OVER HERE! You'll probably have reached over 3,000 hits when you read this, yay!

I hope you enjoy this chapter. It was wrong of me to hope you would enjoy the previous chapter; even if you did. After all, when even the writer can't see the beauty of the order of the words; the last thing she should do is expect someone else to.

My apologies. Dui bú qi. Gomenesai.

Love & Hate

"Cold… Cold," Carly mutters, shivering.

The guard that had tried to drag her away to who knows where is far behind them now; and is probably still unconscious. Carly's more than glad to be saved, but the situation still isn't in her favour. She's freezing and damp, and that won't change anytime soon. Water is still running down the walls like a never-ending storm that rains misery down everywhere it touches.

"Hey," Akiza says. "Let's go. They're going back for Crow, but we should make our way out."

"I… I'm okay, I can wait," Carly stutters. "We can stay here…"

"We could be found here, we should go," Akiza replies.

"What?" the shadowed figure bellows, roaring irritably.

"It's as I explained," a recognisable voice says. "Carly is no longer under our palm."

"You have some nerve. Give me a reason why I shouldn't be done with you?" he snarls.

"Think as you please, but it doesn't change anything," she replies. "They have Carly, but we still have Selene under Sayer's control."

"Yes," he chuckles. "So make sure he stays on a tight leash!"

"As you wish," she mutters, perturbed; disappearing into the shadows.

The last of the guards disappear far behind the twisting, writhing walls of the tunnels. Here, the water is a metre high in the shallowest of places. Deep potholes in the ground make it a treacherous place to navigate as water continues to trickle in every second. It's a sure sign that outside, it's high tide.

"We're going deeper through these tunnels!" Crow exclaims.

"You can go back if you want," Jack scoffs, sarcastically. "Make sure to distract the guards while you're at it."

"We have to get back soon," Yusei comments.

Loud shouts begin getting louder and closer. Crow, Jack and Yusei hide behind the dark corners in the twisting tunnel. One of the guards comes into view, and, seeing no one ahead of him, looks to the dark corners. He starts heading towards them, but another guard grabs his arm.

Guard number two glares. "What're you trying to do? If you keep us looking around here, we'll all be drowned! We're going. Drown if you want!"

The first guard scoffs and leaves too. Crow, Jack and Yusei wait a little while before trying to find their way out. However, there's a lot more water than before, and the ground beneath their feet has become loose from the pressure of the water. They manage to make it to the end in one piece, and without running into any awaiting guards. Unfortunately, the water is still rising all around them, and it isn't in any kind of shortage. Ahead of them is a three-way fork in the tunnel, and they can't quite be sure which tunnel they came from. The three of them were running too fast to pay much attention to where they were headed.

"I think it was the right one," Crow says, frowning. "It might have been the left one though…"

"I thought it was the one too," Yusei replies.

"Just pick one already!" Jack snaps.

Suddenly, a small tidal wave comes rushing out from the left tunnel. They watch the tunnel spew out the water with concern. Hesitantly, they start to make their way into the left tunnel.

"Water… Isn't there a stop button or something?" Carly wails.

"No," Akiza replies. "There's an exit here. There has to be. The guards wouldn't get involved if they knew they'd drown here."

"Unless…" Carly frowns. "Unless they weren't told! I've been here a few days, and nothing like this happened. This might be a fail-safe that the guards weren't told about!"

"I don't think this is the time to be thinking up a conspiracy, Carly," Akiza sighs. "There has to be an exit around here…"

Slowly, and carefully, they make their way back to where the path they took diverged. Carly glances back at the dead-end they were at, and the slat of light shining down on the wet rock face. It really had seemed like they could have left that way…

Author's Note: I hope this is better for you. It's dull, but it's a lead in for the next chapter. I promise, I promise, I promise! Of course, I didn't cover Crow's duel at all. I really can't write duels, so I didn't include that, and went from after Yusei and Jack met up with Crow. Well, after they met up and were chased…

I wasn't listening to any songs to have influenced my writing this time. That might be why this chapter is so lacklustre. Of course, maybe it's because I'm a little dull and boring and plain, more so recently than usual. It's all the classical music I'm listening to! Haha, no, it couldn't be. I'll deliver much better quality than I had before next chapter. Or rather, I will do my utmost best in order to do that. If I don't succeed, then I'm forever sorry.

Crystal-Wolf-Guardian-967 : Thank you for your review! I appreciate it very much.

ilikechocolate! : Hello! I'm sorry for not really delivering last time. I was so disappointed with it that I got really down… I should have tweaked it a little bit more. Oh, and about the sequel, I haven't started writing it yet, but my head has been going crazy with crazy, crazy ideas! I think the quality will be overall better with the sequel, but, I can't guarantee anything. Thanks for your reviews!