The fire has spread madly, making our treck back much more difficult. Amy smashes what she can with her hammer, and Blaze absorbs as much of the flames as she can. Silver levitates objects too thick to be smashed out of the way, and Espio acts as our alarm signal. Shadow watches the left side, Black Mist and I watch the back, and Sonic watches the right, making sure that nothing that can survive fire (say...the iblis monsters. Yes, Silver told me about those.) will attack us.

"Astral, now would be a good time to release your evil," Black Mist hisses. "You and I both know that he's much stronger to cope with this than you. I will go into my ultimate form as well to conserve at least some of my sanity."

I frown. "I do not think this is a good time for that."

"This is a better time than you think. Trust me, you'll be better off lost in insanity than right now."

"Are you sure you are not simply tricking me?"

"Hey, I swore that I wouldn't try anything funny. I wanna get out of here as fast as possible, and I wouldn't accomplish that by tricking you."

I sigh and give in. I allow Black Mist to probe my mind and look for that small spot of darkness to activate. When he finds it, I wait for the pain of the evil fighting to dominate. When it arrives, I can't help but give a small cry of surprise and pain. The others look our way, and surprise crosses their faces.

"What's going on?" Silver calls. "What's happening?!"

I fall to the floor and writhe in pain. I feel the darkness taking over miy mind, and my sanity drains. My senses become alert, and everything becomes vivid. I calm down. I lay still for the longest moment.

"Nobody get into his line of sight," Black Mist commands. "He might just think you're the enemy." Black Mist crouches down to my level. He has already transformed. "Astral, can you hear me?"

"Yes."

"Follow my hand with only your eyes."

His hand goes to moving, and my eyes follow the movements. He nods and helps me up. As soon as I am upright, the full affects of the darkness take hold. I smell all sorts of things. I see much better. The crackle of fire and the creaking of metal assaults my ears. My hands itch for something to attack. An insane grin finds its way to my face.

"So, where to?" I ask.

Sonic and the others look at me worriedly. "Are you okay?" Amy asks.

I wave it away dismissively. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Just lead the way."

Sonic and Espio go on ahead, and the rest of us follow. We keep having to make detours to stay safe. Part of me wants to just go right into the fire no matter how hot it is just to get there quicker. Another part of me says to stick with the rest. I go with sticking with the rest. It's a painful journey, and boredom sets in. Finally, we make it to where we came from.

"Here it is!" Silver exclaims, pointing to the door. "It's blocked, but we can dig through."

"If only we had Knuckles with us," Blaze chuckles.

Black Mist and I go forward. "We'll handle this," Black Mist says. We start burrowing into the rubble, removing the right pieces of metal so that it won't collapse further. When we finish, I know that my hands are burning. The thing is, I can't feel it. All the pain receptors are numb. Really helpful, but it can be dangerous, too.

The others cheer when the exit is cleared. That happy sensation is ruined by more rumbling and more falling. This place is falling inch by inch. We rush out, and I bring that darkness back in. I'm dizzy for a while, but I keep going.

"Guys! Over here!" Tails calls as he brings the plane over. "Wave already took the others back. They're currently making their way to the temple."

Sonic, Amy, Blaze, and Espio hop on. Black Mist, Silver, and I fly next to the plane. It takes off, and we rush to keep up. I look behind me to see a small pod thing flying in the opposite direction. I suppose that is Doctor Eggman escaping. I face front again, and we keep going.

When we make it, I see the rest going into the temple. Knuckles doesn't seem to be having a hard time carrying the huge emerald, which is a surprise since he is so small. Another rumble, more falling. This time, though, we do not stop falling. Everybody starts losing their balance, and Knuckles drops the emerald. It falls to the ground and smashes into millions of pieces.

"No!!" Knuckles cries out in despair. We all look at it in disbelief.

"That was the only way to stop this place from crashing to the ground," Jet complains.

"Let's not panic," Atem says. "There must be another way to keep this island from crashing to the ground."

"Like what?" Shadow asks. He crosses his arms. "I don't have any more ideas."

Then, I hear footsteps. I turn and see Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma running toward us.

"What's going on here?" Yusei calls. "We felt the floor rumble, then a falling feeling."

"Who are you guys?" Sonic asks.

"Yugi Moto."

"Jaden Yuki."

"Yusei Fudo."

"Yuma Tsukumo."

I go up to them. "Right now, this island is falling quickly. Due to the Master Emerald being crushed, we cannot stop it," I explain.

"Can't there be a way to hold it up before it touches down?" Yuma asks.

"That would help it from not crashing," Jaden adds.

"While this place is falling, though, you guys need to repair that emerald," Yusei says.

"Working on it!" Knuckles growls. Since all the pieces are there, he can just will the emerald back to being whole. It is taking quite a while, though.

I pull Yuma over to the side. "Yuma...how were you able to come back?"

Yuma laughs. "Wow, no 'I'm so glad you're okay'? You're still the same."

"Yuma, I need to know. All of the bodies from the past were locked in tubes that were in the ship. The ship was on fire. How did you get out?"

"I honestly have no idea. One moment we're battling Barians, and the next I'm in a burning ship with three other people I have no idea who they are."

"I see..." Yuma and I go back. Knuckles still has yet to complete the Master Emerald, and we are closer to crashing. We all look worriedly at each other.

"What if some of us go under and try to soften the fall?" Jaden suggests.

Yuma and I look at each other. We know that our Zexal form is strong, but we will need more.

"I'll go," Black Mist volunteers.

Yuma looks surprised. "Huh!? This isn't like you."

"Well, I don't wanna die. Now, if you can still do that Zexal thing, then do it."

We nod, and we overlay ourselves. We fly into a portal normally used for overlay summons, and we come out in our first Zexal form. We quickly join Black Mist.

"Ready?" Black Mist asks.

"Ready," Yuma and I reply.

We jump off of the edge and go under the island. Black Mist raises his shoulder blades, and black ooze comes out of them. He secures them on the island, and Yuma and I put our shoulder to it. We feel the descent start to slow down.