Chapter Text
"Daddy? Daddy?"
Pythor groaned and rubbed his eyes as the sunlight peeked in through the curtains. He opened his eyes and saw a blue and purple serpentine beside his bed. "Mmmm… good morning Indigo."
"I'm hungry… when are you going to get up?"
"Who is it, Pythor? Oh hey there cutie." Xiuh yawned and leaned up to see her son peeking over the edge of the bed.
"Don't worry you two, I'm getting up now. Is Cinder up too?" He nodded, and Pythor chuckled. "Ever the early risers, eh? Just give me and your mom a few minutes to get ready and we'll be out in the kitchen to make you breakfast."
"Okay." He said and slithered out of the room, shutting the door behind him. As soon as he was gone, Pythor fell back against the bed and sighed as he uncoiled from around Xiuh's, and pulled away from her with a wet noise from between her legs. "Oh man that was close."
"Yeah, good thing he didn't try to slither into bed this time. We're lucky he didn't see you inside me."
"Eh, I think it's getting close to the time where we should tell them where they came from. They're almost 6 now."
"Are you sure? They're still pretty young."
"Yeah, I think they should learn about this before they start exploring themselves. I also think it will make them more willing to wait till they're older before they have kids of their own, instead of like we did."
"You're probably right, I still wouldn't change what we did though. You got me out of the palace, and I feel so much happier with you now. I just wish you could visit more often."
"Xiuh… if I do then his parents might find out I had children with you. They're still wanting me to marry that anacondrai noble from Ouroboros, but if they find out that we have a marriage between us… they'll kill you and…"
"Pythor, you're the prince now, if you take the throne then I can be your wife publicly and we can live in peace."
"I think we should talk about this later, Indigo and Cinder are probably wondering what's taking us so long. You all cleaned up?"
"Good enough till after breakfast. What are you going to make?"
"Your favorites, pancakes and eggs." He said, and grinned when he saw her smile, He gently stroked her chin, leaning in close. "Are you sure you didn't hypnotize me to make me fall in love with you?"
Her red eyes started to swirl for a half-second before she leaned forward and kissed me. "Oh I didn't need to rely on his kind's powers for that. You're sexy enough on your own."
He chuckled and led her out into the hallway and then the dining area, where he saw Cinder coiled up at the table holding something close to her chest and with a big smile on her face.
"Look what I made daddy!" She turned it around to show him and he clasped his hands to his chest. She held up a beautiful painting of the four of them having a picnic in the forest.
"Awwwww, I love it so much sweetie! You're going to be an amazing painter when you grow up, I know other serpentine are going to love your work too." He said and leaned down to give her a big hug. "You are so amazing, Cinder."
"What about me?" Indigo asked as he looked between us, and he let go of Cinder to give him a big hug too.
"You are too, silly. You are getting really great at painting and learning music just like your sister." He said and ruffled his head before he got up. "Now, who wants some pancakes and eggs?"
They both started cheering and saying things like "me" over and over, and he went over to the pantry and got out the ingredients. As he started mixing them Xiuh came over to him and helped by getting the wood stove burning. "You sure look happy this morning, hun."
"I'm always happy in the kitchen, cooking is something I really love to do. It's so much better when I can do it myself instead of having overworked servants doing it for me. I think I cook better than them to be honest, but maybe that's because I can get more sleep."
"You can cook better than them huh? Is that a challenge?"
"You know I could never cook better than you sweetie, you've taught me so much about cooking and baking, and I really appreciate it. You mean so much to me Xiuh."
"Then why did you let me and our kids die?"
"Huh?" He asked and turned to look at her, and froze when he saw a charred and lifeless husk staring right at him.
"You didn't stop them. You weren't here when they blocked us inside and burned us alive."
"Why did you leave us daddy? Why? Why weren't you here?" Cinder and Indigo asked, and he gasped when he saw them. They were charred too, just like their mother. "We hate you! We hate you! WE HATE YOU!"
Xiuh grabbed him, and fire leapt out of her mouth right at Pythor's face, and he screamed.
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He grunted as he fell onto the metal floor and opened his eyes to see darkness all around him beyond the circular wall of his cell. The only lights came from the one mounted directly above him, and the one above the control panel for the bridge to access the cell.
He rubbed his head while getting up and slithered over to the table to coil around the seat. He buried his head in his arms as he tried to control his breathing, only to fail.
“That was the third nightmare I've had this week, or has it been five days?” He thought and shook his head. He could never tell in here. The prison staff only let him know what time or day it was when they gave him the occasional newspaper, or how much longer he had until he was to be hanged.
“Why do I keep having these dreams and nightmares? It doesn't matter what they think of me, they're dead. It didn't matter to me before and it doesn't matter now.”
He looked up at his reflection in the glass and noticed that his eyes were puffy and watery. Guess that explained why he felt tears running down his scales.
“Oh who am I kidding? I miss them… I miss them so damn much. Them and everyone else I know.”
Ever since he had been placed on death row in this cell built just for him, he has had almost no interaction with any other living beings. Even though he had felt alienated from serpentine, he realized now that he missed talking with people, or even just being around them.
“I hate being alone, I just want to have friends and family.”
The metal door to the chamber started to open. He looked over at it, and felt his heart racing, even though it was just a couple of corrections officers coming in. They extended the bridge towards the cell, and his heart sunk at the sick smiles on their faces.
"Awwwwww… he looks even more miserable than usual. Did the big bad prince have a bad dream?"
He scoffed and looked away. "What do you care?"
"Oh, come on, don't be like that. Kryptarium Prison's focus is on rehabilitating its occupants and helping them re-integrate into society. We care about the health, safety, and well-being of our inmates, and we want to make sure they are taken care of."
"Tsk, yeah, your 85% re-incarceration rate really supports that. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that 12% of prisoners released from here commit suicide in the first year of freedom."
"No one asked for your opinion, snake."
"They're not an opinion, just facts. You never let me see the sun or the moon, I can never tell what time it is, you don't let me read books or paint, and I hardly ever get to talk to anyone. I suppose his opinion would be that Noble doesn't give a shit about our well-being, only how much money he makes off of us."
"Well, it doesn't matter how you're treated, you're still going to die anyway. Your execution has been moved up by the way. You die in 60 days on November 25th."
"How kind of you to give me today's date, assuming you're even being honest this time. Anyways, we both know you didn't come here to ask me how I'm doing. What do you want?"
"Just to show you something in the newspaper. Take a look at the obituary on page 7C." The corrections officer motioned for a window on the cell to be opened, and placed the newspaper inside. Once it closed, the window on Pythor's end opened and he took the newspaper. His heart sank even further at what he saw.
Dr. Julien Sanford of Ninjago City, Ninjago passed away Monday October 20th, 2015 at Ninjago Central Hospital at 1:40 am. He was 88 years old.
"Damn…" He just stared at the headshot that was used for the obituary as he held the newspaper tighter. "I can't believe he's gone."
"You have got to be shitting me. You're actually feeling bad about this?"
He snapped up at the officer who asked and threw the newspaper behind him so hard he heard it tear. "What? Were you expecting me to gloat? Or to say something like 'good riddance'? Dr. Julien was one of the few humans I actually liked and deeply respected, and I don't speak ill of the dead!"
"Didn't like him enough to not kill his son, apparently. Did you know that he died of heartbreak? Technically a heart attack, but still. September 19th was Zane's birthday, and he wasn't here thanks to you."
He sighed and looked away. As much as he hated to admit it, he was right. He saw out of the corner of his eye some sick smirk on the faces of the officers, and hissed at their sadism. One of them stepped away to answer his radio for something and looked back. "What do you mean 'he has a visitor'? Who the fuck would want to- you're kidding me. Her again?"
He watched as they walked down the bridge and stepped to the side as the doors opened and an anacondrai slithered in. He grimaced when he saw who it was and crossed his arms as he looked away.
"Hello Pythor. How are you holding up?"
“Should I be honest, or polite? Oh whatever, it didn't matter.”
"I'm holding up alright, aunt Maera."
"Pythor, you don't need to lie to me. I can see how thin you are, and your eyes just look so tired. I'm worried about you."
He scoffed and turned to face her. "Don't patronize me. And you're one to talk about not telling lies. I still remember the disappointment in your eyes when you first saw me here. You were ashamed of me, you were embarrassed to even be related to me! How on Earth could you ever be worried about me when your own nephew is a homicidal terrorist?!"
"Because I don't see you as his nephew, I see you as his son!" He shook his head and turned away as he covered his eyes, but there was nowhere he could go to avoid this. "Pythor, it wasn't your fault what happened to you. You were forced to leave Quetzalcoatl by your parents and you had to survive all on your own. We… we should have stood up for you and-"
"Just stop it okay? Just stop it! Do you really think standing up to them earlier would have accomplished anything? You would have just gotten yourself killed like everyone else who tried!"
"Yes, I do. Arcturus was able to overthrow Aihtiram and Jamila and execute them. We wanted to invite you back, to give you a more peaceful and safe life, one where you didn't have to kill and sleep with a weapon under your pillow just to survive. The war broke out though before we could get in contact with you."
"I wouldn't have come back. There's a reason why I didn't go to your house after the great devourer was killed. I'm not the same person you knew all those years ago. You can't take the blame for what I've done, so don't even try to. It was his choice to run a gang in Myonlac, it was his choice to revive the overlord to take revenge on everyone, and it was his choice to betray Lloyd Garmadon even after he treated me like a true friend!"
Pythor was full-on shaking by this point, and didn't bother to wipe away the tears that were streaming down his scales. Aunt Maera just stood there watching him with her hands clasped together over her chest, and he slithered over to the glass to meet her soft eyes.
"I killed someone's child Aunt Maera. His name was Zane Sanford, and his father, a world-renowned scientist who I actually liked, died because of me. I thought I would enjoy destroying Zane, but… I watched him give his life for his friends, and I… I… I felt nothing. I'm a monster."
"Pythor… no… y-you're not a monster. You're his son, or at least… I think of you as his son."
Tears were forming in her eyes now, and his heart ached as he looked at her. If this was the last time he ever saw her… he had to say it. "I l-love you too… mum. I don't think we're going to be seeing each other again though. I'm set to visit the gallows in a month."
"No… no! I-no… we won't let that happen! We'll fight to get your death sentence overturned." She swore, but he just shook his head.
"There's nothing you can do. It's over. I chose his path. At least I can take comfort that I'll see Arcturus in the cursed realm, since I'll probably end up there."
"We'll still try. Even if it's pointless, we still won't just lay down and do nothing. Don't give up Pythor, we'll see each other again."
He watched as she slithered down the bridge, and she even waved goodbye to him. The corrections officers retracted the bridge and left the room, leaving him completely alone again. He went to pick up the newspaper and put the pages back together, and noticed that the front page had an article on Dr. Julien.
He laid down to read it, and found that pit in his chest growing even more. If he hadn't chosen to wallow in his own hatred and revive that damn demon, he could have actually lived among humans just like the serpentine were now. He could have actually met with the doctor and learned things from him. He could have became friends with the ninja, just like how Lloyd wanted to be with him.
They played pranks on villages, cooked meat and s'mores over campfires, stole toys and candy, broke into small carnivals and went on rides; and how did he repay him? By stealing the map of dens and leaving him to the ninja, by draining his golden power, by leaving him to die in a fucking volcano!
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!" He screamed as he punched the bed and curled up. “I have sent hundreds… if not thousands of people into homelessness because of his attacks on Ninjago City, I have hurt and killed so many people, and I have ruined so many lives.”
He pushed himself up and looked at his reflection in the glass. He swore he would never become someone like his parents, someone who extorted whoever they wanted and killed any who opposed them, and he did. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. "No more. No. More. I'm done being someone who destroys. Nothing, absolutely nothing will ever change that again."
He opened his eyes, and saw something purple and blue swirling behind him. He got up and turned around only to immediately be punched in the face. Before he could get his bearings, he felt something being poured down his throat.
He pushed two people in robes away and grabbed one of them with his tail, whipping them around and slamming them into the glass so hard it cracked.
"Who the hell are you people?!" He asked and stumbled back as an alarm sounded. He put a hand to his head as his vision started to become blurry, and more robed figures entered the cell.
"You'll find out soon enough." Was the last thing he heard before he fell to the ground and everything went dark.
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Pythor groaned as he opened his eyes and rubbed them to clear his vision, and immediately felt his arms jolt as he discovered they were chained to the wall along with his tail. His neck too was chained to the floor and he lied on a cold, stone bed, hardly able to move.
"What the hell…?" He muttered. He looked out the window of the cell he was in, and saw white buildings with brown features, flying ships, and clouds beneath them. "I don't think I'm in Ninjago anymore, Toto."
"That would be correct." He turned around and saw a man with graying hair on the other side of the cell door. "You are in the Cloud Kingdom now, Pythor Acryla."
"Who are you? And what am I doing here?"
"I am Fenwick, the head writer of the scribes of destiny." He said as he came into his cell along with a few other people, one dressed like a monk and two like soldiers. "As for why you are here, you have gone against what was written for your destiny. I must admit, it has been quite some time since we have had to bring anyone here by force. I can't recall it happening in my lifetime in fact."
Pythor watched as the monk rubbed something on his arm, and grunted when he pressed a needle into his left arm, and he started draining his blood into a bag.
"What do you mean 'what was written for my destiny'? And why are you taking my blood?"
"Patience. Up here in the cloud kingdom, we know what's going to come next in life because we have written it. We have written all that ever was, all that is, and all that ever will be. You see, there needs to be a plan for everyone, people need to be guided towards their destiny, or everything will fall into chaos."
A deep hiss made its way out of his mouth as he realized the meaning of this and glared at Fenwick dead in the eyes. "So everything I have ever done, every action, every choice, it's all been for nothing. You gave us the illusion of choice, moving us around like puppets on strings, all so that you can tell your perfect little story."
"Precisely. You are meant to serve as a continual threat to the ninja and the people of Earth. Time and time again you will slip away only to come back with another plan to destroy them. That is your role."
"I will never be a part of your twisted little fanfiction, Fenwick. Not anymore."
"And that is why you are here, Pythor. That pesky resolve of yours, that dragon spirit that composes your very soul, it has made you go too far. This isn't the first time you have strayed from your path though, but we were always able to 'write on the fly' so to speak and rein you back in."
"'Rein me in'?"
"Yes. You weren't supposed to be having these feelings of guilt and remorse for betraying Lloyd's kindness upon releasing you, for destroying the master of ice, for betraying the serpentine. Each time you did though, we were able to steer you back on track, make it a part of your story, including the loss of your family."
He felt his heart skip a beat as those words registered in his head, and stared up at Fenwick with wide eyes as the monk pulled out the needle and wrapped up his arm.
"Yes, Xiuh Kanar had to go. We couldn't have you actually become the serpentine king now could-" Fenwick yelped as he snapped his neck out and nearly caught his throat in his fangs, only being stopped by the chain and a guard slamming his neck against the wall.
"You fucking bastard! You and your monks killed my wife and children! All so I could be the monster you wanted me to be!"
He tried to push the guard off and break out of the chains, but he just pushed harder, and his eyes started bulging out as he began to choke. Fenwick stepped close and smiled as it got harder and harder to breathe and grabbed Pythor's chin to force him to look at him.
"I wasn't the one who wrote it, but yes. You are nothing more than a character in our story, but you are about to become so much more. You wanted to know why we were taking your blood, correct? We can't change what has already been written, but we can make sure that you never disobey us again for the rest of your life. You will become our monster, and the ink that is your blood will ensure it."
"No…" He choked and fell to the floor once he was released, immediately coughing for air as he could only watch them leave. The cell door slammed shut and locked, and he was left alone once again. He yelled and slammed his fist against the stone wall as he imagined Fenwick using his blood to control him.
To think that everything in his life was meaningless, that he never had a choice from the day he hatched. He sighed as he leaned back against the stone wall again and looked out the window. Every day in his life, he had made a choice. Sometimes they were mundane things, like what he would eat for breakfast; others, they would be more important things, like whether he would sneak into the storerooms that night to steal food for serpentine in the lower classes.
Did he really ever have a choice in those instances? Or did he just think he did, and only chose what he was destined to do? Maybe that meant that Xiuh never truly loved him, that she was just forced to, only to be ripped away so that he could become a bitter person.
He shook his head. No, he refused to believe that. If anything was true, if anything couldn't be controlled, it had to be their love for each other. He never felt the same way for anyone else like he did for her, he never even thought about having sex with anyone after she was killed.
How much time did he have left? What if Fenwick was dipping his quill in his blood right now? Would he be sent back to Ninjago, and be destined to kill Nya? He knew the master of lightning was in love with her, and that she was Kai's sister. She also electrocuted him with some kind of net. Getting revenge against her would surely rip apart the team.
No. No! He wouldn't allow it! He refused to believe that he never had any control over his life, that he was free of any of the responsibility for the actions he's taken. Becoming a mob boss, betraying Lloyd, killing Zane, he still chose to do them. He has always had a choice. He wouldn't let anyone else get hurt because of him ever again!
He grabbed the chain linking his neck to the ground and pulled with all his might, and it shattered. He gasped and looked down, and his hands were glowing with all the colors of the rainbow. "What in Quetzalcoatl's name is this?"
He saw and understood how the stone on the floor and the walls were made up, he knew how the metal bars on the window and the door were made up, he understood it all.
He reached back and broke the chains on his arms and tail, setting himself free. He stretched his back and tail before, slithering over to the door and put his hands on it. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, imagining it blowing off the wall, and pushed. He grunted when he felt a big thud in his nostrils, and opened his eyes to see a crack in the wall opposite the cell door.
"Ow… okay, gonna have to work on that." Pythor said as he rubbed his nose to get rid of the pain. He slithered out into the hallway and saw a guard running around the corner.
"He's out! Alert the garrison!"
He rushed at him with a sword and Pythor immediately ducked back into the cell and broke the chain off of the wall. He wound it up as quickly as he could and swung at the guard as he came in. The chain wrapped around his wrist and Pythor yanked it hard while slamming his other arm into his neck.
He grabbed the dropped sword and rushed out into the hallway again. Several guards were running at him and he ducked away from a slash and blocked the next. He looked back and saw only a couple of guards, and knew the path he needed to take.
He made a feint at the guards in front of him and they took the bait to let him whip around and lunge at the guards behind me. He ducked low and slashed across the first guard's thigh before coiling around the second one, throwing him with all his might at the others.
The door slammed open as Pythor rushed out into the open air and promptly shut the door behind him. He grabbed the top of the wall and shuddered as he looked over the edge. It had to be a 50 meter drop. Although the realm existed in the clouds, that seemed to be all there was. Nothing could be seen beneath the islands. Nothing to stop him if he fell.
"It's over Pythor, there's nowhere to run."
Pythor turned around to see several guards surrounding him, completely blocking off any paths he could take to get around them. "Fenwick will never control me again. None of you will!"
"As soon as he writes on your scroll, he will. Now drop the sword and come with us peacefully."
Swords and spears were pointed at him from all angles, and the cold stone wall pressed up against the scales on his back. Pythor turned and looked over the edge of the wall. The ground looked even further away now.
"You won't make it. You'll just become a red splatter on the ground."
He looked back at them, then at the sword in his hand, and gripped it even tighter. "Then I better hope this works."
"No! Stop!"
The air flew over Pythor's scales as the ground began rushing closer. He focused on the sword and imagined the blade being bent into a hook, then slammed it into the stone wall and held on for dear life. Five meters above the ground though, the blade broke and he skidded along the side of the building before slamming into the ground.
His mouth twisted into a grimace as he tried to push himself off the ground, his arms trembling as blood leaked from torn scales. Pythor grabbed the wall for support as he slowly pulled himself up and panted, unable to really move for several long seconds. He looked up at the side of the tower, a long gash in the wall stretched from between the third and fourth story down to between the first and second.
"Come on… please work."
Pythor put his hands on the ground, and the rocks sparked with rainbow bolts as they stretched out and formed a bridge to another island. The guards burst out of the prison tower and ran after Pythor as he took off across the bridge. Once he was on stable ground, he slammed his palm down on the bridge as energy raced across it, the rock structure breaking apart and sending the guards plummeting.
A boat was heading straight for him as he took a deep breath and held his lower chest. He looked around, but this island also didn't have any natural bridges connecting it to others, and it looked just like the tower he had jumped off of.
Out of options, Pythor slithered around the corner of the building and turned invisible as the boat docked on the island. The soldiers on board ran off and surrounded the island as some came outside to meet them.
"Have you seen Pythor around here? He fled to this island after escaping from tower five."
"No, we haven't. The guards saw him create a bridge over here and break it, but we lost sight of him."
"Well, he's an anacondrai. He can turn invisible, and without the anacondrai staff we can't expose him."
"He could have dug under the island, but he'd just be sitting down there. We haven't seen any reactions though, so he's still on this island."
"We have to find him. We can't let the essence of imagination get out into the realms. It was hard enough making sure that hypnobrai mage didn't pass it on to her children. Search the island, leave no space unchecked."
He needed to move fast. It was only a matter of time before they bumped into him. Pythor looked at the boat they used to get here and smiled.
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The skiff passed over the roof of a building and Pythor dropped onto it as soon as he felt it was safe. A loud grunt escaped his mouth before he could contain it, and he dropped his invisibility as his entire body throbbed with pain.
"Did you hear something?"
Pythor gasped and pressed himself tight to the wall as he became invisible again. He looked around the corner and gulped when he saw that the skiff had stopped.
"It was just the rudder, come on, let's go."
The skiff started moving again, and Pythor held in his breath until they had gotten farther away before finally letting it out and leaning back against the roof.
"Ugh… how the fuck did I manage to stay unnoticed on that trip to the dark island a few years ago?"
Pythor looked over at the giant building near the one he was on and saw a lot of people heading in and out of it. Pushing himself off of the shingles, he held onto a corner of the roof with his tail and reached down to a windowsill. No sounds could be heard coming from inside, and Pythor broke the latch on the shutters to slither inside, eventually making his way to the main hall.
Pythor wandered around the building, trying to find the head writer's office, succeeding after stealing a robe left out and claiming he had information on the escaped anacondrai.
"Well? What information do you have on him that it has to involve interrupting me?!" Fenwick asked as he dabbed a quill in blood and tried to write on a scroll, only for the blood to spark.
"Well, I know that he's here in this building." Pythor said as he locked the door behind him.
"And how do you know this?"
"You're talking to him."
Pythor dropped the hood and exposed himself as he slithered over to the desk. Fenwick turned around and tried to gain as much distance as he could away from the serpentine glaring at him.
"GUARDS! S-Stop right there, Pythor! I said stop! Stop right now or I tear this scroll in half and your destiny ends right here and now!"
Pythor stopped as he watched Fenwick hold his scroll out in front of him, hands ready to tear. Fenwick smiled as the door was pounded on, and he motioned for Pythor to back away from him.
"That's right. You may have been able to escape from the prison, but your freedom ends now. Open the door."
He hissed and slithered over to the door and reached up to open it, and chuckled. Pythor turned and pushed a table over in front of the door.
"Wh-what are you doing?! I said to open the door!"
"Oh, did you actually think I'd just do as you said? Just like that?"
Pythor finished barricading the door and slithered back over to Fenwick, snatching the scroll out of his hands when he tried to tear it again.
"You're not going to fool me that easily. I saw you trying to write on here when I came in and you couldn't. I'm guessing it has something to do with that "imagination" thing the militia here mentioned. And if you can't write on here, then I suppose what's on here doesn't matter anymore, does it?"
Pythor tossed the scroll onto a burning candle and watched as it caught on fire. Fenwick yelped as his neck became wrapped up in Pythor's tail and he was lifted off the ground.
"I'm only going to say this once Fenwick, so listen well. You can't control me anymore; I write my own destiny now. I'm going back home to Ninjago, and you're going to tell me how."
"You think I'll just go along with that? That I'll just let you live your-"
Fenwick grasped at Pythor's tail as it began tightening around his neck, gradually closing up as he watched the human struggle.
"I know you will, if you value your life and work that is. How do I leave the cloud kingdom?"
"You can't! The blind man's eye won't be passing for at least another few months. You're stuck here. Killing me won't change tha-"
Pythor tightened his tail even more and watched as Fenwick started to turn blue. His struggling got weaker, and a second later Pythor released some of the pressure.
"Last chance Fenwick. Your friends kidnapped me from Kryptarium Prison somehow, so you can leave this realm. Tell me how this instant, or I snap your neck and I send you to the cursed realm."
Pythor started to tighten his tail again and Fenwick tapped it.
"Killing me won't get you out of this realm."
"It will at least give me the satisfaction of killing the bastard who took my family from me."
"The death of Xiuh and your two children may have been influenced by us, but it was not of our design. Aihtiram would have killed them anyways. We just made some edits."
"I. Don't. Care."
"You don't get it, do you? You've been so focused on me you haven't been listening to what's been going on outside. We received word that you broke out of the prison tower using your new elemental powers, and we knew you'd come for me. You tricked the guards into bringing you to my office by claiming you had information on your whereabouts. Do you really think they've been standing patiently outside this whole time?"
At that moment, the doors burst open, and a dozen guards stormed into the office. Pythor enveloped Fenwick in his tail and threw him at the guards, knocking down several and allowing him to dash out. Pythor froze when he saw several more guards charging down the hall towards him and couldn't get to the stairs.
He looked around and slammed his palm on the floor, sparks shooting out to make the floor crumble. Pythor pushed himself off the ground and bolted for anywhere he could.
"After him!"
Why are there so many soldiers in the building? I thought this was supposed to be the main hall where the scribes wrote everyone's destiny? Wait… there were a ton of scribes leaving when I finally got here. Did they clear out the-
They knew I was coming. This was a trap, and I fell for it.
"There he is! Don't let him escape!"
He took the first turn he saw and hurried until he saw a sign for a stairwell and opened the door. A soldier was right on the other end of it and thrusted his sword forward. Pythor grunted as they caught his side and ducked away as his tail got nicked. He kept slithering down the hall and pushed his way out through a set of double doors.
He gasped when he hit the edge of a balcony and realized he had no way to climb down this time. He turned around and immediately got bashed in the face by a shield, knocking him head over tail. Pythor's eyes snapped open once his vision cleared and he saw the clouds and rock islands rushing past him.
Pythor tried to think of something, anything to do, but his mind was racing too quickly to think clearly. He had nothing to slow his fall or change direction, and he was just barely missing some of the islands, some of them only passing by a meter. It was only a matter of time before he hit one at terminal velocity.
And that time was up.
He saw an island with a spire on a tower rushing at him, and he felt his heart drop. He would never be able to see his family again, never be able to truly change, or tell Lloyd just how truly sorry he was for hurting him.
Pythor closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he thought of Xiuh and his children.
Wait… something felt… different. It felt like the air was catching on his arms.
Pythor opened his eyes and they widened when he saw wings on his body. His neck felt longer, and he saw four legs just before a long, white tail.
I'm… a dragon.
Another island rushed past him, and he beat his wings, narrowly avoiding it. He twisted his body to dodge another, and as he spun a white light filled his vision.
Before he knew it, a sprawling forest was beneath him, as was a mountain that he was rapidly getting closer to. Pythor tried to get more air under him, but no matter how hard he tried, all he could do was get level before a huge tree slammed into his head and everything went black.