The Dragon's Story

AN: This chapter, with the exception of a few parts, was written by Kageno Tenshi. She's good at writing her parts. So she is advancing our plot along rather nicely. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: The usual. After 13 chapters you need us to spell out that we don't own Harry Potter and the Tenshi are real people? Where have you been?

When they got to the hospital wing, Remus and Sirius were already there. Remus had finger marks around his neck. Their eyes widened when Snape entered with the two tenshi in front of him and Robin following meekly behind. Madam Pomfrey hustled towards the new comers and directed Snape to put the two young girls on nearby beds.

"Miss Goodfellow should stay here until further notice." He said.

Madam Pomfrey glanced at the dark tenshi and nodded.

"If Lupin is free to go, then he will be needed in the Headmaster's office."

"I'll be right there." Remus said. He stood up from the bed and walked towards Robin. "You should rest while you can."

"I'm not tired."

"You may not feel tired, but you should still rest."

"Who are you to tell me what to do? I'm not tired." Robin protested, before a yawn escaped her mouth.

Remus flashed a quick smile then followed Sirius out of the ward.

Robin could hear Madame Pomfrey hustle and bustle about Riley's prone form. The fact that the nurse had yet to say a word didn't say much for the unconscious Tenshi.

Robin sighed, laying her head down and closing her eyes. She should -try- resting while she was here, at least. An image of Professor Lupin with that big told-you-so smile on his face flashed in her mind and she growled at it as she rolled sharply over in the bed, putting his memory and the two unconscious Tenshi out of her mind.

She stared absent-mindedly at the paintings in the otherwise empty hospital. They were talking, again. Even this late at night, the paintings would always stare or point or speak rapid, anxious words to each other as the tenshi walked by.

Robin noticed this.

They always seemed so excited and energetic. They would smile and sometimes wave at Riley and Nicole. There was a distinct lack of smiles when Robin was alone.

She noticed this, too.

Now, as they pointed and stared at her, there was a definite malice in their bewitched eyes.

She couldn't help but notice that.

She closed her eyes and was immediately bombarded by powerful flashes of images, colors, sounds she didn't want to relive again.

She could see Nicole standing alone in the snow, crying as a dark shadow began to surround her.

She could see Riley, screaming, running through a hall of broken mirrors, a dark tunnel lit only by the starlight of shattered glass.

The two images became parallel, merged, and Riley was no longer Riley, and Nicole was no longer Nicole. The two tenshi changed. Riley was older, had darker hair, wore expensive looking tattered shreds. Nicole was older, paler, covered in blood that wasn't all her own. Both of them looked at her as she stood there, watching them. Their eyes were shrouded in pain, confusion. Their mouths didn't move, but they both voiced the same question.

Why?

Robin shuttered and wrapped her arms around herself, as if to fend off the snow of her dream-scape. She was seeing the past, she knew that. Riley's and Nicole's souls must still have some small memory of that horrible time clinging to their subconscious, buried deep where they couldn't access it in there waking moments.

Robin remembered. Throughout the years, the incarnations, Robin remembered because Robin remained.
It was the curse of the dragon that she never forget who she really was. Every generation, over and over again, she would awaken, she would stare out at the world with old eyes in a new body, and she would know, as long as He wanted her to know, -exactly- who she was and what she had done.

She didn't want to know. She didn't want to remember. She didn't want to be alone in the past, anymore.
She tried not to see the dream of the other two tenshi, but she couldn't remove herself from it. She was a captive audience for this morbid masquerade.

Nicole ran across the battlefield, stopping at each wounded soldier, healing them as well as she could with the little energy her tiny form had left. She wept as she closed the eyes of a boy no older than sixteen.

Another soldier of England, dead.

Bullets rained above her head, the night eerily lit by fire reflecting off the snow. She closed another one's eyes, her tears adding to the downpour.

Then Riley was there, next to her, trying to hold her up. Nicole was weeping openly into the taller tenshi's chest.

"Sh..." Riley whispered, holding her tight as she looked out at the massacre before her. "There's no way you could save them all, Jess. You know that..."

"But, why?" Nicole sobbed, her fists clenching at Riley's clothes. "We were supposed to stop this, right? We were supposed to prevent this evil, right? Evette? They said we had strength, they said we had power..." She collapsed completely into her friend's arms. "This war has been going on for so long... Why don't we have the power to stop it?"

Riley stared up at the stars. "We are only two, Jess."

"Then where the Hell is Mary?" There was a sudden fire in her eyes, a burning explosion of anger.

Riley sighed and stared down at the angry tenshi. She looked away, sadly, her eyes meeting Robin's and looking right through her.

"The dragon has found her master. We have been betrayed."

And the scene shifted. Riley lay in the fresh white snow, a crumpled form in Hogwarts robes. Nicole screamed, a sound that sliced the chill air with its angry despair. And, Robin stood there, blue flames so dark they were almost violet snaking from her clenched right fist, a maniacally violent gleam in her eyes.

"No!" Nicole yelled, desperation and confusion filling her voice. Her power wavered and she fell to her knees. Robin began to walk towards her, the flames reaching out to Nicole, licking at her young, innocent face.

"No..." Nicole whimpered, turning away from the flames. Her eyes landed on Riley whose head was slowly being surrounded by a halo of red against the snow. "Riley..." Nicole whispered, her voice now filled with defeat. "We are only two. The dragon has found its master. We have been betrayed..."

With the last of her strength, Robin pulled herself out, forced her eyes open, forced herself to see the world, not the dreams, not the past.

It was quiet, now. Madame Pomfrey had left the three girls alone, Riley supposedly fixed as well as possible.

Robin stared, transfixed at the sight of the two sleeping tenshi next to her. They both seemed so innocent, so calm and unguarded, despite their dreams.

'How could they be so peaceful with me right next to them?'she thought, the memory of whispered defeat ringing in her mind. 'Don't they know what I could do to them?'

She stopped, shocked at the direction of her own thoughts. She hadn't betrayed them, she -hadn't-! 'The dragon has yet to awaken.'

Not this time... not this time...

Her fists clenched as they remembered the feeling of Professor Lupin's windpipe crushing in their grip. She shuddered as the malicious glee swept over her at the sound of Riley's head cracking against the tree, at the pleading determination and desperation in Nicole's eyes.

'The dragon -will- awaken.'

She wouldn't betray them, this time. But, she didn't know how much longer she could resist the dragon's call. Its voice, barely there before tonight, was getting stronger by the minute.

She was dangerous. Unstable. She knew it, and even if her counterparts didn't say anything while they were awake, she knew they knew it, too. She wasn't sure if they truly knew of her betrayal in their past reincarnation, but as she stared at their young faces, she knew with a pang of pain that even if they didn't, they would need to.

She felt her wall crumbling at the thought of their knowledge.

"We need to finish this, soon."

'Before they betray you.'

"Indeed?"

Robin sat up quickly, swaying faintly as her blood tried to catch up with the rest of her. Madame Pomfrey put a stern hand on her shoulder, steadying her with a cluck of her tongue.

"You haven't been eating, have you, Miss Goodfellow?" she asked, her tone carrying no inclination of a question.

"Please don't start with me, now, Madame," Robin said as politely as she could manage while shrugging the surprisingly large hand off her shoulder. She started to get up, intent on going somewhere, anywhere where she couldn't hear the dreams and memories floating around the hospital.

"Miss Goodfellow, please stay," the nurse said, her voice suddenly cold, her hand back on her shoulder, pushing her back down to sit on the bed with a firm, steady pressure, surprisingly strong for such a seemingly small woman.

Robin stared, shocked, at the hand, then angrily into the witch's eyes. "Unhand me, Madame," she hissed, her well-cultured, wealthy American accent adapting well to the old indignance.

The nurse glared right back, a strange fire burning in her eyes.

'I believe the adverb here would be accusatory. She's accusing you.'

"I'm afraid," the nurse started, pressing more firmly into Robin's shoulder, "I can't let you go, Miss Goodfellow. Not until you tell me exactly what happened tonight."

Robin's eyes narrowed at the underlying implication of the statement carried through the nurse's vice-like grip. "What do you mean, Madame?"

"4am, one mildly injured professor carried in by none other than a panicking Sirius Black, followed by Professor Snape with two students, both of whom are critically injured, though the professor seems much worse for the wear, and then you stroll in, perfectly calm, perfectly healthy, perfectly silent." The nurse's nails actually began to dig into Robin's shoulder, now, her free hand slowly, almost stealthily, moving towards her wand. "I want to know what happened out there, Robin Goodfellow."

Robin's eyes widened in indignant disbelief. 'She thinks -I- did this!' Her mind felt numb. 'She -knows- you did this.'

She noticed the nurse's hand drawing ever closer to her wand, and a realization hit her: That fire in Madame Pomfrey's eyes wasn't accusation, it was a fierce barrier of protection. Robin noticed for the first time how the nurse had placed herself for this particular confrontation - right between her and the two unconscious tenshi.

Robin still glared at the nurse, but now there was just a bit of confusion showing through the indignance. "You think it necessary to protect them from -me-?"

The nurse's grip remained, her other hand still over her wand. "Is it, Miss Goodfellow?"

'More than you know...'

"With all due respect, Madame," Robin hissed, her voice dripping with aristocratic disdain and venom, "fuck off."

And, the nurse's hand was forgotten, as was the shouts ordering her to come back, and the murmuring voices of the paintings, and the sleeping, dreaming tenshi.

Pale eyes followed the dark figure's path away from the hospital.

Draco Malfoy smiled with anticipation.

'She's running,' he thought, the bells of opportunity ringing in his head. 'Father told me she would run from them, and if what that damned monster of a wolf said was true...'

He started after her, his long strides instinctively knowing where to go.

'If I bring her back to our Dark Lord...'

His smile took on a sinister note as he came to a halt at the edge of a moving stair. He looked up and saw her heading for the astronomy tower.

The best place in Hogwarts to be alone.

"I'll bring her back," he whispered, his hand resting on the hilt of his wand. "One way or the other. I will not fail you, father."

Remus sighed. "I'm worried about these recent events."

The headmaster's ancient form seemed much older than Remus had ever remembered it as he leaned a bony hand against the mantle of his office's fireplace. "What would you have me do about it, Professor?"

Dumbledore's voice was rough, and so very soft, so very exhausted.

'When was the last time he slept?'

"You sound like there's nothing you -can- do. You haven't even tried!"

Sirius's voice was rough, but with anger, and it just made the Headmaster seem that much more ancient by comparison.

Dumbledore turned his head, barely, and spared the two of them a minuscule glance from blue eyes gaping at the empty void which his normal spark of life had vacated. As quickly as they were there, his eyes were gone, again, and Remus couldn't tell if her were relieved or not.

'Those eyes were almost... dead... Almost like Robin's...'

He started, mentally, as he realized what he had just thought. Could he really compare the aged, exhausted headmaster with the young tenshi?

Then he remembered the way her eyes had looked up at the stars, as if her dark eyes were the void from which they had come: 'The eyes of a tired, long life.'

Dumbledore sighed, not looking at them again. "The Tenshi revolve along a completely different plane of existence, managed by the most ancient of wild magic, and their purpose is completely pre-destined and out of everyone's hands." Sirius moved to speak, his rage radiating from his entire being, but the old headmaster lifted a single hand, silencing him without even a flicker of magic. "Everything that happens to those girls, past, present, and future, happens because purpose dictates it so. I do not interfere, for there is truly nothing I can do."

"Damn it, man!" Sirius yelled, never one for bottled politeness. "They were attacked by dementors, not some bloody aspect of creation. Next thing your gonna tell me you can't open a door for them before they run into it, or... something."

"If it were dementors that was our problem, then maybe... maybe I could... open the door." His voice was almost gone, now, on level with the whispering flames of the hearth. "But, it's not that simple... There enemy doesn't come from without. The Tenshi have never been defeated by an outside force." He leaned, his hand supporting his full weight against the mantle. "The only thing that can defeat an angel is another angel, fallen or otherwise..."

Sirius was silent, his anger smothered. "I don't understand."

"They weren't attacked by dementors out there, today." Dumbledore's eyes peaked out at Remus, cold, calculating, judging. "They were attacked by Robin."

Sirius's eyes narrowed, obviously confused. "But, they had some sort of spell on her. Some high level control spell. Not even Merlin could get out of a well placed spell like that."

Remus folded his arms about himself, suddenly very cold despite the fire's warmth. "There was no spell. I was there, remember? When the dementor..." He shuddered at the memory of their touch. "When she attacked him, it was as if she had become a different person, but she hadn't... It was like..." He remembered thinking that her eyes had no longer been empty. "It was like she just tapped into a different part of herself, like she stepped aside for another mind to take over, like she..."

Transformed.

Like him.

Like she had a wolf in her head, too, which would leap out and rip out a man's throat if it was hungry. If it didn't wear a leash.

Sirius looked between the two of them disbelievingly. "You blokes are -not- saying what I think you are, are you? You bloody saying Robin Goodfellow, a -kid- before she was ever a Tenshi, is evil? Next thing you know, the Order's gonna be ordered to get rid of her before she does something she wouldn't even dream of doing... Like... I don't know... Betray her friends, or something... This plot starting to sound familiar, yet?"

Dumbledore turned, then, glaring at Sirius. "The Order would not sentence an innocent to death." His voice held a mockery of his usual strength, but it was an improvement to the emptiness Remus had sensed.
Sirius was too angry to care. "That's assuming it's still convenient for you to consider her innocent, right? What about Riley, huh? She could regain those memories of... Ifrit, or whatever, and destroy us all while playing ring-around-the-rosie around Voldemort. Why does she still have your faith? And, what about Nicole?"

Dumbledore's breath stopped at her name.

"Freakin' had the most destructive childhood any of Earth's dreamers could dream up and could crack at any time from the effort of maintaining the balance of the three at any moment, yet never once has your trust in her wavered. And, now merely because she has a little bit of a violent streak, you wanna drudge the technicalities of Robin's nature and judge her unworthy of our trust?"

Dumbledore reeled as if struck. "It's not anything we can help. It's the nature of the Angel of Shadows to walk in the darkness.

"Fuck this bloody nature bullshit!" Sirius was livid, like a rabid dog. "That's the same crap that made Remus starve on the muggle streets for five years because of wizard osterization. Dammit, he's dealt with the wolf, learned to keep it from taking control, why can't you trust Robin Goodfellow to do the same?"

Remus stared, amazed at Sirius's passion, and then it dawned on him exactly what he had said. What if it -was- the same...

He looked up at Dumbledore hopefully, only to be met with the same icy stare. "Despite appearances, Kageno Tenshi is -not- the same as Professor Lupin. Her shadow cannot be caged, and, eventually, it will enfold her completely. It is only a matter of time, and when that happens, you two, as the Tenshi' assigned guardians, must do all that is in your power to protect Riley and... Nicole from then malevolence the wild magic can yield in its darkest tool."

Sirius glared at the man, his voice a low growl of defiance. "I'll do everything in my power to protect all three of them." He left with minimal fanfare, barely even taking the time to transform into a dog as he exited the office.

Remus made to follow him, but was stopped by a strong hand on his arm. He turned to look into the clear, blue eyes, foggy and tired, once again.

"You must be careful, Remus Lupin," the ancient, hoarse whisper rang in his ears, the power in the man surrounding his mind, sending chills down his spine. "As much as you want it to be otherwise, her soul's already gone. It was never there, to begin with, you see? What she could have been has been eclipsed by what she was. She cannot be taught to deny herself, and she cannot continue to deny her master. The shadow of the dragon is already in her mind, already speaks to her, and nothing you do or say is going to change what she is."

Remus met his eyes. "With all due respect, I think you're wrong."

He smiled, a slight, small, fleeting thing. "I figured as much. Then off. Off to the astronomy tower with you."

Remus blinked at him. "The astronomy tower?"

"Yes." He sighed, heavily, turning and walking back to stare into the fire. "You have some pressing business, there."