A/N: Hola, peoples! I was gonna wait for a few more reviews before I updated, but Bramplepool threatened to not write any more unless I posted. So, here I am! Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Note to anon: Kara is pronounced like care-uh, not Kah-ruh.

Anyway, here's chapter ten! Please enjoy and review!

Warning: Semi-serious scene coming up. Just wanted to let you know. But the hilarity shall return, don't worry.

ACTUALLY SERIOUS WARNING: For my dear friends Annie and Cat, and any others who are reading this before they finished the series, there are some minor Goliath spoilers in this chapter. I'll put an a/n right before the paragraph that has spoilers, and you can just skip it.

Chapter Ten

After Volger had forbidden her from ever touching his swords again, Kara retreated to sit in a corner of the barn and think.

Volger's probably just annoyed, she though. 'Cause he lost our swordfight, and all.

"You're probably right, Regina," a voice suddenly said.

Kara jumped; then calmed when she saw the (sort of) familiar face.

"Hi hi Abyssia!" she greeted the woman. "How's 2011?" (A/N: Note- I wrote this chapter back when it was still 2011, and I'm too lazy to change it, so…yeah)

Abyssia shrugged. "President Sheen hasn't brought us into World War III yet, so I'd say pretty good. Wait, or was that 2013?"

Kara was confused. She'd figured out that Abyssia was probably a time traveler, and possibly an alien, but her reference to the future didn't make any sense. Unless Emilio Estevez changed his name to match his brother's, Kara highly doubted that there would be a Sheen as a president any time soon.

She decided to ignore it and see what happened in two years (once she returned to the present, of course; she more-or-less knew what happened in 1916).

"I saved Alek," Kara said.

"Yes, I can see that." Abyssia gestured to Alek at the other side of the barn. "And as far as I know, our dear friend Bethany has succeeded in preventing the death of Deryn Sharp as well."

"Coolio." Kara sighed. "Bethany must be having fun."

"And you're not?" Abyssia asked.

Kara pulled her legs in close and hugged her knees.

"We're not really doing much," she explained. "We get stalked by Germans, we fun. Germans, run. Germans, run. When we get to Lienz, it'll be Alek acting like an idiot, Germans, Alek's a murderer, run. It's just kinda the same thing over and over again. Nothing exciting happens until he meets Deryn."

"Well, why don't you make something exciting happen?" Abyssia suggested. "Nothing good will ever happen unless you do something about it."

Kara looked up at her. "You sound like my mother," she commented.

Abyssia rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you're doing pretty well, so I'd better be going. Alek will need to talk to you soon."

"Wait!" Kara cried. "Two questions first."

Abyssia sighed. "Ask away."

"First, are you a Time Lord?" she asked.

"No."

"Darn it. Fine. Second, you never told us who's trying to kill Alek and Deryn."

Abyssia stared at Kara, her abyss-eyes boring into the girl's soul. Then, finally, she replied, "That's not a question," snapped her fingers, and disappeared.

"What?" Kara shouted. "You can't do that! You can't just disappear dramatically! That's so not fair! Come on, get back here!"

"Um…Kara?"
Kara looked up at Alek who was standing over her.

"Si bueno?" she said in greeting. (A/N: That's a reference to my BFFL, Da. Shout-out to her awesomeness)

"Who were you talking to?" Alek asked.

Without even thinking about it, the words came out of Kara's mouth. "My imaginary boyfriend, Petie- spelled with an 'ie'—" she turned her voice to a whisper—"He hates it when people spell his name with a 'y'."

"Um….okay then," Alek said. "Anyway, uh, Master Klopp wants your help with something. He's probably gonna make you fix our plates."

"Kay kay," Kara replied. "Tell him I'll be right there. I just need a quick sec to explain to Petie the concept of engagement rings."

Alek nodded slowly, then backed away. Kara grinned at him and waved goodbye.

Once Alek was out of earshot, Kara sighed.

Sometimes she thought lying came too easily.

Alek eased the saunters sideways and felt the Stormwalker's right foot shift.

"That's it," Otto Klopp said. "Slowly now."

Alek nudged the controls again, and the walker slid a little farther. It was frustrating, maneuvering in tight quarters like this. One bump of the walker's shoulder could send the whole rotten barn crashing down around them. And Kara wasn't helping, calling out "tips" that just made Alek more distracted and frustrated. At least the trembling gauges and levers had begun to make sense. A little more pressure in the knees might help….

With another nudge he'd done it—the viewport was lined up with a ragged gap in the wall of the barn. The late afternoon sun shone into the cabin, the fields stretching out before them. A harvesting combine rumbled along on twelve legs in the distance, a dozen farmers and a four-legged truck following to collect the bundled grain.

Count Volger put a hand on Alek's shoulder. "Wait till they're out of sight."

"Well, obviously," Alek said. With his bruises still throbbing, he'd had enough of Volger's counsel for one day.

The combine made its slow way across the field, finally disappearing behind a low hill. A few workmen straggled behind, black dots on the horizon. Alek soon lost them in the distance, but waited.

Finally Bauer's voice crackled on the intercom, "That's the last one gone, sir."

Corporal Bauer had the uncanny eyesight of an expert gunner. Two weeks ago he'd been on his way to commanding a machine of his own. Master Hoffman had been the Hapsburg Guards' best engineer. But now the two were nothing more than fugitives.

Alek had slowly come to understand everything his men had given up for him: their ranks, families, and futures. If they were caught, the other four would hang as deserters. Prince Aleksandar himself would disappear more quietly, of course, for the good of the empire. The last thing a nation at war needed was uncertainty about who was heir to the throne.

He eased the Stormwalker toward the barn's open doors, using the shuffling step that Klopp had taught him. It erased the massive machine's footprints, along with any other signs that someone had hidden here.

"Baby steps, Alek," Kara warned. "No, those are toddler steps. Actually, babies don't have steps, so it should be toddler steps. But either way, those are more like 7-year-old steps. And they're officially not toddlers."

Alek gripped the saunters harder. Kara was infuriating.

"Ignore her, Aleksandar," Volger said softly.

"Ready for your first run, young master?" Klopp asked.

Alek nodded, flexing his fingers. He was nervous, but glad to be piloting in daylight for once, instead of the dead of night.

And really, walker falls weren't so bad. They'd all be bruised and battered, but Master Klopp could get the machine back on its feet again.

As the engines pulsed faster, the smell of their exhaust mixed with dust and hay. Alek eased the machine forward, wood creaking as the walker pushed through the doors and out into the fresh air.

"Smoothly done, young master!" Klopp said.

"It was meh," Kara commented.

There was no time to answer. They were in the open now. Alek brought the Stormwalker to its full height, its engines cycling to their maximum. He urged it forward, stretching the metal legs farther with every step. Then came the moment when walking turned to running: both feet in the air at once, the cabin shuddering with every impact against the ground.

Alek heard rye being shredded underfoot. The Stormwalker's trail would be easy to spot from an aeroplane, but by night the harvesting combine would turn back and erase the huge footsteps.

He kept his eyes on the goal, a streambed covered with sheltering trees.

This was the fastest he had ever traveled, faster than any horse, even faster than the express train to Berlin. Each ten-meter stride seemed to stretch out over endless seconds, graceful in the vast scale of the machine. The thundering pace felt glorious after long nights spent creeping through the forest.

But as the streambed approached, Alek wondered if the walker was moving too fast.

"Don't die, Alek," Kara cautioned.

How was he supposed to bring them to a halt?

"Don't die, Alek!" Kara repeated, more forcefully this time.

He eased back on the saunters a bit- and suddenly everything went wrong. The right foot planted too soon…and the machine began to tip forward.

"What part of 'don't die' do you not understand, Alek?" Kara demanded.

Alek brought the left leg down, but the walker's momentum carried it forward. He was forced to take another step, like a careening drunk, unable to stop.

"Young master—" Otto began.

"Take it!" Alek shouted.

Klopp seized the saunters and twisted the walker, stretching one leg out, tipping the whole craft back. The pilot's chair spun and Volger swung wildly from the hand straps overhead, but somehow Klopp stayed glued to the controls.

The Stormwalker skidded onward, one leg outstretched, its front foot ripping through soil and stalks of rye. Dust spilled into the cabin, and Alek glimpsed the streambed hurtling toward them.

"We're gonna die!" Kara screamed, covering her face with her hands.

Gradually the machine slowed, a last bit of momentum lifting it upright…and then it was standing on two legs, hidden among the trees, its huge feet soaking in the stream.

"Yay! We didn't die!" Kara cheered.

Alek watched dust and torn rye swirl across the viewport. A moment later his hands began to shake.

"Well done, young master!" Klopp said, clapping him on the back.

"But I almost fell!"

"Of course you did!" Klopp laughed. "Everyone falls the first time they try to run."

"Everyone what?"

"Everyone falls. But you did the right thing and let me take the controls in time."

Volger flicked sprigs of rye from his jacket. "It seems that humility was the rather tiresome point of today's lesson. Along with making sure we look like proper commoners."

"Humility?" Alek bunched his fists. "You mean you knew I would fall?"

"Am I the only one who thinks Alek looks hilariously cute when he's angry?" Kara commented. They all ignored her.

"Of course we knew," Klopp said. "As I said, everyone does at first. But you gave up the saunters in time. That's a lesson too!"

Alek scowled. Klopp was positively beaming at him, as if Alek had just mastered a somersault in a six-legged cutter. He wasn't sure whether to laugh or give the man a good thrashing.

He settled for coughing some of the dust out of his lungs, then taking back the controls. The Stormwalker responded normally. It seemed nothing more important than his pride had been damaged.

"You did better than I expected," Klopp said. "Especially with how top-heavy we are."

"Top-heavy?" Alek asked.

"Ah, well." Klopp looked at Volger sheepishly. "I suppose not really."

"Mad skills, Klopp," Kara muttered. "You're a worse liar than Alek. And that's saying something."

Count Volger sighed. "Go ahead, Klopp. If we're going to be teaching His Highness walker acrobatics, I suppose it might help to show him the extra cargo."

Klopp nodded, a wicked smile on his face. He pulled himself from the commander's seat and knelt by a small engineering panel in the floor.

"Yay!" Kara shouted. "Volger and Klopp brought us our Christmas presents!"

Alek stared at her. "We're in the middle of July," he reminded her.

"So?" she replied. "It could be an early Christmas. Duh."

Alek sighed, overly annoyed and slightly confused.

"Anyway," Klopp said. "Give me a hand, young master?"

A little curious now, Alek knelt beside him, and together they loosened the hand screws. The panel popped up, and Alek blinked—instead of wires and gears, the opening revealed neat rectangles of dully shining metal, each monogrammed with the Hapsburg seal.

"Are those…?"

"Gold bars," Klopp said happily. "A dozen of them. Almost a quart of a ton in all!"

"God's wounds," Alek breathed.

"The contents of your father's personal safe," Count Volger said. "Entrusted to us as part of your inheritance. We won't lack for money."

"I suppose not." Alek sat back. "So this is your little secret, Count? I must admit I'm impressed."

"This is merely an afterthought." Volger waved a hand, and Klopp began to seal the panel back up. "The real secret is in Switzerland."

"A quarter ton of gold, an afterthought?" Alek looked up at the man. "Are you serious?"

Count Volger raised an eyebrow. "I am always serious. Shall we go?"

(A/N: Goliath spoilers next; I'll tell you when they're over)

"Wait!" Kara suddenly cried. They all looked at her. Her eyes closed and forefingers pressed to her temples, she said mysteriously, "I have made a prediction of the future." Kara paused dramatically to make sure they were all listening, then continued. "You will have less than a half of one gold bar by the end of December."

Volger snorted. "That's not likely," he muttered.

Kara ignored him and kept talking. "Also, at least half of those twelve bars will be thrown out the window of a Darwinist airship."

Alek and his men all stared at her, obviously not believing her claims.

"Now you're just making things up," Volger muttered.

"Wasn't I always making things up?" she asked. "Isn't that the whole point of psychic predictions? That's pretty much what Shawn does. But seriously, that stuff is really gonna happen. I can even prove it to you, in about…138 pages."

Now this obviously made absolutely no sense, since no person in their right mind measured time in pages, but no one could say Kara was in her right mind, so they just ignored her.

(A/N: Spoilers are done. Continue reading, friends)

Alek pulled himself back up into the pilot's chair, wondering what other surprises the wildcount would later have waiting.

Alek started them down the streambed toward Lienz, the nearest city with any mechanikal industry. The walker desperately needed kerosene and parts, and with a dozen gold bars, they could buy the whole town if need be. The trick was not giving themselves away. A Cyklop Stormwalker was a fairly conspicuous way to travel.

Alek kept the machine in the trees along the stream bank. With the afternoon light already fading, they could steal close enough to reach the city on foot tomorrow.

It was strange to think that in the morning, for the first time in two weeks, Alek would see other people. Not just these four men (and Kara) but an entire town of commoners, none of whom would realize that a prince was walking among them.

He coughed again, and looked down at his dusty disguise of farmer's clothes. Volger had been right—he was as filthy as a peasant now. No one would think he was anything special. Certainly not a boy with a vast fortune in gold.

Klopp beside him was equally grubby, but still wore a pleased smile on his face.

"NEW YORK, NEW YORK, IT'S A HECK OF A TOWN! THE BRONX IS UP AND THE BATTERY'S DOWN! THE PEOPLE RIDE IN A HOLE IN THE GROUND. NEW YORK, NEW YORK! IT'S A HECK OF A TOWN!"

Kara sang at the top of her lungs as the Stormwalker made its way towards the wonderful city that no one's heard of, Lienz.

She didn't really think she was that great a singer, but she was trying her best to annoy the men, just to see what would happen. She had a strong feeling that Bethany—or… Apocalypsia—was doing the same to Newkirk at the least, if not Mr. Rigby as well. She was probably giving the bosun a new name that was most likely an over-used palindrome that annoyed the heck out of him, and was "talking" to different beasties and threatening for them to eat middy Newkirk.

"Second, verse, same as the first!" Kara shouted, then sang again. "NEW YORK, NEW YORK, IT'S A HECK OF A TOWN! THE BRONX IS UP AND THE BATTERY'S DOWN! THE PEOPLE RIDE IN A HOLE IN THE GROUND. NEW YORK, NEW YORK! IT'S A HECK OF A TOWN!"

Kara could tell that the Austrian fugitives were completely ignoring her (she even saw that Volger and Klopp's ears were plugged), so she took a deep breath and prepared to sing louder, but suddenly she heard slow sarcastic clapping coming from behind her.

"Bravo…Bravo…Let's bring her to Broadway…" a voice said, dripping with sarcasm.

"Hi hi Abyssia," Kara greeted the alien as she realized who it was.

Noticing that she was no longer singing, Alek turned to her, looking confused. "Who are you talking to?" he asked.

Kara frowned. "Abyssia," she replied, moving out of the way to make sure he saw her.

Alek nodded slowly. "Right…Great….Is that another one of your imaginary friends?"

Kara, overly confused, glanced back and forth between Alek's you're insane look and Abyssia's annoyingly amused one.

"No, Abyssia's the lady right there," she told Alek, pointing. "The one with the creepily yellow hair and the even creepier dark black eyes."

Abyssia was apparently insulted by this description, because she stepped forward and slapped Kara across the face, making the girl cry out in pain.

"What? What's wrong?" Alek asked, sounding worried now.

"She just hit me!" Kara exclaimed, glaring at Abyssia.

"Who did?" Alek clarified, now confused again.

"Abyssia!"

"Right…" Alek took Kara's arm and led her to the corner of the cabin. "Here, Kara, I think the day's stressed you out a bit. Why don't you sit down for a minute and rest?"

Kara was appalled. Alek actually thought she was insane! What was wrong with him?

"No! I'm not crazy!" she exclaimed, wrenching her arm out of his grasp. "There is an alien lady, right there; possibly a Time Lord, but she denies this fact; she's the one who brought me here, and my best friend, because we're secretly from America in the future, and Abyssia here used her mind-altering device to make you think you knew me but you don't! You have to believe me! See? Look!" Kara grabbed Abyssia's arm and pulled her over to Alek. "This is Abyssia's arm; the same arm that she just hit me with!" Kara waved Abyssia's arm in front of Alek's face.

"No," Alek contradicted. "That's your arm holding a bunch of air."

Kara clenched her fists, seething. "Why can't he see you?" she asked Abyssia.

"Because she's not really there," Alek tried to tell her.

"Shut up, you," she commanded the prince, then repeated the question to the alien.

"Because I don't want him to," Abyssia replied.

"Well, then make him see you so he knows I'm not crazy!" Kara demanded.

Abyssia smirked at her, then glanced at her wrist as if looking at a watch.

"Oh, look at the time!" she said. "Time to see Bethany!"

And with a snap of her fingers, Abyssia disappeared.

Kara cried out in frustration. Alek patted her arm comfortingly and forced her down onto the cabin floor.

"Stupid Time Lords," Kara grumbled. "The Doctor, I'm sure, isn't nearly this difficult."

Alek just nodded, pretending to understand.

A/N: This chapter was a lot longer than I remember it being. Anyway, hope you liked it. Please review! And Bramblepool, if you're reading this, I UPDATED! SO WRITE MORE SO I CAN MAKE ALEK COMMIT SUICIDE! See you next time everyone! And happy summer! :)