"We don't have to do this..." Ren muttered as the ferry slowed to a stop at the pier.

Jonas chuckled softly and shrugged. "You can ride the boat with Karen back to the mainland if you aren't feeling it. But me? I need to see that cave again and hear the static. I need to know for sure that we ended things."

Alex lifted her little radio with a cheeky smile while tugging Nona closer against her. "We did, I'm positive. So, I'm looking forward checking a few cairns for rogue channels, and then we're gonna go star-gaze on the beach with some beers, the way things were supposed to go last time." Nona lifted her own matching WAL radio that she had held onto from the night, happy to provide a second just in case they wanted to do some extra breaking and entering.

Before Nona could say her piece, Clarissa wrapped around the two of them possessively and grinned. "Any time-ghost that tries to get between me and a fun night is going to be in for a shock."

"Yeah!" she finally chimed in excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet with a small giggle.

Between the five of them, they were able to get the cooler down to the beach and set things up just like before. This time, there were also snacks, and Ren had thought ahead to bring a backpack full of stuff to help with entertainment and fun. But this time around, they knew not to have alcohol or drugs until they were absolutely certain the coast was clear – either of authorities or monsters.

They had all night to explore most of the island, of course, but each of them had certain places that they really weren't interested in investigating. Jonas was nervous about hearing that song again. Ren didn't want to end up back in the woods at Relay Point where he was almost possessed. Neither Clarissa or Nona wanted to end up back in Fort Milner and the RCS where some truly awful things happened. Only Alex – brave, stupid, amazing Alex – was comfortably scouring every single inch of the place. And scour she did. On her original 'scavenger hunt' she had found an entire list's worth of interesting things to investigate. Literally, she had brought a list along with her radio to make sure she hit everything she wanted to see.

As they wandered back up to Epiphany Fields from the beach, Nona looked over at Clarissa with a mischievous smile. "Okay so... At some point we have to break back in to the old Adler estate. Maybe we can do that when everyone else goes over to the military base."

"Hmmm, won't be nearly as exciting now that all the stuff is gone. But I hear they're gonna convert it into a museum, so that's cool."

"W-Well,we can still sit on the dock and just take a little breather or something." In truth, Nona also just wanted to get a little time alone with Clarissa. There were things she wanted to talk to her about. And while it made her feel like a bad girlfriend, sometimes she could still get a little jealous and enjoy one-on-one time without Alex. Even five minutes would be nice.

"I mean, I know it's been a few months, but it's still weirding me out how much stuff has changed. I don't think I realized all that crap was dumped here by those portal things. All the tape players and chairs and desks and... Man, no wonder a simple wooden chair gave me the heebies." Alex was muttering softly as she led the way through the bunker toward the cave. She seemed to be keeping up the chatter to calm herself, but just in case Nona offered up a hand to hold. Alex took it gladly.

"The jeebies?" Ren offered a bit of silliness in return, the banter a pretty common side effect of their friendship.

Jonas laughed, as was often becoming his reaction to their behavior. He had accidentally inherited a brother along with his sister. He played the part of the long-suffering older sibling, but it was obvious he enjoyed his new family. "The spookiest of scaries. Which is impressive since they had to compete with possessions and games of death."

It took the combined strength of the two siblings to get the door open, and all five of them were a little in disbelief as they looked around. Everything was gone – the huge desk, the wardrobe, hell even the graffiti was gone! It was... just a cave. It wasn't particularly ethereal or beautiful anymore. Just... a cave.

Everyone stood around while Nona and Alex fiddled around with their radios. Aside from catching about two seconds of a lost frequency from a baseball game, that was it. Things seemed to have finally gone back to normal. But no one would be satisfied until the entire island had been given the all-clear. So the hunt began for every conceivable zone of weirdness that any of them could find. Even if each of them had their own 'no fly zones' so to speak, between five kids and two radios, they were able to search nearly everywhere.

By midnight, there really wasn't anything left to investigate. They had each weaved their way back to the beach once more. Clarissa was making her way toward a towel near the cooler filled with drinks when Nona gently tugged at her arm. "C'mon, we're not quite done yet, remember?" Without meaning to, she had apparently initiated her puppy dog eyes, because her girlfriend broke out in a massive grin, pecking her playfully on the lips.

"One last crime."

The WAL radio sang it's little song as the lock on the gate popped and Nona gave a contented little sigh. "I don't think I could ever get tired of that. It's like magic."

Clarissa laughed as she pulled Nona along through the open gate and up toward the house. "One more to go Miss Wizard. C'mon!" They went up to the front door of the building and Nona worked her spell one last time. The building was actually almost as full as it had been the last time they were here. However, things had been massively rearranged, and there were several new fixtures to indicate that the installation of a museum was already well under way.

Showing absolutely zero chill, Clarissa was still tugging Nona all the way through the house/museum upstairs until she found something comfortable they could collapse onto. Once more, it turned out to be Maggie Adler's bed. With a little squeal, Nona flopped on top of her girlfriend and was pulled into a playful embrace. Clarissa's hands were already slipping underneath her shirt and brushed against her sides slowly as the two of them made eye contact with massive grins. "An entire night alone on an island that's finally not haunted? This is fantastic."

"I'll say~" said someone that definitely was not Nona.

"Of course, that bed would only see action after you died, honey," came another voice.

"Ahhh!" Both girls separated, sitting up lightning fast and looking around the room. A short distance away, hovering slightly above the worn boards of the floor were two spectral figures. While they giggled together as though this was the funniest thing in the world, Nona forced her heart rate to slow down. Finally some part of her brain registered what was happening here, though it felt somehow more insane than everything else they'd done back in the spring. "...Maggie? A-Anna?"

They continued to giggle together until finally one of them nodded and waved cheerfully. "Let me see, if I recall correctly, you are... Nona? And Clarissa?"

The two on the bed nodded dumbly.

"We saw that the five of you had returned to the island tonight, but we were uncertain how to go about saying hello. Then Anna noticed the two of you slipping away and... well... we were curious what you were up to. It's wonderful that people are not nearly so judgmental as they were back in our day. Granted, losing the love of your life to a horrible portal doesn't help the situation either..." Maggie mused with a hint of melancholy. But Anna took her hand and the blues were gone again. "Anyhow, we were rather hoping we might get to talk to the others as well, thank you all properly."

"They're down on the beach. If you uh... wouldn't uh... could maybe just... give us a second?" Clarissa cleared her throat and looked away anxiously. So just how far had she been meaning to go, enjoying their alone time?

Still tittering like a couple of church ladies, they disappeared through the floor and made their way for the beach. Nona released a long sigh before glancing toward Clarissa, her eyebrows curving up sympathetically. "Um, so I don't wanna make them wait forever, but I just... jeez... I don't even know, I just wanted to talk about like... college and stuff and... sorta feels small now."

Clarissa's hand brushed over her cheek and she kissed her softly on the forehead. "It's not small. Figuring out college stuff is kind of a huge deal, and we should absolutely figure it out together. But why didn't you want Alex around?"

"Because... I mean I love her too. But I can't shake the realization I had that if it came down to it, I would much rather be at a school near you. Like if someone were holding a gun to my head and all, and I absolutely had to pick, y'know? Just... y-you're my Clarissa. That's the short version of what I wanted to say. And I couldn't think of a way to say it around her that didn't sound super shitty."

There was another kiss to her forehead, and then she was urged to stand up from the bed so they could leave the house. "I'll help you come up with something diplomatic. Hah, god, listen to me. Actually learning how to be diplomatic. It's a brave new world."

"Oh brave new world, that has such ghosts in it?"

"Exactly."

Everyone else was, understandably, just as shocked to see the girls come back to the beach with two ghosts in tow. Nona went immediately to the cooler, grabbing up two beers and passing one to Clarissa. She chugged the beverage in one go, and it looked like the other girl was doing the same. They finished simultaneously with dramatic gasps, cans crushed and tossed in the nearby garbage bag.

Alex, naturally, was the first to figure it out and eagerly ran up to them. "Maggie! Anna!" She attempted to throw herself into a big hug with the ghosts, but instead just kinda passed through them in an impressive leap. "Hah... right, duh Alex... Ghosts." She turned to face them, beaming, as though she hadn't just completely embarrassed herself. "It's so cool that you guys are here! But... you didn't pass on?"

"Wait wait, how is it that in all the crazy shit we saw, you never showed up, Maggie?" Jonas was cool and collected, like always. There was a reason the dude was so mega-popular.

The woman looked completely unbothered by the question and just offered a good-natured laugh. "The crew of the Kanaloa was using up a great deal of energy, and things were only made more chaotic with the portals opening. I was here, certainly, but there was no way for me to become even a little corporeal. Now, however, it's just the two of us, and it's much easier to go about as we please."

Anna nodded sagely. "As for 'passing on' well... we certainly could, at any time really. But, as I'm sure you can imagine, Maggie wasn't content to let her home fall into hell ever again. So we stay here, voluntarily, and keep an eye on things. In case there aren't kids like you around to save things next time."

"Just to play the devil's advocate, nothing would have happened if Alex hadn't tuned into that triangle in the first place," Clarissa added with a smug smirk.

Maggie shot her a silencing glare, and surprisingly it worked. Clarissa's face fell, and Nona burst out in soft giggling. "Yes, but sometimes the only way to fix a massive problem is to meddle in a smaller one. Before the portal could be mended, it had to be ripped open. And the only way to properly give all those spirits peace was to actually learn about them and talk with them. Alex, please, never lose that investigative edge of yours."

Alex's face lit up with a big smile. It was adorable, and it reminded Nona that while Clarissa would undoubtedly come first, she still loved her in a very special way. "I always wanted to be a journalist."

The two ghosts shared one more fond look with each other. Anna just seemed so happy. "Well, we certainly had no interest in taking up your entire night. We just wanted to be sure to give you a quick visit and say our thanks. Me especially. It was a nightmare being in that place, and while I may not have been granted my humanity back, I can still spend my eternity with Maggie. That's more than I thought I would ever get."

Just like that, they were gone, as though a strong breeze had blown away a puff of smoke. The five teens shared a look and suddenly broke out in bright laughter, at the absurdity of it all. Ren started passing out food and drinks and broke out his copy of Cards Against Humanity. Nona and Clarissa shared a towel with Alex, their hero. Jonas and Ren clinked their cans of beer together in a toast to the second-weirdest night of their lives. They still had nearly six hours before the ferry would show up, and they planned to use their time well.

Even if the future was uncertain and scary, Nona was sure that she would be prepared to handle it. After all, once you kissed your best friend to wake her up from super-ghost possession, what else could really shake you?