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.”