Nico, a small, yellow canary with brown eyes and a green bottle cap for a hat, and Pedro, a Red-crested Cardinal with brown eyes, were the last birds to leave the club. The two had provided songs throughout the night to keep the party pumping. Time flew by, and it was three in the morning. It was time to close up shop. The sealed the entrance to the club by covering up with small beams of wood. The two smiled once they locked it up and walked along the pier.

"Another awesome night," comment Nico.

"Word. Did you see that fool stumble across the hallway like he was drunk or something?"

Pedro laughed, but Nico didn't. It caused Pedro to stop his awkward laughter.

"What?"

"Um, Pedro. He was drunk. Don't you remember? Some birds were giving him first aid treatment."

Pedro began to think.

"We had to stop singing for like ten minutes," added Nico.

Pedro shrugged.

"Sorry. I can't remember."

"Were you looking at some asses again?" asked Nico, knowing the answer.

Pedro just smiled.

"Horny bird," commented Nico.

"What do you expect? I saw this fine chick that… Mm-mm. She was hot."

"Are you sure she wasn't too young for you?"

Pedro half-closed his eyes.

"Not a chick-chick. A babe-chick. I might be a pervert, but I am no creep."

"Aren't they the same thing?" questioned Nico.

"You know what I mean!" snapped Pedro. "Besides, don't tell me you had your eyes off that canary."

Nico blushed, causing Pedro to smirk.

"Looks like I'm not the only pervert around here."

The two continued to walk down the pier. Their destination was their beach pad. It was the same pad that they offered Blu and Jewel to sleep in. Unknown to them for a few months, Blu and Jewel made love on Pedro's bed. It wasn't until word had finally spread to them of Blu and Jewel having chicks that they decided to check their beach pad. They had been sleeping at their ceiling pad, a large attic that had a hole on the wall that Pedro and Nico could fit through. After Rafael told them about what happened to Blu and his family, they decided to visit. There were two reasons why they didn't visit earlier: One, they were busy, and two, Pedro was annoyed at them that they used his bed instead of Nico's bed.

"Speaking of chicks, we haven't visited Blu and Jewel for a while," said Nico.

"Yeah," Pedro simply said.

Nico looked up at his best friend.

"Still annoyed?"

"Not as much as the first time."

"Well, it was nice of them to finally clean your bed."

"No. They took the old one and gave me a new one."

"Is there something wrong with the new one?"

"No."

"Then?"

"I just miss my old one. I had some good times with it."

Nico remembered and scratched his head.

"You call throwing up in it and peeing in it when you were drunk a good time?"

Pedro thought about it. His face lightened up.

"On second thought, it's a good thing they gave me a new bed."

Nico smirked. He faced forward and saw a flying piece of paper coming at him. It smacked his whole body. He frantically tried to get it off when Pedro calmly grabbed the paper from him.

"Don't flip out," said Pedro. "It's just paper."

Nico brushed his chest with his wings, calming himself down. After he finally relaxed, he looked up at Pedro. Pedro's widened eyes frightened his canary friend. Pedro gulped and handed it to Nico. Nico read the paper and gasped. He faced his friend.

"Is it true?"

Pedro, still with big eyes, faced his friend.

"Dude! It's on paper! It must be true."

"How did people find this out?"

"You know humans? They are capable of things we are not. Probably they figured it out."

Nico gulped.

"Fuck," he simply said.

He dropped the paper in horror. It glided down to the wooden floor of the pier. The black paper had a picture of the Earth, surrounded by flames. Below the picture, it said: 'Are you ready for the end of the world? December 21, 2012.'

The annoying ring of an iPhone echoed throughout the medium-sized bedroom. A hand appeared from the shadows and failed to grab the ringing device. After the third attempt, the hand warped its fingers around the phone. The phone was pulled into the shadows. A grunt answered the call.

"Abe?"

"What?" he asked in an irritating voice.

Abe was a dark brown-haired inventor with brown eyes. He was about six feet tall and had tanned skin. He was a lean twenty-two year old that showed some upper-body strength. He was also known as a scientist and to had, one point, worked for the government. He moved the covers of his bed and sat up. He rested his hand on his free hand, which the elbow rested on his quadriceps. He sighed heavily.

"Is this a bad time?"

Abe lazily jerked his head down at his electronic clock. He blinked a couple of times to clear his eyes. He sighed. It was four in the morning.

"You know it is four o'clock in the morning here."

"EPA told me to call at seven."

"I'm in Arizona, not Washington D.C. So, what does EPA want now?"

"Remember those snapshots that you got in Brazil? It has been about a year since you submitted the photos. They want more. Also, EPA heard about what happened in Rio. They want you to check up on the Spix's Macaws and also on other wildlife."

"Why can't anyone else do it?"

"Because you brought back the best photos."

Abe snorted.

"I bet people refused because of the holidays."

"…Yes," answered the man with guilt.

Abe thought about it. He had nothing better to do. His friends were spending time with their families, and his family had all died. The holidays, to him, brought misery. Probably this job could get the holidays off his mind. Besides, he could use this as a vacation.

"Fine. What time is my flight?"

"Oh, yeah. About that… EPA will pay you all your expenses in Rio, except the flight. You got to schedule your own flight."

There was a moment of silence.

"Hello? Hello?" echoed the voice from the speaker of the iPhone.

Abe pressed the button with the image of the square and set the phone on his nightstand. He grumbled under his breath as he walked to the bathroom to prepare for the trip.

Waves of destruction blasted through the jungles of Rio. Everything in its path was destroyed. Trees, bushes, mammals, reptiles, and birds were all vaporized in that instant. The ground was covered in ash. Nothing in the Rio area survived. All was gone.

Blu's eyes flew wide open. He quickly lifted his head up in horror. He breathed heavily as he turned to look outside. He stood up and quickly walked out of the tree den. He checked his surroundings. He sighed in relief as he saw the beautiful, quiet Jungle the same as it was when he closed his eyes to sleep. He turned around, only to have someone standing right in front of him. He gasped in surprise and lost his balance. He fell down on his back. His mate shook her head with a grin on her face.

"Oh, did I scare you?" she giggled.

"Hi, Jewel," he said, getting up.

"Blu, why are you up so early?"

He sighed.

"I had a dream?"

"About what? You're already a great father and mate. What are you scared of now?"

"It's nothing about me or having me in it. I just saw Rio gone in a blast."

This surprised Jewel. Blu was known just to have dreams including him either being scared, confident, happy, or unsure. He never mentioned a dream about just Rio to Jewel.

"Everything… Everything was gone. Even though it didn't have me in it, it scared the crap out of me."

Jewel's wings clamped Blu's mouth shut. She pulled him down to her eye-level.

"Don't say that word."

"It's not a bad word," he managed to say. "Shit is way worse."

"It doesn't matter!" she snapped in a whisper. "As long as the kids are with us, I don't want you to use any bad words."

Blu huffed in a sneering way.

"Still worried about Leoncio's potty mouth?"

Jewel softened her expression and nodded. She released her grip around Blu's beak and dropped her wings.

"I just don't know where he gets all these bad words from."

"Jewel, crap is not a bad word."

"It doesn't matter. I don't want it to evolve into something worse."

Blu placed a wing on Jewel's shoulder, crossing the back of her neck.

"I think he'll be okay. We knew when he was born, he was a troublemaker. It's just a phase."

"I don't know," pronounced a worry Jewel.

She looked at the three sleeping macaws. Elena slept in the nest as Jalin and Leoncio slept next to the nest on jumbo leaves. Jalin was lightly snoring.

"Trust me. He's just acting tough."

"I think he inherited my real father's personality."

She sighed and looked down. A tear dropped to the ground. Blu wrapped his wings around her belly, causing her to smile. She placed a wing on top of his wingtips.

"It will be alright."

"Thanks, my Blu bird."

"Besides, if he gets worse, we can always send him away to Tulio for a day. He seems like he can wipe him into shape by caging him."

Jewel smiled.

"I think we should send all the kids there. We haven't had any time to ourselves."

"True, but for now, I think it's best to get some rest. We need our strength for tomorrow."

"You mean today?" she wondered, looking over Blu's shoulder.

"What do you mean?"

"Um, I think the sun is rising."

Blu and Jewel slowly let go of each other's embrace and saw the faint rays of the sun. He groaned.

"Damn."

Jewel heard what her mate whispered and looked at him with a stern face.

"What was that?"

Blu panicked and thought of something quick.

"Dam…you know…a dam…that controls river flow."

He nervously smiled. Jewel looked at him curiously.

"What does the have to do with the sun?"

"Nothing. I was just…thinking aloud. That's all."

Jewel's face softened, affirming Blu had dodged a bullet. She grabbed his wing.

"C'mon. We'll watch the sunrise together."

The two walked outside and sat on the branch, admiring the birth of a new day.