She's there, right in front of me. Dark Rainbow. From the Factory. Her fur is all messy, and her wings are outstretched. They're not angel wings, like Avery's- no, her wings are dragon like in shape.

They look good on her. Everything does. She's actually really pretty, especially when she's sleeping.

Cherry Blossom was too, but as far as I know Cherry Blossom is dead. Dark Rainbow wakes up, hyperventilating. She opens her eyes and notices I'm standing over you.

"Nightmares, huh?" I say.

"Yeah. Awful ones. You're lucky you don't have them every night." she yawns.

Believe me, I do. Some of them have you in them.

"How was Storm? Why isn't he with you?" I ask.

"Storm. Who the heck is Storm?!" she says foggily.

She forgot... everything? Did they mindwipe her?

She starts to back away slowly, and I say,"No one. Talking out loud to myself."

She looks away from me. "Thanks for last night."

I blush. "It was nothing."

She blushes too, and I find myself intertwining my unlit tail with hers. Surprised, she jumps back. "Woah. Woah. Woah." she says, backing away from me. She walks off towards Avery.

"Well, that worked." Spritz says with a dry smile.

"What do you know about girls, fishbreath?" I snarl.

"I told you before. I have a mate."

I groan. "Okay, fine. Just tell me what to do."

"Well, you were muttering to yourself about nothing. What was that even about?" He asks, disgusted.

I want to tell him the truth, but I immediately say, "Nothing!"

"You are completely hopeless. Oh well. In the future, you want to approach her subtly. No wrapping your tail around hers the second you meet."

"Okay. Then what do I do?" I snap.

"Be subtle. Get her a gift."

I walk up to Avery and her. "Um, DR.... mind if I call you that?"

"Can you please call me Dark Rainbow?"

"Yeah. Okay. Point being, don't go over there. We're setting up your room and I thought it might be more fun if it was a surprise."

"A what?"

"It's when you do something unexpected, but in a good way."

She looks confused.

"You'll see." I say with an optimistic smile.

I spend the rest of the day gathering berries in the forest. I pick out an entire spectrum- red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Riana drifts alongside me in the river, squirting me occasionally and telling me how she probably saved my life.

"You see, they were all dragons at this point and they were going to go straight over your little fence. So I blasted the thing with water and the smoke rose so high they couldn't see a thing. I got my crew out and we blasted them back. Just your typical type of... awesome showdown." She does a few kicks in the water, which must've looked impressive to her, but to me it looks like she's floundering around in the river for no reason.

"What are you doing, Riana?" I ask, half curious and half confused.

"Ninja moves."

"It looks like you're derping around in the water, Riana."

"Well," Riana blushes, "I like derping around in water, so there!"

She floats downstream, and I sit there, mouth open. She's probably just high on way too much syrup. That, or she likes me, and she's even worse at flirting than I am. I guess we're both clueless.

I see some purple berries on a nearby bush, and reach out and pick off a twig laden with berries with my mouth. I put it safely in my travel bag with the other berries and continue back to the willow tree. The sun is beginning to set and it barely sticks out beyond the trees.

Everyone else is dozing, Avery and Spritz in their little parts of the tree and Dark Rainbow dozing in the middle, laying up against the trunk and the black ball. She sees me with the berries and asks drowsily, "What are the..."

"It's nothing." I say, walking over to the part of the willow tree where her room is going to be. Those blurry images still resonate in my mind- we were prisoners together. Forced to fight... and she spared me. I remember her eyes changing color, going from a sharp red to a light, beautiful blue.

Dark Rainbow's eyes are blue as the sky on a day with no clouds, the type of summer day that you want to breathe in and live in for the rest of your life. A summer like the one we're in now.

I drift to sleep, enjoying the comfort of my part of the willow tree. Branches drape all around me so I have privacy, and little flowers are placed around it. They glow- apparently they're some rare type that can only be found in this forest, Starberry flowers. Almost as beautiful as she is. I breathe in and out the sweet smell of flowers, focusing on them instead of the bottom part of my room, which is black and singed from those first few days when I couldn't control my powers.

I sleep peacefully for once that night. No nightmares. No burning wings. Just her.