"Just stay out here. I'll go get him."

"Thanks, Ben…"

I stepped off the bike and walked up to the house. I found a note on the door.

Ben. I thought you might come after Aikka, since everything seems to be going wrong every time we meet up. Assuming this meeting will turn out how I think, I locked the cat in the downstairs bathroom. You can take him whenever. Be careful… Please, don't slip up. I don't want to have to visit your funeral.

Gwen

I sighed, stuffing the note into my pocket.

"What was it?" Rika asked.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." The house was unlocked, not surprising since she wanted to make sure I got the cat. Either way, whether I had to use Big Chill to get in or the door was unlocked, I was getting in there.

I stepped through, leaving the door open. I don't know the layout of the house, probably because I'd only visited a few times. However, I knew where the bathroom was, and that was all that mattered.

Looking down, I saw one brown paw and one white paw sticking out from under the door. I couldn't help but laugh, even in this depressing situation. "Move, little Aikka. I don't want to squish you."

Surprisingly, the cat quickly moved, hearing my voice. I pushed the door open slowly, finding Aikka sitting quietly on the floor, watching me. He meowed quietly.

I smiled. "I'm gonna miss you, little guy. As annoying as you are…" I leaned over to pick him up. He didn't seem to resist, and hearing a quiet purr told me I was forgiven for whatever I'd done before. I groaned. "Please, don't make this harder than it already is. Rika's going to throw a fit when I tell her I'm not going with her…"

He lurched up, rubbing his head against my chin. It was comforting…I almost felt as if everything was going to pan out all right, even if I had to suffer in the process. I'd done it once before. I'd torn down my morals and helped the enemy, saving my friends and the planet in the process. Now, I hoped the prison council would see fit to at least hear my story.

After all… they can't kill me right away. They wanted my information. That interrogation in the first few hours I was there told me no matter how things turned out, they wouldn't let me die without getting what they wanted. And chances are they still won't.

With the way Paradox spoke about Rika and I…

I can't die. I can't get killed.

I can't fail this time…

I walked over to their dining table and scanned the surface. I set Aikka down for a moment and pulled my wallet out of my back pocket. I left it on the table, everything I'd given Kevin the first time still in there.

"Rika," I whispered to myself, carrying the cat outside. "Rika, hold him for a minute. Let me get your jacket." I'd kept it in one of the compartments in my bike, knowing she wouldn't need it unless it got cold or rainy on one of our rides. She never complained it was cold any other time…

After handing her the cat, I unlocked the box and pulled the grey hoodie out and straightened out the wrinkles. "Here, trade you."

"You better give him back. He's all I have." With the tone in her voice, I knew it was a stab at me.

"Hey, be nice."

"I don't owe you anything, Ben Tennyson. I don't see why I have to be nice."

I closed my eyes, looking away from her. She was mad I was leaving. She told me I was going to get killed and I wasn't listening. I would be mad, too, but I'd at least try to change their mind…

Once her jacket was on, she stole Aikka back from me without hesitation and wrapped him up tightly in the jacket. I grabbed my helmet and pulled it on over my head. I jammed the keys into the ignition and mounted the bike.

"It's not like you not to argue back…," Rika told me, carefully holding the cat while climbing onto the bike.

I ignored her statement, kicking off the bike. My initial plan was to take the bike from one side of the park, drive directly through the grass and onto the clearing in the middle of Central park where Rika could find the ship.

Compared to what happened to the cat earlier that day, I don't think the motorcycle ride through the park fazed him in the slightest.

I looked over my shoulder, slowly stopping the bike in the tall grass. "All right, you're the only one who knows where it is," I said, pulling the helmet off.

Rika carefully climbed off the bike, clutching the kitten in her jacket as she looked around the field. "There. Right there," she pointed out ahead of her.

I hung the helmet on the handlebars, following after Rika. "You made it disappear, you have to, well, pull another stunt."

"You say it like you don't believe I can." She stepped forward into the middle of the field, leaning her shoulder against a non-existent object. In a moment, it reappeared. "Happy?" she grumbled.

"Yeah… Ecstatic. Come on, I gotta make sure the ship's all right."

Rika rolled her eyes. She set Aikka down on the ship's ramp to let him walk around. "I know how to fly the ship. Can't you just get out of here?"

"Why, so we can both regret or last words with each other? I don't want to leave on the wrong foot. I did that with Julie and I've regretted it ever since. I'm not about to do it again."

Aikka brushed up against my leg. I tried to ignore the cat.

After a long moment of silence, Rika looked down before rushing up to me, wrapping her arms around me. "I'm going to miss you, Alien Boy. Even if you are a pain in my ass…"

I laughed. "Yeah, well, don't make me tell you what I had to tell Aikka."

"What'd you tell him? .... Oh. You know, that cat loves you. He says, "He's a loon, and if he had feathers I'd eat him. But you love him, and so do I." I don't love him, you stupid cat."

Aikka sat down.

"Shut up. Be glad he can't hear you."

"What?" I laughed. "Did you spill your guts to the cat while I was sleeping?"

She let go of me. "Well, what you do when you're awake is your own business."

I smiled. "I don't think I have to hear the cat to know what he said… Now, look. I made a promise to Kevin and Gwen. I'm not going to make the same promise to you." By leaving my wallet with the two of them… That was my promise to come back. Gwen would know… I left it here to begin with in hopes I would come back someday. Now that I'd come back and retrieved my information, leaving it here while I'm gone will serve as a symbol that I am coming back. I could make that promise to them without regret, even if I couldn't follow through.

With Rika, I can't make that same exact promise. I can't promise that I'm coming back the same person. Nor can I promise her that I'll come back for her any time soon…

"I don't want to get your hopes up. I don't want you to hang onto any empty promises that may or may not pan out… Rika, I don't even want to say goodbye because even that could be a lie. Aikka… he's your cat. He's been your cat since the day you saw him."

Rika pulled her jacket off, tossing it across the ship. She'd always complained about clothes sticking to her skin, so it's not surprising. I wouldn't be surprised if she ditched the rest of the clothes she'd got here on Earth.

I rubbed my neck, trying to avoid any promising words.

"Damn it, Ben, just say you're going to miss me and get it over with. At least I'll know that's the truth."

I stepped closer to her. "But that means you'll have something to hang onto while I'm gone." I cringed, running back over the words. "…. while I'm gone." That was an incriminating statement. It implied I was coming back.

"Aikka says you're full of it."

"I don't care what that damn cat has to say! I'm trying to tell you that I don't want to hurt you if this goes bad."

Rika looked down.

"I'm trying to say I might die out there and there could be nothing I can do to prevent it, and you're a damned fool if you thought otherwise. I'm not invincible. If I die, who knows what's going to happen to the Omnitrix. Vilgax has proved to be a bigger threat than anyone. He's come back from the dead many times and even though he's gone for now, who knows when he'll strike again. ((Even I am surprised he's coming back in the third season. I had enough of the damn guy when Ben was ten.))

"You're an idiot for following through with the escape. I don't know what got into your head but you did it and broke out of the jail with me. I don't know what will happen to you when I'm gone but there's a damn good chance they'll kill you too, no matter what your original sentence was.

"You've changed my fate and I hate you for it. But there's nothing I can do."

Rika continued to look at the ground, letting out a short breath.

I smiled. "What's even worse is you won, Rika." She suddenly looked up. "I didn't give up. Not once. But you woke up smiling every morning… You were so intrigued by our mess of a human race no matter what happened. And those stupid grapes… You didn't have coffee, or chocolate… It was so trite and childish, but every stupid little thing you did chipped a little piece of my wall down."

Rika smiled, laughing in disbelief. "I can't believe it. I won? Mu jumal võlmratulo…"

"Yeah, yeah, now that I've pretty much screwed myself over here with incriminating words, I might as well say it. I'm going to miss you, and I'm going to miss that damned cat. I still can't promise I'm coming back…"

"Well you pretty much made everything ten times worse, now. 'Cause I'm going to miss you and every day I'm going to wonder when I'm going to see you. Ben… do you know how empty that planet is? My… my brothers are gone, now… Everyone is dead, and if they aren't they're locked away in that damn prison! You and Aikka are literally all I have left. If anyone hates anyone in this room it's me! I hate you for leaving me like this. The least you could do is say you're coming back."

I shook my head. "What if I don't?"

"What if I know you will?"

"You don't…"

Rika looked down again.

"You can't hide from this," I told her, lifting her chin up. "If I could hide from everything I would, trust me. But this is one thing you can't hide from. You're going to have to go home. Anyone left on that planet needs you more than you need me."

"You're an ass," she muttered, trying to tear her gaze away again. Though, I wouldn't let her. It would hurt more to escape and come back a year later to a strange reality you know nothing about. I did that for five years. When I didn't have the Omnitrix, I felt like I was free from it all. I hid from the world that surrounded us and forced everyone to make it seem like it never happened.

I had to open my eyes just when life was getting good and it tore me apart. I rather die and lose the Omnitrix than lose it and be hidden from reality. Again.

"I'm not an ass. But I probably will be one now… I can't leave… not without doing this." I leaned forward and kissed Rika. It's going to break her heart to leave after this but I had to do it. It would kill me if I didn't. I didn't want to die without telling her the truth, if the fact was that I was going to die. I'd already dug my own grave and kissing her wouldn't have made much of a difference.

I tried to pull away, but Rika wouldn't let me. She didn't want me to go, and neither did I. But if I didn't go… everything was going to get a lot worse. "Rika… Rika, stop, I really have to go."

"Move and I'll break your arm," she threatened.

"Break it. I'll have a better chance of dying."

She sighed, letting go of me. "You really are an ass."

"I told you," I mumbled. "Rika… I really have to go…"

"Fine, go," she told me, turning around.

I stuck my hand in my pocket, remembering one key item. "Wait." I pulled the strange necklace out of my pocket, stringing it around her neck. "Don't lose this."

She looked down towards her neck, resting a hand on her badge. "I almost forgot about this thing…"

I smiled. "So did I."

"Here," she said, turning around. "I don't need it anymore." She pried the mask off her face. "Maybe it'll come in handy?"

I shrugged. "Maybe…," I said, taking the mask. I turned around and began to walk away. Though I felt bad… I didn't want to leave without saying goodbye. But wouldn't that be a lie? What if I was coming back? Goodbye is forever…

I looked over my shoulder. "…See you later."

She smiled. "Later, Alien Boy…"