A/N: Okay, help, everyone keeps changing their usernames so I don't know anymore. Who used to be Majoritybrush48?

Night had recently fallen in the rainforest, and Stream paced outside a cave, worried. Dawn stood nearby, leaning against the cave and watching her. Squelch, Adobe, Cypress, and the rest of Willow's family waited inside with Joy.

They had all voted to see Willow one last time, to no one's surprise. They needed the closure, needed to say goodbye. But one of the dragons who needed it the most wasn't even here.

"Where is he?" Stream finally asked. She'd seen Thistle run off hours earlier, looking ready to either throw up or explode. She didn't have the heart to go after him; didn't have the strength to talk him through his own grief. 

"He probably just went to blow off some steam," Dawn assured her. "Joy sent out a few dragons to find him, they'll be back any second. Relax."

"Relax," Stream echoed. "I hate that word." That word, along with Rest, were her two most hated ones now, because that's all her mother gave her for advice. Relax and rest awhile, she said. The pain will ease with time.

But the more she rested and relaxed, the more she thought about that day, and how she had failed. She had failed Willow, and she had failed every dragon waiting in that cave. It was enough that she nearly burst into tears again right then and there, but then two dragons burst into the area.

"Sorry about the wait," Aurora said instantly. "I meant to keep track of time, but..."

"It's alright," Dawn insisted. Thistle only stared at the ground.

His tour with Aurora hadn't lasted long. He'd come to the forest in the first place because of Willow, and although he had wanted a distraction, it had only worked for so long. Aurora had taken him to her mother, and he'd talked with her for so long that the whole day had escaped from them. 

Dawn tried to help so much, but her methods didn't work for him. He needed someone who understood, and Permafrost did. More than he had ever imagined. He thought, as he and Stream went inside the cave, that he'd probably turn right around after this was over and go back to ripping his heart out with Permafrost. She didn't seem to mind, after all.

"H-how exactly, does this work?" Squelch asked, his voice breaking as he looked at the emerald Joy had placed on the ground.

"You just have to hold hands," She explained. "Close your eyes, and think of Willow. Then someone has to say her name, and she should appear. The amount of time you have to talk varies from dragon to dragon, so I recommend getting everything you need to say out as quickly as possible. You can't summon the same dragon multiple times in one night, but if there's more that needs to be said, we can always do this again tomorrow night. Understand?" They nodded, and Joy left the cave, giving them privacy as Squelch, Adobe, Stream, Cypress, Thistle, Nile, Gator, and Egret all joined talons and thought, letting memories of Willow play in their mind.

Squelch thought back to the war, when Willow's drawings had given the other soldiers such hope, and had brightened all of their days. He didn't have the heart to tell any of them what had happened to her.

Adobe thought about her daughter, who had been shyer than her sister, but just as important. 

Stream thought back to their days at JMA, the long hours they would spend in the library or in a random caves, talking about everything under the sun. She thought about how quickly it had taken her to fall in love with Willow, because there was nothing about her that wasn't worth loving.

Nile, Cypress, Gator, and Egret thought about their sister, and how crazy they'd all been growing up on the banks of the river. No Mudwing Siblings were ever the same after losing one of their own, after all.

Thistle thought about his mother- the first dragon who had saved him and shown him kindness. The dragon he missed so much it hurt.

"Willow," Someone said softly, and they swore the room got a little colder.

"Well, isn't this a nice family reunion," A soft voice answered, and they opened their eyes.

Stream immediately let out a sob. Willow had looked so in pain the last time they had seen her, even through her forced smile, there had been pain, but now? Now she looked so calm, so content, it hurt.

They just stared for a minute, no one knowing what to say, no one wanting to speak first.

But then Thistle, who had been trying to face his grief, broke down, dropped down to his knees and cried out: "I'm so sorry!" The others looked away as Willow faced her child.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," She declared. "Look at me." Thistle looked up, tears staining his face. "It was not your fault, and you did nothing wrong, so don't waste a precious second by blaming yourself, of I will haunt you for a lifetime. Understood?" He nodded, and she smiled at him. "I was always so proud of you," She admitted. "So much bravery in such a tiny dragon. Don't lose that. Be good for Stream for me, promise?"

"I promise," He whispered. "I'd promise you anything- you saved me, and I didn't get to save you."

"You didn't have to save me."

"But I did," Stream said, her voice cracking. "And I failed." Willow turned to her, looking fiercer.

"You did no such thing!" She proclaimed. "You butchered that monster exactly the way you should have! I'd high five and hug you right now if I could- Don't you DARE be blaming yourself for anything, Stream, you know why?" Stream stared at her. "Because the only thing you ever promised me besides the fact that you'd always love me is that anyone who hurt me would die- and you've kept that promise 100% of the time, so you have no reason to be guilty ever." She smiled gently. "And... if one day, you wanna love somebody else, that's okay too."

"Never-" Stream started.

"Oh shush, give it a few years and you'll be dating just to get the fangirls off your back, I understand." They all laughed a little, and Willow turned to her family.

She talked to everyone, reassured them all, made sure they knew that it was okay to be sad, but it was okay to move on, that she was content where she was and she looked forward to seeing them again in a hundred years and no less time than that.

They all cried, but they all smiled and laughed too. Grieving and healing, pain and acceptance, all of it rolled into one. 

It wasn't until the sun started to rise in the forest that Willow admitted she had to leave then once more, but everyone got a proper heartfelt goodbye this time.

Joy and Dawn were waiting outside the cave as everyone walked out, and Stream quietly placed the emerald in Joy's talons.

"Thank you," She whispered, nodding to them both. 

"If you ever need to see her again, just send a letter," Joy insisted. 

"And if you ever need anything else, you know where to find me," Dawn added. Willow's family nodded, and left to let everything they had said and heard sink in. 

"Well," Joy sighed, tossing the emerald in the air and catching it again. "Back in the box you go, little animus object."

"Actually," Dawn interrupted. "I was wondering if I could borrow it? Just for a quick visit with someone?" Joy shrugged and handed it over.

"By all means," She said. "Although I should warn you that dragons stay for a lot less time during daylight. I think it drains their strength faster or something."

"That's fine," Dawn insisted. "This won't take long."

She ventured into the cave alone, setting the emerald down. She didn't quite know why she was even doing this... Except that she did. Stream had talked to Willow for closure, and maybe Dawn needed some of that too. Just not the same kind.

It had been years since she had killed Drought. Years, and yet he still plagued her thoughts often. She wasn't quite sure why. She hadn't loved him, but she hadn't not loved him either. It was all too complicated, and she supposed she would never fully understand it.

But Dawn didn't regret killing him. Not anymore. Umber had helped her see that- he wasn't worth her regret or her grief. All that was left of him in her mind now was anger and the complicated feeling she would never work out.

But as he appeared faintly in the cave, it was that complicated feeling that rose in her, and the complicated one that she forced down to make way for the anger.

"Dawn?" Drought blinked in surprise, as if she were the last dragon he'd ever expected to see. 

"Why?" She demanded, knowing her time was limited. 

"Why what?" He questioned.

"Why did you do it?" She asked. "Any of it? Why pick me? Why want me? Why lock me in a burning building you knew I would die in- why be so evil to everyone- WHY?" She knew she was rambling, but she didn't care. She wanted answers. That was the one thing she'd never understood about Coal. He'd never needed an explanation for why everyone in his family was so cruel. It just made sense to him, but it didn't to her.

"Because," Drought replied, shaking his head slightly. "Because I loved you, even though I knew it was wrong, and I didn't care. You were different and I liked that. Of course, I see now that you were only different because of your lies, but that's why. I picked you because of who you were to Coal, nothing more. I left you to die because I knew I would be dead one way or another, and practically the whole motto I'd grown up with was that if you were to die, you had to take down as many dragons as you could with you. And as to why I was evil to everyone..." He smirked in a way that made Dawn want to back up until she hit the wall, regardless of the fact that Drought couldn't move toward her or touch her. "Being evil is the only way you get anything done, Dawn. I thought you would have learned that by now."

"You're wrong," She declared. "You don't win by being evil. You win by being good, and having dragons that care about you enough to charge into a burning building to save you. You lose by being evil, because when you're evil, Drought, that's when the dragon you trust most stabs you in the heart." She glanced at the emerald, wondering if there was a way she could turn it off because she was done. There was nothing else that needed to be said, and she didn't want to look at his face a second longer.

Drought's faint form flickered, and his face became unreadable.

"Would you do it again?" He asked. "Kill me?" His eyes were softer, but Dawn's gaze was like steel as she stared him down.

"Yes." She said. "I'd kill you again a hundred times if I had to." And even with that strange feeling in her, she knew it was true. 

Drought's form disappeared, and she bid it good riddance, because if there was one thing she had learned, it was that the world was a much better place without dragons like him in it.