I would like to thank my first reviewer kateracks for getting me on my way.

I guess it's time to start with this disclaimer stuff. I do not own any of the characters in my story. If I did this wouldn't be on fanfiction. I don't even own myself for heavens sake because I never paid one bit for the possesion of me. I don't know if anyone does own me, but I certainly don't. So I'm sorry in advance for offending anyone, and I would like to take this moment to thank everyone who has ever voluntarily or involutarily donated their characters to my cause. Thank you.

Now read on:

When it came to Pirates of the Caribbean questions, there was no doubt in where to turn: Rebecca Cherie Anderson—more commonly known as Becca or Chopped Liver. She was my best friend and loved helping me brainstorm. The problem with asking her to help was that she was still in school. By the time I got to her house, I still had to wait 30 minutes before she would be home. Her dad was on the couch, playing video games, so I decided to join him to pass the time.

The instant Becca walked through the front door, however, I was at her side. "Oh my God Becca! I so need to talk to you!"

"About what?" She asked.

"Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh," Becca's mom countered, "she has to finish her homework and her cores fist."

"Before she talks to me?" I complained. "But Mrs. Anderson, lives are at stake!"

"There are no exceptions. Whatever you have to say can wait until she's finished with what she has to do."

"Did you hear me? Lives! My parents' lives!"

Becca patted my back. "It's all right. I'll be done in an hour."

"Can I at least use your internet?"

"Sure," Becca agreed, and her mom didn't argue. I walked over to the computer and dialed up the internet, hoping I could find the email address of the lady who played Tia Dalma and send her an email asking if she knew this crazy man. As soon as I got online, however, a pop-up took over half the screen.

"NEWSFLASH!" It announced, "The real King Kong is at this very moment hanging off the edge of the real Empire State building! Click here to watch live video feed. This is not a hoax. It is the real King Kong!"

I quickly exited out of the window, knowing it was just spam. All of those things were. Then, I set about finding the actress' email address. I still hadn't found it an hour later when Becca came out of her room in a pink nightgown and slippers.

"I still have to do the dishes," she stated, approaching me, "but if you rinse, we can talk."

I followed her to the kitchen, explaining to her everything that had happened and how I needed to find Tia Dalma as quickly as possible to save my parents. She thought it was funny at first but quickly realized the seriousness of the problem.

"Well, what are you going to do?" Becca asked.

"I don't know. I was hoping you might have some ideas…and from the way that guy was acting, I'm pretty sure he wanted the real Tia Dalma, and not just some lady who dressed up like her."

"Tia Dalma doesn't exist, Tiara, and if she did, it was like three or four hundred years ago. I don't think she's alive anymore."

"And even if she was, I don't think we'd have time to find her—or time to find a time machine and bring her back from the past—man, I don't think we even have time to fly to California and convince the actor to dress up like her again."

Becca handed me another dish. "Well don't think of the things we can't do. What could we do? Could you dress up as her? At least long enough to delay him."

"Probably not…Do I look like I'm black? And why on Earth did he choose me to find her? It has to have something to do with my computer, I know it, but everyone in America has a computer. You have a computer. Tia Dalma probably has a computer! Why me?" I asked, sliding to the floor.

"Did you try calling the police?" Becca inquired, joining me on the floor. "They might be able to help."

"The police? Come on Becca, do you really think they would believe me? There's a seven foot tall lobster that's kidnapped my parents sitting in my living room."

We both sighed, and Becca continued, "Well, I don't know what to do." I closed my eyes for a moment, but then Becca started tapping my shoulder persistently, saying, "Tiara…Tiara, I think I solved your problem." I opened my eyes and saw what Becca had been talking about.

"Yu're lookin' fer me?" Asked a lady in front of us with a crooked smile. It was the same crooked smile, rotted teeth, torn dress, and Jamaican accent that Tia Dalma had. She had literally just appeared in front of us!

"There's no way to doubt you now," Becca mentioned, slightly hinting that she hadn't entirely believed me before.

"Tia Dalma," I asked, "is that really you?"

"There's only one Tia Dalma Lass," she replied.

And standing next to her was… "Nori? Oh my God, it's Nori, Becca." I ran up to him and grabbed his shoulders, fiddled with his hair, and every possible embarrassing thing I could have done to make sure he was real.

It suddenly dawned on me that Nori was a fictional character, that he was in no way acquainted with anyone who even slightly resembled Tia Dalma, and that the person I was currently hugging was probably not him. Embarrassed, I stopped and asked, "You are Nori aren't you?"

"Yeah," he answered unsurely.

I fingered his hair and touched his cheeks, thinking, Of course it's Nori. Why would someone else's life sized anime character be walking about my best friend's house? That made me sound really crazy, didn't it?

He gave a really weird look to Tia Dalma, and then said, "But I don't know you."

"This is amazing!" I exclaimed, completely ignoring what he said. "You're exactly how I imagined you!"

He glanced at Tia Dalma again. "Why are you imagining me?"

"I created you," I answered.

Slowly, his lips curled into one of those anime smiles, as he threw his arms around me and kissed my nose. "You know I've waited my entire life to meet you? Wow!...Like…what's your name?"

"Tiara," I replied.

"Cool, it's not something stupid like Samantha. I know someone named Tiara. My name's Nori, Takeshi Nori Kyoko…but then you knew that already. Is there anything about me you don't know?" Then, he turned back to Tia Dalma. "Look Tia, it's my author! This is why you brought me here, isn't it?"

"No," Tia Dalma chuckled mysteriously, "she don' need yur help. She need my help, an' I nee' yur help."

Nori was immediately confused again. "Then, why are we here?"

"She need to know we here. Come now." She turned to leave.

"Are you going to my house?" I asked curiously, thinking I would have to gather my things and come as well.

"Aye," she replied. It was a long second before she continued, "Bu' you cain't come."

I watched in confusion as she left and Nori reluctantly followed. It was easy to tell he had been hoping for more time with me and less time with the lobster guy—even though, I was pretty sure he didn't know what mission was waiting for him at my house. As soon as they were completely gone, Becca walked over and stood next to me.

After a second, she asked, "Did that really just happen?"

"I…think…so," I answered.

Not much was happening at my house when the doorbell rang again. The lobster guy peeked out the window between the blinds, and then gestured to Mom to open the door. She obeyed, and stared in shock as Tia Dalma and Nori entered the house. She hadn't recognized the name Tia Dalma when Lionel mentioned her, but now she remembered it was that lady who creeped her out. She still didn't recognize Nori, but she knew for sure anime people weren't real. It was not a very pleasant feeling to have three not-real people in her house. The lobster made her, though, so she complied.

Nori didn't feel any more comfortable than Mom did once he noticed Lionel. Recognizing the lobster-man immediately, Nori dropped his eyes to the floor, hoping the man wouldn't recognize him as well. At first, Lionel didn't, or at least pretended he didn't, acknowledging only Tia Dalma. He opened his arms like he intended to hug her.

"Tia Dalma," he greeted, "my worthy opponent. So the young lady did follow through."

Tia Dalma just walked by, slightly brushing his shoulder, hardly even mentioning, "Aye, she have." She began wandering around the living room, touching random objects that interested her. Eventually, she stopped, her interest peaked by Dad. She examined him thoroughly from head to toe, and then Lionel started again.

"Certainly, you've wondered why you are here."

Tia Dalma looked up curiously. "No."

Nori thought to himself, But I want to know, but he didn't want to say anything.

"Well, I'll tell you anyway…" Lionel began.

"It's a test," Tia Dalma interrupted, showing she already knew his whole plan. It sounded more like, "Eez a tes."

"Yes it is," Lionel agreed, slightly phased that she knew that, "and you so kindly brought me my first victim." He grabbed Nori's arm in his claw, drawing him close to his side.

Nori glanced up at Tia Dalma with a worried look on his face. God, he hoped she knew what she was doing. She didn't seem bothered at all that Lionel had called him a victim. Maybe she was just putting up a front, but she was just standing there, silently asking, "So? What next?" Nori trusted her; he always had, but should he this time? He really wasn't sure.

The lobster man turned to Nori then, saying, "With everything you've done to me, this ought to be fun."

He threw Nori against a wall, who looked immediately to his arm which now had a cut all the way around it from the claw. Nori thought to run and started to, but Lionel stopped him with his cane. Pressing Nori back against the wall, he lifted Nori's chin with his claw. He smiled, chuckling slightly at the look of fear in Nori's eyes and then lifted him off the ground, choking him.

After a moment of Nori's squirming, Lionel fully explained to Tia Dalma—who knew already—"You are these people's queen they say. They'll do anything you ask, won't they?" Tia Dalma didn't respond, so he repeated, "Won't they?"

"Aye," she mentioned blandly, barely having moved from my dad's side.

"And they expect you to protect them because of it, don't they?"

"Aye."

Nori started banging on his arm, meaning he'd run out of air. A second later, Lionel threw him to the floor, closer to Tia Dalma than to himself, and stated, "Here's your choice: save your people, or save yourself."

Nori climbed up to his knees, but when Tia Dalma didn't make a move—or so much as flinch—Lionel smacked him on the back with his cane, knocking him back to the floor. Lionel hit him again, and again…Mom covered her eyes so she couldn't see it. Dad went to help Nori, a bit of his father instinct kicking in, but Tia stopped him from getting in the way. It didn't make sense to any of them why Tia Dalma wasn't doing anything about it.

Now, when Dusty had come home from school, Mom managed to sneak her upstairs without Lionel noticing she had entered the house. She hadn't left her room since, until she heard the ruckus downstairs. Dusty rushed halfway down the stairs, saw the lobster for the first time, and that he was beating Nori, and she ran back up to her room. It wasn't in fear, however, because lying on her bed was her cell phone. Quickly, she sent me a text message that read:

OMG T. The lobsters killin nori. com quik.

I got the message while I was still at Becca's house, trying to make sense of it all, and hoping whatever was happening would turn out well. Apparently, it wasn't all turning out well. In absolute horror, I stood up and grabbed the keys to her parents' car from the counter—mine was in the shop, and Tia Dalma had used the one I came in when she left.

"Come on Becca," I shouted, "we need to leave now!" I ran down the stairs, and as I opened the door to leave, I called back up, "Mrs. Anderson, I'm taking your car!" She was immediately at the top of the stairs, asking why as Becca joined me by the door. I grabbed Becca's hand and ran out, replying, "The lobster's killing Nori."

"What?" She asked, not understanding it at all, but Becca and I were gone.

Lionel stopped for a second, pulling Nori back to his knees and holding his face so Tia Dalma could clearly see it. "Look at his eyes, his pitiful eyes," he mocked, "begging, 'Why Tia? Please save me Tia.' Answer him Tia. Why won't you save him?"

She didn't reply; she hadn't even moved once. Lionel tossed Nori back on the floor and raised his cane to start again.

Finally, she spoke. "He cain't kill you in dis 'tate. You know dat don't you Nori?"

Nori closed his eyes in acceptance. So that was why she wouldn't help…Well it bloody well hurts enough! Still, he didn't say anything, always hoping there was at least a reason…

Lionel did react to that, saying, "Oh is that why you have no problem watching him suffer? Only his author can make him die. We'll see about that when I become his author." He brushed his cape to the side and quickly strode over to the computer he'd noticed earlier. Right there, open on the screen, was Nori's story that I had been working on when the doorbell first rang.

Nori had climbed to his hands and knees again, but quickly collapsed when Lionel deleted an entire paragraph of the novel. He moaned loudly and grabbed his head from the pain. Lionel mocked him, adding, "I could just kill you…type in, 'Then Nori died.' But it would be so much more fun to erase you," he deleted another random section, "little by little."

After Lionel deleted a whole page more, Nori begged, "Stop…please," still pressing against his pounding temples. It was the first thing he'd said and short at that. However, it clearly described everything he was feeling. For a second, Tia Dalma almost broke, but she quickly returned to her apathetic state. Dad gave her an angry look but wasn't too concerned with saving a fictional character himself.

Lionel just kept deleting. Nori watched his whole life flash before him, literally, at the speed of light. He suddenly remembered that van that hit his bike, and the two men who came out of it, holding him captive for three weeks. Everything before that was gone. Then, it instantly skipped to the end of the three weeks when the two men dumped him, unconscious, in a ditch somewhere. He got a second to remember calling his dad at a pay phone and giving his dad the two men's toothbrushes for evidence. It was only a second, though, before everything after the ditch was gone.

Even through all his pain, Nori could tell Lionel was looking for something in particular, which was confirmed when Lionel exclaimed, "Ah! There it is. 'Tis a shame you have such bad allergies."

That scared Nori. He knew exactly what Lionel had found and was not looking forward to reliving it. He couldn't express any of that fear, however; he didn't have the energy. Mumbling inaudibly to the floor, he opened his eyes and stared nervously into the carpet. That was the only thing he had the strength to do: wait worriedly. Lionel placed the cursor where he wanted Nori's memory to start, and the voice of the narrator replayed through Nori's head.

The drug didn't sit too well with Nori at all. But how were the two men to know he was deadly allergic to the main ingredient? It made him pass out like it should have, but he quickly started twitching, then flinging wildly and convulsing until he was in full blown seizures. They had no idea what to do. They were kidnappers, not doctors.

One of the two said, "I thought the pills were just supposed to make him sleep."

"They were," the other replied, "obviously it's not working right."

"Should we call 9-1-1?"

"No, you idiot. Do you want to be in jail?"

"No…but if he dies, won't we spend longer in prison?"

"He's not going to die, stupid. It's just a seizure…See, it's stopping already."

He was right. The seizures weakened, slowed, and then stopped. Nori lie there motionless, just as they wanted.

"Is he dead?" The stupid one asked.

The other one walked toward Nori to check his pulse, but he was so sure of the answer that he replied, "No, he's not dead!" before realizing that there really wasn't a pulse. He quickly corrected himself in shock, "He's dead."

That was ordinarily followed by the two men resuscitating Nori using CPR and an EKG, but Lionel stopped it there, deleting everything after, "He's dead." That would really leave Nori dead.

Becca and I burst through the door, and seeing Nori there on the floor, I rushed to his side calling, "Nori!" The usual bright colors of his hair and clothes had faded, and he was slightly transparent. I rolled him onto his back, and his body limply obeyed. Just like every anime character's face expresses everything, I could clearly tell from his that he was dead. I let out a heavy breath, trying not to cry.

"You're too late Miss," Lionel stated bluntly. "He's dead."

"No," I cried, grabbing Nori's shoulders and shaking. "Nori, you can't be dead."

Dad informed me, "Tiara, the computer! He hasn't saved it yet."

I ran to the computer as Lionel also got the hint and clicked on the File menu to save his changes. He hadn't quite pushed save when I hit Alt+F4 on the keyboard—the combination to exit a window. The little box popped up asking if we wanted to save changes, and before he could even read it, I arrowed over to "No," hit enter, and the window exited. It had saved none of the changes.

I looked over to Nori and sighed with relief. Though he was still unconscious, his normal color had returned to him. Lionel stood up in anger and turned to slap me with his hand. I ducked, covering my face. Dad started towards us, again trying to protect. Again Tia Dalma stopped him. Lionel didn't slap me, though. He chuckled, having come up with a better idea.

He stroked his moustache, thoughtfully mentioning, "You know, if you want Nori to live, I'll have to kill Tia Dalma. We had a deal."

I shrugged carelessly. She hadn't saved Nori; why should I save her?

Tia Dalma was almost instantly between us. "No, no, no," she countered with her normal, "everything is a joke" attitude, "da deal were: he die, I live. Voila, he die, so I live. Ne'er do it specify wha' 'appen af'er he die."

"No," Lionel explained, "the deal was save him or save yourself. If you really wanted to save yourself, you would have stopped her from saving him. So you either come with me, or you kill him…for good."

"No," I protested. I had backed away from the two of them and rejoined Nori. Now picking him up under his arms and holding him protectively against my chest, a couple of inches off the ground. His body hung limply in my arms as I stated, "Take Tia Dalma. She's who you came for in the first place. Do what you will, but don't you dare hurt Nori again."

He threw his hands in the air. "If that's what you wish…"

"It's what I wish," I insisted.

"Okay," Lionel finished, grabbing Tia Dalma's hand and disappearing into the computer with her.

I took Nori up to my room and laid him down in my bed. For a while, I just stared at him, admiring what I'd created and so sorry for everything he'd just gone through. It just didn't seem right to hurt someone like Nori, with his big, happy eyes. He was such a sweet boy, and he never did anything to hurt anyone else. Becca had followed me up the stairs, and she joined me in my room.

"I don't think anyone's going to believe we saw this," she noted.