So I had originally planned to upload this on friday, but I completely forgot about it XD Maybe it was because I wasn't super confident about this chapter... or maybe it was because I got into a huge Samurai Warriors 4 marathon with my cousin over the weekend where we were getting rare weapons for the characters we like. Probably one of those things...


Their last encounter with Dragen hadn't resonated with Drago well. It had been nearly a week since their fight in the volcano in Hawaii and Drago had been completely unfocused since. He wasn't even paying attention in school during class!

"You changed yourself to please the old man and now you've turned yourself into a goody two shoes to please your girl... Unlike you, I've never felt the need to change myself to please the people around me. I don't need them to validate my identity," Dragen had said. At first Drago just brushed it off as taunts, something Dragen was saying to throw him off his game and gain the upperhand, but the more Drago thought about those words, the more troubled he began to feel. Was it true? Did he really have the habit of changing himself to please those around him? He knew it was certainly the case with Shen Du when he was a kid, but he didn't have much choice. He was a kid desperate for love and attention from the only parent he had left and behaving the way Shen Du wanted was the only way to get it. Sure, now Drago regretted such actions, but he was only a child then. He didn't know any better.

Could it be possible that he repeated that with Mala without even knowing it? He didn't want to believe he did, but the more he thought about it, the more he couldn't deny the evidence. When he lost to his father and the Chans over a year ago, he felt remorseful and desperate to get the one thing he cared about back. And after Lang Yan gave him his chance, he wasn't willing to mess it up. So when he finally found Mala again, he did whatever it took to earn her forgiveness. He even put up with her human friends! When he first met them, he had to fight the urge to throw some insult in their faces, but he knew if he did, Mala would only think worse of him and she would never forgive him. So, he bit his tongue and put up with their presence for Mala's sake. Even acting 'nice' and playing the hero felt so strange to him. It went against everything he knew and learned from Shen Du, but still he persisted, just so she would forgive him. And somewhere down the line, he found that he didn't mind being the good guy as much as he thought. Fighting the bad guys and doing good filled him with an odd sense of fulfillment. He even started liking Tim and Mavis! Before he knew it, he had just become accustomed to being a good person and Mala eventually did forgive him.

But at what point did he completely compromise his entire being for the approval of another? Dragen was right! Even if he was happy now with Mala and his new friends, the idea that he could just so easily give in to what others wanted of him without even realizing it alarmed him greatly. All his life it was either Shen Du or Mala. At some point in his life so far, anything he was trying to do or accomplish was always slated around making one of the two of them proud or happy with his accomplishments. When he tried gathering the Demon Chi, sure he said it was for him, but he said a lot of dishonest things then. Drago had come to realize just how dishonest he had been to himself and simply convinced himself that becoming all powerful was for him, when in reality, he just wanted to make his father proud of him. And now the only reason he's a hero is because he wanted to make Mala proud and earn her forgiveness. When had he ever done anything for himself? When was the last time he wanted to do something that didn't hinge on the approval of someone else?

It only further distressed Drago when he couldn't name a single instance.

It was just like Dragen had said. Drago's entire identity revolved around Shen Du and Mala. They validated his identity. His entire being hinged on them. Who was he without them?

All of a sudden, Drago jumped out of his seat as Mavis blew an airhorn right next to his ear. "Ahhh! Son of a bitch! What the hell?" he cried, rubbing his ears.

"Well, you left us no choice. The bell rang half an hour ago and you were completely spaced out," Mavis replied.

"And before you ask, yes we tried poking and shaking you as well," Liam added.

"Where did you even get that?" Drago cried, standing up.

"You know how in movies and TV, there's that one guy in prison who can get other inmates things? I'm like that!" Mavis replied proudly.

"Well, next time don't-" Before Drago could continue his sentence, his eyes suddenly went and unfocused.

"Uh, what's happening?" Mavis asked.

"He's in a trance!" Mala answered. Drago stood in place with eyes wide for a few seconds before he suddenly hunched over, breathing heavily. Mala quickly rushed to his side and helped him back up. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," he assured her, "These visions just wear me out sometimes."

"What did you see?" Remy asked.

"It was… a big rock," he answered.

"A big rock?" Liam asked.

"That really narrows it down!" Mavis exclaimed.

"Well it was a big, flat rock that was kinda red," Drago elaborated.

"Hm, that sounds like it could be Ayer's Rock in Australia," Tim said. "It's the only big, flat red rock I can think of, at least."

"Well, let's grab Ren and not waste any time," Mala declared.

When they met up with Ren, they didn't waste any time in using Arran's amulet to travel to Australia. When they emerged from the portal, Mavis quickly marveled at the warmer climate. "Man, why is it so warm? I thought we were supposed to be in fall!"

"It's Australia, Mavis. All the seasons are reversed," Tim explained.

"Oh, right. What a backwards ass country…" she muttered.

"Yeah, that's the place," Drago pointed to Ayer's Rock in the distance. "That's what I saw in my vision." They quickly made their way to the top of Ayer's Rock, where they saw Dragen standing there, just… waiting for them.

"Well it's about time!" he exclaimed. "Do you know how long I've been standing here waiting?"

"You mean to tell me you actually waited for us?" Ren cried, drawing her sword and readying herself for battle.

"Of course! I got here hours ago and it's boring if I just take the key and leave before you guys show up! And since you all went to such trouble to get here, I'd hate for it to be for nothing," Dragen boasted. "So, who's first?" he asked, cracking his knuckles.

Ren was about to step forward, but Drago beat her to the punch, eagerly stepping forward to oppose his brother. "I am," he spoke.

"Sorry, Red. As much as I'd like to have another dance with you, I gotta give this to my baby brother. We'll dance another time, I promise," he teased, drawing his sword. "Oh, but don't worry, that doesn't mean I'm leaving the rest of you with nothing to do. Dad doesn't want to come by himself just yet, but he did send some friends with me." As Dragen spoke, a spatial rift suddenly opened behind him, and three large serpentine dragon demons emerged from it before the rift closed up. "Sure they're just small fries, but it's just a taste of what's to come once the old geezer is free." The dragons rushed forth, two taking to the skies followed by Linos and Mala while the third hovered over the remaining humans.

"You ever fight anything that big?" Ren asked.

"I was just about to ask you that seeing as you're the one always taking on bigger opponents," Remy remarked. "But to answer your question, no. I have taken on stronger demons though."

"Like what?"

"A few Sorcerer class, one Commander class. That's how I got this: Starshatter!" At Remy's calling, the sword appeared in his hands.

"Hmph, impressive," she complimented.

"Just wait til you see what it can do!" Remy boasted.

As the rest of the group engaged the three dragons, Drago just barely managed to dodge the swing of Dragen's sword. He lost his footing as he stepped back to dodge and fell to the ground. Dragen jumped high into the air and prepared to stab his saber into Drago on the ground, but he managed to roll away at the last second and spring back onto his feet. Drago quickly threw two fireballs towards Dragen, who effortlessly dispersed them with his own blue flames. Dragen then dropped his sword and got onto all fours, shifting into a large lion and running up to Drago. Dragen pounced on his brother and pinned him to the ground by his shoulders.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" taunted Dragen. Drago tried to push the large cat that was his brother off him, but the beast was a lot heavier than he looked. "So what's it going to be, squirt? Live your life the way other people want or are you going to start thinking for yourself?"

"I-"

"The old man went on and on about the fire in your belly! Frankly, I don't see it!"

"What are you talking about?" Drago shouted.

"He says I have no drive, no fire! He says you know how to think for yourself and fight for what you want! He says I could learn that from you!"

"Huh?" Drago looked up at his brother, confused.

"But what does he know? He's an old lizard past his prime trying to regain his old glory. And he thinks I can learn independence from you? Ha! You don't even know who you are without people to tell you who you are. But me? I know exactly who I am!"

So caught up in his speech, Dragen didn't even notice the large pink creature dash up to him and punching him right in the side, knocking him off Drago. Just as the younger dragon stood up, he realized it was Pearl who intervened as the rabbit construct took a battle ready position next to him.

"A construct?" Dragen gasped. "And it moves on it's own?"

"For someone who can animate inanimate objects, you sound pretty impressed!" Drago cried.

"Generating living constructs is far different than motion to the motionless. That's some girl you bagged," he grinned.

"Don't talk about Mala like that!" Drago growled under her breath.

"I think it's sweet that she's so concerned for you. Even when she's fighting something else, she sends her peons help you. Though I wonder, is it concern, or lack of faith?"

"Stop talking!" he shouted, charging forward to Dragen, who easily side stepped away.

"Maybe she doesn't think you can handle yourself in battle. She knows you're not as strong as she is. That's why she's sending her construct to help you, because she knows you can't do this on your own!"

Drago narrowed his eyes and growled angrily under his breath before turning to Pearl. "I don't need your help! I can handle this on my own!" he insisted proudly. He rushed up to Dragen, who made no effort to dodge or counter, and brought his hand up to punch Dragen in the face. However, Dragen easily caught Drago's fist as well as the other when the younger dragon tried to strike with his other hand.

"It must be nice to have people always looking out for you! But I wonder, is it concern, or caution? Maybe they're not sure you can handle yourself in a fight. Maybe they're all just waiting for the day that you go back to being a bad guy," Dragen suggested, grinning widely at seeing his words anger his younger brother.

"They don't think that!" Drago shouted.

"How would you know? There's always two sides to every person: what they're really thinking and the front they put on to hide their real selves. Deep down, I bet they're really wondering just how long you're going to be able to stick to this hero business before you go back to what you know best. So, how long is it going to be, little brother? How long before you break?"

"Grr…" Drago growled. He had had enough of his brother talking down to him like he knew any better. Drago mustered up all the rage and power that he could and pushed his brother off him while pulling his hands free from Dragen's. "I won't!" he shouted, unleashing a stream of fire from his mouth. Instead of brushing the flames aside, Dragen shapeshifted into a mole and dove into the ground. "Huh?" Drago gasped in confusion. He walked up to the hole in the ground and bent over to look into it. Before he knew it, Dragen re-emerged from the ground in his true form and delivered a swift punch right under Drago's jaw, knocking him into the air. When he landed, he landed roughly on his back as his jaw ached. Before Drago could recover and pull himself up, Dragen landed roughly on top of him with his right foot clamped over Drago's left wrist and his left hand holding Drago's other wrist in place. Drago tried to whip his tail up at Dragen, but it was easily subdued with Dragen's own tail. In Dragen's free hand, Drago spotted a two pronged key, with each prong in the shape of a curved cleaver while one was smaller than the other and horns sprouting from the hilt.

"You might as well save us all the trouble, squirt. No matter how much you compromise your identity to please them, your so-called friends and your girl know exactly what you really are. They're just waiting for you to realize it too. A dragon doesn't change its scales," he whispered. "As I understand, we're two for two, but this will put me in the lead," he grinned, showing of the Earth Key. "Next time, squirt!" With that, Dragen jumped into the air and shapeshifted into a bird, carrying the key away. The Strikers tried to pursue, but the lesser dragon demons Dragen had summoned before kept them from going any further. Eventually, once Dragen was out of sight, they disappeared back into a rift.

Back at the boys' apartment, Ren paced back and forth, her eyes closed in a mix of anger and disappointment at facing yet another loss.

"Relax, we're just past the halfway point! We're due for a win soon!" Mavis said casually.

"You act as if the result have already been determined!" Ren scolded. "As if fate is just going to hand us the next key!"

"Look, there's no point in getting upset. Yes, we lost today, but we're still in this fight. We still have the Mountain and Water Keys and Shen Du and Dragen can't release Mo Wang without all of them," Liam explained. "Anything could happen with the next three. And even if Dragen manages to get the last three keys, that just means we have to protect the two keys we have."

"While your point is valid, it does not mean we should simply stand by and let Dragen take the remaining keys. It's no excuse to start slacking off!"

"And we won't. We'll stop Shen Du and Dragen from releasing Mo Wang and this whole nightmare will be over before we know it," Liam said with a confident smile.

"Forgive me if your confidence is not inspiring enough," Ren muttered. "What I do want to know, however, is what happened with you!" she declared, walking over to Drago.

"With me?" he asked, confused.

"Yes. You had the assistance of Mala's rabbit construct. Yet you still insisted on facing Dragen alone and he got away with the Earth Key."

"What are you implying?" Drago asked, standing up as he towered over her. But the expression on her face said she wasn't intimidated and wouldn't back down.

"Were you just too proud to accept help or were you allowing him to escape?" she asked.

"What?" he shouted.

"Ren, you can't honestly think that Drago would-" Remy started, but his cousin cut him off.

"Why not? However unlikely to the rest of you, the possibility of Drago being in league with Dragen is still likely. They are brothers after all."

"I didn't know he existed until I met him at the museum!" Drago shouted.

"Perhaps, but even so, it is very easy for anyone to fall back into old habits."

"Excuse me?"

"Ren!" Remy scolded, but she ignored him and kept talking to Drago.

"I know all about what happened to San Francisco last year," she said, narrowing her eyes at him as Drago took a step back and cast his eyes to the ground, clearly feeling ashamed.

"That's not fair, Ren. You weren't there when-" Mala started.

"Actually, I was there," she corrected. "You see, I was passing through the city on my way to another job when I picked up some demonic energies, which I know as the two of you. I was about to investigate when demons started pouring out of nowhere and attacking the city. I fought off as many of them as I could, but before I could find the source, all the demons were sucked back into whatever rift they came from. I tried tracking you two down when it was all over, but the my dowsing was too thrown off by the residual energy of the lesser demons. And when I arrived here, I recognized both of your signatures right away. They were slightly different from in San Francisco, less… hostile and certainly more calm. So when I found you both in the company of my cousin, I knew there was only one explanation: you weren't 'bad' demons and your blue auras confirmed it," she said with air quotes. "I suppose the possibility of Remy simply not knowing you both were really demons was likely as well, but I trained him better than that."

"Well then if his aura is blue, there's nothing to worry about, right?" Mavis asked.

"Not quite. It's possible for a demon to produce a fake aura."

"What are you implying?" Drago asked, growing frustrated with her.

"What I'm implying is that people can change in a heartbeat. If it was that easy for you to turn over a new leaf, then perhaps-" Ren stopped her sentence when she noticed Drago's hands aflame.

"Perhaps what?" he asked, knowing what she was going to say but angrily insisting that she finish her words.

"You already seem to know where I'm going with this," she replied.

"Yeah, I do. I went through a lot to get where I am today and I don't appreciate you criticizing me when you don't know anything about what I've been through. Don't pretend for a second that you know me!" Drago shouted, before marching out the door and slamming it shut behind him.

They didn't see Drago for nearly two days after that. Once again, Remy scolded Ren for being so insensitive, but she simply replied that she was being honest and stating her opinion. She argued that while she didn't completely believe Drago was a double agent, she had to consider the possibility. And since she didn't know him like the rest of them, she was the only one who could consider such a thing. "As admirable as your faith in him is, it's exactly that and your friendship that compromises your ability to be objective! I don't know him like the rest of you do. In fact, I don't know anything about him. But it's precisely that perspective that allows me to consider all the possibilities."

"Ren, you can't just go around accusing people of being double agents!" Remy scolded. "You have to think before you speak!"

"Heh, I used to say that to you."

"Yeah, and now I'm saying it to you! Look, I can deal with 'cold, loner Renita' but I will not have you talking to my friends like this!" Ren said nothing, maintaining a silent vigil as Remy continued. "I know where this anger of yours is coming from Ren. Do yourself a favor and get some closure." Ren said nothing as she quietly left the apartment, slamming the door shut angrily as she departed, just as Drago did before her.

"Um, what was that about?" Tim asked.

"You gonna give us the TLDR version or what?" Mavis asked.

"Sorry guys, it's not my story to tell," Remy replied. "Just don't take anything she says personally. Ren has this bad habit of projecting."


On the night of the third day since they last saw Drago, Mala was making her way over to the boys' apartment to check if he had come back. She would have called him, but he had been ignoring all of their calls. She knew this was normal behavior for him. Despite the tough guy front he put up, Drago was actually pretty sensitive and once he starts feeling vulnerable, he'd completely shut down and isolate himself… even from her. When Liam and Remy confirmed that Drago hadn't come home, she decided to wait outside - all night if she had to - for him. After a few hours, she was about to give up and head home herself. She stood up and started walking down the block, but stopped when she saw Drago standing at the corner ahead.

"Drago!" she cried, running up to him with a smile on her face. "Where have you been? I've been worried sick!" she scolded him lightly.

"...I'm sorry I worried you," he replied coldly, not meeting her eyes.

"It's ok," she smiled. "I'm just glad you're ok…" Just as she said that, she quickly added, "What's wrong?" noticing something was off. "Why won't you look at me?"

"That's just the thing, Mala, I'm not ok," he admitted.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I've been doing something thinking and… and I've made a decision."

"What did you decide?" she asked hesitantly.

"I'm leaving," he answered bluntly, figuring it was best to rip the bandaid off in one go rather than pull it off slowly.

"Wh-what? I don't understand… Are you breaking up with me?" she asked.

"No, no!" he cried, quickly putting a stop to that line of thinking. "I just… I just need some time away from everyone and everything that's been happening. I need time to think," he said, struggling to explain himself thoroughly.

"If this is about what Ren said, you know none of us think that of you, right?"

"It's not just what Ren said. I… I've been feeling like this for a while now and it's all just becoming too much for me! I-I don't know how to explain it!" he cried.

"So then you're running away?"

"That's not it!"

"That's exactly it! What is making this 'too much' for you? Talk to me!"

"You just wouldn't understand, Mala," he said, turning away.

"Then help me understand, help us understand! We're all here for you, Drago," she pleaded, gently placing her hand on his shoulder to turn him back to face her, but Drago kept his back to her.

Drago sighed, "It wasn't supposed to happen like this. I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"What do you mean?" Drago turned around and held out an envelope to her. "What is this?" she asked, not yet taking the envelope.

"Just take it. It'll explain everything," he whispered.

Mala stared at the letter as Drago took her hand in his and placed the letter in her hand for her. "Wait… so, you were just going to leave without so much as a word to me?" she asked. Her voice was filled with hurt, but more importantly, anger.

"You know that I'm not good with words, Mala. Please, it's just easier this way," he begged.

"Am I not worth giving a proper goodbye to?"

"Of course not!" he cried. "It's just… everything that's been happening lately has been making me think and I'm more confused than I ever was before."

"Then let me help you!" she pleaded, on the verge of tears.

"I can't, Mala. This is something I have to do on my own," Drago said, turning away from her. He stopped, however, when he felt her hand grip the sleeve of his jacket. "Mala…"

"When will you be back…" she muttered, almost emotionlessly.

"I don't know."

"Will you be back?" she asked next. They stood there in silence for what seemed like an eternity before Mala finally realized that Drago hadn't answered her question. Did he just not have an answer? Or was he sparing her feelings from the truth that he didn't know when he would be back, or worse, that he wasn't coming back at all? Drago's sleeve slipped from her fingers as she silently and numbly accepted the answer and Drago, now free from her grasp, walked away from her and disappeared into the night.


I guess I can't call it a "shocking decision" when it was really obvious what Drago was gonna do. I feel like it may have been kinda sudden to just have Drago leave, but I think it would make sense that that would be what he'd do. People like Mala would probably stay and talk it out with friends, but Drago isn't as... emotionally stable and satisfied with self as she is. Despite how far he's come, Drago's not as... well as he claims/thinks he is. Does that make sense?