So here it is: the beginning of the end.

There will be an alternate ending, which will be happy, so if you want to see a happy one, keep your eyes out for that one.

Id you don't want to read a happy one and are content with this one, then you don't have to read the alternate.

I'm really excited though. It's nearly over. Wow... and when it ends... what next?

New vocaloid story or something else?

I can do both... well, one step at a time I guess.

Enjoy~!

Chapter 16 –

Fay looks away then, pulling her hand out of his, as she looks down at her legs. "There is no next step." She says.

He looks at her in shock, stumbling for words, as she continues.

"I'm beyond saving now."

"But… what do you mean beyond saving?"

Fay looks at him before standing. Even in the dim light, the shadow of the cage covering her, he could still make out the dim outline of fawn-like legs. He squints before standing up and pulling off a lamp that was hanging near the tent entrance. Bringing it closer to her, he looks to see that his first thought was indeed correct.

Her human legs had been amputated from mid thigh down and replaced with fawn legs, the odd curve and hoof making it hard for the girl to stand. She looks down sadly as he notices a horn protruding from the left side of her head, having been sewn onto her skull.

He looks away, the sight disturbing him, before returning his gaze back to her.

This was what would have happened to her all those years ago if Slate hadn't come and warned them of Mr. Peak's plan.

"Marita…" he whispers before noticing how she cringes at the name.

"All these different names," she says. "I want to have only one name to go by, not all these other names, wether false or real." She sighs as she sits down. "I'm Marita to you, Angel to the others, Fay to anyone else that I've met. Why can't I just have one name?"

"You're birth name is Marita, that's why I call you that." Aaron replies. "Just because you remember now, though, doesn't mean your name has to change."

"Then I'll stay as Fay." She says. "Besides, I don't want to be Angel; I was never her to begin with. And I am no longer Marita; I'm someone new, with new memories, whether false or real." She sighs before fiddling with a ribbon that was tied around her new horn. "You can't save us, I know that now. We're trapped now. But you can save that other people from this circus. You could save Lucy, I'm sure she would be excited to see you again."

"Lucy? You mean Lucinda? She's still not a stuttering mess, is she?"

"She used to stutter?"

"When she was younger; yes. Why, don't you remember?"

"I never met her when she was younger, so no; I don't remember."

Silence follows then as sounds from outside the tent could be heard. Aaron stands, a little puzzled, as he takes a quick peak outside. He turns back to his sister, his face grim, as he looks back out the tent flap.

"What?" Fay asks. "What is it? What's going on out there?"

"It's people." He replies. "People coming in from the town to see the circus." He looks down at her before walking to the cage, looking around for a key.

"I told you, I can't escape." She says as he walks around the whole tent, not finding a single useful thing.

He bends down to eye level with her as he looks grimly at her. "I'm not losing you again. This is the third time I've lost you now, and that's three times too many for my liking."

Fay frowns as she thinks over how many times he had lost her. First time was the hospital and the second time was when she escaped Koo Island to reach the circus with everyone else. But the third time…?

"Damn it!" Aaron yells as he hits the bars with his fists. The sound rings though the tent as he leans on the cage.

Fay stands and, though the bars, hugs him.

The tent flaps open up at that moment, two men walking in to see the sight. Aaron turns to face them as Fay looks away, wanting to enjoy her last moment with her brother. One of them smirks as they tap the cage with a wooden club, the other indicating for someone to enter.

Viv and Nick walk into the tent, a little nervous and confused as to why they should enter.

Upon seeing Fay, their faces brighten up briefly before dropping into a horror filled expression. They notice the teen's legs, and the horn upon her head. Then their eyes travel to the man standing beside her cage, to the figure that she had just been hugging.

Dr. Aaron Slur looks to the men in anger, looking past the baffled looks of the twins, as he hears a rustling behind him. He turns around to see more men entering though a back entrance to the tent, soon followed by Mr. Peak.

The ringmaster grins at them. "What do you think, boy?" he asks. "What do you think of my newest attraction?"

"I find it disgusting." He replies harshly, receiving a surprised gasp from Viv.

Fay beckons the twins forward as she bends down low to explain as quietly and quickly as she could. But she was interrupted by the guy with the stick as he bangs it against the metal cage bars. She looks up at him, his grin shining down at her, as she turns to look back at Mr. Peak and Aaron.

Mr. Peak's smile fades momentarily before returning. "Ah, oh well. I let you keep her for all those years when those two traitors that allowed you both to escape." He says. "And I knew that one day you both would return to me."

"Wait, you knew they were going to let us escape?" Fay asks in surprise.

Mr. Peak looks at her in surprise as he turns to Aaron. "What's this? First she was Marita, then she was Fay, now she's Marita again?" he laughs before turning his gaze to the teen. "So, does that mean you have your memories back?" he asks.

"What if it does?" She asks as both twins look at her in confusion. "It still doesn't change the fact that you knew Slate and Lucy, well Lucinda, were going to help us escape!"

"Ah! Slate, yes, he was a good doctor. Helped with some of the later experimentations too. But the fool couldn't stomach what this circus was about, let his emotions run wild. That's how Shan escaped. But I must commend you on the work you did on young Viv and Nick. I don't know how you did it, but beheading someone and then reattaching their head onto a new body is hard to do."

"Actually," Aaron says. "That was all Marita's doing." He points to Fay as she stands with pride. "All of this was her idea and plan."

"So I have been congratulating the wrong sibling?" Mr. Peak asks. "May I ask, then, how you did it?"

"If I did tell you," Fay replies. "Then what would you do with that knowledge? Create more twisted experiments?"

"Hmmm, maybe, maybe not. It all depends on what you say."

Fay looks down, before turning to the twins. She could see Nick had no idea what was going on, but Viv looked like she was beginning to understand some of the situation. It seemed that her memories were returning to her, just like Fay's had. The only problem was; it was coming back too late.

"Fine, I'll tell you, on one condition though:" She says. "You let my brother go."

"Marita!" Aaron calls but is stopped by the men at the door grabbing him. He looks over his shoulder at the men as he struggles to break free. When that amounts to nothing, he then returns his gaze to his sister as she looks at him, before shaking her head. He understood and kept quiet.

Mr. Peak seems to mull this over for a little bit before nodding his head. "Very well, I can deal with that. Now tell me your little secret."

"Since I am an adapter," Fay begins to explain. "I can adapt to any kind of mental and physical changes to my eternal or internal surroundings. This also includes my DNA, my genetic coding. For someone who isn't an adapter, changing their genetic coding can result in death, on most cases, or the splicing not ending in a successful result. To add a new gene to someone, you have to splice the original gene then add the new component. For anyone, that procedure would result in death.

What I got Aaron and Slate to do was to take sample of my DNA to be used for splicing. With Viv and Nick, we altered their genetic coding so that they would live an extra ten minutes longer after a beheading, for both body and head. But just splicing their genes alone would have resulted in failure, and if this test had been conducted, their death. But by adding my gene to their own coding, it enabled them to live without their heads for a little over fifteen minutes, if everything went as planned.

With me, I spliced my genetic coding with my brother's gene that enables him to smell rotting fish whenever he sees the colour blue. With that, the result was a little different to what we had expected; whenever I see blue I taste peppermint, but don't smell rotting fish. We spliced everyone's DNA, before you ask. And I refuse to tell you the results of their splicing."

Mr. Peak looks at her with admiration before clapping his hands together. Aaron looks at her with worry as Nick begins to understand what his sister was saying earlier. She was saying how this was all Marita Young's fault. But why was Fay being called Marita? Nick thinks. Unless… she couldn't be… could she?

Your starting to get it now, aren't you? Viv comments.

Fay looks over her shoulder to the twins as they stare at her in horror. She didn't want to be someone they hated, but she didn't want to lie to them either. She returns her attention back to the ringmaster, the man grinning with glee. "Now will you let Aaron go?" She asks.

Mr. Peak grins at her. "I think he may be a fine addition to our collection." He says. "Don't you agree?"

Fay gaps at him in horror as Aaron struggles against the men again. "You made a deal." He shouts at the small man.

"Yes, but deals are made to be broken." Mr. Peak replies as the two men carry the doctor away. Fay watches him go, a sinking feeling wheeling up in her gut, as she realizes that it was all her fault. If she hadn't have given Mr. Peak the information, then he might have been safe.

"Now now, Marita." Mr. Peak says as he walks towards the cage. "I was never going to let Aaron go, no matter what you said. Put your mind at ease; at least you can say you tried." He laughs at this before leaving the tent.

Fay looks up at Viv and Nick to receive the very looks she had expected from them:

Viv was a look of sadness, one of shame and confusion. Her eyes were asking 'why?' as tears began to trickle down her face.

Nick was a look quiet similar to that of hatred. He was angry, upset and felt betrayed by what he had just heard. One of the people he trusted most ended up being the cause of his, and everyone else's suffering.

Even if Fay did try to explain the reasons behind the experimentation, the hate would still be there. She didn't want them to find out so soon, not like this anyway. She wanted them to find out when they were free, and where Slate was so that he could reverse the effects that she had ordered onto them.

"Viv… Nick…" She begins before looking down. She didn't know where to start, but she thought an apology would be best. "I'm-"

"Save it." Nick says harshly. "I don't want an apology from someone I don't even know." He and his sister leave the tent and its lonesome occupant alone.

She smiles sadly down at herself as she wipes a stray tear from her eyes.

She looks up to the tent's roof as she begins to hum to herself, her tears now flowing freely from her eyes. "Down by the river, she waited all alone. Waiting for a lone wolf, to come and help her out.
Soon the sun will fall, and the moon begins to rise. A time where people wait, and a time when people cry."

She now remembers where that song came from, why she and Viv knew it so well, along with everyone else.

She had sung that to everyone when they came to that abandoned asylum, the place she namedKooIsland.

And before she sung it to them, the person who had sung it to her every night to help her sleep was someone very dear and special to her.

Her mother had sung that, every night when she was young, to help her sleep.