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Description
As the days (or nights) wore on, and Agera's strength grew as the energy from Venus's attack left her, she began to see more and more of what the void were truly like.  And the more she saw, the more she was forced to re-think her opinion of them.

At first, relations between the humans,and dragons, of her military, and the void, were tense.  But as they remained next to the underground village, the more things began to loosen up.  It started with light trading, but after a while, conversations between the races began, and understanding grew.  It helped that these void followed Ronan's family, and so were considered enemies of the state.

Agera also learned more about the Voidwing history.

"That entire name for our race is a misnomer.  Void is a ridiculous name for a race.  We have the Human race and the Drakian race, both of which are unique names.  Our race is called the Rasa in our tongue." Lorand, Ronan's grand-sire told her over dinner.  They would often listen to stories he told them during meals.  His voice was low and gravely, and the old drake could be rather irascible, but all they had to do was get Victoria to give him a big-eyed look and he would do anything for them.  Agera could listen to his voice for hours.

"What does that mean, Rasa?" Agera asked between mouthfuls of mushroom soup.

"Well you're called Drakians, because to your scientists, you're a Europis Draconis.  The Humans are called such because they are Homo Sapiens.  We are called Rasa because we are known as Rasana Versanis." Agera was slightly surprised.

"You have scientists?" Ronan raised an eye ridge at her.

"Your surprised?" Agera thought herself suddenly foolish.

"Only a little."

"We're not the barbarians you make us out to be." Lorand growled at her, "Despite some of the things you might have heard or seen.  We are not barbarians, but we can be savage at times." Agera was confused.

"How so?"

"You'll see." He said, smiling at her, but Victoria piped up.

"It's Sorrowsday coming up in a month!  There'll be food and drinks and dancing!" Lorand frowned at his niece, "Oh.  Sorry."

"Sorrowsday is coming up?" Ronan asked, and Victoria nodded vigorously, "Then you really are in for a treat."

"You have a Sorrowsday as well?" Agera asked quietly.

"It's to commemorate the first bonding of the Rasa." Ronan said solemnly, "For us it is a celebration of life, of another year our race endures, and a very vocal prayer for deliverance."

"All the males look really handsome at the parties." Victoria said.

"Traditionally, there will be food and wine, music and dancing.  But that's an understatement.  The celebration swallows everything else. We go quite crazy."

That evening, before everyone fell asleep, Lorand made a fire in the makeshift wood stove he owned, and told old war stories till Victoria could barely keep her eyes open.  After she had fallen asleep against him, and he against her, Ronan watched the flames, staying awake and thinking, as Agera did.  The night was silent, and Agera could hear nothing moving out side.

"Ronan.  I've been thinking about something recently.  There's something I want to try, but I need your help to pull it off." She said in a whisper.

"Why do you need me?" He asked quietly.

"Because through the bond, you should be able to tell me if my plan is going to work.  Come on." They got up silently and slipped out of the homes back exit.  Lorand watched them go with a half-lidded eye and smiled to himself as the pair disappeared before drifting further into his dreams.

"What's this plan of yours?" Ronan asked quietly.

"We're never gonna beat Avila with just our forces. we need backup plans, we need something we know is going to work, without a shadow of a doubt. What I'm about to do has never been attempted before by my kind, the time dragons. It's not even been atempted by Avila.  It won't take much exertion on my part, but it should take the most precision I've ever attempted before.  If this goes wrong, and I lose control..." She trailed off and shuddered, "You lot should be much more afraid of Avila than you actually are..."

"Agera, what...?"

"Ssh." She stopped inside a small dead end cave, and spread her wings to their full extent.  Ronan backed up slowly, careful not to get to close.  Agera's whole being visibly strained, and then she disappeared with a "POP".

"Agera!" Ronan looked all over the cave, but the female was nowhere to be seen.  Then suddenly, there was a sound like the air being sucked from the room, and the female reappeared in the exact same spot and position she had been in before.

"What the hell just happened?!" Ronan shouted.  Agera sat, visibly tired.

"I haven't done that in a loooooong time.  I just made a time jump." Ronan sat and looked at her seriously.

"You time traveled.  I thought you could just slow down and speed up time?" Ronan said quietly.  He was slightly awestruck.

"Yes, well, there's much to golden dragons that you don't know Ronan.  Now the hard part.  Time jumping in the opposite direction."

"It's a neat trick, but how is it going to help us fight Avila?" Ronan asked.

"If this works, I'll tell you.  If it doesn't...   Well, it won't really matter then..."

The next morning, Victoria woke to find herself alone in front of the smoldering stove.  She looked around the house, but found nothing until she looked out the front window and saw the human and dragon camp packing for travel.  She spotted a flash of gold from Agera's scales, and she darted out to the trio of adults, relief flooding through her.  She had been genuinely worried something might have happened to them.

"Ronan!" Ronan turned from talking to his grand-sire, and Victoria careened into his chest, hugging him close with her wings.

"Come back safe." She whispered into his horn.

"Of course, Viki." He rumbled back.  She released him and turned to Agera, and then suddenly jumped into her chest too.  Agera blushed hard and awkwardly patted the younger female on the head, but Victoria didn't seem to care.

"Promise me you'll both come back alive." Agera stopped and froze and looked at the three void in front of her, three of whom she sincerely cared about, and found that now, they were part of her family too.  She thought about what they still had to face.

And she thought about what had happened last night...

"I promise, Viki." She said quietly.  Ronan threw a wing over her, and she felt strange as they turned from his family and started off back into the tunnels, and the unknown darkness that lay beyond.

"OK, so you took me there to heal..."

"It was more than that..."

"So now where are we going?"

"The Nexus."

"The Nexus?  What the hell is that?"

"These tunnels have a center.  That's the Nexus." Ronan led their haggard group through the twilight with his ever present moss lighting the way.  He had shown the other dragons how to just stick some onto their horns so they could see where they were going, and now a thousand different colors reflected in a thousand different directions, splattering the walls with galaxies of colors.

"You're thinking about last night aren't you?" Agera was silent.  She didn't even acknowledge Ronan until sometime later.

"I'm scared." She said, shivering, "I know what's going to happen, and I hate that.  I hate knowing.  We could just run away you know, the two of us.  No one would ever find us in these tunnels."

"And what of your squadron, or your race.  You're part of an endangered species Agera." She looked back at the group of creatures they were leading.  They had been coming to her as leader ever since they had left the village.

"Besides." They had come to a dead end, but Ronan put his paw on the wall at the end, "You can't leave your people."

And with a mighty push, the wall gave way, and a very large door opened, "And I couldn't imagine leaving mine."

The room beyond almost blinded Agera with the light it gave off.  Crystals spider-webbed the walls and crisscrossed in mid-air, some of the spikes as thick around as tree trunks.  The chamber extended upwards about a half-mile, and all the protruding crystal met in the center, which seemed to glow and pulse with the rhythm of a heartbeat.  Homes, shops, and streets, parks and an amphitheater, everything was carved into the walls, the floor, and the crystal that stretched and intertwined overhead.

The second sense that was assaulted was Agera's hearing.  It was an absurd amount of clamor.  Citizens talking, eating, laughing.  Shop owners hawking their wares to passerby, musicians playing in the street, dragons and void flying overhead.  It was impossible to pick out a single noise from all the others.

The last was smell.  Smells from food, a thousand different spices intermingling and coexisting, warring for dominance.  Spices that made your eyes water or your tongue salivate.

Ronan turned to find Agera looking up at the crystal structure and smiled at her jaw, which was now all but scraping the floor, "Welcome to the Nexus.  Now, we need to find-"

The male turned around to find Agera was nowhere in sight.

"Agera?"

It didn't take long for Agera to work out that this was the most diverse and lively place she had ever been, it was just a collection of mis-matched people and things which didn't quite fit in anywhere else.  All the humans were eccentric, all the void were...  Colorful.  The dragons were too small or too big, or one had a missing wing and one would have five wings.  There were species here she didn't even recognize.  A bipedal group with bird feathers and wings built into their arms glided overhead as she watched a group of what looked to be oversize crabs clicking and whirring away in a shadowy corner.  Everything was strange but it didn't seem to matter.

The strangest bit though was that she seemed normal.  She was always used to being the center of attention where ever she went.  So it was sort of refreshing to give her attention to things where ever she went this time.  She started to notice small details, tiny in fact, things she would have never seen before.  Like how the watchmaker who accosted her had tiny constellations moving in the background of his watches, or how the food stand she stopped at had a spice she had never even heard of, with a flavor the chef referred to as "snorky".

Or the big yellow drake on the other side of the street whose face she recognized.

"Lord Coda Blackwood!  I have a bone to pick with you." She said as she approached him from behind, smiling.  He looked just as she remembered, short and stocky and solid, like someone you could depend on.  And then he partially turned his face, and she could see what had changed.

"Lord?  That title is long dead, female.  You'd be far better off finding a mate elsewhere." He growled quietly at her, the scars and scabs cracking with his words.

"Somehow I doubt Venus would take to kindly to that." Agera said smiling even more.  He whipped his head around at her words and then broke into a huge grin upon seeing her.

"AGERA!" And to her surprise, he scooped her up in his wings, and despite the boils, scaring and pitting along his scales, he was just as soft and fluffy as she remembered him.

"Ancient it must be twenty years since I've seen you!  I've missed you two." He released her and looked around.

"Where's Venus?" He asked suddenly, and then looked at her, "If she were OK, she'd be at your side.  You two were inseparable.  Agera, where's my grand-daughter?"

"Hey, hey, Guin, check it out!" Janus said, holding up a watch with Earth, Titan, and Ganymede on it, "I can see my house from here!"

Guin rolled her eyes and kept walking, watching the crowds carefully, glad that she was no longer as conspicuous as she once thought. Upon arriving in the Nexus, Lowe had dispatched her and Janus on a scout around the city, to hunt down a merchant who would buy human wares.  They knew any supplies they had brought from Earth were extremely valuable, like the M&M's and Snickers in the MREs they had brought.  And so, because they needed supplies and fuel for the trucks and people they had managed to finagle down here, they wanted to barter quickly and quietly.

"Stop fooling around, Janus.  We may be out of danger of outright attack, but anyone can leave and enter as they please, if they know how to get here in the first place.  We aren't out of danger yet." She said, grabbing him by the wing and dragging him along.

"Relax Guin!  Enjoy yourself!  At least buy a beer!  Maybe from that pub over there?" Guin turned and saw the ramshackle building Janus was referring too, The Green Dragon.  It had a nicely painted female dragonelle on the sign, although the eye was like that of a cat rather than a human.

"Fine, one pint." She growled, smiling slightly.  She could use the drink.  Still pulling Janus, she pushed open the door and froze when she spotted a flash of gold.

"Agera?!" It seemed like half the bar turned at her voice, and she grimaced at the sudden attention from everyone.

Agera, however, was indeed at the bar, sharing a pint with a yellow drake

"Guin!" The large male slapped a coin down on the counter.

"Keep the change, Marcus. I assume you two know each other?" He growled as Guin approached her.

“She's my squadron lead, sir. Who're you?”

“Former Guardian Lord Coda, at your service.” Guinevere's eyes went wide.

“It is my pleasure Lord Coda. It's good you found these two, we could really use them right now.” Agera stumbled into Guin's chest, and the light dragonelle caught her commander before she hit the floor.

"You- BUUUUURP" Guin suddenly got a very strong smell of booze, "You look funny.  Stop wobbling around you pussy bitch, you haven't even had any of teh good stuff yet."

"Good God, lead.  How much has she had?" Guin asked Ronan who staggered up.

"More than I can manage." He slurred out, "She's kinda cute when she's drunk."

He suddenly dived under Agera and picked her up, carrying her on his back.

"Tha's a little fast for us, idn' it?" She said, giggling, "Ya only met me a week ago.  What if I went 'n turned out to be 'n awful bitch?"

"Gee, I wonder what that would be like?" Janus said loudly from behind Guin, who was still pulling his wing.

"Come on, I gotta get you lot home."

"I haven't gotten my pint yet Guin."

"Shut up, Janus.  Grab Ronan's wing." He did as told, and she pulled the lot of them from the bar.

"Where's we goin'?" Ronan asked, almost falling.

"Home, for sleep." Guin said flatly.

"But I'm not ti-" And then Agera leaned her head against the back of Ronan's and she snored.

Agera woke some time later feeling like her head was full of needles.  Her tongue was all puffy and her lips were numb.

"Fucking hell." She opened her eyes and found Janus about half an inch from her nose.

"Ah!" Agera's head jerked back and she whacked it on a wooden beam, hard, and despite being half blind with both the hangover and the pain in her horns, she still managed to punch Janus.

"Motherfucking son of a bitch!" Janus swore from behind his paw, "Remind me never to do that again."

"Don't ever do that again, Janus!" Guin walked in at that exact moment, saw Janus clutching his nose, Agera clutching her head, and Ronan still passed out on the floor of the tiny tent.

"Do I have to fucking tie the lot of you down?!  Between you and Venus, my horns are going to fall out!" Agera suddenly sat up.

"Venus is here?" She said sharply.  Guin nodded cautiously, "She arrived a day before you did.  She hasn't said anything until she found out you were in the camp, then she demanded to see you.  The GM though forbids it.  He thinks you two will kill each other."

"And Kiesah?  Pyrrus?"

"Both dead.  Pyrrus died during the fight at Hells Tooth, Kiesah died of her wounds shortly after.  There's an even bigger problem."

"Which is?" Guin swept the entrance flap aside.  Standing there was a young Ice drake who looked utterly out of his depth with the small blood red bundle in his arms.  Nero gave a little hatchling roar at her, and jumped out of his caretakers arm.

"Nero's an orphan now, but even worse was what was left in his parents' will.  They made you guardian."

Agera was stunned.  She didn't know what to say.

"I don't know what to say." Nero had approached her and was now rubbing against her foreleg, "Why did they make me guardian?"

"How should I know?" Guin said.  There were bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, "At the rate we're going right now, we're all likely to be dead in a couple months anyways."

Agera looked down at the young hatchling, and smiled nervously at him.  He smiled gleefully back.  Janus was still rubbing his nose when suddenly, Nero spotted his twitching tail and attacked it, grabbing on with still forming baby teeth.

"I don't know what to do with him." Agera said quietly, "What if I'm a horrible parent."

"You won't be." It was Ronan, who had finally woken, "Watching you with Victoria, I know you won't be."

"Take care of his needs now, and when he gets older, he'll start asking questions.  Answer them to the best of your abilities.  Support what he wants to be with every fiber of your being.  Be gentle, firm, understanding, and encouraging, and he'll turn out all right." Guin said.

Agera glanced at Guinevere, who was watching Nero blissfully scratching at Janus's tail spade.

"You know, don't you?" Guin asked, and Agera nodded, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone else.  That is secret for a reason.  If word got out..."

"You don't have to say it.  I know what would happen."

"Hello?" Agera asked aloud, knocking on the post of the small tent.  The flap cracked open and Vienzo looked out.

"Lead." He also had bags under his eyes.

"Enzo, I'm your friend, you don't have to call me that."

The male sighed and nodded, "I'm sorry, Agera.  It isn't a good idea for you to -"

"I never said it was a good idea.  But I want to see her." Vienzo paused, then drew the flap back further.

Venus stood there in the back of the tent, next to the sleeping mat her and her mate shared, looking into an ornate floor length mirror.  She glanced at Agera's reflection, and then frowned at Nero who was nestled in between Agera's wings.

"Dear, can you give us a minute?"

"Venus, I don't think..."

"I didn't ask you to think, I asked you to give us a minute.  Stay right outside the entrance if your that nervous.  I'll call you if I need you." Vienzo frowned at his mate, but withdrew from the tent anyways.

"Where did you get that?" Agera asked, nodding at the mirror.

"I bartered for it from the hybrids here.  I was getting sick at not knowing what I looked like." She had indeed improved her appearance, but no amount of home made make-up could hide the red eyes from her tears.

"I see you got the news then?" Venus said quietly, watching Nero sleep on her friends back.

"Yeah."

"What do you think?"

"I think that Pyrrus and Kiesah were crazy to trust me..."

"So was I..." Venus said quietly.

"Venus..."

"Shut.  Up.  The only reason I'm not trying to kill you again is because it was wrong." She glanced at the charred blackened scales on Agera's chest, "I shouldn't have done that."

The small dragonelle shivered, "But don't think for one moment that means we're 'bfs' or some shit like that.  One way or another, you are responsible in some way for Kiesah and Pyrrus's death.  And I'm so unspeakably pissed at you about it right now.

You don't deserve to be Nero's guardian.  You don't deserve to think of Kiesah and Pyrrus fondly.  You don't even deserve to be in my tent right now.  So get out."

Agera's mouth was hanging open.  Again she didn't know what to say.  She turned quietly and opened the flap.

"And Agera?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay away from me and Vienzo." Agera walked outside quietly, eyes down.  Ronan was there, along with Guin.  Ronan looked like he was about to be attacked.  Vienzo turned quietly.

"Sorry." He whispered as he passed.  Agera nodded quietly to him, not meeting his eyes.

As soon as the flap closed, Agera exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding, her wings drooping.  Ronan approached and folded his wings around her and she cried quietly into his shoulder.  It felt good to cry though.  Like she was letting stress out slowly but surely.

"We won't be able to count on Venus or Vienzo anymore." Agera said blearily, wiping her eyes on the back of her paw, "We're going to need more team members.  Any ideas?"

"Actually, I do have some ideas.  What about that one young dragonelle and her new mate, Romeo one and Theta six, the ones from Berlin. Remember?"

"Diablo and Italia.  I remember.  They're still both with us?" Agera asked.  Doing things, especially military things, helped with the pain. If she could end this war, without getting anyone else killed, then she might have a chance of regaining Venus as a friend.  By now though, she thought she had a better chance of beating Avila than getting Venus back as a surrogate sister.

"Thank God." Lowe growled at them as Agera entered the command tent, "Where the devil have you two been?  Do you know how hard it was for me to convince your hierarchy here that by your orders Ronan, we were allowed to stay here?"

"I'll bet you were in talks for a fortnight." Ronan said quietly, "Which clan gave you the most trouble?"

"Clan Oda.  They claimed I'd try and take over the Nexus."

"Predictable."

"I apologize for my absence, sir, but as you well know, I was injured." The GM nodded.

"Venus is free to go her own way now.  If she wishes to remain with us, she will be confined to quarters.  This the end of her work in the military." He said quietly, "We had a military tribunal while you were missing.  She has been court marshaled."

Agera looked at him seriously, "I doubt that will stop her from getting vengeance for her foster parents."

"Does that include vengeance on you as well?" Lowe asked, "I think it best if you steer clear of her and her mate."

"Too late.  She's already been to see them." Guin said, "It went better than I expected."

"Dammit Krigsman, are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

"With all due respect, sir, she might as well be my sister.  I'm pissed off at her, but I still love her." Agera retorted, "I was going to apologize, but she doesn't want my apologies.  She wants her parents.  And whether I wanted to or not, I caused their deaths.  I'm as much responsible for their deaths as Avila is."

The Grand Marshal frowned at her but nodded, "I suppose I shouldn't have expected any less from either of you.  I just hope you know what you're doing."

"I doubt it." Agera said under her breath.

In the following two weeks, Agera quickly discovered that the Nexus was a central point for the weird and wondrous.  It housed some of the most exotic and crazy things one could imagine.  Ronan quickly took her on a grand tour.  The first day he took her to the mighty amphitheater, which had been carved out of the crystal at the center of the Nexus.  It housed every event one could think of, from political events to rock concerts, religious ceremonies to holiday celebrations.  When they went there was a foods festival going.  Agera's stomach growled at all the spices she could smell.

"It's called a Zexro.  It's a delicacy from the Southern Hemisphere.  Spicy and tangy meat from the Raga monster." He said handing her a shish-ka-bob of purple meat dripping with red juices.  It was delicious.

"Har maneh spee shes ah hee?" Agera asked with a mouthful of meat.

"Beg pardon?" Ronan said smiling.

Agera force swallowed the mouthful of food, "How many species are here?"

"I've lost count.  We get visitors from other worlds all the time.  Mainly refugees or the lost.  Nobody comes to our world on purpose, they stumble on it.  But we take anybody, anyone who can contribute."

Agera eyed a small group of furry, chittering bipeds as they passed them going in the opposite direction, "It's amazing how diverse the place is.

They sat at the top of the tiered seats in the theater, where they could look out over the rest of the chamber, and ate their kabobs in silence.  Agera watched the crowd carefully as she thought on recent events.

"Don't." Ronan said quietly, looking up.

"Dammit, Ronan!  Can't I have a moments thought to myself?" He frowned at her, and she gave him a frustrated sigh, "This whole 'bonding' thing is driving me up the wall.  I don't like how you'll do things spontaneously, without any warning, and I don't like how you're always reading my thoughts."

"I'm not reading your thoughts."

"I - you're not?"

"No." He said casually, "I'm reading you from your face.  You show everything on your face, all your emotions out there in the open." He smiled suddenly.  It was a weird smile.  A devious smile.

"And I mean I can read ALL your thoughts on your face."

Agera couldn't have blushed any harder if she had tried.  She looked down, breaking eye contact with him, but he brought a paw up under her chin.

"You've had more on your mind than just the war and Venus, haven't you?  You get a different look in those beautiful eyes whenever you think I can't see you." Agera wanted to look anywhere else but back into his face.  She ended up staring him right back down, looking right into the depths of his eyes.  They weren't just gray, they were the same color as polished steel.  He had a fire in them that told her so much about the male who held her jaw now.  He leaned in closer and her heart stopped.

"You have something on your nose.  Did you know?" He lick her gently on the very tip of her muzzle, and then licked his lips, "Spicy."

He grabbed the trash as he released her head and left her sitting there, motionless, astounded.

"Dammit, Ronan."

Description
As the days (or nights) wore on, and Agera's strength grew as the energy from Venus's attack left her, she began to see more and more of what the void were truly like.  And the more she saw, the more she was forced to re-think her opinion of them.

At first, relations between the humans,and dragons, of her military, and the void, were tense.  But as they remained next to the underground village, the more things began to loosen up.  It started with light trading, but after a while, conversations between the races began, and understanding grew.  It helped that these void followed Ronan's family, and so were considered enemies of the state.

Agera also learned more about the Voidwing history.

"That entire name for our race is a misnomer.  Void is a ridiculous name for a race.  We have the Human race and the Drakian race, both of which are unique names.  Our race is called the Rasa in our tongue." Lorand, Ronan's grand-sire told her over dinner.  They would often listen to stories he told them during meals.  His voice was low and gravely, and the old drake could be rather irascible, but all they had to do was get Victoria to give him a big-eyed look and he would do anything for them.  Agera could listen to his voice for hours.

"What does that mean, Rasa?" Agera asked between mouthfuls of mushroom soup.

"Well you're called Drakians, because to your scientists, you're a Europis Draconis.  The Humans are called such because they are Homo Sapiens.  We are called Rasa because we are known as Rasana Versanis." Agera was slightly surprised.

"You have scientists?" Ronan raised an eye ridge at her.

"Your surprised?" Agera thought herself suddenly foolish.

"Only a little."

"We're not the barbarians you make us out to be." Lorand growled at her, "Despite some of the things you might have heard or seen.  We are not barbarians, but we can be savage at times." Agera was confused.

"How so?"

"You'll see." He said, smiling at her, but Victoria piped up.

"It's Sorrowsday coming up in a month!  There'll be food and drinks and dancing!" Lorand frowned at his niece, "Oh.  Sorry."

"Sorrowsday is coming up?" Ronan asked, and Victoria nodded vigorously, "Then you really are in for a treat."

"You have a Sorrowsday as well?" Agera asked quietly.

"It's to commemorate the first bonding of the Rasa." Ronan said solemnly, "For us it is a celebration of life, of another year our race endures, and a very vocal prayer for deliverance."

"All the males look really handsome at the parties." Victoria said.

"Traditionally, there will be food and wine, music and dancing.  But that's an understatement.  The celebration swallows everything else. We go quite crazy."

That evening, before everyone fell asleep, Lorand made a fire in the makeshift wood stove he owned, and told old war stories till Victoria could barely keep her eyes open.  After she had fallen asleep against him, and he against her, Ronan watched the flames, staying awake and thinking, as Agera did.  The night was silent, and Agera could hear nothing moving out side.

"Ronan.  I've been thinking about something recently.  There's something I want to try, but I need your help to pull it off." She said in a whisper.

"Why do you need me?" He asked quietly.

"Because through the bond, you should be able to tell me if my plan is going to work.  Come on." They got up silently and slipped out of the homes back exit.  Lorand watched them go with a half-lidded eye and smiled to himself as the pair disappeared before drifting further into his dreams.

"What's this plan of yours?" Ronan asked quietly.

"We're never gonna beat Avila with just our forces. we need backup plans, we need something we know is going to work, without a shadow of a doubt. What I'm about to do has never been attempted before by my kind, the time dragons. It's not even been atempted by Avila.  It won't take much exertion on my part, but it should take the most precision I've ever attempted before.  If this goes wrong, and I lose control..." She trailed off and shuddered, "You lot should be much more afraid of Avila than you actually are..."

"Agera, what...?"

"Ssh." She stopped inside a small dead end cave, and spread her wings to their full extent.  Ronan backed up slowly, careful not to get to close.  Agera's whole being visibly strained, and then she disappeared with a "POP".

"Agera!" Ronan looked all over the cave, but the female was nowhere to be seen.  Then suddenly, there was a sound like the air being sucked from the room, and the female reappeared in the exact same spot and position she had been in before.

"What the hell just happened?!" Ronan shouted.  Agera sat, visibly tired.

"I haven't done that in a loooooong time.  I just made a time jump." Ronan sat and looked at her seriously.

"You time traveled.  I thought you could just slow down and speed up time?" Ronan said quietly.  He was slightly awestruck.

"Yes, well, there's much to golden dragons that you don't know Ronan.  Now the hard part.  Time jumping in the opposite direction."

"It's a neat trick, but how is it going to help us fight Avila?" Ronan asked.

"If this works, I'll tell you.  If it doesn't...   Well, it won't really matter then..."

The next morning, Victoria woke to find herself alone in front of the smoldering stove.  She looked around the house, but found nothing until she looked out the front window and saw the human and dragon camp packing for travel.  She spotted a flash of gold from Agera's scales, and she darted out to the trio of adults, relief flooding through her.  She had been genuinely worried something might have happened to them.

"Ronan!" Ronan turned from talking to his grand-sire, and Victoria careened into his chest, hugging him close with her wings.

"Come back safe." She whispered into his horn.

"Of course, Viki." He rumbled back.  She released him and turned to Agera, and then suddenly jumped into her chest too.  Agera blushed hard and awkwardly patted the younger female on the head, but Victoria didn't seem to care.

"Promise me you'll both come back alive." Agera stopped and froze and looked at the three void in front of her, three of whom she sincerely cared about, and found that now, they were part of her family too.  She thought about what they still had to face.

And she thought about what had happened last night...

"I promise, Viki." She said quietly.  Ronan threw a wing over her, and she felt strange as they turned from his family and started off back into the tunnels, and the unknown darkness that lay beyond.

"OK, so you took me there to heal..."

"It was more than that..."

"So now where are we going?"

"The Nexus."

"The Nexus?  What the hell is that?"

"These tunnels have a center.  That's the Nexus." Ronan led their haggard group through the twilight with his ever present moss lighting the way.  He had shown the other dragons how to just stick some onto their horns so they could see where they were going, and now a thousand different colors reflected in a thousand different directions, splattering the walls with galaxies of colors.

"You're thinking about last night aren't you?" Agera was silent.  She didn't even acknowledge Ronan until sometime later.

"I'm scared." She said, shivering, "I know what's going to happen, and I hate that.  I hate knowing.  We could just run away you know, the two of us.  No one would ever find us in these tunnels."

"And what of your squadron, or your race.  You're part of an endangered species Agera." She looked back at the group of creatures they were leading.  They had been coming to her as leader ever since they had left the village.

"Besides." They had come to a dead end, but Ronan put his paw on the wall at the end, "You can't leave your people."

And with a mighty push, the wall gave way, and a very large door opened, "And I couldn't imagine leaving mine."

The room beyond almost blinded Agera with the light it gave off.  Crystals spider-webbed the walls and crisscrossed in mid-air, some of the spikes as thick around as tree trunks.  The chamber extended upwards about a half-mile, and all the protruding crystal met in the center, which seemed to glow and pulse with the rhythm of a heartbeat.  Homes, shops, and streets, parks and an amphitheater, everything was carved into the walls, the floor, and the crystal that stretched and intertwined overhead.

The second sense that was assaulted was Agera's hearing.  It was an absurd amount of clamor.  Citizens talking, eating, laughing.  Shop owners hawking their wares to passerby, musicians playing in the street, dragons and void flying overhead.  It was impossible to pick out a single noise from all the others.

The last was smell.  Smells from food, a thousand different spices intermingling and coexisting, warring for dominance.  Spices that made your eyes water or your tongue salivate.

Ronan turned to find Agera looking up at the crystal structure and smiled at her jaw, which was now all but scraping the floor, "Welcome to the Nexus.  Now, we need to find-"

The male turned around to find Agera was nowhere in sight.

"Agera?"

It didn't take long for Agera to work out that this was the most diverse and lively place she had ever been, it was just a collection of mis-matched people and things which didn't quite fit in anywhere else.  All the humans were eccentric, all the void were...  Colorful.  The dragons were too small or too big, or one had a missing wing and one would have five wings.  There were species here she didn't even recognize.  A bipedal group with bird feathers and wings built into their arms glided overhead as she watched a group of what looked to be oversize crabs clicking and whirring away in a shadowy corner.  Everything was strange but it didn't seem to matter.

The strangest bit though was that she seemed normal.  She was always used to being the center of attention where ever she went.  So it was sort of refreshing to give her attention to things where ever she went this time.  She started to notice small details, tiny in fact, things she would have never seen before.  Like how the watchmaker who accosted her had tiny constellations moving in the background of his watches, or how the food stand she stopped at had a spice she had never even heard of, with a flavor the chef referred to as "snorky".

Or the big yellow drake on the other side of the street whose face she recognized.

"Lord Coda Blackwood!  I have a bone to pick with you." She said as she approached him from behind, smiling.  He looked just as she remembered, short and stocky and solid, like someone you could depend on.  And then he partially turned his face, and she could see what had changed.

"Lord?  That title is long dead, female.  You'd be far better off finding a mate elsewhere." He growled quietly at her, the scars and scabs cracking with his words.

"Somehow I doubt Venus would take to kindly to that." Agera said smiling even more.  He whipped his head around at her words and then broke into a huge grin upon seeing her.

"AGERA!" And to her surprise, he scooped her up in his wings, and despite the boils, scaring and pitting along his scales, he was just as soft and fluffy as she remembered him.

"Ancient it must be twenty years since I've seen you!  I've missed you two." He released her and looked around.

"Where's Venus?" He asked suddenly, and then looked at her, "If she were OK, she'd be at your side.  You two were inseparable.  Agera, where's my grand-daughter?"

"Hey, hey, Guin, check it out!" Janus said, holding up a watch with Earth, Titan, and Ganymede on it, "I can see my house from here!"

Guin rolled her eyes and kept walking, watching the crowds carefully, glad that she was no longer as conspicuous as she once thought. Upon arriving in the Nexus, Lowe had dispatched her and Janus on a scout around the city, to hunt down a merchant who would buy human wares.  They knew any supplies they had brought from Earth were extremely valuable, like the M&M's and Snickers in the MREs they had brought.  And so, because they needed supplies and fuel for the trucks and people they had managed to finagle down here, they wanted to barter quickly and quietly.

"Stop fooling around, Janus.  We may be out of danger of outright attack, but anyone can leave and enter as they please, if they know how to get here in the first place.  We aren't out of danger yet." She said, grabbing him by the wing and dragging him along.

"Relax Guin!  Enjoy yourself!  At least buy a beer!  Maybe from that pub over there?" Guin turned and saw the ramshackle building Janus was referring too, The Green Dragon.  It had a nicely painted female dragonelle on the sign, although the eye was like that of a cat rather than a human.

"Fine, one pint." She growled, smiling slightly.  She could use the drink.  Still pulling Janus, she pushed open the door and froze when she spotted a flash of gold.

"Agera?!" It seemed like half the bar turned at her voice, and she grimaced at the sudden attention from everyone.

Agera, however, was indeed at the bar, sharing a pint with a yellow drake

"Guin!" The large male slapped a coin down on the counter.

"Keep the change, Marcus. I assume you two know each other?" He growled as Guin approached her.

“She's my squadron lead, sir. Who're you?”

“Former Guardian Lord Coda, at your service.” Guinevere's eyes went wide.

“It is my pleasure Lord Coda. It's good you found these two, we could really use them right now.” Agera stumbled into Guin's chest, and the light dragonelle caught her commander before she hit the floor.

"You- BUUUUURP" Guin suddenly got a very strong smell of booze, "You look funny.  Stop wobbling around you pussy bitch, you haven't even had any of teh good stuff yet."

"Good God, lead.  How much has she had?" Guin asked Ronan who staggered up.

"More than I can manage." He slurred out, "She's kinda cute when she's drunk."

He suddenly dived under Agera and picked her up, carrying her on his back.

"Tha's a little fast for us, idn' it?" She said, giggling, "Ya only met me a week ago.  What if I went 'n turned out to be 'n awful bitch?"

"Gee, I wonder what that would be like?" Janus said loudly from behind Guin, who was still pulling his wing.

"Come on, I gotta get you lot home."

"I haven't gotten my pint yet Guin."

"Shut up, Janus.  Grab Ronan's wing." He did as told, and she pulled the lot of them from the bar.

"Where's we goin'?" Ronan asked, almost falling.

"Home, for sleep." Guin said flatly.

"But I'm not ti-" And then Agera leaned her head against the back of Ronan's and she snored.

Agera woke some time later feeling like her head was full of needles.  Her tongue was all puffy and her lips were numb.

"Fucking hell." She opened her eyes and found Janus about half an inch from her nose.

"Ah!" Agera's head jerked back and she whacked it on a wooden beam, hard, and despite being half blind with both the hangover and the pain in her horns, she still managed to punch Janus.

"Motherfucking son of a bitch!" Janus swore from behind his paw, "Remind me never to do that again."

"Don't ever do that again, Janus!" Guin walked in at that exact moment, saw Janus clutching his nose, Agera clutching her head, and Ronan still passed out on the floor of the tiny tent.

"Do I have to fucking tie the lot of you down?!  Between you and Venus, my horns are going to fall out!" Agera suddenly sat up.

"Venus is here?" She said sharply.  Guin nodded cautiously, "She arrived a day before you did.  She hasn't said anything until she found out you were in the camp, then she demanded to see you.  The GM though forbids it.  He thinks you two will kill each other."

"And Kiesah?  Pyrrus?"

"Both dead.  Pyrrus died during the fight at Hells Tooth, Kiesah died of her wounds shortly after.  There's an even bigger problem."

"Which is?" Guin swept the entrance flap aside.  Standing there was a young Ice drake who looked utterly out of his depth with the small blood red bundle in his arms.  Nero gave a little hatchling roar at her, and jumped out of his caretakers arm.

"Nero's an orphan now, but even worse was what was left in his parents' will.  They made you guardian."

Agera was stunned.  She didn't know what to say.

"I don't know what to say." Nero had approached her and was now rubbing against her foreleg, "Why did they make me guardian?"

"How should I know?" Guin said.  There were bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, "At the rate we're going right now, we're all likely to be dead in a couple months anyways."

Agera looked down at the young hatchling, and smiled nervously at him.  He smiled gleefully back.  Janus was still rubbing his nose when suddenly, Nero spotted his twitching tail and attacked it, grabbing on with still forming baby teeth.

"I don't know what to do with him." Agera said quietly, "What if I'm a horrible parent."

"You won't be." It was Ronan, who had finally woken, "Watching you with Victoria, I know you won't be."

"Take care of his needs now, and when he gets older, he'll start asking questions.  Answer them to the best of your abilities.  Support what he wants to be with every fiber of your being.  Be gentle, firm, understanding, and encouraging, and he'll turn out all right." Guin said.

Agera glanced at Guinevere, who was watching Nero blissfully scratching at Janus's tail spade.

"You know, don't you?" Guin asked, and Agera nodded, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone else.  That is secret for a reason.  If word got out..."

"You don't have to say it.  I know what would happen."

"Hello?" Agera asked aloud, knocking on the post of the small tent.  The flap cracked open and Vienzo looked out.

"Lead." He also had bags under his eyes.

"Enzo, I'm your friend, you don't have to call me that."

The male sighed and nodded, "I'm sorry, Agera.  It isn't a good idea for you to -"

"I never said it was a good idea.  But I want to see her." Vienzo paused, then drew the flap back further.

Venus stood there in the back of the tent, next to the sleeping mat her and her mate shared, looking into an ornate floor length mirror.  She glanced at Agera's reflection, and then frowned at Nero who was nestled in between Agera's wings.

"Dear, can you give us a minute?"

"Venus, I don't think..."

"I didn't ask you to think, I asked you to give us a minute.  Stay right outside the entrance if your that nervous.  I'll call you if I need you." Vienzo frowned at his mate, but withdrew from the tent anyways.

"Where did you get that?" Agera asked, nodding at the mirror.

"I bartered for it from the hybrids here.  I was getting sick at not knowing what I looked like." She had indeed improved her appearance, but no amount of home made make-up could hide the red eyes from her tears.

"I see you got the news then?" Venus said quietly, watching Nero sleep on her friends back.

"Yeah."

"What do you think?"

"I think that Pyrrus and Kiesah were crazy to trust me..."

"So was I..." Venus said quietly.

"Venus..."

"Shut.  Up.  The only reason I'm not trying to kill you again is because it was wrong." She glanced at the charred blackened scales on Agera's chest, "I shouldn't have done that."

The small dragonelle shivered, "But don't think for one moment that means we're 'bfs' or some shit like that.  One way or another, you are responsible in some way for Kiesah and Pyrrus's death.  And I'm so unspeakably pissed at you about it right now.

You don't deserve to be Nero's guardian.  You don't deserve to think of Kiesah and Pyrrus fondly.  You don't even deserve to be in my tent right now.  So get out."

Agera's mouth was hanging open.  Again she didn't know what to say.  She turned quietly and opened the flap.

"And Agera?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay away from me and Vienzo." Agera walked outside quietly, eyes down.  Ronan was there, along with Guin.  Ronan looked like he was about to be attacked.  Vienzo turned quietly.

"Sorry." He whispered as he passed.  Agera nodded quietly to him, not meeting his eyes.

As soon as the flap closed, Agera exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding, her wings drooping.  Ronan approached and folded his wings around her and she cried quietly into his shoulder.  It felt good to cry though.  Like she was letting stress out slowly but surely.

"We won't be able to count on Venus or Vienzo anymore." Agera said blearily, wiping her eyes on the back of her paw, "We're going to need more team members.  Any ideas?"

"Actually, I do have some ideas.  What about that one young dragonelle and her new mate, Romeo one and Theta six, the ones from Berlin. Remember?"

"Diablo and Italia.  I remember.  They're still both with us?" Agera asked.  Doing things, especially military things, helped with the pain. If she could end this war, without getting anyone else killed, then she might have a chance of regaining Venus as a friend.  By now though, she thought she had a better chance of beating Avila than getting Venus back as a surrogate sister.

"Thank God." Lowe growled at them as Agera entered the command tent, "Where the devil have you two been?  Do you know how hard it was for me to convince your hierarchy here that by your orders Ronan, we were allowed to stay here?"

"I'll bet you were in talks for a fortnight." Ronan said quietly, "Which clan gave you the most trouble?"

"Clan Oda.  They claimed I'd try and take over the Nexus."

"Predictable."

"I apologize for my absence, sir, but as you well know, I was injured." The GM nodded.

"Venus is free to go her own way now.  If she wishes to remain with us, she will be confined to quarters.  This the end of her work in the military." He said quietly, "We had a military tribunal while you were missing.  She has been court marshaled."

Agera looked at him seriously, "I doubt that will stop her from getting vengeance for her foster parents."

"Does that include vengeance on you as well?" Lowe asked, "I think it best if you steer clear of her and her mate."

"Too late.  She's already been to see them." Guin said, "It went better than I expected."

"Dammit Krigsman, are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

"With all due respect, sir, she might as well be my sister.  I'm pissed off at her, but I still love her." Agera retorted, "I was going to apologize, but she doesn't want my apologies.  She wants her parents.  And whether I wanted to or not, I caused their deaths.  I'm as much responsible for their deaths as Avila is."

The Grand Marshal frowned at her but nodded, "I suppose I shouldn't have expected any less from either of you.  I just hope you know what you're doing."

"I doubt it." Agera said under her breath.

In the following two weeks, Agera quickly discovered that the Nexus was a central point for the weird and wondrous.  It housed some of the most exotic and crazy things one could imagine.  Ronan quickly took her on a grand tour.  The first day he took her to the mighty amphitheater, which had been carved out of the crystal at the center of the Nexus.  It housed every event one could think of, from political events to rock concerts, religious ceremonies to holiday celebrations.  When they went there was a foods festival going.  Agera's stomach growled at all the spices she could smell.

"It's called a Zexro.  It's a delicacy from the Southern Hemisphere.  Spicy and tangy meat from the Raga monster." He said handing her a shish-ka-bob of purple meat dripping with red juices.  It was delicious.

"Har maneh spee shes ah hee?" Agera asked with a mouthful of meat.

"Beg pardon?" Ronan said smiling.

Agera force swallowed the mouthful of food, "How many species are here?"

"I've lost count.  We get visitors from other worlds all the time.  Mainly refugees or the lost.  Nobody comes to our world on purpose, they stumble on it.  But we take anybody, anyone who can contribute."

Agera eyed a small group of furry, chittering bipeds as they passed them going in the opposite direction, "It's amazing how diverse the place is.

They sat at the top of the tiered seats in the theater, where they could look out over the rest of the chamber, and ate their kabobs in silence.  Agera watched the crowd carefully as she thought on recent events.

"Don't." Ronan said quietly, looking up.

"Dammit, Ronan!  Can't I have a moments thought to myself?" He frowned at her, and she gave him a frustrated sigh, "This whole 'bonding' thing is driving me up the wall.  I don't like how you'll do things spontaneously, without any warning, and I don't like how you're always reading my thoughts."

"I'm not reading your thoughts."

"I - you're not?"

"No." He said casually, "I'm reading you from your face.  You show everything on your face, all your emotions out there in the open." He smiled suddenly.  It was a weird smile.  A devious smile.

"And I mean I can read ALL your thoughts on your face."

Agera couldn't have blushed any harder if she had tried.  She looked down, breaking eye contact with him, but he brought a paw up under her chin.

"You've had more on your mind than just the war and Venus, haven't you?  You get a different look in those beautiful eyes whenever you think I can't see you." Agera wanted to look anywhere else but back into his face.  She ended up staring him right back down, looking right into the depths of his eyes.  They weren't just gray, they were the same color as polished steel.  He had a fire in them that told her so much about the male who held her jaw now.  He leaned in closer and her heart stopped.

"You have something on your nose.  Did you know?" He lick her gently on the very tip of her muzzle, and then licked his lips, "Spicy."

He grabbed the trash as he released her head and left her sitting there, motionless, astounded.

"Dammit, Ronan."