After I had my human form again, I had started to stay in it more and more, but it soon became clear the day after I received it why the hive queen wanted my human form back.
"How many times has that been now, 5?" I asked her.
"In a day on top of it, your Infested must have strengthened your stomach," she replied.
"I'm starting to regret listening to you," I told her.
"Hey, you should be thanking me for getting Dante to convince Machiavelli! At least hold up your end of the bargain," she replied.
"fine," I regrettably replied, "do you need me to do another one?"
She picked me up, cradled me, and said: "rest your stomach. I know it's late, so why don't you sleep with me tonight?"
"Might as well," I replied as one of her drones wrapped me in their membrane.
"I guess you're sticking around then," she replied as she held me against her chest and laid down. "Good night, then."
"Good night," I replied before I felt a calming sensation and fell asleep.
I woke up the next day with one of her drones on top of me near the entrance. "Can you get off? You're a bit heavy," I told it. It went back into the hive while I went to the couch to stretch my dragon form wings again.
"Nathan, you up yet?" I heard Machaivelli ask me. I popped my head up off of the couch, and he noticed me with a curious stare. "Daniel's stopping by again; maybe you'd want to be playing outside with him again," he told me.
I turned to my scaled form and replied with: "Yeah, and then maybe we can go find your son finally."
Then Machiavelli checked his watch and told me: "Well, your mental trainer needed to put her kid with the Infested for a while, and since you seemed to be her best client, she wants you to fill in for him."
"For how long?" I asked him.
"She hasn't got a date for when he'll come back," he replied.
We headed to her place again, but after Machiavelli closed the door, I noticed the kid was still here. She gagged me until he wasn't within hearing distance. "What was that for!" I shouted at her.
"Sorry about that, but right now, we have more pressing matters," she replied.
"Is he here?" I heard a voice say.
"Yeah, he is Virgil," she replied.
"Who's he?" I asked her.
"Nathan, this is Virgil, Machiavelli's son, we've been trying to expose your caretaker for weeks now," she told me.
"Expose him, how exactly?" I asked her.
"For the control freak he is, that's why I left because he could barely take care of me after my mother was killed, and I doubt he could do any better for you, Nathan. When we were in Saturn's orbit, he kept bragging about how he could take the rowdiest kid he could find and tame him like a savage beast, but you're not like that today that was then. Just about everything he told you is a lie, your family's condition, the deadline, all of it fake. We may separate the kids, but it's not usually for more than a few days in cases like yours; in his case," he said as he pointed to the other kid in the room, "His family was on a business trip in Aisa and left him with a friend before we got here. Hence, they probably ended up on the Eurasian ship. we still need to track them down, though."
"Who else knows about this?" I asked them.
"Dante, the hive queen, your friend Daniel's a bit oblivious to it, though. Dante kept wiping his memory of anything about our plan with the implant he has in his brain," Virgil replied.
"I thought Dante didn't use an implant on Daniel," I told him.
"He does, on the contrary, heck, he's the CEO in your terms of the company that makes them, but he never uses them to change behavior as Machiavelli did with that one you had on the underside of your jaw," he told me.
"Ok then, two questions, what are you getting out of this and how much evidence do you have against him?" I asked them.
"We have enough to keep you here, and I just want to get back at my ethics, breaking dad, and expose him for who he really is. You know she actually considered you, but she then saw him, and he was what she needed out of a kid. He may think he has a rough life, but at least his memory wasn't nearly being taken from him," he told me.
"You know, hearing your story, I'm pretty thankful I ended up with her. Yes, she can give me a hard time, but seeing the kids change from scared on their wits to where they don't even fear the largest of serpents it's kinda rewarding, and I'm starting to think her kind sleeps in groups, and that's why she always sleeps with me," the kid told me.
"Well, someone had to take the hit here to help expose him, and if he found a worse kid, your case might not have been as strong," I told them.
I then thought about it for a bit and said: "Well, then who'd be taking me in if my family can't... well, you know."
"I fear for the worst for your family kid, and I've got too much responsibility to rear you as my own, but she can raise you," Virgil replied, pointing out my mental trainer.
"Now hold up considering..." I stopped there as she pulled me onto the couch.
"Don't threat, Nathan, you'd be like a 5th child for me," she told me.
"You took in 4 other kids already?" I asked her.
"No, 3 of them are actually my kids with the 4th being the one that used to be a complainer about what happened to him," she replied.
"Where's the other 3?" I asked her.
"In their room," she replied. she then went to the door and said: "you guys can come on out now."
The door then opened, and I see a roughly 5 Ft 5 humanoid serpent creature in the doorway. "So is he going to be staying or not? Because I hope he's not as much of a complainer as he was when he first got here," he told her. I looked behind him to find the other two kids playing go fish
"I used to sleep in a dragon's mouth, kid, and I just feel a strong bond to her, so I don't know if I could sleep with you guys," I told him.
"That bond, while they do love you, is just a false feeling. Meant for those who have a dragon with them as their companion like you," the kid replied.
"Didn't he have one, though?" I asked him, pointing out the human kid behind me."
"It was meant for him, but I just couldn't sleep without all of my children with me, and it just never clicked for him," she told me.
"Then, where is the dragon?" I asked her.
"That dragon that you saw when we first met, is yours," she replied.
I headed to the same cave where I first caught a glimpse of one to find my dragon cleaning her hatchling with her tongue. "You want to be cleaned off too, Nathan?" She asked me.
"Might as well, I mean you do treat me like I'm your hatchling too," I replied as I turned to my dragon form and walked over to her. She then started to lick my back, but as she did, I noticed that there was a piece of the blade missing off of Virgil's knife.
I stood up only to lay down again as my dragon said: "I just started. Let me finish."
"You seemed eager to go," her hatchling said to me.
"It's Virgil, the tip of his knife is missing, and it looks like it was broken off," I replied.
"You mean that thing in the sheath?" He asked me.
"Yeah, I'm starting to think he used it on something or maybe even someone," I replied.
"What? His kind ain't violent I can vouch for that," he replied in shock.
"You'd be surprised what can snap," I replied.
Once she was done, I let it soak in as I ate some fish. Suddenly I heard something roll into the home, and everyone held their noses. "I found them. I finally found them!" I heard Dante say.
"Yeah, but you could of at least air sealed their bodies," Virgil replied.
"Bodies, what's going on?" I said as I quickly turn to my human form.
"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Nathan, but we found your family's... corpses," he told me.
"You were right then Virgil, your fears were true," I told him. I then quickly noticed a stab wound in one of their necks with something shiny sticking out of it.
"What do you want me to do, Nathan?" Dante asked me.
"Find me someone who can do an autopsy. One of my kind, preferably," I told him.
We headed to someone who could do just that on the opposite side of the ship, and the results were surprising. "Ok, one of them had this in his neck, a stab wound that cut the jugular while the other two seemed to have been poisoned with hydrogen cyanide," he told me.
He handed me the bit of knife in the bag as I said: "Isn't this part of Virgil knife Dante?"
"Yeah, it is, does that mean..."
I stopped him there as I said: "Don't jump to conclusions, Dante. Now, can either Virgil or Machiavelli legally get this chemical?"
"Machiavelli can," he replied."
"My point exactly as I recall Machiavelli saying he's a chemist. Boys, I think we're looking at a father and son feud. Dante," He quickly responded with 'what,' "Get a team together consisting of this guy, a forensic specialist, a few others that worked in a criminal field, and get me Machiavelli's purchasing records of any chemicals."
"Why is that?" He asked me.
I responded in my best Sherlock Holmes tone with: "There's been a murder, well three murders."