sorry for lack of updates. work and all. hope you enjoy.

Zak got home and sighed, wondering what he was going to tell his wife. Just as he was thinking about what to say, Natalie walked in and put some food on the table.

"They were having a two for one sale and I got a whole bunch of stuff… Zak? What's wrong?"

"There's… something that happened."

Natalie frowned. "What is it?"

"Remember how I told you when I was younger I got shrunken down to fairy size?"

"…Yes?" she said speculatively.

"Well… I think something like that happened to Max."

Natalie drummed her fingers on the counter as Zak waited for her to blow up.

"You lost our son?"

"No, I didn't lose him. He's in FernGully… somewhere."

"I see. So you lost him."

"No, I said he's in FernGully… but I mean he's in FernGully, like I was."

Natalie put her hands on her hips.

"Are you trying to tell me that my son was shrunken by a fairy and he's in the rainforest with all its dangers at about this height?" she growled, holding her fingers to show a small height.

"Yeah! So… he's not lost. Just not in my line of sight." He said, using his hand to measure where his eyes were. "Don't worry though! I'm going out first thing tomorrow to scan forest."

"I'm coming with you."

"What? No, you don't have to-"

"You've been telling me about this place for years and if what really happened has happened, then I want to see a damned fairy." Natalie said, slamming stuff out of the bags. "You can forget about what I was going to make tonight. You're going to find my son."

Zak nodded. "Of course, dear… Um… so there's not going to be any dinner at all?"

"Not what I was going to fix. You can fix your own meal."

Zak sighed as Natalie tromped off and he opened up the fridge to get something to drink.

"You can stay with Leafo. I think he'll enjoy the company." Moon said, showing Max into the small hole in the branch of a tree.

Max looked at Leafo, who looked like he wasn't too keen on his arrival and having to share his room with him.

"Uh… isn't there like a mushroom I can chill out on?"

"I would have suggested that but since you are coughing up blood, Mother told me that it would be best if you didn't get stay outside at night. It would be inappropriate for you to stay with us in the tree so I asked Leafo and he said he didn't mind you staying with him for the night."

Max looked at Leafo again, who was glaring at him. Max made a face.

"Are you sure you didn't just… force me on him?"

Moon looked back at Leafo and he smiled a little at her. She made a face.

"He's fine with it. Besides, it won't be for long. I'm going to research the cure as much as I can tonight and most of the day tomorrow. You can hang out with Batty or something tomorrow."

"The only way he can 'hang out' with me is if he can hang upside down and as much as I would like to see him fall to his doom, I won't be liable for his lack of wings." Batty mumbled under the branch he was perched on.

Max had heard him though and made a face as Moon moved from the small 'couch' and smiled.

"Great! It looks super cozy. It's not a moss couch but you won't be here long enough to have to worry I don't think."

"Do you really think you can find a cure for me in like six hours?"

"I told you," Moon said, flying over and landing in front of him. She took his hands in hers and looked into his eyes. "I would make sure I found a cure for you. I would look into the night and all day tomorrow. I want to make you well."

"Uh… thanks…" he said, pulling his hands from hers.

Moon smiled and turned to Leafo.

"Don't get into any trouble. I'll be back in the morning."

She flew off and Max turned his head at the empty doorway.

"She's an interesting girl."

He felt something grab his shoulder and Leafo glared at him. He pointed to his eyes and then at Max and then repeated.

&Not. Okay. With. You.&

Max made a face at him and just pulled away.

"I'm not too fond of having to stay with you either, okay? I didn't want to be here and I definitely didn't want to spend the night here. I want to go back home…"

Then. Go. Leafo said, motioning for him to go out the door.

Max frowned and crossed his arms.

"Yeah, smartass, I would if it wasn't a friggin 30 foot drop to the forest floor."

"Ding; going down?" Batty said.

"And you, shut up with your smart remarks you dingbat!" Max yelled, causing a coughing fit.

He held his hand over his mouth as the burning cough ripped through him, making his throat feel like he was on fire. He gagged a little and pulled back his hand, finding it covered in blood. He stared at it for a while and then put his hand down, wiping it on his pants. Leafo looked at him as he wiped his mouth and sniffled.

"What?"

Leafo said nothing as Max just went over to the small couch and took off his shirt as well as his shoes. His boxers were going to have to do at the moment and he got onto the couch. It was still hard, even with the extra leaf cushion and he just stared at the back of the couch, eventually falling asleep.

"Good morning, Max."

Max opened his eyes and turned over to see who was talking to him. His eyesight was blurry and he couldn't really figure out who it was.

"Moon?"

"No, it's Crysta."

"Oh, sorry…" he said, sitting up. He yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Did you find anything?"

"Moon is searching right now in the book we found. I wanted to have a discussion with you if you don't mind?"

Max looked around and then saw that it was still dark outside.

"It's either early in the morning or really late at night. Can't this wait until a more decent time?"

"It's early morning and no, it can't. Please?"

Max sighed and got his clothes back on.

"Fine…"

Crysta smiled and led him outside. She helped him down the tree a little and they crossed a couple more branches until they got to another tree. She pointed to what looked like a word that was cut in half.

"Do you see that?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Your father, when he was here, didn't understand the value of the trees. He didn't realize that they were living things, with feelings. So, he tried to… to carve my name into this tree. When Hexxus was released, he used that horrible machine and cut this tree down, cutting right through Zak's carving. So many trees were lost that day but Zak was brave and he fought against Hexxus, helping us seal him away."

"That's… awesome?" Max said, confused as to why he was there. "Is there a point?"

Cyrsta smiled as she looked up at the tree. "This is the place where your father first realized what a wonderful place FernGully was and that it needed to be protected. I know that you don't really understand the extent of what your father is trying to do, but if not for him, FernGully and all of us would have been dead. You mentioned how humans don't care about the rainforest or the trees but neither did Zak. If Zak can change, then other people can too."

Max sighed. "You really don't understand the selfishness of humans, do you, Crysta? You also don't understand the magnitude of humans. We are bigger, stronger, and a hell of a lot more advanced than FernGully is by far. My dad is one dude amongst millions. If the government said that this rainforest was an eyesore and needed to be cut down, they'd do it. They tried to do it before when my dad was working for them… I get that you want to believe all humans are like my dad, but they aren't. The only way for humans to actually give a smidgen of a care is if you shrunk them all down and they experienced FernGully for themselves. I highly doubt-"

Max went into a coughing fit and leaned against the tree. The coughing felt like his lungs were tearing apart and he felt himself coughing up blood into his hand. Crysta tried to come near him but he stepped back from her.

"I know what I've got… if you come near me you may get it and that would really suck."

"What do you have then?" she asked softly.

"It's called tuberculosis… I don't know how I got it but I did… Please don't come any closer, Crysta." He looked up at her, his eyes red from the strain. "It's contagious to humans but I don't know about fairies. If I accidentally caused a mass fairycide…"

Crysta smiled and walked over to him anyway.

"You forget, Max Young, that we have a book of cures. Besides, humans cannot pass their sicknesses on to us. We are too different…"

Max nodded, still trying to get his bearings. Crysta put her hand on his chin and made him look at her.

"I wanted to show you that this forest is still worth something. Your father saw it and I know you can see it too. Helping him save this forest may not make a difference with this government thing you speak of, but it makes a difference to us, the fairies. We are happy to have a human on our side, to speak for us, and it would be totally tubular if you were on our side too, Max."

Max tried not to laugh but her eighties speech made the serious conversation seem so much sillier.

"I've got to teach you some new phrases because I can't take things seriously when you talk like that… Either way, were you pretty much giving me an ultimatum? Like, you won't help me unless I promise to help my dad or something?"

"No, of course not… I was merely wanting you to understand how we think about this forest. Zak is kind enough to keep it alive and understands our views. I was just letting you understand why he got that way."

Max smiled a little. "I can see why he fell for you. You're super nice but you're super naïve… I think you'd make even the most money hungry tycoon out there not want to harm a leaf in this forest. Your personality is too adorable."

"Thank you. I appreciate that… I'm going to go check on Moon and see if she's made any progress. She's been up all night. Now that I know the name of your strange disease, we can see what we can do to help you."

"Thanks… um, how do I get down?"

Zak put his flashlight on his belt loop and slowly began to descend the stairs in his house. He stopped in the kitchen to get a cup of coffee when the light turned on, blinding him.

"What the hell, Nat?"

"I could say the same thing. Sneaking out?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Zak laughed nervously. "I, um…"

"Uh huh. I told you I wanted to come with you and I meant it. Why are you trying to leave me behind? You lost my son, so I'm going to help you find him. I'm also going to see a friggin fairy."

"Do you want to find Max or see a fairy?" he asked with a small smirk.

"Both, obviously, but I married you because you were a dork. I put faith in you and this institution because you had a clear vision of how you wanted to save this forest, a teeny tiny place called FernGully. You had passion and drive and you've kept to that drive. I want to understand it and if my husband says he's seen a fairy then I want to be able to back him up… plus, my kid is out in the jungle the size of an egg. What if that Hexxus thing comes back?"

"He's not coming back. We've been pretty successful in not letting people fell trees here. He's locked up in another tree and the only way he can escape is if someone cut the tree down or threw something toxic on it."

"Toxic?"

"Well… I guess chemically induced. After doing some digging, the chemicals in the paint reactivated Hexxus but the cutting down of his tree released him completely. Unless someone has been messing with his tree with 'toxic' stuff, then he'll remain in that thing… until then, Max?"

"Lead the way, Fairy Boy… and make me a cup of coffee."

~*~ELSEWHERE~*~

"Man, I can't believe Pepper dumped you. What are you going to do?"

"Who cares? She seems to like that gay kid anyway. The one who works at the forest place." Jason said, smoking a cigarette. "Kind of glad to be rid of her. I'm tired of her constant nagging about doing the right thing and shit. I'll do what I want."

He put the cigarette out in the same spot a lot of people did, a black hole forming in the gnarled tree. Jason looked at the tree and made a face at it.

"What a weird ass tree..."

His friend looked at it. "Seems normal to me."

"Nah, look at the other trees. They're all straight and luscious and green. This one has some leaves on it but it's all twisted and only half grown. Plus, it's got a spooky feel to it."

"Come on, let's go. It's super late." His friend said.

He poured out his beer at the base of the tree.

"This is for you, weirdo tree."

The two left and headed home.

Where the black hole was formed, some slime oozed out.

dun dun duuuun! what could this be? and crysta was trying to convince max that humans were good just because zak turned around but of course, it's crysta and it just ends up weird. and yes, max has TB. he caught it from a random person while he was sick, breathed it in. and natalie wants to see a fairy, dang it!