster Reborn" to revive Ra. Yami Marik reveals that he has been toying with both Bakura and Marik, as neither were aware of the full extent of Ra's abilities. Despite being Special Summoned instead of Tribute Summoned (meaning its initial ATK is 0), Marik activates its Point-to-Point Transfer ability, transferring all but one of his life points to power up Ra's strength. He also activates Instant Attack which, despite the presence of a spell card on the field that prevents monsters from attacking the turn they are summoned, allows him to attack immediately. Ra's attack destroys all of Bakura's monsters and his Life Points in one blast, sending Bakura to the shadow realm. (in the Japanese version, he 'dies'.)

The original Bakura is the only one that disappears completely. The original Marik survives by transferring his spirit into Tea Gardner's body, while the evil Bakura lives on through the portion of his soul that lives inside the Millennium Puzzle. Following the duel, Yami Marik takes possession of the Millenium Ring and wears it for the remainder of the tournament.

Virtual World Story Arc
In the second series Yu-Gi-Oh! (known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan), the Virtual World story arc would be played out before the semifinal rounds took place.

Seto Kaiba vs. Yami Marik vs. Yami Yugi vs. Joey Wheeler
In the semifinal round, taking place upon Alcatraz Tower (not titled in the English anime, in which it is known only as "KaibaCorp Island"), a special, massive mechanical tower located on a lone island, the four semi-finalists would take part in a four-way duel, with the first two losers playing in the first semifinal and the two winners battling in the second semi-final.

The knowledge that they could control who their next opponent would be influenced the strategy of all the players: Yugi wanted to duel Marik so that nobody else would have to, both Marik and Kaiba wanted to duel Yugi for their own reasons and Joey wanted to duel Marik so that he could save Mai. All four finalists damage each other frequently throughout and, at one point, Joey even convinces Yugi to attack him instead of the other two. This helps Joey get closer to facing Marik in the semi-finals and convinces Yugi to let Joey duel on his own.

In his last turn, Joey attacks Kaiba, causing Kaiba to activate his traps which would eliminate Joey. However, Joey manages to transfer his damage to Marik instead, eliminating Marik first, and allows Kaiba to attack him directly in Kaiba's turn. This left Marik and Joey as the first two duelists while Kaiba and Yugi would have their rematch. In the end, Joey (and by extension, Kaiba) got what they wanted.

Joey Wheeler vs. Yami Marik
Like Mai, Yami Marik subjected Joey to a shadow game, with each duelist being drained of energy as their monsters were destroyed. Joey is done in throughout the duel by Marik's various traps and monster effects, as Marik sadistically draws out the game to drain Joey of his strength and also deplete his deck of his best cards.

Joey manages to create a short comeback by Special Summoning "Jinzo" with "Question", (eliminating Marik's traps), though Marik quickly turns it around by tributing Joey's monsters to summon "Lava Golem" on Joey's field. Despite Lava Golem's powerful ATK, it drains its user of 700 Life Points every turn, bringing Joey even closer to defeat as his other monsters are drained of their ATK by Marik's Plasma Eels.

Joey manages one final comeback by using "Graceful Dice to raise the ATK of the Plasma Eels, thus destroying them and releasing his monsters, allowing them to be tributes. He then tributes all three to summon "Gilford the Lightning" to destroy all of Marik's monsters with its special ability. However, the comeback was short-lived as Marik redirected Gilford's direct attack to Joey with "Nightmare Mirror" and allow Marik to discard "The Winged Dragon of Ra" from his hand.

In his next turn, Marik activates "Monster Reborn" to revive Ra and activates its indestructible Egyptian God Phoenix form. Marik then pays 1000 Life points to allow Ra to destroy "Gilford". Although Joey's Life Points are unaffected, the nature of the Shadow Game nearly causes him to pass out from the force of Ra's devastating attack. To Marik's great surprise, Joey manages to remain standing, and he summons "Gearfried the Iron Knight" in an effort to attack a wide-open Marik. However, Joey collapses before making his attack, and Marik wins.

Yami Yugi vs. Seto Kaiba
With Joey being in critical condition (in the English anime, he is said to be "fighting the shadows" of the Shadow Realm), Yugi is forced to battle Kaiba when more pressing matters were at stake (namely, Joey's health).

The duel was evenly-matched, as Kaiba's attempt to summon "Obelisk the Tormentor" was countered by Yugi's attempt to summon "Slifer the Sky Dragon". Yugi managed to remove Obelisk from play for three turns using "Lightforce Sword", and used the time to summon Slifer to the field by using his Poker Knights ("Jack's Knight", "King's Knight", and "Queen's Knight"). However, Kaiba summoned Obelisk the next turn by tributing his "XYZ-Dragon Cannon".

After a back-and-forth battle in powering up and powering down both monsters with magic cards, the two evenly-matched God cards would destroy each other in a double KO. The struggle between gods would cause an enormous eruption of light that engulfed the arena, with both duelists being pulled into a vision of Ancient Egypt where they saw their past lives do battle with "Dark Magician" and "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". Following these visions, both awakened on the now empty field in a state of shock.

With both God cards gone, both resort to summoning their ace cards. Kaiba quickly summons all three of his Blue-Eyes White Dragons, while Yugi would summon both "Red-Eyes Black Dragon", Joey's "soul card", and his own favourite Dark Magician. After Yugi manages to forestall his defeat using Red-Eyes and Dark Magician, Kaiba would force the duel to the end by playing "Final Attack Orders", making both players discard all but three cards from their decks and prohibiting monsters from being played in Defense Position.

Kaiba uses his three cards to resurrect a Blue-Eyes destroyed by Yugi and then fuse all three together to form "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", his most powerful monster. Using his three cards, Yugi uses "Double Spell" to copy Kaiba's "Monster Reborn" and "Polymerization to resurrect his "Buster Blader" and fuse it with "Dark Magician to Fusion Summon "Dark Paladin".

Kaiba attempts to use his dragon to wipe out Yugi's monsters and Life Points in one turn, but Yugi prevents this by activating "De-Fusion", which splits the "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon into three dragons again. This in turn increases the ATK of Dark Paladin (as it inherits Buster Blader's special ability) to become the strongest monster in play. Yugi uses his final turn to activate "Diffusion Wave-Motion", allowing Dark Paladin to destroy all three dragons at once to win the duel. As the tournament rules state, Kaiba is forced to give up Obelisk.

Joey Wheeler vs. Seto Kaiba
During the duel, as "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" was being played, Joey manages to regain consciousness. In the anime (but not the manga), he promptly challenges Kaiba to a duel for third place, just for fun. Kaiba declines at first, believing that dueling Joey would be beneath him, but Joey manages to convince him to duel. Although Kaiba would win, Joey reveals that Kaiba had simply allowed anger to get the best of him in both his duels him and Yugi (as witnessed by Joey once taking control of "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" in their duel, a card considered to be Kaiba's prized possessions, and Kaiba using another Blue Eyes to destroy it).

Yami Yugi vs. Yami Marik
Before the final match, Kaiba is convinced that Yugi cannot win, yet he cannot allow Marik to win, both for his personal reasons and for the greater good. He believes he has the perfect card to defeat "The Winged Dragon of Ra", "Fiend's Sanctuary", which he gives to Yugi at Ishizu's insistence.

Again, Marik turns the duel into a Shadow Game, in which the loser must forfeit their alter-ego. This is once again a shadow game that heavily favours Yami Marik, for while Yami Yugi cannot exist if Yugi is banished, Yami Marik will live on if the good Marik is banished. Even more so, even if Yugi wins the duel, the original Marik will be consumed by the shadows and Yami Marik will live on.

Marik discards Ra in his first turn, with the intention of Special Summoning Ra with "Monster Reborn" for one turn at a time. Yugi, meanwhile, manages to quickly summon "Slifer the Sky Dragon", but Marik simply revives Ra and uses its Phoenix form to destroy Slifer instantly. Marik immediately brings Monster Reborn back to his hand with the intention of destroying Yugi the next turn, but allows Yugi to draw one card. Yugi proceeds to place the card face down without even looking at it.

Marik then tries to use Ra's One Turn Kill against Yugi, but Yugi forces Marik to stop the attack with his face down card, revealed to be Fiend's Sanctuary (stupefying everyone present that he drew the one card that could save him). The magic card creates a "Metal Fiend Token" which, when attacked, would redirect the damage to Marik, causing him to lose. Marik saved himself by playing "De-Fusion" (apparently, Marik is fused together with Ra when he used the Instant Attack ability) - thus, Ra's ATK is transferred to Marik's Life Points, increasing them to 4700, and Ra, with 0 ATK, deals no damage to Marik. Yugi then quickly turns one Metal Fiend Token to three with "Multiply", then Tributes all of them to Summon "Obelisk the Tormentor". Obelisk attacks the wide open Marik directly, reducing Marik's Life Points to 700.

Yugi's triumph would be short-lived, however, as Marik activated "Metal Reflect Slime" (since he lost more than half his Life Points in direct damage). He uses his next turn to fuse the Slime with "Revival Jam", creating "Egyptian God Slime". This monster becomes a near impregnable defensive wall as it has 3/4 of Obelisk's DEF, and when Marik activates "Jam Defender", the indestructible slime is the only monster Yugi can attack. With Yugi unable to attack with Obelisk, Marik is able to protect himself until he brings "Monster Reborn" back to his hand, while also dealing to damage to Yugi's Life Points with "Bowganian" and increasing his own with "Swallowtail Spike Lizard".

He then revives Ra in Phoenix form once again to destroy Obelisk, but Yugi Special Summons Slifer with his own Monster Reborn to be destroyed in Obelisk's place (The move would be illegal in the real game). Marik immediately activates "Surprise Attack from Beyond" to give himself a second attack and wipe Obelisk out. Yugi then activates "Soul Taker" and Tributes Marik's Egyptian God Slime. Since it is a Fusion Monster of two, he uses the tribute to trigger Obelisk's effect, which would destroy Ra and and the rest of Marik's Life Points. This fails when Marik activates "Class System", preventing Ra from being destroyed by anything leads than a Level 10 monster. Marik attacks once again, tributing all his other monsters to power Ra with enough ATK that the destruction of Obelisk will also eliminate Yugi.

This time, Yugi activates "Magical Dimension", tributing Obelisk and "Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts" to Special Summon "Dark Magician" as his "Dark Magician Girl" is already on the field, and with the two magicians on the field, he activates "Ragnarok". This allows Yugi, at the expense of all his monsters, to finally destroy Ra by removing it from play, and, as Marik was fused with Ra at the time via Point-to-Point Transfer, most of "Yami Marik" is destroyed with it.

The two sides of Marik begin to fight, the good side attempting to take control and allowing Yugi to attack as a way to atone for his actions, while the evil side attempts to stop Yugi's attack. With the help of a revived Odion, the good side prevails. When the smoke clears, the good Marik has control of the body, and the Dark Marik is now his sacrifice. The good Marik surrenders to the Pharaoh he accepts once again, forfeiting his sole remaining Life Point and destroying his other self. With Marik's surrender, Yugi has won the Battle City tournament and saved the world, as well as obtaining all three Egyptian God Cards.

Yami Yugi vs. Joey Wheeler
After Yugi and his friends leave Alcatraz, both Yami Yugi and Joey Wheeler equip their Duel Disks and decks, while staring at the ocean. Once everyone has arrived at Domino City, Yami Yugi and Joey duel each other, both saying "Our Battle City is not over yet".

The duel's progress and results are not shown, but in Yu-Gi-Oh! R Yugi can be seen using the Lightning Blade Spell Card in his two duels against Deschutes Lew and Gekko Tenma, which Joey had before; and in the Waking the Dragons arc, Joey can be seen using the Red-Eyes Black Dragon against Rex Raptor, Valon and Mai Valentine.

It can be concluded that if Joey wins in their promised duel, he would get his Red-Eyes Black Dragon back as the Ante. In the manga continuity, Yami Yugi may have won however, and took Joey's Lightning Blade Spell Card as an Ante; but, in the anime continuity, Joey may have won as he had the Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Unless the duel ended in a draw and they both decided to give each other their Ante cards.

Epilogue
The Pharoah now possesses four Millennium Items (the Millennium Puzzle, the Rod, the Necklace, and the Ring), as well as the three Egyptian God Cards. This brings him closer to unlocking the hidden secrets of his former life, though many threats still await him and his friends.