As Pulsar opened the door to his chambers to Kira, she stepped in and looked around in amazement at the grandness of her surrounds. The bed in the center of the room, pressed against the back wall was large enough to fight her on it 5 times shoulder to shoulder, high enough from the ground that she had to climb herself onto it, marvelous sheets of some unknown substance draping all the way to the floor.

Sitting down at a great desk of rock, Pulsar whirled his chair around and looked up at her. “So you’re the lovely princess of Protegra, hmm? I only caught a glimpse of you before, but I can see what I was missing that moonlit night. I see that your father gave you quite the set of… treasures,” he said teasingly, smiling playfully, not moving as Kira suddenly approached him in an instant, slapping him quickly and standing over him in anger. “And a good arm, too,” he growled, rubbing his cheek. “At any rate, it seems to me that you’re the one who can negotiate with me about how we’re going to be peaceful; simple enough, am I right?”

“As long as you’re not a pervert anymore, this perhaps will work out,” she glared, stepping away from him as Richard entered further into the chamber.

“Jeez, a guy just tries to kid around… but in all honesty, I see no reason to negotiate the peace part; it’s not like we have the technology on this planet to reach your world anyway. The main thing we need to discuss is getting supplies here; as you saw, most of the world has been strip mined away by those damn humans.”

“Humans?” Richard asked aloud, suddenly confused. “You mean those things with no fur on themselves?”

“That’s right. They somehow found their way here when I was still a child and killed a lot of dragons; those that lived were put into slavery of every form: controlled breeding, labor, you name it. Their brainwashing, however, just didn’t work. You can say all the nice things you want about yourself to someone, but they won’t believe you if you’re saying it with an energy gun to your head.”

Sighing gently and holding up a fresh looking book in his hands, he turned to the first page and showed them the large, heavy writing across it, stopping about half way up. “The dragon that was leading the secret rebellion is trying to write about what’s happened; he’s been through it all with a clear head.” Setting the book down on the desk again, Pulsar stood up and walked over to them, putting his hands on front of him, his eyes now a gentle red; it was if a lot of the anger within him had left after return to his rightful place.

“As I was saying, we need supplies in order to survive up here. Just a single shipment of food, water, and stuff to get us to survive, and I’ll be out of your lives for good, just like you wanted this whole time, right?” He smiled softly, his voice no longer his sarcastic, cold self.

“Though I want to help, Pulsar,” Kira said sternly, crossing her arms as she heard the door behind her carefully open, “I’m sure that I can’t do anything unless we get something in return. What can you offer us in return for the supplies you want?”

Pulsar looked towards the door for a brief moment, taking only a single second to draw in the figure standing behind Richard and Kira. Turning back to Kira, he spoke professionally and with no hesitation. “Even the technology you got from that Union before your generation was born is nothing compared to the power of our mystics. Give me 10 years to collect suitable adepts and to teach them from ancient texts that got buried under this tower as the humans closed in when I was just a whelp, and I’ll send a few to your planet, to teach your people what can be done with the power of the mind. I understand that it seems like a long time to get a return on your investment, but for what you would give, it’s well worth it, I promise.”

“Power of the mind?” Kira asked cautiously. “Like what? What could something like that offer to our people?”
“I can answer that,” a soft voice from behind from the chimed in, stepping between Richard and Kira and walking towards Pulsar, a flash of silver shining into their eyes as he turned around, the aging dragon pushing the glasses back onto his snout. “You want to see a demonstration on the knowledge of the dragon’s, and the power we can make. A simple enough proof,” he smiled, raising his eyes to look up at Kira and Richard proudly. “Ask me a question, any question, and I’ll answer it for you to the best of my ability.”

Pausing for a moment, Richard and Kira turned to each other in curious silence, neither of them unsure what to ask. “Come now,” the dragon beckoned, “I’m sure one of you has something you want to know.”

“Well, sir,” Richard said quietly, feeling unnaturally timid around the great beast, “I’m the sort of person to always been thinking about the unanswerable; trying to figure out things I’ll never know the answer to. So, I was wondering if you know what the beginning of the universe was like; what caused all of us to come into being?”

Smiling softly, the dragon stepped toward them and put his hands on their shoulders, looking between them and nodding gently. “An excellent question indeed,” he said brightly. “But to show you, I need you to first close your eyes, and relax. Then, I will answer your question.”

Slowly relaxing her muscles, Kira carefully shut her eyes, feeling the air around her skin seem to wrap in a pocket around her for a moment before suddenly being torn away, her feet slowly beginning to dangle below her, making her suddenly panic, snapping her eyes open to and endless display of blackness in front of her. Looking over to Richard quickly, she heard him gasp softly and open his eyes, looking around quickly and turning towards Kira, totally weightless in the unknown space. “Where are we?” He asked softly, slowly moving his arms to keep himself from tumbling over his own head.

“I’m not sure,” Kira said cautiously, looking around them for any signs of movement. “Is this where the universe began? Are we suddenly in space?”

“I doubt it,” Richard replied, slowly hovering towards her, waving his hands behind him to stop his movement altogether, standing directly next to her. “I get the feeling that we’re in some realm of the untapped mind, or something… like we’re looking into that dragon’s head; what better place to find the answer, right?”

Turning slowly to look at Richard, his eyes level to her own, Kira smiled gently in reassurance. “Do you think that’s it? Who knows, right? I’m just waiting for something to happen.”

As suddenly as her words escaped past her lips into the void, a flash of light to her right made her turn quickly, her eyes focusing on a growing white ball in the endless distance. Suddenly, an array of stars flew past them, not a hint of wind or noise around them, their eyes only drawing in the light from the stars, surrounding them in a menagerie of color and light.

Taken in sudden silence, Richard and Kira watched in stunned amazement as they seemed to hover in the center of all the stars, both of their eyes noticing a lone purple sphere hovering in their direction, passing by them and beginning to slowly fly into the distance, white shapes floating around on the surface, looking almost like clouds. “Is that… where we are?” Richard asked softly, watching it tumble end over end into the void.

“To think, this was created at the same time as the universe’s creation… Richard, we’re standing on the oldest planet ever!” Smiling brightly with excitement, she turned to him, noticing instantly has beaming expression, looking into her eyes with an unnatural, beautiful smile. Halting in her tracks, feeling her cheeks glow softly in surprise, Kira gathered her senses quickly. “Richard, what is it? Why are you smiling like that?”

“Kira…” Richard said softly, slowly reaching down and taking her hand in his, wrapping his fingers around it to cradle it in his palm, “seeing you so excited over that makes me really happy. It’s an amazing discovery, isn’t it?”

Nodding gently, Kira returned his smile, feeling her body develop an unknown tension and excitement, her heart beginning to beat faster with unknown emotion. “Yes, Richard… not a single person in Protegra knows about this. Just you and I…” Looking up into Richard’s eyes, Kira saw an unnatural light in them that not even the stars around them could produce. Her mind began to race, slowly coming into focus with a single, burning thought. Feeling it overcome her, she took Richard’s other hand in hers, blushing deeply across her cheeks and looking up at him.

“Richard, you and I have always been together. Even from the days you were first assigned to protect me, you did it without question and without demand. And somehow… you made it feel less like you were someone who had to be there for me, but more like someone who wanted to. You and I became friends, not just someone who was there for king and country. You learned how to make me smile, and when push came to shove, you protected me through any danger. I can’t thank you enough for doing that for me…” Slowly releasing his hands, Kira slid her arms around Richard’s plated waist, pulling herself against his armor and resting her cheek on its smooth, gently warm metal. “It makes me happy to know that you’ll always be there for me.”

Blushing brightly, Richard brought his hands to her shoulders, wrapping his arms around her neck for a moment before sliding his fingertips around her flesh, titling her chin upwards so she looked into his eyes, their noses just brushing together from their closeness. “I may always be there for you, Kira, but as long as I will be…”

Smiling brightly, Richard felt his heart beat in his ears as his body trembled with fear. His mind refused to make sense of it, but in truth, Richard knew exactly what was overtaking him. “Why shouldn’t I be there for you for whatever you need? Why shouldn’t we… always be together for one another?”

Hovering close to each other, the space around them becoming tense as they stayed in the other’s arms, a silent message jumped into their minds at once, slowly bringing their faces closer, closing their eyes as their lips pressed up against each other, softly kissing as the fear within them melted away into the void, their minds slowly backing away as their instinct came forward, filling them with intense passion as they pulled their bodies tighter together, refusing to let each other go as the hunger for each other overcame all of their senses.
Slowly feeling their bodies pulled away from each other, Kira slowly let her muscles forced into place by gravity, landing on an invisible surface below her as her body was enveloped in heavy, thick air, a sudden compression in her chest making her eyes jolt open with a gasp, back in the dragon king’s chambers, her eyes darting quickly between the two dragons in front of her, each with their arms folded across their chests, smiling softly to themselves.

“Now do you see the power we have, young lady?” the elder asked, pushing his glasses back up towards his eyes, letting his hand run back down his scaled arm to brush off the dust of years of labor. “Dragons have the capacity for infinite knowledge, something not very many, be it humans or people such as you, are able to fully comprehend. Humans wanted us for our power, but it was the power inside our skulls that overcame them in the end.”

Blushing softly to herself, Kira turned and looked at Richard, who attempted to look as nonchalant as possible around the dragons as possible; it was as if he realized that they didn’t know what they spoke in the void of their minds.

Turning quickly back to look back at the silver dragon, now holding a small scroll in his hand to bind the contract, Kira nodded gently and walked over to him, carefully taking it from his palm, smiling up at him. “You were able to show me many great things with what you did, and for that, I thank you. I know that my people will want the power you possess, in order to keep the peace among all planets. I will make sure you get the shipment of supplies within the next month, and you can count on it.”

Walking over to the desk, hopping onto it to sit on it, she picked up a pen next to her, writing her signature across it carefully, smiling to herself at her own fantastic learning; the learning of a feeling that overcame her body, each muscle in her body overcome with a new happiness she never felt before.


Sitting outside the ship as the sun set on the planet, Richard carefully used the blade of his halberd to split the plasma pistol he found open, reaching into it with his thumb to pull it apart, reaching in carefully and taking out the energy cell, attaching it to the blunt side of his weapon, activating it carefully with a tiny switch on the side, watching it spark forward in a small beam as he held the trigger down. Pondering to himself about its purpose, he surmised that it could be used as a small energy dagger within the pistol.

Adjusting the cell to point forward, the beam carefully hit the steel of his halberd, causing it to slowly glow with energy; it was now charged with the energy from within the cell. Smiling at his own basic engineering, Richard stood up, taking a few steps forward and swinging it down, grabbing the bottom of the weapon with his other hand and spinning it around across his shoulders, moving his dominant hand at the right time to send it swinging down to the rock below, the blade easily piercing the stone with no resistance.

“Let’s see those dragons try and get me now,” he laughed to himself, turning around to see Kira watching him from the ship’s main door, leaning against it and looking at him with a warm smile.

Blushing gently and returning the smile, his heart beating faster with happiness as he watched her, he spun the halberd once more for her amusement, tossing it into the air, and catching it as it spun down towards him, the blade just barely missing his leg as he spin it around under it, tossing it back up and catching it with both hands, winding up for a swing to the side with both hands, the force of the blade enough to send him spinning once, pressing his feet down into the ground for traction, hurling the halberd upwards towards his shoulder, swinging past his head for an intense hit at the small boulder in front of him, a clean cut emerging as the top part of the rock fell from the rest, laying at Richard’s feet.

“Where did you learn to do those fancy moves with that thing?” She called over to him as he walked over, switching the beam off and stepping into the ship, holding the weapon just below the blade with the rest behind him.

Smiling to himself, he followed behind her towards their quarters for the small journey. “I’ve been practicing with it since I was a kid, and got into the guard. I learned that whole thing with just a quarterstaff first, to make sure I didn’t lop my leg off. Needless to say, at first, I got lots of bruises from it,” he laughed, kicking his halberd under the table to make sure it didn’t move much during the trip, turning around and watching Kira sit, raising his arms up above his head and pulling the harness down across her chest. “But I learned, right?” He asked, looking into her eyes, his face hovering just inches from hers with a warm smile.

“I’ll bet you’re a very fast learner, Richard; you can do anything you want when put your mind to it, right? After all, you had some moves I’ve never seen anyone do when you had those dragons after you. And how did you learn to make that pistol into something you can use?” she asked, smiling up at him with a glimmering expression.

“Well, it was really simple,” he said calmly, gesturing over to his stowed weapon. “All I had to do was open the pistol up, take out the energy cell, and attach it to the side. The energy from the beam is strong enough to charge the metal, causing it to…” turning back to Kira, he felt his shoulders grabbed suddenly, pulled against Kira as she pressed her lips to his slowly, making him blush and put his hands to the sides of her head as he leaned into it, closing his eyes and focusing on the feeling charging through him.

Slowly leaning back against the wall, Kira smiled happily to herself, giggling gently with delight. “Richard, you know a lot, but you need to still learn when to be quiet listen to the subtle messages.”

Laughing softly, Richard smiled sheepishly and sat down next to her, pulling his own harness to his lap, taking her hand in his and looking over into her eyes. “You said yourself I’m a fast learner, right?” he whispered, grinning and watching her return it was a gentle blush in her cheeks.

“I wonder what’s gonna happen now? Where do you think we’re headed from here, now that we got Pulsar back to his rightful place?” she asked, hearing the door close behind them as the door closed behind them as the door locked into place, leaving them alone in the room as the ship rumbled with the power beneath it.

“Personally, I think there’s still a lot to see in this universe. After all, those humans are still out there. Do you think they’ll come find us?”

“If they do,” she said coolly, “they better be in for a hell of a surprise. After all, we have the best trained guards of all, right?” She smiled warmly, squeezing his hand.

“Better believe it!” he laughed, feeling the ship’s engines slowly come on behind them. “This isn’t over yet, but I think we’re ready for whatever happens, as long as I’m with you, Kira.”






As the ship slowly pulled up from the surface of the planet, leaving not a single mark below it as it took off, a messenger rushed into a great oval room in a building that rested under blue skies some light years away, quickly pushing a report onto a heavy oak desk in front of him. “Sir, we’ve just received word that our outpost on Dragonia has revolted, killing everyone on the planet. We believe a planet nearby is involved, as well as a dragon that was never in our possession appearing. With enough manpower, we can take the ground back, as well as assault the nearby planet with heavy bombing. All I need is your confirmation, and 300,000 men are on their way to capture the system.”

Pausing gently, the listener slowly took in the words, pressing his fingertips together as he thought. “Dragonia is vital to us, as you know. Now is not the time to abandon it, or the system. If only they knew what our monitors picked up towards the core of that planet… do anything you have to in order to secure it. You have no constraint from me.”

Nodding quickly, smiling as relieved, relaxed tone overcame him, he walked from the room, turning at the door and calling again to him. “Thank you very much for your time, sir. I’ll get right on with the orders, Mr. President!”