Joey peered at Angela, with what she just said. “Angela, why did you say that, exactly?”

“Sam remembers things. Things she shouldn’t. Things she should have no way of knowing. I think she’s borrowing information from elsewhere. Possibly from our connection with Gaia, even. It’s entirely possible that what we are dealing with is one person in possession of a way to weaponize outsiders. And Val…she was the first victim.”

“Rick’s kid said something like that, too.” Julia's trembling voice, and the way she held her hands limply by her side, rather than her rock-solid posture, indicated how close to home this was hitting. “She said, ‘They put the monsters inside her.’ When she was young. What if this whole time, Val has been a victim? Controlled and directed, like a drone?”

"That bitch killed my great-grandmother, one of the greatest Valkyries that ever lived,” Drenar growled. “Possessed or not, she’s going down for that. But, if that’s the case, this explains why her weapon and Davos are similar in composition. What if…hang on…”

He pondered a thought for a few seconds, eyes shifting left and right, and he put a claw up to his snout, mouthing silently. Joey could feel him going through the thought process, as she was. If Val was possessed by Outsiders…how exactly, were they sustaining themselves? All the old lore indicated that the Outsiders turned to dust, once the last astral gate off-world was destroyed, in a massive explosion of mana that leveled a good chunk of the countryside.

Unless…there was a power source they were keeping nearby. Something that kept them alive.

“Drenar, what do Val and Davos have in common?” she asked suddenly.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” he responded, eyes alight with inspiration. She nodded once, and he tried to raise both arms in triumph–and then winced when he tried to move his broken limb, and shuddered at the motion. “Ow. dumb move. Remind me to not move fractured limbs,” he grumbled and rubbed at it uneasily.

“Right, but what do they have in common?” She hoped that it was something they could use as an advantage. She just didn’t know how, yet.

“Both of them have those crimson-tinged weapons that seem to grow stronger as they murder more people. That kind of sounds like the sort of item a demonic possessor or demon lord would have. Which means, if we can somehow separate them from their weapons–”

“A possibility that no one on Earth would ever attempt,” she cautioned. He gave an assuring hand wave.

“Hear me out, first. We need to find a way to cut that creep down to size, before we take our demon-level threat apart. We need to first figure out if their power source is those giant, deadly crimson weapons that both of them possess. If we can separate them from that, or even better, destroy those weapons? We might be able to remove the threat altogether.”

“We still have other fundamental problems, Drenar. The Conclave is clearly involved in this,” Kiera offered unapologetically. “If that is the case, then the Valkyries may be put into an untenable position–”

“That’s not the problem we need to solve, yet. We need King to solve some of these other mysteries first, and Davos is keenly aware of what we’re up to," Drenar stated with remarkable calm. Joey’s heart warmed up, just a little. He might have faltered a bit, but he was a fast recovery. “Jonaleth, we need King’s help to solve the mystery of Gaia. how the crystals relate to this whole mess. I think the Outsiders are so desperate that we’re about to disrupt their plans, that they're willing to expose themselves to stop us.”

“Hold up. I want assurances.” Jonaleth tried to sit up from his cot, but the clink of the nearly unbreakable cuffs cut short his motion. “You want my help? Some stuff gets sorted out. For starters, my entire criminal history gets forgotten.”

“That’s not negotiable–” Drenar started to say, but Jonaleth talked over him.

“Total immunity. You can say I was working undercover in the Talons to pull off such a dangerous feat,” Jonaleth insisted and gave the dragon-sized cuff a gentle tug, checking his strength against the cold, hard metal.

Joey knew that binding could certainly hold him. “Why should we give you a deal?”

“Because you wouldn’t call me unless you were desperate. I don’t need to be psionic to see the worry on every one of your faces in this room.” Jonaleth looked at him, and some warmth came back to his ice-cold eyes, contrasting with his burnished red scales. “Did I hear you right, earlier, Drenar? Your mother killed mine?”

Drenar winced, and Joey could feel the shame radiating from him. “It’s true. Bad time to bring it up, but…She was there. I didn’t know, because I thought she was dead and buried, Jonaleth. All our parents kept secrets from us. I wish I could say I was sorry, but…it sounds like she was going to kill everyone around her, including you if my mother didn’t act. That’s not on you, or me. We don’t get to pick our parents.”

Joey thought for sure that Jonaleth would scream in rage, shout, curse Drenar, and tell him to go to hell…but all she saw was the resignation in Jonaleth’s eyes. He hung his head low, claws digging into his thigh tightly and biting his lip so forcibly, a drop of blood emerged. “That’s it, huh? Not going to apologize for it?”

“Why would I? I wasn’t there, I couldn’t have changed your fate at five years old, Jonaleth. But, we can be better than our parents.” Drenar looked right at him, green eyes dimly haloed with determination. “You have my word on that. So try, for once.”

“I’m going to act in my own best interests, Drenar. Nothing more, nothing less. I’m a selfish asshole, who got kicked around to every deadbeat orphanage on the planet–”

“Stop being sorry for yourself, first.” Drenar rose from the bedside uneasily, his bad claw held against his chest. “I got orphaned, too, and I almost killed myself, at the tender age of twelve. I cut myself. I almost died, due to a moment of…weakness.”

The silence in the room was deafening and Joey sucked in her breath sharply. {Drenar, I thought you weren’t going to–}

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Thank you, Joey. But, I think everyone in this room deserves to know this one. Because most everyone’s guessed that I haven’t been on my game lately.” She would rebuke him for taking a risk of ruining the trust of everyone in this room, but he seldom did such things without a plan. The reactions and gasps in the room were uncomfortable to her. Drenar, sometimes I think you choose this path of pain, so others don't have to. And I wish I had that level of selfless bravery. That last thought, she kept to herself.

Jonaleth blinked. “You tried to do yourself in? Looks like you successfully failed.”

Drenar pulled the dagger off his holster. Remari gave a small crystalline chime to her ears, and he showed him. “I carry the reminder of that moment every single day, to do better. I chose to keep on living. I made the choice, when presented with an out, back when Nick was about to shut down our little heroics, to say no, I’m stopping the Talons. I vowed after I found out Val’s plans for Asqualia, that I wasn’t going to let that stand. And I will fight the monsters at every level, until I kill Davos, and whoever is holding that monster’s leash. Or there might not be a world we can be proud of for much longer.

“So stand up, Jonaleth. Stand with us, if not for your survival, then maybe Jackie, or any of your friends who dodged the killing squad we just escaped.”

“Hearing a lot of platitudes there, big speech guy, but not a pardon,” Jonaleth countered. But the combative tone was diminished, for once.

“He can, if wants to,” Kyle stated, and showed a datapad. “Looks like Alex or his scribe left a few pieces of power in the Glasgow accords, for whatever they’re worth right now. Especially now that we’ve seen more evidence the Conclave is rotten to the core. But, it’s up to you.”

Joey stepped in, to put herself between Drenar and Jonaleth, and gave him a piercing gaze. “We’ve all been dealt bad hands in life, Jonaleth. We’ve always played with the deck stacked against us, at every turn. But that didn’t stop me. It didn’t stop Drenar, Julia, Angela, or anyone in this room from fighting against the impossible, and winning. So help us win this. Help us find King, so we can put an end to this nightmare, and give the world hope for a better tomorrow. Because this problem is not going to solve itself.”

“And why would I want to help? Apart from continued survival?” he asked quietly.

“How about a chance to undo your parents' legacy? They skinned and butchered Kitsune, just like that maniac in the mechanized suit. And he will not stop killing, until he’s the last man standing. He, and whoever manages him. Do you think he won’t come after you again? King could be in danger, too. A man who puts unfathomable trust in you.” She crossed her arms, and regarded Jonaleth solemnly. “So help us. Please. Unless you want to be forever known as the son of the butchers of Burgandy Lane?”

“I don’t like this plan, Joey,” Julia growled. “This guy tried to kill us, set the school on fire, and more–”

“And saved me and Drenar. So maybe, there’s hope.” Joey glanced at Julia, her expression somber. “People can change. We’ve changed. But we've never lost sight of what we want to be. A light to guide the way.”

She gazed at Jonaleth, as he looked around the room, before sighing softly. “I do this, and they will never stop hunting me.”

“You do this, and you take orders from me, Jonaleth. And so long as I’m alive, you do right by us, we’ll set this world right, together,” Drenar responded with a low rumble.

Jonaleth was a cold, calculating machine, and every instinct of his was telling him to stonewall and hope for a better outcome. But, Joey could hear a single, unwavering thread of ponderance, in his mind. What if this was the only moment in his life that mattered? Did he want to squander this?

He closed his eyes, and let out an exhale. “First, get me out of this manacle set. Second, no one gets to bully me or give me shit for this. Three, the slate is wiped clean.” Jonaleth locked eyes with Drenar, who spent a moment of contemplation, then at Joey, with a diminished intensity.

“Done.” Both she and Drenar answered in unison.

“One more thing, Drenar. Fourth, if you fight Davos, you make sure that bastard doesn’t get up. Same with Val. Those two are a symptom of a bigger problem with the world, and I have an inkling that King knows who is pulling the strings.”

“I can live by those terms,” Drenar stated with measured calm, and extended a clawed hand. Jonaleth hesitated but reached over, and shook firmly.

“Great, sappy moment over. Someone get me out of these cuffs before I chew through them. And get me an arcanlink. King’s probably in a world of shit right now, if Davos was willing to make this big a mess.”

Five minutes later, Kiera had one of her squad mates hand him an arcanlink, and all eyes were on Jonaleth, who was still in his dragon form and gazing warily at them. “Ya’ll know I’m toast if I screw this up, right?”

“Works for me. I need to vent some aggression,” Julia said with a toothy smile, and plasma arced off her arm for a split second. “Drenar, I’ll bet money that King has anticipated this move. You wanna make–”

“Julia? I’ve been in three firefights in a row. We need less excitement right about now." Joey and Drenar waited patiently while Jonaleth tapped in a seeming number of random codes into the relay, frowned, and then tapped them in again. “What’s the problem?” Drenar asked, while she got to work on his arm, to get the bone healed faster. “Also, Joey watch the giant nee–augh,” he groaned as she directed a regen potion through a syringe, past a parting of the scales, and right near the afflicted bone.

“I need you in fighting shape, as my dragon-borne bombing platform. So, you know, selfish reasons,” she added with a grin.

“Nice of you to be upbeat after this nightmare.”

“Drenar I’m scared shitless after what we just witnessed, so no. I’ll be better when I’m dissecting the corpse of that man, to figure out what the hell we’re up against.”

“He’s not picking up. He always picks up.” Jonaleth looked on edge as he tapped the arcanlink with one clawed finger, frowning. He tried one more time, and then, on the third try, the device lit up, and there was a crackle of radio static.”

“Callsign.” It was King’s voice, alright, and Jonaleth closed his eyes, reciting something from memory.

“We wander past the stars, ‘ere the travelers told. Guiding lights show the way, Where no evil takes hold.” There was a brief pause, and the device illuminator lit up.

A magical hologram started to lift from the emitter, and King–was not composed. He was disheveled, had a cut on his lip, was bloodied, and looked like he hadn’t slept in a while. He peered around the room and locked eyes with Jonaleth. “King, we’re in trouble, aren’t we?” Jonaleth finally asked.

“Son, It’s bad all over. I presume the Valkyries and Luminaires are listening in. If it was Davos, you’d be worm food right now.” King took a measured breath, and turned until he saw her and Drenar. “You look dreadful, by the way, Drenar and Joey.”

“We’re on a first-name basis, now?” Drenar growled.

“We are if we want to stop the coming crisis. And did my eyes deceive me? Did you find Richard?!” he gasped. All eyes turned to Rick, who was trying to look as small as possible.

“Hey, King. Yeah, things are kinda bad. I got picked up on a bad ride through the aether by this dragon and the fox. Am I fired?” Rick asked anxiously.

“Do me a favor, Rashalda. Don’t get him killed. Where is Shalinde–”

“Here,” Angela said before stepping up into the front of the projector. Even Angela’s composure is wearing down. “You knew everything, didn’t you?”

“I knew enough.” King got straight to the point and regarded the room. “I presume that you’ve picked up the breadcrumbs by now?”

“We have.” Samarina emerged from the emitter on Angela’s wristband and formed into the wispy shape of a silver dragon. “So, tell us, Kingmaker. How do we find Gaia? How do we stop the monsters hunting her?”

“By cracking her prison. I need the Kilnstar'noth charged, and I need it out of my base of operations, somewhere safe. Things have gone from bad, to worse.”

“How, exactly?” Drenar asked. King frowned, and shook his head.

“I tried to save her. And I failed.”