The bus rattled over a bridge providing everyone with a view of the beautiful modern city. Zuzu looked out the window at the lights. She might have felt excited by it all if she were not so overcome with worry right now. She flinched sightly, feeling a hand on her shoulder. She relaxed into it though when she looked beside her and realised it was just Declan. He looked at her with worry in his eyes and she tried to smile reassuringly. They both broke eye contact and turned behind them to look down at Yuya. He was still out like a light. Were it not for the shallow rise and fall of his chest one might wonder if he was even alive.

"Can I ask you something?" Zuzu said, turning her head forwards.

"Hmm?" Declan hummed.

"That circus belongs to your father, I imagine you've spent most of your life there so… Why would you leave everything you've ever known just to help two strangers?"

"Because it was the right thing to do…" Declan whispered, he paused but Zuzu could sense he wanted to say more. "You know Riley's actually my adopted sister." Zuzu snapped her head round to him in shock. Declan smiled wistfully, eyes lost, miles away. "Just three years ago, we were performing in the Kingdom of the Pendulum. My father had sent me and some others into town to stock up on some supplies. I got lost… Silly really. I heard some music and decided to follow it. I found this violinist playing in the street, they were incredibly talented. I listened for a while, just caught up in everything but when I decided it was time to head back I realised I had no idea which way I'd come from." Zuzu began to laugh.

"Sorry, it's just… I can't really imagine you making a mistake like getting lost."

Declan smiled, "well believe it or not I was actually panicking. I wandered around for a long time, at some point I even started crying. Eventually I just collapsed against a wall, sobbing and lamenting my own foolishness. No one stopped to ask me if I was okay. No one except a little girl who was even more lost than I was." He smiled softly. "I felt a tapping on my arm and uncurled myself to see a little girl in rags, dirt covering her face but she was looking at me with concern. She was holding a piece of stale bread in her hands, I think it was all she'd had to eat for days but she held it out to me hoping it might make me feel better. I took her hand we searched together until we found our way back to the circus. My father let Riley stay with us, I think because he didn't really care. But I did. That day I experienced true kindness. When someone who has nothing was more concerned for a crying little boy. I want to extend a hand to others… like my sister did for me."

"That's very noble of you." Zuzu said. The two looked up in front of them as the bus rolled past the gates that lead to the huge glowing white palace. Bruno parked haphazardly in the courtyard and the buses inhabitants all rose from their seats.

"Gong are you okay to carry Yuya?" Declan asked the strong man. Gong nodded solemnly and squeezed to the back of the bus. He picked Yuya up gently, disheartened by how easy he found it. He was strong of course, it was in his job title, but he knew most people Yuya's age shouldn't feel nearly as light as he did. He practically disappeared in his muscular arms as he carried him off the bus with everyone else. Once they were all outside they saw the prince and his advisors had abandoned their duelrunners randomly in the courtyard and were waiting patiently.

"Okay… Well-" Yusei began but was interrupted by the sound of someone shouting his name. Everyone turned to see two aqua haired children running down the palace steps, waving happily with big smiles. They threw themselves into Yusei's arms.

"You're back!" The young boy cried.

"We were worried, you shouldn't go out so late at night. What if something happened?" The girls said, fidgeting nervously.

"Thanks Leo, Luna…" Yusei chuckled, ruffling their hair with a warm smile. "I appreciate your concern. And don't worry, I'm fine see. We had to rescue some lost souls on the street."

"I thought that was Crow's thing?" Leo quipped.

"Yeah? So what?" Said Crow. He didn't see what was wrong with helping people, especially young children, on the streets.

"Nothing, it's really wonderful uncle Crow." Luna smiled.

"Where are the other children?" Bruno suddenly asked.

"They're asleep." Said Leo.

"Don't you think maybe you should be too?" Asked Yusei, crossing his arms.

"We were waiting for you to come wish us goodnight." Luna mumbled, blushing. Leo blushed too and turned his head away, not wanting to be seen as a baby.

Yusei just smiled and ruffled both his adopted siblings hair. Luna looked over at the group of people awkwardly watching their exchange and it was impossible not to notice the young man held unconscious in another's arms with massive black wings dangling down just a few feet above the ground. Yusei followed Luna's line of sight.

"These people are friends and they need our help." He said. Both children looked uncertain but nodded. "There's a lot to talk about but it's quite late now. How about we all get to sleep?" He gestured for everyone to go inside.

"If I take Leo and Luna back to bed could you show our guests to their rooms?" Yusei asked his friends. They nodded.

The group ascended the modern white steps to the doors of the palace and went inside. The front hall was beautifully designed with polished white floors that were so clean you could see your face in them. There was a huge chandelier that was a pole hanging down from the ceiling with twenty other poles of varying lengths attached to it vertically on various angles, the ends of which had spherical lightbulbs. There were some modern tables near the doors on the left and a big green plant by the staircase which ascended up the right side of the hall to a thin landing. Beautiful and Modern, that pretty much summed up the whole palace. They all went up the stairs together then Yusei headed left and the others led the group to the right. They went through a series of tastefully decorated white corridors before finally arriving at their guest rooms. Each one had a double bed with beautiful ocean blue bedspreads and photos of beaches with some actual shells on the furniture.

"Perhaps someone should stay with Yuya for tonight." Tsukikage suggested. "Just in case." Everyone in their group looked ready to volunteer but Declan said Zuzu should do it. That was agreeable to everyone, the two of them did arrive at the circus together and it was obvious how close they were. Declan laid Yuya down on one of the beds and tucked him under the covers like a small child. Which, he was really. That hurt Declan's heart even more, looking down at this boy who could only have been about thirteen or fourteen. Far too young to have had so many horrible things happen to him. Zuzu pulled back the covers and slid in beside him.

"Night Zuzu." Declan said, standing in the doorway. She smiled tiredly. She blinked heavily and yawned. Declan shut the door, letting her and Yuya have some much needed rest.

Declan rejoined the others and saw Crow speaking with a man in a uniform. It looked serious.

"What it is?" Declan asked, after he'd left.

"Your father I'm guessing." He replied bluntly. "There's been some big disturbance in the neighbourhoods around the visiting circus, apparently people have been saying the show was disrupted mid-performance and suddenly there were people in costumes and animals running rabid in the streets."

"No doubt my father has realised what we've done, hopefully he won't have realised where we are though."

"Doubt it. And even if he has, he ain't getting in here."

Crow brought everyone to their rooms then went to turn in himself. It was almost midnight.

Yusei was still up though. He stared out the large window of one of the higher towers, thinking about what he'd read in that letter. To think, the missing prince of the Pendulum Kingdom. After all this time. It seemed he was tangled up in something dangerous though. Yusei felt his heart ache for him. He was just a boy. He'd never asked to be born with dark and light magic.

"Shouldn't you be in your room?" He asked, seemingly to empty air.

"Shouldn't you?" Said Declan, emerging from the shadows. "It is past midnight."

Yusei huffed a laugh. "My friends are always telling me to keep a better sleeping schedule. I've pulled quite a few all-nighters working on state affairs and my duel runner. So, what do you want?"

"I want to know about the letter." He stated bluntly. Yusei turned and raised a questioning eyebrow. "If there's something in there about Yuya I want to know. The more I know the better I can help him." Yusei smiled.

"You're very protective of him. Why is that?"

Declan looked down. There was a deeply haunted look in his eyes. "When I was a child… I had to watch my father and his friends at the circus constantly put people down, use them, hurt them. It made me angry but it also made me feel worthless. There was nothing I could do to help them. I promised myself I would get stronger so that I could protect everyone."

"I see." Yusei nodded.

He walked over and held out the letter for Declan. Declan took it gently but kept looking at Yusei like he was asking for permission to read it. Eventually they broke eye contact and Declan read the letter slowly. Yusei could pinpoint the moment he read the most important part by the change in expression on his face.

"Yuya is…" Declan whispered. Yusei nodded.

"The sorcerer, Don Thousand, not many people know of him." Yusei explained. "He's dangerous. He almost took over the Kingdom of Zexal five years ago. Prince Astral and his friends barely defeated him."

"Yuya was kidnapped fourteen years ago. He must have had him back then." Declan said.

"I can only imagine he wasn't ready to take Yuya's magic at that time. Magic matures as we age remember."

"But why attack the kingdom of Zexal?" Declan persisted. "Why not wait until he had Yuya's power?"

"Hmm…" Yusei didn't have an answer. Don Thousand wasn't an idiot as far as he was aware. He had to have had a good reason for the attack but what could it be?

"He obviously has some grand plan. These events can't be random." Declan said. Yusei nodded in agreement. "And you want to keep Yuya ignorant of this?"

"Prince Astral suggests we do. He thinks Yuya will be safer not knowing."

"How? Don Thousand's not going to leave him alone. All you rulers banding together to decide his future, have any of you actually given any thought to how he feels? Just want is your plan?" Declan growled, crunching the letter in his hand in anger.

Yusei looked up at the moon outside. Declan was right, they weren't being fair to Yuya. Did they expect him to travel forever in hiding without knowing why. Never having the chance to meet his real family.

"It is wrong to hide this from him. But I know if we tell him who he is he'll want to meet his family and I don't think it's safe right now. Not with Don Thousand still out there. But I think it is unfair that we do nothing while his life is in danger. In fact, all our kingdoms may be in danger." Yusei turned to Declan. "I promise, we will make a plan to defeat Don Thousand, and then Yuya will be safe."

Declan nodded. He still felt frustrated. He didn't want to lie to his friend, but at the same time he could understand what the rulers were thinking.

Meanwhile…

Leo Akaba threw knives repeatedly at a show flyer on the wall of his trailer. He was livid. His entire show had been a disaster. Someone had blasted magical energy at the stage during the performance. Then he'd had to awkwardly skip the animal show because Roget told him they'd escaped. Which had led to a hoard of unique and, in some cases mystical, beasts barrelling through the tent and frightening the audience. It was pandemonium, people had fled screaming, stepping over each other. The obelisks desperately wrangled the animals but by then it was far too late. Finally, once all the animals were back in their cages and everyone had despondently begun to clean up the mess in the tent, he went looking for his children and couldn't find them anywhere. Eventually it was discovered several of their performers were missing, including the creature and the girl they'd captured on their journey. Tonight's fiasco would severely damage his reputation. At the very least he wouldn't be able to do nearly the ideal level of patronage in this kingdom again and word might spread to the other kingdoms too.

A knock at the door interrupted his stewing. Without waiting for him to respond in anyway the person outside opened the door. It was Roget.

"Akaba. I just wanted to come a see how you were doing." He said, in a disgusting attempt to sound concerned.

"Oh wonderful. My circus only had the worst performance its ever done and lost a quarter of its performers." He seethed.

"Well, if it's any comfort, we managed to round up all the animals. Except my beautiful monster, what a shame." Roget lamented, thinking lecherous thoughts about what he did to Yuya earlier that day. Leo slammed his fist down on a ceramic bowl shattering it. Roget was startled, for one of the rare times in his life. The veil was lifted and he could suddenly feel the tension in the room.

"This is your fault. You and your obsession."

"You wanted those two in our circus just as much as I did!" Roget argued. How dare Leo try to pin this disaster on him.

Leo sighed and placed a hand on his head. He could feel a headache coming on.

"I can't do this anymore."

"What?"

"Clean up your messes. Take care of it every time your… desires get the better of you." He paused. Roget couldn't say anything. "It's over Roget. You're fired."

"What?" Roget said, face darkening. "You're not serious."

"I'm sorry, I know you've been loyal to me for a long time."

"No kidding!" Roget yelled. "We've known each other 40 years! I used to let you sleep at my house when your father beat down on you. And I believed in your dream and followed you when no one else did!"

"I know but… You've become a liability. I have to think of the future of this circus."

A glass bottle shattered against the wall near where Leo was standing, sending alcohol all over the room.

"I won't forget this Leo." Roget seethed, breathing heavily. He slammed the door on the way out. Leo groaned and felt his legs give way below him. It was all too much. He just betrayed the one person who'd always been there for him and now both his children were missing. They were resourceful, they were probably fine, he told himself. It was all their fault. Those outsiders. He should never have indulged Roget when he talked him into kidnapping them. Now they'd forced his hand to let Roget go and made his children turn on him. He had to find them. Bring them back and destroy those keeping them away. Yes… That's it. If he just gets rid of those outsiders his children will come home and everything can be how it was. He smiled to himself, insanity sparking in his eyes.