(Hullo. Well, I'm long-since back from vacation, and I finally have this Chapter complete. I suffered from a bit of a block for the past while… Anyway, for those wondering, the character Bry is indeed the same sort as the Bry from A Secret in Forget Me Not Valley, but the two stories are not actually connected. Being friends with ASiFMNV's author, I decided to add Bry. Curious fact: Basically every teenage character in my Fic (Miro, Matthew, William, Anna, Ricca. I don't think Kate though, sadly) is also in that one, since we have equal rights over the characters. Another friend who features these characters in her work is M1DN1GHT, but not often enough to be consistent, though you will find interesting cameos in Five Friends and the Fight for the Region, and Dark Journey: All the Way Up. She's also planning a romance ditty featuring probably one of the most popular couples in this Fic. …Anyway, I'm boring you with this crap, time for the important stuff!
One last note: ...I wonder if anybody before this has depicted Nami getting totally sloshed. That doesn't happen every day...)

Having scurried up the stone staircase in all haste, halted only by the occasional trip and stumble, Miro and Hugh both cram their way out of the small trapdoor entryway at the same time. Wasting no time in running out of the room, they noticed the absence of Tim and Ruby anywhere in the main room. They were likely hiding in a cabinet somewhere, judging from how they acted before. They seemed terrified of this Bry fellow.

Bursting out from the Inn door, Miro and Hugh stop a few steps forward before stopping, glancing around for the kid. At the same time, they spot him, on the path to their left, looking at them plainly with the occasional chuckle.

"All right, pal, you've had your fun." Hugh states, narrowing his eyes to him. Miro stood next to him, preparing himself. "Come with us right now or you're… you'll be… umm… Miro, cover for me…"

"You'll be too busy picking up your teeth to pack for the trip." Miro finishes for him absently.

"…Right, yeah, good enough." Hugh says, nodding. "You hear that? Now get in line or you'll… ugh, forget it, just do it!"

"Heheh, no," Bry replies, laughing a bit more. "I'm not going anywhere with witless dolts like you! It's not like there's anything stopping me from running away!"

"Oh yeah?" Miro challenges. "The only way out is through us, the rest of this Valley is surrounded by unscaleable, impassable cliffs, too unnaturally smooth for anyone to climb!"

Bry blinks, and looks around to see if this was true. From what he could gather, it was. Everything surrounding was… surrounded. He turns back to them, and to the slight unnerve of the other two teens, narrows his eyes and smiles.

"…SUPER RUNNING CLOTHESLINE!" he shouts quickly, running at an equally rapid speed straight toward Miro and Hugh. Before they could do anything, he stuck both of his arms out to the side and rammed into the two, his arms colliding with their necks and knocking them off of their feet. They slam to the ground in unison and Bry sped away, laughing maniacally.

A few moments later, the two of them groan and look up at the sky blankly.

"That kid's really getting on my nerves…" Hugh hisses, shaking his head a bit.

"Yeeeah…" Miro agrees. The two of them begin to get up, muttering. "Why are we being schooled by this guy? Did we not just have a spectacular fight to the death, like, three days ago?"

"Yeah," Hugh says. "We could really use our powers right now…"

"I suppose." Miro replies.

"'Course, you had to go and have Lumina claw my eyes out-"

"DON'T EVEN START TO COMPLAIN ON HOW YOU LOST YOUR POWER!"

"…Oh yeah, the rock…"

After standing up fully and shaking the concussion from their heads, Miro and Hugh look out to the path that Bry had just run down, and was already lost to sight to. Hugh grumbled.

"How are we supposed to get this guy?" he asks. "He's gotten the jump on us every time, and we couldn't touch him…"

"We'll just have to get the jump on him." Miro concludes. "Come on, I have a plan."

He then breaks off at run, Hugh following a moment later. The two of them, however, were stopped by a chorus of voices while they were passing by the entrance to Jack's farm.

"Miiiroooo…" they whined. Miro, stopping, turned to see the work force running their farm lined up, looking worn and weather-beaten. A large version of the family cat was stalking around the pasture in the background.

Miro stared back at them for a moment and, narrowing his eyes at them, sighed.

"Daryll, get the antiserum for the cat and learn to use a sickle. Nic, Nak, Flak, remember to give the chickens their space, they're bigger than you. When Rock's peeled himself from the Blue Bar roof, show him the Large Watering Can for Pete's sake. Get Vesta to milk the cows, and Murrey… keep up the good work."

Both Miro and Hugh immediately run off again. Hugh looked at Miro, impressed.

"That came pretty smoothly to you." He comments.

"…Yeah, I suppose it did." Miro replies. "I mean, well, I am sort of a farmer, so-"

"Oh, Miro!" came a voice from behind them, just before they had crossed the bridge. They turn to see Grant and Samantha, Kate's constantly-addled parents, looking at them eagerly. They both looked quite Asian, yet Kate oddly didn't resemble one much, which always confused him but it wasn't the time for that mystery just now.

"Oh, hey, long time no talk." Miro says tonelessly, eager to get running again.

"How has Kate been?" Samantha asks, looking at him hopefully.

"You never found out for yourself." Miro states. "Why didn't you go looking for her with my parents?"

"We trust that Kate is responsible enough to fend for herself." Grant states. "We wouldn't drag her back by her heels."

Miro smirked. "I have to relay that one to my parents…" he says, half to himself. He then speaks fully to Samantha and Grant. "Kate is fine, healthy as she's ever been."

"Really?" Samantha inquires. "That's nice to hear. Of course, it is expected… such a tomboy she is…"

"Uh, well, Kate is…" Miro begins, pausing to find the right phrase. "She's… Well, the trip's made her a little softer. She doesn't go out of her way to be nasty anymore."

"I'm sure she still is nasty, though." Samantha continues, looking weary and sad. "She may never learn, being a mean, uncaring, unladylike tomboy like she is. You turned out so well, Miro. You were a tomboy's son, yet you're so gentle and caring, unlike our Kate. Oh, where did I ever go wrong…?"

Miro spent all of three seconds deliberating his next action and then took it, punching Samantha square in the jaw and leaving her unconscious with a bewildered Grant standing next to her. Miro then motioned for Hugh to follow him again and they continued on.

"What was that about?" Hugh asks, a little shocked at Miro's decision.

"She never shuts up about Kate, it's been turning my crank for years." Miro explains. "Tomboy this and tomboy that… she's gotta learn before she becomes my mother-in-law."

"Oh… Yeah, that makes sense." Hugh agrees, nodding. "Still, I think that punching someone in the face might be illegal."

"And not a juror in the land will convict me!" Miro states. "She's pissed everyone off in this place with her 'Kate, Kate, Kate' talk. I think that's why they're not allowed to live in the town that Grant works in anymo-"

"Miro!" comes another voice from their right, when they were only a few strides away from the town's exit.

"WHAT?" Miro snaps, looking over to see Dr. Hardy staring back at him. Naturally, he and Hugh recoiled slightly upon his sight.

"I was just wondering, have you seen my pants anywhere?" Hardy inquires.

Miro sighs. "Yes. Vesta's been using them as a strainer for vegetable juice for the past twenty-five years."

"Ah, that's where they've gotten to…" Hardy says. He waves to Miro in thanks and passes by the two of them to retrieve his long-lost pants. Hugh looks at Miro for a moment.

"Vesta's been using them for that?" he says, looking incredulously to Miro.

"Yep." Miro replies.

"…Ugh… That's where that tangy flavor comes from…" Hugh gags. "'Special fertilizer' my a-"

-

"Ahhh…" Cliff sighs out, allowing himself to sink up to his chin in the bubbling, warm waters of the Hot Spring. He, Elli, Gray(who still wore his cap), Mary, Nami, and her respective Jack (who had basically carried Nami to the Springs in hopes that it would aid her through the hangover) were enjoying a peaceful, relaxing dip as a personal reward for hauling their middle-aged bodies halfway across existence and back in the hunt for their beloved children. "This feels great. I can't remember a time that the Springs have felt so clean…"

"I was afraid I'd never have a nice bath like this again…" Mary states, wiping the steam from her glasses for the twenty-third time,and smiling.

"Yes, we were all starting to smell like monkeys, weren't we?" Elli states with a light laugh.

Nami, wearing a one-piece bathing suit that she had taken along, was resting her head on a rock that was bordering the Spring, Jack nearby to make sure she wouldn't pass out into the water, but for some reason making an effort to keep everything from his neck down safely concealed in the water.

"This really helps…" Nami mutters, her eyes closed but still not looking fully at ease. "…Jack, I know I hit you once or twice on the way here, but the headache was just…"

"Eh, no trouble," Jack says nervously, half of his chin now in the water. "I mean, I'm glad to share your pain a little. That Karen was a fierce one, I coulda never lasted as long as you did."

"…Thanks." Nami replies simply, Jack giving her a look. Apparently, the two of them had some secret that Jack was buttering Nami up for and Nami was refusing him.

"Speaking of Karen, has anyone seen her today?" Mary inquires.

"She made it out of the Inn." Cliff states. "I think I heard her hit a lamppost, but by now she's probably slept it off."

"She has." Gray adds. "She was sitting around with Rick and their daughter at the beach about an hour ago."

"…You two must have good memory." Jack states. "Or you kept an eye on her."

"Yes, how do you know these things, Honey?" Elli inquires upon Cliff. Mary looks to Gray as well, expectant.

"W… well…" Cliff begins.

"Of course anyone would be curious of what Karen does when she's off-center…" Gray states. "The drunk naturally catch the eye of sober people."

"I'm sure they do." Mary counter-states. "Just as they, or shall I say she, has, every Thursday and Monday for the past 18 years…"

"But you still can't get enough of her." Elli adds, giving Cliff a hard look. "You boys never do change, do you?"

Cliff and Gray pause for a moment. The tension in the Hot Spring was beginning to build.

"…Now that's putting words in our mouth." Cliff states.

"But you are right, we never do 'change', per se." Gray adds.

"And let us show you an example." Cliff concludes Gray-ish-ly. The two look at each other, nod, and look back to their wives. Suddenly, with a great bound, they pounce at them, the resulting flailing and splashing sending water and small waves across the Spring. Jack, inspired by the chaos, rises himself slightly out of the water and-

"Don't even think about it…" Nami warns him. Though her eyes were still closed, she knew full well that Jack would be glad to add to the mess. Jack grumbled, sinking down to his chin yet again.

"…Can I at least change this swimsuit now?" he whines.

"No. I told you, we brought it for a reason." Nami states. "You're wearing it to entertain me until I'm feeling better. You wouldn't wear it on the horse, anyway."

Jack mumbled some incoherent words into the water. At about that time, two figures became visible heading up the path, toward Mother's Hill. Once the battling adults noticed them they froze, glancing toward the two.

"…Oh. Hello, Matthew." Gray greets, struggling out of his wife's half-nelson to adjust his cap.

"And hello, Anna." Elli adds, pulling Cliff's various limbs off of her. "Umm... Where are your mother and father?"

"They're still getting some work finished up at the farm." Anna states, looking a little amused at running into these older peers in the middle of such a childish-looking fight.

"I, umm, asked them Anna's leave so we could go to the Hill…" Matthew adds sheepishly. He was still unsure as to whether his parents were aware of him and Anna's togetherness.

"Ah…" Mary says knowingly, apparently fully aware of their togetherness, and who had probably assumed it long ago.

"Do you know where Ricca's parents are?" Anna inquires. "We haven't seen her today."

"Oh, them. Umm…" Cliff begins. "…Kai and Popuri… I think they're still at their house."

"But the door was locked and the blinds were down…" Anna says in confusion.

"…It's… you know, a special occasion." Cliff finishes, getting himself out of the awkward light by sinking into the water some more.

"…Ohh…" Matthew states plainly. Clearing his throat, he motions to Anna. "Well, let's go…"

Proceeding down the path and leaving the steam of the Hot Spring behind, Anna and Matthew travel around the path, past the lake, over the footbridge (where tire marks from the bus were still visible on the ground), and up the winding path leading to the peak. Once at the peak, they spent a few moments surveying the scenery and casting the occasional glance down at the smoldering wreckage of the bus below.

"…It's always nice to come up here." Matthew comments a bit hastily. "It's much nicer now, since we've been gone for so long…"

"And it's much, much nicer now, since we've been gone for so long and we're both…" Anna begins, pausing for a moment and taking Matthew's hand sheepishly. "…here."

"…Y… yes…" Matthew agrees, nodding a bit, looking to their locked hands, and then to her.

Just before this could be officially made the second-most romantic thing to happen between them in the past couple of weeks, Anna catches something in the corner of her eye and looks, startled, to the area of the mountain behind them that still had foliage. Gasping and turning around (quite nearly throwing Matthew over the edge since they were still holding hands), Anna proceeds cautiously to what she thought she saw, Matthew walking with her after a moment of being startled.

"What is it?" Matthew inquires, following closely with Anna and giving her the occasional, confused look.

"I thought… Behind those bushes…" Anna begins. Once they had reached a part of the path that was sprouting grass and foliage around them, Matthew noticed the bushes she was talking about and walked forward carefully. Anna trailed behind him, watching as Matthew stuck his arms into the leafy branches carefully and pulled them apart, allowing them to see the mysterious thing. Anna immediately screamed, terrified.

"OH MY GOD SOMEBODY KILLED RICCA AND WILLIAM AND LEFT THEM HALF-NAKED BEHIND THE BUSHES!"

-

The echoing scream met the ears of the hot spring-goers. Elli and Cliff's faces immediately hardened. They knew that the two were fine - William wasn't dead… yet.

"…We have to go throw our son off the cliff now…" Elli and Cliff(haw-haw) state, immediately beginning to rise out of the water.

"W-wait, hold on! No! NO!" Jack, Gray, and Mary state in a jumble, forcing them back into the water to their protest.

"You don't know the whole story yet," Gray says patiently.

"Give them a little time, maybe it was a misunderstanding…" Mary adds.

"Besides, they have to come down this path eventually," Jack points out. "Wait until then to give them hell."

-

Both William and Ricca wake up with a start upon Anna's scream, first looking to Anna and Matthew, and then to one another, immediately screaming and yelling for themselves as they saw each other, scrambling backward a few feet from each other on the ground.

"Wh- WHA!" Ricca splutters out, covering her more respectful self with her arms as she did some odd combination of looking around for her shirt and gaping at William in shock. "D-did you-!"

"No!" William says immediately, doing the exact same thing Ricca was doing for some strange reason. "Did you-!"

"No!" Ricca yells hoarsely, finding her shirt, strangely discarded close to a nearby tree and struggling to get it on her person as quickly as she could. "Y-you're sure you-?"

"Of course not!" William shouted. "…Hey, wait, you're a B-?"

"SHUT. UP." Ricca snaps, finally pulling the shirt over her head with a flustered look on her face, stray strands of pink hair still floating near her eyes. "…Not like you're a sight to behold, yoursel-"

"Hey!" William snaps, finding his own shirt partly within a bush and yanking it out, fitting it over himself quickly. "There's no need for retorts about how I look shirtless, I think it's a perfectly good size for y-"

"WILLIAM. STOP TALKING." Ricca flares through clenched teeth. William promptly shuts up, the two of them then glancing over to a stunned Anna and Matthew. "Well… Umm…" Matthew begins, the urge to shuffle away becoming most apparent in his eyes. "…You were obviously here first, so-"

"WE DIDN'T!" Ricca and William chorus, both knowing exactly what the other two were thinking.

"Then umm, you two just ran into that tree and fell down…?" Anna suggests, smiling understandingly but looking very fidgety. "And your… shirts fell off…?"

"N- b- wait- No, we don't know how, but…" William begins frantically, desperately trying to think of how he could possibly explain the situation. "L-last night, Ricca and I came up here, and stayed and we slept together right here- I mean- No! I meant-"

"Anna, we came up here and fell asleep," Ricca cuts him off, speaking to Anna since Matthew seemed a little preoccupied in twitching to himself. "But we never… when we fell asleep, we were…"

"Dressed?" Matthew says through clenched teeth, a nervous smile still on his face.

"Yes!" Ricca and William chorus, both getting to their feet finally.

"Then why weren't you when you woke up?" Anna asks.

"We don't know!" William insists. "I mean, something must've happened while we were… but…"

"Maybe… somebody wanted to set this up…" Matthew suggests, returning ever-slowly to his usual self. "You know, hoping that one of you would wake up and think that the other had… yeah… so you would think they were creeps and run off, become a mountain hermit and battle Gotz for scraps of lizard and rat meat for the rest of your life…"

The group turned to him for a moment. Matthew gave a shrug symbolizing 'just a suggestion' and looked back to them.

"…Okay, well, some of that might be right." William admits. He puts a hand to his chin in thought for a moment. "…But who? Who would want to frame us in such a blunt effort to split us up?"

A realization cane to Anna and Ricca's minds right then and there. Looking to each other as though to register that they had the same idea, they then stare down the path with equally furious (though in Anna's case, with a touch of characteristic poutyness) looks on their faces. Slowly, they speak three words out with a searing hiss.

"It was her…"

(Note again! This Chapter is going to be my 40th, and I'm likely to get past 200 reviews thanks to it. I know an exit ramp when I see one, but I still have stuff to do before I can finish this! Therefore, I must oppose these signs from the gods of obviousness and press on! Ah, and next Chapter will be the final scrap between Miro, Hugh, and Bry. Lots of action, I assure you. Just a few more Chapters now…)