When No One Is Listening
By:Christine Carpenter

Well, he's asleep again, thank goodness...
Honestly, must you complain every night?

Of course! You think I like the situation we're in? If you had let me finish the whelp off when I had the chance...

We would be dead and you bloody well know that! This was the only way we could survive! If you hadn't gotten the idea to terrorize the people after so long of peace, then he never would have been there in the first place!

Still...I'd rather be dead than be a damned pet!

Now honestly, dear...

Oh come on, woman! We've been reduced to mere side-show curiosities! "Oh mommy, lookie the dwagons! Oh look, aren't they kyuuute? May we pet them? Are they real? Oh mommy, oh lookie..." Oh kill me!! We are the Demon Dragons of Cross!! Last of the Sacred Beasts that used to rule this land. We were once feared and worshipped, now our glory is lost, and we are mere...pets! PETS! XINE was right to ridicule us...

You are not allowing yourself to see what I already know...this is the best way, not only for us to survive, but to train this one. He has a destiny that I know he can not accomplish without us...if you would just allow me to show him what we can do for him, I know he can become the greatest swordsman this planet has ever seen!

Let me guess...your "divine sight" gift and all that again...

You know I have that ability and you...

...Don't believe it for a minute! Face it! You got scared and mereged with the whelp because you didn't want to see me rip him into shreds!

Don't call him a whelp, his name is...

I know his damned name, hell, I know everything about him now thanks to you! Why do you think I'm so happy when he falls asleep? Then I don't have his thoughts crowding with mine...

..and you can stop shielding yours from him. yes, I know, you repeat this every night. A good thing too, if he even succumbed to even a fraction of your influence for any length of time...

*heh* He'd be drunker than a Herlie sailor, on top of that pretty Rena doing what he should have done all along and have that goddamn prick Dias's head on the end of his sword!

Well, that was perfectly tactless and disgusting of you!

Not my fault the whelp is pathetic.

He is not!

Please, the fool has such potential...I know his true feelings. He desires Rena more than anything in the world. He is jealous of Dias and Claude's skills. He's furious at them because they are strong and popular and have everything he does not. He kows he's weak, but he wants to run and scream and be pissed and get drunk and get laid and do all the things everyone tells him is wrong, but he can't, so he keeps it all bottled up inside, waiting for the next battle where he can kill and find release for his torment in the blood on his blade. I can respect the desires...I can NOT respect him denying his true self.

You think THAT is his true self??

Oh? You know as well as I he has those feelings...

Yes, I will not deny that, but you obvioulsy see only what you want to see. That is not how the really feels.

Oh? Pray tell, HOW can I be wrong? I see what you see...

No, you don't. You lock your mind away all day, only allowing what thoughts of his you -want- to see into yours. What you miss is the side that is compassionate, caring, and yes, scared. He loves the girl, not lusts for her. He admires the other swordsmen, and wishes his skill was as great. He fights because he feels he can make a difference in the world, that he can spare others of the suffering he has known. He does not like the killing, he deplores it, and he feels guilty over having dark thoughts at times. He does not spend his days consumed with a rage he cannot express...he has no rage at all, just love...and a sad, terrible secret that has left him feeling there can be no other way.

Another thing I hate about him...his running away from himself...

What else can he do? There is nothing left for him to face up to...nothing he can do to change the past...

Which is why he's a whiney, cowardly, good-for-nothing waste of a human! Hell, at least Dias has the right idea..."Do onto others before they can do onto you." Better than being all soft and nailing your hand to your forehead in that "Oh WOE is me" attitude this one always has. You see too much in him...

Gah!! You are so crude!! How did I ever end up mated with you?

I forced it, remember?

Don't...remind...me. At least I retained the dominate personality after the merging...otherwise I would have gone mad long ago.

Wait...this is what it's really about?!

I beg your pardon?

That last thought you just had...

I don't know what you're talking about...

The HELL you don't!! I caught that fleeting thought...you merged with this whelp because you couldn't stand the thought of being merged with me for the rest of your life! You wanted another mind to be joined to yours and to filter away mine, and you took the first oppertunity that came your way!

...I...will not deny that.

...you love him. You're in love with Ashton...a stupid human!

Of course I am. I will do anything I can to help him.

By the tears of XINE....you really are crazy, woman!

Gyoro...

What?

My name is Gyoro, not "woman".

No it's not! That's just the name Rena gave you! You're a Demon Dragon! You don't need a name!

I want a name, and Gyoro is a fine name! One I'm happy with.

Great...just great...of all the women in the world I could have merged with...why did I have to pick a loon like you?

You were horny. I'm the last one.

Don't...remind...me...