Final chapter in this story! Something crazy is going to happen, and everything is going to change. Enjoy!

Chapter Six

Prometheus Unbound

Three hours earlier.

The bitter wind whipped through the Tibetan mountains, making eerie whistling sounds echo off the millennia-old rock. Light snow fell upon the mountaintops, resting lightly on the Shaolin-style temple of the Guardians. Everything had happened rather quickly for them; first they felt themselves come back from the cold grip of destruction by a warm, healing wave. Some of the elder Guardians deduced the Ladybug Miraculous was responsible for restoring them. Then they realized they had been gone for almost two hundred years, deciding to take some time to catch up with the times. They had felt they had caught up with the modern world sufficiently so that they could continue with their duties.

Little did they know that, in the dead of the night, a supervillain clad in a gold suit and helmet, wings rippling in the wind, draconian tail slightly raised behind him, was stalking closer and closer to the temple's wall. Dragonus ground his teeth. He despised the cold, but he had promised Vorath that they would free the Dark Box tonight. A promise not easily broken.

Dragonus watched the upper wall. He knew there was not going to be any advanced security system like the lab he broke into. Unlike the lab, he was going to be dealing with several trained Guardians who were going to be an actual challenge. Nothing like his regular dance partners or Shadow Moth. His mind began to strategize, quickly working out the details.

Their advantages? They had the home turf, the numbers, and many more Miraculouses to call on than he did.

His advantages? The element of surprise, his own ruthlessness, and his cunning. A dark smile played under his mask. This could work.

"Don't do anything rash," Vorath advised. Dragonus rolled his eyes. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. Do me a quick favor and be quiet. I have a plan." He could almost see Vorath shrug in the back of his mind. Now, all he had to do was act, and hope the perimeter guard was naive and inexperienced. Easy.

Of all the dirty jobs, this must be the worst, the young Guardian thought as he sat through his mind-numbing guard shift. No, actually, it isn't, he reevaluated. Cleaning up is the worst. He barely acknowledged his kwami partner, the Bat, as the kwami began shrieking. Then he looked up and spotted a figure slowly advancing towards the wall.

That can't be good. The thought played through the Guardian's mind as he called upon his transformation. The brownish-black suit spread over his body, a bat-wing mask over his face, a boomerang in his hand. Bianfu readied himself for combat. As the figure drew closer, Bianfu noticed the golden suit, the wings, the realistic tail, the sword glowing red.

"Halt!" Bianfu called out. The figure ignored him. Bianfu repeated the statement in a few different languages, until the figure stopped. Bianfu inclined his head. He had used English for his final command. Perhaps the figure was English?

Bianfu saw the figure reach up for his helmet and fiddle with it. "Can you understand me?" he asked in perfect Cantonese. Bianfu blinked in surprise.

"Yes," he replied in the same language. "State your business here." He heard the figure chuckle darkly. Bianfu's eyes widened as he tried to call for help, but a bolt of lightning struck him right in the chest. Bianfu fell and blacked out before his call for help could be heard.

Dragonus chuckled darkly again as he turned off his translator. Then he quieted down and rose into the air. "Now I stand before these walls… a conqueror," he said darkly. He felt his rage begin to build up within. "Guardians and trainees, still recovering from their impromptu rebirth at Ladybug's hands. Recovering to the point where they can distribute the Miraculouses around the world again."

He paused in contemplation, then growled. "The Miraculouses… Ladybug. The same jewel worn by a different heroine, nearly five hundred years ago, when she bested my ancestor in combat. For the soul of the Order. And because of my ancestor's loss, the other twenty were imprisoned, and all of us and our related properties were branded, marked as evil, unable to be used for anything good! How dare they make such assumptions? Although I was at first hesitant to carry out my own plan, it is now finally time. A day of reckoning, with those who locked them away unfairly! Who made them prisoners! Who made them nothing in the eyes of history!"

"Bravo, bravo, boss," Vorath said sarcastically. "Perhaps you could save the melodramatic monologue until after we've rescued my brethren?"

Dragonus rolled his eyes and flew over the wall, then slunk into the shadows. He had little doubt that the majority of the temple's occupants were asleep, but he had read plenty of crime thrillers to know that one little kid may decide he needs a midnight drink, and that would ruin the whole plan. Add to the fact there might be more guards on duty… he needed a diversion. Quickly plucking off one of his scales, he charged it with golden power and placed it into his sword. A dragon sentimonster formed outside the temple, and roared.

Dragonus winced at how loud the sound actually was. He had expected a regular roar, but the echoing of the mountains amplified the sound, making it comparable to a rocket. When the ringing in his ears stopped, he could hear panicked shouts of young disciples and the commands of older monks. Perfect, he thought as he activated Troublemaker's power. Best not to be seen or heard.

While intangible, several monks rushed past him, transforming into their hero forms to try and stop the monster outside. Dragonus marveled at the sheer variety of animals: several types of birds, a few big cats, many reptiles, a few dozen insects, even a few types of fish. How easy it would be to snatch one or two, but he had to focus.

Dragonus made his way to the inner temple, and it felt much warmer in there than outside. Shelves were lined with Miracle Boxes of all different shapes, with scrolls and spell books placed intermittently. Candles provided soft lighting, and Dragonus could see two Guardians standing in front, talking in hushed voices. Dragonus absently turned on his translator as he looked around the room. Indeed, it was beautiful. A shame it had to be destroyed.

The Guardians, one bald with thick eyebrows and a permanent frown, the other with longer hair and a beard, continued talking over the matter. "But it cannot be the Peacock!" the bald one argued. "The Mother Box disappeared, and while we can locate it, we can't spare anyone to go!" The one with longer hair shook his head. "That is the only one that has the ability to create sentimonsters. And the Box is definitely active. It was the Ladybug's ultimate power that brought us back."

"Master, forgive me, but I simply refuse to believe that the Peacock owner has come back," the bald Guardian said. "There is likely a new wielder, and whoever it is cannot have found out about us to finish us off!"

"Oh, believe me, they would," a third voice said. The two Guardians whipped around, and saw Dragonus, leaning casually against a pillar, twirling his sword. "Maybe they'd take all the Miraculouses first, but finishing you off would be a close second."

"Who are you?!" the bald Guardian asked angrily, but the long haired one stopped him. "Su-Han. Get the students and the rest of the young ones out of here," he said. Su-Han spluttered. "Master Chan! This intruder-!"

"Is much more than what we are able to deal with right now," Chan interrupted. Su-Han hung his head, then bowed. "Of course, master." Quickly, Su-Han rushed out of the room. Chan looked at Dragonus directly. "What do you want, Dark Dragon?" he asked calmly.

"You know what I want," Dragonus said. Chan only exhaled lightly. "You know I am not the same head Guardian who ordered the imprisonment." Dragonus growled in annoyance. "Your master taught you about them, and his master taught him, and so on and so forth. I didn't come here to talk. Grant the Dark Guardian his birthright."

Chan sighed. "Your hubris is exactly what will lead to your downfall," he said tiredly. "I assume you are the one controlling the sentimonster?" Dragonus nodded. "It fulfilled its purpose." He snapped his fingers, and the dragon sentimonster vanished in a cloud of golden smoke. "Now, give it to me."

"It was never yours to begin with," Chan continued calmly. "The Dark Box never belonged to the Dark Dragon. It belonged to the Order. And if you give up your powers, I may decide to let you go home without punishment. I can sense you are not pure evil, only on a path you have deluded yourself to think that it is the only way." Dragonus snarled. "It is the only way, you fool! There isn't enough time left to undo it all, unless I do what is necessary." He split his sword at the hilt, forming the twin blades.

Chan sighed again. "I didn't want to fight you, but now you leave me no choice." Quickly, he pulled something up from his collar. A feather pendant. "Fengg, Born from Flames!" he cried, and an orange phoenix kwami was sucked in. A flash of orange light later, and Chan stood in an orange version of his robes, a flame-shaped mask over his face, a feathered cloak over his shoulders. The phoenix hero unsheathed a jian from the scabbard on his hip.

"I am Fenghuang!" he said. Dragonus grinned behind his mask. "Finally, a worthy opponent," he declared. Fenghuang chuckled slightly. "Seeking combat is not the Guardian way," he replied.

"I am no regular Guardian," Dragonus growled. Without a sound, he lunged forward, twin swords coming down on Fenghuang's blade. The three swords sparked as Dragonus pushed Fenghuang back and the elder hero slid out of the way. "I see you have mastered fighting with dao swords," he commented. Dragonus scoffed. "Really, I prefer fighting with them combined, but I know what happened to the last person I saw do that." Dragonus brought one sword down hard on Fenghuang's jian, then smacked the adult hero with the flat of his other blade, the crimson energy burning the leg.

Fenghuang expertly pushed Dragonus's blade back. "Rebirth!" he cried, and his mask glowed as a bonfire erupted over him. Dragonus stepped back in surprise, then caught the jian blade with his crossed swords as Fenghuang, now more invigorated and quicker, struck out. It took all of Dragonus's speed to catch each strike. He grimaced. Dragonus had guessed the Guardian had been about ninety or one hundred. Now he fought like he was thirty.

"I assume you aren't going to call me an old man anymore, correct?" Fenghuang asked between strikes. Dragonus's vision went orange. How DARE he!? The red energy in his swords pulsed in agreement. As Fenghuang slashed again, Dragonus caught the blade on his left sword and slammed the pommel of his right sword into Fenghuang's jaw. The Guardian was knocked off-balance, and Dragonus took that opportunity to relieve Fenghuang of his weapon and send him to his knees.

"Re-" he was cut off by the twin golden sabers at his neck. Dragonus looked down at Fenghuang, his eyes glowing orange behind his visor. "Say it, and I swear, you are going to hope your power regenerates your head," Dragonus growled, his voice deadly. "Now, you are going to transform back to your regular self. Then you will take me to where the Dark Box and Dark Grimoire are."

Fenghuang sighed in defeat. "Fengg, Die in Ashes," he said, and the transformation fell. Fengg dropped into Chan's palm. "Master, you can't let him take it!" the phoenix kwami cried. Chan looked at Fengg sadly. "I'm doing this to protect the students, Fengg," he replied as he gave the orange kwami a bit of fruit. Fengg huffed and flew into Chan's sleeve after giving Dragonus a death glare.

Chan rose slowly after Dragonus put his sword back together and slung it on his back. "Follow me," the old Guardian said, careful not to betray any emotion. The two walked towards the back of the room, where Chan pressed a series of hidden buttons. With the screech of stone grinding against stone, a secret door was revealed, a dark stairway spiraling downwards. Dragonus poked Chan, motioning for him to move forward. After a moment's hesitation, the two entered the darkness.

We must've walked for an eternity, Dragonus thought as he counted the five hundredth step. He wasn't entirely sure how deep underground they were, but it was far enough that it made him twitch. He had barely registered when they had reached the bottom. Dragonus and Chan stood in front of a large door, almost like a bank vault safe. The symbol of the Order was emblazoned on the stone, with an inscription in archaic Chinese on the door. "Forbidden powers lie ahead," Chan translated. "Are you entirely certain you want to take this?"

"Open it," Dragonus ordered. Chan chuckled. "If you are truly the Dark Guardian, you should be able to open it yourself," he replied. Dragonus growled at the head Guardian, then placed his hand on the door. He could feel how cold the stone was beneath his glove, how it seemed to suck the power from the room. Dragonus had the vaguest feeling he had to assert his dominance over the door, almost like it had its own will.

Dragonus smirked behind his mask as he pulled a draconite out of its pocket dimension, ignoring the audible gasps of Chan and Fengg. The draconite fused with the door, and after a moment of conflict, the door shattered like glass. The draconite flew out of the dust pile and back into its subspace pocket. Dragonus destroyed the rest of the rock with the destruction power he absorbed.

"If you have the powers of the Peacock, Butterfly and Black Cat…" Chan began slowly. Dragonus chuckled darkly. "I've been busy, old man. Now I will claim what is rightfully mine." He grabbed Chan by the collar, stepped into the vault, and the very things that would enable his plans to continue laid in front of him.

The Dark Miracle Box was in the shape of a rectangular-based pyramid. It was painted black, a golden version of the Guardians' symbol on the front, with four claw marks slashed through it. Next to it lay a leather bound book, the same slashed symbol on its cover. Dragonus noticed one thing was missing.

"Where's the staff?" he asked Chan. Chan simply shrugged. "It was destroyed after your predecessor fled, the remains buried." Dragonus growled, but brushed the matter aside. "I think I can make do without it." Releasing Chan, he took the Dark Box and spellbook under his left arm.

Dragonus was almost out of the stairwell when he heard Chan call upon his transformation again. He groaned as he drew his sword and parried each of Fenghuang's strikes, then slashed off his cloak. Fenghuang gasped, giving Dragonus an opening to punch him right in the side of the face, knocking him off balance. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Dragonus escaped the stairwell, ran out of the temple and took to the air.

Chan limped outside after Dragonus took off, Fengg in his palm. "It's over, Fengg," Chan said in defeat. "The Dark Box has been freed, and now we're all doomed." Fengg flew up to his master's face. "It's not over yet. We can send Su-Han to recruit some heroes to help fight the Dark Dragon, maybe convince him to give it up."

Chan nodded. "We can, but first we have to find the rest of the Order." The two left the temple, and after a few minutes of searching, found the rest of the monks and trainees.

"Master, what was going on?" Su-Han asked. Chan dipped his head. "The Dark Dragon overpowered me and stole the Dark Box," he replied. "That intruder was a wielder of a Miraculous long thought to have vanished altogether. His kwami and that box had allowed their wielders to be evil and they once attempted to destroy the temple. We must find him."

The Order began to make their way back to the temple, only to stop in shock and horror when they saw Dragonus blasting flames at the structure, burning the temple down. "I would suggest you stay out of my way. You're all quite lucky you had left when you did. If our paths ever cross again, I will unleash my powers upon all of you. Do not look for me. Do not follow me. Do not even attempt to trace the location of the Miracle Box that one pupil took with him when he fled. You will only be met with suffering."

And with that, he opened a portal and flew through, leaving the Order to watch their temple and home burn in front of them.

A moment later, Dragonus exited the portal back to his room. It had been four in the morning in Tibet, yet only nine at night in Paris. "The wonders of time differences," he muttered as he deactivated Double and placed him back on the model he had built. Dragonus transformed back into his civilian, then placed the Dark Box and spellbook on the table in front of the TV.

"I would imagine your friends are still doing some schoolwork," Vorath said. Andrew shrugged. "Fair enough." He turned back to the box, running his hand lightly over the wood… or at least it felt like wood. The texture definitely felt like wood, but there was also something familiar yet foreign. The paint, perhaps? Some magical synthetic coating? The curious part of him wanted to take off a door, maybe cut off a sample to test, but he knew he could never bring himself to. It was more than a box. It was a work of art.

The front of the Dark Box had the Guardian symbol inside the pyramid, the edges of the circle touching the edges of the box. A single line ran down the middle of the box, likely where the doors met to open and close. The symbol was in gold, with four blatant scratch marks on the front. Upon closer inspection, Andrew realized something. The claw marks weren't made by a person or animal, they were part of the symbol on the front. He smirked. An order forsaken. He had to hand it to his ancestor; the Box was certainly intimidating.

"Boss, that's the design you had in mind," Vorath said. Andrew turned to him. "Since I'm the Dark Guardian, the Box remade itself in my image?" he asked.

Vorath shrugged. "I'm not entirely well-versed in Guardianship and how it's passed around, but I do know that the Box changes with each Dark Guardian. I think the slashed-out symbol has become equivalent with us Darks. The same design was on the Box when your ancestor Arcturus was Dark Guardian."

Andrew ran his fingers over the slashes, the pads lightly brushing against the gold. "Well, go on!" Vorath said, excitement plain in his voice. "Open it! I have my family to say hello to!" Andrew smiled, then frowned. "How, exactly? This didn't exactly come with a proper user's manual." As he was saying that, his fingers found some hidden indentations that his fingers fit into. Smirking, he pulled the two doors open.

The two doors were a bit thicker than he had originally thought. The doors mirrored the outer design on the inside, still black and gold. The inside had a multitude of colored doors arranged in a pyramid fashion, each symbolizing the Dark Miraculous within. Stylized animal heads were on the front of the doors, with Andrew noticing that the Dragon compartment was on the top. The next layer had two, the next with three, until it reached the bottom with six on the final row. The doors themselves had little nubs at the tops.

Andrew experimentally pulled the top compartment open. The door hinged up, then slid into a groove in the Dark Box, hiding the door. He smirked at the ingenuity of the design, then noticed the compartment was empty. Of course it would be, he thought. "That's where mine was," Vorath said, a hint of… something in his voice. Andrew couldn't quite describe it. Nostalgia, maybe? Remembrance? Bitterness?

Pushing the thought to the side, he opened the rest of the compartments. Several different kinds of jewelry met his eyes, though he could only name a few on sight. A few pendant necklaces, some bracelets, even a couple chains, like what would be on a pocket watch or belt loop. He grimaced in annoyance; his mother was a jewelry designer, so he should know more about the types. The lights in his room made the Dark Miraculouses glimmer, and he could sense the power in front of him, even without being transformed.

Vorath looked at him expectantly, his orange eyes blinking rapidly. Andrew cracked his knuckles, then softly spoke the six words that would herald a change never felt before.

"Come on out, all of y'all."

This chapter was the reason I wrote this story to begin with. Everything that's happened so far; every fight, every conversation, every manipulation Dragonus has done, has all led up to this moment. The heroes are going to have their hands full. The next story should be coming within the next couple weeks.

For those who don't know (or aren't as big of a history buff as I am), Fenghuang's weapon is a jian, a double-edged straight sword used in China. Think Sokka's space sword from ATLA (dao swords are also dual broadswords, Zuko's weapons. I was rewatching ATLA when I was writing this).

So, as always, tell me what you think, ask some questions and get some answers, and stay safe, healthy, and see you next week!