Some of you want Tristan to have a baby. My first reaction was "who?" But then I remembered him ;) Which is horrible, because how am I supposed to do this? I already have 6 POV in this piece. And I doubt you are interested in him having a baby without witnessing him making it. Or is it just me? Anyways, a bit more Tristan as I am trying to figure out who could bear him a baby (facepalm).

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Madison

"It's not fair to put so much pressure on Madison, we don't even know if the trove exists, or haven't been claimed by someone else." My mother's calm voice drifted to me from their bedroom. "I know it exists Mandy, there's no rush in finding it, as far as I know everyone else who knows about it is dead." Was my father's answer. I could clearly hear slight pressure on certain words, as much defensiveness as he would allow himself towards mom. Mom feared I would burn out or become obsessed looking for secrets of the Order of St George. But I stood with my father in this, the trove was real and with most of the Order dead we were just as entitled to it as anyone. But mom was right too, staring at the screen whole night would do nothing for my looks and wit and God knew, that I needed both. I closed my laptop and placed it carefully on the coffee table. Then I stood up and stretched. It was half past eleven but I was not ready to sleep yet. Josh was probably keeping watch somewhere in the building. I decided to check if he needed company.

The hall was dim and empty. I walked toward the exit without meeting anyone opened the doors and stepped out into freezing air of a desert night. I inhaled deeply and looked up at stars shining in the clear ink blue sky.

"You're going to freeze to death in this." Peter said from beside the doors. "I'm going back in. It's just that I have nothing to do." I said and Peter smiled knowingly. "It's late at night Madison, you should go to bed." He was teasing me, I could just as well tease him back. "My neck is stiff, I was looking for Josh to give me a massage." I said innocently. "Go inside before you get sick, I'll send the young squad leader to you, when I see him." Peter smiled serenely and I retreated inside, as it was really cold. I was reluctant to seek Josh out in his room. The chase should be his. After checking in the cafeteria I went back to the apartment, I shared with my parents.

Going to bed early was not a bad idea. I was up before my father left to train with his people and this meant that I could join them. Now trotting behind everybody else with Peter, I was in a position to assess everybody's shape and fitness. We were running around the base just inside the fence as a warm up and it would be all of the training for me today. I was not fond of pushups and curls, not to mention other crazy stuff that kept soldiers fit for fight. Only squats. We completed fifth round and stopped at a free area, where Lieutenant St Anthony, Commander Sebastian and several of their people were already sweating from their own workout.

Since our arrival a week ago a fragile truce formed between my father and the young leaders. Since most survivors seemed to accept their lead, my father did not challenge them publicly about their alliance with dragons and they did not insist on my father conforming to their command. Lieutenant Ward was a mediator between the two groups, he pushed Sebastian to reinforce our ranks against possible dragon attack and at the same time stopped my father from challenging young Commander or attacking the treaty altogether. Now as we neared them, soldiers ignored us and continued to keep up murderous tempo. My dad watched them and made a decision. "You'll join them for the rest of the workout." He said to his small squad and walked away towards our quarters, lazy or preoccupied? I moved to the side of our small group to stretch and could see several soldier's gaze snagging on my breasts and legs. So I smiled and closed my eyes as I bent over to touch my toes with my outstretched fingers.

"It was quite a show." I looked up and saw Lieutenant St Anthony looking at me from under his long dark lashes. I showered and changed and went out again to see the soldiers leaving after finished workout. I sent him dispassionate look. "I surely have no idea what you're talking about Lieutenant." I said and he smiled. "If you are so bored, come by the armory, we will find you something to do." He said and left casting me one last appraising look. This was not entirely repulsive offer though. The soldiers had their shifts, drills, training and worked rebuilding and repairing the base. Dad was constantly sparring with Ward and Sebastian about how this operation was to be run and mom was with him most of the time. I haven't done any progress about my plans regarding Josh as he was always with other soldiers or disappeared in his room. Honestly I was bored to tears.

So after lunch I asked my mom if I could help the base's leadership with whatever they asked me to do, received her permission and strode towards building, that I called "the bunker" in my mind. I took my laptop and dressed in boots, soldier's camouflage pants and a black tank top. I was ready for anything they would ask from me.

There were only Lieutenant St Anthony there, as if he was waiting for me. I stopped in the doorway to their command center. "I would like to help if you have work for me." I said.

He looked up at me from some paper he was reading and then his gaze slid to the laptop under my arm. It had pink sleeve with the day fury white dragon on it. "What can you do?" He asked. "I am a computer specialist, I was supposed to start college when dragon clones attacked but I'm probably better than most as it is." I knew I was good and I knew, that no matter how much I bragged, he would underestimate me anyways. So I chose the strategy, where I let him deceive himself. "I could secure base's security systems from hacker attack for starters." I added helpfully.

He watched me mildly amused. "Permission granted. If you are so good, I suggest you hack yourself in to do the job. The former IT guy died in the same attack that squandered your education plans." He said and pointed to a chair on the far side of the table. "Accommodations are humble I'm afraid. Walk me through it as you go please." I smirked, I have indeed hacked into Chapterhouse's database and security systems, just to look around and had at least few improvements in mind.

I have worked for an hour as I explained the remaining security systems to young Lieutenant and provided him with new passwords. We decided not to activate locks in living quarters, as we had no way to make keys for everyone. As for now only some doors in the armory could be locked and we had 4 plastic keys. Finally I decided that I have done enough and could now get some reward. "What are they like?" I asked. "Who?" He asked dumb. "Dragons, I've heard you knew some of them." He thought for a split-second before he answered. "I do not know any well. They lived here after the Night of Fang and Fire. They were all very young and kept to themselves. I mostly only encountered Ember and Riley." Aha! "Ember who is CEO of Talon? What is she like?" I asked. "She is okay. She wants peace between dragons and people. She was the first to offer us help, this peace is by far her achievement." Bla bla bla, he must thought that he could bore me away from the topic. "I heard that she is Commander's girlfriend, yet he is younger than me and she can live forever, it makes me wonder... Is this serious? Or have she used him as a PR trick, to warm up dragon's image?" I said what my parents have been discussing ever since I have intercepted first communication between Talon and the Order. This time Lieutenant looked more genuinely thoughtful when he answered. "I wonder about that myself. During the war she did anything to be with him, saved his life at several occasions, she seemed to love him. Yet since the war has ended she disappeared inside the organization and barely saw him thrice. But he does love her and your father better not to do anything shady, Garret will not let anyone harm Ember." Well, we have figured that out on our own. But this could be his doom. I let St Anthony ask me about our chapterhouse and my life before the clone attack. There wasn't much really. My father moved around and set up some strategic chapterhouses and bolt holes all around the world as part of some larger project the Order was preparing for, and I spent last four years in a boarding school in California, before I came home for the last summer holiday before college. We have just moved and started to settle in southern chapterhouse, that was a boarding school-like facility, that the Order bought on an auction. It was isolated enough and the building's character allowed to adapt them to our purposes without making changes visible from the outside. Fortunately we weren't there when the clones attacked and wiped out the few soldiers there. My father and Peter were out to meet with a company, that provided the Order with weapons. Mom and I went with him, as there rarely was an opportunity to shop in a big city. We decided to stay at the hotel and enjoy one whole day more there, and it's probably saved our lives.

St Anthony was about to ask another question when we heard footsteps in the hall and shortly after Commander Sebastian stepped into the room. He was not in a good mood and even his neutral soldier expression could not hide it.

"Madison." He acknowledged me and I felt utterly silly when I answered "Commander" to this kid younger than me.

"Tristan, I need you to stay and act commander to Lieutenant Ward and our men." He said to St Anthony. "Always a pleasure." Was the answer. "But there is something else, Madison would you tell Commander Knight to meet us here in half an hour?" He said and I felt forced to oblige him, even though inside I was squirming to know what "something else" was.

I have been to many impressive places with the Order of St George, still the Talon's HQ were at least couple of notches above the fanciest of them. The glass skyscraper towered over the business quarter of the city with at least twenty floors. Inside the granite floors and glass walls of the enormous lobby made even more opulent impression. Assistants wearing suits that must have cost more than what I have spent on clothes in my entire life received us and showed us to a large elevator, that took us up to a conference room, that was something else entirely. The room was at least two thousand square feet with a white table at least thirty feet long occupying most of its middle. Two of the four walls were made of tinted glass showing panoramic view over the tops of the lower buildings surrounding the HQ. Large plants placed alongside black walls filled with pieces of modern art, thick black carpet and designer lamps hanging from a black ceiling made the room at the same time beautiful and intimidating. The attendants pointed us to ur seats. I noticed that there were only chairs near the ends of the table leaving the middle empty and stopping anybody from sitting there. Commander Sebastian sat down with his back to the glass wall and my parents sat opposite of him. After a moment hesitation I sat down beside him. It would not do for our leader to seem left out. His expression was dark, but I guess a vision of meeting his ex-girlfriend who dumped him over a phone wouldn't have made anyone happy.

After we've been seated in comfortable white leather chairs near the end of the table at the glass corner of the room, I got a strange feeling. It was as if the table, the chairs, the plants and the art hung in void. I quickly looked the other side to the view of the city.

There was a pitcher of water and several glass bottles with some fancy soda on our end. I opened one of them, poured its purple contents into a tall glass and sipped as I opened my laptop and watched everyone from the corner of my eye.

A door on the shorter wall opened and two men and two women entered. One woman was slender with smooth black hair swept into a neat bun pierced with two polished black chopsticks. She wore an intricate red robe and severe expression. At second glance I could see that the other woman was in fact a girl. She was dressed in collared white shirt under gray blazer matched with gray pencil skirt and lacquered gray pumps. Her red hair were cut at jaw and held off her eyes by a hairpin set over her forehead. The commander looked at her with the same guarded expression but I could see something like a spark lighting his eyes and dying again.

The girl, Ember had similar closed expression and it looked even more out of place on her young plump face. She took a seat at the head of the table with young man dressed in jeans and t-shirt under black leather bomber jacket at her left and the woman beside him. Another man was elderly but his pale blue eyes were clear and sharp and his back was straight. He sat at CEO's right hand and it was him who addressed us.

"Welcome. I am the Archivist to those, who don't know me and I will be moderating this meeting. Riley." He pointed at the other man. "Is here as an observer on behalf of the free dragons and Jade represents eastern dragons. You may begin." He was talking in low voice but somehow we could hear him as if he was sitting right beside us his voice did not resound as one could expect it to do in such a huge room, some high tech solutions must have been used to let us talk while keeping this ridiculous distance from each other. I made a mental note not to murmur or whisper anything I would not want the Talon to hear. Talon... infamous dragons. I was finally meeting them and so far they did not seem particularly exciting.

Commander Sebastian said. "Me, Commander Jason Knight and his wife Amanda Knight have come here to request reparations for the soldiers of the Order of St George. Their daughter Madison is here as technical support. We have been decimated by recent war, fourty seven surviving families with small children have lost their fathers, when Talon launched massive attack under cryptonim Night of Fang and Fire. Our bases have been destroyed and few surviving soldiers have suffered injuries, that can impact their ability to provide for themselves in the future. Therefore we request, that Talon compensates the families of the dead soldiers and as for the living, that a trust fond will be created that will be used for salaries and retirements for the soldiers who serve the Order now and in the future."

The meeting dragged on for hours, Jade countered our claims with her own on behalf of eastern dragons, who got attacked by the Order on Talon's "request". And so they discussed. I was surprised to learn that Jade considered Garret her friend and apparently respected him a great deal. Riley was against giving us anything, but Ember was open for it, because the Order was now and in the future working close together with Talon.

I worked to access their databases, but the security of this organisation was made by someone who knew his job, so I only managed to hack into CEO's email and as I was downloading its contents for further scrutiny at my leisure a message showed on my screen. "MADISON! STOP AND DON'T TRY THIS AGAIN!" And then the download froze. It was a bait and I took it as a novice! I spent the rest of the meeting trying to clean my computer but nothing seemed amiss, I was miserable.

Finally we were done for the day and the Archivist excused himself, he needed to get the documentation of the meeting ready and see it sent to all the participants. He's sent me a pointed look before he turned to the CEO.

The others stood up and Commander Sebastian drifted towards them. My parents stayed back waiting for him by the doors. I decided to follow few steps behind him.

His eyes strayed to Ember who pointedly ignored him and exchanged some remarks with the Archivist. Jade intercepted him ten steps from the end of the table.

"Garret, it's good to see you. How are you?" There was genuine concern in her voice as she took his hand, and I could see something melting in our young Commander. Suddenly he looked young, lost and in pain as he let her embrace him shortly. "I don't know Jade. I must be in shock." He tried to joke. "Want to talk about it?" She asked. "No, yes. Not here." He said as the other man, Riley joined us. "Hello St George. You look awful." He said gravely. "You've looked better yourself." Sebastian countered with a forced smile. "This is Madison by the way. Madison, this is Jade and Riley, they fought in the war with me and the Order." Then Ember decided to join us. She stopped five steps from our small group and said to nobody in particular. "That was a good meeting, don't you think?" Commander immediately took a step in her direction and Riley stepped in front of him. "She doesn't want to talk to you St George." He said all the familiarity disappeared and he was now covertly threatening Sebastian. I started to wonder if they would attack us now, but then Jade placed her hand on Sebastian's arm and said. "But I do. Shall we dine together?" Meanwhile Ember grabbed Riley's hand and came closer. "Sounds great. I would love to join you, but we've plans." The look on Riley's face suggested that it was a lie. Garret agreed and he and Jade escorted me and my parents out of the building to a Talon car waiting to take us out for dinner.

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