Bad dog! Go now if you have not read Vespers Rising! I said go! You will spoil it for yourself! Thanks, or possibly no thanks, and prepare to be amazed by this extremely funny, long, and epic conclusion! :) Can't thank you enough for the fun journey so far! Finally, land ho!

The waves of Boston Harbour washed over my bare feet as our boat, U.S. Thine Lilac, broke away from the busy dock. Nellie, Dan, and I were dangling our feet off the edge of the fancy boat, and Fiske was at the wheel. At seven o'clock in the morning, the wind was chilly so I pulled a blanket tighter around my shoulders. We were all tired from the adventure only days ago and were reflecting on what we would tell all the previous clue hunters when we finally had them together in person.

When I say "we", I mean the normal people on the boat. This excludes Dan entirely. "... and that is why I told him to run around screaming 'Yee haw, I'm a dinosaur!'" he finished.

Nellie patted his wind-ruffled hair. "Sorry chico," she said, "but I think you have officially lost it." She stood up and walked over to Fiske at the wheel.

There was a moment of silence as Dan and I sat there together. "Are you ready for this... meeting thing?" I finally breathed.

"I was born ready!" he exclaimed. Then he went to serious Dan mode. I swear he must have like this switch on his back or something! "But honestly..." he whispered, "it's going to be awkward. Kind of like when all the Cahill teams were gathered at that Shakespeare site. We are allies with them all now, but it is kind of hard to forget that we all used to hate each other."

I nodded. "Not to mention totally eliminate one another," I added with a shake of my head. I looked out upon the passing water nervously. "Do you think that the boat was really a good choice for the meeting place?" I asked.

"Stop worrying!" he said. "It is super safe. We told everyone that in our letter too. Don't forget that three miles from the mouth of the Boston Harbour, we will be able to see any approaching boat from all directions! What you should be worrying about is how we are going to entertain ourselves well waiting for them to reach our boat. They aren't coming till nine!"

I checked my watch, so casual looking, yet holding a precious secret. "There is a wait," I agreed. "I'm getting really cold now! Let's go below deck and get the meeting room ready."

"Not yet!" cried Dan! "I want to go swimming as soon as the boat stops!"

"Don't even think about it Dan!" I warned. "It is the beginning of May! You'd freeze your butt off!"

"Hmm," he said thoughtfully. "I don't really think I want my butt anyway... it's such a hassle and..."

I grabbed his arm and led him below deck.

After two hours of waiting, and it was finally nine o'clock. The Starlings and Alistair were the first to arrive, pulling up to our anchored boat in a submarine that they had clearly designed themselves. I was surprised, but totally bursting with joy inside to see that the Ekats had um... subpooled... with each other. The more unity, the better!

The trio of siblings looked nearly identical, with auburn hair, freckles, and preppy clothes, making Alistair stand out like a sore thumb. The Starlings, like many competitors, had forceful parents. Apparently, they had been more angry about how they had to drop out of the race, then worried about their injures. I realized just how little we had interacted with them during the hunt, so it would be a tad awkward meeting them again.

As soon as they boarded, Dan immediately started explaining to them how if their branch had a Pokemon, it would be called Ekatapat. I wondered how long he had been waiting to reveal this to them. "Our branches Pokemon would be called Madramite!" he added.

"Good to know!" Ted smirked. He gave no sign what-so-ever of having handicap eyes. The Starlings weren't ones to show weakness. "I will be sure to keep that in mind!"

Sinead and Ned also seemed to enjoy Dan's company and find it 100% amusing. However, I heard Alistair grumble something about what they were putting in children's burritos these days.

Moments later, the Holts were pulling up in a row boat. I'll tell you one thing. They are the only team who could muscle a boat fifteen miles. Hamilton jumped aboard and flew straight to Dan.

"How's my little buddy?" he laughed, giving Dan a noogie on the head. Dan flattened his hair back down and smiled stupidly.

"Still a ninja!" he replied. Reagen and Madison just smirked and went to greet the Starlings and I.

Mr. and Mrs. Holt made their way towards Nellie and Fiske to discuss "adult business." However, I over heard them discussing what we were going to serve for lunch.

And that's when a random person in a red bathrobe and sunglasses pulled up on a jet ski. Yep, you heard me right.

"Whoa! We already got a party blowing up here huh?" he asked stepping aboard. We all just stared at him confused.

"Oh yeah!" he laughed. "Sorry about that. The paparazzi was particularly bad today!" The figure pulled of a ridiculously curly blond wig and the bathrobe, revealing a full range of gangster attire.

"Where's your Father?" Fiske asked curiously as Jonah walked up to us.

"Busy," he replied casually. "I didn't really tell him about this meeting. He has been super stressed lately with all the concerts and... well... I know there is something else he isn't telling me about. So yeah homes!" Fiske nodded and seemed a little reassured.

"Hey! I just realized!" said Dan. You Dad's initials are BTW just like the abbreviation of 'by the way!' What's your middle name Jonah?

"That's classified," smirked Jonah. "You sure notice everything about all that letter shizzle."

"Yeah," smiled Dan. "Too bad my name isn't really epic. Wait! If my last name was 'Nahill' or started with a 'N' then my initials would be DAN! That would be sooo tight!"

"Huh," Jonah thought out loud. "Amy's name is a anagram for 'yam!'"

"Lucky!" cried Reagen.

"Joy," I mumbled to Sinead, who cracked a smile.

"Sinead," added Hamilton. "Your name is just plain awesome! You are the only person I know with it!"

"Um, yeah," she smiled, her face a little flushed. "It's... well... it's different!"

"All right-t-y then!" I announced to the whole boat, kind of nervous about being one of the people in charge. "We have enough people to start moving below deck so that we can get to the more... serious business. We have a lot of new news for you guys."

Just then, we heard the chopping of helicopter blades up ahead, and all looked up. Ian Kabra himself maneuvered the craft on to the water's surface and brought it to a rest. With the press of a button, a plank came out of the side leading to our boat, and the Kabra siblings made there way on to the boat. The wind played at their hair, but it miraculously stayed perfect.

First came Natalie, wearing a short, nautical sundress with a sparkly red anchor necklace. She smiled at everyone politely and made room for Ian to board. He walked on gracefully, his ankle seeming fine now. "Nice to see everyone," Natalie said off-handily.

"Hey I-dog!" Jonah said, giving Ian a little hand slap. "Wuz-up?"

"Nothing much until now," Ian replied cooly, his accent making everything he sound 75% more formal, and his confident atmosphere the other 25%. "Only sports really."

Hamilton Holt gave a whoop! "Sports!" he cheered. "That's where the money's at!"

Ian laughed pleasantly, shook Hamilton's hand, then did the same to everyone else.

"Nice to see you again. It has been a while," he smiled when he finally got around to me, grasping my hand firmly yet casually. He started right at me with a mischievous glint in his eye, as if we were sharing a personal joke. "I'm glad you and Daniel are all right."

Nervously, I shook his smooth, tan hand back and was going to reply with something clever like "Um... yeah. I enjoy being alive," when Dan butted in from next to me.

"Thanks Ian!" he said. "You have no idea how much that means to me! I enjoy being alive!" Wow, my sarcastic mind thinks exactly like his real one.

"Your quite welcome," Ian laughed, looking at Dan. "Now... I think you guys were about to get down to business am I right?"

As our party made our way to the giant mahogany table below deck, each seat equipped with a electronic writing tablet for taking notes, I realized how completely off guard I was to meet Ian again. On Skype, I had forgotten how overpowering his real, perfect presence was, and near the end was actually able to convince myself that I had crush on someone in my class named Evan. But now, that crush seemed worthless and short-lived next to this stupid one which kept on surfacing no matter how hard I resisted. I sighed when I realized why I had even liked Evan in the first place... because he had reminded me of Ian. I sighed out loud. Why couldn't I just get over him already and move on? I want to friends, but just friends. That was for sure.

I combed my hand through my hair and sat in a seat near the front, next to a porthole with a pretty view of the ocean's surface. Dan sat next to me, and Nellie on my other side. As I gathered a couple note cards in front of me, I noticed Ian sit directly across from me at the large table.

Fiske stood up to speak first. "Welcome Cahills," he announced, "aboard the U.S. Thine Lilac. It is not a coincidence that we are meeting so far from any public place. We are here to discuss rising threats that Amy, Dan, and I, have had a personal encounter with lately." I noticed him wipe sweat off the palms of his hands and on to his pants. He was a shy man, and I knew this speech was hard for him. "First of all, the name of this vessel has an important significance. U.S. thine Lilac, is actually an anagram for 'Cahills Unite.' "

"Cause someone wouldn't let us name it 'Has Lice Until...'" Dan complained, glaring at me. "It would be so much more ominous!" Dan stood up next to Fiske, looking official for an eleven year old. "But honestly," he said, "uniting is really important. There are now things more important then then the clues to protect, so we must look past the fact that we used to be against each other. If we want to go anywhere, we are now one team. The reason the Vespers were able to be one step ahead of us was because we were weakening ourselves through basically a civil war."

"For example, if all the Twilight and Harry Potter fans had a giant war, Harry Potter would win because Twilight would be fighting among themselves about the whole Jack verse Edwardo predicament."

Unlike most of his rants, what he said made sense. I stood up next to him. "In Switzerland, at Grace's bank we met the first Vesper that the Cahills have net in a long time..." We went on to explain everything that happened, Casper Wyoming, our biggest current threat, and, most importantly, the ring. I told them the ring was safe, but we could not tell them where it was because the less people knowing, the better. They all seemed to understand.

Then, Nellie started announcing things that even I didn't know yet. "Madrigals have been sent out all over the world to eliminate Vesper threats, and protect us. Today, we will be working together, to reduce the Vesper threat. Everyone here is in charge of bonding their branches with others. With all the ways we have disorganized the Vespers, and the research we are conducting today, it will take at LEAST another year and a half for the Vespers to organize and execute another plan. Now, we ask of you first to start of the day, to write whatever information you can scrape up whatsoever of the Vespers."

We all sat down and everyone clapped, awed at how organized our presentation ended up being. A couple people asked questions, then everyone started typing information into their tablets. I had finished mine earlier (I'm a perfectionist like that) so I looked around the room, studying every one's faces.

Jonah was nodding seriously, his expression the only thing keeping him from his gangster image. The Holts looked pumped to be doing something again. Alistair had the same old expression he always did, like he couldn't physically open his mouth. Natalie had a slim finger resting under her chin and her brow slightly furrowed in concentration. The Starlings looked a little lost, not having to much to give, but were working with what they had.

Of course, I looked right at Ian exactly when he decided to look up from his work. I felt a blush spread through my cheeks as he gave me a grin. Then he did something TOTALLY unexpected. He crossed his eyes. It looked so utterly out of place with his fancy white cuffed shirt, and the silent atmosphere, I took all I had not to laugh.

I gave him a finger wag like a a teacher would give a naughty boy and pointed to his tablet. He raised an eyebrow as if to say, "Really Amy?" but bent his head back down.

For the following minutes, I stared out the porthole just thinking. However, every once in a while, I would feel Ian's eyes on the back of my head.

Ten silent minutes had felt extremely long for me because I had nothing to do, but Fiske finally started assigning jobs to people. Before this meeting, I really had no real idea what he meant by "jobs" but I understood now. At least ten of the top Madrigals, whom we had not met before, came aboard the ship as well, and really helped everything flow smoothly.

Everyone was bustling around to get things done. Alistair studied designs about a legendary Vesper armor. It was scary how mush weapons were hidden in one layer. Sinead analyzed Casper's footprint data and was miraculously able to predict how much he weighed, and in which pocket he held his gun. Everyone had something to do. Ian was our main spokes person. We would record him saying specific messages to relay to Cahills on missions. Sinead got super annoyed with him whenever he messed up a line, which he seemed to find amusing. They were so much alike, being rich and smart and all, they genuinely weren't to good with getting along.

However, I didn't get to interact with the clue hunters too much because Fiske was busy introducing me to many important Madrigals.

The one moment I was free, Natalie walked up to me and put her hands on her hips. "Amy, Hamilton is honestly attempting to teach Daniel park-our!" she scoffed. "They are knocking over quite a few items on the deck, and they won't listen to me to stop!"

I laughed, but smacked myself internally for leaving Hamilton and Dan unattended. "Tell Nellie," I smiled. "Like a good neighbor, she is always there to punish Dan."

"Well..." hurried Natalie. "I don't really want Daniel to get punished or anything... just to stop being daft." I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at her sudden concern, but went to go give Dan and Hammer work to do.

The time flew by. At noon, Fiske called everybody back to the main meeting room. All of the small ships passengers, including the Madrigals we had just met, squeezed around the large oval table.

"Just look around at everything we were able to accomplish!" exclaimed Fiske. "Everyone now has personal binders with keys to the few Vesper codes we have cracked, information on the main Vesper leaders we know about so far, hot spots to stay out of... you name it! It was amazing what we were able to find out today, and how this day will help protect us in the future. The work is not quite coming to an end however. The branches, though improving everyday, still need to learn to trust one another. That is your job, because tonight, you are ALL honorary Madrigals. Already, we have assured a solid year or so of safety from the Vespers. But how safe is safety? They just need to reorganize. But for what we did today... we deserve a round of applause!"

Everyone burst out into cheers, whoops, clapping, and in Dan's case, bursting out in to the refrain of "We are the Champions." When the noise in the crowded room died down, Fiske announced lunch. Nellie passed around a couple dishes of shrimp Parmesan casserole, fancy bread, and plenty of appetizers. Everyone dived in.

I was so glad to see everyone mingling. Sinead was showing Natalie the proper way to design a blue-print for a shoe, Ian was already making himself popular with the new Madrigals, most much older then us, and Reagen, Madison, and Ted were all having a deep conversation about all the pros and cons of having a twin. The other Weasley, my bad, STARLING, was discussing medical possibilities with Alistair. Dan, Jonah, and Hamilton were brainstorming ways to get Saladin to eat something besides red snapper. All of their elaborate schemes seemed to connect the most random items such as life size Winnie the Pooh Bear cutouts, and teapots. Finally, people were really bonding.

Finishing my meal, I chose the moment to go upstairs to the deck and get a breath of fresh air. Crowds just weren't my thing, and I knew nobody would really notice me slip away. I leaned against the railing and looked out over the sparkling water. I tilted up my chin and let the salty breeze play through my hair and refresh my face. I don't know how long I stood there, just taking it all in.

"Hey," a voice suddenly broke in, startling me. I whipped around to see the wind-blown figure of Ian Kabra just a few feet away. He was smiling at me, not taking his eyes of my face, and his hands were in his pockets casually.

I got cocoons in my stomach. You know... the feeling you get before the butterflies hatch? "Um.. hey..." I responded nervously.

He came over and leaned on the railing beside me, staring out over the water. I tried to be cool with the fact that the sides of our arms were touching, but my heart wouldn't stop doing cartwheels inside my chest. It should honestly consider joining the olympics.

"We have a lot of work to do don't we?" he asked.

"We certainly do," I replied. "Especially you... with the Lucians."

"I won't be able to Skype much anymore," he admitted. "But I certainly will try."

I nodded. "Same scenario here," I replied.

"Well," he admitted. "It won't be the same without you to talk to as much. However, I'm glad the Vesper threat has been extinguished for a year or so."

"Definitely. When it does resurface, we might be more ready," I answered. "But I can't help but wonder what kind of cruel plans they will create in all that time."

"True," he agreed. "But Amy... whatever you do, avoid letting the prospect scare you. Don't be afraid to let go for once and take a risk."

I sighed and nodded. How many times had I heard that before? We sat there for a while, looking at the sea in reflective silence.

"So do you?" he finally asked, standing up straight and turning completely to me.

He was getting straight to the point, as if he had been longing for the answer his whole life. By his body language, I knew exactly what he meant. He was talking about the code he had given me. The code that had asked one simple yet difficult little question. "Forgive me?"

I struggled to get my lips to move, but they just couldn't do it. "F-for what?" I was finally able to choke out, looking down a my feet.

"For everything I ever did or didn't do," he stated.

"For the thoughts I used to think before I got to know you, for treating you like a game piece, for just leaving you there after we had so much going for us, for leading you into traps, for being a selfish jerk for majority of my life, for making your life harder, for not standing up for what I knew was right, for being nice to you for what... only three months?" he took a deep breath, and frowned slightly at the way I was looking away.

"And finally... for the last time we were on a boat together," he breathed. He paused, lightly putting a finger under my chin, and tilting my head around so that I was looking directly into his amber eyes, so much deeper in person.

"The problem is..." he whispered so quietly that I had to move in to hear him, "no matter how hard I want it, for you to give it to me from the heart... I can see how I may be asking for too much."

"Even if I can't do it from my heart now," I assured, "I promise forgiveness will come along in no time! Just... don't worry... like you always do."

"I'm glad I make that impression," he smiled fondly. "But you know, I DO worry. And to tell the truth, now that I've meant you, it's rarely about myself anymore." All at once, I realized how suddenly close we were standing without even meaning to, how his fingertips were cradling the sides of my arms, how perfectly peaceful everything in the world seemed at the moment.

"This is all too fast, too unpredictable, too risky!" the back of my brain tried to tell me. "Your over this backstabber!" But the message couldn't get through to my numb senses.

He shook his head slightly as if to stop himself from doing something, then next thing you know, his soft lips planted a kiss against mine for the most senseless three seconds of my life. A wave of sensation wiped out any thoughts I had at all. For the first time in my life, I, Amy Cahill, was not the least bit afraid.

Almost startled, I stared up at his face, checking to make sure the short, sweet memory was real. He was staring right back, his eyes twinkling playfully as if they had been saving up energy their whole lives so that they could shine at this moment.

We started tugging ourselves away from one another as we started to hear a Madrigals filter on to the other side of the deck.

"Well..." he said casually, scratching the back of his neck, "I...um ... hope to see you again... soon."

The deck was becoming flooded with people getting into vehicles and saying good-bye to one another. Nobody thought twice about two teenagers at the edge of the deck.

My cheeks felt warm and I knew I was blushing. At first, no words would come to my mouth so I just nodded. Finally I managed a, "Yeah..."

As I was swept away by people who wanted to say bid me farewell, the last thing I saw was Ian's grinning figure. My mind couldn't sort out what just happened.

"So?" Nellie asked, Dan and I as we worked on collapsing the giant sails of the once crowded boat. "Was that overwhelming or what?"

"Personally," Dan said, tossing some extra life jackets on to the dock, "I think it depends on what 'overwhelming' means. You know?"

"That may have something to do with it!" Nellie laughed. "Hey Fiske! Did you get my iPod from the waterproof side compartment?"

Fiske helped us heave the last pole down and rest it on the floor. "Yes," he said. "It's in the car! Nice cooking by the way! It was a hit!"

"It was a lot of fun to make!" she said. "How was the meal though? You don't thing I overdid it with the garlic on the calamari, do you?"

"Stop worrying!" I smiled. "Everyone LOVED your cooking! It was as perfect as could be!"

"Yeah!" agreed Dan. "Natalie ate it! I didn't even know she ate normal food at all!"

We secured the boat, and Fiske called someone to transfer it a private lake somewhere where it would be safer. Then, we got in our car, like we have done one thousand times before, and started to drive home.

While Dan talked, I gazed out the window. It was so odd just driving home. All of a sudden, life was what it was before. All the events that occured didn't really effect are immediate future. We would have to go back to school again and pretend that we weren't just attacked by Vespers or that we led a whole meeting dedicated to defending ourselves. Moments ago, we were surrounded with people, action, and so much more. Now, there was mainly one thing I was surrounded with... questions.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH! YYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY! WOOOOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOO! Did I do it all right? Was that okay with you! EEEKKKK! So excited to see what you think! Sorry I didn't update sooner. Blame my ADHD and the fact that I rewrote this about fifty times to get it just right. Also, was that not incredibly long? Notice how perfectly this fit in with the website and the series? That was on purpose. I didn't want to have Amy completely forgive Ian yet because I wanted to save it for the series. I KNOW they will have to put it in. Well, that was the finale! Whooh! I am wiping fake sweat off my forehead! I'm sad it is done, but relived too. My next story? I plan on writing The Medusa Plot from Ian's point of view! I think you will like it. SO excited for the book!

So I was watching TV today, and the Snuggie commercial came on. I never watch commercials so I wanted to change the channel, but my arms were too cold to take them out of my blanket to get the remote. Random, I know. OOOOOH! I WISH WISH WISH I could play music in the background of certain scenes when I am writing like in movies! I have the mind of a movie maker so whenever I read, my mind automatically does that. It adds so much more epicness. Also, whenever I am staring out the window of the car dramatically and the radio is on, I always pretend I am living in a movie. Am I the only one?

Draw a picture of a rainbow unicorn eating a taco in Mushroom Kingdom! Just do it! I hope people keep reading this! :) I can't thank you enough! I had no flames or any really mean things said, and that means a lot!Thanks so much to all my readers! I will try to reply to all your last comments! You guys are the bestest and always will be!

Where Adventures Begin,
Alex Almighty