Juniper was so focused on Maggie, she did not realize that a half day passed them. Juniper's reluctance to look at the clock fed the ongoing illusion of darkness coupled with how Magnolia's room faced a part of the hill where sunlight never reaches. The situation was still at an existential stalemate, then a flicker blipped above Magnolia's head. "Maggie! That's it! C'mon you good little big girl, tell Auntie Junie what you need. C'mon my snowy angel." Maggie tossed and turned, almost as if she was answering. Magnolia's magical powers were unique in that she made up for her neutral face by emitting holographic emojis from her psicon projectors. Before her eyes, Juniper saw a pixelated image fluctuate in and out. "That's good! That's good! Just a little more now, Maggie." Unknown to Juniper, her over-tuned psicon aura strengthened the image like an energy transfusion. Above Maggie's head was a glacier on 18th Century Earth, a grayscale image from one of the books in her collection. "Ice? What could that--" Junie saw that Magnolia's cheeks were redder than earlier. It was getting so that even her beak was sweating. "That's it! Dollbeak, you never cease to amaze me." For the first time since she arrived, Juniper felt confident enough to leave Magnolia alone for a little bit because she knew what she needed: an ice bag. 

In Magnolia's kitchen, Juniper passed mason jars of the most delicious and welcoming gummy candies, granola bars, seed bells, and walnuts still in their shells. To anyone else as hungry as Juniper was, it would at least stick out from the corner of their eye, but from Juniper's point of view, there was no counter. No jars. No light fixtures, no floor or ceiling. The only things that existed in the bright darkness of that world, visible to no one but Juniper, were the icebox and the ice bag Juniper picked up along the way, though she zoned out where, when, or how she got it. Juniper finally made it to the freezer and filled the pack up to capacity and flew back at her fastest speed. The force of her high-speed jolt melted half the ice cubes, but thankfully it was all still cold. "Here you are, sweetness." Juniper's paws were frostbitten and her joints had friction burns from coming back, but it had nothing to do with healing Magnolia, so it never elicited a reaction. As Juniper adjusted the covers and her vest, her wallet fell out and two pictures fell out face up. "Wil... Vivi..." Juniper felt like she was being cut in half. The cameographs begged Juniper to be two squirrels at once. The only word she could say was the stray tear down her cheek with Wilscott's and Vivi's soulprints etched into it.

The following morning, a long line stretched through the Nevertribe PX. Wilscott stood midway through the queue with a sack of Nevercoins slung over his chine when he caught snippets of conversation about Juniper. The loudest whisper came from Felidiae Falconne, who immediately fell silent when he looked her way. "Liddie, is there something going on I need to know?" The store seemed to freeze. "Scotty, walk with me," Felidiae said softly. She escorted Wil behind the cheese barrels and with a caress of her wing she replied, "Junie's vanished from the training base." Wil frowned. "What do you mean, vanished?" "Missed evenin' roll call. Missed mornin' roll call. She was supposed to volunteer at the daycare too." Wil's ears drooped. Missing daycare was unusual, especially for Juniper. Before anyone could say more, the PX doors burst open and an NSF reservist in a hoodie rushed inside. "Wilscott! Vivianna said I'd find you here!" "Lord Marmot?" Wil uttered. Stone threw back his hood and hurried over. "Felidiae, Chase, thank the Neverlords. Any news?" "No luck?" Felidiae asked. Stone shook his head. "None. No one's seen her since the race." For a moment, Wil barely recognized him. The Stone Marmot he knew would have shrugged and moved on. This one looked frightened. "We need to find her," Wil said. 

Nevertribe PX: A trading post run by the humans of the island, located at the very center of the island. Anything can be imported from the Neverscape or Earth. The trade system is Nevercoins or bartering

For the next 3 hours, an exhaustive search of the island began, starting with the PX patrons scattering in all directions and playing to their own strengths. Every hangout, eatery, and isolated spot where Juniper often took afternoon naps. Not so much as a brown tuft of fur or blonde hair was found. Dainty reached out to her family directly in their warrens with Chase as her transportation. Demuria's burrow was empty. Dane's Neverball team was at the Black Forest Clinic for their annual physical, but he had already left. Chase and Dainty finally hit pay dirt when they checked her father and stepmother's warren--her old home. The family sprang into action after hearing just the words "Junie is missing!" Gina and Reggie took the east half of the biodome while Dane and Whisper took the west. Demuria sent Chase back to Felidiae to get some rest while she and Dainty sought answers elsewhere. "Demi, where do we start?" chittered Dainty. "Where any Batman fan would start." "What do you mean?" Demuria pulled out her Neverhive Nexus Gem and replied, "Arkham's Razor." In a flash they disappeared from the underground. Reappearing in the middle of the Town Square of Beehaven, the central city. They did not stay long. Demuria flashed her NSF badge and asked the guards where she might find the Queen. The guard replied solemnly, "The Perpetual Dark Zone, Agent Mousette. It is her annual bereavement day." 

"I need to speak with her. Will you grant me authorization?" Before the guard could answer, a familiar voice echoed through Demuria's psicon array, "Demi, my dear, you always have it." A nexus portal blossomed in the middle of the square, and that same soft voice echoed to Dainty and Demuria both, "Please, join me, darlings." The Mousette sisters passed through the doorway from sunlight skies to an eternally dark sky. "My little furry angels, to what do I owe the honor of your visit?" Dainty, who barely reached half of the Queen's height, hugged the saintly monarch as Demuria tried to keep a solemnly serious composure, "Aunt Beeatrix," Demuria bowed, "It's Juniper. She disappeared from NSF's satellite base. Her soulprint is shrouded from even Lord Sol's powers." "Oh, dear," Beeatrix murmured. Without hesitation, the Queen lifted little Dainty into her arms and gently rocked her. "Demi, do you think Junie's met with foul play?" "No, Aunt Beeatrix," answered Demuria. "If that were so, we would have received a ransom by now, or Juniper's soulprint vanishing would trigger Red Alert across the Myriad."

"Demi," whispered Dainty with burning tears, "would it be okay if I went to see Baxter?" Demuria would have answered first if Beeatrix had not anticipated Dainty's heart. Beeatrix set Dainty back down and handed her a couple of flowers from her bouquets. "I think he would be honored to see you, sweetheart." Dainty gently hugged Beeatrix and Demuria. With her flowers in hand, Dainty quietly walked away and left them to talk.

"Such a sweet child. It warms my heart to know some things do not change," murmured Beeatrix as Demuria nodded in agreement. "Demi, did they find Juniper's Nexus gem on the grounds?" "No," replied Demuria, "her locker was ransacked, but the only paw prints were hers. We've tried to triangulate her last destination, but there's some kind of fog covering it." "Then that is good news," advised Beeatrix, "now the question that needs answering is not whether she is missing, but where would she go." Off in the distance, Demuria saw Dainty gently laying the flowers and kneeling with reverence to her late brother v'combin. Right away Beeatrix felt a chill in Demuria. 

"Demi, do not even go there. You yourself just said that Juniper is likely safer than not." "It's not that, Aunt Beeatrix," sighed Demuria, solemnly turning away. "I know how Juniper thinks. Even when she and Dainty were little kids, I could anticipate Junie when even Aunt Maequestella couldn't. She carries a horrible burden under that everlasting smile." "What do you mean, my dear?" "The very thing that makes her inarguably one of the NSF's best agents. She does not just put herself last, she does not even put herself on the list. If I were Junie, I'd be nestled beside some sick youngster or comforting some newborn infants in an orphanage. Makes me feel pretty lousy in a way." "Demi, I never want to hear you say that about yourself. You more than play your part in everyone's well-being. That is why Junie is Junie, because she is the one who would do it. And she would rebuke you for even questioning your kind heart." Beeatrix turned Demuria back to face her and embraced her. "Della-Kate would be so proud of her children, all of you." Demuria's hug tightened as she gave in to her emotions, crying tears of absolute love. Beeatrix caressed Demi's back and softly replied. "Your heart is your greatest strength, Demi. That is how you and your family will find her. All of us." Beeatrix's antennae sent a blue plasma pulse into the darkness. Four yellow pulses came back through Beeatrix's psicon array."Berna and the girls just volunteered to join the search. Let me know what resources you need from me. My brothers and I will provide it." 

While the clockwork-like search was at high efficiency on and under the surface of the island, Juniper continued her constant vigil of Magnolia, her stomach's bellows falling upon deaf ears. When Juniper was thirsty, she filled a giant jug with filtered water from Magnolia's tap and kept it at the side of the bed, but only when she needed to change the ice in Maggie's ice bag. The silence broke for a brief second when Juniper accidentally toppled the stack of books behind her tail. Junie frantically bent down to pick up the fallen books when a cameograph hidden behind the stack caught her eye. It showed one of their favorite memories. Junie never realized how much that moment had mattered to Maggie, to have it displayed in a place of honor in her room. She turned to her feathery friend with a tearful smile. 

The occupant of that bed, a member of one of the deadliest predatory species on earth, to Juniper, was the furthest thing from it. Over seven times Juniper’s size, talons that could rip slash marks into solid stone, they stayed sheathed unconsciously. Junie knew this beautiful bird better than almost anyone on the island. She was bonded with her in a way only a teacher would to their most faithful student. Juniper’s mentorship was what helped Magnolia learn to soar through the trees and play tag with the breeze. But there Maggie lay on her back while her body argued with itself as to whether it was too cold or too hot. Juniper knew this was so wrong. A free spirit like Maggie was meant to kiss the sky and look down upon creation. Would that Juniper could absorb her pain and carry the burden herself. But all she could do was stay by her side, lost and afraid.

 The silence broke when Maggie softly cooed in her sleep. Juniper let the dams burst.

"Dollbeak," she sobbed, "You gotta pull through this. You just gotta." Juniper's voice was gravelly and strained, but still she spoke openly. "Maggie, this world needs you. Badly. R-remember all the times we watched Earth holiday specials on video orb? Remember what you said to me when we watched that one 1960s Halloween special you liked? Huh?" Juniper caressed Maggie's rosy cheek and wept, "You said you wanted to learn how to use the Philosopher's Stone just so you could jump into the show and turn Charlie Brown's rocks into gold. Huh? Remember how you felt his pain like it was your own, that's just who you are, Dollbeak." It was no use. If Magnolia was aware of what was going on, Junie's senses could not detect it, and it broke her apart inside three times as much as it would anyone else. "Scotty... Vivi... Dollbeak..." she sniffled.