Disclaimer: I don't own The Ant Bully or any of its characters.

Something woke Frei in the middle of the night and his head jerked up. He was still in the Western nest and had placed the ant in an isolated corner away from the other wasps. Although they were injured and weak, the large bugs can, and quite possibly will, eat an ant...happily.

Frei had stayed by his brother's side all through the night and the previous day, trying to make his younger sibling as comfortable as possible. When it was time to sleep, he huddled close to his brother to keep him warm in the cool night.

Now, he found Feuer shuddering convulsively. He felt himself panic and looked around frantically, unsure of what to do. Was his brother even awake? If not, should he wake him? Would that make things worse? He cursed himself for this cluelessness.

Reaching a decision, he took the risk and nudged Feuer with his snout. At this, the seizure stopped and the distressed insect went still and curled into a fetal position. Even though the shaking stopped, Frei felt his panic skyrocket.

That's a death posture!

Without thinking, he roughly pushed Feuer's body with his head and forelegs, trying desperately to stop this from happening.

"Feuer! Get up! Come on, buddy...get up..." He stopped his efforts when his brother gave a cough. He's still alive! Feeling some relief, he circled around to meet face-to-face. "Are you okay?"

Feuer shivered slightly and looked at his concerned kin. For a second, he seemed confused and disorientated, like he didn't know who it was he was looking at. But luckily, he found out a few seconds later. "Frei...?" The said wasp nodded.

"It's gonna be okay, little bro." Frei reassured. Feuer paused, gave another shiver, and coughed. His antennae lowered and he weakly shook his head.

"I'm not gonna...make it, Frei..." the dying insect muttered. Frei objected instantly, with much vigour.

"Yes you are, Feuer! Don't say stuff like that! You're scaring me." Frei realized how childish he was acting, but he couldn't help it! Anybody would have the same reaction, wouldn't they? "Come on...Don't do this to me..."

"I don't have much choice, Frei...you know that..." Feuer told him. Frei gave up and said nothing at the gentle rebuke. He didn't want to accept his brother's fate, but he knew Feuer was right. There's nothing he could do...

"Sorry..." Frei muttered sheepishly. Feuer responded by laborously lifting a foreleg and softly batting Frei's face. The older sibling sighed sadly. Feuer used to do that a lot when he was a pupa...usually to start a game or to make somebody feel better.

"Now, now...big brother...It's not all bad....At least now...you won't have a pesky little brother bothering you..."

Despite the situation, Frei chuckled lightly. He remembered when they were younger, how annoyed he'd get when Feuer insisted on following him everywhere. When they were older, Feuer would joke on him at every opportunity and try to steal his food when he wasn't looking, both usually brings a round of roughplay.

With these memories, there was always good ones. Feuer's an amazingly loyal brother, always watching his back, rescuing him in ant raids and always taking the blame for him. There were multiple occasions where Frei was saved from major trouble because of Feuer...

"And I'm gonna miss that 'pesky little brother'..." Frei muttered in his reminiscing. Feuer nodded fondly, then gave another cough. Frei nuzzled his brother in reassurance and the other wasp quieted down and settled on panting.

"Just don't miss him too much...he won't be coming back..." He had another brief seizure before continuing. "But he does want his big sibling to take care of himself...and that ant too...she's special...like the pesky little brother..."

The last few words were said in the same mock vain tone Frei used the previous day and the older wasp couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head in amusement. When they were younger, they loved to talk about themselves in a third person POV, like they were referring to somebody else.

Frei almost felt better. Bringing back old traditions was a very comforting way to accept the situation and that's probably why Feuer was doing it.

"Okay. The big sibling can do that. He promises." he said. Feuer again batted his brother's head, but it was a much weaker movement than before.

"Good...Good..." One last cough and Feuer went limp, gasping desperately. Frei forced his gaze away. He knew his brother was suffering and he didn't want to watch. He heard the laborious breaths slowly began to subside. After a few moments, it stopped altogether and Frei risked a glance. His brother's crippled wings gave a final twitch...and he was still...

Frei sighed shakily, not knowing what to do now. Lifting a foreleg, he sadly batted his brother's motionless body just as Feuer had done with him. Then he nudged Feuer's head as if hoping that there was some life left inside.

There wasn't...

Not wanting to depress himself further, he wandered away from the body and listlessly moved to the ant he brought. Giving his decease kin one more glance, he laid down next to the ant and sighed again. He looked at the smaller bug.

"Don't worry ant." he addressed the still-unconscious insect. "I'll honor my brother's wish. I'll take care of you..."

As if you were my little sister... he thought, but didn't say, as he settled into an uneasy sleep. It was going to be a long night...

--

As Blitz slept relatively soundly, Mesha busied herself applying resin casts to the wasp's injured legs. She was extremely careful not to wake the bug, but it was difficult. The treatment's painful and there had been a few false alarms where she thought Blitz had woken up.

She wanted to do this while he was sleeping to avoid putting him through more discomfort than necessary. Though the yucca leaf seems to dull the pain, she didn't want to take the chance. Pain can make a wasp angry, and to make a predatory bug angry could be the last thing you ever do.

That's the way she saw it...

Working one leg at a time, she searched for any small cracks in the shell, any sign of injury. She knew she had to work quickly, as Blitz could wake up at any given moment...

That moment happened to be now, but luckily, she had just finished with the last limb. She moved back to watch his reaction. Blitz shook his head and shifted slightly. His large eyes widened and he seemed surprised by the casts that seemed to have appeared out of midair.

"Told you I'd prefer to care for them later." Mesha muttered. Blitz looked at her in confusion for a moment before nodding in gratitude. Mesha smiled and edged towards the nearby bowl of food. "Are you hungry?"

Blitz hesitated, eyes slowly narrowing in what looked like suspicion. "If it's another plant, I'm not eating it." he told her sharply. Mesha almost laughed, remembering the wasp's last experience with plants. He'll probably be scarred for life...She heard the larger insect growl almost angrily. "It's not funny...It was the worst thing I ever tasted."

"Sorry." she apologized, Blitz grunting in response. She ignored this and picked up a blob of honeydew (the horror!). "You ever had this before?"

Blitz glanced at it and shook his head, probably wondering if this was worth his while. "I've never seen it in my life." he told her. Mesha was startled for a second. The wasps kidnap a lot of caterpillars, yet they've never seen honeydew before? Strange...

"Well, it's good. You can try it." she reached out, holding the green stuff close to his mouth. The giant bug's head recoiled a bit, as if the food would lash out at him.

"I'd rather not...You ants eat weird things. That's probably some mulched up plant." He gave the word contemptuous emphasis. Apparently, just because a plant helped him doesn't mean he'll like it. Mesha sighed.

"It's not a plant." At least she didn't think it was. In fact, she didn't know what honeydew was made of. All she knew was that it tasted delicious and that was good enough for her. "Just try it. What could it hurt?" She got an almost instant, sarcastic response.

"Well, let's see here...there's my mouth, my stomach, my mind." Mesha began losing her patience, which is something she rarely did. Being a nurse ant, she was born with a caring nature and a high annoyance thresh-hold. But this wasp was definitely starting to test her. And she thought he was doing it on purpose.

"Please. Just eat it. You'll never know if you like it unless you tried it. Besides, this came from caterpillars, and you like caterpillars, right?" She again offered the honeydew and this time, Blitz sighed in resignation. He leaned his head forward a bit and he seemed to examine the goo carefully, probably looking for plant qualities. He opened his jaws a little and took it. One taste and...

He spat it out immediately, almost splattering it on Mesha, but she jumped away in time. Blitz shook his head vigorously, coughing in disgust. "It's almost...as bad as...that leaf..." he gasped.

Mesha thought for a second. "Almost. That means we're making progress." she said hopefully. For the first time since they've met, Blitz glared directly at her and she wondered if she was pushing her luck. Well, her mind told her it was something that had to be done. If Blitz was staying until he was fully healed, then he'll have to find something to eat. Experimenting was the way to go.

Blitz seemed to pick that up, for he looked away and laid his head back down, grumbling to himself in a language the ant couldn't understand. Mesha bent down and carefully picked up a purple sweetrock. This one was her favorite, so maybe the wasp would like it too. Then again, she also liked honeydew and that didn't work out very well.

Well, there's only on way to find out...

"This is called a sweetrock. It's not a plant. It's human food." she quickly made that reassurance. Again, Blitz glanced at the food object nonchalantly.

"I'm assuming that this is my last choice." he muttered.

"Until I find something better, yes." she answered. Sighing once again, he moved his antennae towards the food, being sure to sniff it this time. He must've found the smell okay, for he opened his mouth. Fighting her instinct again, Mesha placed the food in his mouth and pulled her hand away hastily, just in case he was still angry at her and will snap at her. He didn't.

He was chewing at the sweetrock, not spitting it out this time. The ant watched as he swallowed it and his disposition returned to its previous benevolent state. He gave a soft chuckle.

"That one actually tasted pretty good. Thank you..."

Poor Frei...lost the last of his relations. But he seems to be having what science likes to call a displacement reaction and is apparently adopting our little ant character as his new sibling. So sad...

Looks like Blitz and Mesha are already having some rough patches. But it looks like it's gonna be fixed. This chappy is a bit shorter than the others, but I'm kinda on a tight schedule. Thanks for the reviews, they've really help me to even consider continuing this and my other Ant Bully stories. Please review and make my day again!