Wings of Night and Power
Description: Moonwatcher knew that allowing Peril to burn Darkstalker's scroll would free him. She knew what Darkstalker had done in the past and some of what he planned to do in the future. She didn't care. From the moment she was born, her destiny was tied to Darkstalker's. She wanted him free. She wanted him with her. Together, they were balanced. Together, every dragon in Pyrrhia would bow their heads in submission to the Wings of Night and Power. YES, things will be altered from canon, but will remain in the general vicinity of Tui's marvelous creation. THIS STORY WILL NOT MAKE SENSE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ ESCAPING PERIL, AS IT IS A DIRECT CONTINUATION FROM IT.
ALSO, THANKS TO A REVIEW FROM Dragon349295, I need to clarify that Moonwatcher is going to be 'evil' and 'manipulative.'
Pairings: Moonwatcher and Darkstalker. There will be NO smut. Dragon smut is disgusting. If you want that, look elsewhere.
Tags: OP!Moonwatcher, Dark!Moonwatcher, Merciless!Moonwatcher, Animus!Moonwatcher.
Rating: Rating is T for some minor language and dark scenes and actions.
Fonts: Telepathic speech/abilities(Bold), Personal thoughts(Italics), Normal(Normal).
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in the fan fiction, I only own parts of the plot. I do not gain any money from this story. The content belongs to Tui T. Sutherland and Scholastic Press.
Chapter 1(Freeing Darkness)
Majority of Dialogue until Darkstalker is freed is copied from Escaping Peril by Tui T. Sutherland. After that, the dialogue is my original content.
—Moonwatcher POV—
Moonwatcher can't help but feel excited, but she also can't suppress a level of anxiousness she feels. In her talons, she holds the most powerful Animus object ever created and it belongs to him. It belongs to Darkstalker. In her head, she counts down the seconds until her 'friends' arrive. She had seen a vision the night before that had shown her exactly what was going to happen.
Her thoughts are interrupted by a familiar voice, "Oh, Moonwatcher. You have done it. I am finally nearing my freedom. In every path in the future I am free. Thanks to you, Moon. I will finally get to meet you for real." The voice of Darkstalker says in her head.
Moon smiles before responding mentally, "I have wanted to free you since the moment I was born. I knew your name before I knew that of my mother. Our destinies have always been linked, Darkstalker. Even back when you were around thousands of years ago." She says.
Darkstalker's mind sent her a warm feeling as she glanced down at his scroll. Moon knew that the stuff Darkstalker had done should frighten her. It should make her want to get as far away from his prison as possible. But no, instead her desire to free him only increased. "Soon, Darkstalker. Soon my friends will be here and will try to stop me from freeing you. I will have to act like I don't want to free you initially to get them to free you." She tells him with her mind.
Darkstalker sighs, "I still don't get why you are insisting on having them free me when all you have to do is blow a little fire on it and my power returns to me. Or you could just write on the scroll and use its power yourself to free me." He says impatiently.
Moon snorts. "Oh, come on Darkstalker. You have been trapped for thousands of years. What are a few minutes compared to that?" She asks.
He just sighs again, "I know, Moon. I am just very excited to see you in person. To see the sky and the stars again. To talk to a dragon not through telepathic communication again." He says.
Moon nods. "I know, Darkstalker, and soon you will. Soon you will do all of things and so much more." She says.
Their conversation is interrupted by wingbeats and Moon looks up to see Peril flying towards her, leaving a trail of smoke behind her. "Um, So. Hello. I've been instructed not to set you on fire. In case you were worried." The infamous SkyWing says.
Moon raises her head, willing tears into her eyes, trying to look like she had been crying for a while. The SkyWing's eyes widen. "Yikes. I'd offer you a hug, but…" The dragon trails off.
Moon begins to speak, trying to sound as broken and sad as she can, "I just wanted to hear him again. I wanted to tell him we found it — to talk to him and remember why I trusted him. But then I started reading, and he clearly didn't want me to, and I found this." Moon says, gesturing at the scroll clutched tightly within her grasp.
The SkyWing bends towards her but stops a few feet away, "What does it say?" Peril asks. "Hey, I'm not a mind reader. Different horrible power over here, remember?"
Moon feels the heat radiating off the SkyWing and tries to keep her act as an innocent, broken dragon. "It is okay Moonwatcher. Continue to pretend. You are doing a great job. Try to convince the SkyWing that you hate me. I know you don't so say whatever is necessary. Whatever it takes." Darkstalker reassures Moon mentally.
Moon inwardly sighs, beginning to regret her own plan, "Stop talking." She says sharply. She sees Peril jump and adds, "Oh, not you, Him."
The SkyWing gasps, "He's talking to you right now? That's…creepy." Peril says.
Moon decides to display a small amount of the power she possesses and says, "He has trouble reading your mind, too. Although he agrees it's a lot less infernoesque than it was before you went to the Sky Palace."
The SkyWing looks taken aback for a moment before responding, "…Yay?" As if not understanding whether to take Moon's comment positively or negatively.
Moon decides it is once again to display her 'hatred' for Darkstalker and using her knowledge of Darkstalker's scroll she says angrily, "A dragon's not a thing! You shouldn't be able to enchant someone like that! It's wrong. Don't you — no, stop, it doesn't matter how bad he was. This…" For effect, Moonwatcher jabs a claw into the scroll, "This is the cruelest thing I've ever read."
Peril looks at her in curiosity, "Ok, you really have to tell me now." She says.
Moon inwardly sighs about trying to pretend her fear for Darkstalker is real. She says, "I am. I am going to tell her. When you do something this terrible, you kind of cancel out any privacy rights." She turns to face Peril. "Remember how Winter said that Darkstalker killed his father, Prince Arctic?" She asks.
Peril nods, "Yeah. That confused me a bit. Why was his dad an IceWing?" She asks.
"Long story, not important," Moon says casually. "I mean, except to the IceWings. Anyway, the other rumor I'd heard about Darkstalker was that he something so aweful that it terrified the entire NightWing tribe into abandoning their city and going into hiding, so that he would never find them again if he ever came back. They thought he was gone, maybe dead, but they still uprooted the entire tribe to hide from him, just in case." Moon says, trying to add emotion to her voice.
Peril remains silent for a moment before saying, "Yeesh. And I thought my tribe hated me." She said, trying to lighten the mood.
Moon hears Darkstalker say in her mind, "You are still doing great, Moon. Just tell her what I did and it should scare her into destroying the scroll. Freeing me and keeping you from being blamed for freeing me."
Moon acknowledges Darkstalker's statement before telling Peril, "Well, now I know what it was. Yes, I do. I'm sure. If I saw a dragon do this, I would go into hiding, too." She says.
Peril continues to get more and more curious, "Yes?" She asks impatiently.
Moon lowers her voice to try and act scared and disappointed, "He used is magic on his father. He enchanted him, as if Prince Arctic was no more than a necklace or a rock or a piece of cheese."
Peril says, "Oooh." And Moon has to stop from laughing as she sees Peril thinking about an enchanted piece of cheese.
"The spell is right here." She says, spreading the scroll to read it. She begins to cry again as she reads, "Enchant Arctic the IceWing to obey my every command. That's it. It's that simple. What did you make him do?" She asks, trying to sound angry. "You made him kill himself, didn't you?"
Moon says in her mind, "Darkstalker, I never asked. What did you order your father to do?" She asks.
Darkstalker chuckles darkly, "I made him disembowel himself. He slit himself open until I made him kill himself." He says.
His words cause Moon to shivver before she resumes her act for Peril. She yelps, "Disembowel? Did you seriously just say disembowel?" She asks, pretending to talk to Darkstalker.
"Who disemboweled who?" Peril asks. "Oh, gross, did Arctic disembowel himself? That is much worse than anything that happened in the arena. Oh my goodness, Scarlet would have loved to get a self-disemboweling dragon in her arena." As if on another train of thought, Peril adds, "She's dead, by the way, did we mention that?"
Moon smirks as in her mind Darkstalker says, "And good riddance. That old SkyWing should have died years ago. She denied many likely fates for herself, it is actually pretty admirable."
Moon sighs inwardly once more as she curls herself into a ball and presses her talons into her ears as if silencing a mental voice. She hears Peril's wings beat as she flies away after a minute of Moon staying curled up.
A few minutes later, she hears multiple wingbeats approaching and she smiles, "Soon, Darkstalker. Soon you will be free." She says.
Turtle's voice cries out, "There she is!"
The wingbeats draw closer until Moon hears Qibli and Winter call out, "Moon!"
The two rush to check on her, not noticing the last remnants of Moonwatcher's smirk. She hears Peril remark, "And hello to you too."
Moon hears Turtle ask, "What happened? Has she —?"
"Darkstalker, we are going to need to deal with Turtle. He is an Animus and he seems to be pretty intelligent. We are not invulnerable, Darkstalker. No matter how much we would like to be. I am soon going to need to use my Animus powers to limit his capabilities. Or you can, once you're free." She says in her mind.
Darkstalker sighs, "You are right. Although I must ask you as I never have; How were you able to hide your powers from everyone? Even me. I was literally in your mind and I didn't notice that you had Animus powers. We also need to research your lineage. You are a NightWing Animus when the only known NightWing Animagi are me and Stonemover. You are either descended from my sister Whiteout, or from Stonemover." He says.
Moon doesn't get to reply as Qibli asks her, "Tell us what happened. Is he talking to you right now?"
Moon resumes her act and says, "Yes, and he won't shut up." She turns to the IceWing and says, "Winter, you were right. We can't free him." She passes the scroll to Winter, finding it hard to let go of Darkstalker's scroll.
She watches as Qibli and Winter read Darkstalker's enchantments, "Whoa." Qibli says.
Moon sighs once more, "We absolutely can't free him if he can control other dragons that way, that easily. And we can't free him because he's the kind of dragon who thought of doing it in the first place." Moon pauses and pretends to talk to Darkstalker. "He says he promises he won't ever do that again. Darkstalker, how can we trust you? No one could ever stop you, with a power like that. No, stop, I don't want to see another fairy-tale vision. I'll have my own visions, thank you very much." She says.
Moon watches as Winter's face gets more and more frightened. Her thoughts are interrupted when Qibli asks, "So what do we do with it? I was thinking about it today while we flew. We could do a lot of good with this. We could use it to protect our queens. I could enchant something so that Thorn will never die, or make her palace immune to attack. Moon, think about it — we could enchant something to make all the NightWings love Glory. You know how many of them hate her, probably better than anyone because you've seen into their minds. But imagine if they all loved her instead? What if she could rule without the threat of assassination hanging over her?"
Moon pretends to think his proposal but inwardly both her and Darkstalker are furious. They want to use Darkstalker's power to protect their own queens. "She wouldn't want that." Moon says, having to do her hardest to not yell at Qibli for his suggestions. "She wouldn't want enchanted obedience or fake love."
Instead of just remain quiet, Qiblie adds, "How about fireproof scales, at least?" After saying that, he holds the scroll closer to his chest, making Moon want to snarl at him. "Or something that could warn Glory before someone tries to kill her? Wouldn't that be a good idea?" He asks and Moon has to try her hardest not to shake in fury. Qibli then adds, "And then you wouldn't have to use your powers to help her . . . you could do whatever you want with them."
For once, Moon doesn't have to pretend to talk to Darkstalker as she says, "He really doesn't love this conversation."
In her head, Darkstalker says, "Of course I don't. They want to use my power for petty things like protecting their queens. My power is only to be used by me or you." He snarls.
Moon responds, "Its okay, Darkstalker. Even if something happens to your scroll and you for some reason don't receive your power back, I will just use my power to make you an Animus. I am well aware it is possible."
Her conversation with Darkstalker is interrupted by Winter saying, "If we're in the business of protecting queens with magic—"
In her head, Darkstalker says, "Which we aren't," causing Moon to have to stifle a giggle.
"We should include Queen Glacier. She's a good queen, too." Winter adds.
Moon has to stifle a growl of annoyance as Turtle adds, "And what about my mom? Or Queen Ruby, for Peril?"
Moon is surprised to hear Peril be the reasonable one when she says, "But if we enchant all the queens to never die or be magically protected or whatever, then…won't we end up stuck with the same queens forever? Wouldn't that be bad, too?" The SkyWing asks.
"Not in the case of Queen Thorn," Qibli says. "Look, the three of you have these crazy gifts and you're figuring out how to use them safely, aren't you?"
Moon can't keep herself quiet anymore and says, "Shush!" Moon realizes what she said and adds, "I've been fine without you!"
She hears Peril tell Qibli that she is talking to Darkstalker. Moon wants to tell all of them that she isn't and that she wants them to be quiet. Then Qibli continues talking, "So if I can trust you with your powers, couldn't you trust me to take care of this one? To think carefully about the consequences and only use it for good?"
Moon wants to scoff, "As if I would ever let that happen. No one deserves this power except for Darkstalker and I." She thinks to herself.
She hears Winter snarl at Qibli "You? By yourself? We just let you saunter off with the most power talisman in the world? Why should you get it instead of me? Maybe I should take care of it."
She hears Turtle try to reason with the IceWing and the SandWing, "Or maybe all of us together?"
Then she hears Qibli verbally attack Winter, "You just flew off and abandoned us in possibility! You were really mean to Moon and you haven't even apologized! So how could we trust you?"
Moon looks at Winter, curious to hear his response. The IceWing goes to say something before closing his mouth and looking at her with an oddly heartbroken look. Moon internally sighs, knowing from reading Winter's mind that he liked her. She has no desire to get closer to Winter. The only dragon she would want to be close to is Darkstalker.
"At least I'm a prince and have some experience making decisions to help my tribe!" Winter snarls back at Qibli.
"Oh, awesome logic! You're royalty, so you've always had power, so you should get to keep any new power that comes along?" Qibli snarls back.
Moon curls her claws to prevent herself from lashing out with her Animus power. "Stop fighting! All of you! Darkstalker, stop yelling at me!"
Neither Qibli or Winter listened as they were too busy roaring at each other. Turtle is curled up at the base of the rock Peril is sitting on. Moon turns her focus onto Peril's mind and can't help but smile. Peril is debating about what to do about the power struggle occurring. When finally her mind settles on destroying the scroll, Moon accidentally laughs out loud. Luckily, the noise from Qibli and Winter roaring drowns her laugh out.
Moonwatcher watches in joy and anticipation as Peril sneaks up behind Qibli and plucks the scroll out of his talons. The moment she does, the scroll begins to curl and burn. When the scroll finally is just ashes, Moon looks around to see the reaction from the others. Qibli and Winter look shocked and Turtle is smiling at Peril. Moon allows a look of relief onto her face, but not for the reason the other dragons think. Her look of relief stems from the fact that Peril just freed Darkstalker.
Moonwatcher feels the ground beneath her claws begin to shake and watch the confusion and fear play across the faces of the other four dragons. A moment later, the ground splits open and a massive black dragon bursts into the sky. Darkstalker was free. He turns to look at the dragons before him before looking down at himself. He notices his massive size and mutters an incantation under is breath. He shrinks until he is only slightly bigger than Winter.
Then Darkstalker turns to look at the SkyWing. "Ah. That's infinitely better. Nice to finally meet you, Peril. Thank you so much for your help."
Moon feels a victorious smile appear on her face before hiding it behind a blank mask. In her mind she says, "You are free, Darkstalker. As we discussed, we need to deal with Turtle. Having another Animus is a risk we can't afford to take."
In her mind, Darkstalker responds, "Yes. We can deal with him soon. Wait…who are we talking about?" He asks suddenly.
Moon feels confused before she realizes what happened. "Turtle, Darkstalker. The other Animus. He has used a spell to hide his existence from you, but not from me. I will deal with him, but for the moment we need to decide what to do about me. I know you are immortal and invulnerable. Should I do the same thing?" She asks.
Darkstalker flies towards her in real life and before Moon can react, she is wrapped in his wings. "Of course, Moon. Nothing is ever going to take you from me." He whispers to her.
She shivers but smiles all the same. "Okay, Darkstalker. But before we cast any more Animus magic, we need to protect our souls from the effects it would have on us. I don't want either of us going mad." She says.
Darkstalker nods in agreement. "I agree. For the time I have been awake, I have come to a realization. The effect Animus magic has on your soul isn't based on how much you use it. It is based on the deeds you do with the magic. I have come up with a way to prevent that from happening to us." The ancient NightWing says.
Moon goes to respond but is interrupted by bursts of fire and frostbreath impacting with Darkstalker's scales. "Let go of her!" Qibli and Winter yell as they blast fire and frostbreath at the ancient NightWing.
Moon sighs, knowing that she will need to continue to act like she hates Darkstalker as soon as he releases her. Before he can, a wave of magic forces the two NightWings apart. Moon turns to look and sees Turtle gesturing with his talons to pull them apart. She snarls to herself but plasters a grateful look on her face. In her mind, Darkstalker says, "Moon. My idea is that we will put all of our magic into each other. I will use you as the talisman for my power and you will do the same. Then when we want to do any spells, we won't technically be doing the deeds because we will be using each other's power. Also, we are going to need to deal with Anemone. She is one of the other Animus dragons who may decide to try and destroy us."
Moon smiles, "I am impressed, Darkstalker. That is a brilliant plan Darkstalker. We just need to find some time alone so we can perform the exchange. And you are right. Anemone will most likely try to make you like her and if that doesn't work, she might just kill you. For now Darkstalker, fly away. We can meet up again later tonight."
Moon doesn't get the chance to hear Darkstalker's response as all of her 'friends' cluster around her to make sure she is okay.
Qibli and Winter both lean down to check on her, asking, "Are you okay?"
She nods her head. She watches as Winter turns back to Darkstalker. "What did you do to her?" The IceWing asks.
The NightWing just smirks, "I did nothing to her. I simply wanted to greet her."
Winter turns to look at Moonwatcher, confusion plain on his face. "And why did you let him touch you? You hardly let anyone touch you for any reason, let alone hug you."
Moon just shrugs. "It felt right. I could tell he wasn't going to hurt me and I would rather he hug me than hurt all of you." As Moon finishes speaking, the sound of wings beating is heard.
Moonwatcher, Qibli, Winter, Turtle, and Peril all turn to see Darkstalker taking off, causing dust to rise off the ground and cloud the air. Winter and Peril move to take off after him but Moon says, "Wait! Let him go! We couldn't stop him no matter how much we wanted to."
In her head, she hears Darkstalker's voice. "Thank you, Moon. I will contact you later tonight to tell you where to meet me so we can transfer power. That way we can use our powers as much as we want to."
Moon responds, "Okay Darkstalker. I might have to use my Animus powers to get away from them, like a distraction of some kind."
"That won't be necessary. I will cast a spell that will keep their focus away from you until I deactivate the spell. The only problem is that it doesn't effect other Animi. So it won't effect Anemone." Darkstalker says.
Moon sighs. "Or Turtle." She says, even knowing that Darkstalker wouldn't be able to remember Turtle's name.
Darkstalker looks confused. "Who is Turtle?" He asks.
Moon sighs again. "I will explain tonight when we can use our powers safely."
With Moonwatcher, Qibli, Winter, Peril, and Turtle watching, Darkstalker flies up into the sky, disappearing into the darkening sky.
A/N.
Wow. Hmm, I have no idea why I decided to write this. Most people probably will have no clue what is going on unless you have read Escaping Peril by Tui T. Sutherland. The majority of the dialogue in this chapter was taken from Escaping Peril and isn't my dialogue.
Word Count: 4,021