Science centers around explaining how the world works in terms that all can find common.
Faith is about explaining WHY the world works in terms one cannot ignore.
The two are rarely compatible. And Magic's foundation is found in faith. The elements of the world, the manipulation of time and space, the healing of any and all wounds, these are possible with magic, as long as you remember...
All magic has a price.
Nothing...is free...
Episode Thirty-Four:
永遠の勇気と英雄!
Eternal and Heroic Courage!
"I want you two to search that tunnel." Bean informed his two other personal guards, a lion sapient and an elephant sapient. "Don't forget." He added, looking over at Leigh, the elephant. "You're to wait for my signal."
"Yes, sir." "Yes, sir." The two said at the same time, snapping into a salute before running off into a nearby tunnel as Sonic approached Bean from behind, a nervous expression on his face. He really, really hoped that Bean wasn't actually-
"Well, good to see you've shown up." Bean commented, turning his head slightly and giving Sonic a bit of a smirk. "I knew you'd come eventually though."
"Something on your mind?" Sonic inquired, folding his arms, tapping his foot against the ground in an impatient manner. "The only reason I'm putting up with you is that Chaos Emerald of yours. I want it to-"
"Don't you play the slippery eel with me, hedgehog." Bean laughed. "I can tell you're stalling for time. Let me guess...snipers are getting into position even as we speak?" Bean inquired, whipping around and spreading his arms wide.
"...what...tipped you off?" Sonic murmured, frowning a bit.
Bean shrugged nonchalantly, waving a finger in the air. "I can feel the electric energy of people who wanna blow s—t up filling the area. I know from personal experience how that feels." He added cheerily.
"Yeah, you would..." Sonic muttered, clenching his fist as lightning began to sparkle around it, his eyes narrowing.
"Please tell me you have a shot." Emerl asked calmly.
"I CAN'T do this." Bark insisted, shaking his head back and forth before he lowered the rifle from within their hiding position some distance away, hiding behind a large stack of boxes. "Just can't."
"Grow a pair, dude!"
"Beany's my best friend!" Bark insisted.
"FORGET Johnny-I mean Beany." Emerl snapped as Bean smirked broadly.
Too late for any shooting, unfortunately. Before Sonic could make a move, Bean had snapped his fingers, firing off an explosion not of flame and fire but of fog and gas. A smokescreen began to fill the whole area, causing Sonic to gag and gasp, staggering back as Emerl clenched his fist angrily. "Darn it, now we don't have a shot!"
"You dirty, rotten cheatin'-" Sonic began to say...just before a clawed fist almost tore into his head. Sonic leapt backwards through the air, taking up a fighting position as the smoke cleared slightly to reveal two chao. One had a thick, lion-like mane of hair atop his head with glittering black eyes, sharp claws jutting out from his "arms", whilst the other, a clearly elephantine being, waved it's trunk in the air as it flexed powerful muscles for one so...well...
"...uhhh...I don't think I can feel proud about fighting with you two." Sonic said nervously, pointing down at the two shorty-short-shortsters, shaking his head back and forth as the two-foot-tall chao angrily glared at him.
Bean laughed, high and hysterical, as he entered the tunnel, Sonic looking over in his direction. "HEY! Get back here you!" Sonic roared out, taking a step forward only to have the elephant blow a sharp, powerful blast of wind magic in his direction. Sonic barely managed to duck in time to avoid the greenish energy blast that sailed over his head...
Unfortunately he didn't manage to escape the lion, which suddenly jumped forward, an enormous metallic sheathe of armor covering his body as he reached out with his arms, pinning Sonic to the ground, baring his fangs. "Give it up! You cannot beat Leigh and I! You've got no advantages over us!"
"Oh YEAH?" Sonic laughed, placing one hand on the chao's arm, lightning crackling around his fingertips.
The lion was blown backwards with a peal of thunder as Sonic grinned cockily, clenching his fists in the air as he took up a fighting position. "Put 'em up, slowpoke!" He laughed.
"Put em up? Nah, I'm thinkin' "Yo Ho Blow the Man DOWN"!" The elephant roared, as he opened his mouth and let out an enormous bellow, a sonic wave shooting through the air from his ringed trunk, slamming into Sonic and sending him flying through the air. Sonic went sailing right into an empty warehouse, crashing into a large amount of unused supplies which would have created an excellent production of the classic broadway musical "My Fair Lady".
On the bright side though, he DID happen to find a certain costume which he knew would be of use. Smirking broadly to himself, grateful he'd landed in the old storage warehouse and not questioning why there was such an emphasis on community theater in the military, he quickly put on the costume before him as Emerl, Bark and several other guards enetered the warehouse from the back door, having seen the whole thing.
"Can you guys get some props ready?" Sonic asked, giving them a grin.
FIVE MINUTES LATER...
Shiki and Leigh stormed around the streets, looking around for Sonic. Where had that little pest gone off to? They should have paid better attention to where he'd landed...
It was then that they heard...odd...music.
bBGM: Crocodile Hunter Theme/b
"Now we've got ourselves here one HECK of a lion and an elephant! A fiiiine pair ah animals!" "Steve Irwin" said, kneeling down by a stupefied Shiki and Leigh as a camera crew surrounded them, capturing everything on film. "But not just ANY pair of animals. Real-live-CHAO, mate! So you gotta be careful, cuz they'll take your 'and off fastah than you can say "Slather me Billabong"!"
"...uhhhhhhh..." Shiki mumbled.
Sonic lifted Shiki into the air, taking a whiff of him. "PHEW! The smell's 'orrific!"
Leigh sniggered, but then Sonic, aka "Steve Irwin" put Shiki down, adjusted the khaki outfit he wore, and picked HIM up, smirking. "See this 'ere chao? Now I'm gonna take mah hand and shove it right up it's butthole!"
"AAAAAAAAHHH!"
"Don't worry little guys, once the fist's all the way in, you won't even feel the arm." Emerl said nonchalantly, his face an expression of pure pleasantness.
...
...
...
... Bean poked his head out of the tunnel, blinking in surprise as he saw the unconscious, foaming-at-the-mouth-with-looks-of-horror-on-their-faces chao. "...what did you DO to them?" Bean inquired as Sonic nonchalantly took off the last of the outfit, a pair of thick boots.
"I watched "Crocodile Hunter" all the time on Animal Planet." Sonic said proudly. "Got hooked on Irwin immediately."
"So, the second you believe the hostage to be safe, you decide to play the hero." Bean commented, tilting his head to the side slightly. "...yeah, that sounds about right for you."
"Hostage or not, you just piss me off." Sonic said, resuming a fighting position, lightning sparkling from his eyes, his fur momentarily turning gold. "How about spilling your guts on what you know of the Golems and their plans?"
"What kind of Bond Villain do you think I AM?" Bean laughed, reaching behind his back and-
AND NOW A BRIEF AUTHOR'S NOTE.
...sorry folks. I can't describe just what Bean did. Don't blame me, blame the FCC, which stands for bleeping bleep-blocking bleep-bleepers!
WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARILY-SCHEDULED STORY.
"...that was so wrong...on SO many levels. What ELSE do you keep in there?" Sonic managed to gasp out, finally screwing his jaw back into place.
"Money...my neighbor's cat...matches...lots of handi-wipes..." Bean commented nonchalantly, wiping off the chaos emerald in his now-diseased gloved hands.
But Sonic had not gotten his name for nothing. In an instant he was in Bean's face, fist rising up as Bean gasped. "He's-"
THA-BLAM!
"Fast."
WOOSH! The chaos emerald went spiraling through the air, crashing through a window as Bean tried to snap his fingers, clap his hands, ANYTHING to generate a kind of explosion, but Sonic's sudden and swift flurry of punches continued to knock him off-balance and he finally spiraled backwards as Sonic's electrically-charged fists slammed into the rings around Bean's wrist.
KRUCKA-CRACK! They both shattered into pieces, falling to the floor as Sonic smirked broadly. "HA! No Chaos Emerald, you can't do your Metallurgy without the rings-"
"So you think I'm BEATEN...right?" Bean whispered, a dark glint entering his eyes as Sonic realized the horrible duck was grinning in a twisted, sociopathic fashion, bouncing back and forth on the heels of his feet. "Don't get me wrong...the resolve not to kill, it's very courageous and touching." Bean admitted. "But to follow that policy around somebody like me..."
Bean waved a finger in the air. "Foolish...that naivity...not even THINKING that I might have another chaos emerald..." Bean laughed coldly, sticking out his tongue...revealing that he'd embedded the chaos emerald into his own tongue as a STUD.
"Ohhhhhh hell." Sonic gulped as Bean snapped his fingers, a piece of plastique popping into midair as Sonic desperately tried to run.
KRAKKA-KROOOOOM!
The explosion that the psychopathic duck caused rippled through the air, shattering the walls nearby and launching Sonic and the two chao through the air in a rippling shockwave, Sonic letting out a pained, heart-wrenching scream as something shot through his body and embedded deep inside...
A moment later, he struck his head upon something hard...
And remembered nothing more.
...
...
...
...the two chao, Leigh and Shiki, managed to crawl to their feet, groaning in pain as Shiki dusted himself off. "Ugh...you dead, man?" Leigh asked Shiki.
"Yeah...I'm dead." Shiki commented, rolling his eyes as he and Leigh crawled through the rubble that surrounded them, heading in the direction of the smell of-
Blood. Yes, it was unmistakably blood. And once they realized who was bleeding, their eyes widened in horror.
Sonic had been slammed onto a pipe that had been blown out of the wall. The pipe was now sticking through his side, his lifeblood drizzling to the ground like thick red syrup as his breath came in pained, ragged gasps. Sonic tried to get to his feet, but he collapsed back down on his knees, letting out another harsh scream, finally falling to his hands, blood dripping out from his mouth.
"...got...to...get...UP!" He growled, clenching his fists into the ground. "Can't...make them...cry over me..."
Shiki and Leigh nervously looked at each other, then rubbed the back of their heads.
"You're not just gonna let 'im die like that, are you?" A soft, gentle voice echoed through their heads.
POOF! It was then that two tiny little mini-thems appeared on their shoulders. One, an eeny-weeny little lion with a tiny harp, the other a itsty-bitsy elephant which was holding onto some kind of scroll. Both of these charming little figures had halos, wings, and, of course, a snazzy white robe.
"My shoulder angel!" "My shoulder angel!" The two cried out.
"Are they seeing...what I THINK they're seeing?" Sonic mumbled to himself as the lion and the elephant looked at their respective right shoulders. "...oh dear Lord my life is in the hands of the guys who just had my fingers up their-"
"Don't listen to that guy!" Another voice, one more grating and annoying, snapped out as the lion and the elephant chao turned their heads to the left to see two devil-like figures, complete with tiny horns, a tail, and yes, one even had a pitchfork. The other had an accordion for some strange, strange reason.
"My shoulder devil!" "My shoulder devil!" Leigh and Shiki cried out.
"He's tryin' to lead ya down the path 'o righteousness, dude." The lion-devil commented.
"We'll lead ya down the path that ROCKS." The elephant-devil said.
"Oh, come off it!" The lion-angel snapped.
"You're going to take spiritual advice from a person who's idea of "roasting weenies over a fire" means suspending 10-year-old nerds over a fiery pit?" The elephant-angel demanded.
"Shut up!" The lion-devil snapped.
"YOU shut up!" The lion-angel snarled.
"Look, big guy, I've got THREE good reasons why you should just walk away and leave the hedgehog to die." The elephant-devil insisted, holding up the accordion. "And I'm gonna sing them to you...in SOOOOONG!"
The elephant flicked the little devil away off his shoulder as the elephant-angel grinned broadly, doing a cheerleader-style dance on the elephant's shoulder as the lion-devil gulped. "Well? YOU wanna try your luck?" The lion-angel asked.
"Well...look at this guy!" The lion-devil said to Shiki, gesturing at the little angel. "He's wearing a DRESS!"
"It's a ROBE!" The lion-angel said, tears springing in his eyes. "A ROBE!"
"Reason number two. Look what I can do!" The lion-devil said, getting on his butt and spreading out his legs.
"...there is something about a man who can lick his own back." Shiki commented.
"...what am I supposed to say to that?" The lion-angel mumbled.
"...you're right, this is confusing. Look, uh, begone!" Shiki demanded. "I'll figure this out on my own."
POOF! The two little figures were gone from his shoulder as the little angel disappeared from the elephant's shoulder. "So we help him?" Leigh asked.
"We help him." Shiki said, the two chao approaching Sonic and kneeling by him, the lion-chao resting Sonic against his chest as the elephant-chao gripped the pipe.
"Okay...pull the...the thing out...out of my side...and...and I'll try and...try and b-burn the wound sh-shut...with some f-flame metallurgy the-the way Shadow said he did." Sonic managed to gasp out.
"You could end up KILLING yourself. The shock might be too much." The elephant thought out loud.
"MIGHT." Sonic mumbled.
The lion nervously nodded at the elephant, getting a good, firm grip on Sonic as Leigh grit his teeth...
With a THWOOSHA-SCHLUCK, Leigh pulled the pipe out in a single yank, Sonic quickly placing one hand against the wound, concentrating as a burning flame surged forth to graft the wound shut. The pain was excruciating, a feeling like somebody was trying to close up the wound by shoving a red-hot-poker into his body filling Sonic's frame...but he held tough. A moment later...
...the pain was slowly numbing...the wound closed...he was breathing normally again.
"You dead, man?" Shiki asked.
"...yeah...I'm dead." Sonic wisecracked, getting to his feet. "...this...this isn't gonna be enough...I think I might have some internal bleeding." He added, gritting his teeth as the lion-esque chao slowly transformed back into his sapient form, picking Sonic back up and resting him on his back.
"Relax, I'll be your legs until we find you a doctor." Shiki insisted.
"...mane...suffocating..." Sonic commented. "Yet...so cool."
"I know, right? King of the Jungle, baby!" Shiki said, flexing his arms for a moment before realizing he was about to drop Sonic back on the ground, thus re-opening the wound.
"F-follow...follow after Bean, everyone's..." Sonic mumbled out before he finally faded into unconsciousness, his head flopping into the lion's mane as the elephant-chao transformed back into HIS sapient self.
"Can you believe it? Even after he got his ass kicked he STILL wants to follow after Bean? He's one brave hog." Leigh commented, taking a few steps forward...suddenly noticing something sparkling on the ground. "What the?" He reached down, picking up the shining object, gasping. "Th-this is the...the..."
...
...
...
...meanwhile, Tails had, finally, made it to the others, and he soon found himself being carried in the arms of a VERY giddy Marine the Raccoon as Amy, Omega, Big and the other two chao headed down a backwoods path, Nack bringing up the rear, nervously looking around for any sign of enemies, a sniper rifle in his gloved hands...knees knocking together in fear.
"Ughhhhh..." Tails moaned as they finally reached a small town, setting up shop inside a barn. "I'm sorry, I keep...blacking out." He apologized. "I keep seeing my body, my REAL body. This is the second time today."
"That's a bad sign." Big admitted. "I mean REAL bad. Your spirit probably can't take much more o' this."
"I don't think I can take much more of this." Johnny the chao muttered.
"Yeah, we're all scattered around trying to escape from the bad guys and no closer to figuring out these research notes." Amy said, handing the research notes back to Omega, the robot sighing slightly as he poured through the pages.
"...scattered...around..." Marine murmured, her eyes suddenly getting a bright twinkle to them. What if...
She quickly snatched the research notes out of Omega's clawed hands, and began ripping the pages out of the book quick as lightning, the others gaping in surprise. "What're you DOING, kid?" Nack exclaimed in horror.
"Those are important documents!" Omega growled. "What do you intend to-"
"LOOK!" Marine insisted, picking up two sheets of paper. "There's a LOT of stuff in these notes 'bout power 'n the Heavens n' lotsa strange phrases. Why don't we try seperatin' all these here pages, then try groupin' together ones that got similar stuff in them?"
"...okay...let's try that!" Big said, getting on his now-skinny knees, sorting the documents upon the ground. "Here, we'll put this talk about "God" over there with the "Heavens"...this pile will be for the whole issue of "Paradise"..."
"This one goes over with "angels"..." Amy said, getting on HER hands and knees as she helped the two sort the pages out. "...there! Now what?"
"Look at what happens when all these markings on the pages are in place." Omega said suddenly. "I thought they were just scribbles in the margins, but...but in the formation they're in, they almost look like-"
"Connect the dots, quick!" Marine said, Amy giving her a marker. She quickly connected all of the scribbles together with lines, and soon what was being formed was unmistakably some kind of language...specifically-
"He wrote this in Latin. Look what has been spelled out." Omega realized, his red eyes widening as he gestured with a claw. "It says...REVERSE..."
"...reverse...REVERSE." Tails whispered, eyes widening. "Quick, draw me a picture of the seal that's going to be on all of Mobius!" He shouted. "I've got an idea!"
...
...
...
... "Hmm." Bean commented as he calmly walked through the long, metallic hallway that made up the abandoned space station beneath Nocturne. "...easy to get lost in here." He mused to himself. "Good thing I brought a map." He added, pulling said map out from...well...you know.
He was unaware that a form was slowly rising up from behind him in the shadows, not noticing the sudden scent of cold metal that seemed to be filling the air.
"Can't be Pismo Beach. No sand. I KNEW I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque." Bean wisecracked.
It was then that Bean stiffened, HEARING the sound of something grinding behind him, and he turned around, gasping in surprise at the enormous, metallic monstrosity before him, a churning, writing sea of spiked tentacles that were curling inches away from his own face, a pair of foul, orange deadlights slowly approaching from the shadows, a dark, shadowy form suspended in the air.
"So...you're Bean the Dynamite." A childish, sweet voice said cheerily, the form clapping it's hands together as a slow, steady NOISE began to rise up from the background, a noise of clanking and screeching and grinding of thousands of machines all working at once. "My name is Omochao...better known as DESPAIR."
"Perhaps you'd like to place an order? Unfortunately due to the Atkins Craze, we're all out of buns here at McDonalds." Bean wisecracked, folding his arms.
"Ha-ha-ha! How cute! But I'm afraid this is hardly a social call. You see, I'm aware that you WERE chasing after our little Shanazaran friend, but...well...the situation's changed. We need you to do smething." Omochao said calmly, approaching Bean and placing one hand on his cheek, giving him a friendly pat. "You're to spread bloodshed through Nocturne since young Sonic refuses to "play ball"."
"I'd like to, I reeeaaaally would." Bean admitted, taking the robotic chao's hand and removing it with a faint trace of annoyance in his words. "But those Nocturnus are strong-willed, their fortress is well-fortified...they're like Spartans. They'd sooner go down fighting using only their teeth to rip out people's throats than surrender."
"I know, and I like that about them, but, well...we have ways to deal with people like them." Omochao commented, his tentacles swirling around like a living sea of metal and mesh. "The monolithic strength they have will soon be matched. You see...the Fanaticism is almost fully finished with his work..."
"...oh really?" Bean inquired, looking intrigued.
"Yes. "That day" has almost arrived. The day we usher in...PARADISE." Omochao whispered.
...
...
...
... "Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques, doh-may-voo! Doh-may-voo!" A squirrel sang out, preparing a nice tray of mixed drinks for several dozen workers who were now going on their break at Knothole. It was a lot of work, repairing the damage to the library, the church, the town hall...the riots had been terrible thanks to the military's stupid mistakes, but everyone was doing their part.
Putting the last of the little umbrellas she had in the final glass, Sally Alicia Acorn headed out the door of the kitchen, bringing the drinks over to a table and setting it down with a cheery grin, bowing deeply. "I hope you guys enjoy your drinks!" She told them cheerfully, heading for the next table over, where a-
How odd. Was this being a human? No, humans had noses. And ears. And, for that matter, couldn't hover off the seat cushion like that.
"Ummmm...er...I...I, uh..." NiGHTS nervously mumbled as he looked over the menu in his hands. "I'm not quite sure what to order...I've been flying for so long I'm STARVING, but I'm also trying to watch my weight." He added.
"Oh, well in THAT case..." Sally commented, waving a hand in the air. "Get the chicken crispers. They're delicious and they're only 550 calories. Plus, it's Kosher, so..."
"Thank you!" NiGHTS said. "I'll take that then." He said as Sally took out a notepad from her vest pocket, writing down his order. "Everyone here in Knothole is so gosh-darn-cheerful!" He added with a big smile. "By the way, I'm trying to find the laboratory where Sniveley Robotnik tried to start his little scheme, could you point the way?"
"Sure." Sally told him. "It's just down the street and to your right. But nobody goes anywhere near it anymore, the place was totaled in this big fight with a Metallurgist..."
"Metallurgist, eh?"
It wasn't long before, sure enough, NiGHTS found himself in the abandoned laboratory that had once been Dr. Snively Robotnik's base. NiGHTS hovered along a metallic floor, passing by cracked capsule after cracked capsule. Each of them held the corpses of failed experiments which had died without their creator caring for them. Shaking his head sadly, NiGHTS approached a doorway, his bright blue eyes narrowing intently.
He could sense it. It was in here.
With a mighty punch, he knocked the door down, stepping into a metallic hallway, pipes lining the walls as the smell of blood slowly dripped off of them. So...this place was connected to "it" as well, NiGHTS thought to himself as he descended down deeper and deeper into dark depths, finding himself in an enormous cavern with video screens embedded in the walls. What was PLAYING on all of these screens seemed to indicate that...
"How long has he had his eye on this town?" NiGHTS murmured as he saw people walking by large buildings, sitting down in their homes...Sally taking off her vest in the women's bathroom-wait, WHAT?
"Void has cameras everywhere so as to always be one step ahead." A voice whispered, a pair of pitiless orange eyes slowly rising from the shadows above him, tentacles shooting out from all sides, embedding into the ground with a CLANG to surround NiGHTS, who calmly folded his arms, unfazed even as Omachao lowered his body down in front of him.
"But in the SHOWER?" NiGHTS inquired.
"...wemustalwaysstayonestepahead." Omachao mumbled, withdrawing his tentacles and folding his arms, eyes narrowing angrily at NiGHTS.
"Are you irritated by me showing up here?" NiGHTS inquired. "I think you know perfectly well that you can't actually kill me because your designer needs me for his plans, and you couldn't hurt me even if you TRIED." He added. "I'm just that good."
"I can see where your son gets it from." Omachao commented cheerily, holding his small, clawed "hand" over his mouth and giggling. "Hee-hee-hee-heee!"
"You're awfully cheery for somebody named "Despair"." NiGHTS mused. "That IS our name, correct?"
"Yep! I exist to give others despair. I, personally, couldn't be happier with my life!" Omachao insisted proudly, placing one hand on his chest.
"Fanaticism. Ignorance. Cruelty. Flippancy. Selfishness. Racism. Despair." NiGHTS rattled off on his hands. "The sins most tied to Faith, to Magic and to Science. I find it ironic that the foundations of logic and the emotional power have so much in common. Well, actually, I'm glad to find one of the Golems here. I want you to be a messenger boy for me." NiGHTS said, patting Omochao on the cheek before striding off. "Tell him that his big sister is comin' back to give him the spanking he so needs. I'm not afraid of him. "
"...declaring war, huh?" Omochao murmured. "...intriguing. Well...you're not the only one, "uncle dearest"..."
At Nocturne, Emerl and Bark adjusted their binoculars, scarcely able to believe what they were seeing. "They must be joking." Emerl mumbled.
"So much for nonaggression treaty." Bark added.
Hundreds upon HUNDREDS of troops lining up by dozens of tanks were moving up the hills towards Nocturne, finally declaring open hostilities. As the troops of Nocturne quickly moved into their defensive positions, Bark's eyes narrowed behind his binoculars. "Emerl. Look. Adjust vision to 11:00." He whispered.
Emerl turned his binoculars to the left slightly, growling angrily as he noticed the enormous, tightly-bundled-up shark commander, none other than Bruce himself, who was standing by Bean and smirking broadly, though not quite as smugly as the duck.
"Excellent job on providing the intelligence we needed for this attack on the traitorous Nocturne station. They'll soon regret seeking to defy us in open revolt. It's time we gave them a spanking for acting so high and mighty." Bruce laughed. "I don't mind telling you I've grown tired of their reputation."
"This...shall be interesting." Bean commented, putting a match in his beak and nonchalantly tossing a small, round, black bomb up and down.
Elsewhere, Ewan the Chao was standing by himself on the outskirts of the town that Tails and the thers were hiding in. Whilst THEY were busy mingling with the townsfolk and relaxing, he had a very important call to make.
"You're POSITIVE it's them? And that Big the Cat is with him?" Metal Sonic commented softly, holding the payphone up to his "ears".
"Absolutely, sir."
"Well-well-WELL. This really is quite to our advantage." Metal said cheerily. "...I'll be right up then. Do keep them busy for me, chao." Metal said darkly, and had he a tongue, he would have used them to lick the lips he also lacked.
Author's Note:
I am SO sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been busy with school. Finals are fast approaching, you see. Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter though! :)