"Lead the way.", Emma sighed as she gently rubbed her stomach. "Five... five...", she muttered. Her mind was still racing with all the questions and worries she had, but at least she wouldn't have as many things to worry about while in the safety of Atlantis.
After Emma and John was situated in the guest chambers, they were soon treated to dinner with Jim, Eilonwy and Jason finally done after exploring for the day and have briefly met Queen Kida.
When they told the trio, Jim actually fainted, and Emma was amused to see that apparently, the nephew is like the uncle. Eilonwy was amazed and was sad that she couldn't be able to sense the magic inside Emma's womb until like a few weeks or a month later, but she was beyond happy. Jason was really shocked, having not expected the number of children that Emma is carrying...
After the trio headed for their respective bedrooms of the guest chambers, even after all the support from the trio and all, she was still wrapping her mind around it...As she was resting back in bed, she heard John's voice, looking up to see John coming over from the advanced bathroom which was incredibly amazing for John, but it's basically a upscale bathroom to Emma as she saw versions of it back on Earth.
"Luv, you've been thinking so hard about this all afternoon...I don't want you to hurt yourself...", John said in concern as he got into bed, his cyborg arm wrapped around Emma, "I am scared too, Emma, but this is our children, our sons and daughters. They deserve you; I know you will be a great mother.".
"I know you're saying that... but I still don't feel confident about the situation. I like to think that'll I'll be a fine mother, but I'm just worried if I'm not cut out to parent one, let alone five!", Emma admitted; her worries and fears were plaguing her. Not even all the battles she was in worried her as much as the prospect of motherhood to five.
John looked at her, "I know your past life, Emma, about your mother who left you and your father behind, but you're not her, and you said that your uncle, aunt, and many cousins have supported you and your father ever since...I'm right here with you always, and the team love you as a sister, and Jim, he once told me that he bet that his mother, and my sister, Sarah would be happy to have you as a sister of sorts, and right now, if she knew, she'd be beyond overjoyed to help spoil her nieces and nephews, and watch them for us when we'd be too overwhelmed.".
"Thank you, John.", Emma gave a small smile and kissed him on the cheek. "I guess just the sudden shock of five children really has driven my nerves past any normal reason of nervousness. That and with all the fighting that still needs to be done.".
John reaches over with his flesh arm to caress Emma's belly, "We can ask all our allies to make a decision to send their soldiers to assist fight in either Congo or Narnia, and besides, I know King Mickey too well, he could appreciate fresh soldiers to replace the tired ones, and give them time to recover and rest...I think you called it deployment...is that the right word?".
"Yes, pretty much. Or rotation is another way of putting it.", Emma sighed. "Still, just one of those things that you can't help but worry about. I fear for the others' safety and worry maybe if I'm not there, things could go wrong. Sorry, I'm overthinking things at the moment, aren't I?".
John chuckled softly, "Maybe a little bit, but hey, we got other dragons in the team, Pippa and Logan. And besides, Zuri is your lieutenant of sorts in the team. She can lead them. But no more worrying tonight, luv. We can tell all the suggestions to Jason, Queen Kida tomorrow or anytime. After all, we have bird messengers and portal messages if needed.".
Kissing Emma, and then her baby belly, "Besides, since I have calmed you down, lass, it's my turn to panic a little. Do you think they'd be comfortable with me?...I mean, I know about raising children, thanks to helping Sarah with Jim ever since he was little, but this...", gesturing to his cyborg parts, "They're not Jim...".
"They'll accept their father; parts and all, no matter what. Especially if you're the first one they truly see once born.", Emma smiled. "You think they'd be like ducks, imprinting on first sight?", John asked.
"Well, I truly don't hope that as I want them to be their own beings in a way.", Emma laughed before rubbing her baby belly lovingly.
John nodded, "Me too...We can find out more about them every week...After all, Cleo knew that they are all shapeshifters...We could know their genders...", and Emma chuckled warmly, "That would be nice, but Cleo said that they are all in eggs...I don't know if it's possible to see, but if it is, we could work on names...".
"Aye, we have some time to talk about that specific issue, but right now, I'm all about tuckered out, luv.", John smiled with a kiss on Emma's temple. "Yeah, long day... of course, I'm the one who's having to do all the work.", Emma joked as she kissed him right back.
"Hey, isn't protecting you a job too?", John teased. "From what? We're pretty safe here... for once.", Emma raised an eyebrow.
John laughed warmly, "I have to agree with that.", before grabbing the blanket, and tuckering himself, Emma, and leaned back on his pillow, his flesh hand resting on the baby belly as he cradled Emma closer with his cyborg arm, "Good night, Emma, and good night, you rascals.", with a warm, playful smile before closing his eyes.
Emma whispered into his ear, "We love you too, John.", before closing her eyes as she covered John's hand with her hand, and soon, dreamland came to the newfound family.
As planned, Emma took it easy, being monitored by Queen Kida or Cleo every week, with shifting into her dragon form when she felt like it, walking with John out in the streets with the citizens respectfully giving them room, or swimming by herself in the serene pools deep within the kingdom.
With every clearer look, Emma and John found out that the eggs are in the middle of becoming hard, connected by five umbilical cords which Emma gave through with her food and water, her appetite growing every week, and John, the only one to fly as Emma is banned from the activity, used his flight to scour the harbors and bridges to search for seafood, strange creatures that came with Atlantis from down below many months ago, provided it all to Emma to devour with much energy.
The old crystal chamber is now dotted with lanterns of fireflies, enough for light, but not enough to accidentally blind Emma or the hatchlings, and the floor is littered with several weaved leaves, blankets, and pillows, with a clearing for the nest when it's time.
In the meantime, Emma was wondering what was becoming of the rest of the Talons; Zuri could easily take charge of the group, but she still wished to know what they were doing in the time they were given. Were they planning on making an expedition to deal with Clayton and liberate the Congo once and for all or were they just making sure the rest of the kingdoms were alright while she was in her state?
Jason decided to head back to Aquarine to tell the news of Emma's children to the team, and Jim & Elionwy was so happy to stay back in Atlantis, and besides, Jim wanted to meet his cousins officially without wondering about them all the time if he was out with the team.
The team has talked about the priorities, and so far, they haven't heard anything about Congo breaching into Andalasia, so that means the rebellions are still at work against Clayton, and Narnia is the one land that's having far more trouble with Scar's troops, so they decided to split up to Arendelle, Corona, Fantasia to offer the suggestion of rotation for their armies to replace the tired troops of Narnian armies, and that they could travel by boat across Enchanted Lake without all the walking and all.
Since Fantasia is the next safest region next to Atlantis, the couple of Pippa, Adam will go there, with Corona for the next team who is consisting of Haku, Zuri, Jason, with Arendelle for Logan and Jasmine, and of course, Rajah.
The fact that the dark forces seemingly were going quiet. Either they were licking their wounds or preparing for something big, the Talons could not be sure, but it was certainly unnerving that nothing major was happening since Tremaine's death.
Unknowingly to them, Frollo decided to stay low in case the Talons find him first, allowing Scar to claim more of Narnia, figuring that the Talons would try to follow the rumors of King Mickey having trouble.
He instantly knew that Tremaine's dead when he tried to contact her, but when the shield came down, he lost another allegiance of evil to the forces of good. He was rightfully upset, but none angrier than his secret ally, Orcus who finally revealed that he's not an angel of balance, but the demon progeny of Chernabog.
Frollo was shocked, realizing that he has finally fallen into the dark pit of darkness and evil, and gave in, realizing that Chernabog could easily snap him into two if he wanted to. He heard stories about him, after all. He hasn't seen him, but he didn't doubt that Chernabog is a frightening sight to behold.
All the same, Frollo is at least relieved to know that Scar and his forces are giving Narnians trouble, and that King Mickey will be desperate for something to change the tide but would take time to do so.
That being said, the list of 'allies' (if Frollo could call them that since they'd all kill him, and he would do the same the first chance any of them would get) was growing thinner practically every month the fighting continued. Unless these Talons were stopped soon, all would come to an end for him and the others. At the moment, Clayton was probably the most vulnerable as he still was unable to bring the Congo to heel and pressure was now building on him through Orcus.
The demon was even more concerned with events and just how fast the Talons had turned the tide of war back towards the forces of good.
Orcus was undecided between growing more shadow minions from the stolen souls of the Narnian soldiers who couldn't move on to Neverland or seeing to the islands if there are any more evildoers. He has heard about Dr. Facliler from Chernabog, and agreed that he's a small-time shadow man, but he's still the apprentice of Madam Mim who is mostly dead, thanks to a slow-activating poison by Merlin who had sacrificed his life to save King Mickey from Madam Mim when he was a teenager.
And then there's rumors from his shadow minions about a woman who is crafted in curses, a man who has killed off most of a native tribe along with some of his crew for the greed of gold, and a man who has the ability to curse boys into donkeys and conjure up golems of monsters.
He then decided to head to the underworld to his king, to his father, knowing that Chernabog is the type to deeply think about this for some time.
Meanwhile, it was almost time for Emma to be checked for the last time before she will stay as a dragon to follow her instincts to build the nest and give birth to the eggs.
"You doing alright?", John asked her as Emma was doing some paces. She gave a small nod, but still couldn't shake her nerves.
"Yeah, sorry for the pacing and all... just... getting some last use out of my normal body for a while.", Emma gave a small chuckle to that.
John smiled softly, still in awe over the baby bump that has grown over the past two months, clearly as large as a normal woman's 9-month-old baby bump, knowing that the eggs is somehow able to shrink to fit Emma while normal, yet in her dragon form, they grow to fit Emma's dragon belly.
Cleo said it was because of their magic, stronger than any other magic she remembers from other shapeshifters, and because of all the love that night they were conceived.
"I swear, looking at myself, I should be screaming in pain this moment from them coming out... yet...", Emma gave a small sigh. "Yeah, still needing a bit more time... crazy to think how not too long it's been since that night.", John said.
Emma chuckled softly, "You know, I have no regrets...Even if there was no love potion, I'm glad it was you, John.", and John reached out to grasp her hand with a warm smile, "Me either, luv. I'm only sorry that it wasn't your dream place to do it, nor that it wasn't the right timing, but the past is the past...We're here now, parents-to-be and all.", touching her baby bump fondly with his cyborg hand.
"Yeah... parents...", Emma's worries had lessened in the past couple of weeks, but those moments of near panic always kept coming to her and John could tell every time it was coming or happening.
John kissed her cheek tenderly, "Shh, you're okay, luv. You got friends and me. You can do this, and I'll be there always, okay?", and Emma nodded with a small smile.
A knock sounded out, and John called out, "Come in!", and Cleo came in, with Queen Kida behind her, and Queen Kida smiled reassuringly at Emma, "My Milo is taking care of kingdom affairs, so I'm free to be here in support.".
Emma smiled a bit more, "Thank you, Your Majesty.", and Queen Kida chuckled, "Oh, don't fuss about it, we've been friends for the past two months. You can call me Kida anytime.", and Emma sheepishly chuckled with a nod.
Cleo smiled kindly, "Now, if you will lay back on the couch.", gesturing to the couch behind them, and Emma went to sit and lay back with John's help. For the past two months, for comfort, Emma has been wearing Atlantean clothes, since everyone else is wearing them except for John. He's far more comfortable in his slacks and shirt.
The familiarity of the glow within Cleo's hands came, and scanned through Emma's baby bump, and Cleo smiled, "Well, looks like they're already prepared. Their shells are all hard now, and I sense their heartbeats, strong and healthy. The cords themselves are getting close to ripeness where they will either be discarded through the birth canal or dissolved into the eggs themselves.".
"Well, that sounds... normal.", Emma didn't really know how one could respond to that one. She would guess pretty much anyone back on Earth would be horrified by what was happening to her if they were unaware of everything this world had to offer.
Cleo chuckled softly, "Not really usual in your distant land, hmm?", and Emma nodded, "That sounds about right. We don't have shapeshifters or magical healers, that's for sure.".
"Well, all the same, I'm glad you have come to visit, and help out any way you can, but right now, I am helping you.", Cleo smiled appreciatively, continuing to scan, "They're definitely moving around in their eggs which is good, awake or asleep. Why, I can tell some awareness already from the dragon hatchling and the hybrid infant, for they are literally awake, feeling my magic.".
Emma nodded, "And the human babies?", and Cleo chuckles, "Asleep, through one of them is kicking in their sleep.", and Emma laughs softly, "Looks like you are right, John, they are playful rascals.", looking at John with love and amusement in her eyes.
John chuckles, "Well, of course, they're part of me, and part of you, luv.", and Cleo smiles widely as she stops the scan, "Tonight or the next day, you'll feel something pulling at you, almost like a mix of a buzz and tingle. That's your inner core telling you that you are ready to want to stay as a dragon. Over the next few days after that, it will increase, driving you to search for the perfect things to make the nest, and once it's perfect to your liking, the contractions will start. You must make sure that you are in the nest at all times during the labor.".
"I understand. I don't want to do anything to put them at risk. Or myself.", Emma agreed. "Indeed; it's for the best that you follow her instructions as well as your intuitions there, Emma.", Kida added.
Emma smiled determinedly, "Do not worry, Kida. I can do this.", and John smiled proudly, hearing her use his words. Kida nodded, "I'll make sure to give you one last human meal, large size, of course.", with a smirk.
Emma chuckled, "One last dinner as human. I appreciate that, Kida.", and Cleo smiled, "Excellent, we must make our leave then. Enjoy your remaining time, Emma. And oh, one last thing for you, John. You must obey her orders of the nest's creation, for if you are seen bringing things to her, Emma will accept you to witness the labor. Dragons are very protective of their young with strangers.".