Kite detached from Orbital's glider and landed not far from my left. Tori was rather confused as to what he was doing and why he was here. She made somewhat of an attempt to ask Kite what he was doing here. He didn't reply to Tori's questions and instead approached Yuma.
"Yuma," he questioned. "What's wrong? What happened here?" Yuma rushed up to Kite as I heard Shark also come running in.
"Ray's gone. He's gone! Vector just came and took him away! The Barians have him now. Please Kite, we gotta get him back." He grabbed the blonde's collar in desperation, much to Kite's displeasure. "You gotta help me Kite, I'm begging you! I need your help; please Ki -" Yuma was cut short when Kite slapped him in the face, knocking him to the ground.
"Calm down," Kite admonished calmly. "Control yourself."
"... Sorry," Yuma apologized meekly.
That night, Kite had brought us to the walled-off area of Heartland and to the intact area of Heartland Tower. By "us" I mean Shark, Yuma, and me. He left the rest of Yuma's friends outside, and Tori and the others were definitely not happy about it. The four of us were in the living room; Kite leaned on the window/wall, Shark was on a couch, Yuma stood between them, and I sat on the opposite couch. Yuma explained to them everything he found out about Vector, even though I already knew about it.
"So wait," Shark inquired once Yuma finished. "This 'Vector' guy who kidnapped Ray; he's the same Barian who controlled Dr. Faker and Vetrix?"
"Yeah," confirmed Yuma. "After we beat him in a duel, I thought for sure he was destroyed." I saw the whole memory replay from all three boys. I remember Vetrix telling me about that duel when I was recovering with his family; the duel must've been brutal for those three.
"Well you were wrong," Kite observed. "And now it seems he's decided to cause some more trouble."
"Indeed he has," I agreed. "I've already seen all sorts of nasty things going on in that psychotic Barian's head. As far as I can tell, none of the other Barians we've met are like that; not even close."
Kite nodded secretly. Quinton and his family gave us a heads-up on your powers, and I think it's safe to believe you on that. Neither of the other boys seemed too surprised with what I said; their minds were on other matters.
"Vector messed up my sister and he's gonna pay," snapped Shark as he stood from the couch. "I'll hunt him down like the dog he is."
"Sounds good," Kite approved. "But how're you going to find him? These Barians aren't exactly easy to keep track of."
"Who cares? It's time for this Vector guy to pay! I'm gonna find him and give him what he deserves!"
"A simple plan from a simple mind," Kite stated simply.
Shark growled, "Why don't you shut your -" Beeping started filling the room, with a red light from the alarm. A screen appeared, showing Orbital's worried expression; if that's even possible for a robot.
"Uh, m-master K-K-Kite, there's big tr-trouble," stuttered the bot. "There's a ginormous g-gravitational force directly above the t-t-tower!" I casually stood up as the boys practically jumped.
"It's the Barians," Kite presumed with surprise. I looked up and found no Barian minds up there whatsoever. I couldn't detect anything or anyone up there, much less any of the Barians I've met.
All four of us ran up the stairs to the top of the intact tower. We were quite taken by surprise when we saw what was happening. Clouds were swirling together in an ominous fashion, slightly creeping out the boys. The center of those clouds seemed to be perfectly centered above the tower; more specifically, above Yuma.
"Whoa," Yuma awed. "Check it out." Yuma's key began to give off a brilliant golden glow that caught all of our attention. The key sent out a golden streak of lightning into the center of the clouds, causing a blast much like an Xyz summon in a duel. When the glow faded, we all saw the ship that I remember seeing when I entered the key, coming straight for us! It was going too fast to control itself, accidentally ramming into the tower. We were all blown back but unharmed. With the night sharpening my powers, I could sense the mixed emotions of Yuma's friends, who finally climbed up that huge wall.
"What is it?" Shark asked.
Kite seemed to know that ship. "I saw that inside your golden key." I nodded, recalling my own experience in the key as I saw the memory of when Kite was in the key himself. According to his memories, Kite was a Number Hunter at the time, and it was the first time he so much as mentioned his little brother to someone else.
Yuma seemed to have remembered that, too; it was his first Zexal Morph with Astral. "But what's it doing parked on the roof?" A figure began to materialize in front of us. "Astral," Yuma discovered.
"I have determined our destination," Astral revealed. "The Number card Vector left behind after our recent duel with him. It became a key which activated the airship. It also generated visual coordinates of a specific location."
"What kind of location?" inquired Yuma.
"My guess: Barian World."
"That's where they're holding Ray?"
"I believe so. Vector is telling us to come to him, using this airship. And it is reasonable to assume your friend will be with him."
"Well I say we get this show on the road," Shark smirked eagerly.
"Hold on," Kite stopped. "This sounds way too easy."
"Maybe, or maybe you're scared. Maybe you should hightail it outta here, Kite."
"Will you guys just cut it out!?" Yuma exclaimed. "Maybe it's a trap and maybe it's not. Either way, we gotta try to rescue Ray!"
"I agree," Astral added as he turned back to the ship. "The airship is currently re-energizing. We can depart tomorrow morning." We all agreed, soon leaving Astral with the ship.
I went back home to prepare for the big trip. As far as I could tell, Rio probably wouldn't give her brother a choice about her coming. With Yuma's horrible skills at keeping secrets, he may have already spilled it to his pals. I was looking through my deck - which is rather small, truth be told - when all of a sudden, Shadow mist encircled my deck, and I found myself with several new cards in my deck. I saw that the new monsters were all Dark-attribute Fiend monsters. A light came up from behind me, and I turned to see Ms. Allora, for the first time in over two months. But I noticed that she was dressed like the Lady of Faith, which looked surprisingly realistic.
"Ms. Allora?" I asked in awe.
Star, the spirit looked at me with happiness and peace. How wonderful it is to hear your voice again. I have always been the Lady of Faith; I only used that name as a disguise. I've always been there to give you hope, and the strength to pull through your ordeal. I had to wait until this city was ready to welcome you, without Mr. Heartland and his schemes. When the time came, it was I who sent you here. Your new monsters will undoubtedly be kind and loyal to you; even though they are Fiends, they're most certainly not fiendish.
I was glad to have found out the truth about my friend's identity. I figured there was something odd about me being unable to read her thoughts when I was younger. Not to mention she seemed to almost flicker whenever I looked at her closely. After she left, I organized my new cards and left to get some rest for tomorrow.
Very early the next morning, I left out plenty of food for Shadow and left the duel spirits of the house in charge while I was gone. They promised to behave as long as the spirits of my deck didn't get any ideas. Getting some food for the trip - and my cloak, just in case - I went back to Heartland Tower to meet up with the others.
I got there at about the same time as Kite, Orbital, and the Kastle twins. As I expected, we had to wait for Yuma to show.
"Oh hey guys," he greeted as he arrived. "You're here kinda early."
"Hmph," Shark snorted. "No, you're here kinda late."
"Good morning, Yuma," Rio grinned. Yuma thought that Rio wasn't coming, but she proved her point she'd be coming with no matter what. Astral came out to notify that the ship was ready for launch. Yuma was eager to get going, but didn't know how to get inside. Astral activated the Flash Transmitter to bring us all inside. But before we were sucked in, Yuma's friends jumped in to come, too. All of them shared Yuma's feelings for wanting to save "Ray," and soon we were all beamed into the airship.
The inside of the ship was pretty cool-looking to all of us. Astral programmed the ship to go to the targeted coordinates prior, and Orbital went straight to the main computer. Astral had Yuma give the order for launch, and once he made the countdown, we were all heading for the location.
Everyone was really impressed by the ship and its technology. It barely made a bump when we were in the dimensional vortex. Tori brought snacks for everyone, and Lillybot gave Yuma duel fuel before we left; he suggested we all eat together. Shark wasn't too fond of the idea of a picnic. When they were about to bring out the food, an alarm went off and the ship started rattling violently, throwing us around. Rio reported of unidentified objects on the starboard side. I detected a huge number of monsters. They were surrounding the airship, and Yuma brought Kite and Shark to deal with them; Rio, Bronk, and I followed as well, me putting on my cloak.
When we got to the outside of the ship, everyone brought out their ace monsters: Utopia, Photon Dragon, Shark Drake, Zerofyne, and Tin Archduke. I also brought out Yinlong to deal with the duel monsters, who has shown she prefers the nickname "Yin". All our monsters lashed out at the giant arsenal, but we noticed they weren't fighting back. We were then interrupted by Orbital, who reported of a black hole we were heading straight for. Everyone was fighting the force of the hole, and I had to do something. Using my powers, I created a force-field around the ship to protect from damage to the hull. But the sheer force was enough to throw us all to the ground, and blackness claimed my eyes.
I slowly woke up to find myself on a strip of pavement floating in space, between the airship and three strips of floating land. I was still in my cloak, and all of Yuma's remaining friends were still inside the airship. We all seemed to be in a giant dimensional wasteland, which Vector labeled as a place called Sargasso. He considered it our final destination, mentally adding that this would be where his plan would take place. Shark was on my left, Kite was on my right, and Yuma was in the middle.
Yuma was opposing Vector on a giant, split chunk of highway. The purple-cloaked maniac formed a decoy of "Ray" on the ground at his feet, claiming he was resting; that his rest was going to be an eternal one. Yuma appeared really upset, looking over at the body of his so-called "friend". I could sense Yuma's anger towards the Barian, but for literally all the wrong reasons.
On Shark's land strip - which looked to be part of an old bridge - Rio and Bronk weren't far from where Shark was staring down Dumon. The white-cloaked Barian glanced over at me, knowing it was definitely me. He was secretly surprised that I came along. I noticed that Dumon's skin color was more of a lavender tone than gray; the color must've been distorted by the red lights on Barian. But his eyes were indeed storm-cloud gray under the hood of his cloak.
On my other side, Kite recognized the rivaling Galaxy-Eyes Master on their own strip of floating land - which seemed to be some kind of floor. I could tell they were both ready to see which of the two was stronger. Orbital glided down to where his master was on the land strip. Mizar also recognized me, standing on my small bit of land. Out of all three match-ups, the two blonde Dragon Masters seemed to be most ready to duel each other. I wouldn't be surprised if those two came to respect each other someday.
Why Vector never wanted to face me, I'll never guess. The other two Barians seemed almost pleased that I was here. Both of them were grateful for me giving them the fair warning of Vector's plan. Now, we just had to wait for it to happen. I'm guessing that it was Vector who got me on this floating island, far from anyone's earshot. He probably didn't want me to interfere with his plan. All six of the duelists fired up their d-pads, with Dumon and Mizar throwing off their cloaks. Yuma, Shark, and Kite fired up their d-gazers; the left eyes of each Barian turned red.
With three duels happening simultaneously, I probably wouldn't be able to describe them all very well. The only thing I could do was keep an eye on their thoughts from my strip of land. I watched as all three of the boys got an Xyz monster onto their fields. But the moment their turns ended, Vector called for Sargasso's effect. Lightning zapped them from above and gave all three 500 points of damage; all three of them then had 3500 LP each. I found my answer to what happened when I looked into the Barians' minds. If a duelist has or has summoned an Xyz monster, they take 500 points of damage; that would prove troublesome for all three boys.