Are you pumped for the next chapter? :D

Don't worry, Alcor (or Yuuma if you please, but he will be called Alcor from now on ...) will live. That's all I can promise...

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A Game of Cat and Mouse

When Alcor first arrived back in the Barian World, he hadn't expected a warm welcome.

After all, he had been their enemy of sorts until the... truth... had been revealed but no. Instead of the scorn that he had expected to get, all he got was a warm hug (oddly enough) from Merag, a bop on the head for 'making him worry' from Alit, a fist bump from Gilag, a small smile from Misael and a thight handshake and 'welcome back' from Durbe. The only one who was suspiciously absent was Vector which, Alcor noticed, nobody seemed to care about.

And that was what was eating him alive a couple of hours later, when they were all sitting around Nasch's throne in their human forms (for some odd reason), as the redheaded Barian was still not there. It wasn't that he was that worried about the guy (since they were supposendly working together now and all) but his gut was telling him that something was wrong... Alcor, after all, had been betrayed enough in his life ... times... to know the feeling and he didn't like it - one bit.

"Alcor? What's wrong?"

He blinked and stared at Merag, who had asked the question, as she played with one of the rings she and her brother still had. He didn't really understand why (he thought that they had accepted that they weren't Ryoga and Rio) but decided not to question it.

"Nothing.."

"Come on, man!" Alit, who was sitting to his left in the semi-circle all of them bar Nasch (and Vector) were making, bumped his shoulder. "You can tell us anything, you know that right?"

"Alit is right!" Gilag smiled in a friendly way. Alcor shot them both a smile and sighed. Twidling with the Emperor's Key which hid away his Baria Lapis, he gazed as they all focused on him, which surprised him. Did they really worry about him that much or were they just baby-ing him like Nasch would do from time to time? Biting his lip, he let go of the pendant.

"I'm...worried... about Vector."

His confession was met with a pregnant silence before Durbe, who pushed his glasses up his nose, spoke up.

"What do you mean? Vector can take care of himself, there is no need to worry..."

"Not that." Alcor waved that away. "I meant the fact that he isn't here - hasn't been here since I... arrived - and shouldn't he be present when we are making plans to save this world? He is one of us, after all..."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he was attempting to backstab us again..." he watched Merag mutter before Nasch spoke up.

"I don't want to do it, but I trust Vector. I ... have to." the king crossed his arms, making himself more comfy on his throne, before moving on. "I'd like to believe that I would realize if he was planning anything, Alcor."

He opened his mouth to say something but decided not to, not wanting to be on his best friend's bad side. Not that it seemed possible for him, since he couldn't remember even one moment when Nasch had been angry at him. For him? Yes. With him? Yes. At him? No... if anything, the king would always treat him like the little brother he never had - and with that, came the overprotectiveness too. But even so, he knew that speaking against Nasch wouldn't do anyone, even him, any good.

"Alright..." Durbe broke the awkward silence. "Let us continue. This is my plan. Merag, you will be going after..."

Alcor tuned them out then, wondering why the king's words didn't shake his worry at all. What if Vector was planning something? What if doom was brewing behind their backs and they just weren't aware of it? Until it was too late?

"Alcor." he shook his head when the silvernette adressed him and smiled sheepishly at the light worry on the knight's face. "Presuming that you didn't hear what I said. Misael is planning to head to the moon for his duel against Kaito. We decided it wouldn't be safe for him to go alone, so would you like to go with him?"

He turned to look at Misael, watching the blonde grit his teeth. The youngest Barian knew that he wanted to settle things on his own but also knew that Durbe was asking him to go with their Dragon Tamer so that he wouldn't overdo anything. He nodded at the knight, agreeing to his offer.

"Alright... now then, that leaves the Arclight family..."

The boy began to fiddle with his key, tuning out the plan again since he doubted any of the other bits included him. Sighing, he wondered what to do. His worry that Vector might be planning something was eating him up but, thankfully, he knew he had time to figure that out since he soon realized that his only assigment was to go with Misael when he plans to duel Kaito. Why was that? Did Nasch think that he wasn't ready to duel his ... friends... yet? He would be right there... Alcor could barely face himself now, much less any of his friends... he couldn't duel against Astral yet, not when the alien literally let him slip from his fingers...

"Hey." a tanned hand was waved in front of his face and he dully realized that he was the center of attention again. "We were wondering what you will do now since you got no assignments until later..."

"I will try to find Vector. I just can't shake of my gut feeling..." Alcor said slowly, causing the others to tense. He watched as Nasch sighed and thought for a moment before nodding.

"Alright, you can go ... wherever you think he is. But you won't be going alone..." the king's blue eyes swept over the group. "... Merag? Would you go with him?"

"Of course." the only female in their group stood up, brushing off the dirt from her skirt as she did. He got up as well as the others wished them good luck and to be safe. The duo walked away from the group for a bit before taking into the air, flying towards were Merag thought Vector could be.

"Don't worry..." Alcor looked at her to see her smiling at him. "We will find out what's wrong with Vector... Ry-Nasch... trusts your gut feeling..."

He grinned at her sadly, realizing that she still hasn't fully let go of Kamishiro Rio.

He didn't think either of them had given up on that quite yet.

- line break -

"I think he's there..." Merag pointed out after they flew for some time.

The throne room (of sorts) and the others were long gone behind them as they happened upon what looked like a ruined castle. Frowning, Alcor nodded, wondering why the redhead would be there of all places. His gut feeling made him feel ill for a moment, so he landed behind a huge boulder, sensing Merag landing behind him as she reached out for his shoulder.

"Are you alright? You look too pale Yuu-Alcor..."

Alcor shook of her worry and chuckled. "You can call me Yuuma if you want to. I know you are used to it." he watched as she frowned and flushed slightly, more than likely in annoyance that she had another slip of tongue.

"But that's not your real name... that's not ... you..."

"Yeah." he agreed. "But I spent thirteen years as Tsukumo Yuuma. He, despite not having lived for more than a couple of hours from what I recall, grew to be a part of me. A part that I'm not ashamed of. Just like Kamishiro Rio is a part of you, and Kamishiro Ryoga ... or Shark ... is a part of Nasch, too."

"You think so?" The hope in her eyes - a shade darker than his own - made him wonder if her giving up on her humanity (so to speak) was more for her brother's sake rather than wanting to. He opened his mouth to say something but kept quiet, hearing sounds beyond the boulder. He noticed that Merag beside him went silent too as they listened to what they knew was Vector.

"Don't worry." they peaked over the rock as they listened to the redhead speak. "They trust me like that the fools they are." he laughed maniacally. Alcor narrowed his eyes, upset that his gut wasn't lying after all (he wanted to believe the former mad prince, both as a human and as a Barian) but this didn't sound friendly for them... at all. Beside him, Merag wondered who he was talking to... when...

'Good.' an ancient voice, so old yet so evil, replied causing both of them to freeze. 'Soon enough, everything will be destroyed... everything!' the figured let out that horrible sound as well as the princess gasped... quite loudly. Alcor could only watch in stunned silence as a pair of violet and red eyes slowly focused on them. The feral grin that formed on Vector's face...

"Oh, look! Some guests arrived for our game!"

Merag's scream of pain was the last thing Alcor heard before losing concious to those red eyes...

Oh my! 1.6k words? I'm on a roll O.o

Anyways, leave your guesses as to what happened to the duo. Will they be saved or will they be the first victims to Vector and Don Thousand? Find out next time!

Thanks for reading! :)