(Okay, firstly I want to thank all of you for your reviews. Your compliments are much appreciated and I'm glad that you like my writing. Rest assured that I'll keep this story going until I've sucked every pint of creative juice from my skull. In thanks for your support I am glad to present to you the so-far longest, and one of the most important chapters in the fic plot-wise, Chapter 12!)

Walking on their lazy way to the destined Place, guided by a map drawn from stretch marks, Miro and the others walk across the sunlit plains in the early evening. It would be one or two more hours before they stop for the night, but all agreed that they should spend as much time walking as possible. They had met a strange tanned man earlier, and he spoke of others being involved in finding and bringing them all back home, including the man himself. However, a more direct riddle kept them occupied for now.

"What the heck happened to Miro today?" Anna asks the others. Miro, within earshot, crossed his arms and pretended to not hear what they were saying.

"Hmm... Actually, this one's got me stumped, too." Ricca admits. "It seems like he was a totally different person up until he was blackjacked by that fish. What could've happened to him?"

"I have a theory." Matthew suggests. "It's a combination of things I found in the book, and my own knowledge of human behavior."

"Okay, let's hear it." Ricca says.

"With pleasure." Matthew says. "You see, Miro's family has a history of being open, and rather... I suppose you could call it silly, romantics."

"That dosen't sound like Miro." Anna says.

"But it does sound like you." Ricca says, smirking.

"Hey! You don't know that!" Anna says.

"Uh-huh..." Ricca says in sarcastic agreement, looking over to Matthew.

"...What?" Matthew says. "Err, anyway... If Miro's mother was a major, antisocial outsider-type-person, that would counter his father's genes and create the child that you see before you today. Obviously, Miro's outward personality is more like his mother that way. This caused an unnatural build-up in his father's genes inside him, allowing for his affection for Exhibit B over there," He points to Kate, who also tried to ignore them. "to build up inside of him, more and more until finally..."

"His mom's side finally gave way in that giant spit-sharing fest." Ricca finishes. "I get it, so Miro really does have two sides. And that's why he was acting so violently romantic all day."

"Yes, two conflicting sides." Matthew says. "But maybe there's a way to put both sides at peace, and not have something like that happen again."

"That still dosen't explain why Kate started doing it, too." Anna says.

"Hmm..." Matthew says, scratching his chin. "Well, it's possible that being around Miro for your entire life could cause a build-up similar to his."

"Wait..." Anna begins. "You mean it's actually UNHEALTHY to be around Miro?!"

"Is it really that surprising?" Ricca says.

"Only for an extended period of time." Matthew says. "About ten years or so, and only if it's during the growing stages of your life, so we're pretty much safe."

"Whew, good." Anna says. "You had me scared for a second there."

"Okay, one more thing," Ricca says. "How exactly did Miro go back to normal through the process of being slapped by a fish?"

"That's a tough one..." Matthew admits. "...Maybe his mother's genes regained a hold of his personality when something that would seriously bug him happened, such as the fish."

"But I kicked him into a river, why wouldn't that bug him?" Anna asks.

"...I don't know." Matthew admits.

"I do." Miro admits, sighing. "I've grown used to being pushed, thrown, startled or kicked into bodies of water, it's nearly day-to-day for me. Thank goodness that that guy came and snapped me out of it, I had no control whatsoever."

Back at the chasing side...

"Hey, it's a river!" Jack says, seeing and hearing it a short distance away. He was glad for this, since it meant clean water and the possibility of a rest.

"Hmm, this is good." Nami says. "Miro and whoever's with him follow along it for as far as I can tell. Also, since we left, the number of different tracks has increased from two to four, so he's in a group."

"Oh, good." Jack says. "So he's safe?"

"Or he's been kidnapped and the kidnappers allow him full access to a huge surplus of chocolate." Nami says. "There's wrappings everywhere, and someone is carrying it with them since one set of tracks seems to be two hundred and fifty-or-so pounds, and nobody could hike so far if they weighed that much normally."

"Okay." Jack says. "Now, can we take a rest?"

"...If you must." Nami says. "But not a long one, we have-"

"-to cut the rest short, I'm afraid." Says a voice from behind them. They turn around, spotting a shape in the trees, two lenses glistening in the sunlight on the shape's face.

"Who are you?" Nami asks.

"All will be answered." The shadow's feminine voice reassured them. "But you must hurry. Come, follow me."

It slid off into the forest. Jack and Nami shrug, following along.

They couldn't tell much of what the person looked like yet, the trees were too thick and the person moved too fast for them to get a good view. Finally after a few minutes, they reach a small clearing, half darkened by the evening shadow.

"We're here." The woman says. Jack stops, relieved, and looks around.

"What? There's nothing here." Jack says.

"Oh?" Comes another voice from inside the blackened half of the clearing. Four people step out of the shadow and into plain sight, one who they noticed right away.

"Hmm, hey, it's the one with the hat that we saw earlier." Nami says.

"Yep." The guy replies. "Sorry for running off, but I had to go tell the others."

"About what? Who are you?" Nami asks in a bit of frustration.

"Allow us to explain." A solemn-looking man with a cap turned to cover one eye says. "Our children have run off as well as yours, I believe. They have so far evaded us, but we have an operative out who will be returning any moment-"

At that exact time, a tanned person ran up, tripped on a stray root and fell, landing in front of the others. A purple cloth fluttered to the ground beside him.

"Oh, there you are, Kai." A pink-haired woman said, kneeling beside him to make sure he was alive. "Did you get them?"

"No..." The man called Kai said. "I almost had them, but there was one that I didn't recognize..." He gets up into a sitting position, obviously exhausted. "Red hair, really stern, didn't smile... YOU!" He says, seeing Nami and scuttling away in fear. "YOU'RE THE ONE!"

"Oh, then it must be Miro!" Jack says happily.

"So it is your son?" The man that they had met before said, adjusting his hat and walking up to them. "Well, that's good, at least now we know... Hey, wait a minute..." He walks up to Jack, very close, and looks at him from every angle.

"What is it, Jack?" A red-haired woman asks.

"JACK?!" Jack says, startled. "But that's my name!"

"What?" The other Jack says, confused. "But... Oh, my..."

Jack (the first one) suddenly realizes who this man is.

"Oh, wow, it's my long-lost cousin with the same name!" He says, both giving each other a hug. "How have you been?"

"I got a farm!"

"Me too!"

"I got mine from a dead guy!"

"Me too!"

"I had an old person explain to me how the farm worked even though he had never farmed a day in his life!"

"Me too!"

"I married a red-haired tomboy with blue eyes who dresses slightly like a man and had a red-haired kid with her who's on the run from us currently in search of a destiny of some sort and now I'm trying to get the kid back!"

"...Me too!"

"That's scary."

"No kidding..."

"You done yet?" Nami asks, strangely enough, instead of hearing just her own voice, she heard a pair of voices say that scentence. She looks over to the source of the voice, and sees another woman staring back at her. The two begin to approach and circle one another.

"Just who might you be?" Nami asks.

"I'll say my name when you say yours." The woman replies.

"Fine. On the count of three." Nami begins. "One... two... three.

-Nami-" Nami says.

"-Ann-" The woman says.

"That wasn't too difficult, now was it?" Nami asks.

"No, not really." Ann replies, giving her a smile and holding out a hand. "Pleased to meet you."

Nami looks at the hand, and then to her, and then to the rest of them.

"This is the tomboy of your area?" She asks disbelievingly.

"She used to be a bit worse." The other Jack says. "But actually she was still pretty sweet, which is why I married her."

"Right." Nami says. She then looks over to Ann. "...Likewise, I suppose." She shakes Ann's hand quickly and then returned to Jack... her Jack, not Ann's.

"Now, could someone give us the full introduction?" Jack (Nami's Jack... man, this is getting confusing.) asks.

"Yes." The lens-eyed woman that brought them there said, finally stepping into the light. "My name is Mary, the... brains, if you will. That over there..." She says, pointing to the man who had his cap covering his face. "...is my husband, Grey, the covert specialist. You already have heard Ann's name. She was the first to spot the children, at the riverside."

"However, I was..." Ann says, a bit hesitant to continue. "...a bit... off-center when I met them."

"Bodigizer overdose." Mary says. "She dosen't read the labels properly. Anyway," She continues, pointing over to the pink-haired woman that was worrying over Kai. "She is Popuri,"

Nami's eyes flinched at the name, remembering the perfume incident during their battle with Daachan.

", our expert at... well, that's undetermined so far, but she must be good for something." Mary continues, pointing over to (Ann's) Jack. "That, of course, is Jack. He's our weapons specialist, since he asked to be. And finally," She points over to Kai. "You already know, but this is Kai. He's skilled in all manner of fish use, and he can be a charmer, if he DOSEN'T try too hard."

Hearing the name again triggered something in Jack's mind. He walks away from Nami in a slight daze, the monkeys turning the wheels in his brain working overtime. He looks at the still-sitting Kai.

"I know that name..." He says. Suddenly, after a while of flipping through the pages of his memory, a bell rings and he remembers. He suddenly gets a savage look on his face."

"BISHOUNEN!!!" he yells, pulling a large hatchet from his rucksack and charging at Kai. "DIIEEE!!!! DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!!!" He swings his hatchet in Kai's general direction as he yelled.

"EEK!" Kai screams, backing himself into a tree. Jack would've had him cut to pieces right there and then, if he weren't held back with the combined efforts of Grey, Popuri, the other Jack, and Ann.

"NO ONE HITS ON NAMI! NO ONE!!!" Jack yells, swinging his hatchet within millimeters of Kai's face.

"Hey, hey man, wait!" Kai says. "I'm married now, those days are over! Can't we just bury the hatchet?"

"I'LL BURY THE HATCHET RIGHT UP YOUR-"

"JACK!" Everyone holding him back yells. Jack immediately stops, dropping the axe and sighing.

"Okay, okay." Jack says. "I'm done."

"What's his problem, anyway?" Popuri asks, looking suspiciously over to Kai.

"Well..." Nami begins. "One day, back in the bachelor days, Kai made a little visit to the Valley. He... overstayed his welcome, we can say."

"No kidding." Jack says. "He hit on every girl-"

"Chris included."

"And y'know, that would have been all right, IF he hadn't run into Nami. That's when he pushed my 'kill' button a BIT too far."

"But that's all behind us, right?" Kai says, unsure of if he should move or not. "I mean, I'm a family man now, and like everyone else here my kid is gone."

Just then, two more figures walked out into the clearing. The others look over to them.

"Oh, it's Elli and Cliff." Gray says. "How are things coming?"

"Our child is gone." The man that Jack assumed was Cliff said.

"Oh? Your kid went missing, too?" Nami asks.

"No." Elli says, shaking her head. "He's gone to find the others and bring them back."

"Oh, really?" Nami says. "Why didn't he just stay with us if he wanted to get them back?"

"Their son is a trump card for us." Mary explains. "He will hunt for them separately from us, this way we have more of an advantage."

"Riiight." Jack says disbelievingly, looking over to Nami to make sure that they heard the same thing. He then looks over to Elli and Cliff. "So you expect your son, alone, to be able to bring every one of our kids back?"

Cliff smirked at Jack's disbelief.

"Our son is..." He begins, looking for the proper word. "...gifted."

"Well... mine's pretty bright, too, but-"

"That's not exactly what we're talking about." Elli says, smiling.

"Oh... Wow, creepy..." Jack says. "I'll trust that you know what you're doing."

"We do." Kai says, shifting away from the tree and a safe distance from Jack. "But right now, let's sleep."

"No, we have more travel to do." Popuri says.

"She has a point." Nami says. "From where we are, we're lagging far behind. The tracks are a couple of days old. We'll have to double our pace if we want to-"

"We have another way to travel." Mary says. "It's much quicker than walking." She walks up to Kai, putting a hand in his pocket and pulling out a small stone, glowing with spiritual energy.

"This is the Teleport Stone." Mary says. "It can warp one person a long distance, or several people a short distance. We used it so that Kai could try to intercept them."

"Oh, okay." Jack says, looking at the stone. "But... if Kai had it in his pocket, then why didn't he just teleport back here instead of running?"

Everyone looks over to Kai, waiting for an answer.

Kai thinks for a moment, and then hits his head in frustration.

"Gah, that would've been easier, wouldn't it?!" He says. The rest of them sigh, shaking their heads.

"Well, anyway, let's go." Jack says, taking the stone.

"Wait, do you know how to use that?" Jack (not from the Valley) asks.

"Ah, how hard could it be?" He replies. "Okay, everybody gather 'round."

The others walk close to him and wait.

"Why do you guys look so nervous? What's the worst that can happen?" Jack says, holding the stone up in the air. Focusing, Jack activates the stone and they disappear in a brilliant flash... immediately reappearing in another brilliant flash exactly where they were before, only twenty feet higher above the ground.

"...Okay, you see, this is bad..." The Jack not holding the stone says, before they all come crashing back down.

MEANWHILE...

Back at Jack's farm, the work force was busy maintaining everything to perfection. Rock was busy watering the plants... still... and he was getting extremely tired running back and forth. But finally, after untold hours, he had finished it.

"Ha!" He says triumphantly. "No one thought I could do it, but I did it!"

"Umm..." Comes a voice from below him. It was Flak, pulling at his pant leg.

"Huh, what is it?" Rock asks, seeing Flak.

Flak points over to the very beginning of the very first field that Rock had been working on. A few of the plants were dry.

Rock's screams echoed across the mountains, scaring wildlife and causing some cliffs and tunnels to collapse.

Nik and Nak, meanwhile, were busy spreading new feed on the feeder area of the coop. Unfortunately, they had left the door open and one chicken was sneaking it's way to it. Thankfully, however, Nak caught sight of it and quickly scurried himself between the opening and the chicken.

"You can't leave!" Nak tells it. "It's gonna rain tomorrow, we'll get in trouble if we let you out!"

The chicken's eyes narrowed at the little Sprite blocking it's path. It clawed the ground in a fashion similar to a bull getting ready to charge.

"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be?" Nak says, rolling up his tiny-but-still-too-large-for-him sleeves. "Well, what if I do THIS?" He scurries to the door and pushes it shut. "Ha! Now you can't get... uh-oh..."

The chicken gives Nak a cold glare and snarls, if that's possible with a beak. Nak's tiny face turns completely white and the chicken rushes at him.

"AHH!" Nak yells, not having enough time to run. "AH! Oww! Owowowowow! OWW! Yeowwww! WHY DO CHICKENS HAVE TO BE SO POINTY!?!"

Outside of the range of Nak's screaming, Daryll looked at the grass field, wondering how he could cut it in the most creative, easy way possible.

"Hmm... Ah, I know! The common house-feline consumes grass as a part of their regular diet, so if I were to enhance it's appetite in some way... I've got it!" He runs into Jack's house, finding their pet cat and more importantly, its food dish.

"Okay, Kitty, time for supper." Daryll says, pouring it a bowl of his 'special' cat formula.

"Heheheheheh..."

At that time, inside the barn, Lumina was happily brushing the animals of the barn, mumbling to herself in a less happy manner.

"...but of course, it just couldn't happen because I was ten, but am I mad? Nope, no trouble, I'm young enough to go with the son, or am I? Nope. Well, yes, but I can't because of HER. But am I mad? Am I going to turn evil and wreak terrible revenge on them? Nope. I'm nice, I wouldn't do that." She pauses for a moment, having finally finished brushing the cows.

"All that's left to do is the milking." She says, sighing. "Well... how hard could it be?"

Outside, just walking up the path to the farm, was none other than the well-toned, muscular uber-teen jock Hugh, who, just like his father, had spent 73% of his existence either jogging or in the weight room, only he had turned out better, meaning he hadn't become a lanky, sweaty man desperately clinging to lost hopes and dreams. Having heard Rock's scream, he decided to check the farm out in case something had gone wrong. The first thing he saw as he walked was Daryll at the front door of Jack's house, holding his back to it as though it was of utmost importance to keep the door, and more importantly it's occupants, sealed.

"Whatcha doing, Daryll?" Hugh asks, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Who, me? N-nothing!" Daryll says innocently, immediately followed by a smash on the other side of the door that buckled it heavily.

"Ooookay..." Hugh says, shaking his head. Continuing around, he passes by the chicken coop, where the sounds of a struggle could be heard. Cautiously, he opens the door slightly and sticks his head in.

Nak, being persued and quite often pecked on the head by an angry chicken, was running around the coop as quickly as was possible. Nik was attempting to aid him by clinging to the chicken as well as he could, but it didn't seem to slow it down a considerable amount.

Hugh quietly closes the door, deciding not to bother. He sees Flak walking in his direction.

"Umm... you might want to get back to the coop pretty quick..." He says to the Sprite.

"Why?" Flak asks.

"Umm... it's a surprise!" Hugh concludes. Flak cheers happily and makes his way into the Coop, where the sounds of struggle were further heard. Sighing, Hugh continues on his way, only to shortly later see Rock in a fixed position in the middle of the largest field, staring out into space with a blank look on his face.

"Err... Rock?" Hugh begins.

"...It never ends... never..." Rock mumbles, his face unnaturally pale. "It's always dry... never finished... a horrible circle of watering... ending only in... death..."

"...Rock, you could just bring more water with you if you can't keep up, like in a bucket or, I dunno, one of the other watering cans in the Tool Shed..."

"...never ends... dry... circle... water... death..."

Hugh blinks and decides that eventually his words would sink in, so he walks up to the Barn, opening the doors and looking inside.

Within, he found Lumina. Oddly enough, by some unfathomable feat of nature and extremely bad luck, she had managed to tangle herself up in the udders of the cow she was milking. Finding that this required immediate attention, Hugh walked up to Lumina.

"Umm, hey Lumina." He begins. "Do you need any help there?"

"What, me? Naah, I've got it..." Lumina says, struggling at the entangled udders. After about fifteen seconds of this, she stops to catch her breath.

"Yeah, maybe... I could use a bit of help..." She admits. Hugh nods, not saying anything, and after a couple of minutes manages to free Lumina.

"There, that wasn't so tough." Hugh says, helping Lumina to her feet. "But how did you manage to do that in the first place?"

"Oh, well..." Lumina begins, looking down. "I guess my mind was somewhere else."

"Really? Where, exactly?"

"Just... away, I wasn't really... Well, okay, I was..."

"Thinking about Miro?" Hugh asks.

"Well, not just him, the whole bunch." Lumina says, holding her arm. "Him and Jack and Nami and... Kate, being out there, alone."

"Alone together, you mean." Hugh says. "If Kate found Miro like she said she would before she took off, and Miro's folks haven't found him yet, that means the two of them are totally isolated, away from prying eyes and listening ears and asking... mouths, or something."

"Ugh, I don't even want to think about it!" Lumina says, shutting her eyes tight. "I wish I could do something to get them apart! I wish I was the one that went after him, not Kate! I'm stuck here milking cows, they're out doing... Goddess-knows-what!"

Hugh was a bit deflated by this outburst, but kept it concealed well enough.

"Well, if you were to ask me, the well-built, handsome, sensitive and so-far-single guy that I am, I would say that that 's unfair." He says, grinning. "So how about this? I milk the cows, and you go find Miro and drag his sorry butt back to town!"

"Y...you'll really work in my place?" Lumina says in amazement. Suddenly, her eyes drop again. "...It's a nice idea, but I'll never be able to catch up with him... not before his parents do, anyway."

"You can do whatever you put your mind to." Hugh reassures her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I've got faith in you. In fact, I bet you'll be dragging him home before you know it!"

"...Thank you, Hugh." Lumina says, looking up at him. "Thank you, I'll do it. I'll get Miro back here before Kate even notices that she's walking alone." With that, Lumina runs off, but not before rewarding Hugh with a quick peck on the cheek.

As soon as Lumina was gone, Hugh put a massive grin on his face and threw his fist up in victory.

"SCORE! Fill a girl up with false enthusiasm and you'll be feelin' good for the rest of the day! Of course, it's not all false." He says, calming down a little, still a small grin on his face. "She'll make it, of course. She'll get there in time. That, I can be sure of..."