A/N: Hey, guys. You're probably wondering why it took so long for this chapter to come out. Well, it's a very simple matter- by this point, it's undergone six complete rewrites. Initially, I was going to write it from Tsunami's perspective, as I didn't want to use Clay for fear that I'd end up just copying large sections of the original book and I figured she'd be an interesting PoV character, but it didn't work the way I'd hoped it would, so I decided to rewrite it from Scorpion's PoV, but that ended up giving away far too much, so I ended up rotating it between all of the remaining members of the Dragonets of Destiny trying all their different perspectives, but none of them worked how I wanted them to. After giving it a break for about a month, I decided to rewrite the whole thing again but just flip perspectives whenever it felt natural, and thus we end up here.

Anyway, I hope it'll be worth the wait! I'd promise this won't happen again, but I have a bad feeling I'm going to have this problem again at some point and I don't like making promises I don't think I can keep.

"Heh." said a voice behind Clay, sending him reflexively throwing his wings up over his head as he simultaneously spun around. "Wh-what-"

Scorpion was standing there, the faintest vestige of a smirk fading from his face as Clay finished turning. He tilted his head in mock concern. "What's wrong, Clay?" he asked, voice quiet and hoarse-sounding, as always. "Did I interrupt another secret bout of gluttony? Tsk, tsk. I do not believe Kestrel would approve at all."

Clay shook himself, smoothing his crest in embarrassment. "N-no, you just startled me, that's all."

"I shall do my best to refrain from startling you again, then." Scorpion nodded, as though mentally reinforcing his statement, his abnormally large wings twisting by his sides. "Yes. Note to self: do not startle Clay while he is in the middle of plotting nefariously."

"I was not 'plotting nefariously!'" protested Clay.

The taller dragon's eyes glittered deviously. "What would you like me to call it, then? 'Scheming wickedly?' 'Generally being up to no good?' 'Planning to eat all the food while nobody's looking because-' No? You don't like those either?"

"I was not 'scheming wickedly' or 'generally being up to no good!'" Clay protested heatedly.

"Hmm. Note how he left out the one about planning to eat all the food while nobody's looking." said Scorpion to nobody in particular.

"I-I wasn't doing that one either!"

Scorpion laughed good-naturedly, the sound rasping in his throat. "I was only joking with you, Clay."

Dune and Scorpion were the only SandWings Clay had ever met (that's not true, something screamed in the back of his mind, but he ignored it and it vanished quickly), but while Dune was clearly an average member of his tribe if you ignored all his injuries, Scorpion... wasn't. It wasn't that he didn't look like a SandWing, he did, it was just that something was very clearly off about him- his wings were just a little too large, his neck was just a little too long to look natural, and his scales were just a little paler than SandWings were supposed to be. And, of course, there were those omnipresent purple sparks always floating in his pure black eyes, drifting intermittently as if they had a mind of their own. The guardians had always said that the sparks were nothing special and that they shouldn't worry about them, but they were still more than a little creepy.

Scorpion might look abnormal, and he might be a little scary at times, but the guardians didn't seem to care. Kestrel had even said that his unnerving nature could very easily prove useful in combat, in between when she was snarling at him for coughing up smoke instead of breathing fire properly.

"You don't look particularly busy right now, so I assume you will not object to retreating to the study cave to reconvene with the others. Let's go." Scorpion walked off across the central cave, and with no other option, Clay followed him.

Under different circumstances, he might have paused to wonder why he felt like he had no other option.

You have the layout of these caves completely memorized by now. Consider me impressed, Scorpion. I thought it'd take you a bit longer to assimilate.

Scorpion barely nodded to acknowledge his puppeteer's voice, glancing back at Clay. As anticipated, he paused at the boulder blocking the tunnel to the outside world and shoved against it with his shoulder, to no avail.

"Back at the boulder again?" said the puppeteer, speaking through Scorpion as he always did. "Don't despair, my friend. I'm sure you'll get it eventually."

"...thanks, Scorpion." Clay grinned cheerfully and resumed following him.

I don't know how he didn't notice the sarcasm there, Scorpion thought, and squashed it almost immediately. He wasn't supposed to think, that was the puppeteer's job.

Thankfully, the puppeteer didn't seem to have noticed. He never will move that boulder, of course. I suspect that the early parts of the story will take a largely parallel path. The puppeteer gave a light tug on the marionette strings and adjusted Scorpion's tail, twisting the end painfully to force the barb into a position where it would be easier to strike with it. Going to need to get into the habit of keeping that in the proper position, he muttered critically, and Scorpion felt a flash of resentment that he crushed just as quickly as his previous thought.

Let's see. The puppeteer grew distant for a moment, as if he were inspecting something. The mandatory exposition scene is next, right? That's going to be boring and unnecessary, so I think we can safely skip over that. Let's jump ahead to where things actually get interesting, shall we? Immediately after Morrowseer arrives should do it.

Scorpion didn't have any time to respond (not that the puppeteer would let me, he thought briefly) before the world around him jolted and everything began moving at a much faster rate. The caves flashed before his eyes, the other four dragonets flitted back and forth before him, talking too fast for him to be able to make out what they were saying, purple static clouded his gaze momentarily, and then the rocky ground suddenly felt solid beneath his talons once more.

Confusion overcame Scorpion as the puppeteer moved his body, forcing him to turn his head upwards to look at the massive black dragon that was suddenly standing before him. What's happening now? Who's this? He wished he hadn't thought anything almost immediately as he distantly felt the puppeteer's annoyance increase, but to his surprise, he answered anyway. It's a while later now. Morrowseer is here to inspect the five of you. Just shut up and let me focus.

Right. Sorry. He wouldn't take offense to him apologizing, would he?

As you should be! Now shut up already!

Scorpion obeyed, retreating into the back of his mind and becoming a silent spectator once more.

The black dragon- Morrowseer- regarded the five dragons, eyes full of repressed aggravation (which was putting it kindly), and Scorpion felt his stomach lurch as a thought came to mind. Wait, if he's a NightWing and he can read minds, then can he sense the puppeteer?

I TOLD YOU TO- wait. The puppeteer went silent abruptly. No, he can't. He doesn't have the teardrop scales. he said after a moment. Before Scorpion could wonder what that meant, the puppeteer continued. Still, if he did have that capability, if he had heard me... well, that could have proved disastrous. After another moment of silence, with what seemed to be a great amount of reluctance, the puppeteer said, Thank you for pointing that out, Scorpion. If you notice something like that again, you will tell me immediately.

Understood. Scorpion submitted to silence once more.

Scorpion doesn't look nearly as terrified as the rest of us, Tsunami found herself thinking briefly. Everyone else seemed to be behaving just as she'd expected they would- Clay was trying very hard to put on a brave face, Starflight had frozen up completely, and Glory was trying to look calm. She'd figured Scorpion would freeze up like Starflight, yet here he was, staring back up at Morrowseer with his eyes full of defiance as the black dragon looked down on him, the purple sparks in his eyes seeming to flare brighter than normal.

Tsunami had also expected the unfathomable disgust in Morrowseer's expression as he turned his head to glare at Glory. Yet she hadn't been anticipating the amount of hatred in his voice as he turned to Kestrel and roared, "What. Is. THAT?"

As Kestrel opened her mouth to respond, Scorpion jumped in. "'That' is the fifth prophecy dragonet." he said, the purple sparks in his eyes dimming. "I would think you would be clever enough to figure that out yourself."

Newfound anger sparked in Morrowseer's eyes, and as his head quickly jerked around, Kestrel intervened. "There was an accident." she explained. "The SkyWing egg was destroyed and we had to get another-"

"From the RAINWINGS?" Morrowseer hissed.

"It wasn't my idea!" Kestrel hissed back, gesturing at Webs. "He was the one who brought her egg here!"

"There are five dragonets, isn't that what matters?" Webs tried.

Morrowseer turned his glare on Scorpion. "It'll be quickly reduced to four if this one doesn't learn how to hold his tongue."

"Oh, I'm so sorry for offending you, most great and wise one." Scorpion struck back, voice dripping with disrespect. The purple sparks in his eyes dimmed further as he plunged onward. "Or would you prefer 'Your Majesty?' How about 'pompous pile of excrement masquerading as a dragon?' Will that satisfy you?"

"Scorpion!" Dune snapped warningly.

Tsunami could hardly believe what she was hearing. Scorpion had never been like this before! Was he trying to get himself killed or something?

"What?" Scorpion grinned cockily at the tattered SandWing. "He can't do anything to me! I am most certainly, undoubtedly, the prophesied SandWing, and if he does anything to me, he'll be ruining his own prophecy!" He turned his gaze back to Morrowseer, his grin nearly splitting his face in half. "You hear me? No matter what any of the five of us say to you, you have to sit there and take it, you overgrown monstrosity!"

What does he think he's doing? Tsunami thought desperately. Does he think this is going to somehow make things better?

Morrowseer twitched, turning his head towards the guardians. "...something has gone seriously wrong here."

Tsunami saw Scorpion open his mouth again, and hurriedly jumped in. I have to interrupt Scorpion before he gets himself killed! "Yes! Something has gone seriously wrong here!" she shouted, crushing her unease and hoping Morrowseer wouldn't see through her. "We're prisoners here! We've never left these caves even once! We don't know anything about the world we're supposed to be saving asides from what we've read in scrolls, and these three treat us like we're barely even dragons!"

"Tsunami, be quiet!" Dune hissed.

"No!" Tsunami returned her attention to Morrowseer. "Please get us out of here! Take us with you!"

"I wouldn't bother." Scorpion's black glare didn't lift from Morrowseer once. "He clearly doesn't care about how we're treated here- in fact, I would be willing to bet that he ordered them to treat us like this. Don't humiliate yourself by bowing before a false prophet."

Rage filled Morrowseer's eyes, and he lunged at Scorpion, teeth flashing like dead white bones as he closed his jaws around Scorpion's neck. Tsunami moved without thinking, launching herself at Morrowseer's throat. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Clay propelling himself at the massive NightWing's back.

Tsunami tried to bite down on Morrowseer's neck, briefly wondering if she'd get into trouble if she killed him, simultaneously lashing out with her claws. She glanced up at Scorpion and realized he had gone completely limp, hanging from Morrowseer's jaws, eyes wide in terror. As Tsunami returned her focus to Morrowseer, she realized with a jolt that the purple sparks in Scorpion's eyes had been completely gone.

Morrowseer shook Tsunami off, and she fell to the ground with a grunt. Winded, she looked up dazedly as Morrowseer dropped Scorpion to the ground, where he sprawled limply, and shook Clay off his back.

Tsunami's instinct was to attack Morrowseer while he was distracted, but instead she scrambled upright and rushed towards Scorpion. "Are you alright?"

Scorpion opened his eyes, the purple sparks flaring back up. "Never better." he coughed, sounding even raspier than usual as he dragged himself to his feet. Hatred filled his voice. "He caught me off guard, that's all. I will make sure that I do not make that mistake again."

Morrowseer turned his head back towards Scorpion. "I hope you have learned your lesson." he said icily. Scorpion rubbed absently at his throat, as if he still couldn't quite believe what had just happened.

"That one will do," he continued, pointing at Tsunami. Though Tsunami knew she ought to have been happy that Morrowseer thought she was adequate for the prophecy, she was more angry than anything else.

In the time Morrowseer had taken to speak, Clay had staggered over to stand next to Starflight, who had remained completely still during the fight. Glory hadn't moved, either- in fact, she didn't even appear to have been that focused on it.

"As will that one." Morrowseer pointed at Clay, who shrank back slightly. "As for the SandWing..." He glared down at Scorpion, who glared right back at him. "I assumed he would be at least somewhat decent at fighting, what with the confidence behind that barrage of insults, but apparently not. Hopefully he will not continue to be as useless as he has proven himself to be today."

"He does fulfill the prophecy, though." said Dune. "I found his egg alone in the desert, just like it said."

Morrowseer turned to Starflight. "As for you, naturally you used your NightWing powers and realized that I didn't intend to kill the SandWing."

Could've fooled me. Tsunami thought. She tuned out Morrowseer as she glanced back at Scorpion. If Morrowseer's comment had hit home, he was hiding it very well. He was just standing there completely still, face neutral save for the occasional slight twitch.

IDIOT, IDIOT, IDIOT!

Scorpion forced himself not to think anything as the puppeteer screamed at him. What were you thinking?! Were you even thinking at all? I let you decide what you're going to say ONE TIME, because I'm feeling nice after your earlier attempt to help and want to reward you, and you go and do your best to make one of the most powerful dragons on this continent hate you!

I'm sorry, Scorpion whimpered miserably. I just-

I do not care what your reasons were! You do NOT step out of line like that, you pathetic excuse for a dragon! Do you understand?

Yes.

Do you really, or are you just saying that because you want me to stop yelling at you? Before Scorpion could respond, the puppeteer continued, Don't bother saying anything, I already know what the answer is. Three moons, you are just as useless as your mother said you were! I wish I had listened to her and searched elsewhere for a dragon to use as a template for my puppet!

Mother. I had a mother? Scorpion couldn't remember anything from before the puppeteer took him- he didn't even know if Scorpion was his real name, or just a name the puppeteer had assigned him. He stored that piece of information away, hoping desperately that he wouldn't forget it- or that the puppeteer wouldn't make him forget.

The puppeteer didn't seem to have noticed his brief moment of independent thought as he continued to rain abuse down upon Scorpion. I almost wish that I had just altered Sunny as I did you so I could use her as a puppet instead of replacing her with you! She might have be even more useless than you- a nigh-impossible achievement, but she still somehow managed- but at least she knew when to keep her mouth shut! You're lucky that I don't have any other options at the moment, or I'd be throwing you out of existence along with her right now! Are you trying to make me angry? Are you TRYING to make me hate you? Is that it? Because I must say, if so, you're doing an excellent job!

No, I-

Then SHUT UP!

Scorpion silenced himself.

About time. If only you had done that from the beginning. The puppeteer hissed with frustration. I'm putting the rest of the world on pause for a few hours. I need to go take out my frustration on something, and that abhorrent SeaWing's skull should work rather nicely as a stress ball.

And with that, the rest of the world turned off, and Scorpion was left hanging in a black void, the puppeteer gone to wherever he went whenever he did this. He was frozen in the abyss, as he would be until the puppeteer returned. But at least his mind was his own again, as was his body, even if he couldn't move it.

I had a mother. Scorpion repeated to himself. Of course he had one, most dragons probably did, but he'd just... never thought about whether he, in particular, was one of them. He'd been too busy forcing himself not to think about anything so the puppeteer wouldn't think he was trying to rebel.

He continued to repeat those four words, just to make sure he wouldn't forget. I had a mother. I had a mother. I had a mother. I had a mother.

A while later- he wasn't sure how long he had been hanging in the abyss, repeating I had a mother to himself- Scorpion began wondering how long it would be before the puppeteer returned. He had to come back some time, of course- one screwup on Scorpion's part wouldn't be enough to make him abandon this world- but when?

Maybe he's just going to leave me hanging in the abyss for a couple decades or so to teach me a lesson. Scorpion contemplated miserably. Three moons, why did I have to speak out of turn like that? I just... I couldn't stand that NightWing, for some reason, and I just... I...

I...

The abyss continued to yawn.

After another indeterminate amount of time, Scorpion realized he was quietly singing the same song that the puppeteer always seemed to be humming. (Well, he was in his mind, at least. He couldn't exactly move his mouth.) He didn't stop himself, though he did consider it briefly. It was quite a nice tune, after all.

Stay comatose, stay comatose, you will never wake and see the glaring lights again.

He wondered what the four dragonets would do to him if they found out what he was.

It's a wonderful day today, perfect weather to break your chains.

He wondered how panicked they would be when they realized he was under the control of an entity far beyond anything they could ever comprehend.

Look around, the black abyss stares back at us, look around, there's nothing left here for us.

He wondered how panicked they would be when they found out that he had replaced an innocent dragonet who was now written out of existence as though she never were, how their panic would grow when they desperately tried to search their memories for any recollection of her and realized that there was nothing left.

Look around, the abyss has grown teeth and claws, look around, it's regaining its sentience.

He wondered how enraged they would be when they found out that he had been the one who made the choice that she would be the one to be replaced.

There are no more sounds, no onslaught of violence, in the end there's nothing but infinite silence.

He thought about how Tsunami's rage would overtake her, how she would slam him into the ground hard enough to break his ribs and snap his neck in a single furious swipe, ignoring his half-hearted pleas for mercy.

Nothing left to see, nothing left to do here, it's all fading away to be lost once more.

He thought about how Glory, too, would take her vengeance, lashing out again and again at his face with talons growing red with blood, and then stepping back to watch with righteous, vengeful satisfaction as he writhed and clawed at his empty, bloody eyesockets.

The whispers are quiet and now, it's time to fall apart and shake the void to its core.

He thought about how Clay... well, Clay, he couldn't see managing to kill him. Nor Starflight, for that matter. But that wasn't to say that they wouldn't despise him just as much.

If you look around, what do you see? There's nothing left, and that's precisely why we're here to erase it all.

Good. He hoped they'd find out soon.

Stay comatose, stay comatose, you will never wake and see the glaring lights again. It's a wonderful day today, perfect weather to burn in hell.