*All dragons copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Chapter 24

A Small Discovery

Night had come, leaving both exhausted. Gareth had fallen asleep in Hana's arms, and Hana had settled down for some sleep herself. She was nearly out when she heard a light tap on her window. Figuring it was just her imagination, or that a bird had hit the window, she ignored it. A slight breeze reminded her that the window was open, so she closed it and went back to bed. Hana laid back down by Gareth, relishing his warmth as it lulled her back to sleep.

"Wake up! Black one needs to wake up!!!!!" Nino flitted about the room, looking for something that would wake up the only other giant that could talk to him. Vitara was busy exploring the floor, while Razor Jr. waited for them outside.

"Smells like these dragons mated. I wonder what the young ones will be like?" Vitara recoiled from the smell that perfumed their bed, "Find anything yet?"

"Not yet. I'm too small to bring much."

"Anything I can do?"

"Lick their faces until they wake?"

"Ewwww...No, not that. Anything else?"

"Open window for Razor?"

"Okay." Vitara climbed around on the furniture by the window and reopened it. A hand shot in from out of nowhere and grabbed Vitara by the neck, "NOT GOOD!!!!!!"

Nino flew out and snapped at the giant's face. Between bites he noticed that the giant had already gotten Razor Jr. into a bag. The giant seemed to barely notice Nino as he placed Vitara inside the bag as well. Nino shot back into the room and started jabbing the black's face to wake him up, "Wake up!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!"

The black frowned in his sleep and rolled away from Nino's bites. Since he was already on the edge of the bed, rolling over made him fall off and wake up. He looked around a bit as he got his bearings, then noticed Nino, "Hey Nino, what're you doing here?"

"Friends need help!!!!! Come with me!!!" The black one shook his head, like he felt pain, then looked at Nino again. Nino shouted at him, "FRIENDS NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"What the--Nino? Nino, what's wrong?"

"FRIENDS--NEED--HELP!!!!!!!!!!! Look out the window!"

The black one got up and walked to the window. An extra layer of skin appeared on him as he moved across the room, "Nino, I don't see any--What was that?!"

Nino looked to where the giant gazed and saw the other giant flying off with Vitara and Razor Jr. He grimaced and shouted, right in the black's ear, "That giant took friends!!!! Help!!!!!!!!!"

Gareth couldn't figure it out, "What do you mean, Nino? He's holding a bag. I don't see anything wrong with him..."

"He has nest and other giant as well!"

"Wait. He kidnapped Player?"

"YES!!!"
"Okay, I'll come. I need to wake Hana first and tell her what's going on, then you can show me where to go." Gareth gently nudged Hana, "Hana? Hana, wake up." She looked so beautiful right then...blood started to rush to his cheeks, "Hana...Wake up Hana." He nudged her a little harder. She stirred a bit, but didn't wake. Gareth couldn't stop images of her in his mind. She was on the bed, naked to all the world, and he was the only one there..."Hana, get up!" He shook his head to stop thinking about their last coupling, but it didn't help. Another few minutes and he wouldn't be able to control himself...He gave up trying to wake her and wrote a note. After that, he opened the window and jumped out. His wings caught the air and shot him forward.

Nino landed on his shoulder and told him where the other had gone. Gareth wished to himself that he could see in the dark, and almost stopped flapping his wings when his vision changed, "I can do that? I can do that!!!"

"Do what?"

"Nino, I can see perfectly in the dark! I know right where your giant went! Look, right there!!!!!" He pointed to the Razor that flew in front of them. Nino squinted and strained to look, but could not see the Razor that was in plain sight. Gareth glanced around him, trying to get used to this new vision, "this is like how a cat sees in the dark! Everything's in grayscale! I wonder what else I can do..."

Hana stirred when she felt the cold wind on her exposed shoulder. She rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed, wondering how the window could have opened again. She leaned back to stretch, noticing as she did so that Gareth wasn't there...He wasn't anywhere in the house! Hana came back to her bedroom after she searched the house again, and saw the note.

Hana, I tried to wake you, but you wouldn't stir. I've just found out that some of our friends have been kidnapped! I have no idea where I'm going, but Nino came in and will show me the way. I promise to be careful. I love you. Gareth

"Hmm...and you say that, though she is no longer part of our group, she has already gotten a chip for someone I didn't want on our team?"

Sylo bowed his head, "Yes, sir. Amantha brought her lover here and gave him a chip. She has had a scam going ever since she was put on his gangster group, making all of us think he was one of the next to recieve a chip. Now that Peter has it, I am able to realize what she was doing."

"I see...we can't take the chip out...what other options are there?"

"I can still keep an eye on them, sir. They do not know I have found them out."

"Good. Keep me informed." He waved his hand and Sylo left. Alone once more, he let his illusion fall, "Damn chip. This headache will never go away!" He slithered across the floor to look out his window, at the city he ruled, "Ha. All those fools out there...they think they're safe. They all think I'm dead, out of their lives. There isn't a freak living among them anymore." He grimaced and turned from the window. A strange mix of blue and red scales littered his hide, with a black scaled chest thrown in for good measure. He was a mixed breed of some kind, but no amount of testing could say what. He had an illusion he had to maintain constantly, which is why he had the eternal headache. His body was more suited for the wilderness and circuses than the city. He stretched his jet-black wings and sighed, "Why wasn't I ever operated on? What were my parents thinking when they let me live, then abandoned me?! This chip is the only thing that has helped me at all." A knock on the door warned him to recast his illusion before it opened, and he angrily sent the gryphon away as he slammed the door shut again. He locked the door and let his illusion fall once more. His legs disappeared, revealing an enormous tail instead. He had no idea what he was, only that he hated it with every fiber of his being. He had tried to get himself fixed, had tried to make himself normal, but when he'd gone to the surgeons, they'd told him that, if they had seen him when he was a baby, they could have changed him. It was irreverible now. That was why he needed to capture Gareth Brik so badly. If he could discover how to gain the same power that human held, perhaps he could fit in again...

Another knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts, so he recast the illusion and unlocked it. He kept himself busy for the rest of the night with matters concerning his now-fired best worker.

Sylo scowled as he walked through and out of the building. Because of this, most anthros steered clear of him, which was just what he wanted. He had no desire to tell anyone what his orders were, no matter how close they were as friends. Amy was constantly on his mind, as she always was, "I wish there was a way to get that damned girl out of my head! I had her that night when she brought me here! The effect of her chip should have worn off years ago!! What are you planning Amy?.." Sylo wandered the city until he found himself outside the prison where Amantha and Peter were going to be kept. An idea came to him, and he calmly walked inside.

"Okay now, let's see...I have the animals, the scientist, and the rock star. Sylo told me to make sure Gareth would come, and he wanted me to capture the Protector as well...I hope I've got enough bait for at least one of them by now." The Razor glided to the ground and landed. A few minutes walk would take him to his captives. For a moment he thought he felt a slight gust of wind, but there was no sound to betray anyone else's prescence. He shrugged and walked to a pile of boulders that hid his hideout. It took a few minutes climbing to get to the top, then, once he was there, he moved aside the rock that hid the entrance. Player and the scientist he'd been told to capture were standing at the wall with their wrists and ankles shackled to it. In the dim light, he could see Player still trying to break free, but his chains were made especially so he could not escape. The scientist had given up hope long ago, resigning to his fate and just standing there, trapped as he was in the hardened goo. The Razor slid the entrance stone back into place, turned on his flashlight to see what he was doing, and dumped the entire bag inside an almost completely metal container. There were small glass windows to let light in for the animals, as well as tiny breathing holes placed all around the box.

He heard a loud thump above him after locking the animals away. The Razor smiled, "Well, would you look at that. One of the last two is already here!!!" he pulled out the net cannon he'd used on the scientist, and waited. The stone slid open, and something blacker than the night started coming in. The Razor snuggled deeper into his hiding place, "It's Gareth. Gotta wait for him to be in the exact spot...there!!" He shot a net right as Gareth landed. Gareth appeared to have seen it, for he dodged it easily. The cannon was crushed the next second by Gareth's weight on top of it. The Razor lunged, knowing full well that he probably didn't stand a chance.

Gareth caught the Razor by the neck as he lunged forward, "Let them go, and I might not hurt you." A terrified expression passed over the Razor's face, but it wasn't enough. Gareth started squeezing just a little, "Well?" The Razor grabbed at Gareth's hands, trying to make them loosen their grip on his neck. Suddenly, the Razor relaxed in his grasp, but thanks to Gareth's eyesight, he knew the Razor was faking it, "I'm not going to be fooled that easily. Will you release them, or won't you?"

The Razor smiled at him, "No." he pointed behind Gareth's shoulder. Gareth looked, just as a metal bat crashed into his skull...

The Razor breathed deeply as Gareth's hands went limp. He sat down right where he was, "Thanks. I owe you."

The white gryphon shrugged, "No biggie. We got one more and we're done. This is easier than I thought!"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Say, next time, could you knock him out before he starts strangling me?"

The white gryphon laughed at that, "Maybe. Depends on how distracted our target'll be. I--OW!!!" Something chirped in the room; it sounded almost like laughter.

The Razor growled, "So I did miss one! Damn!!!" He got up and started shining his flashlight all over the room, searching for whatever it was that was attacking. He almost laughed when he saw what it was. The fairy dragon that he thought he had captured was flitting about the room wildly, attacking at random and always staying just out of reach. It even nipped at Gareth once to try waking him up!

Gareth winced slightly as he felt Nino bite him. By some miracle, he hadn't lost consciousness, but he still felt like he couldn't move. There was a little bit of feeling still left in his body, for he could feel the hard floor beneath him, but his arms and legs would not respond when he tried to lift them. He had to lay there for a few minutes before he was even capable of twitching a finger. He tried to lift his tail in an effort to trip one of the anthros above him, but he just wasn't strong enough. An idea came to him, and he tried to transform into something bigger. It hurt like hell to change, but he managed it and smiled as the two anthros suddenly found themselves trapped. The razor that Gareth had seen at first motioned upwards toward the opening, and escaped. The gryphon wasn't far behind. Gareth shrank back to normal size, wincing as the pain doubled, and let himself relax. He could feel himself slip, was almost able to see everything grow dark as sleep claimed him.

"Nino, could you help us out now?" Player asked after Gareth had changed back to normal size, "Please?"

Nino chirped and landed on his shoulder, "Are you safe, nest?"

Player scowled, "Stop calling me that..."

Nino chirped again and flew over to the box the other animals were in, "How do I open this?.."

"Get us out!!! It's getting hard to breath in here!" Vitara shouted from inside the box.

Player called over at Nino, "I can help, if you'd get me out first, Nino. My chains are electrified again. So I haven't been able to break free. Find the button that turns off the elctricity and I can help."

After a few minutes, Nino found a button, pressed it, and flew back over to the animals. Player grinned and pulled his chains free of the wall. He broke off as much of the chains as he could, then opened the container that held the animals. Once that was done, he checked on Bill, "Lesse now...I can break the chains off, but I don't know about the black stuff. What do you think Gareth?" He turned toward Gareth, who was still laying on the ground.

"He's asleep." Razor Jr. said as he nudged Gareth, "Not going to wake up for a while, either."

*All dragons copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Chapter 25

An Out Of Body

Experience

Bill sighed through his nose, "This isn't good. Gareth was in pain when he changed; I saw him wince. What did that blow to the head do to him?" He knew how to help Gareth, but he couldn't move his mouth to speak. All he could do was hope Player would transform into his giant form and take them back to his lab. He watched Player try to puzzle it out, and wanted to shout the answer to him.

"Hmm...what should I do?..WHAT?!!!! YOU TAKE THAT BACK, NINO!!!!!!" Player shouted and glared at the fairy dragon, "That wasn't what I was trying to figure out! I'm trying to decide whether or not to try waking Gareth! Yeah, I know Razor Jr. said he was gonna be asleep for a while! Rrrrrgggghhhhh...ALRIGHT ALREADY!!!" Player growled and climbed up to the opening. There was silence for a few seconds, then Player's enormous hand scooped off the ceiling. He gently placed Gareth and Bill in his left hand, waited for the three animals to get on as well, and walked to Bill's lab. Babe was flying by them right as they reached the lab, with Sarrah watching from a window. Player explained what had happened, then Sarrah and Babe set to work freeing Bill. Bill had to wait while they chipped more and more of the black stuff off of him. When he was free, he took Gareth to one of the many hospital-like rooms they had inside, and started examining him...

Hana couldn't sleep knowing that Gareth had gone out by himself. She had called Kia, only to discover that Player had gone missing as well. She was just about to pick up the phone and call Sarrah when her phone rang. She picked it up, wondering and hoping that it was Kia with good news, "Hello?"

"Hana?" It was Kia. She sounded happy, "Hana, it's Kia. Player's back and he told me what happened. Gareth's at Bill's lab right now. Do you know the way?"

"Not really..."

"Player and I will come over to take you there if you want."

"Please. I'm worried about him..." Hana hung up the phone and waited for Kia to arrive. Fifteen minutes passed, then there was a knock on her door. She opened it and walked with Kia and Player all the way to Bill's lab. Bill looked like he'd been stressed out for the past few days when she saw him, and Sarrah and Babe were no different, "What's wrong with him?"

Bill cleared his throat, "He's in a coma, but it's like nothing I've ever seen before! Come with me; I'll show you what I mean." They walked through a small hallway and entered Gareth's room. He was hooked up to a pulse-reading machine, which beeped once about every forty seconds, "His heart beat is so slow, I'm not sure what to think! He's been like this for as long as he's been here...I've done everything I could to try making his heart rate speed up even a little, but nothing works on him..."

Hana knelt down by Gareth's side with tears falling from her cheeks, "Gareth, it's Hana...Can you hear me?" she whispered, "Gareth, I--please come back to me, Gareth. I love you...you mean so much to me now, so much that I don't think I could bear to see you--to see you die." She gently clasped one of Gareth's hands. Though she didn't hear them leave, she knew she was now alone with Gareth, "Stay with me. What will hapen if you're not here and we had made children? I don't want them to know their father's in a grave...Don't leave me..."

Gareth heard her voice, but in a much different way. There was darkness all around him, much like the first dream he'd had on the island. The island suddenly appeared far below him, and was shrinking fast.

"Gareth, it's Hana...Can you hear me? Gareth, I--please come back to me, Gareth. I love you...you mean so much to me now, so much that I don't think I could bear to see you--to see you die."

Gareth heard Hana's voice and thought longingly of her arms wrapped around him. The island shot back to him, growing larger and larger as he watched. He found himself standing in a room at Bill's lab, much like the one he'd been in when he'd first woken on the island. Hana was kneeling by a bed, alone, holding his hand in hers.

"Stay with me. What will happen if you're not here and we had made children? I don't want them to know their father's in a grave...Don't leave me..."

Gareth smiled where he stood, "Hana, I'll never leave you. You know that."

Hana kept staring at his body on the bed, seeming not to notice where he really was at all. Gareth frowned and waved a hand in front of her face. Either she truly didn't see it, or she was ignoring it to a tremendous degree. A stray thought entered Gareth's head as he wondered what Bill was doing. He gasped as he shot through walls...without damging them at all. Gareth found Bill leaning over a pile of papers. Babe, Sarrah, Kia, and Player were in the room as well.

Bill sighed and leaned back on his chair, "That's it. I can't do anything." there was a mournful look on his face, "I have tried everything I could think of. EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!" He shouted and slammed his fist on the desk in front of him, "He took a huge blow to the head, remember? With the x-rays we took, I found that if he been hit just a fraction harder, or if the bat had hit at almost any different angle, he would have died instantly. It's a wonder he's still alive!"

Sarrah looked troubled as she spoke, "Then--then there's nothing we can do?"

Bill wiped his eyes like he'd been crying, "I've already bandaged the wound and set it back in place, so there are only two options left. No, three. One, he dies, two, we find a way to make his heart beat faster and he lives, or three, we turn him into another Protector."

Everyone, including Gareth, gasped at that remark. Babe was shocked most of all, "You--you can't do that to him!"

"Yes I can. I've studied you for so long now, Babe, I think I could make him like you."

"NO!!! That's not what I meant! He'd never forgive you, Bill. If you do that to him, he would have wanted to die instead. Don't put him through the same torture I have to go through. He'll never be able to hold Hana without fear of hurting her, never be able to have a family...he'll never fit in again! Don't do that to him, Bill. You'd kill him just as badly, maybe worse."

"But I can't get his heart rate up! He's going to die in the next forty-eight hours unless we find a way to wake him up! What can we do?.."

Gareth thought of Hana again and found himself standing in the same room with her once more, "Hana, Hana, listen!"

She kept staring at Gareth's body as if her life depended on it, "Don't leave me, Gareth. Don't leave me..."

Gareth cringed, knowing that this would be the last time he'd look at her. He stepped forward slowly, taking in as much of her as he could. Even in the state he was he felt his passions rise while he looked at her. He gently laid his hand on top of the one clasping his lifeless hand. His hand went right through her, and he kept falling, and falling...

Hana gasped as she felt a sudden chill go right through her. It started at her hand, then seemed to travel up her arm and travel all over her body before settling in her mind. For a moment she felt panicked, but the feeling passed, leaving her to puzzle why she had felt like that. She kept staring at Gareth body, oblivious to the fact that there was now a high-pitched tone sounding in that room. Awareness came to her, and she realized what it was. Shock registered as her hand shot to her mouth; she got up and ran out of the room. Bill and the rest were walking back to her, then running when they saw her hysterical behavior. Bill and Sarrah dashed into Gareth's room, while Kia and Player tried to help her calm down.

Gareth tried to figure out what had hapened. He could feel again, and his hand was over his mouth, covering up enormous sobs of despair, "Where am I?.." He thought as he tried to look around. For some reason, his body would not respond, as if someone else controled it. Gareth tried to slow down the sobbing he felt himself doing, but he couldn't stop that either, "What's wrong with me?.."

"What the--that sounded like Gareth's voice...No!!!! Am I going to hear his voice now too?!!!!"

Gareth jerked at the other voice. It was Hana's!!!!! He slowly understood what had happened, though he had no idea how. He tried to speak calmly to her, but she didn't listen. He tried again, "Hana? Hana, it's really me...Hana, what's wrong? I'm not going to die on you. I promised I'd be careful when I wrote the note. Don't give up on me now..."

Hana's emotions were confused, jumbled together, but he could feel his/her body walking toward his room. He/She knelt down by his body again and clasped his hand tightly. Gareth could feel himself slipping, slowly flowing down Hana's arm and back into his own. Just before he was completely back in his own body, she let go, still unsure, causing him to accidentally leave some of himself left in her. He felt pain from the seperation, but it was a pain that, for some reason, felt perfectly alright.

Gareth blinked a few times before he spoke, "Well, that was odd." it was the smallest whisper he'd ever heard, but Hana, who was right by his head, heard him clearly.

"Gareth?!!!!! Bill, look!"

Shadows moved about above him as new sounds started coming through. He heard the steady, and faster, beating rythm of his heart being sounded on the machine, could hear four other voices cheering outside his room. His eyesight cleared just enough so he could recognize Hana's form, "Hana?.."

Hana's arms squeezed him where he was, "Gareth!.." She started sobbing with relief into his shoulder.

"What's wrong, Hana?..I promised I'd be careful...Don't tell me you thought I'd die on you." He tried to hug her back, but he had no strength left in him. Hana hugged him all the tighter, "Hana, calm down. I told you I'd never leave you. I am going to keep that promise, no matter what."

Bill tried not to stare, but he couldn't find any explination to what had happened, "How did he survive? His heart had stopped altogether, yet now it's functioning as if nothing had happened! I need to study this..." Bill forced his gaze away from the computer readouts in Gareth's room, and looked at Gareth himself. Gareth had no strength whatsoever, but he looked and acted perfectly fine. In fact, he merely looked slightly tired. Bill shook his head and left. The readouts would be printed out by now on a back-up computer he'd wired into all the others. He glanced back when he heard someone else's footsteps following him and smiled at Babe and Sarrah, "Can either of you figure him out?"

Babe laughed, "You know more about him than I do, Bill. I have no idea how he came back."

Sarrah was deep in thought, "Maybe it's one of those things you can't explain? You know, like your 'girlfriend' Bill."

Bill frowned, "I can explain her! She's a spirit that lives inside me!"

Now Sarrah smiled, "But can you explain how she got there? Can you explain where she came from? Where was she living before she found you? Can you even explain why she'll die if she leaves? Face it, Bill. Some questions will never be answered. You've got living proof of that inside you. Gareth's just another one of those questions."

Bill chuckled as he turned back to walking towards his computer. When she was right, she was right.

*All dragons copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Epilogue

Sylo fingered the money he'd gotten from the police station. Aparrantly they'd been after certain people for months, and he'd just told them where to look. He waited an entire day before heading back to his place of employment. As he'd expected, the entire building was deserted. Signs of a huge fight showed up in every room. He got on the elevator and traveled up to the top floor. It was empty as well...Sylo slowly opened the door to his boss' room, and gasped when he saw the figures standing in there. Amy and Peter were off to one side, with Peter growling and rubbing his forehead, while the very anthro he'd wanted to get rid of sat behind the desk he'd always sat behind.

"Good of you to join us, Sylo."

"What? B--but I thought--"

"Thank you for getting rid of all those worthless anthros for me. You did just what I'd hoped you'd do."

"How did--you planned this?!!!!"

He smiled, "All of it. Yes, I wanted Peter on the team. In fact, Amy here was the only one I'd told about my plan. She's still fired since she didn't get Gareth for me, but she got the other half of what I wanted."

"You...you used me that easily?"

"Yes, I did. Unfortunately, because all of my previous anthros have been captured save the chip implant team, myself, and the rest in here, I had to give Peter one of the untested chips." he shifted in his chair to look at Sylo more directly, "Now comes the hard part. Since it is now only you and I officiall in this group, it is up to you and I to bring it back to full strength. Henry, get in here!"

Henry ran into their room, "Yes, sir?"

"The chip implant team needs to start making more right away. We're about to get our largest influx of employees yet."

"Of course sir. Right away!" Henry dashed back out to work with his fellow scientists.

Sylo still had trouble speaking, "But--but I thought that I--that you would--" He sighed, "Who do you want me to find first, sir?"

Amy and Peter sat together, whispering their words of love and not listening to anything else. Peter sighed after Sylo had gone and stared at Amy, "You know we'll have to stop sometime."

Amy kissed him to make him stop speaking. When she let go of his mouth, she spoke, "Yes, I know, but you're the first one I've ever had that I want to keep going with. Don't you dare stop until you absolutely have to."

Peter shivered as she kissed him again, this time making himself ignore the irritating itch on his forehead. He sighed and gave into her urging, walking with her to a private room with a lock so that they could make love undisturbed.

It was less than two months before Gareth and Hana married. Player had been the best man, Kia had been the bridesmaid, and Tammy had gotten to be the ring bearer. They'd planned something special, which had gotten a huge gasp out of the pastor, as well as everyone Hana had invited. Nino had been sitting on the pillow with the rings, and had placed them on Gareth's and Hana's fingers once both had vowed to each other. Hana had made sure all the other positions for the wedding were filled, and they'd enjoyed the entire thing. Almost eight months later, just a few days after she'd been told to expect it, their daughter, Ingrid, was born. At birth, Ingrid had been such a dark green she'd almost been black, and a tiny line of silver adorned her forehead. Gareth and Hana earned enough money to buy their own home with their bodygaurd jobs, and eventually were able to settle down. Gareth smiled at his wife on the day they finished moving in, "Hana, were here! Look at this! Peter hasn't bothered us for two years already, and we haven't had a worry since!"

Hana smiled on her side of the couch. It was dark outside, and Ingrid was fast asleep in her crib, "Speaking of which..."

Gareth's eyes bulged as she leaned over to him. He could already tell what she was trying to do, and there was nothing he could do to stop her, "Oh, stop tempting me, Hana. You know how hard it is for me to resist you..."