Something in the air changed, like the hum of a lightbulb flickering in and out. Deimos whipped his head around, to see another figure, this one in a purple hoodie, step out of an alleyway. They surveyed Chi and Deimos, before walking closer. Deimos saw they had silver scales on their face, though the color was darker than Chi’s, and the stripes on their cheeks were a deep violet.

Deimos’ fingers trailed over his own tarnished scales.

Chi turned, waving jauntily at the newcomer. 

“Hey Dio! This is my friend Deimos I was telling you about.” He turned to Deimos. “This is my sibling Dionysis. They’re going to ask you some questions, so we can help you, okay?”

Deimos glanced between Chi and the newcomer. They looked similar enough to be twins, with only slight differences in the shade of their scales and the blue and purple stripes on their faces. Much like how Deimos and his smallest brother Icelus looked nearly identical in the shapes of their faces and build, if not for their variant colors and the crest on Deimos’s head.

Dionysis blinked, eyes focusing Deimos who blinked back at them. They knelt, offering a hand. 

“Hello, my name is Dionysis. What manner of fae are you?”

“A dragon,” Deimos answered. He ignored the hand. 

“I see.” Dionysus’s eyes fixed on him, as did Chi’s. “There are very few dragons in this world, Deimos.”

Deimos nodded. “Just the four that stopped the invasion and us.”

“And you have not met them, though you claim them as your parents.”

Deimos scratched at his elbow. “They don’t know about us, we…” He hesitated to tell these strange fae the whole story. “We weren’t made by them.”

“Then who made you?” Dionysus asked. Their hand was still outstretched.

“Humans…” Deimos hesitated, then reached out. “A facility near–”

Deimos had just enough time to notice how the purple and silver-dark sheen of Dionysus’s scales matched his own, before their hands met.

The night exploded with crackling purple light. 

For a moment, the street was full of glimmering purple scales and gnashing fangs longer than Deimos was tall. The lithe form of a dragon snaked between the buildings and around the cars, its form incomprehensibly large in the urban space.

Then Deimos blinked, and all that was in front of him was Dionysus. The fae clutched his hand so tightly it was almost painful, the purple striped scales on their hands glowing like a live wire.

“Deimos,” they breathed. “Do you know who I am?”

Deimos sputtered around stunned silence, unable to get his mouth to cooperate. “Dragon,” he finally gasped out. “You’re– you’re a dragon, like me!”

“I am.” Their hold turned gentle, cradling Deimos’s hand. “And you are the same kind of dragon as I am.”

Deimos trembled. “You’re the dragons! Then– you can help us! You can keep us safe!”

“I will,” Dionysus murmured. 

Chi shot them a look, which Dionysus ignored.

Deimos was too delighted to notice. “We’re being hunted by the PSS– the Planetary Security Sector– it’s run by John Knight. My brothers are nearby–”

“We will help them as well,” Dionysus said. They’d not looked away from Deimos, dark eyes glimmering with purple light. “I know of the PSS. I will keep you safe.”

“Deimos, you were telling us how you were born?” Chi asked.

Deimos nodded. “Yes, right. We were created from genetically modified DNA found at the site of the final fight of the dragons against the invasion of exoplanetary fungal-based beings colloquially known as exomycota,” Deimos said quickly, everything gushing out now. “From there starter cells were put into ostrich egg nuclei and grown.”

“How many of you are there? Do they know where you are?” Chi continued. 

“We tore our trackers out,” Deimos said quickly. “So they can’t follow us. There’s four of us. I’m the eldest.”

“Rocks and gods, they got all of us,” Chi muttered, rubbing over the blue stripes on his face.

“Trackers?” Dionysus’s brows rose. They pulled back their hoodie sleeve, revealing a thick silver cuff. A screen blinked to life on its side, and Deimos recognized computer code scrolling along its surface. Purple light, the same light that the vision of the dragon was made from, emanated out of the computer, scanning over Deimos’s body.

Deimos blinked rapidly as it ran over his eyes. 

“We got them all out,” he insisted. “We were careful. We got the one out of our arms and the ones in our leg and tail.”

“You have several more subdermal trackers near your spine and organs,” Dionysis said, voice flat. Their fingers cupped the back of Deimos’s neck. “We will need to perform surgery to remove them, before taking you home, as well as the explosive device at the base of your skull. I assume your brothers have similar implants.”

Deimos stared. Terror rose like an eruption, and he scrambled to his feet, wrestling away from Dionysus. 

“I have to get back to them!” He started running away, up the hill to the hide where his brothers waited.

“Woah there kiddo,” Chi held out a hand, blocking his path. 

Instinctively, Deimos snarled up at him. “They’re my little brothers! They’re in danger!”

Chi raised his hands in loose defense, palms out. 

“Yes, and we’re going to help them. So, when you get them, you need to meet us…” Chi perused the street, before pointing. “On that rooftop there, the one with the chicken weather vane,  in fifteen minutes. Then we can help get all of that stuff out of you kids. Do you understand?”

Deimos shook, nodding. “Yes sir.”

“You don’t have to call me sir,” Chi said again, languidly unfolding to his feet. He picked up the remaining pizza boxes, holding them out like and offering. “Here, for you and your brothers.”

Deimos took the pizza boxes, moving to leave.

“I will go with you,” Dionysus said, making to follow.

“No,” Deimos hissed, crest rising. He immediately flinched back. “Sorry– sorry, no, I’m… yes, you can come.”

Dionysus drew back, hands out like they were afraid Deimos would fall. “You have nothing to apologize for, Deimos. I will– I want you to be safe and comfortable. I will wait for you at the designated meeting point.”

Deimos’ shoulders relaxed at the lack of push. It was new and different. He’d never been allowed to say no before, or not be followed around.

“Thank you,” Deimos mumbled.

“Of course, Deimos.”

He could feel the dragons’ eyes on his back as he ran down the street.