Now, this would be a wonderful place to say, "And they all lived happily ever after." However, not only is that beloved statement grammatically incorrect and an insult to my grammar, its meaning was not meant to come at that place or time. "Mia Démone!"

I turned from the crowd of good guys to see the puff of smoke – now revealed to be Brady Dink – leading an entire army of villains. "Mia Démone, there is a battle about to begin. I will speak with you before we try anything . . . violent."

I stepped forward and the two of us met in the middle of the battlefield. As Brady returned to his natural form, I said, "About what do we need to talk, Brady?"

He stepped a little closer as amusement danced in his voice. "Mia, we both know your powers have manifested a large amount in the last couple hours. They are almost as powerful as mine. Now look at the odds of this fight."

As I glanced from his army to mine, he said, "The odds are one-hundred-to-one in my favor. However, you can change all of this." He stepped even closer. "Join forces with me, Mia Démone. Imagine what we could do for Animatown together. Just say the word, and this battle will be over with and we will rule Animatown with all the power, fame, and fortune you could ever imagine. Plus, if you wanted, I could bring back your foster father."

When I shot him a surprised glance, he nodded. "Oh, yeah. I can bring Nathan Leets back and your entire family will be together again. All you have to do is say you'll join forces with me. I'll give you two minutes to think it over." He backed away and gave me space to think.

It was a tempting offer, very tempting. However, if I joined forces with Brady and he did bring Nathan Leets back from the dead, would he be proud of my decisions . . . or would he want to die again to escape the mess I would create? As I thought about my options, I remembered something an old friend once told me, "You will do great things in your life, Mia. Only you can decide if they will be terrible or noble."

I turned to Brady Dink with a new determination built up inside me. "Brady Dink, I am disinclined to give a positive response to your offer. Righteousness always comes before my selfish wants."

Brady shrugged. "Your loss. This just means I'll have to kill you if you will not be obedient and submissive to my will."

"I will not surrender to you, Brady Dink," I told him fearlessly. "You and your posse beat me up every day of my life ever since I returned from Animatown, but I never said a word to anyone I was close to for fear you would kill me when you were caught. It took me the last couple hours to realize, Brady, you would never kill anyone."

"How many times have you almost died at my hands, Mia?" he laughed.

"Just because I almost died does not mean you would intentionally kill me, Brady," I replied. "Besides, my friends and I have been wounded by the hands of your apprentices. Not once have you personally laid a finger on any of us, save that sucker punch back at your headquarters."

"That reminds me . . ." Le Frog hopped out of nowhere and punched Brady in the eye. "This is for hurting ma chere!" He hopped away before Brady could recover from the blow.

His nostrils flared in anger, Brady shouted out to his troops. "Villains, attack the good toons, but don't touch the Chosen One. She is mine."

I turned to the good cartoons. "Come on, my friends. If we believe in ourselves and each other, we overpower them one-hundred-to-one. They are powered by their greed, but we have the power of light, of love. Are we going to fight for our city?"

"We will fight for our city!" the good cartoons shouted in unison.

"Then . . . charge!" I led them across the open field and toward the charging enemy. They immediately fought the villains while I continued marching towards the Great One. "You will never win, Brady."

"We'll see about that, Angie." He floated above the pandemonium.

Wanting to keep everyone out of the cross-fire, I followed Brady into the sky. I created a fireball and threw it at his head. "Don't you know good always triumphs over evil?" I quickly dodged a blue sphere he had tossed at my legs.

"That only happens in this fantasy world, Mia," he told me, dodging another fireball, this one aimed at his stomach. "Good never wins in the real world. You of all people should know that." He threw a black cloud of magical dust at me, missing my head by inches.

I created a purple magical sphere and flung it at him. It hit him square in the face, turning his skin a sickly shade of green. "Well, we're not talking about the real world, Brady. What we are fighting for is the safety of what you call a fantasy world, not Earth. Here is where there are always happy endings."

Brady hit my arm with a hot fireball. As my arm smoldered a little and began to heal, he said, "Give it up, Mia. You will never win. I have magic abilities powerful enough to kill you with or without your healing powers."

I felt the pain in my arm as well as the anger growing in my soul mix and swell together to create a dangerous mix, but with one hand still healing after smoldering, I knew I could not fight well enough to cause him a large amount of damage.

Brady created a light blue sphere and I knew it was not good. "Are you ready to die after all this pain of wounds and healing, Chosen One?" He threw the sphere at my chest and I knew I had no time to avoid it.

With a second left before the deadly magical sphere would hit and kill me, an unidentified figure leaped in front of me. He was hit full-blast by the sphere and fell soundlessly to the ground. All activity stopped as if time stood still while Jeanne and David ran over to check on the brave individual. "He . . . He's not going to make it," Jeanne whispered.

"Who is it?" I heard Penguin ask from somewhere on the battlefield.

Le Frog knelt next to Jeanne and almost covered his mouth in shock before he replied, "It's . . . Steelbeak."

Pure horror, anger, and rage took over my mind and the pain temporarily left my body. I used every single ounce of energy and strength I had remaining in my body to create the ultimate magical sphere. I managed to shout, "Evil just ticked off good, Brady!" before launching the sphere at the Great One. The sphere hit Brady Dink straight on and, in a matter of colorful flashing lights and agonizing seconds, Brady had completely disintegrated into a pile of dust.

I fell in a heap on the ground and rolled down-hill until Léon caught and stopped me. I rose unsteadily to my feet and Léon helped me slowly hobble over to Steelbeak's side. "Steelbeak?" He did not respond. "Uncle Steelbeak, it's me, Mia."

His eyes opened slowly and I could see a small smirk form on his face. "My little Mia has grown up; I couldn't let ya die and not fulfill your destiny."

"I can save you, Uncle Steelbeak," I told him. "All I have to do is touch you and . . ." I touched his feathered arms, but nothing happened. "Why isn't it working?" I began to cry over him, my teardrops splashing on his suit. "I can't let you die, Uncle Steelbeak. You don't deserve to die, especially not like this." The tears continued falling onto his feather, yet nothing was happening.

"I do deserve ta die, Mia. I'm a bad toon, just as I have always been." He held my hand in both of his and I could feel his pulse slowly fading.

"No you're not," I cried. "Remember when you brought me to Animatown for the very first time, when I asked if you were a bad cartoon or a good cartoon? You said you were somewhere in the middle. You can change from somewhere-in-the-middle cartoon to full-fledged good cartoon, Uncle Steelbeak. Just please don't die; you are the father I never had."

I could tell he was fading fast without hope of recovering. I had helped several other people by healing their wounds before; why was it not working on Steelbeak? A small trickle of blood – probably from the tumble I had taken moments before – traveled down my forehead and a small drop of blood fell, splashing as it fell onto his beak.

At first, nothing happened. His pulse eventually stopped and his grip on my hand loosened. "Oh, no." I gently laid my head upon his chest and cried over my loss. Suddenly, I felt his chest move as he breathed and his heart jumped to life. Startled, I jumped back in shock and cried out in joy as I watched the burns begin to heal. In a short matter of seconds, Steelbeak was fully healed and sitting up.

"Uncle Steelbeak, you're alright!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him.

"I guess I deserved a second chance after all," he chuckled, returning my embrace. I helped Steelbeak up onto his feet as he said, "Is it too late to change? Can ya still forgive me?"

I smiled. "It's never too late to be forgiven, Uncle Steelbeak." I turned to every cartoon and human standing on the battlefield and I addressed them like so: "For eight long years, Animatown has been quarreling between citizens under the rule of the Great One. After spending the past couple months in Animatown, I realize most of you villains never wanted to fight."

Slowly, Le Frog stepped forward. "Mia Démone is right. I have lived in Animatown for six years and have been see as a villain due to being an accomplice to my cousin. Maybe that is what I was created for, to be a mercenary, but over the past few days, I found that was what I wanted to be. I want to live in peace with the good cartoons and be free to be my own person with the people I love and care for." He smiled back at me.

I smiled back at him before returning to the crowd. "If you are willing to live in peace like you were before the reign of the Great One, then throw down your weapons as a sign of peace."

The villains all looked at each other in silence and I feared they would continue to plague the good cartoons with war. Starscream nervously stepped forward and – even with his blood-thirsty ways – threw his gun on the ground. "I want to stop fighting, as long as we have small 'battles' . . . you know, as a way of improving our skills. I mean, what if someone like the Great One comes to Animatown again? We'll want to be prepared."

I thought about it for a moment. "It wouldn't hurt to train everyone in order to prepare for the possibility of another attack like you suggested, Starscream."

Suddenly, every cartoon – both good and bad – threw down their weapons and cheered. In our excitement, Le Frog and I embraced.

"Mia!" David ran up to me, completely overjoyed. "You did it, Mia!"

I smiled. "No, David, we all did it."

"As a family," Le Frog added.

"As a family," I agreed, placing a well-deserved kiss on his green lips.

"Chosen One!" Bugs Bunny ran up to me and interrupted the sentimental moment. "Chosen One, I hate ta interrupt, but we were hopin' ta put tagethah some type a government system. Can ya help wit dat?"

I smiled a little at my love and turned to the crowd of cartoons. "I realize you are in need of a government system. We can have a democracy like I have in America."

"We have a president back in the United States," said Nate, coming up beside me. "Do we have any nominations for your new leader?"

"I nominate Mia Démone." Le Frog was loud and clear with his announcement.

I glanced over at him in surprise as David shouted, "I second the nomination!"

"All in favor raise your hand!" shouted Nate.

"I never accepted the nomination!" I cried out. As I spoke, every hand in the crowd rose.

Nate looked back at me. "I hope you plan on accepting that nomination."

I stared at him, and then back at the multitude. "I guess I accept the nomination . . . if I can spend half of my time in Earth as well as in Animatown. I have family back there that must be worried about me."

"I'm sure that would be fine." Nate held up my hand and Le Frog's hand up over our heads. "Animatown, greet your new leaders, President Mia Démone and Vice President Le Frog!"

The crowd cheered as we greeted them with our new titles. "How long do we want Mia and Le Frog to rule over Animatown?" Nate asked.

The crowd was almost silent as the Animatown citizens discussed how long our terms in office would be.

"To the end of their days!" someone shouted.

Soon, other cartoons voiced their opinion until Nate finally hushed them. "All in favor of Mia's rule lasting to the end of her days raise your hands." Every hand in the crowd rose as high as it possibly could. With a little more discussion, it was decided Steelbeak would become my chief advisor.

I turned from the crowd, planning to return to the town, when a small idea popped into my head. "Jeanne, do you have your cell phone?"

"Yeah," she replied, handing it to me. "Will it actually work in this dimension?"

"If I did my research correctly, the dimensional rip should have no affect on this phone's frequency," I told her confidently. I paused for a few moments as I waited for the other line to pick up. "Hi, Mom, it's me."

"Mia? Oh, my dear child, is it really you?"

I laughed a little into the phone. "Yes, my dear Valorie, it is really me. It's great to hear your voice after all this time."

"I'm so glad you're alive, Mia." I could hear her crying with her joy. "It's been almost a year since we heard from you . . . I was afraid you were dead."

I was silent for a few seconds. "I almost was killed, Valorie, and so was Nate Dink. We're not going to let that happen again." I paused again. "I need to talk to Demona . . . it's important."

After a few silent moments, my foster sister's voice came on the phone. "Mia?"

"Hey, Demona . . . do you remember where Robert English lives?"

"Yeah, I remember."

I smiled. "Tell him I'm okay . . . and I'm coming to see him."