:They're about to hatch!:

When the call came, Saul was several levels downstairs, in his apartment with his girlfriend Keshari and, for the past three days, Kerberos-- much to Keshari's discomfort. He was currently reading on the rounded, cushioned hammock-chair, Keshari curled up against him and dozing, while Kerberos did... whatever it was he did, when he wasn't opping, in the private bedroom Saul had let him use, avoiding the lovebirds. It had been a comfortable, quiet morning, and Saul was as happy as he had been in a while. Keshari had been so excited that he would be staying more than a day, and they had been contentedly lazing about while he waited for the dragons to hatch. Kerberos didn't need much supervision, after all, except to make sure he ate and slept when he should.

That comfortable peace, however, was shattered by a screech inside Saul's head, which meant only one thing: the eggs were hatching. He started and rolled immediately off the chair and onto his feet, spilling Keshari onto the floor. "Sorry, Kesh," he said hastily, trying to form some kind of thought back at the dragoness and hoping to God it reached her: We're coming!

He swung the door to Kerberos' room open so quickly that it slammed loudly against the wall. "Kerbie, c'mon, man, we gotta go!"

Kerbie himself had been napping, simply curled up on top of the still-made bed and, as always, buried in every scrap of tattered clothing he owned. Key word: he had been napping. Cel's mental shriek had woken him immediately and frightened him right into fight-or-flee mode. So, when the door crashed open and Saul shouted at him, he jumped and tried to scramble upright in such a panic that he rolled right off the bed. Kerbie crab-scuttled on the floor in disorientation for a moment, then finally saw Saul.

"Go?" he squeaked, fully awake but completely not comprehending.

Saul froze while Kerberos got his bearings, then nodded hurriedly as comprehension dawned in those blank eyes. "Yeah, go. C'mon, those eggs are hatching. Didn't you hear?" He stepped into the room at that, advancing on Kerberos and taking his hand. "And we'd better hurry, or we'll miss it."

Not taking "no", "let me go", or even "I'm scared!" for an answer, the burley man drew Kerberos after him into the living room, where Keshari had gotten to her feet and was watching him uncertainly. "You can come, if you want to watch," Saul said simply, still walking for the door with his guest in tow. "Get Mother first, though, if you would, and bring her with you. I showed you where it was."

"All right, Saul," she answered anxiously, still unsure about the whole "dragons" thing but willing to trust him. Saul flashed her a grin, then was out the door with Kerberos still being led along behind him. Though he did make a confused little whine in his throat, he allowed himself to be led, eyes darting about nervously as if expecting some nonexistent threat to lunge at him, but he still followed. And, after a moment or two, picked up his pace so he could keep close to Saul's side as they left the house and went outside, his brows furrowing anxiously as he finally remembered Cel and the eggs.

Other people had obviously heard the telepathic shout; anyone who was receptive, it seemed like, and though that wasn't all of Zion, it was enough to make traveling up to the dragon's lair difficult, with Kerberos in tow. Saul made a quick decision, and told Kerberos quickly, "I'm sorry, buddy, but this isn't working. Hold tight." And, without further warning, he literally scooped the skin-and-bones-and-fabric boy up off the ground, hoisted him over his shoulders into something of a piggy-back position, and bellowed with his considerable lung-power, "MOVE!!"

The crowd of curious bystanders parted instantly, staring in shock at the bearded young man who had shouted so commandingly. "Thank you," Saul told them all with impeccable politeness, then took off at a ground-eating lope, taking stairs two at a time and holding securely to his burden. Kerberos yelped, but, though tall, he was fairly a featherweight-- he'd lost all his plant-maintained mass rapidly after he'd been unplugged, and his muscle-atrophy had recovered very poorly-- and he wouldn't have been able to stop Saul from hoisting him if he'd tried. The boy clutched at handfuls of the back of Saul's shirt, winced at the man's shout and looked back at the people he was carried past with an exact mirror of the startled faces they all looked at him with, as Saul began to run. Though Saul didn't really care if he was late and missed it-- as far as he was concerned, he was an extra, since there were only three eggs-- but this was Kerbie's best chance to snap him out of his lethargy.

Derf met them halfway, didn't waste time and breath on words, and turned about to follow in Saul's formidable wake back the way she'd come. They finally reached the dragons' lair, Saul for once utterly out of breath but still pushing despite burning lungs, and crested the stairs, heading down, just as one egg rolled itself over, covered in tiny cracks.

"Cel!" Kerberos exclaimed without thought, the dragoness' bright silver hide catching his attention as soon as they'd started down. She'd liked him, and shown him her eggs and thinking of the eggs again, he squirmed a bit as he tried to see where they were.

Panting, Saul came up beside his sister and slipped his burden to the ground, steadying him to make sure he stayed on his feet. "Yeah, Kerbie, that's Cel. Mags, did we miss anything?" She shook her head, flashed both him and Derf a tight grin, then focused back on the eggs.

As soon as the last candidates burst into the room they were confronted with almost complete silence. A hush had fallen into what of the crowd had managed to jam itself along the edges of the room, which was the only place they dared go under the watchful eye of the great modified bronze who watched them with a hawk's eye. An almost reverent feel blanketed the chamber, and the crowd made room for the candidates descending the stairs as soon as the panting Derfegertz made it known that they were there at all. Coming up beside Mags, Derfie shot the other girl a grin that was nothing less than ecstatic. "Isn't it great?" she panted, looking at the eggs, but then she was silent.

Cel was nudging the silent orb still, nuzzling at it so that it fell listlessly to one side. :Little one?: she crooned psionically, heedless of who might hear, open to all who were sensitive. :Little one, wake up, your bond is waiting for you. Come out, little love,: she whimpered to it, her rider's equal premonition of fear slipping like smoke beyond the block she had up and into the dragon's mind, mixing with her own apprehension. She whined, and stepped forward to touch the egg with one gentle forepaw, uncomprehending. The great bronze came forward a step, and Cel looked at him with depthless eyes, stepping back and whining. She had heard of dead eggs, but... she never thought it would happen to her. Saul watched the dead egg with a very sober expression, one hand still holding Kerberos' elbow for support, though he had stiffened with intense attention, perhaps a good sign.

Kerbie was so surprised to see the silver dragoness, that it wasn't until Saul had set him down again the boy realized that something was going on. Saul watched as he looked behind in amazement at all the other people and then blinked unsurely at Mags and Derf, and then saw the eggs. His eyes went wide and bright. Nobody had been able to explain the idea of 'bonding' to him in such a way that his tormented mind had understood, for all they'd desperately tried, and had settled for telling him Cel wanted him to watch her babies hatch. And now they were. Or... two of them were. Kerbie frowned unsurely at the motionless egg, taking in the reactions of those around him, and understanding that something was wrong, but not realizing what. But the other two were still moving, and they caught his attentions again almost immediately and became his only focus, like when Ruth taught him to op. He made no more sounds but had gone tense under Saul's hand, clearly and wholly concentrating on the eggs with some instinctual sense of eagerness.

The second two went on without the attention of their dam, and the more vigorous of the two was beginning to shed fragments of silver eggshell, the hide beneath gleaming flashes of wet gold in the dim light. The gathered Zionites inhaled collectively as a particularly vigorous thrash sent a chunk of eggshell the size of two palms to the ground, earning an encouraging croon from both parents. The dragonet began to push free from the hole that had bared its shoulders and back to the world but paused, catching its breath.

"A gold!" Derfegertz squeaked, grabbing hold of Mags's arm with incomprehensible excitement. "It's a gold!"

The second egg was shaking steadily, but the black lines that indicated cracks in the shining shell were growing slowly. The hatchling would likely be a weak one, and it was on this egg that Cel's attentions fell vehemently, her confusion replaced with a frantic determination fuelled by fear. She crouched over the egg, nudging at it and tapping to the hatchling within, the webbing of cracks spreading outwards from her helpful claws. :Come, my baby, just a little longer and you're free!:

Magdalena stood perfectly still as Derf clung to her, torn between wonder at the first birth she'd ever witnessed, and the fear that didn't quite want to leave her. Saul, beside her, was less dumbstruck. Though he let out a little gasp of awe, he kept his wits with him and ushered Kerberos forward gently, towards the little gold hatchling. As much as he loved his sister and believed she deserved one of the babies, she was sane, and could handle a weaker bond-- the gold should be Kerberos', and he intended to make sure the boy got his chance.

Kerberos had leaned forwards as the first hatchling cast off a large chunk of its eggshell, and almost stumbled despite how gently Saul then nudged him forwards. Another sign that he'd switched over into his savant aspect, he caught himself without the squeak or flail Kerbie might have made, and dropped to his knees to watch the gold's egg directly. He lifted a hand, but pulled it back instantly, wanting to touch but not sure if he should.

It was the little gold's renewed motions that stole attention away from the growing tension in the room, as it began to twitch and struggle again. Bits of shell littered the impromptu hatching grounds and more fell from around the gap in the egg till finally, exhausted from the struggle, a wet, gangly, shining baby dragon fell to freedom. Its first breath of air was a strangled gasp, and then a triumphant creel that pattered off into a forebodingly weak cough. Key let out a muted roar of triumph and Cel joined in, but with a creel that sounded desperate, almost like the hatchling's.

It was when the young dragon managed to right itself that the first sign of something wrong. The hatchlings wings were obviously malformed, gnarled and tightly held to its back, wing tines membraneless, stubby and useless. Its mind was truly awakening for the first time, and the assembled all felt a brush as it tried to choose, but the gleaming golden thing stumbled as it tried to take a step towards Kerbie. Its forelimbs were so week as to be useless, and it whimpered when it found that it couldn't stand. Saul stared, afraid that he'd done something horribly wrong as the weak, limply struggling thing focused on Kerberos.

Cel was whimpering, open-mouthed, frantic. Torn between the egg she was helping, which had gone shudderingly motionless moments before, and going to her one hatched child, she looked back and forth between the two frantically. Her serpentine body twisted, and finally, she attacked the second eggshell in a flurry of tapping and picking, determined to have both of her remaining children hatch. As bits of shell slowly fell away, bits of bright bronze were revealed. Magdalena rushed past her brother, shouting and taking up the task the dragon mother was attempting.

But Saul couldn't watch both at once, and Kerberos was moving forward, too; he obviously didn't care that maybe he shouldn't. He hurried closer, shuffling almost comically on his hands and knees, but there was nothing about the situation to laugh at. Kerberos went right to the newborn, as twisted in body as he was in mind, and ran his hand tenderly along its golden head, wanting to comfort, but afraid of hurting. "Good job, baby..." he whispered, his vocabulary restored by his heightened mind-set, and Saul shut his eyes for a moment at the shy encouragement. "You're out, it's okay...."

The gold's struggles finally ceased, as its stores of energy were depleted and it fell into a laying position, comforted and encouraged by Kerberos's hand on its head. He, for the touch of its mind revealed that it was indeed a male, was panting, each breath punctuated by an unhealthy creak, a wheeze like a sick child might make. But still he looked up at Kerbie, soft orbs purple and wondering, like an innocent baby's. For a moment, Saul thought it might make it, but a particularly sharp catch caught him and the hatchling's mind retreated back into itself, eyes going wide with seeming surprise as he struggled to drag air into malformed lungs. His maw opened with the effort and his eyes went glassy, as existence became little more than a struggle to stay alive.

Unable to watch that, Saul looked back at his sister. Finally, with the help of the Zionite girl, the second hatchling was freed. The light of the full room revealed bright chrome mottling on the hatchling's back and sides, and the bicolor should have been rejoiced in. But tragedy instead reared its head again, as when the young thing fell from its shell into Magdalena's arms, it didn't move. Curled in a fetal position, it was obviously malformed, tail and limbs being little more than stumps on a thin and weak torso. There was no membrane on its tiny wings, tail, or head-fin, and its eyes were shut tightly. It was a pitiful and horrific sight, and would obviously not make it through its first moments out in the world. It was too much to watch, but Saul could only look from her to Kerberos again.

Cel sat back and opened her mouth in a silent creel, eyes frantically darting between her two children in denial. One child unborn, one dead upon hatching, and the last... struggling to hold onto life, but losing the battle with its own body. When the golden hatchling gave one last spasmodic shudder of pathetic agony and then ceased, sinking to the ground with unseeing eyes, the young mother fell silent. Behind her, Key groaned, a deep, animal, impossibly anguished sound that shook the room, and out of sight Tech joined in, face gray with drained horror. "I knew it," Saul heard her rasp faintly.

For a moment, Kerberos smiled uninhibitedly, as he had never done since his wakening, stroking the gold's head with inexplicable affection as he looked into its vibrant gaze... but then the gold shuddered and fought to breathe, and the boy's face blanked with alarm. He kept his hand on the hatchling's head, rubbing with silent encouragement, though his other curled into so tight a fist his nails bit into his palm with pain he didn't feel. And then, with one final, painful convulsion, the struggle was lost. Kerberos' hand fell still, and after a moment that felt too long and far too silent, he moved closer, gathered the gold's head lovingly into his lap, and his shoulders trembled as the boy quietly began to cry.

After the echoes of Key's groan faded, the room was utterly, completely and totally silent, until a sound like a smith's bellows being filled caught the attention of the crowd present. Then a scream tore through the room, echoing with horrible inhuman clarity as Cel howled her loss. Key's bass roar joined in and they shook the room with pure feeling.

Saul wasn't sure which to go to first: his sister, who sat with the chrome-and-bronze hatchling in her lap, silent and dreadfully still, or Kerberos, who had lost his own just as mercilessly. Derfegertz made her choice first, hesitantly going to Magdalena and leaving him free to approach the boy who he had dragged into this whole mess. He closed the distance between himself and Kerberos in two quick steps, then dropped to a crouch beside him, hesitantly putting a hand on the shaking shoulder. "Kerbie?" he asked, very softly.

There was a moment or two before Kerberos lifted his head and looked over at Saul, his pale face flushed and wet with his tears, his eyes bright with agonizing awareness and understanding. "Saul... He tried..." he breathed, the spark fading, doused in his tears. "He... tried...."

And then the boy who had unwillingly traded his mind for his freedom was back, reaching out like a desperate child and taking hold of Saul's shirt in one badly shaking hand. "Want... go home... please...." He dissolved into his hushed sobs again, shutting his eyes tightly against sight of the world he hated so much.

It was enough to make tougher hearts than Saul's break. "God, I'm sorry, buddy," he answered sadly, taking the boy who he'd thought to heal into his arms and rocking him soothingly.

Kerbie turned to the man willingly, the gold hatchling's head sliding lifelessly from his lap as the boy buried in head in Saul's shoulder, shaking all over with his practically silent weeping. "Tired..." he eventually whispered into the man's shirt, his voice thick with his grief. "Home... please?" And whether home meant Saul's home, or Ruth's, whom was practically the boy's mother now, or even the dark corners of the Lazarus, where Kerbie retreated to be alone, it couldn't be said.

Saul nodded gently. "All right. All right, we'll take you home. Think you can walk, buddy?" Ruth's home wasn't really an option, since Ruth was on the ship while Kerberos and Saul took a few days of leave, but he could easily take him back to his own apartment. He rose slowly, careful of the gold hatchling, dead or not, and brought Kerberos with him, supporting him.

Kerberos nodded slightly, and though his legs shook, he got to his feet again with Saul's help. He heard Cel's movement behind him, but couldn't not bring himself to turn about. Instead, he retreated, inside himself, where it was safest. His eyes glazed in the dumb manner Saul would know too well, and though the boy would go willingly if guided, he was, for now, quite gone.

Saul sighed faintly, knowing that look and knowing it was his fault it came back. That's what you get for meddling, even when intentions are good.... Keshari, who had drifted down in Mary's wake, approached hesitantly. "Is he...?"

Looking back at Cel and Key looming over him, former cradling her dead hatchling and the latter offering what comfort he could, Saul didn't answer directly, or immediately. Beyond them, his mother was rocking Magdalena soothingly as she cried, like Kerberos had, still holding the failed dual-colored. After a long pause, his arms still around the mentally absent boy, he finally said, "Let's take him home. I expect he needs some rest." We all might, after this....