Chapter Twenty-Five (the last chapter!)

Madison Anabel Fisher sighed, and fell into Tatsuya’s arms.
“Hey, are you all right?” Tatsuya asked her.
“Yeah,” she said, panting. “I was just so afraid I lost you there for a moment. You looked so tempted by all of his offers.”
“I told him my world wouldn’t be perfect as long as he was in it,” Tatsuya said. “But it also wouldn’t be perfect if I didn’t have any of my friends of family.”
Madison Anabel Fisher smiled at him, and Tatsuya hugged her close with his bloody hands.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I can’t believe I could forget someone like you. I just want you to know that if you were still in my life after that accident, I would never become someone like Maddy. It was my parents, Tatsuya, they wanted me to be their perfect child, and I became a person that you would totally disapprove of.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tatsuya said. “Nothing was your fault. So you don’t have to apologize. I should be the one apologizing. I’m so sorry you got dragged into this whole mess. You could have been killed.”
“I guess it was just Madison Anabel Fisher,” Madison Anabel Fisher said with an odd smile on her face. “She couldn’t let her friends down.”
Tatsuya’s grin faded, and he looked down at his shoes and Madison Anabel Fisher’s bear feet. “And I’m sorry about Darren,” he said.
“You couldn’t control that, either,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, breaking away from Tatsuya’s hug. “You had no idea about any of this dragon stuff, and you didn’t know you had the power to kill him.”
“But I’m sorry that we still have no idea how we’re going to cure him,” Tatsuya said. “Remember what Kaida said—there literally is no possible way that we can help him.”
Madison Anabel Fisher shrugged. “I’m sure we’ll find a way. Until then all we can do is hope.” She sat down on the cold stone, and Tatsuya followed her. They sat there in complete silence until the leaves began to fall from the trees into the ceiling-less sanctum. Once there was a thin layer of red leaves on the ground, Tatsuya heard Kaida overhead. She landed, causing all the leaves to jump for a brief period of time before gently falling back down onto the ground.
“Kaida,” Tatsuya said, climbing onto her back and helping Madison Anabel Fisher up. “Could you please take us home?”
Without any other movements, Kaida lifted herself and her two passengers into the clouds, and they began to fly with an incredible speed through the thin air.
Throughout the flight, Madison Anabel Fisher had fallen asleep on Tatsuya’s shoulder—the one without the burn, thankfully—and Tatsuya allowed her to just sleep through the ride, which worked out perfectly considering Kaida flew quite smoothly.
The landing was a bit rough, so once they were on the road again, Madison Anabel Fisher woke up with a jolt.
Kaida was back into her human form in no time at all.
“Here,” Tatsuya said, giving the pendant to Kaida. “This doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to you.”
“Thank you, Tatsuya,” she said, accepting the pendant, and tying it around her neck again.
“Hey, Kaida, do you have any idea what time it is?” Tatsuya asked.
“It’s about ten in the morning,” she said.
Tatsuya swore under his breath, and ran towards his front door. He opened it, and saw an angry little sister there waiting at the door. Her expression quickly changed, though, from anger to worry.
“Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “Tatsuya, what happened to you? You look all beat up and… what did you do? What did you two do?” she said, moving her glare to the two girls at Tatsuya’s side.
Tatsuya put his arms around his little sister. “Kimi, I love you so much. And I kept my promise. Every thing is going to be fine now.”
Kimi’s expression changed again, but now she looked utterly perplexed. “I love you, too, Tatsuya… and I was worried you had gone off and done something bad again. But I’m glad you’re home.”
“I’m glad I’m home, too,” Tatsuya said.
Madison Anabel Fisher gasped. “Home! I completely forgot that I had to go home! My parents are going to be so pissed at me!”
Tatsuya let go of Kimi, and slowly walked towards Madison Anabel Fisher.
“Madison Anabel Fisher,” he said closely. “That is who you are, right?”
She nodded, unsure of where Tatsuya was going with all of this.
“You’ve got to tell your parents that,” he explained. “You’ve got to tell your parents who you really are, and that you’re not some sort of perfect robot that’s going to do whatever the hell they say. You’re Madison Anabel Fisher, a thinker, and a brilliant person, and my best friend. If they don’t approve of you, then they have no right to call themselves your parents.”
Madison Anabel Fisher swallowed a lump in her throat, and then nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “You are absolutely right. Do you think you can come with me?”
“Of course.”
Tatsuya and Madison Anabel Fisher began to walk to her house, and they barely noticed Kaida trailing alone closely behind them.
They arrived at her door, and Madison Anabel Fisher opened it ever so carefully so that it could make the minimum amount of noise. But her parents had noticed that she was gone, they had noticed her absence. They stood there by the door way, arms crossed, looking fiercely down at their daughter.
“Where have you been?” Mr. Fisher asked her. “And what have you been doing? Why were you with this boy?”
Tatsuya glared at him, but said nothing.
“What happened to you?” Mrs. Fisher said, worried out of her mind. “You’re all bruised and bloody… what has this boy been doing to you?”
“He has shown me the light,” Madison Anabel Fisher said with an odd tone of confidence behind her words.
“The light?” Mr. Fisher repeated.
“Mom, dad, my name is Madison Anabel Fisher, and this is my best friend Tatsuya Gray. We were best friends since we were babies, and we learned so much from each other until we reached the age of five. Because of unforeseeable events, we were separated, and I completely forgot about him, allowing you two to brain wash me into being your perfect little robot.”
“Maddy, I—”
“Don’t call me that!” Madison Anabel Fisher snapped. “I never liked it when people called me that. I was just too dumb to notice it for most of my life.”
Mrs. Fisher frowned. “You know I don’t like this, dear.”
“Yes, I know you don’t like it, mom,” she continued. “But this is who I am. This is who I was born as, this is how I lived and thought like for the first five years of my life. And it’s not like this is a bad thing, look at Tatsuya, he’s a brilliant, amazing, intelligent young man, and it’s all because of who he is. If you just allowed me to be who I truly am, I could have gotten so much father than I am now. Maybe it would’ve been in a bad way, or maybe a good way. But I’ll never get to know because I never had that opportunity. The opportunity to be myself.”
Mr. And Mrs. Fisher stayed silent.
“I hope you’re thinking about how ashamed you’re feeling right now,” Madison Anabel Fisher scolded her parents.
“We are,” Mrs. Fisher said. Mr. Fisher gave her a glance of shock. “Madison Anabel Fisher, as you like to be called now, you’ll always be my little Maddy. And I suppose we have forced you to do some unnecessary things. And I’m sorry. And Tatsuya,” she turned his head towards him, “I’m sorry for all the horrible things we’ve said to you. Even those horrible things we said ten years ago.”
“It’s all right, Mrs. Fisher,” Tatsuya said. “I forgive you.”
Mrs. Fisher smiled.
Mr. Fisher looked at the two children in a regretful manner. “I have no control over this,” he said. “I suppose there’s nothing I can do.” He said nothing more, and turned around and walked into his house.
“Mom,” Madison Anabel Fisher spoke, ignoring her father, “don’t worry about him. He’ll come around eventually. But there are still a few things I need to take care of, so do you mind if I come home in about an hour?
Mrs. Fisher nodded, and Madison Anabel Fisher smiled and hugged her. “Thanks, mom.”
“It’s all right, dear. Just take care of yourself. I don’t exactly like it when you come home with blood gushing out of your head.”
Madison Anabel Fisher closed the door, and walked down the steps away from her front door.
“What things do we possibly have left to do?” Tatsuya asked.
“We’re going to go visit Darren,” she said. “We’re going to see how he’s doing, and see if we can find a cure for whatever it is he has.”
Tatsuya glanced at Kaida, who didn’t have any expression on her face, and then back at Madison Anabel Fisher. “I agree,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Together, the three of them walked through the bright, hot streets until they reached Darren Morris’ house.
Madison Anabel Fisher knocked on the door, and Mrs. Morris opened it.
“Hi, Mrs. Morris,” she said. “Do you think it’s possible for us to see Darren?”
“Yo, my peeps, what’s going on?” called a voice from inside the house.
Mrs. Morris smiled, and allowed the three of them inside.
“Darren!” Madison Anabel Fisher squealed. She ran up to him and practically jumped on him as she put her arms around his neck and gave him a small peck on the cheek. “You’re okay! And you’re out of bed!”
“You better believe it, babe,” he said. “It has to take much more than just a couple of heart problems to put Darren Morris out of function!”
Tatsuya raised an eyebrow, and glanced quizzically at Kaida.
Kaida shrugged. “It is possible. Sometimes if the individual is strong enough, the problem eventually subsides. Darren’s heart was just able to handle such a horrible thing happening to it, that he was able to survive.”
Madison Anabel Fisher jumped for joy and clapped her hands. “This is so great, I’m so happy you’re all right!”
“I’m more than all right, babe, I’m Darren!”
Tatsuya scoffed at Darren’s insane attitude.
“Hey!” Darren said, letting go of Madison Anabel Fisher and holding his hand out to Tatsuya. “Yo, Tat, my main man! How are things going? Have you missed me?”
Tatsuya smiled at Darren’s goofy gestures, and clasped his hand in Darren’s. “Yeah, whatever, I guess I missed you a little bit.”
“All right! And it’s this chick! Kaida! Gee, I don’t know you that well, but it was awfully nice of you to come over here.”
Kaida didn’t say anything, but simply nodded.
“Listen, man, about being so annoying before…” Darren started, his voice low so that only Tatsuya could hear.
Tatsuya shook his head. “Don’t even worry about it, man. All that stuff I said to you… let’s just completely forget it happened. We can start over.”
Darren smiled his stupid smile. “Awesome. Thanks, bro, you’re pretty cool.”
“And you’re pretty cool yourself.”
Kaida tapped Tatsuya on the shoulder to catch his attention. “I hate to break up your little reunion,” she said. “But there is one important thing I need to tell you.”
“What’s that?” Tatsuya asked.
“I have to go home.”
“Home?” Tatsuya repeated. He had thought about how silly this sounded. He didn’t even know where Kaida had been staying while she was here. “What do you mean by home? Where do you have to go?”
“All the way home,” she said. “I can’t stay here any longer.”
Tatsuya raised his eyebrows, looked over at Madison Anabel Fisher, and back at Kaida. “Darren, could you excuse us for a second?”
“Go ahead,” Darren said.
Tatsuya jerked his head to Madison Anabel Fisher, beckoning her to follow him. They all walked out of Darren’s house together, and Tatsuya gave Kaida a serious look.
“What do you mean you have to go home?” he asked.
“I have no reason to stay here any longer,” she said. “I came here because of your powers. They began to be active, so I had to keep an eye on you. And I came here because Lance wanted to kill you. I had to protect you. But now that everything is over, I have no reason to be here.”
“So you’re just leaving?” Tatsuya asked.
Kaida nodded.
“What?” Madison Anabel Fisher gasped. “After all we’ve been through?”
Kaida nodded again. “I’m sorry, Madison Anabel Fisher. Though we have different views on a myriad of things, I hate to say to myself that I have actually grown quite attached to you.”
The two girls hugged each other, and when they broke apart, Kaida looked longingly up at Tatsuya. He felt the chills go down his spine he knew he would never feel again.
“Take care of yourself,” she said.
Tatsuya nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “You, too.”
Her lips quickly twitched into a smile before her face went emotionless again. Tatsuya smiled, and put his arms around her and held her in a tight hug.
“I’m never going to forget you, Kaida,” he said. “I can’t thank you enough for everything you did. I’ll never be able to pay you back.”
“You don’t need to,” she said, pulling away from the hug. “Just try not to get yourself killed, stay happy, and never be alone.”
Tatsuya nodded again.
“Don’t worry, Kaida,” Madison Anabel Fisher said. “I’ll make sure he is never alone again.”
“Thank you, Madison Anabel Fisher.” Kaida looked at the sun, at the highest point in the sky, and then back at Tatsuya and Madison Anabel Fisher. “I must be going now.”
Without any other words, she turned around and walked down the street. Tatsuya and Madison Anabel Fisher simply gazed at her figure growing ever so smaller with every step she took until she was completely out of sight. After about thirty seconds, they saw a large figure fly from the ground into the sky, and it disappeared into the clouds.
“There she goes,” Tatsuya said.
“She’s free now,” Madison Anabel Fisher said back. “I’m happy for her.”
Tatsuya smiled at Madison Anabel Fisher, and she smiled back. They went back into Darren’s house.
“Hey, what’s up? Did Kaida leave?”
Tatsuya sighed, and nodded.
“No worries, dude.”
Tatsuya’s heart skipped a beat. He would never have to be alone again. He would never have to worry about killing off his friends or family. He would never have to worry about chasing down insane psychopaths who are trying to obtain absolute power of the world by obtaining the power of dragons. He didn’t have to worry about the safety of his family. He just didn’t have to worry.
“Hey, Madison Anabel Fisher,” he said. “Your parents are probably really worried about you. I’m sure they’d like to give you a long lecture on being careful around me, too.”
“Yeah, I would expect that,” she said, rolling her eyes. She hugged Darren one last time before leaving his house with Tatsuya.
Together, they walked back to Madison Anabel Fisher’s house, feeling an odd sense of emptiness and silence without Kaida right behind them.
Madison Anabel Fisher opened the door, and stood in the doorway as Tatsuya waited outside for her to go in.
“Thank you again, Tatsuya,” she said. “For everything.”
“Don’t mention it,” he said. “I’m just so glad you’re okay. And I think it’s a miracle that you actually got your memory back.”
Madison Anabel Fisher giggled. “Yeah, I know. But I’m really happy that we can get back to life normally again. Just like the way we used to.”
“Just like how we used to,” Tatsuya said. “Like ten years ago.”
Madison Anabel Fisher grinned at Tatsuya, and he smiled back at her.
“I’ll see you around, I guess,” she said.
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said awkwardly. “See you later.”
She gave him one last smile before closing the door.
Tatsuya couldn’t help but think about the adventure he had just had when he was on his way home. He couldn’t stop thinking about the amazing rush, the incredible danger, but he was also extremely grateful for the peace he now had, and the fact that he could just go home and do nothing after this.
When Tatsuya arrived at his house, he ran into his mother, who didn’t ask him any questions about where he was, but simply kept her focus on the television.
“I’ll be upstairs, mom,” Tatsuya said. He ran into his room, and locked the door from the inside.
“Tatsuya,” Gina said. “What happened to you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Gina,” Tatsuya said, forgetting that his computer was still plugged in and fully functional. He ignored her, and collapsed onto his bed burying his bloody head into his pillow.
“I’m going to take a nap,” he said. “Goodnight.”

Chapter Twenty-Four (updated version)

"MADDY!" Tatsuya screamed. He avoided a few more falling rocks, and fell down to Maddy. He turned her over. Her eyes were closed, and her head was bleeding. "Maddy, wake up," Tatsuya said. "Madison Anabel Fisher, you have to wake up. Place. You can't do this to me, not again. You have to wake up, Madison Anabel Fisher."
Lance was laughing again in the background. "No little girl is going to stop me!"
"Madison Anabel Fisher, please," Tatsuya begged. "You can't do this to me!"
“There’s nothing you can do about your friend, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me once this pendant is charged up!” Lance said. He turned around in a surprisingly graceful motion, and faced this tiny staircase which led to this great big stone with a tiny slit at the top. He placed the pendant piece into the slit, and it began to emit a dim light.
“Please wake up,” Tatsuya continued to beg. “I don’t care about Lance, I don’t care about the pendant, I can’t let you leave me.”
Maddy still didn’t move.
“Wake up!”
And a flush of memories came over Maddy like a huge wave of icy cold water. She began to see things in a different color, she began to notice things she hadn't noticed before, like the wind blowing south, or the leaves swaying back and forth as they fell from the ground.
She looked at Tatsuya, an odd smoky emotion in her eyes, and she gasped as she remembered who she was.
She was no longer the preppy girl in high heels who would flounce around the school, being perfect to everyone at all times. She was no longer the girl who would fit in with others, or try to pretend to do something just to get approval from her friends or her parents. She became someone more like Tatsuya. Tatsuya, a deep thinker and intelligent person, who would give his life for the well being of his friends.
He sighed as he realized that Maddy was never going to wake up again.
Madison Anabel Fisher’s eyes opened half way. She blinked once, and then looked up at Tatsuya.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “You were knocked out for a little while… you scared the crap out of me, I thought I had lost you.”
“T-Tatsuya?” she said faintly.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he said. “I’m so glad you didn’t forget me. And I’m glad you’re all right and alive.”
“N-no,” she said with great difficulty. “No… I did forget you. Oh my God, how could I forget you?”
“Maddy, are you sure you’re all right?”
To Tatsuya’s surprise, she smiled. “Do me a favor,” she said, a slight giggle in her voice. “Don’t call me that. Call me Madison Anabel Fisher. There are too many people named Maddy, and I’m not like other people.”
It took Tatsuya a moment to understand what she was talking about, and once it had gone through his head, he began to laugh. “Madison Anabel Fisher?” he asked.
She nodded her head. “The one and only.” She sat up straight, and Tatsuya put his jacket to her bleeding head. “Tatsuya, thank you. I can’t believe I forgot you, my best friend.”
Tatsuya put his arms around her, and held her close to him and didn’t let her go. “Madison Anabel Fisher… you’re back where you belong.”
“Yeah,” she said.
“How touching,” Lance said, not removing his eyes from the pendant. “But the pendant is over half way charged, and once it’s fully charged, there’s no way you can win!”
“Maddy,” Tatsuya said quickly. “Er—I mean, Madison Anabel Fisher. I have a plan, but you’re going to have to trust me completely.”
“Of course,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, nodding her head and giving Tatsuya back his bloody jacket. “What do I do?”
“Lance can’t control Kaida when he’s not holding the pendant,” he said. “And he wants to wait until it is fully charged with magic before he takes it again so he can have complete control over Kaida.”
“Right.”
“So I need you to try to get the pendant,” Tatsuya continued. “I don’t care how you plan to do it, but you’ve got to distract Lance and get the pendant out of that pedestal.”
Madison Anabel Fisher nodded. “I’ll try. But what are you going to do?”
“With or without the pendant, I still have some control over Kaida,” Tatsuya explained. “I was born with it. So I’m going to try to keep her under control until you can get the pendant out. Remember, you can’t let Lance get his hands on it.”
Madison Anabel Fisher nodded again. “Got it.”
“All right. Let’s go.”
Madison Anabel Fisher stood up, and ran up the steps to face Lance, but she remembered to keep a safe distance away from him. She began to yell at him and lecture him into giving the pendant back, which was all just a distraction. Tatsuya would have stayed to watch, but he had another job to do. He ignored Madison Anabel Fisher’s distraction, and went straight for the giant dragon in the middle of the sanctum.
“Kaida!” Tatsuya screamed. “Kaida, please, you have to listen to me! Please, change back into your human form and don’t create so much distruction!”
Though it worked, Tatsuya was a bit surprised at his own power. Kaida shrunk down to his size, and was her beautiful human self again.
“Tatsuya,” she said, her hand on her head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t—I couldn’t—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tatsuya told her. “Because of that, Madison Anabel Fisher actually got her memory back. The boulder seemed to knock her head hard enough to counteract the amnesia or something.”
Kaida smiled, which forced Tatsuya to smile back.
Madison Anabel Fisher was still arguing with Lance, who seemed to only be shouting back. Tatsuya felt so much more comfortable knowing that this was only a verbal battle, and nothing was going to hurt Madison Anabel Fisher anymore.
Tatsuya and Kaida ran up the steps, and without even thinking Tatsuya flew into the air and tackled Lance, causing them both to fall off the tall pedestal and onto the ground.
“No! Tatsuya!” Madison Anabel Fisher cried.
“What are you doing, stupid boy?” Lance screamed at him.
“I want to see you die, Lance,” Tatsuya barked. “I want to see your soul leave your eyes, and I want to see your body completely motionless!”
Lance screamed, and threw Tatsuya off of him.
Tatsuya didn’t realize how physically strong Lance was until the back of his head hit one of the stone-hard walls.
“TATSUYA!” Madison Anabel Fisher screamed again.
Tatsuya put his hand to the back of head, and looked at it. Blotches of deep red blood covered his palm, and Tatsuya scowled. “Don’t worry about me, I can take this guy,” he called back. “Just get the pendant!”
Madison Anabel Fisher looked confused, she didn’t know what to do. Her best friend was in peril, and she couldn’t do anything about it.
Lance had already come back to abusing Tatsuya. He put his hand around his neck and pulled him up so he stood straight. Tatsuya tried his best to gasp for air, and managed to shout, “Just grab it and go!”
Madison Anabel Fisher did what he said. She held onto the pendant, and pulled with every ounce of muscle that she had until it finally wiggled out of its socket.
“NO!” Lance screamed. He let go of Tatsuya and began to run towards Madison Anabel Fisher and Kaida.
“GO, JUST GO,” Tatsuya screamed, coughing in attempts to fill his lungs with air again.
“Kaida, if you please,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, a sinister tone in her voice as she stroked the pendant in her hand. “Could you take care of this annoying pest for us?”
Without a glance or a second thought, Kaida had grown to her immense size again, and roared as she was a full dragon once again.
“You can’t kill me!” Lance screamed to Kaida.
“I don’t see why not,” Madison Anabel Fisher said.
Tatsuya managed to find the energy in his legs, and he picked himself up and ran towards Madison Anabel Fisher.
Kaida growled and screeched again, and the unruly noise echoed ferociously and caused the entire building to shake. She swiftly turned herself around to swing her tail violently to the side as it picked Lance up off the ground as if he were a handkerchief or something small and useless compared to the great beast that was Kaida.
“I think I’ll leave this honor to you,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, handing the pendant piece over to Tatsuya.
“Revenge will get you no where, boy!” Lance screamed, dangling from Kaida’s tail, holding on for dear life. “Craving revenge is what got me to this point, and if you want to see me dead so badly, you’re no better than I am!”
“I don’t care,” Tatsuya yelled. “You’re not just getting away with this. You can’t just ruin lives and walk away like nothing happened!”
“Then join me!” Lance screamed. “Join me, and we will create a perfect world together! I will tell you secrets of magic and of dragons you never even thought possible!”
Tatsuya held his breath.
“You will be able to control every little atom of this world!” Lance continued. “You won’t ever be lonely, you won’t ever be sad about something ever again! It can be the two of us, ruling the world side by side, making people do whatever the hell we want, and life can be perfect if you just give me that pendant piece!”
“Don’t listen to him, Tatsuya,” Madison Anabel Fisher said. “I know all of this sounds incredible, but you can’t listen to him.”
“A perfect world…” Tatsuya said to himself.
“Yes, boy, a perfect world, built by you and me… how could you give up such an offer? How could you let something like this pass up? You will be the king of all things living and non living, you can be the absolute ruler of time and space, you don’t have to worry about anything ever again!”
“Tatsuya, you can’t give into him,” Madison Anabel Fisher begged. “Please, Tatsuya. The world might not be perfect, but it’s still a wonderful place. You’ve got a good home, and a loving family consisting of your hard working mother and your oh too wonderful sister. You’ve got friends, Tatsuya, and you can’t just let them down. Darren is still dying because of you, and he might not even be alive as we speak. Kaida has been watching you and your family for centuries, just to make sure that you are safe. And then there’s me.”
Tatsuya exhaled.
“What about me, Tatsuya?” Madison Anabel Fisher continued. “Are you going to just leave me here? I’ve known you since the moment I was born, since we were barely babies. We grew up together, learned from each other, and at five years of age we were already more than best friends. And it’s not my fault my parents are horrible people, and it’s not my fault I had to get run over with a bike on the edge of the park, but it is my fault that I became such a horrible person, such a person that ended up being Maddy. And I don’t want to be Maddy, anymore, Tatsuya, I want to be Madison Anabel Fisher, and the only way I can do that is if Tatsuya Gray is my best friend. Please, Tatsuya, don’t listen to that horrible man!”
Tatsuya looked down at the pendant in his hands. He could create a perfect world.
“I would never be lonely,” he said. “I would never be sad.”
“Tatsuya, there’s no reason for you to be sad!” Madison Anabel Fisher sobbed. “You’ve got so many blessings in your life, though it might not be a perfect life, just take it and be happy!”
“What are you waiting for?” Lance called. “Just set me down and hand that pendant over to me. The best things will come to you, boy, and you’ll thank me later.”
“Kaida, I want you to get that man off of your tail,” Tatsuya said, looking back up at the great beast.
“No! Tatsuya, you can’t—”
“What I want you to do,” Tatsuya continued, ignoring Madison Anabel Fisher completely, “is take him away from this place. I don’t care what you do to him, I don’t care if he lives or dies. I just never want to see him again, and I want him to… I want you to make sure he loses all memory of how to obtain the power of the dragons. Just go. Get rid of him.”
“What?” Lance exclaimed as Kaida began to rise into the air. “Let me go! Jet let me go!”
“I’m sorry, Lance,” Tatsuya said. “But I can’t have my perfect world if you’re in it.”
Kaida flew away though the gaping hole that was newly formed in the wall. And all was silent in the sanctum once again.

Chapter Twenty-Four

"MADDY!" Tatsuya screamed. He avoided a few more falling rocks, and fell down to Maddy. He turned her over. Her eyes were closed, and her head was bleeding. "Maddy, wake up," Tatsuya said. "Madison Anabel Fisher, you have to wake up. Place. You can't do this to me, not again. You have to wake up, Madison Anabel Fisher."
Lance was laughing again in the background. "No little girl is going to stop me!"
"Madison Anabel Fisher, please," Tatsuya begged. "You can't do this to me!"
“There’s nothing you can do about your friend, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me once this pendant is charged up!” Lance said. He turned around in a surprisingly graceful motion, and faced this tiny staircase which led to this great big stone with a tiny slit at the top. He placed the pendant piece into the slit, and it began to emit a dim light.
“Please wake up,” Tatsuya continued to beg. “I don’t care about Lance, I don’t care about the pendant, I can’t let you leave me.”
Maddy still didn’t move.
“Wake up!”
Madison Anabel Fisher’s eyes opened half way. She blinked once, and then looked up at Tatsuya.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “You were knocked out for a little while… you scared the crap out of me, I thought I had lost you.”
“T-Tatsuya?” she said faintly.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he said. “I’m so glad you didn’t forget me. And I’m glad you’re all right and alive.”
“N-no,” she said with great difficulty. “No… I did forget you. Oh my God, how could I forget you?”
“Maddy, are you sure you’re all right?”
To Tatsuya’s surprise, she smiled. “Do me a favor,” she said, a slight giggle in her voice. “Don’t call me that. Call me Madison Anabel Fisher. There are too many people named Maddy, and I’m not like other people.”
It took Tatsuya a moment to understand what she was talking about, and once it had gone through his head, he began to laugh. “Madison Anabel Fisher?” he asked.
She nodded her head. “The one and only.” She sat up straight, and Tatsuya put his jacket to her bleeding head. “Tatsuya, thank you. I can’t believe I forgot you, my best friend.”
Tatsuya put his arms around her, and held her close to him and didn’t let her go. “Madison Anabel Fisher… you’re back where you belong.”
“Yeah,” she said.
“How touching,” Lance said, not removing his eyes from the pendant. “But the pendant is over half way charged, and once it’s fully charged, there’s no way you can win!”
“Maddy,” Tatsuya said quickly. “Er—I mean, Madison Anabel Fisher. I have a plan, but you’re going to have to trust me completely.”
“Of course,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, nodding her head and giving Tatsuya back his bloody jacket. “What do I do?”
“Lance can’t control Kaida when he’s not holding the pendant,” he said. “And he wants to wait until it is fully charged with magic before he takes it again so he can have complete control over Kaida.”
“Right.”
“So I need you to try to get the pendant,” Tatsuya continued. “I don’t care how you plan to do it, but you’ve got to distract Lance and get the pendant out of that pedestal.”
Madison Anabel Fisher nodded. “I’ll try. But what are you going to do?”
“With or without the pendant, I still have some control over Kaida,” Tatsuya explained. “I was born with it. So I’m going to try to keep her under control until you can get the pendant out. Remember, you can’t let Lance get his hands on it.”
Madison Anabel Fisher nodded again. “Got it.”
“All right. Let’s go.”
Madison Anabel Fisher stood up, and ran up the steps to face Lance, but she remembered to keep a safe distance away from him. She began to yell at him and lecture him into giving the pendant back, which was all just a distraction. Tatsuya would have stayed to watch, but he had another job to do. He ignored Madison Anabel Fisher’s distraction, and went straight for the giant dragon in the middle of the sanctum.
“Kaida!” Tatsuya screamed. “Kaida, please, you have to listen to me! Please, change back into your human form and don’t create so much distruction!”
Though it worked, Tatsuya was a bit surprised at his own power. Kaida shrunk down to his size, and was her beautiful human self again.
“Tatsuya,” she said, her hand on her head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t—I couldn’t—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tatsuya told her. “Because of that, Madison Anabel Fisher actually got her memory back. The boulder seemed to knock her head hard enough to counteract the amnesia or something.”
Kaida smiled, which forced Tatsuya to smile back.
Madison Anabel Fisher was still arguing with Lance, who seemed to only be shouting back. Tatsuya felt so much more comfortable knowing that this was only a verbal battle, and nothing was going to hurt Madison Anabel Fisher anymore.
Tatsuya and Kaida ran up the steps, and without even thinking Tatsuya flew into the air and tackled Lance, causing them both to fall off the tall pedestal and onto the ground.
“No! Tatsuya!” Madison Anabel Fisher cried.
“What are you doing, stupid boy?” Lance screamed at him.
“I want to see you die, Lance,” Tatsuya barked. “I want to see your soul leave your eyes, and I want to see your body completely motionless!”
Lance screamed, and threw Tatsuya off of him.
Tatsuya didn’t realize how physically strong Lance was until the back of his head hit one of the stone-hard walls.
“TATSUYA!” Madison Anabel Fisher screamed again.
Tatsuya put his hand to the back of head, and looked at it. Blotches of deep red blood covered his palm, and Tatsuya scowled. “Don’t worry about me, I can take this guy,” he called back. “Just get the pendant!”
Madison Anabel Fisher looked confused, she didn’t know what to do. Her best friend was in peril, and she couldn’t do anything about it.
Lance had already come back to abusing Tatsuya. He put his hand around his neck and pulled him up so he stood straight. Tatsuya tried his best to gasp for air, and managed to shout, “Just grab it and go!”
Madison Anabel Fisher did what he said. She held onto the pendant, and pulled with every ounce of muscle that she had until it finally wiggled out of its socket.
“NO!” Lance screamed. He let go of Tatsuya and began to run towards Madison Anabel Fisher and Kaida.
“GO, JUST GO,” Tatsuya screamed, coughing in attempts to fill his lungs with air again.
“Kaida, if you please,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, a sinister tone in her voice as she stroked the pendant in her hand. “Could you take care of this annoying pest for us?”
Without a glance or a second thought, Kaida had grown to her immense size again, and roared as she was a full dragon once again.
“You can’t kill me!” Lance screamed to Kaida.
“I don’t see why not,” Madison Anabel Fisher said.
Tatsuya managed to find the energy in his legs, and he picked himself up and ran towards Madison Anabel Fisher.
Kaida growled and screeched again, and the unruly noise echoed ferociously and caused the entire building to shake. She swiftly turned herself around to swing her tail violently to the side as it picked Lance up off the ground as if he were a handkerchief or something small and useless compared to the great beast that was Kaida.
“I think I’ll leave this honor to you,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, handing the pendant piece over to Tatsuya.
“Revenge will get you no where, boy!” Lance screamed, dangling from Kaida’s tail, holding on for dear life. “Craving revenge is what got me to this point, and if you want to see me dead so badly, you’re no better than I am!”
“I don’t care,” Tatsuya yelled. “You’re not just getting away with this. You can’t just ruin lives and walk away like nothing happened!”
“Then join me!” Lance screamed. “Join me, and we will create a perfect world together! I will tell you secrets of magic and of dragons you never even thought possible!”
Tatsuya held his breath.
“You will be able to control every little atom of this world!” Lance continued. “You won’t ever be lonely, you won’t ever be sad about something ever again! It can be the two of us, ruling the world side by side, making people do whatever the hell we want, and life can be perfect if you just give me that pendant piece!”
“Don’t listen to him, Tatsuya,” Madison Anabel Fisher said. “I know all of this sounds incredible, but you can’t listen to him.”
“A perfect world…” Tatsuya said to himself.
“Yes, boy, a perfect world, built by you and me… how could you give up such an offer? How could you let something like this pass up? You will be the king of all things living and non living, you can be the absolute ruler of time and space, you don’t have to worry about anything ever again!”
“Tatsuya, you can’t give into him,” Madison Anabel Fisher begged. “Please, Tatsuya. The world might not be perfect, but it’s still a wonderful place. You’ve got a good home, and a loving family consisting of your hard working mother and your oh too wonderful sister. You’ve got friends, Tatsuya, and you can’t just let them down. Darren is still dying because of you, and he might not even be alive as we speak. Kaida has been watching you and your family for centuries, just to make sure that you are safe. And then there’s me.”
Tatsuya exhaled.
“What about me, Tatsuya?” Madison Anabel Fisher continued. “Are you going to just leave me here? I’ve known you since the moment I was born, since we were barely babies. We grew up together, learned from each other, and at five years of age we were already more than best friends. And it’s not my fault my parents are horrible people, and it’s not my fault I had to get run over with a bike on the edge of the park, but it is my fault that I became such a horrible person, such a person that ended up being Maddy. And I don’t want to be Maddy, anymore, Tatsuya, I want to be Madison Anabel Fisher, and the only way I can do that is if Tatsuya Gray is my best friend. Please, Tatsuya, don’t listen to that horrible man!”
Tatsuya looked down at the pendant in his hands. He could create a perfect world.
“I would never be lonely,” he said. “I would never be sad.”
“Tatsuya, there’s no reason for you to be sad!” Madison Anabel Fisher sobbed. “You’ve got so many blessings in your life, though it might not be a perfect life, just take it and be happy!”
“What are you waiting for?” Lance called. “Just set me down and hand that pendant over to me. The best things will come to you, boy, and you’ll thank me later.”
“Kaida, I want you to get that man off of your tail,” Tatsuya said, looking back up at the great beast.
“No! Tatsuya, you can’t—”
“What I want you to do,” Tatsuya continued, ignoring Madison Anabel Fisher completely, “is take him away from this place. I don’t care what you do to him, I don’t care if he lives or dies. I just never want to see him again, and I want him to… I want you to make sure he loses all memory of how to obtain the power of the dragons. Just go. Get rid of him.”
“What?” Lance exclaimed as Kaida began to rise into the air. “Let me go! Jet let me go!”
“I’m sorry, Lance,” Tatsuya said. “But I can’t have my perfect world if you’re in it.”
Kaida flew away though the gaping hole that was newly formed in the wall. And all was silent in the sanctum once again.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“This is Kaida’s shrine?” Maddy repeated. “I can’t believe it. It’s nothing like the other shrine we’ve been to. This place looks so…”
“Dead?” Tatsuya finished for her. “Well, yeah, she is the Dragon of Death, isn’t she? I mean, think about it… her brother, the Dragon of Life, his shrine was in the midst of a ton of trees and stuff. And he’s the Dragon of Spring. It’s pretty self explanatory to why Kaida’s shrine looks like this. Also, the area is covered with fallen leaves even though there aren’t that many trees. It is kind of weird.”
“I’ll say,” Maddy said. “It’s kind of giving me the creeps.”
“Should we go in?” Tatsuya asked.
“What sort of stuff do you think is guarding the shrine?” Maddy asked.
“I don’t know,” Tatsuya answered. “I don’t think we should worry about whatever it’s guarding, though. I mean, the thing we should worry about the most is Lance and saving Kaida, right? I bet if he has gotten though, he probably got rid of all the protection for us. So we shouldn’t have to worry about anything that’s guarding the shrine.”
“Do you think whatever is guarding this place would be able to keep Lance out? I mean, Ember was able to keep us out of the other shrine.”
“Honestly,” Tatsuya started, “I don’t think anything is guarding this place.”
“Why do you say that? Do you think they would just leave this place empty?”
“I think so,” he said. “Kaida wanted to keep the pendant with her at all times because she wanted to keep it safe by herself. So I doubt that she would even want anything to guard her shrine because it was always with her, and she was too independent to want others to help her.”
“I don’t know,” Maddy said uncertainly. “I kind of really don’t want to go in there.”
Tatsuya glared at Maddy. “I think I know why.”
Maddy gave him a confused look. “Why? What the hell are you talking about?”
“I mean, you would gladly come along when it meant saving your boyfriend’s life,” Tatsuya said. “The life pendant was able to solve both of our problems, which is why you wanted to come. But this has nothing to do with Darren. There’s no way we can save Darren this way, and you kind of just so happened to be there. Is that why you don’t want to go?”
Maddy didn’t answer.
“That’s what this is about, isn’t it?” Tatsuya asked. “I knew you were lost. No, Maddy, I knew that Madison Anabel Fisher was lost.”
“Tatsuya, what the hell do you mean by that?”
“Madison Anabel Fisher wouldn’t think like that,” he said, more to himself than to Maddy. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do this whole time. By being your friend. I thought it would bring Madison Anabel Fisher back, but no, you’re still just Maddy. You’re Maddy. And when I heard you call me your best friend when Lance had just came to my house, I thought I might have gotten Madison Anabel Fisher back out of all the crap your parents have covered you with, but no, it’s obvious that you’re just going to be Maddy for the rest of your life.”
“Tatsuya, you’re not making any sense at all,” she said. “I’m Maddy. And Madison Anabel Fisher is just my whole name. It’s not like we’re two different people.”
Tatsuya stomped his foot so hard on the ground that it practically hurt his leg. “You practically are two different people! There’s no way Maidson Anabel Fisher would ever be like you!”
“Stop doing that,” Maddy snapped. “I don’t understand, you’re not making any sense at all, just stop and explain to me what the hell is going on!”
Tatsuya sighed, and calmed down. “I would explain,” he said, “but we don’t have too much time. Lance is probably in there getting the pendant all charged up so he can fully control Kaida and get the other pendants. Now is our only chance to stop him. And if we don’t move quickly, we’ll be under the rule of Lance for the rest of our lives.”
Maddy nodded, and they stepped into the large stone building.It was completely dark at first. It seemed like a large area at first, because with every step, the noise echoed several times. Tatsuya was careful to take slow steps, even though they weren't any less loud.
"Tatsuya," Maddy whispered loudly.
He turned around to try to find her, but couldn't see her. He felt her tap his shoulder and tried to find out what she was doing.
"What, Maddy?" Tatsuya said. His voice was oddly loud in such a quiet place.
Tatsuya noticed the ever so slightest bit of light, which was just enough to allow him to see what Maddy was doing. She was pointing at the source of the light, a corridor which was just ahead of them, lined with torches that were completely lit.
"I bet that's where Lance went," Tatsuya said. He followed the light until he was in the stone corridor.
"This hallway is really long," Maddy said. "This place is so much bigger from the inside than it looks on the outside."
"Yeah," Tatsuya said, squinting his eyes in attempt to see how far the corridor went down. "I can't see anything. What do you think is at the end of this place?"
"What do you think is there IN this corridor?" Maddy asked.
"I don't think there's anything here," he said. He held his breath so he could listen, and all he heard was the sound of his heart thumping against his chest. "Yeah, I don't think there's anything here."
"Well, you never know," she said. "And I think at the end of this corridor... I think we're going to find..."
"I think we're going to find Lance," Tatsuya finished for her. "We're going to find him with Kaida."
"How are we going to save her?" Maddy asked. "How are we going to break his control over her?"
"We'll have to steal the pendant back from him," Tatsuya said.
Tatsuya and Maddy began to slowly walk along the corridor, careful to avoid the flames that were lined up on the walls. Tatsuya couldn't afford to get burned any longer.
The walk from one end of the corridor to the other end was a long one. Tatsuya felt like the walk was going to go on forever, like it was never going to end, and all he wanted was to get to the end of it already. He could hear something at the end--a faint whisper or a toe tapping. Whatever it was, it was distant, but within reach. Tatsuya wanted nothing more than to get to the end of the corridor. He decided to pick up the pace.
"Tatsuya," Maddy whispered. "Are we almost at the end?"
Tatsuya held his breath again, and strained his ears to listen. "Yeah," he said. "We're almost there."
Before too long, him and Maddy had entered a giant sanctum that was even larger than the previous room. In fact, it was large enough to hold Kaida in her dragon form, as illustrated when Tatsuya and Maddy saw Lance with Kaida as a dragon next to him.
"Lance!" Tatsuya screamed. His voice echoed. "Lance! Lance...Lance...ce..."
The man turned around, holding the pendant tightly in his hand, and smiled. "You followed me all the way over here?" he asked, his tone slightly surprised. "My, my, I certainly didn't know you wanted to keep the pendant that badly. I'm sure you know what power it wields, and I'm sure you know that I want to control it."
"Give it back to us," Tatsuya said angrily. "We need to have it now."
Lance glared at him. "There is no way you're getting this pendant piece, boy," he spat. "I've been trying to get this power for decades, I've killed too many people to just hand it over to you!"
"Why?" Maddy screamed. "Why are you doing this? What is this going to give you?"
"Everything, little girl, everything!" Lance screamed with a sinister chuckle. "Everything and anything! I'll be rich, famous, powerful, glorious, and the absolute ruler of the world! No one will be able to stop me, and I'll live forever, and nothing will ever go wrong!"
"You're just an insane psychopath!" Tatsuya spat back. "There's no way we're going to let you rule the world, especially after all of the horrible things you have done! You ruined my life, you ruined my whole family's life, and now I want to see you die, I want revenge, Lance."
Lance's eyebrows raised and disappeared completely behind his messy bangs. "I ruined your life?" he asked.
"You killed my father," Tatsuya said through gritted teeth. "You killed him right in front of me. I was five years old. It was at the very doorstep that you visited today. His blood spilled where I was standing, and that was the single worst day of my life."
"You were five years old when your father died? You are Joseph Gray's son? And you were five years old ten years ago?"
"That's right," Tatsuya said. "I actually existed. And that's why you didn't get the power when you killed my father. Because I actually existed. I was there, and when you thought you were killing the last one in the line, I was there. That's why you failed, you failed because you looked over one tiny thing. Literally, the tiniest thing--a five year old!"
Lance snarled and growled at him. "You! It's your fault I've been hunting this stupid piece of crap--" he shook the pendant in his hand "--for so many years! Do you know what sort of shit I had to go through because of you?"
"Do you have any idea what sort of shit you made me and my family go through?" Tatsuya shouted. "We grew up without a father because of you, and all because of your obsessive greed!"
"Not just greed, boy, greed is something that all humans have naturally," Lance said with a sinister chuckle. "Tell me, why do you want to see me dead? Why have you chased me down here?"
"I want revenge," Tatsuya said.
"Exactly!" Lance cheered. "Revenge! Though it's horrible, it's so, so sweet. And that's what I want. I want pay back from the entire world!"
"What has the world done to you?"
"The world has completely killed me. I, too, grew up without a father, boy. I grew up without a father or a mother. I was more alone than you could imagine. All I wanted was for someone--someone in this whole God damned world! Anyone! But the world gave me no one, the world gave me nothing, and the world killed off everything that could possibly have made me happy. The world was a cruel, unusual place."
"So you want to control the world and get your revenge because your life sucked?" Tatsuya snapped. "My life sucked, and you don't see me trying to gain the power of all the dragons!"
"Yes, but I thought to myself that all of this pain can't be bad. I can use this loneliness, I thought. I knew I could become something! When I found out about the power of the dragons, I realized how perfect this was! I knew that this is what I could do with all of this pain, all of this power! I will put the power to good use instead of using it stupidly like you did!"
"I did NOT use that power," Tatsuya said. "That power is too much for anyone! I didn't even want to use it!"
"But you used it!" Lance argued back. "And the way you used it was stupid!"
"Is that why you went for Kaida first?" Tatsuya asked. "Because her ability to control death is what you wanted first, right?"
Lance laughed. He was laughing so hard that he almost fell over. "Of course not. I wanted to go for her first because she was the weakest one of the four dragons, the easiest to obtain first. And then I would use her power to get the others. After all, she is the weakest one because she is the only woman."
"Hey!" Maddy shouted, stepping out from behind Tatsuya. "That's sexist! Kaida is just as powerful as any of her brothers! She can control death, if she was free to be in her own control right now, she could kill you instantly!"
"Oh, the bitch barks," Lance teased.
Maddy scowled at him. "You're not going to hurt my friends. We're taking that pendant back now. Let's go for it, Tatsuya. We can take this guy."
"You might be able to take me," Lance said. "But behold! Try to take me while I control the dragon of death!"
Kaida roared and screeched, and flailed as if she were in great pain. Her mighty tail swung from the left violently and knocked attacked the wall that Tatsuya and Maddy were in front of, completely demolishing it.
Rocks from the wall were raining down from the breaking down building and all over the area where Tatsuya and Maddy were standing.
"Maddy!" Tatsuya called. He put his arms around her, and pushed her head into his chest in attempts to protect her from the falling rock. Over the sound of all the rubble and destruction, he could hear Lance laughing maniacally in the background.
"Tatsuya," Maddy cried, trying to break away from his grasp. "We can't just stand here! We can't just let him keep attacking us!"
"You can't, you'll get hurt!" Tatsuya said, but Maddy had already gotten away from his grasp.
Kaida swung her tail again, and broke down more of the gigantic wall, causing more stones to rain down.
Tatsuya jumped quickly to his left to avoid getting hit, but when he looked back, Maddy was on the floor, surrounded by large boulders, unmoving.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tatsuya moved slowly and cautiously down the stairs. He was slightly unsure who was at the door, but he had a theory.
“Maybe it’s your mom or something,” Maddy said, following Tatsuya down the stairs. “Like, maybe she forgot something and she just came back to get it?”
“No,” Tatsuya said. “She wouldn’t have to knock if it was her. I don’t think it’s my mom or my sister.”
Tatsuya opened the door slowly so that it creaked until it was opened all the way. In front of him stood an odd man. He was tall, and his hair was kind of spiky, and it stuck up in an odd angle. But instead of being a shadowy silhouette from far away, Tatsuya could see all of his features now. His eyes had massive bags under them, but other than that, he looked perfect in every way. He wore dark clothes, and he stood with his arms crossed across his chest.
“Oh, I had an odd feeling you were coming,” Tatsuya told the stranger.
The stranger smiled, but stayed perfectly still. “Might this be a home of a certain Joseph Gray?” he asked, his voice scratchy and deep.
“Why yes, it is,” Tatsuya said.
“I would like to speak with him.”
“He’s not here.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. He’s dead. He died ten years ago.”
“How unfortunate.”
“Yes. How unfortunate.”
“Who might you be, then?”
Tatsuya narrowed his eyebrows. If I tell him I’m his son, Tatsuya thought to himself, then he is going to kill me. The power will become his. I can’t let that happen. “I could ask you the same question,” he said, trying to avoid by all means to tell this stranger his identity.
“I’m trying to avoid answering that question just as much as you are,” the stranger answered, even though Tatsuya already knew who he was. Tatsuya felt Kaida twitch slightly next to him, which indicated that she knew who he was, too.
“You must be a popular young man,” the stranger said, looking at the two girls on either side of Tatsuya. “Lots of friends. Never worrying about having to be… alone.”
Tatsuya glared at him. “I guess maybe you could say that. Though there have been times where I have been alone.”
The stranger chuckled. “But with such pretty girls at your side,” he said with a sinister tone, “I just can’t imagine ever feeling lonely.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“I am,” he said, his dark eyes moving ever so slightly to Tatsuya’s left. “I’m quite interested in this girl. What a beauty.”
Kaida glared at him more than Tatsuya did. It looked like she was about to burst out into an angry fit, but she was trying her hardest to keep under control.
The man lifted his arm and gently placed his hand on Kaida’s face. He moved slowly down until he reached her neck, and he picked up the pendant with two of his fingers.
“This piece is also very beautiful,” he said. “What would you call this?”
“It’s just a pendant,” Kaida said.
I don’t think he knows who I am, Tatsuya thought, otherwise he could have killed me already. But it’s obvious he’s already figured out who Kaida is.
“Hm,” the stranger said to himself. “Yes. Of course. I’m assuming the other girl is just a friend. Or a girlfriend, perhaps?”
“I’m his best friend,” Madison Anabel Fisher snapped at him. “And I’m there for him through anything.”
“I didn’t need the details, but thanks for that,” he said, continuing to gaze at the pendant around Kaida’s neck with such hunger in his eyes.
“Um…” Tatsuya said. He needed to think of something to get this guy to leave. He didn’t want him to linger around her any longer. “Well, as you can see, Joseph Gray obviously isn’t here. I’m sorry you couldn’t get him, but I think it’s better if you leave now. You see, my mom and my sister aren’t home, and it’s not exactly smart of me being a teenage boy to open the door to people I don’t know.”
The stranger chuckled. “Yes, of course. But where is your father.”
Tatsuya held his breath. “My father is at work,” he said. “And he’s not here, either. It’s just my friends over right now. They’re supposed to be keeping an eye on me. My parents don’t trust me, you see.”
“Yes, I do see,” he said, continuing to stroke the pendant around Kaida’s neck with his two fingers. “But do you mind if I ask you one more quick question before I depart?”
“I guess,” Tatsuya said reluctantly. “What might that be?”
“Ever hear anything about dragons?” he asked.
Though Tatsuya had expected this, he pretended to be appalled by such a random comment. “Dragons? No, nothing in particular. Why?”
“Oh, no reason. I was just wondering. It seems like you would know a mighty load about dragons.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because,” he said with his sinister grin growing, “you’ve got one standing right next to you now.”
Tatsuya didn’t move.
The man pushed Kaida with a great enough force that made her fly to the back of the room, but because of her incredible strength, she was able to stay standing up.
Maddy screamed, and hid behind Tatsuya as the man grabbed Kaida by the arm and dragged her outside of the house. Kaida desperately tried to break free from his grasp, but she surprisingly couldn’t find the strength to get away from him.
“Kaida!” Maddy screamed.
The man pulled the pendant off of her neck completely, and Kaida fell to her knees onto the hard concrete.
The man cheered into the open, empty street.
“Yes!” he shouted. “Finally, after decades of searching, I finally have the power of a dragon!” He looked at the pendant in his hand and grinned before laughing sinisterly. “The magic on this is low. Yes, it hasn’t been to its shrine in much too long. Maybe it’s a good idea if I take it there now. Oh, however will I get there? Well, traveling to places will no longer be a problem now that I’ve got my own dragon to control!” And with those last words, Kaida had morphed into her dragon form before the man began to climb on her back.
“Come on!” Tatsuya called to Maddy. He held her hand, and ran after Kaida. They grabbed onto her tail the second before she left the ground.
“I don’t think he knows we’re here,” Tatsuya told Maddy once they were high above the ground and into the clouds. He held onto Kaida’s tail with dear life, and held onto Maddy for her dear life. “If we just stay here until we get to the ground again, we can try to get the pendant piece back from him then.”
Maddy nodded, and held onto Tatsuya even tighter. Even though this made the whole breathing thing difficult for Tatsuya, he continued to hold on with all of his strength and more.
After who knows how long, Kaida finally landed. Tatsuya didn’t recognize the area at all. It was mostly dark with strange, old looking buildings that seemed almost like ruins. By the time Tatsuya and Maddy let go of Kaida to go hide behind one of the buildings, the strange man had already forced Kaida back into her human form and began to walk with her towards the gargantuan moon in the sky.
“Let’s just follow him,” Tatsuya said.
“Tatsuya, what’s going to happen if he gets that pendant all charged up?” Maddy asked. “He’ll be able to fully control Kaida, right? And then what?”
“He’s going to use Kaida’s power to try to get the other three pendants,” Tatsuya said. “And once he has all four…”
“Oh, I don’t even want to think about it,” Maddy squealed, burying her face into Tatsuya’s good shoulder.
“I don’t want to think about it, either,” Tatsuya said. Once he noticed the man was out of sight and out of ear shot, he pulled Maddy out from behind the old building. “We’re going to have to stop him if that happens.”
“Let’s follow him,” Maddy said.
Tatsuya tip-toed and meandered between the old ruins with Maddy closely following him. He felt like such a creeper or a ninja sneaking up on someone like this. He tried to avoid the fact that the situation he was in was life or death, or that he was going after the man who had killed his father, or the fact that if they failed this, then he would have failed the whole world. He shook the thoughts out of his head, and continued on.
It was extremely difficult to sneak through these old ruins because even though there were very few trees around the area, there were a lot of fallen leaves, so Tatsuya tried his best to avoid stepping on them because they would make that every so slight cracking noise, and he would be heard, and everything would be ruined.
“We’ve got to be really careful, Maddy,” he said. “If we get seen by him, I have a feeling it’s not going to end well for us.”
“You honestly think he would kill us?” Maddy asked.
“Well, he killed my father,” Tatsuya said. “I doubt he would mind killing off a couple of pesky kids.”
Tatsuya heard Maddy swallow a lump in her throat, but he couldn’t think of anything to make her feel more comfortable at the moment. Instead, he continued to follow the shadowy figure of the man named Lance.
Lance stopped in front of the largest building in the ruins. It was made of stone, and it looked completely deserted. Tatsuya and Maddy hid behind a nearby building, and watched what Lance did. He turned to Kaida. “Do you remember this, little dragon?” he asked her.
She didn’t respond. She didn’t move at all. She was completely under his control.
“This is where you came from,” Lance said to her again, laughing his sinister laugh into her ear. “This is where we can make this little contraption full of magic, and I will use it to get the other three, and we’ll make sure the world turns in the way I want it to. And it will all be thanks to you.”
The two of them walked into the building, and vanished almost instantly in the darkness. Tatsuya and Maddy came out from behind the broken down building, and faced the big stone one that Lance and Kaida had just disappeared into.
“S-so this is…” Maddy stuttered.
Tatsuya nodded. “Yeah. This is Kaida’s shrine.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Tatsuya ran back out through the archway as quickly as he could, trying not to look back to see if Ember was still hot on his tail or not.
“Oh my goodness,” Maddy gasped when she saw the burn on Tatsuya’s skin. “What in the world… Tatsuya, are you all right?”
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said, trying not to wince in pain from the burn which still stung on his skin. “Don’t worry about me.”
“The pendant?” Kaida asked. “Did she end up giving it to you? What happened?”
Tatsuya frowned and shook his head. “I wasn’t able to get it,” he said sadly. “And nothing really happened. I talked to her a lot. She told me about herself. And then I tried to convince her to give me the pendant. I explained the situation and everything, but she still refused. And then she did this—” he jerked his head towards his shoulder “—and she told me to leave, and so I left. I couldn’t do anything else without burning in the flames of hell in there. I’m sorry, Kaida.”
“It’s okay,” Kaida sighed, disappointed at Tatsuya’s failure. “I guess I couldn’t really expect too much from Ember. She is going to guard that thing until someone ends up killing her.”
Tatsuya looked back into the archway. He couldn’t see anything because all of the flames had been put out. “What happened to her?”
“She probably expected that you left,” Kaida said. “And she assumed you were smart enough to leave and not try to go in there again.”
“She’s kind of freaking scary,” Tatsuya said. He sighed. “Well, that didn’t work.”
“No, it didn’t,” Maddy said quietly. “And after all that I heard, I thought that this was really going to work and save Darren.”
“And stop that maniac who killed my father,” Tatsuya added.
“I thought it would work, too,” Kaida said, her voice flat and serious. “But that Ember is always a complication, a slight blemish in all things pure. There is nothing I can do about her.”
“We’ll just have to go home now,” Tatsuya said. “I don’t want my mom or sister noticing anything like me being gone or something. And I don’t want them to think I’ve killed myself. So let’s just hurry back before anything happens.”
“I agree,” Maddy said. “And we can try to think of something else before anything happens. I mean, there has got to be another way to fix this.”
Kaida shrugged. “I agree that we should just leave now,” she said, looking back at the archway. “There’s nothing more we can do here. Not while that psychopath is still alive. She will burn everything down to the ground if it means protecting that pendant piece. There is no longer a point to staying here.”
Kaida turned back into her dragon form, which didn’t frighten Tatsuya as much as it did the first time. The tone in Kaida’s eyes seemed much softer, and much more mellow than it had before. Tatsuya climbed up on her back, helped Maddy up, and once they were both secure, they took off.
Tatsuya noticed that the ride back home felt a lot longer than the flight to the shrine. There had been many depressing thoughts going through Tatsuya’s mind, all of which were reminded to him whenever he looked at his shoulder. He felt like a complete failure, like a big disappointment.
Kaida helped Tatsuya get back into his room without being heard through means of climbing the tree and getting back in through the window again. He had noticed that no one had tried to enter his room, and no one had even noticed he was gone, which was perfect. He quickly changed his clothes to hide the mark on his shoulder, and sat back down on the bed with Maddy and Kaida as if nothing had happened.
“I think I’m okay when it comes into terms of my mom and my sister,” Tatsuya said to the two girls in his room. “So now I know I can totally go to an undiscovered part of Japan and come back home in time for dinner. Thanks for that, Kaida.”
Kaida pursed her lips, and looked away awkwardly from Tatsuya’s gaze.
“How is your shoulder?” Maddy asked.
“It’s feeling a lot better,” Tatsuya said, trying not to turn around to look at the nasty burn. “Can you see it at all? I don’t want anyone to notice it’s there.”
Maddy shook her head. “You’re going to have to get a new jacket, though.”
Tatsuya chuckled.
“I-I can’t think of anything,” Kaida said, more to herself than anyone else. “I have no idea what to do. There is nothing left. We are done.”
“Kaida, what are you talking about?” Tatsuya asked, keeping his voice steady with all of his might.
“There is no hope left,” she continued to speak, completely ignoring everything Tatsuya was saying. “That’s it.”
“You can’t honestly be saying that, Kaida,” Maddy said quietly. “I mean… think about Darren. Think about his life. He is DYING right now, and you’re just going to give up hope? You can’t let that happen, Kaida, you’re the only one who can help him now!”
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said, raising his voice as he spoke. “And what about that Lance guy? Let me tell you, as soon as I found out about him and that he was the one who killed my father, I’ve just been feeling so… so… I’ve been feeling so angry and frustrated and… so freaked out that I can’t even think up of adjectives right now.” Tatsuya swore loudly under his breath. “I want to see that guy die. I want to take away his life the way he took away my father’s, the way he took away the lives of my entire family. He ruined us, and I want him to suffer for that.”
“Calm down, Tatsuya,” Maddy said, putting her hand on his arm, being extremely cautious not to touch his burn. “I know you’re really angry about this, but there has to be some way to avenge your father’s death. I know there has to be some way, any way, it can’t be completely impossible.”
“Yeah, but it’s not only about my father,” Tatsuya said. “I mean, if this guy is able to get this power, he might become all mighty dictator of the world or something horrible like that. I don’t think any of us want that sort of a person to be ruling us all.”
“The thing is, though,” Maddy started, “the whole plan of obtaining the pendant solved all the problems. It would help Darren, and stop this crazy person who is trying to take over everyone. It was a good plan, but it just didn’t work because we couldn’t get the pendant.”
“What’s your point?” Tatsuya asked, slightly agitated at the constant reminders of his failure.
“My point is that whatever we come up with now isn’t going to solve all of the problems we have,” she said matter-of-factly. “I mean, if we find something to help Darren, then it might help him, but it’s not going to do anything about that Lance guy. And if we find a way to stop the lance guy, well, there’s not going to be any way to save Darren’s life.”
“That is what I’m trying to say,” Kaida said, finally looking up at Maddy and Tatsuya. “There is no other way. Nothing left, no hope at all. We are done. The only way anything good can happen is if we just do nothing and watch and pray that something happens.”
Tatsuya stood up. “We’re not about to give up like that,” he said firmly. “I made a promise that I was going to fix everything, and that nothing bad would happen, and that everyone was going to be fine. I’m not about to just break that promise.”
“You should have known better,” Kaida said. “It never is good to make promises you aren’t guaranteed to keep.”
“I know that,” Tatsuya snapped at her. “It’s not a promise I’m going to break. I’m going to keep this promise, even if I have to die in the process.”
“I agree,” Maddy said, now standing up as well. “I don’t think we should give up yet. I mean, there has to be some way to fix all of this. There has to be another way, something we haven’t thought of yet. I bet it’s right in front of our faces, and we’re just not looking close enough. Come on, we’ve got to think of something.”
“There is nothing left we can do,” Kaida said, more harshly this time. “How many times do I have to repeat myself? Obtaining the pendant piece was the only way to fix all of this. There is no possible way to accomplish our goals. It is over, Tatsuya and Maddy.”
“Kaida, I don’t care if you can’t think of any other way,” Maddy said. “I’m not about to give up.”
Tatsuya sat back down. “I don’t know. Maybe Kaida is right. I mean, she knows more about this than anyone else, and if she says there’s nothing left, then… well, there has to be nothing left.”
“How can you say that, Tatsuya?” Maddy said, almost crying. “Don’t you care about Darren’s life at all?”
Someone knocked on Tatsuya’s bedroom door.
“It’s locked from the outside,” he said. “You can come on in.”
Kimi poked her head in, barely opening the door.
“Hey, Kimi, did you need something?” he asked.
Kimi looked around the room before meeting with Tatsuya’s eyes. “Yeah,” she said. “Mom and I are going out. She says that she knows it’s getting late, but she wants your two friends to stay over until we get back just to make sure you don’t… do anything that she would approve of.”
“I don’t mind staying,” Kaida said.
Maddy shrugged. “I’ll stay.”
“Okay,” Kimi said with a straight face. “I’m keeping your bedroom door unlocked. Your friends don’t deserve to be locked up in a cramped up space with you.”
Tatsuya chuckled, unsure if what she said was a joke or not.
“Bye, Tatsuya,” she said.
“Bye, Kimi,” he said back as she shut the door.
Maddy sighed. “I can’t believe we’re just going to give up.”
“I would like to see you coming up with ideas,” Kaida said. “And once you realize there’s nothing left for us to do, then maybe you will stop going on and on about just giving up. For the record, we are not just giving up. We tried. We tried with great intentions and difficulty. But we failed.”
Tatsuya’s burn began to sting.
“And since we have failed,” Kaida continued, “there is nothing more we can do.”
Maddy frowned, and kept quiet after that. The silence filled the room for a few hours, or at least if felt like hours, maybe even days.
“This is insane,” Tatsuya finally said. “This all honestly can’t be real. It just has to be a bad dream.”
“Tatsuya…” Maddy said quietly.
“I mean, I’ve got Madison Anabel Fisher, dragons, flying around, ex-fairies… this all can’t be real, can it?”
“This is as unreal to you as it is to me,” Maddy said. “But if we just keep pressing on, I know we can make it through. Believe it or not, after all of this has happened to me, I consider you one of my best friends, Tatsuya. We can’t give in just yet.”
Tatsuya nodded at her. “Yeah.” He stood up, and opened his room door. “I’m so sick of being stuck in my room all the time. I’m going downstairs.”
He exited the room, being careful to not close the door out of habit because his guests were still there with him.
He took two footsteps down the staircase, and someone knocked on his front door.

Chapter Twenty

Darkness engulfed Tatsuya as he walked under the archway and into the ring of trees. There was absolutely no sliver of light, and Tatsuya couldn’t even see two inches in front of him. He simply followed the sound of Ember’s footsteps in front of him.
“I could tell how curious you were,” she said. “You must not talk to many people often.”
“Yeah,” he said. “How did you know?”
“Because I feel the same way. You could imagine how lonely it is for hundreds of years, standing here guarding this place.” She stopped moving, and Tatsuya copied.
“I never really thought of it like that,” he said. “I would imagine that a lot of people would try to come here to steal the pendant piece.”
“Not very often. It’s a well kept secret, don’t you know?”
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said, a bit awkwardly because he had no idea what to say at this point.
“When you’re alone, and someone finally arrives, all you want to do is talk to them,” she said. “Isn’t that right?”
Tatsuya shrugged, but then he remembered how he was in complete darkness so she wouldn’t have seen his movements, anyway. “I guess,” he said. “But sometimes I just want to remain alone, you know?”
“It depends on whom you’re talking to. If I were here stuck with Kaida, I would have preferred to be alone.”
“That’s a bit harsh. Especially when you’ve been alone for hundreds of years.”
“I suppose,” she said. “But you don’t know Kaida any longer than I do.”
An odd silence lingered in the air between them before Tatsuya remembered what he had even come here for.
“So are you going to give me the pendent or not?” he asked. “As much as I would love to talk to you, I need it pretty badly.”
“The pendant may or may not come with time,” she said. “After all, I have been guarding it for hundreds of years. I am not about to just give it away to a little human boy who walks in and asks for it.”
“Why are you guarding it, anyway?” Tatsuya asked her. “I mean, why you?” It certainly would have been easier to get the pendant if a less stubborn guard were in order.
“Because I cannot let anyone get control of him,” she said. “The Dragon of Spring, the Dragon of Life. None shall control him, I will make sure he is always free,” she said with a fiery passion in her voice.
“Why do you care so much?” he asked. “It doesn’t seem like you are perfunctory about this at all.”
The noise of her shifting caught Tatsuya’s ear, and he could tell that she had sat down on the hard ground.
“It is a wonder what love can do to a person,” she said.
“Oh!” Tatsuya exclaimed. “So you’re in love with him or something?”
“Yes,” she said. “That’s what got me excommunicated as a fairy.”
“But it’s just knowing another creature,” he said. “I might not know too much, but if we weren’t allowed to mingle outside of our species, a lot of us would be dead already.”
“Yes, but I was always under tight security,” she said. “You see, I was the heiress to the throne in my kingdom. I was supposed to rule after my father had died. And no one liked my father as a ruler, so even if one of our family members had one toe out of line, the consequences would be much more severe.”
“So you fell in love with a dragon and got kicked out?”
“Yes.”
“That seems incredibly harsh.”
“Why do you think I’m incredibly harsh? It’s because everyone is so incredibly harsh to me.”
“Well, if you’re in love with the Dragon of Spring, how come you’re not with him? Why are you just in his shrine? And you said you were alone for hundreds of years… what’s the deal with that?”
“He sent me here,” she said simply. “He said that the best way to prove my love for him was to protect him and to protect his shrine. So he left me here all those centuries ago, and he never really came back.”
“He didn’t even come to visit?” Tatsuya asked. “If you ask me, it seems like he’s just using you.”
“Maybe,” she said slowly. “But we are in love. It is the strongest bond. I gave up power of my kingdom just to be with him. And he trusted me enough with this monumental task. It is obvious he’s not just using me.”
“If you say so,” Tatsuya said. “Are you the only protection that this place has?”
“Yes, mostly,” she said. “The fact that it’s hidden is a crucial factor. And it is very hard to access in the middle of this forest.”
“At first glance, you don’t seem like that much of a threat, though,” Tatsuya said. “I mean, when I first saw you I was surprised. You seemed like a little girl or something. And then you began acting strangely and I felt afraid.”
Ember chuckled her chliche evil-sounding laugh. “Oh, trust me, I am more than just a little girl. I might not be a fairy anymore, but I still have most of the magic, and it is not a toy.”
“What sort of magic?” Tatsuya asked.
“Kaida is the Dragon of Death,” she stated, “and her brother is the Dragon of Life. Just as each magical being controls an element, I also control an element. It might not be one just as powerful as life or death, but it is an element.”
“And what would that be?”
Ember snapped her fingers, and a tiny flame flickered in her hand as if she were holding a lighter or something. Her violet eyes shone in the dim light and made Tatsuya’s heart jolt when he saw her face clearly again. “Fire,” she stated simply.
She waved her hand, and certain branches in the circle of trees caught on fire and lit up the area. Tatsuya was finally able to get a good look at everything. Except for the fact that there wasn’t anything. The whole place was empty, except for the smell of burning wood filled the air from the bottom up.
“This is the shrine?” Tatsuya asked. “There’s like nothing here at all. The pendant isn’t even in here. Is this like a fake one or something? To protect the real one?”
“No,” Ember said. “Kaida has led you well. You are in the real shrine. But do you think the pendant is just sitting out here waiting for someone to walk along and pick it up? I don’t think so.”
“So where is it?” Tatsuya snapped. “I flew all the way here on a freaking dragon, risked my life treading through this disgusting forest, and got attacked by you, and when I’m finally in here, the whole place is empty? I’m trying to save lives here, and you’re just playing games with me?”
“Of course not,” Ember said, her sinister grin growing across her face. “Why would I be playing games with you? This is not a game. This is, how you say, a matter of life and death, is it not?”
“Yes, it is, so I would appreciate it if you just gave me what I came here for. I know that you’re trying to protect it from evil and stuff, and how you want to ensure that Kaida’s brother will always be free and never under the control of some dinky human, but you don’t know how badly we need it and what it means to us that we have it. So if you don’t mind ending this stupid game, I would love it if you could just give it to me, and we can all move on.”
“Do you think I would just move on if someone took control over the Dragon of Spring?” Ember hissed. “I would be sitting here, continuing to be alone, with absolutely no purpose. I would have failed, my intentions would be gone. This is just so easy for you, isn’t it? To just walk in here and ask for what you want and take it and go. Well, I’m not going to make it easy for you.”
She moved into an attacking position again and hissed at Tatsuya. She definitely was not going to make anything easy for him.
“L-listen, please, just for a second,” Tatsuya said, trying to keep his fear under control. “You don’t understand. We’re not going to use it for anything unnecessary. You have to believe me, we’re not trying to take control of any dragon or something evil like that. We just need it so we can help someone who is dying, and to keep it away from someone else. That’s it, you can trust me.”
“Keep it away from someone else?” Ember repeated. “Why would you need to remove it from its sanctum?”
“We want to keep this guy who is trying to use it for evil purposes away from it, that’s all,” Tatsuya explained. “He’s the one who is really evil. He’s trying to take control of all four dragons so he can rule the world or have ultimate power or something of that sort. He even tried to steal it from me. Well, my father. Ten years ago when I was still young, he killed my father in attempts to get the power, but he didn’t know I was there, so it failed. Kaida thinks he’s after the pendants now, so we came here to get this one so he couldn’t get to it.”
Ember hissed and glared at Tatsuya in the midst of his explanation. “I believe you, young boy,” she said. “But do you honestly think the pendant piece is going to be safe with you? Why is it safer with you than with me? It is, after all, my duty to keep it safe. I don’t understand how it could possibly be safer with you.”
“Well, the person trying to steal it will know it’s here,” Tatsuya said. “And if it turns out that it’s not in here, and it’s with us, it’ll throw him off guard completely. Also, if he tries to come after us, Kaida will be there to help protect it.”
Ember hissed again when Tatsuya said Kaida’s name. “No. Absolutely not. I am not letting that pendant piece out of this shrine. I am not letting it out of my reach. I am terribly sorry that I cannot give it to you, but you will just have to finish your task without it.”
“You don’t understand—”
“I am sorry, but you are the one who does not understand,” Ember barked. She was beginning to get angry, and her violet eyes flashed against the dim light. “The pendant piece is perfectly safe with me, and I would advise you that you should leave this shrine and never return if you want to live longer than your measly fifteen years.”
“I don’t care about my life at all,” Tatsuya said. “I’m just doing this to help other people, and to protect the people I love. You know about love. I’m doing this for love, just like you are. You have to understand, I have to have that pendant piece.”
Ember scowled at him, put her arm on his shoulder, dangerously close to his neck, and pushed up up against a tree, right under where one of the branches was on fire. Tatsuya could feel her hand’s warmth even through his jacket and shirt. It was dangerously scalding. Ember hissed again.
“You will stay away from here,” she said, her voice deep again. “And you will stay away from seeking the power to control the Dragon of Life.”
Her hand continuously grew hotter and hotter on Tatsuya’s skin.
“Please,” Tatsuya said, his voice quivering now more than ever. “I can’t just go like that. You have to give me a chance. I need that pendant.”
Ember’s hand continued to heat up, and soon it was burning through Tatsuya’s jacket before it touched his cold skin.
Tatsuya yelped in pain, but Ember kept a tight grip on his shoulder.
“Stay away from here,” she said with more force. “And you will be glad that you did.”
Tatsuya broke from her grasp and fell to his knees. He tried to bend his head to look at his shoulder and noticed a massive burn that would be impossible to hide, for his clothes had burns on them, too.
“Now, if you please, leave.”