Chapter 12

As I drifted through the realm of sleep, with darkness surrounding me on all sides, I once more saw a faint light. I knew I was asleep, and how going to the light would bring up another old memory, like before. However, after drifting around for some time, wondering when I would wake up, I decided to just go along and go to the memory.

However, as I went towards the memory, I began to feel cold, and there was what could only be described as an uneasy feeling. The feelings grew worse and worse as I approached the memory, and by the time I reached it, I finally recognized the memory for what it really was. But it was too late to turn back, and even though I tried, I was sucked into remembering one of the worst moments of my life.

There are points of life that you can only describe as a living nightmare. This event was even worst than that, but it had shaped my life so much that it couldn't be ignored. This event was what not only made me choose to try to never cause others pain, but what also caused my sister the urge to protect the ones she loves.

It was a winter day, many years ago, and my sister and I trudged through the snow, making our way back home from the local supermarket. We had been missing a few ingredients for dinner that night, and our mother had sent us out to get them. Nothing had gone wrong on the way there, and the time at the store was fine, but it was the walk back that changed our lives.

As we trudged through the snow down the empty street, we heard a car begin to come up behind us. We paid it no mind, due to how we were focusing more on the snow in our boots and looking forward to hot cocoa when we got back home. However, unlike every car before, this one began to slow down, to the point where it was striding along with my sister and I, in which we stopped to look at it. Looking back, we should have just kept walking.

It was an average white van, nothing you wouldn't see every now and then. However, as we stopped, so did the car, and after a moment, the driver came out through the side door. He was a creepy looking man, at least, that's what my twelve year-old self thought, due to his ragged clothes and long beard. However, it was his eyes that worried me the most; they had a sinister look to them that to this day I still hadn't ever seen again.

He looked down and smiled beneath his beard at my sister and I. "Hey kids, what are you doing out here in the cold?" He had a gruff voice, and at the sound of it, I wanted to do nothing other than take my sister and run. However, all the two of us could do was stare at this strange man in front of us.

He waved towards his open car door. "Come on, I'll give you a lift. Besides, it's warmer in here anyway." He had the same smile pasted on his face as he turned towards the car and gestured us inside. However, as I stared at the car, i saw inside something that made my heart go as cold as the winter day.

As I stared at the object, I could see out of the corners of my eyes both my sister and the man following my line of site. While my sister squeezed my hand tight, the man made a nervous chuckle. "Oh, uh, sorry about that. I meant to put that away, and uh...ah, screw it." The man turned back towards my sister and I. "Get in the van. Now." He said with sternness in his voice.

I froze not knowing what to do. There was no one else in sight, and we were still about two blocks away from our home. As I stood there, the man growled and reached for my sister. As he grabbed her home, she started to scream and protest, which knocked me out of my stupor. I went to try and grab my sister away from the man, but his other arm swung at me, knocking me into the snow.

As I sat back up, I could see my sister being forced into the van, kicking and screaming. With the man's back to me, I looked back towards the object I had seen in his van, and I knew what I had to do. I knew what I was supposed to do was wrong, but it was either that or something worse would happen, and I knew I had to protect my sister.

As my sister got a kick on the man, making him get angrier at her, i grabbed the object and pointed it at the man, aiming it at his chest. As he raised his fist to retaliate towards my sister's resisting, I did what needed to be done.

There was a loud sound, making my ears ring, and then there was silence. The man dropped my sister, and slowly turned his head towards me. His cold eyes focused on me, but I wasn't paying attention to him. I quickly grabbed my sister, pulling her out of the van and keeping the object raised towards the man. However, the man fell, landing face first in the snow, no longer moving.

My sister cried against me as I held her, but all I could do was stare at the man. After enough time had passed, I let go of the object, then buried my head into my sister's shoulder, hugging her deeply and crying my eyes out. We both fell to the ground, crying and holding each other. We stayed there in that position for what felt like forever, until the police arrived at the summon of the noise of the object I had used.

My sister and I were eventually taken home, though the two of us refused to leave the other. We stayed that way for the longest time, with our parents never leaving our sides during the whole procedure, and were just glad we were safe. However, the action I had taken haunted me, and every night I would wake up in a cold sweat, the last thing I had seen being the man's face. I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep until I made sure my sister was still safe.

Overtime, it got to be too much for me, and I promised myself I would never hurt another person, not if it meant the same outcome as what had happened to the man. After I had promised myself this, the nightmares began to go away, and that lasted for a long time, with no one talking about the incident. However, when it was suggested to take self defence lessons, the memories returned, which is why I was against it.

I exited the memory, feeling what felt like tears going down my face at the memory. However, I knew it wasn't over yet, and I felt myself being drawn into yet another memory. As I entered, I looked around, and remembered this as the day that my sister and I fought. It was only a few years ago, when I had finally left the self defense lessons.

We had just entered back into our house, having been dropped off from my final lesson from our mother who had to go pick up groceries. As we set our bags down, I turned to head towards my room, but I felt a hand grab my shoulder. I turned around, finding my sister looking angrily at me.

"Why are you leaving the class? I know you've always disliked it, but you know it's for your own good!" She said. I shook my head towards her, which only made her look angrier.

"Look Sara, I don't like the idea of hurting people, and that's exactly what that class might have me do one day, accident or not. You can stay if you want, but don't drag me into it just because you somehow enjoy it." I went to turn around, but my sister grabbed my shoulder more tightly.

"And when will you understand that sometimes people need to be hurt to keep others safe!" She shouted at me. "I don't learn just for fun, I learn so I can keep the ones I love safe. That's why I want you there too, so that you can help me keep you safe!"

"Sara, I can keep myself safe, and you know that. There are ways to solve problems without violence, and not your fists. Or your elbows. Or your legs." I said, trying to make a joke to lighten the mood, but my sister wasn't budging.

"Do you know why I want to keep you safe?" She asked quietly. I looked at her, and could see tears in her eyes. "I want to keep you safe because you have already kept me safe in the past, and I wasn't able to do anything. I hate being useless, but if not only I can fight, but you can too, then I know we'll be safe."

I looked at her, then quickly hugged her. "Sara, we'll always have points of our lives where we'll be in danger, but fighting isn't the answer. It just causes more pain for everyone involved. I know you don't like being useless, and im not saying you are, but I just don't want to have to get violent myself."

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, because she soon broke the hug, glaring up at me. "Then prove it. Prove that you can keep yourself safe." She raised her hands, which were now balled into fists. "If you can prove it, then I won't argue with your choice. But if I do win, you have to agree to come back."

I shook my head. "No. I'm not going to fight you just because you want your way. Mom already agreed to it, and I'm already no longer certified there, so there's no point." I tried to argue with her, but she only appeared to get angrier, and as I finished, she charged at me.

I sighed, then went into a stance. As she came to me, I prepared to grab her. However, she had ducked down to the side to try and get my right side, which I had left open. I had left that side open on purpose, however, and quickly turned and grabbed her right arm, moving with her movements to drag her arm behind her back.

As I did this, my sister tried to recover, swinging her left leg at me. I grabbed it however, and now that I had both her left leg and right arm, I picked her up, then practically threw her into the couch. Before she could get up, I lied on top of her, pinning her down. As she tried to get out, I talked to her.

"Look Sara, I know you care about me, and just want to keep me safe. But I'm the older brother; that's my job. I know you don't like the idea of me not being able to defend myself, but you know just as well as I do that I will be fine." I brushed hair out of her face as she tried to glare up at me. "The thought is appreciated though."

She sighed underneath me, finally giving up and relaxing. "I know all that. It's just... I can't imagine the idea of you getting hurt, and I want to do anything to prevent that!" She said. She looked extremely saddened, in which I decided to get off of her, but before I fully got off, I went back down and hugged her, in which she returned it.

"Look, Jack, I just want to protect you, just as you protected me. Even if you won't go back, can you at least allow me to protect you?" She asked, looking at me. At my look, she quickly added in, "In the sense of if you need to be protected, at least."

I sighed, but decided it would be best to at least give her some comfort. "Alright Sara, if I ever need to be protected or saved or whatever, you can try to do it. Just don't get yourself hurt either, alright?" I asked. She just nodded before hugging me tighter.

"Thank you Jack. I swear, if you need to be saved, I'll do anything to do it...while keeping myself safe as well. Or, at the very least, I'll try." She let go of the hug, and as she finished talking, I sighed and smiled back at her.

"Well, that's the best I can ask for, at least. Now come on, let's go put our bags away." The both of us got up and did just that. As we walked away, talking about each other's days like nothing had just happened, the scene began to fade back to black, and I was once more in the dreamless void of my unconsciousness.

"Why am I remembering all of this now?" I asked myself as I drifted through the void. The answer did not come to me, but once more, even though I told myself I wouldn't, I could only worry about Sara, and wonder how she was doing.

Meanwhile, at Blister's hidden base…

I quickly dodged to the right, making my way under Scorpion's tail, and I went to jab at him from behind. However, he was expecting this and quickly blocked my blow with one of his own, which sent me back a few feet as I tried to distance myself from him.

"While I do find your bit of combat strategy amusing and useful with your training, it won't do anything good if you aren't close to your opponent and can't take them out quickly." Scorpion said, closing the distance and going to swing at me once more, which I managed to block once more.

We had been sparring for a few hours now, after Blister had introduced and sent us off. Scorpion proceeded to just get down to it and begin teaching me. He went into a basic understanding of what his role here was, and what I was about to get myself into. In a sense, it was like a black ops group, except at the time it was only him.

Scorpion was in charge of dealing with assassinations, stealing, and setting people up, along with intercepting messages and other stealth work. Up till now, the only reason he was working by himself was because he requested it, and he was the best at what he did. He prefered the jobs that didn't involve murder, but didn't care one way or another if it had to be done.

At first, I didn't like the idea of learning from him, but as he continued to explain, I became more open to the idea, and realized that his skills was what I was going to need to rescue my brother. It wasn't because of his other jobs or his preferences, but because of what he said before we began to spar that changed my mind.

We had been going down to a practice field, walking slowly so that he could try to explain everything to me. After telling me his role in assassinating important generals (while grumbling under his breath about being given false credit of a general he didn't actually kill), I went silent, not knowing how to respond. He noticed my silence, then stopped walking and looked at me.

"Look kid, I know the idea of taking another life is difficult, but sometimes it just needs to be done. Personally, if you can find a way that you know for certain will take out a target without killing them, go for it. But sometimes, a job is a job, and there will be dragons in your way to stop you from completing it. Just remember two things; One, that killing isn't always necessary, but can't always be avoided. Two, never let anything stop you from doing what needs to be done."

I looked at the ground and nodded, and I could hear him sigh before sitting down. He patted the spot next to him, in which I went over and sat next to him. We were silent for a moment before he spoke up. "Look...Spark, was it? We don't always get to decide what happens in life. However, we can always choose to do what we think is necessary. Think about it this way: think of a single goal in life, one that can't be fully fulfilled but can also be done at the same time. Now tell me that goal." He said, looking at me.

I thought for a moment, before answering. "I want to protect my brother, no matter what it takes." Scorpion nodded, as if he was expecting as much.

"That's a good goal. However, there might be dragons willing to hurt or even kill your brother, or even you if you try to get to him. So I must ask you, what are you going to do when those dragons stand in your way?" He asked, looking up at the ceiling.

I nodded, now understanding what he meant. "I would do anything to get them out of my way, and make sure they don't hurt my brother." Once more, Scorpion nodded. "But's what's your reason? Why do you do this?" I asked him, curious now.

Scorpion tensed up for a sliver of a moment, but recovered quickly, then raised a hand to his chin in thinking. "Hm, well, right now I guess don't really have one. Heh, it's funny when I make an example and can't even use it." He looked at the ground, shaking his head with a grin, but somehow I could just tell he was lying. However, before I could ask about it, Scorpion got up, then spoke up. "Come on then. Now that you're inspired and all, let's do some combat training."

As we continued to spar, since hands-on was Scorpion's favorite way of training, I thought of Jack, and knew I had to save him. I had promised him I would, all those years ago, and I wouldn't let anyone stop me.

As Scorpion went to do another jab, I quickly fainted to the left, in which he did a tail swipe, which was what I was hoping for. As his tail came at me, I quickly grabbed the end of it, sinking my talons into the soft spot (the same soft spot I learned that all dragons had after Scorpion demonstrated on me at the beginning of sparring).

Scorpion gritted his teeth, turning towards me with claws raised, but I quickly released my other hand in his face, letting out a handful of sand into his eyes. He shouted out, in which i quickly used my tail to knock a leg out from under him, and as he fell, I quickly jumped up to pin him down.

I managed it, and for a moment, we laid there, with him rubbing out the sand in his eyes. He looked up at me and grinned. "Well alright, that was a nice move, but let me tell you, I was just going easy on you." He quickly rolled over, knocking me down and leaving him pinning me. "However, I am much larger than you, so pinning me isn't exactly going to work. Also, I only pretended that the sand worked. I'm a Sandwing, so I have natural defence against sand in my eyes."

As he finished explaining, he got off me and reached down to let me up, in which I took his hand and stood up. "Alright, so that's probably good sparring for today. Now, onto your first test." He said, in which I looked surprised at the aspect of a test this early on in my training.

Scorpion pointed to a tent across the cavern, which stood out from the other tents since it was much larger and was brown instead of tan. "That over there is the supply tent. Inside it you will find a large brown bag and a small safe. What you need to do is acquire the bag and the contents of the safe."

"However, doing this won't be that simple. The tent is guarded by a big brute of a Sandwing named Sandstone. If he catches you, you can guarantee that he'll kick you out immediately, if he doesn't accidentally kill you thinking you're an intruder." I gulped at that, in which Scorpion laughed. "Don't worry, I was just joking. Blister made sure everyone here knows who you are, but then again, Sandstone isn't exactly the brightest, so anything could happen."

"Now, the reason I'm sending you on this test is to see how you'll do it. There are many different strategies you could take, and I want to see what your abilities are. Also, if you do manage to get the bag, you'll be able to keep it's contents, which will aid your training. This test will not have a time limit, but I must tell you that every time you fail it will get harder to succeed, as Sandstone will become more paranoid of what you are trying to get."

I nodded, in which I left Scorpion to acquire what I needed to get. He sent me off with a "Good luck.", and I certainly felt like I was going to need it.

Meanwhile, in the Rainwing Kingdom…

I blinked my eyes open slowly, greeted by the smells of the rainforest, but in an unfamiliar setting. I found myself in some kind of building, but everything was green from plantlife. I looked down to find myself on a stretcher, and as I looked around, I saw several others around, with a few other dragons that I recognized as Rainwings on them, though they didn't look that bad.

The place was very quiet, with many flowers around creating a beautiful color and aroma. As I continued to look around, I saw a group of light blue Rainwings gathered together in a corner, whispering to each other. As I looked at them, one of them saw my look, and quickly excused herself from the group and walked towards me.

She was about normal sized compared to other dragons I had seen so far, and had a scar going down her left hind leg. She had brown eyes, and as she came closer, I could make out that her blue color was slightly more vibrant than the other Rainwings, and she looked like she was about to laugh at something. When she got to me, she spoke up, breaking the silence of the room.

"Well, you finally woke up, mysterious dragon. I must say, since you got here, you've been looking under the weather, but we've been doing everything we can to try to make you feel better." I blinked at her, honestly wondering if I really heard her make that joke. At the look of her giggling self, I could only guess yes.

"Well thank you then. Though I must say, looking around, it is quite shocking as to where I am." I said, letting out a small bolt against my hand to prove my point. The dragon stared in fascination at my lightning, then a grin crossed her face as she burst out laughing.

"Oh, I get it! Shocking, since you breath lightning! That's not only really cool but really clever!" She said. As she calmed down, she held out a hand. "My name is Aster, though you can just call me Singularity." She said. I looked at her confusedly before shaking her hand.

"Aren't nicknames supposed to be shorter than the original name? No offence though." I said, in which she nodded.

"Normally, yes, but my nickname makes so much more sense! I mean, I love the stars, and I'm so much different from the everyone else! I mean, there's a war going on just outside of our forest, but will anyone do anything about it? Noooo, cause then that would require *gasp* moving and effort!" She said sarcastically.

I cocked my head, not sure how to make out this unusual dragon or what she was saying. Sure, the Rainwings I knew weren't part of the war, but were they really doing it just because they were being lazy? Before I could ask about this, Singularity spoke up again.

"Anyways, as I was saying before, we looked at your wound, though we don't really know what to do about it. We're trying a few different remedies we know of, though none of them seems to be working against this specific type of wound. Hopefully something will work, but until we find the right cure, well, we don't exactly know what to do."

I nodded, knowing that this could happen. "Well, at the very least you tried. Now, do you know where my friends are? The dragons that were with me when I came here?" I asked her.

She thought for a second, before somehow managing to snap her claws, which I didn't think was possible. "They're all on a large platform east from here, and since you've woken up, they'll probably be awake soon as well." I nodded, making my way to get up, but she quickly got to my side and pushed me back down.

"Could you please let me up? I need to go to my friends so that they know where I am and know that I'm safe." I told her, but in response she just shook her head and pushed me back down as I tried to get up once more.

"Sorry, can't let you do that, at least not with that wound of yours. You're just going to have to wait until your friends come to you, and I'm going to stay right here to make sure you do just that." As she said that, she grabbed my wrists with surprising strength, holding me down. I sighed, knowing that I had to rest anyway, and figured it would just be better to not argue with the doctor.

"Well, at the very least can we talk? I hate just sitting in silence for long periods of time." She nodded, but agreed to it under the condition we could ask questions back and forth. I nodded, agreeing to it, in which we began to talk for about half an hour.

During that time, we talked about one topic to another. Where as I explained the basics of what I had already explained to others many times before, such as what and who I was, along with questions about my adventure so far, I got to learn more about Singularity herself.

As she had mentioned before, she was different from the other Rainwings in many ways. Whereas many of them were very pacifistic and lazy (not to mention vegetarians), she was always looking for adventure, and was willing to fight if necessary, though didn't like it herself. The only reason she was here as a nurse instead of doing what she thought was a more exciting job was because she had been punished by one of the Queens (in which they have turns of who is Queen), due to how she had made the wrong joke at the wrong time.

As we continued to talk, our conversation was halted by a few familiar dragons, who scanned the room before spotting me and coming over. Of them, there was just Sunny and Glory, but I could see Tsunami's, Clay's and Starflight's faces sticking in from the doorway. Sunny quickly came over to me, wrapping me in a hug.

I returned the hug, asking them what happened. Sunny told me we were in the Rainwing kingdom, after being knocked out for a few hours by sleeping darts, and the only ones who hadn't been hit were Glory and Starflight. After that, Glory filled in what had happened afterwards, and confirmed that the Rainwings were lazy.

As she continued to talk, she mentioned how the venom wasn't a weapon, but was instead a way of telling who is related to who, and how she had learned she had a brother. I smiled at that, in which my smile grew as she described how he was almost the polar opposite of her.

As we talked, they explained how they were just about to go see the Queen, in which I nodded and went to get up again. I was stopped by two different pairs of hands this time, with both Singularity and Sunny holding me down this time. "You can't just go with us Static, you have to rest!" Sunny told me. I sighed, lying back down and accepting my fate.

"Well, be sure to come back here when you're done. Sure, Singularity here is fun and all, but I still want to stay informed as to what is going on." Sunny nodded, before turning to Singularity and thanking her for taking care of me. She told her how it was no problem, then commented on Sunny's eyes. As they chatted, with Glory rolling her eyes, telling me to get better, then grabbing Sunny as she headed towards the door, I felt like Sunny and Singularity would be good friends, seeing as how they were still talking as Glory dragged Sunny out the door.

As they left, Singularity came back over to me, sitting back down in front of me. "Well, they sure seem nice! Now, let's see, I think it was my turn for a question." As we continued talking, I realized that I had forgotten to tell the dragonets what I ad learned about the Rainwings, especially about how they had more than one Queen.

Anyhow, Singularity and I continued talking, and we learned more about each other. As she learned about how I was similar to her in my views on violence, I learned about her fascination with the stars and how she didn't overly like Mudwings, due to how once while on guard duty, she had ran into one who mistakenly attacked her, which is why she had a scar on her leg.

As we talked, I couldn't help but feel like something was going to go wrong soon. As Singularity went to explain why she was so "awesome", I felt like this was just too perfect. Sure, they didn't have a cure for my wound, but we were in a peaceful village with no signs of the war, and with none of our enemies knowing where we were. So as I began to think, I began to wonder, and by the time it was my turn to ask a question, I couldn't help but wonder when things were going to go wrong…

Author's Note: Hey there everyone, thank you so much for reading and for your support. Once more, I must apologize for this chapter being late, but at least it is up, and the next chapter should be up on it's normal time this next Wednesday. I would like to thank for the submission of the OC's, such as Singularity here in this chapter. Once more, I apologize for the darker chapter, at least the beginning, but now you know why Jack and Sara have such different beliefs on violence. Anyhow, thank you for reading and all of your support, and the next chapter will be up on time.