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"I can't believe this!" the crimson roared, grunting in pain as his head bashed into the prison bars again.

The soldiers had easily overtaken the three dragonets the night before and knocked them out. They awoke some time later trapped behind bars. The white dragonet remained sitting off to the side, apparently lost in her own world, while the crimson repeatedly attempt to bash the prison bars down with little results aside from getting a splitting headache. Auron lay off in the corner, curled around himself as he rested; at first glance, it would've appeared as though he were sleeping. Only a sliver of sunlight was allowed in through the tiny window towards the top of the room.

"They just threw us in here like rats in a cage," the crimson groaned, rubbing his head as it pounded painfully.

"That's the point of a prison, Magnus," Auron said, turning an eye to him. "I assume that's your name; this one here keeps calling you that." He gestured to the white. She flinched as though she'd just snapped back to reality.

"Yeah, that's my name," Magnus said as he again walked to the back of the cell. He nodded to the white. "And that's my sister, Lacrima."

"Lacrima?" Auron asked, tilting his head. "Odd name."

"It's not her real name," he said, once again turning to the prison bars. "She abandoned her real name and prefers to be called Lacrima."

Magnus again went on all fours and charged at the prison bars. His head banged against the steel beams and he fell to the ground, groaning in pain.

"Could you please stop that?" Auron asked. "You're not going to get anywhere with that."

"Hey, at least I'm not just sitting on my tail doing nothing!" Magnus said, turning back to him.

Auron resisted the urge to hiss and closed his eyes again.

"If I was just a little older," Magnus continued, "I could probably breathe fire and melt these things."

"I don't think they'd be stupid enough to use prison bars that could melt that easily," Auron said.

"Are you always like this?" Magnus asked, glaring back at him. "I'm trying to figure out ideas on how to get us out of here and you just shoot every idea down!"

"I'm just speaking the truth," Auron said. "There's not much we can do right now, and until things change, I'm afraid we're stuck in here."

Magnus grumbled and sat down beside Lacrima. "So, you got a name?"

Auron turned his head over to him. "It's Auron."

"Well, Auron, you got any idea what's gonna happen to us?"

"Who knows?" Auron said with a shrug. "From what I heard last night, however, I'd assume Asmodeus is going to come see us himself."

Magnus chuckled as if he found the thought humorous. "Why would he come visit us? We're just dragonets"

"I think his interest lies with me," Auron said. "After all, I did kill six of his soldiers and I'm possibly the first Darkwing he knows about."

Magnus nodded, accepting the answer. He continued to glance warily at Auron as silence fell upon them. It felt strange; last night he appeared so violent, and yet now with nothing happening, he was so calm and relaxed that he looked like a sleeping hatchling.

"What happened to your eye?"

Both Auron and Magnus were surprised by the question, for it was Lacrima who asked. Auron turned to Lacrima and tilted his head.

"My eye?" he asked.

"It has a scar in it," she said with her tiny, quiet voice. "What happened?"

Auron flinched, instinctively rubbing the scar that ran through his left eye. He tried to fight back the memories of the incident as they began to come forth again.

"Old run-in," he said. "It's not an experience I would enjoy talking about."

"Well, at least it didn't tear out your eye, eh?" Magnus asked with a chuckle before Lacrima could say anything else.

"Actually, that wouldn't have made much of a difference," Auron said. "You see, this scar renders me almost completely blind on my left side. You might have noticed that my guard fumbled last night when you attacked from there."

Magnus thought back to that time and, true to what Auron told him, he did remember Auron faltering when he had attacked from the left.

So that's how I was able to cut him there, Magnus thought.

"I'm sorry," Lacrima whimpered. "That must be hard."

"Don't apologize," Auron said. "I've had it for about five years now; I hardly notice it anymore."

Before any of them could continue with their conversation, one of the guards entered the prison halls and came down to their cell.

"Guess it's your lucky day, you three," she said. "Asmodeus just confirmed that he'll be visiting you three personally. He'll be here by tomorrow."

And with that, without giving any of them a chance to respond, she left.

"Welp, guess you were right, Auron," Magnus said.

"At least we know when he will show up," Auron said. "After that, I believe it'll be time for us to part ways." He once again closed his eyes. "Get some rest; I have a feeling we may need it."

Magnus and Lacrima nodded and laid down on the stone floor with Magnus curling around his twin sister. Auron opened his eye just enough to see without it being too noticeable and observed the two. They appeared to be very close, with Magnus curled protectively around his sister with his wing draped over her and Lacrima appearing completely relaxed in his embrace. It was then that Auron noticed the many scars on Lacrima's body, a few of which were even worse than any Auron had. Then he looked at Magnus and noticed a little damage on his developing horns. He couldn't tell if it was from his recent attempts to break down the door or a previous incident, but he found himself wondering what the two have had to go through in the past. It brought a question to Auron's mind.

"I'm curious," he began, "do you have any parents?"

Magnus growled and glared at Auron. He pinned his ears back and winced under his glare.

"That's none of your business," Magnus growled.

Auron let out a sigh and turned his head away. "My apologies."

Magnus shot another glare at him before closing his eyes again. Auron soon did the same and passed on into sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By midday the next day, it was announced that Asmodeus had arrived in the city and that he would be visiting the three dragonets shortly. Magnus fidgeted anxiously while Lacrima remained curled around herself, resisting the urge to hide behind her wings. Only Auron appeared to be calm about the whole situation, still lying off in the corner.

"This is bad, this is very bad," Magnus repeatedly whispered.

"Calm down, Magnus," Auron said.

"I don't know if you've noticed," he said, shaking his hands, "but that's a little hard for me to do."

Auron sighed and turned his head away. A few minutes later, they heard the door to the hallway open and three sets of footsteps soon filled the halls. From the sound of it, Auron guessed that two of them were Catalans and that the third was an Animan. Surely enough, two Catalan guards came in front of the prison gate, escorting a dark gray Animan who walked with a sense of regality. The Animan turned to the three and Auron was able to see all of his details clearly.

He was a Skywing dragon with a silvery hide that seemed to shine even without any scales on him. His massive wings remained folded behind his back, though partly unfurled similar to that of a commanding officer. He looked down at them with his head held high as if to show his superiority. A single silver earing marked him as the province's ruler.

Asmodeus.

"So," Asmodeus began with a stern voice that commanded attention, "you three are the ones that attacked my soldiers just two moons ago, am I right?"

"Do you really need us to answer?" Magnus burst out before he could stop himself.

"Hey!" one of the guards shouted. "No back-talking!"

Asmodeus held up a hand to silence the guard. The guard nodded and backed down before Asmodeus once again turned his attention on the three.

"Now, I cannot imagine why a group of three dragonets would want to do such a thing," he said, "and I am most curious on why you would want to go so far as to kill them."

"I was the one that killed them," Auron said, finally standing. "The twins here had no part in that; they only got into a fight with them."

"You killed all six of them?" Asmodeus asked, looking at him with his orange eyes. "Quite impressive. Then maybe you can answer my question."

"I simply wanted to get your attention," Auron said, slowly advancing towards Asmodeus. "I've been wanting to meet you for a really long time now. Even if this isn't exactly how I expected it to happen, it seems I succeeded anyway."

"You merely wanted to see me?" Asmodeus asked. "Surely there is more to it than that. What would be your reason to seek an audience with me?"

"Simple," Auron said, his voice slowly turning into a growl. "I was hoping to kill you myself."

Magnus and Lacrima gasped and backed away, however Asmodeus appeared unfazed.

"And why would a dragonet such as you want to kill me?" he asked. "Money, perhaps? Or maybe even a lust for power."

"Does the name Ausor ring any bells for you?" Auron asked, beginning to show hints of aggression in his voice. "Or what about Ister?"

"Ausor and Ister?" Asmodeus whispered, holding his chin as he began to think. "Yes, I know those names well."

"I'm their son."

Asmodeus jerked his head back up and stared at Auron with renewed interest.

"Is that so?" he said. "That would explain much. Your reason is revenge, then?"

"If you must put it that way, yes," Auron growled. "You took away my family, my home, everything that ever made me happy. And you and your soldiers slaughtered several innocent people where they stood." He grabbed onto the steel bars and gripped them as if to break them with sheer strength alone. "And because of that, I'm going to kill you, and then I'm going after the others!"

"There is one problem for you, though," Asmodeus said, glaring at him. "You are all under my power now, and I will not be letting any of you go so easily." He turned to one of the guards escorting him. "Have them all transported to a detention center by tomorrow for labor duty. I do not care which one, as long as you keep a close eye on them."

"All three of them, my lord?" the guard asked.

"Yes, all three, and I want extra work out of the Darkwing here, I don't care if it kills him."

Magnus suddenly remembered he had a voice and ran up to the prison bars, his face showing a mix of shock and fury.

"You can't be serious!" he cried, banging on the bars. "You can't send all of us out! My sister and I hardly did anything!"

"You all were involved in this crime," Asmodeus said, heading for the exit. "Henceforth, you all will receive the same punishment."

"You can't do this!" Magnus cried, but none of them listened to him, and soon Asmodeus and the two guards were gone. He slumped back and gave a defeated sigh, holding his head in his claw in a long moment of silence. Auron turned to him and felt a pang of guilt in his chest--it had never been his intention to drag anyone else into his own personal war.

"Don't worry," Auron said, returning to his calm demeanor. "We'll find a way out."

"How're you so sure?" Magnus asked, gritting his teeth. "We're here right now because of you, you bastard! If you hadn't barged in on that tavern and killed all those soldiers, we wouldn't be in this mess and me and my sister would've had 380 pentas to spare!"

"I realize that," Auron said, looking back to him. "That's why I'm going to get us all out of here."

Magnus' anger began to fade, though he looked no less skeptical. "How are we supposed to do that?"

Auron reached behind his horn, hoping that the soldiers hadn't taken it the night before. To his relief, he felt a small metallic object stored there and pulled it out. It was the same key he took from Belphegor when he killed him, except all of the teeth had been filed down so that only the basic parts of the key remained.

"Ever heard of a skeleton key?" Auron asked. Magnus shook his head. "What about you, Lacrima?" Lacrima jumped when he addressed her but shook her head as well. Auron sighed and put the key back behind his horn. "I can use it to get us out of here, but I'm going to need your help beyond that."

Magnus smiled and leaned back, enjoying the thought of being useful. "Well, if it helps at all, I've learned how to sneak around really well. I mean, I've kinda had to given what me and my sis had to do to survive."

Auron nodded. "Good. That may come in handy."

"Lacrima's pretty good at it, too," he said, smiling at her. "She's pretty good with that crossbow, too, even if the damn thing's pretty weak. If she ever needs to use it, she's got a pretty good aim." Lacrima looked down and smiled sheepishly at the complement.

"Alright, good," Auron said. "I can blend into the darkness really well because of my scales. Once night falls, we'll make for an exit."

"We should take the west gate," Lacrima said. "I know the way to the next city from there."

"Believe me, she does," Magnus said. "She's got a photographic memory; when she sees or learns something, she never forgets it."

Lacrima again smiled and looked down nervously at his compliment.

Auron nodded in agreement. "West gate it is, then."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Night crept up slowly, taking what felt like an eternity to finally arrive. Given the lack of things to do in the prison cell, however, that was likely due to boredom. The only noteworthy thing that happened was a guard coming by later in the evening to tell them that a work camp had been selected and that they'd be transported there tomorrow. When night came, Magnus appeared eager to get the plan on with, but Auron had him wait until it was later in the night before he finally felt it was time to act.

"I believe now would be a good time," he finally whispered, the time now closer to midnight. "Keep an ear out for me."

Magnus and Lacrima nodded and watched as Auron pulled the key out from behind his horn. Auron reached through the prison bars as best as he could, taking care not to accidentally drop the key, and inserted the key into the keyhole. With a twist of his claw, he unlocked the door and slid it open, taking the key out in the process.

"Whoa, what?" Magnus said, staring in amazement. "How did-what?!"

"I'll explain how it works later," Auron said, putting the key back.

"Why didn't you just use that before?!"

"You already know the answer to that."

Magnus prepared to object but then remembered his deal with Asmodeus. "Alright, good point."

Auron signaled for the twins to follow him and they slowly made their way towards the main office, walking on all fours to help keep them silent.

"Alright, our weapons should still be in the main office," Auron whispered. "Magnus, you and I will distract the guards. Lacrima, you find and grab our weapons." He brought his key out again and handed it to her. "If they're in a locked chest, use this to unlock it."

Lacrima took the key with a shaky hand and nodded. "Okay."

The three soon reached the door to the main office. The door was still partly open, allowing the three to peek inside. Auron could see at least two guards, one Animan and the other Pterogon, conversing with the Catalan officer at the desk, none of them paying any attention to the door.

Shit, there's three of them, Auron thought. This could get rough.

"Alright, you ready, Magnus?" Auron asked.

"Yeah," Magnus said, shaking nervously. "Yeah, I'm ready," He looked down beside him and picked up a large stone that barely fit in his hand. "Think this might get their attention?"

"Yeah, that should do the job," he said.

Suddenly Auron slammed the door open and Magnus chucked the stone at the nearest guard--the Pterogon. The stone bounced painfully on his head, sending him reeling back cross-eyed as he grabbed his head. The others turned just in time to see Auron dart to the Pterogon guard and rammed into him before he could recover, knocking him over.

"The prisoners!" the officer cried, suddenly standing. "Get them!"

Auron ducked as the Animan grabbed a dao and swung at his head. The Catalan quickly strapped wingblades to his wings and leaped over the desk towards him. Auron jumped away and soon Magnus charged in, attempting to ram into the Catalan. The officer noticed him approaching and batted him away with his claw, hurling him towards Auron. The two collided into each other and went flying back, landing just short of the wall.

"Well that worked out perfectly," Auron groaned sarcastically.

"Hey, it worked for you!" Magnus cried. "At least we're both here now."

Auron looked up and his eyes widened. "Nope, it's just you now," he said before darting away.

"Wait, w-AH!"

Magnus jumped out of the way as the Animan swung her dao down towards his head. The officer turned on him and lunged towards him, swinging both wingblades down at him. Magnus backed away just as they were about to plunge into his chest. He saw Auron fighting with the Animan, skillfully avoiding her dao and striking with his claws whenever he managed to create an opening. The officer lunged at him again and he was barely able to jump away, soon moving around sporadically as the officer continued to attack him.

Meanwhile, Lacrima attempted to sneak around the guards while the two kept them busy. She spotted the chest on the other side of the room and quickly made her way towards it.

"Hey!"

She turned to see that the Pterogon had already recovered from being stoned in the head and was reaching to grab her. She darted out of the way and whacked him in the face with her tail, stunning him momentarily. While he was stunned, she darted to the chest and jammed Auron's key inside, twisting it until he heard the lock click. As soon as she opened it, she pulled out her crossbow and armed it as quickly as she could, turning around just in time to see the Pterogon lunging at her again. Squeaking in fright, she pulled the trigger and the arrow dug into the Pterogon's head, killing him instantly. The Pterogon stumbled and crashed right in front of her. Without waiting, Lacrima turned back to the chest and grabbed Auron's jian and Magnus' halberd, tossing them both to their respective owners.

"Auron!" she cried, tossing the jian to him.

Auron caught the blade just as the Animan swung at him again. He quickly deflected the strike and grabbed her sword arm. Before she could pull back, he bashed the pommel into her chest, knocking the wind out of her. As she stumbled back, Auron pulled the sword down and sliced through her chest. The guard dropped her dao and fell back, quickly bleeding to death.

Magnus fumbled with his halberd as it was tossed to him. Quickly moving to hold it correctly, he jumped out of the way of the officer again and swung down, cleaving through his skull. He cringed as he saw the officer go limp and blood ooze out of his head.

"Ew," he said, quickly pulling the blade out. "I don't know how you can handle seeing shit like that."

"There's little that disgusts me anymore," Auron said.

Magnus cocked his head. "That just makes you sound old."

Auron tried to resist the urge to groan. "Whatever, we're out now and we have our weapons back, now let's head for the west gate before any more guards show up."

"Couldn't agree more," Magnus said, following Auron as he went out the exit with Lacrima right behind him.

Once outside, they found the streets to be completely darkened, only dimly illuminated by the stars above. Auron could still see clearly, though he knew that the others could not.

"Stay close to me," he whispered before darting off.

Magnus and Lacrima followed his footsteps as he darted into the alleyways. They could only just make out the outline of his form, but it was enough to tell them where he was. Once in the cover of the alleys, Auron stopped and turned to Lacrima.

"Do you know the way from here?" he asked.

Lacrima nodded. "Yes."

"Then lead me there."

She nodded again and began directing Auron around the streets and alleys of the city. He still took the lead, but Lacrima always told him where to go whenever they needed to change directions. As they continued on, Auron found himself amazed at how well she knew her way.

Magnus was serious when he said how good her memory was. She knows this entire city like the back of her paw.

Soon torchlight began to flood the city streets as soldiers began scrambling around, barking orders to each other. The three dragonets remained hidden in the alley, peeking out to see what was going on.

"Find them!" they heard one of them say. "Leave no stone unturned!"

"I guess they're looking for us," Magnus whispered.

How observant of you, Auron thought.

"Let's go," he said. "We need to get out of here before any of them find us. How close are we to the gate?"

"Not far," Lacrima said. "Just a little further up."

Auron allowed Lacrima to lead him towards the west gate, and in just a few minutes, they could see the gate just around the corner. Two armed guards stood on either side of the gate, remaining vigilant to the street ahead of them.

"Shit," Auron whispered. "We won't be able to get past without being spotted."

Magnus began looking around, trying to think of a solution, before a thought came to his head.

"Why don't we climb over the wall?" he asked.

"Over the wall?" Auron asked. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah, look." He pointed towards the closest end of the wall. "We can climb onto the roof of one of these houses and just scale the wall from there."

"None of us are Earthwings, though," Auron said. "How can we climb the wall from there?"

"It's not much higher from there," Magnus said. "Trust me, I've done this many times before. I'll climb the wall and then I'll pull you two up. Besides, if anyone sees us, we can make it over before they can even catch us."

Auron felt hesitant to go with it, but he figured that if Magnus knew what he was doing, then there was little harm in trying.

He only hoped the part about Magnus knowing what he was doing was true.

"Alright," he said. "We'll go with your idea."

"Don't worry, just follow me." He turned and immediately ran into a wall he didn't see was there. Stumbling back, he groaned and grabbed his head as it started to throb. "On second thought, don't."

Auron couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Come on, I'll lead you to the wall."

"Alright," he said, still groaning. "You do that."

The twins followed Auron as he led them towards the wall and to the house lying just below it. Auron saw a few storage crates placed beside the house and directed Magnus to them so that he could use them to climb, with Auron and Lacrima coming up just behind him. From here, Auron could see that Magnus would be able to reach the top of the wall with his halberd.

"Alright, shouldn't be too difficult from here," Magnus said.

"Be careful," Lacrima urged.

Magnus reached up with his halberd and hooked the blade onto the top of the wall. After testing to make sure it was secure, he quickly pulled himself up and over the wall, digging his hind claws into the wall to help him up. He knelt down behind the stone and looked around to make sure he wasn't seen. No torches lit up the wall, so a soldier had to actively come across him to discover he was there. He looked back over the wall and noticed a guard holding a torch in the alley, quickly approaching where Auron and Lacrima were.

"Guys, we need to hurry," he whispered. He held onto the top end of his halberd and reached down with the staff end. "Lacrima, grab on. I'll pull you over."

Lacrima nodded, having gone through this with her brother numerous times before. She strapped her crossbow over her shoulder and grabbed onto the shaft and Magnus began hauling her up. Using her hind claws, she dug into the furrows between the stones comprising the wall to help him pull her up, and soon Magnus grabbed her arm and pulled her over. Once she was with him, Magnus reached down with the halberd again and saw the guard getting closer.

"Quickly, Auron!" he said.

Auron sheathed his sword and grabbed onto the shaft. He tried to dig his hind claws into the stone like Lacrima did, but he found his claws continuously slipping and was forced to let go by his aching claws. He again tried to grab onto the halberd and found that he had a little more success this time, but he was still unable to move very quickly and soon he could tell that torchlight was hitting his back, illuminating his form.

"Hey!" the soldier barked once he saw him.

On impulse, Lacrima pulled up her crossbow and fired. The arrow hit him in the shoulder and he stumbled back, hissing in pain. The distraction allowed Magnus to quickly haul Auron up and pull him over the wall.

"Into the forest, now!" Auron said.

As they ran across the width of the wall, they could hear the dragon crying out to his fellow soldiers.

"They're heading over the wall!" he cried.

Before anyone could arrive, though, the dragonets had already reached the other side and dived down into the forest below.