That night, I felt a surge of fear and worry coming from the direction of the pier district. The night seems to drastically sharpen my powers, so I can hear everything. Honing in on that mind, I found it was Yuma, following a distress call from "Ray." Curious and suspicious, I phantomized to prepare to follow. With my unleashed powers, I can directly turn my body into my phantomized form with a disintegrating effect. It's actually pretty cool, even though my clothes still turn into a dress. Because of my new power, it's become lavender with an indigo ribbon around my waist; just like my eyes. Phasing through my window, I vanished into the night to follow Yuma.
I flew in secret, staying close on Yuma's trail. I saw the familiar Barian red of a sphere field up ahead, as well as hearing Vector's mind. Yuma and I reached the sphere field, seeing "Ray" fighting a self-made decoy of Vector. "Ray" looked back at Yuma, also failing to notice my presence. I rushed forward, crystallizing my scythe and dashing inside the barrier. I saw in my peripheral vision that I was wearing a dark indigo cloak, patterned with silver specs. To lower any suspicion, I charged at the decoy of Vector with the scythe. Once within range, I swung at the cloaked fake. Though nothing seemed to happen on the outside, I could sense that its soul was cleaved, weakening the decoy.
The apparition disappeared into an Overlay Network, causing the field to fall apart. "Ray" fell down to the ground, collapsing of exhaustion. As I went to the ground, Yuma asked him in worry, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," he replied with slight strain.
"Who was that guy?"
"He's the worst Barian of them all, and we've been after him for years: Vector."
The boys had noticed me in the moonlight, still gripping my scythe. Yuma was in awe at my appearance as I stared them down, scanning their minds. I could tell that neither of them knew it was me from my cloak. My scythe seemed to slightly unnerve Vector, as its razor-sharp edge gleamed in the light. The blade seemed to flash, as if it shared my desire to carve into the true enemy. To both of them, I looked like a reaper with my cloak and weapon. But before they found the guts to say something, I dematerialized my weapon and disappeared into the shadows.
The next morning, I could tell that Vector was going to go back to Barian World soon. I'd have to get there first if I was going to find out how Dumon and Mizar would react. I'm pretty sure that they'll keep up the act that they didn't know until the time is right. But I'm also sure that they'll trust me far sooner than they'll ever fully trust Vector. Leaving some food and water for Shadow, I headed for Barian World.
I remained in the shadows as I listened to the emperors' conversation. I was also in my usual cloak as I was hiding just behind a crystal. Dumon and Mizar were very much on edge as they were watching over Alito and Girag. There were no changes in either of the patients, and I couldn't detect a single thought in their unconscious minds. From my hiding place, I could see and hear everything.
"Yuma Tsukumo and Astral defeated Alito and Girag in the human world," I heard Mizar tell. "They still have not fully recovered from their duels."
"Mizar," Dumon replied. "Now you and I will have to settle this score." A dark, all-too-familiar laugh filled the crystal room.
"What's the matter, Girag; Alito?" Vector mocked. "You look a little under the weather." He appeared on the throne, which I presumed was for Nash, judging from Dumon's memories. "Well, the doctor will see you now." Mizar's eyes glowed red as his surprise was replaced by anger; he and Dumon recognized him. Vector approached the crystals where Alito and Girag were resting and continued. "Pardon me; what did you say? 'We are weak'? 'We do not have the strength to beat them'? 'Can you cure us'? Sorry, I'm just a veterinarian." He kept laughing cruelly as he spoke, causing me and Mizar to seethe with wrath, like we shared the same anger. He rushed at Vector and tried to strike at him with his hand, but Dumon grabbed it and stopped him.
"Stop it, Mizar," he ordered calmly. "This is no time to be fighting each other."
"Well that time is coming," Mizar growled as he pulled back his hand.
"Anytime, Mizar," Vector chimed in cheerfully.
"Nice of you to show up, Vector," Dumon greeted, with a hint of sarcasm. "You have missed a lot. Unfortunately, Yuma and Astral have managed to stop your brilliant plan to have Dr. Faker and Vetrix destroy Astral World." His eyes glowed red as he reprimanded Vector. "But you were off somewhere, not taking responsibility for your failure."
"But I didn't fail," Vector defended. "I was there and this was all part of my plan. Yuma, Astral, Kite, Shark; they're all about to meet their fate together. I know exactly what I'm doing. Trust in me, and soon I will crush them."
Mizar snapped, "No one is going to listen to you!"
"That is enough, Mizar," Dumon interrupted, barring him with his arm. "I am warning you, Vector. No more of your secret stunts or you will answer to me." The two Barians knew about Vector's plan thanks to me, and I could tell that they both despised underhanded tactics; Mizar especially.
Vector laughed darkly. "Come. It's time to begin the end!" I knew it would be a whole new level of bad if I stuck around much longer, so I covertly got out of there in a Shadow Gateway.
I exited the vortex not far from the water tower, where I could feel Yuma's thoughts. From what I could see, "Ray" gave him a few Barian cards, and he was voicing his thoughts from atop the tower. I could also sense the minds of Tori, Cathy, Bronk, Caswell, and Flip hiding up there. Not wanting to be left out, I turned into shadow and scaled the shadows of the tower's frame. When I got as far up as I could get, I was right behind Yuma, just below the water tank. I got up there just in time, because everyone up there was revealing themselves.
"What are you so excited about?" Tori inquired as she slid to Yuma's side, catching Yuma off-guard.
"You're hiding something from us," Cathy observed as she slipped in from the other side.
"It's obvious, Yuma," Bronk revealed as he came up from beneath the platform.
"You might as well face it, Yuma," Caswell teased as he crept out to the other side of the tank.
"You can't keep a secret," Flip grinned as he slid down from atop the tank.
"Not for your life," I added once I glided out from the shadows just behind him. Yuma, seeing that he was surrounded, had no choice but to give up. Realizing his defeat, Yuma told everyone about the cards he got from "Ray" to duel the Barians with. Hoping to end the problems with them as soon as possible, they all decided to help track down the Barians.
We basically spent the rest of the afternoon "Barian hunting," as the others considered. It's just walking through the streets as everyone but Yuma, Tori, and me shouted insulting phrases directed toward the Barians. Personally, I wasn't very comfortable with it; Yuma didn't like it, either. I already knew the truth about the Barians and their dying world. But I couldn't just tell them about it! They'd either not believe me or think I'm a traitor! I'm still pretty new to the crew, and some of Yuma's friends are secretly very skeptical towards me. We kept walking down the street, until Tori pointed and asked nervously, "Guys, what's that?" It appeared to be a fiery orange orb; it was heading our way!
Out of instinct, we all ducked away from the orb as it tore through a building. Yuma presumed that it was definitely a bad thing. The orb flew through a strip of land on the other side of the bridge, tearing aside benches and uprooting trees and soil. That was likely only a power display, because it doubled back to land right in front of us. The force and speed of the landing caused a miniature explosion that blew all of us back.
Thankfully, no one got hurt... Well, not badly, anyway. Bronk, Caswell, and Flip were rather dazed from getting blown back. I was fine, along with Yuma and the other girls. Astral appeared, out of worry and confusion. When I turned to see the culprit of that orb, I saw that it was another decoy of Vector. Yuma wanted all of us to run, but I refused to flee.
"You have to run, Star," Yuma asserted. "I don't want anyone to get hurt because of Vector."
"I'm not going to leave you both with a Barian like him," I shot back. "He already took too much away from me: my past, my family, and - ultimately - my true power." Vector cackled insanely as he activated his Barian sphere field. Like what happened with Mizar, I was in the field alongside Yuma and Astral.
"It's been a while since we dueled, Yuma," Vector chuckled.
"What're you talking about?" Yuma demanded. "I never dueled you in my life!"
"How quickly we forget." I began to see memories of Vector possessing Kite's father. "We had lots of fun together when I took over Dr. Faker!"
"What; you were the one who was controlling Dr. Faker?!"
Astral recalled, "I remember that Barian."
"That was just a preview," the Barian clenched his fist at us. "I've come to destroy; to crush you. And not just Astral World; the Human World, too."
"He means it, Yuma," Astral concluded.
"I've heard enough!" Yuma shouted. "This ends right here, right now!" Both of them activated their d-pads as we activated our gazers and Vector's eye turned red.
"You should both prepare for some shocks," Vector commented before he took first draw. He summoned lvl 4 Umbral Horror Ghoul and used its special ability. By zeroing out its atk, Vector summoned lvl 4 Umbral Horror Unform from his hand, also with zero atk. He overlaid the two monsters to Xyz summon rank 4 Number 66: Master Key Beetle. He also activated the Magical Tomb spell to seal away Yuma's Rank-Up Magic: Limited Barian's Force. He then activated Master Key Beetle's effect, using an OLU to ensure that Magical Tomb could never be destroyed. Setting one facedown, Vector ended his turn.
Yuma took his draw and summoned lvl 4 Gagaga Magician. Using the Gagaga Wind spell, Yuma summoned lvl 3 Gagaga Girl with one extra level, raising it to 4. He overlaid his two Spellcasters to Xyz summon rank 4 Utopia. He then activated Gagaga Girl's ability: when used toXyz summon, the opposing monster's atk become zero as Cell Phone Subtraction. Utopia destroyed Master Key Beetle with Rising Sun Slash, sending Vector to the wall as his LP became 1500. But Vector brought it back with its second ability: destroying Magical Tomb and returning Yuma's Rank-Up Magic. Astral was confused with Vector's reckless dueling tactics. Vector activated the trap Corrupted Keys to summon three Umbral Horror Mirage Tokens. On edge about the three little monsters, Yuma ended his turn and got back his card.
Vector drew and activated the spell Umbral Horror Refresh to return his monsters' atk to normal. It restored Master Key Beetle's 2500 atk, with the Mirage Tokens getting the same amount. On top of that, Vector also regains 2500 LP, bringing it back to 4000. He had all three Tokens swarm Utopia despite having the same atk. Complying to Astral's orders, Yuma used both of Utopia's OLU's to stop the attacks from two of the Tokens. Not that it mattered anyway, because the third still got destroyed; Utopia stuck around since only a Number can destroy a Number. But Vector used the Umbral Horror Retaliation spell to destroy Utopia. Master Key Beetle attacked with Key Blast to bring Yuma's LP to 1500, with Vector ending his turn after.
Yuma was about to make a move when "Ray" showed up. He advised Yuma to use his secret weapons: the Barian cards he was given. Yuma nodded, taking his draw and summoning V Salamander, using its ability to return Utopia. He activated his Rank-Up Magic to turn Utopia into rank 5 Utopia Ray V. With the Salamander's other effect, Yuma equipped the monster to his Chaos Number. He also used Utopia Ray V's ability, using its OLU to destroy a monster on the field and deal damage of its atk; somewhat like Yinlong's effect. With Salamander's third effect, all opposing monsters were affected when Yuma used V Salamander Inferno. Vector was blown back as his LP hit zero, and Yuma was shown as the winner. We all came down from the field safely, though Astral didn't like how Yuma kept his second Barian card a secret.
"So Vector," Yuma declared. "Now you know not to mess with Astral and me." To our surprise, Vector started laughing and aimed his hand, causing a blue ghost hand to fly toward Yuma. "Ray" let himself get grabbed instead and was taken captive by Vector. The Barian refused to leave empty-handed, so he took "Ray", threw a card to Astral - Master Key Beetle's card to be exact - and vanished into an Overlay Network. Yuma rushed to Vector attempting to save "Ray", but he was too late. I knew exactly where Vector was heading to complete his plan, and Yuma vowed to save his friend, no matter what. Yuma started calling out for Vector in rage, when I heard Kite flying in.