Ben had no idea what exactly woke him up. It could have been the two people downstairs currently having a screaming match with one another. It could have been his arm, which not only felt like it was on fire but he also realized he couldn't move his arm, at all. Or was it the little child that decided to snuggle himself under Ben's arm good?

Blinking, Ben slowly turned his head to look at the child. The child had bright orange hair, no freckles, but he did have dimples on the corners of his cheeks, he also had blue eyes that seemed to shine the moment Ben looked at him. Ben watched as the child suddenly smiled brightly at him and snuggled closer,

"Bwig men yelling are scwary." The child told Ben softly as he hid himself in Ben's chest.

Ben let out a soft groan and looked around the room from his side, odd, this looked like his room. Moving up, he cried out softly and clutched his arm. Looking down at it, he saw the wrapping around his arm, keeping it still. Feeling something tug against his bad arm, he slowly reached up and looked down. Seeing a tube he followed it up and saw the almost empty saline bag. That was when he looked away from the bag and around the room.

"He...Didn't..." Ben growled the moment he realized this was his room.

Looking back at the child still close to him, Ben let out a sigh and pulled the needle out of his arm with a groan. Feeling blood drip from his now open wound, he clutched his arm with his good hand and got up from the bed. The kid whimpered and followed suit. Ben felt his legs wobble and buckle a bit before he walked towards the door.

"I'm going to kill him," Ben muttered under his breath, the child clung to the back of Ben's pants but Ben gave him no mind as he left the room. He could hear the fight, between Damian and Atticus he could tell, get louder.

"OH, OF COURSE! YOU JUST HAVE TO BE IN CONTROL! RIGHT!?" Damian screamed.

"IT'S NOT ABOUT BEING IN CONTROL! IT'S ABOUT THE FACT THAT YOU CLEARLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" Atticus yelled back.

"AND YOU DO?! YOU KNOW NOTHING OF WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO THE SHIT I DO!"

Ben slowly walked down the steps, not to keep listening, but just so he would fall. Clutching the railing so hard he could feel his knuckles against his skin.

"NO! IT'S CLEARLY NOT THAT! I'M RIGHT AREN'T I?! THAT YOU'RE LYING THROUGH THIS WHOLE THING! YOU HURT BEN! IT'S SO OBVIOUS!" Atticus responded back.

"I TOLD YOU ALREADY, DICKLESS, I DIDN'T HURT HIM!"

Getting to the last few steps, Ben could see them, both red in the face, looking like they were ready to punch each other. Guinevere, Barnabas, Vita, and Oliver were all sitting at the table, just watching the two interact.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

"OH! AM I HURTING THE BIG BAD VAMPIRE'S FEELINGS?!"

"HEY!" Ben finally yelled out causing everyone, absolutely everyone, to look at him. Before anyone could approach him, he walked up to the two and quickly turned to Atticus,

"Atticus, I don't know exactly what this fight is about, but, I will say, he didn't hurt me it was a dragon, a big black dragon," Ben explained, out of the corner of his eye, he could see Damian giving Atticus a smug look. He quickly turned to Damian and pointed at him with his good hand with a bitter snarl on his lips, he spoke to him,

"YOU! Never! and I mean, NEVER! Talk to Atticus like that again! He is a good friend and I owe him my life! I don't know who you think you are right now-" Ben started to walk forward and Damian took a step back, hands up in defense once he realized Ben wasn't fooling around, "-But the fact that you got not only the Greenblooms involved in this and the fact that you're coming in here and disrespecting not only them but my friends as well-" Damian was up against the wall, eyes wide as Ben continued to scold him, "-I am not impressed with you."

"Ben-"

"NO! You get no excuses for this. So shut up!"

Ben dropped his good arm and groaned softly clutching his stomach as a hunger pang hit him hard.

"I was just going to say...You're bleeding." Damian breathed out pointing to Ben's arm. Blood moving between his fingers and down his arm no matter how hard he squeezed.

Damian slowly reached over and moved Ben's arm to the side so he could get a look at the wound.

"Was pulling the IV out necessary?" Damian could only tsk. Honestly, he half expected Atticus to push him out of the way so he could maybe look at the wound. However, when he looked over towards Atticus, he saw the man now all the way over at the other side of the room, hand over his mouth and nose, almost like he was in shock. He couldn't stop the little quip leaving his mouth as he applied pressure to Ben's wound,

"What's the matter, Vampire? Can't handle a little blood?-OW!"

Ben had suddenly smacked him as hard as he could across the head.

"Moron." Ben seethed, "He doesn't drink human blood! So the smell is...Well..." Ben trailed off and Damian nodded as he slowly started to understand. It was like smelling a nice juicy hot burger but you can't eat it because of personal problems or morals.

"Oh...Sorry..."

There was a silence between everyone as Damian slowly applied a new bandage onto Ben's new wound. Once it was done, Ben let out a groan and moved his arm up and down to test the bandage.

"It'll do-" Ben was suddenly cut off by Guinevere, his step-sister gripping him tightly in a hug. She then, kinda surprisingly, managed to pick Ben up just an inch or two off of the ground.

"Geez, when did you turn into superwoman?" Ben laughed softly and she then put him down...Only so she could slap him so hard across the face everyone heard the crack. Damian couldn't stop the gasp that left his mouth as Ben's head jerked to the side, a red visible hand print slowly starting to form.

"GUINEVERE!" Vita screamed surprised at her daughter rash reaction.

"GOOD LORD!" Barnabas yelled at the same time.

Damian watched as Jackson suddenly ran behind his legs in fear of his sister. He turned to see Oliver, who just had his mouth hung open and Atticus who's eyes were as wide as saucers.

"YOU LEAVE FOR THREE YEARS AND THAT'S WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY TO ME, YOU JACKASS!" She raised her hand again, but Ben caught it with his good hand, Damian honestly expected Ben to be mad or show some sort of anger but he didn't he had amazement in his eyes as he looked at her.

"Still have dragon fire in your blood, I see," Ben responded to her and Guinevere suddenly teared up and hugged him once more.

"What is she bipolar or something?" Damian asked Jackson, who just looked at him confused.

With no warning, Vita slowly walked forward only to stop a few inches away from them, causing both Ben and Guinevere to look at her. Vita let out a shaky breath and seemed like she wanted to hug him, but her arms shook so much she couldn't seem to lift them up far enough. She then let out a soft sob and put her hand to her mouth, trying so hard to not cry. Vita then started to shake her head back and forth and sobbed out before putting both hands to her eyes.

"Hey, Hey. Don't cry." Ben softly told her. Vita then ran up and hugged him with Guinevere. It didn't take much for Oliver and Barnabas to join in on the group hug. Then Atticus joint in, awkwardly trying to hug Ben but just putting his hands around Oliver's and Barnabas's shoulders. It honestly didn't surprise Damian when Jackson ran in and hugged his father's legs. Damian being the only one excluded he just stood there awkwardly moving a bit.

"Oh, just join in, you douche." Atticus offered as he looked at Damian with an eye roll.

Damian actually smiled and quickly rushed in to hug Ben, by placing his arms around Barnabas's and Vita's shoulders.

Ben let out a yelp, and everyone broke away to give him space. He clung onto his bad arm and started letting out painful hisses.

"I have morphine!" Damian yelled and rushed to his bag.

"No, no drugs. Just gimmie a second..." Ben breathed out as he tried to level himself out. His eyes screwed tightly in pain.

Damian felt a familiar feeling of Twigleg trying his hardest to break free from his jacket collar. He tried to stop him, but when it comes to Ben, there's no stopping Twigleg. In a quick movement, Twigleg jumped up, now free.

"What's wrong!? Do you need to rest! Sit! Sit!" Twigleg urged. Oliver let out a sudden scream and backed up, his eyes large as he looked at Twigleg, then with a sudden movement Oliver accidently caught his foot up in the dinner chair and fell back, still screaming out.

"W-W-WHAT?! WHAT IS THAT?!" He shrieked out pointing to Twigleg.

Twigleg clearly took offense to that as he straightened his tiny jacket and crossed his arms he then turned his head and stuck his tongue out at Oliver.

"He's a homunculus. Don't worry, he's friendly." Ben responded between painful gasps.

"You're hurt! GET BACK TO BED!" Twigleg demanded Ben do.

"Twiggy, you just showed yourself...I think it's time to tell Oliver the truth now...But I do agree with Twigleg, Ben get to bed." Atticus told Ben. Ben then stuck his tongue out at the vampire, even though it was obvious he was still in pain. Atticus only responded by grabbing Ben by the ear.

"OW! STOP IT!" Ben yelled out as he struggled against Atticus.

"I raise three children. Now, when I say bed, I mean Bed!"

"I'm hungry! I haven't eaten in days!" Ben fought back and instantly Atticus stopped and turned to Ben,

"Right...That's right...Damian did mention that...Ok..."

Ben silently ate, rather sloppily, not because of his table manners, or lack of food, it was the fact he was trying to eat with his non-dominate hand. Everyone, even Damian, agreed it was probably best if he ate something not so heavy, so he was eating cereal, or trying too.

Everyone sat at the table, just staring at Ben, Ben just looked at them but continued to wolf down his food. Damian made sure to sit next to Oliver. With Twigleg still on Damian's shoulder, it was kind of amusing watching Oliver sweat and squirm as he looked at Twigleg nervously.

It was Atticus that finally caught Oliver up, on everything.

Ben being the dragon rider, the three-month gap when Ben went missing, clone Zenith, absolutely everything. Even his own ties to Ben about the real Zenith. Everything.

"I would say you were all crazy, but I'm staring at a vampire and a tiny human being...Am I the crazy one?..." Oliver breathed out.

Damian felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out, looking at his latest text message, he frowned.

"Oh...No..." He breathed out shaking his head.

"What? Is it Info-guy?" Ben asked, going for the phone, Damian pulled it back and stood up.

"Who?" Guinevere asked, Ben started to fill her in as Damian continued to stare down the recent message. Gently running his tongue against his bottom teeth, he could only sigh and hang his head.

"...Atticus...We have a problem."

Ben looked at Damian wide-eyed as he slowly chewed his food.

"Why does this suddenly concern me?" Atticus asked, crossing one leg over the other, leaning back in his chair, he stared Damian down with a disbelieving look.

"Yeah, why does it suddenly concern him?" Ben asked this time.

"...I just got a text from Info-guy...A dragon was caught...In this area..." He paused as his fingers curled tighter around his phone.

"Okaaay..." Atticus urged him to continue. Damian opened his mouth wide only to close it and use a hand to silently wipe his mouth. Atticus took that opportunity to suddenly shoot up and literally pop the phone from underneath Damian's hand, he caught it quickly and looked at the message.

Everyone watched as he looked at the message and his eyes slowly went wide as he looked up at Damian.

His face was something Ben's never seen as his eyes filled with terror and his mouth hung agape ever so slightly.

"What? What happened? What dragon do they have?" Ben demanded. Damian was the one to speak up, licking his lips nervously, he could only say one name,

"...Kuriana..."