Esther and Barbarino were gone, and Riccio and Mosca had moved out. It was just Scipio, Prosper, Hornet, Bo and I left in Ida's house—with Victor and Ida, of course. It was just another night at Ida's house, and we were all sitting at the dinner table.

Suddenly, Scipio looked around. "Where's Shasta?" he asked. I looked under the table, but he wasn't there.

"There he is!" Ida jumped up, looking out the window. Sure enough, Shasta was outside, jumping around in puddles.

"Hey, Shasta, come here!" I called, running out the door. But he barked and bounced away, wagging his tail and having a happy-dog time.

The others followed me, chasing Shasta through the city. I followed him around a corner—and stopped. Shasta was bouncing and jumping onto someone who looked a lot like me.

"Shasta! Down, down!" the girl laughed as Shasta licked her face.

"Shasta, down," I said to help her. Shasta looked over and sat down, giving me a comical face.

The girl sat up and looked at me. We stared at each other for a moment, and then she spoke, "Rae, it's time to go home."

I blinked.

"You've done what you've needed to do—you changed the story. And now it's time to go." The conversation that followed was pretty confusing (for example, we went into detail about my alternate universe thing, as well as 'Author Pens'), so I'll just skip it. In the end, all that mattered were the tickets.

She held out a few pieces of paper, and put them in my hand. "Here are the tickets—take the train home," she said.

"Wait a minute," I murmured, looking down at my hand. "There are only two here…"

"Yes, one's for Scipio. You're taking him with you."

"What about the others?" I asked quickly.

"That's what emails and phone numbers are for," she said as though it were obvious. "The train leaves tomorrow morning. Don't be late."

"How do I know I can trust you?" I asked, stuffing the tickets in my pocket.

She ignored that. "Scipio's father won't give up on him. The safest thing for Scipio to do is to get away from here. And you want to be together, so I figured you'd want him to come with you," she said.

"I do! But he'd need to go to school, and Mom and Dad wouldn't just let some strange kid stay—"

"Rae," she said sharply. "Don't worry. It'll all turn out fine." She looked up over my shoulder, and I turned to see the others coming around the corner. I whipped around, ready to tell the girl to—

But she wasn't there.

The next morning, Victor, Ida, Scipio, Bo, Hornet, Prosper, and I were standing on the train platform. Shasta was on a leash (a fact which he was not happy with) and Scipio was standing between two suitcases. They were both his—I only had a backpack.

Bo was nearly in tears, and Hornet was holding his hand. Prosper was holding her hand (surprise surprise!) and saying goodbye to us. I'm not ashamed to say that I was tearing up a bit; even though we had traded phone numbers, Prosper and Hornet gotten emails, and such. Scipio looked rather distant as he stared out in the direction of the city.

The others said goodbye and left (Bo giving Shasta one last hug, and then giving his Thief Lord a squeeze)—they had to go get breakfast before all of them collapsed. So Scipio and I were left standing, alone, on the platform.

"I can't believe that we're leaving," he murmured, sitting down on his suitcase. I nodded and sat down next to him. We sat in silence for a while, listening to the rain falling outside of the little stop we were sitting under. "How are we going to do this?" he asked finally. "I mean, I have to go to school, and then I don't think your parents are going to just let me stay…" He looked up at me.

"Don't worry," I said as the train whistle blew in the distance. "It'll all turn out fine."

Just as the train was pulling away from the station, a black car drew up. Out shot Scipio's father, and the woman who I'd seen in the picture by Scipio's bedside. Scipio had been looking the other way, but the shout of "Scipio!" brought his gaze to the window. His eyes widened and he jumped up, throwing the window open. "Scipio, come back!" His mother screamed. I stood, catching Scipio before he fell out of the train.

"Mom," he whispered. "MOM! I'm sorry!" he shouted over the piercing whistle. "Goodbye, Mom! Dad!"

The Dottor saw me, and his eyes narrowed. I couldn't hear him, but the look on his face was enough. How dare you take away my son?

I sat down.

Scipio stood by the window for a long time after the station disappeared. I think I fell asleep at one point, because the next thing I knew I was being shaken awake. Scipio had his hand on my shoulder. I looked up into his face, and I saw that his eyes were slightly red. "I think this is our stop," he said, nodding out the window.

I looked outside and I swear, my eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

Zooming by my window was a familiar city. Up ahead in the rainy night I could see the train station that was closest to my house. "She was right," I breathed. The lights in the train turned on, and I saw Scipio's face. He was looking around at the city that was slowly coming to a stop in front of him, taking it all in silently. His face showed no emotion, so I couldn't tell what he thought.

As we stepped off the train, I asked him what he was thinking.

He was silent for a moment, and then he smiled. "'S long as you're here, I think I can deal," he said.

I grinned in reply and shouldered my backpack, picking up one of his suitcases. "Come on, let's go home."

We managed to sneak back into my house without anyone noticing—Shasta went directly to his food bowl in the kitchen—and we crept towards my room. I still had no clue what I'd say to my parents (my sisters would absolutely love Scipio. He'd be giving them a weapon to tease me with, so of course they'd be happy. My parents, though…).

I was just opening my door when the computer began to glow. It hummed, growing brighter and brighter. There was a figure lying on my bed—and I realized that it was me, and Shasta, too. The Shasta on the bed growled at the computer, and then with a flash the room was empty except for the present me, and Scipio.

Scipio was rubbing his eyes, blinking away the spots in his vision. "Was that how--?" he whispered. I nodded and pulled him into my room, closing the door.

I locked it, and then flopped onto my bed, inhaling the smell of my room and letting myself relax for the first real time in a while.

"It'll all work out," I said to myself as Scipio lay down beside me.

And so it did.

Fin