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Rift blinked, glancing between the two dragons, swearing that they looked similar. He shook himself and bowed. "Riften Myclonis, Ma'am. Pleasure to meet you."

Silvus snickered in the background. "No need for formalities Rift." Then he went serious for a few moments and walked up to create a triangle between the three. "She is family after all." He said with a smile.

The orange dragon tilted his head. "Family? Are you two mates?"

Rose immediately looked disturbed. "Who would be his mate!" She cried, receiving a hurt look from Silvus, causing her to smirk.

"Woooooooooooooooow, thanks sis." Silvus said, rolling his eyes.

Rift blushed and stuttered. "S-sorry! I thought his sister perished when Cynder was Terror of the Skies."

Silvus gave his cousin a warm smile, then wrapped his strange looking wing around Rose and brought her close to him. "I thought so too, but no, here she is. The next Guardian of Light." He said with a hint of pride in his voice.

"You said she isn't ready yet, does that mean there's an interim Guardian?"

The silver drake let his sister go, much to her relief. "Technically no. There's no other with the element of light, however as the Messenger for Light. I have the privilege of overseeing her training and am the acting Guardian for now. Which is why you haven't seen much of me in a while."

"Sometimes other Guardians would come along and help with my training as well." Rose added. "Amelia is probably my favorite." She said with a smirk.

Silvus just shook his head at the mention of a dragoness. "So yeah, I guess I am the interim Guardian."

Rift gave a half smile. "A cousin being interim Guardian while another two train to be Guardians. Must run in the family."

"Cousin hmm." Rose said with a smile. "Always good to have more family around." Silvus nodded in agreement.

Rift wanted to be happier, another family member should be making him jump for joy, but her white scales kept his mind thinking about Kara. Would she have been happy to see more family? Would she be proud of him for getting this far?

The silver drake's smile slowly disappeared when he saw that his cousin wasn't as excited as he thought he was. Silvus planted himself in front of his cousin, his sister stood beside him as well, and placed both paws on his shoulders, looking into his eyes.

"What's troubling you?" He asked, concerned.

The orange dragon couldn't bring himself to speak, only able to stare at Rose's white scales.

Silvus followed his eyes to see that he was staring at his sister. He gave his cousin a confused look, then glanced back at his sister. White scales...the silver drake thought to himself. The silver drake gestured his sister to leave the room. She nodded in understanding, and gave Rift a look of concern before walking away.

"Did something happen to Kara?" Silvus deduced.

Rift tensed at her name, a quick flash of flames around him. He said nothing, tears forming in his eyes. He stood up and walked out, tearing himself out of Silvus' grip. At that moment the silver drake knew he hit home.

The Messenger let out a sigh, determined to know what happened to her, he followed his cousin without hesitation. He caught up to him rather quickly, and with his knowledge with past experiences, he kept his maw shut, and walked with Rift in silence.

The pain continued to grow inside. Each step producing flames as he slowly got faster. It was horrible knowing she was gone, but couldn't bring himself to tell his closest remaining family. He was at a near full sprint when he finally found the way out of the temple. He stared at the island surrounding him, trying not to let his grief take full control.

Silvus released a few cold breathes of ice as he cased the flaming Rift. Rose trailing not too far behind him taking care of the flames he missed. The orange drake continued running through the forest of white ignoring the calls of his cousins behind him. Then suddenly the same flash of silver and bang that saved him earlier appeared and sounded in front of him.

Out came a running Silvus who immediately tackled Rift to the ground, quickly breathing ice behind and on him to put out the flames of, what the Messenger could only guess, grief. He yelled Rift's name once again, hoping this time for a response from the pinned down drake.

Rift felt himself mentally spiralling towards a dangerous point. He quickly released a large inferno into the sky, keeping it just shy of his cousin, burning through his element to ensure it didn't hurt anyone. Free of the fire, he burst into tears, letting out all the pain in his heart.

Silvus chose that moment to wrap his cousin in his wings and attempted to lift him onto his paws, but he only fell into the drake's embrace. Sobbing against his cousin. All his cousin could offer was his shoulder to cry on, and his wings of comfort.

He soon spotted Rose not to far behind the fire drake. She quickly came up to the pair of drakes and joined in the embrace as best she could.

"It's all my fault. I didn't have to wipe out those other strongholds. I just wanted to protect her, and instead it did the opposite." Rift sobbed. "Because of me, she's dead."

Silvus knew the pain of loss in more ways than one, however, he did not know the words to comfort his cousin in pain. Lucky for him, his sister did.

"When a dragon dies, their spirit moves on, binding to nature." Rose began, petting his head. "She still lives on, here and all around you, and most importantly, she lives on in your heart."

Rift shuddered. "The apes must have been tired of me destroying their strongholds. I was... proposing to Kara when they sprung a sneak attack. They knocked me out and... did unspeakable things to her before shoving a knife in her heart."

"It's best not think about that." Silvus said, then giving Rose a look. "Rose can help you not to think about it...she has powers like me." He offered.

"No, I've already let something into my mind and it's a constant struggle to keep in control. I will not allow anyone or anything else in there."

Silvus sighed and nodded. "I understand."

Rift looked at the ground. "I had narrowed down the apes living at Dante's Freezer and headed that way. Along the way, I saw the remains of Dragon's Claw. I found a hidden scroll my dad had left for me. Supernova, which uses my elemental and life energy to wipe out everything within a fifty mile radius. What you saw was it's influence nearly setting me off. That's why I released that fire, burn out one of the things that I need to explode."

Silvus exchanged a look with his sister, who gave him a shrug. "That's a dangerous move Rift...not many fire dragons can walk away from that."

Rift nodded. "I wasn't planning to walk away from that. I was going to get inside the stronghold and detonate, take them all out with me."

The silver drake unwrapped his wings from his cousin and lifted his chin to meet his eyes. "Is that what Kara would've wanted?"

The orange drake shook his head. "She wouldn't. But at the time, it's what I wanted. The only reason I'm still alive is because Cynder and Mera were there. I wasn't going to drag innocent lives with me."

"Do you still want to end your life?" Silvus hesitantly asked.

Rift sighed and shrugged. "I won't actively do it, but I wouldn't complain if something snuck up on me and took me out. At this point, I just feel numb."

"Remember cuz, I'll always be here for you-." Silvus began.

"Me too." Rose chimed in.

"-but becoming the next Guardian for Fire is going to become more difficult. One must protect themself in order to protect others." The ice dragon finished.

The orange dragon nodded. "Well seeing as I did so well with your gryphon friend, I'm "sure" I'll do fine."

Silvus shook his head, then turned and shot a silver like fireball, however it looked more ovelish. Impacting nothing, the same swirling disk of silver light appeared.

"Come on, lets head back to the temple." The silver dragon said, draping a wing over his cousin. "There's much that needs to be done."