A/N: I know that I'm late. However, I am not incredibly late, so I think that it's okay. Besides, I still haven't gotten a review, yet, so it's getting hard to stay enthusiastic. (Yes, I'm using guilt tripping. I am never above guilt tripping)

Anyway, please enjoy this next chapter.


He couldn't move. He couldn't move.

Wes and Cobalt had moved all of the boys into one room the previous night for space reasons— there were only five of them, compared to the couple dozen dragonelles, so he supposed that it made sense. He would've been fine sleeping on the floor, honestly, but Wes but demanded that he keep his cot. Something about not further screwing with his spine. But apparently it was all for naught— even the cot couldn't stop his back from cramping up and rendering him unable to do much more than move his arms and twitch his feet. He wasn't even sure if he could get onto his elbows.

"Do you want me to get you breakfast?" Kain asked on his way into the hallway. "I'm pretty sure that the state of our underground has devolved into cereal, but I can get you a—"

"If you say hot pocket I swear to god, Kain."

"—hot pocket."

"Oh my god!"

Kain laughed, his functional eye shining. It had been looking clearer, as of late, returning from a clouded brown to hazel-grey. His scars were fading, as well. Or maybe Dante was just getting used to seeing them.

"How about some bacon and toast, then? I'll make a party of it," Kain said. "I swear, no one knows how to cook in this underground."

"And you make fun of me for my nervous habits," Dante rolled his eyes and tried to move into a slightly less painful position. Electric sparks travelled up his spine and all the way to his legs, making his muscles twist and cramp. Damn. "Please get me food."

"Sure thing. Hey, if your sister decides to stop by…" Kain hesitated, eye narrowing with something akin to frustration. "Tell her that... I'm sorry for trying to fistfight her boyfriend. But I'm not about to apologize to his face." And he was gone, just like that. Everyone else was already out, leaving Dante alone in the room to speculate over how dirt smudges got onto the ceiling and think over the previous night.

He didn't regret telling people about the lab. Even when he was part of Talon, it had creeped him out. Now that he was out, he knew that it needed to be destroyed. But it was still an action that marked him rogue, and as little as he wanted to admit it, that scared him. And then he volunteered for a mission to bring the place down when he couldn't even stand for an entire day without being immobile for the next who-knew-how-long. It was better than sending Ember, but it still wasn't a good option. Not to mention Cobalt could see it as an attempt to get back to Talon, which would discredit him.

Everything was so much more simple when it was just him and the underground.

"Tweedledum?"

The door creaked open, and Ember's head poked in to do a quick sweep. Dante took a breath and managed to struggle to his elbows, pointedly ignoring the grating in his spine and the way his arms shook from the strain.

"Hey, Ember," he said, managing a smile. Ember sat down beside him and put an arm under his back to give some meager support. "What time is it?"

"Ten-thirty. I woke up before you, for once," she said. Dante groaned and tried to twist off of his cot and onto the floor. Ember stopped him before he could get far. "Don't. You're still… you're straining yourself." She gave a small huff. "I would have come in earlier, but you were asleep, and Sage threw, like, eighteen socks at me because he was changing."

"Huh," Dante nodded. He tried to struggle out of his cot again, but Ember didn't even need to restrain him. He could barely get onto his side, and fell onto as back the moment he tried to relax. She gave him a pat on the shoulder for his effort.

"So, how have things been since you left?" Dante asked. "You seem to be pretty updated on my life, but I have no idea what happened with you, other than raiding the Breeding Facility and joining up with St. George."

"Well, that's pretty much all we did," Ember shrugged. There was a brief silence, where Ember looked around their room. There was just two beds, shared by four people, his cot, and a few cloth bags where everyone had their possessions. When there weren't five people in the room, it looked almost tidy.

"We've been discussing the mission, while you've been out," Ember said. Dante's head jerked up to meet her eyes, and Ember raised her hands. "You can't move, Dante. You needed some recovery time, so I didn't try to wake you up for strategy discussion."

"I was just cleaning yesterday. I shouldn't still be this… this immobile."

"Yeah, which is why you shouldn't go on the mission," Ember snapped. Dante froze, and she let out a long breath, running a hand through her hair. "We've been talking it over, trying to find a way in. Mist managed to confirm that there's a facility, and she somehow got a blueprint, but a distraction is too risky, because you're not exactly the most trustworthy informant. No offense. There's a back entrance, but—"

"It's an emergency exit," Dante interrupted. He grabbed Ember's arm and dragged himself upright, stars bursting in his vision as the edges went greyscale. Ow. Ow. Dammit, it wasn't supposed to hurt so much. "Security is tight there, rigged with silent alarms through the entire corridor. Good exit plan, but guards would shoot you the moment you open the door into the main facility."

"Mist and Riley guessed as much," Ember growled. "There are vents, but the only ones that we can fit through open in bad places. And, of course, we don't know exactly where the labs are, we just know the vague area, so it's smartest to send you in." Her voice cracked. "And fucking Ward talks about expendability, as if you're nothing just because you've been rogue for less time. You haven't even been on a mission before, and people are talking about sending you off to—"

"Ember," Dante interrupted, closing his eyes. He rubbed at his shoulder, where the bullet wound was still raised against his skin. A trophy for all of this mistakes. "I might not look up to anything right now, but I can do this much. I can get people in, and we can do whatever is necessary to… to…" he swallowed. He had worked so hard on this project. Was he really going to burn it down, just like that?

Most definitely.

"To destroy these vessels," he finished. "And I want to do this, too. I need to prove myself. Begin to wipe the slate clean."

"Dante—"

"I killed… so many people, Ember," he continued, hands clenched into fists. "You have no idea. And I didn't even let them see my face, I just… I just sent vessels after them. An entire trailer town, just to prove myself. I need to make up for that. If we fail, and I die…" Dante paused. Maybe it's what I deserve. "...Then at least it will be me, and not someone like you."

Ember closed her eyes tightly and ran a hand over her face. "God, you sounded like Garret for a moment, there. When did you get so noble?"

"When Cobalt shot me." Dante offered a smile. "I don't intend to die, though. I know this facility, and the people there trust me. They probably should know better, but…"

Ember laughed weakly at that, but her face fell quickly. She bit her lip and faintly shook her head.

"You know that this is practically a suicide mission, right?" she said. "You'll be going into an armed facility, planting a shit ton of bombs, and hoping that you can get out before the whole thing explodes. And there isn't any extraction or backup team." She gave a nearly desperate laugh. "Hell, Martin said, to quote, 'we can't send in anyone that we can't afford to lose.'. Granted, he said that when Garret volunteered himself, but that's still a dead giveaway over how this mission is going to go. Not to mention cold as hell to say right after we decided that Mist is going. And Martin's the nice one."

Dante winced. "There's a nice Lieutenant in St. George?"

"Compared to Ward, Martin is a dragon-rights activist," Ember said. She looked over him, brow crinkling with worry. "Nothing's set in stone, yet. We need to talk with you formally, we need to figure out who all we're sending in other than Mist, and when this is taking place… but I think that they're going to have you go. 'It's the most tactically sound choice', or whatever bullshit. If I hear the word 'expendable' come from anyone's lips one more time, I'm kicking their teeth in." She groaned. "I just got you back, Dante. And now..."

Dante pursed his lips and slowly made it back onto his elbows. Could he really go back to that facility and trust himself to stay true to the underground? He was fine now, when he was in the farmhouse, beside Ember, surrounded by rogues, but Talon had been everything to him. Even knowing what he did, and hating Talon for all it was worth, he was afraid to close the door on an easy way back into the organization.

The door creaked open. Dante's head shot up to meet Kain, who had frozen in the doorway.

"Ember," he greeted stonily.

"Kain," Ember replied. She nodded to the plate that he was carrying. "That for my brother?"

"Yes." Kain said. He crossed to Dante's side and handed him the plate, carefully keeping Ember from his blind spot. He looked on the verge of saying something, then decided against it, instead ruffling his hair before he left. Or, tried to leave.

"Kain!" Ember stood. Kain whirled around like had had been pulled by a rope. Dante winced. He knew that Kain wasn't very fond of Ember, with the attempted fistfight and all that, but they couldn't avoid each other forever.

"Yeah?" he asked, trepidation clear in his voice.

"Thank you for looking after my brother. He needed a friend, and you seem to have stepped up to the task."

"I didn't do it for you," Kain snapped. Dante winced. "Shit. I… didn't mean it like that. I just… I wanted to help him figure things out. For everyone's sakes. I swear, the weeks when he was still a Talon supporter were terrifying, but he was too small and pathetic to hate."

"Hey!"

"Dante, I had to practically carry you when you first started walking. You were small and pathetic," Kain said. "But… while we're apparently trying to be on good terms… I'm…" Dante pursed his lips and looked away, trying to hide the smile on his lips. He was starting to understand why Kain had asked Dante to apologize for him. "I'm…"

"Take your time, Kain," Dante choked out. Kain growled.

"I'm sorry. For trying to fight your… friend. There. Take the dish down when you're done, or get Ember to do it for you." Kain turned around and rushed out the door, leaving the both of them alone, staring into the hallway.

"He's a good friend, I promise," Dante said. Ember raised an eyebrow. "He is."

"If you say so," she replied airily, ruffling his hair. Dante groaned and ran his fingers through it in a vague attempt to flatten it back out. If he was going to have to play the part of a perfect Chameleon to get into Talon, he was going to need a haircut. And his suit back.

"Dante—"

"This is actually going to happen, isn't it?" Dante interrupted. "I never thought I'd have to do anything like this. And… going back into Talon, after everything that's happened. It's only been a month, but still." Dante rubbed his shoulder again. Of course, the mission wasn't set in stone, and there was no way he'd be up for walking for than a few steps for the next twenty-four hours or more, but it sounded like he was going to have to be there. He was going to openly betray the organization that raised him.

No. It's the organization that tried to kill my sister, and the organization that trained me to kill without a second thought. This is my chance to make up for that.

"Why did you have to volunteer yourself?" Ember whispered. "I could've gone, Dante."

"No," Dante shook his head. "The Elder Wyrm would… she would kill you, and use your body like it belonged to her, and… I can't let that happen. I'm the one who's supposed to protect you. If I get caught, at least my death will be a clean one." He swallowed. "And I'm not going to get caught. I may have no skill with infiltration, but I'm a chronic liar with an ID card. Foolproof plan, right?"

Ember groaned and wrapped him in a tight hug. Dante stiffened, mouth twisting into a silent snarl from the pain that richoched up his back. His shoulders were stiff and cramped as he moved them to return the embrace.

He had missed this.

"Just take care of yourself, tweedledum," Ember whispered.

Dante closed his eyes.

"Always will."


A/N: Yes, Dante still has to suffer the consequences of his actions. His back was all but broken (sorry, Dante), and therefore he can't be up all day without needing recovery time.

But I'm now at ~9,000 words without injuring anyone! Go me! I can TOTALLY write... uh... happy. Yeah. I can do that.

Anyway, please review, even if it's just smashing the keyboard. Please.