Yeah, came the reply. Helena looked up at Alasea. This...feels bizarre. Talking like this. Like I am now.

You learned how to talk human speech as a dragon, once, Alasea admitted. But I don't know how you did that before. And I can only communicate like this with one person at a time, and even then its a strain. It only comes naturally between the Daughters of Dawn, and they're not here.

Alasea made sure her wound was wrapped tight; she could just heal it normally, but she needed the energy for trying to help Helena.

Let me try Delving you again now that the transformation's complete, she sent, placing her hands back alongside either side of Helena's head. Your body's different, so this will take a bit longer. Just bear with me, 'kay?

She began delving once more, seeking to see if the DNA overwrite was finished or if something else was happening.

Okay.

Traces of human DNA laid buried within Helena's genetic makeup, like the transformation had just snuffed it momentarily with draconic code. It was a mess - a workable mess, but a mess. At least it felt like Helena was stable, and her body or organs weren't damaged due to the transformation.

After several minutes, Alasea halted her delving and leaned back. "The mutation's stopped overwriting your DNA," she said. Too much of a strain to try telepathy. "But some of your human DNA's still there. I think whenever you change, the traces of what's left over just begin an overwrite."

But that didn't answer her question of what was causing this. She didn't feel any active or spiritual block, so magic wasn't the cause. So what could it be?

Then I should be okay, Helena thought. Should try to change back. See what happens.

"Hold on a second," Alasea said, stretching out her arms. A magic circle formed beneath her, lighting the room up, and she began weaving wards around Helena's body. There. I've got some detection wards set up. We'll see if something tries to interfere this time.

Okay. Helena trotted over to the center of the room, away from Alasea. I'll try it now.

She didn't change much. Some bones clicked back into the right position and her snout withdrew into a human face. After a few minutes: "I can't finish it. Something's still blocking me." She had gained back her voice, but it was noticably deeper now.

Well, that much was progress, but still... "My wards weren't triggered," Alasea said. "They're still there, but it didn't go off. Shit! Who could be causing such a thing?"

Helena wrapped her claws around the bookshelf against the wall and pulled herself up, her feet struggling to find balance. When they did, she said, "At least I can stand." Her wings draped full length down her back, her massive tail dragging across the floor. More than ever, scales choked her skin - now thick, rubbery hide. Horns curved from her skull over her scalp, framing her hair in a bizarre crown.

"Might want to use your wings and tail to help your balance," Alasea pointed out. "If we can't do anything else to help you, Helena, we need to get out of here and meet up with the others. You gonna be okay being around outside?"

She crossed a thick arm over her chest. "The clothes I have won't fit me like this. I need something else."

"I'll try modifying some of your clothing later tonight," Alasea said as she went over to the bed. She yanked the thick quilt off and tossed it aside, and pulled the sheets off. "In the meantime, we'll have to toga it and hope the staff can forgive us. Now c'mere and let's see what we can do with this."

Helena walked over and raised her arms as Alasea created a makeshift outfit.

"I've been thinking that I needed to do this anyway," she said after a solid silence. "Like this was supposed to happen to me so I could learn something through hardship."

"What gives you that idea?" Alasea asked, looking over the girl's shoulder as she wrapped one end of the sheet over it and behind Helena's back, between her wings.

"Just started thinking about it. Wondering why I was made this way and no one else. You already told me I had a past life and how I became a half-dragon, but...I don't FEEL like the Helena you told me about. I feel like I'm living a seperate life from her, like I'm a completely different person.

So I was thinking about it, and I wondered, what if I was supposed to die? What if I was supposed to come back and experience this all over again so I could overcome it? What if I'm supposed to learn not to take life for granted?"

"... its possible," Alasea said, smiling a bit though Helena couldn't see. "A second chance at life would be pretty great, considering the hell you were put through in your last one."

She made numerous adjustments to the toga's fitting to ensure that Helena could freely move her wings, legs, and tail, and did what she could to tighten the knots with tape and bindings she found in R.D.'s bag. "Who knows, Helena?" she said amiably. "Maybe this is what the dragons meant when they said you had to accept who you are."

Helena smiled a very toothy smile. "Yeah. I think you're right. It's all finally coming together now."

Alasea frowned to herself as she stepped back and looked over her handiwork. "Still, acceptance is fine and everything," she said, "But I don't think they ever considered how much of a pain in the ass its going to be when it comes to clothing you. I am not looking forward to modifying your clothing."

"I'm sorry for causing so much trouble. I could try again, or if there's anything else I can do, tell me, no questions asked."

"Its fine," Alasea waved it off as she gathered everything back into R.D.'s satchel. "Not much we can do until we figure out what's blocking your transformation. Let's get going and find where the others are. Hopefully Matt hasn't accidentally blown up the machine."

Meanwhile, Matt had totally blown up the machine. "I'll KILL you, technology!" he shouted at the smouldering pile of tech on Gadd's worktable.

Gadd released a loud sigh and wiped his brow. "Well, I never expected such difficulty from an invention before. Still, we ARE getting close to the final solution!"

Hugo switched to a screwdriver tool and began unscrewing a bolt in the device's side. "We'd better. We're running out of time."

Ileyna stumbled away, coughing slightly from all the smoke.

"That's what happens when you use Omega Essence directly," R.D. muttered, using his powers to remove the flames from the worktable. "The amount of information and energy it puts out is staggering."

He began pulling all of the sundered metal over to him so he could melt it down and remake it. "Doesn't help that we're using inferior technology," he said, lifting up one large chunk. "No offense, Professor, but I'm not sure you've got the technology we need to properly harness it."

"As long as it gives us a few seconds to get inside the barrier, that's perfect enough for me!" As Hugo pulled off a panel, Gadd spun the machine around and took a look at the winding circuitry inside. "Well, I'm not going, of course. Mario and Luigi will be braving all that danger instead."

Luigi gave Mario a panicked look, teeth chattering. Mario just slapped a hand on Luigi's shoulder, and that seemed to calm down the taller brother a bit. Man, if he was scared now, wait until Helena went full dragon again, that should be fun to watch!

"Let's try drawing power in bursts," Hugo said. "Less chance to overheat if it's not being used constantly."

"Yes, but we'll have to make sure the mechanism only draws a tiny amount of power," Gadd replied. "It won't be easy, but I think we can manage it."

"Hugo, you're the one whose best with machinery and the like," R.D. said, holding a newly formed blob of liquid metal. Like when they were creating the new helmet for Hugo's G-Stone, they were using the energy-conductive alloy from his own armor for the device. But even then, the Omega Essence dwarfed the output of the G-Stone. "Do think there's a way we can separate the flow of energy from the flow of information? Its all the data that's killing the machine, I think. Hell, the Guardian Base's systems almost overloaded from a tiny burst, and we know what kind of rig G.A.R. had hooked up to it."

Edited by RisingDragon on September 7, 2010 at 12:04:33.

Hugo tapped the blade of the screwdriver against the worktable, each tap spaced like a rough metronome. "I've got no idea how we would do that. The data comes in too quickly and fills up the databanks before anything can be done with it."

Gadd gasped. "What if we deleted each bit of data as it came in?" he said, raising a finger in triumph. "If we overclock the right routines, then we can wipe each bit of data before it fills up the databanks!"

Hugo stopped tapping and rapped the screwdriver against his helmet once. "...it's worth a shot."

"Good idea," R.D. said, nodding, with Ileyna also nodding enthusiastically behind him. We don't need that information in this world anyway.

As the girl went about placing her beret back on her head, R.D. went over to the device and started molding the liquid metal back onto the damaged casing. "We should probably consider alternatives to breaking the barrier in case this doesn't work," he said as he worked Lumiya's energies. "I have some ideas, but they may leave me and Matt exhausted if we try them."

"Plan B: hitting it really hard," Matt remarked. Well, that usually seemed to work!

"Well, yeah," R.D. said, cocking his head briefly, as if considering it. "A joint attack from Hell and Heaven and Dragon Soul would be considered hitting it really hard, I think."

"We'll see if we can do it this way first, though." No reason to bust out the nukes when they could make a key for this door.

"I'm just thinking out loud," R.D. said, bending down closer to the machine to add the touch-ups and make sure there weren't any stressed points. "I suppose I can try hitting it with a Giga Drill Breaker, but I'm still not sure if I could control it."

"What do you mean?" Ileyna asked. She remembered when R.D. destroyed Re-Tuul using the gigantic drill weapon.

"When I was facing off against Sheena on my world," he explained. "She sent a group of mercenaries at me, along with her goons. During that time I found out that the Giga Drills I could create could absorb and convert other energies into pure energy. But that loads the energy into me, too, and with Lumiya broken..."