Disclaimer: I own nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is mine.

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The days following after the day that Iranda went missing, the situation hadn't actually sunk in to Aaron. Oh, he understood what it meant when the search parties came back empty-handed and when he himself couldn't find her in that pyramid building.

Even when he had to comfort his children, trying to reassure them that their mother was alright and would be found soon, it still didn't 'click' for him. He basically went from one day to the next in a numb state, completing his work almost robotically when he wasn't trying to find Iranda.

It all finally sank in almost a week later, when he'd made two cups of coffee and brought them back to the bedroom, only to drop one onto the bed in an attempt to give it to a wife that wasn't there. Staring in dulled confusion at the mug on the bed and the spreading coffee stain on the sheets, Aaron's tired brain at last faced reality.

Iranda was gone, vanished in a wild goose chase to find a portal that didn't even exist. A traitorous voice in the back of his head whispered that he was doing the same, searching for an Oasis that couldn't be. Guilt hit him first, with the knowledge that it had likely been his own talk of the Promised Land that had spurred Iranda to seek out other possibilities for a new home for Airlandis and its people.

Next came anger. Why hadn't she told anyone else?! Why had she gone to the Star Ridge and the pyramid alone, with only a single dragonator for assistance?! Why hadn't she left a note, taken a communicator, something, anything to let others...to let him know where she gone and what she'd planned to do?!

On a spur of rage, Aaron threw his own cup of coffee at the wall. The cup shattered, spilling its liquid contents all over the wall where it dripped down in rapid little streams. Aaron stared at it, almost not believing that he'd done that. It'd have to be cleaned soon, lest it stain the wall.

For some reason, that was the thing that made him break down further, finally crying over his loss. He sank down onto the bed, not caring about the coffee stains on the sheets and put his head into his hands and wept.

She was gone. His dear Iranda was gone and unlikely to ever come home. No longer would he find her at her job in the Library. No more would he come home to find her with their children, cheerfully directing them about their chores and homework or playing with them, all while trying to get dinner made at the same time. Never again would she come to his lab, either to drag him out of there to get some sleep or to spend a few quiet moments together before they returned to the working chaos of their home.

Aaron wept for all that and more, losing track of time as he did so.

Finally, a sound pierced through his gloom, bringing his attention to other matters. It took him several minutes before he realized, to his shame, that the sound was his youngest child crying, likely for breakfast. Mentally and physically exhausted, Aaron nonetheless looked at the crib, trying to steel himself so as to face another day.

But to his horror, Peak wasn't in the crib. Jumping off the bed, Aaron ran over to it, yanking at the blankets in a fruitless effort to find the baby. In his panic, he almost didn't realize that he could still hear the crying and that it was in fact coming from outside the room.

Once he realized it though, Aaron ran out of the room and followed the sound to the kitchen, where he came onto a scene of chaos.

Z'neth had Peak and was trying to calm the shrieking infant down while at the same time trying to say something to his other siblings. Apex and Summit were screaming at each other and it looked like they were just seconds away from throwing blows. Poor Dram was trying to stay on the sidelines while also attempting to clean up what looked like spilled milk from the kitchen floor.

Aaron nearly snapped but somehow held his temper as he demanded, "What is going on here?!"

The kids looked at him instantly. Apex and Summit stopped their argument but were still sending each other dirty looks as they both tried to talk at once, pointing at each other. Aaron yelled, "Enough!"

They fell quiet, both clearly still upset. Aaron looked at Z'neth, "What happened?"

His eldest shifted Peak in his arms, looking to be in pain from the baby's crying, "Peak needs a bottle but there aren't any more in the fridge."

Summit cut in, "So I was trying to make one but-"

Apex interrupted, "You can't give a baby regular milk! He needs formula!"

The second son whirled on his sister, snarling, "Regular milk is fine! We just need to warm it up!"

She snarled back, "No it isn't! The formula is way better and -"

Aaron cut them off then, "Enough!"

He looked at Dram, "What are you doing?"

The draman child shrugged nervously, practically mumbling, "The milk container got knocked over...I was trying to clean it up..."

Aaron took a deep breath and held it for a minute. After releasing it, he had a plan of action. Moving to Z'neth, he took Peak from him, to the boy's gratitude, "All of you, get ready for school. I'll take care of this."

Z'neth answered while rubbing his ears, "Father, we don't have school today, it's the weekend."

Aaron blinked, "Oh."

Turning to the others, he said, "Then Summit, there should be a container of formula mixture in the cabinet right behind you. Follow the instructions on the back for making a bottle. Apex, help Dram clean up the milk. Z'neth...help Summit or just.."

Aaron trailed off but his eldest son was already speaking, "I'll try and get breakfast started, Father."

The man nodded and looked down at his infant son. Aaron had let Peak chew on his thumb while he'd been speaking to the other children. It was painful, yes, but it'd given them the necessary precious few minutes of quiet that they'd needed to calm down.

Plus...Aaron felt he'd deserved the pain. How could he have gotten so out of it as to lose track of the children? He felt guilty again at the thought of what else had likely gone neglected while he'd been wrapped up in his depressed state.

The small baby spat out his father's thumb, starting up his cries again. Thankfully Summit had gotten a bottle ready and gave it to their father, who in turn gave it to the baby. Peak immediately began to feed, little arms coming up as if to hold onto the bottle by himself. Looking at the others, Aaron asked them, "After breakfast, why don't we go to the park today?"

While they didn't exactly jump up in agreement, no one refused either. Aaron decided to take that as a good thing. They needed to get out of the house, to do something normal and family-like. After that, they could focus on other things. But right now, they just needed to do something that would distract them.

Looking back down at the baby, Aaron quietly swore to himself that he'd do better by them.

So that following night, when Aaron finally re-entered his study for the first time after Iranda's disappearance and found the holo-disk, he made the decision to hide it from the children.

After all, it would only bring them more pain in the end. But it did make him renew his vow to find her, to rescue Iranda from where ever she was on Old Earth.

It was a vow that became beaten into the dust as the days, weeks, months and finally years passed with no sign of her.