Chapter 66: A Counterpart
We teleported to the inside of the Tetra as the portal disappeared. The ship was rocking back and forth, as though it was a plane experiencing serious turbulence. "O, status update!" The captain called out to O. "PI! PIPIPI!" O screamed. "Tee, what did he say?" He asked. "He said that the threat is biting away at the Tetra's front area, Captain!" Tee answered to the captain. "Shit! That's not good!" Ex began to worry. "Just what is this threat anyway, Ex?" I asked him. He suddenly grabbed my hand and brought me to an area where this "threat" was visible. "W-what the hell...?" I saw it. The threat was a huge silver dragon. "*roar*" The dragon went. It was gnawing at the exterior of the Tetra, like an animal that had gone feral. One other thing that I noticed was that its eyes had no visible pupils. "THAT'S the threat, Dave. We don't even know where this dragon came from and it started biting at the Tetra, with no warning whatsoever." Ex told me. "Does that mean we're in its territory? But... that doesn't make any sense! It would've given out some kind of warning before attacking!" I was bewildered. "There must be something to this… but what?" Tee wondered. "You three look like you need some help understanding this…" We heard a familiar voice. "S-Satan?" We recognized it. The man then came up to us, thanks to a portal that he made. "What's up with this dragon attacking my ship?" Ex asked him. "A fair question to be asking, Ex… I assume that none of you are experts on the dragons that live in this world, correct? After all, Primp Town isn't exactly a place that you would see a dragon flying around…" Satan faced us.
Me and Ex looked at each other before we both shook our heads. "Nope. Outside of the power of the Demonic Dragon that certain people seem to know… I don't know much about these dragons." I said. "Yeah. I'm supposed to be this Dimensional Dragon Warrior, but I don't know the kind of dragon that my current power thrives from..." Ex admitted to his lack of knowledge. "And I don't know anything at all here…" Tee answered. "I'll probably tell you guys that stuff some other time; for now, we must deal with that dragon. Let's just say that this one is not in the right state of mind… And no, it's not smoke from a wicked seed." Satan insisted. "Really? Well okay, but how do we deal with it?" I wondered. "If it realizes that it's mindlessly fighting with another dragon, it should come to its senses and stop. Dave, you're the only one here who currently has a dragon form. You're the closest thing to being a genuine dragon out of all of-" Satan went before we felt something. "W-woooooah!" We and the rest of the crew went. "That dragon is going to tear the ship apart at this rate! Dave, go into your dragon form and save the Tetra! Please!" Ex pleaded for me to. "A-absolutely! It's obvious at this point that you care for the ship so much, Ex. I'll knock some sense into that dragon… … Hey, Ess! Open up the hatch, will you? This is not an order, but it's in everyone's best interest that I resolve this issue as quickly as possible!" I turned to face the navigator.
Gotta be prepared... "G-got it!" She opened it. "Guys, I'm gonna jump and transform. As soon as I pull that dragon off the Tetra, you guys steer the ship over to the opposite direction. And, DON'T stop. You need to get some distance away from me." I turned back to Ex and Tee. "Right, because of your dragon form's aura… It'll kill everyone else, outside of me and Satan." Ex nodded. "Not just that, Ex... I also don't want that dragon to chase this ship when it's in this damaged state. If the ship doesn't get away from this dragon, then it will most likely be destroyed." I stated another good reason. "Good point... ... Tee, I order you to handle the ship for me and lead the others out of here with your own orders. I need to aid Dave with this by acting as a distraction. That should buy you and the rest of the crew enough time to get away. Can I trust you to get this job done?" Ex turned to face Tee, then placed a hand on his shoulder. "... Yes, I'll make sure to get the Tetra to safety, Ex!" Tee nodded, readying to carry out the order. "That's my assistant captain! C'mon Dave, let's show what that dragon's messing with!" The captain offered his hand to me. "Yeah!" I grabbed it. We shook our hands, then nodded with serious faces. The hatch was now open and we jumped out.
Tee's POV
"Alright, close the hatch! The captain has given me permission to call the shots here in the meantime! Ess, control the ship and fly it out of here when the dragon is off of us! Ai, make sure that the Tetra is fine enough to boost away! Jay and Elle, explore the ship to see if anything is wrong! O, you will help me watch over the situation if things get dire. Yui, decide on which courses of action we should take in accordance with said situation! Am I clear?!" I told them all what my orders were. "Yes, Assistant Captain!" They rushed over to perform their roles. "Well, I would stay and help... but I must get back to doing important things that require my immediate attention. I bid you farewell, Tee. Tell Dave and Ex that I've left, will you?" Satan came up to me. "Uh... okay, sure." I nodded slowly. He left and it was just me, as well as the remaining crew members. I saw Dave turn into a huge dragon and Ex bringing up that golden dragon armor. I remembered those transformations well when I fought them because of my faded hatred. I watched as Dave approached the silver beast and grabbed hold of it, trying his best to rip it off the ship. Meanwhile, Ex was making it harder for the silver dragon to cling to us by hitting the front claws. Minutes passed and the thing just wouldn't let go of the Tetra, even with Dave trying his best to get it off. "Dammit, that silver dragon is not letting go... What can we do here?" I wondered in frustration.
Dave's POV
The silver dragon wouldn't give up, no matter how much I tried pulling it off of the ship. "Shit, this isn't working!" I exclaimed. "We should go with plan B then." Ex told me. "Which is...?" I had him continue. "Attack the dragon directly. That might be the only way to get it to let go at this point." He figured. "Then I'll fight it; you should just back me up, Ex." I said. "Got it." He nodded. I got ready to punch that silver dragon square in the face. Tee and the crew... I'm sorry that I'll have to do this. You might experience some even rougher turbulence here. "*roar* Yyyyaaaaaaah!" My punch connected. The ship vibrated as my punch went through, along with the beast in front of me. "... ... ...?" The silver dragon staggered, then stopped. It looked at its current surroundings and decided to let go of the ship. "*sigh* Did I lose control again? Seriously, I should really resolve that issue before it endangers people." The silver dragon spoke with a deep tone. "I-It talked?!" I reacted. "Woah…" Ex became speechless. The Tetra used this chance to fly off into the distance, unable to be seen by our eyes. "Hm? Who might you two be? ... Another dragon...? No, wait... You are not another dragon; close, but not actually a pure one, I believe. ... And a dragon warrior with gold armor...? Explain to me what's going on." It looked at us, then demanded an answer. "Well... we don't really know either. It looked like you were not yourself and you held on to something that we wanted you to let go of... so I punched you after trying to get you to let go." I told the dragon our situation.
The dragon softly rubbed its face before speaking further. "Ah, that's why I feel pain on my face. I would say that you attacked me, but you were only trying to protect something you cherished... Besides, you got me back in control. And so, I thank you. Big one, you're a dragon warrior like the one in gold armor and not a pure dragon, correct?" It thanked and assumed. "Um... I do know that I'm the Demonic Dragon Warrior, but I don't know much else about the thing with this world's dragons and such. The same goes for him as well." I admitted and pointed to Ex. "I'm the Dimensional Dragon Warrior, but I don't really know so much of what that entails." Ex told the silver dragon. "So, I see that neither of you are informed of what dragons are all about in this world... Well now, how did you both come to acquire dragon stones if you know so little?" It asked us. "... Oh-! One of my friends is half-human and half-dragon, she's the one that gave us one each." I answered. "Oh. ... Hahaha! That would explain it! Say, do you two have time this evening? I want to tell you two everything about the dragons for your own good. But before that... Big one, you said that you were the Demonic Dragon Warrior, did you not? Well, I am almost like a counterpart to you. I say almost because I am a pure dragon while you are not. … I am the Heavenly Silver Dragon, Reyson." He introduced himself.
Reyson, huh? I wonder what this dragon has to tell us, concerning this world's dragons. "Brrgh! Ex, I don't know about you… …but I'm willing to hear what Reyson has to say." I said while downgrading to my bulky armor. I shivered from the cold after being exposed to it in my dragon form. "Maybe I should listen to his words as well..." Ex thought out loud. "Hey, how come you aren't being affected by the cold as a dragon?" I noticed. "Good question. Part of my power is fueled from the cold, so it's natural that I would be fine during this time of year. Unlike other dragons, my body's internal temperature is automatically cold on its own. Therefore, it's used to it and I move around just fine. Since my power IS fueled by the cold, the breath I create is icy." He explained. "Y-you can breathe out ice?" Ex was surprised. "To put it simply... yes." Reyson nodded. "That's so awesome…" I became awestruck. "Awesome, but dangerous to other living things. Much like fire breath: Breathing out ice poses a major threat to other forms of life. Can you imagine being frozen alive by something such as that? Because of that... my kind, the silver dragons, are rare in this world. Many silver dragons of the past fell to gods... including dimensional beings." He continued.
I could tell that bothered Ex, considering that he himself is a dimensional being. "W-what? Dimensional beings...? I was a dimensional- ...even before I became the Dimensional Dragon Warrior. ... Do you have any idea what dimensional beings attacked your kind, Reyson?" He was taken aback before asking him. "I believe they were called... Yogs?" The dragon answered with uncertainty. "The Yogs...?!" We both gasped. "You two know of them?" Reyson looked back at us. "Yes, they began attacking this world not too long ago… but we've successfully defeated a couple of them so far… They seem to desire chaos by destroying the world. Obviously, we don't want that to happen. Thus, we're obligated to stop the Yogs." Ex explained. "Yeah… But, I hate how tough they are. The two that we defeated with several others by our side... took a group effort to do so. We were trying to kill them, but both of them ended up getting away with major injuries." I added. "... Sounds rough." Reyson felt our situation. "What makes things worse is that for each one of the eight we defeat… the next one comes and it's stronger than the previous ones. I could just stay in my dragon form to be stronger… but I can only maintain it for about ten minutes when it comes to using it strenuously. Otherwise, I'll revert back to the armor that you see now." I told the dragon.
I wonder what he'll say to that... "*sigh* In other words: In a fight, you can only keep it for that long and suddenly lose the form… That's not very good if you can't maintain it, not just because it makes you revert back to the armor." Reyson explained. "Wh-what do you mean…? Are more bad things going to happen to me, Reyson?" I asked. "... That dragon form drains energy from you if you are not careful, and that is why you revert back. There is one other bad thing that could happen to you, should you fail at learning to control your energy consumption. … You might die, to put it in simple words… I don't know for sure if that is how it goes, I have only heard about this happening to others." He answered. "... Will I have the same problem when I do get my own dragon form…?" Ex asked rhetorically. "How about we move away from that... and get back to what I was about to tell you two?" Reyson decided to change up the topic. "O-oh yeah... We don't have all night, do we, Ex? Let's listen to what he has to say." I remembered. "Y-yeah, Dave." Ex nodded.
The dragon smiled before starting to talk once more. "Good. I will tell you two everything there is to know about us dragons. … Ahem. The pure dragons are divided into different species, obviously. There are silver dragons, like me… but are quite rare. Red dragons are rather common, since they are the ones that breathe fire. They are mostly more aggressive than other kinds, should they become agitated. Blue dragons shoot water from their mouths. These dragons are more docile and protective, although… There has been one particular blue dragon that is pretty much the opposite. She's currently living in exile, because she was banished from the home of the blue dragons… or so I have heard. … Anyway, yellow dragons are somewhat in the middle when it comes to behavior… and they are known for shooting powerful lightning from their mouths. Purple dragons are rather dubious with their actions… you never know for sure if you can trust one or not. They spit acid and it helps them digest any sort of prey that they kill. Black dragons may look intimidating… but they are actually benevolent creatures if one stays on their good side. These dark folks are unique, in that they can have varying kinds of breath or such. And then going back to my kind, the silver dragons... We breathe ice and are rather ferocious, but also understanding." He went on before stopping. "Huh... All of this is very fascinating, Reyson… Do you have anything else to share with us?" Ex said before asking.
The dragon looked at him as he answered. "As a matter of fact, yes I do, Ex. Dave said that he's friends with someone who is half-human and half-dragon. You see, there are many other half-breeds out there in the world. I won't go into too much detail as to how these half-breeds came to be… but let's just say that it once started with a female human who met a male dragon. She was rescued by him after a catastrophe occurred. The woman was grateful to the dragon and then they got to know each other. Over time, they both realized that they were developing feelings for each other... feelings that would cause them to become inseparable. And thus, they fell in love... And the rest was history when the woman birthed the first ever half-breed. So now, these half-breeds have similar powers to that of their pure dragon parents. Mostly the bodies of humans, but the ferocity of dragons… it's a wonderful sight in my eyes. However, half-breeds had not come without controversy surrounding them. Many dragons still don't accept them as part of their society and this has caused inner scuffles in the past. Two sides: The first tried to argue what good half-breeds did for the dragon race… and the second tried to argue why they were a disgrace to the dragons with how different they were." Reyson spoke before briefly stopping.
... What...? "It honestly made me tear up the first time I heard about this... I didn't want fellow dragons to fight amongst themselves over an argument like this. Unfortunately, I was much younger at the time... so there wasn't really anything I could do to stop it. And that's when a dragon civil war happened... Many dragons died from the conflict, including ones from my kind. This is another reason why the silver dragons' numbers are so low these days. I cried from the loss of many of my comrades… and even most of my family. But... I couldn't hate anyone for killing them from either side. When both sides decided to retreat, separate territories within already dragon-specific territories were made. So now, there are entire territories where half-breeds are not allowed to step foot in. And there are also ones that welcome them with open arms. To this day: Entire races of dragons usually live with only their families and closest friends… and I hated that things ended up like this. *sigh* I just wish that ALL dragons accepted half-breeds as part of them. We didn't need a civil war like that…" He finished.
I was shocked by all this being revealed to us, I never expected there to be many dragons who hated the half-breeds. I didn't like the supposed discrimination that happened within, which gave me a thought. Is this why Draco has her own house...? From the things that I know, Draco is not originally from this world... but she might've still gone through the same issue. I need to ask what happened to her in the past at some point. I need to know... for her future happiness.I was also able to tell that Ex didn't like any of this. "My God, that's…" I trailed off. "...horrible." Ex finished for me. "Exactly. But there's nothing that can be done at this point. The other dragons are too stubborn to listen to lone roamers, such as myself." The dragon nodded. "Wait… you're in exile, Reyson?" I spoke in direct response. "What? No. I just move about on my own, Dave. It's fairly common to see that from silver dragons, considering our low numbers." He answered. "... I see." I stopped. "W-well, I'm sure that there's a way to reunite full dragon races back together again, Rey-" Ex was interrupted. "No, there isn't, Ex. Trust me. I would have tried to already, had I known a feasible way to do so." Reyson told him. "..." Ex didn't know what to say about that.
"... There's still one thing that I personally want to know about, Reyson. ... Where did dragon stones come from originally?" I asked. "... They suddenly emerged into our lands when the first half-breed was born. At the time, dragons didn't know what they did… but they knew that the stones reacted strongly with the half-breed. So they decided to wait for the baby to grow into a young adult to see what one did to them. It turned out that the half-breed gained new powers, as well as armor that looked like scales. This was another thing that ultimately sparked the dragon civil war. Many saw the potential that half-breeds had… while others saw it as too much of a deviation from pure dragons because they were essentially humans with powers that potentially rivaled that of a god's. To this day, more dragon stones appear as half-breeds continue to be brought to life. I hope that this mostly answers your question, and then some." The dragon said. "Yes, it does... Thank you so much, Reyson. One last question: What caused you to go out of control like that?" I nodded and asked that one final question.
Reyson thought for a few seconds before answering the last question. "... It's something in the air that only pure dragons can hear, Dave. This sound, for whatever reason, brings out the feral nature in us. That is why I acted the way I did before you snapped me out. I can't describe what the sound really is... it is unable to be mimicked by living things here. Thankfully, it seems as though half-breeds are unable to hear that sound... which makes sense, considering they are half-human." He answered."I think it's about time that we head back, Ex. C'mon." I urged him to follow me. "Yeah." He nodded. As we flew off, we heard one more thing. "If you two want to see me again, I will be around here." Reyson spoke out. "We will, should we need to, that is." Ex said to him. We flew back in the direction where the Tetra was going, trying to find where it went. Eventually, we did and the world around us was nearly pitch black past the now landed Tetra. We saw the way inside open and Tee was standing there, giving us a wave. We landed and disengaged our armor to meet him. "Dave! Ex! I'm glad that you two are alright…" He sounded very relieved with his words.
"Same... Is the rest of the crew fine, Tee?" Ex smiled and asked him. "Yes. Although, the girls and Jay got bruised somewhat when it came to getting away. Oh-! And Satan left soon after you two went to confront the dragon." Tee nodded and said. "A-all of them...? It sounds like you were all in for a rough ride… ... I need to see how hurt Ess and Yui are." Ex lost his smile and walked inside. "C'mon, Dave... you don't want to be stranded out here, do you?" Tee insisted that I would come in too. "... No. I'll come too." I walked in as well. The hatch closed and my eyes adjusted to the bright lights of the Tetra. I overheard Ex talking to Ess, asking if she was okay. "It hurts, Papa... but I'll be okay." She told him. "Where's Yui, Ess?" He proceeded to ask her. "She's… not taking her own bruises so well, Papa. It honestly made me feel bad for her… Yui went off to our room, if you're looking for her." Ess answered. "I see... Thank you, Ess. ... Dave, I'll let you go home now with a portal if that's what you want." Ex said, then turned to face me. "Yeah... Ringo and Serilly are probably worried about me." I nodded. "Then here you go… bye." He made and waved. "Bye." I waved back before jumping inside.
Ex's POV
After Dave left, I made my way to the room that was shared by my daughters. On the way, I met up with Jay and Elle. They told me that they were fine, aside from minor bruises that covered their arms and legs. As I approached the door to Ess and Yui's room, I heard soft sobbing. That must be Yui... Oh, that poor girl... "Um… Yui...? It's me, your dad." I spoke softly. This got her attention and I heard her opening the door. "*sniff* F-Father... I've never felt an injury like this before and it hurts. It hurts a lot…" She continued to sob. That's right… Yui's body and spirit were created, thanks to Satan's thing. She's probably not used to feeling pain… I walked in and we both sat at the bed Yui and Ess shared. "Don't cry, Yui... this is just something that we have to endure as people. Pain is going to be inevitable, no matter what we do... Sometimes, injuries are minor and can be easily pulled through. However, there are some, or rather, many, that are difficult to recover from. And even worse… a few may end up being ones that are unable to be fully healed, no matter how much time passes. That either causes a person's life to change drastically… or possibly causes that very person to die. Now, I obviously don't want you to die, but… When you do get majorly hurt… have faith that your body will be able to repair itself over time. And the more times you get hurt a bit, the more your body will adapt to simple injuries. Your cuts and bruises will heal better, that's how the body works. ... Do you get what I'm saying Yui?" I said before waiting.
It took about half a minute, but Yui finally spoke once more. "Y-yeah… I do. I get it... *sniff* I need to be a big girl." She stopped crying. "There you go…" I smiled and embraced her in my arms, as her only parent. "Th-thank you for caring about me like this, Father…" She hugged me as well. And just like that, everything was fine. Yui wiped away her tears and stood up. "Are you better now?" I asked her. "Yeah... I'm gonna go to Ess and tell her that I'm alright now." She nodded and said before walking out of the room. "I'm happy for you, Yui... It looks like my experience as an adult is finally allowing me to be a good parent." I said to myself. I decided to stand up and leave the room. I went over to where Tee, Ai, and O were at… the cockpit. "Ai, how's the Tetra holding up?" I asked him. "I'm glad to say that the ship is rather fine, Captain... aside from the front now having teeth marks." He told me. "Good… then that's the kind of damage that we can easily repair." I sighed in relief. "Ex, what happened out there? You and Dave were out there for a while…" Tee approached me. "Well... I suppose I do owe you all an explanation." I said. I went on to tell the trio what had happened and they were surprised. Of course, I expected them to be. They wouldn't have guessed that the dragon was actually nice and was only out of control. "This is crazy... you guys got to talk to an actual dragon." Tee was simply stunned. "Either way, everything's fine and Reyson's going to stay around where we were. So if we need to see him again, then he'll most likely be there." I ended it off. The rest of the night passed by and it was peaceful.
Dave's POV
I returned back home in Suzuran and opened the door. "Geez, you sure took a lot of time to get back… Why didn't you send me a message, Dave?" Ringo didn't sound happy. "... Ringo, I was occupied with something and I need to tell you about what happened, like right now. Let's bathe and I'll tell you as we do so." I told her. "O-okay." She recognized my need to tell her. I went ahead and told her of the events that played out. "An out-of-control dragon attacked the Tetra… and then you snapped him back to his senses with a single punch? And then he told you and Ex about the different kinds of dragons and all of THAT with these half-breeds? This was not what I expected at all… I thought this was a do or die sort of situation from the way that Ex's smile disappeared." Ringo summarized. "I thought it was just that at first as well, Ringo… but when Satan told us that the dragon was only out of control, we knew that we didn't exactly need to fight him. Then, everything from there was fine and that dragon will be there if we need to see him again. I should also tell Serilly that things are okay after we're done here, just so that she doesn't worry." I said. "Yeah... I'm sure that she's already worried." She nodded. We finished bathing and I exited the bathroom to see Serilly still working on getting fully used to walking.
I managed to silently get her attention and we both sat on the couch. "Serilly, I should probably tell you what happened…" I began. I told her of Reyson snapping out of his thing and what he mentioned, regarding the different kinds of dragons… as well as the half-breeds. And then, I mentioned my concern for Draco... She was relieved, but also had remained worried. "Draco, is one of them... I wonder how much a possible separation affected her." Serilly frowned. "Well, she hasn't said anything about this yet... One of three possible outcomes is that she forgot that something like that even happened, she somehow doesn't know about it… or, the possibility that I'm most afraid of: She's been trying to hide her sadness stemming from it. ... Was that mostly happy exterior a lie? Was her love for me a lie as well...? Did she just use it as a way to get her mind off of that horrible event?" I began to ask questions that hurt my heart. Serilly saw my fear of the worst possible outcome and grabbed my hands with hers.
Her face became serious and she began to speak. "Dave… you need to talk to her if you want to know for sure. Back in the ocean, I often had to confront others to know exactly what was going on. This was because I wanted to help them out with their problems. Don't you want to do so as well?" Serilly continued to give that serious expression. Meanwhile, I was trying to collect my thoughts. "... S-Serilly, I've already done so much for Draco... I don't want her to feel as though she's over-reliant on-" I suddenly stopped. "No. If you're going to ask Draco, then make sure that she feels like she's her own person, and have her believe that she can do things for herself. I know that it's not easy, considering how nice you are… but you have to make others toughen up at times like these, okay?" She waited for me to answer. "... ... ... As much as I personally don't want to possibly emotionally scar Draco… you're right, Serilly. ... Man, you can be surprisingly firm at times…" I sighed. "Thank you for understanding what needs to be done here, Dave." Serilly hugged me. "... I think that it's time for us to sleep... I'll see you in the morning, Serilly." I got up. "Yes." She nodded. I walked back to my room to sleep for the night and soon enough, I blanked out.
Author's Notes: Dave and Ex managed to save the Tetra from being torn apart by a silver dragon that had gone out of control. Surprisingly though, this dragon was rather calm after Dave snapped him out with a punch. The silver dragon introduced himself as Reyson and told the dragon warrior duo of the types of dragons, as well as some rocky history involving them. After they had obtained that knowledge, Dave and Ex left to go and find the damaged starship. They eventually did and more emotional scenes played out for the two later. And now… with the night passing by, a new chain of events would play out in front of Dave and his friends. What might those be? Next chapter, Chapter 67: A Frosty School Day.