R.D. watched apprehensively as the red dragon sniffed at Helena a couple more times, then pulled its head back suddenly.

"Heresy," it growled out, causing R.D. to raise an eyebrow.

Before he could ask, the red dragon turned and walked to another part of the hanger, and he thought that maybe it was muttering to itself.

The black dragon, on the other hand, looked at R.D. sideways. "The island you spoke of... what did the humans call it?"

"Uh... what was it... Persior!" he exclaimed after a bit of thought. "The place was called Persior."

"I surmised as much," the dragon spoke softly before turning and following the red dragon. The blue dragon also left, but not before stopping and looking down at Helena through the corner of its eye.

The three began to converse, but not in a language R.D. could understand.

"What just happened?" Ileyna asked tentatively, looking back and forth between R.D., Matt, Hugo, and Helena.

"I don't know," Helena whispered.

"I don't like its tone," Hugo said.

"I'll, uh, go find out what's going on," R.D. said, backing up before turning and following after the dragons. Man, what went wrong this time? he thought irritably.

As soon as R.D. left, Matt asked, "Why the hell did it smell you?"

Helena put her hands in her pockets. "I don't know. Maybe I smell like a dragon?"

"That just sounds awkward."

After a few minutes, R.D. called back to them.

"Matt? You might want to hear this."

"Comin'!" Matt called, walking over. He still felt a bit tense-these were still dragons, after all.

Once Matt arrived, he gestured to the dragons. "Tell him what you guys told me," he said. The red dragon nodded.

"The girl has been infested. Heresy has Bound to her," it growled, looking as humanly disgusted as a dragon could get.

"Heresy?" Matt said. "What are you talking about? What's that?"

"Heresy was once part of the Dragon Tribes," the blue dragon said quietly. "We dragons have always been the guardians of nature on this planet. We are attuned to it, and draw our power from it."

"But he... he was different," the black dragon said, just as quietly. "He subverted the power, and corrupted it. He let it consume him, and he became something worse than a dragon. Something almost as foul as the Dark Goddess of the Ice Dragons. He perverted everything he touched. He was a monster."

Hmmm, this kind of story, huh? "Lemme guess, you sealed him away on Persior?"

"Of course not," the dragon muttered, snorting. "We already learned our mistake with Sheena, boy. Heresy could not be permitted to live. We slew him in combat."

"It was you foolish humans that conjured his twisted soul back to the mortal realm," the red dragon said, sitting back on its haunches. "Your kind sought to control his power, but such a thing cannot be controlled. In the end, the humans who summoned him sealed him away at their island of worship."

"Normally the Ruinsman Beasts protecting the island are enough to ward off those who come to Persior," the black dragon spoke again. "But with the troubles plaguing this world..."

R.D. nodded. "Someone of unusual power would eventually disrupt things, and humans returned to Persior."

"Exactly," the blue dragon said. "The Ruinsman Beasts must have gone dormant for a time, allowing the Hiroshi Expedition to study the ruins. And Heresy was released from the Gateway."

R.D. said nothing. He and Matt both knew what happened after that.

"...so now Helena's running around with the spirit of an ancient and powerful dragon," Matt said.

Well, this was just magical.

"You said that this... Heresy... had Bound itself to Helena," R.D. started.

"That is correct," the blue dragon said, looking at R.D..

"Are you sure? She's exhibiting none of those traits of someone whose been Bound. She has no Bound Armor, her eyes haven't changed, and instead she transforms into a dragon. That's not any Binding Ritual I've ever heard of." He would know, after all, he had undergone the Binding Ritual himself.

"You are correct. But, as we said before, R.D., Heresy perverted everything. Our goals, our traits, everything. Everything he did became twisted and foul. The Binding Ritual was no different," the red dragon growled. "What he did was destructive and barbaric. Blasphemous. Such a process completely destroyed his soul, at the cost of the purity of his victim."

"Your friend, Helena, now holds within her the genetic material of Heresy, mixed with her own," the black dragon said somberly. "That is why she transforms, why she now exhibits the instincts and behaviors of our kind."

"Well, she hasn't acted evil ever since I've known her," Matt said, trying to reason it all out. "Sure, she acts like a dragon, but she still tell friend from foe and all that."

"The souls of those who Bind themselves to a person only change their instincts, not their personality," the red dragon said. "She is in no danger of losing herself to the beast within."

"Speaking of that," R.D. spoke up. "She wants to know why she's been transforming, and if she can control it. Is that something you can help her with?"

"Possibly," the blue dragon said after a while. "I do not know if its entirely possible with the damage she has sustained."

"What kind of damage we talkin' about here?"

"Her transformational abilities will be much different from our own," said one of the dragons. "She has been changed in a way that we forbid. Such is the power of the tainted Binding."

Matt's shoulders tensed. "...what are you trying to say?"

Edited by The Helldragon on June 12, 2009 at 21:51:27.

The red dragon's body began to glow slightly, and contracted on itself. With nary a sound, limbs shrank and shortened, the dragon's neck and tail were sucked in, along with its wings. Part of the beast's body became regular clothing, and within moments, where once a red dragon stood, now stood a tall man with red hair and a stern look on his face. Notably, the man's ears were slightly different--from the bottom, they seemed human, but as the eye traveled up the ear, they darked into a red color, and looked much like the side crests on a dragon's head, almost like a elf's ear made from a scaly texture. Another unusual feature was the strange color of the transformed dragon's eyes--humans didn't normally have gold-colored eyes, after all.

"This is how we dragons transform into a human's shape," he said in a surprisingly deep human voice. "Our transformation is painless, and quick."

"... and Helena's isn't," R.D. said, thinking back to a time when, after they had vanquished Diablo, Helena had forced her wings to form through her shirt. It was one of the more unpleasant things R.D. had seen and heard in his remembered life.

"How do you forbid how Helena transforms?" Matt asked. They weren't giving him any direct answers. "Can you help her or not?"

"We will try," the black dragon said simply.

Across the hanger bay, Ileyna spoke up to Helena and Hugo.

"Matt looks angry," she said quietly.

"I hope he's not trying to piss them off," Hugo muttered.

Matt folded his arms with a small huff. "Well, how're you gonna do that? You gonna try to pull out Heresy's soul or something?"

"Haven't you been listening to what we've said?" the black dragon growled, growing impatient with Matt. He leaned his head down close to Matt. "Heresy's attempt at a Binding destroyed his soul. All there is left is scattered fragments, and removing that may very well kill the girl."

"Well, then, what can we do?" Matt asked, trying to keep his voice down.

"We will find out if we can teach her to control her power," the blue dragon said. "That much R.D. has requested of us."

Matt leaned back and glanced down, thinking for a moment. "How long do you think it'll take before you can reach a conclusion? If she's salvagable or not?"

"That we do not know. We will find out soon enough," said the red dragon, who then transformed back into his original, draconic form.

A deep sigh. What other choice did they have? "Well, all right. You want me to send her over?"

~Seattle, Washington~

"So, how far off course are we?"

"Very?"

"Do you think they know where we are?"

"Not right now, no."

"How is she?"

"Still asleep, her arm stopped bleeding."

"...Is she going to make it?"

"If we don't run into any trouble I think she'll be fine in a couple of days."

"...Are we?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you think we're better off just hiding in here until this all blows over?"

"We can't just sit here! Everyone is depending on us! We need to find the scepter!"

"...Yeah...I guess you're right."

"Don't break down on me man, we can do this."

"...Ok."

"...Hey."

"Yeah?"

"Your turn to get the food."

"Fine..."

The dragons nodded, all at once. R.D. turned and called out to the girl. "We need you over here now, Helena."