A/N: Is Finished! Review to show your gratitude at those words!

"Sparx, can we talk?" Ace stuck his head through the door of Gaia's hut on Hope Island.

"Sure." Sparx got up off the floor, where she'd been going through some of her daily exercises.

"Have you heard from Mark?" she asked as they wound their way down the track that led to the beach.

"Yeah, he said that they've finished working on the Tower. It was open to the public today, but it's closed again now. We can go home tomorrow." They had been on Hope Island for almost a month now, enjoying what Mark had told them was a well deserved holiday.

"You know what bugs me?" said Sparx suddenly. "We let Fear get away. And Plunder. I can't believe we were so stupid!" During the celebrations, no one had noticed Fear lift the crate, no longer held down by Greedly, and escape. The police had searched all over Conestoga Hills for Plunder, but he had disappeared.

"I think we'll have another opportunity to nab Fear. And I reckon Plunder will try something shady soon enough. Captain Plaster will be ready for him."

They reached the beach and sat down. Sparx kicked off her boots and buried her toes in the sand. She laid back and closed her eyes, relaxing in the sun.

"You're a redhead, you'll burn easily," Ace warned her. Sparx just shrugged.

"I'll live."

Ace sighed. "Sparx, there's something I have to tell you. It's a really hard thing to deal with, and I'll understand if you're upset, but . . .we're not . . . Sparx, we're not--"

"Real?" Sparx finished for him. Ace looked at her in surprise. Her tone was light, her face relaxed.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"Oh, Kat let it slip ages ago."

"And you weren't upset?" Ace sounded incredulous.

"Yes. Very." Sparx sat up and looked at Ace seriously. "I was just as upset about the fact that you hadn't told me, as I was about not being real."

"But you're not anymore?"

"Yes, I am, it still really bothers me that you couldn't say anything. We're partners, Ace, you should be able to tell me stuff like that."

Ace sighed again. "I know, I know."

"But I'm cool with the 'not real' thing."

"You are?"

"Yep."

"But . . . why? It really gets to me."

Now Sparx sighed. "You remember that day when we were doing target practice and I threw a plate at you, and then stormed out?"

Ace winced. "Yes."

"That was the day after I found out. I was really upset. When I left that day, I had every intention of blasting myself back to the Sixth Dimension. I figured if I wasn't real, it wouldn't matter."

"So, what happened?"

"I stubbed my toe." She got a familiar annoyed look on her face. "Really hard, too."

"And . . ." prompted Ace, confused.

"And, as I was hopping around saying stuff that I won't repeat, it occurred to me. How can someone who isn't real stub their toe? Hard enough to make their 'unreal' eyes water? They can't. I don't know if the Sixth Dimension is real, whether someone found out about it and used it for a computer game, or if it's a figment of someone's imagination, but I know we're real. You and me and Random. We're real people that can feel and hurt and love and hate and stub our toes. I don't care how my existence began, if I was born or created, I only know I'm really lucky to have that existence, and that I want to make the most of it." She lay back down. "Even if that means getting burned to a crisp on a tropical island, or burned to a crisp in the middle of a battle to save the world."

Ace sat and digested her words for a long time. He heard the waves crash on the shore, and the birds singing in the trees behind him. He looked down at Sparx, who had fallen asleep. He didn't know if what she had said was right, but he saw the sense in it. She was the most passionate person he knew, and the most crazy. But she was right about one thing. He was lucky to be here, to be given this opportunity.

Fin.