Vee immediately felt herself start tearing up. For a moment, it looked like Trey was worried, but his fear seemed to drop the moment Vee started beaming and rushed over to him, tackling him to the ground, crying and laughing from joy. As she hugged him, his tail wrapped around her legs and held her close as he could, now also smiling.

"Number three! Or, Trey? God, it doesn't matter. I can't believe it's you! Y-you're here. And alive!" Vee laughed, holding Trey as tight as she could.

"It's good to see you too…Vee, right?" Trey chuckled, "And might I say, nice witch disguise. You really fit right in."

"It's a human disguise, actually." Vee corrected.

"A human disguise? Is that why it took so long for me to find you? You managed to swipe a portal and just hid out in the human realm? It also explains why you said God instead of Titan. I'm assuming that's the name of the being humans live on. But Titan, you're more devious than I thought."

"I didn't steal anything. But that's a story for later. As is explaining the human realm to you. But wait, you've been looking for me?"

"Of course I have! You're my little sister."

"If we're being technical and going off the generations, you're more like my grandpa."

"Eh, I suppose. But mostly, we all call each other siblings. Except Illa, she's like a grandma to us."

"Us?"

Vee pushed herself off from on top of Trey slightly. Trey unwrapped his trail from her legs and Vee let him get out from under her. He got up, then helped Vee get up. Now that they were closer to each other, Vee noticed that even in her human disguise which was taller than her true form, Trey was still slightly taller than her. He always had been in her memory, but she had grown since the last time they saw each other. She supposed it made sense that he would too.

She also took a better look at other details about him, since her most recent look at him was a chalk drawing on a wall. He still had the same scale pattern she remembered, mostly yellow with spots of gray on his body, his eyes sclera was yellow with a bright red iris and his pupils looked slightly more like an oval than a circle. His teeth were more pointy than hers, two of them even being visible with his mouth closed. There were a few parts of his body where his scales were clearly broken with even some visible scars. There were some tears on his back fin and his tail where his tag used to be and was clearly pulled out from, unlike Vee who had a hole in her tail from when she got the ring cut open so she could just take it out. She noticed that the piercing Trey had in his ear appeared to be the ring from his tail.

Trey took her hand and began to lead her further into the woods.

"Okay, so, I'm going to show you something. Now, you can't freak out, okay? I said us because, well, you'll see."

Vee was slightly nervous as he continued to lead her, him slithering and her walking along as he led her. It was beautiful, a part of the woods she had never seen. It was clearly far away from all the towns. The tree cover was thick and, even in spots where she could see the sky, there were only occasional beast demons visible flying overhead. No witches on their staffs in sight.

"Wow, we really are far out." Vee said after a while more of walking.

"Well, don't want witches to find us now, do we?" Trey chuckled.

"I…suppose not."

Eventually, the trees began to get shorter and more spread out, but the tree cover was maintained by the branches stretching far out, creating a wide canopy over the area even with fewer trees. The path they were going down was slowly appearing more and more well used, which was confusing as it didn't seem like they had gotten any closer to any form of civilization. Soon after that, they walked over a wooden bridge, which looked like it was made with little to no magic, that passed over a cool water stream. Then, they approached a massive tree with long branches that hung down to the ground, creating a curtain of leaves. Trey was about to walk through, but he paused and turned back to Vee.

"Hey so uh, I'm going to need you to go back to your natural form. Okay? The others are very paranoid about being found and might attack someone who might be a witch on sight. Or they might just run, who knows. Either way, we don't want that to happen."

Vee nodded and shifted back into her basilisk form. She felt so much more exposed than she did in her human disguise. The only times she was ever in her basilisk form was in the human realm and inside a house or apartment with Camila, Masha, or Gus, or in the demon realm with any of her close friends but again, only inside or occasionally when under an illusion. And now, even when she was with another basilisk, not having the safety and comfort of being disguised was unnerving and uncomfortable. But, if it was what she had to do to get some answers, she could do it. Just for a bit.

With Vee now in her basilisk form, Trey smiled at her, then pulled back part of the branches like a curtain. When she was inside, he moved in front of her and turned to face her, his back to the hideout. His arms were outstretched and he beamed with joy at Vee.

"Welcome to Oasis!"

Vee was immediately blown away with what she saw.

Dozens of small balls of light hung in the air like floating fairy lights, illuminating the area despite the shade of the thick branches of the massive tree in the middle, its bent branches encasing a large area. Carved into the tree trunk were large slots of varying sizes. The roots that came out of the ground had hammocks strung between the arches and seating areas under the shade. There was a large bonfire area with a stash of wood placed under a covering made of chopped up branches and wood to keep it dry in case any rain came through the tree branches. Woven bags hung off the ground for storage. In the higher branches were basins to collect rain water with natural filtration systems and spouts. And while Vee couldn't quite see everything, she could tell that on the other side of the tree was some big structure.

"Wow, nice digs you got here." Vee chuckled, impressed.

"Well it took a while to get it to the condition it is now, but yeah, it works." Trey said with a smirk.

"Trey!" A high pitched voice called from behind him.

Trey turned around and Vee moved to the side to see who was calling him. It was another basilisk, one that was slightly shorter than Vee's shoulder and had vibrant yellow scales with white patches, a tag ring still on her tail, large and droopy ears, and yellow and white eyes.

"You were gone for hours." The small basilisk continued, "I got worried something happened to you."

Trey just chuckled and scooped the small basilisk into his arms before turning to face Vee.

"Tina, this is number five. She goes by Vee now. Vee, this is number ten. She goes by Tina now." Trey said.

"Wow, it's been so long. Even with the drawings I made of everyone after my escape, it's still hard to believe that the little basilisk, who was not even a year old last I saw her, would grow up to look like you." Vee said with a smile.

"Number five, huh? It's been a really long time. You must be pretty old now." Tina nodded.

"Only 26. And, if I remember correctly, that would make me exactly double your age."

"Alright, I guess you're not that old. Trey is really old. He's a whole ten years older than you!"

"Well hey, I think it's safe to say that we all aged pretty well. Maybe that's just a basilisk thing. Or maybe all of us are just shapeshifting to look better than we really do. For all I know, you could be making yourself look taller so you look older." Vee laughed.

Unfortunately, neither Trey nor Tina laughed at the joke. Vee's laughing quickly turned awkward before swiftly dying. Tina looked at the ground embarrassed and Trey gave Vee an awkward and sympathetic look.

"Am I…missing something?" Vee asked.

"Don't worry, I don't blame you for not knowing. You hardly ever saw Tina and she wasn't that old before the escape. All the genetic modifications made all of us cool and unique, but it also messed us up in a fun variety of ways as Belos tried to fix whatever problems he noticed in the previous generations. Duke was good at draining, but Belos didn't want us to get too good so he went too far with me and I suck at draining. Honestly I can barely use it for basic self defense. And Navy could rapid-fire shapeshift, but Belos didn't want us to use that to escape so he tried to make it harder for us to use shapeshifting to our advantage, so Tina can't shapeshift into anything bigger than herself."

"And I'm guessing if she tried to shapeshift into something bigger than her, like a slitherbeast, it'd just be a slitherbeast the size of her?"

"Exactly. And because shapeshifting is one of the two key factors that make us who we are, she's a little insecure about it. But she requires the least amount of magic to shapeshift, no matter how extreme the shifting is. And hey," Trey said, turning to look at Tina, "she's still a great kid, right? She's so smart. I mean, she regularly saves wild beast demons who happen to wander out here when they're injured."

Tina smiled softly at Trey. Trey used his hand that wasn't holding her to give her a boop, making her giggle, before setting her back on the ground. Tina started to go away, before turning around and going over to Vee. She gestured for her to lean down, and Vee obliged. Tina leaned close to Vee's ear.

"I'm glad you're here now." Tina whispered.

Before Vee could respond, Tina slithered off. Trey just chuckled and went back to being next to Vee. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and began to lead her further into Oasis. He told her where things were, how to access things, and general rules.

"Don't be disguised when entering or inside the Oasis. Honestly to be safe, if you're on this side of the bridge don't be disguised. Or maybe just avoid it as much as possible to be safe. If you're leaving let at least two others know you are and when you'll be back or if you don't know say how long you could be gone before they should start looking for you. Oh, and you can ask questions and some of us can fill you in about the whole imprisonment and escape thing, but don't just do it out of nowhere."

"Yeah, that all makes sense. So, who else is here?"

"Patience, young one. I'm bringing you to the next one right now."

"I'm not that much younger than you. There's only one generation between the two of us."

"Yeah, the grumpy generation." Trey chuckled, "But don't worry, I'm not taking you to see her. We're going to someone much more fun. Well, in a way. He's more fun than her at least."

Vee followed Trey as he led her up the massive tree via the ramp carved into it and up into one of the thicker branches about halfway up. Near the end of the branch was a basilisk that looked slightly smaller than Vee. Their scales were mostly gray with a few blue bands around their arms, fingers, neck, eyes, and tail. Their eyes had a black sclera with a blue iris and a white pupil. Their tag ring went through both sections of their tail, though there were holes around it showing signs of being pulled at, even if it wasn't removed. They perked up from where they were laying on the large, hanging piece of wood they were on, but lowered slightly when they saw Vee.

"Vee, this is Seth, previously known as number seven. Seth, this is Vee, previously known as number five."

Vee moved further along the branch and bent down so she could be closer to Seth.

"Nice setup you got here. Must be pretty confident in how it's built to not be scared of it falling or anything." Vee said with a smile, extending her hand to shake hands with him.

"T-thanks." Seth stammered, reaching over and shaking her hand nervously, "I designed it myself. So…you've been gone for a long time."

"Yeah, I guess I have. But hey, it was a good tactic. Went a long time before being exposed. It's a good thing that Trey picked me up as soon as I revealed myself, though. Tensions were already high and as they say, las desgracias nunca vienen solas."

"Misfortune never comes alone." Seth translated, his nerves slightly fading to curiosity and fascination, "You knew that things were already bad, and you were able to get out before they inevitably became worse."

"Exactly. You know Spanish?" Vee asked, genuinely interested.

"I know several languages, actually." Seth said, awkwardly smiling, "I'm not fluent by any means, but I can hold a conversation and I know some phrases."

"What do you know?"

"Spanish, German, French, some ASL, and a little bit of Mandarin. I've found…a lot of language books. And most of them came with practice tests and example conversations. The others have helped me practice from time to time. How do you know Spanish?"

"Oh, I was hiding out in the human realm and the human I lived with spoke English and Spanish so I was able to learn it and become fluent. I've had a little over a decade of practice, after all."

"I might have to start practicing my Spanish on you." Seth awkwardly chuckled.

"Only if you teach me some French." Vee said with a smile.

They both chuckled and Seth seemed to visibly relax more, which Vee was glad to see.

"Man, it's crazy to believe there's a whole 7 years between us with how similar we are." Vee said.

"Well, I mean, we probably aren't that actually similar."

"What do you mean?"

"You're a great shapeshifter, you're confident, you're like…the best. At least at necessary skills to survive this day and age."

"Well, I don't shapeshift that much because I try to not get caught and all the confidence is only when I'm being sassy or angry. I'm actually kinda awkward sometimes. And I haven't drained anything since I escaped, so I wouldn't survive if I was out on my own in the wild or something."

"Well maybe some of us can't, not just don't." Seth mumbled.

"What?"

"I'm the worst of all of us at draining. And I can barely shapeshift. Not as limited as Tina, but I can barely shapeshift into bipeds and witches. I'm only good at shapeshifting into bug and beast demons. So, you have it good actually. At least compared to some of us."

"You're right," Vee sighed sympathetically, "I shouldn't downplay myself. And I just got here and have no idea the limitations you all have. It's been a long time since I've seen you and barely remember anything about you guys from when we were captive. All I had to remember you all by was 13 years of knowing you, and a lot of that has been repressed, as well as some chalk drawings. It's unfair and presumptuous of me to just talk like we're already best friends, when we really aren't. At least not right now. I'm sorry."

Trey opened his mouth to say something, then just nodded. Vee gave him a small smile and turned back around to face Trey who was wearing a very awkward feeling expression on his face, clearly feeling like he was intruding on a personal conversation. They started to leave, but Vee paused for a moment.

"Lo importante en una familia no es estar juntos, sino estar unidos." She said, not turning around to face Seth, "Do you know what that means?"

"What's important in a family is not to be together, it's to be united." Seth said quietly.

Vee didn't add anything else, just leaving for real with Trey as they went back up the large branch and leaving Seth to get back to whatever he was doing before.

Trey led Vee back down the tree. An awkward silence hung between them as he did. When they got back to the bottom of the tree, Trey led Vee over to where the campfire was. He motioned for her to sit down as he started to work on the fire.

"So, are those two the only ones here with you?" Vee asked.

"No, there's still two others. But you'll meet them soon. It's getting late and I need to set up the fire, though. Dinner will probably be coming in a bit."

"Can I help? I've gotten really good at drawing perfect circles if you need a strong fire glyph for the fire."

"No, I don't think we need your help." A voice from behind Vee said.

Vee turned around and was immediately intimidated. The basilisk behind her was much larger than Trey, had mossy green eyes with black, horizontal slits for pupils, had scales that were mostly tan with a more pale brown color down her back, razor sharp teeth, and a slit in their tail where the tag ring was pulled out, though the slit looked a lot less clean than Trey's, as if it was ripped out violently instead of being simply removed.

"Kate!" Trey chuckled happily, though his voice was tainted with nervousness, "Didn't expect to see you out this early. I see you've already started your reunion with number five. Vee, this here is number four."

"Hello, I go by Vee now." Vee said, extending a hand to shake the large basilisks, "It's nice to see you again. Been a while, right?"

"Yeah, no, none of that. You're not about to act like we're anything more than we are. You left us, and suddenly you're back. What, did your life get too boring or something?"

"W-what?" Vee stammered, "Why are you being so hostile?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Kate scoffed, "Let's just say I know enough about what you're like now to know exactly the kind of person you are."

As Kate went to the spot by the fire as far as possible from Vee, Vee looked to Trey for some kind of support, but got nothing. He only gave her an apologetic glance before turning to Kate.

"So, you look like you've grown. Please tell me you didn't just attack a random hiker again." Trey said.

"Of course not, and it's just for Tina as always. There was some random plant witch who was getting a bit too close to the Oasis, looked like a sciencey type person who was planning to investigate the tree, and they were doing a spell that was manipulating wood to make the path easier. I drained them a little, dropped them off at the edge of the nearest town, and came back. I'll give the spell to Tina later and she can use it to undo the stuff the witch did. Maybe she can even reinforce the branches and the bridge."

"Don't you think you've been working Tina a bit hard lately? Maybe we can see if there's any glyphs we can use instead? I know that Tina is able to do all this, but she's still so young." Trey tried to reason.

"You know exactly how I feel about using that kind of magic."

"Yeah yeah, I know. You don't like titan magic. I still think that you should try to expand your palate. Just because you learned light glyphs taste weird when that one human tricked you doesn't mean you can't give other ones a try."

"No. I'm not eating glyphs, and you shouldn't either. In fact, you should stop using glyphs. I trust those things even less than witch magic."

"Hey, uh, can someone please fill me in? I'm a bit lost. What are you saying about Tina? And what do you mean you were tricked by a human with a light glyph?" Vee asked.

"Oh, right, you're here." Kate said, annoyed, "Trey, you cover the exposition."

"Okay, I guess. The Tina situation is a little weird but it's easy to explain. Because of how much Belos was messing with our genetics, as each batch was made we became more and more advanced but also more different from natural basilisks. It was like forced evolution. Selective breeding with genetic editing on top of that. Also a lot of trial and error, which explains the variations in skills between us."

"And how does this relate to Tina?" Vee asked, trying to keep Trey on track.

"Well, by the time Belos got all the way to Tina, she had become incredibly different from how natural basilisks would work. And, as an added caveat of Belos trying to figure out how to drain magic using us, Tina has the special ability to drain a specific spell a witch is doing in a way that the witch won't even notice most of the time and, until she drains a different spell, she can use it. She can't draw spell circles or anything, but after she drains a spell she can breathe out to use it, like the opposite of draining. And some of us will try to see if we can find witches in or near the woods doing a spell we need, drain them, then give the magic to Tina. Only the spell they were doing transfers and the rest goes back to the witch. It's weird and complicated, but it's helpful.

"So I'm guessing you were able to use this ability to fortify this place or even help build it?"

"Yep! The Oasis wouldn't look like this without her. Mostly only plant witches get to a safe proximity which is why so much of this is built using plants. Now there is plenty we did ourselves, but Tina deserves a lot of credit."

"She sure does, this place is amazing."

"Anyways, the human thing. A little over a decade ago Kate was planning to attack the emperor's coven but needed more magic to grow. She can only make herself bigger by draining magic, so she started attacking various magic schools pretending to be an inspector from the coven so she could drain the most powerful students and teachers. She went a little overboard though."

"Did not!" Kate called out.

"You drained nearly every student and almost got captured, so yes you did. Anyways, there was some human student there that threw a light glyph in her mouth to distract her as the human ran away to get their friends so safety."

"Which I don't see the point of because I couldn't have drained the human and their friends were already drained."

"Anyways, ever since then she's hated glyphs. She also claims that they taste bad but, again, I think it's just because the only one she's eaten was a light spell, not something like a plant one. If she wants to not eat an easy source of food and complain even more than usual about being hungry, then that's fine. I also think she's salty because she's pretty sure the human is the same one that saved the isles from the Collector. I don't buy it, but hey, she can believe what she wants."

"Wait, she's the basilisk that attacked the schools?" Vee gasped, "I had no idea! Gus and Willow have told me all about that. Well, and Luz too before she disappeared. That human is the one who saved the isles. And I'm also friends with the two kids the human was protecting."

"And just when I thought you couldn't get any worse." Kate groaned, "You're friends with witches and humans? Please tell me you're using them for your own purposes. Or that you're using them as a cover to look less suspicious. I'd even accept you saying you accidentally used present tense instead of past tense and you were only friends with them for a short time a while ago."

"No, they're still my friends. I have several, human and witch. I mean, more of them are witches but I do have a few humans I'm close to."

"And you didn't pretend to be someone? Like a dead relative they didn't know was dead, someone who disappeared, or anything like that?" Trey asked, now curious about Vee's life.

"What? No! Well, at first with Camila I pretended to be her daughter, Luz. Until Luz found her way into the place between realms, that is. We talked and Camila learned everything. So in public I was Luz but with Camila I was Vee. Until Luz and her friends showed up and I became my own person. And that's how it's been since! Everyone knows me as Vee, and before I exposed myself as a basilisk publicly, the only people who knew were friends, family, and my partner Masha."

Vee looked between Kate and Trey. Trey just looked impressed while Kate was some combination of shock and pure rage. Vee looked to the side and saw that Seth and Tina had come over and, based on their shared looks of a mix of surprise and sadness, they had overheard a lot of what Vee had just said.

"You see, this is exactly what I don't like about you." Kate scoffed, "You're so much better than all of us."

"I'm sorry?" Vee said with a sarcastic and almost offended chuckle.

"You're cute, the size of an average witch, know how society works in the human and demon realm to the extent where you can easily move between both without being suspicious, and have incredible shapeshifting and glyph skills that make up for your inferior and underused draining abilities. Not to mention your improv and acting skills in social situations are top notch so you can skirt by unnoticed if anyone gets suspicious. Your survival skills are ideal because you can not just eat but also enjoy magical and non-magical food regardless of origin. The only reason you aren't terrifying is because you don't like to fight. You literally protested your way through governmental hatred."

"If it weren't for your tone, I'd thank you for the compliments."

"Yes! See! I am praising you! Your perfection was a breakthrough in Belos' research. You ever notice how for the basilisks that came before you there was a five year gap between each but after you it shortened after every batch? That's your doing."

"You're seriously blaming me for all of that? I was just as much of a captive as you! Sure I got lucky, but I was still imprisoned and tortured. You're only five years older than me, so it's not like there's too much of a difference between us."

"But there's plenty of difference between you and Illa."

That name rang a bell for Vee, but she couldn't quite place it right away. As she thought about it, she remembered that when she and Trey reunited he mentioned that name. How he had said that most of the basilisks view each other like siblings but they see Illa as a grandmother.

"That's…number one, right?" Vee asked, dropping any hostility and sarcasm from her voice.

"Yeah. She's the closest thing there is to a natural basilisk." Seth began, a mix of happiness and sadness in his voice, "There was no genetic tampering done to her, she was just created from pure genetic material remaining from when the real basilisks were wiped out."

"Well you said it was almost dinner, right Trey? So why isn't she out here?"

"Because she can't." Trey sighed, "She's never been in great shape and has just been getting progressively worse and worse since the escape. Injuries that festered too long before being healed, physical damage from spending more than thirty years in captivity, side effects of constant testing…it takes so much for her to do anything. Eating the basic glyphs isn't enough for her, there aren't any large demons she would be able to drain if she was out in the wild, and almost all the magical vegetation basilisks used to eat were destroyed by Belos to try and starve us when capture missions weren't getting all of us. A simple plant glyph can't replicate those kinds of plants."

"Well I've been studying glyphs for a long time now. I know complex plant glyph combinations. Maybe I can-"

"No!" Kate snapped, "You might as well be a stranger to us, we are not letting you test your little theory on Illa. We can't trust you. Honestly, I don't even trust you enough to let you see Illa. Who knows what someone as cunning as you might try and pull."

"You do seem nice," Tina said, "But I have to agree with Kate. I don't want you to go meet grammy until I know you can be trusted. I don't know how I feel about a stranger giving new magic to Illa when she's already in such bad shape."

"Maybe once you prove to all four of us that we can trust you then you can go see her." Seth offered.

"I'll do it." Vee said without a second thought, "If that's what it takes, I'll do it."

"Well then, I give you my approval now." Trey nodded.

The other three basilisks gave him a weird look, but they didn't appear to be surprised. After that, the four basilisks went along with what they normally did at night and almost ignored Vee. Trey occasionally told her things, but mostly it was like she wasn't even there. They told jokes, made references to things, and talked like she didn't exist. Kate was the first to acknowledge her again, but unfortunately not in any good way.

When dinner came, Kate told her that in case her little friends came looking for her, she had to eat and sleep outside the Oasis on the other side of the bridge so if she was found, none of the rest of them would. Vee wanted her trust, so she obliged. She drew some glyphs to eat, having been tired from shapeshifting between his disguise and true form more than usual, and lit a small, safe fire before going to sleep, using a plant glyph to make a blanket and pillow. She knew it wasn't going to be a great sleep, but it wouldn't be the worst one she'd ever had when accounting for that first year after the escape.

And if having a night of bad sleep was the price of being with her family, it was worth it.

Vee woke up feeling stiff and sore, but still decently rested. She thankfully managed to sleep without being woken up in the middle of the night. She also didn't get attacked by a random demon, which was a relief.

Just in case they still wouldn't let her eat with them, Vee used a few glyph combos to make a nice morning salad, something she was beginning to wonder if she'd have to start getting used to having every day. Glyphs were tasty and could be used to make food, but even with combos they could only do so much.

When she finished, Vee went back over the bridge and into the Oasis where she saw the other four basilisks already doing what seemed like was their morning routine.

Tina was using the pant magic Kate got for her last night and was making some of the branches of the tree thicker. Kate, who was slightly smaller than she was when Vee last saw her, probably because she had given the magic she drained to Tina, was testing the integrity of the storage nets and making sure they were still strong. Seth was up in his platform on the tree doing something Vee couldn't quite make out. Trey was simultaneously putting out any lingering embers of the campfire and setting up the inner sticks for the next one.

Trey was the first to notice her, seeming to light up when he saw she was still there instead of leaving or being found. He waved at her, which made Tina and Kate notice her. Tina gave Vee a small smile before getting back to work. Kate, on the other hand, glared at her and went over.

"I see you're still here. Impressive, I'd have thought someone as pacifistic as you would have just gone and let a roaming beast demon eat you." Kate scoffed, "Or maybe your precious witch friends would come rescue you from us wretched monsters."

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of their bed. Actually, do you even have beds? I wouldn't know. You gently encouraged me to go camping instead." Vee said, matching her energy.

"Huh, well I guess I can't say you're totally weak. You seem to have somewhat of a backbone with that attitude."

"Basilisks would be considered vertebrates."

"I…don't know what that means. Whatever, it's probably some fancy witch term."

"Human, actually. It's just anything that has a spine."

"I don't need you to lecture me."

"I'm just telling you a fun fact. And besides, you are the one who opted for mocking me instead of a polite good morning Vee, I'm glad you didn't get eaten last night or kidnapped for the second time in the past 24 hours."

It actually seemed like Kate didn't have a response to that. She just turned around, nearly knocking Vee over with her tail, which Vee couldn't tell if it was an accident or on purpose, and grumbled something to herself.

"If you're going to be here, at least make yourself useful. Help out Trey today. But no using your fancy glyphs, I still don't trust those." Kate said as she left to get back to what she had been doing.

Vee wanted to prove herself trustworthy, and also just wanted to help, so she went over to Trey right away to see what she could help. Trey was absolutely willing to have someone to help him out. He also didn't stop talking the entire time, as if he secretly shapeshifted to have another way to breathe so he could talk nonstop and not even need to take breaks to take a breath.

Not to say that what he talked about was unimportant or uninteresting. He spent the entire time describing what he and the other basilisks do on a daily basis and how things work in the Oasis. Everyone had a job to do, and they did it.

Trey did daily chores, scouting, and gathering information. Kate also scouted, though less frequently than Trey, and maintained everything. She was also, despite being younger than Trey, the de facto leader simply because she acted the most like one. Tina used spells that Kate and Trey got for her to do any maintenance that required magic, and other than that mostly just hung out. Seth pretty much did his own thing, spending any time that wasn't for meals or sleeping up on his hanging platform or with Illa. Vee asked what he did up there and Trey said he didn't know, but was pretty sure he was mostly just drawing and tinkering with random things that Trey would bring back from the towns outside the woods. Every so often Seth would show a new thing he created and they always worked, so the others just let him do that. And since he was the one who had the most time to be with Illa, none of them were going to try and give him less time to try and help her.

Vee also learned that because Trey did the most scouting, he also knew a lot about the Isles and how it developed, though not nearly as much as Vee knew. It turned out that while Kate did most of her scouting in the woods going around a wide radius from the tree, Trey did his scouting on the edge of the woods and in the towns nearby. It was at that comment that Vee asked where exactly they were, and Trey said they were on the Left Shoulder. She was impressed that the paper-sized teleportation glyph was able to get them all the way from Bonesborough to the woods, even if they did end up a while away from the Oasis, especially since the only development Trey had commented on was that it was smaller and less showy than the regular version of the combo.

Vee helped Trey gather materials, go around the woods, and do some light cleaning around the tree. After all that, they escorted Tina so she could fix up the bridge without risking someone or something showing up and attacking her. Tina wasn't nearly as talkative as Trey was with Vee, but she did occasionally comment on things or smile at things she said.

Once the bridge was fixed, it had gotten to be about an hour or so away from dinner, so Trey told her that they had done enough work for the day. The two of them finished building and then hung out by the campfire, not yet lighting it as Tina went to get Seth and Kate. When Tina was gone, Trey moved from where he had been sitting to be next to Vee. For a few moments, there was a strange but comfortable silence between them as they just sat by each other looking at the unlit campfire.

"So I know you gave the basics of what your life has been like but…what was it like for you right after the escape?" Trey asked.

Vee was surprised by him of all people asking such a serious question, but she saw the look of genuine concern in his eyes, so she answered him.

"I don't remember a lot about the escape, only that number 6 and 8 were with me but they told me I had to go because having three of us together would be unsafe. They told me to go and promised that they'd split up after they got further away. After that, for the first few days I hid anywhere I could, mostly on the edge of Bonesborough. One day, I found a massive drain pipe and went inside. I was terrified the entire time and I had no idea how to get anywhere so I got lost a lot. But that actually became an advantage for me because the size made it so I ran into barely any witches. Eventually I found a big room behind a vault door that I think used to be storage but was almost completely empty when I found it. Just to be safe I scratched up the door and surrounding walls and put up some warning tape and signs I found."

"And the workers fell for that?" Seth asked as he sat somewhat close to Trey.

He had shown up along with Tina and Kate and heard the last few bits of what Vee said.

"Well we all know how stupid witches are." Kate scoffed with a smirk, taking a seat, just like the night before, as far away from Vee as she could.

"And then what happened?" Tina asked, sitting about halfway between Kate and Vee.

"Well, I basically moved in there. The closest sewer opening to it led to an alleyway really close to the market so I was able to steal things pretty easily. I found an old mattress, some empty boxes, tape, notecards, markers, and chalk. I spent my days hunting for food and supplies using a ratty, brown cloak to try and hide my appearance. My nights involved drawing, planning, and trying to sleep. I was planning hypothetical ways I could find you all and drawing all of us together, with even a drawing of each one of us as accurate as I could. It was nice. Thankfully the sewer has a lot less rats than one would expect."

Vee as well as Kate were visibly disgusted just by the mere mention of rats. Trey gave an understanding look at that while Seth and Tina looked to be at varying levels of confusion.

"So if the sewers were working so well for you, why did you leave?" Seth asked.

"The whole time I was terrified that one day I would get caught. And so one day, around a year after the escape, when I was looking for supplies, I saw some commotion around the Human Collectables booth. I had seen the booth before but assumed that the Owl Lady got it all from trash slugs or had something that only worked for her. But then I saw her. Luz the human, though at the time I didn't know her name. And I realized if there was a human there, then maybe anyone could use whatever magic the Owl Lady had."

"And were you right?" Tina asked, having become highly invested in the story.

"Yep. I went into her tent unnoticed and she had a portal door. It was shut, but not locked. I ditched the cloak and went through the door. I ended up in the middle of the woods on the porch of some old, decrepit cabin. I heard someone calling for someone named Luz and I shapeshifted into the only human I had seen, who happened to be the Luz the person was looking for. That person was Luz's mother, Camila. I tried my best to impersonate a person which apparently wasn't strange behavior for Luz. She told me that I had to go to this summer camp thing and that I could pick the music."

"Sounds nice. Too nice." Kate said, eyes narrowing.

"I thought that too! But the camp Camila brought me too was all about being a normal, average human which is exactly what I wanted to appear to be. And I went with it. I couldn't just run, I didn't want Camila to get worried."

"But you barely knew her. Why care?"

"I don't know. I guess because she was the first person, outside of you guys, to even be nice to me. And it wasn't because she had to or because we were both in a similarly awful situation, but just because she cared about me. I know it was because she thought I was her daughter, but I still enjoyed it. So, I played along. I was Luz Noceda, eccentric human teen turned perfectly average human teen. It wasn't supposed to go on as long as I did but summer ended, camp was over, Camila took me to her home, and she treated me like a daughter. Because that's who she thought I was. And a small part of me wanted to be. And why wouldn't I? I had a bed, a home, food, and even a few friends from camp."

"Did she eventually find out, freak out, and cast you away?" Seth asked.

"Yes on the first two, but no on the third. Luz managed to get to the place between realms where she could observe and talk through reflections. She found out what I had been doing and she told Camila after some crazy human caged me in an attempt to expose this realm. But he's crazy and obsessive so it just took Camila finding me with Luz's help and the trusty power of la chancla and that dude got exactly what he had coming. So, Camila knew everything. And she still cared about me."

"Even when you weren't disguised?" Tina gasped.

"Especially when I wasn't disguised." Vee chuckled, "But yeah, so it was just me and her for a while, then Luz and her friends arrived, having escaped the day of unity but trapped in the human realm, and then it was the seven of us all in one house for seven months. After that, they found Titan's blood and Luz and her friends left. Some months later, Eda the Owl Lady and Hunter and Amity, Luz's brother figure and girlfriend, came with a letter telling Camila and I that Luz had exiled herself. And eight years later she was pronounced dead."

"So did you just continue to live in the human realm?" Trey asked.

"Mostly, yeah. My human partner Masha and I got an apartment together in the human realm after high school where we live with our two cats, Tui and La, which are a lot like cats here but they can't talk and walk on four legs. They also are only really shades of black, white, gray, brown, and sometimes orange. No other colors."

"Weird." Kate muttered.

"We sometimes come to this realm to hang out with friends, but we mostly live and work in the human realm. Masha has a steady job at the local museum and since I'm a native to the demon realm, I actually get a monthly payment for living in the human realm from the council as part of the human realm-demon realm exchange program. I…still don't have a job."

"Even after more than ten years? You've never had one?" Trey laughed.

"You don't have a job!"

"Yeah, I also don't live with the rest of society. Or human society I should say. Hah! You go between two realms regularly and you don't have a job in either."

"Okay, okay, you guys have asked me enough about how I got to where I am." Vee lightheartedly sighed, "I have some questions for you guys."

"You get one." Kate said firmly.

"Alright, I can work with that. So, how did all of you guys come together? We split up after the escape, so how did the four of you, plus Illa, come together again?"

"Simple," Kate shrugged, "After I attacked the school it was basically declaring to all the others that there's at least one more living basilisk so it's worth trying to find each other. I found Seth, the two of us found Illa, and it wasn't long before Trey, who had already found Tina, found me."

"I had been hiding here and it's a pretty good location, so it's where we've stayed." Seth explained.

"But we didn't look for you because we thought you were dead."

"Why would you think that? I mean, I bet you haven't found the others because they have really good hiding spots, or even did what I did! Who knows, maybe one of these days you'll stumble upon number two, six, eight, or nine just like you did with me." Vee reasoned.

Right after she said that, all the other basilisks went silent. Trey and Seth looked sad and Tina looked nervous. And Kate looked more furious than ever.

"D-did something…" Vee stammered, not being able to even finish the sentence.

"Duke, Cecelia, Octavia, and Navy are all dead. And we know it, unlike you who we just assumed." Seth said quietly, "Navy died during the escape after you, Cecelia, and Octavia had already gone off. And those two were found and killed not long after the escape because, despite what they promised you, they didn't split up and were thus found a lot more easily than they would have been if they did separate."

"And Duke?"

"He did exactly what you did." Kate said through her teeth, staring at Vee with eyes like daggers, "He turned into someone else. Only the one he chose was dead. Stumbled upon some random man in the woods, dead and unfound by anyone else. He replaced him. And he did well. Was the perfect husband and father to the family he acted like was his own. He even fell for the man he was supposedly the husband of. But after almost a year of playing pretend, the body was found, and the husband was informed."

Vee felt like she couldn't breathe. So many pieces were falling into place for the reason Kate hated her so much.

"Duke was practically forced to reveal himself, but he did so privately and only to the husband." Kate began to tear up and just scoffed, "And you wanna know what happened? The husband dragged him out as he pleaded for his life, begging him to not turn him over to the emperor. Saying that he didn't lie about the love he had for the man and his children. His pleading fell on deaf ears. He was handed over to the emperor's coven. Chained and muzzled, he was brought to some random, dirty alley. And he was killed, his body sent back to the castle for Belos to dissect and use for scraps."

Tears began to fall down Kate's face, but she refused to stop looking at Vee.

"And the worst part? I watched it happen. I saw Seth get treated like a monster. Murdered like a crazed animal as he begged to be spared. I had found him a few days prior, that's how I know all of this. We had just been reunited but he didn't listen to me when I told him to stop playing house and stick with me. But he told me that he'd be fine. That he'd been living that life for so long that he was sure that he'd be safe, even if he did reveal his true nature to his so-called loving husband and kids."

"Kate…I'm so-"

"Don't. Even. Start. I don't want your support or your pity. Yeah, you owe me, but I don't want to be repaid with an apology."

"I owe you?"

"Yeah, you do. But if you think I'm going to tell you why, then you are even more delusional than I thought."

Kate got up and began to leave, heading towards the branches at the edge of the Oasis. Vee started to get up to follow her, but Trey put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her down. When Kate pulled back the branches to leave, she paused and looked over her shoulder slightly at Vee.

"I know who killed him. And you do too. Friend of yours. The Golden Guard? Heh, yeah. When Trey told me about the people he found you with I had to stop myself from going to find and kill you, the golden brat, or someone or something else right then and there."

"What? No! Hunter wouldn't-"

Vee stopped as she remembered a conversation she and Hunter had had years ago. He had told her that he not only was forced to watch the executions of the basilisks in the batches that Belos deemed not good enough, but that he actually killed one that had escaped while they were pleading for their life. She had just ignored that fact because she was more focused on assuring Hunter that he wasn't like that anymore.

"Yeah, you just realized he would, didn't you? I'm glad. But I'm also jealous of you. You did almost exactly what Duke did, frankly an even riskier version, but you didn't just survive. No, you lived and thrived even after your precious loved ones found out exactly what you are. You made a whole new identity instead of pretending to be someone else. And that's something none of us have done before."

Kate left the Oasis, leaving Vee, Trey, Seth, and Tina just sitting there in silence.

Vee felt so awful. She wanted to go after her, to say something or anything that could try and help, but she knew that's not what Kate would want or need. She might just make it worse.

"I'm going to follow her to make sure she doesn't get herself hurt. Or, honestly, hurt anyone else." Trey sighed, getting up, "You stay here with Tina and Seth. I'll be back once I can get Kate to calm down."

Trey left through the branches going after Kate. It didn't take long before Seth sucked in an awkward breath and got up.

"I'm, uh, just going back up to my platform. Let me know when those two get back and we can eat."

Seth left, leaving just Vee and Tina sitting by the fire together. Tina didn't leave, but she also didn't move any closer than where she was or try to talk. So for a few minutes they just sat there in awkward silence.

"So," Vee said, trying to break the silence, "How are you? I mean, I barely know anything about you. You're so young I didn't really get to know you well back when we were, you know."

"You don't have to sugarcoat things. I appreciate it, but you don't have to. I've been through a lot…but I am doing good now, to answer your question."

"You've done a lot of work. It's impressive."

"I guess. It helps that the Bonesborough Plant and Conservation Society isn't too far from here. Lots of plant witches venture into these woods which means Trey and Kate can get some magic and I can modify this place. Kate doesn't want me eating glyphs. Trey has given me some a few times, just basic ones, never combos, and they aren't as effective as spells from witches. Plus something as pure as Titan magic tastes weird. I can eat just about anything unlike some of the others who don't handle non-magical food well, but I don't know why but the purity of glyphs just leaves a strange aftertaste. Combine that with the lesser magical output of plain glyphs and it's just more practical to use magic from witches. Even if I don't like it."

"You don't?"

"I mean, it doesn't feel nice. It tastes great, but I don't like knowing that I can only do the things I can because it was stolen from some other witch. I want to help people. I love healing wild demons. I don't want to be the reason random hikers get drained."

"It does give us basilisks some bad PR." Vee chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"That's a conversation for when the others are also here to hear it. But hey, I know something you might find fun."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I know these two people, Camila and Viney. Camila I mentioned already, she's basically my mom, but what I didn't mention is that she's a veterinarian in the human realm. She helps heal sick animals. And Viney is more my age and she is a vet here. She even used to have a pet griffon that was her assistant for a while named Puddles."

"What happened to it?"

"Well…the Titan Trappers did a lot of damage when they were on the Isles and they hurt a lot of people. And demons. But hey, Viney has been fostering so many orphaned griffons since then. Even adopted a baby one recently that she named Muddy. So yeah, if you ever want connections to help heal animals in either realm, I've got you covered."

"I don't think Kate would ever let me leave this place, especially to learn stuff from witches and humans." Tina chuckled, "She's so worried about me. About all of us. And I suppose that makes sense, but sometimes she just comes off as paranoid. Maybe it's just because I don't know her as well as I do Trey. He basically raised me before we found Kate, Seth, and Illa and moved here."

"What was it like having Trey as the one who raised you?"

"Well he wasn't nearly as chaotic as he is now. Who he used to be would be almost unrecognizable from who he is today. He was so worried about keeping me safe that we barely even went into town. Before the five of us got together, Kate was the one who was exploring towns and Trey stayed in the woods. She wanted to find us and thought we'd be hiding in plain sight while Trey wanted to keep me safe and thought the others would be playing it safe too."

"You're right, that does sound different." Vee laughed.

Tina also laughed at that. And even when her laughter died down, she was still smiling. And got up and moved to be sitting next to Vee. She leaned over, resting her head on Vee's arm, closed her eyes, and her smile softened slightly.

"You're really nice. I like you." Tina said sweetly.

"Yeah, I like you too."

Vee wrapped the arm Tina was leaning on around her and pulled her closer, which made Tina's smile grow.

"I think we can trust you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I don't care what the others think, but you're not a stranger anymore. I feel like you're the sister we didn't know we were missing. The middle sister I didn't know I was missing."

"I-I'm glad you think that." Vee said, trying not to cry from happiness.

For a while, they just sat like that. And eventually, Tina fell asleep. Being as careful as possible so as to not accidentally wake her up, Vee scooped up Tina and carried her to the tree where she noticed had sleeping areas carved into it. She found the one marked as being Tina's, sat her down in the bed of grass and moss and tucked her in under the blanket of woven vines. She went back down to the campfire and, as she was reaching for a stick to carve a glyph into with one of her claws, she instead grabbed the two spark rocks Trey had left by the fire and started it that way. She figured Kate wouldn't eat anything that she made, so Vee used some plant glyph combos to make a fruit salad for herself and ate it.

When Vee was about halfway through eating, Trey did come back with Kate in tow, looking less mad but with visibly reddened eyes from crying and a few dark red spots around her knuckles with damaged scales, something Vee definitely knew not to ask about. When Tina saw the fire, Vee eating, and no sign of Tina or Seth, she glared at Vee and opened her mouth to start going off on her, but before she could Vee began talking.

"I used the spark rocks Trey left to make the fire, I only made food for myself, Seth went to his platform to do his own thing until you came back, and Tina fell asleep so I tucked her into her bed. Also she gave me her trust before she fell asleep."

Kate narrowed her eyes at her, went over to the fire, and sniffed it to make sure she couldn't smell any glyph magic. When she didn't find anything, she just groaned and turned back to Vee.

"You can sit here tonight, you did make the fire after all, but you're sitting in the smoke spot."

Vee smirked and did as she was told right away with a smile, which made Kate start grumbling various expletives Vee figured she was only saying because Tina wouldn't be around to hear them.

It wasn't great trying to eat where the smoke blew towards, but Vee was able to eat by the fire so that was good enough for her. She even managed to get a few comments into the conversation once Trey got Seth and they started eating various dried fruits and meats they had stored. After dinner, Vee started to leave the Oasis to sleep where she had last night, but as Trey was going to his spot in the tree he yelled over to her that she can sleep in the Oasis, just at the edge. Vee smiled and recreated her setup from last night right on the edge. She watched the fire slowly die out as she lay there and drifted off to sleep.

It was only slightly less uncomfortable than it had been the previous night, but it was still progress. And considering she had only been with the other basilisks for two days, the amount of progress she had made was impressive. She still had a lot of work to do, but she knew she'd be able to do it.

It's not like she had any reason to rush, after all.