For several seconds, everyone just stood there. The soldiers kept their guns trained straight on Mary. Ib and Garry looked up in silent alarm at the men they would've otherwise rejoiced to see. Mary looked up at them too, her face one of fear and despair. All the while the sergeant's eyes darted between the three of them. Finally, he pulled out his handset and radioed in his discovery to General Landon.

"No, you don't need to point your guns at her," said Ib quietly, "She–"

"Wait until the General gets here. She's still a hostile."

"But–" Ib's voice faltered.

After what felt like an eternity, Landon finally arrived, accompanied by a squad of guards. He and the sergeant exchanged salutes. After that, Landon nodded at Ib and Garry, took at contemptuous look at Mary, and then stepped out of the room for a moment with his radio handset in hand. From the other side, Ib and Garry could hear him say in a low voice, "Landon here. Tell the boys at the lab that I've found her, and I'm sending this one over to them special. My only request is that there be enough of her left to put on trial and hang afterwards."

He then came back in the room as if he were entering for the first time. "Ah! You're alive! Excellent!" he exclaimed. "We thought for sure that both of you were dead!"

Before Ib and Garry could answer, one of the guards interjected. "Should we call for a medic from the other side of the portal?"

"Just go back for a stretcher and bandages. I don't want that thing dying on me, but I think she will survive." The general's guards along with the squad that first found Ib and Garry departed, leaving just Ib, Garry, Mary, and Landon. "Anyway," he resumed as he surveyed the damage and destruction within the chamber, "what happened here?!"

Ib and Garry gave him a quick summary of what happened– The disembodied voice and the shadowy hands, the dramatic fight, and the final moments. They made a strong point of trying to emphasize Mary's role as having saved them. "So yes," concluded Garry. "I'm pretty sure we killed Guertena."

"Well then!" Landon said, clearly impressed. Even after everything he saw in the Fabricated World, he needed to survey the room a couple times to clear any lingering skepticism about the incredible tale they just told him. For a brief moment he also took a second glance at Mary, as if suddenly second-guessing his original view. After a few moments though, he clenched his fist and resolved to carry out his duty. "Your actions couldn't have come at a better time. Not too long ago half of the monsters suddenly just crumbled while the rest fell into disarray, and I suspect it's connected to what happened here. If so, you helped save the day and end the war once and for all. Congratulations again, and thank you immensely. I will see to it that you are properly recognized for your role in humanity's victory." Ib and Garry nodded in thanks, surprised and somewhat honored.

Landon then turned his attention to the wounded entity in the green dress. "As for you, you little unhuman monster," he concluded as Mary's expression changed from one of pain and fear to one of pure terror. "We'll be taking you someplace special."

Ib and Garry's blood ran cold. Out of the corner of her eye, Ib saw Mary staring at her frantically, silently begging her to not just stand there. "Wait! Hold on! What are you doing with her?!" Ib demanded.

"Relax," replied Landon, seemingly unphased. "She isn't going to die. We just want to learn a little bit about her."

Ib didn't know exactly what he meant at first, but the way the general said that last part sent a chill down her spine. A second later it hit her, and she felt a horrible sinking feeling. At that moment the soldiers came back with a stretcher and set of bandages. One of them began wrapping the gauze around some of Mary's more readily accessible wounds. It was clear there were no tender feelings involved in this though; even as she was being bandaged, the other soldiers' guns still remained trained on Mary, fingers on the trigger.

"I don't' think you understand! Mary helped us!" said Garry.

"You too?" responded Landon with a little bit of dismay, "well listen. Again, she isn't going to die. This isn't a promise I can make for any of her less human-looking siblings. We've already taken her help into account." He paused and then added quietly but sternly, "I'd also prefer not to talk about it too much in front of the men, in case there are still any… ahem, bleeding hearts."

"But sir, she does have feelings! She does think for herself! She is just like you or me!" pleaded Ib.

"What did I tell you back in the real world?"

"No, you don't understand, she–!"

"Ib, listen. Remember our talk? You're letting her fool you." Landon pointed at the rainbow colored fluid. "See that liquid?"

"Yes?"

"Does any real human bleed that color?"

"No…"

"Does any real human crumble to ash when a painting is burned?"

"No…"

"That's right. You do remember our talk." Landon made a tiny smirk. "Now, that will be the final outburst from you two. Technically this area too is under martial law, and I'd hate to have to turn to any disciplinary measures after everything you've done for us… Are there any more questions?"

Ib and Garry were dead silent. Mary's desperation gave way to despair as her only defenders backed down with hardly any fight.

"Good. Lets proceed." Ib, Garry, and Landon began to exit the room as the soldiers hoisted Mary onto the stretcher. They tied her down to it just for good measure. Looking on, the pair felt helpless. There was nothing they could do at this point, it seemed. But compounding this was also a sense of guilt. Hadn't Ib and (especially) Garry too felt this way about Mary once, and in that sense weren't they complicit in what was now taking place? Garry felt regret over having dismissed Mary as merely a painting. Ib for not having ever stood up to him on that matter.

They looked into Mary's eyes for forgiveness, hoping that she understood that they had advocated for her but that it was no use, that they had done all they could. Instead they saw frantic pleading, begging them to do something to spare her this fate. She had just saved them from her leader! Why won't they save her from theirs?! She didn't understand. How could they just give up so easily? How could they abandon her like this?! Didn't they – didn't they see her as being no less than a flesh-and-blood human?

Ib and Garry could no longer bear to face it. They looked away.

Landon, his entourage, Ib, and Garry left the portrait chamber back into the staging room, with the guards wheeling Mary along not too far behind them. Outside, Ib and Garry saw patrols of soldiers on milling about, leading a handful of captured monsters away, searching for any remaining ones that were still at large. Dead and destroyed monsters littered the area. Every now and then, a soldier would reach down and use a knife or bayonet to cut off a part a fallen enemy. A painted lady claw, a hacked off gun from one of the headless statues, perhaps a broken chunk of canvas. It didn't matter what the souvenir was. All of this occurred within General Landon's sight, but he did not bat an eye.

Not too far ahead was a small prison truck that had been waiting for them. "Alright, load Mary up and send her on her way," said the general to his men. The back of the truck was opened, revealing a stark, cell-like interior. This was the end. After all Mary had done for them… This. Woe to the vanquished.

As the guards prepared to wheel Mary into the back, Ib happened to make eye contact with her one last time. She saw the exact same look of betrayal and despair that she saw in Mary's eyes as she burned to death three years ago.

Right at that moment she remembered part of a nightmare she had right before the invasion: "You could've said something; you could've stopped him."

Without warning Ib suddenly ran in front of the stretcher and blocked its path to the truck. Landon spun around and glared angrily at her. "You! –"

"No! I'm not going to let you do this!" interrupted Ib. She defiantly stared Landon straight in the eye. The sheer audacity of a twelve year old girl doing this took everyone by complete surprise. "You may just see her as some horrible monster, but in fact she is a thinking feeling being who deserves just as much consideration as you or me! How is she any different from a human girl like me in the things that are important?! She laughs like me, she cries like me, she has hopes, dreams, and fears like me. Why does it matter what color she bleeds or whether she was created with paint?! If you are going to take her, you need to take me too!"

Garry joined Ib. "Yes, she is right!" he boldly stated. "If you could do this to Mary, you could do this to anyone! You all see her, and she hears every word that we are saying, and yet somehow you still deny that her life means anything. That is the exact same process of dehumanizing 'the other' that leads to genocide, apartheid, slavery, and so much of what's wrong in the world! And don't you dare say that this is different because Mary isn't 'human,' because that's the exact same thing they said about every group that has been oppressed like this!"

For a moment, everything was completely quiet. A silent crowd of soldiers began to gather around the confrontation. One could've heard a pin drop. "This is your last warning," then seethed Landon, "Before I have you arrested and court-martialed! Mary is not human, and you have absolutely no way of knowing whether that thing just simply acts like it thinks and feels. Now stand down at once or else face the punishment!"

Ib and Garry didn't budge an inch. "Go ahead! Arrest us! We will not stand down for our friend – yes, friend!" she retorted. "And yes, we do know that she isn't just 'faking it,' because we saw her and have been with her enough to know. We fought her, we came to understand where she was coming from, we comforted her when her father called her a traitor and cast her out. The only reason we never mentioned this was because we knew that you wouldn't understand!"

Landon's eyes narrowed. For a moment he fumed in silence and then snarled, "Okay that's it! MPs! Arrest those two!" The military police began advancing towards Ib and Garry, who stared back at them defiantly. Their eyes locked with those of the guards as the latter came closer and closer. They had abandoned Mary once; now that they had a choice, they were not going to do it again.

Just then, Garry spoke up again, this time addressing the soldiers around him. "Mary saved all of us, you know," he declared. "You, me, all of us."

This gave the MPs pause. The shock and tension in the area was palpable. "You did not just say that!…" growled Landon through clenched teeth.

"Yes, I did." Garry turned back towards the military police, knowing that he had hit home. "When Ib and I were captured, we were brought straight before the spirit of Guertena himself, who promised an eternity of torture for us two and unending war for the rest of you, and this all would've happened were it not for Mary. As he was gloating Mary suddenly attacked her father and gave us enough time break free from his grasp, and together the three of us were then able to bring him down. That is how she received the injuries she has now. That is why Ib and I are here right now, and from what I've heard, and that's why the monsters' ranks suddenly fell apart when we finally defeated Guertena. If turning on her creator isn't a sign of free will then I don't know what is! We owe all of this to Mary, and now your general seeks to cut her open like a lab rat. Not only that, but he explicitly requested that we not bring any of this up in front of all of you, for fear that any 'bleeding hearts' would be upset!"

All eyes now fell on Landon, who was growing red in the face. The soldiers who had had their gaze fixed on Ib and Garry were now staring straight at their commanding officer, as if everything had just been reversed.

"So here's my question for you, General Landon." Garry continued after a short pause. "Do you think this is right?! Mary has just saved untold thousands of lives and possibly humanity as a whole or a large chunk of it. She risked her own life for us, and this is how we reward her?! Are the lives of Ib, myself, and who knows how many of your own men less important than whatever sick knowledge we can gain by cutting open this living, thinking being on a dissection table?! If this is the sort of humanity that we were fighting for, then I don't what makes us any better than the other side! That is all I have to say! If you're going to arrest us now, go ahead and do it!"

None of the military police made a move. Seconds felt like centuries. All eyes remained on Landon. Everyone held their breath.

Finally, Landon reached for his handset and radioed in, "Landon here. Listen, I'm cancelling the delivery of Mary to the lab – Why?! I have my reasons! Over!" With a snort Landon jammed the handset back into his coat pocket, stated that he was rescinding the arrest order for Ib and Garry, and then started to stalk off. After a few steps though he stopped and turned around. "Okay listen you two," he said crossly, glaring at Ib and Garry, "You're lucky that you already contributed so much to our cause, but mark my words! Mary might not be headed for the lab anymore, but she isn't going free. If you want me to treat her like a human, then fine I will, and will have her imprisoned like any other goddamn war criminal. I will have that witch prosecuted for everything she and her father caused, and I will do my best to ensure she is punished to the fullest extent possible under the law! You hear me?!"

"Yes," calmly replied Garry, "and we will do our best to ensure that the court hears the other side of the story as well."

"Well God bless you, but God damn you! Now prepare to return with the rest of the army to the other side of the portal! Dismissed!" With that, Landon turned around, instructed the driver of the prison truck to switch his destination, and set off on his way for real this time, muttering, "You're such a pushover." Meanwhile, the guards resumed loading Mary back into the truck's back, except now bound for the detention cell as opposed to the dissection room. As the guards prepared to slam the back doors shut, Ib and Mary's eyes met one last time.

Ib saw her fabricated friend mouth the words "thank you."

"What do you think is going to happen to the Fabricated World now?" Ib asked Garry. Now back in the real world, Ib and Garry mostly kept to themselves, away from the celebratory atmosphere in the rest of the barracks. Tomorrow they would be reunited with their families, this time hopefully for good. But for now, the days' events were all they could think of.

Garry shrugged. "I dunno. Most likely the government in partnership with several corporations will try to find a way to commercially exploit its supernatural properties. As for the town, it will probably become re-centered around this portal once the rebuilding starts." There was a period of silence, and then he asked a new question. "Anyway, how… how did you find it in you to stand up to the general like that? You're normally so soft-spoken."

"I… I don't know… It all just burst forward as if it had been building up inside me. I – I just couldn't stand by and let them do that to Mary…"

Garry smiled and put his hand on Ib's shoulder. "Well I didn't know I had it in me either, but either way, I think we did the right thing…" He stared off absentmindedly. "It's as if we all have some innate potential for mutual understanding and empathy, even as we also hold the potential for mutual hatred and dehumanization. Now that I think about it, even Landon seemed to hesitate when he learned that Mary saved us before resolving to carry out his original intentions, and it also had an impact on the soldiers as well. It's as if being human means having both aspects in us, both individually and as a society, and the question becomes which one wins out…" Garry realized at that point that he was starting to go off on one of his rambles and stopped.

To his surprise though, Ib did not look confused. "Which part then do you think will win when it comes to what happens to Mary?" she asked, looking straight at Garry with her ruby red eyes.

Her friend took a moment to think. "Well," Garry finally said, "that depends in part on us. The way for us to support Mary now is to make sure that everyone who hears Landon's side of the story, also will hear her, no, our side of the story as well. To make sure they hear that Mary is not 'just a painting.' Without our cooperation, it will be hard for anyone to gather enough evidence to punish Mary severely… We are a screwed up species that routinely kills millions over perceived differences, but every now and then the better angels of our nature prevail, and our job in life is to try to make that happen whenever it can, be it with Mary or anyone else, human or otherwise."

(I was considering a couple possible endings when I began writing the story in earnest. A 'dark' ending where Ib and Garry remain silent and thereby become complicit in whatever horrible fate awaits Mary. A more mixed ending in which Ib finds and destroys Mary's painting as a form of mercy killing. Etc. Ultimately though, I am a huge sucker for happy endings, or at least partially happy endings, so here we are.)

(It has been one year since I started this fanfiction, give or take a day depending on your time zone. When I first began it I never imagined that I would have any following or just what an amazing journey this would be for you and/or me. This marks the conclusion of The Rejected. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible.)