Thanks to my three guest reviewers and Sins of Paradise.

I waited. I waited for footsteps, for friendly faces coming to save me. I waited for success, I waited for escape, I waited for rebellion. I waited for freedom.

I convinced myself that they would be back soon, that Ikuto would return with his head bowed in apology like he always did whenever he did something wrong. It was the only way to stop myself from breaking into hysterics. I couldn't afford to, not now, when there no one to comfort me.

After telling Ikuto everything, I felt like a twenty-pound weight had been lifted from my shoulders. But I also felt strangely empty inside every time I saw Ikuto's steely blue eyes in my mind. So unforgiving, so cold.

It took everything I had to remember that Ikuto was not unforgiving, he was not cold. This was any human's normal reaction. We had all endured so much over the past few months. There was no reason for that trust to be broken.

My mind was so unreasonable. Sometimes I wished I had a mind like Kairi's, unswayed by emotion, always able to see clearly.

A beetle scurried across the floor. I followed its steps and watched it scuttle its way over to the bars. It slipped through them easily. I sighed and raised my head to look through the bars, out to freedom, and I saw.

"Amu Hinamori." The guard was tall and well-built. "Come on, hurry."

"So soon?" I squeaked. "Can't I have, like, thirty minutes?"

In thirty minutes, Utau and Ikuto would be sure to return. In thirty minutes, my life would be saved.

"For what?" grumbled the guard. "You're coming now."

My mind went blank. More than ever, I wished that I could come up with some brilliant plan. Only now did I realize how helpless I was without my friends.

Wasn't everyone like this, though? As the guard shoved me forward, I thought back to everyone, how we'd always worked as one unit. This wasn't my own lack of skill. It was just a human flaw. The royalty of Tiraldae knew this. They had manipulated my inability to function alone three years ago.

Suddenly my exile made sense.

"Get in there," the guard grunted. I looked up to what he was pointing at and my heart stopped.

It was a machine. Not the tame little thing you'd find in an office building. No, this was huge, just over two times my height. Razor-sharp teeth, each tooth the size of my head, made up the top and bottom. It was, to say the least, a monstrous jaw.

And what did jaws do?

They snapped shut.

I struggled against the guard as he wrestled me into the back of the 'mouth'. I tried to kick him as he bound my ankles and wrists to the cold metal wall. I even tried to bite him. I tried, I tried my very utmost. I swear I did.

I screamed and kicked for long after the guard was gone, pushing some red button and leaving without a backward glance. I only stopped when I felt I'd crumble apart if I struggled any more.

I let my weight drop, relying on the binds around my arms and legs to hold me up. After long minutes of simply catching my breath, I scrutinized the machine that would kill me whenever the royalty pleased.

From the inside, it looked slightly less intimidating. I could still see the triple rows of teeth if I strained to look up and down. My feet hung about three feet from the bottom teeth, and the same distance separated me from the ceiling. Why would it be like that? Crushing me would be more effective if the teeth were inches from me.

There was a faint beep, and I looked up. The sound belonged to a timer on the far wall, one that read 0:55. A red light at the bottom of the clock blinked. A creaking sound reverberated through the whole machine. The teeth groaned, and suddenly my feet were an inch closer to the ground.

Oh God, no. Anything but this. I didn't want a slow death, crushed by jaws that would snap me in two only after exactly one hour of torture. Because that was what this was. A torture device, set for one hour. The red button the guard had pressed? It had activated the timer that would plot my death.

My life flashed in front of my eyes - my family, my Tiraldae friends, Nadeshiko, oh, Nadeshiko, and Utau, Nagihiko, Rima, Ikuto -

Snap out of it, I told myself. This isn't going to get you anywhere.

But what can I do?

It was now, more than ever, that I felt helpless. I was helpless to do anything but leave to Earth three years ago. I was helpless all through our journey, always relying on my friends to help me up time after time. I was helpless as I watched myself nearly lose it as my fears came to life in a prison. I was helpless as I watched Ikuto and Utau walk away with faint promises of returning soon. And now, all over again, the world had dealt me the Joker in the card game of life. I was helpless all over again.

My eyes burned with the familiar sensation of tears, but this time, something was different. I couldn't cry, not now, not here. I couldn't surrender to helplessness again. This was the weakness everyone exploited, from the royalty of my home land to life's cruel games.

I wasn't going to cry. For real, this time. I wasn't going to cry, I wasn't going to let myself fall again -

I would pick myself back up.

0:50.

The mechanism rocketed again, the teeth inching closer to me once more. It worked on a five minute basis, then. I was still safe, with feet of space separating my from the teeth. If there was any time to escape, it was now.

I was secured tightly into the machine. There was no way to force my way out, even if I did an anime-style power release. If brawn couldn't get me out of here, then brains had to. (It didn't help that I happened to be quite stupid.)

I was at a dead end, my mind hitting a brick wall. I wished desperately for any stroke of inspiration. Time was running out.

0:45.

Things would start getting painful around 0:20. And even if I found a way out by then, the machine would have me in its grasp too tightly. This was a real case of 'the clock is ticking.

My focus began to wander, despite the dire situation I was in. I began to think of Ikuto and Utau - had they returned, only to find an empty cell? Was Ikuto cursing himself for leaving me? It was so like him, to blame himself for everything that happened to me.

. . .Had they found Nadeshiko? Had they rescued her from her cage of three years, led her away from the dungeon that had become her home? Nadeshiko, the girl I loved and hated. If anything, she was going to be okay. She would live.

That was enough.

Nadeshiko, my mind whispered. Nadeshiko, if you can hear me - I'm sorry for everything. I forgive you - I forgave you a long time ago. I might not get out of this. I'm trying, I swear, but -

"Amu?"

My breath caught. Nadeshiko?

"Amu, what's going on? Ikuto and Utau found your cell empty, where are you? Everyone's so worried."

How am I even - even Nadeshiko had only been able to do this telepathy when a whole world separated us.

"Tell me, Amu! No one hates you or me for what we did, just tell me so I can get you out of there!"

Where was I?

A painful twang shot through me immediately after the thought crossed my mind. Nadeshiko's voice blurred into static bursts and my head went fuzzy. As soon as even a sliver of my concentration slipped away from thinking about Nadeshiko, the connection almost broke.

I can't think about anything else without breaking this. . .telepathy. It's a big room with a huge machine -

Even as the words formed in my mind, pain wracked my skull and Nadeshiko's final words to me cracked and shattered into splintered fragments -

"I'm coming, Amu!"

I let myself drop into the shackles that bound me to the machine. The machine rocked again - 0:35. My whole body still throbbed with the effort of maintaining the connection with Nadeshiko.

I couldn't believe that my desperate pleas had actually gone through to her. I had accomplished this - if Nadeshiko came, I would be the one to save my own life for once. The future I only dreamed of, where we all lived in harmony, would actually have a chance of coming true.

0:30.

I prayed that Nadeshiko would come soon. My feet now hung only mere inches over the menacing rows of teeth that would break me soon.

I had come to understand, in these long minutes of silence, that sometimes the best thing you could do for yourself is rely on others. I wasn't helpless by asking Nadeshiko for help. I was still capable, I was still strong.

0:25.

I placed my unwavering belief in Nadeshiko. We were twin souls, raised as one entity. We had always been bound together, unbreakable bond between Guardian and human. She would come through for me. She was my other half, after all.

0:20.

My feet grazed the blades, and something painfully sharp slowly set its weight on my head. Blood trickled down my face and my breathing sped up.

It had begun.

I held myself rigid against the slow pressure that bore down on me. I kept my eyes trained straight ahead, staring at the tightly closed doors and imagining the moment when they would fly open.

0:15.

Sharp points dug into my calves. The weight forced me to my knees, falling onto the spikes with multiple stabs of pain. I gasped for air and forced my head straight. I could only snatch one dizzying glimpse of the still-closed door before the agony forced my head down. Little points of pain bloomed all over my skin, staining my clothes red and piercing my skin in little blossoms of blood.

0:10.

I had to suppress a scream as the machine forced me onto the spikes. I was lying on the surface now, the rows of teeth above and below me digging into my skin in a slow torture. I choked back a sob as seconds ticked by without Nadeshiko. I would not cry, never. If I died here, it would not be with a face of tears.

"AMU!"

Saved.

"Nadeshiko," I choked. "The red button, it's -"

"I know, I know." Footsteps echoed across the floor as Nadeshiko sprinted over to the button. "Hold on for just a few more seconds."

I heard a sharp click, and the timer stopped at 0:09. The machine didn't release me, but it stopped pressing down.

Nadeshiko hurried to my side, panting. "Stay still, I'll get you out." Her voice was so clear in my ears after all the times I had heard it echoing in my mind.

"Hurry," was the only thing I managed to gasp.

Nadeshiko's hands shook as she worked with the razor-sharp spikes. "It's not a stop button I pressed." Her words were quick and jumbled. "It's a five minute pause. They really thought of everything - there is no stop button."

"That's enough time, though, right?" I asked shakily.

Nadeshiko nodded hurriedly. "Of course."

The conversation was so much more natural than what I had thought it would be. There were no apologies or tears. Her deft finger simply worked their way to every place where I was caught in the machine.

"I met up with them," Nadeshiko said finally. "Ikuto and the rest."

I smiled faintly. "You guys had a nice reunion?"

She tugged at my shoe, ripping it off and freeing my right leg from the spikes. "Not really. They were desperate to get back to you."

"Ikuto, even?"

"Especially Ikuto."

Nadeshiko glanced back at the clock, swearing under her breath. "Thirty seconds. I'm just going to pull you out, Amu. It's going to hurt."

I gritted my teeth. "Go for it."

Nadeshiko grabbed me by the waist and pulled. I couldn't stop myself from screaming as Nadeshiko lurched forward and I swept backwards.

When the pain subsided enough for me to open my eyes, I found myself on the floor. Free. I glanced around, looking for Nadeshiko.

"Amu."

I turned slowly. My gaze found the machine, where Nadeshiko - oh, Nadeshiko - was now tangled.

The timer beeped. Five minutes were up.

"Nadeshiko!" I cried, attempting to wrench her free.

"Listen, Amu. How much time do we have?" she asked desperately.

"Seven minutes. That's enough for me to free you." I began tugging at Nadeshiko's hair, pulling out her hair-ribbon sorting through the knots that kept her bound to the machine. "You'll be fine."

"I'm sorry," Nadeshiko choked as the jaws of the machine closed further. "For everything. For dragging you into this, for complicating things between you and your friends. . ."

"They were your friends first," I corrected her. "Remember, we're twin souls. We're in this together."

"You can survive without me," she whispered.

"I refuse to," I answered bluntly. "I'm getting you out of here."

The five-minute alarm beeped. the machine delved deeper, now striking straight through Nadeshiko's legs and one arm. It was a miracle that she hadn't been impaled.

" I am a bad person. The least I could do is sacrifice myself to protect someone pure."

"No bad person would ever say that." My voice broke. "You were always too modest."

"Listen! Amu, live on. Don't withdraw from your friends. Let yourself heal," Nadeshiko said, voice dropping even further. "Remember that this is simply punishment for my crimes. This is what I deserve."

"Shut up," I said harshly. "Shut up."

But I knew, I knew she was beyond saving.

"Remember. . ." Nadeshiko looked at me, and I froze for a split second. "Right now, I am happy."

"Nadeshiko," I sobbed. "I'll never forget you."

"I'm happy that I got to see you again, Amu."

The timer beeped, and she smiled.

The jaws closed on Nadeshiko Fujisaki, leaving nothing behind but a single crimson hair ribbon.

I had this planned from about Chapter 6 or 7. . .Sorry. . .ehehehe.