Peace and its Shadow

Prologue

Peacemaker stared at the dead Nightwing in front of him. 

"C-Clearblade?" Peacemaker choked out. What have I done? I killed her! It's my fault! Those words repeated in his head. He looked at his claws. Blood. Peacemaker felt like throwing up, the dark red reminded him of mushed-up strawberries. 

"Clearblade," Peacemaker sobbed. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" Clearblade still lay there, motionless. What was Peacemaker thinking? Like she's going wake up magically and tell him, 

"Oh, it's fine Peacemaker. I'm not hurt at all." 

"Wow, this is an interesting sight to wake up to," A voice behind Peacemaker said. Peacemaker turned around to see a huge Nightwing. They were massive, bigger than anything he had ever seen. 

"I-I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry, I-" 

"Doesn't matter kiddo, you are going to need to get out here fast before anyone sees you," The Nightwing said. Peacemaker was confused and shocked. 

"Y-You're helping me?" Peacemaker asked. "Aren't you going to inform anyone and bring me to prison?" The Nightwing looked confused for a moment. 

"I don't think I could even if I wanted to or tried," The Nightwing explained. "Speaking of which, shouldn't you be getting the moons out of here." Peacemaker was speechless, this made even less sense. What was this Nightwing talking about? Peacemaker thought.

"Listen," The Nightwing started. "You get out of here first, wash off the blood, and pray that you don't get caught by anyone." Peacemaker looked around before suddenly bolting, with more questions. It was around the afternoon so mostly everyone was awake so the best bet to hide first was the outskirts of the rainforest. Peacemaker looked back, gone was the huge Nightwing. He continued running. 

Peacemaker stopped by a river, there he started rinsing off the blood. The realization of what he was doing hit Peacemaker like a brick. What am I doing? I'm a murderer. I should get punished! He started sobbing to himself. He heard someone sit next to him. It was the large Nightwing, appearing like he just disappeared and repeated out of existence. 

"How did you do that?" Peacemaker asked. 

"Do what?" The Nightwing responded confused. 

"Appear suddenly for the second time," Peacemaker explained. He found it weird how this Nightwing with its large size was able to sneak up on him two times. Despite being one of the few Nightwings(or at least Peacemaker was considered mostly a Nightwing) who avoided eating any animals, Peacemaker had to admit he was pretty good at hunting and catching prey. He mostly did it to give to some of his friends, like Qibli. Qibli. Peacemaker thought sadly. Imagining the disappointment and horror on his face seeing what Peacemaker had done. 

"It's kind of hard to explain," The Nightwing said. "It's like I'm in a dream and sometimes the world doesn't make any sense in the dream. I found myself somewhere once and I found myself a completely different spot and somehow my brain thinks it all makes sense." Peacemaker looked at the huge Nightwing. Seeing them up close Peacemaker noticed a detail. The Nightwing had silver teardrops near their eyes. That's not possible, are they a mindreader? As far as Peacemaker knew, Moon was the only actual mind reader in the Nightwing tribe. This Nightwing was way older so it didn't make any sense. 

"First time killing someone, isn't it?" The Nightwing asked. Peacemaker was taken aback by the question.

"Um, y-yes," Peacemaker said thinking of Clearblade. "Have you?"

"I'm pretty sure since I asked that, it would make sense for I to have also killed a dragon, perhaps more than one," The Nightwing said. They must've seen Peacemaker tensing up so they added, "But don't worry, I have no reason nor interest in hurting or killing anyone, especially not you." 

"Who are you?" Peacemaker asked wondering how he never had seen or ever heard about them. The Nightwing paused for an awkwardly long time.

"Screw it, what's the point of lying," The Nightwing sighed. "Greetings small Nightwing, my name is Darkstalker."