Just as Noodle looked 2D in the eye bravely and opened her mouth to speak, the Engineer resumed making his awful clanging sound. "D'you wanna go somewhere less quiet?" asked 2D, "I know jus the place." Noodle nodded.

2D stood up. "Y'know I could carry ya there if your legs are still feelin' wobbly. You awright to walk?"

"No," Noodle lied. "Well go on, then!" grinned 2D as he offered her his back. Noodle climbed on and the two started to head for the door.

Noodle suddenly tugged on his shirt. "Wait, are we going outside?" she asked worriedly. "Yer, I've got a secret spot out there Where Murdoc can't find me sometimes. Lovely little place." said 2D.

"Just a minute," said Noodle. She hopped off his back and briskly walked over to the area where her cat mask lay on the floor. "I f'ought you said you couldn't walk," remarked 2D cluelessly. Noodle put on her mask before he could see her blush.

After a short walk around the pink, oil slicked island, 2D led Noodle to his shoreline refuge. 2D awkwardly removed his shirt and leaned against a palm tree. "I sneak off here sometimes after Murdoc makes me record fings. I like to look at the sea"

Noodle set her ragged clothes aside so she could lounge around in her bikini underneath. She lay out a simple beach towel and poised herself upon it. The cat mask still remained on her face, which 2D could have sworn he saw somewhere. "Does the sea soothe you?" asked Noodle.

2D nodded. "Yer. Makes me forget for a while that I'm cooped up in this place. Reminds me that there's still something more out there. You forget that a lot in this place."

"You forget freedom," said Noodle softly. She watched a seaplane flying in the distance, reminding her of an island of her own.

2D looked at Noodle, knowing what she was thinking. "Wot happened...on that day?" he asked carefully.

Noodle kept her gaze towards the sea. "I wanted to get away for a while. After the Apollo show, I started feeling like I did before we all did Demon Days. The fame, the constant rush, Murdoc...it all got to much. I talked to Russel and he helped me plan a little getaway to The Maldives. We loaded up the windmill island, and I was off."

"As soon as I was in the sky, I knew this was the right decision to make. For the first time in so long, I felt free. I lay in the grass and flowers, watching the butterflies flitter by that had come to ride along on my beautiful island."

"As I began to watch the sun set, I saw two black specs in the distance." "Helicopters..." murmured 2D. Noodle nodded. "They hovered over the island. At first I thought Murdoc hired them to bring me back to Kong Studios...but then they started to shoot." 2D shivered.

"I ran inside the windmill. I felt so helpless. All I could do was watch the island die. I saw the burning sail of the windmill still slowly turning in vain, as if it had the will to live. It was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen in my life."

"I stayed on the island for as long as possible before I had to jump. The fire was engulfing the windmill, and I was getting burned badly on my face. As the windmill started to plummet, I grabbed the parachute and jumped."

"I wept as I floated through the air." She paused. "I've never told anybody what happened after this. Please keep what I'm about to say a secret, 2D." 2D nodded violently, nearly giving himself whiplash.

"Through my tears I saw this black cloud in the sky. It expanded rapidly, and I knew this was not a natural occurence. " She clenched her fists in her lap. "The black smoke began to swirl, and it condensed into...a cloak," her voice shook. "Out of the top of the cloak I saw a gas mask, like the helicopter pilots were wearing, except it had a long, spindly nose. The entitiy darted past me, slashing my parachute with its claw-like hands." 2D's eyes were now as wide as saucers and his hands grasped his face in terror.

"I began to plummet like my island. Before I hit the ground, he appeared again below me. He came out of the ground like smoke and opened up his black cloak with his arms. Then I... fell in."

"You wot?" yelped 2D. "It was like an abyss. I could feel my self falling through the dark for hours. I was wondering if that was what it was like to be dead. But then the side of my face hit a cold, hard surface." She smacked her hands together to describe the force of the impact.

"I had never felt so much pain. The side of my face instantly swelled, and I should have died. But I didn't. It was as if I were already dead."

"I couldn't keep track of how long I stayed in that place. I couldn't see anything. The only thing that reminded me that I existed was when the creature captured someone else, and I saw the light from the outside world. Then it hit me. The passwords. I remembered the codes Mr. Kyuzo gave me that I kept in my front pocket at all times. From that light, I read the password."

"The next thing I remembered, I was washed up on a shore in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't remember the password or anything. I felt for the papers in my pocket, but to my distress, they were gone. An old mariner recognized me and helped me. He took me in for a while while I grew adjusted to life out of the darkness. I had been in there, I realized, for about four years."

"I stayed for almost a year at the Mariner's house recovering before he let me borrow his boat to go to Plastic Beach. But my wound from my fall into the abyss never healed. It was as if I had gotten it yesterday. My burns from the El Manaña incident healed, but never the swollen bruise and my reddened eye."

"Do you know those Greek myths about how a hero eats fruit in the underworld and has to stay there forever? I don't know what that place was, but I think it's a similar concept with my wounds I got there. I don't think they're ever going away."

She finally broke her gaze out at the sea to look at 2D. To his surprise, tears were pouring from his eyes. "I'm so sorry..I'm so sorry..I woulda given anything to help you, love..." His face suddenly contorted into rage. "I'm gonna find that fing and beat the living-"

"2D," Noodle whispered as she got up and walked towards him. When she embraced him she noticed that he was shaking slightly.

"There was nothing you could have done. Wherever I was, I was not anywhere in this dimension. We were together in our thoughts, and that's all we could do." she said, stroking his blue hair. "You f'ought bout me?" "That's how I kept sane," said Noodle. 2D grinned. "Ditto."

Noodle pulled away from their embrace suddenly. "Becuase I wasn't going away forever without telling you that I love you."