A/N: This is named after my swim coach.

Also, sorry about my random disappearance. Between the play, asthma, finals (shudder), school, etc. etc. fanfiction didn't quite make it to the top of my list of priorities.

Well, I don't have any more to say now – but I will later, just wait until my ending A/N. On with the show!

Rebecca's POV

Deciding that I had a reason to live had a strange effect on me. It made me think that since I was going to continue breathing, I may as well be happy as I did so.

I kept busy. I rearranged the furniture in my room, I practiced reading, I picked up my embroidery again. I found some fabric in the bottom of my little wardrobe and learned (more or less) how to sew from a tailor who lived not far from the castle. I visited the kitchens more often, cooking elaborate meals and experimenting with different dishes. I saw Terrance every now and again too, and he once invited over for his sister Mariah's birthday. I surprised her with a cake; a rich, chocolate one with thick white frosting and little pink flowers I had slaved over for hours, trying to make every petal perfect.

Gradually the color returned to my cheeks. I began to smile every once in a while, and sometimes (though it was rare) laugh. Life was suddenly more beautiful, people were worth more.

"You seem happier," commented Helen, the head cook, one day as I was washing out the bowl and spoon I had been using.

I realized she had been watching me for a while, and that I was singing. I stopped. "I think I am." I dried the dishes, then hugged her quickly. "Thank you!"

She smiled at me. "Anytime, sweetheart."

I hung up my apron on a peg on the wall, then walked out into the hallway. Halfway back to my room, I decided that it really wasn't all that late yet, and I might as well take a walk around the castle.

I walked mostly in silence for a moment, until suddenly an ear-piercing shriek rang out through out the hallways. It was cut off as quickly as it had come. I stopped, my heart beating quickly and loudly. It wasn't the kind of shriek you heard when pranks were being played, when people were teasing each other, when things were dropped or spilled. It wasn't that sort of an everyday shriek that you heard and forgot about. No, it was the sort of shriek that kept you awake at night, that haunted your dreams, that you remembered until your dying day. The sort of shriek that made you remember horrible, horrible things, that made you…remember. The shriek that made you question what was waiting for you when you died, and how good of a person you'd been. Whoever, whatever it was screamed once more.

Slowly, I began to make my way toward the noise. Every few moments I would hear the shrieking again, and eventually I traced it to a room. The throne room. I was still for a moment, remembering my own experience in there not too long ago. My breathing was swift and shallow. Another scream. I hesitated for a moment, then tried the door. Just to peek in. Maybe I could somehow help whoever was being tortured, though most likely I couldn't. I cracked the door open.

"Where are they!?" The king demanded. I shrunk back slightly, then realized he wasn't yelling at me. Or course he wasn't, that idea was stupid. A slender, beautiful but clearly abused girl was cowering on the floor. She had long, red hair and bruises all over her fair skin.

"I don't know," she sobbed. "I don't know." She let out another shriek.

"They broke in!" He yelled. "You must have talked to them – I know they saw you!"

"But I didn't! I didn't even realize it was them, I – I –" She was writhing on the floor.

"Tell me, you foolish little girl! What are their plans? Where are they going?" He seized her by the hair, and pulled her up off the floor roughly. "When are they going to strike?"

"Please – your grace, your majesty, your highness, I don't-" He threw her back down, and she screamed in pain. I put my hand to my mouth, trying to cover up my gasp.

Suddenly, I didn't see a stranger and the king in the throne room. I saw a scared little fifteen year old girl and her angry father in the middle of a street. I saw all the pain and misery etched into that girl's face, and the fury of her father. I saw unhappiness, shame, fear. And I saw me.

Becca-

I couldn't hold back. "Stop!" I yelled, opening the door all the way and running in. "Leave her alone! If she doesn't know she doesn't know!"

What are you doing? asked a voice in the back of my head. Stop right there Rebecca – stop nowIt sounded like Murtagh, though that was impossible, of course. Wasn't it?

I need to help her.

There's nothing you can do now, she's good as dead. As you will be, if you don't get out! Listen to me, don't be stupid, you know better than this. You know you know better than this.

No.

Get out! Rebecca, if you do not get out of that throne room this very instant-

I shook my head, and knelt besides the girl. She was crying. I put an arm around her. "Are you alright?" She shook her head. "What is your name?"

"K-Katrina," she whispered.

I embraced her. "It's alright Katrina. Shhh. You're alright."

"How touching," said the king. Katrina buried her head in my shoulder and sobbed. "I suppose it's nice to see each other again."

"Again?" I asked.

"Yes. Especially after all the adventures, secrets, stories you shared."

I pulled away from the girl and looked her in the face for a moment. "Kat?" I asked incredulously.

"Reba!" She suddenly leaned forward and embraced me again, tears still running down her cheeks. "Reba, you have no idea how relieved I am to see you!"

"Kat! I – I can't believe it! I've missed you so much!"

Kat was here. Here, of all places. She had been my best friend. When we were really little we had lived in Carvahall together, until I had moved to the capital. We were practically sisters, joined at the hip, nearly inseparable.

"Hm," said the king slowly. "I wonder…" He stared at us a moment more. "Very well then," he said. "You two have one week. Catch up, talk, do whatever you would like to do, so long as it's within the castle grounds. And at the end of the week, you," he gestured toward Katrina "are going to tell me where Roran and Eragon are, and you," he gestured toward me, "are going to tell me where Anna is. Or you are both going to die. Understood? Wonderful." He left.

We were silent. I had no idea who Roran and Eragon might be, but they were probably as important to Kat as Anna was to me.

"So," she said quietly after a moment. "Now what?"

Katrina's POV

It was surreal seeing Reba again. I hadn't forgotten about her, of course, but still…it had been ages. And after everything that had happened over the past few years, particularly the last few months, she was the last person in the world I expected to see.

After a moment she stood, then helped me to as well. She was younger than me, but even in our youth she had always been the more…mature one. The maternal one (or as maternal as one can be at four years old), in a way, the older sister. She led me through the castle to a room where we sat down on a small blue couch.

"Kat," she said. "What's happened to you?"

"Well, we continued to live in Carvahall for a while. Until not too long ago, though it seems like years have passed. And then…then…" I started off with Eragon's disappearance, then the appearance of the Ra'zac, the battle. I blushed madly when I told her about Roran's proposal, and held back tears told her about my capture and the betrayal of my father. I had been flown to Helgrind, where I had been held prisoner for months.

"It was horrible," I said with a shiver. "They were the vilest creatures, like death itself. They used to beat me all the time for no reason, just their presence made me want to die. They…they made me watch my father die," I choked. "I might have gone mad in that place, I never saw the sun. Ever. The most light I ever saw was the flickering light of the torches, and I thought for sure that the constant flickering light, and the screaming, and the darkness would drive me to insanity. But somehow or another it didn't work like that."

"One day I was ready to give up. I was tired, and bleeding, and malnourished. I had been locked up without food or water for days, or at least what felt like days, I was sure I would die, and if I didn't they were planning kill me anyway. Something about needing more room. But then I heard fighting in the hallways. There was shouting and the sound of metal on metal and I saw him. He was there, he was alive, and he had come to rescue me."

The moment he saw me, Roran had come running, leaving Eragon to more or less deal with the Ra'zac alone. He and Eragon had broken the wall, and for a moment I saw sunlight behind him. Not the brightest of light, or the most, but sunlight nonetheless. "I could have sworn he was an angel," I admitted.

Flashback

Roran ran to my cell, clawed at the bars like a maniac. "They won't break," I told him, in a dull, monotone voice. Helgrind had really taken its toll on me. "They're held up by magic." He sunk to his knees.

"Katrina," he whispered. "I am so sorry."

"For what?" I asked. I reached through the bars and took his hands in my own, smiling weakly. It was difficult, I had almost forgotten how to.

"I should have come sooner, but I – I couldn't. There were things to be done, and I couldn't without Eragon – he's a dragon Rider now, and I – I –"

Tears streamed down my face. "I love you," I said. "Thank you for coming. I wish you could have stayed longer."

"What? No, don't talk like that, I'm here now, I'm going to free you, we're going to fly you to Dauth. There's a healer there, her name is Angela, she can help you. I've sworn to help Eragon to avenge my father; the two fiends who killed him aren't here though. You're going to stay in Dauth while we track and kill them, then Eragon's agreed to fly us to Reavstone. We're going to get married, at long last, and then we'll sail away forever. Right off of the map. We'll be safe, Katrina."

"No." I shook my head. "That can't happen. Roran, they're going to kill me tonight." My voice was still emotionless.

He gaped at me. "Tonight? Well - no matter, we're going to get you out of here. Right now. Eragon! Eragon come help me, I'm not strong enough to break these!" He pulled his hands out of mine and shook the bars of the cell.

"We have to go!" Eragon shouted back. He killed the monster he was fighting, then ran up and grabbed his cousin's arm. "Come on Roran! More are coming, we can't fight them all off – we'll have to come back later when we're ready!"

"No!" Roran roared as he pulled away from his cousin. "They're going to kill her tonight! We can't just leave! You – you swore you would help me!"

"We don't have a choice! They're coming!" He looked nervously toward the stairs.

"Goodbye," I whispered.

"No-"

"Go. You have to get out of here."

"Listen to her!" shouted Eragon. "If we stay another moment we will die!"

"Go Roran."

He looked down at me. "Katrina." His voice cracked. He leaned down and kissed me through the bars. "I love you. I will save you, I will. I swear it."

"I love you too."

Then he was gone. The monsters burst into the hallway. One came up to me. He passed through the bars of my cell, and held me up against the wall. "Where are they?" he hissed. "Where?"

"I don't know."

He pulled out a knife and held it against my throat. "I'm not feeling particularly patient today. Where are they?" He added pressure to the knife, and it barely cut into my skin. I felt blood trickling down my neck, but was silent. He screamed in fury, then pulled the knife away from me. There was the sound of wind, and everything went black.

End of Flashback

"But he had to go, they were coming, they couldn't rescue me. The king had me brought to the castle later on. In a way he did rescue me, I suppose. The king spared my life because he thought I could give him information on the Varden, on Eragon and Roran."

"Can you?"

"Maybe. But I can't at the same time." I started crying again. "Rebecca, I can't tell him where they are. I can't. I love him, I can't betray him, leave him for dead."

"I understand. I love Anna; I can't tell him where she is."

"Who is Anna?" I asked.

"My…it's a long story."

"I have time. A week, I suppose."

She told me her story. My heart ached for her, she of all people deserved a better life. She had put up with three annoying brothers, a quiet, tearful mother, and a loud, usually kind but short-tempered father. And that was all before she turned two years old.

"Reba," I said, embracing her. "I am so sorry."

"I suppose neither of us really got the happily-ever-after we always dreamed of, did we?"

"It's not over yet." But soon…

"I suppose not. Here. You can take the room across the hall; you'll be comfortable and warm there. Nobody ever uses it anymore; I'll see you in the morning." She walked me across the hallway and into a little bedroom.

"Thank you Reba."

"Of course." She hugged me once more. "Good night."

"Night."

A/N: Okay, so this is something totally different than what I was planning to do. I hope you like it anyway, and…yeah. REVIEW!

Oh yes, question time, question time. There is no such thing as a stupid question, only an inquisitive idiot. Which I am. So…

It's an Eragon fanfic. I know, shocking. So, I was thinking – should I add more things that are likely to happen in the third book to this story? It will still be mostly about Murtagh and Rebecca, of course, but I'd just pair up a few people, hatch a couple dragons, fulfill some prophecies, etc.

Also, if I choose to do so, who should be my new Rider?

BEWARE – do not read from this point on if you don't want to read what is likely going to happen later in this fic. In other words, spoilers abound. Fake spoilers, but…yeah, spoilers nonetheless.

I know I want it to be a girl – but whom? Not, Rebecca, that's a little too Sue-ish. I was thinking Katrina (I've got some stuff I've wanted to use that could come into play if she was the new Rider). And maybe even Anna (we all love Anna!). Or some other random OC…but I refuse to use Arya as my next Rider because I hate her with every fiber of my being. Long story.

IT IS SAFE TO READ AGAIN – huzzah.

What else….oh yes. I need names. Names for humans, dragons, and elves. I suck at making up names. The only people who I've created are all named after people I know (except for Rebecca – it's weird, but I've never really met an actual Rebecca in real life, except for my aunt who died a long time ago, and she wasn't Rebecca, she was Becky).

And yes, I may get pelted with rotten tomatoes, overdue library books, and rocks for saying this, but…I am trying to think up an ending. (cringe) The story's not anywhere near over, oh no, I still have plenty to write, but…all things must come to an end. Yes, Carly, even the Energizer bunny. And I want to know how you think it should end. Vote now!

a) a big, fluffy, sappy, slightly un-realistic ending that makes you want to either sigh or puke – think fairy tales (not the Grimm ones)

b) an extremely tragic ending – think Romeo and Juliet or King Lear, where everyone dies, life sucks, and evil/death more or less triumphs

c) a mixed ending – some happy, some sad, some…uh…purple

d) I'll just play it by ear, and not worry too much about the ending yet, and write whatever seems to fit best in the end

e) (I get a dollar for adding this one) they all die in some freak baboon accident while on safari in…uh…Surda

And one more thing – Anna. Yes, we all know and love lovely little Annabelle. And where is she? (sigh)

BEWARE – more spoilers (if a fanfic can even have spoilers…I'll look into that)

She is currently on a boat, just barely off the coast of Surda, down sort of by Aroughs. And yes, alive.

SPOILERS OVER – you can look now.

I'm thinking about writing a sequel/companion story about what happens/is happening to Anna when I finish this. And for those of you who like to avoid spoilers (even if they are fake), you will find out where/how she is within the next four chapters max. (I think…) Keep hanging in there. And no, Rebecca has not forgotten Anna. She's just trying a little harder to live. Let me rephrase – she's trying a little harder to be happy while she lives.

And before I forget: To my awesome reviewer who is apparently a bit of a pyromaniac: fire, huh? I like it. I have the next couple chapters planned out already, but I do like the idea. I'll see what I can do.

Sorry that this A/N was soooooooo long, but I had things to say. Reviewers will be smothered in hugs and Hershey's kisses, unless, of course, they hate Hershey's kisses, in which case they can have...um…more hugs. And vice versa. I really need opinions and suggestions right now, so please review! I'll update ASAP. Bye!