One of the things I was actually looking forwards to, was seeing the sky.

Sure, I'd seen the simulations. Our holo-room had plenty different versions of the sky, and as foals we all made sure we were there for that presentation. We all sat around in our lined groups as our teacher switched between the different phases, dawn, day, twilight, and nighttime. The sky seemed to hold multiple different shades of my favorite color.

Blue was, and still is, my favorite.

Back then, the idea of "outside" was treated as if it were a fantasy land. Our teachers made sure to tell us that more than likely the outside world no longer looked like anything they were picturing here, but that it was important that we, as the next generation, remembered. How can we ever forget something so...essential? When they added the whole concept of weather, that was both exhilarating and frightening.

I have to admit, regardless of the warnings, I had way too much expectation. When I did finally leave the building after my giggle-fit, the very first thing I did was look up.

Nothing but rolling clouds as far as the eye could see. Everything was so huge.

I remembered thinking, all well. None of us could have everything we wanted, could we?

I would be a rich pony if I had a cap for every time I'd be telling myself that phrase in the future.

Poke. Poke poke poke.

This crap was really getting old.

With a drawn out yawn I rolled myself over, trapping my wings under my body as I blinked up wearily at a pair of brown eyes peering down to me, in a very similar sleepy manner. At least Karma was looking equally as tired as I was. Maybe our little conversation shouldn't have stayed up as late as it had, if her own random blinking had anything to tell about it.

"Come on, feather-head. We're already saddled up and ready to move out. I let you sleep as long as I could." She mentioned, whilst turning away from me to step towards the front of the inn. Standing in the doorway, she twisted her head about to look at me. "All of our stuff is packed up, just grab your blanket and we'll be good to go." With that said, she stepped outside.

Blinking away the sleep I awkwardly made it onto my hooves with a tiny shake to try and force myself awake further, lifting my wings and letting each stretch out to their full span before letting them lay across my back once more with a small feather ruffle. While rolling up my blanket with a hoof I glanced outside one of the broken windows and noticed that it was rather orange looking in the surface's strange form of daylight. My guess was, it had just officially hit morning hours.

Hoof-steps towards the stairs made me stop to notice that Tech was making his way down. On noticing me, he gave a sudden smirk. Folding his pale green ears down he snickered under his breath with a devilish expression crossing over his muzzle.

"Want to see something hilarious?"

"Um....sure?" I muttered back at him, in my rather confused state.

"Okay, okay...wait here." Lifting a hoof he motioned for me to stand there with a few gentle taps against the air before turning back to the stairs to make his way back up.

Tilting my head up, I attempted to draw my ears forwards in an attempt to hear what was going on. Other than Tech's quiet hoofsteps, there really wasn't anything else to notice, except for when they suddenly stopped.

All was quiet, for a matter of maybe a five seconds.

"CUDDLES!"

I nearly tripped over my own hooves at the yell, startling backwards.

"ARGGGGHHHHH!"

Barreling down the stairs, was a rather distraught black Unicorn. Cleave was bucking and jerking around even as he ran out the front door with Tech in tow, the pale green unicorn had both hooves wrapped about the other stallion's neck in a death-grip hug, cackling all the way through his trip out the door.

"The HELL?! Celestia-damn, Tech. Leave Cleave alone!" Came a muffled shout from outside that I believe came from Psych.

Light was currently laughing wildly in the background.

Tossing my blanket to my back with a shake of my head and soft snicker at the others antics, I allowed my wings to hold it in place as I followed the others outside. Both wagons had already been moved to point out of town, and the earth ponies of our group were saddled and hooked together. Karma was just getting the last line attached via Rainy when she looked over and gave a nod of her head in approval. Stan was standing with his eyes closed, getting a last snooze before we left.

Rainy turned to give me one of her usual smiles, her magic winking out as she gave a toss of her head upwards.

"Same place as before? Its nice having a better look-out."

At the same time, her magic switched back on to grab onto my blanket so that she could move it inside the wagon, causing me to startle slightly as the light weight was lifted from the top of my wings. I was still not very used to having magic used so close to my body. I did give her a nod though, and with just two quick flaps, I was finding my earlier spot atop the canvas with my front hooves dangling down.

Looking over the other wagon in front of us I could see the others already ready. Mist and Static were saddled, with Light and Psych standing near the front. Tech and Cleave made up the first wagon's side guards with Cleave obviously glaring down Tech whom was still smirking, and on looking down I saw that we had Rainy and Pyro as ours. It was not a bad formation to have, really.

Eventually, Light turned his head to look back at us, and I gave him a wave with a hoof as his teal eyes switched over to me atop the wagon. He gave me quick grin, and raised his head up further to yell back at us.

"Alright, my little ponies, time to move out!"

"Who in the hell is he calling 'little'?" Karma muttered below me, as she gave a small shove against Stan's shoulder to wake him up, just as the wagons started moving forwards with the audible sound of creaking and protesting wood.

"I think its just a phrase, dear." Rainy mentioned as she stepped further up to Karma's side.

"Well its a stupid one. Stan is far from little." This reply from Karma warranted a half-chuckle from Stan himself.

"If anything, you're the short one here." Came Pyro's voice from the other side of the wagon where he walked besides Stan.

"My ass begs to differ." Karma replied, with a slight laugh as she tossed her head with a tail flick, looking at the bright blue pony.

"Touche'" Pyro simply grinned at her before ducking back to the side of the wagon.

"You're not supposed to agree with me horn-head!" Karma snorted at his retreating.

Rainy gave out a soft sigh at their bickering, before looking up at me with weary looking smile, the bangs of her bi-colored mane sweeping across her forehead.

"Kids, can't live with them, can't live without them."

I gave her a return smile back as Karma muttered darkly to herself while Stan was doing his best not to laugh further by hiding his muzzle down against his chest. At that point Happy had decided to come to Karma's defense about childish antics with a high pitched whine inside the wagon itself.

Resting my head atop my hooves, I let them continue with their conversation and bickering. I was still rather tired from lack of sleep, and the sound of their voices slowly tuned into the background as I looked forwards, watching as we turned outside of the town at our leisurely pace. This really wasn't so bad, I thought. Things could always get----

Nope. Lets not go there.

I'll admit, I dozed for a decent sized portion of the morning atop the wagon. There was only so much wasteland a pony could look at before getting very bored. A dead shrub here, a tiny whirlwind of dust there. Fascinating stuff, really. At least you could look at clouds and pretend they made up different shapes when you were bored.

Eventually, the ponies below me had slowly quietened into simple pattering of hooves against the ground. Yawning I took a glance downwards to see my current quartet in similar positions as they had been a few hours ago. Rainy hadn't moved from Karma's side, and Pyro still trotted alongside Stan.

Raising my head, and looking up I grazed my vision alongside the mountains in front of us. Squinting, all I could really tell was that they looked like really large rocks. Which, is what I remembered having been told in cloud-school, at some point. Nothing very special, kinda pointy looking.

It was looking at these formations that completely missed the fact we were slowing down. Blinking, I looked to the front of our troop and noticed that we had been traveling alongside a broken down fence. At least, parts of it looked like it had been a fence at some point. In the distance, across a rather large span of broken down boulders sat a cabin looking fixture, with what may be a barn alongside it.

A hoof-wave from Light caught my attention, and he pointed at the structure as the first wagon came to a slow halt in front of what looked to be a sign.

"What does it say?" Karma mentioned below me. Looking down, I noticed her trying to look around the wagon in front of her now that they had been forced to stop along with it.

"Don't know, I'll go check it out." I answered, happy to have a reason to actually do something on this trip. A flick of the wings and a gentle curved flap had my body slipping off the wagon and into a swerve around the front wagon. Hooves to ground, and I was trotting off the flight-fall as my wings slipped back into their space across my back. Slipping around to the front, I noticed Light looking at the nearly broken down sign, while Psych was narrowly glaring at the cabin-like structure towards the middle of the field.

The sign itself, as I stepped to Light's side to get a better look, was in slightly better condition than the earlier sign had been. I found that it's preservation was due to the fact this sign was made out of rock itself. It had been square cut at some point, but weather has broken down its edges and it looked more like an oddly shaped boulder at this point. But at least the front was still rather solid, and held a flat surface that was only mildly pocked with chips, small holes, and cracks.

You didn't even need to squint to read the sign itself. The words still held a rather shockingly bright pink, in a rubbery looking thick paint that only seemed cracked in a few places. It was still very clearly readable.

Welcome to:
PEBBLE PIE FARM
Corporate group of the Pie Industry for quality Stone and Gems.
Pie Industry: Always a rocking good time!

Okay then...

Tilting my head towards Light, I watched him lift a hoof and light tap against the word "Gems" on the stone.

"That right there," Hoof-tap. "is a good enough reason to check this place out. Gems are valuable, and I think we can afford the quick stop. We should get the others unhooked."

"Already done." Came Karma's voice behind us. Light and I turned our heads about, which almost left me face-first in fluffy yellow mane, but it turned out that while we had studied the sign the rest of the group had already unhooked and was looking over to us. All except Psych, who stood near the fallen over gate that lead onto the property, and was still currently squinting over at the only two structures on the land itself.

"I am not so sure that is a great idea..." He muttered over at us, before pointing a hoof forwards.

The rest of us followed his hoof pointing towards a corner of the larger barn looking building, just about the time a small dust cloud darted out from the side. I squinted at first, but it was hardly necessary for what came next as the sound of grating metal filled our ears.

From the corner of the building, shambled around a vaguely pony-shaped construct. Even years of withering the elements still had the metal covering the machine in large blotches where it hadn't completely rusted away. In the spots that had, inside brick-red rings of rust were multicolored wires. They might have been neon at some point, if they hadn't been dust and dirt filled by being exposed.

The machine lifted it's head and looked directly over to us. A single red gem-filled eye socket all that was left beside the empty black hole of it's counter part. But, by the look of that gem still flickering, it could more or less still see. It could still see, us.

...and it was already headed in our direction down the little dirt path that led out to the road. At least it was dragging one of its back legs, making it even slower as it creeped forwards. It wasn't going to reach us any time soon.

"I really don't like the look of that..." Static mumbled somewhere behind me.

Well, neither did I, I silently thought to myself.

"If it was violent, it'd have already been trying to shoot us by now. I don't think it is an active duty robot." Tech mentioned, tilting his head as he regarded the machine. "Maybe some sort of farm hoof to help out? I figure a farm would need to have extra hoofs around during the war when everypony was so busy. At least, I know if I owned a farm I would totally have these things helping me out, I bet they looked totally badass back in the day and---"

"Karma," Psych suddenly spoke up, interrupting Tech thankfully. "Scan the area like you're supposed to, is there anything alive out there besides that?"

"I wouldn't technically call that thing alive..." Karma muttered in reply, before stepping out from behind the rest of our group to lightly trot to stand next to him. Lifting her left hoof, she lightly tapped against her pipbuck before squinting out at the land itself.

Nothing really happened. No little green light show or anything, and I was kinda disappointed. I'd never seen her actually use her pipbuck any.

"Nothing red. Nothing green. The junk-bot there is showing up as yellow."

"Somepony want to go say hello before it decides to go all red on us? Or just put it out of its misery?" Pyro mentioned, from where he stood next to Stan. "I can put it out of its misery."

"Hey! You live through two hundred years worth of crap in your front yard and see how well your looking after." Tech snorted in Pyro's direction, leaning over Cleave who flattened his ears against his skull with a half snorted sigh. "And what if we kill it only to find out it was linked to some sort of security system that may still be in place? If that thing is still kicking, I bet you anything else might be too."

During the mild squabble over whether just to shoot the thing and be done with it or not, the machine itself had already almost made it up to the gate where Karma and Psych now stood, and then it decided to stop. Lowering its head, it almost seemed to be peeking at Karma's right hoof.

"Um..." The mare mumbled as she looked at Psych, who only gave her a shrug. She glared at him for a moment, before turning to look in Light and mine's direction with an exasperated expression.

"It ain't shootin' us. Let it have a look see. Maybe you can get us a discount." Light smirked at her with a wink while the rest of us just looked on quietly, though I gently flicked a wing towards her and gave her my best 'I'm sorry' expression.

"For the love of...FINE." She grumbled at us before trotting to stand in front of the machine with a hoof-stomp of annoyance, making me cringe. Lets not tick off the half-dead machine pony, please.

The robot-pony though, gave off a series of clicking sounds before lowering it'd head even further and giving a nudge at her pipbuck. Karma snorted, as she technically was being prodded at. Eventually, a soft whirring noise replaced the clicks, and a beam of green light erupted from the black socket of its ruined eye with lazer quality. Darting over the machine attached to her hoof, it eventually clicked off, raised its head, and it's one red gem eye blinked wildly.

"'El-come back, 'ister Orange. 'ow-an I 'elp oo?" Suddenly sizzled from a hidden speaker inside the thing.

Oh dear Celestia, it can speak. Sorta. That was creepy as hell.

Slowly Karma slid her head back around over her shoulder and softly mouthed the word 'Mister Orange?' at us, with a confused look.

The rest of us slowly looked back and forth between us. Tech raised a hoof and waggled it in Karma's direction with a grin on his face, motioning for her to go on with a mouthed reply of 'Be Nice' from what I could read of the over exaggeration to the silent words. He then used both front hooves while leaning against Cleave still, whom still did not look very pleased, to motion across his face where he was grinning.

'Really?' was mouthed at us, before Karma gritted her teeth into a silent snarl, and turned her head back to the robot.

"Um...Stock. I would like to see your current stock. Yes, that. Please." Karma nodded with a sudden deeper sound to her voice, and gave the robot a forced grin.

Tech slapped a hoof onto his face and slowly ran it down with a soft groan.

"Eloquent." He hissed over at her after.

"I don't see any of you actually helping." Karma re-hissed in reply through her clenched teeth grin.

Old one-eye robot stood in place, blinking at the mare in front of it. Eventually, with a twisted grind to its front hooves it attempted to 'politely' motion for Karma to head on down the path. Losing a particles of rust in a movement it probably hadn't copied in a few hundred years.

"'is way 'ister Orange. 'orage is in 'ee barn 'era." It crackled, after.

"Um. Yes. Thank you." Karma replied, and slowly stepped around the robot, only to pause and look back at us. "Well? Who's coming with me?"

Stan had already moved to make his way around the robot as well, though that left the rest of us, with a slightly worried looking Rainy having been standing behind him. Suddenly a leg was being thrown over the back of my neck and I was being pushed forwards by Light, stumbling across my own hooves as I came bare inches from colliding with the robot.

"You next, Tech." Light said, after I sulkily made my way to stand with Karma and Stan behind the robot.

"Sure thing, boss." Tech replied as he made his way to the front. Static, whom had been apparently been hiding behind Tech and Cleave quickly trotted to be nearer to Rainy, who gave the light blue stallion an accusing huff. Static only gave her a grin as he fluffed out his chest, attempting to hide the fact he'd been...well hiding.

"Boss? Don't have to be an ass kisser." Psych mentioned as Tech moved past the purple stallion.

"Says the horse shoe calling the bit, black." Tech huffed back at him.

"That was one time." Psych stomped a hoof against the dirt. "One time!"

"That was one time too many." Karma snickered as Tech flung his tail back in a condescending flick and ignored the response.

"Come on you four, we rather not stick around here for too long." Mist suddenly mentioned. Walking out from behind Light, where he had...not actually been before, I don't think.

"We are trying to make sure nothing catches up with us any time soon you know." Light agreed, nodding his head to his companion as if he hadn't just appeared out of no where.

"Yeah, yeah, says the colt who wanted to stop in the first place..." Karma muttered quietly before stepping out in front and making her way up the path, with Stan following along right behind her quietly.

"Guess that leaves you and me, Cloudy." Tech nudged his nose against the side of my flank to get me moving, which worked rather well as I half-jumped away from the odd touch. Causing him to snicker at my response.

Weird touchy-feely stallion, I thought to myself as I quickly trotted to catch up with Stan and Karma, leaving Tech behind me. At least I knew I wasn't going to get randomly attack-cuddled by either of them any time soon.

"So, Mr. Orange..." I mentioned over to the mare leading us up the path.

Karma folded her ears back against her head with a sigh, and gave me a side-ways glare at the mention of the odd name.

"More than likely," Tech suddenly piped up, trotting up from behind Stan to walk along Karma's other side. "it is the registration of her pipbuck. They are hoof-me-downs right? Or did they have ponies that knew how to build them?" He lowered his head as he walked and gave the computer attached to her hoof an expression that one might almost call loving. "I would totally kill to have a working one of those, to have an accessible computer around at all times must totally---"

"I'm still not letting you play with it, Tech, but yes." Karma interrupted before giving a small outward kick of her front left leg at the stallion, causing him to shuffle sideways as we walked. He bit his lower lip and pouted at her, after.

"From what we were told, there were different areas of the country that the original founders of my vault were from, though a good portion of them came from Manehatten. Since there was so many ponies living there at the time. But, who knows." Karma continued.

During this time, we had made it up to the barn, to stop at its entrance. The color of the wood had long been stripped down to the usual blacks and browns that I was getting very used to seeing. One of the doors appeared to still be barely attached on rusty hinges, while the other was just completely gone. Blown away years ago, maybe.

Karma looked back over her shoulder towards where we had walked from, and when I looked back as well, I noticed that the robot has stayed where it was. I was sort of glad it had not followed us.

To our right, was the cabin looking house. It had not fared nearly as well as the barn itself over the years, and major portions of the roof had collapsed inside of the half-upright structure. The front porch was only half intact, and the doorway to lead inside was completely blocked by rotted wood and rubble. No one was getting inside there anytime soon.

A small beeping sound had me turning to look back to Karma, whom had lifted her right hoof to position her pipbuck's screen towards the inside of the open doorway that no longer obtained a door, leaving the other to continue to hang. The green screen brightened, allowing the rest of us to circle around her and try to get a better look inside the dark.

If I had thought the other robot wasn't creepy enough, the inside of the barn was far worse.

Only small pinpoints of orange-faded light made it through the pinprick holes of whatever metal made up the roof portion of the room, leaving the rest to be outlined in Karma's neon green. Rotted stables lined the outer walls, each either filled or empty with a series of different sizes rocks, pebbles, and even boulders in one. Though it was the middle of the room that was semi-uncomfortable to look at.

Two large machines, connected by a conveyer belt of sorts took up most of the middle of the room. To either sides of both the machines and the belt were similar looking robots to the one we had met outside. These pony machines were in differentiating stages of wear and tear, while some looked like they could barely stand on their rusted metal hooves, if they even had hooves left. One of the machines that seemed posed into a lifting position near a machine had both front legs missing, while it stood on the only two back legs it still had. Most, were standing near the belt itself, where only a few pebbles lay scattered across the decaying rubbery looking substance that covered it.

At least all of these machines looked dead. For the ones that still had their ruby socketed eyes, they were dull, lifeless, and covered in a layer of dirt and dust.

Karma made a sound mixed between the words 'Yuck' and 'Ick'. Stan was silent as ever, and Tech was practically beaming as he looked over the larger stallion's shoulder into the room.

"So many! I wonder what model numbers they have..." He gushed.

All three of us turned to look at him as a group.

"Really?" Karma asked.

"What?" Tech looked oblivious to our scrutiny.

"This isn't for sight seeing, we're after gems, not old machinery...."

"But..." Tech's eyes watered up. "They are so neat though..."

During their conversation, I had turned to look about the room once more, and ended up noticing a rather morbid aspect that I wish I hadnt.

"Um...Hey?" I lightly poked Karma's side with a wing-tip.

"What now?" She barked back at me, in frustration.

Without giving her a verbal answer, I twisted the poking wing about to point in front of us, towards the floor, closer towards the two machines and their silent rusted company. Karma pushed her hoof forwards attempting to give the spot better light.

Even through the green light, it was easy enough to tell that a section of the dirt floor held a lighter hue than the rest. One of the machines had partially leaned down over the section, and had a hoof stomped directly into the center of it. Surrounding that hoof, were particles of white stick-like material poking up from the dirt.

The hornless pony skull that was located nearby the discoloration was a clear sign as to what those white stick looking objects were. Inside of the skull's still clenched teeth was a stone that glittered when Karma moved her light.

"Well. There's a gem." I mentioned, halfheartedly.

Then it was my turn to get the 'really?' looks from the other three. Even Stan narrowed his eyes slightly from under his hat.

"Where there is one gem, there might be more..." Karma attempted to lift her hoof a little higher to see behind the machine towards the back, but it was too dark for the light to show any visible surfaces.

"Maybe they have some kind of different storage for them." Stan muttered softly in reply.

"Alright. Straight line in, straight line out." Karma said, before turning her head and giving Tech a quick glare. "And no touching anything!"

"Fine! Party poopers." Tech threw up his front hooves, before stomping them back into the dirt with a huff.

The sound of a rock shifting had all four of us startling at the sound from inside the barn. Maybe it was just a pebble falling from Tech's stomp, but it had caused all of my feathers to stick on end before I quickly forced them to lay flat once more. Karma let out a soft sigh after.

"I really, really don't like the feeling of this..." She muttered before slowly stepping inside, with Stan following. I darted forwards into the third spot behind him, which had Tech making up our rear.

Inside was no better than looking in from outside. Except inside felt cooler, from out of the dredges of daylight the surface even acquired. Slowly we made our way around the two inner machines so that we could stay away from the robots as well, leaving us walking near the rock-filled stables. From what I could from the closer look, not only did each cell-like area hold a different size of rock, but different shapes. Some being more round, while others were actually square looking, oddly enough. At least, that's what I thought, since we were still moving by the light of Karma's pipbuck.

I almost paused as we made our way around the area that held the bones to our left. But the two ponies in front of me seemed perfectly fine with ignoring the spot. I had seen some fairly gruesome things since coming to the surface, but I was still rather uncomfortable with the sight of death. No longer how long it had been ago, or how bad.

A fleeting image of a pile of rotting corpses fluttered into my mind, and I had to shake my head to get it back out. Stan turned his head about and looked down to me, as I finished the motion.

"I'm alright." I quietly replied to his silent questioning. It was getting easier to read the stallion. He gave me a nod, and went back to looking forwards as he followed Karma.

Eventually, we made it to the back, after I did my best to avoid looking at anything else other than Stan's hat in front of me. Even Tech had kept his word and his hooves to himself. Karma paused, and pointed forwards with her light-emitting hoof.

The three of us tilted to the side to look, and found that behind the machine was a long hose like contraption, or what was left of it. Most of the material had rotted away, but it did leave a clear path to another machine in the back. This one held a large cylinder drum looking thing, and under that, another smaller conveyor belt that led off to a wheeled bin at the end.

"I am going to be very annoyed if that's all we came in here for..." Karma muttered darkly.

"Like you weren't already annoyed in the first place, bitchy-bridle." Tech answered back, matter-of-factually.

Stan on the other hoof, had moved around Karma to stand in front of the cylinder, lifting a hoof and gently tapping the sheet of metal covering it. A half-hollow thunk was heard from inside.

"I think this is a polisher...which means there might be something left inside." He said quietly, while looking over the machine for a way to open it up. Lifting to his back hooves, he attempted to peer up over the top, but sadly was no where near reaching the rim of the drum. Eventually, he looked back at us, or more-so at me.

Getting the hint, I lifted both wings and and flapped into a hover. Stirring up dust around us, I was able to raise above the machine's drum and swished my front hooves through the dirt covering the top of it to see if I could find anything. After a moment, the tip of my hoof caught onto a small latch that had been covered, and with a few twists to that latch, I was able to pry open the top of the drum with a rather large creaking and groaning of metal.

Too bad it was way too dark to see anything inside it.

"Now what?" I mentioned back to the trio group still on the ground.

"Reach in and see what you find." Karma nodded at me.

I instantly backed my ears against my skull and glared at the mare. You have got to be kidding me.

"You got a better idea that gets us outta' here quicker, feather-head?" She innocently replied to my look.

Mentally I had to reminded myself that in other circumstances, I normally liked this mare. Just, not at the moment. At all.

Groaning, I lowered my right hoof in and reached as far as I could go. Which wasn't a lot, pray tell. But I did feel smooth stone rubbing against the bottom of my hoof as I swiveled it back and forth. After a few grunts and further reaching, I finally felt something colder and glass-like under my hoof, and I snatched onto it.

"Ah-ha!" I triumphantly yanked my hoof back out of the drum to look at my prize. Just a bit smaller than my actual hoof, a bright blue stone rested in my grasp, shiny and partially see-through.

"Look!" I moved to thrust my hoof down and show it to the others.

The others were not paying attention to me though, they had turned around at some point and were looking towards where we had been at the larger machines in the middle of the room. Blinking, I looked up to see what had caught their attention.

The robots had not moved, or so I thought at first. They still seemed to be in the same positions, except...

All of their heads, had turned in our direction. Even the one that had been partially kneeling over the old bones.

The one closer to our group, had both ruby filled sockets slowly starting to flicker, and a soft whirring noise filled the air before it was replaced with a similar static fizz we all had heard earlier.

"Un...thorized...Unau...ized...Unauthor..."

Author's Note

Sorry it has been so long, my few readers. But I have not given up on this story as of yet, and I do not intend to either. Even if I do have to struggle through chapters like these. I'll be honest, this long wait for this chapter was not only due to holidays and life reasons, but also because even though I knew where I wanted to take this chapter, I did not have a lot of the finer details that was allowing me to actually get it written down.

I like to think of this as a side-quest, chapter. I wanted a few more members of the group working together alongside Cloud, and Tech turned out to be a fairly good comedy relief I think.

I hope to have the next chapter out in fewer time than this one did. I really am so sorry!

Also, new cover-art to be expected soon as well.

Google Doc Link: Chapter 13