Episode 26: Rescue Mokuba! Kaiba vs. Pegasus

The gang has finally made it to Pegasus's castle. Kimo is skeptical that these clowns have all won ten Star Chips, but Yugi, Joey, and Mai show off the Star Ships on their dueling gloves, and he has no choice but to stand aside while Mai opens the gate.

Still, he's not about to let Téa, Tristan, and Bakura into the castle—they don't even have dueling gloves! Téa protests that they're the cheerleaders, but he's not swayed. Not until Mai turns on the charm and distracts him long enough for the other three to sneak past. Then she clocks him with her bag.

Yugi is eager to find Pegasus and get to rescuing his Grandpa, so he runs through the entry hall, and the others follow. They come out onto the balcony overlooking the dueling hall, where they spot Bandit Keith. (Whom the subtitles call "Paul Douglas." And then, a moment later, "Png Tit Dak Dei Si.") Joey's all set to start a fight, but Keith easily throws him off, telling him the real action is about to start. They look down into the arena, where Kaiba has just entered, and Keith tells them Kaiba's about to duel Pegasus.

Croquet enters and introduces himself, welcoming the finalists to the castle, and inviting them to watch the special exhibition match between Kaiba and Pegasus. (In the Japanese, Croquet doesn't tell them his name. I'm not sure his name is ever mentioned in the Japanese version.)

Kaiba clutches the pendant with Mokuba's picture, mentally telling his little brother that he won't let anything stop him from rescuing him. Then the door at the opposite end of the walkway opens, and Pegasus makes a grand entrance, looking dashing in his red suit, and flanked by two of his goons. Kaiba demands to know where Mokuba is, but Pegasus puts him off with some pretend pleasantries, and tells him he can have Mokuba back if he beats him in a duel.

Yugi notices Pegasus's Millennium Eye, thinking that even Kaiba will find it hard to beat. Joey can't believe he's saying this, but he hopes Kaiba wins and gets his brother back. And Tristan agrees that anyone who stands up to Pegasus can't be all bad. Yugi, too, thinks that nothing could be more noble than fighting for someone you love. (In the Japanese, Jounouchi says he wishes Kaiba and Pegasus could both lose. But if Pegasus loses, he might end the tournament, they'd lose their chance to defeat him. Honda says yes, then let's watch Kaiba lose. Yugi reflects that althought he has to beat Pegasus to get his Grandpa back, somehow he still doesn't want Kaiba to lose.)

Finally Kaiba notices the audience up in the gallery. Yugi says hi, and Kaiba's pretty surprised to see Yugi in the castle after their duel, but then he passes it off, saying he should have known Yugi would find a way.

Kaiba gets out his Duel Disks and tosses one to Pegasus, telling him he should have no problem dueling with it. Pegasus looks it over like it's some strange outer-space contraption, and says he doesn't even know how it works. Does he spin it like a top, or roll it like a ball? And he sends it rolling down the walkway, his two goons chasing after it.

Kaiba is not amused. Pegasus then says he'll use Kaiba's system as long as Kaiba will agree to allow someone else to operate the Duel Disk on Pegasus's behalf. Pegasus's goons lead in the proxy Pegasus wants to use—it's Mokuba's soulless shell. Pegasus shows Kaiba the card in which he's trapped Mokuba's soul, and the gang realize Pegasus has done to Kaiba's brother what he did to Yugi's Grandpa. Pegasus renews his promise to restore Mokuba's soul if Kaiba wins their duel—but now tells Kaiba that if he loses, his soul will be forfeit as well. Now Yugi realizes why Kaiba was willing to risk everything to win their duel, and determines to help Kaiba any way he can in his duel with Pegasus.

Kaiba, meanwhile, unable to duel against his brother, gives in to Pegasus's mind games and agrees not to use the Duel Disks. Mokuba is led away, and Pegasus gives the order for the arena to be set up. The walkway splits, and a dueling arena is lowered from the ceiling and joins with the walkway. The duelists take their places at opposite ends of the arena.

Yugi calls to Kaiba to believe in the heart of the cards, but Kaiba doesn't appreciate the advice, telling Yugi to keep out of it. (In the Japanese, Yugi warns Kaiba to beware of Pegasus's Dragon Capture Jar. Jounouchi asks Yugi why he's giving Kaiba advice, and Yugi says Kaiba's dueling to save his little brother, and therefore he absolutely must not lose. Kaiba thanks Yugi for his advice, but says he'll fight his own duel.) The duel begins.

Pegasus begins by playing a monster in defense and another card face down. Kaiba draws, and is pleased to see that he's drawn a Blue Eyes White Dragon in his opening hand. But he doesn't want to risk his dragon until he has a better idea of Pegasus's strategy (in the Japanese, he's wary of the Dragon Capture Jar Yugi told him about), so he also sets a card face down, then summons Rude Kaiser in attack mode, and easily destroys Pegasus's defense monster.

Pegasus seems to be stunned by Kaiba's attack, saying he doesn't think he has a monster in his deck to compare to Kaiba's creature! —Until he draws his next card, and plays Parrot Dragon, with an attack of 2000—which is 200 more than Kaiba's monster. He attacks, but Kaiba plays his face down card, Mesmeric Control (Hypnotism), which reduces the Parrot Dragon's attack by 800 points, allowing Rude Kaiser to destroy it.

Again, Pegasus acts as though he thinks he's in trouble, but Kaiba doesn't buy it. Tristan and the others wonder what's going on—Pegasus is dueling like an amateur. But Joey remembers that this is the way Pegasus acted when he dueled Yugi. He's messing with Kaiba, and Yugi hopes Kaiba realizes it. Kaiba thinks Pegasus is acting like he knows exactly what Kaiba's going to do.

Kaiba decides to get tough, and play a card he knows Pegasus can't defend against—his Blue Eyes White Dragon. But before he can lay the card down, Pegasus stops him, playing his trap card, Prophecy. (He calls it a trap card, but in the US version, it's actually a magic card. It's a trap card in the Japanese.)

This card allows him to guess whether the monster Kaiba's about to play has an attack higher or lower than 2000. If he's right, he gets to take the card. Then he announces that Kaiba's card is the Blue Eyes White Dragon, and Kaiba angrily hands it over.

Yugi knows that Pegasus is using his Millennium Eye to read Kaiba's cards, just as he did to Yugi in their duel. How can even Kaiba fight against him? Pegasus taunts Kaiba that now he has two things of Kaiba's—his little brother and his dragon. And Kaiba, without his Blue Eyes, puts his monster in defense and ends his turn.

Pegasus uses his Millennium Eye to check out Kaiba's hand, and sees that Kaiba's holding the Crush Card and Saggi the Dark Clown. He realizes that Kaiba intends to play that combo to infect his deck with a virus, but now that he knows, he can play the right cards to stop it. Pegasus plays another face-down card, and sets a monster in defense.

Kaiba plays Saggi the Dark Clown and the Crush Card, which will destroy every monster in Pegasus's deck with an attack greater than 1500, the same move he used on Yugi in their duel. But Pegasus activates his covered card, Negative Energy (Dark Energy), doubling Saggi's attack to 1200. And since the Crush Card can only be activated with a monster of less than 1000 attack points, it's destroyed.

Pegasus claims it was just a lucky move, then summons his defense monster, the Dark Rabbit, whose attack is also doubled by Negative Energy, to 2200 points. The Dark Rabbit destroys Saggi the Dark Clown, reducing Kaiba's life points to 1000.

Kaiba starts to panic, realizing he's really in trouble. And Pegasus taunts him that he's just begun to use his Millennium Eye.

To Be Continued