2. A new player

Uru baen. The capitol city of the empire. The home of King Galbatorix and his fiery black pet. It's unlikely that any of the rebels would attack this fortress of the king's palace. Even still the King has demanded constant twenty-four hour guard to his sacred treasury. The same treasury that held the earth's most valued prize. Not gold or jewels, but an emerald egg that every rebel and elf would die for the chance to have in their possession. There have been no attempts to secure this item from any of the rebels. And none would expect it. Who in the world could dare hope to breach such a bastion?

And yet…

The guards positioned outside the treasury exchanged confused glances as a strange sound came from the opposite side of the enormous wooden door. Naturally they weren't supposed to be moving unless the moment requires them to do so. But this was something so unexpected that they didn't know what else to do. If they could've described the sound in their own words, they would say it was a high and steady "BEEP BEEP BEEP."

"What is that?" One of the guards asked to his comrade. They leaned in to the doors to listen closer. The beeping quickened suddenly, but they didn't respond except to lean in even closer to hear what in the world it could possibly be. For one fraction of a second the beeping stopped and then…

BOOOOOOOM!

The doors flew off their hinges as the guards were consumed within the fiery inferno. They were dead before what was left of them hit the ground. Flames licked at whatever wood had somehow remained upright in place. Within the colossal room was nothing for the other guards to see. Then a screeching, like a blade on a whetstone, rung the air and a burning smell filled their nostrils. There wasn't even time to lift their weapons as something black and huge flung itself out of the room. Loud bangs stung their ears, and one by one, they all fell as metal pieces, no bigger than the length of pebbles, dug into their brains.

Air whipped past, as the thing rushed through the halls of the great palace with a speed no horse in the world could match. It was loud and the witnesses who caught a single glimpse of the thing, described it as some sort of invention with a person riding on what appeared to be a saddle. A smooth shining helmet masked any face that could be seen underneath.

It was quite literally the last thing anyone could've expected.

The creature or machine zoomed through the halls, shooting down armored men and killing all who stepped in the way. Few survived the rampage and none of them were solders. At last the being made its way into the courtyard. Shouts erupted the night air.

"Close the gate! Close it!"

For the time it took the machine to get clear of the ironed bars, the gate was barely halfway closed. With such awe-inspiring speed, one would think the gate was moving slower than molasses. The bridge, which connected the palace with the massive city, didn't succeed to stop the thing either. Its rider saw the gateway to freedom being lifted under it and pushed the mechanical beast as hard as it would go. In one single instant, the two-wheeled machine and its rider were suspended together in the air. The guards, with their mouths hung open, watched as the mysterious being cleared the empty air and landed, with a bit of a bump, safely on the other side. Their was no warning that could be made in time to beat the machine before it ran over the guards whom protected the city walls.

The thing had navigated its way out of the colossal city before any word could be sent. By the time the messenger arrived to the gates, the invader had already ran through. It had been so fast and so unlike anything that had ever happened to anyone before, that a person could blink, and it would be gone.

What was worse was that the egg in which held the priceless creature inside, was missing. What was left of the animal was nothing more than a broken green eggshell. What was left of the intruder was an empty can, which held some kind of fruit at one point, and a metal stick-like clicking device no one could identify.

Murtagh strode through the great doors to the throne room. He knew exactly what his kingship wanted him for. Word had moved quickly through the castle of the stolen dragon hatchling and the being whom apprehended it right out from under their noses. Somehow Murtagh could not suppress the smugness building in him. He hated his king with his very being and the only reason he dared to serve a monster of his ilk was through shear force. So it was no surprise that he'd found some small bit of delight to know someone from the rebellion had successfully broken into the palace and had taken not the egg, but the hatchling within. And the mysterious person had even been successful in killing and/or terrifying the royal guard.

Now he could only assume that his highness wished for the Crimson Rider to hunt down this new player and bring both dragon and rider back to the palace so Galbatorix could force them into servitude for him; just as he'd done to Murtagh and Thorn.

The knight reached the foot of the black throne where his king sat. There was a furious expression set into the lines of his face. Murtagh knelt resentfully. "Yes my lord? You called for me."

"You've heard of what has happened, have you not?"

The man tried to suppress his smirk. "Yes your majesty. I have indeed."

"And you probably suspect what I am about to order you to do now, correct?"

"You wish me to hunt this rider down and apprehend him for your services."

Galbatorix rose from his seat. "You have failed me many times already, Murtagh." The calm in the king's voice was strained, and Murtagh knew from experience this was when he was at his most dangerous. "You will not this time. I order you," Murtagh felt his chest tighten with the order to obey as his monarch continued, "do not come back until you have succeeded this mission. You will bring both thief and dragon to my palace where I will recruit them for the almighty cause." He sat back down in his seat and mused accusingly. "With all your failed attempts to capture your brother successfully, this shouldn't be too difficult for you. After all, the dragon is no more than a hatchling, and the rider could not have much training. Can you do this, or are you too incompetent to even hope to accomplish a mission like this?"

Murtagh bit his tongue. He wanted so much to snap back at this insufferable man. He would've too if the consequences would only effect him. But with his dearest friend on the line, he wouldn't risk it. Instead he answered with a grudging, "Yes, sire. I can."

"Good. Now get out of my sight."

The motorcycle zoomed over the terrain and dirt road for the remainder of the night and on into the morning. By this time, its rider was quiet exhausted, but she dared not stop. The Umbrella Corporation could be right behind her or even viewing her from one of their many satellites orbiting the planet. That was how they found their quarry these days. Alice had elaborated to Clair and the rest of the survivors on how she had been found so many times before. K-Mart would only stop once she found some cover. For the portion of the night she'd only been lucky to travel along the edges of a river. She wondered distantly what it was called. The sight and smell of the water made her thirsty. But she didn't dare drink from it. After all, lakes and rivers these days were proven to be all polluted with toxins and the infection. There was no escaping the greatest epidemic in world history no matter where you went.

Inside her helmet, she was suddenly overcome with great sensation of claustrophobia. Not only that, but it was getting stuffy and she was finding it very difficult to breath. "Can't stop." She told herself. "There's no cover around here. Need to find shelter before we rest." She tried to hold out but it was getting difficult and she was becoming impatient. A small growl filled her ears and suddenly she remembered the tinny dragon. "Oh! Um… okay we'll stop shortly."

She gasped when a new sight hit her. They were coming into a forest. And what a forest it was. Just like the ones she and her family use to camp in Montana. Though the light was dim she could still see the lush of the trees and plants. They were healthy. How was that possible? She forced herself to bring her mind back to the issue at hand. The bike slowed as she scanned the trees for mountains where she could find nooks or small caves.

There! She spotted a hollow a few meters above them. It would be hell to get her bike up there, but she'd be damned if she left it alone on the bottom of the terrain where anyone could find it and sabotage or steal it. It wasn't incredibly high at least. And with that altitude, she would at least be able to spot prowlers and enemies fairly easy, even among the trees. She parked her bike near the ridge and took the baby from its hiding place. She used a backpack and a sweater to makeshift a little bed for it. She'd wrapped it up in a little bundle with the sweater and used the pack as a little pouch for him to snooze, sort of like a kangaroo. It'd snuggled in there quite nicely when she first placed it inside. It had even surprised her when it didn't panic or even stir while she was firing her wrath down upon her enemies.

She'd spoken soft words of comfort as the baby dozed in her makeshift bed. She'd reached out with the mind powers Alice had trained her to use, and envisioned a glorious place she once knew long ago. A place filled with sunshine, green trees, flowers, and bubbles filling the air like floating glass bulbs. She remembered a soft lullaby she was once very found of, and played it over in her mind. The tune worked and the baby settled in nicely.

"It'll be alright." She'd said stroking it on the head. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you little guy. I'm not going to let them take you away. I'm not going to let them take anyone else away ever again."

The dragon found comfort in this statement, for it knew that she was telling the truth. She didn't know how it knew or how she knew it knew—she just knew somehow.

K-Mart picked the bag with the dragon up and carried it up to the cave first. Apparently it was a lot steeper than she'd predicted. She stumbled several times before reaching the top. When she looked down she had a good view of the surrounding terrain. The dawn was coming and even in the dim light she was able to see for miles around. She couldn't see the city from where she'd obtained the baby dragon; only the river and the forest.

"Pretty!" K-Mart murmured as the sun was coming up over the horizon. It'd been so long since she enjoyed the vibrant gold and ruby of a summer sunrise. She really should've been setting about making good her camp, but she just couldn't find it in her to turn away. She sat down with the baby in her lap and together they watched the new day approach.

"Am I the last?" She whispered to the air. She felt the curiosity of the dragon's eyes upon her as if it understood her words and wished for her to explain further. A memory filled her of all the people she loved and how they died one by one. First her sister, then her father, then her mother and her aunt, her brother, her friends, the last free remaining survivors, and final of all Alice… her hero and her hope.

I remember the fighting. The Arcadia being blown to pieces and people dying all around me. It wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter. All of us, just trying to find a home, a place where we could find safety from the never-ending army of undead.

And they came! The Umbrella Corporation! They came in thousands to kill all of us and to use us as lab rats for the T-virus. We weren't prepared. We'd just…

And Alice.

She fought so hard. I was knocked unconscious when the ship blew and she dragged me to the coast. Every breath she spent saving my life. There were possibly twenty of us who actually made it. When I came round again it didn't matter anyways. The remainder of the survivors who'd made it to the coast where devoured by the army of zombies waiting for us.

I can still hear their screams. I can still see the shine of black as the Umbrella Corporation stood by and did nothing.

OH GOD! HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN? HOW?

We fought as hard as we could and we made it. Sort of. Only two of us escaped. Me and Alice, and that was it.

Our hope was shattered. We were two broken women alone in this big world. But our fury was great and it made our wrath just the more great. Alice had copied the advance T-virus she'd been ejected with before. She was the only one to ever successfully merge with it. She could've gotten it all back you know. Strength, speed, accelerated healing… and in the end she gave it to me. I became her new hope.

I was afraid at first. We didn't know what it would do to my DNA. But I trusted Alice, so I let her inject me. And it worked! I still can't believe it, but it worked. She taught me how to use my powers and I accelerated quickly. Within two years we were ready to make our attack.

We found all of their fortresses and we unleashed a wrath upon them as never seen in human history. They fought back of course. Those bastards dared to fight back for the sins they've committed. But it didn't do them any good. We knew their tricks this time and we played them to the last one standing. It was the first time a war had been made and won by merely two women. Or so we thought.

I thought I'd killed the rest of them. Looks like I'll have to regroup and think of a new plan to claim my vengeance.

She could feel the baby dragon's gaze looking up at her. The sunrise reflected off the tears dripping from her eyes and a new sensation suddenly filled her. She looked down and the dragon was rubbing his temple against her in an attempt to comfort. Hope filled her up at the sight of the little creature.

"Yes, I suppose it is going to be alright, isn't it?" She hugged the little thing tenderly. "I can't keep thinking about this now. I'm so young after all. I need to look to the future. I've made my mark and now they can properly fear me. But now I have to try and make it better." She unrolled her right glove and looked at the silvery line along her hand. The line the dragon used to heal her. "I guess this must be my second chance, huh? I better make the most of it. From this moment on, you're my first concern. Nothing will ever happen to you, 'kay? Nothing!"

It'd taken a little shoving a swearing before K-Mart was finally successful in lugging her weapons and bike up to the small cave. Without her powers it would've been impossible, but the telekinesis had given her a boost and instead of dragging it to the top, she'd been able to just levitate it up there; just as Alice had taught her to do. It only exhausted her temporarily.

Before she could relax though, she had to secure her camp. And to do that, booby traps were in order. Alice along with a select number of K-Mart's previous guardians had taught her all she new about good security. The first array of her traps was merely to sound alarms; in short terms they were loud—very loud. If intruders continued, then the second wave were to stun or catch them. And after that, if they kept coming, then the really fun ones broke out. K-Mart had to admit, this would be interesting if anyone tried to break through.

"Okay," she said slumping to the ground when her work was finished. "Now I can relax." She lay back down on the stone ground. She was quite exhausted at this point. It didn't even surprise her when she found herself waking up from a dreamless sleep the next minute. She felt someone nudging her and instantly thought it was Alice waking her so they could begin a new day of drills, training exercises, and battle strategies. "I wasn't asleep!" She rejoined, snapping to and becoming instantly alert.

The girl surveyed the cave, expecting to find her mentor leaning over her and preparing to give her instructions. She found the cave empty save for herself. K-Mart was nudged again in the stomach. When she looked down, she found the dragon holding up something in its small toothy mouth. Whatever it was, it was furry with a small trickle of blood dripping from a gash in its neck. The dragon offered it to K-Mart who recoiled at the sight of it.

"Ugh!" She said in disgust. She grabbed it and tossed away. "You don't know where that's been. It could be infected." The dragon looked at her for a moment then it looked back at the dead animal, back at her, and back to the animal. Finally it skipped over to the thing, and before K-Mart could stop it, gobbled down the entire animal, fur, bones, and all. K-Mart didn't know what to do. If the thing was infected then it would take only a few hours for her little dragon to turn into a savage monster. If it wasn't, then she guessed things would be okay. But if not…

She just couldn't bear to let anyone else die because of the T-Virus. Her heart nearly ripped in half at the thought of loosing her new friend despite the short time they'd had together. She'd watch her baby closely for the next few hours and if anything happened, she would need to eliminate it. Once she dealt with that horrible prospect, she would kill herself as well. She just couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't take the killing and the death of her friends. She couldn't keep going if she had to live alone anyways. If they died she died too, either by a broken neck or by a broken heart.

She waited tensely and watched the tiny hatchling playing in the dust as it chased crawling insects and tossed around a ball K-Mart had in her pocket. An hour went by, then another, and then another and still nothing happened. Could it be possible that the animal hadn't been infected at all? Or maybe this little creature was a test subject for T-Virus immunity. Could the Umbrella Corporation be looking to suppress the infection for their own people? Or did it just work on animals at the moment?

It didn't really matter anyways. Whether or not the animal was infected or not, K-Mart dared not risk it. She didn't know if it would be so with other creatures. Then again, a person can easily tell if an animal was infected. Considering the fact that the creature was a walking rotting corpse, one didn't need much to figure that out.

The dragon neared her cautiously. K-Mart picked it up when it seemed clear that the tiny beast wouldn't snarl and bite her hand off. She sat back against a stone and scratched it under the chin and around the ears. When she did that the winged reptile seemed to just melt in her hands. A warm feeling of pleasure ran its way up her spine as she continued doing this. It was almost as if she were feeling it as well. She continued and the feeling grew.

She passed out with the delight of the massage spreading through her. As she dreamed she felt visions of unsurpassed security and warmth. It was dim inside the small space. What light she saw was a vivid green, just like the light passing through a leaf. She didn't know much of the world or even understood anything right now but what she did know, was that she was safe.

She slept on until the new day without fear or interruption. And when the shining rays of the new sunrise came over the horizon, the only pain she felt were those coming from her stomach. As she ate from her cans and sealed chip bags, the dragon caught its own meal again. This time it appeared to be a rat of some kind.

"I guess you know where to get your own meals don't you?" K-Mart's head cocked to the side as she studied the animal. My what pretty scales, she thought as she reached toward them. Just like demantoid garnet, or peridot. She picked the baby up and turned it so that it faced her. "I guess I should give you a name, shouldn't I? But first, what are you, a boy or a girl?" She tried to be as discreet as she could manage as she checked but couldn't quite tell. Did dragons even have parts? She really wasn't the right sort of person to know these things. Her friend Jessica had more experience in this field than she did. The oddball she knew back in middle school was obsessed with fantasy creatures in this field. Knowing her, K-Mart assumed the girl would've let a zombie eat her own hand to have the chance to actually meet a dragon for real.

"I wish I would've had the chance to study more about dragons while they still had the internet. Back then I thought they were all just old legends about dinosaurs that didn't go extinct. Jess knew more about these things than I do. I wish she were still here." She hated to think of how her friend died when the infection first broke out. It was the first time K-Mart witnessed a person being ripped to shreds. After that, it almost became natural, because it'd happened so often. She quickly turned back to her dragon. Thoughts like those would only make her cry and hate all over again.

"I suppose I'll just have to do my best." She cocked her head to the side as she considered a number of names for the little green guy. "Well I do remember a few that Jess mentioned to me. She was crazy about dragons you know. She would've loved you too. Lets see… there was the Laidley Wyrm who was a princess turned into a dragon, and Norbert who was a fictional pet for a half giant called Hagrid, then there was Beowolf's dragon, and Smaug from the Hobbit… but he wasn't nice at all." The dragon frowned at the list she'd provided. "You're right. They are terrible names, aren't they? Maybe instead of trying to come up with an old name, I should just give you a new one. Well you're green, and you're a dragon. Sort of like a neon green. Hmm." She tried the name out. "Neon? No, that doesn't sound right somehow. Neo? Neo." Yeah that sounded kinda nice. She thought of the cool superman guy from the Matrix and chuckled. "Heh are you the one? Well I like it enough. What do you think? It's your name after all."

The dragon looked at her. Then its mouth widened and it yawned. It appeared to be fairly disinterested in the situation at the moment. K-Mart chuckled. She couldn't expect too much. He was only a baby after all.

"Neo it is." She nodded in verdict. "I hope you like it. Cuz you're going to be stuck with it for the rest of you life… unless you decide to change it that is. After all I changed mine, what's to say you can't change yours if you decide to?"

The dragon, now referred to as Neo, stared at her with it's head tilted to the side like a little child trying to understand what it was that was going on. Instead of understanding, Neo just crawled into her lap and curled up under her hand.

"It's the strangest feeling." K-Mart muttered leaning back on the cave wall and scratching him gently. "I know you're just an animal but somehow I do think you can understand me." She tilted his head up towards her. "Can you understand me? Maybe not what's going on here, but my words at least?" The dragon nodded in response. Somehow the clear answer didn't surprise her as much as it would've with other people. She smiled serenely and leaned back again. "You're a clever little guy aren't you? You understand my words and catch your own food all by yourself. And you're just a baby. I'll be excited to see you grow up." She imagined a full and mature dragon with glistening green scales like shining gemstones. She could see his glorious emerald wings fanned out around him. "My that'll be magnificent." She idled on the vision, finding rest with it.

BANG!

She snapped up as she recognized the clatter of stones as one if her booby traps was sprung a few yards off.

Someone was coming this way!