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DARKSTALKER

"Darkstalker? What happened?"

Darkstalker blinked and looked over at his sister, who had been standing beside him while he waited for Clearsight. "What are you talking about?" he said to her. "Nothing happened." Not to me, at least.

"But I can hear lots of little bubbles popping inside you," she said, cocking her head. "They've been popping all day. I thought you'd woken up filled with soap."

Darkstalker winced a little. "I'm okay, Whiteout," he said. "Maybe I'm just filled with soap because I want to make sure I'm extra clean today."

Whiteout smirked. "You're very clean, brother. Three crescent moons are shining in your soul."

"Oh. Well, if you say that's a good thing, then I'll take your word for it."

Darkstalker darted his eyes from his sister to the sky, holding his breath. C'mon, Clearsight, just show up and tell me that you're the same dragon you were yesterday. Show up and let me know that you didn't turn back time because of something I did. I can't stand worrying like this. He studied distant dragons in the sky, checking to see if she was among them. She should be here by now. Where is she?

"There she is," Whiteout said, pointing to a dark figure at the edge of his vision. When Darkstalker looked over, Clearsight was landing at the far end of the grounds, where the first trees of the forest were rooted.

"Clearsight!" Darkstalker immediately beelined for her. Clearsight was ready for him, staring up at him as he galloped down the hill. She was smiling at him. Smiling was a good sign, right? The Clearsight from yesterday would have smiled at him like that, right?

But why did she look like she was also about to cry?

"Good evening, my love," he said to her as he slowed to a halt, trying to bring out his romantic side for some weird reason that totally didn't have anything to do with the fact that there was this incredibly ugly feeling of dread welling up in his stomach right now. "Did you activate the watch?"

Clearsight's eyes glistened. "Oh, Darkstalker," she said quietly.

"Clearsight?" Whiteout said, approaching hastily behind Darkstalker and slowing down next to him. She looked confused. "Clearsight, what happened? Your chrysalis has already shed. You should be spinning with silk by now."

Clearsight's face saddened immensely after Whiteout said that. She bowed her head apologetically at Darkstalker. "I need to tell you something."

Darkstalker didn't realize that he'd had a nervous smile plastered to his face until it started fading. "No," he whispered. "Please, don't tell me … it can't be."

"I had no choice." Her voice was waterlogged with remorse. "The things you were about to do…"

"No, it … but I … I'm so sorry, Clearsight." He'd had a whole list of things that he was prepared to say in case this happened, but he'd forgotten them all. That ugly worry he'd been feeling all night and day … it was real. He messed up somewhere — terribly. He let darkness slip into him. Clearsight's terrible visions were true.

But how? He didn't have the crippling dangers of animus magic corrupting his soul. He'd been smarter than his father. What had happened to him that made him turn? Wasn't he good? He didn't feel evil. Maybe a little ambitious or daring, but not villainous. He couldn't imagine ever becoming anything like his father.

What did he put Clearsight through? How did he end up hurting her? He felt such a weird form of self-hatred, like he wanted to find the future version of himself that forced her to turn back time and beat him to a bloody pulp. And he wanted to hold Clearsight for the rest of his life and promise her that none of whatever she went through was going to happen again.

"Can I … hug you?" he asked quietly.

Clearsight nodded, and opened her wings. Darkstalker stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. Clearsight rested her chin on his back, leaning into the warmth of his scales, and said something that Darkstalker was not expecting to hear: "I missed you."

It took him a second to understand those three words. After what he'd supposedly put her through, he figured he'd be the last dragon she wanted to see at this moment. He figured that neither of them would consider him to be worthy of her. It wasn't until many heartbeats of thought that he realized that she'd missed him — the Darkstalker that he was right now, that had changed so much from Clearsight's point of view, and who had reverted back to a version that she could love without any hesitation.

Suddenly, he felt a little better about himself.

"Clearsight!"

Darkstalker took his arms off of Clearsight and faced the sky. Clearsight's friend, Listener, was approaching. She touched down in front of them, stumbling over herself a little from a faulty landing before she straightened herself again and grabbed Clearsight by her arm. "Clearsight. I need to speak with you right now — alone," she said, casting a mistrustful glare at Darkstalker.

Clearsight hesitated for a second, looking like she was trying to calculate something. "Um, why?" she eventually asked.

Listener's voice quieted down. "I have a new idea for our school project," she explained. "But I wanted to run it by you first."

"School project…?" Suddenly, Clearsight's eyes lit up. "Oh, right! I forgot about that."

"You forgot? How could you forget? It's like, the most important thing we've been planning for all year."

"I guess I'm just … not really thinking straight today," Clearsight stammered out. "Let's go to the arboretum to talk about it. I'll see you later, Darkstalker."

Darkstalker nodded to Clearsight as she walked off with her friend, feeling dazed from the new reality he'd entered. He was deadpanned by the fact that Clearsight had changed so much on him so suddenly, but when he saw her with Listener in that moment, he still saw the same girl he'd loved since the very start. He saw a part of her that remained the same as before. And it was a part that he wanted to hold onto.

Now that he thought about it, it was also a part that he didn't really know about. When Clearsight was with him, she was always so hung up on being attentive to his own projects and ambitions, trying to make sure that he stayed in line. When she was with him, she barely ever talked about her own life, like third-year student gossip and her plan to free the scavengers with Listener. Darkstalker never bothered to ask her about those things.

How selfish of you, an unfamiliar, self-conscious part of his mind whispered. You two are supposed to be soul mates. You two are supposed to share your interests and burdens. You should go along with her, especially after all that she went through for you.

Promptly, he galloped over to them. "Hey, wait up!" he called out.

Clearsight and Listener stopped. Both of them looked confused, Clearsight slightly more so. "What is it?" Clearsight said.

He stopped in front of them and said, "I want to help."

"You don't even know what we're doing," Listener said before glancing accusatively at Clearsight.

"Oh, I do," Darkstalker said. "Those scavengers are suffering in there, perhaps more than any of us realize. I want to help you set them free."

"Gah! I told you not to tell him yet!" Listener hissed at Clearsight. She turned to Darkstalker and said, "Thanks, but we can do this on our own."

"Have you forgotten that I'm an animus?" Darkstalker pressed. "Have you forgotten how hard it is to pull something like this off without getting caught by the mindreading teachers? If we work together, we can make sure this whole thing goes smoothly."

Listener looked unsure now. Her ears flicked up and down, and she looked over to Clearsight. "Are you sure we can trust him?"

Darkstalker stood straighter and looked expectantly at Clearsight. Yes you can. Remember who I was.

When Clearsight looked back at him, she was so doubtful that Darkstalker was forced to look away in guilt. But then she said, "There's not a doubt in my mind. I'd be happy to let him in on our plans."

The look Darkstalker gave her seemed to make her flustered enough to hide her face.

Listener pawed at the ground. "Okay, if you say so. But you'd better not mess this up. C'mon, let's get to the arboretum."

They walked over to a large garden of trees at the edge of the school. Nobody else was around to hear them talk, except for a few evening warblers nestling on the branches. When Darkstalker looked back, he saw that Whiteout had already left to get ready for her first class. "So, what have you worked out so far?" he asked them.

It struck him in that moment that it would probably help Clearsight to hear this summary from Listener as well. For her, it must have been years since all this had happened. He hoped it'd been years, at least. He hoped that it at least took a long time before he breached the point of no return.

"The plan is to free them at night during the weekend," Listener explained. "Clearsight and I agreed to wait until the moons weren't as full as they are now. I checked the phase calendar, and the best time seems to be about two months from now, three weeks before the winter solstice. All of the moons will be crescent, and none of them are going to be in the sky for most of the night. We'll have the cover of darkness on our side."

Darkstalker raised one of his wings and brushed it against the leaves of the lower branches. "It might be a little risky waiting that long. What if a teacher reads your thoughts and finds out about your plans before then?"

Listener scoffed. "Do you really think we're that careless? Clearsight and I have been able to keep the teachers oblivious for over a year now. We can keep them in the dark for a bit longer." She glared up at him. "That is, unless you end up spilling your thoughts in front of a teacher and ruining everything for us."

Darkstalker scrutinized her glare. "Have you ever been able to read my thoughts, Listener?" he asked dully.

Listener's lips pressed together for several seconds. "Perfect, so we have nothing to worry about," she finally said. "Besides, if they do find us out, it's going to be after we've freed the scavengers, not before. I'd rather they start looking for a potential culprit while they're already busy preparing for midterms. They won't have time to go through a thorough investigation."

"That's a pretty good point," Darkstalker said. With a pensive stare, he studied Listener. She was smarter than he thought she was. There was normally a lot of wildness and ditziness going on in her brain, but now she had a raw spirit of adventure. And instead of that clumsy impulsiveness that she liked to embody, inquisitiveness and analytical thinking inhabited her thoughts. It seemed that when she decided to dedicate her mind to something that didn't involve a cute boy, it was actually capable of producing some useful ideas. "Do you have a plan for how we're going to free them?"

"I've tossed around a lot of different ideas," Listener said. "We don't want to stay in the school for very long while we're freeing them, so we need something that will get the job done quick."

"You don't plan on just opening the cages and letting them run out, do you?"

"Of course not! They need to be far away from our civilization if they're going to have any chance of surviving. I was thinking we could get some large bags to carry them in and fly them off. If we leave their cages open, the teachers might even think that they escaped on their own."

Darkstalker hummed, impressed. "You and Clearsight have practically figured everything out already."

"I think it was mostly Listener who came up with everything," Clearsight admitted. "I've just been lending some helping talons."

"The only thing I haven't worked out is where we'll let the scavengers go," Listener said. "It might depend on how the war progresses over the next month."

"How about North Beach?" Darkstalker suggested. North Beach was far enough away from the Great Diamond that not very many NightWing settlements were around it, but it was still reasonably far south from the border, meaning the scavengers would be unlikely to run into any IceWing skirmishes from the war.

Listener thought for a second, then nodded. "North Beach would be a good —"

"No!" Clearsight suddenly said.

Darkstalker looked over at Clearsight. She looked like a giant spider had just landed on her face, then darted away before she could react. "What's wrong?" Darkstalker asked her.

"North Beach would be — it wouldn't be a good idea."

"Why not?" Listener asked. "It's far away from our settlements, and the forest is nearby so they'd be able to hunt and forage."

"Did you have a vision?" Darkstalker asked.

Listener gasped, and promptly plugged her ears with her claws. "Nope, nope, lalalala, I can't hear you and your future sight. Don't even think about telling me anything!"

Clearsight rolled her eyes and took two steps towards Darkstalker. "Listener and I almost got killed last time," she said quietly to him. "There were IceWing scouts on the shoreline and we just barely managed to hide from them."

Darkstalker blinked. "Last time?"

"Before I turned back time," Clearsight clarified.

"Oh." Something putrid twisted in his stomach at that recognition. Every time he acknowledged that Clearsight had used the watch, he wanted to grab her by her talons and curl her up in a ball and hold onto her to make sure she never changed again. "Wait — I'm sorry, did you say you were almost killed?"

"We need to get to class soon. I'll tell you more about it later." Clearsight nudged Listener with her snout, and she unplugged her ears.

"Are you done with your magical voodoo talk now?" she asked, and Clearsight nodded.

"North Beach might still be dangerous," Darkstalker said, thinking quickly. "Listener, you should ask your teacher where the school found the scavengers. If we find their den, we can drop them off there. Even if it's closer to other dragons, they'll at least be somewhere they're familiar with."

"I can do that," Listener said, nodding.

The school bell chimed, spooking the warblers in the trees and sending them into the air.

"Ack! I'm going to get detention if I'm late for class again." Listener tightened her satchel to her body and galloped away. "I'll see you later, Clearsight!"

Clearsight started her way back to the schoolyard, but Darkstalker stopped her by grabbing her tail. "Clearsight, wait."

Clearsight glanced behind her, and her wings shifted uneasily. "I'll tell you everything after school," she promised.

"Can you at least tell me how long it's been? How many years was it before I turned evil?"

She didn't answer, but there was a clear sadness in her eyes that sent chills down Darkstalker's spine. "After school," she repeated. "I still need time to study the futures and find the right words." Then she flicked her tail, causing Darkstalker to let go of it, and walked out of the arboretum.

Darkstalker sulked in the shadows of the trees for a moment. You're not doomed, he told himself. You're still the greatest dragon in the world. Clearsight still has faith in you. You're going to rule the world benevolently and not get corrupted by your power like you did last time.

All you need to do is be careful, and your kingdom will be yours.

A/N: To those of you who have been following my story before this upload: I really hope I didn't worry you too much with that unexpected hiatus. I wasn't planning on this break to end up being so long, or even for me to take a break at all! I have an excuse for my absence, but it's not a very good one, so I'll give you an apology instead. I'm sorry! I anticipate that these chapters will start to come out a little bit more regularly soon enough.

ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed this little chapter. As usual, please let me know what you think!