I gave Steffie the coloring book back as the blimp came to a stop over the CloudComm building. I hadn't gotten much colored – it was hard to stay focused on the book with the cartoons distracting me, and... for some reason, sometimes when I looked at my hand over the book, it... felt weird... but I had gotten some of it done. I could probably work on it more another day, when I wasn't tired. There had been some nice pictures in it that would be fun to color.

Officer Miles had been very excited about something on the floater. Dillian had come down and joined him in the front of the blimp, and the two of them did a lot of talking – the best I could understand was that there was something on the floater that shouldn't have been there, and it had probably been meant to make a hole in the floater but hadn't been able to for some reason – but Steffie just turned the television up louder, and I didn't hear much after that. It did seem like they made the blimp move faster, though, which I liked.

And now we were finally back at the CloudComm building.

Dillian did something at the front of the blimp that caused the sound of fans to start coming from beneath the floor, and the bobbing of the blimp steadied out. Steffie stood up from the couch and opened the small door, then gestured for me.

I yawned as I rose to my feet and squeezed through the door to step out onto the roof of the CloudComm building. The roof was warm under me, almost begging for me to stretch out on it and just fall asleep... but Steffie put her hand on my head before I could think about doing that, and pointed with her other hand. "Go down and wait for me at the van, okay? I'll be right down."

"'Kay..." I stifled another yawn as I spread out my wings and began to move. As nice as the roof felt, leaving it meant getting closer to the van, and the nap it offered. I hopped into the air and flapped my wings, climbing into the air and leaving the roof behind. Steffie's van was easy to spot, and I angled towards it as I glided downwards. I pulled my wings back as the ground came nearer, reaching my legs out as I prepared to land... and I stumbled, tripping and sprawling into the dirt and grass beside Steffie's van.

I was aware of a few people watching me from nearby, but I ignored them. My head still hurt, with the throbbing at a solid four, but other than that, it was actually pretty relaxing. I didn't really like the idea of sleeping out in the open like this, but the strangers weren't that close, and I was really tired...

"Joy, are you okay?"

My attempt at sleep ended as I heard Steffie's voice, and I grumbled and lifted my head up to see her walking towards me. "Sowwie. The gwound was dumb."

She giggled as she walked up to the van, shaking her head. "Silly. I'm sorry; it can be like that sometimes." She opened the side door to the van and stepped aside, and I reluctantly pushed myself up to my feet again. At least once I was in the van I could get a nap. I wouldn't be out in the open, and the rumbling of the van was soothing. That would be nice.

Steffie climbed into the front seat, and I felt the familiar trembling around me as the van started up. I curled up behind Steffie's seat and made myself comfortable. My wings were tired, my head still hurt, and for some reason I just felt drained, even beyond what I usually felt after a long day of flying and playing the balloon game. Yes... a nap would be nice...

"Why don't we sing on the way home, Joy?" I slowly opened my eyes back up to see Steffie watching me in the mirror. She took one hand off the steering wheel and reached for the radio, and a few seconds later I heard a familiar song coming through the speakers. "It'll be fun. And it won't seem like long; you can get a nap once we're home. I promise."

I really wanted a nap... but she smiled as she looked back at me in the mirror. "Please? I really enjoyed singing with you on the way here."

I stifled a yawn, then pushed myself to sit up. If it would make Steffie smile... I could wait on my nap.

My eyes felt as heavy as the metal rods I had carried up to the floater when Steffie finally pulled the van up to the cliff wall and shut it off. She opened the van door for me and I stumbled out. I was so tired. And my head really hurt, even though my wings didn't feel tired anymore.

I trudged up to the door of our home and sat up, waiting for Steffie to open the door for me. I looked down while I waited, and... my arm...?

It looked so strange. I flexed it and my claws dug into the dirt, digging tiny scratches into the ground. Just like my claws always would, when I flexed my hand like that. But... but not how they would. Not how they were... supposed to...?

My head hurt so much... I just wanted a nap...

There was a wonderful 'beep' sound as Steffie held her card against the card reader, and the door unlocked with its usual click. Steffie opened the door for me, and I trudged into the den. Which wasn't actually my den, but which Steffie said could be a den, and which never made sense... but I was too tired to care. Just a few steps to get through it, then the ticklish feel of the curtain of beads along my back...

I hauled myself up onto the smooth stone platform that was my bed, and sprawled all my limbs out around me. My tail dangled off the back of the bed, one of my wings dangled off the side, and my arms stretched out before me.

My... arm...?

I yawned... and finally fell asleep.

"I don't like the way this arm looks."

Everything hurt. Everything.

"This happens sometimes. The initial treatment doesn't always spread out evenly; sometimes enough unaltered cells can hold out in an area."

Three people in the sealed suits were inside the glass. Two green suits. One blue. The man in the blue suit had an arm pinned down beneath his legs, while the two in green stared at the arm. Poked it.

More pain.

"The tissues there aren't being replaced as quickly as they're dying. Nothing healthy is growing to absorb them, so it's just rotting." The man in the green suit poked the arm again. The pain grew worse. "The immune system will start to see that as a danger if it keeps up. And from there it will start attacking everything, old and new cells alike."

The angry woman shook her head from inside the sealed suit. "It won't come to that. If it was happening in his chest or at an organ we would have to rush to grow replacements for transplant, or prepare another viral course and hope for the best, but this is manageable." She nodded to the person in the blue clothes. "Hold it still."

A shifting of weight from the blue uniform. The pinned arm came into view, revealing the differences – the pinned arm was all pink flesh from the elbow down, albeit with a grayish tinge that suggested something might be wrong with it, while the flesh of the other arm was swollen and angry, with bright yellow splotches of scales covering the red skin.

"Manageable? What are you going to... oh." The man in the green suit looked back behind him, where the angry woman had walked out of view. It would hurt too much to try to look at her, and the man in the blue suit was preventing movement. "Will that cause problems later?"

"It shouldn't. Like I said, this does happen sometimes. The whole point of this procedure is to have a subject's body regrow everything as it is; having to start from scratch on one limb won't be a problem."

The angry woman stepped back into view... and a sharp ax swung down toward the arm.

"NO!!!" I flung myself back as I screamed, reaching for my arm. I hit something hard behind me, and I felt pain in my back... but it was nothing compared to the burning sensation all over my body, or the terrible pounding inside my head.

My arm was wrong! It was completely covered in those yellow splotches, they were everywhere! "NO! You can't do this, it's NOT FAIR! That's my arm, you can't, YOU CAN'T!" I screamed out into the darkness and pulled at the yellow-blotched arm in front of me, twisting in place to try and get better leverage against the horrible limb.

I wobbled on feet that didn't feel right as extra weight on my back pulled me backwards. The room I was in was pitch black, but I could see blood everywhere. Everywhere. The ax had come down and blood had pooled all over the floor, while the angry woman had pressed something burning against the... against my... a-and then this other arm... mine...

The pounding at the back of my head competed with the pain burning through my body, and I screamed again. "NO!!!"

Light flared against my eyes. The floor beneath me was different – it was solid rock, not the tiny tiles that it had been made of just a second ago – but I could still see the blood staining it. Could still see it on my arms, could still see the horrible yellow wrongness where my arm was supposed to be.

"Joy! Joy, what's wrong?!" There was a worried voice from the doorway – did I know that voice? – but I couldn't focus on it. I ran from the sound, tripping on feet that didn't move the way they were supposed to, and skidded across the wrongness of the floor beneath me. All I could think about was that ax, and all the pain, and the screaming filling the room, and the... the...

"Calm down! Joy, calm down; you've had another nightmare."

A wall was right in front of me – the glass wall, that wall that trapped me, w-while they did... no... no, it was a rock wall. Polished rock. Covered in blood. There was blood everywhere, I could see it, I was covered in it, it was everywhere!

"LET ME GO!"

I screamed back at the other voice and pushed at the wall. I tried to pound on it, to kick it, to break it, but my hands weren't working right. Weren't bending the way arms were supposed to bend. My arm was wrong, and the wall was keeping me here, where they would make it worse. I thrashed wildly, throwing myself against the wall. Arms, legs. Head. Other things that seemed to move, but that I didn't understand. I flung them in all directions. Most of the time they struck nothing but air. Sometimes they struck the hard wall surface.

One of them struck something soft, and I thought I heard a short cry of pain and surprise come from behind me.

I attacked the wall with everything I had... and... it didn't matter. There were no cracks in it. No weak spots. All of my flailing accomplished nothing, except to leave strange white slash marks in the rock, where my claws had... my... claws...?

Cold, white claws gleamed at me in the light of the strange room.

Claws growing out of a scaled, yellow hand.

I closed my eyes and flung myself at the wall again, slashing even harder at it.

"Mitchell, STOP!"

Everything went white at the lady's shout. I couldn't feel anything except the pounding in the back of my head, which had exploded into agony. I could barely keep my balance against the overwhelming headache, and I didn't even think I was standing. Though... I couldn't be sure, since everything felt... felt...

My vision slowly began to clear.

There was a screaming sound filling my bedroom. I was laying on the floor of my room, up against the wall. On the far side of the room from my bed, near the shower. I had... I had flung myself here... hadn't I? But... why had I done that?...

It was because of something with my arms, but... I couldn't seem to remember what it was. They were... they were stretched out in front of me, pressed against the wall, but... there didn't seem to be anything wrong with them. The same pretty yellow scales, and the same claws. Not as flexible or precise as Steffie's fingers, but... though... why were they shaking...?

Everything was shaking, actually. It all felt so strange... but... normal, too. My arms and legs, limp at my sides. My... my tail...? My wings...

My head hurt so much... it was a nine, maybe even a ten. I couldn't imagine it hurting worse. It was so hard to think through the pain...

"Joy?... Joy, can you hear me? It's okay, Joy. I'm going to walk over to you now. You are safe. Nothing is going to hurt you. You're here in your room, and everything is okay. You are safe."

The feeling of pain was fading. The burning, the relentless itching on and underneath my skin, it... it was gone, and... had there been itching...? I was... I had been thinking about that, but... I couldn't remember...

There was still pain in my back. Had I hit it on something? It felt like I had, but... I couldn't remember doing that. I couldn't remember how I had gotten here; I had gone to bed, but now I was here... something horrible had happened in between, I knew that much, and I couldn't stop shaking because it had been bad, and I was gasping for breath still, but... but what had it been...?

My arm hurt, too. It was sore at the shoulder, like I had pulled a muscle. Had I done that while flying? I couldn't remember doing that... had my arm hurt in the blimp, or in the van? It had felt weird when I had looked at it, but... I didn't think it had hurt, had it? And it hurt further down my arm now, too, where my claws...

I slowly stared up at the chunks of rocks that had been gouged out of the wall. They matched my claws perfectly. There wasn't any doubt at all – I could even tell which ones had been done by my left hand, and which marks were from my right hand. I had slashed at the wall of my bedroom, and pulled out chunks of rock, and... and that was why my hands hurt, but... why? Why would I have done something like that...?

The screaming finally faded, but a soft sobbing began echoing through my bedroom in its place. It felt like it was coming from me. The crying seemed to break a little when my body gasped for air. But... did that mean the screaming had been coming from me, too? But why would I have been screaming in my room? I was safe here... wasn't I?

I didn't understand anything, and... and that just terrified me more...

"It's okay, sweetie. It's okay." I felt Steffie's hand on my back. It felt hesitant, like it was ready to pull away if it had to, but it was warm and comforting, and it made me realize just how badly I was shaking. I couldn't stop it. I was... I was terrified, terrified of... of...

Of what?

"It's okay... I'm here... It's okay..."

I blinked and tried to lift my head to look up at the voice, but my body wouldn't stop shaking. I huddled closer to the ground and tried to look up from the corner of my eyes. "S-steffie...?"

"Joy." There was a sudden relief in Steffie's calming voice. "Yes, Joy. I'm here." She was kneeling beside me in one of her nightgowns. That meant it was late at night. She must have rushed straight from her own room without changing, so there must have been something alarming that caused her to be in a hurry, but... what would that have been? Was I sick again? My tummy didn't feel bad, but... I was shaking, and my head hurt so much... Steffie's hand was steady on my back, and I felt her other hand come to press against my cheek. It felt wet – had I been crying...? "I'm here. It's okay. You're safe."

"W-what... what hap..." I tried to pull my wings in closer, but nothing was working. All I seemed to be able to do was tremble on the floor.

"You had another nightmare. A bad one." Steffie's voice trembled before it went back to the steady calmness. "But it's over. You're okay now. You're safe. I'm here."

A nightmare...? I couldn't remember any nightmare. I... I couldn't remember anything, just that I was on the floor. No... no, I could remember screaming, and... something with my arm...?

The back of my head wouldn't stop pounding...

I tried to look towards my arm again... but I caught sight of Steffie's arm first. There was blood on it – she had been cut. A slash ran through the skin on the back of her arm, trickling blood onto her skin. An angry gash that looked...

My trembling grew worse. The cut looked like it could have been caused by the spikes on my tail. Had I hit her with my tail? I would never do that, I was so careful to make sure that I never bumped her with the sharp points... but... the wound matched, and... and I could see blood on one of the spikes on my tail, even through my trembling. "D-did I... did I huwt you...?"

"No. No, Joy, you did not." Steffie shifted and pulled my head into her lap, burying my face in her belly and moving the cut on her arm out of my view. One hand went back to rest on the back of my head, just below my horns, where the pounding headache wouldn't stop... and her other hand began stroking over my nose, tickling gently over my scales. "You would never hurt me, Joy. You're my little sweetie. You just had a bad nightmare. But it's gone now. It's gone. Everything's okay."

The trembling wouldn't stop. The tears and sobbing wouldn't stop, either. I was terrified, I couldn't move out of the shivering huddle in the corner of my room, and I didn't even know why.

What had happened to me...?

Steffie held me and stroked her hand softly over my frills. My sobbing eventually ended. The shivering died down soon after. I found myself feeling exhausted, and not even the headache was enough to keep me awake. I closed my eyes while Steffie continued whispering her comforting words, and fell slowly back asleep.