Hi everyone! ^^ Gonna skip the usual RP format and go straightforward today. Little announcement: This is probably the longest chapter we ever posted! Ever! 4,637 words, just 371 words shy of the previous two chapters of this story combined. One more page, lol.

Soundtrack: But today there's blue skies, Paul Collier(you can find these on youtube, if you're interested) First Part. While the City Sleeps, Paul Collier, Wake up. The Bioluminescence of the Night, James Horner, The Men far away.

(Yes, we labeled the different parts of the chapter. -.-' Some trouble it was.)

The view of her wavy and shiny dyed blonde hair covering her slim, narrow shoulders, was obstructed slightly by the translucent white veil that gently flowed down from the simple clip on top of her head, adorned with fresh Snow White flowers. A couple of bright light-green leaves still clung to the fragile stems, and the bridesmaid's gaze moved down to the dress, and the long sleeves made out of the same material as the veil. The dress modestly cupped and covered the woman's chest, and her delicate skirt flowed downwards in gentle, airy folds, the material light and breezy, fit for a woodland fairy, it seemed. The woman looked at the bridesmaid and her sister, a beaming smile spreading across her face. She glowed, her love for her fiance pouring over to envelope his sisters and niece; her bridesmaids.

"I only have Daddy left of my family," she had explained with a soft laugh; long ago, it seemed, "And my only friend lives on the other side of the city. So I thought, who better to be my bridesmaids than my future sister-in-laws? Oh, and niece, of course."

Now, she sighed in absolute bliss as her father came in the room, smiling at her with a proud and joyful, yet saddened grin. She hugged him.

"It's time, Chloe."

"I know. I love you, Daddy. Thank you for everything," she kissed his cheek, and he seemed to be somewhat happier at that. She turned to the bridesmaids, "Are we ready?"

No, the bridesmaid had thought, I don't feel ready yet.

But her sister answered with an excited smile, "Yeah, we sure are!"

Her niece giggled, and she wondered why she wasn't happier for her brother and the woman that was to be his wife.

Chloe, her gray eyes sparkling, linked arms with her father, ready to walk out onto the aisle, and the bridesmaids hurried out the door to follow the little flower girl up the aisle.

The groom, Jose, stood at the altar, a grin on his face that had been there since this morning. Because their day was here.

The bride followed them, slowly and elegantly, although her real desire was to run up and throw her arms around her beloved and begin their lives together, yet she walked; ever so agonizingly slow it seemed to the groom.

When at last she stood with him at the altar, all else was lost to them, and he smiled at her with a gentle smile, speaking of their love for each other in a language that didn't require words.

Two years of dating had done nothing to kill their infatuation.

Aviva sighed as the vows were exchanged, and looked around inside her memory. She noted the flowers they had used that day, and the haphazard bouquet that Eduardo, twelve years old then, and the baby of her family, had put on the altar.

She knew what happened next, and she wasn't sure she wanted to see it again, nor feel the deep, burdened feelings that came afterward. Yet, as the priest said the last, long awaited words, her head snapped back to where it had been on that day ten years ago.

"You may now kiss the bride."

Chloe and Jose smiled, a beaming joy pouring out of them that even Aviva could feel, and he lifted her veil.

Instead of kissing her right away, as many had suspected he would, he cupped her angular chin with his hands, and their eyes locked. It was as though an overwhelming amount of love and communication was being passed between the two, simply by looking at each other. Such love... They closed their eyes, and kissed, gently, yet passionately.

Aviva didn't move, although inside of herself she cried. She didn't want to look anymore, but she couldn't look away.

She was alone. Overwhelmingly and incredibly alone. One soul walking among the crowds, alone forever, but she couldn't grow to accept it. Why did this have to surface on their special day? Was she that selfish?

No, she wasn't selfish. She was jealous.

She opened her eyes slowly, her pupils dilating to the soft lighting in the room. With a sigh, she sat up in the bed, throwing her soft, plush covers off and standing up. A thin nightgown, silky and mint green, hung to her knees, and she walked to her sliding doors. She didn't have a balcony. Not many people could afford it, and the building she lived in had run out of apartments with balconies. She didn't mind much, though. She had a pretty good view of the city-scape from her sliding glass doors looking into her lounge.

Now she remembered. Chloe had been on of the nicest of her sister-in-laws, and had made Jose one of the happiest people she knew, and more so when their first child, Chelsea had been born. She had yet to find a sweeter and happier family.

She stared out at the lights that shone brightly from the tall buildings, and wondered how Jose would deal with losing his wife. They had been so in love...

Reaching out, she slowly slid her door open, stepping out into the cold night, onto the rooftop road. Looking up at the light cloud cover, she noted that the city lights were reflecting off of it and back down at them, lighting her current surroundings as early dawn would. Her feet slowly stepped in puddles left by the deluge night before last and another this morning as she made her way to the short wall that protected somewhat against accidental falls. She rested her hands on it and stared out, looking for a certain building, a certain window.

The shortest building in her view sat widely on the city-scape, and she counted the floors.

"Twenty, nineteen, eighteen...fourteen...ten..." she found the floor and with it, the window, covered with orange Stick-On notes, lit up from behind with a desk lamp. She smiled softly, yet sadly. She wondered what Chelsea might be doing behind her window, lost in her own sea of confusing emotions. She was so young to have lost her mother.

Aviva's olive eyes, seeming to glow with the city lights reflecting in them, turned to the windows next to it, and wondered what the rest of her family was doing, clustered together on what was known as the Corcovado floor by the rest of the people in the building, despite the fact that there were many more families besides the Corcovados. She supposed that perhaps they were the biggest, and that was why it was unofficially named after them.

Her eyes turned to the sky, finding a sliver of opening in the cloud cover and smiling at it. Because of the valley they were situated in, the mountains channeled the storms towards them from over the lake way to the northwest of the city. Although, as she thought as she remembered the recent report from the scientists studying it, the lake was both large enough and salty enough to be considered a sea.

Her eyes wandered back to the window on the tenth floor, and she noted that the light had turned off. With a sigh, she turned away, pausing to let a large black car pass by on the rooftop road before heading inside her apartment.

Koki sighed, rubbing her temples frustratedly. The family that they were going to drive out on a tour had decided they wanted to have a picnic up there. Which was fine, until they set up and decided they wanted to go on a hike. Now, she and Jimmy had to pack up their stuff so that bears wouldn't raid them, while the family stood off to the side impatiently. It had ticked them off to be told what to do, and it had taken all of Koki's self-restraint to not lash out at them angrily.

Jimmy Z, though, hadn't complained at all. In fact, he was snitching little bits of food as he packed it into bear proof containers.

"Are you done?" called the woman.

Koki bit the inside of her cheek, glaring down at the sandwiches she was packing away.

"Almost, dude, er...I mean, uh, person! Dudette? Dudess? Duchess? Just a few more seconds!" Jimmy answered for her. She muttered a thank you before picking up the containers and tossing them into the back of the jeep.

"You okay, Koki?" Jimmy asked her, gently placing his containers in. She huffed slightly.

"Once I cool off," she mumbled to him as she turned to the family, forcing a smile at them, "Alright, let's get going on that hike. Follow us, and don't walk off the path."

Jimmy handed the two parents a black plastic remote shaped device hanging on bright red straps.

"These devices will give you any information on any thing you scan it with," Koki pointed the end at a nearby bush, and a blue light scanned it. After a second, the speaker on the remote sprung to life.

"Blueberry bush. They are usually erect, but sometimes prostrate shrubs varying in size from 10 centimeters (3.9 in) to 4 meters (13 ft) tall. In commercial blueberry production, smaller species are known as "lowbush blueberries" (synonymous with "wild"), and the larger species are known as "highbush blueberries".

The leaves can be either deciduous or evergreen, ovate to lanceolate, and 1–8 cm (0.39–3.1 in) long and 0.5–3.5 cm (0.20–1.4 in) broad. The flowers are bell-shaped, white, pale pink or red, sometimes-" (Blueberry – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

"And you push the red button to stop it," Koki flashed the remote in front of her to show them, "Now that that's out of the way, let's get going."

With that, she turned and marched past them, heading onto the cleared path. Jimmy hurried to catch up with her, and they fell into silence as the family behind them chattered amongst themselves.

"What's gotten into you today?" he raised an eyebrow curiously with a soft smile. Koki sighed, looking to the trees standing on either side of them, for once not noticing the little details of their surroundings.

She looked over her shoulder pointedly, referring to the family following them.

"Most of them are like that anymore. They think they know everything," she whispered, slowing down as one of the children stopped for climb on a small boulder excitedly.

"Well, considering that the only people who can afford to come out here are either filthy rich, or...well, even richer, that's sort of expected," he grinned playfully, and she elbowed him as a smile slowly found it's way onto her face.

"I guess I'm just getting a little frustrated at the same attitude, over and over," she confessed. He shrugged, brushing his red hair out of his eyes.

"Also expected."

"I just want some respect, for once, from the city people. No one seems to care about this out here."

"Maybe they're scared."

"Of what?"

He shrugged, his shoulders brushing against his long red hair, "I don't know. But...at least with you, people get all weird and stuff when they're scared of something that isn't a big, wild bear roaring at you."

She turned to look at him, slightly confused.

"What?"

He gave her a nervous smile, "All I meant was that, when what scares them is something like...um, let's say, um...change!"

"...Coins?"

Jimmy deadpanned for a second, then shook his head violently, "No, no, change change! Like when we moved to a new family when I was like, six? You started acting all weird with me, and I remember you saying that you were scared, right?"

Koki shook her head, smiling at him incredulously, "I'm not sure if you're remembering-"

"What I was trying to say is that people act different with different fears, like if it was a bear, you'd run screaming and so would this family, but if you're scared of change, then you act like all high headed and know-it-all and stuff," Jimmy shoved his hands deep into his pocket, bowing his head slightly as he wasn't sure how to continue without digging himself a deeper and more confusing hole. He wasn't the kind of person to deal with deep personal thoughts...or at least not the person to project them.

Koki, however, looked away, her brow furrowed lightly, as she thought over what he had said.

"I guess you're right," Jimmy looked up at her, relieved, "Except about the bear."

He cringed. Uh oh.

A toll booth.

A simple toll booth stood between her and the outside world.

Aviva stared at the gate to the outside world, surprised at the simple looking station as she drove up to it. A bored young man sat slumped in the chair in the booth, bouncing a basket ball off the wall as his black hair was ruffled by the back rest on the chair as he slumped further down into it.

"Please hand over your passport, permits, and driver's license," he droned, never taking his eyes off of the ball. She handed over the papers and with a sigh, he resignedly tucked the ball under his arm, grabbing the papers and scanning them into his computer. After a tense second for Aviva, he stamped something on her permit and her passport and tossed them back to her.

She raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him as he resumed bouncing his ball off the wall. The bar in front of her slowly raised up, and she gladly drove through, stopping just outside the booth.

With a disbelieving smile of shock, she opened her door and stepped out. In front of her, just a few yards away, stood the forest. Thick and dark, yet so much more colorful than the city, she stared at it. Tall and proud the trees stood, seeming as sentries to her, their branches lightly stirred by a light breeze, and harboring small birds that flitted from branch to branch, calling to each other with short, sweet twitters as she covered her mouth in awe. A small giggle escaped her mouth, and she slipped back into her car, reluctantly, to continue on down the road.

Never had she seen so many trees, so close together. There were parks in the city, but they were perfectly manicured parks that were tended to with pesticides and pruning shears, inhabited only by pigeons and a few dogs and cats that belonged to the caretakers. And perhaps a couple of shirking rats.

As she drove on the road splitting the forest in half, she watched the dense, wild forest fly by, and she felt a joy spread through her. A sense of satisfaction so strong and calming that she was surprised. Soon the park center crept up on the windshield, a small log building sitting widely on a section of the hill, with what seemed to be a watch tower built over it. She turned into the drive way, parking next to a bright pink limo. She chuckled as she stepped out, grabbing her backpack before walking into the center.

"Hello?" she called, straightening her yellow jacket. A glass window in the wooden wall revealed a small pond nearby and she grinned, excited.

"Be right there!" a voice called out, a woman's voice with an undertone that ground a little, and Aviva turned to see a small door in the corner of the entrance room, next to the reception desk.

Koki hurried out of the room she and Jimmy were setting up for the latest new comers, a tall tanned lady named something odd like Bonita Sonata, and another for her photographer, at the sound of a strong, yet girlish voice coming from the entrance. Opening the door and glancing towards the air conditioner to make sure it was cool enough, she stepped out to see a young woman peering into the reception desk, her thick brown ponytail hanging next to her dark skinned face.

"Hey, over here!" she smiled at the woman, who turned, surprised, and smiled back, white teeth splitting the pink lips.

"Hey!" Aviva glanced over the African-American woman in front of her, and was surprised to see the large Afro that she sported. With an appreciative smile, she thrust her hand forward.

"I'm Aviva Corcovado, journalist and head of the Varmitech Global magazine."

Koki chuckled, her freckled cheeks bunching up as she smiled, and took the woman's hand, "You're one of the few that actually introduces themselves. I'm Koki Banebridge, assistant director and tour guide here."

Aviva nodded, "Nice to meet you."

Koki turned towards the door, smiling to herself, "Nice to meet you too. Come on, let's get you settled in."

The water rippled around the reddish wooden paddle as it passed through the water, slowly propelling the small canoe forward. Muscles rippled as the paddle was pulled out and pushed into the water on the other side of the canoe, keeping the forward movement of the canoe from turning to the left. The man on the canoe kept the balance, tipping and moving to accommodate the soft waves moving toward him, pushing him back. The sun shone down on his bare back and arms, punishing him for some unknown ill, but the man smiled, singing the songs of old, in some forgotten native tongue, completely at peace with his surroundings.

He paddled past a village of sea houses, built on stilts to get somewhat further away from the water, although the people that lived there were almost a part of the water.

"He's here!" a child called out from the stairs that led from the porch on his house to the water, his call echoed through out the small village as he dove into the water to swim out towards the man.

Soon he was joined by his friends, children more at home in the water than on land, their hair cut short to drain the somewhat salty water faster. The young boy grabbed a hold of the side of the canoe.

"Hey!" the man smiled, and adjusted himself to accommodate the pull and balance the canoe, "How's it going bud?"

"Good! You have any more animal stories?" the gray eyes beamed up into the man's light blue ones.

"Aw, sorry, Ngaya, I can't. I'm on my way to the reef and my brother will kill me if I take longer than two days to get back."

"Aw," a collective sigh rose up from the children. The man grinned, and pulled a package wrapped in birch bark out of the canoe.

"Here! Maple sugar," the children gasped, and a girl swam forward and grabbed it, causing the other children to cry out.

"Dolkar!"

"Let us have it!"

With a laugh, the blonde girl swam off toward a nearby boat, running to find the nearest adult to hand out the sweet candy like treat, with the rest of the children on her tail.

The man grinned and continued on his way, singing again, his voice carrying over the blue expanse.

Miles away, past the shore and much further inland, another man slowly crept through the forest, his moccasin wrapped feet slowly stepping on the pine needles, not leaving a trace of his passage. His bow was slipped over his head, the bowstring tight against his bare chest and his leg occasionally brushing against the bottom tip of the bow as he walked. Over head, the dense forest blocked the view of the sky, and the man contemplated taking to the trees, but the sound of rustling nearby caused him to freeze, his every sense alert. The rustling continued and a small moose came into his view. A young cow.

He frowned, and continued on, ignoring the mosquitoes attacking him. He was immune to them anymore.

He turned and climbed into a tree, pulling off his moccasins and tying them to his breech clout. His feet gripped the branch and he slowly made his way through the forest through the thick upper canopy. After a few more minutes, he grinned.

A large moose, well past his prime was feeding in the stream, and the man's brown eyes quickly calculated his target. While the older males' meat was tougher and wiry, the moose population was experiencing a slight dip, and a more careful choosing of perhaps less appealing quarry was called for by the leading hunters in the area, and he, despite being a traveler and not of the area, respected the decision. Besides, if he wanted to see moose in the future, it required letting the right moose live today.

Crouching on the thick branch, he carefully pulled off his bow, notching an arrow into place, waiting for the bull to bend his head again to feed. Pulling back he aimed, and nearly released the arrow, but caught it at the last second with a gasp. The fumbling to grab the back of the arrow cost him his balance and with a cry he fell off his perch. The moose wearily lifted his head to look at him, raising an eyebrow in curiosity, or perhaps reproach. What respectable man fell out of a tree?

The man sighed and waved his bow in the air.

"Sorry, thought you were a wild one," he stood up and brushed himself off, glancing at a small scrape on his shoulder. The moose huffed and continued feeding, turning away from the man and showing the large mark on his flank, showing his ownership to be that of a nearby group of people. The man harrumphed at him, slipping his bow back on and continuing on his way, wishing he and his brother had something to trade for a domesticated moose, instead of hunting the wild ones.

The man now stopped rowing, leaning over the edge of the boat and judging the distance down under water. He breathed in slowly as he stopped singing and he slipped on a pair of handmade wooden goggles fitted with lenses cut out of a clear plastic container he had found. His breathing slowed, and he concentrated on each breath, slowing his heartbeat as he entered a trance like state. He slowly grasped the borrowed harpoon gun as he leaned over the edge of the canoe, taking one final breath as he plunged in.

Calm and collected, he turned, swimming down towards the bottom, feeling his chest being pressed in slowly and his abdomen being squeezed lightly. He swam further into the blue waters, seeing the ocean floor slowly near him and he reached down with one foot. Although he hardly realized it, the pressure of the water had already squeezed his lungs to one third of their usual volume. He counted his slow heartbeats from the moment he had submerged himself.

Sixty-three.

Two minutes.

He stepped on the sandy floor, stirring up a small cloud of the yellowish sand as he reached forward with his other foot, trying hard not to be blown over by a soft water current moving past him, and he walked along the bottom, fighting the water trying to sweep him away.

Even without weights, he managed to walk along, without giving into the buoyancy that the water gave him.

He felt an almost irresistible urge to gasp for air, but he moved on. He walked past a swarm of shining silver fish that dashed way from him, although they knew that a hunter down here wouldn't be looking for them. They were too small to be hunted with harpoon guns.

He walked along, noting with a salty smile that a lot of the fish populations were booming, meaning that the nearby village's hunting wasn't affecting the fish. He walked on, watching for the fish he had come for.

His feet scraped against the rocks on the bottom, gripping with his toes to stay put. His one arm flailed out, propelling him slowly forward. Slowly, he made his way among the fish, and he finally found his quarry; a medium sized grouper fish. It slowly made it's way through the budding coral reef, looking around somberly with his flat, bulging eyes.

The man frowned slightly, but raised the harpoon gun, fashioned to release a strip of tightly stretched material attached to the harpoon, in similar fashion to a crossbow. Taking aim, he pulled the trigger, releasing the strip which shot the harpoon forward and relaxed from it's former tensed position. The harpoon traveled fast, and the fish didn't even feel it's demise, something the man was grateful for. Swimming forward and giving into the water, he grasped the end of the harpoon and pulled it up, setting the fish afloat.

Eighty-five.

About two and a half minutes.

Turning, he swum upwards, pulling the fish, and making sure he hadn't forgotten the harpoon gun like last time, and he gasped as he broke the surface. Taking a deep breath, he slowly made his way to his boat, lifting the fish and laying it inside the boat, then climbed into it himself. The crystalline water rolled off of his back and arms like miniature waves and he settled himself into his boat, ready for the long hours of rowing back to the shore.

His dark skin blended into the shadows of the forest, and he walked quietly, leaving little trace of his passage. His bow was once again slipped over his head, resting mostly on his shoulder as he walked, following tracks left by a herd of elk.

He sighed, missing his normal companion and his talkative ways, but enjoying the day away from his pranks and constant jokes. Although he could admit to committing a great half of the pranks and jokes himself.

As his thoughts wandered, his feet continued on the path of the elk, and he nearly walked straight into a pack of feeding wolves. He, hearing a loud snarl, was jolted out of his thoughts, and froze, staring straight at a smaller group of the pack circling around a young elk calf, who cried desperately for it's mother, whom, he assumed, was the one that the pack had taken down. With an answering snarl of his own, he smacked a nearby wolf with the tip of his bow, standing in front of the frightened calf. The wolf, turned from the calf to him, giving him first a shocked expression, then an annoyed glare before sauntering off to the rest of the pack, followed by the other two wolves. Wolves had no quarrel with humans, as long as they had plenty of food and could run free in their wild habitat, so she let it slip.

The brown haired man relaxed, and knelt down next to the calf, who despite knowing that humans were natural predators, quickly accepted him as a temporary substitute for it's mother's comfort, which the man knew was an odd quirk both he and his normal companion bore. Wild animals often accepted them quickly into their safety zone. The man stroked her narrow, delicate jaw reassuringly, watching her large oval ears twitch in agitation as her large dark brown eyes flew around desperately. He sighed, smiling at her gently.

"Now what do I do with you? Hmm?" he gently scratched her chest and she huddled closely to his frame. He pulled up slightly, bending down to keep his arms around her, and walked them both away from the carcass and the feeding wolves, further from her source of distress.

Thinking back to the moose he had seen, maybe he could take her to the herders. He was certain they had an elk herd, and they would probably be able to set this orphan up with a surrogate mother.

"Well, come with me, girl. I think I might have the solution to both of our problems," he patted her soft tan head gently and stood up, herding her in the direction he was walking.

Responses to reviews!:

Waterfall13: Chap. 1 Lol, close, but the Kratts do exist in this AU. Just in a different way.

Guest 1: Chap. 1 Donita meant that Aviva should use green to make her eye color stand out more.

Guest 2: Chap. 1 Yes! Aviva meets Chris in this story! ^^ It's actually a very huge plot point we have planned, so don't worry!

Number 1 fan: Chap. 1 Haha, don't worry about us writing more, this is one of our favorite stories yet! Reviiiiieeeeeewwwwww! XD

ChrisKrattizcool: Thanks! Well, keep an eye out for them, they'll be appearing soon!

deep fathom: Chap. 2 Thank you! And yeah, they will! Eventually... ^^

Peachstar Kratt: Chap. 1-2 Lol, well, we've taken to writing with the music, it helps get the flow right...although sometimes it's hard finding music to fit the theme you're trying to write, lol! Congrats on your epic skills, hope to see more of them on the fandom!

El Zorro: First off...I tip my hat to your name. Epic. Lol. Second, we see that a lot of people are worried that this won't have Chris or Martin! o.o' 'XD Don't worry, this story wouldn't be in the WK fandom if it didn't have the Kratts! That would be...just...sorta...I don't know, wrong? Er...

SilverWaterBombadil: Always meant to ask you about your name...Anyway, Thanks! ^^ Here's the update!

So...what did you think? Sorry for being absent, our internet has pretty much died. We live in somewhat of a black hole. -_- But every now and then the internet comes through and we try to get on and reply and stuff. Also, our writing has been churning out a little slower as well. Although we're both immensly proud at both the speed and quality that we produced this chapter. *mumbles* Even if sis here won't admit it. XD Anyway, TTFN, and review please! ^^