Two and a half weeks later, Emily was still asleep in her infirmary bed. She was still wearing the clothes she was wearing when she was brought in, but Nurse Rayne worked around those and, with her water powers and amazing control, she was able to keep her body and hair clean, while also keeping her wound clean, as well as keeping the linens dry. Jake was holding her hand, as he did when she was brought in. He never stopped holding her hand, and Reed had to drag him out of the room to eat, sleep, go to class, and practice his hygiene. When he held her hand, he just stared at her face, hoping she’d wake up and look at him with her beautiful, green eyes. Then, he felt it. It was small, but it was definitely something. She had squeezed his hand.

“Nurse Rayne! Nurse Rayne, she squeezed my hand!”

“Jacob, please calm down in my infirmary. It’s great that she squeezed your hand though, it means her body has finally finished healing itself as much as it can and she might wake up soon.”

“I hope she does wake up soon, and I’ll be here when she does.”

“I don’t doubt that, this place is like your second, well, third home.”

“I also need to call her sister and tell her I found her, just like I promised I would.”

“I’ll let you do that but remember there’s no cell phone usage in my infirmary.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Truth be told, Jake was a little terrified of the nurse, but just a little. His hand was squeezed again and he turned his attention onto Emily again. He saw her eyelids flutter a bit and then they stopped. A couple of minutes later, her eyelids fluttered again and this time, her eyes opened a tiny bit. Emily groaned at the brightness flooding her eyesight, and her head hurt. Her whole body hurt, if one really wanted the truth.

“Emily! You’re awake, you’re awake! Nurse Rayne, she’s awake!”

“Jacob, I told you to calm down in my infirmary! Emily, how are you feeling?”

“I-I feel like I was hit by a train, or maybe a bus, or even both of them. My whole body hurts to be honest.”

“Honesty is good, Emily. You’ve been asleep for two weeks, so do you remember anything from before then?”

“No, not really, but I do remember Kari and the others. I remember being under their control. What did I do under their control? What have I done?!”

“Emily, relax. You didn’t do anything horrible. I-I stopped you before you could. You were going to destroy the Academy and everyone else.”

“Oh. My. Go-NO!” Emily broke down in a fit of uncharacteristic sobs.

“Emily, it’s alright! You didn’t do anything, it’s fine. Everything and everyone is all good. No one got hurt except for the both of us. Our clothes were ripped up and we had some cuts and bruises.”

“If I had cuts and bruises, then why was I asleep for two weeks?” She asked, sniffling.

“Emily-” Jake trailed off, not wanting to tell her the whole truth.

“Emily, you were technically dead.” Nurse Rayne said, taking over the explanation.

“What-?! Dead?! I was dead?!” She exclaimed/asked, no longer sobbing.

“Yes, and it was the scariest moment of my life. You terrified me because you were dead. I don’t ever want to see you lying there, bleeding, again. I held you as you bled out. It was my fault, so it was all I could do. You asked me to kill you, Emily! You asked me to do the impossible!”

“I-I wh-what-?”

“You asked me to kill you, in a moment of clarity. Your head began hurting and I could tell that you were breaking the control they had over you, then you told me to kill you, as it was the only way that their control could be broken fully.”

“I can’t believe I asked you to do that….How am I still alive?”

“Your Guardian saved you. He re-entered your body and healed you, sealing up your wound and restoring everything internally. However, he also said there was a downside to what he had done. He said that he would be weakened and his power reduced by half. He won’t be the same as he was, Emily, I’m sorry.”

Emily looked down at her clothes, surprised that she wasn’t wearing an infirmary gown or anything.

“What the crud am I wearing?!”

“It’s a very short dress, which I might say, you look very cute in it.” Jake flirted, with a smile on his face.

“Pervert! Why the crud am I in a cruddy dress?!”

“It’s your battle uniform! I don’t control it, you do….”

“Am I at least wearing something underneath?”

“I think so…”

“Y-you THINK?!”

“You are! There’s a garment underneath, so no one can see anything!”

“Hmpf…” Emily said, crossing her arms and muttered, “I hate this dress…”

“That’s the Emily I know and love!”

“How can you still love me? You killed me, remember?”

“Yes, I remember, because you asked me to. I can still love you because I loved you before all of this happened. I can still love you because you’re beautiful, despite what I did to you. I can still love you because you’re you, Emily. I love you, and I always will, no matter what.”

“I still love you too, flyboy, despite the fact you’re a pervert and you killed me.”

“You asked me to! You’re not going to let me forget that are you? And, I am NOT a pervert!”

“You said I looked cute in a short dress.”

“That was a compliment!”

“Hmpf, whatever.”

“Um, when you two are done flirting, Emily is free to leave after I check her over one more time.” Nurse Rayne said, interrupting the couple.

“So, are we, you know, together again?” Jake asked.

“If you want that.”

“I do want that, I do want to be together again.”

“Then we are.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

Jake pressed his lips to hers and kissed her as though she would leave him again. She kissed him back and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Ahem.”

The couple sprung apart, faces flushed.

“I’m going to check Emily over and then she can leave.”

“Right.” Jake said, moving away to allow Nurse Rayne to check Emily over.

Nurse Rayne checked Emily’s wound, no infection, and it looked really good, she checked her eyes, everything was good, checked her ears and nose, everything looked good, she checked blood pressure and weight, allowing Emily a chance to get up and walk around, and everything checked out. Everything looked good and Emily seemed to be a fast healer. Nurse Rayne chalked that up to her Guardian bringing her back to life and repairing everything. All Emily needed was a little rest for her body to catch up, and she was fine. Nurse Rayne finished writing her notes and grabbed a clipboard and a pen, then handed them to Emily.

“I need you to sign these, then you might want to fix or change clothes before leaving my infirmary.”

Emily took the pen, signed the forms, and fixed her dress, repairing the hole in it. She didn’t bother changing clothes, though she didn’t know why, since she really felt exposed in this dress. After signing the forms, Emily handed the clipboard and pen back to Nurse Rayne and moved to get out of bed.

“I’ll help her, Nurse Rayne! I’ll take good care of her!”

“What-!!” Emily was cut off as she was scooped up into a pair of strong arms.

“Put me down!!”

“No, I’m helping you.”

“I was just released from the infirmary, so I can walk on my own!”

“Exactly, you were just released, but you could still use the rest, so relax.”

“This is so embarrassing!!” Emily said, her entire face as red as a cherry.

“Now, let’s go see the others! They’ve been waiting to see you.”

“We’re not seeing them like this, put me down!”

“Yes, we are, and no, I’m not putting you down. I love holding you like this.”

Emily could do nothing but blush even harder, as if that was humanly possible. She finally relaxed in his arms and allowed him to hold her and carry her. Pretty soon, she was sure they were flying through the halls of the Academy. She looked down and noticed that his feet were no longer on the ground, so yep, they were flying through the halls of the Academy. She leaned her head against his chest and fell asleep, enjoying the flight and the wind blowing her hair around. Wait! Her hair was blowing around? Her eyes snapped open.

“My hair!”

“What? Nothing’s wrong with your hair, Em.”

“It’s not up, my hair was up before. Something happened to it.”

“Relax, Em, and go back to sleep. Your ribbon came out while we were duking it out. You can have Finn do your hair once we get there, alright?”

“Yeah, fine, alright.” She closed her eyes again and tried to go back to sleep.

A little bit later, as she was sleeping, she never even noticed they had landed outside her dorm room. He landed and balanced her sleeping form on a cloud while he knocked on the door. He heard someone come to the door and open it. It was Finn who opened the door and when she saw the two of them, she cried. Her tears were tears of joy at seeing Emily alive and well again, and she rushed them into the room. Jake asked them all to be quieter, as she was now sleeping, not just napping, as she was on their flight there. Jake walked over to the door to her room and entered. He placed his slumbering girlfriend in her bed and tucked her in, then reentered the common living area.

“Is she alright?” Reed asked his best friend.

“Yeah, she will be. She’s just going to need to keep sleeping or napping to recover her strength completely. She’s sleeping now.”

“That’s good. Did you tell her what happened?”

“I did. I had to. She had the right to know, even though she didn’t remember anything after she fell under their control. Do we have any idea what happened to Kari and the others?”

“Well, while you were facing Emily, the rest of us each faced a member of her group and defeated her in battle. Mr. Grayson teleported them back to their hideout. My guess is that they’re in hiding now. After what happened, I don’t think they’d be stupid as to try something like this again. We should be safe from any attacks for a while. Mr. Grayson also told us there was a dinner party after everyone rested and recuperated. We need dates for this party, but that shouldn’t be too hard for us, right, my friend?”

“No, no it shouldn’t.” Jake said, smiling.

“Our girls still need dresses for this party and Grey and Aurora need dresses and dates. Grey’s father already offered to find her a date, but she declined.”

“That must have been embarrassing for her.” Jake said, laughing.

“It was embarrassing! After discovering one of your teachers is your father and then he offers to find you a date, it was very embarrassing….” Grey said.

All of a sudden, Aurora spoke up, speaking to Jake.

“I’m sorry!”

“For what, Aurora?”

“For yelling at you earlier. It wasn’t right of me to lose my temper like that.”

“It’s alright, she’s your friend, so you had as much right to be angry as anyone else in that situation.”

“I know, but I was upset and I didn’t know what was going on. Everything is fixed now and she’s alright, and that’s all that matters.” Aurora said, finally smiling.

“Hey, Aurora, maybe you and Grey should go to the dance as each other’s dates. That way, you won’t have to look for one.”

“No. We’ll figure something out.”

“Alright, alright. Reed and I can help you look for someone.”

“We can find someone on our own!” Grey shot back.

And so, things went on as usual at the Academy. Two weeks later was the big dinner dance party Mr. Grayson organized and everyone was there with a date, including Grey and Aurora. Dinner consisted of chicken and all of the works. Emily and Finn of course went with Jake and Reed, respectively, and had a very nice time. Aurora’s dress was strapless and it was white at the top and the white slowly bled into a blue color at the middle and end. She was wearing a pair of flipflops underneath. Finn’s dress was white and the sleeves rested at the middle of her shoulders. She wore a pair of strappy, white, heeled sandals, and her hair was down. She also wore a pair of earrings to complement her dress. Grey was wearing a forest green, strappy dress and a pair of brown flip flops. Her hair was also down. Emily was wearing a red, one shoulder dress that had a slit up one of the sides to allow her more freedom of movement. She was the only one who wore her hair up, wearing it in a bun. She also wore a pair of black, strappy heels.

Everyone danced all night until the party ended and everyone went back to their dorms for a good night’s sleep.