A/N: Well, I know this chapter is pretty short, compared to what I've done on the past few. But this is probably one of my faster updates, haha. I said I would move quick, and I am. Besides, it's SUUUUMMMMEEERRRRR, the best time of the YEAR! I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks to all my readers, as always. If anything's confusing, feel free to speak up.

End

5

Perhaps I left no footprints because I never walked that beach at all.

Perhaps I was drowning in the waves the whole time, and never knew...

My hope lay on Caitlin's outstretched finger, from which dangled a corded device. A telephone.

They were offering me a telephone.

My hand reached out for it instinctively once more. Caitlin stopped her long dialogue and jerked it from within my grasp, clucking her tongue.

"Are you listening, Popuri? We've been at this for a good hour now. The sooner you absorb this into your pink head the sooner you get to talk to your family."

My throat ached. I wanted to hear them, to hear their voices and my mama say my name. I wanted to tell them I loved them. I didn't care if Rick yelled at me, I didn't care if Mama cried until the guilt inside me burst, I just wanted to talk to them. It had been months now. Months of my life in a tiny cell floating out in the middle of the ocean.

Kai was leaning against the wall of the tiny room, arms crossed tight and face somber. His purple bandanna was darker than ever in the dim light of one bulb. His eyes flickered to mine, then back to another wall as quickly as they'd come.

He had stormed out the day before, slamming into doors and walls and knocking over objects, hissing curses under his breath in another language. His last words screamed in my head. You will not take that woman's place in death.

"-no mentioning anything about Kai's family or this place. You've been vacationing to beaches, understand? Which doesn't exactly explain why you're as pale as the winter moon, but I doubt they'll care after so long-"

They were back again, those chocolate eyes, lingering longer, and then with a sudden chill, swept away. I forced myself to concentrate on Caitlin's words.

"You just tell them that you eloped with Kai, and now you're returning to have a wedding at your own hometown. Ready?" I nodded. She set the white phone on the table in front of me. "Just remember. We've got wire taps and I'm sitting right here listening to you. There will be no hints of the truth, do you understand?"

No hints of the truth. My entire life was a lie. I was being forced to lie to my family, my friends, sneaking up on them with a knife concealed behind my back.

I dialed the number scrawled on the yellow parchment in front of me.

There was a sudden click and then a scuffle. I heard laughter on the other end, and it sounded so foreign in my ears.

"Hello, this is the Mineral Town Inn, how can I help you?" It was Ann. Her voice boomed through the phone and I thought I saw a glimpse of a smirk on Kai's face.

"H-hi." Suddenly, it was so awkward. I was drowning in a sea of options, of opinions, of guilt and fear. How was I supposed to do this? Hey, it's Popuri, I just went missing for a couple months. Can you put my family on the line? Oh, yeah, it's been all fun and sun for me and Kai over here!

"Huh? I can't hear you, speak up!" Her voice was cheerful, and my own voice was so foreign. I hardly spoke, a far cry from the bubby pink little girl I had been.

"It's... um... It's Popuri."

The festive tone was lost. I could hear her breathing, a tiny murmur of disbelief. There was a noise as she put her hand over the phone to muffle it.

"Dad," I heard, for the redhead couldn't keep her voice low enough. "Dad, you need to get over here. Now."

"What? Why the glum face, Ann? You-"

"Find Rick and tell him to get over here."

"Who is it?" I suddenly heard a female voice interrupt. Mature, soft, but with a hard edge of sorrow. "Is... is it..."

"Yes."

Suddenly Karen's voice was resounding in my ear.

"Popuri," she stated smoothly. Though I knew she must have been drinking, for it was Karen at a bar, there was no slur to her speech. "You better be safe. And Kai better be praying. Where have you bloody been?"

"I..." Caitlin's face was before my own then, green eyes issuing a stern warning.

Sound cheerful.

"Hey, Karen," I began. I forced my voice to come out bright, more cheerful than it should have been. "How have you guys been doing? It's been... nice where I am." The lie grew firmer on my lips, tangible, as I forced out the lump growing in my throat. "I'm having the most wonderful time!" I tried to remember how to babble, but it seemed I had forgotten how to do it naturally. It came out stiff to my ears. "Kai and I eat ice cream and pizza every day! And... oh, you'd love the city, Karen, it's wonderful! It's winter there, um, isn't it? Well, it's summer here. We're always in summer now! It's just so exciting, and Kai is..." He still was stiff against the wall. "Kai is so funny, but he's always funny, and..." I tried to remember how I had described that traveller, the one I used to know. "We eat pineapples and see so many new people! It's so much more exciting than town!"

It seemed all action on the other end had died. I was greeted with a stony silence that threatened to shatter the phone.

"You sound like you're having quite a time." Karen's voice was low. "But do you know how your family's been doing?"

My hand trembled on the phone. The way Karen said family... Why wouldn't they find my mother? Shouldn't they have first gone to my...

Caitlin saw my face convulse, the tears that pricked at the corners of my eyes. She shook her head and gave me a smile, too bright to be real.

"N-no, but I'd love to hear! How's my chicken doing? And my brother, haha, I'm sure he's having a fit-"

"Put Kai on the line."

I was no longer speaking to Karen. The tears spilled over as I recognized Rick's voice, deeper even than the last time we had talked. My speech broke off and my eyes darted to Kai. I wanted my brother, my big brother who always looked out for me...

"I thought this would happen," he murmured, and took the phone from my hands. I couldn't bear to look at it.

"Hey." His voice had that surreal quality to it, smooth and teasing. "Oh, Rick, what a surprise. Yeah, it's Kai. What's up?" He went quiet for a moment. "Hm, yeah, I thought you might say that. So, I just kinda grabbed Popuri." He paused and there was a flash of pain. "...No. She did... ask. But no." He smirked again. "Yeah, thought you'd say that too. Popuri's her own person, she can do what she likes. She's old enough to make her own decisions."

The phone was passed back to me.

"R-Rick?"

"Is he making you happy, Popuri? Is he treating you well?"

I swallowed.

There will be no hints of the truth.

"He's treating me the same as always."

I had managed, in my own way, to bypass the rule. There was so much I wanted to convey to him, so much waiting to burst from my mouth. My eyes locked with Caitlin's, and she didn't take her eyes off me, inspecting.

"Now," she said softly.

"Rick, we're... We're getting married." Please understand.

There was a hiss at the other end.

"I wanted to do it at home... With you and mama..." Please forgive me, Rick... I didn't mean to leave home so long...

"Y-you're coming back?" There was such a warm surprise, a desperate wonder, that the truth was almost pushed out of me.

"Yes," I whispered, and the agony curled around my heart and sealed itself there, forever. I was never going home. I would never have my wedding. I had to sacrifice myself for them. "...Will you be there, Rick?"

There was a pained silence. "Popuri, I'll always be there for you. Even if I have to put up with him. But why did you... why did you have to leave, Popuri?"

Rick was close to crying. I could hear it in the way he clipped himself off, the way his voice was tight. There was no noise in the background. The Inn was completely silent.

I swallowed and remembered back to that moment on the beach. Why had I gone? Why had I, the chicken girl, voluntarily transformed myself into the red eyed horror I was now?

"I couldn't watch him leave. Not again. He ripped my heart out every year... It was just one time too many. And... I wasn't satisfied with what I had, Rick, I couldn't let him slip away... I was... Lonely. You have Karen, and Jill's happy now, and Ann and Cliff are falling in love clumsily, and Gray's stopped being such a dark cloud and he's with Mary... Elli and the Doctor are practically already together, they've always been... I wanted my happy ending."

I couldn't look at Kai's face. He had to know I was talking about him. Caitlin wasn't looking at me anymore either... I had fulfilled my duty and though I was telling the truth, it wasn't endangering their plan. If anything, it was helping them.

"...Are you happy?"

I rolled the answer around on my tongue, in my mind, but I found there was nothing I could say. I myself had no idea. I wasn't completely happy. The battle had been fought, I was a bloody mess... And I still didn't know if I was the victor.

"I'll see you at the wedding." I took a deep breath. "I love you, Rick. I love you and I miss you, so very much. Tell Mama I love her too and will be there soon."

"Popuri-"

I put my finger over the glowing button they said would end the call. Caitlin's glazed eyes came back to me, and she nodded.

My brother's voice went silent.

They spent the afternoon teaching me what I would do, what I would say when we reached the island. They told me a story about how Kai had proposed, they gave me pictures of Kai and I on multiple sunny beaches, dreams and lies of places we had never gone. I had no idea how they had made them, but it looked just like us, smiling and laughing without a care in the world.

"Remember," Caitlin had told me slyly, "You're crazy in love with Kai and he with you. You should hold hands and kiss and make googly eyes at one another. You're about to get married, small town style."

We wouldn't get married.

I had been so sure of that sacrifice then.

He came into my room again, the night before we left.

The darkness was humid and warm, and his rough hands were patting my head before I pulled myself out of a twisted, strange dream.

I had been running to my mama, and the closer I got, the more her legs healed, until she was completely well. Her cheeks were rosy and she laughed as she held out her arms. But just before I could hug her, she turned, and with a flash of her white, perfect legs, she was gone, running from me with her newfound health.

"...Mama?" My voice and mind were foggy in the dark stillness. He had brought me to the surface of my dreams.

The tang of pineapple filled the room.

"Go back to sleep," he soothed quietly, but something in the impenetrable dark of his face made me jerk myself awake.

"Kai," I murmured, and he let out a humming sigh.

"We're getting married... Tomorrow." I struggled to see the melting chocolate brown of his eyes, and I found my tired mind couldn't make the effort.

"We're not," I let out into the air, and his hand stopped moving on my face, settled itself so it cupped my face and hair. I couldn't live that dream, as much as I longed for it.

"She won't do it," he said slowly, one thumb moving to my jaw. "The Harvest Goddess wouldn't kill you."

"She has to. I'll make her, I'll let her."

His other hand found one of mine in the dark.

"Nothing I can do would change your mind and stop you from praying to her?"

I shook my head weakly, pink hair flailing against the pillows.

He leaned down, the purple bandanna almost touching my forehead, where his own hand rested. Warm breath fell on my face.

"I'll cook for you," he said suddenly, his voice joking, but strained. "And this'll help your mother. Your town can survive without the Goddess, we're fairly sure... Other places have before."

It was hard to think with him so close.

"Please, Poppy?"

He was trying so hard to be that traveller, that free spirit of a man. But he was doing it for the organization, now, and that wasn't him. He couldn't mix his two selves.

I clutched his hand and Kai himself was my strength in refusing.

"No. I can't."

The breathing stopped for a moment, and then there was a quick murmur.

"I'm sorry, Popuri."

He shattered my world and gave me a new one that would soon collapse into dust.

His lips pressed to my own, soft and hesitant, but steady. He knew what he was doing in that moment, even if I did not. I was so caught up in that affection, the most I had ever received from him, that I did not notice his hand disappearing from my cheek.

I didn't know anything was amiss in my suddenly glowing world until the prick in my neck and his shuddering jerk away from me smashed it to pieces.

"What..."

He wrenched his hand from mine, and in the dark I saw the glint of a needle, what the Doctor had used once before on me, when I was young.

I wasn't too naive to ignore the spreading numbness from where he had injected me.

"I can't let you do that."

I was breaking again, but this time I felt a new emotion bubble up through my heart's cracks, as hot and red as the night.

"What did you do?"

"You're going to fall asleep." His voice was crumbling, breaking just as I was. "You're not going to wake up until we give you another shot, when we get to the beach."

I sat up, grabbing him even as he tried to pull away.

"You kissed me to remove the threat to the plan." The words shook.

He didn't answer.

"Am I just a key to Mineral Town to you too? So they can find out what I'm thinking and manipulate me?" I had entered the adult world, and I was falling fast. I couldn't climb back up the wall to mindless bliss. The medicine he had injected was climbing through my muscles, worming its way up my neck into my mind to numb that as well. "Has this whole stay... those years on the beach... all this time when I've been so scared and you've been here on and off... been you pretending to actually care about me? I should have known when Caitlin pushed this... I should have known... Why am I so stupid? Why am I such a baby? Why can't... can't I... ca...n't... I..." The medicine had a hold on my lips now, my tongue. It was slipping its cold fingers into my conscious now, dragging me into the dark. I forced it to speak again, to finish. "...ha...te...yo...u...?"

My eyes still worked for moments more, and I cried silently.

I couldn't tell if Kai was watching or not.

I wouldn't wake until Mineral Town's doom was sealed, until they were on the island and the ocean couldn't stop them anymore. Until they had Zack and other innocents trapped and in danger, so the Harvest Goddess had to choose between them or herself. They would die a quick death, or a slow one without her influence on the island. It was a decision no one should make. I remembered the way Jill, now the Goddess, had looked at many of the townspeople. Even if she was distant, she still... loved... th...em...

He watched Popuri's eyes flutter closed. The hand that had betrayed her Kai let wrap itself into her cold, lifeless palm. His other traitorous hand moved to her cheek, burned by her tears but refusing to change. He didn't have much time. They'd be expecting the two of them at dawn... He would have to come up with something to explain to his father why she was unconscious. He couldn't know what Kai was thinking and what Popuri was planning.

I love you

Kai flinched at the memory. It had been in practically this same scene that she had told him that for the first time.

He had wanted to kiss her once before it all fell apart, before Popuri possibly would never kiss him again. If that helped Kai's agenda at the same time... He had to do it.

It killed Kai to do that to her, but he had seen her determination before, in the eyes of the destined dead. She wouldn't stop, his Popuri, until everyone was happy but her and that wretched organization. Popuri would kill herself for her family.

That was something Kai would not allow, organization or Harvest Goddess or family or bloody anything. He had reached that horrid point where good and evil meant nothing, where he drowned in shades of gray and let his own selfish motives guide his every action.

Popuri would not die, and even if she hated him by then, he would make her happy and safe with him. If she found that impossible... then so be it. He would remove himself from the picture then, and only then.

Why can't I hate you?

He selfishly hoped that she continued to find that impossible.

The covers slid off her thin form, and she was unnatural as he lifted her up, no sturdiness in her frame. It had to be a result of the drug. He could hardly see her breathe.

The tanned older, darker man just shook his head when his son appeared with the girl in his arms, unconscious and unable to defy.

"He loves her too much," he remarked to Caitlin, who was stiff at his side.

"All the love in the world wouldn't make what he's-what we're- about to do right."

A/N: Well, there it is. There'll probably be only two or three more chapters, hmm. I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter! Well we finally got to see the point of view of someone other than Popuri... That was just weird. Kai's so... depressed. Not like everybody else isn't. Anyway, here we go!

ekoaleko- Thanks a bunch as always for your review, you always cheer me up! Still, I'm a bit concerned about the story and not quite sure where I'm going after End. As I've said before, I'll definitely finish. Mwa ha, I LOVE it when people are torn! Thank you so much for reviewing, it's awesome to have your feedback. Hope you liked this chapter!