Terradiem Leaves & Butterfly Chrysalis

"Bane, sit down before you wear yourself out." Celtic heard what sounded like Master Argyos' voice. She still couldn't figure out what was going on. Darkness still weighed heavily on her.

"I can't sit still." Bane replied. "It's been days..." He voice was full of concern.

"The only change has been her breathing." Joy said.

"And that only seems to be normal when Bane's in the room." Latias added.

"It most certainly is an interesting connection." Argyos said; a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I'm still in the room." Bane stopped pacing. He ran a hand through his hair and leaned against the wall. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was just sleeping. She looks peaceful... now." As soon as he said that a pained expression played across Celtic's face.

"I wish we knew what was going on with the others." Dt said. "Poke, WK..."

"Right." Poke said as he and WK moved to stand beside the bed. They hovered their hands over Celtic and after a few minutes her face relaxed.

"Any word from Liber or Nate?" Bre asked.

"No." Bane sighed.

"Come on, Wiz." Echo said. The General of Air seemed to be taking his time.

"It's not like this is a life or... never mind." Wiz stopped when he actually thought about their mission.

"Exactly. If we don't hurry as fast as we can, Celtic may die." Echo replied.

"Yes, I know." Wiz retorted. "There should be a Butterfly dragon colony around here somewhere."

"You mean, like right there?" Echo said pointing to a herd of Butterfly dragons in the distance.

"Yep, that's it. The chrysalis will be towards the outer part of the colony... you'll just need to time it right."

"Why do we have to deal with the opposite?" Echo, as General of Earth, was naturally hesitant with anything to do with Air.

"Oh, it's not that bad." Wiz laughed.

"Just wait..." Echo growled a bit as he mustered his courage. He scanned the colony and spotted his target. "Found one." Echo pointed at a chrysalis sitting the closet to the edge of the colony... but it seemed like it was the farthest from them.

"Remember, timing is key." Echo shot Wiz a look. "What?"

"Nothing." Echo muttered under his breath as he began to make his way to the chrysalis. "How on earth am I going to get this back?" Echo looked at the size of the chrysalis... it was bigger than he had expected. Without thinking, he grabbed it and remained still when he thought one of the dragons spotted him. "At least it's lighter than I thought." Echo cautiously headed back towards Wiz.

"Good job... now let's get out of here." Even Wiz was a little unsure of how the dragons would react to them.

"One down." Echo sighed. They just had one more ingredient to gather and then they could return to the Island of Fire and Cold.

"Okay, where are the Terradiem dragons?" Wiz was ready to get this over with.

"Um... the edge of the forest. Closet to the waterfall... they'll be where the three elements come together." Echo replied. They headed in that direction.

"I think your task was easier than Terradiem leaves..." Wiz muttered. They spotted the dragons and Wiz's eyes grew wide. "Well, they're bigger than I imagined." Echo laughed.

"It's not that bad." Echo repeated Wiz's statement from earlier.

"Shut up." Wiz muttered again. "Now how do I do this?"

"If you approach slowly, you might be able to catch some falling when they're grooming. Just don't make any loud noises or sudden movements." Echo answered. "It's all about timing." He grinned at Wiz's facial expression.

"Har, har, that's so funny." Wiz replied sarcastically. He started to slowly approach a few of the dragons. He waited for the right moment and managed to grab five leaves as they drifted to the ground. Echo was trying to hurry him. "What is his issue?" As soon as he whispered to himself, a loud roar erupted from behind him. He turned to see a Terradiem dragon rear up and look directly as him. "Oh, that can't be good..."

"Let's go!" Echo shouted. Wiz started running towards his friend. Avira flew in between Wiz and the Terradiem dragon; giving him the time to get to Beijing.

"That was too close." Wiz said after they were away from the forest. He tucked the leaves into a pouch.

"I tried to signal you, but you weren't paying attention." Echo replied. "Well, looks like our task is done. We need to get back."

"Hey, isn't that Desdemona and Iridium?" Wiz asked when he spotted an Apocalypse and a Platinum dragon near the river.

"Looks like it." Echo said. They flew lower to make sure before landing.

"Wiz, Echo, are you guys heading back?" Nate asked when he spotted them approaching.

"Yes, we completed our mission and were on our way back when we thought we spotted your dragons." Wiz answered.

"Any news?" Echo asked. The bickering and teasing mood he'd just been in shifted when he thought about Celtic.

"There's been no change. Poke and WK are doing what they can to ease her pain but even they're running out of energy." Liber replied solemnly. "We've not discovered anything that might lead us to who did this."

"Do you think it was Heat?" Wiz asked.

"I certainly hope not but..." Nate paused.

"It wouldn't be the first time a friend betrayed us." Liber finished. "There's nothing proving it one way or the other. It could very well be Justin behind all this."

"Justin?" Echo held back a laugh. "Wouldn't this be a little too complex for Justin? Besides, I thought he wanted Celtic for his 'Queen'... why would he try to kill her?"

"He may not have thought that this would kill her." Nate thought a moment... he hadn't thought about the possibility of Justin returning. "If he didn't know the changes that had taken place-are still taking place-he might not have realized."

"We need to gather information before we come to any conclusions." Liber said. He squeezed the bridge of his nose.

"Maybe we should head back with Echo and Wiz?" Nate posed the idea. "It's clear we're not getting anywhere with information around here. Plus, we could use a day to rest and restock our supplies." Liber nodded, too tired to argue.

"Alright, we'll rest here for the night. It will be too dark to travel soon anyways." Liber tried not to think about what might happen if they didn't make it in time.