I woke up the next morning with a deep, stabbing pain that was buried deep into my chest, heart and spine, like some had tried to carve me like a thanksgiving turkey. My eyes were stinging and the area underneath my pillow was wet from tears. I could hear a bit of quiet chatter and the faint sound of the TV out in the living room, so I guessed that the kids were already up. Adelind was awake to, her eyes were red from her crying and her muzzle had a distinct shine to it. She looked at me and then shoved her head under mine.
"I miss them", she whined, "I didn't sleep at all last night, that video played around and around in my head like a bad joke with a horrible punch line."
I hugged her as tightly as I could. She felt cold and I could feel her breathing very heavily.
"I hurt", she whimpered, 'I hurt so, so badly."
"I know", I answered, "I feel like someone stabbed me in the chest."
She sighed, "what are you thinking? Is it what Lung said about your Mom?"
I nodded, "I can't figure out why she went. If she knew she was pregnant she could have used it to stay off the battlefield. I got Vez out of missions until their kids were born, why didn't my Dad do the same?"
"I don't know", Adelind said, "I'm just wondering where he kidnapped my parents at...did he go to Tacoma?"
"I hope not", I answered, "if he did then everyone over at RDH knows where we live."
She sighed, "let's just get on with the day."
The two of us rolled out of bed and showered off. We dressed and then walked out into the living room where we found Ace and the others hovered over the Xbox and Call Of Duty Ghosts on the screen. Ace and Helix were fighting it out Maniac to Maniac and Ace had his sister on the ropes. From the looks of the four of them, they'd been awake a long time.
"How long have you kids been up?", I asked as Adelind and I walked over to them.
"All night", Dusk yawned from underneath a blanket, "none of us could stay asleep."
"So you came out here to play Xbox?", Adelind asked.
"What else could we do?', Dusk asked, "the nightmares won't stop."
"What nightmares?", Adelind asked sounding rather concerned.
"We all kept having nightmares about watching Nǎinai and Yéyé die", Ace said pausing the game, "and the idea that you and Dad could leave to hunt down that sick dragon Lung and....not come back isn't helping. So....we got up, managed to slip out of the room and we started playing, all it really did was make us more tired.
"Oh Ace", Adelind said lifting him off the couch and into her arms.
"Losing Nǎinai and Yéyé was bad enough", Ace said starting to cry, "I don't wanna lose you and Dad too."
Adelind hugged him tightly and rubbed his back as the rest of the kids came to me. I scooped them up with my wings and hugged them tightly.
"You guys aren't going to lose us", I said quietly, "I promise."
"Lung killed them", Helix cried, "that means he can kill you and Mom too."
I nuzzled my daughter's neck as she started balling.
"We won't let him kill us sweetie", I said, "I'll get him long before he gets me."
Helix, Ace and Dusk were all balling now. The only one who wasn't was Tyson. I guessed it was spending the bulk of his life surrounded by death that had hardened him against it. It really scared me that my 1 year old son had already lost so many loved ones and friends that he was at the point where it didn't phase him when it happened.
"Are you okay Tyson?", I asked looking over at him.
He didn't answer and just held out his arms. I picked him up and hugged him tightly as he buried his snout into my neck with his brother and sister. It infuriated me to no end what lung had done to my family. What he did by killing my and Adelind's parents in front of us was bad enough, but by doing that and targeting us he had made our cubs emotional wrecks. Losing a loved one was something they were far too young to experience. The rage at it was boiling over, making the Black Wind blow at me ever harder, threatening to take my mind away from me and let lose all the Primal rage our breed had tried so hard to condition out of each passing generation. The rage that had brought our breed to it's knees and nearly wiped us out. The rage that once accessed, required tight discipline at every moment to keep yourself from unleashing it on everyone and everything around you.
"Promise me you kill him", Tyson said pulling his snout out of my neck and looking me in the eyes, "promise me you tear him apart, don't stop until he's nothing but a blue paste."
Adelind looked at him with surprise, as did I. At his age Tyson shouldn't be talking like that. Everyone knew it, but I don't think that he did.
"He's going to die Tyson", I said, "I'll chase him until the day I die if I must, he will never be safe, never be secure, anywhere he goes I will chase him. He will know the meaning of the word prey."
Tyson didn't respond after that, he only lay his head on my shoulder. After a few more minutes of trying to comfort them, but not doing much, they had fallen asleep. Adelind shut off the Xbox and put up the controllers while I walked back to our room and put them in the bed. I gave them all a kiss and covered them with the comforter before walking back out into the living room. Adelind was sitting beside the kitchen counter with her tail swishing across the floor.
"What should we do?", she asked, "their nightmares aren't just going to go away."
"I know", I said, "there's nothing in this world that's going to numb the pain their feeling. I'm not even worried about myself so much as I am them."
Adelind sighed, "There too young for all of this. I wish we could just jump ship and forget any of this ever happened."
"I'd still like to know why we were marked for death in the first place", I said opening the fridge for some left over pizza, which I put into the toaster oven, "just would like to know what started this whole mess."
"You and I both", Adelind answered walking to my side and leaning against me. I put my wing around her and nuzzled her neck. I could still feel how shallow her breathing was. Her entire body was tense, like she was getting ready for a fight.
"I can feel how tense you are through my wing", I told her.
"Is it that bad?", she asked quietly.
"Yeah", I answered, "you need to try and loosen up, your going to hurt yourself."
"I know. It's just..."
She was interrupted by a knock on our door. From the other side, I heard Danny call.
"Dad?", he asked, "you home?"
"It's open boys", I said.
Danny opened the door and peaked his head in, "are we interrupting something? Which I hope were not?"
"No", I said sighing, "come in."
"Wow", Alex said stepping inside, "you sound really not happy to see us."
"It's not you Alex", I said, "it's Lung. He murdered our parents."
Danny and Alex exchanged glances, I could tell they weren't sure what was up.
"My dragon parents boys", I answered, "HDR added a bunch of complicated things to my life."
"So if you have a second set of biological parents", Danny asked, "then doesn't that make us older than you?"
I nodded, "by how ever old you were when I was born, I forgot because of HDR."
"I was 22", Danny said, "I'm pushing 50 as it sits and Alex will be 41 here in a couple of weeks."
"I'm only 27", I told them.
"Older than our old man by 14 years", Alex said, "there's material for a really good online post."
"No kidding", Danny said setting a white paper bag on the table. He reached inside and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels Devil's Cut and a couple of glasses with a gold Inlay.
"I bought this last night", Danny said, "It's been a couple of years since I had a drink, and I figured that now was as good as time as any now that Alex and I finally found you after nearly three decades at the top of Project Draco's best squads list. Guess now that you and...", Danny looked at Adelind, "are you Dad's girlfriend or what? I saw you when you came to get us, but thought that you were just another squad mate."
"You could say that I know him", Adelind said leaning against me.
"This is Adelind boys", I said, "if you want to get into how it works for dragons, I will, otherwise she's essentially your step mom."
"Really?", Danny asked, "how long have you two been mated?"
"Since we were 16 and 14", I answered.
Alex whistled, "damn, didn't waste any time."
"Neither did you and Sorrel", Danny said.
"Fair enough", Alex said, "I'll just call you Mom."
"So will I", Danny said, "anyway, judging by the way you and Dad look I take you could use a distraction right about now."
"Yeah", Adelind said, "we could."
Danny popped the lid off the bottle and started pouring the string smelling brown liquid into the glasses. While he did, Alex spoke up."
"You know Dad", he said, "Ren and I have been wondering if we'd ever see you again. Hudson told us several years back about HDR, and though it seemed a little far fetched, Ren and I never stopped hoping that we might see you again."
'Ren?", I asked.
"Me", Danny said as he finished pouring the glasses, "we've gotten so used to the Draco names that we hardly ever go by our human names anymore. We did a lot when we first entered the project, but not much anymore. First time in a couple of years I think, but it might be longer than that."
I picked up one of the whiskeys, "Hudson and the others still call me by John sometimes. It's kind of eerie having memories from what I know to be a past life, while others remember things and think it."
"I'll drink to that", Danny said raising his glass, "glad to finally have you back Dad."
"Heres", I said as we took a drink.
It had a MUCH stronger kick that I ever remembered Jack D having. I'd drank No. 7 a lot when I was on leave with Hudson and the others and we could down a bottle in a night between the six of us. Even Jackie, who was only 17 at the time drank it too. It was drinking the stuff with my boys that really started to make those days of leave that Raven spent in the woods playing with old bolt actions loaded with paintball rounds and fishing come rushing back, though that might have had an influence in how hard it kicked.
"Kicks harder than I remember", I said taking a breath and puffing a bit of smoke.
"This is the stuff they make for Draco recruits, but I bet Hudson could drink it no problem", Alex laughed.
"That old man could down a barrel of the stuff and still not get drunk", Danny said, "I remember Issac taking so many bottles of Jack D away from him over the years."
"Sounds like Issac", I said, "he never did really like how much Hudson drank when things got bad."
Alex nodded, "And when ever Issac would take bottles from Hudson our friend Blaze would drink it all in one gulp."
"Hey Dad", Danny said, "can I ask you something personal?"
"Shoot", I told him.
"I did some research into HDR while the doctors were looking us over last night. I discovered that people in HDR actually do die, so I wanna ask, how does death actually feel?"
I set the glass down, "icy cold. So cold that you feel like your on fire, but the fire doesn't really hurt, it's an empty feeling. I don't even know if it's a bad feeling. There's just a lot of it."
"Wow", Danny said.
"It's not something I remember too well", I told him.
"I can see why", Alex said, "by the way, your friend Mark stopped by the hospital this morning and told us if we were gonna swing by your place to tell you that he and Ness have breakfast for Raven at the hatchery. There wasn't too much going on there when we swung by, so I told him I'd let you know."
Adelind sighed, "just as they finally managed to get to sleep."
"I know", I said, "might as well wake them up, they'll hate us if they find out we went to eat without them."
Adelind started back for our room.
"Who is they?", Danny asked.
"Our kids", I answered smiling a little.
Alex and Danny looked at each other.
"So how does this work?", Danny asked, "what the fuck is it called when your parents and you have kids that are younger than yours?"
"Well since your not natural dragons like I am, nothing", I told him, "HDR completely rewrote my DNA, so there's actually no relation left between us."
"This shit with the DNA and all this sciencey crap continues to weird me out", Alex said.
"You and me both Frost", Danny said.
Adelind soon walked out of the room with Ace and the others in tow. You could tell just by looking at them that they were tired and needed sleep.
"Oh look", Danny laughed, "little baby people."
"We are not babies", Helix growled.
"Relax", Danny said, "I'm just teasing. How old are they?"
"Ace is two, and Dusk, Helix and Tyson are a year", I answered.
"Really?", Alex asked, "but you said you were mates at 16 and 14?"
"Long story short", Adelind said, "a Mountain Female can never get pregnant the first time, not ever."
"Really?", Danny asked, "interesting."
"Speaking of interesting", Ace said, "who are you two?"
"My name's Ren", Danny said, "and this is my little brother Frost. You could say we know your Dad, who are you?"
"Ace", he answered, "where do you know my Dad from?"
"He's our Dad too", Danny said.
"No he's not", Helix , "Ace is the first born."
"Actually I am", Danny said, "I was born back in the 80's and I'm nearly 50, your two. So yeah I'm first born."
"How can you be the first born at 50 when Dad is only in his 20's?", Ace asked.
"He lying me thinks", Tyson said, "we should capture him and probe is brain for the truth."
"Yes", Ace said, "yes we should."
"No", Adelind laughed, "there will be no capturing or probing."
"Come on", Helix said, "we must learn the truth."
"That is the truth Helix", I told her as I pulled her onto my back, "it was something that happened a very, very long time ago."
She didn't answer me. Tyson and Dusk climbed up onto my back with Helix and Adelind picked up Ace and Kayel. Danny grabbed the pizza from the toaster oven and then we headed over towards the hatchery. The sky was a dark, threatening gray, rather fitting for the way I felt at the moment. The lights around the base had come on, casting their dim, orange influence on the grass and buildings around them. I was imagining what I was seeing was one of those images you'd get when you goggled "street lamps in rain". The lights were on inside the hatchery and I could see Mark sitting in the door way. He still had bandages on from where Shadow had beaten him, but he was much better than he had been.
"I wondered if you'd take my invite", He laughed as we approached.
"Sorry", I said, "I've just..haven't been all there these past couple of days."
"I heard what happened", Mark said, "you need anything? I'm here for you brother."
"I'll be fine Mark", I said, "I'll never be over it, but I'll be fine."
Mark nodded and ushered us inside as the rain started to come down. The hatchery wasn't very crowded. There were only a few kids Tyson's age and there was one kid who looked like he was nine or so with his leg in a cast sleeping against the back wall. Ness, who was standing in the back of the room, ordered for us to come into the back. The back room was essentially where Ness lived. There was a stove and a fridge side by side with some counter space and cupboards above them and there was a bed in the corner with a decent sized flatscreen and an PlayStation 2K facing it. There was an orange carpet under foot and the walls were painted cyan.
"Hell of a décor job", Danny said as we found places with the other members of my team.
"It was here before I became Guardian", Ness said, "never got around to changing it."
"You should", Nina said, "it's ugly as hell."
"Tell me something new", Ness said as he started handing out egg sandwiches.
"I heard what happened with your parents by the way", Ness said, "if you guys need help, I'm here."
"Yeah no shit", Shadow said.
"Thank's guys", I said, "but we'll be fine."
I counted myself lucky to have friends like I did. Friends who were willing to put their hides to a belt sander to get me out of a jam and friends who were willing to help me no matter what tragic turn my life had taken. Everyone had something to say that made me realize I wasn't alone in what I was feeling. Shadow losing his parents, twice. Hudson losing his parents and his followed suicide attempt. Syralth and Tess they were driven out of their home by RDH and the others of the day that they were drafted into the Draco Project.
"Tales from the crypt", Ness laughed, "by the way, Dad said that he wanted to see you guys and that it was urgent."
'You know", Syralth said, the tone of his voice reeked of sarcasm, "there is something that's just not right about a 450 pound, six feet at the head dragon calling a human Dad."
"I thought it was a little wired at first too", Ness said, "but in time, I got over it."
"Speaking of time", Tess said, "did the results come back yet?"
"It's a little early to tell", Mark said, "but from what I saw in the ultra sounds, looks like a male."
"When did that happen?", I asked smiling.
"We found out a couple of nights ago", Syralth said, "I'd been smelling this weird smell on her for a few weeks and kept freaking the fuck out because I couldn't figure out what it was."
"Congrats guys", I said finishing my sandwich and standing, "okay, let's see what Nolan wants."
My friends stood and we walked over to the command tent. Once there, we were greeted by a General who led us into the back of the tent and to a private room that Nolan had set up. He was pacing as if he were nervous.
"You wanted to see us sir?", Shadow asked.
"Yes I did", Nolan said, "sit down guys."
We sat down and Nolan locked the metal door behind him.
"What's going on?", I asked.
"The intel your boys gave us on Lung was faked", Nolan said, "they were fed false info and then sent to the firing squad. Their superiors decided they were good bait and threw them to us."
"Really?", Danny asked, "well shit."
Nolan sat back in the chair, "Draco is still crippled beyond saving, we just need to cut off the bear's head and we'll forever be free of that scourge."
"Like I've been saying", I said, "we need to get inside his head. But we can't do that because the only dragon we thought knew how he thinks simply told us to use Shadow as bait."
Silence fell over the room.
"If there was ever a time to come clean Dad", Ness said, "now is the time."
"Come clean?", I asked.
Nolan nodded, "I'm...I'm not the man you think I am Tyro. I know much, much more about Lung that I care to let on."
"What do you mean?", I asked tilting my head.
"Come to think of it", Faline said, "I do remember him calling you Jackie."
I turned back to him, "yeah...what was that about?"
Nolan sighed, "he called me Jackie...because I'm his older brother. We served together in World War 2."
"That far back?", Shadow asked, "what the hell happened then?"
"The year was 1942", Nolan answered, "my name was Jack Prez."