The other duelists who'd lined up to battle Tamura weren't difficult.

The first one was a girl named Sophia, who used dragon cards. Tamura felt a little bad for him, because the duel was so one-sided, and the girl teared up at the thought of giving up an ante. Tamura let her go.

The next duel was only slightly more difficult. The player used Spellbooks, but his first turn took so long that Tamura wasted no time bringing out her Apex Avian lock combo, and once that boy couldn't attack over her Apex Avian, he surrendered. Tamura didn't take an ante from him either.

The third duelist tried to remove her Apex Avian from play in order to defeat her, but Tamura had a counter ready just in case, and once she regained control of the field, it was easy to swarm with her Wind monsters and win the duel.

The fourth duelist used high-attack fairy monsters, but he relied upon equip cards to power them up. He did summon a Wingweaver that barely attacked over Apex Avian, but Tamura activated her Rope of Life trap card, which allowed her to resummon Apex Avian with 800 more attack points, and there was nothing the other duelist could do after that.

"This is getting kind of boring," she said, declining the other challengers who'd watched her previous duels and who wanted to battle her. "I'm almost ready to enter the finals, too." She looked at her text messages. "And mom stopped responding, even though I'm doing nothing but winning duels. Hmm." She walked away from the square, where a Baby Dragon was battling a Clown Zombie. "What if I got some tempura? We're in Japan. There's gotta be a tempura shop around here somewhere."

Tamura looked around. "But I don't know where it could be. Umm." She paused. "Maybe I could ask somebody?"

A boy with a black coat and another boy with a crocodile over his shoulder were shouting at each other nearby.

"They look weird," Tamura said.

—

Jesse watched as DuMort drew a card. "Now, Balloon Lizard gains another counter," and the reptile on the field grew larger again, a holographic 4 next to it. "And since it's my standby phase, my Life Absorbing Machine gives me life points equal to half of what I paid last turn." His life points rose to 2500.

DuMort set a card on the field and lost another 500 life points per the effects of Chain Energy, then spoke. "I'm detonating my Balloon Lizard now." And the lizard grew larger and larger until it ruptured. The blast knocked Jesse off his feet, and his life points dropped to 150.

"Now you can't even play a single card from your hand!" DuMort sneered. "This game is over."

"My friend always says it's not over until the last card is played!" Jesse replied. "And I still have cards in my hand."

"But you can't play any of them," DuMort said. "They're useless to you."

"We'll see about that," Jesse smiled, and drew.

Polymerization, he thought. This card symbolizes the bonds between friends. It's one of Jaden's favorite cards. He placed the card in his hand and closed his eyes. "Here I go! First, I switch my Wattgiraffe to attack mode!" And as he moved the card on his duel disk, the giraffe stood up, its cartoonish neck long and erect. "Then I switch Watt King Cobra to attack mode!" and the snake, likewise, woke up and hissed at DuMort.

"Now it's time to attack," Jesse said. "Wattgiraffe, go!"

"Reverse card, open!" DuMort exclaimed. "Magic Cylinder!"

Jesse laughed. "I knew you'd do something dirty. Go, Wattrabbit!"

"You can't play any other cards!" DuMort shouted. "You don't have the life points left to play Chain Energy's cost."

"Good thing I'm not playing any cards," Jesse said. "Whenever my opponent activates a trap card during the battle phase, I can discard Wattrabbit to negate its activation and force it facedown!"

"Chain Energy doesn't work on hand traps!" DuMort shouted. "This is bad."

"Wattrabbit, go!" Jesse exclaimed, and he discarded the monster to his graveyard. A small mechanical bunny appeared on the field, static electricity discharging between its ears, and it charged into the Magic Cylinder. The card fell facedown.

"Now Wattgiraffe can attack," Jesse said. "Go, Wattgiraffe! Watt stampede!"

The Wattgiraffe lowered its head and stormed at DuMort, attacking his life points directly. "And thanks to the effects of my Wattcine, I gain life points equal to the damage you took!"

Jesse's life points rose to 1350 as DuMort's fell to 800.

"And you still have another attack!" DuMort exclaimed. "I'm dead."

"Watt King Cobra, finish this duel!" Jesse exclaimed. "Watt Venom Spit!"

The Watt King Cobra reared back and spat electricity on DuMort, creating a huge electrical storm all over his duel disk. His Life Points dropped to 0, and the holograms on the field disappeared. DuMort collapsed, and Jesse ran over to him.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Give me back my friends!"

But DuMort wasn't responsive. Jesse placed his fingers on DuMort's neck: there was no pulse. He shuddered. "I must be doing this wrong," he said, and looked up. Jaden was still lying on the ground. He's still okay, Jesse thought.

I have to find Amethyst Cat. Jesse ruffled through DuMort's deck, looking for the card.

"I think you're looking for this?"

Jesse's eyes shot in the direction of the sound. A new person was standing in the entrance to the garage doors behind DuMort that had just opened. It was a man, a tall, slender man, who couldn't have been much older than Jesse was himself. He had blond hair that was cut short, and was wearing dark jeans, a leather jacket, and, most curiously of all, a mask over his mouth and nose.

In his hand was Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat.

"Where did you get her?" Jesse exclaimed.

The man shrugged. "I picked her up along the way. You can have her back. I have no use for her without the complete set." And he threw the card towards Jesse, who caught it. "By the way, you're participating in the tournament, aren't you? The ante rules say you get to take a card from your opponent's deck."

"I don't need any of his cards," Jesse said. "I want my Crystal Beasts back." He looked down at the card he caught and closed his eyes. Amethyst Cat, Jesse thought, can you hear me?

"...and this is a fake," Jesse said. "Amethyst Cat isn't here."

"Very interesting," the man said. "You're right; that is a fake. I'm impressed."

"I am so sick of this," Jesse said. "You steal my cards, you ambush my friends, and now you're playing games. What do you want from me? Why are you doing this?"

The man tilted his head to the side. "Oh, didn't DuMort tell you? You have to give back what you stole."

"I DIDN'T STEAL ANYTHING!" Jesse screamed.

"Maybe you didn't steal anything, but that doesn't change the fact that the Crystal Beasts were stolen."

"What?" Jesse asked.

"There's no point in telling you anything, because we're going to duel, and I'm going to kill you." The man prepared his duel disk. "Hope you're ready."

I can't duel right now, Jesse thought. I'm still exhausted.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. "I'll do it."

It was Jaden, but it wasn't Jaden. Jesse looked at the boy standing next to him; it was Yubel's eyes. So Jaden was still unconscious and Yubel was protecting him. "Yubel..." Jesse began.

"This has nothing to do with you, Johan," Yubel sneered. "This man says he's going to kill you and Jaden would never forgive me if I let you die. Much as I don't like you."

The feeling's mutual, Jesse thought, but he didn't reply. "Fine," he said. "You can take this one."

"The spirit that sleeps within Jaden Yuki," the man said. "How interesting. Very well. This will be entertaining."

"Let's duel," Yubel said, and she drew her five cards. "You don't mind if ladies go first, do you?"

—

"What do you mean, you lost them?" Chazz was furious.

Jim shrugged, and Shirley frowned at him. "I mean I lost them."

"How are you so laid back about this?" Chazz shouted. "We had ONE job, and that was to chaperone them! Blair is still a kid!"

"Syrus can handle himself," Jim said.

"Listen," Chazz said. "I know you're new here, and I know Syrus has grown a lot, but I've known that little twerp for three years. He is ALWAYS the first to disappear when there's trouble, and that's because he's always the one who gets in trouble!"

"So if they're not here, that means they're in trouble? Maybe they just wandered off for ice cream or something."

"Blair mentioned wanting to try a famous tempura shop, but no, they would be ANSWERING their PHONES if that was all they were doing!"

"Excuse me," a girl said. "But did you mention a famous tempura shop?"

"Piss off," Chazz said, looking down at her. "We're busy."

She frowned. "But I just really want tempura," she said.

"She looks like she's going to cry," Jim said. "Chazz, you jerk."

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Chazz screamed, and both Jim and the other girl laughed.

"You guys are duelists?" she asked.

"We are," Jim said. He winked at her. "And hey, if you can beat my friend here in a duel, we'll tell you exactly where the best tempura shop in the city is."

She started jumping up and down. "Yes! I'm Tamura, and I'm totally gonna whoop your asses!"

"Jim Crocodile Cook," Jim said. "And this is my friend Chazz Princeton."

She turned to Chazz. "Wait, like Princeton of the Princeton Tempura shop? Your family owns that?"

Chazz's face twisted. "I guess? My family owns all kinds of shit."

"That means you get a discount at the tempura shop!" Tamura exclaimed. "And when I duel you, I'm going to get there and eat the best tempura in Japan! It's a challenge!"

Chazz rolled his eyes. "Don't you think we have anything better to do than duel a little girl like you? Jim here is a champion, and I'm-"

But Jim jumped behind Tamura and clapped her shoulders. "I'm sure Tamura here is an excellent duelist, isn't she?"

Tamura smiled. "Wait, I have to tell my mom about this. One second." And she started texting on her phone.

Jim walked back over to Chazz. "Even if Syrus and Blair are missing, there's nothing we can do. We have to rendezvous with Axel and Alexis in a few hours anyway, so you might as well duel in the tournament and kill some time."

"Fine," Chazz said. "Let's duel." But Tamura was still texting. "HEY," Chazz yelled. "ANSWER ME."

"My mom just responded," she said. "I have directions to the tempura shop now."

"Okay, who cares?" Chazz replied.

"She also says that the Tempura Tango is better than Princeton Tempura, and that I should go there instead."

"Okay, you little brat," Chazz said. "You're going down."

—

Axel runs so fast, Alexis thought.

She didn't know how long they'd been sprinting—-down avenues, across traffic, through red lights; Alexis was pretty certain she'd knocked over a blind person—but she was winded. Her legs ached and the beads of sweat assaulting her eyebrows threatened to obscure her vision. Her belly felt weak, like someone had clubbed her abdomen, and breathing was getting painful. But she kept running; Axel was so far ahead of her that once or twice she had already lost sight of him.

Who would come after Syrus and Blair? They weren't even wearing their Duel Academy uniforms, so Alexis doubted Syrus and Blair were targeted specifically to draw out Jesse and Jaden. Who could have guessed they were students?

Unless…

"Axel!" Alexis tried speeding up, she didn't know she could go so far. "Wait! We can't rush into this!"

She didn't think he'd heard her, but he stopped all the time. "Our friends are in danger," he said. "I'm going in."

"But they were targeted!" she cried.

They were in the middle of a street, a concrete jungle of tar-and-smoke-stained buildings with tiny windows and pothole-laded streets. One half of the street was missing a sidewalk entirely and the dirt and mud there smelled awful, like rotting eggs and sulfur. "I guessed that," he said. "But I don't know why."

"I thought it was Jesse and Jaden," she said. "But what if it wasn't?"

"It doesn't matter," Axel said. "They're in trouble. We can puzzle this out later." He hadn't turned to face her. "The old metro station is up ahead, isn't it? Let's keep going."

He ran ahead and rounded a corner so that Alexis couldn't see him anymore. "I hate you, Axel Brodie," she said, and took off after him, cell phone in hand, dialing another number.

Please answer me, she thought. Somebody.

—

Blake had 15 points in the tournament. Alec had 13. They only needed 24 points to reach the finals.

"We should stop for now," Blake said. "We're getting close to the top, and neither of us need to draw any attention ourselves."

"Fine by me," Alec said. "I'm getting bored, anyway. How's our target?"

Blake's eyes shifted around, looking for someone who might be eavesdropping on their conversation. His voice was low. "She hasn't made a move yet."

"Works for me," Alec said, but Blake raised an eyebrow.

"It should concern you, because she's going to make a move soon."

"Do we need to rest up?"

"It wouldn't be a bad idea," Blake said. "I want to try to contact Sari and Geri too. It's concerning that they haven't been in touch."

Alec shrugged. "They can take care of themselves," he said.

"Sari is the youngest of us," Blake said. "I get worried about her. We're not invincible, you know."

Alec paused. "What did you See?"

Blake shook his head. "Nothing that I think is a good idea to talk about."

They were silent for a bit. Then Alec spoke: "Okay. Let's look for Jesse. It's almost time to rendezvous."

The clock struck 7.

—

Yubel drew her five cards. Jaden's deck, she thought. Jaden used Elemental Heroes: like the comic book characters they were inspired by, Elemental Heroes worked best when used together. It was a toolbox deck, the kind that let Jaden adapt to any situation in the middle of a duel, instead of having a single strategy and oppressing the opponent with that, like she preferred. She looked at her hand. Elemental Hero Sparkman, Elemental Hero Neos Alius, Hero Blast, Hero Barrier, and Parallel World Fusion.

I can't even fuse together a monster yet, Yubel thought. And I have no idea what my opponent is planning. So let's play defensively. "I summon Elemental Hero Sparkman," she said. "And I'll place one card facedown to end my turn."

"Interesting choice," the boy said. "This will be quick. First, I play Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your facedown!" He played the spell card, and a twister whipped from his duel disk and destroyed the facedown Hero Barrier that Yubel had placed.

"Next, since you have a monster on your field and I have none, I can special summon Level Warrior." A small person appeared on the field, red from head to toe with a blue cape, a level star where its face should be. "But now I sacrifice it to summon Zaborg the Thunder Monarch!"

Level Warrior disappeared, and in its place, a large, green-and-white warrior appeared, lighting zapping between its hands. Zaborg had what Jesse could only describe as yellow samurai armor around its legs, and armor that looked like it was meant to repel large, solid objects protecting its shoulders.

"Now, Zaborg," the man said, "destroy Elemental Hero Sparkman!"

And a bolt of lighting appeared from the sky an incinerated Elemental Hero Sparkman. "That was so fast," Yubel said.

"Zaborg the Thunder Monarch lets me destroy any monster on the field when it's tribute summoned," the boy said. "And now he's going to attack you directly! Thunder Impact Fist!"

Zaborg sprung at Yubel and struck her in the chest, causing her life points to fall to 1600.

"Next, I'll play my Dark World Dealings spell card," he said. "We each draw one card from our decks, then we discard." He picked up a card, and threw another into his discard pile.

Yubel drew from her deck. Elemental Hero Neos. I always hated that thing, she thought, and gladly discarded it.

"Might as well draw again, since it's your turn," the boy said.

"Fine," Yubel said. "I draw." The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh.

This is bad, Yubel thought. I can't attack over Zaborg, and I don't have any of the pieces ready for a fusion summon. What would Jaden do in this situation?

She looked at the cards in her hand. Well, there's nothing I can do except buy some time. "I summon Elemental Hero Neos Alius, and place two cards face down."

The blond boy drew. "As expected. Since it's my standby phase and I have no cards in my Spell and Trap zone, the Treeborn Frog I discarded last turn gets automatically summoned to the field."

A small frog appeared on Yubel's opponent's side of the field. "Then I sacrifice it to summon Caius - The Shadow Monarch!"

Caius - The Shadow Monarch was a dark field, a purple shadow warrior that held a shadowy aura at its chest. Like its fellow Monarch Zaborg, it had 2400 Atk. The blond boy smiled behind his mask. "When Zaborg is summoned, I can remove any card on the field from the game, so I'll be getting rid of your monster."

Elemental Hero Neos Alius vanished. Yubel took its card off of her duel disk and placed it in Jaden's coat pocket. "Fine," she said.

"Game over," the boy said. "Caius, attack Jaden's life points directly!"

"Reverse card open!" Yubel shouted. "The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh! This automatically summons a Winged Kuriboh to my field in defense mode."

Caius the Shadow Monarch crushed the Winged Kuriboh.

"And now you don't take any damage from Zaborg's attack," the blond boy said. "Fine. Your turn."

Yubel drew. "I play Graceful Charity and draw three cards," she said. Elemental Hero Liquid Soldier, Elemental Hero Wildedge, Galaxy Hero Sombrero. "And discard these two," she said, discarding Liquid Soldier and Sombrero. She placed Elemental Hero Wildedge in her hand.

"Now that I discarded my Galaxy Hero Sombrero to the graveyard, its effect activates," she said. "I can banish it, and all Hero monsters on my side of the field gain 1000 attack points for the rest of the turn."

"But you have no Hero monsters," the blond boy said.

"Not yet," Yubel said. "Now I activate Parallel World Fusion! This lets me fuse together my Water-attribute Elemental Hero Sombrero and my Light-attribute Elemental Hero Neos Alius that you removed from the game and summon Elemental Hero Absolute Zero!"

Yubel held the card near her chest. "From the twelve dimensions I once strove to fuse together, from the infinite possibilities of the galaxies, from the love that Jaden and I have that conquered the stars themselves, call upon the power of the deepest recesses of space. Go, Elemental Hero Absolute Zero! Freeze my opponent's monsters!"

A rip in the air above Yubel's field opened, and a white hand clawed through, then a leg, then Elemental Hero Absolute Zero appeared. It reached up and closed its fist, and the Monarchs on the other side of the field iced over, then shattered into nothingness.

"Thanks to Sombrero, Elemental Hero Absolute Zero has 3500 attack points!" Yubel said. "Now, Absolute Zero, attack his life points directly!"

"Battle Fader," the boy said, and a pendulum-like monster appeared on the field and intercepted the attack. "You'll have to try harder than that."

Yubel grimaced. "Just make your move," she said.

"This duel is already over," he said, and suddenly the holograms disappeared.

Jesse, who had been watching, silent, snapped to attention. "What happened?"

"He surrendered," Yubel said.

The blond boy held out a card. "Do you know what this is?"

"Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness," Jesse said. "If you had let Yubel's attack go through, you could have summoned it and a copy of itself with 3500 attack points."

"Then, on my next turn, Absolute Zero's attack power would have fallen to 2500, and you could have attacked over me and won," Yubel said. "But you played Battle Fader instead. Why?"

"I was only ever stalling," he said. "Besides, there's another matter I have to attend to, so I'll let you go for now. I have determined that you, Yubel, are not a threat."

And with this, he vanished before their eyes.

—

"I'll let you go first," Tamura said. "Since you seem so flustered."

Chazz snorted. "Fine. I'll start with X-Head Cannon in attack mode and end my turn."

"Big scary monster," Tamura said, and drew a card. And I have no monsters in my hand, she thought. This sucks. "Okay, I'm going to set three cards and end my turn."

Jim's face screwed into something puzzled. "You're not going to summon a monster?"

"I can't believe I bricked my opening hand when tempura was on the line," Tamura said. "This is embarrassing."

"Sucks to be you," Chazz said. "I'm going to summon my Y - Dragon Head and attack you with both monsters!"

"Reverse card, open!" Tamura said. "Negate Attack neutralizes your attack and ends your battle phase."

"Fine," Chazz said. "I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

Tamura drew a card. "My turn." Just what I needed, she thought. "I summon Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo, in attack mode!" She summoned the monster with 1800 Atk, and Hanzo appeared on the field. "When I summon Hanzo, I can add any Ninjutsu Art card to my hand, and I choose the Ninjutsu Art of Transformation."

"So you're setting up a combo," Chazz said. "Fine. Set your card."

"I will," Tamura said, and set it face down. "This ends my turn."

"Go, Ojama Snack!" Chazz said, revealing his facedown trap card. "By sending Ojama Yellow, Ojama Green, and Ojama Black from my hand or deck to the graveyard, I can destroy one of your facedown cards, and I choose the one you just set!"

The three Ojama brothers appeared on the field and launched themselves towards Tamura's facedown card, taking big bites out of it until it was gone. A phantom of the destroyed card appeared face up, so everybody could see it.

"Emergency Provisions?" Chazz asked. "I was baited?"

"Reverse card, open!" Tamura shouted. "Divine Cyclone of the Mist Valley activates whenever one of my spell or traps is destroyed. It prevents you from activating destruction effects during your next time, and then I can set a card on the field to replace the one I lost."

"Clever," Chazz said, drawing a card, "but not good enough. I summon Z-Metal Tank and combine my three monsters! Go, XYZ Dragon Cannon!"

Z-Metal Tank appeared on the field and merged with the X-Head Cannon and Y-Dragon Head, each one stacking on top of each other until the fearsome XYZ Dragon Cannon formed.

"Since I can't activate destruction effects this turn, I'll set two cards and attack your Hanzo with my Cannon!"

"Reverse card, open!" Tamura shouted. "Ninjutsu Art of Transformation!"

"I've never seen this card," Chazz said.

"Neither had I, until a few hours ago!" Tamura chirped. "But it lets me transform my level 4 Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo into a level 7 Winged Beast monster. So I summon my Ace, Mist Valley Apex Avian!"

There was an awkward silence. "Um, where is it?" Chazz asked.

"I have to get it from my deck!" Tamura exclaimed. "I forgot!"

Chazz blinked, and his posture slouched a bit. "Um, there's a function on your duel disk that'll grab it immediately," Chazz said.

Tamura stared at him, mouth agape.

"Did you not enable that?"

"Um," Tamura said, "what if I told you I was still new to duel disks?"

Jim and Chazz exchanged glances. Chazz's phone started ringing, and he took it out. "I have to take this," he said.

Jim walked up to Tamura. "We can show you how to enable some of those features over tempura. Our treat."

"We're not going to finish the duel?" Tamura asked.

Jim laughed. "From what I saw, you're a pretty excellent duelist anyway. Ninja cards, eh?"

"I actually just got them today. I went to a card shop and a nice young man helped me-"

"We gotta go," Chazz said. "Alexis and Axel are in trouble. Jim, we have to hurry."

The alarm on Chazz's face was sincere. "Okay," Jim said. "Let's start running. Sorry, Tamura, another time!"

They ran off, and Tamura looked down at the text messages she'd been sending her mom. There hadn't been a response all day long. Tamura thought about calling her, but then she watched at how quickly Jim and Chazz were sprinting.

Then she made a decision.

"Wait, I'm coming with you!"

—

Axel was defeated.

Alexis couldn't believe it, but it was true. In three turns, Axel Brodie was defeated by the woman who stood in front of them. Geminya Stone.

The duel had been brutal, even by Axel's standards. Alexis thought Axel was off to a strong start, immediately summoning Volcanic Rocket and setting up Blaze Accelerator. But Geminya countered all of his burn damage and had defenses stronger than what Axel could overcome. The next turn, she swarmed the field with fusion monsters and obliterated him.

Alexis didn't even think Jaden could have come back from that. It was like someone was leading you along all game with a pair of twos and then dropped a royal flush on you.

Now it was her turn.

"Too bad about your friend," Geminya said. "I was expecting something a little more heroic, considering you're here to rescue your friends, and all."

"Why did you take them?"

Alexis shouted.

Geminya shrugged. "They were there. This is just practice. You can have them back if you defeat me."

"I'm going to," Alexis said. "Get ready, because I'm going first."

—

Alec and Blake reached the rendezvous spot at 7:30, like they had all agreed.

They waited another fifteen minutes, then it turned into 30 minutes. No Jesse. No Jaden.

"Where are they?" Blake wondered.

"They're in the city," Alec said, frowning. "But I can't See anything else."

"See Geri? I told you they'd be here!"

It was Sari, running up to meet them. Alec was startled. "What happened to you two?"

"Administrative duties," Geri said, breathing heavily. "Administrative duties" was their code for "don't worry about it," which they'd all agreed would mean no further questions on a matter. The Oracles were a team, but they were still human, or quite close to it-they wanted privacy, or had emotions that got in the way of their work, or simply could respect that sometimes it's better to withhold nonessential information.

Maybe it was a matter of prioritizing.

"Quite the interesting spot you picked," Sari said to Blake. "Any reason for it?"

Blake shrugged. "I had a feeling."

"You were spooky," Sari said. And he walked around the corner of a building. "Come here."

Blake and Alec followed her; a feeling of dread creeped up Alec's backside, as would always happen whenever something bad was happening.

Sari threw open the lid of the big, green dumpster that was on the side of the building, then pulled at a large black trash bag. "Alec, do you know what will happen when I open this bag?"

He nodded. "There's a dead woman in there," he said.

"Our enemy is here under a fake name and a fake face. Now we know who she is."

They opened the bag; the woman was still dressed in her work clothes, name tag still clipped to her chest.

Geminya Stone.

—

Once the mysterious blond man had retreated, Yubel laid down and let go of Jaden's body. Jesse watched as the boy's muscles and face relaxed on the ground; he was out cold. There was still a little bit of blood on his face-Yubel must have reopened the wound. Jesse knelt down to Jaden and clotted the small cut with the corner of his shirt. I need to buy a new one anyway, he thought.

DuMort's body was still in the middle of the scene, and now that the immediate danger was gone, Jesse noticed how off the setup was. They were in an abandoned subway station, a proper terminal too, by the looks of it, and yet the electricity still worked. The car tracks were still visible down an escalator, although there was no electricity to it, so it looked like a staircase with a conveyor belt railing.

It hadn't been too long since Jesse and Jaden had admitted their feelings for each other. Only a few months, in fact, since Jaden had saved him and returned from the alternate dimension. It always felt like it was meant to be: their names were similar, they both could see and interact with duel spirits, and both of their duel spirits even had similar stats. Jesse pulled out Ruby's card, held it close to his chest, and closed his eyes.

Please, Ruby, Winged Kuriboh, help Jaden rest.

Jesse sat down and took a few breaths. Take stock of the situation, he thought. The first thing you need to do is take Jaden out of here. Then you can figure out what time it is, meet up with Blake and Alec, and get a read on the situation. But then he looked at the entrance where the blond man had disappeared. Or you could run after him, further into danger, and rescue the Crystal Beasts.

It felt like Jesse had to make a choice, and it was a painful one, but it was so obvious at the same time.

Besides, Yubel wasn't the only one who wanted to keep Jaden safe.

Jesse knelt down, scooped Jaden in his arms, and slowly made his way to the stairs and the light from above.