Last time, you can get through it. I don't own the story, names, or the characters. Or the dialogue. I am not a copy cat. Copy bat.

Chapter 11

"Frieda?" Shade gasped, then lowered his voice and asked Ariel, who had returned to the bridge some time ago, "Is she still breathing?" A weary, grizzled voice responded, "I believe I am, Shade." The three young bats landed and roosted around Frieda, Shade and Marina on Frieda's left, Lura on the elder's right side. "Your mother told me everything about your meeting with the owls." Worry for Frieda's health had pushed all the dizzy happiness out of his mind, but he summoned it back now and exclaimed, "We have the skies back, and the sun! But aside from that, we need to make a new Tree Haven, and I want to help. It's my fault the old one's gone."

"Shade, remember when I said there was a brightness in you?" Shade nodded, harping on Frieda's every word. "It's so satisfying to be proven right, and that doesn't happen often when you're an elder." Shade seemed to have been muted, his mouth opened and hung that way, but no words emerged. "You did what I wanted to do, many years ago. You fulfilled the Promise," she smiled, and painstakingly lifted her forearm, the one with the silver band. Shade cringed away from it, and Lura mirrored the movement. She didn't feel guilty about hating it; after all, her female human was still good in her eyes, not having participated in anything that had been done to her, she was completely sure of that.

"Shade, the bands were important," Frieda rasped. Shade's head tilted to the side in confusion. "I think I get it," Marina added, "They did play a part." That ruffled Shade's fur right there. "How? How can you say that? Look at Lura, Chinook, and me! Look at the scars on our stomachs! We were almost burned alive because of the humans." Marina's face curled into a grin. "But remember, the bands made us look for the humans. And that led us to the human buildings, where Orestes was." Shade seemed to have no idea where Marina was going. "If you hadn't met Orestes, Shade, do you think King Boreal would have called the truce? He'd have had no reason to trust you, if you and Orestes hadn't trusted each other first." Lura and Marina shared a grin. "He thinks he's a smarty bat, doesn't he," the Graywing teased, and Shade laughed, finally understanding. "The Humans actually brought us together," Lura said, and Frieda nodded, adding, "They united us. We didn't win the sun through war; we won it through peace." Shade jerked his head up in alarm: Frieda had wrapped her wings around her weathered body, smiled, and closed her eyes, never to open them again. Marina and Ariel patted Shade, embracing each other and letting tears stain their fur.

A/N: Notice how I didn't mention Lura in the last few sentences. It was a Shade/Marina/Ariel moment, but I wonder where she went.

Lura: You don't even know where your own characters are?! Pathetic!

Me: I was adding to the suspense, the drama if you will, of the moment!

Lura: How lame.

Me: Oh, this isn't a break before the next chapter. It's just a break between the story. I'm putting dialogue to announce the switching of characters' points of view instead of using a line.

Lura: Then, get on with it! This is the best part, I think so. It has all me in it!

Chinook hung alone on a branch just outside the new Tree Haven. He'd finished up hollowing out his section of the tree, as had Marina and Lura. They'd probably made their roosts already, and he felt a pang as he thought of Marina. He'd dropped the question out of the blue already, but as he talked to her, he knew that she'd refuse. He had the suspicion that she already knew what he was going to ask, and had already made up her mind to refuse. Heaving a sigh, he focused his echoes on Shade as the not-so-runty Silverwing flew out of one of the many new knotholes in Tree Haven and flew off into the forest. Lucky runt, he thought, feeling the familiar rivalry they'd harbored against each other from the moment they were old enough to fly. A pulse of wingbeats caught his ears and they vibrated, causing Chinook to look around for the source.

"Found you!"

Chinook screeched and, in shock, let his claws unclench and fell off the branch. Flapping hard, he managed to regain his position and folded his wings around him, feeling his face flush with embarrassment. "What are you doing here, Chinook? You look like you've been sulking for a while."

"I have not been sulking," he grumped, bristling his fur, and Lura giggled, then glanced away and tightened her claws. The bark creaked as the sharp points gouged the bark. She was milliseconds away from snapping her mouth open to ask, but Chinook said glumly, "I asked Marina," he muttered, refusing contact with Lura's shocked and outraged eyes. "Oh, you did?" She inched away from him. "Yeah, I did."

"Well, good for you. She is pretty, after all, and smart. I couldn't compare with her, now could I?" She snarled bitterly, shooting Chinook a hateful glance. He looked over at her, surprise making his eyes widen. A creek lay directly below them, pure and clear, and her reflection leered back up at her. The thick gray sideburns that all Graywings possessed were nowhere to be seen on Lura's face; they'd been burned off from the disc's explosion. Not to mention her wings were still healing from the heat that had melted and made some of her wing membrane droop, and patches of her fur still had yet to grow back. She couldn't stand it anymore. Her mother, father, her friends, losing her Colony. Then she found another one and the only male that had talked to her...she unfolded her wings with a whoosh of air and prepared to fly away. The next words she heard froze her heartbeat for a few seconds.

"She said no."

Folding her wings over her body again, she felt hot guilt melting her anger away. "I'm...sorry. I was just so mad." Chinook lifted his claws, one over the other, until he was roosting right next to her. In a swift movement he opened his wings and threw them around Lura, to her great surprise (although she didn't mind it that much).

"Chinook?"

"I thought I wanted Marina to be my mate, but I guess I really didn't. So..." he flushed, and with some difficulty gazed straight into Lura's eyes. "Will you be my mate?"

"What??" Lura screeched.

"You don't have to say yes," Chinook told her hurriedly, "If you don't want to, I'll under..."

"Yes," Lura said simply, causing Chinook to exclaim, "What?"

"Aww, look Shade, isn't that sweet."

"Yeah, brave, handsome Chinook doesn't give up for long."

The Graywing and Silverwing shot their heads up so quickly it hurt. "You were spying on us, runt?!"

"I couldn't resist." Chinook growled, and Lura nuzzled him, laughing. "Come on you two lovesick fuzz balls," Marina said, "don't you want to go see the round ball of light that Shade got back for us?" Chinook and Lura stared at each other, turning the idea over in their minds. Looking back at their friends, they grinned and shot off the branch together, ruffling Shade and Marina's silver and bright fur as they zoomed past. They rolled through the air and dove, causing the Brightwing and Silverwing to stare in amazement: it seemed their friends had gone completely crazy.

"You guys!" Shade yelled at the top of his lungs. Chinook and Lura banked, tilting their wings, and glided back to Shade and Marina. "I know the best place to watch the sun come up," he said, and nuzzled Marina under her chin. "Let's all go watch," he offered, and together the four of them soared off to get a safe glimpse of the sun they had been forbidden to see for millions of years, now theirs again.

Me: NOW it's the end! Was it good?

Lura: Shoulda been. I was in it, remember??

Me: Oh, yeah, I guess that made it OK.

Lura: What! (Starts beating Serasia over the head with her wings)

Me: Ow! Man, you sure can't tell when someone's joking, can you?!

Lura: Start writing a sequel about me, NOW!!

Me: (Whimper) Alright, alright...