All that Judy could do at the moment was stand where she was, frozen in place. Her mouth naturally agape, the doe motionlessly watched as the first moments on the countdown clocks above her speedily ticked by.

Cocking her head sharply over to a corner, she could observe several air ducts opening upward. From what assumptions she could make, those ducts were presumably being opened by the artificial intelligence in preparation for the emitting of the toxic essence. Another illuminated plane above her read "Emission Systems Generating: Approximately 5% Complete."

Finally regaining her ability to speak again, she murmured under her breath, "Sweet cheese and crackers."

"Well, do you just plan on standing there with your mouth hanging wide open like a half-wit, hoping that I'll change my mind and deactivate the systems?" the operating system near the doe said in mockery. "If I didn't know any better, based on that dumbfounded look you're giving me right now, I would've mistaken you for just another dumb bunny despite all of your feats to get to me."

The teasing words of the robot reached Judy's ears, and her face ended up replacing her confused expression with one that was frowned and stern in nature. With a grunt, the doe tapped her paw on the ground.

Meanwhile, Nick, in the midst of Judy's consternation, was pacing around a different corner of the gray space. Also appearing to be in a little bit of frustration, the vulpine gazed around the room as he looked for some sort of way to either get out or manage to shut down the giant robotic menace. An orange portal ended up being casted a small height above the fox, causing him to get slightly spooked when it appeared. The portal opened up a few seconds later, and Judy ended up popping right from the other side of it.

Nick turned his head over the rabbit, seeing the look on her muzzle that indicated that she was currently in the middle of conjuring something up within her mind. "Hope you have a good plan, Fluff, 'cause there ain't no way to just shut the stupid thing down." After a brief pause, he additionally murmured, "It's a damn shame that you can't just pull the breaker for this room or somethin'."

Judy shook her head, gripping tightly onto the portal device in her left paw. "Don't be ridiculous," she said, not exactly in the mood for the stupid words that the fox presumably thought were going to be some sort of comical relief. "Don't you think we would've seen it if there was some kind of power grid out in the open? This isn't some game we're livin' in, Nick!"

Right next to where the giant, ever-so-sinister operating system was built, a spot opened up in the cold floors. Similar to what they had encountered on their trek to this particular spot, a gray spherical core with a blue laser being pointed from it had ascended. However, unlike the previous one that they dealt with, this one seemed to scan the room faster as it looked for its new target. As fate would have it, it locked itself right in the middle of where the fox and rabbit were standing as they trailed their thoughts and plans.

The computerized sounds coming from the sphere reached the Judy's ears, making them perk up, she tugged on Nick's side to get his attention. "Nick, run!" she exclaimed.

Naturally, the vulpine entered a state of panic once his mind registered that the laser was locked on him. The fox yipped and sprinted away before the ammunition that the core dispensed could even come out. Judy followed soon enough and dropped onto the floor as the fox ran away like a frightened kit.

Boom!

The ammunition coming from the sphere with laser hit the gray wall away from the two mammals. Judy jumped and let out a small gasp upon its impact, and Nick, from a few feet away, looked over with widened eyes and a paw clutching near his chest.

The sphere started to spin across the room, repeating its built-in process all over again like nothing ever happened. Judy immediately picked herself off of the floor and ran over to join the vulpine, who still stood idly in his spot.

"Come on, Nick!" Judy compelled.

As the two sprinted, the laser trailing right behind their tails, Judy quickly relocated an orange portal on a wall located on the far side of the room. After the leporine shot a blue portal underneath them, the two were transported to a different location.

The rabbit peaked her head to the left, and something managed to catch her eye. What caught her attention was a small platform, circular in shape with a small sliver cut within it that seemed to serve as an observational window. It was elevated by four rusty steps, and it also had some sort of red button located within it that served a purpose that they were both unsure about at the current moment.

Judy grabbed onto Nick's paw and dragged him up the four steps (which almost felt like they were going to break apart once their weight was placed upon them). Once they got in the circular "safe zone," the doe crouched down onto the small floor covering the platform, holding her portal device close to her.

"Crouch down!" the rabbit commanded, and the fox nearby did as he was designated.

Judy stealthily peaked through the spot and looked around. From her observations, the laser couldn't detect that they were in this particular spot as long as they weren't visible.

However, the vulpine ended up putting his head through the sliver of a look-out within the platform, and the laser immediately started to run its head back around. Unlike how the rabbit managed to look out without being seen to the unaided eye, the fox just completely stuck his head through and made him bluntly visible to the machine that sought to get him.

"No, get down!" Judy imperatively whispered, pulling the fox back down into his previously huddled position.

The rabbit went back to thinking, trying to quickly figure something out. The time limit didn't make anything easier for her when it came to devising a plan, but within a few short moments she managed to put something together.

As the lightbulb went off in her brain, Judy turned her head back over to the vulpine and said, "Okay, I got a plan. For right now, we're gonna split up."

Nick was taken aback for a moment as he listened in to the idea that the rabbit was proposing. "What the- Carrots, splitting up is, like, one of the worst things to do."

"You need to trust me, okay?" the doe replied, feeling certain that things would go according to plan. "Just keep your head down and away from that laser's range and I'll do the rest. Do you understand?"

Nick silently nodded in compliance, and Judy got back up again and ran down the decrepit steps of the platform.

The laser came near her as she went along, and she let it lock near where she was. Before it could dispense its ammunition yet another time, she swiftly ran away from where it was pointing at. What she figured out was that by doing what she had done, she had a few brief seconds to run to another spot before the system went back to scanning for its target.

Let's pray this works, Judy thought as she darted to another corner.

Her head calculated what she needed to do pretty quickly, and she started to execute her plan. Her head surveyed the walls that she was steadily approaching, as well as the system that they needed to shut down one way or another.

Judy fired a portal high above her on the nearby surface. Shortly afterwards, she intentionally let the laser lock on where she was standing. Once it made the sounds that implied that it found a target, she fired another portal near where she stood and speedily dove away.

The plan her brain hatched worked just as she expected it to. When the spherical core released its ammunition, it flew right through the blue portal and right out the orange one, flying right above and heading straight for the operating system. Stretching her neck, the doe looked upwards and watched as the robot ended up getting hit by what was basically its own weaponry.

Bang!

The sudden popping sound of ammunition hitting against steel rung in the rabbit's ears, and she backed up as the gigantic piece of machinery started to squirm where it had been hanging from the ceiling. When the strike occurred, it was also observable that the laser seemed to come to a halt for a few seconds, too, leaving enough for Judy to get out of the way.

After running a few paces away, the doe saw something drop out from the robot, hitting the floor with a detectable thud. When it dropped to the ground, she admitted to herself that her curiosity was piqued in the midst of the time-sensitive situation.

The laser started to circumnavigate the perimeter, and Judy mentally confirmed that the strike didn't manage to completely destroy the systems. Not yet, at least, she thought. Perhaps I need to just keep doing what I'm doing and maybe that thing will just seize function.

Her eyes darted back to the countdown clocks, and she noticed that time was ticking away a little bit faster than she had originally thought (as it always seemed to do whenever one didn't wish for it to tick away so quickly). Her mind fully registered to start running again once the five minutes ticked its way to four minutes and fifty-nine seconds.

Something in the back of her head was telling to go grab that object that fell from the machine. Listening to the urge that her mind seemed to be giving her, she nimbly ran into the middle of the hall. Using the mode that picked objects up on her portal device, she lifted up the object in questioning and darted away with it like a thief carrying a sack of stolen goods.

Now what do I do with this thing? she asked herself. I don't have a freakin' clue what it even does, let alone what I need to do with it next.

The object was a core, quite similar to the ones that dispensed the lasers but quite different. Although plain gray and metallic in its appearance, it had a deep yellow "eye" in the middle of it that seemed to survey the room. It was as if the little machine was studying things.

The doe's first instinct was to sprint back over to the platform that Nick was still hiding within, and that was the action that she took next. Still carrying around the core with the portal device, she made her way up the little steps and into the little observatory station. She immediately dropped the core onto the ground, and it hit the flooring with a small bump.

The core gazed around the area, its eye looked as if it was looking at both Nick and Judy. "Who are you two?" it asked, intrigued in a way.

Judy got down on the ground, level with the fox who still remained in a stealthy, huddled position.

"What is that thing?" Nick asked. "And why is it asking so many questions?"

"No clue, but we need to get to figure out how to get rid of it, Nick," Judy replied, quickly speaking in an effort to save herself as much as time as she possibly could. "That thing fell out of her, so it had to be part of controls somehow. If my assumptions right, we have to dispose of this thing."

Seeming a little too chill for being in a scenario that could turn deadly if handled improperly, Nick relaxed a place his arm up against the cylinder button that was in the platform they were hiding in. His paw accidentally slipped against it, and a bloop sounded behind him. The fox darted his paw back, thinking he had done something wrong again.

"What did you-" the doe went to reply. She thought that the fox ended up making something get progressively worse by pressing the button, but her peripheral vision noticed something to the corner of her.

She realized what the button's purpose was, as well as what it seemed to be connected to within this hall. Within a corner of the room was a large, oval-shaped container that had some sort of protective covering over it. When it unlocked and opened up, an orange glow came from inside of it. Judy immediately recognized that the cylinder thing was an incinerator, and she started to get an idea.

A buzz sound resonated near them, similar to the sound one hears on a game show when they answer a question incorrectly, A few moments after the buzz, the incinerator locked back up with its shield of protection.

The doe held a paw up to the vulpine. "Wait, Nick," she said, "press that button again."

The fox said nothing in response—no sly responses coming from him for the time being—and pressed the button a second time. After the bloop, just as Judy suspected, the incinerator opened back up.

Within a flash, the leporine scooped her portal device back up off of the ground and picked up the core back up with it again. The core was still darting its eye around and sprouting out its annoying spree of inquiries.

"Stay put!" Judy compelled to Nick. "And press that button when I say so, okay?"

The fox nodded as the doe swiftly ran back out into the rest of the room like a soldier reentering a battlefield.

Meanwhile, Judy made way over as fast those quick and nimble rabbit paws of hers could carry her. Her head cocking back over to the left of her as she continued to run, Judy exclaimed, "Nick! Button, now!"

Giving a quick thumb's-up, Nick called back, "I'm on it, Carrots!"

Bloop!

The fox did as he was requested and pressed the button. When he did, on the opposite side of him, the incinerator that Judy was near opened up and let out the undesirable heat that it contained.

Without a moment's hesitation, Judy pressed a button on her portal device and dropped the core that she was carrying right into the small flammable abyss. Not even two seconds later did she hear a small buzzing noise, and the protective covering of the incinerator closed up again.

Right when she turned her body around, a sudden, startling noise sliced its way across the entire room.

Boom!

What she heard sounded like some sort of explosion, louder than the bang created by any firework display that she ever witnessed. After the humongous boom sounded off across the place, the ground under her paws started to shake like there was a miniature earthquake going on within the building.

The doe trembled as the floors quaked, struggling a little bit to maintain her balance and stay up on her feet. From the corner of her eye, she could Nick also a little unprepared for the way that the room was swaying. The vulpine from afar seemed to be grabbing onto the thin railing on the platform that he was on, grasping on like to it with all he had.

An additional sound entered the air, coming directly from the machine that they were brawling. It almost sounded like a shout of pain, but a little more computerized in its tone. For a very quick moment, the noise made the rabbit shiver.

The floors stopped shaking around them, and Judy, regaining her ability to remain balanced, started run once again. The doe looked over, among a quick observation that the giant operating system seem to have two cores, similar to the one that just got incinerated, attached to her frame. After quickly looking back at the time (which still had a time limit that she felt certain was plenty of time to do what she needed to do), she repeated the process that she did for the first core for the succeeding ones.

The timer screens suddenly cut out, not reading their series of numbers for a brief moment before coming back on. Judy's ears perked at another nearby sound that they detected, but they ended up drooping upon seeing the source of the noises.

The vents that were presumably going to dispense the engineered neurotoxin were opening further out. Nothing was coming out of them at the current moment, but it was the fact of what would be yet to come from them that made the leporine give a quick but slightly nervous look.

Yet another time, she managed to reposition where the laser's strike was supposed to land. The core, unlike the previous ones, seemed to fly through the air due to the impact being much more forceful than the others.

Warped and distorted noises started to gurgle from out of the machine, a sign to Judy that things were working out the way that she wanted them to. The robot was no doubt starting to experience technical difficulties from what it had endured. What appeared to be a faint amount of smoke started to come from where the robot was, and a few loose sparks started to fall down like raindrops from thick wires that were becoming visible to the eye.

The laser nearby seized for the moment, and Judy sprinted without any hesitation. Building up with a good amount of speed, the doe fired a blue portal a few inches from her feet and swiftly dove right into it.

She came out of the orange portal a good height above the flooring (that way the laser wasn't immediately able to come into contact with her), and she started drop right back down to the ground. A few moments before she could come into contact with the cold ground, she slickly relocated a portal right within her trajectory. When she came back out the orange portal yet another time, she ended up speedily flying through the air a good distance thanks to her gained momentum. The way that she simply flew in and out of the portals and through the air made her look like some sort of trapeze artist.

In order for her to make a safe landing on the ground, she repositioned the portal another time. When she saw the third and final core coming near her, she managed to get a hold of it before gravity took its toll and brought back down to the ground.

Not even taking a few seconds, Judy kept rushing forward. However, in an effort to get to the incinerator as quick she could, she ended up brushing up against some nearby metallic debris that made her scrape her leg, trip and clumsily pummel to the floor.

The laser, which started to encircle the room faster like it was increasing in its difficulty, was coming near Judy at any given moment.

From the observation area, Nick caught sight of the hurt doe and the weapon that was about to think of her as its target. An expression of concern coalescing on his muzzle, he knew that he couldn't just stay put.

"Carrots!" Nick exclaimed, getting up as fast as he could.

The vulpine swiftly breezed down the steps. The laser was locked square near the where the injured doe was, ready to fire. With the adrenaline pumping through him in that moment, the fox sprinted over, picked the doe, who still was holding onto both her portal device that was carrying the core, up in his arms and ran back over to the observation platform.

Once they got to a safer location, Judy looked up at the vulpine and asked, "Nick? W-What are you doing?"

"I couldn't just leave you behind watch you get hurt, Fluff," he responded, feeling slightly heroic for the time being. "That's what I'm supposed to do as your testing partner."

Her heartbeat slowing down from its previously wild rate, the doe smiled. "Awww," she said. "That's been the nicest thing that you've said to me throughout this whole journey." Her mind coming back to the present moment, she asked, "Nick, can you do something?"

The fox nodded in agreement, knowing that now was not the time to question any ideas that she had.

The rabbit stretched a paw as far she could, pressing the button in front of her but barely reaching it. After the bloop, they both knew that the incinerator was about to open. Judy gestured for Nick to run out a few paces, and he did exactly as she said.

"Go long!" the doe remarked, throwing the last core his direction.

The fox managed to grab onto the core as it came near him, looking like he was intercepting a passing football. It almost slipped out of his grip, but he managed to keep a hold of it. The core wiggled and squirmed within his grasp, as if it were almost trying to tell him to let go of it in some matter.

The vulpine ran to incinerator, slickly jumping over the laser's range as he rushed forward. He threw it in to where it needed to go right before the buzzer reverberated around them. Once the locks closed again, the fox was certain that the core had dropped into the flames.

The pop rang near him, followed by the uncanny noises coming from the robotic menace near them that had just been defeated. The laser core seized function, descending back down from its spot within the flooring.

The room stayed awfully silent for a brief moment. The screens all blacked out, lines of code scrolling down them. The sound of thumps coming from the ceiling high above the vulpine made him look up.

Judy quickly made her way over to the fox, smiling a bit with the knowledge that they just managed to take down what was controlling the entire operation of the facility.

Thump... Thump... Th-

The doe lifted her head as well, trying to get an idea fo what might have been causing the sounds coming from the ceiling.

"Maybe that's just hail?" Nick said, putting his paws behind his back.

A sudden boom came shortly afterwards, causing the hearts of both mammals to skip a beat. Judy ended up producing a sudden gasp at the sound.

Debris from the operating system started to break off and fall to the floor with a heavy thud. Wires, once kept in a considerably secure formation, now dangled and snaked downward from where they hung. The voice of robotic system started to garble in and out, and it seemed like the whole machine controlling the facility was starting to officially short-circuit.

The floors shook, and the room was starting to break down along with the machine.

"I think we better hit the deck!" Nick remarked, and Judy nodded.

The two started to run to a corner, getting a look back at the disaster occurring as they did, and hit the floors in the midst of the chaos. More pieces of equipment broke off in a sporadic pattern, and Nick and Judy both flinched as it did in hopes that they didn't get struck with anything.

A few seconds later, they saw light peaking inward, coming from the outside world. The two couldn't be any happier to see the sunshine coming outside of Aperture Science for the first time in what felt like a long time. The way that the luminosity peaked in looked similar to the beam that aliens shined down before an abduction was made.

A loud buzz echoed in the corner, presumably from some other kind of signaling device. Judy's ears drooped down at the sound of it, and an unknown voice started to announce its way into the room.

"This is not a test. All major systems are no longer operational," it declared, making both the hearts of both Nick and Judy beat faster than they already were. "Enrichment Center is no longer stabilized. Any personnel, please evacuate the building in a calm, orderly fashion. Once again, this is not a test."

The two got up and broke out into a run. Suddenly, without any type of warning whatsoever, they felt their bodies being lifted up off of the floor.

Looking down at the ground that gradually started to get further away, Nick nervously gulped and started to panic. Judy held onto the vulpine's paw, looking at him with a look that told him not to be afraid despite what was happening. The effulgence of light becoming brighter and even more dazzling as they ended up going higher and higher up off of the ground.

Some Time Later...

"It was all you, Fluff," the vulpine said, shrugging his shoulder as he strolled along, trying to find the nearest exit. "If anything, I should be telling you that you were a great help 'round here. If I'm bein' honest, I would've never gotten passed some of those difficult chambers awhile back."

Judy giggled under her breath, still smiling widely. "Yeah, you wouldn't have," she breathed. "But you helped out, too. Sure, was there times I wanted to whack you upside the head with the Weighted Companion Cube 'cause you weren't cooperating? Yes, yes there was. Overall, though, you actually made a really good testing partner."

Nick held a paw to his chest, feeling honored. "Well, that is surely high praise," he remarked. After a brief pause, he added under his breath, "So all the testing's done... So what are you gonna do now that all of the action's over with, Carrots?"

"I could always try to sign up for testing somewhere else," Judy replied. "I heard Black Mesa's looking for some new recruits. Perhaps they'll enlist me to be a part of their research team."

The fox snickered at the doe's suggestion. "Har har," he muttered under his breath.

"Seriously, though," the rabbit replied. "There is one other facility I considered heading to once this was over. You ever hear of that other hub that Aperture has?"

"Aperture Science Innovators?" the vulpine asked in reply. "Yeah, I'm familiar with it. Why's that?"

"Just wondered. They mentioned that place when I was signing up to do this experiment, and thought it'd be something to make note of just in case. I'll be heading to there probably as soon as I can."

Nick simply nodded his head in response. Something from the right corner caught the fox's eye, and he started pointing that direction. "Carrots, I think I see something coming up this way."

A scent arose from nearby as the fox and rabbit made a right. The aroma hit the vulpine, and in response his eyes brightened and a grin started to take form on his muzzle. Could it be? he asked to himself.

"That smell," he ended up muttering.

Judy turned her head over towards him. "What about it?"

"It's the cake!" the fox childishly exclaimed in response. "Oh, thank goodness the cake wasn't a lie! Oh, I can only pray that there's some blueberry in it somehow."

The doe snickered, shaking her head.

"What?" Nick replied. "I honestly can't get enough of anything that's got blueberry in it." The fox started walk a little faster down the passageway, the delectable aroma from the presumed cake getting closer and closer within range. "Come on, Carrots," he urged, Judy pausing temporarily as he continued forward. "Let's go get us some of that-"

Nick's words were cut midway, and Judy's ears registered the noise of some sort of unidentifiable machine. The fox suddenly came running back.

What Nick was retreating from was six turrets, three evenly spaced on each side of them. Their sides were out and their lasers were drawn, but none of them deployed despite Nick and Judy both being in range. Alternatively, all six of turrets shut down one by one and went completely idle.

As they all powered down, all six of them seemed to chorus, "Thank you for choosing Aperture Science."

"This is it," Nick said hesitantly. "This is the part where they kill us, isn't it?"

Judy shushed the panicked fox. "No, it isn't. Look, they're not even doing anything."

After a short pause, Nick exhaled deeply. "Alrighty then," he murmured. "You lead us outta here, Fluff. Just in case there's somethin' else waitin' around the corner."

From a broken panel on the ceiling, a ray of light was happily peaking in. Judging by that, the exits were going to be coming up sooner than later.

Additionally, the two saw that another flickering light was coming from what looked like some sort of birthday candle. Where the candle was in was none other than the cake that Nick had been going on about. The dessert rested on a platter that laid on a plain, metal table next to a radio that faintly played some sort of jazz music. On the sides of the cake was a small number of plates, a few plastic forks and and a utensil to cut the dessert with.

Nick lit up at the sight of the sweet treat that awaited them and ran up to the table, his tail wagging excitedly. Judy silently let out a delicate chuckle, but her joyous grin quickly faded and transformed into a small frown.

"That's all, though?" she mouthed out loud.

Nick already helped himself to some of the cake, and appeared to be savoring the overall deliciousness and delectability of it. "What do you mean?" he asked, his mouth still full as he spoke.

"I mean, we nearly died a few times and all we're gettin' is a cake?"

"I don't know 'bout you," Nick replied, "but this cake right here is enough of a reward for me, 'cause I'm starvin'."

A Few Moments Later...

The circular door locked itself behind the two mammals as they walked along. The light was peaking in above them as they started exploring an even more spacious hallway. On each side of the open space was an elevator, similar to the ways they had an encountered in the chambers but completely transparent.

As Nick and Judy slowly stepped forward, the doors to both elevators unlocked and opened. Within that moment, the two knew where they were at last; they had finally reached the exit.

Within that moment, the two of them understood that they had to go in separate directions.

"So," Nick said, finally breaking the moment of silence, "I'm guessing this is it? This is the exit?"

"Pretty sure it is," Judy replied. The doe started to slowly walk over to the elevator, which still sat there waiting for her to get in it. Before she could step inside, she turned head around again. "Oh, and thanks again for helping me when I got hurt back there," she added.

"No problem, Fluff," the fox replied with a smile. "No problem. And thank you for making sure that I didn't get killed by any turrets. Thank goodness there's no more of those anywhere."

Judy couldn't help but laugh. After her giggling died off, she breathed, "Well, I guess I better get going."

Walking over to his designated elevator and turning around, Nick replied, "Bye, Carrots."

The doors surrounding the fox's elevator closed around her. Smiling, he waved to the doe on the opposite side of the room. The leporine noticed, and ended up waving the vulpine goodbye in response.

The elevator started to go up, trailing a few seconds up above the rabbit's. Within that moment of time, the two simply waved to each other before they had reached where the only sight to behold through the enclosure was nothing but gray walls and paneling.

Once that had happened, Nick let out a small sigh. His head peaking upward, the fox could see a small bit of light coming closer and closer into view as he ascended.

He took a step behind him and went to lean back, but noticed the sound of something crumpling underneath his paw. Bending down, he grabbed the crinkled piece of paper that he had stepped on.

Nick stared at the paper, realizing that it was an advertisement of some sort that had somehow got placed here. Below an illustration, similar to the pictograms back in the testing chambers, the words "Aperture Science Innovators" were written on it. His eyes dotted down the paper, continuing to look at what the rest of the advertisement had typed on it. From what he got out of it, it said that their secondary base of operations was currently seeking mammals to participate in their latest experiment involving their newest scientific advancements.

After he got finished reading, the fox dropped the paper from his grasp. Looking blankly at nothing in particular, he started to remember what the rabbit had told him prior to the current moment. Thought that place would be something to make note of just in case. I'll probably be heading there as soon as I can.

Her words echoed in his head; the doe had sounded quite eager and interested in participating in another type of experiment that was run by this place.

The light of the outside world was steadily approaching, and it was within those moments that Nick had made a decision. Throughout the craziness that he had endured back in the Enrichment Center, he had made a new friend. And he knew that he would want to do whatever testing the other base sent his way, as long as that rabbit was going to accompany him as his testing partner.

Author's Note: Hey there, readers! Hope you guys enjoyed the final chapter on this crazy, silly adventure that I wrote involving a certain fox and rabbit duo. And I hope that it was okay the way I ended it: With cake that is not a lie! XD

Also, whew! This last chapter had a couple of re-writes to get it to what it turned out be. If there's one confession I have to make, it's that action scenes are basically my writing kryptonite. Hopefully, though, I managed to write out a good action sequence for this part of the story.

As always, feel free let me know your thoughts. Your feedback, good or bad, is gladly appreciated. Also, I know I've said time and time before but thank you to everyone who's kept with this as well as my other works.

'Til next time! :)