CAUTION: Spoils aspects of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, as well as aspects of When Nothing Remains.

Seriously, major spoilers here.

Assuming you wish to continue, read on…

Background: This one would have been the first of several AU-type entries. Well, really the second, as the first would be the alternate ending that occupies the last chapter of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities. I am, however, working this into canon in a way that also made writing it both less difficult and more interesting, so it's not an AU at all. You'll see what I mean.

"I will go myself to kill that no-good-fish-rot-alpha, and then I will steal every young dragon away if another alpha is selected. I will let the parents believe I killed their children, and I will not care, because I will have gotten them away and to somewhere, anywhere better. I will return every year and steal new eggs from those idiots until someone catches me and kills me. And even then, I will be happy, knowing that they will not look for their children, who will grow up somewhere better."

O-O-O-O-O

The monster had come again, as it always did. There was no pattern, and no way to predict it. It flashed into being, dark and terrible, and stole.

It always stole. Eggs, hatchlings, even fledglings too small to escape it. Sometimes it hurt or even killed adults, but the theft was what it was known for, as that was what it came to do. Fighting and injuring or killing seemed to be secondary considerations for the monster.

She was afraid. She had grown up hearing fearful whispers of the monster, being told she was lucky to have made it to adulthood without being taken, lucky to have found a mate, even if he did die of sickness a single season-cycle later. Lucky to be around at all. Lucky was practically her name, at this point, but she did not feel lucky. Her pack was fading, dying, plagued by a creature that was somehow able to steal from them despite their best efforts. A creature that preyed on their young.

The other adults spoke of giving up. The alpha, a cowardly creature who was the fifth alpha in as many season-cycles, spoke of leaving, but they all suspected it would make no difference. The monster had followed them from their valley once before, a few season-cycles ago when she was a hatchling. It had not taken her, but many others had disappeared.

She was afraid. She was also mad. Everyone else was giving up, giving in. Some were still having more eggs, laboring under the idea that once there were no more children to steal, the monster might begin to target them. They sought to sacrifice their own young to it. Everyone else made no eggs, hoping the monster would stop persecuting them once they stopped providing food. They had all given up.

Not her. She answered to the name Lucky, and it was time for that name to actually apply. Her mate had died of sickness, she had no children, and her pack was failing, dying out because they could not keep enough hatchlings to replace the ones dying of old age or heartbreak or simple despair. Something needed to change, and it would take luck for that to happen.

She wanted her name to apply tonight. Lucky felt lucky for once, even as the storm broke above the sadly empty valley, dropping cold water onto the rocks. Many rocks were abandoned, and only a precious few held true families, and not just pairs of sad mates who could not keep their children long enough to know them.

There were three eggs. Two were from pairs who thought to shield themselves from the monster by offering their offspring, and one was from a defiant, stubborn mated couple who would not give in. Lucky had made it her personal mission to watch over that last egg tonight, and every night.

But she had told no one about that. They all could see no way to stop it. Almost nobody even rose to bother trying to drive off the monster any longer. It simply flew down and took its prizes. Nobody could stop it, so nobody tried.

She could try. She could also fail, if her name failed her once more. The pack had been numerous and strong once, before she had hatched. They had tried, and they all failed. At first, according to her Dam, only one or two eggs disappeared every few months. But as time went on, more and more began to vanish as the monster somehow grew more and more adept at spiriting them away. Hatchlings began disappearing, and by the time Lucky's egg was laid, half of every generation disappeared… every season-cycle.

The pack had tried at the height of their strength, failed, and was now a shattered remnant of that past power. Lucky knew she was going to fail; her name was a sad joke, a commentary on just how far they had fallen, for surviving to adulthood to be so lucky she was named after it.

Lightning cracked in the sky; the hauntingly similar screech of the monster called out after it. The monster was a dark version of light wings, fierce and terrible. It always seemed to choose to come during storms, and was never seen in a clear sky, though the weather made no difference in how unstoppable it was.

Lucky watched as the monster swooped down and took the two eggs that were being freely offered, clawing at the Sires and Dams doing the offering. It flew low in the air for a short while, shrieking every so often, before rising up into the dark sky once more.

Her pack's spirit was broken. Nobody ever stopped the monster. It disappeared into the clouds and rain, but it was coming back. It always came back, as if it could sense there was still prey to be had.

Lucky could imagine what was happening. The monster would be swallowing those two eggs whole now, up above the clouds, unbothered by whatever feeble resistance her pack could mount. Then it would come back.

Here it came, diving down to land on the rock opposing the mated couple who openly defied it. They fired, but it barely flinched, somehow strong enough to shrug off the power of two light wing blasts. It was useless; nothing ever worked.

Lucky had a different plan. She was fast and agile. She was going to fly above the monster and try to grapple the egg out of its talons in a sneak attack. The egg might break; the monster might kill her. If she managed to take it, the monster would do its best to kill her and take the egg back. But she was going to try anyway.

She flamed herself and rose into the air, circling above the commotion. The monster was fighting both light wings now, a blur of dark grey and sickly blue striking at now bloodied and smudged white. The light wings were faltering, bleeding and pained, but unwilling to give in, while the monster remained uninjured and dangerous.

Lucky flew higher, planning her ambush. Nobody in her pack had fought back this hard since she was a hatchling; the monster might be a little off its game when it returned to the clouds. She would ambush it just as it entered, bite at its throat as a distraction, and grab for the eggs before letting gravity take over and fling her down, out of reach. If she was lucky, if her name came through, the egg would fall with her and she could catch it.

The monster was rising now, its prize clutched greedily in its claws, unharmed, unlike the defeated light wings lying on their rock in the middle of the storm, bleeding and hurt. Not dead, and probably not mortally wounded or even grounded, but the fight had been beaten out of them.

Lucky flew closer, knowing she wouldn't be seen unless someone was looking for her. She got a good look at the monster, something that was not uncommon, but also not spoken of. Nobody cared what the monster looked like up close, and nobody answered questions about it.

The first thing Lucky noticed was that the monster was female. That sickened her; she had envisioned a cruel male acting heedless of the pain he was causing, someone who did not value eggs because he did not have much of a part in making them. To see a female stealing and eating the life she might have been creating was terrible in a different way.

Lucky faltered, not sure if her plan was going to work. This female was not pristine but apparently unbothered by that, littered with scars and bulging with muscle, the absolute image of peak fighting condition.

In the time Lucky doubted herself, the female had gotten ahead, and was now into the clouds. Lucky followed doggedly, not announcing her presence in any way. They rose above the clouds in silence, flying through the storm and up to the place where it never struck, the place no light wing ever reached when the monster was around. Nobody tried to follow. There was nothing they could do.

But Lucky had followed. She was going to see the atrocity first-paw, and her plan of taking the egg back was worthless since she had hesitated and was now unable to get close.

Lucky and the monster broke through the dark, stormy layer of clouds. Above all of that, the sky was starry and… Blurry?

Lucky blinked, trying to figure out what she was seeing. Why was the sky blurry?

"Another season done," the monster growled in a coarse but decidedly feminine voice, speaking to the blurry air. "Someone take this. You all know your roles; let us complete this without complication."

Lucky felt the air wheeze out of her chest as one of the blurs so numerous she had thought the entire sky blurry took the egg from the monster's waiting paws. The egg floated away, a sight she could easily recognize.

But if that was one light wing, then there were so very many up here… and she was indistinguishable from them. She didn't act; her mind was too busy trying to process it all.

"We know our roles, but they are necessary no longer," a blur called out. "There is no fight left in them."

"Were you down there tonight?" The monster's voice grew cold. "You should have been. And if you were, you would have seen that some still have a little fight in them."

"Dam," another voice called out, "we can discuss this later. I want to-"

"Try and convince me again," the monster sighed sadly. "I know. Let us go." The blurs all moved, and even with the storm raging below, Lucky could hear the air moving under and around scores, possibly hundreds of wings. The egg and monster also began to fly away.

Lucky was faced with a choice. She could sneak along and risk her life for a truth she suspected she knew a part of now, or she could go home and waste the rest of her life.

The choice was obvious. She felt lucky tonight, even as her mind struggled with all she had just seen. She silently joined the massive flock of light wings all had thought dead long ago. The missing eggs, hatchlings, fledglings of her people.

O-O-O-O-O

The talking started once they were an hour away from the valley, flying out over the dark stormclouds in a direction Lucky recognized as being out over the ocean. Voices started calling to each other, and to the monster at the center of them all. Males, females, scores of different people.

"Move over," a female with a light and airy voice grunted from somewhere nearby. "I wish to relieve myself, and if whoever that is under me wants to avoid being hit, they will listen."
Lucky darted forward, her heart racing. Her camouflage was going to wear out soon, and she had no idea whether or not they would know she wasn't one of them. Her luck was going to be put to the test, and she was pretty sure it had already run its course.

"Dam," a female called out near the front of the pack, "we are going to be visible in a few moments."

"Good. We will be home soon too," the monster replied calmly. "The two carriers went ahead with the eggs?"

"We saw them off. You know, you should trust us to do what you taught us," a male suggested cheekily. "Only a few of us goofed off instead of watching for ambushes."

So they were working to protect their own kidnapper? This did not feel like a captive army. Lucky felt the telltale loss of heat that signified her camouflage wearing out, but she did not feel in danger, exactly.

All around her, as if triggered by her own camouflage fading, light wings began to come into view, first appearing in patches, ripples of color that spread and covered them in a matter of moments. Losing camouflage was triggered by a lack of heat, not necessarily time, so they were all coming out of it at the same time, having been flying in the cold air together.

There were over a hundred light wings around her. Lucky's own pack was only a few dozen in number now, and shrinking as the elders died off every season-cycle. There were no elders here, and many seemed to be her age or younger. These really were the eggs and hatchlings taken from her pack.

And they all seemed more than happy with their situation. Some laughed, others joked, and still more talked less exuberantly, with the air of friends or even family. None even noticed her.

A small, verdant island appeared on the horizon, visible through a break in the clouds. The swarm of light wings dove, and Lucky followed, pushing her luck as far as it would go.

The egg. She kept her eyes on the egg, and followed that light wing, a male with a calm demeanor and steady wings. The monster was with him, and the two dove for the very center of the island, down into a hole in the ground surrounded by trees, and through a small cavern complex, one that was far more vertical than the one used by her pack.

Light wing couples called out to the monster and the one carrying the egg, directing them further in to join up with those who had come before. Lucky remained unnoticed and unremarked upon, and managed to follow all the way to where the eggs were taken. She lurked in a corner and listened in on what followed.

"Dam, we took three in total, as our scouts reported," a female with crooned. "Are you hurt?"

"No. They put up a fight this time, but not much of one." The monster shook her head wearily. "I am going to sleep here."

"Dam," the male who had brought the egg said worriedly, "you are ill. We could have done this ourselves."

"I am ill, but you need me," the monster agreed. "I am a target, a distraction, an invincible foe, thanks to your interference and aid in the fights. Without me, you would be caught, seen, spotted. They would follow us back."

"They already have, Dam," the female whined. "Several times. All who followed us were young we missed. They all asked to stay with us. We wish to ask you why we still steal from them. They are broken."

"There are no good people there," the monster sighed sadly. "Pearl and Ember saw that. They helped me start this."

"And they left season-cycles ago, when you refused to stop," the female countered sadly, nuzzling the scarred and terrible monster's face. "We help you because we owe you, because we love you for your care. But you are hurting them now, and they could change. The old ones are dying out, and the new are all here."

"Tonight, you hurt them," the male added quietly. "They fought to protect their only egg. We have taken seven from that pair. Maybe they deserve to raise one of their own eggs? They will surely treasure it."

"There are no good people there," the monster repeated stubbornly, curling herself up around the three eggs she had just stolen. "None. You will see… when you are older…"

Nobody spoke until the female monster's snores could be heard.

"Dam is sick in mind," the female whined.

"I know. But she is also sick in body, and she is not long for this world." The male shrugged his wings. "She raised us. She cares for us. And in the beginning, others agreed that she was right. She changed them… but she cannot accept that. Her mind will not let her. We should humor her while she is here, so that she does not die hating herself for all she has done."

"Or we could confront her, and help her change before the end," the other replied. "Just because she is dying does not make what she does now right."

"But it will soon cease to matter. I do not know what is killing her, but I doubt she will make it to the next season. This constant terrorizing and theft is over either way, and she cannot change. We owe her our love, not our scorn."

"Storm always spoke and heard the truth. We owe her as much."

"Love is not always giving what someone wants. It is giving what they need. And she needs to feel she is right."

"You remember?" the female warbled curiously. "She spoke of holding grudges, of trying to fix that. This is just another grudge. She would want to fix it."

"But she does not have the time, and it is too late now." The male's voice was dark. "I love her as a Dam, and we both were taken from a pack that would not have been good for us. It was not a grudge when it began. It was necessary."

"Brother, we are in command when she goes. Even if we let her pass without confronting her, what do we do next?"

"What we always planned to do. We live here in peace, and send scouts to the valley, to find those who would or could change and bring them here. That place is poisoned with the past and what was. This is a good place, what is, and what can be."

Lucky knew what to do. She stepped out into the open, and opened her mouth. "I can tell you who you want, if you tell me what they must be capable of."

Both light wings, brother and sister, turned to stare at her. "You are not one of ours," the female observed.

"I followed you here, and heard all," Lucky admitted honestly. "Tell me, what was so terrible it was decided my pack could not be allowed their own eggs and children?" She spoke with no anger. It was impossible to hate anyone here, for some reason.

"They mistreated their own. Fledglings died, or were abused, or forced to mate with the alpha. It was not a good place, and there were deeper problems. Storm, our Dam," the male continued, nodding to the sleeping dark wing, "came to know one of the pack, Pearl, who long ago escaped all of that. They came here and killed Claw, the horrible alpha, but the pack did not change. That was when it was decided that Storm would save the children, if the parents could not change."

"But Pearl and Ember, her new mate, left a while after, when Storm would not stop and reconsider whether the pack was still so bad," the female whined. "You overheard the rest. We wish to stop her, but she will not be stopped, and we love her too much to defy her."

"Because defying her will destroy her utterly," the male supplied. "So all we ask of any that would join us is that they value life and treat others with respect. It is not such a big thing, but in the beginning the pack was incapable of it."

"I know some who could do that." The very ones Storm had hurt. A few of the Elders. "And I know some who are still as bad as you describe." Those who had new eggs to defend themselves with.

"And you?"

"I was one of the few you all missed, in the beginning," Lucky explained quietly. "They call me Lucky because of that."

"Storm called me Thunder," the male volunteered. "My younger sister is Lightning. Lucky, do you want to live here, with us?" His voice was soft. "You really should have gotten to grow up here."

What could she say? None of this was good, or right, but it also was not bad. Good intentions, horrible methods and consequences. Conviction turned stubborn blindness. A monster who tried to be a savior.

O-O-O-O-O

Storm bolted upright, the vivid dream still fresh in her mind, and ran out into the dark and stormy morning, more upset than she could remember ever being.

She stuck her head in a puddle and blew out through her nose, scattering the water with her breath. It was just a dream, a strange and terrible one brought on by tiredness, the storm, and simple bad luck.

Luck. Lucky. A female light wing that did not exist. Storm had seen a future through the eyes of a dragon who was not real, a future in which she was exactly what she was now, a stubborn creature who could not let go.

She had promised Pearl that future if Pearl could not come up with a better one. Pearl had not, in the end, but another light wing was already leading the fight from the inside. Storm only had two light wing hatchlings in her care, and they had been entrusted to her by their Dam, not stolen. Thunder and Lightning.

Did the dream mean something? Was she still on that horrible path? Or was it nothing, a nightmare brought on by the stress of raising two hatchings, even with everyone else's help?

Did it matter? She returned to the small cave she had taken for herself and her foster children and dropped a wing over them, glad they had not woken up.

She could dismiss it all as a dream that meant nothing, or she could learn from it. She could strive to totally destroy the flaws she knew existed within herself, or at the very least to counter and negate them.

And if she ever ended up with another daughter, foster or laid from her own body, however unlikely both were right now, she knew what that hatchling would be named. Lucky.

Lucky to not be born into the horrible future that Storm had seen through her eyes.

Author's Note: Dreams are fun to write, mostly because I get to avoid reality and its limitations. This story is rife with logical failings (why is Storm seemingly invincible? How is Lucky the first one to think of just following Storm up? What are the odds it all goes so well for years on end?) and character failings (would Storm really just keep attacking and stealing once things fell apart for the pack? Why would Ember and Pearl just leave her to it?). All that matters for a dream is that it makes sense from the perspective of the one dreaming. Storm wouldn't dream logically, she would dream emotionally, and all she saw was designed to cater to the meaning of the dream. Basically, she saw what she expected (or dreaded), and didn't notice the flaws involved.

As for what it meant? Nothing, I just wanted an excuse to write about that never-realized plot of Storm's. But it does have exactly one effect on the rest of this universe, and I think that effect is pretty obvious, so I won't bother saying what it is.