I crawled over to Scoops, and I grimaced slightly when I felt a shooting pain go through my arm like wildfire. I ignored it and pressed through, and sat next to her, head on my knees with my arms wrapped around my legs. The rain was still pouring, and every few seconds lightning flashed and thunder cackled. The three strangers still stood in shadows, arms crossed. I waited for Scoops to speak.

Eventually, she did. Her voice was small and hoarse, and she was shivering violently, even though it was extremely moist and humid out in the rain. She sighed and wiped her eyes, and said, "It was Jackie."

Even though I couldn't see the others, I felt the change almost immediately, as if it was a palpable thing and could be touched. I was surprised when Psyche actually hissed. Tori's hands were rolled into fists, making the knuckles white. The girls were all seated or standing near Scoops, and the boys were a few feet away, keeping a careful and watchful guard. Aaron huffed and Paul laughed nervously.

I sat still, waiting for Scoops to continue. The strangers were all but forgotten. "I was just walking to grab my jacket, cause I left it at one of our trees and I was really friggin cold. But I guess I was so tired I took the wrong path … Anyway, I realized like right here and started to turn around, and she was standing there like a friggin stalker. I was so freaked I didn't do anything. And then she said, 'One by one, they all were killed…'" Scoops made a shoving motion with her bloodied hands, "'…and you'll be the first to go.'"

It was silent except for the pitter-patter of the rain, and occasional boom of the distant thunder. The strangers, from what little I could see of them, had unfolded their arms and were looking stunned, whether from the story or the sight of Scoops' bloody hands I couldn't tell.

Aaron broke the silence first. He kicked at a pebble, and as it rolled down the muddy slopes he spat, "She's psycho, I swear to God. Absolutely friggin crazy." Everyone moved a little as he swore under his breath. I side-hugged Scoops while Amy and Bri tried to clean her hands with a little water from a puddle nearby. I watched the water turn red, and in it's reflection I could see Tori stand and cross her arms, regarding the strangers with a strangely mingled expression of distrust and gratitude.

One of them stepped forward. I sucked in a breath at the sight of him. He was a dark blue bird, wearing a gray jacket and a red jumpsuit, with a gun holstered on his hip. He was wearing something like a Bluetooth headset, and a monocle-type thingy was over his eyes. Black and dark gray boots to just under his knees completed the look. His eyes were narrowed, and he matched Tori's arrogant stance.

Tori returned his little smile with a smirk, and she asked, "Who the hell are you?"

The bird unfolded his arms and gestured behind him without looking, and said, "I am Falco, and this is Fox and Diddy Kong." I met Scoops' confused face with a frown. I leaned towards her ear and whispered, "He has some creative parents, doesn't he?" She stifled a laugh with hasty coughing. The bird didn't even notice the exchange. He went right on staring Tori down in a death match glare. I looked at the others. The fox was the one who had cut Scoops trying to pull her up, and I saw him grin a little as his friend squared off with a rebellious teenage girl. We met eyes and I had to press a hand to my mouth to keep from laughing. I glanced back at the staring contest.

Falco spoke again. "Who are you?"

When Tori didn't answer, Aaron stepped forward and told them our story and names. While he was explaining, I took Scoops' left hand, the one that was significantly worse, and examined it. I took of my headband and wrapped it gently in the cloth, securing it with a hair tie. It was still bleeding, although it was already considerably better. As I examined her other hand, Amy bent down and whispered in my ear, "Show them the note. We should have shown Link and them, too, but, you know. To late for that, eh?" I nodded as she straightened back up. I gingerly touched the worn paper in my back pocket.

Fox spoke this time, as soon as Aaron had finished. "I only see thirteen of you. Where is this Jackie girl?"

At once, the change in the attitude rose again, so much so that Fox and Falco exchanged looks. I sighed, rubbing my temple, and Tori turned to look at me. We had a silent conversation with just our eyes, the consequence of years of being best friends. The wind whistled through our hair as we stared at each other, not once breaking the gaze. Everyone was silent and watching the exchange. Nothing could break it. I nodded and stood slowly, and took the paper out. I held it between two fingers only, as if it were a dirty towel. I handed it to Falco, and he took it, not before glancing at me with a cold, distrusting look. I melded my face into a poker face, not betraying any emotion as he took it and opened it slowly, deliberately. As Fox and Diddy crowded around him, I saw their faces steadily lose the arrogance and become grim with horror. I made my way back to the group, and we all stood, facing them with arms crossed.

If this had been in a movie, I would have laughed at the awkwardness and distrust radiating from either side. Everyone was now standing, and whispered conversations ran wild. Only Tori and I stood silent and still, watching, like assassins watching their target.

As Falco looked up, his eyes searched for my face, and I obediently stepped forward, palm up. He dropped it and I could see his eyes from underneath my hair, sympathetic, curious, and only a little unsure of what to do. I lowered my eyes demurely as I stepped back. Bri broke the stretching silence as Falco, Fox and Diddy took in our predicament. "Well, this has been fun and all, but I am exhausted. It's like, what, one in the morning?"

Fox answered before Falco could retort, "Twelve thirty." He glanced up, and looked at each of us separately. "You are not afraid?"

Aaron shrugged, and drawled, "You really can't be scared of her. She's not scary, just a tiny bit cuckoo." Paul nodded in agreement.

Falco asked, "Where do you live? I hate to admit it, I'm curious."

I smiled a little as Tori held up a slim finger and said, "Une momento, please." She clapped her hands and said, "HUDDLE!" We all surrounded her and put our heads in the center. "So, what's our game plan?" asked Caleb, taking his hat off and squeezing the water out of the soaked material. Tori looked at me. "What do you say, Jessa?"

I sucked my lip in frowning. "I say we can trust them. They helped rescue Scoops!" I added quickly as protests came in. "They know about Jackie now, so they can help with that to. I say we take them to the hut, while Scoops and…" I paused, looking for an escort for her, "…and Aaron go to the springs to clean up," I decided, not missing the look Amy and Bri passed each other, lips pressed together. Even in the middle of a crisis, we can still put people together. "They are Smasher-people, like Mario and Link and Pit. They can help protect us if need be. They might even be able to teach us how to protect ourselves." I looked at Tori, and asked, "Anything else?"

She paused and cocked her head, thinking. "Nope. Okay. BREAK!" We all wearily sighed as she clapped again. Falco had returned to his arrogant posture, and he raised his eyebrows as we came out of the huddle. He sighed loudly, reminding me a bit of Aaron. "Are you quite finished yet?"

Tori stepped forward again, and put her hands on her hips. "You said you were curious to see where we lived. Are you or aren't you? Cause if keep acting like an asshole, we might just leave you here."

I gaped at her bravery, and so did Fox. His eyes and mouth were open as he watched his friend narrow his eyes and his winged hand flashed to his gun. I hissed at Tori. For a few heartbeats, it was silent yet again. And then he laughed loudly and good-heartedly. We all breathed a sigh of relief and hesitantly joined in, not really sure if we were supposed to. Falco chortled, "Alright then, I stop. Lead on."

I raised my eyebrows at this sudden change in mood. Fox sighed and started walking as Tori turned on her heels and nearly sprayed Falco with mud. As she marched away, Falco asked us, "Is she always like that?" After a pause of looking around at each other, we all started to laugh for real this time, and Falco took that as a yes. "Wow, I feel sorry for you guys. You have to keep up with that lovely temper!" I glanced at Amy, and her face matched mine exactly. I knew as soon as we were alone, that statement would be dissected and examined in every possible light. For now, though, we just raised our eyebrows at each other.

We grinned as we heard Tori shout through the rain and trees, "Well? Are you coming or not?"

As Fox and Falco passed me, I looked up and I felt my mouth open and my eyes widen. I looked around for Paul, who was in the back of the group and clearly waiting for me. I continued to stare at it, my mind whizzing and nearly screaming with surprise.

On each of Fox's and Falco's sleeves, barely visible in this light, I saw the same symbol Paul and I had seen of the smaller ship when we saw the dogfight.

He walked quickly to me, and caught my arm. "What? What is it?" I shook my head and motioned for him to walk next to me. I caught up to Fox, who looked extremely kinder and more smiley than his friend. I tapped him on the shoulder. He didn't jump at all, even though he hadn't seen or heard me coming. He turned his head and regarded me with green eyes. "Yeah?"

I bent in close, my eyes shining and whispered, so only Paul and Fox could hear, "Are you a pilot?"

He looked immensely surprised. He frowned at my knowing, and asked, "Yeah, actually, I am. But how did you…"

Paul cut him off, and said, "The symbol on your sleeve. It matches the one we saw on the ship a few days ago."

As Fox's frown deepened, I hurried to explain. "Paul and I saw it during the night. A big huge dogfight between a smaller ship that was shaped sorta like an F-15, and a massive ship that had bat wings. Was that you?"

Fox scratched his fur between his ears. He sighed and closed his eyes. I had to grab his elbow and steer him away from a tree before he could hit it. He nodded thanks and said, "Yeah, that was me. Did you… did you see when I went down?"

We froze, and shook our heads. Paul said slowly, "We figured that since we couldn't see the stars because of all the lasers being fired at you, it wasn't safe and we ran back to camp."

He nodded, and said, "Whoever is captaining that ship doesn't care for waste of bullets. I got around those pretty easily, but this arm-thing came out of nowhere and went right through my starboard wing." He closed his eyes as if in pain, and he stopped walking. Paul and I also paused, waiting for him to continue. Without opening his eyes, he sighed, "That was my father's ship, too."

I put my hand over my heart, and said quietly, "Fox, dude, I'm so sorry. Is there anything we can do?"

He opened his eyes and met my gaze with a harsh stare, "Not unless you know how to fix a damaged Arwing engine, with model 8-G parts made out of pure strontium metal, maxing out a speed of 45 miles per hour, and-"

I put my hands up hastily and said, "Alright, alright, I get it. No fix for the ship."

Paul chuckled and said, "Yeah, we would help, but you know how expensive strontium is these days." We laughed a little, and Fox asked the question I had been hoping he wouldn't and said, "Why were just you two out there?"

I bit my lip and tried not look at Paul, but I did and Fox sure as heck did not miss that. "Oh. Ohoho." He chuckled, "I get it, I get it."

I looked at Paul again and I could see, through the light wafting through the leaves, he had gone pale under his tan. "Dude, please don't tell anyone."

"Why?"

I sighed and rubbed my head. "It's a long story." I said wearily, resting my head on Paul's shoulder.

Fox spread his hands and said, "Looks to me like you've got nothing but time around here."

I sighed again and Paul told him the story of his rise and fall with Amy and Addie. By the end, Fox's face was confused but amused at the same time. He bit his lip and struggled not to laugh. I frowned and reached over and pinched him on the elbow. He laughed and pushed me away, rubbing his arm. "Okay, okay, I won't tell. But I don't get why. If you guys are friends and like each other, why doesn't she accept it?"

I sighed and looked at him in the darkness. "Cause it's Amy, that's why." I could hear both Paul and Fox chuckle as I left it at that.

Fox, Falco and Diddy only stayed long enough for breakfast and a quick run-down on how to do hand-to-hand combat. Apparently, they too had someone to rescue. They told us the gist of the story, and then they were off, heads bent in discussion and passing us curious glances over their shoulders. I was actually glad that they left rather quickly. I was afraid Tori would claw Falco's eyes out if they had to be in the same clearing for to long. Either that, or Falco would have blasted her into oblivion.

For the rest of the day, we gathered food and talked about what we thought was going on, and why we seemed to keep running into important figures of the story being played out right in front of us. Scoops and Aaron announced their status as a couple, and Paul and I exchanged looks of amusement at that. Addie ingeniously made a split from wood and leftover cloth for me, and while it did leave me rather helpless, I could still help gather.

That was the first night I started having the dreams.