The Legend of the Lathos Paidi
Title: The Legend of the Lathos Paidi
Author(s): kianna_leigh
Artist(s): adobejunkie
Fandom(s): Original
Characters/Pairings: Original Characters
Rating: PG
Word Count: 12497
Warnings/Spoilers: Mild Violence
Summary: “The Structure is like a wall or a molecule. Each of us has a place in it, like bricks in that wall or atoms in a molecule. If we don't all keep our place, the whole thing comes down.” That’s what he’d been told. It was a good thing he’d never believed it. Just like everything else, it’d been a lie.
Author’s Notes:
Link(s) to Story Master Post/Chapters: Chapter 1 | Chapter Two
Link(s) to Art Master Post(s): http://adobejunkie.livejournal.com/12147.html
Prologue
With a terrible bang, they crashed the through the top layers of stone and out into the afternoon sunlight. Kathryn gasped and instinctually untucked herself from the man's embrace. The wind whipped her brown hair viciously around her face as he turned to get a lung full of fresh air. She was rising before she could close her mouth, shooting up into the sapphire sky like a rocket.
With a twist, she turned to look at her brother. Arthur's face was slick with sweat. His blue hair was matted flying wildly around his head, and a cut over his right eye marred his features. Carefully, Kathryn went to free her arm from where it was pinned between her body and her legs. Arthur shrugged, jerking her in his grasp and making them fall several feet in the process. It was a clear warning: don't move.
Finally their ascent slowed. The man tilted in the air, and they went hovering in a clean circle around the sight. Craning her neck, Kathryn looked down.
Below them, Rebels clashed with Structure forces. The dirty, rag-tag foot-soldiers, rushed forward at the white army with blind ferocity. S-Paa planes darted through the air, just over the tree tops, far below the girl and her brother. The tiny planes dropped bombs on the rebel foot soldiers, scattering them like insects. Darting in-between the trees on foot and flitting over the tops on wings, three or four winged people shot in and out of the rebel ranks, leaving fire and screams in their wake. Kathryn watched the Neosav Guard cut into the rebel wall and pressed herself into Arthur. She prayed the half-lings would keep their eyes on the battle and not look up to see the pair circling above them.
As Arthur circled, Kathryn's field of vision shifted from the battle on the forest floor to the dips and depression of the rocks beyond it. From the shadowy pools punched into the mountains, the hulking beats to which Kathryn had grown used crawled out into the light. Their scaled bodies were covered in brownish grey dust. Only tiny spots of shimmering scales were visible under the layers of powdered grime. However, the dirt couldn't obscure their muscled bodies, their gleaming talons, their powerful wings. One-at-a-time at first, then with growing numbers, they lifted their leathery wings and with a great heave of muscle and effort, punched their way out of gravity's hold and into the sky.
Kathryn felt a sense of vertigo as they dropped suddenly. They slid away from the forest and towards the horde of dragons. Kathryn tucked herself back against the Neosav's chest and settled in for a ride. No sooner had she begun to relax did she hear it, a low whistle of something slicing through the air.
Arthur swerved. The missile swept past his left shoulder. The heat sent him tumbling to the right. Kathryn felt a sense of weightlessness as they spun in mid-air. It took all of a few seconds for them to be righted. In that time, the low whistling returned. Looking down through his tangled locks, Kathryn could see another missile shooting up. Claws dug into Kathryn's skin as Arthur tensed. She could feel him heaving with effort. He couldn't out maneuver an attack while carrying her.
Arthur dipped backwards and they dove before spinning and gaining altitude again. Little pieces of metal flashed pass them. The Neosav had definitely seen them. Arthur's breath got heavier and heavier. Kathryn could feel the sweat damping his shirt. Another low whistle got louder and louder on their right side, behind Kathryn's head. She peered behind her, trying to make sense of spinning world. In the chaos, a streak of shimmering blue caught her eye. Arthur's breathing was too loud in her ears. The missile was making her head hurt as it got closer.
She swallowed, bucked and rolled.
Human and wingless, Kathryn dropped out of the sky like stone. She heard Arthur's scream die on the wind as she fell.
The air was pushed out of her lungs. The wind whipped her hair so furiously that she thought it cut her. She was spinning. The sky was a blue pool at her feet, the earth green and brown splotches overhead. It made her dizzy. She thought she might throw up. Her head was light. She closed her eyes and stared at the blood red behind her eyelids. After a few seconds, she got used to the sensations around her and was almost calm.
Then something blocked out the light. A growl made the air vibrate around her. It was a low sound, like listening to a far off earthquake. Kathryn opened her eyes to see black ribs jutting out of an expanse of incandescent blue.
The girl lifted her arms and reached for Darla. Her fingertips brushed against the wide blue scales of the creature. The sharp edges of the knife-like plates nicked the girl's fingers. Carried by the wind around her and pulled down by gravity the girl's blood seemed to hover around her hand. For a few moments, it was if nothing existed outside the floating sphere containing the girl and the dragon.
Slowly, the girl edged forward. The air between her and beast lessened into a trickle. Kathryn could put her hands on the leather expanse sitting between the creature's shoulder blades. She gripped the sides with all the force she could muster and yanked herself forward. No sooner was her belly flush with the ragged leather did their downward path come to an abrupt end.
Chapter 1
:Several Months Earlier:
In the modern, sleek and immaculately clean kitchen of one two-story suburban house, a family of three sat around the oval island counter picking at a breakfast of homemade waffles and fresh maple syrup with milk and orange juice. It was hardly touched, barely considered half-eaten. Their attentions were turned to the corner of the kitchen, where a small flat screen TV was perched precariously for all to see its screen.
The TV was tuned onto the news. A pretty brunette newscaster provided commentary on the graphic images shown next to her head. The volume on the TV projected her voice over the soft patter of knives and forks scraping against ceramic dishes and crystal glasses moving, being lifted, and placed down on the marble countertop.
At the island, two adults, one man and one woman, sat on one side of the oval. On the other side sat a young girl of about twelve. They looked as any normal people would:
The man was of average height, with a slight build and would be lean if not for the slight bit of fat padding on his midsection. He had brown hair and blue eyes made slightly larger by wire frame glasses. He wore a suit and tie, the jacket of which was slung over the back of his chair.
The woman was a bit shorter than her husband and petite in frame. She had pale blonde hair that she wore out in a wavy loose style. Her grey eyes darted over the table every so often, silently marking how long it would be until her family asked for refills or seconds. She wore a summery dress with pearl and silver jewelry.
The girl on the other side of the oval looked very much like her mother, only miniature. Her school uniform bared the complex and symbol heavy seal of one of the local government schools. She had shimmering golden brown hair, suggesting a transition from her youthful blonde to the darker shade of a young adult, and striking, intelligent blue eyes. Though she was just a child, she ate with her attention fixed on the TV, watching the news play out with particular interest.
"The rebels encroached on more government control areas last night, resulting in the death of twenty-three citizens and the injury of countless others. The rebels took control of a five mile stretch beyond the guard walls before Neosavros Guard arrived to assist the local Peace Enforcers in driving the rebels back. However, despite this success the rebel retained control of a one by four mile block on the very western age of the city. Officials say that the rebel could absolutely never reach farther into the area. Some citizens are still concerned."
The girl paused. She set down her silver fork, a piece waffle still stuck on the end. She trained her eyes on the screen. On the flashing screen, the winged Neosav Guard flew over the rebels, breathing fire down on their heads and dropping bombs in dive attacks.
At the kitchen island, the girl tilted her head to one side. The corners of her mouth twisted down, and her golden brown eyebrow came together over her little round nose.
"Mom?" the girl said. The pitch of her voice was unusually low for a young girl but very smooth. The mother looked over at her daughter. She smiled and raised her eyebrows without speaking.
"Why those people breaking the city walls?"
Both the adults paused and cast their eyes at the child. Both turned the corners of their mouths down for a small moment but then became more impassive.
"The rebels are selfish people," the father said. "They think things aren't good enough and want to take the good things away from the people that have it and give it to the people they think deserve it."
The girl didn't turn her eyes away from the screen but did scrunch up her nose a bit. "Why are they like that?"
"That's something no one knows," the mother responded. "They are very troubled people."
"Are they going to come here and burn our city?" The child's eyes were locked on the TV. Her gaze flinted over the screen rapidly, taking in the images in a jittery manner.
"No, no sweetie," the mother said quickly. "They won't ever get this far in. The Structure will protect us from them."
The girl frowned for a moment as she watched the TV. The Neosav Guard flew down on the screen and dropped bombs right on top of Rebels, blowing them to bits while some Structure Guards took some civilians out on large white trucks. The girl's mouth turned up a little, and her features relaxed.
"I'm glad that the Neosav Guard was there," she commented lightly.
"Oh?" The father looked up from his coffee and trained his blue eyes on his daughter. "Why is that?"
"The Neosav Guards are heroes!" the child explained. She finally turned her eyes back on her parents. She had an excited twinkle in her eyes. "They fly around helping people and risking their lives for others. One day I want to work in the labs with them and help them get even stronger so they can help more people."
"Kathryn," the mother said. There was a little gasp of shock in her voice. "Do you honestly think that's okay?"
"Of course!" the young brunette exclaimed. "I'm doing a report on the Neosavros at school. I can't wait to work with them in person, when I finally grow up."
The parents turned their eyes to one another. The mother turned the corners of her mouth down. Worry etched itself on her face. The father sat silently, peering out from behind his coffee cup, seriously. They didn't respond to their daughter but she didn't seem to notice. She had already gone back to eating her waffles and watching the news.
The city of Sentor occupied a walled area of a very unique quality. It was nestled on its northeastern edge by an enormous cliff. However, the cliff didn't just shoot up out of the ground. It came up and began to curve outward and dip inward all at once. The swell of rock looked like a great wave stilled in mid-motion above the ground. From any great distance, it appeared some God had taken a huge scoop of rock out of a mountain and then someone had built a city on a disc under that curve.
The Rock Wave had stood on its own for a thousand years, with the mid-sized city sitting dangerously under it. When the skies split open with thunder and lightning, mean older children told their younger siblings that the Rock Wave was coming to life to crash down on them and crush them into dust. However, parents knew that was impossible. The curving cliff face was reinforced with the strongest materials available and though they were invisible to the unaided eye, they kept the city safe from any disruption or movement of the Rock Wave.
Under the Wave the city stretched east to west and north to south in a near perfect circle with its northwest edge nested the Waves base. Around other sides of the city a large, sparse wall rose so forcefully that the seemed to grow out of the cliff itself. Periodically, tall needles of stone shot up out of the wall, atop which the figure of winged men and women could sometimes be spotted. The west and south sides of the wall had large, heavily guarded gates through which massive amounts of traffic flowed. The north side had a small road that skirted by the Rock Wave's base into the mountains. The east side stood with not an exit, but an unbroken line of wall separating the city from a barren landscape.
The buildings under the Wave, in the nearly permanent shadow of the structure, were short and squat, mostly factories and commercial buildings with some extremely low-rent housing. In ring around the wall, the Structure's various white collar offices all guarded by Structure appointed Peace Officers. The public would go to these offices to get business done, but the information collected and used there would be stored at a different location. The center of the city had the tallest buildings. Four of these narrow, needle-like complexes were rose so far above the ground that a person in the top six to eight floors, could look straight out a window and stare the very crest of the Rock Wave.
The city had clusters of buildings scattered around it. There was a district for shopping and another for certain types of entertainment. The big houses of rich lay in the west side of the city, south of the shadow of the Rock wave. The suburbs where middle class families lived stretched between the east side of downtown and the unbroken east wall. The schools and universities sat near the south gate where many traders came into it Sentor. It was halfway between the edge of downtown and the southern gate, a little more off to the west than straight south. The education district was about the same distance away from the middle and upper class neighborhoods, but farther from the lower class one. From the top of the spire that sat just west of but still part of the Southern Gate, the whole city was lay out like a map.
Arthur liked to sit on the top of that spire and just watch the city below. He could fly down and join it, if he wished, but he didn't like the stares he always got. People stared at those who were different, no matter how well-mannered they were. Seeing a man with blue incandescent scales, slanted gold eyes, a thick reptilian tail and huge leathery wings, always made people stop and take special notice, especially because his kind were so rare.
There were only a few dozen Neosavros Guards in the whole city. Worldwide, for every six hundred humans there were four Neosav. However, that was fine. That was all that the world needed.
The Neosavros were a genetically engineered, artificially created race of beings that had only existed for fifty or so years. Their place was to be the protectors of mankind. They were stronger and faster than humans. Blessed with talons, quick reflexes and the ability to fly via the huge wings on their backs, the Neosav went into situations that were too dangerous for humans. The Neosav assisted the human Peace Officers in certain high risk tasks, as well fought alongside the Structure Guards against threats like the rebels.
A branch of the Structure called the Neo-Savros Initiative had created the Neosav originally to deal with was a much more menacing problem than rebels. At one time dragons roamed the world freely, laying waste to anything that got in their way. The walls the surrounded all cities were originally built in an attempt to protect the Citizens within from wandering dragons. However one man had single-handedly changed the nature of the dragon resistance.
A man known only as the Director took DNA from a captive dragon and mixed it with human DNA. After many failed attempts at creating a new creature, the Neosavros were born. These beings, with many of the major talents of the dragon race, were made to be mankind's protectors from the vicious beasts. It worked well. Within the fifty year span of the Neosavros existence nearly every last dragon had been exterminated. Arthur, who had been born only twenty years ago, had never even seen a dragon.
Taking a deep breath, the Neosav began to tip forward. The top of the spire was only a few inches around. Within seconds he had slipped off the top and was plummeting down towards the gate below. His short dark blue locks whipped around him as he fell. The air slipped past him on all sides and he shot down like a rocket. About halfway down the man spread his wings and titled up. In a split second, he was rocketing forward and soaring away from the gate.
Far below him the road from the south gate looked like a slow moving multi-colored river that eventually broke out into many tiny streams that then turned into an ever-present layer of shifting colors and patterns. Arthur smiled. It wasn't much, in terms of cities. Sentor wasn't a huge. However, it was home.
He passed the education district on his way back to the Neo-Savros Initiative Headquarters. Bright blue buses full of eager young students were parked in front of the Second Level School. The eager twelve to fifteen-year-olds filed out of the buses and into the schoolyard. Their attractive blue, purple and white uniforms with patches bearing the name and seal of whichever Structure run school they attended made them look like little academics, the true future of the city.
Most the children looked around them, chatting with one another, doing homework or finding friends. However, one child was looking up. A girl with hair that shimmered in the sunlight was looking up and shielding her eyes against the light. Arthur began to descend to get a better look at the child when his telelaleo began to ring.
The telelaleo - or laleo for short - was a small device sewn into the palm of his left glove. When inactive it looked like a paper-thin piece of crumpled up metal. It activated when he opened his palm and ran a finger across it and became a stiff disk in his palm. When active, it transmitted sounds and images to allow him to communicate with the Initiative Headquarters, other Neosavros Guards and anyone in the telelaleo system. When he was using it, the sounds it made were normal. It sounded like the person talking was right with there. However, when it was alerting him to the fact that someone was calling on him, it made this odd ringing sound. Arthur had never heard anything like it and the only way he could describe the sound was as crumpled.
The Neosav tilted back up and opened his palm. With a quick swipe of his thumb across his palm, the device went rigid and a voice began to sound from his hand.
"Neosavros Guardian 4358, returned to Initiative Headquarters immediately. Repeat: Neosavros Guardian 4358, returned to Initiative Headquarters immediately."
Arthur wrinkled his nose, but tilted his body to slice through the air and send him streaming towards the Center District.
The Initiative Headquarters was a round glass building that reached twenty-seven stories up and had a large circle elevator in its center that reached all the way down to lower levels eight stories below the ground. The elevator hadn't been used to decades, but its hundred yard shaft sat empty giving the building something of donut shape. Neosavros Guards used the empty space as a short-cut to various parts of the building. Instead of walking inside and maneuvering endless hallways and biometrically locked doors they flew down the wide shaft and landed on the narrow ledge that connected to doors to various floors in various parts of the building. When recalled to the base by orders, they flew straight down and entered into the third level under the main floor.
It was to this underground level that Arthur dropped. He folded his double jointed wings to close around him like a cloak before heading towards the door. The door had a sensor on it and would only open if a signal from certain telelaleo was presented to it. Arthur opened his palm, but before he could swipe his thumb across the face of his laleo a voice call out to him.
"Arthur."
The man only turned a little to look at the woman over his shoulder. She was hitting the ground lightly as his eyes landed on her.
The woman's name was Lexius. She was more or less the same age as Arthur, but a bit taller and thicker. Female dragons tended to be bigger than male dragons and that trait had passed onto the Neosavros race.
Lexius was covered in dark green scales. Thankfully, she had black hair which, along with her black Neosav uniform, helped her look put together. She nodded to him as she approached.
Arthur nodded back then opened the door for the both of them. Inside the hallway, the electric lights kept the place much dimmer than the outside which was washed with morning sunlight. They traveled the darkened hallways in silence for a few minutes before Lexius spoke again.
"How have you been doing Arthur?" she asked. Her voice was deep, like all members of their race, but very steady; calculated even. Arthur hated talking to her.
"I've been fine thanks," the male responded. His voice lacked the careful control of the woman. It rose and halted at sharp edges betraying barely contained irritation.
The woman turned her head to look at him more fully. Her eyes opened a bit wider and eyebrows raised a fraction. She could have been amused. However the look in her jade colored eyes could have been quiet disapproval. Her reaction - as per usual - gave away nothing.
"You know I do feel a certain obligation toward you," she said with her ever present evenness. "I am your little sister after all."
Arthur snorted. He itched to speed up but knew that would do nothing. "I doubt we were made from the same dragon."
"None the less," she continued. "We are two of only fifteen Neosavros made in the Lathos Paidi project. We are bound to one another as surely as blood."
"If you say so." Arthur hoped that would be the end of the conservation, but he had no such luck.
"And so I worry about you Arthur. You do have the terrible habit of getting yourself into trouble."
"Trouble," the man repeated. This time his tone was as even and plain as hers.
That, thankfully, was the end of things. They finished the walk to the Director's office in silence. The door there opened with a signal from Arthur's laleo and they filed in one after the other.
The Director's office was a spacious room kept as bright and airy as the sun filled offices of the upper stories. It had soft carpeting, polished wood furniture and plush leather seating. The room was filled with warm hues, glass and crystal knickknacks and photos documenting the success of the Neo Savros Initiative. The space was a nearly perfect square and directly across from the entrance was the Director's desk.
The wide, solid oak masterpiece of carpentry separated the Director from the rest of the room. The Director himself was a rather plain man. Of average height with a soft, padded build, he certainly wasn't physically imposing. Both Neosav were taller and more formidably muscled than he was. He had narrow grey eyes hidden behind round glasses and set in a soft round face. His hair had been black once but was now heavily grey. Though the wrinkles in his brown face weren't prominent, he showed his advancing age.
The man was known only as the Director to protect his identity from enemies of the Structure, such as the rebels, but Neosav nearly collectively called him Pateras - Father.
He smiled at the two Neosav and nodded his head.
"Hello my children," he greeted.
Lexius smiled a little and tilted her head up in proud greeting. "Good morning Pateras."
Arthur nodded once but didn't speak. If the Director found this irritating, he didn't point it out or show it.
"Today," the older man went on in an oddly pleasant voice. "I have called you here for a most serious matter."
He reached over and tapped a button on his computer keyboard. The lights in the room dimmed. To the right of the Neosav, a bright light flickered to life before project a large map on the wall across from it. The man showed the general area Sentor sat in with the mountains to the north and the wasteland to the east.
"The rebels," the Director began in a suddenly serious voice, "have been advancing lately, at an alarming rate. They have taken bits and pieces of various cities which had have to partially or completely evacuate their citizens.
"Now as you know, the general population knows nothing of these happenings. General knowledge of these upsetting events would only cause panic or worse. The people could begin to doubt the Structure as it stands and question their place it in. This would lead to chaos as the leaderless masses swarm in search of a strong leader. This cannot be."
"So what are we to do, Pateras?" Lexius asked. Her eyes darted over the map methodically.
"Assist the Peace Officers and the Structure Guards. As always you are their tools for maintaining order. Second, combat the rebel threat wherever you may encounter it. We have reason to believe the rebels may be closing in on Sentor as it stands as the gate between south and north of this land. Capturing this city would deal an incredible amount of damage to the Structure cause. Patrol the walls and cut off their approach if they do make their way here."
"So what do we say if a citizen asks us what we're doing?"
Both the Director and Lexius turned their eyes on Arthur. He stood under their gaze, unfazed by the intensity of it. If anything, he looked a little bored.
"Arthur," the Director began. His voice was level and the Neosav's name was drawn out in his mouth. The blue scaled man knew he was in for a ridiculous answer.
"The Structure is like a wall or a molecule. Each of us has a place in it, like bricks in that wall or atoms in a molecule. If we don't all keep our place, the whole thing comes down. Do you understand?"
Arthur stared at the man a moment before answer. He may have been considering the man's words. Or he may have been reminding himself not to curse.
"I understand," he said at last. "I know what I have to do."
The Director smiled and nodded before tapping the buttons for the lights. "Now then. Please go and receive your orders. Make me proud."
Lexius made a quick bow before turning on her heel and heading for the door. Arthur just turned and followed silently.
The walk to the dispatch was mercifully short. Lexius didn't speak to Arthur. She didn't even look at him. When she received her orders she turned on her heel and marched off without so much as a goodbye. Arthur almost smiled. Even her carefully constructed air of indifference couldn't mask her disapproval for him. He supposed that was what she meant about him getting into trouble.
Arthur's orders were much the same as what the Director had told him. He was to patrol the wall on the northeast side and watch for signs of Rebel attack. Because Sentor sat on the boundary of one part of the country and the next, cut off by mountain, it was considered something of an important city though it wasn't big. Whoever controlled Sentor controlled the flow of traffic between the north and the south over the Machairi Mountains which cut the country roughly in half. Because of that, the Structure had the Neosavros Guard posted all around the city, watching for an attack from any side.
Arthur stared down at his orders for a few moments. The stillness of the dispatch room made it seem like time had stopped. It was so quiet.
But then a small sound erupted from his left. It was a tiny vibration in the air, but in stillness of the room it echoed like thunder. Arthur shifted eyes without moving the rest of his body. A door where there should have only been unbroken wall was sliding shut in the far corner of the room. It was nearly opened then almost shut in the time it took Arthur to see the space for what it was. It was only his unnaturally fast reflexes that got him through the shirking space before it shut.
The opposite side of the door was long narrow hallway. The lighting here was even dimmer than the rest of the building. Though the walls seemed to be made of a slick metal the floors were carpeted with soft material that ate footsteps and left the space silent and shadowy. Besides the door out, there was only one way to go.
Arthur's body tensed as he moved slowly down the corridor. The hallway had a slight incline to it. It occurred to the Neosav that he was descending to the lowest levels of the Initiative's Headquarters. As he came to the end of the path, a flight of steep stairs formed and lead down into the darkness. The lower levels of the building hadn't been used since the last dragon died. However, the space was oddly clean. The hallway devoid of sound and light was filled with the smell of various people coming back and forth. The particularly sharp scent of anxiety - an offshoot of fear - hung heavily in the air.
Arthur made his way down the first few steps very slowly and leaned back a little. His eyes swept over the descending pathway in practiced and mechanical regularity. As he moved farther down, he began to relax. The walls were perfectly smooth. The hallway seemed to be one unbroken tube dropping into the earth. Even the smallest of seams hiding a door concealing weapons of any sort would stand out in that monotonous sameness.
The staircase descended about three stories before suddenly leveling off into a wide door filled hallway. As he eyed the many shut doors, the Neosav tapped his laleo and shut it off, just in case. He moved through the low level, taking the only open path available. For some time, he saw no one. It seemed the level was as abandoned as it first appeared.
But then that tangy scent began to grow stronger and fresher. Arthur turned toward the scent and tracked it. Two hallways over a man in a white lab coat came shuffling into his path. He had his head buried in stack of files. Arthur looked past him but kept the man in his side vision. As they came together he edged slowly towards him. When they met, their shoulders collided.
The human man sputtered and dropped some of his file. Arthur gave him a cursory glanced before moving to walk around the mess.
"H-hey!"
Turning to face the human, the blue scaled man glared but didn't speak.
"Are you … I mean Neosav don't normally come down here."
"And?"
"Well I-I'm going to have to -"
"Have to what?" Arthur advance on the man slowly. "I have orders you know. And I'm sure you do too. We all have a place in the Structure, like bricks in a wall."
"Of course!" the human agreed quickly. He went to straighten his tie, but the nervous action only made it more crooked. "But -"
"And is your place to question the actions of one of the Director's Neosavros Guard?"
"No! I wouldn't dream of -"
"Then be on your way and do your job, and I will do mine." Arthur reached over and straightened the man's tie himself before putting the man's crooked shirt to rights as well. As he tugged on and tucked the fabric, he helped himself to the man access badge. "Now, this won't hold either of us up any longer, will it?"
"No. Sorry." The man smiled and stooped for his papers. Arthur made his way farther down the hallway and swiped himself into the locked door at the end with the man's badge.
Behind the door was another set of stairs. As far as Arthur knew there couldn't be much more space under where he already was. With the stolen access badge tucked into his belt he headed down the stairs at a quick pace. He couldn't be sure that the man from the hallway wouldn't raise an alarm on him.
At the bottom of the stairs a hallway lined with large glass windows set next to locked doors stretched out to some sort of central point. If he had the math right, he must be at the edge of the circular building and looking at the center. However he was so low that he knew the elevator didn't come down this far.
Frowning he walked forward and glanced in the windows as he past them. Behind each one was a large empty room. The rooms were tiled, having multiple and obvious hatches for stored weapons. Each one had a control room accessible by the door next to the window. All the rooms were shut down, but they were clean and the scent of humans hadn't faded away completely yet.
Arthur checked each room before moving onto the next. The man from the hallway hadn't been studying notes about empty rooms. Then, at nearly the end of the hallway, he found it.
One of the cells had something in it. It was a large hulking shadow on the floor. Arthur pressed his face to the glass, but even his advanced eyesight couldn't make out more than a silhouette of the thing. Quickly, as if it would disappear if he wasn't fast, he moved to the control room and flipped on the lights.
The creature was huge, far bigger than anything Arthur had seen before. It had four massive limbs and a long tail. Its body was mostly covered in blackish-blue scales, but scales were falling off leaving ugly patches of raw flesh. The snout of the creature was huge and was possibly once filled with enormous fangs but now was shriveled and useless. Two stubs protruded from the thing's back. Toothless, wingless and shackled, the dragon titled his head up to peer at the control room.
Arthur stared. It took him a moment to process the situation. He wondered for a moment if he was dreaming but he was never one to doubt his own senses without good reason.
Slowly, he made his way to the front of the control room where a second door led to a lift which would drop him into the cell. He stepped out onto the lift but didn't press the button for it to move. Instead he hoped easily over the side and dropped into the pit with the dragon. He approached slowly, eyeing it.
The dragon watched his approach. Its shallow breathing was the only sound in the room for moment after moment. Then, it spoke.
"I know you Lathos Paidi."
Arthur tensed. He reared back and ran the simple sentence through his mind. He had two options if he was to answer the dying beast. He could be part of the Structure, or he could act for himself. The choice was an easy one.
"How do you know me?" he asked cautiously.
The huge creature breathed in deeply. The action made a rumbling sound, like a mountain rattling. "I know … the one who … made you."
"You mean the Director?" Arthur began to edge forward a little. The dragon's voice was low and muffled. It was something more felt than heard.
"Not … the monster," the creature said. "The one … with your scales …. I knew … that one."
Arthur frowned. The sentence didn't make sense to him immediately. And then, something occurred to him. "You mean the dragon I was made from?"
"She … has blue scales too."
Arthur edged ever closer to the dragon. "Has? Is … she alive somewhere?"
"Some … where?" The dragon closed his eyes. His breathing became more even and shallow. Arthur's eyes darted over him. He feared the creature was dying as it spoke.
"Hey. Hey! Is she alive somewhere?"
With a grumble of air the dragon opened his eyes again. "Alive? … Yes. … Alive and … free. … She was … the last … to get out. … There were … no more … escapes … after her."
Arthur stepped up to the dragon and put his hand on the side of his head. "She escaped? From here? Where is she?"
The old creature seemed to regard him for a moment. Arthur stood under that gaze quietly. He felt small and young.
"Are you … a tool?"
The Neosav frowned. "What?"
"Are … you … a tool?"
"A tool? No."
"What you are … is not what … the humans say."
Arthur tensed as he thought. The Neosavros were a tool for the human Peace Officers and Structure Guard. That was what the Director told them. Lexius bought that line. Arthur did not.
"Lathos … Paidi … are not … Neo … savros."
Arthur turned his eyes back to the dragon. "Well we aren't dragons!" he asserted. "And we aren't human. So what are we?"
A low rumble was all the man got in response. He gritted his teeth and looked at the creature. It was pathetic.
"So I'm not what the human's say I am. So then what should I do?"
The low breathing of the dragon was the only sound for a few moments. Then it suddenly it’s whole body shifted.
"Run …" it said in a low voice.
Arthur frowned. "Excuse me?"
"Run!"
The dragon rose but its shackles kept it at a near crouch. Its useless wing stubs moved furiously as he struggled against the tension of its chains. Its head rose and pointed up. Arthur stepped back and looked up. There in the control room, two figures looked down at them.
With a curse, the man jumped up to the glass separating him from the control room. He bounced off it harmlessly and landed heavily back in the pit with the dragon. The tiles in the top of the cell opened, but Arthur didn't wait to see what they released. He jumped at one and slashed his way through it until he found a ventilator duct. Once he had crawled inside he looked back.
The cell was filling with light purple smoke. The dragon hissed and roared as if the stuff burned where in touched it.
"Run! Run!" it roared.
Arthur hesitated for a moment. He couldn't leave the thing there to die. However, in the moment he thought that a door to his left slammed shut. He knew instantly what they were doing. They would cut off that part of the vent then flood it with gas.
Without another thought he ripped his way up, tearing through the level with his claws and bare hands. Alarms began to go off. Inside the walls where the alarm system was the sound was deafening. A wave of nausea washed over the Neosav as he climbed, but it only made him move faster. If he didn't get away from the sound soon, he would pass out from it.
After what seemed like hours, he punched his way into a hallway on the main floor. Sick from the sound of the alarm, he stumbled away from the hole and managed to make it to the main lobby.
"Hey you!"
Arthur turned. He was dizzy. The alarm was still going off. The person yelling for him was a Peace Officer.
"Why aren't you on the front lines? Rebels are attacking the city and you're standing there like nothing's happening! Don't you hear the alarms?"
Arthur gritted his teeth at the human. "I hear them," he answered. "Where are they?"
"They came in through the northeast of the city. The fighting as nearly reached the Center District."
Arthur nodded and turned on his heel. He was out the door and in the air before the officer could say another word.
Author(s): kianna_leigh
Artist(s): adobejunkie
Fandom(s): Original
Characters/Pairings: Original Characters
Rating: PG
Word Count: 12497
Warnings/Spoilers: Mild Violence
Summary: “The Structure is like a wall or a molecule. Each of us has a place in it, like bricks in that wall or atoms in a molecule. If we don't all keep our place, the whole thing comes down.” That’s what he’d been told. It was a good thing he’d never believed it. Just like everything else, it’d been a lie.
Author’s Notes:
Link(s) to Story Master Post/Chapters: Chapter 1 | Chapter Two
Link(s) to Art Master Post(s): http://adobejunkie.livejournal.com/12147.html
Prologue
With a terrible bang, they crashed the through the top layers of stone and out into the afternoon sunlight. Kathryn gasped and instinctually untucked herself from the man's embrace. The wind whipped her brown hair viciously around her face as he turned to get a lung full of fresh air. She was rising before she could close her mouth, shooting up into the sapphire sky like a rocket.
With a twist, she turned to look at her brother. Arthur's face was slick with sweat. His blue hair was matted flying wildly around his head, and a cut over his right eye marred his features. Carefully, Kathryn went to free her arm from where it was pinned between her body and her legs. Arthur shrugged, jerking her in his grasp and making them fall several feet in the process. It was a clear warning: don't move.
Finally their ascent slowed. The man tilted in the air, and they went hovering in a clean circle around the sight. Craning her neck, Kathryn looked down.
Below them, Rebels clashed with Structure forces. The dirty, rag-tag foot-soldiers, rushed forward at the white army with blind ferocity. S-Paa planes darted through the air, just over the tree tops, far below the girl and her brother. The tiny planes dropped bombs on the rebel foot soldiers, scattering them like insects. Darting in-between the trees on foot and flitting over the tops on wings, three or four winged people shot in and out of the rebel ranks, leaving fire and screams in their wake. Kathryn watched the Neosav Guard cut into the rebel wall and pressed herself into Arthur. She prayed the half-lings would keep their eyes on the battle and not look up to see the pair circling above them.
As Arthur circled, Kathryn's field of vision shifted from the battle on the forest floor to the dips and depression of the rocks beyond it. From the shadowy pools punched into the mountains, the hulking beats to which Kathryn had grown used crawled out into the light. Their scaled bodies were covered in brownish grey dust. Only tiny spots of shimmering scales were visible under the layers of powdered grime. However, the dirt couldn't obscure their muscled bodies, their gleaming talons, their powerful wings. One-at-a-time at first, then with growing numbers, they lifted their leathery wings and with a great heave of muscle and effort, punched their way out of gravity's hold and into the sky.
Kathryn felt a sense of vertigo as they dropped suddenly. They slid away from the forest and towards the horde of dragons. Kathryn tucked herself back against the Neosav's chest and settled in for a ride. No sooner had she begun to relax did she hear it, a low whistle of something slicing through the air.
Arthur swerved. The missile swept past his left shoulder. The heat sent him tumbling to the right. Kathryn felt a sense of weightlessness as they spun in mid-air. It took all of a few seconds for them to be righted. In that time, the low whistling returned. Looking down through his tangled locks, Kathryn could see another missile shooting up. Claws dug into Kathryn's skin as Arthur tensed. She could feel him heaving with effort. He couldn't out maneuver an attack while carrying her.
Arthur dipped backwards and they dove before spinning and gaining altitude again. Little pieces of metal flashed pass them. The Neosav had definitely seen them. Arthur's breath got heavier and heavier. Kathryn could feel the sweat damping his shirt. Another low whistle got louder and louder on their right side, behind Kathryn's head. She peered behind her, trying to make sense of spinning world. In the chaos, a streak of shimmering blue caught her eye. Arthur's breathing was too loud in her ears. The missile was making her head hurt as it got closer.
She swallowed, bucked and rolled.
Human and wingless, Kathryn dropped out of the sky like stone. She heard Arthur's scream die on the wind as she fell.
The air was pushed out of her lungs. The wind whipped her hair so furiously that she thought it cut her. She was spinning. The sky was a blue pool at her feet, the earth green and brown splotches overhead. It made her dizzy. She thought she might throw up. Her head was light. She closed her eyes and stared at the blood red behind her eyelids. After a few seconds, she got used to the sensations around her and was almost calm.
Then something blocked out the light. A growl made the air vibrate around her. It was a low sound, like listening to a far off earthquake. Kathryn opened her eyes to see black ribs jutting out of an expanse of incandescent blue.
The girl lifted her arms and reached for Darla. Her fingertips brushed against the wide blue scales of the creature. The sharp edges of the knife-like plates nicked the girl's fingers. Carried by the wind around her and pulled down by gravity the girl's blood seemed to hover around her hand. For a few moments, it was if nothing existed outside the floating sphere containing the girl and the dragon.
Slowly, the girl edged forward. The air between her and beast lessened into a trickle. Kathryn could put her hands on the leather expanse sitting between the creature's shoulder blades. She gripped the sides with all the force she could muster and yanked herself forward. No sooner was her belly flush with the ragged leather did their downward path come to an abrupt end.
Chapter 1
:Several Months Earlier:
In the modern, sleek and immaculately clean kitchen of one two-story suburban house, a family of three sat around the oval island counter picking at a breakfast of homemade waffles and fresh maple syrup with milk and orange juice. It was hardly touched, barely considered half-eaten. Their attentions were turned to the corner of the kitchen, where a small flat screen TV was perched precariously for all to see its screen.
The TV was tuned onto the news. A pretty brunette newscaster provided commentary on the graphic images shown next to her head. The volume on the TV projected her voice over the soft patter of knives and forks scraping against ceramic dishes and crystal glasses moving, being lifted, and placed down on the marble countertop.
At the island, two adults, one man and one woman, sat on one side of the oval. On the other side sat a young girl of about twelve. They looked as any normal people would:
The man was of average height, with a slight build and would be lean if not for the slight bit of fat padding on his midsection. He had brown hair and blue eyes made slightly larger by wire frame glasses. He wore a suit and tie, the jacket of which was slung over the back of his chair.
The woman was a bit shorter than her husband and petite in frame. She had pale blonde hair that she wore out in a wavy loose style. Her grey eyes darted over the table every so often, silently marking how long it would be until her family asked for refills or seconds. She wore a summery dress with pearl and silver jewelry.
The girl on the other side of the oval looked very much like her mother, only miniature. Her school uniform bared the complex and symbol heavy seal of one of the local government schools. She had shimmering golden brown hair, suggesting a transition from her youthful blonde to the darker shade of a young adult, and striking, intelligent blue eyes. Though she was just a child, she ate with her attention fixed on the TV, watching the news play out with particular interest.
"The rebels encroached on more government control areas last night, resulting in the death of twenty-three citizens and the injury of countless others. The rebels took control of a five mile stretch beyond the guard walls before Neosavros Guard arrived to assist the local Peace Enforcers in driving the rebels back. However, despite this success the rebel retained control of a one by four mile block on the very western age of the city. Officials say that the rebel could absolutely never reach farther into the area. Some citizens are still concerned."
The girl paused. She set down her silver fork, a piece waffle still stuck on the end. She trained her eyes on the screen. On the flashing screen, the winged Neosav Guard flew over the rebels, breathing fire down on their heads and dropping bombs in dive attacks.
At the kitchen island, the girl tilted her head to one side. The corners of her mouth twisted down, and her golden brown eyebrow came together over her little round nose.
"Mom?" the girl said. The pitch of her voice was unusually low for a young girl but very smooth. The mother looked over at her daughter. She smiled and raised her eyebrows without speaking.
"Why those people breaking the city walls?"
Both the adults paused and cast their eyes at the child. Both turned the corners of their mouths down for a small moment but then became more impassive.
"The rebels are selfish people," the father said. "They think things aren't good enough and want to take the good things away from the people that have it and give it to the people they think deserve it."
The girl didn't turn her eyes away from the screen but did scrunch up her nose a bit. "Why are they like that?"
"That's something no one knows," the mother responded. "They are very troubled people."
"Are they going to come here and burn our city?" The child's eyes were locked on the TV. Her gaze flinted over the screen rapidly, taking in the images in a jittery manner.
"No, no sweetie," the mother said quickly. "They won't ever get this far in. The Structure will protect us from them."
The girl frowned for a moment as she watched the TV. The Neosav Guard flew down on the screen and dropped bombs right on top of Rebels, blowing them to bits while some Structure Guards took some civilians out on large white trucks. The girl's mouth turned up a little, and her features relaxed.
"I'm glad that the Neosav Guard was there," she commented lightly.
"Oh?" The father looked up from his coffee and trained his blue eyes on his daughter. "Why is that?"
"The Neosav Guards are heroes!" the child explained. She finally turned her eyes back on her parents. She had an excited twinkle in her eyes. "They fly around helping people and risking their lives for others. One day I want to work in the labs with them and help them get even stronger so they can help more people."
"Kathryn," the mother said. There was a little gasp of shock in her voice. "Do you honestly think that's okay?"
"Of course!" the young brunette exclaimed. "I'm doing a report on the Neosavros at school. I can't wait to work with them in person, when I finally grow up."
The parents turned their eyes to one another. The mother turned the corners of her mouth down. Worry etched itself on her face. The father sat silently, peering out from behind his coffee cup, seriously. They didn't respond to their daughter but she didn't seem to notice. She had already gone back to eating her waffles and watching the news.
The city of Sentor occupied a walled area of a very unique quality. It was nestled on its northeastern edge by an enormous cliff. However, the cliff didn't just shoot up out of the ground. It came up and began to curve outward and dip inward all at once. The swell of rock looked like a great wave stilled in mid-motion above the ground. From any great distance, it appeared some God had taken a huge scoop of rock out of a mountain and then someone had built a city on a disc under that curve.
The Rock Wave had stood on its own for a thousand years, with the mid-sized city sitting dangerously under it. When the skies split open with thunder and lightning, mean older children told their younger siblings that the Rock Wave was coming to life to crash down on them and crush them into dust. However, parents knew that was impossible. The curving cliff face was reinforced with the strongest materials available and though they were invisible to the unaided eye, they kept the city safe from any disruption or movement of the Rock Wave.
Under the Wave the city stretched east to west and north to south in a near perfect circle with its northwest edge nested the Waves base. Around other sides of the city a large, sparse wall rose so forcefully that the seemed to grow out of the cliff itself. Periodically, tall needles of stone shot up out of the wall, atop which the figure of winged men and women could sometimes be spotted. The west and south sides of the wall had large, heavily guarded gates through which massive amounts of traffic flowed. The north side had a small road that skirted by the Rock Wave's base into the mountains. The east side stood with not an exit, but an unbroken line of wall separating the city from a barren landscape.
The buildings under the Wave, in the nearly permanent shadow of the structure, were short and squat, mostly factories and commercial buildings with some extremely low-rent housing. In ring around the wall, the Structure's various white collar offices all guarded by Structure appointed Peace Officers. The public would go to these offices to get business done, but the information collected and used there would be stored at a different location. The center of the city had the tallest buildings. Four of these narrow, needle-like complexes were rose so far above the ground that a person in the top six to eight floors, could look straight out a window and stare the very crest of the Rock Wave.
The city had clusters of buildings scattered around it. There was a district for shopping and another for certain types of entertainment. The big houses of rich lay in the west side of the city, south of the shadow of the Rock wave. The suburbs where middle class families lived stretched between the east side of downtown and the unbroken east wall. The schools and universities sat near the south gate where many traders came into it Sentor. It was halfway between the edge of downtown and the southern gate, a little more off to the west than straight south. The education district was about the same distance away from the middle and upper class neighborhoods, but farther from the lower class one. From the top of the spire that sat just west of but still part of the Southern Gate, the whole city was lay out like a map.
Arthur liked to sit on the top of that spire and just watch the city below. He could fly down and join it, if he wished, but he didn't like the stares he always got. People stared at those who were different, no matter how well-mannered they were. Seeing a man with blue incandescent scales, slanted gold eyes, a thick reptilian tail and huge leathery wings, always made people stop and take special notice, especially because his kind were so rare.
There were only a few dozen Neosavros Guards in the whole city. Worldwide, for every six hundred humans there were four Neosav. However, that was fine. That was all that the world needed.
The Neosavros were a genetically engineered, artificially created race of beings that had only existed for fifty or so years. Their place was to be the protectors of mankind. They were stronger and faster than humans. Blessed with talons, quick reflexes and the ability to fly via the huge wings on their backs, the Neosav went into situations that were too dangerous for humans. The Neosav assisted the human Peace Officers in certain high risk tasks, as well fought alongside the Structure Guards against threats like the rebels.
A branch of the Structure called the Neo-Savros Initiative had created the Neosav originally to deal with was a much more menacing problem than rebels. At one time dragons roamed the world freely, laying waste to anything that got in their way. The walls the surrounded all cities were originally built in an attempt to protect the Citizens within from wandering dragons. However one man had single-handedly changed the nature of the dragon resistance.
A man known only as the Director took DNA from a captive dragon and mixed it with human DNA. After many failed attempts at creating a new creature, the Neosavros were born. These beings, with many of the major talents of the dragon race, were made to be mankind's protectors from the vicious beasts. It worked well. Within the fifty year span of the Neosavros existence nearly every last dragon had been exterminated. Arthur, who had been born only twenty years ago, had never even seen a dragon.
Taking a deep breath, the Neosav began to tip forward. The top of the spire was only a few inches around. Within seconds he had slipped off the top and was plummeting down towards the gate below. His short dark blue locks whipped around him as he fell. The air slipped past him on all sides and he shot down like a rocket. About halfway down the man spread his wings and titled up. In a split second, he was rocketing forward and soaring away from the gate.
Far below him the road from the south gate looked like a slow moving multi-colored river that eventually broke out into many tiny streams that then turned into an ever-present layer of shifting colors and patterns. Arthur smiled. It wasn't much, in terms of cities. Sentor wasn't a huge. However, it was home.
He passed the education district on his way back to the Neo-Savros Initiative Headquarters. Bright blue buses full of eager young students were parked in front of the Second Level School. The eager twelve to fifteen-year-olds filed out of the buses and into the schoolyard. Their attractive blue, purple and white uniforms with patches bearing the name and seal of whichever Structure run school they attended made them look like little academics, the true future of the city.
Most the children looked around them, chatting with one another, doing homework or finding friends. However, one child was looking up. A girl with hair that shimmered in the sunlight was looking up and shielding her eyes against the light. Arthur began to descend to get a better look at the child when his telelaleo began to ring.
The telelaleo - or laleo for short - was a small device sewn into the palm of his left glove. When inactive it looked like a paper-thin piece of crumpled up metal. It activated when he opened his palm and ran a finger across it and became a stiff disk in his palm. When active, it transmitted sounds and images to allow him to communicate with the Initiative Headquarters, other Neosavros Guards and anyone in the telelaleo system. When he was using it, the sounds it made were normal. It sounded like the person talking was right with there. However, when it was alerting him to the fact that someone was calling on him, it made this odd ringing sound. Arthur had never heard anything like it and the only way he could describe the sound was as crumpled.
The Neosav tilted back up and opened his palm. With a quick swipe of his thumb across his palm, the device went rigid and a voice began to sound from his hand.
"Neosavros Guardian 4358, returned to Initiative Headquarters immediately. Repeat: Neosavros Guardian 4358, returned to Initiative Headquarters immediately."
Arthur wrinkled his nose, but tilted his body to slice through the air and send him streaming towards the Center District.
The Initiative Headquarters was a round glass building that reached twenty-seven stories up and had a large circle elevator in its center that reached all the way down to lower levels eight stories below the ground. The elevator hadn't been used to decades, but its hundred yard shaft sat empty giving the building something of donut shape. Neosavros Guards used the empty space as a short-cut to various parts of the building. Instead of walking inside and maneuvering endless hallways and biometrically locked doors they flew down the wide shaft and landed on the narrow ledge that connected to doors to various floors in various parts of the building. When recalled to the base by orders, they flew straight down and entered into the third level under the main floor.
It was to this underground level that Arthur dropped. He folded his double jointed wings to close around him like a cloak before heading towards the door. The door had a sensor on it and would only open if a signal from certain telelaleo was presented to it. Arthur opened his palm, but before he could swipe his thumb across the face of his laleo a voice call out to him.
"Arthur."
The man only turned a little to look at the woman over his shoulder. She was hitting the ground lightly as his eyes landed on her.
The woman's name was Lexius. She was more or less the same age as Arthur, but a bit taller and thicker. Female dragons tended to be bigger than male dragons and that trait had passed onto the Neosavros race.
Lexius was covered in dark green scales. Thankfully, she had black hair which, along with her black Neosav uniform, helped her look put together. She nodded to him as she approached.
Arthur nodded back then opened the door for the both of them. Inside the hallway, the electric lights kept the place much dimmer than the outside which was washed with morning sunlight. They traveled the darkened hallways in silence for a few minutes before Lexius spoke again.
"How have you been doing Arthur?" she asked. Her voice was deep, like all members of their race, but very steady; calculated even. Arthur hated talking to her.
"I've been fine thanks," the male responded. His voice lacked the careful control of the woman. It rose and halted at sharp edges betraying barely contained irritation.
The woman turned her head to look at him more fully. Her eyes opened a bit wider and eyebrows raised a fraction. She could have been amused. However the look in her jade colored eyes could have been quiet disapproval. Her reaction - as per usual - gave away nothing.
"You know I do feel a certain obligation toward you," she said with her ever present evenness. "I am your little sister after all."
Arthur snorted. He itched to speed up but knew that would do nothing. "I doubt we were made from the same dragon."
"None the less," she continued. "We are two of only fifteen Neosavros made in the Lathos Paidi project. We are bound to one another as surely as blood."
"If you say so." Arthur hoped that would be the end of the conservation, but he had no such luck.
"And so I worry about you Arthur. You do have the terrible habit of getting yourself into trouble."
"Trouble," the man repeated. This time his tone was as even and plain as hers.
That, thankfully, was the end of things. They finished the walk to the Director's office in silence. The door there opened with a signal from Arthur's laleo and they filed in one after the other.
The Director's office was a spacious room kept as bright and airy as the sun filled offices of the upper stories. It had soft carpeting, polished wood furniture and plush leather seating. The room was filled with warm hues, glass and crystal knickknacks and photos documenting the success of the Neo Savros Initiative. The space was a nearly perfect square and directly across from the entrance was the Director's desk.
The wide, solid oak masterpiece of carpentry separated the Director from the rest of the room. The Director himself was a rather plain man. Of average height with a soft, padded build, he certainly wasn't physically imposing. Both Neosav were taller and more formidably muscled than he was. He had narrow grey eyes hidden behind round glasses and set in a soft round face. His hair had been black once but was now heavily grey. Though the wrinkles in his brown face weren't prominent, he showed his advancing age.
The man was known only as the Director to protect his identity from enemies of the Structure, such as the rebels, but Neosav nearly collectively called him Pateras - Father.
He smiled at the two Neosav and nodded his head.
"Hello my children," he greeted.
Lexius smiled a little and tilted her head up in proud greeting. "Good morning Pateras."
Arthur nodded once but didn't speak. If the Director found this irritating, he didn't point it out or show it.
"Today," the older man went on in an oddly pleasant voice. "I have called you here for a most serious matter."
He reached over and tapped a button on his computer keyboard. The lights in the room dimmed. To the right of the Neosav, a bright light flickered to life before project a large map on the wall across from it. The man showed the general area Sentor sat in with the mountains to the north and the wasteland to the east.
"The rebels," the Director began in a suddenly serious voice, "have been advancing lately, at an alarming rate. They have taken bits and pieces of various cities which had have to partially or completely evacuate their citizens.
"Now as you know, the general population knows nothing of these happenings. General knowledge of these upsetting events would only cause panic or worse. The people could begin to doubt the Structure as it stands and question their place it in. This would lead to chaos as the leaderless masses swarm in search of a strong leader. This cannot be."
"So what are we to do, Pateras?" Lexius asked. Her eyes darted over the map methodically.
"Assist the Peace Officers and the Structure Guards. As always you are their tools for maintaining order. Second, combat the rebel threat wherever you may encounter it. We have reason to believe the rebels may be closing in on Sentor as it stands as the gate between south and north of this land. Capturing this city would deal an incredible amount of damage to the Structure cause. Patrol the walls and cut off their approach if they do make their way here."
"So what do we say if a citizen asks us what we're doing?"
Both the Director and Lexius turned their eyes on Arthur. He stood under their gaze, unfazed by the intensity of it. If anything, he looked a little bored.
"Arthur," the Director began. His voice was level and the Neosav's name was drawn out in his mouth. The blue scaled man knew he was in for a ridiculous answer.
"The Structure is like a wall or a molecule. Each of us has a place in it, like bricks in that wall or atoms in a molecule. If we don't all keep our place, the whole thing comes down. Do you understand?"
Arthur stared at the man a moment before answer. He may have been considering the man's words. Or he may have been reminding himself not to curse.
"I understand," he said at last. "I know what I have to do."
The Director smiled and nodded before tapping the buttons for the lights. "Now then. Please go and receive your orders. Make me proud."
Lexius made a quick bow before turning on her heel and heading for the door. Arthur just turned and followed silently.
The walk to the dispatch was mercifully short. Lexius didn't speak to Arthur. She didn't even look at him. When she received her orders she turned on her heel and marched off without so much as a goodbye. Arthur almost smiled. Even her carefully constructed air of indifference couldn't mask her disapproval for him. He supposed that was what she meant about him getting into trouble.
Arthur's orders were much the same as what the Director had told him. He was to patrol the wall on the northeast side and watch for signs of Rebel attack. Because Sentor sat on the boundary of one part of the country and the next, cut off by mountain, it was considered something of an important city though it wasn't big. Whoever controlled Sentor controlled the flow of traffic between the north and the south over the Machairi Mountains which cut the country roughly in half. Because of that, the Structure had the Neosavros Guard posted all around the city, watching for an attack from any side.
Arthur stared down at his orders for a few moments. The stillness of the dispatch room made it seem like time had stopped. It was so quiet.
But then a small sound erupted from his left. It was a tiny vibration in the air, but in stillness of the room it echoed like thunder. Arthur shifted eyes without moving the rest of his body. A door where there should have only been unbroken wall was sliding shut in the far corner of the room. It was nearly opened then almost shut in the time it took Arthur to see the space for what it was. It was only his unnaturally fast reflexes that got him through the shirking space before it shut.
The opposite side of the door was long narrow hallway. The lighting here was even dimmer than the rest of the building. Though the walls seemed to be made of a slick metal the floors were carpeted with soft material that ate footsteps and left the space silent and shadowy. Besides the door out, there was only one way to go.
Arthur's body tensed as he moved slowly down the corridor. The hallway had a slight incline to it. It occurred to the Neosav that he was descending to the lowest levels of the Initiative's Headquarters. As he came to the end of the path, a flight of steep stairs formed and lead down into the darkness. The lower levels of the building hadn't been used since the last dragon died. However, the space was oddly clean. The hallway devoid of sound and light was filled with the smell of various people coming back and forth. The particularly sharp scent of anxiety - an offshoot of fear - hung heavily in the air.
Arthur made his way down the first few steps very slowly and leaned back a little. His eyes swept over the descending pathway in practiced and mechanical regularity. As he moved farther down, he began to relax. The walls were perfectly smooth. The hallway seemed to be one unbroken tube dropping into the earth. Even the smallest of seams hiding a door concealing weapons of any sort would stand out in that monotonous sameness.
The staircase descended about three stories before suddenly leveling off into a wide door filled hallway. As he eyed the many shut doors, the Neosav tapped his laleo and shut it off, just in case. He moved through the low level, taking the only open path available. For some time, he saw no one. It seemed the level was as abandoned as it first appeared.
But then that tangy scent began to grow stronger and fresher. Arthur turned toward the scent and tracked it. Two hallways over a man in a white lab coat came shuffling into his path. He had his head buried in stack of files. Arthur looked past him but kept the man in his side vision. As they came together he edged slowly towards him. When they met, their shoulders collided.
The human man sputtered and dropped some of his file. Arthur gave him a cursory glanced before moving to walk around the mess.
"H-hey!"
Turning to face the human, the blue scaled man glared but didn't speak.
"Are you … I mean Neosav don't normally come down here."
"And?"
"Well I-I'm going to have to -"
"Have to what?" Arthur advance on the man slowly. "I have orders you know. And I'm sure you do too. We all have a place in the Structure, like bricks in a wall."
"Of course!" the human agreed quickly. He went to straighten his tie, but the nervous action only made it more crooked. "But -"
"And is your place to question the actions of one of the Director's Neosavros Guard?"
"No! I wouldn't dream of -"
"Then be on your way and do your job, and I will do mine." Arthur reached over and straightened the man's tie himself before putting the man's crooked shirt to rights as well. As he tugged on and tucked the fabric, he helped himself to the man access badge. "Now, this won't hold either of us up any longer, will it?"
"No. Sorry." The man smiled and stooped for his papers. Arthur made his way farther down the hallway and swiped himself into the locked door at the end with the man's badge.
Behind the door was another set of stairs. As far as Arthur knew there couldn't be much more space under where he already was. With the stolen access badge tucked into his belt he headed down the stairs at a quick pace. He couldn't be sure that the man from the hallway wouldn't raise an alarm on him.
At the bottom of the stairs a hallway lined with large glass windows set next to locked doors stretched out to some sort of central point. If he had the math right, he must be at the edge of the circular building and looking at the center. However he was so low that he knew the elevator didn't come down this far.
Frowning he walked forward and glanced in the windows as he past them. Behind each one was a large empty room. The rooms were tiled, having multiple and obvious hatches for stored weapons. Each one had a control room accessible by the door next to the window. All the rooms were shut down, but they were clean and the scent of humans hadn't faded away completely yet.
Arthur checked each room before moving onto the next. The man from the hallway hadn't been studying notes about empty rooms. Then, at nearly the end of the hallway, he found it.
One of the cells had something in it. It was a large hulking shadow on the floor. Arthur pressed his face to the glass, but even his advanced eyesight couldn't make out more than a silhouette of the thing. Quickly, as if it would disappear if he wasn't fast, he moved to the control room and flipped on the lights.
The creature was huge, far bigger than anything Arthur had seen before. It had four massive limbs and a long tail. Its body was mostly covered in blackish-blue scales, but scales were falling off leaving ugly patches of raw flesh. The snout of the creature was huge and was possibly once filled with enormous fangs but now was shriveled and useless. Two stubs protruded from the thing's back. Toothless, wingless and shackled, the dragon titled his head up to peer at the control room.
Arthur stared. It took him a moment to process the situation. He wondered for a moment if he was dreaming but he was never one to doubt his own senses without good reason.
Slowly, he made his way to the front of the control room where a second door led to a lift which would drop him into the cell. He stepped out onto the lift but didn't press the button for it to move. Instead he hoped easily over the side and dropped into the pit with the dragon. He approached slowly, eyeing it.
The dragon watched his approach. Its shallow breathing was the only sound in the room for moment after moment. Then, it spoke.
"I know you Lathos Paidi."
Arthur tensed. He reared back and ran the simple sentence through his mind. He had two options if he was to answer the dying beast. He could be part of the Structure, or he could act for himself. The choice was an easy one.
"How do you know me?" he asked cautiously.
The huge creature breathed in deeply. The action made a rumbling sound, like a mountain rattling. "I know … the one who … made you."
"You mean the Director?" Arthur began to edge forward a little. The dragon's voice was low and muffled. It was something more felt than heard.
"Not … the monster," the creature said. "The one … with your scales …. I knew … that one."
Arthur frowned. The sentence didn't make sense to him immediately. And then, something occurred to him. "You mean the dragon I was made from?"
"She … has blue scales too."
Arthur edged ever closer to the dragon. "Has? Is … she alive somewhere?"
"Some … where?" The dragon closed his eyes. His breathing became more even and shallow. Arthur's eyes darted over him. He feared the creature was dying as it spoke.
"Hey. Hey! Is she alive somewhere?"
With a grumble of air the dragon opened his eyes again. "Alive? … Yes. … Alive and … free. … She was … the last … to get out. … There were … no more … escapes … after her."
Arthur stepped up to the dragon and put his hand on the side of his head. "She escaped? From here? Where is she?"
The old creature seemed to regard him for a moment. Arthur stood under that gaze quietly. He felt small and young.
"Are you … a tool?"
The Neosav frowned. "What?"
"Are … you … a tool?"
"A tool? No."
"What you are … is not what … the humans say."
Arthur tensed as he thought. The Neosavros were a tool for the human Peace Officers and Structure Guard. That was what the Director told them. Lexius bought that line. Arthur did not.
"Lathos … Paidi … are not … Neo … savros."
Arthur turned his eyes back to the dragon. "Well we aren't dragons!" he asserted. "And we aren't human. So what are we?"
A low rumble was all the man got in response. He gritted his teeth and looked at the creature. It was pathetic.
"So I'm not what the human's say I am. So then what should I do?"
The low breathing of the dragon was the only sound for a few moments. Then it suddenly it’s whole body shifted.
"Run …" it said in a low voice.
Arthur frowned. "Excuse me?"
"Run!"
The dragon rose but its shackles kept it at a near crouch. Its useless wing stubs moved furiously as he struggled against the tension of its chains. Its head rose and pointed up. Arthur stepped back and looked up. There in the control room, two figures looked down at them.
With a curse, the man jumped up to the glass separating him from the control room. He bounced off it harmlessly and landed heavily back in the pit with the dragon. The tiles in the top of the cell opened, but Arthur didn't wait to see what they released. He jumped at one and slashed his way through it until he found a ventilator duct. Once he had crawled inside he looked back.
The cell was filling with light purple smoke. The dragon hissed and roared as if the stuff burned where in touched it.
"Run! Run!" it roared.
Arthur hesitated for a moment. He couldn't leave the thing there to die. However, in the moment he thought that a door to his left slammed shut. He knew instantly what they were doing. They would cut off that part of the vent then flood it with gas.
Without another thought he ripped his way up, tearing through the level with his claws and bare hands. Alarms began to go off. Inside the walls where the alarm system was the sound was deafening. A wave of nausea washed over the Neosav as he climbed, but it only made him move faster. If he didn't get away from the sound soon, he would pass out from it.
After what seemed like hours, he punched his way into a hallway on the main floor. Sick from the sound of the alarm, he stumbled away from the hole and managed to make it to the main lobby.
"Hey you!"
Arthur turned. He was dizzy. The alarm was still going off. The person yelling for him was a Peace Officer.
"Why aren't you on the front lines? Rebels are attacking the city and you're standing there like nothing's happening! Don't you hear the alarms?"
Arthur gritted his teeth at the human. "I hear them," he answered. "Where are they?"
"They came in through the northeast of the city. The fighting as nearly reached the Center District."
Arthur nodded and turned on his heel. He was out the door and in the air before the officer could say another word.