An engine roared overhead. Thora looked up and saw a ship flying toward them. Daddy's ship! Daddy leapt out, knife flashing, and ripped through the cords holding them. One at a time he tossed Lidy and Cal onto the ship, but Thora jumped. She grabbed hold of the railing and pulled herself in. Daddy neatly double-jumped up to them as the Keep became a pile of rubble. "Drackie!" Cal screamed, bursting into tears, as his favorite stuffed dinosaur- the one he couldn't sleep without, fell into the rubble. Why had he brought Drackie? "No!" Daddy grabbed Cal by the shirt to prevent him from jumping out of the ship after Drackie, sobbing and kicking. Daddy shut the door and locked it, hugging Cal tight. "Hey, little man, it's okay! We'll go down there and find him!" "WE HAVE TO FIND DRACKIE!!!" "Shh, it's okay! We'll go down there and get him right now. Glint can scan for him and we'll find him in no time!" "Daddy!" Lidy jumped into his arms for a hug. Thora hung back, a little uncertain. Lidy and Cal started chattering about their adventures, Cal still crying, talking over the top of each other. Thora decided to sit down in the corner and watch them. She felt a little wierd, seeing him again. A little hurt, and a little lonely. He listened merrily to Lidy and Cal for a minute before noticing Thora. Thora felt a rush in her chest as he ran to her, sweeping her up in a hug, murmuring, "Thora, oh, Thora, I thought you were dead, princess." "Sorry. I did, too." He gazed down at her. "I'm sorry for leaving. I'm coming back now, and I'll never leave again. Will you forgive me?" Thora hugged him back, a tear running down her cheek. "Yeah. Yeah, I forgive you. Petra was kneeling in rubble. Rubble of an evil tower, rubble of everything she had once loved. Was it worth digging for them? Did she want to see their crushed bodies? No, she couldn't handle that. There was no hope. "Drackie!" She looked up, tears covering her face. "Cal?" He had a look of joy on his face as he stumbled through the debris toward her. She looked up. Lidy and Thora were waving at her. She laughed, giving Cal his dinosaur and sweeping him up in her arms. "Mommy found Drackie!" He hollered, waving the dinosaur triumphantly in the air. "Mommy!" Lidy squealed. Petra's grief disappeared as suddenly as it had come as she carried Cal back across the broken chunks of Scarlett Keep. She hugged the three of them tight. "Eris told us you were on the tower.. how did you...?" "Daddy rescued us," Thora told her solemnly. Petra looked up again, and sure enough, there he was, looking shy and scared. "Hey, Petra," he said, clearing his throat and stepping forward. "I... how are you?" She smiled weakly. "I'm alive." He chuckled nervously. "Yeah. I mean, I'm, uh, I'm... I'm really, really sorry for leaving. I shouldn't have left, especially after arguing with you, and I shouldn't have said all those things. I didn't mean them and they aren't true. I was being selfish. Will you forgive me?" "Yeah. I forgive you." Petra gazed at him, then threw her arms around his neck, whispering, "I missed you." "I missed you too. A lot." He brushed his lips across her cheek, before pulling her into a longer kiss, running his fingers through her hair. "I know I let you down, but I won't do it again," he promised, holding her tight. "I love you." "I love you too." She felt so happy. She'd thought she would be angry at him, but he was sincerely sorry, and... well, everyone made mistakes. If they didn't forgive each other, they would never be able to be happy. "Are we gonna go back home now?" Lidy asked. "I... I don't know where we'll go," Crow said uncertainly. "Our old house... it's gone." "We've been staying on Hjura-1. Uldren's house with the lake? It's pretty nice." "Oh, yeah. He had some pretty interesting memories of that lake," Crow said, winking. Petra blushed. "What?" Cal asked. "Swimming," Petra said hurriedly, trying not to think about it. Maybe after they put the kids to bed... "It's pretty deep in the middle. We'll teach you how to swim." "Ooh, maybe I can find the nice monster! There was a movie about a nice monster in a lake. It's our lake." "Hm, maybe." Petra looked at Thora. "How did y'all end up here? Mara said it might have been the Fanatic." "I dunno. Is the Fanatic a big slimy guy with lots of teeth and a giant staff with a blue crystal thing on the end and a weird shaped helmet?" "Yep. Sounds like him." "He was scary. Are all the monsters like him?" "No..He's a very powerful Scorn baron. I'm so sorry he captured you, sweetheart, that must have been terrifying. Did he hurt you?" "I killed him!" Cal piped up, tossing Drakie in the air and catching him. "I'm a [i]hero![/i]" "What??" "Thora took us through holes in the walls and in the ground and we escaped on a ship and he was chasing us and Cal got him with the ship guns!" Lidy squealed. Petra was puzzled. "How did you know how to use the turrets?" "Uh." Crow scratched his ear, a guilty expression on his face. "I let him play Warbird 3 with me sometimes... I think there was an actual warbird down in the garage..." Petra laughed. At any other time she wouldn't have been happy that he let their [i]five year old[/i] play a war game, but now it was just funny, and it had saved their lives. Well, it wasn't a bloody game, anyways, since it was played inside ships. "I told you it would be a good idea," Cal said proudly. "Wait, but if you escaped him, how did you get here?" "Well, I didn't know how to work the navigation system and we were lost so we were looking for another temple because we thought there might be more of Queen Mara's techeuns to help us but Riven was there and she got us. She put us to sleep but then I found Daddy in a dream and told him where they were taking us. He got to us just as the tower was collapsing, and Cal dropped Drackie," Thora explained. "But Mommy found him!" Cal said. "So he's okay. He's tired. He wants to go home and have tea with Bruna and Lyra." Bruna and Lyra were Thora and Lidy's dolls. Petra loved watching her kids play together. They did an amazing job of mixing play styles so that each was able to play their way often enough that they didn't mind playing other ways. They played a mix of war, tea parties, school, and sports, so that they were always happy. It helped that Thora was so much older and able to soothe any fights that broke out with Lidy and Cal. She really was very mature for her age, and she never complained about her siblings although she must surely feel lonely without a companion close to her age. Petra had always felt that way, with seven older sisters each one year apart, and little Petra six years the youngest. As she got older, how the doubt started to creep into her mind, wondering whether they had meant to be done at seven, a rather large number, and whether Petra had been an accident, a mistake. By then her parents had been long gone and she could not have asked them the truth. "Come on. I'll take you back in my ship," Crow murmured, putting his arm around her and pulling her closer. "We can talk to Mara about everything later. I don't know if I'll be welcome in the Reef, but..." "We're with you. If you have to go, so do we," Petra said. Even though she'd told Mara she wouldn't leave again... but this time surely Mara wouldn't force her to choose, like last time. She'd said it was wrong... "Thanks." She followed him onto the ship, a big ship with a passenger bench for the kids, who buckled in as she settled into the copilot's seat, and Crow steered the ship home. They made dinner together as the kids played tea party, and Petra felt, for the first time all week, wonderfully happy and content. For the first time that week, they ate dinner together as a family. Yes, this was the life she loved. She'd never had a chance to be a child in a safe, loving family, and she'd chased success for years to fill the gap of being loved and wanted, but being the mother of this family was what had really satisfied her. She hoped she wouldn't have to choose again, but..if she did, she already knew what choice she would make.