CAUTION: Spoils aspects of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, as well as aspects of When Nothing Remains through chapter 19.

Seriously, major spoilers here.

Assuming you wish to continue, read on…

Background: The fourth entry to All That Remains, the AU where the big question has the other answer.

As the days passed, life settled into something approaching normal, or at least a routine. Pearl fished and flew near the ship in the day, exercising and reveling in her freedom, and slept on deck at night. Her nightmares became sparser, though they did not go away entirely.

Second roamed the deck of the ship, slept irregularly, and obeyed his alpha. He did not really relax, even as the days turned to weeks, and the tiny sprouts of tailfin growing promised flight, but would not deliver for some time yet, still barely visible.

Ember busied himself tending to the ship, resting and recovering as his Night Fury self, and talking to Second and Pearl. Conversations with Second were stilted and awkward, but he made a point of having them regularly, even when there was nothing new to discuss.

Storm checked in occasionally, but spent most of her days and almost all of her nights away, seeking shelter wherever she could find it. Those few nights she could not find anywhere she deemed safer than risking a night asleep within reach of Second, she slept in the hold of the ship with Ember resting on the only hatch up.

There was no bad weather; storm fronts passed overhead, and the wind remained bitingly cold, but it all seemed to be heading elsewhere, like themselves, and did not trouble them or their ship. There were no ships around, no signs of intelligent life at all, at least within the view of the ship and the air around it. Storm reported the occasional sighting of life, dragon or human, in the distance, but did not approach either kind.

In short, nothing major changed aside from their position in the world, and that steadily enough. For a time, at least.

O-O-O-O-O

Storm landed on the ship in a bad mood. That was a given; she was in a bad mood because she was landing on the ship. She didn't want to be anywhere near one of its occupants, but thanks to mopey Ember and lovestruck Pearl, she had no choice sometimes.

The instant her paws touched rough wood, she made for Ember, who was coiling a brown vine about himself, in No-scaled-not-prey form. Pearl was flying, and Second-

She could feel Second's eyes on her back, and she shuddered, refusing to turn and meet his seemingly neutral gaze. She had liked him better as a mortal enemy.

Ember, looking up and seeing her, shifted into a blaze of blue fire and then orange scale to meet her in a form she could understand. "What's up?" he asked, getting right down to it because he knew she wouldn't tolerate being near Second any longer than she had to.

"There is a stormfront coming this way," she said brusquely, flicking her head at the seemingly innocent white clouds in the distance. "I was flying out near it. Do whatever it is No-scaled-not-prey do to not die in this kind of thing."

"Is it that bad?" Ember asked.

"No, I just came down here because I love sitting around with you and him," she snarled. "Do not die in it. That is all I ask. Maybe, if you feel generous, throw Second off the side."

"I would not like that," a gravelly voice objected.

Storm whirled on Second, confused and incensed by his response. The only good thing about having him around was that he didn't say much and didn't obviously try to get on her nerves. She was going to nip this new and highly unwelcome development in the bud right now. "I do not give a rotten fish skull for what you want!"

Second shrugged his wing shoulders, his eyes blank and dull, just like always. "I am mildly bothered by your lack of respect for alpha."

"Storm," Ember interrupted, stepping on her tail to get her attention, "I have asked Second to say what he thinks about everything today. He's not trying to mess with you."

She whirled on Ember and yanked her tail out from under his paw, no less angry for having an explanation. "So?"

"I think I already said why you should care," Ember huffed. "I want him to start talking and asking for things and giving opinions, and you are not helping."

Oh, so this was just another part of Ember's stupidly impossible project of reforming Second. As if she cared. "Well, you can just order him to not talk to me, then."

"I find your spite familiar," Second said woodenly from behind her. Her eyes narrowed.

"Familiar?" she bit out, whirling on him just as she had whirled on Ember, ignoring the latter's low growl of annoyance.

"Familiar," Second confirmed, not moving from his spot near the other end of the small wooden craft. "I am used to baseless spite."

"It is not baseless," she hissed. Who did he think he was, to criticize her? Only one of them had served that no-good excuse for an alpha, and it hadn't been her. If she had her way, he wouldn't be here now.

"I have done nothing but spare you." Again, said in that irritatingly toneless, dead voice. He sounded like what he was, a predator pretending to be tame.

"Ember, make him shut up," she growled. "I have better things to do than argue with him. Like flying over empty ocean and relieving myself, for instance."

"And if I don't?" Ember snarled from behind her. "It doesn't work that way, Storm. You don't get to tell me to tell him to be silent for the same reason you don't have the authority to order him around yourself."

She was getting annoyed with whirling back and forth, so she quickly stalked over to a place where she could see the both of them, one on either side of the ship.

"I am noticing that you did not answer me," Second intoned.

Could she see the faintest hint of malicious enjoyment in his eyes? She believed so. "You served a no-good rotten No-scaled-not-prey! You killed for it, you ate dragons for it, you forced yourself upon females for it! That is enough reason for me to hate you!"

"I did, and that is enough reason for impersonal hate," Second retorted, showing a hint of emotion, if only anger. "Personal hate is one of the very few things I do not deserve. Not from you."

"Oh, look, you do still have a spine," Storm simpered mockingly. "I thought you tore that out and gave it to Ember a while back. Is he letting you borrow it today?"

"Apparently," Second retorted, looking to Ember.

"Arguing with Storm is practically an inevitability no matter who you are," Ember said loudly. "Go ahead."

Second nodded as if taking that as an order, and turned back to Storm. "You have no reason to hate me so avidly."

"You are who you are, and that is more than enough reason." She couldn't stand him, and he was a mindless monster lurking in wait, and he was just like his brother. The only thing that kept her from saying that was raw self-preservation; she knew, down to the depths of her bones, that comparing him to his brother was a way to die, regardless of his pretense of obeying Ember. That lack of freedom to speak her mind just further enraged her.

"So, it is just general hatred with a personal leaning?" He pointedly looked her over. "I see you got more from our side of the family than looks."

She recoiled, hurt in spite of her anger. She might fear provoking him with familial ties, but he had no such reluctance when it came to her. Surely he was just striking at her with that; he didn't mean anything more than she did with any of her angry verbal blows.

"That was low," Ember rumbled warningly.

"It was just an observation. That stubborn holding onto things is very familiar, and it is clear where it comes from."

"Clear!" Storm didn't even know what she was saying now, but she had to say something because the alternative would end in blood and pain and probably her death. "Yes, clear. Tell me, who finally killed the abusive, horrible alpha that had controlled him his entire life and then stubbornly latched onto the next strong male to show up not a moment later?" Her claws ground curling shreds of wood from the plank under her, and she was going to have a bruise on the underside of her tail from thumping it on the wood in pure anger.

"Who resented her Sire for season-cycles after he apologized?" Second shot back.

"That was different!" she exclaimed, somehow on the defensive despite being in the right. It hurt to be reminded of that, she knew it had been wrong and it was too late, he shouldn't be bringing it up-

"No, it really was not," he said neutrally. "It is the same problem."

"Shut up," she groaned, fighting to hold on to her anger. It wasn't fair, bringing up that mistake, thinking about it just made her feel sad and guilty, and she couldn't fight back properly if she couldn't be angry.

"I do think you may have gone too far," Ember said sternly. "It's not right to hurt her with that."

"Yes, alpha," Second conceded. "I was just explaining what I meant. Thoroughly."

"Storm?" Ember called out in a low voice. "You okay?"

"No," she whined, flinging her wings down and managing a strong takeoff despite the claws buried in the wood beneath her; shreds of wood clung to her paws for a few moments before being pulled away in the wind.

She felt like Second had pounced and opened a bloody wound in her mind, one that just would not stop getting bigger even now that she was away, the air streaming around her the only thing she could hear.

Herb had emphasized, over and over again as she grew up, that ultimately people chose who they were to be. It might be easier or harder to choose correctly depending on how one was, but it was still a choice.

And she had chosen wrong. She'd never get to go back and say sorry, or forgive him, or even see his face again. Not her Dam either, and that hurt too, but at least there were no open wounds between them. Between her and Herb, there definitely had been and always would be. She couldn't fix that.

Third was to blame, but he was dead. Ember was to blame, but he was hating himself and punishing himself far more thoroughly than she could ever manage. Second was to blame, but he was not, not really. He had done nothing to her, and she knew it. He was just an easy person to hate, one who really didn't deserve kindness or consideration, one who she could despise without guilt.

No, the only one she really had left to hate was herself. Ember was going to die, Third was dead, Second was ironically innocent. Herb was not innocent of lying to her, but he had done it for her sake. She was the only guilty one left that she could hate.

Second had ripped away her denial, her ability to hate him instead, in comparing her to Third and saying that she had their cursed family's traits. If she hated him for being like Third, then she had to hate herself for the same thing.

Storm flew aimlessly, dejected and downcast. She found shelter, some desolate chunk of rock sticking up from the sea. She slipped into a crack in said rock, barely fitting, and weathered the storm that came through. The sea slamming into her refuge as cold rivulets of water ran over her and kept her awake all night, not that she could sleep. She had never been more miserable in both mind and body.

O-O-O-O-O

"What do you mean, she whined and flew away?" Pearl asked worriedly. "She came to tell you about a big storm and then didn't stay to shelter here? But she also didn't leave word for me about a better place to weather it?" That last part was not as selfish as it sounded, and they both knew it. Storm always left offers open to Pearl to not sleep on the ship if there was anything around; that she had not this time either meant she forgot, totally possible…

Or it meant that she had no shelter, meaning she was flying in the midst of the oncoming squall that Ember and Second were even now doing various things to prepare for.

"I know, it sounds really bad," Ember called out, his No-scaled-not-prey form struggling to pull down a thick rope. "But there's really nothing we can do now! You flying out in that storm to look for her would just put another dragon at risk. She knows where the ship is."

"I am thinking she may not want to be seen by me," Second admitted, coming over and leaping above Ember's head to grab the rope, pulling it down as he fell. It was more initiative than Pearl had seen him take in weeks; it seemed either Ember's constant nudging or the oncoming threat was getting him a little more out of the submissive, passive shell he had retreated into.

"I'm thinking that too," Ember agreed, rushing over to the open water barrel and sliding a lid onto it, moving to roll it down below deck. Pearl took it from him, as she could do as much faster and easier, and he apparently had many things to do. "If I could, I'd go out looking, but even if my wing is probably better, I'm out of practice. It's just not safe."

His wing was probably better? Even amidst the worry and chaos, Pearl felt a happy purr working it's way up from her chest. They had been waiting for that! It had taken even longer than it should to heal because he couldn't spend all his time as a dark wing, needing his other body to keep the ship moving in the right direction.

"So, what do we do?" she asked, feeling helpless.

"Get the sail down," Ember listed, pointing up at the taut, flapping white canvas. "Tie everything important together and down. Get below deck and wait out the storm. When it passes, we go looking."

O-O-O-O-O

Some time later, Pearl huddled in the cramped, small space below the deck, feeling miserable and worried. She was fond of the other female, caustic attitude and all. Storm was a friend, and it would be terrible to lose her. Especially in the weather she was named after.

Rain pounded the wood above their heads. Wind rocked the ship. Second's tail twitched against her side.

Second was down below too, of course. Ember wasn't yet, still up above. Pearl might have called him down, but she was more worried about some giant wave swamping their ship before they could get out; at least Ember could provide warning if he saw it coming.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the hatch popped up and Ember stuck his head down. "If this is the worst of it then we'll be fine, it's not that bad," he reported. "A lot of rain, but not much wind. By dragon standards it's awful, but for Vikings it's really not much. Ships can withstand a lot more for a lot longer."

That was reassuring. "Really?"

"Really. We'll be okay," he said confidently. "Storm will too, if she had anywhere to go. She might even just be gliding above the clouds. She's smart enough to think of that."

"That would require her passing through the clouds," Second rumbled, his voice far too close to Pearl's ear. They were pressed together, side by side thanks to the layout of the ship and its cargo. "Sometimes, lightning will strike those who fly through storm clouds. I have seen others die from that."

"That's not helpful, Second," Ember sighed, slipping down into the hold but not closing the trapdoor. Cold rain splattered down and wet Pearl's front paws, bringing with it the unmistakable scent of even more rain. His pale face was right in front of her nose. "And just so you know, this isn't your fault. It was just bad timing that Storm chose today to blow up at you."

Pearl nodded emphatically. She had been given an abbreviated summary as soon as she returned to the ship; really, what were the odds there would be a storm the same day Ember decided to try and bring Second back to a more normal state of mind by telling him to talk about everything, and thus set the stage for an actual argument instead of sniping from Storm and silence from Second?

"I hope not. Then she would have a reason to resent me personally."

Pearl couldn't help but rumble in laughter at that; she had literally never heard a joke from Second before, and he had delivered it in such a straight voice-

Wait, no, maybe he hadn't meant it as a joke. She didn't say anything about it, just in case.

She wished the storm would get lost, so that they could start looking for her. She also wished the missing dragon had a different name, because it was hard not to get distracted thinking of plays on words like that one. Maybe that was just her.

In any case, this wait was going to be slow and torturous.

O-O-O-O-O

A loud thump from above woke Pearl from uneasy, but dreamless sleep. She instinctively tried to spread her wings and knocked into barrels on one side and Second on the other, both hard surfaces that hurt to hit.

"Ow," she said quietly, drawing her wings in and looking down. Ember was asleep in his No-scaled-not-prey form, lying in the small space neither she nor Second took up. Second was snoring, a ragged sound that spoke of a rough throat and a rough voice.

Another thump from above, and then a groan. Pearl recalled who was missing, and why, and her heart leaped.

"Ember," she hissed, prodding his side. "Ember!" They needed him to get the hatch up, or at least to move so she didn't step on him in doing it herself.

"Storm's passed?" he asked in his high voice, standing awkwardly. "I don't hear rain."

"I think someone is up there," she said quietly. It was not certain the one who had landed was Storm, just more than likely.

"Got it," he said, lurching up the little slats in the wall and carefully lifting the hatch to poke his head out and see. "Yup, it's Storm. She looks horrible, but she's fine, and it's a nice, sunny day." His voice was wry. "The storm has tired itself out and come down to nap on our ship."

"I thought I was the only one making jokes about that in my head," Pearl admitted, waiting impatiently for him to move out of the way.

"The second it stopped being in bad taste I couldn't help it," Ember admitted, his voice drifting down to her as she reared up and lifted herself out into the open.

She saw Storm as soon as her head lifted up high enough to look out on deck; the bedraggled female had dropped just shy of the hatch, sprawling out on her stomach with her paws spread wide. Her body was stained and covered in little patches of mud, and she looked exhausted.

"I guess she found somewhere safe but not comfortable," she said, circling around the sleeping dark wing. "I don't want to wake her."

"Let her sleep," Ember agreed. "You can go flying."

"No," Pearl rumbled, remembering something from the night before, "we can go flying. Remember, you were going to get that stick off your wing today?"

"To go searching…" He shifted back to his dark wing body and experimentally flapped his injured wing a few times. "But it is pretty much healed. I might wait a few more days…"

"Come on," Pearl whined, "it's bright and sunny and the air is wet and clean. This is the perfect day to get back into the sky." She was itching to take off herself, but getting Ember up took precedence for the moment, even if the chilly wet air was very tempting. There was something about flying after a storm that had always appealed to her.

"It would be safer…" He held her hopeful stare for a few heartbeats before dropping his eyes. "Okay, fine. For you."

"For me," she agreed, happier than she ought to be that he was going to risk a little bit to get into the air a few days sooner. They were making progress, slowly but surely. He would not have given in to Storm asking the same thing, no matter how nicely she put it. She was sure of that. The tactic of just getting to know him and not making overtures was working.

Ember bent his neck and awkwardly flamed the stick holding his wing in the right position, burning it to a char that could not even hold itself together, much less anything else. One long flaming and a few shakes of his wing later he was free, and his wing looked as if it had never broken.

"If only the rest of me was so easily restored," he murmured sadly, looking at his wing. "Just a little time, a little fire, and something to hold me together in the meantime. If only that was all it took."

"Let's go," Pearl called out. She could see his point, but she could also see that he needed to be distracted, and the endless open sky called to her, so it would serve perfectly.

When she looked back moments later, he was following, his wings as steady as if one had never been broken. She had been the same in spending three moon-cycles tied down and then flying afterward; skill did not disappear, only the body's ability to match that skill with strength and endurance. Ember had not lost either in his time barred from the sky. He flew stiffly at first, but that soon dissipated as he grew confident in his ability to remain aloft.

They did not fly together, as such; she let him go where he would and did not attempt to follow too closely. But they were together in that they were both in the air where nobody else was, and that was enough for her at the moment. Engaging him in a game of tag or something along those lines was just asking for it all to go wrong. He was flying on a newly healed wing.

But as she circled in huge, wide circuits around him, she saw a quick grin appear on his face, and she knew she had succeeded in taking his mind off of his losses, if only for a little while. That was good. That was part of why she was here. He would be healed by time and by someone holding him together, and by the fire of love dealing the final blow to his depression and sorrow, though that felt downright silly to think, even to herself. It was no less true for feeling silly.

But that was a long time away; she liked him, but she could not truly call it love yet, and he would be no further along, if even that far. They still had plenty of time.

For now, she would watch him fly and maybe even fly alongside him for a time, if she felt like it. They were going the same place, in the end, even if he didn't know it.

O-O-O-O-O

Storm woke from her collapse on the ship with a start, simply because she did not remember fleeing the sodden rock she had sheltered on, and thus did not understand the texture under her, or the sun baking her scales, or the low rumbling of someone talking.

"Finally up?" Second asked, his back mostly to her. Only the corner of one wary eye was even visible to her. His attention was on the two distant silhouettes in the sky.

She only distantly registered that Ember was flying; the mental wound Second had tore open had closed, if very imperfectly, and she was just too tired to attack him in any way. She repositioned herself so that the other side of her back would be in direct sunlight, and tried to go back to sleep. She was too tired to care.

"I have a question. Neither of them will answer fully." He said it in the dull, uninterested voice he so often put on since the death of his first alpha. "What are they to each other?"

"Want her for yourself?" Storm found herself growling. "Forget it. She got out from under one like you, and nobody who cares for her will let her go back to that." If Second tried anything on Pearl, she would help her innocent, traumatized, naïve friend tear his most sensitive parts off, and then strangle him with them.

"No, I want nothing," Second huffed. "What are they to each other?"

Storm found herself answering honestly in the hopes that he would shut up once he had his answer. "She likes him, and he wants to die. She harbors hopes of getting his attraction in time. So, she hopes for him, and he sees her as whatever she is to him. He would be the only one to know that." Some of the ways Ember treated Pearl seemed like more than a friend, while others were obviously directed at one he was merely comfortable around, and others still just awkward enough to imply he was very aware that she was a pretty young female. It was all very contradictory, not even throwing in his non-Pearl mental problems.

"And that is a full answer," Second huffed. "I have been told I was harsh with you."

"Come on, you needed to be told?" she groaned. She would rather not have this conversation. He had made his point, and she couldn't really hate him for any of it now. She hated herself. If he was going to gloat, she wanted to be at the very least fully awake and able to fly away.

"Yes. I do not trust myself. Even the things I think I know must be questioned." He looked back at her. "I chose an alpha who would make me act good, because I do not know how to myself. So, I must be told."

"That makes you sound like the stupidest dragon alive," she sniped, her heart not in it. It was just something she would say, so she said it. "Everyone knows how to be good. Just do not do bad things."

"I do not know," Second stressed. "I was not raised to know. All I know is what has made my life not worth living. I must learn, as slow as that is for me, or I will wind up like Third."

Third… She hated the name because of who it was associated with, the one who had made her, the one responsible for all this. "I hate him."

"So do I. With every waking breath. It is what drives me to do better. Sparing you was what made me better than him. He would not have."

The idea that Second was so obsessed with being less horrible than his counterpart was a new one to Storm. She let it roll around in her mind for a while, making a home there, though it had to push out quite a few wrong opinions to do so. While she processed that, Second turned back to watching his alpha and Pearl.

It was easier now for Storm to draw connections between herself and Second. She didn't hate him anymore, and she felt like she should hate herself. There was a link between them, one she hadn't expected even though it was obvious. She wanted to be better than Third too. She didn't want to let his influence, the anger and spite he may or may not have passed down, to rule her life and make her horrible. It had already caused her to do things she would always regret and never get to make up for.

"I want to be better than him too," she agreed after a long time.

"You might pledge yourself to my alpha," Second offered. "Have him teach better."

"He is no perfect dragon himself," Storm said dismissively. "And I am no follower." What worked for Second would never work for her; just as she couldn't follow that horrid No-scaled-not-prey alpha, she couldn't follow her half-brother as alpha. She followed none but herself.

"Then I have no advice, save for the obvious. Just do not do what Third would do."

"I do not know what Third would do," she admitted. "I never met him."

"I knew him. I hated him, but I knew him."

"Tell me." She didn't expect to hear anything good, but she still wanted to hear. "Tell me about him." She would listen, and every similarity Second described would give her a lead as to what to tear out of herself.

Second looked back at her, his orange eyes cold and dead, and began to do just that.

O-O-O-O-O

"What do you suppose they're talking about?" Ember asked, gliding up alongside her.

"I am considering camouflaging and going in to find out," Pearl admitted. That was what she had first thought to do when she had noticed Second and Storm, both obviously awake, facing each other and not doing anything. From what she had been told had happened, calm words between them was the last thing she would have expected when they next met. In retrospect, it had been pure folly to leave them alone together in the first place.

"The thing is," Ember said doubtfully, "they do not seem angry at each other, which is a minor miracle, and I can just ask Second when we get back. It might be private."

"This is Storm," Pearl laughed. "Nothing is private with her." She had no real reason to say that aside from the feeling that if Storm thought something, she would never hesitate to say it. Why would secrets ever cross her mind? She certainly did not keep any for herself.

"But still… I'd rather you not spy," Ember admitted. "For Second to be talking to her of his own accord at all is as much progress as her not spitting bile at him. We might interrupt something important."

"I know," she admitted, "I'm just curious." It really wasn't any of her business what Second and Storm had to say to each other. She had enough mentally-struggling dark wings to try and help as it was. Ember and Storm, in their own ways, could handle Second, and she was pretty sure she couldn't help Storm, when she was trying to learn from her at the same time.

O-O-O-O-O

In the days that followed, Storm grew, if not comfortable, then at least used to Second's existence, and remained with the ship more. They were both very open about what had brought them together, and nobody could argue with anything that helped Storm get past hatred of someone, even if it was sharing a hatred of someone else entirely.

And it was good that their difficulties had passed, because the world slowly began to catch back up to their ship. Silhouettes in the distance preceded the first island they had come within sight of since their trip began, and that brought a whole new set of hazards.

O-O-O-O-O

"Whatever you do, do not move," Ember said hastily, rolling buckets in front of them. "This wall will only be two layers thick, and they will hear you if you so much as snort."

"But if they see us we fire?" Storm sounded eager.

"If that happens, yes," Ember agreed. "We really should have gone around this island."

"The wind was not right for that," Second supplied helpfully. "We would have needed to know several days in advance to manage that."

"Yes, thank you Second, I know," Ember muttered worriedly, pulling another barrel over to hoist onto the stack he was creating. "I'm more bothered by how quickly they put out a ship to intercept us. It looks like a port and trading stop, not a village, but a port wouldn't have such a proactive approach to strangers."

"Just be rid of them quickly," Pearl requested. She, being the smallest of the three hiding in the decidedly too crowded hold, had been forced to lie on top of Storm and Second to fit, and was not comfortable at all.

"I'll try," Ember promised, pulling the last barrel into position and blocking all light aside from the few cracks in the ship's deck above them.

Pearl distinctly heard the thumping of heavy No-scaled-not-prey as they boarded the ship, presumably from their own. She could also hear the distinctly different sound of Ember's false foot hitting the boards, telling her that he was moving to greet the newcomers.

"Wha's all this then?" a gruff voice grunted. "Ole Drago's insignia, one scrawny boy crewin' it, and nothin' but trouble all around, I say."

"I don't know who this ship originally belonged to," Ember lied, "but it's all I've got now. I'm just about out of food, and there's nothing but water and empty barrels aboard aside from that. If you want payment, I've got nothing. You can have some water, though."

"That'd explain why 'e's so skinny," another voice murmured. "No food."

"Nothin' worth stealin," another grumbled.

"We'll be checking your hold," the one who sounded to be in charge said firmly. "If we find anytin' more valuable than water, ye'll lose yer head for lyin'. Sound fair?"

"I mean, I'll certainly not kill you until you try to kill me," Ember said in a cold voice. "That's as fair as things will get. You can check the hold, but I don't take kindly to threats."

Pearl winced at that; she was pretty sure Ember knew how to talk to these No-scaled-not-prey, but it sounded like he was taunting them to her.

"Ey, look, a little man who thinks he's a big man," one laughed. "Doesn't even 'ave a weapon, jus' a skinnin' knife."

"Do your check and go," Ember said, flipping the hatch up. "And be quick about it, I want to be in port by nightfall."

"Really?" One of them stomped over to the hatch. Then, to Pearl's confusion, it slammed shut. "Search the deck!"

"Bu', wha' about below?" one of them asked, echoing Pearl's confusion.

"Come on, think wit' yer small mind," the leader chastised. "When a shrimp mouths off, it's cause it thinks it'll survive, so when 'e said go ahead and check and meant it, what 'e meant is that if there's anythin' 'ere, it aint below deck."

At that announcement, four sets of heavy boots spread out across the ship, thumping and talking too low for Pearl to hear. A short time passed with nothing of interest going on to Pearl's knowledge, just the No-scaled-not-prey searching fruitlessly for valuables they really didn't have.

"Cor, not even a bit o' maggoty bread," one of them finally exclaimed. "We aint findin' anythin'. We're wastin' our time."

"Aye," the leader agreed, "we are. Oughta kill you," and at this Pearl got the impression he was pointing at Ember, "for not 'avin' anythin' to take."

Ember didn't respond.

"Come on, let's go," the leader shouted. There was thumping, and then the ship rocked. Silence fell.

What felt like an unbearably long time later, just as Storm was starting to do more than fidget in her impatience, Ember knocked on the hatch with his false foot. "Don't do anything yet," his voice advised. "They're watching me as they sail away. I'm making it look like I don't notice, but if they see me go down or anything else come up, they'll come back."

"I would like that better than having Pearl splayed across my wings," Storm complained.

"Their absence would be missed, our ship's description noted, and depending on who they were, possibly bounties set on alpha," Second drawled. "Nobody here wants that."

"Let's just wait," Pearl said, hoping that her opinion counted for something. She didn't understand half of what Second had said, and she doubted Storm did either, but it all sounded bad. Second would know, too; sometimes he seemed like more of a No-scaled-not-prey in a dragon's form than Ember did.

A long time later, made to feel longer still by Storm's periodic complaints, Ember stomped his false foot again. "Okay, they're out of sight, I'm coming down." Soon afterward, there was freedom… Of a sort.

"No flying?" Storm spread her wings very deliberately. "Or what?"

"Or you risk bringing every Viking in the area down on our ship, meaning we can't do anything here, meaning no resupplying, meaning you will no longer get to drink the water we keep in these barrels," Ember reasoned, his voice drifting up from the hatch as he put the barrels back in an arrangement that would make it easier to rebuild their disguise if needed. "Don't do it."

"We do not need to resupply," Storm groaned once Pearl had translated for her.

"Better to be pessimistic than thirsty," Second corrected. "We do not know how long this will be the only safe place for us."

"And better to get out of here quickly in any case," Ember suggested, coming up from the hatch. "Pearl, you up for a little trip when night falls?"

"Yes, sure. Where are we going?"

"Why does she get to fly?" Storm groaned.

"Because she can do it without being seen," was the annoyed reply from Ember. "We'll get in, get more water, and get out."

O-O-O-O-O

"We're not just going for water," Ember said the moment they were out of earshot of the ship, shortly after night had fallen. He was gliding alongside her, sticking close to the ocean. "We'll find a good, isolated source of it, and then you can refill all the barrels. I'll be going into the port town and seeing what I can find out about Viggo's forces and the fleet I sent to attack him. With any luck, they'll give me an idea of where to start."

"What if I'm seen?" She wasn't visible, but the wooden cylinders she would be flying back and forth would be.

"Just drop whatever you're carrying and go straight up," Ember replied. "You'll not be in any danger of that, though, so long as you stick low to the water. It's cloudy out so visibility is low."

They flew around the small lump of rock and forest that passed for an island, avoiding the many ships and brightly lit buildings jutting out of one side, and landed near the first obvious pond on the far side.

"Okay, this seems good," Ember hissed, prowling around the small pond. "No signs of people, and they'd come in the day if they did come here at all. Just try to get as many filled as you can manage. I'll come find you here once you're done."

"Good luck," she said fervently. There was something reassuring about having the simple job of the two of them; if he could manage his part, then surely she could do something easier. She really was just pulling water from a pond with wood and flying it back to the ship. He had to go fishing for information.

O-O-O-O-O

"I did them all," she panted proudly. She had even gotten time to wade around in the shallows of the pond and wash herself afterward, removing the salty grime of living by the ocean for moon-cycles on end. That was why she was panting, not the exertion of flying barrels back and forth; she had just been ducking her head in the water when Ember came back.

"I have good news," he replied as they flew away. "Drago's forces were annihilated, but they struck a pretty good blow out here before that. Viggo is weak already, and his ships are all out to try and make up for it."

"What does that mean for us?" She was hazy as to what, exactly, Ember planned to do to destroy Viggo's empire. He had spoken of needing to take it down as thoroughly as he had Drago's so as to not leave any dangerous powers unopposed.

Ember growled ferociously, more than a hint of eager malice entering his voice. "Tired crews, ships sailing alone, and plenty of easy targets. We'll be sailing right into them if we continue onward. It won't be long before we begin to dismantle his empire, one ship at a time."

Pearl could only nod; she agreed with the plan and would be happy to see those who hunted, sold, and killed their kind gone, but she couldn't be happy about the anger in Ember's voice. It wasn't who he was, that anger, it was just him trying to hold on. She wanted to be his way to hold on.

A cloud shifted out from in front of the moon even as she thought that, and the ocean below was illuminated with silvery light. She was, too, her scales clean and her glint unblocked.

"You look great in the moonlight," Ember said lightly.

"Thank you," she purred, glad she had managed to take his mind off of revenge for just a moment. Maybe, sooner or later, it would not take a chance beam of moonlight to get him to notice her like that.

O-O-O-O-O

They flew through the mist with purpose, three dragons cutting the white shroud with their wings, unseen and unheard by those far below.

Storm was actually, to her own surprise, wishing Second's tail was regrown enough for him to join them. He would be great at this; war was his life, and these were even the same enemies his old alpha had meant to fight. But he was not yet able to take to the sky, and that would not change any time soon, so he was stuck waiting back at the ship.

At least it was not her back there, waiting with no idea what was happening. She got to take part in the first of many strikes against the No-scaled-not-prey most responsible for the deaths of her parents.

"There it is," Pearl called out from below. Her shape was strangely visible and yet not, a streak cutting through and disturbing the mist but composed of nothing at all. The swirling water vapor more than served to hide the usual shimmer, so it truly looked like there was nothing there, but she could be spotted by the lack, by the movement with no source.

"I see it," Ember growled. "Remember, fast and low, and as loud as you can, Storm."

"Obviously," she muttered, splitting from Ember and Pearl. Her part in this was to be the distraction, so if she was not loud then what was the point?

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl positioned herself under Ember as they flew past the ship, holding steady below him. The moment Storm's first defiant roar came to her ears, she slowed down, looking up.

Ember shifted, his fires bright and blue, and then fell to her back, grabbing on with every limb he had.

The moment he had a good grip he tugged her ear, indicating that he was ready, and she dove, leveling out just above the water as she curved around. If any of the No-scaled-not-prey they were ambushing were looking, they would see a scrawny No-scaled-not-prey apparently flying on its own.

But none were looking, thanks to Storm. The ship's large deck was in chaos, and none were looking down at the ocean around them, not when there were dark and terrible cries of rage and vengeance coming from the mist above.

Ember had explained to them, in coming up with this plan, that dragon hunters such as these saw them as mere animals, prey like all the rest. They did not expect an ambush simply because they did not think dragons capable of planning such a thing.

Storm had immediately brought up certain animals that hunted in packs and did do ambushes, and Ember had shrugged. No-scaled-not-prey weren't particularly thoughtful, as a general rule.

Then they were too close to the ship for her to ponder the stupidity or brilliance of what they were doing. She reared back, sacrificing all of her built up speed, and wrapped her paws around the wooden bar running along the edge of the ship to keep No-scaled-not-prey from accidentally falling off. The ship was large enough that her impacting it did not rock it too much; most of its occupants didn't notice.

But most did not mean all; Ember had not even fully made it over the bar before someone spotted him. Pearl heard the brief scuffle, and then a bit of black ash fell past her, floating oddly in the mist for an instant.

That had not been a part of the plan; Ember had refused to intentionally make a plan involving him taking a form from any of their enemies. It was a strange line to draw, but she was just glad he did draw lines at all. This would have worked without his special skill coming into play, but now that he had one from pure self-defense, it could be used, and they were safer than ever.

A rough, scarred hand tapped on the wood right below her nose three times, signaling that it was clear. She scaled the side of the ship, slipping silently onto the deck and memorizing the look of the form Ember was wearing. She would not accidentally kill him as Storm had if she could help it.

Ember nodded to the chaos currently consuming the far side of the ship, and she grinned toothily, though nobody could see it. All of the No-scaled-not-prey were aiming weapons out into the mist, but none were firing, too well-trained to waste shots on nothing. Storm was doing an amazing job of antagonizing them and by extension holding their attention.

So unbeknownst to anyone else on board, she and Ember crept over to the large grated hatches leading below, and she slipped down inside while Ember held one open.

This was the scariest part of the plan for her, even if it was not that risky. The sounds of conflict would have probably drawn any guards down here up to the deck, and if not, she was camouflaged and armed with a few handy strategies for taking them down, courtesy of Ember.

But there were no guards. An entirely different horror met her as she crept down the long passageway.

Cages, cells, dozens of them, lining the walls. People, dragons of every description, languished within. She did not recognize a fraction of them, and some defied her imagination, dragons with several heads or several tails or extra wings or bodies that did not seem like they would work for normal life. Most were sleeping, and the rest had yet to notice her presence.

Ember and Storm had not told her what it would be like to see so many different kinds of dragon, and those she had seen in the ice nest had been seen from afar. She knew she had led an isolated life, but to think that she could not name a single kind of dragon aside from her own and dark wings…

She shook off her awe, pushed past the repressed horror of what she was seeing, and made sure that there were no guards. Then she darted back to the hatch and hissed up to Ember. "All clear. There's a lot of them."

"Great," he said enthusiastically, dropping down to land next to her. "This guy's actually got the master key. We got lucky there. Want to give the speech?"

She nodded, tried to calm herself, failed miserably, and called out to the long, dark hold anyway. "You're all being released now," she explained, walking down the hold to be sure her voice reached them all. "Do not attack anybody, or they might shoot you down again. Do not attack the No-scaled-not-prey freeing you, he is on your side. Just get away from here as soon as you can."

A rumble of confused voices met that announcement, hisses and growls and whines of every description, but all went quiet when Ember came to the first cage and hastily unlocked it.

The dragon within, one who walked on two legs and had spikes all over, hissed and him and darted away, bashing its way up through the hatch and out of the hold.

One down, but this was when things were going to get crazy. As Ember continued to free dragons, she heard a growing clamor from above, the sounds of fire and pain and death, and she knew that some of the dragons they were freeing were not taking the advice to flee.

Ember had predicted that, too, in planning this out. There was no solution save for killing off the entire crew prior to releasing anyone, and they had decided not to do that this time.

Pearl knew her next task; she was supposed to stop any No-scaled-not-prey who came down from the other end of the long hold. She waited there, just out of sight of the hatches, her fire ready…

But none came. Ember worked his way down the hold, freeing dragons as quickly as his dexterous paws could twist the metal in the right way, unopposed by No-scaled-not-prey or dragon. He finished faster than she had anticipated, coming up behind her and laughing grimly. "Done. Time to end this ship."

She let him clamber onto her back, though she felt vaguely uncomfortable carrying the extra weight his now far bulkier body brought with it, and leaped up through the hatches, ready to fire.

She then spun in a circle, still ready to fire. But all that met her searching eyes was blood and bodies, and in the distance, shapes already blurred by the mist. The freed prisoners had left none alive.

Storm came down then, gliding in from above. "We are done here?" she called out excitedly.

"Yes, we are." Ember slid off of her back, shifting even as he hit the deck, and in moments they were off the ship, flying together.

"You two did not leave any kills for me," Storm complained as they circled around one more time and came at the ship from the side.

"They did not," Ember corrected. He and Storm let out two powerful blasts in unison, and Pearl quickly followed suit, hoping that neither of them would notice she hadn't been ready. She had forgotten that part of the plan.

Two bright explosions ripped a hole in the wood just below the waterline, and the belated third crashed down inside the hole, possibly blowing another in the other side. Water poured in immediately, after, and then they were turning, and she could see no more.

"Thank you!" a bright, buzzy voice called out from her right. She turned her head and saw a lumpy dragon straining to keep up with tiny wings, and slowed down so as to not leave it behind.

"Thank you," the dragon repeated happily. "I was only in there for two days, but others had been captive for moon-cycles! We owe you our lives!"

"Glad to help," Pearl replied, not sure what else she could say. Giving an explanation as to why they had done it would do nobody any good; She certainly would not have wanted to hear that it was just revenge that happened to save her in the process, were their places reversed.

"If it is not too much trouble, my friends were caught too," the lumpy dragon said hopefully. "Near here, at the same time as me. They should not be too far. I know I cannot ask, but…"

"We're going to get all of the ships," Pearl explained. "So, your friends will be free soon." That was the plan. It would take time, but Ember had decided that he would begin weakening Viggo's empire that way, and she wasn't going to object to plans that gave her more time.

"Thank you for that too!" was the enthusiastic reply.

"Pearl!" Storm barked from the distant fog. "Keep up or you will never find us again!"

"Gotta go," Pearl said quickly, speeding up once more. She was sure Ember would circle back again to find her if she really lost them, but that would be embarrassing, and she wanted him to see her as capable, not always in need of saving. Hopefully, helping him with this would accomplish that. She would certainly get plenty of chances to prove herself over the next few moon-cycles. They weren't going to stop until the dragon hunting fleet was in tatters. However long that took.

Author's Note: Giving Storm an alternate resolution, devoid of Herb to apologize to, was certainly tricky. But then Second stepped in, and that kind of wrote itself. We're not done with her, but that was a pretty big deal.

Also, who can guess who next chapter is going to start with? I'll give you a hint, it's not Viggo.