"A duel on motorcycles," Kasanagi replied. "Other than that, you'd have to talk to a Turbo Duelist."

---

Sakura drew as their speed counters went up to two. She played her only Speed Spell; Speed Conversion. It's effect: As long as this card remains face-up on the field, all non-Speed Spells are treated as Speed Spells. As long as Speed World or Speed World 2 is active, this card cannot be destroyed by monster, spell, or trap card effects.

"Damn," Jack muttered. That means she can use all the Spells she wants. He thought. That just made this duel even harder.

Sakura also played another card, this one a face-down monster. She indicated that she was attacking his Marauder with her Chariot, but Jack was prepared. "I activate Over Gain! My Marauder gains 1000 attack, which makes its attac power higher than that of your Chariot!"

Sakura shook her finger at him and activated a face-down of her own; Remove Trap. Damn it, Jack thought as his trap was destroyed. His Marauder was destroyed.... (Jack LP: 3900)

...And then re-summoned on Sakura's side of the field, due to her Chariot's effect. She placed another face-down and motioned to him that it was his turn.

"Wow! That was an execelent move!" Yana exclaimed.
"Indeed, but it's a lot of work of being a turbo duelest, and it's not just duelling" Aka said.

Melhana nodded. "You've got to be able to keep your motorcycle running and upright while you're dueling. To me, it doesn't seem that safe."

---

Jack drew. "Since I've got no monsters on my side of the field, I special summon Big Piece Golem from my hand!" He said. "I'll also summon Mad Archfiend in attack mode. I'll have it attack your Chariot!"

Selena smirked. That's a rash move. She thought, activating her face-down; Blast With Chain. Instead of her Chariot being destroyed, Jack's Mad Archfiend was instead and he took damage. (Jack LP: 3500)

"I'll end my turn then," Jack said grudgingly.

Sounds like Jack's having a bad day for drawing the card he needs, Selena thought.

"Jack doesn't look that happy" Yana said.
"You got that right. What do you thing Nefe?" Aka asked.
On the other side of the VIP box, Atem places a hand on Yugi's shoulder.
"Come with me, it time to fill you in on the Shards of Truth" he said, freaking Jonouchi out a bit.

"Seems like it's something that I might like to try, as long as Melhana's willing. I'm sharing a body with her after all." Neferhenta replied.

"That makes two of us," Melhana said. "But before I actuall do attempt a Turbo Duel, I want to see how Jack fares against Sakura."

---

Yugi turned to Atem, while Jonouchi freaked. "What the heck?!" Jonouchi yelped. "Geez, you've gotta stop sneaking up on people like that!"

Yugi on the other hand wasn't phased a bit; he'd sensed Atem's aura. "You know what they are, then?" He asked.

---

Selena drew. Jack's having trouble. That doesn't mean I'm going easy on him though, she though, summoning Arcana Force I-The Magician. Again, when the fairy materialized on the field, the card above started turning. You know the drill Jack. She thought as she waited for him to call 'stop'.

After several minutes, he did, and the card was upright again. "Shit," Selena heard Jack say. Since The Magician's card had landed upright, it meant that it would have it's attack doubled once a spell card was played. And Selena was about to do just that. She placed a card into one of the spell and trap slots on her Duel Disk, the face-down card appearing momentarily on the field. The second card she played was Dual Field, which allowed her to play a second field spell. She then attacked Jack's Mad Archfiend with her Magician and his Big Piece Golem with her Chariot.

"Not so fast!" Jack called. "I activated the Trap, Hallowed Light Barrier!" A card with the image of several priestesses summoning a barrier was flipped face-up. "All damage I take from battle or any card effects is reduced to zero!" Even though Jack's Life Points didn't take a hit, his monsters were destroyed. Selena ended, Jack's Big Piece Golem being summoned to her side of the field once her turn ended. Now I've got all I need. She thought.

---

"It looks like Sakura's using an Arcana Force oriented deck," Kasanagi said as she took a seat next to Jun. "Hey, why're you in such a bad mood?"

"Pheonix." Jun replied. "What the hell is wrong with him?! What's wrong with you!?!"

"Jun! You say that like I'm not allowed to have a boyfriend!" Kasanagi replied. "I've had a crush on him since we were at the Academy. Like you don't have a crush on Asuka. Still."

Jun turned bright red. "I-I do not!" He snapped.

"Not according to the fact that your face is now resembling an oversized tomato." Kasanagi deadpanned. "Get off it Jun. I'm not your baby sister who needs protecting. I made that clear in high school."

"It's best if we talk alone about this Yugi. Two others have been told, and I think you need to be told as well. I make sure you be back before your match" Atem replied, ignoring Jonouchi's comment.

Yugi looked to Jonouchi, who nodded, knowing full well that he'd find out what Atem wanted to explain to Yugi anyway. "All right," he replied, getting up to follow Atem.

---

Jack drew. Sakura's field is almost full. She has to be planning something, with that monster that takes control of any card it destroys. He thought. But my question is what? "I play one monster in face-down defense mode and a face-down and end my turn."

Atem led him to the competive's lounge. No-one was there which was good. Atem shut and locked the door.
"I think you need to sit down for this" he said, just when Saharia and Marcia entered the room.
"And to think we arrived back early to see Yana preforming after the final duel" Marcia grumbled.

Yugi was about to sit down when the sudden appearance of Saharia and Marcia made him jump. He regained his composure and asked the first question which popped into his head.

"Where were you two, anyway?"

"I took Marcia to my time. And she loved it. The city accepted us on the spot. Then after a while, to my home realm. You will love it when you come for my ceromony. It starts an hour from when the tornament's finished" Saharia said.
"And I guess that you want to go and see the turbo duel?" Atem asked.
"It depends what you are talking about" Marcia said.

Selena drew. And smiled. She first played her field spell, Light Barrier. The visual effect of Speed World 2 wasn't modified, but the field spell card remained on the field as a continuous spell. She smirked as she watched the look on Jack's face when reading the effect sunk in. She then sacrificed the two monsters she had gained control of--Big Piece Golem and Twin-Sword Marauder--to summon Arcana Force XXI-The World. Thanks to Light Barrier, she didn't bother with letting chance dictate what effect her monster had, she just picked the upright effect to activate. She motioned for The Chariot to attack Jack's face-down monster, which was revealed to be Dread Dragon. She then indicated the the World was going to attack directly. What a pity. Already this duel is coming to an end. She thought as her monster prepared to attack.

"Not so fast!" Jack snapped. "I activate Negate Attack! Not only is your attack negated, but your Battle Phase is ended as well."

Selena smiled. Jack's Dread Dragon was summoned to her side of the field, where she activated the upright effect of The World; she sacrificed The Magician and Dread Dragon to skip Jack's turn.

---

"Atem did say he wanted to explain in private," Yugi said, looked to Atem out of the corner of his eye.

"I'll stay. I have a feeling what you two are going to talk about" Saharia said, as Atem unlocked the door as Marica walked out.
"I see you guys soon. Who's dueling in the moment?"
"Jack and Selena. They're doing a turbo duel" Atem explained.
"Great! I head down to have a look" and Marcia walked down the hallway, leaving Atem to close and lock the door yet again.
"Is it relating to the Shards?" Saharia asked. Atem sadly nodded.

"What are they, exactly?" Yugi asked.

"The Shards of Truth, or Thranakh Yashara in Ancient Egyptian, is made out of purely out of crystal. What's makes it unique is that it's shaped like a heart" Atem explained.
"There are different vessels for each shard. Inside, its hidden a huge amount of power. Put the vessal under an ultrasound and it will register as a normal human heart. There is another aspect of it but I need to explain it when everyone is together" Saharia said.

As Atem and Saharia explained, Yugi was putting the pieces together. When Saharia was done with her statement, his eyes went wide. "And Ashleigh is one of the vessels, isn't she?" He asked, fearing the answer.

---

Jack bit the inside of his lip. She's got me cornered, he thought as Sakura drew. I didn't expect her, one of the Legends, to be this good in a Turbo Duel.

Sakura played a trap; Level Conversion lab. As the dice to determine the monster's level appeared on the field, she showed the monster from her hand that she was attempting to use it on; Arcana Force VIII-The Tower. The die came out as two, which meant that The Tower's level was two. As expected, she summoned it. In addition, she selected which effect she wanted to activate, which was the upright....

"Crap!" Jack exclaimed. Sakura merely smirked as his two face-downs were destroyed. She then indicated that she was attacking him directly with The World and The Tower, wiping out the last of his Life Points. (Jack LP: 0)

The two Turbo Duelists slowed to a stop as Jack hung his head in shock. I didn't even land an attack on her, he thought. Hell, she didn't even lose any Life Points! I lost in only a few turns.... Whatever the announcer was saying wasn't even registering for Jack as he was caught up in his thoughts and total disbelief.

'That wasn't a bad duel, you know.' A voice echoed in his head. He looked over at the Legend. No way, that was--?

'But...your skill is nowhere near that of a Legend. Not yet, anyway.' Sakura continued. 'Duel me again when you've gotten better. I'm dissapointed in you, Jack Atlas.' With that she drove off, leaving Jack to his thoughts.

That is the strength of a Legend, then. It appears I still have a lot to learn. He thought.

"Huh? What?" Saharia asked in surprise. Atem nodded sadly.
"That's right. That's why Aka is experiancing all of Ashleigh's pain and suffering. There are others but I have no idea who" he explained, throwing a box of tissues at Yugi. Then there was a knock at the door.
"I think it's time to let everyone know the reason why Ashleigh's been captured' Atem said, as he unlocked the door and opening it.
"Why was the door locked?" Yana asked, "We all get an hour break."
"Perfect timing then" Saharia said, as everyone headed through the door.

Yugi blew his nose. This doesn't sound good at all, he thought, worried about not only Ashleigh, but also anyone else who would get involved. We've got to stop Kaimiri! But to do that...we've got to get Yusei back first.

"Everyone, I think it's time to tell you about why Kaimiri wanted Ashleigh in the first place" Atem said. By now, everyone was sitting down. Aka held Yugi as he was still upset from the news about his wife. Yana was sitting next to her dad. Melhana, Nefe, Saharia and Atem was standing. Only Kaiba was absent.
"Yeah. I mean, I been too busy practicing to know what was going on" Anzu piped up. Melhana had to feach her so she was a bit late.
"I know that my daughter and Melhana know about this. And I just informed Yugi about it too, hencing the state he's in" Atem said, "Now, have anyone of you heard of the Thranakh Yashara before?" Everyone looked confused.
"Thranakh Yashara means Shards of Truth. There is two sides of this. Time and Power" Saharia explained.
"Time?" Atem asked.
"Yes. You only studdied the power side of things" Saharia replied, "I studied more of it and discovered the time aspect of it."
"I think that we should explain what it is and the power source. The Shards are a huge power source which it carved into a heart, being pure crystal. With one of these shards, it has the power to destory about 100 cities. Have all and the world's gone. That's why there are vessals. Vessals are there to protect the shards but they don't realise it. There are different vessals in each generation. I should know. My daughter is a formal vessal. And it could be anyone. That's wht Ashleigh was hunted down. It was more serious than we all thought." Atem explained.

Chills ran down Jonouchi's spine. "How many of these things are there?" He asked.

"Nobody knows. For all we know there could be only a few, or thousands. Maybe even millions." Melhana replied. As she spoke, Aoi was tapping away on her laptop. Suddenly, she froze. Daichi was the first to notice.

"Sis?" He asked.

"Guys, it looks like Kaimiri's got one of the Shards." Aoi said in a shaken voice, much unlike her own. She turned the laptop around to show the image and the report.

"According to this, someone was found in Scotland with their heart ripped out." Aoi said. Sure enough, the photograph showed a young man--no older than thirty--laying in a pool of his own blood with a look of pure fear on his face. There was a hole in his chest where his heart used to be. Clearly the organ had been ripped out.

Jonouchi looked like he was about to be sick. Kasanagi turned away. Sora had a hand over her mouth and was turning green. Jun was scanning the article, hoping to find something to see that it was a joke. Crow looked like he wanted to kill something. Jack punched the wall and swore. "Damn it! What the hell are we supposed to do about this?!" He demanded.

The room was silent until Yugi spoke up finally. "We fight him." He said, speaking for the first time since finding out that his wife was a vessal.

"Goodness knows when he will take the other shard he already has" Atem said.
"But there is another aspect to the shards. Another reason it's called the Shards of Time. The vessals also have a time aspect. Meaning, more shards are collected, more time is screwed up. Because of that Kaimiri has done, time began to collide. All of you guys are suppose not to meet. Only Yugi, Atem, Judai and Yusei is are suppose to meet. But because of that shard, your times collided" Saharia explained.
"Wait. What other shard?" Yana asked. The room became silent when they realised why Yugi was upset.

"Ashleigh's." Yugi replied. "Apparently, she's a vessal."

"Speaking of vessals," Neferhenta said suddenly, making everyone jump. "There's three in this room."

"Who?" Jack asked.

Neferhenta looked nervous. "They're...Mai Kujaku, Jun Manjoume, and Edo Pheonix."

Kasanagi let out a small gasp and clapped her hands over her mouth. My brother...and my boyfriend are both vessals? She thought in disbelief. Apparently, Jun didn't want to believe it either.

"No way! My heart isn't made of crystal!" He snapped.

"How would you be able to tell if it shows up as a normal heart in a test?" Sakura asked, having typed the question out on her phone.

Jun didn't know how to answer. Kasanagi could tell that he didn't want to believe it at all. There was a similar expression on Edo's face, with his jaw set and fear in his ice blue eyes.

Mai froze at what Nefe said.
"You're kidding me right?" she asked.
"No, not mum" Yana said.
"This is really bad.; One shard is gone, somebody got murdered because of this, I felt pain...."
"You want to know how you felt the pain?" Saharia asked. Aka nodded.
"What about the rest of you?" Saharia asked.

Nefe shook her head. "I'm not, I'm afraid." She replied.

Kasanagi squeezed Jun's hand as he trembled with either rage, fear, or a combination of the two. Most likely, a combination.

"Are...are there any others we know who are vessals?" Crow asked, dreading the answer.

Saharia used her magic to make the screen more like a time screen. Then the screen showed a screen at the dungeon.
"Watch and you see" she said.

"No..no....not that..." Ashleigh said, shaking her head, "You can't possibly mean...."
"Oh, I do." Kaimiri replied, "The ones who hold the Shards as their hearts...are going to die. By my hand if I must."
"Then why did you kidnapped my husband then?" Ashleigh asked.
"To get to the rest of the Shards." Kaimiri replied. "I was hoping to convince him to join our side, but when that didn't work I took some more...drastic measures." "Wait, you wanted me to loose control of my powers AND turned me over?" Ashleigh asked. Kaimiri nodded.
"However, neither of those methods worked. But this one it appears has." He keyed in a code to open the bars. He stepped into the woman's cell. "Now, I need your heart if you wouldn't mind."
"No, I won't let you" Ashleigh said and she blasted him out of the cell, "No-one will have my heart." Kaimiri picked himself up.
"Well, then I guess we'll just have to do this the hard way." He said, stepping back up to the girl. He used a spell to make his hand immaterial and phased it through Ashleigh's chest, closing his hand gently and firmly around her crystalline heart. "And I wouldn't suggest using your power right now, or even moving. Doing either could cause you to meet your demise."
Ashleigh gasped, feeling his hand clasped around her heart. A tear slid down her face. Kaimiri held her heart in his hand for several moments before releasing it and pulling his hand out of her chest. He used the counterspell to turn his hand back to normal. "Hahahaha! That look on your face was perfect! Of course, I'm not going to end this just yet." He laughed. "I've got some plans in store still, and I want you to be alive to see them."

Again, the room was silent.

Yugi looked like he was about to be sick. He muttered something under his breath, prompting Selena to ask him what was wrong. "I'm going to kill Kaimiri for what he's doing." he said, coldly. Even Jonouchi, and Selena, the ones who were probably the strongest there, recoiled. This isn't good, Selena thought. His eyes...that look in his eyes reminds me of the look that was in Atem's when he played the Seal all those years ago.