Iron Station Savage Masks IC IV

[mmdeforrest]

November 1st
John
“That… sounds like it might work,” Emi says with a slow nod. “Just be careful once you transform him back, if you use the mirror. If the dragon is still in control, even his human form could hurt you. His claws are extremely sharp and he’s much faster and stronger than you would expect. I wouldn’t want him to surprise you.”

She squeezes John hand, breaking eye contact as she looks down at their intertwined fingers. “I wish I had some other idea I could give you, John. But I know next to nothing about dragons other than stories, and even less about Valèdeir. I didn’t even know that he had a name until you told me. I assumed that when Grayson was talking about the Dragon, it was more like… a collection of instincts, rather than an entire other being.”

The psychic hesitates for a moment. “John, I don’t know if this has crossed your mind, but I couldn’t help but think about it last night. Please, if you can, don’t hurt him too badly. Hurting Valèdeir will hurt Grayson when he transforms back, and he’s not as durable as a dragon. Of course, you should defend yourself. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t.” She makes a small noise of frustration. “This is just… the worst situation.”

Emi seems to take a moment to recenter herself and she picks up the cracker with meat and cheese she’d made earlier and nibbles on it. “I can try to talk to him,” she says, glancing back up at John. “I would much rather than be the solution than any of you fighting.”

“I will do everything I can to keep from harming him, Emi,” John assured her. “I promise.”

He smiled wryly. “After this morning’s lesson, I have learned the importance for me to stay out of hand to hand combat whenever possible. Of course, I was unarmored then but I’m not sure AEGIS’ advanced ballistic cloth would have done much good against a guy who can shatter concrete anyway. And I doubt dragon talons were on the design team’s list of things to protect against. So I will be careful.”

He looked down, studying their intertwined hands, willing himself to go on and to take strength from that simple truth: That she was holding his hand and that she was the one who initiated it.

He had to trust in them.

“I have thought through what fighting him would entail,” John admitted quietly. “I don’t have enough data on Draconian to know for certain how each strategy would play out. At some point, if the Janus Mirror doesn’t work, things get pretty grim for one or both of us.

“But I can tell you that I do not want to kill again if I can in any way avoid it—especially when it is someone you care about. I don’t know how much footage you have seen of me as Dee, but I have always made it a point to restrain my opponents whenever I can. That has almost cost me on more than one occasion but I don’t plan on changing that initial approach if and when Valèdeir comes after me.”

Which, John reasoned, he would likely do the moment he learned John intended to take Emi out of state.

“Seraph will be one of the others who will be notified if a fight breaks out. With luck, he will be able to heal Grayson of any grievous wounds after the fight.”

He tried to keep his own concern about what wounds he might have after such a battle in check. The adoring look he had just received kept him strong enough to accept her concern for Grayson as natural and expected and he didn’t want Emi to worry about the threat to him.

Nor did he want to bring up that the worst case scenario for him had, apparently, been avoided—at least for now: Her breaking up with him out of some desire to keep him safe.

He frowned. “I’m not even sure if talking to him will help,” John conceded. “When a dominant male gathers a harem in nature, he may not force himself on the female of the species but he still collects and defends them as part of his territory.”

He sighed. “I’ll try to look into dragon mating practices and see if I can shed some light on things. Or I could ask Jaal for another interview to see if he can let us know. It might be best if you thought through your questions after class and wrote them down so we don’t overlook anything.”

He offered a wry smile, hoping to cheer her up. “We have done that kind of thing before, after all.”