A moment of silence passes after Core snaps his fingers.

The awkwardness grows, and I fidget in my seat, while he just sits there, looking completely relaxed.

"So......was that supposed to do something, or.......?" I finally ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Just give it a moment." He says calmly, holding up a hand.

Suddenly my dad appears in the air a few feet, away, his gag off and bounds undone.

"Dad!" I exclaim, watching as he falls to the ground from where he was hovering with an 'oomf'.

"Ashley!" HE says when I kneel besides him, helping him up. I look back up at Core, narrowing my eyes.

"Did you have to be so rough with him?"

"I apologize, I didn't know my power would do that to him. I just wanted to bring him here, I did not specify that I wanted it done softly." He replies, looking guilty which sways me to forgive him.

"So that's it? Everything else is resolved? The team of Scientists and guards are gone?"



"Well they aren't gone yet, but you'll find that they suddenly have the very strong temptation to get on the brand new boat that has appeared on the coastline which will take them to Braun island without the need for a captain."

I help my father to his feet, meeting Core's plain brown eyes. For such a powerful figure, you would expect him to have a cool shade of color for his eyes, but instead they are as brown as chocolate, plain and very human-like.

"Thank you, Core."

"Just remember our bargain." He reminds, and I turn back to my dad to find him with his mouth open, staring at Core.

"Core? As in....The Core? He stammers, surprising me.

"The one and only." Core smirks, throwing his hands out wide as he stands.

"So you are real." My father breathes.

"Dad?" I question, casting glances between him and Core. "Did you know Core was a person?"

"Person is a very complicated term when used to describe me." Core muses, but I'm not paying attention. Instead my focus is on my father who shifts uncomfortably.

"Ashley, I've never told you this, because I didn't think it was important at the time, but your mother used to write me letters when she came here to Dalton. I didn't receive them, of course, until someone knocked on my door saying they had found the ship, where the letters were stashed on, lost at sea, but not the ship crew or any of the Scientists. I read the letters, and in them she wrote down her whole experience here, about the types of plants she had found, and the layout of the island. She talked about a completely different species living here, three in fact, and about Core, this magical being who she had stumbled upon when she got lsot in the forest once."

"You knew all this information and you never told anyone?!?" I ask, incredulous.

Something must be wrong with my hearing, or I don't know my father, because the dad I know would never keep this sort of information to himself.

"I was sick with grief at the time! And then, once I had recovered, I thought what she was saying was crazy! I mean, three species and a magical being who controlled the entire island named Core? Doesn't that seem a little far fetched when put out on the table like that?"

"Well when you say it like that," I murmur, at the same time Core says, "Hey, I take offense to that!"

"Apologizes." Dad instantly says, fear flashing in his eyes, and Core rolls his eyes, straitening his suit.

"Geeze, I was just kidding. It's not like I'm going to incinerate you or anything." He says jokingly. We don't laugh.

"Wait a second, Dad said my mother met you, so you must know where she is! What happened? Is she alive? Is she hurt? Where is she?" I say excitedly.

Core suddenly gets an uncomfortable look on his face, not meeting my eyes.

"I can't tell you that."

"What do you mean you can't tell me that!!?!?" I exclaim, my voice rising.

"It goes against my protocol." He replies.

"Protocol? What Protocol?" I ask, exasperated.

"Morals would probably be a better word for it. Telling you would go against one of my morals, which is to never break a promise, and I promised your mother long ago to never speak of her or her whereabouts again."

"Morals!!?!? You're an all-powerful being who controls this who island! You don't need morals!" I snap, getting frustrated.

"These morals are the things that are keeping you and your father alive right now." He reminds.

I slump my shoulders in defeat, looking to my dad who has the same expression.

"Can you at least tell us if she's alive?" My father whispers, looking a thousand years older in that moment.

Core shakes his head solemnly. "Sorry, even if I knew I couldn't, but I have no idea. "

"Don't you see every little thing on this island? If she's still on here, you can see where she is!" I say, hope suddenly sparking inside of me.

Core winces, looking even more sorry. "I apologize again, but when I ran into her ten years back, she asked for complete privacy, and I gave her a deal. She accepted, and ever since I have not been able to view her or know anything about her unless she wants something to be known."

"What deal did you offer her?" I ask suspiciously.

"Can't tell you that." He repeats, and I throw my hands upward in frustration.

"Well it looks like you can't tell us anything, so we'll just be on our way." I say snappily, latching onto my father's wristand starting to drag him the way we came.

"One moment please, Ashley." Core says, and I pause, debating if I should just ignore him, but deciding that wouldn't be wise.

"You may go on ahead, Dr. Cartwright." Core says, and my father gives one last glance of worry back at me, but I shoo him off and he turns, starting to make the trek back to the place we entered the barrier.

"What is it?" I ask impatiently, tapping my foot against the ground.

"I just wanted to warn you," Core says nonchalantly, although his face is stone cold serious, "That our bargain has been sealed, which means it is unbreakable. I am fulfilling my part of it right now, as you need to do with yours. If you decide to go against the bargain and get on that ship with your father, the barrier surrounding the island that keeps you humans from being able to locate us without the help of one of the species living here will become solid to only you, and you will most likely fall off the boat and drown as it goes through the barrier."

"Good to know." I say sarcastically, narrowing my eyes. "I stick through my deals, I'm not a horrible person."

His eyes soften. "I know that, it was just a warning. Also, I wanted to tell you something else, another warning if you like. It's a pretty big piece of my plan that involves you."

"Yes, this plan that you won't tell me a thing about?" I ask flatly.

"Correct. I have been watching you ever since you arrived on this island-"

"That's creepy." I state.

"It wasn't in a creepy way!" He defends.

I raise an eyebrow at him, and he sighs, waving my statement off.

"Anyway, I've noticed that you have grown quite close to the Darkling high Commander."

"What does any of this have to do with Lager?" I question, not seeing the point he's trying to make.

"Nothing, for now, depending on which choice you make."

"What choice?"

He sighs again, looking like it pains him to spell it out for me.

"The decision you make to choose Zero or Lager, obviously." He huffs.

"What!?!?" I explode, my eyes expanding nearly five times their regular size, or at least that's what it feels like.

Core turns serious, looking me dead in the eye.

"It may seem weird now, Ashley, but one day soon, you are going to have to choose between Lager and Zero, and you better make the right choice, because whoever you choose affects everything that happens from there on out and could potentially destroy my plans I worked so hard for."

"Well why can't you just come out and tell me the right decision then?" I ask, growing even more frustrated.

First he kidnaps my dad, forces me into a bargain that could lead to horrible things, son't tell me about my mother, and now is demanding I choose between Zero and Lager? He's lucky he's an all-powerful being or else I would have gone all Becky on his butt by now.

"You know why." He responds.

"Oh right, you just can't." I say in a sarcastic imitation of him.

Then I pause, processing his words. "When you said choose between Zero and Lager, what do you mean by it? As in, choose which one I want to be my friend, or guard, or.....lover?" The last word comes out of my mouth with a wince.

"Ideally all three." He replies coolly, and I nearly faint right there. "Now that everything is settled, you may go back to the cave. I suspect Zero should be arriving there soon, along with the Darkling High Commander too."

He makes a twirling motion with his pointer finger and I find myself spinning around against my will and facing the direction my father walked off in.

"Now off you go." He says, and before he can make me start walking to, I grit my teeth and start to storm off. "Oh, wait! I nearly forgot." He says, suddenly appearing in front of me and giving me a heart attack.

He holds out a hand, and in it is a necklace, simple and made of rope, just like Becky's, but instead of a piece of wood as the charm, a clear, see-through tear drop is hung on. It looks almost like ice, but when he puts it into my hand, it feels room-temperature.

"Whenever I need to talk to you, this little charm will glow blue. The longer you take to find me, the darker shade it turns. When it gets to purple, I find you myself, and if I find you were trying to hide, or discarded the necklace, you will not be happy with the consequences."

I shiver at his words and stay frozen as he fastens it around my neck, the crystal-like charm resting in the exact middle of my chest.

"Until we meet again." Core says, smiling like he didn't just threaten me, before dissapearing in a sudden gust of wind.

I stand there in shock for a few seconds before shaking it off.

"Very dramatic!" I yell out into the air, knowing Core heard me.

that's when I remember his earlier words. Zero was coming, he said so himself, and once he arrives at the cave......

I start to quickly walk in the direction I had initially come from, picking my pace up to a jog.

Soon the nearly invisible barrier surrounding Core's domain come's into view, along with my father who is standing in front of it, waiting for me.

I jog up to him and envelope him in a hug, having completely forgotten to do it earlier with all the craziness going on.

This may be the last time I get to hug him....no I can't think like that. Of course I'll say goodbye, I won't let him leave this island until I've hugged him again.

I pull away before my eyes start to fill up with tears.

"So...do we just walk through it?" I ask my dad, watching the cave's entrance through the barrier and where the whole team of Scientists and guards are rushing around excitedly, probably preparing for the boat.

"I would assume so." He responds, and I nod, grabbing his hand.

Together, we step through the barrier, and it almost feels as if walking through ice-cold water, or maybe a bubble. Then, the weird feeling is gone and we are on the other side.

"Ashley!" I immediately whip my heading the direction the voice came from.

Something blue streaks through the air and collides with my chest, two furry arms wrapping around my neck. I laugh, pulling Max, this time in monkey-form, away and holding him up with my hands underneath his armpits.

"I'm alive." I say happily, gaze going to Becky who stands a few feet away, rolling her eyes.

"I wasn't worried." She says, turning her head away, although I could swear I saw a faint, relieved smile tugging up the corner of her mouth.

"How did you guys wake up?" I ask, remembering how they were shot with a tranquilizer that knocked them out. "And who untied you?"

Becky scoffs, turning and walking closer. "Max is a Lightling healer, therefore his body worked the sedative out of his system faster and he woke up first. From there, it was easy to cut himself out of his bonds with a claw and then wake me up. Nobody even tried to stop us, they've been walking around like this in a daze, talking about a boat that's waiting for them. If you ask me, I think this whole group has gone insane."

I nod, surveying everyone doing exactly what Becky described.

I turn to my father. "We should probably lead them to the coastline."

He nods, and just then I feel a pulse down the fake bond inside of me, but for the first time in a long time, it doesn't hurt.

Zero must be close, and if he's near, Lager must be right on his tail.

Just then I see a familiar face in the crowd of people, and fury ignites my very blood.

I march up to her, not caring that she looks as dazed and out of it as the rest of the people here and ignoring the fact that her eyes skim over me, oblivious to my presence. I finally reach my destination, planting myself right in front of her.......

And socking Mrs. Clark right in the face.

Dear readers, I would say this was a perfect way to end the chapter. Next chapter will be the final conclusion to book one, although there will be some bonus chapters like character interviews and different p.o.v's and all that good stuff. This chapter is unedited so sorry for any grammar errors! I won't go all emotional on you now, I'm saving that for next chapter, but I would still like to thank you so much for reading! The support has been awesome! Vote, Comment, and take your sheets off your bed, then put them back on. (I asked my sister for some advice on a completely random thing to do and that's what she came up with. Seriously though, if your taking your sheets off, you might as well wash them and not put them BACK on the bed). Lots of love,

Dangeroustoken