Sleipnir closed his eyes and took strength from the feelings he sent, holding tightly onto them. Opening his eyes, he glanced at Skylark and smiled in his direction. Squeezing his hand tightly, he pressed up closer against his side and murmured, "I'll always mean it. I love you Sky, so don't ever leave me like Daddy or Father, okay? Don't..don't ever say mean things to me, okay?" He murmured softly, then leaned forward to peck Skylark's cheek. He could still remember a long time go, when Daddy told him that such things meant love. Had Daddy meant 'love' back then when he kissed him? He didn't know if he should still care. Settling in with his brother, he stared at the horizon ahead of him and listened to Leo hum, "A story?" The hydra repeated, trying to dig through his confudled mind for any sort of event or fairy tale. What stories had he been told when he was younger? What-"Well, Once upon a time, the sky was really blue and so was the sea. The beach was a place everybody really loved to go, it was beautiful really. The sand was always nice and hot, it got stuck inbetween our toes a lot. We used to play all sorts of games and collect all sort of beautiful shells, I remember this one time, I was sleeping on a rock by the ocean and the waves came in, nearly washing me away. I found myself covered in seaweed, but you know what? I found this huge bright red shell, the colour of fire..." "Can we go to the beach one day?" Sleipnir interrupted. ----- "She sheltered him far too much." He responded curtly, then turned to look her in the eye. "Yet Somehow, he's survived more than we have sleeping underground. There's something...just wrong about that kid. Something worse than a hydra, can you see it in the way he looks? It's like he doesn't even know who's side he's on. You remember the age old warnings, don't you? This might sound crazy, but what if the hydra isn't our only enemy?" He sighed and scratched his head in frustration, cocking his gun. He shook his head and muttered, "Forget it." "Do whatever you gotta do with Ygdrassil, Terra. And whatever you see fit with Relin's young. You know I'm no good with this sort of thing anyway. None of us are. They probably need a good motherly figure after all the shit their parents have been through. It be good for them. Perhaps good for all of us if we had something to look after rather than fight for. Anemoli...." He sighed and scratched his head, starting ahead of the earth dragoness, "Anemoli is all I have ya know? And I'm all he has, which really isn't much. He doesn't show it, but he needs more than just books and study ya know?" He muttered, "He-" The metal dragon froze, then rushed forward down the hallways. "Fuck!" ----- The dragon chuckled at the sound of Edge's voice, echoing within the empty library. Slowly, he made his way towards the noise, "My king, do you not remember? How we first came to be? When you washed up upon the shores of this mortal earth and brought about life to the mindless fools? There is no 'saviour' without enemies." He paused and smiled softly to himself, lowering his voice, "I was but a possibility then, not even a thought, just the mere possibility of a misuse in power, never near strong enough for you to hear me, but oh my king, how you changed me." "With those you brought under your power....oh, how far our empire stretched. The discord already seeded in their minds, they were such wonderful treats, weeds for me to grow. I admit, the elders were pesky, keeping me down, new to their roles, but effective." He tsked and padded across the floor, a grin stretching on his face as he continued, "But then you had the humans, your precious creations. And how corruptible they were, do you remember? You made it so the others respected your puppets. Respect the chaos they caused and the domination they had over the world. It was wonderful, till I made a mistake. Perhaps, I encouraged your wards to take too much power, pushing the limit. You, so noble, let the humans leave, let them take you with them and leave the earth to rot." He walked towards the hydra, "You left me my king..." He lamented with feigned sorrow, "All alone, but then here we are and I must thank you. After all, you sent me this delicious morsel of despair. Such wonderful suffering of an unwilling soul. He who wanted so badly to be out to rest, such a wonderful clean sponge ready to soak up all the chaos and discord. And he brought me back to you, my king. Unfortunately, his body is far too well suited to me and short of trying to rid of him early on, I suppose, he will be spending a little more time with me. And I suppose, if he ever knew, he would be grateful knowing that at the very least, your power would reside with him." "You see, I am finally strong enough to come back to you my dear king, but unfortunately, this vessel...has become far too well suited to me. My own mistake, but after trying to dispose of it and realizing my own error, I came back, just to be with you, my king. Have you once more, well, have what I may get. And how wonderful, it is...that your humble elders have provided me with exactly what I needed." He stopped to stroke the crystal, "Funny little things aren't they? Feeding off power, in a way I suppose that makes us similar." He took a step closer to where Edge stood, "Everyone seems to agree, that they would be better off without you as well. Especially dear little Relin, or do you need to talk to him and confirm that?"