Kyle:

As we left, Jessica injected both me and Xao with healing serum.

Seraphim was able to use her wings to soar to the ground with Xao. Jaden had to throw me over his shoulder -which hurt... a lot- and hike down a ladder until Seraphim came up that ladder, picked us both up, and soared with us to the ground.

We traveled down several dark streets, Seraphim having the large cloak on her back hide Xao in it when we had to cross public streets. Jezreel staggered alongside Venice those times, me having to do the same. Jessica kept running around looking between the two of us to make sure we were okay and trying not to cry, realizing how much pain we were in.

Even as we traveled, Venice complained loudly to Seraphim that this was a mistake, no one could profit from this according to him. I perceived that he outranked her in their operation, just from how they talked and how he carried himself, but still, somehow she was calling the shots. I had to give a small smile, like Jess and me.

As we proceeded along, I couldn't help but notice the different reactions of the children with us. The character of Venice was intimidating to all of us, him clearly hating everyone, especially those of us who had the misfortune of being born pharaohs. However, the fear of Jezreel and Judith were almost palpable. They walked back from the main group, Venice often having to look back and signal them or stomp his foot to keep them from losing everyone entirely.

Finally, perhaps a mile later, deep into a dark alleyway, we came to a several-story warehouse. Venice pulled up and held open the large garage door to the place, which must have weighed a couple hundred pounds, with his left hand... gargoyles.

"I would recommend hiding your weapons," Seraphim said. "I see they are made of cyra, a metal only found on Triad. Pharaoh kind is not welcome here."

We all went in as he put down the door. Jaden deposited me against a large metal cabinet in the warehouse. He then took my swords, where to he didn't let me know yet.

I took in my new surroundings. First I looked up, seeing this was no mere warehouse, as it looked like from the outside. It was a several-story building with no windows. I looked up seeing hundreds of metal railways above me, some leading to large flat metal floors. Several of those floors looked like they had sleeping bags hanging over them.

On the railings, there were hundreds of people, most of them armed with knives, swords, and guns. Many of them were children... they were armed too.

I rested against a large metal cabinet, one of about a hundred of such. Many of the cabinets had pots and pans in them with hot plates plugged into various outlets, most likely supplied by the generators I saw strewn here and there. Other cabinets had blankets and medical supplies. Finally, many children's toys were scattered around.

A young woman ran over to me. "Oh my goodness... look at this wound..." She gently guided me to lay down on the stone floor. "I'm gonna get the bullet out..."

"You're a doctor?" I asked. She didn't respond, probably seeing me as a five-year-old, so why should she?

"How old does she look to you?" Venice asked, walking over to me, having put Judith against a cabinet as well. I wasn't sure how to respond. She ran off, just out of earshot. "She's older than Seraphim, four hundred years old. You are privileged to have her working on you...especially considering she had to watch as you purged her grandparents when her parents ran with her..." he sighed. "I will tell everyone that you are all normal children, though how long we can keep up that kind of a charade... I said I would let this happen and so I will."

"What my people did, I didn't-" he glared at me, the hate itself palpable. I dared not continue.

"It is only because of Seraphim that you still draw breath. Don't push your luck by speaking to me. Three hundred years ago, I protected a village full of humans and gargoyles. We lived in peace. When the Pharaohs started their purge, they came to that village and murdered every man, woman, and child, human or gargoyle. That was the day I became a legend among your kind no doubt- killing so many... hold your tongue to me or your life will be no different from theirs to me." He walked away as a chill went down my spine.

The woman came back to me with a bag of medical supplies. "What has him so upset?"

"I... I don't know," I lied, not sure how convincing it was as I shook.

She shook her head at me. "Another one of Seraphim's wounded lambs. She helps so many homeless children." She chuckled. "Amazing we only have a few humans like yourself here... you do know we're not human right? Most of the normal humans here don't survi-... well you see our medical supplies are limited-just-just forget I said anything."

"I was told that you guys are different... don't know what that means..." I said, doing my best impression of the little kid she thought I was.

"Well, don't worry. I've got you and your friends- and don't worry about Venice. He's a gruff person, but he means well." She looked over at Xao and Judith, who had been put together. She gave me a shot of something and I fell asleep.

(***)

I didn't have a normal dream, pharaohs often don't. Not too surprising, as our make up is not entirely human, sometimes when we dream, we relive memories in detail. It's like a machine in your mind just replaying a recording, with no way to control how long the recording plays, or which recording.

Many times these replays would have a theme- probably not too different from a normal dream that way. I guess this time the theme was my family.

The first memory started to play.

I was back on Triad at about sixty-five years old -suffice to say, aged three- and running through a large green field of grass nearly as tall as my shoulders. I spun around and looked up at my mom and dad just standing a few feet away.

Both of my parents had "let themselves go" since the war. Mom was rather lopsided in her muscle. For instance, she had well-developed biceps, but her forearms were basically skin and bone. Other than that, she was about five feet tall with blond hair and a face full of freckles. Dad was much taller than she with a "normal" male physique, save for his stomach that stuck out a bit, his upper body was shaped kind of like a pear.

I felt warmth radiating out from them both, them silhouetted by the Joon's building, which was a flying manufacturing plant with extremely bright lights- thing was dang near radioactive but as high up as it was, that wasn't a danger- for some reason I started to fixate on the mysteries of that building.

"Kiddo," my dad said, whistling a few times to get my attention. I grinned at him as he chuckled. He pointed. "Now, let's try this again. That yellow blade of grass, it's about fifteen feet away. Jump to it."

"Honey, he can't check his path, you sure this is a good idea?" Mom asked.

"You think he'll be able to do that if he gets in trouble?" he asked back.

Mom sighed. Me, I was excited to practice my jumps. I closed my eyes and ran through a few formulas for how to note distance at extreme speed in my head. I settled on counting. I started counting at a steady pace in my head, 'one... two...' I felt my inner electric pulse shoot down to my legs and feeding into them. 'three...' I shot forward, 'four...' I stopped.

I opened my eyes and looked around. I sighed looking behind me and realizing I had overshot by a couple yards. I hung my head.

"Hey, hey, hey!" my dad said clapping at me. "Go easy on yourself, I didn't master it at your age either. Not too bad." I smiled back at him, jumping (in a normal fashion) back a few times so I was about fifteen feet away again.

'One...two... three...' I shot forward again. I stopped and opened my eyes 'fou'- hitting something with my foot and toppling over. Pain shot through my leg and I screamed, now on my back. I struggled but I couldn't get up.

"Joran I told you!" nagged my mother as my father quickly rushed over and picked me up.

Dad held me under my bum and hoisted me a few times to make sure he had a good grip. "He'll be fine after an injection." He looked at my ankle, which was already starting to swell. "I give it about thirty minutes to mend."

"Joran..." mom said.

He chuckled. "Well, then we'll ask him."

They both looked at me. Compared to me, they were so big, but I felt nothing but safety and love from them. "It really hurts..." I said with a few hisses. I gave a few half whimper half chuckles. "But boy do I wanna try again."

Mom ruffled my hair as she gave a mock growl. "Boys!" she said. "Don't come running to me when- exactly this happens again."

"Technically I won't be able to," I replied with a grin.

Mom looked up as if to think. "Well really, given how likely it is that any one area in that field you jump to has debris you can trip on... the probability the next injury will be one you can't walk because of is about..."

"Are you really doing this?" asked my dad.

"Numbers are my thing, dear- right after my kid." He grunted at her. "And you, of course, you."

My father whispered in my ear, "I'm lucky there are no living numbers, your mother would have married one of them instead."

"Heard that," mom said.

"Figure out the formula?" dad asked back.

"Well, you see if I-"

That memory stopped playing.

The next one started.

Me and a few friends walked through a large open field a few hundred yards behind my house. My friends were a boy and girl whose names I had long since forgotten and the dream didn't remind me. I was still aged three, about seventy-two.

"Nook nook seta ford," I said, pointing up at a nearby floating island. It was a made-up language between me and my friends. I had approximately pointed at the waterfall coming off of the island and asked, "How do you think it works?"

The girl looked for a bit, her hand on her head. "Neka, neka... sebak nooo... nooo... took a nu?" (I think... I think... some kind...kind of... gravity control?")

"Secl awana tow foolo?" ("But where does the water come from?") asked the boy. We both stared at the island. It had several trees, a couple thrusters underneath, and that waterfall falling down to the earth below. I couldn't see water come up anywhere though and more water seemed to be falling off than could be held on the island. How was it getting water? Obviously, some kind of invention was doing it but... what? This wasn't the first floating island I had seen in my life, there were many in the city a mile from my home. I knew a number of them used different methods to stay up, but none of them poured water down. This was weird.

My friends and I were currently a small distance away from civilization, thus we were in an area that was inhabited by wild animals. One kind that inhabited our world was called a "margon". Margons were huge creatures that were covered in fur with three large horns on their faces. (I would later learn that earth scientists thought they had died out millions of years ago on earth and called them "triceratops". They had gotten all kinds of things wrong on them.) The reason I was suddenly thinking about margons was a part of my mind was acknowledging that I was hearing one not far from myself and my distracted friends.

"GET AWAY FROM THERE!" came a shout. I turned to look at my father about a hundred yards out, near my large white home. He had a sword out, pointing it to my left. My friends and I both looked to see a margon about four times my size on all fours. It roared at us as all three of us children started backing away.

The margon pawed the ground, snorting in anger, turning towards me in particular, my heart racing.

The margon was forced to throw its head right as something hit it and shattered, blood coming out just below its right large horn. It turned to look at my father, who had obviously just thrown a rock at it so hard it shattered on the creature's head.

I looked over at my father, too scared to move. I blinked- my father's form disappeared. He appeared again, only a few hundred feet from me.

The margon growled again, still looking at me, my friends had already disappeared from my side, both now hiding behind a nearby rock. The boy waved quickly for me to join them. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, but I couldn't move, seeing that massive creature fixing its eyes on me. I had no idea why, but that thing was furious with me.

A mass of electric energy shot over my shoulder and slammed into the head of the monster, the margon roaring at me.

Dad practically stepped straight over me, the margon walking back as he walked forward, his sword pointed forward, electricity firing off of it. The creature wailed in pain, its wail so loud I was forced to my knees, holding my ears. Still, my body wouldn't let me get up and run, my mind unable to reason with it.

The creature started to falter its stance, the pain no doubt incredible, even if my father couldn't manage true lightning (which no doubt would have killed it in short order).

In the distance to my right, I heard three distinct chirps. A red light shot overhead and impacted the margon's back crest, the crest exploding, the monster's head slamming into the ground.

"Kyle... are you alright?" my dad asked, turning to look at me. I looked at my mother, who was currently holding a spear with a metal contraption at its center.

"Joran it's not dead!" my mother shouted, quickly moving her spear up to her shoulder as if to aim it like a shoulder-mounted gun. Dad looked over his shoulder, seeing the creature get up and lunge towards us.

Three chirps sounded again as the monster continued forward. An explosion went off behind its crest where I could not see. The monster fell, one of its horns still ripping through my dad's shoulder.

"JORAN!"

"DAD!" We both ran to him, mother and son.

Mom pulled him off the horn, me wrapping myself around his leg, sobbing.

Mom pulled me away, hugging me tightly as I felt my heart race again, this time terrified something had happened to my father. She injected him with tissue rebuilding drug. He reached over and grabbed my hand.

"Buddy, you alright?" he asked. Mom let me go and I dropped to my knees again, sobbing.

"This is my fault..." I said.

"I'll be okay kiddo..." he said back. "That being said... ahhhhhhowww...grrrr," he said, I guessed doing his best not to scream in pain. Mom injected him with another drug, this one forcing him to pass out.

She then took a small device from her pocket. It had a small screen, a kind of flat microphone under that and buttons under that. She punched in a code and pointed the screen at my dad's passed-out and injured form. She pushed another button and I heard a click. I was still holding my dad's hand, as, even unconscious, it was holding mine.

Mom stooped down and pulled me away. "Oh darling, the doctors are on their way. He'll be fine." She pushed me away a little and forced my chin up so she could look at me. "I'll have to get some bandages all the same... you're okay right?"

"Nothing happened to me, but you both keep asking, I don't-"

"Hey- yes or no?" she said with a sternness in her voice.

"Yes."

She sighed in relief then yanked me into a hug. "That was terrifying."

"The only reason it was a threat to either of you..."

"Doesn't matter, you're okay, that's what matters," she said nodding. "I promise honey, we can fix him up, don't worry."

"I... I love you, mom... I love you, dad..."

Mom got up, turning to our house. The dream ended with me breathing hard, guilt and terror still mixing in my gut.

My mind sped forward again.

I was seventy-nine years old, in a few months from then I would have met Jessica, but of course, I didn't know that at the time.

That night I had sprung out of my bed, having dreams of my father and mother battling massive terrifying creatures with faces and bodies like men, but massive wings like bats. I screamed, throwing open my door and shooting out of my room, almost slamming into a wall across the hall from me. I turned and backed up against the wall, staring wide-eyed at my room. I held my chest almost hyperventilating.

There was a tapping on the wall above me and then a hand on my shoulder. I jumped away, only to realize it was only my mother. "You didn't hear me come down the hall? Jumpy?" she asked. "Must have been a pretty bad dream in there." She sighed and sat down next to me. "I'm right here honey, tell me all about it."

"Telling you how it went would mean nothing." I sighed back, relaxing and letting myself sit. "It was about the war on earth. The purge. I saw you and dad surrounded and those things- the gargoyles. They were trying to kill you. It's just... really scary to think about. I guess it got into my dreams- again."

"You've had that dream a few times." It wasn't a question, she and I both knew I had. "Your father and I survived. So why do you think you keep getting these dreams?"

"I don't know." I looked up at the ceiling, looking at the stucco pattern of the paint, getting a little lost in its chaos. "You're both soldiers, what if some time you were called to go again, to another battlefield, to face something just as terrifying and powerful as you say those gargoyles were... what if one of you didn't come back?"

"Heavy thoughts. I don't know how to answer that," she said back. "Wish I did. I think back to when that margon attacked." She looked down having said that. "We could have lost you. I felt so helpless watching your father try to protect you as I almost got there too late. That thing could have killed you so easily, and your father... I could have been left all alone." She hugged her legs to herself. She looked forward. "But we're lucky you and me. During that war, a lot of parents didn't make it home."

"Figured that."

"Did you figure both sides of the equation?"

"What do you mean?"

She held up a hand, sparks dancing between her fingers. "I've killed Kyle. Men, women, children, by the thousands. They had families, they had friends... ones they wouldn't be going home to. Gargoyles are changed humans, changed in terrifying ways, but they can still feel like humans, until a point. And then, even after they go insane, they can probably still love. Hard to know on that. Other humans and mutations were also caught in the crossfire. I cost many people their lives."

I looked up at her inquisitively. This wasn't comforting to hear about, in fact, it wasn't helping at all. "Where are you going with this?"

She was starting to tremble. "I don't know Kyle. Honey, stay away from war. You think your nightmares are bad now. I see the dreams you have and sometimes, I realize I'm the reason someone else had them."

"Ever wonder if there was a better way?" I asked, not looking straight ahead myself, my voice becoming calmer.

"Those monsters, the leprechauns, they made it so there wasn't. The gargoyles we killed, what they were, it wasn't their fault. I guess that's the most... it's the thing I hate about it all the most. We went to save the planet of our ancestors from desecration and destruction. No one we killed was the true culprit of that desecration."

"Why not go after Keshnaw?" I spat out the name of the Leprechaun homeworld.

"Their military power rivals our own. An all-out war with them could have destroyed us both. You already know that why ask?"

"Why not do it anyway?" I growled. "Monsters deserve to have their sins come back."

"Why fight a war you can't win?" she asked back. "Honestly there wouldn't have been a point. We got their attention by blowing up half of their second moon and they immediately backed off earth. We suspect the rogues that show up on earth from time to time aren't exactly... unsanctioned by their empire, but we effectively won that conflict without blood... well, save the tidal changes from that moon. True, I would have liked to put the generals and scientists of Keshaw on trial for the creation of the gargoyles, for crimes against all sentient life on that ground alone... but had we pushed further, they would have pushed back, pharaohs and leprechauns would have died and..." she shook her head, "who knows how far it would have gone and how much blood would have been spilled. Sometimes, you have to settle. I wish that weren't true. Sometimes, people force you to make hard decisions. Sometimes it's... just what you have to do."

The replay ended.

In a few minutes, I would wake up.