"Oh! Where in the world are they?" Blip desperately snarled as he read the world scripts. "It should say in here ... wait! Got it. Everyone but Susan seems to be just below the treehouse..." Blip was using the connection to the computer that Susan had given him earlier and from that, was manually able to control the computer. He could do just about everything anyone else could do, with the added bonus of being able to read codes and scripts without decompiling anything. (After all, he was a form of computer.) Blip switched back to Creatures and scrolled to the coordanants the scripts gave him ... and found no-one.

Now think for a moment with me - in a normal Albia, the Albia Creatures 2 is supplied with - have you ever seen the Grendel's Kingdom? Or the jailhouse I described? You certainly shouldn't have - they don't appear to be there. What Blip didn't check was the plane everyone was on. In CAOS, (Creatures Agent Object Scripting, I think) a plane is defined as how far an object is from the backdrop. There's about 9,000 planes on Albia, the backdrop being on plane 9,000. Since Norns, Grendels, Ettins and Shee are objects, they're always on a plane, too. So, had Blip of checked the plane, he would have discovered everyone was around plane 9,050, which would be behind the backdrop. So, we can infer that the grendels had discovered a way behind the backdrop, and therefore were unseen by the average computer player staring at their screen.

Blip did go back and check the coordanants of everyone, and as he did, he discovered the plane everyone was on. Figuring that he'd never be able to remove the backdrop, he slowly started BoBCoB and started writing scripts.

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"Oh!" Susan whimpered, peeking over the cloud. "Maybe I should just..."

"Absolutely not." The Norn Reaper interrupted. "At least, not yet. Katherine's got to get through this with the help of just one other person."

"Who?"

"You know him. He's small, wired, has no arms or legs...."

"Blip!?" Susan replied. "How in the world is Blip going to get in Albia?"

"That's up to him." Answered the Norn Reaper. "But he's working on it right now."

"Really? How?" Susan just had to ask.

"I think you know it best as a COB, or Agent. All he has to do is write a script, make the sprites, and manually inject himself. Hey, look, he just now finished." The Norn Reaper pointed a sleeve of his robe toward the cell everyone was trapped in.

Blip sat in the middle, freshly injected, trying to figure out what to do next. He slowly raised up, trying to get used to surviving on Albia's power instead of drawing energy from his own battery. He spun around real quick, just to make sure he could turn, and then took a good look around. The cell was plenty creepy - the night time darkness made the dusty walls look almost blue. There was one small window to the outside, but it was crossed with iron bars. A small wooden table with a tall, ivory colored flickering candle was set in a corner to provide a (very) little light. And, of course, 5 norns were lined up against the wall, trying to sleep. Blip stared at them all for a minute, trying to figure out which one was which. The dim light made it hard to pick out facial features, and the fact that Blip was colorblind wasn't exactly a plus. Finally, he figured the scraggily haired one was Katherine, the bald one had to be Jenna, the one with the lightish skin was Karr, and the two dark skinned ones were either Kass or Lydia. He flew over to Katherine, and nudged her feet a little bit, as he often did whenever he wanted her attention at night when she was asleep. "Katherine!" He sharply whispered. "Who in the world.." Katherine mumbled as she sat up. Of course, upon seeing Blip, she perked up. They then hugged each other, (Actually, Blip has no arms, but play along, OK?) and then, upon remembering conduct, quickly let go and pretended nothing happened.

"So, did you inject yourself?" Katherine asked.

"Yeah. Did I get my colors right? I followed the RBG.."

"You did fine."

"So, where's Susan?"

Katherine paused for a moment, and turned back toward Blip. "The Grendels.. they killed her.."

"What?!"

"I think she was coming after me. This one guard, just, kinda, beat the turd out of her..."

Blip was still for a moment. "Err... I was the one who suggested she even come to Albia.." He shyly confessed after a pause.

Katherine shook her head. "That doesn't make you responsible for her death. It's not your fault." She blinked a little before going on. "But still - it feels a lot like she's watching us.. like she's an angel or something."

"I honestly don't know what to say."

"Then say nothing."

And, for a long time, they did say nothing - and it felt good. They said more in that silence then they really could have said with words, and I cannot do it justice using mere words myself. When you have known someone for a long time, you tend not to really need words as much as when you first met. This was the situation Katherine and Blip were in - they always knew what the other was thinking. Of course, it may be due to the fact that Katherine programmed Blip. Call me a hopeless romantic.

And after the silence, Blip asked what else had been going on. And Katherine gave him every detail, from the first time she stepped onto the searing C2 sand to being beaten by the Grendels to the odd events in the court such as Gregory and that telephone call, and that odd voice that told her to prove she was the hand, all up until this moment right here. (She did, however, leave out the dream she had, because she didn't want him to worry or anything.) This took a while, and afterwards they both agreed that they should lie down and sleep. (Or try.)

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"I don't get it." Susan remarked. "All they did was talk."

"Did you notice she at least feels a little better?" The Norn Reaper asked.

"Erm.. nooo..." replied Susan.

"She does." insisted the Norn Reaper. "And so does Blip. But there's still one element there..."

"Denial?" Susan guessed.

"Bingo. And, since they'll drive each other crazy without admitting..."

"Let me guess. I have to perform some sort of feat to make them admit they're even friends, right?" Susan interrupted.

The Norn Reaper smiled. "You're getting good at this."

"OK - " Susan started. "I bet I can do this in one shot. Can you help me make a really windy thunderstorm?"

"Sure." The Norn Reaper agreed.

-----------------

A low whistling came through the window. The clearness of the sky was disturbed by deep gray clouds. Everything lay still for a moment, and then, the gentle plitter of the rain began to sound.

And then a huge thunderbolt made a very large crackling sound.

"Ack!" Blip squealed, and flew up like an electrocuted carp.

"What - in - the... Blip?" Katherine flipped over. She hadn't really fallen asleep, and apparently, neither had Blip.

"L-l.." He whimpered, and hovered toward Katherine.

Katherine shook her head. "Blip, this is Albia. There is no way that lightning outside can hurt you!"

"Lightning is lightning." He insisted. (Of course, being a machine, he very well should have a horrible fear of lightning, because frankly, it could blow a serious circuit if he was hit.)

The winds outside began to stir, making the whistling louder. The wind whipped through the window, blowing out the lone candle on the table and leaving them in total darkness. Katherine ducked in her small sleeping area and covered her eyes.

"Katherine?" Blip quivered.

"I'm down here."

"Oh - hey, that's right, you're afraid of th-"

"I'm aware of that! I don't need a reminder."

"Oh well.. let's just lie down and try to rest or something."

They both laid down on the floor, quivering. And, unconciouncly, they kept scooting toward each other, until their backs touched. It was enjoyable for a moment, until they remembered what they were doing, and then they jumped away like a pair of live fish. Gasping for a moment, Katherine thought for a moment. "Hey, Blip, do you remember.. that day?"

"That day? Oh, golly, yes. I don't want to though."

"That had to be the worst day of my life."

"Amen."

Now, I know you're not real clear on what "that day" is. So, I'll briefly flashback for you, so you'll quit looking at me like that. "That day" happened a long time ago, when Katherine was in Kindergarden. It was her show and tell day, and she sort of needed something to show and tell, so she brought Blip. Of course, everyone thought he was very neat, and all the little kids wanted to know where they could buy one. (Imagine their surprise when she told them she made Blip) But, she made the mistake of describing Blip as "her bestest friend in the whole world." An unusually mean kid (You'd be unusually mean too if you repeated kindergarten 3 times.) laughed very hard, and insisted that Katherine couldn't make any people friends and had to build her own friends. Of course, all the little kids laughed very hard, and the teachers scolded them several times, but what was done had been done -- both Katherine and Blip promised from "that day" on (See where it got its name?) they'd keep their relationship on a coworker type level. And that is why they are where they are today, shaken and scared and trapped in their own computer. (Let that be a lesson to you kids: Kids who repeat grades three times in a row are usually very mean, and very wrong.)

There was a pause as they both reminisced silently, and then, a small sniffle arose from Katherine's corner.

"Are you OK?" Blip asked.

"Err ... fine."

"Oh.. I'm sorry.."

"Really, you didn't do anything."

"No. I agreed to that stupid promise so long ago."

"But so did I."

There was yet another brief pause, and then Katherine asked, "How very bad is it if you break promises?"

Blip hesitated before answering, "Depends."

"What about that day's promise?"

"I - I suppose that wouldn't be so bad."

They both turned to look at each other. And then they embraced. This was another moment where they didn't need words, they knew exactly what the other was saying. And this time, it was "All is forgiven."

That night, they slept back to back. The dark didn't bother Katherine as bad, and Blip wasn't affected so much by the lightning. Of course, they were both still a little scared, but everything's easier if you have a friend beside you.

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"Mom?" Karr whispered into Jenna's ear. "Hey, mom! Lookit this!"

Jenna slowly opened her eyes, and very slowly sat up in bed. "Look at wha- oh my gosh.."

Of course, both norns had caught a glimpse of Katherine and Blip.

"What do you think happened?" Karr asked.

"I don't know - but I really wouldn't bother them about it."

"Why not?"

"You'll embarrass them." Jenna insisted.

Just then, Katherine sort of sighed, and sat up, and Blip, noticing his backrest was gone, got up too. And of course, all the commotion got Lydia up, who shook her own mother awake. While everyone was greeting the day, (And each other, for that matter), they heard a rattle coming from the window. Upon turning up toward the window, they saw grendel claws wrapped around the bars.

"I can do this!" exclaimed a small grendel voice.

"Are you sure?" an ettin voice sounded.

"Yes, very." Said the grendel again. It then grunted several times, and tugged at the bars. "Oh, forget this." It snarled, and let go of the bars.

A set of ettin paws wrapped around the bars, and tugged hard.