Chapter 3 "Dominique"

Akira ran through the academy, taking the lift to the one place she knew she could find Dominique. IF he was really here then he would most likely be with Brandon, and that meant the meeting room near the top. The room, that Akira had broken in to with Dominique when she had traveled five hundred years to the future. A room that in her time was the place all new riders these days met Brandon in, the man who currently ran the academy. 

The lifts seemed to take longer than usual, yet Akira did not even bother with the steps, knowing that it would take her way too long. Yet after waiting patiently for the various lifts and running through a few more corridors, the door she was aiming for finally came into sight. Without breaking a stride Akira ran to the door and threw it open. 

Out of breath she burst into the room to see Brandon was arguing violently with someone who had their back turned to her. Yet as soon as Brandon caught sight of her he stopped, a look of relief filling him. 

"Ah, Akira," he told her, "I'm glad you've come. We seem to have some confusion here, this boy here, he says he knows you." 

Akira's heart slowed as she watched the person with the back to her turn around. She stared at the blond haired, green eyed guy that met her eyes. Shock, and yet at the same time joy, coursed through her. 

"Dominique!" she squealed as she threw herself forward and threw her arms around him. For a moment Dominique stood stiffly, but then he put his own arms around Akira and hugged her back. 

"I'm so glad I found you," he murmured, sounding as though a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders. 

"You've grown!" Akira exclaimed as she pulled away, and keeping her arms on Dominique's shoulders looked him over. He had indeed grown somewhat, his shoulders a bit broader than the last time Akira had seen and the stubble on his chin showing that he had not shaved in the last days. 

The door behind her burst open and Gina followed by Seth and then Drake, burst in, all three of them looking more than a bit confused and very out of breath. 

"Your, almost a man," Akira grinned at Dominique, not bothering to turn around as she could already guess who was behind her. Yet had she turned she may have laughed at the comical expressions on her friend's faces. Gina looked confused beyond doubt while Drake looked like he wasn't sure what to think and Seth, with a look at Akira's hands on Dominique's shoulders, frowned. 

"So, you know him?" Brandon asked. 

Akira dropped her hands from Dominique's shoulders. "Ah," she shot a quick look at Dominique, wondering what she could say. Redemption had warned her, telling her that she could not tell anyone in her time that in the few months that she had disappeared she had actually traveled to the future. He had told her that the knowledge of time travel could possibly change the future, something that they did not want to risk. So how was she supposed to get out of this? 

"Akira," Akira turned to meet Seth's concerned eyes. "Who is this?" he asked, his eyes wondering to Dominique with a look that said he clearly didn't know what to think. 

"Uh..." Akira shot Dominique a frantic look. "He's uh....a distant cousin?" she tried lamely, the lie sounding anything but real even to her own ears. Apparently thinking the same Seth frowned. 

"A cousin?" Gina scowled as she walked up to Dominique. She came to a stop right before him and stood gazing at him before her hand suddenly shot up and grabbed his chin. Dominique's eyes widened in surprise as Gina pulled him down so that he was eye level with her. 

"You look very familiar," she murmured, "Have we met before?" 

Dominique shook his head and pulled himself from Gina's grip, carefully stepping past her before turning to Akira, a desperate look on his face. "Akira," he told her, "We need your help." 

"You're the one that needs help," Brandon muttered, "Thinking you came from the future and all." 

Akira shot Brandon an alarmed look before she grabbed Dominique's arm and pulled him over into the corner. "What did you say to him?" she hissed. Her eyes suddenly narrowed, "How on earth did you even get here!" 

"Akira, look," Dominique replied, his eyes pleading, "I'll explain everything but..." 

"Akira, what's going on?" Seth asked. 

Akira slowly turned around, trying to smile reassuringly at her friends. "Ree, I need your help," she thought reaching for her dragon's mind. 

"Well if I could come in there I would," was her dragon's helpful reply. 

"Akira, just listen to me!" Dominique spoke up as he grabbed Akira's hand and whirled her around, "Look, things have gotten worse, it's getting out of hand. The worst part is no one seems to know. We tried to stop them but..." 

"Look here young man," Brandon began, yet Akira held up a hand in his direction, making him stop. 

With a serious gaze she turned to Dominique. "Stop who, Dominique?" she asked. 

"The new black dragon and her rider," Dominique whispered. 

Akira's heart sank 

"A black dragon?" Redemption asked in her mind from where he was following the conversation. 

"Please," Gina snorted. "Sorry to break this to you dude, but a hundred years haven't passed yet, it's not even time for a new black dragon to be born." 

Dominique ignored her. "I don't know how, but they appeared not too long after you left. Akira, we've tried everything but there's something..." he trailed off, his eyes darting towards Brandon and the others, as though he wasn't sure if he should say what he wanted to. 

"Dominique," Akira told him softly, "There's no possible way there could be a black dragon..." 

"I didn't think so either," Dominique shook his head. "I didn't want to believe it, until I saw her with my own eyes. You've got to believe me!" 

Akira stared at him, different emotions rushing through her. How was this possible? She wouldn't believe it. And yet here Dominique was, five hundred years from the future, standing right before her. Somehow he had traveled back in time to find her, and she knew him well enough to know that unless he was telling the truth he wouldn't have come. 

"And all this is supposed to be taking place in the future?" Brandon asked disbelievingly as he shot Drake and Seth a meaningful look. 

"Akira, I don't know how, but they are somehow getting people to work for them, people that wouldn't normally do so! And almost everyone is living in innocent bliss, they don't even know this is going on!" as Dominique spoke Seth and Drake pushed past Akira and grabbed one of Dominique's arms each. 

"You need some serious help," Gina scoffed, shaking her head as she watched with one hand on her hip. 

Akira stood in shock, seeming to have frozen to the spot. "Ree?" she asked in her mind. 

"It is possible," his reply was not at all what she wanted to hear. 

"Akira, he has Argos working for him, Nemis, even Ray!" Dominique yelled as he struggled against Seth and Drake, yet they overpowered him and began to drag him from the room. "You're the only one that can help!" he sounded desperate. 

"Let him go!" Akira demanded. Seth and Drake froze, staring at her in shock. "I said," Akira began, her voice commanding, "Let him go." 

Both guys did as she told, still staring at her. The tone Akira had used they hadn't heard in months. It was the tone of voice she only used when she was not Akira but the rider of legend, when she took up her role of command. Slowly she turned to Dominique, meeting his pleading green eyes. 

"Come on Akira, tell this idiot you aren't going to believe this future crap," Gina urged Akira, obviously thinking that her friend was about to tell Dominique off. 

"There's just one problem with your story Dominique," Akira began and Gina gave Dominique an 'I told you so' look. "Ray is dead. The Night Riders killed him. I saw him get stabbed with my own eyes, I saw you tell Celine that he was gone." 

Dominique looked away sheepishly while Gina stared in disbelief with her mouth open. "He tells you this rubbish about some black dragon and the future and you argue about whether or not a dude is dead or alive?" she asked. "Akira, don't tell me you believe him! There's no such thing as time travel!" she exclaimed, when Akira didn't reply but kept giving Dominique a questioning look Gina turned to Drake. "There is no such thing...right?" she asked, sounding unsure. 

Drake shrugged, seeming at loss. 

"He went back in time, he altered it," Redemption growled in Akira's head, yet by the slight widening of Dominique's eyes Akira knew that her dragon had also let him hear his thoughts. 

"Dominique, you didn't!" Akira groaned, yet his look gave him away. 

"I didn't alter a thing other than saving him, I swear!" he protested. "But you've got to understand, Celine was pregnant for goodness sakes! I couldn't let her raise the kid on her own!" 

"How did he do it?" Redemption asked and Akira could just imagine her dragon glaring into thin air. 

"I made sure everything else went as it did before. Ray didn't interfere, nothing else changed!" Dominique continued, his eyes pleading with Akira to believe him. "I had to do it Akira. You would have to if you had seen Celine. She couldn't do it, not on her own!" 

"He used the scale I gave him!" Redemption exclaimed in surprise as he found the answer among Dominique's thoughts. 

"I had to do it!" Dominique repeated. 

"I gave it to you as a gift, not to be used for time travel!" Redemption protested. 

"Even if you didn't give it to me, I could have still used the armor lying around, so it doesn't make a difference," Dominique thought in reply, sounding somewhat annoyed. 

"Akira, what on earth is going on?" Seth asked softly, his eyes darting from Akira to Dominique and back again. 

Akira turned around to see her three friends and Brandon staring at her, confused looks on their faces. 

"Guys, look," Akira began, yet she trailed off. Should she really tell them? 

"Well the draglin is out of the bag, it's too late for anything else. Besides...Akira, Dominique is telling the truth...I saw it, in his mind. The way things are looking we can't make the future any worse than it is. So you better let the others know what's going on, that way we can let Dominique tell us exactly what is going on." 

Akira nodded in agreement, purposely pushing the thoughts of the new black dragon out of her mind, and turned back to her confused friends. "Um, well you see...ah...." She began, not sure how to start. "Well...remember those months I was gone in?" 

"Duh," Gina rolled her eyes, "How could we forget? We searched everywhere!" 

"Yeah...well," Akira shifted her weight from one leg to the other. She wasn't sure how to say this. "Well...the reason I was gone all that time was....um....because..." 

"Oh for goodness sakes," Redemption's voice sounded exasperated in her mind. "We couldn't find her because she was running around in the future, getting herself hanged and attacked by dragons, thanks to pretty boy that's standing among you," he thought for everyone to hear. 

There was a moment of stunned silence as each person stood, a different reaction on their face. 

"Um, technically, the second time she was caught it wasn't my..." Dominique broke the silence in order to defend himself. 

"Time travel?" Gina asked, looking as though she was about to burst out laughing. 

"Hanged?" Seth asked concern in his eyes. 

"You almost got her killed," Redemption thought for Dominique sternly, obviously still not having completely forgiven him for that. 

"I did save her," Dominique argued with Redemption, even though he couldn't see him. 

"The future," Drake murmured. 

"Well I never," Brandon added. 

As their voices began to blend together Akira put her hands to her head, trying to block her ears against all the voices. "QUIET!" she yelled. 

At once everyone shut up and turned to face her, looking somewhat surprised. 

"Jeez, I can't think with all this noise!" Akira told them. She turned to Dominique, "Dominique, what exactly happened after I left?" she asked, refusing to accept the fact that there was a new black dragon and rider. 

Dominique opened his mouth to reply and yet he never got further as Brandon interrupted "I think," he said softly, staring right at Akira, "That before he says anything, you have a lot of explaining to do so that the rest of us can be clued in to what exactly is going on here."