Author's Note: Ahhh! Almost 200 reviews! I'm so excited! I'm glad it's still holding everyone's attention. I'm so excited for everyone to read the last paragraph (no cheating!); it popped into my head just as I was going to post!

Glad to hear that you read the story over again, Flitterific! :) I had to go back and read it again too because I have so many ideas running through my head that I can't remember what actually made it into the story yet. :)

The toxicology results came back positive for a poison they were still trying to identify. Clarion's body seemed to be tolerating it well enough. Spruce kept her in the operating room where they could intensely monitor her vitals while she was still sleeping off the sedation.

Milori stood alone in her hospital room, with his head bowed as he leaned his hands down on the bed. "Clarion," he whispered. "I don't know what to do. I don't know if I should tell everyone that Bernard is loose. He's likely behind all of this. I need you. I need your guidance, sweetheart. I need you to be with me to help me find the words. To help me lead our fairies. I fear that we face war. He has festered for centuries, and I fear that it is him and he will cut us down before we even see him coming. Be with me," he whispered. "Help me save our kingdom so we can save you." He drew a steadying breath, brushing at his misty eyes and stood. He walked out of her room, standing tall and strong like a leader Clarion would be proud of. He made his way to the Pixie Tree, past the ministers who were afraid, to the balcony where the Queen always addressed her kingdom.

Hundreds of eyes turned up to him, awaiting word if their Queen would live. He drew a deep breath and closed his eyes but for a moment. "Guide me, sweetheart," he whispered.

His voice rang out loud and strong, hoping he would not lose them before he started. "We have reason to believe that Bernard, the traitor from centuries ago, has escaped Neverland." The crowd buzzed with fear. He continued, hoping to make them strong and not afraid. "Fairies of Pixie Hollow, our Queen is still fighting for her life not only because of the damage done from the fall through the ice..." He paused, waiting to insure he had everyone's full attention. These few minutes were all he had to instill loyalty to the Queen. His voice rose and he spoke forcefully, letting his rage be seen to sweep the crowd away with him. Pointing a finger in the air, he roared, "But also poison!" The crowd gasped and began mumbling. He continued, forcing them to listen. "Our beloved queen was poisoned only two nights ago when she was already so weak from the accident!" He yelled, "Someone is trying to kill our queen! And we will not let him win!"

"No!" some of the crowd yelled back.

"He left a note in her castle chambers, flaunting his evil plot to destroy us, starting with our Queen!" He held up the letter for all to see, his heart thundering in his chest. The veins in his neck bulged when he shouted, "We will not be afraid!"

"No!" more fairies yelled.

"We will not yield!" he yelled and slammed his fists down on the balcony railing.

"No!" the crowd yelled.

"We will not be conquered!"

"No!"

"We will protect our Queen! We will protect our kingdom!"

"Yes!" they roared as one, the energy palpable.

"We will find who is doing this!"

"Yes!"

"Who is with me?!" He threw his fist in the air.

The crowd roared.

"We will stand together! We will see victory!" he yelled and threw up both of his arms.

The crowd went wild.

He threw his head back and looked up at the sun. "We have them on our side, sweetheart," he whispered with a smile of relief. "We have them."

By the time he returned to the hospital, Pixie Hollow was wild with energy. He left them to celebrate their land and Queen.

Milori stopped in the doorway when he saw Clarion back in her room lying on her side in bed. She looked exhausted and pale, but she gave a soft smile. A soft cry escaped his lips and he fell to his knees, his chest heaving. He had been expecting to never see her again, having locked away the hope that had sprung to life in his heart.

"There he is," Thomas told her and stepped back from her side.

Milori raced over and kissed and hugging her gently. "Clarion," he croaked, tears springing to his eyes. "Oh, I could eat you up," he sniffled and kissed her lips and brow and hair, trying to contain himself so he didn't hurt her. "Do you hurt? How do you feel?" Her eyes were unfocused and she looked like she wasn't aware of anything happening.

He looked up Spruce, who was working on her wings. "Is she alright?"

"She's still too out of it to answer anything. I'm not sure if it's from the anesthetic, the poison or the sugar loss," Spruce frowned, his hands quickly trying to stop the sugar that kept dripping onto a basin on the floor.

Milori looked up to see Spruce intensely focused on stopping her sugar loss.

He shook his head. "It has to be the poison doing this." His eyes met Milori's. "I need you to come over here and chill the dust so I can pack it on her wounds."

Shaking his head, he replied, "Her wings are too sensitive to temperature changes. It could kill her."

"What other option is there? She's hemorrhaging faster than I can get sugar into her. She already has two intravenous lines pumping sugar into her."

Milori gently pulled away from her, and she didn't seem to notice. Walking around the bed to look at her wings he said, "Would the temperature be enough if I try to heal them cause damage?"

Spruce shrugged but the stress was apparent in his voice as he kept working. "I have no idea. None of this has ever happened before. We're inventing medicine, friend."

Milori rubbed his fingers together and sprinkled the tiniest bit of dust on one tip of her wing that was hemorrhaging heavily. Then he set the tip of his finger over it. The moment it started to feel hot, he pulled away his hand.

Spruce, Dewey and Milori leaned in and examined it closely. It appeared to have a very fine seal. But her wings started fluttering.

"No, no, Clarion," Milori said quickly as they all grabbed her to keep her calm so she didn't break the seal or make her other wounds bleed out faster.

She tried to push herself up off the bed. Her wing hurt. Someone was trying to hold her back down. She beat her wings harder, afraid what was happening. Then a fairy she recognized but couldn't remember came around the bed and gently laid her back down, his voice calm and soothing as he stroked her brow. She looked up at him, not able to understand what he was saying, but he was gentle and softly rubbed her back, making her wings calm down.

She was scared and he could tell she couldn't understand him. "It's alright, sweetheart," he said soothingly in a low voice to relax her. "Rest so you feel better." Her wings must hurt like his had before his amputation. Softly rubbing her back, her wings slowly stilled. "That's a girl," he said softly. "We'll give you something so they don't hurt," he purred and glanced pointedly at Spruce, who drew up some pain medication.

"I have to give it in muscle," Spruce warned him and gently cleaned her shoulder.

Milori sat down on the bed slowly and leaned down over her a bit while rubbing her back to keep her still. "You'll have a pinch on your shoulder, but it will make your wings feel better, sweetheart." He glanced at Spruce, both of them knowing she didn't understand them.

She felt something pierce her shoulder. Suddenly, there were hundreds of ravens everywhere, flapping around her and grabbing her with their cold ugly claws, trying to hold her down as their beaks pecked at her mercilessly. She screamed and tried hitting them with her fists, flailing to get away. Their feathers beat against her face, and she started flinging herself. More were swooping down from the dark sky, all of them screaming for blood and trying to tear her apart. More and more came until all she could see was blackness.

Everyone startled hard when Spruce finished giving the injection and she started screaming. Milori sometimes heard that scream at night in winter when an animal was being eaten. It made him run cold then, but hearing it come from Clarion was terrifying. His instinct was to let her go so she would stop screaming, but she started bucking, and the three of them grabbed her to keep her from breaking her wings.

"Clarion!" Milori snapped, the three of them struggling to hold her still. She got an arm lose and flung it, punching him in the eye. He grabbed her wrists, pinning them down with one hand, keeping her on her side and leaned down on her shoulder with his chest while pressing on her back with his other hand in a spot that would make it difficult for her to flap her wings. Dewey was unsuccessful in holding down her legs that she used to kick and start gaining leverage. She started bucking again, her screams deafening. Spruce leaned down on her legs, pinning her down.

"We have to sedate her or she'll break her wings!" Spruce yelled over the screaming. "She's hallucinating!"

"And can she survive sedation when her body is already struggling to stay alive?!" Milori snapped.

Spruce held his eyes, neither of them knowing what to do.

Milori kept his grip on her but leaned down, trying to catch her eye. "Clarion," he said softly, fighting back his fear. She was seeing something terrifying, and he suspected she thought she was being eaten alive. "Sweetheart, look at me. It's alright. It's not real. I'm not going to let anything hurt you," he said in a low voice, cutting underneath her screams. Tears flowed from her unseeing eyes, but her screams fell to whimpers. "Shhh, it's alright. I promise nothing is hurting you. You're seeing things, sweetheart. I'm right here. We're in the hospital. Nothing is here."

Her chest heaved and suddenly her eyes weren't vacant. She looked around, and he slowly eased up on pressing her into the bed. Turning her head, her eyes found him. "Milori?" she whimpered.

"I'm right here," he promised and slowly let go of her wrists to hold her hands. "You're seeing things, love." His heart broke when she clawed at him, trying to get into his arms to hide. He leaned down and held her shaking body as she sobbed.

Healers came rushing into the room. "We heard screaming."

Milori gave Spruce a dark look. Spruce smiled and kicked out the healers.

Before she started hallucinating again, they finished lightly cauterizing her wings. Then Spruce and Dewey started cleaning up the sugar that was splattered everywhere, and Milori walked back around the bed to lie down and hold her to keep her calm.

"Your eye," she said softly, trying to focus something as she felt her mind slipping away again.

He gave a soft smile, his black eye protesting the movement. "You have a good punch."

She jumped and started trying to wipe at him with the blanket. "There's poisonous spiders on you," she started to panic.

He held her hands in his, trying to calm her. "I promise there aren't. It's not real, sweetheart." She looked at their hands with fearful eyes, and he knew she thought they were moving onto her. "There's nothing there," he promised and stroked her arms, hoping she would believe him.

She turned her head and buried her face in the pillow. "I can feel them biting," she whimpered and tried flicking them off.

He pulled her close in a hug. "I swear there aren't any, love," he said softly. "See?" He wiped his hand down the side of her body.

She buried her face against his chest. "They are. It hurts," she wept.

"Clarion, I need you to stay calm and trust me. Will you trust me?"

She hesitated but slowly nodded, her body tense in his arms. Huddling against him, she fought her senses and trusted him.

She would squirm every few seconds and ask him if he saw any. He swallowed hard because she trusted him even though every one of her senses was telling her that he was wrong.

For the next few hours, Spruce and Dewey worked with the best warm fairy healer to figure out what poison was in Clarion. Her hallucinations continued, but she was aware of his presence to a degree. Sometimes she would start screaming, thinking she was drowning or a snake was swallowing her. Other times, she'd hold his hands tight and squeeze her eyes shut, trusting him that there really weren't hawks tearing her apart.

His nerves were fried and his heart was breaking watching her mind torment her. Whether it was a wise idea or not, he had Thomas announce the decree that all fairies were to stay within their own seasons and get ready for an attack. He left Clarion for a few minutes to meet with Thomas and the winter fairy captain, ordering them to prepare their armies. Thomas looked confused, but the winter captain didn't bat an eye at what seemed like an outrageous order.

Milori marched back to the hospital, his eyes watching the storm clouds that were rolling in. He hadn't told Clarion yet that when he was only eight seasons old there had been a war on the outside border of winter with malicious fairies that had come from another star. Or that he had been in a war when those fairies had moved on to attack Neverland a year later. During the wars, Milori had led the winter fairies as their general in a vicious battle that had gone on for days. He had lost winter fairies, and their population was still struggling to come back. At the time, he had believed the evil enemy fairies had been annihilated. But now, he was beginning to worry that perhaps Bernard had been one of those fairies. He was now returning to the hospital after ordering the guards to keep everyone away from the hospital who wasn't in need of medical attention. The last thing they needed was whoever did this to figure out that Pixie Hollow was vulnerable with their queen in temporary madness. This was exactly what the enemy was waiting for, expecting Pixie Hollow to begin falling into chaos.