A Long Time Coming

by Laura Rola

Nine years have passed since X.A.N.A. was defeated, and yet, the past refuses to let them go. Each team gains a new ally as the two blindly fight each other for the same goal.

4. Chapter 4

Code Lyoko: A Long Time Coming

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the rights to the original series or characters. All original content, such as added characters, insane theories, and plot holes belong to the author of this work.

Chapter 4:

-Kadic Academy, Science Department Office-

A knock rang through the room, pulling Jeremie's eyes from the students' work. He was silently thankful for it, as he had lapsed into a trance while grading the lab write-ups. Simple things tended to do that, and with a brain like his, a lot of things were simple. "Come in."

A man opened the door, wearing a brown longcoat. Underneath it was a simple blue shirt and black slacks. His hair was short and brown, and his face was somewhat plain, fitting for a person dressed as he was. "You know, I don't remember this place from when I came here, and considering my grades, that's a surprise."

Jeremie smiled brightly. "Ulrich!" He stood up and walked over to greet his friend.

"Actually, I'm afraid I'm here on business," Ulrich said, motioning for Jeremie to sit back down. He did so, but was a little weary of Ulrich's comment.

"Business?" he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he continued. "What would you be investigating involving Kadic?"

Ulrich turned his eyes away from Jeremie. "Well, it isn't Kadic that I came here for."

"So, it's about Lyoko?"

Ulrich nodded. "I have a client who is looking into a bit of a conspiracy theory she has."

Jeremie rested his chin on his fist. "Conspiracy involving Lyoko...yeah, I think we pretty much know everything about that already."

"No, not Lyoko specifically," Ulrich said, pulling a manila folder from his coat. Opening it, he handed Jeremie a sheet of paper. "She calls herself the Oracle of Delphi, and she wants to know about the remains of a quantum computer she found at this location. Those coordinates look familiar?"

Indeed, they did. The location was that of the first Replika that the Lyoko team had destroyed all those years ago. "Yeah, so she's confused about a Replika. Looks like you're gonna have to cut off this contract."

"Actually, that's the thing. I think she might be on to something."

Jeremie laughed aloud, taken somewhat by surprise by the comment. "Oh, that's a good one, Odd."

Ulrich tossed the entire folder in front of Jeremie. "I'm serious," he stated sternly. Jeremie stopped his laughter instantly, and opened the folder. Inside were pictures of various components for the Replika supercomputers. They were more or less identical to the various components used for the Lyoko computer, but there were some more modern components among the group. "I need to know where these components were acquired from, and you're the only one who might have a good chance of helping me."

Jeremie's eyes widened, and he shook his head. "Oh, no, no, no. I'm not helping you hack into any government or corporate computer systems again."

"I suppose not, but don't you want to know what might have caused those Return Trips last week?" The question caught Jeremie off guard, and sparked his curiosity more than he would have expected. Ulrich continued, his expression one of urgency. "If we can find out how the supercomputer components got to the Replika locations, we can figure out where there might be another operating quantum computer with a Return to the Past program."

"How did you know it wasn't just me doing the Return Trip?"

Ulrich smiled. "Simple. I knew that no one I know would ever do that." Turning to the door, he placed his hand on the knob before turning back with one last comment. "I'm staying in a nearby hotel. My mobile number is in the file, call me if you change your mind." Then, he was gone, leaving Jeremie with the information. He stared at the file for a moment, then looked at the papers he had left to grade. Smiling, yet disappointed, he went back to grading the work, pushing the file to the edge of the desk.

-Orion High School, Athletic Field-

Erin stretched her legs out before her, bending them back under the bench after a moment. Next to her, Louise was messing with her laptop, with the keys ticking away as she worked. "Just about done," she said, reading Erin's stretching as a sign of boredom.

Erin smiled brightly. "So, we'll be able to talk to Efix from anywhere then?"

"Yeah, I almost have the configuration done." Louise was fixated on the screen now, staring into it deeply. "We need a connection though."

"So, where would that be?" Erin said, glancing over her friend's shoulder. Try as she might, nothing on the screen really made any sense to her.

Louise moved the computer out of Erin's line of sight. "The school has a network, but other than that, we can connect at almost any coffee shop."

Erin giggled a bit at that idea. "Yeah, we could hang out with all the people writing screenplays, or whatever people do at coffee shops."

"Yeah, like drink coffee," Louise stated, hitting the last of the keys sharply. "And done."

Erin quickly moved to the opposite side of Louise to get another good look. A moment later, Efix's face popped up on the screen. "Wow, that's pretty cool."

Louise smiled broadly. "Figured you'd think that."

"So, about your code name..." Erin began.

Louise turned to her with a rather annoyed look. "Why did you even do that?"

"Do what?"

"Give those guys a fake name." Erin had to admit to herself that Louise may have had a point, but since the other two people in the Replika had given her such obviously fake names, she had simply replied in kind.

Erin shrugged, turning her gaze to Efix. "What do you think of the idea of code names, Efix?"

The boy didn't change his expression, but he responded after a bit of a pause. "It's probably best that people don't know who you are, so maybe a fake name is a good plan." Erin was rather pleased with the boy's agreement.

Louise relented. "Okay, what is it going to be then?"

"I think that Lock is a good name." Erin said. Without waiting for the obvious question, she continued. "Kind of like when a pilot targets an enemy plane, they lock onto it."

Louise looked a tad dumbfounded. "I think that might be the stupidest thing you have ever said." Erin's felt her pride being strangled within. "But, it's not a bad name. I guess it's good enough."

The girl's mood instantly brightened. "Well, in any case, it's your turn for training today, Louise." Nodding in response, Louise closed the laptop and stood, placing it in her bag. Erin got up behind her, and the two began to walk.

As they left the schoolyard, Louise glanced in her bag for a moment, and reached in to press something. She then turned to her friend as they headed down the path toward the abandoned building. "Are you sure we should really be doing this?"

"Doing what?" Erin said. It had been some time since someone asked her that question, but it usually had to do with a different kind of situation, whenever a girl she was with had reservations about what they planned to do.

Louise stopped for a moment, staring at the building that housed the Replika Terminal. Erin knew what she meant by her comment earlier, but still felt like maybe something hadn't been said yet. "We haven't had any real problems aside from those two days last week, and we have no idea if Efix is even trustworthy."

It was clear that Louise was probably in the right about the situation, but Erin felt inclined to keep watching over the boy. Each time she entered the virtual world, she felt like maybe there was something worthwhile that she could do. "If you don't want to do this anymore, that's okay, but I'm going to keep helping him."

Her friend brushed her hair behind her ear, showing the left side of her face as she smiled without breaking eye contact. "You do, huh? Well then, I guess I can't be a good voice of reason if I'm actually kind of excited to be doing this...whatever it is we're doing." Grabbing Louise's hand, Erin pulled her along as the pair laughed and ran to the door.

-Kadic Academy, Principal's Office-

Elizabeth stood quietly, in disbelief for a moment. Then, she approached Ulrich, and wove her arms around him, greeting her long lost friend. As she stepped away, she noticed Odd entering behind him. "It's good to see you again, Ulrich."

He smiled in response. "The feeling is mutual." Despite the time that had passed, Ulrich's presence still sent her heart into a frenzy. Realizing that she was probably blushing, Elizabeth sat back at her desk, looking at whatever it was that was in front of her.

She figured out that it was a disciplinary report, but that was all she got before turning back to Ulrich. "So, what brings you back?"

"Well, I have some business in France, and I wanted to talk to Jeremie about helping me," Ulrich replied. He spoke in the same seemingly cold tone she remembered him always having, but Elizabeth, like all of Ulrich's friends, could sense the subtle emotions he often displayed.

She then giggled at a sudden realization. "You know, that's three little members of my circle of friends that returned to this place over a week. It's almost like some kind of conspiracy brought you all together."

Odd reacted rather noticably, jumping a bit, as though a spider dropped in front of his face. Ulrich just smiled. "Yeah, it is pretty weird, I guess."

Behind him, Odd jumped again, then reached into his pocket for his mobile. Elizabeth half-frowned at him, crossing her arms as she sat back. "Jeremie need you two for something important again?"

Odd tapped Ulrich on the shoulder, nodding once after the man turned to him. "We'll be back shortly, boss," he said, smiling. Seconds later the pair were gone, leaving Elizabeth alone in the office. Looking back at the papers in front of her, she turned her eyes back to the door almost immediately. Something about all this running out seemed way too familiar to her, and she began to recall that she never did figure out what Jeremie and his friends were up to all those years ago. Stopping for a second to consider her position, she made her choice, and left the room. "Restroom," she said as she walked past her secretary, not glancing in her direction for even an instant. She was on a mission, the same one she had been on time and again. Then again, this time, she was signing the checks, and it concerned her on a professional level as well as a personal level to find out just what the trio was up to now.

Following the pair out of the building, she kept them in sight as they trekked out the front gates of the Kadic grounds. Staying behind cover, she kept up as the pair moved through the streets, jogging along. As she followed, it occurred that almost nobody observing them could possibly ignore how strange it looked. A man in a jogging suit jogging was normal. That man jogging with a man in a long coat in the early autumn was a bit less normal. Said pair being followed by a semi-formally dressed woman jogging barefoot behind them on the pavement, carrying her heels in her hands...now that was just plain weird. Then again, she didn't care, continuing her mission with little regard to the many reasons she really shouldn't be following Odd and Ulrich. Soon enough, the end of the journey came, standing at the bridge of the abandoned factory that always seemed a bit out of place for her. Noticing a bird upon the ledge above the door, she recalled why the factory was still standing after a demolition crew had come to tear it down. As she entered, the two were standing at an elevator below her. In front of her, a pair of ropes hung, still swinging a bit after, she assumed, Odd and Ulrich had dropped down using them. The elevator opened, and Elizabeth saw her opportunity slipping away. She jumped forward, grabbing the rope and swinging down to the floor of the factory. Upon hitting the ground, she sprinted to the now closing door, ducking in just as it shut. Unfortunately, she didn't exactly stop in time to avoid hitting the back of the car. Falling to the ground, her hands began to hurt from the rope, with her face and butt joining the pain party from the two impacts she had just suffered. "No way," she heard, but at the moment, was rather unsure of who had said it. The elevator decended, stopping a ways down, but not opening. Looking up, she saw Odd open a panel of buttons. Ulrich grabbed his wrist.

"Is it really okay to just punch in the code with her here?" he asked, whispering just loud enough that she could hear. The pain in her head was fading quickly, and her rear was following suit.

Odd smiled broadly, taking on his typical carefree appearance. "You saw her get in here, right? She earned it, man." Ulrich looked back at her, then released Odd's wrist, nodding in reply. Ulrich held his hand down to the confused woman, who took it gladly. He helped her up, as the door to the elevator opened behind her. Turning, she saw an amazing sight. From the ceiling of the circular room, a mass of very large wires extended downward, connecting to a large monitor. In the center of the floor, a large circle of metal sat, with a floating image above it. It looked like a globe floating in the air, and was transparent, with a smaller globe in the center surrounded by four broken oval-like shapes.

In the chair that sat before the large monitor, Jeremie was facing the terminal. He did not turn, but he had surely noticed her. "You shouldn't have come here, Elizabeth."

Odd spoke quickly. "Does it really matter if she is here? We came to investigate a tower that is active in the Replika." Turning to her with a strange, sad look on his face, Odd continued. "She probably won't remember what happens anyway."

A strong feeling struck Elizabeth. It wasn't fear, though it made her want to run away anyway. Something strange was definitely going on here, and she somehow knew she had been here before. After a few moments of not hearing anything that the other three were saying, it hit her. "This is the place I saw in my dream."

The conversation around her stopped cold. Jeremie's jaw was as far down as it could be, and both Ulrich and Odd had confused looks. It was Ulrich who broke the short silence. "Didn't Yumi say back then that William remembered the alternate time streams in his dreams?"

Jeremie spoke again, changing the subject to what his boss could only guess was the reason they had all come here. "We can talk about this later. Actually, we WILL talk about this later, but for now, I need you two to go in and investigate."

"With bells on our toes, Einstein," Odd replied, turning toward the elevator. Ulrich was close behind, with the doors closing behind them. Walking up to Jeremie, Elizabeth looked at the monitor. Her eyes traveled the room again, from the keyboard to the many wires following the floor and the walls.

"What is this place, Jeremie?"

Jeremie turned to her, his face cold and blank. "I'm tempted to call it Pandora's Box"

-Replika, in the vicinity of the Active Tower-

"Erin, this place is amazing," Louise stated, taking in the sights before her as she stood. Exactly where she stood was amazing in and of itself. Below her feet, the ground was actually a solid cloud, fluffy and pure, yet not blinding like a field of snow under the sun. Around her, a beautiful blue sky surrounded the area, as the clouds formed the pathways, connecting amongst the nimbus pillars whose gray color brought a colder palette to the area. "I'll send you here for your next training session."

The disembodied voice of her friend came through the air. "We have a job to do today, Louise. Efix is just up ahead, if I'm reading this screen right."

Louise rolled her eyes. It had been an entire week watching the monitor, and Erin still hadn't gotten a handle on reading the information. In a way, it was rather humorous that Erin was able to use the virtualization program at all, but she didn't make any mistakes with it to Louise's knowledge. "Come on, info junkie, I know you can do it," she said as she ran ahead along the cloud path. The ground beneath her gave somewhat, and made a sound not unlike thin ice cracking bit by bit under her. I guess it makes sense that if I'm running on water, it would be frozen, she reasoned, noting that the ground was surprisingly not slick in any way.

Efix waved his hands in the air as Louise rounded a corner. Jogging the short distance to him, the girl stopped to catch her breath. She checked each of her firearms as Efix spoke. "The tower is up ahead, but you probably can't see it from here." Looking around her, she noticed a stark change. The beautiful blue clear sky was now veiled with a thickening fog that softened the white of the pathways and deepened the gray of the nimbus.

"Uh, Erin, is it normal for fog to appear really high in the air really quickly?"

After a moment, she answered. "Well, fog is pretty much just stratus clouds, and ground fog can rise into the air, but I don't think it happens as fast as you're probably asking."

Louise shivered a bit, but it wasn't from any temprature change, as the air seemed to be the same temperature in the virtual world at all times. No, this was a bit of fear seeping in. "We should get moving then, Efix," she said, hoping she could fake bravery effectively enough to keep the boy from panicking. Then again, she probably wouldn't have been able to tell, what with his usually blank expression.

"Yes, let's go now," he said, grabbing her hand as she extended it to him. It was clearly best that they not get separated if the fog grew any thicker. The pair continued on the path, starting out fast, but slowing their pace as the air become more impenetrable. The fog eventually made it difficult for Louise to even see her traveling companion.

"I see the tower ahead on the monitor," Erin said, causing Louise to jump about a half foot off the ground.

"Don't scare me like that!" she yelled, causing Efix to recoil from her a bit. Embarrassed, Louise softened her tone. "Sorry, Efix."

Erin sounded rather annoyed when she replied. "Sorry, but unfortunately, I need to tell you something kind of important, Lock."

"That code name thing?" Louise asked. Thinking a moment, it became clear what Erin was probably trying to tell her. "So, your friends are here?"

"Well, not necessarily, but I'm picking up some other life forms in there, so even if it's a group of monsters..."

Louise wasn't interested in drawn out explanations today, not with a job to do. "Yeah, yeah, so how far is the tower from us and what direction?"

"Actually, I don't really know the distance, but if you keep following the path you are on, you'll run into a platform with the monsters and the tower." It occurred to Louise at this point that both of the girls were blind, just in different fashions. Swallowing hard, she pulled Efix forward sharply as she began to run down the path.

-Replika, Sky Sector-

It wouldn't surprise Ulrich if people thought of him as a driven man. His passion for getting a job done right had definitely improved since his days of academia, but when it came to Lyoko, it wasn't just about the job. The feeling of virtualization reminded him again to thank XANA for bringing him and Yumi closer, but he hoped beyond anything else that he never had the opportunity to do so. Looking around him, it was quite clear that some things had changed in the last few years in the virtual plane. "We're in, Jeremie."

"Good, the tower should be up ahead. Just follow the path you're on."

Odd jumped into the conversation here. "And then what, Einstein? We can't deactivate it."

"But THEY can, or the first one wouldn't have been deactivated," Jeremie replied confidently.

Ulrich grabbed the reins of the conversation again after that. "Wait, who's 'they'?"

"A group of people who are inside the Replika."

"How do you know it's a group, we've only seen one," Odd pointed out.

Jeremie logically explained his theory. "One person inside, one person outside, and the tower deactivated while you were standing next to the person we have seen already, so that would mean three people."

Odd gestured to Ulrich to follow, but he didn't feel it would be reasonable for the faster one to follow the slower one. "Super Sprint," he called out, taking off down the path. He heard Odd shouting something behind him, but the sound was gone in an instant. Tearing off down the path, he took in the sights as well as he could. The other paths were little more than white blurs, the storm clouds that were near the branches of the paths flew by a bit slower. Soon enough, he came upon an approaching fog. Slowing to regular running speed, he continued onward. After only a short distance, the fog had become thick enough to prevent him from seeing anything. "Hey Jeremie, how far to the tower?"

"It's about 300 meters ahead, in the middle of a large platform-like hub," Jeremie replied. He was quite obviously annoyed by Ulrich's solo run to the tower. "And wait there for Odd, please."

"Will do," Ulrich replied. Back in the real world, it wouldn't have bothered him to wait for help, but in this place, there was often both urgency and a lack of consequence for reckless behavior. A few moments later, a pair of feet could be heard from behind. Odd materialized out of the fog behind Ulrich, and the duo continued together down the path. After a short distance, the edges of the ground widened, signaling that they had reached the location Jeremie had mentioned. "Jeremie, where's the..."

A gunshot rang through the fog, interrupting Ulrich. Turning toward the sound, Ulrich caught sight of multiple laser blasts lighting up the fog. They were pretty close to the ground, which meant that at least the enemies weren't fliers. "No time for questions," Odd said, running towards the firefight. "If they don't make it to the tower, they can't deactivate it." Ulrich followed after him, drawing his right blade. The blasts got brighter and brighter as he ran forward, while Odd began firing into the fog at the monsters.

Suddenly, a Blok appeared before the warrior as he reached the point of battle, the fog now being thick enough to almost completely blind anyone in it. "Impact," he called, jamming his blade into one of the monster's eyes. It was a solid hit, destroying the Blok in a flash that drew fire onto Ulrich's location. Stepping aside, he heard Odd come from behind. His compatriot ran next to him, jumping into the fog toward the attacks. After a moment, another flash lit up the fog, with Odd's silhouette barely visible at the point of origin. It was at this point that Ulrich could finally locate the gunfire in the area. Catching a muzzle flash from the corner of his eye, he turned to the left to look toward the source. A third flash from the monster's burst through the fog, but with this one, the mists began to vanish rapidly around Ulrich. To his right, Odd stood, breathing heavily. To his left, there was a young woman with a pistol, aiming toward Odd. Wasting no time, Ulrich ran straight at the gun-woman, bringing his sword to bear on her. She glanced at him as she lowered her weapon. Falling backward, the girl brought her gun up as Ulrich swung his sword at her. Stopping himself for a moment, he adjusted his weapon to strike at the trigger guard. Looking at her as she held his weapon up with her gun, he tried to gauge her personality, which was admittedly hard in the virtual world.

She pushed fiercely against his blade, scrambling back and getting to her feet. On a pathway behind her, a young boy stood alone. He looked like he was in a complete trance, not focusing on anything in front of him. Backing off, Ulrich stood beside Odd as the young woman drew a second gun with her free hand. "What's your name, miss?" Ulrich asked.

The girl was taken aback by the question, but she seemed to regain her composure fairly quickly. "Lock. Call me Lock."

Ulrich drew his second blade, readying himself to attack. "Nice to meet you, Lock. I'm Ulrich." With that, he lunged at the girl with all his strength.

-Abandoned Building, Replika Terminal-

"This is bad. If they attack Efix..." Erin said to herself, grabbing her bound instructions for the terminal. Frantically, she flipped through the papers, looking for anything that might possibly leap out to help her. "Damn it, I haven't translated this part yet."

"I thought that was in English when I saw it." The familiar voice caused the girl to stop cold. She turned to see Miss Porter standing behind her. She walked to the terminal and looked over Erin's shoulder at the instruction sheets. "I thought so."

"What are you doing here?" the shocked girl asked, standing up and back from the terminal. Miss Porter immediately took her place in the seat.

The teacher flipped through some of the early pages of the instructions, then closed the packet and placed it on Erin's bag next to the terminal. "Get in the scanner," she said, typing away on the console.

Erin didn't immediately follow her instructions, which made perfect sense to her, as there were many more questions to be answered now. "How do you know what this stuff is?" she asks.

She didn't get a real answer. "Just get in the scanner, Erin, and help your friend." Erin decided that it would be best to just go to the virtual world to help Louise, since it seemed like no one else remembered the repeating days from their first trip. Standing in the scanner, the door shut on her, placing her in the familiar dark. The lights appeared as they had each time before, and Erin closed her eyes.

"Hang on, Louise."

-Replika, Sky Sector-

Louise leveled her guns at the cat-like man, firing a few rounds. The shots flew rather wide, since firing a gun with one hand didn't let her stabilize it. Cursing her idiocy, she went to holster the second weapon when Ulrich came at her with both blades. Raising her weapons, she caught the swords very improbably. At this point, a suspicion arose in her. Pushing away from the swordsman, she holstered a pistol in the right holster, then switched her left gun to her right hand. "Are you even trying to hit me?" she called to Ulrich, firing a few rounds in his direction. He sprinted toward her, leaving a yellow light streak behind as he moved about to avoid fire.

Reaching her through the sustained fire, he began to run in a circle about the bewildered girl. "Triangulate," he shouted, as Louise noticed that he was, in fact, running in a triangular pattern. At each point of the triangle, an Ulrich stood, sword at the ready. Aiming quickly, Louise fired a round into the Ulrich directly behind her, disintegrating him with the single shot. Instead of a sense of victory, panic set in, as the other two Ulrichs moved in toward her. Switching hands with her unholstered weapon, she drew the other as the pair lunged at her. She leveled each weapon at a different attacker and fired, sending one Ulrich flying as he vanished like the first one. The second appeared to be hit, but didn't seem to feel the shot, as he still managed to strike Louise in the side. The blade cut through her, though there was no blood, only a little bit of the dust that she saw when she destroyed the clones moments ago. Falling to one knee, Louise dropped her weapons and clutched her side. Looking up as she grabbed one of her weapons, she noticed Ulrich standing near the cat-like man. The pair was a pretty good distance from her, with the cat man pointing one of his fists at her and the swordsman holding his blades down at his sides. After retrieving both weapons, she struggled to her feet and glanced back. Seeing Efix still in a trance, she turned her attention back to the pair of warriors. Raising her weapons, she ran at them. Taking a second attempt at beating the cat man, she leaped into the air, firing a rain of bullets toward the pair. Several shots managed to hit, but they didn't appear to do anything. Upon landing, she got up off her knees just in time to catch the cat man's foot right in her stomach, sending her back. Sliding on the ground a bit, she groaned and pulled herself up as best she could.

"Damn it. I need help." The very sore girl raised her weapons only to discover that the slide was back on each. Empty. Looking at the more powerful foes before her, she felt another rush of panic, turning to check on Efix again. The boy continued to stand frozen, entranced, and Louise cursed under her breath. Ulrich and his companion didn't move from their positions, but that didn't put her mind at ease in the least. "Help me, Erin," she whispered, almost praying for her friend to show.

"Lock!" The voice called from her left, drawing the focus of all three combatants. There, Erin stood, her scythe drawn and her teeth bared. Running to Louise, the new arrival placed herself between her worn-out friend and the pair of warriors in front of the tower. Staring into Ulrich's eyes, she spoke boldly. "Who's your little friend here, Odd?"

The cat man smiled a sinister smile. "Why, my dear Zero, that would be my old friend Ulrich." He laughed a boisterous, playful laugh, and smiled genuinely after he finished. "This is gonna be fun."

Ulrich raised his blades to form a cross in front of him. "Let's see what they can do, huh Odd?" Odd pointed his fist toward the girls, continuing to smile.

Louise stood back for a moment, grateful to see her friend, but very confused. What happened next only added to the confusion. On the outsides of her holsters, a pair of clips appeared, shocking the girl even more. The shock turned to thankfulness, though, as she reloaded her weapons with the newly materialized ammunition. "I hope that helps you." The words came from a woman's voice, forceful and soft at once.

Erin spoke quietly to Louise, following after the disembodied voice. "I'm expecting an explanation later, myself, but just go with it for now."

Louise stepped forward, taking a position next to Erin. "Isn't that what we always do anyway?"

The girls smiled in unison as Erin replied. "Life's more fun with surprises." The men across from them seemed to agree, smiling broadly themselves.

-End Chapter 4-

Made it to the fourth chapter. Not exactly where in the story I expected to end the chapter, but I got everything in here that needed to be here. I apologize for this being later than expected, I've had a rather busy two weeks. Put a review up on this site, or email me at aurora-dot-chanCE73-at-gmail-dot-com. Hard at work on the next chapters, so they'll be up soon enough. Thanks for reading.