Yusei screeched to a stop in front of the hospital, not even bothering to park nicely. He left his D-Wheel parked lopsided next to the sidewalk, shoving his helmet under his arm as he ran. Behind him, Carly squeaked as she got her foot caught on the seat while she tried to get her legs both onto the ground, but he didn't think he had the fortitude to wait for her. He shoved through the brightly lit doors of the hospital lobby and made straight for the hallway towards the room he knew Jack would be in.

A nurse shouted at him to hold up, to stop running in the hospital, but the blood was pounding in his ears and he couldn't be bothered to even make a hurried apology. Jack was awake—he was awake, oh, thank god, at least one of them was—

Ushio was standing outside the door, arms folded and fingers drumming across his arm. He looked pale, drawn. It was a nerve-wracking expression to see on his normally tough, scowling face. His expression relaxed ever so slightly as Yusei darted around a nurse pushing a cart and got shouted at before he made his way to Ushio.

"How is he?" Yusei said.

Thankfully, Ushio was the kind to get right to the point.

"He just woke up a handful of minutes before I called you," he said. "He was pretty bad at first—flailing and fighting as though something was trying to kill him. They almost had to put him back under."

Yusei's heart dropped into his stomach but Ushio kept talking.

"He got lucid pretty fast," he said. "Said that he needed to talk to you right away."

He hesitated, one hand over the handle to Jack's room. Yusei's heart threw itself against his rib cage, and he wondered why Ushio wasn't just opening the door right now—he had to get in there and see Jack.

"Yusei—I don't know if he's really all there even now," he said. "Just...just please take it slow. I'm not sure what the hell is going on, but it seems like some more crazy bullshit that seems to follow you kids around."

He frowned, glancing down at Yusei, his bushy eyebrows furrowing between his eyes.

"I'd hate to see you kids getting more banged up than you already have been."

Yusei managed a faint smile—honestly, for part of him, the idea of Ushio actually caring about his well being still felt very surreal. It felt like just yesterday that Yusei had spent every waking moment of his life fearing the flash of a Security uniform around a corner or the faint screech of a siren going off. Even now, the uniform still made him nervous, and he knew that Ushio always noticed the way that Yusei and the others always kind of tensed up at the sight of him, despite everything. But the concern in Ushio's eyes was genuine, and Yusei couldn't help but be grateful to the man for it.

"We're doing our best," he said, knowing just how weak his voice sounded.

Ushio's gaze darkened with further concern, but he didn't say anything more. He just pushed the door open and let Yusei in.

Jack sat straight up and perfectly still on the bed, his eyes flashing with a strange, almost wild clarity as Yusei entered. Luka jumped a little. She sat perched on the very end of a chair beside Jack's bed, her hands clasped between her knees.

"You took too long," Jack said.

"I came as quickly as I could," said Yusei, walking inside and dropping his helmet on the end of Jack's bed. "How—are you all right?"

Jack waved his hand widely as though to say it wasn't important.

"That's not the issue here," Jack said. "Yusei, I saw him. I saw Lua.'

"You...what?"

It took Yusei a second to even process what Jack had said, but Jack was already continuing.

"I don't know what the hell that machine was, Yusei, but I—I could see him. I could see Lua, and he was in danger. His soul is somewhere else. I don't think he was able to see because he kept stumbling around and running into this...broken up labyrinth of stone walls. And..."

Jack's face suddenly drained of color, and his eyes dropped to his lap.

"Something was chasing him, Yusei. I couldn't—I couldn't see what it was, but something was chasing him. That game stole his soul and now he's in trouble."

"You're sure?" Yusei said.

Jack just nodded sharply.

"I-I heard him too," Luka said. "In my head...like when he was calling to me across the dimensions back when I was in my coma. I think...I think Lua might be able to call over dimensions, and I can hear him from wherever he is."

Yusei really didn't know how he was supposed to respond—what was he supposed to do with this information? Lua was in trouble, but...but how was Yusei supposed to help him? There were so many more questions than answers. Why did the machine take Lua's soul away, but not Aki's, Jack's, or Crow's? Why was it affecting them all differently?

"Jack, why didn't it take you there, too?" Yusei said.

Jack shook his head slowly.

"I...I don't know. I think I was...close. But something happened. I managed to hold myself back, and then I caught a glimpse of Lua before I woke up here."

There was something in the tightening of Jack's jaw and the way that his face turned even paler that made Yusei think there was something that Jack wasn't sharing. He tilted his head.

"Jack?" he said softly.

Jack wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Jack, what happened when you started up that game?"

Jack actually looked...scared?

"I don't want to talk about it," he said. "It's not important, anyway. We have to do something about Lua. And Aki, too—we need to find her before something goes wrong."

"I know, I know," Yusei said. "But...but how do we go about..."

The only thing he could think of was searching the old Arcadia compound, but in spite of himself, a shudder ran down his spine imagining delving into that old, ruined building by himself in the middle of the night. And what could be waiting for him in there? Could this even be a trap?

"I'll go check out the old Arcadia Movement," he said. "Maybe there are clues. Maybe I can find a lead on where Aki went, or where the game came from, or something."

"You're not going without me," Jack said, gripping the edges of the blanket as though about to throw it off of him.

"Jack, you need to stay right where you are until the doctors clear you," Ushio growled.

"Make me," Jack hissed.

Yusei started to step in between them, his hands raised and shaking in spite of himself. This was all—too much. Too much at once. He definitely couldn't let Jack come with him, even if the idea of going alone made him feel like throwing up. He had to—no, he had to be tough, like always. He had to hang on.

"I—I'm going to go after Lua," Luka said suddenly, her voice ringing through the room.

Every set of eyes turned to her at once as the room went silent, but despite the paleness of her face, she didn't wither in the slightest.

"How?" Yusei said. "We don't even—"

"I can get there," Luka said, pressing her hand over her heart, her round face suddenly tight with determination. "Remember? I have the power to walk across the worlds. I heard Lua's voice—I'm sure I can reach out to where he is."

"Luka, no," Jack said. "That—that thing—we can't send you in there."

Jack's voice caught when he mentioned whatever monster was chasing Lua, and even Yusei had to shudder knowing just how frightened the idea had made Jack. If Jackwas scared...

"But Lua is there all alone!" Luka said, her voice going high pitched. "I'm a Signer, Jack—and he's my brother!"

"Out of the question," Jack said. "No."

"I'll bring Regulus and Ancient Fairy Dragon," Luka argued, standing up from her chair, hands rolling into fists at her sides. "I'm a Signer too!"

"Luka, please, we have to think about this," Yusei said, holding up his hands. "Luka, we're all scared, we're all strung out, we can't make any rash decisions."

"Oh, rash decisions, like you going to check out the Arcadia Movement all by yourself?" Luka shot back.

"That's—"

"Different? Because you're older, and I'm younger? We're all still just kids, Yusei!"

Fat tears rolled down out of her eyes, leaving silvery trails down her cheeks.

"He's the only family I have left, Yusei," she sobbed. "I have to go and get him. I have to go."

"Luka—"

She sniffled loudly, then dragged the back of her arm harshly over her eyes and nose to wipe them clean.

"And I'm going whether either of you give me permission or not."

Jack leaned forward to make a swipe towards her, to grab her. But Luka had already turned on her heel, and before Yusei or anyone could even breathe, she had simply popped out of existence, leaving only a faint sprinkle of sparkles in the air where she had been, which faded out in a few seconds.

Jack let out the foulest string of obscenities that Yusei had heard in years.

"Fucking hell, Yusei, why didn't you stop her? We have to get her out of there!"

"Jack, neither of us have her powers!" Yusei shouted back, his own nerves snapping. Oh, god, Luka was gone. Luka had gone wherever that godforsaken machine had taken Lua, to wherever that monster that had frightened Jack was, and she was going to be out there with just Lua and the twins were all alone and if they were in trouble, there was nothing that Yusei could do. He didn't have the ability to cross worlds, he wouldn't even know if either of them were coming back until they did—

"I have to get to the Arcadia Movement now," Yusei said, grabbing his helmet and jamming it back on his head.

"I'm coming with you," Jack said. He flung the blanket off of him and stormed across the room to grab his coat.

"Jack—Yusei—both of you, goddamit," Ushio swore.

"Save it!" Jack snapped at him, smacking back Ushio's hand as he stormed past. "Take care of Crow!"

Yusei didn't have the energy to argue with Jack, and knew there was nothing he could do to stop him from coming. Part of him was relieved that he didn't have to go alone. But the rest of him—

The rest of him was occupied with being terrified about what was coming next.

. . .

Luka breathed in too deeply and immediately regretted it, coughing and hacking up half a lung with all the dust that she had inhaled. Ugh, what was this smell? It was like something was burning. And where was it coming from? She couldn't see anything...

She turned in a slow circle, trying to squint at the horizon, but nothing appeared. She waved her hand in front of her face, but it was like it wasn't even there. A faint nervousness crawled down her spine. W-why was it so dark? How was she going to find Lua here?

"Regulus?" she whispered. "Regulus, I need you."

Her voice seemed to get swallowed up by the dust, and disappear before it even finished coming out of her mouth. She waited expectantly for Regulus to appear, for his solid bulk to push against her hands, for his voice to echo into her head.

But nothing happened.

Luka's heart fluttered.

"A-Ancient Fairy Dragon?" she said. "Ancient Fairy, I need you."

She didn't even feel the faintest spark in her chest, or even a hint of the magic that usually let her know that her voice had gone through and her monster friends were coming. It was like...

It was like no one could hear her from here.

Panic gripped Luka's head, and she almost fell over. She wrapped her arms around herself in a tight hug, her knees shaking against each other. No, no, no, what was she supposed to do? She couldn't summon Ancient Fairy, and she couldn't summon Regulus, it was like from here, they couldn't even hear her! In a brief spike of panic, she tried to jump back into the other world, despite the guilt that wracked her.

But she couldn't.

She couldn't go back.

Luka almost screamed. It was like all of her powers had left her all at once—she couldn't summon, she couldn't hear her monsters, she couldn't leave this world. She couldn't find Lua—what had she been thinking? She couldn't—she couldn't—

A horrible scream sounded in the distance, and she actually screamed herself this time, clapping her hands over her ears. The panic that wracked her didn't even feel possible for her to be able to contain, she thought she was going to shake so hard that she would fall apart.

Instinct took over and she fled in the opposite direction of the scream. Her feet tripped and scrabbled over the thick, dusty ground, as though she were running through a fast desert. What if there was something in front of her? Hadn't Jack mentioned something about walls, a labyrinth? What if she ran into something and knocked herself out?

She couldn't fight the primal fear that coursed through her, and she kept running anyway.

A second scream started somewhere in the distance in front of her. She tried to skid to a stop—was there more than one? The dusty ground was slippery, however, and her arms wheeled as she tried to careen to a stop—

She smacked right into something very heavy, very solid, and very alive.

A scream ripped out of her throat, so loudly that she didn't hear the other shape scream at first. She couldn't see—she could only feel her panic as she tried to extract herself from the sudden tangle of warm limbs that she was stuck in, her coat clasps getting stuck on another set of clasps—

Oh!

"L-Lua?" she managed. "Lua! Lua, it's me!"

The other shape was still trying to struggle free of her, and she could almost taste his panic, but she managed to fight through her own panic enough to be able to feel through the darkness where she knew his face must be. She grabbed it in both hands, and found it gloriously solid and warm, like a real human face should be.

"Lua! Lua, it's Luka!"

And then that glorious sound choked through the darkness.

"L-Luka?" her brother's voice said. "L-Luka? Is that r-really you?"

"Yes, yes, yes," Luka sobbed. "It's me, it's really me."

His hands fumbled through the dark, and she felt his hands wrap around her pigtails briefly, as though that was the deciding factor. Then his hands fell on top of hers and then he was hugging her and both of them were sobbing into each other's shoulders, feeling the tremble of panic that went down both of their spines.

"I-I'm sorry," Lua sobbed. "I-I'm not brave at a-all."

"It's okay, it's okay," Luka said. "We're together now—they can't beat us, right? Not with our twin combination!"

Lua actually giggled through his tears.

"Y-yeah," he said. "W-we'll show them...right?"

"Right, right, right," Luka said, just so happy that he was here—her brother was here, he was okay, he was still alive, and she had found him.

Then the screaming started again, and both of them froze up at once. Lua's hands dropped from the hug and he grabbed her hand in his.

"We have to run," he said, his voice trembling with fear.

"W-what are they?" Luka said.

"I don't know but they're bad, we can't let them catch us!"

It was only then that Luka realized that there was something on her hand—something warm, and slippery...

"Oh my god, Lua, you're bleeding!"

Lua's hand tightened on hers.

"I-it caught up to me a few times," he mumbled. "I-I think i-it's...I think it's playing with me...it just does one cut and then it lets me squirm free...it's going to get a leg at some point and then—"

The scream that had driven Luka towards Lua went up behind them, matching the one somewhere in front of them. She could feel the tremor that ran down Lua as it ran all the way down to her hand.

"Oh my god," he mumbled. "There are two of them."

. . .

His phone rang four times before he managed to stumble down the stairs, still bleary eyed with sleep, tripping over West's soccer ball and slamming his knees against the counter with a swear word that he probably shouldn't let the kids be hearing—hopefully, they were still asleep.

Letting out a mental burst of obscenities at whoever the hell was calling at this time of night, Kiryu Kyosuke snatched his phone from the counter to look at the caller ID. He didn't recognize the number—he was almost irritated enough to ignore it, but just angry enough to answer it so that maybe he could shout at someone and let off the steam. He hit the green accept button and pulled the phone to his ear, mouth opening to give whatever piece of shit telemarketer this was a piece of his mind—

"It takes exactly one hour and twenty-two minutes to reach Neo-Domino at the highest speeds your bike can handle," the voice on the other end of the line said.

It was such a strange way to start the conversation that Kiryu actually couldn't speak for a moment. What was moresurprising was the fact that he recognizedthis voice.

"...Carly?" he said, blinking into the dark kitchen. "Is that you?"

"No, it's the chicken who crossed the road," Carly's voice said into his ear, ringing with a lot more sarcasm than he felt like he should expect. A nervous tingle started down his arms. He hadn't...really spoken to Carly much after they had, well, you know, come back from the dead, but he was pretty certain that not-Dark-Signer Carly was a little less abrasive than this?

He felt for one chilling moment that he was standing in the cold underground chamber with only half melted candles for light, with the new girl striding in behind Misty with a cold look in her dark eyes and a stinging retort to his casual jibe. It was so jarring that he almost fell over, and he had to press his hand to the counter for balance.

"What do you want?" he said, trying to remember how to breathe. He was going to have another panic attack, wasn't he?

The next time Carly spoke, her voice was a little bit gentler, as though she had sensed his discomfort.

"I need you to get to Neo-Domino in the next one hour and twenty-two minutes," she said. "Because Yusei and Jack are most likely about to do something stupid as soon as Jack gets cleared to leave this hospital, and I'd feel better if someone joined them in their stupidity."

"What are you...what are you talking about?"

Carly's breath whuffled against the speakers.

"Summary: Lua's been kidnapped, Aki's gone missing, the Arcadia Movement is probably involved. Yusei and Jack are probably going to go after them."

What the fuck? In spite of everything, the first thought to run through Kiryu's head was I leave those guys alone for twoseconds and everything goes to hell.

"But why are you calling me? I don't even know if I can get there that fast—two hours? I know it takes longer than that to get there—"

"I was factoring in the very real possibility that you would be speeding," Carly said. "Which you should be speeding to get here."

She hesitated, and for a moment, he could only hear her breath against the speaker.

"Carly?" he prompted.

Her voice was a whisper.

"I'm afraid they're going to get themselves killed. That's why they need you. They need all the help they can get."

Kiryu couldn't help but feel an icy finger dragging down his spine. Were things...that bad?

Then Carly cleared her throat.

"Anyway. One hour and twenty-two minutes. That's probably more time than I can stall them for anyway. You might want to just go straight to the old Arcadia compound, meet them there. Drive safe."

And then she hung up on him, and left him alone in the dark and quiet of the kitchen. Alone with the thoughts that swirled through his head and told him of the worst possible scenarios, over, and over, and over...