Heads up, because this chapter introduces some new OCs. When they appear, their names will be in bold.
Okay, back to the story now!

Anya POV:

Our group proceeded with Himiko further down and eventually made it to another set of ancient ruins, where I saw that it had tombs instead of stasis capsules. "Hmm... there's a whole lot of tombs here, but where could Nene be?" Shu asked. But I could feel it. His energy was closing in on us.

"I can feel his energy nearby, guys. He's closing in on our location. For now, I think we should just wait here and see if he shows," I said to them.

"B-But Nene is scary..." Shifa said with a sad face.

"I know, but it may be our one chance to finally make him realize his wrongs. If he does have any kindness in his heart at all, it's gotta be for Himiko. If he doesn't have anything but hate in his heart, then I shall do the dirty and destroy him," I said. Himiko simply stayed silent, mostly because she was still fuzzy on details and she didn't remember a thing. But then, I finally felt Nene's presence within meters of us. I looked behind me and saw a large warp sphere, Nene appearing out of it with a sneer on his face when he saw us.

"I've finally found you! Now I can finally have my reve... wait... there are a lot more of you than before," Nene frowned when he saw us. Shifa hid behind me with fear in her eyes when Nene spoke, me holding her hand while she hugged my legs.

"See what you do, Nene? You're making Shifa scared," I frowned at him, Nene frowning at my statement.

"All I want is to finally put an end to you, Anya," Nene growled at me.

"Now why would you want to do that when we've found the one true person you feel kindness for?" Kluke asked, Nene looking at her with a frown.

"What are you implying?" he asked.

"Brace yourself for the surprise of your life," I frowned as I moved myself and Shifa out of the way and revealed someone to Nene. And when he saw her, he gasped audibly.

"H-Himiko..! W-What is Himiko doing with you?" he asked in absolute shock. But I could sense it in him. He wasn't mad. He was joyful on the inside.

"We found her stasis capsule in the room above this one. By the way, you're welcome... monster," Shu frowned, obviously not liking being put in the back lines, but having to put up with it. But I could sense that he felt animosity towards Nene.

"My Himiko!" Nene exclaimed as he rushed to her location and she looked at him with a look of surprise. "Himiko... It is I, Nene," he said with a warmth in his voice I had never EVER heard before.

"N... Nene?... I feel I know you... but... oh, I can't remember..." Himiko frowned in frustration as she tried to rack her brain for info that she couldn't come up with. Nene's warm smile turned to one of extreme worry when she said those words.

"I-It can't be... your memory..." Nene gawked as his face turned into the saddest of frowns he'd ever put on before.

"She woke up with a very fuzzy memory. She only remembers her name and that's it, much like you were when you woke up from frozen sleep," I frowned at him.

"Though your memory fails you, I have never forgotten the promise I made you..." Nene said as he did something I never would've expected him to do. He coughed up his Light Sphere of the Killer Bat and infused it into Himiko's body. "Come, we need to press on until your memory recovers," Nene said, but I simply stood in his way before he could move out.

"Before you do that, I have some questions I want to ask you," I frowned at him.

"Again with the questions?" he frowned, but he didn't growl.

"Three. First off, do you have any idea what this cube is?
Second, do you happen to know why there is an entire laboratory in this cube that holds tons of Destroys in stasis capsules?
And third, what do you know about the robots in this cube having shadows on them?" I asked him thrice.

"Hmph. The second and third questions I know absolutely nothing about. But the first question I can answer. This cube was created as a factory for war machines and was programmed to have a mind of its own. Even I do not fully know everything that this cube has inside of it," Nene frowned.

"Did you know that this cube produced a giant Balaur shadow just yesterday?" Shu asked, Nene gasping when he heard that.

"The... Balaur shadow? That must mean..." Nene gawked as I wanted to know more... but then he clutched his head in pain.

"Agh!" Nene exclaimed, something happening to my body once again as I felt it move to Nene and try to grab hold of him. "What are you doing?" he asked me, which I couldn't even answer myself.

"I have no idea why my body is doing this. After what you've done to us, after all the lives you've ruined over these past years, helping you is the last thing I or any of my friends want to do for you. But when I see some kind of danger you're experiencing, my body immediately tries to help you, and I have no inkling as to why," I frowned at him.

Nene frowned and knelt down after swatting my hand away, Himiko leaning over and helping him up. "Heh... now's your chance, you fools... you could end me right now as I stand," Nene said with a frown as I actually saw tears fall from his eyes.

"How can we?... Defeating someone while they're powerless... why would we want to end you when you can't even fight back?" Shu gawked, Kluke and Sahlia looking at him with concern in their eyes.

"Shu..." Sahlia said with a hiccup in her voice. It was then that Himiko had helped Nene forward and the duo just hobbled out of the room and to the eastern exit, just as a bunch of robots appeared out of nowhere.

"I know that it's not right, but we have to defeat these robots to help them out... at least for now," Jiro said with a frown.

"Let the battle commence!" Kesu exclaimed as she summoned her knife wrists and we began to attack the robots one by one.

Zola POV:

Our group eventually found an area underneath where we were before and we looked around with confusion. There were numerous areas that had water in them and were being guarded by robots. And when we saw what was in the traps, I finally understood what was powering the Destroys. "Help! Help us!" exclaimed a lowly Poo Snake that was trapped in one of the puddles of water, me seeing that it looked to be draining their energy.

"I see... the Destroys need the energy of others to grow. If we can free the Poo Snakes, then we may be able to kill the Destroys while they're still in stasis and prevent them from waking up!" I smiled.

"Great thinking, except that there seems to be a timer going right as we speak," Fushira frowned.

"Then we'll need to be quick in freeing them. Let's go," I said as we then proceeded to attack the robots that were guarding the Poo Snake cages, our speed and strength proving to be superior to the robots as we freed the Poo Snakes individually, one by one, until all of them had been freed... but we also noticed that some of the Poo Snakes had been freed by someone else.

"Who helped us in freeing the Poo Snakes?" Marumaro asked.

"That would be us," said a voice from nearby that I smiled at.

"So, it appears we have some unexpected stowaways in that Land Shark, huh?" I smiled when I turned around and saw them. A duo of Ancients that we had met when we were renovating Neo Castle Jibral, as they had resided there as well. One of them was named Okuni and she happened to be an adept user of healing magic with a fairy as her shadow. And the other was a male Ancient named Korin and he was a great user of attack magic. His shadow was that of a beast called the Wendigo, which Anya described as the ultimate nightmare creature. Which made sense, as the Wendigo shadow had access to some exclusively-powerful magic such as Nightmarus, Genocidus, and Extractus. All of these spells would kill any kind of monster that made contact with it, but they never ever affected those with more intelligence. Which I guess is why it didn't kill the talking Poo Snakes or us when Korin accidentally loosed a spell on us when we caught him off guard in the bathroom of all places when we first met him.

"Sorry about that, but we needed to help you out in stopping this cube. Anya's dad also joined us, but we got separated when we accidentally activated a trap door," Okuni said as the Poo Snakes looked at us with a smile.

"We thank you for saving us! We will now form into one so we can assist you as repayment!" the Poo Snakes smiled as they then clumped all together into a single Poo Snake, their smell being a bit bad, but nothing that would cause anyone to puke.

"You see something new everyday, I guess," Guru-Guru smiled.

"We can help out! We can use a shadow just like you!" the Poo Snake smiled as he then let out a large shadow that looked like a Poo Dragon almost.

"Wow! That looks like a pretty strong shadow! You're in the club!" Marutora smiled.

"Alright, introductions are out of the way, so let's continue. We need to give Anya a call anywa-" I was about to say until I got a call from Anya herself.

"Zola... how are ya?" she asked me, though I could tell she was a bit hesitant.

"Well, we just stopped the Destroys from waking up by freeing some Poo Snakes that were being harvested for them to remain alive... and Okuni and Korin are with us. They sneaked onto the Land Shark without our knowledge with your dad, but he got separated when they fell through a trap," I said.

"Daddy's here?... Well, I'm sure we'll find him... but I have something to tell you..." Anya sighed.

"Is it something that has to do with Nene?" I asked her.

"Well... yes... Nene, when he saw Himiko, gave her his light sphere to help her regain her memory... but something's been bothering me... anytime that Nene is in a state of weakness or danger, my body moves without me wanting it to and I try to help him... I tried to warn him of the cords before they latched onto his body during our first trip here, and then my body forced me to help Nene up when he'd fallen down from giving his energy to Himiko... I think that I may have another code in me that forces me to assist Nene... and it's only taking effect now..." Anya groaned.

"Well, don't worry about it too much. I'm sure that you'll find a way to fight it," Sura-Sura smiled into the communicator.

"I don't think it'd be that easy... we're going to try and go deeper now, see you soon," Anya said.

"Okay, so long," I said as we cut the connection and I frowned.

"What's wrong, Lady Zola?" Marumaro asked me.

"Nothing... it's just... that's the first time I've ever heard Anya sound depressed. You could hear it in her voice. She was filled with deep depression. I've never heard her in that state before," I admitted.

"Listen, if that girl could break apart a gigantic monster's hand when she was ant-sized compared to him, I'm sure she can pull this off," Guru-Guru smiled.

"Yeah, maybe," I said as we then proceeded deeper into the cube through a southern staircase.