Brianna knows firsthand how cruel people can be. How they manipulate and shatter and tear down anything respectable or noble or wholesome. Anything that could be good-

When she was younger, she thought she owned this world glitter and gowns. That she stood at the top as she won time and time again, that no one could force her to do what she didn't want.

How naïve.

And yet, she would give almost anything to go back to those days.

Almost.

Because the truth was this world owned her; from her eyes to her voice to her very being- she was nothing more than a pretty doll to be paraded and modeled, to be used as some sort of currency while she deluded herself into thinking she was her own.

She tries not to, but sometimes she wonders what would've happened if Kendall and Jackie hadn't intervened. If they hadn't stopped her from signing that contract. The one she suspected could pave the way to hell but was willing to risk anyways if it meant status and power and recognition. She'd been so angry, when they stopped her, when the offer had been given to a rival, and she'd wished that they would never be able to interfere again.

Then she watched as her greatest rival became a doll.

It's so different, knowing and seeing. Being aware of a possibility verses witnessing reality, thinking that would've been me all the while. And she endured this world for so long because that's all it's ever been for her: a possibility. Something that happened to others but would never happen to her.

Because Brianna's made of tougher stuff. She's always stood strong because she can't be broken, and she won't ever submit. It's a mantra she repeats every day, at every recital, at every pageant.

But what good would those words have done for her, if she had signed her soul away?

And before she could apologize, before she could truly understand what she had asked for, her wish was granted.

Her anger doesn't justify what she said to them. It doesn't excuse what she asked for. And now she has to live with the knowledge that she will never get to thank them for saving her. She'll never get to tell them what they mean to her.

That she's the reason they're gone.

She thinks this knowledge, more than anything, is her punishment.

Perhaps that's why she tries not to let others suffer the same fate. Why she coaches instead of participates now, only stepping back into the spotlight to prevent another girl from becoming nothing more than another doll.

It's Brianna's way of atoning, even though it will never bring them back, because honoring their efforts is the least she can do.

And as the years pass, she slowly begins to find peace.

But then she's walking along the beach, when she sees a blonde with a pixie cut and a brunette with long hair.

"Kendall? Jackie?"