Pario

Hello. I am Unit 48179920S Pario. I am a search and rescue drone repurposed for scouting and combat a skydancer dragon, older brother of Telba.
Telba helps keep me grounded when I start to forget who I am. It's my job to protect her, even if she's not so small anymore, but sometimes I think maybe it's the other way around.

We've lived in these caves for a long time. I think they must extend all over Sornieth, because no matter how much we've wandered, we've never found an end to them. We've lived down here in the dark so long, I don't think Telba remembers what sunlight is like anymore. My memory isn't so good either; sometimes I remember places that I know can't exist and people not like dragons or any beastclan I've heard of.
I tell Telba about the things I remember. She likes the stories about long ago and far away, and she helps me figure out which are my memories, and which are mine the orb's.

A little while ago, we finally found our way back to the surface. We gave up on that a long time ago, but it finally happened completely by accident (my orders were to find a safe place, and I did not abandon that mission).
We're in the Windswept Plateau, which is a long way from where we started. There's a clan here and they've been very friendly, even if the black coatl asks too many questions that are hard for me to answer.
Telba can't go out during the day because the sunlight hurts her, but no one seems to mind when we come up to visit at night. They've let me borrow books from their library, and their doctor examined both of us. I was very relieved when he said Telba is fine, aside from the light sensitivity. He couldn't help me much, and I said no to his offer to contact someone who knows more about Second Age relics (I guess that's what I am, but I don't like to hear him say it).
We trade crystals and other things we find down below for food and supplies. I don't know if what we give them is valuable. Maybe they just trade for our junk out of kindness, but I'm not about to question it. I don't need as much food anymore, but Telba is so thin.
It's strange to be around so many dragons again. I think it's a little overwhelming for both of us, and sometimes I'm glad that Telba's sensitivity gives us an excuse to go back to the caves. But I think I like it here.


But you're probably wondering why I'm like this. Why I'm a Second Age relic as much as a dragon. No, it's not a secret. It is something I don't like to talk about. But I guess you deserve to know.
There's all kinds of things buried down in the caves. Things from dragons and beastclans. Older, stranger things too. Back before there were dragons, before the Pillar shattered, there were other people here, and they built things. Incredible, impossible things. And Telba and I found one.

It started when we stumbled into a nest of snakes. Snakes are good food, but these were bigger than any we'd ever seen, and the one guarding the rest was the biggest of all, a leviathan like nothing we'd ever seen. It chased us, and we ran. Ran and ran, until we fell down a crevice to deeper than we'd ever gone.
We woke something up, down there in the dark. A floating orb, glowing electric blue. It just followed us around making strange noises at first, as we slowly climbed back up. Telba had fun trying to imitate it and it didn't seem like it was doing any harm, so I let it follow. At least it gave us some light.

But after a while it stopped making strange sounds and started to speak. Just a little bit at first, still sounding strange and with the words all mixed up and used wrong, but it learned fast. That's what it told us - that it was learning. That since we found it, it was ours and it would do what we told it to.
It hadn't been made by dragons. It didn't even know what dragons were, and when it tried to tell us about what it was and where it came from and who made it, none of it made any sense. But it was useful, and down in the dark that was all that really mattered.
So we mostly used it to scout. To warn us about danger and help find food. And little by little we figured out what it could do. Map out tunnels from far away. Shock things that attacked us. Lift and carry heavy things. The more we used it, the more I realized what it could do. We started being more vague, just to see what it was capable of. Protect Telba. Find us a safe place.

And then... then I got hurt. Hurt badly, too badly to make it. If we'd had a doctor, then maybe, but down in the dark? There's no room for weakness. No room for error.
I should have died.
Telba told the orb to save me. Told it that overrode everything else. It couldn't heal me, not properly, but it could patch me back together. Fill in the gaps with itself. So it did.
Only it didn't know dragons. Didn't know how we worked. Our minds, especially. We're as alien to it as it is to us. It didn't fix things right, was too slow to stop the damage and did more damage by mistake. So it filled in the gaps with itself there too.
It's done what it can, to put my mind and body back together, but I think there's things I'll never get back. Memories that are gone for good, things I should know but don't, things I should be able to do but can't seem to figure out.

The orb just about ran out of power doing all that - it's so old, and it was never designed for this. It - I - can still do some things in low power mode. But it can't separate from me. And I think we're slowing merging together, more and more.
Its memories and knowledge and skills - they're getting all mixed up with mine. I think maybe eventually it won't be me and the orb. It'll just be me, whatever that is, relic or dragon.
I don't know if that should scare me. But I'll take any advantage I can, to stay alive and keep Telba safe.

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Pario wasn't moving. Telba pressed herself against his side, like she always had, the way that made her feel safe, and she couldn't feel his breath, just the too-hot wetness of his blood. The orb hovered beside them, humming anxiously.

"Fix this!" she shouted at it. "If you can do so much, fix him!"

"Primary objective: protect Telba. Recommended action: leave area."

"No!" She burrowed into his side, as if that familiar position would bring him back, make this right again. As if anything could. "You said you can do anything we ask. So fix him."

The orb hung buzzing before her, blue light pulsing as it thought. "This conflicts with the primary objective."

"Then change it! New primary objective: save Pario! Save him!"

"New priority: repair dragon known as Pario. Acknowledged."

And then the orb seemed to melt and flow, in a way Telba had never seen before. A river of silver and blue flowed into Pario, pouring through his body, leaving in its wake complicated patterns of light and metal, filling in the torn holes in his hide. His eyes snapped open, glowing the same brilliant blue as the orb's light, and his chest heaved with breath.

"Pario? Pario!" But he didn't answer.

The orb did. "Physical damage repaired. Extensive neurological degradation detected."

"So fix that too!" She didn't know what that meant, except that Pario wasn't waking up.

"Attempting repair..." The light pulsed along Pario's body, slowly dimming. Telba smelled the crackle of electricity that reminded her of home. "Repair failed due to unfamiliar neural architecture. Energy reserves depleted. Entering low power mode." The light blinked from blue to red.

Telba sat a moment in the dim crimson glow coming from her brother's body. Frozen. "No," she whispered. Then louder. "No! No, you said you could fix him! Highest priority! You said you could-"

"High level of neural plasticity detected. Possibility for assisted self-repair theorized."

"What? What does that mean? What does that mean?"

"This unit cannot repair draconic brains due to their alien structure. The brain may be capable of repairing itself over time. This unit can assist in this recovery and maintain vital function while it occurs. Estimated probability of partial success: 74%. Estimated probability of complete success: 3%. Estimated time for repair process: 4 years."

Telba shook her head. Pario had been the one who could figure the orb out, not her. She wasn't that smart, had never really been able to study like he had before they got lost down here. But it sounded like it thought it might be able to fix him. A little bit. Slowly. And if it could do anything at all to help...

"Permission is required."

"Yes. Yes. Do whatever you have to."

A pulse flashed through the lights on Pario's body, a flash that left them even dimmer in its wake. And then he stood up. Telba stepped back, hope finally rising in her. Was it that easy? But there was something wrong with him, more wrong that the metal and light and electric buzz of the orb that had fused with him. He moved too stiffly, and didn't look at her, and when he finally spoke, her heart sank.

"We must go to a safer area." Spoken in his voice, but with the emotionless tone of the orb.

It wasn't her brother. But... maybe it might be again. Eventually.

"Okay," she said. "Okay."

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Please Don't Exalt! Should you ever need to get rid of this derg please return it to the Rescue it came from through @Catrisa or @MischievousMeh