A/N: Sorry for keeping you guys in suspense. It's my job. Prepare for a twist! Remember my rule! ONWARD WITH THE STORY!

Seeing Double

Nico slowly opened his eyes, his entire body aching. Wherever he was, it was bright. Moaning, he closed his eyes again and covered his eyes with his wings, trying to block out the light that seemed to be coming from all around.

Am I dead...? Nico wondered groggily. He took a deep breath, but was rewarded with a fiery stab of pain from his cracked rib. Okay, maybe I'm not dead...

Nico opened his eyes again, and they slowly adjusted to the harsh light. Looking around, Nico saw that he was in the Bird Sanctuary.

"HE LIVES!" shouted a voice to Nico's right. Nico looked over and saw Pedro standing there, looking too excited for his own good.

"Pedro..." muttered Nico, smiling. He sat up, and Pedro rushed forward and hugged him, careful to avoid Nico's cracked rib.

"You're not dead!" exclaimed Pedro, bouncing with happiness at the fact that his best friend had cheated death again.

"H-how long was I out?" asked Nico as Pedro let go and sat down next to him.

"Two days!" exclaimed Pedro.

"Not as bad as two weeks..." muttered Nico, rubbing his wing guiltily.

"Do you remember anything?" asked Pedro, his excitement starting to wear off.

"A little bit..." said Nico, rubbing his head. He glanced at Pedro's leg and saw that it was bandaged. "How's your leg?"

"Doesn't even hurt anymore," said Pedro, sticking his foot into the air. He put his foot down again and looked at Nico, starting to look worried. "Can you feel anything yet?"

Nico looked down at his feet and wiggled his toes. His legs still felt extremely weak, but at least he could move and feel them again. He smiled a bit, thanking the Samba Gods that the paralysis had only been temporary.

Pedro breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, but then his face turned serious. "I think ya better start explaining..."

Nico sighed and cast his eyes down at his feet.

"We're like brothers..." said Pedro. "You know everything 'bout me, so... why can't I know everything 'bout you?"

"... Where do you wanna start...?" Nico whispered, keeping his voice low even though they were in a corner with no one else around.

"Tell me how you're still alive."

Nico sighed, trying to think of a way that he could say what he needed. Finally, he just spit it out. "The only reason I'm alive is because I was born in captivity."

Pedro's jaw dropped. "W-what...?"

"Yeah... I was born in a Sanctuary in the Canary Islands. I just... wasn't exactly alive when I was born. Please don't make me go into detail," said Nico, his green eyes glassy. "Rico was alive, but I wasn't. It usually happens with twins. Seriously, how many identical twins do you know?"

Pedro opened his mouth, but he drew a blank. Now that he thought about it, Nico was the only bird he knew who had an identical twin.

"My point exactly," said Nico. "I never really knew my parents. Rico and Cina were the only real family I had back there."

"So that's where you learned to read..." muttered Pedro, still a little shocked at getting this much information.

"Yeah," said Nico, smiling a bit. "That's also where I learned to write, type, and pick a lock."

"No way!" exclaimed Pedro. "You've gotta teach me how to- wait... Gettin' off subject here... W-when did you leave?"

"As soon as I was strong enough to fend for myself," said Nico. "By that time, I had a niece and a nephew. Said goodbye and got on a boat. Rico didn't really want me to leave..."

"Where'd ya go?" asked Pedro.

"Everywhere," said Nico, shrugging. "Took me a while to get to Rio, but I'm glad I stayed, especially after I met you at the Branch."

"Even after what happened with the bottle?"

Nico nodded. "Even after that."

"So... why were you freakin' out when Rico came here?"

"I was sure he was gonna try and bring me back home," said Nico, looking away guiltily. "Guess I was right to be paranoid. Then the nightmares started as soon as he got here, and I kept trying to avoid having to talk to him... I didn't want those nightmares to come true..."

"But they did!" exclaimed Pedro. "You said so yourself!"

"When did I say that?"

Now it was Pedro's turn to look guilty. "Uh... Well, I... Has anyone ever told you that you talk in your sleep...?"

"I don't talk in my sleep!"

"Trust me, Nico, yes you do!"

Nico gulped, wondering what he could have possibly said over the years.

"Don't worry," laughed Pedro, "I won't tell anybody about that finch from Chile."

"Son of a..."

"We're gettin' off the subject again," said Pedro.

"Well... what else do ya wanna know?"

"I dunno..." said Pedro. "Do you know why Rico was working for Maurice?"

Nico shrugged. "I guess I'd have to ask him..." Suddenly, his eyes shot wide open, and he looked up at Pedro. "Where is Rico?"

"Well, I... I haven't really seen him yet..." said Pedro guiltily.

"I... I remember he got hurt..." Nico muttered to himself. He started frantically looking around, trying to spot his brother, but he ended up falling over in the process. Pedro caught him and sat him upright.

"Nico, try not to hurt yourself any more than you already have," came a voice from behind them.

Nico whipped around and saw Rico, standing on the sill of a slightly opened window. Rico fluttered down next to Nico, and the two brothers hugged.

"D'aww..." muttered Pedro.

Nico took a step back on shaky legs and looked at Rico. He could see a long red line of stitches running down Rico's left side, under his wing. The cut over Rico's eye had started to close, but Nico still felt guilty about it, the same way that Rico felt guilty about the cut on Nico's back.

"I think I better start explaining..." muttered Rico, looking away guiltily. "But it might take a while."

"I've got time," said Nico, crossing his arms over his chest. Next to him, Pedro sat down and started wishing for popcorn to manifest itself in front of him. This was going to be interesting.

"Start at the beginning," said Nico. "How did you even hear about me getting kidnapped?"

Rico looked down at his feet. "I know this is gonna sound weird, but I know a couple birds here who use their human's computer to write blogs."

Nico tilted his head to the side, a bit confused. "Yeah, that is weird."

Rico nodded. "I told him to see a doctor about it. But anyways, I was using the computer in the Sanctuary back home, and he sent me an email saying that he heard a rumor that some monkeys had kidnapped a canary in Rio. I kinda assumed that there were a few other canaries in Rio other than you, so I didn't really worry that much. But then a few days later, I found a website for this Sanctuary. On the website, there's a bunch of rules and policies and stuff, but there's also a list of the birds that come in and out; what kind they are, what's wrong with them, and what probably happened to them."

"And you saw me on that list..." whispered Nico, realizing what Rico was saying.

"Ooh, a twist," narrated Pedro.

"Yeah," said Rico, ignoring Pedro's commentary. "I saw you. They even mentioned the bottle cap."

Nico's eyes widened a bit, and he remembered his bottle cap. His hands slowly went to his head, but his bottle cap wasn't there. Pedro's reaction, however, was different.

"Oh! Thanks for reminding me!" He hopped to his feet and flew off, returning a minute later. "Ta-da!" Pedro pulled Nico's bottle cap out from behind his back. Nico squealed like a little girl and snatched his bottle cap. If he looked closely, he could still see the crack, and he could see the super glue, but that didn't matter to him. He happily put his bottle cap back on his head. Rico smiled at how happy Nico looked.

"Sorry for interrupting," said Pedro, sitting back down after receiving his hug.

"Yeah, what did you do after that?" asked Nico, his attention turning back to Rico.

"I did the only thing I could think of: I came here to see for myself. I got on a boat and came here to Rio. When I could see the beach, I got a seagull's attention and asked him if he knew you. He told me that everyone knows you guys, so I asked him to go tell you that I was coming."

"You should have seen his face when he got that message," Pedro muttered, rolling his eyes. Nico quickly kicked Pedro's leg, telling him to nix the commentary.

"What happened when you got here?" asked Nico.

"I flew for about 20 seconds before getting grabbed by a marmoset with one eye."

Nico and Pedro gasped.

"Wait a sec, he got you?" exclaimed Pedro.

Rico nodded. "I think he realized that I wasn't you," he gestured to Nico, "so he let go of me. But we also made a deal."

Nico's eyes narrowed. "Was that the deal you were talking about at the waterfall?"

Rico nodded. "The deal was that he would try and help me scare you into coming back home."

Nico had to sit down. "What? You were really willing to go that far to get me to come back?"

"How was I supposed to know that he was the monkey that kidnapped you?" Rico practically shouted. He took a deep breath to calm himself down before continuing. "He was the 'friend' I was staying with in the city. He was living in the back of a vet building or something. I dunno. But after you guys showed me around the city, he asked me to show him where your club was."

"Why would he need to ask?" wondered Pedro. "He's been there before, when Nico nailed him in the face with his bottle cap of doom."

"He said he hit his head recently and couldn't really remember where it was," explained Rico. "But I didn't exactly feel very comfortable telling him where it was..."

"Then how did he find it if you didn't tell him?" asked Nico.

"I did tell him!" exclaimed Rico. "He kidnapped your monkey friend, Roberto, and tortured him, thinking he would know..."

Nico's eye twitched a little bit. "So you told him...?"

"Yeah... I told him..."

"Hold up," said Pedro. "So even after you saw him torture another monkey, you still kept your deal with him?"

Rico nodded. "I was afraid if we broke our deal, he would try and kill you guys... Anyways, he was the one who put that bomb at the Branch. He told me it would just make a small fire and freak everyone out; he told me the fire was never supposed to get that big..."

"So that was why you were so nervous that day before the fire..." muttered Nico. "And we couldn't find you because you were with Maurice...?"

Again, Rico nodded. "Then that night, after the fire, I couldn't sleep, so I just hung out near the beach. Then I heard you singing, and I saw Maurice following you towards the docks, so I kinda stepped in."

"When I asked you why you came, you said you came to bring me home...?"

Rico smiled tiredly. "Then Pedro showed up and I freaked out and hid under the docks. After you guys left, I came out of my hiding spot and got tackled by Maurice. He told me that if I wanted to bring you home, that we would have to go to... extreme measures...

"He told me about how you had been held captive in a bottle, so he said we could try and scare you that way. But then he thought it wouldn't be enough, and he asked if you were afraid of anything. I..."

"You told him I was afraid of spiders, so he found a Spindler Spider and told you that it wasn't poisonous...?" guessed Nico.

Rico gulped and nodded.

Pedro shook his head. "Bad Rico."

"Yeah, bad me..." muttered Rico. He turned back to Nico. "That's why I was trying to warn you to get out, but you wouldn't listen... Maurice told me that if I didn't get you to that bottle, he would come after me, and then get you guys..."

"So why did you need to take my bottle cap and impersonate me?"

"To give Maurice time to scare you. But you," he pointed at Pedro for a moment, "must be able to read minds or something because he could tell that I wasn't you..."

"It was clear as night and day," smiled Pedro smugly.

Nico nodded a bit before looking up at Rico, his eyes showing a hint of sadness. "So why did you say what you did in front of all my friends...?"

Rico sighed and sat down, looking down at his feet. "I dunno... I guess I just got so mad that you wouldn't come back home that... I just... just kinda blurted it out... You have no idea how much that's been killing me, that I said that. I'm sorry. This is all my fault! I tried to help you, but I just ended up putting you in even more danger... I'm so stupid..." Rico moaned, his head in his hands.

After a minute, Nico slowly inched forward and put his hand on Rico's shoulder. Rico looked up at his brother, his eyes watering.

Nico smiled a bit. "I forgive you..." Slowly, a small smile identical to Nico's crept onto Rico's face. Rico leaned forward and hugged his brother again.

"Well, this is really sweet and all, and I'd hate to your bubble, but Nico, we gotta do a performance soon!"

"WHAT!" shouted Nico.

"Yeah, a few days ago, I kinda promised Ernesto that we would do our new song on the Lagoon's openin' night, and nobody really actually knows about the whole Maurice thing yet, so... Do ya feel up for it?"

Nico laughed a bit and rubbed his forehead. "Pedro, I just woke up from a coma. I have a broken rib, and I can barely stand on my own. Do you really think I'm cut out for a performance?"

"No..." muttered Pedro. "So I guess I'll just have to go tell Ernesto and everyone else at the Lagoon that we can't perform because you got kidnapped and struck by lightning and thrown off a waterfall. I'm sure everyone's gonna love to learn about that!"

Nico's eyes widened. "Actually, I feel fine. When do we perform?"

"Word of the day: blackmail," muttered Rico.

"So how are we gonna escape...?" muttered Pedro as he pulled the bandage off his leg, testing his weight on it. "Oh yeah, Pedro's back in business..."

Nico looked down at himself. His feathers were a little singed, but there was no bandage. Reaching behind his back, he felt that the cuts had already scabbed over, making them nearly invisible under his feathers. The burns on his chest from the defibrillators had already faded, and the burns above his eye and on his neck had also faded enough to be invisible. As long as he didn't have to dance or move his legs too much, he would be fine.

"Okay, so we have a few hours before the party starts at sunset," said Pedro, "so that should give us time to get out of here without Linda seeing."

"You know if she catches us, she's gonna-"

The window behind them shattered, cutting Nico off. Two marmosets tumbled through the window, fighting. The three birds shot up into the air; Nico screamed bloody murder when as he recognized the one-eyed marmoset.

"Here, quick!" exclaimed Rico, flying out the window as shouting echoed through the Sanctuary.

Nico and Pedro followed Rico, but Nico managed to hear a little bit of what the other marmoset was shouting at Maurice: "You almost killed him! He almost died because of you!"

They landed in a tree nearby. Nico could hear Linda inside, yelling at Tulio to "grab that cage." A moment later, the sound of fighting stopped, and the other marmoset threw himself through the window, landing in the very tree that Nico, Pedro, and Rico were hiding. The monkey tried to dash off, but Nico recognized him.

"Miguel?"

The marmoset stopped dead in his tracks and looked up at the three birds. He squinted at them a bit as if he didn't remember them, but suddenly, his eyes widened. "Y-you were the canary from the bottle!"

"And you were the monkey that committed suicide by jumpin' over the falls!" exclaimed Pedro as Miguel climbed up to their level. There was something different about the monkey; something about his eyes and the long scar running down his face and neck.

"The falls...?" mumbled the monkey, screwing his face up in concentration. "I don't remember falling in a waterfall..."

Nico and Pedro's eyes widened as they realized what had happened: after Miguel had jumped over the falls, he had hit his head on one of the rocks and gotten amnesia. It was the only way to explain his memory loss.

"What were you fighting about?" asked Rico.

Miguel looked between Nico and Rico, blinking a little bit with confusion. He shrugged his confusion off, and sadness replaced it. "He almost killed Roberto... He tortured him and made everything inside him break!"

"But is he okay?" asked Nico frantically.

"He's alive..." said Miguel. "For now... But he's my brother! Maurice can't just take that away!"

Nico and Pedro looked at each other, understanding what Miguel was going through.

Suddenly, the door to the Sanctuary burst open, and Tulio and Linda walked out. In Tulio's hand was a cage. Inside, Maurice was violently throwing himself around, trying to break free.

"I have a friend that owns a zoo in America," Tulio told Linda. "He can take care of one more monkey."

Linda's response was drowned out by Maurice's scream of rage. He thrashed at his bars until his only eye fell on the three birds and the monkey in the tree. If looks could kill, they all would have spontaneously combusted. Maurice was too furious to even speak; he simply bellowed again; his scream loud and frightening enough to possibly give everyone, even the humans, nightmares for weeks to come.

"I'll take him into town," said Tulio as he walked off. "Dr. Felix can probably sedate him." He and Linda walked out of hearing range.

"So that's it..." muttered Nico, his eyes wide. "He's finally gone... For real this time!" Slowly, Nico smiled. His hunter was finally gone.

"I'm outta here," said Miguel, turning to leave. "I'll let ya know if anything happens to Roberto." He then disappeared.

Pedro gently put a wing around Nico's shoulder. "You're safe now..."

Nico looked over at his brother, who still looked a little phased from Maurice's screams. "So, does that mean I can stay?"

Slowly, Rico smiled. "You'll stay no matter what I say now..."

"So what are you gonna do?" Pedro asked Rico.

Rico shrugged a bit. "I'm gonna go back home. There's a boat heading back to the Canary Islands in an hour, so... I guess this is goodbye..."

"Been nice meetin' ya, bro," said Pedro, slapping Rico on the back.

Rico smiled. "You too, Pedro."

Nico stepped forward and hugged his brother. "I'm gonna miss you..."

"Promise to come visit sometime?"

"Promise..."

And with that, Rico took off into the orange sky, disappearing into the light of the setting sun.

Nico was brought back to earth when Pedro put a wing on his shoulder. "Nico..."

"Yeah Pedro...?"

"We got a party to attend..."

Nico smiled and imagined himself putting on sunglasses. "Let's rock."

A/N: I told you not to forget my rule. Because remember, you never DID see Miguel's body! Muahahahahahaha!

Hope this chapter ties up a few loose ends! I also wanna thank Takara Matsudaira for giving me the idea with what to do with Maurice. I don't have a sequel planned for this yet, but there's still room for one.

I love you all! Only 2 more chapters to go!