The Dragon Commander (SkyLine 1)

“Before we can get married… you need to take care of you. I can’t have you panicking every time you have a nightmare and calling me,” said Chris. He bit his lip to keep himself from melting while he lost grip on himself. “Or trying to keep me from a mission.” He stood and slipped his arms into his jacket.

“Ready to go, Major General?” said DA-Vos, in the doorway. Chris moved towards him, though he was Major General no longer. He wasn’t human, or Dragon, or a machine either. He didn’t know what he was, anymore.

“What… you’re that Squire!” Sheba flung a finger at the robot. “Chris, what is this?”

“Nothing, Sheba!” Chris stomped back at her. For just a second, yellow light jumped through his eyes. His pupils sharpened to a black slit, then returned, fast enough to have been a trick. “You’d see that, if you weren’t delusional.” Numb as she was, Sheba moved for him, when he moved for the door.

“I don’t believe this… I don’t believe you!” she screamed.

“I don’t want to be another way for you to run from yourself… I won’t become part of your problem,” Chris shook his head, “Maybe we can be what I thought we were, someday. When you’re better. Good luck Sheba.” He stepped out into the hallway. Chris cringed when he heard Sheba’s steps behind him.

“I’m sorry, Chris. You’ve got to do better,” DA-Vos’ voice rang through his mind. Chris sniffled down the tears about to burst through.

“I’m glad you came though. It was a tough mission, and I needed to get off,” he said to her, “Maybe I’ll swing by the apartment after the next one.” That stopped Sheba dead in her tracks.

“You… you’re not yourself,” she whimpered.

“No, I’m not,” said Chris. When he and DA-Vos left through the side door, past Tim’s room, Sheba didn’t follow.

“Ready to save the world?” said DA-Vos, under the night sky outside. In the cosmic darkness, Chris watched the radiance of the SkyLine. He wiped his eyes one last time before he gave up on stopping the flood.

“Consider yourself lucky if I can save you from me,” growled Chris.

When he wanted nothing more than to turn back and find Sheba, he boarded the magnetrain. Chris felt the burden of the Skyline, of Mars, and all the lives caught between on his shoulders. All of it amounted to dust, compared to the weight of Sheba’s words. You’re not yourself.

She was still screaming into Chris’ pillow, clinging to his scent, when a set of high heels clacked in the doorway. Sheba glanced up at a woman she’d met a handful of times, when she lived in the WCC barracks. The two never shared as much in common as they did the instant they connected eyes- shock.

“Where’s Chris?” said Dorothy.

Over the next weeks into months, it was a question that became more and more difficult to answer.

In the watchless silver moonlight, with only a machine for company, Chris let himself go. He gave into the instinct stabbing at his new Chrysum-brain since he awoke, and transformed. Every border of his body loosened. His very atoms shook apart, creating a sort of Chris-shaped haze. Starting with his feet, that haze began to shift. When his particles realigned, it was not in the shape of feet, but scaly claws. His legs became two muscular trunks of armor. His fingers sharpened to silvery talons. His skull elongated. His teeth extended, sharpened. Chris’ hair receded to shiny plates of scale. New bones burst from his back and swung open at a joint for the canvas of wings to grow. When Chris’ form solidified, the only feature unchanged were the scars over his eyes- two yellow gemstones. He was Sheba’s nightmare brought to life.

Even DA-Vos was paralyzed at the sight. He considered melting into the grass, to escape this beast. Then Chris held an arm out to him, expectant.

“You’re not getting out of this now,” Chris’ dragonic voice hissed through DA-Vos’ language processor. His face lit yellow, he saw what Chris wanted to do as clear as if it was his own idea. DA-Vos’ body dissolved to coat Chris’ scaly arm in a jet-black gauntlet.

His wings snapped open, filling the moon with the shape of a demon. Residents of the Lunar Station had no idea what was headed their way, nor did any in Chris’ path to the Dragon’s nest.