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Chapter 10

Revelations

"Hold him down, quickly, you get the legs and I'll get the arms. Jonesy, hold his head, make sure he doesn't hurt his neck!", Fiona shouted as she held down Sean's arms. Arutha was holding down his legs and Jonesy was trying to keep him from hurting himself too much. Fiona lay across him to hold down his arms as she pried open his jaws and inserted her bowie knife (sheathed, of course) between his teeth in an attempt to keep him from biting off his tongue.

This was the third such episode, but it was much less violent than the other two. Fiona didn't know if this was a good thing, or if Sean was simply becoming weaker. In any case she reached over to a small table and grabbed a small syringe she had prepared just for this occasion. Most people underestimate the force someone can generate when they are having a seizure. Jonesy and Arutha would normally have no trouble holding him down, but when he was flailing his entire body around, it was like a rodeo.

Briefly letting go of Sean's left arm to fully secure his right, she quickly prepared the syringe before sticking it into the vein in his right elbow pit. Almost all of Sean's veins were standing out, so she had a clear target. She pulled back slightly on the plunger to check that she had indeed hit a vein, and slowly depressed the plunger, sending five milligrams of Norcuron into his veins. Jonesy and Arutha had to hold him down for another full minute before the spasms finally stopped. The Norcuron would keep him fully under for about half an hour and would take almost an hour to fully wear off, in which case she could simply dose him again. Fortunately, none of the episodes had lasted more than twenty five minutes.

Jonesy was a seething cauldron of anger as he let go of Sean's neck and shoulders. He was sure that the Demon was to blame for this and bitterly regretted not shooting him when he had a chance. As it was, Jonesy didn't want to jeopardize the fragile arrangement they had reached in the Citadel, so outright killing him was out, But Jonesy would remember this, and if he ever had the chance to enact his vengeance without destabilizing things, he would take it.

Inside his mind, Sean was running. He wasn't aware of what was happening to his body, but in his mind, he was being chased through a forest taken directly from a nightmare, with tall scraggly trees which branches that seemed to be reaching for him and gnarled roots that were determined to trip him up. Pursuing him through this hellish scene were monsters and demons from every child's nightmare, composed of slashing claws and snapping teeth and insubstantial constantly shifting forms. Though Sean didn't know it, this was his mind's way of representing Draconex's mental attack on him in an attempt to control him.

Draconex watched, invisible, as Sean stumbled his way through the spooky woods. Draconex was both amazed and concerned; he had never had a victim resist him so well for so long, even though he hadn't had his full powers until now. He knew that Sean did not have the mental training to go on the mental offensive, so there was no chance of him dominating Draconex. But he was concerned about Sean's health. Every time Draconex burst through one of Sean's mental barriers, Sean would simply pull back his defenses, digging in for the next attack. At the same time, Sean's physical health was degrading. If Draconex continued his attempt to subjugate Sean's mind, there was a good chance Sean could die.

Draconex's relationship with his wielder could be symbiotic, or it could be parasitic. Either Draconex would feed off of Sean, should he manage to dominate Sean's mind, or it could be mutually beneficial, with both Sean and Draconex benefiting. Draconex needed Sean alive for him to accomplish his goal. However, he now had a problem, which was that in order to enter into a partnership, Sean had to be willing to accept him. After launching an assault on his mind, though Sean didn't know who was launching the assault, he was likely to be leery of help from Draconex. Draconex puzzled it over for a few seconds, and decided he would just have to wing it.

Sean panted as he ran, barely keeping on his feet on the treacherous ground with the bad lighting. He slammed into a tree and barely managed to keep from falling. Slumping against the trunk he turned and looked back at his pursuers. Their black and smoky forms were hard to make out in the bad lighting. Pausing only to gauge the distance between him and the relentless pursuers Sean set off again. It seemed that no matter how far he ran, he could never outdistance them. No matter how well he hid, he could never shake them. He could not fight; he could only run and prolong the inevitable. Suddenly, Sean's foot caught against a root, he pitched forward slamming down face first.

As he lay there in the dirt, Sean saw a Meechan warrior suddenly step from a copse of trees in front of him. It slowly walked forward until it stood in front of him. It extended its hand down to him and spoke.

"Take my hand and I can help you." Sean spared a glance over his shoulder at his pursuers and saw that they had shifted into the form of drakai. Sean glanced back at the warrior, and with only a moment's hesitation grasped the outstretched hand. Draconex, for that was who the warrior was, hauled Sean to his feet. Suddenly instead of holding onto the hand of warrior, Sean was holding the kukri Jonesy had given him. He felt a sensation like someone was pouring a bucket of ice into his mind, before it slowly faded to a slight chill. Sean felt the presence of Draconex in his mind as he turned to confront his attackers. He could feel Draconex guiding him, not controlling him, more like offering a suggestion that it was in Sean's best interests to follow.

The first of the drakai had reached Sean by now, swinging its massive scimitar in a move meant to decapitate Sean. Sean ducked beneath the sweep of the sword, and, in a move that surprised both him and the drakai, stepped in towards the drakai. He slashed down at the drakai's knee caps, cleanly severing its legs. Then when his opponent fell to a more reasonable height, Sean slashed upwards with his backhand, right to left, laying the drakai's chest open. The second one came more cautiously and stabbed at him one handed. Sean twisted to the side allowing the scimitar to slide by harmlessly. Then, with more strength than he believed he possessed, Sean's left hand grabbed the drakai's pulling it off balance. Maintaining control of the limb he had, Sean twisted around so that he was behind the drakai. A swift kick to the back of its knee dropped it to its knees, a perfect height for Sean to slit it's throat.

Sean slid from drakai to drakai, sometimes delivering a powerful killing blow within seconds, other times slowly whittling them down with many tiny slices and hacks. He was a bladed whirling dervish, dealing death to any drakai who came near him. As Sean jammed the kukri into the stomach of the final drakai and savagely ripped it's abdomen open from left to right, its blood sprayed onto him and it slipped off the blade to die on the ground. Sean realized that, from his hands to his elbows, he was covered in blood. He looked like he was a butcher at the end of the workday. As he was formulating this thought, he felt the approval of Draconex, whose desire was to butcher drakai.

Two days later...

Jonesy was in a foul mood when he left the Demon's tower. He would much rather stay at the tower for a few more days to make sure that Sean really was getting better, but orders were orders. Besides, he wanted to get revenge on the one who had been ordering all the recent drakai attacks on the citadel. Stopping only briefly to inform Kit of where he was going, he made his way to the armory. Using the term "armory" in this context was a more liberal usage of the word. As he stepped inside there were only two racks of weapons on the walls, most of them duplicates. Sean's arrival had increased the weapon count by nearly twenty five percent. Crossing to the wall Jonesy grabbed his favorite rifle. A Barrett M-107CQ, weighing five pounds less than the original M-107 and with a barrel nine inches shorter is was still a massive weapon. While it was rather unwieldy, the Raufoss 12.7x99mm high explosive incendiary armor piercing round had the power of a 20mm round and could punch through anything short of two inches of rolled homogeneous armor, the same type used as tank armor. Ammunition was a problem however, the large rounds meant that less could be carried and Jonesy only had eight rounds remaining for it anyways.

With a grin Jonesy realized that if the the situation got to the point he needed to use all eight rounds, then it would not matter if had a hundred rounds. Besides, with an effective range of over a mile, flash suppressor and a supersonic round, it would be extremely difficult for anyone to pinpoint the location he fired from.

Slinging the weapon over one shoulder, taking care not to knock the leuopold scope, Jonesy headed back out of the tunnel and emerged on the surface. Walking briskly to the gate he waited for Kit, again on gate duty, to open it before slipping out. His journey was several days, there and back, and he had packed provisions accordingly.

Four days later...

Sean panted as he slowed to a stop, cursing himself for being out of breath, yet amazed that he could even do this short (by his standards) run only a few days after being so horrifically wounded. The tool of his miraculous recovery was strapped to his left hip, as it was a long blade and too awkward to draw with his right hand from his other side. Draconex's presence was indeed a positive affect on Sean, and when it was taken away from him it left him in a condition similar to withdrawal. Nothing serious, rather like the effects of a heavy coffee drinker suddenly switching to decaf, but his recovery rate slowed markedly.

Right now Sean was concentrating on trying to get back into an approximation of his former physique, as Draconex did not heal Sean so much as accelerate his body's natural healing. The effect was that in the short time Sean had found himself in bed, he had lost almost ten pounds. Fiona had since then placed him on a high protein and carbohydrate diet to keep up with the increased energy demand. Unfortunately his combat armor had been damaged beyond repair by the spear. Sean was clad in a borrowed set of ACUs that Kit had lent to him,as she was the only one close to his size.

Fiona had gone to meet with the leader of the citadel and he expected her back soon to fill him in on the details. For some reason no one had bothered to explain to him, Jonesy and the other humans had been attempting to keep him isolated from the Demon. He got the impression that neither party particularly trusted, or even liked, each other but they kept together as a marriage of convenience. If it came down to it, Sean knew who he would stand with, and it was more than a species thing. Jonesy and the rest were pretty decent people, and their description of the Demon made him sound like a used car salesman. What worried Sean more was what effect this would have on his new found meechan friends.

Apart from dropping by to see him when he was unconscious, the only meechan that Sean had regular contact with was Arutha. Sean couldn't help but think that it was because, with Tara and Syphis off training in the use of Nachi almost all day, Sean was the only one he knew. Arutha had even promised to do a little sparring with Sean later so that he could learn to better use his new kukri.

At the sound of footsteps Sean looked up to see Fiona approaching him, having come from the base of the tower.

"Pretty short run don't you think?"

"I got a frickin spear through my side" Sean retorted. "Cut me a little slack."

"Whatever. Here, have some of this." Fiona said, tossing him a flask. Sean bobbled it for a second before catching it.

"Little early, don't you think?" Sean asked unscrewing the top. He uncapped it and took a quick sniff.

"Coffee?" Sean asked incredulously.

"Yep, I raided Jonesy's stock while he's gone." Sean chuckled and took a sip. He made a face and looked ready to spit it out.

"That is nasty. I forgot how marine coffee doubles as paint stripper." He said with a laugh as he, nevertheless, took another sip, then paused.

"Wait, Jonesy has been here seven years! How the hell would he still have coffee? And where's he get that tobacco he's always chewing?"

"A wizard did it."

"Wait, what?", Sean asked, bewildered.

"Basically, the Demon does it. Don't ask me how, you'll have to ask him yourself. Speaking of the Demon, you're wanted.", Fiona replied.

"Wait, now?"

"Yeah, he sent me to get you. Listen, we need to talk about what you are going to say to him."

"What are you, my lawyer?", Sean asked, attempting to inject some levity into the conversation.

"No, and this isn't the time for jokes.", she said with a stern glance.

"Sorry."

"Anyways, try to be careful about what you say, don't give up any more information than you have to, if he questions you, short answers.", Fiona continued.

"Okay, I think I got it all."

"Oh, and no weapons."

"What! Why not?", Sean exclaimed, incredulously.

"It's impolite, you might be able to get away bringing your new toy, ostensibly for medical reasons.", Fiona said, pointing at the kukri hanging from his left hip.

"But no guns?", Sean asked sadly.

"I'm afraid not. It's not like he's gonna attack you or something."

"I guess you're right.", Sean replied almost reluctantly.

"You know the way, right?", Fiona asked as she turned to leave.

"Well there is a tower, and there is a wizard. All my experience so far tells me that the wizard is usually at the top of the tower.", said Sean, with a last attempt at humor. As Fiona walked away, sparing only a small laugh, Sean heaved a sigh. Then he turned towards the tower, which suddenly seemed slightly foreboding, and started walking towards the base.

Jonesy slowly slithered into position. He was on a hill overlooking a valley, with an even higher ridge line on the far side. Dotted amongst those slopes, however, were more than twenty cave entrances. This is where his target would be. Looking down on the valley, filled with small trees and a handful of larger ones, Jonesy was sure there would be no obstructions to his shot. This was for the best, since Jonesy's position was nearly a mile away. He was within effective range, but it still posed a rather difficult shot. He would have to account for humidity, air temperature, barrel temperature, wind, and a hundred other small factors.

First, though, Jonesy wanted to make sure his position was secure, before he sat in and waited for his target. He had encountered, and managed to slip by, patrols almost a mile behind him. Jonesy took the last two remaining claymores that Sean had brought with him and set them to cover the approach to his position. Satisfied that this was all he could do, Jonesy returned to his position. Pulling a camouflage netting over himself, Jonesy settled in to wait.

Sean nearly jumped as the door opened right as he was about to knock on it. As soon as he entered and caught sight of the shorter-than-normal drakai who had opened the door. He felt a wave of cold hostility flow through him, courtesy of Draconex . Fortunately, Sean was able to push this feeling aside with relative ease, as it wouldn't be very beneficial to have someone's first impression of you be of you slaughtering their servant.

Turning to face the demon, Sean nearly lost the blank face he had been carefully maintaining. A slight parting of the Demon's jaws let Sean know the near slip had not been missed. The Demon appeared the same as when Jonesy had gone to meet him, ten feet tall, a mix of scale and fur, long claws the clicked across the floor whenever he took a step, the back canted legs, so reminiscent of a bird of prey, and the face. That face was truly what caused others to describe him as a demon. The snarling muzzle, with sharp teeth clearly meant for rending flesh, the horns sticking out a full foot into the air looking perfectly capable of goring someone, and the eyes, black pupils amid a pool of blood red that seemed to stare into your soul.

"You wanted to see me?", Sean asked, after it was clear that he would have to be the one to break the silence. The Demon cocked his head to one side as Sean spoke.

"You speak differently from the others.", the Demon said, almost as much of a statement as it was a question. After a second, Sean realized that it was true. Few people realize that military people have their own accent. It basically sounds like Midwestern with a bit of a drawl. Jonesy would have long since adopted this. Fiona's light Michigan accent as well as Kit's valley girl accent would have changed to the military accent easily. However Sean had not been in the military long enough for his accent to noticeably change, and his Bostonian accent (southie, not kennedese) was still apparent.

"People from different places speak different.", Sean said simply, trying to tone down his own accent as he went.

"Indeed.", the Demon replied, and there was another awkward silence. Sean was beginning to think that the Demon was doing this deliberately to get him to further the conversation or to get him off guard. Fortunately for Sean, years of standing in formation and being eyeballed was good training for this and he resolutely stayed silent. Minutes dragged by before the Demon finally spoke.

"Do you know why you are here, why I called you here?" Sean simply shook his head.

"I called you here because I need you to do something for me. If there is one thing I dislike, it is change. Yet whenever human technology pops up it has the potential to cause vast change. So I gather as much as I can, make sure no one else can control it who might want to affect change.", the Demon explained.

"So what can I do for you?"

"Where you came from, when you emerged, you left some of your technology there correct?" Sean nodded in affirmation.

"Good, I need you to retrieve it, in the wrong hands, it could be deadly. Imagine, someone able to kill at a whim with little to no skill or training, anarchy would reign!" The Demon was obviously passionate about this topic, as he began to pace back and forth before Sean, who still stood at ease. His long claws clicking on the stone floor, he suddenly stopped and pointed at Sean.

"And you!"

"Me?"

"Yes you. Before, you humans had your technology, which could be countered with Nachi. And now you come along, able to wield both!", the demon all but shouted. Sean was becoming slightly nervous, and the weight of Draconex on his hip was suddenly comforting.

"Wait, I can't use your magic.", Sean protested.

"Oh, and what do you think Draconex is if not Nachi? How else would your wounds heal so fast?"

"Draconex?"

"Your weapon, that is what it is called.", the Demon explained almost impatiently.

"No other human can use Nachi, you yourself probably cannot other than through Draconex. If I were to hand him to Jonesy, it would be a simple weapon."

"But I am not a threat to you.", Sean said, trying to placate the Demon.

"No, no you're not.", the Demon said, finally starting to calm down.

"So, speaking of Jonesy,", Sean began, trying to wheedle a little information out of the Demon. "Where is he?"

"Jonesy is on a mission for me. You see, my little kingdom I have carved out here is not the only one, One of the other leaders, of the same race as my own, tried to muscle in. It was he who was sending all those drakai to attack. Jonesy is simply going to give him my response.", the Demon answered, a slow smile spreading across his face. He obviously loved the game of politics.

"What are you?", Sean asked suddenly, almost catching him off guard.

"What?"

"Well I mean Draconex reacts to you, but differently from what it does to drakai...", Sean trailed off as he noticed the Demon looking at him strangely.

"The others did not tell you?", the Demon asked, what might have been curiosity displayed on his face.

"Well no, all they said was that you were a powerful Nachi user who built and ruled this place.", Sean explained.

"Perhaps I had best show you.", the Demon replied, with that same smile spreading across his face.

Then the Demon shifted. Sean tried to look at him but found that it was painful to do so. Forced to look away, he noticed the servant, Forana, ducking into a side chamber. When the shift was complete and he was able to look upon the Demon, Sean gasped with shock.

The purpose of the Demon's back canted legs soon seemed apparent as he looked upon the new form. All scaled now, gray with swirls of red throughout, the demon still stood ten feet tall yet seemed more imposing. A thick tail now trailed away from him, increasing his overall length to nearly double his original. He had dropped onto all fours, though he still seemed capable of bipedal motion. Greyish black wings now sprouted from his back, the total wingspan greater than his length.

Only for a moment, then he shifted back and Sean was again forced to look away. Sean had completely lost the blank look he had been cultivating, and was firmly gripping the handle of Draconex, who was pulsing with hostility.

"You're a, uh... you're a dragon.", Sean finally said in a small voice after some difficulty. The Demon merely flashed that grin, now seeming a lot more terrifying than before.

"And now Jonesy has to try and kill one of you?", Sean asked, and got another grin as an answer.