Here's part 2! The end of the story is nigh!

Arnold watched in amazement and utter fear as the Green-Eyed chief began to chant in his foreign dialect. His arms waved around Helga's frail figure, green mist circling above. The mist turned into a thick cloud and began to enter into her body. He wondered if it was purifying her. The chanting grew stronger.

His parent's hands simultaneously squeezed his shoulders in reassurance. His heart thudded in his ears and he suddenly held back a cry of alarm at seeing her body spasm like that on the slab of stone. It reminded him of one of those sacrificial rituals he had learned about in school and he didn't like it one bit. His stomach clenched and his heart palpitated with anxiety.

The chief's eyes began to glow green from the emitted power through his chanting on the girl. A moment later, Arnold's eyes widened when he saw purple smoke beginning to exit out of Helga's chest. Her body rose into the air a few inches from the action, head dipped back and mouth agape. As soon as all the violet smoke left, a burst of white light enveloped her just as the chief bellowed the ending of his incantation.

Arnold brought up an arm to shield his eyes from the offending light. When the light dimmed back down, he brought it back down and saw Helga's body floating back down until she lay sprawled out on the slab once more. There was a beat of silence that rang throughout the area when the chief lowered both his arms and his head as if ending an orchestral piece.

Arnold's heart beat wildly in his chest and he could've sworn it was the loudest thing in the room. He saw the chief lift his head and look over at them.

He nodded with a gentle smile.

Arnold didn't need to hear or see any other form of indication as he sprinted over to her. The chief saw this and stepped back to allow privacy. Arnold kneeled next to her and lay a shaky hand on her shoulder.

"Helga…?" His tiny voice pleaded, reverberating in the cave.

A beat. Then he felt her shift under him, eyes fluttering open with a groan. Arnold blinked back tears of joy as her eyes shifted to his. She blinked a few times in amazement before her mouth opened.

"A…Arnold?" She whispered, not believing her eyes.

A beacon of light shone through Arnold's beaming smile as he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her middle in total excitement.

"Helga! You're alright!"

Said girl was completely taken aback by this sudden action from her beloved. A warmth traveled through her from the feel of his arms around her. Her face flushed from the slight intimate contact and her thoughts ran rampant with overzealous joy. She swooned and sighed and poetically reminded herself that Arnold was indeed hugging her with worry and care.

Shaking her head violently to clear out her current romantic inner soliloquy, she pushed Arnold off of her and brought back up her walls once more, giving him a half assed scowl.

"Doi, I'm alright, football head! What do I look like to you, a china doll? It'd take more than some dumb flower to take down Helga G. Pataki! And where are we anyways? Some kind of cult gathering? What's up with the headdresses?"

Helga took the time to look around confusingly before setting her eyes back on Arnold, who was trying hard not to laugh at her befuddlement. She became defensive again at the sight of Arnold keeping in his laughter.

"What?" She bit out angrily.

"It's good to see you acting like yourself again, Helga," Arnold half laughed out, grinning at her.

Helga only blinked in surprise at that before giving a small smile of her own, which Arnold quietly admitted to himself that she had a cute smile. Before Helga could retort, two figures came up behind Arnold and placed their hands on his shoulders. Helga looked up to see Miles and Stella smiling fondly down at her.

"Helga, was it? Hi, I'm Miles and this is my wife, Stella," Miles greeted as he stuck out his hand towards her. Helga took it into her own and shook it with a smile of her own.

Stella crouched down to her level. "We want to thank you for helping Arnold find us and for being there for him. You both are incredibly brave for what you've done."

Helga felt a swell of pride at that moment and she locked eyes with Arnold, who was also displaying a look of satisfaction. Feeling more like herself once more, Helga chuckled and thumbed over at Arnold.

"Yeah, well, ole' football head here would've been completely helpless without me so I suppose it is a good thing I tagged along, ya know?"

Arnold rolled his eyes at the typical comment from her and folded his arms. "You realize that the whole reason why you're here is because of my help, right?"

Helga scoffed. "Oh, please, Arnoldo, your parents did all the work there."

"Yeah, well, who saved you from falling off a cliff?"

"Only after I had to carry you a mile after stupidly falling on your ankle, hair boy!"

"Which was only because I managed to push you out of the way from that tree about to fall on you!"

"That was your fault that tree almost fell on me! I mean, criminy! Who takes refuge under a dilapidated tree that's hundreds of years old? Did I warn you? Yes! Did you listen? No! It's like trying to negotiate to a concrete wall or something!"

"Alright, you two, break it up," Miles said as he lay a hand on each of their shoulders and pushed them back. They continued to glare heatedly at one another, hands fisted.

"You already sound like an old married couple," Miles joked and Stella stifled a giggle.

Both blondes blushed wildly at the clichéd statement. Helga was the first to break their gaze and glanced embarrassingly behind her with a small pout. Arnold groaned and smacked a hand to his forehead. "Dad," he grunted in humiliation.

Miles laughed and ruffled up his son's hair. "I'm only kidding, Arnold! Your mother and I sound much worse than that." Stella elbowed him in the ribs playfully and her husband gave a nervous chuckle. Arnold smiled at the scene.

"What do you say we get outta here?" Stella asked them all.

Everyone agreed and stood up to walk out of the ancient temple, but not before bidding farewells to the Green Eyed people who they owed their lives to. Stella and Helga lead the way out as father and son trailed behind.

"Football head, huh?" Miles teased.

Arnold sighed, a light blush tinting his features. "Don't ask."

The blonde football headed ten year old looked on in amusement at his classmates. Everyone seemed to want to be boarding the plane as soon as possible and poor Mr. Simmons was trying his best to bring about order to the rowdy bunch.

"Class, please! I realize that our special time here has made us all very tired, but if you gather all your belongings and bring them to me then this whole ordeal will go by faster!" His words were more than enough to convince half the class to pack all their things hastily.

Eugene came skipping up with Sheena to give their bags to Mr. Simmons when Eugene's foot caught in an uprooted branch and he fell flat on his face. Mr. Simmons gazed down worriedly.

"I'm okay…" Eugene whined out.

Stinky, Sid, and Harold were pushing one another to get to Mr. Simmons, bags in hands.

"Outta the way, Stinky! I deserve to get on that plane first!"

"You're a dang fool for believin' in that, Sid, on account of you wantin' to sacrifice us to those brutes!"

"THIS PLACE SCARES ME! I'M GOING HOME TO MY MOMMY!"

"Boy Howdy, I don't think I've ever seen Harold move that fast in my life."

All three boys had managed to bring their bags to their teacher and waited for the plane to arrive. Arnold rolled his eyes at the sight of Curly still in his native uniform trying to woo an irritated Rhonda who was also waiting for the plane in disgust. Everyone was dirty from the trip so it was no wonder they wanted to go home.

"Oh, baby sister! I missed you so much! I'm so glad that you're safe!"

Arnold turned to see Helga's older sister, Olga, squeezing the life out of the girl. The latter allowed the hug to continue for a second longer before roughly pushing her sister away with her traditional scowl.

"Okay, okay! Enough with the all this hugging crap! Criminy, I can't even get a second to myself!"

Arnold felt a presence beside him and turned to see Gerald also staring at Helga with his arms crossed. He smiled to himself and shook his head.

"You're a bold kid, Arnold. You know that, right?"

Arnold simply smiled back at him. A sudden noise caught their attention and they looked up to see their plane coming in to land. Gerald turned to him this time.

"So you really gunna stay with your parents here?"

Arnold nodded. "It won't be for too long, Gerald. They just need to take care of a few things before coming back to the neighborhood."

Mr. and Mrs. Shortman walked up to the two with bags over their shoulders. "Go ahead and finish up here, kiddo. We'll be waiting in the car," Miles said and winked at Gerald. "We'll be seeing you soon, Gerald."

"You can count on that, Mr. Shortman!" Gerald coolly replied with a thumbs up.

Miles laughed as he and his wife went over to the Jeep. Arnold and Gerald approached the other classmates eagerly waiting to be boarded. Arnold made sure to say goodbye to each of them and told them he'd be back in a few months. A teary eyed Mr. Simmons hugged Arnold.

"It was very special having you in my class, Arnold. I'm glad you were able to find your parents. I look forward to seeing you in the near future."

Before anything could get more awkward between them, Arnold bid farewell and turned to see a blue blur crash into him and hug him tightly. "Please don't forget to write, Arnold!" Pheobe said with a watery smile before releasing him.

"Yeah, man, just don't hang out here for too long otherwise I'll die from boredom!" Gerald exclaimed as he held up his thumb.

Arnold grinned and clasped his other hand with his, both of them wiggling their thumbs together. "I won't."

As they parted, Arnold heard a voice just behind him. "So guess I won't be seeing you for a while, huh?"

The boy turned to face Helga. Her gaze was averted shyly and face set into a pout, arms folded. Even her pigtails seemed to droop lower. He smiled and walked up to her.

"Hey, Helga, can you hold onto something for me while I'm gone?"

She raised one side of her brow. "Uh, sure, what—"

She stopped short when Arnold reached up to kiss her softly on the lips briefly. Helga's face immediately fell in surprise and her cheeks flared in response. She gaped like a fish out of water and had to physically slap herself across the face to wipe off the look. Arnold reeled back a bit in surprise.

"Uh, you okay, Helga?"

"Huh? Me? Oh, yeah, yeah, I-I'm just peachy," she stammered out nervously.

He smiled at her with a blush. "So do you think you could hang onto that until I get back?"

"Hang onto what?" She asked a bit dazedly before seeming to remember as she blushed again. "Oh! Um, that. Y-yeah, I suppose I could." She smiled at him and he seemed to realize something because he took off his little blue hat.

"Also, I want you to hold onto this as well."

Helga gazed at him in shock. "Your hat? But…why?"

Arnold pulled back his sleeve to show that her pink bow was still wrapped around the wound he received the day before. "I figured that if we both keep something of each other's then it'll help us remember that we'll see each other again."

Helga couldn't think of anything to say as he handed his precious hat towards her. She took it silently and held it carefully in her hands as if it were made of glass. "I…wow, Arnold, thanks. I'll, uh, make sure to keep it safe." As soon as those words left her lips she couldn't help but add, "But don't think I'll be doing you any favors, football head!"

As Mr. Simmons called for Helga to board he gave her his half lidded smile.

"Whatever you say, Helga."

THE END

I embrace the fluff between Helga and Arnold wholeheartedly. Helga is my favorite character of all time. She's just such a dynamic character and I love how they developed her throughout the series. Thanks for reading!

Pheobe: Helga, where have you been? I've been attempting to contact you. My parents won't let me keep-

*Limping savagely to the parrot* Helga: Not... now...