What Was Missing

Twenty-Two: -Maddy-

Sprinting at full speed, Max limping to the side, I finally reach the vine-like gate. My armpits are soaked with sweat, it's odd how I think of that now, and newfound claustrophobia is heating me up like nothing you could believe. I know something's wrong, but I can't take it in properly. We have to get out of here...

The silvery door's still half open, and ramming into it with crushing force, I push past and race through the halls. Gotta get out... Too cramped...

As I pass through the exit, the temperature cooling with a faint whoosh, something odd happens, something I'll probably never be able to explain. My surroundings flicker to grey, save the hues of crimson that rush by, and in this endless standstill of time, everything goes wrong.

The reddened walls flit by me. The carpet drags below me. My foot drags in the carpet. My foot is caught in the carpet. My heart is caught, skipping a beat. My eyes widen as I fall to my feet. My foot twitches, crumpling below. My pupil thins, so small in the glow. I-have-to-get-out-of-here, I-have-to-get-out-of-HERE! As a strangled gasp escapes my throat, I collapse to the floor, my mind going elsewhere. As my lifeless form falls limp, I feel Max trying to lift it with an anxious exclamation of my name. It doesn't really sink in, and then I'm off, in the body of the blackened dragon.

The memories are back.

They were gone, at least when I awoke from the dream, but as my tendril-ridden, scale-embroidered body is lifted higher and higher into the sky, they flood back relentlessly into my aching skull. Thin wisps of white mist drift across my darkened plating, the bright-blue sky surrounding me, and as I float far above the troubles of the world, I know where I'm heading. To a convergence of points, to stop the inevitable. This is where I head, but once again, I can't control the body I inhabit. And so off I go, towards a point in the far-away distance.

I'm heading, to my surprise, to where the children will meet. Where I will meet.

I veer suddenly left, the whispering clouds parting way, and dive down below. For a moment, I catch a glimpse of brightened treetops, but then my gaze is brought upwards and I face ahead once more. I have to confront them. It's the only way. All of the plans are falling apart, They didn't take everything into consideration... They didn't do Their job. I thought They were perfect... I was wrong. I twitch a tendon in my right wing, turning ever so slightly, and close my eyes against the roaring wind.

Jacob's going to break free... I can't keep him in his bonds much longer. Maximilian has the relic- we didn't think he would ever take it. They didn't think he'd ever take it, I correct myself, I was only a witness to their discussion.

Lilian was... modified somehow. Jacob is struggling, nearly free. Maximilian is empowered. Madeline is unknown. Someone's become entangled within the whole procedure, someone who wanted the whole project never to happen. Somebody's trying to stop it. Someone we haven't taken into consideration...

The grass fades into view, and clenching my eyes even harder, I call upon my inner workings and begin to communicate. After a moment, I speak into my mind.

"...The plan has failed. I need to disrupt the Meeting."

As I could expect, I hear only static, but after a moment, I get a raspy response.

"...You may not disrupt the meeting."

Eyes flashing open in anger, I lose my balance, spiraling down to collapse with an audible thump against the grass-strewn plain, painfully crushing my paw.

"BUT I MUST!" I roar in my mind, trying to convince Them. They have to know how illogical this is...

"...You may not. You can only observe." I hear the static cease, and the voice is gone. Frustrated, I rise into the sky, approaching the meeting point of the children. I have to break it up, no matter what They say. They don't even care what happens to this world...

I feel a sharp pain in my side, and the last thought before I spiral to the ground is this:

They must have planned it like this... all along. They didn't care... about me, or the children, ...or anything.

...They only care about their Revival.

<> <> <>

My eyes shoot open as I hang over Max's shoulder, the ground blurring with a speed that I can barely comprehend. I avert my eyes, waving away the nausea, and struggle against his grip until he slows down and sets me down. My body rolls onto the ground with an Oof, and I hear a mumbled "sorry" as I readjust to stare at him. He looks at me from above in obvious concern, and raising to my feet, I shake away his help and tell him that I'm fine. "We have to keep going," I mutter, and he looks at me with even more concern, almost like I'm a psychopath in need of some serious help. Which, I realize, might be true, after I hear his next question.

"Maddy, what happened back there?"

I glance at him, start forward, and reply.

"I'll tell you as we go."

<> <> <>

"So let me get this straight," he mutters between breaths, a puff of air here, and a puff of air there, "You had a dream too, and you didn't even tell me?"

I roll my eyes, and glare at him disgustedly. "We just woke up! You know, the dragon chasing us, and the fact that you flew?"

He grimaces, stumbles, and pulls something sharp out from his pocket. "I found this thing. When I press the button..." He pauses, fingering an indent with his thumb, but nothing happens. Holding it up into the sky, he scowls. "Well, it did let me fly."

I laugh, despite myself, and he looks at me oddly before shaking his head. "So, you can't control the dreams?"

I shake my head, lowering it for a second for breath. "The second time... I don't think it was a dream." Looking into the clouds above, searching for the beast, I get a flash through my vision as I remember where it landed. The glance of the treetops, then the grass... I slow down to a stop, tap Max on the shoulder, and point in the general direction of the jungle. He turns, following my finger, and I as I see his confusion, I begin to speak.

"It landed somewhere around there. I think... I think I can find it again."

Grinning, he replies. "Well, let's try it? I don't think we have anything to lo-"

Before he can finish, an echoing roar flings out towards, and glancing into the forest, I crumple onto the floor once again.

As I raise my dark-scaled body from the painful spot it lies, I angrily shoot into the air, trying to reach the meeting spot before the children reach their spot or my body gives again. "We can kill you," They're trying to say. Well, I don't care.

Doesn't the world mean more than my life?

--Hello! It's all finally falling to place in my mind, (I think :p,) and I hope it makes at least a bit of sense in text! So the black dragon had something big to do with all of this, and the children's parents may not all be what they might've seemed.

This may/may not all come together, more to be revealed soon,
--DraconisSolutus :D