AN: *coughs* Well. It's been a bit. Enjoy.

Lloyd was dead and gone. Zane was dead and gone. Cole was dead and gone. Kai was dead and gone. So it really was just Jay and Nya. But Jay couldn't accept that. He wished a thousand other things had happened instead. It was too terrible, too awful, too much of something he couldn't even bear to think about. It really couldn't have been any worse.

Well, maybe it could've been worse, Jay mused. Maybe this whole thing could've been worse. Maybe he could've been the one to doom each of them because he kept his mouth shut about something important or did something he shouldn't have done. Maybe Nya could've been dead or gone or something like that too. Maybe there could've been something else involved, something that could've made everything even harder, something like magic or other worlds swords or pirates or genies, or, or, or-

Or nothing.

Nothing could make this worse.

Well, nothing except if he lost Nya. She was all he had left now.

Jay turned his head consideringly to the side of the cave, checking the angle of the sun. Where was Nya, anyway? She wasn't supposed to take this long. She'd said that she was just going to search for some food, that it wouldn't take her long, that Jay could just rest for a little bit.

But it had been longer than a little bit.

Panic started to rise in Jay's chest. He tried to shove it down, but it kept bubbling back up, and his feathers started to ruffle, and his stomach started to churn, an anxious cry exploded from Jay's mouth.

"Nya!"

Obviously Nya didn't answer. Because she wasn't there. Because she was gone. Because she was dead or captured or dead then captured or captured then dead or-

"Focus!" Jay scolded himself, popping up from his seat on the cave floor and hurrying toward the entrance. "Focus, Jay! If Nya's in trouble, you need to find her and-"

And he found her.

Just as Jay reached the entrance of the cave and spread his wings in preparation to go flying out in search of Nya, there Nya was, swooping down from the sky.

"Nya!" Jay called again, relief flooding him as his feathers relaxed. "Oh, you're okay!"

"Of course," Nya said, looking distinctly unruffled as she settled down into the cave.

"Of course," Jay echoed. "But you took so long! Ages and ages and ages and ages and-"

Nya looked at the angle of the sun. "Half an hour?"

Jay checked the sun as well. "Oh. Yeah. But half an hour can really feel like ages and ages?"

Nya smiled. "Sure. Hungry?"

"Yes," Jay said fervently, reaching out his hands. "What've you got?"

"Swamp rat," Nya said.

Jay retracted his hands. "What?"

"Yeah," Nya said, patting the pockets of her jacket and pants. "Fresh. Warm. A little stinky."

Jay screwed up his face with a shudder. "Ew!"

"Tastes like chicken," Nya said helpfully, pulling a chunk of something from her pocket.

Jay gagged and turned away, covering his ears to try not to hear Nya chewing loudly.

"It's good," Nya said.

"It's not good!" Jay said. "How did you even find a swamp rat? We're in the middle of a desert!"

"Huh, so maybe it's not a swamp rat," Nya said. "Maybe it's… Kabobs."

Jay did a spin and saw Nya holding up several foil-wrapped packages. "Oh!"

"Want the veggies?" Nya offered, sitting down at the edge of the cave and prying one package open to release the smell of smoke and meat and peppers and onions and- Yum!

"Where'd you even get those?" Jay asked, rushing to join her. He knelt and reached out his hands again.

"Turns out people like to camp around here," Nya said. "Plenty of unattended fires. I had my pick."

Jay laughed and started picking parts of vegetables off of one stick. He stuck a few bits in his mouth and sighed in relief. "Way better than swamp rat."

"Way better," Nya agreed. "And better to plan on a full stomach."

"Plan?" Jay asked around a mouthful of food.

Nya nodded. "Wait for Lloyd or go after Zane. Those are our main options."

Jay paused and swallowed. "The Serpentine, they said we were the last ones alive. I thought they were saying… You know. That everybody's gone. Including Lloyd and Zane."

"I don't know," Nya said.

Jay sighed. "I don't know either. I mean, they already had Zane."

Nya nodded solemnly. "That's probably all over. Done with."

Jay nodded back, trying not to cry.

"But how would they have found Lloyd?" Nya asked after a moment.

"That's a good point," Jay said. "We haven't even found Lloyd."

Nya turned a little and opened her mouth, like she was about to say something, but then she didn't say anything. She didn't close her mouth either. She just sat there, staring, not quite at Jay, more like at something over his shoulder.

Jay turned and squinted. So far into the sky that he almost couldn't see it flew two little dots. Probably more hawks, Jay figured. There were plenty of those around here.

Jay turned back to Nya, ready for her to say something about their next step to take, but she just kept staring, her mouth still slightly open. Jay frowned. "Nya?"

Nya closed her mouth and stood, chucking the kabob she'd been eating off of to the side but holding onto the foil it had been in a moment before.

Jay dodged the flying kabob. "Hey!"

He would've protested more, but Nya kept moving. She straightened out the foil between her hands and clutched it, waving it in a strange pattern in front of her.

Jay watched her in confusion.

Finally, Nya stopped waving the foil, holding it just right so that the sun reflected off of it.

Jay looked away, covering his eyes for a moment to adjust to the light, then looked back at Nya more carefully to avoid looking right at the foil. "What are you doing?"

Nya jerked her head toward the sky.

Looking up and over, Jay saw the two little dots had become two medium dots. Then two large dots. Then two really large dots that were coming right toward them and-

"Please don't be flying Serpentine," Jay blurted.

Then it was his turn for his mouth to drop open and stay open as he stared.

Only about a minute passed as Jay's whole world shifted once again, and when it stopped, Cole and Kai were fluttering into the cave as Nya dropped the piece of foil.

"You're alive," Jay whispered.

"You're alive too," Kai said, scrunching up his face as he landed next to Nya. "So what?"

"Hey-o," Cole said brightly, landing in front of Jay and folding up his wings next to his back. "Guess what? Home is gone. Kaput. Serpentine city, a lost city, really. So, as de facto leader, I decided we should join you. Got an issue with that?"

Jay didn't say a word.

Neither did Nya. Instead, she bent over and engulfed Kai in a hug.

Kai squawked in surprise and protest.

Jay launched himself at Cole, wrapping his arms around him as the thousand wishes from before flew out of his head. They didn't matter. All that mattered was this: some of his family were fine. "You're alive!"