A/N: To -F4ND0M-0V3RL04D-,
WolvesOfHope,
MythicalNerdy,
Spark-Draws,
CryoFangs549,
and to you, my good reader, if you've stuck with Holly to the bitter end.

Holly's POV

Holly felt weighed down, like an entire mountain was falling down on her.

She urgently darted towards her friends, trying to tear away their bonds, but her talons went right through them like she was made of smoke.

These were her dragons.
This was her team.
If she couldn't save them, who would?

"None of us are really here", Lizard said, almost sympathetically.
"Only Cottonmouth is really here, inside one of Wasp's attendants.

She flicked her tail at the human, who was holding his head in a strange possition to make his dragon glar at the prisoners.

"Can't you do anything?", Holly asked.
"Can't you-"

"Why should I?", Lizard snapped.
"Those dragons have nothing to do with me."

"They're my friends!"

"So? I never had any friends, remember?"

Arrrah, why do you have to be so selfish?
Okay, stay calm, stay calm.
There's gotta be some way to help them, you just have to find it.

"At last", Wasp hissed, ticking her long claws against a bowl she was holding.
It was made of white porcelain, and when Holly peered into it, she could see a layer of green residue at the bottom of it.

"I have my power once more, and now it's time to expand my army, starting with these. . . . unsual worms."
She set down the bowl, and a vicious stinger slid out of the end of her tail.

"Wait", Cottonmouth said.

Wasp wipped around to glar at him.
"No one gave you permission to speak, Malachite."

"It's not Malachite", Cottonmouth hissed.
"It's me. I'm here to speak to these dragons. Stand down, or I will make you cut your own throat."

Holly realized that the queen and everyone else outside of the Mindspace could still only see Malachite, the dragon; only she, Dusky, Bait, and Lizard saw Cottonmouth in his place.

The queen's wings buzzed, creating an almost audible vibberation in the air as they rubbed togther.
After a long moment, she said, "You can't do that."

"I can", he said.
"You aren't needed anymore. Shall we find out what I can make you do?"

Queen Wasp bared her sharp teeth, and flicked one talon at the prisoners.
"Very well. Speak to them, if you must."

"Unbind their mouths", he ordered.

Wasp twitched, her arms flexing slightly.
"That seems unwise."

"I need answers from them", Cottonmouth said.
"Do as I say."

The nearest guard looked from Wasp to Cottonmouth, and the white glaze went over his eyes, and he removed the flamesilk gags covering the prisoners' mouths.

Cottonmouth stepped forward, and the Pyrrhian dragons looked up at him, Tsunami defiant, Pineapple greenish-blue with anxieity, Qibli managing a mask that was a perfect mix of neutral, happy, and even mildly bored.

"Tell me where Sundew is", Cottonmouth ordered.

"We'll never tell you", Tsunami said, at the same time as Qibli said, "Who? No idea who that is."

Cottonmouth cocked an eyebrow at them.

"Wait, who?", Tsunami added.
"I thought you said something else. Who are you talking about?"

Cottonmouth snarrled.

"Did she go all the way to the Distant Kingdoms to get you?", he asked, his eyes glittering.
"Are there more of you?"

Queen Wasp stirred slightly behind Cottonmouth.
"There are more of them; someone stole the two invisible ones."

Holly staggered.
Mandrake and Moonwatcher!
Sundew and Lynx must have broken them out!

"Was that Sundew?", Cottonmouth asked the prisoners.
"Was she here, in this very Hive, and did the incompetent dragon behind me let her go?"

Qibli, Pineapple, and Tsunami looked at each other.

"You took that Silkwing to do something else", Wasp spat at Cottonmouth.
"My Hivewings aren't equipt to watch for invisible dragons. It's your fault."

Cottonmouth vanished from his spot infront of the prisoners, leaving a red-and-orange Hivewing in his wake.
The Hivewing blinked, reaching for the spectacles at the end of his snout, as Cottonmouth reappeared where Wasp had been sitting a moment before.

He reached up, and clamped one hand around his own neck.
A silent struggle played out on the throne.

"This part is always weird", Lizard said to Holly, as Dusky ran to her.
"When he has to punish someone, he has to get inside them, so here in the Mindspace, it always looks like he's doing it to himself."

The Hivewing who Cottonmouth had been inside of a moment earlier, Malachite, Holly remembered, looked down at the prisoners, then back at the throne.
A second later, he was crouching beside Tsunami, trying to slice through the silk with his claws.

"What's happening?", he whispered to her.
"Do you know Katidid? How long have I- how long has it been since-"

"Cottonmouth", Lizard said boredly, "you're overdoing it."

The human glanced over at Malachite, cursed, and let the queen go.
She reappeared on the throne, as he jumped back into Malachite.
The Hivewing barely had time to whisper, "No!" and all Holly could see was Cottonmouth, standing over Tsunami with a discusted expression.

Tsunami strained at the bonds, but Malachite hadn't cut enough for her to break free.

"Let's get this over with", Cottonmouth said.
"Before anymore of them escape."

From the throne, Wasp glared at him with deep, glittering eyes. Thin trails of yellow-green blood ran down her throat.
"I have your permission to go ahead now, I do?"

She slithered off her throne, crept over the shimmering floor, and held her tail high above Qibli.

"No! This isn't happening!", Holly shouted.
"Lizard! please! Do something!"

"No! I won't! Leave me alone!", the dragonet ordered.

At that very moment, Qibli yelled, "Pineapple, now! The queen!"
And then, he opened his mouth and fire shot into Cottonmouth's face.
Cottonmouth gave a cry, and disappeared, leaving Malachite lying on the floor, trying to beat out the flames.

Pineapple's jaw's hinged open unlike anthing Holly'd ever seen before, and a black spray of liquid shot out of his top two fangs, hitting Wasp's face with a hiss.

Chaos erupted.
Wasp screaming.
Hivewings shouting and runing around.
The fire spreading from Malachite, to the carpet, and the tapesteries, and the walls.

Dusky clambered up Holly's back, shivering in fear.

Through the smoke, Holly saw Cottonmouth inside one Hivewing, and then another.
For a moment, they would move in sync, eyes, white, and a moment later, they would fall out again, stumbling and blinking.

"Oh! This is great! He has to control those Hivewing through Wasp, but if he doesn, he feels her face burning!", Lizard cried in glee.
"So awesome!"

Holly saw Qibli - who was bond with flamesilk - duck under the queen's wings barely missing one of the stingers she was thrashing every which way, swishing his own tail barb into a lumbering Hivewing, catching her spear as it fell to the floor.
Still bond, he rolled over to Pineapple, who was staring at Wasp in a state of blank shock.

On the other side of the room, Tsunami was roaring and flailing, lashing her tail, and smaking away any guards who tried to approuch her.
The flames were licking her wings, but when she tried to reach Qibli and Pineapple, she nearly ran herself into one of Wasp's stigers, and had to jump back in a hurry.

Qibli sawed awkwardly at the ropes around Pineapple with the tip of the spear.

Wasp staggered back to her throne, clutching her face.
She flickered- Cottonmouth, Wasp, Cottonmouth, Wasp. And then, for a moment, Cottonmouth sat in her place, his face contorted in pain.

The Hivewing guards froze their eyes went from white to marbe, white, marble.

No, no, no!
He's going to recover!
I can't let him!

"Lizard! Please!"
"I told you to-"
"I won't stop!", Holly said.
"I will never stop until he's gone!"

"See, Lizard?", Dusky said, peeking over Holly's back.
"That's the right thing to do. And if you still don't want to-"
He paused for a moment.
"You can have my memories."

"Dusky, are you sure?", Holly asked him.
"Will he still have them? Cottonmouth only needs my memories, right?"

"Yes-yes, that's all right", Lizard said, wide-eyed.
"You mean it?"
Dusky nodded.

She grinned confidently.
"You got it!"

She suddenly appeared across the room, jumped into Malachite, grabbed a spear, hurried over to Tsunami, and cut her bonds.
It was not carefully done.
Holly could see swells of blood dripping down her neck and wings, but at least she was free, and now she could fight the hivewings with her claws.

A moment later, Tsunami and Lizard were over at Qibli's side, cutting away the ropes around him.
As the ropes fell off of Pineapple, the Rainwing's scales switched to camoufage, and Holly could only see by in flickers of movement.

The three Pyrrhian dragons ran for the window.

"I think that was very helpful of me", Lizard said, reappearing next to Holly, with a self-satisified smile on her face.
"You're welcome!"

Across the room, Malachite staggered, shaking his head.
he looked around at the burning throne room, then turned, and ran out of the archway to the rest of the hive.

"But they need-", Holly began, as Qibli set off another blast of flames, and another splatter of Magical-death-spit fell over the guards.

Every time Pineapple used it, one of the Hivewing gaurds screamed, and his or her eyesswitching back to normal.

A path opened through the crowd of gaurds. Tsunami charged through into it, wings spreadm tossing aside any Hivewings still in her way, then she truned around, pulled Qibli's arm, and thrust him out of the window and into the sky.
A rush of camoufage scales flew over her head, and after another brief moment of struggle, she flew after them.
They shot away into the savahanna, into the falling night.

"After them!", Cottonmouth screamed from the throne, and then he vanished, leaving only Wasp, who dug her claws into her face, and roared in fury and pain.

Almost all the Hivewings launched themselves out of the window, but five of them still lie hollowing on the floor.

"Someone should get them out of here", Holly said.
"What of the Hive burns down?"

"This is Wasp Hive", Lizard said.
"And besides, what do you care? There aren't even any Silkwings here."

She tilted her head as if she was listening to something.
"But lots of Leafwings are coming; Cottonmouth summoned more of his own dragons."

Holly walked over to the window.
Tsunami, Qibli, and Pineapple were almost out of sight, but dragons were streaming towards them from all angles of the sky.

"How will I know if they're all right?", Holly asked, twisting her talons together.

"They're not", Cottonmounth's voice said from behind her.
"I absorbed one of them before they escaped."

He chuckled mercillessly.
"Soon they will all be mine."

No.
No, they won't.
I've got to stop him before it's too late!

She sprinted across the room to Lizard.
Dusky slid off of her back.
"Tell me how to defeat him."
Lizard gave her a bored expression.

"Lizard, please!", Holly sain, pacing.
"Just. . . . . . think of all the dragons you could save!"

That was not the right thing to say.

"I had my entire life stolen from me", the dragonet said bitterly.
"They get to live their whole lives; why should I care if they die?"

Holly sighed.

"Okay, listen. I want to get back to my world, back to my family, back to my real life.
The only thing keeping me going, through all of the pain and sadness, is the hope that I'll see them again.
They need me, even if they don't admit it. But I can't just leave. I care about everyone here too, and I can't just abandon them like that.
But I can't get back without your help."

Lizard though for a long time.

"Fine", she said finally.
"But only because it would be nice to see the end of that jerk."

She leaned closer to Holly.
"You know Cottonmouth's pet snake?"

Holly shivered.
As if normal snakes weren't bad enough; naturally there also has to be a creepy leaf-snake.

"It's not an ordinary snake; it's the vine behind the mind control, the one going through our skulls, that's how it appears in the Mindspace. If you break the snake's neck, and you move your real, physical body, and snap the vine right where it exits our heads at the same time, everyone will be released."

Holly let that sink in for a moment.
"And what about us?"

"If no one saves your bodies", Lizard said, choking, "if no one pulls you out of the Abyss, you, me, Cottonmouth, we'll all die."

"Oh."

Holly was silent for a minute.
She looked at Dusky.
"Is there any other way?"

Lizard shook her head miserably.

Dusky hugged her neck.
"Do it", he whispered.
"We have to."

Holly was quiet for another minute.
"Okay."

"Wait", Dusky suddenly said.
"Can we at least change her name first?"
He indictated Lizard.

"Why?", Lizard asked with a pouty expression.
"So that I can enjoy it for the next five minutes?"

"No. So that we don't ahve to remember you by a name He gave you. Freedom."

"Freedom. I like that", Freedom said with a weak smile.

Dusky wrapped his arms around her.
She looked surprised at first, the she hugged him back.
"I'll miss you, Freedom", Dusky sniffed.
"Thank-thank you for being my friend, Dusky, my only friend."

"Now", Cottonmouth said, abruptly turning towards Holly, opening his terrible bloody eyes.
"Holly, about those memories-"

"About them, you won't get them", Holly said, making an act at confidence.

"Ohhh, and why is that?", he asked sweetly.
"All you need to do, is give me your memories, I become a live human-being again, an dyou can go back to your family."

He suddenly pulled a flute from out of nowhere.

"There is nothing of this world after all", he said kindly.
"This is all an illusion."

"What. . . . . . are. . . . . you. . . . . "
Holly began to sway to the music.
She was so transfixed, she didn't even notice the snake twisting around her, squeazing tighter and tighter around her and Dusky.

Lizard stood there, completely helpless to what was happening.

"This world is all a lie. You were forced to come here by tranants and demons. I can set you free."

"No. . . . . . can't. . . .You're lying."
But now that she'd said it, it no longer felt true.

"Am I?", he asked.
"Why would I lie?"

Holly felt as though she'd taken a plunge into her Aunt Sandy's pond.
She couldn't breath.
She felt herself falling.
The more she struggled, the harder the water tore at her scales and ripped at her lungs.

Suddenly, a hand, a human hand, reached into the water and pulled her out.
She gasped, and to her surprise, saw that she surroundings were identical to her aunt's yard.

And sitting infront of her, was the mysterious boy.
"You fell in again, Holly", he said, patting her on the back.

"W-why didn'y you j-just let me drown?", she asked between golps of air.

"Because you can't; I won't let you. If you can't do this, no one can."

Holly blinked, and then, the boy and the pond were gone, and she was back in the Mindspace.

"You have nothing of this world", Cottonmouth luled.
"No scales, no claws, no wings, no friends. You are all alone."

Holly shut her eyes and concintrated.
The snake's coils were getting tighter.

She changed her focus to the material world, back to her trapped dragon body in the Abyss.
She told her legs to move, but for a moment, they were frozen in place.
Her legs stuck to the thorns digging ionto her, then they hesitantly started moving.
The chains of vine clung tightly to her neck as she tried to make herself sit up.
She forced herself to ignor the blood trickling down her forelimbs and nose as she snuck across the room.

Around the throne. . . . . .

Almost. . . . . .

Almost. . . .

And then. . . . .

As the phantom snake opened its mouth to bite her, she snatched it out of the air.
"There is no shadow without light. There will always be good where there is evil. There will always be people like you, and there will always be people like me to stop you!"

The serpent flailed as Holly snapped its snack, and she felt the thick vines break as she did so.

The screaming that filled Holly's ears was unlike anything she'd ever heard.
To the end of her days, she heard that sound in her nightmares.
It sounded as though every soul in the entire universe was dying of torture.
And then, it just stopped mid-shriek, the sudden silence even worse than the howling.

Holly fell to the ground, exhausted.
Dusky threw his arms around her neck.

"Dusky, I'm so sorry!", Holly swollowed, the pit of emptiness filling her chest.
"It was the only way", he whispered.

"No, not that", she said, blinking.
"I'm sorry you have to leave so early. You time shouldn't have come so soon.
But, you know what?", she asked, tilting up his chin so that she could look into his bright blue eyes.

"What?", he asked in a whisper.

"This isn't the end. You don't have to fear the Reaper."

"I don't?"

She shook her head, smiling faintly for his sake.
"No."

As she pulled him in firmly, a melancholy voice from deep within her soul slowly began to sing.
"All out times. . . have come. . . . here but now they're. . . . . gone.
Seasons don't fear the Reaper. . . nor do the wind, the sun, or the rain.
We can be like they are. Come on, baby. . . . . . . . don't fear the Reaper."

Bait huddled closer, patting her talon with his paw as he sat down in her lap.

"And- what- about- you?", Dusky asked between sniffs.
"Where-will-you-go?"

"I-I don't. . . . . know."

The darkness crept.
Bait and Dusky drew themselves closer to her.

As Holly closed her eyes, she though what she believed were her last thoughts, the last to even be thought in the rements of the Mindspace.

Sundew, I wish it didn't didn't have to end this way.
Don't live the rest of your life seeking revenge; be like Dusky, learn to forgive.

Swordtail, Luna, Blue, Cricket, Bumblebee, don't morn for me.
You will all do amazing things someday, I know it.

Lilly, Claire, Mom. . . . Dad, I failed you.
I tried.
I tried.
I'm never coming back. . . . . . . I'm so sorry.

Mandrake. . . . . . I wish I could have seen you again.
I love you.

The darkness breathed, edging nearer, and swallowing them whole.
And the last thing Holly remembered, were talons grabbing her, and lifting her out of the Abyss.

A/N: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I know you guys are 100% going to kill me BUT IF YOU DO, YOU'LL NEVER FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, SO PLEASE SPARE ME!!!!!!
If you enjoyed Cottonmouth's defeat, remember to add a vote, comment, and share to spread the story!

Wordcount: 3116 (Making this the second longest chapter^^)

Renx out!