Page 69 of Fated to the Dragon Alien

“There is one more,” Ellion said, almost offhandedly. “A sixth. Our final brother.”

Stavian took a drink from the large cup he held. It was synthesized ale. Not terrible. “There’s only one other Zaruxian in the Axis that I know of,” he said slowly. “But I hope it’s not him.”

“Why?” Cyprian asked. “Is he a half-wit? Most families have one, I’ve heard.”

“No.” Stavian frowned into his cup. “He’s at Axis Central in the high command. He sits on the council of twelve. I’ve never met him, but I know of him.”

“High command.” Razion let out a whistle. “That’s a problem.”

Takkian’s eyes narrowed. “Does he know what he is?”

“I don’t know,” Stavian replied. “But if he does, and still accepts it all, he’s a lost cause.”

Bruil rubbed his grizzled chin. “Tell me, lad. Do you happen to know the location of Axis Central?”

“Yes,” Stavian said. “It’s not a secret.”

Razion laughed. “Yes, it is. I’ve been looking for it for many mig-cycles.”

Ellion reached over to a side table and picked up a data tablet. “Can you show us?”

Stavian took it, hands steady. He pulled up the star charts, tapped through the systems, and dragged his finger across the galactic display until he reached the coordinates and the planet they were looking for. “There.” He pointed, and five heads tipped forward to see where he indicated. “ZX-339. Axis Central. The command citadel has been located here for as long as I can remember,” he said. “They say it’s under a dome that’s fortified down to the mantle. That nothing outside the top tier of Central goes there.”

The silence that followed was loud. No one moved or spoke. They just stared.

“What is it?” Stavian asked.

“That’s not ZX-339,” Bruil said, looking slowly up from the map. “That’s Zarux. Our home planet. Before the Axis came.”

Stavian stared. “No. That’s—”

Razion’s smirk vanished. “They didn’t just take our people. They took our planet and made it a throne.”

Stavian looked back at the projection on the tablet. It didn’t look special—just a place, like every Axis system map. But now? That grid burned. He stayed still for a second, his gaze trailing back to the tablet. Everything was shifting. His mind worked through each part—every system he’d trained under, every cycle of loyalty drilled into his spine. It all felt like a slow crumbling now.

Zarux. Not ZX-339. Not a district. Not data. Not history.

Home.

His mother had died protecting it. Her blood. Her ship. Her sons. And now it sat beneath Axis control, with its true name buried under scrubbed files and renamed skies.

Silence stretched thin through the room.

Takkian hauled himself forward and leaned his forearms on his thighs. “So,” he said, “who’s ready to take it back?”

TWENTY-ONE

Cerani

The small circle of Cerani’s world had been shattered and reforged in less than a cycle, and now it hummed with soft laughter and the murmuring comfort of reunion. She sat cross-legged beside the flickering ion fire, on a thick, plum-colored rug, with her sisters of her soul in a loose circle, shoulder to shoulder, like they’d done a thousand times before. Everything felt foreign—except them. The Terians—Sevas, Turi, Lilas, and Fivra—each glowed with their own unique lights. Their bodies were relaxed and their voices light as they passed a tray of fruit, warm bread, and little sparkling cups filled with a sweet citrus drink.

The room was softer than anything Cerani had allowed herself to imagine: golden light blooming from the wall panels and soft seating pushed into corners, like a dream half-remembered. She wore cream-colored leggings and a sleeveless wrap that hugged her comfortably. Her skin was moisturized, clean, and warm. For the first time since she was taken, she felt fully in her body again. She had bathed. They had eaten.And now they sat in a pile like they used to do back at the settlement, knees touching, heads leaned in close, the fire pulsing gently behind them as Lilas told a story too rude to repeat, and someone laughed so hard they spilled a drink and didn’t try to clean it up right away. Everything felt surreal—like they were sitting inside the impossible—and Cerani couldn’t breathe without tearing a little, because it was true. They were alive. They were together.

All here—except…

She braced herself and asked the question that had been haunting her since she’d wrapped her arms around four of her friends. One was missing. “Where’s Nena?”

They went quiet. Lilas looked away. Sevas’s eyes closed.

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