FSE

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As I had suspected, I was unable to sleep that night. How could I? Between the nightmares that Siazach kept throwing my way, the ones that were being caused by the testament, wondering about what I had seen in Tyranny's Trunk, my Marine friends, John and what the fuck HDR was, I was like a walking train wreck of emotion. I squirmed around in my bed, trying to find sleep, but not being able to. I sighed as I opened my eyes and looked around my dark room, the only light being a dim blue that was pouring in from my window. I could hear Tyranny talking across the hall. I sighed, now seemed like as good a time as any. It was the middle of the night, so maybe he wouldn't yell and scream at me and wake everyone up. I pulled open my own chest, grabbed my tags and hung them around my neck before walking across the hall and sliding open Tyranny's door. He was laying on the floor in front of a TV dressed in a white tank top and what looked like boxer shorts. The show was Saturday Night Live.

"Tyranny?", I asked quietly.

He turned around, "hey Emelia, why are you up so late?"

"I can't sleep", I said, "can I come in? I wanna talk to you."

He nodded and I stepped inside, quietly closing the door behind me. The entire room was dark, lit only by the glow of the TV. There was the faint smell of Jack Daniels drifting throughout the room.

"Is that Jack D?", I asked.

"Yeah", Tyranny answered, "I have a glass every now and again. You want some?"

I shrugged, "yeah, might help calm me down a little."

Tyranny went to his stove and pulled another glass out of a cupborad and filled it about halfway before handing it to me.

"So what's on your mind?", He asked.

I sighed and looked at him for a long while before answering.

"What can you tell me about HDR?", I asked.

His face twitched in surprise, but he managed to reset it very quickly.

"What?", He asked.

"Oh don't lie to me", I sighed drinking half the glass, "HDR, I know you were one of them because I found your vest."

"What the fuck were you doing in my box?", Tyranny growled.

"Have you ever heard of Siazach?", I asked.

"Everyone here has", Tyranny growled, 'what's he got to do with you looking in my box?"

"Everything actually", I said taking another drink, "At my circus, he cursed me, trapping me in this dragon body. The curse could be lifted, but I had to find ten people and place ten Tarot cards. If I didn't not only would I be stuck like this, but those ten people would die. Guess what? You were player number eight Master Otani is number nine."

"And whose ten?", Tyranny asked, his anger seemed to be fading out.

'There is no number ten", I answered, "number ten is the Star, or control card, which is me."

Tyranny sighed, "1970. I was on the ground in the Vietnam Civil war. I was by myself, helping some South Vietnamese friends of mine check around their village when the NVA rolled up in a flame throwing tank and doused the entire village in burning oil. Lucky for us, or at least I thought so at the time, I had an M72 law on me. I fired it at the tank, thought that would be the end of it."

"It wasn't?", I asked.

He shook his head, "another one rolled in behind me and sprayed me directly. You ever splashed hot oil from a deep fryer or something like that on yourself?"

I nodded, "several times when I helped Barron cook on the food car of our train. It stung like hell."

"Now imagine that covering a 100% of your body and feeling your skin dripping off your bones like water", Tyranny sighed, "I remember all of the people in the village climbing up on that tank, hauling the NVA soldiers out of it and beheading them on the spot. Then five or six people grabbed their AK's and waited beside my charcoal converted body for almost 5 hours before the Evac chopper arrived. At the hospital, they told me they couldn't fix my injuries, that I was going to slowly die because of some of the things inside of me that the heat melted."

"And that's when F came to you for HDR?", I asked.

"They call him F now?", Tyranny asked.

I nodded.

"Then yeah", Tyranny answered, "all I had to do was sign my name. Problem was, neither of my arms worked anymore."

"So how'd you sign?", I asked finishing my glass.

"I didn't", Tyranny said, "I gave verbal consent and my Sargent forged my name.

"Wow", I sighed.

"You got someone in the project don't you?", Tyranny asked.

"Yeah", I sighed, "a Marine named John. I got pretty close to him in the time that I knew him. It's been eating me to know what it was that I signed him up for."

"Well now you know", Tyranny sighed.

"Yeah", I answered, "I do....what if it doesn't work?"

"It will. Here I am 29 years later", Tyranny sighed, "I ended up in Draco for about two years or so before my sister came along and then I said, fuck it, no way is she going to war. I slipped out the first chance I got and we started traveling around. One night we were in Europe and this weird dude named Remmy shows up at our cave. Says he knows a place where we can live safely."

"You've met him too huh?", I asked.

He nodded, "yeah, told us about this place, we left the next morning. Months pass, we settle in, and here we are."

I smiled, "hope I get to keep this body once I place this card."

"Why is that?", Tyranny asked.

"I like it here", I said, "something about the way you guys live here appeals to me."

Tyranny smiled, "happy to hear it sister, why don't you come help me in the garden tomorrow and then we'll go into town?"

"Town?", I asked tilting my head, "you sure that's a good Idea?"

"Yeah", Tyranny said, "the people there know that were up here and they think were dragons from old Japanese legend. Master Otani explained it in class, but I was dozing off so I didn't catch it."

"Yeah I guess", I said standing, "thanks for the talk Tyranny."

"Anytime sister", he said yawning, "now get to bed, It's late."

I smiled at him and slipped back across the hall and into my room, closing the door behind me. I placed my tags beside my bed and curled up in it. Maybe a little bit of work and a visit to a town was all I needed to get back to a semblance of normal. I figured after tomorrow, I would try and find a way to place Master Otani's card and see where that took me.