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Azuri and Aphure both cloaked themselves as soon as they arrived at the Stellaris palace. Unlike the last few days, the palace appeared nearly empty. It was kind of eerie seeing a once bustling kingdom now a ghost town. Azuri didn't understand why it suddenly wasn't buzzing with dragons. Where did they all go? Even Aphure was confused at the lack of dragons surrounding the palace. Azuri watched through his thermal vision as Aphure began scouting around like a hawk. Azuri didn't know if he was searching for BossBiss, or just searching around for a place to land.

Eventually, Aphure tilted his wings and began diving down toward the garden. Azuri followed him closely behind, an icky feeling inside of him growing as he touched the grass beside Aphure. Azuri watched his father examine their surroundings, only noticing a handful of Stellarian dragons, some of whom were guards. All of them were minding their own business, some even checking the garden's flowers and plants. Aphure then turned back to his son and whispered to him, "Alright, I have no idea about the layout of this place. I try my best to avoid Stellaris as much as possible in my missions, so I'mma need you to show me where the throne room is." Azuri nodded, gesturing for his father to begin following him.

Azuri led his father by foot to the other side of the palace along the pathway that wrapped around it. When they got to the entrance, Azuri noticed two guards who were guarding the entrance of the throne room. Azuri stopped himself once he noticed them, but was shocked when Aphure pulled out a blowgun and shot two sleeping darts toward the guards. This instantly caused the two guards to stumble over and pass out. Aphure prompted Azuri to start heading inside, which he did without hesitation. Azuri felt a little bit more safe now, so he did as his father asked of him.

When they got inside the throne room, Azuri noticed that BossBiss was nowhere to be found, the only thing left of him being the pool of blood on the throne. Then, Azuri noticed the blood started leading away toward another doorway that he wasn't familiar with. Aphure searched the throne room for any sign of guards before uncloaking himself. Azuri did the same shortly afterwards, looking around the throne before turning to his father. "He was here earlier," Azuri whispered over to his dad.

"Hmm, let's follow the trail of blood and hope we can follow him." Before Aphure could start following, Azuri stopped him with his claw.

"Wait, dad." Azuri hesitantly started as he tried to find the words. "I um... I forgot to tell you what I did. I don't know how angry you will be, but um..." Aphure raised his eyebrow in curiosity.

"What is it? Is it about the blood?" Aphure asked.

Azuri nodded his head, "I might've um... Stabbed him in the eye with a sword..." Aphure's eyes widened when he heard that, staring down at his son. Then, he started examining him like it was the first time he's seen him before. "But! It was in self defense, I promise! He had me in his claws and I tried hitting him with an axe, but it didn't work you know? And I-." Aphure laid a claw on him, looking into his eyes. At first, Azuri thought that his father was going to slap him or yell at him, but Azuri was amazed when his father grew a smile on his face.

"You really are like me..." Aphure patted him on the head before starting to follow the blood trail again. Azuri was left staring up at where his father was just a second ago. Was his father proud of him? How could he be happy that his own son stabbed another dragon's eye out? Or did it just make Aphure happy to see himself in his own son? Azuri wanted to know why Aphure was taking this all in so well. Perhaps he was mad deep inside, and he was just covering it up super well. Azuri could only loop the words that his father said to him for a long moment. Like he was trying to figure out the meaning of the words in his head. "Azuri, come on. Stop sitting around," Aphure called over to him from a few meters away.

Azuri turned around and saw his father looking back toward him from beside the trail of blood. He was about to start following again when a pair of claws came up from behind and caught him. The claws wrapped around Azuri's mouth and neck, pulling him inward to the unfamiliar dragon. Aphure's eyes lit up in shock when he saw what was happening. He jumped over to Azuri, but quickly stopped when another two dragons appeared alongside the one holding Azuri. All three of them appeared to be Stellarian guard dragons, pointing their spears at Aphure in a defensive manner. "Hey! Let him go!" Aphure called out to them, but all three ignored his demands.

"BossBiss has been expecting you," one of the guards said with a menacing grin. Azuri tried yelling over to his father, but was muffled by the guard's claw. "We will kill your son right now if you make any movements." Aphure's expression turned to a blank stare, Azuri watching as Aphure began to calm himself down. It was like he was trying to relax himself so he could think more clearly about the situation. "You're going to follow us to BossBiss, and he will talk to you himself." The guard exclaimed, all three of them slowly moving around Aphure to get past him.

However, Azuri was surprised when one of the guards was pulled back away from Azuri's view. The other guard to Azuri's right turned around to the noise but was knocked out by something large slammed into him.. Then, a large sword was whipped out and held up to the guard's neck. Aphure's eyes widened when he noticed who it was. Azuri looked upward to the guard and the one behind him. "Let him go," a familiar voice spoke. The guard finally released Azuri from his grasp, Azuri stumbling forward and crawling over to Aphure.

Aphure pulled Azuri over to his side, then Azuri turned around and noticed Sandstorm holding the guard. He noticed murderous rage on Sandstorm's face, and it kinda scared Azuri. "Sandstorm?" Azuri called out, she looked up to him and smiled widely and waved to him. Sandstorm then looked down at the guard and her expression turned back to the murderous expression.

"I should kill you, but I'm going to be nice just this once." She then let go of the guard before quickly slamming his head down to the ground and knocking him out. Sandstorm turned her attention back up to Aphure and smiled at the sight of them. "Hi!" She said while waving to them again.

Aphure was stuck staring at her with a shocked, but slightly impressed expression. "Well I'll be damned, those are some pretty impressive skills for a dragon of your age, young lady." Sandstorm wiped the sweat from her forehead and grinned at him.

"Thank you," she says, walking over to them.

"What are you doing here, Sandstorm? I thought you were back in Floria," Azuri asked, a little shocked but also relieved to see her.

"Why else would I be here?" She asked, "I'm here to kill BossBiss." Azuri's expression faded when he heard this. He didn't want his own friend to kill in front of him. She might be two years older than Azuri and Uhrwerk, but this shouldn't be how she should live her life. Killing other dragons, and for what? Was she expecting a reward? Why was she so keen on killing dragons? "--And from what I can gather about you guys being here, I'm assuming you're here for the same reason. Which is great! I could use the help."

Azuri glanced up to his father, who appeared to just have a "I'm just going to accept it and move on" face. It didn't appear that his father minded at all that Sandstorm was here, or that she was only ten years old. Though again, Aphure wasn't her father so he wouldn't much care about what another child did. Why would he? She was not his kid.

Azuri wanted to say something to Sandstorm, but he couldn't mutter the words. He was definitely happy to see Sandstorm again, he thought she had ran away when Azuri told her he didn't want help. He thought Sandstorm hated him for being so soft about the justice system. He kind of wondered why Sandstorm was the way she was, but he knew the time wasn't right to ask her. He hoped maybe one day he could ask her and see what her deal was about killing dragons.

Aphure started to lead them, following the trail of blood. Azuri and Sandstorm walked side by side together, occasionally exchanging glances to each other. When they got to the doorway that the blood was leading into, Aphure checked the surroundings before gesturing for them to follow. Aphure remained ahead of them, consistently checking behind him and his sides, like he was checking for traps or alarm systems that might go off at any second. When Azuri looked over to Sandstorm, she didn't seem to be doing the same, which was odd because he thought Sandstorm was trained in a similar manner to his father.

Eventually they made it to a room where they started hearing voices. Aphure stood close to the wall, slowly sliding along it as he approached the doorway. Azuri peeked around his father, where he saw BossBiss and another Stellarian dragon. Azuri noticed a lot of equipment lying around, including towels and cleaning supplies. Aphure put a claw on Azuri as he noticed him coming up from beside him, forcing Azuri to stop from getting too close. Azuri looked in from the view he had and realized that the Stellarian was helping BossBiss clean out the eye where the sword stabbed into. Azuri could even see the bloody sword on a table nearby, leaking onto a tray.

"I'm almost done sir, just keep staying still." The Stellarian informs BossBiss, who was clenching his claws onto a sink. The Stellarian used towels to carefully and gently wipe off any remaining blood. Azuri could just barely see the stitched up eye socket where the sword went through. The Stellarian finally threw the towels away and washed their claws. "Alright, I think we're done."

BossBiss raised a claw up to his stitched up eye, feeling around the outside before lowering it to his side. "I don't look very threatening like this." BossBiss's tone appeared to be slightly disappointed, sighing as he turned to the dragon. "Give me the eye patch." The Stellarian dragon turned and grabbed one of the eye patches, handing it over to him. BossBiss slowly and carefully wrapped the eye patched around his head and eye. Once it was wrapped on and adjusted accordingly, BossBiss huffed frustratedly. "I suppose that'll have to do for now..."

As Azuri watched BossBiss finally turn away, almost near the doorway. Aphure pulled him back from behind the wall and looked around the hallway for any guards. He then turned to Sandstorm, "Hide!" He whispered to her demandingly. Sandstorm took out a bracelet and wrapped it around her arm. Aphure was a little surprised, but quickly cloaked himself as well with Azuri following shortly after. BossBiss walked out of the room and went past them without noticing their presence.

They watched as BossBiss started heading toward what appeared to be the stage area. Aphure nudged Azuri and Sandstorm to follow, taking the lead. Azuri and Sandstorm nod and begin following him, but are quickly stopped when Sandstorm bumped into two guards that were coming toward her from the side. The guards looked down at where Sandstorm was in confusion, glancing toward each other. Sandstorm growled and took off the bracelet, before immediately attacking the guards. Aphure turned around when he started hearing the commotion. Azuri looked at him and started gesturing for his father to keep going.

Aphure stopped and stared at him for a second before he turned and continued following BossBiss. Azuri turned around and watched as Sandstorm knocked one of the guards out, then pinned the other guard to the wall with her sword. "You're going to get it now!" She screamed in anger. Azuri watched as the Stellarian from the room that BossBiss came from started running out from the room. He looked toward Sandstorm in confusion and fear. Eventually, the Stellarian started running away in terror at the sight of them.

Azuri uncloaked himself and rushed over beside Sandstorm, trying to get her off of the dragon, but she was too stubborn and pushed Azuri to the side. "Get off! Let me kill him! He was asking for it as soon as he bumped into me and ruined the plan!" Azuri stared up at her in terror before taking a more demanding stand to her.

"Let him go Sandstorm, you don't need to do this." Sandstorm turned her head to Azuri, still pressing the sword up against the guard's neck.

"Why not? He's the one that started it!"

Azuri took a deep breath as he finally started to find the correct words to say.

"Sandstorm, what exactly are you trying to prove to me?" Sandstorm paused and looked at Azuri confusedly.

"To you? I'm not trying to prove anything to you, I'm trying to prove to my parents that I can do this!"

"But why? Your parents aren't going to know you killed him! And besides, why do you think you need to prove anything to them?!" Sandstorm looked at the guard with threatening eyes. "Tell me Sandstorm, let me understand why you feel the need to hurt every dragon that crosses you." Sandstorm took a deep breath as she lowered her head a little, before starting to speak. Silence fell through the room as Azuri was feeling very tense and pressured. He thought Sandstorm wasn't going to say anything to him, but she eventually started to speak.

"Ever since I turned eight years old, my parents forced me to start fighting and killing dragons. They pressured me into becoming a military soldier one day, constantly telling me that, 'I was the savior of their family' or 'destined to become a military soldier.' They kept pressuring me to prove to them that I can do something, that I can kill dragons. It was the only way I could make them happy, otherwise they always turned their heads and looked the other away like I wasn't even there. They never gave me any sort of affection, only giving me approving nods whenever I killed someone. They would tell me how proud they were, but it would only last for a day. If I wanted to keep them happy, I would need to kill more dragons." She stared into the guard's eyes, who were now filled with fear.

"If I kill BossBiss, maybe I will be worthy of their love. They would know that I killed the most powerful and dangerous dragon in all of the land. They would finally recognize my efforts and actually decide to love me for once. No dragon has ever told me to stop once, so I just kept doing it..." She kept the sword pressed up against the dragon's neck as she slowly turned to Azuri. "Don't you see? This is why I need to do this! I need to show my parents that I can do something great, something greater than even they could imagine."

Azuri started to think about the words she was saying to him at that moment. So that's what this was about. She doesn't want to kill dragons, I can tell from her body's motion. She just wanted to be happy and be loved. Her parents didn't love her and only enjoyed using her for their own selfish means. Azuri thought that his own father was selfish as well, but Aphure seemed genuinely nice to him. Even if he was gone for six years, it was like his father still deeply loved Azuri. Maybe that was the reason he brought him along to kill BossBiss. He wanted to talk to Azuri and give Azuri something he was never able to before. Helping him get out of jail, helping him convince his mom to adopt Uhrwerk, and taking him to kill BossBiss, possibly to understand Azuri and closely bond with him. Azuri never thought he needed a father until this exact day.

Sandstorm appeared to be in a situation where she had nobody to love, nobody to watch out for her and tell her the wrongs. She was lost, and Azuri knew what he could do to help her. "From what it sounds like... You just want someone to love you. But your mom and dad don't seem like the proper parents to give that to you, no matter how hard you try showing that desire to them."

"Oh? You think?" She snapped at him. "I've been trying to get their attention for ten years, but they still ignore me."

Azuri remembered his mom and how she adopted Uhrwerk and thought that maybe he could offer the same to Sandstorm. If her parents didn't care about her that much other than to be a military officer, then maybe they have a chance of giving up Sandstorm to Beckar. "Well, maybe you just need a new family." Sandstorm turned to look at Azuri, who smiled at her. Though, she shook her head at him.

"No, I'm not interested. I just want to kill BossBiss and show them his head, then they'll love me. I'm sure of it!" She pressed the sword closer to the guard's neck.

"But... What if they don't? Would it have been worth it by then? If you're focusing on getting them to love you by killing dragons and they don't, would it still be worth it to keep trying? Especially when that very dragon was the most dangerous in the world? What will you do then?" Sandstorm retreated her head from the guard and her eyes widened as she stared into the guard's eyes. She was now beginning to stare at the dragon like it was the first time she recognized the horror on his face. "I don't want you to end up like BossBiss at such an early age, Sandstorm. You seem like a very charming and wonderful dragon underneath. You seem like someone who has the capability to stop and think before doing anything. You're letting your parents control you, keeping you from who you really are. Be what you want to be, not what you're not."

Sandstorm was silent now, her breathing was slowing down. Azuri continued again, "If you want other dragons to be happy with you Sandstorm, and to love you, then, if you kill him or this dragon, I'm the one that's not going to be happy." Azuri could tell that Sandstorm was now taking those words in for the first time in her life. It took Sandstorm a couple of seconds before she pulled the sword away from the guard's neck, then her claw. Sandstorm was slowly backing away from the guard as she released the sword from her claws, landing onto the floor beside her. "Good..." Azuri said with a sigh of relief. Azuri slowly approached Sandstorm, lifting his claw up to her. Before he could touch her, she slapped his claw away and panickedly backed away from him.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled out, her eyes moving around the room in terror. Eventually, she raised her wings out from the sides of her body. "I'm... I'm a monster." She muttered to herself, Azuri shaking his head as he tried to get close to her.

"No! No you're not!" He tried to raise his claws up to her to try and calm her down. "It's okay! It's not your fault! You didn't know-." She slapped his claws away again.

"Get away!" She started taking several steps back, horrified at herself. "I- I don't want to hurt anybody anymore... I'm sorry!" She suddenly used her wings to lift herself in the air, before flying back the way they came from. Azuri tried running after her, but he stopped himself when he remembered Aphure.

He watched Sandstorm disappear when flying through the doorway. "Sandstorm!" He cried out to her, but he was too late. He was left alone with the motionless and terrified guard watching Sandstorm leave. Azuri huffed in sadness, before looking over to the guard who raised his claws up in surrender. Azuri took a couple minutes to think, picking up Sandstorm's sword from the floor. He examined it quickly, seeing his own reflection in the blade before he started to run after his father who chased after BossBiss. He hoped that he wasn't too late to help Aphure kill BossBiss