Before Chapter 10 starts, you may have figured out already that I have re-editing all the past chapters. I must give you all my humblest apologies. During the month and 10 days I had not uploaded a single chapter...I suppose I wasn't in the mood but I was also lazy. I had also been doing other things that I am shy to talk about but I am less into them now and I'm back in the vocaloid fanfiction mood! :) If you can all accept my apologies I will do my best to update and not say "I wil update more often" and then back out like I did before. So please, forgive me and enjoy Chapter 10!

And also are responses to my reviewers:

yiseunggi: I simply can't thank yo enough for the help you have given me. It's like you have participated in a very large portion of this story as well, like you are a narrator of some sort. I must give you my deepest apologies for the wait I have brought upon you and give my sincerest thanks once again! :)

X7Mei7X: I must say your reviews made me really happy! I'm glad I you enjoy it and I apologize to you for the wait. I do hope I'll be able to have you enjoy it again!

: Thank you so much for that review! Made it into top? Though probably off now I hope I can give it a good opinion in your mind again :) and I apologize for the wait! Even through the month and 10 days I didn't do anything I kept that review in my mind. Thank you so much!

IdrewAcow: Oh I loved that review indeed! Oh there is no need to worry about review comparisons. Your story has given me inspiration indeed! While I never actually gave up on this story I have no idea how much longer on hiatus I would have been. Maybe another week? I can't thank you enough!

Chapter 10: A Bad Meeting

February 15th 2011

5:30 A.M

"Luka! Luka!"

I awoke to Chiyo shaking me.

"Ah Luka you are awake. Your tossing and turning woke me up. I tried to wake you up but you stayed asleep and I could literally see the fear in your expression...even though your eyes were closed..."

I remembered the nightmare and poor Tsukiko, my eyes teared up.

"Ahh," Chiyo slowly said. "I see you were having a nightmare about the boy again."

"Tsukiko," I replied sadly, voice breaking. My voice was weak and I could barely say his name. Could his name barely even be said in such a situation? Unloved and always to suffer, we were all inexperienced in life compared to him. Eyes reddening and misty, I raised my gaze to Chiyo's.

His expression caught me off guard. I could have sword there was a hint of surprise in his eyes. It had barely lasted for a second but it was something so new and at the same time impossibly to miss. But Chiyo quickly regained his composure.

"So...This boy you have been having dreams of... His name is Tsukiko?

"Yes."

"Tell me about him."

Tsukiko had striking features no doubt. Not by his rags or his conditions, but his broken body filled with experience and eyes blazing with the will to live...yet I could barely think of how to describe him. I could only force myself to be simple.

"He has white hair, is very poor and lives in rags. He also has ruby eyes that look like fire."

Chiyo nodded, wanting more information.

"I had just gone through an early dream that had him killing a man, then the woman he had loved, named Lucia threatened to kill him and he ran off."

I saw Chiyo's eyes soften, as if they were losing their seriousness.

"This is really serious," he said. "If you have really been having all these nightmares about this boy, it must be a message of some sort."

My eyed widened. Of course! How could I have been so stupid as to not have thought about that? On the other hand...what did the...other...dream tell?

"Chiyo... I had this one dream...about a butterfly."

Chiyo nodded and started listening closely as I told him the entire dream.

5:50 A.M

"Do you know what it means Chiyo?" I asked after telling him about the dream.

He was silent for a moment. "No. I have no clue what it would mean, but however, the butterfly color is the interesting part. It's black and intriguing..."

It hit me! "Yes, the butterfly was black...the color you represented with Mag-..." my voice trailed off, because I remembered right then, the butterfly had died.

"Whatever the butterfly represents, we can't do anything about it. We can only wait." Chiyo said in response.

I wondered if Chiyo even thought if the dead butterfly represented him. He probably didn't want me to worry about it but if he even thought if it could possibly represent him, did he even care?

"Come on Luka, there is training to be done. It won't be long before we attack Crypton and we end this nightmare."

There was haste in those words. Even though I had not known Chiyo for long, he had a certain rhythm to his words and sentences. Perhaps my mind was playing tricks on me but I felt that the rhythm was a bit off key. He seemed a bit...hasty.

Despite that I smiled. Good ol' Chiyo always focusing on the training.

He approached the door of the room and tried to turn the knob...Oh yeah, baka central locked us in.

Aggravated, I approached the door and knocked. I heard shuffling from the other side and the door opened, Kaito's face greeting us.

"Good morning Romeo! Good morning Juliet!" he smiled.

"Good morning BaKaito," I replied, rolling my eyes at his stupidity.

"Anyway, you don't look too hot," I said to him. His face looked a bit pale and he looked a bit woozy..

"Oh yeah," Kaito replied and belched. "Ate too much ice cream and cake last night... It WAS my birthday after all!"

Crud.

I had completely forgotten that it was his birthday! At least the others remembered but...I couldn't make it look like I forgot or that could hurt his feelings.

Oh like I would even have to worry about his feelings. I'm pretty sure Meiko beat out most of them last time Kaito tried to sneak a peek on her when she was in the shower.

"I would have been there with you for your birthday, if I could FIND you!"

Kaito just smirked and walked off, obviously not believing me. "Oh yeah, by the way," he said. "Check out your Magnet duet."

Chiyo and I reluctantly walked to the computer, already on with Magnet. I scrolled down. My eyes bulged out of their sockets. 2 million views in 5 days!

The like bar was spectacular! If only Chiyo knew how amazing this was for another version of a song. He didn't look entertained at all by it. But at least 57,964 liked the video. Only 2 people disliked it.

I could only wonder who could dislike such an array of beautiful lyrics and symmetry in line with our voices! Chiyo almost blew my mind apart with his enchanting voice, so how could there even be a disliker?

Oh well, I might as well add another like to the like bar.

I looked at the YouTube username...EggplantKing69. What a cheesy and disgusting name. The 69...probably a special tribute to Gakupo's favorite website of all cases. Despite that I clicked like and refreshed the page. The result caught me off guard.

The like number had gone to 57,965 likes but the dislikes had gone down to 1.

No way...it couldn't be...this was Gakupo's account! Only Gakupo managed it, so did he really dislike the song? No...why?

Millions of questions surged in my mind at the same time as I vainly searched for answers.

I was clueless again. I always asked myself questions that I could never answer.

Chiyo, oblivious to my distress, stared blankly at the screen.

Hahah...just a coincidence perhaps? Bad timing with a click...? Yeah, Gakupo would never dislike a song made by a vocaloid, and for some "strange" reason he would definitely NEVER dislike a song with me in it.

I decided to forget about it. Besides, I had breakfast to eat and training to do.

Training continued normally as usual. My nightmares had gone away and no grunts had attacked us with the exception of two grunts attacking at one time, probably grunts that were just testers to see if we had lifted our defence somewhat. Fortunately they came close to Chiyo when they came. Over the course of two weeks Kaito could definitely wield a sword and fight along with the knowledge of how to do a kip up (as he loved kung-fu movies, he felt as if a kip up was top prioty) as he also took hand-to-hand combat lessons. Rin and Len became crack-shots. Meiko learned to fight well and she also practiced with guns. She already knew how to wield weapons. She already had enough practice wielding sake bottles against Kaito. When us teachers had time, we taught each other techniques. I also learned how to use a sword and fire a gun. Chiyo struggled with guns but with his focus,aim, and timing he became a great shot. For some reason he was a superb weapon wielder on his first lesson. I also took the time to learn some techniques from Chiyo. I learned how to kip up and kick an opponent during the kip up at the same time. How Chiyo mastered it, I had no clue. Magnet became even more famous. Reaching 60 million views and 179 thousand likes. I thought it was a glitch when I saw the number of dislikes remain as 2. Everything was going even though we always felt the presence of enemy eyes on us. One day interrupted everything.

March 1st, 2011

8:30 A.M

"Hey Luka! It's a letter from Haku for you!" Miku yelled to me who was stretching.

"Thank you," I said as I accepted the letter from Miku. I haven't heard from Haku in a while, I couldn't wait to hear what she would have to say!"

I gingerly opened up the envelope, took the letter out and read it. I recognized Haku's handwriting.

Dear Luka,

Hey it's been a while since we've last made contact. I've had things to deal with lately. I want to congratulate you on your success on Magnet with Chiyo. He's great! I do hope he releases new songs and such. Hey um, I'm pretty shy about the subject of my voice but do you think we could meet in the park today? I surely do hope 2:00 P.M is fine with you. Let's meet on the old bench in the park!You have such a beautiful voice and I truly hope you could help me out as I know I can not compete with you, but maybe you could give me...some singing lessons? Even without that, we could talk about what has been going on lately as things have been so successful for you nowadays. I truly hope things go well for you! See you today!

Sincerely,

Haku Yowane

I smiled as I finished reading the letter. Oh Haku, always concerned about things, even her voice though it was beautiful. I loved that girl.

No one seemed to have a problem that I would be visiting Haku at 2. They even let me take training off to get ready. To me it was like a whole day off! I was happy for the little break.

1:45 P.M

I was all set to meet Haku. I was so excited! I really felt like listening to music and took my mp3 player and started listening to music. It was a nice walk to the park. I got there with minutes to spare and changed the song in my mp3 to Prince of Blue by Kaito. I relaxed as I heard the first few lyrics come up.

mukashi mukashi aru tokoro ni

I relaxed, sat back and waited. I looked at the nature in front of me. Birds chirping, tree branches swaying in the wind, making the trees come to life, the clouds moving in the sky. It was a relaxing sight. The sun was shining beautifully making the day perfect.

I was halfway through the song when I noticed something fluttering in the distance.

ikuto no ie ga yakiharaware

It was a butterfly. A black one at that. I saw the grace of it. A black butterfly. My, what are the chances? It was very beautiful, but something seemed familiar about it. Then the butterfly started flapping it's wings like crazy. I felt sick to my stomach.

It hit me like a wave. I remembered the dream. The black butterfly had died in my hands after crying! It was like a warning!

Remembering this, I looked at my hands in horror. I must have been hallucinating as I saw blood in them, and just as soon as I saw it the blood faded away/

My breath stopped when I noticed a black figure walking towards me. He had something in his hand I couldn't make out, but it was sharp. I realized in horror the gravity of my situation.

I blinked.

I instantly saw myself surrounded by grunts and behind them all, was the black figure. I felt something cover my face and I couldn't breathe. Just before I faded away I heard the black figure speak. "Take her away."

Uso da, sonna hazy wa nai!

5:30 P.M

Back at the house, concern was rising over Luka.

Gakupo had called Luka's cell, but heard only the voice mail.

"What was she doing again?" Kaito asked.

Miku was the first to respond. "She was going to visit our friend Haku.

'Why would Haku just want to see Luka?' Chiyo wondered.

"How long had the visit been planned for?" Meiko asked after.

"Just today actually. We received the letter today asking for Luka to meet Haku at 2:00 P.M."

Chiyo was absolutely sure something was up.

"Miku," he started. "Please get the envelope and letter that was for Luka."

"Um, ok," she replied, confused. She got up and left.

She returned one minute later. Chiyo took the letter from her hands and started to read it. Then he took the envelope and looked at it.

"No sender, address or stamp? Just a name?"

Signs of concern and guilt was shown on Miku's face. "I...I'm sorry I didn't notice."

Chiyo didn't respond. He went over the letter one more time, then he spoke again.

"Somehow this Haku knew that the letter was going to get here today and had asked for her to come today. If she wrote the letter then she would have written a date that she wanted Luka to visit. This Haku got the letter here at a perfect timing, apparently knowing how long Luka would take to get ready. The only that could have happened is if she herself delivered the letter. If she herself delivered it, then she could have just visited Luka here."

Everyone's eyes came to Chiyo as they understood what was going on.

"But since this Haku appears to be your friend, we may have an impersonator."

"But Chiyo," Miku protested. "This is Haku's handwriting, I would recognize it anywhere."

"Well then," Chiyo replied. "Either this Haku really isn't your friend or someone is pulling secret strings. Haku is also a vocaloid yes? Then it leads back to Crypton."

"Then let's attack now!" Gakupo shouted. "For the lovely Luka!"

"That would be a bad idea Gakupo," Meiko said.

"W-what? Why is that?" Gakupo spluttered.

"Meiko is right," Chiyo said in defense of Meiko. "Attacking tonight would be impulsive. The enemy wants us to be rash and hasty. No. We rest tonight, prepare tomorrow, then attack them in the night."

Gakupo muttered something under his breath about "fake heroes" and walked off.

Rin and Len went back upstairs with a grin on their faces. Everyone else went back upstairs to do whatever except Chiyo. He was lost in his own thoughts, with a particular one blotting out all thoughts.

He was lost in a feeling that he could not explain.

5:40 P.M

I slowly opened my eyes. Ugh, my head hurt.

"Ah I see you have woken up dear Luka. I do hope you had a pleasant rest."

The voice was cold and harsh. It was the black figure.

"Where am I? Ahh!" This was one killer headache.

"Why you are in Crypton of course! It's sad how you can't recognize your own surroundings."

I knew for a fact my eyes were open, but the area was dark and it was hard to see at a distance. There were figures in front of me, guarding me from trying to get away from wherever I was. I counted them. There was 8 in total. They looked way more dangerous than the grunts I had seen. 7 of them were 5 times the size of the grunts we had previously faced, yet they were buffer and wore black, spiked armor. The one farthest away from me was actually skinny. It looked about my size actually. It appeared weaker than the other guards but it gave me a huge sense of dread Unlike the other guards, who had an assortment of gigantic axes, swords, maces, this one had twin knifes. They were shorter than machetes but the design was different. Its knives looked like tjeu could mutilate an entire body just by stabbing it. The armor looked thick, thick enough to prevent hard, cold death. They were completely armored from head to toe. The skinnier one had armor less thick, but from the looks of it the substance that the armor was made from was really hard and was enough to take hits.

"Ah, don't you just love the personal guard? They were a gift!" the same harsh voice bellowed.

"From who?" I asked.

"Oh just a friend. But despite that you aren't about to escape. You are my bait to lure in the fish. Your vocaloid friends will come and try to save you. Oh how their attempts shall fail miserably!"

I looked down. We had been training for a fight, but against armored enemies with weapons? The only ones that may have had a chance were Chiyo, Gakupo and possibly Kaito or Meiko. The others could only wield a gun. But these people had big weapons, plus armor and tougher skin. We had no chance...

So this is what happened to Crypton. But, where was master?

That question perked up without thought. Perhaps master himself was the only chance we had. Possibly, but just a random guess. And furthermore was an even more serious question. Was master alive and if he was, is he a good guy or a bad guy?

"Well then," said the voice. "I must be off. I will make preparations."

I felt the presence of a person disappear. Perfect! The guards were looking away to!

I pulled out my cell phone. It was out of battery.

'OH COME ON!' I screamed in my mind. Why oh why in the most desperate of situations, my cell phone was too dead to even send a text!

I heard a door open. "Eep don't touch me!"

That voice, I knew that voice for sure. Haku.

She came into my small range of sight, an armored grunt leading her to me. It pushed her on me.

"Oof!" we both fell to the ground.

I got up and looked at her in disbelief. "Haku? You're here?"

She nodded sadly... Then she started to cry. I instantly embraced her to calm her down, but her crying didn't stop.

"Luka I'm so sorry! They made me write that letter or else I would have been killed along with the others!"

Others? There were others?

"Haku. Who are the others."

"There...There are 3 others Akita Neru...Teto Kasane... and Gumi Megpoid. We were captured 1 week ago. The entire time "they" didn't know what to do with us, so we were just kept as hostages. They knew we were friends with you so they made me write that letter."

It made sense now. That's why we haven't heard from them in a while. My ears had perked up at the mention of Neru in hopes for a cell phone but knowing the phone addict she probably killed the battery on Day 1.

"Haku, what's going to happen?"

She looked at me, eyes brimmed red and tear-streaks on her face. "Once the vocaloids come, they are going to kill them, then they will kill us. Crypton will be theirs."

9:00 P.M

Chiyo lay asleep in bed next to Miku and Meiko. He was lost in his own thoughts. Some of them had Luka in them. But he couldn't quite understand them. It was troubling. He sighed. He had to get his rest if he had any hope in winning a fight tomorrow. However, he felt the one other person was awake.

He heard gentle sobbing to the right of him. It was Miku.

"Miku," Chiyo sighed.

"Oh...Chiyo, you're awake." Miku said, voice weak and breakable.

"Why are you crying? You need to get some rest."

"I'm sorry... It's just I miss Luka. We are the bestest of friends. I had just wished I spent more time with her..."

"You could have, if everyone didn't always have Luka and me alone on many occasions."

"No. You two should be with each other. I have a feeling that love could be around. Once it is sorted out then things can return to normal."

"..."

Chiyo paused at the word "love".

'What is the deal with people and this word "love"?

"Miku...I don't even understand what love is. Everyone talks about it but I don't really know how it is described as, so I have no idea how it feels."

It was Miku's turn to be silent. She did not want to talk even want to think of love.

"I-I see. Chiyo, I know it may seem usual doing it with me, but I just feel terrible and lonely without Luka. It's just terrible going through any time period knowing the Luka may not be safe. I know it may feel weird doing this for me but...please hold my hand for the night."

Chiyo looked at Miku straight in the eyes and she looked back. She couldn't help but just stare in awe at the sapphire balls of fire as his eyes. They were beautiful.

Chiyo did a light, understanding sigh.

"Sure Miku, I'd be happy to."

Chiyo slid his hand onto Miku's. She felt the tears stop coming to her face and she felt relaxed and warm.

'Chiyo' she thought. 'If only I got to know you better...'

Miku tightened her grip on Chiyo's hand as she drifted off.

So what's really the point?

…..

Where is she...

So I come back...and this happens. Luka has been captured and now everyone is distressed about it...Why can't they calm down? Life comes, life goes on. We can only deal with it.

But then..why does it even pain me to know Luka is gone for now?

….More importantly...

Why am I even feeling pain in any case...

9:05 P.M

For some reason our captor wanted to us to get a decent amount to rest. Beds were transported to us. Haku laid down on one bed and I was on the other one that was delivered.

"You may not be used to the time we are ordered to sleep, but I am," Haku said.

"Trust me, ever since the grunt attacks, this would be really late for us," I replied.

We both laughed. It was dry humor but it lightened our moods.

I sighed as well as Haku.

"Sooo..." she started.

"Yeah... I'm bored. Let's get some rest. Good night Haku."

"Ahhh ok," Haku said with that voice that could melt a heart. "Good night Luka."

We drifted off.

A boy with white hair was running.

Tsukiko.

He was running and running and running. He had no path to follow, just a path to make.

I don't know how I did it, but I felt as if I was reading his thoughts. The words in his mind came to me.

"I will be back for you my dear. I promise. Everything will be fine. Just you wait."

Tears streamed down the boy's cheeks as he ran. The fiery eyes ever brighter.

I guess this signals the point where I can really go on with the story. A last apologize for you and I will do my best for this story! It really was selfish of me to make you wait so it's time for me to pay up. Thanks again all of you :)