CAUTION: Spoils aspects of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, as well as aspects of When Nothing Remains, and some minor aspects of Usurpation of the Darkness through chapter 36.

Seriously, major spoilers here.

Assuming you wish to continue, read on…

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

It was a day like any other, one filled with subtlety and just a hint of danger, another tiny step toward a future day of freedom.

Lily was tired of the small steps, she wished she could take a leap and end it, but that would simply get her killed. She had sowed dissent with two easy targets, and that was all she would do for the time being. One more small step.

But the circumstances around this particular step bothered her in the extreme, which was probably why she was so dissatisfied. A mourning Sire and Dam were easy targets, all right, and easier still when the alpha had killed the son they now mourned, the stubborn son who had refused all attempts to convince him to protect his own life and not challenge.

It was all too familiar, the feeling of one dying because she could not convince them otherwise; Root was not the first to have fallen in such a way. He joined Bone and Granite and Pyre on her conscience, one more she had failed.

And it was her fault, because if she had gone faster, if she had more leverage, if Claw were more easily countered, Root would not have died. But Claw's rule was rock solid, his tree still supported by the entire forest, and there was nothing she could have done.

Such bitter thoughts occupied her as she slowly made her way past the plateau, intent on returning to Crystal to help her watch her children. She intentionally did not look up at the plateau, as she could hear Claw and his simpering females up there, enjoying the late hot-season warmth. Seeing him would just make her angrier, and she needed cold anger, not hot. Slow and steady was safe and sure, however much she hated herself for it sometimes.

However angry and absorbed in her own thoughts as she was, though, she did not miss the first hints of something amiss, the scattered barks and murmurs of surprise. Something was going on.

Lily turned and looked at the plateau, though she didn't want to, and saw Claw leaning outward, looking at something happening elsewhere in the valley. She saw his wings raise as he prepared to fly to the disturbance.

A blue bolt of fire slammed into the plateau behind him, followed almost instantly by an impact that rang out and hurt her ears. Claw had fallen off the plateau, thrown off by the blast, but Lily wasn't looking at him.

Her eyes were fixed on the seething dragon who had just landed in the scorch mark of the blast. Orange, powerful, and smoking at the nostrils, she had never seen such an obvious personification of anger before, dark and foreboding in both color and expression, littered with pale scars and brimming with rage.

His eyes were the worst, and they filled her with dread that rooted her to the ground. She had seen anger before, but never with such a tint of bleakness to it. Not broken, not entirely, or maybe healing, but bleak all the same, still suffering, and still enraged despite it.

"Claw," he snarled, stalking forward to glare at the male in question, who glared right back at him from the ground. "That is you."

"I am Claw," Claw ground out, leaping back onto the plateau. "I am alpha here, and you are-"

"Challenging," the dark dragon spat, raking his claws across the rock in a move Lily didn't understand, blunting them even as he spoke of his intent to kill. "I am challenging you."

"You are an outsider," Claw scoffed. "I do not accept your challenge."

"Too bad," the dark dragon snorted. "I'm not asking you to accept." With that, he strode forward and struck Claw in the face, driving him right back off the plateau with a single paw.

Claw snarled dangerously and leaped right back up again. The dark dragon backed up, allowing him to walk forward. "I will kill you," Claw gritted.

"Try," the dark dragon offered sarcastically, rearing up on his hind legs and baring his stomach.

Lily could tell, almost instinctively, that there was some trick coming, the dark dragon was too confident and too violent to allow Claw a free blow-

Claw leaped forward, but before his outstretched claws could get to the bare orange stomach that had tempted him, the dark dragon slammed down with his front paws, driving Claw's head into the ground and stopping him in his tracks.

It could have ended there; all the dark dragon had to do was push down, and Claw's skull would have shattered under his weight. Instead, he backed up and let Claw struggle to his paws, swaying wildly.

Only when Claw had settled into a more stable stance did the dark dragon advance, moving quickly and precisely. Claw roared in rage and possibly fear as they tangled in earnest, but his roars were cut off almost immediately as his back was driven into the plateau with a muted thump.

Again, Lily saw a way for the fight to end in Claw's death, a way the dark dragon had to see, but elected not to take. Nothing was broken, nothing important, and Claw rolled to his paws.

She could see fear in Claw's eyes, pure and unfettered by confidence or anger. He turned his back on the dark dragon and tried to run.

That was a terrible decision; Claw's opponent leaped forward and dragged wide rents down both of Claw's wings, instantly grounding him. Several light wings cried out in horror at that, though they had made no sound during the rest of the fight.

Claw, now deprived of his only real escape route, turned on the dark dragon and attacked frantically, clearly trying to turn the tide. But like the tide, fighting was futile.

Lily could not help but wince at the sickening crack of broken bones as the dark dragon bodily grabbed and slammed Claw down to the plateau, breaking him against the unyielding rock. Somehow, Claw was still weakly struggling, but one of his back paws was bent in all the wrong directions, and his chest heaved unevenly. His wings wept thin, steady trails of dark blood.

The dark dragon, the dark wing, if Lily remembered Pyre's description correctly, roughly shoved Claw onto his back, placed a paw on his stomach, and pressed down until he couldn't breathe.

In the horrified silence, Claw's futile struggle for air could clearly be heard. The dark wing looked away from him, examining the horrified crowd with cold eyes…

Then he looked down at Claw, who was still suffocating. He grimaced and flicked his unoccupied front paw, dislodging a bit of dirt from somewhere.

"That was for Pearl," the orange male hissed. "You are alpha of nothing but your own twisted mind. If I ever see you again, or hear of you harming anyone, I will track you down and finish what I have started here." He held his paw down for a few more moments, and then let up, backing away from Claw's brutalized form.

Lily was in shock. That was the only word she could think of to describe the numb, confused lack of thought residing in her mind. All her careful planning gone, Claw bleeding and beaten by some random stranger, one who had done it for Pearl, of all people…

"There is no way out of the valley on paw!" someone called out. One of Claw's mates, horrified by all that had happened judging by her near-hysterical shriek.

"Yes there is," Lily said without even thinking about it. "He knows where it is." He had seen it when he killed Pyre.

Claw rolled off the plateau, hit the ground hard, and snarled in her general direction.

"Keep moving," the dark wing said loudly.

Lily watched as Claw departed, the pack parting well in front of him. Was he really gone, just like that? It certainly seemed so.

"I challenged, and I won so thoroughly I did not need to kill him," the dark wing declared neutrally. "That makes me your alpha. Does anyone object?"

Lily had no intention of raising her voice in complaint; not only was that exactly how Claw had always professed a change in alpha should go, she was not stupid enough to draw attention to herself. No matter what kind of alpha this male intended to be, that would be foolhardy. He could physically rend her limb from limb if she opposed him now.

What could she do, even with her anonymity? She heard the distinct lack of protest as a death knell to all of her efforts up to this point. This male was infinitely more terrifying to most of the pack. Claw, at least, had been a known evil, and to most not even obviously evil at that. This…

She shook her head, trying to think. So much had changed in an instant, she had a new alpha to uproot and usurp, but what tactics could she use? What would this new alpha do? Would he hurt and abuse her, like Claw had? Would he even notice her at all?

Would he be a savior, a kind and gentle leader who righted all the wrongs? There was no chance of that, not really, not when life was so fundamentally unfair, but it was not impossible. What was she supposed to do, aside from waiting to see what happened next, like the rest of the pack?

"So you accept me as alpha?" the orange male continued, hearing no objections from anyone. "Knowing nothing about me except that I have destroyed your previous alpha? Do none of you worry about what I might do?" He almost seemed to be searching for dissent, which worried Lily immensely.

"You are alpha," a male said nervously. "That is how it is supposed to be. We accept you."

"I suppose I should be alpha, then," the dark wing decided, as if only now choosing to accept the position, though he had obviously flown in intent on taking it-

No, that was not necessarily true; Lily only barely caught herself with that assumption, remembering what the male had said about Pearl, and the rage with which he had fought. Maybe he had not meant to take the position at all? But it did not seem to be a surprise…

This, she could do. She could wait, watch, unravel the motivations and connections this new alpha had, and then begin anew her long, arduous path toward freedom. Whatever came next, be it benign or excruciating, would be endured. She would not give up, not even with the world upending all of her hard work in yet another cruel twist of fate.

Lily watched silently, another face in the crowd, unremarkable and unnoticable.

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl slunk through the valley, hoping to avoid one light wing in particular. Ember was going to come in any moment now, and she wanted to get into a good position to watch him destroy Claw, but she also wanted to not be noticed by her Dam, who was sitting on a rock near the plateau, alternately chatting with Claw and looking out over the valley.

Maybe it was silly to think that her Dam would notice her amidst the bustle of the valley; nobody else had really noticed her, though she had gotten a few confused looks.

But her ruby glint was distinctive and she really didn't want to be seen, so she took the long route anyway, circling around near the pond in an effort to get around to the other side of the plateau entirely-

"What the-?" a familiar voice exclaimed, and Pearl jerked to a halt as a paw pinned her tail to the ground. She turned, only to find that in addition to a paw, a fledgling was sitting on her tail and doing his best to climb upwards.

The fledgling, barely more than a hatchling by his size, forced her to be careful, and she pulled at her tail far more gently than she would have liked, shaking it from side to side to try and get him off.

"Pearl?"

Pearl looked up, remembering that there was probably a Dam attached to the paw pinning her, and saw Crystal, of all people.

"It is you," Crystal barked. "What are you doing back here?" She sounded torn between relief and worry.

"Is he yours?" Try as she might, Pearl couldn't help but care more about that than catching her friend up, not when Ember was due to arrive in dramatic fashion any moment.

"Burble?" Crystal asked, glancing down at the fledgling on Pearl's tail. "Yes, and he is not moving until you lift him to your back, and that is not what I want to talk about!" She stepped off of Pearl's tail and licked her across the face. "Get out of here!"

"Why?" Pearl asked, obliging Crystal's son by curling her tail. Sure enough, he let go the moment he was above her back. She could smell him now, and his scent saddened her, though she had all but known who his Sire was simply from how things were when she left.

"Claw, obviously," Crystal hissed. "Why did you return? Where is Gold?"

"I returned to fix things, and Gold is dead," Pearl explained. "You don't have to worry about Claw… Ever again." Even as she spoke, she realized that her friend might have come to terms with her mate, given the fondness with which she spoke of the child they had, but the words were already out of her mouth.

The sound of an explosion and a descending flash of orange in the side of Pearl's vision cut off any follow-up she might have had. She turned to look, only to find that she didn't have a view of the plateau at all from where she stood, one of the taller rocks entirely blocking her line of sight.

"What was that?" Crystal barked.

"Somebody," Pearl responded, unsure how to proceed. "Crystal, how do you feel about Claw?"

"Now is not the time for that," Crystal barked, leaping up onto the rock blocking Pearl's view. "Who is that?"

"What is he doing?" Pearl asked, trying to pry Burble off of her back. He had his little claws dug under her scales, strong enough that she couldn't easily pry him loose with the end of her tail, but not strongly enough that she would be willing to risk jumping up to Crystal.

"Beating Claw into a bloody paste," Crystal breathed. "He does not stand a chance…"

"How do you feel about that?" Pearl asked bluntly, sticking her paws up onto the rock and climbing up slowly, so as to avoid dislodging the tenacious fledgling on her back. She could see the rolling orange and white tangle on the plateau now.

Crystal didn't answer, but Pearl didn't press her, too caught up in watching the beating. It was far too one-sided to call a fight; Ember was pounding Claw into the ground, bloodying him, and doing it all with a barely constrained rage she didn't quite recognize. He had fought in front of her before, but she couldn't recall ever seeing him draw it out to make it hurt.

Ember was doing this on her behalf, for her sake, and he was enraged because of what he knew Claw had done to her. He had not yet figured out his own internal struggle, but things like this convinced her that she had worked her way into his heart, slowly but surely.

"Kill him," Crystal hissed under her breath as Ember pinned Claw to the ground and pressed down on his stomach. It looked, for a long moment, that Ember was going to do exactly that.

Pearl felt nothing. Nothing important. It needed to be done, and she would be glad to see Claw gone. He deserved this. But she cared more that Ember was angry on her behalf. Claw had already hurt her and was already out of her life, and Ember was making sure of that. She wanted to look to the future, not dwell on the past.

But then Ember let up and didn't kill. Pearl watched as he exiled Claw, as Claw limped away, utterly defeated, destined to leave the valley.

"I am going to have someone make sure he really leaves," Crystal muttered. "That seems like something Lily would do."

"So you're glad he's gone?" Pearl asked. She already knew the answer, Crystal hadn't been subtle about her approval of what had happened, but she wanted to hear it for herself.

"The orange one said this was for you," Crystal said in reply, turning and effortlessly prying Burble from Pearl's back, much to her relief. The fledgling was soon set on his Dam's tail, where he seemed content to stay, occupied with holding on through every small motion. "As far as I am concerned," Crystal continued, purring at Pearl, "this was for all of us. Thank you, however you managed it."

"Glad to help," Pearl said. "But Ember would have fought Claw anyway, he helps people who need it." All she had done was let him know about Claw's existence… And told him about her past, but just knowing what Claw did to people would have been enough.

"Is that his name?" Crystal looked out at the plateau. "He is fit to be alpha, right? Nobody is speaking against that happening, so he will be."

"Oh, definitely," Pearl said. She was glad to hear it was as she had expected. Ember would be alpha, as he had agreed moon-cycles ago. His future was safely tied up in managing a pack for the time being.

"It looks like we will see," Crystal murmured. "How will all of this work?"

"He'll figure something out," Pearl asserted confidently. Ember could handle any sort of problem once he set his mind on it.

"You sound like Lily," Crystal snorted. "Slurring your words."

"How is she?" Pearl asked.

"Since you left…" Crystal paused, her eyes narrowing as she thought. "Not so good," she decided after a moment. "Bad things happened to both of us, but her especially. He treated her exactly as he treated me, but rougher."

Pearl cringed at the horrible things that implied. She had wondered what had happened to Lily, in the wake of the only available male disappearing, but now the worst of her guesses was confirmed. "That's terrible," she whined.

"It is- no, it was, it is over now," Crystal laughed. "Whatever else happens, Claw is gone. Or he should be. Would the new alpha mind if I asked him to set someone to make sure Claw leaves for real?"

"No, not at all," Pearl hummed. "Let's go see him together." Ember had begun speaking to those closest to the plateau, and she suspected he might need some help managing everyone, at least to start. Her Dam was nowhere to be seen, thankfully.

O-O-O-O-O

"Why are you orange?" a bold female fledgling asked. Ember considered her bold because the vast majority of her pack seemed to want nothing more than for him to not look at them, shying away and hiding behind their equally intimidated friends whenever his gaze passed over.

"It's my color," he answered kindly, wondering what in the world he was supposed to do next. He had agreed to be alpha on the condition that nobody opposed him, assuming that surely there would be someone better suited to the position than him. As it turned out, that was wishful thinking.

He didn't want to be in charge, but Pearl had maneuvered him into taking the position anyway, if only by combining a promise and her own plight to tug on his badly-damaged heartstrings. She had a way of getting to him.

He rumbled thoughtfully, looking out on the hesitant crowd. She had a way of getting to him, and it was hard to say whether he liked that or not. Some days he definitely did, while other days he just wanted to reach the end of his journey and sleep forever. One of those things was wrong, one was going to have to be banished…

If he was honest with himself, one of them made him feel much better than the other. Between ends and beginnings, he much preferred beginnings, and that was before comparing a beautiful, kind female to absolutely nothing at all except a lack of grief.

Pearl was trying to help him move on and be happy, and he wanted her to succeed. At the moment, she wanted him to be alpha and correct her pack, so he would do that.

Somehow. He wasn't even sure what she meant by telling him to fix them; they had bad ways of thinking, and he knew all too well that a few stern orders would not make any difference in that, but orders and authority were all he had.

His thoughts went to Berk, of all places. There were parallels; teaching a stubborn group of people to be better, despite it going against all they knew. Doing something big and, in their eyes, terrible, and facing them at the end of it. He was there again, different actions and allies, but in the same place… And with a lot more power to wield as he saw fit.

"But why?"

Ember looked down, and saw the same female fledgling as before. "Why what?"

"Why is orange your color?" she asked, craning her neck to stare up at him. She seemed delighted, though he couldn't fathom why.

"I hatched orange," he explained, hoping she would accept that. He didn't know what decided the color of a dark wing, and he had no good guesses. Thorn and Herb were nowhere near his color, whereas Storm resembled both Thorn and the male who had Sired her, in equal portions. There was no pattern he could pick apart, no answer or guess he could give.

"Stop bothering the… alpha…" a male, presumably the female's Sire, pulled his daughter back from the edge of the plateau, only faltering when he noticed Ember staring down at him. "She will not bother you again," the male quavered.

"I didn't mind," Ember said honestly. He could find no more of an answer to the big questions than before, but here was a small moment, one he recognized. Not from his own experience, but from something Astrid had told him of, the first few days after the attack on the nest. A child reaching out where parents were afraid to touch, being pulled back by those same parents, and with fair reasons.

The male ushered his daughter away all the same, as if he hadn't heard Ember at all. That too was as Astrid had said; it took time and evidence to change minds, not just a few reassuring words.

But how was he supposed to give time and evidence when everyone was just standing around, anxiously waiting for him to act, and he had nothing to act on or do?

"Ember!" Pearl called out, flying down to the plateau. "Can you set someone to make sure Claw leaves for real?"

"I can do that," he agreed, grateful for a prompt. It was a good idea, one he might have come up with were he not so distracted.

"Pearl?" someone in the crowd barked.

"Hello, everyone," Pearl purred. "I'm back. Any volunteers to make sure Claw leaves like he is supposed to?"

"I can do it," someone volunteered. A female leaped up onto a rock and waved her wings to get their attention. "Me."

"She's one of his mates," Pearl hissed to Ember.

"Why do you want to?" Ember asked, not directly acting on Pearl's inside information.

"Because I can?" the female offered.

"I want to do it so I can laugh at him," a male offered, leaping up right next to the female and almost crowding her off the rock. "He is not alpha anymore."

"Both of you go, make sure you only watch from afar," Ember ordered. He didn't particularly like either of their reasons for volunteering, but they would probably keep each other in check simply because one would rat out the other if anything happened.

"Yes alpha," they said in unison. The female jabbed at the male with her wings and shouldered him aside long enough to take off, and he quickly followed.

"That's that," Pearl murmured. "So, where-"

"Where is Gold?" a strident female's voice demanded. "Where is my son?"

Pearl wilted a little. "I don't want to just roar out that he's dead," she whispered to Ember.

"There's a lot of catching up to do," Ember announced, remembering how Stoick handled Trader Johann's yearly visits. "Pearl will answer all your questions-"

"I will?" Pearl asked as he spoke.

"-in due time," Ember concluded. "For now... " He was stuck again. What else was there to do?

"I could give you a tour of the valley?" Pearl offered. "Introduce you to my friends?"

"For now, I'll be around, getting to know this valley and its people." He could do that. Maybe by the end of it he would see a few more things that needed immediate attention, and then more… And in the long run, maybe he'd figure out what he was supposed to be doing as their alpha, what needed to be corrected. It was a start, and it was only a start because Pearl was helping.

"Thanks," he murmured, leaping off the plateau. The crowd cleared out around him so fast he wondered whether they feared he'd attack on a whim. He hoped not.

"What kind of person would I be if I abandoned you to the task I asked you to do?" Pearl purred, walking in front of him and leading him into the maze of boulders. "It's awkward, nobody knowing what to think. I'll introduce you to everyone I have even the slightest excuse to."

"Even your parents?" he rumbled.

"If we run into them, we run into them, but I will not speak to them," she said nervously. "First… There you are, Crystal!" She rushed ahead to greet a female with a young fledgling on her back.

"I had to walk," Crystal said.

"I forgot that," Pearl admitted. "Come meet Ember."

"Alpha," Crystal greeted, bowing her head. "I, for one, thank you for removing Claw, and helping my friend."

"One and the same," Ember said awkwardly. How did one break the ice with a person one had only saved by chance?

"Not one and the same, not if you are staying to care for us," Crystal said hopefully. "You are not going to follow in Claw's pawprints, right?"

"I don't intend to," Ember growled. "In what way do you mean?" He was going to be as unlike Claw as possible.

"In how you deal with the males, with mated pairs, with ceremonies, with life," Crystal rambled. As she spoke, her wing shoulders shifted, adjusting the young male fledgling lying on her back. He was lying with his chin on her neck, eyes half closed in a way that reminded Ember of Spark.

A heavy lump of grief settled like a solid object in his chest for a long moment, and then faded away. Remembering any of those he had lost did that, though it was more bearable as of late. He held in his sudden turn in mood, lest he worry Pearl or scare Crystal.

"He's not going to be the same on any of those things," Pearl said happily.

"I would like to hear it from him," Crystal said, correcting Pearl with a low rumble. "Such as… mates, to pick one example."

"Mates?" Another memory made itself known, one with far less painful connotations. Stoick again, this time arguing with Mildew on a point of Berkian law. The argument hadn't been for Mildew alone; all those who watched and listened understood where Stoick, and by extension Berk, stood on the issues Mildew raised. The same idea applied here. A leader explaining himself so that those under him knew what he thought.

"Mates in reference to how I will handle mated pairs, or those who wish to become mates?" he asked, hoping to narrow it down. "Or both."

"How you will handle the alpha's privileges in that area," Crystal clarified. "Claw had many mates, some unwilling, some happy."

Ember growled, easily finding his answer to that. "I don't like any of that," he said vehemently. "I certainly will not take multiple mates, or unwilling mates, or anything like that."

"What of those mated to Claw now?" Crystal pressed, her voice quiet and hopeful. "Will you choose among them, or let them pick one, or just throw them all out of the caves?"

"None of those," Ember answered. "I'd need more information on how things are to decide what I do with them, but I'm not going to just take one, I don't know any of them!" Pearl had told him of the attitudes of this pack, but to hear that such basic things were genuinely in question was another thing entirely. If Crystal, someone Pearl thought highly of, wasn't sure of any of this, then he could assume nobody had any more of a clue.

"That is great," Crystal purred happily. "Really great. If all of your opinions are like that, then you will be a great alpha."

"He will," Pearl agreed, happily patting her tail on Ember's front paw. She let it linger there, and glanced back at him for a long moment, her eyes hopeful.

He purred at her, not brushing her tail off or ignoring the gesture. He couldn't in good conscience promise anything to her, not when he was still so mixed up and uncertain inside, but he could at least admit that she was in his thoughts by reacting.

"Oh, I did not know," Crystal blurted out. "Pearl, I was not trying to steal him."

"I know you weren't," Pearl assured her. "You were against him just choosing one of Claw's mates, and that would take you out of the running."

Ember hadn't put two and two together, but now he knew, and with that knowledge came a new perspective. Crystal had been hoping he would set her free. If he had been of a like mind with Claw, his takeover would mean not only a change in leader, but possibly a change in mates. The idea bothered him, and he was glad he had no such intentions.

"Besides," Pearl added honestly, "he's not mine, not quite yet. We are still working things out."

"Right," Ember agreed. That was a good way to put it, but he had a feeling not everyone would accept it. If one mate of Claw's was happy to get away, that didn't mean the rest would be too. Some might be the opposite, if what Pearl had told him was correct.

"Any suggestions on who to find next?" Pearl asked Crystal.

"Lily would probably love to talk to Ember about his views on what being alpha means, and how he will go about it," Crystal offered. "But I have no idea where she is. Maybe you and I could go into the caverns? I could introduce you to my hatchling, and I could drop Burble off with Honey at the same time."

"You have another one?" Pearl gasped.

"Yes," Crystal said neutrally.

"Should I congratulate you or offer my sympathy?" Ember asked. He couldn't look to memories of Stoick for advice here. Berkians usually didn't have such muddled, conflicting issues to deal with. Crystal treated her son with care, but she disliked his Sire…

Which reminded Ember of his Dam, Thorn. Another parallel, another pang of sadness. Lesser, for some reason, still present but not as debilitating.

"Both? Neither?" Crystal shrugged her shoulders, jostling her fledgling, who squeaked in surprise. "I love my children, but I did not ask for them, and I hate the one who gave them to me."

"I hope others feel as you do," Ember said solemnly. "That's commendable."

"Thanks… Alpha." Crystal shook her head. "It is strange to say that and not feel bitter resentment. A good strange."

"That's probably going to be the common way of describing all of… this." Ember gestured to himself. He liked the term. He could live up to being a good sort of strangeness. It felt achievable.

All of this felt achievable, doable, and most importantly, worth doing. Real, in a way that it hadn't yesterday.

"Lead me to the caverns," he requested, "and while we're walking let's talk more about what you expect from an alpha." He could do this, and he wanted to do this, not just for Pearl, or Crystal, or anyone else here. For himself.

O-O-O-O-O

A white dragon limped through the forest. Claw moved slowly due to injury and pain, but his limping gait was not the reason he had gotten nowhere fast. He was not walking away from the valley, instead circling the mountains, and stopped often.

The sun was setting behind the trees, but Claw couldn't see it. He stopped, licked the wounds he could reach, and continued onward, heading nowhere fast.

Second trailed the defeated light wing like his own shadow, sticking close but never revealing himself. It was laughably easy, even to a dragon who almost never spent time in forests. The light wing was ridiculously at ease, and never bothered to ensure he was not being followed.

But eventually trailing Claw became boring, and Second was not getting what he was waiting for, so he changed tactics and dropped out of the trees right in front of Claw.

Claw recoiled, surprised and clearly afraid, but his inherent arrogance soon asserted itself. "Out of my way," Claw blustered, beginning to walk in a very wide arc around Second.

"You have no way," Second growled. "You are going nowhere."

"I have been exiled and am leaving," Claw retorted.

"As if you would," Second snorted. "Not when there is a usurper to kill and a rightful place to retake."

"Tell me who you are," Claw demanded. "Are you with that cheating orange light wing?" He was already trying to sow seeds of doubt. Second now understood a little better how he had managed to hold onto power. He was not entirely incompetent, just out of his league against anyone but his own repressed people.

"I have followed him here, and have tried to kill him multiple times," Second said truthfully. "I have yet to succeed, possibly because nobody is helping me."

"Then we can work together," Claw said, failing to hide his relief. "I know where the alpha sleeps, and you have the muscle. Together, we can come upon him tonight and kill him. I will make you second only to me."

Second twitched at the unintentional use of his name, but Claw didn't notice, too wrapped up in his promises to see it.

"You will be above the pack," Claw continued. "Able to take a mate, whoever you want, and maybe more later on, once it is clear you are privileged. There are no rules but the ones I make, and they will follow those. Whatever your interests, tell me and I will see them fulfilled."

"All to be alpha again," Second mused. "You know, you remind me of my brother."

"The orange one?" Claw guessed.

"No, not at all," Second rumbled. "My brother is long gone now. You two are much alike in some ways."

"Then we will make a good team," Claw enthused. "I have always been lacking a true second in command. This is perfect. We should go now, so that we can be up in the mountains by dusk." His desperation was obvious; Second could almost smell it, and he could smell the light wing's blood.

"We should go," Second agreed, "but first to food. I believe I will find prey if we walk in this direction." He motioned toward the shore, and by extension the depths of the forest in front of them.

"There is nothing worth eating in this forest," Claw said as they began walking. "I would know. If there were, I would be eating that instead of just fish."

"There will be something," Second said confidently. He walked slowly, so that Claw could keep up despite his disabled paw and heaving sides. He likely had an array of broken ribs, judging by his short breaths and stifled yelps. Second knew that pain well.

"I see nothing," Claw grumbled after a while. "We are wasting time."

"You are very much like my brother was," Second rumbled in response.

"Efficient," Claw said.

"Perverted, vile, grating on me with every word," Second said neutrally. "He was a monstrosity in every way, and I never got to kill him."

Claw began backing away, as if hoping that Second would not notice. If he were thinking clearly, he might be noticing all of the little things Second had said throughout their brief conversation, all of the hints Second could not help but drop. It wouldn't matter either way.

"You, on the other paw, are right here, and my alpha was planning to kill you," Second said, before leaping and pinning Claw to the ground with a heavy paw on his tail. Claw tried to pull away, failed miserably, and stopped trying, quivering in helpless fear. He didn't even try to fight back; Ember had knocked that desire right out of him.

"My alpha is helping me be better," Second growled. "I have done terrible things, but he spared me and is helping me change. He would not like this. Maybe he thinks he can do the same with you, or maybe he had a different reason."

"So do not do it," Claw quavered.

"He will not like it, but you crossed the one line I held to myself," Second snarled. His claws sprang out, digging into Claw's tail, and Claw once again tried to pull away, injuring himself in the process. "You killed and forced yourself on your own children. Maybe he feels merciful, though I doubt it, but I definitely do not."

Second ripped a chunk out of Claw's tail, setting him free, and Claw did his best to run, his limping, three-legged gait entirely insufficient. He stood no chance of getting away.

"One more hunt," Second growled to himself. He had Claw's scent, and he had Storm's request. Nothing more than that, not an order, just a question she had asked upon seeing Ember let Claw go, and hearing the words of one particular female. Did Second think it would be best for Claw to die of his injuries in the forest?

He did think so. Ember might have spared Claw's life, but that was his choice, and he had never said not to pursue Claw afterward. If anyone ever found Claw's body, Second would not deny what he had done. For once, every twisted thing he knew about hunting down, torturing, and then killing would be deserved, and he would extend to Claw all the things he would Third, were he alive to be dealt with.

Author's Note: Yeah, Claw's going to die a horrible death. There isn't going to be any surprise twist on that ending; I elected not to show it because I know your twisted imaginations can depict worse than I can write, given who's involved, and Claw deserves the worst possible fate.

Also, with this chapter, No Story Stands Alone as a whole is now as long as the first book of this series. Suffice to say, the stuff I have planned and ready for this anthology will be sufficient to bring it all the way to the length of When Nothing Remains, and beyond. I already have three unrelated pieces ready to go after this mini-series is over, and another mini-series almost ready for posting, among other things.