Muhahahahahahahahahahaha! I have managed to keep my schedule!

You all would not believe how hard this chapter was to write, despite me having had it in mind for a while!

I.O.N.

Enjoy!

Their return to awareness did not happen immediately, in fact, it took almost three hours for them to even show signs of life. But return they did, and with varying degrees of shock, fear, and anger. Adrien was horrified to discover that his dad would probably think him dead by now. Marinette was worried about the rest of her family and crew. Chloe was unsettled thinking about what could've happened to everyone she knew and loved in that time. Nino was trying to stay calm for his siblings' sakes, but even he was freaking out about the revelation of such a time-jump. Alix was trying to calm herself down from an all-encompassing rage so that Kim wouldn't pick up on it and get angry as well. Kim was silently glaring at a tree, and doing his best not to punch anyone around him.

Alya, however, had no such reservations. She was stalking around the clearing, rage radiating off of her in waves. She was pissed.

No one knew what drew her attention to him. Maybe he'd made a sound, or she'd caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, or maybe she'd always been aware of him, and her rage had finally made her snap. But whatever the reason, one moment she was pacing and the next she was lunging at the lounging and relaxed figure of Plagg.

Before anyone had time to react she had already landed a solid punch or two, only to be dragged back, by Nino and Kim, with a bleeding fist and not a scratch or dent on Plagg.

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S HAPPENED TO MY SISTERS BECAUSE OF YOU! THEY COULD HAVE DIED AND ALL BECAUSE I'VE BEEN STUCK HERE! YOU CAN'T JUST SAY WE'VE BEEN MISSING FOR SIX YEARS AND THEN JUST LAY AROUND LIKE THAT!" Alya screamed, still struggling in the grasp of her friends. The pain of her possibly broken hand not having reached her brain yet so she just continued to shout abuse after abuse at Plagg and the others.

"Are you guys still on that? It's been like an eighth of the day already. Get over it." Plagg whined, ignoring the glares his partners were sending him.

At his words, Kim and Nino released their holds on Alya and backed away, sensing the impending explosion and not wanting to get caught up in it. She was already getting ready to charge him again. When Trixx snuck up behind her and pulled the younger woman to her chest and started slowly rocking back and forth.

Alya struggled against her grip for a time, before the motion began to soothe her rage and replace it with the sadness that had been clawing at her heart. Silently she turned around in Trixx's arms and hugged the fox-like woman as tears silently began to fall.

The shock of watching her cool-headed sister lose her composure like that was too much for Chloe. Quietly she backed further and further into the trees until she turned around and started running down the mountain. Turns out, sprinting down a mountain is a lot quicker than hiking up one because Chloe reached the beach in record time. Stumbling forward out of breath and slightly dizzy, she reached the closest bit of sand that wouldn't pull her out to see with the tide before collapsing.

Chloe didn't know how long she lay on that strip of beach. She only knew that at some point Pollen had found her and placed Chloe's head in her lap. They stayed in that position for a while longer, Chloe sorting through her thoughts and Pollen gently stroking her captain's hair. Finally, Chloe drew up the courage to ask, "Why didn't Alya's punches hurt Plagg, Pollen?"

Pollen hesitated, it wasn't an easy question for her to answer. "Well... It is hard to explain, my captain. You know how we explained that we are not really human anymore, well that is more than just immortality and turning into magnificent ships on occasion."

"I don't understand. Alya couldn't hurt Plagg because he's immortal?"

"Yes and no. Yes, being immortal makes it harder to hurt us, but Alya is a strong girl and to another immortal, those attacks still would have done damage however slight. But no, our immortal status is not why Plagg was not injured. It is more like, after being watercraft for so long, our bodies still retain some similarities to our larger counterparts. We all think it is a side effect of the spell that originally gave us this gift, so it is different for each of us."

Chloe was about to ask for a better explanation when Nooroo came running towards them out of breath.

"Nooroo!" Pollen exclaimed worried, "What happened? Is something wrong?"

"Sorry," he panted, "Someone found a message in a bottle and miss Marinette thinks it's important, so I came to get you and miss Chloe!" Chloe and Pollen jumped up, ignoring the protesting of their leg muscles at being stretched after so long resting, and began to follow Nooroo.

Writing this chapter somehow took a lot out of me, the number of scrapped beginnings can attest to that! But I really did love writing it once I got my inspiration back.

Comment what you thought!

Hope you enjoyed!

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this. Have a nice day!

See ya next time!