Beyond hideous, the creature standing before Nick and Sky would leave a disturbing image imprinted in their memories for eternity. It's color was a reddish brown, and it stood around ten feet in height. Their master's body closely resembled one of a human, except for his height and his third, back leg. Like a Cyclopes, a single eye resided in the middle of his forehead. He had a large mouth, containing two upper teeth, and three smaller teeth, all of which were small and square.

The corner's of the mouth moved upward slightly, as the beast's eye took in the sight of them. "I'd like to introduce myself again," said he. "I am your master, but, if you find it troublesome to refer to me as that, call me Hahbba*. Now, I will introduce my servant."

Out stepped an elf like creature. Around four feet in height, he had beady eyes, and long pointed ears that stuck straight out of the top of his shiny, round head. He seemed rather timid as he drew closer to the other three. "I'm Runtilo**," he squeaked.

"I never bother to call him that. Runt or servant works for me," Hahbba said.

"I asked before, but, I'll still ask again. Please, just let us free. I promise not to tell anyone on Earth about anything that has happened," Nick said.

"I would think you would have learned by now, the answer is NO. And don't ask again," Hahbba was clearly annoyed at the twenty one year old human.

"Um, Master, wasn't it time to tell the female what's going on?" Runtilo asked.

"Ah, yes. Thank you for reminding me of that. Sky, I know you have been confused by all that has happened in your life lately, but never fear. All your puzzlement will be gone in a moments time."

She looked from Nick, to Runtilo, and finally at Hahbba, preparing herself for whatever she was about to hear.

"Around five hundred kikos*** ago, which is approximately, six months earth time, I was extremely bored. Everything here was just so dull"

"Where is here?" Sky interrupted.

"Here," Hahbba motioned around them, "In this building, on planet Arma."

"Planet Arma?" Sky stared at him.

"Yes, planet Arma. The equipment you beings have invented is not sufficient enough to view such a small world, such as this. Anyway, back to where I was. I was terribly bored, so I decided to perform an experiment. Not that long before, I had been wondering what it would be like if two creatures were connected. Not literally attached to one another, but still connected in physical actions. I wanted them to meet, and see how long it would take them to figure out that they weren't just strangers. I thought it would be so amusing to have them become connected emotionally, and then rip them apart!" he laughed obnoxiously.

Sky stared at Nick, but he didn't look at her.

"Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I knew that the perfect experimentees would be humans. Though definitely not bright, humans are the most intelligent creature, after those of us on planet Arma. I decided to randomly select one male, and one female. If you haven't guessed, that would be you two."

"But, why did you really want to do this? It seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to, just because you were bored," Sky said.

"Of course, I didn't do this just because I was bored! That was partially the reason, but more of it wasn't about this actual experiment. This is only the beginning. This experiment will hopefully lead to bigger, better ones. I have an intelligence level beyond belief, so who knows what I'm capable of? I have done some pretty amazing things, that I won't even bother to explain to you, because they would be too complicated for your simple minds to comprehend."

Sky glared at Hahbba, but waited for him to go on.

"I sent Runt here to the scolopil~, which is a bit like your telescope, to find two humans. You were chosen, so I begun my work."

"As interesting as this all is, can we please just fast forward it a bit?" Sky was growing impatient.

Hahbba's eye grew wide. "How dare you speak to me that way! I have been so kind, so patient, and even nurturing to your ridiculous needs! Look how your treating me! As if my tale wasn't entertaining! Well, I suggest you get interested, because what happens to you in the rest of your pathetic little life will be based off of this!"

Of course, Sky shut up then and just stared fearfully into the eye of he who had changed her life.

"May I continue? Or is this really just too boring for you to listen to?" Hahbba asked, staring at her in a way that sent chills throughout her bones.

"Please do. Of course, it's not too boring," Sky answered.

"Oh, I think you're just saying that, as not to hurt my feelings. Oh, I know! How about we have your friend, Nick, tell the rest. How about it, Nick? Isn't that just a marvelous idea?" Hahbba smiled evilly at him.

"I'm guessing I don't have any choice, but to agree?" Nick sighed.

"Precisely. Gosh Nick, you are really becoming smarter every minute aren't you?"

Nick ignored Hahbba's sarcastic comment and sighed again. He closed his eyes and then opened them a few times, before sighing for the third time in less than a minute.

"Can we fast forward this a bit, please," Hahbba asked. Two pairs of eyes glared at him before Nick started to speak.

"Hahbba created two invisible beams to shoot at us. They were shot at the exact same moment, and at the exact same time. I was playing video games with Brian. You were on the balance beam. My beam worked perfectly, it hit me without hurting me or me even noticing. But, something went wrong with yours, Sky. I don't know what or why, but you felt it. It made you trip and loose your balance. If you hadn't felt it, your cart wheel would have been perfect. You could have done it. You had that thing. You had it, Sky."

Hahbba cleared his throat loudly and looked at Nick.

"Anyway, you broke your leg, so I did to-"

"I never thought the connection would be activated so fast, so I had to work quickly," Hahbba interrupted.

"I thought you wanted me to tell it?"

Hahbba rolled his eyes and motioned for Nick to go on.

"Anyway, he came to the Backstreet Boys' manager in a dream, and told him to have us attend this private party on a yacht. We went to the party and Hahbba made sure that I saw you. As I've already told you, I was just drawn to you. That was Hahbba's doing of course, as was you being drawn to me. He thought that we would talk to each other all night, and become emotionally connected almost right away, but he was wrong. You left before we even came close to it. So, Hahbba had to rethink his plan. He decided if we got hurt, it would bring us together, which is exactly what happened. Hahbba was anxious for us to build our relationship, so he made that nurse's husband, the one who drove us to the hospital, leave. Remember when we were in the parking lot and we saw the camera? That was Hahbba. He was always there watching us, in the form of a camera. That was the only time we saw him though, because after that, he hid himself better.

Actually, we saw him one other time when he disguised himself as the man at the desk in the hotel. The other man was Runtilo, the short one with the big nose. They were the only people there because the Destiny Hotel isn't real. It was made for us to get trapped. Anyway, back to the camera. To distract us, he turned it into a car.

All right, so remember when I had that dream, and you came over to talk to me about it? Well, the dream I had, happened. Just a little while ago. Your dream did too, you know."

Sky nodded and waited for him to go on with the story.

"Hahbba was desperate for us to become emotionally connected, so he let us have a taste of the future in the form of a dream. When we sat outside, talking about my dream, you said that you felt like you knew everything about me. That triggered it, Sky. That was what one of us needed to say for us to become more than physically connected," Nick swallowed hard, closed his eyes, and then opened them as he continued.

"I was so stupid, Sky. The morning after you had your dream, when you stayed in my room, I did such a stupid thing. When I lied to Brian about the head in the drain, that was a huge mistake. The head was really Runtilo spying on us. Of course, I didn't know that at the time, but I did know that it wasn't a prank. But, I had to be stupid and decide to not let anyone except me and you know about it. If I had told him" Nick choked and placed his hand over his eyes.

Sky came over and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, get a grip and go on!" Hahbba snapped.

Nick took a deep breath and bit his tongue, so he wouldn't say something nasty to Hahbba.

"Going on... After you told me you loved me, and I said I didn't love you, you started blocking emotions."

"Blocking emotions?" Sky looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Yes, blocking emotions. You had convinced yourself that I was only telling you to not get upset over me because I felt guilty. You were blocking my emotions. Because, I really didn't feel guilty, I just didn't. I didn't. Well anyway, once you left, I went after you, but I couldn't find you. Finally, Hahbba came to me, as some sort of weird voice or something, and he gave me a flower." Nick's statement turned sour, and he glared at Hahbba, who just smiled at him.

"The flower was the color of your eyes, and when I smelled it, it put me under some kind of spell thing or something. It made me act like," he sighed. "It made me act like I was in love with you. It made me all flirty and stuff, just so I could lead you to him. That was his plan, to get me to lead you to him. He knew the only way to get you to come was through me. I'm so sorry, Sky. I didn't even realize what I did until I smelled the flower again a little while ago, and had the spell undo itself. Oh my God, I feel so horrible. I'm so sorry, Sky. I'm so sorry," he whispered, his head down in shame.

Sky couldn't do anything but stand there with her mouth wide open. At first, she felt like slapping Nick, but she knew it wasn't his fault and decided she wanted to hurt Hahbba. Of course she didn't, but broke down crying instead.

"Well, now that that's all out of the way, let's get on with this shall we?" Hahbba rubbed his large hands together.

"Get on with what?" Sky asked.

"Get on with what you must be wondering about what happens next."

Nick and Sky stared at Hahbba, while Runtilo made a whimpering sound.

"First of all, I would like to thank you for being my experiment. It's helped me a lot, and I'm grateful," Hahbba smiled evilly at them. "There is a problem though. Nick knows the problem, don't you Nick?"

"If he let's us go, he thinks we'll tell someone, but we WON'T!" Nick stared pointedly at Hahbba.

"My dear, dear Nick. Of course, I don't think you'll tell someone, I know you will, no matter what you say. So, that is why I can't let you go back. Well, at least I can't let both of you go back."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sky asked.

"It means that only one of you will be going back to Earth. If only one of you goes back, it won't matter, because even if you tell people what has happened, they won't believe you. They'll just think you're insane. The nice thing to do would be to keep one of you up here with me, and send one back down to Earth. But, since I'm not nice, that's not going to happen."

"Then what is?" Sky reached for Nick's hand and he squeezed hers tightly.

"One of you will no longer exist after today."

"You're not serious," Sky shook her head.

"Of course I'm serious! Behind me, Runtilo is holding two bottles. One contains a sleeping potion and one contains a drink that will kill you. Even though I'm not nice, I'm not completely cold hearted either. That's why I'm letting the other one fall asleep before their friend dies. I'm also letting you choose which one of you dies, and which one of you lives. You have one minute to decide. Go."

"You're living Sky. No matter what, I'm letting you live," Nick told her.

"No," Sky said as tears came down her face.

"Yes," Nick nodded.

"I can't, Not without you."

"You have to, please."

"Nick"

"Sky, you have to."

"Okay, that's it, time's up," Hahbba declared. Runtilo walked over to Sky and Nick and placed two identical bottle in-between them.

"Sit," Runtilo commanded.

They sat down and looked at the clear, glass bottles that both contained medium blue water.

"The bottle closer to Nick is the death potion, and the one closer to Sky is the sleeping potion. Drink them now."

"WAIT! Please, can I just hug Nick one last time?" Sky pleaded.

"Fine, fine, whatever. Just hurry up," Hahbba said.

"Oh Nick," Sky leaned towards him.

Both his arms wrapped around her, but only one of hers was around him.

"Remember me," he whispered into her hair.

"Always. You mean more to me than anyone."

"Okay, that's enough! Drink!" Hahbba yelled.

Nick pulled the cork out of the top of his bottle and quickly drank the contents, before he could give himself time to think about it.

Sky did the same and both of them fell to the floor, beside each other. Almost immediately Nick felt drowsy, and could barely keep his eyes open. Sky pulled herself onto her side and after much effort, got her head to rest on Nick's chest.

"I love you," she told him.

"I love you too," Nick said right before his eyes shut.