Hello and welcome back to 'Our Fight'! Oh CLOCKWORK... I'm so... SO LATE... for this update...

Well... It's exactly 3:02AM when I finished this chapter... I'm tired... I have nothing else to say... The A/N at the end of the chapter was done beforehand... So I sound a lot more awake then... Enjoy the chapter... G'night...

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Cardfight Vanguard' in any way what-so-ever.

Started (Again): 5/27/16—-Finished: 5/30/16

...

Chrono stifled a yawn as he walked to his new classroom for the year. It's been four days since Ryuzu had died-To say Chrono was shocked at this was an understatement- and two days, not including today, since he had woken up. Mikuru had insisted that he stay home for a little longer before going back to school, but Chrono needed to ask the others what exactly had happened during his short-term coma. All he remembered about the day GIRS Crisis was put into play before blacking out was darkness and... bright... yellow... eye...s...

The Gear Chronicle user quickly shook his head, ignoring the strange looks he was given by his peers, and shuddered. He was absolutely terrified. Ever since he had woken up, his blackouts were shown to be getting more frequent within his first two days of regaining consciousness than it had during a time span of a week. Two days! If that wasn't terror-inducing, Chrono didn't know what was!

"Chrono!" Shouted a voice behind him.

"Gah!" Chrono jumped-almost jumped-at the voice before turning around. Walking towards him was Tokoha and Shion, both of them wearing relief and concern on their faces. "Oh, hey guys." Tokoha, being the one who spoke, immediately stared to look him over, much to Shion's amusement.

"How do you feel? Does your head hurt? Do you need to lie down?" Tokoha fussed. Chrono waved his hands out in front of him in an attempt to calm her down.

"I'm fine, I'm fine! Just a little tired, I guess..." Chrono added towards the end at Tokoha's disbelieving glare. Shion raised an eyebrow.

"You're tired?" He asked in disbelief. "You've been asleep for two whole days!"

"I know that! It's just..." Chrono trailed off as he realized the his vision was being filled by smoke. Or more specifically, the smoke from that strange place he was in before waking up in Ryuzu's hideout.

"Just what?" Tokoha asked before blinking in worry at Chrono's blank, frightened expression. "H-hey? Chrono?" She waved a hand in front of his face but still didn't get a reaction. Shion stiffened. Because the two of them have, somewhat, gotten used to Chrono's blackouts, it was easy to tell that something was defiantly off about this one. Noticing that his friend was now shaking, Shion grabbed his shoulders.

"Chrono! Chrono!" He called while shaking said person. Off handedly, he was grateful that they were the only ones now in the hallway. "Snap out of it!"

"... away..."

"Chrono?" Shion asked when he stopped shaking him.

"... Stay... away..." The red-head muttered louder.

"Stay away... from what?" Tokoha asked as she moved to stand net to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Unfortunately...

This just made things worse.

"I SAID STAY AWAY!" Chrono yelled as he closed his eyes and pushed away Shion, knocking over Tokoha in the process. While this surprised him, Shion quickly regained his footing and grabbed Chrono's shoulders again.

"Chrono!" Shouted the Royal Paladin user. "Calm down! It's just me and Tokoha!" But all his words fell deaf to his friend and teammate's ears. All Chrono could hear was muffled voices. And all he could see was smoke and bright, yellow eyes.

"Snap out of it!" Yelled Tokoha. A sinking feeling was growing in her stomach, telling her that if they didn't get Chrono back to his senses, then he'll...

"STAY WAY!" Chrono shouted. The phantom image in front of him was starting to get closer. He could vaguely see a clawed hand reach out towards him through the fog. The Gear Chronicle user tried to step back, but was unknowingly held in place by Shion. "JUST... Go... away..." Tokoha and Shion watched in horror as Chrono's eyes began to fade into flat disks of green and start to droop. Not knowing if it would work, Tokoha hit the back of Chrono's neck, snapping him from his daze and, in the process, knocking him out. After the red-head fell limp into Shion's arms, said person looked towards the green-haired girl.

"... How did you know that would work?" He said after a moment.

"I- I did- n't..." Tokoha spoke, choking back a sob. "Bu- But... Th- That was... hic... Terrible..." The blonde sadly watched as his friend started to cry. He whole heartedly agreed with her and wanted to break down himself, but he had- no, he needed to keep a level head.

'For both their sakes...' He thought, looking at the sleeping cardfighter. Picking Chrono into his arms, he motioned for Tokoha to follow him.

"... Let's get him to the nurse's office."


Takuto sighed as he walked through the halls of the United Sanctuary. He glanced out towards the rest of Cray that can be seen from the balcony nearby with a worried expression. To think that only a few days ago the Clans were enjoying their long earned peace. And now...

"Takuto!" Said Guardian turned around to see Starlight Trumpeter, Darkside Trumpeter, and Angelic Liberator rushing towards him, each with a scroll in their hands.

"Starlight, Darkside, Angelic," Takuto greeted. "Are those the reports from the search parties?"

"Yes sir." Said Angelic as he and the Trumpeters placed them in the boy's waiting hands. "Unfortunately, there was little to no progress into the investigation."

"But even little progress can go a long way." Takuto reassured him. He turned to Darkside and Starlight. "Have any more Units gone missing?"

"Ketty, Anos, Denis, and Lucas of Aqua Force and Ginger, LuLu, and NaNa of Oracle Think Tank have disappeared." Darkside growled, her hands turning into fists. "I swear, when I find out who's taking them I'm gonna blast them to pieces!" The other two Units and Guardian took a step back at the threatening aura forming around the Shadow Paladin Unit.

"A- Anyway..." Stuttered Takuto before regaining his composure. "This is bad. Units from every Clan have been disappearing since two days ago in large groups. Both during the day and the night."

"And in bright flashes too..." Whispered Starlight nervously. Everyone else quickly turned to the Royal Paladin Unit.

"What did you say?!" Shouted Angelic. Starlight squeaked as Darkside's 'Explain-Or-I-Will-Kill-You' look before answering the Golden Paladin Unit.

"I- I saw Maron disappear in a b- bright flash of light w- while we were in the Dark Zone y- yesterday!"

"And you didn't think to tell us this earlier!?" Yelled Darkside.

"I'm sorry!" Cried Starlight.

"Did you happen to see who did it?" Takuto calmly asked. The Unit in question nodded.

"I-I think it was a G- Gear C- Chronicle Unit..."

"WHAT?!" Came a collective shout.

"Are you sure it was a Gear Chronicle Unit?" Asked Takuto. At Starlight's frantic nod, Darkside pounded a fist into her open palm.

"See?" She sneered. "Us Shadow Paladins TOLD you that Clan was no good!"

"But it doesn't make any sense!" Said Angelic. "They've been here for years. Why now?"

"I don't know." Takuto shook his head. "But we're going to find out. Starlight, Darkside, Angelic, I want you three to spread the word about Gear Chronicle's possible involvement in this situation. Send a small scout party to the Dark Zone's ruins. That's were they are stationed."

"Yes sir!" With a salute, Darkside and Angelic left for their respective Clans. Takuto watched them as the two flew farther and farther from the United Sanctuary with a worried expression on his face. He would have continued to do so if it wasn't for the small tug on the hem of his shirt.

"Takuto?" Asked Starlight. "Are you alright?" Said person gave the young Unit a small smile.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." He patted her on the head. "You should go inform Blaster Blade of the situation." Starlight smiled and saluted before doing just that. Once she was out of sight, Takuto sighed.

"Right now... I'm more worried about what this all means for Cray..."

...

… I am so evil in this chapter... I somewhat torture Chrono and I'm having multiple Units from multiple Clans disappearing... I REGRET NOTHING! AHAHAHAHAH!... I'll stop now...

So that was 'Chapter 9: Smoke and Light'! Hope you all enjoyed it! You know, something scary occurred when I came up with this chapter's title. I was tempted to call it 'Smoke and Mirrors'. Why is that scary? It's a song that is also known as the 'Yandere Song'. (Why did I even listen to that song?!) Just tell me that's NOT scary!

On a side note, I still need to get all my chapters typed up again! I know that their already up on the site, but I'd feel a WHOLE LOT better if I still had them on my computer! (I really needed to get that off my mind. Thanks for listening/ reading my ramblings about this if you are!)

Review Responses-

Angelover1827- Thank you! And... Hey wait-a minute... Oh! You changed your account name! (Smacks head for just realizing that.) I'm an idiot... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Amelia dragneel15- First off, I'm guessing from the 'dragneel' part of your user name that your a 'Fairy Tail' fan. So am I! That, or it's just a crazy coincidence. Second, I'll be totally honest, I had COMPLETELY forgotten about Takuto until you had mentioned him. That's embarrassing... But now that he's in this chapter, I'd like to say this (I wanted to do this ever since you brought him up!): WE GOT OURSELVES A TAKUTO! … I'm such a weirdo... Heh...

Grima- Don't worry! As you can tell in this chapter, Chrono is awake and well!... Mostly. Now for the Unit. As all us 'Cardfight' fans know, or should know, the 'Depend Card' allows Units from Cray to come to Earth. Ryuzu had a 'Depend Card' with him when he went to Cray, so he was able to bring Dadasig to Cray. How? Well, I think that Chrono had a Dadasig card in his deck, so Ryuzu found a way to use that as a gateway for Dadasig to be transported to Chrono's room. Sorry if this sounds confusing, but this is the best I can explain it.

Guest- Heh, thank you! I'll do my best to keep this story going! (Why do I feel as if I've already said this before? Eh...)

Jessica Age 15 (Guest)- (This one was for the note talking about the late update.) That's really reassuring. Really, it is. But I just don't like the fact I have to make you all wait longer than usual for the next chapter every Saturday. It just doesn't sit right with me... But still, thanks.

Reaction Corner- Ok, one, did Chrono SERIOUSLY spend the night in the park? Also, OH CLOCKWORK, LUNA! WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU?! And what do know, Rin really does care!... About Mamoru. (Smily face.) Poor Enishi... HA! I KNEW IT, I TOTALLY CALLED IT! Chrono does go to meet Ryuzu, only to fight him! I WAS RIGHT! (The following is after I finally found the preview because for some reason, it was cut off from the video I was watching the episode on.) Well snap... Looks like we may FINALLY find out what happened when the first 'Stride Gate' was opened by Chrono. (Later finds out that the next episode is called 'Chrono's Memories'.) Correction, looks like we WILL find out what happened.

On yet another side note, I was pretty much switching between Team Try3's part and Takuto's part while typing this up. It's really helpful to do that when you're rushing to meet a deadline. (Or in this case, rushing to get the chapter up after missing the deadline.) Also, listening to 65DaysofStatic's 'Aren't We All Running' while writing this helped a ton! It's such a fitting song! (In my opinion.)

Until The Next Raid!