Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High.

Read on, oh faithful ones...

...

Chapter Ten

...

Two months later

Blossom watched as Warren paced up and down their living room. They'd publicly announced their relationship to the world a week ago, and he'd moved in with her the day after someone attempted to kill him. The CCTV cameras had been covered and couldn't provide a picture of his attacker, but Warren swore that it was Mrs. Woo, knowing that her preferred weapon was a pair of sharpened chopsticks. Mrs. Woo, it seemed, would need a while to come around to their relationship and trust him again. Blossom had already organised for Honey to take Warren to meet with Mrs. Woo, and Warren had muttered about needing a protective detail and bulletproof vest.

"Is there any way to get a sniper outside of the Paper Lantern? Or inside? Mrs. Woo is really going to kill me," Warren said, running his hands through his hair.

"What, you don't think you can hold your own against her? She's an adorable lady who's five feet tall," Blossom said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, she's adorable to you. I had my ass handed to me any time Mrs. Woo thought I was getting too big for my ugly old combat boots. Her words, not mine," he added.

Blossom stifled a laugh, her hands covering her mouth.

"It's not funny, hippie," he groused.

"I know," she said, grinning broadly nonetheless.

Warren rolled his eyes, kissed her anyway, and headed out to where Honey was waiting to take him to Mrs. Woo.

"Don't worry, Warren, she won't kill you," Honey said.

"Mrs. Woo not killing me doesn't mean that she won't kick my ass," he muttered.

"Well, she has put her trust in you for all of these years, would you expect anything less?" she asked with a grin.

"I would expect her to let me explain myself before trying to kill me," Warren said.

"Since when has Mrs. Woo been the type of person to ask questions first and kill later?" Honey asked with a scoff.

Warren gave a reluctant nod of agreement and slid into the front passenger seat.

From her penthouse apartment, Blossom watched as Honey and Warren left the safety of the Lab's white walls and drove into what was left of the city of Maxville. She watched their tail lights in the smog outside of the Lab's forcefield - another advantage of being on this side of the wall was the clean air, unlike the almost constant smog-filled air that occupied the rest of the world. Each Lab headquarters in each Walled country, continent, or state was given the same luxury of fresh air and their own hospitals, making it very clear to any rebels just who held the power in this world.

The car disappeared from sight over a small hill and Blossom turned away from the window. She closed her eyes and thought of Zach and Ethan, a yellow rose appearing wherever they were, signifying that they were both to come to her. It was ten o'clock, and she'd sent a rose with ten petals and a single leaf, indicating that they had half an hour before they were required to see her. She wanted them to interrogate the rebel prisoner they'd brought back from South Africa and report back to her.

With that done, Blossom left her apartment to visit Medulla and see how the Jekyll/Hyde potion was faring.

...

Blossom tried not to look too amused at the fact that Warren returned from his visit to Mrs. Woo with a black eye. Zach on the other hand, wasn't sleeping with Warren, and just laughed outright. Ethan just grinned beside him, both of them ignoring Warren's half-hearted glare.

"All right, that's enough from you two. I'll get your report on the South African rebel later," Blossom said, dismissing them.

"Wait, I want to hear this. What did the bastard say?" Warren asked, looking at them.

Zach busied himself with cleaning the dirt - or more likely, dried blood - from under his fingernails, and Ethan suddenly found the wooden table's grain very fascinating.

"Oh, man up and tell me already. I won't kill the messengers," Warren promised.

"You're not going to like it," Zach promised.

"Never thought I would. Now start talking," he said.

"He said that we killed everyone he was working with, and he's refusing to say anything else on that matter. Although, he definitely had a lot to say about Blossom," Ethan said, somewhat diplomatically.

"Mainly, about where she could put her vines," Zach added helpfully.

Warren's arms lit up immediately, and both men shrank back slightly at the sight.

"You said you weren't going to kill the messengers," Ethan reminded him.

"I know that; I plan on killing the source of the message," Warren growled, leaving the apartment immediately.

"I love when he gets like this; it makes me all warm and tingly inside," Blossom said with a laugh, following after Warren without a single indication of trying to stop him.

"Well, at least they're happy," Zach muttered, standing up straight and brushing off his shirt.

"At least we're not roasted. Why'd you have to say that for?" Ethan muttered, nudging Zach in the ribs with his elbow.

"Ow, hey, you've got sharp elbows!" he whined, rubbing his sore ribs with a pout. "I said it because I knew that if we dragged it out with all of the other stuff that the idiot really did say, then we definitely would've been roasted, never mind him not killing the messengers," Zach muttered.

"I suppose you're right. Come on, let's go make sure Warren doesn't burn the Lab down," Ethan said, tugging on Zach's hand to lead him downstairs.

By the time they reached the interrogation room, the captured rebel had already told Warren and Blossom everything he knew: who had organised their group, who else was in their rebel group, the people that had created the weed killer, who their suppliers and informers were, and where their rebel faction's headquarters were located.

From his helpfully supplied information, Blossom already knew that the South African rebels would no longer be a problem: there were none left. Zach and Ethan had already taken care of the rebels that they'd found in the hideout, and the idiots hadn't even thought to make their hideout separate from their headquarters. The South African rebels were no more. Well, almost, she amended, looking at the terrified young man on the floor before her.

"He's given us everything he knows. I have no other use for him, you can kill him," she said, offering a bright smile to Warren.

Warren didn't even hesitate, and in a matter of minutes, all that remained of the rebel was a pile of ashes.

"Remind me to never get on your bad side?" Zach murmured weakly, eyes wide as he stared at the grey ashes on the floor.

"You should remember without needing a reminder," Warren said with a smirk.

Zach just nodded, his mouth suddenly dry.

"Would you two like to come over for dinner tomorrow night?" Blossom offered, leading them all away from the interrogation room.

"You know us, Blossom, we never turn down free food," Zach said, perking up with a grin.

"Good; come to my apartment at 7 o'clock then," Blossom said.

"We'll bring the wine," Ethan said, thanking and farewelling them both before leading Zach over to the elevator to get to their apartment.

Warren looked at Blossom scrutinisingly when the other two were gone. "What are you up to, hippie?"

"Not much," she said with a shrug. "Medulla's finished the Jekyll and Hyde potion, and I think Ethan and Zach will be the perfect test candidates," Blossom said, grinning broadly.

"Oh, so we've stooped to drugging people, have we?"

"Only people outside of the Walls. Ethan and Zach will be offered a choice, don't worry about that... Of course, it'll be a choice between taking the potion or dying, so I'm fairly confident of their answers."

Warren shook his head at her broad grin and tugged her out of the interrogation room, leading Blossom up to their apartment to spend the rest of the day in a much more pleasurable way.

...

Ethan and Zach took the potion without Blossom even needing to threaten them. They both remembered how the Mad Professor had been in their early years and were curious to see what would happen to them. As they both screamed in pain, their bodies seizing into various contortions that would have been impossible had they been aware of them, Blossom used her vines to gently carry the two men to their apartment. She set Ethan and Zach on their bed with all the care of a mother and her newborns, then settled down on the armchair on Zach's side of the bed to wait and ensure that they would survive the night.

Blossom drifted off to the sounds of their screams and whimpers of pain. She woke up some time later, groggily realising that their noises had stopped. Sitting up properly, she checked to see if they were still breathing, and was intrigued to see that they'd powered up, even though they were both asleep. Zach's glow in the dark glinted off the puddle of water that was beside him, and her responding smile was almost feral in the greenish light. Assured that they would be all right, Blossom left their apartment quietly to return to her own bed. She left two ribbon-wrapped yellow roses on their dining table as her way of thanking them.

Warren woke up when she came into the bedroom, reluctantly opening one eye only to see her smiling triumphantly.

"That good, huh?" he murmured, yawning widely. "They okay?"

"They're going to be fine. It's going to be even better than we planned, Warren," she breathed.

"That's promising. Considering we planned for us to rule the whole fucking world, being better than that is going to result in us ruling the universe, right?" Warren said, chuckling.

"Oh, shut up, you know what I meant," Blossom muttered, hitting him with her pillow.

Before she could let go, Warren grabbed the pillow and tugged sharply, Blossom falling onto the mattress with a noise of surprise. Warren shoved her pillow back on her side of the bed and wrapped his arms around her body, warming her quickly. Blossom smiled and rested her head against his shoulder, her eyes closing as Warren fell asleep beneath her.

...

"Poison, Fire," Ethan said with a brief nod to Blossom and Warren respectively.

"This is fucking fantastic. It won't wear off, will it? I could become addicted to feeling like this," Zach said, grinning brightly.

"It will ease slightly so you're not feeling like this every day for the rest of your life. It'll burn you out in a few months otherwise," Blossom replied, rolling her eyes at Zach's disappointed expression.

"Oh, well that's all right then. Don't like the idea of burning out," Zach murmured, looking down at his glowing hand.

"We have to go rob a bank or three; we'll be back later," Ethan said with a grin, taking Zach's hand.

"All right, just don't rob our bank this time. And don't set the money on fire with the jetpacks again!" Blossom called after them, realising that they were heading for the jetpacks.

"They set the money on fire?" Warren asked, chuckling.

"Well, not them, but they were with the guy. An eighth tier recruit had the smart idea to tie the bags of money to his waist. The flames from the jetpacks come out waist-high, so obviously, not the smartest idea in the world. The idiot burnt himself to death in mid-air, which saved me the effort of red-rosing him," Blossom admitted with a shrug.

"Why wasn't that on the news? Would've given us a good laugh," Warren said, grinning at her.

"Exactly; it was a few months into our reign, so we couldn't have anyone laughing at us. I made sure that the security and news footage were destroyed."

"All right, no laughing then... So, now that those two are off robbing a bank, what are we going to do?"

"We're going to go train. I want to make sure we'll win when the time comes," Blossom replied.

"In the training arena? There's cameras and people down there," Warren pointed out, knowing that she wouldn't want to put their training on display when there was essentially no need for them to be training.

"I've got my own private training area."

"I've been here a year, and now you tell me?" he muttered, shaking his head at her.

"That's one of the reasons why it's private: I don't tell people about it," Blossom said, laughing.

She walked over to a honey-suckle covered wall, and he could only watch as the plants moved, pushing two pieces of the wall apart until an elevator was revealed.

"Coming?" she asked, turning to face him.

Nodding, Warren hurried to where she was, the wall closing and plants disappearing behind him. The elevator wasn't run on electricity, but rather a pulley system involving several vines and various tree branches. Blossom took Warren's hand with a smile, seeing doubt flicker across his face.

"I've been using this for five years; there's nothing to worry about."

"I'm not worried," Warren muttered, but he still clutched her hand tightly as they began to descend.

He seemed a little awed at her training area - she didn't blame him, really; the thing stretched on for miles beneath Maxville itself. While Warren was distracted, Blossom wrapped him in a vine and their training session began.

...

The Mad Professor was having dinner with Coach when the green envelope was delivered, a challenge waiting inside. Coach offered no response, which didn't surprise Blossom in the least, but the Mad Professor didn't either, and that was surprising. She had expected some kind of emotion, some response after all of these years, but he simply nodded, took the offered envelope and shut the door on the Channel 5 news crew.

Waiting until the media had left, Blossom used her elevator to go up to the top level of the Lab, to Medulla's apartment. She didn't bother trying to be quiet as her vines pulled the wall open, and stepped out into his lounge room. Finding Medulla and Coach in the dining room, Blossom glared at the former.

"What the hell was that all about?" she demanded.

"What do you mean?" Medulla asked, setting his cutlery down and wiping his mouth on his napkin calmly.

"Your response! Why wasn't there one?"

"Because I've been waiting for this challenge for almost six months now. I wasn't aware that you were waiting for Warren to join you, but it's not that surprising, honestly," he said with a shrug.

Stunned, Blossom didn't quite know how to respond. Medulla seemed to realise this and gave her a slight smile.

"I have no intention of winning the fight, but I will behave as I must in order to make your win believable," he assured her.

"What? Why?" Blossom asked, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that he'd known for all of this time. She honestly thought that he'd put up more of a fight than this.

"You've always been the one in control, Blossom, and I'll be glad to finally hand the reins over to you completely. I can retreat to my lab without any interruptions; there's a few things I'd like to work on now the Jekyll/Hyde concoction has been completed," he added, looking over to where Coach was sitting blankly.

"What makes you think I'll leave you alive?" she sneered, finally over her shock and not at all pleased at the fact that Medulla was presuming so much.

"You will; I'm much more valuable to you alive. Besides, it wouldn't be the first time we've fooled the public into believing what we want them to believe," Medulla added.

Blossom glared at him, not wanting to admit that he was right, and left his apartment through the front door, slamming it behind her fiercely.

"That went well," Coach said, the barest hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Don't worry, I've taken precautions to ensure Blossom won't let me die," Medulla said, returning to his meal quietly.

Coach didn't reply, and they finished their meal in silence.

...

Zach and Ethan were smart enough to avoid Blossom when she was in one of her moods, but they weren't dumb enough to avoid one of her message flowers, and soon found themselves in her apartment despite her mood.

"How are you two feeling?" Blossom asked, setting about getting drinks for them.

"Fine," Ethan said quickly, Zach nodding beside him.

"Oh, stop acting like I'm going to red-rose you. I'm genuinely interested in how you're feeling. The bank robbery went off without a hitch, I presume?"

"It went fine. The money's been added to the Lab's bank account accordingly, with our 10% cut already taken off," Ethan informed her.

"And we're feeling great. Apart from a bit of blood boiling anger here and there, I don't really feel any different," Zach added.

"That's good to hear, make sure you let the Mad Professor know," Blossom said.

"We will," Ethan said with a nod, taking the offered drink with thanks.

Zach took his drink as well, sipping at the liquid gratefully. The blood boiling anger part of it almost felt literal at times, his blood burning away in his body until he wanted to scream.

"Hey Ethan, Zach; how are you?" Warren asked, coming into the lounge room. He accepted the drink Blossom offered, kissing her briefly.

"Yeah, good thanks. You?" Zach asked.

"Not bad," he said, shrugging as he sat beside Blossom.

"So the huge chunk of skin missing from your arm is good, then?" Ethan asked.

"Oh, right, I forgot about that. Courtesy of a training session with Mrs. Woo. She's still pissed at me, and has started taking her anger out on me with well-placed arrows instead of chopsticks," Warren said.

"You're training with her?" Zach asked in confusion.

"Yeah, we're slowly starting to get the rebels on our side. It's amazing what the promise of food, clean water, and plants clearing up the atmosphere and air on their side of the Walls will do," he said with a chuckle.

"Of course, there's also the promise of a lengthy and drawn out public red-rosing if she tries to kill Warren again. I haven't done a public red-rosing for years," Blossom said, grinning.

"I've got a list of people that deserve red-rosing if you need it," Zach offered immediately.

"Paul and Johnny don't count as a list," she replied with a laugh.

"It's more than one person, therefore it's a list," he said stubbornly.

Ethan rolled his eyes at Zach and began to relax a bit more now they weren't going to be fodder for Blossom's angry mood. In fact, with Warren beside her, she seemed much calmer than the initial reports had suggested. He sipped his drink and joined in with the conversation, detailing exactly how many things needed to be included before a list was considered a list (three and more, obviously - Zach was aghast at his lover's betrayal). They spent the rest of the night talking with Warren and Blossom. It was just like old times, except this time, all four of them were sitting around a table planning the world's future.

...

Warren was sick. He had been sick for a week, but no doctor, healer, or super equivalent could determine exactly what was wrong with him. The fight with Medulla was scheduled to take place in three days, and according to the rules (there were some rules, they weren't an anarchy, after all) only identified and medically-treated illnesses were allowed to postpone challenges. Medulla knew this just as well as Blossom did. She turned the entire apartment into a jungle, Warren immediately lost in the mass of green, instinctively knowing that Medulla was the cause. She cursed him loudly and repeatedly, calming herself enough to restore the apartment when she heard Warren wheezing.

Finally, after the tenth sneeze that burnt up her favourite hydrangeas, Blossom admitted that she would have to face Medulla. She contacted Honey to look after Warren (and her plants), then left to find Medulla. It wasn't hard to find him - he was in his laboratory with Coach sitting beside him - and Blossom walked over and slapped Medulla hard across the face.

He recoiled immediately, pressing his hand to his face. "That was a bit of a dramatic response, Blossom."

"Make Warren better now. I know you did something to him, now fix him!"

Before Medulla could deny her accusation or refuse her demand, Blossom squeezed her hand tightly. On the chair, Coach suddenly started wheezing, his face turning an ugly shade of purple. He just sat there and slowly began to asphyxiate, not even trying to claw at his neck as most people would - Medulla could see the vines under his skin keeping his body exactly where Blossom wanted as she killed him again.

"All right! You could have simply asked," Medulla said, turning to a set of vials.

"You would have said no," she replied.

Medulla didn't bother denying it, instead he handed her a small vial filled with a bright pink liquid. "Give him two drops every hour for the next 24 hours and he'll be fine."

Coach stopped wheezing, his face returning to its normal pale colour. Blossom stepped forward, using the dropper to place a single drop on Coach's hand. The liquid seemed to sink into his skin, but he didn't seem to be in pain or have any adverse affects, and she nodded.

"Thank you, Medulla. Don't you dare try to hurt him again, or next time, you'll be the one choking to death, understood?"

"Understood, but you need to understand that I am the only one with the knowledge and desire to fix these problems. What if it had been the result of a rebel poisoning Warren, and I was dead? You'd have no way of healing him; the rebels certainly wouldn't do it, no matter what you threatened them with."

Blossom's all too aware that Warren's still sick, sneezing small balls of fire, and has probably destroyed the grape vine she's trying to grow along the ceiling. Instead of replying, she simply turns and leaves the laboratory without looking back.

"Think about it, Blossom," Medulla called after her.

...

Blossom did think about it; she thought about it for hours as she sat by Warren and watched him slowly get better, colour returning to his cheeks, and a spark of life seeming to reappear in his eyes once more. The second he was able to power up again, Warren threatened to engulf Medulla in flames for attempting to kill him.

"He wasn't trying to kill you, Warren; he was trying to make a point," Blossom said reluctantly, sighing.

"What point would that be? That he wants me dead?" he growled.

"No, that we can't afford for him to be dead," she said.

Warren frowned slightly and went quiet as he considered what she meant. "You're not really planning on keeping him alive, are you? After all of this time, all of this planning?"

"I'm... I don't know. He's right, Warren. What if a rebel had poisoned you? We couldn't begin to hope to make the antidote in time, but Medulla could," Blossom said.

"Yeah, and we could also torture the fuck out of anyone that tried. Killing him has been the plan all along, hippie, we can't deviate from it now!"

"Why not? He's just one person," she said.

"Yeah, we're just two people, and we're about to take over the entire world! Medulla's also the one person that everyone - no matter rebel, villain, or civilian - knows and recognises; his face has been plastered on every TV and computer screen for the past five years! There's nowhere that he can go that won't have someone that recognises his face, and we can't keep him alive and risk our reign like that," Warren said, incredulous that he had to explain himself to her of all people.

"What if it wasn't my face?" Medulla asked, standing in the doorway suddenly.

"Come to try and kill me again?" Warren snarled, his arms lighting up.

"No, not at all. I stopped by to ensure my antidote worked as it should have. Your fever's gone down, I hope?" Medulla asked, his voice surprisingly calm and nice.

"Uh, yeah, it has," Warren replied, wary and confused as to the Mad Professor's appearance.

"That's excellent news. Now, on to more important matters: my continued survival. As you may know, I've grown to like this little arrangement we've got going on, dearest Blossom, and I do not wish to see it end quite so abruptly or messily. I am more than willing to pass my reign over to both of you, pretend that I'm dead, all of that, but I refuse to die for control that you always had in the first place," Medulla said.

"What do you propose, then?" Blossom asked.

"We battle, as is expected of us by the public, but I don't die. Instead, I change my features and go to a remote place - with my laboratory equipment, of course - and stay there to live and die when I please," he said.

"You don't have the ability to change your features," Warren pointed out, feeling far too much like Captain Obvious for his liking (that idiot was a waste of space, and if Warren hadn't been on the rebel side on first meeting him, he would've thrown the ridiculous excuse for a super off the tallest building in Maxville).

"Oh, I know, but Craig does. I've gained enough blood samples from him over the years to discover exactly how he alters his molecular structure to change into someone else," Medulla said, producing a syringe.

Before Blossom or Warren could do anything, Medulla plunged the syringe into his own arm, injecting himself with the golden serum. He took a deep breath and before their eyes, began to change his body to mimic Blossom's, clothes and all.

"That is interesting," she murmured, stepping closer to survey him properly. "Do you sound like yourself as well?"

"Unfortunately, yes, which is why I'll most likely stick with a male," he replied, already uncomfortable enough in Blossom's carbon copy to shift directly into Warren's instead.

Blossom smirked a little at the idea of two Warren's, but was all too aware that under that Warren's skin was Medulla. She shuddered now instead.

"How much of that serum do you have?" Warren asked as his body seemed to melt away to reveal Medulla once more.

"Enough to change myself permanently once I've chosen a more inconspicuous and comfortable body," he replied.

"Who were you thinking?" Blossom asked curiously. "We need to know, or else we won't have any way of finding you."

Medulla gave a brief nod and changed again; there was just enough of the serum still coursing through his veins for one more change.

"Your old Hard Science college professor?" Blossom asked.

She had seen pictures of a much younger Medulla with the older man before (a picture from the 80s, and Medulla was wearing bell bottom jeans - she'd mercilessly teased him about that for months), but the man standing in front of her looked like a younger version of the Hard Science professor. Not-Medulla nodded, seeming pleased that she remembered at all.

"What about a name, your passport, all the relevant paperwork? You can't just appear on a remote island somewhere without the proper credentials: you two made sure of that," Warren pointed out.

"Exactly, so I know exactly what I need to go where I choose. Honey's helped me organise it all," Medulla added, back in his body again as the last of the serum pumped through his veins.

"Honey?!" Blossom asked, her jaw dropping. "Oh, you had better be waiting out there with a damn good explanation, Honey," she snarled, moving past Medulla to go to the lounge room.

Honey was sitting on the lounge, waiting patiently (she'd probably been waiting since Medulla arrived, Blossom realised belatedly). She looked up at Blossom with a slightly sad smile.

"In exactly two years, four months, and sixteen days, Simon will be challenged by someone with a radioactive power. His body will not change, since he's already a natural-born super, but the radiation will make him ... very sick," she glossed over, thinking briefly of her husband in a hospital bed, pale and dying. "No one will be able to save him but the Mad Professor, and you can believe me when I say that I've checked across the globe; he is the only one who can save my baby's father... I can't allow you to kill the Mad Professor, Blossom," Honey said, standing and preparing to fight if necessary.

(Six out of ten possible futures indicated they would fight, and of those she would only win one. Still, she would try; for her family, Honey would fight until the end.)

"Your baby's father? So you're finally pregnant then?" Blossom asked, grinning broadly and barely able to contain her excitement - Simon and Honey had been trying to have a baby for over a year now.

Honey let out a sigh of relief as six possible futures disappeared, her body tingling at the feeling of the possible becoming impossible and feeding her power. To answer Blossom's question, she nodded and grinned in return.

"I'm already six weeks along. I wasn't positive until this morning. I've yet to tell Simon; he's been out jogging," Honey added.

"Congratulations, I'm very happy for you," Blossom said, moving to hug her warmly.

"Thank you, Blossom, so am I. Simon may be a bit overprotective in the beginning, so try not to hug me too tightly when he's near. He'll settle down after a few weeks, don't worry."

"All right, thanks for the warning," she said, grinning.

"Can you please tell me exactly what's going on here, hippie? Do we have a fight to prepare for, or are we going to fake it?" Warren asked, finally out of bed and seemingly not caring that he was just wearing his boxers.

"Warren, you know that I never fake anything," she said with a grin, looking over his bare form appreciatively. "We've got a fight to prepare for, but we're going to do what we do best: deceive everyone," Blossom said, pressing a heated kiss to his lips.

"Ah, that's our cue to leave, Mad Professor," Honey said, leaving with the older man quickly.

Blossom ignored their farewells, wrapping her arms around Warren. He pulled away, licking his swollen lips, and sighing softly as he pressed a burning kiss to her neck.

"You're sure about this, hippie? We're really going to let him live?"

"For now. Who knows, we might be able to kill him in two years' time when Simon's better," she said with a small snort of disbelief. "I am sort of glad we don't have to kill him; Medulla's a better asset to us alive."

"True, I suppose; us not killing him now means he owes us in the future. Now, I've been practising for a fight that's no longer going to involve so much work to win, so I guess I'll just have to work off all of this extra energy in a much more pleasant way," Warren said, leading her back to the bedroom.

Blossom just laughed and let him guide her to the bedroom, onto the bed, and together for the next few hours. They both deserved a night off, and despite her exhaustion from staying by Warren's bedside the night before, Blossom found she suddenly had more than enough energy to keep up with her lover.

Warren was alive and finally by her side; they didn't have to kill Medulla; and Honey, one of her closest friends in this world she'd built, was expecting a child. A weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and she felt as though she was floating and would never come down again.

Laughter bubbled out of her and Blossom kissed Warren heatedly, both of them falling silent as they soared in each other's embrace.

In just a few days, history would be made with two people holding the first tier position, ruling side by side and together. Fire and Poison would hold the position for a long time after the newly created chaos of Medulla's defeat was reigned in, and the world was finally theirs.

...

Three months later

Max thanked Tom as his friend handed him his mail silently. Coach still wasn't talking as much as he had once, but he was beginning to be more life-like than his previous self. Medulla was pleased with the way his experiments were going, and hoped that sometime in the near future he would be able to have a proper conversation with his old friend once more.

He went still on seeing the postcard tucked in with the bills and junk mail. As always, a small bee sticker was stuck somewhere on the postcard, meaning that Honey had sent it - her way of reminding him that she would always find him, no matter where he went. He ignored the front of the card (a serene beach and 'wish you were here!' added in falsely cheerful font), and read over the few sentences Honey had written for him.

Poison and Fire were married last week, and are travelling to a certain remote island for their honeymoon. (You can expect them on the 23rd.)
Despite a few challenges from overeager recruits and rebels, Chaos will soon have everything under control once more.
You can be assured that your friend is safe.
Take care of yourself, Max.

Max set the postcard down and sighed in relief. Chaos' reign had not been well received by a lot of people, rebels and recruits alike, but they finally seemed to be settling down. He saw that Tom was waiting out on the deck with breakfast, and stood to go join him when he noticed one of the thicker envelopes had a bee sticker on it too. Max opened the envelope and pulled out the contents warily. His wary expression broke into a bright smile, and Max went out to the deck, a perfect yellow flower lying on the table behind him.

...

The end.

...

This is the final chapter for A world of their own. Thank you to everyone for reading. I hope that you've enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed writing this story!