Earlier

The walk home had been rather quiet. Despite Yuma was overjoyed about his heartpiece, the duel spirit's last words still wandered his mind. He wasn't the only one, too. All his friends seemed to be bothered by it. While small chit chat still took place, it always awkwardly die down again, the silence returning.

Astral watched the group from the sky, a small distance between them and himself. Unlike Yuma and his friends, he was pondering about other things than Yubel's words. Once again he was taken back by the abilities duel spirits could possess. He started to doubt his earlier thoughts.

"Could she really hold any information about him or the numbers? Or am I overthinking this all?" he asked himself in silence. After all, Astral did not know how far Yubel's knowledge reached. It seemed like the only way to find out was to ask her.

It brought him back to his earlier question: how?

"Hey Astral, what's wrong?" Yuma's voice sounded. The spirit had been so deep in thought he hadn't noticed Yuma, let alone they'd reached home.

"Do you think Yubel could hold any information in the numbers? Or maybe about myself or Astral World?" Astral asked in return, finally speaking his mind.

The boy was a bit surprised about the question. He thought for a moment. "Well… if she knew anything, wouldn't she have told us?" he stopped for a moment. "Then again we never really asked her either…" he then said. "Eeehhh, I don't know Astral", the boy concluded.

Astral frowned, uncertain. Then he remembered something Yubel had said. Just like how he had reached the inside of the key for the first time, Yubel had, accidentally, reached it in the same manner, by touching it. Might he be able to do the same to reach her? "Yuma, can you show me Yubel's card?" Astral asked.

"Uhhh… sure, why?" Yuma answered as he reached into his deck case to grab it.

"It is as you said, the only way to get answers is to ask her. It's no use pondering about it like this, it'll only create more questions." Astral reached out to touch the card, filled with a sudden burst of determination.

"Wai-" Yuma's cry was cut short as the card suddenly flashed and by the time the light faded, Astral was long around

Black.

If anything, Astral would describe the place as black. If it weren't for his natural glow, the spirit was convinced he wouldn't be able to see his own hands before his very eyes. When his eyes had adjusted to the dark area, he actually did notice the presence of light, coming from behind him. He turned around, finding himself in a rather narrow tunnel. He saw the exit in the distance, however doubted that the light was his destination. Astral took a deep breath, the dull yet moist air filling his body. Then, he turned his back to the light once again and started heading deeper into the tunnel. Astral placed his hand on one of the walls, letting it trail next to him as he continued. He didn't quite know why, but it made him feel safer.

Astral observed his environment as he continued, the structure of the tunnel was very rough, so it must've been around for quite some time. The slightly crumbling walls and quality of the air supported this theory. On certain, better maintained parts of the wall he found what seemed to be sentences, however it was written in a language he could not understand.

After quite some time, the tunnel slowly reached its end. Upon noticing this, Astral slowed his pace. Carefully he peeked into the room, which turned out to be a large chamber. The chamber was in a much better state than the tunnel leading to it, seemingly completely intact. Torches, along with writing similar to what he'd seen before, decorated the walls. The place was only dimly lighted, however, as only few of the many torches were lit. In the centre of the chamber Astral could recognize a shadowy silhouette he knew was Yubel. Her figure was scrunched over, hands wrapped around her legs and her forehead resting on her shoulders. Rather than approaching her, Astral waited, observing the fiend slight movements.

A fiend… yet so different from any other of its kind, at least based in those Astral's met. Astral concluded that Yubel didn't classify as a fiend beyond her dark appearance. A sudden movement in Yubel's form stopped his train of thought. She lifted her head, staring at the ceiling.

"How could you expect me to go on without you?" she asked, her voice breaking. Astral knew she wasn't talking to him, she was still unaware of his presence.

"Who expects you to do that?" he asked before he could stop himself.

With a gasp Yubel's head snapped in his direction, eyes widened. The remainder of the torches on the wall lit up, along with a chandelier hanging of the ceiling, previously hidden by the shadows. Upon seeing Astral, she slowly started creating more distance between the two, despite the fact that there already was a large gap between them.

She seemed to be at a loss of words, yet her baffled expression showed that there was a lot going on in her mind. At times she would open her mouth to say something, only to then close it without having said anything. Only after a few moments she was able to respond. "What are you doing here? How did you even get here? Just… who are you…?"

Yubel had an aura of hostility surrounding her, something Astral couldn't blame her for. After all, he'd invaded her home, and saw his own behaviour in hers when she'd done the same to him. Astral thought a few moments about what he was going to say, he had to handle the situation carefully.

"I'll… I'll show you. I'll tell you everything I know, but to do so you need to come with me. The answers are in the key", Astral explained calmly. He slowly extended his hand towards, silently asking her to take it.

Yubel was surprised at the male's calm demeanour, having her at a loss of words once again. Yubel considered to refuse his offer, however realized that staying in the ruins sulking was not going to make things better. Quite the opposite in fact, and as such accepted the other spirit's offer, taking his hand.

Their hands connecting sent another pleasant shiver down Astral's spine, the tingles of touch still something foreign to him. Suppressing his urge to let go, be focussed in the key, seeing if he could transport themselves to the key directly. Much to his own surprise it did, as after a flash, they found themselves at the centre of the mechanism inside the key. After confirming their arrival, Astral slowly let go of Yubel's hand, his own falling back to his side.

Yubel didn't say anything, instead she stared at the structure surrounding her, she was met with new details she hadn't caught the first time she'd been there. Her eyes then fell on a sort of wall to her right. It existed out of many tile-like panels, each featuring a number. What truly stood out to her was the fact that some of the panels were glowing, it was only a minority though. The panels containing the numbers 11, 12, 17, 19, 34, 39, 61, 83 and 96 were glowing, 9 in total.

Astral followed Yubel's gaze, waiting for a moment before speaking up. "They're seals for the number cards", he said, Yubel's attention turning to him. "They're malicious xyz monsters that possess their owner and only seek destruction."

"Ekseece?" she asked, confused. Over time Yubel had learned about many new summoning techniques and the monsters fitting them, however he hadn't heard about this one yet. Yubel was once again reminded of her last time she'd visited the human world, however not the curious part about it. She remembered the destruction originating from Zero Reverse, something that another unfamiliar monster race had caused; synchro. Xyz must be the synchro's 'replacement'.

A small chuckle snapped her out of her daydreaming. "No, x-y-z, xyz", he repeated a bit slower, how there was still a trace of a smile left on his expression. "We have to collect all 100."

"So not all xyz monsters are numbers, but all numbers are xyz monsters?"

"Yes."

"But why do you have to collect them? What do they have to do with you?" Yubel then asked, averting her gaze from the seals to look at Astral.

Astral didn't follow her gaze this time, instead he kept staring at the numbers. "The numbers are fragments of my memory." He paused for a moment. "Upon my arrival here on earth something went wrong with my connection to Yuma, which resulted in me losing all my memories. My memory split up in 100 number cards who spread over the world. I was sent here with a purpose, however I do not know what that purpose is, and time is of the essence here..." he trailed off, frustration increasing the volume of his voice.

"It's alright", Yubel reassured him, though she couldn't explain why she did it, "Go on, I'm listening."

With a sign to calm himself down, he continued, telling her everything he knew, from his memories to his encounters with Kite and Zexal. The way he describes his memories was amazingly detailed, so much Yubel wondered if this was the case because of a great natural memory or because he only had so little memories to share that he could spend so much detail on them.

Yubel listened attentively to everything he said, still looking at the seals. It was then that she noticed a single one standing out just a little bit. The panel itself didn't look out of the ordinary, however it seemed to glow brighter than the others, the glow itself also being a bit darker. Yubel couldn't help but wonder why that was the case. Curiously she got closer to the wall, reaching out to the peculiar tile.

Noticing Yubel's movement, Astral became quiet, watching her instead, only to immediately approach her and stop her from touching it. Quickly he grasped at Yubel's arm, freezing her entirely.

"Don't. 96 is a truly bad number", Astral spoke up, interrupting her actions. He wasn't sure what effect Yubel would have on the seals, but he didn't want to take any risks.

The female spirit blinked confused before retracting her hand. "Sorry" she answered plainly, though she still seemed to be a bit distracted.

Astral let go of Yubel's arm and returned to his previous position. He then sighed, more to fill the just created silence than anything. "You really don't know anything about me, do you?" he then asked, trying to hide his disappointment.

Turning her attention back to Astral, she furrowed her eyebrows. "None of the things you explained rings any bells," she shrugged, "I'm sorry I can't help you." While Yubel held quite some knowledge on the duel spirit world and its contents, she'd never heard of Astral World, or anything else he'd said for that matter.

Another silence took over, one so thick it seemed to even deafen the spirits' own breathing. Both were occupied by their thoughts, either processing new information or reconsidering old ideas.

Astral couldn't help but see irony in the fact that he'd approached her for information earlier that day, however ended up giving much more of it than he received. His thoughts trailed back when he'd been brought to her. There was still one thing he wanted to know.

"Yubel… can I ask you a question?" he spoke up carefully.

Ignoring the urge to give a witty response, she answered: "Go ahead."

"Who were you talking about earlier? In the-", he stopped to think about how to phrase Yubel's home, "ruins?" he settled with.

The question took her by surprise, forcing her to take a step back. The female hesitated. She then looked up at the clouds, as if she could see him right there. A small smile formed on her lips.

"His name is, uh, was Jaden" she started, correcting herself promptly. "He was my previous partner, and someone very dear to me." She felt tears welling up in her eyes, and despite her efforts to blink them away, a single one escaped, rolling down her cheek.

Suddenly, something, she assumed it to be Astral's hand, gently cupped her chin and forced her head back down so she was eye to eye with him. Then his other hand approached her, cautiously whiping the tear away. A small smile appeared on his face once it was gone. Her heart skipped a beat in surprise, her voice stuck in her throat. 'Someone else… cared?'

Her voice broke as she spoke, despite speaking soft enough that Astral had a hard time understanding her. "Why.. Why did you do that?" Yubel asked.

He tilted his head, not quite sure himself. "I just felt that it didn't belong there…"

'What did Tori say it was called? Love? Yes, maybe I am in love with Yubel.'

AN: So that's another one down. This one was pretty fun to rework it into something decent. Reading over the old version makes me laugh at how terrible it was XD
Hope ya'll enjoy!