In Kaiba's helicopter, Akia couldn't help but feel restless. Mokuba had found Jounouchi's location thanks to the latter's duel disk, but it was all the way over to the docks.
"Stop fidgeting. It won't make us get there faster and it's very annoying," Kaiba told her off.
Akia took deep breaths to calm her nerves. She would've usually talked back to Kaiba, but she was way too unsettled by everything to argue with him. She couldn't believe the lengths to which Marik was going. How did he even get to her friends and when? She had just left them to bring Bakura to the hospital. She then started feeling guilty about leaving. Maybe if she was there with them, she could've come face to face with Marik and maybe tried talking some sense into him. The spirit of the Pharaoh, who was still in control of Akia's brother, was looking out the window with a grave expression. He was also really worried about his friends.
"The man aiming for the God Cards and leader of the Ghouls is called Marik, right?" That statement seemed to get everyone's attention to focus on Kaiba. "What do you know about him?"
"I've never seen him face to face. All I know is that, like me, he has a Millennium Item," the pharaoh replied.
"Again with the ridiculous occult stuff," Kaiba scoffed. He then turned to Akia, "what about you? You seemed like you knew the guy a lot more than all of us."
"I don't. I just met him when we were very young. It was during a trip to Egypt with my grandpa. He's definitely nothing like he used to be anymore." Tears stung Akia's eyes, threatening to come out. She blinked them away, not wanting to look vulnerable in front of Kaiba. She zoned out for most of the conversation between Yugi and Kaiba where Yugi was trying to explain to him about how he is the spirit of the Pharaoh and about the power of the Millennium items. Of course, Kaiba was having none of it.
After a while, Mokuba got up and looked ahead. "I can see Domino Port!"
Akia and Yugi's hearts leapt at the thought of finally getting there to rescue their friends.
"There's someone down there. Is that...?" Mokuba pointed.
"Jounouchi!" Akia exclaimed as she saw her dear friend standing at the port. The helicopter landed close to where he was and, as soon as the doors opened, Akia ran to Jounouchi and put her hands on his forearms. "Jounouchi, please tell me it's still you in there... It's still you right? Right?" She begged as tears were flowing down her cheeks. She saw his blank expression. She knew it wasn't him anymore. She knew that Marik was controlling him, but she didn't want to believe it. Jounouchi then slapped her hands away and walked passed her to face Yugi. Marik had decided to do everything in his power to ignore Akia. The more he paid attention to her, the more conflicted he felt about what he was doing and he couldn't have that.
"I've been waiting for you to show up, Yugi," Jounouchi said.
"Jounouchi... seems so different," Mokuba muttered.
"Jounouchi-kun, you have to wake up," the Spirit of the Puzzle yelled out.
The blond teen smirked. "Wake up? I'm wide awake. I'm more than awake enough to beat you to a pulp. Yugi, you can't run away from me or this duel. A duel where our lives are on the line, fighting until our last breath."
"Jounouchi-kun," the other Yugi replied, "I have wanted to fight you in this tournament, but I wanted it to be as true duelists. This is not what any of us wanted. You are being controlled by Marik, this is not you!"
"Follow me, Yugi. The stage for our duel of death is over there." Jounouchi completely ignored Yugi and turned his back to them with a smirk. He started walking towards the location of the special duel set up by Marik's Ghouls.
"Jounouchi-kun!" Yugi called out once more.
When Akia heard the word duel, she quickly remembered that she still had Jounouchi's Red Eyes Black Dragon. She ran to Yugi and took the card out, handing it to him. "Yugi... If there's anything that could reach him, it would be this card. Please, use it in the duel and get Jounouchi back." Akia's hands were shaking, feeling very distraught at the thought of her brother and her close friend fighting each other in a death match.
Yugi looked down at the card and back up at his host's sister. "Akia... I promise I'll bring Jounouchi back. And with this card, I have higher chances of doing that. Thank you."
They then heard footsteps behind them. Looking back, they saw Anzu walking down the stairs of a ship.
"Anzu!" The Spirit of the Puzzle yelled out.
She had the same blank expression on her face. "Jounouchi has become my puppet. His emotions and memories are being controlled by my anger. Now then Yugi, Jounouchi is waiting for you."
When they arrived to the stage of the death duel, Akia gasped in horror. It was a square pier with an anchor in the middle, held up by two chains that were connected to a device counting down Life Points. There were also two chains that would be attached to the two duelists facing each other. Yugi fearlessly took his position as Anzu started explaining how it would all work. The one whose Life Points reach zero, would fall down into the water, dragged down by the anchor, and would drown to death. The one who won, would be able to get the key that is locked inside the box with the displayed Life Points which would unlock the cuff around their foot.
"This isn't right... Can't you stop this Kaiba?" As Akia was asking that, Anzu then went and sat down on a chair where she was strapped in by one of the Ghouls. A timer also started counting down at the base of the anchor.
"You can't escape this. Even if you do nothing, the explosive will go off in fourty minutes and it will drag you both into the sea. It's very simple. If you want to save Jounouchi, you just have to forfeit," Marik said through Anzu.
"Marik! I'll never forgive you for this!" Yugi shouted.
Mokuba also asked Seto if they could stop this duel.
"I can't accept this! I will not let Marik do what he wants in this Battle City!"
Kaiba called out.
That seemed to be the cue for a crane, driven by one of Marik's Ghouls, to be positioned right behind Anzu. Looking above her head, they saw a huge shipping container hanging there.
"Anzu! What the hell are you trying to do?!" The Spirit of the Puzzle yelled out.
"Watch closely. There's a bomb set at the top of the container," the controlled Anzu explained.
"What?!" They all exclaimed in terror.
The Ghoul in the truck grinned. "Try anything and I will press this switch, dropping the container right on top of that girl," He chuckled.
"I can't believe he'd go this low..." Kaiba grit his teeth
"Kaiba-kun. I'd love if you could just behave yourself and watch as the greatest show in existence begins. I'd like for this girl to see this amazing show as well." Marik then relinquished control of Anzu. When she opened her eyes, they were no longer blank.
"Anzu!" Yugi called out to his friend.
When she got out of her daze, she noticed the scene in front and around her. She also noticed that she was restrained. "Hey! What's going on here?! Yugi! Jounouchi!"
"That's really dirty Marik! Let Anzu go!" Yugi roared in anger.
Everyone was frozen in place. Any wrong move and Anzu would lose her life. Akia couldn't believe how cruel Marik had become. She couldn't idly watch anymore. She turned to Mokuba. "Mokuba, can you please come with me to the helicopter? This is all too much for me..." Akia said it loud enough for Marik to hear her, so as to not arise any suspicions.
"Oh, yeah sure. Are you going to be alright," Mokuba replied with concern visible on his face.
"I'm a bit dizzy, actually. I really need to sit down away from all this." She put her hand on her head, really committing to her act, even though part of it was very real.
Kaiba glanced her way, finding it odd for her to act this way, but did not say anything. Yugi grit his teeth, worried about her too, but decided to trust her actions. When Marik heard that she was going to remove herself from the situation, he actually felt relieved. Despite hating the pharaoh and not caring about any of his friends, he did not enjoy putting her through this whole ordeal.
When Akia and Mokuba arrived at the helicopter, they sat down. The boy was still showing some signs of worry for Akia. "Will you be okay, Akia?"
That's when her whole demeanor changed from weak and worried to focused and determined. "Mokuba, can you take out your laptop that you used to locate Jounouchi's duel disk?"
Mokuba blinked twice in confusion at the sudden change. "Uh, um, yeah...!" He quickly took it out and ran the locator program. "What is it that you want to look for, though?"
"Marik. I want to look for where he might be. If I get to him in time, then maybe I can do something to help," Akia replied.
"What?! You want to go look for Marik on your own? That's too dangerous! Besides, he probably didn't get his duel disk registered under his own name," Mokuba said.
"Well, we have to try something. And don't worry about me, I can handle myself. Let's start with the basics. Look for Marik Ishtar."
"Alright..." Mokuba typed in Marik's name. As expected, there were no results.
"Hmm... Can you see all the duel disks in a certain radius from our location?"
"I could, yeah. It might bring up a lot of them though."
"Let's try..."
Mokuba searched using their location as the starting point and slowly enlarged the radius. A few pings popped up of the duel disks around, including Yugi's, Kaiba's, Akia's and Jounouchi's. There was one of a name that they did not recognize that was right next to the group.
"That's probably the Ghoul that's holding Anzu hostage. Keep going..." Akia told the young Kaiba.
The more they enlarged the radius, the more results they got, the more they were losing hoping in finding anything. They went at it for a good fifteen minutes before one particular signal caught Akia's attention. "Wait, what's this one...? Why is it blinking in and out?"
"Oh, that's probably because that particular duel disk is in a spot that has low signal. Like a basement or..." Mokuba answered.
"An enclosed area out of sight..." Akia whispered.
The signal was coming from a further location on the pier, in one of the enclosed docks. Akia had a feeling that this might be it. There was no name displayed, which Mokuba explained was also due to the weak signal.
"Mokuba, can you write me down the location and maybe get me a car to get there?" Akia inquired.
"Yeah, sure thing," the boy agreed.
"Once I go, go back out and, if anyone asks about me, say that I am resting after crying a lot at how hopeless the situation is. I wouldn't want to raise any suspicions."
Mokuba nodded, now looking as determined as Akia. He quickly called her a Kaiba Corp driver that was in the area, setting the pick up location a bit further away so that he wouldn't get any of Marik's underlings' attention. Akia headed out from the other side of the helicopter while Mokuba went back to join Kaiba. Kaiba looked at Mokuba and was debating whether he should ask about Akia or not. If she was up to something, he knew Mokuba wouldn't be able to tell him as to not give her away in front of Marik. If he didn't ask, however, it might look suspicious. "How is she?"
"She's resting. She really cried a lot so she's quite exhausted," Mokuba replied.
The young CEO could tell that his little brother was lying, because he knew him so well. He also knew that there had to be a good reason for it so he decided not to pry any further and brought back his attention to Yugi and Jounouchi's duel.