Dumon turned around to find Vector skipping out of an overlay network holding a man who was completely stiff. It didn't take a rocket scientist(which Dumon actually sort of was) to figure out that was his older brother. Dumon started to greet Vector before noticing another person coming out of the overlay network.

"Awwww... You usually say something before I do whenever I return from somewhere. Usually a hello or 'get away from me, I'm busy'. You slow today or something?" Vector giggled.

"Or something," Dumon pointed to the man who had followed Vector through the portal.

Vector whirled around and his eyes widened making him look even more crazy than normal. "F*CK!" he screamed.

"Language." Dumon sighed.

The man hesitantly straightened up, "I-I am Bernard, head advisor to the king of the Fire Kingdom. I must plead that you believe me when I say that Arthur is innocent-"

"We know~" Vector sang.

Bernard blinked. "You... know?"

"I just said that. Oh! And here's the dart that shot him. You might want it." Vector handed Dumon the small dart.

Dumon inspected it. "I think this has enough of the drug left for me to work solely on this." Dumon walked over to a crystal and inked out what was left of the paralyzing med on a small, round disk. After a few minutes of Dumon entering data on the crystal, it began to fill with a pinkish liquid. He walked over to a table, opened a drawer, and pulled out a long syringe. Vector and Bernard winced and Arthur looked terrified. "Put him on that chair over there." Dumon ordered as he filled the needle with the pink liquid.

"You know that rhymes, right? And do you want me to fluff your pillow and fetch your slippers too?" Vector giggled as he set Arthur on the crystal chair.

Dumon closed his eyes and counted to twenty before walking over to Arthur with the needle. Arthur's eyes widened even more and Vector realized he had never seen his older brother so scared before. "Calm down, you can't get this in your bloodstream from a baria crystal since you're not a barian, so this is the only way I can get this in you." Dumon soothed. Sadly, Arthur didn't seem to get any less panicked.

"What is that stuff?! Stop!" Bernard shouted.

"Mmm... No." Vector grabbed Bernard by his collar to stop him from interfering. Bernard could only watch as Dumon injected Arthur with the liquid. After all the liquid was gone, Dumon stepped back.

"I'll leave you three to sort things over between yourselves as you see fit." Dumon teleported and left only light particles in his wake.

Vector let go of Bernard and the man rushed over to Arthur. "Prince Arthur! Are you alright?! Please, what even was in that needle?!"

"Mmh..." Bernard paused as he heard a low moan from Arthur.

"Prince Arthur?" Bernard whispered.

"Ow, thab neeble hurb..." Arthur slurred. He opened and closed his hand. Bernard gasped and helped Arthur move his limbs to get feeling back into them.

"Oh, what did you think we were going to do? Make him a lizardman?" Vector laughed before stopping. "Oh... did you really think we were going to make him a lizardman?"

"It had crossed my mind, yeah. Along with a bunch of other horrors!" Bernard snapped. "You could've have explained you were going to give him the antidote!"

Vector shrugged, making his wings bob up and down. "What would've been the fun in that?"

Arthur looked at Vector. "Wh-who are you?"

Vector laughed, "Let's see if you can figure that out for yourself."

"How the heck could we figure that out for ourselves?!" Arthur tried to jump off the chair but fell on his face. Vector yanked him up and set him back on the chair.

"Easy, although seeing you try to walk right now would be hilarious, I'd prefer not to have you end up in a coma." Vector giggled.

"What did you mean by seeing if we could figure it out by ourselves?" Bernard asked suspiciously.

"Exactly what I said. Both of you already know me VERY well. Not how I look currently, though." Vector rested his head on one hand with a cocky expression.

"Wait, what?!" Arthur and Bernard cried in unison.

"C'mon, you two can guess. Just think about it for a little." Vector teased.

Bernard sputtered incomprehensibly but Arthur actually gave it serious thought. 'Think, Arthur, think! I'm supposed to know this guy and he does feel familiar, but from where? Did I meet him at a party? No... he wouldn't expect me to remember him then. Hmm... he mentioned I didn't know him as he looks now, but his personality would stay the same, right? I might want to ask before I make assumptions.'

"One question," Arthur requested.

"Depends on what it is." Vector replied, 'smirking'.

"You claim we know you, but haven't ever seen you in this form before, right? But are there similarities between the form we usually know and this one and is your personality the same?" Arthur asked.

"That's technically TWO questions, but yes to each one. I'll be counting how long it takes you to figure it out NOW." Vector pulled out a stopwatch and started it.

Arthur frowned. 'So he's given me two very big hints. He looks similar to how he looks in the form I apparently know and he has the same personality. I'll start with getting his basic personality down. Let's see... sadistic, psychotic, doesn't like the Kharc, is friends with Bernard and me... that pretty much covers what I know about him so far. Let's see about his appearance... he has wings, grey skin, black markings under his eyes, purple eyes, spiky hair that looks like Vector's-' Arthur's mind went blank and his eyes widened. 'Oh... My... God...'

"No way. No. Freaking. Way." Arthur gaped.

Vector stopped the stopwatch. "Judging by your reaction, I can tell you've figured it out. Took you a whole forty-five seconds after I gave you those hints. You're getting slow."

Bernard was still confused. "What does he mean, Prince Arthur?"

Arthur was still gaping so Vector answered. "Don't feel bad you didn't get it, it's brotherly instinct." Vector winked.

"Brotherly instinct? But his only brothers are Vermillion and Vec-" Bernard's eyes widened and he went stiff.

"Well, he'll be in shock for a while." Vector commented.

Arthur shook himself. "V-Vector? Is that really you?"

Vector rolled his eyes. "No, I'm the Easter Bunny, have a painted egg. Maybe you could throw it at some lizardmen."

"Okay, you're definitely Vector. What... happened to you? I'm guessing you like being a- whatever you are, so I won't freak out about that." Arthur peered at his brother.

"The name for what I am is a barian and it happened while I was away and presumed dead. Don't ask how I became one, don't want to talk about it." Vector said.

"Alright then. What about Rosette? Is she-" Arthur started then stopped. "Wait a second... when you winked at me when you were carrying Rosette, you were going to use some barian technology to make her better, right?"

Vector averted his gaze and became fixated on a crystal off to the side. "Well... not exactly."

"Not exactly?" Arthur questioned.

"There was too little time to do any tests on reversal of the process, Dumon did do some tests later and found out that what our bastard brother Vermillion said about it being irreversible is true." Vector said.

Bernard snapped out of his shock. "You said she was alive!"

Vector held up his hands in a surrendering gesture, although it looked and was meant to be sarcastic. "Easy, Berny. She is. Else I would be a lot more ticked than I already am. Basically, Dumon and I were able to redirect her transformation from a lizardman into a barian. I was going to tell her about the barian thing and ask her if she wanted to try and become a barian, even though it would be risky, but Vermillion intervened and forced my hand. She nearly died during the transformation though."

"So she's a barian too..." Arthur mused. "Okay, no more questions at the moment."

"I still have a few!" Bernard snapped, "First, why the hell didn't you tell anyone about being a barian?! Second, why didn't you use any barian powers that I'm guessing you have now since that other guy just freaking teleported to kill Vermillion?!"

"For you first question; what did you expect me to say? 'Hey guys, guess what? When I was away, I got transformed into a super powerful alien ruler. Please pass the salt?' Yeah, no. For your second, I was about to but Rosette came first. And what do you think I'm going to do now? You did see the bunnies, right?" Vector 'smiled'.

"Yeah, that's forever imprinted on my brain. How the heck did you even manage to make them that carnivorous anyway? On second thought, I don't want to know, do I?" Arthur said.

"Nope~" Vector giggled.

"Alright, I think I'm good on the questions for now. I'll have more later when my shock has completely worn off." Bernard said.

"Both of you sit tight for a while, I'm going to get Rosette. Tell her you're here, do some extreme making out. I can't stand being away from her this long." Vector sighed.

"You've been away from her for one day!" Bernard exclaimed.

"Yeah?" Vector gave him a look that said, 'your point?', before vanishing through an overlay network.

…...

Rosette was painting the finishing touches on a crystal canvas when she heard from right above her left shoulder,

"Miss me~?"

Rosette jumped up and whirled around. "VECTOR!" she cried throwing her arms around her lover's neck. "I didn't expect you back so soon, but I'm glad you are." she murmured.

"Me too." Vector grabbed Rosette by her shoulders and kissed her passionately. "Oh! And the reason I'm back so soon is that I found Arthur and brought him back to Barian World so he's not paralyzed anymore. But Bernard tagged along 'cause he didn't know I was... well, me and was afraid I wanted to hurt Arthur. So they both know about the whole barian thing now."

Rosette smiled and clapped her hands, "That's great! How are they taking it?"

"Well, Arthur's taking it well but Bernard's still in shock so I can't hazard a guess quite yet but he seems like he's sort of fine with it." Vector wrinkled his forehead. "'Hazard a guess?' Damn it! Why the hell is Dumon and all the stuffy nobles back in the Fire Kingdom rubbing off on me?!"

Rosette laughed. "I think it's called maturing."

"Yeah... I don't do that." Vector 'grinned'.

"That explains a lot." Rosette said slyly.

"Aww... now I have to punish you for that~" Vector 'smirked'. Rosette slightly 'frowned'. Punish? She got her answer quickly when Vector kissed her. Her eyes widened because this kiss felt more intense than the others she had experienced in her new barian form. When he finally pulled away, they both were breathing in ragged, short breaths.

"W-what was that?!" Rosette panted.

"Meh. I asked Dumon about the different ways barians could kiss. That was one of the more intense ones. The way he explained it, aka prattled on and on, it makes the two barian's energy signatures perfectly align then contradict and shift quickly back and forth between the two." Vector breathed out.

"I rather liked it." Rosette commented.

"As did I. Well, Arthur and Bernard are waiting. We can spend the rest of the night together before I have to go back as soon as our little visit to them is over." Vector opened an overlay network behind him. "After you, M'lady."

Rosette curtsied and quickly kissed Vector on the cheek before dissolving through the overlay network. Vector 'smiled'. He had learned of her existence barely three weeks ago and already he couldn't imagine life without her.

…...

Arthur glanced up at the portal that had just appeared. A pink barian with red ponytails had appeared out of it shortly followed by Vector. "Rosette?" Arthur asked.

Rosette nodded. "Yep! Great to see you Arthur. And you're not paralyzed this time!"

Arthur laughed. "If you had come about thirty minutes earlier, I would have been."

"Princess Rosette?" Bernard asked.

"We've already established that she's Rosette." Vector sang.

"Sooo... how's life here?" Arthur asked.

Rosette 'smiled', "It's great! I live in Vector's palace, there's so much to do, and Vector visits every day except when he's away." Vector glanced at her, thinking he heard some sadness when she said, 'there's so much to do'. He'd have to ask her later about that.

Arthur grinned, "That's great! I'm glad you're happy here."

Bernard stood up. "Prince Vector, Princess Rosette, I apologize for being rude to both of you. I was just confused and surprised when I learned the two of you were barians."

"Stop with the formal apologies already~" Vector whined.

"What now?" Arthur asked.

"Easy. You stay here in Barian World. It's not good for humans to stay long in Barian World, something about the high energy levels affecting DNA and whatnot, but you'll be fine if you only stay for a couple days, which is all I need. Bernard goes back and tells our father that I went for a long walk to clear my head and I might be away for awhile. And I'll be hunting Vermillion down with Dark Mist's help." Vector explained.

"Dark Mist... that black floating guy?" Arthur asked.

"Yup!" Vector giggled.

"Okay then. No more questions." Arthur smiled.

"And Dumon wanted you to stay at his palace because, from what I told him about you, he figured there would be a lot more things you'd be interested in at his place than mine." Vector said.

"Like...?" Arthur prompted.

Vector waved a hand. "Swords, knight stuff, a whole honking lot of books, most are academic-"

"I'm in." Arthur replied with no hesitation.

"Good! I'll take you there. Bernard, you can go back to the Fire Kingdom through this overlay network, and TRY to lie with a straight face. Then Rosette and I will spend the rest of the night together." Vector opened an overlay network grabbed Arthur's shoulder and he and Rosette teleported. Bernard looked at the overlay network for a second before stepping through.