Skylark nuzzled his brother, and his Father when he crept closer. Skylark's head tilted to one side, making the curls on his head bounce cutely. "Is Daddy... leaving..?" He asked quietly. The thought of Edge leaving for good made a strange feeling bubble in his chest, and he didn't like it at all. He had woken up to Edge yelling and screaming, then storming out in a huff. He had a sinking feeling... Edge wouldn't make it back. Ever. Hot, wet tears rolled down his cheeks as he cried. Skylark wished he could be more ignorant, and not know the darker truths. He sniveled. "W-Where's D-D-Daddy...? I WANT MY DADDY!!" He howled unreasonably. "Father, Father !! Bring Daddy back! I need him!! Whaaaaaaaaah! Waaaaaaaaaaah!" He cried like a baby. Which, in all technical purposes, he was. 

Meanwhile, Edge had just made it out. He coughed. It really smelled. He found, that, getting out of the chute was hard. Now, he was barefoot against the mud. He took another step, breathing out slowly. When he raised his foot, there was a deep bloody gash. A piece of metal had dug into the sole of his bare foot, but his anger clouded the pain. "Path, I hate you! Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate!" He roared. He had been walking for a few hours, and there were many cuts, wounds, and gashes on his body he was in a very dangerous position. As the thunder cracked, he knew that the acidic rain would soon start falling. And there was nowhere for him to run. Or hide. "I hate him! Hate him! He's so annoying! And weak! And so..." A drop of acid fell on his cheek, leaving a deep red burn mark. He widened his eyes. 

He laughed, though it sounded a bit like someone else. His voice wasn't this cruel. His voice wasn't so... fake. Suddenly, he realized the darker personality ad resurfaced. And it had killed him. Gritting his teeth as more raindrops fell, hot tears rolled off his cheeks, blending with the rain. He began to run, ignoring the throbbing pain of having open wounds and acid leaking into them. What was most important... Was settling things with Path. 

It took a few minutes, but he finally returned to the shack where the chute was hidden. He was glad that he had wandered less than a mile away. He looked down at the infinite pegs of ladder. There were red marks all over his skin that already tattered his clothing. Since he had given his shirts to his kids as blindfolds, he was bare chested. Suddenly, the human hurled himself over the edge and landed on the metal floor with a loud -smack!- He cried out as he probably broke a leg. 

Not caring, he ran until he found Path. Delirious, he recognized the feeling of death approaching. He reached out with both hands, wanting to hug the dragon one last time. He wanted... to die one last time, in Path's arms. He wanted to say sorry. That he didn't mean it. He wanted to confess everything he had ever felt and share it with Path. As his doom approached, his darker personality shriveled and shark to nothing. All but ignoring his kids, Edge cried out and fell to his knees as he felt his human heart throb dangerously, signalling that death was near.

His violet eyes locked with Path's golden ones. The dragon would see how bright they were, how innocent and pure. They were... just like how when they first met. Well, maybe not that much. Perhaps they were a bit darker. Making love and cuddling had made him a bit more mature. Meeting his kids made him a lot more mature. He smiled. though his face was torn and bloody, his teeth shone pearly white. Tears streaked his face, seeping into his cuts, inflicting only more pain. It hurt to twist his skin, so he tried not to move. He wanted to say so, so, much, but only managed to choke out a pained, "...Love... you..." Then, Edge fell forward, eyes slowly slipping shut. 

Pain. Longing. Love. Hate. Darkness. Hydra. Bloodlust. Sex. Science. Hypnosis.

Words and images flashed in his mind as Edge's human heart eat a last time and he slumped onto the ground. Skylark was lucky enough to be asleep, dreaming of his newly dead Daddy. This was the end. Edge was... Dead. Skylark, though he didn't wake up, cried in his sleep and felt a heavy chest. 

Or not? A black light would surround Edge, lifting him up into the air like he was a puppet. Then, they would split into strings. The strings wrapped around Edge's lifeless body, until he was in a complete cocoon. There were spots were light shone through, and it beat and convulsed. It had dug a hole through the ceiling and floor, attaching itself to the Earth. The hydra felt his body being torn apart. It tickled just a bit. He was nothing and everything at the same time. He was being reborn. Suddenly, the cocoon ripped away, leaving nothing but a swirling swarm of blackness that was all that was left of Edge. 

[i]I want to be pure again. I want to be human. I want to love, and be loved in return. I want to forget... forget... forget!![/i]

In a blinding flash, the raw energy formed together into a body. He fell to the floor with a gentle thud, and the lights disappeared. It was Edge, fourteen years old, but now totally human. He had erased his memories of being a hydra. Unless one of them came to him to jog his memory, he wouldn't recall anything about his past lives. But he remembered his human life. He remembered his kids. And most of all, he remembered...

"Path..." The boy croaked, violet eyes snapping open. Slowly, as if he had never walked before, he crawled over to where his mate was and hugged his legs, rubbing his cheek against porcelain skin lovingly. "W-What happened...? I remember the eggs hatching and... and..." He smiled laxly. "Oh, well. Not all of us can be super-smart dragons! Some of us have to be weaker, and softer." He yawned, tired from being reborn. "Mmmfh... Path-Path? What-ever is the matter?" He asked with concern. "You look a little shaken up..." Using the dragon's knees as leverage, he raised his face to the other's. He rubbed their noses together in an innocent way of showing love. "Want me... to help you with your stress, baby?" Edge smiled. Having Path made him feel like it was alright to have cursed eyes, a deformity. As long as this amazing creature loved him... It didn't matter. Path would find, that Edge was very human, not a trace of hydra scent at all.