DISCLAIMER: Everything related to Rio is owned by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. The only thing I claim as my own is the concept for this story.
When the group finally managed to reach where Nico and Pedro were keeping Tiago, they were all surprised to see him somehow awake. Even Nico, who always thought of himself as a pretty rational bird, couldn't process the fact that Tiago was awake so quickly.
"Tiago. You're awake." he said breathlessly.
However, before he could go over to check on him, both Blu and Jewel pushed past the canary and rushed over to Tiago's bedside. Unable to resist, Jewel gave her son a big hug.
"Oh my god, Tiago. I missed you so much."
"I missed you too, Mom. Now can you please let me go? You're hurting me."
Jewel suddenly realized what she was doing and let Tiago go, her heart breaking as she looked at the pain in her son's face due to the bad wing.
"I'm sorry, Tiago. I didn't mean to do it that hard."
After a few seconds, the pain finally subsided, allowing Tiago to reply.
"It's okay, mom. I understand what you and dad must have been going through."
Tiago paused before continuing on.
"Also, I'm sorry for putting you through all of this. We were never planning on staying out that long. It was just gonna be an hour."
Jewel gave her son a warm smile.
"I'm just glad that you're back, Tiago. Your father and I wouldn't have known what we could have done without Pedro and Nico's help."
She looked over at the two birds in question.
"Thank you, you two. You're being such a great help."
"It's nothing, Jewel. We would have helped no matter what." said Nico.
"Yeah, what he said. What kind of friends would we be if we didn't help?"
In the midst of all of the congratulations being spread around, Rafael stepped forward and spoke up.
"Don't forget, you guys. Bia and Carla are still out there somewhere. We're not quite done yet."
The mood in the room deflated relatively quickly after Rafi's statement. Blu stepped forward to take charge of the situation.
"Rafi's right. We need to think about a new course of action. There's no telling if the two of them are together or miles away from each other, as much as I don't want to think about that."
"Well, why don't we see if Tiago knows anything? We might get an idea of where they could be." said Roberto.
Blu nodded, agreeing with Roberto's suggestion. He turned towards his bedridden son, carefully leaning over him to appear less intimidating and avoid frightening the young bird.
"Tiago, do you remember anything about what happened with Bia and Carla? You're not in any trouble. We can just really use the help."
The group watched as Tiago tried to rack his brain and remember any important details. Unfortunately, the look that he gave his parents gave them an idea of his answer before he even said it.
"I'm sorry. The last thing I can remember was the rainstorm. Bia was trying to get back to the sanctuary because she was worried you were gonna be mad about us running away. We tried to chase after her, but I couldn't see because of the lightning. So, I hit my head on a tree and got knocked out."
"And when you woke up, they weren't there with you?" asked Jewel.
Tiago simply nodded, causing his parents to trade looks of worry.
"Do you remember anything else that happened?" asked Blu.
Tiago shook his head, before his eyes suddenly widened, having remembered something.
"After I woke up, I spent some time trying to find them."
"Why didn't you come back to the sanctuary?" asked Jewel.
"I had no idea where I was. After getting hit in the head like that, I was so disoriented."
Blu opened his beak, thinking that Tiago was done with his explanation, but the young macaw continued to speak.
"I, um…I was looking around in some kind of clearing, which I think was the one that Uncle Nico and Uncle Pedro found me in. I turned around to head back when there was this big cat right in my face. I got knocked into a bush and passed out. I guess the cat must not have found me."
Blu and Jewel once again traded looks before Blu stepped forward.
"Thank you for the help, Tiago. You go get some sleep. We'll figure out a way to get your sisters back."
Tiago looked relieved at finally getting a chance at some rest, but before he could actually go to sleep, Eduardo flew in through the opening in the tree.
"Where is he? Where's my grandson?"
"Dad! Your grandson was just about to go to sleep before you burst in!" said Jewel, annoyed.
Realizing what he was doing, Eduardo calmed himself down and finally saw Tiago in his bed. A smile broke out on his face as he tried to give him a hug, but Jewel got in his way before he could.
"No hugs, dad. He's hurt."
"Oh, sorry. Anyway, how is he doing? Did he get back alright?"
"Outside of a broken wing and a few scratches, he's fine." said Blu.
Blu suddenly paused.
"Actually, come to think of it, how are we gonna fix him up?"
The entire group paused to think before Nico suddenly spoke up.
"Well, while we were bringing Tiago back here, we thought about having Linda and Tulio come look at him."
"I don't know. I remember hearing that those two were going on some kind of expedition to find this place. To be honest, who knows where they are?" said Blu.
"Well, do you have any other options?"
Blu opened his beak to answer; only to close it once again as he realized that this was the best option they had.
"Let's just focus on finding Bia and Carla, and then we'll worry about treating anything medical related."
Blu really wanted to simply lead Linda and Tulio to the sanctuary right then and there, but with the look that Eduardo had on his face, he wasn't too enthusiastic about the prospect of having humans around, despite wanting to see Tiago get better.
So, after the group agreed with Blu's plan, they all went their separate ways, except for Blu and Jewel, who decided to spend the night looking after Tiago to make sure he was okay.
The next day, the search party was all at their usual spot, preparing to try and find the remaining two kids, when a small sea of red came cascading out of the sky, forming a group of six of the scarlet red macaws including Felipe at the front.
Everyone immediately tensed when they saw the scarlet macaws land.
"What are you doing here, Felipe? Didn't we agree that this was still our territory?" asked Roberto.
Instead of making a snide remark, Felipe immediately held his wings up in front of him.
"Whoa, Roberto, chill. We're not trying to cause any trouble. I've just been thinking for the past few days since those two came through our territory."
Felipe pointed towards Blu and Jewel as he continued on.
"I've realized just how completely stupid this whole battle between our species is becoming. Honestly, I just want to bury the hatchet, which is why we'd like to offer our help in finding your children."
Only Roberto seemed to be the most surprised out of the group, mostly because of the fact that he had the most experience in dealing with the scarlet macaws in the past. Everyone else was frankly overjoyed with the fact that they had more help.
Jewel was completely prepared to agree to let them help, only for Roberto to quickly rush over and clamp a wing over her beak, silencing her. Through Jewel's muffled protest, Roberto quickly turned towards Felipe.
"Uh, can you give us a minute? We'd like to talk this over."
Felipe thought for a moment, unsure if he should let them do so, but he eventually sighed and let them go. Roberto quickly signaled for Blu to follow them, and the two of them along with Jewel flew out of earshot of the rest of the group.
Before Jewel could tell him off for pulling her away from an opportunity like this was, Roberto quickly shushed her before explaining his actions.
"Look, I'd like to have as much help to find the kids as the next bird, but are you sure you guys want to trust someone like Felipe?"
"Yeah. Why wouldn't we?" asked Blu.
"How can you be sure that he won't go back on his word and try to take the rest of our land when he gets the chance?"
Jewel sighed.
"This really isn't the time for letting Felipe's actions in the past color your judgment, Roberto. In case you don't remember, Bia and Carla are still missing, and we still have a huge amount of area to cover with just the six of us."
"But-"
"Look, I'm not forcing you to get along with Felipe and the other scarlet macaws. You and dad can work it out later. All I'm asking is that you give them a chance to help us out."
Roberto sputtered, attempting to think of something to try to convince Blu and Jewel, but he sighed when he realized that she was right.
"All right, Jewel. I see your point. I'll work with them."
"Are you gonna play nice?" asked Jewel, giving Roberto a hard stare.
Roberto nodded, although in the back of his mind, he wasn't sure yet if he would be able to.
Eventually, the three spix macaws returned to the rest of the group, and Jewel stepped forward to give Felipe his answer.
"As I was about to say, Felipe, we really would appreciate any help we can get."
Felipe smiled.
"That's great! Don't worry, we won't let you guys down. Anyway, is there anything specific that you want us all to do?"
He pointed towards the rest of his crew as he looked at Blu and Jewel. Blu paused as he thought about what he wanted to do.
"How about you guys split into groups of two and join up with our groups. With groups of four, we should be able to cover a much wider area."
"You know, that actually isn't such a bad idea." said Felipe.
He quickly partnered each of the scarlet macaws he was with and joined the remaining one. When they joined up with the rest of the group, Blu quickly turned around to face the rest of the birds.
"Nico, Pedro, Rafi and Roberto. You guys are gonna be in charge of making sure that your new recruits know what they're doing when you start searching. Please make sure they do so. I really would like to avoid risking any problems when we might be getting on the right track."
Blu looked on as all of the birds called on nodded in understanding.
"All right, so is everyone ready to go?"
Once again, everyone nodded, and the twelve birds lifted off, ready to head off on another day of searching.