Chapter 39, everybody! And I think in my writing up on this I might be getting close to having it entirely written out…might bump it up to posting twice a week once that happens but in the meantime know that we have updates clean into the new year. :D

Continuing blanket disclaimer: I still have not finished Season Two. We're flying blind, boys. And again, a good chunk of these chapters were written before I had been able to bring myself to watch "Countdown to Catastrophe"…and in other news, yes I'm still in denial of the end of "Countdown to Catastrophe" don't at me. D:

Kinda gotta giggle at Fred making a reference to that morning—which would be about five chapters back at this point. XD Also, Honey Lemon comparing Nox to Knox was me getting to the San Fransokyo part of the story and going I…totally forgot that was that guy's name. ^^; And Gogo and Wasabi are channeling Riley and Danny from the pilot episode of Baby Daddy. Love that show. :D

In other news, those shiny food covers, like the strandline, were one of those things where I went I know there's gotta be a proper name for that. In this case, they're called cloches. Why would Hiro know this? Probably Aunt Cass, if I had to guess. And again, we're going for the fanon explanation for Honey Lemon's real name...and the K-turn comes from Kim Possible.

Angelwings2002, thanks for the review! No it isn't! And you might have to take a number (do you still have your old one?). Of course—Baymax is a good healthcare marshmallow. Me too (I may be writing it, but I still have the same oh bleep moments the rest of you do). ^^;

Hexyah, thanks for the review! Ah, that makes more sense. XD It did, and made me really love some of the earlier reviews (honestly there were times it killed me not to say something). Louie definitely needs a hug, and Tadashi will definitely blame himself because he's Like That™. Ah, thank you! It was fun to write. :D

SilverPhoenix, thanks for the review! Yes…yes he did. And will this make it to the news, I wonder….

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Ducktales © 2017 Disney

While Hiro and Fred were in the woods looking, the others were searching for bird-people in the city.

It was slow going.

"My guess is they took off," Gogo said, glancing at the second Baymax helmet Hiro had jury-rigged before setting off. "If the little one is this skittish, I can't imagine the bigger ones sticking around."

"Is that normal though?" Wasabi asked, freeing up a hand from the steering wheel to gesture briefly. "You said birds divebomb people that get too close to their nest—wouldn't they be hunting for the kid?"

She considered. "Maybe—most of the time if a bird drops from the nest and disappears the parents give it up as a bad job and focus on their other babies."

"Oh great, so there could be more."

"That is why Fred and Hiro are looking in the woods," Honey Lemon put in. "How are things down there?"

"No sign of them," Gogo said, scanning the streets. "How do things look up there?"

"Very peaceful—I think I'm going to have to talk to Hiro about changing things up, I like it up here."

"Thank you," Baymax said. "I have detected no signs of: bird-people, over section four."

Gogo pulled out the map and crossed out another section. "Hope Fred and Hiro are having better luck."

"Do we?" Wasabi asked, stopping at a stop sign before turning down a side road. "Remember about the divebombing if they get too close to the nest? Remember how big the others were?"

Gogo felt her mouth twist—she wanted to argue that having the bird-kid might stop them, that the bird-people might be capable of higher reasoning…except the bird-kid was practically feral, didn't seem all that intelligent even with what Hiro had reported….

And they had to consider Professor Knox, consider High Voltage, consider the rapid deterioration in intelligence after monsterfication. The people that the monsters had been could possibly be intelligent, rational people.

The monsters they turned into would likely not be.

"Let's worry about that when we get there," she decided. "Which doesn't look like it'll be tonight."

"At least that blue one can't snatch me in the car," Wasabi said, eyeing the skies nervously.

"You keep your eyes on the road."

The helmet pinged.

They looked at it sharply—started scanning outside, Wasabi slowing to a crawl and keeping an eye on the skies, Gogo scanning at ground level…didn't see anything. Maybe a flash of color disappearing around a corner down a side alley, but it was low enough it could have been a cat.

"Make the next turn up here," she suggested, pointing. Wasabi put on his blinker—

"I have just received a message from: Heathcliff," Baymax announced. "They are heading back to Fred's place. Fred and Hiro: have found something."

They exchanged sharp glances—Gogo motioned for him to turn around.

"We're on our way," she announced as Wasabi executed a K-turn. "And we're marking this part of the city to pick up on later."

"You saw something?" Honey Lemon asked.

"The helmet pinged—I don't know, we might have been close."

"Do you think they found anything friendly?" Wasabi asked.

"Let's hope so."


Hiro was alerted to the fact that he had dozed off when Fred shook him awake again.

"Hiro, we're here."

Hiro blinked blearily, aware of the fact that they had stopped, that there was a wing draped over him, a warm body curled up against him, and that most everything hurt.

"Urgh," Hiro noised, trying to roll upright—wing pinning him down and stiff muscles collaborated against him on this point. "The other guy feels worse, right?"

Fred made a face, hugging something to his chest. "Well, Ned's all scratched up, so maybe? I don't know, I'm just guessing at this point," he said, looking at a large bird sitting next to him.

The last few hours came crashing back into Hiro's recollection when the bird leaned over him and asked "Okay 'Dashi-Hiro okay?"

"Uh," he noised, trying to get upright, pushing up against the wing draped across him—the body next to him squirmed, stretched—wing folding back into place as their bird-kid—Nox—sat up, sending another wing slipping off him—another bird-kid rolled upright, mumbling and rubbing at its eyes. Managed to struggle the rest of the way up. "I'm guessing I didn't dream up Muirahara Woods going up in smoke."

"Nah, unfortunately," Fred said. "Man, that was…intense…I don't know, I had a good run going describing it earlier."

"Bad-bad-no good-bad," Webby said.

"That works," Fred said. "At least until I get some sleep and come up with something alliterative and multisyllabic."

Hiro nodded, barely registering Nox pressed tight against his back, wing half-around him and hands bunching up his hoodie, making quiet noises and feeling as exhausted as Hiro did—

Everyone started when the door slid open.

"My apologies," Heathcliff said, upon taking in how everyone was—the bigger bird-kid, Lena, was puffed up and hissing with wings mantled, trying to push Webby behind her. "I've taken the liberty of opening the garage door to the backyard."

"Hey, any steps to shorten the distance between me and a couch is A-Okay in my book, Heathcliff," Fred said, scootching for the door. "Come on, my dudes, we'll be safe here."

"No," Violet said, burying her face against Fred's shoulder.

"Nah man, it's okay," Fred said, patting her back. "It's just the garage, little dudette, we'll be fine."

"No," Webby agreed, pulling on Fred's shirt. "No no bad—"

Hiro sighed, slipped out of the car—Nox squeaked in alarm, managed to hook his claws in Hiro's hoodie—

Hiro stopped, no energy left to scold or try to pull away, looking down in total exhaustion at that face….

That face that was looking up at him in terror and worry, having just survived a trying ordeal, now disoriented and in a place he didn't know, looking up at him with an expression that clearly said don't leave me.

He couldn't begrudge the kid that.

"Come on," he said, reaching with his other hand to tug on the hand still clinging to the carpet, slipping under the palm and slowly working the claws free as he talked. "It's Fred's place—you remember Fred's place." Saw the nervous glancing—"Come on, it'll be all right."

Nox's eyes flicked, still terrified—focused on him again, ears flicking now….

Finally crawled out of the limo, clinging tight to him. Hiro sighed, put an arm around him for lack of anything better to do with the limb at the moment. Lena hesitated…squawked when Webby slipped out of the car and over.

"Bad," she announced. "Snff ick bad—"

"That's just car smells," Hiro said, as Lena finally minced out.

"Shall I prepare refreshments?" Heathcliff asked.

"Yeah, that'd be great," Fred said, finally able to get out of the car. "The rest of the team should be here soon."

"I will prepare for their arrival, Master Frederick."

"Great," Hiro said, slowly shuffling for the open door—bird-kids clinging to him made movement awkward. Finally reach the door, outside, fresh air—

"See?" Hiro asked, tapping Nox. "Fred's place. Like I said."

Nox made noises that might have been recognition, felt like he was relaxing slightly…chirped and pointed at the patio.

"Yeah," Hiro said, angling that way. "Now let's go—there's a couch with my name on it. Or, you know, I'll take a piece of floor at this point."

"I. Am going to sleep. SO hard," Fred agreed, sliding the door shut behind them. "My dudes that had to be the worst experience I ever had in a forest. Like, ever. And that counts nearly being eaten by a bear the last time or that one time at camp where I screwed up identifying poison oak—that itches SO BAD."

Hiro was more focused on getting up the steps without falling over, wondering idly if he looked anything like drunk Baymax trying to deal with the same thing—Nox had let go, scurried up the steps and sat there chirping, encouraging Webby and Lena to follow—made it to the top of the steps, using his hands to crawl a bit away from the edge before flopping down on his back.

"You know what? I've decided I'll take the floor for now," Hiro announced.

"Hard same," Fred said, flopping down next to him. "Ugh, what a day. And it started off so nice too—your aunt makes some killer blueberry scones, just want to put that out there."

"Mmm," Hiro noised, listening to the bird-kids—look over to see Nox sitting on the little bed they had set up the first night, kneading it like Mochi would and chirping and burbling at the others. Webby seemed interested, poking at the bed; Lena kept shooting Hiro looks, like she couldn't decide whether or not he was okay. Sigh, look back up—

Saw a very familiar rocket booster angling overhead.

Nudge Fred, sit up—"Baymax!"

The robot in question came to a landing in a clear spot on the patio—Hiro quickly assured the bird-kids it was all right, they looked ready to bolt—got to his feet as Fred scrambled upright.

"Honey Lemon!" Fred greeted, as she slid off of Baymax and came running over.

"Hiro we really need to talk about cycling travelling with Baymax—are you guys all right?" she asked, slowing to a halt, concern starting to erase her relief at seeing them.

Baymax seemed to share this concern. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"

Hiro started to say he was fine…stopped. He didn't believe it, knew they didn't, knew he had to look like he ran all over the woods and nearly died doing so.

"I don't know," Hiro admitted finally. "Where on the scale is exhaustion?"

"We had a whole thing," Fred added. "It wasn't to the point of…you know, talking meteors but…."

Webby popped up between them. "Hi! I'm Webby!"

Honey Lemon was just as startled as Heathcliff was, Baymax was not. "Hello. I am Baymax."

"Bhh-mhh," Webby said, pointing at Baymax. Looked at Hiro.

"Yes, Baymax is a friend," Hiro sighed.

"Also, as you can see, we found more bird-people," Fred said, pointing at Violet clinging to him. "Also, our bird-kid is named Nox. Which wasn't in the running, but what the hey."

"Like Professor Knox?" Honey Lemon asked, looking confused—looked back down at Webby tugging on her. "Hello."

"Hi! I'm Webby!" Webby chimed.

"You have to tell her your name, otherwise she keeps repeating that," Hiro offered.

"Oh," Honey Lemon noised, crouching a bit to get on Webby's level. "Hi Webby—I'm Honey Lemon."

"Haah-neee," Webby said. "Haa-hmm."

"Honey Lemon," Fred offered. "It's like…four syllables. Hon-ee leh-mun."

"It might be too much for her, like with our bird-kid—I mean Nox," Honey Lemon said, before looking back at Webby. "How about Aiko? Is that all right for you to say? Aiko."

"Aiko!" Webby repeated.

"That's great! You can call me Aiko."

"Aiko Aiko Aiko!" Webby cheered, before flopping against Honey Lemon in a hug.

"Aw, she's adorable," Honey Lemon said, returning the hug.

"Announcing Master Wasabi and Madame Gogo," Heathcliff said from the French doors.

"Uh…yeah," Wasabi said, seeming as confused by that as Hiro had been. "So how did you guys HOGEEZ!"

They hadn't noticed Lena and Nox until Wasabi glanced over—he startled back, tripping over one of the chairs, Lena and Nox flinched back, hissing, Lena puffed up with her wings mantled—

Webby was over and on Wasabi and hissing before any of them could process it.

"WOAH wait NO no eating Wasabi!" Hiro squawked, running over.

Baymax followed, lifted Webby off of Wasabi, looked down at him. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"

"I'll let you know after everything starts working again," Wasabi wheezed.

"Get up," Gogo said, hauling him upright—and then glancing at Webby, now perched on Baymax's shoulder and screeching. "I see you found more bird-kids."

"Yeah," Hiro sighed. "It was…a thing."

"It was," Fred agreed, getting on Wasabi's other side and waving at Webby. "Okay, to all bird-kids: this is Wasabi. We like Wasabi. Wasabi is a nice guy."

"'Zabi!" Webby declared.

"Yes. This is Wasabi. Remember what I said about him being nice and not traumatizing him by tackling him."

"Seriously?" Wasabi asked—flinched back when he saw Violet watching him. "Uh, hi?"

Violet leaned off of Fred, arms stretched towards Wasabi. "Up!"

"Uh yeah no bye," Wasabi said, shuffling away.

Violet patted Fred on the shoulder, pointed after Wasabi. "Up!"

"Okay no I gotcha," Fred said, pursuing Wasabi.

"Fred, no—" Wasabi squawked—

"Sorry Wasabi, but she insists."

"Will you two grow up?" Gogo demanded. "You stay. You—gimme," she said, taking Violet—and then turning around and sticking her on Wasabi.

"Ahh no no I'm not for this—" Wasabi squeaked.

"Hands go here," Gogo said, putting Wasabi's hands under Violet. Not that she needed to do so—Violet was clinging on tight, hung there for a bit before climbing up on his shoulder.

Wasabi was hunched up in terror. "I can't see her—what's she doing?"

"She's just sitting there," Gogo said.

"Enjoying the view," Fred added.

Violet was looking around—at least until she focused on Wasabi's hair and started playing with it.

"Now what's she doing?" Wasabi asked.

"Styling your dreads?" Violet started nibbling on his hair. "Okay now she's kind of chewing on them."

"Okaythat'sitgetheroff," Wasabi wheezed.

"No," Violet said, when Fred reached for her.

"Sorry bud, she's spoken," Fred said, looking at Wasabi.

"Will you get her off of me!?" Wasabi demanded.

Fred reached for her again, only for Violet to slip onto Wasabi's back. "Um—"

"AAAH no get her off get her off!"

Violet hung on for dear life, and Hiro wasn't entirely certain she wasn't squealing with delight. Especially when Webby ran up and jumped on Wasabi too, cheering 'ZABI!

Gogo finally stopped him, peeled Webby off and put her on the ground before doing the same to Violet.

"Hi! I'm Webby!" Webby said to Gogo.

"You're also trouble," Gogo said, looking at her. "So what is the story even?"

Hiro started to answer—was stopped by Baymax telling him he needed to be out of his armor to better tend to Hiro's healthcare needs. "Yeah sure—Fred, explain."

"Right!" Fred said, before pointing at Gogo. "Gogo."

"Gogo," Webby repeated.

"Correct! And this is Webby, Violet, Lena—and our bird-kid is Nox. Not like Professor Knox I don't think. And that's everyone introduced—wait." Pause, doing a mental tally. "No yeah that's everyone."

Gogo slapped him upside the head. "Explain about finding the bird-kids."

"And please tell me this is it," Wasabi added.

"Uh, yeah…no," Fred said. "There's like…twenty total…."

"Oh great wonderful that's great news."

"And Muirahara Woods is kind of on fire…because someone else is after the bird-people too we're thinking Sycorax but Krei was there too so we're not like, a hundred percent sure. Also, Ned is a monster-Ned now."

It was silent enough that Hiro could hear Baymax scanning him.

"You were gone like two hours," Gogo said finally, tone intimating that she couldn't believe they had managed that much trouble in that little time—waved Fred off when he opened his mouth. "I know, I know—so now we have twenty bird-people period. Three from the other night plus these four…that's thirteen we haven't seen yet, sixteen unaccounted for."

"And the woods," Honey Lemon said, sitting down in a nearby chair. "Poor Ned."

"Poor Ned—poor us," Hiro said, wincing as Baymax cleaned up his scratches—okay, so some of them felt kind of deep now that the adrenaline was dead. "Ned nearly ate us. And then we nearly fell off a cliff."

"And then some trees fell on us," Fred added. "Also, there was a lot of running, and then more trees falling, and the explosions…."

The others listened as Fred gave the abbreviated version of their mad dash through the woods.

"But at least we got these guys out, so…good news," Fred said, indicating the bird-kids, now all squashed together and watching Fred. "I think. Unless you're a chandelier. Or a French door."

"Fwah," Webby said finally.

"No, French. It's like a regular door, only there's two of them and they swing out."

"Well it's more than what we found," Gogo said, watching the bird-kids. "The second helmet pinged while we were looking, but…." She sighed. "I'm not sure about almost two dozen of these."

"I'm definitely not sure I have my limits when it comes to potential heights okay?" Wasabi asked.

"Yes, okay, we got it, you've said it a dozen times since we started. Anyone else have anything they want to share?"

"Yeah," Hiro said, not looking at them. "So…Fred's right, about the cloning…."

"I am?" Fred asked, sounding excited. "All right! How was I right?"

"Nox is a clone," Hiro said, glancing at the bird-kid in question, currently half-buried under Lena's wing and hugging her close. Continuing would change things but…but he needed to share why everything had taken a one-eighty last night. "O-of Obake."

That statement got the dead silence he had been expecting. As one, everyone turned to look at Nox, who hissed lightly at the attention, like he could sense the attitude had shifted, Lena puffing up and hissing louder.

Fred reacted first.

"So it is like the Spider-Man clone wars eeeee I didn't think I'd get to tick this one off the superhero bucket list aaaaah—"

"And we've lost Fred," Gogo announced.

Honey Lemon crouched down to better look at Nox, looked at Hiro with concern. "Are you sure? He…I'm not sure if I see it…."

Baymax looked at Nox, blinked, looked down at his chest. "Nox: has an eighty-seven-point-oh-one percent match to the genetic signature of the individual known as: Obake." Blink back at the bird-kids—"Lena: also has genetic similarities to: Obake, although much less."

Hiro looked up at Baymax. "Seriously?"

"Yes. She also has genetic similarities to: Momakase."

"So," Fred noised, pointing. "That means that technically she's evidence to the Obakase ship yes TOTALLY called it—"

"FRED!" Gogo barked, sounding a thousand-percent done.

"But um," Wasabi said, hedging. "It's just like…genetic signature. Not…you know…everything else."

Hiro sighed, sagging, resting his head against Baymax. "No, it's nothing else, it was just…kind of a shock." Was blearily aware of Honey Lemon watching the bird-kids carefully…nodding finally.

"They're just kids," she said, looking at the rest of them. "Just because we know their genetic donor…that doesn't mean they're…like that."

"But this does put a cool spin on the villain-redemption story," Fred said—right before he got his ear yanked by Gogo. "OW!"

Hiro made a face at that, looked at the bird-kids when he caught Honey Lemon watching him with concern—glanced up when Heathcliff came out pushing a food cart.

"I've brought refreshments, Master Fredrick," Heathcliff announced, putting trays on a low table.

"Excellent," Fred said, pumping the air even with being bent half-backwards. "Who's ready for some munchies?"

Nox, apparently—Nox had apparently learned to link those food covers (cloches, his mind unhelpfully dredged up) with food, chirped—

The other three bird-kids immediately snapped their attention around, zeroing in on the spread.

"Uh, Heathcliff?" Hiro offered. "Run."


Nox wasn't sure what the olders were all being hedgy and worried about. Yes, 'Dashi was still not here. Yes, Nox's wing was still broken. Yes, something had attacked them and all of that was bad-bad-no good-bad.

But he wasn't only anymore—and it wasn't the not-only of Maybe-'Dashi's-Hiro who was only MAYBE flock maybe flight—this was Lena and Violet and Webby and this was relief so strong and much that he was going to fall asleep right here against Lena tucked in tight under her wing wrapped around him arms wrapped around him he was safe-safe-safe and that was good-good-good and he was not moving for nothing.

And then Heathcliff came out with big silvery sliding thing, putting lots of SHINY things on a small ledge, pulling SHINY off—

Food.

Nox may have had several good-good-good meals that left him full in the past couple of days, but that didn't stop him from rushing the food with the others—because now it was proper food, it was scrabble to get food before others did and that felt right

Violet grabbed big handfuls of what Fwah had called grapes, stuffed them in her mouth, spitting out seed and stem and licking her beak to keep the juice from escaping—Nox managed to get a pancake before Webby claimed them, pulling them to her, squawking at Lena when she snatched one off the top and stuffed it in her beak—

And then Violet tried one of the things with straw sticking out of it, sucking on it after Fwah showed how it worked—eyes went wide, startling Nox into a squawk—

Violet gave an awed shriek—good-good-good-good—grabbed the other things like the one she had and scurried away, squawking that these were hers no one else's—

That, of course, was an open invitation—the rest of them scrambled after her, tripping over each other and squawking, sending 'Dashi's-Hiro scurrying away and 'Zabi shrieking up off the ground—Violet reached the side of the nest-thing, dug her claws in, hauled herself up to sit on top of the thing-that-made-light but wasn't fire, hugging the things with straw in them and squawking hers these were hers mine-mine-mine no one else's HERS good-good hers—the rest of them trying to scramble after her, squawking when the no-feather olders peeled them off the wall and hauled them off—

Another no-feather came out, this one radiating authority—everyone immediately went quiet, attention focused on her.

The no-feather that radiated authority looked them over, what looked like pretty shimmering white clothes on, hands on hips—spotted Violet sitting on the thing-that-made-light but wasn't fire.

"Down," she said sternly, pointing—Violet nearly fell scrambling to obey.

"Uh, hi Mom," Fwah said, Nox still dangling heavily from his arms. "We were just, um—"

Fwah quailed under the even look he was getting from the no-feather Fwah's-Mom.

"As for the four of you," Fwah's-Mom said, focusing on Nox, Lena, Webby, and Violet. "I saw your behavior from inside, you will sit at that table and you will eat calmly. Understood?"

They were very quick to chatter yes-no-sorry-yes, scrambling to sit next to the food, watching her carefully—she felt like Beth and Sue when they got serious-behave-mind tone, and that never was a tone they wanted to fully argue with—Nox wasn't sure, but he felt like it would end badly.

"Woah, go Mom," Fwah said, staring along with the older no-feathers and 'Dashi's-Hiro and Baymax. "That was like—a superpower or something."

"Yeah—how?" 'Dashi's-Hiro asked.

"My origin story was becoming a mother," Fwah's-Mom said. "Don't let them fight like that again, and remember what I said about keeping them out of the begonias."

"Right Mom!" Fwah said, giving her a thumb's-up as she went back inside the nest. They watched her go—Violet tipped her head in consider, inhaled—Lena held her beak shut.

Gogo pointed after Fwah's-Mom, looked at Fwah. "Let me get this straight: your mom is aware of the bird-people in her backyard?"

"Moms know everything," Fwah said with absolute conviction. "Plus we kind of had to tell her—I needed to explain the door and the chandelier, at least."

They tried eating food again, this time slower and without squawking, tried to at least food was good and if you didn't get it in your mouth right away it disappeared—Violet was ignoring it all though, Violet was busy sucking down on what Fwah had called milkshake and squawking whenever one of the others tried to take one saying they were hers no one else's—

Food was eventually gone, Violet climbed up on one of the soft-ledges the older no-feathers called couch, hugging one of the milkshake close to bulging belly as she snuggled up in a soft corner, dozing—Webby considered, tried tugging—Violet growled without opening her eyes.

Nox whistled and chirped play, Webby immediately spun to face him shrieking challenge-accept-YES—Lena ignored them both, Lena was still busy watching the older no-feathers with suspicion because she had no-trust for them and question

Nox and Webby rolled and tumbled, tackled Lena, scurried away from her as the older no-feathers dodged in between conversation—they were talking like the olders in their flock their flight did and with happy-full belly and familiar-sounding murmur and Webby and Lena and Violet Nox almost felt safe-warm-okay—

All he needed was 'Dashi. Was the rest of the flock the flight. Grump, even.

Lena caught him, tackled him, rolled him, started poking—he squeaked and squealed, flailing, worry beyond getting Lena off of him quickly banished from his thoughts—he wasn't only anymore, the others had looked for him had missed him had found him—'Dashi would be soon, 'Dashi would be right behind and finding them and everything would be good-safe-okay be right again—

Webby tackled Lena, Nox rolled upright and dashed away, circled around to tackle them, hugging tight and squealing, rolling and batting and chasing and playing until finally Violet's idea of curling up on soft-ledge seemed like great idea only for a moment just until his eyes stopped being tired and he wasn't so sleepy—

Crawl up on soft-ledge, snuggle in close next to Violet, chin resting on her shoulder, wishing he was at an angle he could spread good-wing over her—Violet growled softly, hugging milkshake close and expecting trick but still sleepy enough that she didn't open her eyes—Webby crawled up, snuggled in close next, Lena following, spreading wing over them, curled up so she was resting her head against Webby but still watching the older no-feathers still no-trust but she sensed the familiarity too so she wasn't sure….

Honey-Lemon-Aiko draped blanket over them, tucking it in close, cutting cool air-breeze-soft away from chilling feathers and skin—Nox warbled yes-good-thank you, settling in closer…this wasn't 'Dashi, but it was others it was flock was flight was Webby was Violet was Lena wasn't him being only and hoping and begging for anyone to come find him before she did and took him back to the bad-place the terror was there but it was so much reduced and quiet in the back of his mind—

He finally fell asleep, into a sleep with no nightmares.