Lavender felt torn.

She wanted to run after Salamander, telling her that she wanted to believe her, but she also wanted to scream, pull at her horns and cry. Everything felt confusing, so the only thing she could do in her daze was to whip around and run to the closest window, tucking her wings close to her body before leaping out of it.

She let herself free fall into a dive for a few seconds before her wings shot out to catch her, using the air to lift her up and let her swiftly soar through the sky.

I need to warn my family, I need to warn my family, I need to warn my family, she kept reminding herself as her vision became blurry with tears. She used her forearms to try and wipe them away,

The image kept replaying in her head.

Salamander shouting at her, telling her she loved her. The other hybrid looked torn and confused, and hurt. Just thinking about it made Lavender's heart do flips, ones that made her feel as though it were hard to breath.

She was to distracted to realize she was flying directly towards someone until it was to late.

She slammed into their side, both them them making a startled sound.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I need to go-"

Lavender tried to fly off but she felt talons grasp her wrist. When she turned to look, she was met with the sight of Misfortunate. The blue tinted NightWing was looking at her with concerned and confused blue eyes.

"Strongmind?"

That name made her stomach join along with her heart doing flips within her chest. She couldn't form any words as she looked away, her frills drooping.

"That's not your real name, is it?"

Lavender expected to be shouted at, to be attacked for not looking like a NightWing anymore, but, Misfortunate spoke to her in a soft voice, a motherly tone that reminded the small hybrid of her mother. When she looked back to face the NightWing, she was met with the worrying face of a mother, Simone who cared.

"I....." Lavender choked on her own words.

"Shhh...it's okay." Misfortunate spoke softly as she pulled on Lavender's wrist softly to pull her closer before she wrapped her arms around her. In that moment, Lavender felt herself snap as the tears started to flow once more. She buried her face within Misfortunate's chest as the female NightWing kept saying soothing words while running her talons lightly over Lavender's spine.

"You don't have to tell me what happened if you don't want to right now." The NightWing told her softly.

Lavender just let her tears keep flowing. Her mind was swirling like a storm and she couldn't think straight. Images kept flashing in her mind. Salamander telling her she loved her before walking away from their argument. Her family in the rainforest being attacked by NightWings, being attacked by Animosity or Charming.

After a few moments, Lavender was able to speak and she let everything spill out. She told Misfortunate about what had happened. She told her everything. When she was done, she felt as though her throat was on fire, it was sore from the crying and now sore from speaking on top of that.

"Lavender," Misfortunate started. She looked up to meet the NightWing's gaze. "Everything will be okay, I promise."

"Will you be so sure about that?" Snarled another voice.

Misfortunate and Lavender both flinched as they separated and turned to see the owner of the voice, and it was someone that Lavender hoped to never see again.

Animosity.

The dark red-ish brown NightWing wasn't to far away from them, her eyes narrowed. At her sides were four other NightWing's who had spears within their talons. Animosity must've made them into her own personal soldiers or guards though they did not have armour.

"I knew you would be trouble, dragonet." The Queen snarled as her glare was directed towards Lavender. "I know why you're here, you're here to spy and ruin everything I've worked hard on to achieve." She snarled.

"All you're doing is lighting the flames that will start another war." Lavender couldn't help but hiss, her frills rattling.

"A war that'll be worth all the bloodshed." The Queen looked over to her soldiers. "Get them."

"Run!" Lavender shout to Misfortunate before she spun around to fly as fast as she could. She could hear Misfortunate flying behind her along with the wingbeats of the four soldiers chasing after them.

She could hear a hissing sound and when she looked over her shoulder to look, she could see one of the soldiers was getting ready to blast at them with his fire, aiming for Lavender. She quickly shot up higher into the air. She could feel the heat of the flames licking hungrily at the top of her tail, just barely missing her.

The group of soldiers looked to have now split. Three chased after Misfortunate while one chased after Lavender. The NightWing looked to be almost twice her size, but since she was smaller, she'd be faster.

The small purple hybrid tucked in her wings, diving down and picking up speed.

Pretend this is like the game I play with Shadowsplitter. The dragon chasing me is the bad guy and I'm the hero trying to escape their evil talons, she thought as she tried to focus. Where would I go if I was trying to get away from Shadow?

As she dove, she looked around until her gaze landed onto the thick foliage of the forest below her. The trees! She quickened her pace as she shot towards the dark coloured trees. She narrowed her eyes as she dove through the lush and damp foliage, feeling the dew smear against her scales, coating them in the cold dew that seemed to grew colder with the fading light of sunset.

She kept her wings tucked closely to her body until she was clear of the branches, to which they shot out to lift her up just before she hit the ground. She would twist and turn to fly around trees and try to loop around to lose the NightWing that was chasing her, and after a while, it seemed to have worked.

I need to go find Misfortunate, make sure she's okay, Lavender thought as she kept flying, turning herself back in the direction she last saw the dark blue tinted NightWing.

As she flew, she soon was clear of the trees and flying within a small clearing. She heard the wings beats of a dragon and she tried to turn and see who it was, but it was to late as a heavy force slammed into her, making her crash onto the ground with a gasp and the air was forced out of her lungs.

Large talons held her down, their claws digging into her chest and holding her firmly into the ground. Even as her own talons grasped into their wrists, trying to pull them off, she couldn't move them. She tried kicking at their gut, using her long RainWing like caws to scale and scratch just like Shadowsplitter taught her to do, nothing seemed to work.

Nothing was hurting them.

When she managed to open her eyes, she was met with the sight of Animosity. The large NightWing pinning her down.

"Did you really think you could get away?" The NightWing snarled, her teeth bared.

"Y-Yeah, clearly." She hissed with a grunt as more weight was pushed down onto her chest by Animosity's talons.

"You're lucky I've decided you're rather useful. If not, I would've killed you by now."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" She shot back with a hiss, her frills rattling as they fanned out.

"You're Strongwings daughter," she started flatly, though her eyes looked to sparkle at the thought. "If I have you, I'll soon have him."

Lavender felt as though the world was start to shatter around her and fall apart.

"You have his face, but you also have the hideous frills of a RainWing." She spat. "Which you get from your mother."

Lavender could hardly speak as more pressure was pressed down onto her chest, pressing down atop her lungs and forcing air out of them. It was hard enough for her to breath, let alone speak.

I can't let her win, her mind raced as she opened her jaws in a fake attempt to spit at the Queen, as though she had RainWing acid. Animosity's eyes narrowed as though she expected her to actually do it. Lavender took the chance to let go of the Queen's wrists and reached up to the NightWing's face, her claws dragging down Animosity's face and over her eyes, but her claws didn't seem to even make a single scratch on her scales.

Animosity opened her eyes to look down at Lavender with an evil grin on her face which made Lavender have a sinking feeling of horror in her gut.

She seemed to be invincible.

She could hear dragons landing down around her. It was the NightWing soldiers.

"Your majesty, the NightWing away." A soldier informed her, to which Animosity let out a frustrated snarl.

"She's by as important as this one." The Queen smirked. "Take her back to the palace and throw her into the dungeon. Make sure she doesn't escape."

-~-~-~-~-~-~-

As soon as they arrived back at the palace, practically dragging Lavender there, she was thrown into a cell, slamming against the black stone brick wall. She crumbled to the ground with a huff as the cell door was slammed closed with a clang.

The bars looked old and rusted, yet still looked to stand strong and practically looked to be saying "try and break me, you won't."

She looked up to meet the eyes of Animosity who stood just outside her cell. Lavender tried to push herself up, but her arms gave out beneath her, making her fall back onto to cold stone floor beneath her. Her body felt sore and bruised from being forcefully taken here. She fought as much as she could, but no matter what she did, Animosity wouldn't even get a scratch, while Lavender was covered in wounds which were screaming out at her to rest and let them heal.

Her heart seemed to be thundering in her chest and raining in her ears. The only thing that reminded her to pull herself back into the present was the necklace that hung from around her neck, the one Salamander traded for to give it to her.

"You'll never win." Lavender all but spat with a cough as her lungs screamed at her to stop. They felt bruised along with the rest of her body.

"Just watch me." Animosity hissed with a flick of her tail as she turned to leave.

"Violence isn't the only way to talk to others!" She shouted, her voice straining.

The Queen stopped in her tracks before she whipped around and made her way back towards Lavender with narrowed eyes that made the small hybrid flinch.

"You chose to speak with words, but the only true language anyone with truly understand is violence," The NightWing hissed as her talons grasped the rusty iron bars. "And we've spoken that language Lavender, we've spoke it today and I will teach you for how ever long it takes for you to understand each and every word in this language, but for now,"

Animosity turned back to start making her way out of the dungeons. "It's time for a new day, a new era, a new plot,"

The NightWing turned to look back at Lavender over her shoulder.

"to destroy the RainWing's."

———————————————————
A shorter chapter than the last few, but chapter 26 will be a lot longer since it'll be packed full of juicy stuff for all you lovey lads and lassies.

Anyways!

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Torn Sides! I had to re-write this one a few times to get it just how I wanted it. So you can tell why I've ended it off a little short, but, also because it came off to a nice close.

- MindlessTyper