When Claus and Lucas unleashed PK Love, even the psionic realm shook.

Even I, someone whose emotions had long since been drained from me, felt something.


"Now," Darius said, placing a hand on his chin. "Where should I start? I could cut all of your fingers off, or I could start with slicing up that pretty face of yours…"

"Hexagons," Ana said, looking at the rainbow colored shapes in the sky. "I wonder where they came from."

Darius frowned.

"If you think that's going to distract me, you-"

A force knocked all of the wind out of Ana, but she was sure that Darius hadn't struck her yet. She sucked in air and breathed in heavy gasps.

The next moment, her heart overflowed with love.

She tried to describe it, tried to grasp it, but she only ever got the feeling that she understood a small fraction of what was being presented to her. She pictured waves crashing down on rocky beaches, a cool oasis in the middle of a scorching desert, and a palace of diamond in the skies. She pictured orange skies and butterflies the size of eagles, golden clouds and silver stars.

It was so beautiful that Ana forgot to breathe.

She saw faces of people that she knew, people that she missed dearly. Her parents, Ninten, Tracy, Paula… and of course, Ness. The faces flashed by one by one, looking exactly how Ana remembered them. Ness wore his shy smile while Ninten flashed an impish smirk.

Ana's chest started to heave on its own, even though her breathing rate slowed down. The utter adoration that she felt for these people and places mixed with the pain of not having them anymore. She knew, in that moment, that she would die to get her hands on just one of the faces or locations that flashed before her eyes.

No wonder love bred jealousy.

Ana gritted her teeth. She loved Ness, she loved her parents, but she refused to let it consume her. Grief was natural, but using grief as an excuse to lock herself away wasn't.

I've shut away my heart for so long, Ana thought, Locked it in the deepest vault I could find and threw away the key. Now that it's broken free, how can I possibly deal with it?

With a gasp, Ana returned to the world around her. She no longer saw visions of people or places. She looked around at the field of starmen corpses, their remains glowing with an eerie, black light.

As she took a panoramic view of the scene, she saw Darius looking at the horizon with haunted eyes.

"Darius?" Ana said.

"What did I just…?" Darius placed his hands over his chest. "I…"

Oh, so I'm not just crazy. Ana thought back to the smiling faces and a pang shot through her gut. I bet he's dealing with the same sort of regret that I am.

"I loved them," Darius said. "I tried to save them. All of those children, with no chance on their own. How could God possibly judge their soul if they weren't shown how to live? But still." Darius looked away. "So many deaths. So many arrests and executions. Should I have done something more? Could I have done something more?"

He wasn't kidding when he said that we're similar people, Ana said. He's taken responsibility for the world's suffering, just like I did.

Ana felt another pang shoot through her stomach. She gritted her teeth, nearly falling to her knees.

Ness… I should have protected you. I should have saved you. I shouldn't have let… you…

"AAAH!" Darius shouted, throwing his hands up to the sky. "Why is it never enough?" Tears started streaming down Darius' face. "Why… can't… I ever…?"

With murder in his eyes, Darius lunged over and picked his curved sword off of the ground. Ana looked over at the ground at her axe and lunged for it.

Wait, Ana thought. I could teleport away right now. He's so preoccupied with whatever he's doing that I could probably get away without him catching me.

Ana scooped up her axe and looked back at Darius. She let out a gasp upon realizing that Darius didn't mean to turn his blade on her.

Darius closed his eyes and held the sword up to his chest.

"It ends here," Darius said. "I tried to save people, and it changed nothing. I tried to kill people, but it changed nothing. I'm just a grain of sand among millions buried in the desert."

Darius…

"I…" Darius coughed, wiping away his tears. "I loved them. I loved Scaraba, even though it beat me. I love the greens and the browns of the Earth. I loved my mother, even though she abandoned me and left me for dead." Darius shook his head. "If love is supposed to be a good thing, then why does it hurt so much?"

"It does hurt," Ana said out loud. "And I think that's why I haven't let myself feel. There's only room left for self-hated, something that I control." Ana closed her eyes. "Something that will never hurt anybody else."

Even with her eyes closed, Ana could feel Darius' gaze fix on her. She opened her eyes to see the sword trembling in Darius' hands.

"Ana," Darius said. "Why are you still here? You should run from me. I could kill you if I wanted to."

"I'm on borrowed time, remember?"

Ana smiled, but her chest continued to heave. The feelings of longing and jealousy refused to flee.

"I'm ending this," Darius said, raising his sword up. "I was taught that God made everything, cared about everything, is everything. But if he cares, then why aren't we given a fair chance? Why do the poor continue to suffer while the rich get richer? Why do we die and they live?"

"I don't have your answers, Darius. I don't think that anyone does, and I don't even think that there's even a single right answer."

"Then what's the point of living? Why keep up this charade?"

I don't know, Ana thought. I ask myself that question every day of my life.

"You feel the love too, don't you?" Ana said. "You know how much it hurts."

"It burns my flesh hotter than the Scaraban Sun ever could," Darius said.

"Because you miss everything that you loved. Your city. The people you knew."

"I'll never get them back."

"I know," Ana said. "I'll never get the people I love back either. But the pain reminds us of how much we care."

"And…?" Darius' eyes begged for more.

"We need to experience sorrow so that we can feel joy. One cannot exist without the other. If everything is happy, then nothing is. Our suffering now exists to make our next love that much sweeter."

"You expect me to just lap that up?" Darius snorted. "You'll have to try harder than that. In fact, you shouldn't try at all. I don't mean anything to you."

Darius raised his sword back up to his chest. Ana fumbled for the right words.

"You tried," she managed to get out.

Stupid! she told herself. You panic and deliberate for seconds, and that's all you can come up with?

"I tried?" Darius said. "What does that matter?"

"Why do you think that everyone adored Ness?" Ana said. "He wasn't the best at psionics. He often struggled with difficult decisions. He didn't lead, didn't inspire awe. So why did everyone feel like a part of themselves died after Lucas stuck him on the edge of his stained glass sword?"

Darius tilted his head, regarding Ana like how a predator would stalk its prey. Ana tried to ignore the unsettling gaze and continued.

"Lucas ended up overcoming psionic savantism and turned back into a regular person," Ana said. "That's not supposed to happen. It's because Ness cared and he tried. Whenever an obstacle landed in his path, he would furrow his eyebrows do everything he could to overcome it. It took him twice as long as most people, but that didn't matter to him. He never stopped trying. It's… a trait I wish I had."

Neither Ana nor Darius spoke for several seconds. Eventually, Darius let out a sigh.

"So that's what makes me special?" Darius said, his voice soft yet dangerous. "That I made an attempt? But now I can't even do that."

"You can regain that part of your-"

"Just listen to yourself!" Darius shouted. "You'll say anything to keep me alive. It doesn't matter if it's true; it doesn't matter if it's impractical. I'm sick of all these games, Ana. All life must come to an end, and now is a good time as any."

Ana barely had time to shout as Darius raised his sword one last time.


King Poo of Dalaam teleported back to the battlefield in front of the Shard of Ceres to find it eerily quiet. He honed in with his Mu senses and tried to detect the psionic auras of starmen. The few that he sensed were scattered and carried underlying tones of distress.

Poo frowned. What could have possibly happened while he was gone?

That was when it hit him. Poo's Mu training had taught him to temper emotions so that he could experience them without clutter, but even that couldn't prepare him for the sheer rush of feeling that watched over him. Poo looked at the world with wide eyes, his heart beating alongside Ceres' natural rhythm. Faces flashed before his eyes, but he didn't recognize most of them.

What in the universe? Poo thought. It's like what I did with PK Starstorm or what Darius did with PK Rockin, but…

Poo took a deep breath. While the music of PK Rockin and the adrenaline from PK Starstorm were mostly unconscious and easily ignored, this rush of feeling blocked out everything else in Poo's mind. For once, he couldn't grasp onto the comfortable emptiness of meditation. He tried to form calm thoughts but couldn't force himself to think straight.

Shaking his head, Poo ran towards the nearest psionic aura. Maybe then, he could find his answers. Poo passed by towers of corpses and destroyed tents, but it didn't take him long to find the first starman.

When he approached the Ghost of Starman, he sensed something off. It wasn't more powerful than a normal starman, necessarily, but it did seem more complicated. It was only when Poo looked with his eyes that he saw the spikes on the starman's head and upper arms. He took hesitant steps towards the starman, wondering why it didn't make any moves to attack him.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the starman said out loud.

Years of Mu training kept the starman's words from catching him off guard, but he needed a second to process the words due to the heaving heart in his chest. Whatever caused the sudden influx of emotions wasn't about to stop soon, Poo figured.

"Who are you?" Poo said. "Why is this place so quiet?"

"This is the land of the dead." The starman swiveled around to face Poo. "Although many of your soldiers survived."

"And the starmen?"

"Easier to show you."

The starman motioned for Poo to follow and walked off. Poo shrugged and trailed behind, soon recognizing that they were heading to another psionic aura. The wind moaned in the background. The only movement that Poo saw was the swaying of grass in the wind.

"Your men regrouped back near the Shard," the starman said, evidently recognizing Poo's unease. "Hurry, or we'll miss it."

Poo nodded and jogged along. He shot a look back at the Shard of Ceres and realized that he couldn't even detect the building's psionic aura. It was powerful enough that Poo could normally detect its influence even from miles away if he tried; he wondered what had changed since he teleported away.

"Your friend Geldegarde Monotoli didn't make it, by the way," the starman said.

"He was not my friend." Poo shrugged. "The beauty of life cannot exist without the inevitability of death. His time was coming soon anyway."

The starman didn't respond. Before long, they arrived at another starman that flailed on the ground. Poo walked lightly on his feet, taking cautious steps towards the second starman. This one, unlike the first, didn't have any spikes. Just a regular starman this time.

"Starman DX," the flailing starman transmitted to the spiked starman. "What are your orders?"

"Heh," Starman DX said. "I wasn't sure that he would still be here when we arrived."

Poo looked around. Even with his enhanced vision, he couldn't see anything that threatened the starman.

"What's happening to you, starman?" Starman DX asked.

"I… malfunction. Strange signals. They push me to act illogically. I want to protect. I want to destroy. Want." The starman paused its speech but not its flailing. "I shouldn't want. Why do I want?"

"The emotions surging through me," Poo said. "We humans aren't the only ones to feel them."

Starman DX gave a curt nod. "This is the starmen's first exposure to emotion. We don't normally accept the neurotransmitters that you do, so it's not usually a problem, but with PK Love and enough energy…"

"Searching for a solution to the malfunction," the starman transmitted. "…Negative. Initiating self-destruct sequence."

"What?" Poo said, adopting a combat stance.

Starman DX held up a tentacle behind Poo.

"It's not dangerous."

"What if I don't trust-"

The starman stopped flailing on the ground. Its psionic spirit vanished, leaving behind only a dark purple mass that gave off a black light.

"Oh," Poo said. "That's rather…"

"Anticlimactic? We starmen tend to be."

"But why would it just kill itself?" Poo said.

"Weren't you listening? For us, emotion is a malfunction. When we can't be the perfect soldiers that Giygas needs to be, we destroy ourselves so that we don't accidentally sabotage his plans."

"Did that starman also feel the same pain and longing that humans do when it was exposed to PK Love?"

"Possibly."

"So could that be another reason for why it killed itself."

"We don't really operate in 'reasons' like you humans do." Starman DX shrugged. "There are actions, and then there are reactions. That is all."

"Oh."

"But," Starman DX put a tentacle on his chin. "I suppose it's possible. They weren't thinking straight. Most of them did kill themselves before the allotted time that starmen are given to troubleshoot malfunctions."

"So is that why all of the starmen are dead?" Poo said, looking around at the field of purple corpses. "They all killed themselves when they felt emotions?"

"Yes."

"But you're still here."

"Correct."

Poo waited for Starman DX to elaborate before realizing that the starman had no intention of speaking further.

"So we did it. We won the battle."

"You destroyed all of the starmen in existence," Starman DX said. "And because these were physical manifestations of spirits themselves…"

"We destroyed their psionic essences," Poo said. "We crushed their souls. They're gone forever."

Starman DX nodded.

"We won," Poo said. "Why doesn't it feel like we did?"

"You humans are the ones with feelings, not me."

"Wait." Poo looked up at Starman DX. "What about Giygas? Did the PK Love destroy him, too?"

"Doubtfully."

"Then what's going to happen? If we can't destroy him…"

"I'm sure that you'll get an update soon enough. I need to leave before I end up killing myself like the rest of these starman. See you later, big shot."

"Wait!" Poo shouted, holding a hand out in protest.

Starman DX vanished from sight.


A white flash of light brought Ninten the first reprieve in what felt like an eternity.

Wait, he thought. Something hurt Giygas. I called for help, and something damaged Giygas. Could it be…?

Distorted skull patterns flashed in the background. A buzzing sound that reminded Ninten of an enraged wasp colony set his teeth on edge.

"Not… right," Giygas said. "Hurts… the pain… N…"

A shiver ran down Ninten's spine. He had gotten used to many evils in his life, but he didn't suspect that Giygas' unsettling voice would ever be one of them.

"Hey!" Ninten shouted. "I don't know if the white flash was just a coincidence, but could I get some more help here?"

Almost as if by response, the patterns in the background slowed. The bitter taste in his mouth subsided slightly. Ninten saw rainbow colored hexagons appear in a circle around him, spinning around to form a blur.

Rainbow hexagons… Ninten thought. Just like when Claus used PK Love.

"Claus!" Ninten shouted. "Jeff! Are you out there? Can you hear me?"

Ninten looked back at Giygas, unable to focus his attention on any one skull pattern. The hexagons gave off a soft glow that counteracted the harsh, vivid reds in the background.

"All right!" Ninten said. "Let's roll with this."

The hexagons shot out into the background, leaving behind streaks of color. The background flashed white multiple times, and as always the torture yielded for just a moment while Giygas recoiled in pain.

"Lifeup," Ninten said, healing some of the damage that Giygas dealt during the flashes of pain that Ninten experienced.

Ninten checked his psionic energy stores and found them nearly empty. Psych, he hadn't even considered the possibility of his body breaking before his spirit.

"H A H…" Giygas said. "P A I N."

Ninten braced himself for Giygas' next move. The hexagons disappeared in the darkness.

For a moment, all went silent.

Did we do it? Ninten thought. Did someone else manage to defeat Giygas?

Ninten's heart pounded in his chest. He knew that it was too soon to hope, but after falling into multiple bouts of despair in pain, hope was the only force that kept him going.

For an excruciatingly long moment, Gigyas faltered.

The next second, the distorted skull patterns reappeared in the background. A flash of pain brought Ninten to his knees.

"Hngh…" Ninten hissed air out between his teeth. "I won't… give in!"

Ninten stood back up, drawing shaky breaths.

"Not enough," Giygas said, his distant voice booming in Ninten's ears. "Never enough. Pain does not hurt. Pain… sweet… H… K I L L…"

The world in front of Ninten flashed with red.

"T…u…r…n…A…W…A…Y…"

"I'm not done yet," Ninten said.

"Try... try t E…"

"I'm not hiding from anybody!"

"Close your eyes… Close your ears… close you T."

"I…" Ninten coughed. "I don't think that those hexagons quite did it. If someone actually did help me, I could use a little more."

" E."

Another flash of pain sent Ninten lying on his back, grasping at his chest.

"Please!" Ninten said. "I can't… take much more."

Giygas chuckled in the background.

"Please…"


Lorraine and Diana halted their battle, floating above Amber Lake. Diana looked at Lorraine with a confused expression while the Osohe Queen's eyes widened in disbelief. Her head snapped over to Jeff, and her gaze pinned him in place.

"You," Lorraine said. "Just when I thought that my opinion of you couldn't go any lower…"

"What?" Jeff said. "I honestly don't-"

"What's the PK Love to you, anyway?" Kumatora cut in. "You wouldn't know love if it bitch-slapped you in the face!"

"After all of my planning, all of my suffering…" Lorraine's expression grew dark. "You waste it all on him."

"Waste all of… what on who?"

Lorraine closed her eyes and took deep breaths.

"You'll never know how much pain you caused me, Jeffrey Andonuts! I trusted you. I thought that we could work together! And now…"

Lorraine's expression turned from uncontrollably angry to stone cold in an instant. She closed her eyes, and all of her muscles relaxed. When she opened her eyes, Jeff saw only emptiness behind them. Lorraine flashed a smile, but her icy eyes remained pinned on Jeff.

"I suppose that it's easier to behave like Gigyas does," Lorraine said. "To destroy without remorse. And for some reason, that still garners sympathy."

Sympathy? Jeff thought. We're trying to kill him!

"I suppose that I shall accept his mantle," Lorraine said. "If I cannot save humanity, then I will destroy it."

"If you told us the full story from the beginning," Diana said, her grey eyes locked onto Lorraine, "Then maybe we would have helped you. You knew what we wanted, Osohe Queen. We want to keep our species safe and alive. If you don't tell us your true game, then we'll have to assume that you're an enemy."

"Quiet." Lorraine spoke the word softly, but it carried the iron ring of authority. "I am your god. I brought civilization to the Osohe. I created relics that your people still cannot decipher. Your will does not matter."

"I learned something about religion after I left my cult," Diana said, pressing her tentacle fingers together. "The more you fear a god, the more you descend into hatred and spite. Your iron fist only seeks to create more chaos."

"Well, that's quite fitting," Lorraine said, stretching her arms out to the sky, "Because I am an agent of chaos!"

Lorraine lowered her arms, and a gust of wind knocked Diana back against the invisible barrier that separated them from Jeff and Kumatora. Jeff's heart lurched as he saw Diana's body slam and crumple. Diana dove into the golden water and resurfaced under Lorraine, flying up at the Osohe Queen with dual swords in hand.

"Jeff," Kumatora said. "I know that this is hard to ignore, but we need to keep up our side of the mission. How's Giygas after Lucas and Claus hit him with that PK Love?"

Jeff sent a mental command to the lens over the right part of his glasses and saw Giygas floating around the Ceresian city. His movements looked jagged and disorganized, but he was still alive.

"I think that they killed all of the starmen," Jeff said. "But Giygas is still around."

"Hmm," Kumatora put a finger on her chin. "So even the power of the Sound Stone wasn't enough to stop our alien friend."

"He does look weakened," Jeff said.

"But we can't come close to reproducing the amount of power that the Sound Stone and Shard of Ceres gave us," Kumatora said. "Whatever you think about my mother, she did create some of the most powerful artifacts ever known to the universe."

"Well," Jeff said. "I was just trying to look on the bright side."

"But it's no use. We can't kill him."

Jeff risked a glance backwards at Diana and Lorraine. The two zipped around in the air and slung beams of energy at each other, although they managed to look even more frantic in their movements. More energy beams hit Diana than Lorraine, and the Osohe Queen wore a smug smile that made it look like she was winning.

Jeff and Kumatora needed to figure something out, and quickly.

"I can kind of see what's happening from the other side of the screen," Kumatora said. "Why don't you zoom in on some of the people?"

Well, why not? Jeff looked around at some of the people walking in the Ceresian city. But for some reason, none of them were walking. They all stood still, wide-eyed. Many of them dropped whatever they were holding.

"What's going on?" Jeff said. "It looks like they all just got some incredible insight."

"The PK Love," Kumatora said. "I guess we can't feel it too much from here, but…" Kumatora paused, cocking her head. "Actually, I think we can."

It was only then that Jeff noticed the aching in his heart. A series of images flashed through his mind, all of them representing places or people that he loved. The fluffy snow of Winters. A fire in the hearth. The nervous face of Ness and the smiling face of his mother that he'd never known.

It passed quickly. Jeff examined the people in the streets of Ceres for a second time.

"So they're going through what we just did, but stronger?"

"I think so." Kumatora crossed her arms over her chest. "Think, Kuma. What can that mean?"

"That PK Love is affecting all of us due to all of the energy that Lucas and Claus used?"

"Thanks, captain obvious," Kumatora said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, not all of us can be as smart as you."

Jeff intended it as a joke, but the words came out more pointed than he had expected. Either way, Kumatora didn't appear to notice.

"Please…"

Jeff stiffened, standing straight up. That voice… could it be?

"I think that Ninten just spoke to me from Giygas' Magicant." Jeff played the voice in his mind for a second time. "Yeah, that's definitely him. The PK Love must have weakened Giygas enough for him to get through."

"Is there any way that we can help him? Poor kid has to take on the greatest bedtime story villain of them all."

When you put it that way, it sounds a lot less menacing, Jeff thought.

"Magicant, Magicant…" Jeff said, walking around in circles. "Don't think about Diana and Lorraine fighting right behind you; think of Magicant…"

"What about Magicant?" Kumatora said.

"There's something." Jeff squeezed his eyes shut, trying to think without the distraction of visuals. "Something that I can't quite put my finger on."

"Well, take your time and think through it carefully."

"Let's talk this through together, Kuma." Jeff tried to ignore the sounds of yelling and fighting in the background. "What's special about it?"

"Well, this is Giygas' Magicant. That's a pretty big deal."

"Have you ever been to a Magicant before?"

"Nope." Kumatora tapped a foot on the ground. "I guess Magicant in general is special because your body can't go there. So Ninten's body must be somewhere else while his spirit is inside Giygas' Magicant…" Kumatora frowned. "I suppose that doesn't help much, does it?"

"Wait," Jeff said. "That's it!"

"Huh? What's it?"

"Magicant is connected to the psionic realm, right? Just like this place?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"We can connect with Ninten's spirit. Space in the psionic realm doesn't work like in the physical universe. Even though we're far away, we can still connect spirits to Ninten's."

"When you say connect, what exactly do you mean?"

"I, uh…" Jeff offered a nervous chuckle. "I hadn't really thought that part out."

"Aren't you supposed to be the scientist? Whatever happened to strict procedure?"

"I'm a desperate scientist!" Jeff said. "This is all just my panicked mind trying to grasp onto something!"

Jeff heard Diana cry out in the background. He clenched his hands into fists, trying to block out the sound. While she was over fighting a battle that she couldn't possibly win, Jeff was accomplishing nothing.

"Okay," Kumatora said. "Let's think this through. I'm guessing that we'll get more power by bringing everyone together. We all need to focus our thoughts on the same goal so we can use their spirits to bust into Giygas' Magicant."

"Can ordinary people really harness the psionic power of their spirit?" Jeff said. "I mean, they can't use psionics, so how could they use the psionic energy of their spirit?"

"It's not unheard of," Kumatora said. "And I don't have anything better."

"So if we all think about helping Ninten and force our energy into Giygas' Magicant, then he could use some of our power?"

"Puts a new perspective when someone says that their friends give them strength, huh?" Kumatora said, winking at Jeff. "But I say give it a try. We already have our audience captivated."

Kumatora gestured towards the lens over Jeff's glasses. The people on the streets continued to stand mostly still, although some moved around while clutching their chests.

"They're feeling some pretty strong emotions," Jeff said. "Is there a way that we can use that?"

"Ah, you sound like a manipulative leader already. But yes, I think so. I have a plan."

Jeff breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he didn't have to do everything by himself.

"We tell them to sing," Kumatora said.

Jeff blinked, waiting for a goofy smile or a laugh from Kumatora.

"We… get them to sing?" Jeff said. "What will that accomplish?"

"It will bring us closer and connect our spirits," Kumatora said in an overly inspirational tone that could only be a parody.

Jeff snorted. Kumatora's expression reverted back to alert and determined.

"Seriously, there's some actual science behind this," Kumatora said. "Singing promotes group bonding. If we all sing the same song, it will make us feel like we're all on the same team. Why do you think that religious hymns exist? Military songs? It makes us feel connected."

"All right…" Jeff said.

"Come on." Kumatora rolled her eyes. "I even know a great song. It's called the 'Eight Melodies,' and it's designed to ward off evil spirits like Giygas. Just contact everyone and tell them to sing what I'm singing."

Before Jeff could respond, Kumatora burst into song. With her rough voice, Jeff didn't normally picture her as a singer, but after tuning her vocal chords for a few seconds her voice sounded deep and rich. She covered a vocal range spanning several octaves, but most of the song took place around the alto range.

The song didn't contain any words, but it didn't need to. Kumatora laced her voice with a subtle beauty that Jeff could glimpse in brief moments but couldn't appreciate fully. He knew just enough about music to tell that Kumatora's voice was too good for him to comprehend.

When she sang, her voice spoke of mountains that pierced and snowflakes that sparkled in the sunlight, of vast oceans the color of sapphire and massive forests the color of jade. She sang of the universe's beauty without uttering a single word.

For a moment, Jeff stood frozen by the song's beauty.

Kumatora shot him look saying, Well? What are you waiting for?

"Sorry," Jeff said, looking back at the lens over his glasses. "All right, screen thingy. Broadcast this song to everyone on Ceres. Tell them to sing along and to pour their heart into it. The longing and love in their hearts need to run free."