Hello everyone, I am going on vacation in a few weeks to my extended family. Just wanted to note that this will disrupt my typing like last year. Anyways, let's continue.

(Celsius' POV)

Staring at my claws, I was lost in thoughts of chaos and confusion. Struggling to comprehend at what I just did, I stared in horror at the body in front of me. Someone's going to see this! However, it didn't feel as horrifying as being targeted for assasination. I got to get out of here.

"What did you do, Celsius." Looking up, I saw the bulky shape of a MudWing looking at me. Once I recognized who it was, I backed up fearfully against the wall.

"What do you want from me!?" I asked, even though it sounded more of like a demand. He put his hands up, and then I noticed him drop an item he was carrying. It didn't take me long to realize it was a body bag. "What are you doing with that?"

"Get out of here," he commanded, and I stayed still, not wanting to leave the building. "Do you really want to be charged with murder?"

"But I didn't do it! He attacked me!"

The MudWing rolled his eyes at me. "Try telling that to a very assuming generation. Where dragons use Guilty until proven Innocent before Innocent until proven Guilty. Besides, I'm trying to help you; I got friends who can clear this up if I get caught, but can't help you if the same were to happen. Now, get out before I drag you out of here." His eyes gazed into mine, and it felt as if he was staring into my soul.

That was all I needed to bolt out of the building. The door shut behind me and clicked to locked. I made my way back to the stage platform, to tell everything that just happened to Galactic: he would know what to do (especially since he's the only one). I weaved through the crowd, avoiding wild, flailing wings and tails. At one point, I did get smacked in the face, even though the assailant didn't notice. I ignored it, partially grumbling to myself why I even bothered coming to events like this. Then I thought about the attacker in the bathroom, realising that I shouldn't be here if I didn't want to die.

"Celsius?" The voice came from my right side, and I turned my head over to the direction. I was caught off guard, seeing Owl standing there with Snowdrop right beside her. "I thought you weren't coming."

"Well, I was about to leave . . . " I trailed off, avoiding eye contact.

"Well, we could hand out at the mall or someplace," she suggested, Snowdrop nodding with her.

"I just need to be alone right now," I told her as nicely as possible. She frowned at me, looking slightly sad at my answer. "Maybe tomorrow?" She nodded, before moving towards me and giving me a friendly hug. I hugged her back before retracting my body from her. "I just got to think about some things."

"Well, I could help," she suggested again, and I shook my head.

"I don't want you to get involved in what I'm going through right now," I told her truthfully. "I'll tell you about it someday, but it's too dangerous right now."

"Why is it so dangerous?" I shook my head, keeping my mouth shut. She frowned at me, before walking away. I didn't show any emotion on the outside, but inside, I felt that our current relationship would go downhill if I didn't tell her soon. I looked down at the ground, then felt a claw. I looked up to Owl's friend, and she nodded before going after the Ice/Sky/NightWing.

"My day is seeming to get a lot worse," I muttered to myself, heading towards the parking lot instead of the stage platform this time. "The only thing that seems to be good now is actually living through the day."

(* * *)

It was close to sunset, and I was still alone in the house. My head resting on my elbow at the table, I was recalling everything that happened in my life: anything similar to today and my near-death experience. Warily gazing out of the window, I sighed, thinking of how my life has become: a safety hazard. There wasn't much I could do already, and if anyone found out about today, then I would most likely be restricted to this place only.

"What do I have to do with anything," I murmured to myself. Looking down at the table, I tapped my claws. The noise echoed across the room before dwindling down to nothing. "Why am I the one being targeted in something I don't know about."

"Because you're a key role to someone who is close to you," a voice answered, startling me. Looking up, I saw one of the Elite IceWing guards gazing down to me. I frowned and questioningly looked at him. He walked over and took a seat next to me, gazing at the table, too. "Forgive me for my uninvited visit, but I couldn't help but overhear your questions. Maybe there's a way I can help you answer them."

I hesitated, "you swear not to tell anyone?"

He put a claw over his chest, nodding to me. "I will honor your request, as a fellow dragon and a equal."

I sighed, trying to find a way to organize a single sentence. "Well, um, there was this situation . . . which kind of escalated in a private-uh-area." He nodded, urging me to continue. "He, well, how should I put this?" It was a rhetorical question. "He almost-kind of-ended my life." The IceWing soldier was silent, listening to my words. This silence lasted for what felt like an hour, but he quickly stated something.

"Is this attacker still alive?"

I shook my head. "I turned his knife against him, and I-well-stabbed him so I could save myself."

The IceWing adjacent to me nodded. "You did it out of defense. You defended yourself from a threat and neutralized it. If you get targeted, I will give the queen my testimony for what you just told me. Also, where is the body?"

"A undercover cop took the body," I confessed to him, but only the partial truth. "I got out of there because he told me. The worst part is now I think my girlfriend hates me for not telling her about it."

Throughout my entire rant, he didn't say anything. It was only until the end that he spoke up. "Who is your girlfriend, if you don't mind me asking."

Tapping my fingertips nervously, I answered him. "Her name is Owl. You know that dragon?"

He nodded, "she's my niece." I looked at him, surprised by what he stated. "I would've taken her in, but I was never home enough to take care of her or supervise her. The Queen did me a favor by adopting her, and I will always be grateful for that. But that should be a conversation for later. Don't worry about Owl, she'll come around when she sees why you're doing it."

"And when will that be?" I asked him, regretting the question instantly.

"Only the moons know," he responded before changing the subject. "Anyhow, I believe I may know the reasoning of this attack."

"Really?"

"Well, I've encountered many of these attacks you were explaining," he began, examining me from top to bottom. "It seems to me you're being targeted, but only to affect the person they're after."

It took a few seconds to realize what he was explaining to me. I'm only an expendable item to them. I began to hyperventilate at that idea. I'm just a shield for the person they want for. My eyes went open and I narrowed them. But they only want Galactic. I shot up from my chair, and ran into my room, which was colder than the rest of the house.

"This is not happening," I tried to tell myself, but I couldn't start believing my own lies. Then, I began looking frantically for my phone. Eventually finding it on the floor of my room, I dialed the most common number I knew: Galactic's. I don't need whatever he's going through getting me killed. It was twenty seconds of agonizing waiting before he picked up.

"Celsius! You're missing out at the festival. Freakwave and Qibli came in first, we're listening to the song they used in the competition." I sighed, not wanting to break the promise we had before the bathroom event. However, there was no avoiding it either.

"Listen, I need to meet you somewhere: the coffee shop at the mall. We need to talk."

(Waterfall's POV)

I was disappointed when Galactic left me, not giving any specific reason why. The upside was that I ran into some friends of Celsius at the festival, and we were having a blast. Walking around the festival, we continued our discussion about something we all notice in the past weeks.

"It feels like I've been left out from Galactic's recent activities," I admitted, feeling a bit guilty making a big deal out of it. "It's like he won't tell me anything important from what the letter said to what's going on now."

"Same," Owl agreed, "Celsius seems more distant from me in the past week or two. I wish he'd just tell me what's so wrong. I mean, aren't we suppose to help out the ones we care about?"

The three-way hybrid looking over to Snowdrop, who nodded, then told Owl and I something. "Well, sometimes we can't help them. If we get in their way or force ourselves into something that they don't want us getting into, then we become more of a liability than an asset." The two of us frowned at her. "Trust me, Comet and I have gotten into similar situations, but if we know we'll be a negative effect rather than a positive, same for them, neither of us will get involved. Look how we turned out: fine, because we trusted each other that they could do it themselves."

The speech she gave us was very straight forward, and Owl was quick to agree with her. Even though she explained us this, I was still hesitant to join in on her view of it. Eventually, I nodded in agreement, who would I be if I couldn't trust Galactic to fix what was his situation: that he needed others to help him fix his problem for him, not with him. "You're right."

"This doesn't always apply," Snow reminded the two of us. "When they ask you for help, then you can join them, but for now, let boys be boys." The three of us chuckled at that, and we switched over to a stress free conversation for the rest of the night. Even though we still had this joyful time at this event, I couldn't help but see a few dragons eyeing me, but not for the reason I thought. Feeling uncomfortable, I decided to ignore their looks. Still, there were a few males staring at my backside, and I ended up having to glare at them to screw off.

Freaking perverts. I shook my head, not surprised by their actions. But some of them can't help themselves. I kept my eyes forward and my smile friendly to my new friends and nice strangers that greeted me.

Eventually, the festival finished up for the night and everyone began to go home. I wished Owl and Snowdrop farewell and grabbed a ride with my brother. The car ride back to the campus was nice and relaxing, in my surprise.

The night was peaceful when I reached the dorm. Fumbling with the key and unlocked the door, I casually made my way inside of the space. The first thing I saw was a obviously drunk Graceful, who was fiercely making out with an uninvited guest: a SkyWing. I sighed, calling up the one dragon who might be able to bear me for the night: my cousin.

"Hey Tsunami," I greeted over the phone. "Got a spare bed or couch."

"Yeah," she responded casually. "Glory is probably having fun with either her other RainWing friends or Deathbringer. I got a open spot if you need it."

"Okay, I will be over soon." Thanking my fellow SeaWing Princess, I grabbed all the essentials for a "sleepover". Looking back at the two love dragons on the couch, I rolled my eyes, smiling as I recalled last night.

"Good times," I murmured lowly.

It was only a thirty second walk to her dorm since we were both of the same winglet building. Making my way down the hall, I questioned myself why I even called in the first place. I knocked on the door, followed by Tsunami answering it.

"Welcome to my glorious dorm!" Tsunami exclaimed to me. I shook my head, smiling at her, and she replied with a grin. "Where's Galactic? I thought you two were going to "camp out" here."

"Who told you," I demanded, giving her a "not cool" look.

She shrugged, smiling. "I got sources." I shook my head and looked around her dorm. It was filled with posters of military heroes and queens. It seemed the two dragonesses that shared this room had more in common than I thought.

I walked to the couch and set my stuff down beside it. Making a place on the piece of furniture, I laid my entire body, tail and all, upon it. I smirked at Tsunami, who just rolled her eyes and made herself comfortable down on the floor. Resting my head peacefully on the armrest, I looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the time at Competition Day. For one, it felt like the first time in forever that I was excited for my brother winning (mainly because all he does it annoy me). Another half was learning about the true meaning of trust and what is stands for.

"So, how was last night like," Tsunami interrupted my train of thought.

"Something you've never experience before," I remarked, and she scoffed.

"Mainly because my own mother would skin me alive if I tried to even kiss Riptide," she tried to defend herself, but it was hopeless. Everyone knew that Tsunami was a risk taker, and this was no exception. "Fine, I'll let you have this one." I laughed, throwing a silent cheer of forearms into the air. My cousin laughed along with me, it took a minute to settle down afterwards.

"Don't worry," I started. "It's not as horrifying as it sounds." She nodded, grinning up to me. We continued our usual type of conversation between the two of us, like a competition of who did the more interesting thing. After thirty minutes of surprising stories followed by out of control laughing, we decided to call it night. Wrapping myself in the blankets I was offered, I slept like a hatchling. Smiling, I remembered that this week was the last week college, and since classes were cancelled for this festival, we were technically on summer vacation. This meant I could spend more time with my NightWing lover than ever.

(* * *)

Slightly opening my eyes from my slumber, I saw someone's eyes staring into my own. I bolted awake and let out a brief yell of terror before releasing Tsunami was already laughing at my reaction. I gave her a glared. "Grow up, cousin."

"I will when I'm ready." The Princess informed me.

"Which will never happened," I responded sarcastically. She waved me off, heading to the small kitchen space that every dorm had. She opened the small refrigerator and brought out two bottles of water. She backed over to me and handed me one. "I'm good."

"Trust me, you need it," she interjected, eyeing the lower half of my body.

"Your lucky I'm not allowed to slap you," I growled. "Just because I got a little fat there doesn't mean it's bad. It's just really had to get rid of." Tsunami looked at me, questioning look and all. "I seriously do go to the gym."

"Okay, but this is going to come back to haunt you," she laughed, before taking a seat on the couch and turning on the television. I sat upright, too, but didn't bother looking at the screen. Gathering the things I had taken to her dorm, I began out the door and back to my own. Opening the door, I looked around; Graceful was still on the couch, but the SkyWing was gone. I frowned, shaking my head at the RainWing.

Setting my things down in my room, I then heard her dorm mate groan. Moving back into the main room of the place, I looked over at the dragon on the couch. She was clutching her head, still lying down. "Wha-what even happened last night?" She looked over to me, her eyes going wide. "Did I?"

I nodded in approval, and she groaned. "Not again," she groaned, making her way to the refrigerator to find something to aid the hangover. "Who was it this time?"

"A SkyWing, but I didn't catch his name," I told her truthfully, giving her a grin. To me, it looked like her mind went blank. "Anyways, I'ma go hang out with Galactic." Walking of the room, I took my car keys and made my way out of the winglet dorm building. Getting into my vehicle and driving onto the road, I was on my way to visit the NightWing.

It wasn't a long drive, but his location was confusing to get to. Thankfully, he built in GPS coordinate to the location so I could find it easier. Thank you. Smiling, I exited my car and ringed the doorbell. Out of the three dragons to answer from the house, Galactic was the one to do so. I gave him a warm smile before he hugged each other, which only lasted for a second.

"So . . ." he started shyly. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, I think this summer is going to be a blast!" I answered his thought, kissing him.

Hello there reader. How's it going? I hope you enjoy this chapter because I took very little free time in my summer day to do anything else but type. You heard me, I completed this in one day. I know it's surprising.

What's not surprising is how much I saved on Geico-

()&$*(^$(Q$

Ha ha, that was a joke. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will see you very, very soon :D

FuRy-Mike