Day Thirty Seven
*Chapter dedicated to the 100th Reviewer, Songbird341!

It's been four hours since she had woken up, bundled within his abandoned sweatshirt with a wet rag resting upon her damp forehead, in a cold sweat, and already she had wanted to go back to sleep.

The moment her eyes fluttered open, weakly and languidly as if she had no energy to do so, though she had been unconscious, or in a comatose like state for nearly two days now without any signs of awaking, the pain, though ostensibly appearing to be on 'vacation', surged through her like blazes of white hot agony sprouting from the tiny hole puncturing her torso. Those nimble fingers turned anything but in a matter of seconds, and were viciously and mercilessly ripping at her seams from her wound as if to get the job done quicker, but leaving her no pity. She awoke gasping for breath, her lungs, figuratively speaking, clawing for any source of oxygen it could – as though that alone could ease the pain coursing through noodle thin nerves – and she was in a strange place she had not remembered going to.

She was beneath the shade, a curtain and a veil of blue that resembled what appeared to have been tarp and her neck and head were elevated by something soft and feathery; but she did not have to look round (she couldn't if she desired anyway) to know what it was. It was something in which she hadn't seen in God knows how long, a pillow – a pillow. An object, or rather an appendage was firmly squeezing her hand, a vice and tracing circular patterns upon the back of her palm and when she weakly looked over, eyes squinted and breathing ample and short, a blurry figure came into view. But not just one, no this figure was not alone, it was two.

Jade and Tori.

"Wh-Tori?" Cat squeaked, her voice nothing but a whisper and try as she might, it was the highest octave in which it would go, and all energy to speak louder was nonexistent. "Where am I?"

"We've made it back to the camp, Rina." Answered Jade forlornly, and her hand clenched tighter around Cat's own, as if she was supporting her; something she remembered the latter did often by the time of Brent's ultimate, spontaneous death. She would have supposed she owed her, but by the looks of things, the feeling of those vigilant fingers now tearing at her threads (though now as her comatose state faded, much slower than before, but she had felt it like she was bearing the burden of the world upon her chest) without yield, there wasn't much that Cat could offer whatsoever.

"They said you passed out sometime the day before yesterday; you haven't woken up until now." Said Tori with a soft frown, adjusting the rag upon Cat's forehead. "Are you feeling okay? Are you in any pain? Do you feel any better?"

"Jesus Vega, calm down."

"Sorry I'm just nervous is all."

"You don't think I am too? You don't think I'm nervous for my best friend? Just shut up and let her breath, got it?" Jade snapped irritably, and from what Cat could see in the dim light of the tent she was in, the latter was glaring furiously at the Latina at her side, and she could not help but allow for a small grin to tug at the corners of her lips, though it had expeditiously disappeared as quickly as it had came. She was finally back.

"I've…I've missed that. You two…arguing all the time." She giggled weakly, desiring nothing more than to curl up upon her side, though the spasmodic inclination caused the surges of malady to duplicate and she clutched at her stomach, an expression of throe etched across pretty, yet sullen and damp dimpled features. She frowned and glanced directly at the ceiling of the veiled tarp hanging about the tent, protecting them, shielding them from the cold (or what she had assumed; by gazing near the nooks and crannies of the hut she could vaguely see the night's aurora seeping through) on the exterior. "Pазве я умираю?" She murmured, thoroughly unaware of using her native tongue.

"What?" Asked Tori with a blink, sounding just as confused as Jade, judged by the furrowed brow, appeared.

"Am I dying?" She repeated, lips barely faltering and her voice fairing just above the lowest whisper she had ever heard, and she was beginning to fear, because it hurt to breathe only one could imagine what it was like to talk, she'd have to echo herself once again.

"Of course you aren't Rina, don't say shit like that" Snapped Jade, albeit the worry was clear in her voice, so foreign and unusual but at the same time, so recently used that Cat felt as if she had heard it a hundred times. Maybe she had over the course of their friendship, or maybe she was just hallucinating again, hearing things that were to be overlooked far too much, and maybe Jade hadn't had an ounce of concern lacing her words at all.

"Please don't…don't lie," She managed out, deeply inhaling proximately afterward, "I can feel it, Jadey. It's like…like what I said at the car crash…it's cold and –"

"Come on, Cat, you can't talk like that! Don't talk like that, please, you're really scaring me!" Whimpered Tori, tears already cascading down perfect, pointy and slightly flushed cheekbones. Unable to take it, Cat allowed for her eyes to close.

She, especially in her unstable mentality, was never one that had liked to see her friends, her emotionally strong and enduring so vulnerable and helpless, or even sad at all. She wasn't quite sure who in their right mind enjoyed seeing their companions, people they grew to love, in such a state of sorrow; and lately, rather unfortunately at that, she had been witnessing it quite a lot. If she could, if she had the strength to do so, she would reach out to the pair of girls resting at her bedside (blanket-side rather) and tell them that everything would be okay and things would get better. Cat hadn't consciously realized she actually muttered those things, until one of the two begun to speak again.

Jade gently swiped a strand of partially mottled brunette hair from the petite girl's forehead, caressing her feverishly hot cheek for a moment before reluctantly pulling away. "You don't truly believe that, do you?"

"I-I'll only believe it" She said, wincing slightly as she spoke, "i-if you do" and with heavy-lidded eyes she glanced over at her two friends, one whom she considered her sister and the other someone she could always rely on as a good friend, maybe even one of her best. Salty tears were visible on both faces, and Cat was surprised Jade was openly weeping. And although she had wanted her other friends to be here with her, at her side when she passed, the two of them were good enough for now. At least, she thought, she was not dying alone.

"There's…a, a note for y-you in my sweatshirt po-pocket, Jadey" She whispered, breaths coming in soft hitches as she turned to Tori, feeling slightly bad she had not done the same for the other girl, "tell them all…tell them all I said b-bye"

"No, no Cat that really won't be necessary because you're going to okay. Right Jade? You're going to be perfectly fine!"

All Cat did, was stare at the familiar dome of the hut towering above.

I linger in the doorway
Of alarm clock screaming
Monsters calling my name
Let me stay
Where the wind will whisper to me
Where the raindrops, as they're falling, tell a story

"Ah, hello there."

Her head snapped up from her hands, her large doe brown eyes widening as she stared at the one who had spoken. Standing before her was a tall, lean boy looking no older than eighteen years old. He was boyishly handsome but with an edge to his features that made her slightly nervous, and he was wearing dark colors just as Jade always did. His appearance didn't seem to suit his voice, as from what she could tell his Australian accent was smooth and collected and a harmony to her ears.

"Hi! I'm Cat! Like the animal!" She giggled, feeling a blush creep up to her cheeks; her nerves completely gone. "You're um, Brent right?"

"Yes, my name's Brent" He answered her, opening the door wider for her to step in. She gratefully obliged, hugging herself as she slid passed him and into the familiar house she had set foot in many times over the years.

"It's so nice to finally meet you!" Cat said with a bright smile, sticking her gloved hand out. It was odd, for he didn't seem like the kind of guy that could bear a juvenile record…Perhaps it was just Jade joking.

Brent took her hand with his own callous appendage firmly, and with a crooked smile he answered: "Pleasure is all mine."

In my field of paper flowers
And candy clouds of lullaby (flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours
And watch my purple sky fly over me (flowers)

"Cat, you know that I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you like that!" Tori explained with a sigh, seated within the living room of her own house with Cat beside her; it was the first time since she had punched the Latina in the nose that they were talking about the incident with Danny again. Cat needed closure. "I'm so, so sorry you have no idea"

"I do know that, I just need to know why you were mean to me" She frowned, her voice nothing but a squeak. "I forgive you, Tor."

"Do you mean that?" Asked the other girl, the frown still creasing her lips, lower lip trembling slightly and jutted out. "I was just…I don't know, really, really confused. Seeing him happy with someone else, I guess…I guess I was a little jealous and if you want to punch me in the face again then feel free!" She put her hands up, level to her shoulders as if she was surrendering and submitting, yet at the same time, showing no resistance.

Cat frowned and scooted closer to her friend, who visibly cringed as though she was expecting to be clubbed, but rather doing what the other, much taller girl had offered she reached in for a hug and gathered the Latina into her arms. "Come on, I wanna give Tori a squeeze" She mimicked the other girl's catch phrase, who gratefully embraced her in return; the two enveloping one another tightly, and though not everything was forgotten, she pretended for this moment that nothing materialized at all and buried her face into a scrawny and bony shoulder while Tori rested her chin upon her own.

"Now what's that supposed to mean?" Asked the Latina, and before she knew it, the pair of them were in a fit of simultaneous and abrupt giggles.

"Just promise me that you won't kiss my next boyfriend, kay?"

"Cross my heart!" Tori said, chuckling in her ear and pulling away from the sisterly embrace. "Want some Freezy Queen?"

"Yay, I love Freezy Queen!"

Don't say I'm out of touch
With this rampant chaos - your reality
I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge
The nightmare I built my own world to escape

"My dad's gonna kill me…" Cat mumbled, taking a sharp intake of air as she squirmed slightly.

"Don't worry about that, okay? You'll be fine" Jade hugged her closer, careful not to pain her anymore, though she wasn't quite sure of what had been hurt.

"I feel weird…Tingly, cold" The other girl said.

"What?" She asked sharply; but Cat did not reply anything comprehendible.

Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
Cannot cease for the fear of silent nights
Oh, how I long for the deep sleep dreaming
The goddess of imaginary light

And then suddenly, from the corner of her eye a figure morphed beside Tori and Jade albeit neither girl glanced over in bewilderment, instead, kept their focus upon her and her alone. Her heart fluttered weakly, thumping much less actively and slower than it had been previously; cold was seeping from her fingertips, up her arms and into her chest, and she shivered. "Come on, Kitty," Said Brent with a trifling simper stretching his lips as he spoke and reached out to rest a hand upon her shoulder blade, though in reality, nothing was there, "it's time to go. You've kept me waiting, you did."

Cat took her last breath with the ghost of her grin fading from her face and her fingers weakly squeezing Jade's hand, and then, everything was black.

Meanwhile

Standing near the border of the woodland with his two friends flanking either side of him, Beck stood rooted in his place, his back turned toward the fire they had made. It was an eerily chilly night, and so the bonfire was at an ultimate large, consuming logs within the fire pit that he hadn't even known they had – but anybody he estimated, could have seen that from miles, in which was exactly why he and the other boys had decided to take guard. He knew the other's didn't know how to aim or shoot a gun, and if he was honest, neither did he, but he already had an experience in the forest with it, in which he would rather not recall on some occasions, and he was successful.

He had already shot someone. He had done it in the forest just several nights before; another one of Vincent's men had managed to catch up to them, gun at the ready and pointed directly at an unexpecting Jade, who had her back turned in order to help Cat with something he didn't bother to remember. Beck had done the first thing that had came to his racing, panicking mind, and before he knew it he had grabbed his own portable weapon from the back of his pants and his finger prodded at the trigger, a resounding, thundering clap echoing as the bullet escaped it's prison and embedded itself into the other man. Once, twice, three times, just for extra measure. Both girls had been startled, and he, unable to believe he had just killed another man without mercy, dropped his rifle to the ground, refusing to believe that he was a murderer.

Beck knew that he was protecting everyone upon the shore, as well as the two other boys at their side, and in this case he would be more than happy to do it once again. He wanted Cat, Trina and Tori, and most of all, Jade, in a safe environment, and hadn't wanted to bring any of the drama from the forest to the shore along with him and the two girls within the tents.

With a sigh, he ran his free hand over his brow and lowered himself upon the ground, cross legged. He had no idea how long he had been standing up, but it had felt like a millennia, and especially for him, who hadn't gotten enough sleep as it is. For the past three days he had stayed up all night, watching and guarding – the night beforehand was the only time he had been able to fall into slumber for more than thirty minutes, but, tossing and turning feverishly was Jade at his side, and with his thoughts jumbled and out of control, he was sure he had only gotten some shut eye for a good three, or maybe two, hours at the very most. And he could not deny that he was exhausted, and in need of sleep as soon as he possibly could.

"Did you hear that, man?" Beck questioned, his fist clenching tighter around the gun at his side and his finger barely grazing the trigger as a loud clap sounded the air. His gaze lingered upon the woodland, the one in which the three boys were watching, full of caution and curiosity – he made sure the weapon was loaded, just in case he was going to be in need of it.

"Yeah, yeah I did. Think it's one of those crazy folks you told me about?" Andre glanced over with a raised brow, hands finding his own weaponry.

All he did was nod; he needed to focus, because if anyone was out there, that meant the girls (two weak and the other two vulnerable) were in danger, and that was not okay.

"Uh, man?" Andre begun, stuttering upon his words and his gaze focused upon the distance within the sky, his jaw agape. Robbie was doing the exact thing to his right, weapon thoroughly abandoned. "I don't think that was a gunshot" he said.

Confused, dark brown eyes followed in the direction in which their own were staring, and he too, transfixed upon the sight before him, dropped his gun to the ground with a soft thump beside his combat boots. In the air, hovering some hundred feet away, was a helicopter. And it was coming straight toward them.

A clear ten minutes later, after the boys and Trina, who had emerged from her slumber and out into the night rushed about the shore with their hands flailing wildly in the air, the aircraft landed some feet away upon the shore, it's rapidly spinning blades slowing gradually as it had landed. An unbelievable sense of relief washed over Beck that for a moment he had felt lightheaded and almost toppled directly to the earth beneath him; upon his face was a smile stretching so wide his chapping lips could have very well split, and a laugh escaped his throat. He could not believe what was happening; surely he had to be dreaming. Because it couldn't be possible that after all these days of waiting, of torture, rescue was finally here?

Not just any rescue squad, he realized as the door to the plane had opened, and out stepped a baffled Mr. Vega, Sikowitz, and his own father.

How had they found them?

And then, Jade stormed from the tent she had been in with Tori and Cat, tears streaming down her cheeks like waterfalls, oblivious to anything around her and in a movement so swift she grabbed Beck's gun from the ground, marching off and into the forest. He hardly had time to register what the search party was saying to them, because he, more concerned about the well being of the love of his life, took off without a moments to waste. He couldn't believe rescue was here, yes, but now he couldn't believe what Jade was doing; gallivanting off in the middle of the night with his gun, sobbing?

"Jade! Hey, where are you going? Rescue's here, we're saved, everything's okay!" He called out to her, grabbing her arm and spinning her round the moment he caught up.

"Fuck rescue!" She spat at him, pushing him away from her, her voice thick with her tears, in which were still rapidly cascading down her porcelain, pale cheeks. "Cat's dead, Beck. Dead"

The color from his face vanished completely, and he stumbled back a step, eyes wide. "No, she can't be dead? She can't, because rescue is here and they're going to take her to a hospital right away, okay? Everything's alright" He told her with a shake of his head, trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince her.

"She is! And she's my best friend Beck! And she's gone! She's dead! Brent's dead! How the fuck can you say that everything's going to be okay when it's not? I'm never going to see them again! They're never coming back! And I'm going to kill him!" Jade screamed at him, her voice straining and thick with her sobs. He had no other choice but to believe her now; she wouldn't pull such a stunt without a legitimate reason. She gestured to the gun within her hands, as if she needed to display him some sort of proof of her actions. "I swear I will kill him!"

"Who, Jade? Big shot Vincent?" Beck asked, attempting to grab a hold of her arms, but for a sickly person, she was much too quick and moved aside. "You can't go after him, it's too dangerous! You can get hurt, or killed!"

"That doesn't matter. Nothing does. I've got nothing left anymore!"

"You have me! Doesn't that fucking count?"

Before she was able to respond, plush lips parted as a retort lingered upon the tip of her tongue, two other voices could be heard from somewhere behind him. Instinctively, he glanced over his shoulder – the physiques of his own father and Mr. Vega clear in view. "Hey! You two, come on, we're getting you guys out of this place!" Called Mr. Vega, gesticulating with his hands up in the air, as if beckoning them over.

"Just a minute!" Beck answered them, and turned back around to face his girlfriend…only to stare at nothing but her half of their matching necklaces loosely hanging from a stout, petite branch upon the nearest tree.

And as he panicked, screaming his loves title in vain, she lurked off within the forest with the gun that had accentually killed her brother tucked tightly in the back of her pants, moving as quickly as she possibly could. She stumbled over her own feet once, twice, and often had to brace herself upon the bark of a tree as the grief, the sorrow overwhelmed her and wracked her physique with quiet sobs. However, she attempted to quiet herself when movement was heard from beside her, and jumped feverishly as a hand clamped down upon her shoulder. Jade spun around on her heels, reaching for the gun, but stopping when the face of her comrade came into view.

"If you're going, Jade…I'm coming with you."

So, as you can see, she didn't take it away! Hoorah.

Anywho, hope the ending wasn't too rushed for you guys. And also…

Thank you all for your input! (: It made my decision a lot easier…though admittedly, it was difficult killing poor Cat off ;-;. I tried to make her death at least a bit, I dunno, dramatic? I felt that since I was going to actually kill her, then I should give her a better death than Brent's and like, almost an entire chapter dedicated specifically to it. The song, I thought, suit my interpretation of Cat very well…By the way: I read on one fanfiction story, I don't remember which story, but it said that sometimes death of a character makes things better, more angsty. I hope that's the case O.o. As I said before, this story is coming to a close pretty quick after I get a few things out of the way, so expect the last in the next couple chapters (3 or 4, give or take a few, not including the epilogue).

OH! When I was scrolling down one of my Victorious tags on tumblr, I happen to see:

The best Victorious fanfiction I've found yet.

The gang gets stranded on an island, due to a plane crash.

It's a bit sinister, but it has excellent Bade, Cade friendship, and in depth image of Cat, Cat/OC, Tribbie, Tandre, and overall goodness. (;

She's still updating, on a daily basis. And I read this whole thing in like an hour…

By a "–bade."

I cannot say how excited I was omg. I think I was actually dying. So whoever you are, I love you and you seriously made my day! (: If you're one of my reviewers, let me know, and the next chapter will be dedicated specifically to you! It's the least I can do~ And people, if you have a tumblr, follow this person! :D

Well, it's that time again. Review away my lovelies! Try not to make me feel too bad about what I decided. And who do you think is gallivanting off with Jade this time (even though rescue is like, right there…)? Just a few more chapters to go!

Much, much love –x10000- to all of you darlings s2!

(No preview this time, it'll give everything away!)