Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tommy was a dragon hunter, a very successful one at that. He had been one ever since Dream had taken him in when he was nine. Tommy had spent the past ten years hunting and killing dragons just like Dream had taught him, hiding the fact that he himself was a dragon from everyone. He knew that Dream would kill him if he ever found out, no matter how many dragons Tommy had killed. 

Tommy looked down at the dragon he had just killed. Their main scales were a beautiful teal while their ventral scales were silvern, titanium if Tommy had to guess. He ducked down to remove a teal and a titanium scale respectively, attaching them to the piece of leather he used to collect the scales of the dragons he killed. Next, he shifted his hand to its dragon form, removing two red and one golden scales. He then placed the red ones where he had removed the other dragon’s scales, attaching the golden one to a different piece of leather. There were 354 golden scales on the second piece of leather, each representing a dragon he had killed. They were a constant reminder of the lives he had taken. 

Furthermore, they provided a way to carry gold with him without Dream getting suspicious. While he had been travelling on his own since he was 16, Dream still checked on him regularly. And Tommy couldn’t risk Dream finding out that he was a Dragon. His safety came first. Even if that meant carrying minimal gold on him and his hoard being limited to a bunch of dragon scales and a few golden coins. 

“In my hands, I hold two golden coins. But only one of them is made out of actual gold. Whoever can guess which one of the two is the actual golden coin, can keep it,” Tommy announced, holding up two golden coins in the air. Both of them were copper coins he had turned ‘gold’ with the help of sodium zincate and a little bit of his own fire. “A guess only costs 4 silver. Is there anyone who thinks that they can distinguish real gold from fake one?” 

About a dozen people flocked to his stand, wanting to try their luck. None of them won. How could they when they could only choose between fake gold? 

Every once in a while, he would allow a person to ‘win’, claiming that they had been correct yet giving them a fake coin. 

“And how do I know that you’re not lying?” someone asked. 

“Simple. Do you carry a gold or a copper coin on you right now?” Tommy asked. “If yes, put it on the scale. Gold and copper coins are the same size but they do not weigh the same. I can guarantee that the coin you picked will weigh about the same as the copper coin” 

The customer did as he asked and placed each a copper coin and a gold coin on the scale. Tommy could see the moment they realized that Tommy was right. “Right sorry,” they apologized, handing him the golden coin before leaving. 

Other people asked how they could be sure that Tommy wasn’t tricking them, that there was a gold coin among the two coins. Tommy used the same scale, quickly switching one of the golden coins for an actual gold coin. 

Humans never noticed it when he tricked them. The only people who noticed were dragons. Dragons could always tell real gold from fake one. It’s how he was able to distinguish the different coins in the first place. 

At some point, a dragon would come up to him, telling him that neither of the golden coins was made of actual gold. He would just laugh it up and tell them that he accidentally confused them. They, too, would leave with a copper coin. At least most of the time. There had been one time when the dragon had noticed him trying to trick them. That had been embarrassing.

Most of those dragons would come back to him later that day when he was alone to confront him. None of them would confront him with people around. That would have been a death wish. As soon as they made a threat to his life, Tommy killed them. It was self-defence, he rationalized. Even if said self-defence was only necessary because Tommy had intentionally angered them in the first place. He usually dismissed thoughts like that. 

Once the dragon was dead, they would automatically switch back into their dragon form. It was rare that Tommy accidentally killed a human but it had happened before. The thirteen red scales on the third piece of leather he carried with him proved that, a constant reminder of his cruelty. Just like the gold scales.  

If they turned out to be a dragon, which they often revealed as soon as they felt they were safe from nearby dragon hunters, Tommy would take two of their scales, one of each colour. Every dragon had two different scale colours. One normal scale colour that covered the majority of their body and a metallic one that usually covered the dragon’s ventral. 

Almost all dragons carried scales of their thunder, their family around their neck in between the ventral scales. Others had a few different coloured scales on the side of their necks, in between the non-metallic scales. Tommy never touched either of those. Even he wasn’t that cruel.

“Are you sure that those are actual golden coins?” a man with brown hair and brown eyes asked. Next to him stood another man with ruby eyes and pink hair that glimmered in the sun. They were friends if not family. 

“I can test them if you want,” Tommy offered. 

He was pretty sure that those two were dragons. A dragon’s scale colour was reflected in their hair and eye colour respectively. More experienced ones could shift so that their hair and eye colour didn’t reflect their scale colour but instead shared a colour. And those who had spent the majority of their lives in human form could shift so that their hair and eye colour did not reflect their scales at all. 

Tommy belonged to the last group of people. He had been raised by humans after his family had abandoned him when he had just been a hatchling. For his own safety, he had almost always been in his human form, only fully shifting to his dragon form a couple of times when it was absolutely necessary. The first time he did it was just after he had watched his parents get murdered in front of him by another dragon for no reason at all. 

That was when his hatred for dragons started. He quickly found a group of dragon hunters willing to take him in. After his first week of staying with them, they presented him with a dragon they had caught, tasking him to kill them. Tommy did what they asked, removing a yellow and a copper scale from their body just like he knew other dragons did too. When the other hunters had asked him, he claimed that it was a trophy for killing the beast. Tommy killed another dragon every month after that for the next four years until he was ready to hunt and kill them himself. Under the supervision of the other dragon hunters, of course. 

Over the years, Tommy had changed his hair colour from a golden yellow to a bronze brown just like he had observed many humans, including Dream, do naturally. And while he missed the way his hair shimmered in the sun, it did wonders to convince the hunters that he was a human like them. 

Tommy didn’t switch the coins before putting them on the scale. The dragons would notice, he was sure of it. “It seems as if you’re right. Sorry, I must have confused them. It’s really hard to tell them apart. I’m surprised you noticed,” Tommy said, slowly exchanging one of the golden coins for a gold one, ensuring that both dragons saw it. He then closed his hands around the two coins, shaking them before showing the two coins that lay on each of his hands respectively. The brunette pointed to the correct tone.

Tommy assessed the coins for a moment before answering, “That would be correct. Do you want me to test it with the scale?”

“That won’t be necessary. I know pretty well how to tell real and fake gold from each other,” the brunette bragged. 

“I guess you do. You were able to tell that I had accidentally picked two golden coins back then. Mind demonstrating your talent a bit more? You will get the coin either way. I just want to see if you’re as good as you claim to be,” Tommy offered, playing into the man’s ego. That didn’t always work but Tommy had a feeling that it would today. He usually only did it to ensure that he was talking to a dragon. You could never be sure enough. His third piece of leather lay heavy in the pocket of his coat. 

“I can promise you that I won’t make any mistakes,” the brunette bragged which earned him an elbow to the ribs from his companion who clearly knew that his friend was being overly careless. 

Tommy made the brunette guess for a few more rounds before letting him leave with a copper coin, the other dragon non the wiser. 

“You do realize how risky that was, right?” Techno asked. 

“It’s fine. Most humans don’t even know about that. Besides, what could he have done if he found out? Attack us, I doubt it. That guy looks like a stick,” Wilbur scoffed. 

“He still managed to scam you, you know,” Techno said. 

“What?” Wilbur asked. 

“He exchanged the gold coin for a copper one just before we left,” Techno elaborated. Wilbur immediately pulled out the coin and realized that his friend had been correct.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, offended. 

“It was too funny to see you get scammed by a kid. Besides, you would have probably attacked him right then and there and I really don’t want to have hunters after us,” Techno said. 

“Then I’ll confront him when he leaves. I want my gold,” Wilbur insisted. 

“Alright, whatever you say,” Techno agreed. 

“Hey, kid, yes you, I want to talk to you,” Wilbur shouted when he saw the boy with the way too big trench coat with way too many pockets leaving the crowded area of the market. 

“First of all, I’m not a kid, I’m nineteen years old,” Tommy said, “But what did you want to talk about?” 

“Right. Would you mind coming with me for a second? This is something you probably don’t want someone else to hear about,” Wilbur replied. 

“Sure. But if you end up trying to murder me I’ll kill you,” Tommy joked, laughing as if he had just told the funniest joke ever. If it was, it was an inside joke. 

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on killing anyone today,” Wilbur said. 

“So you plan on kidnapping me and killing me tomorrow, nice,” Tommy joked. Wilbur rolled his eyes. 

“I don’t plan on killing you tomorrow either. Or at all,” he said. 

“As if you could,” Tommy responded with a little too much seriousness for Wilbur’s liking. Wilbur just laughed, he knew that he wasn’t the best fighter but even he could win against any human that wasn’t an at least somewhat experienced dragon hunter. 

“So what do you want?” Tommy asked when they arrived in a secluded area. 

“The coin you gave me was a fake one,” Wilbur pointed out. 

“Are you serious? How come you didn’t tell me immediately?” Tommy challenged. 

“I didn’t notice until I had already left and didn’t want to cause you any trouble,” Wilbur explained, smiling sympathetically. 

“Right,” Tommy drawled. 

“This is one of your fake coins,” Wilbur said, holding the golden coins to Tommy’s face. 

Tommy took the coin, observing it for a moment before answering, “It is. But that doesn’t explain why you didn’t point it out earlier. You were so quick to point out when I accidentally used a second golden coin instead of a gold one. How come you didn’t notice when I gave you the wrong one” 

“He’s got you there,” the pink-haired guy interjected. Tommy hadn’t even noticed him. 

“Stop teaming up on me, Techno,” Wilbur complained. 

“Whatever. He didn’t notice at that moment but you did give him the wrong coin,” Techno said. 

“And why should I believe you?” Tommy asked. 

“Because you often do this if not always. You wouldn’t profit with fifty-fifty odds and a fee that low. Over time you’d lose more than you’d make,” Techno pointed out. 

“Touché,” Tommy said. 

“Wait you did this on purpose?” Wilbur asked. 

Tommy rolled his eyes, “Of course. People like you don’t deserve the gold, you are way too proud for your own good. It’s time someone knocked you down a peg” 

“Oh, you child. You just made a big, big mistake,” Wilbur said. He didn’t see the smile that formed on Tommy’s lips. He didn’t realize that the other had done this on purpose. 

“I thought you said that you won’t kill me. Did you really just change your mind over a bit of worthless metal?” Tommy provoked. 

“I will show you worthless metal,” Wilbur said, stepping up to Tommy who readied himself for a fight, his left hand already clutching his axe beneath his coat. 

Before he could take another step towards Tommy, Techno grabbed Wilbur at his shoulder, pulling him back. “He’s not worth it,” he insisted. 

“Did you hear what he just said?” Wilbur hissed. 

“I did and I don’t care. We have more than enough gold at home,” Techno argued. 

“It’s a matter of principle,” Wilbur insisted. 

“You wouldn’t be able to beat me anyway,” Tommy scoffed. 

“I could beat you with my eyes closed you little vermin,” Wilbur said, taking another step towards Tommy before Techno pulled him back again. 

“Don’t you realize that he’s antagonizing you on purpose? He’s clearly out for a fight. You should know better than to fall for things like that,” Techno insisted. 

“Fine. But if you ever try to scam me again I will find you and you won’t like the consequences,” Wilbur threatened. 

“Oh no, I’m oh so scared,” Tommy mocked and it almost got Wilbur again, Techno’s hand on his shoulder being the only thing holding him back. 

“Whatever. See you hopefully never,” Wilbur said before turning around and leaving. He didn’t notice the disappointed expression on Tommy’s face. Techno, however, did. 

Chapter Text

Two weeks had passed since Tommy’s encounter with the two dragons. He had not fought any other dragons since then. Luckily, he had pissed off the leader of a thunder of dragons which now tried to take his head off. Luckily, they were a rather small thunder, only consisting of seven dragons, all in their dragon form. And while Tommy had fought and won against more dragons before, he preferred the easy kills. 

“What did I ever do to you? Isn’t it illegal to just attack random people?” Tommy asked. He knew from experience that it was easier to fight many dragons if he managed to annoy and distract him with his talking. That didn’t stop the purple-copper one from diving down to attack him. 

“You started this so don’t complain when you get injured,” Tommy said dodging yet another attack from someone with orange and mercury-coloured scales. 

“As if a pathetic excuse of a human like you could ever injure someone like us,” one of them hissed. This one had white and steel-coloured scales. 

“We’ll see about that,” Tommy said, slicing his sword down the abdomen of the green dragon. He only took a second to admire the different shades of green, one of them being copper green which were their scales before he had to dodge more attacks from six very aggressive dragons. Not that he could blame them. He had just gravely injured one of the members of their thunder. It did make things a little easier for him though. People who were taken over by their emotions usually made easier targets. 

A few minutes later, all the dragons were dead. The dragon with the purple and copper scales had taken the longest but ultimately didn’t stand a chance against Tommy. He quickly collected the different scales from their hands, replacing them with his red ones. He was about to add the golden ones to his second piece of leather when he heard someone speak up behind him, “Impressive” 

It was the pink-haired guy from two weeks earlier. The one who had stopped his friend from getting cut into pieces by Tommy’s blade. “Thanks, I try,” Tommy said. 

“How did you do that?” the brunette from two weeks ago asked, completely shocked. 

“I have a lot of experience,” Tommy replied, shrugging as if it was nothing. 

“What did you do with their corpses?” Techno asked. 

“Nothing just made sure that they were dead,” Tommy lied. 

“No, no. You did something else,” Techno insisted, stepping closer to the corpse of the orange-mercury-coloured one. 

“I really only checked their pulse, made sure that they were really dead. You know how resistant dragons are,” Tommy said. 

“You took a few scales and replaced them with red ones,” Techno pointed out. 

“I did no such thing. Are you sure that those aren’t their natural scales or just some thunder thing or whatever else you call the ones at the side of their necks,” Tommy asked. 

“There are only two red scales. And they are not anywhere near where someone would place battle scales, let alone thunderscales,” Techno argued. 

“How was I supposed to know that? It’s not like I’m a dragon,” Tommy replied. 

“You could be. Dragons take the scales of the dragons they defeat and replace them with their own to show that they were the ones to defeat them. It’s also a sign of respect and is supposed to help distinguish a human kill from a dragon kill,” Techno pointed out. 

“He can’t be a dragon,” Wilbur argued, “His eyes are blue and his hair is brown. The scales are red” 

“Then that raises the question of where he got the scales from. And don’t even pretend that you don’t know, the scales on your sword are the exact same colour,” Techno said. 

“They’re from a friend,” Tommy decided to answer. It wasn't that far off, now was it?

“A dragon friend that is okay with you killing their own kind?” Techno asked, disbelieving. 

“They attacked me first,” Tommy weakly argued. He knew that they just like every dragon he had killed had a reason to attack him. 

“Don’t pretend as if you didn’t antagonize Wilbur when we last met,” Techno said. 

“Whatever. Yes, my friend is fine with me killing other dragons. They want me to. Otherwise, they wouldn’t give me that many of their scales,” Tommy replied. Couldn't those two just leave him alone? All Tommy wanted was to eat dinner and sleep for fucks sake. 

“How many scales have they given you?” Wilbur asked, somewhat intrigued. 

“One for every scale I take, another one for every life I take, and a few more for my weapons and armour,” Tommy said, showing Wilbur the first piece of leather with the many shining scales on it. 

“Just how many dragons did you kill?” Wilbur asked, astonished. 

“It should be 361 now. That reminds me,” Tommy paused, taking four golden scales from one of his coat pockets before attaching them to the second piece of leather, admiring it for a moment before putting it back into his coat pocket. He was glad that he always carried a few extra scales with him for cases like this when he couldn’t risk shifting. 

“Was that gold?” Techno asked, suddenly a lot closer than Tommy liked. 

“What’s it to you?” Tommy asked. He hated the way dragons reacted to his metallic scales. Like sure, they were gold and dragons loved gold but that didn't justify them staring at his scales like that. It always made him feel as if he was just another object that they wanted to make part of their hoard, as if he wasn't a person just like them. 

“I’m a dragon,” Techno deadpanned. 

“Yes, they’re gold. My friend is red and gold,” Tommy replied, rolling his eyes. He didn’t notice the way Wilbur and Techno perked up at that, suddenly a lot more focused on the conversation.

“Actual gold or just brass?” Wilbur asked. 

“Yellow gold or whatever, not brass,” Tommy responded. “Can I leave now?” 

“What’s the name of your friend?” Techno asked. 

“As if I’d tell you,” Tommy scoffed, trying to leave when Techno pulled him back. 

“I really need you to tell me the name of your friend,” Techno insisted. 

“So you can kidnap him for his gold scales? No thanks,” Tommy dismissed. 

“Can you just tell me his name? At least tell me if he has a thunder,” Techno said. 

“Nope. And his family was killed by dragons. So was mine. That’s why he’s okay with me hunting dragons. And I won’t rest until the dragon that killed my parents is dead,” Tommy responded. 

“Why would he want you to kill dragons for killing other dragons?” Techno asked. 

“They weren’t dragons. They were the humans that took him in after his thunder abandoned him when he was still a hatchling and raised him as their own,” Tommy said. 

“A dragon would never abandon their brood,” Wilbur argued, almost offended at the accusation. Tommy guessed that his thunder didn't abandon him at the age of four.  

“Well, his did. Not that it’s any of your business,” Tommy replied. He hated talking about his original thunder. They obviously didn't want him so he just rather pretended they never exisisted. It wasn't like he remembered them anyway. 

“I suppose it isn’t,” Techo said before continuing, “So your only goal is to kill dragons, preferably those who hurt humans, correct?” 

“Yep,” Tommy confirmed. 

“You can’t be serious,” Wilbur told Techno who immediately dismissed him. 

“I am. He’s better than you, that’s for sure. It’s a win-win,” Techno told him before turning his attention back to Tommy, “How about we make a deal? We find you dragons to kill and you help us kill them” 

Tommy paused at that. It was a good deal and it would also make him feel a lot better about killing the dragons. “As long as I meet my quota and you don’t get me killed, I’m in,” he agreed. 

“Your quota?” Wilbur asked. 

“One dragon a week. It doesn’t matter when I kill them, I just need to kill at least 52 per year. Thus far I’ve got 27,” Tommy elaborated. 

“You’ve been doing this since you were 13?” Wilbur asked, shocked. 

“I’ve been doing this since I was 9. I just used to only kill one dragon a month, didn’t even hunt them myself,” Tommy replied. 

“And yet you still have a dragon friend,” Techno wondered. 

“What can I say, I’m magnificent,” Tommy joked. 

“Whatever makes you sleep at night,” Techno responded. 

Following Techno and Wilbur to their home and base of operations proved to be more difficult than expected. Not only were the two dragons a lot faster than Tommy in his human form but there were also parts a human simply couldn’t cross, most probably chosen exactly for that reason. Techno ended up having to carry Tommy for the majority of the way.

The first time Tommy saw Techno shift into his dragon form, he wanted to run. As expected, his scales were ruby and rose gold. His neck was also covered in scales. Not only thunderscales but the ones that most dragons only had a handful of. Techno had hundreds if not thousands of them. Not to mention the fact that he was ruby and rose gold. 

“Did you find him?” was the first thing Tommy heard after they had arrived at the entrance of a cave system hidden in between the tallest mountains Tommy had ever seen. 

“Kind of,” Techno replied. 

“What do you mean, kind of?” the voice that belonged to a green dragon with some of the most beautiful scales he had ever seen asked. The majority of his scales were dark emerald green while his ventral was covered with green golden scales. “Have you found the dragon that killed all those other dragons or not?” 

“Well, we found the person that killed all those dragons but they’re a human,” Wilbur explained. 

“But they mark the dead ones just like dragons do. Where would they have gotten that many dragon scales? From the same dragon no less?” the green dragon asked. He was now a lot closer to them and Tommy could see his thunderscales. They were beautiful. The dragon’s own emerald green scales were arranged in the same shape he had seen on both Wilbur and Techno during their flight back to the lair. Just like them, the scales outlined seven circles, four small ones and three big ones. Four of the circles were filled in with Wilbur’s and Techno’s metallic and non-metallic scales respectively. The rest were filled with Phil’s own scales. They were a very small thunder, Tommy noticed. 

“My friend provides me with his scales in exchange for me killing the dragons,” Tommy replied, stepping up from behind Techno. 

The green dragon cocked his head, “And why would I believe a dragon hunter of all people” 

“You can’t,” Tommy replied. He could just shift and show them that he is the dragon that they were talking about but Tommy had never liked the way other dragons looked at him when he was in his dragon form. And he knew from their reaction to when he had first revealed the fact that he had gold scales, that they wouldn't be any different. 

“Phil. His friend’s scales are red and gold,” Techno stressed, “He doesn’t have a thunder and was raised by humans ever since he was a hatchling. His human parents were murdered by a dragon ten years ago” 

“Oh, you mean that,” Phil stopped for a moment, “Are you sure?” 

“Show him the scales, Tommy,” Wilbur insisted. 

“Which scales? I have a lot of them,” Tommy replied. 

“The gold ones,” Wilbur clarified, obviously getting impatient. 

“Ugh, fine. But don’t you dare steal them. I know that they’re gold but they’re mine,” Tommy said, pulling out the second piece of leather. He immediately noticed the dragons’ attention shift to the leather or rather the scales on it. He laughed to himself. It was always funny to see the way other dragons reacted to his scales. 

“You said that he doesn’t have a thunder. Does that mean that he doesn’t have thunderscales either?” Phil asked. 

“Well, he has the chain thingy and the charms you all have. Just without the actual thunder scales,” Tommy replied, not noticing how the other dragons sharply inhaled. 

“How long has he had them for?” Phil asked. 

“He can’t remember a time when he didn’t have them. I think they were formed naturally because I haven’t seen any other dragons beside you three with scales like that. Is it like a golden dragon thing?” Tommy asked. On the one hand, it was a reasonable explanation. There weren’t many golden dragons. Only about seven per colour, he didn't know the real numbers. On the other hand, Tommy had fought golden dragons before. An entire thunder of them. And while all of their thunderscales looked the same, they were very different from the ones the dragons in front of him shared.  

“Something like that, mate, something like that,” Phil said and if that wasn’t vague. 

“So you believe us?” Techno asked. 

“Of course,” Phil replied and Prime did Tommy feel left out.

Chapter Text

From then on, Tommy had been staying with Wilbur, Techno, and Phil. Each morning Phil or Techno would go hunting during their morning patrol. Shortly after, Wilbur would wake him up and the four of them would eat together in what could only be described as a dining room cave. There was even a river source in one of the connected caves. 

Occasionally, Wilbur would gather berries that they ate throughout the day until it was dinner time. Tommy sometimes helped him when he wasn’t patrolling with Phil or exploring the huge cave system that the three dragons called a home. 

It would have been nice if they didn’t constantly ask about Tommy’s dragon friend. It only made sense that Tommy would eventually snap. “Could you please for the love of Prime stop asking about him? I get it, golden dragons are rare but he wants to be left the fuck alone. Why else would he send a human of all people to kill dragons for him? I will not tell you anything about him, no matter how often you ask because Newsflash he’s his own fucking person. If he wanted to talk to you he would do so himself. And if all of this is just a plot to get me to introduce him to you you can stop right now. I don’t trust you and even if you somehow managed to make me trust you I would never betray him like this. So if you are just being nice to me to get to my friend I can tell you right fucking now that it won’t fucking work” 

The dragons had the audacity to look shocked at Tommy’s outburst. Techno was the first to talk again. “While it would be nice to meet your friend, we are not being nice to you because you know him. We were searching for you because of your immense talent. We didn’t even know about your friend until you told us” 

This made Tommy feel a lot more at ease but he still couldn’t shake off the feeling that they were hiding something from him. “Whatever. Could you please leave me alone? Also, I haven’t killed a dragon in a while. I was being serious when I said that I would only stay if I could meet my quota,” he replied. That was only half-true, sadly. The past ten years of his life had revolved around killing dragons and as much as he hated to admit it, not having to go out looking for dragons to kill and just enjoying the day without having to worry about meeting his quota had been nice. 

“You will be able to kill all the dragons you could dream of soon enough,” Techno said before the three dragons turned around and retreated to their respective parts of the cave system. Tommy stayed near the entrance, sorting the scales on his first piece of leather after their colour. He didn’t know when he had first started to do it but it helped him deal with the guilt. It was a lot harder to remember the kills when the scales that belonged to the same dragon weren’t next to each other. 

He was enjoying the way the sun warmed his skin. He knew that it would be even more comfortable if he was in his dragon form but that was too much of a risk. No matter how much he wanted to curl up around his way too tiny hoard and just sleep. Tommy shook his head, he had things to do. He could daydream later. 

When Tommy was about to start sorting the metallic ones, he heard something next to him. It was undoubtedly the sound of a dragon. But when Tommy turned around, he noticed that the approaching dragon was not one that he knew. Out of habit, Tommy pulled out his sword, readying himself for a fight. 

The dragon obviously saw that as a threat because he decided to attack Tommy who only just managed to avoid the attack by rolling out of the way, clutching his sword. Was this what Techno had meant when he had told him that he could kill all the dragons he wanted soon enough? Was this a test to determine whether Tommy was good enough at what he did? 

Then again, this could just be a friend of theirs. How else would a dragon have found them? Just in case, Tommy decided that he wouldn’t kill them, instead opting for non-lethal attacks. 

Tommy was about to know the dragon unconscious when Techno raced out of the cave entrance, “Stop, Tommy, he’s a friend” At that moment Tommy could not have been more glad that he had pulled his punches. 

Tommy instantly let the dragon go, “He attacked first” 

“You had a sword with scales that looked very similar to Techno's. Sorry for assuming the worst,” the mint dragon with the brass-coloured ventral said. 

“It’s alright. You’re lucky that I pulled my punches,” Tommy dismissed, quickly gathering up his leather pieces and stuffing them into the pockets of his coat. 

“You pulled your punches?” Sam asked, clearly astounded. 

“Of course. Otherwise, you would have been dead before Techno could tell me to stop,” Tommy replied. He knew that he was a good fighter but it was always nice when it got acknowledged. 

“It’s true. I’ve seen him take on a thunder of seven all on his own,” Techno added. 

“I’ve fought bigger thunders before. The seven were nothing,” Tommy dismissed. 

“In human form?” Sam asked, confused. 

“Obviously,” Tommy rolled his eyes. Hadn’t he told the dragons that he was a human? It might not be true but they didn’t have a way to know that. 

“That’s impressive. Here, take this, you deserve it,” Sam who had now shifted into his human form said, offering Tommy one of his mint scales. 

Tommy narrowed his eyes, “What’s this?” he asked. 

“A battle scale,” Sam answered in disbelief, “Shouldn’t you have a bunch of them considering you’ve defeated Prime knows how many dragons before?” 

“He kills every dragon he fights. I think you’re the first dragon that he fought that survived,” Techno informed in his usual deadpan tone.

“That’s not true. There was this one dragon that told me she had a hatchling and begged me not to kill her. I spared her. She still offered me a non-metallic and a metallic scale of hers,” Tommy corrected. Whenever he saw her onyx or purple-golden scale on the fourth piece of leather he carried with him, he couldn't help but think what if his thunder had been killed by dragon hunters before his human parents had taken him in? Then again, she had never attacked him. She had been with her thunder but only because she had to, he could tell. 

“She gave you a favour scale?” Sam gasped.

“A what now?” Tommy asked, even more confused.

“A favour scale is a dragon’s metallic scale that is given to someone else, typically another dragon although I have heard stories of humans receiving a favour scale. It basically means that they owe you a favour,” Sam explained. “A battle scale is one of your non-metallic scales that you give to someone that beat you in a fight. Dragons usually wear them on the left side of their neck. Techno has like a bunch of them, I’m confused you didn’t notice before” 

Tommy had noticed them before. Not only on Techno but on other dragons as well. Most dragons had at least one if not dozens of battle scales on the left side of their neck area. The more they had, the harder they were to kill. That reminded him, “What does it mean when they have metallic battle scales on the right side of their neck?” Tommy asked. Almost every dragon Tommy had killed had at least one of those. Techno had about a thousand of those. 

“Those are for dragons you have killed. Every time you kill a dragon, you take a metallic and a non-metallic scale of each of their colours and replace them with your non-metallic ones. The metallic one is then added to the right side of your neck. Most dragons keep the non-metallic ones on a piece of leather similar to the one you were holding earlier,” Sam explained. 

“That makes sense. Thanks for explaining,” Tommy said. 

“Of course. My friend's friend is my friend as well,” Sam responded, smiling brightly. 

“We can’t let that happen again,” Phil said after Sam had gone home. He was currently in his human form. Both his hair and his eyes were a golden yellow. It reminded Tommy of the time when he still had golden hair. Tommy missed that time a lot more than he probably should. 

“He attacked me first. Besides, I know how to fight someone without killing them,” Tommy replied. 

“Still. You can fight very well for a human. It’s too big of a risk,” Phil decided. 

“What do you suggest I do then? Do you want me to let every dragon that attacks me kill me?” Tommy asked. 

“Of course not. But we could make a deal,” Phil offered. 

“What exactly do you mean by that?” Tommy asked. 

“Basically, you would promise not to hurt any of us or our allies and we would promise you that none of us hurt you in return. The deal’s magic which means that we won’t be able to attack each other unless it’s an official match or something similar,” Phil explained. 

“I want the dragon that killed my parents, as well as their thunder, to be an exclusion,” Tommy insisted. He knew this was risky, Phil could always deny his request out of fear of Tommy tricking them. Which he kind of was. But it sounded reasonable enough, right?

“Of course. Do you know what they look like so that we could maybe help you find them?” Phil asked. 

“I was very little. But don’t worry, I will kill them or die trying,” Tommy said, evading the question. He knew exactly how the dragon that killed his parents looked. 

Phil chuckled, "If you say so". 

“I will,” Tommy insisted, “Could we make my friend part of this as well? The one with the crimson and gold scales?” he asked. 

“Of course,” Phil agreed immediately, “But it would be helpful to have their name or something else than ‘the dragon with the crimson and gold scales’ to call them” 

“Would it help if I gave you two of his scales? Just for the deal?” Tommy suggested. 

“That might work,” Phil agreed far too easily. Tommy did his best to ignore the disappointed look on his face. “Alright. I, Philza, as well as my thunder and all our allies, will not try to kill or injure the dragon hunter opposite from me nor will any of us try to kill or injure the dragon the scales in my hand belong to with the exception of official fights in a fighting arena. In return, the dragon hunter and the dragon mentioned earlier will not try to kill or injure my thunder or any of our allies with the exception of official fights in a fighting arena,” Phil said. 

“And with the exception of the thunder of the dragon that killed my family,” Tommy added. 

“And with the exception of the thunder of the dragon that killed the dragon hunter’s human parents,” Phil amended, “Do you accept?” 

“I do,” Tommy agreed, feeling the magic that hung heavy in the air around them. Phil then begrudgingly handed the scales back to Tommy. 

“Heard you made a deal with Phil,” Wilbur said. 

“I did. He didn’t want me to go around killing your allies,” Tommy replied. 

“Understandable. Did you know that Sam still thinks you’re a dragon? He didn’t believe me when I told him that you were a human,” Wilbur responded. 

“I did have a lot of dragon scales on me and most human dragon hunters don’t really get along with dragons,” Tommy pointed out. 

“Touché,” Wilbur said. 

“What are you even doing here? Don’t you have dragon things to do?” Tommy asked. 

“The two of us had a rough start but we’ll be spending a lot of time together until we can find you a more permanent residence nearby. So I thought it would be beneficial if we got along,” Wilbur replied. 

“I tried to kill you when we first met,” Tommy pointed out. 

“That you did,” Wilbur responded, no worry in his words. 

“Why are you so calm about this?” Tommy asked. 

“Because I know that you wouldn’t have been able to. I might not be as good as a fighter as Techno or Phil but I’m a golden dragon too. We’re a lot stronger than average dragons, we have to be,” Wilbur said. 

And wasn’t he right about that? Tommy still remembered when a thunder consisting of seven golden dragons had attacked him while he was travelling through their territory. Each of them had been two if not three times as strong as an average dragon. Not to mention the fact that they had been fighting on their territory in a wide area in which the dragons could freely fly above Tommy’s head. Tommy still remembered the many battle scales along their necks, a testament to all the dragons they had defeated. 

Tommy had managed to kill one of them when they had first attacked as the dragon had not expected Tommy to be in possession of not only weapons but also armour that was covered in dragon scales. His usual tricks like mimicking hatchling noises had also proven to be less effective on the trained dragons although he did manage to greatly injure one of them with the help of it. He had fought similar dragons before. Ones that weren’t golden but still fought just as well or sometimes even better than the dragons he had been fighting that day. They were the ones that carried the most battle scales.

The gold scales had proved to be more effective. Although the golden dragons were somewhat desensitised to those as well. Tommy still managed to kill a third dragon although all of the remaining dragons were a lot more persistent after that. 

Tommy had only barely managed to injure a fourth one before he had been forced to shift into his dragon form. He would have never been able to fight them in his human form. Usually, dragons as strong as those didn’t fight him together, confident in their ability to take him down alone or with one or two other dragons accompanying them. 

But these dragons did, which had led him to shift to be able to kill them, something he only rarely did. They simply had too big of an advantage. 

The other dragons had reacted differently to that. One of them had tried to convince them to join their thunder while another one had tried to convince his thundermates to just retreat. A third one had taken the reveal as an invitation to charge at him. They immediately regretted it as Tommy ducked under the attack, quickly shifted back into his human form and picked up his sword before ramming it into the dragon’s chest. The other dragons had fallen quickly after that. 

He was about to kill the last dragon when she spoke up, “If you ever fight my sister, tell her I died a worthy death” Tommy just nodded. He didn’t think that he’d ever meet her sister but if he did he would tell her. She had been the best fighter and undoubtedly the leader of her thunder. 

“I’ve fought golden dragons before,” Tommy said, showing the golden scales on his first piece of leather. 

“Oh right. I forgot that you were the one to kill the Golden Thunder,” Wilbur replied. 

“Yeah. They were like really hard to fight. Almost thought I would die right then and there,” Tommy admitted. 

“How did you manage to win anyway? They were really strong, got attacked very often by thunders of up to 100 dragons,” Wilbur asked, not hiding the curiosity in his voice. 

“My friend. We had been travelling together. When we saw them, I told him to hide. He did. I managed to injure four of them before he had to step in. They got distracted by his scales. Not as much as untrained dragons usually do but it distracted them enough for me to kill the rest of them,” Tommy replied. Technically, it was true. His friend was just his dragon form but Wilbur didn’t need to know that. 

“Why doesn’t he fight?” Wilbur asked. 

“Dragons always get weird whenever he shifts. Some of them try to run away. Others want him to join their thunder. Rarely, do they try to kill him. He prefers his human form,” Tommy explained. 

“People used to get weird whenever they saw us golden dragons. I can’t imagine how it would be for a gold one,” Wilbur said. 

“What do you mean by that? Aren’t they just as rare as the other golden ones?” Tommy asked, confused. 

“Definitely not. There are about six, maybe seven other dragons with the same metallic scales as mine. But for every one hundred of us, there is only one dragon with yellow-golden scales. Actual golden scales are so extremely rare that there has only ever been one,” Wilbur explained. 

“That’s not a lot,” Tommy commented. He didn’t know what else to do with that information. 

“Yeah. It’s why we want to ensure that your friend is safe. Dragons and humans alike will hunt him. He needs a thunder that can protect him,” Wilbur said. 

“He has me,” Tommy replied. It was true. He did have himself. 

“He needs a family,” Wilbur insisted. 

“I’m his family,” Tommy argued, ignoring the painful tinge as he was reminded of the fact that he was his only family. 

“We both know that that’s not enough,” Wilbur said. The two of them were quiet after that. 

Chapter Text

“I want you to teach me how to fight,” Wilbur announced. 

“I thought you already knew how to fight?” Tommy asked. 

“I do. But you’re a better fighter than me and I want to improve,” Wilbur said. 

“You do know that I’m a human, right?” Tommy asked. 

“Then teach me how to fight in human form,” Wilbur remained persistent. 

“Alright. But if you want me to teach you how to fight you’ll have to do it my way,” Tommy said. 

“Okay,” Wilbur agreed. 

“We have been doing this for forever. This is getting annoying,” Wilbur said, dramatically falling to the ground of the training hall.  

“If you want to be able to fight in human form you’ll have to be able to shift into human form whenever you want to. And while you’re good at shifting when you’re calm I doubt that you could shift when you’re scared,” Tommy replied. He walked over to the other dragon until he stood almost over him, his hands pressed to his sides, disappointedly looking down at him. 

“Why did I agree to this?” Wilbur whined. 

“Not sure, Big Man, but you’re improving. I think it’d help if you didn’t try to shift your eye and hair colour. It might not be as hard for you as it used to but it will definitely help if you have to shift a lot,” Tommy advised. Sometimes when Tommy had spent too much time in his human form, his features automatically shifted to their original state, the crimson eyes and the golden hair. It always scared him when they did so and he usually hid with the help of the hood he had attached to his trench coat. 

“And you didn’t think to tell me this earlier?” Wilbur asked, immediately standing up from where he had been laying on the ground. 

“You need all the practice you can get,” Tommy said, shrugging. 

“This would be a lot easier if I had someone to demonstrate it to me,” Wilbur pointed out. 

“I mean, Theo would be way better at this than I am,” Tommy thought out loud before realising his mistake. 

“Theo?” Wilbur asked, intrigued, “Is that your dragon friend?” 

“No, it’s one of the dragon hunters that took me in,” Tommy deadpanned, “Of course, it’s my fucking dragon friend” 

“Is that his real name or just a nickname?” Wilbur asked. 

“If I tell you will you shut up?” Tommy replied, slightly annoyed. The other dragons had stopped talking about his 'dragon friend' after he had yelled at them but it still made him slightly uncomfortable if it was mentioned.  

“Sure,” Wilbur agreed. 

“His real name is Theseus. He got it from his thunder before they decided to abandon him. It’s the only thing they ever did for him,” Tommy said. 

“Are you sure that his thunder abandoned him?” Wilbur asked. 

“Why else would he have to be raised by humans?” Tommy responded. 

“Maybe he got taken from them. We both know how rare golden hatchlings are,” Wilbur argued. 

“Then how come he didn’t have any thunder scales?” Tommy asked. 

“Hatchlings usually don’t get thunder scales until they’re at least five years old. They’d just fall out, leaving the hatchling unprotected in one of their most vulnerable spots,” Wilbur explained.  

“So his family didn’t abandon him?” Tommy asked, trying to suppress the hopefulness in his voice. The fact that his thunder might not have abandoned him didn’t change anything. 

“Of course not. Dragons never abandon their brood. Theo was no exception. I bet that his thunder is still out there looking for him,” Wilbur assured him. 

“But what if he doesn’t want to be part of their thunder?” Tommy asked, not noticing the way Wilbur’s expression dropped at that. 

“Why wouldn’t he want to be with his thunder? You said that he didn’t have a thunder,” Wilbur pointed out. 

“He doesn’t have a thunder, yes. But he has me. I think he’s scared of getting attached to people after he watched his human parents get murdered right in front of him,” Tommy said. It was easier to speak about stuff like this when he could act as if he was talking about someone else. 

“Those were humans. His thunder wouldn’t get injured that easily,” Wilbur argued. 

“Maybe. But doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. I mean, I always thought that my parents were invincible but they died anyway. I just don’t think that he’s ready for another family yet,” Tommy replied. 

“You’re talking about his parents as if they were yours and vice versa,” Wilbur pointed out. 

“You’re right. I did say that. Because his parents are my parents. My parents took him in when he had nowhere else to go. And maybe his thunder didn’t abandon him but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t leave him. Maybe it wasn’t their fault but he was still alone with nowhere to go and no one to love him. Until my parents took him in,” Tommy said. 

“Were they good people at least?” Wilbur asked, almost pleading. 

“The best,” Tommy responded. Wilbur smiled sadly. 

Tommy was exploring the huge cave system the three dragons called a home. There were many different caves that were all somehow connected to each other and all had a purpose. There was even a bunch of caves that functioned as guest rooms. How the other dragons didn’t get lost in here, Tommy didn’t know. 

His favourite parts had to be the huge training cave and that one small cave that was filled with dripstones. The latter didn’t have any purpose. It was too small and humid, according to Phil. The other dragons had a hard time walking through it without slipping. But Tommy loved the challenge. He especially loved to jump from stalagmite to stalagmite. He had slipped a few times but nobody needed to know that. Especially not Wilbur. As soon as he found out about Tommy’s new hobby, he made it his personal mission to stop Tommy from having any more fun. That didn’t stop Tommy from doing it in secret though. 

Tommy had been leap stoning, creative he knew, when he heard Wilbur enter the cave. He immediately hid behind a few giant stalagmites in one of the hidden corners of the cave. 

“Tommy, I know that you’re in there. Just come out, please,” Wilbur shouted. Tommy remained quiet. 

“Please, what you’re doing is dangerous. Especially, because it’s so dark in there. Even I can barely see anything and I’m a dragon,” Wilbur continued. What Wilbur didn’t know was that Tommy was a dragon as well which meant his night vision was just as good as Wilbur’s. And Wilbur was exaggerating drastically. He could still see his hands, kind of. 

“If you end up getting hurt don’t come to me crying. I did warn you,” Wilbur said, having given up on finding him. 

Once Tommy was sure that Wilbur was finally gone, he stood up and was about to leave the small cave when he spotted what looked like a tunnel. Tommy knew that he probably shouldn’t go through this dark tunnel in the middle of the night without any equipment and without anyone knowing where he was. So Tommy quickly made his way back to his cave to grab his armour, coat, weapons, and a torch before making his way back to the tunnel. You could never be too sure. 

The tunnel was even darker than the dripstone cave and Tommy was glad that he had taken a torch with him. It was a relatively big tunnel for a human but anything that was bigger than a dragon hatchling would not fit through it. The tunnel simply wasn’t wide enough. 

After about half an hour, Tommy finally exited the tunnel. He recognized the meadow and the lake from when Phil had taken him to patrol with him. This meant that he could leave the dragon's lair whenever he wanted. It also meant that he could sneak out and maybe finally find something to add to his hoard. He had enough money and he knew that the other dragons wouldn’t take some of his belongings. They might question why he had a lot of gold just lying around but that would be a problem for future Tommy.

When Tommy returned to the cave a few hours later with a few gold rings and chains he had bought with the gold he had earned over the years, it was already morning. He was glad that he didn’t stay a little longer because a few minutes after he had put his armour into the small armour room and put the jewelry into a small chest that stood under his bed, Wilbur barged into his room. 

“You look tired,” he stated, shifting into his human form to give Tommy a hug. Wilbur had just started to hug him every once in a while and as much as Tommy hated to admit it, he loved it. He hadn’t hugged someone like that ever since his human parents had been murdered right in front of his eyes.  

“I didn’t sleep much,” Tommy admitted. There was no point in lying to Wilbur. He could somehow always tell when he was lying. The best course of action was half-truths. 

“Why not?” Wilbur asked. 

“Had a few things to do,” Tommy said. Hopefully, Wilbur wouldn’t pry.  

“Whatever. Breakfast is ready,” Wilbur replied, turning around and leaving. 

“I’ll be there in a few,” Tommy responded. 

Tommy went out a lot more often after that. He usually only went out once every second week because the constant sleep loss wouldn’t be good for him. But one day just after he had exited the tunnel, he heard a few voices from afar. 

“This is too dangerous,” one of them said. Their voice had an unnatural deepness to it, something that was unique to dragons that were currently in their dragon form. 

“They’re all asleep, don’t worry” a second voice replied, also a dragon in dragon form. 

“If you get us killed I will kill you,” the first voice responded. 

The two dragons continued to walk towards the lair, talking as quietly as possible. And even though Tommy was very tired, he knew what he had to do. The dragons weren’t even able to scream before they were dead. It was one of the things Phil had taught him on his very first patrol: Any dragon that is in their territory that doesn’t belong to any of their allied thunders is to be killed. Every dragon knew not to cross the borders of another thunder’s territory. If they did it was seen as a challenge, as a sign that they viewed the other dragons as inferior. And they couldn’t let that happen, now could they? 

The next morning, shortly after breakfast, Techno burst into the room. “Shouldn’t you be on patrol?” Tommy asked because usually, Techno was patrolling the territory about now. 

“I was. But I had to return. Mind explaining why there are two dead dragons with your marking near the lake on the east side?” Techno replied. 

“Would you believe me if I told you it wasn’t me?” Tommy asked. 

“Nope. That was definitely you. You weren’t even out yesterday. How did you manage to do that?” Techno said. 

“I figured out a way to leave the cave so I’ve been doing that at night. Not very often but every once in a while. It’s nice to be able to leave, you know,” Tommy explained. 

“How do you even leave?” Techno asked. Didn’t Techno know about the tunnel in their lair? Surely, he was just joking. 

“That would take the fun out of it, wouldn’t it?” Tommy replied. And that was that. He still went out after that but he only rarely ran into other dragons. Sometimes, he even collected a few more berries that he’d eat for breakfast. Only eating meat got a little boring after a while. 

Tommy was wandering through the cave like he normally did when he had nothing to do when he heard music coming from Wilbur’s cave. He quickly followed it, not having heard it very often since he started to live with the dragons. 

He quickly found Wilbur in his human form, sitting in the main part of his cave which the other smaller rooms were attached to. Wilbur was so absorbed in his music that he didn’t notice Tommy entering. Tommy, not wanting to interrupt the beautiful music, remained silent, sitting down on one of the many cushions that littered the ground and listening to the older dragon play the guitar. And if a part of Tommy wanted to shift into his dragon form, curl up into a ball, and let the music lull him to sleep, then that was Tommy’s business only. 

Once Wilbur stopped playing, Tommy quickly stood up. He was about to leave the cave when Wilbur called after him, “You can listen to me play if you want to. I don’t mind. I was about to stop but I can play more for you if you want me to” 

Tommy quickly turned around and sat back down, “Please” 

Wilbur laughed, “Alright” 

After that, Tommy came to Wilbur’s cave more often. Sometimes, Wilbur would play the guitar. Other times, they worealizeduld just talk. It was nice, Tommy realised, to have people around. 

The next time Tommy snook out, he didn’t use the few coins he earned with his 'spot the fake gold game' to buy something for his hoard but instead, something he could gift to Wilbur. After a while of not finding anything, he decided on two guitar picks and a simple gold necklace. Once he was back in his cave, he drilled a small hole into one of the guitar picks with one of his claws, big enough to fit a small gold ring he had found lying around through it. He then took a few of his metallic and non-metallic scales before attaching them to the guitar pick, gold on the one side, and crimson on the other. Once he was satisfied with the result, he attached the gold ring to the guitar pick before attaching it to the gold chain. 

The next evening when Tommy sat in Wilbur’s cave again, listening to the other’s music, he fidgeted with the necklace nervously. What if Wilbur didn’t like it? 

“Why are you so nervous?” Wilbur asked, looking up from his guitar. 

“I have a present for you,” Tommy replied, holding out the two guitar picks, “I made this with Theo’s help. I hope you like it”

Wilbur looked at the guitar picks in his hand for a second before replying, “I love it. Thank you so much. Please tell Theo how much I appreciate this” 

“Of course,” Tommy replied, looking away embarrassed. 

“Can I hug you?” Wilbur asked. 

“Of course,” Tommy responded, blushing slightly as he was pulled into a hug by the older. 

It had been a few days since Tommy had given Wilbur the two guitar picks. He was just exploring Wilbur’s giant living room-like cave while listening to the other play on his guitar when he noticed a grid consisting of nine boxes that were carved into the floor. It was worn out and reminded him a little of the board games he used to play with his human parents. 

Wilbur noticed his interest and came over from where he had been playing his guitar, “I see you discovered the tic tac toe board” 

“What’s that?” Tommy asked. 

“It’s a game. Techno, Phil, and I used to play it a lot when I was younger. We still do sometimes but not as much anymore,” Wilbur replied. “I can explain how it works if you want me to,” he offered. 

“That’d be nice,” Tommy agreed. 

“Okay, so we always played by using our non-metallic scales as playing chips. How it works is that we take turns putting our scales in empty squares. The first player to get 3 of their scales in a row, up, down, across, or diagonally is the winner. When all 9 squares are full, the game is over. If no player has 3 marks in a row, the game ends in a tie,” Wilbur explained. 

“Ooh. It’s a little like connect four. I used to play it with my family before,” Tommy trailed off. 

“I’ve never heard of that but it sounds similar enough,” Wilbur acknowledged. 

“Maybe one day I’ll introduce you to it. I’m unbeatable at connect four,” Tommy said. 

“Alright. Do you have a few of your friend’s scales or should I borrow you a few of mine?” Wilbur asked. 

“Thanks but I always carry a few with me,” Tommy replied, pulling out five of his non-metallic scales from one of the pockets of his coat. 

“Alright. You start,” Wilbur said. Tommy put his scale in the middle. That was according to the rules, right? 

“Good choice,” Wilbur commented, placing one of his scales in the field above Tommy’s. Tommy placed his next scale right next to his first one. Wilbur was forced to block by putting his next scale on the opposite side. 

Tommy thought for a moment before placing his own scale in the right bottom corner, successfully creating a double trap. Looking back at the scales he placed he realized that he had essentially won ever since Wilbur had placed his first scale. 

Wilbur seemed to realize it too, “How? I thought you never played?” he exclaimed. 

“I don’t know man, simply get better,” Tommy laughed. 

Initially, Tommy thought that Wilbur had been going easy on him. Maybe he wanted to teach Tommy the trick. But no. As it turns out, Wilbur was just very bad at the game. This was proven by many more rounds which Wilbur all lost. Sometimes the game ended in ties but Wilbur never won once. 

“Okay, what the actual fuck. You play just like Techno and Phil. They always win and I don’t know why. What am I doing wrong?” Wilbur asked. Now, it would be funny to not explain the game to Wilbur and keep winning. 

“I’ll tell you how I won, alright?” Tommy offered. 

“Alright,” Wilbur agreed. 

“Okay so when I put my scale in the middle and you put yours in one of those four fields,” Tommy said, demonstrating by placing the scales, “I can just put mine here,” Tommy placed one of his crimson scales, “Or here, here, or here depending on where you put yours. Forcing you to place yours here,” he placed one of Wilbur’s scales. “Then I just need to place mine here and tada, a double trap” 

“That’s why they always let me start,” Wilbur realized, “I think Techno once told me to stop placing them there I just did it to spite him after that”.

“That might not have been your best idea,” Tommy laughed. 

“Maybe,” Wilbur agreed, laughing. 

They continued to play. Wilbur lost a lot less now but he still got trapped in the occasional double trap. Sometimes, he was too distracted by the conversation they were having and didn’t see the two connected dots before a third was added. Tommy lost a few times. If asked, he’d say that he let Wilbur win but in reality, he was too engrossed in the conversation to think everything through. 

“That was fun. We should definitely do it again another time. Maybe I’ll organize a connect four game somehow,” Tommy said after a while. He was getting tired. 

“Oh alright, don’t forget those,” Wilbur said, handing Tommy two or three dozen of his scales. 

“What’s that?” Tommy asked. 

“To dragons, scales mean a lot. Thunder scales, battle scales, favour scales. All of that. And this is something similar to battle scales, it’s how hatchlings are introduced to the whole subject. For every game you win, you get one of my non-metallic scales, and vice versa. You don’t put those along your neck but most dragons keep them somewhere as part of their hoard,” Wilbur explained.

Before Tommy could reply, Wilbur interrupted him again, “Also, you don’t have to give me any of yours, or Theseus’ I guess. You didn’t know before”.

“No, it’s alright. But what do you even do with those?”  Tommy asked, offering Wibur a handful of his scales, “Did you by any chance count how often you won?” 

“I did, actually. You let me win seven times,” Wilbur said, taking seven scales from Tommy’s outstretched hand. “And I usually put them on round stones I find. They can create beautiful patterns,” he explained, quickly flying to his hoard room to gather a few stones before flying back, and showing them to Tommy. 

“Those are beautiful,” Tommy said, marveling at the pretty stones. 

“Yeah. Some of them are gifts from Techno and Phil and some others are from friends,” Wilbur explained. 

“Why are the only two-coloured ones from Phil and Techno?” Tommy asked. Because there were a lot of different-sized stones but most were only either metallic scales or non-metallic scales. 

“Oh yeah. Gifts with scales on them are considered more genuine because you gift a part of yourself. And different scales have different meanings. Non-metallic ones symbolize friendship and trust. Metallic ones symbolize gratitude and appreciation. A combination of the two is often reserved for thunder only. Giving someone that isn’t part of your thunder a combination of the two is often seen as an invitation to one’s thunder,” Wilbur explained. 

“Oh so when I gave you that necklace,” Tommy trailed off. 

“I can give it back to you if you want,” Wilbur said but his eyes told Tommy that the other already considered the gift as part of his hoard. 

“It’s fine. Keep it if you want to keep it. You said it yourself, we are like brothers,” Tommy joked even though he knew that deep down he considered the other his older brother. 

“Don’t say that I will cry,” Wilbur replied. 

Chapter Text

A few months had passed since Tommy had started to live with the dragons. Wilbur and him spent a lot of time together and he had started to consider the other a friend. He’d even bought a connect four game with actual coins instead of the usual tokens. 

He’d decided on the gold and golden coins he used for his tricks. It was fun since no human would be able to tell the difference, yet, none of the other dragons realized that Tommy knew how to tell them apart just as easily as they did. 

Wilbur had been making a lot of progress too. He could now easily shift from one form into the other and used this to his advantage while fighting similarly to how Tommy had during his fight with the Golden Thunder. 

Wilbur had also finally managed to correctly hold and fight with a sword both in human and dragon form. He had been more than a little insulted when Tommy first started throwing a stick into the air, telling Wilbur to use his dragon form to push himself off the ground before shifting midair and catching the stick with his hand, insisting that he wasn’t a dog. But now that he could do the same with an actual weapon without hurting himself, he was fairly proud. It was a very useful skill, he had noticed. 

At some point, Wilbur had given Tommy a favour scale, arguing that he deserved it after everything that he had taught him. Tommy accepted it, happy to add something of Wilbur’s to his hoard. 

Phil and Tommy didn’t usually spend time with one another. But they didn’t hate each other either. Sometimes, they’d talk and they had even fought a few times, Tommy looking for ways to improve his fighting while in dragon form. Not that he had shown any of the other dragons his dragon form. Initially, he had never wanted to show anyone his dragon form. But the more he got to know the other dragons, the more he wanted to share that part with them. Mostly, anyway. 

Techno, on the other hand, treated Tommy as coldly as ever. Maybe even more than at the beginning. And while Wilbur insisted that Techno just didn’t know how to express his emotions, Tommy knew that the pink dragon only viewed him as a means to an end. Or maybe as a threat to his thunder. What exactly his goal was, Tommy didn’t know. He still remembered that one conversation he had with Techno a month after he had offered Tommy to help them kill the dragons in their territory. 

“I don’t like you and I won’t pretend to do so just because Wilbur and Phil do. You’re a great fighter, don’t get me wrong. But you’re also incredibly selfish and never consider others. You go around killing dragons just because a dragon killed your parents. Well wake up and realize that your parents are dead. They won’t come back no matter how many dragons you kill. This is the world we live in and it’s time you face it,” Techno had said. He was gone before Tommy had been able to respond or even ask what he had done which made Techno think that he was selfish. Didn’t Techno himself kill thousands of dragons and even more humans?

He had apologized afterwards but Tommy knew that it hadn’t been completely sincere. For some reason, Techno simply didn’t like him. Not that Tommy liked Techno either. But he at least had a good reason to dislike the other. 

“Techno and I are going to go to a match this afternoon. Phil and you will take care of our lair and territory,” Wilbur announced. 

Both Techno and Phil had gone to matches before. But they had only ever left alone, not trusting Tommy and Wilbur to be able to defend the cave system and their territory by themselves. He had also seen both Techno and Phil patrol their territory. While Techno would always leave alone, Phil would sometimes take Tommy with him. But thus far they had only met a few dragons, some of them allies of Phil and his thunder. He had only been able to kill a little over a dozen dragons since he had arrived. He was still within the needed timeframe but he usually killed 20 more dragons than he needed to within a year so this was a new low for him. 

“I didn’t know that you fought,” Tommy said. Because while Wilbur did have a few battle scales on the right side of his neck but he didn't have nearly as many as Phil or Techno. But he guessed that everyone needed to start somewhere. 

“I didn’t until you taught me how to. So now I want to prove how good I am. Also, could I maybe borrow your sword, shield, and armour?” Wilbur asked. He had started to cover a few armour pieces that Techno had given him with his own scales shortly after he had started to train with Tommy but scales took a while to regrow so he couldn’t take too many at once, having to wait until they regrew before taking new ones.

“Does my armour even fit you? Let alone shift with you?” Tommy asked. He knew that his armour somehow disappeared whenever he switched forms, just like regular clothes did. Weapons, as long as they were attached to his body, did the same. 

“It does. I tried it on once while you were out with Phil. I just wanted to know how it felt. Sorry,” Wilbur apologized. Surprisingly, Tommy didn’t mind Wilbur touching something that he considered part of his hoard. He had once almost killed Dream for touching his scale collection. 

“It’s fine. Just ask next time, alright?” Tommy dismissed. He could think about the why later. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re the best,” Wilbur said, shifting into his human form and giving Tommy a hug before transforming back into his dragon form to fly to the part of the cave system where Tommy stored all his weapons. Just as quickly, Wilbur was back, holding Tommy’s sword in between his teeth. 

“Did you remember to bring the scabbard in case you don’t want to carry the sword in your dragon form?” Tommy asked. Instead of responding, Wilbur flew back to Tommy’s part of the lair, presumably to grab the scabbard. Tommy shook his head at his brother's behaviour. Also, something he should spend some time thinking about later. 

“Thanks. It would have been really annoying to fly like this,” Wilbur said. 

“Of course. Don’t lose it or else I’ll sic Theo on you,” Tommy threatened. 

“Maybe then I’d be finally able to meet him,” Wilbur replied, immediately regretting the words. “I know that he’s not ready yet. But it would be nice to get to know the person that is so important to you. I know we’ve joked that we’re like brothers but I actually consider you part of my thunder. Not because of Theo but because of you. Just tell him to consider it, okay?” Wilbur said. 

“I will, Will. Thank you,” Tommy responded, laughing at his own joke. 

“That was horrible. I hope I die during the match so I don’t have to hear any more of your bad jokes,” Wilbur replied. 

“People die during those matches?” Tommy asked, horrified at the implication. 

“Not anymore. Techno would kill anyone that even tried to get close to killing me,” Wilbur assured him. Tommy still felt as if Wilbur wasn't telling the entire truth. But he knew that Techno cared about his thunder more than anything. He knew that the other dragon would protect Wilbur when he couldn't. 

“Alright. If you die I will resurrect you just so I can kill you for putting your life in danger like that,” Tommy threatened. 

“Okay. I really have to leave now, Techno is getting annoyed with me,” Wilbur said, shifting into human form once again to hug Tommy and ruffle his hair before shifting back. Tommy’s heart ached at that. He wished that he was able to do that so freely. But being in his dragon form was extremely dangerous. It was safer this way, even if it hurt. 

“I guess it’s just you and me now,” Phil said as soon as Techno and Wilbur had left. 

“I guess so,” Tommy replied. 

“I won’t be able to spend too much time with you since I have to patrol the territory and you have to protect the lair but I won’t be out the entire time,” Phil stated, trying to direct the conversation somewhere, where Tommy didn't know. 

“Alright. Is there something you want to do? Is there anything I can do to help you?” Tommy asked. 

“Not really. Well, I could teach you about thunderscales and the like. You don’t seem to know much about it even though you have a dragon friend,” Phil said. 

“He didn’t have a thunder growing up so he doesn’t know much about dragon culture,” Tommy responded. He knew that he should know more about his own culture but it was very hard to learn about dragon culture when your only interaction with dragons was killing them. 

“I guessed that. If you’d be so kind and tell him what I told you the next time you see him,” Phil suggested although it sounded more like something in between a plea and an order. 

“Of course,” Tommy replied. Anything to find out more about the part of him that he had to keep hidden for way too long. 

“Alright. I’ll get going then. I will see you in a few hours. It’s your responsibility to protect the lair. Don’t let anyone enter,” Phil said. 

“Yeah yeah. Now get going, the territory won’t protect itself,” Tommy rolled his eyes. 

“Okay. Take care,” Phil said before flying away. 

Tommy proceeded to spend the next few hours alone. He was used to this by now. He could only spend so much time training or playing with Wilbur or patrolling with Phil. He had picked up the guitar at some point. He originally wanted to learn how to play the piano, he remember playing it with his human parents when he was little, but it would have been very hard to get an entire piano into the lair so he had settled with the guitar. Wilbur had been delighted when Tommy had told him. 

But Tommy couldn’t retrieve to his cave, he had to protect the lair and that meant sitting near the entrance. Instead, he decided to take the gold coins that Wilbur had gifted him shortly after Tommy had given him the guitar picks from his hoard and play with them. Because they were a gift from Wilbur, Tommy kept them in the little chest under his bed where he hid his hoard. 

Tommy then began to build things out of the small round objects. It was rather hard because they were round and he didn’t have that many but they were gold and that’s all that mattered to Tommy’s instincts. Prime, he really missed this.

When Tommy heard Phil approaching, he quickly put the coins back into their chest before greeting Phil, “Hello old man, how was patrol?” 

“Just because we dragons live longer than you humans doesn’t mean I’m old. If we’re going by human standards I’m in my thirties still,” Phil protested. 

“Whatever makes you sleep at night,” Tommy said. 

“If you continue with this I won’t teach you about thunderscales,” Phil replied, laying down in the sunny spot near the cave entrance. 

“Wait, no I take it back. Please teach me about thunderscales,” Tommy begged, sitting down next to the older dragon. 

“Alright, you little shit. But if you call me old even once, I will stop,” Phil said even though Tommy knew that he didn't mean it. 

“I know that you wouldn’t do that,” Tommy responded confidently. 

Phil raised an eyebrow, “Are you challenging me?” 

“No, no. Of course not,” Tommy replied. Waving his hands around to support his statement. 

“Alright. So thunderscales are something really important in dragon culture. People that belong to the same thunder have matching thunderscales like Techno, Will, and I. Sometimes different thunders fight each other over certain thunderscale patterns because they are unique to every thunder,” Phil explained. 

“Does that mean that my friend should change his thunderscale pattern?” Tommy asked. Because even though he couldn’t see it himself, he knew that his pattern matched the other three dragons. 

“No, don’t worry about that, we don’t mind if it’s him,” Phil said. And Tommy wanted to ask what in Prime’s name he meant by that but he knew that Phil wouldn’t tell him anyway. 

“Anyway, the actual thunder scales are the scales of members of your thunder. The process of exchanging them is something that many dragons consider a sign of being accepted into each other's thunder. How it works is that one dragon removes one of the scales from an empty space on the other dragon’s thunderscales. Do you see the circles that aren’t filled with Techno’s or Wilbur’s scales? Those,” Phil explained, pointing to the three circles on his throat that were filled with his own colours, “And then they hand it to the other dragon who then uses that scale to replace one of the other dragon’s scales in their thunderscale pattern, handing the scale to the other dragon and so on. Usually, both metallic and non-metallic scales are exchanged”

“Sometimes dragons who aren’t part of the same thunder exchange thunder scales. It shows that they consider each other thunder even though they’re not part of the same thunder,” Phil continued, “Scales in general mean a lot to dragons. They are often considered as part of their hoard. So giving or lending someone something that has a dragon’s scales on it is considered a huge sign of trust. Especially, when it’s metallic scales that are being shared”

“It’s the same with favour and battle scales. But Sam already explained those ones to you, didn’t he? Phil asked. Tommy simply nodded, not wanting to stop Phil from continuing to share all of this information that Tommy should have learned years ago. 

“Golden Dragons are often considered more powerful than other dragons because of their golden scales. But that’s not really true. Golden dragons have a higher resistance against other dragons’ metallic scales. But that’s only because they are confronted with them for their entire life. Dragons from the same brood as a golden dragon usually have the same resistance.

“Furthermore, golden dragons only fight so well because we are conditioned to do so. From birth on, other dragons will try to kill us because of our scales. It doesn’t help that the fighting arenas often separate golden and non-golden dragons from each other,” Phil explained. 

He paused for a moment before continuing, “It’s why Wilbur never really learned how to fight well. He wasn’t a natural at it when he was young so he gave it up altogether. He learned the basics to defend himself but most trained dragons would have been able to beat him” 

“But then you came around and showed him that you didn’t have to be a golden dragon to be powerful. That you didn’t need golden scales to fight well. You gave him a reason to start fighting and a way that suits him. Thank you,” Phil finished. 

“Thank you for explaining all of that to me. I wouldn’t mind you telling me more in the future. It’s really interesting,” Tommy replied. 

“Of course, mate,” Phil said and that was that. 

“You fought well,” Techno complimented Wilbur after the fights were over. He had already taken off his thunderscale covering while Wilbur was still struggling with his. “Do you need help?”  

“I only won three times,” Wilbur dismissed, still struggling with his thunderscale covering, “Please?”  

“But you only lost once. The third battle was a draw. Tommy has been training you well,” Techno said while helping Wilbur take off the leather piece that covered his neck. It was first introduced to stop dragons from ripping off each other’s heads during the matches but had quickly transformed into a way to keep the fights fair since some thunders threatened other dragons to lose on purpose to help their thundermates gain battle scales. Aliases and cloaking magic that makes the fighters and watchers forget the exact scale colours of the fighters were introduced shortly after. 

“I guess. He is a really good fighter,” Wilbur acknowledged, rubbing his neck to get rid of the uncomfortable sensation the leather piece had left. 

“He fights well for a human” Techno acknowledged, “That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t work on your dragon form. Shifting into a human and back mid-battle definitely helped you but the others will be prepared the next time” 

“Way to kill the mood,” Wilbur said. 

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Being able to fight in dragon form as well would help you a lot, I think,” Techno thought out loud. 

“It does. Just like Phil uses the sky and his wings to his advantage, I use the fact that I can shift so well to mine,” Wilbur stated proudly. 

“You’re right about that. Not everyone can use brute force like me or fights fast and smart like Tommy,” Techno affirmed. 

“Yeah. I just wish that Tommy’s brother would have come with us. He’s a dragon and he can fight. Dragons don’t even have to be in their dragon form to fight or watch, they just have to be dragons,” Wilbur said absently. 

“Tommy has a brother that is a dragon?” Techno asked. 

“Yeah. Well, technically they aren’t related, I don’t think that’s possible. But they grew up together. Come on, you must have realized how he talks about their parents as if they’re the same people,” Wilbur responded. 

“Wait do you mean that his dragon friend is his brother?” Techno asked, a hint of shock clear in his voice. 

“Yes. Didn’t I say that?” Wilbur replied, cocking his head to the side in confusion. 

“This is awful,” Techno muttered loud enough for Wilbur to hear him. 

“Why?” he asked. 

“Because I killed his friend’s human parents. I killed his parents,” Techno clarified. He looked ever so slightly panicked which was a lot more than usual for him. 

“Oh,” Wilbur said, not really knowing what else to say. 

“Yeah, oh. This is terrible. He will hate me if he finds out. Not that he doesn't hate me already. I know I've been awful to him but he's grown onto me, like a leech. And that’s not even the worst part. The deal he made with Phil excluded the thunder of the dragon that killed his parents. That means that he can kill us while we can’t kill him. He could murder us in our sleep and there is nothing we could do against it,” Techno realized. 

“Tommy wouldn’t kill us,” Wilbur protested. 

“That may be true for you. But he said that he wouldn’t rest until he killed the dragon that killed his parents. And I know that you two are friends but he hates me,” Techno said. 

“It’ll be alright. Try to befriend him. You told me yourself that you wanted to make it up to him for being so rude to him ever since you convinced him to come with us. Use this as motivation to finally do so,” Wilbur suggested. 

“Whatever. We have to fly back right now unless you want to be attacked by dragons that want to get a few more battle scales after the official fights are over for the day,” Techno said.  

“Tommy, look, I won seven battle scales,” Wilbur said, pointing to the left side of his neck which had been blank until now. There he could see seven new non-metallic scales in between Wilbur’s blue ones. 

“That’s amazing. How many battles were there?” Tommy asked. 

“Five regular ones and then two where Techno and I had to fight two other dragons. I won three of the battles I fought alone and both battles with Techno. I could have done better but still proud of the progress I made. A few months ago, I wouldn’t have won one of those battles. So thank you,” Wilbur said. 

“You did well. I’m sure with a little more practice you’ll manage to win more battles the next time. Maybe ask Techno or Phil to teach you how to fight in dragon form,” Tommy suggested. 

“I’ll definitely do that. Thanks,” Wilbur said before flying towards Phil. 

“That one trick you taught him was neat. I’ve never seen someone shift midair, catch a sword, and use it to knock the other dragon unconscious,” Techno said when Wilbur was gone. 

Tommy smiled at the compliment, “Thanks. You should still teach him how to fight in dragon form. I only know how to do it in human form. A combination of both would probably be best for Wilbur. It catches people off-guard”

“I noticed,” Techno said, looking at Wilbur silently telling him I told you so, ”Wilbur didn’t really fight in dragon form and only used it to get around and catch the others off guard. In human form, he could fight really well though. Maybe you should teach me how to do that too. Just in case” 

“I’ll think about it,” Tommy replied. It was an olive branch that he was willing to take. 

Chapter Text

Fuck was the only thing Tommy could think when he woke up in his dragon form. Even after he had shifted back, he could see that his eyes were red and his hair gold. This happened sometimes and Tommy knew that it was bound to happen again. He had just hoped that he’d have more time. Sometimes when Tommy stayed in his human form for too long, he would forcefully shift back into his original form. It had first happened about a year after Dream and his hunter friends had taken him in. Back then, they had already left to hunt a dragon for Tommy to kill so he simply stayed in his dragon form for a while before shifting back as soon as he heard them coming. He regularly started shifting after that, not wanting to risk getting caught because he couldn’t control his shifts. 

But Tommy hadn’t shifted since he started staying with the three dragons. At least not completely. He had just been too anxious, knowing how dragons usually reacted to his dragon form. 

Tommy quickly pulled out the face mask Dream had gifted him years ago. It was very different from Dream’s own face mask which was a white disk that covered his entire face and protected him from fire. Tommy’s mask was made out of leather with a few filter pockets to ensure that he wouldn’t suffocate. Over the years, Tommy had covered it with his red scales. It even had a voice changer which meant he didn’t have to worry about the other dragons recognizing his voice. 

“Tommy, are you awake yet? Phil made breakfast,” Wilbur announced from outside Tommy’s room, a small part of the giant cave system that the three dragons called their home. 

“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Tommy replied before he could think about it. He was still sleepy, don’t blame him. 

“You’re not Tommy,” Wilbur said. 

“Astute observation, prick,” Tommy responded, rolling his eyes. 

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Wilbur asked, barging into Tommy’s room. 

“I was sleeping until someone decided to wake me up,” Tommy replied. This was way too early for him. 

“Sorry for waking you up. Wait, no, I’m not sorry. Who the fuck are you and how did you get here? And what did you do to Tommy?” Wilbur asked, his overprotectiveness showing.  

“Tommy told me how to get here. Don’t worry about him, he’s fine. Just needed to visit some people and thought I should get to know you while he’s gone,” Tommy lied. 

“Are you one of his hunter friends?” Wilbur asked. He suddenly had Tommy’s sword in his hands, pointing it at Tommy. 

“Threatening me with my own scales? That’s a new low,” Tommy scoffed, hopefully, Wilbur would finally put two and two together. 

“Your scales?” Wilbur asked, confused. He was also still half-asleep it seemed. “Wait, you’re Theo?”

“Took you long enough. Could we please get breakfast now?” Tommy asked. 

“Of course. Would you mind shifting into dragon form? It would make it easier to explain everything to Techno and Phil,” Wilbur asked. 

“I prefer my human form but I’ll have to shift in order to eat breakfast anyway,” Tommy replied, pointing at his face mask. 

“Okay. That’s good. They’ll be glad to see you,” Wilbur said, a little too enthusiastic for Tommy's liking.  

“I know. Doesn’t mean that I’m happy to see them,” Tommy responded. 

Wilbur didn’t get to reply before the two entered the main part of the cave where the dragons usually ate. 

“Mate, what the fuck,” Phil exclaimed when he spotted Tommy. 

“This is Theo. He’s Tommy’s friend. He’ll be staying with us for a while,” Wilbur introduced. 

“If he’s another dragon hunter I don’t want anything to do with him,” Techno announced before turning back to his food.  

“You don’t even know him. Stop making assumptions about everyone and everything. You did the same thing with Tommy,” Wilbur accused. 

Techno rolled his eyes, “I don’t care who he is and how he knows Tommy. I just want to eat my breakfast in peace”. Tommy silently agreed. He was quite hungry as well. That's why he wanted the other dragons to be fucking done with whatever this was already so he could eat in peace. 

“I thought you and Tommy were finally getting along?” Tommy asked. Because he had genuinely assumed that Techno had started to somewhat like him. 

“Tommy is alright. A lot better than I expected, if I’m being honest. You, on the other hand, I don’t know. And I don’t trust people I don’t know,” Techno said, still not looking at Tommy. 

“I can eat in Tommy’s room. I don’t mind,” Tommy replied. He just wanted to get away from them and finally get something to eat. Wilbur was looking at him as if telling him to just shift. But he didn’t want the others to only like him because of his dragon form. 

“You wouldn’t have been able to eat with that thing on anyway,” Techno said, handing him his breakfast. 

“I would have shifted but apparently you don’t want me around. Wilbur, please don’t come after me. I want to be alone,” Tommy said before turning around and rushing away. 

“What did he mean with shifting?” Phil asked. 

“Theo is Tommy’s dragon friend. He told me about him a while ago. Theo is short for Theseus,” Wilbur said, emphasizing the name and leaving a shocked Techno and Phil. 

“Then why was he in human form?” Techno asked. 

“Because he doesn’t like the way people treat him in his dragon form. But apparently, you can’t treat him well either way,” Wilbur announced before he too left for his room. 

After he was done with breakfast, Wilbur knocked on Tommy’s door, “Hey, Theo, can I come in?” Tommy immediately noticed that Wilbur was currently in his human form. His voice, just like any other dragons was deeper and more rumbling in dragon form. 

“Sure,” Tommy replied, opening the door slightly. 

“I’m sorry for the way they acted. They shouldn’t have done that,” Wilbur apologized. 

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t decide to treat me like that. It was their decision,” Tommy dismissed. 

“Thanks. By the way, they are currently out patrolling. Do you want to fly through the cave?” Wilbur offered. 

“Could you take me first? I don’t know if I feel ready to shift yet,” Tommy admitted. He couldn't remember ever shifting around a dragon that he didn't end up killing.  

“Of course. Anything you need. If you feel comfortable enough, could you maybe teach me how to shift only parts of myself?” Wilbur asked. 

“You mean like this?” Tommy asked, shifting his left hand until it was covered in red and gold scales. Wilbur’s attention immediately focused on the inside of Tommy’s hand where the gold scales were located. Tommy quickly shifted it back, scared of the way Wilbur would react. 

“It’s really you,” Wilbur said, talking more to himself than Tommy. “Sorry, I just, gold,” he explained, smiling awkwardly. 

“It’s alright. I just wonder how you’ll react when I’m fully shifted. I thought golden dragons were supposed to be better at controlling their instincts when it comes to other dragon’s scales,” Tommy said. 

“Easy for you to say, you’re a gold dragon,” Wilbur replied. 

“I don't know. Seems more like a skill issue to me. Simply get better,” Tommy joked. 

“You better start running because I will catch you,” Wilbur threatened lightheartedly. 

“You’re on,” Tommy responded before he started to sprint away. 

Once he was out of Wilbur’s sight, he shifted into dragon form, using his wings to get to his destination more quickly. He shifted back into human form, quickly ducking into a smaller cave attached to the cave system that dragons could only enter in human form, the dripstone cave. Wilbur could use the extra shifting training. Besides, Tommy loved jumping from stalagmite to stalagmite, no matter how often Wilbur told him to stop it because he could get hurt. 

“I should have known that he would have told you about this,” Wilbur said from behind him. He was standing on the ground while Tommy was crouching on top of one of the bigger stalagmites. 

“It’s awesome. I would have been offended if he hadn’t,” Tommy replied before jumping to the next one. The first few times he had done this, he had fallen quite a few times. But by now, he could probably do it with his eyes closed. He wouldn't because Wilbur would probably kill him if he did. 

“Prime, you’re just as bad as he is,” Wilbur exclaimed, a smile on his face. 

“Maybe we’re secretly the same person and I’m just wearing this mask to stop you from recognizing me,” Tommy joked. He had wanted to make this joke for a while. If only for the expression on Wilbur’s face once Tommy revealed that he and Theo were actually the same person. 

“Your hair and eye colours are completely different. I think I’d know if my brother was standing right in front of me,” Wilbur said, following Tommy while carefully avoiding the smaller stalagmites and even a few of the giant stalactites. 

“Do you not see me as your brother, dear Wilbur?” Tommy asked, mockingly. “I’m hurt. Here I was, thinking we had bonded over the fun of jumping from stalagmite to stalagmite” 

“Oh no, dear brother, how could I ever get you to forgive me?” Wilbur replied, trying and failing to approach Tommy to stop him from needlessly putting his life in danger. 

“Brother of mine, I only know one way to fix this dent you have caused in our brotherly love. Something that is able to fix every problem there is on this oh-so-beautiful yet dangerous planet. The art of leap stoning otherwise known as stalagmite jumping,” Tommy announced. 

“Everything but this, oh brother of mine,” Wilbur responded, only barely holding himself from doubling over because he was laughing too hard. 

“So it is true. You do not truly care for me. I guess I will have to find the nearest cliff and throw myself off of it just like my namesake. I bet Techno’d like that,” Tommy declared bitterly. 

“I know that Techno can be hard to deal with at times but he really does care about you. He cares about Tommy as well, he just struggles with the fact that he’s a dragon hunter. Before he joined our thunder, his was killed by a couple of dragon hunters. But instead of killing him, they kept him, taking his scales to use for their armour and weapons. Phil freed him eventually but he never got over his anger with hunters after that. And that, in no way excuses how awful he was to both you and Tommy and he will be apologising for that. Just give him a second chance, maybe,” Wilbur explained. 

“Only if you go leap stoning with me,” Tommy insisted. 

“How did you even come up with that?” Wilbur asked. 

“Stalagtites are dripstones. And leaping is another word for jumping. Leap stoning. Simple, innit?” Tommy said. 

“Aright. But only if you promise to teach me how to shift your hands only afterwards,” Wilbur replied. 

“I was going to do that anyway but you have a deal,” Tommy agreed, smiling brightly so that Wilbur could even see it through the mask. 

Leap stoning, as Wilbur had noticed, was surprisingly a lot more fun than expected. If you discarded the fact that he almost slipped and fell way too often and at some point had to shift to his dragon form midway to avoid possibly breaking all his bones. 

“Wasn’t that bad, right?” Tommy asked. 

“Sure, whatever you say, Theo, whatever you say,” Wilbur replied, shaking his head fondly. Theseus reminded him too much of Tommy. That probably had something to do with the fact that they grew up together, Wilbur reasoned.  

“Anyway, you did it. Come on, I’ll teach you how to shift your hand now,” Tommy said, pulling Wilbur behind him. 

“Flying would be a lot easier,” Wilbur said. 

“I mean you did say that you would carry me,” Tommy pointed out. 

“Did I now?” Wilbur asked.

“Oh most definitely. Even if you hadn’t, it is still an amazing idea. We’ll be faster and you can learn how to fly with someone on your back without accidentally dropping them because if I fall down, I can just shift but if Tommy does you’d have to catch him,” Tommy replied. 

“That’s a good argument, actually. But only until we’re back in the training cave, okay? We can fly later after you completed your part of the deal,” Wilbur said. 

“Okay,” Tommy responded. Wilbur was already in his dragon form so Tommy shifted his legs in order to jump higher, easily landing on Wilbur’s back without the other needing to crouch down, “This is going to be so much fun” 

It was a lot of fun for Tommy and he was once again reminded of how much he missed while staying in his human form. It just wasn’t the same as being in his dragon form. Maybe he could come to visit Wilbur more often in his dragon form. Although it would get suspicious if Tommy and Theo were never in the same room as each other. 

“Okay, now teach me how to do it,” Wilbur said as soon as the two arrived in the training cave. 

Tommy easily hopped off of Wilbur’s back and Wilbur shifted back to his human form. “Alright. As you might have noticed, I’m able to shift selected parts of my body as well as shift completely. The latter is a lot easier, though so it might not work right away. It works with any part I’m pretty sure as long as it exists in both forms. When I concentrate hard enough I’m able to shift a part of my human skin to be covered in scales. But that’s really hard so I don’t do it often,” Tommy explained. 

“Have you tried shifting only your wings?” Wilbur asked. 

“I haven’t thought about it but it could work. Let me try it, maybe that’ll give you a little more motivation,” Tommy said, proceeding to stand up from where he’d been sitting on the ground. A few seconds later, a pair of red dragon wings sprouted from his back. They were the same size as his normal wings which made him almost lose his balance. 

“That was so cool,” Wilbur exclaimed as soon as Tommy, wings shifted back again, sat down next to him again. 

“I don’t know, Big Man, they’re a little big for my human form, don’t you think?” Tommy asked. 

“I think you’d get used to it. It could be really practical in a fight though,” Wilbur argued. 

“Yeah, you’re right. I probably just need a little more practice with them. Wings in general, if I’m being honest. I don’t spend a lot of time in my dragon form,” Tommy admitted. 

“Ah right. Well, you can with us. We can even leave you alone if you’d prefer that,” Wilbur said. 

“I appreciate that a lot, actually. Thank you,” Tommy replied. 

“No problem, Theo, absolutely no problem,” Wilbur smiled. “Also, you still haven’t told me how to shift yet. I’m starting to think that you don’t know and didn’t have the heart to tell me” 

“Of course, I know how to do it. Basically invented it. It’s really similar to fully shifting but instead of focusing on wanting to look like a human you focus on the way it feels to shift and then redirect that feeling, that energy to the part of your body you want to shift,” Tommy explained, “Can you feel it? You might want to shift a few times to get a good idea of how it feels” 

Wilbur did as he said, shifting from human to dragon form and back a couple of times until he stopped, concentrating on his left hand for about a minute. Tommy was about to tell him that it was okay if he didn’t get it right away when Wilbur’s left hand was replaced with its dragon form. 

Tommy tried not to show his surprise but Wilbur was very observant, “That was great!” he exclaimed. 

“Eh, you're not as bad as I expected, I guess,” Tommy shrugged. 

“I’m not. I bet it took you way longer to do that,” Wilbur protested. It did but why should Tommy admit that? 

“Even if I did, which I didn’t by the way, I gave you tips on how to do it. I had to figure it out myself,” Tommy replied. 

“It doesn’t hurt you to say something nice about me for once, Theo,” Wilbur said. 

“It does, actually. Every time I say a nice thing about you I lose a year of my lifetime,” Tommy insisted. 

“You could have just said that I didn’t do well. I was just excited about it but I guess in comparison to you it’s awful,” Wilbur said, sadness clearly visible in his voice. 

“No, you did great. I’m still better, obviously. But you did well for your first time only shifting partly. I bet that with more practice you’ll get even better at it than me,” Tommy was quick to argue. 

“You mean that?” Wilbur asked, looking up, a slight smile on his face. 

“No, forget it, you’re awful,” Tommy denied, a smile making its way to his face. Not that Wilbur would know, he was still wearing his mask. 

“You’re not a bad teacher yourself. A lot better than Tommy, I must admit,” Wilbur said. 

“Oh, really? Why, thank you, Wilbur,” Tommy replied. He had to repress another smile, it would be a lot of fun when Wilbur found out. 

“Actually, never mind, you’re worse than him,” Wilbur joked, mimicking what Tommy had said earlier. 

“Well, fuck you too, I guess,” Tommy said, “I’ll just go spend some time with Techno and never teach you anything ever again” With that Tommy shifted to his dragon form for the first time in what felt like forever, flying out of the cave. 

“Wait, no, please come back. I was only joking,” Wilbur called after him as he too shifted to fly after him. 

At some point, Wilbur caught up to Tommy, tackling him in midair. Tommy only barely managed to escape him by shifting back into his human form and back. The two resumed their improvised game of tag within the giant cave system until Tommy almost flew into a stalactite that was hanging a little lower than he had expected. 

After that, Wilbur decided the two of them should just relax in the sun. And while Tommy was reluctant at first, he eventually agreed after Wilbur had promised him that no dragon would ever dare to come that close to their lair. 

Once outside, Tommy couldn’t help but shift into his dragon form. He had missed lying in the sun like this, without a fear in the world. Unfortunately, the sun also reflected on Tommy’s metallic scales, making them shine even more. Tommy knew that Wilbur tried his best not to look at them because of what Tommy had told him earlier. He appreciated it but he also knew how hard it was to suppress your instincts, having done it for multiple years at this point. 

“It’s okay, Will. I don’t mind,” he told Wilbur. 

“You said that you hate it when dragons look at your scales,” Wilbur pointed out. 

“I hate it when dragons I don’t know do it. Not when it’s you. I trust you. We're like brothers, aren't we?” Tommy replied and fuck he needed to unpack that later. Originally, he only wanted to stay with the three dragons to kill more dragons. But now, he found himself staying because of them. He didn’t even necessarily want to kill dragons anymore. Hell, he had thought about offering Wilbur thunder scales just this morning. And a few times before that, if he was being honest with himself. 

“Don’t say that, I will cry,” Wilbur said. 

As soon as Wilbur’s eyes fell on Tommy’s metallic scales, his pupils dilated like they usually did when he looked at a very precious part of his hoard. Tommy laughed as Wilbur protectively curled around Tommy just like a mother dragon would curl around her brood. 

This was how Phil and Techno found the two a few hours later when they came back from their patrol, both dragons fast asleep. 

“Seemed like they got along great,” Phil commented, neither acknowledging the bitter note in his tone. 

Tommy was about to go back into his room, claiming he wanted to sleep for a bit before flying back to his own home when Wilbur told him that he wanted to talk to him for a moment. He reluctantly followed the other dragon to Wilbur’s cave, knowing that the other probably only wanted to say goodbye. 

“What do you want?” he asked, false annoyance in his tone. 

“I wanted to ask you something, something about Tommy, actually,” Wilbur said, nervously fidgeting with the chain around his neck that Tommy had gifted him. 

“Alright. What do you want to know?” Tommy asked. 

“He probably told you about how we always joke that we’re like brothers, similar to what we two did today. Well, over the past months, Tommy has grown incredibly important to me and I actually think about him as part of my thunder now,” Wilbur admitted, still not looking Tommy in the eye. 

“You do? Even though he’s a human?” Tommy asked in disbelief. Sure, he himself thought of Wilbur as a brother but he didn’t think that Wilbur would feel the same way. Especially, considering that he still thought that Tommy was a human. 

“Yeah. I know that it complicates things. Humans live way shorter than dragons and he hunts dragons for a living," Wilbur chuckled drily, probably remembering how the two of them had met, "He probably only stays because this way he kills more dragons,” Wilbur said, frowning sadly. 

“He has killed way fewer dragons than he usually does. If he doesn’t start killing more dragons sooner, he won’t meet this year’s quota,” Tommy pointed out. “Besides, he does too, see you as his brother I mean,” admitting it out loud was a little scary but it was worth Wilbur’s brilliant smile. 

“Really?” he asked. 

“Of course,” Tommy replied, “I wouldn’t lie about something like that” 

“Right. Another question. Do you think he would be offended if I offered him thunder scales?” and Tommy wanted to cry right then and there. Out of happiness of course. 

“He would love it,” he said. 

“Are you sure? I mean he’s a human and everything so I don’t even know where he’d put them but I really want to show him how much I care about him,” Wilbur rambled. 

“He knows about them. And he has a fourth piece of leather with favour and battle scales. He could just put them on there,” Tommy suggested, “It would mean the world to him,” he added for good measure. Because it would. He had never had a real thunder and while his human parents had been amazing, they had not been able to fill the void of his original thunder. Wilbur filled said void, partially at least. 

“Okay,” Wilbur said, shifting his hand to its dragon form, presumably to take a few scales from there to give to Tommy. 

“Wait,” Tommy interrupted, “Phil said that usually scales are exchanged, one scale for one scale” 

“Yeah, but Tommy is a human. The only scales he has are yours,” Wilbur pointed out. 

“Would it be okay for you if I just gave you my scales in turn?” Tommy offered, “Tommy and I have shared scales for forever at this point so he definitely wouldn’t mind this”. Tommy really hoped that Wilbru would believe his half-assed lie. He wanted to finally be able to share thunder scales with someone, just like all the other dragons he had met, read killed, did. 

“If it’s okay with you. I know that it’s a little untraditional but usually dragons and humans don’t consider each other thunder so it doesn’t really matter,” Wilbur replied.

“Okay. Do you think we two could just exchange them like dragons usually do?” Tommy asked. 

“I guess. As long as Tommy’s okay with it. I know that the two of you are thunder which makes you my thunder as well so I don’t mind. But please tell Tommy that this is primarily for him. I just don’t know you well enough for that,” Wilbur said. 

“No, I get it. We got along great today but you’ve known Tommy for about half a year at this point. Even if he did try to kill you when you first met,” Tommy joked. 

“Right, I already forgot about that. I’m glad he didn’t, though. Techno would have probably killed him,” Wilbur replied. 

“Tommy definetly would have won. He’s like the best dragon hunter ever,” Tommy bragged. If he was being honest, he probably would have lost. Techno was a really good fighter. 

“Whatever makes you sleep at night,” Wilbur chuckled. 

“Whatever, dickhead. Let’s just exchange the thunder scales. I want to go to bed,” Tommy dismissed, shifting into his dragon form and sitting down so that Wilbur had easy access to his thunderscales. 

“Right. Tommy told you how it works, I assume?” Wilbur asked, copying him. 

“Yeah, Phil explained it to him a few weeks ago when you and Techno were gone for the match,” Tommy said. Absently, his eyes traced the pattern that decorated the other dragon's neck. The lines reminded him of Phil's pattern. He too had three circles that were filled with his own scales. One was probably meant to represent Wilbur while the other two would soon represent Tommy. He couldn't hold back his smile. 

“Okay. I only have two circles left in my pattern, one for the metallic and one for the non-metallic ones," Wilbur explained, conforming Tommy's thoughts, "We’ll exchange about thirty metallic and twenty non-metallic ones, basically switching the circles with each other. Have you picked the circles you want to put mine in yet?” Wilbur asked. 

“Not really. Can you just pick a spot?” Tommy shrugged.

“Okay yeah. I’ll just do that. Thanks for all of this, by the way. It means a lot,” Wilbur said. 

“The same goes for Tommy and me. We both care about you a lot. This is just a way to remind us of that for when I’m not with you,” Tommy replied. 

Wilbur nodded in confirmation before he removed the first of Tommy’s scales from one of the rings he had picked out, giving it to Tommy who replaced one of Wilbur’s scales with it, giving it to Wilbur. They continued to exchange thunder scales for a while in a comfortable silence until all the rings were finished. 

When they were done, Wilbur tackled Tommy into a hug. After a few minutes, they both shifted back into human form, still hugging. 

“Goodbye. I hope I’ll see you soon again,” Wilbur said when they finally let go. 

“I’ll come back, we’re thunder now, aren’t we?” Tommy asked. 

“I’ll miss you,” Wilbur stated, pulling Tommy into another hug before he finally left for his own cave for the night. It was times like this when Tommy considered simply telling the others that Tommy and Theo were the same person. 

The next morning when Wilbur came to knock on Tommy’s door to tell him that breakfast was ready, Tommy jumped into his arms, “Thank you. This means so so much to me. I love you, brother” Wilbur just hugged him tighter. And if he cried a little at that, nobody had to know. 

Chapter Text

“You exchanged thunder scales with him,” Techno pointed out. 

“I guess we did,” Wilbur shrugged. Exchanging thunder scales with Theseus had been something he treasured deeply. He just wished that it had been Tommy he had exchanged his scales with even though he knew it wasn't possible. 

“Okay,” Techno said. There was even less emotion in his voice than usual. Wilbur didn't doubt that he was hiding it on purpose. 

“You’re not mad?” Wilbur asked. He knew that Phil and Techno cared a lot about their thunderscales, about the thunder scales that were missing. He knew that they would have wanted him to tell them before he exchanged thunder scales with someone. 

“I’m not angry with you, no. I would have appreciated it if you had told me about it but I don’t mind you exchanging thunder scales with Theseus,” Techno responded. Wilbur released the breath he didn't know he was holding, relieved that Techno wasn't angry with him. 

“Right. Well, Tommy wanted to help me train. So I have to go now,” Wilbur said. He had been looking forward to this for a while. He loved training with Tommy, training in general. Especially, if the other told him that he had improved from the last time they had fought. It made him feel accomplished like he had finally found a purpose he didn't know he was looking for. 

“Can I join you?” Techno asked and there was a rare vulnerability in his voice. He meant it. 

“You want Tommy to teach you how to fight as a human?” Wilbur asked, just in case. 

“Yeah. I asked him a while ago and he’s taught me the basics. It’s nice,” Techno admitted. 

“Okay, come on, follow me,” Wilbur said, flying towards the training cave. He couldn't wait for him to finally beat Techno in a spar. Because there was no way the other knew how to fight as a human. At least not better than Wilbur. 

“Alright,” Techno responded, following his friend. 

“Can I go out on patrol?” Wilbur asked. He had been itching to patrol ever since he had started to see his own progress. He usually didn't patrol because until recently, he had not been a very good fighter. But he was a lot better now so he hoped that Phil would let him patrol. 

“We already talked about this. You only manage to beat every second dragon you fight in the duals. You won’t be able to defeat a whole thunder of them,” Phil replied, the mother hen he was. 

“I’ve improved since then,” Wilbur argued. He had, a lot. But he still lost and he was sure that he couldn't beat even a small group of dragons. He still wanted to patrol. Even Tommy went patrolling. Not on his own since he couldn't fly but he was more trusted than Wilbur. It hurt a little but he knew that Phil and Techno had their reasons to deny Wilbur a solo patrol. They didn't want him to get hurt. They were thunder, after all. 

“Not enough. You’d need years of training winning against multiple dragons at once for me to even consider it,” Phil said. And Prime that hurt. He cursed his younger self for not being interested in fighting. Not everyone was raised to be a child soldier like Tommy or Techno, darn it. That gave him an idea. 

“I’ll take Tommy with me. He regularly fights dragons and wins,” Wilbur responded. Phil could not argue against that. 

“Alright. But the minute you see a thunder of ten or more dragons, you bring Tommy to the ground and come get either me or Techno,” Phil said in his I'm serious about this, do not go against what I just said under any circumstances tone. 

“You want me to just leave them with Tommy?” Wilbur asked. He knew that Tommy was a good fighter. Still, leaving his thundermate alone with a bunch of dragons that could potentially kill him made him feel uneasy. 

“Tommy has been doing this for years. He can handle himself. Besides, I’m pretty sure he’d enjoy the challenge,” Phil said. And even though Wilbur hated to admit it, Phil was probably right. Tommy was an amazing fighter. 

“Fine,” Wilbur agreed. 

“This is so cool!” Tommy exclaimed. He was currency sitting on Wilbur’s back, flying above the forest. He had done the same with Phil multiple times already but flying never got old. 

“It is. I wish you had wings so you could fly with me. Flying yourself is way better than flying on someone else’s back,” Wilbur said. 

“I get it, I’m human, no need to rub it in,” Tommy replied bitterly. Again he was reminded of his lies and everything he had to give up just because of the colour of his fucking scales and his own paranoia.  

“Sorry. Flying is just something that comes so naturally to me that I, sorry,” Wilbur apologized. Tommy knew that Wilbur hadn't had any ill intentions. It still stung a little. 

“It’s alright. That makes me think. Okay, so two dragons fighting against two or more other dragons. One of them is in human form and sits on the other’s back. They fly above one or more of the dragons. Then the dragon in dragon form shifts to their human form too, making both of them fall down and attack the dragon from above,” Tommy suggested, “Or, the first dragon shifts into dragon form when the second dragon shifts into human form, catches them with their claws and throws them in the air to attack one of their enemies” 

“That’s definitely something I could work with. But Techno still hates shifting so I’m not sure if it’d work,” Wilbur contemplated. 

“Yeah, just an idea,” Tommy shrugged. 

“Wait, hold on, there are a few dragons right there,” Tommy pointed at a thunder of 18 dragons. It wasn’t something Tommy couldn’t deal with but it would still be hard. Especially, if he had to protect Wilbur. 

“You’re right. Let’s fight them,” Wilbur said. 

“Wait, no. They’re too many,” Tommy protested. He could take them on his own no problem. But with Wilbur there to worry about it would be a challenge. 

“What? You think you couldn’t take them on?” Wilbur asked. 

“I could definitely take them on. But Phil told you to drop me off and then come get either him or Techno,” Tommy replied. I don't want you to get hurt, went unsaid. 

“Since when were you one to follow the rules?” Wilbur asked. And he was right about that. Tommy had never really liked rules very much. But breaking this rule would put Wilbur in danger and Tommy couldn't risk that. 

“Since your life is in danger, dickhead,” Tommy said. 

“Alright,” Wilbur agreed. 

“Okay,” Tommy said. 

After Wilbur set Tommy down, he did not in fact leave. Instead, he hid in the shadows, wanting to observe Tommy while fighting. He’d stay here unless it looked as if Tommy needed help. It was a foolproof plan, really. 

Wilbur watched fascinated as Tommy killed one dragon after another. He’d taken down a dozen dragons in less than half an hour and had yet to get injured. Wilbur hoped that he would be able to fight like that one day. 

He was about to fly back and actually get Phil seeing as Tommy was managing very well when one of the remaining dragons managed to injure Tommy. The boy started cursing the dragon out. The injury had distracted Tommy enough for him to not notice the other dragons approaching Tommy from behind. Wilbur would have called out to Tommy but by the time Wilbur found it in himself to talk again, Tommy had already noticed him. 

So without thinking, Wilbur shifted into his dragon form and dove right in between the dragons and Tommy. 

“What are you doing here?” Tommy asked, clutching his wound that didn't look as serious as Wilbur had thought. Weren't humans supposed to heal really slowly?  

“Talk later, just hop on,” Wilbur said. But before Tommy had the chance to do so, one of the dragons attacked Wilbur, slashing him across the side with one of their hands. “Fuck,” he cursed. 

Tommy had apparently recovered from the shock because suddenly he stood in between Wilbur and the other dragons, fighting all of them at once. “Will, get the fuck out of here,” Tommy told him. 

“I’m going to help you,” Wilbur said, determined. 

“You will leave so I can kill these fuckers in peace,” Tommy exclaimed, slashing the dragon that had attacked Wilbur across the side with his axe before ramming his sword which he was holding in his other hand into the dragon’s chest.  

“They had you cornered!” Wilbur shouted back, ducking as one of the dragons tried to attack him. 

“I had it handled,” Tommy said, ducking beneath another dragon, dragging his axe along their ventral. Any untrained dragon probably wouldn’t have managed to hurt another dragon like that. At least not as easily as Tommy did. There was a reason why the metallic scales of a dragon were located across a dragon’s ventral. They would distract the attacking dragon or at least unconsciously make the dragon not want to cut through them. 

“No, you didn’t. They could have killed you!” Wilbur hissed as the dragon right next to him used their scales to attack Wilbur again, managing to hit him in the side. Tommy quickly killed all of the remaining dragons after that, collecting the respective scales in silence. 

“Can you fly back?” Tommy asked once he was done.  

“Yeah. But Phil’s going to be angry,” Wilbur replied, already dreading the other's wrath. 

“Of course, he will. You put yourself in unnecessary danger,” Tommy stated. 

“I was trying to help you,” Wilbur argued. He wasn't useless or fragile for Prime's sake. He knew that he wasn't as strong as Techno but he could still keep his own in a fight. He was still useful. 

“Emphasis on trying. You didn’t do shit,” Tommy said. And the words stung. Wilbur had helped. Sure, he had been injured quite a bit but all of the other dragons were dead now so he didn't really care. 

“I couldn’t let them hurt you,” Wilbur responded. He couldn't risk losing Tommy, couldn't risk losing part of this thunder again. 

“By letting them injure you? No thanks,” Tommy replied. 

“Well, it worked didn’t it?” Wilbur asked. 

“Not really considering you’re hurt and will probably take days to recover,” Tommy argued. 

“I don’t care. I can’t be in that cave forever. I want to fight too,” Wilbur said. 

“And you wouldn’t have to if you just let me take care of them myself. Now it will take ages to convince Phil to let you out again. You could have just listened to me, train a bit more and you would have been able to join me as well but you couldn’t fucking wait because you’re too fucking impatient,” Tommy shouted. 

“I just wanted to be fucking useful for once,” Wilbur exclaimed. They were quiet after that. 

“What happened?” was the first thing Phil asked as soon as they arrived at the cave. 

“There was a thunder of 18 dragons. I told Wilbur to drop me off and get you. But he stayed to watch the fight. At some point, I got cornered, not something that hasn’t happened before but Wilbur thought I was about to fucking die or something because the next moment he was standing right in between me and them. The dragons hurt him a little because he just wouldn’t fuking listen to me and go away. They’re dead now but yeah,” Tommy summarized. 

“I helped,” Wilbur protested. 

“You were a distraction for like one second, good job. It’s not like I could have just pulled out the golden scales to achieve the same fucking thing,” Tommy said. 

“Whatever. Just leave me alone,” Wilbur replied, flying to his part of the cave. He knew that all of this came from a place of worry about him, that they were only like this because they cared about him and wanted to keep him safe but he hated that they thought that he was defenseless. 

“I’m sorry. I tried to protect him the best I could,” Tommy smiled bitterly. 

“It’s not your fault, mate,” Phil dismissed but Tommy could tell from the way that Techno was looking at him that the ruby-rose gold dragon blamed Tommy for what had happened to Wilbur. 

“Do you want to go on a flight and maybe kill a few dragons that trespassed into our territory?” Techno offered. Tommy could tell that he was still angry at him for what had happened to Wilbur the previous day. 

“Of course. But don’t you dare drop me. I don’t want to end up as a scale on your neck,” Tommy threatened. 

“Those are only for dragons I killed. Humans don’t have scales so I usually just add one of my pink scales to a piece of leather. Just like you do with the dragons you kill,” Techno replied. 

“I do the same. For humans, I mean,” Tommy said, pulling out the third piece of leather with the thirteen red scales. 

“You’re not as proud of them as you are of the other scales,” Techno pointed out. 

“Not all of them deserve it,” Tommy replied. 

“Not all of the dragons deserved it either,” Techno argued.

“Most of them did,” Tommy said. 

“You could have killed someone’s parents,” Techno pointed out. 

“Dragons who have a brood or hatchlings that depend on them don’t get into fights unless they have to defend the nest,” Tommy argued. 

“Touché,” Techno agreed. 

They flew for a while until Techno spotted a group of about 50 dragons, all currently in their human form, a rather large Thunder. “You reckon we can take them on?” he asked. He usually fought groups this big with Phil and sometimes even Sam or another one of their allies. But Tommy was a good fighter and he had wanted to test him for a long time now. 

“We should manage together,” Tommy replied confidently. It eased Techno's worry. Tommy thought they could do it so as long as he wasn't overestimating either of them, they should be fine. He doubted that that was the case either way. 

“What’s the strategy?” Techno asked. 

“I could act as bait and lure a few of them away. Then we could kill them before taking on the others,” Tommy suggested. 

“That sounds good. I hope you’re as good as you said you were,” Techno said. He really hoped that trusting the dragon hunter wouldn't get him killed.

“Same goes for you,” Tommy replied. 

Techno dropped him off in a clearing before flying back into the air to observe the situation until he was needed. Tommy walked in the general direction of the dragons, making sure to stray off a bit. He also did his best to produce at least a little noise while walking which was a little hard after all the years he had spent hiding in shadows. 

When he got closer to where the group of dragons were currently walking through the woods, he heard one of them perk up, “Did you hear that?” 

“Someone is there. We should check it out,” another one replied. 

“What if it’s a trap?” someone asked. 

“Even if. We’re 54. They’re three at the most,” the second one responded. 

“How can you be sure?” the first one asked. 

“We’re currently in the territory of the Antarctic Empire, the SBI to be specific. While they are all very powerful golden dragons, they are only three dragons against all of us,” the second one explained. 

“The SBI? Do you have a death wish?” another dragon hissed. 

“We have three golden dragons ourselves. Not to mention the other 51 of us. Especially, those who used to regularly fight at the arenas,” the other replied before adding, “Besides, Magna said that Wilbur got hurt yesterday so one of the others is probably currently with him. Even Technoblade can’t win against 54 dragons. It's the only reason we even risked travelling through their territory. And now let’s go, maybe it’s just a human” 

It only took them five minutes to find Tommy. “See, I told you it was just a human,” someone with bright orange hair and blue eyes said. 

Tommy cursed that they had been too scared to separate from the group. But now that they had seen that he was just a human, they underestimated him. That would make them more willing to take risks. He could use it to his advantage. 

“Ooh, are you dragons? I always wanted another sword of dragon scales. Did you know that they cut much better than even Netherite,” Tommy spoke up. He needed to provoke them. They had to underestimate him but still see him as enough of a threat for at least ten to follow him. 

“You think you’re so clever, kid. Maybe we would have spared you if you hadn’t opened your mouth. Oh who am I kidding, we would have killed you either way,” another one said, shifting into dragon form. A few dragons followed them and before he knew it, Tommy was followed by a dozen dragons, most of them in dragon form. 

Tommy used that to his advantage, taking routes he knew they wouldn’t fit through. He ran until he was far enough from the main group that they wouldn’t hear it when their counterparts died. Or more importantly, who killed them. 

“It’s over, kid,” a fuchsia-chrome-coloured dragon said. 

“For you maybe,” Tommy replied, ducking as another dragon approached from behind him. He quickly raised his sword and slashed across their chest. That would keep them down for at least a bit. 

Tommy continued to dodge claws and the occasional tree chucked at him. He thanked the density of the forest that gave the dragons less room to attack and stopped the occasional tree from flying straight to him. 

After he had killed five of the twelve dragons following him, Tommy wondered where Techno was. Had he decided to abandon Tommy or did he just want to observe how well Tommy fought? He really hoped that Techno didn’t try to take on the other 42 dragons on his own. 

When four of the remaining dragons managed to corner him, Tommy saw a flash of ruby in his peripheral vision. So Techno had stayed to watch over him. Tommy decided that he would prove to Techno that he knew what he was doing. So he did what every other person in his shoes would have done, he mimicked the sound of a scared hatchling. It only distracted the dragons for a few seconds but that’s all the time Tommy needed to kill all of them. 

“Impressive,” he heard Techno speak up from behind him. 

“You finally decided to come and join me?” Tommy asked. 

“Nah, I’ll let you fight them on your own. I need to know your strengths and weaknesses for the other 40 of them,” Techno said. 

“Alright,” Tommy replied. He quickly found the other three dragons after that, killing them before they could even think of attacking him. 

“You’re a good fighter, I’ll have to give you that. Do you want to collect your scales now or after we defeated the other dragons?” Techno asked. 

“I remember where I killed them, we can come back later,” Tommy said. 

“Alright. I don’t think your strategy from earlier will work this time around,” Techno pointed out. 

“It doesn’t have to. We’ll catch them off guard anyway,” Tommy replied. 

“They have three golden dragons. Be careful with those. But don’t underestimate the others too. You heard them, some of them used to regularly go to fighting arenas. They are probably even stronger than the golden ones,” Techno warned him. 

“Opposed to what you might think, I actually have fought both trained and golden dragons before. I have every colour besides orange thus far,” Tommy dismissed. 

“You’ve killed nine golden dragons?” Techno asked in disbelief. 

“I killed seven, I got the yellow and the purple one without killing anyone,” Tommy reminded him. The gold one was his own while the purple one was the favour scale he got a while back. 

“That’s still very impressive,” Techno pointed out. 

“Not really, seven of them were travelling together,” Tommy dismissed. 

“That doesn’t make it any less impressive,” Techno said. Tommy remained quiet. 

“That guy seemed familiar. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I could have sworn that I saw him before,” a scarlet dragon with blue-golden metallic scales said. 

“You’ve been saying that for the past twenty minutes now,” a pine-steel-coloured dragon replied. 

“Wait, I remember,” the dragon suddenly exclaimed, “He was that one guy that got my sister and her thunder killed” 

“Are you sure?” the cornflower-coloured dragon next to them asked, their silver scales shining in the dim spring light. 

“It’s definitely him,” the golden dragon said. 

“Is that guy even a dragon?” a lime-bronze-coloured dragon spoke up. 

“He is but he only fights in human form. He still managed to win every fight,” another dragon informed. 

“It doesn’t matter. We have Magna. She managed to kidnap the golden hatchling right out of his nest. She’ll beat this child no matter what,” the azure dragon from earlier bragged.  

“Quiet, we’ll be dead if anyone hears that,” a mustard-brass-coloured dragon said. 

“You’ll die anyway. But I will be having a very long talk with Magna after I killed the rest of you,” Techno stated, stepping out of the shadows that had been hiding the two of them. 

“Also, I’m not a dragon,” Tommy added. It was a lie but they didn’t have to know that. 

“I will kill you for what you did to my sister,” the scarlet-blue dragon announced.

“Do you really think I remember every dragon that I kill?” Tommy asked, rolling his eyes. 

“She was the leader of the Golden Thunder,” she clarified. 

“Oh, her. I remember her. She told me to tell you that she died an honourable death,” Tommy said. She had been one of the most powerful dragons he had fought thus far. 

“To you? Never,” she replied. 

“She was an amazing fighter, really. Still fought after the rest of her thunder was dead,” Tommy said. 

“A human could never kill seven golden dragons on his own,” the dragon protested. 

“Good thing that my friend helped me out. He’s a golden dragon as well. Doesn’t really enjoy fighting but he really helped me out there. It probably helped that he was gold, distracted them quite a bit,” Tommy said. 

“Don’t you mean golden?” another dragon asked. 

“No, he’s gold alright,” Tommy said, chuckling at their surprised faces. 

“And he’s your friend?” the cornflower dragon asked in disbelief. 

“Where else would I get all those scales?” Tommy asked, showing off his armour.  

“That explains why Technoblade is with him,” a pine-steel-coloured dragon spoke up. 

“Alright. Enough with the chit-chat. Let’s fight,” Techno said before he attacked. 

The two of them then proceeded to fight and kill the remaining dragons. Together they were almost invincible and Tommy finally understood why the other dragons had been so scared of Technoblade earlier. He really was an amazing fighter.

“Remember to not kill the one with the purple-golden scales,” Techno shouted as he used his claws to tear out another dragon’s throat. 

“Alright. Can you leave the orange-golden dragon for me? It’s the only colour that I don’t have already,” Tommy shouted back, stabbing the pine and the cornflower dragon from earlier with his axe and sword respectively. They had been putting up quite a fight and were stronger than most of the dragons Tommy usually fought. 

“Consider it done,” Techno said, using his wing claws to greatly injure a few dragons that had been attacking him. That was when Tommy noticed a dozen dragons approaching from behind Techno. The other was probably able to handle it but Tommy just wanted to be sure after what had happened with Wilbur yesterday. So he took out the leather piece with the golden scales, waving it around. Unsurprisingly, the eyes of every dragon, including Techno focused on the scales. Techno was the first to get back to fighting, using the other dragon’s distraction to kill them more quickly. “I didn’t need your help,” he pointed out. 

“A thank you would have been appreciated, dickhead,” Tommy replied, ducking behind a tree to avoid getting his head taken off by the scarlet-blue dragon. He quickly took his sword to stab her. She ducked but he still managed to cut across her side. She didn’t last long after that. 

“Come collect your dragon before I take their head off myself,” Techno shouted. 

“I will, just had a few other dragons to deal with!” Tommy replied, making his way towards Techno, killing a few dragons along the way. 

Killing the azure-orange-coloured dragon turned out to be more difficult than expected. Especially, considering the fact that a lime-bronze, mustard-brass, and mauve-chrome-coloured dragon teamed up with them, trying to cut Tommy into pieces. They too were trained fighters. But even together, they didn’t stand a chance against Tommy. 

Before they knew it, all of the opposing dragons except for Magna were dead. Some of the last ones had tried to flee but had been either shot down by Tommy’s daggers or killed midair by Technoblade. 

“How are we going to get her back to the lair?” Tommy asked, looking down at the unconscious dragon. 

“You should probably stay with her while I get Phil,” Technoblade suggested. 

“But doesn’t he have to take care of Wilbur? Besides, couldn’t we just force her to shift into her human form before knocking her unconscious again?” Tommy asked. 

“How do you want to force her into her human form?” Techno asked. 

“By making her think that she’ll escape by shifting into her human form,” Tommy suggested. 

“So you think we should bind her to a tree, hide somewhere and then attack her when she’s shifted back?” Techno asked. 

“Exactly. Well, you should do that. In the meantime, I’ll collect my scales. You should probably do the same, I have an extra piece of leather if you want. It’ll help you look distracted,” Tommy said. 

“That’s a good idea, actually. Do you have anything we could bind her with?” Techno asked. 

“I have a Netherite chain. It’s the ones that dragon hunters usually use. What most dragons don’t know is that you can easily get rid of the enchantment that keeps dragons from shifting. It doesn’t last forever. If you try to shift only a part of yourself again and again, the enchantment will grow weaker and weaker until it completely goes away. And because it’s not a full shift, it won’t hurt you either,” Tommy explained. 

“Mine broke a while ago and I didn’t bother to refresh the enchant. Netherite is very light so I just put it in one of my coat pockets.  But I dropped my coat while fighting. It’s not very practical in that regard,” he added. 

“Okay. Can you find it?” Techno replied, “Also, don’t worry about giving me an extra piece of leather, I have one on me all the time,” Techno said, shifting into his human form before pulling out a small empty piece of leather. 

“Yeah. It’s right by that tree over there, see?” Tommy pointed, making his way to the tree to collect his coat. Once he had done that, he walked back to Techno, handing him the chain. 

“This should hold. I’ll go back to where I killed the other dragons to collect my scales. In the meantime, you can collect yours. But please only collect yours, I’m sure you can tell the difference by how they died,” Tommy said, giving Techno the chain. 

“Yeah, we fight very differently. I can’t wait to see who killed more dragons,” Techno replied. 

“Probably me. I did kill all those dragons back there,” Tommy pointed out. 

“We will see,” Techno said. 

In the end, Tommy killed 29 dragons while Techno killed 24. Magna, as expected, shifted into her human form and was immediately knocked out by Techno before she could properly get out of the chains. Shortly after, she was already in the prison part of the cave system the four dragons called a home. 

“You fought well today,” Techno stated. 

“Did I now?” Tommy asked. He didn't think that Techno was one to compliment. Especially, when it was Tommy. 

“If you were a dragon I would ask you to join my thunder. But yeah. You did very well. I don’t think I would have been able to kill them without your help. At least not without getting injured,” Techno replied, playing off the first part way too easily for Tommy to actually consider the option of him meaning it. Because Tommy would love to exchange thunder scales with the other dragon. But he didn't dare to hope. Techno hated dragon hunters and Tommy was a dragon hunter and would be one for as long as Dream was alive. 

“I wouldn’t have been able to beat them without you either, Big Man,” Tommy responded. 

“Would you,” Techno started to say before shaking his head, dismissing the thought, ”wait never mind, forget it” 

“You didn’t even finish the sentence. Come on, at least tell me,” Tommy said. 

“Alright. You can say no if you don’t want to. So don’t feel pressured to say yes. I was just wondering,” Techno started to ramble. He was definitely nervous about this, whatever it was. 

“Just tell me,” Tommy insisted. 

“Would you mind helping me put the battle scales on?” Techno asked. Tommy was taken aback for a moment. 

“Do you really want me to?” he asked. 

“Whenever I fight with Phil he does the same. It’s a dragon thing,” Techno admitted. It didn't sound like the entire truth but Tommy let it pass for now. He could always ask Phil about the implications later. 

“Of course,” Tommy agreed. 

“Thanks,” Techno said, shifting into his human form to lead Tommy to his part of the cave system. 

“Are you sure that you want me in here?” Tommy asked as he entered Techno’s room. 

“Yes. It’s most comfortable here. Besides, I keep all the remaining scales in here,” Techno said. 

“Alright. What do you want me to do?” Tommy asked. 

“It’s simple, really. You just remove one of the non-metallic scales on the right side of my neck and put them on here,” Techno gave Tommy another piece of leather. Without having to look, Tommy knew that they were fewer than the metallic scales along the other dragon’s neck. 

“And then you replace it with one of the metallic scales from here,” Techno handed him the piece of leather that was now filled with 48 scales. 

“Okay. This might hurt a little,” Tommy said as he started to replace Techno’s own scales with the battle scales. 

“It’s fine. I’m used to it. Also, before I forget it, leave the non-metallic scales from the other dragons on the piece of leather. It’s my way to count how many dragons I’ve killed since I can't really look at my neck,” Techno replied. 

“That makes sense. Because you’re definitely using those scales,” Tommy waved the piece of leather with Techno’s ruby scales, “for something else”.

“Yeah. I put them on a different piece of leather to count the humans I kill. It isn’t enough, usually. But I haven’t killed as many humans recently,” Techno explained. 

“How come?” Tommy asked. 

“I just didn’t have the time,” Techno admitted, “Sometimes after patrol, I go out to hunt dragon hunters. Can’t let them get too powerful and everything. But there have been more and more dragons in our territory recently so I don’t really have the time” 

“Will you kill me too?” Tommy asked, “Once I am no longer useful to you?” 

“Never. I care about you,” Techno said. 

“Really?” Tommy asked. 

“Yeah. It was hard for me to accept at first given my history with dragon hunters but I care about you, a lot. And Wilbur already considers you part of his thunder anyway,” Techno trailed off. 

“I care about you as well. Even considering everything that happened to my family,” Tommy responded. 

“About that. I have to tell you something,” Techno said, looking at the ground. He sounded as if he was about to confess that he had killed Tommy's parents. Which, to be fair, he had killed them and it would make a lot of sense for him to confess that right now. Who was he kidding, that was exactly what was about to happen. 

“Don’t,” Tommy dismissed, “I already know” 

“You do?” Techno asked. 

“Yes. I knew the second I saw your dragon form. I won’t forgive you, not yet. But I know that you had your reasons,” Tommy said. It was hard to accept at first. To be friendly with the person that killed his family, let alone see him as part of his new family. But it was true and holding grudges wouldn't bring him anywhere. He had learned very soon in life that nothing stayed. Loss was part of his life for as long as he had lived. It didn't make it better but at least he knew how to deal with it. 

“Okay. Thank you,” Techno replied. 

“Of course,” Tommy responded. “Also, what do you mean there have been more dragons in your territory recently? I barely see any dragons when I patrol with Phil” he exclaimed, enraged. Techno had the audacity to chuckle. 

“That’s because Phil always patrolled with you after one of us was already out,” Techno admitted. 

“What the fuck,” Tommy shouted. 

“He doesn’t want you to get hurt,” Techno explained, “But I think that after today he’ll be less careful with you” 

“I fucking hope he does or I’ll fucking show him how capable I am. You reckon green details on my armour would look good?” Tommy asked. 

“I will talk to him,” Techno assured him. 

Chapter Text

A few days later, Tommy switched his hair and eye colour to gold and crimson respectively and put on his face mask before Wilbur could knock on the door. It was hard to be in his human form all the time. And even if he didn’t need to shift just yet, it was probably better if he shifted controlled rather than uncontrolled. 

“Good morning, Tommy,” Wilbur shouted as usual. 

“Still not Tommy,” Tommy shouted back. 

“Theo!” Wilbur exclaimed, “I didn’t know you would be back already” 

“Tommy had something to do,” he vaguely explained. He hated lying so the less he told the less he actually lied. 

“Alright. Do you want to eat breakfast with the others or should I just bring something down here?” Wilbur asked. 

“I’ll eat with you. Race you to the top,” Tommy exclaimed, shifting into his dragon form and flying away. Wilbur stood still for a moment, a combination of the suddenness of the challenge and the way Tommy’s scales glimmered in the dim light of the cave before he started to chase after him. The two dragons almost reached the cave at the same time, Wilbur only a wing beat later than Tommy. 

Breakfast was mostly quiet, Phil trying his best to make conversation with the half-asleep dragons. 

“What are we doing today?” Wilbur asked when they had all finished and cleaned up. 

“You are going to patrol with me like planned,” Phil replied. 

“Can we do it another day please?” Wilbur asked. 

“You begged me for days to let you patrol with me. It’s either today or never,” Phil decided. 

“But that was before I knew that Theo would visit today. Can’t we just do it tomorrow?” Wilbur asked. 

“Tomorrow, Techno and you are gone for another match,” Phil said. 

“But Theo’s going to be gone tomorrow and then I won’t see him for another few weeks,” Wilbur protested. 

“I can stay a little longer if you want me to. Tommy’s going to be gone for a little longer than usual as well,” Tommy said. 

“Okay fine but only because Theo is staying a little longer,” Wilbur agreed. 

“Alright. Come on, we need to go now if we want to catch some more dragons,” Phil said. 

“Okay, okay, we can leave,” Wilbur replied, pulling Tommy in a quick hug before flying after Phil. 

“Looks like it’s going to be the two of us for the majority of the day,” Techno said. He was in his human form which was unusual for the ruby dragon. 

“Why aren’t you in your dragon form? I know that you prefer it,” Tommy stated. 

“I just thought it might make you more comfortable considering, you know,” Techno replied, avoiding eye contact. 

“It was a long time ago, I've accepted it. I haven’t forgiven you yet but I know that you had your reasons even if I don’t know what they were,” Tommy said. 

“I killed humans for no reason before,” Techno responded. 

“But you didn’t kill them for no reason, did you?” Tommy asked. 

“No, I killed them for a reason,” Techno confirmed. 

“You’re not going to tell me if I ask you, are you?” Tommy said. 

“One day, I’ll tell you, Theseus, one day,” Techno replied. 

“Okay,” Tommy agreed. 

“I always asked myself how Tommy managed to leave the cave. I mean, he’s done it before but I just never knew how he did it without wings,” Techno said. 

“There’s a small tunnel in that cave with the dripstone that leaves to the outside,” Tommy replied, just now realizing that the other didn't know about the tunnel as he had originally assumed. 

“Wait really?” Techno asked. 

“Yep. He discovered it shortly after he arrived here. He thought you knew about it so he didn’t tell you,” Tommy responded. 

“Could you show me?” Techn asked. 

“Of course, come on, follow me,” Tommy said, shifting into his dragon form and flying to the dripstone cave. Once he arrived there, he shifted back into his human form. Techno followed suit. “It’s not accessible in dragon form. That’s probably why you haven’t discovered it yet,” Tommy explained. 

He then led Techno to the small entrance of the tunnel, “You just follow the tunnel until you see the light. You’ll come out at that one meadow near the big lake on the eastside” 

“That’s how they entered the cave,” Techno said, talking more to himself than Tommy. 

“What do you mean?” Tommy asked, cocking his head in confusion. 

“A few years ago a few dragons entered our lair and stole something from us,” Techno vaguely explained. 

“Have you found the dragons yet?” Tommy asked. He didn't know how to feel about dragons randomly breaking into his lair.

"We found a good few of the dragons that helped steal from us. But we haven’t found all of them yet, sadly. They were very good at what they did,” Techno replied, frowning slightly. 

“And what about the thing that they stole?” Tommy asked. 

“What’s ours will always find its way back to us,” Techno said, avoiding answering the question directly. 

“Alright, whatever, forget I asked,” Tommy dismissed. 

“I will explain, eventually. I just don’t think that we’re ready yet,” Techno apologized. 

“Whatever,” Tommy said. 

“Want me to teach you how to fight?” Techno offered. 

“I already know how to fight. Tommy taught me,” Tommy dismissed. He knew how to take care of himself. He wasn't weak for fucks sake. 

“I meant in dragon form. It won’t hurt to be able to fight in both forms,” Techno clarified. 

“Alright,” Tommy agreed. 

For the next few hours, Techno taught Tommy how to fight in his dragon form, showing the other tricks and powerful attacks. 

“That was awesome!” Tommy exclaimed. 

“I’m glad. You’re a natural. Better than Wilbur anyway,” Techno complimented. 

“That’s probably because I already know how to fight in human form,” Tommy said. 

“Partially. But you’re really good still. You should probably try to use your metallic scales more often to distract your opponent. Especially, when it’s not a trained dragon you’re fighting. Don’t rely on it but use it to your advantage once in a while,” Techno advised. 

“Yeah, it helped a lot in the fight against the Golden Thunder,” Tommy acknowledged. 

“Right, Tommy told me about that. Said you saved him,” Techno said. 

“I guess I did,” Tommy replied. 

Tommy was about to go to sleep when he heard a knock on his door. “Can I come in,” Techno asked. 

“What do you want?” Tommy replied. 

“I wanted to say goodbye. I will leave very early tomorrow and I’m not sure if I’ll see you again,” Techno explained. 

“Alright, come in,” Tommy said, shifting into his dragon form. 

“Thanks,” Techno responded, opening the door that separated the rest of Tommy’s cave from the room he slept in. Techno sat down on the opposite side of Tommy. 

“Was there anything else you wanted to say?” Tommy asked. 

“Uhm yeah, kind of. Firstly, I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you when you first visited. That wasn’t nice of me. Secondly, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate the trust you put in me. It means a lot. I hope you visit again soon,” Techno said. 

“It’s alright, don’t worry, I know how you’re in the morning. I put that much trust into you because I know that I can rely on you. I will visit soon,” Tommy replied, “Also before you go I have one question. You told Tommy that you considered him part of your thunder, was that true?” he asked. He had been too shy to ask as Tommy but Theseus was a dragon like them, Theseus could ask questions like that without having to fear the answer. And most importantly, Techno would be honest with Theseus. 

“Of course. I wouldn’t have let him attach my battle scales if I didn’t. It’s not a dragon thing, it’s a thunder thing. I consider him part of my thunder, even if it is unusual, he’s family,” Techno said. 

“Okay. One last question, would you want to exchange thunder scales with me?” Tommy asked. He saw how Techno’s eyes widened in surprise. 

“You want to exchange thunder scales with me? Even after what I did?” Techno asked. 

“Only if you want to but yes I want to exchange thunder scales with you,” Tommy replied. 

“It would be an honour,” Techno said. 

Just like with Wilbur, Techno only had two spots left that could be filled with thunder scales, one for Tommy’s metallic and one for his non-metallic scales. Coincidentally, the spots for the non-metallic scales were the same. Just like with Wilbur, Techno picked a spot where he wanted his scales to be before the long process of exchanging thunder scales began. When they were done, Tommy could only think one thing, I finally have a thunder.

The next morning, Theseus was woken up by Wilbur like usual. They ate breakfast together before Techno and Wilbur had to leave for the battles. The latter needed a lot of convincing before he agreed to leave. Wilbur had started the process of making his own armour a while ago which meant that he didn’t take Tommy’s armour or weapons with him to the fight. “Techno mentioned that you don’t fly very often. Do you want me to teach you?” Phil asked. 

“What if someone sees me?” Tommy asked. 

“Then they see you. You don't have to be ashamed of your scales, they're a part of you, be proud of them. Either way, everyone who is close enough to see you is trespassing so we can just get rid of them," Phil replied. 

“Right. It’s just a little scary. I’ve been hiding for so long that I just don’t know how not to,” Tommy said. 

“I get that. I promise that we’ll be there for you no matter what,” Phil promised. 

“Thank you,” Tommy replied. 

“So do you want to go flying?” Phil asked. 

“Yes,” Tommy responded. 

After about an hour and a half of flying around, Tommy was starting to get exhausted. He didn’t fly very often so his wing muscles were weak. It wasn’t his fault that he had to hide who he was. 

“It’s okay if you want to sit down for a moment,” Phil said. 

“I can continue. I’m not weak or something,” Tommy insisted. 

“Having to take a break is not a weakness, mate,” Phil assured. 

“I don’t care, I don’t need a break,” Tommy replied. 

“Well, I want to drink some water so I’ll take a break. You can join me if you want to,” Phil said. 

“I’m only doing this because you need a break, old man. I don’t need one, I’m too big of a man,” Tommy responded, silently grateful for the small break. 

“Of course,” Phil said as he dove down and landed next to the lake by the east side. 

“Fuck you,” Tommy replied as he landed next to Phil. 

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Mind showing me the exit of the tunnel you told Techno about?” Phil asked. 

“Yeah. It’s right over there. I’ll show you after you drank your water and rested your fragile bones,” Tommy replied. 

“Oh yeah, that,” Phil said absently, going to the lake and taking a gulp of water before walking back. Tommy didn’t point out how little the other drank. 

“Shift into your human form, it’ll be easier,” Tommy said instead. 

“Alright,” Phil replied and in the next moment a blonde man with yellow eyes stood in front of him. 

Tommy led them to the tunnel and eventually through the tunnel after Phil insisted that they needed to check on the cave. 

“If we’d just known, everything could have been prevented,” Phil muttered under his breath shortly after they had entered the tunnel. 

“Is this about when Magna and the other dragons stole something from you?” Tommy asked. 

“It is,” Phil replied, avoiding Tommy’s gaze. 

“By the way, have you gotten any useful information from her?” Tommy asked. 

“Not really. She didn’t want to sell the other dragons out. Most of them are dead anyway,” Phil responded. 

“Don’t you want to get whatever she helped steal back?” Tommy asked. 

“We already did,” Phil said. 

“Do you mind me asking what exactly it is? Like I have a guess but I really don’t want to be wrong,” Tommy asked, nervously fidgeting with his hands. 

“Go ahead, you’ll find out soon anyway. It’s better if we tell you,” Phil said. 

“Right so when Techno and Tommy fought Magna, someone bragged about Magna stealing the quote un-quote ‘golden hatchling’ out of his nest. And then there’s the fact that all of you have empty spots for exactly one set of thunder scales. Not to mention that one big empty cave that you gave to Tommy. And the way Wilbur got defensive when Tommy talked about me thinking that my thunder abandoned me. Is it, did Magna steal your hatchling?” Tommy asked. 

He could see Phil’s jaw muscles tense in the dim tunnel light, “She did,” he confirmed. 

There was a moment of silence before Tommy asked the question he had wanted to ask for a very long time now, “Am I your stolen hatchling?” 

Phil remained silent so Tommy started to ramble, “It’s just, I have the same thunderscale pattern as you three and you said that it was unique to every thunder. Also, the fact that Wilbur and Techno accepted me into their thunder so easily. And the way they were so set on getting Tommy to come with them after he told them about me. Not to mention the fact that Techno murdered my human parents even though they weren’t dragon hunters” 

“No, Theo, you’re right. You are our lost hatchling,” Phil interrupted him sighing, “It’s just a lot. At first, I didn’t believe Techno and Will when they told me that you were still alive and out there and friends with a dragon hunter of all people” 

“That’s not even half of it,” Tommy chuckled. 

“You’re right about that,” Phil said. 

“So what now?” Tommy asked. 

“What do you mean?” Phil replied. 

“Well, now that you got me back Tommy has no more use to you so I thought that, you know,” Tommy trailed off. 

“Tommy is part of our thunder just as much as you are. Isn’t he part of your thunder too?” Phil asked. 

“Well yeah I just assumed that getting me back was the only reason why Techno offered Tommy to help protect your territory,” Tommy responded. 

“No, we’ve been looking for Tommy for a while now. He’s killed a lot of very powerful dragons so we wanted to ask him to ally with us. And then he told them about you and the rest is history,” Phil said. 

“Oh alright,” Tommy replied.

“Yeah. Even if I don’t know Tommy that well yet Wilbur and Techno care about him. There’s no doubt that they’d consider him thunder even if you two weren’t thunder already,” Phil stated and it was at that moment that Tommy once again debated just telling them. They deserved to know the truth. But what if they’d hate him for lying to them? He didn’t want to lose them again. The past few years of his life had been lonely enough. 

Chapter Text

A few weeks had passed since he had exchanged thunder scales with Techno, since the two of them had officially become family. He had spent a lot more time with the dragons since then. Both as Tommy and as Theo. They had been teaching each other how to fight in human and dragon form and due to Phil’s help, Tommy could now fly even better. He had also started to patrol more and more often. It was nice and for the first time in years, Tommy questioned whether he should give up dragon hunting as he had known it for the past years. Simply tell Dream that he didn’t want to travel the country and hunt after dragons anymore but instead live the life he was living now. He still killed dragons but it was to protect his territory not because they got angry over a golden coin. Deep down he knew that he couldn’t have the life he secretly wanted as long as Dream was alive. 

It was the end of December now. It was colder and it had even snowed a few times. He knew that it would snow even more in the next few weeks but Tommy didn’t mind it too much. The cave was warm. Not to mention that dragons, no matter in which form, were naturally warmer than humans.

The chilly December air still sent shivers down his spine. Mainly because he knew that he’d have to see Dream soon. He always checked in on Tommy at the end of the year to see how many dragons he had killed that year. And while Tommy had killed more dragons than usual ever since he had started to go on actual patrols regularly, he probably killed too many dragons. Usually, he stopped actively hunting dragons after he had killed 55. Oftentimes, he still got attacked by a thunder or two and killed more. But never had he killed 137 dragons in a year. Dream would probably get suspicious and that was never good. 

Once the day of the new year came around, he told Wilbur that he would be gone. When asked, he told the other dragon that he would see his old mentor and that was that. 

He quickly found the town where Dream had told him to meet at. It wasn’t too far from his lair. Tommy made sure to travel in his human form only, not wanting to risk anyone, especially not Dream seeing him in his dragon form. 

“Hello, Tommy. It’s good to see that you’re still alive,” Dream greeted him. His dragon hunter friends George and Sapnap were standing behind him, silently observing as usual. Bad was probably somewhere watching over their horses or hunting a dragon. 

“It’s good to see you too. How have you been?” Tommy asked. He didn't want to talk to Dream longer than he needed to.

“Good, good. I’ve killed a lot of dragons, eleven dozen to be exact,” Dream bragged. 

“132 kills are quite impressive but I think I got you beat this year,” Tommy replied, slightly proud of himself for beating his mentor. 

“Oh, really?” Dream asked. 

“Yeah. Not by much but I killed 137 dragons this year,” Tommy replied. 

“That’s good. A lot better than usual. What changed?” Dream asked, intrigued. 

“I’ve been trying out a new strategy,” Tommy said vaguely. He didn’t know how Dream would react if he found out about the means Tommy used to achieve his goals. 

“Mind sharing your new strategy with the group?” Dream asked, “It might help us kill even more of those monsters” It was not a question, it was a demand. 

“It’s nothing big really, I just found a place where a lot of dragons travel through. The forests are quite dense so they’re easy to kill,” Tommy evaded. 

“Are you sure that you aren’t hunting in the territory of other dragons?” Dream asked. 

“I’m not sure. I’ve seen quite a few flying above the forests but they could simply be traveling through,” Tommy responded. 

“I want to believe you, Tommy, really I do. But I know that you’re lying about something,” Dream said. 

“What?” Tommy asked. 

“You see, Sapnap saw you a few weeks ago, on the back of a dragon. One that is still alive,” Dream stated. Tommy was fucked. Dream knew. He would kill Tommy right now. Fuck. 

“Don’t you have something to say for yourself?” Dream asked. 

“I made a deal with the dragons. I get to hunt in their territory but I can’t kill them and they can’t kill me,” Tommy decided to answer. 

“That still doesn’t explain why you were all buddy-buddy with one of them,” Dream pointed out. 

“Well, we’ve been hunting together. Other dragons usually fear them so they’re often travelling in big groups in the hope of surviving. And it’s pretty hard to fight a thunder of 30 all by yourself,” Tommy replied. 

“Just make sure you don’t get attached to them,” Dream said. 

“I won’t, I promise. I’m only there for the free kills. Once I’ve killed enough dragons, I’ll get rid of them myself,” Tommy dismissed. 

“I thought you said you made a deal with them that you can’t kill them?” Dream asked. 

“Well yes, technically. The deal included all of their allied thunders as well. But it excluded the thunder of the dragon that killed my parents, I’m sure I’ve told you about them. Turns out there aren’t too many dragons with ruby and rose golden scales,” Tommy answered. It was true, technically. He could kill them. He wouldn’t but Dream didn’t have to know that. 

“Sapnap, is that true?” Dream asked. 

“The dragon he was flying with when I saw him was some shade of red with rose golden ventral scales,” Sapnap replied. 

“Alright. I’ll be keeping an eye on you. If they aren’t dead soon, I will kill them myself,” Dream threatened. Tommy gulped. 

“Of course. I won’t let them live much longer,” Tommy responded swallowing the bitter taste the lie left in his mouth. 

“Good. I’ll see you in a year then. Make sure you know where your loyalties lay,” Dream said before he turned around and left, Sapap and George following him like the loyal servants they were. 

Tommy didn’t even make it halfway back to his lair before he was snatched up in the air by a dragon. He was about to stab them with his sword when he realized that it was just Techno. 

“What are you doing here?” Tommy asked. He prayed to Prime that Techno had not overheard their conversation. Techno was very paranoid and Tommy being a dragon hunter didn't make the older dragon trust him more.

“The better question is what are you doing here?” Techno replied. 

“I was meeting with my old mentor. I told Wilbur,” Tommy responded. 

“He told me. I chose to come along, to protect you, just in case. Because that’s what thunder does,” Techno said. 

“You know that I can protect myself,” Tommy protested. 

“I do. I suppose it was still a good thing that I followed you,” Techo said. 

“What do you mean?” Tommy asked. 

“You know what I’m talking about, don’t try to deny it. I can’t wait for the other two to hear. I know that we can’t hurt you but we can still knock you out and lock you up with Magna,” Techno threatened. 

“I was lying when I said all of that. I don’t plan to injure any of you. Ever. But Dream would have killed me right then and there if I hadn’t lied,” Tommy exclaimed. 

“And how can I be sure that you were really lying and that you aren’t going to trick me? I knew that I shouldn’t trust a dragon hunter but here I am,” Techno said. 

“If you can’t trust me, trust Theo, okay? He’s a dragon like you. Dream doesn’t know about him because he would kill him and me the second he found out,” Tommy replied. 

“Alright. I will give you the benefit of the doubt. But until you prove to me that I can rely on you, I will not put my trust in you, okay?” Techno said. 

“Of course,” Tommy responded, swallowing the way those words hurt. 

Later Phil and Wilbur came by Tommy’s cave. They both believed him, Wilbur, more than Phil. The latter told him that Techno was probably just afraid of getting hurt by someone he considered thunder and not to worry about it too much. “He’ll come around,” he had said.

Tommy still spent most of his free time afterward outside of the cave, exploring their territory and visiting different towns. Everything to forget about the fact that Techno didn’t trust him anymore or that Dream wanted him to kill his own family. The second thought was more alarming than the first. He knew that he’d have to kill Dream, the man that had raised him and taught him everything he knew, just so that his thunder, his family could live. A decision had never felt easier. 

A few weeks had passed since that incident. Techno had been avoiding him for most of it while Wilbur had tried to make up for the other’s distance by spending more time with Tommy. He even followed Tommy on a few of his adventures outside of the cave system. While Tommy loved spending so much time with Wilbur, he was also scared that the other dragon would find out his secret. Tommy knew that he wasn't a very good liar and that his thunder would find out eventually. 

Yesterday Phil had gone to an arena fight with Techno. Apparently, both were renowned fighters there. Techno because of his brute strength and fighting skills and Phil for his tactical air fighting. Tommy had tried to listen when Wilbur had explained everything to him but both knew that Tommy's thoughts had been elsewhere. 

In the meantime, Wilbur had patrolled the territory. There had been quite a few dragons that he had fought that day, proudly showing off his new battle scales to Tommy once he was back. Wilbur had fallen asleep as Tommy worked to place the metallic scales along his neck, exhausted from the day. 

Once they had gotten back, Techno and Phil fell asleep rather quickly as well. Due to them being high-ranking fighters, they had taken on multiple dragons and entire thunders by themselves. 

That meant that none of them heard it when someone almost slipped and fell in the dripstone cave. Tommy on the other hand, shot up right away. Maybe it was also due to the fact that his cave was closest to the smaller cave. 

Tommy immediately hurried to the small part of his cave where he stored his weapons. He didn’t know if it was big enough to be considered a cave but it was its own room. He was dressed in his usual fighting armour, disguised by his coat in seconds, making his way to the dripstone cave. 

“We have to be quiet. We don’t know where exactly Magna is and this is our only chance to free her. They will never be this weak again,” a hushed voice said. It was definitely a dragon in human form, Tommy immediately realized. 

“What about the fourth member of their thunder? You must have seen the new scales in Technoblade’s thunderscales. There are rumours that they got the golden hatchling back,” another voice replied. 

“I doubt that they actually got the golden hatchling back. It’s probably just a dragon that looks similar. I’ve heard that they were looking for Crimson, the dragon that killed the Golden Thunder. Maybe they finally found them,” a third voice said. 

“Either way. We have to be careful. We are the only people besides End's thunder that know about this entry. If they capture us now, we won’t get out of here alive,” the first one responded. 

“Do you think I should go back and tell my thunder? Just in case. They don’t know about my connection with Magna but they hate the Antarctic Empire just as much as we do. And is there a better way to get rid of a problem than grabbing it by its root?” a fourth voice offered. 

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Tommy said, finally entering the dripstone cave. 

“Who are you?” the first voice asked. 

“I’m a fellow dragon hunter. That’s what you are, right?” Tommy asked, offering his hands. If they thought he underestimated them, they would overestimate themselves and trust him more easily. 

“We are. Those dragons have been around for a long time and we decided to finally get rid of them,” the apparent leader of the group replied. 

“I’ve been meaning to do so the same. I recently found the entry over there while exploring and it led me right to this cave. I’ve been exploring it at night, those monsters sleep like rocks. Not even a storm could wake them up,” Tommy lied, knowing fully well that Wilbur would have woken up before him had he not been so exhausted. 

“Does that mean you know where they’re keeping their prisoners?” the second dragon asked. 

“Oh, yes. There is a giant cave with smaller manmade caves that are covered in obsidian. There is only one prisoner, a human. They keep her in an obsidian box, bound with Netherite chains,” Tommy said. It was true, Techno had shown him the holding cells when they had brought Magna there. He had helped bind Magna with the Netherite chains that had already been in the cell. 

“Yes. That’s our friend. We’re trying to rescue her. Maybe even kill the dragons that captured her in the first place,” the leader replied. 

“I’d love to help you. Just follow me, I’ll bring you to where they’re keeping her,” Tommy said, making his way to the holding cells. 

When they arrived, Tommy quickly opened the lock to the holding cell part of the cave system. He instantly locked it after himself. That way the dragons wouldn’t be able to escape even if they managed to defeat him. 

“Why did you lock the door?” one of the dragons asked. 

“I didn’t lock the door,” Tommy denied. 

“No, I saw it. Don’t even try to lie to me. Why did you lock the door?” the dragon insisted. 

“Oh, that. I just ensured that the dragons won’t be able to enter,” Tommy lied. 

“No, you’re lying. You locked us inside of here,” the dragon said. 

“I guess I did,” Tommy replied, smirking. 

“What are you doing? Magna is over here,” the leader shouted. They were already ahead of them. 

“You’re with them, aren’t you?” the dragon asked, slowly stepping back. 

“I thought you would never figure that out. I mean, come on, a dragon hunter inside of a dragon lair, in the middle of the night. Of course, I’m with them, they’re family,” Tommy said, using his sword to attack the dragon. It wasn’t enough to kill them but it did knock them unconscious. He quickly took out his Netherite chain that he had re-enchanted after his fight with Magna’s thunder and bound the unconscious dragon with it. 

The other two dragons in the meantime had freed Magna from her own chains. Tommy quickly considered his options and dragged the chained dragon to one of the holding cells, re-binding them to get his own chain back. He then hurried back to the middle of the room. 

“This is the dragon hunter that helped us,” the leader said, pointing to Tommy. 

He could see the exact moment that Magna recognized him, “You,” she accused. 

“Magna, hey, we haven’t seen each other in a long time, have we?” Tommy said. 

“What’s going on?” the leader asked. 

“That guy over there is the dragon hunter that killed half of my thunder and helped bring me to wherever we are,” she elaborated. 

“But I thought that was Technoblade and Crimson?” the second dragon asked. 

“He is Crimson. He gets the scales from a dragon friend of his, the golden hatchling if I’m not wrong. But he’s human,” Magna replied. 

“I guess you know now. Magna, you know how well I can fight, you won’t stand a chance,” Tommy said, attacking the dragon that stood next to Magna and knocking them unconscious with one blow. It would have been enough to kill any human but this was a dragon, in human form so they only passed out from the injury. Tommy quickly wrapped the Netherite chain around them before they could automatically shift into dragon form and pulled them towards him, only stopping to defend himself from the attacks of the two remaining dragons that weren’t Magna.   

“You can’t kill us. They’d hate you if you did. They still want to avenge everyone that was involved and they can’t do that with us dead,” Magna responded. 

“Good thing I’m not planning to kill you. Then again, I already know more than enough. You five are the only dragons that know about this, that were involved. You and someone called ‘End’. I’m pretty sure the others will know who that is,” Tommy said, using the remaining part of the chain to trap the leader before knocking them unconscious as well. 

“We don’t have to fight, Tommy. You want them dead just as bad as we do,” Maga said. 

“What are you talking about,” Tommy asked, using the hand that was not holding the Netherite chain to knock the last dragon unconscious. 

“They’re dragons. And you’re a dragon hunter. Furthermore, they are the reason why you became one in the first place. Didn’t Technoblade kill your parents when you were only nine years old?” Magna asked. 

“How do you know that?” Tommy asked, dragging the unconscious dragons to one of the prison cells. 

“You hear a lot when you’re trapped in one place for a long time,” Magna replied, following him. She was still in her human form, hands crossed behind her back. She knew that she wouldn’t get out of here if it came to a fight.  

“Whatever. He may have killed my parents but that doesn’t mean that I want to kill him. If they asked me to stop killing dragons in order for me to stay with them I would accept in a heartbeat. They are my family,” Tommy said, shoving the first dragon into their cell and locking them up with the chain that was attached to the cell before unbinding them from his own chain. 

“You might care about them but do they care about you? Are you sure that they won’t abandon you the second that they have their hatchling back?” Magna asked, changing her strategy. 

“They care about me. I know that they probably care more about Theo than they care about me. But they care about me too. I’m part of their thunder as well,” Tommy protested, dragging the leader to another cell. 

“That’s what they’re telling you but at the end of the day, you’re just a human. A human could never be part of their thunder,” Magna argued. 

“Just stop. I know what you’re trying to do but it won’t work. I won’t spare you, I won’t kill them. You’re just wasting both of our time,” Tommy said, putting the leader into their cell before making his way back to the dragon that was laying on the floor next to where Magna was standing. 

“Come on. This can’t possibly be what you want. What would your mentor do if he found out that you’re protecting dragons? They can’t seriously be okay with this,” Magna pointed out. 

“Oh, I know that he’s not okay with it. But I don’t care about him. He raised me, sure. But he could have never replaced my real family,” Tommy said, using the chains to drag the dragon that had already shifted into their dragon form minutes ago into another cell. It wasn’t a problem per se. The cells could hold dragons and humans alike. It was just easier to move a dragon in human form than it was in dragon form. 

“What family?” he scoffed, “The one that Technoblade killed?” 

“This is my real family. And now shut up before I consider actually killing you,” Tommy snapped, finally finishing the process of locking all of the other dragons in their respective cells. Now only Magna was left. 

“What got nothing to say?” Tommy asked. Magna stayed silent. “Honestly, I expected more from you. You’re supposed to be this unbeatable dragon, yet you don’t even try to fight me. I’ve seen your battle scales, you can fight well. But you don’t try to fight me. Why’s that?” 

“The moment Technoblade saw us in his territory, I knew that my thunder wouldn’t make it out of here alive. If he had been alone, maybe we would have managed. But no, you were with him. You, Crimson, the one to kill the Golden Thunder. If you wanted to, you could have killed all of us alone. It’s not every day that someone kills a thunder of well-trained dragons on their own. There is a reason they survived that long,” Magna said. 

“I’ve fought stronger dragons before,” Tommy dismissed. Because he had. There had been this one Tangerine dragon with silver scales that had been covered in battel scales. He had never seen that many scales on someone. Besides Techno maybe. 

Magna just laughed and shook her head. She didn’t protest when Tommy wrapped his Netherite chain around her and even walked with him when he lead her to her old cell. 

“One last question before I leave,” Tommy said, “Why did you do it?” 

“Why did I do what?” Magna asked. 

“Why did you kidnap Theo?” Tommy clarified. 

“The golden hatchling?” Tommy nodded, “I was bitter. My thunder abandoned me and my two sisters after I was born. They didn’t want the hassle of dealing with a golden dragon, let alone three. They abandoned us because it was easier. Because at the end of the day, we’re only a little bit more resistant to the shine of other dragon’s scales. Everything else, we have to train for just like every other dragon” 

“But why him out of all the golden dragon there are?” Tommy asked. 

“For one, he would have gotten everything I ever dreamed of,” Magna said. 

“But that’s not the real reason, is it?” Tommy cut her off. 

Magna sighed before answering, “No, it’s not”. 

“Then what is the real reason?” Tommy asked. 

“One of my sisters was the best dragon fighter in this region for a very long time. She won every battle she fought. Dragons challenged her so often that she said that whoever challenged her would automatically challenge her to a death match. That got a lot of people to back off. Not everyone though. One day a dragon challenged her. They were new to the fighting arenas, not even there for an entire year, a B rank. He challenged her and against all odds she lost. 

“So I made it my mission to find out who that mysterious fighter was. And I found him rather quickly. He hadn’t been at any arena fights in a long time so I had hoped that he had died. But when I found him I realized that his thunder had recently gained a hatchling. 

“I waited until the right moment, gathered dragons that hated their thunder as much as I did before striking. I never told my other sister about my plan. The rest of her thunder knew but I never told her because I knew that she would do anything in her power to stop me. She knew that I had something to do with it and she despised me and her thunder for it but she never figured out what exactly we did.

"Back to the golden hatchling. I planned to let him grow up with a few human friends of one of my thundermates before taking him in as part of my own thunder, disguised with a cloaking charm. But just before we could take him back, Technoblade murderd the humans and he ran away,” Magna finished her story. Tommy should hate her. She was the reason for all the misery in his life. She had taken everything from him. 

“For all it’s worth, I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that,” Tommy said. 

“You didn’t deserve that either,” Magna muttered. It was barely understandable but it send shivers down Tommy’s spine nonetheless, “I shouldn’t have taken you away from your family,” she continued, still talking so silently that even Tommy had problems understanding her. 

“I didn’t,” Tommy confirmed before he left the cell. He just hoped that she was the only one to know about his secret and would’t tell any of the others. 

As soon as Tommy had left the holding cell cave, he was confronted by Techno, “Did you mean it?” 

“What?” Tommy replied, owlishly blinking up at him. He was still tired from being woken up in the middle of the night. 

“You said that you would stop hunting dragons if we asked you to. Did you mean it?” Techno asked. 

“You were there and you didn’t help me?” Tommy asked. 

“Yes, I was there. You didn’t need the help so I just observed. Now answer the question,” Techno demanded. 

“Yes, I would stop hunting dragons if you asked me to,” Tommy replied, rolling his eyes in annoyance. Techno’s expression immediately relaxed. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. 

“What?” Tommy asked. 

“I’m sorry for not believing you when you told us that you wouldn’t betray us, that you were just lying to Dream. I’m sorry for not trusting you. You’re part of my thunder, yet I treated you like a stranger. I’m sorry,” Techno elaborated. He was quiet for a moment before he continued, “Also, we care about you just as much as we care about Theseus. You’re both part of our thunder. You being human doesn’t change that” 

“Apology accepted. But only if you take me on patrol this afternoon,” Tommy said. 

“Can we do that tomorrow? I’m still sore from yesterday,” Techno replied. 

“Alright, deal,” Tommy agreed. And that was that. 

A few hours later, Tommy heard the all-familiar knock on his door, informing him that breakfast was ready. This time, it wasn’t Wilbur’s voice that greeted him but Phil’s. 

“I’m coming,” Tommy replied, sleep still heavy in his eyes. After the whole random dragons in the cave thing, Tommy still managed to get a few hours of sleep. Not enough though, his body informed him. 

“I wanted to talk with you first if that’s okay. We could also talk after breakfast if you’d prefer that,” Phil said. 

“After breakfast, please. I’m still tired,” Tommy responded. Phil hummed before Tommy could hear his wings carrying him back to the living room area of the cave system. 

During breakfast, Techno told everyone about what had happened during the night. Phil had already been aware of it, considering his reaction while Wilbur hadn’t. 

“We need to get rid of that tunnel immediately,” he insisted. 

“That would mean that I couldn’t leave the cave alone anymore,” Tommy argued, “Besides, only End and her thunder know about this. They should be easy to trace down, right?” 

“How do you know that?” Phil asked. 

“One of the dragons talked about it. You can ask them yourself if you want to,” Tommy replied. 

“That won’t be necessary, we trust you,” Phil stated, already planning how to find out who this End person was, mentally going through the list of all of their enemies. 

“What did you want to talk about?” Tommy asked as soon as breakfast was over. 

“I wanted to thank you for everything you have done for us. Not only did you bring Theo back to us but you also help us protect our territory, you taught Wilbur that he can fight if he really wants to, you are teaching all of us how to fight in human form, and you didn’t betray us when you had the chance to. I know that a lot of dragons would have done that. But not you. You protected us. Thank you,” Phil said. 

“It’s nothing,” Tommy dismissed, “That’s what family is for, innit?” 

“About that. I talked with Techno and Wilbur and we have something for you. Originally, we wanted to give it to you earlier but then the whole thing with Dream happened and Techno didn’t trust you anymore so we didn’t think it was the right time,” Phil fumbled with something behind his back. What it was, Tommy couldn’t tell. 

“Anyway, we thought that just because you’re not a dragon doesn’t mean we can’t exchange thunder scales. So we came up with an alternative,” Phil presented him with three daggers. The blade was covered in  Wilbur’s, Techno’s, and Phil’s metallic scales respectively while the hilt was covered in their non-metallic scales. They were beautiful. He idly traced the hilt of one of the daggers. 

“I, Thank you. So much. I don’t, this means a lot,” Tommy stuttered, unsure of what to reply. 

“Of course, mate. You’re thunder,” Phil replied. Before Tommy knew it the older dragon was gone. The only hint of his previous presence were the three daggers that Tommy now held in his hands. 

A few days later, Tommy ‘visited’ as Theseus again. Just like usual, he patrolled with Phil. It was fun and he was able to fly even longer this time. His wings had become stronger over the past weeks and this time he didn’t even need to take a break until the two dragons were back in their lair. 

“This was so much fun,” Tommy exclaimed after they had arrived.

“I enjoyed it too. I’m glad you’re more comfortable around us now,” Phil said. 

“Well, you’ve shown that you don’t only care about the colour of my scales but about me too. And about Tommy so,” he trailed off. 

“Is that why you exchanged thunder scales with Will and Techno?” Phil asked, “Because they were kind to Tommy?” And Prime did Tommy want to tell him that he was Tommy. But he stayed quiet. 

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Phil assured. 

“It’s alright. I, partially, I guess? I mean I knew that I wanted to exchange thunder scales with them for a while now but them considering Tommy thunder kind of confirmed it, I guess,” Tommy shrugged. 

“Ah okay. That makes sense. You wanted to be sure that we didn’t want you just because of your scales and that we accepted Tommy as well because you’re a packaged deal,” Phil said. 

“Yeah. By the way, that’s why I’m here today. I wanted to do this the last time I visited already but I kind of forgot. But I wanted to ask you whether you wanted to exchange thunder scales with me?” Tommy asked. 

“Of course, I would love to,” Phil replied. And finally, after years, their thunder was completed. 

Chapter Text

Tommy, currently in his dragon form was laying on the floor of the entrance to their lair, enjoying the early spring sun. It was times like this when he contemplated telling the other dragons the truth. He had known them for an entire year by now. Shouldn’t he trust them? 

After the attack in the middle of the night a few weeks ago things went back to normal. Mostly, anyway. Tommy still spent a lot of his free time outside of the cave, trying to forget about everything that had happened in the past few months. Everything he had known had started to crumble beneath him. His thunder had never abandoned him and they had never stopped searching for him. Furthermore, they accepted him the way he was. They loved every part of him. 

But would they still do that if they found out he had been lying to them the entire time? Would they still love him if they knew the truth? That he still didn’t trust them enough to tell them his biggest secret even after all they had done for him? 

“Would you want to come to my fight today?” Wilbur offered. Tommy didn’t know when the other had appeared next to him and he didn’t really care either. 

“Sure,” he agreed. He didn’t have anything better to do anyway. 

“By the way, where is Tommy? I’ve never seen the two of you together,” Wilbur commented making Tommy freeze up for a moment. He could just tell Wilbur the truth right now. He should tell Wilbur the truth. 

“He visited the town. Wanted some time alone,” Tommy lied instead. He knew it was wrong. They would find out eventually, so why hide it? But he was scared. 

“Alright,” Wilbur dismissed. They both knew that Wilbur knew that Tommy was lying. Wilbur didn’t choose to comment on it even though Tommy knew that he desperately wanted to. 

“So how will we get to the fighting arena? Because I won’t fly there, that’s for sure,” Tommy said. 

“I could just carry you on my back like usual,” Wilbur replied. 

“You’ve never carried me on your back,” Tommy pointed out, you know like a liar. Wilbur had carried him on his back just yesterday. But that had been Tommy, not Theseus. 

Wilbur opened his mouth before closing it again, his eyes had a determined look, “I know that you’re Tommy. I’m not mad or anything. Maybe a little disappointed that you didn’t tell me earlier but I understand why you hid it. Especially, with how we acted. I won’t tell the others but I just don’t think that there’s any point in hiding it anymore” 

“What? I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Big Man. Are you sure that you didn’t hit your head or something?” Tommy dismissed. He knew that it was futile. That didn’t stop him from trying though. 

“Look, I know that you’re scared but we won’t treat you any differently than before. You’ve been around us as Theseus enough to know that by now, right? We love both, all sides of you, okay? You’re part of our thunder no matter what,” Wilbur said. 

“But I hid so much from you. I lied to you,” Tommy argued. 

“We lied to you too. And I won’t say it’s fine because it isn’t. We’re thunder, we’re supposed to trust each other. But I understand and the other will too. They won’t love you any less because of this. It’s the opposite, actually. They will be happy that the two people they got to know and love over the past months are actually the same person. Will they be sad that you didn’t trust them? Of course. But that won’t stop them from loving you. Just tell them before they find out themselves,” Wilbur responded. 

“Alright, whatever. Let’s just get going. Don’t want to be late for your fucking fight,” Tommy dismissed. He really didn’t want to think about any of that right now. Or ever, if he was being honest. 

“You can’t run from this forever. You’ll have to tell them eventually,” Wilbur pointed out. He was right, of course. But Tommy wouldn’t tell him that. 

“You’ll find that I actually can. It has worked thus far, hasn’t it? Let’s just go to the fight. You can be a prick about this later,” Tommy said, shifting into his human form. 

“Alright. But this conversation isn’t over,” Wilbur threatened. 

“Yeah yeah. Can we go now?” Tommy dismissed. 

“Sure but grab your fighting stuff before we go,” Wilbur said. 

“Why?” Tommy asked. 

“It’s for emergencies. In case I get injured too badly during a battle, you’ll have to fight the last few for me. It won’t happen but it’s still a regulation, just in case,” Wilbur explained. 

“And you just decided that without asking me first?” Tommy questioned. 

“Don’t act as if I didn’t overhear you begging Phil to let you go to a fight,” Wilbur argued. The argument Wilbur was referring to had been very frustrating for Tommy. Phil had insisted that Theo didn’t know how to defend himself properly and that if he was as good as Tommy, he would have been allowed to go. Tommy had never been as close to confessing the truth than then in the heat of the argument. 

“Okay, whatever. But when I’m back you better be ready,” Tommy said and before Wilbur even had a chance to reply, the younger dragon was gone. 

The flight to the fighting arena was comfortable.  They had seen a few other dragons on their way there. Those that had seen them had proceeded to make fun of the fact that Tommy was sitting on Wilbur’s back. 

Tommy had complained about the leather piece that hung around Wilbur’s neck, covering his thunderscales until he had explained to Tommy that it would stop people from recognizing him. Sadly the thunderscale covering didn’t just help them.  

There had been a thunder of three that decided to attack them midflight. They had been dealt with rather quickly, although Tommy had to admit that they all were excellent fighters. Only slightly weaker than Wilbur. Tommy even had to shift out his wings because one of them had decided that throwing him off of Wilbur had been a good idea. In the end, they all died at the hand of Tommy’s blade. 

Once they arrived at the arena, Wilbur shifted into his human form. It was the one that reflected his scale colours. Probably to preserve energy. 

As they entered a cave at the bottom of a giant mountain, they were suddenly surrounded by people with the most unusual hair and eye colours, dragons. “There isn’t enough space for them to be in their dragon form,” Wilbur explained. 

After a while, they arrived at what looked like a registration. There were at least fifty similar booths. Wilbur dragged them to the ones at the end that read ‘Fighters’. The lines there were shorter than the ones that just read ‘Entry’. 

“Name, fighting name, thunder, and rank please,” the person behind the registry said.

“Wilbur, Soot, SBI, B tier” Wilbur replied.

“You have ten solo fights today. If you win all of them, you will upgrade to the next rank and will be able to fight twelve solo fights the next time. You did not register for any group or thunder fights, is that correct?” they asked. 

“Yes, Tech and Phil stayed at home today,” Wilbur replied. 

“Who will be your emergency replacement today?” they questioned. 

“My brother Tommy,” Wilbur responded, pointing to Tommy who was looking around as if he was a five-year-old in a toy store. 

“Are you registered?” they asked Tommy. 

“No, I don’t think I am,” he replied. 

“Alright. All I need is your name, the name of your thunder, an alias for the fights, two of your scales, the estimated level of your fighting experience, and your age,” they said as if they had said the same things multiple times today already. They probably had. 

“My name is Tommy. I’m part of the same thunder as Wilbur. You can call me Crimson. I’m rather experienced, better than Wilbur here. And I’m twenty years old,” Tommy replied. 

The person behind the registration desk scribbled down the information before looking up again, “Now I only need one of your metallic and one of your non-metallic scales” 

Immediately, Tommy began to panic. He would have been fine with giving up two of his non-metallic scales. But he really didn’t want to hand over one of his metallic scales, “Is there a way to register without giving one of my metallic scales?” Tommy asked. 

“Not really no. But I can promise you that nothing will happen to your scales. They will stay here in the registration to help us identify the different fighters. That’s all,” they explained. 

“I won’t even shift into my dragon form. I can fight well enough in my human form. I don’t want people to see my dragon form,” Tommy protested. 

“I can understand that being the only non-golden dragon in a thunder full of golden dragons can be hard but you have nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, no one besides me and the other people at the registration will be able to see them,” they responded calmly. 

“It’s not about the fact that I’m not a golden dragon, I’m as golden as one can get. I just don’t want to be treated differently because of my metallic scales,” Tommy said. He could see when they understood what he meant. 

“You’re the golden hatchling, aren’t you?” they whispered, “Everybody thought it was just a myth or that they had just found another dragon that looked similar enough” 

“I am. And I would appreciate it if nobody got their hands on my metallic scales,” Tommy said. 

“Alright. I think I can make an exception this once. Are you sure that you don’t want to shift into your dragon form when fighting? It would make it a lot easier,” they pointed out. 

“It would make me a target. Besides, I can take care of myself well enough without it,” Tommy dismissed. 

“Right, you said that you’re an experienced fighter. Which tier do you think you’re in?” they asked. Tommy immediately looked at Wilbur. He knew that he was better than Wilbur, even if he couldn’t use his usual tricks. He hoped Wilbur knew which rank he would be in. 

“A or S tier, probably,” Wilbur replied. 

“Really? At that age?” they asked, not even trying to hide their surprise. 

“Yeah. How do you think I got this good?” Wilbur asked. 

“Techno and Phil helped you a lot too. Also, don’t cut yourself short, if you hadn’t been as dedicated as you were you would still be stuck in whatever the last tier is,” Tommy responded. 

“Golden dragons usually start at D tier even though the lowest is F,” Wilbur pointed out. 

“Right. Phil told me about this,” Tommy remembered. 

“Would you be okay with taking on another dragon’s fights for today? There were two tier B dragons who were supposed to fight today but they as well as their replacement have not registered themselves yet,” the receptionist said. 

“Wait, were they Olive-Platinum, Ash-Chrome, or Plum-Bronze-coloured?” Tommy asked. 

“Yes, how do you know that?” they asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion. 

“They attacked us on our way here. They’re dead now,” Tommy replied. 

“Who killed them?” the receptionist asked. 

“I did but why does it matter?” Tommy asked, cocking his head in confusion. 

“If a dragon kills or gravely injures another dragon that is going to fight in the same fighting arena as them, they are automatically assigned all of their battles. It was originally supposed to stop dragons from attacking each other before the arena fights but now a lot of dragons use it as an opportunity to fight more battles,” they explained. 

“So I have to fight twenty dragons today?” Tommy asked, excited but also slightly scared. He was glad that he had taken his armour and his favourite blades with him today. 

“Yes. You also have to participate in a duo fight later that day. You can either participate alone or with Wilbur,” they informed. 

“Alright, I can do that, I think. Are there any things I need to know before the fights? I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’ve never been to a fighting arena before,” Tommy said. 

“Are you sure that this is a good idea? I know that you’re a good fighter but don’t you think this is too much?” Wilbur asked. 

“I took on way more dragons at once, I’ll be fine,” Tommy dismissed. 

“I just don’t want to lose you again,” Wilbur said. 

“How would you lose me? I thought people didn’t die here?” Tommy asked. 

“Not usually. But many dragons injure their opponents during the fight until they give up. And sometimes there are dragons that kill other dragons after beating them. It’s usually frowned upon and will disqualify them for the rest of the day. But sometimes dragons still do it. You should be relatively safe since mostly golden dragons are targeted. But if you slip up and they find out who you are, they will definitely attack you. Not only in the arena but on our way back as well,” Wilbur explained. 

“I’ll be careful, okay? I killed the Golden Thunder, I can beat a few dragons in solo fights,” Tommy argued. 

“Alright. I’m just worried for my little brother. Is that so bad?” Wilbur asked. 

“Whatever. What are the fighting rules besides not killing anyone?” Tommy asked again. 

“You have to stay in the arena. You can’t interfere with the fight. If you interfere with a fight that isn’t Wilbur’s, you’ll get disqualified. If you interfere with his fight, he will automatically be declared the loser of the fight and you’ll have to fight the offending dragon on top of that,” they explained. 

“Fights to the death are allowed if both parties agree to it beforehand, but I would recommend against it if it’s your first time at a fighting arena, no matter how good you are. You can use any weapons you want and you can fight dirty but don’t fight too dirty. Using other dragons’ instincts against them is a no-go. The only golden things you can have on you are your own scales and the ones of your thunder. Threatening another dragon’s thunder is also a no-go. 

“Your weapons and armour are allowed to be enchanted as long as they don’t give you an unfair advantage. That means thorns, sharpness, knockback, power, and similar enchantments, as well as any potions or weapons that can cause potion effects, are not allowed” 

“The fight is officially over when the other dragon is unable to move for twelve seconds, gives up, is injured to a certain degree, is too exhausted to continue fighting, or falls unconscious. You are allowed to use any weapons you find in the arena, including the ones your opponent uses. Battle scales are given after the fight outside of the arena. The last and most important rule, everything that happens in the arena stays in the arena. If you tell someone about the matches leave out the names and any other identifying information”. 

“I have a Netherite chain that stops dragons from switching forms. Is that allowed?” Tommy questioned. 

“Where’d you get a dragon hunter chain?” they asked. 

“I was raised by dragon hunters ever since I was nine,” Tommy explained. 

“And they didn’t kill you?” they doubted he was telling the truth. 

“They don’t exactly know that I’m a dragon,” Tommy replied but Wilbur interrupted him before he could continue. 

“We really have to go now. Thank you for everything you have done. Toms, give her two of your scales, we need to hurry,” Wilbur stressed. 

“Goodbye,” Tommy said, handing them two of his non-metallic scales before running after Wilbur who was almost gone. 

“Don’t forget to put on a covering charm,” they called after the two brothers. 

“They’ll start with the lower fights so that people have enough time to pick which of the bigger fights they want to watch since there are multiple arenas,” Wilbur explained, “They also use the time to make some last changes to the fighting plans to ensure that dragons won’t end up fighting the same one”. 

“Alright. Which fights are we watching?” Tommy asked. 

“I’d say we watch Clementine. She’s an S tier, directly after Techno and Phil. Salmon is an upcoming fighter. She’s currently A tier but she definitely qualifies for S tier,” Wilbur said. 

“Does everyone seriously name themselves after their non-metallic scale colour?” Tommy cut him off. 

“You have no right to talk, you named yourself after your scale colour as well,” Wilbur argued. 

“I didn’t choose the name, the name chose me. It’s better than fucking Soot. What are you, fucking dirt?” Tommy asked. 

“Soot and dirt are very different things. Soot is more similar to Ash but-,” Wilbur explained but Tommy cut him off again. 

“I do not care. What other dragons should we watch?” He was bouncing on his heels out of excitement for the upcoming fights. 

“Well, Nuke and Ender are two very promising young fighters. They’re B tier like me so you could end up fighting them. Nuke mainly focuses on brute strength to either knock the opponent unconscious in one blow or to injure them to the point that they automatically use while Ender is very fast in the air and uses that to either tire their opponent out or knock them unconscious. He’s not very strong though,” Wilbur explained. 

“We should also watch the Elements. They’re one thunder of S and A tier dragons that all named themselves after different elements of the periodic table. They’ve won the thunder fights every single year for the longest time. Even the Golden Thunder didn’t stand a chance against them,” he added as an afterthought. 

“Sounds good. Are there any other fights we should watch?” Tommy asked. 

“Not really. I would have loved to take you to see Tangerine fight. They were even better than Clementine is now. Almost beat Techno and Phil multiple times before they suddenly disappeared. No one knows what really happened to them although some suspect a dragon hunter,” Wilbur replied. 

“Wait, did you say Tangerine? Were their scales Tangerine and Silver?” Tommy asked, pulling out the first leather piece from his trenchcoat, “Like this?” he pointed to the individual scales. 

“I thought you didn’t remember every dragon that you killed?” Wilbur asked. 

“And I thought that the cloaking magic would hide your exact scale colour,” Tommy replied. 

“It does as long as you’re alive. When you die, people remember,” Wilbur explained. 

“I don’t remember most of my kills. Only those that stick out. And Tangerine thought very well. They also had almost as many battle scales as Techno,” Tommy said. They were both quiet after that. 

The fights, at least in Tommy’s opinion were awesome. The different dragons used very different strategies to take their opponent down. There were five main ones, as Wilbur had explained. 

“I personally prefer to knock my opponent unconscious. It’s closet to what you have taught me. But you have to be careful that they actually stay on the gound. In one of my first fights, one pretended to go down and then when I let my guard down, they attacked me,” Wilbur had explained, “I personally don’t like that tactic, it’s too risky. Especially, if it’s your last fight and you’re a golden dragon. It’s best to just give up in cases like that. It’s better to lose a fight than to die in one” 

“Techno prefers to beat the shit out of his opponents and make them lose because of the amount of injuries they have. It’s still risky because you can get injured yourself very easily as well,” he had pointed to a duo of C tier dragons that were both heavily injured, “Those situations often end in a tie” 

“Phil gets them by exhausting them and then attacking. He just dodges all of their attacks and stays in the air until they either give up or are too weak to fight back. He’s good at air fighting too, though” The referee called the game a tie. 

“You could probably just hold them in place with your Netherite chain or knock them unconscious. The injury thing might work for you too. You’ll have to see,” Wilbur said as they made their way to their own fights. 

Tommy’s first few fights were rather easy. His opponents were underestimating him because he was in his human form. He waited for them to attack first before dodging and attacking on his own. There was even one dragon that challenged him to fight in human forms. It had been the quickest of his fights thus far, a simple stab in the belly with his sword that would have killed a human was all it needed for the other dragon to fall unconscious. 

The fights weren’t really difficult for him. Probably because he was more experienced than most of the other dragons he fought. The hardest thing was probably to concentrate on not accidentally killing the other dragon. He didn’t even have to use his Netherite chain. 

He had just finished his last fight with a dragon who had decided to stay in the air for the entirety of the fight when he made his way to Wilbur’s last fight for the day before the group fight. It was the first time in a while Tommy had felt self-conscious about shifting. He knew that even if he messed up and fully shifted instead of only shifting out his wings, he had the cloaking charm to protect him. But once he was in the air, his crimson wings being the only dragon part of him the other dragons could see, he was glad that he regularly went flying with Phil because the other dragon seemed to love air fights just as much as Phil did. 

Tommy arrived at the next arena just before the fight. This was not only Wilbur’s last fight but also the last fight of the dragon he was fighting so Tommy was vigilant. Wilbur had told him that this dragon was known for killing their opponents and playing dirty, illegally dirty in some cases. Thus far he hadn’t done anything which didn’t help calm him down in the slightest. 

The two fighters were evenly matched, Tommy could tell. Wilbur had gotten in a few lucky hits because the dragon was fighting very aggressively. Tommy was watching carefully, ready to jump in at the drop of a hat. 

Wilbur was about to stab the other dragon in the chest with his sword when his opponent dodged the blow by transforming into his human form mid-air, pulling out what appeared to be an anelace and slashing it across Wilbur’s arm where the armour didn’t protect him quite as well in favour of agility. The cut wasn’t too deep, getting blocked by the armour Wilbur was wearing. Yet, Wilbur fell to the ground, shifting back into his full dragon form just before hitting it. If Tommy didn’t know better, he would have guessed that this was a poor attempt at faking being unconscious. But Tommy knew that Wilbur wouldn’t do it, especially, not in his last fight with someone that was known to kill. This would have been like offering yourself on a silver platter. 

Tommy knew something was wrong so when the other dragon shifted into his human form and started walking towards Wilbur, he didn’t think much about it and just shifted out his wings and flew down to the arena, standing in between Wilbur and the other dragon, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” 

“It is so obvious that he’s faking it, anything that would have happened would have been his fault for using such a cheap trick,” the other dragon drawled. 

“He isn’t faking it. If he was he would be all angry at me right now but he’s still lying on the floor because you traced your anelace with something to knock him unconscious and then kill him. I know that whatever you put in there won’t kill him. You don’t want people to find out that you’re cheating. He’ll wake up in a few minutes, a few hours at most, and then everyone is going to know that you’re a fucking cheater,” Tommy exclaimed. 

“That’s what you think of me? Really? That I can’t fight and only got here through cheating? I’m hurt, truly,” they replied. 

“I didn’t say that you were a bad fighter. But Soot would have won if you hadn’t fucking cheated, fucking prick,” Tommy said. 

“Oh really? Why don’t we put that to a test?” the other dragon smirked, slowly walking towards the two of them. 

“Don’t take another fucking step,” Tommy threatened, pointing his sword towards the other dragon. 

“What are you going to do if I do? As if someone like you could beat me,” they belittled Tommy. 

“I’ll fucking kill you. If you take another step forwards, I’ll make you wish that you never existed. I’ll drench the floor in your blood, right here and now in front of everyone,” Tommy threatened. He meant it. Nobody hurt his family, his thunder and got away with it. 

“Aww, are you challenging me to a death match?” they continued to disparage him. They would regret those words later. Tommy would make sure of it. 

“You know what, I am. And I’m going to make it hurt. I won’t kill you until you’re begging me to end your misery,” Tommy smiled. 

“Alright. You all heard him. If he dies it’s his fault. I just wanted to check if the other guy was still conscious,” they said. 

They were lying, of course, both of the fighters knew it. But they also knew that the referees wouldn’t be able to prove anything should Tommy die right then and there. He wouldn’t. He’d make sure that the dragon who had dared to even think about killing his brother would pay for it. 

And so the fight started. The other dragon immediately shifted into their dragon form while Tommy remained in his human one. They were flying above his head similar to what the dragon Tommy had fought before did. Tommy remained on the ground. He had all the time in the world. 

After a while, Tommy started to get bored. The other dragon was still flying above his head, not looking as if they wanted to come down any time soon. So Tommy pulled out his bow. It was an average brown bow that Dream had gotten him for his tenth birthday. He had made sure that Tommy could shoot whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, no matter how far away it was. 

It was enchanted with Infinity and Mending. A combination that was almost impossible to achieve. He didn’t know where Dream had gotten the bow from but he was more than grateful. Luckily, both enchantments were allowed in the fighting arena as his bow wasn’t enchanted with power or any other illegal enchantments that were almsot impossible to get, even for dragon hunters and the most powerful dragons. 

So when the other dragon stayed in the air, Tommy started to shoot the dragon from where he was standing on the dirt covered floor of the arena, glad when new red tipped arrows appeared in his quiver after the others had either hit or flown past the other dragon. 

Opposite to what one might think, Tommy wasn’t aiming to injure the other dragon. His goal was to exhaust them. So he shot majority of his arrows so that the other could easily avoid the projectiles. He still ensured that some of the arrows hit, though. He didn’t want his opponent to get too cocky. That would make things way too easy. 

After a while the other dragon grew annoyed at Tommy. Or maybe they had finally figured out Tommy’s plan. Either way, they decided to dive down and try to hit him with their claws. Emphasis on tried as Tommy used his shield to block the hit before managing to cut them across the side with his sword. 

They quickly flew back into the air to where they were mostly safe. Not resting as Tommy continued to shoot at them.

The next time they attacked, they tried to use their height to tackle Tommy to the ground but he managed to dodge all of their attempts, adding a few new cuts along their legs for good measure. 

This continued for a while, Tommy shooting his opponent with his arrows until they decided to attack. They grew weaker and weaker with every attack. In a last attempt to win, they took a second anelace, trying to stab Tommy with it. The latter was quick to dodge the blade, reflecting it with the armour that covered his forearm. If Tommy’s opponent hadn’t been as exhausted as they currently were maybe they could have managed to stab Tommy with it. A long but superficial cut along their ventral was all it needed for them to fly back into the sky. 

“You know, this is my very first trip to the fighting arena. I didn’t even plan to fight today. But I had to anyway because how was I supposed to know that killing the dragons that attack you on your way to the fighting arena makes you take over all of their fights,” he smirked, shooting a few arrows in their direction. Most of them hit, the other dragon was too exhausted to dodge properly.  

“Not that I’m complaining, of course. I love fighting dragons. But it did mean that Soot had to explain all of the different strategies the fighters here use. One of them is to exhaust the other dragon to the point where the referee automatically assigns you the winner. Like what I did to you. Look at you, you can barely hold yourself in the air anymore. If this was a normal fight, I would have won by now. But you wanted a death match, didn’t you?” Tommy asked, aiming an arrow to hit the middle of their thunderscale covering. The arrow hit the middle of the circle that formed the middle of a beautiful design that decorated the piece of leather, “Because if I wanted to, I could have just shot you out of the air. There was a reason every twelfth arrow hit”

“And now you might ask me, Crimson, didn’t your parents teach you not to play with your food? Because everyone here knows that you will end up dying. But that’s the exact reason why I am doing this. Who would I be if I let you die without having experienced all of the different forms of defeat in the fighting arena?” Tommy smirked. 

In a last attempt to save their life, his opponent threw the anelace towards Tommy. The blade missed, hitting one of the watchers who immediately fell unconscious. “Thank you for proving my point from earlier,” Tommy laughed. He was enjoying this. 

“Another way to defeat would be to injure the opponent to a certain degree. Now you’re already injured but I suppose it’s not quite enough,” Tommy said, shooting arrow after arrow until his opponent could no longer hold themselves in the air, collapsing on the ground due to the exhaustion and blood loss.  

Tommy slowly walked towards them, taking one last glance at Wilbur who was still unconscious. He could see the other’s chest ever so slightly rising and falling. Prime knows what he would have done to his opponent had they killed Wilbur. 

“Another way to win is to hold your opponent in place for twelve seconds,” Tommy said, wrapping his Netherite chain around them, holding them in place. Not that they were moving much in the first place. He slowly counted down from twelve, tightening the part of the chain that was wrapped around their neck a little more as he got closer to zero. Just after twelve seconds had passed, Tommy’s opponent fell unconscious and Tommy started to unwrap them from the chain. “Or for them to fall unconscious,” Tommy added. 

He then decided to collect the arrows that were spread across the arena. He wouldn’t get them back as they would just disappear once they were back in the quiver but it didn’t stop him from doing so. He still had to get them to give up, after all. 

So after he had finished collecting all of the arrows from across the arena, using his wings to get the ones that were stuck in the ceiling and on the walls, he stood next to them, waiting for them to wake up. He used the time to pluck out the arrows that littered their body. 

It didn’t take long until they opened their eyes, “Why are you still doing this? Haven’t you tortured me enough?” The facade of the strong fighter they had worked hard to obtain was slowly crumbling beneath them and they knew it. 

“I still need you to tell me that you give up,” Tommy pointed out, continuing to pull out arrow after arrow. 

“Fuck you,” they said. 

“You don’t have to make this harder on yourself, you know. It was your decision to fight dirty and you wanted a death match, didn’t you?” Tommy cocked his head, mocking the other dragon. 

They didn’t reply so Tommy continue to pluck the arrows from where they had embedded themselves in between their scales. They tried to attack him one last time but Tommy quickly dodged, “Just give up. It’s not worth it. All you do is make this harder for the both of us”

“You already took everything from me. I won’t give you the last dignity I have,” they spat out. 

“I have all day, you know. Or at least until Soot wakes up. I don’t think he’d be a big fan of what I’m doing right now. I’m sure I’ll get a handful for this later. When will he wake up anyway?” Tommy asked. At that, they paled. “He will wake up soon, right?” Tommy asked, holding a knife to their throat. It wasn’t much of a threat, they knew that they would die anyway. They knew that this knife wouldn’t be used to kill them. At least not until they had given up. They still obliged. They didn’t want to be in more pain than necessary. 

“He’ll wake up in a few hours, maximum,” they answered. It wasn’t as if they had anything to lose anymore. The last arrow was plucked from their scales. They knew that things would get a lot worse if they didn’t end the fight now. “I give up,” it was barely a whisper but Tommy understood nonetheless. 

“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” he taunted, “It was fun fighting you. You’re definitely a good fighter. But you really shouldn’t have messed with my thunder,” and a blue dagger with a white golden blade was plunged into their heart, finally ending their misery. 

Tommy slowly stood up from where he was kneeling on the ground next to them, plucking two of their scales from the dead body before replacing them with two of his crimson ones. 

“Let this be a lesson to every dragon who thinks it’s okay to kill another dragon in the fighting arena outside of death matches,” he said before making his way towards Wilbur, lifting the other dragon onto his shoulders and carrying him out of the fighting arena. 

He stayed with Wilbur for the next few matches until the other woke up. “What happened? Where am I?” 

“A dragon tried to cheat by tracing their weapon with a potion. They tried to kill you so I killed them instead. Everything’s alright,” Tommy assured him. 

“But won’t that disqualify you?” Wilbur asked. He was still pretty out of it. Tommy could only hope that he would be okay once the fights were over.

“It was a death match. So no, I won’t be siaqualified,” he assured the other. 

“The receptionist said you shouldn’t do that, no matter how good you are,” Wilbur argued. 

“Well, what happened happened. Besides, it was their own fault for attacking you. No one attacks my thunder and gets away with it,” Tommy said. 

“You sound a lot like Techno right now,” Wilbur pointed out. 

“I guess I do. But I mean it,” Tommy replied. 

“I know. Thank you,” Wilbur responded. 

“That’s what thunder is for,” Tommy said. 

The two continued to chat, Tommy telling Wilbur about his different fights. The dragons that were overwatching Wilbur’s health ever since Tommy had dragged him out of the arena had told them that Wilbur would be fine to go at the end of the day but still needed to stay there until it was over. They also told Tommy that he would have to fight the two group fights alone since Wilbur couldn’t join him. Wilbur had protested but Tommy had assured him that nothing would happen to him. He could even watch the fight as long as he didn’t fight himself. 

Tommy would fight only one duo fight. Apparently, only A and above dragons could apply for more. S dragons could even apply for up to five duo or trio fights if they fought with another A or S dragon. 

In group matches, the ranks of the dragons fighting would be added together, S tier being a seven and F tier being a zero. Only groups with the same result could fight against each other. Since the other two dragons who initially applied for the fight were both B dragons, Tommy would end up fighting either two other B dragons, an A and a C dragon, or a S and a D dragon. 

In the end, Tommy’s opponents turned out to be Nuke and Ender. The two fighters that Wilbur had complimented. Tommy had watched their fights but hadn’t had the chance to fight them. Apparently, neither had Wilbur. 

Tommy was suddenly very glad that Wilbur had forced him to watch some of their fights because those two were good fighters. Not good enough for him but he was a little exhausted after all of the fights and knew that he could easily be caught off guard. 

“I watched a few of your fights, you fight well,” Tommy commented as soon as the fight began. The two other dragons were already in the air, probably to think of a strategy. 

“We only saw your last fight. You’re good,” Nuke said though he could tell from his tone that he didn’t necessarily approve of the methods Tommy had used. 

“Thanks. I don’t necesarily like unnecessary violence but they had it coming. Not only did they try to cheat but they also wanted to kill my brother in something that wasn’t a death match. Somoene had to teach them a lesson,” Tommy replied, quickly dodging as Ender attacked him from behind. “Nice one,” he complimented, quickly shooting a few arrows after Ender. They didn’t hit, the dragon quickly dodging them. 

“That strategy won’t work twice,” Nuke pointed out. 

“I know,” Tommy smirked as two of his daggers hit Ender’s wing, tearing out a big part of it and making the dragon tumble down from the sky. They would be back to normal in one hour maximum, dragons had a very high healing factor after all. But until then, he’d be stuck on the ground with Tommy. 

Nuke worriedly looked over to Ender, ensuring that they were okay. Tommy used the momentary distraction to launch a few daggers at him. Nuke managed to dodge most of them but the first one still left a deep cut along his side. 

“I’ll make you pay for that,” Nuke gorlwed, attacking Tommy. If Tommy hadn’t been killong dragons ever since he was nine years old, the other probably would have injured Tommy badly. His hits were strong and came fast. When other dragons would let anger cloud their vision, Nuke took it as motivation, slashing with more precision. Tommy had struggles keeping up with him while also keeping an eye on Ender. 

If this was one of Tommy’s normal fights, he would have ended it already. The two dragons were good but Tommy had fought stronger dragons before. But Tommy couldn’t just kill the two and he was also slgihtly exhausted from his fights. Besides, he was enjoying this. 

When Nuke managed to slice across Tommy’s left arm while the latter was dodging one of Ender’s attacks, Tommy decided to finally end this. The fight had been fun but he could not afford his opponents getting in a lucky hit. 

So when Ender attacked him again, Tommy quickly dodged, plunging his sword into their belly. It was a lethal hit for a human and just enough to knock a dragon unconscious momentarily. He then shifted out his wings, quickly lifting himself into the air and catching Nuke by surprise who had been circling the two other dragons, debating how to attack. Before Nuke knew it, Tommy had plunged a dagger into his side, using his other hand to slice across his back and a part of his wing. 

Nuke quickly started to dodge Tommy’s hits, going as far as attacking himself. But he quickly realized that he didn’t stand a chance against Tommy. With or without Ender by his side. Before he knew it, Tommy was called the winner due to the amount of hits Nuke had taken. 

“Good fight,” Tommy said, honestly. 

“You too. I hope I get to fight you again sometime,” Nuke replied excitedly. But Tommy noticed the hint of nervosity in his tone. 

“I probably won’t fight in this tier again but I would love to fight you once you’re in my tier. You have a lot of potential. You and Ender both,” he said, looking back at Ender who was waking up from when Tommy had knocked them unconscious. Maybe he had hit a little too hard. Oops. 

“Until then,” Nuke said before flying over to Ender. 

Tommy walked to the exit, stuffing the small piece of leather with the battle scales on it into one of his coat pockets. He could attach them to the main piece later. 

“Do you want to stay for the other fights?” Wilbur asked once Tommy was sitting next to him again. 

“Can we fly home?” Tommy replied, leaning his head against Wilbur’s shoulder. He wasn’t that exhausted but he had been dragging the fights out, especially the one with the asshole that had tried to kill Wilbur. 

“Alright. The medics said that I should be good to go. The potion is out of my system and as long as I take it easy for the next few days, everything should be fine,” Wilbur said as the two of them made their way outside. 

“Okay,” Tommy agreed.

They had been flying for a while when Tommy spoke up again, “Do you want my help with attaching the battle scales later on?” 

“Of course,” Wilbur replied, thinking for a moment before asking, “Would you want me to do the same for you?” 

Tommy hummed, considering it. He had never thought about it before. But it would be nice to be able to show his achievmtns on his skin, “As soon as Techno and Phil know,” Tommy decided. 

“Alright. I’ll hold you to it,” Wilbur said, a mischievious glint in his eyes. 

“Don’t tell them. If they find out because you told them or hinted at it, it doesn’t count,” Tommy responded. 

“Fine,” Wilbur agreed, “Also, you should probably take off the charms and the thunderscale covering. Phil and Techno will get suspicious if they see me with it on” 

“You’re just too lazy to do it yourself,” Tommy pointed out but started to remove the piece of leather, folding it together until it fit into one of the bigger pockets of his coat before pulling his face mask out of another pocket, attaching it to his face. 

They arrived at the lair a few hours later, Techno and Phil alread waiting for them. 

“Where were you?” Phil asked as soon as they touched the ground. 

“We were just flying around. Well Wilbur was flying I was just letting him carry me,” Tommy replied, shifting into his dragon form and laying down on the floor. 

“Alright. Well, Sam is going to visit later. He wanted to be here earlier but something came up with his thunder,” Phil said, turning to Tommy before continuing, “If you don’t want to talk to Sam or for him to see your dragon form, you can eat now, we won’t force you if you’re uncomfortable with it”

“No, it’s alright. You trust him so I do too,”  Tommy brushed off. He’d have to talk to other dragons at some point. 

“Alright. Why don’t you and Wilbur play connect four until Sam’s here. He might take a while,” Phil said. 

“Okay. Tell me if you ever want to lose against me,” Tommy said as he ran after Wilbur to the latter’s cave. 

Two hours passed until Phil came to collect the two for dinner. Tommy and Wilbur quickly exchanged the battle scales before hurrying after Phil. 

“-tore through Ranboo’s wing. He healed before they had to fly home but it was still a scary experience for both of them since they saw him torture his prior opponent to death. Given it was a death match but still,” Sam said as the three of them entered. His and Techno’s eyes immediately focused on Tommy’s scales before managing to tear their gaze away. Sam took a little longer which made sense since he’d never seen Tommy’s scales before. Even Wilbur used to have problems tearing his gaze away in the beginning but over time he had gotten used to it. 

“You must be Tommy. I’m glad you finally feel comfortable shifting around me,” Sam said. 

“What?” Tommy asked. Did Sam know his secret? Did Techno and Phil know too? Did Wilbur tell them? He wouldn’t, right? 

“That’s Theseus although we just call him Theo. He and Tommy grew up together. They were brothers even though Tommy’s a human,” Phil explained. 

“Oh, sorry for the confusion, I guess,” Sam apologized. 

“It’s fine,” Tommy dismissed. 

“What were you talking about?” Wilbur asked, trying to change the topic. 

“There was a new fighter at the fighting arena today. They were very powerful, probably a level S from what two of my thundermates have told me. They had to fight them, said they didn’t stand a chance,” Sam explained. 

“I thought that everything that happened in the fighting arena stayed in the fighting arena?” Tommy asked before remembering that he probably shouldn’t know the fighting arena rules. Also, was Sam talking about him? 

Sam was about to respond when Techno interrupted him, “How do you even know about that?” 

“We went flying, as I told Phil already. We saw a lot of dragons and Theo got curious so I told him a bit about the fighting arena,” Wilbur explained. 

“Did anyone attack you while you were out? Wilbur doesn’t have too many battle scales and dragons who choose to travel in their human form are always seen as an easy target,” Phil asked. 

“We were fine. I can fight just as well as Tommy. And Wilbur is a tier A dragon,” Tommy said. 

“I thought Wilbur was a tier B?” Techno asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. 

“Potato potato. My point still stands. We can take care of ourselves. Stop worrying, you’re not my dad. Techno killed him, remember” It was supposed to be a joke, something to lighten the mood but apparently Techno still felt bad about murdering his parents right in front of him, which fair, it was a dick move, but it happened ten years ago so Tommy had learned to deal with it. 

“Anyway, back to your question. You can talk about the fighting arena as long as things are kept vague. You’re not allowed to give any identifying information like name, fighting styles etc,” Sam explained, breaking the awkward silence. 

“Oh okay. What happened that scared your thundermates that badly?” Tommy asked. He knew that Ranboo and Tubbo were probably the duo of dragons he had thought, Ender and Nuke, but he’d like to know what other dragons thought of his performance. 

“There was this one dragon who’d never fought in the dragon arena before, I’ll call them C. According to my thundermates who fought them, C has probably killed hundreds of dragons before. Tubbo and Ranboo watched a few of their fights before fighting C themselves and they said that it felt as if C was playing with them. C was very strong, an S tier according to Ranboo. Just before fighting Tubbo and Ranboo in a solo match, C fought a death match. The other dragon had done something to anger C, something to do with cheating, I’m not sure. But C decided to make them pay for it. C dragged the fight out even though they could have ended it in a few minutes. Apparently, they did the same in less extreme with the other dragons, at least that’s what Tubbo thinks,” Sam explained. 

“I bet I could beat them,” Tommy said. He knew he could. Because he was C. Or would that be a draw?

“I’m not too sure about that. But yeah. Tubbo and Ranboo were a little shaken after that so I had to stay with them and calm them. They also wanted me to tell you. Maybe you could convince them to join the Antarctic Empire. Tubbo was convinced that they’re Crimson,” Sam said. Maybe Tommy should have chosen a name that wasn’t the one the public had assigned the dragon killer that was also Tommy. 

“We’ll see what we can do. Thanks for the information, mate.  Please tell Tubbo that whoever this C person is can’t be Crimson because Crimson is already part of our thunder. Well, Crimson is a human, Tommy, but he’s thunder all the same,” Phil replied. 

“Alright. Of course,” Sam responded. 

Later that evening when Tommy was sitting in Wilbur’s cave, putting the battle scales he had won in the arena fights on the latter, placing them randomly amongst his neck just as Wilbur had wanted him to, Wilbur spoke up, “You should tell them” 

“I know. But I’m scared. What if they’ll hate me for keeping it a secret,” Tommy replied. 

“They could never hate you. You’re part of our thunder, both as Tommy and as Theseus. I know we already talked about this but please at least consider it,” Wilbur pleaded. 

“I will just not now,” Tommy said before continuing, “Did you know that you won the battle scales from your last battle as well as the duo fight even though you won neither?” 

“I didn’t but it makes sense. The dragon that tried to kill me was probably disqualified and even if I didn’t fight with you in the duo fight, I was still registered as the fighter,” Wilbur replied. 

“Yeah,” Tommy said. They fell into a comfortable silence while Tommy attached the last few scales. After that, he stayed with Wilbur for a little longer, exchanging stories from the past few years until they fell asleep, curled around each other just like two hatch mates. 

Chapter Text

A few weeks had passed since Wilbur had found out Tommy’s secret and taken him to the fighting arena. And Tommy was almost ready to tell them. Realistically, he knew that they would accept him no matter what but he was still afraid that they would hate him for not telling them sooner. He was procrastinating and he knew it. 

The others had noticed that something was up with him as well. But Wilbur was the only one that knew what exactly was happening. 

Techno was convinced it had something to do with the hunters. But Tommy hadn’t had the time to think about them. He knew that he’d have to confront and probably kill the people that raised him at some point. And while he knew that they would kill him in a heartbeat should they ever find out the truth about him, he still cared about them somehow. But he would do everything to protect his thunder. He just hadn’t expected the confrontation to happen this soon. 

It had been roughly half a year since his last conversation with Dream when he was woken up in the middle of the night by someone roughly taking him. He tried to fight back but his sword was gone from the place next to his bed and he was too far away to grab the dagger under his pillow. 

“Grab your stuff and follow me. Don’t try to do anything you would regret,” his attacker said. And Tommy would recognize this voice anywhere. It was George, one of Dream’s hunter friends. 

For a moment, Tommy tried to convince himself that this was just a nightmare. But a quick pinch to his wrists confirmed that he was indeed awake. He quickly took his coat and weapons before following George, trying to find ways to escape his firm hold without revealing that he was a dragon. 

After a few minutes of walking, he found himself in the training cave. He could only just hold back the gasp when he saw his thunder chained to the wall, Magna and her friends keeping watch while Dream, Sapnap, and Bad watched as George led Tommy into the room. 

“You haven’t killed them yet, why?” Dream said instead of greeting him. Straight to the point as always. 

“I had to find a way to break the deal I made with them. There are a few dragons I am unable to harm and I didn’t want my mistakes to affect my future work. So I had to stay here a little longer,” Tommy lied. 

“I really want to believe you, Tommy. I really do,” Dream said, taking a step towards him, “But for some reason, I don’t. You promised me that you would kill them. But you have not. And I gave you more than enough time, too. Don’t tell me you got attached to them” Dream did his best to sound scandalized, his expression hidden by his face mask as usual. 

“I will kill them, I promise. I just have to find a way to break the deal. After that they’ll be dead, I promise,” Tommy replied. 

“I don’t think I can trust you with that, Tommy,” Dream said, “You have disappointed me greatly. But I will consider forgiving you because I am kind. I am giving you a chance to redeem yourself. You just have to prove your loyalty to me, okay? And then we can forget all of this ever happened”. Tommy knew that Dream was trying to manipulate him just like he always had. But his best bet was to play along. He had to help his thunder even if it was the last thing he did. 

“Of course, Dream. I’d do anything for you, you know that,” Tommy replied, trying his best not to show how much he despised the words he had uttered. 

“Good. I knew that I could trust you, Tommy. Please do me a favour and get rid of those dragons. The chained ones. We can take care of the other ones later,” Dream said. 

“You promised us freedom in exchange for our help,” one of the dragons that Tommy had caught sneaking into the cave a while ago spoke up.

“And you are free. You’re not the ones chained to the wall, are you?” Dream asked. In the meantime, Tommy did his best to get Techno to break the enchantment on the chain. He knew that Techno knew how to do it. Tommy had told him how to, after all. But that had been months ago, Tommy prayed to Prime that he still remembered.

“Back to you, Tommy. What are you waiting for? I told you to kill them, didn’t I?” Dream said. Tommy just nodded, trying to stall as much as possible. He took small steps towards Techno. If he freed him, they may just stand a chance. 

But Dream interrupted him before he could arrive at his destination, “Not him. I still can’t be sure if I can trust you. He’s clearly the best fighter. He’s last”. 

“He’s the one that killed my parents. I want him dead first,” Tommy insisted. 

“Wouldn’t it be better to kill his own family in front of him just like he did with yours?” Dream suggested. 

“Of course. I didn’t think of that,” Tommy said, making his way over to where Phil was. He was a good fighter as well. Not as good as Techno but still better than Wilbur. 

“He’s the one that I made the deal with. It’s only reasonable that he dies first,” Tommy argued. 

“But wouldn’t it make more sense to kill him later on? If you kill him now, we won’t be able to figure out how to get rid of the deal,” Dream said. Tommy suppressed a groan. 

“What do you want me to do then?” Tommy asked. He was getting annoyed at Dream’s games. 

“I want you to prove your loyalty. Kill the blue one. He’s obviously the weakest,” Dream stated. 

“And why do you want me to kill the weakest one first?” Tommy asked. 

“Because I don’t trust you,” Dream said and that was that. Tommy slowly made his way to where Wilbur was standing. He glanced at Techno who had started to shift his hand to its human counterpart. 

“Stop stalling, Tommy. I’m getting impatient here,” Dream said. 

“Yeah yeah. Stop pressuring me, will you?” Tommy replied. He couldn’t stall more without making Dream even more suspicious. 

“You’re not making things look better for yourself,” Dream pointed out while Tommy made his way to Wilbur.

“It’s because I’m not with you, Dream,” Tommy said as he freed Wilbur from his chain, simultaneously launching a few daggers at the dragons that were standing in one of the corners of the cave, unsure of what to do. He would have tried to attack Dream if he didn’t know that the other would have dodged them. 

“That’s what I thought. George, Sapnap, Bad make sure that the dragon doesn’t attack me. In the meantime, I will teach our dear Tommy a lesson,” Dream said before pulling out his sword and attacking Tommy. 

They fought for a very long time, Tommy doing his best to dodge Dream’s hits. Usually, he could easily take Dream in a fight. But not only was he worried about Wilbur who was holding himself against George and Sapnap well enough, but the other five dragons tried to kill both him and Wilbur as well. Tommy had managed to injure some of them with his daggers and had actually killed two of them while fighting Dream. But while he was distracted dodging one of Magna’s hits, Dream managed to cut him along his side. The injury wasn’t too bad but it gave him the disadvantage that Dream needed to stab his sword right through Tommy’s stomach. 

“You should have known better than to cross me, Tommy,” he said as he twisted his sword before pulling it out. 

Everyone’s attention focused on Tommy as he fell to the ground before shifting into his dragon form. Even the hunters had problems taking their eyes off Tommy. Not because they were entranced by his scales but because they were shocked that the little boy that they had raised and trained turned out the very same thing they had been fighting for their entire lives. 

“I should have known that he was a traitor. At least now we know where he always got the scales from,” Dream was the first to interrupt the silence. 

“How dare you,” Techno screamed as he finally managed to break the enchantment of the chain that had been holding him back, only stopping for a moment to free Phil before attacking Dream. It was clear that he didn’t want to give the other the privilege of a short death. 

“From the shocked look on your face, I take you didn’t know that he was a dragon either? I guess he just didn’t trust you enough,” Dream taunted. He knew that he had lost, the only way he could possibly win would be by angering the other dragon to the degree that he made a mistake. 

“I didn’t know. But that doesn’t change the fact that I care about him. Both sides of him. I know that he would have told me eventually,” Techno argued. He was in his human form, paralleling each of Dream’s sword hits while attacking the other once every few hits. Maybe it was risky, but Techno didn’t care. He wanted to beat Dream with his own means. 

Meanwhile, Phil and Wilbur had taken care of the two hunters and were currently fighting the other dragons. 

“Say hello to Lady Death for me,” Techno told Dream as he stabbed Dream just as the latter had done to Tommy, twisting the sword before letting the hunter fall to the ground. He had been so focused on Dream that he hadn’t noticed Magna attacking him from behind or the concerned shouts from his thundermates.

Just as Magna was about to rip his head off, a sword cut along her chest before an axe embedded itself in her neck. Tommy stood there, barely holding himself up but still there, alive, saving Techno’s life. 

“Dragons are a lot more durable than humans. A killing hit for a human will never be enough to take out a dragon. That’s why you should always check their pulse to ensure that they are actually dead. Dream taught me that. I guess he didn’t follow his own rules and that ended up being his downfall,” Tommy said before collapsing against Techno’s chest. 

Phil immediately ran over to them, helping him steady Tommy. His pulse was still there, alas a little weak but still there. Meanwhile, Wilbur went around, checking that all of the dragons were dead before doing the same with the humans. 

“You knew,” Techno stated as Wilbur finally joined them. 

“We can talk about it later. Let’s just ensure that Tommy survives the night,” Wilbur said. 

Over the next few days as Tommy recovered, he felt more free than he had ever felt. Finally, he didn’t have to hide parts of himself from the people he cared about. At the same time, he was filled with dread. He knew that the other would want an explanation at some point. He just really hoped that they could forgive him for lying to them. 

At one point, Techno had led him to a secluded cave that now harboured all of the remains of the dragons and the dragon hunters. Apparently, Tommy had yet to collect his battle scales and his thundermates had wanted to give him a chance to say goodbye to his mentor should he feel the need to do so. 

Tommy ended up doing that. Because no matter how shitty Dream turned out to be, always had been, Tommy silently admitted to himself, he had still been his mentor and legal guardian for a long time. 

A week after the hunters had attacked them and revealed Tommy’s secret, he was greeted with his thunder sitting in the living-room-like cave. Their facial expressions revealed their intentions. They wanted to talk about what had happened. “I can’t avoid this any longer can I?” Tommy asked as he sat down with them, shifting into his dragon form to feel more comfortable. 

“Why did you hide it?” Techno asked. 

“At first it was to protect myself. I knew that you were interested in my dragon form. But at first, I thought it was because I was a golden dragon. But then I started to care about you and found out about the whole I got kidnapped as a child thing. At that point, you knew both sides of me but I was scared that you would only care about dragon me if I revealed the information or that it was too late and that you would hate me for lying to you,” Tommy didn’t dare to meet their eyes. 

“I think I’m speaking for all of us when I say that I understand why you did what you did. Yes, I would have preferred it if you had been the one to tell us but I can understand why you were scared,” Phil replied reassuringly. 

“You shouldn’t. I have been lying to you since we met,” Tommy protested, clenching his fists. 

“We lied too. I don’t blame you for keeping the truth but please understand that we are a thunder which means you have to trust us just like we trust you. I know it’s going to be hard but just remember that we are a thunder, a family if you will. We will not judge you and accept you no matter what,” Phil said. 

“Why do you always know what to say? Prime now I feel even worse for keeping that stuff from you,” Tommy replied but everyone knew that he was starting to accept the words Phil had said. 

“Don’t. You had your reasons. Yes, it would have been nice if you had trusted us more but after everything that happened nobody can blame you for what you did,” Phil assured. 

“It was not that I didn’t trust you. You’re my thunder. I trust you more than anyone,” Tommy said looking them in the eye to show them his sincerity before looking away again, “I just thought I was going to lose you. It was a little silly, now that I think about it. Wilbur even told me that you would accept me no matter what. I guess I was just scared that you were going to leave”. 

“You will never lose us. We are your thunder. You will be with us forever,” Phil said. 

“That’s another thing I wanted to ask about. Wilbur knew. How did he figure it out? How long has he known? And why didn’t he tell us?” Techno asked. 

“I found out when I went flying with Tommy. Remember when Sam visited, then? And it was just the similarities. At first, I thought it was because they grew up together but that didn’t add up. And I didn’t tell you because he asked me to,” Wilbur explained. 

“Aright. Just don’t make a habit of keeping stuff like this from us, both of you,” Techno said. He was quiet for a moment before he spoke up again, “On that matter. Sam told us about a new fighter, a very good one at that, C or whatever. That wouldn’t have happened to be you by any chance?” 

The guilt on Tommy’s and Wilbur’s faces betrayed them before they could reply. “That was dangerous. I told you that you shouldn’t go. Especially not alone. You could have died,” Phil scolded. It came out of a place of worry like always, but it still made Tommy a little angry. 

“You told me that I could go if I was as good as Tommy. Well, I am because I am Tommy like you just found out. Besides, I can take care of myself just fine and so can Wilbur. I’ll have you know he won all of the fights he fought,” Tommy said. 

“I know I just don’t want to lose you again, any of you for that matter,” Phil replied.

“Anyway, you must have done something big to shock Sam like that. He couldn’t tell us everything that happened due to the arena rules but you can tell us everything about you as long as you keep information about your opponents vague,” Techno said. 

“Not much, really. There was just this one prick who decided to cheat. He was fighting Wilbur and used some potion to make him pass out. He tried to kill him and blame it on Wilbur for faking or something. I realized his intentions and just snapped. I don’t like people messing with my thunder,” Tommy said as vaguely as possible. 

“And that’s exactly why I was worried. There are always bad people. If Tommy hadn’t been there, you would have died, Wilbur,” Phil scolded him. 

“I know, Phil. But I had Tommy with me. I knew that he would protect me should anything happen. Besides, I’m not the one that goes to the fights alone without any backup,” Wilbur argued. 

“Touché,” Phil said. 

“Wait, I thought you had to have someone written down as your replacement?” Tommy asked. 

“Well yes. But if you’re an S tier you get special privileges. As long as you don’t enter a death match, you don’t need someone with you,” Phil explained. 

“But wouldn’t the chance of getting injured to the degree of not being able to fight anymore be even higher for S tiers?” Tommy asked. 

“Well yes and no. Obviously, S-tier dragons are stronger and can gravely injure others more easily. But both of the fighters are S-tier dragons so they can defend themselves more easily as well. Furthermore, not everyone can become an S-tier, you have to be very talented to be even considered to move from A tier to S tier. Another reason is that S-tier dragons are very confident in their abilities and love to draw the fights out and show off. But they can not really do that when they kill someone outside of a death match. It can easily put you down back to A-tier if you’re an S-tier. So nobody risks injuring their opponents too much. It’s an honour thing, mostly,” Phil tried to explain. 

“Ah alright. That makes sense. What tier am I, thinking about it? I registered as B tier but I’ve upgraded to A tier, surely,” Tommy thought out loud. 

“We could always go and ask. But that will have to wait until you’re completely recovered,” Techno suggested. 

“But I am,” Tommy argued. 

“We are not risking it. Besides, didn’t you say that we could help attach your battle scales once you told the others?” Wilbur said. 

“I did say that. Only if you want to, of course,” Tommy agreed. 

“We would love to,” Phil replied. 

“Okay, so how are we going to do this?” Tommy asked, “I have helped both Techno and Wilbur apply their battle scales not to mention exchanging thunde scales. But this is different. I don’t have a pattern you can follow or anything like that”. 

“Well, most dragons put similar scales next to each other. So silvers in one place chromes in another. The only dragons that can tell similar coloured scales from each other are the dragons that they belong to and their thunder,” Phil explained. 

“Oh okay. That makes sense,” Tommy replied. 

“At the end of the day, it’s your decision,” Wilbur told him. 

Tommy thought about all of the dragons he had killed. Most of them had battle scales, now that he thought about it. Some had them arranged in beautiful patterns while most of them, especially, the ones with the most battle scales displayed them randomly spread throughout their non-metallic scales or in clusters like he had seen on Techno.

“Hm. I guess an actual pattern wouldn’t be very practical since I’m probably going to add a lot more scales to it in the future,” Tommy contemplated, “but I also want to keep track of how many dragons I have killed. I can’t really explain it but dragon hunting has been a big part of my life and I can’t just let it go even if I won’t kill others without a good reason anymore”. 

He looked at Wilbur’s scales, a few dozen dots against the blue background of his non-metallic scales and then over to Techno with his twelve clusters of battle scales on the right side of his neck and the colour gradient that stretched along the other side of his neck. 

He knew that he wanted something similar to what they had. But he also really liked Phil’s pattern. It was a simple line that twirled around his neck, made up of metallic and non-metallic scales on the right and left side of his neck respectively, with no care for their colour. 

“I think I’d like something like Wilbur but bigger,” Tommy carefully watched the reaction of his thunder. He knew that this was his decision but he still cared about their opinion. When all they did was nod reassuringly, he continued, “I thought that maybe a dozen scales per dot. Because twelve is a very important number and everything. It’ll help me keep count of the number even if I can’t see it that well”. 

“That’s a good idea. Do you want the same pattern on both sides?” Phil asked. 

“I’d like that,” Tommy replied, fidgeting with his hands nervously. 

“Okay. Would you prefer it if the colours were mixed together like me or do you want them to be separated like Techno?” Phil asked. 

“I want the metallic ones to be separated like Techno. But I only have two dozen non-metallic battle scales so it wouldn’t really make sense to separate them. I think it’d look prettier that way, too,” Tommy decided. 

“Alright, we won’t disappoint you,” Phil assured before Tommy finally shifted into his dragon form and his thundermates started to place the battle scales along his neck. 

Once the three dragons had applied all of the battle scars along Tommy’s neck, putting the leftover scales on a new piece of leather, Tommy spoke up, “What are we going to do with the remaining scales?” he asked. 

“I usually kill an equal amount of dragon hunters. But we should probably wait a while until you have completely recovered,” Techno said. 

“We could use them to cover the weapons the hunters left behind. We wanted to get more equipment for human combat anyway,” Wilbur suggested, noticing the way Techno deflated. Hunting down dragon hunters together with his thunder always made him happy for some reason Wilbur didn’t know. 

“That sounds great,” Tommy agreed, looking over to Techno before adding, “We could always go dragon hunter hunting after I have recovered. We also need to retrieve the other weapons from Dream’s old bases”. 

“That sounds acceptable,” Techno agreed, “I will get the weapons,” and with that, he was gone. 

“Thank you. This means a lot to him, to all of us,” Phil commented. 

They stayed in silence until Techno was back, dropping a bunch of weapons and armour on the floor. No doubt too much to be covered in Tommy’s scales alone. 

“Do you have any leftover scales?” Tommy asked. 

“Phil and I both do. Wilbur might have some although I’m not sure,” Techno said. 

“A few but not too many. We could also use the battle scales from the games we played. We don’t need to use all of those weapons, do we?” Wilbur suggested. 

“Yeah. Although I would really prefer it if we did use those since they are the strongest. But once we raided Dream’s base, we should have more than enough weapons for that,” Tommy replied. 

“Alright. Do you want all of those to be yours? You can finish covering them later on. And we could take the ones we will retrieve from the Hunter’s lair,” Wilbur auggested. 

“I think I’d like it if those were mine. But for the others, I would love to have them covered in your scales as well. We could even combine them to make patterns,” Tommy suggested. 

“Alright. We’ll start saving them up. Techno and Phil might just start visiting the fighting arena more often to get even more. I know that I will,” Wilbur said, Phil humming in agreement while Techno was suddenly very interested in sorting the different weapons. 

“Alright. Not every part of the weapon needs to be covered in scales. Dragon scales enhance the strength and sharpness of the original material. So it does almost nothing on wood,” he held up one of the bows, “Or the hilt since it’s dulled,” he showed them one of Dream’s favourite daggers, one that Dream had promised Tommy once he had proven his talent. Tommy wondered if he would have ever been good enough for his mentor. 

“Not that you’d want this part to be sharp anyway since it’s where you’re holding it. To make it simple, just cover the sharp parts of the weapons and the Netherite parts of the armour. Use some common sense and don’t hesitate to ask should you have questions. Wilbur should know how to do it since I helped him with his own armour,” Tommy finished. 

“If this is about the daggers,” Phil started but Tommy cut him off by shaking his head. 

“It’s not. I know that you wanted to find a way to incorporate both metallic and non-metallic scales and the daggers mean a lot to me. Nevertheless, I don’t want to waste any scales so I decided to point it out again just in case,” Tommy reasoned. 

“Alright. We’ll do our best,” Phil replied, picking up a quiver of arrows and placing the scales he had just removed from Tommy’s body on the arrow tips. Tommy didn’t have the heart to tell him that his main bow had an Infinity enchantment on it. He decided that they’d simply use those arrows for training. He had to teach his thundermates how to shoot an arrow at some point even if Wilbur had gotten quite good at it over time. The others had probably only touched arrows to remove them from their skin.  

Tommy looked around to see Wilbur covering a few of the daggers that were lying around with Tommy’s scales while Techno had picked out the swords. 

That left Tommy with the armour. It made sense. The armour had the biggest area and needed to be adjusted before it could be worn. It probably made the most sense to make a set for each of them which meant he should only focus on one of the sets, as the others probably would prefer it if their armour was covered in their own scales. They could think about adding thunderscale-like patterns later on. 

As Tommy sat there, adjusting Dream’s old armour to fit him better, mentally calculating the amount of scales he’d need to cover it, Tommy realized that he felt content. 

Techno and Tommy spent the next few weeks after Tommy had recovered tracking down different dragon hunters and killing them before they could hurt any more dragons. It helped that they had found Dream’s horses Spirit and Carl that most dragon hunters immediately recognized. Some of them even remembered Tommy from when he had been much younger. He was quick to convince them to bring him back to their base before getting rid of all of the hunters and freeing the captured dragons with Techno. The more stubborn ones he convinced by Techno playing bate and Tommy helping the other dragon hunters capture him. He, of course, used his disenchanted netherite chain. Just in case the dragon hunters tried anything. 

And for the first time in his life, Tommy felt proud of the dozens of crimson scales that adored his third patch of leather. 

It was a day like every other. That was a lie. Techno was not here with Tommy which scared him a little. He did not have backup. He should be used to this. He had spent years hunting dragons alone. But over the past year and a bit that he had lived with his thunder, he had gotten used to having someone to rely on. He didn’t need it very often but he would be lying if he claimed that he wasn’t grateful for them. 

There had been a few more dragons around their territory as of late and one of their allied thunders had gone missing a while ago which stressed Phil out to the point that he got injured on patrol. That would have been fine, normally but right now it meant that Techno had to accompany Wilbur to his fight in the arena as he was still an A tier and probably would be for another eternity. 

Not that Wilbur was complaining, he was happy where he was. Fighting the other A-tier dragons taught him a lot and he knew that he would be immediately sent back to A-tier should he actually fight an S-tier dragon in the arena. He was simply not as good and experienced as them yet and that was okay. He would learn, he would make mistakes, he would learn from them and improve. 

But in order to do that, he needed to attend every match. Which meant that Techno could not accompany Tommy today. He would join him later, as he promised. But as of right now, Tommy was alone. 

And that would be okay, most of the time. He knew how to take care of himself. Not to mention his background in dealing with dragon hunters. 

But today was different. Maybe it was because Tommy felt more nervous than normal due to Techno not being with him. Or maybe those dragon hunters were simply more suspicious than the others. 

Tommy had been talking, training, and hunting with them for a while now. While he now hated hurting innocent dragons, he knew that they were currently in the territory of the Antarctic Empire, of Sam’s thunder he was pretty sure. And all of the dragons that they hunted were not part of the Antarctic Empire, trespassing while Sam’s thunder couldn’t properly protect their territory. It made him feel a little bit better about killing all of the dragons. 

But instead of bringing him to their main base after Tommy had told them about Dream and how he had died a while ago, leaving Tommy without any connection to other dragon hunters, seeking revenge, they had brought him to a different base. One that was filled with dragon hunters with no dragon in sight. 

And normally, that would be okay. He could deal with them, lie his way through everything until he was able to see the dragons. But apparently, they had caught on to the fact that there was someone spying on them and taking down some of their other bases. That may or may not have been Tommy’s work. He couldn’t be blamed, really. How was he supposed to know that they would connect it to him of all people?

Back to the current situation. The dragon hunters had decided that Tommy was the one taking down their smaller bases which to be fair, he was, but they couldn’t be sure about that. Either way, they decided to attack him. 

He wasn’t in trouble. Nope. Tommy was fine. Sure, he was fighting a few dozen people all at once all alone but he was fine. He had dealt with trained thunders before and won, this was nothing. It was just a little exhausting, that’s it. Sure, he had been forced to half-shift into his dragon form at some point to avoid getting killed, revealing the fact that he was a dragon and blowing his cover. But that was fine. He would kill all of them anyway. He was alright. 

It had taken way longer than Tommy would like to admit before he had managed to reduce the dragon hunters to five humans. That was good since it meant that he could keep track of all of his attackers. What wasn’t good was the fact that the remaining dragon hunters were distinctly more skilled than the rest. And that they could attack him more freely now that there was little to no chance of them accidentally hurting one of their own. But it was fine, he had dealt with worse before. 

While Tommy was distracted dodging two swords, an axe, multiple daggers and other projectiles, he did not notice a sixth dragon hunter coming up behind him. Tommy did not notice the person coming up behind him. What he did notice was a dragon with black non-metallic and purple metallic scales picking him up and lifting him into the air for a moment before setting him down again, saving him from the attack. Realistically, he knew that he would have been fine. They probably would have injured him, badly, but ultimately he would have been fine. 

“I had it handled,” Tommy said before adding a quiet, “Thanks”. Better not anger the dragon that helped him. He did not want to fight more people than he needed to. He was exhausted and just wanted to lie down in the warm summer sun and sleep. 

He was on the ground again so he immediately attacked the dragon hunters. They had to die before they could inform any other of his presence. It was bad enough that one had gotten away at some point. Now, other dragon hunters possibly knew about Tommy and he did not like that at all. He didn’t even know what exactly they had told their friends. All he knew was that it wasn’t good and that he needed to stop them from spreading any more information. 

“I knew that you had it handled but I still wanted to help you. If I’m correct I still owe you a favour,” the dragon informed him, helping him fight the other dragons. 

“That barely counted as a favour. I spared your life, you merely helped me avoid injury,” Tommy scoffed. He was still a little pissed at having to be saved. If it had been one of his thundermates, he would have been fine with it. But a random dragon swooping in and acting as if she was doing him a favour rubbed him the wrong way. 

“I know that. But I thought that you could maybe help me. You see, my thunder was captured by them and I need to free them. I thought that you could maybe help me,” she said, sounding a little desperate. 

“So you want me to do you another favour?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. 

“If that’s what it takes to save my thunder, then yes,” she said without hesitation.

“You weren’t so keen on protecting your last thunder,” Tommy pointed out. 

“Back then I had a hatchling to protect. Not to mention the fact that I had wanted to leave my thunder for a while now. I didn’t agree with what they did,” she said. 

“And what exactly did they do that justified them getting killed?” Tommy asked. 

“They stole another thunder’s hatchling for some sort of petty revenge. I’ve never understood my sister or her friends. Ever since our other sister died, Magna has changed.  She was too focused on taking down The Blade or whatever his real name is that she lost what really matters to her,” the dragon, End Tommy realized said. 

“You’re End,” Tommy stated. 

“How do you know my name?” she asked. 

“One of Magna’s friends told me. Don’t worry, they’re all dead. So is your sister,” Tommy grimaced slightly. He should have said that differently. 

“Alright,” End said as acceptance crosser her features, covering whatever other emotions she had been feeling about the death of her sister. 

“And you’re sure that you’re not allied with them anymore?” Tommy asked. He needed to make sure that he wasn’t accidentally aiding one of their enemies. 

“Far from it. I joined another thunder shortly after you freed me of mine. They’re part of the Antarctic Empire,” End assured. If she wasn’t lying as her thunder really was allied with his, Tommy was unable to hurt her. He decided to test his theory by trying to flick one of his daggers at her but felt unable to complete the action. So she hadn’t been lying, good. 

“What was that?” End asked, having seen his action. 

“I decided to check if you are lying. I made a deal with someone so that I would be unable to harm any dragon within the Antarctic Empire. You’re unable to hurt me as well so don’t try anything,” Tommy told her. She would find out eventually, anyway. 

He wasn’t surprised when End raised her left hand to slash him before it was locked in the air. “Interesting,” she commented. 

“Are you sure that this is going to work?” End questioned him. She was currently chained in his netherite chain. 

“Yes. It worked before. You could shift if you wanted to but I advise you not to until I tell you to. Please go along with every lie I tell, no matter how gruesome it is. And remember that I am unable to harm you and your thunder,” Tommy told her. 

“Alright. Let’s do this,” she said, before starting to tug on the chains binding her. Not enough to make it really troublesome for Tommy but enough to look as if she had been fighting him the entire way here and was completely exhausted. 

When they finally arrived at the location where they had managed to track End’s thunder to, they were greeted by at least a dozen dragon hunters. “What do you want?” one of them, the leader, asked. 

“This dragon killed all of the other hunters, trying to get reunited with her thunder. Even tried to pretend to be one of us to do so,” Tommy lied. The pretending to be a dragon hunter bit was all him. 

“Right. You’re Logan, I’m assuming. You called,” they said, most probably testing him. 

“I’m afraid that Logan was killed by her before I managed to restrain her. I’m Tommy, one of the newer recruits,” Tommy replied, tugging on the chain to emphasize his point. 

“Alright. Follow me. I’ll bring you to the others,” the leader said, motioning for the other dragon hunters to free the way. After what felt like an eternity, they arrived in a small cave. It was filled with a good dozen dragons, some of them children, barely out of their hatchling ages. 

The moment they noticed End, all attention turned to her. He could see many expressions morph into shock. They were all scared. Apparently, End had been their last hope. She had probably tried to contact one of their allied thunders, maybe multiple. Welp, it was too late for that. 

Tommy quickly followed the instruction of the dragon hunter, binding End to one of the walls. After he had finished he looked around. This had been a big mistake since he made eye contact with no other than Sam. The other dragon was not as good as Tommy in hiding his expression, a look of betrayal clear on his face. 

The leader of the dragon hunters who was now the only human in the room, their friends having retreated to behind the door, noticed, narrowing their eyes suspiciously. “You know each other?” they asked. 

“You could say that,” Tommy smirked. He needed to convince the leader. Only if they let their guard down and trusted Tommy enough to tell him more about the remaining bases, could Tommy get rid of them and free the other dragons. He noticed how Sam’s face paled further. 

“I feel as if there’s a backstory,” they said. 

“There is. You see, when I was very little my parents took in a dragon. His name was Theseus and he was my brother in anything but blood. We grew up together. We were happy,” Tommy trailed off for a moment before continuing, “But one day a dragon attacked and killed them. They were looking for Theo as I later found out. He was the reason that my family died. But back then we both only had revenge in mind. So I became a dragon hunter while Theo did Prime knows what. He accompanied me and gave me his scales to improve my armour and weapons. It did little to make up for the lives that were taken because of him. 

“I was taken in by a few dragon hunters. They were my new family even if they hated Theo. Back then I would have chosen him over them in a heartbeat, even if he was a dragon. He was the only family I had left. 

“But as it turns out, he cares more about the dragons that abandoned him when he was little than someone he has known his entire life, the killer of my parents nonetheless. I was fine pretending that I didn’t hate them. I really was. 

“My mentor managed to bring me back on my path. He showed me how little Theseus cared about me. How little it would take for him to abandon me, betray me just like he betrayed my parents.

“It took me too long to realize just how right he was. But by then, it was too late. They had already killed my mentor and his closest friends. 

“So I did what was right, I killed the monsters that had turned my brother against me before giving him the same fate,” Tommy smirked as he finished, ignoring the bitter taste the words left in his mouth. 

He looked over to Sam who looked angrier than when he had first noticed Tommy. “They trusted you,” he exclaimed, “They trusted you and you betrayed them. They saw you as their own, they saw you as a part of their thunder, yet, you stabbed them in the back”. 

“They should have thought about that before killing my family,” Tommy said, suppressing a shudder at the implication. While he had deeply cared for Dream, he had never considered the other family. Never could have considered his viewpoint on dragons. 

“And should the time come, I’ll take great pleasure in killing you just like I killed them. I can still see the look of betrayal on Wilbur’s face when I sliced off Techno’s head right in front of him. But nothing will top Theseus’s expression when I used his own scales to stab him right through his cold unbeating heart,” Tommy added, praying to Prime that his performance had been good enough for the leader. 

As he dared to look up at the dragon hunter, he saw a smirk forming on their face, “We’ll get along splendidly,” they told him before leading him out of the room. 

It took way longer than Tommy would have liked to find out where exactly the other bases were. This mission was taking a lot longer than Tommy had expected it to. Not to mention the fact that he desperately wanted to talk to his thunder again. It was already the next day and there was still no sign of Techno which meant that something big must have happened. It was alright though, Tommy was managing just fine. 

“I was still a little sceptical yesterday, I must admit. I was afraid that you were a dragon, as slim as the chances may be. But you have proven yourself to me. A dragon would have shifted into their dragon form by now, yet, you are utterly human,” the leader said and Tommy internally laughed at that. Did they seriously believe that every human was trustworthy and hated dragons as much as they did? Not to mention the fact that Tommy was not, in fact, utterly human but very much a dragon. 

Tommy was introduced to the way that the dragon hunters were organized which wasn’t too different from the organisation Dream had been a part of. He learned a lot of new things that would come in handy when taking down the rest of this organisation. 

All the while he was dreading that one of the dragons he had made it his mission to protect would get killed while Tommy could have helped them. But the leader had told him that their goal was to draw out the entirety of the Antarctic Empire, capturing all of the members by using the others as bait. Apparently, thundermates were able to track each other down relatively easily as long as both parties were in their dragon form. The same worked for allied thunders although it took much longer. 

In the meantime, they’d ensure that the dragons would be unable to escape via their dragon form by harming the youngest ones to a degree where they could not fly by themselves. The dragons wouldn’t leave their thundermates behind under any circumstances, making it a lot harder for them to flee. 

All in all, the plan sounded good. With the small exception that Tommy was right under their nose, planning their downfall. As soon as they had revealed the other locations to Tommy, he had left in the middle of the night while no one was looking to take down at least one of their bases per night, eliminating all of the dragon hunters present in said base. The base he was currently at contained too many dragon hunters for him to reasonably fight and as long as he got rid of them in less than a week, they would be none the wiser. 

It had been a week since Tommy had arrived at the main base. He had been flying to the bases via his dragon form, making sure to never be seen by anyone as he took down dragon hunter after dragon hunter, hoping that his thunder would manage to track him down. 

The leader had been wondering about the lack of contact from the other bases and sent some of the dragon hunters to check on them, leaving Tommy outside to observe. This turned out to be a good thing since shortly afterwards, Techno, Phil, and Wilbur approached. 

“Took you long enough,” Tommy scoffed even though he wanted nothing more but to run up to them and never leave their side ever again. 

“There was a lot going on and you were barely in your dragon form. Not to mention the distress signal we received from Sam,” Phil explained, worriedly looking around. He too wanted to make sure that Tommy was safe after a week of no contact but knew that they would have to wait until the threat was dealt with. 

“Sam and his thunder are inside there somewhere. They should all be alive although they most probably hate me since I said that I killed all of you and myself,” Tommy trailed off, “Anyway, this is our best chance. I already took out most of the other bases but there are way too many hunters in this base. I would have tried to free the other dragons but they are guarded very heavily and are kept in a shape that makes it almost impossible for them to flee let alone fight”.  

“Alright, let’s do this,” Techno said excitedly. He had always loved taking down dragon hunters. People may call him petty but he didn’t care. The dragon hunters would pay for what their kind had done to him. 

Once all of the dragon hunters had been taken care of, Tommy made his way inside. The others had stayed outside to ensure that all of the dragon hunters had actually died and to take care of the ones that had left to check on the other bases once they came back. 

Inside, Tommy actually found a few hunters hiding somewhere, coming out as soon as they saw him inform him that dragons had attacked them and taken the rest of the hunters. 

“I saw them outside. I don’t think any of the others survived,” Tommy commented. 

“A few did. I’ll lead you to where we’re hiding. The others should be back soon. Maybe we’ll manage to capture them,” they said, not seeing Tommy’s smirk. 

He was quickly led to a room filled with just over two dozen dragon hunters. He quickly locked all of the doors, ensuring that none of them would be able to escape before attacking them. The betrayal of their face made him feel much better than Sam’s expression had. 

“I thought you were a dragon hunter like us,” one of them protested. 

“I used to be. But I changed my mind. A dragon could never truly be a dragon hunter, now, could they? At least not forever,” Tommy said.

When Tommy entered the room that the dragons were kept in, Sam immediately raised his head, “Here to finally end our lives? Or are you here to gloat more about how you broke their trust?” he exclaimed angrily. 

“I’m here to free you. Sorry for lying to you, it was necessary. End, please tell them that I’m telling the truth. Come on, we don’t have forever. There have been way too many dragons in your territory since you disappeared,” Tommy said, freeing the dragons from their chains one by one, “And before you even think about it, you cannot hurt me. I made a deal with Phil,” he added when he saw one of them trying to attack him in his peripheral. 

“He’s telling the truth,” a dragon in his human form commented. Tommy looked at him for a moment before he recognized the young adult. 

“I know you. You were the only dragon to ever notice that I was trying to trick them,” Tommy said, still leading the group of dragons through the base towards the exit. 

The young man narrowed his eyes before recognition flashed in his eyes, “You were the one with the fake gold coins. I always wanted to know how to make them,” he exclaimed excitedly. 

“Calm down, Tubbo. We don’t know if we can trust him yet,” the dragon next to Tubbo assured. They too were in their human form. 

“I know Ranboo but I just really liked those fake coins. I almost regretted pointing it out because the fake coins were so cool,” Tubbo replied. 

“Just be careful,” Ranboo said, obviously worried for his thundermate.

“I don’t know why you’re that worried in the first place. You two can fight rather well. You’re A-tier dragons by now, aren’t you?” Tommy asked, not turning around to see the shocked expression a majority of the thunder wore. 

“How do you know how well they fight?” Sam asked defensively. 

“Sam told my thunder about their fight with ‘C’ or whatever you called him. I was in the fighting arena that day so I knew what he was talking about. It’s been a while since then and you have most probably improved by now,” Tommy stated, finally seeing the exit. 

“He just knows a lot of things, don’t worry too much about it. We can trust him,” End tried to calm her thundermate. 

“Do you two know each other or something?” one of the dragons asked. 

“You could say that. He was the dragon hunter that killed my old thunder but spared me since I had a hatchling,” End explained. 

“She was the first dragon that I met that I didn’t kill,” Tommy supplied helpfully, “On that note, here you go,” he handed End the favour scale she gave him a few years ago. 

“Wait here for a moment. I have to check that the dragon hunters have all been taken care of,” he added before exiting the tunnel only to be greeted by his thunder surrounded by a lot of dead bodies. 

“Was that all of them?” Tommy asked, shifting his hand into its dragon form for a moment before shifting it back to get the attention of his thundermates. 

“I think so. Did you find the others?” Techno replied, looking around again to check if there was anything they had missed. 

“Yeah. They’re waiting inside. Had to make sure that it was safe. A lot of them are injured. They took a lot of their scales and even injured their wings to make it harder for them to escape,” Tommy explained. 

“Alright. Well please get them. They must be scared,” Phil said. 

“On it, old man,” Tommy quipped before making his way back to where the other dragons were waiting. “It’s safe,” he told them before turning around again and walking over to his thunder. 

As soon as Sam was outside, his eyes locked with Phil’s and he rushed over, “I thought you were dead. He said that he killed all of you and I was so scared that I had just lost some of my oldest friends”. 

Phil shot Tommy a disappointed look, “You didn’t tell them that we were alive?” 

“I thought it was clear. I mean I told them that I had been lying so I just assumed that they knew,” Tommy was doing his best to avoid Phil’s I’m not angry I’m just disappointed gaze. 

“You little shit, always creating chaos,” Phil said as he affectionately ruffled Tommy’s hair, suddenly in his human form and right next to him. 

Techno was close behind him, engulfing Tommy in a hug, “Don’t ever do something like that again. We were so scared that we had lost you again,” he mumbled into Tommy’s hair before being pushed away from Wilbur who wanted to pull Tommy into a hug as well. The thunder of dragons around them was not so subtly staring at them. They all knew how much Techno hated his human form and how much more he hated dragon hunters. His openly caring for a dragon hunter was shocking to all of them. 

“As much as I hate to interrupt this, we need to get back to our lair as soon as possible. All of the young ones and a good portion of the others are injured quite healthily and some can’t shift into their dragon form without causing long-term damage to their wings,” Sam said. 

“The ones that are most injured could shift into their human form and the others could carry them. We can help too,” Phil offered. 

“Thank you for your offer but even if you helped, we’d still be at least one dragon short. Maybe Tommy could stay here with Tubbo and Ranboo until the two of us can come and get them,” Sam said. 

“Wait so you would only need someone to carry Tubbo and Ranboo? The rest would all be taken care of?” Phil asked. 

“Yeah. Well, and Tommy. I don’t think he’d want to walk back,” Sam replied, a little confused.

Phil looked at Tommy, willing him to get the hint. “Please, they could be permanently injured,” he said when Tommy didn’t seem to react. 

“Are you sure that they’re trustworthy?” Tommy asked. Sam looked even more confused. 

“They are. I know that you’re still insecure about it but please consider it just this once,” Phil said. 

“Fine but don’t make me regret it,” Tommy told Phil, glaring at him for good measure before shiting into his dragon form. Immediately, everyone’s attention shifted to him and Tommy wanted nothing more than to sink into the ground and disappear. 

“Wait, I’m confused, I thought that Tommy and Theseus were different people,” Sam said. 

“I lied. I lie a lot as you found out today,” Tommy explained. “Now can we go, all the staring is making me uncomfortable,” Tommy said. 

“Right,” Sam said, snapping out of it. He then started to direct all of the injured dragons to the uninjured ones, helping them shift into their human forms when they needed assistance. 

“Thanks for rescuing us,” Tubbo said as he approached Tommy. 

“Of course. You didn’t deserve to be trapped in here,” Tommy replied, lowering himself so that Tubbo and Ranbo could climb onto his back. 

“I’ve never done this before, do you think it’s fun?” Tubbo asked. He was most probably talking to Ranboo but Tommy still answered his question. 

“It’s pretty fun. A little different than flying yourself but it’s still nice,” he said. Tubbo didn’t respond, just nodding to confirm that he had heard Tommy. 

They had been flying for a while now when Tubbo spoke up, ”You have a lot of battle scales from killing dragons but almost none from the fighting arena”. 

“I didn’t lie about being taken in by dragon hunters when I was nine. I only recently started to go to the fighting arena,” Tommy replied. 

He was very much aware that he only had two dozen non-metallic battle scales. He wanted more, no doubt. But the people in the fighting arena stil had to figure out what rank to put him in since he was so experienced already. 

“Oh, are you good? I bet you’re very good. We could fight together sometimes. Ranboo hasn’t gone to the arena with me ever since our last duo fight,” Tubbo said. 

“I’d say I’m pretty good although I’m probably going to be placed in D tier for the beginning even though I qualify for A tier and maybe even S tier,” Tommy replied, “Is there a reason why he hasn’t been going to the arena?”. 

“Yeah. The last time we were there, there was this one dragon who took us down like super fast. They were very strong and it scared Ranboo because they could have killed us. They killed the person they had been battling before us. In a death match, but still,” Tubbo explained and Tommy had a pretty good guess who that dragon was. 

“Hey, you were pretty scared too. I just don’t want to die because of some silly fighting arena,” Ranboo protested. 

“I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be scared. I completely understand you. I’d just like to fight with you again,” Tubbo replied. 

“You don’t happen to be talking about Crimson, are you?” Tommy asked. 

“How do you know about them?” Tubbo immediately asked. 

“You might want to check my non-metallic battle scales,” Tommy said, not explaining any further. He felt Tubbo lean to the left side to take a good look at the battle scales, his human fingers gliding over them before resting on two scales that were right next to each other. 

“No way,” Tubbo exclaimed excitedly. 

“What happened?” Ranboo asked, he too leaning over to figure out what got Tubbo so excited. Tommy could feel the moment that Ranboo saw their scale in between Tommy’s crimson ones, their anxiousness increasing tenfold. 

“I’m not going to drop you or anything. It was just a fight and I wouldn’t have killed you. Or tortured you like I did with the other person. I don’t like torture, but they deserved it. They tried to kill Soot outside of a death match and cheated to do so,” Tommy said. 

“Wait, do you happen to be Crimson as well? Like the dragon hunter that has been killing dragons left and right for years now? Because I told Sam that you were most probably Crimson but he didn’t believe me,” Tubbo asked. 

“How else would I have gotten that many battle scales?” Tommy replied, “I am Crimson. But don’t blame Sam for now knowing. He knew that Tommy-me was killing all of those dragons and Crimson-me, the one that you fought, was a dragon so there was no way of him knowing,” he explained. 

“Ah alright. That makes sense. I’ll still tell him that I was right,” Tubbo cheered, “Also, what do you think about duo fights? Or maybe trio fights?” he added excitedly. 

“I’ll consider it. But I have to wait until the fighting arena tells me what to do. They don’t want me to fight D-tier dragons but they can’t really put me with the A-tier dragons without the progress either,” Tommy explained. 

“Ah, well, tell me when you do know. We could meet up too. I know where Wilbur’s lair is, you live with them, don’t you? Ranboo and I could totally visit you,” Tubbo suggested. 

“That sounds nice and yes I do. But only if Ranboo feels comfortable,” Tommy said. 

“He’s mostly fine with it. They’re just processing everything that happened since we were taken. He’ll be back to normal in no time. It’s best to leave them alone when they’re like this anyway,” Tubbo explained, Ranboo nodding in conformation behind him, not that Tommy could tell, “He nodded,” Tubbo supplied before going back to talking with Tommy about different topics that interested him. 

They continued to talk until they arrived at Tubbo and Ranboo’s lair, “Thank you for helping us,” Ranboo said as they hopped down from where they had been sitting on Tommy’s back. 

“Of course, we’re friends, aren’t we? Now please go inside and get your wounds looked at. I’m looking forwards to seeing you once you recovered. Maybe I’ll visit too,” Tommy smiled, bidding the other dragons goodbye before flying off with his thunder. 

Chapter Text

Over the next few weeks, Tommy spent as much time as possible in the fighting arena, desperate to improve his ranking. 

By now, Wilbur was a well-established A-tier and Tommy was working on officially graduating to S-tier. Him basically starting at A tier had caused a lot of protests which meant that Tommy would have to make up for all of the battles while remaining in A tier before he could graduate to S tier. He did so by going to the arena as often as possible and utilizing a loophole Wilbur had discovered. Apparently, when registering yourself for team fights, the limit was only for the dragon that registered the fight which meant he could fight two dozen team fights in addition to his dozen of normal ones with the help of his thunder alone. Not to mention Tubbo and Ranboo or any of his other friends helping him out occasionally. He didn’t think that there had ever been a dragon that had become an S tier as quickly as he had but Tommy didn’t really care. He was just happy that he could fight multiple dragons at once now. Despite what some may think, he had not stopped fighting as often as he had once he had officially become an S-tier fighter but instead had started working even harder to fill the left side of his neck with even more battle scales. 

While Tommy worked on improving his reputation is the fighting arena, his thunder worked on raiding the dragon hunter bases for all of the weapons they could find and bringing them back to their lair. The dragons knew that they didn’t need that many weapons but recovered them nonetheless. 

While Wilbur with the occasional help of Tommy worked on categorizing the weapons and sorting them from most to least useful, Phil and Techno connected the training cave with a smaller yet rather large cave that they would use to store all of the human weapons. They also used the rubble to finally cover the entry to the tunnel and after protests from Tommy redirected it to have a new entry closer to their lair to increase the chance of seeing an enemy before they were able to use the tunnel to enter the lair. 

When Tommy wasn’t fighting in the arena, sorting through weapons and armour, or patrolling his territory, he spent time with Tubbo and Ranboo. The three of them had spent a lot of time fighting together in the fighting arena but had ultimately bonded over their love for human games which they would play in Tommy’s cave. 

All of them had gained a lot more battle scales in the few weeks that they had spent together, which they either attached to their own skin or to pretty rocks, pretty daggers in Tommy’s case when they were won through the human games the three dragons loved to play together. 

In the time it took Tommy and his thunder to sort through all of the many weapons they had collected not only from the lairs of the dragon hunter organization they had taken down but also from all of Dream’s lair as well as the other dragon hunters Tommy and Techno had tracked together, the four dragons had collected as many of their non-metallic scales as possible in order to cover at least some of the weapons they had collected.

Most of the weapons didn’t need to be covered in their scales since they were either so weak that it would just be a waste of dragon scales or there were so many of them that the dragons could only turn a portion of them into dragon-scaled weapons. 

Tommy had taken a lot of them, with or without scales, back to his cave. Some of them ended up in his hoard while others were used to stock up his personal weapon room. The latter was the most powerful of the weapons, those that he would use in the fighting arena and when patrolling the territory. Wilbur too, had taken a few more weapons with him to stock up on his human weapons and after a bit of arguing, Techno and Phil had followed suit. 

But the thing Tommy was the proudest of was Dream’s old armour. While Tommy had originally covered it with his non-metallic scales he soon realized that he didn’t want it to be just another set of armour. Instead, he had started to cover it with the gold scales that usedto be on his second piece of leather, counting the dragons he had killed. For Tommy, it was a way to remember where he had come from and how he had learned his fighting skills. 

After a while of thinking, Tommy had decided to cover Dream’s favourite shield with the non-metallic scales he had taken from the dragons he had killed. Techno had recovered it from the temporary base the hunters had made near their lair when they had attacked them months ago. And when Tommy realized that the shield would not suffice, he had simply taken the shields George, Sapnap, and Bad used when they were still alive. 

Tommy usually avoided thinking about them just like he avoided thinking about his human parents. While he knew that the dragon hunters would have killed him in a heartbeat, Tommy still mourned them. It was okay to be sad about losing them, Phil had told him. After all, they had been a constant in Tommy’s life for over ten years. Tommy had felt even worse afterward. 

Before they knew it the new year was approaching. And with it the thunder fights. Wilbur had wanted to register their thunder for the thunder fights ever since he had found out that Theseus and Tommy were the same person and the rest of his thunder was looking forward to them just as much. There was a strict no-killing rule during thunder fights which was the only reason that Phil agreed to them. He was still a little scared because of what had happened when Tommy visited the fighting arena for the first time. But the fact that he would be fighting as well calmed him greatly. He would be able to protect his thunder should they need it. 

When the day of the thunder fights finally came Tommy was practically vibrating. The only reason he wasn’t flying through the cave in excitement was that Phil had told him not to waste his energy before the fights started. That didn’t stop him from talking excitedly and annoying Techno who had yet to properly wake up. 

The flight to the fighting arena had been quiet. They were all wearing their matching thunderscale coverings as well as their cloaking charms. Wilbur and Tommy were both in their human forms, sitting on Phil’s and Techno’s backs respectively. Wilbur to spare energy and Tommy because the cloaking charms couldn’t properly hide the fact that he had gold metallic scales. Especially not for trained dragons. 

The fights, especially the ones in the beginning, didn’t last long. There were a few harder ones scattered in between but all in all, the four dragons managed to win every fight without a hitch. There was that one time when a dragon had almost taken off Tommy’s head. But before Phil had been able to react, Wilbur had parallel the hit, something he had learned from Techno. To say that Phil was proud of how far his thunder had come would be an understatement. 

Throughout the fights, the four dragons improved their teamwork. Phil and Techno were used to fighting together and Wilbur had accompanied both of them to team fights. Tommy’s fighting arena phase as Phil called it had also helped each of them coordinate their fighting style with Tommy’s. 

But this was different. They had never fought as a thunder before. Phil was grateful that they were fighting the smaller thunder firsts, seeing as they too were a rather small thunder. It gave them enough time to learn how to coordinate the attacks and get used to fighting together. 

It was the last fight of the day. And while there had definitely been challenging fights throughout the day, the last one would most definitely be the hardest. The area the fighting arena was located in was rather small so there weren’t that many thunders competing to benign with. But the Elements were known to be a tough thunder to beat. It didn’t help that there were three times as many of them. Given, that not all of them were S-tier dragons but the fact that at least half of them were made them dangerous. 

They were highly competent and Phil would love to be allied with them. He had invited them to join the Antarctic Empire a while ago but they had declined, claiming they were better off without any attachments. Phil hoped that they would reconsider after the fight, given that his thunder would be able to beat them. 

But he was confident in himself and most importantly his thundermates. Wilbur and Tommy had greatly improved and he would be lying if he said that he and Techno hadn’t benefitted from the things that the other two had taught them. Everyone had been shocked when The Blade had beaten his first opponent in his human form.

“Are you sure everything’s going to be alright? I know that I’m going to be able to hold myself in a fight, I’m a big man after all. But are you prepared? They’re like really good and all. Not that I’m worried, Big Man Tommy is never worried, after all,” Tommy said, clearly nervous if his fidgeting was any indication. 

“We got this. And even if we lose, which we won’t, no one is getting hurt besides our pride. I know that you haven’t lost a fight yet but this won’t be the end of the world,” Wilbur assured him. 

“Don’t give up. It’s okay to ask for help. Keep being tricky but don’t play with them. They’re strong, don’t underestimate them,” Techno told Tommy who nodded, tightening his grip around his sword. Shortly after, the fight started. 

The Elements were announced with their thunder name before Phil’s thunder was announced with the number they had been assigned. Thunder fights were even more anonymous than regular fights. As long as you didn’t win that was. If you won, you’d have to give your thunder name. Luckily, they weren’t associated with your fighting arena alias. Unless you wanted them to, of course. 

They had been fighting for half an hour already and Phil was very impressed. He had known that the Elements were good but he hadn’t known they worked together as well as they did. Sure, three of their fighters had already been beaten while Phil’s thunder still had all of their fighters. But Phil knew that Tommy would get exhausted if he kept flying as much as he did now and Phil himself had earned a rather long cut along his right side. 

Looking around the arena, he noticed that Tommy was currently locked in a battle with two dragons that were no doubt S-tier. He was trying to catch them off guard by switching his weapons constantly and it was somewhat working. One of them had more than a few dragon scale-tipped arrows sticking out of their skin and they had definitely been nicked by Tommy’s blades at some point. Techno and Wilbur were each fighting off three dragons, both parties holding their own.

Phil himself was locked in battle with two dragons. He knew that his usual method of exhausting them wouldn’t work as well in a group fight. Especially, if there were more just as skilled opponents. Therefore, when the opportunity presented itself, he knocked one of the dragons unconscious. 

Doing that, he had forgotten to account for the other dragon he had been fighting, only barely managing to duck under the attack. Phil barely got time to recover before the dragon attacked him again. But this time Phil was more prepared. The two dragons fought for a while before Phil managed to get the upper hand and slice across his opponent's chest, just under the thunderscale covering, getting the referee to rule them out. 

He was about to turn around to help out his thundermates when Phil was knocked unconscious by a third dragon he hadn’t seen coming. When he woke up again, Wilbur was sitting next to him. 

In the fighting arena, Techno and Tommy were holding their own against five opposing dragons. Tommy was holding one of them in place with his chain while Techno ensured that none of them could injure Tommy while he was distracted. He took a few too many hits, Phil realized, but he was still well within the limit. 

After the dragon Tommy had been holding in place had been ruled out, Techno attacked another dragon that was visibly injured, Tommy covering him while trying to injure the other dragons. 

Tommy was about to knock another dragon unconscious with the help of his Netherite chain when one of the other two dragons landed a hit on Techno, benching him due to the extent of his injuries. At the same time, the dragon Tommy had been holding fell unconscious, turning the fight into a two-against-one. 

After that, the fight dragged on. Tommy was surprisingly keeping up with the two other dragons even though he had only recently qualified for S-tier. Though Phil shouldn’t be too surprised, Tommy had been fighting dragons for over a decade now. He could certainly hold his own in a fight. 

It took Phil a little too long to notice that the two dragons were trying to tire Tommy out while he tried to injure them to the point of winning, or maybe just so that he could attack them more easily. Both tactics were working, surprisingly. Phil couldn’t be sure who would win in the end. 

Tommy had just shot another dozen of arrows at the two dragons who were flying above his head. He was staying on the ground, probably to store energy as he had been flying for quite some time now. His two opponents ducked and he used the opportunity to launch himself up into the sky and throw some of his daggers at them. He couldn’t risk getting too close to them right now. 

The next few minutes of the fight were fought midair. Tommy had a clear disadvantage, seeing as he wasn’t as used to flying as they were. His way lighter body weight in his mostly human form made it a lot easier though. 

He had been shooting another set of arrows at the two other dragons when suddenly one of them threw one of his daggers back at him, catching him off guard and making him fall to the ground. He stayed there for a long time, trying to calm down. With half-lidded eyes, he saw the two other dragons flying above his head. Far enough away that he could afford to stay on the ground for a little longer but in a position where they could easily attack once he decided to move. 

He heard a count down somewhere counting down from 7 although he was pretty sure that it had started at 10. When it reached 3, Tommy suddenly realized what they were counting and jumped up as soon as they reached 1, launching himself at one of the dragons, knocking them out due to the extent of the injuries they had received before shifting his wings away to avoid his last opponent.

They immediately dove down after him, trying to catch up with him. But just before he could hit the ground, Tommy shifted his wings back and dove back up, barely avoiding the other dragon. The latter managed to turn around, albeit a little slower than Tommy. 

Tommy took advantage of that, wrapping his Netherite chain around their neck and avoiding their claws while trying to keep them contained and wrapping the chain further around them. His opponent managed to scratch him along his side, which was mostly reflected by his armour. He knew that most dragons didn’t wear armour due to it slowing them down. But he really thought that they should consider it. It had turned what would have been a lethal attack into nothing more than a light scratch. 

The exhaustion was clear on the faces of both dragons although Tommy’s opponent managed to hide it a lot better than him, if he was being honest with himself. But Tommy was determined. He would win this. 

With newfound determination, Tommy tightened the chains around the other dragon’s neck while simultaneously dragging them closer to himself. He then used his axe and the moment of surprise to add another cut along their ventral. He earned himself a few claw marks in return but came out mostly unharmed. He really questioned why other dragons didn’t wear armour.

Before they knew it, the two dragons were falling to the ground, too exhausted to stay in the air. Tommy was the first to get up and managed to pin the other dragon to the ground with his Netherite chain. In the end, the chain hadn’t been needed since the dragon had been knocked out due to a combination of blood loss and general injuries, exhaustion, and the fall. 

A few hours later when everyone had recovered and all of the battle scales had been retrieved, the award ceremony started. Starting with those who had placed lowest, everyone was handed their respective battle scales. Each thunder was offered to reveal themselves but most stayed anonymous. 

After what felt like eternity, the last thunders were announced. Tommy was bouncing in his chair with excitement. The rest of his thunder sat next to him, all in their human form. Tommy had gotten weird stared from other dragons in the past, mostly for fighting in his human form but also for spending the rest of his time in it. His thundermates had decided to support him by being in their human form as well. 

They would have to shift back into their dragon form for the award ceremony to prove that they were a thunder but until then, they could stay like this. They had already removed their thunderscale covering and the cloaking charms as the winners of the thunder battle were required to reveal their identity. 

“And now the winners of this year’s thunder battle, everyone please welcome the SBI,” someone announced as the four dragons who were still in human form walked into the arena and onto the podium. 

One by one, they were announced as they were handed their battle scales, “Philza,” the mentioned dragon shifted into his dragon form after he had stored the many thunder scales in one of the satchels they had gotten from the dragon hunters. A lot of eyes caught onto the small patch above his throat that was made up of Tommy’s metallic scales but because most of the dragons were so far away, they couldn’t place what exactly had caught their eye and shook it off. 

Next was Techno who raised quite a few murmurs due to the amount of battle scales he had. He too had the attention of everyone on his thundersclaes before they were distracted by his battle scales. 

Wilbur didn’t have the same privilege as he didn’t have as many battle scales as his thundermates. By now, the audience was getting suspicious. All of them knew the only reasonable explanation for this phenomenon but no one dared to be the first to bring it up. Everyone had heard the rumor about the golden hatchling, after all. 

“And last but not least, Tommy,” the announcer said. 

Everyone’s attention shifted to Tommy without him having to shift. All of them stared at him expectantly. But Tommy remained in his human form, slowly putting away the offered battle scales. He glanced at his thunder. All of them gave him encouraging looks and after another moment of hesitation, he fully shifted. 

There was silence for a moment as everyone stared at Tommy. He wanted to shift back but decided against it. He would not cower. He was a golden dragon and he was proud of it, Prime damn it. 

Then, everyone started to talk. Some were trying to be subtle while others shouted across the arena. Tommy stood tall through it all. He could beat all of them in a fight. He had proven so today. And he didn’t even need his golden scales for it. And everyone knew it. 

Later when Tommy and his thunder finally arrived at home, he was greeted by Tubbo and Ranboo who immediately ran up to hug him, congratulating him on his win. They had been in the arena as well but had wanted to give him time to cool down after the fight to not overwhelm him. 

The two allied thunders spend the rest of the evening celebrating together. At some point, the Element thunder had come by to properly congratulate them for their win and accept the invitation to the Antarctic Empire. They also gave them some tips on how to handle the attention that came with winning the thunder fights and warned them about the incoming attacks

When everyone had finally left, Sam and a few other allied dragons promised to protect their territory while they slept, promising to wake them up should the attacking dragons be too much. 

The next morning, just after breakfast, the four dragons sat down in the common room-like cave and started to attach the battle scales they had won the day before to each other. Meanwhile, they talked about what had happened while they had been asleep. 

Apparently, some dragons had tried to sneak into their territory but had been stopped by the dragons patrolling the outside. Some had even tried to sneak in through the old entrance but noticed that it was now blocked. But most didn’t even get that far. They decided that one of them each would patrol during the night for the next few weeks until everything calmed down.

Not that that many dragons would attack in the first place. They knew how well the four dragons fought. Not to mention, their allied thunders. Nothing, not even the golden hatchling or the winners of the thunder battle was worth that. 

Tommy was just glad that he had finally found his thunder, his family, his everything. He might not be a dragon hunter any longer. But he didn’t care. It was kind of funny if he was being honest. If two years ago someone had told him that he was happily living amongst dragons, amongst the dragon that had killed his human parents nonetheless he would have laughed at their face. But right now, as he lay curled up with his thunder in the warmth of the cave, he couldn’t be happier.