Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

---20 days after The Heart destruction---

I stirred slightly... I felt numb all over, so I woke up slightly more only to realise that I must have laid in the same position for too long... I gasped and ripped up the duvet to remember why that would have been!... There they were, all 3 eggs, safe and sound with me still curled around them.

Wrex: "Morning sleepy head..." I gasped again and looked down the bed to the door. There stood Wrex, leaning up against the door frame, crossed armed, smiling at me.

Me: "How long have I been out of it?"

Wrex: "About 14 hours, hardly surprising considering how much energy you must have used yesterday."

Me: "How long have been stood there watching me?"

Wrex: "About 5 or 10 minutes, I've been coming and going regularly to check on you..." He left the door frame and headed around the edge of the bed towards me, it was only then I noticed he had something on his right arm and hand, something black and covering most of his lower forearm and only leaving his fingers on show. "...How are you feeling?" I sat up some more to talk to him better, being mindful if the eggs that were now resting by my thigh.

Me: "I'm fine, what's that on your arm?"

Wrex: "Oh, nothing, don't worry about it." He replied still smiling at me. I switched my vision modes, analysing his arm, essentially x-rayed him as arrived at my side... I could see 3 fractures in his right hand.

Me: "How have you broken your hand in 3 places?!"

Wrex: "How do you know that?"

Me: "Wrex, I can see through walls... Answer the question."

Wrex: "Honestly, don't worry about it, it will heal in a few days."

Me: "Wrex, tell me please."

Wrex: " *Sigh* fine, you did, during the last birth, you gripped my hand so tight you kind of... Erm... crushed it..."

Me: " *Gasp* Wrex! I am sooo sorry!" I reached out to him, grabbed him and pulled him in for a strong hug.

Wrex: "Argh... Honestly it's fine, understandable really. It's just a few fractures and a bit of bruising that's all."

Me: "Wrex it's not fine, it's-" he pulled away from me now kneeling by the edge of the bed, exactly where he had been where I last saw him yesterday.

Wrex: "It is. Seriously, I'm not worried about it, I don't want you to be either. As long as you're ok and so are the little ones, then that's all that matters."

Me: "I'm sorry, I love you."

Wrex: "And I love you too... But if you apologise again, we're gonna have a scrap on our hands...." He smiled at me playfully, "...But come on, how are you feeling? You look good and pretty with it I have to say."

Me: "I do, I feel alright actually, oddly enough, almost like nothing happened, like I want to get back it already."

Wrex "Odd indeed. But you need to rest for a few days at least to recovery."

Me: "Wrex please, don't forget I heal quick. Much quicker than your normal Draconian. I want this done with now."

Wrex: "Baby..." He lifted up the duvet, revealing the eggs, "...these are your- OUR future. Are you sure you want to put them to one side, risk not coming back to them?"

Me: "Wrex, my thoughts are on nothing but them. Yes, they're our future... But unless I stop SkyTech, even with Reikon gone, there won't be much pf a future for them."

Wrex: "There you go with that 'I' thing again. I thought we were in this together?"

Me: "Well I was getting worried you were backing out again just then." I playfully mocked him with a smile.

Wrex: "Where ever you go, I will be there by your side. That will never change my lovely." I leant over and kissed him on the snout,

Me: "Thank you."

Wrex: "Now, are you up for some visitors?"

Me: " 'Visitors'?"

Wrex: "I've had the rest of Fury, Kay and Sora; pestering more or less constantly between the lot of them, asking when they can come and see you."

Me: " *Chuckle* you want to go let them know? I'll get myself decent."

__________

It turns out I wasn't quite as good as I initially thought... I left the eggs in the bed, got up, imagined my normal blue  catsuit in place and went for a walk around the apartment... Turns out I was more stiff than I realised, I ached quite a bit and down below still felt a little tender as I walked. I guess a day off should be enough to recover... There was quick series of knocks at the door, I sighed as was grabbing a fruit juice bottle from the walk in fridge, placed it on the side next to my empty glass and I was about to resign myself to answer the door.

Wrex: "I got it, I got it, don't worry." he said smiling as he rushed past the open plan kitchen near where I was stood. I smiled thankful back at him as I returned to pouring my drink. I watched Wrex, no sooner had Wrex unlocked and opened turned the door handle, it burst open, almost colliding with his face, revealing Jinx more or less leaping into the room.

Jinx: "AHA! WHERE ARE THEY?! ALEX!!" She almost squealed in excitement and belted towards me.

Me: "Whoa! What?!... Oh shit..." She launched herself at me in a strong embrace.

Jinx: "Oh my god! I'm so happy for you! How are you doing?!"

Me: "Feeling a lil bit squished..." I just about mumbled out from her grip, I had barely managed to hold myself upright after she jumped at me.

Jinx: "Come on! Where are they?!" She screeched above me looking wildly around the room, pretty much ignoring my answer.

Me: "Please, let me go and I'll will take you to them." I muffled out, now she took note of that, instantly jumping off of me and back.

I panted as I supported myself on the counter, I hadn't realised she was squeezing me so tight that I hadn't been able to breath properly.

Me: "Jeesh, I haven't seen you this happy or excited in a long time. I'll show them to you, BUT... You have to promise to calm down, ok?" I said to her slowly as she bounced lightly on the spot like a kid that's had too much sugar.

Jinx: " *Sigh* Yeesss, fine, I promise. So can I see them now?, please?!" I mused to myself seeing her in this state, it was good to see a bit of her old self back.

Me: "Come on, but please, go careful, they are fragile ok?" I exaggerated to her as I passed her.

Jinx: "I'll be extra careful, promise."

Me: "Oh, hey guys." In the time that Jinx had distracted me, in had come 42, Sarah, Kay and even Sora, certainly more sedate than Jinx was, but still looked happy to see me, each replying with some form of greeting.

Jinx trotted excited behind me as I lead her into our bedroom. I rounded bed and pulled back the bundle of duvet that was wrapping the eggs, revealing the scaly green and red glowing shells in the center pf the bed. I honestly thought Jinx had melted as she squealed, dropping to her knees at the foot end of the bed and leaning over to them, her head and jaw gently landing a foot away from them, for a split second, I was worried she was going to collapse on them.

Jinx: "Ooh my god! They're soo beautiful! Hey guys! It's your auntie Jinx here! Te he... N'aawwww... Don't they just make your ovaries twitch?!" The others were now making their way into the room now too, surrounding the Jinx and the bed.

Sarah: "Well, I've never seen eggs like that before."

Sora: "Have you ever seen Dragon eggs?"

Sarah: "Well... no, I just wasn't expecting them to look like that."

Me: "What were you expecting? Giant chicken eggs?"

Sarah: "Pretty much actually, yeah."

Jinx: "Shhh! You'll hurt their feelings!..." Her voice then changed to a doting cutesy voice as lightly stroked her fingers over the nearest egg to her, "...She doesn't mean it little ones, she's just jealous and wants her own."

Sarah: "Yeah, maybe one day. I want to see how these turn out first." She mocked. Kay's mouth dropped as he looked at Sarah.

Kay: "But, I thought you said... You didn't want any?"

Sarah: "I might be persuaded." She winked  back at him, which his reply was to start grinning from ear to ear.

Sora: "Well, in any case, I think we can all agree, congratulations are in order, Alex, and of course to you Wrex as well"

Jinx: "Yes!"

42: "Hear here!"

Sora came closer and gave me a much gentler hug than Jinx, so did Sarah, Kay and 42 in turn.

Jinx: "How long before they hatch?" She said still staring at the eggs dreamily with her head still resting on the bed.

Sora: "About another 6 weeks."

Jinx: "What?!..." She replied ripping her head from the bed to look between myself and Sora, I shrugged my shoulders and smiled and Sora merely nodded, "...oooohhhhh!..." She exclaimed flopping her head back on the bed again to look at them.

Sora: "Wrex, might I have a word?" He nodded and started to leave the room.

Jinx: "Have you at least got names for them yet?"

I looked back to Wrex, who turned back at the question, gave me and tilt of the head and shrug as if to 'go ahead' then smiled and left the room entirely.

Me: "Well, the girl we're going to call Star Light, we haven't come up with a name for the boys yet."

I couldn't help but pick out the words, or rather the name from Sora and Wrex's conversation... 'Kneel and Beg'... I quickly  left the room arriving in the living area and Sora abruptly stopped talking as soon as she saw me.

Sora: "I'm not sure this is a conversation you want to listen in on Alex."

Wrex: "It's her home world Sora, she has a right to know." He stuck up for me and corrected her, actually with a hint of a growl.

Me: "Tell me. What's this about Kneel and Beg?"

Sora: " *Sigh* Kneel and Beg was stolen by the Executioners and headed for Earth, right?"

Me: "Yeah, I know that much, go on."

Sora: "I sent 2 ships in pursuit as soon as thery were ready for take off. The Frigate 'Thunder Child' and the Assault Carrier 'Relentless'. An hour ago They reported that they've arrived at Earth..." She went quiet.

Me: "And?!"

Sora: "And they can't find Kneel and Beg."

Me: "What do you mean, they can't find it? How the hell do you lose a mile and a half long ship?!"

Sora: "I have no answer for you. The report shows the found the initial burst of the ship leaving light speed, remaining radiation dump from their plasma core, some 15000 miles above Earth's surface, but after that they can't trace it's energy signatures."

Wrex: "Our ships are war ships Alex, they're designed to be hard to find, unfortunately."

Me: "They need to look for it!"

Sora: "They are and will be sweeping constantly until they do, I can assure you."

Wrex: "At least they're not causing damage."

Me: "Right now maybe, but they will do eventually."

Sora: "Then I suggest you get youselves ready to join them."

Wrex: "Alex need's a couple days to-"

Me: "No Wrex, we're going."

Wrex: "No Alex. I'm putting my foot down this time, please! Just 14 hours ago you finished giving birth and passed out! Please give yourself some time, for the kids, if not for me." I turned to see 42, Jinx, Sarah and Kay peering out the bedroom door at us.

Jinx: "Give yourself a couple of days Alex."

42: "I agree. It's probably best not to throw yourself straight back into it."

Sarah: "Yeah, maybe have a day off at least and a little bit of training before we head off, just to warm up and get you back into it?"

Me: "Alright alright, fiiiinnee!..." I replied begrudgingly... "...1 day off, 1 day training but after that Fury's heading to Earth. Unless anyone else objects?"

__________

A couple of hours later...

Me: "I still don't know why We're doing this." I verbally pushed Wrex, while I carried 1 of the eggs, Wrex carrying the remaining 2 through the palace this evening. I hadn't really gotten an answer so as far as I'm concerned this was just a waste of time.

Wrex: "It's just a check up."

Me: "For what purpose? I can see through their shells, they're alive and healthy."

Wrex: "But no offence sweetie, you're no doctor."

Me: "I could be." I heard him give a slight sigh and watched his shoulders drop ever so slightly,

Wrex: "Do you ever wonder if your mind can cope with all this knowledge you just  obtain by downloading it?"

Me: "Not really. I'm having no issues so far. You're changing the subject, this is really unnecessary, as I said, I can see they're fine. Why are you doubting me?"

Wrex: "Please my lovely, I'm not doubting you, I just want to be sure, a second opinion."

'Pretty much sounded like doubting my opinion to me...' I actually suddenly felt a bit guilty... these were our kids, Wrex had every right to want to know for certain, that they were indeed fine. '...God, what is wrong with me?, I feel like I'm being such a bitch at the moment...' Ever since I found out that Kneel and Beg had disappeared, I've just felt tetchy... On edge, maybe... And poor Wrex was taking the brunt of it. I decided to try and keep my mouth shut after that, even at our hospital wing appointment, I didn't speak unless I was spoken to... It just felt like I had this dark rain cloud hovering over me constantly and bringing me down.

Dr Barrill: "I can confirm, they are 100% healthy, I can even tell you the genders now, if you'd like?"

Me: "There's no need, 2 boys and a girl, I know already, thank you." I stated with an unintentionally dull tone.

Barrill: "I'm afraid you're mistaken. I can tell from the scans, with confidence, 2 girls and 1 boy."

Me: "N-no... You're wrong, I know what they are, I've seen them, I've seen the in the future."

Wrex: "Maybe you misheard them?"

Me: "No, noo! Wrex... I saw them, as clearly as I see you now! The boys were play fighting, you were there! You put the girl, Star Light, in charge of the boys and asked her to break them up!"

Wrex: "Hmm... Doctor, Alex's visions in the future have never lead us wrong before so far, is there any possibility that the scans could be misinterpreted at all?"

Me: "They have to be!"

Barrill: "I'm afraid not, allow me to show you..." She pulled the scans up on the display nearby, all 3 next to each other. Each scan had an egg shaped outline, and inside was kinda like silhouettes of the baby Dragons, but some areas were lighter, some were darker so this shading actually gave a bit of depth and some level of detail. "... it's near impossible to determine a baby's gender from their reproductive organs when they are still unhatched. But the giveaway is the crown of the head..." She pointed at 2 of the images, "...see how their crowns are lighter and flater? This is a tell tale sign of a girl, where as this one..." She moved over to the final image, "...see that his crown is slightly bumpy and darker? They are the early stages of his horn growth."

Me: "This is wrong. How can this be?! I know, I've seen it! Something's wrong!"

Wrex: "There must be a mistake somewhere Doctor? Alex seems so sure about it."

Barrill: "The evidence is clear, this method of identifying genders this early is 99% accurate."

Me: "So there's still 1% then?!"

Barrill: "I am prepared to be proved wrong, indeed. But usually that 1% applies to unclear scans, yours are all quite clear."

My gaze dropped to the floor, trying to work this out...

'Was the future of us in Sarah's safe house a lie? A construct of Reikon's? She even believed there to be 2 boys, 1 girl when she threatened to use them against me... No, that can't be true, the future version of me instructed me to destroy the Heart, Reikon would never have suggested that...'

Wrex: "Err, thank you for your time doctor, I think we need to let this sink in."

Barrill: "Of course." Wrex stroked my uppper arm, bringing me out of my daze and looked up at him from my seat,

Wrex: "Come on my sweet, let's go home." I quietly got to my feet, Wrex gently grabbing 1 egg and passed it to me and again he took the other 2 and lead us out of the doctors room, with me still quiet and deep in thought and shock.

__________

I laid on the bed on my side, the trio of eggs positioned in loose triangle formation in front of me, I found myself staring, day dreaming into the red glow of shell closest to me.

Wrex: "Are you alright my lovely?" He asked, interrupting my day dream

Me: "Hmm?, Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

Wrex: "You seem anything but... What's wrong?" He asked as he got onto the bed behind me and spooned me, his head resting above mine so that we were both staring at the eggs.

Me: "I did what I had to Wrex to stop Reikon, to get the future I saw, because I was told it's the right thing to do, because I wanted it. Now nothing seems right. I keep seeing Reikon in my dreams, despite what everyone keeps telling me dead and gone, she's out there still, I can feel it. Craven shouldn't be alive, that same version of future me in the cell block, the one that I saw had 2 boys and 1 girl, she didn't know what was going on or what was the right thing to do. And now with this situation with our children, up to now I knew what I was meant to do because I was told what to do. The future is heading down an unknown path and I don't know what to do. I don't know what's right and what's wrong."

Wrex: "Welcome back to Draconia with the rest of us mortals. My love, no one should know what to do in their lives, nothing should be set in stone. Life is what we make it, so we must do what we can to make the best of it, for better or worse."

Me: "I just don't get how this is possible."

Wrex: "I wise person I know once said; 'Stop thinking about what's impossible and start making anything possible'." I slowly turned my head up to him, to look him in the eye the best I could.

Me: "That phrase doesn't really work in this situation."

Wrex: "Not quite, I know, but maybe you can apply another phrase to it; 'always expect the unexpected'. I know you were expecting 2 boys and a girl, but look at it this way, we still have 3 perfectly healthy kids here. And they're ours, which makes them even more special, remember that talk we had before? About having to look down the adoption route? Well, now we don't."

Me: "Don't get me wrong, I love this, but I'm just worried this is a sign of something terrible, something has changed and this is just the start."

He sighed and kissed me on the cheek,

Wrex: "Let's just focus on the 'now'..." He reached over me and scooped the eggs with his arm and drew them into me gently, "...and we'll worry about the 'later' when that gets here, alright?" I accepted the eggs from him, even though he repositioned his arm and covered my own, I glanced back up at him once more, giving him a kiss on the jaw this time.

Me: "I do love you. I'm sorry I'm such a bitch at times."

Wrex: "You are mean, yes, and I'm ok with that, because I love you too."

__________

---21 days after The Heart destruction---

Me: "You sure they'll be ok?" I asked Wrex again as we entered the simulator hull with the rest of Fury.

Wrex: "Heh, relax my love, it was your idea to get Kay to egg-sit, but I'm sure he'll be fine."

Me: "Actually he suggested it. Well no, insisted is a better term really."

Sarah: "Kay will be fine, I'm sure. Even I've spoken to him about it and he seemed confident that he could handle it."

Me: "Well, 'SHE' was always good with kids I suppose, we just never got round to having any of our own. That's all I keep telling myself at the moment."

Jinx: "He'll be fine, as much as I adore them, they're just eggs right now, what could possibly go wrong?"

__________*_Craven_*__________

I sat there, shivering and occasionally shaking violently on the floor of my cell, in the corner by my bed. The voices of Alex and Reikon in my head had gone quiet, but were replaced with sounds of a bloody battle, numerous lines of memories I had seen of theirs before, mixed in with my own. I was even becoming unsure of what was my own memories and what was theirs. Clearly Reikon and Alex were fighting though, in my head, but I couldn't see what was going on, like a drawn curtain, I knew it was there but all I had was the deafening sounds of normal explosions, shard energy explosions, the pair screaming in rage and pain and these memories... It was all too much, my head was throbbing from the war ground happening within and it was so painful, it was causing me to cry.

Craven: "Please... PLEASE!... I'm begging you! I need help!"

Male Honour Guard: "The only thing you need is to be quiet already! One more word from you!" He threatened from beneath his helmet.

Female Honour Guard: "Agreed, you are far beyond any help you traitorous scum!"

Craven: "No! Something's wrong! Very wrong! I need Alex down here! She understands the Heart!"

Male Guard: "Alex is away on duty and doesn't have time for your nonsense."

Suddenly it went quiet in my head, deadly silent...

Craven: " *Gasp* ... It's gone quiet."

Female: "Hmph, I wish, you're still talking..."

Craven: "No no, in my head, this isn't good, I promise you! Please! Get Alex in here now! I need to speak to her!" I leaped up and beat the yellow holographic field that separated myself from the outside world, every, pound of my fists shocked me with electrified pulses, but I had to get my point across. A base of staff jabbed it's way through the field and collided hard with my stomach, feeling like it punctured me and knocked the air from me and I fell to my backside against the bed clenching my stomach.

Female Guard: "You need to learn your place and do as instructed, prisoner!" She hissed at me through the field.

Craven/Reikon: "If Alex will not allow me to use this body then I'll have to improvise..."

My body felt like it was being ripped apart, like my skin was being ripped from my enire front causing me to scream in pain. For a brief second as I momentarily opened my eyes, I caught a glimpse, I just about saw red mist filling the space between myself and the Honour Guard standing in front of my cell, who was now also screaming in agony. The other Honour Guards around the cell were all yelling something at me, but I couldn't hear what... Finally the pain mostly stopped, enough for me to see the red mist fully infiltrate and become absorbed by the female Honour Guard that was staggering around the room, clutching her smoking face and whimpering.

Male Guard 2: "Zelana! Are you alright?!" He rushed to her side, this 'Zelana' apparently didn't want his assistance... She batted him away easily with one arm and the male Guard instantly burst into flame, literally, spontaneously combusted into a blaze of rich red fire, completely engulfing him. He screamed in angony as he fell to the floor thrashing until he fell silent and stopped moving entirely in seconds, flames still roaring away.

The remaining 2 guards in the room brought their bladed staffs to bare on 'Zelana'

Male Guard: "Zelana! Stand down! What is the meaning of this?!"

Male Guard 2: "Craven! What have you dpne to her?!"

Zelana removed her helmet, now revealing what was left of her face... It was not natural at all... her scaly skin was non existent, replaced by what looked almost like separate small pale green plates, almost kind of robotic in the way they moved beside one other. Her teeth had grown larger and more triangular, her lips completely gone revealing a more skeletal like structure. Her eyes too were unnatural, they had sunken and flattened into her skull, no pupil of any sort could be seen, all that remained was a glowing ball of purely red fire, contained within the eye socket, the only indication of her line of sight was the direction of where her head was pointed. Which just happened to snap to the the nearest Guard...

She spun swiped her tail blades at the terrified Honour Guard... Honestly, in all my life I have never seen an Honour Guard scared of anything until now. He was frozen in fear, seemingly accepting of his fate. Zelana's tail blades ignited  red before they met him and he to burst into flames the moment the blades sliced through his midriff armour and flesh below with no resistance. Besides the slop of internal organs he made no so as his remains hit the floor. The remaining male Guard took the advantage of her being distracted, swung his staff and buried the blade at the top of it into Zelana's shoulder.

She made a hiss, which originated from gods know where, turned as the blade melted into molten metal and drained from her shoulder. The Guard was stumped, momentarily shocked what had happened to his weapon. Nevertheless, he withdrew the remains of the now blade-less staff, twirled it through the air and went for horizontal swing at Zelana's head. Like lightning, her hand shot up and caught the staff mid swing, violently removed it from his grasp and bent it into a V shape with her bare hands with seemingly no effort before tossing it to the side. Again, the Guard was dumbstruck, but once again, quickly reposed himself and now went for the hand to hand combat option. With ease she side stepped his swings, only at one point his claws scraped against the Honour Guard armour. He hissed in pain after the swipe, which turned into a roar of agony. He held his wrist that he had made the last swipe with, I watched in horror as he continued to scream as his flesh on his finger tips literally melted from bone.

Persistent as any Honour Guard should be, in a final attempt to subdue Zelana he swing himself and tail blades at her, but she merely and easily caught his tail and wretched it at an angle. There was a loud snap and upon her releasing of his tail he screamed again. His tail draped awkwardly in its armour as he stepped backwards, stumbling over it. Zelana now lunged for him grasping both sides of his helmet, her hands glowing red and his crys fell silent. He actually seemed subdued, dazed or maybe sedated, his body swaying slightly in her grip. Then... That voice... A voice I recognised all too well emitted from Zelana, her mouth moved unnaturally and out of sync to the words that were spoken, like poor redubbing...

Reikon: "Ahh... So she's not away, she's here, on the base, makes it easier than having to hunt her down... Wait... Ohhhh... This is too good! She's given birth!..." She gave an evil chuckle as her head rolled on her shoulders before snapping back to the seemingly unconscious Guard, "...I could kill her, I WILL kill her, but I'll break her heart first... Sorry, your usefulness has come to an end..." In a quick burst of strength she crushed the Honour Guard's helmet and therefore his head inside like a can, the joint sounds of the metal collapsing along with the cracking skull inside was was sickening... I had murdered a few people in my time, but they were usually quick, silent and usually relatively painless for the victim... But she... REIKON, made each of these Guards suffer before killing them.

She dropped the remains of the body just as blood started pouring out from the underside of the helmet. Then came to the moment I was too scared to even realise was coming, she turned her head towards me...

__________*_Alex_*___________

Me: "5 seconds to breach, on my mark..." I instructed over the coms channel, everyone was in position to grab a high value target in the next building. We had already wiped out most of the forces on this scenario, a slight hiccup half through raised the alarm, making it a little harder for us, the target was now barricaded along with some his 'top men' in the last building we hadn't searched, so this could be messy for us... But we deal with the hand we've been dealt eh... "...ready?..." I had modified everyone's HUDs slightly, team chat was now easier to access along with their health status, added to one side of the screen next to their fellow team members names. And I had added a quick response mode as well, which they all just used just now... A brief green dot blinked to the left of their name, almost all at the same time, telling me that they had confirmed and were ready. I nodded to Wrex who was crouched in front of me who noded back. 

Me: "...5..." I opened a Jump behind me, "...4...", I stepped backwards through the Jump I had made. I quickly looked at the whisper of the room in the small building the Fury was about to breach... I mentally counted down in my head, knowing that the others wont hear me in the Jump, but knowing as well that they'd keep count... '...3...' I chose my landing point, right behind my target, '...2...' accepted the whisper and stepped towards the exit for the Jump, '...1...' I stepped out and grabbed the target, "...BREACH BREACH!" I called over the com channel.

I stepped forwards pushing the target straight into another Jump, just as the sound of smashing doors, windows, concrete and plasma fire briefly filled my ears. I destined the Jump to arrive back outside the building, which is exactly where we landed. I used the Shard's abilities to make a sort of set of hand cuffs, though they were just bands of the Shard's energy forming an infinity symbol shape around both of his wrists, then added another ring to the back of it to lock his tail into.

Target: "Unhand me!..." The hard light holographic Draconian target demanded as I man handled him. I ignored him though and while keeping a hold of him I turned back to the building that had fallen silent. "...You might as well kill me, I will tell you nothing!..." The hologram still protested in my grip.

Me: "Give it a rest will ya."

Target: "You Vanguard are all use-u-u-u-u-u-useless-ss-ss." His image sputtered and failed, leaving my energy bands to vanish from existence as they fell to the floor. His image wasn't the only thing to fail, the whole map did... As soon as the door to the building opened and Fury was about to emerge, the whole holographic training scenario was in flickered and died out. We all dropped about a foot to the real scenario room floor as the holgraphic floor disappeared from beneath us.

Jinx: "Hey, what's going on?"

A loud explosive rumble could be heard and felt rumble through the room, causing the lights to flicker.

Sarah: "What the hell?"

Jinx: "Alright, this time, honestly, that wasn't me." A siren then wailed throughout the facility so I quickly searched the VBN, the 'Vanguard Battle Net' for all the new info coming in.

Me: "Explosion - unknown cause. Epicenter best assessment... Cell block - Alpha - 14."

Wrex: "Craven's-"

Me: "-Cell..." I finished his sentence in realisation, "... she's trying to escape! Fury, let's rock!" I pelted towards the cell block, which wasn't far away from here, with the rest of the team in tow.

We burst into the stairwell where we ran into 6 Warriors...

Male Warrior: "Tunnel's blocked. Caved in!"

Female Warrior: "We need to find another way around!" They shouted to me as they ran up the stairs between us. I spun around to the team,

Me: "Go, go! Need to find another way."

Wrex: "There aren't many stairwells, too much of a security risk incase of an escapee, but worst case we can come in from the Palace end."

Me: "Sounds good. Let's go." Again we ran back up the stairs, continuing on to reach one of the main corridors that stemmed out from the palace, only to see some rubble much farther down.

Sarah: "Is that...?" I zoomed my vision in as we ran toward it...

Me: "The corridor collapsed into a hole in the ground? Yep." I responded to her.

Wrex: "Would make sense, cell blocks are right beneath here."

We arrived at the hole and peered down,

42: "Judging by the debris around us, this didn't collapse in, this was blown outwards."

Jinx: "You can see right down into the cell block!"

Me: "Just about..." I focused my vision, changing modes and picking out life energies... I could see 4 but very faint, "...We got bodies!" I stepped forward and purposefully slid into the hole, landing at the bottom, the Rest of Fury joining me  my eyes adjusted quick. The only light source in here now was that from the hole above us.

Me: "Holly shit..." I looked at 2 of the bodies; from the remains of the armour they were Honour Guards, both burnt to a crisp but one was also cleaved right in half.

42: "Got a body! Don't know if he's alive!"

I spun to see the 3rd body, partially trapped under a slab of concrete.

Me: "We should be able to lift this between us. Go careful incase it causes further cave in. Jinx, once we lift it, pull him clear." Jinx got into position, grabbing the Guard's leg ready, myself and the other 3 surrounded the slab.

Me: "Ready?, 1 2 3 lift!" The slab raised up, enough for Jinx to pull the Guard free anyway. She gasped, stood bolt up right, dropping his leg.

Jinx: "Oh my god!"

We dropped the slab back down and looked to see what Jinx was mortified by. The head was crushed, not by the concrete, there were scorched handprints in the depression points on either side of the helmet.

Me: "What the hell?..."

A long pained gasp for air from behind startled and drew all our attention, including raised gauntlets. In the blackness of the cell lay a body on the bed, half sitting against the wall, a staff pinning the body to the wall, but it was alive!

Me: "Craven?!..." I stepped towards her, just making out the details on her face within the dark space of her cell. She coughed a spluttered, unable to breath properly, blood bubbling up and drooling from the corner of her jaw, a staff sticking out from the right side of her chest. "...if this wasn't you, then who was it?!" She gasped for breathe again before wheezing out a weak sentence.

Craven: "She... She's going for you kids! Go! Reikon...*gasp*..." That was all I needed to hear, I spun around to the others, wide eyed, even though they couldn't see it of course. I opened a Jump between myself and Craven's bed.

Wrex: "NO ALEX! WAIT FOR US!" I stepped back and through the portal, closing it behind me.

The whisper appeared in my mind of my balcony... I accepted it and stepped out the exit of the Jump... The front of our apartment was completed destroyed, the balcony railing gone and the hole in the wall where the door once were was about twice the size... I stepped in slowly through the rubble. The place was unrecognisable... Everything was smashed, destroyed, burnt or obliterated... It looked as though a bomb had gone of in here. I hastily made my way for the bedroom... This was equally as destroyed.

Kay: "She took them... *Cough cough*..." I heard his voice from my left from under some rubble and debris, I dug him out, enough to see him clearly... He was bleeding bad from his chest, arms and head. I popped my face plates open only,

Me: " 'She'? Who's 'she'? Answer me! Where are my children Kay?!"

Kay: "This monster! This skeleton looking Dragon took them, I'm so sorry Alex, I tried, I really tried, she was too strong, she had powers, like yours! Tossed me around the room like a rag doll! *Cough cough* I'm really sorry Alex, I really did try to save them."

Me: "Where?! Where has she gone?!" My heart was pounding in my chest now.

Kay: "She told me, to tell you this message, she said: 'You take away my world, I take away yours... If you want them back, come find me on Earth'." I growled just before I heard the sound of nearby plasma jets approach as I stood back up.

__________*_Wrex_*__________

Myself and the remains of Fury jetted around the Palace, towards the side where our apartments were situated. Even if I didn't know where apartment was it was obvious... The front of the apartment from the balcony was blown out, debris and rubble littered the balcony and the floor way down below. We swooped down, all 4 of us land almost at the same time, arms raised at the remains of what was mine and Alex's apartment.

Wrex: "ALEX?!..." I made my way in, heading for the logical place, the bedroom. I just caught sight of her, she looked at me her face plates were open, just for a brief second, she looked distraught, tears rolling down her face as she looked at me. Then her face plates slammed shut, hiding any further expression from me and a Jump opened behind her once again.

Wrex: "NO ALEX! DON'T GO AGAIN!" I leapt towards her as she stepped back, almost folding herself in half to try and dodge my grab and just like that, she was gone, leaving me in our completely destroyed bedroom. The bed where our eggs had been left this morning was spread all over and around the room and I started fearing the worst.

Kay: "Something took them, like a skeleton of a Dragon, Alex said the name Reikon. She took them!, She took your children and I am soo sorry Wrex!, I tried!" I looked down at the owner of the voice, Sarah darted into the room upon hearing it too, beating me to Kay's aid.

Sarah: "Shiiittt!, Oh my god Kay, are you ok?" She asked popping open her face plates.

Kay: "I let her down, I let you down Wrex, I am so sorry!"

Wrex: "You had no idea this would happen, no one did! Don't blame yourself please."

Kay: "You should have seen her face Wrex, Alex, she was heartbroken! It's all my fault!"

Sarah: "Jesus... He's bleeding Wrex, bad!" She said turning back to me, looking rather upset herself. Sora's ID started pinging up on my HUD, so I answered.

Sora: "Wrex? What's happened? I hear there was explosion was from your apartment? Is everyone ok?!"

Wrex: "No... We got wounded here."

Sora: "Medical teams are already on their way. What happened?"

Wrex: "Alex... I think she thinks Reikon's back."

Sora: "That's not possible."

Wrex: "Let's face it, it wouldn't be the first time... It gets worse, she took my children Sora." I cut the line off and slowly trudged from the room.

(-Slipknot)