After that talk, it seemed that every person I ran into with a problem knew what to expect when meeting me. I had made something of myself that was better than what I would have expected, but while I accepted my new body, I kept getting reminders to remember who I came from.
"Remember, try, try to remember, try to remember where you came from as I can tell your memory of them is fading," I heard the hive queen say to me.
"What, what do you need this time?" I asked her.
"What I need you to do is get whatever Machiavelli's using out of you. From what I can tell, it's under your nose," she replied.
"Under my nose? so that would be..." I stopped there as I felt the underside of my jaw, and sure enough, there was something there. "Ok, got it," I told her.
"Good now, get it out," she replied.
It was applied with just adhesive, but while I did pull it off, it hurt like heck to the point that I screamed in pain into her brain telepathically. "Well, if that prevents you from waking him up, that works, I guess," she told me.
"What's next?" I asked her. "Good thing, I didn't sleep in her mouth."
"Can you find his tablet? I have a plan for you to make his favorite drink," she told me.
"Good thing I had a taste of it, and he told me the recipe," I replied.
"Just get a look after you make it, You've got an hour and a half before he wakes up," she told me.
I first carved out the middle of fruit with thick inner walls, leaving the walls of the fruit. I then cut up the three fruits he told me his son used. One was tomato like but was blue, the second one was an elongated strawberry, and the third was like grapes but wasn't any color I recognized. He said his son put about 10 of them in the blender.
"Ok, it's blended, I got it in the fruit, and it only took 10 minutes. I'll put it in the fridge and now to look at the tablet," I thought to myself.
"Machiavelli usually keeps it unlocked, and I heard him thinking about the password to the journal on it," she said. She told me the password, and then I read through the entries.
"Today, I got evidence that my son is still alive. I just hope the implant in the underside of Nathan's jaw can help me tame him. He needs to forget his family until they can remember; he needs to enjoy life," one entry read.
Another one read: "I'm more than certain that Nathan is succumbing to his trance. Once he embraces his new life as the new him, I'll have it removed and let him enjoy his time here because I know his family would want him to."
"At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if you raised Cain with him," she told me.
"Hold on. There's still another entry. It was written yesterday," I told her.
"After a long talk with Dante, I realized where I went wrong. I was doing the exact opposite of what I was trying to do. While trying to find his potential, I've actually hidden it with my mind trickery. His empathy, his emotion is a key part that I missed, and it's all because I'd programmed it for him to try to please me in my grief, but I've also dampened an already cloudy spirit because I never simply asked if he'd take scales on his body. Nathan, as you're reading this now, please forgive me and know that what you once were was never lost, to begin with, because now that it's gone, you can turn back and forth at will what I wrongfully have done to you."
"He... he asked for forgiveness but how'd he know I would read this," I asked the hive queen.
"Would it matter, turn back what he'd done," she replied. I thought about my human form for just a second before I felt my scales soften into human skin, and my skull reverts to normal.
"I'm... I'm myself again," I said as I began to cry.
"This worked out better than expected," I heard her say.
"You don't know how happy this makes me feel, thank you," I told her.
"You shouldn't be thanking just me, Nathan. You should be thanking Dante for convincing Machiavelli," she replied.
"What doesn't make sense to me is that Dante told Machiavelli something was wrong when he did it," I told her.
"He was referring to the implant," she replied. "Dante doesn't like to use implants."
"I see, I hope Machiavelli knows what he has to do next?" I told her,
"And what would that be?" She asked me.
"He brings me to my family," I replied.
Just before Machiavelli woke up, I got the drink out of the fridge, ready for him when he woke up. "Nathan, are you up?" He said as he came out of his bedroom.
"I am, and I made something special for you because you did something special for me," I replied as he saw my human form once more.
"Nathan, I'm so sorry for what I did to you. I was clouded by my own ego because I thought you'd be a rowdy kid that I would need the implant for. Now let me ask you something; do you want just to have that human body?" He asked me.
I went to the window and saw my dragon looking concerned. "You ok?" I asked her as I went outside and turned into my dragon form.
"He's asking you if you want your scales gone, but I know you like the feel of my saliva against them. You want to keep it, don't you?" She asked me.
I thought about it for a bit before I said: "our bond has been the best feeling I had in years, and I don't want it gone." I then turned to my human form and said: "I'm keeping them, Machiavelli. you may have had control of me then, but I still feel that joy after the fact."
"I knew you'd love it. I just had no way of knowing that you would," he replied.
"I'll get out of my PJs and into some clothes for whatever you have planned, I guess," I told him as I headed back into my room.
Once I got changed, and he finished the drink, we headed to the same area we did before for some Trouble in Terrorist Town, and I met a familiar face now covered in gray wolf fur. "Well, I see it's worked out both ways for you," I told him.
"Yeah, it has, I still look tough in this, and yet it pleases her. Why are you human now?" He asked me.
"Machiavelli made me able to switch between them because he made a somewhat dire mistake and corrected it the best he could," I replied.
"Yes, you're looking at his uninfluenced by just about anything of my doing," Machiavelli told them.
"Well, let's see if you still have what you did from before all of this," he told me.
"Hey, I play it as if it's a war with no Geneva Convention," I replied.
"You reference that agreement, why?" His girlfriend asked me.
"You can't have children fighting in wars," I replied.
"Let's just get into the game. Maybe you'll end up with something you never used," he replied.
The round had begun in the game, and I was armed with a Springfield as a jackal, but this is where a twist came into play. I had attached a silencer to the sidekick gun, so they were less likely to hear it. "Nathan, how well are you doing so far," I listened to the same kid I talked to earlier say to me.
"Doing great so far," I said as I slowly pulled out my sidekick gun.
"you know I was wondering, maybe you'd join the brotherhood this round," he said as he pulled out his priest gun. I poked out my sidekick gun from around my leg and got him in the knee, now I had my sidekick, and I had to do half of the work.
"There's how many people now?" I asked him.
"Six, I think," he said as he looked at his gauntlet "yup six people."
"Right, let's find some..." I stopped there as I saw a traitor in the distance, taking out the survivalist. I aimed my Springfield at him and got him in the nose, "Got em, best we split, so they don't get us both," I told him.
I went a reasonable distance before I saw the other two innocents talking. "You see them?" I asked him.
"Yeah, I do, and I've got a Melon Launcher," he replied.
"Good, fire at will," I told him. Then I saw two melons flying at them from above, taking both of them out.
"Wow, I'm pretty sure you haven't been taken out once playing this," my sidekick told me.
We played four more games before my head started to pound after running into a low bearing bar, and it was time to eat. "Who knew a hologram could hurt," I said sarcastically.
"Maybe you should head back to your home to let that calm down because I bet that hurt," he replied.
"Yeah, and I really need an ice pack," I replied. Machiavelli then handed me my meal, which was an alien fish. "At this point, I don't care," I told Machiavelli as I turned into my scaled form and dug into the fish.
"Was I too late when I removed that implant? I sure hope not," I heard him say to my friend's caretaker.
"Don't treat Machiavelli," I told him, "every...thing makes mistakes."
"Yeah, I just hope this mistake didn't do major damage," he replied.
"Hey, you're the reason I have this life, you're the reason I've been able to enjoy myself, and I've been able to see the bright side of this," I replied. "Once we head home, I'll be in my dragon form for awhile. I've got another itching to stretch my wings."