A Dragon's Tale #Watty's2015

The Final Chapter

Six Months Later

12/23/2027 12:01 PM

Fort Talon Command, Fort TalonRepublic Of Romeo

"Nina made a full recovery", Nolan said as he stood across the table from us.

"And..Shadow?", I asked, pulling Adelind close to my side, the kids waiting with wide eyes for his answer.

"Just....barely", Nolan said, sounding quite relieved, "they cracked it at the last second and were able to produce an artificial heart for Shadow. He'll never breathe fire again, because his Fire bladder was damaged beyond repair, but he'll live."

There was relived laughter and smiles all around. I felt a huge weight off my shoulders at hearing "he'll live".

I guess I have some explaining to do. You see, even with the stupidly advanced technology at the hands of Romanian Doctors, Shadow's genome, which would allow his body to accept an artificial heart based on the same technology that had turned me from dragon to human and back again, proved impossible to crack. So in a desperate bid that had nearly cost Romeo it's location on the globe, every single dragon in the country had gone to the US in an attempt to rally the worlds best medical experts to save his life. Lucky for us, they agreed. After the week of Shadow's surgery, things began to get up hill.

We came forward about being genetic experiments and the UIS Government, after facing an Invasion by Romanian Forces, another potential one, pushing from the US army and civilians, finally decided to say that it was true. I was there with President James South as he signed the disbandment papers and held them up for the world to see with the words, "Never again will the US Government do such a thing." The man earned my respect right then and there.

Months 2 and 3 lead to more preserves being created for the dragons who were in the project who had no home to go back to, or didn't want to. Thankfully though, most of the recruits chose to go back to their families, and were accepted with open arms. This time period lead to the decision to allow dragons to re enter the US armed forces if they wished. To some of them, the army was the only thing they knew and were happy with it, so they stayed in as active Tier 1 operators. I'll admit, when I heard of this, Hudson, Wyatt, Frank, Jackie, Emelia and I debated weather or not we wanted to go back to the Marines, try and pick up where we left off, maybe find out who killed Holland, but then I remembered the promise I had made to Adelind. I made the decision, though it was hard, to put my uniform on a hanger. Hudson and the others, however, did not and would return to the Marines the first of the year with Hudson as their leader. It was a knife in the chest for me to have the chance to return to the Marines, and have to pass it up, but I had made a promise to the one that I loved, and I was going to keep it.

"Well", Nolan said standing up, "that leaves one last thing."

"Yes sir?", I asked, "what are your orders?"

"No orders Major", Nolan said, "Draco is in ruins, the war is finally over and Christmas is in a few days. So I, as your active commanding officer, have decided, it is a criminal act on my part to ask you for anything else. Greyson is waiting with Nathan and your V 66 on the helo pad, you can go. You are hear by granted full military honors, and honorably discharged."

I smiled and pulled Adelind into a kiss as the others did the same with their mates. The kids started jumping for joy.

"Were going home!", Dusk yelped, "finally were going home!"

"Crap", Sozenn said as we left, "no one is going to get any presents this year, there's no time left."

"Actually Sozenn", Mnerloth laughed, "I think this is a present."