Madia had explained her story once again to all of my friends, and their reactions all differed. Kallan ended up crying halfway through the story, while Talia's face remained cold and unrevealing. Luc knit his eyebrows in a intent expression, signaling that he was giving Madia his full attention, while Jian's focus seemed to be more on her face rather than her story. Me on the other hand, I sat by her side for support. I was heartbroken that she had to go through something like that.

"So, I guess what I'm saying is, I'm used to rejection." Madia finished, casting her pink-eyed gaze to the ground. "If you guys don't want anything to do with me anymore, I completely understand. I mean, we've all had some good times, and I really enjoyed your guys' friendship more than anything. Know that I didn't mean any of it. It was all Skarn's doing. There were so many times that I tried to fight him for control, but he was just too strong." She began to cry. "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone."

I immediately wrapped her in a tight hug, causing her to jump in surprise. She loosened up and fell into my shoulder, sobbing like a little kid. I pat her back and began to speak to her.

"Madia, I'm going to tell you the same thing I once told a friend in a similar situation to yours." I said, taking a deep breath. "I'm not going to forgive you. There's absolutely nothing that I can forgive."

Madia looked up at me, tears still flowing from her eyes. "Like I said, I understand."

I held up a finger. "You didn't let me finish. I'm not going to forgive you because you didn't do anything. It wasn't you that tried to kill me, like you said, it was Skarn. I've admired hanging out with you. Madoc has always made me laugh, and showed me the brighter side of things, and I know that you will continue to do the same. You're fun, outgoing, and a spontaneous ball of energy that we can't help but love. That's why I'm still going to call you my friend, Madia."

She fell back into my shoulder and sobbed even harder. This must have been something that she needed to hear for a long time now. I couldn't imagine how much it meant to her. Just like the rest of my friends, I was going to continue supporting her, no matter how hard things got. Once she looked back up at me and the tears seemed to stop falling, I smiled at her and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

"Does that feel better?" I asked her.

She nodded. "A lot."

"Um..." Luc interrupted. "Not to be a killjoy or anything, but what about the school? If we don't give them a believable story, don't you think they'll find it the least bit suspicious that Madoc just randomly disappeared? What are we going to tell them? If we tell them the truth, Madia would be persecuted and her life would be at risk."

I shrugged. "Well, first, let's give her a new style." I said. I looked to Hazu. "Do you still have those scissors that you used earlier to make my dress a bit shorter?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I placed them in Kallan's purse for safekeeping." She gave me an inquisitive look with her green eyes. "Why do you ask?"

"Can you give her a haircut?" I asked, gesturing to Madia's shaggy hair. "She needs something a little more feminine."

"Ooh!" Madia said, clapping her hands excitedly. "By the end of this, I'm going to look so hot that unicorns will be jealous of my fabulousity!" She flipped her hair and smiled.

We all laughed. "Now there's the Madia we all know and love." Kallan commented.

"You still haven't told me about what we're going to say to Xiao about the whole Madia/Madoc situation." Luc pointed out.

"Don't worry about it." I told him. "I got an A in Creative Writing. I'll come up with something that will be believable."
*                    *                    *
By the next day, we had enrolled Madia Ochoa as a student at Eternal Academy. I had told Xiao the truth, but told him to say something else to the students about what really happened. For all they knew, Madoc O'Brien had been found as the traitor and disposed of. Madia was just another new student on campus at our school.

At first glance, it wasn't obvious at who Madia had once been. Hazu had cut her hair into a cute uneven bob, and she had started wearing glasses because she lost her contacts on the day of the ball. If anybody paid closer attention to her, they might have noticed Madia's spunky personality, or her tendency to call everything 'fabulous', but luckily, the teenagers at Eternal were like most others: too concerned with their own lives to really pay attention to what else was going on. As far as they were concerned, Madia Ochoa had absolutely nothing to do with Madoc O'Brien whatsoever.

The weeks that followed were pretty nice, with no random surprise visits from Kali. She may have been an evil, disgusting, pathetic excuse for a dragon, but at least she kept her promises. I had managed to be taught the basics in Water and Body Magic, and continued to learn how to use my powers of Dragon Soul. By the end of the school year, I even managed to pass all of my classes with straight A's.
Jian, Talia and Adrian had all graduated from high school in that year as well. They said that they all planned on staying at Eternal to take college courses, which made me beyond happy to hear. And since everybody was staying at Eternal over the summer, I didn't have to worry about them being on a different continent than I was.

As for me and Luc, well, we've officially become the cutest couple at Eternal. The two of us were basically the dragon equivalent of William and Kate on campus. We couldn't really go anywhere without somebody commenting on how cute we were.

And as for Hazu, she's still possessed by Kage and all but Jian's been trying a new kind of treatment on her. Instead of taking pills everyday, Hazu's been taking a really strong injection that can keep her in control for a week at a time. It's not permanent, but at least it's progress.
Today, all eight of us were sitting at a table in Jake's Diner on a nice, warm July afternoon. It had become something of a regular hangout for all of us. We would just sit and talk about anything and everything, just enjoying ourselves. It was our own little kind of paradise.

"So there was this guy flirting with me the other day," Madia said, her hands waving wildly as she talked. "And he decided that it would be funny to pin me up against a locker when I told him that I would put a restraining order on him if he didn't stop calling me 'doll' and 'babe'. So you wanna know what happened to him? Let's just say that he's going to have some bruises in some very obvious places."

Luc chuckled. "Man, if only I had that kind of strength in Elementary School."

Talia held up her hand. "I can now officially say that I am friends with you, Madia Ochoa."

The two girls high-fived and cheered, which then quickly became an arm-wrestling contest. As a girl, Madia's personality seemed to fit her a lot better. She also seemed a lot happier and a lot more comfortable with who she was. I was proud of her. She had been doing really well after the whole Eternal Ball incident.

"Wait, isn't today Tuesday?" Luc suddenly asked.

Madia gasped, forfeiting her arm-wrestling match with Talia. "Doctor Who's-day! Oh, how could I forget!" She pretended to faint and leaned up against the wall dramatically. "What kind of a fangirl am I! I give my deepest condolences, TARDIS god!"

Luc smiled and looked at me. "Since you're all caught up to where Mad and I are currently, do you want to come join us today?"

I nodded. "Sure! I'm definitely up for that!"

Just as we were about to continue chatting, I heard my phone ring from in my pocket. I looked at the caller ID. It was Eternal's front desk. What was it this time?

"Sorry." I apologized to my friends. "I have to take this."

I got up from the table and walked out the door. I answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Ren Flavia!" Xiao's voice answered. "It's so great to hear from you! Look, I'm just going to get straight to the point. I need you in my office, pronto! It's extremely important Prince business that requires the presence of you and your friends! Bye!"

"Um...bye?" It was no use. Xiao had already hung up. I wondered what that was all about. I shrugged and walked into the diner towards my friends.

"So what was that all about?" Adrian asked.

"Xiao." I said. "We have to go to his office. Come on."
*                    *                    *
We all walked into Xiao's room and were greeted by an intense stare from the Komodo dragon. If I didn't know any better, I probably would have thought he was wondering what I would taste like smothered in barbeque sauce. After a little bit, he finally spoke.

"We need you all to go back to your homelands."

We all gasped. "What?!" We all collectively asked, save for Kallan, who walked up towards the front of the office, speaking to Xiao in a respective manner.
"Is it okay if I explain this to them, Principal Xiao?" She asked.

"Of course, Nareia Ci." He replied.

Kallan gave a deep bow. "Thank you so much, sir." She turned her focus to the rest of us. "I had a vision the other day. Each of us need to return to our homelands. For example, Scarlett could stay here. Once we return to our homes, we will find an artifact there. These artifacts will grant us the power we need to defeat Kali."

"What exactly will these artifacts be?" Jian asked suspiciously.

"And more importantly, what will they do?" Talia followed, flipping her hair then crossing her arms haughtily.

Kallan shrugged. "The vision I received wasn't very specific." She admitted. "However, I do know that we need to travel in groups." She smiled. "I need to go with Talia, Jian and Hazu. Scarlett, Luc, Madia and Adrian will travel together in the other group. From there we will travel back to Japan, China, France, El Salvador, Sciana, Ireland and Russia. I've already set up a flight to Japan for next week, but I'll leave you to search New York first."

"How long will this entire trip take?" Jian asked. "DFT planned on doing a major tour this summer. You can't just expect me to throw that all away when all my fans are counting on me."

"But if we don't do this, your fans might not even be here for your next show." Kallan pointed out. "Now, I don't know exactly how long this entire thing will take, but I do know this: what we're doing isn't just about Sciana anymore. It's for the humans, too. If we don't do this, life as we know it could come to a halt. This is our chance to stand up for what we believe in. Now who's with me?" Kallan put her hand out, begging us to come stand with her.

We stayed silent for a bit. I laughed. Looks like I was going to have to show them what I thought. I walked up to Kallan and placed my hand on top of hers. "Count me in!" I exclaimed. "This is a chance for all of us to get stronger. I've learned all the basics of Dragon Soul, so it's not like I'm going to need everyone with me to tutor me anymore. Besides, I think it's a smarter idea to split up. We can cover a lot more ground in half the time that way. I'm all for it." I looked to Kallan. She mouthed a 'thank you' to me. "For Sciana!" I cheered.
There was more silence. Despite the nagging temptation, I didn't back down. I believed in this, and I was going to stay true to who I was.

Madia finally stood up and placed her hand on top of mine. "Prince Scarlett, you saved my life. You freed me from General Skarn and haven't revealed my secret to anyone outside of this group. I am eternally grateful, and I believe in you. If you think this is the right thing to do, then I'm all for it."

I smiled. "Thanks, Madia."

Luc followed shortly afterwards and placed his hand on top of the stack next. "Eh, what the heck? You were going to meet my family someday anyways. Why don't we just speed up the process?"

Talia was next, giving a scoff as she placed her hand down. "I'll come with, too. After all, you're going to make a very good King someday. I may as well practice taking your commands now."
Hazu and Adrian followed next.

"So we can stop my mother." Adrian said.
Hazu giggled as she added her hand to the pile. "I don't want anymore people to be possessed by Shadow Creatures. M-Maybe this will help."

I looked to Jian. "Come on, man." I pleaded, giving him my best puppy dog eyes. "We need you."

Jian groaned and placed his hand on top of the pile. "Fine. I'll put my career on hold so I can spend some more time with you dorks."

I smiled. "Alright. It's aㄧ"

"Wait!" Madia shouted, her free hand flapping wildly. "We can't do this yet! We need some sort of group name! Something cool that will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies and make them want to cry home for mommy! Or something really catchy. I don't care either way."

"Huh?" Came Hazu's voice.

"A team name!" Madia reiterated. "You know, something like 'The Avengers' or 'The Allies'! Every good team has a super awesome name to go with it!" Madia pointed out.

Luc thought for a moment. "How about Team Scale Child?"

Madia grimaced. "What'd you do, just pull that one out of your butt?"

"Basically." He answered.

"How about Team Sciana?" Jian suggested.

"Oh, sure! While we're at it we can call ourselves Team Venezuela! That way we'll sound more like a soccer team!" Talia snapped.

Madia nodded. "See! She gets it!"

I thought for a bit. I had an idea. It was perfect! It had to work! "How about Team Burning Hope?" I offered. "Dragons are known to breathe fire, and we're the people that everyone's going to put all of their hope into, so it makes perfect sense!"

Kallan nodded. "Ooh! I really like it!"

"Yeah!" Madia exclaimed. "It really rolls off the tongue."

"To Team Burning Hope!" I cheered. "For this world and for Sciana; for both humans and dragons alike, we will fight!"

"For the Crown!" Talia added.

"For the Earth!" Hazu cheered.

We all threw our hands in the air and cheered at the top of our lungs, followed by a chorus of joyous laughter. I was content. This was my family, Team Burning Hope. I  was so glad that I had met them. Each one of them had really changed my life for the better. I couldn't wait for the next adventure that all of us were about to embark upon.

END OF BURNING HOPE

So we've finally reached it, huh? Thank you guys for 2K reads, 252 votes and comments. You guys are amazing. I am sad to say Burning Hope has come to an end. Don't worry, though. It's sequel, Royal Storm, is already being planned and written as we speak. I just wanna thank everybody who's supported this book. Now I've got some news. I'm going to hold a contest for Royal Storm. I need eight OC's, which will be antagonists in my next book, for Royal Storm. I just need their Age, Personality, Description, Element, Name and anything else about them you may feel that you need. I need one for each element. You can enter as many as you want but I will only choose one OC per person. Thank you guys so much. I love you all!

Signing Off, Kiera Savage