Vyse, Rita and Estelle ventured off to the Fornax to search for Rita's parents. Along the way Rita pointed to Vyse, "You! If you tell anyone about what happened back there…!"

"I promise, Rita. No one will hear it from me."

"G-Good! I doubt Yuri or Aika would be as reasonable. So get this dinghy moving already!"

Judith was flying beside them to protect their boat while the Delphinus moved closer. Being her mother's ship, Rita easily navigated through the wreck and made her way to the captain's quarters first. Even after crashing the place didn't seem too damaged besides the shuffled items from whatever occurred. Someone must have cleaned up some of the mess after the ship crashed on this rock.

There was even a ship log that was open to the date when they set sail into the Dark Rift.

My husband is convinced that there is a safe path through the Dark Rift that will lead us to the fabled Yafutoma, however having lost so many good sailors and ships already I am slowly losing faith. The burden of being married to such a stubborn man, though many would call me just as stubborn if not more so. We have recently been notified that we will lose all support from the empire if we do not get positive results soon. We've already lost a fleet's worth of ships just trying already, too many in my opinion. My only fear right now is what will happen to our daughter, Rita, should we fail to return. I have tried to send word to the Alvares but I have not heard anything from them since we established Esparanza. I know it may seem imposing to burden our friends like this, but hopefully they can care for her alongside their own daughter. It shouldn't be too difficult with her father being one of the fleet's Admirals, and last I remembered, young Sodia seemed to like our little Rita. I shouldn't be dwelling on what ifs and the worst outcomes possible before we set off on this daring venture. For my crew, for my husband, and for my daughter, we will succeed and we will return to Valua. Victoria Mordio.

Rita was trying to hold back her tears after reading the entry, turning to one of the cupboards that had a photo of the happy family together, one of the few that were still visible.

Vyse slowly turned the page to find one last entry. "Rita, there's more." Rita rushed back to the logs, reading through the new handwriting.

I don't know how long we've been stranded here. All of our clocks broke when we were blindsided by something and crashed here. Many died from the crash, some when the ship split in two. Based on the beard slowly growing on my face I would have to guess we've been here for at least a week. We lost most of our supplies when the ship opened up. We lost good men trying to retrieve the supplies from the monsters below us. The monsters here are far more aggressive than previously observed elsewhere. We've also seen very large monsters that have occasionally appeared near our wreck and others around us, but they do not attack us or show any interest in us besides looking around. The monsters that have attacked us seem to fear these behemoths for one reason or another. I believe if we can follow one of these massive creatures they might lead us to Yafutoma, or at the very least out of the Dark Rift. Some of the crew wish to just bunker down in the remnants of the ship until rescuers come. Unfortunately they do not know that we were either to succeed or fail. If anyone does come into the Dark Rift it will not be to rescue us, and if they were willing to take us with them it's possible they may not have the room to hold us all or end up crashing before we could return to Esparanza. This may be selfish, but I will continue for as far as I can with my wife, and I pray that should we not return any brave soul who manages to find this journey please find our daughter, Rita Mordio, and tell her that we love her dearly and that we did everything we could to return to her. With Love, Nicolas and Victoria Mordio.

Estelle couldn't be more excited about this, "Rita, your parents can still be alive out there. They might be at Yafutoma right now, we just…"

Rita however bolted back to the Delphinus, not letting anyone speak to her. Vyse escorted Estelle back to the Delphinus, taking the log back with them, to try and reach out to Rita. Vyse then returned with Yuri, Tikatika, Karol and Marco to continue the search through the rest of the Fornax.

"You guys find anything yet?"

There was a crash of thing as dust exploded out of a room, "Junk and more junk." Yuri walked out, dusting himself off, "Seriously, there's hardly anything in here that hasn't rusted over or rotted away."

Marco was coughing from the dust, "So why didn't you bring your walking treasure detector instead?" imitating Aika's ponytails with his arms.

Before Vyse could respond they heard Karol screaming. The trio quickly rushed to Karol's side to find Tikatika already on the scene with bow and arrow at the ready. The Ixa'takan warrior was aiming his weapon at a figure hiding in the shadow.

Yuri looked ready to fight too, but Vyse found a lantern nearby. The glass was broken, but it looked like the light could still burn. When he did it was revealed that the figure was just a very hairy man who seemed completely lost.

Rita had locked herself in her room as Estelle tried to reach out to her. "Rita, please let me in! Rita!"

Estelle's yelling and Rita running through the ship wasn't something that could be easily forgotten or overlooked. Polly, Enrique and Fina came to try and help Estelle reach out to Rita. "Do you need any help there, princess?"

"I…yes…but I can't explain everything. All I can really say is that Rita got upset about something we discovered on the Fornax."

"The…Fornax…" Polly suddenly ran off on her own, racing to get to that ship herself.

Fina seemed rather concerned, "That ship seems to be causing quite the unsettling amount of unusual behavior within this crew."

Enrique was holding an old newspaper article up, "Because that ship and Esparanza's history is a long one." He turned his attention to Rita's door, "Now to deal with our own situation… Rita, if there is anything that we can do…"

"Just leave me alone! I don't need anyone! I've never had! So just…leave…"

"Rita…you don't have to go through this alone. We're here for you, but you have to let us help you." Rita finally unlocked the door, though she wasn't going to open it. Estelle stopped Enrique, "I know you want to help her as much as we do, but I'm not sure if…"

Enrique nodded, "Understood. This will be one of those 'feminine secrets' moments."

Duke and Khroma were hovering over the frozen wasteland that was Glacia. "It would seem that Plergoth had the strength to return home, even after that ruthless assault. I doubt the creature could have survived such after so long unattended."

"We shall see. We should not let our guard down. I still sense the Purple Moon Crystal's power."

Khroma dove below the ice sheet and toward the entrance to this once thriving city of scholars. This city once held the greatest minds of their time, studying the Purple Moon and the magic they could create. The city was protected from the Rains of Destruction thanks to their city being built beneath the ice sheet. Though this would also end up being their civilizations downfall when many of their mages were either killed during the war or in the Rains of Destruction before they could retreat to the safety of Glacia.

No longer capable of sustaining their former lifestyle, the Glacian people fled before they succumbed to the freezing temperatures, starvation or the monster that now inhabit the city. Khroma was eventually led to a large dome structure deep within the upside-down city, more than capable of hiding Plergoth. As they approached the hole most likely created Plergoth, they found a ship. It was the same little green ship that had been hunting for Plergoth on its own.

Looking inside however, they found the old fisherman tending and feeding the dying Gigas. "This has complicated matters. What should we do, Duke?"

He turned away, "Plergoth will expire on his own. Let him be comforted to the next world. We will not interfere this time. Let us return to the Dark Rift and check to see if Judith and Fina have reached Yafutoma yet."

"Probably not. As of late, a large creature has taken up residence in the vortex leading to that side of the Dark Rift. If they wish to reach Yafutoma they must first deal with it. And I have no doubt Phaeroh has no intentions of helping them and will probably order the other Entelexeia not to interfere."

After so many years, Polly finally found her lost husband Robinson and she couldn't be happier. As for Rita, she was left alone in her room. Estelle managed to speak with her, though it only seemed to marginally help her.

While Robinson was getting himself cleaned up for duty on the Delphinus they encountered a Zivilyn Bane bandit lost in the Dark Rift.

Aika couldn't be any more excited for the treasure he was guarding. Karol though was confused, "Why was a Zivilyn Bane out here?"

"Who cares?" Yuri was looking out to the next vortex Judith was leading them. "He probably got stuck like everyone else who managed to survive the initial vortex. All that matters now is we make it to Yafutoma in one piece and get back home. And we don't have to worry about the Empire trying to beat us to the Moon Crystal. I'd say that's a plus."

"Yeah, a real easy one!" Aika wrapped around Karol, "And we probably don't have to worry about the Gigas waking up either."

Before they could leave however, Judith stopped at a vortex she had been leading them to. Repede started to snarl at the vortex when something yellow rippled across the vortex. A massive head then poked out of the vortex, snapping at Ba'ul.

Karol was shaking in his boots, "Wha…what is that thing?"

"Whatever it is, it ain't an Entelexeia." Yuri quickly ran down to the weapons to get ready for a battle.

Marco fell backwards when it opened its massive maw, "I don't think smiley is willing to let us through."

"Agreed," Vyse readied himself, "All hands, prepare for combat. We've got one last obstacle to jump over before we reach Yafutoma!" Everyone quickly rushed to their posts yet even so this beast remained in the vortex they need to go through.

"Captain, this won't be an easy fight." Khazim sounded a little concerned.

"We'll just have to try everything we can throw at it. So let's start off with a basic cannon barrage." The main cannons shifted to target the massive fish before opening fire. However the creature withdrew into the vortex, unable to tell if any of the shots actually hit.

The beast's tail came out and fired a ball of light that exploded on contact, withdrawing its tail just as quickly as it appeared. "It's not working!"

"Yuri, do you think you can set up the Moon Stone Cannon for a shot?"

"I might, but I don't know if we can do it properly unless…"

"Move aside!" Rita kicked Yuri aside, "You idiots can't do anything without me around. The Moon Stone Cannon will be ready to fire shortly."

Aika turned to Vyse, "What should we do until then?"

Vyse smiled, "We might take some damage, but stay put and keep shooting at that thing until the Moon Stone Cannon is ready."

Enrique seemed to agree, "Good idea. In this darkness it would be difficult to keep track of our target."

"Not to mention your airsickness," Estelle partly smiling at her brother's expense.

They fired a few more volleys and a handful of torpedoes, but the creature remained elusive within the vortex. It didn't seem that Judith or Ba'ul were having much success trying to bait the creature out. There seemed to be a few Entelexeia who have decided to simply watch as they attempted to make it past this monster in the tunnel.

Domingo looked to the Entelexeia, "Geez, why don't those guys help us out? We are basically clearing out one of their vortexes for them."

Lawrence was leaning against the wall on the bridge, "Those bastards are like Upper City aristocrats. Doesn't bother them, not their problem."

Aika was starting to get a little worried as the Delphinus took another blast to the deck. "Uh…Rita, how much longer until the cannon is ready to fire?"

"Get the bow opened and I'll show you!"

Vyse started the sequence up now as the cannon opened up, "Moon Stone Cannon…Fire!" Ba'ul already sensed the massive buildup of energy, quickly fleeing the Delphinus' area. The blast went into the vortex, nearly eclipsing the entire entrance.

The creature slowly staggered out of the vortex, slightly disoriented by the blast. "It's coming out of the vortex!"

Vyse smiled, "It looks like our attacks forced it out into the open! Now's our chance! Yuri, Khazim take it down!" The cannon turned to aim at the beast as the torpedoes were loaded into the tubes and the Delphinus went in pursuit.

Ba'ul fired a series of fireballs before the cannons began to shot at the creature. The monster tried to bite the ship with its maw but a combination of cannon fire and fireballs managed to discourage that. The torpedoes rained down on creature as another series of cannon shells hit it hard.

That seemed to enough to finally put the creature down. The large phoenix-like Entelexeia that 'welcomed' them into the Dark Rift left his perch while watch their battle to grab the creature before it fell into the abyss below.

Raven walked onto the bridge just as the Entelexeia flew away with the monster. "So that's it? The guy coulda grabbed the thing like that and he forced us to fight it? Man some people can be ungrateful and lazy…"

Rita kicked Raven's butt so he fell face first, "Who's lazy?"

"Rita!" Estelle rushed over and hugged her.

Rita hesitantly hugged back, "I'm fine. Now let's get out of this place."

Someone cleared their throat, catching everyone's attention. Robinson had shaved and he was given spare cloths by Domingo, for a 'fellow adventurer'. Domingo's fashion really didn't suit Robinson. "I was told you are Mr. and Mrs. Mordio's daughter."

Rita turned to Robinson. "I am…" she stood strong, though in her heart she was dreading any news he might have.

Robinson got on all fours, bowing to her. "Please forgive me. I was a coward and remained on the Fornax instead of going with your parents to try and leave this accursed place…"

"Tell me this then…" Rita stood before him, "Were they alive when they left?"

"Yes… they built a sturdy boat from salvage from other ships and took half the crew with them."

Estelle hesitantly asked, "Wh…what happened to the others…?"

"Some were taken by monsters, others couldn't take the waiting…"

No one really knew what to say after hearing that. However Rita wasn't like most people. "So the prospect of someone finding and reuniting you with your wife kept you alive? You've got her back now, what do you plan to do when we get back to Sailor's Island?"

"I intend to serve this crew wholeheartedly until your mission comes to an end, just as I did for Captain Victoria. And If I can, I'll also help you find your parents."

Rita walked right past Robinson, "If they were still alive, they would have found a way back home by now… But this ship could use a strong sailor like you to help compensate for Marco and Karol…"

Judith walked into the bridge just as Rita left. "It sounds like she's sad."

"Judith? What are you doing back onboard?"

She simply pointed toward one of the windows to answer Fina. "Ba'ul has something he needs to do alone in the rift. But once we get through that vortex, we'll have cleared the Dark Rift."

"Seriously?! What are we waiting for Vyse? Let's go!"

"Yeah! Next stop, Yafutoma!"

Yuri returned to the bridge now. "Ba'ul seemed excited about something."

Judith smiled, "He is about to do something he's waited for for a long time."

The Delphinus continued through the vortex the beast once called home. At first some of the crew was expecting another fight on their hands involving smaller versions of the creature though that didn't happen.

The vortex was another calm pocket leading somewhere. Judith said this would be the last vortex they needed to travel through and she was right. "We did it! We actually made it through the Dark Rift!"

Estelle was just as excited as Aika, "A new world to see and explore…"

"Well! I can't believe that we are actually going to be able to see what lies east of the Dark Rift! We're making history as we speak!"

Robinson couldn't help but cry, "The sky…the real sky… I'd almost forgotten what it looked like." Whatever they find, they'll be the first to see what this mysterious land of the east has to offer.

A/N: Got a little sidetracked by a new story.