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Zato slowly woke up to the gentle sound of cooing next to him and as he opened his eye, he was greeted with pitch black. He could not see anything, he opened his other eye, still nothing. He slightly panicked as he tried to roll onto his stomach, but found he was chained down and he soon lifted his head to try and rip out of the restraints, only to find his neck was held down as well. He tried to swat his tail around, only to find that was tied down. He was completely tied down and he was beginning to thrash around, trying to free himself. As he did, he failed to notice that the thing the coos were coming from move closer until it spoke in a soft, melodious tone.

"Commander Zato, it is a pleasure to see you are awake and healed to near perfection only after five hours of being healed."

He turned his head to the source of the voice and growled, he knew it was a dragoness, that much was sure. He also knew she was a Royal Guard member, seeing how she spoke the commander line with such respect, and he could have sworn he heard her bow her head.

"Release me, and tell me why I can not see."

"You did fall almost directly on your head, Commander. I was near you as you hit the ground. Im surprised to even see you alive. Though, you being blind should only be temporary. On the matter of releasing you....I can not, direct orders from the king."

"Do you see the emblems of the elders upon me?"

"Yes."

"And you must know what they mean so YOU WILL RELEASE ME NOW!"

He heard a long sigh as she moved up and began to remove the shackles before a loud crash of the door caused her to stop and Zato to look towards it, though, he could not see anything.

"The Commander is awake! I knew I heard his yelling!"

And that was easily Rayjita.

"Ray, help me out of here and lead me to the Guards! Now!"

He yelled as he heard the dragoness remove the rest of the shackles before Rayjita moved up and gave a tilt of his head to his commander.

"Why Commander Zato? Your eyes are open....wait....you aren't?"

"Lead me to them, NOW!"

He heard Rayjita back up a bit before turning around and letting out a laugh, causing Zato to growl out.

"Bite onto my tail....I'll lead you to them outside...."

Zato did so, and to return the favor of the laugh, he bite down hard at first, getting a yelp out of Ray before a weak chuckle.

"Guess I earned that...."

With that, Zato held onto Rays tail as he listened to the dragoness follow behind. Right now, holding onto the tail and getting to his troops was more important then why she was following him. Though Rayjita seemed to read Zatos mind and spoke.

"You...why are you following us?"

"Who, me?"

"Uhh...yeah."

"Elder Jeezii ordered me too, and Riil soon after."

Zato couldn't help but chuckle around the tail as Rayjita did the same.

"They also knew you'd force yourself free."

"Anf I fet fhe feeling fhat they knef I'd fe flind as fell."

(And I get the feeling that they knew I'd be blind as well ((To those that need *Chuckles *))

"They did actually, since Jeezii was the one that did it, what I said earlier was just a lie...sort of...I did see you crash land..."

Zato stopped and let go of the tail before snapping his head back to look at the dragoness, he was happy to feel his eyes move to give her a glare that could kill.

"What did you just say?"

He heard her whimper from his tone and smiled at it, causing another whimper to emit from her. He must look scarier now, he couldn't do this most of the time when he could see.

"Elder Jeezii did it."

Zato felt anger well up inside of him, he wanted to tear out this dragoness' throat. Though, he restrained himself and simply let a manic smile spread across his maw.

"And let me guess....you simply let her?"

"Of course....I can't stop an elder...being a mere peon in a since in the guard. I've only been in it for a week."

Zato growled to himself and knew what she spoke of was the truth.

"What is your name?"

"Angelus sir, I was abandoned as a hatchling and have no last name."

"Angelus, under my direct order, I want you to go to the Elders Tower and tell Jeezii I want to speak to her in the courtyard, immediately."

She gave a quick nod before he heard bolt off and a snap of wings, as he looked back towards Ray to have his tail smack against his maw lightly before latching onto it and letting him lead him again. He didn't know how long it took, but soon, he heard the laughter of a lot of dragons, most likely how he looked right now, before he held his head up, after thanking Ray, and let out his orders in a booming voice.

"First of all, you all shut up and stand in order!"

With that, he heard them all snap into shape and felt a tap to his tail, confirming they all were.

"Alright, all of you, we move out soon. I want only the Royal Guard to go."

"But sir! Its ten thousand to a thousand! And you're blind!"

He let out a loud laugh and smiled, looking to the source of the voice.

"Yes, I am blind, and yes, the odds are stacked against us. However, I believe we will win with out any problems."

"Says the blind dragon."

He heard a voice say above him before he heard all of his troops bow, and Ray behind him, before he looked to his right as he heard the clack of claws on the stone, two sets of them to be exact.

"Why, if it isn't the one who made my eyes useless. How about you let me see now, hmm?"

"No."

"It really wasn't a request. You will allow me to see again or you will regret not doing so."

"If you..."

"If I kill you, I will forever be blind, etcetera etcetera. Never said I would kill you, now this time I will ask nicely, allow me to see again, please."

He listened as a long pause filled the air before she spoke.

"Zato, your fever will come back."

"I really don't care. I'm going to fight."

She let out a long sigh before she snapped her claws and his eyes instantly gained their abilities back. And after adjusting to the light, he did something no one expected, he lifted his claw up and gave the Elder Dragoness a swift back-claw and growled out as he did. The impact was so hard, that Ray and Angelus both cringed at the blow.

"Don't you ever do that again!"

Jeezii knew the blow was going to come, but she let him hit her, she had gone a bit extreme on the blinding.

"I fight to protect you, the kingdom, the other elders, but most importantly my mates. Its kind of fucking hard to do so when I can't see huh? And guess what Jeezii, I would have fought even blind! Which would have ended up in me harming my allies over our enemy! And who would have caused it?"

Jeezii hung her head, she had not thought that far ahead, and knowing Zato, he would have fought with out being able to see. Though, as she hung her head, Zato did something else unexpected. He lowered his claw to her chin and gently lifted her head before planting a long kiss to her lips, everyone going a bit wide-eyed, specially Jeezii since this was her first kiss, before he broke it and smiled to the slightly dazed looking elder.

"I am sorry for hitting you like that. But I am useless with out my eyes. Going by sound is a bit hard you know."

She gave a weak nod before she opened her wings and took off to the tower, but after a few flaps she looked back to Zato and gave a soft blush.

"Oh yes....your mates are at the tower....Riil put a sleeping spell on them....."

"Good then."

She turned back around and took off as Zato looked back over to his troops, who were now laughing.

"What?"

Everyone pointed up to him as he lowered his head and let out a laugh as well, seeing that Osia had somehow made her way underneath him and was currently looking to him with a rather worried look.

"What is wrong my sister? You look upset. And how did you get under there?"

"I came with Jeezii....and brother....I'm worried about you...I had a...what did Elder Riil call it....a vision."

Everyone went silent upon hearing that, very view could see visions, and those few were elders.

"About what my sister?"

"It was you and them on the battle field....one thousand versus ten thousand....you were yelling orders while the enemy commander did as well....but when you had your troops charge, the humans unleashed large beasts out of no where that looked like huge, black, shadow dragons. They were purely shadows, but they were shaped like dragons. It was only twenty of them, but they killed all of your troops in a span of a few minutes and....."

Tears began to stream down her face as she tried to continued, but kept chocking on her words. Slowly, Zato sat down on his haunches and lifted her up to cradle her, gently rocking her as he did and cooed out to her. He failed to notice, but his coos had an effect on the others as well, as they all lowered down and relaxed, even Rayjita and Angelus.

"My sister, please, continue. I hope to change it."

"You....the shadows did not attack you.....they surrounded you as the enemy commander moved up and talked with you, only thing I heard was; "I shall place your Zanbatou above your grave under the cherry blossom trees." and after he had said that, all of the shadows attacked you and...and...you vanished.....the only thing left of you was your Zanbatou....and one of your horns....covered in blood."

He let out a long sigh and smiled gently to his sister as she looked to him, sniffling. As she did, he moved quickly and sank his two snake like fangs into her neck, she didn't fight it, she knew what he was doing and let him. Soon, she felt him pump something into her as her body relaxed and slowly she drifted off to sleep before handing her off to Rayjita.

"I trust you to watch over her. If what I am about to do fails, you are to protect her with your life. Should she die and you live, you'll live to utterly regret it."

With that, he looked to his troops and glared.

"You all are to stay here and protect the kingdom! Ray is in charge til my mates or Osia assumes it! None, I mean NONE, of you are to live the kingdoms walls or I'll kill you myself!"

Before any could object, his armor was on and his wings snapped open before he bolted off into the sky. Flying as fast as he could to the plains, by himself. He had one thing planned and he hoped Ragna would do it. His flight wasn't long as he arrived at the plains, though as he did, he looked around to see nothing. No troops, no Ragna, nothing. He stood there as a strong breeze swept over the plains, causing him to murr from the sound of it before he sniffed and got the heavy odor of blood on the wind, and he quickly set about finding the source. It was coming from the camp where the humans had set up the night before, and as he drew closer, he gasped. In front of him, not even a hundred yards out, where utterly thousands of bodies.

He ran to them and he couldn't believe what he was seeing, all the humans who had come were dead. Not a single one alive, all had their bodies ripped in two, if not uncountable pieces.

"Whatever did this meant business....but who would attack the humans....other then us?"

"Not who....what."

Zato instantly span around and lowered into a position ready to attack as a booming voice emitted from behind him, and he nearly jumped out of his scales at what stood before him. It was the twenty shadows Osia had mentioned, but one had a more ghostly look to him, and on him was magnificent spectre armor, that looked to be something made during the Great War.

"Aye, it was. Great armor, served me well during my battles. Though, yours looks even better then my own. And it covers your whole form, unlike mine."

Zato blinked a few times before he looked to the Ghostly leader and summoned his Zanbatou in front of him, stabbing it into the ground. As he did, the leader did as well. His sword almost the same size as the Zanbatou, only a foot smaller, and shaped like the humans falchion. He smiled to himself as the ghost did as well, this ground stabbing was actually a show of warrior conduct. You would do so when you wanted to speak, not fight.

"What are you...and who?"

"My name is Graham. We are the twenty great warriors from the Great War. In a since, we are...were dead. But these humans managed to get ahold of our souls and try to use them to attack our own kind. They vastly underestimated our will power. We fought hundreds of battles for our brothers to live in peace, we were not going to let them ruin it. Now, who are you?

"I am Zato Sagarana, Demon Dragon, Warrior-Protector Of the seven elders, and Commander of the Royal Guard. I am here...well was mainly here to fight the humans myself...since my sister seen a vision, of you, fighting and killing off my thousand troops before killing me."

After he had finished speaking, each of the Shadows took on a more ghostly look before becoming solid, and then each of them bowed look to him, while the leader looked up.

"You hold more power then any of us ever did. And to top it off, you beat the curse placed upon us during the great war. You are a Demon Dragon in full control of himself, and fight along side dragons and not against your kind. You have our eternal respect."

Zato returned their show of respect by bowing as well, as he did he moved up and sat in front of the leader, not even worried anymore of them. And each of them sat down soon after as well.

"How are you all solid now?"

"We think it has something to do with killing the humans....though I know we are still dead, yet we can fight and actually touch the living. I feel as if the humans magic to do this was...new, untested, and it ended in bringing us back to life, and in a since, immortal. Since, I feel we wont age...being past our time already."

Zato looked to the ground for a moment before slowly standing up and quickly shifted over to his anthro, his armor and sword following the change, as he grabbed his blade and turned to look back at the warriors, who had also shifted to anthro forms.

"You must forgive me for what I am about to say....but something doesn't seem right. It's hard to trust you twenty. Something is telling me inside that....."

Zato stopped himself as he heard loud whistles over his head, before he could even turn to look to see what they were two of the warriors were on top of him as he heard Graham shout out.

"Orc Archers! They look to be mercenaries! We must have missed them, protect the demon dragon and killed!"

Each of the eighteen roared out before shifting back to their shadows and rushing the orcs as cries of agony and siren screeches soon filled the air. And by the time Zato was out from underneath the two, the fight had ended, though, it looked to only be about two hundred archers. A lot to some, but orcs had terrible aim. They needed the numbers to hit something. Since only twenty out of those two hundred would have probably hit their target.

Zato gave a shake of his head, how convenient that the attack had happened then. Just as Zato was saying that, and the orcs were upwind, so maybe they had been hiding, waiting for Zato to do something like that. Nonetheless, even if it was a play, the two who had covered him were covered in arrows and bowed to the both of them.

"Thank you both."

"No problem my brother."

He heard one say in a soft tone and he soon let out a long laugh, realizing who he was talking to and one of who had protected him.

"Siren, first dragoness to get one thousand kills before any dragon. You do not know how much of a legend you are today, and how much my sister Osia looks up to you. Well, the books about you."

He heard her laugh as she shifted to her ghost and back to solid so the arrows would fall out, blood coming from the wounds, showing that they were indeed, in some since, alive.

"Aye, I am. And glad to hear it. Always wanted to show we dragoness' could fight along the oafs."

As if one cue, Graham and the other males there went to one side and let out a grunt, smiling, trying to look and sound like an oaf. And the dragoness' there moved to Siren and smiled, ironicly enough it was a ten ten split. And both that had protected him were dragoness, which made him blush a bit.

"Back in our day, most dragoness' were just breeders so we could keep up the population. Not many fought along the males, course most wanted to stay behind and help the race. Since we did almost vanish a few times during the war. Humans are small, but they do know how to fight."

"Aye."

Zato said as he slowly stood up and stretched out, cracking his neck and snapping his wings open as he did.

"Might I ask if a man with white hair was killed in the carnage?"

"No, he wasn't. He, along with two others, fled the minute we broke free of their curse. Eh, we wanted survivors anyways to tell of the blood shed."

"Ok...now I ask the most important thing....what are you twenty going to do....since well, you know."

"We'll explore the out lying islands and settle on one of them, we'd be a bother anywhere here. And please, come visit us when we do. We'll contact you when we have finished."

Zato gave a nod before each of them vanish with a bow, only to return them. After they had all vanish, Zato collapsed onto his side and let out the longest sigh of his life.

"What the hell just happened!? Argh! What the fuck is going on in this world! It makes no since lately!"

He shot back up and let out the longest, loudest, and most ferocious roar of his life. He was going insane, little made since lately. As his roar died down after roughly three minutes, he collapsed down and slammed his head onto the ground, looking out to the horizon as the sun shown down on him from behind. He opened his other as a faint figure caught his sight, and as he looked it slowly shown itself, and he felt his heart shatter.

"Please...gods.....no....."

In his eyes, he could swear he seen Veons body stabbed into a tree with swords holding her up. He quickly got onto his legs and bolted to the tree before skidding to a halt, now that he was here, he saw nothing. The only thing on the tree was one lone arrow, nothing else. Then, it hit him, the world spun and he felt his stomach tighten. If he still ate in the normal since, he would have thrown up.

"Damn fever is back....seeing shit....yay...."

He said sarcasticly to himself before unfurling his wings and looking to them and sighed.

"Fly...don't fly....."

He thought for a minute before nodding to himself.

"Flight, low altitude."

With that, he opened his wings and made sure his armor was faded in before flying off, roughly three stories off the ground, sure it was still high, but it'd hurt a lot less falling from this high up then his first little tumble, just thinking about and his body hurt.

Shaking his head, he continued his flight. Thankfully this one was short lived, with little effects from his fever, as he landed ontop of the elders tower and sighed heavily upon landing. His body felt five times heavier. He shook it off and looked ahead of himself, his mates were still there, all cuddled up with each other, yet the elders were no where to be seen. Shrugging it off, he moved over to his mates and curled around them, before quickly falling into a deep, strained sleep.

Unbeknownst to him, the elders were still in the normal spots, just blended in to the backgrounds, and each of them smiled as his mates awoke and nodded to them.

"Please do it, I don't want him moving around a lot with the fever he has. His scales actually burn to the touch."

Said Pink as she moved to the edge of the tower and dove off, soon followed by Veon and Ruby.

"My, thought they would want to see him bolted down, that Veon was getting needy from the thought of it."

Said Jeezii as she stood and moved over to Zato and put a spell on him that made him float behind her, not wanting to touch him and wake him up.

"Aye, she will most likely pay him a visit once we are done."

Each of them laughed as they followed Jeezii down to get him strapped down, not wanting to move at all during this fever, since he would no matter how many times they told him.

=====

Down in the training grounds were Zato five childhood friends, still sparring, as Osia slowly moved up to them. When her presence was known to them, they all instantly stopped and bowed down to her, as she slowly returned it, before standing up and sitting on her haunches, each of them doing the same since it seemed she wanted to speak.

"W-would you all...mi...mind training me...h-how to fight....?"

Each of them went wide-eyed to that, if they so much as scratched her, Zato would kill them. Though, only one moved forward, causing the others to look to her.

"Oli! What are you doing?! You know what would happen..."

Muhada whispered out to her, but she ignored it, as she moved in front of Osia and bowed low.

"I-I will train you..."

Osia nearly jumped out of her scales and hugged around Olis neck, causing her to gasp a bit, a small dragoness with a strong grip.

"Seems you wont need much."

Muttered one of them in the back before all let out a laugh and looked to each other, shrugging.

"Eh, we'll all train you. Since each of us specialize in something else."

Osia couldn't get the smile off of her maw now, this was wonderful, she wanted to get stronger, as strong as her brother, to help protect him, she kept seeing horrible visions about him dieing or getting taken away, each one seeming to take place at another time. The elders told her time and again that since she was still young, they were unclear, maybe false. However, she would not take that chance.

"When do we begin?"

"Now, if you'd like."

Osia nodded to that as each of them began speaking, in turn, about what they were going to do.

=====

Back at Elder Tower, Riil and the other elders looked over their work and smiled widely at it. He was tied down just like before, though this time, since they knew Veon would be coming sooner or later, he was tied down on his back with his legs already spread.

"Least we could do for her."

One of them chuckled before all of them moved out of the room, save for Jeezii who slowly moved over to him and gave him a kiss, purring quietly to herself.

"Sorry for tieing you down again..."

Was all she said as she left the room with yet another blush on her cheeks.

=====

Pink and Ruby both made their way to the training grounds and felt their jaws nearly slam into the ground. What they seen shocked them to no ends, in front of them was Osia fighting a dragon about three, maybe four, times her size. Of course, it was a spar, but Zato would never let.....both Pink and Ruby looked to each other and grinned, knowing what she was doing now.

"Want to scare them, Sister?"

Ruby said with an evil more sinister then her sister who only nodded as she shifted to her dragon form and smiled down to her sister as she quickly casted a spell on her that made her smell, look, and speak just like Zato. They had worked on this spell for some time, and the first time they did it to Zato, he acted like a cat looking into a mirror, Ruby easily matching every move he did, til she eventually moved forward and kissed him, nearly causing him to have a heart attack, so they knew it would work on these six.

So, with that, Ruby moved up slowly, just how Zato would walk upon something he didn't like seeing, with a glare on her. When she got roughly seven feet out of the fight, the four watching all gasped and backed away, Osia and Oli looked to them before looking to whatever they were, both following onto their stomachs as they did, each visibly shaking, along with the others.

"And just what does my sister think she is going?"

"Bro-brother I-I wanted to get stronger....to help you....protect you....I know you don't want me training like this....but but...."

Ruby wanted to keep it going longer, but both her and Pink began laughing to much and their illusion fell apart, Pink standing behind Ruby, both laughing to near death as Osia and the others growled deeply at them.

"That was mean sisters...."

A voice said behind them, instantly silencing their laughs, as Veon walked up to them, still liking to have legs over her tail.

"Oh come on Veon, you know its rare for Pink here to do a joke like that. It was just honest fun."

"Honest huh....thats why Osia was about to cry, and the four in the back were about to run away?"

"Well..."

Veon smiled now as she moved over to Osia and gently rubbed over her head, before looking to the others.

"All of you go about training, we wont tell Zato. Even though he would be mad at it, he would be happy with what you are doing Osia, you should just tell him though. When he is awake."

"Brothers back?! I thought he went to fight!?"

"He did, he came back not even an hour ago, however his fever has returned and he is currently in the Elders Tower healing. And don't bother going to see him, he's restrained, so he wont move or the like until he is better."

Osia gave a weak nod before bolting over to Oli and waiting for the much larger dragoness to get up before they instantly went about their training again. With that, Ruby, Veon, And Pink moved off to the other side and set about their own training.

====

On the other side of the kingdom, at the kingdoms gates, a lone figure slowly moved in wrapped in a heavy cloak. The two guards moved in front of the figure, growling.

"Who are you and what business do you have here?"

One of them spoke out as the figure slowly stepped back.

"I am...." The person said before slowly drawing back the cloaks hood, revealing a human with stark white hair and the look of someone in the early twenties.

"Ragna Freehaven....the true Ragna Freehaven, not the one who wanted to lead an attack on your kingdom today...."

Both guards now had their pikes pointed to the human, though they soon lowered them as a voice came from behind them.

"Ah, I knew you'd be coming, come in come in. You two, lower your weapons, I invited him."

They both gave a weak, cautious nod while watching the human follow after their leader. As he followed, he discarded his cloak, revealing Zato's old armor, untouched save for the removal of the wing and tail armor and shrunk a bit.

"How did you get that?"

"Well, I took the original, the other made another from memories."

"Ah."

"Where is my friend....?"

"Ill, in most senses, gravely. However, you know, as well as any in this kingdom, he will be fine."

"Aye."

Ragna couldn't help but look around as dragon after dragon stopped to look at the human that was now in their kingdom, some barring their fangs, and others readying to attack. From the news earlier, humans had wanted to attack their kingdom and got damn close to doing it, but Zato had stopped them all with the aid of only five hundred Royal Guard, of as the stories the elders have been passing around.

"I take it they don't like me."

Ragna said sarcasticly while looking forward to the elder, weakly smiling as they made their way to the elders tower.

"Well, you are a human, clad in armor, with a weapon. Only reason you aren't dead yet is because you are following me, most probably think I put you under a spell."

Ragna yet out a long, strained sigh as he and the elder dragon approached the tower.

"Im pretty sure you will find him by yourself."

Before Ragna could even mutter a word, the elder was in the air and flying fast and high to the top of the tower. So, he just muttered a thank you, and slowly strode into the tower. Normally, there were dragons in here, praying or healing others, but currently, it was empty. Other the the faint sound of thrashing in a back room and growls. The sound of the growls ringing in Ragnas ears and smiled to himself.

"Zato..."

With that, he followed the sound of the growls until he rounded a corner and entered a room with his large friend strapped down heavily, sweat pouring off his dull colored scales and near empty stare. For a few, he seemed to ignore the presence of someone else before he finally looked up and stared at the armor clad human, before letting out an eerie growl that caused a shiver to run up Ragnas spine and a look from the dragon that instantly shook Ragna to the core, he was happy now he was tied up.

"Long time no see my friend...."

Zatos glare stayed as he watched the human move into the room and sit down beside him, growling even louder now as he seemingly forgot earlier.

"My friend, those...things you fought were not me, Hollow, and Derrik. They were us in some since, but not us. When we were given the ability to live through the ages, of course through magic, we learned that said magic caused....copies of us to be made, these one age, but a lot slower. Of course, seeing his mind set, you can tell we did the spell back when the attack on our kingdom happened. I have long since forgiven the dragons."

Zato watched as Ragna moved his hands forward and slowly took of a few straps of strong leather holding his maw shut, before a loud snap sounded through the air as Zato bit the air in front of Ragna hands.

"Do not fool me with your tricks!"

"But Zato...I am not..."

"Lies! Even the strongest of magic could not make a human clone, let alone two that looked exactly the same with the same memories!"

"It didn't work perfectly. The clone is an abomination, why do you think he never takes off his armor?"

"I don't follow him around enough to find out now do I?"

"You're right, but he doesn't know one memory I am sure off, I asked to keep it out of his mind."

"And what would that be?"

"You see the setting and rising sun as a battle, once you even painted a painting of what you thought it looked like, that still hangs in my castle. Also, you somewhat mastered the flute, though you still mess up from time to time, and once tried to eat the flute in frustration."

"And how do I know you aren't just lieing?"

He didn't answer that as he moved up and traced along a scar on Zatos forearm, roughly four inches long, before tracing one on his own arm, though it was hidden by his armor.

"If I remember what you said correctly, "Blood brothers can not lie to each other. It would be a huge dishonor to both." Am I right?"

"Aye."

"I am your blood brother, Ragna Freehaven. Not the other."

"I'll go along with it...for now."

Zato thought to himself as he gave a slow, weak, nod.

To be continued...

(Oi, I get the feeling I missed a tag......)