Gev exited his apartment on a cool fall morning a few days after meeting Rax on the train. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about their conversation. About seeing that dragon in the alley. Would the same thing happen to him? To his friends online? To Rax?

He sighed, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and walked at a slow pace, hoping the fresh air and coffee would do him some good and perhaps take his mind off his worries about what Rax had told him.

Autocabs zipped by, and a few drones whirred through the air overhead, some laden with small packages. A few other people shared the sidewalk with him, though not many at this hour. All of them gave him a wide berth.

Gev still wasn’t quite used to people treating him so differently, but it didn’t bother him. In truth, he’d been enjoying having everyone give him so much space in an environment that was usually crowded all the time. He was growing more accustomed to the changes in his body as well. He’d figured out about how much he needed to eat now, and wasn’t rushing out to the burger place down the street multiple times a day to quiet his rumbling stomach. Well, mostly.

More of the clothing he’d ordered had arrived too. The hoodie he wore had a wide hood, and slits in the back to accommodate his horns. He had several more pairs of comfortable heated pants for the cooler weather, all with a hole for his tail. Both his thick leather jacket and the shirt beneath had a length of reinforced, flexible material running up along his spine. The garments molded themselves to the shape of the spikes running up his back without being torn to shreds. Gev thought it looked a little silly to have a ridge of leather running up his back like that, but it was better than letting the rain get in. He’d look into getting shirts custom made with holes for his spikes in the warmer months.

Gev continued on his way through the park next to his apartment. It was still early enough that there were still several tents up that the homeless used overnight before the police inevitably evicted them the next morning. Despite each and every politician over the years claiming they would be the one to end the housing and drug crises that seemed to grip every major city, the tents still reappeared each night.

In general, the gap between rich and poor only seemed to have widened over Gev's lifetime so far. Some saw genetic modification as a privilege of the rich. Gev wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that. He’d saved every dollar he made towards buying his mods to the exclusion of almost everything else. Even so, they weren’t cheap, and while he wouldn’t call himself rich, he was doing better than most with his programming skills.

Ultimately, he still felt deep in his core that getting these modifications was the right thing to do. That feeling from that first day still hadn’t left him. In the end, Gev found opinions that gene mods were a status symbol, or a physical manifestation of the divide between rich and poor oddly irrelevant. He was exactly as he should be, and any opinions about what that might represent politically were in the end a Human concern. Not something he needed to bother himself with.

Part of his mind saw the inherent strangeness of that as he strode down the center of the park, surrounded by the golds and reds and browns of the trees, and the multicoloured hues of the tents.  Shouldn’t he care more? Be more passionate about the world being the best place for as many people as possible?

Gev spotted a police officer striding up the path towards him. Probably here to tell the people in the tents it was time to pack up and leave. She slowed to a stop in the middle of the path and stared at him directly as he walked in her direction. Gev met her gaze briefly, unimpressed, then walked around her. She continued to stare until he passed by. Gev decided then that he would leave Human concerns to Humans. Again, a part of him found that strange. Would he have come to that conclusion before being modded?

Gev dismissed the thought as he exited the park and crossed the street toward his favourite coffee shop. There was nothing special about LifeBrew in particular that made it his favourite. It was just another huge corporation selling mass produced synthetic coffee. It was simply the closest coffee shop to his apartment, and when his caffeine addiction needed feeding it was the obvious choice if he didn’t feel like simply making coffee at home. It also had a nice view of the park, and a generous amount of outdoor seating. Gev would often come here to work when he got tired of being cooped up at home.

As he approached the door, he noticed that there was another Dragon seated at one of the tables outside with the tables around him empty. His vibrant blue scales were streaked with emerald, and he was wearing an expensive looking suit. He looked strikingly similar to the Dragon Gev and Rax had seen in the alley a few days ago. In fact, Gev was half certain he was in fact the same Dragon. He almost approached him to ask, but the Dragon was on the phone, speaking in a low but confident voice. Better to let him get on with his call and not disturb him by asking if he’d been passed out in an alley just the other day.

Gev headed inside, the scent of freshly ground coffee filling his nostrils. The shop was warmly lit by the morning sunlight, and it was unusually quiet with only about half the tables occupied. He stepped up to the counter and ordered his usual from the barista, and noted with satisfaction that the other customers left a comfortable pocket of space around him as they waited for their drinks. As he waited, he observed the Humans working at the tables. They were mostly well dressed professionals beginning their work day here, or self employed people who could have been working on anything from coding to writing a novel.

The contrast between the crowd here and the deprivation he’d walked through in the park gave him a slow building feeling of… Contempt? He looked around the room and saw the fragmentation of this society. The isolation of all it’s members as they blocked out the world through noise cancellation and AI Infused Reality. Perhaps each individual couldn’t be blamed. This world was an unforgiving and hostile place where all the real power resided in a tiny handful of individuals, leaving everyone else powerless. Even so, Gev couldn’t help but feel detached and even contemptuous at Humanity as a whole as he surveyed the scene.

After a short wait, Gev pushed open the door to find the outdoor seating area empty of everyone except for the Dragon. His phone was on the ground, his coffee was overturned on the table, spilled across half it’s surface and dripping to the ground beneath. He was slouched over in the chair, his arms dangling limply at his sides. Gev could hear him muttering from where he stood.

He almost turned to go, but anger welled up inside him at that impulse. That was the Human thing to do, to ignore the uncomfortable and leave a Dragon in need. He strode over purposefully, kneeling down beside the other Dragon, heedless of getting the spilled coffee on his clothes.

“Hey man, you alright?…” Gev asked tentatively. The other Dragon did not respond. He continued to mutter to himself, oblivious to Gev’s presence.

“…safe left…” He muttered. Gev could barely make out the words, but he leaned in, unable to reign in his curiosity. “Not much time… All depends on…” His muttering continued, but too low to make any sense.

Gev stood slowly. Worry. No, not worry. Fear. Fear crept into the edges of his mind. Rax had said he’d seen other Dragons in this state. Could this have happened to him when he’d blanked out in his apartment? Would it happen again? If this was the same Dragon as before, it had obviously happened to him more than once.

Feeling an icy chill settle over his scales, Gev picked up the phone from the ground and set it on the table, then slowly sat down in the seat next to the other Dragon. He grasped his shoulder and gently shook him. “Hey. Are you okay? Hey, snap out of it…” The azure dragon did not react. His muttering continued unabated.

Sighing, Gev resolved to stay with him until he came to his senses. He took a sip of his coffee, then brought out his phone to message Rax about the encounter. Before he could send the message, he looked up to see the police officer from earlier striding towards him.

“Shit…” Gev cursed under his breath. He took another sip, and tried to act as though nothing were wrong, studying his phone with intensity. The sound of the officer’s footsteps didn’t slow as she approached.

“What the hell’s going on with that guy? He on something?”

Gev looked up at the officer. Her sternly disapproving expression should have choked him up. Gev had never been one to stand up to those in positions of power over him. He’d usually be as accommodating as possible in the hopes that they’d pass him by and get on with whatever they were doing. That obviously wouldn’t work here, not if he cared about seeing this Dragon out of this situation. He felt strangely calm as he thought through his response.

“No, he’s not on something… He’s just, really tired. Long flight. Jetlag, y’know?” Even as it came out of his mouth, Gev knew it was a terrible explanation. There was coffee everywhere, and the other dragon was slumped over, still muttering.

“Uh… Huh… Jetlag. Okay smart guy, I’m gonna need you two to vacate these premises. Immediately.” She glared down at him, on hand on her baton, the other resting on her radio.

“Right. Yeah, we’ll get going.” Gev stood and looped one hand under the other dragon’s arm. “Come on man, time to go.” He pulled upward, hoping the effort would rouse him from his stupor. He was heavy though. His suit hid as much muscle as Gev had himself, maybe more. He could probably lift him, but dragging him away would probably just get them both arrested.

The police officer sighed with irritation. “Yep. Thought so.” She pushed the button on her radio. “I’ve got a ten ninety three here, requesting backup and a squad car, over.” She returned to giving Gev a flat, hard stare. Was that a hint of a smirk on her lips?

“Look. He’s not on drugs. I don’t know whats wrong with him but he doesn’t need a jail cell. He needs medical attention. If you want to do something useful, call in an ambulance.” The words seemed to flow from him all at once. He didn't stutter, or even stop to think. A part of his mind froze in shock at that. He'd never spoken to someone like that before in his life, let alone a cop. The other part of his mind maintained a cool, flat stare on the woman.

That tiny hint of a smirk - it hadn't been his imagination - melted away, and a hardness entered her eyes. ”Disobeying a lawful order from a police officer then. Fine. You’re under arrest for…”

She didn’t have a chance to respond before a deep and confident voice spoke up beside Gev.

“No, actually. We’re not. You are private security, not a police officer, and if you put your hands on either of us - that’d be assault - I’ll have my legal team ruin your corp’s reputation. You won’t work in this city, or any other again without burning your identity first.”

Gev’s attention had been so focused on the security officer, he hadn’t noticed the Dragon rise from his seat to stare her down and deliver the tongue lashing. To her credit, she kept her gaze fixed on him and didn’t flinch. That was impressive, considering how the other Dragon towered over her. She didn’t say anything either. Maybe she was as stunned as Gev was.

There was a small scrape as the other dragon picked his phone up off the table along with the overturned coffee cup. He started away from the coffee shop, but turned back and nodded his head in the direction he was going, signalling Gev to follow.

Gev strode after him, but looked back once to see the officer still staring at them, a frown creasing her forehead. He let out a small sigh of relief. Despite the strange confidence he’d found in confronting her, there was no way the two of them would have simply walked away had the other dragon not spoken up when he did.

The two of them walked a for a block in silence to ensure they weren’t being followed. Most passersby gave the two of them a wide berth on the sidewalk. One woman even conspicuously crossed the street to avoid the two of them. Gev didn’t blame them. The two of them had a commanding presence standing head and shoulders above the average human, and being significantly stronger besides.

Gev broke the silence between the two of them once he was sure they weren’t being followed. “So uh, how much of that back there was bullshit?”

The other dragon barked a laugh, and looked over at him with a wry smile. His golden eyes reminded him of Rax. “Pretty much all of it. Well, I do have a legal team, but they have better things to do that get me out of a private security corp’s isolation cell. Besides, they wouldn’t have the jurisdiction to do anything beyond holding us for a few hours. Those laws are mostly there to keep vagrants from sleeping in coffee shops. All we did was refuse to leave and…” He trailed off and looked away from Gev, his prior confidence melting away as he spoke of his episode.

Gev felt the instinct to shy away and drop the subject, but that part of him that had confronted the officer earlier asserted itself. “Refuse to leave, and almost pass out, or hallucinate or… Or whatever that was back there. What was that anyway?”

The azure scaled dragon stopped and scowled at him. “None of your concern is what it was. I’ve got things to do, so I suggest you get going before that rent-a-cop changes her mind and tries to find you again.” With that, he turned and walked away down the sidewalk, leaving Gev behind.

“It feels like being watched, doesn’t it?” Gev asked the retreating figure. He stopped dead, standing bolt upright. Suddenly he turned and stalked back to Gev, grabbing his wrist in a powerful grip.

“Not here. Come on, I know a place we can talk.”

They walked for some time in silence. Gev didn’t try break it. He simply followed in the dragon’s wake deeper into the commercial heart of the city. The buildings steadily got taller, the sidewalks wider, the cafes and restaurants more expensive, the cars rarer, and the suits better cut. This part of downtown seemed to radiate wealth.

Gev didn’t usually come this way, even though his apartment wasn’t a long walk from it. His friends and colleagues didn’t frequent the area, and while he could probably afford the occasional outing here, he didn’t consider it worth it. At least, that was how he’d though about it while saving for his mods.

The dragon lead him to a pair of dark carved wood doors with ornate handles of brass and imitation ivory. They were set in an otherwise plain concrete wall broken only by an occasional air vent, standpipe or ad display. He pulled one of the doors open smoothly and gestured for Gev to enter.

The two of them stepped into a dark corridor floored with plush deep crimson rugs, dark wood panelled walls, and dimly lit by expensive looking stand lamps. It seemed like the sort of place you were simply supposed to know about, not find. It didn’t need to advertise itself.

A woman in a flowing black gown stood behind a reception podium just beyond the doors. She smiled warmly at each of them in turn, then spoke to the other Dragon. “A room for the two of you then? And your usual order?”

The dragon smiled back at her. “Yes, thank you. And a triple espresso for my friend here.” That prompted Gev to realize that he’d forgotten his coffee in his haste to get away from the security officer.

“Of course. Right this way.” The hostess lead the two of them down the corridor past doors set into either side, each with a red-orange light above. She reached a branch in the corridor and turned to the right, then opened one of the doors to reveal a small private room. They entered, and the woman closed the door softly behind them.

Soft classical music played from speakers hidden throughout the room. The wood paneling here was even darker than in the hallway, nearly black. A curved booth surrounding a round table occupied most of the room. A lamp set into the wall behind the booth was the primary light source, but there were LED strips cleverly hidden where the walls met the ceiling, providing just enough light to be comfortable while maintaining a feeling of intimate privacy.

“Well, first things first. You can call me Kaithel, or just Kai if you prefer.” He held out a clawed hand.

“Gevdezel. Gev to most of my friends.” He took the offered hand in a firm grip and shook. He couldn’t help but smile at him just a bit. Gev felt an odd sense of kinship with this dragon. That seemed a little odd considering he nearly ditched him in the street, then abruptly dragged him to a strange… Bar? What even was this place exactly? Strangeness aside, Gev settled into the booth. It was surprisingly plush and comfortable, and he allowed himself to stretch out a little, sighing contentedly.

Kai settled in across from him, though he didn’t seem relaxed. “We'll be safe to talk here. No recording devices." He gestured with one hand about the room. "So… You said something about feeling like being watched? Tell me more about that.” The other dragon fixed him with a stare, his vibrant golden eyes drilling into him. That feeling of kinship remained though, somehow. Gev found himself comfortable with the other Dragon, and wanted to open up to him, not just out of his own fears.

“Well, I’ve only been modded for a few days now, but I first felt it just after I woke up from the surgery…”  Gev went on to describe his experience in the gene clinic, and at home after. “I was looking at myself in the mirror one moment, and then I was just… On the floor. I don’t even remember falling. But I felt like I was being watched… And I felt like this was right. Like I’m supposed to be this way. It sounds weird, but a friend of mine told me he felt exactly the same after being modded.”

Kai was studying him over steepled fingers and was about to speak when a soft chime sounded in the room. He held up one clawed finger and looked toward the door. It opened a moment later and the hostess entered bearing a silver tray. She set a tumbler down in front of Kai, dropped in two large ice cubes with a pair of tongs, then poured a dark liquor from an elaborate crystal decanter. She then set down a small cup of dark espresso in front of Gev, a mug, and an ornate silver vessel of hot water with a long spout.

Kai gave a quiet “Thank you” as she bowed and exited with the tray. Gev picked up the small cup of espresso and tried a small sip. It was wonderful. Rich, smooth, bitter, and with just a hint of fruit, but not too sour. He smiled contentedly and poured the espresso and water together into the mug. The resulting americano was easily one of the best coffees he’d tasted.

Kai pulled him out of his caffeine fuelled distraction. “So when you got back to your apartment, you just… Blacked out? For how long?”

Gev paused with the mug halfway to his muzzle. “I’m not sure… It could have been seconds, minutes. Probably not hours though I think…”

“And you don’t remember anything at all? No feelings, sensations, sounds… Nothing?”

Gev thought for a moment. “I thought I heard someone in the room with me just after…”

“No no, during when you passed out, you remember nothing?”

Gev blinked at the strangeness, and the intensity in Kai’s question. “During? No, like I said I just completely blacked out. Do you think I… That it was the same thing that happened to you?”

Kai leaned forward and let out a long breath, almost a growl, and closed his eyes. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this but… No. With what you’ve just told me I’m convinced you did not in fact experience the same thing. What happened back there was more like a dream… Only when I wake up, I can barely remember anything. Just a vague impression of what the dream was like.”

Gev’s eyes widened as Kai spoke. “I… I think I’ve seen you once before, a few days ago in an alley. Whatever you were dreaming back there, and today… It didn’t sound good.”

Kai narrowed his eyes, and slowly shook his head. “Like I said, I don’t remember anything. But it always feels like I was having a nightmare.” Kai took a slow sip from his drink but didn’t appear to even taste it. Gev was unsure how to respond. This Dragon’s experience was very different than his own. What did they all have in common?

“So you, me, and my friend all have this feeling of being watched. We’ve both heard stories about Dragons hallucinating or having mental breaks. You’re having these… Dreams, but neither me or my friend are… What’s different about you?”

Kai answered his question with one of his own. “Your friend, how extensively modified is he?”

“Rax? Not much yet. He could only afford Progressive mods. His scales are still coming in, short snout still…”

“So it could still start happening to him as he goes further then.” Gev felt an icy chill settle over his scales as Kai locked eyes with him and took another sip of his drink.

“I… I don’t know. Have you talked to any other Dragons? Like, how many of them does this even happen to? I’m fine, so it can’t be everyone right?” Gev’s voice betrayed his lack of confidence.

Kai sighed heavily. “No, not yet. Not many in my… Circles… would consider going through these sorts of modifications. But to me they just felt…”

“Right?” Gev finished. Kai met his eyes and nodded. He knew the feeling just as Gev did. “How long after you were modded did it start?”

“I’ve been modded for a few years now. Early adopter.” He chuckled softy and took a sip of his drink. “The… Dreams… Started happening only a few weeks ago, and I thought I’d learned to control it… Wait a minute…” His eyes widened.

“You can control when it happens?” Gev asked.

“I can’t make it happen, but I’ve been able to control it by meditating when I get that feeling of being watched. If I focus on anything else but that feeling, the dreams don’t seem to happen. Except for those two times when you were nearby.” He said, pointing a clawed finger at Gev for emphasis.

“Me??” Gev exclaimed in surprise. “If it’s me, then why aren’t you straight up comatose right now? And why didn’t anything happen to me back there?”

Kai chuckled softly. “I have no idea, but you can see why I brought us here. If that happens again, we won’t have the entire city watching. If it hasn’t happened by now though, it probably won’t. Even so, if we meet up again, it should probably be in private, just in case.”

Gev nodded slowly. “Speaking of meeting up, I have a friend having a gathering of some of his modded friends. Maybe we should both go? Compare notes with the others? Pretty sure most of them are Dragons.”

Kai regarded him over the rim of his glass. “It’d better be somewhere out of the public view then. I don’t like the idea of having another episode, but it’s worth figuring out how to trigger the dreams.”

Gev’s mouth dropped open. “I didn’t mean we try to make you hallucinate on purpose! We could just like… Compare notes, figure out what’s going on?”

Kai didn’t seem to be listening as he stared into one corner, speaking half to himself. “We could try this a few times, see how many hallucinate, how long it lasts for, maybe even find a way to snap them out of it, or help them resist it…”

Gev paused for a moment, uncomfortable at the suggestion. “What if that makes whatever is happening more intense? Or if you can’t snap out of it or something?”

Kai met his eyes again. “I hadn’t considered that… If it does, then try separating us, maybe even have someone not modded around just, to be safe.”

“I think one or two of the people coming are still Human, they want to be modded but can’t afford it.”

Kai nodded. “Good, then we should be safe enough.” He pulled out his phone, tapped a few times, then touched it to Gev’s own phone, transferring his contact information. “Let me know when the meetup is happening, I’ll be there.” Downing the rest of his drink, he stood and moved to the door. “Stay as long as you like, by the way.” He smiled down at Gev briefly, his golden eyes glinting in the low light.

“Wait, you’re just…” The door closed behind Kai as he left the room. “Leaving…?”

Gev sighed, but felt a bit better as a took another sip of his coffee. Everything was changing so quickly in the few days since being modded. That fact should have unnerved him, but it didn’t. He simply took a breath, another sip of coffee, and readied himself for the next steps in wherever this strange journey was taking him…