Thick, black tears rolled down Clock's metallic checks. Dawn huddled with him until the tears thinned. She could tell that they had both just unearthed a massive mystery. But her half-brother, for that, was what he was, was sad. And he was alright now.

"Are you alright?" Dawn asked.

Clock sniffled. "I'm fine. Memories can hurt, but the pain is only temporary. It's thoughts that can kill."

"We could ask Cyan!" Dawn blurted out. "We could ask her what really happened!"

Clock nodded. "Yes... Wait, we're here!"

Dawn screeched to a halt. They were standing behind a tall row of bushes, and beyond the bushes was empty ground. And then a cliff, tall and menacing, stretched into the sky.

The cliff was covered in holes and tunnels, and there was a distant, echoing boom and a cloud of smoke escaped from a hole. A few soot-covered RainWings stumbled out of the hole a few seconds later.

They coughed a few times, before disappearing back into the hole. In the distance, Dawn could see the outlines of ramshackle cabins through the mist. One cabin had even been built into the cliffside.

Then, a few dragons came hurrying along. Two of them were RainWings Dawn didn't recognize, and the others... Flutterwing was stumbling along, clutching her stomach. A pang of anger hit Dawn, cold and ugly.

How dare they overwork her sister? Did they not realize she was with egg? Then came Dewdrop, and Clock physically had to hold her back. All four dragons were holding large loads of rock, except for Flutterwing, her load was being held by Dew.

A dragon wearing golden armor yelled down at the four from a watch post. "Hey! Carry your own load!"

Nodding, the youngest dragon in the group, who couldn't have been more than five years old, transferred her small collection of rocks into Flutterwing's arms. Flutterwing nodded weakly.

The dragonet smiled and took the larger load that Dewdrop had been holding. Dawn backed away slightly, bumping against another bush, which rustled and swayed wildly. "Mmmmmmm?" a voice said from behind the bush.

Dawn jumped and turned, lying on the ground behind her, both Beetle and Pomegranate were fast asleep. Orange was sprawled on Pomegranate's face, fast asleep. Dawn wiggled her claw, before jabbing it at Pomegranate.

"IE-" she started before Dawn cut her off by placing her hand over her mouth.

"Shhh, we need to be quiet." At the back of Dawn's mind was a small fragment of guilt that she had just assumed that the two were alright while she'd been walking with Clock and not going to find them immediately. She shrugged it off.

"Flive mrr mins..." Beetle muttered. Dawn jabbed her with a claw, and she jerked away.

"What are we doing here?" She demanded.

"We got teleported here by my evil aunt, why?"

"And where's here?" Pomegranate asked, repositioning the still-sleeping Orange on her forehead.

"The Forest of Shadows," Dawn said evenly. She'd finally decided she would believe that it was the Forest of Shadows after all.

"You-you're joking, right?" Pomegranate stammered shakily.

"No." Dawn was done joking. "Also our friends are right there." She pointed her claw.

Pomegranate jumped, glancing out at the dragons who were struggling to help Flutterwing to stand. "How on earth do we get to them?" She asked.

"I can help with that," Clock said.

Pomegranate started to shriek, but Dawn stopped her. "Shhhhh. It's okay, he's with us."

"What IS THAT THING?" She demanded. Dawn shifted around uncomfortably.

"He's... Um, he's a dragon."

"Was," Clock corrected.

"Yup. And he has an idea," Dawn supplied dryly, trying to stop it from getting awkward.

"Just pretend you're leading me into the camp. I want you, Dawn, to stand in front of me. Pomegranate, you're gonna stand behind me."

"What about me?" Beetle asked.

"You're gonna stay with the dragonet. Believe me, when I tell you, dragonets are not welcome here."

Beetle glanced down at the small, orange dragonet. "But Pomegranate's better with dragonets," she whined.

"But dragons will be suspicious if they see a BeetleWing walking around."

Beetle stiffened. "What did you just call me?" Dawn stared at Clock with a mix of expressions on her face, from one that looked like he'd just kicked a puppy, to one that was filled with confusion.

Clock stared at her with empty black eyes. "A BeetleWing. I was assuming you already told them you're a Halo?"

The dragonet stared at him for a long moment.

"Um, sorry to interrupt your staring contest but what's a 'Halo'?" Dawn blurted out, not being able to hold it in anymore.

Clock turned toward her, his head making a little clicking sound as it tilted to one side. "Interesting. I thought everyone knew the story of the Halos."

A small tear trickled down Beetle's cheek. "We've been forgotten."

"Um, excuse me. Can we just hear the story already?" Pomegranate demanded, shifting Orange closer to her.

Clock seemed to roll his eyes. "Did you seriously not tell them?" He groaned. "This will make everything much slower."

"Fine," Beetle said shortly. "I am what's- what was known as a Halo. I assume you've heard the story of Eternity and the Mother?"

A faint memory stirred in Dawn's mind. "Mother told us those stories! I mostly forgot, but here it is." She turned to Pomegranate as she spoke.

"Long ago, at the beginning of time, two entities created the world. One was named Eternity, the storybook definition of perfect, everything about her was heavenly. 

"The other, who referred to herself as 'Mother' was the definition of evil. When Eternity created dragons, Mother created the humans, who quickly became dominant over the land. But then the Scorching happened, and Mother was furious.

"She let her many children pray openly over the dragons. Long story short, it got so bad that the dragons begged Eternity to do something. They were dying in their hundreds.

"So Eternity created the Forest of Shadows and banished Mother to wander forever amongst the dead trees. However, the souls of the dragons that had died had nowhere to go, so Eternity was forced to create a heavenly paradise for them, and an afterworld full of sunshine and beauty. 

"However, some souls would get trapped in the transition between worlds, ending up in the Forest of Shadows, earning it the name 'Void'. Mother found that the souls of dragons would occasionally get trapped in the forest and she would be able to hunt them.

"Legend has it that Mother still lurks in the Forest of Shadows, waiting for a chance to escape and return to Pyrriha. And feast."

Dawn shivered and glanced quickly at Beatle, who had been nodding her head along with the whole story. "Yes, and that's where my story begins. I hatched in the year 30 AS."

"Then shouldn't you be dead?" Pomegranate asked suddenly, before clamping her claws over her mouth in realization. "Oh, I'm sorry, that's really rude! Sor-"

"It's fine," Beetle interrupted. "I should be dead. Anyway, I lived with my mother and we were neighbors with this grouchy dragon named Anclove. She was very rude and distant, and it turns out she had a connection with Mother. Then Mother's children swarmed the earth, and we went to war with them.

"It was horrifying. A blood bath, you could say. We began to lose really quickly. I was really worried. Then Eternity called, telling eight individual dragons to come to her.  And so I did. I gave up everything that day. My mortality, my mother. My home." Beetle buries her snout in her claws. "I became a Halo, a spirit tethered to the Forest of Shadows to stop Mother from ever returning."

Clock nods. "The ultimate sacrifice. That's how Cyan always told the story-" He broke off, a single tear of thick black liquid dripping from his eyesockets.

"Oh, sorry," Beatle said gruffly.

"HEY! What's going on back here? Tryna escape, are ya?"

Dawn whipped her head around and stared at the dragon wearing golden armor. "Stay back," she snapped, baring her fangs.

"Whew, feisty, little dragon!" the dragon laughed.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry to inform you, mister, but if you really think that I would shy away from killing you, trust me. It's nowhere near what your evil employer put me through."

The dragon wasn't laughing anymore. "I've killed at least one big dragon and have witnessed three murders. All thanks to your horrible boss."

The dragon turned and ran. He ran out into the open, and she followed. Dawn pounced on him and pressed her fangs to his neck. "Don't move," she hissed.

He froze.

"Dawn?" Dawn also froze at the sound of the familiar voice.