A month it had been since she had shown up here, from nowhere. Back from the dead, they said. She had been missing for months, and now, Kate Foxxe was alive and well, serving in Human Head Quarters until her injuries were fully healed.

Venom scarfed down another plateful of ground beef-and-cheese. Her appetite had never been heartier. As Doctor Maxwell had told her, more food, more energy, more recovery.

When she turned in her tray to Loranne, the HHQ head cook, Venom was greeted with an all-too familiar voice. That of the gravel-throated, buzz-saw tongued, steel-teethed General Sarge. Yes, he was actually called General Sarge formally and otherwise by every soldier.

"Private Foxxe!" he greeted, well, yelled. Venom fumbled into a salute.

"Yes sir!" she replied. He signaled for her to be at ease.

"Soldier, you seem to be coming more and more back to the realm of the livin every time I see you!" Sarge clapped Venom hard on the back. "Can't wait 'till you're ready to be shoved back to the front lines!"

"Thank you, sir." Venom coughed. The sling holding her casted arm swayed as she heaved the wind that Sarge had knocked out of her.

"And to think, you were our chief marksman! Better with a gun in your hands than a dragon with their fire. You up and disappeared! Yet, out of the brother and two fellow soldiers who'd been downed with you by that red beast, you be the only one to be found, alive to boot! Naked and unarmed, but alive, dammit!"

This hearty rant earned Venom another hard slap on the back.

When Sarge had left, Venom hobbled on her stiff leg down the corridors of HHQ. A few other soldiers greeted her with a passing "Hey, Zombie!" An affectionate nickname earned for her being 'brought back from the dead'.

These hallways, Venom remembered, were once those of the Sky Palace. The golden talonprints had long been wretched out of the smooth stone floors, and replaced with sickly gray concrete. The stained-glass windows and mosaics were barred over with iron grates. A saftey measure, Sarge insisted.

As Venom walked past the main entrance hallways, swarming with soldiers, her ears were blasted with the shouts of other people, and the chop-chop-chop-chop-chop of the planes' propellers. Another scout fleet, no question. Sarge explained their next target would be the Desert Crawlers' Cove. A human term for the Sand Kingdom Palace. Idiots. Queen Sandstorm had tripled defences. Her guard was always on edge, her palace more fortified than any other, with every SandWing inside, doing their part to ride out the storm.

She looked out into the landing strip for planes. Where the hulking black birds were about to take off, used to be the sands of the SkyWing arena, which was then turned into a hospital, and then a multi-cultural square, which used to swarm with dragons of all tribes, selling wares from all over the continent.

Venom shook the thought out of her head now. There was no going back to that old life, as being the SandWing venom, with all of her memories. Her armband was gone, her friends were dead and her brother was missing.

Kate hustled on along the stone floor.

Soon, she reached the training grounds. Grabbing a rifle from Hawkeye, a very good shot and a ruggedly handsome one at that. She stood on her starting point. She signaled Hawkeye, who released the several dragon-shaped and sized cutouts.

CRACK. CRACKCRACK. CRACK.

Kate's gun fired at the many different targets painted on the cutouts, hitting every one dead-on in the center.

When they stopped coming, the gates in front of Kate flew open. Adjusting her goggles, she ran onto the course, rifle on her shoulder. When a cutout flew into view. CRACK  it was shot, dead in its little wooden tracks. As Kate ran along the course, other cutouts popped into her view. Another crack of her bullet hitting home, to see the cutout was one of her soldiers.

Kate cursed under her breath, but was quickly back on track as a Desert Crawler decoy was flung right at her.

CRACK

The cutout shattered to a hundred pieces, and Kate ducked and rolled under the barrage of wooden splinters. No a scratch. Not even the corpses of dragons could take her out.

Recovering from her roll, Kate skidded into a turn, shooting at a Mud Muncher cutout, making sure to hit the target one between the eyes, the only way to take out a dragon tank like that. As another target sprung into her sights, Kate shot the soldier, a thumbs-up, before taking the head off a Sea dweller that flew in from above.

When the course was finished. Kate stood back at the start, hands on her knees, and panting. She peeled off her goggles and let them drop into the sand.

"Private Foxxe!" Sarge yelled from the training room's entrance. "Get over here."

kate hustled over to the tank of a man. "Follow me. It's time you met the Chief around here."

Kate followed Sarge into a huge room, the windows were opened to the sky, and a whole front wall was as well, jutting out to a balcony that overlooked the hangar below. She stepped on something irregularly hard, and stepped back to look at the dragon talon she had stepped on. A SkyWing. She was big too. Her skin laid across the floor like a decorative rug. Wings splayed, mouth frozen in terror.

"You like?" A voice asked from the balcony. "Slayed her myself. She was the queen of the wretched Smoke Snorters. First of the whole tribe that was either killed or enslaved."

Kate walked forward to see the man who had spoken. Lean, muscular. He turned around.

"Private Kate Foxxe." Said Commander. "Pleasure to finally meet you."

"All yours, Chief." General Sarge said, before leaving the room.

Kate reached out and shook the Commander's hand. He was the Big #1, Chief, First in Command. Most referred to him as Commander. He was in charge of the whole operation. Some say he's been born from a whole line of dragon-slayers, one of his ancestors being the one who killed Queen Oasis.

Anger bubbled in Venom's chest. His wretched ancestors killed her queen, and started a whole war. That's when we should have wiped out the scavengers. But here they are now, back to finish their greedy business and take the whole continent.

A shuffling picked up in the room. Kate froze, hand gripped her sidearm. She turned towards the room's left entrance.

"Now, now, Kate." Commander said. "It's okay. I'd like you to meet our friend, a vital ally to us, and not afraid to give us info on our enemy." He smiled

Her eyes widened. she dropped her gun.

Laying nonchalantly on the floor, decorated plentifully in gold and jewels, well-fed and smug-looking, was Dreamseeker the NightWing