A/N: Hola peoples! Here's a special update for you! This chapter is dedicated to a girl whose name I'd rather not say on the internet, but she goes to my school, her mom is my Math/Religion teacher, and she JUST FINISHED LEVIATHAN! YAYNESS! Anyway, CS, you know who you are. This update is all because of you.

Here's the next Deryn/Apocalypsia chapter. The next one will hopefully come soonish depending on stuff.

Note: during chapter A/Ns with (( )) are Bramblepool's commentage. Everything else is mine (CPG's). I believe it's just Bramblepool's here.

Hope you like it! Please review!

We own nothing!

Deryn woke up with her whole head throbbing. She slowly lifted her hand to her forehead.

"Hey! I see Sleeping Beauty's finally woken up!"

Deryn yanked her eyes open painfully to see the grinning face of Apocalypsia. (The face was like 15 feet away, but still, it was Apocalypsia.) Deryn groaned and shut her eyes.

"Yo Baka! Rise and shine!" Deryn ignored her. "How 'bout you try looking down, Mr. Sharp."

Deryn glanced down quickly. She almost screamed in surprise. She was lofting 10,000 feet in the air. London had been reduced to a handful of gray-brown squares, and the surrounding farmlands were a collage of greens, browns, and yellows.

Then it all came rushing back.

Why she was in the sky, Why Apocalypsia was here, and most importantly why her head was throbbing.

"What's the matter with you!" Shrieked Deryn.

"Why, Mr. Sharp, whatever do you mean?" Asked Apocalypsia innocently.

"You know very well what I mean, Miss Pandemonium." Deryn spat.

"Hmm, Miss Pandemonium…" Apocalypsia said thoughtfully. "I quite like that! For calling me Miss Pandemonium, Mr. Sharp, this will help with the headache that I have nothing to do with the cause of." Apocalypsia tossed a small jar at Deryn.

"What is it?" Deryn asked suspiciously, catching the jar before it hurtled to the ground, giving some innocent by-stander (well, technically under-stander) a concussion.

"An ointment for non-thrown-by-Apocalypsia-rock induced headaches."

Deryn cautiously unscrewed the green lid and gave the contents a cautious sniff. It smelled un-hurty. Ish. Deryn decided that her situation really couldn't get much worse so she dabbed a finger into the gooey substance and rubbed it into her forehead. It felt cool and refreshing. Not immediately dropping off dead, Deryn took more of the substance, and sighed as the pain finally subsided.

"Where did you get that stuff?"

"I made it." Replied Apocalypsia absently.

Deryn froze. "You made it?"

"Yeah. It surprisingly comes in handy a lot."

Deryn stared in wonder at the pack that the girl always carried around with her. "What else is in there?"

"The world may never know." Replied Apocalypsia mystically. "No, Seriously. I don't even know what is in there. I suspect I may have a colony of squirrels…"

Deryn shook her head, troubled. "What's in that stuff?"

"Mint, chamomile, lavender, valerian, willow bark, feverfew and essence of squid." Recited Apocalypsia.

"Well that's wonderful—Wait, did you just say essence of squid?"

"Yup." Apocalypsia confirmed.

"How do you even get the essence of a squid?" Asked Deryn, not necessarily wanting to know the answer.

Apocalypsia shivered and shook her head. "You do not wanna know."

Deryn shook her head. "How long was I out?"

"Meh." Apocalypsia shrugged. "Maybe fifteen minutes. Or two. I'm not good with estimating time."

Deryn frowned. That meant her time was (probably) up. She looked down, but the line leading to the ground hung slack. They weren't reeling her in just yet.

A shiver passed through the pilots rig, and Deryn saw a few of the tentacles around her clench, coiling like ribbons scraped between a pair of scissors. They were slowly gathering back into a single strand.

The Huxley was nervous.

Deryn swung herself from side to side, ignoring Apocalypsia, who was staring at her curiously, to search the horizon for whatever was spooking the airbeast.

Then she spotted it: a dark shapeless mass in north, a rolling wave of clouds spreading across the sky. Its leading edge crept foreword stealthily, blackening the northern suburbs with rain.

"Now that," said Apocalypsia, "Is most likely not a good sign."

Deryn gave Apocalypsia her best "you're a complete idiot" look. "No really? I hadn't realized!" She said in a tone dripping with sarcasm. ((Love that term!))
Apocalypsia blinked. "Wow. I thought you would have realized that by now. I mean it is pretty darn obvious."

Deryn ignored the girl, and waved a hand at the ground men. Could they see her well enough? But of course they would only think she was larking about.

"Bum-rag!" She swore, ((that 'swear' doesn't even make sense in the context! Deryn, You're such a failure at making sense… I mean Apocalypsia's no better, but still!)) and glared at the roll of yellow cloth tied to her wrist. A real ascender scout would have semaphore flags, or at least a message lizard that could scamper down the line. But all they'd given her was a panic signal.

And Deryn Sharp was not panicking!

At least she didn't think she was…

Then an idea came to her. "Hey, Apocalypsia. You can climb right?"

"Yeah…" Replied Apocalypsia cautiously.

"Then by any chance do you want to climb down and tell the ground men about our situation?"

"No." Apocalypsia said.

"Awww, why not?"

Apocalypsia thought about that for a moment. "Well, I'd like to say it's for some noble reason, like not ruining the story, but frankly, I'm too lazy."

"Seriously?"

"Look, I'm tired. No need to judge me."

Deryn stared at the blackness in the sky, wondering if it were only a last bit of night the sunrise hadn't chased away. What if she had no air-sense at all, and the height had gone to her head?

Deryn closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began counting to ten.

"Hey! This is not a good time for a nap, Mr. Sharp!" Screamed Apocalypsia.

Deryn snapped her eyes open, giving the girl a good death glare. Then she looked at the clouds. They were still there—closer.

The Huxley trembled again, and Deryn smelled lightning in the air. The approaching squall was definitely real.

She stared again at the yellow cloth. If the officers below saw it unfurl, they'd think she was panicking. Then she'd have to explain that it hadn't been terror, just a coolheaded observation that rough weather was coming. Maybe they'd commend her for making the right decision.

But what if the squall changed course? Or faded to a drizzle before it arrived at the scrubs?

Deryn clenched her teeth, wondering how long she'd been up here.

Her eyes darted back and forth between the rolled-up yellow cloth and the approaching storm, wondering what a boy would do. ((A boy would either completely panic, or be like Apocalypsia and be too lazy to have a reaction, Deryn.))

A/N: Hope you liked it! Please review!

Also, if you are over 14, go to Scott Westerfeld's blog (scott Westerfeld. Com- remove spaces) and e-mail your congress people to STOP SOPA AND PIPA! WE MUST SAVE FANFICTION!

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