An hour later Zaf and McGee joined Marc and the mercs on the dragon deck. There'd been dragon negotiations regarding which of them would go, but finally things were sorted.

"Lev," Marc asked, "is Dia all right with this?"

"She understands," Lev replied, avoiding the real question.

Marc frowned but had given up arguing. He looked at the faces, human, sort of human, and dragon.

"I can find her through the bond. Quinn also can sense her through her bond with him. So we've got two methods to follow along where she went. I think it'll work. It might work. If it doesn't I'll find another way."

"That was never a question," Laz said from on Kira.  Anja aboard Snow just smiled.

"We're ready whenever you are, man," Paul said as he swung up on Della.

McGee was already on Kalie, sitting relaxed and at ease as if he'd spent lifetimes riding dragons.  "What he said."

Lev shook his head as he swung aboard Mango. Zaf eyed Blueberry skeptically but got aboard anyway. 

Then with no visible signal they were gone from the dragon deck and headed along a pathway only Marc and Quinn could see.

Quinn flew in the lead, opening the portal for them.  Laz, letting Kira handle the driving was disoriented from the minute they entered it, feeling like he had plunged into a vortex.  When Kira whispered in his mind, telling him not to fight it he laughed to himself over the dizziness and waves of nausea.  He wasn't fighting it, he was just trying to survive it.

And it kept on, longer than any other time he'd ridden a dragon while they folded space, traversing dimensions.  He latched onto that thought, the first coherent observation he'd been able to make, feeling as if there was a clue there. 

"We're traveling through time," Kira told him.  "That is why.  Quinn says she is millions of years behind us, and more than millions.  This will take a long time."

Laz groaned.  "How long, honey?" he asked, trying to make out Anja in the blackness.

"As long as it needs to," she said.

They were all slumped on their dragons when they began to emerge after what had seemed to be an eternity. The world below them was in darkness, lights sprinkled along one continent surrounded by a wind-dark sea. It was hot and sultry. Volcanoes glowed and the land rumbled.

Marc sat upright now, his eyes searching the darkness, his senses speeding outward toward a goal only he could see or sense. Quinn let out a howl and dove downward through thick and heavy clouds. Marc and Cola shot right after him.

Quinn landed on the beach, screaming into the darkness.  He was answered immediately by several others, coming from all around him, and then more from the skies as Cola and the others replied.  She is close by," he said as Marc and Cola landed.

"Dinah!" Marc shouted, leaping to the ground from Cola. "Dinah!"  He quested using the bond and felt her. A cave.  A scramble up a rocky hillside and then a cave, a small cave leading into a larger cavern.  He was oblivious to the fact of the others right behind him, his thoughts directed completely toward the other end of their bond.  Then more softly, "Dinah?"

The dragon lifted his head, his eyes vivid red and unwinking.  "You are her mate," he said.

"Yes," Marc said, kneeling down to her. "Honey, I'm here."  Then looking up at the dragon he asked, "What's wrong with her? What happened?"  Her hair was burned, and her clothes were in tatters, some of them with burned marks on them, but he could find no actual trauma to her body itself.

"She appeared here, many days ago, much as you see her now.  Since then she has slept.  But her mind wanders, questing everywhere in places and times far from here, searching endlessly for something as if she were bereft." 

Marc took her into his arms and reached into her mind. Searching for the person Dinah was, looking for the bond.. It wasn't there in her mind, or at least not activated. He hissed, as he saw it. Hesitating, as to what to do. He could kill her, easily, going into her mind.

A noise made him turn around. The others with him stood at the entrance to the cave.

"What is it?" Anja asked ready to rush forward.

"NO!" Marc used his coercion to stop them from coming nearer. "I need to think. Wait for me outside."

Laz hesitated and then herded everyone out.  Everyone except Quinn whose head was framed by the entrance as soon as they moved back, keening low.

"Can you still sense your bond with her, Quinn? I cannot find the beginning of mine with her."

"Of course," he said.  It is where it always is."

"Show me were you find it," Marc asked.

Quinn opened his mind, letting Marc in and then took him to where his bond with Dinah emerged and moved outward with it, showing him the path it took to reach her.  "There," Quinn said.

"And yet mine with her is severed..." Marc said. "She searches for it, I can sense her reaching for it."

"We experience time differently than humans.  For us it isn't linear like it is for you.  Time is all either 'now' or 'other'...it is or it isn't."  Quinn explained.  "Her journey here was linear.  In this time the bond with you does not exist, because it hasn't happened yet.  But we brought you here differently, through the 'now' and the 'other', so for you the bond is still there.  My bond with her has always been a part of the 'now' so it always exists, in all times."

Marc frowned. His mind delved back into hers. He could, right there, tweak it. Reactivate it. Or, was he wrong?  Would he hurt her worse, by doing so?  He hesitated.

"A part of you exists in the 'now' and the 'other'," Quinn said, surprise showing as he followed Marc into Dinah's mind.  "because there is no time 'then' when you began and no future yet where you aren't.  So your end," Quinn said, showing him what he meant, "is in the now and also with her in the future.  You must reform the bond, bring it to her.  Then her mind will follow it out of linear time into the 'now' where you are and where her body exists."

Marc swallowed. It wasn't that he didn't want it back. But he'd avoided changing her, tried to stay out of her head, afraid he'd make her into something else. Afraid of what he'd done before. He followed to the unconnected end of his bond with her. And, taking a deep breath, reconnected the bond where it belonged. His mind fled out of hers, and waited, at his end, for her to follow it.

Dinah felt the bond return like a benediction, spreading light and warmth through the cold, dank, blackness that held her.  It was something solid and real in a universe of shadows and fogs and when she grabbed it, she wanted to weep with relief at the feeling being sane and whole again.  She held onto it with both hands, sliding the length of it through them as she let it guide her out of the night and back into daylight.

He was staring into her face when her eyes opened. "Dinah?" he asked tentatively. "Darling?"

"Marc?" she said, her mouth trembling.  She turned her face into his chest, gripping his arms tight.   "Oh god, I thought I'd lost you."

"You aren't getting away that easily, my love. I came after you.  Thank God I found you." He wrapped her in his arms and began kissing her poor singed hair. "You'll be fine now."

She nodded, rubbing her forehead against his shirt.  "I dis't know where I was and then I couldn't get back," she said, her voice thick with unshed tears.

"Hush," he said, picking her up in his arms. "Our friends are outside."  He turned to the dragon. "Thank you."

"There is no need for thanks," he said.  "Below here there is a small village where you can rest and eat.  I have already sent word."

"Thank you," Marc said, and carried Dinah out to the others.

The sun was rising as he carried her down the hillside and towards where he could see smoke rising above the treetops.  The air was heavy with moisture, steam rising off the lake and the sky filled with clouds.  In the growing light the rain forest was plain to see. 

Dinah lifted her head from his neck, looking around her.  The water was a vivid aqua green and the sky, between the clouds, high and a tropical blue.  The sounds of birds, hidden in the trees, were everywhere.  The foliage was dark green and lush, the shrubs covered with flowers filling the air with their perfume.  One in particular caught her eye, making her gasp in recognition.  It was lush and exquisite, deepest sapphire at its heart, the color clear and vibrant, paling through all the shades of blue to snowiest white as it reached the tips of its petals, light sparkling on the dew that clung to to them.

"Marc," she said in an undertone.  "Look."

Marc froze one step to another. He looked where she pointed and stared. Then he looked around them. The heat, the brilliance of the sunlight, the clearness of the air and water and Dinah felt his heart begin to pound in his chest.

"This is Earth, isn't it?" she asked, keeping her voice low so only he heard.

"Yes, but before humanity. It's the Pliocene. Again. Now the question is, is it before or after the Tanu arrived. But... There were no dragons here."

She looked over his shoulder towards the village and said, "Uhm, I don't think that's the Tanu.  Unless they get taller as time goes by."

Marc looked around. The beings there looked like them. Not the elongated bodies of the Tanu or the foreshortened one of the Firvulag. No, normal human bodies.

"The Tanu lived in Europe. If we are on another continent they could still be here. They could even have lived in North America. I didn't quest on Earth that much. But..." he hesitated. "No. They're operant. I would have sensed them. Before my arrival then. But .."  His voice died away as he watched one woman tending a small garden.

Dinah followed his line of sight and went still.  "Is that...?"

"Sure looks like it to me," Marc replied softly. "She won't know us. I knew she was ancient..."

"As old as you are, huh?" Dinah said.

"Why didn't she recognize us though, when we first met her?" Marc asked, frowning.

"Do you remember everything from the billions of years you've lived?"

"No, I suppose not. Good thing. I'd kill myself if I did."

"You going to tell her?" Dinah asked as he continued towards the village.

"I don't know. If we can we need to get out of here. Look, Laz and Anja recognize her too."

She tightened her arms around him.  "Thank you," she said.

"For?" Marc asked.

"For coming to find me," she said. 

"You should thank all of them. For me it wasn't a choice."

"I will," she said, kissing his throat.  "I can walk you know."

"Yeah, but I'm not ready to let go yet."

"Thank god," she murmured, her mouth still against his skin.

He created her some clothes as he held her tightly. A man approached their party, humans now, the dragons having gone to explore the area, "Hullo. Can you understand me?"

Dinah lifted her head to look at him, an eyebrow raised.  "Yes."

"Not you, him," he explained nodding at the man approaching. "God knows what language they speak."

The man laughed.  "We speak many languages," he said.  "Including this one."

"Hullo. I'm Marc, this is Dinah. These are our friends. Is there an inn?  Somewhere we can rest, and find something to eat?"

"An inn is little more commercial than they're interested in here," he laughed.  "But there's accommodations in the common hall.  I've been sent to meet you.  Your dragons have already made themselves at home."

"You know dragons here, then," Marc asked.  He nodded at Laz who let himself relax a bit. "I'm relieved.  We came for Dinah.  She's been hurt."

"Yes, I know.  But no lasting damage I think.  By the way, I'm V'lar.  Welcome to Earth."

"I'm Marc. Our friends, Anja, Laz, Paul, Lev, McGee and Zaf.  We weren't sure if someone had taken her or what."

"Understandable, I'd say."  He stopped in front of a box shaped building and lifted the latch.  "Here you go."

"Thank you, V'lar.  We appreciate the help.  Is this all of your people? Or just one small village?"

"I'm just passing through," he said.  "There's beds in each of the rooms off of here, the facilities are out back, and there's a pretty good stew in the kettle over the fire."

Dinah looked around at the rough trestle tables and benches, the open fire in the fire place and the laid board flooring.  On a shelf next to the fire place she saw some dishes and mugs.  "Haven't been here long?" she asked.

"Long enough," V'lar replied.  "The beer's home brewed and tolerable and we boil the water first.  There's also some wine."

"Thank you," Marc replied. "We appreciate whatever you can spare." 

Marc watched as V'lar left then signaled for everyone to come together.  "I think we'd best set a watch, Laz. There are predatory animals around too, so don't go roaming around too far. I'm not sure what's going on. Dinah, we need to talk to that dragon again, when you're fed and rested."

Laz nodded and headed out.  "I'll take the first one while you guys eat."

"Thanks," Dinah said.  Then to Marc, "Are you going to keep holding me while you feed me too?"

"Thinkin' about it," he replied flushing. But he set her down on her feet, and pointedly put his hands in his pockets.

She stepped close.  "I like it when you hold me.  I like it even more knowing you don't want to let go.  And as soon as I get back from outside you can hold me as close as you like, okay?"

"Okay," he replied and watched her until she disappeared from his sight.

McGee looked up from setting out the bowls and mugs.  "You know this place don't you?" he asked Marc.

"I do. I escaped from certain brain-wipe by coming through a one-way time portal.  So if you see me walking down the road, warn me, okay?"

"Sure," McGee said.   He hoisted the kettle from the fire and set it in the middle of the table.  "Anything else you'd care to share?" he asked.

"I found the beer," Paul called out.

"What a surprise," Lev muttered, arranging chairs for all of them. Anja had slipped out to keep a weather eye on Dinah. Zaf was standing in the doorway looking out over the small settlement. "It's odd, you know? No personal stuff around."

"Except for the gardens outside the whole place has the air of transience.  And it's not very old," Paul added, looking at the walls.  "Those logs aren't fully dried yet."

"They aren't from my time, because there's no tech.  All the travelers coming through the auberge came with modern tech. No modern weapons were allowed but plastics, vitredur, modern farming equipment, all of that was quite common."

"No modern weapons?" Lev asked, looking at Marc's backpack.

"Well, we fought our way through the gate. There was some smuggling of modern weapons through, but the other stuff you'd see used regularly."

"Was there any other access?" McGee asked, sitting down.

"A spaceship crashed here bringing the Tanu and Firvulag. Kalket's people. Other than that, so far as I knew, only those of us who came through the time gate."

"The dragons didn't come through the gate," Dinah said from the doorway.  "Kalie's up at the cave talking to my nurse."

Marc let out a relieved sigh seeing Dinah and Anja return.  "No they wouldn't have come through the gate. They didn't exist in my time. Or at least not on Earth.  How did they come here? Why?"

"The usual way, I expect," McGee said, starting to ladle out the stew.  "Our friend V'lar's not  local either I'd guess.  He's even more evasive than me.  And if you look real close outside you'll see that we aren't the only ones who've posted a guard."

"Don't blame 'em a bit," Zaf offered, handing bowls around.

Dinah took the seat next to Marc, sliding close.  "There are no children around or teenagers," she said.  "Only adults."

"Well," Marc said, then shut his mouth abruptly.

"Well what?" Dinah asked.

"Nothing. These people didn't come through the time gate so it is irrelevant," Marc replied, applying himself to his stew. "Local meat. I recognize the taste."  He made a face. "Hipparion. Just as gamey as ever."

"I hate it when you do that," Dinah muttered.  "You're saying they're native?"

"The hipparion or the people?" he asked.

She glared at him.  "The people of course."

"No. They're no more native than the Tanu were. The only sentient creatures native in this era are the little ramapithicenes running around no doubt somewhere nearby, since they are curious and quite bright."

"Then where did they come from?" Dinah asked.  "They always said they were native."

"Who, Tabitha and Eli?" Marc asked, finally putting a name to the woman they'd seen in the garden. "Never believed it. Although she might."

"Why are you so sure?" she asked.

"Because I don't believe they'd have not left some sign of their presence that would still have been extent when I came through the gate. If nothing else, I'd have sensed their minds. I feel them now. I'd have felt them then. I spent years roaming over the Earth searching for .. it sounds smug but was true, for an equal.""

"Maybe they didn't want to be found?" McGee suggested.

"Maybe.  But I was kind of crazy in those days. I wasn't averse to examining and destroying the least hint of mental shield set to keep me at bay. I altered the CE rig to search for sentient life, first here, and then the stars.  I might even have found the Rift, not knowing what it was. I knew where every small group of human, Tanu and Firvulag were located here on Earth. I don't think I'd have missed them.  But then I've always had far too high an opinion of myself."

Marc paused. "I wonder..."

"Uhm, one small point," McGee said, swallowing some beer.  "The Rift hasn't been put in place yet.  So if you sensed it, it wasn't for a while."

"You wonder what?" Dinah asked.

"Yeah, I've thought about that, Jack. But there was something pushing back." Then Marc turned to Dinah. "I changed the future. I wonder if I could have changed the past?"  He glanced over at McGee. "See? Still have a bloody high opinion of myself."

"The only way to change the future is to change the past," McGee said.  "When you and Dinah talk to the dragon who took care of her I'd like to come if I may."

"Sure. In the morning we'll walk up there and see what we can see.  And, I need to thank him from the bottom of my black heart."

"As I said," Dinah put in, pushing her bowl away, "Kalie's up there now.  And V'lar followed her.  Just so you know." 

"You're rested enough to go now?" Marc asked critically.

"And to exhaust you later," she said serenely, her tongue retrieving a fleck of foam from her lips.  "And you?"

"I might have to pass on the later," he replied with a sigh. "It was a bit exhausting chasing you through time and space, you know."

She raised an eyebrow.  "Really?," she said.  "Then perhaps you should nap while I go eavesdrop?"

"Not on your life. You are not getting out of my sight, except to visit the loo, any time soon."

"I see.  I expected you even in the loo," she said.

"Yes, well, I know Anja will accompany you there," Marc replied smugly. "So, are you done eating now? Can we go?"

Dinah laughed.  "I do love you," she said.  "And yes, I'm ready to go."

"Come on, McGee.  Zaf, why don't you come along too?"

"Sure," Zaf replied, wiping his mouth and handing his bowl to Paul. "Have fun with the dishes, buddy."

The small cave where Dinah had been opened into an enormous cavern, currently being used by the Siolastre dragons.  V'lar was sitting in the middle of them, saying something in a language Dinah didn't know.  Mingled in with them she counted five dragons she didn't know and the one who'd been here when she'd woken up.

Quinn looked up as she came in and swung his head towards her, dropping his nose into her hair with a low mournful sound as she got close enough.  "It'll grow back, love, promise," she said, stroking his neck.  "So who are your new friends?"

Quinn's head lifted, a startled look in his eyes that vanished swiftly.

"I am Coz," one of them said.  "We are honored to meet the Siolastre and her mate."

"Why is it an honor?" Dinah asked, ignoring the stifled laughter around her.  "Instead of just a pleasure or something?"

Coz smiled.  "Because you are the..."

"The heir," Dinah finished in resignation. At Coz's look she started to ask, "so what?" and stopped short as the night exploded with the sounds of incoming ordinance that made her stagger and rattled the cavern, sending pebbles to the floor and dust into the air. 

The six new dragons, V'lar on Coz were outside and leaping for the sky in an instant.  "Get on," Quinn yelled to her and she obeyed automatically, while Marc mounted Cola.  McGee and Zaf didn't hesitate either and seconds later they were in the sky as well, clawing for altitude behind Coz.  Dinah tilted her head back, looking towards where they were headed.

Above them was a scene from Star Wars.  Three groups of fighters, in tight formation were converging on them while higher above them she could see a fourth and fifth squadron heading away from them, dropping some kind of bomb on the clearing below.

After that there was only the battle with the fighters around her, letting Quinn take the lead while she set the killing thing in her mind free.  He bathed one in flame as he cut a sharp angle past it and then banked hard to repeat the run on the opposite side.  As he turned she let loose a bolt of energy that lit up the sky and made the fighter's tail burst into flame and smoke. 

Quinn yelled in triumph, out loud and in her mind, and picked a second target, flying towards it on a zig zag course that dodged the laser fire streaking the sky with florescent colors.  All around her the other dragons were also attacking, taking out the fighters one at a time with deadly precision.  Below her the jungle was on fire, the bombers reforming after their second run.

She nudged Quinn and in a heartbeat he sent a final blast of fire up the tail of the fighter in front of them, and whirled in a tight 360 degree turn, letting out an ear splitting roar that had three other dragons racing after them. 

These ships were different.  They were longer for one thing, and their laser canon was mounted fore and aft, on both sides and also in two turrets that were emerging from the roof, or what she took to be the roof. 

Computer operated, she thought as they opened fire, the beams tracking them as Quinn went through a series of evasive moves that ended with them untouched and the distance between them and the ship closed by almost a third.  When the laser strafing began again Dinah locked onto the beams with the killing thing and poured power into sending it back along the electron stream into the cannon, the overload sending fireworks of red and blue and green into the sky as it blew up.   Quinn followed up with a blast of fire through the gaping hole in the roof moments later, igniting the entire interior and even from where she sat she could hear the screams of the crew.  She kept hearing them as the ship spun out of control, falling nose first towards the ground below.

Meanwhile, Marc had Cola remaining stationary in the air, not far from Dinah. He'd reached into his backpack and drew out something.  He touched a button and he and Cola lit up as if they both were wearing Kalket's vitredur armor. Brilliant red lights flickered off of him and Cola. Then he sent her straight at the attackers.

He'd taken the weapon he'd worn slung over his shoulder and aimed it the nearest fighter. When the blue beam it emitted hit the engine of the fighter the fighter exploded.  He aimed in toward the mother ship and the blue flame licked out again. Cola zigged because they'd now drawn a lot of attention and she'd had to evade an attempt at ramming them. Marc's shot went wide and barely grazed the heavily armored skin of the ship. Still, the ship shuddered for a second.

Zaf let out a howl on all channels, vocal and mental, and raced his dragon after Marc, setting up both mental and actual fire to hold off attackers after him.

Dinah ignored Zaf, holding on tight as Quinn went into a nearly vertical climb after a fleeing bomber, keeping directly under it.  When he was in range he drew breath to blast it with flame.  As he let it out the ship rolled over and opened fire, sending a laser slice through his flank from the aft cannon.  He twisted, never letting up on the fire or the speed with which his wings were pounding the air. 

Dinah, feeling him shudder from the hit, sharing the pain of it through their bond screamed in rage and reached deep inside her mind, far back into the memories and brought forward the thing she'd found there.  A thing like a fusion bomb that she joined to the killing place in her head and then, pulling power from everywhere she could find it, she launched it straight into the belly of the ship above her, exploding it into a million pieces of fire.  "Yes," she screamed into the wreckage as a shard grazed her side.

Anja aboard Snow had tried to block the shot that had hit Quinn, but the concussion from the explosion pushed her and Snow backwards.  She yelled for the others alerting them to Dinah being hit. Marc and Cola reached her first. He used psi to lift her off Quinn and onto Cola with him, telling Quinn to get to safety.

The attackers seemed to rethink the odds and began a coordinated withdrawal.  Lev organized a ring of protection to cover any attacks by stragglers but even the local dragons eased up on their attacks allowing the superior force to withdraw.

Then, with a zap, the sky was empty of ships, only dragons remained.

The village was a state of organized chaos, as the inhabitants moved the wounded up to the small cave and the few dead to a hut that was still standing.  Laz broke off what he was doing as Cola landed and bit back a grin as he listened.

"It's just a scratch," Dinah said through clenched teeth.  "It's Quinn who's hurt.  Where is he?"

"In the cave, being seen to," Marc replied after a string of French curses. "Be still and let me look at that."

Anja, her face white, watched silently.

"Idiot," Marc said to Dinah. "You don't go rushing off in the lead. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"It's just a scratch," she repeated, batting at his hands.  Then she blinked at him, confused.  "Huh?  The lead?  What are you talking about?"

"You were out in front of everyone else. You're the Heir, and that makes you the target," he explained patiently. "Anja would have thrown herself between you and that laser shot. She tried to, in fact. But didn't get there fast enough."

"Well thank God for that," she said.  "There's times when guarding me should be the least of her worries.  And how the hell," she asked, hissing as he lifted the cloth from the wound, "would whoever these people are even know I'm here, let alone who I am?  And who are these people anyway?"

"Dunno. Let's get that wrapped up and we can go find out."

She looked at him skeptically.  "Cripes, you're taking this well," she said, standing up, holding the pad of cloth he'd fashioned to her side.  "Or are you saving it for later?"

"Saving what for later?" Marc asked.

"The outward expression of you not taking the fact that I'm bleeding well," she said, heading for the cave.

"I've come to the reluctant conclusion that you attract trouble and that I may as well get used to seeing you get hurt," Marc admitted. "Doesn't mean I like it, merely means I'm not going to waste energy or words on you."

"And you don't attract trouble?" she asked, slipping her hand into his.

"Nope. Generally speaking, I create the trouble. So this is still a bit new for me," he replied as they entered the cavern and looked around. Quinn looked up and Marc and Dinah headed straight to him.

"How are you, Quinn?  Anything we can do?"

He grinned a very dragonish grin.  "No it's nothing serious.  It'll just itch for a while."  He looked at Dinah.  "You are alright?" he asked, confirming what he knew.

She stroked his neck.  "I'm fine, love.  I was worried about you."

A rumble of laughter vibrated under her hand.  "It was fun," he said.  "Though I would rather have fun other ways."

"No doubt," Marc replied somewhat distracted already looking around for V'lar.

V'lar was seeing to one of the local dragons who also had taken a hit.

"Back soon, Quinn," Marc muttered and taking Dinah's hand towed her toward V'lar.

He looked up as they approached.  "Thanks for the help," he said.  "The healers are in the main cavern working if you need them."

"Thanks," Marc replied. "But what I need more than a healer is an explanation of who they are and why they attacked you."

V'lar drew his finger along the intersection of the two edges of the wound, sealing it together.   Then he wiped away the blood and applied an ointment.  "Good as new," he said to the dragon.  "Just give it a day or two before you forget it happened."

The dragon grunted and rolled his eyes.

V'lar wiped his hands on a towel and then motioned to Marc and Dinah to follow him outside.  He looked up at the sky for a moment, at a fast moving point of light.  "That," he said, pointing to it, "is one of their ships.  It is hardly an unique story.  They are here to either take over this planet or, failing that, to destroy it.  Who they are...well it's unlikely that would have any meaning for you."

"Ah. Well then, next time we'll stay neutral. Don't like taking sides when I don't understand who the good guys are," Marc snapped.

V'lar grinned.  "Very impressive Mr. Rogatien.  And how will you determine who the good guys are?  Does knowing they are a race of Star Lords tell you that?  Or is that once you know that it's alright to take my word for it that they're trying to take possession of this planet and what remains of a race you know as the Old Ones?"

"Yes, well, you see, that's my problem. Because the Old Ones are obviously not native here, so how do I know it isn't you and they who are taking over the planet, and the attackers who want you off of it?"

"And why do you think it's obvious they aren't native here?" he asked.

"Are they?" Marc asked him.

"Yes," he said.

Marc frowned. "Because I've seen their DNA."

"So?"

"They're related to the Dragons and the Dragons are definitely not native to Earth," Marc replied.

V'lar smiled.  "That doesn't mean they aren't," he pointed out.  "Have you considered the possibility that it was the Old Ones who donated genetic material to them and not the other way around?"

"An intriguing thought. So... You are the good guys and the Star Lords want to destroy the Old Ones and Earth. Why would they bother with one little planet?"

"Destruction is only their fall back position at this point.  What they want are the genetic lines.  Both those that produced one of the most feared warrior races we know of and those that can seed life.  Both lines must be salvaged from the holocaust they loosed on themselves."

"I see. Well, you realize we're just passing through. On our way home in the morning," Marc replied casually.

"No doubt," V'lar said.

Marc looked over at Dinah, and then scanned the cavern for McGee and Zaf. Zaf was sitting chatting and laughing with someone he didn't know.

Kalie looked over at him from where she was talking to the other dragons, her eyes solemn.  Then she sang a note, soft and poignant that stopped all the dragon conversations dead.  When she modulated it, dropping it down by a third, one of the other dragons added a second note in harmony.  She held it until Dinah thought the blood in her veins was vibrating with the simple harmony.  Then she lifted her head a bit higher and produced another note, and a third dragon joined them and the music found its minor key.  When two more dragons joined the harmony, Kalie lifted her voice even higher, sending the melody line clear and eerily mournful ringing through the chamber.

Dinah watched her for a moment and then looked at McGee.  He was standing in the shadows across the room from her, his eyes closed and his expression one of such naked, unguarded loneliness that she couldn't stand to intrude even in such a minor way and turned to look at Zaf.  As her eyes met his the dragon song soared, tumbling notes telling of hope against hope amidst sadness and destruction, the poignancy a physical thing. 

As she watched him, Zaf tore his eyes from hers and turned his whole body towards Kalie, the muscles in his neck cording into rope, a visible sign of the tension that was filling him. 

From outside the cavern she could hear the other dragons, picking up the song, lifting it even higher.  It was a lament overlain by a rhapsody, grief and hope, joy and sorrow all mingled together, woven together by the keening dragon voices, the tension palpable and perfectly shaped, moving towards a crescendo whose potential made Dinah tremble.  When it came, crashing over her, she burst into tears, burying her face against Marc's chest, weeping as if she'd lost everything she'd ever loved.

Marc stood with Dinah in his arms and walked out from the cavern into the warm darkness. The scents of the night brought back memories and pains he'd long since thought buried. The hopelessness, the loneliness, the responsibilities he'd taken on for those who'd followed him into the darkness. Millions dead from his hands. And here he was, right back in war, and, worse, thinking he should stay.

McGee watched them leave still hearing the dragons singing as his eyes ran across the cavern seeing many different reactions. The one he hadn't expected was to see Zaf, down on his knees, holding his head as if he thought it were going to explode.

Lev was already crossing the cavern toward him.  McGee got there almost as fast as he had.  He squatted down and gripped Zaf's hands pulling them away so he could see his face.  "Go get one of the healers," he said to Lev.  "Zaf?" he called, his voice careful.

Lev was hurrying off already as McGee said Zaf's name. The man groaned, pain etching lines on his face, his eyes wide with shock.

"Take it easy," McGee said.  "A healer's coming.  Just try to relax."

Lev zapped in then, with Tabitha in tow. 

McGee moved out of the way so she could get to Zaf, placing her hands around his face as she focused.  After a moment she glowed faintly, briefly and then stopped.  "He's physically fine," she said.  "But he's had a...surprise.  Take him home and give him a glass of wine and then put him to bed.  He'll be fine in the morning."

"A surprise huh?" Lev asked.

Zaf was still AWOL from his body.

Lev looked at McGee. "Wanna grab one arm. He's a handful.  Big guy. I'll zap us back to our quarters."

"Don't I know it," McGee said, slipping one over his shoulder.  "Let's go."

Dinah lifted her head from Marc's chest as he shifted her so he reach the latch and mopped her eyes with one hand.  "I'm sorry.  I have no idea what came over me."

"It's okay, you weren't the only one affected. Zaf went off into some sort of weird...." his voice trailed off.

"What?" Dinah asked, feeling his body tense. She looked where he was looking.

On a side table, in the room where they'd be sleeping, sat six bowls, each with a blue flower floating in it.

"Tabitha," Marc muttered. "Merde."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Dinah said after a moment.  "She's been up at the cavern all night, with the wounded."

"Look, that's identical to what she did to me at the aerie. It's her all right. I'm gonna kill her now."

"She doesn't even know you, Marc.  You've never even met here or spoken."

"I know her. What makes you think she doesn't know us?" Marc asked, frowning. "She lies fluently."

"When has she lied to you?  Not talked in riddles, but lied to you?" Dinah asked.

"When... " then he thought better of detailing the moment when she had.  "She has. Never mind exactly when. She's into that bloody prophecy and anything that gets in its way.... Although I confess I don't understand what this has to do with that."

Dinah shook her head.  "I think you're crazy on the subject yourself.  Are you okay with putting me down long enough to get into bed or no?"

"Oh," he said, his eyes not leaving the bowls.  He set her down onto the floor and still stared at the display.  "It's emotional blackmail," he muttered angrily.  "She wants me to stay. Us to stay."

"Marc, listen to me, read my lips.  She doesn't know you're even here.  Okay?  She doesn't know who you are beyond some white man who showed up chasing his lost lover."

He eyed her but didn't answer. Instead he undressed and got into bed, giving her time to join him. When she did, he held her tightly in his arms and kissed her.  Exhaustion caught up to her and she fell asleep in his arms.  He spent the night staring at the bowls.