Chapter 10 is finally up! Sorry it took me so long; I was finishing up with the latest chapter of The Final Warrior of Light, and my Eternal Sonata story was in desperate need of an update. Anyway, I'll do the replies now.

WindGoddess Rune: Yeah; sorry about that. *scratches head sheepishly* This chapter is more normal-sized. Ah, I probably shouldn't have ended it there, but I didn't know where else to end it. Is everyone okay?... Read on. ;) Oh, and I did get your message. Did I reply to it? I forgot... I think I did...

ultimashadow: Ah, who said anyone is dead? ;) This isn't to say if anyone's okay or not, but if I'm going to actually kill someone in a chapter, I'd probably give a warning first. Besides, I don't like killing off characters much, especially not my favorite character; my favorite past time is finding a way to bring characters back to life. ;) You're almost always right; I just like to keep the suspense so it doesn't spoil everything for you and everyone else. :) Thanks; I'll try. Is this chapter as good or better than the last? Well... That's really up to you and the other readers. Still, I hope you enjoy it.

Prince of Tennis' Shaman: I'm glad you think so. :) I always feel this need to describe everything I wrote, because I worry about what people will think of it. *insert sweatdrop here* Besides, I like reading other people's ramblings, so... Well, it makes sense to me! XD Yeah, more or less, he was. It just seemed like that was the best place to change the scene. ;) Please, go ahead and use it! In fact, you can use any of my ideas for Kaleidoscope - I'd be honored. *blushes* Yes - I knew that you knew, but I didn't want to spoil it. ;D I was wondering if anyone was going to pick up on that. :) Glad you did, though. I know; I felt bad about writing that. :( It was probably one of the most powerful scenes I ever wrote - that should say everything about my writing ability, though I'm unsure if that means it's good or bad - so I felt the need to plow through any personal discomfort it gave me. (Jiro: Thanks. I just wish someone else would tell me that.) He didn't do that good of a job with the threatening sound-wise, but he tried, so that counts for something. :D Yeah, that would be funny. XD Hm... I think you've given me an idea. ;) And maybe the anime Zola wouldn't mind as much as the game Zola. Sure, she'd be surprised, but he always acts cold in the anime, so I think she'd be relieved. ;D Wow, be careful! I'm glad you like it, but don't pass out from lack of oxygen! But really, thank you. :) I'm still scrambling to reply to all of your reviews, but they should be up shortly.

Review replies done! Now, this chapter may seem like it's short and lagging, especially after all of the chaos in chapter ten. I tried to keep things as interesting as possible, but there wasn't much that was supposed to happen in this chapter. Still, like I told ultimashadow, how good it is up to you to decide. After the chapter title, on with the story! :D

Chapter 10: Yoha (Aftermath)

The first thing Jiro noticed when he woke up was that his ears were ringing. There must have been a pretty loud sound while he was knocked out.

He rolled onto his stomach, trying to get his bearings. Great - ringing ears and vertigo.

He used his hands and knees to push himself up. He looked up and tried to assess the situation.

Marumaro was a few feet away from him, sprawled out on the ground and out cold. He seemed to be alright, aside from minor injuries, but he didn't seem like he was getting up anytime soon.

Shu and the other children were still laying on the ground, and if the lack of screaming was anything to go by, they were also unconscious. But the electric energy that had surrounded them was gone. Somehow, the collars had been turned off.

Further down, there was smoke blocking the view of Nene's machine and the area around it. Wasn't that where Nene and Kluke were fighting?...

Kluke.

Ignoring the way his body ached as he moved, Jiro hauled himself to his feet. "Kluke! Where are you?!"

A cough, and then, "Jiro! I'm over here!"

He thought that he saw waving, so he entered the smoke and tried to go to the place where he remembered seeing it. It took a little bit of maneuvering, but he managed to find her. He rushed to her side where she lay on the ground. "Are you alright?!"

"I don't know," With some help from Jiro, she managed to stand. "That girl... The one who played the flute. She had a Shadow, and they punched the machine and it..." she trailed off, looking over where the smoke had finally cleared.

The girl's Shadow had unsummoned at some point; she lay motionless in front of the sparking machine. Next to that, was a gaping hole in the wall - in front of that, Szabo was working on a machine that Jiro recognized as a gravitational transit; for Kluke, it just looked kind of like the Ancient device known as a scooter, minus the wheels. Nene stood to the side.

"Nene!!" Kluke charged for him, ignoring Jiro's concerned yells.

"Lady Zola, which way should we go?" the Jibral Blademaster looked around; there were about five different paths he could see, and that wasn't counting whatever forks were further down.

"We split up. I'll go down that way with Group A," she pointed to the farthest right hall. "The rest of you split up accordingly. Remember - if anyone finds the children or some kind of clue, report to me with the communicators that the scientists gave you. Now, go! Move as fast as you can!"

The soldiers and Blademasters ran down their respective paths. Zola ran just a bit faster than the others; she had a feeling she might be too late, but it didn't slow her down at all. In fact, it seemed to spur her on.

Shu groaned, sitting up, holding his head. Everything ached.

And then he heard Kluke yell.

He looked up quickly then; near a hole in the wall that Shu didn't remember being there, Kluke was trying to get Phoenix to claw Nene. He was dodging the attacks, but barely.

"It's ready, Lord Nene!" Szabo backed away from the machine.

"Good!" During one of his dodges, Nene landed right on the platform-ish thing. "Evacuate with the rest of the robots. Don't forget to visit the database."

"The database!"

"Of course!" Szabo floated away.

"I won't let you get away again!" Kluke tried to hit him, but he was too fast - the machine whirred to life and pushed off quickly, leaving Phoenix's talons to gash the floor.

"I'm afraid that you don't have any choice in the matter, my dear. It's been fun, but I have more important things to do with play with you and these other children." He started moving away from her, out of the hole.

"Play!"

"No!!" Kluke didn't even see that he was outside; she was blinded by rage. So many lives that may have been lost just a short while ago... And he just thought it was nothing but a game he was playing!

She didn't gauge how much floor was left before the hole.

Nene and Deathroy laughed as her foot touched thin air.

"Mom... Dad... I know it's probably not what you would've wanted, but I'm sorry I didn't avenge you."

"Kluke!!" Her second-long free fall was cut short as Shu grabbed her around the waist.

"Shu!" She was thankful that he had caught her, but more than that, she was relieved that he was okay.

"Thank goodness..." Jiro was so overcome with relief of his own, his knees were barely keeping him up. But there was one thing he had to do before he collapsed. Moving quickly, he rushed over to the fallen girl and knelt down next to her.

Even as he felt her pulse, he could see the up and down movement of her chest - she was alive. He caught sight of her right hand; it looked slightly burned. He looked up where, according to Kluke, a hole was punched; he noted to himself that most of the damage to the machine appeared to be internal. The injury must have carried from her Shadow to her. But... He'd never seen such a physical transfer of damage before. There was more to this girl than met the eye.

After Shu had pulled Kluke away from the hole, he saw Jiro. And he saw who he was with. "Bouquet!" he ran towards them as fast as he could, sliding to the ground when he reached them.

Jiro's eyes widened. "You know her?"

"She's my friend," Shu looked up at him, his eyes worried and urgent. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She's alive, for now. Otherwise, I don't know." Jiro shook his head.

"I'll check on her," Kluke rechecked her pulse, not trying to see if she was still living, since Jiro had already confirmed that. She was checking to see if her heart rate was normal. "Shu, you're too worried about this-"

"Of course I am!" he shouted angrily. "I already told you that she's my friend! And she's just a kid, and she could be dying!"

"This is what I mean," Kluke shook her head. "I need to concentrate, and you're all emotional right now. Go see if Marumaro's okay."

"Marumaro?" Shu's concern instantly split to the both of them.

"You know that Kluke knows what she's doing," Jiro spoke for her, since she'd already begun her normal patient protocol in an attempt to block out Shu. "She won't let anything happen to her."

"Alright." Shu nodded, standing.

When he reached him, Marumaro was already sitting up. But he was clutching his arm. Shu placed a hand on his good shoulder. "What happened, Marumaro?"

"That dumb Nene broke Maro's arm again!"

Jiro cupped his hands over his mouth so he would be heard. "Marumaro, it's-"

"Control yourself." Kluke said shortly, not looking up.

Shu smiled at him softly. "Hang on for a while. Kluke will look at it when she's done. Besides that, are you okay?"

Marumaro shrugged. "Maro's fine. But..." he blushed a little. "Maro was kinda worried about you. All of us were. Especially Jiro."

Shu's eyebrows arched. "Jiro?"

Marumaro nodded vigorously. "Yeah."

"Huh... That's weird. I didn't know that-" Shu was interrupted as a siren started going off. He clamped his hands over his ears. "What is that?!"

The children started waking up from the sound. "That sound is horrible!" The little girl that had clung to Shu wailed over the loud noise.

Shu knew he'd probably regret this when they stampeded him, but he yelled over the siren, "Come over here!"

His hunch was right; in seconds, he was almost buried under all of the little kids.

"Hey, be careful!" Marumaro yelled at them. "You'll suffocate him!"

This immediately set the children into a brand new panic - they scrambled off of Shu like he was the plague.

"Way to go, Marumaro." Shu said sarcastically.

Marumaro was about to counter this, but was cut off as the door opened. His irritation was quickly replaced with joy as he saw who it was. "Lady Zola!!" he practically skipped towards her.

"Later!" Despite this, she still willingly let him hug her leg, and not just because she was rushed. "We have to get everyone out of here now! The Robos have launched a self-destruct!"

"So that's what Szabo went to do," Jiro rubbed his chin, looking like he was getting ready to go into what Shu and Kluke had dubbed his "contemplation mode". "I guess that was kind of obvious, since the machine is-"

"Jiro!!" Kluke yelled at him. "Didn't you hear her?! This place is going to explode!"

"Oh, right! Wait," he stilled her hand as she started picking up Bouquet. "I'll carry her. Go and make sure that Marumaro doesn't further injure his arm while he runs."

"Alright." Kluke nodded, hurrying off to the Devee's side as Jiro picked up Bouquet, cradling her head with one arm and hooking his other arm underneath her knees.

As the Jibral soldiers and Blademasters began to collect the children, the girl that Shu had carried earlier reached up towards him. He sighed, relenting immediately, and lifted her up.

"Everyone's here," Zola continued when everyone nodded. "Let's go!"

They ran down the halls, back the way they'd come. When they arrived at the original fork, everyone was already there. They all headed into the air balloons, releasing the anchors and quickly floating away.

Kluke gripped the side of the basket with the hand that she wasn't using to hold Marumaro's, flinching as the metal sphere erupted in a fiery explosion.

"Lady Zola," one of the scientists approached her. "We saw three mechats leave the sphere through another exit before you and the others boarded the balloons. Our radars indicated that they were heading northeast."

"Szabo and the other robots," Jiro shifted the girl in his arms; he was finding that he was more sore than he thought. "They're probably following Nene."

Kluke's jaw was clenched. "I can't believe he got away."

"Don't worry," Marumaro tried to encourage her. "We'll fight him again. And next time, we'll beat him for sure!"

"Um..." the little girl looked up at Shu shyly.

"What's wrong?"

"Can I look around the hot air balloon?"

He smiled. "Sure," he set her down. "Just make sure you come back. And stay where I can see you!"

Shu blushed as Jiro chuckled behind his back. "Seems like you're falling into the big brother role pretty well."

Shu turned around, grinning. "I had a good teacher."

Jiro's smile dropped. "Shu... When you fell out of the mechat, I thought... Well, I knew that you weren't dead," While saying the word had been easier than Jiro had originally thought, it was still hard. "But I thought you might be soon, that you'd been seriously hurt. I..." he looked away. "I was scared."

Shu placed a hand over his chest. "You don't have to worry about me! It'll take more than that to kill me. I already fell off a cliff, remember?"

Jiro flinched so hard that he nearly dropped Bouquet. "Don't... Don't talk about that."

"Jiro?" Shu looked at him in confusion. "What's wrong with you?"

He shook his head. "I-it's nothing... It's just too similar, you know?"

Shu shrugged. "I guess. But-" Shu froze as Bouquet moaned in her sleep, turning her head slightly.

"Bouquet!" he leaned over her, trying to see if she was okay.

"Shu, don't wake her up like that!" Jiro whispered harshly. "She might be having a nightmare!"

"Bouquet, can you hear me?!" Shu ignored him, making Jiro groan. "It's Shu! Your friend, remember?!"

She scrunched her eyes, Jiro's whisper of "Now look at what you did." in the background. She opened her eyes slowly - everything was blurry and shifty. But she managed to make out someone. "Shu..." she whispered his name softly. She reached for him, her eyes closing, drifting into unconsciousness once again as she heard him shout her name.

Chapter 10 finished! I had actually had a better idea for this chapter, but I forgot it, so I had to alter it slightly. I think it turned out okay, though. Anyway, I can't think of anything else to mention. Review if you can, and I'll try to update after 10 hits. See you soon! :D