"I swear I'm going to rip Ronan's stupid little throat out if we don't get out of here soon," I growled, slamming my fist against the door, then turning around and sitting on the floor, leaning against it. I was so frustrated, and I couldn't help it. I just started crying. I was stuck in here, and there was nothing I could do to help anyone out in the city. For fucks sake, they could all be dead and I wouldn't even know. And I hated that. The not knowing. It was driving me insane.

"Hey, it'll be okay, MK, I promise. You'll get better, and soon we can leave and Mandrake will get what he deserves and we'll get our happy ending. Just you and me, Nod and MK against the world, right? I mean, you are the queen, so doesn't that make this your fairytale? All of this," He said, gesturing at the room around us, "Just means we're that much closer to getting the happy ending that we deserve."

I have to give him points for charm, but his speech wasn't exactly comforting. I didn't need a happy ending. I didn't need a fairytale. I just needed a normal life. I needed some goddamn peace and quiet. And I needed Nod. Just us. No fighting. No evil force trying to kill us. Nothing.

"The problem with that, my dear, charming Nod, is that they never tell you what happens after you get your happy ending," I retorted with a dry chuckle, standing and beginning to pace circles around the room. "And who knows what the ending is, really? Was our happy ending when I got to stay here, with you, in moonhaven? Was it when I woke up after all those months? Was it the fact that I'm alive? Or could it have been when I died?" I questioned him. " Because even endings are temporary, Nod. I know that now. Nothing in this world is permanent and I don't have the luxury of being ignorant of that fact anymore. Things start, they end, they start again. There is no true end, no real beginning, only what there is right now is true and it will never be true for more than a second because everything moves and it moves so very quickly that even the blink of an eye could topple an empire. A sigh could shatter cities. And the worst part? It's knowing that change is coming. Knowing that your world is about to crumble around you. And know that there's absolutely nothing that anyone on this god-forsaken rock can do about any of it."

Nod stopped dead in his tracks, and turned away from me.

"What happened to you, MK? What did you see while you were asleep? And what do you mean 'when you died'? Your heart only stopped for a few seconds, you're obviously alive."

"Nod, you don't even want to know the start of what I saw, and as for what I meant by 'when I died', I may have only been dead for a few seconds to you, but it was more than enough for me to understand a lot of things, and one of them is that this isn't why I came back. I chose to live so that I could help fix MoonHaven and the forest, not so I could rot in a fucking jail cell while Ronan plans battle strategies until he decides I'm well enough to do some real good. I'm not a baby, Nod. I can decide for myself what's right and wrong, and I'm queen for a reason, and that reason sure as hell isn't to sit around and be a figurehead while my people are slaughtered and their homes and families and lives are destroyed."

"Your people? MK, this isn't your home. You're from an entirely different world, and I'm sorry, but nothing can change that."

"You're right, Nod. This wasn't my world, not to start with. But it's the world and the life that I chose. And you may have had a part in my decision, but when I chose this world, I chose all of it, hardships and struggles included. I gave up everything, my entire life, to be here, and if that doesn't make this my world my home, then I don't know what does."

"I understand that you want to help, M.K., I get it. I really really do. But you need to get better, and until you do, Ronan isn't going to listen to a single thing either of us is going to say," Nod tried to reason.

"Then he's no better in my mind than Mandrake is, if he's willing to sit idly by and let people live and die in fear and panic and starvation and squalor in the outer city just so that he can keep his men safe because they're more important to him. There's no one here who should be any more important than anyone else. No one here should die so that someone else can be protected."

"That includes you and the leaf men too, though, MK. You can't let them all die fighting a war you know you'll lose."

"What about the whole 'leaves-tree' thing, Nod? If we're all supposed to be looking out for each other then that should mean ALL of us, not just the ones that we know, not just the ones that are convenient to care about. We shouldn't be hiding. It goes against everything you've ever said about this place."

"The world isn't perfect, MK, you should know that by now. You can't fix everything, you can't save everyone."

"I know this world isn't perfect, Nod. But don't you dare try to tell me that it's not even worth trying to fix. What if it was your mother out there dying, or your sister? What if we were normal people and had a child living out there in that mess? Would it still not be worth it? Would it still be too risky?"

"MK, that isn't fair to ask and you know it." He retorted, looking hurt and angered by my questioning.

"No, Nod, what isn't fair is letting people's children die in the streets of the outer city because we're too worried about protecting ourselves. Nod, how long will it take for me to get it through your thick skull that WE are killing people by refusing to help. The blood on Mandrake's hands stains ours just as much. That's just the truth, so go back to burying your head in the sand if you want to, and when this is all over with, you can go on and on about how hard it was to defeat Mandrake and how much sorrow it has caused to lose so many people, and mourn and get over it, but I can never do that. These people trust us, me, with their very lives and I'll never be able to live with myself again knowing that I could've prevented some of this. So please, don't try to redeem Ronan to me for this. Not now, not ever."

"I won't. You're allowed to feel however you want, but it doesn't change the situation at all. We're still just as stuck here as we would be if you wanted to do nothing."

I sighed, nodding as he said this, but then I noticed something. A crack in the corner of the floor closest to the door. It wasn't much, but there was just a bit of dirt peeking through. Just enough to grow something.

"Maybe not," I pondered, standing and wandering over to the crack in the floor, inspecting it more closely. I waved my hand, making a small vine emerge, and as it grew, the crack widened, pushing its way up into the wall that led out into the hall. Using both hands, and all my concentration, I willed the vines to grow into the crack in the wall and then outward. I then lowered my hands and watched as the vines slowly receded to the floor and the edges of what was now a rather large hole in the wall, allowing us passage out of the cell and back into a place where we might be able to do some actual good.

I stepped through, taking a breath and turning to look at Nod.

"You coming? Or you want to just chill here until Ronan comes back to move you into a different cell?" I called over my shoulder as I took of jogging down the long, dim hallway.