The group was Mo, Dustfinger, Farid, Nikky, Doria and me. The Black Prince stole some uniforms for us, they were light blue T-shirts with khaki pants, and a hoodie.

We stepped into the cruise ship sized boat. Something wasn't right. We looked around us. The crew was all on deck and we were somewhere underneath. Everything looked modern, like, reality-modern… at least modern in my reality… But, if I'm not real, then I guess I really don't know what "modern" means in reality. Anyways, the floors, the walls, the doors, even the ceilings, were all stainless steel, cool and smooth to the touch. Something still seemed… just… wrong, I guess. The atmosphere, it was almost, I don't know… sinister? Mo lead us to a door, he was holding a floor plan the Black Prince had given him earlier, it showed every last detail of the ship. He pushed the door open, very slowly though, the metal door seemed heavy. Everyone filed in, I came in last.

The setting was pretty much the same, all shiny surfaces, except, on the floor, it looked like they had brought cattle in this room, which was confirmed by the bored looking cow in the corner who just glanced at us, then decided she'd rather just stare at the wall. luckily, it seemed as though they had replaced the hay recently, considering it was mostly clean, only the faintest aroma of manure scented the room. The hay was scattered around the floor, I'd have to remind Farid and Dustfinger to not play with fire in here.

Everyone decided to sit down, I sat next to a nervous looking Doria. "Getting on this boat was a bad idea," Doria whispered ruefully to me.

"What? Why-" I started, but was interrupted by the door to the room, when it swung open abruptly.

Doria flipped up his hood.

At least 20 armed men stormed purposefully into the room and pointed their guns at us, all of them looked exactly like Mortola's. They all wore metallic masks, which had two square shaped holes for the eyes, and a slit near the mouth, and they had the uniforms of the crew members. Guns were pointed at each of us.

"We need to tell the Rose that we have stow-aways," one man with a gruffly voice said to the leader of the group, who stood in front of the others, and had no mask.

But, the leader was pre-occupied. His cold, blue eyes stared at Farid. He ran his hand through the bleach blonde hair that reached his shoulders. "I have to apologize," he began, still looking at Farid, his words were like acid, "we seemed to have forgotten something," he took a step toward Farid, "my men just aren't very reliable sometimes," he took another step, "you see," he said, slowly walking towards Farid, "I don't like to leave things unfinished," another step, "and you know what?" He was standing above Farid, who was still sitting.

Farid glared at the man fearlessly, "what?"

"YOUR'E NOT FINISHED!" the man yanked Farid up by the hair and pushed him up against the wall, he shoved his gun into Farids face, "I know everything about this little group, you were healed in the castle! You were supposed to be dead!" he pushed the gun harder on Farid's cheek, "and now," the man was breathing heavy and stared right into Farid's eyes when he said, "your'e dead."

I saw his finger tense on the trigger, and closed my eyes. Just before the deafening bang. I blinked down at the floor, but couldn't make out anything due to the tears filling up my eyes. Goodbye, Farid. I thought to myself. I love you.

Through the blur, I began to see bright golden yellow, and my skin felt kind of singed, I tried unsuccessfully to clear my eyes enough to see what was happening, there were more bangs. Oh no, I thought, they're killing everyone! I put my face in my hands, I was crying even harder. After more than a dozen shots, it was dead silent. I was pulled up gently by the arm, I knew it had to be one of the armed men, "NO!" I shouted, expecting another gunshot.

"Calm down," Doria said soothingly, keeping his grip on my arm," it's over," he said, "it's ok now."

I opened my eyes, and was about to close them again, just before I realized the dead bodies on the ground were the armed men. They were all scorched. Their guns looked like they had exploded, which was very possible. I remembered Farid, and, expecting the worse, looked at where he was last standing. He was still standing, and smiling evilly, he ran to Nikky and hugged her, told her something too quiet for anyone to hear, she looked pretty shaken up. I smiled, anyone who could conjure up fire could blow up a gun, easily. But I still tried to avoid looking at the bodies.

It wasn't over though.

No one closed the door, and no one noticed the tall man walk in.

"Let me introduce myself," a tall man, with grey eyes, almost white, no depth in them at all, and straight black hair, perfectly parted in half, and cut in a straight line at the middle of his neck, his skin was so pale, it was as if he had no pigment. He held his hand up as Farid held a single flame between his fists, Doria was pulling at his hood, trying to hide his face as much as possible, "I am only the ship's captain, you can call me Ro, I was not a part of this… violent, terrible, ignorant group. But, I do know how they got their weapons."

"How?" Mo asked, immediately deciding to trust the captain.

"They had found an inventor in Ombra, he was about to destroy this weapon," said Ro, gesturing towards one of the misshapen guns, "they easily got him to betray his stupid friends, and show them how to build one, for only one piece of silver!" Ro looked at hooded Doria, "when I first came in here," he said, "I thought you looked very familiar." He reached into the pocket of his uniform, "hmm… where is it? Oh!" he exclaimed, "here it is," His grin turned to a scowl, as he put the, very short, gun to Doria's forehead. Ro used the gun to flip the hood back. His arm was fully extended, like Ro was trying to keep the gun as far from himself as possible, "If you do to my gun, what you did to those, Farid," he said, "I will lose an arm, and he will lose his life."

"What do you want Rose?" asked Doria, he was trying to hide his fear, but failing.

"The plant. Now. I know you have it."

"I don't."

"Well then, I know who does," said the Rose, "I will just… take it," the Rose slowly removed the gun from Doria's fore head, then, swung his arm, still extended, toward me, I could feel the cold gun pressing into my head.

"DON"T" Doria yelled, "keep your gun on me. Meggie, give him the flower."

"The flower?" I looked at him, confused, then it clicked in my head, I reached into my bag, and pulled out a long black box. Then took out the deep blue flower Doria had given me the night Farid had returned, the same night that he was shot, probably the same night that the flower was stolen… I stretched out my arm with the flower towards the Rose, trying not to get to close. He took it.

He shot Doria.

It happened in an instant, in fact, the Rose was smiling, his hand was touching mine still, his smile got even wider as he pulled the trigger. He was still touching my hand when Doria fell. It was silent again as the sound of Dorias body hitting the floor echoed in the bloody room. After a second of everyone being stunned, the Rose laughed loudly. But was cut off half a second later, because the gun exploded.

The Rose dropped, a smile on his face.

I dropped too, I dropped to my knees and stared at the floor, Doria's blood was mixing with the Rose's. I was completely still, I was still for a very long time. I didn't hear Mo ask, "where is Dustfinger?" I was empty, I loved Doria, more than anything. Now he was gone. There was no way it could be taken back.

"No…" said a weak, grief stricken voice, "Dustfinger…" I wasn't empty enough to not hear that though.

I looked up at Farid, who was hugging Nikky, he was crying, but, he was whispering to Nikky, It wasn't Farid who said that. I felt two very strong, yet completely opposite emotions, extreme sadness, and overwhelming happiness, which when you mix those together you end up with a little bit of guilt too. I looked at Doria, he was sitting up, as if nothing had happened, but he was upset. I knew, and he knew that Dustfinger had given himself up. Dustfinger had died, yet again, except this was probably the last time. I rushed over to Doria and kissed him. He was a bit disoriented, but he kissed me back.

Then, surprise, surprise, Dustfinger walked back into the room. Smiling really big at Mo, who was shocked. "Wha-" I began to ask, but Dustfinger just laughed. Dustfinger just won't die will he?

"I'm ready," Nikky said, holding Farid's hand.

I was standing with Farid and Nikky in the middle of a grassy field, I was about to read them back to Nikky's "real world," I was holding a faded sheet of notebook paper, it had the words that would send them back on it.

"Ok," I said, quickly checking the cell phone Doria made for me, to make sure I had Nikky's phone number. I hugged Farid, then hugged Nikky, I was crying, but they said they would visit. Nikky would text me if she wanted to come by, and I could just read her into our little book within a book, within a book, and probably within a Fanfiction story.

I wonder if there will be a sequal.

You're crazy Meggie.

"What was that?" Nikky and farid are looking at me weird now. What was that voice? I'm so confused!

I'm the author. Seriously, don't freak out.

Um... ok, but if you're the author, then wouldn't you be making, er, writing me freaking out?

Hey! Don't tell me how to do my job!

Sorry...

It's Ok, but I don't know if I will be able to write a sequal.

Aw... why not?

I just don't have enough time.

Then... what's going to happen to me while you're gone?

Huh. I don't really know... Haven't thought about it too much... I guess you... Well... I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually.

Does that mean you're righting a sequal? I don't want you to leave... What if I DIE?

Oh please, you're not going to die if I'm gone. But, you're character is a bit boring... I bet killing off the main character would add a little excitement to the story...

No thank you... Please don't.

So... about the sequal?

BANG!

Fine. I get it no sequal... just, don't try to hit me with lightning again. Please.

Don't backtalk me anymore. Are you going to read Farid and Nikky back to "reality," or not?

Yeah, sure... um, Ok.

And they all lived happily ever after. Unless I make a sequal. In that case I will make them suffer.