Ulterior Motives

Ulterior

Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out in out in out in out-
Stop. Stop panicking. Regulate yourself. Focus, what happened, and why.
Mastermind. My tribe, the volcano, Morrowseer, the dragonets, and magnificent, oh so poetic failure.
But I'm alive. I should...

Battlewinner opened her eyes.
Around her, the glorious hidden room was filling with molten, orange, swirling lava, all but her cauldron and the heap of metallic armor bowing to the heat. The walls themselves weren't buckling but instead also bowing, slowly flowing downward like the streams of magma atop them.
She very slowly and very painfully turned her head.
The volume around her legs had barely passed her underbelly, temporarily stripping away the ice that collapsed under its pressure. The steam it gave off confirmed Battlewinner's suspicions that she had survived a complete freeze- which, in turn, proved that Mastermind's theories of frostbreath being a type of animus magic were true.
She clenched her aching talons, their edges scraping against not rock, but a smooth, moldable substance that matched the temperature of almost everything else in the room. Summoning all of her strength and pain tolerance, she buckled, allowing the lava to wash over all parts of her except her head.
I despise this. I must be rid of this. That armor can last me until I get to the continent, he'd said, so I must figure out how to be rid of this...
She suspected it took days. Every second was agony, but the ice provided oxygen and water and her suspension had consumed no food. Despite her abilities as queen, she refused to have a steady supply of food- she believed all should have an equal opportunity- so the long haul only affected her as much as a dragon who went days without eating.
Days until she realized that the only way to combat magic is magic, and that her best bet is her own tribe.
Stonemover was a coward and he's as good as dead to me, but if Morrowseer was right and that the SandWing dragonet is his offspring, that means the NightWings still have animus blood one way or another.
She had calculated that she'd been under for multiple years, which she realized when she tried to climb into her cauldron and found it somewhat smaller than she remembered. The NightWings had very few options, of which she told Mastermind and Morrowseer and nobody more, so assuming at least one left the island alive, they must've surely settled in the Lost Kingdom of Night by this time. She'd start there. With the armor. With the one way tunnel she had made to that place. It was risky for multiple reasons, the most frightening being that she could go but couldn't return, but she had absolutely no other choices.
The cauldron had began floating perhaps a day ago, same with the armor, the former she had taken refuge in. It was then that she grasped its edges and pulled herself out, flopping down into the hard liquid below. She righted herself and put one talon before the other until she reached the armor. Applying it was tricky, but the maneuverability of the lava had helped infinitely.
She tested her range of motion in the suit. It was definitely a burden, but these feelings only increased her resolve to be rid of it. She tried moving as fast as possible through the lava to the cave tunnel, careful not to tire, but also to measure her endurance in this state.
She had to walk up onto hardened lava to proceed to the enchanted opening, and it was then that the fight really began. But she wasted no time to reflect, instead she bounded up the slope with rhythmic metallic clangs, finding no immediate flaws in the armor. The clock was now ticking.

She walked through the gateway, the heat and security fading forever behind her, the bright moonlight above replacing its orange light. Sure enough, and much to Battlewinner's relief, there were NightWings in the sky.
She couldn't keep concealed because of her light, but she already considered the fact that no NightWing had ever seen her, so no NightWing knows what she looks like. In the riskiest yet the most planned action she'd ever made, she stepped into the clearing.
She was noticed instantly. Murmurs replaced the talking she'd previously heard. A dragon walked up to her and asked , "Woah. That's some sweet armor. Did Darkstalker give you that?" Battlewinner knew of Darkstalker- she was probably the smartest NightWing alive in regard to her tribe's history- so to hear Darkstalker's name being used in the present tense was indeed very interesting.
"Take me to Darkstalker."
It was the first words she'd said since she had reawaken, and the effect was beautiful. She saw the fear in their eyes and she loved it. "Uhh... sure," the NightWing replied, "follow me." His face was betraying him, showing Battlewinner just how daunted he was, and she loved that too.
By the time they had reached the hallway to the throne room, she was finding her movements already much more difficult. She'd already become so accustomed to the cold inside that she was now numb with the ever cooling temperature of the lava outside. Her guide left her at the threshold, saying nothing, as did she. She turned to step inside when he slipped onto her ear a small gold earring similar to the one he was wearing. She turned towards him but he put a talon to his snout and began to walk away. Battlewinner left it be, the earring wasn't causing any harm and it would be particularly difficult to remove it at that time.
The massive dragon known as Darkstalker noticed her entry and turned to face her. His black eyes seemed intrigued by her armor, but he made no other indication of it. "If you're here because it's technically tomorrow and you want to be the first to receive a gift, normally I'd wave you off on your way, but tonight, you're in luck. I know what it is you need," he said, turning towards a display filled of jewels, metals, and wire. Battlewinner said nothing. Darkstalker had mindreading powers, she knew, so she kept her mind clear and only allowed herself to focus on the moment.
Darkstalker removed a piece of silver wire from the display that matched his crown. "You're right," he said unexpectedly, "this is the same metal my crown is made of. But it won't be for long." He paused, closed his eyes, and the metal in his hand distorted into a bracelet, its intricate designs suiting Battlewinner's taste quite well. Darkstalker lowered his hand to her level and she took the bracelet from it. She disengaged the armor from her right arm and slid the bracelet on. It adjusted its size to fit her. With that, she felt hotter instantly, and worked quickly to shed the rest of the armor before it legitimately burned her.
I've never been able to say that...
"You're right," Darkstalker responded to her thoughts again, with a smile this time. "Have some fun with it, you'll figure it out. Don't worry about the mess. Be on your way, now." Battlewinner bowed to Darkstalker, careful to keep up a faux aura of submission to him as she walked away, leaving her solid lavarock and metal armor behind. She retraced her steps to leave the castle and walk some distance away from the city center until all she could hear were insects.
Experiment, he said. I doubt this bracelet's only purpose is to destroy my ice, I bet it's more of a controller than a neutralizer.
Battlewinner set her talons on a fallen tree limb and willed them to become as hot as lava. To her amazement, the limb beneath her talons caught ablaze instantly. She kept her hand on it, curious as to why she felt no pain, but she ignored it entirely.
She then willed it colder than the ice inside, and slowly, frost began to accumulate around her talons on the limb, its fingers clutching hold on the wood like it had once done to her.
"Amazing," she muttered, testing her voice. She was surprised to find that it no longer hurt to speak, and she still had breath left over to continue the sentence if she wanted.
Seeing the 'gift' had fixed all her problems so far, Battlewinner decided to do the one thing she'd been yearning to do since this horrible tragedy happened to her- she leapt into the air and flapped her great wings. It took multiple tries, but she eventually got to a stable height.
She flew. Far off. Far to the point where she thought the NightWings would never find her again, should either Mastermind or Morrowseer come searching. By the time the sun was rising, she had distanced herself as far from civilization as she could- secluded in the central region of the Claws of the Clouds mountains, barely northwest of the Scavenger Den. She figured she'd be able to settle alone until the next big conflict arose, of which she'd gladly take part in. What use was there for a manipulative specimen whose existence revolves around conquering, ruling, and destabilizing, in a world without, she would tell herself. Until the time was right, she'd remain dead to the world, tuning her newfound abilities, waiting, as she had planned during her last days on the island.

"How long?
Not long.
'Cause what you reap
Is what you sow."
-Wake Up by Rage Against The Machine

Motives

It has been years since Battlewinner settled in the Claws of the Clouds mountains. How long exactly, she didn't know, as she knew nothing of the outside world beyond the few traders who passed over her territory, bound for the Sky Kingdom. This, she was content with.
Battlewinner had known for a very long time that should her plan for the dragonets fail and the SandWing queen became someone other than Blister, the war would either drag on or gradually end in time, and until it did, she would have no place in the world. She had her chance in this war, and she failed- and due to such, she would have to wait until the next conflict, or at least until the ashes from this one were buried deep.
Early on, there were a series of extremely fast NightWings that went back and forth a few times, but they were the only NightWings she'd seen. She figured something must have happened to them, but judging from the fact that her bracelet was still functional, their powers were still intact. But were they dead or decommissioned, Battlewinner would not know. She didn't choose to search either.
To compensate for the time Battlewinner thought she'd spend waiting, the first few months were spent traveling through various caves of the Claws of the Clouds, searching for a place to settle that would remain undisturbed. While searching, she came across various things that she kept a mental note of to explore in the future. Once she finally found a cave system she could seal off away from prying eyes, she got to work doing what it was she wanted to do, whenever, forever. Only emerging to gather food, the cave became hers, and the rest of the world became distant.
Battlewinner first focused on recalling her basic training as a NightWing dragonet. Basic fighting, basic hunting, all the things that she was robbed of when she was cursed with the ice. She not only recalled it but improved upon it, realizing new, more effective ways of fighting, tracking prey with more than just sight and patience, and above all, applying her heat manipulation techniques to all these functions. She had been told tales of Queen Scarlet's champion and how she had used her flaming talons to burn through the opposition- and such abilities were no longer confined to that individual anymore.
Battlewinner suspected even more months passed before she started to leave the cave for other activities, and while she refused to touch the rest of dragon population, she did choose to terrorize scavengers. She kidnapped some to observe their movements, while careful to not make mistakes as Oasis did, but she also stalked them, testing herself on unsuspecting targets. Beyond the scavenger den was still a place she refused to venture; she wouldn't reveal herself yet.
The time ultimately, unavoidably came when the great Battlewinner found herself bored. She'd done all she could do, there wasn't anything left to do that didn't involve leaving her territory- she was utterly, completely bored. It was then that she realized that she had already survived one lengthy hibernation. Upon this realization, Battlewinner became obsessed with it, with the idea that it wouldn't hurt to do so again.
The cave that Battlewinner chose to reside in was chosen in part due to the presence of natural magma deep inside it. If manipulated, Battlewinner could set up a system so she'd freeze herself over again, and after a very long but set amount of time, the magma would naturally unfreeze her, just as had happened on the island.
The night she planned to do it, she celebrated with a feast due to how she didn't know when she would regain consciousness, nor how difficult food would be to locate in the future. Making her way down to the magma, she refused to reflect on the past, but she reflected on her plans for the future, and how brilliantly poetic it would be how yet another NightWing thought long dead could appear once again, so very much alive.
And as she settled a calculated distance beside the magma, she couldn't have felt more alive.

Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Stabilize internal temperature and assess current conditions.
Battlewinner regained consciousness as easily as if she had awoken from a simple night's sleep. She opened her eyes and smiled, content with her actions and faithful in what was to come. She climbed out of the lava, willing herself a typical temperature upon exit. Studying the cave, she realized the magma had melted away much more stone than she had predicted, despite it melting away exactly enough stone that was needed to drop the frozen Battlewinner into itself with time. Battlewinner turned to the dead, uneaten rat she had left in the cave; sure enough, it was only a decaying skeleton, which confirmed to Battlewinner that a lot of time had past.
She took a few days to assess the skies and her surrounding territory, unsurprised to see that not much has changed. What concerned her was the lack of NightWings. Not once did a merchant fly to the Sky Kingdom, not once did one visit the scavenger den- but Battlewinner did see one, among a group of dragons that held members of multiple tribes. They didn't follow the trade routes of the other tribes and only flew at night, which lead her to believe they weren't traders, but instead outlaws of sorts that Battlewinner wasn't supposed to see. They didn't know she existed, so they wouldn't hide themselves from her, she reasoned. Their blue and red uniforms were rather identifying, and they were something Battlewinner didn't recognize.
On a particularly rainy day, Battlewinner saw her own reflection and remembered, after so many years, that she had a gold earring attached to her left ear. After about a month of thought, she decided to remove it, figuring that nothing could go wrong. She was right- the amount of nothing that happened was unnerving. She kept the earring, knowing it was her only source of wealth should she ever have to bargain for her secrecy.
When not pondering these three mysteries, the NightWings, the group, or the earring, Battlewinner often thought about how long it has been since she's seen the world. She tried not to think about it, but instead to think about what she had accomplished. She'd learned the lack of limits of her heat manipulation, she'd learned a unique form of talon to talon fighting, she'd practiced military strategies in her head, she'd learned stealth enough to walk through the nearby scavenger den undetected, she'd learned how to fail at not getting a scar over her right eye, but most of all, she'd learned patience.
Patience, however, wasn't enough to damper her ever-increasing boredom.
When the time came that Battlewinner believed she could defend herself against absolutely anything, no matter the size, no matter the power, no matter the magic, her patience had worn thin. How long had it been since she'd seen the world, and how many more times of this same repetitive process would it take to realize that she'd accomplished everything she could have?
In response to these thoughts, she stationed herself in one spot and watched the night sky for days, until blue streaks crossed her vision. Battlewinner leapt into the sky, staying out of sight while forbidding the tracked from leaving hers. They were heading south, mostly, perhaps a bit southeast, she reasoned. She recognized the flight pattern of one as a MudWing's, the other two appearing as SkyWing's. Something was off about the center SkyWing, however, as their flight pattern was very jagged and angular, and their right wing appeared to be glowing blue in some areas, although Battlewinner dismissed this as glares from the moons.
It took some time before the opportunity arose for Battlewinner to get a closer look. They appeared to be following a straight path, which would lead them down a valley with a small stream. By going around the mountain on its opposite side instead of going through the valley, Battlewinner thought she could gain some extra time.
But when the mountain was behind her, she had lost them.
Battlewinner couldn't comprehend it- they should've came out right where she was hovering. It was a straight path to this position, nothing but open sky to the south, the valley to the north, and an abandoned SkyWing watchtower just to the east. There's no way she could've been spotted by them, so what happened to them?
The sun was rising when she concluded her sweep of the area. Aside from the watchtower, there were no caves, no dens, nowhere for them to hide. Disappointed, Battlewinner set down in the open area where two parts of the valley's river might connect when flooded. Something didn't seem right about the ground, however. She'd expected it to be like riverbank soil, but instead it seemed almost hollow beneath.
In a burst of impulsive action, Battlewinner threw her talons into the soil and began to dig it up. Sure enough, about an arm's length deep laid a large sheet of metal that definitely didn't belong underground. Battlewinner laid her talons upon it and willed it to melt, revealing its secrets underneath. A large, dark area yawned before her, its contents invisible to her current vantage point.
Battlewinner peeled away the glowing red metal to create a hole large enough for herself, covering it a bit with the dirt she removed to make things seem just a bit less odd from the outside. Clutching a piece of metal that she quickly molded into a sharp spear, she jumped down and glided to the unfinished, red brick floor, her hole being the only source of light. Battlewinner held up the makeshift spear to the light, redirecting it toward each wall until she located a stairway. Battlewinner clenched the metal in her mouth as she crept up the stairs, careful not to make a sound, if her entry somehow went unnoticed. The staircase was lit by odd, red, glowing streaks on the wall, made of a substance Battlewinner didn't recognize. It fascinated her, however, so she kept going.
At the top of the stairs was a crossroads; forward led to another staircase, this one spiraling upwards, and to the left, an extra hallway that after a dragon-length went up a few more steps. If the staircase ended at a place of entry to this underground structure, Battlewinner thought, she would surely like to find out. She ignored the hallway and walked forward up the dark staircase that also seemed rather unfinished, judging by the lack of railings and a few missing footholds.
At the top of that was a small room, of which an unlit torch sat on the wall. Battlewinner tapped it with her talon, lighting it ablaze to reveal a ladder going upwards. The ladder led to a door, which Battlewinner nudged open and crawled out of. She was inside a massive chamber, lit by the same red beams and a few skylights, occupied by a strange metallic contraption that almost resembled a dragon. The walls were made of a red brick laid with admirable extreme, almost impossible precision. The bricks in the floor were patterned in a strange way, not quite decorative, but perhaps as some functional markings for the large metal structure upon it.
When she was finished gawking at the craftsmanship, Battlewinner stepped forward a bit to inspect the doors. Directly across the room from where she was sat an open wooden door that led to a small storage room. There was a lever on the wall labeled as 'Hanger Door Trigger,' which Battlewinner didn't pull in case it set off an alarm. About halfway through the room was another set of doors, these unlabeled, silent internally, and unlocked. Battlewinner nudged one open to reveal machinery that she predicted nudged away the dirt of the mountainside to open a secret door. Obviously these dragons didn't want to be known about, she concluded.
Beyond this main room, much of the base was unfinished. Taking the only finished pathways, Battlewinner poked around some more, finding only two rooms labeled with 'Platinum' and 'Pollution' respectively. Both doors were locked. At the end of the hallway was another large room, styled in a similar way to the other, but with polished, red rock walls instead of the red bricks. Two smaller rooms connected to this one, a small library and a cafeteria, and an impressive staircase snaked upwards from the far wall.
Battlewinner started to walk up it. There were voices, she thought, coming from the top. Faint as they were, they were definitely voices- she'd hallucinated enough to know what was fake and what wasn't, so she thought. The second staircase that wound up the wall across from her ended about halfway up, opening into a hallway lit by lantern with doors along it, resembling the other hallways she'd seen. But the voices were still higher, so she continued up, becoming as quiet as could be upon reaching the opening.
She lifted her head over the edge of the step. It was yet another hallway, this one completely finished and lined with a bright red material that didn't quite reflect the dim light from the red streams above. Battlewinner decided this couldn't be a SkyWing base, because despite it being so red, it was way too dim for any queen's liking, and it lacked the signature SkyWing treasure. It was then that she could make out some of the words.
"...movements have been too... ...been able to track him down..."
And another voice,
"...none of my concern at the moment... ...for trying your best... ...believe our next move should be to..."
Battlewinner was working her way through the hallway, towards the one open door she could see.
"We need to show our might, what we can do, in some way, I'd think."
Halfway there.
"With what forces? Delusions, Pollution. That's our mission right now, get members, corrupt others, and most of all, stay hidden."
Standing right beside it.
"He might be right, though... To get to the strong, we need to demonstrate that we're stronger, y'know?"
A third voice. She took a small step back and recalculated her approach.
"I'll think about it. Your mind is in the right place, but for a later date, not now. Go get some food. I'll see you when I come up with something."
She couldn't compute a way out fast enough.
In a moment, his grip had her against the wall, bright flashes of blue temporarily blinding her. She did not resist, she'd play his game for now.
"Who are you?" he asked through clenched teeth.
"I think you know, if not, you don't care," she whispered in her raspy, broken voice, as she willed the spot around his talons to freeze.
He set his right palm to her head against her eye, the bright blue light set directly upon it. "Have any idea what this is? One blast and you're no more, imposter. No games. Tell me who you are."
When he didn't glance down to his talons, Battlewinner did for him. To her left, past her range of vision, one of the voices from before muttered, "B-boss?"
He broke his stare into her eyes to glance at the source of the voice, his worker, and then to his hand, which had became coated in a thickening sheet of frost. Battlewinner used this moment of distraction to break loose, move back a few paces, and to turn back around. Behind the boss stood two hybrids, MudWing and SkyWing by their looks, which confirmed to Battlewinner that these are the dragons she had followed. Strangely, the boss held back the other two with his wing, stared calmly at Battlewinner, and then it went dark.

Breathe in.
Breathe out.
What happened.
Battlewinner opened her eyes slowly and carefully, feeling the familiar pain of a sticky frost cracking upon them. She didn't dare move fast, as she had obviously been refrozen, the fastest computable explanation being that she was knocked out, and her captors removed the bracelet accidentally.
She stood there for a few seconds, feeling the hard substance fade to liquid, causing her dull scales to gleam once again. As soon as she could safely lift her head, she did. Silhouetted against a bright light was the three figures from before, identifiable by their horn shapes.
"Ex-Queen Battlewinner of the NightWings," the boss figure began, "You are within the talons of the Red Army. Either you cooperate with us, or you die." He paused for a moment, not waiting for a response. "You have something we would like. It is due to this that you are still alive and not fully and completely dead. You have connections. Upon your wrist is an enchanted bracelet. We have tabs on every animus dragon on the continent, and none could have fashioned you such a bracelet. All I ask is for the identity of the dragon who created the bracelet."
Battlewinner breathed out some, signifying that she understood the statement but it would take a moment to respond. When able, she carefully rasped, "Dead. Long dead." The boss figure approached her, making her more uneasy. "We also want to know how you're alive. Where you've been." She slowly turned her head to meet his eyes, "That is not of your concern, nor the concern of any tribes." "So you haven't lived with any tribe since the volcano," he said, turning his head to his minions and giving a small nod. The dragon to his left wrote something down.
"Listen. We believe you have the potential to become a valuable asset to the Red Army. You have found us, as we considered impossible; you have crept below our noses, for an amount of time that we still don't know; and your power could have killed me had you been quicker and hadn't hesitated, unless your intent wasn't to kill me, and in that case, you just became a lot more interesting. So tell me, Ex-Queen Battlewinner of the NightWings. Aid us in taking over the world, or I remove that bracelet from you and kill you on the spot?"
As he spoke, her mind was going over the possibilities, how nice it would be to again be on the frontline like how it was before this opportunity was robbed from her- and it sounded like they were working towards the downfall of the tribes, which was more than enough motivation for her. But as they waited, standing there, looking down upon her, the corner of her mind that she couldn't- nor did she want to- silence whispered a thought to herself, that perhaps they were completely expendable, that perhaps with their help, willingly or not, she could go beyond the universe as she had hypothesized, that perhaps they are the missing link in the puzzle, the pen forced by its holder to write what it doesn't agree with.
Alas, she was keeping them waiting.
"What do I have to do?"

"Let's make this easy,
Soon you'll haunt these beasts you hated,
No need for sleep tonight,
Sweet dreams are overrated."
-Sweet Dreams by Aviators