Buck watched the truck go, hanging his head in remorse when he heard Mrs. Caloway say. "You certainly made a mess of things since you ran away."

"I know, Caloway." Buck replied on seeing her, Maggie, and Grace walking up the bike path. "And I'm starting to regret what I've done."

I gave him a soft pat on the side, saying. "We'll work it out once we bring back...Anneliese?"

We all turned to see her by the levee, watching the waves as she sat on a log.

I slowly walked over to where she was.

"Anneliese?"

She didn't face me. She just stared into the water, saying while shaking her head. "I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't?" I asked. "We have to get you back to Audubon..."

"It's not that!" Anneliese interrupted. "It's just...do you know why my mother sent for King Dominick?"

"Because...you're both royals?" I guessed while sitting down next to her.

"No." said Anneliese. "It's…it's the only way to save Audubon…since Preminger stole all that gold."

She took out the little Golden Asteroid from her dress pocket and looked at it.

"I know marrying the King is the right thing to do, but..."

A tear trickled down her cheek as she said. "But...I can't go through with marrying someone I've never met...or love!"

Anneliese threw the little Golden Asteroid into the ground and buried her sobbing face with her hands while Serafina sat beside her comfortingly.

I turned to Patrick, Buck and the cows, who exchanged their sad looks to one another, then noticed SpongeBob walking over to where we are, acting silly to lift Anneliese's spirits.

"Blah-blah-blah! Look at the funny face! Doo, doo-doo, doo-doo! Look at the funny face!" he said, filled with cheer that turned to desperation while crying ballistically. "Look at the funny face!"

Mrs. Caloway cleared her throat, saying. "Not helping."

While seeing her push SpongeBob away, I looked back at Anneliese, telling her. "Look, Anneliese, we all have changes we're willing to accept. In fact, you should've seen how much of a wreck I was when I started Bowditch."

Anneliese turned to see me pick up the little Golden Asteroid, while saying. "But over time, I've learned to accept that middle school is a part of life, and it made me feel like…like I was home."

On hearing the word "home," Anneliese looked up at SpongeBob, who nodded at her with a little smile.

"But...how can I change my mother's mind about the wedding?" she asked before seeing the little Golden Asteroid placed on her palm by me.

"She'll understand...once we tell her." I said.

Anneliese smiled as she wrapped her arms around me.

But as I did the same, a voice said. "That's so cute."

It was Marie, who walked towards us alongside Lee and May, who added. "If only our boyfriends would show affections like that."

"Let me at 'em. I'll..." Maggie said, about to charge at them, but Buck held out his hoof, saying. "Maggie, no! Just get the Princess back to Audubon. We'll catch up if we can."

"No, I'm not leaving you and Nathan." said Anneliese.

"Oh, but you better, Miss Prissy." said Lee. "You don't wanna see your little boyfriend get hurt...unless he tells us...WHERE'S...OUR...OWN?!"

"Boyfriend?" repeated Anneliese.

"Even if I don't know where the Eds are, I'm not telling you anything." I said to the Kankers, unaware that Nick and Nack were slowly driving towards us and Captain Melonhead perched with Splinter on a tree in front of Pearl's house

"You can't keep us apart from our men!" argued May. "We love them!"

"But they don't!" I argued back. "When are you going to understand that the Eds are not into you?"

"Never!" Marie shouted as she infuriatingly pushed me into the ground before Buck got in the way, waving his front legs while neighing loudly.

"Move, ladies! Move!" urged Maggie, who led Mrs. Caloway, Grace, SpongeBob and Patrick away from the levee.

"WEE-WOO! WEE-WOO! WEE-WOO!" Patrick called frantically.

Anneliese didn't catch up. She turned back to hear Lee say. "Rope him, girls!"

May and Marie throw their lassoes around Buck's neck, tightening it.

"Stop it!" Anneliese cried as she tried to pull Marie away. "Leave them alone!"

"Back off, Princess!" Marie demanded as she pushed aside…

"Anneliese!" I cried on seeing her stumble back towards the street, with Serafina catching up to her.

Buck managed to free himself from May and Marie's grasp, despite having the ropes around his neck, and scooped me up.

But we were too late to help Anneliese, for she had tumbled down into the open door of the school van, which quickly sped away.

"No!" I cried, pulling out the walkie-talkie from my backpack, but lost my grip on it when Marie caught ahold of the ropes, pulling us back forcefully while sneering. "You should be worried about yourselves!"

With Splinter at hand, Captain Melonhead leapt from his tree perch to the levee, hurrying to where the Kankers had put sharp brass knuckles around their fists as they circled around me and Buck.

"We're gonna bruise you so hard, your mommy's gonna heal you for a long time!" Lee shouted as she raised her fists at me.

But as she brought them down, the teleporting beam appeared, making Buck and I disappear in front of the Kankers...and Captain Melonhead, who exclaimed frustratingly. "For crying out loud!"

Buck and I kept our eyes closed when we heard Sparky ask. "Anybody called for a rescue?"

We opened our eyes to see that we were inside the Hyper-Galactic Star Cruiser, where Sparky was not the only one we saw. Standing beside him were X-5...and Betty!

Seeing her again made me feel nervous, especially since I messed up big time.

"But...why save us...after everything that's happened?"

"Galactic Guardians help everybody, Nathan." explained Betty. "Whether it's here or there, or big or small."

"Or in this case, alien or human." added X-5.

"Well...thanks." I said.

"You can thank us more after we drop you off." said Sparky.

"Drop us off?" repeated Buck. "Are you insane?"

"Look, I can't risk seeing another person getting himself killed." said Betty. "Maximus will claw you alive if you get in his way."

"Well, I'm not going back." I said. "Not while Anneliese is in trouble."

"Nathan..." Betty began, but I cut her off, saying. "And wherever it is they're taking her, that's probably where they're hiding the Golden Asteroids."

Betty's eyes widen when she heard what I said.

"How coincidental." X-5 said, droning towards the ship's monitor that showed Maxmilian Enterprises. "Because Admiral DeGill said that Maximus is hiding them somewhere in Santa Clara."

I took a closer look at the monitor to see where the building was, realizing. "That's close to Paramount's Great America!"

"Then, that's exactly where we need to go." declared Betty.

"Us too!" added Buck.

"That's highly unlikely." X-5 said, shaking his head.

"X-5 is right." Betty said as she pushed me and Buck towards the teleportation dock. "We have to take you..."

"Betty, please." I begged. "I know I screwed things up for you, but give me a chance to make this right. It's what Captain Amelia would want me to do."

Stunned to hear what I said just now, Betty looked at the framed portrait of herself, Captain Amelia, & Mr. Arrow, then back to see the desperation and determination on my face, as well as Buck's.

Feeling the same expressions on her own, she nodded, then called to her crew. "Full thrust to Great America!"

"Aye, aye, captain!" Sparky and X-5 called back.

Betty turned back to us, saying. "You might wanna hang onto something."

"Why?" asked Buck.

Apparently, he spoke too soon, for the Star Cruiser went full speed to Paramount's Great America.

On hearing his shrill scream coming from inside the ship as it flew by, Sam looked at Rusty, then turned his truck around, back to Pearl's house.