We finally arrive on the scene, even though I can see no one at first, I sense everyone stopping around me and stop myself, ears up to listen in on the echoing noises.

The city itself is desolate and empty, but there's something else besides us here.

Then I hear it- a guttural cry of pain, terror, and pure agony.

Something is coming our way. I don't know how large it is or if it's going to cause any problems, but I assume it must if it's what we've stopped for.

It's a Canira, not even a large one, but somethings wrong with it. Parts of it's fur have fallen out, leaving patches of hairless skin almost rubbery in texture. It's tail has large flukes, the tail of a Delphid, the magical dolphin.

It even has a dorsal fin, and it gives the overall impression of a dolphin, all the way down to it's long rows of tiny, sharp teeth in a muzzle that's so long it looks like someone forcefully stuck it on the body of a Canira.

It's wild, crazed eyes look at all of us, saliva dribbling horribly from it's over extended maw.

"Get away." It mutters, advancing on the front row. Auma ducks and dodges as a third eye opens across the creature's forehead.

"They brought all seventeen of us out here for this?" asks Katrina, lazily flapping over us.

"WHAT IS THAT THING?!" I ask, shocked.

"It's a Plague victim. Delphicanira, to be exact. You lived in the open, right?"

"I never saw one like that." I say naively, hoping I don't sound as stupid as I think I do.

"They get really, really nasty. This is nothing."

My eyes widen with fear as Auma dodges again, and then commands a counterattack. "Rain, Axel! Battle positions!"

"See, we're just here to watch. No one's in any real trouble. This is what's known as a Call One around here." Katrina watches from above.

"Call One?" Gale and I repeat.

"The Call system is based off how dangerous any given assault is. Call One is like this , a single enemy. Call Six is if the world is ending."

"Have you ever had a Call Six?" Gale asks.

"If we did, I doubt we'd still be here." Glaze says.

Rain is a light blue Ocean Canira, the same color as Katrina, but her fighting style is like nothing I've ever seen. Around her, in midair, is literally a cloud of cold air, to the point where it looks like she's surrounded in mystical fog. From the cloud, she summons shards of ice, some smaller and some much bigger, but the Delphicanira mixture dodges them easily.

In fact, there seems to be a lot of dodging, it's almost like the thing can tell whenever something is about to be thrown at it.

"Why can't she hit it?" Gale asks.

"The Delphid's Aura involves seeing the future. So since it's half Delphid, it can see the near future, so it's able to dodge well."

"Then how is she going to hit it?!"

"You can't dodge everything."

At that moment, Axel, the other Canira, a gold one with odd tan markings, joins in the melee. She flicks her tail and right below the Delphicanira, the street erupts and water comes jetting out, catching it off guard. While it's blasted sky-high, Rain lands five shots, and her ice shards freeze it whole, leaving nothing more than a frozen statue on the ground.

"DID SHE JUST MAKE THE STREET EXPLODE?!"

"Well, we have running water which comes from there, so she just hacked in and made that explode. Trust me, she's done worse. There was that one time when she dropped a power line on someone. Stopped their heart." Glaze says it casually, like it's the type of thing that comes up in normal conversation. "She's like me, we're both city-born Canira. After a few generations, Canira started getting all sorts of crazy powers when they were city-born. New elements. Genetic malfunctions. The power to control not just electric energy, but to hack into code and command mechanical devices to do whatever you want."

Gale gives me the 'crazy' ear flick, but no, they're not crazy. They are geniuses and we both have the right to remain still and very, very afraid.

Everyone casually heads back, leaving Auma and the other two to do who knows what with their frozen victim.

"They're not going to let him die, are they?" I ask.

"No. They're unfreezing him now. Get them unconscious or unable to retaliate, send them to an island where they can't cause any harm. Knocking them out almost always turns off the rampage. Brings them to their senses, lets common sense overtake instinct." Katrina swoops down past us, doing a loop-de-loop before almost hitting the side of a building, just grazing her wing on it.

"That doesn't solve anything! Half of them can swim or fly. What if they come back?" Gale protests.

"What do you call killing hundreds of Sentients who have no way of knowing what they're doing and retaliating, no way of defending themselves and no 'better' alternative as the excuse?" asks Azim, the red Lupus from earlier.

"Self-defense!"

"Murder." he corrects. "Enough of them die from suicide already. Murdering all of them is not a good alternative. Sending them to an island? Well, a lot of them go on rampages and it's basically a death sentence, and any volunteers you send there are going to last three days tops. So that isn't working either. There's really not much we can do. Murder, however, is not and will never be an option."

The others are silent, and I know they're honoring the fallen.

... I still can't believe Gale would consider it self-defense. Was that a really badly made joke? A personal opinion based on shock and fear instead of empathy or even rationality? Was it something much darker than either?

We make it back to the huge building that's apparently our headquarters. I look up at the ceiling and remember Torch dropping us off. He didn't come on the mission. I want to run to him, to ask him about home even though he knows just about as much as I do about the past day, which is to say nothing.

I'm already so homesick...

Stay strong, Rena. I tell myself. It's nice here.

It really is, isn't it?

I ponder it more over dinner, with all seventeen of us and Torch eating sweetbones like it's no big deal. I miss the sinewy, tougher taste of meat, but say nothing and excuse myself to the sleeping quarters.

The females sleep in one room, males in another. They're huge rooms lined wall to wall with pillows, blankets, layers of them to curl up in and snuggle under. I see in a corner someone has placed some leaves, no, not any leaves.

Someone has spent at least an hour making a den out of fresh willow leaves.

My eyes water with tears.

"We made it for you." Glaze nudges me. "If Katrina and I ever left, I knew we'd want something like this."

I breathe in the scent of home, and lie down in it, the pillows making a huge fwooshing noise and the leaves flying around me.

I snuggle up on them, and listen to the steady sound of others, socializing and talking and...

My family, I tell myself. Not others.

I try to talk to them, but then someone sits themselves down right next to my willow tree bed, which is now covering the surrounding area. It's the silvery Felis, who I recognize as Minx from the group with Rain, Azim, and Axel.

"Hello." Minx purrs. "Have any good stories on you?"

"Stories? In my mind? I don't... well so far my life has been pretty boring. Lots and lots of running, if you like that."

"Running is good." she curls up. "I do love the fresh scent of willow, there's a tree on the edge of town. See, the city used to have other, smaller houses that became dens and then when the Plague came, Dreamland really decided to be either feral or city. You live one way or the other."

Sort of confused by the shift in topic, I decide to change it again. "Is it really hard living here? I heard the death rate was..." I gulp, trying to suppress the memory of even hearing about it.

"It's not all that bad. It's a place for all of us nobodies to belong. I think you'll like it."

"I think I will too." It's not a lie. I really do like it here, it's just strange. I look up at the dimming lights, and pretend it's the moon watching over me.

No.

Close your eyes, says a voice in my mind.

I obey.

Then I open them to the world inside my head, a world of memory. Living in it for only these twilight moments before dreams take me on to other places, I look up at the moon and down at Gale, sleeping by my feet.

He looks younger, the way he looked when I met him a year ago. I sit down by him, in this lonely but peaceful place, and spread my wing over him.

I remember faintly a lullaby Avery sang to me when I was having nightmares, and I repeat it into his ear, my voice echoing over the fields and out of sight...

rest my child

close your eyes

below the crescent moon...

the sun goes down

and all that's left

within our tears a starlit sea

and I

would bring them down

to warm you

even if i caught on fire

and I

would forever keep you here

if you could stay

safe and sound