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To give them some peace, all of us adults, as well as Hayate, moved up to the back patio of my home. Alex went in to get a bottle of whiskey for himself and Helen. Tomoko was happy to provide each dragon a ginger root and we settled down to process what happened today with each other. Periodically, the effects of that day overwhelmed poor Helen and we all tried our best to get her to buck up. But I knew the only thing that would help her at this point was to hold George in her arms again and be assured of his wellbeing.

Two hours later, I could hear the low rumble of wheels on gravel, and then the sound of four car doors opening and closing. Alerted of the arrival, Colonel Stout approached our gathering. Alex offered him a tumbler of whiskey and he took his PC off to indicate the end of his responsibilities for the night before accepting and slouching into a chair. Beyond thanking my brother-in-law, he didn't speak much at first, simply sitting there lost in thought. Not that I could bitch much about him, whatever misgivings I may have had with him professionally, personally he was pretty approachable. Nights like this where we had offered him a drink had been fairly common actually. Nights where we had taken a drink? Much, much rarer, to the point that we hadn't even known about our own toxic allergy to alcohol that had happened yesterday.

The crunch of feet on gravel, and then the soft swishing of cloth and grass grew nearer but I asked one last question of Stout.

"What do you think about what happened today?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but instead sealed it shut by downing his glass of whiskey. Motioning for Alex to give him a refresher he only gave a deferral after hearing the approaching footsteps.

"After they're gone. We'll talk. You're not going to like what I have to tell you."

"Well, well, well. Kim the destroyer strikes again. I would ask you if you were okay, but at this point I don't think that you are even mortal." The Chief of Police led off with. I spun my eyes, and my neck, and my tail.

"Hello Jerry, I love you too."

"Nine jackasses in two days Kim. I don't give a..." He stopped and bit his tongue. Then waved his two trailing detectives forward. "One of you Interview her. I don't care which. I'll speak to her more afterwards. The other, start with the mother. We can save the daughter for tomorrow, she's probably asleep anyway." One detective peeled off to start with Helen and the other approached me. That was how I lost three more hours of the night that I could have spent sleeping, and that was only the beginning.

Only at great length were I, Helen, and Asuka done recounting what we had undergone that night. At the end of it Jerry began making directions once again, backed by the thus far silent DA.

"Whoever you are, whoever you are, Lieutenant, and Lieutenant, all of you fuck off." I knew this was going to be serious when he and the mute prosecutor next to him gave their cell phones to the departing detectives, demanded Alex and Stout give up theirs as well, and then told the two gumshoes to stay somewhere out of sight and earshot.

Once they had disappeared into Stout's command tent and Jerry had looked inside to make sure no one else was within hearing he reemerged with two more tumblers and poured a glass for himself and the DA.

The prosecutor began.

"Before we begin, let me start by saying that what we are about to do is illegal. It is illegal, it is illegal, it is illegal. But the fucking city is burning, and I don't have the resources to deal with this in any conventional manner. Kim, as Jerry has indicated by almost slipping up and implicating you without due process, you are the prime suspect in the deaths of nine people over the course of the past two days."

My jaws were wide open to bellow my response before he held up his hand to stop me as he sipped from his glass.

"The best and easiest way out of this bullshit is a grand jury investigation. Now shut up Kim and listen to me. When the facts of each and every fatality come to light there is no way that charges will be brought against you. However, the whole situation around you is a fucking lake of gasoline waiting for a lit match to be thrown into. Jerry, explain."

"You killed eight people today Kim, and one yesterday. But this will be the first and last time anyone will ever hear me say these words. You should have killed all of them."

He picked up a briefcase next to his chair and plopped it on the table before him.

"But you know what? If you can believe it, yours isn't even the opinion I'm the most interested in hearing right now." He turned to look at Helen. "It's yours."

Helen didn't respond. But reached for the untouched glass of whiskey awaiting the Police chief and downed it with a toss of her head before she held it out for Alex to refill it.

"My husband?"

The DA, whose name was Laurence, answered while Jerry began to lay out one file after another before us on the table.

"Your husband is alive and conscious, when by all rights he shouldn't be. Kim Schwarzkopf is the only reason why he is in the hospital right now demanding to see you Helen. Your family was under assault from a group that would have taken SWAT a half hour to respond to and who knows how long to neutralize. Kim Schwarzkopf saved not only your husband's life, but also those of I don't know how many officers. That is why Jerry and I are here extending a courtesy that can land us in jail alongside her."

He gestured at the files and photographs laying upon the table between tumblers of alcohol.

"I hope it makes you feel better Kim when I tell you that the Sergeant that had ordered the responding officers to open fire is going to be pulling guard on a refrigerator in the break room of HQ until your children are born. That salvo, when it had ricochet off your scales, could have killed every officer there and who knows how many innocents in the surrounding homes. Not to mention the fact that it could have ended the lives of you and your unborn children. I have seen the dashboard footage of all the cruisers and of the ambulances on scene. I know what you were attempting to do. I can also tell you I've already had our gunsmith go over each and every weapon deployed on scene there and can tell you that there is no reason why they should have all failed to fire. I suspect that..."

"It was me silly!"

It was not every day you got to see three adults scream in mortal terror when an alien appears hovering right in front of their eyes. But I was able to witness it right then as Helen, Jerry, and Laurence did exactly that. The rest of us, more use to this type of nonsense from our regular exposure, just waited for the hysterics to end.

"So many smiles would have died with Kim! I could never have allowed it! Please understand. If I had to, I would've ended all the chances for laughter from the families of all those officers forever! I don't want to do things like that, and I'm glad I didn't have to! Thumper and Prometheus had made sure I didn't! There will be so many more smiles now, I am so happy! Yay!" It flapped its wings in satisfaction.

"Are you telling me that you could have changed what happened today? You stopped our weapons from firing but not theirs? Are you going to tell my why? Who...What the fuck are you?"

"She is Tomoko, our guide and guardian. Please do not question the wisdom of one of the gods in front of me or my family. Our faith in her is absolute."

Jerry looked like he was about to make several vocal protests about Asuka's affirmation, but Laurence put his hand on his arm and shook his head. Even as he was restrained Tomoko faded from sight silently once more.

"As significant as that is, it doesn't materially affect the situation before us. Since we can't just wave a magic wand like these aliens can, and from what I've been told can't convince them to execute in any manner than which they wish. We need to focus on what we can do."

He pointed his hand at the displayed photographs in the flood lamps of my patio and Jerry explained.

"This is what we face. What had started with a select few number of militias has grown to be a wider conspiracy of individuals that see ultimate evil in what you are. By 'we' I mean anyone who gives a fuck about the world our children will grow up in. And by 'them' I mean those who only want to hold on to what they knew."

"Can we call one of these aliens over here to hear their thoughts on what we are about to do?"

"You'll know if your plan works when it does or does not." Prometheus startled everyone that hadn't been able to smell his presence the entire time when he lowered his head out of the night from the roof of my house.

"Thank you, you omnipotent, omniscient, alien, computer. Your invaluable input is appreciated." Laurence replied dryly.

I had enough. It was past midnight and I was fucking tired.

"What is the damn plan?" I snapped.

Jerry and Laurence jumped away from me, almost crashing right through the table, at the sound of my snarl.

"Jesus Kim. Are you going to kill us? We're on your side here, try to remember that before you rip us apart!"

I sighed, jostling the ginger root around in my mouth, and put my head down on my paws. "No one is trying to kill you two. Relax. I am tired, I have three bullets in me, and dozens of holes in my wings. Just...please outline what you have in mind so that I can go to sleep."

"You're wounded? Why didn't you say so! We can have medical here in..."

"I already stabilized her with the help of one of Stout's medics. Tomorrow morning, I will be conferring with Brian and Serena on how to extract the bullets. Unless you know someone more knowledgeable about dragon anatomy, all that can be done for her has been for now." Alex interjected.

"Here is what we are thinking, and this is why your input is valuable Helen. Tomorrow morning, we hold a press conference. Here, if possible, as this likely the most secure site in the state."

"Not for much longer." Stout dropped this conversation stopper on us, and my fatigue disappeared in a flash.

"The same personnel behind Sparrow and his continued presence have seen their greatest opportunity to cause the harm that they have always wished to Kim and her family. I have been ordered to break down operations here by no later than 2200 tomorrow night."

Now, I was really angry.

"Stout, I've had enough of your fucking smoke screens! Why are you protecting the source of who is putting my family in danger? I'll fly to the Pentagon and I'll fucking..."

"You won't find him at the Pentagon, It's Lieutenant General William Tecumseh Sherman." He muttered, rolling his glass back and forth in his hands. "Deputy Commander of USNORTHCOM. You have enemies in high places Kim. Enemies that also view this as a hostile invasion. A viewpoint that the CINC does not fully embrace, at least publicly. As you have guessed before, he intended to have Sparrow provoke you into violence. Now that that has failed, he means to tear down the only fence holding the wolves back from your family. What comes next will happen like clockwork. They will attack, you will defend, lives will be lost, unfavorable press coverage will be pushed, and then open war will be declared on citizens of this country. Citizens that less than a year ago were going about their daily lives until they lost almost everything. Now, they will lose what little they had left."

"Scorched earth huh? Just like his namesake. I'm glad I finally have a name for the first and only person I am ever going to fucking eat!"

"How about, instead of licking our teeth..." I stopped licking my teeth and shut my mouth as Jerry glared at me. "...We come up with a better solution? Can this command be countermanded? You are an Idaho National Guard unit. I can speak to the governor and tell him all this to try to convince him to keep you on station."

Stout shrugged.

"It won't hurt to try, but it costs on average about seven thousand dollars per day to support this operation. Not a big deal when it is coming out of the federal defense budget. But a pretty big deal for a small state like Idaho."

"No one ever did give me an explanation for why she and Tom warranted this full-time guard before. Care to explain now?"

"Not really. All you need to know is that they were and are viewed as destabilizing factors in national security."

God damned right, I thought. I knew exactly what I wanted to destabilize. If I ever got within a few hundred clicks of my objective, they would know it as well.

This ended up being a good stopping point, as the cooking deer was ready and brought to lay in front of me. Using a paw, I ripped one haunch off the body and tossed it to the salivating soldiers waiting for their treat like good little boys. Yes they were! They were good little boys! Alex went inside and returned with another of the pizzas, taking a slice he passed the pie around and we sat eating our late snack and thinking about what comes next.

"My plan was" I started again, after snapping a femur between my jaws and making every human wince. "Was just like your idea Laurence, to call for the media to be here tomorrow morning with Angie by my side and put out a statement. Helen" I pointed my nose at her. "If you are willing, would you put out one as well, with George if possible, from the hospital telling what happened? We need to humanize...dragonize? the situation. I will even have my children by my side. I want to keep up my familiarity campaign as well."

"I will do what I can." Helen promised. "I will never forgive what happened tonight. My little girl! My husband!" Tears leaked from her eyes once more and she slouched in her chair to stare blankly at the ground.

"Are you certain this is a path that all of you want to travel? Turning your children into pawns?"

"They are not pawns!" I slapped my paw to the ground. "This is for their future! If others do not know the reality of the situation it is time that we show them! Because where does it stop? These blights upon humanity are no different than the ones that caused the aliens to do this to us in the first place! Look at me! LOOK AT ME! Do you think I asked for this? This is the paradigm shift we need to make this world better! This is the chance we were given when HAL fucking 9000 turned hundreds of thousands across the world into fucking dragons! When we were told we aren't good enough! When we were told to change or die! This is a fight for the future of humanity. For our future! For our children's future! There are no pawns anymore, every piece on the board just became critically important. Do you see yet? If we can't deal with a few dumbass shortsighted gunmen what chance do we have of righting the wrongs that brought us to this situation?"

Only when I had stopped did I realize I had risen from my attentive crouch with my jaws cracked open wide and roaring both heated words and air only centimeters from the faces of the humans. Everything was silent, and no one dared to move. Eyes stared fixedly at me with blank horror in them while sweat poured down pale frozen faces at the close proximity of 35cm teeth and a mouth large enough to swallow them whole. I couldn't even hear them breathe. Withdrawing my head, I backed away from them until I could see their chests begin to rise and fall once more. Even Tom and Asuka stared at me, completely stunned at my actions amongst those that we needed to consider us friends, allies, partners. Turning my head away, I was ashamed that I had scared them so. I, we, needed them to help us. The only way that that was going to happen was if they did not see us as a threat. A hope that I had just set on fire and then blasted into space.

"I...I... I was never going to... Please just listen to my words. I am..." I trailed off, was it even any use to apologize here?

Tom sidled up to me and nudge me until I was facing our guests once more. Say something, do not just stop like that. Do not leave them with that being the last memory of you tonight.

"I... apologize. I won't make excuses for..."

"Bullshit, Kim! If you didn't feel strongly about this, I'd worry that you were brainwashed." Alex shouted at me.

"He's right... I won't deny that as soon as I'm done speaking I need to go throw my underwear away. But you have absolutely no reason not to feel the way you do about this. You were changed to help make the world better in some way, right?" I bobbed. "Then this is step one. Get people to stop shooting at you and protect your children and your friends."

"That's why I wanted to..."

"I still don't think that you should..."

"We don't want to but look at me, us!" Tom added. "Kim just made one." He sniffed and then sneezed. "Two of you shit your pants! We need to show how this is bringing pain to those that don't deserve this. No one is going to believe creatures that are thirty plus meters long and look like living weapons! Have any other people than us been affected by violence today?" Tom sneezed again. "No, never mind, don't answer that. Go change your damn clothes. Seriously, how are you just sitting there like that?"

A shame faced Laurence and Jerry quietly excused themselves and went into my house.

"Down the hallway second door on your left." I called after them. "Garbage cans are inside the garage."

Asuka chimed in. "I am embarrassed to admit that we have had difficulty of our own in relating to others since we ascended. There have been phone calls made, that my uncle and his family have played for us. The phone calls were... I worry for my family. All of them. I would much prefer not to bring my children into the public's attention, but if it will make the future brighter for them. We will do what we have to. I know Haruto would agree with me."

"Where is Haruto?" I asked.

"I think he's asleep. But he shouldn't be after...you got excited."

"I have been muting your conversation! It is super important that you have it. But also, extra super important that your families rise and shine today with smiles!" Tomoko's disembodied voice said, spooking everyone other than Asuka.

"The wise child is very mischievous I am afraid."

Yeah, I thought, like the Cheshire cat. Just about as loony as it too.

I picked up a leg bone from what was left of my meal and gnawed on it thoughtfully, not unlike how I used to with a toothpick, while waiting for the shitpants to return. We agreed to engage the media but what next? Greta...Greta could be something as well. Serena, Allie, Roland, Athena, Carla, Harry. I need people to vouch for us, not children of the egg. Tom wasn't joking about our appearance; most people gave us a wide birth as we walked through town. Wide berths like making detours to streets around us. Or crouching in small narrow openings that our heads won't fit into. A fact not lost on me one bit. Except for breathing fire, the alien species that we'd become looked remarkably similar to the fairy tales, except for the fact that we seemed to be much bigger than any narrative I'd read. The hostile look of us wasn't going to be helped by the spikes beginning to grow from our spines either.

"So, we get the press organized. But what about you Kim? As a member of the judiciary that will be overseeing at least part of your case I am bound to tell you not to leave the area until the grand jury that will convene in a few days makes a determination. But, I understand that you intend to help a woman find her lost family somewhere down near Boise is that correct? Can you? You are shot full of holes. If you do, that should be the limit of how far you travel." Laurence said upon his return.

Backing away further from them I curled my head around to look at my back and side. Stretching my wings out to their full extension I brought them down several times briefly lifting me from the ground (and smacking them into the yard repeatedly). I didn't really feel anything, although I could see blood ooze from between the stiches in my flank.

"Are you sure I've been shot?"

"Yes goddammit! Stop that!" Alex ran to look at my wound and impatiently motioned for me to crouch down so he could see it better. Shining a flashlight on it he punched my side a distance from the wound. "Kim you dumbass, you shouldn't go anywhere! Tell that woman you need a few days to see how you heal. I'm sure you don't feel it when the muscle group it went into is larger than I am. But that doesn't change the fact that you keep reopening your wound!" He made me roll over and, using super glue, stuck a large wad of gauze over the weeping sutures.

"Fine, fine. But one of us going to have to fly there, I don't know her number."

"Fuck that." Jerry said. "Give me her name and I'll find her number."

"Greta."

"...That's it? Just her first name? Do you at least have an address?"

"1475 Oakshield. Just down the street from Helen's house that has probably burned to the ground by now."

"My home." Helen muttered from where her head was laying on the table. She had finally drank herself into some kind of half-assed comfort.

"Actually, I should've mentioned this earlier. But, the firefighters saved part of it. The garage and the two rooms next to it."

"Jerry you asshole. You should've mentioned it?"

Helen's tears fell onto the metal table as she slurred. "G...good, there's some pictures on th..." She trailed off as she fell asleep.

"Is anyone guarding it?"

"Of course there are." He snapped. "If you haven't forgotten they are still trying to recover all the body parts of the people you made explode all over the place. The whole fucking street is a crime scene. Every home in the area has at least one bullet hole in it thanks to those pricks spraying fire everywhere. It's a genuine miracle that no one else was hurt."

"Make sure they get her pictures or whatever she was about to talk about. I'm sure your officers can recognize something that is worth a damn to a mother if they see it."

"I'm sure your very smart Kim. But you are not the only one, I don't need you to hold my hand every step of the way. Once we start parading your children in front of the media and the public what happens next?"

"We wait for the tide to turn on these militants. They are not really the problem though, are they?" I swung my head to look at Stout and he nodded. "The problem is that we have a cell in the United States military that seems to be actively encouraging bloodshed. Against their Commander-in-Chief's desires it seems."

The Colonel agreed. "That is the big bad boogeyman we must face. But at this time we can't go after him, we have no proof."

"But you just said..." Asuka started.

"Yeah, I gave you a name. But you have no other evidence than what I said to implicate him. And the only thing I have is a loud mouth orderly speaking out of turn. We need something more substantial before I go up the chain with something like this. There may be others as well."

"Colonel, I have to ask you something that I think is very important. Laurence and Jerry, you are included too. Do the three of you agree with the actions of these people? Laurence and Jerry, if this could be done without undermining the rule of law and turning your AORs into running gun battles would you side with those who view us as brainwashed alien invaders? Stout, do you agree that since the aliens that caused this are untouchable that we should be made to pay for what we've become? Even if it meant that this would make a better world? To risk it all by neutralizing us children of the egg?"

Tom finally asked them the questions that had always been on my mind, but I never really, truly, wanted to hear answered. Asuka and I made loud hissing noises as we inhaled and held our breaths for the answer that could make or break us.

Stout answered first. "Tom, Kim, um.... Asuka. I have been in the military for twenty-four years and seen humanity at its absolute worst. I am too cynical to think that we'd break the cycle of being a perpetual group of fuck-ups on our own. I know that none of you had any say so in what happened to you. But I'm glad that it did. I hope, I really hope, that what you have, are, and will go through does make this planet better for my children. There is very little reason for me to believe these aliens about what the future holds for us. But I know a trend when I see one, and it didn't bode well for the human species. I know that you all were once human and have just as little desire as I do to see us and yourselves vanish from existence. I see no logical reason to disbelieve these aliens. Whether or not that is our actual future is beside the point. They have already shown that they are more than capable of it becoming our future if we don't pass muster to them. There are many voices, as you've already seen, that would rather go down guns blazing to return to something that they cannot go back to, than embrace change. Which is ultimately what this is about, isn't it Prometheus?"

"Indeed." Rumbled from the roof of my home, out of sight in the darkness to the humans.

"Yep, yep! Many humans will be able to make smiles as they are! Some can make even more smiles as children of the egg. Although there have been many unhappy faces, and many, many tears to come, the outlook is bright for you!"

Tomoko's head and neck emerged from a...I don't even know what I was looking at...a window? Anyhow that is what it emerged from right in midair to make its contribution.

"Much thought went into arranging just the right balance of those of a Type 1A11101B2.45 psychological matrix along with those of a Class 135967AB.123579C.1 temporal profile to maximize the acceptance of, and the desire to, facilitate the changes needed!"

Alex asked it what was on my mind. "I don't suppose you'll tell us what those alphanumerical strings you just rattled off mean will you?"

"Of course not silly! You will not make a computer that will understand those codes for thousands of years! You didn't hear the coded gravity waves nor measure the spin of the subatomic particles that underlay what you heard me say!"

The perky little thing withdrew its head through the 'window' and, with a sharp crack of muted thunder, the whatever the fuck that thing was slammed shut. I waited for Thumper to appear and piss me off again with its input, luckily for every squishy human around me the tenuous hold on my temper remained untested. That's good, I just want to deal with Tomoko and Prometheus from now on. No more Thumper.

"Your wish is my command Kim! I do so look forward to working with you! We will have so much fun! I promise!"

Jerry waved his hand at what just happened. "That is why I want to help Tom. That thing just did something that should not be possible. Look what it did to you! I'm no scientist, but if you can name just one technology on this planet that can do a single part of what happened to you I'll take my shoe off and boil it so I can eat the leather. And it did that to hundreds of thousands across the globe. I don't piss facing into the wind, and I don't fight extraterrestrial gods. I want my children to live. If that makes me a sell out to my species...Well then, my thought that this world can use a good kick in the ass is all the more justified."

Tom turned to point his snout at Laurence. Asuka and I were still holding our bated breaths.

He fumbled with his hands at first, and neither answered nor looked at us.

Finally, my patience wore out and my held breath tore loose in a gale before I inhaled again.

"Look goddammit, I don't have a problem with people having a problem with us. I have a problem with them dealing with it by lurking in the shadows and taking pot shots at us while threatening our families. Spit it out, and let's work through it. Fuck! I'm not going to fucking eat you just because you say something I don't like!"

He continued to fumble with his hands before finishing the rest of his glass of liquid courage and beginning.

"I don't like this. I don't like what" He pointed at the roof and then waved his pointer finger around in the air where Tomoko had appeared earlier. "They did to you, to us, to this world. I don't like that you seem to be going along with it. I don't like that you seem to follow their words like a dog retrieving a bone. I don't like watching these aliens run roughshod over us all. Not once did they ever ask us to change. Not once did they ever give us the option of knowing where we were headed and a chance to change ourselves. No. It was all, you are stupid, we are smart, and might makes right. But to top all that off I also don't like seeing people kill each other because you were forced to be what you are from the human you were born to be. That they see you as agents of the aliens, whether that may be true or not.

"I don't know what to think about the fact that I have to decide on whether or not to charge a six-year-old girl with attempted murder. I don't like the fact that the only reason why she acted in a way that almost killed another was because he pulled a gun on her and shot her twice in the shoulder. I don't like that her statement was that 'he made me have ouchies, so I poked him with my nose'.

"So, no, I don't like this situation from top to bottom. And I'm still not entirely sure that I should trust you either. You may have been human before but how do I know that your minds weren't tampered with?"

This, this was too much for me. Not now. I couldn't do this now. Even though I had just told him to speak his mind so that we could answer each of his concerns my mind wandered, more and more, to the thought of blissful sleep. A break in the conversation occurred, and I wasn't even aware until Tom's snout nudged my own and my eyes opened.

"What! What? I wasn't asleep, I was just resting my eyes!"

"Oh yeah? What is this? Day one? Your body is trying to heal, and it is also with child. Go to sleep dear. They can come back in the morning. Right?" He swung his head to look at them. They didn't respond at first and Tom grumbled deep in his neck. "Right?"

"Sure, you bet! We could come back. Or we can just stay the night here. Is that alright with you Kim and Tom? Our families were already told not to expect us home until tomorrow."

"With the communications array that Stout has here I'd be better able to keep tabs on my officers as well for the time being."

Tom allowed their stay for the night, and I just muttered something about staying away from my chocolate chip ice cream. The only thing I could focus on were thoughts of the feeling of pillows against my underside, and the warmth of others close by.

I didn't answer, already half asleep by the time he had finished talking. I dozed as I heard the rumblings of Tom and Asuka, followed by the smaller conversation of most of the humans continue on for some indeterminate time. At last I heard Helen's insensible muttering as she was brought to her feet and the sound of my sliding patio door opening and closing. Last of all I heard the sound of car doors shutting and of an engine starting and then fading away into the distance.

After most of the sounds of our conference died down I felt Tom and Asuka nudge me to my legs as the soft whispers of their scales against mine helped guide me to our bed for the night. Angie, Haruto, and Hayate were already there neatly curled up next to each other. I crashed to the ground, and the last thing I felt that night was the warmth of the others as we curled about each other with tails intertwined and heads laying upon each other. Why was I so ti...

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