Otherworld

WHAT YOU ARE, I WAS. WHAT I AM, YOU WILL BE.
FORGET NOT THAT CHANGE IS INEVITABLE.
THIS IS YOUR FATE, AND YOUR FATE ONLY.



The wind howled gently, a cold breeze fell upon the two below the moon.
How that coldness only worsened the tense atmosphere, his body only grew colder as he stood above his dying companion.
This had been a bond forged from so many years on the field, and the paranoia in his heart took advantage of his system of thought.
A feeble mind easily changed by persuasion. Regret was but a concept here, and the cold words he spat from his mouth felt as if they were not even his own.
"You complete idiot, I'm surprised you even bothered with me for this long now." He was trembling, a mix of eagerness and anxiousness.
Blade in hand, right at the other's neck, a wretched smile grew across his face as the last words that man below him would hear echoed through the frosty, dead night: "Tu fui, ego eris.", and thus, the blade slashed gruesomely across the now hopeless betrayed.
He stood there, looking at the mess he made, chuckling to himself quietly. "Merry Christmas, Aegis. You fucking moron."
And thus, the blade that took the life of a friend so close, he could be considered his other self, was dug right into it's owner's heart.
There he laid, the life in him slowly leaking away as he drifted towards unconsciousness.
What a wonderful night this was.

AND SO, THUS ENDS THE PROLOGUE.

--CHAPTER 1--

There was a soft noise enveloping his ears, like some gentle jingling or some holy ringing noise, he didn't know. Aegis' head felt lighter than air, and found that he couldn't move. Consciousness was but a sliver in his body, in fact, he couldn't even feel from the neck down, just his head. It was on a soft, yet smooth surface, and his vision was clouded with nothing more than white and a soft, light cyan. Was this the sky? No, it was moving too fast and too much of a mess to be that way, it felt like he was on something, flying to an unknown destination. Unfortunately, his vision fell into darkness, since he couldn't even stay awake for long, he felt so... tired.
--??? pass.--

...Now he's on some rough surface, but hey, at least his head was comfy. Aegis practically forced his body awake. Aaaand now there's something very wrong with his body. Did he survive? Nope, that wasn't the case at all, he felt.. taller. There was a few more surprises to him, like the fact that he had no clothes on, and the only thing hiding his naked body was a blanket. Speaking of his body, it was pretty much completely different, black scales and claws and... wings? ...He's a dragon. That was the first idea that came to him. Aegis tried to frantically get himself up, but the additional part to his legs only posed a challenge. His feet were bigger, and so were said legs. His hands made their way to the ground, but were met with feathers. This was going to be a problem, he thought, feeling frustrated. Aegis tried rolling over, now his wings would be out of the way. At least it was convenient he had more muscle to his arms, being able to hold himself up somewhat easily, and folding his legs a bit to get onto his feet. Slowly, he rose, except it was harder than he thought, as he stumbled whilst being slightly fatigued from just waking up. Just how long was he even asleep? He got to the closest wall, leaning against it and trying to get used to his new appendages. Carefully, he stumbled to try and walk, a tedious process. After a few moments of walking, if you can even call it walking, it was more of stumbling around than anything, he figured out his legs, though it'd take a bit more practice to get used to it. His joints felt pretty gritty, and it was getting uncomfortable, and as he was about to stretch, he heard some stepping. Frozen in place like a deer in the middle of a street about to get hit by a car, he was pretty much internally panicking, and the door in this room he failed to get an idea of was opened, a head peeking out. It was somewhat bird-like, Aegis being in clear view. "Uhh, morning to you, I guess..?" The situation was really awkward, Aegis' head was filled to the brim with questions and confusion. The bird-person spoke again, "Ya' know what? I'mma just get you some clothes, just uhh, sit tight there. I'll be as fast as I can.", leaving after her little notification. He lowered to the floor, pretty stressed out, but complied to what the newcomer had said. A few moments passed, but they felt like an eternity more than anything. "Knock knock, I'm comin' right in with a little order for ya'." the bird girl announced, coming in with a robe that was probably almost twice as tall as her, but it was folded. "I'll explain everything later, just get dressed and come eat breakfast, alrighty? Just go right down the hall." she came into the room, and looked quite young, putting the robe beside Aegis, leaving after doing so. He could only silently nod as the small bird-thing left, getting the robe on as fast as possible, which took him a few moments of shifting around and nearly tripping several times. His head buried deep into the clothing he was given, he took the time to actually take a look at himself. An overall black, scaly body, long arms with somewhat slender claws, large feet that also had claws, two black feathery wings which thankfully had sleeves in the robe, a long, scaly tail, bushy white hair, a pair of sharp ears, bending horns, and a decently sized snout. He didn't really like this, but deep down, it felt somewhat like a description of what kind of person he was. Working with the feared Quetzal, and second in-command in the terrorist organization they used to run. Though, he did defect from them near their end, wanting to better himself in the world. Literally just the whole, bad-guy-turned-good shabang, stupid, but possible. Aegis shook his head and got up, still stumbling slightly, but able to walk. He made his way to the door, and looked at the sight presented to him.

It was like a hospital, or some dormitory that was really white. Now that he thought about it, wasn't that girl wearing clothes that look like a hospital gown or something? No, he knew he needed to get answers, so he made his way down the hall, as that bird had asked.
"Yeah, and- Oh hey, there he is. 'Scuse me." The feathery female got up, going over to Aegis and taking his hand, leading him towards the table she had seemed to come from. There were some others there, also like her. He took a good look at them all, they had some nice, bright colors, he had to admit. "He's the guy I mentioned, name's uh... What'syourname?" That last part was muttered to Aegis, but he seemed somewhat nervous out of his mind. He sighed slightly before answering, "Just call me Aegis, please. Second in-", he stopped himself there, it was a bit of a habit of his back in his terrorist days. "Eh? What was that part?" One of the others piped up, confused. "O-Oh, nothing important, really.." Aegis replied, "Oh yeah, still gotta introduce ya'. You heard 'em, this guy's Aegis. As for the others, I'm Biyoda, that's Ezekiel, there's Ace, and then Aldi.", she pointed at each of the others, from left to right. "Nice to meet you, I guess." Aegis greeted to them, "Yeah, same to you." Aldi responded, "Mhm." said the one who asked him the question from earlier, Ezekiel. The last one just was silent, he gave a slight nod of acknowledgement, it did get the point across to Aegis anyway. <TO BE CONTINUED.>