Zero

Age: ~600 Mates: n/a Role: Scout, Guard, Mentor Alignment: Neutral Good

"Andromeda, Terracotta! He's waking up--yes, I'm sure, I'm an empath. No, he's perfectly calm and safe to approach." "Zero? Hi there, big fella, it's Andromeda. No, no, don't try to get up! C'mon, just lie back down nice and easy--there ya go, perfect. Terra, anything?" "Bleeding has mostly stopped, still has some seawater in the lungs, and I think he managed to injure that hip again. He'll never get rid of that limp at this rate." Finally, Zero managed to force his bleary eyes open.

Getting them to focus was another matter, and the world was for a few minutes rendered only in smears of indistinct colors. But everything soon coalesced, if a bit blurrier than usual. Zero was in the infirmary, sprawled on a soft bed of cushions. Terracotta flitted over his body, gently feeling at his wounds, and Andromeda jotted notes into a small book.

"Nn," Zero began, then seized as a coughing fit wracked through him. His likely cracked ribs protested, and when the coughing subsided he simply let himself lie there limply. Utter fatigue swamped him, as two days of hard flying and combat finally caught up to him.

"Sh, sh," Eclipse soothed. "Don't worry about speaking right now, Zero. You just focus on staying awake. You did everything you could, okay? We're all very proud of you."

Zero tried to raise his head, struggling to crane his neck as he peered anxiously around the infirmary. "Stormtide? He, is he--" he managed, before more coughing forced him to stop. He winced as Terracotta and Andromeda used their magic to heal his wounds, the flesh and skin knitting back together painfully.

"He'll recover just fine, Zero. It's you we need to worry about now."

But the old imperial couldn’t help but worry about his young apprentice. Last he saw, Stormtide had taken a massive blow to the head and plunged from the sky. Zero couldn’t remember anything that happened after that; any time he was taken by his berserker instincts in a battle, his memory afterwards was hazy at best.

“I should’ve had more control,” he managed, despite Eclipse’s and Andromeda’s protests that he stay quiet. “I just, never expected them again…”

Silence fell after that, the two nocturnes working swiftly on their patient, only occasionally muttering a quick command for him to shift position. Eclipse stood by dutifully, the empath invaluable in these situations given Zero’s status as a berserker. The tension in the air was palpable, and finally, after wrapping a splint around Zero’s bad leg, Terracotta finally said something.

“By them… you mean, your--your old raiders?” he looked like he was going to say more, but must’ve thought better of it.

Zero tensed, every kind of anxiety and anger running through him hot and cold. Seeing them again, the dragons he once led as a warlord, had been too much. It was still too much. He had thought of them as flock--family--and they had betrayed him in a way that cut so deep he still had nightmares. Seeing them again hurt.

Eclipse was nuzzling him.

“--and then we can talk about everything, alright? Just you and me, safe right here,” the black imperial was saying. “Does that sound good, Zero?”

He had missed most everything Eclipse had said, but still nodded. Because he trusted Eclipse. Because he trusted Terracotta and Andromeda and Stormtide. Because he trusted so much he nearly died trying to protect them. Because after every betrayal in his long life, he still found it in himself to trust.

And Zero trusted the Waypoint.

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"looks like everything's going your way! for now..."
Art by me


art by cerule