"It's been too long Alice!"
A familiar voice broke through the night in front of Alice's house in Russia. Alice ran out of the house trying to find the source of that noise. Soon enough she saw her old partner Hydranoid standing on the porch of her house. Alice was overwhelmed with joy.
"Hydranoid! So they did it! Marucho, Dan, Shun and the others did it! They saved you and New Vestroia?"
Hydranoid confirmed that they did and explained how Drago helped him teleport directly to Alice's house so he could see her as soon as possible. Alice was so happy, being surprised with the return of her old friend, that she completely forgot about someone else who should also be here after the success of the Resistance in New Vestroia. Another voice quickly reminded her of that.
"Wow Hydranoid you really got all of her attention, I guess Drago was right about girls loving the Bakugan!" Shun said jokingly. "Come on Alice let's go inside you'll catch a cold if you keep on standing out here like that."
Hydranoid jumped on Alice's shoulder and they all went inside together.
"Is your grandpa sleeping?", asked Shun "I would hate to wake him up. That teleportation from New Vestroia was loud after all…"
Alice quickly replied "Oh don't worry Shun, he's actually wide awake right now and is working at his lab. You see, since we didn't know you'll be capable of returning by yourselves he took it upon himself to keep working on the dimensional transfer system there. You weren't here when Dan, Mira and Baron came… the system was badly damaged due to the interference of the Vexos.", she was visibly sad.
Shun immediately knew the reason of the sadness in her voice. He quickly grabbed her by the shoulders. "Alice I'm so sorry… in the whole commotion which happened when Runo tried to come to us in New Vestroia… as she was leaving Dan and the others just hurled into that gate without a single word. It was just Marucho, me and another Vestal brawler who were left, leaving them alone would have made the mission collapse in on itself… we wouldn't be able to bring Hydranoid and the others home. Please Alice I'm so sorry but I promise now that it's over I will never leave you in the dark like that ever again!"
Alice hugged him. "It's okay Shun", she said. "I know that whatever happened there, it was a good reason for you to go dark."
As Shun was accepting the embrace, Skyress popped out of his coat. "Don't be too tough on yourself Shun. Your mission was hard and Alice was only really worried for you. You all deserve rest."
"You're right Skyress.", Shun responded. "Let's get some sleep and talk about everything tomorrow."
Alice and Shun went into her room, laid in bed together, once again embraced each other and quickly started to drift away into sleep. "I love you Alice… I'm so happy we can be together again…" Those words said by an almost already sleeping Shun were the last thing Alice heard before falling asleep herself.
The next morning Alice woke up first. She was soon greeted by Skyress and Hydranoid who were placed on a drawer next to the bed. "It wasn't a dream!" Alice still couldn't believe that her old friend Hydranoid is back after all that Mira told her happened to him. "No Alice, no it wasn't. I am back now and I am not leaving anytime soon.", Hydranoid replied.
Alice quickly got up, got dressed and started preparing breakfast for her and Shun, also making some extra in case her grandfather returns from his lab soon. As she was working in the kitchen she was suddenly grabbed from behind, but she immediately knew it wasn't a Vexos threat like the last time.
"Good morning.", Shun greeted her. Alice turned around grabbing his hand. "You've really overstayed in bed, that's so not like you. Was your fight in New Vestroia that exhausting?" She was ridden with worry as Shun still appeared pretty fatigued. "Let's eat first Alice. Then we can go on the porch in front of the house and talk about everything."
After Alice packed the extra food for Mikhail they sat at the table and quickly finished their meal. She then went to make them some coffee and then they finally got out on the porch. Shun was ready to tell her everything, finally the moment he waited for so long while in New Vestroia has come. Alice had her eyes completely fixed on him ready to listen to his every word and 'relive' the events of the rebellion with him.
"Alright.", Shun started. "Shortly after Dan, Mira and Baron came to you here on Earth the Vexos set up a trap for me, Marucho and the other Vestal brawler – his name is Ace. One of the Vexos used some sort of voice box device to perfectly replicate the voices of Dan to lure Marucho and Mira to lure Ace. Frankly it was Ace who believed it the most."
Alice interrupted him. "Hmm does Ace feel about Mira the same way you feel about me?" "I'm not the one to judge, but there's no denying I would've acted in the same way had the Vexos known about and replicated your voice.", he replied. A broad smile appeared on Alice's face and she got up from her chair in order to sit next to Shun.
He then continued. "Since they failed to lure me in I figured I'd just go to our next objective alone hoping they would let their guard down. Their egos are so big I was positive capturing Ace and Marucho would inflate them to an extent where they probably won't even notice me. I couldn't have been more wrong though… when I arrived close to the next objective I was ambushed by one of the Vexos. We started brawling and then… Alice… he tossed Hydranoid into the brawl."
Alice was shocked but Shun quickly continued. "Thinking it was indeed our Hydranoid I tried talking to him but to no avail. As the brawl went on I managed to get the upper hand and upon hitting 'Hydranoid' I learned the truth. It was one of the Mechanical Bakugan created by the Vestals." Alice interrupted Shun once again, this time grabbing his hand.
"Shun I… I think I saw the horror that is a Mechanical Bakugan. Don't freak out now please, but Dan, Mira and Baron weren't the only ones who visited us that time. They were followed by three of the Vexos – Spectra, Gus and Lync. The last one – Lync was separated from the other two most of the time. In fact he was here, in this house. He took advantage of mine and grandpa's kindness in order to reunite with those two… I really haven't seen a more despicable person recently. I felt like I was just used as if I was a vehicle or something… I slapped him in the end, I was just that furious!"
This time Shun interrupted her. "Alice! That was dangerous! Lync is a very vicious member of the Vexos, I fought him in Alpha City and barely won. Alice you really did a dangerous thing!" He was grasping her hand stronger now. "I take it Lync and co. were the reason Dan couldn't bring you, Runo and Julie with them to New Vestroia." Alice nodded her head.
Shun sighed and continued. "Anyways… I eventually failed to beat the knockoff Hydranoid and was captured just like Ace and Marucho. They took us to Beta City and I truly don't know for how long we were detained there. They put us in some kind of capsule device which kept us in stasis… We were lucky that Mira had devised a complex plan to save us and destroy the Beta City Dimension Controller."
Alice then put her hand on Shun's mouth and leaned to kiss him which Shun gladly accepted. After the kiss Alice suggested that Shun rests up for a bit while she brings them something more to eat and drink.
Few minutes later Alice returned with some cookies she had bought a few days earlier and some more coffee. She put the snacks on the table and once again sat next to Shun, resting her head on his shoulder. "Before you continue I must say I'm confused because the last time I saw Mira she betrayed us to the Vexos and help them trap us… that's why Runo, Julie and I couldn't come to New Vestroia when Dan returned… why I couldn't be by your side when you needed me…"
Shun was quick to clarify the situation. "Yes, yes but her 'betrayal' was the complex plan I mentioned! She never ceased fighting for the Resistance. It's thanks to her that we were able to destroy the Gamma City Controller as well as get hold of some Mechanical Bakugan. Hadn't seen them in action but Dan says they allowed him to fight Spectra to a draw. And Gamma City wasn't even a city, it was a massive research complex where they studied the Bakugan so I guess we slowed down the production of those cyber monsters at least a bit. Now after we destroyed the controller we were all shocked when our Bakugan remained in ball form. Turns out they had a spare controller at their headquarters in New Vestroia. That was the same place where Skyress, Hydranoid and the others were being held… the Vestal prince somehow turned them into bronze statues and had them as some sort of a morbid collection."
Alice exclaimed in disbelief on the verge of tears. "Oh no… Hydranoid…" She got up with the intention of going to see her friend but Shun grabbed her hand with a strong grip.
"Alice please don't go. I'm not sure they are able to talk about that yet. Mira actually saw them turning Hydranoid into a statue, it was the moment when she realized what the Bakugan really are and decided to form the Resistance we fought for."
Alice sat back down as Shun prompted her to do so. He then continued. "As Spectra was still running rampant fighting Dan the commotion managed to get us separated so it was Mira, Marucho and I who got inside the hall where our Bakugan were. The Vestal prince was there to confront us. Poor Marucho lunged at him instantly. The sight of Preyas in that state was too much for him." Alice shook her head. "I can only imagine how he felt…"
Shun nodded in agreement. "However we got lucky, someone who's obviously above the prince ordered complete withdrawal from New Vestroia and set their headquarters to self-destruct. Freeing our Bakugan from their statue forms required some kind of password we didn't have however and time was running short but eventually the combination of us managing to randomly guess some section of it and our Bakugan's will power they broke free and we were off. Dan almost died there because his brawl with Spectra moved to the headquarters set to self-destruct. I'm sure he was only saved by us manually shutting down the spare Dimension Controller on our way out which was felt by both Drago and Spectra's Guardian Bakugan. When Dan flew away to safety and we all met up again we were greeted by the Six Ancient Warriors who congratulated and thanked us for all we did. Apollonir then gave the ability to create dimensional passes of his own to Drago and that's how I came here, to you at long last."
Alice leaned on the bench they were sitting on and let out a sigh. "You've been through a lot Shun, now I understand why you're still so tired even after sleeping. How about you go get some more rest? I'll keep you company of course! And when you fall asleep I'll go to make us something for lunch and see if grandpa is coming today or not."
"Sounds like a great idea!", Shun replied. They returned to the bedroom and once again laid together.
As Shun once again drifted into sleep Alice remembered an important question. "Hold on, you got Skyress back but who was your partner prior to that? Why aren't they with you?"
Shun however already fell asleep. Overhearing this from the drawer, Skyress' ball opened up and she answered the question. "Shun was paired up with Ventus Ingram prior to freeing me. Ingram was with us all the way but he just disappeared as we were travelling through the portal with Hydranoid. We don't know the exact moment he dropped off or why he did so… but I don't think you should trouble Shun with that now as I'm sure he's worried about it."
"Oh…", saying nothing more Alice just ran her fingers through Shun's hair looking at him. "Sleep well Shun… everything is going to be alright. It can't be any other way when we're together!"