Authors Note/Disclaimer: I don't own Wild ARMs 2 and 3, they belong to Media Vision/Contrail/Sony.

This takes place after Beyond One's Design and it certainly took me long enough to get around to writing it. For those of you who haven't played Wild ARMs 2 yet and don't want aspects of the plot spoiled, you shouldn't read this. That said, anyone who's still here, go read!

"Heart Of A Dragon"

By Skylark Starflower

Started May 8th, 2004

Finished September 25th, 2004

"Wait! Before you go Clive, I found this in storage. I thought you might like to look through it."

Catherine handed a small box to Clive. It was full of books and journals, and he needed only a glance to see that the name on the covers read Berlitz. He blinked in surprise.

"I thought that these had been lost?"

Catherine shrugged. "I'd thought so, too. But here they are, found."

Clive smiled. "Well, I am happy for that. And you are correct in assuming I would like to read them. Thank you."

At Catherine's request, the team had spent a week at Humphrey's Peak after they'd returned to pick up Clive, but now they had to go. They'd been requested for a job at Boot Hill, and Virginia wanted to get to it right away. So, with a final farewell to Catherine and Kaitlyn, they gathered their things and headed off to meet up with Lombardia.

The flight was quiet. Virginia was watching the ground go by as Lombardia soared over it, Jet and Gallows were playing a game of cards and Clive was looking through the box of books his wife had given him.

The sniper shuffled through the box, organizing the journals by date before he started to read them. As he was doing this, he came across a tattered notebook buried near the bottom. It looked older than the other books, and he picked it up carefully. It looked as though it would fall apart at the slightest touch.

"What is this?" he wondered aloud. It was obvious to him that it hadn't been written by his professor, and he gently opened the cover. He found himself looking at a dried yellow piece of parchment with the name Ashley Winchester written on it. He blinked.

He'd heard the name before, but everyone thought his story was just a myth. There were no records of his ever having existed. It was as if an entire period of civilization had been completely forgotten. And, Clive mused, that was entirely possible thanks to Yggdrasil.

He had reason before to believe it was true, however. The state of Filgaia attested to that fact. There were no more kings, no queens, and no countries. Just scattered villages trying desperately to survive, but living in relative peace.

It was funny how much good Odessa had done for Filgaia, even if they had been the enemy.

But now Clive found himself holding an important piece of history. Actual proof the stories were true. He had to wonder how he'd ended up with it. There were no known Winchester's in either his or Catherine's family lines. His best guess was it was something Berlitz had found at some point.

Pushing those questions to the back of his mind for the time being, he flipped another page and read the first few lines written there. It looked like a diary or journal Ashley had kept, outlining his battles against Odessa and later, the Kuiper Belt and Lord Blazer.

Instead of reading it all at once, he flipped randomly through the pages, glancing at each one until he found something that surprised him.

"Lombardia?" he asked.

"Yes?" came the voice of the dragon, filling the cockpit.

"You knew Ashley Winchester?"

Gallows and Virginia looked up at the question. They too, had heard the stories, knew the names of the heroes past. Jet was the only one who didn't really know what any of it meant. And he'd even once been told that his weapon, the Airget-Lamh, was the sword Ashley had once wielded, melted down and turned into a special ARM only he could use.

It was a long moment before Lombardia replied. "Yes, it is true. I did know and aid Ashley Winchester and his friends."

"How come you never mentioned this before?"

"You never asked," was the simple reply.

"It is strange," mused Clive as he realized something, "to think, we have access to a vast wealth of knowledge, yet never sought to use it..."

The dragon chuckled. "I have been wondering when you would realize this. Ask me your questions, and I will answer them if I feel I should."

Clive tucked the journal away, and soon forgot about it completely as he and the other began to question their dragon companion. "Could you tell us more about your involvement with Ashley?"

"There is not much of a story to tell. It was their wish the same as yours, to use my wings to aid them in their quest. At the time I was younger and still very arrogant, time had not yet begun to affect me. I cared not for these pathetic humans, for they could not even be bothered to get my gender right.

"Their resolve was that of steel, and I granted them my help. But I never liked them, any of them. They sought merely to use me as a vehicle of transportation. They cared not for my feelings, so I cared not for them.

"The four of you are different from them, for instead of trying to convince me to help save a dying planet, you offered to help me. It was in return of this favor that I granted you use of my wings."

"What were you doing since then?" asked Gallows.

It took Lombardia a moment to answer. "I had been keeping much to myself. It is... a lonely life as the last living dragon left on Filgaia. It has been many, many hundreds of years since I last had someone to converse with."

"What happened to the other dragons?" queried Jet.

"First, you must understand that me and my kind are not originally from this dimension. We came to this place to escape what has been since called the Kuiper Belt as it destroyed our own world. Unfortunately, many of my kind could not adapt to this new world and perished. Among them were my love and our daughter.

"Those of us who managed to adapt were not accepted by the dragon population that already lived here, for they were completely of flesh. Our partly metal bodies seemed blasphemous to them, and there was a war. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. The Filgaian dragons were all but wiped out."

"Daughter?" Clive's voice was shocked, and he had stopped hearing Lombardia after she'd mentioned her. "It was thought that dragons neither grow nor evolve, existing only in their ultimate form."

"Then you are misinformed. It may seem that way to humans, if all you had to study were the fossils left behind. Only the strongest dragons were able to make the escape to Filgaia, but there were no young born after. I am the last of my kind..."

Virginia blinked as she realized something else. "Is that what you meant when you said you were seeking peaceful slumber? That you... want to die?"

Lombardia fell silent. It almost seemed she wasn't going to answer when she finally said, "It saddens me... to see my fellows carried around in the form of you ARMs, and that perhaps this same fate befell my lost family..."

No one spoke for several minutes. No one knew what to say. Jet surprised everyone when he patted the wall.

"You may be the last of the dragons," he said quietly, "but there are still others of your kind."

Everything returned to silence, the others shocked by what they thought Jet had just said.

"Are you trying to reassure Lombardia by telling her there are still demons?!" asked Virginia.

Jet fixed her with a piercing stare. "No, Virginia. The demons are dead. We killed them.

"...I was referring to myself."

Lombardia paused. "I thank you, small one, for your words. But I no longer wish to answer questions."

The rest of the flight to Boot Hill was spent in contemplative silence.

The End