Irina stood silently as the fire ate at the support beams, climbing slowly towards her, as if to make her suffering longer. The ground beneath her had already become painful to stand on, but Irina would stand strong in her last moments.

Even though each foot burned, she didn't move. She stood stock still, her face showing no emotion, her features blank as a sheet of paper, yet to be written upon. After all, she had faced greater pain than this. Not the same kind, of course, but with so many types of pain, did the 'how' matter?

Pain is pain, and losing her son had been worse than this. At least she could finally see him now.

Then Irina saw a disturbance in the sky. It was hard to see, but a. . . flicker of motion? Irina strained her eyes. She could see nothing. . .but then, she could. It was only visible because it blocked out the stars; it was black as the night itself. The Shark.

It landed softly on a part of mostly untouched roof, and the roof groaned under its weight. But it still held. The Shark's door opened, and Nataylia climbed out.

She came here herself. Irina thought. Is she crazy? Irina knew about the other woman's blood disorder; if she got cut, she kept bleeding. It was incredibly dangerous for her to go anywhere herself, but still, a part of Irina felt touched that she would care as much as that.

"Come on! Hurry!" Nataylia called, gesturing with her hand. Irina forced her feet, which were practically numb with pain, to move. Slowly, she picked her way across to the Shark and Nataylia.

Suddenly, the roof under her foot gave way. Her right foot plunged down into the gap, and she slowly forced herself to bring it back up again. It took her several seconds, and by the time she was back on both feet, the fire had spread close to her again.

She hurried the rest of the way to the Shark, and she and Nataylia jumped inside. Nataylia started the engine, the loud hum driving away any thoughts from Irina's already scrambled brain. But even with the loud noise, within seconds Irina was asleep. But she already knew what she was going to do.

She was going to help Dan and Amy win. She would help them beat the Kabras, help them beat the person who had cost her son his life. No matter what, she was going to avenge Nikolai.

Ah, that, my friends, was a random burst of inspiration. Almost definitely a one-shot, since I can't imagine continuing it. (Although I may add chapters of more one-shots on it)

Hmmm. That's all I really have to say, other than:

Fan girl reviews: Please, no fan girl reviews. If you don't have anything to say except for, "Good job." Than tell me that while having good grammar. Please. (Do to do the fact that most of fan girl reviews come from anonymous sources, I will disable anonymous reviews as soon as one person doesn't have capital 'i's when talking about themselves.

CC: CC is awesome, favorite review type ever. Whoever CCs will get a prize! (See below)

Flames: Ah, the flames. Well, believe it or not, I've never gotten a REAL flame before (If you're there, musicfrick, this is because you never actually said why you hated my story so much) So, flames will go in the Victory topic at The Madrigals, as well as being used to cook marshmallows for my CCers. (There's your prize! And if no one flames me, I'll give you peanut butter!)

Sincerely,

~Magic~