"Rosie please, we've been flying for hours"

Francis grunted, the ladybug and the praying mantis had both their arms and wings sore, the sun had setted by a lot and everyone was getting tired.

The black widow would follow the gigantic footprints for days to get Dim and Roll back, but she also knew her friends couldn't handle such pace.

"Ok..." she didn't spoke much that night, there was heavy silence around the area. No one ever dared to speak or try lift the mood because they had never faced a human before, they were tiny bugs against a giant. For now they would all gather in a bush and eat something, tomorrow they'd continue.

"Vhy vould he run away anyway?" Heimlich finally spoke. Yeah, that was quite the mystery, Rosie didn't understand what made the beetle wander off.

"Burden" Tuck repeated the unknown word he had heard from his big friend.

"Nonsense!" Manny intervened "None of us is a burden, we may argue from time to time but thinking one of us as a burden? Absolutely ridiculous"

"Dim may be kind of a big child but he's a good guy" Slim added, then tilted his head as Rosie had turned pale, covered her mouth and shook like a leaf.

"It's my fault" she whispered. When everyone asked what she meant by that, the spider told everything about the argument she had with PT and what she said him.

"But as i said, i'd carry that burden to the end of my days, because i love Dim with all my heart, he's like a..."

"Son" Gypsy interrupted, putting her light hand on the sobbing spider's back "He's like a son to you, right?"

Rosie nodded with tears streaming down like rivers "I never had children of my own and even if he's slightly younger than me, i took care of him as if he was one. And now he thinks i don't want him"

She burst in tears once again, immediately comforted by the moth "There there, you're proving you love him, dearie. We have a long way to go but you're doing all you can to bring him back home"

"Right, speaking of that. How do we deal with a human? I mean, they could splat us with a finger" Francis was really nervous about this one, they didn't have a plan.

"We'll think of something when we arrive" Slim patted the ladybug's shoulder "We got our size to the advantage. Being this small compared to them means we'll be able to hide where they cannot see us"

When everyone went to sleep, Rosie kept thinking about her confession and what the beetle meant to her...

Recalling the first time she had joined that circus because she had nowhere to go, losing all her husbands in an eternal cycle? Not anymore.

She was agile, she spun webs and was really graceful. PT had hired her almost right away, he needed someone pretty aside Gypsy to capture the audience.

Flashback

Rosie was building up her own little chamber to sleep in, she didn't need much, since she would just sleep on a web on the ceiling. A table in the room would suffice her for now and luckily she knew how to build things with the stuff around the city.

While carrying stuff to her new little home, she had noticed a rather big cage covered with a dark piece of cloth.

Curiosity took over as she moved towards the mysterious cage, her fingers lifted the cover and she took a peek

"A Beetle?!" She exclaimed out of surprise, only to scream right after the beast inside the cage rammed the horn on the bars with a terrifying roar.

She could see his eyes filled with wild rage as the male beetle roared to scare her, all interrupted by PT playing the gong a couple times, the beast froze in place and backed off, now scared.

"Back off you stupid beetle! She's my new money maker and I won't let you rip her in half!"

Rosie was still panting in shock, but soon she felt sorry for the caged blue beetle, whimpering like a scared puppy.

"W-What's with him?"

"Bah, i still need to find a tamer. I thought he was trained but I was scammed, what a waste of money"

"But, he's in horrible conditions! In the dark, and alone, how long hasn't he eaten something??"

"He refuses to eat" Francis had sighed "No matter what we do"

In the next days, she had witnessed numerous different job looking bugs running away from the beetle, one of them went too far, he had hurt his legs with the whip. And the stubborn spider didn't want him to suffer like that. That night, Rosie had snucked a piece of grain and some water in the cage.

"Shhh shhhh... it's ok. It's me" she whispered. The beetle made a feeble growl, but she had enough patience to wait "I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help you with the leg"

She had adopted a soft tone to make him feel at ease, also the beetle was too tired and weak from hunger to attack, so she had managed to spun a web on the bruise so it wouldn't get infected or worse.

"There you go" she then hesitated a little, but she moved her hand towards the horn. He shut his blue eyes closed, thinking pain was coming, but just a pleasant feeling of her light hand giving a rub.

He blinked in confusion as she then waved and ran away, then he looked at the bandaged leg, the grain and the water drop. He couldn't take it anymore, he ate and drank and then sighed as he felt a little better.

Rosie had stared secretly and made a little "Yes!" As she heard him eat the grain. She would visit tomorrow again and again until he would trust her enough to get out of the cage.

End of Flashback

Rosie looked at the footprints that led to a light in the distance, she would face a hundred giants to rescue her son and then she would give him the biggest hug and say she was sorry.

"Mommy's coming, Dim. Please hold on"