I am so sorry about how long it took to update, but the truth is that I had school camp and then this chapter was just so so hard to write. Please try to be understanding. I hope this turned out ok. It's pretty long, my second longest so far, but still not sure about the quality.

Going back to school in two days, so updates will get slower. Thankfully there's not many chapters left.

Midnight-Rose-Dew: the quote about the weapon being the second biggest Piper had seen was from Get Smart. It's basically meant to downplay the object and the person who built it by saying its the second biggest... just so they don't feel as good. does that make sense? Yes, sorry about the Nut Cracker, but i just had to put it in. Enjoy the chapter!

Sapphearceskyy: Thanks. You just reminded me to put Radarr into this chapter. I almost left him out.. poor thing. Yes, Piper has a lot of hope, but Aerrow has got out of some pretty crazy things before, so who knows? And everyone knows that Aerrow is stubborn. Heheh.. yes, i forgot they were mountain tops.. damn. Well Terra Gale sorta looked like it was floating in the pictures. I might change the chapter later, but for now I'll just leave it. Thanks for the review!

delphigirl: Well lots of AerrowxPiper in here for you. Actually almost too much for me to handle, but i got through. I'm glad you're enjoying the story and I hope this chapter's ok.

me loves jelly: thanks for the compliments, but i'm not sure i deserve them. I made you wait far too long. ah well.. not much i can do about it now. Enjoy!

Amethyst: No, I couldn't make it easy. I never make it easy for Aerrow, poor thing. I went to Sydney for my trip, and then just this week I went on a school camp. That's about it. Thanks for the review!!

Whisper: Thanks for the thing about the Terras... i actually forgot *facepalms*.. I can't believe that i did when it actually says it in the introduction. Ah well. I might change it later but for now its not too important to the story so i'll just leave it. I did have that idea before you gave it to me, but you can have the credit if you want. Sorry if you're not a great fan of pairings, cause there's a lot in here... i don't even like this much and i'm writing it. I promise to tone it down a bit in the next chapters.

Invader Lana: Yay! Glad you love the story! Thanks so much for the review, i love hearing from new people! Enjoy this chapter!

Blue: Heheh. Yeah i did keep thinking of the ballet version of the Nut Cracker. Maybe it makes it sound a bit less immature?? Nah, i don't think so. Damn. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Previously:

Starling gave him 'the look' again. "I know you can do it, Aerrow. It will be the hardest thing you've ever done in your life. You'll be facing your fears without someone beside you. But when you're in trouble, just think of Piper. Your love for her will get you through. I believe in you."

Aerrow didn't even deny the part about him loving Piper. He was scared, and he just wanted to crumple into a ball and sob. Instead he stood tall, nodded to Starling, and took his first step towards Piper.

Chapter 10: One More Step

Aerrow walked away from Starling quickly. He didn't want her to know that he was scared out of his mind. Although, he could swear his heart was beating so loudly that she could hear it anyway. It seemed to echo off the cave walls so that it surrounded him. It was both nerve-wracking and strangely comforting at the same time. Don't ask how, it's just how he felt.

He was so focussed on getting away from Starling that he hardly noticed the light from the entrance to the cave getting further and further behind him until it was too late. He turned and saw only a pinprick of light in the distance, and even then he wasn't sure if it was from one of the torches that was mounted on the walls of the cave. If it was possible, his heart rate picked up a notch. He was on his own.

He took a deep breath and sat down next to the wall to collect himself. As his heart rate lowered slowly, he looked at his surroundings. The steep decline, which he had just descended, rose above him as he again looked towards the entrance. Both sides of the cave were lined with flaming torches that cast an eerie, flickering light around the cave, which accentuated the cracks and crevices in the rock. Insects scurried from shadow to shadow, making their way away from the entrance to…

He shuddered as he looked towards his destination. The ceiling sloped downwards steeply so that the result was a tunnel about a metre in height. Pitch-blackness met his gaze. He remembered Starling's words from earlier.

"Once we're inside, there's a steep decline until we are about 100 metres in. I suspect that the Cyclonians will have the cave lit and guards posted up to this point so that any intruders can be taken out before they get too close."

Well, he must have reached the 100-metre mark. Thankfully the fight outside must have drawn out the guards that were posted. He realised that he was sitting directly in line with the last torch on the wall. He stood up slowly, still trying to calm his breathing, which had again reached a feverish rate. He reached out a shaking hand and tried to take the torch of the wall. It wouldn't budge.

He growled. He wouldn't give in that easily. He took out his energy blade, feeling its comforting weight in his hand. A blast of light later and the torch had toppled to the ground, distinguishing the flame in the process. Aerrow put his energy blade in the case on his back, and then bent to retrieve the torch. He was glad he had taken the sling off his broken arm, as he could now hold the torch in that hand, leaving the other free for other activity. He walked to another torch and used that flame to light the one in his hand.

He took a final calming breath, crouched low so that he wouldn't scrape his head on the ceiling, and stepped into the darkness. The light from the flame only carried to about two metres in front of him, so Aerrow couldn't see far ahead. However, he remembered from Starling's speech her warning about defence mechanisms likely to be in the tunnel, and so drew and lit his energy blade, keeping a close eye on anything in sight.

He took a few faltering steps forward with his back scraping the ceiling before he decided to go on his hands and knees. It would make him a lot slower to react to something, but he figured that Cyclonis could have easily put something on the ceiling, which would hinder his progress. He tried to focus on the flame of the torch to avoid noticing the low ceilings and darkness surrounding him.

Suddenly, a small waterfall of water cascaded over him, engulfing the flame and sending the tunnel into blackness once more, except for a faint light coming from behind. Reacting immediately, he spun around (as fast has he could on hands and knees) to face the entrance to the tunnel, where he could escape back into the brightly lit cave. However, he was too late, because some sort of metal door slammed into the ground, blocking off the passage and sending the tunnel into pitch-blackness.

Aerrow's heart leapt. His breathing became shallow. His eyes darted around, not seeing. He reached a shaking hand to his forehead and wiped sopping wet hair out of his eyes, hoping it would enable him to see something. It didn't. He could swear the walls were closing in on him. He could feel it. They were coming. He was going to be squashed to death, and he'd never see Piper again…

Piper. Her face filled his mind, and his breathing eased. Slightly. She was there, at the end of this tunnel. He was the only one that could save her. He had to make it, for her. He closed his eyes, letting Piper's features fill his mind again. He imagined that she was right in front of him, just one step away. Just one step. He crawled forwards. One step. He crawled forwards again. One more step, and he was there-

CRASH!

Aerrow panicked, opening his eyes and bringing himself back to reality. He reached for his energy blade, but as he brought his arm up, it hit the same thing his face had crashed into moments before. His heart beating at a thousand miles an hour, he placed his palm on the object in front of him. Cool metal met sweaty fingers. Aerrow almost hit his head on the metal again. He had forgotten to turn around and was back at the entrance to the tunnel. He had gone a whole… three steps further than what he had to.

Thinking more rationally this time, he kept his eyes open as he turned around. Although it made him panic more, he might at least be able to see the flashing light of a trap or weapon in his road. He didn't need to close his eyes to see Piper's face. It was etched into his mind. Once again, he took a deep breath, and crawled forwards. One metre down, 999 to go.

*

Meanwhile, Finn, Radarr and Junko had taken down the last Talon. They high-fived, and then headed over to the mouth of the cave, where they had seen Aerrow take Starling earlier.

"Sup, Starling?" said Finn. Radarr frowned at him and put his hands on his hips.

"How's your leg?" Junko asked, which was a bit more of a considerate question.

"I'll live," Starling replied.

"Don't worry. I will be your knight in shining armour!" Finn said whilst holding up an imaginary sword.

"More like a loser in aluminium," Starling said, with a smirk on her face. Radarr laughed (well, chirped).

Finn pouted and crossed his arms. "Fine, Junko can carry you to the Condor then. I can tell when I'm not wanted."

"Could have fooled me," Starling replied, and she, Radarr and Junko burst out laughing whilst Finn stomped back to the Condor in a hissy fit.

Junko chuckled and picked up Starling gently, then the three followed Finn back to the Condor.

*

Aerrow breathed deeply, again. It seemed like it was the only thing he was doing while he was in the tunnel, but then he remembered that the only reason why he was breathing deeply was that he had started hyperventilating far too many times. He looked around him once again, hoping that his eyes had adjusted and that he would be able to see something, but there was obviously no light getting into the tunnel at all.

Because he was relying so much on his other senses, he was able to hear the slight fizzing sound as soon as it started. Shifting slightly on his hands and knees so that he was closer to the side of the tunnel it was coming from, he put his face close to the wall. He immediately pulled back, dizzy. There was some sort of sweet-smelling gas coming from the side of the tunnel. Due to the fact that just a small whiff of it had made him dizzy, he deduced that if he got a whole lungful of it he would be knocked unconscious and then possibly even killed.

He moved back slightly, before testing the air and taking a deep breath. Then he crawled quickly through the tunnel, while trying to conserve energy. The fizzing sound continued to buzz in his ear, meaning that the gas was still being released next to him, even though he had already travelled about ten metres. After another few seconds, he had run out of air and needed to breathe, but he could still hear the gas coming from the wall. He closed his eyes and crawled faster.

He remembered another time when his chest had felt like this. The memory contained a tub of ice-cold water and a sneering Dark Ace standing above him. Despite the bad memory, Aerrow smiled. How many times had he had to hold his breath until he fainted then? He couldn't remember, but he'd had a lot of practice at this. And so it was, that even with his lungs convulsing, trying to get air into them, and blackness swirling in his vision, that Aerrow continued to crawl. A few seconds later, through the buzzing in his head, he heard it. Silence. He crawled for a few more seconds, anxious to get out of the gas, and just as he thought he was going to faint, he collapsed on the ground and drank in the fresh air.

He lay there for a few minutes, getting his breathing back to normal. When his heart rate was back to what was normal for being in the tunnel, he began to laugh. Quietly, at first, but then gradually getting louder and louder until he was gasping for breath again. Only after a few minutes did he calm down.

Still smiling to himself, he said, "I'd love to see the look on the Dark Ace's face when he realises that torturing me actually helped me survive. He'll be furious." And with that, he couldn't help it. He started chuckling again.

Aerrow set off again after a few minutes rest. He estimated that he was about halfway through the tunnel, which Starling had said was about one kilometre long. However, travelling on the rocky ground was difficult, and his knees and hands were grazed so much that they were now bleeding continuously. It didn't really help that one arm was still quite incapacitated. Although his fear of the dark and of confined spaces was always there, sometimes making him panic, and even a couple of times causing him to throw up, he finally felt that he was starting to get over it.

Piper was always there, too. Whenever he blinked, he could see her face. It helped, just as Starling had said. Sometimes he imagined her happy, which just made him want to run into her presence and sit there for hours. But sometimes, he saw her being tortured they way that they tortured him. It made him desperate to get to the end of the tunnel and get her out of there. It was mainly due to this that his fear was disappearing. It made him focus on getting to the end of the tunnel, rather than the tunnel itself.

Speaking of the tunnel… Aerrow was now feeling the right wall with his hand. He sensed – not heard, or smelt, just a sixth sense sort of thing – that there was some sort of danger up ahead. Sure enough, he soon experienced a stabbing pain in his hand and withdrew it immediately, sucking the blood off his palm. Then, more carefully than before, without moving his body any further forward, he felt the sharp object more carefully. There was a small hole in the wall, about the size of his thumb and forefinger of both hands put together. In the middle of the hole was the sharp point. Following the point back into the hole, Aerrow found that the object was actually an arrow, imbedded in the wall. There were probably heaps of them on both sides of the wall, just waiting for a sensor on the ground to be triggered.

He shuffled backwards and thought of what to do next. He could throw something into the line of fire, hoping that it set off the trigger- yes, that would be the best thing to do, but what to throw? The only thing he had on him were his energy blades, and even though he couldn't use both, he wasn't about to sacrifice one unless it was completely necessary. He didn't have time to feel around for a spare rock – although he doubted there were any around, Cyclonis would have made sure of that. He sat back on his heels and chewed his lip, thinking.

Suddenly he got an idea. One that would benefit him in two ways. He withdrew an energy blade and held it above his left arm. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and brought it down quickly. There was a loud crack, and Aerrow opened his eyes to see the empty plaster lying on the ground. Success. And he'd even done it without hurting himself. He moved his left arm around a bit, trying to remove some of the stiffness. The bone should be healed by now anyway, but it was probably still weak, so he wouldn't use it too often.

Putting the energy blade back where it came from, he seized the cast and chucked it forwards as far as he could. There was a faint click. The whizzing sound of many arrows moving through the air was followed by the clang of them hitting the rock on the opposite side of the tunnel. He sat still for a few more minutes, before heading forwards cautiously. Thankfully, there only seemed to be one lot of arrows, and he was soon on his way again.

A few more minutes passed, and Aerrow was getting tired. He was still weak and unfit because of his injuries, and wasn't sure how much longer he could last without a rest. Just when he was about to stop, light pierced the tunnel from a few hundred metres ahead. After rubbing his eyes to check it was no joke, Aerrow crawled faster towards the exit. Piper was just one more step away.

Phew. Ok, that's another one done. Only about 2 to go, although I'm not positive about that. I'm telling you guys, I will be so glad when this is over.

Please review!

You actually don't understand how bad my writer's block was... it made me go on a binge eat... which is not a good thing.

Ciao for now! (haha it rhymes)

Ali xox