It is with a sad heart to tell everyone who haven't heard the news that Takahashi Kazuki, the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh!, passed away on July 6th 2022. His body was found in snorkeling equipment floating off the coast in Nago, Okinawa. The cause of death appeared to be by a shark attack.
May his soul be reborn in the Spirit World and watch over us with the Duel Monsters we all cherish and love. Let us carry his legacy over to the next generations to come.
To honor Takahashi Kazuki, I'm uploading two chapters today.
Special thanks to CitrusUnshiu who helped me out with the chapter.
The chapter begins in Yusei's point of view.
Disclaimer: I do not own any Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's characters! I only own my OCs!
Chapter 96: Infiltration Gone Wrong
In the arcade, we were able to confirm that it was indeed Moment Express Development Organization who had phoned Lazar when they tried sending the Three Emperors of Iliaster to Sector Security as new directors. We soon found out Bolger & Company had a partnership with Moment Express, so we called Rick and asked to have a meeting with him. Since Goodwin was the company's investor, he was present when we went for the meeting.
Rick said Bolger's company was commissioned by them to produce the main engine, which explained their partnership. However, there were rumors going around with Moment Express being involved in some kind of space program, but no one had been able to confirm it since every employee in Moment Express was quiet about it. We got one lucky break when Rick said the company was scheduled to send a number of their staff to Moment Express for testing a new engine in a couple of days. He offered to help me, Sherry, and Bruno infiltrate Moment Express as mechanics in exchange that we do our part of the deal with test reports.
After the meeting, Estelle informed us the space program could be the machine that Iliaster used to travel through time and alter history; Infinity. We could try sabotaging the machine while we were inside the facility, but it was too risky to put our lives in danger.
Our main objective was to find information about Iliaster and copy the data into a flash drive without getting caught and leave by the end of the day with our lives intact.
XXXXXXXXXX
In the early morning of the assigned day, Sherry, Bruno, and I took the bus to Bolger & Company and changed into overalls we got from Rick plus fake ID tags we had to bring along. Estelle mentioned she had only seen the episodes of the original infiltration once, so she mentioned that she couldn't remember everything that happened, but she knew that the security in Moment Express was very strict and they were able to analyze and identify the people by their faces and fingerprints. That's why Sherry and I decided to put on a little more make-up and we used gloves to stay secure.
A van from the company picked us up and transported us to Moment Express. The facility was out in the middle of a bare wasteland. I took notes that a large electric fence surrounded the area and the only way to get in and out was through a security gate. The guards checked our fake ID tags and allowed access. The van drove up to the main building and let us out before the van left the area.
Bruno, Sherry, and I walked into the building and quickly realized Moment Express was mainly underground. The entrance itself was enormous. So far, nothing suspicious stood out.
"We'll find clues on Iliaster here", I whispered in case someone was eavesdropping on us.
The three of us had caps on our heads with the Bolger & Company emblem. I had made sure to tuck the spikes of my hair under it to hide the golden streaks.
"Yeah, and also on who killed my father", Sherry added, her hair tied up in a bun.
"Are you from Bolger & Company?" a male voice spoke up from behind us.
We turned around and came face to face with a man I recognized from Moment Express' website. The Director of the facility was a tall European man in his middle forties; Clark Smith. He had sandy blonde hair, pale blueish-greyish eyes, and slight tanned skin.
According to the intel, he was the one personally affiliated with Iliaster.
"I've been waiting for you, Mr.…", Clark trailed off.
"Daniel", I introduced myself with my fake name.
"Timothy", Bruno nodded.
"Eva", Sherry said.
"I'm Clark, the person in charge", Clark introduced himself. "It's sad about what happened to Mr. Bolger. But he and his corporation still remains one of my many friends. He's been sincerely proving that by creating such great Duel Runners."
"Thank you for those kind words", Bruno replied.
"Uh… Have we met somewhere before?" Sherry suddenly asked.
"No, I don't think so", Clark responded with a weird expression.
I glanced between the adult and Sherry. Did she recognize him from somewhere? It was possible, since Clark's reaction to her question was a little odd.
"I see. I'm sorry", Sherry said.
"Let's go to the course", Clark said before leading the way.
The Director led us to an escalator to show us the way when there was suddenly a power outage. He claimed it was due to an experiment Moment Express was working on. He showed us through windows a large area that just got shut after the power outage. I managed to see a little bit of the machine that looked like a giant round glass structure that contained Ener-D.
"That's Infinity", Clark explained.
Infinity… So that was the machine Iliaster used to alter and erase history.
"It's huge", Bruno commented.
"What does this machine do?" I wondered.
"Infinity is a matter transfer device currently being studied by our company", Clark explained. "In this machine, the Planetary Particles start to run at high speed to create a dimensional distortion. In other words, we create a wormhole to transfer matter. If this becomes practical, we won't need to fire rockets into space anymore."
I looked over Clark's shoulder and noticed a closed doorway. It could be leading to one of the control rooms of Infinity. If we could sneak in there, we could find data of Iliaster and Infinity to figure out how the machine worked and come up with a counterplan.
"What is it, Mr. Daniel?" Clark asked when he noticed me eyeing the doorway.
"It's nothing", I replied.
XXXXXXXXXX – Estelle's POV
I was currently staying in the garage with the others while we waited for Yusei, Bruno, and Sherry's return from Moment Express. They were in a dangerous territory, so they had to be very careful. Lazar was also staying in the garage for the time being. Goodwin wanted him to stay in his mansion for extra protection, but Lazar insisted he shouldn't put the Director of Sector Security in any more danger.
Jack had just finished making a cup of coffee while the rest of us were busy with chores. Leo was helping cleaning the kitchen and living room while Luna was upstairs to fetch a flower vase to change water for the roses Aki had brought from her garden. Aki was out shopping groceries with Mizoguchi who had been told by Sherry to look after her while she was away. Crow and I were preparing lunch by the stove for everyone. Lazar was busy fixing his hair, so he wasn't doing anything to contribute just like the lazy blonde Signer.
"I can't believe they invaded our enemy's home base", Lazar said all of the sudden. "I don't know if they're fearless or reckless. If there's a connection between Moment Express and Iliaster… If they discover Yusei's true identity…" He yelped at something all of the sudden. "I'm having a bad hair day. I have a bad feeling about this."
"Comparing your hair with Yusei's destiny is stupid", Jack snorted from the couch.
Crow was busy making some wok when one of his earrings suddenly came off. It fell down to the ground with a soft clang noise. "Huh?" he said before he picked up the earring and checked it. "My earring fell out."
Then, all of the sudden, there was another noise but louder. We turned to the stairs and spotted a puddle of water and pieces of a broken flower vase at the bottom. "The vase!" Luna panicked as she hurried down the stairs.
"Don't worry about it, Luna", Leo told her before they started picking up the pieces.
"Wait, you two!" I called as I grabbed some kitchen paper and walked to the twins. "I'll pick up the broken pieces. Luna, you take the roses. Leo, fetch a rag to clean up the water."
"Okay!" the twins nodded before they began doing their tasks.
The next thing we heard was Jack's loud and painful screech. I flinched by the sudden noise and accidently scratched my right index finger against one of the broken pieces. I held back a soft hiss and quickly put the bleeding finger in my mouth to suck it clean. Luckily, it wasn't a deep scratch, but it still stung a little bit.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Jack's coffee mug had broken apart by the handle and the hot beverage got spilled all over his lap. "Jack, hurry to the shower before you get any blisters!" I yelled through the commotion.
Jack didn't even throw one of his usual sarcastic comments back at me. He rushed right past me and the twins and ran up the stairs to take a cold shower to cool the scald down.
"Great, now we've got more mess to clean up", Leo muttered as he stared at the coffee stain on the couch.
"What's going on?" Aki called as she and Mizoguchi walked up the stairs from the garage.
My eyebrow arched upward a little bit when I saw the duo was carrying the groceries in their arms instead of using bags.
"Things are getting broken for each second right now", Crow replied after he had fixed his earring and put it back on his ear.
"You guys too?" Aki asked in disbelief.
"What do you mean, Aki?" Luna wondered.
"Our paper bags broke on our way back", Mizoguchi explained as he put the groceries on the kitchen counter where there was some space, but an apple rolled down from the counter and fell onto the floor.
"More bad omens…", Lazar mumbled after the curlers in his hair popped out.
I got up to get the first aid kit and a Band-Aid for my finger. Just as I straightened up, the necklace I got from Yusei broke. I caught it before it could fall down to the floor. I saw the hook had somehow turned broken, just like with Crow's earring.
Could Lazar be right about the bad omen? Were Yusei, Bruno, and Sherry in danger?
Please, you three… Return safely!
XXXXXXXXXX – Yusei's POV
Bruno, Sherry, and I sneaked into Clark's office to obtain his access key for the closed doorway to Infinity's control room. Just as we were about to leave, I spotted the Director returning from his lunch break through the surveillance camera. I bought Sherry and Bruno some time to sneak out through the air vent while I stalled Clark by challenging him to a Duel that almost cost my Deck. I figured out his cheating method when there was another power outage; the edges of his cards shone in different colors that represented the card type and they reflected on his glasses. Thanks to that, I managed to win, but then Clark revealed he knew who Sherry and I were the whole time. Apparently, the security system in Moment Express could identity the people by their body structure and the makeup Sherry and I had used hadn't been enough to mask ourselves.
I ran out of the office and met up with Sherry and Bruno in the long hallway while the alarm rang in the facility. They managed to find files of Iliaster and copied them to the flash drive, so we could escape now. However, we got cornered by security. We tried running to the exit, but the security fired warning shots by our feet and forced us to run in different directions. One bullet flew right past my right cheek, but I luckily didn't get a scratch from it.
In the end, the security managed to force us to run into a shuttle that Estelle had warned us about to not enter, but we had no other choice. As soon as we got inside of it, the hatch automatically closed up so we were trapped. We climbed up to the front of the shuttle and tried breaking the windows to get out while it was getting transported across the room to Infinity. The platform above Infinity opened and left the shuttle levitating above the machine. A ring of Ener-D surrounded the shuttle as Infinity was preparing itself to activate.
Bruno and Sherry immediately went to some control panels inside the shuttle to figure out what was about to happen. One panel revealed the picture of the preparation of a wormhole being opened. "What is this? What's going on?" Sherry asked.
"They're about to send this shuttle into a wormhole!" Bruno informed us.
"Wormhole?" Sherry repeated.
"It's a tunnel that connects to another dimension!" Bruno explained. "If we enter, I don't know where we'll end up."
Just then holographic screens appeared out of nowhere inside the shuttle revealing Clark inside his office. "You!" I growled at him.
"So it's Yusei Fudo, Sherry LeBlanc, and a friend", Clark said.
"How do you know my name?" Sherry asked him.
"He knew who we were from the beginning", I told her as I removed the cap from my head, the disguise no longer needed.
"You fell into my trap", Clark chuckled.
"Your actions prove there's a connection between your company and Iliaster", Sherry glared at the adult. "You know who killed my father!"
"Dr. LeBlanc? I haven't heard that name in a long time. He was an excellent man, but he asked too many questions."
"Too many questions?" Sherry repeated.
"Dr. LeBlanc created Infinity's control card. But he found out how we were going to use this device."
"How to use this device?" Bruno said while his eyes were glued at the control panel to try stopping the shuttle.
"Infinity is a device that connects various eras. Iliaster was using Infinity to alter history."
"Alter history?!" I couldn't help but exclaim after hearing from the Director himself that Infinity was really the machine Iliaster used to alter history.
"The world must never find out. It's taboo. But Dr. LeBlanc discovered the truth. That's why we got rid of him."
"I'll never forgive you!" Sherry yelled at him.
"In your current situation, your threats don't scare me. Besides, now that you know the truth, I can't let you go free."
"How dare you!" I growled.
All but one holographic screen vanished as the ring of Ener-D surrounding the shuttle shone brighter. "That shuttle doesn't have a control card. It will fall out of the wormhole and be lost among the dimensional distortions. Farewell, Yusei Fudo and Sherry LeBlanc."
The holographic screen vanished just as the light outside shone brighter and the shuttle started shaking violently. The loud noise from outside overwhelmed my ears that I couldn't hear Bruno and Sherry's cries as the white light devoured us before everything turned black.
XXXXXXXXXX
I had no idea for how long I had been unconscious, but I woke up to the soft alarms coming from the control panels. I rubbed my forehead to smooth the throbbing pain in my head. I stood up and looked out the window, seeing a weird orange environment outside. Is this how a wormhole looked like from the inside?
However, I couldn't relax just yet. "Wake up!" I shouted to Bruno and Sherry.
They soon woke up after I had called their names. None of them appeared to have any injuries, so we were safe…for now.
"Where are we?" Sherry asked as she comprehended the situation.
Bruno wobbled to the main control panel to check the coordinates of the shuttle's whereabouts. "We're inside the wormhole", he informed us after five seconds.
"It really exists?" I wondered.
"Iliaster has scientific knowledge that exceeds our imaginations", Bruno commented.
Just then we heard an explosion as the shuttle shook violently. We looked around inside the shuttle, but we found no damage, so it could only mean one thing… The shuttle was slowly breaking apart from the outside!
"The shuttle is out of control", an AI voice announced from the main control panel. "Please use the control card immediately."
"If we don't do something soon, the shuttle will fall out of the wormhole!" Bruno yelled.
"What happens if we fall out?" Sherry asked in a panic.
"I don't know", Bruno answered. "We may end up in an unknown era or shatter to bits in a dimensional distortion."
I checked the main control panel and noticed there was some kind of a scanner next to the screen that was big enough to insert a card. I gasped as I remembered something. "Sherry! Your card! Estelle said it's the control card for this shuttle!" I shouted.
"Father's card…!" Sherry gasped before she pulled out the Z-ONE card from a pocket of her jacket. "He must've hidden it from Mr. Smith and Iliaster when he found out what they were going to Infinity for-"
There was another violent tremble as we heard the shuttle breaking apart. The force of the tremble threw us backwards and away from the control panel. We quickly got up on our feet and hurried back to the panel. Sherry inserted the Spell card as the countdown for our demise kept ticking. The card got scanned as we anxiously waited for the result.
"Card confirmed. Starting control program."
Straight after the card was confirmed, the trembles slowly calmed down and the noise from the shuttle quieted down. The screen showed us how the shuttle automatically went back to its proper course.
"It's moving!" Bruno cheered.
"Confirming course. Altering shuttle trajectory."
"Let's get the shutters down!" I told the others. "The windows could break and suck us out into the wormhole!"
"Right!" Sherry nodded.
Just as we were about to check the other control panels to find out which command could bring the shutters down, the vessel all of the sudden moved around like a washing machine in high speed. We were thrown around inside the shuttle and knocked onto the walls and windows, giving us more bruises.
As soon as the shuttle was stable again, I noticed the windows of the shuttle were cracking. My eyes widened at the upcoming danger. "Everyone, grab onto something!" I yelled.
The warning came too late as one part of the windows shattered into pieces and the vacuum from the wormhole was sucking debris out of the shuttle. Bruno and I were holding onto a console, but Sherry was too late to grab onto something in time, so she was getting sucked out of the vessel. "Help!" she screeched.
"Sherry!" I yelled before I jumped into action. I grabbed a cable that was intact and held onto it and jumped as I allowed the vacuum to suck me out enough to grab Sherry's hand before she could vanish into the wormhole.
We both were now holding on for dear life. I tried using all my strength to pull Sherry back inside the shuttle, but the vacuum was too powerful and I could sense how the cable I held onto was getting stretched. I felt my arm getting weaker for each nanosecond as Sherry's hand was slowly slipping out of my hand. "Yusei, get my revenge!" she told me.
"You have to do that yourself!" I retorted, determinate to save her.
Sherry's hand slipped out of my grip until we were holding onto each other with the tip of our fingers. I tried getting a new hold on her hand, but our fingers gave up. Sherry was thrown out of the shuttle and into the wormhole.
"Sherry!" I yelled in horror as her body vanished from my eyesight.
"Closing emergency shutters."
I was still inside the shuttle when the shutter closed down in front of the hole on the window. Now that the vacuum from the wormhole wasn't trying sucking us out, I fell down onto the floor. I quickly rushed to the other side where the window was still intact and looked out, praying to spot Sherry.
"Sherry!" I yelled.
She was nowhere to be seen. She was lost in the dimensional abyss!
I was so angry at myself that I couldn't hold myself back and hit the wall once while growling through gritted teeth. "Damn it!" I shouted angrily.
How was I going to tell Mizoguchi and Aki about this? They both were going to kill me for not rescuing Sherry in time!
This was all Iliaster's fault… We had to defeat them and stop them from causing more damage in our lives and era!
XXXXXXXXXX
Neither Bruno nor I had any idea for how long we had been inside the wormhole. It felt like hours since we lost Sherry. Both of us were silent as we had no idea how we were going to find our way back to our time. I didn't realize the wormhole outside had shifted into a mysterious environment of a black sky and a large red sun. The vessel was still stable thanks to Sherry's card, but the damage on the vessel was still there. It was just a matter of time before the shuttle would break down entirely.
I looked up when I noticed something by my periphery. "What's that?" I wondered.
There was a huge structure floating right outside of the shuttle. It looked like a spiraling ruin. I couldn't recognize it nor see what it was built of, but a voice in the back of my head tickled my thoughts as I remembered a name that the Three Emperors of Iliaster mentioned when I met them for the first time.
Is this…the Ark Cradle? The structure that Iliaster wanted to summon into our time?
"Yusei."
Everything suddenly turned dark around me as the shuttle and the wormhole disappeared. The familiar voice repeated my name again, but this time it was behind me. I turned around and came face to face with the ghost image of my father.
"Father…"
"Yusei, you can't let that approach."
"What do you mean? The thing that looks like an island?"
"That's the final Momentum that will lead mankind to destruction."
Did Father use the original term, Momentum, instead of Ener-D? That must mean it is something extremely serious. And he said destruction? "Lead to destruction? Father, what do you mean?" I asked.
Father's image slowly faded away along with his voice. "Yusei, return to your world."
I tried reaching out and grab his arm to hold him back because I had so many questions, but he vanished in the blink of an eye. I blinked my eyes as I realized I was back inside the shuttle.
"Yusei, the shuttle controls are working!" Bruno called from the front of the vessel. "We can return home!"
Was this Father's doing? Did his spirit help us regain control of the shuttle? And what did he meant when he said this structure was going to lead mankind to destruction?
XXXXXXXXXX – Estelle's POV
I managed to fix the hook on the chain of my necklace after buying some DIY stuff from a nearby store. Thankfully, after the last incident with the necklace, nothing got broken for the rest of the day.
We were still waiting for Yusei, Bruno, and Sherry to return from Moment Express. Yusei said he was going to give us a call on their way back, but we hadn't heard a single peep from them yet and it was past the time we were expecting them.
Did they end up getting trapped inside the dimensional rift?!
All of the sudden, my Mark started glowing and it wasn't just mine. The Signers' Marks glowed at the same time as we were all in the garage doing nothing special. Before anyone of us could say something, a white shockwave swallowed us from outside. I knew it was Iliaster's doing as they were altering history again.
Luckily, we were saved by our Marks as they formed protective force fields around us. Mizoguchi stood next to Crow, so his force field had enveloped him too while Lazar had been with the twins playing charades and got protected by their Marks.
The shockwave vanished as soon as it had appeared, but we were still stunned about what just happened. I felt a little tingly after Infinity's power, since this was the first time I had ever experienced the phenomenon.
"What was that?" Crow asked.
"That was Infinity", I replied. "Iliaster must've used it to alter history after something went wrong in Moment Express…" I trailed off as I suddenly sensed my Mark was trying to tell me something. "Yusei…" Without thinking, I ran out of the twin doors as I allowed the Mark to lead the way.
It didn't take long before the others ran after me. "Where are you going, Estelle?!" Leo shouted.
"The Marks are trying to tell us something and we need to investigate!" I shouted over my shoulder.
"You think it has something to do with Yusei and the others?!" Aki asked.
"Maybe! But we've got to find it out first!"
The Marks were leading us to the harbor and to an empty section of it where there were no boats docked. We stood by the edge of the harbor and panted deeply to regain our breaths after the long run. Lazar and Mizoguchi had followed us and they were both out of breath.
"I'm too old for this…", Lazar gasped.
"What's that?" Jack called as he pointed at something white in the sky.
The white light in the sky shifted into a wormhole as something flew out of it. The closer it got, the more I saw it was the same shuttle Yusei, Bruno, and Sherry got trapped inside in the anime. The shuttle fell down into the ocean and caused a massive wave that came toward the harbor. We moved back just before the wave could splash us. Thankfully, the wave wasn't that big, so the water ran back into the ocean after hitting the pavement. The shuttle swam to the harbor and docked itself in front of us before a hatch on the top opened with some smoke coming out. We covered our faces and fanned the smoke away as two silhouette came walking out from the vessel. My heart dropped when I only saw Yusei and Bruno.
"Yusei! Bruno!" Crow exclaimed.
"Everyone!" Yusei said in relief.
"That means we're in New Domino City", Bruno concluded. "We made it back home!"
"Yeah", Yusei nodded.
"The Mark started to glow so that it could lead us to Yusei", Crow assumed.
"Yep!" Leo nodded with a big grin.
"Wait…", Aki spoke up after she had looked around. "Yusei, Bruno, where's Sherry?"
"Is Milady still inside the vessel?" Mizoguchi asked.
The two young men looked at each other with sad expressions. That was enough answer for Aki and Mizoguchi.
"N-No… S-Sherry didn't make it?!" Aki exclaimed with tears accumulating in her eyes.
"What happened to Milady?" Mizoguchi demanded with a glare that could kill people if possible.
Yusei and Bruno looked down while clearly trying to figure out how to tell us the truth. "In the beginning, everything happened according to what Estelle predicted", Yusei started slowly. "We got caught by Clark and he trapped us inside the shuttle."
Bruno pulled out a card from a pocket of his Bolger & Company jacket and held it to Mizoguchi. "This was apparently the control card for the shuttle", he explained. "We tried our best to hurry and stabilize the vessel, but we were thrown around and didn't make it in time to secure it when…the window broke and Sherry got sucked into the wormhole."
Mizoguchi's hand shook as he took the Z-ONE card from Bruno and stared at it with an upset expression.
Aki's tears were slowly running down her cheeks, as she looked at me with an expression I couldn't pinpoint. "Why?" she began. At first she seemed calm, but it soon shifted to an equally upset mood. "Why didn't you remember this?" she asked angrily.
I looked down on the ground. "I'm sorry", I whispered, disappointed at myself that I couldn't remember that fact. How could I forget that Sherry would get sucked into the wormhole?
"Sorry is not enough", Aki added angrily. "I lost my precious friend!" she exclaimed, now sobbing slightly. Mizoguchi placed his hand on Aki's shoulder, trying to calm her down just a little bit, but it didn't work out.
"I'm sorry, Aki…", Yusei apologized quietly. "I did everything I could…"
Now Aki looked at him angrily. "Well, you should've tried harder! Now we don't know if Sherry is still alive or not!"
"Milady…", Mizoguchi mumbled as he grimaced in pain by the thoughts of losing the little girl he had raised while they had been on the run for a long time. "How could this happen…?"
Yusei walked over to the adult with a lowered head. "I'm sorry, Mizoguchi… She told me to get her revenge, so…" He raised his head and showed determined eyes. "I promise, I will avenge her and fulfill her revenge!"
The middle-aged adult looked like he wanted to bash Yusei on the head and let his anger out on him, but he held himself back. Mizoguchi released a frustrated grunt before he pocketed the Spell card inside his suit.
Aki turned her attention back to me. She glared at me, clearly demanding answers. "Estelle! Tell me, what will happen to Sherry? You must know this!"
"I think Sherry was rescued by…Z-one. He told her that if she joined his side, he would bring her parents back alive", I replied. "He used an illusion of her father to trick her into accepting the offer and then …" I stopped, not knowing how to tell the red-head that Sherry will become her enemy. After all, she liked the tall woman so much.
"And then what?" Aki demanded angrily.
"And then she joined him and you will only see her again at the Ark Cradle", I answered honestly, looking down on the ground.
"What?" Aki exclaimed.
"So there's a chance we'll have to face her, but we'll be on different sides?" Jack asked.
"Yes", I nodded. "So everything is up to Sherry, if she's still alive at this point, whether she will believe in Z-one's lie or decline his offer." I hugged my left arm as I got a terrible thought. "Knowing Iliaster's tactics… Z-one might eliminate her if she says no."
"No way…", Aki mumbled, her eyes getting glassy by fresh tears. "Is there a way to save her?"
"I honestly don't know", I shook my head. "I have no idea how to return to that world where Yusei, Bruno, Sherry, and I got transported to when we checked the Z-ONE card."
"Hey, guys…", Luna spoke up as she pointed at the sky. "Look up."
Everyone followed her glance and looked up at the clear blue sky. The Signers and I gasped loudly when we spotted a small part of the Ark Cradle peeking out of a black hole where the wormhole had opened. It was hard to see the whole structure because the entirety was black.
"What's that?" Jack asked.
"Estelle… Is that the Ark Cradle?" Yusei asked.
"Yes", I nodded. "That's the structure Iliaster wants to bring into this era and destroy New Domino City."
"I saw it in another dimension", Yusei said. "Iliaster must be keeping it there while waiting for the time to summon it here."
"I don't see anything", Lazar commented as he tried his best to squint and see the Ark Cradle.
"Look closely!" Jack growled. "There's a giant island in the sky!"
"The Signers and I are able to see the Ark Cradle because of our Marks", I told him. "But if non-Signers touch us, they should be able to see it."
Bruno placed a hand on Yusei's shoulder while Aki offered a hand to Mizoguchi who grabbed it like a gentleman and Lazar placed his hand on Leo's shoulder. The three non-Signers gasped loudly when they saw the black hole and the Arc Cradle in the sky.
"W-W-What is that?!" Lazar stuttered.
"How could I have missed that thing? It's huge!" Bruno exclaimed.
"Is that Iliaster's final trump card?" Mizoguchi asked.
The black hole and the tiny part of the Ark Cradle slowly vanished from the sky. The non-Signers removed their hands from the Signers now that the structure was gone.
"It vanished…", Aki said, her voice a little raspy after crying so much.
"What's going on?" Jack wondered.
"The gate for the Ark Cradle to appear in our world doesn't have enough energy to stay here for long", I explained. "It simply retreated to the dimension where Iliaster are keeping it."
"Then… If everything happened just like what Estelle said… Then Moment Express really is involved with Iliaster!" Leo exclaimed in realization.
"Yeah", Yusei nodded. "We must go back to Moment Express and confront Clark."
"Clark? As in Clark Smith?" Mizoguchi asked.
"Yes. Do you know him, Mizoguchi?" Yusei wondered.
"He was one of Master LeBlanc's colleagues", Mizoguchi revealed. "I remember he betrayed Master and bought his company after Master refused continuing the research they were collaborating with. The night before the invasion, Master warned me about Mr. Smith and his capability of harming people who were against him. I never once thought he had a direct affiliation with Iliaster."
"That sounds accurate to what he told us before he sent us into the wormhole", Bruno said.
"Then we have a criminal in our hands!" Crow exclaimed seriously. "We've got to apprehend him before he can leave the country!"
"I don't think that will be necessary, Crow", I spoke up, catching everyone's attention.
"What do you mean, Estelle?" Luna asked.
"Iliaster used Infinity to alter history", I explained. "In the anime, one of the changes was they got rid of Moment Express and Mr. Smith."
"You mean Iliaster erased the last piece of evidence of their existence by removing Moment Express?" Leo asked.
"Yes", I nodded.
"We still have to check it just to be certain", Yusei insisted.