So far, I've been able to stay rather consistent with updating my books. I have three ongoing ones right now. I wonder how long that will last...
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"It's okay, child. Everything will be fine. Things will work out but you just have get through the hardships for now," Eun said as she attempted to stop Ara from crying as she sat in the middle of the bed with the covers wrapped around her. Yes, Ara was crying but she was locked in the room that she was supposed to be sharing with Add. "I should have done something then. I saw him there. I could have saved him but I...I'm so useless sometimes," Ara muttered as she cried.

It was true, she had woken up a bit earlier that Add, an entire day and a half to be exact. They'd been in a cell along with Owen while Eve was deciding what to do with them. She had apparently already made plans for Add and Ara had happened to wake up just as a pair of nasods were about to take him away. They had the cell open and everything, one of them with Add unconscious over their shoulder and the other about to close the door and lock it once more.

Ara had practically ordered Eun to lend her powers as she lept up without hesitation. The nasods that were taking Add away had been startled and one had quickly closed the door and locked it before Ara could get to it but she instantly reacted, using Eun's power to cleanly scratch the bars. Ara lashed out on the first nasod that was surprisingly able to hold its own against her for about a minute while the other one got away with Add. Ara considered that pretty good for a simple prison guard nasod but she hadn't taken any longer than a minute to deal with it.

That was enough time for the other nasod to get a good short distance away from Ara which she had covered rather easily. She didn't want to harm Add so she did a backflip over the nasod while it was escaping and landed right in front of it, striking it in its nasod core the moment she identified it. The nasod crumpled to the ground and Ara caught Add before he got anywhere close to touching the floor but there was a problem.

Owen was still there and probably still unconscious and alarms had begun to go off. The other prisoners around them began to beg for Ara to set them free but they were all nasods and Ara had a priority. "Add! Add wake up! Come on, wake up!" Ara had said as she lay Add down and lightly slapped his face but she got no response. Instead of wasting time, she rushed back to where Owen was, bringing Add with her and got Owen to wake up. He was quite frightened but understood the situation as Ara began to drag him out of the cell.

It was then that the Code: Track_01 showed up, three of them, and they didn't waste time in taking action. "Quit thinking of the past and focus on what you can do in the future or even now. You've gotten stronger despite that healing wound of yours and you've managed to learn some good techniques while keeping some of them a secret just in case," Eun said. Ara winced at the mentioning of her nearly fatal wound. The Code:Track_01 had done it to her. She was frantic with her movements at the time and had successfully outmaneuvered two of them only for the last one to back up and slash her with its merciless blade.

She had been trying to reach Add for he had been stolen from her once more. If Owen had not been there to defend her and the Crow Mercenaries hadn't already been there to help them escape, Ara might have died. "Eun, it's been almost a week now. Proto won't tell us where he is and she already can't be trusted. What if she's lying about Add still being alive?" Ara quietly said. "What did I tell you aboit thinking like that! Don't make me take over and force you to reflect on happier thoughts. I still have plently more memories that I can show you," Eun scolded.

Ara sighed. She was feeling pretty bad about everything and truly wanted to save Add and just go home. Raven and his group had started to become even shadier and Ara had experienced a couple more assassination attempts but never had any proof that it was Raven's group's doing. So far, Ara had gone on every mission that Raven and his team went on which was every day since Ara was rescued. The first was a rescue attempt for Add which failed horribly. The second was an investigation of the underground city's electrical borders that Raven said should hide the underground city from the nasods in the Code: Track_01 prototype group.

They were beginning to fail and it was likely due to interference of some sort. The third and fourth missions were to simply preparation for the fifth mission. Ara helped steal some things from Altera city so that they could plan to assault the castle on the fifth mission. The fifth mission had gone pretty decently with Raven returning with what he said would be the key to saving Altera, a single code card that was supposed to automatically be inside the mainframe of Altera Core. Proto was to put a code on it that she believed would stabilize the core which had been becoming unstable for a while now without Altera's residents knowing.

Speaking of Proto, Raven still allowed the treacherous nasod into the underground village. Ara knew that it had to do with something Raven was hiding but Raven had played things off saying that Proto was a double agent and both sides knew it. They had no choice but to allow her back in for she knew things about both sides that she could use for blackmail such as the underground village's location or the codes to Altera city's entire security system. In other words, Proto was under protection by both of her enemies.

"Are you feeling better now, child? You are unbearably quiet and it worries me," Eun said. "I...I want Add back," Ara whispered as she began to shed more tears. "No, don't cry. Please don't cry. This is not the time for that. Use your situation to your advantage. It's nighttime again and you didn't get a sixth mission today so you can rest and use that as your excuse to do some exploring. You've always wanted to find out what Raven has been hiding from you. Now's your chance," Eun said.

Ara considered the fox's words and found it to be a pretty decent idea. She dried her tears and got out of her borrowed night gown and changed into her outfit that was made for a fighter like her. "I might as well. I've been training every night anyway," Ara said to herself rather than Eun as she changed and retrieved the spear that was given to her after her return. It wasn't as good as she preferred it to be but it was better than nothing.

"It's best that you not take your spear. You're focusing on stealth, remeber. It will get in the way," Eun said. Ara nodded and left it there before heading to the door. She opened it as soundlessly as possible and walked out into the hall. No one was awake or watching out as usual and Ara now knew this was because they wanted Ara to leave so that they can make their assassination attempts. Ara slowly walked down the halls, still sort of sulking about losing the last person she could trust. Eun was still with her but it wasn't the same.

"Hey, Eun. I'm still feeling out of it. Can you take over and do some searching for me?" Ara thought. "Gladly," Eun answered. Ara relaxed a bit as she sunk into unconsciousness. She felt all of her worries vanish but it suddenly scared her for she thought of forgetting Add and she panicked. Worries that she didn't even know she had returned to her as Ara was forced into consciousness agin. She found herself crouched down behind a crate which truly confused her.

"Don't move and stay silent!" Eun's voice suddenly commamded. Ara did exactly so, still panicking a bit. "I did some searching just like you said and I found this underground passageway under Seris' tent. I was able to get you this far but you'll want to hear this. I think they're discussing something important," Eun said. Ara nodded as she began to calm herself. "I'll be guiding you on ahead but be careful. Seris, Raven, and Proto are all here talking around some sort of machine. If my guess is correct, it's the machine allowing them to retain their memories despite the timeline being reset so many times," Eun said as Ara peeked around the side of the crate that she was crouched behind.

"Quick, use Shadow Walk. It should buy you enough time to get a good amount of information without being noticed," Eun said as Ara crawled from behind the crate. There were several others in the tunnel and Ara used Shadow Walk to hide herself before she became potentially visible. "Just go up ahead and you should get there. Hurry. Your time is winding down," Eun instructed as Ara quietly darted down the tunnel. She saw the lighted area and entered a room of sorts where a machine, a very nasod-like one, occupied the center.

Raven and Seris were talking to Proto while they did whatever they were doing to the machine. "This is it isn't it. This is what Add built. They said they didn't know where it was! I knew they were lying!" Ara angrily thought. "How will we do that though. Add is still in Eve's custody and we won't be getting him back. Eve won't allow it based on what you've told us. If the experiments are successful, he'll become an asset to her that she won't want to let go of. Besides, he wouldn't know about it since he'd be in Altera," Seris was saying.

"That does indeed pose a problem. Perhaps you can alter Add's memories again but make him forget about Ara this time. Adding the factor in that you instructed him to have the timeline reset in case of his capture, you could succeed and reset everything rather easily," Proto said. "I don't get why you don't understand this. Add refuses to forget Ara. We've treid to erase his memory of her before on several occasions but he always manages to remember her. It's impossible to erase her from his memory," Raven said rather angrily.

"Raven, hey, calm down. We'll figure this out," Seris said as she took Raven's hand. It had become painfully obvious to Ara that they were in a relationship. Raven actually showed a look of concern. "If we can't figure out why he keeps resetting the timeline, we'll never move on past this event. We'll never be able to live our lives. I'm sure Ara knows that we're hiding something and I have no doubt that she hasn't placed any real trust in us since her arrival. She is the only factor that I can't figure out. She's the reason why Add keeps having time reset itself and it bothers me. I can't read her very well and Eun doesn't help. If we can't stop this time reset...we'll never be able to free everyone," Raven said in a rather distraught way.

"I too wish for this time reset to stop. If Add had never included us into the loop of memory recollection, we would have never known that our lives remain halted by this series of events. If we could try again to figure out how to stop this, it would be best. What do you suppose we do about Ara?" Proto said. Raven stayed silent for a moment and looked at Seris. "We'll just have to kill her again. Add said that Paradox won't reset the timeline for any other reason since Add refuses to move on without her. Kill her in her sleep," Raven said.

Ara, sort of shocked by Raven's answer, nearly released her mana by accident but Eun stopped her. "Get out, quickly! Your time is almost up! We have to get you out of here," Eun said. "Wait. If she is awake, it would be best that we keep her alive. Add has been requesting her precense saying he won't answer our questions until she is brought to him. I know resetting the timeline is your preferred choice but if Add is willing to answer any of our questions if we simply bring him Ara, we can use this as an opportunity to ask him whatever we want to," Proto said.

Ara froze in place at the mention of Add's name. "Ara, don't you dare! Leave now. You're time is running out!" Eun growled as she tried forcing Ara from her spot but Ara faught her control. "What if he doesn't have the answers to our questions?" Seris asked. "Then we kill Ara in front of Add to have the timeline reset just like you wanted. It would be a win for the both of us," Proto said. "That's only if Ara is awake. I agree. Seris, you check on her. She trusts you more than she does me," Raven said.

It was then that Ara's stealth affect timed out, revealing her presence. Raven and Seris immediately went on the deensive, both drawing their weapons. Proto was surprised by Ara's sudden appearance. "I told you to leave!" Eun practically shouted. Ara, fueled by adrenaline and fear, immediately darted back out of the room. "Eun, get me out of here, please!" Ara said not caring if her words were heard. "Capture her!" Ara heard a voice say but she was already slipping into unconsciousness as Eun took over and couldn't tell who had ordered her capture.
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So it took a bit longer than I thought to get this done but I finished the chapter, yay! Until next time you amazing readers!