His right claw was covered with the tiny machines up to his elbow when Ladon bellowed in pain. Alexis opened her connection to him and flooded him with strength. She could feel the invading nanos attempting to assimilate Ladon into raw material.
Break away! She cried in his mind.
Ladon wrenched his claw away from the creature, but the multitude of nanos already attached to his body began restricting his movement. He could no longer keep his wings open to fly. He crashed into the snow.
Alexis took off running towards Ladon.
Don’t come any closer! Ladon snarled in her mind.
I can’t just leave you, she cried.
Yes, you can. Get as far away from here as possible.
Alexis could feel Ladon’s resolve in her mind. He knew he was facing death. He was afraid of what would happen once the enemy nanos fully integrated him. But regardless of his fate he knew that if any of the others got within reach that they would suffer the same fate.
She could feel his energy draining as he fought to keep the nanos out of his mind while his brain planned and discarded scenario after battle scenario. Ladon quickly concluded that an offensive attack while trying to defend his life wouldn’t work. Alexis felt his resignation sigh through her entire body even as her mind screamed its denial. Ladon was going to attempt one last kamikaze attack. If he could take out the creature’s heart and brain stem at the same time, it might prove to be enough damage that even the mutant nano machines wouldn’t be able to recover from.
Alexis could feel something stirring within her; but she didn’t have the time to examine what it was. She knew that if Ladon went through with his plan he would die. She also knew that at the rate the enemy nanos were multiplying Ladon would never live to complete his suicide mission.
She knew that once he made up his mind that she couldn’t stop Ladon. But, Alexis had to do something. Think, Alexis. This is just another puzzle to solve, she told herself. The men had told her that every Drakonian had an affinity to control something. She was now Drakonian. What could she control? She had tried playing with fire and water like Ladon and Ryuu, but that hadn’t worked. She couldn’t diagnose illness like Tugarin. But all three told her that her nano machines were unusually powerful. Why? She started rapidly replaying the times that she used her nanos in her mind.
Then it clicked. Her nanos talent was taking over other nanos. It was how she kept Fafnir from controlling her nanos. It was how she easily invaded the minds of those around her. She could send strength to anyone she chose. But she needed to do more than send strength this time. She had to completely shut down the enemies nanos invading Ladon.
Could she do it? There was only one way to find out.
47
Tugarin elbowed Ryuu and pointed at Alexis. She was visibly shaking and tears tracked down her cheeks as she stared intently at Ladon. The two dragons could feel the buzz of their communications because of the abnormal strength of Alexis’s nano machines. But what made both dragons step back in surprise was the rippling of pale white scales tipped in blue and black across her skin. She was like a young dragon trying to shift for the first time. But even full blooded Drakonian females couldn’t shift.
“How is that even possible?” Tugarin asked Ryuu.
“I don’t know,” Ryuu whispered.
Tugarin heard a strange note in Ryuu’s voice and turned to look directly at the black dragon. “But you have an idea, don’t you?”
Ryuu shook his head. “I thought it was just a tick of the light when she almost died of the mating bite fever. The scales didn’t actually emerge like they are doing now, but during the height of her fever I thought I saw something that looked like scale under her skin.” He ran an agitated hand through his hair. “I looked through as much of the library as I could, but the only reference I ever came across was the story of an ancient human mate that shifted when her mate was in danger. It was written like a fairy tale…. a myth.”
Tugarin looked back at Alexis. “Not so much of a myth anymore.”
A large shadow crossed overhead and the two men flinched. They had gotten distracted by Alexis and almost forgot about the monstrous enemy circling overhead.
“We need to get to cover.” Ryuu headed towards Alexis.
Suddenly Ladon launched himself into the air as Alexis screamed. She turned to the other men.
“Help him! He plans on sacrificing himself.”
Ryuu looked up to where Ladon was winging his way towards the creature. He frowned, something was different.
“Where are the nano machines that were covering him?”
“I shut them down,” Alexis slashed her hand through the air. “Does it really matter? He’s going to die without help and that thing is going to continue to wreak havoc across this world.”
Tugarin sighed. “She’s got a point. We need to stop this thing here.”
Ryuu shifted and took to the air. His black form a sharp contrast of the bright tundra. Tugarin hugged Alexis and whispered for her to be safe before his blue joined the colors in the sky.
Ryuu knocked Ladon off course; keeping him from his suicide attack. Alexis expanded her mind to hear all three dragons. Ladon was equal parts angry and relieved at his attack being thwarted. Deep down he still wanted to grow old with Alexis.
She heard Ladon explain his logic about destroying the heart and brain stem to keep the nano machines from saving the creature from death. The three organized their attack.
Ladon attacked head on, distracting the creature while the other dragons circled around. But Fafnir’s Frankenstein wasn’t so easy to out maneuver. He refused to fall into the trap the three dragons set.
Help me!
The pain clawed through Alexis’s head and rippled through her entire body. She could feel that the being trapped within the body of the monster no longer had any control at all. His clumsy movements at the beginning of the fight were equal parts the nanos learning from its opponents and the organic being fighting for control.
The creature remained on the defensive for a while; but just like with Ladon its nano machines soon learned the patterns that the three dragons fought in. Soon it turned to offensive attacks.
The first one it took out was Tugarin. It grabbed the blue dragon as he circled close to attempt to take out the creature from behind. It moved so fast that Alexis missed the hit that shattered Tugarin’s wing; but she saw the aftermath as Tugarin tumbled to the ground, one wing flapping uselessly in the air as the other struggled to control his descent. He hit the snow and ice with a sickening crunch.
Alexis actually laughed in relief when his cursing and intense pain swept over her. At least he was alive.
Can you deactivate these damn things? Tugarin called to Alexis.
She sent instructions for the frequency that shut down the creature’s nanos to Tugarin. The first wave they encountered deactivated quickly. The second wave not so much.
“Damn they are adapting like the freaking Borg,” Alexis said through clenched teeth. She hoped that Star Trek’s solution worked here. She cycled through similar but slightly different frequencies until she hit on another one to shut down the nano machines.
In the short time, it took her to deal with Tugarin’s nano problem, both Ryuu and Ladon had engaged the beast. They wrapped around the creature ripping and tearing with claws and teeth. The creature’s nano machines had swarmed across all of them. It was impossible to tell where the creature ended and the other dragons began. The nanos restricted Ladon and Ryuu’s movement which in turn restricted the creatures.
Soon the three appeared to just be an undulating metallic mass suspended in midair. At least until they started falling.
“NO!”
Alexis scrambled towards the area where they fell. She could feel both dragons being devoured by the nano machines. She could hear the individual trapped within the creature weeping in pain and despair.
She could feel Ladon dying.
It couldn’t end this way. It just
couldn’t. She had just recently realized that she loved him. He was the only one she could believe loved her without question forever. She couldn’t lose him. She couldn’t go back to those days devoid of love and filled with doubt about her own worth. Ladon gave her love and showed her own self-worth.
She had no idea what she could do to save him. But she ran anyway because she had to do something. As she ran she didn’t notice that she began to move faster. She ignored the itch beneath her skin. Then the beast rose from the mass of living nanos and raised its head to the sky to roar its triumph.
Alexis put on a burst of speed without realizing that her body was changing. Her legs elongated and became more muscular. She stretched clawed hands forward as wings burst from her back. Her face elongated as fangs erupted in her mouth. Scales rippled down her body until the human Alexis was no more and a beautiful dragon took flight in her place.
The dragon Alexis knew that she couldn’t defeat the creature by size. She was delicate in comparison. But she was fast. And the strength of her nanos was on par with the creatures. The difference being she had full control of hers.
She hit the creature square in the chest throwing the thing off balance and preventing the fatal strike of its claws at the injured Ladon. Instead the creature’s claws sunk into her back, but she ignored the pain. She called on all her strength and poured it into her nanos. She intuitively used the virus that was within her body to infect and reprogram the creatures nanos until the first wave turned on the next.
The monster convulsed beneath her as her dragon pinned it to the ground. It was the control of the nanos that made her capable of such a feat outside of what her body was capable of performing. With each wave of nanos converted her strength grew. She removed the commands that forced the machines to continuously seek out new raw material, halting their reproduction.
As the wave of nano machines turned in her favor the creature ceased to struggle. It raised its giant clawed hand and gently caressed Alexis’s face. She screamed as a lifetime of information flooded into her mind. The man Fafnir had experimented on to create this monster wanted her to have as much information as possible. It was flashing through her mind so fast that she knew it would take months for her to sort through it all.
Thank you…
The words whispered though her mind as the images faded and the creature breathed its last. The body that had artificially been kept alive and together fell apart. Without a consciousness to hold them together, the remaining multitude of nano machines swirled around Alexis as her dragon stood and roared to the sky.
She turned and walked back towards Ladon and Ryuu, shifting back to her human form as she went. Tugarin watched in awe as the cloud of nanos formed around her. Energy arched through the cloud in a multitude of colors as the nanos swirled and followed her. She was a goddess on Earth in that moment. She was Kali and Kali Ma all in one…creation and destruction both. For a moment, even Tugarin was afraid of her.
48
Alexis could feel the added power of the nano machines that swarmed around her. Having control of so many gave her unbridled strength. It also allowed her mind to process at a much faster rate as the nanos took on part of the processes of her synapses. She quickly catalogued the things she would be able accomplish. Fafnir was insane, but the old dragon was still a genius. If he had actually cared about the people he used, he could have conquered the universe.
Despite the near addictive rush that the power of the nanos gave her she knew that she wouldn’t be able to sustain this for long. These new nanos required a constant influx of energy and raw material. Between that and Fafnir’s demented control it was no wonder that the poor man who had been the original creature had been nearly driven mad with pain and despair. It was a testament of his strength that he still fought Fafnir’s control.
Alexis heard Ladon’s cry of pain more than felt it. The swarm of nanos was overloading her senses. They were still being devoured by nanos under Fafnir’s control. Alexis turned and walked towards them, concentrating on her connection to the two dragons to guide her more than her sight which was obscured by the cloud of nano machines surrounding her.
She nearly tripped over Ryuu. She knew that Ladon had fallen near Ryuu. She concentrated and the nanos parted like the red sea so she could see once again. She kneeled between the two men. Ryuu had lost consciousness; but Ladon was watching her with pain filled eyes. He clenched his teeth as another wave of nanos destroyed bits of him.
Alexis kneeled between the two men and laid a hand on each. The nanos swarming around her swirled down her arm to cover the men. The machines started reporting back the injuries of the men as they infected the enemy nanos with the virus to sever their connection with Fafnir. Soon the nanos were inert awaiting orders from Alexis.
The damage to the two men was extensive. The nanos had consumed a large amount of their body; to the point of even damaging major organ systems. Alexis knew that Ladon was still conscious by sheer strength of will alone.
“You are really hurt, my love,” Alexis said as she laid her forehead against his. Ladon’s eyes softened for a moment before another wave of pain wracked his system. “I think I can fix it, but it’s going to hut like hell.”
Ladon reached a shaky hand up to caress he cheek before wincing in pain. “Just do it.” He laid back, closing his eyes. His breathing was ragged.
Without a second thought Alexis reactivated the inert nanos and added part of the multitude that flew around her until both men disappeared from sight. She connected to Tugarin, startling the man.
I need your medical expertise to help repair the damage to Ladon and Ryuu.
What do you need me to do?
Can you see through me to the nanos?
Not really.
Damn…I need to tell them what to repair.
Tugarin smiled slightly. In a way, it reassured him that Alexis didn’t know everything after her god-like appearance earlier.
The nanos should know Drakonian anatomy. Did you wipe their memory banks?
No, I just severed their connection to Fafnir and then coopted them.
Then they should know what Ladon and Ryuu started with before they began taking them apart. Just instruct them to return Ladon and Ryuu to their original forms and then use their repair functions to deal with any injuries that deviate from standard Drakonian anatomy.
Alexis rolled her eyes. You make it sound so easy.
She heard Tugarin laugh but she turned her concentration to the cloud of nano machines that currently covered the man she loved and her dear friend. She sent out the instructions and waited.
For a moment, she worried that it hadn’t worked because she couldn’t see that anything was happening. Then Ryuu’s body convulsed and Ladon cried out. The nanos started moving. It looked almost as if the men had been covered in swarming insects. It was a bit nauseating but Alexis refused to turn away.
Ladon’s body jerked and he started screaming. He just kept screaming until his voice was hoarse. Alexis wondered what the hell she had done to him. She was about to stop the whole process when suddenly everything stopped and there was silence.
The nanos retreated to swarm once more around Alexis. They revealed a very pale, very still Ladon. Alexis was terrified that she had killed him and a scream welled up in her mind.
Alexis jumped when a hand landed on her shoulder.
“He’s just unconscious, my dear,” Tugarin said as he waved a hand in front of his face to chase away the nanos. “Could you do something about these things?”
Alexis took a deep breath and called the nanos to her. They coalesced into an intricate suit of armor.
Tugarin whistled, “That’s a neat little trick.” He looked around the barren landscape. They were a good distance away from the research facility and the two sleeping dragons weren’t going to get there under their own steam. His nanos were telling him that the multitude of nanos that Alexis now controlled were already taxing her system. It would be dangerous to a
sk her to use them to transport Ladon and Ryuu with her new nanos.
He took out the small communicator that he brought with them and examined it. Amazingly it had made it through the battle relatively undamaged. He sent a few of his own nanos into the communicator to switch it on.
“…What the hell is happening? Is Anyone out there? The sensors are going crazy. Are you dead?” Tugarin winced and adjusted the volume.
“We’re fine, Cadmus.” He replied.
“Thank Gaia you are still alive.” Cadmus sighed over the comm. “How many did we lose? And do I need to start setting the traps?”
“When I said ‘we’re fine’ I meant all of us.”
“All?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“It’s a long story, Cadmus. We will fill you in once we get back. Do you think you are strong enough to bring out one of the gravitational load sleds?”
“Yeah, I think so. Do I need to bring extra weapons?”
Tugarin laughed as he looked over at Alexis and his friends. She was brushing the hair from Ladon’s face and still checking him over to make sure that the nanos didn’t miss anything. “No, Cadmus. The threat has been neutralized. But a cargo stasis box might be a good idea.”
Tugarin turned off the communicator before the former captive soldier started interrogating him on how they killed off one of Fafnir’s most feared creatures. He sank into the snow and flopped on his back. The aurora seemed particularly bright this evening. It really was a beautiful sight. Zoya used to love to watch the lights in the sky.
His heart seized a little at the thought of his beloved Zoya. He turned his head to watch Alexis, his only living relative (at least as far as he knew). He could hear Zoya in his mind telling him that Alexis needed him and he knew it was true. The battle with Fafnir was far from over. And as petty as it may be, Tugarin wanted to live until he knew Fafnir was dead. While he loved Alexis like a daughter, it would be the thought of revenge that kept him in this world.
Breathing Fire (Drakonian Chronicles Book 1) Page 20
