Happy Halloween! Or All Hallow's Eve... or Samhain... or simply 'that awesome day when you can walk up to a random stranger's house and get candy instead of a door in your face'. I myself am dressing up as my made-up Winx Club character, Sirena, Princess of the Infinite Ocean and Fairy of the Coral Reefs. Don't ask. Let me know what you'll be in the reviews!

Songs:
"Can't Fight This Feeling (We Should Be Lovers)" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together By Taylor Swift" (Pretty contradictory, aren't they?)

Tobey and Becky finally meet!


Becky nervously fidgeted with her clothes and hair as she waited for Tobey in her bedroom. Staring into the full-length mirror in the corner, she could hardly recognize herself without her disguise, but she couldn't bear for Tobey to see her like that, a stranger trying to hide the truth. And after everything Becky had put him through for the past two years, Tobey deserved the truth, no matter what she would owe to Heaven or Hell.

One thing was for sure, though: Becky was done playing by destiny's rules. Despite her Lexiconian heritage, she was born with free will. She had saved the world before, and she could do it again. And if the world wanted to tear away the one person who gave her life, then it didn't deserve to be saved.

No sooner had Becky stiffened her resolve than Tobey entered the room, causing her heart to race into overdrive. The rush of blood filled her body with jolts of electricity and pleasure singing through her body. Never before had Becky felt more alive. She wanted nothing more than to submit to the almost overwhelming desire to melt into his arms until the world fell away into blissful oblivion.

Then, the almost unbearable searing heat of passion turned to ice as she lifted her gaze to stare into Tobey's eyes. His eyes were pools of freezing hostility, a thin sheet of ice barring his happiness at seeing Becky once again from reaching the surface.

Becky opened her mouth to speak, but Tobey beat her to the punch.

"No. Don't move. Don't speak. Don't say you're sorry. It won't change anything."

The words were like an icicle driving into her heart, but Becky knew she deserved it. "Tobey, I'm sorry for hurting you."

"No, no you're not. You would do it all over again in a heartbeat, given the choice."

"But I never wanted to hurt you!" Becky cried. "Before that final battle, the Wise Ladies appeared to me and told me Planet Lexicon would be completely obliterated if I ever saw you again. I was only trying to protect you and the world by trying to prevent our destiny."

"Oh yeah? And how is that supposed to make me feel, Becky? Do you think that can possibly make up for everything you've done? For two years, I thought you were dead! Did destiny ever tell you how much that would hurt? Did destiny ever tell you that I would carry a photo of you in my pocket, that I would search people on the subway station, hoping to catch a glimpse of your face, that I would reduce myself to listening to old phone messages just to hear your voice, that I would wake up screaming each and every night of my life, seeing you die in my arms?"

"No," Becky whispered in shame, refusing to let the tears fall. "It didn't tell me that. But please, try to understand that I only left because I wanted to save the world. The price of our love was – is – too high."

"I hate you, Becky," stated Tobey bluntly. "I've never hated anyone, even myself, as much as I hate you, but I still love you. Despite everything, I still want to run into your arms and kiss you until I die. It's sadistic and sickening, but it's true. And if I had to choose between the world and you, I'd choose you in a heartbeat, Becky. I would let the entire universe explode if it meant keeping you for all eternity, because that's the kind of person I am. I would be willing to kill trillions of innocent people if I could just get you back, because I'll never be a hero. Is that the kind of person you want to love?"

"Yes, just like you love a selfish liar like me. And I need to put the world first, not because I actually care for them, but because I already know how it would break me, break us. Can you imagine me looking into your eyes and always seeing the blood of those I killed? I could never bear to love you like that, and we would be left with nothing."

"Then why are you here now?" demanded Tobey. "According to you, this very conversation is destroying Planet Lexicon and the Andromenia Galaxy by default. How is that even possible, Becky?"

"I don't know. All I know is that our love will be the death of the universe as we know it. The only way to prevent the apocalypse is to never see you again. The only reason I'm here because since we already broke the rules, one more time can't hurt."

"Oh yes it can, Becky, and I know you're still keeping something from me. If I'm going to Hell for this, I want the whole truth, not just little pieces and fragments meant to protect me. You and I both know firsthand how your so-called protection tends to backfire. If you're going to cut out my heart, at least do it thoroughly. You owe me that."

Becky knew she did. Steeling her resolve, she let the words stream out of her mouth in a blur, wincing at the sour taste they left on her tongue.

"Andrew is my soulmate, and Adelina is yours."

Silence. A bitterly cold silence wafted around the star-crossed lovers, bleaching the life and light out of the world. Finally, Tobey spoke, his words slicked with ice.

"Those Wise Ladies are awful matchmakers."

"Tobey, I–"

"Why?" Tobey shouted desperately, more to the universe than to Becky. "Is this supposed to be funny? Can't you just watch some low-humor sitcom for kicks instead of messing with people's lives? What did I do that was so horrible that destiny felt the need to take my heart and destroy it? But more importantly, why do I love Becky?" Now directing his words at Becky, he continued. "I don't care about any of that. I love you, Becky, no matter what destiny says, and I'll march to the gates of Hell if it means rectifying this cosmic joke."

"Stop it!" screamed Becky, backing away, unable to bear his declaration of love. "Why can't you hate me? Please, Tobey, scream at me, punch at me, walk away from me and never look back, do something that tells me you don't love me anymore. I can't let you love me."

"Why not?"

"Because… because I'm going to die in 6 days."

Tobey's crystal blue eyes grew wide, shimmering with alarm and disbelief. "W-What?"

"How did you think I came back to life?" asked Becky, emotion choking her words and making them hoarse in her throat, like swallowing jagged splinters of glass. "The Light of Hope reproduced a genetic carbon-copy of my body, but it only lasts for two years. My body is going to give out in less than a week."

"T-Then we'll find a way to save you, just like we always have," declared Tobey with a naïve hope. "The Light of Hope can reconstruct another duplicate when you…" He couldn't bring himself to say the word.

"I specifically asked the Light of Hope to never resurrect me. I'll never be at peace if I continue living like this."

"Please don't!" cried Tobey, pleading for the first time in his life. "I can't lose you again, Becky, because I… I love you, I really do!"

"No you don't! You only think you do!" screamed Becky. "You loved Becky Botsford, but I'm not her! The Light of Hope was able to replicate everything about her except for one thing: her soul. I don't have a soul, Tobey. I can feel this emptiness rattling around inside me, and every time, it reminds me that no matter what I feel, I'm not a person. I'm sorry, but you have to accept the fact that Becky Botsford died in your arms two years ago, leaving me, a hollow copy, in her place. Nothing you can do will bring her back."

"That's a lie! I know you, Becky. The Becky I know would never surrender that easily. She would continue to fight–"

"For what?" Becky cried. "The first two years since we first met, I despised you in every possible way. For four years after that, you were possessed by the Shadow Phoenix. For the past two years, we've both been in love with someone else. The only actual love we ever shared was during that week on Lexicon. Just face it, Tobey! For all our lives, we've been fighting for something that doesn't exist! The only reason you want me now is because I'm something you can never have. You feel like you're missing something, something I have that you need. Did it ever cross your mind that you could be wrong? Maybe destiny isn't something to struggle against. Maybe we're not star-crossed lovers."

"But that doesn't change the fact we'll never love anyone else," Tobey said quietly.

"No," Becky conceded with a sigh. "It doesn't change anything."

"So what do we do now?"

What should they do? Since Becky already knew she was destined to die, she wanted to ensure that Tobey experience the least heartbreak. But was that even possible? Becky had messed up too many times for anything to be easily fixed.

"We stop," declared Becky decidedly, refusing to let any sort of weakness leak into her voice. She had to be strong in order to hold both of them together. "We act like we don't care anymore. We become strictly friends. No romance, because it will only hurt us all the more. For your sake, we try to find a way to save me from death and go from there. Agreed?"

Tobey nodded in silence, not letting a single tear drip onto the newly polished floorboards. Over the years, he had learned to never cry. "But if you die, I'll die too. The second your heart stops, I'll shoot myself in the heart without a moment's hesitation. You can't make me go through that pain again."

Becky nodded silently, knowing he was right. Extending her hand in a shake, she said, "It's for the best."

The moment her hand slid into his like a puzzle piece, it was like the power of the universe had fused them together, entwining their souls in a permanent binding so that one could simply not exist without the other. Every molecule in Becky's body yearned to melt into Tobey's, to seamlessly meld into him and become one entity, a perfect paradise. Her blood was scalding with desire to end her suffering and surrender herself to the boundless peace of Tobey's love. Raising her eyes, Becky could see her selfsame passion reflected in Tobey's yearning gaze. It was the ultimate torment to have Heaven in her grasp and still be trapped in Hell.

It took all of Becky's willpower to unclench her fingers from Tobey's, sending reality colliding into the love-struck teenagers with sickening force. With a nod, Becky turned away, preparing to leap from the window and once more disappear into ambiguity.

"Becky!" cried Tobey desperately. Turning around, Becky saw that he needed to say something, but he couldn't find the right words. "It's… it's for the best," he murmured. "It's what the world needs."

As the two went their separate ways, Becky could just barely hear him say, "But not what we need."


Despite their feelings, both Tobey and Becky were able to uphold their ends of their agreement. As long as neither looked directly into the other's eyes, they were able to work quite efficiently. It felt like there was an invisible sheet of ice coating them from head to toe, preventing their blood from ever burning with passion again. But Becky was fine with that: she just wanted her blood to continue flowing by the end of the week.

From sunup to sundown, the two worked effortlessly to find a cure to prolong Becky's life, spending hours upon hours researching in the extensive Lexiconian library in Becky's spaceship. Of course, when Tobey lost his immortality, he also lost the ability to read and interpret Lexiconian; therefore, Becky read aloud from the tomes while Tobey diligently took notes on anything relevant. Still, the days wore on, and with only two days to Becky's death, neither had been able to find anything. Desperate for answers, they eventually resorted to researching Zatanna, the name Alyssa had repeated at the end of her prophecy. Even in the light of its apparent meaninglessness, Becky couldn't shake the persistent feeling that she knew who Zatanna was. At the same time, Becky also knew she would never find the answer in a book; rather, the person was more like an irreplaceable part of who she was, if only she could lift the murky veil clouding her mind and remember once more.

As they worked, Becky couldn't help but glance uneasily at the knife, glinting menacingly despite the comforting daylight, on the side table just inches from Tobey's pulsing veins, knowing the weapon would most likely end his life.

In a morbid sense of humor, there was a definite feeling of anticipation and excitement hovering in the library, as if the two teenagers couldn't wait to die. And maybe they were. Life had riddled them both with such unbearable misfortune that maybe subconsciously they longed for the numbing silence of the blade slicing through their skin like shredding paper, obliterating everything. No one felt pain upon becoming nothing. An eternal silence couldn't torture a person to the point of insanity. An empty void couldn't break your heart.

Despite their determination to find a cure, Becky and Tobey couldn't resist taking a break for an hour or two to spend a few precious moments of their remaining lives with Scoops and Violet. While Becky had explained everything about her miraculous return from the dead, she effortlessly edited out the fact about her ominous expiration date, which was drawing ever closer to fruition. Sometimes when she was laying in bed in the hovering state between dreaming and consciousness, Becky thought she could hear the beating of her heart tick away the final days of her tormented life for the second time. This just wanted Becky to spend time with her loved ones all the more, to replace the two years she had lost before she lost everything and everyone for good.

Thursday was a perfect example of this. In celebration of graduating high school, Becky met up with Tobey, Scoops, Violet, Clarissa, Marcus, Alyssa, and Adelina in parking lot of the ice cream parlor. Amazingly, this odd gathering did not prove to be uncomfortable in the least, and so it was with a relaxed manner that everyone happily licked the ice cream while lounging on Becky's brand-new, all parent-paid, bright red Ferrari. (Coming back from the dead did have its benefits.)

"So, you all remember how I told you about Victoria Best and her family transferring to England about three months ago, right?" asked Scoops jovially, sticky drops of strawberry ice cream methodically dripping into his lap.

"Yeah, and how they had to fly all the way back because they forgot their poodle?" said Becky cheerfully.

"Yup, but that's not my point," said Scoops, delighted to be able to share the latest bit of gossip. He could be such a girl sometimes! "Well, you're never going to believe this, but Emily told me that since Victoria's gone, Hunter hooked up with Eileen!"

Becky gasped.

"I know!" shouted Scoops energetically, wiping up the melted ice cream streaming from his right hand. "It's crazy!"

Violet gasped.

"You too?" asked Scoops, clearly confused. "I already told you this!"

"Becky!" screamed Tobey in alarm.

Finally, Scoops looked up from his strawberry-splattered napkin to see what exactly was going on. Everyone had their eyes trained on Becky, bulging with horror. Becky was contorting violently on the roof of her car, crying and screaming from pain. Her screams escalated higher and higher until every human being in the vicinity could feel their eardrums streaming with blood. Suddenly, Becky's eyes rolled to the back of her head as she fell unconscious. She didn't even have the strength to stop herself as she toppled off the Ferrari roof, directly into the path of an oncoming car.


I'm sure you were all a little irked by the TobeyxBecky scene. All I can say is, "Haha!"

As for the car part, I couldn't resist. It's just too funny.

I'll most likely have to update on Monday, not Friday, due to Halloween taking a whole afternoon's worth of work. (Not that I'm complaining. :D)

Happy Halloween!

Love to all,

Bella