I fear I may not be able to make this arc longer, It will probably end in a few more chapters after this one, but I'm still working on them! This chapter seemed choppy to me with how I wrote it, but at least I had gotten some good information here.

(Chapter Sixteen: Shard Hunt)

Saying 'Get to the front desk was a lot harder to do then say, apparently something had happened to be there was a detour needed. Melody and Bonnie found no trouble jumping from balcony to balcony, but Gabriele, Julia, and Kero all looked over. Did these little guys expect them to just... jump?

Julia had already used her barriers to get onto the ship, does she need them inside too? Julia was lost in thought, while Kero kept looking over the rail. In his eyes, this place was marvelous! It was so nice seeing a new place that wasn't on fire! The child was all giddy and excited, he tugged on Julia's sleeve.

"Mama, we could slide down! Can we!?" Kero asked, looking up at her.

The girl was just thinking exactly on how they would get down, sliding was an option, but it could be to steep. She still felt slightly dizzy when faces with heights, but she was focused on something like she's been doing, perhaps Julia could try..?

Julia smiled at Kero, patting his head. He was just so happy to get out of the forest, and see new things; It made her feel happy too.

"Alright, alright.. hang on buddy." When Kero let go, Julia looked over the ledge again, judging on what she might have to do to not slide I to the large waterfall that was onboard. The girl felt her vision waning after a moment, but stepped back with an idea. "I think I have something.." she mumbled.

She remembered a time where she and her grandfather went to a fair during one of her birthdays, images of that long slope slide with the bags. She always loved going down those any chance she got. Though, that brought up another question.. could she?

If she could break her barrier, the perhaps bending it to look like a wobbly foil shouldn't be that hard, Julia could already make a spiral... she looked down once again to get ready.

Within the moment, a large diagonal ramp with uneven bumps appeared before them, Julia winced at how bad it looked. So much for safe and fun looking. The child didn't seem to mind however, Kero hopped in place ready to go. Julia could help but chuckle at this.

"Julia.. are you sure that is a good idea?" Gabriele asked, looking at the slide.

Julia climbed on, unsure of herself as well, "Well, the fairs back home always had slides like these, granted, they were a lot more.. even... then this."

"Let's go!" Kero unexpectedly pushed off, making his mother slip down an odd way. The two quickly descended, Gabriele quickly sliding down after them in worried that Julia could get hurt. Near the end, the tall girl rolled off the slope and onto a bush. She could hear Kero laughing as she world spun around, though she was fine and so was the flowers she landed on.

"Julia!" She heard Gabriele call out, she slowly popped out of the bush.

"I'm good!" She called back.

The large boat rumbled, an announcement that the ship was leaving the marina was progress. With a side comment from the captain says, 'Please try not to fall off' means that in the past, a few 'crew' members have fallen off. The group had found themselves in the main lobby of the cruise ship, were they saw loads of luggage just piled up.

"This is.. an unnecessarily amount luggage.." Julia whispered, walking to the front desk. She was glad she had a small bag to carry around.

"Hey, you guys!" The three turned their heads to a large stack of rectangular cases, on that stack was Lynn! "You sure did take your time!"

Kero broke away from the group, letting his mother deal with whatever she needed to do. He looked up at Lynn and waved. The girl hopped down, fist-bumping his shoulder. The two giggled at each other. "I saw Melody and Bonnie running around like crazy, I thought they'd stay with Julia to be honest.." she took a glance at the woman, ho was trying to keep herself in check around the seal staff.

"What's the deal with that anyway?" Lynn asked, looking back at Kero "I thought they went everywhere together."

"To be honest.." Kero slowly spoke up "I think their goals are different here.." he mentally pointed out "My Mama is on vacation while Auntie Melody is hunting for Timepiece.."

"Whoa, wait- there are Timepieces on this boat!?" Lynn was shocked, a little nervous to hear about this. She needs to stay away from those things now.

"I don't think there's that many, but yeah.." kero looked at her, head tilting.

"Hey, guys!" Melody ran up to the two, a smile on her face, shortly after Bonnie appeared. "We just explored this entire ship! Did you know there a huge octopus powering this boat!?"

"What!?" The two exclaimed, looking at the girl, which made the two space children laugh.

Once the commotion died down, Julia approached the group, a grim face as she looked at Melody. "Hey, uh... Melody.. you're not gonna like what I just found out.." the taller girl scratched the back of her neck. The smaller girl looked at her with a confused look un till she pointed to a massive pile of glass.

"They uh... broke a... Timepiece." Melody heard as she held her mouth open slowly walking to the broke mass. "They also lost.. a few shards I think?"

Melody was unsure of what to think, the fact that this thing stayed broken was creating so many questions, and the fact that the seals were unaffected by the broken Timepiece was another thing. "The damage is serious.." Melody mumbled out, but turned around "I think we can piece it back together though, Time hadn't been altered.."

"So.. we split up and look for broken glass..?" Bonnie spoke up, every child and two adults looked at Melody.

"Shiny piece of glass.." Melody pointed out, "Timepiece energy is always glowing, even in pieces.." she picked up the pieces, and stashed them away carefully.

Julia cracked her neck, "Right, okay... I'll go put my things in the room I was given, then I'll see what I can do." She spoke up, looking at Melody who smiled, might as well have more people searching.

"Yeah! Team Time back in action!" The hatted child cheered, getting a head start to find the first piece.

"Hey! Captain! Wait up!" Bonnie yelled running after her.

"Let's show them we can help too!" Lynn said, looking at Kero. Surly a small piece won't affect her. "Team..! Uh.. what should our team be named..?" The two walked off, excited to help Melody out for once.

"And then there were two," Gabriele spoke up, turning his head Julia while he folded his arms. The girl scoffed, however, not at him.

"Technically three, Moon had been following us for while now." She spoke up, pointing to the back of her. The two heard soft laughter.

"I could never truly hide from you could I?" They heard, but couldn't see. Gabriele kept turning around to try and pinpoint his location.

"Thirteen years, dad, Thirteen years.." Julia chuckled. "That, and my locket is pointed at you." The two noticed the silver locked slightly floating over her shoulder. "I was going to track you down later, but it seems I don't have to know." She smiled.

The second floor, third room to the left, Julia had opened the door to find a nice place; too bad it only had one bed, and no bathroom. The walls were a nice shade of soft blue, with wavy lines, however, and more than enough shelving. The celling reminded Julia of her middle school days, however. She didn't even realize people still use that kind of set.

The carpet was a dark blue, and the bedsheets were nice and soft when the older girl threw herself on top of it. Placing her bag down she headed out to the balcony. Like every other place she had been to, this place was also strange. Though, at least the garden was beautiful...

Maybe she should start a garden when they went back to Subcon..?

"Pardon me, Julia.." Gabriele knocked at the door, when he heard her call him in, the doctor stood next to her on the balcony. "Do all 'Cruise ships' look like this..?"

"Not sure, though commercials made them look better.." Julia muttered. She then squinted her eyes, looking over to the other side of the balconies, she could see a faint glowing.

"Isn't that.. a timepiece shard..?" Gabriele pointed out, having a hard time looking at the gleaming light. "That is an eyesore.." he mumbled.

"I'm gonna go get it-" Julia stated, leaving Gabriele to watch her make a rather large bridge with her barriers. This place was more work then it was worth. What was it worth anyways..?

"I shall dwell in this room while you're away, Julia" MoonJumper spoke, already relaxing on the bed. The girl just waved back.

Gabriele had turned around to see that MoonJumper was laying down. The creases and the crater was proof of that. The doctor had decided that he'd rather not stay in the same as the puppeteer, and left through the door.

There were more pieces to find, and he's sure Julia wouldn't mind him parting for a while...

Meanwhile, Julia had grabbed her first shard and was about to start heading in another direction. The cold air already getting to her, making her think, just once, that she could be in a warm place. Taking a stroll she waved hello to a nomad and shortly found her way into a casino.

"There was a casino here..?" Julia looked up in awe, sure it was small, but the noises were still loud.

"What do you mean we can't operate this thing without chips!?" A sudden cry was heard over the noises and the laughing of crows over at one of the roulette tables. Two children stood on a chair trying to operate a machine that they weren't old enough to use. "We have to get that shard out! Don't you see the glow?!"

Those children were her child Kero and Lynn, who was getting fed up at a slot machine. Julis strolled over to the mechanical contraption and just... punched the side of it. Sure it hurt her hand, but it made her feel slightly better.

That and the machine shook enough to where the shard fell out.

The two children looked up surprised, but also grateful. Then two looked up at her, "So! We've already collected a few- how many did you find?" Lynn spoke up.

"A total of one," Julia answered

"We collected two!" Kero spoke, holding two fingers up.

"That's three among us three.." Lynn counted looking for another area to head too "Melody and Bonnie probably have a few more, but we're not exactly sure..."

"Well just have to keep looking around then.." Julia looked at them.

The children nodded, deciding to follow Julia for a while, the casino was starting to get a little too loud.

Melody and Bonnie wandered around again, going back into rooms they had already been to and went over them carefully. The kitchen was a mess, and the dining place was havoc with sliding tables. One shard was in the kitchen on top of a secured pastry cart, the two may or may not have taken some sweets with them.

Though, the hatted girl thought to herself, If Julia ever saw this kitchen, she'd be having a fit right about now. It was way messier than the one on the child's ship.

It was also not good to find that a Mafia man had attempted to consume a shard without knowing; that's terrible kitchen safety! Then again, the staff were a bunch of little seals.. they must have it tough.

Or their to innocent to realize what their doing is not good.

This place needs more help than she originally thought...

"Hey, Melody!" Bonnie called out, "there's a washing machine room under the kitchen!" She pointed out, heading under, only to find Gabriele retrieving a shard from one of the machines.

"Oh! You found one!" Melody smiled, immediately stopping Bonnie from trying to attack the doctor, he, of course, noticed that and tried to brace for impact. Though he relaxed when nothing happened, the girls giggled at him.

He coughed "ah.. yes.." he handed the shard piece to them "This ship is rather large, and I've only managed to find one.." he started walking away with them, looking for another place to look.

The children spotted a vent that leads to the engine room with the large octopus, but Melody wanted some answers from this man standing before her.

"Gabriele, right?" Melody asked when he nodded, the girl continued "What's going one between you and Julia; I'm not entirely sure what happened, but she's not so happy now.." Melody folded her arms "especially when she's next to you."

The doctor froze at that observation, the child was a lot more.. perceptive then he thought. "I.. we..-" He was unsure of what to say, but he finally said something "Let's just say.. we had an argument.. though, don't think I haven't noticed how you've been avoiding her."

Melody was caught, she didn't think anyone had noticed that she was purposely avoiding Julia...

"May I ask as to why?" He enquired.

Melody fumbled with her hands but looked at Bonnie as to not speak on her behalf. "Yeah.. about that.." she looked up at Gabriele, signing "Julia had always been a good help, from the day we first met.." she took off her hat and looked at it "but she's always getting hurt, and I felt like it was my fault.."

"She's been burned, shot at with explosives, stabbed, almost drowned, and that one time she got infected by that odd flower.." Melody listed off, counting the stripes in her new hat with a flower on it "she'd always taken a hit on almost every mission we went on.."

"You don't want her involved with Timepiece anymore.." Gabriele pieced together

Man, he knew Julia was accident prone, but hearing all that had happened to her was quite a feat that she was still standing.. sure he had helped with the alpine part.. but he never heard of a few others.

"But even then, she was still getting hurt!" Melody exclaimed, looking at him "you should have seen what Zephyr did to her while you were out!" Just thinking about how messed up her sister's face was made her want to punch someone!

Gabriele was unaware of what happened between the two and was immediately worried.

"What I'm trying to say is.. I want her to relax for once... I want her to be happy.." she mumbled, looking down.

"As do I, Melody... As do I.." he patted the child's head.

Running around and meeting old and new people. Julia was having a riot laughing at the octopus's bad puns, who was named King. Though her group, mostly Lynn, just wanted to leave. Immediately. The octopus was a nice dude, though. They also helped a seal as well, who was hurt- Julia nearly had another heart attack because of how cute they acted.

Gabriele had more time to talk with Melody, and surprisingly Bonnie as well. Getting a better look at how they acted and work together was an interesting insight. Traveling with them also give him an idea about what he could do to complete his apology to Julia. Though, he was going to keep it a surprise for now.

The day was starting to end, however, and the two groups had made their rounds one more time to make sure they had everything; it was fun.

Also, surprisingly painless too.

The group met up around Julia's room, away from the crowds and other people that could see them; this was something that wasn't meant for prying eyes. Once they all gathered in the room, they all watched how the timepiece just repaired itself!

The swirling of glass and sand was beautiful and probably the most dangerous thing anyone had ever seen. Finally, the object of power was whole again, and Melody took this as her queue to head out for the night.

Waving goodbye to her friends, Melody and Bonnie took their leave. Leaving Kero, Julia, Gabriele, Lynn. MoonJumper had gone off somewhere and the older girl was unsure when he'll be coming back.

Lynn stretched, yawning out loud, "Well, not sure about half of you guys, but I'm beat!" Running around a cold ship was exhausting to her. "Cc is probably wondering where I'm at too... so I better head out.." but before she decided to head out, Lynn held her new hood over her head as said "Team Hoodie!"

In which Kero mimicked her and also said "Team Hoodie!" Holding onto his hood he always had up.

Gabriele also spoke up "I also have a hood. Am I part of this group?" He joked around, taking his hat off and putting up.

"Heck yeah!" Lynn smiled, never once seeing him use his hood; it was hilarious actually. It was always so strange not seeing a hat on his head.

With that, Lynn waved goodbye as well, leaving the three to do.. whatever.

"As much as I would like to stay as well, I noticed that Benjamin had snuck aboard the ship.." Gabriele got up, fixing himself "I need to go have a few words with him, have pleasant dreams, Julia.." he bowed slightly, and with one last look, he left her.

Kero and Julia just looked at each other, a blank emotionless stare, Until Kero had hopped onto the bed and slapped Julia with a pillow. The fight from earlier this morning was still unsettled and Kero wanted to finish it!

The two threw a small number of pillows at each other, laughing and giggling; Julia was suddenly attacked by an invisible force, she shrieked out with more laughter as MoonJumper grabbed her in a hug. Of course, it was an opportunity to poke at her sides, which Julis went ballistic.

"I'll save you!" Kero yelled with a smile, charging at the two.

They didn't stay up to late that night, mindfully of the other neighbors, and eventually, Julia slept soundly that night. MoonJumper watched over her and his grandson as Kero stayed close to his mother.

This was nice.

Hey! Again, I'm sorry if this chapter seemed choppy, but I felt happy with it? I don't think I should, though. You guys know what happens next after the shard hunting, however! I'll do my best with that chapter as well.

Mad King C: Yes, the 'French Toast' joke will always haunt Julia- and I love it so much. You also now understand why Melody has been being a little distant from Julia as well. Julia and Gabriele will also be having some more interactions as well as the children having interactions with the badge seller soon!

Pmoneygreen: That's okay! Don't worry too much about it. I understand people get busy from time to time. Also, I may or may not had a plan about that. Though I'm not even sure you can get to the bow of the boat.

Mr. Mega1423: Yes, indeed- what could go wrong? And thank you again.

OPFan37: I'm honestly not sure if it's health or motivation, but I'm doing my best to fight it. Gabriele will also be addressed about what he's done soon as well. about the Outfit change, yes, I did decide to change it up a little, though having her change for this trip would be nice. I also want to add the Walrus Captin and the seal in more, but the seal speech is hard for me to wrap my head around.. I wonder if there is a translator for this awful speech patter.