Chapter Thirty-Nine

"You're Right. I Shouldn't Exist, But I Do...and I Want What the World Owes Me. Peace."

In stories -at least a majority of the ones Nina had heard growing up- the antagonist(s) gets a little time to reflect before they die. Maybe they would apologize for everything they had done to wrong the heroine, for objectifying her as nothing more than a title she'd long thrown away and the woman she had no choice but to become. Maybe they would tell her they really did love her, that this was a terrible, avoidable tragedy and there would be closure...

Why did all the gods deny this to Ethan and Chasta?

The weight of Nina's heart had her on the ground sobbing and retching with hands grasping at dirt mixed with her friends' blood. "They died MEANINGNESSLY!" she wailed.

Ryu was cemented where he stood. Ethan's dead eyes stared unfocused his way looking regretful even through the mask of terror his face was twisted into. The dragon almost felt ashamed at the relief washing over him now that this threat had finally been taken care of.

But at what cost?

Nina threw her head back, screamed into the otherwise silent night, "I know you're godsdamned happy about it too aren't you, Ryu?!"

Ryu had to be careful with what he said to the owner of the crimson slits now glaring a hole into him through messy whitening hair and the black claws clenching menacingly at her sides. "Sha'lei, I never wished for you to lose your friends, but I also can't bear the thought of losing you."

She rose on clawed feet. A mouth struggling to house growing fangs screwed into a snarl. "Do not 'Sha'lei' me. If you did not want me to lose them then why didn't you stop him from killing Chasta?" Firelight from the bonfire glinted off of bone blades tearing out of her forearms.

This was the Kaiser, Ryu could without a doubt feel him, but...

"Answer me!" barked his partner in Draconian, glowing eyes wide.

...it was also Nina.

"Sha-...Nina." Reluctantly, Ryu readied his own blades. "I"ll admit I never fully understood your love for them, but because I care for you I wouldn't have purposely killed them."

The two paced a circle over bodies of highlanders, never taking their eyes off of one another. Winds began to pick up, filling the blood stained air with the ghosts of leaves. "Care? You? Don't make me laugh. Feelings, souls, humanity, you'll never understand any of them, you godsforsaken monster," she spat acidly.

Ryu bit his lip, ignored the daggers those words became in his heart. "Ethan was a highly skilled warrior, much more adept than I ever gave him credit for. His assault on her was too fast for me to react. I couldn't-"

"You let him kill her."

Godsdamnit. Ryu set his jaw, "Snap out of it, Nina, that bastard is poisoning your mind! You know better than anyone else I would never admit Ethan's competency!"

Crimson scales traveling up her throat darkened to onyx. "I felt it. That immediate release. You're glad they're dead."

Nina took advantage of the split second her words bought and kicked up a body at him. He caught it and jumped back as her blade sliced through it and almost him. Through the blood splattering over them both, Ryu used the body parts in his left hand to knock her off balance. She used the momentum to swing up at his throat, barely giving him enough time to guard. Sparks flew against scales, Ryu dropped down and aimed to break her legs.

Love has made you weak.

He hesitated. In Ryu's world, hesitation meant death.

Nina's black blade stopped at his temple and his heart started back up. Luckily for him he was needed. Swallowing hard, he swung his legs around. She ripped the earring from her ear to summon two dark helping hands in dodging them.

Merybel appeared between them in a burst of pink sparkles with her arms out and her eyes squeezed tightly shut. "Please don't hurt him-!" Ryu snatched her out of the air just as Nina sliced through it and went tumbling with the faerie to the ground. Stone faced, the Wyndian followed close, stabbing ground and highlander alike frantically aiming for Merybel. Ryu scrambled to get up. Merybel almost lost her head to a swing Nina put all her weight into.

The Wyndian teetered off balance. Ryu swung his fist into the back of her knee and as she crumpled hurled his faerie friend as hard as he could into the air the opposite way. "Get yourself out of here, Mery!" he yelled after her, then turned to Nina taking off without missing a beat, "No you don't!" He jumped up and wrapped his arms around her legs. Thin, ebony bone coiled around his throat and forced his head back. Great, now she had the tail. He made a desperate grab for one of her wings. She crossed her arms and with an inhuman roar, snapped off the tips of her blades. Before Ryu could blink, one was embedded in his shoulder and the other the middle of Merybel's back. "Mery!" He watched the little faerie plunge into a pile of snow white leaves. "Godsdamnit you bastard what are you making Nina do?!"

I want what's mine.

"...I can't...deal with this..."

Nina trembled uncontrollably in Ryu's soul's arms within the tiny sanctuary he had made them from the Kaiser. This was too much. Ethan and Chasta didn't deserve this. Why couldn't she stop them? Why did it have to end up this way? Ryu rubbed his forehead gently against hers. She death gripped his cloak. "Nina...you harbor such a genuinely honest soul, one that will do anything for the ones she loves."

"...I couldn't stop loving them...no matter what they did to me..."

The dragon soul's hands were in her hair. Her heart beat with his in the dim light of whatever memory he'd hidden them in. "Because your soul can do nothing but try and find the good in others. It is a curse...and one of the reasons I am in love with you."

She took a deep, ragged breath, feeling his influence seeping in ever so slowly, poking and prodding uninvited at her wavering sanity. Her teeth started to chatter. "They...were my only friends before I met you and the others. I...wasn't allowed to associate with any of the other help, it 'wasn't becoming' my father would say." Nina swallowed hard, Ryu just held her. "O-one time another handmaiden wanted to accompany Chasta and I for an overnight stay. I'd been so happy. Not one but two girlfriends to talk to? We spent the whole night gossiping about soldiers and even tried to catch them shirtless in the barracks." the small smile that had formed on her lips died almost as fast as it appeared. "The next morning she was just...gone. Chasta'd been so pale. It wasn't the beginnings of the flu like she'd convinced me, she knew damn well my father had that girl killed. How dare she take the Princess of Wyndia anywhere near dirty places like soldier's barracks." Fat tears rolled down her reddening cheeks. "Sometimes I'd try to talk to other help because who cared what my father thought they were people too and Chasta would always steer me away. She'd tell me so and so was 'such a bore' and 'you wouldn't like her anyways.'" She squeezed her eyes closed."Gods we were only thirteen Ryu and she knew exactly where she stood in this godsforsaken world. ...She hated me because I was an oblivious little twit and I get it." Ryu rubbed her back gingerly. "And Ethan...He'd grown into a different person -there was no doubt about that- but I know deep down in my heart when he used to sit with me on the balcony eating the sandwiches Lucius made us after practice...he meant to laugh at my stupid jokes..." Reluctantly she pulled away a bit from the dragon. "I am sorry, Ryu. I...I understand it's in our best interest that both her and Ethan are d-dead and as a warrior I need to deal with this and move on before it causes any more problems, I just...I'm just...I can't..."

He pressed his lips against her forehead, sending the butterflies already in her stomach into a frenzy. "My dear sweet Sha'lei, How I wish you never had to think like a warrior."

Both of her hands went to his smooth cheeks. For a moment she let him lean into them, relishing the tender look he gave. "I-I don't want to be angry with you, Ryu, I love you...it's not your fault...I know in my heart it's not but I'm...I can feel my body out there blaming you and-" Both her and Ryu's heads snapped up.

Found you.

Deafening winds roared. Darkness tore through, suffocating everything save the Kaiser's floating murderous blood tinged orbs. Ryu planted himself between the entity and Nina with blades ready at his sides and his long navy hair whipping crazily about. "I-I won't let you take her!" His legs were shaking. Nina was a leaf in a hurricane clinging to his arm.

Laughter boomed, strangled their nerves. Have you forgotten? She's already relinquished herself to me. I am here the collect what is mine.

Ryu grit his teeth, snarled as hard as he could. "As long as I draw breath you will not have her."

Little whelp, how I long to fulfill your wish for death. Instead, I'll watch with interest again as you lose everything you love.

"Ryu..." Nina's tiny voice pulled the dragon's waning sanity back. "I...I think he just made me kill Merybel…"

The faerie was an obstacle we needed to dispose of and you took care of the job without remorse.

Her legs gave away beneath her. "Don't listen to him!" Ryu's soul was frantically shaking her by the shoulders. It didn't matter. Merybel was dead. She'd killed Ryu's best friend. She was trash. She deserved to have the Kaiser take her miserable self over. "Nina please!"

Of course you deserve me. You and I are meant to be as one.

Yes. They were always meant to be as one.

"Nina, keep it together! He's going to say anything to push you over the edge, you can't believe him! Nina please!" Tears streamed down the panicked soul's face. "I can't lose you to him! Please Nina, don't leave me alone!"

Shadows somehow darker than the Kaiser's presence suddenly engulfed Nina and dispersed, leaving Ryu with arms as empty as his heart.

Now, it's my turn.

Ryu's back slammed against dirt. Nina's fangs sunk deep into his throat. The dark beasts attached to her back spread, blocking the moon. He reached for one of them, a black claw grabbed his wrist and slammed it back down. Behind him, he could just barely hear Merybel's heart fluttering. His call to her came out a garbled mess. Nina snapped her head back, enjoying a brief shower in his blood before leaping off and landing gracefully on all fours in front of him.

It will take some time for that to heal came the Kaiser's granite voice infiltrating Ryu's brain, I do not need you talking any "sense" into the Keeper.

Ryu had to use both hands to keep the wound she'd caused closed. Blood ran in thick rivers between his fingers as he fumbled to stand. "...w...hat...are...you...plan...ning..?" rasped out something resembling a voice.

His partner's beautiful smile had been transformed into a demon's sinister smirk. She stood, covered in that godsforsaken aura with her shimmering scaled arms crossed, licking his blood from her lips. Onyx showed through rips in her clothing. Behind her, bone swept leaves and dirt briskly back and forth. Together, you and I will confront Tyr.

The dragon's eyes went wild. "-?!" he coughed crimson and dropped to his knees from the pain.

When we arrive you will give yourself to me like the female and I will use you both to help commandeer her power when she inevitably tries to take us over. Then all of Elanaar will pay-

"Nah mate, ya actually gonna take a rest for awhile, ya hear? At least I hope ta Ladon ya is."

Ryu didn't sense a damn thing and he figured the Kaiser didn't either from the face he was making Nina make. Both gazes went to an old man in a long tattered brown hooded robe stepping out from behind a tree with a faintly glowing gnarled hand outstretched barely visible from within his over-sized sleeves. The Kaiser furrowed Nina's brows. Who do you think you are-!?

Ryu watched in awe the Wyndian instantly collapse. His eyes flickered back to the old man with his face hidden in his cowl. He'd been chanting, but what sort of spell could pacify the Kaiser? "...H..ow...?" he managed to bubble out before he too welcomed the ground.

A vaguely familiar stone ceiling.

Slowly Ryu blinked. His whole body ached. Before he had time to sort through the fog in his mind, Merybel's cheerful face bounced into view. "Master Ryu you're awake!" She turned to look behind her and beckoned, "Arson, come! No, I'm not going to watch you make that tapestry pretty come here, he's finally awake!" Pink eyes sparkling with the remnants of tears came back. Tan arms squeezed him tightly.

Nina.

Ryu sat straight up, almost knocking Arson off the bed as she was climbing up and started to get out of it. "No, Master, lay back down!" Merybel cried still hanging onto his scale covered neck. "If you're worried about the winged dummy she's in the other room asleep without a black scale on her!" Ryu looked down at her. "So she's fine alright! I-if you don't want to lay down then at least sit!"

"...?" Ryu reached up and felt his throat. Merybel pushed him back onto the bed.

"After Gisshan brought us back here I attempted to heal you, but I wasn't strong enough after taking care of myself. I'm sorry. You'll probably have trouble speaking for a little bit," said Merybel crestfallen. When met with a curious look she nodded to Arson standing on the worn quilt covering him. "Gisshan is the old man's name. He saved us and Arson knows him from somewhere."

"He old master, I say this one hundred times but you no listen. Anyway." the nut mage turned its eye holes to Ryu. "New Master okay, I check. I worried about you too, rude dragon, even though you threaten take staff EVERYDAY."

"Ryu he carried both you and Nina on his shoulders like barrels and he's a really frail old man too, can you believe it? He also said he knew a one time special chant passed down from generations to put you both to sleep that can never ever be used again. How crazy is that?"

Pale yellow flickered to the doorway where Gisshan stood leaning against it. He was a frail main indeed, especially now that he'd given up those baggy robes. White, age spotted arms no thicker than Nina's crossed over a very visible rib cage through his thin tunic. Before, when Ryu bought Arson from him in the desert, he smelled human. Now, he wasn't so sure. Wrinkled lips cracked into a toothless grin. Arson stood and waved excitedly. "Tell me, do y'all always talk to it like that? Like it's a companion?"

"What do you mean? Arson's our friend," stated Merybel with a dumbfounded look.

Gisshan burst into laughter boisterous enough to break him. "It cried for the Wyndian girl. I ain't never seen one o' those creatures cry, didn't even know they could!"

"You no make fun of me!" Arson huffed. "I no like seeing Master hurt, she give best shiny and she nice!"

"I jus can't believe it, tha Godsdamn Destroyer o' Worlds befriendin' anythin'. Ya was nothin but a soulless blade back then, ain't no one heard a complete sentence from ya since ya was a kid an' now you got a godsdamn faerie an' a nut mage fawnin' ova ya. I can't take this, I swear..." wheezing, he clutched his stomach laughing even harder. Merybel crossed her arms and opened her mouth to retort. He threw up a hand to stop her and gathered himself together with a deep breath. "Now, now lemme have my fun alright lil' faerie...ah, alright I s'pose I should explain myself, huh? Ya wouldn't 'memba me lookin' like this anyhow, whelp. I'm old, but I ain't lookin' this decrepit." Gisshan shuffled over to a chair in the corner of the room that had a pile of books as a leg. He sighed as he sat. A new, younger voice escaped his chapped, withered lips. "It would be better if I address you as how you remember me, Prince Ryu." Tiny glowing blue particles skittered over his body, filling out lost muscle and tightening saggy skin. Straggly white hair darkened to a grayish navy, filling in all the balding spots and falling in waves against his broadening chest. What was left of his eccentric mustache fell into his lap. Ryu's eyes widened. Merybel's went back and forth from Ryu to him. Arson watched in wonder.

Nyveh. Tristram's right hand man and Ryu's uncle on his mother's side. Yeah. He remembered him. When Tristram discovered Ryu could stealth, Nvyeh was one of the first to advise him to get rid of the young dragon as quickly and efficiently as possible, even offered to do it himself. Ryu heard it with his own ears. Nyveh stared back at him from the chair, emerald eyes aged yet still incredibly fierce. "There is bound to still be some ill will against me, I know. Five hundred years was but a nap for you, but I would like you to take a moment to consider something." He reached into long pockets in his baggy pants and pulled out a wooden pipe and a little black box. "Before we are able to truly understand what is being told to us, dragons are fed the story of the Destroyer. We learn how Ladon turned his back on the dark ones, how the clans can never mix blood." He took a pinch of herb from the box and packed his pipe. "Why? We'd ask. The dark ones were dragons still, right?" a tiny flame burst from his index finger, he used it as a light. Sweet smelling smoke poured from his nostrils. "No, Ladon forsake them, their blood was cursed. If it touched ours, the Destroyer would be born and we'd all pay for the sin." Fragrant clouds distorted the moon's light seeping in from the window behind him. "Seeing that sin right in front of us...knowing it was real... We were scared Ryu. Well, I was scared. Hell, I still am. Tristram wanted you dead because you look so much like godsdamn Fyrion and he probably thought about Seirena's legs in the air every time he saw you."

Ryu remembered this window. He and Ana had escaped from there many times to go exploring after dark. This was Ana's old room.

Merybel had held her tongue as long as she could. "What the heck are you talking about, you dummy?! I'm well over five hundred years old and I knew Ryu back when he was a 'weapon'," she said making a face and exaggerated quotations with her tiny fingers. "He saved the faerie realm multiple times and he did it because he wanted to...b-because he's always had a good soul! His own kind used him, that...princess...just because he's strong. It's not his fault they made him do those things!"

"Oh? I don't think you've ever seen how blank that face is while he's killing."

"So? He can't be serious when he's dealing with people that want to kill him too? Come off it, old man."

Nyveh himself was expressionless. Smoke seeped from the edges of his lips. "I've seen that man single-handedly destroy an entire squadron of Myrmidon without uttering a godsdamn sound."

Ryu wasn't keeping eye contact anymore. Merybel noticed and said with a huff, "He had not one but two gods controlling him, what kind of dummy doesn't understand the strain that would put on a person?! He grew up barely ever having a conversation longer than 'go kill this'. What is so damn hard to understand how he might not have been so socially adept until he...well...had a chance to be social?!"

The older dragon shifted in his seat. "So the Destroyer, being the social butterfly he is now, picked up a Wyndian. Tell me why she also bears the curse. And two gods? I thought the only one controlling your soul was Ladon's fury."

Ryu's gaze returned. "..th...curse.." his cough speckled his hands with red.

Merybel placed glowing hands on his throat. "Here, I can spare a bit more."

Ryu cleared his airways, wiped blood from his bottom lip. "...the Goddess cursed her to share my soul and every burden that comes along with it."

"The Goddess?"

Flickering candlelight sent shadows dancing across Ryu's handsome, hardened features. Nyveh hadn't really gotten a good look before at an older Ryu. The thin, compactly muscled youth was indeed was the spitting image of Fyrion, but he could also see every bit of Sereina's beauty outlining his war-torn demeanor. It was widely understood by the dragons the second princess of Wyndia had an unhealthy obsession with their pariah. When she sealed the young dragon, she'd paraded the information around to all, making it sound like she'd finally pacified the beast who'd spontaneously gone wildly out of control. She'd made it sound akin to a lover's spat. No one heard anything from Wyndia again until her son was born, although some speculated the bloodline had been tarnished by Ryu. Centuries later, it was clear it was not. "Nina...my Nina once told me a story about her ancestor Nyna the Second, how illness took the princess and then suddenly she rose from her own coffin more ambitious and healthy than ever. The Shade Queen...Deis confirmed the phenomenon happened because the Goddess inhabited that body. Sealing me should have been the end of it. I suppose she wasn't satisfied yet." Ryu bit his lip. "According to Deis, I suffer because I resemble the source of all her hatred...Ladon."

To say he resembled a god...Ryu wasn't vain, if anything Nyveh guessed he despised those pretty features. It was odd to feel his heartstrings pull for the Destroyer. "Be her Goddess or Wyndian, why would she curse one of her own kind in such a manner?"

"I was perplexed as well until we encountered two dark ones who told us she was using my soul to hone Nina's body for her own use. They're keeping her alive down there in Drakken. They have for a long while."

Smoke billowed into the air in thick puffs. It certainly was strange for Wyndia to have so much ambition back then. Historically they'd been a quiet people. Her attack on Drogen came completely out of the blue. It all started to make a little more sense now. He took another long hit of his pipe, leaned his head back. "I wonder what she plans to do with that body? We've been hidden from her cult with Ladon's blessing for over a century now. I'm the only one who travels in or out. I doubt she knows about us."

"Hidden?"

The room was getting hazy. Merybel swayed and held her head. "To the naked eye, Drogen doesn't exist. Ladon tricked the dark ones into thinking they'd destroyed us. We've been biding our time."

"Drogen? You talking about the ruins to the south? Why are you asking about that place? There's nothing there but a few sad looking people in rags living in the rubble."

"How many still reside here?"

Nyveh snorted. "Not enough and we're old, whelp. We can do nothing but sit here and seethe about the past."

Ryu gripped the blanket draped over his legs. "What's happened in these years I've been gone?"

"After she bragged to all dragons dark and light about how you were indisposed, she disappeared back to Wyndia to have an heir. Over the years the dark ones would attack since she'd taught them with Tristram and your mother that our blood could fuel their suits much faster than the souls of the forest."

Merybel felt Ryu tense beside her. "What do you mean my mother? Our mogu scout on the way here told me chrysm was made from dead light ones many years after their death. My mother died in front of me, how could she have been a part of any..."

Nyveh's face took his words away. His reply caught his breath. "Ryu, your mother...my sister didn't die that day, although I can understand why you believed so. The minute she was struck you went out of your mind."

Tan, calloused hands shook in Merybel's soft tiny ones. "...You're saying...the entire time I was with that wench she was keeping my mother alive down in Drakken doing gods know what to her...?" Dark foreboding clouds overwrote Nyveh's hazy ones of relaxation. The older dragon could feel the waves of Ryu's anger gently lapping against him, growing in intensity as realization sunk in. "Tristram I couldn't give a damn about, but my mother...," he growled through bared fangs.

Curious emerald eyes studied the inner turmoil now boiling within the pariah. Apprehensive crimson scales traveling up his arms slowly faded back down into his skin. Ryu was controlling it somehow. "What will you do with this knowledge, Destroyer? Do not inquire if she still lives or not, for I do not know. My life has been dedicated to protecting what we have left, I fear I do not and have never had the man power to find out the fate of my beloved sister."

Ryu took a deep breath, let the sweet whisperings of Nina's soul calm him. If she's alive we'll find her, Ryu, and we'll get revenge together. "A ludicrous notion, Sha'lei, but I will entertain it for both of our sakes..." he whispered back.

Nyveh heard him. "Sha'lei?" he asked incredulously.

"...ah, the Wyndian," Ryu coughed, shifting his eyes. "I have chosen her. Her soul speaks to me as mine does to her."

Thick puffs of smoke poured out as Nyveh began his own coughing fit. "...a...are you...? So -cough- it's your primitive marks on the back of her neck." He struggled to gain breath, hitting his chest with his fist.

The Destroyer's cheeks colored, an amusing sight. "I...a situation arose where I needed to pacify her that's all." he shook his head sharply and set his jaw. "A-anyhow you asked what I will do with that knowledge? I will use it to further justify the Goddess' destruction."

Nyveh coughed a bit more and then took another hit regardless. "What is it you wish for exactly, Prince Ryu? What will you do once you destroy a Goddess?"

Ryu's gaze locked with his. "My wish? Would you believe I only long live in peace with Nina away from anyone and everything...I...want a family and I-"

Nyveh's waving hand interrupted him. "Wait you, a family? Surely you jest. Do you really wish to purposely spread the disease that is the Kaiser to others."

"...I've thought about it a lot...and no, it isn't fair, but I'm selfish. I've lived my life for so long doing what others wanted, what others made me do..." he swallowed, squeezed Merybel's hand back. "I-I love that woman...and I want to give her the chance to have a family. I'll do everything I can to pacify the Kaiser...surely our mixed bloodline will help...and if something does happen I will be there to deal with it..."

Laughter stopped him, he glared at the old dragon slapping his hand against his leg. "Never did I think I would hear such a dream from you, the Destroyer... A godsforsaken family. It really would be godsforsaken." He took another long hit and stood slowly, setting his pipe down on the arm of his chair. "No, I don't believe a word of it."

"Throw your past assumptions about me away, I mean everything that comes from my lips. A quiet life with the one I love...that's all I want, all I need."

Ryu watched with widened eyes Nyveh transform before him.

No matter how many times Ryu witnessed one with the power of myrmidon, the dark, dank feelings in his stomach never went away. Jealousy, anger, longing, a lust for power he would never be able to harness. Nyveh stood over seven hulking feet tall now, with large fiery colored wings bursting from his crimson scaled back. His elderly body tightened into one rivaling Ryu's. Massive dark horns broke free from the sides of his whitening head, curling forward into menacing points. Eyes more green than the greenest emerald in existence glared down at the dragon and his faerie. A thick tail sprouting from trousers consisting of fur twitched an irritated jitter behind him. "I remember you, Ryu, the thoughts in your head could never be so pure. On the battlefield you'd let that thing take over and slaughter us with no mercy. I know deep down inside you enjoyed every second of it, after all you have all that despicable cursed blood running through you just as much as you do mine. A family. You wish to gain the Goddess' power and take us all to hell with you, don't you Destroyer?"

Ryu winced as he stood. "No!" he shouted with his hands up, refusing to brandish his blades. "I promise you I want nothing to do with this world or any of its inhabitants, I just want to be free!"

Large clawed feet left the floor, Nyveh was hovering. The sound of his wings was so heavy. "My family's sin...the pariah should have never existed. Tristram and I are fools for not taking care of you when we should have."

Ryu didn't like how words were affecting him so much lately. He shook them off with a snort. "You're right. I shouldn't exist," he said pushing Merybel away from him. "But I do...and I want what the world owes me. Peace."

Nyveh's fist slammed heavily into Ryu's abdomen, crushing through his ribs. There was no connecting what happened in between. He clutched onto the massive fist as he slid with the tattered rug underneath his feet hard into the opposite stone wall. Blood erupted into his mouth. Nyveh was right, he would let the Kaiser take him over sometimes, that way maybe he could blame the deaths that resulted on him. That blank face...when it was him, he turned off his brain and took care of the enemy like he was told. It was the only way to keep Ana safe.

Both Merybel and Arson jumped onto Gisshan's broad shoulders. "Stop it! Ryu's a dragon just like you and he's tired of fighting, okay?! Just let him have a peaceful life, you dummy!" the faerie screamed biting down onto what she thought would be skin but ended up as scales. It didn't break her teeth, though it still sent the same shocks through her as though it had. Gisshan shook the dazed little troublemaker off of him.

Arson wrapped her staff into the dragon's thick stark white locks. "Old master you crazy, I save rude dragon or new master will be sad!" she cried willing her staff to burst to life. Sharp emeralds darted to her. His other fist closed completely around her.

Crimson seeped between Ryu's teeth when he spoke. "Don't hurt her," he strained, still trying to keep himself from being completely flattened against the wall. He didn't want to fight another dragon!

"This? A lowly nut mage? There's hundreds, no thousands of them why would you care about this one?" Gods the way Myrmidon made voices...it was almost like the Kaiser, except this low rumble had the decency to run by your ears first. Arson kicked and screamed in his tightening grasp.

"Wasn't she yours at one time? You gave her a name, didn't you? You know she's got a soul just like the rest of us."

The Myrmidon regarded him thoughtfully, "So I do." He absently tossed the nut away. His hair, which was still aflame was smothered with a single grip of his clawed hand. "Tell me, whelp, why do you not draw your blades?"

Ryu spit out more blood and managed to smirk, "Why don't you ask yourself the same?"

Nyveh answered by flexing his into existence. With immense reluctance Ryu followed suit and used the precious seconds created by the larger dragon having to concentrate on that to push him back a few inches. Ribs and lungs screaming, the blue haired dragon became a blur as he used the fist for steadiness and then the wall to kick himself into the air towards him swinging around both blades aiming for his throat. Maybe if he somehow sheathed his blade fast and threw his fist he'd merely knock the breath from him- Horns expertly caught the blades and threw Ryu violently to the side. His back cracked like his ribs when Nyveh's other fist crashed into it and sent him into the ground so hard he bounced. Before he could think, the combination continued with the myrmidon flipping and catching him just as hard with his tail on the back of his head.

Did he hit the ground again? He wasn't sure, everything was already hurting so bad. Blurry vision told him he'd stood up again. What was that wetness pouring down his back? Swaying to the sound of wings flapping in the distance he tasted more metal. He thought he could hear Merybel screaming. Nina? Was it Nina too? He couldn't feel his legs. Wait, what happened, was he on the floor again? He couldn't see anything anymore through these blasted red splotches.

"RYU!"

Nyveh looked over to see the Wyndian girl tripping as she ran over to Ryu's crumpled body. Tears streaming down her face she threw her arms around him. His eyes were wide open, his head lolled on her shoulder, she cradled it lovingly. "What the hell are you doing to him?!" she cried glaring up at Nyveh, showing no fear of his appearance. "He's one of you, why would you hurt your own kind?" The dragon's body started to convulse as it attempted to shift his bones back into their rightful places. She held onto him tighter, nuzzling into his hair. "Ryu's always lamenting about how he was made to harm those of his own race...and you...sitting here having a choice still made the decision to fight..."

"You know everything don't you. About Ladon, about the Kaiser."

"I know more about the Kaiser than anyone."

"And still, you care for him? This broken monster?"

"We're both broken monsters. I've never cared for someone more in my entire life."

"Even knowing who he is, what he is?"

Nina touched her lips to Ryu's forehead. He reached with a trembling hand to caress her face. "The Kaiser tries to drill into my head Ryu is incapable of love, that he doesn't deserve it back because he isn't a person, he's merely a passenger to a vessel that ultimately will be vacated for him as soon as he can make it so. That when this happens he will cease to exist and anything he'd accomplished in his life would be for nothing...that the life he was living is a lie and it's cruel to care for him knowing his destiny." More tears flowed. Ryu was almost back together now but he dared not move from her. If he could have, he would have stayed here for a lifetime listening to her justifying his existence. "He's a person godsdamnit, deserving of more love than I can give him in a lifetime. He cares...so much about everything...with a heart purer than mine. No one ever gave him a chance and you better be damned I'm glad I did."

"You'd leave the fate of the world in his hands?"

"I...well if it came to that, yes. I would."

Nyveh opened his fist and a small ball of blue energy formed from sparks slowly crawling up his arm. "If this man held all the power in the world, would you trust him to keep it safe?"

Nina swallowed. She was trying not to show it, but the light dragon's presence was starting to become overwhelming. She fought to stop her shaking. "I wouldn't trust it to anyone else."

For a moment, Nyveh looked sad. "Will you promise after everything's over you'll send Arson to take care of the other nut warriors?"

"What?"

The air around them thickened, became saturated with tiny white bubbles of magic. Nina felt her body passively absorbing them. "Drogen is no more. We lack any power to grow. Over the years Drakken has taken all of our able bodied brood. There's no one left to reproduce. As I said before we've been biding our time, gathering our strength until our prince came back." Ryu looked back at him. "Would you believe Ladon told us to do this, to wait for you? He's the one who created you, chose for you to suffer and now he says you're the savior of the dragons, that you appearing means the Light Ones will once again prosper. Knowing you, knowing the darkness which resides inside of you I questioned him." The ball in his claw grew in size. "He told me you'd grown, gained the love of many, a love I had to see clearly for myself. And for my deity...I would gladly sacrifice what's left of Drogen so that he may have his and my...our vengeance especially if it can be done by one of my own blood."

Ryu stood slowly with Nina's help, wobbling on legs of jelly. "How could I possibly bring prosperity of the Lights? I don't understand!" Little bubbles sunk into his skin, sending tingling shock waves throughout his nervous system. He'd finally met another dragon, a sane one. Even though it was Nyveh, he was family, his kind. "Stop, I don't need your help if it means such a sacrifice!"

Nyveh shook his head. "I venture to say you do. It's a Goddess you're fighting, Ryu."

Tears brimmed in the younger dragon's eyes. "I have so much more to ask you!"

"That would take time we do not have."

Ryu bared his teeth. "Why does everything have to be all according to Ladon?!"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

The myrmidon's body began to sag, his skin absorbed back in all of his scales. His tail was gone, his hair fell in clumps to the ground along with the rest of him into Ryu and Nina's arms. A withered old hand shoved the energy into Ryu's uncertain chest. "For what it's worth, I do believe you crave peace...family...and I hope...this helps you get it."

Nina watched the old dragon wither away into bones in their hands and through her tears the younger dragon letting out a roar that turned her blood to ice.

A/N: Would you believe I'd been sitting on this at 99% for months? Thank you for the continued support and I hope everyone is staying safe. The world is a crazy place right now.