Glorious Politics

AN: This is where things get real! Hope everyone enjoys this because I had a blast with this one. Just get ready for a few surprises, both good and bad.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire. My OCs Horus, Diamondback, Mistral, Sobek, and Levante belong to me. The as-of-yet-named Nightwing belongs to Flerovium.

Chapter Twenty-One:

She woke to the sound of her cell being unlocked. The surprise at being able to fall asleep in the first place was quickly thrown aside as caution and anxiety took its place as several dragons she didn't know entered her cell with additional chains. "What are you-!?"

Her question was cut off when one of the dragons, a Mudwing, hit her hard enough to send her crashing against the solid rock wall. "Speak out of turn again, and I'll rip out your tongue!" he snarled at her. She spit out one of her teeth with a wince.

Needless to say, she didn't speak out of turn again. With this group, she highly doubted they were bluffing, and she didn't feel like losing her tongue. That didn't mean she would lay down and let them attach the new chains to her without a fight. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Sobek spoke, coming to stand in the front of the group outside her cell, of which there were at least twenty—all either Nightwings, Mudwings, or Sandwings, though there was a single Skywing she noticed near the back and Magnificent was the only Rainwing. "The more you fight back, the worse it'll be for you."

Glory glared at the Sandwing hatefully but allowed the dragons to cuff both her front and rear legs to each other. "How disappointing..." the same Mudwing who hit her scoffed.

"Oh, don't worry, big guy," Magnificent purred. "We can still have plenty fun with her. And I have just the thing to get us started." Glory watched the other Rainwing suspiciously as she grabbed a pair of blacksmithing tongs from one of the Nightwings standing next to her. Then, she reached into the satchel around her neck with said tongs and pulled out something that made Glory's blood run cold. "Recognize this?" the Rainwing smirked at seeing the captive dragoness' expression.

In response, Glory just tried to backpedal away from the crazed Rainwing but only succeeded in tripping herself up before she scooted against the far wall in fear. "I'll take that as a 'yes'," one of the other Nightwings—a female wearing silver horn chains—said, making the others snicker. "Bring her," she then commanded the Mudwing and Sobek. Apparently, she was the one in charge.

All but the two responsible for 'bringing her' left and began entering the room that was constantly lit. The Mudwing the came around and began to unlock the metal collar around her throat, freeing her from the wall. Before she could even contemplate trying anything, Sobek's tail barb was pressed against the bottom of her jaw, and she had to lift her head slightly to prevent the tip from breaking the softer scales. "I saw that look in your eye, Glory. You were thinking about doing something phenomenally stupid." She only glared back at him, not wanting to risk the Mudwing hitting her onto the barb for opening her mouth to fire back some sort of scathing insult.

The next thing she knew, she was being roughly shoved out of the cell, Sobek's tail moving just in time to prevent her from being stabbed. Surprisingly enough, they didn't seem too concerned with her running off since they weren't walking particularly close. Of course, she couldn't exactly walk very well—let alone run—with her legs chained together. And as she approached the lit room, she noticed that the tunnel past it was also collapsed. That meant they stuffed her in the very back with no way out of this secret lair except through everyone else.

Yeah, escape wasn't looking very likely right now.

The room she entered looked like something straight out of a cheesy adventure scroll, but that didn't make it any less intimidating to behold. It was circular in shape with a smaller indentation in the middle of the room where a stone altar sat. Surrounding the altar were four lit wrought-iron braziers. On the left and right side of this room were crude yet effective carvings of Darkstalker and certain important moments of his life, the most prominent being the moment he killed his own father. The only other exit to this chamber was on the opposite wall, but she had no idea where it went or how many dragons would be between her and freedom. Hopefully, the entire group was gathered in here, but twenty-four dragons was still a lot to overcome. Too much, if she was honest.

The lead Nightwing gestured for her to get on the altar, but Glory just stared at it in growing fear. Exactly what did they plan to do to her that would require an altar!? "Oh, don't worry too much. We don't plan on killing you...yet." That didn't exactly do too much to bolster her confidence. For all she knew, the Nightwing could be lying to get her to cooperate. Seeing that she still hadn't moved, the Nightwing sighed. "Cyprus, if you please..."

Glory felt something impact the back of her head, and she stumbled forward, her eyes unfocused and her limbs weak. In fact, she was surprised she hadn't fallen unconscious. Then, she felt herself being lifted and promptly tossed onto the stone altar as if she weighed nothing. Several dragons then began moving around her, and from the sounds and feel of it, they were securing her to the platform via chains—lots and lots of chains. Her tail, neck, legs, and wings were all chained either to the altar itself or the floor around it. "Why...?" she managed to get out weakly.

That had been meant as 'Why are you doing this?'. Magnificent merely smirked at her, showing her the innocent-looking plant still held in the tongs. Glory's eyes widened in fear again, but now that she was fully chained up, there was no escaping that evil, evil plant. "To prevent you from flailing too much, of course," she grinned maliciously. And then, it was dropped between her shoulders, and Glory felt like her wings were about to be ripped off. The Fiero flower was only found in the deepest parts of the rainforest, and for good reason. Upon contact with a dragon's scales, it would feel as if the affected area was on fire. Unlike actual fire, though, it wasn't deadly—at least not immediately.

She knew all that from scrolls and word of mouth only. She'd never actually come into contact with the accursed plant until now. Suddenly, all of those accounts of it being as bad as being stabbed was proved wrong. It was so, so much worse. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Her screams seemed enhanced in the enclosed space despite all the other dragons present, and only the clanking of chains could be heard above it as she thrashed this way and that to try and escape the burning, stabbing pain between her wings. Suddenly, the pain disappeared, and she slumped onto the stone altar, completely out of breath and her body shaking like a leaf. "Music to my ears!" Magnificent giggled gleefully. "Now...let's try here..."

Glory bucked forward with another ear-piercing scream as the plan was dropped between her hips. Even if she knew the oils on the plant didn't actually harm the scales, that particular fact meant nothing when it literally felt like someone was prying her scales off one by one and stabbing her with them. She didn't know how long they kept the plant on since it was hard to keep track of time when pain was the only thing you knew, but eventually, they took it off once again. And once more, she slumped onto the altar, no strength left in her limbs. "What's...even...the point?" she breathed.

Laughter was her only answer as the Nightwing leaned forward. "For fun, of course. What other reason do we need? You aren't even necessary for our little plan to work. You see, we could have nabbed any of your friends: Moon, Qibli, even Mistral. But we chose you because Sobek and Magnificent here wanted some revenge, and...well, I do so love revenge stories."

"What plan?" she demanded, her strength slowly returning.

"Oh...you don't need to worry about that," Sobek answered, and the Nightwing smirked at her. "You'll be too dead to do anything about it, anyway."

"Like I said, we aren't going to kill you...yet," the Nightwing reiterated with a grin before nodding at Magnificent. Glory braced herself, even though she knew it wouldn't help. The agony came again, and she screamed until her voice was raw and then some more. Each time they removed it only lasted a few seconds before some other part of her body was assaulted with unbearable agony. Eventually, it just became too much to bear.

She didn't know how long the torture went on, but she knew she fell unconscious at some point because she woke up chained up in her cell once more. Her entire body was sore from the constant spasms, so she didn't even bother getting up. She just laid there on the dirty floor, her tongue lolled out of her mouth and eyes unfocused as she concentrated on her breathing. Even now, she could feel phantom pains in her muscles. It was impossible to know how long they planned on doing this to her, but she doubted she could last much longer. Using that infernal plant was a simple yet highly effective method of torture that she wanted no more of.

Her stomach decided that now was a good time to remind her that it was empty, but the mere thought of eating anything almost made her sick. And now she was highly aware of where exactly her stomach was and how much was in it. Her heart pounded in her chest as she concentrated all her willpower on keeping the contents of her stomach actually in her stomach.

Fortunately, she never did get sick, but she still felt miserable. They still hadn't given her any food, and she still didn't trust that filthy water to not make things worse. It was hard to tell how long she laid there, but she eventually fell asleep again.

She was startled awake by someone banging on her cell door. Once she blinked to refocus her sight, she saw Magnificent standing there with a maniacal grin. Glory's gaze dropped to the plant held in the tongs, and she backed away with a shake of her head. "N-No, please..." Her voice was raw, and it hurt to speak. But that pain was nothing compared to the torture that plant made her endure.

"Oh, yes..." the other Rainwing nodded. "We'll be playing with this again in a few hours, but I just couldn't wait. A few screams before then won't hurt, right?"

"You're insane!" Glory snapped without much venom. It was kind of hard to be intimidating when locked up and clearly afraid of the other party.

Magnificent just giggled, seemingly taking that as a compliment before pausing and looking around in confusion. The other Rainwing raised her nose up to sniff a few times. "What is that smell?" she wondered aloud.

Her answer came in the form of the collapsed tunnel to the right suddenly exploding outward with a thunderous detonation, debris flying everywhere. Magnificent screamed as a white blur came out of the tunnel, and she had just enough time to throw the Fiero flower at the Icewing, who stumbled from the pain but still kept his feet long enough to bowl the other Rainwing over.

Though the dust had yet to settle, she saw Magnificent recover first as the Icewing—she assumed that meant it was Mistral, but it could have been anyone really—groaned on the floor. He pulled the flower off and stood only to scream as Magnificent's venom hit him in the chest. The Rainwing ran into the lit room, screams of, "HE'S HERE! HE'S HERE!" echoing through the tunnels.

Another Icewing, two Sandwings, and a Skywing came through from the tunnel, and Glory nearly wept in relief when she recognized Qibli, Diamondback, and Horus. The second Icewing was checking up on the first. "You'll live," a familiar voice said, and the second Icewing stood to reveal himself as Mistral. "Just another scar for the collection, huh?" He helped up the other Icewing, and Glory's jaw dropped when she saw who it was.

"Winter!?" She could hardly believe her eyes, but the formerly missing Prince just smiled weakly at her. Diamondback had just finished unlocking the cell door with the key Magnificent had dropped when shouts of alarm came from the other tunnel.

"We're running out of time here," Qibli urged them.

Mistral passed the injured Icewing to Horus and went into Glory's now open cell. "Stand still," he urged her before breathing frostbreath on the chain connecting her to the wall to weaken it. After a few seconds, he stopped and grabbed the weakened metal in both claws. To her utter astonishment, he actually succeeded in breaking metal with his raw strength alone. Even with it significantly weakened, that was still an impressive feat. "We'll get the rest of these things off you once we get topside. Can you walk?"

She took a few steps and discovered that, yes, she could. "I can keep up," she nodded.

More yells, this time closer.

"Can you run?" Qibli asked.

"If it means getting out of here, then yes." With that, Horus and Winter hobbled along up front, followed by her and Mistral, with Qibli and Diamondback watching the rear. They ran—more like fast-walked—down the tunnel they had arrived through. It was dark, almost too dark to see, but there were small grates here and there in the ceiling that allowed small beams of light into the tunnels.

Thirty seconds later, a furious roar sounded from where they had just come from. "They've taken the Queen! After them!" Mistral glanced behind them with a glare, hatred in his eyes.

Up ahead, Winter pointed down a side tunnel that the group promptly took. "I take it you recognize that voice," Glory commented to the Icewing helping her along. She did, too, but that was only as the unnamed Nightwing leader of these psychos. To him, it seemed much more personal.

"I do," he confirmed. "I'll tell you all about it once we're free. That fair?"

Right when she was about to agree, the Mudwing that had been one of her main tormentors tackled both Winter and Horus from a side tunnel they just passed by. The Icewing yelled in shock, his injury causing him some pain from the rough treatment. Horus faired a bit better, scoring a few swipes on the Mudwing before they both impacted the wall. The Skywing crumpled to the floor in obvious pain from being flattened by the massive Mudwing.

Mistral was just about to pounce when Qibli jumped over them with a gout of fire. The Mudwing roared in pain, his eyes burned by the fire. The Sandwing dodged under the bigger dragon's mindless flailing like a serpent before stabbing the Mudwing in the neck with his barb once he was close enough. Cyprus fell with a pained gurgle. He was dead in seconds. Qibli grinned triumphantly before his smile fell when another dragon turned the corner from the tunnel they had been going down previously. Diamondback quickly dispatched the obviously untrained Nightwing. "We gotta move!" The Sandwing reached down and picked up the injured Icewing. "Come on, buddy. Mistral, grab Horus!"

"You gonna be fine on your own?" Mistral asked Glory. She nodded, and he grabbed the unconscious Skywing, throwing him onto his back.

"Alright, let's—" Qibli looked up just in time to see several dragons running at them from dead ahead. They'd be on them in less than ten seconds.

"We've got company back here!" Diamondback shouted.

"This way!" Qibli yelled, heading down the tunnel Cyprus had ambushed them from. Glory followed behind Mistral with Diamondback behind her. The Sandwing was able to close and lock the old metal gate just in time for the first dragon to slam into it. "That won't hold them for long," Qibli frowned. "Come on." The group began moving as fast as possible with half of their number either unconscious, injured, or weakened. Which is to say, not very fast at all. About three minutes later, they came upon a four-way intersection. "Which way?" he asked the Icewing.

"How should I know!?" Winter barked at him. "We didn't come this way the first time! And my knowledge of the Skywing sewers isn't exactly impeccable!"

The constant banging on the metal door turned into a loud crash. At a few sprint, they'd be on top of them within a minute at most. "Decide quickly!" Mistral urged.

Horus groaned from the Icewing's back, pointing down the forward tunnel. "S-Second left," was all he was able to say before falling unconscious again.

"Come on!" Qibli wasted no time taking the Skywing's directions to heart.

Mistral and Glory followed right after, but she stopped when she realized the other member of their group wasn't following. "What are you waiting on, Diamondback, let's go! We've almost made it out!"

The rest of the group paused at hearing her shout, and the old Sandwing turned to the group with the kind of look every soldier would recognize. "He isn't coming with us..." Mistral said quietly, gazing at the Sandwing intently as if asking 'Are you sure?'.

"W-What!? But—" She was cut off when Diamondback spoke.

"You'll never make it out unless someone stays behind to hold them off. Go!" He turned, watching as Sobek stalked out of the tunnel they came down previously. "I've got your back..."

"B-but—" She was cut off when Mistral grabbed her arm in a vice grip and pulled her along, It didn't take long for the sounds of fighting to echo down the tunnel. Furious roars, pained screams, the sound of flesh tearing, it all seemed amplified in the enclosed space. When they got to the first intersection, Glory finally snapped out of it, "Are we seriously just leaving him behind!?"

Qibli and Winter stopped to wait for them, but Mistral just waved for them to keep going. "There wasn't any other choice, Glory, and we don't have time to argue about it!"

"Make time!" she snapped. "I thought the soldier's creed was 'leave no one behind'!" Mistral just snarled, looking down the tunnel they'd come from impatiently. "We have to go back!"

He grabbed her again when she tried to turn and all but threw her the opposite direction. "We go back, we die, and Diamondback's sacrifice means nothing! I don't like this any more than you do, but soldiers die! Remember that conversation?"

"Well, I'm not a soldier!" she argued, and Mistral grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him. She stared into his furious gaze, but beneath the anger she could see a deep well of pain and loss."

"You are now!" he yelled at her. "To sacrifice of oneself for the sake of others! That's the real soldier's creed! And Diamondback sacrificed himself to save us, not because it was his duty, but because he loved us enough to die so we could live!" He grabbed her arm in an even harder grip as he pulled her along towards freedom, the sounds of fighting behind them dying down to signal it was already to late for their Sandwing comrade. "And I'm not about to let him die in vain! Now, move!"

Glory let herself be pulled along, though her mind was in a completely separate place. She was split between feeling guilt and sadness for Diamondback's death and anger at Mistral for not doing anything to save him. But...what could he have done? He was just one dragon. She knew the only outcome of him going back to save Diamondback would be his own death, but...it was hard to think rationally when your friend just died.

They'd just reached the second intersection when the lot of them were tackled from behind. Horus went skidding and rolling forward, jolting awake and groaning in pain. If the way he was clutching his chest was any indication, he'd probably broken bruised or even cracked some ribs. It had probably happened when he'd been flattened by that Mudwing. If they'd been broken, there was no way Horus would have stayed unconscious during the entire mad dash. It might have even killed him.

Since Mistral had been holding her arm, she went down when he did. She rolled onto her stomach and looked up just in time to see Mistral roll away from a Sandwing barb. The Icewing was able get to his feet and back away from another tail strike before his assailant slashed him across the neck with his claws. Another tail strike was foiled as Mistral grabbed the Sandwing's barb and began trading blows, though Mistral was losing ground with one of his claws busy keeping the Sandwing's tail barb away from his neck.

Taking advantage of that, the Sandwing grabbed Mistral's wrist during one of his attempted strikes and used that leverage to throw the Icewing against the wall. She tensed, thinking she might need to intervene, when the Sandwing roared in pain. She hadn't seen exactly what happened because of the bad angle, but the Sandwing backed away, looking at the frost covering the tip of his tail. "I hope for your sake that isn't permanent," a familiar voice growled.

"What? Scared you won't be able to take me without it?" Mistral taunted the Sandwing traitor.

"In your dreams," Sobek laughed. "This is where the fun begins!"

With equally furious roars, the two massive males clashed with tooth and claw alike. Now that Sobek couldn't use his tail anymore, he was forced to use his claws instead. Unfortunately, he seemed even more adept with this fighting style than his previous one. The fact Mistral was able to keep pace with him showed just how incredibly skilled the Icewing was in combat. In fact, they almost seemed equal in skill. But then, Mistral fell for one of Sobek's feints, throwing him off balance for a mere moment.

But that was all the time the Sandwing needed.

With a clear opening, Sobek was able to slam the Icewing against the wall, and Mistral roared in pain at the clearly audible crack. The way his wing went limp immediately after the impact was all Glory needed to see to know it was broken.

The Icewing slumped to the ground, in too much pain to keep fighting effectively. "Guess I win the rematch, after all," Sobek smirked. Glory heard a lot of things in that moment. First, she heard the rapid clawsteps behind her, signaling that the cultists were almost on them. Second, she heard the clanking of armor. None of the cultists had worn armor from what she remembered, so the only other answer was the Skywing guards. Qibli and Winter must have gotten out and sent some down here to help.

The third thing she head was the inrush of air as Sobek prepared to breath fire. Mistral was trying to move, but each small movement caused him to grit his teeth in pain when it jostled the injured limb. There was no way he could get away, so Glory didn't even both aiming when she sent a glob of venom at the Sandwing. Even from thirty feet away, her aim was true. Her venom hit Sobek in the side of his face, and the Sandwing screeched in agony, cutting off his fire. Her premature victory was cut off when he recovered unnaturally quick and snapped his furious gaze to her. With half of his face melted away, he had an uncanny resemblance to Scarlet, but the Sandwing was ten times more intimidating that the former Skywing Queen ever was. He prowled over to her with a growl when a spear hit him in the shoulder, and he roared in pain again, looking down the tunnel Glory and Mistral had tried to escape down.

Sobek ripped the weapon out of his shoulder and hurried down a different tunnel just as the Skywings arrived. The cultists arrived seconds later, and while some stayed to fight. Many more scattered down the labyrinthine passageways. "Guess we got here just in time." Glory tore her gaze away from the tunnel Sobek had escaped down, briefly looking at Mistral, who was staring at her, both incredulous and thankful that she'd saved him. He nodded to her to show his gratitude, and she nodded back. Then, she looked up to see who had spoken, and saw the Skywing General standing there, holding a claw out for her that she gladly took, allowing him to pull her up gently. "Can you walk?"

"I'll be fine," she assured him. He studied her for a moment before nodding and moving over to help Horus. Hailstorm and a few other Skywings were looking over Mistral. She just stood there, letting her mind catch up with everything that'd happened in the mad rush to escape.

"Come on," a gentle voice urged her as a wing draped over her back. "Let's get you out of here."

"Thanks," she told Qibli, her exhaustion clear in her voice. "I'll be glad to get out of these tunnels." The Sandwing didn't say anything, merely giving her a forced grin. They didn't share any words after that.

The recovery from this whole ordeal would take time for all of them.

AN: Winter is here now! But Diamondback didn't make it... Poor guy, I actually got a little misty-eyed when I wrote that particular scene. He may have just been a guard, but he was a good guy.

Mistral had his rematch with Sobek, but it didn't exactly go well for the Icewing. That Sandwing has to be hurting, though, so we'll see if he can escape the Skywings.

The next chapter will focus on the aftermath and answer a few questions left from this one, like where Winter came from.

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22