A/N: I'm here, I'm happy with this chapter, and I'm ready for y'all to read it.


Chapter 8

"God, I forgot how paranoid St. George was," Wesley groaned from his desk. "How many cell towers do they have to bounce things off of? I know perfectly well that they're not in Arkansas, so they can stop trying to fool me."

Cobalt raised an eyebrow and looked up from braiding Madison's hair. "You can still do it, right?"

"Yeah, I've done it before, it's just… so time consuming. Near-impossible to get a proper triangulation, if I weren't me," Wesley said. He scrubbed a hand over his face and glared at his laptop.

"And how's our other thing going?" Cobalt asked. He gave a tug on Madison's braid and let her stand up. She scampered over to Wesley and climbed onto his lap, ignoring his protests and a startled shriek when she jostled the bulletwound. Cobalt snickered.

"Well, I'm going through the list. There's definitely Talon activity in…" he looked down at Madison, who was watching his computer with rapt attention. "The city in Mississippi, so they're probably preparing to move in soon. But I'm not sure if we should go there. We'll want to get as far away from this area as possible after we drop this one off."

"Don't worry, I won't tell them anything," Madison said, eyes wide and genuine. "How are you doing the— the radio thingy?"

"The radio thingy?"

"Yeah. You said that you were finding the chapterhouse using their radios. How do you do that?" Madison asked. Wesley looked back at Cobalt helplessly, which only made Cobalt snicker harder. "And what's the list? Is it something that the Order can't know about? Why is Talon in Mississippi?"

"Help," Wesley whispered desperately.

"Don't look at me, Wesley. You're the human, you can socialize better with them than I can."

"Oh! If you don't drop me off until after you do the thing in Mississippi, can I know about it?"

Cobalt sputtered. Madison turned away from the computer and looked over Wesley' shoulder at him with wide eyes, sparkling and hopeful. Cobalt looked away.

"Don't you want to go home, hatchling? Your sister and parents are going to be worried about you, and it's risky to stay with us."

"Yeah, but I don't want to leave, yet," she whined. She shifted in Wesley' lap, which made the human groan and bite down on his index finger. Cobalt cringed. She was probably putting direct pressure on the bulletwound. "You're really nice, and you explain things really well, and when I go back, they won't listen to me when I tell them that dragons are good."

"Hey, hey, hey," Cobalt interrupted. He stood and picked Madison up off of Wesley, who gave a quiet, relieved thank you. He set her down on the ground and crouched down to meet her eye. "You cannot tell them that dragons are good. Understand, hatchling?"

"Why not?"

"Because…" God, how do I explain this? "Look. They're not going to believe you, no matter what you say. It sucks, but it's the truth. And if you press the matter, they're going to think that we corrupted you. They could hurt you, or your family."

"They would not."

"They'd kill Wesley, wouldn't they?" Cobalt asked. Wesley made a vague noise of pained disapproval, probably for being dragged into the conversation without permission. "We went over this a few nights ago, remember? Because Wes works with dragons, they think that he's… tarnished."

"What does tarnish—"

"Unholy," Wes supplied.

"Yes. They think that Wes is unholy, because he works with dragons, and he likes them, so he needs to die. If they know that you like dragons, or even that you think that some of them aren't evil, they're also going to think that you're unholy. I doubt that they'd kill you, because you're six, but it would make your life hard, Madison. The best thing to do would be to tell the Order you were kidnapped and leave it at that. Let them decide their own conclusions."

"That would be lying."

Cobalt sighed. "Sometimes, you have to lie to keep yourself safe. It's one of the ugly truths of life. I'm sure that the gods won't fault you."

Madison pouted. "Can I at least see what you're doing in Mississippi?"

Cobalt groaned. There was no getting out of this conversation in tact. He didn't want anyone in the Order to know about the possibility of a rogue underground, even if that someone was a six-year-old who no one would trust, anyway. But… he really didn't want her to go back to the Order. He had just told her that she couldn't tell the Order about dragons, and he knew that she couldn't, because it wouldn't change anything, but that didn't mean that he didn't want her to know, just for herself, that dragons weren't the evil monsters that she thought they were.

She isn't mine. She doesn't belong in this life. I can't forget that.

"Sorry, hatchling. It'll have to be a mystery."

"I'm sure that my sister would agree with me, if you talked to her."

"I'm not talking to anyone in the Order," Cobalt said firmly. Madison sighed. For a moment, Cobalt considered sighing back louder, but then he'd only prove that he was just a childish as a six-year-old.

Well, technically juvenile dragons are considered children and still have to report to their trainers unless they're special, so I still hold the right to do it.

Cobalt squashed the thought down. He may be a child in dragon terms, but he was an adult by human standards, and he was the only adult in the room, other than the teenager who could still be mistaken for a goddamn hatchling.

"Look. I know that they're your family, and you want to trust them. And you should trust them. But I'm still a dragon, and they wouldn't like me."

"Yeah, but you're not part of Talon. If you explained it like you explained it to me, then they'd realize that only Talon is bad."

Cobalt gave a soft groan. "I find that talking to soldiers doesn't go well. They tend to enjoy shooting things more than actual conversation." He gave her a pointed look. "Aren't you supposed to be getting your teeth brushed? It's your bedtime."

"Wes is allowed to stay up late."

"Wesley Higgins is eighteen. He's allowed to set his own bedtime."

"Wesley Higgins doesn't want to be part of this conversation," Wesley muttered.

"Wesley Higgins needs to drink some water if you expect to ever recover from blood loss. Humans heal so slowly compared to dragons. Holy hell," Cobalt said. He narrowed his eyes slightly. "How aren't you thirsty? When I get shot, all that I can think about is water for the next few days."

"I have a job to do. The sooner I find this Chapterhouse, the sooner that Madison can go back to her family. That's what we all want, right?"

Cobalt felt something in his face twitch at the words, and the hole in his chest extend its reach.

"I wanna know what else you guys are looking for in Mississippi," Madison said.

"Maddie, please brush your teeth. We're getting up early tomorrow to move out. I've already had to kill one Viper, and I'd rather not repeat that experience."

"Fiiiine," Madison said, dragging her feet towards the bathroom. Cobalt breathed a sigh of relief and went to the vanity to fill up a cup of water. He missed certain things about Talon. Having enough money to buy decent food. Actual, secure safe houses that he could crash in. Being able to buy water in a gallon instead of drinking from the tap. He set it down beside Wesley, who didn't even look up from the task at hand.

"Kid. The reason you feel cranky and lethargic is because your body needs to replace the blood that you lost."

"I'm sorry to inform you of this, mate, but this is my default personality."

"I need you functioning and able to run, if necessary. Drink the water," Cobalt said. Wesley paused, downed the entire cup, and turned back to his program.

Well, at least I know he's focused.

Madison came out of the bathroom after a few minutes. Cobalt flicked off the main light and turned on the desk lamp. For a few moments, the only sounds in the room came from Wes' laptop and the faulty air conditioning.

"Leandro?"

"Go to sleep, hatchling."

"Yeah, yeah, I know…" she sat up.

Cobalt sighed softly and sat down beside her. He might be returning her to the Order, but he couldn't leave her at the foot of a genocidal organization right after she had realized that dragons weren't all evil. He had to at least give her an explanation for everything.

"I wish I could change things," she whispered.

"Yeah, so do I," Cobalt replied. "Look, Maddie. The world isn't fair. It's not fair for humans or dragons or… whatever else is out there. And some things are too big to change by yourself. Trust me. I don't want you to get hurt when you go back to the Order, so I'm begging you not to tell them that dragons are good." He took a breath. "But, when you get older, if you still believe what you believe now, then you can decide for yourself what you want to do. If you want to stay in the Order and try to change it from the inside, or if you want to leave, or if you find some place in between. But try to wait. Okay?"

Madison nodded solemnly.

"And I can't tell you what we're doing after you go back home, but I can say this. I want to get as many dragons out of Talon as possible, so they won't have to grow up in the organization. They'll be like me." Just hopefully nicer.

Madison sniffed and wiped her eyes. "'M gonna miss you."

"Yeah. I'll miss you, too, hatchling. But let's not get all teary, now," Cobalt said softly. "This isn't a goodbye, yet. Now go get some sleep."

Madison nodded, and Cobalt stood up. Within five minutes, he could hear her soft snoring. Cobalt began to go through his weaponry, sharpening his knife out of habit before stripping down the gun. He needed to get more ammunition. And more food. Feeding himself was hard enough, let alone a six-year-old and an eighteen-year-old. If they picked up another hatchling, it would be even harder. Thank God Wesley had made good on his promise of moving Cobalt's money offshore.

They were going to need real safehouses, as well. He might be able to survive by going from one motel to another, but a hatchling didn't have years of training and even more years of fieldwork for them to survive.

Maybe they should skip the hatchling in Mississippi. It might be smarter to take their time and make sure that they could keep themselves and the hatchling safe. And also make sure his partner could walk.

Speaking of which.

"You changed your bandages, right?" Cobalt asked.

"Yeah," Wesley muttered. "Around noon."

"Good," Cobalt began to reassemble the gun, making sure that every piece slid into place smoothly. He didn't want anything to jam in a high-stakes situation. "Do you know how to use a weapon, Wesley?"

Wesley gave him a strange look. "I feel that Talon wouldn't want their prisoners to know how to shoot a gun. It might give us the wrong idea."

Cobalt smirked. "Smartass."

Wesley grinned toothily, eyes sparking with an energy that was beginning to grow familiar. Then something dinged on his computer, and he snapped back to it, hunching further over the keys as his brow furrowed with concentration. Cobalt leaned over to see what he was doing, but Wesley slapped his hand the moment it made contact with his shoulder. There was a flinch right afterward and a muttered 'sorry', but Wesley seemed too focused on his task to register that he had just slapped a dragon.

It's a good thing you're out of Talon, kid. I doubt you would have made it far before someone decided that you had too much of a personality for their needs. It's a miracle that you lived for this long, or got so high in the ranks.

"I have coordinates," he announced after three tense minutes. Cobalt drew in a sharp breath. "I know exactly where the Eastern Chapterhouse is."

"That's…" Cobalt didn't know what to say. It had taken weeks to get as close as they were, and this human who was still hatchling had figured out where the Eastern Chapterhouse was in seventy-two hours.

And now, he was going to take Madison back home.

That was a good thing.

"That's great," he said. "You're good at what you do."

"I'm well aware," Wesley replied. "So what's our plan to get her to the Chapterhouse without being shot?"

Cobalt sighed, looking at the satellite map Wesley had pulled up. The Chapterhouse was on top of a grassy plateau. There was a treeline about a mile away from it, but no cover beyond that. He couldn't drop her off at the gates without getting his head blown off and made into a trophy.

"You're not going anywhere near it," Cobalt said. "You can't exactly run if things go south."

"That's not my fault."

"I'm aware, and I'm sorry. God, you're never going to let me live that down, are you?" Cobalt groaned. "Anyway. You drive maybe five miles from the gates. I'll take her to the edge of the woods and send up a flare. By the time they find her, we'll be gone." There was a slight silence between them. "You can drive, right?"

"Yes, I can drive. Stick shift and automatic."

"Wonderful," Cobalt nodded. "We probably shouldn't try to find the hatchling in Mississippi. We'll have St. George and Talon on our backs, and… I just really hate the southeast. Air made of hot soup."

"Did you live in the Yucatan rainforest?"

"How do you…"

"You had a file in Talon. I stole that file."

"Right. Well, Wesley Higgins, I will complain about the Yucatan, and I will complain about the southeast United States. At least the Yucatan Peninsula has tree coverage. Anyway. We can set up a few safe houses and then try to get a network operational. We might have to travel with the hatchlings for a while."

"I can deal with that," Wesley shrugged. "Do you think that you can put up with multiple teenagers in close quarters?"

"You're a teenager. You can deal with them."

"Excuse me?" Wesley asked, incredulous. Cobalt smirked. "You're the dragon. And you can put up with Madison well enough. Trust me, you'll be much better with them than I ever could be. I can barely stand humans, these days."

Cobalt snorted and watched as Wesley continued to work into the night. His eyes kept flitting back to Madison, dead to the world around her. She belonged with the Order. She was raised with stability and routine, with rigidity and formalities, that Cobalt couldn't ever provide. She was raised to be a soldier. She didn't belong with him.

So why did the thought of dropping her off at the Eastern Chapterhouse feel like betraying her?

The Order was her home. They weren't going to hurt her for being kidnapped, even if she started spouting things about how dragons weren't evil. They'd probably call it stockholm syndrome. It probably was stockholm syndrome. But it still hurt to think of her alone in the Order, with no one to defend her opinion except for herself.

Cobalt shook his head. Things were so much more simple when the Order was nothing but genocidal, religious nutcases.

"I'll be in the shower," Cobalt muttered, grabbing his duffel bag. He needed to think, and not be around humans for a few minutes. Everything was so simple when he was in Talon. He didn't need to have ethics or morals. He didn't have to choose between saving a six-year-old and letting one of his friends live. He didn't have to run from Vipers in the first place. He was going to have a future, a life.

Cobalt sighed as he stepped into the burning stream of water. He was going to have a very short life. It would take a miracle to get him past thirty.

All of them were going to have short lifespans, even by human standards. He and Wes were both rogues, wanted by both organizations, and he doubted that anyone in the Order had a long life expectancy. Cobalt hadn't expected to ever live as long as a wyrm— he was a basilisk, and basilisks knew that they'd live fast and die faster— but he had hoped to break one hundred years and become an official adult.

First thing's first. We're going to get Madison to the eastern Chapterhouse whether you want to or not, and whether she wants to or not. That's all that we need to worry about right now. Cobalt reminded himself firmly as he tried to get the dirt out of his hair. He hadn't taken a shower in three days, and it was obvious. It took a fair thirty minutes before he could count himself as clean and dressed in new clothes. He considered collecting the dirty clothes and finding a laundry building, but he didn't want to leave Wesley and Madison alone. Wesley was obviously good at what he did, but he couldn't use a gun, and he didn't have survival instincts quite yet. Nothing that he couldn't fix eventually, but nothing he could fix at the current moment.

Cobalt checked the time over Wesley's shoulder— it was creeping up on 10:30, and they didn't have anything else to do. The security was hooked up to both his phone and Wesley's computer, and Wesley had told him that the hotel room that they had rented was marked as unoccupied on everything except the paper file that the managers kept.

He sighed and dragged a hand through his still-drying hair. His quality of sleep had taken a nosedive ever since he left Talon, obviously, but it was worse now that Wesley and Madison were taking the beds. He had been sleeping upright, against the wall, his gun and a knife beside him. And he was tired.

"Hey, kid," Cobalt tapped Wesley's shoulder. "Could we share the bed for tonight? I want to get some real sleep before I go poke St. George with a stick tomorrow."

"Hmm? Oh, sure. Whatever. I'm not tired, anyways." Wesley didn't turn away from the computer. Normally, Riley would let it go— this wasn't Madison. This was an adult, who had probably worked worse hours while in Talon. He had heard of certain elite hackers who would spend days awake to crack an encryption.

But he really needed the human functioning. And the human was injured. Cobalt knew what happened someone didn't properly rest when injured— everything from his leg cramping too badly to move it to sepsis. Cobalt couldn't cure sepsis.

"Don't make me set a bedtime for you, Wesley," Cobalt warned softly. Wesley snorted. "Don't give me that. I'm the one who shot you. I know what you need for recovery. If your immune system is compromised, it will get infected, and I don't want to deal with that. I'm not a medic."

Wesley groaned, sounding incredibly childish for a moment. Cobalt decided not to point it out for diplomacy's sake.

"Let me finish this," he said. "I'll be done in less than an hour."

"Fine. Wake me if you find anything pressing. And take a shower."

Cobalt collapsed into the bed and checked his phone again, just to make sure that it was on. Sleep didn't come for a while, with the still-unfamiliar sounds of a whirring computer and the faulty air conditioning, and the much more familiar snoring in the other bed.

He'd never realized how easy it was to get used to having people to care about. Talon claimed that dragons were naturally solitary creatures, and only united due to the threat of humanity, but now, Cobalt wasn't so sure. He would miss Madison. He hadn't ever actively missed anyone before, but he'd miss his loud and inconvenient hatchling who didn't even know his real name.

But she was never mine to miss.

It's time for her to go.


A/N: Honestly, the hardest part about editing this thing is making sure that Cobalt and Wes refer to each other as Leandro and Wesley. The long suffering of writing the formal relationship of two people who casually live together in the series.

I'm going to have a weird schedule this week (with work and stuff), so don't except an update until Monday at the earliest. I'm doing my best. Thanks for understanding.