Ezra sat heavily on the floor and slumped against a tree, leaning her head back against the rough bark. Her companions did the same, exhausted as they were after the battle at Hiryuu Castle.

"Kija!" Yun chided, leaning down next to the bloodied and panting Hakuryu. "Look what you did to yourself!" He began bustling about, cleaning and bandaging Kija's many wounds.

"I was protecting the princess," Kija protested faintly.

Ezra let out a sigh, closing her eyes for a moment. Her body sang with pain and exhaustion. She didn't want to fall asleep, but she was just so tired...

~~~

A familiar killing rage filled her veins.

Ezra gripped her swords tightly in her hands, looking on at the mountain of bodies that lay in front of her. She still could remember their faces. She still could hear their cries. She still could imagine the pale blue eyes of the kind man named Mikoto, looking at her not with fear or hatred but with regret and compassion as she cut him down.

She still could feel the regret burning in the pit of her stomach, but it no longer burned so brightly. The pain of what she'd done was beginning, at long last, to fade.

"Why did you do it?"

This time, Ezra did not spin so fast or drop her swords. Instead she turned calmly to see her mother, standing some distance away with accusing eyes.

"Why?" Kushinada Takae repeated. "Why?!"

And finally, after years of struggling with the same nightmare, Ezra found her voice.

"I don't know," Ezra answered honestly.

Her mother stayed silent, staring at her daughter with wide eyes.

"I don't know why I did it," Ezra continued. "But I do know that this moment, this day, set me down a path that led me to where I am now." Ezra's eyes glistened. "Mom... I'm happy. I'm so, so happy. If I had to become a monster to get here, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I only regret that you aren't here to meet my friends. You..." A single tear ran down Ezra's cheek. "You'd love them."

A minute passed as mother and daughter stared at each other.

Finally, Takae's expression softened. "My girl," she whispered, stepping forward to wrap Ezra in her arms. "I was not angry at you. I was afraid for you. I was scared that you would lose yourself in your guilt and self-hatred." She pulled back, holding Ezra at arm's length to scan her face. "Now I see that I need not have worried."

"I did hate myself," Ezra whispered. "But I've realized... even though I'm a monster, I'm still human. And I, too, deserve to be forgiven."

"And forgiveness is freely given by those who love you," Takae told her.

That, Ezra knew. It was evident in how easily Yona and the others forgave her. There was just one last thing she needed to say to her mother before she woke up.

"I love you, Mom," Ezra told her. "And I miss you every single day."

"Me, too, love," her mother whispered. "Me, too."

Ezra released her mother and took a step back, a bittersweet feeling lingering in her heart. Instinctively she knew that this was the last time they would meet in her dreams. 

Takae smiled softly, and Ezra could tell that she knew, too. "May your nightmare end when you wake," her mother whispered before everything faded to black.

~~~

"Oi!" Ezra felt something poke her head. "Wake up, Warrior Queen."

"Mmf," Ezra mumbled, struggling to open her eyes. The stinging pain from her injuries came back to her, and it was all she could do to hold in a groan. "What?"

Her head was poked again. "Yun needs to look at you, so wake up."

This time, Ezra was able to register Hak's voice. She opened her eyes to find the former general standing over her with his glaive in hand, the blunt end poised to poke her again.

"Hak!" Yun's angry voice came from behind the Thunder Beast. "I told you to wake her up gently!"

"I'm being gentle!" Hak protested, poking Ezra once more in demonstration. She swatted the weapon away in annoyance. "See? No harm done."

Yun shoved Hak to the side. "Useless Thunder Beast. I can't trust him with anything."

"I did what you asked!" Hak insisted.

"Go away!" Yun snapped.

Hak huffed and sauntered off.

"How are you feeling?" Yun's voice gentled as he turned to his patient. "What hurts the most?"

"I'm feeling great," she told him. "I could go another round."

Yun rolled his eyes. "Stubborn warrior beast," he muttered. He dug through his supplies and pulled out a disinfecting ointment, spreading it over the many wounds on Ezra's arms.

She had to bite her lip to keep from crying out; the ointment stung. "How is everyone else?" she asked.

"Hak, Yona, Zeno, and I are hardly injured at all," Yun told her. "Kija is the worst, followed by Shinah, then you, then Jaeha."

"I'm already fully healed!" Kija shouted as he overheard the conversation. Ezra glanced over in his direction. The Hakuryu's white clothes were torn and bloody, and he wore bandages nearly from head to toe. He looked about as bad as she did after the battle in Awa.

"Sit down, Kija!" Yun snapped. "You need to rest!"

Kija grumbled but did as Yun asked.

Yun cut a length of bandage and began wrapping Ezra's  wounds. "You did really well out there," he told her, admiration shining in his bright blue eyes. "You're... kind of amazing."

Ezra smiled, knowing Yun was stingy with his compliments. "Thanks, Yun. Although..." she trailed off, her eyes roaming over their group. How could she accept such a compliment in her current company? How could she possibly compare to the legendary dragon warriors, or to the Thunder Beast? "I'm definitely not like them."

"No." Yun leaned closer to her, cleaning out a cut above her left eye. "You're better than them."

Ezra scoffed. "I never knew you to be a liar, Mother."

Yun purposely pressed slightly harder on her wound than he needed to, causing her to wince. "I keep telling you not to call me that."

"And I keep telling you to quit nagging me. Seems like neither of us will ever be satisfied."

He cut her a glare as he bandaged her eyebrow. "I take back everything I said."

Ezra laughed. "That's more like it."

Yun stood back, brushing his hands off. "Did I miss anything?"

Ezra took stock of her body. "My ankle hurts."

Yun lifted her leg, inspecting her ankle. "It's a bit swollen. You may have twisted it while you were fighting. I'll just wrap it up, so try to keep your weight off of it while it heals."

"Thanks, Yun."

"No problem." Yun finished wrapping her foot and stood. "Is there anything else?"

"Don't think so."

"Then everyone is all patched up." He repacked his supplies. "What we need to do now is rest. We won't be able to do much until everyone regains their strength."

Ezra nodded, getting to her feet with a little difficulty. Her exhausted body protested her movements, but she didn't want to fall asleep again. She swayed slightly on her feet, her legs unsteady.

"Are you feeling alright, Ez?" Yona suddenly appeared at her side, ready to help if needed.

Ezra nodded. "Yun fixed me up. I'm just tired."

Yona nodded in understanding. "That was a hard battle. I just wanted to say..." She trailed off, looking away from Ezra's face.

Ezra frowned, leaning closer to the princess to try to read her expression. "What, Yona?"

Yona glanced at the ground. "Thank you. For fighting with us today."

"What a strange thing to say," Ezra laughed. "Of course I fought with you today. What else would I be doing?"

Ezra's cheerfulness didn't lighten Yona's expression. The princess looked at the warrior, her eyes serious. "You and I both know that you didn't have to. This... this has nothing to do with you."

Ezra tilted her head. "You're my friend, Yona. This has everything to do with me."

Yona finally smiled; just a slight upward tilt of her lips. "Thank you for saying that."

Ezra rolled her eyes. "Quit thanking me, Yona! If friends thanked each other for every little thing, we'd never get anywhere!"

Yona grinned in earnest at that. "You're right. Thanks, Ez."

"Ugh!" Ezra threw her hands up in mock frustration, and they laughed.

"I'm going to go check on Kija," Yona said, giving Ezra's hand a quick squeeze (that seemed safer than giving the bandaged warrior a hug) before striding over to the Hakuryu.

Ezra walked around the camp, limping on her aching ankle, before she found Shinah leaning against a tree slightly apart from the others. Yun had removed the Seiryu's shirt in order to care for the wound on his chest. Bandages covered most of Shinah's torso, but she could still make out the cut of muscle beneath the gauze.

Ezra's face flushed a deep crimson. In the second before Shinah noticed her, a million thoughts whirled through her mind. She thought about her dream, her feelings, Yona's words to her in Saika...

She needed to tell him.

Her heart pounded mercilessly in her chest, threatening to break out of her ribcage. Her palms grew sweaty, and she hastily wiped them on her pants.

Not today. Later, later.

She was about to turn and walk in the other direction when Shinah called her name.

"Hm?" she turned back towards him, trying desperately to keep calm.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She gave a shaky smile. "I'm good. Just tired."

Shinah tilted his head. "Why... are you red?"

"I think I know the reason!" Jaeha sang from across the camp.

Immediately Ezra whirled, slipping a throwing dagger from her belt and hurling it towards the Ryokuryu. It flew across the clearing to bury itself in a tree inches from Jaeha's cheek.

"No, I do not know the reason!" Jaeha corrected himself.

"Better," she told him. "Ouch," she muttered under her breath. The sudden movement of throwing her knife had disturbed the wounds on her arms.

Shinah's mouth turned down in a frown. "What are you doing?"

"Things that don't make sense," she grumbled. She couldn't have a rational conversation with a shirtless Shinah; it just wasn't possible. That combined with this newfound need to tell him the way she felt made her even more nervous. "I'll have to catch you later, Shinah."

If she stayed there any longer, she would make an even bigger fool of herself than she already had. She turned and made her way towards the others.

Jaeha stared at her, amusement gleaming in his purple eyes.

"What?" she snapped at him.

"I think you hurt Shinah's feelings," he told her, his gaze sliding pointedly towards the Seiryu.

Ezra glanced behind her to find Shinah looking at the ground, his mouth turned down and his brows furrowed. "Crap," she muttered.

"Maybe you should go apologize," Jaeha suggested.

She glared at him. "I'll do it later."

Jaeha raised an eyebrow at her. "Maybe you're a pervert like me."

Ezra's jaw locked. "I am not."

"Prove it."

She couldn't back down from the challenge that gleamed in his purple eyes, and Jaeha knew it. He smirked in satisfaction when she puffed out a breath and turned her back on him to storm back to Shinah.

Ezra sat down heavily on the ground next to Shinah, leaning back against his tree. He stared at her in confusion, but she kept her gaze firmly away from him. "I'm sorry if I was too abrupt," she told him, still not looking at him. "I'm... distracted."

"Are you okay?" The amount of concern in his voice touched her.

Ezra finally met his gaze, though she made sure to look only at his face. "Yes." She gave him a bright smile. "Thank you."

"For what?"

At that, Ezra had to laugh at herself. Hadn't she just scolded Yona for doing what she was doing now?

But as Ezra watched him, she knew that she would always be grateful for Shinah. He protected her, always asked if she was alright, held her when she cried... Emotions swelled up in her chest, closing her throat and heating her face.

She appreciated every single thing about the man sitting next to her.

"For everything," she told him honestly.

"I never..."

"Just take the appreciation. Say 'you're welcome'."

Shinah's lips pressed together in an amused smile. "You're... welcome."

"See? That wasn't so hard." She let out a sigh, leaning her head back against the tree. Her head was beginning to grow heavy once more.

"Shinah..." she mumbled, her eyes closed. Her head fell to the side, resting against his bare shoulder. "You're... everything... to me..."

And then her breathing deepened in sleep.

Shinah's jaw fell open in shock.

You're everything to me.

Had she actually said that? Did he imagine it? Was she just sleep-talking? What did it mean?

A thousand questions swirled around in his head without a single answer. Shinah leaned his head back against the tree, closing his eyes as he, too, was swept with exhaustion.

"No, Ezra... thank you."

~~~

When Jaeha glanced their way a few minutes later, he found both of them fast asleep, Ezra leaning against Shinah's shoulder and Shinah's head resting against the tree behind him. The Ryokuryu smiled to himself.

"They make quite the pair, don't they?" he murmured.

Yona stepped up next to him, following his gaze. "They do. They're like the sun and the moon."

Jaeha slid the princess a sideways glance. "Don't compare them to that. The sun and the moon's love story is a tragic one."

"You're right," Yona conceded. "They've both had too much tragedy already. We won't let there be more."

Jaeha nodded. "If anything, I think they're more like yin and yang. Shinah is too calm, while Ezra is too turbulent. They balance each other out, like two pieces of a beautiful puzzle."

Yona slid Jaeha a sly gaze. "You're feeling poetic today, aren't you, Jaeha?"

Jaeha smiled bashfully. "Maybe I got hit too hard on the head."