ElodieKumari94: Hello everyone!

Readers: *Glare evilly*

FallingStar93: IT'S NOT MY FAULT!

EK94: ...I take full responsibility. College was too busy, and, of course, I was the one with the notebook. Four states away from Star.

FS93: Since it has been six months since anyone has probably read this, here's a recap:
Elodie Kumari stumbled across a homeless girl, Naomi Mori, in the Satellite. Through a twist of fate, Naomi was pulled into the chaos when Sector Security tried to arrest Elodie, Crow, and the rest of the gang. Thankfully, only Crow was caught, but Elodie didn't want him to have to suffer in the Facility yet again so she came up with quite the twisted plan to infiltrate the Facility and rescue Crow. However, for the plan to work, they needed Naomi. She agreed under the promise that Elodie and Jack would break her best friend and her brother out as well. They got in and got Crow out without a hitch. Will their luck continue to hold out in Reunion?

Chapter Ten – Reunion

Ryan Mori sat cross-legged, right elbow resting on his right knee, chin resting on the fist of his right hand, deep in thought. Across from him, also sitting on the bottom bunk bed of their room, was his roommate and friend, Kyle. Ever since the Facility had come under new management, prisoners were allowed to keep their decks, and those whose decks had been confiscated in the past, had had them returned.

"Hmm… I guess I end my turn with a face-down," Kyle, a scrawny teenager with gold hair, stated.

"You're too predictable, Kyle," Ryan shot playfully. "I draw, then activate the End of Storm spell card. Say 'sayonara' to that face-down. And, now, Force Raider will take out the last of your life points, as well."

"Ah, man!" Kyle lamented, leaning back against the wall behind him. "I really thought I had ya for a minute!"

Ryan gave a short laugh. "Maybe next time, old friend; maybe next time!"

Suddenly the door to their room flew open to reveal a rather short guard. Ryan turned his head in surprise; about the only time that door ever opened was for meals or if you were in big-time trouble. "Ryan Mori?" the guard asked.

"That'd be me," he responded, standing from the bed.

"The warden wants a word with you. Several actually."

Ryan froze, a lump rising in his throat. Quickly, he gathered his cards, sliding them into the deck box on his belt; he never went anywhere without his deck. He glanced over his shoulder at Kyle, who just shrugged with a perplexed look on his face, as he followed the guard out of the room.

"We have one other prisoner to pick up before heading to the warden's office," the guard spoke.

Ryan nodded once. There was something off about this guard, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what that something was. In fact, this whole situation seemed off to him. He hadn't done anything against the rules, so why would the warden be calling for him? But he couldn't have simply refused the request; if he had, and the warden had truly sent for him, he would have just jumped from the frying pan into the fire. So he had no other choice but to follow this guard as they ascended the stairs to level D.

The guard stopped in front of a door with the number 27 written on the wall in white next to the door. Once again, he threw the door open to the surprise of the two occupants. "Alex Haru?" he asked.

Alex stood from the floor where he and his roommate had also been dueling. "Yeah?"

"Come with me," the guard commanded. "The warden wants to speak with you."

Scooping up his cards, he stepped out the door, giving a surprised look to Ryan. "You too, eh?" Ryan nodded. "Any idea what his is about?"

Ryan shook his head. "I don't have the foggiest."

"Can it, you two!" the guard snapped. Both boys instantly shut their mouths and continued to follow the guard to the elevator. The three stepped inside the elevator, and the guard pressed the button for the top floor.

Then it hit him: Ryan knew the warden's office was on the ground floor, so if they were going up, that couldn't be where they were headed. What in the world was going on?

A moment later, the elevator dinged, and the doors slid open to reveal a room with three of the four walls covered with computer monitors. In one of two swivel chairs, sitting with his back to them, was a blond-haired man also wearing a security uniform.

"Alright, Jack; we're gotta move fast!" the guard spoke in a strangely feminine tone. The guard pulled off his helmet to reveal a mass of brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. The he was a she! "This is Ryan, Naomi's brother; and her friend, Alex, by the way."

And then the man, Jack, turned around. 'Wait,' though Ryan, 'Is that Jack ATLAS? And what was that about my sister? This just keeps getting more and more confusing…'

Jack nodded. "Let's get going. We'll follow you, Elodie." He went over to the hole in the ceiling where the air vent used to be. Giving her a boost, he gave the instructions Naomi have given him earlier. "Go to the right when you get up there. There's only one intersection; when you reach it, go left. Other than that, it's all straight forward, then up." The girl guard, Elodie, nodded. "Alright, Alex, now you go."

"Not 'til I find out what's going on!" Alex stated firmly.

"We're getting you out of here, what does it look like?" Jack responded. "Now, let's go; we don't have a lot of time!"

"But why us?" Ryan inserted. "We don't even know you!"

"You are Naomi's brother, are you not?" Elodie asked from the vent shaft. "Look, I know your sister, and she's waiting for the both of you on the roof at this very moment. If we ever get there, anyway. So you're just gonna have to trust us and c'mon!"

Alex and Ryan glanced at each other before nodding once. "Alright, then give me a boost already!" Alex stated.

Naomi stood at the edge of the roof, staring out at the dark ocean, a strong breeze whipping her hair about her face. She hadn't seen her brother or Alex in over four years; what would it be like now? Had they changed at all since she had seen them? What would they look like? How would they respond to seeing her again?

Lost in her thoughts, Naomi didn't notice Crow lean against the ledge next to her until he spoke up.

"So… Uhm…"

"So… What?" Naomi asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I don't know," Crow sighed after a small pause. Naomi chuckled to herself. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. I just can't believe I'm standing here, on the roof of the Facility, with a total stranger right now."

Crow laughed with her this time. "Yeah. If you don't believe life has a sense of humor, it's times like these that can prove you wrong."

"I guess so," Naomi chortled. Then her smile fell, and she turned to face Crow. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you," she began.

"What is it?" Crow asked, slightly surprised.

Naomi looked him in the eye and asked, "Why did you save Elodie a month ago?"

Crow blinked in surprise; whatever he had expected, that wasn't it. How much did she know? "Uhm… You mean from the wall after her duel, or from Kalin, or…"

"Just everything. Why did you help her at all?"

"Well, why did you want to help her last night? She was in trouble, and I couldn't just stand by and watch her get hurt."

"But even afterwards, you stayed with her. You tried to help her. You tried to talk to her. She told me all about it, Crow. I want to know why you did it."

Crow was silent for a moment, pondering her question, gazing out across the harbor to the distant lights of Satellite. When he finally spoke again, it was in a low sincere tone. "Because it hurt me to see her so lost in the dark. I was like that once; alone and unwanted. I never want anyone to have to feel that way." Crow looked back to Naomi, his grey eyes piercing right through her green ones. "It's the same reason she wanted to help you. She's been through a lot, as I'm sure she told you, and now all she wants is for others not to suffer as she has. Elodie Kumari is one of the strongest, bravest, most gold-hearted girls I have ever, and ever, meet. Anyone who counts themselves as one of her friends can count themselves lucky."

Naomi thought about his words and smiled to herself. She had seen all of these qualities in Elodie as well, and it seemed as though Crow knew her deeply. "You know, Crow, Elodie is really, really grateful for what you did for her. She speaks very fondly of you."

Crow suddenly blushed bright pink and looked quickly away, biting his lip to hold back a smile. "Does she now?"

Naomi laughed at his failed attempt of sounding nonchalant. "Yeah, she really looks up to you. The way she talks about you, you'd think you were some kind of angel."

The expression on Crow's face only made Naomi laugh harder; the poor boy was so love-struck.

"The question is," Crow spoke, changing the subject, "are you just as grateful to her now?"

"Why should I be grateful?" Naomi snapped. "She hasn't done anything for me yet."

"Nothing but break you friends out of jail. And if she'd done what I have, then she'd done a darn lot more as well."

CLANK!

The two whirled around in surprise to find that Elodie had emerged from the air duct. Crow smiled walking over to her. "'Bout time! I was starting to worry about you guys…"

Elodie smiled back. "No worries! All we have to do now is fly outa here back to Satellite."

As the two exchanged words, three other figures climbed from the duct: The first two Crow didn't recognize, but the third was Jack. Before the bird duelist had a chance to figure out who they were, Naomi gave him the answer.

"Ryan?" she whispered, green eyes widening. The brown-haired boy turned towards her, their gazes locking. Time seemed to stand still; for a moment she didn't move, didn't even breathe. Then Naomi took a step forward; that step turned into a sprint as she quickly closed the short distance between them. "Ryan!" she cried, throwing her arms around his neck. She couldn't stop herself from smiling, laughing, and crying all at the same time as her brother embraced her back, holding her tightly as though he thought she might disappear if he didn't.

"Naomi," Ryan murmured, a tear sliding down his own smiling face as he held his sister. After five years of dreaming about this moment – the moment when he could see his beloved sister again – it was hard to believe she was really there, her arms vice-like around his neck, sobbing into his shoulder. Ryan pressed his cheek against her head, breathing in her familiar sent, savoring every millisecond of the moment. "Naomi…"

"Naomi!" the second prisoner exclaimed, staring at the girl in jubilant shock.

She looked up to find the voice. "Alex!" Naomi cried just as loudly a she had for Ryan, untangling herself from her brother's hold and throwing herself into his arms. Alex hugged her almost desperately, lifting her off her feet and spinning her around, laughing, and crying all at once.

"I can't believe you're here!" he laughed in disbelief, setting her down and holding her out at arm's length, looking her up and down. Wow, he thought, she was just as beautiful as he remembered.

"I can hardly believe it either!" she replied, her eyes sparking with tears as they feasted on him. Alex hadn't changed a bit, other than the wing-shaped criminal mark beneath his left eye, but somehow, it didn't take away from his handsome features. He still had those bright, laughing teal eyes, rather messy, light purple hair, that smile that could light up the world…

Ryan approached the two of them, his eyes also shining. He had changed just as much as Alex had. The three of them embraced again, rejoicing in their reunion after five, long, painful years.

"I missed you guys so much," Naomi whispered, tears falling down her face once again.

Crow watched the reunion with a wide smile as he tried the tears forming in his own eyes. 'Ah, I'm nothing but a big softy,' he thought to himself.

"Who said that was a bad thing?" Elodie whispered, and, the next thing Crow knew, she had thrown her arms around him in a tight embrace. Stunned, it took a minute for Crow to gather his thoughts together enough to hug her back. The two of them had been deeply worried about one another, and now that they were well out of harm's way, they felt the need to celebrate their own reunion.

Jack stood in between the two groups, looking from the trio to the duo, feeling very left out. "I hate to break up this little love-fest," he spoke loudly, his tone ill-tempered, "but we're standing on the roof of a prison. In case you haven't noticed, this isn't over yet!"

Naomi glared back at Jack. "You really know how to ruin the moment, don't you, Jack?"

"That's was he's known for," Crow teased, pulling out of Elodie's grasp. As soon as he looked down and saw the expression on the psychic's face, however, his spirits sunk and his face became very serious. "Elodie, what's wrong?"

Elodie's eyes were wide and alert, slightly pulsing gold. She whirled around and said in a low voice, "We're not alone." She was staring at a tall, wooden cupboard that had been abandoned at the edge of the roof. This was the first time any of them had noticed it, and now that they had, they saw an iron padlock looped through the handles. As Elodie strode toward if, she activated her duel disk and slapped down a card. In a shower of sparks, the Ax of Despair appeared out of thin air.

"Whoa!" Ryan exclaimed. "How did she do that?"

No one answered him. They were all watching intently as Elodie took the ax in both hands, held it over her head, and brought it down as hard as she could, the blade slicing through the metal like scissors through paper. Naomi gasped as the cupboard doors opened and two men, bound and unconscious, with bags over their heads, toppled out into Elodie's arms.

"Who the deck…" Alex muttered as Jack hurried forward to help Elodie, as she was staggering under the men's weight. The others gathered around as Elodie and Jack Laid the prisoners down on the roof, and Elodie hurriedly loosened the bags and removed them.

"The warden!" Crow gasped. "And the Sector Security Chief!"

One man groaned softly and his eyes slowly fluttered open. He was a middle-aged man with think brown hair and a matching mustache. His face was unnaturally pale, and there was a gash on his cheek along with a couple of bruises.

"What the…" he moaned. "Mr. Atlas? Ms. Kumari?"

"Who did this to you?" Elodie demanded as Jack hurriedly opened his pocketknife to cut the bonds around the warden's wrists and ankles before turning to do the same for the chief.

"One of the Sector Security captains," he answered heavily as the two helped sit him up. "I don't know his name. He came and challenged me to a duel." Hanging his head in shame, the man admitted, "I lost. It was a duel unlike any I had ever experienced. The damage was real."

"A psychic duelist," Elodie muttered.

"Then two of the guards aligned with him took me, bound me, and beat me unconscious. I tried to fight them, and those loyal to the city turned to fight as well, but we were outnumbered. There was nothing we could do…"

"It was a mutiny," Jack growled through his teeth. "Trudge warned us this might happen."

"A mutiny against what?" asked Ryan.

Crow answered, "The Daedalus Bridge. There are plenty of people in the City that would love to see it torn down instead of built up."

"Well, I've got news for them," Jack declared, getting to his feet and clenching his fist. "That's not going to happen! Not as long as Jack Atlas is around!"

"We've got to get back to Satellite and figure out our next move," Elodie stated urgently. She turned to the warden. "Can you stand?"

"Well enough," he replied stiffly, using Elodie for support a he climbed unsteadily to his feet. "Someone has to contact the Bureau, let them know what's happening."

"I tried that the moment Elodie warned us what was happening," Jack said. "But whoever's behind this had jammed all communications to them."

But the warden shook his head. "There is one way left. There's an emergency transmitter hidden in one of the warehouses on Satellite. Only the highest ranking officers and myself know about it." The Warden was breathing heavily and a cold sweat beaded his brow as he leaned against Elodie, who struggled to support him. "I don't know if I can there, though. Those cursed traitors really did a number on me. I don't know what happened to Charlie here," he continued, nodding at the still-unconscious chief, "but I doubt he's in any condition to fight."

"Can you tell us where it is?" Crow asked. "And how to use the transmitter?"

"It's in Warehouse B39 in the Southern District, but I doubt you could use the machine," the warden replied hopelessly. "Unless any of you happen to know Morse Code."

"Morse Code?!" Jack cried. "Are you serious? I didn't even know that still existed!"

"I don't know Morse Code," Crow sighed, scratching his head. "Elodie?"

Elodie shook her head in despair. "No. This is just perfect."

Naomi, Ryan, and Alex exchanged glances. Elodie turned to them slowly, sensing their feelings through their auras. Her eyes were wide and hopeful as she asked, "Do you three know Morse Code?"

Naomi smiled. "It was our secret way of communicating in the old days. I think I still remember how to use it."

"Would you be willing to help us out then?"

"Would I have said anything if we weren't?"

"We owe you guys, big time, for breaking us out," Ryan smiled, putting an arm around his sister. "This seems like a way as good as any to return the favor."

"Definitely," Alex agreed. "Not to mention that it's been five years since we've seen any excitement!"

"There's a password you'll need to know to activate the transmitter," the warden spoke up. "It's four letters: M-U-T-O. You have to know it forwards and backwards."

"M-U-T-O," Naomi repeated, committing it to memory. "Got it!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Jack shouted. "Let's get a-move on!"

Suddenly, red lights began blinking along the edges of the roof and a wailing siren split the night air. The gang on the roof cried out in alarm, clapping their hands over their ears to drown out the noise.

"What's happening?" Elodie yelled over the noise, her eyes wide and fearful.

"They must have realized prisoners have escaped!" the warden shouted. "They're sounding the alarm!"

Just then, spot lights that were set up on the edges of the roof turned on, the bright beams sweeping over the city below like giant eyes. There were more sirens and the screeching of tires along with the tell-tale whip-whip-whip-whip of a chopper. Crow moved to the edge of the roof and looked down to see a couple of helicopters taking off, heading towards Satellite followed by several police cars and runners. He could hear the security cops yelling from where he stood.

"It looks like they're sending out the whole force!" Crow called back to his friends. "How on Earth are we gonna get out of here now?"

EK94: Dun-dun-dun!

FS93: We promise it won't take six months to update from now on! I have the notebook now. (:

Both: Please review!