Tauria: Hiya guys! It's been a bit since I've gotten to update, but here I am again! CX Anyways, here's chapter thirteen ^.^

Chiro: Tauria doesn't own SRMT.

Chapter Thirteen

Antauri stared at the boy in shock, completely stunned at his announcement. As much as he wanted to believe the boy - as much as he wanted his son back - he knew that he couldn't take any chances. He knew that if he believed him when he was lying, it could give Julianos the starting point he needed to take over completely - to eradicate the monkey team. Putting on a hard face, the silver monkey narrowed his eyes. "Oh, really?"

"Yes, really." the teen bit his lip. "Sort of..."

"What do you mean sort of?" the red monkey asked from within his cage.

"You see, I'm not completely back to good... The Power Primate that Julianos corrupted and put with my own is still pretty strong," the raven haired teen confessed, running his hand through the spiky hair. "Let me explain. On Galia, when you touched your Power Primate with mine, it affected me. I didn't realize it at the time, but it did. When I got back, the small part of me that was still there began to fight. It eventually won back half of the Power Primate, and so at this moment in time, you could say that I'm half good, half evil. At night, I return to being Julinos's slave. But during the day, I'm me. It's really confusing, and it makes no sense at all, but it's what happened."

Antauri took a deep breath in thought, staring up at the boy. "While I sense you are telling the truth, I am afraid I cannot believe this - not yet. I have been deceived before by those I believed had come back to good. You will have to prove yourself before I can believe that."

"Yeah, Kid. This isn't something that just goes away - and while the time period fits for fighting, it's still kinda fishy." Sprx placed his two cents in, unable to entirely stay out of the conversation.

Chiro smiled, eyes shining slightly. "I understand that. I'd actually be pretty mad if you just believed me on the spot," he chuckled. Picking up a remote, he clicked a button, causing all of the cells to open. "At the edge of the Broken City (as Shuggazoom City is now called) there is a cave. I will meet you there tomorrow at noon with some valuable information."

Antauri nodded. "Very well."

"As for getting everyone out of here, I've been trying to puzzle that out for a while now..."

The silver monkey grinned. "Mandarin and Gibson should be-"

BOOM!

"Well, that's our cue."

"I'm not going to ask," Chiro put his hands up.

Chuckling, the silver monkey herded the former prisoners out of the prison. Bit-by-bit they all managed to get back to the Freedom Fighter HQ without too many problems.

"So which one of you three came up with the stupid idea that Antauri should get himself captured?" The red monkey asked once everyone was settled. The team (and Jinmay, and Mandarin) had just finished sharing some valuable data about the war. Now, they were getting caught up, and sharing some refreshing free time to ease their moods.

The orange and blue monkeys both stuck their thumbs towards Antauri. The cobalt eyed monkey just smiled, shrugging.

"Are you insane?!" Sprx asked him. "That was so incredibly stupid I don't even know where to start!"

Mandarin nodded. "That's what I told him, but he insisted that he needed to go."

Gibson shrugged. "He had that look on his face - the one that said that no matter how much protesting you do, he's going to do it, and you may as well back him up on it."

"But just before that, he gave the smirk of doom," Mandarin reported. "So I already knew that it was going to be something none of us would like and no one was going to be able to talk him out of it. I guarantee that we are going to see that smirk multiple times during our stay here."

Sprx raised an eyebrow at the orange monkey. "He has a 'smirk of doom'?"

"Well, that's what we called it when we were younger," Mandarin explained. "When we were still training on Koraladol, every time Antauri was going to do something completely stupid, he always had that smirk on his face."

Antauri laughed. "No, no. You're telling it wrong, Mandarin. I only had that smirk on when I was going to do something Mandarin wouldn't like. Other times, I had a different smirk - at least, according to him."

"You did!" the orange monkey protested.

Jinmay gave both monkeys an odd look as they continued to 'argue' about what went on.

Nova smiled. "Before we found out we were meant to protect the universe, Antauri and Mandarin were very close. Partially because of their training with the Mystics, and partially because they're brothers. After we found out about our destiny to stop the Skeleton King, Mandarin and Antauri both took their duties very seriously, and while they still had a good relationship, it lost the potency it once had. Mandarin became quite close to Otto, but it seemed as if Antauri had distanced himself away from all of us." Nova shrugged. "To see them acting like this again... It's very refreshing."

"Especially in light of everything that's going on now," Gibson commented, joining the girl's conversation.

"I don't know... I think it's just nice to see Antauri argue with someone... even if it's not really arguing." Sprx joined as well.

Nova shook her head at the red monkey, giving him a light punch to the shoulder. She stood. "Well, I think we should all get to bed now. We have a long day ahead of us, and we need the sleep."

"Nova is right," Antauri nodded, standing.

They all bade one another goodnight, and went to bed.

As the sun began to set - not that anyone could see it - Chiro, even though he was deep in meditation, felt the pull on his Power Primate once more, and he knew that the darker side of his Power Primate was calling again. After successfully hiding away his memories, he allowed the dark Power Primate to take control of him once more, knowing that it was the only way he would ever be able to fight it.

He wondered how long it would be until he could return to his team... Until King Julianos could be stopped... Until they could go back to fighting Skeleton King instead of this monster. He missed the way things had used to be...

Tauria: That last scene was pretty short, I know. It was really only meant to make sure everyone knew that Chiro was telling the truth ^.^

Chiro: Well... I suppose this is somewhat better then being completely evil...

Tauria: Good, glad you're beginning to enjoy this a bit more.

Chiro: Though I have to ask...

Tauria: Oh great...

Chiro: What is it with you and Antauri/Mandarin brotherly bonding?

Tauria: -sighs- It's cute. Duh.

Chiro: If you say so... Please leave a review!