The moon waned over the shimmering, mulberry-hued sky. The grass was iridescent under her feet, tinted with the color of emeralds. Occasionally, the air would glimmer, like on the area above a flame; but close inspection showed nothing interesting. There was no sound except the relentless rushing of water. There was a stream below her. It glowed with a soft color of a sapphire. After days, hours, minutes, years, who knows how long, a different sound trickled into the haze.

Wake up.

It was soft, quiet. She looked around. Where did the sound come from? It was repeating, echoing.

Wake up, wake up, wake up…

It got quieter, then repeated, the voices overlapping. The foggy world started fading, and the only thing that could be seen was a soft black.

The color of his eyes.

"Molly? Molly, wake up."

Molly's eyes flickered open.

"Oh, thank god." Liam hugged her with a loud sigh of relief. Molly tried to understand her surroundings, but everything was bending and billowing out of proportion. She squeezed her eyes shut. The darkness felt safer.

"Molly, say something."

Molly didn't respond, unsure of what to say. Finally, rational thought started flowing through her head. Something about…medicine?

"I…kicked…" Molly's voice came out raspy. She coughed and tried again. "I kicked that medicine's ass."

Liam laughed and hugged her again.

"Liam? Where am I?"

"Behind Kick's shop. I didn't know what to do, so I just dragged you behind it and hid you in the bushes. I didn't want to run around town carrying you…I mean, I didn't want to scare someone."

"Mhm," Molly said. She ruffled her feathers and froze.

Feathers?!

Molly stared down in shock and saw that she was still a duck; still had her webbed feet, beak, and wings. But I beat it! I saw it flake away! I can feel it not being there, so why am I still like this?

"Molly? Whats wrong?" Liam asked, his voice concerned.

"Why the heck am I still a duck?!" Molly demanded. Her voice cracked. "I beat the medicine!"

"What do you mean?" Liam queried, his eyebrows knotted together.

"When I passed out, I saw the medicine and I…did a thing or something and I saw it vanish! So why am I still…" Molly looked down at her wings.

"'Did a thing or something'?" Liam didn't seem convinced.

"Who's the one who had the medicine in her head? Me, or you? I think I know what it's like to not have it there!" Molly snapped. Instantly she felt guilty for shouting. Thats not like me. She opened her beak to apologize, but was interrupted by Liam's laugh.

"Oh, you beat it all right," he chuckled, patting her head. "It's not restraining your personality, thats for sure."

"Restraining…my personality?" Molly asked cautiously.

"Yeah, the Operation puts you into one of eight categories, from a cranky guy to a peppy little girl, or a flirty smug to a snooty snoot-face."

"Which one did I get?"

"You just got…normal, I think. You're not crazy about sports like Biff or need to be kept away from the café because of the risk of an overdose on caffeine like Pippy."

Molly paused, remembering the countless times she had asked herself if everyone in the town was insane. They weren't all crazy, she was just the only normal one.

"So…I…"

"Yeah, I really hate what the Operation did to you. All of a sudden you were just sweeter than honey and if you so much as raised your voice you'd get all flustered." Liam grinned and Molly rolled her eyes.

"So how did you know it was me? When you arrived to the town?"

"I just had a hunch." he paused. "…Okay, not really. I just saw your face, and…I just knew it was you. Something about your eyes. And when I told you about your old life, about us…the look on your face sealed it."

"Right." Molly shakily stood up. "Well, I guess I might as well get going. See you around, Liam."

"Yeah…" he replied, looking distracted. Molly slipped out from the bushes and walked towards the entrance to Solaris. To her shock, the sun was already dipping below the trees. I must've been out for the whole day! Was Liam just waiting for me to wake up for all that time?

Despite being unconscious for several hours, Molly was exhausted. She headed to her house and clambered into her bed. She stared at the ceiling and listened to K.K. Ballad.

After a while, she threw off her covers and replaced the disc with K.K. Bossa.

"Much better," Molly whispered to herself. She turned and leapt back onto the bed, and fell asleep to the peaceful tune.

Something's wrong.

Molly's eyes flew open and she felt her heart hammering. Something was terribly, terribly wrong. Standing up, Molly went for the doorknob, swaying on her tired feet. What time is it? Ugh, it's 1AM. I guess my body's all rested after sleeping for so long.

Shakily, Molly opened the door. She couldn't explain the feeling, just an aching sureness that something bad was happening.

It could just be superstition, or the after-effects of a nightmare…Molly's thoughts stopped dead as she saw a brilliant light in front of her.

At first it was beautiful, the brightness licking the sky and sending shards of glitter across the black expanse. It had a repetitive crackling noise and danced in a hypnotizing way.

Then it hit her.

Oh my god! Liam's house is on fire!

Molly ran for the house and went to the front door. It was locked. The smoke billowed out one of the windows, and Molly got an idea. She backed up way back and leaped into the air. She spread her wings and felt her feathers tingle with adrenaline. Pouring on speed, she crashed through the window, gritting her teeth as she smashed into the excruciatingly hot house. She flew (literally) up the stairs, where Liam was somehow snoring through the flames and the sound of his window shattering.

"LIAM!" Molly screamed. Liam jerked awake and looked at her.

"Wh-huh?" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "What are you doing in here? The door's lock-"

"Your house is on fire!" Molly yelled in panic. "Get up! We have to get out of here!"

Liam's eyes widened in horror as he stumbled to get up. Together, they raced down to the stairs. Molly froze as she saw flames covering their exits.

"Liam, do you have a vase or something? We need to put water on this, to at least clear an exit!" Molly said tersely.

"Umm…I have a bucket in a drawer, somewhere," he stammered. "I'll get it." he raced for his dresser and stared frisking through it.

Why don't boys like flowers? If only he bought those sunflowers for sale today in Leif's shop. They came in a vase with water…

Meanwhile, the smoke was starting to get choking. Molly coughed as the toxins filled her lungs.

"Molly," Liam said softly.

"What?" Molly hissed, terror making her tremble.

"You know how this started, right?"

Molly paused. She hadn't actually thought of it, but the answer was obvious.

"The alligators," they said at the same time.

There was a frustrated silence, then Molly snapped "Where the heck is that bucket?"

"Got it!" Liam gasped, coughing. He held up a tiny yellow bowl.

Molly grabbed it and raced for the bathroom. She turned on the sink and water flowed out. Quickly filling it, she ran for the front door. Flame gripped her leg and she sucked her breath in pain. Stumbling, she threw the water at the door. The flame hissed and sizzled out, the ground still too hot to walk on.

"We can't stay in here much longer," Liam rasped. He handed her a key. "Fly over and open the door. Don't put your feet on the ground, it's too hot." he broke off into a fit of coughs, and he covered his nose with his shirt. Molly carefully flapped above the lock and threw open the door. Molly turned towards Liam, still trapped. Fire was already greedily climbing back towards the door.

"Liam," Molly panted, flying back into the house. "Grab my legs."

"Wha?" Liam grunted behind his shirt, his voice muffled.

"I'm going to fly you over to the door."

"You wont be able to carry me!"

"Trust me!" Molly snapped. "Please! We won't make it out alive if we don't do this."

Liam's eyes flickered with an unfamiliar emotion and he nodded. Molly flapped down a little and he wrapped his hands around her legs.

Molly opened her wings and struggled to fly.

Jeez. He's heavy.

Molly panted as she tried to tug him across.

"Molly, this isn't working," he said tightly.

"Okay, uh…" Molly stopped flapping and looked around. "Just…run across the floor no matter how hot it is, okay?"

"What?!" Liam stuttered.

"Just do it! You have no choice! Come on, I'll do it with you. On three! One, two, three!"

They both raced for the door, the ashes under their feet agonizingly hot. Liam let out a scream and he practically jumped at the exit, Molly quickly following. They landed on the cool grass, coughing and gasping. Liam was gripping a handful of grass, his eyes wide and full of terror.

He was terrified.

Of course, Molly was terrified, too. But she had never seen Liam so scared before, not even in her memories. That unfamiliar look he had given her had been a look of fear. Not even the entire alligator episode had invoked such a response.

Liam was staring at the grass and gasping, occasionally making a retching noise, while Molly just coughed.

"You must've been breathing that in for a while," Molly rasped. Liam just nodded.

"You okay?" Molly asked softly.

"No, not really," he muttered. "Come on. We need to get Copper to put this fire out."

"I'll do it," Molly said. "You sit here and let your body get rid of all that smoke."

Liam didn't say anything. He just nodded.

Molly looked back and saw the fire devour the house.

I should've known they wouldn't just leave us alone, Molly thought. Things just got ten times worse.