Clearwing was the first to scream.

She'd never screamed in fear during her waking hours before, she was pretty sure. In dreams? Yes. Real life? No. She'd never really had anything to be afraid of enough for that.

Until now.

Max shrunk back, and Polistes tented his wings around her, glaring fiercely.

"What is this?" the queen said through Coal. Lifeless white eyes glared at the six dragonets. "Why can't I get into your heads-?" There was a pause, and then a wide smile curved across the black dragon's face. It was possibly the most terrifying moment of Clearwing's life. Her heart was beating so fast she was sure it would burst out of her chest. "Ah. There we are."

Max shrieked.

Swordtail and Io growled and Blue rubbed his wrists.

Clearwing was still rooted to the spot.

Polistes froze. The large apricot-colored HiveWing's eyes were the color of snakeskins. The queen smiled down at Max, and the dragonet whimpered, perhaps seeming small for the first time since Clearwing had met her.

Suddenly the walls erupted.

Black and yellow and red and orange filled Clearwing's vision and she folded into herself, bracing against the floor. Her claws splintered into the treestuff as hundreds of talons and wings grabbed at her. Too many vines, she thought almost dizidly. They're everywhere. The garden's a mess and Jasper is going to be so mad at me and the Hive is getting torn up. She shook her head. Jasper was a HiveWing dragonet she'd met once who was obsessed with plants. They hadn't talked in years. What was her brain doing?

Something grabbed Clearwing's throat, and the dragonet gasped for air. Strong, black claws held her in the air as her limbs flailed desperately.

"Coal," she choked out, closing her eyes. "I know you can hear me. I know you're in there. You're going to kill me. P-please..."

Dots had begun swimming through her vision, red and green and purple and orange and white. "Coal is gone. Don't play games. You can't get him back."

"No..."

"You know what?" The claws loosened, just enough to let her breathe, but still lifting her, tight enough to easily crack her neck, and more than enough to prevent her from escaping. Clearwing gasped for air. "You may be useful. So I'll let you live. For now."

There was a blur of green and gold, moving so quickly Clearwing was sure for a few seconds that she'd hallucinated it. But then powerful talons yanked her from the queen's grasp, and she was flying through the air without actually doing anything. Well, other than screaming.

"AHHHHHHHH!" the SilkWing yelled, clawing at her supposed attacker.

"STOP," ordered a female voice. "I'm recusing you. And I can't do a very good job of it if you keep flapping around like a useless fish. Why don't you use those big fancy wings of yours?"

"Sundew?" Clearwing asked, spreading her wings and flying after the LeafWing (who had promptly dropped her the moment she started thrashing).

"No idea how you know my name, but yes," Sundew replied. "Come on; the others are waiting outside." She ducked under a HiveWing as he lunged for her, and grabbed his tail instead, swinging him to bash heads with one of his tribemates.

Coal burst from the group and fired a spurt of flame at the fleeing dragonets, snow-colored eyes tracking their movements.

"You won't get away that easily," Wasp hissed through Coal. She was gaining on them, strong wings propelling Coal's body forward. Soon, however, the queen realized her mistake as she emerged to a group of LeafWings, who knocked Coal unconscious and carried him with them into the wall using their sheer numbers.

"Hurry!" shouted one of them, a dragon larger than Sundew with dark green scales dotted with patches of brown. She had an air of authority around her, and Clearwing realized she was Sundew's mother. The SilkWing dragonet followed the purple tail of Io out into the storm, blinking water out of her eyes.

"Let's get out of here," Cricket agreed, grabbing Clearwing's talon and pulling her out of the Hive. HiveWings clawed at her tail, but the LeafWings fought them back.

"Flamesilk!" Sundew's mother shouted. A pale green dragoness with flecks of gold and cobalt blue in her wings appeared in the sky, her face screwed up in annoyance as she looked back at her wings, which were soaking wet. She looked up at the LeafWing.

"My name is still Luna," she said, "but what do you need, Belladonna?"

The LeafWing commander smiled and pointed at the Hive.

"Burn it."

"Again?" Luna asked. "We've kind of already done this with Bloodworm, so couldn't I just burn some HiveWing's faces but not the actual Hive this time- wait a minute." She suddenly spun around, her brown eyes wide.

"Blue!" she shouted. "You're here! Blue!"

"Luna!" Blue spread his giant blue wings, wrapping them around her in a hug.

"Luna!" Swordtail cried. Blue's sister delicately untangled herself from her brother's wings, her eyes shining.

"Swordtail! You're alive, too!" There was more embracing, pearlescent green on molten gold on midnight blue.

"I was so worried about you," Swordtail said, either tears or rain staining his face, Clearwing wasn't sure. All of the SilkWings suddenly had a very, very, very happy aura vibrating off of them, and Clearwing leaned into it, letting herself enjoy life for just a little bit.

"This is all very touching, but we have places to be and a Hive to burn." Belladonna sighed. "Luna, please." She gritted her teeth as though saying that word was worse than rolling in broken glass.

"Actually, skip the Hive and just move, because when Coal wakes up with Wasp in his head he will kill everyone in this group," Clearwing said, pointing to the slightly thrashing shape of Coal.

Belladonna didn't look happy. "Think of it this way," she smiled grimly, "if we don't burn the Hive, they'll be able to follow us easily. Wasp will send all of her dragons after us, not just the ones here."

Luna was already starting to pour silk out of her wrists. She dodged a HiveWing as he lunged at her, and another LeafWing slashed at a different black-and-orange dragon, protecting her.

"Where are Max and Polistes?" Clearwing asked, panic starting to rise in her chest. The grey-silver-blue SilkWing looked around, but could barely see Blue and Swordtail, let alone the other HiveWings.

"And Cricket," Io said unexpectedly from next to her. Clearwing jumped. "I hope they didn't mistake her for one of the others."

"Nope," Cricket said, her voice stretched. "I'm right here. And so is Max, more or less."

In her talons was the unconscious orange HiveWing. There was a gash in her head, which was crudely bandaged up with a sopping wet bit of paper.

Cricket looked like she was going to fall out of the sky, and Blue quickly flew over to help her support the dragonet.

"But where's Polistes?" asked Clearwing. She looked away from Maxilla, starting to feel a headache coming on.

"In there," Cricket pointed to the swarming mass of scales and teeth, held back only by the LeafWings. "But we seriously need to get out of here. We can't go back for him."

Clearwing felt her world falling apart just a little bit more. Leaving more dragons behind because they're lost to the mind control. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, but waited for what Belladonna would say.

The LeafWing commander was looking over at Luna. The flamesilk nodded and pulled back as flames started licking around the treestuff near her tail.

"Alright then," Belladonna rubbed her palms together, which were covered in strange burn scars. "Let's get out of here." The LeafWings flew up behind her, and together the dragons flew off, heading north.

"Where are we going, again?" Swordtail asked, peering at Sundew.

"To the home of the LeafWings, right?" Cricket said, doing a little jump.

"Yes," Sundew grinned. "We're going home. To the Poison Jungle."