We arrived in Pensacola the next day. Of course, as we had spent most of the night before either being kidnapped or chasing a kidnapper, we didn't really do much that day other than sleep.

I wanted to continue the trend the next day, much to Emily and Hector's protests. But to my surprise, Rainbow overruled me. So we went downstairs and picked up several pamphlets. You know, the pamphlets that every hotel has that advertise local attractions. We grabbed a few and headed out.

Our first stop was the National Naval Aviation Museum. Our bags were searched, but thanks to the Mist the mortals didn't bat an eye at my spear. Emily looked quite nervous with Custer's sword, but relaxed when one of the security guards complimented her on her 'umbrella'.

While the children ran off to look at the fighter aircraft (followed closely by Rainbow in her shadow-form), I drifted towards the flying boats. When I was a kid, I had always enjoyed watching the Catalina flying boats take off from the nearby naval base. Their ability to fly, despite looking like a plump pelican, fascinated me. For a short period I'd even wanted to be a pilot when I grew up.

That dream had crashed and burned when I told my parents about it.

But if the Catalinas were plump pelicans, then the aircraft before me was an exceedingly pregnant pelican. The plaque called it a Coronado, and I wondered what it would have looked like when it lifted off of the water.

I stood there for a while, lost in the memories of a naïve child.

Once I finished reminiscing, I went to go find the others. The kids had seemingly grown bored with the displays and had found some other children to hang out with. They looked so happy and carefree, mingling with others not even 48 hours after having been kidnapped. I briefly wondered if this was what Rainbow had meant about children being strong, and decided to ask her.

Of course, that was problematic as she was currently lurking on the aircraft hanging from the ceiling, shifting from wingtip to wingtip as she shadowed the kids. I managed to catch up with her at the Corsair II, where she was lurking inside the engine's air intake.

"It's like you're their parent, following them around like this." I commented. "You've even dropped into your spooky dream-shadow form."

Rainbow solidified in order to respond. "I am not acting like their parent."

"You are quite literally hovering around them. I think you'd make a great helicopter mom."

She glared at me.

"So I've been thinking." I began.

"Always a dangerous proposition." She said with a nod.

My jaw dropped. "Did you just make a joke?"

The expression on her muzzle was inscrutable. "Continue."

I raised an eyebrow at her, but did as she asked. "I was thinking about what you said a while back. Back when you asked if I could feel the power inside the kids. While I don't exactly feel it, I think I might understand what you meant."

She tilted her head. It was only to a 45 degree angle this time. Progress.

I continued speaking. "Their ability to recover from stressful situations is pretty remarkable."

"That was not exactly what I was referring to. If I were to try and put it into words, I would refer more towards their minds."

I thought for a moment, thinking back to those halcyon days when I watched the birds and planes take off. Back when my teachers were proclaiming that by the time I was an adult, anything would be possible for me. They pointed at the heavy inclusion of women in the ongoing war effort and the increasing role women were taking in politics, and said 'that could be you one day!'. Before I grew up and faced the real world, or alternatively, before my parents crushed those dreams, anything seemed possible.

"So maybe it's more that to a kid, pretty much anything is possible? You know, the sky's the limit and that sort of thing."

"That's much closer." Rainbow said, looking thoughtful. "I think the green space midget would have understood. He seemed to get it."

"The green space midget? Do you mean Yoda?" I asked incredulously. I'd certainly never caught her watching Star Wars, but who else could she mean?

Rainbow looked uncomfortable for a moment, before shaking her head.

We sat in silence for a while, watching as Hector and Emily puttered around and generally got to act like kids for the first time this week.

Eventually, Rainbow spoke up. "On a different note, Theoria."

"What?"

"Back at the police station last year, you asked me my name. When I'm in my… natural state, you may refer to me as Theoria."

On the one hand, this suddenly felt like a deep and meaningful moment. On the other hand, we had been sharing an apartment for over twelve months. It's about damn time she told me her name. So I settled for a brief nod, and allowed the pegasus to resume mothering the kids.

Nothing else of interest happened that day. The next morning though, I did notice that Rainbow was placing the feathers she'd pulled off while preening into her bags. This was unusual because she normally ate them for some unfathomable reason. I was tempted to ask her about this, but decided not to. We spent most of that day doing touristy things as well, but after dinner we all gathered together to plan our rescue attempt.

"Our cabin was 14A. I've marked it on the maps." Emily said, handing Rainbow and I each a brochure.

'Sail the seas like royalty of old! Board the Princess Andromeda!' The front exclaimed. I opened it to find a map of the ship's interior, complete with text blurbs and photographs highlighting important areas of the ship, which were all named to fit the Andromeda theme. You could sing karaoke in the Cassiopeia lounge, play bingo in the Perseus arcade, eat a buffet dinner at the Cepheus cafeteria, and view all kinds of fish at the Dictys aquarium. Even the ship security was affected, if you lost track of your kids you were encouraged to go alert the Hermes travel security service. True to Emily's word, there was a neat little pink star next to a cabin in the bow.

Emily pulled out her wallet and pulled out a picture of her, her Hector, and an older man with an impressive mustache. "Here's his picture so that you know what he looks like."

I passed it to Rainbow, who frowned intently at the image.

"Did you get a dog recently?" The pegasus asked.

"Uh, yes. What does Clifford have to do with any of this?" Emily responded.

"I'm just curious. How has he been lately?"

"He's doing fine. Growing a little faster than I expected, but nothing unusual."

"I'm going to ride Clifford one day!" Interrupted Hector.

Emily sighed. "Brother, we've been over this. Just because Clifford is big for a dog doesn't mean he'll become big enough for you to sit on. We don't want you to hurt him by accident."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Rainbow warned ominously.