Chapter 9: Dream Tears and Forgiveness

Kate's Pov:

After the terrifying and painful episode I had with Nos, I cried my eyes out as I layed against the cold wall of No-4-A2's domain of horror. As I cried I prayed to God to send me some kind of salvation from this living nightmare. The Rangers, XR, anything! Heck if my dad came to the rescue I'd be over the moon with joy. I cried even harder at that thought. Just seeing him again would be a miracle. To hug him tight and tell him how much I missed him and how sorry I was for making him worry sick about me. The very thought of how worried and scared he might be for my well being made me feel awful. The idea of him hearing the news of my disappearance made me want to vomit. Eventually I cried myself to sleep and had a dream that I still remember to this day.

"Kate?!" "Dad?!" I said as I suddenly look up with hope.

I opened my eyes and suddenly found myself in what looked like a bright, sunny desert full of mesquite trees as well as saguaro, pricklypear, and teddy ear cacti.

"What? How did I-"

"Kate?! Sweetheart?! Where are you?!"

"Dad?! Is that you?!" I called out as I got up and began to run acrossed the dirt covered ground to where the voice was heard.

"Dad! Where are you?! I hear you but I don't know where you are! There's too many cacti and mesquite trees around here!"

"I'm over here! Just follow my voice and you'll find me!"

I did as he said and soon found him on the other side of some mesquite trees. There he was. The one individual who I cared about the most in this world was now here and looking at me with soft and happy blue eyes.

"Dad."

"Oh Kate. You have no idea how happy I am to have you back. I've missed you so much."

I felt an overwhelming feeling of happiness and relief fill me as my eyes started to well up with tears of joy.

"DADDY!" I cried with excitement as I ran to him with a big smile and tears running down my face.

But before I could reach him I stopped as I felt the ground underneath shake. Soon the bright desert sky became cloudy and the plants all around us started to die as me and my dad stumbled around with scared looks on our faces. Then all of a sudden a cage formed around my dad and lifted off the ground.

"*Gasp* DAD NO!"

I tried to get to him by lunging at the cage before it took off but sadly I was too late as I hit the hard ground.

"KATE!" I heard him yell as he floated away.

"HANG ON DAD I'M COMING!"

I started to chase after the floating cage with as much speed as I could muster. As I kept my eyes on my dad I soon saw that the cage he was in had fire start to ignite around the outside of the cage and causing him to yell in fright.

"DADDY!"

"I'M FINE SWEETHEART! JUST KEEP RUNNING AND DON'T GIVE UP!"

I felt like I was going to cry but I fought the feeling down. My dad was in trouble and I needed to be strong for his sake. He was there for me when I needed him many times before in my life, and now I need to return the favor. I pushed myself to run faster as I felt my adrenaline flow through me to help me get to my dad to save him. The cage soon stopped and I felt like time and space had stopped sudden when I found where it was. It was at the egde of a cliff, floating above a sea of what looked like dark, evil clouds full of green and purple electricity.

"OH DEAR GOD NO!" I screamed as I tried to jump over to the cage.

But I was suddenly grabbed by the arms and pulled back into someone's chest tightly before I could reach him.

"KATHERINE!" My father screamed as he watched what happened helplessly.

I then heard an evil laugh that I was all to familiar with.

"Well well, isn't this a sweet and enchanting scene. I wonder who would be so cruel as to try and destroy it? Oh wait, me of course! Hahahahaha!"

"GET YOUR MONSTROUS CLAWS OFF MY DAUGHTER!"

"Or you'll do what? Rip me to pieces until I'm a useless pile of scrap metal? You're not even capable of breaking out from that roasting prison of yours let alone harming me."

"THAT DOESN'T MEAN I CAN'T TRY TO! ONE WAY OR ANOTHER YOU'LL PAY FOR DOING THIS!"

"Is that so? Well, while you're busy with that I'll be doing as I please with your precious girl. But don't worry, I won't hurt her. MUCH! Hahahahahahahaha!"

As I struggled silently in Nos's hold and listened to the conversation, I kept my eyes on my dad, not daring to turn away for even a second in case he were to somehow disappear if I so did. As I stared into his soft, blue eyes I saw two emotions that seemed to make his eyes brighten like a blue flame. Indescribable hatred and fear. Hatred for Nos, but fear for me. I myself started to feel hatred starting to grow within the very depths of my heart to the point that I managed to finally speak up against my demonic captor.

"STOP IT NOS-4-A2! WHAT YOU'RE DOING HERE IS WRONG! WHAT DO YOU EVEN PLAN ON GETTING OUT OF JUST TORTURING ME OR IMPRISONING MY DAD WHO HAS NOTHING TO EVEN DO WITH THIS?! IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS AT ALL NOS! EVERYTHING YOU'RE DOING IS JUST PLAIN EVIL, AND I WON'T STAND FOR IT!"

As I spoke I saw my dad take on a "I'm proud of you" look as he watched me stand my ground against Nos.That look made me feel stronger and more sure that if I never give in that I'll win every battle I face in life.

"And what, pray tell, is a weak woman like you going to do if I don't. I'm the one that is holding the cards here if I'm not mistaken. I have your daddy dearest imprisoned and you at my mercy. So just how are you going to defeat me? With brute strength? Wit? Or dare I say it, love? If you think anyone of those choices will work then you are more of a dimwitted fool than I thought you were."

I felt rage and blistering hatred begin to fill my heart at his insults. Who the flying fuck did he think he was?! If this fuckboy thinks he can mess with me along with my dad and get away with it then he was sadly mistaken. I didn't notice it, but my form soon started to glow with a soft blue light as I continued to let the anger build up within me until finally I let it all flood forth with no hesitation.

"NOOOOOO!"

With that scream of utter rage and hatred I managed to free myself from Nos-4-A2's grasp and sent him flying acrossed the darkened landscape, shrieking in both fear and predatory anger. After he hit the ground he looked up at my glowing form that was now glowing brighter than any other light one can think of.

"WHAT THE DEVIL?!"

"I AM KATHERINE TIFFANY COLLINS! AND YOU CAN'T HARM ME OR MY FATHER ANYMORE!"

Tears of rage and pain purged down my cheeks as I screamed and stared at Nos-4-A2 with as much hatred as I could ever muster in my life. Nos just stared at my eyes wide with fear as he got up and started backing away from me. But do ya think it just ends there? Nope. Not by a long shot. Just when you'd think it couldn't get worse did the table of fate took a turn like no other. As I clinched my fists and shut my eyes tightly, the light became so bright that it would blind an entire crowd in a extremely popular rock concert and beyond. And in a scream of both fear and pain, the light burned Nos-4-A2 and ended up eviscerating him from existence forever. Soon the powerful light began to fade as I started to calm down a bit and float slowly to the ground. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I slowly turned around to look at my dad who was still caged and staring at me with a surprised look gracing his old features. His attention to me left only for a moment as we both saw the cage around him start to disappear and float away in the wind in the form of pure magic while the once black clouds below the rock he stood on became a heavenly light yellow and pink. He then turned his still surprised expression to me as I stared back with somewhat of a scared and uneasy look in my eyes. His expression soon changed to one of gratitude and pride that made me smile back at him. Then suddenly after a moment or two of just staring at him I broke out into a run, jumped over to the still floating rock he was on, and engulfed his torso in a huge bear hug. The sudden hug surprised him at first, but soon he too was returning a loving embrace. As I embraced him, I felt a huge wave of love and a unbearable weight lift off my shoulders. I still felt bad that he saw me go psycho and destroy Nos-4-A2, but hopefully my dad would understand why and forgive me. And what happened next made my prediction as clear as mountain spring water.

"Thank you sweetheart. You're a real lifesaver."

"Don't mention it Dad. I'm sorry you had to see me like that though. But that demonic machine really pissed me off. But still, I probably looked like a monster the way I was acting."

After those words left my mouth, my dad gently grabbed my shoulders and moved me a bit so that he could look me straight in the eyes with a stern but gentle look.

"Now you listen here, Katherine Tiffany Collins. You are anything but a monster to me. You're a smart, beautiful, and sweet girl full of life and love. And I could never hate or be disgusted of you. You're my baby, and I'll always love you no matter what."

As I listened to every word he said, I felt tears well up in my eyes until finally I couldn't hold it in and ended up hugging him even tighter while crying loudly into his chest. As I cryed he held me close while petting my long hair, letting me know that everything was alright. Unfortunately the sweet moment didn't last long because soon the dream began to fade as I slowly returned to reality.

I opened my eyes to find I was on the mattress Nos got me with a blanket covering me. As I looked around I saw Nos wasn't around. But I did see a new robot corpse on the floor nearby so he was probably in his coffin resting. Once I felt fully awake I realized my cheeks were wet with tears. I must of been crying in my sleep from the dream. Which was weird cause that had never happened to me before. As I wiped my eyes and cheeks I suddenly felt something other than my skin. It felt cottony and soft, like I had a patch of rabbit fur on my cheek. I looked over at the nearby mirror to find that I had a bandage on my cheek from where Nos had struck me. I then took notice of a bag near my bedside full of medical supplies and many types of medication to choose from.

"Did Nos-4-A2...fix me?" I whispered with surprise.

Nos-4-A2, one of the most nortorious villains in the universe, had help me. Me! A Radom girl from a dry desert state and was now his captive. But why? Why did he do it? He could of left me the way I was. But he didn't. Just then I noticed a flooded piece of paper near my pillow. I grabbed it and unfolded it to see just what it was. To my surprise, it was two I knew all too well but never thought someone like Nos would even say let alone write. "I'm sorry." To say that I was extremely shocked would of been an understatement. Why would he apologize? Wasn't he evil? And why did he help and fix me when he could of not done of cared to? Unless of course...Nah! That couldn't of been it. After thinking about everything that had happened, I started to feel tired again. I decided that I would catch some more z's and talk to him about this when he too was awake. As I laid back down and covered up, I stared curiosity at Nos-4-A2's coffin before I drifted back off to sleep. And before I went to sleep, I mental said something I thought I'd never say to Nos mentally or otherwise.

"I forgive you."