Hey everyone, I decided to go ahead with my plans to write a second story. It is set right after the end of Rio 2 and is focused on the broken relationship between Blu and Jewel and how they were able to forgive each other and move forward with their lives. Hope you enjoy.

Much of this chapter is just diving deeper into the final scene with the loggers where Blu saves the jungle. Everything up until the point where Nigel "dies" is exactly the same as in the movie, the only thing I slightly changed/extended was what happened when Jewel landed next to Blu, as I felt that this interaction in the movie wasn't very fitting for how the birds must have been feeling. I don't think that they would have been able to just shrug off everything that had happened, and it wouldn't make sense if suddenly everything was perfectly fine and their issues were fixed, which is the reason I'm writing this story in the first place.

Note: While not directly a sequel to my first story, "Someone to Live For," it might contain some very brief references to it for the sake of adding more detail to the history of their relationship, so If you haven't read that story yet you might want to. I feel like my first story puts into perspective just how special their love for one another is (even more so than the actual movie itself, simply because we only saw the two macaws officially together for a very brief time at the end of the movie) and why their fight in Rio 2 hurt them so much. But for the sake of sticking as close to the actual movies as possible and to avoid straying too far from what is actually canon, I will make sure this story can stand on its own with just the two movies and that it can be, for the most part, independent from my first story.

Blu pumped his wings as hard as he could, struggling to gain momentum due to the weight of the dynamite he was heroically carrying up and away from the trees that the last flock of Spix macaws on earth called home. His wings burned as he strained against the unrelenting force of gravity, but he kept going, using every ounce of strength he had left.

He didn't know why he was doing it, risking his life to save the home of the birds who had, for the past few days and up until just mere hours ago, treated him with the highest possible level of disrespect. He owed them nothing, and to put himself in grave danger for them would have seemed like pure idiocy if he had the time to think about it.

It very well could have been that this action was fueled by all of the anger and resentment that had built up within him since his family had traveled to the Amazon, these feelings directed at himself as much as they were at those who had wronged him. He still felt the need to prove himself to everyone and make up for his previous mistakes, mistakes that he blamed himself for.

Blu was exhausted. He could feel the rate of his ascent rapidly slowing, and he looked down toward the jungle, which was now far below him. He was shocked to see a cockatoo clinging to the dynamite that he was carrying.

"What are you doing? Let go, save yourself!" Blu cried as he frantically tried to fly higher, watching the cockatoo climb the rope he was holding and closing the distance between them. "Come on, let go!"

"Never!" snarled the strange bird as he let out an eerily familiar laugh.

"Are you crazy??? You'll bring us both down! Let go!" Blu shouted back. He felt a searing pain in his talon as the fire that burned on the remaining section of the fuse caught up with him. He let go of the dynamite just as the cockatoo reached him.

The cockatoo grabbed Blu as they began to fall out of the sky, the mask that covered his face blowing away.

"Deja vu, Blu."

"Nigel!"

Blu's world went dark. The dynamite exploded, the air around them erupting with fire and smoke as a billowing cloud of dust spread outwards, swallowing them up and obstructing them from the view of the macaws who watched in shock from the clearing below.

"Blu!" Jewel cried in horror, tears welling up in her eyes. She tried to hold onto hope that her mate was still alive, praying that the image of him falling from the sky right before the explosion wouldn't be the last time she would ever see him. She frantically scanned the sky, searching for him, but the tears that welled up in her eyes blinded her.

A deafening silence hung over the tribe as a cloud of smoke spread out over the jungle, ash raining down on their home, which had narrowly been spared. As the dust settled, the sky once again came into view, and the top of the forest canopy became visible once more, which was miraculously unscathed.

A single blue feather, charred and still smoldering, fluttered down through the air before it gently came to a rest on the forest floor.

•••

Blu blinked slowly as the world around him came into focus. He felt a sharp, throbbing pain in his head, which was nearly enough to make him pass out once again. He tried to spread his wings but found that he was trapped, tangled in a mess of vines.

As he became more aware of his surroundings, he noticed that he was hanging upside down, and Nigel was opposite him.

They both seemed to notice each other at the same time, and Nigel attempted to attack him, which was luckily restricted to no more than a few weak slaps due to the vines that also ensnared him.

Blu finally thought to break free of the vines using his beak, which succeeded in cutting straight through. He fell to the ground, exhausted but somehow unharmed.

All of the Spix macaws were now in flight and heading towards the spot where the explosion had occurred, Jewel frantically leading the way with Bia, Carla, and Tiago close behind, too young to realize the severity of what had just happened. Nobody dared to speak, dreading what they might find when they arrived at the spot where Blu and Nigel must have landed.

Jewel's heart skipped a beat as she spotted a small blue mass that was lying limply below her on the forest floor. It was Blu.

She felt as if her whole world had been ripped apart as she looked down at the motionless macaw below her, desperately watching for any sign of life. She knew she would never be able to forgive herself if their time on earth together had just come to an end after what had happened between them over the past few days. Jewel was filled with so much regret, and even though it took the possibility of Blu dying to make it clear, she began to consider for the first time that what she had done to him was inexcusable.

But just when she was about to give up hope, it happened. She could see the heap of blue feathers start to twitch. Then, the head of the macaw on the ground below her head rose from the dirt, looking around slowly.

Jewel had never felt so much relief as she did in that moment. She hovered there in the air for a moment in disbelief before diving like a missile toward the spot where Blu lay. She was so proud of him for risking everything to save the flock's home, and realizing just how much weight this act carried made the guilt she was feeling a thousand times worse.

Blu barely took notice of the overdramatic performance that Nigel was putting on. His head was still throbbing, and an overwhelming sensation of dizziness washed over him as he stood up. It took a few seconds for the significance of what had just happened to kick in. He had done it. He had saved their home.

Sitting there on the Jungle floor, his head still spinning and his body aching, all Blu wanted was to have Jewel there with him. Or at least the Jewel he used to know. It was like she had turned into a completely different bird since they had arrived in the Amazon.

Ever since they had spent those first few days together after he had rescued her from the plane, she had always been there for him. He had never once doubted either himself or her love for him since she had poured her heart out to him that night in the aviary after he had confessed his love for her. He had always believed that they were destined to be together forever, and nothing she had ever done or said before the last few days had ever caused him to doubt that.

But Blu now felt something that he had thought had been put behind him for good, and that was his insecurity. When the rest of the tribe had criticized everything about him, making him feel worthless, Jewel hadn't stood up for him at all. She had seemed to turn on him as well. All of those flaws that she had once assured him didn't matter, all of those times that she had promised to always love him despite those shortcomings, it all had seemed meaningless when she had suggested he needed to change who he was.

Blu recalled what she had said to him that night in the aviary, words that, until recently, he had always been able to turn to for reassurance whenever he doubted himself. "I wouldn't want you any other way. I love you for who you are, Blu," she had said to him.

He hated that he had ever allowed himself to be tricked by her words. He wished that he would have listened to himself when he thought he wasn't good enough for her. Why did he ever think that he was worthy of her love?

He had always been able to dismiss the thought whenever it came into his mind, but he now found himself believing that the only reason she fell in love with him in the first place was because he was the only option. There was nothing special about him, nothing he had to offer. He wasn't her one and only, he was just the only one.

Blu heard a soft thump as Jewel landed next to him. Her presence didn't make him feel better, as it always had in the past. Instead, it caused a wave of sadness to wash over him.

After they had arrived in the Amazon, she seemed to have a hostile attitude towards him. Blu had tried desperately to figure out what was wrong, but it had seemed to him that he was the problem. And this feeling was made so much worse when he had watched Jewel completely ignore him, dancing with her childhood friend Roberto.

Roberto had made the entire situation a thousand times more painful for Blu. Every time he had to watch Jewel flirt with Roberto, it made Blu hate himself even more. He wanted to trust that Jewel wouldn't stoop that low, but try as he might, Blu had begun to feel like he was losing her.

Roberto seemed to be better than Blu in every possible way, and knowing that Jewel likely would have ended up with him had she not been separated from the tribe was sickening, especially since it was obvious that Roberto was still interested in Jewel. He had shown no respect for Blu's position as Jewel's mate and seemed to put him down at every possible moment.

Had Jewel made it clear to Roberto that he was overstepping a boundary, Blu wouldn't have cared. As much as he disliked Roberto, he could understand how hard it would be to have been separated from someone for so long just to find out they were with someone else when you finally saw them again.

But Jewel hadn't shown respect for her relationship with Blu. She seemed to find no problem with Roberto's advances, and although she didn't do anything to suggest that she was anything more than just friendly in return, she seemed completely oblivious to how the whole situation made Blu feel. She also seemed to not realize how inappropriate it was to even entertain these advances in the first place.

Blu was already lacking confidence in himself, so to see his mate acting in such a way to a bird that was superior to him had caused a lot of his self-doubt to come back. Jewel had done nothing to reassure Blu that she would only ever want him, and Blu had convinced himself that he was at fault for feeling jealous.

Blu still wanted to believe that Jewel loved him and only him, and he still trusted her. He just wished that she could recognize that he was feeling all of this doubt, as he was too scared to voice his concerns for fear of sounding controlling and insecure.

Jewel looked over at her mate, who still hadn't acknowledged her even though he had obviously noticed her presence. She couldn't even begin to think about how to fix the damage that she had caused. For the moment, she was just glad to see that Blu was alright.

"Blu?" She said with concern, reaching out her wing to him and softly placing it on his side, turning him towards herself. "I thought you were dead... please don't ever scare me like that ever again," she said, tears flooding her eyes. They weren't entirely tears of joy. Mixed in with all her relief was the sadness and guilt that their broken relationship was causing.

Blu's face remained expressionless as he looked back at her, his heart aching. He reluctantly obliged as he was pulled into a bone-crushing embrace, which he didn't return, before pulling away and lifting her wing off of him and pushing it away, looking at the ground.

He wanted so badly for everything to be as it was before. All he wanted was to once again be filled with the feeling that being with Jewel used to give him. A feeling that, after the past few days, he could hardly believe he ever felt in the first place.

Right now, at least, she seemed to show concern for him for the first time since they had arrived in the Amazon. But this didn't make Blu feel any better. It was almost sickening. It had taken nearly dying for Jewel to care about his well-being at all.

If he hadn't thought so low of himself and convinced himself that he was the problem, the whole situation would have seemed so ridiculous he probably would have laughed if it hadn't happened to him. He had been practically forced to leave the comfort and security of home and travel across the continent without so much as a simple thank you to acknowledge his sacrifice in return.

He had been treated as if he was worthless by the rest of the tribe, and his mate hadn't done anything to stand up for him. He had tried his hardest to make life in the jungle work, but everyone seemed to think he wasn't enough. And when he finally had enough of it all and wanted to go home, he had been called selfish by the very bird who he had tried so hard to make happy.

He was "selfish" for having doubts about permanently moving away from everything he had ever known to live among birds who had abused him and disrespected him to the highest possible degree.

There was a little bit of truth in it, though. They had finally found more of their kind, and Jewel had been reunited with her family. It was objectively the right thing to do, raising their kids in the jungle, surrounded by other spix macaws, and living the way their kind was supposed to live.

It was the all-or-nothing attitude that did it for him, though. The way that Jewel had expected him to be ok with saying goodbye to his old life for good, the way that Eduardo had made it clear that nobody could leave the tribe. If Jewel had been on his side and helped the rest of the tribe see that there was nothing wrong with having a bird who was a little different in the tribe, Blu might have been ok with it, but she had blamed him instead.

He looked back at Jewel and finally met her eyes. Blu wore a pained expression as he studied her tear-stained face, which didn't seem to provide any insight into what she was thinking. Was she still mad at him? Would she keep trying to make him change and continue to treat him as poorly as she had been?

Neither of them spoke. Blu was filled with so much anger and self-hatred that he hadn't even realized how awkward their interaction had been. He noticed their kids land next to them and tried to collect himself before forcing a smile.

He knew that his kids were largely oblivious to the tensions that had been brewing between their parents, and he knew that nothing good could come from them finding out just how big the conflict was. Blu found himself feeling even more guilty, having convinced himself that he had put himself before the wellbeing and stability of his family, despite the fact that it couldn't be further from the truth.

If Jewel had known just how deeply she had affected Blu's mental state and how much of a role her emotional manipulation had played in convincing Blu that he was the problem, she would have never been able to forgive herself. But even without being able to understand the magnitude of it in its entirety, she now had an idea of just how serious the issue was.

Jewel knew it was up to her to fix everything. She had no idea how she would even begin to do so, but in that very moment, she resolved to do whatever it would take to make things the way they should have been.

Luckily for Blu and Jewel, the awkward moment came to an abrupt end as the attention of all the birds present was directed to Bia.

"That frog is not poisonous," she calmly said, referring to Gabi, who had appeared to have just killed Nigel with her poison.

Everyone turned to look in shock as Nigel's eyes shot open as he sat up.

"It's a very common mistake, but she's a harmless pseudo-dendrobate. You can tell by the pink spots." Bia stated matter of factly.

Gabi, having now realized that she wasn't actually poisonous, flung herself at Nigel before dragging him off into the jungle. As Blu watched the spectacle unfold, he felt the throbbing sensation of his headache grow in intensity. The whole thing seemed like a fever dream. Somehow Nigel, the bird who had almost spoiled his original trip to Rio and seemed to make it his life's mission to torment innocent birds like Blu and Jewel, survived getting eaten by a propeller blade and now, despite being flightless, had traveled thousands of miles from Rio to the amazon.

For a second, he thought that maybe this whole journey to the Amazon was just a bad dream, not as much because of the random appearance of his old enemy, but due to how sudden and cruel the recent changes in his life had been.

But it was all real, and if there was any opportunity to change this new reality for the better, there would be no use in dwelling on the events that had transpired in the past few days. All he could do was try and make the best of the situation, one which could very well have been way worse had the loggers succeeded in destroying their home.

He still had his family. Linda and Tulio were now aware of the tribe's presence and would surely help protect it, and most importantly, the rest of the tribe had finally seemed to accept him by following his lead to stop the loggers. But there was still one thing that needed desperate attention: his broken relationship with Jewel.

Ever since they arrived in the Amazon and were taken in by the tribe, the divide between them had rapidly grown. Blu hated it every time the realization came into his mind, but Blu hardly recognized her anymore. She seemed cold and distant towards him as of late, and he still couldn't understand how the bird who had always been so close to him could change so much in what seemed like an instant.

All around them, the tribe of Spix macaws began to take flight, ascending into the treetops, which had been narrowly spared from the explosion just minutes ago due to Blu's heroics. He and Jewel glanced at each other, their eyes meeting for a short moment before the family of macaws pushed off the ground and began the flight back to Roberto's hollow, where they had been staying.

They made the short trip in silence, each being too lost in thought to hear whatever it was Bia, Carla, and Tiago were arguing about. Blu had been fighting the urge to look over at Jewel, and when he finally did, he saw that she had been glancing at him before she awkwardly looked away.

There was no hiding from the monstrous gap that had formed between them. Both macaws knew that for things to improve, they would have to confront all of the anger, all of the sadness, all of the bitter feelings that threatened to permanently drive them apart. It wouldn't be easy.

As they descended below the treetops and approached the hollow, Blu's mind remained tormented by the thought of losing Jewel forever. She, along with their kids, was the only thing that he lived for. He would be lost without her.

He had no idea if things would get better, no idea if Jewel would make any effort to restore what they once had. For the first time since before he had met Jewel, Blu found himself feeling an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, of despair. But in his heart, he felt that their love for each other would prevail.

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I think that in the movie, after Jewel made the decision to stay and wait for Blu instead of evacuating with the rest of the tribe, she had finally realized the severity of what she had done, and from that point on there would be no further hostility between them, which was reflected in this chapter. But it would obviously take time before things between them returned to the way they previously were, as both were incredibly hurt.

Leave a review if you have any suggestions, critiques, or any other comments about this chapter. Im always looking for ways to improve. Thx for reading