"What do you mean she's gone again?!" Hayley exploded. She stood in front of a set of abashed men, which included Kady, Basil, Ratigan, and Flik. She had just gotten off the phone with her parents, and had heard the news that Kyrin had suddenly reappeared back home, deeply confused but none the worse for wear. When they came to release her from her cell and put Chakira in her place, she'd been expecting Kiara to be with them, ready to embrace her sister.
"We've tried re-calibrating the temporal locator," Basil said quietly, holding out the device. "But no matter what we do this time, it can't seem to pick up the faintest trace of her. It's as if her entire existence has just… vanished."
Hayley rubbed at her temples under her glasses. "I can't believe this. I can't believe any of this. We were supposed to be home by now!"
"It's all my fault, I'm so sorry," Kady said.
Hayley held up a hand. "Don't even start. I don't think any of us has the ability to open portals in the sky or control the weather." The wind had died down, a stifling stillness settling over the land. "If you really love my sister, then you'll put your self-pity aside and just help us find her again."
Kady spluttered. "L- who, who said I—"
"It's literally so obvious dude, don't even try to deny it."
He folded both sets of arms and shrugged into himself, glaring pointedly at the ground.
"If you don't mind, could I take a quick look at that device?" Flik asked, pointing at the temporal locator.
Basil passed it to him. "You can try, but I doubt you'll make any more progress on it than I or Ratigan."
Flik turned some of the knobs and pushed the buttons, read through the display of information on screen, and hummed to himself.
"We might have to pay another visit to the future, and perhaps a more costly one," Ratigan mused, rubbing at his chin.
"Actually, I think there's something we've all been missing about these readings," Flik said, scrolling up and down through the text. "It's not indicating an absence of Kiara, but rather that she's currently existing in a time this locator can't perceive, and a place it likewise can't determine. But this locator is made to read across all of time and space. If that's true, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that Kiara has been taken out of time and space completely, perhaps in another dimension, or even between dimensions?"
They all stared, Flik looking back with innocent blue eyes.
"I'd never considered that," Basil admitted.
"Blast it all!" Ratigan cursed. "How can we possibly reach her if she's outside of time and space? You might as well have said she's fallen into a black hole!"
"But why can't we do the same?" Kady asked. "Why don't we travel outside of time and space too? If that's where she is, then let's just go."