AN: So... behold... the beginning of the end. Plot... plot has begun to arise from the depths....

Some of you may stare at this update and be all 'WTF' but it was necessary to carry the story forward and to set up the final series of chapters for this season. There will be MANY QUESTIONS some of you want to ask. I might not be able to answer them without extreme spoilerage.

Chapter 39.3: As the Dragon Sleeps

A kaleidoscope of stars wheeled through the heavens above. A small child, barely more than an infant, stood in the center of an endless grassland and gazed up at the vaulting wheel of the midnight sky. Each of those stars had a story to tell, they had existed forever.

A gently, but insistent whisper echoed through the mind of the child. "Remember..."

The child placed his hands to his head, hot tears poured down from his anguished eyes. He shook his head back and forth in a desperate attempt not to follow the command that he felt growing inside. "No..."

Suddenly, the stars began to speak to him as well. Light flared back and forth, desperate, terrifying images assaulted his mind. The stars screamed and cried as they continued their eternal existence.

"Remember..." whispered the calm, masculine voice.

"Please.... no." whimpered the small boy. "Please... "

A single star in the heavens flared wildly and a wave of pain, of indescribable anguish rocked his body. It penetrated deep into his mind and assaulted his soul. It was accompanied by the sound of a young girl crying, whimpering in terror.

"Remember..." spoke that still, small, voice. "Remember your promise..."

The child tried to deny it once more, but suddenly all the stars in the sky exploded with light. Wave after wave of incalculable pain and fear ravaged his psyche. The boy fell to his hands and knees sobbing uncontrollably as the heavens cried out in torment.

"P-please... There has to be someone else..." whispered the boy hoarsely.

The whispering voice was silent for a time, but soon it came again. "Remember... Remember what I am..."

He forced his head up as the hot tears fell, as a memory sparked within him. He gazed at the three largest stars in the sky above. "Please, can't one of you do this... just this once?"

Those three stars flared with a gentle light one after the other. Warmth suffused the body of the small body and soothed his fearful and anguished heart for a time. With that gentle warmth came the sound of mighty wings beating at the air, of claws and scales dragging upon ancient stone, and the heavy breathing of a beast.

"Remember..." whispered the voice once more.

The boy cried softly as the light continued to try and soothe his pain and worries. Three voices, ancient and powerful voices spoke in unison. "Until the end, when all are together again..."

The tiny boy, so frail, unleashed pitiful and desperate sobs. Those words hurt more than anything. They bore with them a gentle reminder of an ancient primordial promise. Slowly, he began to change to grow. No longer a toddler, her was not a young boy on the verge of adolescence.

Scales, black as midnight, began to form along his arms. The crying boy looked down at them in confusion. "This is not the color of my scales..."

The whisper returned then, "As the story goes, with both reason and rhyme... Seasons change, bodies are but clothes worn and discarded with time..."

Tears welled up in the child's eyes once more as he felt more of his body shift. Soon his fingernails had become claws. His soft brown eyes began to shift, soon they had taken on a vivid red color.

His tiny chest heaved as he felt his organs begin to shift, and new ones began to grow. The whisper returned, "Remember... I must remember."

A scream erupted from the tiny child's throat as another memory surfaced. It was the memory of a little girl who meant a great deal to him. Her tiny body was broken and torn. She bled from hideous wounds and barely had the strength to look up at him. It was the look in her forlorn eyes that caused his body to begin to change at an accelerated rate.

The whisper returned, "Remember... I must remember."

The small boy began to pant heavily as the pain of billions of mortals souls lanced through him. His mind and soul were aflame with their desperate need to be heard. He could feel their absolute loneliness, their fear, and their desire to find even one being in the cosmos that might hear them as they cried alone in the dark.

Unable to fight it any longer, the child fell to the earth. He saw nothing but the grass before him as his body continued to change. His tiny little hands clawed feebly at the Earth. Softly he whispered, "I will.... remember."

**

Deep, deep in the heart of an underground island lair, an asshole had become annoyed. Boss King glared sullenly at the viewing screen that floated in the air before him. Since earlier that day he had been unable to view his favorite reality show.

"I don't get it." said the abomination in annoyance. "How can I be blocked? I've seen everything this guy has done for twenty years, but now I can't?"

Boss King leaned forward then glanced down at the malnourished teenage girl chained to one of the legs of his thrown. She licked at his feet while maintaining a glassy-eyed expression. Irritated, he kicked her in the face and she rolled over like a broken doll. She did not even bother to cry out. "Stupid dog... What use are you now?"

A petulant sigh escaped his lips then he sent a bug report to his relative on the project committee. He wanted this obvious bug fixed. What was the purpose in tormenting a monkey if he could not even witness his pain and fear? "This is getting boring."

A message arrived on a side-view screen. Boss King's eyes lit-up. "Sweet!"

He called for Melisandre, and once she appeared he began to give her an order but saw that she had a strangely vacant look in her eyes. "What's wrong with you?"

Melisandre gasped a little, startled by the realization that she was in front of her master. "I... Don't know."

Boss King stared at her for a moment then rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm going to be away on some important business. Go to my room and masturbate till I return. Make a video and say my name a lot."

Melisandre's nose wrinkled, but she inclined her head then walked toward her master's bedroom. On the way she passed an open door. Three wolf-headed men stood inside, one held a massive hammer with the name Bug Swatter emblazoned on the side. There were three fairies on a nearby table, two in cages and one tied down with ropes.

The dragon walked by just in time to see that hammer fall and crush the young fairy with a disgusting splat. The young fairy's parents screamed out their daughter's name and the wolfmen laughed at their anguished cries.

Heart-sick from the disgusting sight Melisandre placed a hand to her mouth and moved on as quickly as she could. It would be impossible to remove that image from her mind.

Back in the throne room Boss King sat down on his throne then opened up a log out menu. His body fell asleep and began to snore. In another room, an entire multi-verse away, a green haired god lifted a skull cap from his head then grinned. "Can't believe she said yes! Wait till I tell Sax. That guy will be so jealous."

He stood up to get dressed. It wasn't every day that the prettiest girl in his school said yes to a date. He put on his jacket then kissed his finger tips and touched them to a floating holographic image of his parents and himself eating at a restaurant. "You were right dad. I can get a girl to go out with me if I'm persistent and treat them right!"

Out the door and down on the street he met up with a pretty blond girl who looked to be about the same age as he was, fourteen hundred, or roughly thirteen or fourteen years old in human terms. "Hi Karen..." he said, his hand coming up to rub the back of his head.

Karen Summers smiled at her school mate. "Hi yourself! I didn't take you away from anything important did I?"

"Nah, I was just playing a game." he said with a smile.

"Really, is it fun?" she asked, before they turned and began to walk down the street side-by-side.

He shrugged. "It was, but it's gotten kind of boring. There's a bug or something."

"Oh. Well, I'm glad then." She smiled warmly at him. "I wouldn't want to bother you."

His face turned bright red. "No! You're no trouble at all..."

She glanced at him sideways. "What if I want to be a little trouble...?"

His blush deepened. "Hey... Don't tease me."

"Right, I forget. You're still a virgin aren't you?" she teased.

"Do games count?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course not, you pervert." she said with a musical laugh. "They're just games."

He laughed nervously as well then nodded. "Guess I just haven't met the right girl."

She pushed at him a little then smiled warmly at him. "I don't get that. You're such a sweet guy. Not like some of those other jerks."

"Yeah. I don't get guys like that. They just don't know how to treat a lady with respect, you know?" Even as he nodded his head in agreement, worlds away a beautiful dragon sobbed softly in counterpoint to the sound of a loud buzzing noise and her silent pleas for freedom.