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A/N: Well, general disclaimer, spoilers for Doctor Who and Wings Of Fire(Set right after book 8: Escaping Peril). Doctor Who is made BBC, WOF is made by Tui. T. Sutherland. If you want illustrations read the story on Wattpad. The earlier chapters are written slightly worse than later ones, I'll do a rewrite once I finish arc 2.

THE JADE MOUNTAIN PROPHECY:

Beware the darkness of dragons,
Beware the stalker of dreams,
Beware the talons of fire,
Beware one who is not what he seems.

Something is coming to shake the earth,
Something is coming from times long gone.
Jade Mountain will fall beneath darkness of night
Unless the future and past locked in an ancient box come.

(Straflight's POV)

Starflight was going through scrolls in the library when he heard footsteps. 

"Hello?" he said. "Small talonsteps, light... but not Kinkajou... with an extra flap sound when they hit the floor. Those are SeaWing talons." his mind was going over the student names. "Anemone?" he guessed.

"Yes, it's me," said the little SeaWing princess.

"What are you doing awake?" he asked.

"Something woke me. Didn't you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

He heard her cross to the wall of windows. She stood for a moment quietly, without speaking.

"Something that shook the earth..." she said at last, softly and quietly.

"Well... Maybe a bit... Probably it's our imagination playing tricks on us..." he said. (I think that, since he's blind, he'd feel an earthquake)

"Maybe..." she said, "But it felt... like someone slithering over my grave."

They both stayed silent for a while after that for awhile. But Starflight thought he heard a distant whooshing sound. "Probably the wind" he thought.

But, unbeknownst to everyone, even the ancient dragon, who rose from the mountain seconds prior, something far older than even him appeared in between the mountain peaks. It was slightly higher and wider than a dragon. It was a blue wooden box with two doors, and words "POLICE PUBLIC CALLS BOX" written on the black plate above them.

(Wasp's POV)

Far, far across the sea, in lands long lost, a dragon came up to a wooden pedestal and opened the box that was placed on top of it. She carefully took out the ancient book hidden within it. The book's cover was dark blue, with eight square outlines bumping out.

She quickly flipped through to the last page. The words on it were scribbled hastily.

I feel my life fading... But I see... I see one more vision... This is the strongest one... I have to write it down... This may be the most important one for the future of both Pyrrhia and Pantala... When darkness comes... He will return...

The man from the future and past,
Whose gaze goes beyond the stars,
Will walk among us again,
And put an end to the thousand year old pain...
He will come, and he will see
Thousands of suffering seeds...
When all hope is lost, and when ancient evil rose,
The Last Of The Time Lords will come...

She stared at the page with angry expression, despite the eyes not showing anything. This was the only prophecy that had no clear meaning. And it hasn't happened yet. All the predictions were far in the past, and very clear. But this one was cryptic. And clearly reached further than all the others. Then, an idea struck the queen. She lifted the page in librarian's talons and tore it out of the book.

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(Max's POV)

The TARDIS doors creaked open to reveal a gorgeous mountain landscape in early minutes of the morning. Max stepped out and breathed in the slightly cold and fresh air. He still wasn't exactly used to this. One minute on one world, the next on another.

He was only seventeen after all. But those creatures... Daleks... they killed everyone he knew... But then The Doctor appeared and saved him. His home burned up in a burst of flames in a matter of minutes. He had nothing to return to. This was his life now. As much as thinking of that hurt, he had to remind himself about it. That no matter how many times he has to avoid death be a hair length, there's nothing waiting for him back home.

"Heh... now this is a rare occasion..." A voice came out from behind him. A familiar voice. The one Max sometimes wished he never had to hear. The one he owed everything to. The person speaking looked slightly younger than him, but Max knew that The Doctor was way older than even he himself remembered. When they first met the Time Lord looked much older. But some time later he died and somehow regenerated into this new body.

"Indeed... Usually we're in London... You sure we aren't somewhere nearby now?" The human spoke, slight tease in his voice. 

"No, of course not!" The Doctor actually sounded offended at that, "Don't you feel how clean this air is? This certainly isn't Earth! You humans certainly ruined yours..."

"Okay, okay, enough of that, Doctor, ever since you've changed your face you have been pestering me about that non-stop." Max took a few more steps forward and looked around them. He couldn't see much from here, even though he was admittedly high up, the nearby mountains were much higher.

"Alright, alright, it's not me who has to live there after all. Your planet - your problems." The Doctor shivered. "God, It's freezing out here! I think I've had a cloak or two somewhere..."

"Doctor, you're literally already wearing a... a-... What even is that?" Max finally decided to figure out what the alien's clothing was, he let out a slightly exasperated sigh, but even he had to admit that it was rather cold in his normal clothing that he still wore from the days he lived on Earth.

"It's a frock coat from thirty ninth century antique shop!" Doctor started to wave his hands, the way he usually does to emphasize a point. "And it is incredibly stylish! But still, it's cold!"

Max raised an eyebrow at Doctor's words. "You know, I am debating whether you travel the universe just to show off your atrocious outfits."

"Atrocious?! Alright. Hope you like it here then, good luck." Doctor took a step back and closed TARDIS doors, leaving Max outside.

The human just laughed at that. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry, your outfits are fine, let's get those cloaks if you're so cold."

The Doctor instantly opened the right door back up and stuck his face out, grinning widely. "Now that's better."

A/N: This segment uses edited text from book 9. As of writing this, there are only two segments like this in the book.

(Third person POV)

Darkstalker looked down at the ground, held out his talons, and flicked his massive tail, knocking a shower of boulders down the slope. He wasn't really as big as the entire mountain, although it had seemed that way to Turtle and the others at first. But the hybrid was at least three times as big as the biggest dragon any of them had ever seen.

"Beware the darkness of dragons," Moon said, taking a step back. "Beware the stalker of dreams... The prophecy...!"

"Oh, that's not me!" Darkstalker said. "Moon, come on, you know that. I never went into any dreams, apart from soothing you in your nightmares. On the other talon, 'something is coming to shake the earth', that's totally me! Watch this." He stomped one foot on the ground so hard that tremors shuddered out in all directions.

"But you see the future... Many possible ones... How can you not know what the prophecy means and how to prevent it?!" Moon internally was shaking a little. Even if she used to trust him, his sight was intimidating, to say the least, and what she just read about Arctic... She couldn't shake it off. But on the other talon, she couldn't help but think "What if his father really was that terrible? What if it was the only way he could think of to stop him?".

"Well, 'darkness of dragons' certainly isn't me, I'm only one dragon after all. Although, Moon, don't you remember your own prophecy? It clearly said 'Unless the future and past locked in an ancient box come'. How would future sight help me with that? Not to mention, all the futures are rather hazy right now for some reason... But, we'll worry about the prophecy later, I AM STARVING AFTER ALL! TWO THOUSAND YEARS WITHOUT A PIECE OF MEAT! Can you imagine that, Moon?" Darkstalker was rather amused, but Turtle had caught a shiver behind his eyes. "Could it be? He really doesn't know what the prophecy means? He isn't just lying?" Turtle's thoughts were running at insane speed because of the terror he felt as he gripped the recently enchanted stick tighter.

"But-", Moon started to speak but was interrupted by Winter, who moved to stand in between the NightWing and the hybrid, glaring at Darkstalker and taking a defensive position. "What just happened?!" His voice was colder than Moon ever heard it.

"Oh, Prince Winter, didn't you work it out? Peril burned my scroll, and that returned my magic to me, pretty handy, huh?" Darkstalker replied nonchalantly. 

Peril meanwhile could only cling onto hope, that the only time when she truly thought for herself, when she did something that she was so sure would help everyone, won't turn out as a disaster. "Please don't be bad!" was going through her head over an over as some sort of mantra to keep her from collapsing. For the first time in her life, the dragoness hot as fire, almost invulnerable, truly was terrified.

"Wait," Moon said. "That means... you lied to me." She unfurled her wings and pointed at Darkstalker with her front talon. "You told me to destroy the scroll if it looked like it would fall into wrong talons. You made it sound like then you'd be trapped forever, but it would be worth it to protect everyone else. But you wanted me to destroy the scroll all along. You knew that would send your power back to you! You were tricking me!"

"That's true..." Darkstalker frowned. "But, Moon, I only lied about being trapped forever. The scroll could do horrible things in wrong talons. And I believe you've seen it yourself, am I right?" A ripple of sadness went over his face. "And... I couldn't risk staying in there any longer... Ever since the time I have awoken from that terrible sleep... It was all darkness and silence, Moon... Until you came!"

"You called us friends," Moon said in a low and shaky voice. "You shouldn't trick your friends."

"Good point. But I prefer to talk to my friends face to face, rather than from under tons of rock. Listen, I can't even speak anymore, I'm so hungry. Let's all catch something to eat and then you can show me around Jade Mountain! There are some dragons there I can't wait to meet." He lifted off into the air, then turned to beckon at Moon. "Come on, Moon! I can't wait to talk to someone again, to use my voice, to hunt and fly. Can't we save the 'oh, no, but you're so sinister and evil' talon-wringing for later? What do you say... maybe give me a chance? For now?"

"Well I'm not going," said Winter. "Even if IceWing legends about you weren't fully true. I have no reason to trust you enough to take orders from-" 

"I'm not ordering you to do anything, Prince Winter," Darkstalker said, turning to look at Winter, his voice a bit colder. The IceWing fell silent. "But I think you know that a dragon should not be judged by what others say about him. And if you give me a chance I can prove it to you! You'll find that I'm really an absolutely wonderful dragon." He smiled with all his teeth, which, considering his size, was rather terrifying.

Winter's eyes fell on Moon. He knew all too well about misjudging other dragons. He let out a sigh. There was no telling what Darkstalker will do, but at the moment he could atleast try to protect his friends. "Fine. But one wrong move, and..."

"Okay, okay, I've got it!" Darkstalker didn't seem bothered by the threat at all. "Now, let's go hunt!"

(Max's POV)

The Doctor was walking away from the TARDIS and frowning while flapping his arms around rather violently. "Just look at it! How often do I get to be in a place like this, without the planet exploding, the sky falling, or some Cybermen invading, and it just has to be dark and terribly cold!"

Max rolled his eyes and jumped over a huge rock poking out of the ground. He looked at The Doctor who was walking ten or so steps in front of him. "Can you not complain for once?"

"No, I can't! I have a very unhappy personality and I like complaining!" Doctor's tone of voice didn't change, but once he finished speaking, they both burst out into laughter. "Okay, okay, alright, I'll stop... I wonder what's this scratching feeling is though..."

"What feeling?" Max asked, catching up The Doctor, who, by the looks of it, had found a trail that seemingly went somewhere down from the mountain range.

"I don't know..." Doctor's face scrunched up, his eyebrows furrowed, "Like something scratching at my brain weakly, from far away... Probably nothing important..."

"If you say so." Max gave a shrug as they walked down the path. He was used to Doctor's antics. Most of the time it indeed turned out to be nothing.

"Huh..." The Doctor stopped to look at the bushes nearby. "Those berries look a little bit wrong..."

"Did you memorize every berry type in the universe?" Max chuckled. But as he thought about it, he wouldn't put it past The Doctor. And his assumption was proven to be correct.

"As a matter of fact I did. And even considering it was about a thousand years ago... I still remember rather well... But it's not that... It's their size..." The Doctor said, pulling out his sonic screwdriver.

"They look fine to me." Max shrugged again, and stopped, turning back around once he realized that The Doctor wasn't moving and instead was inspecting the bush.

Doctor's head snapped up. "Down!" He suddenly shoved Max behind a large boulder into the grass and fell down beside him.

"What-" Max was cut off as a shadow flew over them. He looked up and saw a dragon. Admittedly he wasn't too shocked, after everything he had seen. But his insides squished together in terror nonetheless. The dragon landed several dozen steps in front of where Max and The Doctor stood mere moments ago.

Max noticed it wasn't too big. About his height in fact. And then it suddenly spoke to the sky "Alright, stupid animals, where are you hiding?". Max looked at The Doctor but saw a fascinated face that the Time Lord got every time he saw something that could easily kill them both. Max sighed quietly and turned his gaze back to the dragon. And then he was surprised again. The grass below the dragon's talons was turning black as if it was burnt.

A/N: So, if it wasn't obvious from the prologue, The Doctor is same size as an average dragon here(narrative reasons will be later on). Firstly I don't feel like making a long scene where they are confused with scavengers/humans, as it won't add much to the plot. And, frankly, he won't be able to do much if he's so small while the world is huge, and I also don't want him just telling everyone what to do.  

Please mention if I accidentally use the wrong phrase like "Why on Earth" by someone except Doctor or Max. I know those mistakes can be extremely irritating.

And, also, the ships. Or rather the love triangle. In the version on Wattpad I've asked whether I should do Winterwatcher/Moonbli/Qinter/Qinterwatcher. There were no responses. Well, as of now I am planning on mainly focusing on Qinter during canon arc 2, Moonbli during arc 3, and Winterwatcher during my personal arc 4, since book 16 isn't out yet.

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(Max's POV)

Max watched the dragon look around and fly away. He wasn't able to move. Daleks were one thing. They were simple. They killed everything that wasn't them. They were metal cans with disgusting octopuses on the inside! But dragons were something else. He didn't want to find out if they are friendly. They were unpredictable. And, as he thought up until a few moments ago, they weren't real.

Doctor on the other hand jumped up the second the dragon turned around and flew away. "This is amazing!" he said excitedly, already scanning the burnt grass with his sonic screwdriver.

"No it's not! It's a dragon! A real dragon!" Max shakily pulled himself up.

"Yep! Haven't seen those in... a thousand years atleast!" Doctor said as he was seemingly just waving around his buzzing sonic device with no particular purpuse now. "Seriously, what does he plan to find in the air?" Max thought.

"Wait... you've seen dragons before, Doctor? And you never mentioned that?" Max stared at him in disbelief as The Doctor's words sunk in.

"Well... If I told you about everything I ever saw we would still be sitting inside of the TARDIS..." Doctor was studying the sonic and sounded distracted.

"I suppose so..." Max thought for a moment how it would be to have lived for thousands of years. So many memories. "How many things did he truly see...?"

"But yes, I did meet dragons... A few different ones actually... Even a few on Earth... There was an underground city... So I can't be sure if it was the dragons from this planet that I've met... " He finally tucked the sonic screwdriver into his suit, not before throwing it and catching it.

"I suddenly have a very bad feeling..." Max knew what was about to happen, and he didn't like it one bit.

"Let's follow her! I have tracked her with my screwdriver!" Doctor looked like he was given a Christmas present and not like he was about to go after a potentially murderous creature.

"Hold up, hold up a second! Her? Tracked? And why on Earth do you look so happy?!" Doctor frowned at the amount of questions. "Okay, quickly: Her voice; simplifying; a dragon."

"Great, that clear things up a lot." Max said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "But, knowing you, if you're this excited about doing something stupid, there's no talking you out of this."

The Doctor chuckled. "Well, you're right that you can't stop me, but it's not stupid. You heard her talk, which means they are intelligent."

"Daleks talk too," Max deadpanned, "But they still try to kill us."

"Well, maybe they do, but this is different! Besides, just a look?" The Doctor pleaded.

"Ugh... fine... I'm curious too. How exactly did you track it-... her, how did you track her?" Max relented.

"Well, I've gotten her bio-imprint from the grass and I have set the search for anything similar, considering the possible inaccuracies and-" Max facepalmed "Okay, I regret asking. Is that why it's beeping?"

"Yeah! Like a metal detector! But for dragons!" Doctor didn't react to Max's glare at his words and started walking in the direction it was beeping the loudest.

"If any dragon kills you I'll kill you again after you regenerate." Max mumbled before going after him.

(Third person POV)

The IceWings shrieked in unison, when Darkstalker  poked his head through the library window, loud enough to break glass. They scrambled over one another to get away from the oversized NightWing, knocking down an entire shelf of scrolls in the process. Paper unfurled across the cave in cascading fountains.

"What's happening?" Starflight cried. "Who was that?"

"A really, really, really big NightWing!" Fatespeaker yelped, clutching his arm. 

"Who are you?" Tsunami demanded.

"You already know," he said, startled. "This is amazing. How in Pyrrhia did you know I was coming?" He paused. "Even your mind doesn't have the answer! You just knew about me somehow! How?"

"So you are Darkstalker." Tsunami lashed her tail. ""You'd better not hurt any of my students."

"What?" Starflight sputtered. "Darkstalker? How?"

"Why would I hurt any of your students?" Darkstalker protested. "Even if I was as evil as the stories probably say, what good would killing a bunch of dragonets do? ...Dragons today, so full of mistrust and hostility. Now, in my time... no, wait, we were exactly the same." He poked at the ragged green edges of the leaf windowpane. "That's one of the many problems I was going to fix."

"It's the Darkstalker!" shouted one of the IceWings. "Die, you monster!" She leaped across the cave, blasting frostbreath in Darkstalker's face, landed in a roll right in front of his snout, and slashed her serrated claws across his nose.

"Now, now that's just rude, what did I do to you?" Darkstalker said, completely unaffected by the attack. He gave her a bored look, then reached one of his long talons through the window and casually pinned her to the floor.

"All right," he said. "Now I'm a little motivated to hurt somebody."

Tsunami started growling and moving toward him, he just chuckled. "Oh, I won't," he said. "I promise! No need to get all ferocious with me, Tsunami. But you might want to add a manners class to your curriculum. Or is it fine with you if your students attack innocent visitors?"

"Let. Her. Go." Tsunami growled.

"You promise not to attack me again? Of course your claws can't hurt me, but it's hardly pleasant. Good." As the IceWing shakily nodded he let het go and she scrambled away hastily. Then all three ice dragons bolted out of the library as fast as they could.

"Great, even more panic. Just what I needed." Tsunami grumbled.

"I don't think I'll fit through the tunnels to get in here," Darkstalker said regretfully, glancing around the library. "But I love what you've done with the space, Starflight! Could you please bring any scrolls you have about Clearsight and meet me in the main entrance hall?"

"Scrolls about Clearsight?" Starflight echoed. "Your, uh... the dragon you..."

"Yes," said Darkstalker. "The dragon I loved... Specifically about what happened to her after... well, after our... unfortunate misunderstanding."

"Why would I help you? And even if I did, nobody knows," Starflight blurted. "She disappeared the same night you did."

"Now, now, I see why you may not trust me. And you're within your rights to do that! After all, all you know about me is legends twisted by those who told them. But what a few little scrolls would do? That's all I ask of you. I want to know what happened to my love, is it really so bad?"

"I-... I-..." Starflight stammered, moving his claws along the desk. Fatespeaker grabbed one of his talons and leaned in to him. 

"Thanks ever so much," said Darkstalker. "If you could, while you're at it, please bring some scrolls about Fathom too. Now, if you'll excuse me, someone is trying to attack my tail." He swung his head out the window and everyone heard him say, "Seriously? You too? Does everyone believe everything they read these days? And, more importantly, what did my tail do to you?"

Outside, two small NightWings were dive-bombing Darkstalker, shooting trails of flame across his scales. Jade Winglet, except was hovering in the sky not far away. Moon was trying to call to the NightWings, but they weren't listening to her. Darkstalker lifted off from the mountainside and turned in a large, slow circle, watching the NightWings without fighting back. He looked faintly amused. 

"Tiny dragons," he boomed. "Listen, I'm impressed, but this really isn't necessary. I've spent two thousand years buried in stone and my 'welcome home' party is everyone trying to kill me?"

"We're not going to let you hurt our tribe!" shouted one of the dragonets.

"By the shining moons, I'm not planning to hurt the tribe," said Darkstalker. "It's my tribe, too, isn't it?" I'm a loyal NightWing. Don't the stories ever mention that? I loved my tribe! Everything I did was either for Clearsight or for the NightWings!"

Turtle, who was watching from the window, despite being incredibly scared of being seen, noticed with surprise a look of sincerity on the ancient dragon's face. "Everything about this is so wrong... But it really looks like he's trying... After all... If he really changed... Or the legends lied... He's finally free again and all he's met with is hostility... But he doesn't fight back... But they can't hurt him! Turtle, you're the only one he can't see! This must be a trick!"

(Max's POV)

The sun was higher in the sky then when The Doctor and Max landed, and now they both were almost out of the mountain range and there was something that looked like a rainforest in front of them.

"Doctor, I'm used to running with you, but not to hiking through mountains for hours on end. Are you sure we're even going the right way?" Max said, even though he was going downhill for the past five hours his breathing became heavy.

"Well... The worst that can happen is if I set the possible error value too high and it's detecting other dragons..." Doctor inspected his sonic screwdriver.

"Ah, I see. Perfect. What if other dragons can sense you from the distance, unlike the one we've seen, or what if they can't talk? Or what if-..." Max was rambling, he could not believe Doctor sometimes. Putting them both in danger like that. Yet, even if Max hated to admit it, Doctor saved them every time. Then, as they finally stepped onto relatively flat terrain, he was interrupted when a voice suddenly spoke up from right in front of him.

"Wait! We shouldn't use the darts on them! Who knows what even are they!" The air said.

"Who cares, I'll let Queen Glory deal with that, I was just fruit gathering, not planning to do some complex decisions..." A different voice spoke.

"Um... Hi, we can hear you." Doctor spoke, raising his sonic a little and pointing it at the air in front of them.

The air suddenly rippled with multiple colors, revealing two green dragons. "YOU TALK?!" They both screamed in unison. Max noticed one of them was holding a small tube-like object in his front talons.

"Yes... Are we not supposed to...? Oh, show me that!" Doctor jumped closer, and before the dragon could react he snatched the tube and started waving his screwdriver around it. "Oh, very very clever... They must use those to knock out dragons... We're lucky they didn't use it on us though, the dose would probably be lethal both for humans and Time Lords..."

Both dragons' scales toned down a little from the vibrant green, but they still looked incredibly shocked, studying Doctor and Max. "What?!"

(Wasp's POV)

In Pantala, Queen Wasp studied the torn out page that she held in her talons. She needed to know what it meant, and what was worse, the prophecy had to happen soon by the looks of it. But the queen couldn't tell anyone where it came from. Nobody could know there was something not yet decrypted in The Book Of Clearsight. "Ugh... The one time I need to use this stupid book, and it has to be a cryptic message... I can't ask anyone about it... Unless..." She smirked suddenly. She had someone in mind who could know about a 'Time Lord'. But she hesitated, maybe it's best if she didn't mention this after all... There was no telling what it would do if it knew about the prophecy...

Chapter Text

(Max's POV)

Max was holding on for dear life. "I am flying on a dragon!" Despite the dragon not being much larger than him, he had no issue in carrying the human. They were rapidly approaching the massive rainforest. The dragons said they were called RainWings, whatever that meant. Once they saw that Doctor and Max meant them no harm, they quickly relaxed. They introduced themselves as Mango and Bullfrog. Mango was carrying Max and Bullfrog was carrying The Doctor. And while Max was incredibly scared The Doctor was standing up, joyful as ever.

Max was surprised to see that both dragons' scales could change color. They explained that they were just camouflaged initially, which essentially made them invisible, and they turned green because they got scared when they heard The Doctor speak. Bullfrog became multiple shades of blue, which, Max guessed, was his preferred coloring for himself. Mango, on the other hand had turned mostly orange with streaks of red here and there.

"So how far to that queen you wanted us to see?" Max could barely make out Doctor's words over the wind blowing in his face, but it seemed that dragons understood him with no issue.

"We're flying over the rainforest currently, so that you two won't get hit by a branch on accident, but we'll be at the RainWing village in a minute, then we'll land at the royal pavilion and we'll take you to Queen Glory so she can decide what to do with you." Mango replied with tone that Max could consider cheerful. "Why is he so happy? They were scared to see us just twenty minutes ago, which means humans either aren't common here, or they are hostile to dragons. Then why are those two not worried at all?"

Lost in his thoughts about the weird behavior of the dragons Max noticed that the treetops below them were getting closer. "Hold tight!" Mango said to the both of them. Max took a long breath in as the dragons started flying in a big circle, making sure to go down carefully.

Once they flew past the dense treetop layer, somehow without something poking out their passengers' eyes, Max gasped. There were dozens and dozens of dragons with every color imaginable shimmering in the sun on their scales, but he wished he could see much more from the distance that was still between them. He saw many wooden platforms and bridges going between trees. Even something that looked like huts was built between the trees and many hanging vines. "Wow!" Max breathed out. He had seen many things while traveling with The Doctor, but he never expected to see dragons of al creatures, and he definitely didn't expect them to have something like this.

Mango and Bullfrog circled down to a large platform built in the air between a circle of large trees. It even had some sort of roof from leaves. "This is amazing!" Doctor proclaimed as he slid down from Bullfrog's back. Max continued to look around in awe: purple and blue flowers hung like bells from the vines that wound around everything in sight, and delicate white, orange and pink orchids grew from the mossy crevices of the trees.

There was a small dais in the center of the platform they landed on. On top of said dais sat another dragon that looked similar to Mango and Bullfrog, but her scales were mostly dark emerald green with some of dark orange on the underside of her wings for example. And right next to her sat another dragon. This one looked different from the rest Max has seen up to this point. Firstly he was completely black. His snout was a different shape. Not to mention his body was a lot bulkier. Or rather, Max thought, others looked very thin and delicate compared to him.

Max caught himself somehow guessing their genders. Was he getting used to seeing dragons so fast? "Well, I got used to magic box rather quickly...".

The female dragon looked like she was complaining about something to the black one. "Your majesty..." Mango spoke up suddenly. "Wait, is that the queen they talked about? Makes sense... Although I was expecting more of a throne. What was the name.... Glory, right?"

"Oh, Mango, sorry I didn't hear you land, is something-..." queen's voice caught in her throat when she saw Doctor and Max standing between Mango and Bullfrog.

"Queen Glory, we were out fruit gathering when we found these... creatures and thought they might be... uh... of interest... to you." Bullfrog said. "Uh... Sure... Why didn't you use sleeping darts then?" Glory replied, her voice uncertain, her gaze locked on the clearly unwelcome guests. "It's as if she doesn't know what exactly are we..." Max thought, trying to read her expression.

"Well... we wanted to... But..." Mango trailed off. "Oh, that's right, they wanted to, but I took them to look over." Doctor suddenly perked up and decided to fill in for poor Mango. "A fascinating invention! But it's incredibly lucky they didn't use them, the dose in them would be lethal for both of us." Queen's jaw dropped at his voice. And so did the black dragon's beside her. "Oh right... Mango and Bullfrog reacted the same way... Maybe we should have asked them why?"

"D-did... Y-you... Just t-talk?" Glory's voice was shaky.

"Ah... yes... from what those two lovely dragons had said I've gathered that may be weird... You see, I have this thing that translates anything, maybe that's why-" Doctor was cut off by the dragon sitting beside queen who's tail was noticeably twitching behind him. "Are you here to attack the queen?! Glory, this has to be some magic trick, giant talking scavengers, a distraction maybe?"

"What, magic? We aren't magic, we're just... travelers." Max responded before Doctor could. "And what do you mean 'giant scavengers'?"

"Firstly, Deathbringer, don't be so rude, and it's Queen Glory. And, well, you two are scavengers, how do you not know who you are?!" Glory studied them as the ruffs behind her ears flared out in alert.

"Uh... Y-our majesty, I assure you, I am a human." He noticed her eyes moving to the Doctor and realized his mistake. "And he is...?" the queen asked.

"Oh, you're insulting me... Do I look anything like a human... or those scavengers you mentioned, uh... your majesty?" Doctor frowned. "Yes you do." Max said with an eye roll. "You look exactly like a normal human."

"No I don't! You humans just look like Time Lords!-" Queen Glory's front talons hit the floor as she stood up from her sitting position. "Enough! I don't care who exactly you two are, scavengers, humans, no difference. You were captured," she gave an expressive look to Mango and Bullfrog who looked rather confused. "...because you were in my kingdom! State your names, and intentions."

"Uh actually..." Bullfrog spoke up. "What now?" Queen snapped. "Well they weren't exactly in the rainforest..."

Glory rubbed her forehead. "Doesn't matter. Close enough. Oh yeah, you two are dismissed. I'll summon you again if the need for that arises." Mango and Bullfrog looked at each other in confusion, then they both nodded and leapt into the air, leaving The Doctor and Max alone with their rather angry queen and the weird dragon beside her. "Now. Answer me."

"Name - Doctor, occupation - everything including a doctor, intentions - fun." Max looked at him with annoyed expression, trying not to roll his eyes. It was atleast the third time Doctor used that sentence in front of him. And god knows how many times he used it before he met him.

"My name is Max, I'm just traveling alongside him, we didn't have any specific plans, we just like to have a look around in places we end up in and-" Queen Glory lashed her tail and he chocked on his last words. "Travelers? Where from?"

"Umm... Very far away..." Max felt himself shrinking. This wasn't the best question, considering he wasn't from this planet. "And where exactly?" Queen was relentless in her questioning. A different dragon suddenly flew up to the platform. "Your majesty, your presence is requested in the healing center. Kinkajou has been brought in." the new dragon looked at Max and Doctor but just shrugged to himself. "This one is unbothered too?"

"Very well. Deathbringer, watch over those two. But don't lay a single talon on them unless absolutely necessary, understood? And no, them sneezing, coughing, or looking around isn't absolutely necessary.". The black dragon nodded and looked sternly at the human and the Time Lord. "So his name is Deathbringer?! That's... definitely not menacing... But that's better than 'Mango' atleast..." 

"Wait... 'Deathbringer', that's your name? Really?" Doctor said to the black dragon as soon as the queen left. "Don't make him angry..." Max had to admit, Doctor certainly used his tongue well... Unless he deliberately made fun of someone who could easily kill them.

"I don't talk to prisoners, unless I'm interrogating them, but yes, that's my name." The dragon replied, but he didn't look angry, more like... pleased with himself?

"Oh, we are prisoners? I love being a prisoner! Although I'm told I escape too much... However we didn't even do anything... Anyway, why do you look different from everyone else? No offence and all, but... They're all colorful and you're just... well, black." Doctor waved his hand at the dragon. Visually he looked relaxed, but his tail slightly twitched and his wings were slightly pointing forward, indicating that he remained alert under the guise of relaxation.

"The others are RainWings, I am a NightWing." He replied with a shrug.

"Oh, and what' does that mean? We aren't exactly from here, as you can tell... Although 'NightWing' does ring a distant bell... from long ago... I think..." Doctor was clearly trying to get more information.

"You don't even know about the tribes? Really? Well, there are seven tribes. RainWings, NightWings, SandWings, IceWings, SkyWings, SeaWings and MudWings."

"I see... I think I do remember something like that... That was a long, long time ago... But I'm not sure... Say... you don't happen to have heard anything about a blue box or something like that?" Doctor rubbed his forehead. "And why are you here? There aren't any others like you here... Atleast I didn't notice..."

"No, I don't think I've ever heard about any sort of a 'blue box'. And as for your other question, well... Currently both RainWings and NightWings are ruled by Glory, however NightWings live in their own village some distance from here." Deathbringer chuckled at Doctor's questioning look. "And I'm her personal, most charming, bodyguard."

"I see..." Doctor turned around looking over the trees and moving dragons. Max followed his gaze. This place was admittedly beautiful, even after all the different planets Max had seen on his adventures.

Suddenly, multiple dark cubes with glowing stripes on them fell from the sky and started hovering at different heights and places all around them. "INITIALLIZING SCANNING." The cubes said in unison and started flashing light rays in different directions.

"What is happening?! Did you do it?!" Deathbringer roared, looking around frantically, but also making sure to keep an eye on the prisoners.

"No, I swear! But we can help!" Doctor looked over at Max. "Yeah... That's kinda what we do actually..." Max added.

"So what? You're saying that I should just let you two go?!"

"Please listen, those are most likely some alien race, and if they are scanning your rainforest they plan something, and they need information that those cubes will gather for that. And it's rarely anything good. You can come with us, just allow me to help, please!"

Deathbringer clearly looked conflicted. His eyes were darting around. But he knew he had to make a decision quick.

Chapter Text

(Max's POV)

"Fine." Deathbringer agreed reluctantly. "But I'm going with you."

The Doctor nodded and immediately bolted into the action, running towards the closest hovering cube, that was, luckily, within reach from the platform. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, not stopping for a second and pointed it at the cube.

"What in the name of moons is that?" Deathbringer said, walking right behind them.

"Oh, it's my sonic screwdriver, incredibly useful, although unfortunately doesn't work on... wood..." The Doctor stopped at the edge of the platform, calming his breath. "Alright, now come here, pretty little thing...." He reached out to grab the hovering object, but the cube moved back. "WARNING! AN INTERFEARENCE WITH THE PRESERVATION PROCESS! ALERT LEVEL SET TO THREE!"

"Hey, that's unfair!" Max said to the alien device and grabbed The Doctor by the back of his cloak, since he seemed like he was about to jump into the air and try to grab onto the cube, which now was hovering a good distance away from the platform.

"Wait... Preservation...?" Doctor looked confused as the words settled in. "Uh... Do you understand me? State your mission!" Doctor demanded. The cube, however, didn't react.

"Mission? You've got to be kidding me. Flying cubes have a mission?" Deathbringer mumbled, more to himself.

"Eghm... Alright... The vines! Of course! We just need to trap a cube in some sort of a net!" Doctor snapped his fingers, looking around.

"And how are you planning to do that? You tried too grab it, look where it got you, you've almost fallen off!" Deathbringer look at The Doctor incredulously.

"Yeah... You just had to ruin this perfect plan I had... didn't you...?" The Doctor looked at Deathbringer annoyed.

"THIRTY PRECENT SCAN COMPLETE." The flying cubes stated in sync.

"That's not good..." Doctor rubbed his head.

"Wait, Doctor! I know!" Max perked up when he had gotten an idea. "The dragons that brought us here, they could make themselves invisible, right?"

"That's right, all RainWings do... More or less..." Deathbrigner replied, "...What are you suggesting?"

"Of course! Brilliant!" Doctor instantly understood what Max meant, "Grab any net you can find with small enough holes, or maybe even some fabric, doesn't matter, and have an invisible dragon fly up to the cube, just avoid the light rays coming out of it, they will probably detect them." Doctor listed.

"How do you know about that, Doctor?" Max asked. "Although, if those cubes are using those lasers for scanning, they probably would notice a camouflaged dragon too..."

"Well, better safe than sorry, right?" Doctor said, grinning. "Now, common, I estimate we have about four to five minutes until the scan is complete, and we need a cube before that, understood?" Deathbringer and Max nodded, neither really understanding, but seeing the logic nonetheless. "Alright, now, Max, find any fabric or a net. Deathbringer, since we can't fly, I need you to find a dragon that can help us. In the mean time I'll try to find a way to break into their systems, I might just figure it out..." He started waving his buzzing and rapidly flashing sonic screwdriver at different cubes again.

Max shrugged and ran off to the other side of the platform where he saw a slope leading down to ad different smaller platform earlier. "Well, lucky me, dragons built a slope... Maybe not all of them have wings? I understand having a rest, but if you have wings why would you ever prefer to walk if you could fly? I certainly wouldn't... Still, incredibly convenient, so I shouldn't complain..."

Max bolted down the slope and noticed Deathbringer flying off to a group of dragons nearby that all were terrified lime green color in the corner of his eye. But he quickly focused his attention back on finding some fabric.

He was running over the wooden bridges between trees for about a minute now, and then luckily he had noticed a hammock that was hung between two trees. "I hope this will do, Doctor...". Max quickly untied the fabric from the trees, slumped it over his shoulder and started running back. "Why would dragons even need hammocks? Maybe humans do exist here after all... Or 'scavengers' as they called them... But why did Deathbringer call us 'giant scavengers' then? Alright... saving the world now, questions later." Max had caught himself on the fact that the last thought was more familiar to him than he would have liked.

He ran back onto the royal platform, as he mentally decided to call it, and ran up to The Doctor. "Will this do?" He asked, panting.

The Doctor nodded. Then the hammock suddenly was lifted from his hands as if by magic. "Wh-What?!" Max looked at the hovering fabric in awe. Then he breathed out when a dragon's head appeared from thin air in front of him, it's eyes indicating confusion. "Oh, yeah... Should have guessed..." Max mumbled.

The dragon seemed to shrug, although it's shoulders weren't visible. Then it jumped into air, the head seamlessly blending into the background once again, making it fully invisible again, apart from the floating hammock.

"Good. Just like that, try to conceal the hammock by your wings while flying up, and remember, avoid the light rays." Doctor said, looking the hovering fabric. Then the rag quickly vanished too. "Wow, impressive..." Max thought as he stared at the closest cube. In a few seconds fabric reappeared above it and fell down on top of it. Then the dragon appeared, multiple colors going over it's scales. "Is it happy?"

"Perfect, now bring it back to me!" Doctor shouted to the dragon who was looking at the hammock used as a bag in it's talons. The cube clearly was trying to get out, however all the attempts ended unsuccessfully. The cube said something muffled by the fabric. The dragon nodded and flew back onto the platform and handed the bag to The Doctor, who had grabbed it with one hand and pointed his sonic device at it with the other. "Now let's see what you have for me..." Doctor pulled the cube out of the fabric and it, surprisingly, stayed still on his hand. 

"Okay, let's start. What is your task?"

"INFORMATION GATHERING."

"Very helpful indeed... Who sent you?"

"THE TESTIMONY FOUNDATION."

"Oh... now that's embarrassing... Of course... that's what 'preserving' meant..." Doctor shook his head. "Stupid old me..."

"What do you mean, who are they?" Max looked at The Doctor, even more confused now.

"Yes, rather long time ago... Alright, identify me."

The device pointed a laser at The Doctor. "IDENTIFICATION SUCCESFULL. ATTENTION, THERE IS A MESSAGE STORED FOR YOU."

A hologram of a woman flickered on on top of the cube. "My greetings, Doctor. I expected our foundation to meet you again some time. I am recording this for such an occasion. I assure you that our mission hasn't changed, but now we no longer just preserve people, we can preserve entire planets."

"Oh... now I feel even worse... Sorry, little cube..."

The hologram continued talking over The Doctor, unbothered by Time Lord's words. "In our deep appreciation towards you we have decided to send you a gift. We call it 'Memory Box'. Our scanner will initialize the delivery as soon as this message ends. The universe is forever grateful to you, Doctor, please never forget that." The projection of the woman flickered off. After a moment of silence a grey box with intricate patterns appeared in a blue flash in front of The Doctor.

"Thank you, weird-space-cube." Doctor smiled and raised his hands, letting the cube raise into the air. "SCAN COMPLETE. INITIALIZING RETURN TELEPORT." All the cubes in the air said in unison then, in a bright flash, they were gone.

"Who... Who was that... Doctor?" Max came up behind The Doctor who was looking with a bit of sadness at the place the cube that they captured disappeared. "Oh, yes... I'm okay... I've met them a long time ago... Believe it or not I once was a very old Scotsman..." Max looked back at the two dragons that were standing nearby, but they were too busy studying the air where cubes have just been. "Well, I ran into them... It's an organization... When humans discovered time travel they used it to scan people's memories before their death, and then uploading them into glass avatars that could project said human appearance so that they could talk again... Although I didn't think they'd be happy to see me again..."

"Of course they are happy to see you, who wouldn't be...?" Max trailed off, he knew that he himself sometimes wished he never met The Doctor, and yet... He was the thing that held this universe together, and Max couldn't deny that. "But what did they give you?"

Doctor turned his gaze to the box and studied it before picking it up. "Not sure what this is to be honest... But I'll check later. He tucked the box into one of his pockets."

"How did that fit in there... Or rather why didn't it make visible bulge?" Max asked.

"Oh, you haven't guessed? My pockets are bigger on the inside." Doctor gave a small chuckle as he said that. He looked like whatever came over him when the cube showed him the message passed, but Max wasn't sure. Doctor was too good at hiding his emotions.

Deathbringer finally shook off the shock and looked at the pair sternly. "So it's over?"

"Yes... Turns out it wasn't really anything bad..." Doctor said, getting up.

"I-... I should make sure Glory is okay!" He took a sudden step back. "Wasn't he ordered to look over us? Queen is important, but sure there has to be-..." 

But before the NightWing could leave, a very pissed off queen landed behind him. "Deathbringer!" She roared. "Did I imagine it or did I really hear some concern about him in that roar?"

"Oh, Glory! You're okay, thank the moons!" Deathbringer instantly looked a lot happier. "Could it be...?"

"It's Queen Glory. Especially in front of strangers, and especially especially weird creatures like those two." She responded, twisting her snout sideways as if to cover one side of it. No, Max definitely wasn't imagining it. There was something up with those two. Was she hiding a smile?

"They actually stopped it... I think..." Deathbrigner gestured at them wit his tail.

"Well, not really..." Doctor interjected "...It turned out to be nothing bad."

"Are you kidding me?! Nothing bad?! The whole village is terrified!" The RainWing queen raised her voice.

"Trust me, everything is okay now... It's a group of... historians so to say... They are collecting information to preserve it..." Doctor was struggling to pick out the right words so that the dragon could understand. "They really don't seem to have any sort of technology here..." Max shuddered, imagining what it would be like, if dragons had everything he used to have on Earth.

"Deathbringer?" Queen Glory turned to him, her gaze visibly softened.

"I think they're saying the truth, Glory, that one... Doctor, was it...? Made a plan to get one of those weird flying objects, and then spoke to it..." Deathbringer responded. "It's Queen-... Alright, what's he doing here then?" She gestured at the RainWing who looked like nothing had happened and was already dozing off. "Wow, even humans aren't capable of that... I'm almost impressed... Complete ignorance..."

"He helped, we needed an invisible dragon since those cubes somehow could react to what was happening around them..." Deathbringer said a bit defensively.

Queen didn't respond, instead she studied Deathbringer carefully. After a long pause she said much more softly "Fine... I think you're telling the truth... You're dismissed," she nodded at the RainWing that got the cube for them, "As for you two... It's getting late... Where could we place them until I figure out what to do with them? I don't think quicksand would work..."

Deathbringer shook his head "No, no, there's no need for that... If they wanted to they could escape during... whatever that was... But they didn't... I think we can trust them about that atleast... Maybe we could put them in the NightWing village? There should be some free places to sleep, since a few dragonets went to the Academy...".

Glory studied him once more "Yes, maybe... I think Secretkeeper would agree to house them if I asked her to... And her hut is on the edge of the village... That will help to avoid any unnecessary questions...". She thought for another minute in silence. "Alright, Deathbringer will take you two to the NightWing village and relay my request. I will try to calm the RainWings down, and think about what to do with you two."

Chapter Text

Currently this story has alternative arc 2. There will be an occasional "Memory" chapter. Those aren't necessary for the current plot, but will be later on. It will be similar to the book 15 Mindscape, but hopefully will make more sense and will take place in different part of Pyrrhia(Maybe even Pantala once I get to arc 3).

Then there will be a few chapters in between. More detailed epilogue basically.

Then arc 3 as a separate work. For that, despite how much I'd like to change book 15 entirely, I'll stick to the canon in general but obviously with a different outcome.

And after that, I'll be doing my version of arc 4(this was written before any of the books from it came out, so it will be completely my own story), with plot closer to Doctor Who, even some aliens probably. It hopefully will be wrapping everything up, both from the fic and canon.

I'm writing this to avoid any unreasonable expectations for the story.

Chapter Text

(Max's POV)

The Doctor and Max were standing to the side of the whole NightWings tribe that had gathered in the forest clearing on one end of their village where the least amount of houses was finished. Secretkeeper, the dragon who has generously allowed them to stay in her hut after some explanations from Deathbringer, was standing beside them, trying to cover them with her form from other NightWings to avoid questions. Max wasn't sure what exactly was happening, but The Doctor didn't look happy at all.

Queen Glory stood on a mahogany platform, facing the tribe. She was the only RainWing present, or at least visible, and her scales were set in an intricate overlapping leaf pattern of bright green, gold, and black. Beside her, as close as her shadow, stood none other than Deathbringer himself with a worried expression.

Then, suddenly, a giant dragon broke through the tree canopy and started descending. Max ducked impulsively in fear. "Now that's a proper dragon!"

Max noticed that Glory was looking at the dragon with no emotion on her face at all and straightened himself out with some effort. The dragon soared down and landed beside the queen and her bodyguard, taking up all the space on the platform.

A muffled gasp rustled through the crowd of NightWings. Deathbringer sidled a step closer to Glory, but the queen herself neither flinched nor moved away from the giant black and purple dragon in front of her. A small light blue dragon however for a moment at giant's shoulder, but there was no room on the platform for anyone else. "Wow, is she from another tribe? But where did she come-... Oh..." Only then had Max noticed a few dragons actually came with the humongous, as he assumed, NightWing. A few black ones, that small blue one, and another green one who had perched himself on a branch higher up. 

Huffing grumpily, the blue one landed on the ground close to the platform, then spent several minutes pointedly scraping all the muddy leaves out of her little patch of dirt. "Blue... blue... blue... Maybe a SkyWing...? ...Or an IceWing, they must be blue if I had to guess... or maybe a SeaWing? Yeah, that doesn't really narrow it down... But what is she doing with that gigantic NightWing, and why is he so big?!"

"Darkstalker, I presume," said Glory. The Doctor tilted his head at the name. The queen then nodded to four NightWing dragonets who had slipped into the tribe after they landed. One of them unexpectedly came up to Secretkeeper who instantly wrapped her wings around the dragonet. "Is that her daughter who was away at some sort of academy...? Yes, this must be Moonwatcher...". Max then saw another dragonet whispering something excitedly to a tall male NightWing, holding out a bracelet she had on her leg.

"I see Sunny used the dreamvisitor to tell you we were coming," Darkstalker said. "Wise." Max looked at The Doctor "Dreamvisitor?" he whispered, but the Time Lord just shrugged and continued studying the huge dragon intensively.

"The tribe prefers not to be surprised," Glory said, indicating the sea of black dragons below them. "But as you can see, despite your prediction, no one has run away. They chose to be brave, to stand together and face you."

That wasn't entirely accurate, as Max had noticed that a few dragons bolted into the forest as soon as Darkstalker flew down from the canopy. And he couldn't exactly blame them, the dragon looked terrifying. He wondered what Queen Glory had said to them to give the rest of them that strength.

Darkstalker smiled a dazzling smile. "Yep, that's definitely not terrifying at all...". "There's no need to be brave," he said. "I'm no monster. The history you've been fed is greatly exaggerated." He opened his talons palm up toward the tribe, as if revealing all his secrets to them. "They told you I was evil, that I had done lots of terrible things, and that I was locked away to protect you. None of that is true, my fellow NightWings."

Max noticed that Darkstalker was searching the crowd as if looking for something. Doctor finally turned to Max, his eyes worried. "So... you remember that scratching at the back of my brain I told you about? So yeah... probably nothing, but... Just in case..." He put his fingers on Max's temples and lightly pressed down on them.

"What was that for?" Max asked, eyeing Doctor suspiciously. "Oh, just psychic shielding, if I'm right that dragon has some sort of telepathic abilities, and you don't want anyone reading your mind, trust me..." Doctor said nonchalantly. 

Max was about to turn his attention back to Darkstalker, who was saying something again, but noticed that Moonwatcher was now starring at them stunned. "Uh... Hi...?" Max said, uncertainty in his voice. She didn't respond to that and just turned her head to her mother with a horrified stare. "It's okay, dear," Secretkeeper spoke softly, "They aren't dangerous."

"B-but... giant talking scavengers!" Moon said in a trembling whisper.

"One of them says that he is a human and it's basically like a scavenger but larger, and thanks to something the other one has we can understand each other," Secretkeeper continued, her voice just as soft. "Queen Glory asked me to house them last night, I also was shocked at first, trust me, but they turned out to be rather interesting creatures, we have talked for hours while it was getting dark. I told them about Pyrrhia and my life while they told me about theirs. Can you believe it? They have a weird box that's bigger on the inside and can travel through time and space!"

"Wh-What?" Moon visibly shuddered and looked at the two again.

"Uh, yeah... Maybe later about all that... Who's he?" The Doctor pointed at Darkstalker who was saying something about how great the NightWing tribe can be.

"He's-... he's... Wait did you say a box that can travel through time?" Moon turned to her mother again.

"Yeah, it's called the TARDIS, lovely thing, although never brings me where I want to go in all five thousand years..." Doctor responded before Secretkeeper could speak.

"...the future and past locked in an ancient box..." Moon whispered to herself, barely audible, but Max heard her. However, before he could ask about it, Darkstalker's booming voice cut into his head. "Queen Glory," he said, and there was a lilt to his voice that hinted that he found that phrase rather amusing. "I'm here to challenge you for the throne of the NightWing tribe."

"Oh no..." Moon whispered looking at the dragons sitting on the platform

(Wasp's POV)

"What do you know about 'Time Lords'?" Queen Wasp asked.

"What do you know about them?" A different voice replied with a chuckle.

"This." The queen spat and raised a piece of paper that she was clutching in her talons.

"Amusing. Why didn't you mention this before?"

"So what do you know about them?" Wasp demanded, ignoring the question.

"Less than I'd like... An old legend... Nothing more."

"Don't you try lying to me," queen replied.

"I'm not lying to you, Wasp, if those ancient words turn out to have any truth to them, I'll tell you all that you'll need to know."

"This is the only Clearsight's prophecy left. The previous one id dated over a thousand years ago, and this one is supposed to happen somewhere in our time according the old witch," queen was getting frustrated.

"Exactly, don't you find it weird? Poor old Clearsight probably just had her imagination run wild or something before death, that's why it's written like a poem, unlike all her other prophecies." The voice tried to keep sounding sweet but it's frustration was sipping out more and more with each word. "Now stop wasting my time." It finally snapped.

(Max's POV)

A slightly bulky green dragon soared down to Moon and Secretkeeper once Darkstalker left the big platform to talk with the tribe. Max noted that the new dragon looked rather terrified. "Well, I probably look like that too, seems like there's going to be some major tribe size changes..."

"Moon, are you alright?" The dragon asked, panting a little as he landed.

"Yes... yes, I think I am, Turtle..." Moon spoke.

Green dragon, whose name apparently was Turtle, nodded, looking relieved. Then he turned his head, noticing The Doctor and Max and his jaw dropped.

"Hi, nice to meet you. I am The Doctor, and this is Max." Doctor spoke cheerfully, waving his hand at the dragon and smiling.

"GIANT TALKING SCAVENGERS?!" Turtle screamed in a hushed tone, jumping back.

"Hey, hey no need to scream... Yes we are... well not exactly... kind of a long story, you know?" Max spoke up. "I definitely need to work on this... Looks like we'll be staying here for a while..."

"B-but... Wh-what...? ...H-how...?" Turtle's voice was shaking and he was stumbling over his words. He looked at Moon, then at Secretkeeper, but both just shrugged with an expression saying 'I'm not sure myself'.

The Doctor suddenly started rapidly going through all his pockets until he pulled out the Memory Cube, which was rapidly flashing. "Doctor, what's happening?" Max asked.

"I'm not sure..." The Doctor moved the cube closer to Max so he could also see it, "It's like it has activated or something...".

"Wh-what is that thing?" Turtle asked, tilting her head.

Before Doctor or Max could answer him, the patterns on the small box started pulsating more and more and a bright flash of light enveloped both Max and The Doctor, temporarily blinding them.

(Moonwatcher's POV)

When the light faded the three dragons looked at the empty space the pair was standing in a few moments ago. "What... What was that...?" Moon asked.

"I think they have mentioned it... They called it Memory Cube..." Secretkeeper said. "I'm not even sure how to explain it..."

"Oh... um... Well... I think need to talk to Queen Glory, so... Explain everything later, okay?" Turtle looked at Moon awkwardly. 

"Uhm... Sure... I guess..." Moon said uncertain as Turtle nodded and flew off.

"How will he find the RainWing village?" Secretkeeper asked, concern in he voice, as Turtle vanished between the trees.

"I hope he does..." Moon said, "Now, can you please explain me everything you know about those two?"

Chapter Text

(Max's POV)

Once Max's vision came back he saw that he and The Doctor were surrounded by... well, nothing. Just white void. "Doctor? What just happened?" Max asked.

"I'm not sure..." Doctor replied, looking around. He reached down into his pocket for the sonic screwdriver, but the emptiness suddenly transformed into a beachside of a sea or an ocean. "Oh, now this is fascinating." Doctor proclaimed and started studying the ground below him.

"What? Weren't we just simply teleported?" Max asked looking at the waves that washed up a small distance away from his feet.

"Oh, no... defiantly no... In fact this place isn't real at all..." The Doctor said. "It's some sort of projection made by this amazing thing!" He raised the cube. "Look, we can't interact with it at all." Doctor tried to push a rock but it didn't budge. "So you better stay away from the water, it will push you around as if you weight nothing..."

"Wha- Wait, how is this even possible? What is this?!" Max asked, hurriedly taking a few steps away from the sea.

"The cube must be showing us someth-... Oh..." Doctor said.

"What is it?" Max looked at his friend questioningly.

"It's writing something. I think..." Doctor put the cube down and took a step back. Letters started forming in the air on top of it.

Memory information:
Name: Nightmarestorm.
Planet of origin: No known local name(Awaiting confirmation on assigned name).
Continent: Pyrrhia.
Species: Dragon.
Tribe  classification(local societal system): Hybrid. NightWing and IceWing.
Gender: Male.
Year of hatching(local calendar): 4958AS
Year of death(local calendar): 4963AS

The words hovered in the air for a about a minute before fading away again.

"Of course..." Doctor said and picked up the cube. "This must be one of the memories they've collected from this dragon at the moment of his death..."

"Wait a second! Doctor! What?!"

"Oh, right... Well, like I said yesterday evening Testimony Foundation collects memories of people... and, apparently, other species... before their deaths." Doctor started walking along the shore and Max followed, not that he had many other options. "When I met them they've only used AI to 'allow the dead to speak' using their memories to copy their personality, emotions, everything..."

"Yes. I remember. And the cubes that appeared yesterday have claimed to be from this Testimony Foundation too and now they're apparently scanning the whole planets? Sure! Okay! But what does this have to with the fake beach again?"

"I'm getting to it. It looks like we're in one of those preserved memories. I see why they call it "Memory Box" now..."

"But why would it-" Max started to ask but he was cut off as a dragon walked out from what looked to be a cave to the left of them. His scales were purple. Max could see a few blue spikes poking out from his neck. The underside of his wings was blue with small silver scales in start patterns like the NightWings' Max saw earlier.

"Well, I presume this is Nightmarestorm... Which means this is probably his memory." Doctor said walking up to the dragon.

"Great, another day on this stupid island..." The dragon grumbled sleepily, and suddenly spread his wings, jumping into the air. The first wing flap hit The Doctor and threw back way further than it normally would. "Right, we can't offer any resistance physically, but we can touch everything, meaning it's like he hit a piece of paper..." Max rushed to The Doctor to help him. 

Nightmarestorm in the meantime flew over a rocky hill. By the time he was back Doctor was relatively okay again. The pair looked at the dragon and saw that he had a few strange fruits in his talons. Nightmarestorm put them down on the ground, then he leaped into the air again. This time he flew over to the water and kept flying until he saw something. He breathed out a burst of something that looked like ice into the sea. "What?! Shouldn't he be breathing fire? Well maybe IceWings can breathe ice... And he's part one... How do these dragons keep getting cooler and cooler by the minute?" Max was surprised, but the dragon dived down and fetched out a small block of ice. Once he got back to the island Max could see there were two fishes inside of it. Nightmarestorm put it next to the fruits then collected a few branches lying around, and, to Max's even bigger astonishment, produced a flame from his throat setting them on fire. "So he can breathe fire too? How would that even work?"

Nightmarestorm took the fish and cooked them in a second by burning them with his fire breath. He ate them in a single bite. stood up and went to his cave, in a minute he returned with a scroll. He carefully laid it out by the fire and made sure to put stones on it's corners. Then he carefully curled up around the fire. And looked at the scroll with sad eyes. Max turned to The Doctor, who nodded in response and they both walked closer to the paper in order to read what was written.

We leave you this scroll in case we can't be there for you when you hatch, our beautiful dragonet.

First and foremost, here's what is safe for you to eat:
Max looked past a lot of unfamiliar names with drawings, and then another list for poisonous fruits, dangerous animals and easy prey.

We have decided to name you Nightmarestorm. Please keep this name proudly, my child. But perhaps you may want to know why. Your father wanted a NightWing name, Nightmarechaser, but I said that we couldn't be sure how you will look like when you hatch, and I wanted to call you Snowstorm. We decided on this compromise, and we both think this name is beautiful.

Please try to stay away from all the other dragons, especially from white and black ones, they hate each other and will try to kill you if they see you. Those are called IceWings and NightWings. Your father is a NightWing and I'm an IceWing, we met on our missions for our tribes in the Sky Kingdom, but both tribes really didn't like it when they found out about us and you, so we had to run so we could keep you safe. There are patrols from both sides searching for us. If we get captured... And if we can get out alive, we promise you, Nightmarestorm, we'll do anything to find you.

Max looked up at the dragon. "If he has this scroll with him his parents probably were captured... And he doesn't look like a hatchling... Meaning they didn't come back...". He felt sadness for this dragon. "So NightWings and IceWings apparently hate each other? And they despise the other so much they'd go after a small dragonet on sight just because it has their blood in it?"

But Max's thought process was interrupted by Nightmarestorm getting up. Max noticed that he drew lines on the sand. "Yes... It's been another six month... It's time to go back there again..." The dragon's voice was clearly weak as he rolled up the scroll, put out the fire and went back into the cave, to presumably get his things. But everything faded to white again. Max looked at The Doctor and saw cube forming a message reading "END OF MEMORY SEGMENT.". A/N: Just so you know, while writing this I had immense desire to add "...pay to unlock more.", but that wouldn't make sense in the story context. (Edit during copying to AO3: per reader's suggestion, this actually sort of became a thing later on)

"So what now, Memory Cube, huh? Was that it? Or do you have more to show?" Doctor started to twirling the cube in his hands.

"Wait, Doctor, we seriously not going to talk about what we just saw? Not at all?" Max asked, grabbing Doctor's arms.

"Ah, yes talking, lovely activity when you have time. Which we don't. I really need to figure out how to control this thing..."

"You just saw to much of those already haven't you? You just don't care by now, right?!" Max found himself raising his voice. He hated how Doctor was completely unbothered by what they both just saw.

"Oh, I don't care?! You think I don't care?! Of course I do care! But face it, this dragon is probably long gone, he's a memory, a phantom. And we have way more real problems right now. Which means I deal with this stupid box now and care later, because that's what I have to do!"

"You-" Max wanted to protest, but the cube started pulsating with light and blinded them both again

Chapter Text

(Max's POV)

After another flash of light faded and both Doctor and Max found themselves in a stone tunnel, faintly lit by occasional torches. Doctor quickly spun around, taking in their surroundings. Then they both heard a voice echoing through one of the branching off tunnels.

"...all right, we can talk about Darkstalker." the voice was speaking in a very annoyed tone. "If you all will sit down and shut up, I'll tell you what I know about him."

Max turned to look at The Doctor, who, eloquently put his finger to his lips, indicating to stay quiet, and started moving in the direction of the sound.

"Darkstalker is the son of a NightWing named Foeslayer and an IceWing prince named Arctic," the weird voice was rattling off. "He lived about two thousand years ago in the NightWing Kingdom, and he was the first animus dragon to hatch in the NightWing tribe - a gift he inherited from his father. But he rapidly became too dangerous to control, according to the legends left from the time, he killed many dragons and planned to take the throne for himself when his friends Fathom and Clearsight conspired to stop him, stuffing him under a mountain and putting him to sleep forever..."

"Clearsight... Clearsight... Clearsight..." The Doctor started rubbing his head and whispering. "Where did I hear that name..."

"Doctor!" Max interrupted him in a harsh whisper. "Maybe you should focus more on the fact that the dragon we just saw is two thousand years old somehow?! And apparently extremely dangerous?!"

"Oh," The Doctor gave a dismissive wave, "Happens to me all the time, really isn't important right now, please let me remember how do I know that name..."

"But, Doctor, didn't that dragon just say that Darkstalker killed many dragons?! And he was imprisoned under a mountain for two thousand years! You don't jus trap someone udner a mountain for that long!"

"Oh, you're surprised? His whole look just screamed sinister and evil... Oh, right! My memory is not the best... It was a few thousand years ago after all... But I think I used to know someone named Clearsight..." Doctor was heavily frowning, clearly trying to recall something.

But he was interrupted again, by two yellow dragons walking into the hallway and stopping as they stared at the two in shock. "Those are SandWings, if I had to guess...". One dragon was slightly bigger and had a darker tint to her scales. The other one had something like a barb on the end of his tail that the bigger one hadn't, he also had a strange gold earring in one ear with a warm orange amber teardrop hanging from it. He had a small zigzagging scar on his snout. And they both were staring intently at the pair.

"Oh, um, hi..." The Doctor started.

"You-... You... talk?" Said the larger dragon in a scared and shocked voice.

"Yeah... So let's get this over with quickly. We aren't scavengers, we can talk and understand you perfectly well, we are supposed to be this size, and we weren't enchanted or anything. Also we have ended up in here by accident, and it might help if you guys told where this 'here' is." Doctor wasted no time in responding.

"Uh... Jade Mountain Academy..." the smaller dragon said, with uncertainty, his gaze shifting between the two creatures in front of him.

"Oh, good, you see, we just were in this cool rainforest. We've met a few dragons there... Well short story we've met dragon called Moonwatcher, and according to her mother she's from here... Well, basically, do you know her?" Max asked. "Not like we do, but if they say yes they'll trust us more."

"Oh, you've seen Moon?" the smaller one asked, looking relieved. "Is she okay?"

"Well, yes..." Doctor said, "But, just so you know, she flew down with a giant NightWing, who is, I'm pretty sure, called Darkstalker. The one that someone just talked about over there?"

"Yes, we know that, they left this morning..." the female one said.

"Yes, how is she?" the other one stepped forward, worry in his voice, tail twitching on the ground.

"We're not sure, she was with her mother, we could talk for a short moment, and then this thing..." Doctor raised the Memory Cube, "...Pretty much transported us here. We're not sure exactly how or why but yeah... So saving questions and freaking out for later would help."

"Well... Um... We've got a problem here at the moment..." The larger one spoke again, "so we'll have to figure what's up with you two out later... So, I'm Sunny and this is Qibli, you two probably should stay in my cave while we're busy..."

"I'm The Doctor and this is Max, we can help, we're good at solving problems! Well, usually... Maybe we can help?"

"Oh, that would be good..." Said Sunny, "But I don't think you can help us find a dragon..."

"What? Is that why you've needed me? Is it Ostrich?!" Qibli asked her.

"Wha-... How did you know?"

"I've guessed, haven't seen her since I got back." There was undeniable nervousness in his tone.

"Alright, so what do you know? How long, is there anyone else, was she... uh... living alone?" Doctor to Max's surprise was quick to start asking questions.

"I've seen her yesterday morning, but then everything with Darkstalker happened... And I can't find her today... I'm not sure if anyone else is gone..." Sunny said in dismay.

"Well, let's go to her... room? Or what do you have here?" Max tried to follow The Doctor's idea.

"It's sleeping caves... If I remember right she's clawmates with Anemone, right?" Qibli asked Sunny.

"Yes, you're right, we should check there..." Sunny said, still visibly unnerved.

The four started walking down the tunnel. Or rather the three. Max groaned as he saw Doctor start running and dragons taking flight behind him. He saw they had trouble spreading their wings in such a small space but they didn't want to stop The Doctor or fall behind, considering he didn't know the way. Max let out another groan and started running too since he already was a great distance behind them. He heard Sunny shouting "Left" far in front of him. He guessed that Doctor has reached an intersection.

After a few minutes of running Max caught up to the others, heavily panting, they had stopped in some sort of a cave by the looks of it.

"Wow... This place is a mess..." Doctor commented looking around at the floor and Max noticed that the floor was covered in various jewelry.

"Yes, it looks like Princess Anemone hasn't quite gotten used to living without servants yet." Said Sunny twisting her long neck to look around the cave, only a small bit of bitterness in her voice.

"A princess you say...?" Max asked. He admittedly was more curious about this than the missing dragon. Others didn't look like any sort of royalty, then why would a princess be here? Then again, Queen Glory didn't look exactly different from everyone else either... Maybe a bit less careless... Although she didn't have this much treasure lying around... Who could be so reckless with something so valuable?

"Yes... One of Queen Coral's daughters..." Replied Sunny, looking around the room.

"I see... Well, maybe her friends know something? Ostrich's I mean, not Anemone's. Who does she usually spend time with?" Doctor inquired.

"Yes, we should ask other SandWings... Wait, Sunny... Onyx wasn't at history either! Where is Gold Winglet right now?" Qibli spoke up.

"Herbs and Healing, with the Copper Winglet, I think," she answered.

"Wait a second please, small catchup, Winglet? Onyx?" Doctor was using the opportunity to ask more questions, Max realised.

"Well, shortly speaking the Jade Mountain Academy was made to unite the tribes so it is divided into winglets, each has seven dragons..."

"Oh, that's so nice! One from each tribe, I presume?"

"That's right. And Onyx is another SandWing student. She's in the Gold Winglet..." Qibli filled in for Sunny who looked pleased at The Doctor's words for some reason.

"Oh. Good. And where you two are from, just in case?"

"Well, I'm in Jade Winglet." Said Qibli. "And Sunny is our teacher."

"Alright, I see... Well let's get going then. But I think me and Max should stay behind, I don't think it's reasonable to waste time answering questions now." Doctor ushered them to the cave entrance.

"Yeah... I guess you're right... Your existence is still unbelievable though." Sunny said turning to the entrance.

"Which reminds me..." Max took his chance to add something, "...is there any way you could contact Queen Glory? We kind of vanished because of this thing... Don't want her thinking we ran away..."

"Oh, of course, I can just dreamvisit her later, no worries." Sunny said.

Before Max could inquire about what 'dreamvisit' meant, Qibli spoke up. "What it this thing anyway? You said it brought you here? How?" His tone was a weird mix of curiosity, caution, and weariness, pointing at the Memory Cube, still in Doctor's hand.

"Oh it's... a gift of sorts... it's called Memory Box and for some reason it shows us memories of dragons... So far we've seen one... Well I'm not sure about the current date here, so he might have been from the past or from the future..." Max tried to explain the weird gift this Testimony Foundation gave to The Doctor.

"Oh? Future or the past you say? Did it mention a specific date?" Qibli suddenly looked like metaphorical gears in his head were turning.

"Uh yeah... 4960AS or something..."

"Wow, that's fifty years ago..." Qibli said, surprised. "Unless the future and past locked in an ancient box come..." He mumbled, but Max heard him, and this time he wasn't letting it go.

"What is that supposed to mean? First Moonwatcher, and now you, both mumbling this line. What is it about?" Max questioned.

A/N: So I tried to make a cliffhanger... Doubt it worked, but hey, I'm tired by now. Doctor keeps meeting our protagonists. I thought they'd be a bit more accepting of talking scavengers due to the pressing problem of Ostrich. Also worth mentioning, the events happened a bit differently, Darkstalker didn't hand out gifts at the rainforest, and the events at JMA happened a bit later. Only the NightWings are under his spell at the moment. The rest is pure manipulation. Now there's an issue however, Vulture has... a bit of a different role here, so it will be a bit tighter on time now with Onyx.

Chapter Text

(Max's POV)

Doctor took a step closer behind Max and carefully whispered in his ear. "What line?"

Qibli suddenly looked nervous and shot a glance at Sunny. "Uh... Maybe we can discuss that later?"

"Discuss what?" Sunny asked, rather cheerfully for the situation, in Max's opinion.

"Nothing! We wanted to check if Onyx is missing too, remember?" Qibli replied hurriedly.

"Oh, right! Sorry, I am still not exactly used to two giant talking scavengers..."

"For the last time, we're not scavengers!" Max said, exasperated. "But Qibli's right, we were looking for a dragon, possibly two." He said, although looked at Qibli, his gaze saying "Alright, but talk later."

"So, let's get moving then, shall we?" Doctor said, with his usual enthusiasm, spun around and bolted out of the cave, only to pop his head back in moments later. "Which way 'Herbs and Healing', again?"

"To the left. But there are a few more turns on the way there, so could you please not run like a dragon with his tail on fire this time?" Qibli asked, clearly hoping to avoid another round of flying through tight tunnels after The Doctor.

"You know, 'dragon with his tail one fire' describes me surprisingly well... most of the time..." The Doctor mumbled to himself, yet loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Wait a moment," Max decided to ask before they go, "Shouldn't you make this princess clean up her mess?" It just irritated him how all those valuables were tossed around everywhere. HE couldn't fathom who'd treat treasure like this.

"Oh, I'd try to now, now that I know about this... But she flew off this morning... With Darkstalker, just like Moon..." another tingle of worry could be heard in Sunny's words, but she quickly brushed them away.

"Oh, well that's alright then..." Doctor mumbled. "Go on, lead the way then."

The dragons nodded and walked out of the cave, with Doctor and Max following. As they walked through the tunnels of Jade Mountain they could hear occasional echoes of different dragons speaking. "Those must be all the classes...". And, just as he finished that thought, they all entered a cave full of dragons. "Doctor, weren't we supposed to stay outside?" Max whispered into his ear, despite being just as guilty, as all the dragons stared at the two in shock. "Right, of course," Doctor loudly announced. "Sorry to interrupt, you lot - go on, okay?" He then grabbed Max by his arm and dragged him back out into the tunnel.

"Sorry, I'll explain later," they heard Sunny say from the classroom, or rather classcave, "uh... so... Clay, have you seen Ostrich or Onyx today?"

"No... I don't think so... Did something happen, Sunny?" another, rather confused, voice replied. Max guessed it belonged to the large brown dragon he saw in front of the improvised class, who apparently was named Clay. "Probably a MudWing... I mean, 'Clay' is kind of close to mud, right?"

"Yes... Sort of... I don't want to interrupt you... Can I talk to Pronghorn and Tamarin for a moment?" The female SandWing replied.

"...Uh... Sure..." Clay replied. After a few seconds their companions walked back out of the class with two new dragons. It was rather dark, but one of them looked to be a SandWing and the other like a RainWing. The SandWing was studying Max and The Doctor cautiously with his gaze while the RainWing looked nowhere in particular, which left Max puzzled.

"Look, I understand this is rather weird," Qibli spoke to the two new dragons,  "we ran into those two about ten minutes ago, and we're still not sure how they exist and all, but what matters right now is Ostrich... and Onyx." Max couldn't help but notice a pause Qibli made before mentioning this Onyx dragon.

"What happened to them? And who are you talking about, Qibli? Who have you met?" Tamarin asked, tilting her head.

"Oh, um... This might be a little hard to explain... So you've heard of scavengers, right? Well... We've met two giant talking ones..." Qibli said to her, his tone worried. "Is he worried how she'll react? But can't she see us-... Oh... She must be blind, that's it... Her eyes... Oh, poor dragon... Even on Earth it can be hard for blind people... But here... For a dragon...?"

"Yes, hi!" Doctor said cheerfully and waved his hand at the dragon, before promptly slapping himself on the forehead, realizing she couldn't see him. Max noticed that the SandWing, Pronghorn he presumed, scowled and rose the barbed end his tail slightly, pointing it at the two.

"So, Pronghorn... Have you seen Ostrich lately?" Qibli asked, clearly eyeing the dragon's tail worriedly and trying to distract him.

"The last time I saw Ostrich was yesterday before lunch... she, Arid and I took some instruments to one of the upper caves, you know, to play with the sound of rain in the background. We invited Onyx too, but she doesn't really like music so she refused." Pronghorn said, going deep in thought, trying to remember everything, and, to Max and Doctor's reliefs, lowered his tail back to the ground. "Whatever that barb is, it's nothing good..."

"Doesn't like music?" Doctor questioned. "Who in their right mind doesn't like music? Well, the god of music ironically, I suppose..." he mumbled the last part to himself, "What else she doesn't like? The sun?". Max noticed Qibli looking at The Doctor with amused expression. If he was a human he'd certainly be biting his lip right now. "What, did Doctor say something special?"

"Well, me." Tamarin offered suddenly. "And most other dragons actually."

"Really?" Sunny asked anxiously. "Oh no, I had no idea... Is she hard to live with? Is she mean to you?"

"No, she's always nice to my face," said Tamarin. In the rose and purple lights of the tunnel, it was hard to tell what color her scales were, hiding her emotions at the moment. "Most dragons don't realize how much I can figure out just from their tone of voice, or the little huffs they make between sentences. She thinks because I can't see her, I won't be able to tell when she's rolling her eyes or making fun of someone. Sometimes she'll sneak in and out of our cave, because she doesn't want to have to talk to me, and she thinks I don't notice." She shrugged. "It's not personal, though. I think she doesn't particularly care about any dragons unless they can help her get what she wants."

"Yeah... You'd be surprised how often it happens..." Doctor spoke to her "You know, I was blind myself once-" he was interrupted by Max before he could finish, "Not now, Doctor, your 'amazing stories' can wait."

"And what does she want?" Qibli inquired, ignoring The Doctor. 

Tamarin shrugged again. "I don't know. Although she clearly wants something. Badly. And I think she's gone to get it, because she didn't come back to our cave last night."

Qibli and Sunny both pricked up their ears. "She didn't?" Sunny asked.

"Whoa. Do you think Ostrich and Onyx left together?" Pronghorn asked. "Maybe to go back to the Kingdom of Sand?"

"Ostrich wouldn't leave without telling someone," Qibli said. "She wouldn't leave without telling me."

"Unless she was forced to..." Sunny said, trailing off. She twisted her front talons together, looking ill.

"Right! Stupid me!" Doctor suddenly jumped and bolted over to Tamarin. "Tamarin, right? Can you please tell me, did Onyx leave anything behind?"

Tamarin recoiled from the sudden movement at her but answered nonetheless, "I think she did leave a weird bracelet... She rarely takes it, and when she does she leaves for a while... But I think it's there now."

"What's on your mind?" Max asked Doctor. "Why do you need something of hers?"

"Look, it's... Well, to simplify. From what I've seen the dragon species here has stronger psychic energy... Meaning, theoretically, if I took an item and plugged it into the TARDIS console... What I'm saying is, we probably can find them."

"I'm not sure what all that meant, but if you know how to find them, please do help us!" Sunny said, hope and plea echoing in her voice.

"Of course! Let's go get that bracelet, and then I'll show you something unbelievable!" Doctor said, full of excitement at showing off his magic box.

"More unbelievable than you two?" Qibli inquired dryly.

"Oh, you'd be surprised..." Doctor let out a chuckle. "So where's the cave?"

"Doctor, if you don't mind... Can I please wait here? I've had enough of running around this mountain..." Max pleaded.

"Sure, we'll go back through here anyway, but don't run off anywhere!" Doctor said, already ushering all the dragons to lead him to Onyx's cave.

Max let out a sigh and sat down, his back again the tunnel wall. He was admittedly more tired than usual. They were here for over a day by now. Usually their adventures lasted around a few hours. And, admittedly, the short thrill was way more to his liking. And nothing was even of particular danger to them yet. But he felt constantly on edge, his nerves working full force.

"What?!" He heard an unexpected voice beside himself, as he turned his head he saw a white dragon. Well, maybe not just white, a little bit blue. His posture screamed danger. "What are you?! Why are you so big?!" The dragon demanded harshly, but something in his tone told Max that he didn't really expect an answer.

"Oh... hi there..." Max replied, his voice rather devoid of enthusiasm. "Look, I hope I'm not bothering you, I know you aren't used to seeing humans like me here, or the smaller scavengers, as you call them, either way, don't worry I'll be leaving soon." Max said, dragging his hands over his face, cleaning the surprising amount of sweat that accumulated due to all his running.

"Wh-What?" the dragon suddenly sounded scared and took a step back, stuttering over his words. "You t-talk?"

"Yes, could you please spare me the surprised face? It's getting old by now. I don't mean you any harm, and like I said, I'll be leaving soon, so just go on, do whatever you were doing here, ignore me."

"Uh... I-I..." The dragon stuttered again, but then Sunny and Qibli led by The Doctor showed up. Qibli let out a squeak of what sounded like joy, running closer to the shocked dragon. "Oh, Winter, great, just the dragon I wanted to see! So, do you want to go with giant talking scavengers to look for a missing?"

Just as expected, it took around ten more minutes of questions and explaining before they started moving. Doctor tried to describe where they left the TARDIS to the dragons so that they could fly them there on their backs. Which the dragons happily did, not without a few wrong turns, but they found the familiar blue shape eventually. They landed a small distance away from the TARDIS. "So that is what we've been looking for? A... blue box?" The icy-white dragon, who, as it turned out, was an IceWing and had a rather nice sounding name 'Winter', huffed.

"Yes, pretty much. Don't get discouraged by the modest exterior though, it's all on the inside really!" Doctor replied, completely unbothered by the unfriendly tone of the dragon. He walked over to the time machine and everyone else hesitantly followed behind him. In a minute he stopped in front of the doors, spun around with a huge excited grin on his face, looking at the dragons, and snapped his fingers.

A/N: So... funny story, I didn't plan on using the TARDIS for quite some time actually. But when I struggled to find photo of a cave for the cover and instead dug up this one, I had a brilliant idea of actually going into it. I mean, Wattpad already says the story is over an hour to read, and we're still rather in setup stages! 

Also the chapters will be taking 3-5 days from now on mostly. The main reason is me having some more work with school and figuring out how to get the characters right. And some of the covers will be taken from my father's photos now, which means they are insane resolution, needing lots and lots of detail put into them. If I knew where to upload them as proper files, I would, so that you could zoom in on all the small details I've added.

By the way, turns out I'm a bit insane, so later in the year I'll be doing live-action trailer for this thing. It will be done by autumn in the very least, since I'll be having a trip to mountains mid summer. And obviously I'll need that since there isn't much to film in a city for medieval dragon world.

Chapter Text

(Winter's POV)

Winter huffed in annoyance. Deep down he was amazed and slightly fascinated by the two talking creatures. But he would never let it show. And what, they brought them to a weird blue wooden box? And that would help them to find Ostrich?! But before he could grumble something out, he saw the one that said his name was 'The Doctor', and claimed to be something called 'Time Lord', walk up to the weird thing perched on the mountain range. He turned around with an annoying smirk on his face and snapped those things he had instead of talons on his paw.

To Winter's utter astonishment, what looked like doors on the wall of the box moved on their own, opening onto the inside. It was surprisingly dark behind them. Despite Winter's best efforts his face showed some surprise. Doctor stepped into the blue box, waving his paw for everyone to follow him, and with that INSSUFERABLE SMIRK STILL on his face.

Winter was very confused and angry. How did he plan for the three dragons to fit in there? Still, he grumbled under his breath, and stepped forward, carefully moving his head beyond the doors on his long neck. He expected to bump into the weird scavenger-like creature, but Doctor seemed to vanish in the darkness.

Just as he was about to take a step in, bright light lit up and hit his eyes from all directions, revealing... A giant room.

A/N: Think like in 'Snowmen' when Clara enters the TARDIS for the first time.

Winter stumbled back with a very confused sound coming out of his mouth, which sounded closer to what a cat would sound like rather than an IceWing. "Gather yourself, Winter!". Winter took another hesitant step backwards, twisted his neck and moved his head to the side of the box, looking incredibly confused at the small structure that was in front of him. He walked around the box, inspecting the blue wood. Yet nothing looked off about it.

He returned to the front and noticed that Sunny looked at him with a very confused stare and Qibli looked at him like he was crazy. "Right, they probably can't see it from where they are standing...". He turned his head and noticed the other creature, that called himself Max, smirking at him just like The Doctor. "Stupid giant talking scavengers, with their weird names!". He let out another angry huff and quickly stepped inside the box, as if to somehow show he isn't to be made fun of. It was a little uncomfortable due to him being wider than a human, and he had to fold his wings particularly high behind his back but he squeezed in.

The first thing he noticed was the lack of torches, or any other fire source emitting the bright light. Instead he saw weird bright surfaces which reminded him of moon globes but with many different colors. "How is this possible?".

He then noticed that in the center of the room there was a weird pillar made of... Was that thin ice? No... Wait is that... Glass? Dragons sometimes got it by accident when they blasted the sand too much with their fire, but never used it for anything, it was just impractical, but here a perfect cylinder was somehow made of it. And there were a few more cylinders inside of it that were also glowing. It didn't look like there was fire in them either... Strangely enough it still somewhat reminded Winter about The Moon Globe Tree. 

Then he looked lower and noticed weird panels surrounding the glass pillar, forming a hexagon, with weird things on them. There were small metal sticks sticking out, many round things made from a material Winter couldn't identify and small glowing spots of many more colors. There were also two panels with weird images on them, Winter thought he could make out stars with many colors on top and strange round symbols, not mention the panels seemed like they were glowing themselves. Those panels looked like they could move around the contraption. (It's a monitor, if you didn't guess it)

Winter took a few more steps in and looked around. He was standing on some sort of a bridge. The walls of the chamber that was essentially a giant sphere curved below it and seemed like they disappeared in the darkness below. "Alright, I definitely don't want to fall down there...". He saw multiple staircases diverging from the main platform that were going up to a few smaller platforms. Tracing the walkways with his eyes he noticed a few openings in the panels that formed the room. "Are those hallways? What else is in this box?! Is it maybe animus enchanted? Who could make such a thing?". Questions swirled in Winter's head and his mouth slowly went agape. He hated it, yet he couldn't help it. He definitely didn't expect something like this.

As he walked closer to the center, his head looking around, picking up more and more details, he heard a soft gasp behind him. "I-I-It's bigger..." He heard Sunny's voice. "...on the inside..." Qibli's voice picked up a few seconds later as he heard them both enter behind him.

The three dragons were standing in complete shock, not even noticing Max walking past them and removing part of the weird scavenger coverings he had on his body. Winter faintly paid attention to him taking The Doctor's too and carrying them up one of the staircases before disappearing into a corridor.

"This is the TARDIS." Doctor said, snapping Winter out of the starring. He hated the excitement and glee in Doctor's voice too much. "Yes, it's bigger on the inside. Yes, it's the coolest thing you've ever seen. Also it can go anywhere in time and space. And it's mine." Now that sent Winter into shock once again. "Anywhere... in... time.. and... space...?"

"Well alright then, enough of wasting time!" Doctor spun around suddenly and moved something sticking out of the hexagonal panels in the center. Winter heard the doors snap shut behind him and tensed up instinctively a little. "Is this a trap?"

"The bracelet, please!" Doctor called out, running around the structure in the middle, moving and tapping more things on the panels around the central pillar, making the images on two vertical panels change rapidly. "How is this possible?". Qibli, to Winter's surprise, had a weird grin on his face as he tossed the bracelet to The Doctor. Winter saw something behind the glint in his eyes, but brushed it off, returning his focus to The Doctor, who had caught the jewelry, placed it onto a particularly glowing spot and wrapped something that looked like colorful vines around it. He grabbed the moving panel by the handle on it's side and moved it around the pillar so it was facing towards him, not stopping to flip and press more things.

"Yes, there's definitely a print... Hold on tight!" Doctor said to all of them. "What? Why?" Sunny was the first one to question. "Because we're going into the time vortex." Doctor stated nonchalantly and pulled a particularly big metal stick down. Everything shook. The pillar buzzed. Winter saw multiple sparks go off in several places around it. Then, the thinner glowing pillars inside the large glass one started moving up and down, making a wheezing noise.

"Wait, hold onto what?!" Winter screamed, more scared than menacing, which he wasn't happy about. But before the Time Lord could answer the whole chamber tilted to the side, shaking, Winter instinctively flapped his wings, leaping into the air. Moments later he saw Sunny and Qibli hovering a small distance away from him, their wingbeats almost clashing. "Well that works too..." Doctor mumbled as the chamber tilted again, shoving him onto the panels, which, Winter presumed, somehow controlled the whole thing.

He saw multiple panels that were walls flare up with light and start to show rapidly flying and swirling colorful fog. "What in the moons is that?!". Multiple metal beams Winter hasn't even noticed before started rotating around the chamber, lifting to avoid colliding with the walkways and lowering back down after. The whole room was tilting back and forth, and he frankly wasn't sure how The Doctor hasn't just rolled off the platform yet, especially considering all the sparks blowing up in his face.

After what felt like an eternity, but in reality what was probably closer to a minute, Doctor pulled the particularly big metal stick back up and everything shook again, throwing even the dragons down onto the floor, before stopping and quieting down completely.

Winter let out a small roar of pain, before lifting his head and noticing The Doctor also getting up from the floor, rubbing his arms. "...Wow, this was a bad one... Sorry, everyone, TARDIS doesn't really enjoy small jumps...". 

"Jumps?" Sunny asked him, rubbing her forehead from the impact.

"Yeah, you'll see." Winter turned his head around to see that Max has walked back into the room and spoke, with another annoying smirk directed at him. "Or is it...? No, it definitely is, he just wants to make fun of me!".

"Follow me." The Doctor said, walking past the dragons. To yet another Winter's surprise, he was heading for the doors. He got up and walked up behind the stupid creature to ask him what, by all of moons was he doing, when The Doctor suddenly opened wide both doors, and a wave of heat and sand hit Winter right in the face.

"What?!" He asked through coughing and trying to get the awful substance out of his eyes and nostrils. In doing so he stumbled fully out of the doors onto what, he quickly realized, were the warm sands of the desert.

"Didn't I mention? This thing travels anywhere." Doctor said, standing beside Winter and looking around. "And your missing friends should be around here, atleast according to the scanners..."

Winter turned around, his expression displeased, the heat already getting to him even after only seconds of being in the desert, the blue box, or the TARDIS as Doctor called it, was standing in the sand, looking exactly the same as it did in the mountains minutes ago. "Did this thing just move? How?!". Then he saw Qibli and Sunny walking out of the box behind them, their expressions amused yet somewhat happy as they looked around. "Oh, of course those sandsnorters love it here!"

"You're saying Ostrich and Onyx are somewhere nearby? And that box brought us to them? Just like that?" Qibli asked, but Winter didn't like the undertone in the SandWing's voice. He clearly was thinking hard about something. And Winter doubted that it was about an explanation of how this was possible.

A/N: So, next chapter will most likely be Qibli's POV. Frankly, this was just a lot of fun to write. I think I even managed to get the character pretty close to the books. 

Chapter Text

(Qibli's POV)

Qibli stepped out through the doors into the warm desert he was so used to. He felt the warmth spread through his body, yet didn't let it relax him in the slightest. His mind was hard at work. What he has just been trough was supposed to be impossible, yet that wasn't his main concern.

Qibli instantly noticed a familiar outline in the distance - Thorn's stronghold. It would have taken a day atleast to fly overt the desert under normal circumstances. And yet, here they were, after only a few minutes. "Also it can go anywhere in time and space" The Doctor's words echoed in his mind once again.

"You're saying Ostrich and Onyx are somewhere nearby? And that box brought us to them? Just like that?" He asked, looking at The Doctor, studying his expression for any reaction, yet not stopping his hard thinking thinking about the possibilities that may lay before him now.

"Well, theoretically... I don't exactly see any other dragons here... It's rather a middle of nowhere... We might not have the exact place..." Doctor said, studying their surroundings with sharp gaze.

"So, you're saying this thing can go absolutely anywhere... just... just like that?" Qibli now focused entirely on The Doctor. How could this... creature have such a thing, and... what? Do nothing with it?!

"Not just anywhere, anywhen!" Doctor said proudly.

"So this is a time machine? Really?" Sunny asked, glancing back and forth between the blue box and the desert.

A/N: While dragons most likely don't have the word "machine" in their language, I think they probably have sci-fi scrolls to some extent, atleast in this fic cause I like the idea, and they need to have a name for it, so let's just not invent a wheel and accept that they call it  "time machine" too, okay?

"Yep." Doctor said as he finally too noticed the stronghold in the distance and walked a bit higher up on the closest sand dune to see better.

Qibli felt like screaming. "Does this guy realize what he has?! He could do so much, yet he's over here with us being all bubbly and cheerful!". But Qibli was smart, he knew he shouldn't start berating the alien, atleast for the fact that he was helping them find Ostrich, so he poked the topic rather carefully. "So, why are you here then?"

"Oh, no particular reason, we've landed here yesterday morning and decided to look around, well after a bunch of stuff we bumped into you and saw you needed help. We didn't go to this planet specifically, it just happens. We go wherever the TARDIS wants us to go." Max spoke to him, which startled Qibli a little. In all his thinking about what he could do with this box, he never noticed the scaveng-... human walking out and stopping right beside him.

"But... If it can travel through time... Can't we go back to before Ostrich disappeared?" Qibli tried his best not to poke too hard, yet this just appalled him too much, in his mind this was a solution to all the problems at the moment. Ostrich, Darkstalker, Moon, maybe even the recent war.

"Well, this one's easy. If the future us prevent the event, the current us wouldn't know we even have to prevent it. Classic paradox." Doctor replied. Qibli understood. That... Made more sense than he'd like. And yet he couldn't completely let go of the idea yet. The possibilities were just too great. So he ignored the Winter's hard questioning glare directed at him .

"And yet, we can still do something, right?" Qibli asked, his mind suddenly going more desperate. He just couldn't help but think of all the deaths he'd seen even just in the Scorpion Den when he was living with his mother. How many could he prevent? How could he just let this go and continue on? ...Even for Ostrich's sake?

"Oh, so this is what it's all about... I see..." Doctor suddenly saddened and looked at Qibli, "The people that made those machines... My people... Time Lords... When they invented time travel they made laws. No interfering. Only observing." Qibli felt slight guilt in his heart just from the infinite pit of sadness that opened up in Doctor's eyes, even if only for a moment.

"But you're here. You've taken us half across the desert. Doesn't this count as an interference?" Winter asked Doctor. Qibli thought about his tone for a moment. Winter clearly wanted to understand the alien before them too, yet from his glare at Qibli before he knew that Winter didn't like Qibli's line of thought. Qibli stared at him in slight annoyance. "Doesn't he understand what we're dealing with here? I know he's good, especially on the inside... But I could really do with him atleast staying quiet, if not helping, right now.".

"Well. This isn't major. Worst case scenario I'll save one or two lives. The universe will survive that." Doctor's tone barely changed, yet Qibli could feel darkness in that voice, it scared him, and... was it... pain? Qibli felt a swirl of emotions. Curiosity, anger, fear, fascination... But he forced them down, for now.

"Worst case scenario? Saving someone is the worst case scenario?!" Winter roared, taking a few steps towards the Time Lord. "Well, there Winter is the best, protecting someone, caring for someone, even if he doesn't admit it."

"In terms of damage to time - yes. But even one life is a fight worth fighting." Winter and Qibli both froze in place at Doctor's words. "He thinks lives are worth fighting for?"

"What do you mean by that?" Qibli asked him.

"Time Lords maybe were content with just observing the universe. But I've been fighting against the evil in it." Qibli felt himself shrinking a little under The Doctor's stare. The creature was smaller than him, maybe a similar height, but still no match for a dragon, yet, it gave off an immense sense of power.

A/N: This dialogue line definitely didn't come to be thanks to the colorized "War Games" I watched a few month ago.

"So you were changing history?" Qibli asked. He desperately wanted to know more, but the Doctor's tone told him that he better back down, and now.

"Yes and no. It's complicated. There are fixed points, there are loose threads, there are some others creating alternate timelines I have to fix..." Doctor straightened out his back and sighed. "But right now I believe we were worried about your friend. And her I can help."

That stung Qibli. Once again, he forgot about Ostrich in favor of his new... friends? No, he couldn't call those weird creatures friends... yet. But he definitely wanted to get to know them more. Especially The Doctor. But he had to admit, The Doctor was right, they needed to find Ostrich quickly in case she was in danger, and he knew exactly where to start. "Yes. You're right. I'm sorry... That is Thorn's stronghold." He pointed at the walls in the distance. "We should go see her. Maybe she knows something."

"Thorn? The queen of the... SandWings, right?" Max asked. "Secretkeeper told us about her a little yesterday evening."

"Yes... Yes, she is..." said Sunny, Qibli couldn't help but notice the happiness in her voice, and in reality he knew he felt it too. "...also she's my mother." Sunny finished.

"Wow, you're daughter of a queen? Never would have guessed." Doctor finally walked back down to them from the sand dune.

"Really, why?" Sunny seemed genuinely confused.

"Let's just say you don't behave like one... I've had a few... okay, a lot, of unpleasant encounters..."

"Well, to be fair, I didn't even know her for most of my life..." Sunny said, her voice saddening again. Qibli knew this about her, obviously, he was there when she appeared at the Scorpion Den a few month ago, while the war was still going. He knew how much Thorn wanted to find her dragonet. He felt some longing once again. Unlike Sunny, he very much knew his family. But he very much preferred he didn't.

Then his thoughts drifted to Winter. How was his family? Clearly nothing good from what he had seen so far. Qibli saw it in his friend acts. Even when Winter tried to pretend that he hated them, back in Possibility, Qibli could see how much pain was eating him up on the inside. And, when he managed to return his long-lost brother Hailstorm to the Ice Kingdom, his family practically sent him to die. Even Queen Glacier. Qibli never exactly hated her before that, but he couldn't imagine even his mother doing something like that to him. Forcing him to fight his brother for some place on a wall. Granted, he never had much warm feelings towards Sirocco. Or Rattlesnake for that matter. But the thought horrified him nonetheless.

"Oh, right of course, how could I forget!" Doctor's voice broke him out of his thoughts. "The prophecy and all that, of course! I just didn't think we'd run into one of you five. Well, except Queen Glory of course." After a moment Qibli realized that Secretkeeper must have told them what was happening in Pyrrhia recently. Yeah, those two definitely were lucky. On their first and second day on this planet each they ran into a Dragonet Of Destiny! And, obviously, into his charming self. Qibli chuckled internally. 

The time machine stuff could wait. His friends needed him. All those big problems he could fix could wait. He needed to pull himself together. Save Ostrich, and maybe Onyx if she was in danger. He needed to help poor Winter. He wanted to for a long time now, yet never got a chance. He needed to learn more about the two-legged talking creatures that have seen different worlds.

He watched as Max carefully climbed onto Sunny's back, just like when they went looking for... the TARDIS... the name still sounded weird, even in his thoughts. Then he felt The Doctor climbing onto him, while Winter just watched an scoffed at Qibli. "Oh what, you jealous, ice prince?" he decided to tease him, atleast to lighten his own mood and get his mind onto the important things.

"Ha! You wish, sandsnorter!" Winter, once again, sounded like he just ate something incredibly sour, but Qibli heard a small hint of affection behind it. It might take a while. A long while. But he knew the IceWing would, ironically, be able to speak warmly, expressing his true feelings and not just the cold mask. "I don't know why I even came with you here in the first place!"

"Keep telling yourself that!" Qibli shouted as he spread his wings and took flight in the direction of the stronghold, carrying the Time Lord on his back. This was going to be an interesting meeting...

A/N: Not many events in this one, but I really wanted to make a chapter focused solely on Qibli wanting to use the TARDIS, like he did with animus magic and Anemone's treasure during book 10. And by now it's a bit too long to add a meeting with Thorn here, besides  don't want to take too long on the chapters. 

Sorry if Qibli came off too evil, that's really not what I wanted. I hope I've managed to improve that a bit during the editing.

Also I should have mentioned this like 9 chapters ago, but English is not my first language, so on some words I rely on spellcheck, which means there might be a weird mix between American and British English, sorry everyone.

Chapter Text

(Sunny's POV)

Sunny soared over the warm desert. The sun was getting closer to the horizon but the air was still warm and dry. Her thoughts were a jumbled excited mess. The last hour of her life could probably only compare to the day when she stopped the war with her friends. Sunny still was unnerved from yesterday's events. A giant ancient dragon rose from below the ground and claimed he was her ancestor. She supposed it made sense. But still, it was shocking!

What was worse though, multiple of her students flew off with him this morning. She couldn't exactly stop them. It all just... happened? The more she thought back and replayed the events in her head - the more she felt her helplessness. Morning felt strangely far away. Because of Darkstalker all the classes were moved to later in the day, and she was so busy all the time, her mind just couldn't synchronize with the universe right now.

On top of all that, she found out that Ostrich was missing. She felt very bad about that, probably even more than about the students leaving with the ancient hybrid. Back when she first met her mother, Thorn, in the Scorpion Den, a dragon called Addax threatened Ostrich's life just to get to Sunny. And now both Ostrich and Onyx were gone. Sunny couldn't help but suspect that Onyx might be at fault here. The SandWing was always very weird compared to the others.

Sunny thought to ask Qibli for help. She knew he was smart and that her mother trusted him. On top of that she noticed that he was close with Ostrich. But, right after she took him from history, they both ran into two creatures that shouldn't exist! That couldn't exist! Sunny knew scavengers had to be somewhat intelligent from when she retrieved the stolen treasure from the SandWing royal treasury. But this was a whole new level! They were huge! As tall as an average dragon! And they could talk just like dragons! Their words sounded weird, as if they weren't spoken in Dragon at all. But she understood them perfectly, and that was enough for her.

The pair said they were from a different planet. "I mean, ha! Totally crazy... right?". They didn't know much about this world, that much was obvious to anyone, but they immediately offered their help when they heard of Sunny's problem, which she was very grateful for. They took her, the IceWing Prince Winter and Qibli to a secluded spot in the mountains. There stood a wooden blue box. Everything about it just screamed alien to Sunny, even if it looked completely ordinary. How could something be so perfectly made? But, at the same time, she somehow felt the calmness and reassurance radiating off the structure.

She wasn't that surprised about the weird thing being bigger on the inside. After all, she read many scrolls with Starflight when they were younger and trapped underground in a cave... She shook off that thought. Sunny didn't like to think about the small and cold cave much. But she did like remembering the stories Starflight used to read her. Most scrolls were historic, the ones their guardians considered important, but some... Some told fantastical stories. Her favorite ones were about other stars and planets. Oh, how much she loved those. It was a big disappointment to find out that there weren't many fictional scrolls, when they were gathering the library for the Academy she only found one she hasn't read before. So it made perfect sense to her that aliens could make something as incredible as a magic box and think nothing of it.

She once again shook of the thoughts. All the warm memories were poisoned with six yeard she spent without sun, underground, only seeing seven other dragons. Sunny tried to focus back on the present. With help of someone as wise as two aliens she would easily rescue Ostrich! "Yes, everything will be just perfect!".

But then she remembered Darkstalker again. She didn't know what he was up to but an eerie feeling filled her at the thought of him. "Hey, if he turns out to be bad, maybe they'll stay and help with that too?".

A/N: Sorry if this is too long, but I feel like, once I add character's POV, I should also give their view on the events leading up to this point, which also helps me a little to get closer to character's personality and write them more accurately.

She tried again to focus back on the reality in front of her and not the past. She saw that Qibli, who was slightly ahead of her, was already slowing down before the stronghold walls. She turned back and saw Prince Winter flying slightly behind them. She felt bad for him. She saw how the sun and the desert heat was affecting him. While she relished in the feeling of the sunrays on her scales and spreading the warmth through her entire body, Sunny knew that the IceWing must hate it. She looked back forward and saw Qibli talking to the guard that was stationed there.

By the time Sunny caught up to him the guard already bowed their head politely in sign of letting them pass. "Thank you!" She said to the guard with slight uncertainty and flew past him, following Qibli. She had to note, carrying a... human... on her back was rather unusual. Firstly, he was holding onto her crest(Google Translate, correct me in the comments if the SandWings thing on their backs is called differently). Secondly, she had to stay mostly horizontal during the flight so he wouldn't slide down from her back. Not that she minded that too much. "Poor thing, he must feel so miserable without wings...". She almost asked him why didn't the aliens invent any  sort of wings, but it was already too late, as the three dragons descended into the stronghold's courtyard.

"Sunny, you should stay here with Winter and our friends." Qibli spoke to her softly. "I'll go find Thorn so we can ask her what she knows. I know this place better than you." There was a hint of hesitation in his voice. "Is he afraid of Thorn? No that can't be it... Is he afraid of asking my mother about Ostrich? But why? She should be nearby anyway, The Doctor said so! So there's no reason to worry at all.".

She hastily nodded at Qibli and helped Max slide off her back to the best of her ability. She had to admit, it was way nicer around her than when she was forced to fly here by Addax. Maybe she'll even meet Smolder again? Even if he imprisoned her and tried to trap them with Thorn in the library, Sunny understood why he did that. Of course, she was even more excited by the idea of meeting her mother again. But she wanted to see the funny ex SandWing prince too. To be honest, she wanted to see most dragons she left behind in one way or another.

Her mind started to drift off again. The world was at peace, thanks to het and her friends. But dragons still couldn't just fly around freely wherever they wanted. The closest thing to that was Possibility. The town built at the north end of the desert. It warmed Sunny's heart, how all the different tribes could get along there.

That was what she tried to achieve with the Jade Mountain Academy. All the tribes getting to know each other and being more considerate of everyone. Tsunami and Glory thought she was naïve for that even if they went along with the idea. And, deep down, Sunny had doubts herself. Especially the begging went disastrously. Clay's sister Sora tried to kill IceWing Princess Icicle, causing an explosion in the history cave. Later almost the whole Jade Winglet disappeared to find Queen Scarlet! "Yuck! I still can't stand her!". And then an ancient, supposedly evil, dragon decided to pop out. And today two dragons going missing.

Sunny was suddenly shaken out of her, once again, spiraling depressing thoughts by a large and warm pair of wings enveloping het. "Mom!" She managed to happily squeak before Thorn's scales completely covered her vision, as the SandWing Queen wrapped her forelegs around Sunny's shoulders. She felt even more amazing warmth spread through every part of her body, ever scale, every muscle from her mother's warm body. She melted into the hug and, just relaxed for a few seconds.

But she knew that she unfortunately couldn't just hug with her mother, she was here for a reason, so she carefully pulled back and so did Thorn.

"It's so nice to see you, Sunny!" Thorn told her joyfully. "Qibli suddenly came running and told me he's here for some important matter that needs my help, and that you're here with him!".

"Yes, yes, I'm very happy to see you too!" Sunny said truthfully. "Speaking of important matters..." Sunny looked to the side and Thorn turned her head to look at Sunny's companions. Her expression turned surprised at the sight of the IceWing prince, and to complete bewilderment at the sight of Max and The Doctor.

"Ah, yes this again..." Doctor mumbled. "Greetings, your majesty. To quickly answer your first questions. Yes, we look like huge scavengers but we aren't, yes this size is normal for us, and yes, we can talk and understand you." 

Thorn processed this for a couple seconds, then turned to Sunny with a small smirk. "Sunny, honey, what have you dragged to my doorstep this time?"

"They are here to help!" she protested with a chuckle. "They..." She looked at The Doctor, realizing that retelling everything would be too long right now. "We have two dragons missing from the Academy, and we have a reason to believe they are here."

Thorn's expression suddenly went serious, not wasting any time and getting to the point, just like she always did. "Who?"

"Thorn, I'm sorry..." Qibli spoke from behind her, "It's Ostrich and Onyx..."

Thorn's gaze hardened. "Ostrich?"

"Yes! Have you heard anything?" Sunny asked her mother hopefully.

"No... I haven't..." Thorn shook her head. "Why do you think they are here?"

"The Doctor..." Sunny pointed at the alien who claimed to be from race called Time Lords, "Used... Uh... Something... It's hard to explain... On Onyx's bracelet... It brought us here, which means atleast she's somewhere around, and we think her disappearance is related to Ostrich's... If she's not the one responsible..."

"Interesting..." Thorn studied The Doctor intently. "And, may I see the said bracelet?"

"Oh, of course!" Doctor nodded and pulled out the bracelet out of the strange fabric he wore on his body. "Pockets bigger on the inside." He told to Qibli, who stared at him in the amazement, as he handed the bracelet to Thorn. Sunny wasn't sure what "pockets" were but she guessed it were those holes in the alien's body coverings. "Huh... It's really useful for carrying things... We can only have a small pouch around our leg, neck or wing... But this..."

"Oh, moons!" Thorn said angrily as she inspected the piece of jewelry, "This is a long lost SandWing royal treasure! I only read about it in scrolls! It's animus touched and allows to have visions of different places... You imagine the place and see and hear everything there... Or so the scrolls say..."

Thumps of two landing dragons suddenly echoed behind Sunny's back and, before she even could turn around, she heard a cold and chilling voice. "That. Is. Mine."

Chapter Text

(Max's POV)

Max turned his head at the new voice to see two more SandWings landing on the warm sands. The one that spoke was large, even larger than Queen Thorn, she had black shimmering stones embedded in between her scales. On the other hand the other one looked smaller than Qibli, who Max learned was still a dragonet and was the smallest dragon he spent any time with, her scales were very pale yellow, and the dragoness was visibly shaking.

Max quickly figured out that the large one had to be Onyx and the smaller one was Ostrich. "Oh, look who showed up!" Doctor said, his voice sounding cheerful, yet Max learned to differentiate between the times Doctor was happy, and the times when he pretended in front of his countless enemies. "We were just looking for you two! Could you believe it?"

"Wha-what...? Wh-Who...?" Ostrich tried to speak but stuttered from the shock of seeing and hearing The Doctor speak.

"Silence!" Onyx growled at her. "I'll deal with this later." She shot a glare at The Doctor. "Queen Thorn, I'm here to challenge you for the SandWing throne!"

"And what do you mean by that?!" Queen Thorn roared, lashing her tail and taking a few steps to stand protectively in front of the group. "You know only the females from the royal family can challenge the current queen for the throne!"

A/N: For this one, I'm not bothering to reread the similar part in book 10 fully, so bear with me please if something is different.

"I am the rightful heir!" Onyx hissed menacingly. "I'm the daughter of Prince Smolder and granddaughter of Queen Oasis! I deserve this throne, not you!"

All the dragons looked at her in confusion, but Max noticed a slight twitch of recognition in Queen Thorn's face, as if she remembered something.

"And why should I believe you?" the SandWing Queen asked. Max was jealous of her stance. She still looked just as imposing and confident as when he first saw her. Well, maybe a little less friendly. He, on the other hand, was slightly shaking just from the sight of Onyx.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Doctor interrupted, stepping in between them and spreading his arms. "Calm down, please! We really don't need a fight here right now!" Onyx recoiled slightly, but quickly shook it off and returned to her precious position. Queen Thorn on the other hand remained firm without a flinch.

"First. You." Doctor pointed at Onyx. "What have you done with Ostrich?". Doctor spoke calmly, yet his tone was as commanding as ever. Max noticed the supposed rightful heir flinch back once again. Then he turned his gaze back to the current queen and, with slight uneasiness, saw that she still wasn't intimidated at all, or atleast didn't show it.

"I-..." Onyx started uncertainly, before roaring out in anger and taking a few more steps forward, but it felt like she was reassuring herself. "She's my hostage! To ensure that this coward fights me!"

"Oh, blimey, why do you have to be so difficult..." Doctor grumbled, rubbing his temple.

"That is enough! Quiet, Doctor, this my business and mine only." Queen Thorn bellowed, fully straightening out her neck, now towering over The Doctor and glaring at Onyx even harder than before. "What do you want?!"

"I want to fight for what's rightfully mine!" Onyx hissed, ignoring The Doctor who was still standing between them and trying to deescalate the situation. "And you will fight me fairly, or this SandWing will die!" She pointed at Ostrich with the barb on the end of her tail.

Queen Thorn contemplated her words for a minute. "Alright. Nobody takes a step closer to us." The SandWing carefully pulled out her neckless from between the other jewelry on her neck, making it now visible to everyone. "This is the Eye Of Onyx. It can decide whether you are worthy of being the next Queen of the SandWings."

"I know how it works!" Onyx took another step forward.

"Fine. We shall fight in the stronghold arena then. That's where duels for the throne have always been fought." Thorn swatted her tail, indicating a direction that supposedly had an arena to fight in behind some walls.

"No! Stop this! Listen here! Nobody will die-" Doctor was cut off by Onyx's tail smashing into him as she spun around. He was thrown a few meters away.

"No!" Max screamed as dashed in between the two dragons, sliding forward the last few steps on his knees over the sand and stopping by The Doctor's side. "Doctor? Doctor, are you alright?"

"...I'll... live..." Slightly dazed voice replied and Max sighed in relief. He carefully helped the Time Lord get up. The Doctor was breathing heavily and rubbing his ribs where the tail hit. Luckily he wasn't scratched with the sharp barb. "...We... we have to... to stop them..." Doctor mumbled and Max nodded solemnly. He also didn't want the two dragons to kill each other, even if he didn't know them all that well.

As they turned around they saw that all the dragons were already flying in the direction Queen Thorn indicated before. "Oh, damn it! After them!" Doctor coughed out, leaning heavily on Max.

"Yes, right!" Max said and started walking as fast as he could with The Doctor off of him.

By the time they found their way to the arena the two dragons were already mid fight. It was more of a stadium than an arena in the human's opinion. Surprisingly, there were some faded paintings resembling the night sky on the lower walls. Max noticed a few confused soldiers perched around the seats and watching the events with fear in their eyes. He looked around for Sunny, the dragon that carried him on her back twice by now and that he started to like for her cheerful personality, he noticed her shaking in horror at the scene, Qibli and Winter were by her side too, not exactly looking please either. "Right, that's her mother..."

Not sure if anyone needs this but here you go, s ome minor blood and gore here, if you're sensitive to that skip to after "***".

The two dragonesses were clawing  and swiping their tails at each other without a pause. Before The Doctor or Max could even say anything Queen Thorn managed to hit Onyx in the eye with her talons. Blood splattered out from the now empty eye socket, with a terrifying scream of agony following a moment after. Max inhaled sharply as gruesome remains of the eye slid down from the Queen's talon as the fight temporarily stopped, both dragons in slight shock themselves.

"No! To hell with this!" Roared Onyx suddenly. She dashed to the side. Max noticed that the Eye Of Onyx was somehow inserted into the wall she ran towards. She forced it out and held it up with her talons. "This is mine!" She screamed out in victory. 

But it was short lived. Orange sparkles shot out of the Eye, sending shockwaves through the air. The air crackled as more of the sparks shot through Onyx's forelegs. She screamed out in pain again.

With horror everyone watched as the scales on her forelegs slowly detached themselves from her body, hovering free in the air for a second before dissolving. Max thought for a second that that was it, but no, the scales further along her body were torn out one by one as well. Then her flesh started melting into black dust. And finally, as her screams died out, her bones crumbled into ash.

***

Summary if you skipped: Onyx lost her eye in the fight and decided to grab the Eye Of Onyx from the all, which killed her.

In the slowly reddening light of the afternoon sun The Eye Of Onyx dropped down onto the sand, as well as the black stones, previously embedded in Onyx's scales. Multiple puddles of red surrounded them. Everyone stayed silent for a few moments. Then the queen slowly limped forward and lifted the Eye, securing it back on her neck. Max noticed many bleeding gashes on her body that were the cause of her limping. "I... I need a healer, now." the queen said weakly. Max noted some soldiers leaping into the air and flying off. He assumed they were going to get help.

Sunny and Qibli flew down to her side. "Mother, are you alright?" Asked Sunny. "Thorn, do you need any help?" Asked Qibli, almost identical worry in his voice.

"Yes.. yes..." the queen said, clearly tired. "Just some scratches..."

Max looked around for Ostrich and after a minute he found her shaking and crying while enveloped in the wings of some older SandWing higher up on the seat rows.

"H-hey..." He said, not talking to anyone in particular, his voice shaking after what he just witnessed "I think The Doctor might need some help too... Could you... do something...?"

Queen Thorn turned around to look at them and saw the Time Lord still leaning and breathing heavily on Max. "Of course, I'm so sorry, I'd have checked on him right away, but I had to deal with Onyx..."

Max clenched his free fist at the name, and he noticed in the corner of his eye that Qibli did the same with his talon. He took a deep breath to calm himself. Onyx was clearly dead now. He wasn't sure what exactly happened. But there was use getting angry at the dead.

From his understanding Onyx kidnapped Ostrich to force Queen Thorn into a duel, then, when she was losing, she decided to grab that weird black sphere with the same name as her. "This is the Eye Of Onyx. It can decide whether you are worthy of being the next Queen of the SandWings." Max remembered Queen's words. "I guess she wasn't worthy after all... Or was it because she cheated and tried to grab it before winning the fight? Either way, I like Queen Thorn way more, even from the short time I knew her..."

By the time the sun has set Queen Thorn's wounds were treated. The healers recommended her to rest, but she obviously refused, despite Sunny's vehement protests and pleads for her mother to take pity on herself. When Thorn commanded the dragons to treat The Doctor as well, the two SandWings were shocked to say the least. Even more so, they obviously had no idea how to treat humans, or Time Lords for that matter. They obviously only had experience with dragons.

Max did his best to instruct them on how to apply the healing salve they had, in hopes that it could ease the pain from the bruises on Doctor's chest. Then he helped them to apply multiple bandages around the Time Lord's upper body. (I should probably say, I have absolutely no medical knowledge, just accept this is how it works.)

One of the healers, who's name was Mirage, instructed The Doctor to sleep and rest for the night. He could get up and was free to move around in the morning, but had to keep the bandages on for atleast another day. Luckily bones weren't fractured. Max had no idea what he would do with The Doctor in that case. And he wasn't even that worried about being god knows where, he was worried about the moment the Time Lord would inevitably get bored. He once had the experience of being stuck in a cell on a spaceship with bored Doctor. He never wanted to go through anything like it again.

Max sighed and left the room Doctor was in. He looked up at the stars, and to his slight surprise saw three different moons. To be fair, he saw more, but this world strangely felt like Earth, so he expected internally there to be only a single moon. Then a sound of wingbeats caught his attention and the familiar icy-blue dragon landed beside him.

"I wanted to talk..." Winter's voice was hesitant, he wasn't looking at Max, just starring at the night sky.

"Yes?" the human answered with caution in his voice. The dragon was rather aggressive for his liking, but also was rather interesting and handsome, so he tried not to provoke him and decided to listen. (I'm not going to ship those two, if you're worried. But the character is somewhat based on my cousin, so I had to make this joke.)

"I... I wanted to ask... about you... and this Doctor... and your... travels..." the IceWing sighed as he spoke.

A/N: Another 2000 words, not to bad, right?

The cover(on Wattpad, it's my art of Eye Of Onyx) is a lot more detailed than usual due to simplicity. Fun fact: I actually did the unthinkable and went outside to take the picture for sky's reflection in the orb.

Chapter Text

(Winter's POV)

Winter was hesitant to speak, but in the end his curiosity got the better of him. So, with a sigh, he let the words out. "I... I wanted to ask... about you... and this Doctor... and your... travels..."

Max gave him a suspicious glance but, to Winter's slight relief, replied. "Alright, what exactly do you want to know?"

"Well..." Winter thought for a moment. "I get that you travel together, from what you've said atleast... It sounds almost unbelievable, don't get me wrong... But... when Onyx hit him with her... Why did you just rush forward, without a care if she attacked you too?"

Max tilted his head, the IceWing wasn't quite sure what it meant on a human, he watched a couple scavengers before, but he couldn't quite figure out their body language. For dragons it could indicate a question, but looked slightly different due to their anatomy. He looked into the human's eyes, trying to see what he meant. It seemed like he indeed was asking something.

When Winter stayed quiet Max decide to speak up "What do you mean? He's my friend and he was hurt, of course I rushed to help."

Winter thought about it for a moment. I did sort of make sense. He also would risk his own life for his friends. Especially for Moon... and Qibli, he admitted to himself begrudgingly. But he was still confused about the complete lack of hesitation or concern about Max's own safety in his actions. "Yes... but... I mean... The way you rushed towards him, the exact moment he was hit... You just didn't seem that close, to me atleast..."

Max chuckled. "The Doctor... It's hard to explain... But, traveling with him... It's something... You can't even call him a friend in all honesty..." He gestured with his front paw towards the sky, indicating all the shining stars. "I've been there. He took me there. I saw wonders I could never dream of before. A planet made of water with many cities in the depths, a mountain frozen in time, stars that are alive and you can talk with, not to mention countless spaceships... I could probably keep listing it all night..."

Winter grumbled. He hated to admit it, but he felt some slight jealousy towards the human. Traveling through the stars... Must be wonderful... He wished he could go to distant worlds with his friends. "That must be some life..." The IceWing tried to sound bitter but the words came out quietly, sounding almost vulnerable.

"Yes... Yes it is..." Max agreed, his tone just as soft. "The Doctor... has a way of affecting people... Some even fall in love with him... I can't exactly blame them, he's without a doubt amazing, to say the least... For me... He's the only one I have left... My home burned to ash... And then he took me with him... If not for him, I'd have nothing... And probably be dead..."

Winter looked with sudden sympathy at the alien creature. He knew how it felt like to not be able to return home, even if his home still existed. "How... how did that happen...?"

Max sighed deeply. "Maybe I shouldn't have asked...?" He suddenly thought. Maybe the human didn't want to think about it. But then Max finally turned to look at the dragon. "There's an alien race called Daleks... Basically they hate anyone different from them..." Winter winced. That reminded him of the IceWing ideology that he used to full heartedly believe in, not too long ago. "They attacked... My planet... Or rather a part of it where I lived... Earth... It's full of humans like me..."

There was whole planet filled with humans? Now that intrigued Winter. His fascination with scavengers started kicking in again. He wanted to know more. Doctor said he was a Time Lord, and those apparently were different, although the ex-prince wasn't sure how. But Max was exactly like scavengers, maybe only twice as big. (Winter Turning epilogue drawing used as a size reference.)

"And what, all of them are as big as you?" Winter was trying not to break into a wave of questions. Because if he was right, somewhere out there there was a whole different alien race of creatures that evolved differently, and he got the chance to talk to one of them. "Maybe scavengers stayed smaller because of us dragons?"

Max nodded. "Pretty much... Although, I have to say... The fruits, atleast the ones I know from my planet, that I saw while I was in the rainforest, their size looked off... Not sure how exactly... Now that I think about it... Doctor was recently mumbling something about size controls, maybe it's that, either way a problem for later..."

"You speak about all this like it's normal for." Winter almost smiled, but held himself back.

"Oh, this is way closer to 'normal' than the stuff I usually have to deal with..." Max laughed. "Trust me, I once had the pleasure of running around a maze that looped in on itself through some sixth dimension while being attacked by flying eyeballs..."

"Wait, seriously?" Winter felt his curiosity growing even more and pushing even his cold demeanor out of the way.

"Yes." Max nodded with another chuckle. "You know, maybe I could convince The Doctor to take you lot for a trip... You're not as hostile as I thought, and Sunny's rather charming. Not sure about Qibli though..."

Winter paused. Did the human seriously just offer to take him on a trip to the stars? "I... Sorry, I can't... First I need to find Moon..." He said with some reluctance.

"And why do you have to find her?" Max asked.

"Well..." Winter let out a sigh, knowing he'd have to explain a lot.

(Wasp's POV)

Queen Wasp was digging through various books and scrolls in the Jewel Hive library. If The Othermind won't tell her about the Time Lord, she'll find something herself. She wanted desperately to figure out who or what it could be, did he pose any danger to her rule, and more importantly, whether she could use them.

She looked back at the pile of discarded books on the floor from the section she just went through. None had anything useful in them. "You! Clean this up!" the HiveWing hissed at some useless SilkWing servant that was walking by.

She almost considered checking in the romance section out of sheer desperation, but then she thought that the chance to find anything there was even smaller. She roared in anger once more. If she could breathe fire the library would certainly be in flames now. She really felt like killing something the last few days. Then Wasp had one more idea. She decided to try and find some HiveWing that really liked to read, and "politely" interrogate them to find out if they know anything.

(Qibli's POV)

Qibli strolled into the room The Doctor was instructed to stay in. He felt conflicted. He wanted to talk and find out more about the alien, but he wasn't sure if it was more because of wanting to genuinely be friends with him, or because the SandWing still wanted to get his talons on the Time Lord's marvelous time machine.

To the dragon's surprise, The Doctor wasn't asleep. Instead he seemed to be throwing and catching a small ball. "Is that some alien tradition? To throw balls into the air at night?" Qibli asked with a sincere laugh escaping his mouth.

The ball landed into Doctor's paw one last time as he tore away his gaze from it with a grin, instead looking at the SandWing. "Oh, no, I was just trying to figure out air resistance, compared to Earth atleast..."

Qibli nodded, he didn't exactly understand what the Time Lord meant, but didn't feel like questioning either(or I didn't feel like writing). "You keep mentioning this 'Earth', it's the planet that Max comes from, right?" the SandWing stepped closer to The Doctor, studying his partially lit by moonlight figure on the bed. Suddenly an unexpected thought crossed his mind "It must be rather uncomfortable... We dragons have rather thick scales... We can sleep on hard rocks with no issue... But those creatures just look so soft..."

"Yeah... Yeah it is..." Doctor said, thinking. Qibli realized with surprise just how old the Time Lord's eyes looked in this half lit room. "A world similar to yours in some ways..."

"What is it like?" Qibli suddenly asked. The thought of another planet out there, nor just abstract one this weird pair traveled to, but one that someone who Qibli knew called home, was oddly comforting.

"It's..." Doctor sighed and moved into a half sitting position. "I don't even know sometimes... On one hand-" Qibli cut him off "Wait a second, 'hand'? What is that?" Doctor looked at him confused and lifted up his front paw he still held the small ball in. "Those...?"

"This is your paw, isn't it?" there was a flick of understanding in Doctor's face at dragon's words. "Oh, I see... Well, I'm assuming here, but those scavengers, they look like us but smaller, right? And they don't talk... Or maybe just not in your language, if I know anything about humans... So you must see them as animals, and obviously you think those are paws..."

Qibli's eyes went wide. "Wait, are you saying the scavengers are intelligent? The ones we have here?!" His mind raced back to the funny little animals moving through the wast landscapes of Pyrrhia, the ones that Winter was so obsessed with. "What if he's right?! What if we just don't understand them?!" He thought with horror.

"Most likely... Depends on how developed they are... But the human race is unstoppable, as I've learned... Anyway, as I was saying..." Qibli wanted to say something, but didn't know what and his thought felt dry. "On one hand human beings are the most fascinating things in the universe... But on the other... You've had a war recently, Secretkeeper told me... Just imagine such a war... But with how many died during it, it would wipe all of you out in a matter of days..."

Despite his shock, Qibli's mind began it's work. So, there was a planet similar to theirs with humans as tall as dragons, and if they had a war that would wipe out everyone with it's casualty rate... "How... How many humans are in this world without dragons?"

"Well... When I took Max, about 7 to 8 billion... And much much more in the centuries later where they spread out amongst the stars... Not that that stops them from fighting with each other... Yet I can't stop saving them..." Doctor was speaking with a sad smile. Qibli's jaw dropped. He tried to imagine this many dragons, but he just couldn't. "Spread out amongst the stars... Could dragons ever do that...? ...And what about him?"

"And what about you? Where do you come from?" Qibli regretted his words instantly as the Time Lord's face fell. Doctor took a deep, long sigh.

"I'm from a different planet... It's called Gallifrey... Beautiful deserts of red and orange grass... Two shining suns... Countless rivers among the orange stones... The giant glass dome of the Citadel..." Doctor's face was almost happy, if not for the immense feeling of loss consuming it.

Qibli shakily asked "And what happened to it?"

"All gone... All The Time Lords are gone... All burned to the ground... I'm the last of my kind..." Doctor spoke quietly. (Let's ignore The Master, and all the other Time Lords who weren't necessarily on Gallifrey during Master's magical destruction of it(Or the nonsense that appeared in Reality War two month after writing it))

Qibli fell silent. He didn't know what to say. He tried to imagine himself as the last SandWing out there, no, not just as a SandWing, as the last dragon, in the whole infinite universe... It felt... lonely?

He was used to thinking about the others, and how to make himself appeal more to their point of view... But this was the first time he didn't want to think about what the one in front of him thought like.

"Is that why he travels with someone? To not just be completely all alone? Maybe... To stop himself from coming back and changing history... from saving his kind?" Qibli felt earlier Doctor's words, from when they arrived to the desert, sinking in more and more. If the alien hadn't even used this impossible machine to save his own people, then... why should Qibli to solve his such insignificant problems?

Qibli fell silent and lowered himself onto the ground, lying against the slightly cold stone floor. He certainly needed to think something over. A lot of somethings.

Chapter Text

(Qibli's POV)

Qibli walked in the direction of Thorn's throne room as the rays of the morning sun lit up the hallways of the stronghold along with many torches.. Yesterday certainly was... eventful. But now he needed to talk to her. Or, more specifically, warn her about the two thousand year old hybrid, who is now a king of the whole NightWing tribe according to Turtle's messages.

As he walked through the doors he saw Thorn sitting on her throne(or the dragon version of it, like Scarlet had clouds-shaped column in book one. I'm not sure why they have those btw, since for them it would be easier to sit on the floor.). To Qibli's surprise he saw The Doctor and Max standing and talking nearby, with guards, mostly former Outclaws, positioned around the room eyeing them with suspicion, awe or shock. He looked back at Thorn and winced at the sight of her wounds from yesterday. They haven't gotten much better.

"Oh, morning, Qibli!" Queen Thorn said joyfully. "I hope you've slept well?"

Qibli nodded, even if he could really do with another hour of sleep. "Yes... So... Thorn, I'm sorry I haven't mentioned this yesterday, but its something you really need to know..."

"I understand, yesterday was rather a shocking day, Qibli. What is it you want me to know?" Her tone instantly became more serious and she was focused on his words.

"This will sound a little crazy, but two days ago a two millennia old dragon called Darkstalker... how do I say this...? Came back. And by now he took the NighWing throne from Queen Glory. He's their king now." Qibli braced himself for Thorn to outright laugh, but before she had time to say anything at all, a familiar, yet unexpected, voice came from behind him.

"And how do you know that, sand snorter?" the IceWing prince spoke, grumbling as usual, clearly having overheard Qibli's words.

"Uh..." He hesitated, he didn't exactly want to reveal that their SeaWing friend was an animus to anyone present except Winter. "...It's Turtle."

"Ah, I see." Winter for once, to Qibli's utter astonishment, nodded in understanding instead of pushing further. "Did something happen in the last twenty four hours? What happened to the igloo-face I know that would never pass up a chance to argue?"

"Well, I have good and bad news, everyone!" Sunny's voice called out from the hall, before the SandWing herself appeared a moment later. "The good news are: Tsunami dreamvisited me and she is no longer worried. The bad news are: Tsunami dreamvisited me and will kill us once we get back for making her worry." Qibli snorted at her words. That definitely sounded like Headmaster Tsunami to him.

"Good morning, Prince Winter. Good morning, Sunny." Thorn greeted. "Could you please wait a moment? I have a few questions about Qibli's-" The Queen was interrupted as a panting SandWing rushing into the room "Y-your majesty! Th-there are tons of dragons heading here, led by one giant one! It's like a cloud of darkness! That must be the whole NightWing tribe!" He stumbled over his words.

"Oh no! That must be him!" Qibli quickly caught onto what was going on "Thorn, you've got to get everyone out of the stronghold!" He shouted.

Thorn eyed him for a second. "I shall not flee, I am the SandWing Queen, whoever he is, we will stand and fight!"

"No, you don't understand!" Qibli pleaded desperately. "Darkstalker is an animus, he could have enchanted every NightWing there to be invincible! It's better that you leave and stay alive than die fighting a fight you can't win!"

Thorn, to his relief, nodded. "If that's true... I see your point..." She turned to one of the soldiers. "You, organize evacuation of everyone here, quietly, as if nothing is happening. No dragon must be seen by the NightWings."

As the guard nodded and rushed off with the others the whole room shook. "If I had to guess that was him landing." Doctor said.

A loud voice bellowed through the walls. "QUEEN THORN! COME OUT HERE!" It didn't sound exactly threatening, Darkstalker clearly wanted to just talk for now, about what, Qibli wasn't sure, but had a few ideas, and he didn't like them.

He hastily followed Thorn along with the others in the room to the courtyard, to see a giant dark figure towering over everything. Qibli could swear the hybrid grew even taller.

"Darkstalker, what do you want?!" Queen Thorn roared at him. Then Qibli's gaze fell onto Darkstalker's eyes, or rather onto the silver teardrop shaped scales behind them. Without hesitation he rushed to Thorn and pulled out his Skyfire(Sorry, I couldn't find where he stores it, unlike Winter with his pouch), shoving it into her talon. "Thorn, hold this, please!" He whispered into his queen's ear. She clearly wanted to ask something, but nodded and intertwined her talon with his, holding the piece of rock, now shielding her thoughts from the newly crowned NightWing king.

Qibli noticed the large hybrid grumble in annoyance as he did that. But after a moment Darkstalker just continued speaking. "Oh, quite simple, your majesty. You see, I am the new king of the NightWings, and I'll be reclaiming our old kingdom. All I wanted was to ensure your cooperation in the future. And, before you refuse, think about it, you'll still be queen, you'll just have to listen to what I order you. And I assure you, I will lead both out tribes to a great destiny." His voice was smooth and almost sickly sweet, as if his offer was completely normal.

Thorn stood firm. "I'm assuming the NightWings aren't for show. How much time do I get to decide?"

Darkstalker chuckled "Oh, straight to the point, are we? No, I have no interest in attacking the SandWings... yet. I just want to ensure an alliance for the future changes in Pyrrhia." 

Qibli couldn't hold himself back from interjecting. "But can't you see the future? Don't you know what Thorn will say already?"

Darkstelker's gaze snapped away from Thorn and onto him as the hybrid growled. "Ah, Qibli, ever so smart, unfortunately there are... hmm... let's say troubles with my future sight right now... but I'll work on that once we reclaim the old Night Kingdom..." His intense gaze drifted away from Qibli to SandWing's great relief. But it was short lived. Once the giant dragon recoiled his neck in genuine shock Qibli realized that he must have noticed The Doctor and Max standing behind them. "Wh-What...?"

"He is surprised, so he wasn't lying about not being able to see the future... But we can't let him get them... Who knows what he could do with a time machine." Qibli spun around. "Thorn, we have to get them out, trust me!" Max and Doctor both reacted instantly, jumping onto his and Sunny's backs.

"Back to the TARDIS, quickly!" The Doctor commanded. And Qibli took off.

Thorn fickly assessed the situation and turned to Sunny and Winter "You too, quickly!"

"Oh no, you don't!" Darkstalker bellowed as they leaped into the air. "NIGHTWINGS, STOP THEM!" He shouted in a direction luckily the opposite of their destination.

"That's not good, is it?" Qibli heard The Doctor speaking into his ear, holding tightly onto his crest, as he climbed closer to the dragon's head to be heard against the wind.

"It really... isn't..." Qibli's voice dropped as he saw a massive cloud of darkness appearing on the other side of the stronghold. It looked like the night itself. Wings and legs sticking out here and there, but otherwise just pure darkness. "Jade Mountain will fall beneath darkness of night." rung in his ears.

"Doctor! We won't make it to the TARDIS!" Max screamed from Sunny's back as she flapped her wings as fast as she could beside Qibli and the others. "Please! Do something!" The human begged.

"I'm thinking!" Doctor replied before Qibli felt some shuffling on his back.

"What are you doing?" The SandWing asked without turning his head.

"Remember how I showed you a cube that brought us to that school of yours?" Doctor asked and Qibli heard a strange buzzing noise coming from his back.

Qibli remembered, when he first saw the two creatures.

"We're not sure, she was with her mother, we could talk for a short moment, and then this thing..." Doctor raised a weird metallic cube he was holding, "...Pretty much transported us here..."

"So you think it can get us out?" Qibli asked hopefully and stole another glance at the approaching abyss of dragons, which got much closer than he had hoped.

*Insert epic Doctor Who music here and intense wind blowing sounds*

"I'm trying to activate it! Get everyone closer if this thing does end up working!" Doctor answered.

Qibli nodded and called out "Everyone, fly as close as possible, Doctor might be able to get us out!" to his relief nobody objected and flew closer to him.

"Yes!" The Doctor exclaimed and Qibli turned around to see the cube light up it's patterns, before it started... speaking?

"ATTENTION. YOUR FREE TRIAL PERIOD HAS ENDED. NO MROE FREE MEMORIES AVALIABLE."

"Oh, blimey!" Time Lord exclaimed and Qibli heard more buzzing coming from The Doctor, or the cube, he wasn't sure.

"This thing needs another memory in exchange..." Doctor mumbled. "Don't you just love capitalism...?"

A/N: Thanks to user RazerBlades from Wattpad for the idea.

"REQUEST ACCEPTED. PLEASE, WAIT UNTIL FIND A SUITABLE MEMORY. INITIALIZING SCAN."

"Oh, damn it, no! This will take too long!" Doctor shuffled further up Qibli's body again. "Can you hold this, please?" He moved his hand with the cube in it to where the Qibli could grab it with his foreleg.

"Wait, what is happening?" Qibli asked, in a slightly panicked voice.

"This thing will scan one of your memories. You will still have it, don't worry. Just please, do it, they are about to catch us!" Doctor looked back at the NightWings that would descend onto them in a minute.

"Why can't you do it?!" the SandWing shouted back.

"I have too many memories, will take too long, now come on!" Qibli grabbed the cube that was forcefully shoved into his talon and saw multiple patterns on it light up.

"SUITABLE MEMORY FOUND, TESTIMONY FOUNDATION THANKS YOU FOR YOUR DONATION."

"Everybody, closer!" The Time Lord screamed at the top of his lungs.

"PLEASE, WAIT FOR THE ADVERTISEMENT TO PLAY BEFORE PROCEEDING TO THE MEMORY SPACE"

Qibli saw cube form flickering, half transparent blue words saying "Loading ad, please wait..." on top of it. "OH DAMN IT, NO YOU DON'T!" The Doctor screamed, and to Qibli shock, flung himself off the dragon, only holding onto his shoulder with one arm. The alien pointed a strange metal stick at the cube, it's end lighting up and emitting the familiar buzzing noise as his feet dangled above blazing hot sands of the desert. The SandWing stared in shock as The Doctor was barley holding onto him, his scavenger-like coverings flapping in the wind from the speed he was flying at.

"Doctor!" Max screamed as the cube suddenly flashed with a bright light, enveloping all of them. Qibli couldn't see anything. Suddenly he felt himself smashing into a hard surface right beneath his talons.

Chapter Text

(Winter's POV)

Winter rubbed his snout that had suddenly collided with something solid despite him flying rapidly through the air when he was blinded by some bright light. The IceWing made sure to not poke his eyes with his serrated talons as he rubbed the eyelids too before opening them with a slight groan.

When his vision came back he found all of them standing in what looked to be white void. He looked below him but it looked like he stood on nothing. No shadows, no anything. The IceWing heard Qibli let out a chuckle aimed at The Doctor and turned his head towards the SandWing and the alien standing up beside him. "Doctor, is this the afterlife? Because I'm not sure if getting caught would have been worse than just dying."

Winter looked around once more for something, yet he still saw nothing. Just the color white. But unpleasant white. It wasn't like slightly blueish snowy landscapes of the Ice Kingdom. This color was much warmer and almost hurt the IceWing's eyes from it's brightness. "Well, if this is afterlife and we're dead... The Doctor better have a way to bring us back..."

"Oh, don't worry." The Doctor reassured the four dragons. "We will be in someone's memory in a moment. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but it will play out around us. Can you please return me the Memory Cube?" Qibli nodded, slightly uncertain, and handed Doctor the cube that the SandWing was still holding onto.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for saving my scales." Queen Thorn spoke. "But what, in the three moons, is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, you'll see." Doctor said, smirking and ushered them all to come closer.

Winter furrowed his eyebrows in confusion but stepped closer nonetheless, noting Sunny and Queen Thorn doing the same. To his surprise, letters started forming on top of the object in Doctor's paw. (As of now, Qibli is the only one who knows what 'hand' means, so only in his POV they will be written as such. But I'm not sure what to do with words like 'handed' or 'handle', so I'm keeping them as is.)

Memory information:
Name: Sierra. 
Planet of origin: No known local name(Awaiting confirmation on assigned name).
Continent: Pyrrhia.
Species: Dragon.
Tribe classification(local societal system): Failed to identify. (Closest resemblance - IceWing.)
Gender: Female.
Year of hatching(local calendar): error processing information.
Year of death(local calendar): 58AS

As the words quickly faded, Winter raised his head to look at the others. Qibli and Thorn were clearly thinking very hard about what was happening. Sunny just looked confused. And the two aliens were looking around as if expecting something. "Think, Winter, think! It said something about an IceWing that died in only the 58th year after The Scorching... What was it like back then? Wait, The Doctor said we're about to be in a memory? We'll see something this dragon remembered?"

Dark cracks suddenly started spreading over the white nothingness and pieces of it started falling down, turning their surrounding into a small cave that all of them could barely fit in.

"Be careful and try not to touch anything. A single leaf movement in here can throw you into the air like you weight nothing." Max warned them. Winter shivered. He didn't like that one bit. A single leaf could throw him like he is nothing? There was no way that was possible! Although at this point he'd believe in anything. But... if a leaf could do that... what if they met a dragon? What if they were attacked?

A/N: So, I haven't mentioned this in the first Memory chapter, about the reason it works this way. I can't have it be a complete hologram, they'd pass through the ground. But, at the same time, if it's completely solid, what if they stand in a way of a moving object? I don't want them to be able to just pass through it, because how is it different form the ground? So it's a physical simulation where visitors are like weightless projections. Hope this clears up any possible questions about the reason it's written this way.(Btw they aren't blown away by the air currents cause they aren't part of the simulation)

A shadow suddenly covered the narrow cave entrance, and a dragon came in. Winter caught a glimpse of brown, red, and yellow scales while the figure was lit by the moons, but saw no RainWing ruffs on the sides of their head. "Right... the tribes were established only after The Scorching... They couldn't have changed their appearance overnight..."

The dragon surprisingly didn't react at all to three SandWings and one IceWing standing in the narrow space, never mind two giant scavengers. Instead it quietly spoke, just looking around, and by the voice Winter realized it was a female. "Sierra? Are you here?"

Another dragon slithered out from the darkest cave corner where nobody could see her before. Winter caught sight of many white shimmering scales like his own along her body. He presumed that was 'Sierra', the dragon who's memory they were currently.

"Yes, I am here, Salamander," Sierra replied quietly, still mostly hidden by the dark. Winter could only distinguish intricately curved snout and horns that were shimmering in the dim moonlight. "I need your help."

The other dragon, apparently named Salamander, stepped closer. "Yes, what is it?" Concern rippling through her voice.

Sierra let out a sight and stayed silent for a few seconds. Winter caught himself almost holding his breath in anticipation. "It's what I was afraid would happen... Our new queen... she forces us deeper into the frozen deserts of the north... Away from all the other dragons... Away from the still smoking lands..." the ancient IceWing spoke softly. "I'm scared... What will happen now... But... I'm even more scared for this..."

"What?" the multicolored dragon asked, taking another step closer, her wing almost hitting Winter's snout. He remembered the human's warning and took a step back to avoid any touch with the ghosts.

Sierra moved her talon closer to the moonlight to show something she was holding. It looked to be made of metal and curved in a weird shape. But, most surprisingly, it had a few round spots that were shining brightly with light. Winter remembered similar glowing circles he saw previously inside The Doctor's magic box. "The piece from the burning fallen star..." the dragoness smiled sadly. Winter turned to look at the Time Lord who looked at the object with only mild curiosity.

"Can you please keep it safe? For me?" Sierra pleaded, raising her gaze from the metal star piece to look at the other dragoness. "That star... it gave dragons such powers... dangerous powers... What if this piece can do the same? I can't risk the queen getting her talons on it... We are all just so scared... We never wanted any of this..."

The world started fading to white void again, but the IceWing Prince managed to see Salamander nodding and reaching her foreleg out for the object. He turned back to the others. The Time Lord raised the Memory Cube for everyone to see as it formed a new message. "END OF MEMORY SEGMENT. THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO THE TESTIMONY FOUNDATION DATABASE."

"Wow!" Sunny unexpectedly almost screeched, immediately angering Winter. "That was amazing! What exactly just happened?!" She jumped in front of The Doctor, and Winter swore that if she had only two legs she'd be bouncing on them up and down in excitement.

"Hey! Hey! I'll explain! Not so quick!" Doctor chuckled.

Winter tuned out his explanation. He understood most of it. He was unsure of how he felt. He just witnessed an ancient IceWing. Maybe even one of his ancestors. Face to face. Even if she seemingly couldn't see him. "Of course she can't see you, idiot! It's just her memory! Like reading a scroll!" Winter cursed at himself in his head. 

But what was the object she held? It looked like part of The Doctor's machine, the TARDIS. But Winter doubted it had any connection to him. "Then what? Other aliens? After The Scorching? And why did she call it 'burning fallen star'? The alien spaceship he had seen could be described as a blue box. With weird writings on it. Seriously, what is 'Guards public calls box' even supposed to mean? Well, maybe aliens have a different language or something. But I still don't understand why they speak to us in Dragon then." Winter shook his head and decided to listen to The Doctor.

"...So a spaceship if I had to guess. Not sure about powers though-" Winter followed Time Lord's gaze and saw the cube pulsating with light rays through the patterns on it's sides. "Right, that..." The Doctor mumbled as they all were once again enveloped in a flash of light.

A/N: This was waaaayyy easier to write then "Memory 1". And you know what? I'm weirdly proud of this chapter. I think it sets up rather well future stuff that I have planned.

Chapter Text

A/N: So... I just found out that the "Legends: Darkstalker" audiobook I had and listened to was incomplete for some reason, I apologize for any mistakes in the text I might have made because of that, I went through the rest of the book now, should be fine in the future. Consequently I found out that Darkstalker doesn't have blue eyes like I initially thought for some reason, once again sorry if I had described him that way(although in my opinion blue eyes are better).

Here's a recap just in case you are confused by the timeline of events(I dug through wiki for quite some time to figure the order of days):

Day 1 - Darkstalker is released, he spends the day at the Academy, makes the IceWing Plague at night. The Doctor and Max arrive at dawn, meet with Queen Glory mid day, get the Memory Cube, and spend the night at Secretkeepr's hut.

Day 2 - Darkstalker arrives to the rainforest and enchants the NightWings + Glory to take the tribe's throne. Doctor and Max are teleported to JMA via the Memory Cube after watching a memory, they meet Qibli, Winter and Sunny. All of them go to the TARDIS, trying find Onyx and Ostrich, which takes them to the Sand Kingdom where Onyx attacks Thorn and dies. In the early night Max talks with Winter while Qibli talks to The Doctor. Rainforest is about the same as book 9.

Day 3 - NightWings leave the rainforest, Moon Kinkajou and Turtle follow soon after, Darkstalker comes to Thorn to make her obey him in the future. But  he commands the NightWings to attack when she helps to get Max and The Doctor away from him. Sunny, Qibli, Winter, Thorn and our two travelers escape, using one of Qibli's memories as a price to activate the Memory Cube.

And right now we'll be going off track for a short moment here, just to check up on Moon.  The following events take place the next day, once Moon already arrived to the old Night Kingdom and met up with Darkstalker.

(Darkstalker's POV)

"These were Queen Vigilance's quarters" Darkstalker said to Moon almost solemnly. "They're mine now, of course. Although a huge cleaning is definitely in order here. It looks like she took most of her treasures with her when she left..." He blew some dust off the enormous mirror and frowned at it, once again remembering his past. "It all used to be so clean and... perfect. There were grand parties every other night! And things you would actually like, too, Moon... salons and scientific lectures and readings... Where we used to go with Clearsight..." 

He looked back at Moonwatcher again. "It has not even been a year for me... Yet so much has changed here... I wish I could show you the old Night Kingdom, Moon. The way it's supposed to be..." he almost added '...not living like pesky RainWings.', but bit his tongue, Moon wouldn't like hearing that.

Moon stared at him. Darkstalker couldn't quite figure out her gaze, but her thoughts showed him what was worrying her. She saw it when he went to the SandWing Stronghold yesterday. "Moon, is something bothering you?" He decided to ask, instead of just answering her thoughts directly.

Moon hesitated, looked to the side at her RainWing friend for moment "What was her name again?", but decided to answer him after a few seconds. "It's... Well... Darkstalker, I saw you yesterday... Why did the NightWings attack Queen Thorn's Stronghold?"

"Oh, Moon, that's what you're so worried about?" the hybrid lowered his head closer to the way smaller dragonet. "I wasn't attacking it. I merely went there for a diplomatic meeting with her majesty Thorn. After all, I'm the King of the NightWings now. I should establish diplomatic connections with all the tribes. And the SandWing stronghold didn't require going too far out of my way. " He gave her a warm and reasurring smile.

"But I saw that the tribe went there after you after some time, and then chased down something, or someone, before crashing into the sand and turning back once they recovered." Moon protested. "How is that a 'diplomatic meeting'?!"

Darkstalker paused. He couldn't exactly tell Moon the truth. Firstly, he didn't want Moon to know her little friends were there. What if she decided to come back and look for them? "Moon, it's a little hard to believe, but two SandWings with an IceWing appeared out of nowhere with two giant scavengers and they tried to kidnap Queen Thorn."

Moon stared at him blankly. "Scavengers you say? But how is that possible?" He caught a flicker in her mind of something like recognition but decided to ignore it for now, after all, when could she possibly have met the two strange creatures? He almost never let her out of his sight.

"I suspect they were created by some other animus dragon, Moon. Probably as a distraction to attack the queen. Maybe not just Thorn too." He said with some frustration sipping into his voice. He hadn't actually thought about it much. His mind was set on returning home. Seeing his kingdom again. He paused. Who could have enchanted those creatures? It clearly had to be before he was freed and made sure to know of any cast spell. Oh how he missed his foresight, every time he tried to look the timelines split and split, future intertwining with the past giving him a headache. "Is he or she dangerous?" It certainly couldn't be Anemone, she's too stupid and self centered for that... Definitely not Stonemover, he's almost a piece of rock because of his magic. That meant there was atleast one other animus the hybrid didn't know of. He'll have to think about that later.

"And..." Moon hesitated again, as if she was afraid to ask. "What happened to them?"

Darkstalker paused, shaken out of his thoughts, then realized she meant the strange talking scavengers. He let out a grumbling noise, looking away. "Escaped somehow. Within a bright flash of light. I immediately tried to use my magic to find them, but couldn't. Like they just vanished...". "...Or were protected from my spells..." he thought. "And they managed to take Thorn along with them."

"Oh... That's not good... Queen Thorn..." Moon whispered. The hybrid turned back to her. He could see she was shaking slightly, even without reading her mind it was obvious that she was scared of the possible consequences. Indeed the Sand Kingdom needed a ruler. And they ran because of him. Not to mention the stronghold was empty once he returned to it.

Darkstalker took a step towards her, wanting to wrap his wing around her soothingly, when the annoying little SeaWing princess appeared in the doorway to the hall, her talons covered in white stone dust. "Darkstalker!"

(Sunny's POV)

The bright light faded and Sunny found herself in some sort of a sandy city alley with sandstone buildings on both sides. She looked around and noted that her mother, Qibli, Winter and the two aliens were still present beside her.

Qibli made a few steps forward and poked his head around the corner, looking out onto the wider street. He turned back, disbelief written across his face. "This street looks  familiar... I think we're in Possibility..." He gazed at The Doctor and at the strange cube in his paws. "Was that supposed to happen?"

Doctor looked up at him. "Well, not exactly... I still haven't quite figured this thing out... Just like we've ended up near you the first time we've used it..."

Thorn suddenly cleared her throat, gathering attention of everyone present. "Well, Possibility or not, what do you suggest we do now? I've just abandoned my stronghold while being chased down by what probably was the whole NightWing tribe!"

"Well, returning there certainly wouldn't be smart..." Winter grumbled at her. "But I'd suggest finding and gathering your main advisors for now."

"That does sound wise, Prince Winter..." Sunny's mother contemplated, a bit more formality in her tone.

"I think we should see where we are first, and work our plan out from there." Max reasonably pointed out.

"Yeah... that's probably better..." Sunny replied. Her excitement started to wear off. Sure, she just saw something impossible. For atleast the third time in the last twenty four hours at that. But now she was again faced with the reality of NightWings attacking her, her students and mother. Plus all of them now being stranded in Possibility.

They all walked out of the alleyway. Yes, this certainly looked like Possibility to Sunny. Winter let out another one of his annoyed grumbles, that all of them learned to ignore by now. "Huh, seems more empty around here than when we were here with Moon and Kinkajou..." He said as if he was incredibly annoyed by the fact. But it was obvious that he in reality preferred less of prying eyes. And to be fair Sunny did too. After all, any dragon would stop in shock at the sight of The Doctor and Max.

"Well, there was that festival..." Qibli muttered. "Maybe that's why..."

"A festival?" Max inquired, curious as they walked further along the street. "What kind of festivals do you dragons have?"

"Yes, what festival?" Sunny asked, interested too.

"The full-moon festival." Thorn answered softly. "Of course you wouldn't know, dear... It's an old SandWing tradition. Ever since you've stopped the war they are a thing again. But here, in Possibility, dragons from the other tribes got together to celebrate too."

"But that's wonderful!" Doctor said, looking at her, a smile on his face. "Everyone just getting together to be happy? Really?"

"Yeah, that's a rare sight... Even humans prefer arguing with each other..." Max muttered under his nose, but was too close to Sunny and she heard him. She wanted to ask about that, but Thorn spoke up again.

"Well... not exactly... There was an explosion, here in Possibility. And in a few other places..." She spoke with more seriousness. "I'm still trying to figure out what exactly is going on with that..."

"Wait, what-" Sunny started to speak but cut herself off once she saw a group of MudWings, dragging a coughing IceWing, appear from around the building corner.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Winter growled at them and tried to step closer but Qibli put his wing on top of the IceWing, stopping him.

"Calm down." The SandWing said firmly. "Sorry about him... But what is it that you are doing?" he asked the MudWings.

The biggest one tilted his head, deep in thought. "You don't know?" His gaze slowly drifted to Winter. "Aren't you doing the same thing?" He spoke softly. "Three moons, even Clay spoke faster..." Sunny thought annoyed.

"Doing what?" Thorn stepped forward and asked, authority in her tone.

"Oh, you're Queen Thorn, right?" The smallest of the MudWings, who still was around the size of Sunny, perked up. "We were thinking of how to reach you! All the IceWings in Possibility fell deathly ill! Over the last day they all became like Wintergreen over here..." She pointed with her tail at the IceWing who was holding onto their shoulders with her front talons, clearly barely conscious.

Qibli furrowed his eyebrows, he paused to think for a minute. "That fast... Only the IceWings..." His face darkened and Winter's followed. They both spoke one word in unison with anger. "Darkstalker."

"How bad is it?" Doctor asked the MudWings.

"We've gathered every IceWing we could find in one place. The whole city is trying everything we can think of to save them..."

A/N: I planned for this chapter to have some more stuff in it, but with the Darksalker part added it felt a bit too long. So it will be put into the next chapter, but that's good since I'll be able to detail it more. We'll be going to the Old Night Kingdom very soon too.

Chapter Text

The planet cracked open. Lightning sparkled as The Doctor was flung out into the space. Darkstalker, purple lightning crackling around him, his body now larger than the planet dragons used to inhabit, flew up after him. "Don't think you can run away from me, Time Lord!"

Doctor gasped for air, looking at the shattering planet, chucks flying up, the core shining like another sun.

"I have your magic box now!" The massive talon grabbed The Doctor, stopping his movement.

"Darkstalker... Please... Just stop..." Doctor screamed at the giant who was growing by the second.

"Stop? Why should I stop?" Darkstalker let out a laugh. "I think I quite like having all of time and space at my disposal... Just think of all the things I could do! Especially with that lovely plant on the other piece of land that I control now." The hybrid tilted his head at the tiny bruised creature on his talon. "There's just one thing I'm missing until I can play with the stars themselves. Give me your regeneration energy, Time Lord!"

"No... You don't realize what you're-" Doctor was pierced with a lightning dancing around Darkstalker's scales. His voice cut off as his head and arms started glowing shades yellow orange and red.

Moon managed to fly into the TARDIS after Winter and Qibli who carried Max. "What do we do now?!" Winter growled as they all panted, lying on the floor of the bigger interior.

"Doctor told me once..." Max looked up at the lights. "To never be cruel..."

"Yes, how does that help?" Qibli screamed at him. 

"Yeah, right sorry." Max snapped out and ran to the console in the middle. He flipped a few switches. "He told me to do this actually."

"And what is 'this'?"

"Oh, simple, I've set the TARDIS to self destruct in about fiv-"

Darkstalker turned his head to se rapidly expanding ball of flames, enveloping him as his screams were swallowed by the following void. The stars screamed out in agony, consumed by the burning time machine. The explosion burned down half the galaxy. But Darkstalker was stopped.

Chapter Text

A/N: I feel a little uninspired with chapter 15, I'm only a third of my way through it as of writing this. So... I've decided to write... this...

Tbh I recently saw a similar thing being done in "Wings of Sand and Sea" by heikadango I am currently reading.

This one was originally intended to be canon to the story, but I came up with something better. So if you don't like multiverse stuff, by all means, skip this. I just decided to have some fun.

Storyteller was walking along the wooden bookshelves of his library.

Today was a quiet day. Usually more dragons were seeking him. But today was quiet. Yet he wasn't complaining. He knew someone important will come today.

Storyteller was happy with his life as a hermit librarian. He could spend forever here with his love, (Okay, I have no idea how to name alternate Clearsight, if you have any ideas please do tell me).

He used his magic to create this place. Almost infinite library full of books containing any knowledge you desire, if only you knew how to find it. Usually visitors wanted to find out something specific. But some brought stories of their own. And the library stored all of them.

But those that were due to come today were rather unusual. He turned the corner to hear the familiar whooshing noise and see a wooden blue box fade gradually into existence in front of him. "Ah, right on time..." he mumbled to himself.

This machine was a wonder to him. He could foresee it's appearance, but could never know for sure even who was inside. He knew it would be some other versions of himself, but every time they were different.

The door opened and someone stepped out. It was clearly a dragon, but not the like from this world. Here dragons only had scales along their upper bodies and arms, the rest was covered in skin. But this one was fully covered in the dark scales. His wings were identical to Storyteller's, except from the membranes reaching down further along his body. "Well, hello there, Blood. I'm so happy to see you again! Who else came to my humble library along with you today?"

Storyteller took a step towards the closest wooden pillar that reached up to the faraway arched celling. He opened almost unnoticeable panel which revealed a few holes and a space below them. The dragon inserted his clawed fingers in the right slots and a cup of warm tea appeared in the small opening below them. 

Storyteller grabbed the cup and handed it to Bloodmoon, who chuckled and responded to the question. "Well... You can always expect to see me, since I'm the only one who knows how to control that thing,  because... No, nevermind that. But I've recently stumbled upon two new interesting dimensions, actually." He grabbed the cup carefully with his talons and took a sip. No matter who drank it, the tea always was perfect for that specific person or dragon, when Storyteller was making the library he made sure of that.

"Oh? So there are two new 'me-s' that you brought along?" the librarian asked. He always liked meeting new faces. And other versions of himself proved to be more than interesting.

"Not exactly... I did bring one... But he... How do I put it?" Bloodmoon paused, thinking. "Doesn't always stay exactly in a... physical form... And the other one... Well, I think bringing him would be a bit... hard... At the very least..."

"Oh, is that so?" Storyteller asked the guest while walking to his small personal corner of the library where he lived.

"Heh, yeah... But I'm sure you'd like to hear his story..." Blood chuckled, only a step behind him.

"Really? I'm all ears then. And my library is always eager to hear new tales." Storyteller pulled on  a small hidden lever, the bookshelf slid to the side with the help of a few wooden gears, revealing a small cozy room.

"Of course. So, to start, his name is Darkstalker..."

A/N: And here's a small teaser from the next chapter:

The alien looked at the SandWing like he just told him that there was only one moon in the sky. "Don't be ridiculous. There's no such thing as magic!" He said, his expression completely serious.

"[REDACTED]" Qibli was certainly surprised. He certainly expected this alien with a bloody time machine to believe in magic of all things.

"Well, no she didn't." Max replied to him, suddenly appearing from behind. Qibli turned around to see the human had approached them rather quietly with a rather grim expression.

Chapter Text

(Qibli's POV)

Qibli finally sat down, a bit exhausted. He checked every sick IceWing. Indeed they were all the same. Countless barely moving scaly bodies. A few put in small piles, due to the lack of space. The Doctor slumped down next to him, clearly deep in thought. He tried helping out, but caused all the residents of Possibility to just stop and stare at him in shock, slowing them down instead.

Qibli sighed. "You call yourself 'The Doctor', shouldn't you know how to save them?" The SandWing already knew it wasn't exactly like that, but the he was ready to start grasping at straws after the devastating sight.

"Well..." The Time Lord rubbed his chin. "I really want to... I just can't understand what has been causing this... Healing herbs can keep them alive for a little longer, but..." He looked up at Qibli. "You and Winter said that huge dragon, Darkstalker if I recall right, caused this, right? But how could he do... this? This world doesn't seem to have enough technology to create such a specific bio-weapon unless I'm really missing something..."

"What do you mean, Doctor?" Qibli stared back at him, very confused now. "He did it with his animus magic obviously. You're so like... smart. how don't you know that?"

"Magic?" the alien looked at the SandWing like he just told him that there was only one moon in the sky. "Don't be ridiculous. There's no such thing as magic!" He said, throwing his hands up, his expression completely serious.

"Of course there is...!" Qibli paused for a moment than realized that if the magic is passed through dragon bloodlines aliens might really not have it. "Didn't Moon's mom tell you about it when you've stayed with her?" Qibli was certainly surprised. He definitely expected this alien with a bloody time machine to atleast believe in the existence of magic of all things.

"Well, no she didn't tell us anything like that." Max replied to him, suddenly stepping closer to them from behind. Qibli turned around to see that the human had approached them rather quietly, and with a quite grim expression. "But, Doctor, is magic really too far fetched?" Max raised an eybrow.

"Yes." The other alien stated bluntly. "I've seen countless things, from vampires to ghosts and, trust me, none were magic. Grow up, fairytales aren't real."

"Doctor..." Max raised both eyebrows expressively, "Maybe next time try saying that while not sitting next to a dragon?"

Qibli turned his gaze back to The Doctor who was looking at Max with a blank expression in return. "And what's that supposed to mean?" Time Lord asked, sounding offended.

"Well. If you haven't noticed. Dragons are from fairytales." the human shrugged his shoulders and waved his hands, as if indicating all the dragons around him. Now that gave Qibli a pause. That was rather interesting. He wasn't so much surprised about the fact that humans had fictional stories about dragons. But... It was a completely different planet, what are the odds of them coming up with a creature called 'dragon' that looked like actual alive dragons in Pyrrhia?

"Of course they aren't!" Doctor protested. "You've spent the last two days with them! God, my wife even transported dragon eggs across space!"(The closest thing to actual dragon in canon Doctor Who according to the wiki.)

"Yes, I did spend the last two days here. Wait, your wife-... Doesn't matter, those are alien dragons! Not to mention, considering how the travels with you go..." Max suddenly paused. "Nevermind."

"No, no, wait." Qibli wanted to know what the human wanted to say. "I'm interested, what did you want to say?"

"Uh... Well..." Max rubbed the back of his head. "Don't take this personally... But... to be honest... There's technically a chance... that none of this is real..."

"None of this is real? What does that mean?" Qibli furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Well... I suppose... If you travel the universe, moons know what you come across... You can never really be sure what is real and what's not... Am I...?"

"Qibli?" He shook his head at Thorn's voice. "If you are right and all this is that NightWing's doing, he must be stopped." She had somewhat shocked and sad expression on her face, her voice even was trembling very very subtly, but Qibli picked up on it. It was clear she just finished looking over all the ill IceWings.

"I know..." the SandWing dragonet sighed. "But what can we do? He's got a whole NightWing tribe, probably under his spell and with superpowers... And he has Moon..."

"Moon?" Thorn quirked an eyebrow at him. Qibli realized his tone was a bit more dreamy and tragic that he'd like and that was appropriate right now.

"Uh... yeah... Didn't get a chance to tell you... Moonwatcher is the NightWing from our winglet at the Academy... And she's there, with Darkstalker..."

"Right, sure, of course." Thorn's mouth curled up almost unnoticeably. "So, if what you're saying is true... At the very least we need to somehow get close to him without anyone noticing, right?"

"Yeah, that's great... I could probably even manage that with the TARDIS... Somewhat..." Doctor chimed in. "But what do we do then?"

"He's immortal, has impenetrable scales, can hear everyone's thoughts unless they have Skyfire, can see many possible timelines, considering how smart he is, I'd say protected himself from animus magic, and moons know what else." Qibli listed, counting on his talons.

"Can you please stop with the magic nonsense?" Doctor looked at him like he was some annoying hatchling.

"Doctor, for the love of moons, we are talking about a two thousand year old immortal dragon." Qibli retorted. "We're pretty sure animus magic is real and he has it!"

"So what?" Doctor stood up, spreading his arms. "I'm even older!"

"You are?" Thorn regarded him again with her gaze. "Interesting..."

"Look, Doctor, maybe it's not magic and some complicated alien stuff like usual." Max rolled his eyes. "But can we please not argue how to call it now?"

"Fine, magic it is then!" Time Lord grumbled, clearly unhappy, throwing his hands up in defeat.

"So, what else do we know? Maybe there's another animus who can help?" Thorn turned to Qibli again.

He thought for a moment. "Doubt it. There's my friend, who... Isn't exactly available Another one is a SeaWing, and she's... too fascinated by Darkstalker... There's your-... Stonemover... Besides, like I said, he's probably protected himself against..."

"Oh, I can tell you've got something!" Doctor noticed his pause, clearly exited again.

"I'm pretty sure he needs his own magic to work on him..." Qibli looked back up at Thorn and the two aliens in front of him to notice that his IceWing friend silently walked up to them too, and was listening as well.

"Brilliant, sand snorter." Winter scoffed, but his voice wasn't even grumpy like usual. Just sad. "Right, all the IceWings...". Winter looked Qibli in the eyes, quiet rage burning in his. "You suggest we talk him into enchanting himself out of existence? Sorry to disappoint but even you aren't enough of a sweet talker for that."

"Well... Maybe not..." Qibli wanted to just ask 'got any better ideas yourself?', but he knew it really wasn't the time for Winter. "Wait a minute..." He was thinking hard. "Maybe... There's a chance... His scroll, that's still his magic, right? And some bits of it are left... With Chameleon..."

"Nah, won't work. The scroll lost it's power once most of it was burnt by Peril. Otherwise Darkstalker wouldn't have his power back." Winter stated plainly.

"I hate to admit it, but you're right..." Qibli scratched his snout again. "I think... I think we should go to the Old Night Kingdom anyway. We can only hope that he listens to Moon." Both Qibli and Winter looked down. "And that she listens to us..."

Sunny walked up to the five as well, tears in her eyes. "Please, mother, we must try and help those poor IceWings. I don't know how much they have left in this state..."

"You're right... Any helping talons here might save lives... But we have to stop Darkstalker... It's the only way to really save them..." Thorn felt conflicted.

"Well, we've got a plan then!" Winter said. "Queen Thorn, Sunny, you stay here and Keep. Them. Alive. Qibli, Max, Doctor and I return to his... to the TARDIS, we head to the Old Night Kingdom and try to convince Moon to stop him."

"And what if that doesn't work?" Doctor asks. "Or better yet, what if it does? What do we do then?"

"Deal with that later." Qibli raised his head, feeling a surge of determination. "Atleast we get Moon away from him."

"No, no, that's not-" Doctor started protesting but got interrupted by Max, "If it comes to that we still have your sonic, right?"

Doctor looked up and let out half amused half exasperated chuckle. "Yeah... My sonic screwdriver... 'Shall we ask them for a better quality of door so we can escape?'..." Doctor mumbled.

Qibli tilted his head at the Time Lord "Sorry, what?"

"Nevermind that..." The Doctor waved his hand dismissively at the dragon, then turned to look at Max. "No use, everything is too primitive, absolutely no technology to work with."

"I thought it only doesn't work on wood." the human pointed out, although Qibli had no idea what they were talking about.

"Well, technically speaking, yes. But it also can't do wonders. So, technically I can scan the sand below us, but I can't make it fly up for instance, you know?"

"I'm not sure what you two are on about, but I'm not going to sit here and watch my tribe die." Winter cut in sharply. "You take us to the Old Night Kingdom. Now."

Doctor's eyes fixed on Winter. Qibli could see the Time Lord was contemplating something. But even the SandWing wasn't sure what exactly.

A tense silence hung in the air for a minute, time stretching out slower by the second. "Where is it?" Doctor finally spoke. His tone unusually cold.

"We don't actually know..." Qibli admitted. "But it has to be somewhere in Pyrrhia... If that helps"

"Bring me any sort of a map. I'll figure it out"

Chapter Text

(Clearsight' POV)

Clearsight looked out of the Night Palace window. She had a rare break between writing out the future or hanging out with Darkstalker and Fathom. But that will be short lived, as she had foreseen. Fathom was about to check up on her to make sure she was okay.

The NightWing smirked slightly as a short series of knocks echoed through her door, exactly when she expected it. If she wanted to, she could have opened the door at the exact second Fathom walked up, but Clearsight learned to atleast act somewhat surprised of her friends actions at times.

So the young seer stood up, stretched and padded over to the door, her tail lazily brushing along the stone floor. She slowly opened the door, seeing the green SeaWing on the other side. "Nice to see you again, Fathom." The NightWing smiled at him and stepped aside allowing him to come in.

"Clearsight," He smiled back warmly, yet still somewhat shy. "How are you?"

The NightWing quickly checked what would be the best answer. She certainly didn't want to worry him too much... Or Darkstalker, who would quickly find it out from Fathom's mind... "They both could start a very unpleasant argument with the queen-" Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Fathom "Clearsight?" He asked with concern.

She realized that she spent a bit too much looking over the future. "Yes. Right, of course. Sorry, Fathom, just got carried away for a moment..."

"What, any potential world ending threats I should be afraid of?" SeaWing tried to joke.

Clearsight gave him a half smile. "Not that I know of atleast..." she furrowed her brows. "May be worth to check again actually... Those threads usually aren't the likeliest ones, I might miss them if I'm not looking specifically for them..."

"Uh... alright... Go ahead... I guess..." Fathom mumbled, slightly taken aback, clearly not expecting that.

Clearsight gave him a reassuring smile. "Oh, don't you worry so much, jellyfish, it's fine, just a check up. Haven't done one in a while..." She looked up slightly and tried looking into the future. To her surprise all the timeline threads were shaking, as if a wind was blowing through them, the timelines started swirling in and out all around her. 

"Clearsight? What is that?" Fathom asked, suddenly a bit of panic in his voice. He was speaking about a gust of wind that suddenly hit their scales, and a wheezing noise that started echoing through her room, which took her a moment to realize, since her gaze was still focused on the timelines.

She tried to foresee what it was, but the webs  were collapsing all around her, the future, past, present all tangling up together. She spoke out softly, not exactly understanding how she knew the words, almost like a prophecy. "Something old... Something new... Something borrowed... Something blue..."(Yes, I did this on purpuse.)

Clearsight focused her vision back on the present to be greeted with a thump and a blue wooden box standing in the middle of her room, in front of her and Fathom. She stared at it in amazement, shock and a bit of terror. She hadn't foreseen it coming, yet the NightWing somehow simultaneously knew what it was and didn't. She felt strange energy around it, similar to when she looked at the future in a way.

"Wh-what i-is th-that...?" Fathom asked shakily, and she noticed he was gripping onto her left foreleg instinctively.

"I'm... not sure... it's... weird... Really weird..." Clearsight tried to see the timeline of this box specifically. But what happened next could only be described as a violent shove backwards, making her trip over her own tail.

"Clearsight?!" Fathom scuttered over to her head, looking her in the eyes, his fear replaced by concern for her.

"I-... I don't know! That... That thing... It's future is so vast... And it's somehow entangled with the past and present and moons know what else... How- How can this be?!" Clearsight's voice was shaking. Her fear of the impossible thing overpowering the strange sense of comfort that was hitting her just at the sight of the blue box.

"Wha-" Fathom started speaking, but was cut off by one of the box's walls swinging open outside and... a giant scavenger stepping out, waving a buzzing metal stick around in his hand.

"Yep... This is the place..." It suddenly spoke. "But I seems like something is off-" The scavenger spun around, seemingly wanting to address something or someone who was still inside of the box but paused at the two dragons to the side as they entered it's line of sight.

"Wait..." It squinted it's eyes. "Clearsight...? But... how..." It scrubbed the fur at the back of it's head.

"You... talk... and... know... her?" Fathom spoke, taking a slight step forward, taking somewhat protective pose, although Clearsight doubted that he would mange to do anything even against a giant scavenger.

"OH!" The scavenger had a look of realization. "Sorry! Yes, I do sort of know her... But not yet... It's... Uh... Timey-wimey... Thing..."

"Wha- H-how... How do I know you? I don't! But... I do...!" Clearsight scrambled back onto her talons and took a few steps back from the talking scavenger, her head pounding from the incoming, incomprehensible visions.

"Doctor? Where have you-" an IceWing poked his head out from the box, and his gaze locked with Clearsight's. "Arctic...!"

(Winter's POV)

Winter watched as The Doctor reluctantly pushed and pulled various circles and sticks on the panels around the glowing pillar inside his TARDIS that Doctor told him was called a console. It was certainly a long flight all the way from Possibility. It took them almost two days in fact. (So the same day that the Darkstalker segment in chapter 14 took place they got to the TARDIS in the evening, slept there, and currently Turtle is flying after Anemone, Moon and Kinkajou are in the Night Kingdom. Thank god I don't have to align it with book 10 timeline as well. Idk about you but I might have to start a chart of the events.)

The Time Lord, seemingly having set everything into position, propped his paws onto one of the panels and looked up at Winter. "Are you absolutely, completely, one-hundred-percent sure this is a good idea?"

Winter hissed, opening his mouth to say that he definitely was sure. But instead the IceWing paused. He actually decided to think about it. Sure, Darkstalker had to be stopped. The NightWing tribe... All the IceWings in Possibility... and probably even worse in the Ice Kingdom... But was simply hoping that he'd listen to Moon really their best course of action...? "Hoping that Moon would listen to us and not him..."

"Would Moon even listen to me...? Of course she won't... Maybe even not to Qibli... Certainly not with Darkstalker... He's a NightWing just like her... and an animus at that... Of course she'll like him more, considering how he seems to like her as well... How he isn't rude to her constantly..."

"Yes." Qibli's voice shook Winter out of his thoughts. "We have to get Moon out of there at the very least." SandWing was staring daggers at The Doctor. It was clear he prioritized Moon above all else at the moment. "Like I should be doing... Qibli's right, above all we have to get her out. That's more important to me than even the IceWings."

The Time Lord stared back sharply for what felt like forever. But at last he nodded and pulled the big thing he used the last time too. The pillar in the center, that The Doctor referred to as the time rotor, started glowing brighter and emitting the same sound it did the first time they've flown, from the Jade Mountain to the Sand Kingdom.

This travel was somewhat smoother but longer. And Winter thought he had caught a look of concern on the alien's face when he looked at the vertical rectangles filled with strange writing. Once the column thumped and they 'landed', as Winter decided to call it mentally, Doctor quickly headed outside to see if they landed correctly and pulled out his strange metal buzzing stick.

Winter turned to assess Qibli for a moment, he wanted to understand what his friend was thinking right now. One thing for certain, his determination hasn't wavered since they left Possibility. Max suddenly appeared from one of the hallways leading away from the main chamber, not the one that held the room Winter and Qibli had to sleep in though, human's face looking more fresh than it did yesterday, and his body was covered in different coverings to those he wore before. Winter noted that they looked a lot cleaner and neater than the ones he seen on Bandit, or on the scavengers he briefly seen as he flew over the biggest scavenger den in Pyrrhia.

Max gave them both a weird look, and Winter realized how it must look for the human. The IceWing shook his head, turning away, even almost mumbling 'sorry'. Qibli was studying the coverings as well, but wasn't exactly bothered by the glare unlike Winter. "Sayyy..." the SandWing drawled. "I was thinking... If we ran into some scavengers... Would you be able to talk to them...?"

"Uh... probably..." Max pointed at the large glowing pillar in the center witha  shrug. "That thing translates almost any language... So now that you've been in here... You actually might understand them as well..."

Winter's head recoiled backwards in surprise, his neck curling almost like a RainWing's. "Understand... scavengers...? Talk... to them...?"

"Wow, that certainly would be cool!" Qibli smirked. "I'm certain our ice princess would just be ecstatic. Wouldn't you, Winty?"

Winter loudly choked. He was torn between wanting to rip something out of Qibli, roar, nervously laughing, and somehow getting back at the SandWing. Instead he just growled quietly. "I don't have any energy for this... What's taking The Doctor so long anyway?" Winter spun around, his tail lashing, yet he said nothing about the annoying smirk plastered across Qibli's snout.

The IceWing marched to the door of the TARDIS. "Doctor? Where have you-" He poked his head out the doors, looking right and was met with Turtle and... no, that was not Moon... a dark purple-eyed NightWing.

Suddenly The Doctor shoved him forcefully back into the time machine. "Alright, everyone, wait a moment please and listen to me carefully, okay?" The Time Lord snapped the doors shut and inhaled slowly before turning around and looking at the two dragons.

"Doctor? What is out there?" Qibli asked cautiously.

"It's... Well... I'm fairly certain we are in the right place... just wrong on time... a little... bit..."

A/N: I've recently finally decide to watch Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel. And I've been thinking... What about a one-shot crossover fic of Doctor Who, Good Omens and HB/HH? Certainly not right now, but I might do that in the future, once I finish with everything related to this fic.

Chapter Text

(Qibli's POV)

Qibli watched, rather confused, as The Doctor pushed Winter back inside the TARDIS and snapped the doors shut. "What could possibly be out there? Is it something that Darkstalker did... What if he did something to Moon?"

"Doctor? What's out there?" Qibli asked, more and more afraid of what the answer might be as the alien kept staring at the doors instead of turning around to face the two dragons and his companion.

The Time Lord hesitated before replying. "It's... Well... I'm fairly certain we are in the right place... just wrong on time... a little... tiny... bit..." He inhaled and turned around, smiling, clearly trying to be reassuring, but not being very successful, in Qibli's opinion.

"Wrong... on... time? What does that mean?" Winter asked, very much confused. Qibli on the other talon, had an idea of what that was about. He didn't like it much though.

"Oh, don't worry, frosty, this happens all the time when you're with The Doctor." Max chuckled at Winter.

"Frosty?!" Winter snarled at him, his shock quickly replaced with anger. "I'll give you one warning, scav- human. Don't you dare to call me that ever again. Or I'll.. slice your f-"

"Oh, chill out, Winty, it's not like I'll be jealous..." Qibli snickered, slithering up beside Winter and purposefully brushing his tail against Winter's leg. "Besides, weren't we past the 'slicing faces off' thingy already?"

"I'll freeze both of you." Winter stated coldly. But for the IceWing Prince that could be considered almost a joking tone, which Qibli delightfully noted. "I swear one day, especially once he's been away from the Ice Kingdom long enough, he'll laugh at this..." Although right now the SandWing's friend looked rather deflated and miserable.

"Quiet, everyone, please!" Doctor clapped his hands to get the dragons' attention. "This is serious!" He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "First, do you know anything about a NightWing named Clearsight?"

"Well... vaguely..." Qibli admitted. All he really knew about her that Darkstalker loved her, before his imprisonment.

"Great, so... How do I tell you this...? We're in the past." Doctor grinned at the dragons but quickly turned serious again. "Which means there are some strict rules."

"Wait a moment... Past?!" Winter asked, shocked.

Qibli was surprised too, but not that much. This was a time machine after all. The SandWing somewhat even expected this to happen, shame he didn't plan it through, dismissing the possibility as low. But now he was very interested in what it could entail. After all, didn't he want to use this machine to go into the past, to fix some things... Well, Qibli certainly became less keen on that idea since, but still, the possibilities were vast... So he decided to ask a more important question. "Clearsight... You mean we are two thousand years in the past?" Winter turned to the SandWing, his mouth opening, clearly about to call Qibli insane, yet quickly closing back up since the SandWing's words had logic behind them.

"Two thousand years, huh...? Well, I didn't think... Anyway. What you all need to know. Max, you included. ...I met Clearsight before... A few times in fact... Even traveled with her a bit... But not this Clearsight... This is her, but... younger... Before she met me... Or rather this is exactly when she met me, because for her this is our first meeting, for her. Understood?"

"Not... Exactly..." Winter spoke, clearly baffled by what was happening.

"Good. So, now here are the rules. We are in the past, we have to minimalize the risks for the future, or your present if you prefer." Doctor pointed at the dragons. "You don't say a word about the future. The consequences could be rather drastic. Secondly, don't step on any butterflies. And please, please, just be careful, alright?"

"Butterflies...?" Max mumbled, sounding as confused as Qibli was, but likely for a different reason.

"Guess... So..." Winter spoke, pausing between words, still struggling to process that they was in the past. "Exactly when his tribe started the war with the NightWings actually..."

"Alright, amazing!" Doctor grinned again, his cheerful personality, that Qibli noticed slipping a few times, returning fully.

"One... question..." The IceWing Prince said, his voice sounding almost choked. "If it's... it's two thousand years into the past... How is it that I saw Turtle outside?"

"Turtle?" Qibli's head shot up.

"Who's that?" Max asked the two dragons.

"Oh, we met him. Briefly." The Doctor said. "In the rainforest, right before we were transported to Jade Mountain. He flew down to Moonwatcher."

"How... How do you even remember all that?" Max chuckled, clearly surprised.

"Time Lord brain. Anyways," he turned back to Winter, "That certainly wasn't him, less vibrant colors, no bracelet on his foreleg."

*Insert epic flashback scene like in Eleventh Hour when Doctor sees that Rory was photographing prisoner zero*

"I... uh... Yeah, I guess you're right..." Winter said, without a usual huff you'd expect from the IceWing, to Qibli's delight.

"Well you're certainly preceptive..." the SandWing eyed The Doctor up and down quickly. "I'd like to see this 'Turtle' for myself though..."

"Certainly. Let's just hope they didn't run off somewhere yet." Doctor spun around, facing the doors again.

"Doctor, wait a moment. Weren't we, you know, doing something important?" Max grumbled.

"Well, first of all, Max, there's no need to rush, this is a time machine..." Doctor sighed. "I can't exactly use it for small flights due to some time and space continuum-... Well, all you need to know is that I'll get us back to whenever we were heading before, two thousand years, easy!(Famous last words...)"

"I sure hope so." Qibli looked at the Time Lord with a serious gaze. "We have to save Moon."

"Yes, yes, I remember." The Doctor brushed him off with a wave of his hand. "But right now... Well, this is when Clearsight meets me for the first time... And that's a key point... Anyway, let's go."

"This sure is going to be something..." Winter muttered.

(Clearsight's POV)

Clearsight looked at the blue box, still shaken from it's sudden appearance and the strange talking scavenger that stepped out, as well as an IceWing, looking very similar to Arctic, that looked straight at her for a second, almost into her soul with his piercing icy gaze, before the scavenger shoved him back inside. All in her room, might she add. But most of all the NightWing tried to wrap her mind around the fact that she knew this scavenger and this box. Somehow. In distant future... And maybe not only the future.

After a few minutes of her and Fathom sitting in uncomfortable silence, the TARDIS' doors slowly creaked open and the same scavenger stepped out, studying them with it-... his eyes. "Oh, you two are still here, great..." (Clearsight saw the name in her visions, if you're wondering, I just don't know where it would fit into the text)

"...Sooo..." the scavenger slowly said. "You probably do have some questions... But I'm afraid we don't have time for all of them..." He he took a few cautions steps away the blue box. "So... The important stuff first... I am The Doctor... I know that I look like I am what you call a scavenger, just bigger and with the ability to talk... That is how I am supposed to look, but that's a bit complicated to explain..."

"A-are you helping the IceWings?" Fathom asked The Doctor shakily.

"What? ...Oh! No, no, no, no!" Doctor chuckled. "I was just about to introduce you actually..." He gestured to someone inside the box, and to Clearsight's surprise, an IceWing, a SandWing, and another giant scavenger stepped out. "This is Winter, Qibli and Max." The Time Lord pointed at each as he said the names. "'Time Lord'... Where did that name come from? ...Somewhere from the future... But what does it mean...?"

"Everyone," The Doctor addressed his companions. "This is Clearsight and...?" He turned questioningly at Fathom. "...I'm afraid I don't know you..."

The SeaWing bristled slightly at being directly spoken to by a scavenger, a giant one at that. "It's F-Fathom."

"Fathom, nice to meet you!" Doctor smiled. He clearly was very skilled at diffusing the situation. Especially considering the paradoxical trust Clearsight felt every time she looked at him.

"H-how d-did you all fit in there?" Fathom asked the Time Lord.

"Bigger on the inside." another scavenger, who Doctor called Max stated. He was unfamiliar to Clearsight, unlike The Doctor, which confused her even further.

"Um... Doctor..." Clearsight spoke with uncertainty. "Can I... ask... Why does... the IceW-... Why is Winter looking so similar to... Well, Arctic...?" the NightWing studied the unfamiliar IceWing again. He lowered his head at comparison, clearly not happy with it.

"I'm also... from the IceWing royal family..." Witner said reluctantly.

"But... that... There aren't any princes named 'Winter' right now... We study that in school... Because of the war..." Clearsight was confused. He clearly wasn't lying, he was very similar to Arctic. So where did this IceWing come from?

"Ah, yes... That's another thing..." The SandWing called Qibli spoke up suddenly. His voice was soft and gentle, almost reassuring even, but he seemed worried about something. "We are... From... Two thousand years... into the future..." the drake admitted.

Chapter Text

A/N: Yes, I will continue to shamelessly put in references to Doctor Who quotes, and nothing is going to stop me.

By the way, canonically between the last chapter and this one there was a musical number. I will not elaborate.

(Winter's POV)

Winter followed quietly behind everyone else as they left the Night Palace unnoticed. It was deep night. Apparently, another thing with time travel was that the time of day changed. It was just morning, or so Winter assumed, since he hasn't looked outside the TARDIS after waking up, and now the sun was nowhere to be seen.

To the IceWing's surprise the NightWings were very much awake. And it didn't take a genius to figure out it was best to avoid them.

"Um... Doctor... So, where exactly are we heading?" Max decided to ask.

The Time Lord glanced at the Clearsight briefly before replying, choosing his words carefully. "Oh... just looking around, you know... I was thinking to see how Clearsight is living... Couldn't exactly do that the last time I visited her..."

Winter paused. The Doctor seemingly didn't want Clearsight to know something... But what? Where were they going? "...'How Clearsight is living'... Something to do with Darkstalker?"

"Yeah, so about that," Doctor spun around and kept walking backwards, looking at the dragons, but clearly addressing Clearsight. Winter was admitedly jealous of how easily the Time Lord could just walk like that, compared to a dragon. "I've met your future, it doesn't hurt to catch up on what's in the present... Mind briefly explaining?"

"Uh... Alright..." The NightWing said reluctantly. Winter surprisingly somewhat enjoyed her company. She did remind him of Moon. "Maybe that's why Darkstalker likes her in the present so much... All he has left to remind him of his love..."

"So... Well, now I'm Queen Vigilance's top seer... I live here, at the Night Palace... My... boyfriend, Darkstalker, and my friend Fathom usually keep me company..." Clearsight listed, pointing at SeaWing with the tip of her tail when mentioning his name.

"Darkstalker, huh?" Doctor carefully asked, shooting a silencing glare at Max, Winter and Qibli. "Haven't heard from him in a while..."

"You didn't, why? Shouldn't you've met him in future or something?" Fathom asked the Time Lord.

"No, no, that's spoilers!" The Doctor raised his paw, pointing upwards.

"Yes... The Doctor's right..." Clearsight said to Fathom. "If we know the future it might throw all my predictions off, and... if I'm correct... It will lock us onto only one timeline... right, Doctor?"

"Not exactly... Time is complicated... I already was there, so it's sort of predetermined... Well, it isn't..." The Time Lord's face scrunched up. "...Basically it's all... Uhhhh... All... wibbley-wobbley... timey-wimey..."

"You have a knack for explaining things, don't you Doctor?" Max asked jokingly.

"Yeah, he seems to be explaining many things, yet not exactly making a lot of sense doing so..." Qibli pointed out. "Is that a usual thing with him?"

"That does tend to happen." Doctor admitted, yet didn't seem phased in the slightest. "Anyway, you were saying?"

"Oh, yes!" Clearsight nodded. "Darkstalker..." The NightWing hesitated for a moment, and glanced at Winter and Qibli. It seemed that she trusted them way less than The Doctor. Not that Winter could exactly blame her for that. Even the IceWing legends about the war didn't sound particularly good. Although now Winter had realized that every story has atleast two sides. He wondered how exactly was it, to live as a seer in the time of war. Did Clearsight get horrible visions like Moon?

Doctor instantly picked up on her glance. "You can trust them. They are from a very distant future, anything that happened now is of little concern to them."

Clearsight sighed. "Yes... Yes... Right, sorry... It's just so weird to talk about this... Well, I'm not sure how much you know... So here goes nothing... Darkstalker is a hybrid, between NightWings and IceWings. He has hatched under three full moons, giving him the power of foresight and mindreading..." Doctor, who seemed rather disinterested in the description, perked up at the mention of powers. "Three full moons, huh? Gotta figure that out later..."

"Yeah, so... He's... You know, Doctor... Maybe it's a bad thing I trust you so much, without even knowing why... But can you please promise me one thing...? You've seen my future, I get it... Can you please atleast promise me it's somewhat good?" Her dark purple eyes looked at the Time Lord pleadingly, and Winter was shocked by vulnerability he saw in them. "Did she have some  vision? Prince Arctic's death perhaps...?"

Doctor finally turned back in the direction they were walking and looked down. Unlike Clearsight, Winter could see a part of his face. Yet the Time Lord's expression was completely unreadable. "...Yes... Your future is... good, I can promise you that..." The Doctor raised his paw, silencing Fathom who was about to ask something, probably about his own future. "No, I can't tell you anything else..."

"Thank you, Doctor..." Clearsight let out a sigh and smiled. "She looks so relieved..."

"Yeah, so, anyway... Darkstalker... Do you think we could maybe... Meet him?" Doctor asked cautiously.

"He isn't seriously suggesting-" Winter mumbled quietly.

"No, I don't think." Qibli breathed into his ear, so Fathom and Clearsight wouldn't hear. "I think he only wants to see his home..."

Winter nodded slightly, once again keeping their conversation a secret. He could really see it? The IceWings' ancient enemy's home? His... family? What if he runs into Foeslayer again? Or worse... Prince Arctic?

"He is busy right now... From what I've seen... In my visions I mean..." Clearsight thought for a moment. "But we could wait for him at his pl-... No, what am I thinking, we'd have to fly there, and all mindreaders would instantly know an IceWing is here..."

"You don't have to worry about that." Qibli assured. "We have these." The SandWing pulled out his Skyfire rock. "Nobody can read our minds with those... Although... I don't know about The Doctor and Max..."

"Oh, we're fine as well!" Doctor grinned. "I'm a Time Lord, we have some... psychic abilities... so to speak... It's not that hard to close our minds. And I also done that for Max, so neither of us can be heard."

"Alright then..." Clearsight nodded hesitantly, studying the rock with he eyes. 

Max climbed onto Winter's back, staying mindful of the spikes, and The Doctor mounted Qibli(Please, please, don't take this out of context). They both took off after Clearsight and Fathom, keeping low to the ground, making sure that Winter's shiny scales wouldn't shimmer in the bright moonlight.

As they quietly landed on the stone ledge beside the house, Clearsight raised her talon, signaling them to wait. "I'll check if anyone's home, wait here for a moment, alright?" With that the dragon quickly disappeared inside.

After a couple of minutes filled with anxious waiting, Clearsight stepped back out. "Only Whiteout is there, and she's asleep..."

"Whiteout?" Max asked, confused.

"Darkstalker's sister... So it's fine, I think we can come in and wait..." the NightWing replied. (Ah yes, nothing like breaking and entering into your boyfriend's home, with two aliens and two dragons from 2 thousand years in the future, that you've met only thirty minutes ago, as they parked a large blue box in your room.)

"That's... a nice name..." Winter admitted. He knew, from all the stuff his parents drilled into his head when he was younger, that Foeslayer and Arctic had two dragonets. But everyone only remembered Darkstalker. Although now Winter did recall the hybrid briefly mentioning Whiteout to Sunny at the Academy. Something about how he was her many-greats-uncle.

Clearsight nodded silently and led them inside. They walked through a stone hall. The IceWing couldn't help but look around. This was where the Darkstalker himself grew up. Or rather where he was growing up right now. Clearsight seemed even younger than Winter. How old wa- old is Darkstalker? How long is it until he kills Arctic? "...Can I... prevent it...?" Qibli suddenly brushed his tail with Winter's and shook his head slightly, as if knowing what the IceWing was thinking.

They entered a room. Winter guessed it was Darkstalker's. He wasn't sure what exactly had he expected. But it was just a normal room. Sure, a bit too warm for his liking. But it looked like a room of a normal dragonet. If the IceWing hadn't known better... Even Moon could live here... If she hatched two thousand years ago that is... Then a different thought crossed Winter's mind. Why did NightWings leave this place? Sure, he hasn't seen much, to avoid being spotted, but it was a great kingdom... Why would they abandon it and go to that wretched volcano? Winter shivered at the memory. The devastation he had witnessed there still haunted his mind from time to time.

Suddenly sharp talonsteps echoed from the other side of the house. Clearsight looked up, panicked. "Oh no! It's Arctic! I was so distracted by... Well, you, that I didn't study the timelines..."

"He can't know we're here!" Doctor said in a harsh whisper. Winter nodded and searched the room with his eyes for Qibli. To his surprise, the SandWing pulled aside a painting and took something out from behind it.

"Doctor, can we use the Memory Cube again?" Max asked, grabbing Winter's attention.

"We-... Uh... Well it might not... be the best idea right now..." Doctor's eyes were darting around. He knew there was no way to hide two dragons here, forget two giant scavengers with them. "Fine... It doesn't look like we have another choice... Give it to me..."

Fathom stared at the time travelers in confusion. "Wha- What are you talking about?"

"Long story." Qibli replied. Winter noted that the painting was back in it's place, yet the pouch around Qibli's hind leg seemed to have something new in it. "Oh... that sand snorter..."

Doctor pointed his weird "sonic" thingy at the cube, just like the last time. Winter, Max and Qibli scurried closer. "PLEASE, PROVIDE A SUITABLE MEMORY." The box spoke in a monotone voice.

"Who's there?" A sharp icy voice asked harshly from the hallway.

"Crap, we have to get out!" Doctor quickly tossed the device to Winter, who impulsively caught it. He felt a small shiver go through him.

"SUITABLE MEMORY FOUND, TESTIMONY FOUNDATION THANKS YOU FOR YOUR DONATION."

A bright light engulfed them just as Arctic's talonsteps were about to reach the door.

(Darkstalker's POV)

Darkstalker brushed his wing with Clearsight's as he finally got his father to leave them alone. Arctic got very mad at his friends for coming here to see him. Fathom flew off the first chance he got, and Darkstalker couldn't exactly blame him. "I'm sorry..." Clearsight whispered. "I should have seen that coming..."

"It's okay... It's not your fault... It's all him..." Darkstalker absent-mindedly padded over to the enchanted painting. Some part of his mind was thinking of a way to get back at Arctic. But he froze in place once he saw that the painting was moved. Slightly. But the hybrid noticed.

He rushed over to it. Thankfully, his scroll was still in place. He unrolled it to see if any enchantments were made. But instead he found a piece of it torn off on the bottom. Someone had his scroll. But he will find them. "Yes, that's right, I'll just enchant something to tell me where the torn off part is, easy..."

And yet... Once he had enchanted a piece of another scroll to tell him the true answer to any question... It just said "You have all of the scroll." Which meant someone must've snuck in here and destroyed it. Darkstalker quickly enquired whether any enchantments were made, and received a negative answer.

But something still bothered him about this. Someone almost stole his scroll...

Chapter Text

A/N: Reminder, Memory chapters are important to the story, even including some character development. I've looked at stats, and most have skipped the first and the second one. (On Wattpad, but putting it in here just in case)

(Max's POV)

Max rubbed his eyes from another bright light explosion. "Couldn't it be black instead or something...?". This time the white void dispersed around them almost immediately. The human turned his gaze to the cubical device in Winter's talons. It displayed the data in holographic words, just like the last two times.

Memory information:
Name: Roast.
Planet of origin: No known local name(Awaiting confirmation on the assigned name).
Continent: Pyrrhia.
Species: Dragon.
Tribe  classification(local societal system): Hybrid. SandWing  and SkyWing.
Gender: Male.
Year of hatching(local calendar): 2941AS
Year of death(local calendar): 3005AS

As the surroundings finally formed, the group found themselves in some sort of a village in the mountains. Max had to admit, the view was breathtaking. Huge forests stretched across the land all around him, glinting dim orange in the setting sun, as large rocky peaks towered above them.

A dragon with desaturated red scales strode right past them. He had a barbed tail tip, like a SandWing, yet the coloring obviously was different. So Max assumed this was Roast, the dragon who's memory they just invaded.

The human pointed at the dragon and spoke. "Hey, you think that might be him?"

Winter absently looked over at the dragon, something else clearly eating away at his mind. "Yeah... Looks like a hybrid... Unnatural reddish tint to his scales for a SandWing..."

Qibli suddenly stepped closer to the IceWing and brushed his wing with Winter's, apparently some comforting gesture dragons had on this planet. "Hey... Are you alright, Winter?" He asked, voice lacking the SandWing's usual teasing tone, instead full of genuine concern for his friend.

"No... Not really..." The IceWing admitted begrudgingly. "...That-... I mean we've just been-..." He shook his head, not knowing what exactly to say.

Qibli gently put his wing over Winter reassuringly. "Hey, I understand. That also wasn't exactly what I've expected to see. But let's discuss that once we get back to our own time. Alright?"

"Not exactly sure what you two are about, but let's follow that guy, alright?" Doctor gestured at the dragon who headed to some sort of a tavern. Max had to admit, the architecture was impressive for creatures who technically did not even have arms.

"Yeah... Yeah, of course..." Winter answered, still distracted. "What could have had such an effect on him in the Night Kingdom from the past? We've only went to that huge creepy dragon's house... Before he became creepy and huge, I suppose..."

Max also decided to try and comfort the dragon he has sort of became friends with, atleast in his opinion. "Hey, I know seeing the past can be shocking. I went into the past of my planet many times with The Doctor. As long as we haven't accidentally changed history and made your very existence a paradox, it's alright." The human tried to lighted the IceWing's mood with a joke.

"Wait, that can happen?" Qibli, ever so perceptive, picked up on Max's intention and asked with a light hearted tone, hoping to engage Winter in a conversation.

"Yeah, well, sort of..." Max admitted.

"What do you mean 'sort of'?" Winter tried to snap at him, but his voice really lacked the usual iciness and anger in it. But Max noted that the IceWing seemed to have shifted focus from whatever was bothering him before.

"Uh... Does it look like you're standing in a white foggy void with a figure cloaked in black?" Max asked rhetorically.

"Wait, that can-... What do you mean 'cloaked'?" Winter asked, now clearly thinking about it, instead of whatever was on his mind before, as they all slowly started walking after Roast.

"Oh... Right... You're a dragon...Funny, I keep forget that... It's a type of clothing-... covering... Like what you saw me wear when we first met..." the human tried to explain, indicating the shape with his hands.

"I see... I've been meaning to ask by the way... Do all scav-... all humans have coverings like you?" Qibli piped up.

"Yeah, I wonder that too... Bandit for example had them, yet they were more... messy that yours..." Winter mentioned.

"I mean yeah? We get really cold if we're naked, besides it's not exactly acept-... Wait, who's Bandit?" Max asked.

"Oooouuu... that..." Qibli inhaled and chuckled nervously.

"That was... my..." Winter clearly was regretting mentioning the name now. "...my pet... my scavenger... pet..."

"You... you've kept a human as a pet?!" Max was speechless.

Doctor sharply turned around to face them at that, him listening in on their prior conversation evident. "Please, tell me that was a joke." He said, his tone sharp serious.

"No... I'm afraid it wasn't... You see... Dragons don't exactly see scavengers as anything more than a bear for example... Most view them as a snack..." Winter spoke, picking his words cautiously. Max found himself way less surprised than he probably should have been. After all, it's just a case of a larger and stronger species obviously not understanding the smaller one... A thing he saw... Way too much across time and space in his travels.

"B-but not we!" Qibli cut in. "We'd never eat them! Even before we knew that they were intelligent, thanks to you two!" He hastily tried to explain. "Winter especially! I told you before, he's rather... obsessed with them actually..."

"You know what? I can't even really blame you..." Doctor said, disappointment sipping into his voice as he sighed and raised his hand to rub his temple. "You certainly aren't the ones to blame for starters... But neither is anyone else really... That's just natural behavior of pretty much any species when it's stronger than another... Only a few planets can support vegetarian lifestyle for everyone..."

"Seriously? You... you aren't mad at us?" Winter asked, raising his head to look at Max and The Doctor.

"I mean... not really..." Max admitted. "Frankly, I've seen worse. Besides it's not like I'm going to go and apologize to the chickens and cows I ate. And it's not like you're gonna eat me..."

"I'll be honest..." Doctor said, looking at the dragons. "I am disappointed. Really. And the worst thing is that I actually shouldn't be!" He suddenly bashed his fist into the wall of a building they were standing near. "Aaaa!" He quickly hissed, shaking his hand in pain, having been reminded of how incredibly... solid everything was here.

"So... that's it? ...No hard feelings?" Qibli asked nervously.

"Yeah, you could say that... Anyway! Didn't we have a dragon that we were following, not to mention, who's memory we're currently in?" Max tried to shift everyone's attention away from the uncomfortable the topic.

Luckily for them Roast stayed outside of a small tavern, because they wouldn't be able to open the door. He looked like he was having some sort of discussion with a few SandWings and SkyWings.

As they walked closer to him they could hear what he was saying. (Please forgive me...) "...Yes! So, I heard that the NightWings are, like, spying on us with two of the moons! Can you believe that?..."

Winter and Qibli shared a bewildered and rather weirded out glance at the dragon's words. Max snickered. "Oh, you have those here too..."

"Have who?" The SandWing asked, confused about what the human meant.

"Right... So you see... We have those people-"

"Wait a second please, - Qibli interrupted, - 'people'? What does that word mean?"

"Wait, why don't you-... Oh, right!" Max smacked himself on the forehead. "Like 'dragons', just for humans, if that makes sense?"

"Yeah... I guess so..." Qibli rubbed his chin in thought. "But wait... You've said that word in Dragon... And dragons certainly haven't invented it yet, since for there was no need for it... then how?"

"Oh, that's my ship, the TARDIS, it translates our words to your language... And, since you traveled in it, also your words... to any language..." Doctor started explaining proudly. "And... As you might have noticed... It's a time machine, so if dragons ever invented an equivalent word in the future, it would translate to it..." (Speaking of which, in book 14 Wren told everyone that, quote, they call themselves "humans". I presume she said it in Dragon, cause I doubt any the dragons would easily learn a human word. So... How did she know? Or did she just invent the word?)

"I... think I understand..." Winter mumbled.

They were suddenly interrupted and brought back to reality, or, well, memory by a loud explosion of roars and laughter coming from Roar and his friends.

"Yeah, anyway, as I was saying, we have people... Who make up most wild theories... Like this one..." Max continued. "Well, I atleast presume the moons are normal, right?"

"Well, as far as we know..." Qibli sighed.

"Oh, yeah!" Roast suddenly spoke even louder than before. He pulled out an old scroll from god knows where. Max came up to him, trying to see what it read. But as the dragon unwrapped the old parchment, the human found the words blurring before his eyes.

"Doctor?" He asked, pointing at the letters. "Why can't I read it?"

"Memory's a bit fuzzy, and TARDIS translation matrix can't focus... Give it a moment..." the Time Lord gave him an awkward smile.

As Max turned back to the dragon, the words finally stopped shifting. It said: "The fallen star legend."

A/N: To be continued in part two.

Also, I'm fresh from watching The Story And The Engine as it came out. Damn it was one of the most boring episodes of Doctor Who I've ever watched. I legit didn't get what the plot was about too(took me 3-4 videos and over 10 comments on YouTube to still think plot was garbage). Literally whatever you came up with from watching the trailers would have been simpler and better.

Chapter Text

A/N:  I'm legit making a document to keep track of all the events not canon to the official books to not re-read through every chapter every time I have to reference something.

(Qibli's POV)

"Huh... 'Fallen star'... Ever heard of something like that?" Max turned to The Doctor and two dragons. Qibli shook his head. He had never heard of such a story. But, if he was being honest he already did like the name.

"Nope, never heard of it. And you, Winter?" He turned to his IceWing friend, who after digging through his mind, also apologetically shook his head.

"You think that could be connected to what we saw in the previous memory? That dragon... She mentioned a fallen star, didn't she?" Max asked The Doctor.

"Maybe..." the Time Lord rubbed the back of his neck, still a alightly confusing human gesture for Qibli. The closest action for dragonsб that the SandWing could think ofб was scratching themselves behind their ears. But that certainly didn't indicate any confusion, just felt nice. It was fascinating for the dragon, how different, yet strangely similar the body languages of the two species were. Or, well, three. He still was a little confused with the whole 'Time Lord' thing.

"No, that's impossible." Winter stated, without a doubt in his words. "That IceWing... Sierra, you said? She's been dead for almost five millennia! ...Or three... Since we're still in the past... Still, how could possibly the 'burning fallen star', that left that metal glowing thingy, be the same thing this lunatic has in his scroll?"

Qibli had to agree with Winter. It was highly unlikely that the star, that The Doctor claimed to be a spaceship, from the earlier vision was related to this. But he noticed that Roast was carefully unfurling the old scroll. "Well, let's find out then?" The SandWing flicked his tail at the hybrid who's eyes were going over the lines.

Roast let out a cough, getting his friends' attention. "Look! It says right here! The SkyWings took called themselves that, for their first queen worshipped a burning star that fell from the sky. She was devoted to it. Killing anyone who dared to disagree herself." He said in a creepy voice, lowering his head and moving it further. Qibli had a vivid flashback to scary stories he heard told over a campfire in the Scorpion Den during his life with Thorn.

"Yeah, right." One of the other dragons from the memory, a SkyWing, said. "Some ancient scroll you dug up in your attic. Please, Roast, we've had enough of your fantasy tales with talking fish and scavenger underground kingdoms spanning beneath oceans to different continents."

"But I saw the fish talking! With my own eyes!" Roast protested. "...And heard it as well...! ...Obviously, I mean..."

The SkyWing that just spoke simply put one talon to his temple and made a spinning motion, indicating that he clearly thought that his hybrid friend went insane. Which Qibli did agree with, to be honest. "I mean seriously? Talking fish...?"

Roast just snarled at his friend. "Oh, just you wait till they rise from the sea and kill us all for eating them!"

"Damn, that guy's name was a blessing from the holy sands themselves..." Qibli mumbled staring wide-eyed at the rambling hybrid before him.

"Huh? What do you mean, sand snorter?" Winter asked him, crocking up an eyebrow.

"You know like, he's called Roast? And he's just begging to be roasted by someone?" Qibli snickered. He caught himself completely gotten used to the fact that everything around him wasn't real, the fact he didn't care that he was laughing about a dragon right in front of said dragon.

Winter looked momentarily surprised and a tint of a smile rippled across his face. "Yeah... Guess so..."

"Yeah, it's funny and all, but what about all that stuff with the first SkyWing queen?" Max interjected.

"Probably same nonsense as the talking fish." Winter rolled his eyes. "You're not telling me you think that seriously can be true?" He sneered.

"Wait..." Qibli rubbed the small spike between his nostrils with his claws. "Actually that last... vision thingy we've seen... Didn't that ancient IceWing hand over that glowing thing to a SkyWing? And according to you, Doctor, that was a part of some crashed spaceship, and dragons called it a falling star, right?"

"Pffft, that was hardly a SkyWing, more like a tribrid... partly even a MudWing maybe..." Winter huffed indignantly.

"Yeah, everyone was like that at the time. All dragons looked pretty much like every tribe mixed into one, until they spread all over Pyrrhia." Qibli pointed out.

"Fine, that's right... don't quote history scrolls to me, sand snorter." Winter grumbled. "You think that... Salamander could be the 'first SkyWing Queen', whoever that was?"

"Doubt that... That must've happened somewhere before 58AS, since that's when Sierra died, according to what that Memory Cube said... And IceWings already had a queen... You think the SkyWings didn't? Besides, hardly the only SkyWing we've seen is a queen..." Qibli replied.

"I don't know..." Winter suddenly lowered his head and closed his eyes, a pained expression suddenly overtaking his handsome face. "Why are we even here? We should be saving Moon!" the IceWing suddenly cried out, his mouth edges curling into a snarl.

Qibli moved his head closer to Winter's, his long neck lowering as well. "Woah, woah, calm down, Winter." The SandWing said to his friend sternly. "I know you are worried about her, and so am I, but she's not in danger right now. She hasn't even hatched yet, remember?" He put his talon onto the IceWing's shoulder and gripped it firmly, not letting him pull away.

"Yes..." Doctor said thoughtfully. "She hasn't hatched yet, she's in no danger at the moment. I know it's not easy to get used to..." He stepped closer to the growling dragon and put a hand onto his other shoulder. "I promise you. I will save her." The Time Lord's words were heavy as squatted down and stared directly into Winter's eyes. Qibli could feel a shiver run down his scales. Doctor wasn't joking at all.

Winter narrowed his blue eyes at the alien, staring him down silently. He huffed and pulled his head away slightly. "You seem to be telling the truth... But... What if you fail?" The IceWing's words hung heavy in the air, and Qibli felt as if the temperature around them dropped.

Doctor doesn't back down in the slightest, looking directly into the depth of Winter's eyes. "I will do everything I can. The moment we return to my TARDIS, I'll take us straight to her." His words are steady and measured, but commanding nonetheless. Qibli thought that Doctor could probably lead an entire army without raising his voice.

And not even Winter could really resist that. He slowly lowered his posture even more, as if retreating into himself, calming down. "He is really worried about Moon... I understand that... I also should be... but I just-... Just got too distracted by this whole amazing thing... But Doctor's right... Moon hasn't even hatched, none of us have. Yeah, Qibli, that's good, think rationally. Emotional breakdowns won't help anybody, least of all Moon... But Winter just looks so... Sad..."

The space around them suddenly started flickering and blurring. As Qibli looked around he saw multiple buildings, plants and dragons around them weirdly distort and somehow start jumping instantly from one place to another. "WARNING, MEMORY ERROR. EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN." A  voice sharply echoed around the group and everything went black.

A/N: A bit shorter, but guess that's to be expected. This chapter wasn't planned to be split after all.

Some side news I wanted to share, you're free to skip if you're just interested in the story:

So, remember the trailer I am making(or  already  finished making, if you're reading from the future)? If I failed to mention, or you've missed it: The reason I decided to do a trailer is me making a DW fan-film, so it wasn't that much work to film a trailer as well.

Well, I'm happy to share that a few days ago I've finally filmed some stuff that's not on location. I was thinking of green screen, but I can't get the lighting right so I'll have to work with Rotobrush in After Effects. There are pictures in Wattpad version as always.

Chapter Text

(Winter's POV)

Once the illusionary world faded, Winter's eyes were assaulted by a bright light coming from all around them. He blinked a few times and, to his surprise, found himself in front of a very familiar sight: the marvelous Ice Palace stretching high and wide, sun glinting off the walls and shimmering across the snow on the ground in thousands of dazzling reflections.

"Woah!" Qibli breathed out beside him, then promptly shivered at the sudden coldness engulfing them. Even the IceWing prince found himself miss the comfortable, only slightly chilly air of the Old Night Kingdom.

Winter caught himself feeling more foreign to the place than he might have preferred. "No... That's exactly right... I shouldn't feel like I belong here... I'm a pathetic excuse of an IceWing... I am dead for all of them... Quite literally" The white dragon thought bitterly, the place he only recently called home bringing back many memories.

But then it suddenly hit him. Maybe all the words spoken by The Doctor and Qibli  had gotten to him, or maybe it was something else... But he realized that wasn't dead for any of them. In fact, he was yet to hatch, far, far in the distant future. Atleast he hoped so, the Memory Cube shouldn't have transportd them through time, that clearly was something only the Time Lords could do.

"Well, I have to say..." Qibli mused. "I might just understand now, why you were so eager to return here, igloo-face..." He said, looking around appraisingly at the marvels of Winter's home-... ex-home, the IceWing corrected himself.

"Well, well, well..." A sharp voice, cold as the ice itself hissed from behind the group. Winter automatically stiffened and straightened his back. The voice was undoubtedly of a queen. On pure instinct, he spun around in the direction where the words came from and bowed down. "Wait-... Which queen is it...?!" The IceWing's mind raced through all the history lessons he had. In all fairness, he never expected to need them in this... quite literal way. "Diamond!" The name flashed in his mind. The well respected ancient queen that started the war with the NightWings that lasted two millennia! "Talk about leaving a mark in history... Although I might have just topped that, releasing Darkstalker and all..."

"Nice to meet you!" Doctor said enthusiastically. Winter's head snapped back up and he saw the Time Lord taking a step towards Diamond. "Idiot!"

The IceWing prince had to think fast. Oh how he wished to be Qibli right now. Winter really needed his friend's brains right now. The dragon before him was the one who imprisoned-... will imprison Foeslayer into a life of torture, to be killed again and again. Which also meant she wasn't opposed to using her animus magic more than once, as the IceWing tradition mandated. He needed to think of something to save his and his friends' scales... and skin, and fast.

"Y-Your Majesty," Winter began a little shakily, but his voice slowly grew steady and confident as a plan formed in his head. "It's of highest honor to meet you in person(I know that 'person' is a human, but "meeting someone in dragon" sounds stupid, so a plot hole, I guess). I am Prince Winter." While speaking he subtly flicked his tail at Qibli, who luckily understood what the IceWing meant and whispered to Max to stay quiet as well. Unfortunately neither of them could subtly shut The Doctor up as he took a few steps away from them and closer to the queen. "For the sake of the Great Ice Dragon, please, just stay quiet!"

"A prince, you say?" Diamond's gaze focused on Winter, piercing him with her glittering eyes. "Foolish of you to try and fool me like that." She hissed with dark amusement as her tail flicked behind her in either excitement or aggravation. Winter feared of what the former could mean for him. "There's certainly no IceWing named Winter, I know that thanks to the Gift of order, and, of course, there's no such prince either!" The ancient IceWing queen then turned to The Doctor, winter could only be jealous of her composure. "And if there was such a dragon, he wouldn't travel in a company of giant talking scavengers and a SandWing."

"Seriously this is getting insulting..." Doctor chuckled and Winter it his tongue in anger at the idiot. "But I do assure you, his name is-"

"Of course there isn't." Winter replied, cutting The Doctor off with a raised talon. "But you see, there will be." Outside he did his best to appear calm and confident, while being quite the opposite on the inside. "You see, Your Highness, I've been sent by the IceWings of the future back through time. And as for my companions... well, can't an IceWing noble keep a few..." He subtly hesitated at the last word, but he knew there was no other way the queen would believe him. "...slaves?"

The IceWing noticed out of the corner of his eye that Max was about to say something, but Doctor shot a glare at the human and that shut him back up. Qibli luckily knew better than to speak up.

"Let's say I do believe you..." Queen Diamond thoughtfully, with a tiny dark smirk tugging at the edges of her mouth. Winter barely managed to notice the subtle surprise in her posture before she instantly masked it. "You're from the future, hmm? Then how about you tell me, prince Winter, how do I win this little war we're having? With the NightWings, in case you forgot."

Winter bit his tongue. That was a problem. But so was being torn to shreds by the palace guards. "I already did." the IceWing finally said. "But that changed the timeline. And the IceWings lost. So, the only was to win is to not know the future." Winter noted that The Doctor subtly nodded at him approvingly. "Clever. Diamond isn't as familiar with sca- human body language as I am now..."

"Quite an intriguing story..." Diamond carefully looked over the group before her once again. "You wouldn't happen to have anything to... prove the truth behind your words? Surely if you're from the future you'd know I am not that easy to convince, Winter..."

"That's not good... I didn't exactly bring anything from my time... Not that it would really help... I don't even have my ranking necklace... Some good IceWing prince I am... Well, I am not..." Winter was desperately thinking of something to backup his story and not change the course of history. "Wait... maybe the ranking wall would help..." A/N: In the books the names seem to be added and removed manually, but then I don't quite see where is the magical aspect of the Gift of order. So in the fic it's specifically enchanted to automatically add any living IceWing, unless forcefully scratched out.

"Well?" Diamond raised an eyebrow, a slight smirk tugging at her mouth. She already thought to have caught them in a lie. Probably even working out a few creative torture methods to figure out their true intentions.

Winter hesitated for another moment, what if he was wrong? But it wasn't like he had any other option right now. "Your Majesty, you are the one rearranging IceWing rankings daily, is that correct?"

Diamond frowned momentarily. "Yes, that is correct. And what, pray tell, that has to do with your origins?"

"You see, if there's, as you have put it, no IceWing named Winter-"

Diamond cut the IceWing prince off, clearly catching up to his idea. "Yes, I don't need you explaining that to me. Well let's see then, shall we?"

"Y-Your Highness," Qibli started, his teeth already chattering a little by now. "If I may-" Winter flapped his wings behind his back against each other, silencing the SandWing.

"Ahem," The IceWing said, reminding his friend of his current... unpleasant role, with a stern glare. "Your Majesty, I am afraid my pets aren't... quite used to such temperatures... Could you please arrange for the Gift of diplomacy to be temporarily... given to them?" Winter caught the dangerous glint in the ancient queen's eyes and was quick to reassured her. "Don't worry, not only they obey me completely, do you really think that a SandWing and two scavengers can cross the Ice Kingdom unscathed?"

Diamond hummed, begrudgingly finding truth in his words. "Hmm... I have to agree with that, my soldiers will kill them on sight... Obey you completely, you say?" She suddenly asked, another smirk crossing her face for a second.

Winter chuckled in his head. There was one atleast good thing the would come from this. "Of course, Your Highness, look." The IceWing prince turned to Qibli, and puffed out his chest, looking as imposing as he could master. "You, do a roll in the snow!" He commanded sternly, trying his best not to laugh. Then he turned to The Doctor and commanded him as well. "And you, do... ten jumps."

The SandWing's teeth snapped a bit louder, but he obeyed. Qibli lowered his body into a laying position then rolled over, covering his golden back and wings in the snow. He was shivering even more now, which Winter felt a little bad. Doctor also obeyed his "owner's" order, jumping in place ten times.

The IceWing queen smirked with an amused expression. This had to have convinced her. Winter knew that no IceWing would agree to such a demeaning action, no matter the cause. And neither would anyone else, in eyes of any IceWing. And he thought the same, until he went to the Jade Mountain Academy.

"I see..." Diamond said. She thought something over in her head. "Guards!" She called out abruptly. Winter's heart sank. Did he fail...?

Two IceWings rushed to their queen, gliding down, before landing and bowing down. They straightened out into that terribly painful posture... not even flinching despite their eyes going wide at the sight of Winter and his company. Queen Dimond indicated the group of intruders with her talon. "Escort them to the Gift of order. And watch over them until I arrive." Winter held in a sigh of relief that filled his chest. Atleast she didn't order them executed immediately. 

"Yes, Your Majesty!" both guards said in unison and tilted their spears to point at Winter and Qibli, clearly not regarding the aliens as a threat, having been used to only scavengers. Diamond sighed, rolling her eyes, clearly annoyed. "Gently." The queen said sternly. "They aren't prisoners to detain..." she shot a sudden glare at the group. "Although that might be a subject to change very quickly." She said meaningfully to them.

"Of course, Your Highness." Winter responded more calmly than his nerves should have allowed him to, all the training to be a stoic IceWing was finally paying off. "Your apprehension to trust us is completely justified and expected." The IceWing Queen nodded and flew off. Winter thought that he caught a faint satisfactory smirk on her lips as she flew off.

A/N: Frankly, another not entierly planned event. But taking them straight back to the TARDIS would have been a bit too convenient and boring, right? And the only other place we really know about in Darkstalker's time is the Ice Kingdom... So I thought it would be a nice opportunity for Winter to see even worse days of his tribe, as well as to allow the others to see the place he was raised in.

Also I have some more side news about the fan-film, feel free to skip ahead if you're not interested.

Last weekend I finally shot a few scenes that are actually on location, not just against a gray wall. I made a behind the scenes video for the day that is pretty much spoiler-free. Oh, and this one even has subtitles. It would really mean a lot to me if you gave it a watch. https://youtu.be/80vEOsaDcsc

Chapter Text

(Qibli's POV)

Qibli shivered from the cold biting his scales. If he was being honest, it was way worse than what the SandWing had imagined previously. Two very unfriendly looking IceWings watched over them with unwavering resolve.

He was about to tease his friend about how welcoming the prince's family was but bit his tongue at a sharp glare from one of the guards. "Right... I presume talking won't be something I'll do much here... I'll make sure to get back at Winter for this later though... Maybe ancient SandWings also fancy an IceWing pet..." Qibli thought a bit bitterly with a half-smirk.

The IceWing queen landed before them after only ten or so minutes of waiting. To be fair, that was enough to make the SandWing completely freeze off his tail. It took everything he had in him to not atleast point his tail barb at the IceWings in agitation instinctively.

Winter took a step towards the queen, bowing his head in pretend respect. "Thank you, Your Majesty. I d-" He started, before snapping his mouth shut at the ruler's raised talon.

"You'll address me by my name. After all, you're a very... important visitor indeed." She said with a smirk tugging at her lips. Winter seemed to have bought it as genuine, but Qibli exchanged an unnerved glance with The Doctor. The IceWing queen certainly wasn't sincere. Only immediate family and maybe most trusted friends were allowed to call a queen by her name. Even he addressed Thorn with her title. Not that he would do otherwise, even if she asked. Then again, traditions change over two thousand years. ...But doubtfully for the snobbish IceWings... So the queen must be up to something. And Qibli could do nothing to warn Winter.

"Here's the Gift of diplomacy." The IceWing queen stated, handing Winer three strange bracelets. "But one wrong step with them on, and your little... pets are done for." She hissed, narrowing her eyes.

Winter nodded. "Of course, Your Highness Diamond." He made a show of tossing the bracelets dismissively to the ground, for his friends to pick them up. Qibli's ears perked up. "Diamond... So that's what her name is..." Qibli swore that his IceWing buddy had mentioned her at some point. Something about the ancient war with the NightWings, etcetera. Max, who was currently on the verge of freezing solid and desperate for anything, scrambled to his knees, grabbing the bracelet. The SandWing studied the thing curiously, without making a move to pick it up himself. "Gift of diplomacy... And Winter said we aren't accustomed to the temperature... Are those bracelets going to keep us warm?"

Indeed, the moment Max put the bracelet on, he exhaled, instantly relaxing.  He had to put it onto his leg due to it being made for a dragon, yet the bracelet still was threatening to slip off. The human's teeth stopped clattering as the magic warmth spread through his body.

Doctor cautiously approached the two remaining bracelets while keeping his eyes on the queen. He picked both up, settled one on his own leg and gave the other to Qibli. The SandWing nodded gratefully and brushed his snout lightly over The Doctor's arm as he put the bracelet of his wrist.

Winter observed as the trio finally settled, now safe from the biting tendrils of the north. He cleared his throat, puffing out a cloud of icy mist. "I thank you once more, Your M-... Diamond. Now, I'd like to discuss with you a few things that... I can share... And what my mission here is."

"Indeed, I'd like to hear that very much, dear." Diamond said delightedly, her tone almost mocking. "Toss those three to the dungeons for now." She said with a bored expression on her muzzle, flicking her tail towards Winter's supposed pets. Qibli stared at the queen in suprise. He certainly didn't expect this. Everything went rather smoothly until now... Probably too smoothly considering who he stood before... "Of course she wouldn't want us running off or to risk us hearing some important IceWing secrets... Although the latter might mean that she has actually believed Winter." But that didn't make the prospect of icy dungeons any better for Qibli.

The IceWing prince's head shoot up, also a shocked expression on his face. He clearly wanted to protest against the group being taken away, maybe even demand respect as he usually did, and Qibli felt a flicker of hope. But Diamond looked with a freezing glare at Winter and, to the SandWing's surprise, his friend visibly shrank, all his courage forgotten. "Of course, Your Highness." He said meekly. 

"What...?" Qibli was very confused as the soldiers ushered him to move with their spears. He walked in front of them through the icy halls with shimmering walls that looked like there were entire worlds of stars sealed within them. The SandWing barely noticed Max's awe at the sight, or the silent appreciation in The Doctor's eyes, his whole mind was focused on analyzing Winter's actions ever since they all were transported here.

They all were tossed into a single dark cell, obviously made of ice just like everything else in this place. Qibli briefly took note of a significant lack of cells, maybe five in the whole section that was clearly supposed to be dungeon, each one out of the earshot from another, and all empty. But the SandWing didn't have time to think of the implications of that.

"So what do we do now?" Max asked, instinctively gripping his shoulders despite no longer feeling cold. Maybe the human was just scared.

"We wait..." Doctor answered, looking up and leaning his back against a layer of slightly translucent ice that served as a wall. "That's what Winter told us to do... And we obey Winter." He said in a strange tone of voice which momentarily confused Qibli. But then the Time Lord silently pointed to the far end of the hallway with his eyes and a small head movement. "Of course... They're listening in... Well, all the more time to think... looks like Winter's life was even less sunshine and rainbows than I imagined..."

A/N: Sorry for a shorter chapter. I just have a lot of stuff happening. 

Firstly, a bit of writers block pared with lack of sleep don't exactly help. I just can't force much out of myself daily.

Secondly, I'm also working on the fan-film, where I basically act as a director, VFX artist, editor, etcetera. Atleast the scenes shot so far look promising. I'll actually be filming for a few hours 25km away from home tomorrow... in the scorching summer heat... traveling there on a bike... Yeah, I'll survive!

Huge thanks to anyone reading my ramblings at the end of each chapter. It means a lot, really.

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(Diamond's POV)

Queen Diamond was resting in her chambers. The alleged time travelers were the last thing she needed right now, if she was being honest. The war wasn't going great. Another negotiation failed. All because the damned NightWings were too prideful! But if that "prince" was to believed, she would win in the end... He even claimed that that SandWing was his slave.

She had to admit, the idea that IceWings will take over atleast the Sand Kingdom and as a result could have those lowly dragons as personal slaves was rather appealing. The queen chuckled quietly. And the two giant scavengers... Well that suggested some sort of an animus gift... "But who would waste such power on creatures like scavengers? No... it has to be something else... Perhaps they forced my useless son's descendants to do a few things... Still, why would even a traitor animus be wasted on talking slave scavengers?" She thought aloud with a half-smirk on her face and slight amusement she'd never admit she felt.

The queen had to weigh her options carefully... That dragonet, Winter, has made quite a solid case... The others indeed followed every command he gave... Surely no dragon would willingly agree to such a demeaning action as rolling in the snow like some polar bear...

But what if they lied? What if they are sniffing out something? A rogue IceWing sent to her with a traveling circus troupe (not that any of those existed in the Ice Kingdom, but their popularity in the desert has reached even Diamond's ears), by NightWings perhaps? And Arctic enchanted the scavengers? "No... that wouldn't be wise... It would be easier to make an enchantment to just steal the Gift of diplomacy directly... If that's what they are after... Anything else Arctic pretty much knew already... And time travel is too much of a ridiculous excuse to lie about..."

So the IceWing weighed her options. On one talon, locking them up in the dungeons would be a great risk, if the alleged prince told the truth. On another talon, letting them go, as much as she hated to admit it, was relatively risk free. As long as she made sure that the precious Gift of diplomacy, that allowed to bypass the Great Ice Cliff, was returned to her.

The dragon slowly stood up, then walked out into the palace hallway. She faced one of the guards that were stationed at the doors. "Get me two IceWings that scouted out the failed surprise attack at the north shore of the Night Kingdom." She hissed. "I need them to discreetly follow a group of... visitors... we recently got."

(Max's POV)

The group was settled in a temporary room for the night. Even evil queens could apparently be accommodating... He was more used to cramped and dirty dungeons or futuristic cells, if he was being honest. The group still were mindful of what they said out loud however. No doubt Queen Diamond stationed a spy or two just outside. But atleast she promised to let them go in the morning... With soldiers following them to take back the magic bracelets of course.

In the meantime, the human guessed, he should simply try to relax. He sighed and walked over to the window frame made of ice... well, just like everything else here. It wasn't that dark outside. The snow and ice did their job. It was almost as bright as in the daytime in fact, except for the sky. The moment he looked up though, his mouth formed a small "O". The view was rather unremarkable, compared to countless space nebulas and galaxies he had seen... But there they were, the northern lights. They glinted and shimmered. Reflecting in the ice and the walls of the palace.

The Doctor then walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright, Max?" He asked quietly.

Max contemplated what to say for a few seconds before finally speaking up. "Pretty much... Don't get me wrong... This is pretty much on par with out other travels... It's just... seeing something so... Earth-like..." He pointed up at the sky. "...Makes me miss home... Even if I have never seen the northern lights in person back there... It's just..." He trailed off.

"It's alright..." The Doctor tried to reassure his companion. "I know you probably wish you'd never met me... But that day... Well, I really wish I had managed to stop the Daleks sooner. I was just... Very distracted..."

"By what?" Max asked, confused. The Doctor of course briefed him on what happened when the Time Lord first found him. Certainly learning that your life was stolen by an alien wasn't fun. But he never recalled The Doctor saying anything about being 'distracted'. 

"Well... I never told you... But I've met someone... Unusual... And he... Helped me..." Doctor answered, almost as if perplexed by his own words.

A/N: Yep. This is not a full chapter yet. Rather a short addition to the previous one. Some more insight into Diamond's view on the situation (I'm open to criticism on that by the way), and some more info on Max's backstory... which was setup in like the first chapter and forgotten about. Yay! I just felt this was needed, plus I'm still busy with my fan-film editing and VFX. Speaking of which, the story does show how Doctor originally met Max.

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╟=A few days later=╢

(Qibli's POV)

Qibli was helping his alien friends sneak back into the Night Palace. The time was mid-day, so thankfully most NightWings were asleep. And the guards that were stationed? Well, they were feeling rather at ease. After all, all of the, were mindreaders, which meant they weren't worried about anyone sneaking around them at all. Obviously they couldn't have known about the Skyfire or Doctor's strange telepathic abilities.

Qibli momentarily wondered how Winter was doing. They couldn't risk him getting caught in the Night Kingdom. And on top of that The Doctor suspected they were being followed. Which meant they had to leave him behind.

Suddenly one of the wooden doors in the hallway swung open and a familiar NightWing peeked out. "Quickly, inside. In two minutes there will be guard patrol down this hallway." Clearsight said softly bur urgently.

Max and Qibli let out a small sigh of relief and rushed inside. "How did you-..." Qibli started to question but stopped. "Oh, right... The foresight." He answered himself. The NightWing just nodded in response.

"Where were you? And where's your IceWing friend? ...Winter, right?" Clearsight questioned, her brow ridges creasing in concern.

"Listen..." The Doctor sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I can't tell you everything, atleast not yet... Maybe one day, when we meet again..." He turned his head to the window, seemingly examining the daylight filtering in through the leaves. "But as for Winter, that's easy enough. We didn't want to risk him being seen. I'll just have to pick him up before we return to the future..."

"You're leaving?" Clearsight asked, her tone turning a bit sad. "Well... I knew-... I just thought=..." Her gaze drifted up for a second. "Yeah... I was just... A bit unfocused lately..."

Doctor walked up to the NightWing and gently placed his hand on the side of Clearsight's snout. "Don't worry. We'll meet many times in the future. I know that even better than you." He smiled comfortingly.

"I..." Clearsight inhaled, clearly trying to calm herself down. "I'll be waiting, Doctor." She smiled back at him. "And... I hope I'll meet you again someday as well." She turned to Max and Qibli. "And Winter too."

(Winter's POV)

Winter sat on the icy snow on the border of the Ice Kingdom. The Doctor's suspicions turned out to be true. They were indeed followed. So, a mere hour after his supposed slaves all left, he was jumped by two IceWings. They put a metal collar with a chain attached to it around his neck. Right now they were resting before continuing to drag him back to Diamond.

The ex-Prince could only hope that his friends would reach Doctor's magic box by then. The Time Lord left him his strange metal stick he called 'sonic screwdriver'. The alien said something about 'being able to track it down with the TARDIS', whatever that meant. Although he sort of did manage to do that with Onyx... What was to say it won't work now?

"Alright, deceitful traitor." One of the IceWings that previously followed them gawked at him. "Get up, we're taking off, the sooner we return you to the Queen, the better. And we still have half of the Ice Kingdom ahead o-..." The dragon suddenly paused and sniffed the air as his snout scorched up in confusion. He turned to the other soldier. "Wait do you hear that?" He asked, looking puzzled.

Winter was about to ask what the IceWing was talking about, but then he heard it himself. Something like a wind howling... Something... "Something like the noise that TARDIS made when I was inside..." Winter's head shot up as he straightened his posture, suddenly feeling more alert compared to his almost slumbering state. Everything surrounding him started fading to the familiar inside of the alien machine as the noise grew louder. He faintly could hear the IceWings' gasps and shouts for a few more seconds before all sounds were replaced with the soothing humming coming from everywhere in the time machine.

"Nice to see you safe and sound!" Doctor exclaimed and Winter saw him walking out from the opposite side of the console, clapping his paws together, smiling brightly at the IceWing.

"Wait, wait a second... is that a metal collar?" A chuckle came from above and Winter noticed the infuriatingly grinning Qibli, perched on one of the higher walkways in the chamber. "Aww, that's so adorable, igloo-face! And here I thought I wouldn't get a chance to put you on a le-" Winter's face flushed deep blue and he was quick to cut the SandWing off. "SHUT IT, SAND SNORTER! NOT ANOTHER WORD!"

"Yeah, as much as that is funny..." Max suddenly spoke up. Winter turned in the direction of his voice and the saw the human casually sitting cross-legged just behind him. "...I believe we do have a world to save." The human reasonably pointed out, reminding the dragons of the whole reason they were here.

Qibli huffed, wrinkling his snout. "Yes... That's surprisingly easy to forget amidst everything, you know?"

"You both are right." Doctor said , his smile fading into a gloomy expression. He hit a few switches and buttons on the console before pulling the big leaver, which, Winter assumed, was used to start the flight. Just like previously, the chamber walls shook with a clanking sound and the lights around started flickering and shifting. It was way less excessive than the first time the dragons entered the time machine. Winter found himself entertaining the idea that the magic box started liking him more over the last few days. After all, it somehow brought him into the past, to the roots of his tribe's war with the NightWings, why couldn't TARDIS have it's own... opinions? Doctor actually did seem to talk to it from time to time...

Winter was shaken out of his thoughts about their visit into the past by a loud thrum coming from the console. "Aha, we're there!" Doctor exclaimed, looking full of enthusiasm agian, and rushed past Winter and Max to the doors.

The IceWing turned to Qibli who started padding down a set of stairs towards him. "So this is it? We come out there... And... What? End it? ...Save the IceWings?" The IceWing asked, disbelief in his voice.

"Well, right now we atleast have to save Moon... Gotta figure out saving the world thing later..." Qibli chuckled nervously.

Winter suddenly remembered something. His head shot up and he looked over the pouch tied around the SandWings leg. It was a miracle the IceWing soldiers never checked what they all had on them. Which, he had to admit, was rather stupid on their part. "Wait... I just-... Amidst everything-... When we were in Darkstalker's room, you took something, didn't you?"

Qibli's mouth opened in surprise. He then chuckled nervously. He was about to respond but Doctor suddenly rushed back in through the doors, quickly snapping them shut behind them. Winter only caught something glowing flying up the starry sky. "Wrong time!" Doctor said, speed walking back to the console. "Why did that... Oh!" He flipped two neighboring switches. "Silly me... Arrived a bit later than I intended..." He mumbled to himself before once more pulling on the leaver, prompting an annoyed groan to come from the machine as it reluctantly went back in motion.

(Wasp's POV)

(Oh yeah, remember this plot that last appeared like ten chapters ago? Well, we're back in the present now, so we can finally get back to it.)

Wasp clutched an ancient scroll in her talons. It was probably written even before Clearsight hatched. The half-faded words certainly didn't speak about Pantala. No, the scroll was undeniably about The Distant Kingdoms. She had a very vague idea what the 'story' was about though. But it certainly mentioned a legend about 'Magic blue box'. Supposedly some sort of a cult, that was formed after said legend, did something, which was dutifully scratched out by someone's talons, when twenty seven planets appeared in the sky out of nowhere.

Well, that was helpful. She had no idea how that even related to her problem of 'The Last Of The Time Lords' coming in some near future. The only way she even found this scroll was through some ancient, now-deceased, HiveWing, who dug her up everything with the word 'time' in it. Although she was in no position to dismiss even something like this.

Suddenly a voice crept into her mind. "I think I told you to leave this alone, Wasp." The Othermind snarled.

"Well, what do you know, you overgrown weed?!" Wasp snarled in response even more viciously. "Pantala is mine! And if some pathetic Time 'Lord' thinks he can change that, it's my job to make sure that does not happen!"

There was dead silence for a minute. Wasp began to think that The Othermind had just left her alone. But then it finally spoke again. "Fine, you insolent insect. This continent just doesn't remember anything these days."

A sudden sharp pain shot through Wasp's mind and faded, vague images flashed before her eyes. Burning buildings made of stone in wood instead treestuff like her magnificent hives. With strange tiny two-legged creatures similar to monkeys running around and screaming. "Dragons did this." The voice in her head explained coldly. "Dragons that could breathe fire. But they weren't the first actually.  Around twenty years before that. The sky split apart. The day turned into night. There were twenty seven other planets. I was just a sma-... I've been there and saw it myself. There were those... large round metallic flying disks. They swooped above the earth, leaving a chain of fire and destruction beneath them. Not a single mind I've seen since even remembers that happening. Only the planets, not the destruction, and even that... the last time I've heard anything about them was... two thousand years ago."

"You can't be serious!" Wasp replied, not believing the plant speaking in her head. "You expect me to believe that something like that not only happened, but also had something to do with a cult, following some fairytale? In the mythical Distant Kingdoms no less?"

"Well, my job is to inform you, Wasp." The Othermind chuckled.

(Winter's POV)

As the TARDIS doors opened, Winter involuntarily gasped at the sight of the Old Night Kingdom. He saw the ruins of the NightWing volcano before... But this... this felt worse to him. Volcano was land of the dead from the start. But this place... Only a few days ago for him, Winter saw it bustling with life. Now it was cold. Empty. In ruins. Dead. "The NightWings abandoned this place... To live on the volcano..." He said to himself quietly.

The IceWing forcefully shook the thoughts off. Right now he should only think about Moon and how they would rescue her. And probably what to do next. His heart did a small jump as he thought about the NightWing. He remembered Max's promise on the wall of Thorn's Stronghold to convince Doctor to take him to the stars. If they do stop Darkstalker, could he take Moon... and his other friends, he added after a moment, there?

"Alright, we're here at last..." The Doctor looked around, studying the old buildings around them. He looked barely affected by all the ruins of the city he'd just seen full of life, which concerned Winter. "Now... If I was Qibli and Winter's friend, kidnapped by a giant crazy dragon, where would I be...?" The Time Lord mused almost rhetorically.

"She's with Darkstalker." Qibli said gloomily with dead certainty.

"And he's-" Doctor started.

"...in the palace." Everyone finished in unison, sighing as soon as the words left their mouths.

"Bet he's made the enchanted NightWings to guard him as well..." Qibli grumbled, scratching his chin in thought. "Any chance we spot Moon from outside through a window and you land that thing in there?" He asked Doctor with a tired smirk.

"I'm afraid not. We'd be thrown... Well, far away." Doctor answered. "But won't be the first time we sneak past some guards here..."

A/N:  As you can probably guess the ending is close(only 4 month of work, yay!). I think I'll make arc 3 into a separate book, because even now scrolling through all the chapters is getting tiresome. Also, I have a few vague ideas for atleast two spin-offs featuring characters from Memory chapters.

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Okay, as I've mentioned last chapter, I have spin-off ideas. And I'll start writing them alongside the mains story shortly. Basically, vote which one I should do first:

- "Wrong Night on Berk"(Working title) WOF x HTTYD crossover. A NightWing falls into a tiny time fracture(since Doctor Who is still technically canon although not relevant) and lands(or rather crashes) on Berk. Where scavengers can talk and dragons can't. Set somewhere between first and second movies.

Yeah, mainly because I've recently rewatched the three main movies and found out about the "Dragons" TV series which I'm watching as of now. Also YouTube has thrown me an amazing Hiccup villain song and I really would like to run with that idea for a bit, even if the story won't be about that.

- "Nightmares, storms and losses"(Working title) A short story about Night/Ice hybrid having to run all his life with only the small hope of finding his parents, that vanished before he even hatched, keeping him going.

Remember Memory 1? Well, Nightmarestorm is my main OC I'd say, and I'd like to explore his story further.

- "Constellation of time webs" One of the adventures of Clearsight and The Doctor when she was already on Pantala.

Also you can vote for what Doctor it is, although I haven't seen a single episode of Collin Baker for example, so the ones I'm really comfortable with writing are from 10 to 13

Suggestions on the titles are welcome, and so are any other ideas you'd like to see if you enjoy my writing!

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A/N: Forgive me for any inaccuracies with the books in this chapter - I don't have it in me to read/listen to book 10 again right now, so I'll just try to write it the way that makes sense the  most  in my opinion.

Also most of this is written by an extremely sleep-deprived me, which is why it can be overly dialogue-heavy at times.

Oh, and Kinkajou will finally show up in this chapter. Only took like... 90% of the story to get there.

(Moonwatcher's POV)

Moon sat in the room Darkstalker had told her to stay in. She appreciated the rest it provided. Even if it was rather worse for wear, the space was rather lavish. On top of that, it was located on the far side of the palace, so Moon wasn't particularly bothered by thoughts of the NightWings.

A sudden quiet tapping on the door startled her. She haven't heard anyone's mind... which meant this had to be Kinkajou, who had the Skyfire. Moon walked over to the the door and opened it. On the other side, she saw a flash of pale yellow and white scales before feeling two different wings envelop her sides - one warm as sand, another cold as ice. "Moon!" Winter and Qibli exclaimed in unison.

"W-Winter? Qib-bli?" Moon stammered, instinctively shrinking back. The two boys let out a relieved sigh and pulled back.

"Thank the Great Ice Dragon you're here, Moon!" Winter exclaimed.

"Yeah, this was our last hope - we checked everywhere in the palace before coming here." Qibli explained, smiling gently at Moon, clearly happy to see her. He looked as if he hadn't seen her in far longer than she didn't see him.

"Well, that's because Darkstalker made sure that I won't be bothe-... Wait... What are you even doing here?" Moon's head reeled with questions. "Not that I'm complaining, but I thought you were at the Jade Mountain-... Oh, and, Qibli, before you start explaining, there's something you need to know..."

The SandWing quickly stepped closer and put his talon over hers, ignoring Winter's strange stare. "Yes, Moon... What is it?" He said, suddenly sounding a bit anxious.

"I am not sure how it would be best to explain, but... Qibli... something happened to Queen Thorn..." Moon looked up at Qibli.

"Wait, what? When? How do you know that?" The SandWing started spitting out questions, his eyes widening at the sudden news.

"Well... The day I arrived here, Darkstalker said..." Moon desperately tried to put the words together while also not making it too panful on the poor SandWing. "...He said, there were two scavengers the size of a dragon, and they took Thorn away while he tried to stop them..."

Qibli blinked at her, looking surprised but suddenly way calmer than he was seconds before. "Well, duh, I know that. I was there in fact, you know. I kind of had to flee the whole NightWing tribe there, while carrying The Doctor on my back."

"The Doctor...? You've been there...? Flee...? Qibli, what are you talking about?" The NightWing's gaze turned to Winter in hope for explanation for Qibli's words that sounded liek pure nonsense to her.

"He didn't go crazy, Moon, if that's what you think." Winter said with a half-hearted chuckle. "Believe it or not, a few days ago we were in this very kingdom, but two thousand years in the past."

"B-but... h-how...?" Moonwatcher stumbled backwards, no wher being the one surprised. This was certainly not what she had expected to hear from her friends that suddenly knocked on her door.

"Moon..." Qibli responded quietly, shuffling uncomfortably on his talons, clearly struggling to find words.

"I think-... If you wouldn't mind..." Winter tried to say something, then smirked bitterly for a moment, before reaching down to his hind leg that had his pouch. "Maybe you should see it all for yourself..."

"Are you... are you offering to show it to me... with your mind?" Moon asked. She certainly didn't expect this. Least of all from Winter. But the things they said... Maybe it was the only way to see if any of that was true. The mindreader shakily nodded at the IceWing.

As Winter slipped off the pouch, his mind opened up to her in an instant. Moon looked into his thoughts that he offered up to her. It lacked his usual icy dazzlingnness. Instead, she could see what happened to him from the day she left Jade Mountain.

She saw two scavengers, who she briefly met in the rainforest. She saw two blue doors opening up and revealing something impossible behind them. She saw hot sand that Winter despised. She saw flashes of Thorn fighting with some other SandWing she vaguely recognized. She saw Winter sitting in the moonlight with one of the scavengers. The IceWing's thoughts told her his name was Max. The scavenger had promised to take Winter to the stars, and he thought if he could take Moon with him.

Then, Moon saw Darkstalker landing inside the stronghold. She saw the group flying away from approaching NightWings, before everything turned white and they landed in a dark cave. Then she saw streets of Possibility. She saw dying IceWings. "But Darkstalker wouldn't-... But he did lie to me about Thorn... And he never even said Qibli and Winter were there..."

But then... Moon saw Winter stepping out of that strange blue box. And in front of him stood two dragons. One, she was sure of it, was Clearsight. And the other... no it wasn't Turtle. With a startle, Moon realized - it was Fathom.

And then the onslaught of images stopped as Winter slipped his pouch back on. Moon stayed silent, trying to make sense of what she was just witness to. Both Qibli and Winter nodded understandingly and moved closer to her.

(Max's POV)

Doctor tried to get Max to stay in the TARDIS for this, but did he listen? As if anyone ever did. He moved silently through the palace halls, trying to accomplish to things: be useful and don't get captured to become the opposite useful. Suddenly he noticed a brown dragon pass through the intersection in front of him. The human quickly ducked behind a column. Getting spotted was certainly not in his plans today.

"Strange. I thought only NightWings should be here... And that's a MudWing, if I remember right from Possibility..." Max thought, silently following the dragon, making sure however to stay crouched. He saw the strange dragon enter a room. Max was about to move closer and peek inside, before unexpectedly colliding with thin air that let out an audible "Ouch!".

It took the human a second or two to guess what just happened. And by that time the air rippled, revealing a confused yellow and pink RainWing sitting there, sizing him up and down with curious eyes. "Woah! What are you?" She asked, leaning closer to Max.

"Yeah... Um... Hi..." the human muttered in response, feeling a bit nervous.

Before he could continue though, the dragon cut him off. "Wow! You talk! That's so cool! But... no, wait, how is that possible?" Max tried to open his mouth to respond, but the RainWing continued asking even more questions. "Are you maybe enchanted? Then why are you so big? Oh, I'm Kinkajou by the way, what's your name? Do scavengers even have names? You look cute! Can I name you?"

"Stop, stop, stop!" Max protested, waving his hands to calm Kinkajou down. "I can talk, but not exactly when you're asking ten questions a second!"

"Oh, right, of course!" the enthusiastic RainWing slapped her forehead with a talon. "Uh... Well, could you start with your name perhaps then?"

"Suuuureeee... My name is Max." The human responded warily. "And now the other questions. But slowly, please."

(Darkstalker's POV)

Darkstalker was in the throne room. He somewhat had managed to organize all the necessities for the tribe to function. Food stocks are getting gathered(In the two thousand years the population of animals in forests exploded without dragons compared to what was before), sleeping spaces, all that stuff. And yet. His foresight still wasn't working. The hybrid still wasn't desperate enough to use his magic for the issue. He of course did protect his soul, but it never hurt to be too cautious.

Way back, when he was buried under the Agate Mountain, he had studied the paths. They diverged by now a lot, so that wasn't much help, but he certainly did not foresee anything about losing his powers. Well, not exactly losing them. There was a shape he could make out, when he tried to look at the webs. Blue rectangular box. It was seemingly entangled in all the webs of timelines. It seemed to have doors and strange words written atop them. "Ha! 'POLICE PUBLIC CALLS BOX'! What is that even supposed to mean?!"

"Darkstalker, I presume?" A voice called out from the entrance, shaking the hybrid out of his thoughts. He didn't hear any mind approaching, who could this be?!

The dragon stared for a few seconds at the giant scavenger that was standing in the doorway. "Is this..." The hybrid was certain now. It was the scavenger he had met during his unsuccessful attempt to get Thorn on his side. He will deal with her eventually, but right now reclaiming the Night Kingdom was more important.

"Who are you?" Darkstalker hissed coldly, stepping closer to the scavenger, his giant form looming over the creature. "And why can't I read your mind?! Did Moon's friends gift you their Skyfire?!"

"My name is The Doctor. I'm afraid we haven't met properly yet." The scavenger responded, meeting the dragon's gaze without a flinch. "More than without a flinch... He looks like he owns this place!"

"Doctor... I swear I heard that name somewhere... Right... That day, when Fathom and Clearsight turned up at my house when I wasn't there... Only a flash in Fathom's mind... But... There was that name... Doctor... I brushed it off at the time, but... what if...?" Darkstalker leaned his head even closer, then circled it around The Doctor, being able to do so due to his long neck and monstrous height. "Ah, 'Doctor'... I see... Now, you wouldn't happen to know anything about a piece of my scroll going missing, approximately... two thousand years ago, would you?"

Now that did something to the scavenger's imposing stance. But not exactly what Darkstalker was hoping for. The little creature suddenly looked... confused. "What?" Doctor asked, his brows shooting up in what looked to be concern and surprise.

A/N: And there we have it! If you have anything you'd like to see in the big final confrontation next chapter, or if I've missed something , make sure to comment (don't worry, I didn't forget Turtle, but he doesn't quite fit here, I'll try to give him more time later on. And to clarify, without the magic earrings his animus magic is gone completely, atleast for now). However, overall the things will go a certain way I have planned, I may only tweak a few details if that's what people would like to see.

Also, I've began the work on HTTYD x WoF fic, since I didn't get votes for any other ideas. I've pretty much wrote the prologue out. Still have work to do on the cover  and tags stuff though. But once I have 1-2 chapters ready, I'll publish it.

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(Darkstalker's POV)

"My enchanted scroll." Darkstalker repeated. "A piece of it was torn off. Two thousand years ago. And now that I think about it, that day my friends showed up at my house for some strange reason. And before Fathom ran off, I heard a thing or two in his mind. Your name being one of them, my dear Doctor." Small pillars of smoke were winding upwards from the massive dragon's nostrils as he grew angrier, yet The Doctor seemed to be undeterred and stood his ground.

"Alright, you caught me." the strange scavenger's mouth spread into a toothy grin for a second. "I was there." He raised his paw in a silencing gesture that Darkstalker found himself obeying, biting his tongue before he asked anything else. "Don't ask me how, that's a topic for later." Suddenly, he became serious again. "But I certainly didn't touch your scroll."

"Oh, so you were there... How utterly intriguing, my dear Doctor..." The Darkstalker cooed, his voice cold. "But why would I believe a peculiar little creature such as yourself? I can't hear your mind, you wouldn't mind telling me why that is, would you?" the hybrid coaxed.

The Doctor just smirked up at the massive snout that was almost touching him. "Well. I am not from here, as you might have guessed..." The scavenger paused, letting his words hang in the air of the throne room and studied his paws incredulously.

"Not from here huh? Well, that puts off my worry of another animus enchanting those scavengers..." Darkstalker finally moved his face away from the intruder, deciding to just tower over him, instead of bending his neck downwards. "And where's this 'not from here', huh? I am deeply intrigued, Doctor darling..." Darkstalker asked, mixing in some fake sweet notes into the words.

Doctor's gaze shot up and he stared straight up, into the hybrid's dark eyes. "Gallifrey." He spoke sharply. "The last of the Time Lords. At your service."

(Max's POV)

Max and Kinkajou were standing over the freshly fainted dragon.

"Well, I honestly expected this to be a little harder..." the RainWing said, tilting her head and inspecting the NightWing, perplexed.

"Couldn't resist my charm." Max chuckled, but couldn't deny that he was surprised as well. The moment he stepped out in front of the dragon, the lizard had simply fainted on the spot.

"Wait... I think I recognize this one..." Kinkajou rubbed her chin, then smirked and reached out for an earring in the unconscious dragon's ear. "Chameleon!" She exclaimed as the dragon's scales suddenly turned green and his whole body shrank, like a deflated balloon.

"Woah!" Max gasped involuntarily.

"That's what he was doing here! Oh this little-" The RainWing snarled and took a bag off the green dragon. She tossed it to Max, who stumbled back as the bag hit his chest. "Just look at this!"

The human took out the first thing inside the bag, which turned out to be some sort of a golden necklace. Out of interest, he draped it over his head almost on pure instinct, still holding onto it, intending to take it off seconds later. Suddenly his vision darkened, he tried to pull the thing back off, but his hands started twisting uncontrollably. He saw claws slowly poking out frurther and further of his fingers instead of the fingernails. Golden-orange scales started replacing his skin. He dropped forward onto his knees as he felt his legs elongating and twisting as well as wings expanding from his back.

"Wow..." Kinkajou breathed out, looking over the coughing and groaning human. Or rather dragon by now.

A/N: As mentioned before, the scroll scraps lost their power to enchant, But not the enchantments already on them. Chameleon forced the scroll to enchant a piece of it to turn him into different dragons, therefore the enchantment stays but new ones can't be made.

I personally find it weird how in Winter Turning just ripping off a piece changes the enchantment. It should have kept it as is or just nulled it entierly, since, technically, the enchanted object was changed(aka destroyed which seems to break the magic).

(Winter's POV)

Qibli and Winter silently stood by Moon's sides, their wings brushing with hers in an attempt at some sort of comfort. Winter was studying the NightWing's face with almost visible admiration and longing. Qibli, on the other talon, looked up at the celling, probably thinking over what to do next. He seemed to have had an idea... And he didn't seem to have particularly liked it.

"Thank the three moons, I'm so happy to see her again..." Winter thought. "But what now? We must stop Darkstalker and save the IceWings..."

Moon turned her head to Winter. "Of course, I put the Skyfire away!" The IceWing realized. The NightWing tried to smile reassuringly. "Yes, Winter, you forgot to put your pouch back on. I hear your thoughts... Sorry..." She said softly, reaching out for it.

"No, wait." Winter suddenly said. "I think right now... Right now it might be necessary for you to hear my mind."

Moon paused and turned to him. "But, won't Darkstalker hear it too then?" She asked.

"Don't worry, Moon." Winter said gently. "Qibli's the one with the plans, my job is to follow them. Doubt he'll hear anything from me."

(Darkstalker's POV)

"You want me to stop the IceWings from dying?" Darkstalker asked Doctor, disbelief plastered on his face. "And why would I do that?!"

"Let me guess." The Doctor responded calmly. Since entering he had made himself comfortable by leaning against the wall behind the throne, completely ignoring the humongous dragon before him, preferring to fumble a strange small metal object. "You blame them for ruining your life, killing someone you love, taking some NightWing land or something? Your father was an IceWing, right? Relationship not gone well I guess?"

"I've killed Arctic. My father is dead, exactly like he deserved, for everything he did to me, and to Whiteout, and to mother!" Darkstalker hissed, suddenly in the Time Lord's face, his giant wings flaring, engulfing almost the whole throne room.

"Well, you've said it yourself then, haven't you?" Doctor mused, his paw softly tapping the hybrid's snout, almost commanding to get out of his personal space. To his own surprise, Darkstalker found himself obeying and moving away. "Arctic is dead." the Time Lord continued, returning the words. "More so, you've killed him, meaning you've gotten your revenge."

"You don't understand! Queen Diamond killed my mother! You think I hate the whole tribe because of a single dragon?" Darkstalker spat back venomously. This 'Time Lord' was really getting on his nerves now. Yet he had this air of unchallengeable authority around him... Darkstalker couldn't bring himself to even shut the creature up.

"Well, can't say I've liked Diamond from the short time we've had with each other..." The Doctor rubbed his chin. "But what good does it do to kill them now?"

"To protect the NightWings." the hybrid answered, astonished. It was obvious to him.

"Ah, protect. Right, of course. And what do you think this protection will result in?" the Time Lord tilted his head before answering his own question. "I'll tell you what will happen. Spoiler. The other tribes will be scared. Who will you go after next? They'll unite, maybe not instantaneously, but after a while - certainly. They'll go to war against you, only continuing the violence."

"Well, I can stop them, I have animus powers, I-" Darkstalker started listing, but Doctor cut him off. "With that approach you might as well wipe out everyone and everything on this planet." The Time Lord spat through gritted teeth, suddenly taking a few steps towards the hybrid. The gigantic dragon found himself moving away from the comparatively miniscule scavenger. "Is that what you want?" the Time Lord asked. His voice was absolutely calm, yet it felt like the words had dug into Darkstalker's invincible scales, pierced his flesh and scratched at his very soul.

"No, I-..." Darkstalker chocked on his own words. "Well, what do you even know about it?! You think you understand ANYTHING?!"

The Doctor just scoffed. "You think I don't-... Fine... There's a reason I hid my mind from you." the alien suddenly said. "But a little peak won't hurt, will it?"

The Time Lord closed his eyes and Darkstalker felt a wave crash over him, a wall that was The Doctor's mind had a crack in it. Just a tiny crack, but it was enough. He clutched his head with his talons from the incoming brain-splitting headache.

They weren't like any thoughts he'd heard before. Everything was different about them. He could not understand the words he heard, but a few images did make it through. There was fire. So much fire. Burning and burning and burning and burning and burning. He saw so many various creatures dying and dying and dying. Some made of metal, some had skin, some had scales. Death death and more death. And in the middle of it all always stood he - The Doctor. He seemed to always have a different face but each time it was certainly him.

The man who lost so much. The man never carrying a weapon. The man that never asked to be thanked.

The tsunami that was the Time Lord's mind slowly ceased and Darkstalker was left lying there, on the floor, breathing heavily. "The Doctor had seen so much more, lost so much more... He can leave me to die here, just by opening up his mind, that's too much even for me. But he does not..."

"You still can fix this. What you're doing... It's not right for anyone." the alien put his paws at the pained hybrid's snout gently. "I understand what it's like to be locked away for two thousand years. I've even been through worse once. Everyone you knew - gone. It makes you the last of your kind in a way... Just like me... I know all you want is to help. Please, I'm asking you, just stop the plague. I can-..." The Doctor hesitated "...I can let you see Clearsight, one last time... if... if you just listen to me."

(Qibli's POV)

The SandWing and the IceWing were following Moon. They were looking for Kinkajou while Qibli thought of a way to stop Darkstalker. He had the scroll yet dreaded even thinking about using it. "He must have protected himself... But surely... That's it...! He needs his own spells to work on him. And the scroll is his own spell."

Suddenly Moon stopped. Qibli looked up and saw Kinkajou. She stood in the hall in front of them, by her side was an orange SkyWing, and in front of them both laid an unconscious green RainWing.

"Oh! Hey guys!" Kinkajou exclaimed and bolted towards the group, almost tackling Winter to the floor. "You won't believe what just happened!" She squeaked. "First, Chameleon was here, I was sort of spying on him and then this giant scavenger bumped into me, and, oh by all the moons I am not lying, he totally could talk just like we do, then when Shapeshifter saw himm he kind of just gaped at us for a few seconds before falling unconscious! We dug through his things and found this necklace that I guess was used to turn him into a SkyWing, and so then-" Winter coughed meaningfully, making the rambling RainWing pause.

"It's good to see you awake and well Kinkajou, but... maybe a bit slower?" The IceWing asked with a faint exhausted smile. "Right, the time travel... Not best for sleep schedule..."

"I think I got it." Qibli told him. "I've been getting rather fluent in Excited Kinkajou, if I dare say so myself." the SandWing said, while putting his right talon to his chest. Everyone, even Winter snorted.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but Kinkajou was spying on Chameleon, who was turned into Shapeshifter. Then Max accidentally bumped into her, while she was camouflaged, doing the same thing as her, instead of staying back in the TARDIS like he was supposed to." the SandWing shot a glare at the SkyWing. "Then Chameleon got so surprised by a giant scavenger, he fainted and Max took one of his enchanted objects that turned him into a SkyWing."

"Yep, that's pretty much it." Kinkajou said.

"Guys," Moon called out, gaining everyone's attention. "That's good and all, but, now that we're together, what do we do about Darkstalker? Maybe I should go and talk to him, he has to listen to-"

"Moon, no." Qibli and Winter said firmly in unison. "Doctor's already trying that, and if he can't talk Darkstalker down, no one can." Qibli continued. "And he still hasn't returned, as you see. I am afraid... We'll have to use this." the SandWing pulled out a torn off piece of parchment. "I tore this off from Darkstalker's scroll, when we were in the past. He certainly has protected himself from all magic except his own, which means this will work on him."

Moon and Winter both shuffled their talons nervously. "Qibli... Are you sure about this?" Moon asked.

"Yes, Moon, I am afraid so. I just need to think of the right enchantment..." the SandWing responded grimly.

"I think I have something..." Kinkajou spoke shyly.

(Darkstalker's POV)

"Enchant all the IceWings to get cured from the plague..." Darkstalker whispered, almost forcing the words out of him. His gaze dropped back to The Doctor. "I- I'm-... It's all... I need your help, Doctor, please..."

And then something shifted. Darkstalker felt a twinge. "What?! ...My scroll!" It was too late. His body twisted painfully then started slowly shrinking. His thoughts were growing hazy.

"What? What's going on?" the Time Lord asked him, rushing closer, suddenly looking very alarmed.

"No! NO! NO!" Darkstalker screamed feeling ripples of pain shoot through his body as his insides compacted. "This can't be happening! You tricked me! Distracted me!" He roared.

"No, no, no! I swear I didn't-" Doctor's eyes were darting around the form of the shrinking hybrid.

"How could you?! I trusted you!" Darkstalker almost chocked on another anguished roar coming from his throat. "I thought you wanted to help! You were never here for that! All you are is the destroyer of dreams!" the dragon screamed out his one last roar as his head dipped even below Doctor's.

"No, I can't! I have to do something! Enchant me to become as I was!" He pleaded in his mind. But nothing happened. "I- I-... Enchant me to remember! Remember atleast something. Remember... Clearsight!"

One final bolt of pain shot all the way from the tip of the hybrid's tail to his head as his body was changing drastically and his vision darkened. "Clearsight." Was his one final thought. And then, Darkstalker was gone.

A/N: Wow this was a long one. Over 2400 words. I tried to get the ending the way I wanted, still ended up not quite what I hoped for. But it is what it is, I suppose.

There will be one or two more chapters as an epilogue, then I'll do a rework on earlier chapters, and then get to work on arc 3 book. I honestly can't believe I even completed this much.

Chapter Text

A/N: Trying this experimental style of first person letters, hope I've pulled it off well enough.

Warning: This chapter is the start of (my attempt at) the downward slope that the arc 3 in this fic will be. Not sure if this counts as angst, but I'm trying.

( Max's  Startraveler's POV)

Startraveler rubbed his chin and tapped his claws against the scroll laid out in front of him. He wrote a new letter every few days. Not that they went anywhere, but the NightWing felt like he had to. The ink touched the parchment and the words started to form.

Good... night, Doctor. It's been a month now, since you've left... I still see it, you know. The anger in your eyes when we found you that day here, in the throne room...

I wrote in a letter earlier - Winter, Qibli and the others have decided to give me a magic earring, from this dragon called Chameleon, that can turn me into a NightWing while I wear it, since I obviously couldn't remain a human in this world. Well, we also have all decided on the new name for me. Startraveler.

Oh and Dar Peacemaker is doing well. We never had time to talk about that when you were still here. It was too much running, as usual. But his mom, Foeslayer, is still alive. The IceWings enchanted her to stay frozen for all this years or something. She's looking after him now. They are settled in the rainforest. What you told me before you left... We didn't know you've managed to convince him... But what we did to him... You... you were right... it is horrible... Everything he was... gone... Even if he was a killer... It's-...

Startraveler choked on a sob as a tear dropped onto the parchment, making a wet spot as it splattered. He paused his writing and went out onto one of the many balconies for some fresh air. Three moons shone down at him, their light strangely calming. But, as strange as it was, writing out his feelings felt better that screaming at the sky. The NightWing gathered himself after a few minutes and returned to the throne room, resuming his writing.

Everybody left to live their lives... And I'm still here... Waiting for your stupid face to show up. Yesterday I was certain I saw a figure, up on the half-crumbled palace wall. It looked just like you but with a black coat and a cane, however when I blinked, it was gone. I'm getting desperate, ain't I?

Well, luckily for me, TARDIS still translates for me, even if it's not here... Guess she had gotten attached as well...

I will be going for a visit to the Rainforest Kingdom tomorrow.. Just so you know if you suddenly come back and find this letter.

Whether I like it or not, I'm a NightWing now. And I do have a queen... Qibli had visited me a week ago, since it' he's the closest to me. He had told me that Moon and Kinkajou have explained most of what happened to Queen Glory. He was pretty confident she'd leave me be after out meeting.

Getting used to having wings wasn't easy, but... flying is fun! Heh... Although... I do admit... lonely. If... if you don't show up until I return from the rainforest... I think I won't stay here. This world is so big and beautiful. I can't spend the rest of my life waiting for an alien with his magic box.

I have lost my home on Earth... but here I don't really need one. As a dragon, I can go wherever and not worry about anything anymore. Food, water, transportation - everything is so much easier here... But... I do hope I get to see you again, Doctor...

Startraveler bit down another sob that was building in his throat and rolled up the scroll. He tossed it onto the small pile of others that he had made in the spot where the TARDIS stood the last time. He had to live through this. Even if it wasn't what he would have hoped for... This was a clean start... Way better one than what he would have had on his own planet. And who knows... Doctor can't be on time for every alien invasion...

But before that happens... the NightWing had a few curiosities of his own to fulfil. He had already went through all the general history scrolls that Qibli had gotten him after the first week of his stay here. But now he wanted to find something about the dragons he had seen in the Memory Cube. 

Startraveler turned his head, looking at the fabric that covered the alien device stored in a corner. Doctor had dropped it when he angrily stepped back into the TARDIS and locked the doors without looking back. The NightWing still remembered how they looked and all their names. "Nightmarestorm. Sierra. Roast."

He didn't think he'd find anything on the last one. So that left Nightmarestorm, a poor hybrid forced to hide all his life, and Sierra, the elusive semi-IceWing from the roots of this world's history.

Well, he'd most likely have more luck with the latter, so that's where the dragon planned to start. There was also this another dragon - Salamander. Who, they had assumed, was the first SkyWing queen from the current royal family.

If Startraveler planned on seeing the world, he might as well visit a few libraries along the way.

(Winter's POV)

Winter sat alone in his bedroom, in small hut, in Sanctuary. He'd recently went on a hunt, so the IceWing had enough food to stay inside for the next week atleast. After all, his help in expanding the town wasn't really needed anymore. He haven't managed to catch any humans to study. And he certainly could not show himself in the Ice Kingdom. He was supposed to be dead after all.

The ex-prince walked to a small cabinet, it had a few scrolls left in it. He took one out and stared at it for a few minutes. Winter hesitated before grabbing the ink pot but decided to write a letter anyway.

Hello, Ma Startraveler.

It's me, Winter.

Has he returned yet? Although I suppose I won't hear back form you if he has...

I know that you know why he was so angry. He said something to you while we were all... distracted by what came of Darkstalker. All we did was stop him to save the IceWings, from your stories that's what he does, is it not? Why won't you tell atleast me?

And it's not just you... I've barely heard from any of my friends since it was all over... Nobody needs m  It's just me here, trying to find some humans to figure out how close they are to what you've described about your world.

Maybe... once you're tired of waiting... you could come here and... help me with that? You'd know humans better than any of us, wouldn't you?

(Moonwatcher's POV)

The noise was too much, like always. So Moon was hiding in a distant cave - well not exactly a cave, rather a rock formation with holes in the celling that was mostly foliage anyway - trying to get some rest. Recently her dreams were getting filled with images again. It didn't take the form of words yet. But it must have been a vison...

She saw fires, vines, and that blue box The Doctor had disappeared into. It was looming over everything ominously, in Moon's opinion. But he wouldn't return, would he? Startraveler assured her that if the alien returned, it would only be to take him away.

Suddenly a thought pierced the NightWing's serenity. Not her thought though. That voice had gotten more and more annoying each time she heard it. Chameleon had escaped again. Stupid RainWings couldn't watch over him as always.

With a sigh Moon stood up lazily, and started moving in the direction of the voice. She had learned to move pretty silently over the years in the rainforest, so when she had dropped down in front of the green RainWing he was rather startled. "Chameleon." the NightWing said, more as a statement than a question.

"Ah, little Moonwatcher." the slimy RainWing responded, masking his anger with friendliness and lowering his head closer to the ground as if he was a snake.

"I swear, if this repeats one more time, Queen Glory will put you into that prison made by Darkstalker." Moon said with a half-smirk. That worked. She sensed panic rise in the green RainWing's head.

"W-well..." Chameleon stuttered, fidgeting with his talons. "Maybe, if only you had returned me my charms-"

"No!" Moon cut him off sternly. "They are with someone who actually needs them. You'd be perfectly fine living here. Just drop the whole villain act. You're too pathetic for it anyway."

"With someone, huh?" the RainWing asked, tilting his head.

"Don't worry, they are very far from here." the NightWing assured him with an eyeroll. "You won't be getting your claws on them anytime soon. Now common, let's get going."

(Wasp's POV )

A/N: I don't want to try to figure out the exact time between books 10 and 11. Basically, we have a time-skip of said time(if you don't like huge time-skips, the story will mention the events that happened during this time period later.)

Queen Wasp was livid. The pathetic worms left with her book. All she had left was the page she had torn out earlier. She'll interrogate the captured SilkWing. But later. When she's calm and measured. And right now she was anything but that. The HiveWing roared and tossed the crumpled paper against the wall.

It landed perfectly on top of a flamesilk lantern. It was sealed to prevent a fire, but it was still incredibly warm. The paper was heating up. And heaving Wasp noticed something strange: large letters written hastily were slowly appearing across the table. "What?! It's a hidden message! Of course! Why didn't I think of that?! The old hag must have used something that only becomes visible after getting warm!"

The dragon rushed to the old paper and saw the sloppy letters.

When the book is gone, the time has come.

A/N: Oooh, Wasp is getting angy! This AU's book 12 will be... well let's say rather deadly.

Also, about the invisible ink thing. I looked it up. Vinegar can be used to make writings like that. Vinegar can be made form grapes that rather fit Pantala's climate.