"Beats me," R.D. said with a shrug. "She never really talked about her life before Dark Dragon massacred the city she was living in. I never even knew he existed, or that her father was in the military."

Some soldiers ran past them; R.D. sidestepped to give them more room. "To be honest, none of us really liked talking about family during that time. Alasea's had just died, Matt refuses to talk about his family, and I can't even remember even having a family. I can barely remember having a life as it is."

Helena pressed herself against the wall and watched the soldiers rush past. When they were out of earshot, she asked, "Did I ever talk about my family?"

"... only once," R.D. said after a moment. "After that, you kept pretty quiet about it just like everyone else."

"What did I say? Do you remember?"

"... you won't like it," R.D. said slowly, looking away from the girl. "Your dad was an archeologist. His last project had been studying the ruins at Persior. You went with him on that expedition... and when Heresy Bound himself to you, during the last moments before his soul was destroyed, Heresy used your body to destroy everyone there."

He left the main point unspoken. Helena was a smart girl... she would've figured out what exactly that meant.

"Oh."

They fell back into silence.

It was only a short elevator ride up to the surface Levels before they arrived in the hangers. It was looking less like a mess now, as cleaning crews were washing down the walls and moving debris out of the Falken pathways. One of the dragons, this one colored with gray scales, was sitting at the open entrance, as if keeping watch. The original three dragons that they had spoken to were nowhere to be seen.

As they entered the hanger bay, the gray dragon turned its neck around to look at them. Upon recognizing Helena, the beast motioned with its head to approach.

Helena went ahead first, if a bit slowly.

Upon reaching the threshold, R.D. once again saw the damage that had occurred on the island. Scattered here and there were the smoldering wrecks of destroyed Falken jets, and Nine-Ball and Nine-Breaker mechanoids. Also scattered across the island were the burning corpses of Devil Dragons, as fire crews and the occasional dragon went about cremating them.

"Uh," R.D. started up, trying to catch the dragon's attention. "Why are they doing that to the Devil Dragons?"

A low rumbled answered. "Devil Dragons fear the smell of their own dead. By letting the ashes of their destroyed carcasses spread across the island, it will ward them away from flying too low," it informed them. "This way, the ground forces will have that much more protection in the next battle."

They watched the actions briefly before a crashing sound in the distance woke them up a bit. Some of the wreckage of one of the main defense turrets had collapsed. In the air, the original red dragon was circling down to them. As it landed, it turned its gaze to Helena. "I sense that you have not eaten your fill," it said, causing the gray dragon to turn its gaze on the girl.

"Oh." Startled, she shrugged. "Well, I'm not really hungry right now."

"Regardless, you must eat," said the red dragon. "The energy it will provide you is necessary for the training you will undergo. Come."

It lowered its tail and positioned its back so that Helena could climb atop the beast.

Helena looked back at R.D.. Then, turning back towards the dragon, she carefully approached, climbing up on the great beast, gripping tightly to its hide.

Turning, the creature spread its wings and took off into the air, taking Helena off to a relatively unoccupied hill, where the other two dragons were waiting.

Now that Helena had gone off to begin her training, R.D. rested himself against the wall. Beside him, the gray dragon returned to its vigil.

"So, how's the alliance going between the Tribes and the Mountain?" R.D. asked. The dragon shifted one eye to look at R.D. for a moment.

"Due to the siege at Shayol Ghul, her majesty had to take the long route around the fortress," it replied. "It will be some time before she can make contact with Lord Dargor."

"Long, huh? That sucks."

"There were other complications. The Ancient, MegaMan Juno, has gone missing. Seril went with the Servitor to assist him in his investigation at Kattelox Island."

"Because one of the Pillars of Dawn is there, right?" R.D. asked. The dragon nodded in confirmation.

A surge of fear rushed through Helena when the dragon lifted off. It was a surge that, amazingly, floundered and died, and only the unexplained bliss of flight remained. It filled her with peace, lingering even as the dragon landed on the isolated hill. She was even reluctant to slide off the great creature, but her limbs automatically did so for her.

The charred remains of a lamb was resting on a spitroast held over a fire pit the dragons had created.

"Eat your fill," said the black dragon. "We are aware that your sense of taste has not yet adapted to accept both the human and draconian pallet. We have prepared the food according to human tastes."

"While you may not be hungry, your body will demand more and more energy as we develop your power," the red dragon stated, turning once the girl had removed herself from his back. "We will be pushing you to the limit, for we may not have much time, here on the island of Aube."

Helena looked at the burnt lamb, the fire nearly tickling its red roasted flesh. They wanted her to eat that? She loved meat, but she had never eaten it when it resembled a carcass.

She had lied. She was starving. It was starting to look delicious.

The tail of one of the dragons gently nudged her forward. "Go on, feed. You will thank us for it later."

Helena walked up to the spit, the aroma growing stronger. She reached out towards it with both hands, not really thinking.

Bringing her face closer, she bit down into the flesh with ease, tearing it away in long, jagged strips. The dragons, even the world came to be nonexistent as she devoured her fill.

The dragons observed silently, making sure the girl consumed a decent amount of food before they began their training. Meanwhile, R.D. was finishing up his discussion with the gray dragon.

"... so you're saying that there's a chance this Dargor guy won't work with Relayia because they've never met?"

"Possibly," responded the creature. "The Gray Mountain is an isolated place, and the people there settled the region to remain isolated. It is only through chance that Bahamut made contact with Lord Dargor. It was only an unstable treaty that rose between our peoples."

"Well, Relayia seems like a smart enough kid--don't give me that look, she's a kid by your race's own standards, I know she's older than me--like I was saying, she's a smart enough kid, so I'm sure she'll figure out a way of approaching them without getting their backs up."

"We can only hope," the gray dragon replied. "Their power would be quite useful against the Five. It would be a shame if it was squandered."

R.D. nodded. According to the Hartnetts, Bryant and Brandon at any rate, a small contingent of the Gray Mountain's forces had literally plowed their way through Gouki's lair, into the dungeon, and escaped with a couple of prisoners to boot. Tactics like that required balls.

"Well, thanks for filling me in," he said. "You'll send Helena back when she's done here?"

The dragon nodded but said nothing, instead returning to its vigil. R.D., seeing the conversation was over, turned to leave the hanger. He wondered where he should go from here... return back to the quarters, where hopefully Matt, Hugo, and Ileyna were still at, or go see if he can find Alasea and that cyborg.

Matt and Hugo were still at the quarters. Matt was back at his game while Hugo just sat on the bed, staring at the wall. To the Mettaur's eyes, he was running through the latest data he had collected.

Ileyna was standing on the mattress behind Matt, seeming to coach him through a difficult section of the game he was playing.

"... now if you jumped over his fireball like you've been doing, you're just setting yourself up to get hit by the counterattack. Instead you duck under it and swing, and his counterattack misses you completely."

"Finally asked for help, eh Matt?" R.D. commented after a moment of watching.

"Shut up, R.D.," Matt said, peering over the little console's top.

R.D. rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine," he said dismissively, moving over to his own bunk and sitting down on the mattress.

Looking over at Hugo, he asked a fairly typical question from their old quest. "Anything new in the database we should know about?"

He was rather common of him to ask about new enemy types or enemy strategies that Hugo had figured out. It paid to be careful and up to date in the world the Five Beasts ruled.

"Not really," Hugo said. The green panels overlapping his eyes vanished.

"Nothing, huh?" R.D. frowned. "Hard to believe we've seen everything that Ziatoch's got... the giant monster ship was new, but its not something we need to worry about, thanks to KishouDoragon..."

"I'd have more data on it if I got up close," Hugo said. "And once we're finally out of this world, I can get more."

"Hey, are they almost done with scanning the Essence?" Matt asked, bashing buttons all the while.

"You're not gonna win if you keep mashing the buttons like that," Ileyna pointed out, possibly not for the first time.

"Don't know," R.D. replied. "They said they were close to completing it when the General had that meeting, but I have no idea what point the download's at right now."

He paused. "I don't even know how they've managed to find a way to hold all that information," he continued. "Didn't you say Dr. Liger's computer equipment got fried when they tried it?"

Matt pushed the pause button, and the fast game music suddenly became quiet. "Yeah. But maybe these guys have more advanced computers."

"Did you tell them it could happen, though?" Hugo said.

"Yeah. They'll be careful."

"We should try asking tonight, after everything's settled down," R.D. suggested, watching Ileyna settle down by leaning against the metal wall behind Matt.

"Sounds good."