A/N: Soo… this is it, I guess. I've been working on idea for a while, and this is where it took me. I don't really know for sure where this could take me, so, here goes everything.

By the way, a lot of this fanfic will have plots eerily similar to Jake's life. This is because 1) it makes Jake feel more connected to my main character so it's easier to get them closer together in the form of brother/sisterly love, and 2) because I have the imagination equivalent to that of a Gorilla. Deal with it. ;)

Full Summary

He, being Aaron Hunts, a star student of the Hunts Academy, was raised to believe that all magical creatures were bugs to be killed, but when his best friend turns out as to be a dragon, he starts to think that maybe they aren't all that bad. That's until he's sucked into a battle between three warring worlds, and he discovers the true darkness of The Heart of a Dragon. As Alex once said – You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Is all this really a choice? Or are their paths set in stone, along with the prophecy they will eventually drag down with them when the time comes?

~~xXx~~

Chapter 1

~~xXx~~

Two Years Ago

Blood red eyes, belonging to an anonymous figure dressed in black, peered at Jake as he walked away. The figure pulled the hood of his jacket more over his messy hair, trailing Jake down a couple more blocks.

The boy is a dragon, he thought, noting Jake using Eye of the Dragon to search him out. But the boy hid skillfully, blending into the crowds of Manhattan. Dragons knew dragons. Maybe this certain dragon would lead him to another certain dragon. One he'd been searching for for a while now.

~~xXx~~

Jake looked back as soon he suddenly got that feeling of someone's eyes on him. It was gone in the instant his eyes scanned the area. Yet as he turned once more to get to Gramp's shop for some more of the dreaded dragon training, he once again got that feeling of an eerie presence that seemed to have been haunting him the past few hours. He shook the feeling off, blaming the nervousness on the Dark Dragon, which he'd defeated a couple months back. Of course he'd be on his toes for at least the next month or so, fearful of the Dark Dragon somehow resurrecting. After all, he'd already checked for anything suspicious with his Eye of the Dragon, and so far, the results stated that he was just being paranoid. Paranoia, people. You have got to love it. Note the heavy sarcasm.

After his success in beating the Dark Dragon – with the help of Rose, of course – leaving her to fulfill his job as the American Dragon hadn't been easy, not by the slightest. So he'd definitely had a hard time letting go of Rose to return to his hometown, but he had spent the rest of his time at Hong Kong savoring the fact that Rose was just… there. There and next to him. And not sucked up into a bleak, ominous, never-ending vortex of eternal darkness, save the few hours every thousand years. So they'd made the best of those last few days together by spending them on their dates, which was a time spent purely on relaxing, him from dragon business and her from school.

Now he was stuck back in New York City, reluctantly struggling through 8th grade like any other 14 year old. They still kept in touch, however, through calls and live video chats – thank god for webcams! And if there was ever a case of an emergency or he just really wanted to see her, there was always the option of another "Family Visit to Mom's Side".

He sighed, shaking his head lightly to get all those memories out of his head. Deciding skateboarding would help distract him, he clipped on his helmet and dropped the skateboard, which had been previously bunking under his arm. He hopped on and his board worked its magic. Soon, he was dashing through the streets of Manhattan, all worries left behind. He seemed to arrive at Gramp's shop faster than he would've liked; he wanted to skateboard some more.

As he opened the door, he heard a metallic clatter, accompanied by a yelp in an alleyway next to the shop, and he froze. Letting go of the doorway, he peeked into the alleyway to see a girl a couple years younger than him, with auburn-colored eyes and whitish-blond hair with dark blue highlights, and a trash can lid that had probably produced the clatter sound. As soon as he spotted her, a silvery tail – a scaly silvery tail – came from behind the dumpster and rapidly snaked around the girl's waist, pulling her behind it. Alarmed, Jake immediately started to run towards the dumpster. "Dragon up!"

He expected to see some sort of magical creature attacking the girl, but he was completely and utterly shocked when he saw two girls, a boy, and a kitten, which was mewing feebly, hiding from him. One of the two girls was the girl he saw being pulled back. The scaly tail was on her mouth, silencing her. The tail belonged to the boy, who seemed to be the same age as Jake, and held the same facial features as her. However, the boy seemed to be an albino, with silvery white hair he couldn't see clearly due to the hood pulled over his hair. His eyes were a vibrant red, which almost seemed to burn faintly with a hidden fire. He had on a black hoodie and black skinny jeans, which clashed with his hair.

The last girl was huddled close to the boy, clutching his hoodie tightly with her small hands. She seemed younger than the rest, about nine years of age. Her light, coppery brown hair was held up with a black pin shaped to be a crown, and her light blue eyes stared up almost hungrily at Jake. Her gaze scared him a bit, reminding him of a Strigoi's hard look.

They stayed there like that for a couple of seconds, frozen as they wondered what to do with the situation. Jake didn't know how to react. Homeless kids weren't much of a surprise to him, being raised in New York, but one of these kids was a dragon. Dragon kids were supposed to have a master to train them, and they were supposed to be assigned a piece of land to protect. More importantly, dragons were respected. The Dragon Council wouldn't ever let a dragon student go on with no home to go to.

In a flash, the boy reacted first, taking advantage of Jake being preoccupied by his own thoughts. He spread his dragon wings as he shoved Jake back with his tail. It was tipped with a scorpion's stinger, which was stained on the tip with a light baby blue. He glared at Jake, spreading his wings to full length, which was pretty dang wide. They seemed light and moved easily, almost looking like thin fabric at times.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but a flash of uncertainty crossed his face as he decided against it. Instead, he striked out with his tail again, and this time it was positioned to kill, the point aiming straight at Jake's face.

"Whoa, wouldn't wanna ruin this pretty face," He smirked, dodging. The smug grin was wiped of his face, though, when the first attack was followed by a dozen high-speed attacks, all from his tail.

"Why're ya fightin' me? I'm da Am Drag! Ya know, the protector of all magical creatures? Yeah, that one! Now stop fightin' me and tell me what's wrong!" Jake protested, flying out of the way of the boy's attacks.

The boy didn't seem to hesitate by the slightest as he continued to strike, though. He was silently flying in the air, his eyes unreadable as he sent his tail to send attack after attack, meaning Jake had to evade each attack, not risking blocking it in case the scorpion-like tail functioned anything like the original thing.

They went on for a while like that, and Jake noted that this dragon had no doubt been trained. He wasn't really all that strong, but the speed of his tail made up for all that. He was swift and each strike missed by only a hair length as Jake swished out of the way to evade the boy's attacks. That kind of speed couldn't just have been natural talent.

'Dodge left, duck, move my tail out of the way,' Jake thought, any other thought moved aside to give his full concentration on not being violently impaled. 'Move back, fly higher, its coming from the right, so dodge le-' His thought was cut off as a blue dragon hand darted out to grab the silvery tail mid-strike.

"I-yah! What is the meaning of this, Jake?"

The boy's dragon tail disappeared as Lao Shi's voice was heard. He turned around, and his face brightened up. His wings vanished soon after. He turned to face the old man and gave a respectful short bow.

The other girl, the one with blond hair, poked her head out from behind her hiding place. She grabbed the little girl's wrist and came out with a hopeful smile.

"Lao Shi! It's a pleasure to meet you!" She exclaimed, bowing as well. "We've been looking for you all over Manhattan. You were the only other dragon we could find information on in Alexander's master's books. Her eyes turned serious. "Would it be alright if we went in? We have a long story to tell."

~~xXx~~

Soon they were all down, Jake reclining on the sofa with a can of soda in his hand. Fu Dog was next to him, munching on a bag of chips. The kids sat on one side of a table facing his grandpa, who was sitting on the other side. The blue kitten was in the boy's hold, and he was running his hand gently through the kitten's fur.

"We came from Great Britain. We've lived there all our lives," The blond haired girl started. "And, by the way, I'm Lexi and this is Alex. Alex hasn't said much after all that's happened, though," she said rather sadly, motioning towards the silver haired boy.

"We're both twelve right now, twins. Nickel here is ten, or at least, that's what we decided on. Nickel, or Nikki, is short for Nichole, Lexi is short for Alexis, and Alex is short for Alexander," she explained.

She flashed Jake a sheepish grin. "Sorry about Alex attacking, by the way, we thought you were an enemy. You're probably wondering why, since dragons are supposed to get along most of the time. That relates to our story, so you'll find out soon enough.

"Our family was attacked by a dragon about a month ago. Alex and I were coming back from the park. It was our birthday, December 20th, so our parents had been apparently setting up a surprise party, telling us to go play in the park while they secretly got ready for the party. By the time we got home, our mom and dad were brutally murdered, and Alex's dragon master, Jason, was being finished off by a dragon. In the end, the dragon left before attacking us, probably because the guests for the party would be coming soon. The only thing left alive in the room besides us was the blue kitten. It was supposed to be Alex's birthday present. Mine was a necklace." Alex's face remained emotionless and hard, while Lexi's eyes started to shine with tears. Jake took notice of the necklace on the girl's neck. The chain was a swirl of gold and silver, and there was a golden dragon resting on the silver character for dragon in traditional Chinese, 龍, and the golden tail of the dragon went all the way around in a circle with the character in the middle.

She sniffled, before going on.

"The people invited to the party, family members and friends, came in to see a dazed Alex clinging to her dragon master's shirt and me crying my eyes out over our mom's dead body. Both of us were soaked completely in the spilled blood, and the dagger that had been in Jason had been in Alex's hand from when he pulled it out.

"No matter how anyone saw it, it would seem like Alex had murdered our family and Jason, and that I was crying over what he had done.

"So we ran away. I got up, took our presents, grabbed Alex's arm, and jumped out the window before the authorities had a chance to come. I couldn't go out the door, since it was blocked by a crowd of horrified people, and since I hadn't received any sign – or even the slightest hint at that matter – that I was going to get my dragon powers, I had to hope that Alex would snap out of the shock, get the message, and fly.

"He did, and the first place we went to was Jason's house. We were looking through his stuff for information on a dragon we can go to in search of help. There were many dragons in his files, but only one had the human identity and information on him, and that was you. On the file, it says that you were already found out by the Huntsclan, so apparently there was nothing to hide you from.

"For the past month, we've been looking all over New York City for you. We slept in the trees in Central Park, so that the authorities wouldn't find us. Almost got caught a couple of times," She said, laughing dryly. "We learned something from it, though. Found out climbing trees were illegal there!

"On our way, we found Nickel wandering around the city. She was biting humans she found walking around in Central Park at night and hid from the sun by day. She had no memory, but she knew she needed blood to survive and had to keep away from the sun. She's a Strigoi, by the way," she added when she noticed Jake's confused look.

"We took her with us and Alex gives limited amounts of her dragon blood to Nikki so that she can last longer without needing blood and go out into the sun. We named her Nickel, because of her copper colored hair.

"Now that we've found you, we're asking for help. Everyone in Britain thinks Alex is a murderer and we've lost everything we used to own," she finished.

Lao Shi took in a big breath. "You dragons are of Wyvern descent, are you not?" He asked, looking a bit nervous.

Lexi nodded, fingering her earring, which only hung on her left ear, not on her right. It was a small yellow dragon that sparkled like a diamond, but it had no arms, just feet, and the wings, which curved down to make an upside-down raindrop shape, were longer and larger than a normal dragon's. The tail hung down and a scorpion's stinger was on the end of it, meeting with the tips of the wings. Alex had the same yellow dragon hanging on a golden necklace. "You noticed Alex's tail, right? The barbed tail of a scorpion. That's the sure sign of an Elemental Wyvern. We also have the Crest."

Jake blinked, confusion written all over his face. "Say what? An Elemental what-now?"

Fu Dog nudged Jake. "Have you ever noticed Gramps in dragon form looks almost exactly the same as from legends of the Chinese Dragon? Or have you seen that you have very few, but still noticeable features of a Chinese Dragon as well? Well Gramps here is purely Chinese, which makes him take all the traits of a Chinese Dragon. But in your case, your dad is American. Therefore you take only select pieces of the Chinese Dragon.

"Alex, here, is both a pure-blooded dragon and completely Wyvern. All in all, if he felt like it, you'd be dead in three seconds, kid. Flat. Agoo goo goo!"

Jake raised an eyebrow. "Oh really. Who said anything about him even being a full dragon in the first place? He might have some human blood somewhere in there," He countered, not ready to admit that a boy two years younger could kick his butt.

Lao Shi cleared his throat. "You would not understand, young dragon, but Wyverns are not allowed to, ahem, mate, or fall in love, with anything other than another Wyvern. It keeps the bloodline pure. If you were a Wyvern, you wouldn't be allowed to ever come in any sort of intimate contact with Rose. In fact, you'd be engaged to another Wyvern once you were born and get married off to your fiancé by the time you were 18."

Jake winced at the thought. "No way… Does it really matter? I mean, what's so special about a Wyvern? That's just so… restricting. Like your choices are taken away from you."

"Wyverns have abilities that other dragons don't have, and are highly disciplined," Nickel chirped, happily munching on a muffin*. "They have elemental powers. Alex is life and plants. She can heal under certain circumstances and control or "feel" plants and animals. Every dragon has the basic element of fire, but being an Elemental Wyvern, you get another power of the elements. Or, if that Wyvern had the power of fire, they would be able to create much stronger fire and summon fire from not only the mouth, but hands and pretty much their whole body. They're also more strictly raised and trained. They can be brutal if they needed to be."

Lao Shi nodded. "Yes, quite right, young one." Nickel beamed at the old man happily, stuffing the last of the muffin into her mouth.

Jake glanced at Alex. "Do you have a fiancé?"

Alex just looked down, a sad look on his face. Lexi shrugged. "He doesn't like talking about it – not like he could, anyways. Maybe you'll find out sooner or later."

Lao Shi shook his head. "Enough of this. We must call the Dragon Council immediately. They should be able to set things right. For now, go to our guest rooms and settle in while we get in contact with the Council. Fu Dog will show you the way."

Fu Dog hurried to help the kids, to Jake's surprise. Fu Dog would usually complain about it, at the least.

Jake opened his mouth to make some joke on it, but he immediately closed his mouth at the smothering look his grandfather gave him. When they were gone, Lao Shi whispered, "Be nice. These kids are from the Wyvern family and hold the Wyvern Crest.

"They… are royalty, to say the least. They are cruel dragons and to be feared."

~~xXx~~

Present time, December 2, 2011

Jake took a deep breath, dialing Alex's number for the first time in two long years, since the time he called in to check up on them after they left for their new, adoptive family. If he was as powerful a dragon as Gramps had claimed, maybe he could help Jake with his little problem. Sure, Gramps told Jake not to mess with Wyverns, but he really wanted a powerful dragon to help him.

"'Sup? Need a dragon, leave a message. Need me, try calling again." Alex hadn't answered. But… This number couldn't be Alex's. The voice in the answering machine was laid back and carefree. Alex was stiff and quiet. He shook the thought away and tried called Alex again, just in case. Nope. He dialed again, and Alex picked up this time.

"Yo, Fran, if this is another one of your prank calls, your luck pooped out. I already know it's you. 'Sides, only friends know to call three for me to pick up."

"Um… Alex? Is it you?" Jake asked, a little uncomfortable. Sure, he knew Alex probably would have gotten over his selective-mute condition thingy by now, but he just sounded, so… happy and cheerful.

"Jake, that you, man? Jeez, calling to check up on me? Two years later? So what up, bro?" The voice chuckled. Jake could hear a smirk in the boy's voice.

"What… happened?" Jake asked, a little dumbstruck. Normally, he'd talk in slang and do that thing he always did, but he hadn't been expecting this. No, not at all. Farthest from it, actually. He'd expected someone strict and, well, more royalty-ish.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe, by some odd, foreign chance, I got a life?" He laughed.

Jake shrugged. Killjoy or life of the party, it all didn't matter to him at the moment. Alex was still a Wyvern. Therefore, powerful and, hopefully, responsible. Then again, Jake wasn't responsible, and he still got the job done, so it'd be alright if Alex wasn't, anyways.

"Well, I've got a little favor to ask of you. Rose is… erm, pregnant… I was going to ask if you can fill my job as magical protector of New York City while I'm, erm, dealing with a little change."

Alex burst into laughter on the other side. "Dude, you should have at least looked into it a little before you two crossed the border. By, change, are you, by any chance, saying your kid's a dragon and you're going full dragon?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. You could say that," Jake murmured, looking in the mirror again. He was a dragon, but like none he had ever seen before yesterday. He was standing on all fours, and he was BIG. He was in the huge basement of Gramp's shop so that he'd have enough room. He was the size of the Dark Dragon when they fought at the temple, and was a lot stronger than usual, too. More snappy, too. Jake nearly bit Gramp's head off when Lao Shi got near Rose.

Rose was on a bed sleeping. She hissed in pain every once in a while, a side effect of a human bearing a dragon child, Gramps had explained to him. And Jake could only watch as she suffered. He couldn't just leave her alone like this, and Gramps told him that, in the first few months of pregnancy and the moment she gave birth, he would stay a full dragon and feel over-protective over her, so it was decided that Rose would stay in the basement (which they re-designed to turn into a bedroom) with Jake until the protective instinct wore off a little. According to Gramps, dragons lost the ability to transform into a full dragon a long time ago, but the power still came up for a dragon when they were going to have a child that was also a dragon. Until said protective instinct wore off a little, he wouldn't be able to turn human at all.**

On the other side of the phone, Alex had a grin plastered all over his smug face. But he had a dark glint in his eyes as he answered.

"'Course I can fill in. I'll get a cousin to fill in for me as the Dragon of Great Britain. He'll be delighted. Ironically, he's been waiting for me to die for a year now, starting from the moment he was declared to be next in line by the Dragon Council," he snickered.

"I'll get some plane tickets. Nik, Lex, and I'll be there soon. Oh, and, is this Rose girl hot?"

Jake growled into the phone threateningly, feeling his scales heat up with embarrassment.

"Just kiddin' around with you, don't worry. Fiancé, remember?"

As soon as the call was ended, he called Nikki and Lexi into his room. Nikki rubbed her eyes as she stumbled into his room in a sky blue nightgown. She had been taking a nap and was just barely blinking out the last signs of sleep from her eyes. Lexi followed soon after, taking a seat next to her twin brother on the bed.

"It's time to pack up," he said flatly, looking at his sisters. They nodded.

"Is it…" Lexi trailed off, looking a little disappointed.

"Yeah," Alex muttered, looking away. Lexi squeezed her eyes shut, as if she didn't want to look at the truth. Nikki sighed, looking down at her fingers, which fiddled nervously.

"I was hoping we'd be able to live the rest of our lives like this, nothing like what our parents had to go to," Lexi said quietly.

"Don't worry. It'll all be over soon. Then… then there'll be no more sadness. Trust me. This is what Mom and Dad stood up for, and what your brother fought for," He said certainly, looking at Lexi, then Nikki.

"And now… This is what we fight for."

~~xXx~~

A/N: I just love keeping things hanging like that… How'd it go? Too much dialogue, I know. But I'd rather put their past in one big chapter opposed to spending half the story building up to the real plot or spreading their history in future chapters and confuse everyone. :S

*I was going to put "Nickel chirped, happily munching on a brownie" but I remembered there're those little hot-headed magical creature guys called Brownies, and it seemed too morbid to me. It put the mental image in my head of little Nikki biting off a Brownie's head. o-e

**I wish I could take credit for this idea. But I'm not very creative, so this idea goes to Onej6's Enemies by Blood. The story totally made me go "awww!" like the twelve year old baby I am. (I tried to change it around a lot so that it's not that similar. So only the turning into a big dragon thing and the "deal with the devil" thing, which will come up later in the story.) Again, I possess the imagination capacity to that of a Gorilla. Also, I'll be taking a lot of my ideas, character emotions, and quotes from songs. See if you can find 'em all. X3