I left Rose to take care of Dahlia and found Poppy on her way to the theater "Where is the rat? Where is my father?" I demand shaking slightly from anger. "Woooaaah settle down there my guy. I will tell you, but you need to come down a few levels. You're at one hundred right now and you aren't going to have any constructive conversations when you're as angry as you are right now. So come on." she grabs my shoulder and guides me to a quiet room and sits me down. She grabs a chair and pulls it to sit across from me "Alright we're going to do some meditations, then I would like you to calmly ask me the questions you have for your father. I will answer what I can and then tell you where he is." she says calmly. She guides me through some breathing exercises and when I have calmed down, she gives me an encouraging smile. "I'm sorry for snapping at you Poppy. I found out a lot in just a short amount of time, I'm not upset with any of you, thank you for making me stop before I did something I regretted. I just want to know how long he's known what's going on and why he didn't tell me sooner?" I ask.

     She gives me a knowing smile and sighs before answering "Look Anubis, Rose has been a mama bear to all of us for a long time, so when I say that I have accepted you as part of this fucked up version of a family. I don't do so lightly."  she pauses and pats my knee in her best attempt to be comforting. "With that in mind I'm going to have to deliver a hard truth, I beg your forgiveness and hope this doesn't strain a friendship we haven't developed yet. You weren't ready, you still aren't." I cringe slightly her words stinging like she had hit me. She holds up a hand to stop an argument "But no one is or should be ready for the horrors that we have had to deal with. Your father loves you very much and wanted you to live a normal life, he did what he could to protect you but that hurt you in the long run. You aren't ready but we will help you be ready, there's a lot of things you are going to find out that will make you upset. Hell, your father wasn't ready for the world he chose to try and infiltrate. He knew a great deal but not everything and he knows a lot more now. This stuff, it does stuff to people and messes with their minds. They want you to feel weak, to feel like you are miniscule, they want to blind you with rage because it's easier to slit your throat when you don't see it coming. Don't put all the blame on your father, hell there is still stuff we don't know about and that's saying something because Rose and Anti have survived the system longer than anyone." she says and stands up offering me her hand.

     I take it and she effortlessly pulls me to my feet and steps back "We need your help. We need to know how to fight as shifters not humans and you need to know how to fight and think like them. There's a lot we don't know, we we're all kidnapped or unwanted we need your guidance. You aren't ready for war and death, but you are ready to be king and to lead these people... Your people. Your father knows and believes it and Rose believes it... Believes in you. You just have to believe in yourself first and stop living in your father's shadow." She heads to the door and opens it. She looks back at me and gives me a comforting smile "The rat is in my dungeons... Don't touch anything." she says the last bit and narrows her eyes at me before leaving for the theater. I stay in the room for a while longer letting her words set into my brain, I smile softly to myself and get up heading for the dungeons... I was going to touch everything.

     I find myself in the dungeons and I see the old man sitting in a reclinable desk chair, his feet up on a table and he was reading through a file. I clear my throat and he turns to look at me "Well it took you long enough. I was starting to think the princess was keeping you away from me." he says and throws the file on a desk. I look around the dungeons, the cells had been demolished and the space was turned into part of the supercomputer Poppy called Jeri and the rest a tech lab. There we're all sorts of gadgets and trinkets, and I am amazed she was able to do so much in a short amount of time, I walk over to a desk and see one of the metallic dragonflies. Getting a closer look at the little bug I realize it actually isn't a dragonfly instead it's a miniature version of the helicopter that had chased us, it looked remarkably like a dragonfly when it was small enough. "Before you ask. Yes, they are armed and fire like the real thing. Each of them has a power, from what I gathered it wasn't until Dahlias eighteenth birthday that they gained their powers. Rose, Orchid and Poppy were able to figure out theirs pretty quickly, using them to help shifters escape. I'm sure you have been able to guess the threes powers." he stops, and I can feel that he is right behind me.

     "Rose told us she can change forms; Orchid can manipulate materials to make clothes and Poppy..." I look around and then back at the mini helicopter "She's able to manipulate metals and technology?" I ask and finally turn to my father meeting his gaze. He gives me a wide smile and nods; I sigh and close the space between us before hugging him. "I hate you for leaving and not telling us where you were... I was left to grieve alone... Mom left shortly after you did, you guys tossed me in a fire without preparing me at all. Why?" I ask and pull away looking at him. As much as I hated him for disappearing, I still loved him, he raised me and was a good parent. I knew my parents love me, but all of this was hard and a lot to deal with and I needed some answers.

     My father returns to his chair, and I find an empty chair and drag it over to sit in front of him. "How much did you know prior? Why did you leave me in the dark on all this? Why didn't you prepare me better? You let me be a spoiled, ignorant brat and I have no idea how to deal with a lot of this. Why didn't you prepare me more? Why do you refuse to change back to a dragon and stay a rat? I know it's not Rose's power that's faulty, she was able to transform many of us and return us too normal. She passed out from over doing it on her power, that made us change back so what are you doing that won't let you change back?" I ask him. My father lets out a long sigh, I watch as he scratches his chin and I finally notice that he has cleaned himself up a bit. I was so busy avoiding him I didn't notice he had cleaned up his beard into a ducktail style, he cut his hair it was just long enough for him to run his finger through. I feel scruffy my beard overgrown and unkempt and my hair now reaching down past my shoulders, I would have to clean myself up later. My father leans on his knees and lets out another long sigh and looks at me "I can answer some of your questions and some you will have to answer yourself." he says cryptically.