The day was cloudy, the sun a slight circle of lighter grey on the blanket that covered the sky. Winter's last gasp, a final resurgence of the cold wind and darkness of the season. The sea was rolling, high waves and low troughs alternating, beating against the island, the sea stacks, and the boats approaching from afar.
Below the surface, the weather did not hold sway. The water was calm, cold, and always moving. Something was stirring down there, but even his huge bulk did no more in passing than stir the water a bit more vigorously than usual. Below, nothing changed.
Above, in the world of men and most dragons, much changed, constantly. The island as a whole was arming itself, preparing the defensive weaponry, and eating a final meal. They had prepared for this day, more feverishly than ever once Viggo received the message, and now it was here.
Viggo? He was in a new place, a tower built in the center of the island, a place of seeing what happened afar. That was not the only new thing, nor the most ambitious, but the rest was not there. He had set his many, many plans into motion, and the game was beginning.
Literally. Viggo left several hunters there with orders to tell him when Drago's ships could be seen. He then moved back to his command post and placed a model ship on the outskirts of the large model of the island and its defenses. All was in order.
The sea stacks around the island, those outposts against invasion, were mostly empty. Viggo had not deemed it a viable strategy to man them fully, not when Drago had such a force. The sea stack outposts were mostly for surveillance, and in the face of a full-on attack- they were indefensible. The innermost ring, however, being fortified and armed with heavy weaponry, catapults and ballista, was occupied and ready.
No matter from which direction Drago's ships approached, they would be met with defensive fire.
Those same ships were even now approaching, not bothering with such a thing as subtlety, heading straight for the island, disregarding its defenses, or so it seemed. They would soon be in range of the manned outposts, and the battle would begin.
A threatening ripple in front of Drago's warship was the only sign of the Bewilderbeast, a deceptively simple harbinger of doom, one that could be easily missed, unlike that which it foretold.
Another sign of the approaching doom resided inside each and every cage on the decks of the entire fleet, present in the blank eyes of dragons of all kinds, sizes, and ages. They were tools to be used by the Bewilderbeast, nothing more.
One could say much the same of the soldiers crewing those ships, the ones readying their weapons for battle. Tools, used by Drago to eliminate opposition. They did not see themselves as such, but it was still the truth. Drago saw tools, just as Viggo saw game pieces on the board. Neither considered the individual soldier important, only the goal and the larger picture.
There was one creature aboard Drago's ship who was a tool in truth and in his own mind. Second had admitted that long ago. He had served his alpha without question. It was all that made him better than his brother, who had fled long ago.
But now that had changed. There were other things that made him better than Third. He had not forced himself upon Thorn, regardless of instinct or Drago's wishes. That made him better. Regardless, he was now Third in title, despite every effort to make himself better. That was disillusioning.
He had begun to question his own actions, which a tool did not do. Storm had begun to break down Second's barriers, and Ember's words had broken them further. Thorn too had contributed. Second was no longer sure of Drago's right to command.
Drago knew none of this, though the Bewilderbeast, having his hooks in Second's mind, could have told him. The Bewilderbeast was not in the habit of speaking to Drago unless it was important.
Another blow to Second's confidence in Drago, though it was too late to help in breaking his will to obey. The Bewilderbeast defied Drago, though Drago did not know it, and got away with it. Any true alpha would have noticed and brought down the challenge to his authority.
Drago was not a true alpha, but neither was the Bewilderbeast, for it bowed, however reluctantly, to Drago. An alpha bowed to no one.
But Second still had to follow both of them, for he was powerless. Drago and the orange Fury had taken away his physical freedom, and the Bewilderbeast his mental freedom, allowing him his own will almost as a taunt. He could feel it watching in the back of his mind even now, capable of retaking control in an instant if it desired. So his physical and mental freedom were both truly gone. The former might return with time, but the latter would not be recovered except at the death of a huge, long-lived titan of the ocean.
In other words, it wasn't happening. Second prowled Drago's largest ship, frustrated and conflicted, waiting for battle. At least he could tear into enemies with no question as to whether he should. Like he had with that idiot Krogan, attacking the invader. He had not at all minded an excuse to kill Krogan.
The ships drew closer and closer to the defenses. Minutes now, no longer hours or days. Far in the sky, high and out of reach of the Bewilderbeast's mental prodding, six Night Furies, one Light Fury, and one human watched, waiting.
O-O-O-O-O
Ember watched the scene below with trepidation. The time had come, and almost all of the result was now out of his hands. Out of all of their hands and paws. This was between Drago, Viggo, the Bewilderbeast, and their forces.
"Drago is making his first move," Beryl noted. "Rather, the Bewilderbeast is."
"Where?" Ember glanced down at the faraway battlefield. The ships, moving like dark shadows, were not close enough to any sea stacks to be attacked yet though he had been sure they were about to engage.
"There!" Beryl barked. "Another sea stack just went down, to the left of the lead ship."
Ember looked down and saw debris, men, and wood floating to the surface. There was no longer a sea stack. The Bewilderbeast had toppled it from under the water's surface.
"The first point goes to Drago, it seems," Ember noted aloud. "He will reach the island without interference from Viggo's outposts."
"Most of them, anyway," Storm agreed. "There are quite a few. Maybe he will not get to all of them before they fire off a shot or two."
Valka chuckled. "You overestimate the bravery of the average hunter."
Valka was right. Ember checked the remaining outposts nearby and saw several small ships putting off and abandoning the sea stacks at that very moment. It seemed no hunter wanted to risk death by freezing or drowning for a chance to put a hole in one of Drago's ships. The chance was a slim one anyway.
But so was the chances of getting to the island intact in those boats. Slim indeed.
Two tusks, long and stained, lurched from the water and smashed a boat, spilling the hunters within. Drago's fleet had yet to be touched, and Viggo's forces had already sustained a minor setback.
This was still only the opening moves of the game, but Ember was worried. He saw many new contraptions lining the cliffs and shores of Viggo's island, but none of them resembled anything that could kill the Bewilderbeast, or really even anything that could slow it. Then again, he didn't know what such a device would look like, so it was hard to tell.
Soon the last of the manned sea stacks was gone, and no hunter boats remained afloat in the water. Drago's fleet was nearing the defenses of the island itself, and Viggo had yet to do anything.
The fleet was also in range now. The Bewilderbeast had disappeared beneath the water, unseen and uninvolved, by the time the first volley of boulders and flaming spears arched through the sky.
The aim for this first volley was inaccurate but by lucky fluke one outlying ship was struck, a boulder tearing through the side with a wet crunch. It hit with far more force than Ember would have guessed, smashing powerfully.
"Something is off there," Ember remarked. "That hit really hard." Now that he looked at the catapults, the boulders waiting to be launched were oddly uniform, as if sculpted by the same hand. The same shade of grey too.
It hit him. "Viggo is using metal spheres as catapult ammunition." It was an amazingly wasteful technique, but as that shot had proven, an incredibly destructive one.
"So?" Spark did not seem impressed. "A big heavy thing is a big heavy thing, no matter what it is made of."
The second catapult volley launched, and four more metal projectiles found targets. That was really, really accurate for these weapons.
"No," Ember mused. "These are smooth, regular shots. It's improving their accuracy." An intelligent tactic, if one could afford it. Viggo clearly could.
All in all, Drago lost five ships by the time his fleet was too close to be targeted by catapults. Now his ships began firing back, their own catapults launching jagged boulders into the veritable city the defenders held. Buildings fell, and not much else. Viggo's defenses were spread out and there was no one place to target, unlike with the ships.
"What are those things?" Beryl asked no one in particular. "The metal ones on the beach there."
Ember looked down where Beryl was indicating. "You know, I'm not sure." Metal cylinders, tubes pointed out at the sea. Each had a hunter holding an ax behind it. At this distance, even with superior eyesight, the details were impossible to make out.
The first ship made landfall, grinding to a halt on the shore.
A hunter with an ax swung his weapon seemingly at the ground, his metal tube happening to be pointed directly at the ship, some twenty or so yards away.
The first soldiers jumped ship to land in the shallows-
The metal cylinder exploded from the end pointed at the ship, and the entire front of the ship was blasted with very familiar flames. Zippleback gas propelled out of the cylinder with massive force. Drago's soldiers dove for the shallows in disarray.
The battle was on in earnest now. On the ships that had yet to make landfall, cages were opened. Dragons flew into the sky, all moving as one to engage from behind, hitting the defending hunters in unison with Drago's soldiers.
"That's our cue!" Valka yelled, pointing at one four-winged silhouette. "We need him out of there before he gets killed or captured!"
Ember felt that they should want all of the enthralled dragons safe, but the Stormcutter was the first priority and a doable objective. "Yes, we do. Spark, Beryl, Herb?" The three who had no contact with Bewilderbeasts, and thus the three most suitable for the job.
Beryl swooped below Storm, who was carrying Valka, and Valka hopped off, landing astride him as he passed. The three Furies Ember had named dropped towards the battle below.
As they did, a roar shook the world. Ember looked to an unoccupied side of the island, disregarding the struggle on the beaches, to see the Bewilderbeast in full glory striding towards the island from another angle.
The plan became clear. Drago's men would secure a foothold, while the Bewilderbeast trashed the island. Whatever was left could be wiped away by Drago's forces. It was a good, simple plan.
Ember began to doubt that Viggo could take the Bewilderbeast out. It was massive and seemed beyond the reach of humankind to end.
O-O-O-O-O
Ragnarok, it seemed. Maybe to his hunters. Viggo was not inclined to believe any living thing unstoppable.
"Sector three!" he yelled at his personal guard. They followed him as he rushed to the named part of the island. Right towards the monstrosity Drago somehow commanded.
The Collector had certainly done Viggo a favor in both eliminating his power-hungry brother and sending a true warning so far ahead of the attack. He might need to thank her if he ever met her. This was not something his regular defenses could scratch.
Key words, there. Regular. There was a reason Viggo and his men were running towards the moving mountain and not away from it. His men trusted that he would not risk his own life needlessly, and he always had a plan. They were going to take it down.
They reached the emergency storehouse of sector three, and Viggo quickly unlocked it with a key he always kept on his person. These supplies were not ones he could afford to let fall into the wrong hands.
This was also why he stepped quickly to the side when the door opened. Three arrows shot out, and embedded themselves in the ground behind where he had been standing. He did not do more than glance at the oddly green arrowheads, knowing that they were fatally poisonous. Better the thief die than get their hands on...
Viggo grinned, pulling out a spherical glass jar. It was not glass, though it was partially clear and tinted blue. What was inside would eat away at almost anything, including normal glass, but for some reason was far less effective against crystal, which was what these containers were made of. He had been cautioned by the seller to buy many times the number of containers required to hold the acid, as it would eat through even this material given enough time.
He distributed the jars to his men, and then handed out the other type of weapon stored here. Strange spears, different in several respects to those used by his men in bulk. They were tipped with reinforced steel, and in a way that was reminiscent of small harpoons, curved to latch onto something, rather than to impale.
This would work. Viggo did not flinch at the sound of ice entombing part of his island. Some losses were expected. As long as the monstrosity's attention was on that which was around it, not that which was by its feet...
He took a spear and a jar of the acid himself, and led his men straight towards the beast. It was not his way to lead by example, but this was not something he trusted his soldiers to do without him. When his entire livelihood was at stake, he had to take risks.
Two questions bothered him, even as he saw the Bewilderbeast's front paw in the distance, crushing a small tavern. Why. Why did Drago suddenly decide to attack? Why did the Bewilderbeast do as Drago commanded? Both were questions he would need to be answered later, after this invasion was dealt with.
The heavily-scaled paw shifted. Viggo and his men froze in unison, waiting to see if it would move to crush them. Looking up revealed that the massive dragon was not looking down at them, but it was completely capable of stepping on them by accident.
The paw shifted forward and dug into the tavern more securely. It seemed they had a chance here. Viggo led the charge to the paw itself, remaining silent as he did.
His men all knew that they had to be quiet and followed his lead. As long as he appeared to have a plan, they would follow him to the ends of the world. Viggo Grimborn's plans never failed.
The paw itself would be a climb. Viggo stood beside it and latched the hooks of the spear onto the top edge of one massive scale.
There was no indication that the dragon felt anything. Perfect. He hauled himself up, stood on the edge of the huge scale, and proceeded to repeat the process. The hunters followed, awkwardly carrying the precious jars. In this way, they scaled the leg of the dragon as if it was a cliff.
One hunter slipped and fell, the jar held out in front of him. Viggo did not wince at the muffled crack of the hunter's back breaking, but the tinkle of shattered crystal did make him shudder. He imagined he could hear the sizzling from here.
He chanced a glance down. The crystal had shattered on the dead hunter's chestplate, which was now not so much a chestplate as it was a circle of metal, a neat hole eaten right through the armor, the tunic, and body below, now working on the ground below.
There was a reason this stuff was what would take down such a massive dragon. No matter how big something was, one only needed to take out one vital component to kill. This acid applied correctly, could do that.
In the time the Collector had bought him, Viggo had dug up many old records and located a description of this particular species. He was glad to see now that those descriptions were correct. They gave him the idea as to how to do this.
The side of the beast was scalable. They had gotten lucky. The beast was taking its time in freezing random parts of the island, apparently entertained by the destruction of Viggo's world.
Viggo knew that in doing this he was taking a risk even if he succeeded and survived. This operation needed him, but his defenses against Drago's more mundane forces, however innovative, might also require his guidance to ensure victory. But he would not be there. The rest of his forces would win or lose without him.
It all came back to this dragon. It needed to die for anything else to matter, and Viggo was the one for the job. No one else had studied this species, studied the ancient records. No one else could find a good place for the relatively small amount of acid they had.
Another hunter fell. Viggo cared more about the additional acid lost. He could lose men, but that acid was far more precious. Still, he held his silence. They could not be noticed. Not now.
O-O-O-O-O
Beryl swooped low, almost flying between buildings, scanning the skies above for the Stormcutter. Spark and Herb followed his lead.
The pressure in his head was stronger now, but still bearable. It helped that the Bewilderbeast was distracted, freezing pockets of resistance composed of hunters who manned the larger weaponry still operational and pointed the right way. Ballista spears did no damage whatsoever, but they did give the large dragon a convenient target.
Distracted, it seemed, was not a condition that applied to the Bewilderbeast's thralls on the other paw. Beryl dodged a Nadder's spine, shot from above. The alpha might not be capable of sparing the concentration to make a play for Beryl's mind at the moment, but he had clearly noticed the uncontrolled Night Furies entering the fray.
"There!" Valka yelled. Beryl huffed in frustration.
"By the tower," she clarified when it became obvious Beryl didn't have the time to look back and guess where she was pointing.
He angled around towards the mentioned landmark and spotted the Stormcutter in the process, along with several other dragons. The hunters being attacked were fighting back, and even as Beryl watched a Gronckle went down to thrown nets.
Then the Stormcutter went down. Valka yelled incoherently in Beryl's ears as the Stormcutter faltered and dropped out of the sky, an arrow sticking out of his stomach. Those tranquilizer arrows were the biggest source of casualties in the Bewilderbeast's ranks of thralls, and the Stormcutter had just fallen to them.
At that moment, Beryl inwardly debated the correct course of action. He could go for it and risk being caught, or he could pull up. Spark and Herb were following his lead.
That decided it. He wasn't risking all three of them, especially given they couldn't lift the Stormcutter. He pulled up, ignoring Valka's objections, and watched as the Stormcutter was thrown into another of those annoying cages.
"Stop it!" He roared back at his rebellious passenger who was still yelling in his ears. "He's safe now even if we didn't get him! We can't pull him out like that!"
"Drop me off," Valka ordered in a calm tone. "I'm staying with his cage until this is over."
"The hunters might object," Beryl remarked sarcastically.
"No, they won't." Valka sighed. "I'll stay out of sight. But we'll never find him if we let him out of sight now. There are thousands of those cages, and all it will take to lose him is one hunter deciding to move his."
Beryl couldn't argue with that. "Meet us on an abandoned sea stack as soon as the Bewilderbeast falls, if it does. If not, we'll come for you."
Valka didn't answer.
"You both," Beryl sighed. "Even if he's still under control." That was a promise he wasn't sure how to keep if it came to that, but Valka was accepting nothing less.
"Good enough." Valka hunched over on Beryl's back and abruptly swung off onto the roof of a building as he passed. "Go get out of here!" She called to him as he left.
"Why did you leave her?" Spark asked, he and Herb catching up with Beryl as he slowed for a moment.
"She will watch over her friend. We just have to hope that-"
A pulse. Beryl felt it wash over his mind, this time finding the right places to push. It was much harder to resist now. The alpha had found a free moment, it seemed. He faltered midair, inwardly resisting but knowing it wouldn't last.
O-O-O-O-O
"I felt that!" Pearl yelled to Ember. "Beryl and the others are in trouble!"
Ember could see that. His sons and Sire were slowing, moving stiffly. They were fighting it, but they wouldn't hold on for long, not with the Bewilderbeast concentrating on them. He made a snap decision.
"I'm going in to distract him!" Ember yelled. "Don't follow!"
He dived, intent on the Bewilderbeast. The sounds of other diving Furies grated on his ears. They were moving too fast for him to question Pearl, Storm, and Thorn, but he would have liked to chew them out for following. He could shift into his human form if the pressure was turned on him. They had no such escape.
But the pressure, it quickly became apparent, was already on. He almost lost control as soon as he broke into the range of the Bewilderbeast, only barely holding it out. Pearl, Storm, and Thorn, on the other hand, dropped like flies. It was unclear whether they had fallen to the Bewilderbeast's control or simply fallen out of strain inherent in holding it off, but they were out of it, lying amid the streets and buildings, mercifully out of the main bulk of the fighting.
Something rose in Ember's heart at the quickly-glimpsed sight of his sister, Dam, and... whatever Pearl was, along with his sons and Sire, all struggling or hurt because of this monster. He easily pushed the Bewilderbeast's power back, knowing that it would eventually break through, sooner rather than later, but incensed enough at the moment to buy a little more time.
Time he used, while the Bewilderbeast was distracted, to land on its lower back and shift to his human form. The pressure eased, and he took a brief moment to clear his head, knowing the massive dragon wouldn't feel him where he was, and would not be able to hit him with an ice blast.
The Bewilderbeast was powerful, and it would take a human to kill it now. No dragon could stay free and coherent long enough.
A man... like the ones he saw on the upper back, heading into the shadowed alcove between that crown of spines and the Bewilderbeast's neck?
Viggo. Ember laughed hollowly and struck out towards the group. It seemed his bet on Viggo's intelligence finding a way might not have been a mistake. Time to help out an enemy. What was the saying?
The enemy of his enemy was his friend. At least at the moment.
O-O-O-O-O
Viggo cursed angrily as another man slipped and fell, his acid going with him. The Bewilderbeast was moving now, and while they had to advance to get anywhere near stopping it, moving meant he lost people. There were only seven men left, not counting himself. Barely enough acid if he found the perfect spot.
Another slipped, sliding down the dragon's back. The hunter glanced off of a scale and dropped off the side, still holding the acid-
Only to be caught by a shadowed figure, a human figure, barely holding on. A weak figure, for the hunter was slipping.
"Give him the acid!" Viggo yelled desperately. They needed that acid! How or why help was here didn't matter.
The hunter frantically batted at his rescuer's arm with the jar, looking up with pleading eyes. The rescuer looked down at him helplessly and maneuvered himself to secure the acid between his knees, refusing to let go.
Viggo was intensely grateful to his own foresight for drilling into his personal guards' heads that his plans were more important than their lives. It had just, potentially, saved this mission just as surely as the stranger who was impossibly up here with them.
The Bewilderbeast lurched, and the stranger lost his grip. The hunter fell. But the acid was safe.
Viggo made eye contact with the oddly familiar stranger as he made his way to them, maneuvering awkwardly along the scales with only a single hand free to hold on with. The man moved with no fear, as if a fall could not hurt him, and made it to them quickly, out of luck not being dislodged in his risky movements.
"Fancy meeting you here!" The man called out.
Viggo recalled where he had heard that voice and put his memories together. "Get over here, Ember!" There was no time to ask questions.
"This stuff will kill it?" Ember asked, hoisting his jar.
"If we put it at the base of its spine, over there," Viggo confirmed, pointing to the shadowed alcove they were approaching. The entire group began to move towards it again.
In a minute they passed under the first of the massive spikes. Almost there.
Ember frowned at their destination. "Looks awfully thick. How strong is this stuff?"
"Strong enough, but only just with how much we have left." Viggo grimaced, unable to stop himself. "Why are you up here?"
"I was in the area, and this guy got my attention," Ember replied angrily. "I can't kill him, but I figured you might have something going that could use a hand."
Viggo smiled slyly. "A common enemy?" He knew that feeling and had used it to rid himself of several enemies in times past.
"A jerk who likes to mess with minds and follows Drago's orders, so yes." They had reached the base of the spikes.
Viggo pulled his concentration to the scales under them. The old texts had been clear; there would at the very point where the spine joined the skull be a bulge and no scales. The center of that bulge was a weak point.
Then he saw a complication. "That spike is in the way," Viggo announced. There was a half-grown spike growing out of the bulge itself, covering the center. The acid would not be enough to eat away at it too.
"Lucky I'm here," Ember grunted, sizing up the spike, as if unaware of just how scrawny he was compared to it, half-grown though it was. "Stand back, this thing might snap off."
Viggo wisely stepped back, recalling the bent bars of a cage so long ago now. The part of him that hated mysteries was glad Ember was here if only to see this particular mystery solved.
Ember held out his hands and closed his eyes. "You know," he remarked conversationally even as scars on his hands began to glow, "I should thank you, Viggo. It's your fault I can hold it like this."
That was a remark Viggo was going to have to examine later. He watched closely as blue flames flooded out of Ember's palms. Surely he wasn't going to try and burn the spike?
No. Ember pushed at it, at chest-level, and the spike bent slightly.
Looking closely, Viggo could see that Ember wasn't even touching the spike. Only the flames were, gradually blackening the off-white surface as Ember pushed. That was very interesting...
"It's not budging... much," Ember admitted, still pushing. "Is there a place you can cut around while I hold it like this?"
That was a good suggestion. The spike was shifting beneath the surface of the Bewilderbeast's skin, and it couldn't go very deep if it was growing on top of a bone. Viggo carefully moved beside Ember and knelt at the base of the spike.
Yes, there was a place there. "Here!" He called to his men. "Pour it here." He made a cut in the tough skin, digging a small channel for the acid, and did as he had ordered. The light blue liquid sizzled and popped, eating away at the flesh.
Ember held the spike bent away as if it weighed nothing. "I can only hold this for so long," he remarked casually.
"Hold it." Viggo was not going to hurry this, though the operation did require some element of speed. The Bewilderbeast would feel this soon.
His six hunters poured the acid into the rapidly deepening hole Viggo had created, and Viggo took the final jar from Ember, adding the last of it.
Ember stepped to the side and the spike popped back into place with a sound akin to a dislocated bone being relocated. Sickening but right in some way.
The deed was done. Viggo immediately refocused his priorities on surviving the next few minutes. "Brace yourselves!" He led by example, wedging himself between two of the spines. His hunters followed suit.
Ember stood on the now shifting back of the Bewilderbeast, unconcerned. His eyes met Viggo's.
"You're not natural." Viggo said it calmly, knowing in some instinctive way that Ember did not intend to kill him at the moment. It was like looking into the eyes of a predator from behind bars... only the predator had put the bars up and could just as easily tear them down. Viggo had long ago mastered his own emotions, but this made him very uneasy. How had he never noticed the age in this boy's eyes?
"I was cursed a while back," Ember admitted conversationally. "This is just a side effect."
That was very interesting. "Did you ever find what you came for?" Best to know if Ember still needed something he could provide.
The Bewilderbeast moved, tilting. A questioning growl escaped it, shaking the earth. Viggo had no idea how this would feel. It was possible the large dragon wouldn't notice such a small pain. It was efficient, the smallest possible injury that could kill.
"Yeah, I found her." Ember smiled coldly. "Know this Viggo. You are a dragon hunter. If I ever see you again, I'll kill you."
With that, Ember walked out onto the open back, and the blue flames engulfed his entire body.
"I don't like people who hunt my family." Those words ended in an inhuman snarl, even as the fires changed, as if covering a changing body. An orange Night Fury flew off into the sky, wheeling around out of sight.
Viggo had to work hard to maintain his neutral, unworried expression. Ember was, as his instinct had suggested, very dangerous. A man cursed with another body, half man and half dragon? Why would that even be a curse? And who could do such a thing in the first place?
There was not enough information to solve this puzzle. But Viggo left no puzzle unsolved. He would, if he survived all of this, have to figure out how to draw Ember back, trap him, and determine all of his secrets, regardless of whether or not Ember survived the process. It was just what Viggo did, how his world worked. No stone left unturned.
The Bewilderbeast reared, roaring loud enough to deafen him, and thrashed powerfully. The acid was doing its work, and it could be felt now.
Viggo smiled grimly, only hanging on because he had wedged himself in so tightly as to be stuck. The spike was acting as a cap, though it was not perfect. Enough acid remained to do the job… hopefully.
O-O-O-O-O
Pearl opened her eyes slowly, feeling as if her head had been struck with a heavy rock.
'You are mine. No tricks this time.'
No, she was not. Let him see all of her pain, all of the horror that was her past! She shoved those memories at the tendrils, and the tendrils accepted them.
There was no relief.
'This time I am ready. Your agonies do not hurt me. But I can hurt you with them. Submit.'
No. She wouldn't give over any control of her life to this alpha! She had lost enough of her life to the first!
'I can make you relive them. It is easier to control with happy memories and easiest when subjects listen willingly, but I can make your life an endless replay of those season-cycles. Submit, or be left to this alpha male over and over again, for as long as you live. I win either way.'
She trembled at that promise. It was too sure to be a threat. Could she bear that? To be locked into those memories, while her body did as told anyway? She didn't have a choice.
Storm came to mind, looking confused. There was always the choice to defy. To take control. She just wasn't looking for it.
No, Pearl decided angrily. Let the alpha do his worst! There was nothing in those memories she had not survived the first time around. She would not give in.
'Very well.'
The world around her faded to black.
O-O-O-O-O
Storm struggled to her feet, the world spinning around her.
'Submit.'
"I would rather die," she hissed, barely able to see, she was so dizzy.
'Too bad...'
A surge of mental pressure made her stagger, and the spinning increased.
'You no longer have a choice.'
The spinning sped up, and the world spun away from Storm's grasp, fading before her eyes.
O-O-O-O-O
Thorn pawed at her head, curled up into a ball, fighting with all her strength against something she could not see or attack physically. She knew what it was, but her mental defenses were almost gone, and that was before the Bewilderbeast had focused on her.
'I have them. Your daughter and the light female. Submit, and I might not mate them with the finless dark wing.'
Thorn howled wordlessly, unable to do anything more. It had to be a lie, but she could not resist any longer…
"Promise," Thorn gasped.
'I promise,' the Bewilderbeast agreed.
Thorn stopped fighting, hating herself for giving in, but sure she was making the right choice. If the rest of her family could not save them, then at least she had taken the worst fate for herself, and herself alone.
She could feel the moment control was wrestled from her no longer resisting mind. Her body moved of its own accord, getting to its feet.
'I lied.'
A moment later, everything went black, a mercy to Thorn's devastated mind.
O-O-O-O-O
Ember, having just left the Bewilderbeast's back, was already feeling the mental pressure. He knew it was going to stop soon, as the Bewilderbeast was thrashing now, but it was still painful.
Looking down on the dying monster, Ember wondered about the lesser monster safely secured among its spines. Viggo's plan was brilliant, crazy, and sadistic. The man had coldly ordered his hunter to hand over the acid, even as that same hunter dangled, slipping from Ember's grip. Viggo sold thousands of dragons without a second thought, and struck to kill without warning. It was pretty clear the man had no morals or empathy.
Viggo needed to go, if Ember could catch him after this, but Ember had balked at killing the man so soon after working with him to stop their mutual enemy.
It would be best, Ember decided, if Viggo did not survive the Bewilderbeast's death throes. Even better if his empire expired soon after.
Ember circled around, still watching the Bewilderbeast. It was still thrashing, smashing buildings with its head, dragging that large mass of head spikes along the ground-
Now coming to a rest, as if exhausted, stopping with its head on the ground. A few moments passed in which it was still.
It was going to die. The mental pressure was still pretty strong, but it was weakening.
Then the Bewilderbeast got up. It roared mightily and began to shamble forward, desperately forging ahead.
Ember followed from a distance, confused. What was it doing? He had expected more thrashing, death throes. Wasn't the acid hurting it any more?
'Pain…'
Ember's own mental walls were falling, despite his strength. Despite its physical predicament, the Bewilderbeast was still pushing, and now it was getting through, more and more with every second. He needed to concentrate to fight it-
A full-strength plasma blast struck Ember in the midsection, throwing him from the sky. He howled in pain, diving to avoid two more and just barely escaping what could have been a fatal ambush, crashing into an open street and skidding to a halt. His chest ached, but nothing was broken.
He stumbled to his feet just before two horribly familiar dragons dropped down in front of him, stalking forward. Thorn and Storm, both with slitted eyes and impersonal, terrible glares. They were enthralled.
'Why will it not stop!'
Ember ignored the Bewilderbeast's frantic mental cry, knowing that he needed to focus. The Bewilderbeast was going to die soon, but that wouldn't matter if he was dead when that time came. He leaped to the side just before Thorn blasted him again, faltering as his side ached.
Time. He needed to buy time. Killing Thorn or Storm was out of the question, and both were attacking, clearly not in control of-
A large crash echoed in the distance, one reminiscent of something heavy dropping into water. A moment later, both Storm and Thorn stopped, freezing where they stood.
Ember heaved a huge sigh of relief. The Bewilderbeast was dying now, losing control.
Something nagged at the back of his mind, though. What was it?
If the Bewilderbeast was dying… why was the pressure in his mind not going away?
'I cannot move my own body. Maybe that will pass. At least now I can focus.'
Ember felt his body collapse as the mental pressure increased tenfold. He wheezed as his injured side hit the ground, but his mind was not on physical pain.
'Strong, so strong, but susceptible. Whatever your strangeness is, it falls before my power eventually, as all things do.'
No! Ember strained to push back, but the Bewilderbeast was somehow stronger than before, far stronger. Storm and Thorn began to move again, but they did nothing aside from circling him slowly. Waiting.
'All of my will, against all of yours. I can split my attention, but I can focus too, now. Submit. You stand no chance.'
Ember could feel it pushing, breaking barriers he had built, disturbing the delicate balance his mind held.
'What..?'
Now it was pushing lightly against his memories, against the strangeness in his mind, the void. The void that let him do what he did, the void Vithvarandi had forced into him.
The Bewilderbeast stared into the void and lightly prodded it. It stared back.
Then the void in Ember's head spread onto the tendrils touching it.
Ember was distantly aware of a horrible, echoing cry too loud to be called a screech, but too high-pitched to be a roar.
'What is this?!'
The void pushed further, creeping along the Bewilderbeast's mental tendrils, and then stopped. It did not leave Ember's mind.
Ember did not understand what he was feeling, or what was happening to his own mind. He had not thought the void capable of anything more than what he used it for. All he knew was that, despite its apparent unease, despite the void's strange and apparently ineffective interference, the Bewilderbeast was still eroding his last defenses. And he couldn't stop it.
'You scare me; you should not be like this. But you still fall like anyone else!'
One final push, and his control was gone. His body was not his own.
But the void did not stop moving. Far from it. It rushed out across all of the Bewilderbeast's mental tendrils, holding them in place, trapping them.
'Stop!'
The tendrils shuddered, but they could not pull back.
'What is happening?'
Time passed. Ember was not in control of himself, but the Bewilderbeast was not doing anything, either. The void seemed content to hold the Bewilderbeast-
Hold. Keep. Obtain. Ember's thoughts flashed to what the void did. It kept other forms. It stored them, and in the beginning, it had almost killed him because it did not have another form to hold.
He wasn't sure if it could think. In fact, he was pretty sure it wasn't self-aware. But if he had to describe the void, he would call it greedy.
It wasn't going to let go.
'I cannot reach out to new minds.'
And it seemed the Bewilderbeast was coming to the same conclusion.
This horrible thing is crippling me, holding me to it. I do not know how to pull back. How is it strong enough to keep me?'
Ember's body stood and flared his wings experimentally.
'I still have complete control of all those I have taken already. All is not lost. I can figure out how to break free later.'
A moment of still silence.
'These bodies will have to do for now.'
All faded to black.
Author's Note: Oh boy, things went bad fast.
By the way, in case anyone's wondering, the void didn't do anything to previous mental intrusions because they were either too weak (pretty much everything but the Bewilderbeasts), too subtle to be 'noticed' (the good Bewilderbeast), or both. I will say no more on the subject.