They both stopped as they heard their captive stirring, Zikee grabbing her hilt while Andiz raised his staff at the ready. Whatever the dragon-thing was, it could still attempt to burn their faces even bound, especially given Andiz insisted they not gag the she-dragon’s mouth while it slept.
And it was, in fact, a she-dragon. Andiz had been brave enough to check.
“Mphm. Huh?”
Her jaws opened wide, which made them brace for a fight but there didn’t appear to be any fire coming towards them, only a dreary yawn escaping as she blinked away exhaustion. Andiz relaxed slightly, though Zikee kept her sword ready. Who knew what a dragon of her abilities was capable of? They were better off dealing with the time bomb in their house sooner rather than later.
After going through the trouble of ransacking the breeding facility they hadn’t turned up much in terms of leads. They knew the dragons escaped, but where to or how remained a mystery. At present, they had no better leads to go by than the creature who’d quite literally fallen in front of them, whatever its reasons had been.
According to Andiz, there were no signs of serious damage or poisonings. So that left one giant question in need of an answer. Why had it suddenly dropped in front of them? And of course there was still the question of why it looked so human. Considering all the other dragons fled, she was their only clue towards tracking down the facility’s residents.
Assuming it could talk in the first place. She could only think of one way to find out for sure.
“Kiki!”
Her blade rested on the dragon’s throat, one hand pushing down her shoulder just so she could emphasize the control she had on her life. One wrong word. One move. One twitch of fire and she wouldn’t hesitate to carve her a new hole to breathe out of. Zikee grinned.
“I’ll make this easy,” she said. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you, and I won’t end you here.”
The she-dragon looked up at her, eyes glowing the same yellow they’d been when she was a hulking reptile. But they didn’t have half the danger in them now that she resembled a human barely taller than Andiz.
“Kill me, and my secrets die with me.”
Zikee was a bit surprised by the response. So the creature could talk after all? It was a simple response, but she took note of the she-dragon’s cadence, a strangely calm tone for someone sitting tied up with a blade at her neck. It only made her more wary of what exactly they were dealing with.
“That’s a-“
“If you wished to interrogate me,” the she-dragon interrupted, “all you had to do was ask. There’s no need for all this life-threatening nonsense. It’s not as if my secrets are very treasured.”
Zikee only felt more wary at that, especially given how quickly Andiz jumped to agree.
“That’s what I said!” Andiz shouted. “Kiki, you said you’d go easy. Beating the info out never works.”
She tried not to show her displeasure in front of the enemy but made a mental note to chastise her husband later. Without taking her eyes off the dragon, she took a step backwards, sword remaining out on the off-chance that this was simply a trap of some sort.
“Oh?” Zikee asked. “And what have you to share, dragon?”
The creature, much to Zikee’s annoyance, smiled at that.
“Well for starters,” she said, “I’m technically only half-dragon.”
Andiz’s expression darkened.
“Not like that,” the she-dragon corrected. “I was made, you see. It was more akin to building a sword than birthing a child. What you see now is the result of years upon years of very unfortunate and slightly painful lab experimentation.”
She smiled as she said all that despite Zikee noting the rather disturbing comparison.
“A lab?” Andiz asked.
“You saw it, didn’t you? Breeding Facility X-10.”
Zikee felt a chill, which the half-dragon seemed to have noticed, her smile growing brighter.
“That’s right,” she said. “Me and my fellow halflings were all birthed there. The last remnants of Project Ranger. Oh, and I’m Ty, by the way. I’d stand to shake your hand but…well…the bindings.”
Zikee looked to Andiz, who had since doubled over a nearby couch. She’d told him interrogations tended to be messy, though she’d never seen him quite so squeamish looking.
As flippant as the she-dragon spoke, it was just as likely she only spoke in lies, which was execution worthy as far as Zikee was concerned. For all they knew, she was trying to buy time until her friends showed up to ransack their house in revenge, whoever those friends might have been.
But then, that wouldn’t explain why she could turn into a human. Why she knew about the breeding facility. Or why she’d used that name Project Ranger in particular. It wasn’t something they hadn’t heard before in their investigations.
Several people had screamed the title after she’d gotten a bit carried away with her interrogation. They never knew what it was, but she’d found out it had something to do with dragons. And now here they were, face to face with one that claimed to have been a part of all that. Not just a part, but a product of it. A creature born from the work of those scientists.
A halfling. An actual breathing halfing. Perhaps the first of her kind.
“You...” Zikee steeled herself. Whether true or not, she couldn’t take the word of the enemy as law. “You have some farfetched thinking, dragon.”
The so-called Ty seemed to laugh at that.
“So I’ve been told,” she said. “I’m guessing you don’t believe me then?”
“Why should we? You’re expecting us to take a lot on blind faith.”
The she-dragon seemed to ponder that a moment, her head tilting as she hummed to herself. Did she have that little fear of the two of them? Or did she simply lack any concern for herself in general? Half the things she’d said, if they were true, sounded like they’d likely be under heavy scrutiny. If whoever remained of Project Ranger were still around, they surely wouldn’t want such secrets to be found.
And to Zikee’s surprise, the she-dragon argued as much.
“If anyone else heard what I’m saying, I’d be dead. Probably a lot faster than you two would kill me for lying. Which I’m not. But if you need proof, you can always check this for clarity.”
She craned her neck, showing off the scales running down her frame.
“Right under the skin past the dragon bits. An explosive strong enough to pop my head off like a cherry. It’s really rather disturbing, actually.”
Her gaze shifted to Andiz.
“You. Healer. You can see it, can’t you? The brand of the facility. I know you must have spotted it by now.”
Andiz flinched. She hadn’t noticed it before, but as Ty pointed it out, Zikee did notice how pale her husband seemed to be getting. In fact, ever since he’d checked the woman, he seemed to have been looking at her with a wary expression, something she’d written off as simple caution over the fact that they had a dragon in tow. But as she looked at him now, and as his gaze fell, Zikee realized just how truthful Ty’s words had been. All her words.
“Oh. Spirits.”
Ty lowered her head.
“They always needed a way to mark their products,” she said. “But these things tend to happen after you’ve been diced and prodded for a while. Frankly, I’m a little relieved you both trashed the place. One less nightmare to think about.”
Zikee wasn’t sure how to respond to that. The experimentation was one thing, but everything else? Dragons who could turn into humans. The facilities made to create them. Explosive tags. Though the scientists they’d spoken to were clueless, the sentiment behind Ty’s declaration began to truly sink in the more Zikee thought of it.
It wasn’t just that she was a product of Project Ranger. She was a survivor. And given its people went through the trouble of planting a bomb in her neck, it was doubtful they’d let things remain that way into the future. Was that why she’d come to them?
“So what about you?”
Zikee came out of her thoughts, finding the she-dragon’s gaze locked on her, the smile having long since vanished.
“I’m grateful you desecrated X-10,” Ty said, “but I get the sense that wasn’t out of pure kindness. For either of you.”
Andiz seemed to recover from the shock long enough to rejoin them, though he kept his distance away from the bounded she-dragon.
“Why were you hunting around a breeding facility for dragons? You don’t bear the seals of a guild. So what is it you’re truly after?”
Zikee felt a twinge at the question, the hole in her chest once again burning with desire. That laugh. Her face. Anything other than the sounds she’d made in the end. Andiz put a hand on her shoulder, Zikee reflexively giving it a gentle squeeze even as she knew they were in the middle of an interrogation. Though neither said a word, Ty seemed to pick up on the situation.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Zikee found her voice again, stealing her resolve at the memory.
“If you speak the truth,” she said, “then you’re going to help us find them. All of them.”
She pulled away from Andiz, her sword rising and halting just over the she-dragon’s lap.
“Project Ranger,” Zikee said. “I want every founding member’s head on a platter. And the head of the creature they birthed as well.”
Her blade came up to Ty’s ropes.
“You mean…it was one of ours? A halfling?”
Zikee didn’t respond, simply swinging and cutting the she-dragon free.
As she stepped back, she still found herself readying for some kind of attack. Some trap. Some counter while they had their guards down. But nothing came of it besides the woman raising her hands to be released next.
“Do you know which one it was?” Ty asked. “There weren’t many of us that made it out alive.”
Zikee nodded, the memory as fresh as it was the day they’d lost her.
“The Silver Dragon,” she said. “It must die by my hands.”
