Solar looked up at her, shock registering on her face for a split second. Then she laughed, lifting into the air herself, mockingly bowing outwards.

"Shapeshifter. You dare?" Solar snarled, clenching her talons. "Don't you know what I've done to the dragons who threaten my throne? What makes you think you are even worthy to utter those words?"

"Says the one who murdered all who stood in your way." Artemis said. "Solar, you've been through so much heartbreak- and I am sorry. But that doesn't excuse what you've done." She raised her head and hissed. "It's time to end the cycle. I'll find a better queen for the Daywings- you don't deserve them."

"You aren't even of my tribe." Solar prompted. "It's just trickery!"

Artemis shook her wings, just slightly, but they already glowed with a hot, silvery light. Her eyes were bright and at that moment she felt strong.

"Then it should be no problem to fight me. I believe you were just discussing what you did to those who threatened your throne."

"Enough of this!" Solar roared, and a stream of fire flew at Artemis faster than she could dodge.

Her scales crackled and singed at the ends as she jerked away, but they cooled and settled as she winged back around. Fire wouldn't be her best option to face Solar- she had to be smarter than that.

Artemis lunged, her hind talons connecting with Solar's chest plate, sending her and the queen crashing to the ground. Her scales were slick with blood, and the sky washed them both in red. Her teeth closed around the metal and she pulled as hard as she could, fracturing the metal and causing Solar to scream in fury.

Solar shoved her with her wings, her tail coming around and slicing her in the forearm as she got back up. The Nightwing danced away, but not unscathed. Artemis cried out and stumbled, losing her balance as the wound began to sizzle with green fluid.

Come on, Artemis. She thought, forcing herself back up, ignoring the stinging pain. Artemis blocked it out just like the bite that once ailed her. Part of her knew she could survive it just fine, thanks to her blood, and it was thrilling.

She launched herself back at the queen, bringing her own tail around at Solar and digging her talons into her neck. She grit her teeth and swung hard, her bladed tail digging into the queen's chest.

Solar gasped, her talons clutching at the wound, her eyes turning into wide silver disks. She seemed surprised Artemis had gotten her.

Artemis dropped back to the ground with a hiss, and Solar lurched forward, blood dripping in a torrent to the earth in a mess of green and red. There was a sickly grey color that began to leech from her scales, eating up the vibrancy of the gold.

The Nightwing took a step back in shock- her chest heaving. Had she- had she done it?

"Artemis!" A voice called, and suddenly Archangel was there. He dropped to the ground, wincing at a very harsh looking cut into his side.

"Archangel- what-"

As fast as a viper, the Daywing lunged and dragged Artemis to the ground, just as a bolt of white-hot fire seared over their heads.

Solar wasn't done yet. And by the look of it, she had just gotten started. The queen's scales took on a sickly grey-green tinge- the gold was gone, she now radiated with venom, the white and silver of her eyes having been eaten away by the wicked color. Artemis didn't get it- that was a stab right to her heart. She shouldn't be alive.

"She's a royal friend of the Magicwings, Artemis." Archangel said through a gasp as she helped him back up. "At their worst... they can... change themselves..."

"Oh come on." She faced the new queen with grit teeth.

"It's okay." Archangel smiled weakly. "You have some help."

Daybreak touched down beside them, the prince turning to his mother with all the grace he could muster. Solar, disoriented, raised her head and hissed in pain.

"I'm supposed to do this alone-" Artemis began, but Daybreak shook his head with a smile, suddenly clasping her talons in his. The sun earrings on his ears glinted a blood red, and she noticed a gold circlet that rested atop his horns.

"I know about my mother's prophecy. She's destined to be stopped by an heir- but also descendants." He then grinned. "And by that- there can be more than one."

She felt an overwhelming surge of gratitude and happiness and fear all at once.

"Thank you." She said, her throat dry.

Solar was rising now- she had truly changed this time around, as if she took the venom in and made herself...something else. Artemis noticed a few gems in her neck disintegrate away- that must've been what she used.

Whatever was in them, the magic was gone. But it left a monster in its wake.

"Get out of here." Daybreak told Archangel, who growled and moved his bloodied talons from his side.

"I can still fight." He growled.

"Please. Angel." Daybreak said, the amount of urgency in his voice seeming to shock a bit of sense into Archangel.

Archangel's face twisted into a grimace and he looked up at the prince. He took to the air.

"Fine. But you better come back to me alive."

"Always."

Solar's voice cut through the fog that had seemed to form around them. She resonated with a shiny, silver-green that made Artemis sick to look at.

"If you're done." She rumbled. "This is between me and the little hero, Daybreak. You know you're not meant to be here. Flee, and I may spare you."

Daybreak glared down his mother, spreading his wings alongside Artemis, and she didn't feel so hopeless anymore.

"You cut down everyone in your way." He said. "Everyone. My sisters... my nieces... my aunts. And I watched. And I waited for a chance to end it- but I was too scared. But anymore. It's time that I finally do something, mother."

"What can you do?" Solar flicked out her tongue- it was an ugly green color. "You're just a prince." She said, mockingly.

"A prince that knows how to fight." Daybreak snarled, and shot a blaze of flames at his mother, disorienting her, lunging at the queen and clipping his wing across Artemis, who leapt at the queen beside him.

The prophecy Nightflier foretold would come true, one way or another. And so would Tempest's. They'd make sure of it.

Solar hit the ground with a roar, and Artemis sank her teeth into her wing, gagging and reeling in shock when the blood made her mouth tingle. Venom. It must've been venom in her blood.

"Daybreak! Her blood is poison." She gasped, and the prince nodded his understanding, lashing his tail and dragging his talons down Solar's neck.

The queen suddenly grabbed his wrist, twisting her large body and throwing Artemis to the ground. She landed on her back, skidding across the cobblestones. Her head struck the stone wall around them, and her ears rang. Disoriented, she looked back to Daybreak, just to see him hit the wall harder than she had. He fell, a sickening crack biting through her misty hearing.

"Daybreak!" She called, but her voice felt too quiet.

"I'm done playing." Solar boomed. The queen limped to Artemis, foreboding, furious. Dripping blood.

Artemis desperately tried to stand, but found her back foot twisted at an ugly angle. She hissed a wince and a warning, and the queen stopped before her.

The Nightwing thought back to the first time she met the queen. Solar having invaded her dreams, no doubt with the help of the Magicwings. She knew so little.

Before she could even take a breath, Solar's talons clamped around her neck, and she lifted her. Artemis choked, gasping and grasping at the giant claws encircling her airway. She kicked with all her strength, even with her foot broken. She scratched and bit and struggled, but Solar's grip only grew tighter. Artemis felt her wings go limp. Her neck began to crackle, like lightning before a storm.

The whole world was dimming. Everything dimming.
Solar smiled, and brought the dying Artemis close to her face. She wrenched the necklace from her chest and enclosed it in her other set of talons. Small fractures formed, and tiny particles began to fall onto the ground. Artemis watched helplessly. She gave one last push at Solar's chest, and the queen let the shattered necklace fall.

It seemed to glow blue. Everything was blue, no longer the ugly red from the eclipse. Artemis thought she could finally see the stars.

"Say goodbye, little hero."

"Goodbye."

As fast as a viper, a golden thread shot past Solar's face.

She suddenly froze in shock. Her claws went slack around the Nightwing's throat, and Artemis dropped to the ground. Gasping for air, and choking, Artemis stared up with wide blue eyes at the queen, waiting for the fire, waiting for her wrath- as her head fell to her feet. Her body went not long after, with a resounding thud. Blood began to pool from the stump of her head.

Daybreak stood over her, panting, holding a golden garrote in his talons. A line of blood was struck cleanly across his face. Artemis wearily noticed that the circlet around his head was gone- it was the weapon the whole time.

Solar was dead.

And Daybreak had killed her.

"Artemis." Daybreak said, noticing her and rushing to her aid. She struggled to her feet with a hiss each time, her breathing heavy. She was so in shock, she hardly noticed her own voice, or hardly noticed the worst of her pain. Artemis stared at the dead queen.

"She's... gone.."

"I know." Daybreak answered, his own voice devoid of anything she could decipher.

Solar was gone...And so was the necklace-

Artemis suddenly turned, adrenaline finding its way back into her veins despite her injury. There, on the cobblestone, lay the enchanted necklace. She felt stupid for not noticing. There was a power, strong and blinding, and it bled from the cracked stone. It was going to shatter- it was going to shatter- and somehow, Artemis knew, it would be bad.

"Go, get out of here!" She shouted, turning to Daybreak and shoving him to the sky. "Go! Right now!"

"Artemis-" He began, confused, and she shoved him harder. She didn't even notice their spectators, the Daywings. Artemis called up to them too.

"Go! You all need to go!"

A resounding gasp came from Daybreak, and Artemis whipped her head back around once more. The necklace pulsated with blue and white. Any second.

She didn't think, she just jumped. Artemis grabbed the broken item and landed on her shoulder, hard, her body curled tight around the stone as the magic was set free.

Thunder shook the castle, and then Artemis wasn't with the Daywing prince anymore.

She looked around herself. Ghostly, thin apparitions of dragons. Nightwings. But not just them. Magicwings, too. And a single Mudwing! A Seawing, an Icewing- Artemis turned in a circle, astonished. Every dragon from every tribe. Even some she hadn't even seen, or known to exist. Watching her, eyes narrowed, faces serene or calculating or concerned.

"You've made your own path." A Nightwing before her said, and Artemis gaped at the dragon. Her mother, Nightflier. Nightflier noticed her shock, and smiled. She reached out to her face, and Artemis felt the gentle caress of transparent talons.

"Do not be wary. You have done well, daughter. I will see you again when you are ready."

"Please wake up."

________

Artemis opened her eyes.

"Oh, thank the Titans." Daybreak said, relieved. He sheltered her from the now silver moonlight. She blinked around, stunned. Dragons of all tribes surrounded them, quiet, chests heaving with bated breaths. Artemis was still curled in on herself. She slowly moved- and realized her pain had vanished.

As for the necklace, only a single shard remained, not much larger than the diamonds under her eyes. Artemis was speechless- what had happened?

"There must've been centuries of magic built up in that necklace." Daybreak said. "I've never seen anything that powerful. I don't know how you survived..."

"I did more than that." She said, lifting her talons and examining the tingling scales along them. They had significantly lightened near her claws, like a sudden rush of clouds over a dark sky. "I feel different."

"Move! Move!" A sudden female voice snarled, and Mamba shoved her way through the crowd. She bore a deep bite mark along her neck that looked like it hurt. Though as soon as her gaze landed on Artemis, her whole face brightened, washing the pain away. "I found her!" She called back, and Artemis watched with a short smile as her friends barreled up to the Rainwing.

She met their embraces with teary eyes, her wings pressed as tight around them as she could make them. Mamba grabbed her talons and hugged her the closest, Tempest under her arm and Mudpuddle beside her, with both Seaglass and Snowfall snugly wrapped around Artemis, and Potent with his wings enveloping them all in a warm shade. They stayed like that for a long moment, until they couldn't anymore, and they reluctantly parted.

"I'm so glad you're all okay." She said, her voice breaking into a sob.

"Me too." Mudpuddle said, wiping her face with a wing.

"Where's Flare and Apollo-"

"Artemis." Daybreak cut in, and Artemis shyly noticed the dragons still surrounded them, eyes intent and desperate. The Daywings most of all, looking lost and exhilarated all at once. Archangel was back at Daybreak's side, and Artemis noticed he held the fallen queen's crown, his expression grim but determined.

"They are both okay." Snowfall assured, but nodded to the prince. "I think... I think you have a very important decision to make."

Artemis knew she did. As she stepped up to the prince, she looked down at her Daywing form, and felt the shard she still had tightly grasped in a set of talons. There was an unspoken choice before her, and they all knew it.

Quietly, she heard a familiar voice.

A destined dragon with a hard beginning will send the keepers of Pyrrhia's fate spinning.
She with silver scales dotted from the moon, shall bid the next ruler to rise, who brings the new.
To succeed with the new there will come the dark.
A seven dragonet quest they must embark

Scales as green as glass
Puddle of mud on the ground below.
Snow that gently falls
Venomous snake that stalks
Toxic tail from the sand
A tribrid who will guide across the lands, and eyes that change with every glance.

The dragonets must survive, or else the Sun will take the tribes.
Travel to the Twins to bring down the Sun. Discover the truth of the Moon for the battle to be won.
Clashes of claws are fated, to put the war to rest.
Find unlikely heroes who will help in the test.
Sun and Moon shall begin an Eclipse.
Warning for a hero, the scales have just tipped.
As the sun falls, it strikes a final curse.
Along comes a second star as wicked as the first.
But it's place it will not keep, for not so far away, soars a brand new light. The brave break of day.
As the chaos settles, there is one final task.
To the mirage or the daylight, should the golden crown be cast?

Artemis held the last fragment of her necklace in her talons. She could sense it. One more use, and then the magic would be lost forever. Time around her seemed to slow, and the world started to blur.

She thought back to what was undoubtedly the rest of the prophecy.

"To the mirage or the daylight should the golden crown be cast?"

A question, in a prophecy, of all things. But she realized what it meant for her. It was giving her a choice.

She was the mirage. She could be the next Daywing queen, if she chose so.

Her gaze drifted to Daybreak, his eyes so full of hope, and worry, and fear for his tribe. Even after everything, she could tell he loved them so much. He would do anything for them.

Artemis closed her eyes with a sigh, exhaling. The crowd seemed to as well. She raised the shard in her lightened talons, and the decision was made. She cupped the last fragment in her talons, and marveled on how delicate it felt. Artemis closed her eyes, and became herself again.

She knew who she was. Despite changing, constantly, making herself different with each shape, she realized she hadn't lost who she really was.

She was the daughter of Nightflier, and Scalebreaker, who's wrongdoings ruined their chance at a family. Artemis would learn from their mistakes. She was sister to Apollo, Prophecyteller, and even Nightsong, despite how bad she could be to her. She was a member of the Nightwing tribe. She was a sculptor. She was a fighter. A friend to dragons from every corner of the islands.

She was Artemis.

She felt the shard crumble in her talons, and her eyes flickered open again, an icy, distant blue. Her friends and enemies alike stared at her. Watching, holding their breath, and waiting.

"You will have a new ruler." She said. "But it isn't me."

She spread her wing, and brought it around Daybreak. His eyes widened in shock, but Artemis felt she was making the right choice. Her voice felt amplified, and powerful. She felt confident that they could all hear her. They could all see her. She smiled,
and Archangel smiled right back, reverently placing the fallen queen's crown on Daybreak's head.

"Here is the slayer of the tyrant Solar, the sun of the south, and the new ruler of the Daywings. He may be a male- but he's what is best for your tribe. He's the rightful ruler. I know you'll learn that in due time. He deserves this." She announced, and she stepped away.

Archangel cried out in happiness, spreading his wings wide and shouting with the Daywings, clasping an astonished Daybreak's talons and pumping them into the air.

The voices of the gathered warriors seemed to echo off the mountains and the moons all at once.

"Long live King Daybreak!"