CHAPTER 10- TENSIONS RELEASED

WARNING: the following chapter may leave a citrus aftertaste. (lemonish chapter)

Flame and Spyro stayed in the rear of the tank with snow while Austin kept a lookout for mines and more enemies.

When they arrived back in the large well lit hangar, a familiar face was waiting for them. Austin was the first to exit the tank.

Ember saw him and hugged him as hard as she possible could, and her being a dragon, she nearly crushed him.

"Ember…I…can't…breathe…"

"Sorry!" she said releasing him

"Your hugs have a strong reputation, but I enjoy a 'job well done' as much as the next revolutionary leader." Austin looked at the soldiers who were still holding their salute. He saluted them and they stood at attention.

"Don't just stand there! We got wounded! Get a medic out here!"

"Yes sir!" they departed into the back of the tank and carried Snow out of it on a stretcher.

"Get her to the hospital wing." he said

Spyro and Flame walked out of the tank and Ember nearly tackled the both of them.

"I missed you guys so much!" she said, grabbing them both and kissing them both on the cheek, making them blush.

"Glad to see you too Ember." Spyro said when she released them.

"What happened to Snow?"

Neither Spyro nor Flame knew exactly what happened, all they saw was a flash, a loud boom, and her being thrown through the air and into a car.

"I don't really know, all I know is that she got thrown into a car and was hurt pretty bad." Flame explained

"It was a grenade." Austin said walking up behind Ember.

"I didn't tell her what they looked like, what they did…it was my fault, I didn't warn her…" his voice saddened slightly as he finished, then Spyro spoke up

"That part may have been your fault, but you did save her life afterwards, thanks to your upgrade."

"What do you mean upgrade?" Ember asked looking at Austin, trying to find something different about him.

Austin smiled as he always did when someone asked him about his new toys.

"Check this out." He said

Austin spread out his implanted wings, extended his blade, and deployed his plasma cannon.

"What the hell?" Jessica was climbing out of the tank when he did all this, and was stunned.

"Wow, Austin your wings look great!" Ember said

"And I have no one to thank but the professor. He gave me all I have."

"When did you get these?" Jess said, looking him over.

"While I was with them. I got the professor some teranium 238 and he gave me all this."

After they got a good look at Austin's upgrades, they decided to go see Snow in the medical ward.

They found a medic and were directed to her room.

They entered to find her lying peacefully in bed, with an intravenous drip in her right arm, and she was hooked to a heart monitor. Her white bandages were placed in seemingly random spots on her body, but other than that, she looked fine.

They gathered around her bed and Flame asked

"Why is she still asleep?"

"I put enough morphine in her earlier to knock out a whale. She'll be awake in a day or so, she just needs rest."

They stayed in her room for a few more minutes before jess showed them to their rooms.

Spyro, Flame and Austin were in one room and Ember and eventually Snow would be in another.

Flame had decided to stay with snow until she woke up, as did ember. Spyro and Austin however, spent most of the day hunting black September soldiers who got lost or separated from their squads, making sure to keep score to compare them at the end of the day. Spyro came out on top with 7, while Austin had only 6.

"You only beat me because the three of them were behind a propane tank!" Austin said as they flew back to the base.

"I saw the opportunity, and I took it. Don't hate because I have killing skills!"

While this was happening, Flame and Ember were sitting in snows room in silence.

Flame was dying to ask ember who she wanted as a mate. He couldn't take the tension anymore.

"Ember, I have to know…who do you want as your mate, me or Spyro?"

She took a while to answer that, as if she was searching her very soul.

"I love you Flame…but I love Spyro too…I'm worried that I will hurt one of you if I choose the other. The last thing I want to do is hurt either of you."

The only noise in the room was the constant beep of the heart monitor. Ember continued

"The more I think about it, the more I don't want to decide."

"Then don't listen to your brain. Listen to your heart. What does it tell you?"

Again, a pause for what seemed like hours, although the clock said it was merely seconds.

Ember searched her heart as she never had before. The instinct part of her told her that Spyro was the strongest, most powerful dragon in the realms. He is the peak of physical dominance. As far as species propagation, he was the obvious choice.

But her emotional and rational side told her that Flame was less reckless, less arrogant. He would be a great father for her children. A more stable one then Spyro would at least.

Before she could answer, Snow moved, and then opened her eyes. Flame ran to her side and grabbed her hand.

"Snow…thank the ancestors you woke up!"

Snow was still drowsy from the painkillers that she was shaking off.

"Where…am…I?"

"You're in the hospital wing of Austin's base. He made sure you stayed alive after that grenade exploded near you." he patiently explained.

Snow recognized ember at her bedside.

"Ember! Thank the ancestors we found you…I thought we'd lost you…"

Ember hugged her, and then left before flame reminded her that she never gave him an answer.

By this time, Austin and Spyro were on their way down to see if snow was conscious yet when Ember met them in the hallway.

"Spyro I need to talk to you in my room she said, not even slowing down as she grabbed his hand and pulled him behind her at a brisk pace.

"Guess I'll see you later then Spyro!" Austin called as the two of them turned the corner.

(The following scenes happen simultaneously)

SPYRO

Halfway to her room Spyro took back his hand and stopped.

"Would you mind explaining why you are dragging me to your room?"

Ember's hormones were in overdrive. Her instincts were in complete control.

'Flame has Snow. He will be her mate and everyone will be happy.' She rationalized to herself. She had no time to answer him with words, so she did it with her lips. She kissed him in the middle of the hallway, their tongues playing with the others; she broke the kiss and continued to drag him to her room, although he was more willing to go than earlier.

She finally got to her room and closed and locked the door.

"Ember…what are you doing?" Spyro asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

"I've made my decision. I want you in me now."

"Are you sure this is-"

"What part of now don't you understand?!"

"Yes ma'am!"

Ember was blinded by her hormones. Instead of the usual male-dominant style, she tackled Spyro and was about to force him into her.

"Hey…you can't be the male…that's my job!" he laughed as he easily reversed her pin and was now on her. She did what came almost automatically, opening her legs as Spyro did what came naturally to him, and dove right in. It felt so right to Ember, not only was she mating with the dragon she wanted but, he was the most famous dragon in all the dragon realms. The air became hot and filled with lust as they continued on for hours late into the night.

FLAME

He forgot to get Embers answer, but she was gone by that time. Austin then came in a few minutes later.

"Snow, you awake?" he asked

"Yea…I am…" she answered wearily.

"Glad to see you're ok. Flame has been here all night waiting on you, sleepy."

"You saved her. I can't take all the credit." Flame admitted

"Well I'll leave you two alone, I've got places to be." He closed the door and departed down the hallway.

"Flame, you stayed here all night, for me?"

"Yea, I did…but that's what you do for someone you lo-"he caught himself in time to think carefully about completing that word.

'Do I love her?' he thought about it, and then she grabbed his hand. He felt something he had only felt when ember touched him, but this was at least five times that strong.

He looked into her eyes and finished the sentence

"Love."

He could tell her heart was jumping by the look of sheer joy in her eyes, also by the heart rate monitor which was beeping wildly.

Flame leaned in and kissed her for a least a minute.

'Ember can have Spyro, Snow is mine!' he thought proudly as he ended it and looked into her eyes once more.

"Flame…I love you too. I think I'm…ready for the next step…" she said as she removed the sticky heart rate pads and pulled out her I.V.

"Are you sure? I don't want to hurt you."

She threw off the blanket that covered her from the waist down. She was clearly ready for 'action'.

Flame closed the curtains and locked the door. He had never mated before, but he thanked his lucky stars for the overriding effects of male hormones. He of course had an idea of how it worked, but this was his first practical application. He climbed easily on top of Snow, her silver horns glistening in the soft fluorescent lights.

"Ready?" he whispered softly

"Yes"

They may not have been the most experienced couple who ever mated, but they were sure they had more passion for each other than any expert on the subject.

The windows into the hospital room began to fog up as they continued for two hours before snow finally grew tired. She wasn't completely over the drugs yet.

"I don't have these drugs out of me yet…I'm sorry Flame."

"Oh baby…you have nothing to be sorry about! That was awesome! I say we pick up where we left off in the morning." Flame said as he lay beside her on the hospital bed, grinning devilishly.

"Deal. Now let's get some…" before she could even complete her sentence, she was out like a light. Flame put his arm around her and slept as well, feeling more fulfilled and complete than he could ever remember.

AUSTIN

Austin closed the door to Snows room and continued down the hallway to Jessica's room. He checked the hallways for people. Seeing none, he quietly entered the room. The door to the bathroom was closed and she came out, steam from the shower she had just taken, following her. She was in nothing but a towel, and she was shocked to see him, but not surprised.

"I thought black September had killed you, but they didn't. What a shame." She said sarcastically.

"I think the sweet talk is what I miss the most." He said, sending just as much sarcasm her way.

"Well it took you long enough to get here."

"Ever done it with an angel before?" he asked grinning arrogantly

"You're no angel."

"I got the wings don't I?"

"Yea, that'll take some getting used to." She said dropping the towel, exposing herself completely.

"Don't worry baby girl, they only come out when I want them to." He said taking off his shirt.

"Enough talk, I haven't seen you in months. I hope you're ready for the long haul."

"Ohh…ok so if I resist, then you will-"

"No more talking! The pants. Lose them."

"Yes ma'am!" he did as he was told and they too, were at it for hours into the early morning, just like his friends.

(Ok, this is the end of the simultaneous scene shenanigans)

The next morning, Austin awoke in Jessica's bed alone. He got dressed and went down to Snows room to check on her. When he got to the door, it was locked and the blinds were closed.

'Ok…that doesn't need any further explanation. Nicely done Flame.' He thought as he kept on walking down to his room. He entered the room him and Flame and Spyro shared, it was empty.

'Spyro you devil!' he thought as he walked to Embers room just to make sure she was there. Sure enough, the door was locked.

He then decided to go to the roof of the tall building that was the façade hiding the underground base. To his surprise, Jess was up there watching the sunrise.

"Hey baby girl, what are you doing up here?"

"They have taken over the whole planet Austin…how can we stop them? There are millions of them out there."

"We take over, one city at a time. All we have to do is take out Crozier. He commands the whole western hemisphere. After that, the east is all that's left."

"Crozier isn't the top of the ladder, like we thought he was." Jess said

"Then who is?"

"Not who, but what. It's called Ra. They believe they've brought back the spirit of the Egyptian sun god. Hence why they call themselves 'the army of the sun, and the empire of the sun, and such."

"No one said it was going to be easy."

"If most of the adults hadn't fallen behind their insane ideology, we, two 17 year olds wouldn't have to lead the resistance."

"If 'if' and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."

"What? God you're lucky you're cute or your stupidity would be a major turn off."

"You know you can't live without me."

"Yea I could!"

"Sure. Maybe for a few weeks. But then who would you get 'it' from? Claus?"

"Damnit, I hate it when you're right."

"Let's go see if the rest of them are awake. They were just as busy as we were last night."

They met Flame and Spyro down in the cafeteria for breakfast while their mates slept.

"So, how was everyone's night?" Austin asked as Jess went back to her room.

Flame and Spyro didn't know that the other had mated with who they did.

"Well…" Spyro couldn't contain his secret anymore, he had to tell someone

"I mated with Ember last night! And it was freaking amazing!" he said excited

"Flame? What did you do last night?" Austin asked

"Me and Snow mated too. Three times. " He said smiling triumphantly.

"How about you Austin? Did you and Jess do whatever the human equivalent of mating is?"

"It's the same thing dragon's do and aww yea! We went for hours!"

They continued talking about the night before, bragging and retelling their story like all males do after a score.

They ate and then began to walk back to their room, but not before a soldier and Jess stopped them.

"Is there a reason you're blocking the hallway?" Austin asked flatly

"Yea there is. We recovered some of your personal items from your house after it was attacked."

"Really?! Where is it? Did you save Delilah? Tell me you rescued Delilah!"

"Calm down, we saved 'Delilah'. Jess said rolling her eyes.

"She is in the hangar with the rest of your stuff."

"Who is Delilah? Is that someone he rescued or something?" Spyro asked

"Not hardly. Delilah is his motorcycle."

"Thank god!" He ran off in the direction of the hangar, followed closely by Spyro and Flame. When they came to the hangar, a jet black, shiny street bike sat in front of them. Austin immediately hugged it and said

"They didn't hurt you did they?"

Spyro and Flame both looked at each other, puzzled.

"I'm going out for a ride. I'll be back whenever!" he said starting it up and zooming out of the hangar and into the surrounding area.

"Well…that was weird." Spyro said.

"Yea…he has wings, why would he want to use that dangerous looking thing to get around?" Flame answered

"Oh well, that's humans for ya I guess."

They walked back to their mates rooms to continue what they started the night before.

sorry it took so long to update. lots of stuff goin on.