Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

(This book is mostly from Draacos’s point of view, but may alternate. Also, the mini story ‘supposed prince of tyranny’ (or whatever I called it XD) is the prouloge of this issue. Oh ya, and there is alot more gore so...hopefully you can get through if you dont like that)

Chapter 1

Draacos and his group were all flying towards the mountains to meet up with Dagex’s group. The sun was setting, and one of the moons were rising. Vare was grumbling to himself; the whole ‘being accused of setting a fire just because he was a skywing’ thing still in his head it looked like. Rin, the Mudwing, was next to Vare, trying to cheer him up. The Icewing, Sleet, was flying a bit ahead. She knew the area better than the rest of them.

I just hope Dagex and the others are ok , Draacos thought to himself. His head hurt for a second, but he ignored it, and it went away.

“Almost there,” Sleet said impassively. They all swooped a bit down, closer to the ground. A few minutes later, they could see the other group waving at them. All of them flew down to the ground to meet the others.

“Thank the moons you’re all ok,” Slate said, smiling. Vare snorted, and she frowned. “What happened?” She asked the fellow skywing.

“Got accused of a being a criminal,” Vare mumbled. Draacos had told the three of them not to mention Vare’s past to Dagex; the poor dragon isn’t stable enough to hear that kind of news just yet.

“Why?” Slate asked, concerned. Draacos and Vare looked at each other.

“There was a fire, that's all. They said a skywing did it,” Draacos answered.

Mutespeaker scratched his head, but didn’t write anything. Draacos thought about the incident again, but shook his head internally. That wasn’t important right now. The headache came back to Draacos, and he winced. It was like someone had stabbed his brain.

“What’s wrong?” Dagex asked, and Draacos just pointed to his head.

“My head hurts,” Draacos said, and sighed as the pain went away. “Never mind.”

Dagex tilted his head, but shrugged it off apparently. The group decided to get some rest for the night; it was a tiring day for all of them.

“Where am I?” Draacos said as he woke up in a unlit room. He breathed a flame that lit a confidently placed big torch. He was in a dungeon.

“How in three moons did I get here?” He thought aloud. There was a single door, open. He went through it and it shut behind him. Now he was outside, and he heard the chants of dragons. He walked towards the chanting, looking at his surroundings. He was in Sanctuary somehow. He found where the chanting was coming from.

Draacos was horrified to what he saw: A guillotine; A public execution. And the dragon on it, was Vare. Draacos didn’t even get to scream before he saw his friend’s head sliced off right there. Draacos was shaking, and looked around him as Sanctuary...faded around him. Now he was in the Icewing kingdom. He knew he was; he was in a huge field of snow. A huge furnace was standing near a crowd; A dragon was burning to death inside. Draacos knew who it was immediately.

“SLEET!” He screamed, and her body stopped moving; incinerated.

“What’s happening!?” Draacos screamed out into the world, but nothing answered him. He faded into the Mud kingdom, and saw Rin’s body impaled by multiple huge tree branches. One smaller one in the head, and the others in the chest. Draacos started panting and tearing up as the he faded again. It was like he was going through a slideshow of torture.

Next was the school. Mutespeaker was there, tears dripping down his face. His board had been thrown off into the corner. He was holding a knife.

“NO!” Draacos tried to leap at the nightwing, but he went right through, and was in the perfect angle to watch Mutespeaker slit his own throat, and fall to the ground, blood gushing out. He even got to see a few of the teachers discover his body and scream.

It faded again.

“WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!”

Next, Draacos saw Dike in a vat of electric eels. He was killed quickly, but painfully.

He faded into the sky kingdom. He saw Slate thrown into a pit full of dragons. These dragons looked like they hadn’t eaten in weeks, and Draacos went eyed and jumped down. The dragons looked at her, even as Draacos jumped down. He tried to fight the dragons, but it was like they weren’t there. He was forced up against a wall, and watched as Slate cried and screamed as loud as she could, pleading for mercy as the dragons started tearing her body up. She was bleeding from everywhere, her limbs and everything being eaten by the dragons. She died with one last sob, leaving her body as food.

“STOP IT! STOP SHOWING ME ALL THIS TORTURE!” Draacos screamed, a waterfall of tears coming from his eyes. He got to see one final scene.

His father was holding Dagex by the throat, choking him.

“FATHER STOP!” Draacos screamed, and Dracos stared at him. He could see him. He laughed maniacally, biting down into Dagex’s head and throwing him to the ground.

“DAGEX!” Draacos screamed and ran over to his friend. He tried to hold him, and he spit up blood as Dagex stuck his claw right through his chest. Draacos was tearing up again at the sight of his friend. He was foaming blood from the mouth, His body black as night and his horns crimson red.

“Welcome to the future son,” Dracos said, grinning. Draacos’s vision started to fade, but it went completely black as Dagex stabbed him in the throat.

Draacos woke with a roar, scaring everyone up.

“Draacos!?” Dagex said, running to him. Draacos calmed a bit.

“Follow me, we need to check something!” Draacos said, hurrying his friends.

He flew all the way to the tower in the ground, and started breathing heavily.

The hatch was opened.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

Everyone looked at the opened hatch; a few of the group walked back from it, while most of them just stood there, horrified, confused, or some other emotion that neither Draacos nor the others wanted. Sleet examined the hatch for any sort of clues.

“It was opened by magic. Magic from an outside source,” she told the group.

Draacos started panting again, and even started twitching.

“Draacos, calm down,” Slate said to him, quietly. He didn’t calm down. “Draacos, didn’t you tell us that the Darkwings can’t get out because of a barrier? Even if the hatch is open, they can’t get out, right?”

“Yes, isn’t that correct?” Sleet asked, looking right at Draacos, who wouldn’t stop his panting, at least until Vare whacked him on the head.

“Get ahold of yourself!” He yelled at the Darkwing, who sighed.

“I’m sorry,” he started, “The darkwings themselves can’t leave, but the hybrids can.”

“So, you mean…” Dagex tried to say, but Draacos finished for him.

“Four disciples of the Darkwing king are out on the loose, and probably corrupting dragons. The good news is that their venom takes longer to convert dragons into darkwings. Bad news, Dracos trained them for many years, so they must have mastered their ways.”

Everyone looked down; nobody knowing what to say. There was a minute of complete silence before somebody spoke up.

“This isn’t good! We can’t just go out there! We need to hide!” Dike exclaimed to everyone.

“We can’t,” Vare snorted, “If we don't fight back, we all get killed, or worse.”

Mostly everyone nodded.

I...I don’t think I can do this...I think I’m going back to the academy , Mutespeaker wrote. Draacos remembered his dream.

“No! For one thing, they won’t let you come back.” Draacos said as quick as possible.

“Also, the Darkwings might catch you. You’d be too visible on the way there. You could get tons of dragons converted,” Dagex added, and Mutespeaker frowned.

You’re right. We don’t have a choice to be a part of this. I...I’ll try my best. Mutespeaker wrote. Draacos smiled, happy that Dagex was here to help everyone.

“Speaking of which, where do you think the Darkwings will attack first, Draacos?” Sleet pondered aloud. Draacos thought for a moment.

“Somewhere with a small population, so that they can conquer the bigger areas. I don’t know where that would be, however.”

Sleet sighed, and shook her head.

“Also, there’s one more thing we have to address, Draacos. The thing that involves these two ,” Sleet said, pointing her wings to Dagex and Vare, the latter shaking his head softly at Draacos.

“No, Sleet. He’s not ready to hear it,” Draacos whispered to Sleet, yet Dagex still heard it.

“What? What am I not allowed to hear?” He narrowed his eyes at Draacos, who gulped. Three moons, Sleet… Draacos thought. Sleet pointed to Vare.

“Dagex, this Dragon was part of a certain team of skywings,” Sleet started. Draacos looked at Dagex nervously. Dagex’s eyes were wide, and Draacos knew why.

“The ones that killed your mother—” Right before Sleet finished, Dagex had phased through her as quick as a flash to attack Vare, stabbing the Skywing with his wing tip.

“Dagex, stop!” Slate screamed, trying to pull Dagex off of Vare. He tried to bite into Vare, but the two skywings were able to get Dagex’s mouth shut. Draacos helped pull Dagex off, who tried to charge at Vare again. Draacos looked at Dagex’s pendent. It was greyed out, like it had faded away.

The pendent’s magic must depend on the dragon’s emotions. The further they stray from the light, the weaker the magic is.

Draacos could confirm this as Dagex tried to phase through the two holding him, but nothing happened.

“LET ME GO!” Dagex yelled at the top of his lungs, “HE KILLED MY MOTHER! HE’S THE REASON ALL THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME! TO US! ” The nightwing roared and shook off Slate and Draacos. He blew a decently big plume of fire in a random direction, lighting a few trees on fire.

Thank the moons that we aren’t close enough for a forest fire, Draacos thought.

Dagex’s wings came open and he flapped them, getting into the air. His face could only be described as insane.

“DAGEX WAIT!” Draacos tried to yell, but the nightwing just started flying off, towards the sky kingdom.

“Guys,” Rin said to the group, “Vare’s hurt.”

Everyone rushed over to see Vare was bleeding quite a bit from the stabbing Dagex had done. The wounds were fairly deep, and close to Vare’s organs. Dagex didn’t kill him, but Vare needed help.

“We need to get him to a medic! What if he bleeds out?” Rin added, nearly tearing up.

Draacos’s head hurt again, but this time it was from the tough decision he had to make: Go after Dagex and protect the Skywings from him, Or help Vare first. He looked at the burning trees.

“We need to figure out what to do…” Draacos said, stamping the ground in frustration.

“Well, we could have another problem,” Sleet said as impassively as ever.

“Yes,” Draacos started, “The trees are going to do one of two things. Either some dragons will accuse us of vandalism and arrest us or something, or, more likely…We have just set a beacon for the Darkwings to follow.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

“We need to leave, now. Father made us all study the map of Pyrrhia, so they’ll figure out exactly where this fire is,” Draacos said, growling to himself.

“We need to split up. Everyone but Slate, get Vare to a medic as quick as you can.”

“Wait, why am I not going?” Slate asked.

“I need you to come with me; to help calm Dagex down. We have to go after him.”

Slate nodded in agreement.

“That makes sense. Should we go now?” Draacos nodded, and looked back at the others.

“Do not screw up, or we may lose him.” He said to everyone, before he and Slate flew off after Dagex.

[Dagex]

Dagex huffed as he flew, rage still in his eyes and his head.

“Dagex, you need to calm down. You aren’t thinking,” X said, trying to convince him. Dagex just spit a small flame in the air.

“Shut up!” He yelled to himself. “I do whatever I want! And I want to kill some of those damned murderous skywings!” He was getting closer to the kingdom.

“Dagex, they didn’t do anything. Those skywings were rouge.”

“Doesn’t matter. They still killed my mother! They have to pay!”

“So you think you can be just like your father: Using all means of violence you can to get revenge, instead of thinking about what’s actually going on?”

Dagex twitched and stopped, flapping in mid air, and clutching his head.

“NO! I’M NOT!” He roared, “I’M NOT LIKE HIM! I’M NOT EVIL!” Dagex started hitting the air in his rage. A few skywings saw him, and started to fly towards the kingdom to tell the queen. Dagex noticed them as they turned around.

“Oh no you don’t,” Dagex muttered and flew full speed at the skywings. He rammed right into one, breaking its wing and sending it slowly plummeting. The other two skywings tried to fight back, but Dagex bit into one of their necks, throwing it away after killing it, and as the other tried to burn him, Dagex grabbed the skywing by the neck, and stabbed the dragon right in the chest, while keeping its muzzle shut. It looked like the burns hadn’t even hurt Dagex. He tossed the skywing away and let it plummet like the others.

“Damned Skywings,” He muttered, and kept flying.

“Dagex, think about what you’re doing! You’re killing innocent dragons. You need to stop.”

Dagex held his head again, not noticing Draacos and Slate in the distance following him.

“They have to pay!” Dagex said, flapping in place.

“They never did anything. Like I said, those were rouge skywings. They were breaking the laws of their kingdom.”

Dagex’s head drooped a bit, and he started to flap down, eventually landing in a small cave. “ Thank you…” X said to him.

“I...I’m sorry.” Dagex whispered to X aloud, looking at his bloody talons.

“I-I just killed dragons. Three of them!” Dagex held his head, nearly crying. He looked around after hearing dragons coming his way. He nearly blasted them with fire, but stopped when he saw his friends.

“Dagex…” Slate went next to him and put her wing on him. Draacos just looked at him with regret.

“I’m sorry,” Draacos said, looking down, “I tried to get Sleet to not mention it. I knew you couldn’t handle it.”

“We need to go, now,” Dagex said as quickly as he could, “Before they come after me.” The others nodded, and the three flew off, near ground level as not to be identified easily. Slate winced when she saw the bodies Dagex had killed, and Dagex purposely lagged behind the others a bit in shame.

What have I done? Why did I kill them?

“Dagex?” Draacos asked him.

“Ya? What’s wrong?”

“Who were you talking to?” Dagex hesitated.

“It’s ok, you can tell them. It won’t change the future, from what I can see.”

Dagex sighed before speaking.

“There’s this...Voice in my head. His name is X, and he helps me when I...well...nearly go insane. If it wasn’t for him, I would’ve kept killing Skywings.”

His friends looked at him sadly.

“It’s ok,” Slate said, smiling at him suddenly, “You have us too. You have all the help you need.” Dagex smiled the rest of the way. Draacos told him that they had to find out where the others went, but Dagex said that the Darkwings would most likely take refuge in the lost kingdom of night, which the other two agreed with.

“Should we head there now?” Draacos asked.

“We need to tell the others though. I could go find them,” Slate said assertively.

The three thought for a minute. They couldn't let Slate go alone, or she might get caught be the Darkwings. Then again, if they aren’t at the Night kingdom, then it would be a waste to go there.

But why wouldn’t they? Dagex thought to himself. X, any insight?

“She should be ok,” X reassured him. Dagex nodded at Slate, and she flew off.

The other two turned and flew towards the night kingdom.

“What if all of them are there?” Dagex asked, worried, “What if they ambush us or something?” Draacos didn’t respond at first.

“Then we fight back,” he finally said. Dagex frowned, and Draacos sighed. “They won’t ambush us, Dagex. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

X? Dagex thought, but got no answer, so he stopped in place.

“Draacos, I don’t think we should go here. It’s just us.”

Draacos looked at him, and sighed again.

“Dagex, I won’t let them hurt you. You are safe.” Draacos said, and smiled.

That didn’t make the Nightwing feel better at all; it made him feel slightly worse, but he sucked it up, and kept flying to the lost kingdom of Night.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

[Draacos]

The two swooped down to get to the kingdom, landing on a cliff near the ground and hopping off. Draacos could sense the darkwings.

“Looks like I was right,” Dagex whispered, looking to Draacos.

Wish I could talk to that voice, Draacos thought. That dragon in Dagex’s head could be useful for all of them. Dagex and Draacos hid behind a run-down structure when they heard dragons walking.

“This place is a dump,” One of them groaned.

“Well of course it is! It’s been abandoned for like two-thousand years!” Said another, annoyed. Draacos could only hear the two, which either meant they all split up across Pyrrhia, or the other two were just being quiet.

“Stop arguing, you two,” A third Darkwing said, confirming the latter.

“Ya, it’s very annoying,” Growled a fourth. All of them were here.

“Dagex, we need a plan. I’m going to go out and try to talk to them. You think of what to do next, ok?” Draacos asked him. Dagex nodded reluctantly, and Draacos snuck to another building.

“You hear something?” The third Darkwing asked, narrowing his eyes. All four looked in different directions, and one of them growled as Draacos walked out of a corner.

“YOU!” One of them growled. There were two male, and two females, though it was near impossible to tell who was who.

Thank the moons for the meteor scales, Draacos said to himself.

One of them had brownish scales covering the top of her head, and more on her underbelly. Another had crimson red scales around his eyes, as well as crimson eyes themselves. A third had brown and red spines and horns; brown then red in a pattern. He also had black glasses. The last had a tail that was entirely brown scales, but had amber horns.

“Draacos, what in Pyrrhia are you doing here?” The amber horned Darkwing said, in a surprising ‘you shouldn’t be here! Hurry, get out!’ kind of voice that the others didn’t pick up. The one with the crimson eyes kept growling.

“Bloodshed, calm yourself,” she said, whacking him with her tail.

“But he is the TRAITOR!” Bloodshed yelled in fury.

“There must be a reason you are here, correct?” The checkered spined Dragon asked. That’s obviously Calamity, the smartest of the five, including Draacos.

“Can’t we just, you know, kill him or somethin’?” Snorted the fourth Darkwing.

“Scorn, that would get us nowhere,” Calamity sighed, and Scorn rolled her eyes.

That means the amber horned one is Oblivion.

The one I might be able to get through to, Draacos hoped. He stepped forward a few paces.

“Ya know what, I’m just gonna explore,” Scorn said, and walked off. The others paused.

“So, how’s the traitor business?” Bloodshed growled. It was like he could only talk that way. “Have any luck on getting us all killed? How are the stupid, whale-brained goody dragons?” Oblivion and Calamity whacked him this time, and he nearly attacked Oblivion.

“We don’t know if he even started the prophecy,” Oblivion said, which made Bloodshed scoff and look away.

“Have you, Draacos?”

“Yes,” Draacos simply answered, “I have.”

Bloodshed growled again, but Oblivion pushed him away.

“Father is evil. None of you have to be,” Draacos started, and Bloodshed roared.

“ENOUGH of your STUPID hero crap! We are nothing like you! We will never betray the master!” He roared at Draacos.

“Guess what I got~” Scorn sang as she came out, dragging something.

Oh no, Draacos thought, baring his teeth as Scorn dragged Dagex out with his legs and snout tied.

“This yours, traitor?” Bloodshed said, grinning. Draacos growled at all of them. He should have come here by himself!

Bloodshed and Scorn pinned Dagex down, and Bloodshed opened his maw to reveal teeth that were as sharp as spears; dripping with blood. Dagex’s eyes widened as he started to struggle.

“Don’t you dare! ” Draacos yelled, and The two pinning Dagex grinned wider.

“Hah!” Scorn laughed, “This is the special one, right Calamity?”

Calamity nodded, smiling.

“I predicted it would have taken at least a few days longer. I didn’t think it would be that easy. However—”

“Come on, let’s just do it already!” Bloodshed said impatiently.

“Wait!” Draacos yelled, and Bloodshed groaned loudly.

“Let him talk,” Oblivion said, to the misfortune of the others, who just wanted to do their job.

“Thank you,” Draacos sighed, “I know none of you will listen very well to me, but you have to stop! You don’t have to kill and convert dragons. You can choose your own paths.” Oblivion doesn’t want to kill him. Draacos thought, then was shot back into reality as Bloodshed roared. “WELL I CHOOSE THIS PATH!” He exclaimed and was only an inch close to biting Dagex’s head, before a spear flew and hit the Darkwing in the neck, sending him flying a couple feet and landing on the ground, the spear landing point first and pinning the (kind of) dying Darkwing to the ground. He soon stopped struggling.

The other three looked at the dragon who threw the spear.

Lavender horns, black and dark purple scales, and lots of decently sized holes in his wings.

“You all get away from him!” He screamed, and it apparently scared the darkwings, since they were flying off in only a second. The dragon approached Draacos and Dagex, and got the ropes off of him.

Dagex stumbled back a bit once he was on his feet. He was wide eyed.

Draacos went wide eyed as well when he realized who the dragon was. Draacos knew this dragon.

This was Daggerlight: Dagex’s father.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

“Dad?!” Dagex said in shock, backing away from the looming dragon. Daggerlight ignored his son; turning his head to stare at Draacos, and walking right up to him.

“I’m both angered, and glad that you are alive, Draacos,” He said, with less emotion than even Sleet.

“I guess I should say the same thing, right?”

Daggerlight smirked, puffing out a bit of flame.

“You don’t have to, but i’m flattered you still care at all about me.”

Dagex growled at Daggerlight, to which he turned to see Dagex pounce on him.

Dagex was pushed off by an unknown force, but Draacos knew that it was just magic.

“Awww,” Daggerlight started, smiling as he got back up, “What’s wrong little one? Still mad at dear old dad?”

“You’re damn right I am!” Dagex nearly roared, to which Daggerlight went back to his emotionless look, sighing.

“Honestly, I thought you just wanted to screw with me. Dagex, I went over this with you, I’m not evil...not yet at least. I just saved you.”

Dagex just stared him deep in the eyes.

“Fine,” Daggerlight scoffed, “You two better leave before I do, otherwise those Darkwings will just come right back here. So LEAVE!”

Dagex stumbled back and immediately flew into the air.

“Dagex wait!” Draacos called, “Dagger, I have questions.”

Daggerlight looked slightly puzzled.

“Future? Friends?” Draacos shook his head.

“I...Nevermind, It’s not important yet,” Draacos sighed, and went to the air with Dagex. Draacos looked back to see that Daggerlight had vanished into thin air.

Strange. We were lucky he saved Dagex, but I can’t trust him. He’s obviously working with father...in one way or another.

The two flew for quite a while to get to the rainforest, where they assumed the other to be (Though also because X said they should be there).

They landed on the ground and walked right into the dense forest, looking around for their friends.

“Weren’t you raised here, Dagex?” Draacos asked quietly, to which Dagex nodded.

“Then...why were you even slightly hesitant to come here?” Dagex paused in his walking, then started up again.

“I’m not sure. Maybe cause it would show I had to leave the academy, and Lime wouldn’t be happy with me if he knew. Though it could also be since my Father has a bad history here.”

“Both good points, but we may have to stay here a while.”

The two kept walking until they encountered two Rainwing guards, blocking the entrance.

“Halt!” One said, “Who are you?”

“My name is Dagex. I was raised here...adopted son of Lime.”

“Who’s he? ” The other guard narrowed her eyes, pointing her blowgun at Draacos.

“This is one of my friends. My other friends are a bunch of dragons from different tribes...if they even came here.” Dagex answered as best as he could.

It seemed to do the trick, as the guards looked at each other, nodded, and let them through, and even escorted them to where their friends were.

They were led to a large hut made for many dragons. Slate was outside and quickly hugged Dagex the moment she saw him.

“You’re ok!” She squealed in glee, happy to see the Nightwing. Draacos rolled his eyes, smiling. Lovebirds.

“H-happy to see you too, Slate,” Dagex said, blushing, then hugged her back.

“How’s Vare?” Draacos asked, and Slate frowned a bit.

“He’s fine...been trying to figure out a way to apologize to Dagex for hours. It’s all he’s done for a while.” She answered, sighing. The three headed inside, going right to Vare’s bed.

“Dagex!” Rin said happily, and everyone else looked at him and Draacos, clearly glad the two were ok. Vare looked away, and Dagex walked up to him. Vare was bandaged pretty well where Dagex had stabbed him.

“I—I’m sorry Vare. I shouldn’t have hurt you. I didn’t know what else to do.” Dagex said, curling his tail in shame.

“It’s not exactly your fault,” Vare replied, giving Sleet a death glare, then sighing and looking back at Dagex.

“Are you ok now?” Dagex asked, concerned.

“Should be,” Vare said, smiling in that confident, cocky way.

“Glad you two made up,” Draacos said, turning to the sleeping area, “I’m going to go to sleep, and you all should too.”

After a bit, everyone was settling in, and going to sleep.

Draacos woke inside a familiar, near pitch black room. Another vision? He thought to himself as he realized he was in the execution room of the Darkwing tower. The room lit up, and he saw the obvious: His father Dracos at the other end of the room.

The king didn’t see Draacos; he was talking with someone.

Oblivion? Draacos said to himself, walking forward a bit as he recognized the dragon, then stopped once he was close enough to hear the conversation.

“You hesitated, Oblivion!” Dracos growled at the female Darkwing. “You didn’t corrupt him when you had the perfect opportunity!” Oblivion hung her head in shame.

“I’m sorry master, but Your son kept us busy.”

“I don’t care! You still could have done it! You could have ignored him! And YOU! ” Dracos roared as Daggerlight came into view. “Why did you interfere!?” Dracos was fuming in anger at the two.

“I told you, Master ,” Daggerlight started, saying ‘master’ sarcastically, “You can’t hurt my son...not yet at least. It’s too soon; he has no chance yet so it’s unfair.”

“That doesn’t matter! You want us to corrupt the world, right?”

Daggerlight just stared at the King with a blank expression, to which the King roared in anger.

“You work for ME , Daggerlight, and I want that son of yours, my son, and their friends corrupted as soon as possible!” Daggerlight rolled his eyes.

“Can’t promise the first two, but I can absolutely try the latter,” he said, bowing then disappearing. Dracos turned to Oblivion, and picked her up by the throat.

“Now, Oblivion...this is all your fault, so guess what you win?” Dracos said, grinning and tightening his grip.

“A one way ticket straight to Hell!” Dracos released Oblivion, but didn't let her fall.

Instead, in the blink of an eye, he swiped his claw in an upward motion, and his claws went right her head, blood shooting everywhere. The claws stuck out through her eyes and pretty much everywhere else...gory stuff that made Draacos want to vomit.

Dracos threw the dead Oblivion to the ground and looked at Draacos, pure crazy in his eyes.

“You think you can save her, don't you?” Dracos nearly laughed, to which Draacos growled. “Well, if you want to try, then come back to the tower and come get her! Fair warning though. The only way to save her is to betray your friends, and to give me Dagex.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 6

The two Darkwings stared at each other for a minute, like they were staring into each other’s souls.

“You do know I can’t do that, right Father?” Draacos said as calmly as he could. Dracos frowned, then snorted.

“Yes, I do. You’ll protect that stupid friend of yours. Makes me sick!” Dracos scowled at his son. “How about this, I will give you time: Three days to be exact.”

“Fine,” Draacos said, still giving Dracos a cold stare, “Goodbye, Father.”

Draacos woke up early the next day. The moons were only halfway gone by then, so the others wouldn’t wake up for a little while longer, hopefully. There isn’t exactly a choice. I can’t let him have Dagex...that’s fact. I won’t betray my friends. Draacos sighed as he kept thinking. I want to save her though. I can't just leave her to die. She has some sort of light in her… Draacos wanted to yell at the sky, and go charge into the Darkwing tower, but he couldn’t do that without it ending worse than he would be able to think. Draacos looked at everyone, and saw one of the beds empty, so he went out of the hut, and flew upwards through s hole in the rainforest canopy. He saw a dragon flying towards the sea, and Draacos followed him.

He followed the dragon for about half an hour, before the dragon landed fairly close to the sea kingdom. Draacos landed close to the dragon, who jumped as he heard Draacos.

“Dike, what are you doing?” Draacos asked, even though he knew the answer.

“I...I want to go home. I don’t want to be a part of this,” Dike said, nearly crying. Draacos knew how the Seawing must feel: being part of a prophecy isn’t what most dragons would want, especially if they knew how dangerous it would be.

“Dike—” Draacos was immediately cut off.

“NO!” Dike yelled, tearing up, “I don’t want this! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” He tried to claw Draacos, but the Darkwing just caught the claw and shoved him slightly.

“Dike just listen,” Draacos tried again, but got cut off once again.

“I AM NOT GOING TO DIE, DRAACOS!” Dike screamed, and started to sob.

“I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die. I want to live!”

Draacos wasn’t sure what to say to the poor Seawing. He just wouldn’t listen.

“I won’t let you get hurt, Dike, I promise,” Draacos said smiling, and Dike just slumped over.

“I...I know. I’m just scared,” he said, not crying anymore. Draacos knew that Dike may not have been an ideal choice for a prophecy, but there was no choice; Dike was part of it, and he just might develop.

Unless he dies , Draacos feared.

“Let’s just get back to the hut, ok?” Draacos asked, and Dike nodded.

“Ya, don’t want to worry the others.”

The two started to flap their wings and fly off, but only got a bit off the ground before they were stopped in their tracks by a pack of Skywings out of nowhere, making them fall back to the ground.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” One of them observed, grinning. There were seven of them, and they all had random patches of pitch black scales.

Three moons, Draacos realized, They’ve been infected...that means… He narrowed his eyes and backed up to protect Dike.

They got to the Skywings. The whole kingdom might just be infected.

“Dike,” Draacos whispered, “The skywings are infected. We are all in trouble.”

Dike didn’t say anything, opting to go wide eyed and nearly start hyperventilating, before Draacos shushed him.

“We can’t fight them,” Draacos whispered to himself, and he slumped. The skywings started putting the two in chains, and they hauled them into the air with surprising ease. We might be screwed.

[Slate]

Slate yawned as she woke up, blinking a few times. She looked around to make sure everyone was still there, and it seemed like they all were, so she tried to go back to sleep. After only a little while, Dagex was shaking her awake.

“What?” She groaned, “What’s wrong, Dagex?”

“Draacos and Dike aren’t here. I can’t find them anywhere,” Dagex said, breathing heavily in panic.

“Prolly killed him then ran off like the evil dragon he is,” Sleet snorted.

“Draacos wouldn’t! He isn’t evil, and you know it!” Slate yelled at the Icewing.

Vare groaned, putting something over his head.

“Trying to sleep here, shut up please.”

Mutespeaker was quietly sitting next to Dagex. Slate and Dagex looked at him. “I helped look with Dagex. Something must have happened, since they wouldn’t just leave the kingdom, it’s safe here.” Mutespeaker wrote.

“That’s true, but then what happened? We need to find them! Dike isn’t exactly good at defending himself,” Slate started.

“And it’s unlikely they went missing together. Draacos would be able to get them both out. He can fight well,” Dagex finished.

Everyone was silent, likely figuring out a plan. Slate stared out the window.

Please be ok. For the sake of the moons, be ok. We need you both.

“We may have to split up,” Sleet said, tapping Slate with her tail, “Me and Slate will search the beach. Dagex, you and Mutespeaker will search the mountains. Vare, you and Rin will stay here.”

“Why not the mud kingdom?” Rin asked, and sleet paused.

“To be fair, bringing a skywing there now of all times might not be the best idea...and I don’t want Vare to be nearly killed three days in a row. Not good for his health,” Sleet responded, that last part amusing her a bit.

“True,” Rin said quietly.

“So it’s settled. Everyone, let's go find our friends.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 7

[Draacos]

Draacos and Dike were immediately taken to Queen Ruby. She was still mostly her regular reddish orange, but there were many streaks of black that were slowly covering her body. She was definitely infected; it was clear as day.

“Let me guess...you’re all allied with Dracos, is that right?”

Ruby grinned, “Smart dragon. Yes, he is the King, after all,” her grin quickly turned into her looking as close at Draacos as she could, “How would you know?”

Draacos smirked at the queen, “Because, I’m his son.”

What happened next was surprising to him. Instead of just letting the two go, the skywings pointed their spears closer, and Ruby grinned wider.

“The traitor ?” She chimed, “The one who betrayed the King? That’s great news! The other Darkwing will be glad to see you.”

Other Darkwing? There’s another one here?

“Guards, take these two to the leader, now!”

The skywings prodded Draacos and Dike with their spears to make them move, until they were in an upper level of the palace that must have been Ruby’s before she got infected.

“Master Oblivion, we have the traitor!” One of the Skywings shouted, and threw the two forward, then trapped them inside. Oblivion came out from a room behind a throne, looking sleepy.

“What have I told you? Nightwings aren't Darkwings. Let me sleep you idi—” She froze when she saw Draacos.

“What in three moons are you doing here?” She asked, nearly stuttering.

“Captured, what do you think?”

Oblivion didn’t say anything for a minute or two, just staring at Draacos.

“Just get it over with! Kill us already, I can’t take this suspense!” Dike yelled, “Or let us go. That would be great too.”

“I...I wish I could.”

Draacos looked at her confused. She wanted to let them go...she really isn’t evil.

It could be a ruse. Don’t let your guard down, Draacos.

“Oblivion, we can get you out of here, right now. We can leave this place and go to my friends. You can be safe with us.”

Oblivion looked down, nearly tearing up, “But he’s going to follow us! There isn’t anything I can do.”

Draacos put a claw on her shoulder, and She looked at him.

“Trust me, Oblivion. We can stop the King and cure all the dragons the Darkwings have infected. You just need to come with us.”

The skywings were, surprisingly, not even listening. They were just standing at the very back, in front of the door.

Oblivion was silent for a minute, just looking at Draacos and Dike.

“You’re right,” She sighed, “If we leave now, we can get to the rainforest quicker. Those guards likely won’t follow us. They think I’m going to take you back to the dungeon.”

Oblivion got the chains off of the two, and all three of them went out a window, the guards not even moving...until they were all out.

“Ok, let’s go right now,” Dike whispered.

Oblivion looked at him and rolled her eyes, “We need to go slowly, Seawing, or else we’ll get caught.”

Dike hung his head and fiddled with his talons until Draacos nudged him. The three flew down to a fairly small cave, then after a few minutes, went low to the ground to head off towards the rainforest.

[Dagex]

Dagex and Mutespeaker were flying around the mountains, searching for their friends. They hadn’t been searching for long, but could already tell that the two likely hadn't been there, or at least not for long.

“Dagex, do you think they were taken to the Sky kingdom?” Mutespeaker wrote, looking worried. Dagex just shook his head, “I don’t think so. Ruby is a good queen; she would never keep random prisoners if they never did anything.”

Mutespeaker nodded and gave a faint smile.

“Nothing feels wrong, surprisingly,” X started, “About your friends, at least.”

That’s good, Dagex thought, and continued to look around for them, going downward towards the base of the mountain.

“They could be in a cave down here or something. It would be a good idea for them to be hiding, in case one of the other Darkwings are around,” Dagex mentioned.

The two looked around in the caves, but couldn’t find anything of note.

Mutespeaker’s head perked up as the two heard noises coming from the bushes behind them. Dagex got ready to attack, staring at the bushes, completely quiet.

Dagex started to call fire up from his lungs as he heard whispering coming from the bushes.

“Come on out, whoever you are,” Dagex ordered to whoever was on the other side.

Nothing answered, so Dagex shot fire at the bush, and saw a dragon dodging the flame, holding something. The dragon practically froze when she saw she was caught. She was a rainwing, sea green in terror and holding an egg.

“Please, please don’t hurt me,” she whined, walking back. Dagex and Mutespeaker looked at each other.

“We thought you were going to attack us. We aren’t going to hurt you,” Dagex said, calmly trying to ease the Rainwing’s nerves. It seemed to work, as she sighed and didn’t run away.

“What are you doing here? Who are you and why do you have that egg?” Dagex asked her, that last question making the Rainwing perk up and turn sea green again, though she calmed back down a bit.

“This is my egg...m-my name is Shine, and...It doesn’t matter why I’m out here. I-I have to leave.” Shine quickly started running away before Dagex could say anything else.

“She must be in distress,” X said, and Dagex agreed. He didn’t think it was a good idea to follow the Rainwing, though. Dagex and Mutespeaker had to find Draacos and Dike as soon as possible. If they didn’t before the next moonrise, they might never get to them. Dagex looked at his fellow Nightwing.

“Let’s go back for now. They clearly aren’t here.”

[Sleet <—— Not a typo]

“Draacos!” Slate called out loud, “Dike! Where are you!?”

Slate was up looking at the caves along the beach, hoping she could find a clue in one of them, and obviously finding nothing.

“Slate, come back down. Don’t draw any attention,” Sleet shouted at the skywing, and Slate flew back down.

“Byyyy the way, I may have found something.”

Sleet led Slate over to a patch of sand. There was a blue scale sticking out; little specks of blood on it. “It’s fresh, and matches Dike’s. All that sifting through this beach finally paid off.”

“Wait, do you mean…” Slate started, legs shaking in fear.

“Captured, Probably. Killed, not likely...at least not here.” Sleet answered, examining the scale and looking at the sand. There were clawprints in the sand; ones that Sleet originally saw, but passed them off as a seawing coming up from the ocean.

“My guess is that a Seawing saw him and possibly took him to Coral…no, there’s no motive to do so,” Sleet kept thinking to herself as Slate looked around more.

“Hey!” A familiar voice called, and the two turned to see their friends, right there.

“WE WERE WORRIED!” Sleet yelled at them, and immediately flew up and tackled Oblivion, who nearly bit Sleet.

“Sleet, she’s with us!” Draacos said, prying Sleet off of the Darkwing. Sleet stared at the two of them.

“What?!”

“She led us out of the sky kingdom. I can explain once get back to the hut.”

Slate was comforting Dike; calming the frantic Seawing down quite easily.

“Fine, I’ll go back first then and tell the grumpy skywing,” Sleet said as she flew back to the rainforest, with the others soon following.

[Draacos]

Draacos relayed everything that had happened to the group: Especially about the Skywings being infected by the Darkwings.

“This is bad,” Dagex said, and Mutespeaker nodded.

“ Worse than bad. They have the skywings !” Sleet responded, “And I still don’t trust you ,” she glared at Oblivion. Draacos sighed, and Dike yawned.

“Dike, I think you should rest, ok?” Slate said to the Seawing.

“Alright,” Dike said back, and the two went off to the sleeping quarters in the hut.

Vare was up, looking healed thoroughly, and Rin was next to him, despite the Skywing clearly not enjoying it.

“At least we’re all ok,” Draacos said, “Though, we need to tell the kingdoms about the darkwings, as well as Jade academy. Dagex, Slate, Rin tell the Sandwings. Sleet, Vare, Oblivion, tell the Icewings. Me, Dike, and Mutespeaker will warn the academy.”

“What about the Mudwings? And the Seawings?” Rin asked, worried.

Draacos thought about the image of Rin impaled on the tree branches, and groaned a bit to himself, as well as the image of Dike being electricted.

“I just have a bad feeling about going to either of those kingdoms at the moment. We can warn them later, do not worry. Sleet, tell Dike and Slate what we are doing, ok?”

Sleet nodded, and Draacos sighed.

This is going to be difficult.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8

Draacos and the rest of the third team approached the academy quite quickly.

“What do we tell them?” Dike asked.

“We tell them about the darkwings and tell them to be careful, that's all. Maybe they would let me put a barrier around the academy,” Draacos responded, though he doubted they’d agree with him.

They landed, and Draacos went up to the entrance, and rang the bell on it.

A freckled Sandwing rushed to the entrance when he heard the bell. The sandwing had a weird earring on, and looked at the three curiously.

“Wait, don’t I know you?” He said, looking at the three, then at Mutespeaker, “I know you, you’re the mute dragon, right?” Mutespeaker nodded.

“Sir, we have an important warning. The academy might be in danger. There are dragons in Pyrrhia that are killing other dragons and turning them evil. We want you to tell the academy and make sure it’s defended.” Draacos said as fast as he could, and the Sandwing looked quite...well, Draacos couldn’t tell if he was confused, scared, puzzled, or what. It kind of looked like he was studying Draacos.

“That, um, sounds bad, but I don’t think anything could be that dangerous,” he spoke, muttering except for Darkstalker, under his breath.

“I’m serious!”

“It’s true, mister Qibli. Draacos can use his magic to make a barrier that could protect you from all this.” Mutespeaker wrote, and the Sandwing fiddled with his talons for a second, then sighed.

“Fine,” Qibli said, “If it’ll ‘protect’ us, then you may do it. I will tell this to the other teachers.”

Qibli walked back into the academy, and Draacos was already thinking of the words to create the barrier. He put his claw on a wall of the academy.

“I enchant a barrier over the entirety of Jade mountain, one that cannot be broken, or even passed through, by any Darkwing or Meteorwing. Only dragons of Icewing, Nightwing, Sandwing, Skywing, Seawing, Rainwing, and Mudwing blood can go through.” Draacos chanted, and a clear barrier practically faded into existence, and after it appeared, Draacos collapsed to the ground, holding his head.

“Draacos! Are you ok?” Dike asked, rushing to help the Darkwing up.

“That...used...so much...strength,” Draacos panted. He felt like a tree had fallen on his head, as well as sucking all of his energy out.

Mutespeaker tapped Draacos. “Using that strong of an enchantment could take quite a bit of your soul away, Draacos, but you may have saved about a hundred dragons. Hopefully you haven’t used your magic much, or else you may…” Mutespeaker wrote, but didn’t finish, since they all knew what he would’ve written.

“Don’t worry, I’ve only used my magic twice before this, and both were minor. I should be fine.”

Mutespeaker smiled, and helped Dike with getting Draacos to his feet.

“Come on, let’s get you to the Hut.” Dike said, and Draacos nodded, and the three went on their way.

[Dagex]

“I sense that your friends have successfully protected the academy,” X said to Dagex as he and his group landed next to Thorn’s stronghold. Dagex decided to keep it to himself for now, to save some time. Draacos would tell them later. A few Sandwing guards looked at them, and stopped them in their tracks.

“Halt, you three! What is your business?” One of them asked, glaring at Dagex.

“We have a warning! There are dragons called Darkwings that are trying to turn dragons evil. We need to warn the Queen so she can tell the kingdom.”

The three guards stared at them for a second, then they whispered to each other. One of them went off into the stronghold, while the other two kept glaring at the group, holding their spears towards them. Dagex and the others stepped a few paces back, as not to be harmed on accident.

The third guard came back after about ten minutes.

“The queen has said that she will warn the kingdom about strange dragons, but has ordered for you three to leave the kingdom as soon as possible, as to not draw attention,” He said, and the three immediately opened their wings, and, as ordered, started to fly up and away from the sand kingdom.

They were flying back, though Slate lagged behind slightly.

“Slate, what are you doing?” Dagex called to her, and she motioned to come over.

The two followed her down to a trail of blood and footprints, leading to a cave.

The three walked right up to it, and Dagex blew a flame, which lit a torch on the wall. Slate gasped and Rin looked away. There was a gutted Skywing with a terrored expression, it’s entire body covered in it’s own blood. A message made of blood was scrawled on the wall.

“Behind you,” Dagex read aloud, then tackled the other two down moments before a flaming spear came flying towards them, catching on the wall.

“IT’S A TRAP?!” Dagex yelled. How would the darkwings know that they would check that one specific cave?

“We need to get away from here. One of them might be here,” Rin said, rushing out of the cave, the others following him. In the blink of an eye, Rin was tackled by a Darkwing.

“RIN!” Dagex yelled, and rammed into the Darkwing, toppling it off of Rin, who just ran back inside the cave, where Slate had gone back into as well.

“Heh, didn’t think you’d find it, Nightwing. Calamity was right about you lot,” The darkwing, who Dagex could identify as Scorn, mocked, “He said you were all too curious to pass anything suspicious up, and looks like he was right.”

She tried to slash a claw at Dagex, but he used his pendant to phase right through her, get in the air, and throw her to the side, nearly off the large plateau they were all on.

“Hmph,” Scorn scoffed, “So you have magic, huh? No problem, this’ll just be a better challenge.” She smirked and blew fire at Dagex, which burnt more than he expected it to. It felt like his scales were being melted right off. Dagex backed away, shielding with his wings, but Scorn kept moving forward.

“Dagex! Your wings are going to be burnt to a crisp, and so will you!” X yelled to him.

“Can't...use...the pendent!”

“Dagex!” Slate screamed, grabbing the Spear on the wall with her tail, which started to spark. She had to do something, something she didn't think she could do.

She ran toward the dragons, and threw the spear, which spontaneously set on fire and hit Scorn right in the chest, making her roar in pain, letting Dagex back away from her. His wings looked scorched, though it looked like they weren’t broken badly; he could still fly, hopefully.

“Stay away from us!” Slate yelled at Scorn, grabbing the spear and ripping it out, weirdly unaffected by the flames, “Go back to your king!”

Scorn started backing away to the edge, “I’ll come back,” She said, grinning, “I’ll come back with the others, and we will tear you all to shreds!”

Slate narrowed her eyes and whacked Scorn with her tail, making the Darkwing slip and fall right off the cliff. Slate looked down and saw her nearly hit the ground, but she got her wings out, clutching the air and landing mostly safe, to Slate’s dismay.

Slate then shook her head as the fire engulfing both the spear and her tail disappeared.

“What the...did I just…” Slate mumbled, confused at what she had done.

“Slate, what was that?” Dagex asked, wincing from the burns, “that was awesome!”

Slate felt something on her neck, and put a claw on it, turning towards the others.

The others looked on in amazement. Slate was wearing an orange pendant, a ruby embedded into the center, with a symbol of fire painted on it. Slate focused a bit, and it glowed, her tail and horns lighting on fire. The weird thing was, her tail grew to nearly twice its length, and Slate tested what it did by whipping it in front of her. It went as far as her entire body went, a foot more than that, actually. Slate shook her head again and tapped the pendant, and her tail shrinked back to normal, and the fire stopped.

“Slate, you know what this means, right?” Dagex asked excitedly, and Slate nodded.

“I’ve found my powers.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 9

[This chapter will pretty much start off with what happened after chapter 4, from the bad guys point of view...er...Daggerlight’s point of view, and then for the second half you can have Rainshards point of view]

Daggerlight walked into the throne room, where all the Darkwings were waiting.

“Took you long enough, Daggerlight,” Dracos snorted at him.

“I know, Master,” Daggerlight simply responded, staring the king right in the eyes, to which Dracos growled.

“First of all, you! ” The king got right in Oblivion’s face, “Why did you hesitate?! You had the nightwing in your grasp!”

“It was Draacos, my lord,” She said clearly, “He distracted us. Bloodshed was the one who would have infected the nightwing, anyway.”

“That doesn’t matter! You failed to convert him!” Dracos growled, but Oblivion didn’t even flinch at the king.

“Though...it’s not entirely your fault, obviously. Someone just had to interfere.” He walked up to Daggerlight.

“Dagex is my son, Master. I may not care at all about his friends, but I have an obligation to protect him from anything...while I can. Wouldn’t you still protect your son, even though he’s pretty much a traitor?”

Dracos scoffed at the Nightwing.

“No, I wouldn’t, but I would love to see him executed. The little pest needs to die! I just wouldn't be able to.” Dracos grinned a bit, then immediately went back to his regular face of anger. “I’m going to give you both one more chance. If you screw up again, then one of you will be executed, while the other is going to be tortured for eternity. All of you are dismissed.”

The darkwings went into different directions, though Daggerlight followed one of the dragonets into the tower’s laboratory.

“I know you’re there, Dagger,” Calamity said, not even looking at the nightwing behind him. He was getting out some beakers and putting them in a tray.

These dragons have quite the dexterity, Daggerlight thought to himself. The fact that these dragons could even use this kind of equipment was fairly surprising, considering they couldn’t balance on their forelegs. “What do you want?”

“You’re the smart one, correct?” Daggerlight asked, to which Calamity confirmed.

“I want you to tell me if it would be wise to find a certain...daughter of mine.”

Calamity stopped what he was doing and turned to Daggerlight, puzzled.

“What do you mean? You mean convert her?”

“Yes. She has certain blood in her that could be quite useful to us...I think.”

“Isn’t she a Rainwing? Did you...mate with multiple dragons—” Calamity yelped as Daggerlight put his claw to the darkwing’s throat in the blink of an eye.

“Shut your mouth, it’s not important. Should I get her?”

“W-well,” Calamity stuttered, “What kind of blood does she have?”

“I’m not sure, since I haven’t even seen her. She could be an animus, is what I’m thinking.”

The two were silent for a couple minutes, before Calamity spoke up.

“It would be a great help to have a possible animus on our side.”

“Or one more, if you already have one.”

“Get her here. Maybe we won’t need to convert her in the first place.”

Daggerlight nodded, thanked Calamity, and flew right off, ready to find his daughter.

[Rainshard]

Rainshard was still part of the academy, though she did miss her brother Dagex. It was a strange thing to not have him here, though she didn’t know him at all in reality, aside from seeing him a couple times.

Presently, she was happily drawing a Nightwing, not a great drawing, as to be expected from a young dragonet, but decent enough for the teacher, Qibli, to smile at.

“That’s pretty good, Rainshard,” the Sandwing complimented, patting Rainshard on the head (he did to most of the students).

Rainshard had barely finished her drawing as the gong rang.

“Ok, I’ll put up your art, and I’ll see you tomorrow everyone,” Qibli said, smiling and waving his tail.

“Bye, Mr.Qibli!” Several of the dragonets called, including Rainshard. A slightly bigger sandwing dragonet came up to her.

“Ready for group discussion, Rain?” She said, Rainshard’s snout turning to a nervous look.

“N-not really, Sirocco,” Rainshard responded. Sirocco rolled her eyes at her nervousness.

“You’re gonna do fine, Rain. Besides, I’m gonna be there with you.”

Sirocco wrapped a wing around Rainshard to comfort her...and to carry her up to the next class as well. The teacher, a seawing named Tsunami, sat in the front of the class, while multiple dragonets, all in Rainshard’s winglet, the Ruby winglet, were sitting on the floor, talking. Sirocco put Rainshard down, and the two sat together.

“Well hello you two,” Tsunami said right before the gong rang to start the classes. “Well, looks like everyone is here.”

There were exactly seven dragonets in each winglet, one from each tribe. There was, of course, Rainshard and Sirocco, but there was also Garion the Mudwing, Trident the Seawing, Skyril the Skywing, Glaze the Icewing, and Blight the Nightwing.

“So,” Tsunami started, “Would anybody like to ask anything to anyone?”

“I have a question for the Rainwing,” Skyril said, Tsunami correcting him by telling him the Rainwings name, cause it’s rude to just call them that if you know their name.

“Fine...Rainshard, isn’t your dad a murderer?” He said, smirking. Rainshard hid herself with her wings, and Tsunami growled at Skyril.

“Skyril! We do not bring up those kinds of things here.” Tsunami scolded.

“I’m just asking, teach. I heard rumors and wanted to know if they were true, and it would be great to know if she has any of that in her.”

“Skyril, one more comment like that in I’m sending you to the principle,” Tsunami warned, to which Skyril just rolled his eyes and sat back. Sirocco stared at the skywing.

“Skyril, I have a question. Why must you pick on her?” Sirocco asked, defending the smaller dragonet.

“Why do you trust her? She could be evil!”

“Ok that’s it. Go to the principle, Skyril,” Tsunami said, and Skyril huffed, flying out of the cave. Tsunami sighed, putting a claw on her head. She looked tired.

“Why is there always at least one of those kinds of dragons in these winglets?”

Sirocco nuzzled Rainshard a bit. “He’s gone, Rain. You can come out of hiding.”

Rainshard unfurled her wings. She was tearing up from the stress.

“Hey, it’s ok, don’t cry,” Blight said, helping to comfort her.

Rainshard wondered why, in all the world, dragons had to bully her like that. She never even knew her father, so how would she know if he did something bad! It’s like asking a single scavenger to make themself an entire fortress. That skywing, unsurprisingly, bullied her the most. Nearly every day he would bring her down and make her feel like some sort of scary dragon...or at least a dragon that came from one.

“Thanks you too,” Rainshard sighed, though she still felt like crying a bit. The class went on, and the dragons shared stories about themselves, as well as some insight on how life was like before coming to the academy. Everyone pretty much said the same thing, about how they like the academy, though some of the dragons are...not exactly tolerable. Tsunami went on a small tangent about how we are supposed to get along, but Rainshard was tired, nearly sleeping.

I miss big brother, She thought.

Where did he go? When can I see him again?

The thoughts made her eyes heavy, and she soon fell asleep leaning into Sirocco’s wing, though nobody paid mind to it, probably since it was best for the little Rainwing.

All her fears washed away when she fell asleep.

Until a voice came into her mind; Rough and menacing.

“Why hello, Rainshard,” A dragon covered in shadows chimed, weirdly glad to see her. She was immediately terrified and confused. Who was this?

“I should just cut to the chase, since I already spent an entire...not sure how long it took, but probably enough to put in a book or something...with your brother.”

Her ears perked up at the mention of her brother.

“You know Dagex? What happened to him?” She asked, but the voice just snorted, annoyed at the attempt of changing the topic...even if unintentionally.

“So, all I’m gonna say is that I’m important to you, someone who you’ve never met. Not gonna say who, since there’s alot of options. All I need to tell you is, you’re special. There are things that you can help with: HUGE things! All you need to do is leave the academy and find your brother.”

“L-Leave all my friends behind and find Dagex?” She stuttered, “I...I can’t.”

The dragon gave a small chuckle.

“Well, it’s your choice, Rainshard, but something bad might happen to your brother and his friends.”

Rainshard perked up again, and yelled at the dragon, “What do you mean?! What’s going to happen?!”

The dragon laughed harder, and Rainshard felt a bit dizzy. And soon wake up as Sirocco shook her to get her up. Rainshard yawned a blinked a couple times. She was a different room, her cave.

“Thank the moons, thought you’d be asleep for the whole day. Come on, we’re going outside once I get something,” Sirocco said, smiling at the rainwing. She grabbed something, which Rainshard was told was a telescope. It must be nearly nighttime, since Sirocco usually went outside at night to look at the stars and the moons.

The two went outside and lay down on the grass. The sky looked so beautiful, but it wasn’t enough to make Rainshard stop worrying about that scary dragon.

She needed to know who he was.

As well as find out where her brother was.

Chapter Text

Section 2: Extinguished

Chapter 10

[Draacos]

Dagex’s group was the last to meet back at the hut, though it took quite longer than Draacos thought it would.

“I was wondering where you all were. Did you warn the sandwings?” Draacos asked, to which they all nodded.

“Yes, but they don’t want us coming back there. They don’t exactly like us I guess,” Slate responded, and looking at Dagex, who was wincing for some reason. Draacos looked carefully at the Nightwing’s wings: they looked like they would combust into ashes if any sort of flame touched it.

“What in three moons happened? Why are Dagex’s wings burnt like that? And…” he paused as he noticed Slate’s pendant, “How did Slate get powers?”

The four were silent, except Mutespeaker who had been writing already, and after another half minute of silence, he showed it to Draacos.

“Scorn attacked us. She attack Rin, Dagex saved him, and Dagex got caught in a stream of fire, since his powers were likely on a cooldown.”

“ONE OF THEM ATTACKED YOU?!” Draacos roared, making a couple of the dragons hide in fear.

“Ughhh...What happened next? Did she bite any of you?”

“No,” Slate started, “There was a spear nearby and, I threw it at her to save Dagex. It just...burst into flames, which didnt go away until after I pulled the spear out of her. I’ve never felt so...ruthless like that in my life. She got away, but she’s heavily wounded.”

Draacos sighed, “That...well, at least she didn’t follow any of you here.”

“That is more than good, Draacos,” Oblivion said, walking from out of the shadows. “She could kill us all if she did.”

Draacos glared at the other Darkwing for a second, then sighed.

“What do we do now? Do we just...wait around and do nothing?” Sleet asked.

“We need to gather equipment, and figure out how in Pyrrhia we’re going to stop the Darkwings, as well as gather information. I feel like it would be a good idea to find Daggerlight, as well. He could help with both of those predicaments.”

“Isn’t he supposed to be evil?” Rin spoke up, tilting his head.

“He’s...more Neutral, if anything. Though he may try to kill whoever comes with me, unless it’s Dagex.” Draacos answered, looking at Dagex for a moment, who’s face was filled with dread when Daggerlight was mentioned. He still fears his father, Draacos said to himself.

“W-we can help get equipment,” Dike stuttered, next to Rin.

“Dike, you, Rin, Dagex and Mutespeaker will gather equipment. Sleet, Vare, Slate, Oblivion, we’re going to see Daggerlight.”

“I thought you said he’d kill us,” Sleet mocked, giving a little smirk. Draacos rolled his eyes.

“Not if me and Oblivion are there,” Draacos started, and Oblivion finished for him, “Also, we may need help if Scorn and Calamity are with him...and if Bloodshed has been fixed up yet...Three moons can only imagine how insane he’s going to be once he’s...not dead anymore.”

“Sucks that they won’t stay dead,” Sleet said, growling, “How DO we kill them for good?”

“Extreme wound to the head or heart. Make it so they can’t regenerate their brains or heart fast enough. Or kill the alpha, aka the king. Either way it’s easier said than done, though,” Oblivion said, resting a talon on her chin.

“Hopefully Daggerlight can help us,” Vare scoffed, already walking out of the door.

Everyone nodded, and Draacos, Sleet, Slate, and Oblivion followed, spreading their wings and flying into the air.

“So where exactly are we going, Draacos?” Slate asked.

“The night kingdom. Oblivion told me that is where his post is.”

That dragon...he’s such a strange one, Draacos thought. He knew Daggerlight from quite a few years ago. The two were friends until Dagger had been injected with that mysterious Bloodwing virus. Draacos knew what it could do from the time he spent with the Nightwing, before all the Darkwings were imprisoned. He went completely feral at times; Bloodthirsty and completely enraged. It was a terrifying thing to witness from such a normally docile and, strangely passive dragon...though he did sometimes have the occasional ‘way to excited dragonet’ and ‘strangely dark and depressing’ moments. He must’ve had multiple personalities. I’d be jumping off the nearest cliff if I had a bunch of voices or personalities in my head like that.

But Dagger was corrupted by the Darkwings, and, after the Darkwings were freed, he sided with them for the most part. He was trapped in that dark, kind of but not exactly evil side of him, with large resistance against Dracos’ powers of influence.

The kingdom of night was getting very close, so the five dragons slowly descended.

Oblivion’s words were true, as the moment the five landed, a Dragon chuckled behind them. They all turned to face the lavender horned Nightwing.

“Yep, you’re here all right,” Draacos said, stepping towards Daggerlight.

“What do you want...and why is she with you?” Dagger grinned when he saw Oblivion. Draacos immediately ignored that and persued with his answer.

“I want info about the Darkwings. You know we could use your help to bring them down, Dagger.”

Daggerlight laughed loudly at the remark, and Draacos raised a brow.

“You think I would help you lot!?” The nightwing yelled to Draacos. “Draacos, I’m not the idiot you knew! I’m completely different!” Blood started seeping out of Daggerlight’s scales. Oh no, Draacos thought with fear.

“EVERYONE, GET OUT OF HERE!” Draacos screamed as Daggerlight started twitching. Both Sleet and Vare instantly realized what was happening, and flew up, getting a far ways away before outright flying towards the rainforest, hopefully to warn the others. Slate and Oblivion were still there with Draacos...he didn’t realize the Skywing hadn’t flown away yet. Draacos stared Daggerlight down, glaring into his eyes like a predator.

What even triggered him? Draacos thought. The bloodwing form was supposed to be brought out by extreme feelings; anger, depression, or stress from what Draacos had learned. Was he prematurely triggered by Dracos or something? How would that even work?

“Dagger, you need to calm down. You don’t need to hurt any of us,” Draacos spoke, stepping closer as he tried to calm Daggerlight, who just gave a demonic chuckle in response that made Draacos go wide eyed.

“Draacos, I’m not some little, idiotic dragonet. I’m a vessel of darkness; A catalyst of evil! I may not kill my own son, but I’d be more than happy to kill his friends!” With that, the blood covered dragon shot acidic blood at Draacos, but Oblivion ran in front of him just in time, hitting her on the side of the head and neck. The blood corroded her scales a bit, but otherwise she looked fine...aside from the probably permanent scar the stuff had caused.

“Oblivion! Are you ok?” Slate yelped, running to the two. Draacos looked back at the skywing in absolute terror.

“Why haven’t you flown away,” Draacos yelled at her. “You need to get out of here!”

The moment Draacos had looked away, Daggerlight had practically vanished into thin air, and when Draacos turned back around and noticed that the Nightwing was gone...screams filled the air around him.

“SLATE!” Draacos screamed, recognizing the voice and looking up. Daggerlight was back in his Normal form, grinning as he held Slate by the tail and neck. He used his tail to slip Slate’s pendent off, and in the blink of an eye, he was flying off.

“NO!” Draacos roared, tearing up a bit. He couldn’t go after Dagger...he needed to help Oblivion back to the hut.

“Draacos, go after him. I’m gonna be fine. I’ll make sure Dagex comes with you, okay?”

“NO! He’ll just get killed! If you’re going to be fine, I’m going after him, but don’t bring Dagex into this.”

Draacos spread his wings and flew into the air, and with all his strength, he flew as fast as he could.

Don’t worry Slate, I’m coming.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11

[Dagex]

Dagex and the others had been gathering whatever they could for the entirety Draacos and his team were away. They’d gathered quite a bit of food, though they were out of luck weapon wise. They had only found a single, worn down spear, something that would most likely be terrible against darkwings.

“We haven’t exactly gotten much, you know,” Rin said. Dagex sighed, the Mudwing was right, but it’s not like anyone would just give a group of dragons a whole bunch of weapons to help kill another group of dragons that most tribes were skeptical even of their existence.

“It’s hopeless,” Dike groaned. “We wont be able to do anything about those Darkwings if we don’t even have any weapons.” Dagex looked to Mutespeaker, but the silent Nightwing gave a light shrug of defeat: He didn’t have any ideas.

As soon as Dagex was going to take a break from the whole ‘gathering and pretty much failing’ thing, he felt something, something like an alarm in his head.

“Dagex! You need to go to the sky kingdom, right now!” X yelled at him from inside. What was going on? Dagex trusted the voice...he’d always been a great help to him, so he opened his wings (They didn’t hurt nearly at all anymore, YAY!).

“I have a bad feeling about something. I’ll be back,” He said as he flew into the air and headed to the sky kingdom for, like, the third time in the past few days.

[Draacos]

He was exasuted when he saw the Nightwing. He had flown so much and used up too much strength, he was slowly falling as he flew. Daggerlight kept flying, to the sky kingdom it looked like. Draacos let out a few tears as he saw the two dragons become specks in his vision, and he was forced to form a semi-crash landing into the dirt below him due to the exhaustion. It was strange he was so tired, but he had been flying across the continent a bunch in the past few days...of course his wings were practically dying.

He’s going to convert Slate...and there’s nothing I can do! What’s Dagex going to do when he finds out? Draacos thought, more tears welling up at the thought of Dagex going insane over his best...probably girlfriend being dead. It felt like everyone was happy and all friends just the other day, and now they’d already lost one.

Unless Dagger isn’t going to harm her. No...he will. Either he’ll convert her, or kill her as painfully as her can...and there isn’t a single thing I can do…

Draacos needed to rest. He hauled himself over to the nearest cave and collapsed on the ground. He couldn’t save his friend...though Dagex most likely was warned by his strange voice in his head. If anyone can save her...it’s going to be him. He won’t let...anything...happen to her… Draacos barely finished the thought, before he passed out.

[Dagex]

He was so close to his destination. He had to go on the ground, as not to be detected, but something caught his eye. Three dragons, a nightwing flying away, and a skywing being carried by another skywing...one of those he recognized as Slate. He nearly roared and flew up as fast he could towards the dragons, and the moment the skywings saw him, multiple had grabbed him from behind.

“So, this is that little Nightwing the other one told us about? The one who loves the traitor?” One of the skywings mocked, grinning at Dagex. Many skywings were around a pit, with Ruby standing behind some. Slate was being dangled over the pit.

“DAGEX!” She screamed, struggling against her captor.

“You know what, why don’t we have him watch our little...punishment~” Ruby grinned devilishly. Dagex struggled as well, he needed to get Slate out of there. He heard the opening of gates, and four, ravenous and hungry looking skywings came into the pit from its bottom. They looked starved and driven mad.

“Here We finally have the traitor! The Skywing to abandon the army of Dracos! We even her her lovey dovey nightwing as well, though we won’t do anything to him, as requested by the King. However, I think it's finally time we punish this little pest! I bet these little monsters down there are hungry, so let’s not waste any more time.”

Dagex realized what was going on right before it happened, and screamed as Slate’s wing were shackled and she was thrown right into the pit. Dagex struggled and screamed as the skywings forced him to see what was happening. Slate was screaming in complete agony as the four skywings started biting and clawing at her. These dragons were cannibals! Slate kept screaming and crying, especially after one of the skywings bit a part right of her tail and her limbs. Dagex’s pendant started glowing, and he phased through the skywings holding him and dove into the pit. He whacked the skywings in the pit with his tail, shielding Slate with his wings as he held her with his claws. He had to get out of here with her. He started flapping, screaming as one of the skywings bit his tail. He phased through the dragons again, with Slate still in his grasp, and flapped as hard as he could to get away.

“Let him go, there’s nothing he can do,” Ruby called, still grinning as the two escaped.

Dagex flew to a cliffside and put Slate down. She was still alive, but bleeding heavily from pretty much everywhere. Her face was soaked with blood and tears, and her one of her legs had been torn right off. How could those skywings be that powerful?

“Slate, I swear you’re going to be okay. I’m going to get help, you’re gonna live.” Dagex whispered, holding back the flood in his eyes. “You’re not going to die here. You can’t!” He hunched over her.

“Dagex…” she spoke, her voice small and shooken. She put a claw on his shoulder, and gave a small smile. “I’m so glad I met you, Dagex. You’ve made my life so much better. I wish I didn’t have to leave, but I guess it’s my time.” A few tears came from Slate’s eyes as she pressed her snout to Dagex’s, and whispered, “I love you, Dagex. I’ll always be with you...don’t let the others forget me, please…” she gave one last smile, and laid down next to Dagex, who was on the brink of flooding the world is his own sadness.

“No!” He yelled, “I’m not going to let you die!” He shook Slate, crying. “It’s too soon! I don’t wanna say goodbye! This can’t be the end! It can’t be! I love you too much to let you go!” Dagex held the skywing in his claws, wanting one last moment to hold her. He had gone from crying to sobbing. “No...don’t leave me...not now. You’re the best dragon in the world, I don’t want to say goodbye yet.” He sniffled, Slate’s body soaked. He let go of Slate, and roared at the top of his lungs.

“WHY!?” He screamed, “Why did this happen!? What did I do to deserve this! Why did she die! I LOVED HER!”

For the next few minutes, he kept sobbing, and eventually used his claws to dig a hole to bury his friend in. He’d get his revenge on the skywings. It didn’t matter that they’re being controlled by the darkwings, they all had to pay...and Dagex would do anything to eradicate them all.

“Slate...I love you too. More than you could have known. May you rest in peace...and if things go as bad as they will...then may I rest in the deepest pit of hell for not being able to save you.” He spread his wings and slowly flew away from the cliff.

“Goodbye Slate. I hope the afterlife is peaceful for you.” He looked down the ground as he flew to a cave...one close to the entrance of the Darkwing hideout.

“...and to all my friends...I’m sorry.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 12

Dagex hadn’t heard X since he warned him earlier in the day. He didn’t know why he wasn’t talking, but at this point, he didn’t care. He knew what he wanted right now.

And as if on cue, his father came out of the tower, and spotted Dagex immediately, looking a bit confused...and concerned, something Dagex had never seen on his face. Daggerlight flew as best as he could up to Dagex, who moved back to let his father in the cave.

“What’s wrong? Why in three moons are you here?” He asked, sounding more worried than angry, again, something that confused Dagex, but he didn’t show it.

“Dad, I…” Dagex held back the tears, he didn't want to show any sort of emotions.

It didn’t work, however. Dagex quickly started sobbing into the ground, right in front of his father, who looking a bit distraught.

“She’s dead!” Dagex said, and Dagger knew exactly what he meant, putting a claw on his son.

“She’s dead and there was nothing I could do!” Dagex went from tears of sadness to clenching his claws and trying to force the tears back.

“Those damned skywings killed her! Dad, I don’t care if you don't want it, but I wanna join you...I...want to be with you and the darkwings. I don’t care if I have to evil, I want revenge! I want them to pay!”

He could the looks of both excited and concern in his father’s face. Dagex knew that his father wouldn’t want Dagex to be a part of Dracos’s army, but now maybe they didn’t need to turn him into a darkwing. He didn’t care if this all meant hurting...or even killing or converting his friends. Only one thing was ringing in his mind: Revenge; kill every skywing in Pyrrhia, and everyone who got in his way. Nothing else would ever matter to him.

“I…” Daggerlight sighed, “Fine...Hopefully they will see that converting you won’t be necessary…” Daggerlight made Dagex follow him, the two getting out from the cave, and heading into the tower together. The inside of the place was just as dark and gloomy as it looked before. It didn’t take long for the two to get to Dracos in the throne room. He looked at Dagex with a strange look of intrigue.

“I thought you said you wouldn’t convert him, Daggerlight?” He mocked, smirking.

“I didn’t...he volunteered to join our side, as strange as that sounds.”

Dracos raised a brow (or whatever it’s called in dragon anatomy, shush and let me listen to Danganropa music >:3) at Dagex.

“Volunteered?” He asked, even more intrigued as he got up and got right in Dagex’s face.

“Yes,” Dagex mumbled, “But only to kill every last Skywing in the world, that’s it.”

Dracos grinned and looked at Daggerlight.

“We don’t have to convert him now, right your majesty?” Daggerlight asked, to which Dracos nodded.

“I’ll have him shown to his cave soon, then, training. Understood, Dagex?”

“Yes...your majesty.” Dagex said reluctantly.

“Now, I would like to talk to your father for a moment, so would you kindly leave us in private?” Dracos asked, and Dagex nodded, walking away from the two. Though he still listened in.

“I know he hates them, but I think we should get the skywings to make more of that Bloodwing virus. Then we could inject it into Dagex and the hybrids,” Daggerlight said to the king.

“You know they can only make a single small veil at a time, right? It takes quite a few resources to create.”

“Blood from all seven tribes, Rainwing venom, cactus juice, and An animus to create the transformation and permanence spell so it will actually work...and to be able to control.” Dagger listed, “Not that hard. Doesn’t one of your little disciples have all the blood and everything? We really just need an animus—” Dagger was cut off by Calamity, who came out from the next door lab.

“There is only enough for one dragon, and I doubt that we would be able to get an animus at this point. It seems the tribes have been warned of our presence, meaning our chances of an animus that will actually help us have dropped by about ninety percent, due to them most likely knowing the magic would be for no good...not like most dragons wouldn’t realize it was bad the moment we told them. We also cannot just create an animus, that is impossible.” Calamity bowed to Dracos. “Sorry, your majesty, but it seems it is nearly impossible to create another bloodwing virus veil unless we can somehow convince someone.”

“Can’t you just convert an animus?” Daggerlight asked. “I’ve never been told if that’s possible or not.” Calamity shook his head.

“If an animus dragon is converted into a Darkwing, it loses its animus powers. Draacos is the only Darkwing animus in history...and, yes...Dracos does have some sort of abilities, but not animus magic. He can’t create the spells.”

Dagex felt like he was going to pass out, but he forced himself to keep listening. Too bad for him though, since Calamity soon walked back to the lab.

Guess I’m going to have to ask him some questions later. Dagex thought, walking over to Dagger and the King.

“Well, I guess your father should show you to your cave,” Dracos said, and as quickly as he could, Daggerlight had ushered Dagex away to follow him.

The two were silent as they walked to a fairly large cave. There was already a dragon in said cave, laying down and reading a scroll. Daggerlight motioned to Dagex, probably just to say this was his cave. Dagex walked in, but turned to thank his father...but he had already gone.

“I shouldn’t be surprised…” Dagex mumbled to himself, turning back and curling up in a corner of the room.

His head perked up as he heard a familiar voice.

“So, you actually did it...You switched sides.” X said, his voice loud.

You don’t have to yell, you know.

“I’m not. My voice louder or quieter based on the distance you are away from me.”

Wait then...that means you’re a darkwing, correct?

“Correct.”

Then why don’t you just show yourself to me?

“Because,” he started, and a dragon tapped Dagex. He turned around to see the Darkwing he apparently shared the cave with.

“I’m right here.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 13

Dagex stared at the dragon, not exactly amused, though still a bit surprised.

“Name’s Xixo (Zee•Zo)...though, yes, most of the Darkwings just call me X,” Xixo said, smiling at Dagex for just a split second.

“So you aren’t some underground dragon that can only talk through telepathy? Got to admit, I’m surprised.” Xixo snorted at the nightwing.

“You shouldn’t be, It’s not difficult to understand.”

The two looked at each other in silence for a few moments, before Xixo spoke up again. “You know, you didn’t have to choose this path. You didn’t need to join us.”

“Yes I did!” Dagex growled, “I need to destroy those Skywings. They have taken practically everything from me.”

Xixo sighed, rubbing a talon on his head in annoyance.

“There were multiple different paths, Dagex.” He said, quietly, but enough for Dagex to hear.

“How likely was this one, mister pathfinder?”

“Second most likely. The most likely outcome, of your friends death, was that you would’ve taken your own life in grief.”

Dagex went quiet, the urge to burst in tears starting to come to him at the mention of Slate.

“...how likely was it for her to die?” Dagex asked. Xixo paused for quite a bit. “Well?”

“No matter what, her fate was sealed at that point. There were no futures where you successfully saved her life. The only other outcomes would be that either you get killed by darkwings while grieving, or you don’t make it in time to even see her demise.”

Tears fell from Dagex’s eyes, his mind slowly growing enraged.

“What do you mean!” He yelled at Xixo, “There was nothing I could do!?”

“I’m sorry to say, but that is correct. You couldn’t have saved her.”

“How did she even end up there?” Dagex yelled again at the Darkwing.

“Your father brought her there, Dagex.” The Nightwing’s eyes twitched.

“What?! There’s no way he would do that! He knows how much Slate meant to me!” Dagex nearly roared. He knew his father, and he would never be so cruel, even if he was technically evil.

“By the way, he wasn’t planning on a chain reaction that ended in you joining the Darkwings or anything, if you are wondering. He just did it on a whim I guess—”

Xixo was suprised as Dagex lunged toward him, jaws open and ready to bite him. Luckily Xixo was able to get the Nightwing off of him, though Dagex starting yelling at the top of his lungs.

“LIES! You’re full of lies! He’d never kill her!” Dagex tried to claw at Xixo, but he was fast, dodging and keeping Dagex at bay until Daggerlight came to the cave.

“What in three moons is going on?” He yelled at the two, glaring at Dagex, who turned around with rage and tears in his eyes.

“Dad, he’s saying you got Slate killed. He’s trying to fill me with lies just to hate you!”

Daggerlight looked away, not saying anything. Dagex formed a look of absolute fear.

“Wait...he...he’s telling the truth? Y-You did kill her?!” He backed up, more tears forming, all the while Daggerlight kept silent. “You don’t care about me at all, do you?”

Dagex roared and ran out of the cave without another word.

[Daggerlight]

“Was that the best option, Xixo? Will he go back to his friends now?”

“I don’t know, Dagger. It’s more likely that he won’t, and I don’t think he’s going to choose to do so.”

“If He goes to the king, he will be too far gone!” Daggerlight gripped his head with his claw. “I don’t want him here. He needs to be with Draacos...or else the Darkwings might actually succeed.”

“I know…”

Daggerlight looked on at the direction his son had run off, then turned back to Xixo.

“He’s doomed, isn’t he?” Dagger asked, trying not to show how much he wanted to just gut something.

“Maybe not. Really all we can do is leave it up to fate.”

Daggerlight glared at Xixo and went towards him.

“Don’t you dare talk to me about fate! What happens is up to Dagex! It’s not going to be random, idiot. He chooses what he does, and we both know what he’s going to choose.” Xixo sighed and walked past Daggerlight.

“You know what, I’m gonna walk around. You do you, Dagger, just don’t be such an ignorant snail brain. Fate is a strange thing, but it’s not random.” He said, walking away and leaving Daggerlight alone.

“Fine…” Dagger mumbled to himself, walking out after a minute.

“But I still don’t believe in it.”

Daggerlight walked in the direction his son had run off, and made his way to spy on the throne room. Just like he thought, Dagex was talking to the king.

“So, my understanding is, you really do want to work for me. You want to be evil?”

“Putting it bluntly,” Dagex mumbled, “But yes. Besides, it looks like every other dragon in the world are just backstabbing jerks.”

Dracos grinned, patting Dagex on the head. Daggerlight got a familiar sense of dread in his chest. He never knew Dagex would find out about anything he did.

“Just wanted to make sure. Now, of course I gotta let you have a more...villainous name and everything, so I’m just gonna call you Wrath, okay?”

Dagex nodded (I’m going to refer to him as Dagex. Some characters will refer to him as Wrath.).

“Is there...anything you need me to do?” Dagex asked.

“Well, I’d like you to go undercover and investigate on my son and his friends. If you need to get close to them and...do things with them, just don’t let them realize you have switched sides. Whenever you can, come back here and tell me anything useful, got it?”

“So you want me to spy on them. I can do that just fine.” Dagex smiled and bowed.

“Now would be a fine time to go, Wrath. Get information, come back, repeat. You should be fine as long as you keep your alliance a secret.”

With that, Dagex bowed once more and flew out, heading to the rainforest, Daggerlight knew. He as well slowly walked away, the king somehow not detecting him, and went out of the tower as well.

[Draacos]

“He’s been gone for too long,” Draacos said, worried. Dagex had apperently gone off on his own to investigate something. Something that X had told him, the group guessed. Everyone was in the hut, trying to figure out what exactly had happened.

“There’s no other possibility. He must have found Slate,” Draacos sighed.

“Judging by how long he’s been gone, it is safe to assume that Slate is...no longer among us, correct?” Sleet asked, putting the pieces together just as quickly as Draacos did. He didn’t want to say it, but that was the most probable outcome.

Slate…

“But where did Dagex go?” Rin asked, and Vare responded for him.

“He probably was killed or something along with her...or converted, or whatever.”

Draacos glared at the skywing, who just looked away and snorted.

Mutespeaker tapped Draacos on the shoulder, and showed his board.

“My guess is that he may have went into hiding to grief.”

“Slate was his everything, of course he would want to be alone after that. By the way, Mutespeaker, I could add an enchantment on your board to make it so that it could automatically read your mind and, well, speak what you want without needing to get our attention.”

“So...telepathy?”

“Um...ya, I guess.”

The small nightwing’s face lit up, and he wrote on the board.

“That would be great!” He wrote, handing the board to Draacos. After just a few seconds, it was done, and he handed it back.

“Is it working?” Everyone was surprised by the new, semi-high pitched voice. Everyone could hear it.

“Yay it worked! Thanks Draacos!” Mutespeaker said, his lips never moving.

“You gave him telepathy? Why not just take away the whole ‘mute’ thing?” Vare asked.

“Because now he can communicate with just us. Random dragons won’t hear when he says something important...just the dragons who need to hear those things.” Draacos answered.

“It’s great we can hear him now,” Dike said, smiling at Mutespeaker.

“Back to the topic at hand,” Sleet broke the mood in order to speak, “I think we may have to point out the other obvious possibility. The fact that, after Slate died, Dagex may have gone to the Darkwing tower.”

“...so what you’re saying is,” Draacos started, and Sleet finished for him.

“It might be too late for him. He may have joined the Darkwings.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 14

“Sleet, he wouldn't do that!” Rin yelled at Sleet.

“I mean, it is a possibility, though I hope she’s wrong,” Vare responded. Draacos was thinking the same thing, he didn’t want Dagex to be part of his father’s army or whatever he was doing. Draacos knew that Dagex wasn’t stable at the moment; it’s logical for him to switch sides in rage.

“I guess we'll just have to wait and see,” Draacos sighed, and looked at everyone.

Everyone perked up at a dragon approaching the door. It knocked twice, and Rin opened it.

“Dagex!” He said happily. Sleet and Oblivion gave suspicious looks, while everyone else went up to the nightwing.

“Dagex! Where were you? Why have you been gone for so l—” Dike tried to finish, but Dagex cut him off abruptly.

“Slate’s dead,” he tried to say, but it came out more as a mumble to Draacos.

“...we know, Dagex. We figured that out,” Draacos tried to reasurre his friend that they knew how he felt.

“Glad you’re back, Dagex,” Mutespeaker’s voice rang. Dagex paused for a moment.

“You gave him telepathy?”

“Pretty much, ya.”

Dagex didn’t show any sort of emotion, but Draacos shook it off for the moment.

He imagined how it would feel to lose someone you loved so dearly: the most important dragon in your life, gone to the cruelty of the universe.

Why, Dagger? Didn’t you know how much she meant to him?

Oblivion tapped Draacos on the shoulder with her tail, and Draacos turned around.

“I need to speak with you...and you in private,” she whispered, and motioned to Sleet, who followed her outside. The moons were rising by now, the sky turning black as the dragons Draacos hated so, so much.

“I can sense the King’s influence in him, even if just a slight amount. I don’t know if he’s actually evil or not...or if he just came in contact with him and is being forced to do something, but I can tell he’s...off,” Oblivion observed. Sleet nodded and continued, “I’m positive he’s joined them. I hate to say it, but we may have to put him down.”

“What?!” Draacos yelled at the two, and Oblivion shushed him, and looked at Sleet.

“Sleet, we don’t have to kill him. I can tell he isn’t infected, so we don’t have evidence that he joined the Darkwings. It’s too soon to tell.” Something was off with Dagex. Draacos wanted to believe it was due to Slate’s death, but he seemed...impassive. Draacos thought he’d be, if anything, depressed about Slate, though he guessed Dagex had already gone in that direction. It’s like he just experienced the end of the world, and only he was left.

Dagex...I don’t want to believe you joined them. I don’t want to, but I don’t think there are any other possibilities.

“I’m going to get some rest. I don’t want to be thinking about this right now,” Draacos said as he walked back into the hutt. He laid down on the floor as the other two walked back in.

[Dagex]

Dagex got up after everyone else went to sleep, and headed outside. He sat on the ground, looking up at the night sky.

“They already suspect me, don’t they,” he whispered to himself. He didn’t think they’d realize it so fast. “No...everything is fine. They have no proof.”

Dagex groaned to himself, and continued to just...stare at the sky.

“Dagex?” The nightwing’s ears perked as he turned to see Draacos.

“Why are you still up? I know you’re a nightwing, but I’m pretty sure you should get some rest.” Draacos said, and sighed when Dagex didn’t answer, only turning back around. Draacos came up to him and sat down next to him.

“You really are one of them, aren’t you? You are working for Dracos.” Dagex looked at Draacos right in the eyes, then turned his head away.

“You want me to say I’m not, right?”

“No. I want to hear the truth, Dagex.”

Dagex went silent for nearly a minute. I guess he has figured it out already. Good job, Draacos, good job.

“Dagex, just tell me. I’ll believe you either way, even if you lie to me.”

More silence…

“Well...how about this. If you are sided with the darkwings at the moment, you can still stay here with us until you truly know what side you’re on, deal?”

Dagex gave another minute of silence before answering.

“That sounds reasonable. Thank you, Draacos.” Dagex said quietly.

“You’re welcome…” Draacos responded, and went back inside, leaving Dagex alone once again.

[Daggerlight]

Daggerlight tapped the strange opaque barrier around Jade academy, and smiled weakly.

“You did good, Draacos. I’m honestly glad you decided to protect them like that, though I guess seeing my daughter is out of the question. Heh...this is going to bite Dracos hard, I can tell...unless Rainshard somehow gets the idea to leave the academy.” Daggerlight shook his head and looked at the ground. “No, she won’t leave if I don’t talk to her. If Xixo talks to her, things might go worse for Dracos, but I’m going to have to make him wait for now.” He frowned, turning away from the academy, and tearing a small hole in one of wings that didn’t stand out really, due to just how many holes were already in them. All Daggerlight could think about was his son, and how badly he messed the poor dragonet’s mind up. “Why in three moons would I do that to him. I never knew he had such a...bond with one of them. I never thought he’d fall in love! ” Daggerlight groaned, and sat down under a tree near the tower. “It’s my fault this happened. I couldn’t do anything about it though; I didn’t have full control over myself.”

He thought about when he met with Draacos, and how he practically turned into his bloodwing form in an instant. He had no idea what triggered it exactly, and he had a fair amount of control of his mind. It was also the first time he could actually speak in that form as well, though Dagger guessed he didn’t have full control, since he didn’t really feel any sort of emotions besides rage and fury and the like.

He sighed and walked away from the academy, opting to take a walk through the rainforest to clear his head. He’s turning out just like me, Daggerlight thought to himself. If things continue the way they are, he won’t ever achieve his destiny...he will stay as a husk of what he could have been.

He clenched one of his claws, and spat out a bit of blood, then shook his head in an effort to calm himself. He muttered, “Calm yourself, this would be a terrible time to turn into that.” He continued to walk around, closer to the tower. He kept thinking to himself about his son, and how things should have gone well for him.

Draacos was supposed to be someone Dagex could go to whenever he would get...for lack of a more fitting word, insane. Daggerlight thought about Draacos for a moment, groaning quietly.

“If only I would’ve ignored them. If only I kept those demonic dragons locked away where we put them..then none of this would have happened.” He stared at the tower peeking up slightly from the ground.

“I never should have opened it for them.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 15

[Draacos]

The next day started with the typical suspicions of Dagex. Dagex knew he was suspicious, and let everyone think so. It was like he didn’t care if they thought that.

Which likely means we’re right… Draacos thought with despair. The only ones who didn’t believe Dagex to be evil were Dike and Rin, who, like yesterday, were arguing with the others.

“You two are such snail brains, you know that?” Sleet groaned. Draacos could tell they had been arguing before he had even woke up, though when he did wake up, they were arguing, so that was pretty obvious to him.

“Ya, he’s acting all weird and, what’s the word I’m looking for...gloomy? Depressed? EVIL!?” Vare said, yelling a bit at the last part.

The hut was filled with the dragons annoying arguing, so Draacos stepped out of the hut to get away from it. Unfortunately, at least for a moment, Draacos saw Dagex and Mutespeaker communicating outside, though it sounded like more suspicion talk, but calmer due to being between two dragons that actually considered everything. It was strange to see Dagex talking so calmly about it to the other nightwing, even though he was the one being accused of being evil.

“You should just tell us the truth, Dagex. We can help you,” Mutepeaker’s voice quietly rang in the three dragons heads. Dagex was silent, and tilted his head to look at Draacos; Mutespeaker looking back soon after.

“Oh, good morning Draacos,” Mutespeaker smiled, “What brings you out here?”

Mutespeaker sounded cheerier than usual, which in this situation was worrying. What if he was with Dracos as well?

Get that out of your head. He’s just happy he gets to communicate better.

That was true, Mutespeaker has been a lot happier and a bit more energetic ever since Draacos gave him telepathy (Which, to me, still doesn’t seem like the right explanation for it...please tell me DX).

“Dagex, I have something I want you to do,” Draacos said, looking at his friend right in the eyes. Dagex’s perked up a bit, then got up and walked up to Draacos.

“I want you to steal some stuff from the tower with me. If you’re with them, then you will stop me when we’re inside.” Dagex was silent for only a moment.

“They’ll kill you though, Draacos, you know that.”

“They won’t, Dagex, trust me. We leave in a few minutes, okay?” The two stared at each other for almost a full minute, neither of them looking away from each other.

“Fine,” Dagex sighed, “I’ll do it. Let’s just go.”

His wings got ready to get into the air, and Draacos copied.

“Tell the others what we’re doing, Mutespeaker,” Draacos commanded, and Mutespeaker nodded, heading inside as the other two dragons soared into the air.

It wasn’t too far of a fly to get to the tower, and Draacos could see the nervous look on Dagex’s face. Draacos could tell how this was going to go, but he needed to stay optimistic. He didn’t want to believe his friend would choose these fiends instead of going to his own friends; there’s no way.

The two entered the tower through the hatch, Dagex going first of course.

Almost as if on cue, The King came from the entrance of the throne room, rage in his eyes.

“Why are YOU HERE!?” He shouted, then looked at Dagex, and twitched a bit before spitting out a bit of venom at the wall.

“It’s surprising how clever you can be, Draacos. Thought it would’ve taken you longer.” He said, putting out a wing and quickly draping it over Dagex, dragging the nightwing closer to him.

“I didn’t want to believe it, but it was obvious to some of us.”

“Why did you bring him here, then?” Dracos grinned at his son.

“Because I thought, if he wasn’t evil, he would have done something to prove it. I thought he’d show me he was wasn’t with you.” A single tear came from Draacos’s eye, as well as anger.

“I didn’t want to think he went to YOU after Slate died! I thought he would’ve came to his friends !”

Dagex perked up at the mention of Slate, and Draacos could tell it was in the bad way. Dagex spoke in a ‘starting-to-get-verrrrry-pissed’ kind of voice,semi quiet at first, “Don’t you DARE bring her into this.” Draacos realized his mistake fast, and tried his best to fix it.

“Dagex, I know you were confused, but we could have helped you ten times more than these dragons—” Draacos was surprised when Dagex roared at him. The room went quiet for a minute.

“You will never be able to help me. Nobody can. I’m a lost cause, Draacos, and at the moment, I’m perfectly okay with that. I’d rather be here then with you and the others.”

Draacos couldn’t fathom what he had heard for a moment. He’s not corrupted; he has the choice to live his life with his friends, where he’d be safe and free to be happy.

But he’d rather be here? That thought echoed in Draacos’s mind endlessly.

Why would Dagex want to stay here? The Darkwings home was full of despair and darkness, of course, but if he’s working for Dracos, he doesn’t get any to live how he wants; he only gets to do the King’s bidding, and eventually be converted. The worst part, there wasn’t a thing Draacos could do. If Dagex is going to be as persistent as he is...he’ll never listen to Draacos. It was futile to reason with him when he was like this. He didn’t have a choice but to give up…

“…We’re going to win this without you then. It’s not impossible without you, Dagex.” Draacos said, glaring at the Nightwing, before flapping up into the air as Darkwings started to come out with spears. He flew towards the entrance immediately and left, leaving Dagex back with the Darkwings.

[Dagex]

The moment Draacos left, the King started talking.

“You didn’t even last a full day, Dagex.”

“It wasn’t my fault...the Icewing, Sleet, was the first one to figure it out. She’s smart, for an Icewing.”

Dracos stared at Dagex for a moment, before looking away for a bit.

“Well, I’m going to think on what exactly to do about her , but first,” Dracos mumbled, before grinning and quickly biting Dagex in the neck, not deep, however. Dagex roared as he was bitten, and looked at the king with wide eyes.

“Wh-what? You said that wasn’t necessary!”

“Don’t worry, it’ll take quite a while for you to turn completely. I’m making you convert slowly on purpose. That’s your punishment for failing so miserably, whelp.”

Dagex held his neck with his claw. Though the bite only barely went in, venom seeped from the wounds, which stung a bit. Dagex took a few steps away from the king, who stared at him with those malevolent eyes.

“Go to your cave. I may need you for something later,” Dracos said, turning away from Dagex.

Dagex looked around, navigating his way through the tower until he got to the cave he shared with Xixo, who was waiting for him.

“Back so soon?” He gave a slight chuckle, and Dagex growled, holding his neck again.

“Sh-shut up! You could have warned me, you know.”

“That would’ve helped you to betray your friends further, Dagex. That’s not something I want to happen.” Xixo looked at Dagex, and his face went alert when he saw the venom and bite marks on Dagex’s neck. He rushed over to him.

“He bit you?!” He yelled.

“Cause I failed…”

Xixo cursed under his breath, and Dagex just snorted, going past Xixo. Dagex flopped onto the top cliff-like bed and groaned hard.

“I made a stupid mistake, didn’t I?” He asked himself, but loud enough for the other dragon to hear.

“The worst mistake, in my opinion.”

There was a couple minutes of silence, and neither of them were the ones who broke it.

“Helllloooooo~” someone called, peeking into the cave.

“Scorn, go away, don’t be a vulture.” Xixo growled at the other darkwing, who just came right in and past Xixo. She went up to Dagex’s bed.

“Hey there cutie,” She whispered to him, and practically every single red flag imaginable went up in Dagex’s head.

“NOPE!” He immediately got off the bed, away from Scorn, “Nope, you get away from me.”

Scorn rolled her eyes and got off the bed as well, trying to walk up to Dagex.

“Ughhh, just come with me, nightwing. I need to show you something.”

Dagex looked to Xixo, who looked a bit worried. He scratched his scales next to his neck, but didn’t say anything. Scorn smiled, grabbing Dagex by the tail and starting to drag him; she was incredibly strong suddenly. He wanted to scream due to how...weird this dragon was, but he had no evidence to think anything terrible was going to happen. Scorn dragged him right out of the cave, and took him to a reddish, blood covered cave with a single bed embedded with a few emeralds. It was beautiful in a strange way.

“Sooo what exactly did you want to show me—” he didn’t get to finish; Scorn whacked him right on the head, and he went unconscious.

{REEEEEEEEDACTED CUZ NOT SAFE SCENE IS NOT SAFE N O N O N O N O N O N O N O End of chapter EHHHHHHHHCK!!}

Chapter Text

Chapter 16

[Draacos]

“We failed him,” Draacos said to the group, quietly. “We’ve lost Dagex, and I don’t know how to get him back.”

“Wait, so he was evil?” Rin whined, and his head drooped, along with Mutespeaker and Dike’s. Draacos could sense the despair between them all; even Vare looked upset. Draacos sighed, they couldn’t just mope around, they needed to be looking for a cure to the Darkwing infection.

Knock Knock! There was a knock at the front of the hut. Sleet opened the door to see a dark green scaled Rainwing with a scroll.

“Th-the queen would like to see all of you, right away.” Was all he said, before flying off, likely shy, in Draacos’s opinion. Everyone looked at each other and ran out of the hut (Except Oblivion, because she would cause a bit of concern). Please tell me nothing bad is happening. Draacos thought worriedly as the group went to Queen Glory’s hut. It was huge and covered in flowers.

Everyone went in, greeted with the Rainwing queen herself, looking worried.

“What’s wrong, your majesty?” Draacos asked, and Glory groaned a bit before speaking. Draacos noticed a female Icewing right next to her, and tried not to pay her mind yet.

“I have been informed by this messenger that the Ice kingdom was just under attack by the Skywings, and I thought, since this is extremely strange for them, especially with Ruby as their queen, you might know something. Like something about those...dragons you mentioned before.” Queen Glory said, her expression only changing slightly.

“Darkwings. Like I’ve said before, they are evil dragons that can corrupt the souls of others, converting them into more of their kind.”

“I need you to tell me everything you can.”

“Fine…” Draacos sighed, clearing his throat, “The darkwings are trapped in an underground tower, with a magical barrier sealing them in, however, the hatch has been opened, and even though only the five or so hybrids could leave it, they are out in Pyrrhia, converting dragons they find. They’ve basically converted the whole sky kingdom, including Ruby. Darkwings do not have any immunities, and can be killed, though it can be difficult. They convert dragons through their own venom, though, strangely, Rainwing venom counters it, making Rainwings immune and impossible to be converted.”

“Well, that is extremely useful information. You’re one of them, correct?”

Draacos was surprised; he never told the queen. Though...he did make it obvious: nobody else would know that much information about them.

“Anything else I should know?” Glory asked, and Draacos nodded.

“The Darkwings created a certain serum, though only one was ever able to be made. They used it on a certain nightwing, who now works for their king, Dracos...my father. That dragon sometimes turns into the form that the serum gave him, called a bloodwing. He’s extremely dangerous, has acidic blood that works like venom, and is completely unstable, with an insatiable bloodlust.”

Glory looked puzzled, when he mentioned the Bloodwing.

“You know this nightwing...don’t you?” She sounded a bit fearful, like she knew the dragon.

Which she likely does, Draacos realized.

“His name is Daggerlight,” Draacos said reluctantly, and Glory gulped, then shook her head and snorted.

“ Him! I had a suspicion it could be him. This whole ‘Bloodwing’ thing makes so much sense in his case. He—”

“We know the story,” Draacos cut off Glory, not wanting his more...squeamish friends any painful thoughts. Dike whined a bit anyway: guess he still remembered it anyway.

“...by the way, aren’t you two short?” Glory asked, and everyone went quiet, most of them looking away from the queen.

“Slate is...she isn’t with us anymore...and Dagex joined the Darkwings after losing her,” Draacos said, trying not to think about it too hard.

Glory frowned, a sympathetic look in her eyes forming, but then turning back to mostly neutral.

“...anyways,” Glory started after a moment, “I would like all of you to investigate the Ice Kingdom. It would help to know if anything bad has happened to their queen.”

Draacos looked at the others, then sighed.

“Alright, we will. Besides, we might be able to get something to help make a cure. We just need a little bit for me to find something to make so we won't freeze to death.”

“Great, you all can go now,” Queen Glory said, and the group of dragons left the hut one by one, flying back to their hut.

“Are we sure the Icewings are infected?” Dike asked, looking at Draacos.

“There’s a chance that they might be ok. I’m pretty sure Vare and Sleet warned them, correct?”

“Mmhmm,” Vare nodded, and Sleet didn’t even look to him. She was working on the warmers they were going to wear to the Ice Kingdom, with Mutespeaker and Rin helping.

“You know, I’m still here, Draacos. You don’t have to treat me like some sort of side character,” Oblivion said to Draacos, annoyed.

“Sorry, Oblivion. I was actually going to bring you along with us, in case Calamity or Scorn is there...or Dagex.”

“What about Daggerlight? What if he’s there?”

Everyone’s heads went up to look at the two Darkwings.

“If Dagger is there, I feel like he’d help us, if he could. We should hope that we run into him.”

“You are completely insane, Draacos!” Sleet yelled at him, “Remember last time? He got Slate killed!”

“He wasn’t able to control himself!”

“He said he was in control!”

Draacos growled, nearly attacking Sleet from how difficult she was acting. She was being even angrier than usual. Something seemed wrong with her.

“Anyways,” she sighed, “the warmers are finished, here.” She tossed Draacos one of the warmers. The warmers were made of wood, which held heated stones wrapped in layers of leaves to keep it on a dragon’s body.

“So Darkwings aren’t immune to the freezing cold?” Vare asked, apparently curious.

“Correct. They are only immune to Bloodwings.”

“Makes sense...they created the serum,” Mutespeaker’s voice echoed.

“All right, everyone ready?” Draacos asked, and everyone nodded. They proceeded to all fly out of the hut and into the air. The warmers were a bit heavy, but were definitely worth it if it meant not dying from the cold.

This better not be what we think it is.

[Dagex]

Dagex panted as he ran out of Scorn’s cave, running in the direction of the throne room. What in the actual three moons just happened?! He screamed internally. He stopped running, too out of energy to do so, and walked through the throne room to get to the lab, where Calamity was working. The Darkwing’s head went up in alert at the sudden dragon entering.

“Hello, Dagex. Um...why are you here?” Calamity asked, blinking a couple times. Dagex gave a few fatigued huffs as he got his breath back.

“First of all, Scorn is insane. Second, I need to talk to you about something.”

“She didn’t...do what I think she did, did she?”

“YES! She’s completely insane! She forced me to mate with her!” Dagex yelled, and Calamity blushed a bit.

“I...we shouldn’t talk about that, ok?” Calamity nodded.

“What do you need to know?”

“How long I have.” Was all Dagex said, (he knew Calamity would know exactly what he was talking about) sighing. Calamity got up and inspected the bite marks, then put a talon on his chin.

“I’d say you have two days until you see any sort of change, and I expect you to fully convert in about thirteen.”

Dagex sighed and turned away from Calamity, then hit the ground with one hard stomp.

“So I have thirteen days of suffering left. That’s a long time, you know.”

“You still want to stop us, don’t you Dagex? You’d rather die than convert.” Calamity gave a grin, and Dagex growled.

“Of course I’d rather die! I’d rather be here, but I want my own will; I want to have at least some sort of freedom.”

“Well, you aren’t supposed to be like that. Alllllso, don’t go yet. Honestly, Dracos wanted me to give you something.” Calamity’s grin went wider.

“Something for your next mission.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 17

[Draacos]

It was a long fly to the Ice kingdom (mainly due to the added weight); the sun was three quarters of the way set. Everyone was silent as they flew, something Draacos missed. Slate was the one who would talk the most as the group flew, and while some of them, like Sleet and Vare, would groan and not converse; the others, like Dagex… would happily talk with the Skywing.

They were the liveliest of us all. Why did we have to lose them! Draacos thought, trying not to show anything. He still felt guilty about both of them. Slate, for not pushing through and trying to catch up to Daggerlight; and Dagex, for not looking for him to try and help him. Both of them would’ve been fine if he wasn’t so tired at the time. It was all his fault.

He shook his head; something else was going on. He needed to know if the Icewings were ok.

“We’re here, time to land,” Sleet called as they flew right into the kingdom, and they slowly flew down, arriving at a small village. No damage or bloodshed could be noticed, and Draacos sighed in relief. He looked to Sleet, who looked nervous.

“Anyone you know live here?” He asked, and to his suprise, she didn’t get all defensive like he thought.

“My brother. I need to see if he’s here. Or anyone, for that matter.”

Draacos looked around, seeing a total of absolutely zero Icewings.

“Where did they all go?” Dike asked, not whining for once.

“Usually, if darkwings actually knock out a dragon, they just leave it laying wherever they put it. They don’t like moving bodies, so I assume that they flew towards the palace for safety. They might be ok after all.” Oblivion stated.

Draacos was glad to hear there was some hope, especially after everything he and everyone else had been through.

“Well, let’s get over there as soon as possible,” Draacos said, and flew up, with everyone quickly following.

They still didn’t see a single Icewing on the way, and the group decided to rest for a minute inside of the houses in another abandoned village. They lit a campfire and got around it.

“Glad these things work,” Vare admired the warmers, “though they are kinda heavy.”

“Of course they are, Vare. We didn’t have many options. I mean, it’s not like we have a dragon that could have made us some better heating equipment, right? Or even warm us up or something?”

Everyone looked down as soon as Sleet said that.

“Like Slate…” Rin said, curling up. For the first time ever (as far as Draacos knew), Sleet actually looked as if she completely forgot, and was actually apologetic about it.

“Sorry…” she said, “I forgot…”

The next hour was complete silence until they got ready and went back to traveling towards the palace.

And for once, everything seemed normal. The group saw guards to the palace area, Icewings flying around...everything looked fine. The guards pointed their spears, mainly at the single skywing in their group.

“Halt! What is your business?” One of the Icewings asked.

“We were sent here by Queen Glory. We’re here to investigate the skywing attack.” Draacos answered, impassively but still in that sort of knightly way. The guards looked at each other for a moment.

“Draacos, correct?” Draacos nodded.

“Alright, you may enter. We will take you to the queen, if needed.”

“Of course it will. I need to explain to her the situation we’re all in.”

With that, the group was taken to Queen Snowfall.

“Sooo you’re the ones Glory sent? Weird set of dragons, if you ask me.” Snowfall said, apparently not amused.

Draacos explained about the darkwings, and basically everything he said to Glory about them.

“Sounds like a load of nonsense to me, but...can’t say It’s impossible. Those skywings looked possessed by something; they weren’t normal, even for them.” Snowfall spoke to them.

“...it may be a good idea for you all to stay here a while...in case they attack again.”

“Yes, that seems like the best thing we can do at the moment.” Sleet agreed, then cleared her throat. “Queen Snowfall, I’d like to see my brother. Could you tell me where he is right now?”

The Icewing Queen looked at Sleet for a moment before rolling her eyes.

“Infirmary area. He’s helping take care of dragon injured by the Skywings.”

Sleet bowed to the Queen before running off, with Vare and Rin yelling at her then following, as to protect her (cuz dey r gud boyos uwu).

“How many were bitten?” Draacos asked, worried.

The Queen simply responded with one word, “Three.”

“You need to lock them up before they turn. If you don’t, then all of the kingdom will be in danger.”

Oblivions head perked up, and she tapped Draacos on the shoulder. Everyone looked at them.

“ What’s wrong? ” Mutespeaker’s said.

A loud scream was heard from the end of the hallway.

“We will go check it out,” Oblivion said, running in the direction of the scream; everyone following except for the queen. They ran all the way out to a balcony past the stairs that went to the lower floors, only to see an Icewing thrown past them. It was so fast that none of the dragons got to see what happened. Blood dripped from above them, a bit falling onto Dike’s snout. The seawing yelped and hid behind Mutespeaker (not a good hiding place, obviously). Draacos carefully went farther out. The moment Draacos was close enough, a dragon came down, tackling him, then nearly throwing him off the balcony before Draacos pushed the bleeding, blackish-red dragon off.

“Bloodshed?!” He yelled, and the dragon smiled. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was dripping blood from so many different wounds, especially the neck, due to Daggerlight impaling him during the last time Draacos saw Bloodshed.

“What? Aren’t ya happy to see me, bud?” Bloodshed laughed.

“Why in three moons are you here?” Oblivion shouted.

“We’re just here to pick up a few followers.”

The bitten Icewings, Draacos knew, but the first part was the strange part.

“ We? Who’s with you? Scorn, Calamity, or both of them?”

“Calamity would never go on this kind of mission, and Scorn is busy with...other things.” He scoffed.

She must be acting like a spoiled brat again, I bet. Draacos didn’t need to worry about those two then. But then, who could it be? Daggerlight wouldn’t do this kind of mission either. Bloodshed is bluffing isn't he?

It dawned on Draacos, whose face went white, making Bloodshed give a demonic laugh as he realized what was going on.

“Oblivion, go warn Sleet and the others,” He started.

“Dagex is here with him.”

[Sleet]

The three dragons came into The infirmary quickly, with Sleet running as fast as she could. As soon as she saw a light grayish Icewing, she shouted at him.

“Kelvin!” She shouted, and when the dragon turned around, she hugged him with her wings. The dragon was extremely surprised, of course.

“Sl-Sleet? What are you doing here, aren’t you supposed to be at the academy?” Kelvin whispered to her, concerned.

“Long story, here to investigate the Skywing thingy with my friends.”

Kelvin nearly shot Rin and Vare with frostbreath as they came in, but Sleet stopped him.

“ Those are some of my friends.” Sleet smiled and hugged her brother tighter.

“She’s acting so...weird,” Vare whispered to Rin, who nodded slightly in response.

The moment was ruined by a scream, though it was quiet from where they were.

“Must have found a snake or something,” Kelvin sighed, “it’s probably nothing.”

Sleet heard faint wingbeats coming from the other side of the wall, and  saw a faint black light glowing through.

“GET DOWN!” She yelled, breaking her hug and pushing Kelvin out of the way as Dagex phased through the wall, flying past the two like lightning with his claws out, which slashed onto Sleet’s back with immense force. She roared as blood was splattered. The claws didn’t go extremely deep, but there was quite the bit of blood. The other 2 medic dragons were ready to shoot frost at Dagex, but the nightwing threw a glass container of something. It shattered and a light, frost-like fog covered the room. After only a few seconds it was gone, but the Icewings couldn’t shoot their own frost. Kelvin tried as well, but nothing came out.

It was like all the Icewings had been stolen of their own abilities.

“What in three moons are you doing here!” Vare shouted, running to Sleet.

“And why would you hurt Sleet!?” Rin said, backing up from Dagex, who was surprisingly shaking.

“Why are all of you here! I didn’t want to hurt anyone, I’m just here to get those three Icewings that the Skywings bit.”

“Kelvin,” Sleet whispered, “get out of here. I’ll be ok, trust me. I’m going to find you and bring you back to our base. You’ll be safe there.”

“Wait, I can’t leave here.” He tried to respond, but Sleet just gave a slight smile.

“Get out of here, brother. It’s not safe here.”

Kelvin gulped, but reluctantly flew out of the room and through the hall. Vare helped Sleet back up as Dagex threw another container, this one acting like some sort of smoke bomb. It clouded the room in gray fog, and by the time it was cleared, Dagex was gone, along with one of the injured Icewings. The medic dragons screamed, and Everyone else looked to see what else Dagex had done.

The other two injured dragons weren’t injured anymore.

Their throats had been slit.

They were dead.

Chapter Text

Chapter 18

[Draacos]

In the blink of an eye, Bloodshed had vanished into thin air. Draacos, Dike, and Mutespeaker shook their heads; it was like the Darkwing was never there in the first place. The three decided to run to the infirmary.

When everyone went to the infirmary, they were shocked at what they saw (Except for Kelvin, who decided not to leave and followed Draacos and the others); Sleet injured heavily, and two dead dragons, which Draacos could identify as the Icewings who were bit. One was missing though.

Dagex was here, wasn’t he…

They came in just as Sleet was set onto a bed by Vare. Draacos walked up to the pair, along with Kelvin. Dike, Mutespeaker, Oblivion, and Rin decided to leave to find where exactly the group was likely going to stay for the next few days.

“What in three moons happened here?” Draacos asked, calmly. He knew why, but needed to make sure.

“Dagex was here.” Vare responded, “He nearly killed Sleet.”

At the mention of her name, Sleet groaned, starting to wake. She didn’t try to get up; all she did was open her eyes to see everyone, then gave a faint smile. Several Icewings came in after a bit to help clean up the blood in the room.

“Why didn’t you leave? I told you to go,” Sleet said, still smiling.

“I can’t leave, I am a medic, after all. I can heal you up...besides, I-I knew those dragons would leave eventually.”

Sleet chuckled, “Kelvin, we both know I’m supposed to be the smart one here.”

They both smiled and nuzzled each other.

“I’m glad you didn’t listen to me, honestly. I realize you would be safer here.”

Sleet frowned all of a sudden before she spoke again.

“Draacos, you do realize that you have to leave me here for a while, right? You need to be able to see when and where the Darkwings are going to attack next. I won’t heal for at least a few days, which is too long for all of you to be resting.”

Everyone went silent, with Vare in particular looking away.

“Sleet, we’re still going to visit while you heal. We can’t just abandon you.” Draacos said.

“When I’m all healed up, you can come get me. Just make sure those demons don’t come back here, ok?” Sleet smiled, then winced as Kelvin started wrapping her back in something like a giant bandage.

“I’ll be ok, Draacos. You need to do everything you can to get Dagex back.”

Draacos nodded, and smiled.

“I will, don’t you worry about that. We will come back for you.”

Draacos nodded to Vare, and they exited the infirmary to get the others.

|Time is ticking. I wish I could go back...then I could change our Future.|

[Dagex]

“Hey, can you carry this guy?” Dagex asked the Darkwing next to him, who smiled at him and pulled the unconscious Icewing off of Dagex’s back and onto his.

“Too bad we couldn’t get the other two,” Bloodshed said, snorting, “It’s also really bad that you just left them there, Rookie.”

“Don’t call me that. Also, I didn’t just leave them there: I killed them.”

Bloodshed grinned, nudging Dagex with a wing and nearly making him lose balance for a moment.

“Well then good job! Not good to have rabid Darkwings in a kingdom...especially when they’d likely get locked up before they being able to do anything.”

Dagex barely listened to Bloodshed as the two were flying; Bloodshed was the kind of dragon to just keep talking.

“Sooo,” He grinned wider, “I heard what happened with—”

“Bring that up, and I get my dad to kill you for good.” Dagex glared at Bloodshed, who, surprisingly, shut up.

I guess he is scared of father. Then again, I would be too if I was impaled through the neck by him. He has such a horrifying past, yet he doesn’t seem nearly as bad as everyone thinks. At least, most of the time …

Dagex was lost in his thoughts for the rest of the flight.

He killed Slate though. That’s something I don’t think I can ever forgive him for. He may not be as evil as I’ve read about, but he’s still a terrible dragon. I need to remember that.

Dagex didn’t notice when his eyes teared up and his claws clenched. More of his scales turned pitch black, and a strange feeling of fury was seeping into him. He saw Bloodshed smiling, and realized what he was doing. He shook his head, looking away from Bloodshed.

Don’t think about it. That’s turning you into them . If you continue thinking about her, it’s just going to speed everything up. You don’t want to be a Darkwing, but now, you can’t leave them. You’re caught in the trap Dracos has made. All you need to do is wait it out, and pray that time is on your side.

The two swooped down slowly once the Darkwing tower came into view. Bloodshed went in first, and Dagex followed.

“Only one?” Dracos muttered, waiting for the two in the entrance room of the tower.

“ He killed the other two, don’t worry your majesty,” Bloodshed smiled, gesturing to Dagex.

“Well, good job. I thought you were going to fail again...I was actually kind of hoping to cut something off of you.”

Dagex gulped, not wanting to think of whatever Dracos would’ve done to him if he failed. He should be glad he succeeded, at least. He groaned as his neck started to sting. Once he was dismissed by Dracos, he went right to his cave. Xixo wasn’t there for once, which gave Dagex some much needed alone time.

I have three options right now. One: I wait this all out, even if I know it’s impossible. Two: I die, right here and now...with my entire life having no impact on the world; good or bad. Or three: I submit and convert, eventually killing my friends...or getting killed by time. Dagex sighed, curling up in the corner of the cave.

~It’s impossible to go back, But is the future even worth fighting for?~

[Rainshard (OOOOOH FINALLY)]

“Rainshard, you can’t just leave!” Sirocco tried to convince the young Rainwing. Rainshard had been going on about leaving the academy to find her father and brother. She was persistent: something unusual for her.

“But I need to find Dagex! And father! I need to help them, Sirocco, I need to,” Rainshard said. She sounded so serious now. It was a strange thing, even for Rainshard herself. She felt a bit strange, but, to her, in a good way. She had a surge of confidence and willpower that practically eliminated most of her worries and fears ever since her father started talking to her in her head. He kept saying how she can be a better dragon: one that faces their problems without turning back at the last second. He knew she could be a powerful dragon; that she could be a shining hope amongst the madness that was currently unfolding. He told her not to tell anyone at the academy, since Dagex’s friends had already warned the school (and about the barrier protecting the school).

“Rainshard, there’s a barrier around the academy. You’re safe in here!” (-_- Sirocco...I just mentioned that. I will end your existence REEEEEEE)

“They need me, Sirocco. They’re in danger, and I can help them. I discussed this with Mr.Clay and he told Ms.Sunny. They said they didn’t want me to leave, but since I’m related to Dagex, they understood. I guess they could see I had something special about me.”

Sirocco hugged Rainshard, almost crying.

“I’ll be fine, trust me,” Rainshard assured her friend.

“Can’t I at least come with you? I don’t want to be left behind like this…”

Rainshard thought for a minute, trying to think of the best way to get Sirocco to stay, but she couldn’t think of anything. Sirocco was her best friend at the academy...and her only true friend, at that. She just wouldn’t feel right leaving her so suddenly.

“...Alright. You can come with me.”

The sandwings eyes lit up. “Thanks Rainshard. I mean, you’re kind of like a little sister to me...okay, not really, but you’re a great friend, even though your, like, a year or so younger than me.” Sirocco paused her words for a couple minutes, getting her things (Rainshard already packed). “You have all your things, right Rainshard?” (Sirocco I swear to Chuthulu I will Yeet you out of this story.)

Rainshard nodded, and the two of them went out the window, looking back at the academy one last time as they flew away.

“Where do we go, exactly?” Sirocco asked, and Rainshard thought for a moment.

“First, we find a cave to sleep for the night, and we figure out where to go later.”

Sirocco looked over at the Claws of the clouds mountains, and the two swooped down to find somewhere to sleep in. It was turning night, but it would be a while before they would need to sleep. Rainshard picked out a smaller, but more hidden cave at the base, mostly covered by vines at the entrance. The two went in, and Rainshard layed down right on the ground.

§The future will carry us. Whatever despair is coming, Hope is going to Prevail!§

|No! We can still change the Future!|

~I have to fight, or I won’t have a Future!~

§We will prevail, All of us ! We control our Future!§

Chapter Text

Section 3: A Dragon with Two Hopes.

Chapter 19

[Dagex]

After so long, Dagex heard a voice in his head. Not Xixo, not his father. It was even more familiar, like his own. Same exact voidish area, different voice...it was weird. All Dagex could hear was faint laughing, which soon grew louder and louder as a completely black dragon came from out of nowhere. In all honesty, Dagex was starting to get irritated with how many voices he’s had to put up with recently, or at least the ones in his head.

“So what’s your deal, exactly?” Dagex sighed. With all the dragons he’s met inside his head, he just accepted that pretty much anybody with any sort of powers could get in there with ease.

“Eh, not a big deal. Just a part of your conscious is all.” The black dragon smiled.

“...the Darkwing virus. You’re supposed to symbolize the Darkwing virus, aren’t you?”

“What else would I be, exactly?”

Dagex gave a small chuckle. At least it had a sense of humor, unlike the others.

Maybe I really would fit in here .

Before anything else could really happen, Dagex was woken by Bloodshed, who was grinning from ear to ear as always. He got Dagex to his feet and led him all the way to a dungeon sort of room, though it only had two cells. One of those cells had a blue and black Icewing: the one Dagex and Bloodshed had retrieved on their mission.

The Icewing was thrashing about at the iron bars, trying everything to get out.

“Let me out! I’m dying in here!” He screamed, his voice sounding like he was in the process of being possessed. Bloodshed turned to Dagex, still grinning.

“You see that, Dagex? This is what the virus does. Soon enough, you’re going to turn out just like this Icewing here.”

Dagex only perked up a bit, his eyes wide. He knew the virus would turn him evil and all, but he didn’t think about it making him go insane like that. He started to breath heavily.

“Yep, you’re going to go absolutely crazy at some point. Though with how you act, It’s going to be so fun to see what you do once you’re at that point.” Bloodshed laughed, then looked at Dagex slowly backing up out of the cave. Dagex didn’t realize he was still practically panting. The thoughts of how doomed he really is was all he could think about. He didn’t even pay any mind to the fact his vision was failing him.

“Hey, it’s not such a big deal, stop that.” Bloodshed shook him a bit, but Dagex kept at it.

“Snap out of it, you idiot!” Bloodshed struck Dagex on the head with the back of his claw, knocking Dagex out in the process.

[Daggerlight]

Daggerlight was walking around the tower. It was what he always did when...well he pretty much walked everywhere if he wasn’t doing anything for the king. His thoughts were broken as he heard a loud smack nearby. He turned the corner to see Bloodshed in the hall next to the dungeon where the Icewing was kept, along with a limp Dagex.

“What in three moons did you do to my son!?” Dagger screamed as he ran up to Bloodshed, ramming a horn into his side. Bloodshed winced in pain as Dagger pulled his horn out.

“I-I didn’t do anything! He was hyperventilating and I was just trying to get him to stop. He wouldn’t listen so I kn-knocked him out so he wouldn’t, you know, die from that.”

“I don’t think you can exactly die like that, but you better get out of my sight before I kill you .”

Bloodshed gulped and immediately ran off, terrified of Daggerlight (I mean, he is a scary dragon after all :/).

Daggerlight muttered to himself and picked up Dagex, putting the unconscious dragonet on his back and heading to Dagex’s room.

“By the three moons I hate that little pest. I should’ve buried him after I killed him the first time.” Dagger kicked a rock aside as he continued to mumble.

After a little while, Dagger arrived at Dagex’s cave. He went right in and laid Dagex down the top bed.

“Bloodshed made him see the Icewing,” Xixo said, tired, “Dagex must have realized...or Bloodshed told him, that he was going to end up like that.”

“You think he would have freaked out like he apparently did?”

Xixo nodded, “In his current situation, I’m positive he would.”

Dagger sighed, resting a wing over his son for a moment, before turning and leaving the cave.

[Dagex]

He was inside his head again. Something was very different, however. Everything was blurry, and he couldn’t think correctly. The last thing Dagex remembered was seeing the Icewing, but that was it.

He couldn’t remember anything after that...or much before that either.

“Dawww, look how easy you’re making it,” A voice chimed. Dagex’s vision was too blurry to see who it was, but he didn’t exactly care. He was confused; nothing else. “Come on idiot, you just passed out, right?” It laughed, bopping Dagex on the head and getting a groan in response. “I mean, you didn’t lose any brain cells, did you? Then again, I wouldn’t be here if you did !” The strange dragon just stared at Dagex for a bit. All Dagex could do was listen: he couldn’t even move. The dragon gave a chuckle, before resting a talon under Dagex’s chin.

“Well, you don’t ever have to do anything again. I’m just gonna take control from now on, ok?” Dagex didn’t respond, though he didn’t understand even remotely. The strange dragon just laughed again, though it sounded lower this time.

Dagex didn’t realize, but his scales were rapidly turning a deep, pitch black, with about a couple dozen turning a bright neon pink, his spines turning the same color.

Xixo got up, hearing groans from Dagex. When he looked at Dagex’s new color-scheme, he looked shocked. Eventually, Dagex stopped groaning, and yawned, stretching and getting up to see Xixo. The new Darkwing blinked, then pushed Xixo away from him, making him fall onto his back with a thud.

“You wanna kiss me or something?” Dagex chuckled. He felt so powerful like this, like he could destroy just about anything, maybe even enough to do some genocide (Just don’t have a bad— [NO! Bad IRL Dagger!]).

Dagex jumped off of his bed and rolled his neck a bit, before walking right out of the cave.

“Calamity!” Dagex shouted when he got to the lab. He wanted to see if he could help the hybrid with his...whatever dragons are physically able to do with all that weird sciency stuff. The stripe horned Darkwing poked his head from behind something.

“Yes Dagex? I’m kind of...wait a minute,” Calamity rushed over, a look of excitement slowly growing on his face. “How did the conversion speed up so quickly? And what’s with the pink?”

Dagex looked at himself in a mirror nearby, looking at the random patches of neon pink scales. He focused on them a bit and they lit up a little.

“Ooooh,” they both said.

“Guess it’s to make me stand out from all the others.”

“That would make sense. Oh ya, why did you come over here?”

Dagex smiled, playfully stabbing Calamity in the back with his claw, though not deep. The two laughed, Calamity not paying any mind to the fact he was bleeding (I mean, the Darkwings dont NEED to worry about petty fleshwounds), as the wound was already starting to heal itself.

“I wanted to see if I could help you with your…”

“Science?”

“Ya, that thing. I wanted to help.”

Calamity sighed, “You have no idea how any of this stuff works. It’s very complicated for us dragons, and I’ve trained for years to do these things...sorry Dagex.”

Dagex rolled his eyes, “Alriiiight, fine. I’m gonna go see what everyone else is doing then.”

“Scorn and Bloodshed are already gone. They’re going to plant some traps in the Seawing kingdom.” This got Dagex grinning.

“I could help! What kind of traps are they setting?”

“The traps will raise the PH level of the water, making it more acidic and unsuitable for the Seawings and contaminate the entire area and contain them until they decide to inevitably come to the surface.”

Dagex blinked, and Calamity groaned, putting a claw on his snout in annoyance.

“We’re going to flush out the Seawings by taking their water away from them, then convert them one by one as they come to land.”

“I’m going right now!” Dagex said, rushing out and flying to the tower exit.

As he got to the exit, however, he was blown back after hitting an invisible wall.

“Wh-What?!” He yelled, trying to ram the invisible wall multiple times. “Let me out!”

“You can’t leave.” Xixo said behind him. Dagex turned to look at him, growling.

“What in three moons do you mean I can’t leave! What did you do!?”

“Dagex, this is your fault. You’re a full Darkwing now like the majority of us. You aren’t a Nightwing in any way now. The barrier doesn’t allow Darkwings to exit the tower, which also means converted Darkwings on the outside cannot enter the tower either.”

Dagex didn’t believe Xixo. It couldn’t be true. He tried to phase through the barrier, but his pendent didn’t glow...in fact, he didn’t see it on him. It vanished into thin air.

“It went away due to the choices you made. There’s no denying it Dagex, you’re trapped with all of us.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 20

“What?! That’s impossible!” Dagex roared, and Xixo rolled his eyes.

“Dagex, an animus enchanted the tower so that no pure darkwing could leave. That only excludes the hybrids: Draacos, Scorn, Oblivion, Bloodshed, and Calamity...and anyone who is currently converting, but not yet completed...so technically your father counts.”

Dagex didn’t care about if he could leave, he WANTED to leave! He rammed the entrance a few more times, his wings getting beaten up from the sheer force he was trying to use; small drops of blood dripping from the wounded wings. Dagex gave a few heavy breaths, flying back down and roaring again.

“How am I supposed to be useful like this?! Why would the king do this to me if he needed me?”

“Go ask him yourself. He might just be able to do something about it.”

“...you mean he could alter my DNA or something?” Dagex asked, smiling. Xixo paused for quite a few moments before answering.

“The futures say he can, but I can’t see a single one that will directly help you. I think you should just stay in the tower like the rest of us.”

“NO! I’m going to help!” Dagex yelled before sprinting to the throne room and barging right in.

“What in three moon—” King Dracos gasped, looking as if he just watched his tribe commit mass genocide.

“Well~” he chimed, “Didn’t think it was going to go so quickly. What in three moons happened Dagex?” Dagex glared at the King, who was still giving the biggest grin in the whole world.

“I CAN’T LEAVE THE TOWER, YOU IDIOT!” Dagex screamed at the top of his lungs, his pink scales glowing brightly. Dracos rolled his eyes, flicking Dagex with his tail.

“I’m going to ignore the fact you called me that, Dagex. You’re new after all. First, the glowing pink things are new...they look kind of weird, but good on you. Second, all converts are pure darkwings. Only hatched dragons can be hybrids.”

“Can’t you just alter me? Make me a hybrid!” Dagex demanded.

“Well, here’s the thing. I can do that, but it requires a dragon egg to do so. I need one to be able to absorb its DNA into you, though all that will happen is you will gain the tribe of the dragon inside the egg, as its brain has not developed yet.”

Dagex groaned, hanging his head down.

“Luckily for you, however,” Dracos started, and Dagex’s head perked up, confused,

“Some eggs are soon to arrive.”

[Draacos]

Draacos and the others were at their rainforest hut. None of them had found any sort of Darkwing activity since Bloodshed and Dagex attacked the Ice kingdom and stole an Icewing.

“Even the Skywings haven’t tried to attack anyone, it looks like. It’s so strange; it’s like they haven’t even left the tower.” Mutespeaker’s voice echoed.

“Maybe they’ve been watching the Icewing they stole?” Dike suggested.

“Or they are out there, and we aren't looking hard enough,” Vare snorted.

“Unlikely...Scorn and Bloodshed aren't stealthy dragons, and Calamity does his best to stay inside the tower. He’s basically one of the only darkwings that aren’t snail-brained.” Draacos said, then groaned as he scratched his head using his tail.

I mean, they could be hiding if Dagex is with them. Though I doubt they would listen to him. Draacos thought with a sigh.

“Wait, where’s Rin?” Vare asked, and everybody looked around for the Mudwing.

“Was he with anyone?” Oblivion said, glaring at Vare.

“Yes! He was with me! He must’ve lost track of me or something.”

Surprisingly, the group heard knocks on the door, and Vare opened it to reveal the Mudwing, with two dragons behind him.

“Rin! Where did you go?” Vare scolded.

“And who are they ?” Dike added, backing up a bit.

One of the dragons was a yellowish-white sandwing with no real distinguishing features; she looked ordinary. The other, however, looked very familiar: a smaller Rainwing dragonet, possibly only three years old. The rainwing leaped at Draacos, which made him nearly attack the dragonet from the startle.

“Where’s my brother? You’re his friends, right? Where is he!?” The rainwing cried.

Rainshard? Doesn’t she go to the academy? Isn’t she…

Draacos’ face went pale, a frown coming as he looked away from Rainshard.

“Where is he?” She repeated, worried after seeing Draacos’s face. He put the dragonet down.

“So you all know her?” The sandwing asked.

“A little, but mainly her brother,” Vare responded, “You?”

“I’m Sirocco, her best friend. We left the academy to find all of you...well, mostly Dagex.”

“I didn’t see him anywhere in the Rainforest, and when the Mudwing found us and led us to you guys, he didn’t answer me about Dagex. What happened? Why isn’t he here!?”

Rainshard looked like she was going to cry. Draacos could she that this dragonet was smart when it came to these things...or at least, she could put two and two together. Draacos stared at the now dark green Rainwing. If she knew about the Darkwings, maybe it would’ve been easier to break the news to her.

But she doesn’t. I...I can’t just tell her that her brother isn’t with us. She’ll take it the wrong way…

“R-Rainshard,” Draacos started, the dragonet turning a light blue of worry. Draacos knew how hard this was going to be. “He...he ran away from us. We don’t know where he is, but I know he’ll come back.”

Well, at least I found better words than ‘he’s not with us anymore’. At least now she won’t think he’s dead.

“Well then we have to go find him right now!” Rainshard yelled at Draacos, trying to pull the bigger dragon.

“Rainshard, we don’t know where to look—”

“I WANNA FIND MY BROTHER!” Rainshard roared and bit Draacos on the leg, getting venom on the hybrid in a moderate dose. He roared in pain, Vare and Sirocco pulling Rainshard off as quickly as possible.

“Rainshard what are you doing!?” Sirocco yelled, hugging the poor dragonet, both of them with tears in their eyes. The venom had splashed just above Draacos’s leg as well, but clearly it wasn’t going to be fatal, though he didn’t know enough about Rainwing venom affecting his tribe to know how much of a problem it was going to be. He tried to keep standing, but the pain burned too badly, and he collapsed onto the ground, wincing.

Vare and Sirocco continued to try and calm Rainshard, while the others went to tend to Draacos.

“Are you ok?” Dike asked, looking at his leg. It was all burned and wounded, most likely unusable for a long time.

“Of course he isn’t!” Oblivion slapped Dike with her tail, making the Seawing give out a small ‘oof’. “His leg is practically useless!” She got down and whispered to Draacos, “You don’t know what Rainwing venom does to us, do you?”

Draacos shook his head, and Oblivion sighed.

“For us Darkwings, Rainwing venom destroys the regeneration cells wherever it hits. Wherever you get hit by that venom, is never going to recover.”

“What?!” Draacos yelled, trying to stand but, again, falling back down to the floor.

Everyone looked at him, besides those who went outside to calm Rainshard.

“So you can’t regenerate from Rainwing venom? It negates the process?” Mutespeaker repeated, a bit puzzled.

“Correct...as far as I know. One good shot, most likely the head or the heart, and down goes the Darkwing...but there is a catch. You’ll obviously kill the dragon that was converted into said Darkwing, though killing by normal means would do the same.”

“So we need to use her to kill Dracos?” Dike asked, and the others looked at him.

“Yes, Dike. We don’t have any other choice. We need to train her... she has to be the one to kill the king.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Chapter Text

Chapter 21

“She...she’s too young though, right?” Rin asked, concerned like everyone else.

She was only three years old, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t ready to be trained.

But at this point, we don’t exactly have much of a choice. She’s related to Dagex, so she has to be important to us…

“Draacos?” Rin poked him on the head.

“Oh. She’s not too young to start training, Rin. But I do think it’s too soon for her to try and kill Dracos,” Draacos said.

Rin, Oblivion, Dike and Mutespeaker had helped Draacos to his bed so he could rest.

“I think we might as well get some rest. We start training tomorrow.”

Everyone nodded, and Draacos smiled. “We’re getting close, I can feel it,” he whispered to himself before closing his eyes and drifting of to sleep.

[Dagex]

The next day started immediately with Dagex being hooked up to some strange contraption; something he’d never seen anything like before.

Darkwings really are intelligent dragons, aren't they?

Dracos, as well as Scorn, had hooked him up and were in the room with him. A large container with an egg in it, presumably Scorns, was above him, the container having a small hole and a bulb at the end.

“What is this thing, exactly?” Dagex asked, getting a mocking snort from Scorn. Dracos whacked the female with his wing.

“To put it simply, this will export the DNA of the dragonet inside that egg into you. If it’s true that Scorn here…*cough* did what I was told you did,” the king paused, smacking Scorn with a claw, “Then this will have some of your Nightwing DNA in it, meaning you will be able to leave the tower.”

“Why don’t you just use it on yourself?”

“I don’t want other dragons voices in my head.” Dracos spat.

With that, Dracos pulled a lever, and a light hit Dagex, filling him with a sharp, searing pain, like he was being burned alive.

“Oh ya, forgot to mention that the procedure is incredibly painful. Sorry about that, Dagex.” Dracos said, grinning.

It didn’t take long for the whole thing to be over, and Dagex was stripped off of the device, groaning. Everything felt weird, and his pink scales kept glowing brightly.

“How do you feel, Zephyr?” Dracos asked, still grinning.

“H-huh?”

“Your new Darkwing name.”

“Oh...I feel weird, honestly.”

Dracos pat Zephyr on the head, who smiled. Zephyr realized immediately that he was able to leave the tower, and grinned hard.

“I can go help the others now, right?”

“If they aren’t finished...which I doubt they would be, knowing those t— SCORN! WHY AREN'T YOU AT THE SEA KINGDOM?!”

“...because I thought we were supposed to be back by dark—”

Zephyr watched as Dracos rammed his claw up into her…(Ya, I don’t think I can say it), and Sliced it upwards, causing Scorn to roar in both pain and pleasure.

“Sick…” Zephyr muttered. Dracos stuck his claw into Scorns underbelly, and tossed her into the wall, breaking her spine from the sheer force.

“Useless whore. She deserves to visit the underworld for a while.” Dracos growled, looking to Zephyr, who was completely impassive.

“Sorry you had to see that, Zephyr. She’s dumber than a mudwing.” Dracos said, spitting at the dragon corpse. “She’ll start regenerating after a while...maybe then she won’t be so stupid.”

“I mean, I’m not going to complain with her gone, your majesty.” Both dragons smirked.

“You and Calamity will continue the mission. You might want to fetch him for me and leave the tower as soon as you possibly can.”

“And if I run into your son and his friends?” Zephyr asked, and Dracos went silent for quite a while, about a couple minutes. Zephyr simply waited for the King to respond.

“Run away and get back to the tower. I don’t think an untrained Darkwing and a dragon like Calamity could take them alone.”

Zephyr nodded, and after Dracos excused him, he left to go find Calamity in the lab.

Of course, he was there just like always.

“Calamity, we have to continue the mission in the sea; the idiots didn’t even try to finish.” Zephyr spoke up, and Calamity groaned as he came from a corner. He grabbed a big, thick container of something red and went over to Zephyr.

“Fine, but it’s going to be extremely boring.” Calamity sighed, already beginning to walk out, before Daggerlight stepped right in front of him, making the Darkwing yelp.

“D-Dagger? What brings you here?” Calamity asked, shaking a bit.

“I’m coming with you two. I need to have a talk him ,” Daggerlight glared at Zephyr, using his tail to point at him. Zephyr snorted at Daggerlight, glaring back. “I told the king I was going with you, and he didn’t object.”

“Fine,” Calamity said reluctantly. Zephyr walked past the two, leading the way out of the tower so he didn’t have to look at his father.

The three flew right out the tower entrance, staying low to the ground as they headed towards the sea.

[Rainshard]

“What do you mean she has to fight?” Sirocco asked, concerned, “She’s just a dragonet, and so are the rest of us!”

“All we want is to save Pyrrhia, Sirocco, and Rainshard can help us succeed.” Draacos answered, and Oblivion backed him up, “Furthermore, Dagex and his father are majorly important in all this...it would be idiotic to assume Rainshard isn’t as well, due to their relation.”

Sirocco sighed, and Rainshard, who was sitting next to the Sandwing, could see a tear in her eyes.

Sirocco always helped Rainshard at the academy when she was depressed. She helped the little Rainwing with her homework, reading, all that stuff (even though Rainshard didn’t care much about those things). After she met her brother...and finding out he had to leave the academy, Sirocco always comforted her, telling her that Dagex and his friends would come back at some point...that Rainshard would see him again.

But she knew better than to believe that. She wanted to, but knew it wouldn’t be that simple. The two had snuck out of the academy, probably worrying everyone there, but Sirocco insisted to help Rainshard find her brother, as dangerous as it may be with the reports of strange dragons in the continent. Rainshard wasn’t paying attention to the bigger dragons talking, but walked over into a corner, the one with the smaller Nightwing with the chalkboard thing around his neck. He looked down at her as she sat next to him and smiled, which she did back. He was strangely quiet, which she liked, but it was weird to have an item like hanging from him.

“Why do you have that thing?” Rainshard asked the Nightwing, poking the board. It had a little writing utensil hanging next to it. The nightwing picked it up and started to write on it: I can’t speak. My mom enchanted this so I could communicate.

Rainshard was confused and intrigued. The Nightwing tapped the board twice and the writing disappeared, then he wrote more.

Draacos used his magic on my to speak through my brain, but only to him as Dagex’s friends, so I still have to use this to talk to other dragons. I’m Mutespeaker, by the way.

The two dragons shook claws, with Rainshard thinking his name would have made his condition extremely obvious.

“Can you tell me where Dagex is? The mean guy- er, Draacos, won’t tell me. I know he’s lying.”

Rainshard was surprised nobody could hear them; the other dragons were arguing about training her. She looked to Mutespeaker as he began writing again.

We don’t know. Draacos didn’t know how to tell you, since he thought you would take it the wrong way. Though, Dagex had a fight with us, and that’s why he’s not here. He basically ran away from us.

Rainshard frowned. It was possible for Dagex to come back, but in her opinion, it wasn’t likely.

“Did the other Skywing go with him? Where is she? ” Rainshard pondered aloud to the Nightwing, who gave a face of dismay.

She...she’s the reason Dagex had a fight with us. He left because of her. She...she’s dead, Mutespeaker wrote, and Rainshard gasped.

“Can’t Draacos just bring her back?” Mutespeaker paused for a while, looking at Draacos, then went to writing.

I don’t think animus magic works like that...and, I know what you’re thinking, and no, even if it’s possible, it won’t bring Dagex back to us.

The two went completely silent, and waited for the other dragons to finish talking. It took a while, but they stopped arguing, Draacos walking up to Rainshard.

“Come on, it’s time for us to train,” Draacos said, and Rainshard followed him outside, the others coming out as well.

“We can’t do training here, you know,” Oblivion said, looking at Draacos, who rolled his eyes.

“I know that. We’re going somewhere else to train. Rin is getting the training dummy.”

“Where are we going?” Rainshard asked.

“To the beach along the Sea kingdom. We leave in an hour.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 22

[Dagex/Zephyr]

The three dragons landed on the beach, with Calamity panting as he put the container down.

“What’s in there, anyway?” Zephyr asked, staring at it.

“Bloodwing acid, snail-brain. What else would it be?” Daggerlight answered, nearly whipping Zephyr with his tail. “We are going to pour all of it around the area, which will contaminate the water to the point that the Seawing will be forced out of the water. Basically, we’re going to flush them all out and convert as many as we can.”

Calamity reached into a bag on his back and pulled out a few sacks with lots of darts tipped with Darkwing venom, as well as three small blowguns.

“We’re going to shoot them with these. Once they come up, we shoot them and get this in their blood. It will take way longer for them to convert, and quite a while for the water to acidify...and not take too long for it to return to normal.” Calamity said, boring Zephyr.

“Isn’t bloodwing acid not that strong? Why not use—”

“I’m gonna stop you right there, Zephyr,” Calamity shushed him, annoyed, “You don’t know this, but Darkwings cannot regenerate from Rainwing venom. If we are hit by it, the wounds don’t heal, or at least, it may take months for it to do so, but I’m pretty sure it never heals. Aaaaand, we wouldn’t be able to collect venom from a Rainwing because of this.”

Zephyr groaned loudly.

“But—”

“Bloodwing acid isn’t very potent; correct. However, we have been studying the acid, and our studies have shown that it is quite stronger when mixed into water. Still not as powerful as Rainwing venom, but very close. Also, we don’t know if Rainwing venom would work in water. It’s very fortunate we have the best possible solution in our midsts.”

Daggerlight grumbled something under his breath, but Zephyr couldn’t make out what he said, and looked towards the sea. Calamity opened the container, and gestured to Zephyr to help him carry it. The two grabbed the heavy container of Bloodwing acid and slowly flew around, dumping the acid around the sea. It took about a half an hour, but luckily the container was extremely light after dumping its contents. The two Darkwings flew back to the beach where Daggerlight was waiting.

“Now we wait,” Daggerlight said, and Calamity nodded.

“For how long, exactly?” Zephyr asked, sighing.

“Well, this is the part that the idiots probably skipped, thinking they had a long time to wait. They were right, but it was foolish of them to stop guarding the place. However, the added acid should take only around twelve hours to contaminate the water. It may take another twelve for the Seawings to come to land, though.”

Zephyr groaned loudly for the second time today, regretting the whole ‘wanting to help’ thing. Calamity rested himself in a smaller cave, while Zephyr was forced to share a cave with Daggerlight just so the two would be able to talk.

“I know what you’re gonna say, and no, I’m not turning away from these dragons. Besides, I can’t go back in the first place.” Zephyr smiled at the glaring Nightwing.

“I just wanted to say how PISSED I AM AT YOU!” Dagger slashed Zephyr in the wing, tearing a small hole. Zephyr just winced a bit in annoyance.

“You weren’t supposed to be such an idiot, Dagex! I thought you could actually help this world, but NO! You had to join the Darkwings and screw everything up!”

“You killed Slate! Of course I’d join them after that!”

“Why?! You had friends that would have helped you. You would’ve been fine if you just thought about it for once in your life!”

Zephyr twitched a few times, baring his teeth.

“You weren’t there. You don’t know me at all.”

He lunged at Daggerlight, the two rolling a bit and trading slashes at each other, with Dagger narrowly missing a bite from Zephyr. He threw the Darkwing off and wrapped his tail around his neck to keep him secure.

“Dagex, as much as I hate that you’re in this situation, it’s already done. If you want to work for them, so be it.”

“Sounds like...you keep changing...your opinions,” Zephyr choked out. Daggerlight let go of the Darkwing, who gasped for air. All three dragons perked up as they heard wingbeats, and hid in the back of the caves as not to be seen.

“It’s them ,” Zephyr whispered as he saw Draacos and the others fly onto the beach. A Sandwing and a Rainwing were there too.

“Anyone smell...blood?” The Sandwing asked to the group, who started sniffing the air.

“Ya, it’s coming from the water.” Draacos said. They all went to water, and one of them, Dike to be specific, put his claw in the water then put it out as he heard the water sizzling.

“Bloodwing acid?” Oblivion asked, then got right into alert. “Their here!”

Daggerlight’s eyes widened as he and Zephyr realized the Rainwing dragonet. It was Rainshard.

“What is she doing here?” Daggerlight whispered, but Zephyr wasn’t listening, instead opening his wings, ready to shoot off.

“Dagex no,” Dagger tried to whisper, but the Darkwing shot himself right at the Rainwing at full force, though Oblivion, knowing someone was going to attack, managed to grab Rainshard and get her out of the way.

Everyone looked at Zephyr, with Draacos looked completely in despair.

“Dagex?!” He yelled, and Zephyr just gave a huge grin.

“What? That’s Dagex? He looks different,” Rainshard said, then tried to run to him, being stopped by Oblivion.

“That’s not him, Rainshard. Trust me…”

“Everyone get out! There might be more!” Draacos yelled, and everyone starting flying. Dike and Mutespeaker went first, flying as quickly as they could.

Calamity started shooting the darts at the group, one at a time.

The darts missed Draacos, Oblivion, and Vare, but hit Sirocco in the back. Zephyr got his blowgun out and both Darkwings shot more darts. Oblivion covered Sirocco and Rainshard with her wings, but as Rin was getting ready to fly away, both of the Darkwings shot him close to the neck, a third dart hitting him in the wing before Draacos ran into Rin with his wings open to protect him.

“Give me the Rainwing, Oblivion!” Zephyr shouted as Draacos looked to see Calamity and Daggerlight. Oblivion didn't respond, but Dagger went up to Zephyr.

“Dagger, what in three moons is happening? Why are you here with them?!”

“Draacos, I can’t help you or your friends anymore, or the king will have my head...but you have to get out of here.”

“Oh no you won’t!” Zephyr yelled as he tried to tackle Oblivion, but Daggerlight stepped into the way and headbutted Zephyr right out of the air, making the Darkwing’s snout bleed heavily. He roared and held his crooked snout as Dagger also started bleeding.

“What are you doing?!” Draacos shouted as Dagger smiled, tackling Zephyr into the sea as the Bloodwing form went into effect. The water sizzled heavily, and Calamity rushed to the sea as the other dragons started to fly away.

Zephyr got himself out of the sea.

“Zephyr, help me pull him out! He’s gonna die if he stays in the water like that! The ocean will wash the blood off and basically melt him!” Calamity shouted angrily.

The two pulled Daggerlight out of the ocean (with Zephyr doing so reluctantly), and rested him on the beach.

“There, he’s ok now. You two need to finish the mission, I have to go get that dragonet.” Zephyr said, and Calamity glared at him.

“First of all, NO! Second, WHAT IN THREE MOONS WERE YOU THINKING?!” Calamity yelled, whipping Zephyr with his tail.

“We need her! Dracos wants her! Besides, they now have a converting Mudwing with them.”

“Zephyr, you may have just screwed up everything.”

“Nah, I helped immensely. Now, I’m gonna go get that Rainwing, be right back.” He gave a sadistic grin, shooting off into the air, towards the Rainforest.

I’m coming for you, Rainshard!

I’m coming.

Chapter Text

Chapter 23

[Draacos]

“How long do they have...before they convert?” Draacos asked to Oblivion as the others carried Rin and Sirocco to the bedroom. Oblivion sighed, looking to the others.

“Sirocco was shot in the back once. Those darts don’t have much venom in them, so she has a very slight chance of not even being affected...though if she is, it should take around 7 days for her to even start showing symptoms. Full conversion may take a few weeks. As for Rin,” she paused, looking away, “he will likely convert right before Sirocco shows symptoms. He doesn’t have long at all.”

Everyone else was listening, some of them coming into the lobby of their decently sized hut to join in on the conversation.

“So he’s doomed? There’s nothing we can do?” Dike whined.

“No!” Vare growled at Draacos. Surprisingly, the skywing had tears in his eyes. “If there isn’t anything we can do, what are we going to do, huh? Abandon him? I’m not gonna let you all do that, he’s our friend !”

“We could have Queen Glory put him in a dungeon to keep him from harming other dragons. Oblivion, would a Darkwing be able to tear through bars of iron? Are they that strong?” Mutespeaker’s voice echoed.

“He’s a mudwing. If a mudwing can’t get through those bars with fire, then a slightly stronger Darkwing with no fire wouldn’t be able to get through either. Putting him in the dungeon is a good idea.”

“Not yet though. If he has some time, we need to focus on the other problems at our talons. Like checking up on Sleet, who should be ready to come back, and finding out what the Darkwings were doing at the sea...as well as finding a way to train Rainshard.” Draacos groaned, realizing just how much work they all had to do.

Mutespeaker perked up, and Draacos looked at him.

“Something wrong?” He asked the Nightwing.

“I heard something outside.” Mutespeaker answered. Draacos nodded to Oblivion, who crept outside, hiding in the shadows. Draacos followed, going to the back.

The next thing he knew, he was tackled by Zephyr, whose pink scales flashed brightly, blinding Draacos.

“DAGEX!” He roared to warn the others. Zephyr ran into the hut as Draacos’s vision came back, though the moment he could see, Zephyr was pulled out of the hut by Oblivion and thrown about a dozen feet away. He landed with a thud, his forearm bleeding from a large bite mark, presumably from Oblivion. The two went up to Zephyr, who growled at them.

“What in three moons are you doing?” Draacos yelled to Zephyr.

“I need to bring the Rainwing to the King, Draacos. Move out of the way!”

“I thought you’d be like Calamity, honestly…” Oblivion said, sighing, “but of course, you’re a snail-brain just like the other idiots.”

Zephyr smirked, walking slowly towards the other two.

“Well, I don’t need your permission, anyway.” Zephyr lunged at Draacos, and phased through when Oblivion tried to attack him. He ran right inside the hut, teeth bared. He went right for Rainshard. Draacos only got to see what happened next for a second.

Zephyr with a spear in his chest, courtesy of Dike, who had a scar below his neck dripping with venom. It was a tiny amount, but he had still come in contact with Zephyr’s teeth. Rainshard was behind the Seawing, terrified. Dike pushed the impaled Zephyr off of him, then Oblivion and Draacos grabbed him.

Zephyr just phased through again, though this time he went out of the hut, holding his wound and flapping in the air, getting away.

“Let him go, we can’t kill him,” Draacos said, then rushed to Dike with Oblivion. Draacos growled to himself, making sure not to make any more loud noises. He didn’t want to alert the Queen further if she heard the commotion. Oblivion was already checking the small scar on Dike.

“There’s only a couple small drops of venom, and most of it didn’t go into his wound. For once, I can say someone won’t be infected. It’s too small of a dose to do anything to him, he’s fine.”

Everyone looked surprised, especially Draacos.

“Wait, it’s possible for a dragon to not be infected?” Vare asked.

“Yes, but only if the amount of venom is small enough, which is extremely hard to pull off like this. Dike should be lucky that Zephyrs teeth only scratched him instead of cutting into him.”

Everyone sighed, except for Rin of course, since he was sleeping.

“How’s Sirocco?” Draacos asked, looking to Oblivion once more.

“She’s resting, but fine. Like I said, she will be ok for a while.”

“Good. Now, some of us need to travel to get Sleet. I’m going to stay here and try to train Rainshard. Oblivion, you and Vare will get Sleet. Queen Snowfall trusts us all, except Mutespeaker, but that’s just Icewings being Icewings.” Draacos said to the group.

“Speaking of, what are Dike and I going to do?” Mutespeaker’s voice said.

“Watching Rin, and making sure he doesn’t try to run away or anything like that.”

Everyone nodded at Draacos, and soon, everybody was gone, except for the three dragon still inside the hut.

[Zephyr]

Zephyr flapped back to the tower with great difficulty; wincing from the immense pain in his underbelly. He never thought that of all dragons, the seawing would do something like impaling him.

“I got him though. It’ll be slow, but he will be one of us eventually,” Zephyr grinned, sliding into the tower entrance. He fell onto the ground, losing balance and hurting himself on the floor. Zephyr would have gone to his cave to rest and let his wounds regenerate, but there was a big problem blocking the hallway to his cave.

Zephyr bowed to the king in front of him, not noticing Calamity or Daggerlight with the king.

“Your majesty,” Zephyr said, and Dracos simply whacked him with a claw.

“What were you thinking!?” The darkwing King roared. This was when Zephyr saw the other two dragons.

“You wanted the Rainwing,” Zephyr said, looking back at the King.

“NOT YET, YOU INSOLENT WHELP! I should kill you for this!”

Zephyr winced, lowered his head in shame.

“Sorry, your majesty. I thought it would help us.”

Dracos groaned, snorting.

“Be glad I’m not going to destroy you, Zephyr. You infected multiple dragons, so that is a plus, but we do not want another ‘attack first, never ask questions’ kind of dragon. We have enough of those…”

“Sorry for interrupting,” Calamity called, looking up at the King.

“Yes, Calamity?”

“Do you think those two will come back with the Skywing?”

Zephyr tilted his head in confusion.

Skywing? I didn’t see Bloodshed or Scorn, if she’s regenerated, at the Rainforest.

Dracos put up a claw, putting down a single talon every second.

“4...3...2...1…”

As if on cue, the sound of dragons landing in the tower could be heard.

“You didn’t exactly hide her very well, you know. It was pretty obvious where she was, Zephyr,” Bloodshed said as he entered the hall, with Scorn and…

Something inside Zephyr woke, a part of his regular self. His eyes went wide and backed up a few paces, nearly crying at what he was looking at.

Daggerlight looked absolutely furious as well, but didn’t do anything. The skywing that Bloodshed and Scorn brought in had it’s limbs torn off and bite marks everywhere.

“Slate…” Zephyr whispered to himself, then soon starting to growl.

“We know how much she means to you, Zephyr. We thought it would be nice if you two could be reunited...mainly so you can get your act together and not be such an idiot.”

Zephyr turned to face Dracos, tears streaming down his face.

“Don’t even think about it, you monster,” He growled quietly, only getting a smirk from the king of Darkwings.

“Yes, Zephyr. We can bring her back to life.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 24

All of the darkwings in the hall walked towards the throne room, all the while Zephyr kept close to Slate’s body being carried by Scorn and Bloodshed.

They can bring her back? But that’s impossible, he kept telling himself. There was no way it could be possible. Slate was set on the ground in front of Dracos, who picked the skywing corpse right up and bared his teeth. Nobody looked away as the King sank his teeth into Slate’s head, then put her back onto the ground.

Only a moment later, her eyes opened, and Zephyr’s widened. Slate roared in pain, trying to move but unable to, since her limbs were gone already. Zephyr could see her scales already turning a night black. She looked towards Zephyr, tears going down her eyes. She didn’t stay conscious very long; she passed out moments later. Zephyr went up to the skywing; she was still alive. Converting into a Darkwing, but alive.

“How?” was all Zephyr could say, but nobody answered him.

“Bring her to her cave. Zephyr can see her soon.” The king ordered, and Bloodshed, along with Scorn, picked Slate’s body up and left the room. Calamity soon left as well, knowing the other three would likely have an argument.

But Zephyr didn’t say a word. All he did was look at Dracos, then Daggerlight, then simply left the room, and followed the others. He hid in his cave until the darkwings were gone, leaving Slate alone in a smaller, more secluded cave. Zephyr ran in as quickly as he could.

He put out his wings and hugged Slate. He wanted to cry so badly, but he wasn’t going to...not now, at least.

“D-Dagex?” He heard the skywing whisper. She still had tears on her face as her eyes slowly opened. She seemed to have no energy to scream when she saw him, and only gave a weak smile. Zephyr knew she could piece things together immediately.

“You’re...one of them?” She groaned quietly. Zephyr only nodded. She frowned slightly, but smiled again, the two dragons proceeding to touch snouts.

“I’m sorry, Slate. I couldn’t handle losing you.”

“I bet you’ve heard this before, but you have friends, Dagex. Draacos and the others would have helped you...you didn’t need to join these...creatures.”

Zephyr took a few moments before responding.

“Why do you have to be in this mess? I wanted you back, but I never thought it would be like this. Everything should have—”

“Dagex,” Slate cut Zephyr off, more tears coming from her eyes, “There wasn’t anything you could do. There is a chance though. I’ll always be here for you, even if I have to be like them. I’m never going to forget you.”

“I’m not going to forget you either, Slate. The others will kill the King, and we’ll be back to normal. Everything has to work out…”

Slate smiled, both dragons on the brink of crying aloud.

“I love you, Dagex. I always will, no matter where, what, or who I am. Don’t forget who I am; remember that I’m still here.”

“I love you too, Slate. I will remember.”

Slate nuzzled Zephyr, and with a drop of a tear, went back to unconscious. Zephyr brushed his claw on her head lightly, then turned around and slowly walked back to his cave. At the time, Xixo was asleep, meaning Zephyr was free to talk to himself.

But he wasn’t going to do that. He just sat in the corner of the room, quietly crying his eyes out, which were wide in shock. He heard Xixo groan and get up, the seer likely sensing Zephyr.

“Why did you have to wake me up, Da— Zephyr? I know you’re depressed and all but…” he didn’t finish. Zephyr heard the Darkwing seer’s footsteps as he came up to him.

“Zephyr?” He said, noticing the unmoving, crying dragon. Zephyr didn’t turn to look, but Xixo actually looked concerned. He felt a claw rest on his shoulder as Xixo sat next to him.

“Listen,” he sighed, “You of all dragons should know everything will work out. I mean, name any story where someone evil wasn’t stopped. Even in real life: The sandwing war and the Evil princess Blister: stopped by the Dragonets of destiny. Darkstalker: stopped twice ...honestly, he’s not very good at being evil I guess. Also, we have been stopped by your father before. He was part of the group of dragons who defeated us and locked us in here. My point is, Dracos will be stopped, and you and Slate will be together again.”

None of this helped Zephyr. None of it made him feel better.

“Xixo...you know what the worst part of being a Darkwing is?” Zephyr said, staring at the puddle of tears beneath him. “We’re basically immortal as long as the King is alive, so I don’t have an option to escape all of this. Even if I could end my life, right here, right now, Dracos would just revive me like Slate. I have nothing to live for here, but I’m trapped. There isn’t anything I can do to end this void of suffering my life has conjured up for me.” Zephyr clenched his claws, and Xixo’s eyes widened as he saw blood starting to ooze out from beneath some of Zephyr’s scales.

“I need to find a way. I need to escape this torturous tribe.” Zephyrs face went to a form of true insanity as his scales started rapidly turned red. Xixo backed up as Zephyr opened his wings, the dragon laughing demonically before zooming past Xixo and out of the cave at an unbelievable speed. Zephyr was out of the tower in a flash, and the only trace was the amount of blood he had left on the ground on his way out.

He had no identity, at least, that’s how he thought of it. He had no friends, no family, nobody that cared about him in the world but himself. Unlike his father, he still had his free will in this form...the only problem was, it was small. Most of his mind focused on pure rage, bloodlust, death, and most importantly, an insanity that only a Bloodwing with a muddled, traumatized brain could possess.

“Death. Destruction. My only purpose is to kill every, single, Dragon, in Pyrrhia. Even, no, ESPECIALLY , those damned Darkwings.” He laughed maniacally, swooping down to a cave on the mountainside.

“A single night of rest is all I need. After that, I start with the Mudwings.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 25

[Daggerlight]

It wasn’t long before Daggerlight and Draacos met up. It only took a couple hours after Dagex left the tower, and Daggerlight went out to inform Draacos.

The two sat in a secluded area of the rainforest; a cave on the side of a hill.

“What happened, Dagger? Why did you need to see me so badly?”

“It’s about Dagex. He’s gone feral.”

Draacos stood up, shocked. Daggerlight just rolled his eyes at him.

“You mean he’s…” Draacos didn’t finish his sentence, so Dagger said it for him.

“Yes, he’s a Bloodwing,” He looked at Draacos, “And yes, I will say why. The skywing was brought back to life. Dracos has had a power to revive dragons, and turn them into Darkwings that way.”

Draacos had the most horrified look on his face.

“Ok, I’m going to explain a lot of stuff, so you better listen. Oh, and quite a bit of this will be my own theories and scientific guessing,” Daggerlight started, then went on.

“First of all, I have no idea why Dracos has that kind of power. I have no idea where it came from, nor do I know of any past kings that have had it. The Darkwings don’t exactly like to keep record of every single thing they do, you know.”

“I never knew about that either,” Draacos responded.

“It seems this is the first time he’s used it...though, maybe after he killed the Meteorwings, he revived them so he could convert them. However, that wouldn’t be necessary if he could convert them normally. Do you know of any Meteorwings being bitten and turned into Darkwings, Draacos?”

“If you think they are immune, I’m pretty sure they aren’t. Dracos killed all the males quickly, though whether they were converted or not at all, or later revived, is a mystery to me.”

Daggerlight sighed, “Well, that isn’t what we need to figure out. There’s something I need to get off my chest. I think I know why you’re so different from the other hybrids that were bred, Draacos.”

“Other than not being an evil, infectious dragon that could genocide an entire tribe with enough power?”

Daggerlight looked at Draacos with his eyes narrowed.

“Sorry…”

“Tell me this, Draacos. Have there been any Animus Meteorwings or Darkwings?”

“Not any Darkwings before me, but...there were three Animus Meteorwings. One of them being—”

“You’re mother, correct?” Daggerlight interrupted.

“Yes…”

“What happened to those three?”

“One tried to escape the tower, and was bitten in the neck, and soon died. The other was killed the same way, but only because she had laid her eggs, and was deemed useless to the Darkwings, so they killed her. The Darkwings didn’t even question why they never converted. My mother died from a heart failure after she laid my egg...which still confuses me. I assume she was just killed like the others, honestly.”

“So you were the only animus dragon out of all the hybrids?”

Draacos nodded, not saying anything until Dagger could see the realization hit him.

“Wait, so you’re saying…”

“If I’m correct, the reason why you aren’t evil wasn’t up to luck, but you were destined to be different than the others. You weren’t corrupted because you couldn’t be affected by the Darkwing venom. Animus dragons are immune. They can’t be turned into Darkwings.”

“Why exactly are you telling me this, Dagger? I can’t kill him, you know. Not alone.”

“That’s the second thing. My mate, Tsuno, was an animus. She only used her power three times in her life; the last time being when she enchanted the Darkwing tower.”

Draacos looked at Daggerlight in surprise.

“Yes, she was the one who put the seal on the tower, and another Animus, a Rainwing named Pine, made it sink into the ground.”

“I feel like I know what you’re getting at, but I’m pretty sure I’m wrong, so I’m just going to ask a question about you and Tsuno.”

“Alright.”

“Is...Tsuno actually Dagex’s mother? Dagex has no signs of Seawing blood.”

“His Darkwing form does. That’s what I assume those random pink scales were, and why he could flash them. The darkwing infection brought out his Seawing gene.”

“So they are related.”

“Yes, Tsuno is his mother.”

“...what about Rainshard? She doesn’t seem to have any sort of Nightwing traits.”

Daggerlight frowned, then sighed.

“My suspicion is that Tsuno mated with Pine, then soon afterwards mated with me too. Me and Pine’s genes must have gotten mixed up and put into Rainshard. Either that, or Rainshard’s egg was already being made, and Pine’s genes are the only ones she has, other than Tsuno’s.”

There was silence for nearly a minute straight.

“Either way, she has genes from two different animus dragons, Draacos. You know what that means, right?”

“She’s an animus, isn’t she?”

“Though it is possible that she isn’t, the chance of her being an animus is astronomically high.”

“Do you think Dracos knows about her?” Draacos asked.

“If he does, he hasn’t mentioned it to anyone. Besides, he doesn’t exactly care too much about her as of now, so I don’t think he’s pieced it together.”

“So all we need to do is get her ready to fight Dracos?”

Daggerlight simply nodded, looking up at the sky. Nothing was said by either dragon for a few minutes, before Draacos spoke up.

“What do we do about Dagex? Shouldn’t we stop him? Or at least try to snap him out of the Bloodwing form?”

“You leave Dagex to me. I’ll do everything I can to get him back...before the Darkwings get to him. They will be hunting him, so I need to find him first.”

“Alright Dagger, I trust you,” Draacos said, smiling at Daggerlight, who smiled right back.

“I should go now. I need all the time I can get to search for him.” Daggerlight sighed, getting up and starting to walk out of the cave. Draacos only nodded, not saying anything but a simple “Good luck,” as Daggerlight spread his wings and sped into the sky.

I can’t go back to the tower, I need to help Draacos now, even if it costs me my life.

The King must fall.