Swordfish swam through the dark water. He had started to recognize the coral formations more and more. The large rock he had scraped himself on when he was younger. It was amazing. The longer he was in this world, the more he remembered. Like Cassriel had been suppressing memories. Swordfish realized that he probably had been doing just that.

Swordfish pressed onwards as the water began to become greener. It was green because of the large deposit of algae nearby the village. Then, it all came into view. The underwater village Swordfish had grown up in. He saw it, and a rush of memories he hadn't seen before started flowing through his head. It was amazing, he had spent six years growing up here, and somehow Cassriel hadn't let him see most of it. Swordfish stared at the entirety of the village below him on the ocean floor. Well, this place is what you wanted, right? As normal as it's going to get. Swordfish swam down to the town.

When he entered the village, Swordfish was pointed out by an older couple. Swordfish froze when they began to approach him, speaking in the Seawing language, Aquatic. "Hello!" The male one said by flashing his scales. "You must be Swordfish. You look like your brother from a distance, you know!" The two older dragons chuckled. "Hi. Uh, how do you know me?" Swordfish asked, not chuckling with them. "Oh, we're Typhoon's grandparents. You know, one of the other new Seawings at that Academy you go to." The wife said. "I'm Ray." "And I'm Cerulean." Typhoon's grandfather said, flashing his scales elegantly. "Oh… Hi. Uh… I don't really know Typhoon that well. Her clawmate got killed though and she's in my history class." Swordfish flashed awkwardly. "Oh. Oh dear." Cerulean said, his face dropping. "You don't know Typhoon well?" Ray said. "This does not bode well."

"Why?" Swordfish asked, suddenly worried about how disappointed they seemed. "Well, go talk to your father… He will explain everything." Cerulean flashed, and then he and Ray swam off, flashing to each other urgently.

Well that was… odd. Swordfish thought to himself. Swordfish proceeded to swim through the village, which seemed rather busy today. Various Seawings were out and about, milling around the town. Some of them gave Swordfish looks, and it didn't occur to Swordfish why, until after he saw his own reflection in a glass window. It was slightly warped because of the water, but he didn't look… normal. His eyes looked dark and shadowed. His tail was curled like a Sandwing's, and Swordfish put it back to normal, embarrassed that he had picked something up from Rattlesnake and Savanna. His wings looked drooped and almost crumpled. So, this is what all of this has done to me. Swordfish thought. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his back.

He turned around to see his brother Starfish floating behind him. He was wearing his armor that he received for being a Royal Guard. He was just as muscular as Swordfish remembered. He was much bigger too. Of course, Swordfish was two years younger than him, but Starfish was a big dragon for his age. He looked even bigger than Clay. "You're home earlier than expected." Starfish flashed at him. "Hi Starfish." Swordfish flashed back, attempting some form of a smile. Well, guess it's time for family. Already. Swordfish thought. "Aw come on, don't look so glum. You haven't seen me in like, a month!" Starfish said, and got Swordfish to awkwardly brush wings with him. "You look terrible." Starfish said jokingly. "You look like you survived a massive shark attack." Swordfish managed a small smile. "Yeah. Something like that." Starfish began to swim away. "Come on, I'll lead you to the new home." He flashed to Swordfish.

"Wait, new home?" Swordfish asked. "In the month I was gone, you got a new home?" "Well, when you save the queen, it pays off." Starfish said. Aaannnnd we're back. Swordfish thought, irritated. Ever since the initial shock and amazement of what Starfish had done had worn off, Starfish always flaunting it around had begun to irritate Swordfish. It made dragons compare him to Starfish and think less of him. Everything Swordfish did was overshadowed by it. His father began to favorite Starfish even more.

"We got a home in the wealthy part of town. You know, nearby Cerulean and his family. His brother is a noble to Queen Coral. We're really stepping up in the ocean thanks to me." Starfish flashed smugly. Wow, you're pretty happy about killing the princess. Swordfish thought.

"So, what was Cerulean talking to me about? Why were he and Ray all disappointed that I don't know their granddaughter well? What did Urchin do?" Swordfish asked, and Starfish's face got an odd look. "Father will explain everything. You may be a little…" Starfish paused. "Reluctant at first, but it's for the better." I've got a bad feeling about this. Swordfish thought.

When the brothers reached the large, new home, Swordfish was a little surprised his brother and Urchin now lived in such a nice house. It was made of stone, and was much neater than the old, dilapidated house he used to live in. Yet…

"Isn't Urchin going to miss the old place? Sure it was old… but it was mother's right?" Swordfish asked his brother. Starfish didn't speak for a small bit. He was old enough to remember mother. But he finally began flashing his scales again. "Mother died a long time ago. Father has moved on." Starfish said, and then added on "I think."

Swordfish and Starfish stood outside of the new home for a few seconds, and then Starfish said. "So? Ready to see father?" And Swordfish couldn't help himself. "Oh joy! I can't wait to go and speak to him again! Did you know it's been a whole month?" He said sarcastically, and then suddenly Starfish moved like lightning, and grabbed Swordfish's arm with the grip of someone who killed a princess.

"Don't speak badly of father. He has served the queen with honor, just like his father, and his father before him and so on! He also raised me, who single handedly saved the queen and many other nobility from that devil Anemone." "Okay! Okay!" Swordfish said, his arm starting to really hurt. But Starfish wasn't done. "And you're not gracious to come back to him? Someone who served our kingdom with honor?" Starfish began to dig his claws into Swordfish's arm. "I mean, you were never going to be part of the royal guard anyway, but this is borderline treason. Is this what that multi tribal academy has done to you? Turned you into a traitor? I mean, its own founders broke out of our prisons and let the Summer Palace get attacked by Skywings." "No! No! I'm sorry! I should have known better!" Swordfish flashed quickly.

Starfish released him, and Swordfish pulled his arm away from his brother. "Then let's go in." Starfish flashed with a menacing look on his face. Swordfish followed him meekly. So much for things being different…

Inside, Swordfish was immediately greeted by the grand room of the home, making his old, small house look like nothing more than a storage hut. There were still piles of stuff from the old home on the floor, which let Swordfish know that they had just moved in recently. Swordfish looked up when he saw his father slowly swim into the room.

Urchin still looked the same. The same look in his eyes. Like he had lost hope, and it had turned to bitterness. He still looked diseased, most likely from his consumption of a special seaweed that he had become addicted to. He looked at Swordfish and Swordfish could feel no sign of happiness in his eyes. "So. You're back earlier than expected." Urchin flashed at Swordfish, not breaking eye contact. "What did you do?" Swordfish flashed at him. "Why did that old dragon Cerulean act so weird around me?" A flash of something like panic shone in Urchin's eyes, but it died just as fast as it came.

"Really? Not even a hello?" Urchin said, still staring at Swordfish. "Same goes for you." Swordfish said, but he felt Starfish stomp on his tail, which had curled again. "I apologize. Hello father, so nice to see you." Swordfish flashed as fast as he could. Urchin just stared, but then released his gaze. "Whatever. Glad to have you back so soon." He said, not looking at Swordfish at all. "Yeah, why are you back so soon?" Starfish asked, the anger gone.

"Well, my clawmate, the dragonet I would sleep in the same room as, was a Mudwing named Cedar. I liked him, but he kinda killed a Skywing and a Sandwing, and then tried to kill me and my friend Rattlesnake." Swordfish showed his family the scar Cedar had given him. "Well, did you kill him?" Starfish asked, and Urchin turned to look at Swordfish, with something like hope in his dead eyes. Swordfish paused. I could lie. I could gain father's liking. I could be seen as worth something to these two. But Swordfish decided against it. It would be too hard to cover up the truth. It would be praise for something he didn't do. And he didn't want to be the one seen responsible for his friend's death. "I didn't. His own sister Delta ripped his wings and pushed him into an abyss. He fell to his death." Starfish looked disappointed. Urchin stopped looking at Swordfish again.

Swordfish sighed mentally. There was silence between the three Seawings. Suddenly, Urchin put on a waterproof satchel and looked back at Swordfish. "Come on Swordfish, let's go take a swim through the town." Swordfish whirled his head to look at his father. "Really? With me?" "Yeah. There's something we need to talk about." Urchin swam through the doorway, and Swordfish followed. "Do you need me to come?" Starfish flashed back to Urchin. "No." Urchin said. Swordfish and his father left the house, and left Starfish standing there, watching them go.

Swordfish and his father swam through the town. By the shops and merchants, by the small streets they used to live on, by the large coral reef Swordfish used to explore. They swam in silence, until they reached the school, and Urchin stopped. "I remember when I first dropped you off here." He flashed when Swordfish stopped beside him. "I remember hoping you would show yourself to be a guard, like your brother had done, like I had done, like my father had done." Swordfish felt a flash of shame, that he had been the one that had broken the tradition that had been going on for generations. "I had such high hopes for you, but I slowly started to see them crumble over the years. You time and time again showed yourself to not be someone who would live up to my expectations."

Swordfish was a little shocked his father had said what had gone unsaid for so long. Swordfish was a failure.

"But… I couldn't let myself give you away to your mother's sister." Urchin flashed, not looking at Swordfish. Swordfish was shocked. There was family he didn't even know about!? "You reminded me too much of her." Urchin said, and he turned to Swordfish. Swordfish saw the pain through his eyes. "You… were too much like your mother for me to get rid of you. No matter how much of a disappointment you were to me, I tried to act like your mother was still around. I knew she would never let me give you to Angler." Swordfish could hardly believe what he was hearing. "So I kept you around. I wouldn't let myself get rid of you, no matter how much I wanted to get rid of you. But when you left for that academy, I was finally able to move out of that house." Swordfish was speechless. He didn't know whether to be angry or glad or amazed. His father did like him for something. He still thought he was a disappointment, but he liked him for something else.

"There's actually something I have for you." Swordfish's father said. He reached into the satchel he brought with him. "I don't remember much about the night your mother disappeared. But I woke up with this. I already asked Starfish if he wanted it and he didn't." Urchin pulled his claw out and produced a golden earring, with two dragons entwined around each other. Swordfish's eyes widened.

It was exactly like Rattlesnake's earring. Rattlesnake's looked older and more worn than this, but it was still the same. "I also had a map of a town." Urchin said off-handedly. "I lost it though. I don't even remember the town." "Was it Possibility?" Swordfish asked urgently. "Yeah. That's it." Urchin replied. "It had two red x-marks on it too."

Swordfish's head was spinning. All the things his father had told him and now this? And he wasn't even telling his own son, he was telling the one from another dimension who had taken the place of his son who had died, and he didn't even know. And the fact that his father had gotten a map of Possibility from his mother, exactly like the one Rainfall had in his scroll, that Swordfish had left on the shore, hidden away inside a tree? And Rattlesnake's earring?

Swordfish took the earring from his father. It was as golden as Sunny's scales. "Thanks." Swordfish said. "Alright." Urchin said. "Now that that's out of the way, let me tell you about Typhoon." Swordfish grasped the earring in his claw. "When we moved to our new home, we moved into the same neighborhood as Cerulean and Aqua, and the rest of their family. Did you know that Cerulean's brother is a noble?" Urchin asked, and Swordfish nodded.

Urchin turned and looked into the sea. "Our family used to be more respected as a line of royal guards by the Royal Family themselves. We even got to attend a dinner with them right after you were born." Urchin kept staring. "Those were better times. Then your mother disappeared, and everything went south for us. We became less and less known and respected. We became common guards again. I turned to that seaweed. We became poor. The magic was gone."

Urchin then turned and looked at Swordfish again. "But then Starfish killed Anemone when she went crazy. The military now respects us. Commander Shark gave us his personal regards. But the Queen still feels bitter about Starfish killing her daughter, who was the only daughter for so long." Urchin looked right into Swordfish's eyes. "You are going to complete what Starfish started. You will bring us glory on the other side of the palace." Swordfish suddenly got an alarming idea, but he had barely began to flash what he was going to ask when Urchin said it.

"I found out you went to the same academy as Cerulean's granddaughter Typhoon. We arranged a marriage between the two of you. It may have taken some small lies, but if you can marry us into a noble family, we will have the family glory that my great-great-great-grandfather started back."

Swordfish couldn't speak. He couldn't find the Aquatic needed to say what he wanted to say. But he felt something welling up inside him. He couldn't… Not Typhoon. Of all of the new dragonets he had met, Typhoon was one of the worst, next to Scaleslasher and Scorch. Plus, Rattlesnake. Suddenly, what Swordfish was thinking came rushing out in his scales.

"Did you ever even stop to consider that I may not want that? At all? You lied to them? Do you understand that if they found that out, we won't just lose all our 'glory' again, we will also be labeled as liars, and that family would most likely not accept me! DO YOU WANT ME TO HAVE A HORRIBLE FAMILY LIFE?" Swordfish stopped. He couldn't believe what he had said. He had been straightforward with his father. Urchin.

Urchin immediately flashed back with his diseased scales. "Just about what I expected from you. No regard to how this will make us move up in the world. It doesn't matter what you think. Her family has already agreed to this too. In fact, it doesn't matter what Typhoon thinks either! This is our chance to restore our name in the eyes of the Queen! Or was Starfish right, and that academy turned you into a traitor?"

Swordfish stepped back. Urchin continued. "Oh yes. It was a concern of his right about after you left. That you would forget your place back here. At first I thought it was just Starfish being overly-nationalistic again, but I can see he was right! Look, you even curl your tail like a Sandwing." Urchin pointed at Swordfish's tail, which was back to curling.

"Well, at least I'm not a diseased, lonely, jerk who tries to 'restore glory' through his sons for his own personal gain!" Swordfish shot back, angry. "YOU THINK I'LL MISS YOU WHEN YOU'RE MARRIED OFF TO THAT DRAGONET?" Urchin retorted. "I WAS GLAD TO SEE YOU LEAVE AND GO TO THAT TREASONOUS SCHOOL!" Swordfish shook with anger, and then began to swim away, back in the direction he came. "THAT'S RIGHT, SWIM AWAY!" Urchin flashed when Swordfish looked back at him. "JUST LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO. NEVER FACING THINGS HEAD ON!" Swordfish swam faster, and this time, he didn't look back.

Later

Swordfish was flying back to Jade Mountain. The night was a cold one, and Swordfish faced the brisk air head on. Marry Typhoon. Neither of us have a choice. Swordfish thought to himself. He wanted to go back to somewhere normal, but he had forgotten that "normal" was a bad place.

Swordfish wondered how things had gone over at Jade Mountain with Glory and Vine. What was the next step in all of this? Swordfish tried to get his mind off of Urchin and Starfish with thoughts about the demons, and Rainfall's chest. Swordfish had put the earring in his satchel of things he brought with him, and he wondered if Rattlesnake knew something, and wasn't telling him.

I'll ask her when I get back. Swordfish thought, and because of his wandering thoughts, he didn't notice the hooded dragons with golden armbands, descending on him from the night, until he was under their talons and screaming.