They had to move again. That yawning hole along the top edge of the ceiling was too dangerous – besides, no one wanted to be near the memories of that. They found another dorm room, this one without any windows. Rei wasn't sure she liked that. What if something terrible arrived and they had no way of seeing it coming?

She was regretting her choice of attire, too. The long white dress was gorgeous, but it was tripping her up, even though part of it had torn off at the bottom. What if there was a robot or an alien or something they'd have to fight or run away from?

She bit her lip hard. No. No more of that, she told herself. You have to be tough! Just because you're the youngest in the room doesn't mean you have to act like it!

But her heart fluttered anyway.

Be like Asuka-san! She ordered herself.

The older girl sat straight, with complete poise. She was as elegant as ever, her hazel eyes hard and determined. If she was scared, she didn't show it. Rei wished she could be like that. At the very least, she wished Judai would come over here and sit next to her.

Judai, though, had sat himself in the far corner of the room. He was still isolating himself. What exactly had happened in that other dimension? Why hadn't she been able to go with? Ever since he had gotten back, it was like she didn't know him anymore. She didn't feel like she knew any of them anymore. Shou acted older and quieter, Asuka didn't smile as much, Manjoume simultaneously was calmer and lashed out a little more erratically, Kenzan had found excuses to not hang out with Rei and she had found him just sitting in a corner and staring at the walls.

She hugged herself, rubbing her shoulders.

"You all right?" Ed asked softly.

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

Manjoume kept sending half-hearted glowers towards Judai. Judai didn't look up at him to meet the gaze. Who was Yubel, anyway? Rei had heard the name before; Marty had mentioned it. He had seemed terrified when he talked about it – something about a presence that had invaded his mind. Was that what was happening to Judai? He seemed in control of himself. Rei swallowed.

"Our team's turn," she whispered.

She slid off the bed and reached for the game board, since neither Shou nor Judai showed any sign of moving from their spots. She turned the key and reached for the button. Her throat was dry – what would she spin? What kind of fate would she make?

She pushed the button.

Nothing happened.

"Huh?" she said. "What's wrong?"

Panic surged through her. The game was broken, it had fallen after the gravity let go of it and it was broken, they were going to be stuck –

After a terrifying silence in which everyone stared at each other, Shou reached out and hit the button.

Instantly, the numbers started whirring.

"How...?" Rei started.

"I guess it remembers who hit the button," Shou said dully. "It can only recognize two players. So Asuka and me have to spin each turn."

Rei nodded slowly.

A terrible thought occurred to her. What if something happened to either Shou or Asuka? What if they weren't able to hit the button, and they were stuck out here?

The numbers stopped on six. The ship moved across the track. Ding!

With shaking fingers, Rei pulled out the card.

Relief flooded through her head like she had just been doused in water.

"'Promoted to fleet captain. Move forward three spaces.'"

She could almost feel the sigh that permeated through the room. The ship moved forward another three spaces. Her spirits lightened considerably – they were already halfway across the board!

"Nice spin, Rei-chan," Kenzan said, patting her shoulder.

Rei smiled. But then she swallowed and her mood dropped again. There was still a good amount of board to go. And both sides had to take a turn. What else would they run into while they were here?

"Tenjoin-kun, your move," Manjoume said.

Asuka nodded. She turned the board to herself and turned the key. Whirr, whirr, whirr, ding!

Asuka hesitated, fingers hovering over the card.

"What if we just didn't read it?" she said. "What if we just keep spinning as quick as we can until we get there? Maybe the thing doesn't happen until we read the card – or maybe we can move fast enough to avoid whatever comes..."

The idea sounded like a fantastic one to Rei.

And then a strange, tingly feeling came over her. She felt dizzy. Her mouth was getting dry.

"Um, guys...?" she started.

And then a screech cut through her head. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. She felt like she was looking at things from a long tunnel. Her body was moving by itself.

"Rei! Rei!"

"Rei, let him go! You're gonna strangle him!"

"What happened? What's happened to her?"

As though in a dream, she felt hands yanking her backwards by her shoulders. Her hands scrabbled for something, she didn't know what.

"Read the card! Read the card! We have to know what happened!"

She could hear Asuka's shaking voice.

"All it says is 'alien stowaway'! That's all it says!"

"Shit! Rei, Rei, can you hear me?"

"What the hell?"

"Did it turn her into an alien?"

"Rei! Please, please, can you hear me?"

Help me, help me, help me!

It was scratching on the inside of her head. It was clawing at her from the inside – her heart was going to burst!

A strangled cry that wasn't her own exploded from her throat. It twisted her vocal cords in ways that didn't make sense and pain flared all down her spine. With strength that wasn't hers, she ripped free of the hands that were holding her. She bolted for the door.

"Rei!"

"Rei-chan!"

She charged into the dark hallway. It was like she was a passenger in her own body. The thing in her head forced her down onto her hands, loping along like some kind of awkward animal. She headed down into the darkness.

Let go, let go, let go, let go me! I don't want to do this!

She could hear footsteps pounding behind her. The thing that controlled her turned her eyes over her shoulder. She saw Kenzan charging after her. A snarl contorted her face and she darted into a hallway. Down that hallway she found a set of stairs. She headed down them. The air grew colder, damper. Somewhere at the back of her head she was paying attention to the creepy surroundings – the stone floor, the strange carved design across it that looked like little rivets for water to flow through, the raised dais around the carving.

"Rei! Rei, please!"

Rei tried. She really tried. For a split second, she pushed herself back into control. She gasped for breath, stumbling. And then the fuzz fell over her brain again and the thing hissed with her mouth. She wanted to cry.

Please, someone help me!

"Rei!"

She turned. Kenzan and Manjoume had reached the raised dais, looking down at her. She hissed at them. Manjoume leapt down from the dais. He landed softly. Slowly, he moved forward, his hands up.

"Rei," he said. "Hey. Calm down. It's okay. Okay?"

Rei backed up, still hissing.

"Manjoume, careful," Kenzan called.

"Hey," Manjoume said, voice low and calm. "It's okay, Rei. You wanna come back upstairs? We have to finish the game."

Help, help, help, please, I can't do anything, please help!

He came about an arm's length from her.

She lunged at him.

He seemed to have expected the motion, because he sidestepped her and she stumbled. He practically fell on her. All the air rushed from her lungs as he pinned her to the ground.

"Manjoume! Careful, you'll hurt her!"

"She's going to hurt herself at this rate!"

Rei screeched at them, struggling under Manjoume's weight, but she was too small. She could see Kenzan's feet jogging up to them. She heard the voices of the others coming down the stairs.

"What happened? Is she okay?"

"No, she's still fighting me! Oof! Keep back, Kenzan, we don't know what she's gonna do."

"She's probably terrified, Manjoume! She's like possessed or something!"

Kenzan's face appeared in her vision as he knelt down. His eyes were wide and there was cold sweat beading on his brow.

"Rei," he said. "Please, Rei, are you in there?"

The thing in her head screeched, the sound grating through her mind. She wasn't sure if she made the sound in real life. She gasped. The thing in her head was staring at Kenzan, noting his much broader frame and stronger arms. And then she felt the buzz in her head starting to lift off of her, felt as though something was pulling away from her, sneaking like a shadow across the ground towards Kenzan.

"NO!" she screamed, and this time the word actually got out.

With a massive effort, she wrenched the thing back into her own head. It screeched at her. The sound ripped from her own throat. She felt herself convulsing.

Kenzan, Manjoume, run, run, run!

Her flailing arm took Manjoume in the jaw. He gasped. The pressure on her back lifted – just enough for the strength of the creature in her head to take over and launch him off. Kenzan fell backwards onto his back. Rei surged to her feet. She felt like she was trying to hold onto molasses. The thing in her head was slippery, and it wanted out of her – she was too tiny, too weak, it wanted one of the boys – but she wasn't going to let it have them.

"Get away!" she managed to choke out. "Get away! The thing is trying to get you –"

And then her throat closed up again and instead a horrible shriek spluttered out. She lunged for Kenzan as he scrambled to his feet. Her tiny hands latched onto his throat. He grabbed her thumbs and and yanked her off, grabbing on to her wrists and holding her.

No, no, no, you have to let go or it will switch to you!

She ripped herself free and stumbled away from Kenzan. But the thing in her head wasn't giving him. It dropped into a crouch, her hands wrapping around a shard of stone on the floor. If it couldn't take the mind of someone else, it was thinking, it would just have to kill everything.

NO!

She tried to hold herself backwards so she wouldn't lunge at Kenzan, or Manjoume, or Ed, who had just leapt down into the basement hollow, or Judai or Asuka who had appeared in the doorway, or Shou who was running down the stairs along the side of the dais.

But she miscalculated. The thing wasn't trying to stab someone else with the rock shard.

It was trying to kill her.

Her own hand drove the rock shard up towards her stomach. If the girl was dead, it thought, it could easily leave the body and find a new one.

"REI!"

Something crashed into her before she could stab herself. She screamed – her own scream. Kenzan was on top of her, fighting with her hands as she kept trying to stab herself with the rock shard.

"Stop it! Stop it! Leave her alone!" Kenzan shouted.

It screeched through her throat. Then Kenzan's hand slipped – and Rei drove the shard up below his ribs. His eyes widened. He drew in a sharp breath.

NOOO!

Blood dripped onto Rei's white dress, staining it pink. The shock of the attack froze Kenzan for a moment, letting the thing holding onto Rei shove him off of her. She rolled on top of him instead, hands wrapped around his throat and squeezing. He slapped at her hands, but the shard was still shoved into his side and he wasn't able to focus enough on his own strikes.

Kenzan – KENZAN!

And then a second presence exploded in the back of her mind.

She shrieked – a mixture of her own and the thing's. Her hands flew up to clap against her temples. Her body arched and convulsed.

"Get the hell out of there, you filthy scum," a harsh voice echoed in Rei's head.

Rei felt the thing try and skitter away. In a rush, it fell out of her head. She gasped, momentarily blinded – had she been seeing things so darkly all this time? Vaguely, she saw something like a shadow slithering across the floor. And then Judai's shoe came down hard on the shadow, and she saw his eyes glowing orange and green, and the thing dissolved with another echoing shriek.

Rei fell over, rolling off of Kenzan. She could hardly breathe. She was so dizzy.

"Kenzan," she murmured, trying to push herself up.

That other presence in her head seemed to tap her back down.

"Don't move for a second. You'll just throw up. That thing had you for a while."

The voice seemed to shift between a woman's and a man's. It was odd, but not discomforting.

"Who...are you...?"

"I'm Yubel. I think you might have heard of me – don't think we've actually met, though."

The voice paused.

"You're a tough one," Yubel said, the voice sounding almost admiring. "You kept it trapped in your head so it wouldn't go after anyone else. That's not an easy thing to do."

"What...what was it?"

"Phantasm," Yubel said, and now the voice twisted with disgust. "Filthy creatures from the Barian World. They don't have a shape so they steal other people's bodies."

Rei swallowed through a dry throat.

"You saved me...thank you..."

Rei felt Yubel's presence shift, almost with surprise.

"...you're...welcome..." she said slowly, as though she weren't used to be thanked.

Rei closed her eyes as Yubel's presence drew back away from her. Whoever this Yubel was, and for whatever reason Manjoume and the others seemed uncertain about her...Rei liked her.

"Ken...zan..." she murmured.

She felt his hand flop onto hers from beside her. She managed to turn her head towards him. Judai and Ed were on the other side of him, carefully extracting the stone shard. Kenzan winced, but he tried to grin at her anyway.

"Hey. Glad you're back," he said.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

He shrugged slightly, but the motion made him wince.

"Not your fault," he said.

She gripped his hand and closed her eyes.

How much longer was this game going to continue?