"Brother?" said Ebony.
Twyla tossed away the inert form of the blue crest, now useless to her. She flexed her wings and took a grappling stance. "Yes," she growled. "Brother." The crest of the black dragon beamed, surrounding Twyla in a silver light. Slowly, steadily, she began to grow. "I am the daughter of the black dragon of Althena, the one who died at the hands of Dragonmaster Dyne during a fit of insanity. Long ago he fell in love with a human woman and then left his mate and child behind so he could resume his duties to the goddess. I was to have taken his place upon his death, but no. Another was chosen. You."
Her voice deepened, growing coarse as the dark fur sprouted from her body and horns curled from her head. At full size she matched Ebony's length from snout to tail tip. The resemblance between the two was uncanny, but Ebony sensed something else. The power she drew on to take that form was not her own, but rather his.
"You've ruined my tribe," she snarled, "turned them against one another. Don't you care? First you abandon the humans and then you seek to defeat the one dragon who still wishes to protect them!"
Nall stepped forward, his head arced gracefully in the air. "You may have draconic blood in you, Twyla, but you are no dragon. You don't know what it means to be one. We are guardians of Lunar, yes, but we are its stewards, not its kings. That is why in times of need we have always called upon the humans themselves to defend her, and they have succeeded every time."
"Don't twist the truth!" Twyla's words came out in a gale, blasting flat the fur of the four dragons before her. "Are we so rare, so aloof, that when humans see a young dragon they behold nothing more than a flying cat? Dragonmasters are nothing without dragons and in times of need do you seek out the Dragonmaster or does he seek out you? He always comes to you because unlike you he is driven to do whatever is necessary to save his world--and so am I."
The red and white crests, still hovering around her, shone with their own blinding light. "My tribe will be avenged," said Twyla. "I may have lost the power of the blue dragon, but I still have two more." And the lights flared and vanished, drawn within Twyla's own body.
The black, white, and red crests clattered to the floor, lifeless. Her eyes fierce with determination and pain, Twyla rose up on all four legs and howled. The fur on her back rippled and waved, bursting apart as four new wings, two each in the colors of red and white, erupted from her body, which grew still further in size. Flames licked from the corners of her mouth and jets of frost from her nostrils. With a cry, Twyla reared up and slammed her claws against crystal floor, sending a myriad shards flying at the four dragons.
They scattered immediately, Ruby and Ebony leaping to either side and Nall and Jia taking to the air. Nall loosed a blast of cold from his maw, but Twyla whirled about, returning his attack with a stream of fire.
"You can't stop me so easily," she snapped. "I didn't mean to harm any of you, but now you've left me no choice."
Her wings slapped away a combined assault by Jia and Ebony and she dove beside Ruby, pivoting on her feet so quickly that when her tail snapped around it hurled the red dragon into the air.
Acid dripped from her mouth as Twyla turned to watch the four dragons regroup. "I know how to fight," she growled. "Unlike you who linger in your caves all year long, my dragons and I trained to be the protectors of Lunar. I have learned more in this short time than you have in your entire lives."
"Keep on talking," spat Ruby. "Maybe you'll bite your tongue off."
Twyla's answer came in a blast of steam that made the red dragon's fur curl. "Arrogant, sarcastic creatures! What kind of guardians are you?"
Ebony conjured a spear of stone at her, but his magic was not nearly as strong as it once was. Twyla's eyes glowed and a barrier of light enveloped her in time to shatter the rock. But as soon as the shield vanished Nall leaped atop her back, raking and clawing like a feline with both front and rear limbs.
Twyla shrieked and rolled to throw him off, but Ruby dashed in and clamped her jaws around Twyla's foreleg, preventing her from using the full force of her weight to fall on the white dragon.
"Compassionate ones," said Jia, in answer to Twyla's question. "We aren't perfect, never claimed to be, but we are compassionate--something I think you've lost."
The six-winged dragon heaved, a powerful move that dislodged Nall just long enough for her to smack Ruby away. Blood streamed in rivulets from the gashes left by Ruby's teeth. Twyla jerked to her feet, catching Nall in the belly with one of her wings and tossing him from her back.
Panting, she growled, "Don't talk to me about compassion. I live each day thinking about the ones everyone else has forgotten. You don't know what it's like to be abandoned. You're always the ones forsaking everyone else!"
Twyla flexed her wings and summoned her rage. It formed around her as a great aura of fire that melted the floor beneath her into slag. "I was firstborn of the black dragon, but I was cast aside. Why!"
Jia bathed the room in her healing light, calling teardrops of magic to seal her companions' wounds as Ebony and Ruby leaped forward to engage Twyla in a tag-team assault. Drained of their magic and Twyla immune to the power of their elements, their numbers was the only advantage they had--that and Jia's renewed magical power.
The blue dragon's mind latched on to that thought. That was right. She had her full power back and Twyla had none of it.
"We didn't know," said Nall. "When Quark died I thought I was the only baby dragon of our generation. It took me years to find the others. When I found Ebony, Ruby, and Azura I had assumed that was all we were! How could I have known about you? Quark was the only full-grown dragon I had ever met and he told me nothing!"
"Are you saying ignorance is an excuse?" Twyla smacked Ebony away with a slap of her tail.
"No, but we haven't been the only ignorant ones here." Nall glared at Twyla straight in the eyes. "You never should have assumed we'd come for you. We found each other because we looked, and when we found, we held on to what we had. You knew about us long before we knew about you, but you never made the first move."
Jia lifted her head just as Twyla sputtered in fury and hurled the full force of the Red Dragon Anger at Nall. "Everyone," shouted Jia, "keep wearing her down! I've got an idea!"
Nall's breath of frost countered the Red Dragon Anger, but not entirely. The patchy flesh beneath his new coat of fur flushed a raw color of red.
Twyla pounced for his throat, but Jia roared, summoning vast jets of water from the ether. She hurled them at the twilight dragon with enough force to knock her off her trajectory. Soaked, Twyla landed off her mark, but she whipped around immediately to face her assailant.
"Trying to put out the fire?" Twyla snarled. "I have the powers of the white dragon as well as the red, and the ice is hardly bothered by a little water."
Nall smirked and picked up a crystal shard jostled from the wall during the fighting. "So you like ice, huh? Try this!"
He hurled the shaft like a javelin and Twyla breathed a gout of flame to melt it. Too late she realized the deception. The crystal, now red hot from the flames, pierced her shoulder just below the collarbone.
She bellowed, jets of steam flying from her mouth.
"Now, Ebony!" shouted Jia. "Use an earth spell!"
The black dragon replied by calling on the ground beneath the floor of the chamber.
"Not so fast," hissed Twyla. The shimmering light of the White Dragon Protect spell rose to protect her. The spell blocked the Ebony's pillar of stone, but the barrier shattered once its work was done.
Jia inhaled a breath, energy crackling around her.
"I told you water won't work," said Twyla, still dripping puddles as she repositioned herself to attack.
"Not water," said Nall, grinning as he realized Jia's plan. "Something else."
Raw lightning exploded from Jia's maw, attracted by the strongest conductor in the chamber, the water in Twyla's fur. The twilight dragon screamed. Even though by rights her earth element should have protected her, it could not when the water soaked her through so completely.
Twyla fell to the floor with a crash that shook the chamber from top to bottom.
"I'm sorry," said Jia, now approaching her, "but you have to understand that we are fighting for what we believe in as well. Who but Althena could have said whether it is your truth or ours that is real? You cannot stop us as long as we draw breath, because we have the same stakes as you."
"And you... cannot stop me as well." Twyla coughed as she struggled to put her legs beneath her.
"What will it take to convince you to stop?" said Ruby. "All this fighting is getting us nowhere."
"I won't stop." Twyla shuddered, beating her six wings. "I can't."
"You can, " said Nall, not unkindly. "Listen, and for your sake I hope you're a better listener than your dragons. While you were not with us, a great many things happened to change the face of Lunar. Althena died, yes. We dragons were left to carry on in her absence, yes. But can you tell me Althena's final wish? As a child I lived with the human form of Althena, and I know that this is not what Luna would have wanted.
"Listen, Twyla. Althena's final wish was for us, for everyone from dragon to human to god, to believe in the power of humanity. That is why we do not intervene until called upon. That we why we let the humans lead the fight. Yes, they struggle, but without that struggle they cannot grow. You've seen yourself how powerful a person can become when they strive for something with all that they believe. Who are we to take that from them?"
The twilight dragon sighed, falling still. A light surrounded her, alternating red and white, then it split in two to shoot back to the red and white crests scattered forgotten on the floor. Twyla shrank to the normal size of a dragon and her red and white wings faded to mist.
Nall nodded and moved to pick up his crest.
"We're here to help humanity, not to cripple it," said Ruby, following Nall's lead. Her crest glowed warm in her paw as she held it. A tingle ran up her arm, then something stronger as a sudden shock rolled through the minds of the red and white dragons.
Memories came to both of them; unbidden, unknown--memories that had never been theirs--weeks of pain and pride digested in an instant.
"Laln," said Nall.
"Yur," said Ruby.
Jia bowed her head in understanding. "Yes. Though they are no longer a part of this world, they are once again a part of us."
Ebony looked at his own crest, still dull and without magic. Then he looked back at Twyla, lying beaten and exhausted on the floor. The crystal beneath had been stained brown by the drying of her blood.
As if in answer to his unspoken question she said, "I am a dragon, born of flesh as well as magic. I am not a clone. I'm not going to just vanish and become a part of you. Just because I am defeated does not mean that the power will return to you through the crest. It is as much a part of me as it is of you. I am an adult dragon now, and as you know, that power cannot be taken back so easily. The magic of the black dragon belongs to me and is content to stay."
Ruby snorted a curl of flame as she swung her head around to look at her. "There is a way, you know. The same one you meant to use on us. Death frees the magic."
"Then kill me," said Twyla. "I've lived long enough as a human and as a dragon I have too many years left to endure."
"No," said Ebony.
"You're still going to need your power back," said Nall. "She is right about one thing though. We can't free it from her when she's a grown dragon like this. I can sense an aura in her. Half-human or not, she's a full-fledged dragon now. If we drained her the same say she did us, we would only get part of it back. A certain minimal amount would always remain with her."
Jia glanced at Twyla, then back at the other dragons. "It hasn't been a part of her for a very long time. Perhaps we could use that to our advantage. Maybe there's another way."
"Time." Ebony was silent for a long while, then he said, "Yes, I think there is." Briefly, he told the other dragons his idea. Jia seemed hesitant, Nall wary, and Ruby skeptical.
"There is no guarantee she'll change," said Ruby.
"No, there isn't," Ebony agreed, "but we can at least offer her the opportunity."
"Do you think you can do it, Jia?" asked Nall.
"With the help of all of you, and if Twyla is willing, I think I can," she replied. "It would be a form of healing, after all."
Twyla had managed to pull herself upright during the course of the conversation and regarded the four dragons with suspicion when they turned their attention to her. "Made up your mind?" she wheezed. "I'm getting tired and if you're going to take your power you'd better get it over with before I'm strong enough to fight you again."
"I am going to take my power back," said Ebony, "but you don't have to die. You're a full grown dragon, so you have an aura and every right to possess magic innate to your being, but the magic you have now is mine, not your own. We can't take that from you and instantly give you a replacement in return, but we can turn back the clock."
"Turn back the clock? Don't make me laugh. If you dragons could play with time you would have done so already."
Ebony shook his head. "Not reverse time. Just turn back the clock, your clock. In a way, you will die. You probably won't remember anything. But you will be reborn, as a dragon, as a child. You can have a second chance."
"A second chance?"
Ebony nodded. "Raised among dragons. Now that we know about you, you are family. You know what we are like, because you created the clones from us."
"So I can become a lazy beast sleeping half the century away in my lair?" She managed a snort. "That's not a fate I would want. I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in being raised in your tradition. I refuse to be a puppet, another cloned mind blindly believing in you without knowing any better."
"Twyla," murmured Ebony, "you've been alone for a long time, haven't you? Humans don't live that long. We know. I am not offering you a chance to become one of us to be a pawn for us. I am offering you a chance for the childhood as a dragon that you never had. We might not be perfect, but with us, as a part of our family, you will never need to be lonely again. I promise. If you will take my word for it, as your brother, then please, accept it."
"Brother..." The features on Twyla's face softened. "I... I would like that. I would like to trust..." She sighed and closed her eyes. "All right. Do what you must."
The four dragons formed a ring around her, wings spread and channels of magic open. A bright light flared around Jia as she absorbed the power offered her. "Clear your mind," she said, directing the stream of magic from her to Twyla. "Let yourself fall back and forget. You are warm and there is no pain. Let your sorrows, and your hatred, be healed."
A white glow surrounded the twilight dragon, now no longer caught between the worlds of human and guardian. It shone so strongly that nothing could be seen of her, but the dragons did not avert their eyes, keeping the magic focused around her.
After a moment, a sparkle of silver touched Ebony, then another, and another, as bit by bit the strength of the black dragon flowed back to him. Once he felt the entirety of its return, the light vanished.
At first it seemed that the space before them was empty, so used to the size of a full grown dragon were they, but then Ebony looked down and saw the little ball of fur sprawled on the floor below; asleep. She seemed so tiny.
Carefully, so as not to wake her, Ebony picked her up in one paw and closed it protectively around her. "Let's go," he said. "I'll take care of her in my cave until she's old enough to be on her own."
Nall nodded and took the lead, the other dragons following him out. Ebony stayed behind only long enough to give the chamber a final glance. He would return here one day, perhaps when Twyla was older, in case she had any questions, but also to remember what had transpired and to think of ways so that would not happen again.