A/N: Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


Thirteen's Elite

Part 1: Prisoner

Theme: Paint it Black, by GOB

Chapter 2: The Awakening


As he regained consciousness the dragon took stock of himself. Cold. He felt cold for one of the few times since the manifestation. He was hungry but that had become a fact of his existence. He was in pain but he had become accustomed to agony. He forced his eyes open; blinking through the new pain the bright light brought him. As his vision cleared he began to make out a very familiar room. Bizarrely, his only thought was that Section 13 had redecorated. Looking to his left he saw the sleeping form of Jade Chan draped onto a chair. He wondered what her role was since the time-break. When she trapped him in the past, she had been the leader of Section 13. He had heard from the past Chans that the Jade of now had been demoted to a desk job. After he was banished there was no telling what effect it had on her. She had clearly remembered him, and not just from her childhood. He knew it was harder for humans to adapt to time-breaks than demons. Hell, it was hard enough for him to do so. Admittedly he did not have to live through the same event altered slightly. Because he was banished, he simply had memories of being banished after the time travel. She however, must have memories of meeting him for the first time in both pasts. His personal time-line was blessedly linear without doubling back on itself too much.

"If you try to escape I'll shoot you." A gruff voice growled from the doorway. Red eyes locked with brown ones for a moment. Drago stared at one of the few humans to ever earn his respect outside the Chan family. Captain Black wore his traditional black coat over his red shirt and black pants. He was as bald as Drago remembered and sported a short goatee. "As soon as we don't think you're going to die, I'm placing you in Solitary." Drago glanced at the sleeping woman before looking at the ceiling.

"Might as well kill me now, save us all the trouble." He muttered tiredly. He allowed his eyes to drift shut again, whatever retort the captain had lost to him as he faded from consciousness. His dreams were filled with images of his past. Working with and against the Chans. Helping them and trying to enslave and kill them. The manifestation played over and over again in his mind. As did when he learned the truth about his father. Hours after he had spoken with Captain Black, he was awoken by the smell of food. His eyes once again blinked open, this time confronted by the sight of a tube going into his arm. Around his wrists were metal cuffs, a short length of chain attaching them to each other and the bed he was on. He reached to pull the tube out, ignoring the burning sensation jostling the needle brought.

"I wouldn't do that." Jade said from her chair. He turned his head to look at her. She was eating a large cheeseburger while ignoring the fries and drink that had come with it. When he saw the bag he chuckled weakly.

"Hail to the king?" She didn't exactly smile, but she stopped scowling at him.

"Always." He began to laugh again but it quickly degenerated to a coughing fit. "What happened? Did you come back to screw with the time-line again?"

"My memory must be fuzzy; I seem to remember you doing that." He replied sharply. "Dad and I had a…argument. Well, me and his siblings. He just took the excuse to put the blame on me."

"So you came here?" She took another bite of her burger. He glared at the tube in his arm. "What happened to you? You look…"

"Like I used to?" He let out a strange noise, somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. "A small side effect of the spell I used to get here." She tensed when he mentioned the spell.

"Something your family could use to escape?"

"Don't worry about those demons. I only escaped because I don't have a portal to seal me." He struggled to sit up, finally yanking the tube from his arm. "You going to call the captain?"

"Why would I do that?"

"He said when I was safe from dying he was sending me to Solitary." He looked down at the cuffs on his wrists.

"Right." She pulled out her phone and dialed the captain's number. "Captain Black? The dragon's awake. Okay." A few minutes later several armed men entered the room. They stood in the room for a minute before a commotion outside caught their attention.

"Out of Uncle's way! How can Uncle look at young dragon if guards are in Uncle's way?" A very distinctive voice yelled from the hallway. "Out!" The men filed out sheepishly to reveal an elderly Chinese man and Captain Black.

"Uncle, are you sure we shouldn't wait for Jackie?" The captain asked eyeing Drago suspiciously. The old man smacked him in the head with two fingers. "Ow."

"Uncle has Jade. What could go wrong?"

"You want a list?" He asked, making Jade smile embarrassedly. Drago growled lowly at the man's words.

"Watch it baldy." He said through gritted teeth. Uncle pulled a chair up to the bed, keeping a safe distance from the dragon. He stared into Drago's eyes until the dragon broke the eye contact.

"Dragon is broken." The old man said thoughtfully. "Dark chi less abundant. Light chi waking up inside dragon. Demon chi was burned up when you crossed into this world. Very ancient, good magic." Drago stared at his clawed hands.

"Well aren't we clever?" He muttered to himself.