Commander Scott came back much sooner than expected, and he didn't come alone, either. He was followed by half a dozen of his best troops, all of them sporting some sort of heavy weapons. They were large, black, and made up of all sorts of tubes and gadgets that made them look a thousand times more complicated than any set of battleclaws. Ginger had never seen anything like them before, but she figured by their looks that they were highly effective, as well as very dangerous, so she kept her distance from the six other birds as best she could, even though they were all in the nest with them.

"I never thought I'd see the day that no good flying rat would have the guts to raid some of our personal turf," the eagle stated solemnly. "But now that he has, we have no choice but to hunt him down."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Silvia protested mildly. She had no interest in the concept of war, despite living with someone who had devoted his life toward such activity.

"It's not just wise. It's mandatory."

"Excuse me, young owl. Ginger, you said it was?" one of the armed troopers inquired as he stepped up to the young refugee.

"Yes, sir," she answered, wondering what it was he wanted of her.

"You wouldn't mind me just taking a swab to your claws, would you? If you head-on attacked Dictator Jugembulam, it's likely he shed some blood, so we just want to collect whatever biological evidence we can find and send it to the forensics lab for DNA testing."

Ginger hadn't the foggiest idea what any of that meant, but she nodded anyway, and watched as the eagle rubbed her black claws with the cotton-tipped probe. The white cotton on the end of it was pale red by the time he'd finished, and he had only done two of the claws on her left foot.

"Wow. That's blood, alright," he marveled as he stuck the swab into a small, transparent bag. "Well, we're going to take this in for analysis so we can prove that it indeed was the wanted kite. We'll alert you all as soon as the results come in."

"And how long will it take to run the tests?" the Commander questioned.

"We should be able to get the news to you by early tomorrow. Now, I have a question, Commander, sir. Since this is the first time something like this has actually happened, are there any precautions you would like us to take in case the Shredders decide to strike somewhere else?"

"Leave that business to me. It's about time we returned to our posts, anyway."

"Yes, sir. Alright! You heard the bird, move out! Back to duty! Move, move, move!"

Before the owl even realized it, all of the eagles had completely disappeared from the aerie. Including Scott. It was just her and Ms. Siv once more.

"So," Ginger started as she turned toward the nestmaid. "What exactly are they supposed to be doing with the blood I got on my talons?"

"They're sending it to the lab for testing," she explained. "I'm not going to explain how it works, because I don't frankly know myself. But what it does is it tells you where the blood came from, and to whom exactly it belongs."

"I never knew something like that was possible."

"Oh, it is, dear. It's been possible ever since the '80s."

"How accurate are the tests?"

"The chances of something going wrong are very small. They scan the DNA. And everyone's DNA is entirely different. It makes you...YOU. And DNA never lies."

"Uh, huh..."

Ginger sat silently for a few minutes.

"Hey," she finally said after what seemed like an eternity to Silvia. "Do you think that if everything goes right with the tests, and they do prove that I tried to take down...Juggbulam...whatever his name was...Do you think Commander will let me off the hook?"

Now it was the nestmaid's turn to be silent.

"I...I can't say for sure, dear."

Ginger lowered her head in despair.

I'm never going to get out of this place.

"But I don't see why not. Don't fret about it, dear. If he doesn't budge, even after this whole mess is over, I'll see if I can reason with him. Does that sound alright to you?"

The young general nodded indifferently. She'd already lost most hope of returning to the Owl Kingdoms. And even if they did let her go, what were the odds of her being able to reach the Beaks without the aid of land, and perhaps other birds?

"Why is he like that?"

"What do you mean, dear?"

"That's just it."

The fowl cocked her head in confusion.

"Don't take this personally, Ms. Siv, but...Is there any particular reason he's just so...Well, don't you find that he can be a bit...you know..."

"Nasty?" She took the word right from the Barn Owl's beak. Shocked that she wasn't even offended by the remark, the young captive nodded once more.

"Well, I happen to know. He explained the whole thing to me just a few days after I became nestmaid."

"You mean to tell me that he wasn't always all mean and hardened like he is now?"

The black and silver bird's small, soft yellow eyes portrayed a mix of many different emotions. Guilt, sympathy, and just a small hint of relief were a few of the things Ginger saw in them.

"He told me not to tell anyone about what happened, but..." She looked up at the owl, who, by the look of her slowly widening eyes, was obviously eager to know whatever it was she was readying to say.

"I...suppose I can make an exception just this once. You won't tell, will you?"

"I swear upon my gizzard," Ginger responded as she drew an invisible cross over her gizzard with a flight feather.

"Alright, then. Let me tell you...Scott used to have a family of his own, you know."

"He did?"

There wasn't a trace of there ever being a large family in the aerie. No keepsakes, no eggshells, nothing. Due to the emptiness of the nest, she had assumed that Scott was a bachelor unto this point.

"Oh, yes, he did. And though I never met them, I have reason to believe that they were absolutely wonderful. His mate's name was Skye, he says. He tells me that she was the best in the world at hunting, and she always came up with exciting adventure stories for him and their daughter at night."

"He had a kid, too?"

"Oh, yes, indeed. Bethany, I think that's what he said her name was. It was something pertaining to that. He went on and on telling me just how well-behaved she was. Never ate a nest bug, never tried to jump from the nest, and not a single untrue word ever escaped her beak, he said."

Ginger never would have imagined that someone like the old Commander had once been a family bird.

"But where did they go?"

"I was afraid you would ask that."

Ginger glanced about the nest, trying to think of something to say in order to break the silence.

"So..." She finally said, anticipating the worst. "What happened?"

There was yet another long pause before Ms. Siv answered her question.

"The Shredders."

To Ginger, the response was no less than a blow to the gut.

"W-What..." she stammered. "What did they do?"

"That one fateful night, Scott's whole world came crumbling down around him. Jugembulam and three of his elites raided the nest while they were all asleep and caught them all off guard. Scott tried to fight them off as best he could, Skye doing the same at his side, but they weren't any match for them while unarmed, and the last thing he remembered before he blacked out was hearing the screams of horror coming from the nest. Eventually, he was found and patched up by some of his patrollers who were passing by. It's a shame they hadn't been around earlier. Otherwise, that whole ordeal might never have taken place. They burned the nest too. Branches, memoirs and all. This here is an entirely different one from the original. And Scott built the whole thing without any aid."

"What happened to his family?"

"No bodies were ever found, so they couldn't have been burned in the nest. But we no nothing else, and the case of finding them has grown stone cold since."

Ginger shook her head lightly, trying to take it all in. This had turned out to be a much more serious matter than she had previously thought.

"That's...insane." She almost breathed the remark.

"He's pretty much lost all hope of finding them at this point. It would be a downright miracle if he ever found them, dead or alive."

"I would think."

From then, there was very little for either bird to say, so they each kept to themselves until dusk, which was when Commander Scott returned from his post for the night. In his talons, he carried a large muskrat for the evening meal.

"Someone told me while I was in my office this afternoon that owls tend to prefer red meat over fish," he stated as he tossed a large chunk of it in front of Ginger's talons. "I hope this will suffice."

Ginger looked down at the hunk of muskrat before her, wondering what exactly compelled him to hunt it. Did it have anything to do with her attacking the Shredders earlier? She liked the idea of him having developed some newfound respect for her, but she decided that something like such was too good to be true, so she dipped her head humbly, then began ripping away at her given meal.

"Mph. Nmph, rmph. "

She uttered unintelligible noises while feasting on the muskrat, in hopes to imply that she was enjoying it. She'd never had muskrat before, and it was certainly different from rabbit or vole, though palatable. It had a rough texture, and an ever so slight fishy taste embedded within the savory sensation.

"So, they will have the DNA tests out by tomorrow?" She overheard Ms. Siv ask the eagle from the other side of the nest.

"They should," he responded. "I also have word that they finally cleared those things Ginger was wearing when she got here."

"What was she wearing?"

"Battle attire. A spiky looking mask and foot weapons. We've never seen anything like them before, so I had them taken in to check for anything particularly dangerous."

"And, the results?"

"Nothing alarming. No poison, no nuclear substances, nothing like that. Just metal and leather, that's all. They had them polished, too. Don't know why they bothered with that, though. Anyway, she should have them back about the same time the tests come in."

"Does this mean that, if the DNA tests match up with Juge-"

"Don't say it," he said curtly. Ginger figured that if just hearing Jugembulam's name was enough to upset him, he really must hate the kite. It was understandable, though, seeing that he likely kidnapped, and possibly murdered his family.

"Well, if it does turn out to be...him...Does that mean she's free to go?"

The old bird paused, then rose from eating. He looked at Ginger, who pretended she wasn't listening. He glanced at her talons. The talons that had supposedly smitten the one responsible for his misery. If it was so, he figured that, in a way, she had sort of avenged him. And it would certainly prove that she was against the Shredders.

"Why, yes," he answered, a slight grin on his face. "It does." And he resumed eating.

Ginger could scarcely believe her earslits. Much less contain her excitement.

Perhaps, she said to herself as she finished off her muskrat. It wasn't too good to be true.

From there, she began to plan out her next course of action. Upon being released, she decided she would retrace her way back to the Amazon through the Central American bridge that connected the two continents, perhaps even meet back up with the Red Clan for additional aid, make a pit stop at the small, grassy island the group had encountered on their way there, then make her way back to the Owl Kingdoms from that point.

As long as everything goes alright, she reassured herself as she settled down to roost. I should be able to make it back home in one piece.

She looked up at the skies above. The horizon was still painted light streaks of pink and violet, but most of the heavens had already turned deep black, a few stars shining through the vast plain of darkness. Commander and Ms. Siv had also begun to turn in, so she decided she would do the same. And there she lay, almost too excited about tomorrow to sleep.