Rattlesnake hadn't left the bedside in hours. She couldn't believe it. He was dead. Cedar had taken one last life before he died. The blood loss had been too great. Sunny had left the room crying when it happened. Darkseer had been quiet ever since it happened. He had probably already foreseen it. Blizzard had seen the body, kept her straight face on, and walked away. Vulture had shed a few tears, and so had Delta, who was also crying for her brother. Scaleslasher was nowhere to be seen. Frigid's reaction was blank. Savanna had apologized for ever accusing him of being the killer. Typhoon looked and didn't say a word except "Well, you tried."

Rattlesnake stared at Swordfish's body. She had cried her eyes out. Swordfish… he could have been the one that left the hole Savanna left before leaving the Outclaws to join Blaze. He was different. He could see things that others couldn't. Of course, Vulture could do that too, but Swordfish had something to him that reminded Rattlesnake of the way things used to be. When she was a young dragonet. They were so similar. Both of their mothers had been lost. They both grew up in a place that didn't care for them much.

And now he was dead. His own clawmate had killed him. The clawmate had been one of Rattlesnake's friends too. She cried for him as well. But Cedar had been lost for a long time.

She stared at his face. Blizzard had been the one to close his eyes. He now looked like he had been resting peacefully. The bleeding from the wound had finally stopped, but Rattlesnake still looked at his face. His Seawing scales, their interesting mix of ocean blue and a hint of dark green. His two old mysterious scars, paling next to the new wound that betrayal had cut into him.

He was gone. He was gone. He was gone.

Suddenly, Sunny walked into the room, she looked pale. She had wide eyes. "Rattlesnake." She said slowly. "Someone's here to see you." Sunny stepped to the side, and in walked a Rainwing dragonet, and then…

"SWORDFISH!?" Rattlesnake looked down at the body in front of her, and then at the Seawing dragonet that had walked in. They were the same dragon. She ran to him and held him. He was dirty, and scratched up. He looked like he had gone through an ordeal. She heard his beating heart. He was alive.

Swordfish looked at the body on the bed. He was glad Rattlesnake was happy to see him, and he had missed her too, in fact, he longed to be alone with her. He could confess his feelings.

But that was him on the bed over there.

Vine walked over to the bed, and examined the body, a look of shock on her face. "Swordfish… This is… you." Swordfish felt cold, staring at his own dead body. His eyes had been closed. He looked peaceful. The scar on his chest had nearly dried.

"I thought you died!" Rattlesnake sobbed. "I… think I did." Swordfish said, still staring at the body. "Then how?" Rattlesnake said. Swordfish looked back at her. Vine was still staring at the body. Swordfish separated from Rattlesnake, and turned to Sunny, who was still staring at him with disbelief. "Gather the other teachers, and, Rattlesnake, gather our friends. We need to go somewhere private for this."

When Swordfish was walking away outside the healing center, shaking his head, he was suddenly pulled aside by a strange Seawing he hadn't seen before. "Heya Swordfish, why don't you come with me for a second?" "Who are you?" Swordfish asked. He studied the Seawing. He almost looked like his father, but he had a strangeness to him. "It's me, Abyss." He whispered under his breath. Swordfish backed up. "Uh. Hello Abyss. Adnachiel broke your-" "Shhh." Abyss hushed him. "Let's go outside, why don't we? The walls have ears here." "What do you mean?" Swordfish asked, looking at the walls of the halls. Abyss sighed. "Nevermind, just follow me." Abyss began to walk towards the prey center.

"So… why are you a dragon?" Swordfish asked, still looking at Abyss, and how much he looked like his father. "I told you to be quiet." Abyss said in a sharp whisper. The halls were nearly abandoned, as most dragonets were in their classes. When they got to the prey center, Abyss turned and flew out of the exit. Swordfish followed him.

When they were far enough away, Swordfish turned to ask questions, but Abyss talked first. "First off, I would like to commend you for figuring out how to use the power of the bridge." "The what?" Swordfish asked. "That last world you were in, that was something called a SYOC where Visitor power is extremely strong. The concept is that other visitors can create characters and they will be put into the story, hence, a bridge is formed. A powerful link between that world and the one the visitors reside in." Abyss began to fly downward, and Swordfish followed him. When they landed on a clearing on the mountain, Swordfish turned back to Abyss. "Is that why it was dark like that?" "Erm… No. The thing about that world was that the visitor that ruled it, left a long time ago. They tried to erase the entire thing. Without a visitor… worlds fall into… that."

Swordfish remembered the still water, the lack of light, and the dragons staring into space. Their god had abandoned them.

"Okay… Can you explain to me why my dead body is in the other room?" Swordfish asked. "Oh, yes. That was my doing. When you told the visitors to open a rift to 'a world just like the one I used to live in,' that would mean the Swordfish of this world would still be alive." Swordfish's eyes widened. "Because you obviously survived Cedar's attack in the old world." Abyss finished nonchalantly. "So when I saw that this was about to happen, I simply redirected you to one exactly like the world you lived in, except the one who lived in this world, died."

Swordfish had to lie down. What was he supposed to do? REPLACE THE VERSION OF HIMSELF WHO DIED? Would anyone here believe him, or trust him? Would they like him the same? Would Rattlesnake still want to embrace him if she knew he wasn't the same him she had known before? "Oh, and Vine is fine. She didn't even exist in the world you knew, so you're going to have to introduce her to everyone." Abyss said. Swordfish kept staring into space, thinking about what all of this meant.

"Abyss." Swordfish finally said, standing up. "Will I ever be able to go back to my old life? Will anything ever be normal again?" Abyss looked thoughtful. "No. But if the Dragonets of Destiny and your friends cover up that this world's you ever died, nobody else will think anything happened."

"By the way, what happened to the necklace?" Abyss asked off-handedly. "You're not wearing it." "Adnachiel destroyed it." Swordfish said, but he couldn't think about any of that right now.

"If you're having second thoughts about this, you can go back to the SYOC." Abyss said passive-aggressively. "This world needs you. Copy or not. Who will open Rainfall's chest? Who will expose hidden threats to Pyrrhia? Who will change the entire world, for better or for worse?" Swordfish whirled around to look at Abyss. "What do you know? Why won't you tell me these things? Why can't you just tell me what's in Rainfall's chest?" "Because that would spoil the fun for them!" Abyss argued back. "FOR WHO?" Swordfish asked angrily.

Abyss sighed, frustrated. "Look, you've been given a th… second chance here. You have purpose. You've been able to use other dragons, my own power, and even the visitors to get to where you are now, but a time approaches when you will have to do things on your own. Make tough decisions that could have huge impacts." And with that, Abyss' eyes shone dark purple light, and a high-pitched noise sounded out of him. His Seawing scales began to fall away and Swordfish could see black bones beneath them, and then his dark green robe began to bloom out of what appeared to be nothing. The high-pitched noise was so loud, Swordfish had to cover his ears. Not long after, the Abyss Swordfish had met in the void was standing in front of him.

"Make use of what's given to you, because one day, it could burn away." Abyss said ominously. And then he was gone. He had simply disappeared as if he had never been there.

Swordfish waited in the uppermost classroom with Vine, his head still reeling. He had explained what had happened with Abyss to Vine, who had no comments. She was probably still shaken from the SYOC and Adnachiel. Swordfish turned around when he heard the door open. In walked Rattlesnake, and behind her, Vulture, Darkseer, Savanna, and Delta. Delta immediately ran over to Swordfish and twined tails with him, tears in her eyes. "You… YOU'RE ALIVE!" She said in her loud voice, beaming. Vulture ran over and checked Swordfish's pulse. "This… How…" He said, his eyes wide. Savanna also stared at Swordfish with amazement. "What in all the snakes?" Swordfish heard him ask. Darkseer simply gave Swordfish a nod, like he knew he had come back, which he probably did know. Does Darkseer already know everything I've been through? Swordfish thought, to which Darkseer tilted his head at Swordfish questioningly.

"I couldn't find Blizzard. I don't know where she went. I know you told me that she isn't all that bad once, but… can we go on without her?" Rattlesnake said, still a bit of tears in her eyes. "Sure. I didn't really know her that well." Swordfish said. Then, Sunny came in with behind her, Clay, Starflight, Tsunami, Fatespeaker, and… a Skywing. "Who is that?" Swordfish asked when he saw the Skywing. "That's Falcon. He just came here yesterday." Sunny said. "We found him wandering around outside of the school. We asked him who he was and he said he was an accomplished teacher in the Sky Kingdom. He said he had also just recently lost his teaching position, so after some interviewing, he's going to help out here now." "Hello." Falcon said. Vulture whispered something to Darkseer.

"I couldn't find Webs, by the way." Tsunami said to Sunny. "The Quartz Winglet was just chatting in there. I asked them if they knew where Webs was, and they didn't know."

When everyone had settled down, attention turned to Swordfish and Vine, and the feeling of everyone's eyes washed over Swordfish. All their disbelief that he was alive, despite the body in the healing center. Swordfish closed his eyes, and thought about floating through the ocean, letting nothing bother him.

"It all started when I woke up in the healing center, with Rattlesnake looking over me… Actually no, it all started when I first arrived here. I had a dream…"

In another time, at another place…

Cassriel kneeled. Beside him, Adnachiel and Abyss did the same. They were there, in the SYOC. World Title: Possibility Eduaction. Visitor number: 7935554. A deleted world. Cassriel had been here once before. But in front of them, stood the King. His magnificent power radiated throughout this place. "Now, explain to me, exactly what happened here." Abyss answered, almost sounding happy, like a joke had worked out in his favor. "Cassriel's little experiments escaped their world, and Adnachiel failed to kill them." Cassriel felt the eyes of his King sweep over to him.

"How did you let them escape? Why did you not kill them?" His voice had an ominous leer to it. "I tried. I had the entire world collapse on one of them. I had left the other for dead a long time ago." Cassriel braced himself. "I underestimated them. I now realize they are not so simple. Next time I see them, I will not brush them off." Then Cassriel turned to Adnachiel. "But at least I tried." The King's gaze swept over to her, and she bowed lower. "I failed to kill them because when Cassriel asked me to kill 'two dragonets,' he failed to tell me that they had mastered world-jumping." The king's gaze fell back on Cassriel. "They can world jump?" Cassriel sputtered. "Impossible. That takes at least a year for a dragon to master!"

"Did you put anything in that world that could have… already taught the Seawing?" Abyss said slyly. "That little slip-up of yours that let the other one in could have really done us in. We could have another one that figures it out." "No! That annoying gnat died before he could have taught Swordfish anything!" Cassriel retorted. "Right Adnachiel?" Adnachiel nodded.

"I killed Rainfall. He is dead, and he did not have enough time with the Seawing to teach him how to do anything of importance." The King seemed pleased with this. Cassriel noted how shaky Adnachiel seemed.

"On another note," Adnachiel replied. "I was attacked in this very world by two-." "Silence." The King said, and Adnachiel stopped talking. "Poet, I am holding you personally responsible for this mess. Huntress, you are also slightly responsible. You two must follow this, and report back to me. Kill the dragonets if you can, but if this gets too out of hand, I may have to call in The Destroyer once more."

The destroyer. The one who can end it all. Cassriel looked at Adnachiel angrily. "If you two fail me again, it will be time for a new poet, and a new huntress. So go, squash this before it starts.

Or something will come to scorch the earth."

(SYOC – Submit Your Original Character)