I'm back! This chapter's going to focus on the aftermath of Yinya's mistake. Better get some tissues ready.

NOTE: I DO NOT OWN SRMTHFG!

Chapter 10

Chiro

Yinya is crying by the time she ends telling me her story. My heart breaks for her. She had been curious and had just wanted to try something new. She and Antauri didn't know that things were going to go wrong.

And Antauri… I can't believe he's kept all of his pain and guilt hidden for so long…

"So that's what happened…" I murmur, walking over to the tube keeping Yinya's physical body functioning. I turn to her and ask, "Didn't you try and reach out to the others for help? What about your creator?"

"I tried," Yinya sighs, wiping away her tears. "Nothing worked, not even the Power Primate. And I can't stay away from my body for too long otherwise I'll be sent to purgatory. I can't even go seven feet without feeling like my soul's being pulled into oblivion." She looks away from the tube, her cyan eyes losing their happy spark completely.

"I never should have tried to astral project. Not only did I completely separate my soul from my body, I caused my family so much grief…"

Yinya

When Antauri came back with Mandarin, tears were welling up in his eyes as Mandarin tried to awaken me. When he had failed to do so, Mandarin grabbed Antauri by the shoulders. "What happened?!" he snarled, shaking my boyfriend so hard that the tears came splashing out.

"Manny, stop! It wasn't his fault!" I begged, floating to hover between them, my astral body going through them like a ghost.

"W-we were just meditating… I-I don't know… I tried to wake her, but…" Antauri whimpered, his whole body shaking. To my relief, Mandarin's face softened and his anger evaporated the instant he saw the tears racing down Antauri's face.

For the next three days, I watched helplessly as Master Xan and Master Yi did everything they could to wake me up. But no amount of meditation or rituals could put me back into my body. Mandarin and Antauri would keep silent vigil as they did this, their eyes on me at all times.

"Oh, Yinya… My dear child, why didn't you listen?" Master Yi lamented when it became apparent that there was nothing she and the other Verron Mystics could do.

"I'm sorry, Master Yi! Forgive me!" I sobbed, bowing to her, knocking my head against the floor in penance several times even though she couldn't see me.

Father arrived on Koraladol three days later, and the anguish in his eyes was something I could never forget. He took my body into his arms, embracing it tenderly. "Yinya… My sweet girl…" he whispered, a single tear trickling down his cheek. He placed my body in a stasis tube filled with magenta fluid that would keep me alive, before taking me and Antauri and Mandarin back to Shuggazoom.

The rest of my family was already waiting in the lab by the time we arrived.

"Yinya!" Nova raced to my tube, wrapping her arms around it as best as she could. "Little sis, are you okay?!" she cried, her bubblegum pink eyes filled with tears.

"Nee-chan…" I whimpered, wishing I could embrace her. Instead, I stayed next to my body and watched the rest of my family surround Father and bombard him with questions.

"Will you be able to repair her?" Gibson inquired.

"I can help with that!" Otto piped up, his tone desperate.

"She's gonna be okay, right?" Sparx asked worriedly.

"What happened?" Nova looked at Antauri, hands clasped in front of her. "Antauri, what happened to Yinya?"

"I don't know… We were just meditating…" Antauri whispered, not meeting her gaze. He had barely slept during our last three days on Koraladol, trying and failing to anchor me back. I was so worried that he was going to have a serious meltdown.

Mandarin stepped up and took charge of Nova, Sparx, Otto, and Gibson, telling them that now wasn't a good time to start asking Antauri any questions. Father then coaxed the five of them into leaving the lab. Once they were gone, he knelt down and gently tilted Antauri's head up.

"Antauri, tell me the truth." Father's gaze wasn't angry or accusing as I had feared. Rather, it was gentle but sad. "You were with Yinya before she ended up in this state. Can you tell me what really happened, my son?" he asked.

"I'm sorry!" Antauri burst into tears, burying his face into his hands. "I'm so sorry, Father. This is all my fault…" he wept as he curled in on himself.

"No, 'Tauri, no… None of this is your fault. I'm the one who got myself into this mess and dragged you into it. I'm sorry…" I whispered, wrapping my arms around Antauri. I choked back a sob when my arms went through him. I wanted so badly to touch him, let him know that I was there, that I didn't blame him for anything…

Father hugged Antauri, letting him cry into his robes. "Antauri, I'm afraid I don't understand…" he said. So, hiccupping on his tears, Antauri told him of our attempt to astral project, how he had promised me that he would help in my endeavor, and of how he had failed to anchor my soul back into my body.

"I never should have said yes… I should have told her to stop before it was too late…" Antauri looked up at Father, his face streaked with tears. "I failed her," he lamented.

Father shook his head, gently taking Antauri's hands in his. "Neither of you could have known this was going to happen, Antauri. Don't blame yourself. I'm sure Yinya wouldn't want you to," he reassured him.

"Are you going to tell them?" Antauri's eyes widened and his tail immediately drooped until it was lying limp on the floor. When Father didn't answer straight away, he started to cry again.

"P-please don't tell them. I… I don't want them to hate me…"

My heart shattered at Antauri's plea. Mandarin, Nova, Sparx, Gibson, Otto… if they found out about what really happened, they would blame 'Tauri for it and would never speak to him again. He would be all alone…

To my relief, Father nodded. "This will be our secret," he promised Antauri who then went over to my tube. He pressed his forehead against the glass and murmured, "I'll find a way to bring you back, Yinya. I promise."

"I hope so, 'Tauri…" I sighed, floating next to him. "I really hope so…"

An agonizingly long time passed as Father tried to fix me. Otto assists in analyzing all of my systems, checking for viruses and broken parts and damaged circuitry. But it's not my physical body experiencing problems, it's my spirit, my very soul that's experienced a malfunction.

It crushed my heart every day to see Otto, the youngest out of all my brothers, pack away his tools every night with a defeated look on his face. He was our team mechanic and always managed to fix any gadget, any gizmo. Knowing that he couldn't fix me in the same way he fixed machinery must have been devastating for him.

Nee-chan came to see me every day. She would sit in front of my tube and tell me about her day and how everyone's doing. Nova didn't know it, but I would always sit in front of her while my body stayed floating in stasis. I latched onto every word, because I couldn't leave the confines of the lab without risking my soul being lost to the underworld. Sometimes, she would come with Sparx or everyone, sometimes she would come alone.

Sparx tried to lighten the dreary mood, cracking jokes and pretending that I'd heard them. I laughed at all of his jokes, no matter how corny some of them were. Maybe if I laughed loud enough, he'd hear me and know that I was still there.

Gibson would obsess over my brain scans, double and even triple-checking all of the test results. He'd puzzle over them for hours, discussing findings with Father as he worked until Mandarin would come to bring him to training.

Manny, he didn't really say much whenever he came to check up on me. He would just stand in front of my tube, eyes closed, trying to sense me through the Power Primate. But, most times, he was there to get Antauri out of the lab so he could eat or sleep… which rarely worked.

Antauri almost never left the lab during those two months, wanting to be near me at all times. He would meditate, attempting to seek out my soul and bring it back from the astral plane to my physical form. Whenever he got frustrated when he failed, which happened every day, he would pace about, unable to focus. He barely slept and the stress and anxiety were taking their toll on his body as he lost weight and became sickly. Sometimes, Father had to tranquilize him if he fought any of the others' attempts to get him out of the lab so he could rest. I would hear him scream my name every night as he woke up from nightmares and wouldn't calm down until he was allowed near me again. Every time his gaze landed on my slumbering form, the light would fade from his eyes.

It was soul-crushing.

I wanted so badly to turn back the clock to prevent all of this from happening, so 'Tauri wouldn't blame himself, but there was nothing I could do.

"I am so sorry, 'Tauri…" I would whisper to my boyfriend every day, but he never heard me.

My only way of tracking the days in the mostly dark lab was the calendar Father kept nailed to a wall. Two months after that fateful September 21st… Father gave up.

I could only stand beside my tube and watch, tears welling up in my eyes, as Father gathered my siblings and Antauri around him and broke the news.

"I'm afraid there's nothing more I can do for Yinya, my children. Her soul is gone." Father looks as if he's managed to age by 20 years in just two months, his shoulders slumped forward. "I can try to reactivate her, but she'll be a mere shell. That's why," His hands tremble as he makes his decision. "I believe it would be best to terminate Yinya and spare her from any more suffering," he murmured.

"No!" Antauri threw himself at Father, tears welling up in his eyes. "We can't give up on Yinya! There has to be another way to bring her back!" he begged.

"Give us one more month, please!" Otto knelt with his hands clasped as if in prayer.

"There might have been something we missed. Maybe if we run a couple more tests, we can find out what's really wrong," Gibson didn't need to shout, but the way his tail twitched gave away his fear.

"We can't give up on Yinya! She's our family. Father, please!" Nova cried out, tugging on Father's robe while trying to disentangle Antauri from him.

"You can't be serious…" Sparx looked at Father in disbelief. "After everything, you're just gonna give up on Yin?!" he shouted.

Mandarin sighed and nodded to Father. "If that is what must be done…" he said softly, making the rest of the team look at him in horror.

"Mandarin, don't tell me you're okay with this?!" Nova exclaimed.

"Of course I'm not!" For a minute, I saw tears well up in Mandarin's eyes but he blinked them away. "I love Yinya as much as all of you do. But if her soul's no longer here then what's the point? Even if her body is reactivated, she won't be the little sister we all know. She'll be nothing more than a cybernetic shell. Terminating her… it will be the kindest thing we could ever do for her so that both her body and soul may rest in peace," he said calmly.

To my shock, Antauri suddenly lunged at Mandarin. He tackled him to the floor, Ghost Claws activated. "How could you say that?! She's family!" he yelled, his eyes filled with tears and rage.

"Antauri, enough!" I could only watch, my entire astral body shaking, as Father pulled Antauri off of Mandarin. "There's nothing more we can do! Yinya is gone! She is never coming back!" Father bellowed, scaring all of us.

I'd never seen Father so angry before. I felt a whole new wave of guilt wash over me. All the stress, all the anger, and sadness that had befallen my family… this was all because of me and my stupid curiosity…

If I hadn't been so eager to try astral projecting, none of this would have happened…

"No!" Antauri twisted out of Father's grasp and fell to the floor. "You've just given up on her! You've all given up on her! I HATE YOU!" he screamed.

"Oh 'Tauri…" I floated over to him, but no sooner had I done that, Antauri ran out of the lab in tears.

"Antauri, wait!" Nova cried out, the boys following her out of the lab.

Father and I were left alone. Taking one look at my still form floating in the magenta tube, Father sank to the floor and wept.

"Yinya… My dear child, forgive me…" Father whispered brokenly.

"No, Father…" Tears streaming down my face, I wrapped my ghostly arms around him as best as I could. "Forgive me…"

A few days later, my siblings came one-by-one to say their goodbyes.

"You were the best little sister in the whole world. You were my Christmas wish come true. I'm sorry I wasn't there, Yin. I'm sorry your nee-chan couldn't be there when you needed her the most…" Nova sobbed, placing a small wreath of flowers at the foot of my tube.

Sparx sniffled, trying his best not to cry. "I would have wanted to beat you in just one game of tag, just once. But I guess we can't do that anymore, kiddo…" he mumbled before leaving, his shoulders shaking as he finally let himself cry.

"I put all of your stuff in here so you'll be able to take them with you wherever you're going next." Otto set down a metal box containing my mandolin, my pendant, and the only two photos I got to take with my family. He looked up at my slumbering form, his lip trembling. "I'm sorry, Yinya! I'm so sorry I couldn't fix you!" he bawled, hugging my tube.

"I'll miss having conversations about… just about everything." Gibson couldn't even bear to look at my tube as tears trickled down his cheeks. "You inspired me to look at the universe in a whole new, more fun way. I'll never forget everything you've taught me," he whispered.

Mandarin spent most of the time he was allowed to see me just staring. Finally, he gently placed his hand against the glass. "Farewell, little sister… You always were the only one who could really make me laugh. What I would give to hear you laugh… one last time…" he said softly, tears silently streaming down his face.

With every goodbye, my heartache increased. I hated myself. For trying to astral project, for causing my family so much pain, I hated myself for everything.

'My fault, my fault, all my damn fault…' I thought to myself as I tried again and again and again to merge with my body.

Antauri was the last to come and say goodbye. Just looking at him and his dulled green eyes was enough to shatter my heart into a billion tiny pieces. I had caused him - the love of my life - the most pain of all.

"Antauri, I…" I went over to him, noticing that he was wearing his yang pendant. He took out my yin pendant out of the box Otto had left and joined them together briefly.

"No matter how far apart we are, we'll never be truly apart… I wish that were true." Antauri separated the pendants from each other, placing mine back in the box. "I'm so sorry, Yinya… I'm sorry I failed to be your anchor," he said softly.

"It wasn't your fault, 'Tauri. It's not your fault…" I whimpered and leaned forward to press my forehead against his in a soft intimate gesture, making sure to keep an inch between us. At least I could trick myself into believing that this was real…

"But, even though our time together was short, I'm thankful." Antauri smiled sadly, tears welling up in his eyes. "I'm glad I decided to hide out in Father's lab during that one game of hide-and-seek. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have met you. I wouldn't have helped Father finish making you. And I'm so glad that I did.

"Yinya, I don't know if you can hear me but if you can, I… I want you to know that you made me so happy. I was never really that good at expressing my emotions so freely. You changed that. Thanks to you, I became brave enough to really let my feelings show, to laugh loudly, smile widely, and not care if anyone thought of it as weird. Whenever you were around, I felt like I didn't need to keep my emotions so closely guarded, that I could be free… thanks to you.

"I'm glad I got to know you. I'll miss going stargazing with you on Friday nights. I'll miss our philosophical debates. I'll miss hearing you playing the mandolin. I'll miss playing tag with you. I'll miss being able to kiss you and hold you close…"

"I'm sorry…" Antauri choked out, letting the tears fall. "I'm sorry, Yinya… I'm sorry I couldn't bring you back. Most of all… I'm sorry I never got to tell you this enough times." Levitating off the ground until he was level with my body, Antauri pressed his forehead against the glass and whispered three little words.

"I love you."

"I love you, too…" I sobbed, floating behind Antauri. "I love you, Antauri… So much…"

Antauri let out a quiet sob and floated out of the room backward, his gaze never leaving me.

"'Tauri, no… Wait!" I floated over to him, my stomach dropping as I felt the all-too-familiar sensation of being pulled into oblivion.

"Goodbye, Yinya. I love you." With those words, the doors to the lab closed - my last sight of Antauri being his beautiful green eyes filled with tears and his sad, resigned smile.

"Wait! 'Tauri, no! Don't go! I'm here! I'm here! I'M STILL HERE!" I screamed, having no choice but to remain within the confines of the lab.

Only when the lights turned off did I realize that there was no more hope for me. My family all thought I was gone. Soon, Father would come in and take my body apart…

Then I really will be gone…

Unable to bear the pain any longer, I collapsed to the floor on my knees and cried.

Oof, this was quite an emotional chapter for me. Let me know what you think.

-GuardianDragon98