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.